“China: Google case will not affect trade with US - YAHOO!” plus 4 more |
- China: Google case will not affect trade with US - YAHOO!
- Blacks Try to Retain Power as Board Race Splits Community - New York Times
- Censors back on Google as China defends Internet actions - CNN
- U.S. Takes Charge In Haiti With Troops, Aid - CBS 13/CW31 Sacramento
- Feature: Matteo Ricci, bridge between Italy, China - Investors Business Daily
| China: Google case will not affect trade with US - YAHOO! Posted: 14 Jan 2010 08:34 PM PST BEIJING (AFP) – China said Friday that Google's threat to pull out of the country over cyberattacks and official censorship would not affect Beijing's overall trade and economic ties with the United States. The comments from the commerce ministry came after Washington again demanded explanations from Beijing following the US Internet giant's allegations that it was the victim of cyberattacks aimed at Chinese human rights activists. The company has said it may abandon its operations in China, the world's largest online market with 360 million web users, and also has warned it will stop bowing to China's army of Internet censors. "No matter what decision Google makes, it will not affect overall trade and economic relations between China and the United States," commerce ministry spokesman Yao Jian told reporters. "The two countries have multiple communication channels. We are confident in the healthy development of economic and trade relations between China and the United States." In Beijing's first official reaction Thursday, a foreign ministry spokeswoman insisted China's Internet was "open" but defended the censorship that prompted Google's shock announcement and told the firm to obey the law. Related article: Google reclaims "Don't Be Evil" mantle Yao echoed those remarks, saying foreign firms operating in the Asian giant should "respect the laws, public interest, culture and traditions in host countries, and take on social responsibilities accordingly". "China is transferring from a traditional planned economy to a socialist market economy. Stability and development are our top priorities at the current stage," the commerce ministry spokesman said. Related article: Chinese net users mourn at Google HQ The row has threatened to rattle ties between Washington and Beijing, already frayed over a number of issues, from the Copenhagen climate change conference debacle to the value of the Chinese yuan and a number of other trade disputes. Earlier this week, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton demanded answers from China. On Thursday, State Department spokesman Philip Crowley said US representatives had met with Chinese embassy officials in Washington on the matter. Related article: Chinese net users mourn at Google HQ "The incident raises questions about both Internet freedom and the security of the Internet in China," Crowley told reporters. Google said more than 20 other unidentified firms were targeted in the "highly sophisticated" attacks, believed to have originated in China, while other reports have put the number of companies attacked at more than 30. Officials in Washington have been reluctant to comment on how the Google case could affect bilateral ties, but one official, who asked not to be named, warned of future diplomatic fallout. "If this was part of a deliberate strategy on behalf of China, it has implications," the official said. US lawmakers on Thursday hailed Google's move and touted a draft bill that would prohibit US firms from storing users' personal information in countries that restrict the peaceful expression of political and religious views online. Under the bill, called the Global Online Freedom Act, companies also would have to report to the State Department which search terms countries were trying to filter out. "Google sent a thrill of encouragement through the hearts of millions of Chinese," Representative Chris Smith, the bill's chief sponsor, told a news conference. "It is a game-changer." "But IT companies are not powerful enough to stand up to a repressive government like China," said Smith, a Republican from New Jersey. "Without US government support, they are inevitably forced to be ever more complicit in the repressive governments' censorship and surveillance." Microsoft said Thursday that a security vulnerability in its Internet Explorer browser was used in the spate of cyberattacks. Web security firm McAfee Inc. said meanwhile that the attacks on Google and other companies showed a level of sophistication beyond that of cyber criminals and more typical of a nation-state. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Blacks Try to Retain Power as Board Race Splits Community - New York Times Posted: 14 Jan 2010 08:34 PM PST No matter how deep the snow, icy the sidewalks or wicked the wind, nothing was going to keep 76-year-old Mary L. Johnson away from Wallace's Catfish Corner on Friday night. Mrs. Johnson wasn't hungry, she was scared — afraid for the future of black politics in Chicago. "The black community," she said, "is in serious trouble." She was joined at Wallace's by more than 300 men and women, young and old, who share her concern. They crowded into the popular soul food restaurant, not far from the West Side block where the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. lived in a crumbling tenement in 1966. Even as the nation prepares to celebrate what would have been Dr. King's 81st birthday, Chicago remains nearly as segregated as the city where Dr. King protested housing discrimination more than 40 years ago. They came from across the city for a sometimes angry rally in support of Todd H. Stroger, the embattled Cook County board president. In the Democratic Party primary on Feb. 2, Mr. Stroger will face two black opponents — Alderman Toni Preckwinkle of the Fourth Ward and Dorothy Brown, the clerk of the Cook County Circuit Court — and one white candidate, Terrence O'Brien, president of the Metropolitan Water Reclamation District. That the uncharismatic Mr. Stroger, a loyal member of the Democratic Party machine his entire life, has become the unlikely champion of the grass-roots movement is a sign of how anxious a sizable segment of Chicago's black population is about the state of its political power — despite having Barack Obama, a South Sider, in the White House. The restaurant's two back rooms were packed with pastors and politicians, great-grandmothers and former offenders chanting, "Soldiers for Stroger." Mr. Stroger this week denounced fliers distributed by a group called "Soldiers 4 Stroger" that used racist terms in implying Mr. Stroger's opponents are controlled by white politicians. "Somebody say 'Grass roots,' " one of the pastors demanded. "Grass roots," the makeshift congregation thundered. The pastor put his hand on Mr. Stroger's shoulder and said, "This man is under attack." "We are all," someone shouted from the back of the room. Mr. Stroger, dressed in a gray pinstriped suit, quietly took the microphone. "I'm fighting for black people to have their share," he said. "We have never gotten our fair share." Many voters, elected officials and scholars said in interviews they believe that black political power in the county is in decline. The black population, many said, is politically divided and lacks a galvanizing figure to rally around, like the late mayor Harold Washington or Mr. Obama. It is a winter of discontent for blacks in Chicago. "The black masses are becoming increasingly disillusioned," said Robert T. Starks, a professor of political science at Northeastern Illinois University. "The economy is getting worse. We're now sending 30,000 more young men and women to Afghanistan. Unemployment is through the roof. Our leadership is in disarray. It's every man for himself. We're in bad shape." Black politics is going through "a sorting-out period right now," said Hermene Hartman, publisher of N'Digo, a weekly magazine that focuses on the black community. Ms. Hartman said the old guard was fading away. Emil Jones, the president of the Illinois Senate, retired last year; Mr. Stroger's father, John H. Stroger Jr., the county's first black president and, like his son, a loyal member of the Democratic Party machine, died in 2008. So where is black politics today? "I think it's shifting," Ms. Hartman said. "We're still trying to figure it out." State Senator Rickey R. Hendon, who is running for lieutenant governor, said the rift among black politicians was due largely to a generational conflict, pitting "old warhorses" against younger, progressive candidates who are more open to coalition building. "The black community is going through a cleansing," Mr. Hendon said. "Young black candidates are popping up because of Barack's influence. The black voter is tired of the old regime." They may be getting tired of the new regime as well. Mark Allen, an advocate of black independent politics, said black voters in Chicago had gone from giddy about the future to turned off by politics since Mr. Obama's election as president. "People have been watching all that stimulus money go to Wall Street while their street is filled with their children shooting each other and their mothers and fathers out of work and hope," Mr. Allen said. "We've got this disconnect between black leaders and the black masses." Salim Muwakkil, a senior editor at In These Times magazine and a talk show host on black-owned WVON radio, said he heard from discontented blacks almost every day as the election draws nearer. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Censors back on Google as China defends Internet actions - CNN Posted: 14 Jan 2010 08:48 PM PST Beijing, China (CNN) -- The Chinese government was defending its Internet practices Thursday, even as censorship of Google results -- which had briefly been lifted -- appeared to return. Chinese officials' assertion that China "works hard to encourage the healthy development and expansion of the Internet" came a day after Google said it may close its China-based site. Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu spoke after Google announced that a "highly sophisticated and targeted attack" from China targeted it and the e-mail accounts of at least 20 others, evidently to gain access to the e-mail accounts of Chinese human rights activists. The activists were in the United States, Europe and China, a Google spokesman said. The attack resulted in the theft of intellectual property from Google, and attackers routinely gained access to the e-mail accounts of dozens of activists -- albeit not through the Google network, according to David Drummond, senior vice president of corporate development and chief legal officer for Google. As a result of the attacks, Google has decided to stop the "self-censorship" of its Google site in China and may shut down its site and its offices in China, Drummond said. Jiang said Google's claims "raised very serious concerns and questions." "I stress that China's Internet is open," Jiang said during a news conference in Beijing. "The Chinese government works hard to encourage the healthy development and expansion of the Internet, and works to create a favorable environment for that. Chinese law prohibits cyber attacks, including hacking, and administers this according to the law." Within hours of Google's announcement that it was no longer willing to self-censor in China, Google.cn was retrieving results for sensitive topics including the 1989 crackdown at Tiananmen Square, the Dalai Lama and the banned Falun Gong spiritual movement. Previously, a search for "Tiananmen" would only return images of the square itself. Pages appeared to fluctuate between uncensored and somewhat censored throughout Wednesday and, by Thursday, government censorship of Google seemed to have been restored, with terms such as "Tiananmen Square" returning limited results. Jiang emphasized that China "welcomes international Internet enterprises to enter China according to the law." In response to repeated questions from journalists about the hacking and cyber attacks, she said Chinese law forbids cyber attacks and hacking. When asked if this law means that the Chinese government itself is forbidden to conduct cyber attacks, she had no comment. Chinese newspapers have reacted to the flap on opinion and editorial pages. The state-run Global Times said Google's departure would create a "setback to China" and "serious loss to China's Net culture." "[Google's] strategic loss would be greater than its business loss," the Global Times said. A Shanghai Morning Post editorial said Google should not "abandon" China. The Beijing-based Economic Observer said the search engine's departure would "be a sad result of Chinese Internet users." The Chinese government said through its Embassy in Washington Wednesday that it welcomes foreign Web-based enterprises and is working "to promote sound development of the Internet." "The Internet in China is open," said Xi Yanchun, a Chinese embassy spokesman. "It is illegal to assault the Internet. China [welcomes] foreign Internet enterprises to do business legally in China." Since Google started operating in China in 2006, thousands of search terms have been censored, Google officials acknowledge. The recent "attacks and the surveillance they have uncovered ... have led us to conclude that we should review the feasibility of our business operations in China," Drummond wrote in a statement. "We have decided we are no longer willing to continue censoring our results on Google.cn, and so over the next few weeks we will be discussing with the Chinese government the basis on which we could operate an unfiltered search engine within the law, if at all. "We recognize that this may well mean having to shut down Google.cn, and potentially our offices in China," Drummond's statement reads. If Google ends operations of its Google.cn Web site, it will still make Google.com available, a spokesman said. Google, perhaps best known for its search engine, also provides other computer services, including e-mail, online mapping and social networking. The cyber attacks detected last month included assaults on a wide range of businesses -- including the Internet, finance, technology, media and chemical sectors, Google said. "We are currently in the process of notifying those companies, and we are also working with the relevant U.S. authorities," Drummond said. CNN's Jo Kent, Mike Ahlers, Carol Cratty, Jeanne Meserve and Doug Gross contributed to this report. Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| U.S. Takes Charge In Haiti With Troops, Aid - CBS 13/CW31 Sacramento Posted: 14 Jan 2010 08:41 PM PST U.S. Takes Charge In Haiti With Troops, Aid5,500 U.S. Troops Making Way Across Carribean
Tested with the first large-scale humanitarian disaster of his presidency, Obama ordered a relief effort of historic proportions despite the deep strains it was sure to put on both the U.S. budget and on military forces who are already fighting two wars. He pledged an initial $100 million -- with the likelihood of more later. "The United States is providing a lot of the glue that is keeping people communicating and working together as we try to assert authority, reinstate the government and begin to do what governments have to do to rebuild," Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said on Fox News Channel. Aware of the deep political cost George W. Bush paid for an ineffective response to Hurricane Katrina, the White House has labored to show Obama has been intensely engaged since immediately after the 7.0-magnitude quake late Tuesday afternoon. Details of evening Situation Room meetings, phone calls with world leaders and canceled events were being released almost hourly. Obama announced that "the first waves" of the American response were in place Thursday, with two search-and-rescue teams on the ground, Coast Guard cutters in port, the U.S. Southern Command in control of the airport and airlifts bringing in urgently needed supplies and ferrying out the injured. But the chief emphasis out of Washington was the huge amount of U.S. help that was still on the way -- some half-dozen ships and 5,500 troops making their way across the Caribbean. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was deployed to Haiti, and the amphibious assault ship USS Bataan had been ordered to sail as soon as possible with a 2,000-member Marine unit. Officials noted the difficulty of getting resources in as fast as they would like because of needed preparation time and then the barriers of damaged communications, roads, airport and port. Obama himself warned it would take hours "and in many cases days" to get the full U.S. contingent to Haiti. "None of this will seem quick enough if you have a loved one who's trapped, if you're sleeping on the streets, if you can't feed your children," Obama said at the White House, his second appearance on the topic in as many days. "So today, you must know that help is arriving. Much, much more help is on the way." Ways To Help In Haiti
U.N. humanitarian spokesperson Elisabeth Byrs told the Associated Press that getting aid to the people who need it most would be a "logistical nightmare." Aid deliveries by ship were impossible due to damage to the port. The Port-au-Prince airport was open, but also damaged and struggling to handle the influx of flights. Aid was delivered or promised from many countries, including Brazil, the European Union, Britain, Germany, Israel, France, Switzerland, South Korea and Canada. China dispatched a chartered plane carrying 10 tons of tents, food, medical equipment and sniffer dogs, along with a 60-member earthquake relief team who worked in China's own 2008 earthquake, which killed some 90,000 people. Severe damage to at least eight Port-au-Prince hospitals made it nearly impossible to treat the thousands of injured or prevent outbreaks of disease, said Paul Garwood, spokesman for the World Health Organization. Haiti, the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, presents unique logistical challenges for aid workers even in the best of times. It shares an island with the Dominican Republic, meaning that aid must arrive by sea or air. Haitian streets are in poor condition under normal circumstances, and even if aid reaches the Dominican Republic, the road from there to Port-au-Prince is narrow and easily clogged. Almost everything has to be imported, even wood for building temporary shelters, because Haitians have denuded their hillsides by cutting trees for cooking fuel. "If you see Dominican Republic and Haiti from the air, it's really striking," said Byrs. "Half of the island is green and the rest is dust." In addition, Haiti was already heavily damaged by a series of severe hurricanes, the most recent in 2008. The U.S. Federal Aviation Administration halted all civilian flights to Haiti, while flights in the air before the ban spent hours circling the main airport awaiting permission to land. The Haitian government said there was no more room on ramps for planes to unload their cargo, and some planes on the ground at Toussaint L'Ouverture International Airport didn't have enough fuel to leave. The role of heading the relief effort and managing the crisis quickly fell to the United States, for lack -- in the short term, at least -- of any other capable entity. The government of Haitian President Rene Preval was severely disabled, with the president's own residences damaged and the Parliament building collapsed along with other ministries and departments. In one sign of difficult conditions and dearth of official Haitian activity, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Obama had tried twice, unsuccessfully, to get through to Preval. The large United Nations mission in Haiti, some 9,000-strong, was still operating, with about 3,000 peacekeepers patrolling the still-calm streets of Port-au-Prince, the country's capital, population center and heart of earthquake damage. But the U.N.'s abilities to respond aggressively to possible problems were hobbled as well. Its headquarters building was destroyed, and dozens of its personnel, including some leaders, were dead or missing -- leaving it in need of rescue help itself. Defense Secretary Robert Gates told commanders via videoconference during the president's Wednesday night Situation Room meeting that the military has "no higher priority right now" than the relief efforts. Those efforts include providing security, Gibbs said. However, there was sensitivity in Washington to any impression the U.S. was taking over Haiti, a country that has seen dramatic American interventions before, not always to good effect, and is suspicious of involvement by its much larger and wealthier northern neighbor. So Gibbs, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley and others emphasized that the U.S. was responding only as requested by the Haitian government, with the U.S. ambassador to Haiti, Kenneth Merten, in regular contact with Preval. A senior administration official said Obama had directed U.S. officials to "work with and through" the Haitian government "to the greatest extent possible." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss private meetings. "We have no intention of supplanting the leadership of Haiti," said Cheryl Mills, Clinton's chief of staff who is coordinating the efforts at the State Department. One factor in the delicate U.S. approach is a desire to not undermine Preval and recent efforts to bring more stable governance to Haiti after decades of dictatorship and disaster have left it the Western Hemisphere's poorest nation. Still, officials from Obama on down promised the U.S. would be around to help long-term. Looking toward the long road of recovery and rebuilding, Obama tapped his two immediate predecessors, Bush and Bill Clinton, to help -- following Bush's model of enlisting Clinton and his own father, George H.W. Bush, to shepherd the U.S. response after the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami. Officials said that a primary goal now -- beyond immediate relief -- is to restore the U.N. peacekeeping command to full strength in Haiti. For though Obama wants to effectively handle the crisis, there is no upside to what could become, in effect, protracted U.S. control of the impoverished country. Crowley confirmed the death of one American, career diplomat Victoria DeLong, a cultural affairs officer at the U.S. Embassy who was killed when her home collapsed. He said three other Americans were known to be missing and the embassy had made contact with nearly 1,000 U.S. citizens in Haiti, a fraction of the estimated 45,000 there. By next Monday, as many as 5,500 U.S. infantry soldiers and Marines will be on the ground or on ships offshore, said Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman. Those include the first soldiers, from the 82nd Airborne Division, some of whom were due to arrive Thursday, and about 2,200 Marines. The aircraft carrier USS Carl Vinson was expected Friday, and a hospital ship with 12 operating rooms, the USNS Comfort, was to get to Haiti by a week later. Obama also asked individual Americans to donate to relief agencies. And first lady Michelle Obama was taping a public service announcement on behalf of the Red Cross.
(© 2010 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed. The Associated Press contributed to this report.) Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
| Feature: Matteo Ricci, bridge between Italy, China - Investors Business Daily Posted: 14 Jan 2010 08:41 PM PST ROME, Jan 14, 2010 (Xinhua via COMTEX) -- by Silvia Marchetti To Italians, he is known as Matteo Ricci, SJ (1552-1610), but the Chinese call him Li Madou or Taixi. Although almost 400 years have passed since his death, people in Italy and China still remember him on various occasions and commemorate him with various events. The ongoing exhibition on Saint Peter's Square in Rome is a case in point. The exhibition curator has concluded that Italian visitors, especially the young, have come to realize that they are in fact appreciating a part of Chinese culture. "Thanks to this event, Italians have discovered that China is more than just an economic power undergoing an incredible development," said Professor Giovanni Morello, who is serving as the curator. "China has cultural traditions which in many ways are linked to the West, as Ricci has demonstrated through his life," Morello added. In China, Ricci is remembered as the first Westerner who created the first map of the world in the Chinese language (now known as the "Impossible Black Tulip" for its rarity). Ricci also made a name for himself by compiling the first Portuguese-Chinese dictionary. Not surprisingly, he also became the first Westerner to be invited into the Forbidden City by a Chinese emperor and the first to be buried in China. Ricci earned these honors because he was the first to have translated the Confucian classics into Latin and Euclid's "Elements of Geometry" into Chinese. Morello describes the unconventional Italian Jesuit priest as a "Chinese among Chinese," a scholar whose scientific contributions to the imperial Chinese intellectual society covered fields such as astronomy, mathematics and navigation. Upon his arrival in Macau in 1582, Ricci started to assimilate himself to the surrounding society -- not only by donning Chinese clothing but also by speaking and writing Chinese. The exotic-looking foreigner astonished Ming Dynasty Emperor Wanli (1573-1620) by precisely predicting an eclipse. When asked why the emperor was making an exception by having Ricci buried in Beijing upon his death in 1610, then Prime Minister Ye Wenzhong explained: "Have you ever seen a foreigner as learned as Ricci? His translation of the "Elements of Geometry" (into Chinese) alone has earned him the honor of being buried in China." The Italians are opening an open-air Matteo Ricci museum at his home town Macerata near the Adriatic, as part of their preparations for celebrating the Year of Chinese Culture in 2010. From the curator's point of view, the exhibition "Between Rome and Peking, to the Heights of History" is helping to dispel the notion that "Ricci is better known in China than in Italy." Renato Rita, who comes from Ricci's Macerata, sighed with relief after visiting the exhibition: now, Italians can finally find out more about Ricci, his life, and his startling links with the Chinese and Chinese culture. "I would love to go to China myself," Rita exclaimed. "And who knows? Maybe one day I will." Copyright 2010 XINHUA NEWS AGENCY Five Filters featured article: Chilcot Inquiry. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction. |
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