China Escalates Crackdown on Internet

One of China's most popular microblogging services has shut several accounts for spreading "malicious" rumours, as Beijing tightens control over the Internet after the ouster of a top leader.The move followed a broad crackdown on the Internet after rising political star Bo Xilai's downfall in March, sparking a series of online rumours, including one suggesting his supporters had staged a coup.

(Paxton Holley)

Thousands of dead pigs in a Shanghai river have cast a spotlight on China's poorly regulated farm production, with the country's favourite meat joining a long list of food scares. As of Friday, the number of carcasses recovered in recent days from the Huangpu river -- which cuts through the commercial hub and supplies over 20 percent of its drinking water -- had reached more than 7,500.

China has told Washington not to interfere in its affairs after US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called for the release of dozens of activists rounded up in a growing crackdown on dissent.Beijing rejected an annual human rights survey by the State Department saying China had stepped up efforts to rein in activists, the media and free Internet access and pursued "severe repression" in the Tibet and Xinjiang regions.

China has pledged to restrict Internet phone services -- a move that could affect thousands of businesses and individuals making cheap calls via web-based communications companies such as Skype."We are carrying out with relevant authorities a campaign to crack down on illegal Voice over Internet Protocol phone services", the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology said in a circular posted online earlier this month.

Google chairman Eric Schmidt on Monday warned that the ongoing Arab uprisings could lead to an upsurge in internet censorship and an increased risk of arrest for colleagues working in restive nations.Speaking at the Summit Against Violent Extremism in Dublin, Schmidt claimed regimes were keen to clamp down on internet freedoms after the web was widely used by dissidents to organise anti-government movements in the Arab world.

Because I long ago gave up on the 2012 campaign's horrible trade debate, I've been desperately trying to avoid wading into this week's dumbest trade-related controversy: the Romney campaign's commercial claim that bailed-out (and now Fiat-owned) Chrysler plans to resume Jeep manufacturing operations in China.

Pooja Nath Sankar is the founder and CEO of Piazza ? it means town??square in Italian. Her story illustrates what can happen when someone with a passion works hard to translate it into reality. As she told me in a January 17th interview, Sankar attended an all-girls high school in India and was then admitted ...