Wednesday, January 13, 2010

Google snubs China with 'Tank Man'

The iconic "Tank Man" photo taken during the 1989 Tiananmen crackdown and banned in China was available on Google.cn on Wednesday, hours after the online giant vowed to defy Chinese Internet censors.

Google announced on Tuesday that it would no longer censor search engine results in China and possibly pull out of the world's largest online market, citing cyber spy attacks and Chinese Web censorship.

Searches for other sensitive topics such as the Dalai Lama and the banned Falungong spiritual group were also returned on Google, but were also available on some Chinese portals.

China blocks Web content it deems politically objectionable in a vast censorship system dubbed the "Great Firewall of China."

Google said it was targeted by China-based cyber spies along with at least 20 other unidentified firms in an apparent bid to hack into the email accounts of rights activists around the world.

Several people, some bearing flowers, turned up Wednesday at Google's China headquarters in Beijing to show their support for the Internet giant, an AFP journalist witnessed.

"We are ordinary Google users who have come here to say thank you. We want to show our support to Google," said one woman, who would not give her name

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Sugar prices at 29 year high

Sugar price has climbed a 29 year high and it's not just the price, the commodity is getting scarce.

It's Bihu, the biggest festival of the year in Assam but the rising sugar prices and vanishing stocks have taken the cheer out both for sweetmaker Kalita and his customers.

"Last year I purchased sugar at Rs 22 per kilogram and sold sweet packets for Rs 15. Now sugar prices have risen to Rs 50 per kilogram and shops are running out of stock .My employees are sitting without work," said Kalita.

Sugar comes to the north east from states like faraway Maharashtra mainly by train. Now the railways has put a limit on the number of rakes every week to north eastern states. Their excuse, bad weather in the north leading to congestion. The region needs at least 8 rakes of sugar a month. It is not even getting 2.

From the roadside tea corner to the first cup of tea in the morning, it is the sugar which is the essential commodity required by all, but the commodity is soon getting out of reach.