Blackberry agrees to filter porn in Indonesia

With cell phone maker Blackberry agreeing to block pornography in its Indonesian phones, the country's communication ministry said the company has until Friday to finalize the mechanism, local media reported on Monday.

Indonesian Information Minister Tifatul Sembiring said Canadian-based tech company Research in Motion (RIM) will not be able to extend or modify the deadline, warning that if it is not able to create a pornography website filter in its smartphones, its permits would be revoked, the Jakarta Globe reported.

Apple CEO Jobs to take medical leave

Apple Chief Executive Officer Steve Jobs on Monday announced that he will take a medical leave from the technology company.

Jobs, 55, informed that he is taking another medical leave due to his latest health struggle for the head of the world-known company. The announcement provoked uncertainty over Apple's future direction.

Apple's CEO is a pancreatic cancer survivor who received a liver transplant in 2009. He informed his decision via an email sent to his staff on Monday morning. Jobs said that he intends to focus on his health in the near future.

Six Indonesian companies involved in $187 million tax fraud

An Indonesian lawmaker on Friday announced that six local companies were involved in an alleged $187 million tax fraud, the Jakarta Globe reported.

Markus Melkias Mekeng, member of the House of Representatives, identified the companies as Permata Hijau Sawit, Asian Agri Group, Wilmar Nabati Indonesia, Alfa Kurnia, INJ Internasional and EMA Mojokerto Hospital.

Mekeng is also a member of the House's Commission XI which oversees financial affairs. He said that the companies were identified following a Supreme Audit Agency (BPK) report.

BP and Russia agree to major arctic projects

BP and Russia on Friday agreed on major arctic projects as part of a groundbreaking strategic global alliance.


BP and the state-run energy giant Rosneft signed a joint venture to explore and develop three license blocks (EPNZ 1,2,3) on the Russian Arctic continental shelf. The licenses were awarded to Rosneft in 2010.

"This unique agreement underlines our long-term, strategic and deepening links with the world's largest hydrocarbon-producing nation. We are very pleased to be joining Russia's leading oil company to jointly explore some of the most promising parts of the Russian Arctic, one of the world's last remaining unexplored basins," said BP COE Bob Dudley.

Renault reveals industrial espionage by three managers

Auto giant Renault on Thursday revealed that three of its managers engaged in industrial espionage which prompted French officials to declare an economic war against the nation, Radio France Internationale (RFI) reported.

The automaker said that its strategic, intellectual and technological assets were the target of espionage as three manager leaked company secrets. The three officials were later suspended.

KLM CEO says airline will not give up its brand, indicates Alitalia may join Air France-KLM

KLM Royal Dutch Airlines CEO Peter Hartman says the airline will not give up its brand to merge with Air France and indicates Alitalia may soon join Air France-KLM.

Hartman, who will become Chairman of the Board of Governors for airline industry association IATA this year, made the comments in an exclusive interview with the Holland Herald, a magazine which KLM provides to its passengers during flights. Several subjects were discussed, including the financial crisis and security concerns.

The airline, which reported an 18.6 percent rise in revenues in the second quarter, merged with Air France in 2004 to create Air France-KLM. Both airlines, however, have retained their brands and Hartman does not expect this to change.

Three EU finance watchdogs begin operations

BRUSSELS -- The European Union on Monday informed that three new European Authorities for the supervision of financial activities began operations on January 1.

The three new EU watchdogs will supervise banks, markets and insurances and pensions respectively. The start of operations came a few days after the launch of the European Systemic Risk Board.

The board will monitor the entire financial sector, to identify potential problems which could contribute to a crisis in the future. It will work in close cooperation with the new European Supervisory Authorities.

The three new authorities were established following the crisis suffered last year which highlighted the limits and failings of the supervision system in Europe. The financial crisis showed that the coordination between national authorities was not optimal when transnational financial institutions faced problems.

The supervision bodies are the new apparatus of surveillance and supervision that will detect problems early and act in time in a coordinated and efficient way. This launch is considered by the EU as a turning point for the European financial sector.

These new authorities will work along others similar bodies around the world to ensure better global supervision. This effort is also intended to enhance consumer protection and to ensure that citizens would be not again the first in line affected by a crisis.

Facebook's value now at $50 billion

NEW YORK -- Facebook, the popular social networking site, is now valued at $50 billion following a $500 million investment from Goldam Sachs and a Russian investment firm, the New York Times reported on Monday.

Under the terms of the deal, Goldman invested $50 million while Digital Sky Technologies invested the remaining $50 million. The Russian firm has previously invested over a half billion dollars.

Goldman Sachs also holds the option of selling up to $75 million to Digital Sky. The deal will add to a debate on what would the company would be worth in the public market. It is estimated that Facebook could bring as much as $2 billion in revenue annually.

Last November, $40 million worth of Facebook shares were auctioned on a private exchange called SecondMarket. Over the last year, the social network company has tripled its value.

In the same period of time, the popular social networking site surpassed Google as the most visited website in the year. Facebook received 8.9 percent of all web visits in the United States; Google received 7.2 percent.

Facebook co-founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg was recently named 2010 TIME's Person of the Year for creating a new way to exchange information, connecting over half a billion people around the world and essentially changing social interactions.

Zuckerberg's fortune was estimated by Forbes at $6.9 billion. However, such amount referred to the time in which Facebook was valued at $23 billion. It is believed that his current fortune is up to $25 billion.

Kindle now the bestselling product in Amazon's history

Amazon.com announced on Dec 17 that the third-generation Kindle is now the bestselling product in Amazon's history, eclipsing "Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows (Book 7)." The company also announced that on its peak day, Nov. 29, customers ordered more than 13.7 million items worldwide across all product categories, which is a record-breaking 158 items per second.

Here are the Amazon Worldwide 2010 Holiday Facts:

• On Christmas Day, more people turned on new Kindles for the first time, downloaded more Kindle Buy Once, Read Everywhere apps, and purchased more Kindle books than on any other day in history.
• On the peak day this season, Amazon's worldwide fulfillment network shipped over 9 million units across all product categories.
• Amazon shipped to 178 countries.
• One of Amazon's most remote shipments contained the "Tinker Bell and the Great Fairy Rescue," "Toy Story" DVDs, "Chicken Soup for the Dog Lover's Soul," NHL 11, Halo Reach and Call of Duty: Black Ops and was delivered to the hamlet of Grise Fiord, north of the Arctic Circle in Canada.
• Amazon shipped over 350,000 units to APO/FPO addresses.

Find more here.

Chrysler recalls 144,065 vehicles, Ford recalls 14,737

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) on Thursday announced that Chrysler is recalling 144,065 vehicles, while Ford is recalling 14,737.

Chrysler Group LLC is recalling 65,180 2009 Dodge Journey's manufactured from November 1, 2007 through September 7, 2008 due to its wires within the front door wire harness, which may fatigue and break. As a result, it can interrupt the circuits for the side impact sensors, which would light up the airbag warning lamp and lose its side crash sensing capability.

Furthermore, in the event of a crash, the side airbag may not deploy, reducing the protection intended for the occupant and increasing the risk of injuries.

CEMEX Houston to pay over $1.5 million to workers in back wage case

HOUSTON, TEXAS - The U.S. Labor Department on Thursday announced the filing of a consent judgment in a case against CEMEX Inc. and the recovery of $1,514,449 in overtime back wages for 1,705 current and former ready-mix drivers who worked in eight states.

"This legal action involving more than $1.5 million in back wages for more than 1,700 employees is intended to ensure that the company complies with federal overtime laws now and in the future," said Secretary of Labor Hilda L. Solis.

"Earning overtime pay is how many Americans make ends meet, even though working long hours often means significant sacrifices for workers and their families," she added.

European leaders disagree over China's EU investments

EU Industry Commissioner
Antonio Tajani by ZioDave

European leaders are in disagreement over limiting China's European Union investments which increased by 12 percent this year, Deutsche Welle television reported on Tuesday.

European Union industry commissioner Antonio Tajani warned EU Member States on Monday about the growing influence China has in some strategic sectors of the European economy and added that EU businesses should be protected from possible future takeovers by Chinese companies.

In 2010, China's direct investments in Europe increased by 12 percent, or 37 billion euros ($50 billion), while the EU invested a total of 3.8 billion euros ($5.1 billion) in China. The increment was the result of EU businesses which are expanding their investment from the manufacturing sector to services and other fields.

According to the EU statistical bureau Eurostat, from January to September, the EU exports to China reached 82.3 billion euros ($107.8 billion) which represented a 39 percent increase from 2009. In addition, EU imports from China were of 204.5 billion euros ($267.8 billion), increasing by 30 percent.


Commissioner Tajani added that the European Union should establish an agency to analyze acquisitions by a private or public foreign company in order to determine if it is harmful to the area, similar to the Committee on Foreign Investment in the United States.

However, not everybody agrees with Tajani's point of view. German Economics Minister Rainer Bruederle said that instead of placing excessive controls on foreign investment, the EU must maintain open markets.

The German minister rejected Tajani's proposal of a regulation agency but agreed that some examinations may be necessary to address security and public order concerns. Bruederle stressed that the EU should instead offer attractive conditions for foreign investors.

Last week, China said that it will continue investing in the EU Member States as it is an attractive market and to help the region boost its economy.

Last summer, in an example of the increasing investment of China in the EU, Chinese company Geely purchased Swedish acclaimed carmaker Volvo. Previously, China focused on investing raw materials from Latin America and Africa but lately it has changed its target to purchasing European businesses.

On Sunday, Song Zhe, head of the Chinese mission to the EU, said that the increasing activity of China in Europe was attributable to the economic complementarity of the two sides which is beneficial and fundamental to the economic recovery.

EIB to lend 400 million Euros to Volvo

The European Investment Bank (EIB) will lend 400 million Euros to Volvo Car Corporation for research and development activities.

The loan will help finance research, development and innovation in improved fuel efficiency and lower emissions, including new tooling for the production of cleaner and safer cars. The EIB loan has a Swedish state guarantee approved by the European Commission.

source eib.org

Apple faces two lawsuits for releasing info to advertisers without user consent

Apple Inc., along with some of its mobile application developers, is facing a couple of class action lawsuits for allegedly collecting and releasing personal information of its product users to advertisers.

According to the complaint, which was filed last Thursday in a San Jose, California federal court by Jonathan Lalo of Los Angeles, several of Apple's iPhones and iPads are encoded with identifying devices that allow advertising networks to track what applications users download, how frequently they're used and for how long.

"Some apps are also selling additional information to ad networks, including users' location, age, gender, income, ethnicity, sexual orientation and political views," the suit states, explaining that the identifying device is impossible to be deactivated.

In Lalo's suit, applications named include Pandora, Paper Toss, the Weather Channel, and Discovery.com as the lawsuit seeks class-action status for Apple customers who downloaded an application to their iPhone or iPad devices between December 1, 2008 and mid-December.

In addition, a second suit - Freeman vs. Apple - was filed against Apple in which Apple, Inc. allegedly assigns an identifying number to each of its iPhones and iPads and then transmits that information along with the devices' location data to third-party advertisers.

All of this is done without the consumers' consent, the suit says, and in violation of their legal rights.

Mozilla says 'minimal risk' after leaving addons database on public server

MOUNTAIN VIEW, CALIFORNIA (BNO NEWS) -- Mozilla on Tuesday admitted to have accidentally left a partial database of addons.mozilla.org user accounts on its public server earlier this month.


Mozilla was notified by a security researcher about the incident on December 17, reporting the issue via its web bounty program. However, the company said the incident has a "minimal risk."

"We were able to account for every download of the database," Chris Lyon, Director of Infrastructure Security, said. "This issue posed minimal risk to users, however as a precaution we felt we should disclose this issue to people affected and err on the side of disclosure."

The database included 44,000 inactive accounts using older, md5-based password hashes, Mozilla explained, saying that they erased all the md5-passwords, rendering the accounts disabled.

Lyon explained that all current addons.mozilla.org accounts use a more secure SHA-512 password hash with per-user salts. SHA-512 and per user salts has been the standard storage method of password hashes for all active users since April 9th, 2009.

"It is important to note that current addons.mozilla.org users and accounts are not at risk. Additionally, this incident did not impact any of Mozilla's infrastructure," Lyon added. "This information was also sent to impacted users by email on December 27th."

New EU standards for common mobile phone charger

The European Commission on Wednesday welcomed the European Union harmonized standards for manufacturing mobile phones compatible with a new common charger.

The new standards were unveiled by the European Standardization Bodies CEN-CENELEC after a mandate from the European Commission which initiated a process towards a global common mobile phone charger.

"I am very happy that the European Standardization Bodies have met our request to develop within a short space of time the technical standards necessary for a common mobile phone charger based on the work done by industry," said European Commission Vice-President Antonio Tajani.

In June 2009, the Commission and 14 mobile phone producers agreed in a Memorandum of Understanding to harmonize chargers for data-enabled mobile phones sold in the EU. The chargers will be compatible on the basis of the Micro-USB connector.

The companies that signed the MoU were Apple, Emblaze Mobile, Huawei Technologies, LGE, Motorola Mobility, NEC, Nokia, Qualcomm, Research In Motion (RIM), Samsung, Sony Ericsson, TCT Mobile (ALCATEL), Texas Instruments and Atmel.

The harmonization is needed as incompatibility of chargers is both an inconvenience for users and an environmental problem. As users replace their current mobile phones, usually a new charger is needed which provokes the disposal of the old one.

"The common charger will make life easier for consumers, reduce waste and benefit businesses. It is a true win-win situation," added Tajani who is also Commissioner for Industry and Entrepreneurship.

The mandate to the European Standardization organizations was issued on December 2009. It requested the development of European standards for a common charger that allow interoperability of phones from different brands.

The standards also take into account safety risks and electro-magnetic emissions in order to ensure that common chargers have sufficient immunity to external interference. The first common chargers are expected to reach the EU market in the first quarter of 2011.