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BEIJING: The United States is studying whether it could launch a WTO challenge against Chinese Internet restrictions that affect Google and other US companies operating in China. Here are some questions and answers on the possible complaint to the World Trade Organisation and its chances of succeeding: WHAT ARE THE CHINESE INTERNET CONTROLS THAT HAVE IRKED GOOGLE AND THE US GOVERNMENT? Google Inc, the world's biggest Internet search...

MOUNTAIN VIEW : Google is adding a bike lane with its latest online mapping option. The new bicycling...

SAN FRANCISCO: Google Inc. will sell the online services of other business software makers in an effort to fill its own product gaps and persuade more companies to rely on applications piped over the Internet. The online store that was announced late Tuesday marks another step in Google's crusade to convert the world to ``cloud computing,'' the idea of running applications in Web browsers instead of installing them on individual hard drives. The information entered in the programs also is stored...

NEW YORK: Sex.com, often touted as one of the most valuable internet domain names, is due to head to the auction block next week. DOM Partners LLC, a New Jersey...

Lincoln, America's "other" storied luxury brand, which was almost dead five years ago, has gained new life with new models, new commercials and new customers. Sales for the brand were up 19 percent in February from a year ago, with the MKZ midsize sedan seeing a 53.8 percent sales increase. Lincoln has benefited from the halo that all Ford Motor Co. products are enjoying thanks to improved quality and fit and finish, along with recommendations from authorities such as Consumer Reports. "The new styling...

When Castriota Chevrolet in Dormont found out it wasn't one of 2,000 General Motors dealerships slated to close last year, the outfit printed signs and bought billboards proclaiming, "GM is here to stay and so is Castriota Chevrolet." One went up next to a shuttered GM dealership. "We needed people to know we didn't get a wind-down letter," said Castriota sales manager John Eberlein. But GM's decision Friday to reinstate 661 dealers who appealed its nationwide closings has replaced wind-down letters with wound-up emotions across the industry. During GM's bankruptcy restructuring last year, about 2,000 dealerships were told they would be closing when...

EL CAJON, Calif. -- James Sikes bought his Toyota Prius in 2008, and 53,000 miles later, the car was driving fine. But Monday afternoon, when he accelerated to pass another vehicle on Interstate 8 east of San Diego, the car kept going. "The gas pedal stuck open all the way," said Mr. Sikes, 61, a San Diego real estate agent. For 30 miles, Mr. Sikes said, he swerved in and out of traffic, narrowly missing a big rig and trying desperately to slow the vehicle down, at one point reaching down with his hand to pull back on the gas pedal. The brakes were useless. "I was laying on the brakes," he said, "but it wasn't slowing down." Mr. Sikes recounted his ordeal...

What can you do with 322 terabits per second? Cisco Systems says it's enough bandwidth to allow every person in China to make a video call--simultaneously. And if that's something you want to do, Cisco says it now has hardware capable of the task. The company's newest large-scale core router, the , is capable of handling such a speed, which Cisco said is 12-times as fast as its closest competitor...

The U.S. Federal Communications Commission will propose a National Digital Literacy Corps to help U.S. residents get online as part of a national broadband plan due out next week. The National Digital Literacy Corps, modeled after other volunteer programs like , will target communities with low numbers of broadband subscribers, including low-income housing developments, rural areas and tribal lands, said Mignon Clyburn, a member of the FCC, speaking Tuesday during a conference on the digital divide in Washington, D.C. "The Digital Literacy...

Newlywed Ivanka Trump has a nice life - and she's doing something to ensure that other young women have the same. She's working with the United Nations Foundation as the first spokeswoman of the Girl Up program, a human rights campaign designed to improve the lives of girls and young women around the world. The project will use the accomplishments of American girls - as well as nonprofit, business and philanthropy partners - to support programs for the education, health, safety and leadership development of girls in developing countries. In a nonrelated aside, the svelte Ivanka tweeted her chagrin about a...

A major exhibition of the work of homeless people includes more than 100 rare and signed works ‘I liked her determined look and strong ironic smile,’ says Paul Kelly of one of a selection of his photographs chosen for a major exhibition Photograph: Paul Kelly/Crisis In his wildest dreams during years of , Paul Kelly would never have envisaged that photographs taken by him would one day hang alongside rarely seen works by such giants of the art world as Helmut Newton, Irving Penn, Richard Avedon and Henri Cartier-Bresson....

Although the class ladder seems harder to climb than ever, it will be decades before we know if today's children have better life chances than their parents, argues Tom Clark Talk of social mobility may distract attention from a worsening problem: the wealth gap. Photograph: Voisin/Phanie/ Rex Features/Voisin/Phanie/Rex Features Amid all the recent soul-searching about whether is declining, has stalled or is dead in Britain – from Gordon Brown conceding that trends in mobility "are not as we would have liked" to Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg establishing a dedicated mobility commission – what do we actually know about the changing way in which opportunities have been dished out in the New Labour...

California's Living New Deal project is an ambitious social history initiative that is mapping the legacy of America's greatest public works programmes In 1940, Eugene A Delorenzo was just 17 years old when he boarded a train bound from New York City to rural Idaho after his father suggested he sign up with the Civilian Conservation Corps , one of the public works programmes launched by president Franklin D Roosevelt's New Deal in response to the Great Depression. Writing of the time, Delorenzo recalls: "We built a road, including a bridge, fought forest fires, and provided for all of our own support – food, shelter, and recreation. All this from a bunch of kids who knew less than...

Forget a government-funded college - we need our own profession to create a institution led by, and accountable to, social workers, says Hilton Dawson The 12,500 members of the British Association of Social Workers are being urged to give a resounding "yes" vote in a referendum next month on the organisation's proposal to create a UK College of . We want to transform our profession by creating an independent college to which all 105,000 social workers in the UK will be offered free registration. The college would set its own high standards for entry to the profession, accredit continuing professional...

Rehabilitation agencies don't always do what they say on the tin, says Eric Allison The road to rehabilitation is not an easy one to tread, says Eric Allison. Photograph: Matthew Fearn/PA Last week, amid the furore over the re-arrest of Jon Venables, I was asked to take part in a debate on local radio. The question asked was: can leopards change their spots? Asking that of me – a former dedicated career criminal, turned honest hack – is like asking is the Pope a Catholic. The road to rehabilitation is not an easy one to tread. It is littered with obstacles – some, seemingly laid by a criminal justice system bent on setting up offenders to fail. And we know that society at large does not roll...

 

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