Pak investigative agency to crack down on pirated software, porno CDs

May 13th, 2009 SAN FRANCISCO - Software piracy cost companies more than $50 billion last year, according to a study by the Business Software Alliance, an industry trade group. The report released Tuesday said that worldwide losses totaled $53 billion, an 11-percent increase over the previous years.

April 9th, 2009 BONN - Germany's main competition agency, the Federal Cartel Office, Wednesday slapped a fine of 9 million euros ($12 million) on US software company Microsoft for imposing a retail price for its Office Home and Student 2007 software. Microsoft said it would pay the fine to avoid a lengthy legal dispute and was reviewing its internal processes in Germany to ensure they complied with German law in future.

July 8th, 2009 Official: N. Korea believed behind cyber attacksSEOUL, South Korea — South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces in South Korea committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S.

July 8th, 2009 Official: NKorea believed behind cyber attacksSEOUL, South Korea — South Korean intelligence officials believe North Korea or pro-Pyongyang forces in South Korea committed cyber attacks that paralyzed major South Korean and U.S. Web sites, a lawmaker's aide said Wednesday.

February 17th, 2009 NEW DELHI - The Central Bureau of Investigation (CBI) Wednesday will take over the investigation into the Rs.70-billion (Rs.7,000-crore/$1.43 billion) Satyam accounting fraud from the Andhra Pradesh police. 'We have received the notification from the government of India to take over the Satyam Computers scam cases from CID, Andhra Pradesh.

April 22nd, 2009 UK agency bans eBay ad claiming 25 pct discounts LONDON — Britain's advertising watchdog has told eBay to stop claiming that it offers new goods 25 percent below store prices. The Advertising Standards Authority said Wednesday that eBay's poster implied that shoppers could buy anything at that discount from store prices.

June 30th, 2009 China scraps filtering software mandate _ for nowBEIJING — China's state media says the government will postpone enforcement of a new rule mandating all new computers be sold with a filtering software. The rule was to go into effect starting Wednesday, but the official Xinhua News Agency said in a brief report late Tuesday that the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology had decided to delay the plan.

May 14th, 2009 NEW DELHI - An year after Aarushi Talwar's tragic death, people across the world have been pouring out their anger against investigative agencies and demanding justice for her on social networking site Facebook. 'Its almost gonna be a year.

June 27th, 2009 SEOUL - News feeds from North Korea's state-run media have begun appearing on Twitter, the micro-blogging website. A feed under the name "kcna-dprk" - acronyms of Pyongyang's state Korean Central News Agency and the country's official name, the Democratic People's Republic of Korea - provides links to hundreds of the agency's English-language stories, The China Daily reports.

July 8th, 2009 SKorean Web sites hit by suspected cyber attackSEOUL, South Korea — Suspected cyber attacks paralyzed Web sites of major South Korean government agencies, banks and Internet sites in a barrage that appeared linked to similar attacks in the U.S., South Korean officials said Tuesday. The sites of the presidential Blue House, the Defense Ministry, the National Assembly, Shinhan Bank, Korea Exchange Bank and top Internet portal Naver went down or had access problems since late Tuesday, said Ahn Jeong-eun, a spokeswoman at Korea Information Security Agency.

August 14th, 2009 China trade ruling helps US, but piracy a problemLOS ANGELES — American companies counting on a favorable trade ruling against China to boost sales of CDs, DVDs, books and video games will need a crackdown on rampant piracy before they can reap big benefits. Chinese incomes are lower than in the United States, and the quality of pirated entertainment there is quite good, making legal goods a tougher sell.

May 19th, 2009 LONDON - Israel has asked its public to be careful while using Facebook because, it says, Arabs are trying to recruit spies on the popular social networking site. The Shin Bet security agency warned Israelis against replying to unknown messages, or divulging sensitive information the internet.

March 29th, 2009 WELLINGTON - New Zealand's government welfare agency has confirmed it examines internet social network sites like Facebook to catch benefit fraudsters, a newspaper reported Sunday. Lauren Kaney, 22, of Mount Maunganui, was convicted in court last week of getting three times the weekly benefit she was entitled to, after claiming she lived on her own with her 2-year-old-son.

October 7th, 2009 IBM snags 3 rail customers in software dealSAN FRANCISCO — IBM Corp.'s effort to make the nation's critical infrastructure "smarter" is getting a boost this week from three railroad operators that are buying IBM software to manage their repair scheduling. The deals being announced Wednesday are with the Long Island Rail Road in New York, the Bay Area Rapid Transit agency in San Francisco, and the Washington Metropolitan Area Transit Authority in D.C.

June 13th, 2009 Company alleges Chinese software has stolen code SAN FRANCISCO — A California company claims that the Internet-filtering software China has mandated for all new personal computers sold there contains stolen programming code. Solid Oak Software of Santa Barbara said Friday that parts of its filtering software, which is designed for parents, are being used in the "Green Dam-Youth Escort" filtering software that must be packaged with all computers sold in China from July 1.