China cracks down on microblogging rumours that are 'worse than cocaine'

 

China has 300 million registered microblog users, and authorities are concerned at the speed with which the sites can spread information. Photograph: AP

Online rumours are drugs that damage users and harm society, the Chinese state media have claimed, as officials step up attempts to rein in the country's hugely popular microblogs.

One commentary, published by the official Xinhua news agency, warns that while heroin and cocaine damage health, internet rumours are worse because they "poison the social environment and affect social order".

Another, on People's Daily Online, is titled: "Internet rumours are drugs: please resist and stay away from them." It calls for zero tolerance, suggests they "damage people and society" as narcotics do, and accuses rumour-mongers of having ulterior motives and "kidnapping public opinion".

The intensification of attacks on "rumours" emerged as officials said they had detained several people for spreading rumours online and amid increasing controls on microblogs, which have been urging users to register their real names and deleting accounts deemed to have crossed the line.

China has 300 million registered microblog users and while services are censored – blocking prevents sensitive terms from being posted, and other material is often deleted – authorities are increasingly concerned at the speed at which information can spread.

Microblogs have spread news of protests, exposed scandals and became the locus of public outrage at the high-speed rail crash in Wenzhou this summer.

Weeks later, a senior official visited the headquarters of Sina, which runs the biggest microblogging service, and urged internet companies to prevent the spread of false and harmful information.

Charles Chao, chief executive of Sina, said subsequently that it was establishing more mechanisms to quash rumours.

David Bandurski, of Hong Kong University's China media project, said the new commentaries, with their "patina of moral decadence", were "helping to whip up an atmosphere where it's easier to tackle social media … It's part of a general campaign to put more pressure on microblogs".

While some posts are implausible or demonstrably wrong – such as claims of major earthquakes – others are far harder to assess.

Many internet users fear the drive against "rumours" will also be used to suppress sensitive stories and justified criticism of officials.

The first Xinhua commentary accuses some users of making up scandals about officials and others of inventing and spreading disturbing news "under the guise of caring about the public … for the purpose of provoking trouble and disrupting society".

Bandurski added: "At its base, this is about news control. That's what creates an atmosphere where nothing is believable and nothing is believed, and the government just has to say something for people to believe it's not true."

The Beijing-based internet analyst Bill Bishop said in a blog about the pieces: "The language in these articles has echoes of campaigns and crackdowns from an earlier era.

"The comparisons to drugs and drug dealing, sometimes a capital offence in China, may be a sign of an impending harsh crackdown on those who spread internet rumours."

On Sunday, the state information office announced that it had detained several people for inventing a rumour that HIV positive people and Aids patients were lacing restaurant food with their blood.

"Illegal spreading of false information online violates internet order and harms the public interest," the head of the office's bureau of network news told the Global Times newspaper, saying that authorities were building a "healthy and orderly" online environment.

A judge told the newspaper that people could be fined about 500 yuan (£50) for spreading rumours, while those deliberately fabricating or disseminating false and harmful information faced up to five years in jail.

Sina has set up a round-the-clock "rumour control" team and has begun issuing warnings to users judged to have crossed the line and suspending and deleting accounts.

It is trying to encourage people to register in their real names by adding a "medal of honour" for users who provide details for police checks.

Belt-tightening Greeks turn to starvation cookbook

 

Eleni Nikolaidou with her book Starvation Recipes, made up of recipes and survival tips used by Greeks during the occupation of the second world war. Photograph: Thanassis Stavrakis/AP

It's the ultimate belt-tightening handbook: No Meat? Push an aubergine through the grinder instead. Chew your food long enough for your stomach to feel full. And don't forget to sweep crumbs off your table and into a jar.

These are some of the tips Greeks used to survive the second world war occupation that have been collected in Starvation Recipes – a cookbook that has become a surprise hit as millions of Greeks struggle to make ends meet in a new era of hardship brought on by economic crisis.

In the grim years of the occupation, starving Athenians invented ways to stay alive, helped by daily advice columns in the capital's newspapers known as "survival guides."

Historian and high school teacher Eleni Nikolaidou spent 18 months compiling recipes and survival tips – combing through more than 6,000 scanned newspaper clippings from the 1941-44 Nazi rule to produce her book. Starvation Recipes was released this year and is on its second print run.

"It was all about getting by with very little," said Nikolaidou.

She stumbled onto the subject two years ago while working on a masters degree on Greece's wartime economy.

"I read an article from the front page of a newspaper, 'How to collect crumbs' – a little each day so that you could have a cupful of crumbs by the end of the week, something extra to survive. It really struck me."

She was drawn in by the details: Horseshoes used to reinforce dilapidated footwear, baked sand to preserve lemons, and stray cats and dogs hunted on Athens streets for food.

"People would come up with new ways to cheat their stomachs: There were starters designed to cut your appetite. And people were advised to chew their food very, very slowly, so it felt as though they were eating more," Nikolaidou said.

"There was no sugar available, so at weddings, the sugared almonds handed out were black. Raisin pulp was used as the sweetener."

Coffee shops had no coffee, so they served a brew made out of ground chickpeas. Newspaper articles at the time encouraged Athenians to make the best of it.

"The new coffee can be enjoyed just as much as a pre-war coffee, because people visit the coffee shop for more than just the coffee," one newspaper wrote.

Publisher Oxigono says Starvation Recipes has sold about 2,000 copies – considered an early success despite the modest number, helped by Nikolaidou's appearance on television, newspaper articles and internet buzz. A third print run is planned this month.

After decades of overspending, Greece was forced from late 2009 to grapple with its ruined finances by imposing harsh taxes and surviving on rescue loans from the IMF and European Union.

The result means nine out of 10 Greeks are changing their food-shopping habits, according to a September survey by the consumer organization KEPKA. People are now eating out less, cutting back on meat and swapping quality food brands for cheaper substitutes.

The growing demand for affordable meals has been met by magazines and a new batch of low-budget cookbooks, such as The Cooking Economy and Family meals for €5 – 110 recipes for the financial crisis.

But the dire wartime hardship has little in common with the current crisis. Even as the number of vacant stores and homeless grow by the day, Athens's coffee shops are busy and streets filled with new cars.

During the occupation, dead bodies were collected off the street each morning, the hills were stripped bare of wild greens and families had to keep round-the-clock guard of their backyard chicken coops.

Raisins, olives, wild greens, and rationed bread became the nation's staples against mass starvation that claimed an estimated 300,000 lives.

But for Nikolaidou, worrying signs of sudden poverty have arrived in this crisis, too.

"There are children who go to school without enough to eat," she said. "The circumstances were of course much more extreme. But there are people, today, who open up their cupboards, and see little more than a bag of flour, and think – 'what can I do with that?'"

Opting for cheap processed foods is the biggest mistake budget-conscious consumers can make, said chef FT Bletsas, the youthful host of the Greek TV show Mama's Cooking.

"Most people spend more than they need to, and still eat badly," said Bletsas, who runs the English-language cooking website spun out of a 2010 book on frugal dining.

Bletsas, 31, honed his thrift techniques while living in Britain as an engineering student, and later adapted his modest menus to Greece's renowned Mediterranean diet.

His top picks for strapped shoppers include olive oil, tinned sardines, lentils, and good quality meat used sparingly.

He has simple advice for Greeks labouring under the crisis.

"Never, ever throw anything away: You can preserve it, freeze, cook it, reuse it, or give it to someone who needs it more than you."

 

Sample Starvation Recipes:

Bulgar-wheat "meatballs"

Boil bulgar wheat until tender and mixing with grated onion, parsley, spices, and egg. Gelatin sheets can be used for binding if no egg is available. The wheat is rolled in flour or bread crumbs and fried in olive oil.

 

Cabbage and chestnuts

Slices of cabbage are set in a single layer on a greased tray and chestnuts grated over the top. Finely chopped parsley and mint are added along with a drizzle of olive oil; the mixture is baked in a medium-hop oven until browned. The chestnuts can also be mashed or pureed.

Al-Qaida linked group claims Kabul suicide attack on Shia pilgrims

 

The immediate aftermath of the suicide attack on the Shia Abul Fazl shrine in Kabul, Afghanistan. Photograph: AP

The unprecedented sectarian attack which killed 55 Shia worshippers in Kabul is likely to have been the work of al-Qaida or a group closely associated with it, security sources and analysts believe.

A spokesman for an obscure Pakistani extremist group called Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi claimed responsibility in a phone call to Radio Mashaal – a Pashto language radio station.

Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi is a small faction based in Pakistan's tribal area and is considered an even more radical offshoot of Lashkar-e-Jhangvi, (LeJ), a murderous anti-Shia group founded in 1996. Both groups act as surrogates for al-Qaida.

The Taliban was quick to distance itself from Tuesday's bombing and the Afghan Taliban has generally avoided sectarian violence. The Pakistani Taliban, however, has its roots in anti-Shia violence, and LeJ acted as the training ground for its leader, Hakimullah Mehsud.

LeJ maintained training camps in Afghanistan under the Taliban regime but has not mounted attacks in Afghanistan in recent years. It is believed to have been behind some of the most audacious attacks in Pakistan, including the September 2008 bombing of the Marriott hotel in Islamabad and the armed assault on the visiting Sri Lankan cricket team in Lahore in March 2009.

The group also claimed responsibility for the massacre of 29 Shia pilgrims on a bus in Pakistan's Baluchistan province in September, and an attack on an Ashura procession in Karachi in 2009 which killed 30 people.

Until now, the splinter group Lashkar-e-Jhangvi al Almi was best known for kidnapping two former Pakistani spies and a British journalist in the tribal area last year.

The two former agents with Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence, Colonel Imam and Khalid Khawaja, were abducted in North Waziristan along with the British journalist Asad Qureshi, who was making a film for Channel 4.

The kidnappers demanded a $25m (£16m) ransom for Imam, who was regarded as the godfather of the original Afghan Taliban for his undercover work in Afghanistan in the 1990s.

Pleas from the leaders of the Afghan Taliban and the Haqqani network of militants went unheeded by the group. Imam and Khawaja were executed. Qureshi was later freed.

Earlier this year, the Pakistani courts freed Malik Ishaq, one of LeJ's founders. Ishaq had faced dozens of murder charges but the courts said there was lack of evidence – his group had allegedly killed numerous witnesses who may have testified against him.

Amanda Knox hires top literary lawyer to land lucrative book deal

 

A tearful Amanda Knox after her return to the US, in October. Photograph: Anthony Bolante/Reuters

Amanda Knox says she's hired a lawyer to help her land a book deal after an Italian court cleared her and her ex-boyfriend in the killing of her British roommate, Meredith Kercher.

Knox family spokesman Dave Marriott said Robert Barnett, who is based in Washington DC, will represent Knox in discussions with publishers and help her evaluate other opportunities.

Barnett has represented the literary interests of the US presidents Barack Obama, Bill Clinton and George W Bush, as well as Tony Blair and Sarah Palin.

Knox returned to her hometown of Seattle in October after she was cleared in Kercher's death.

The 24-year-old had been in custody since 2007, and experts have suggested she could score a seven-figure book deal.

She hasn't granted any interviews since her release.

Radical eurozone shakeup could see Brussels get austerity powers

 

Herman Van Rompuy is circulating the eurozone plan ahead of a crucial EU summit on Thursday and Friday. Photograph: Yves Herman/Reuters

The European commission could be empowered to impose austerity measures on eurozone countries that are being bailed out, usurping the functions of government in countries such as Greece, Ireland, or Portugal.

Bailed-out countries could also be stripped of their voting rights in the European Union, under radical proposals that have been circulating at the highest level in Brussels before this week's crucial EU summit on the sovereign debt crisis.

A confidential paper for EU leaders by the EU council president, Herman Van Rompuy, who will chair the summit on Thursday and Friday, said eurobonds or the pooling of eurozone debt would be a powerful tool in resolving the crisis, despite fierce German resistance to the idea.

It called for "more intrusive control of national budgetary policies by the EU" and laid out various options for enforcing fiscal discipline supra-nationally.

The two-page paper, obtained by the Guardian, formed the basis for discussions on an interim report tabled by Van Rompuy, the European commission and the Eurogroup of countries that have adopted the euro, which is to be debated on Wednesday among senior officials in an attempt to build a consensus ahead of the summit.

Elements, however, have already sparked a backlash among eurozone member states and the suggestion that countries could lose their voting rights seems already to have been dropped.

The options outlined by Van Rompuy heavily emphasise the need for a new punitive regime overseen by EU institutions that would be given new powers of intervention. The proposals and policy options, if agreed, will be seen as seriously curbing the sovereignty of member states in setting budgetary, economic, and fiscal policy.

For countries deemed to be insolvent and in receipt of eurozone and International Monetary Fund bailouts but failing to meet the terms, Van Rompuy raised the prospect of drastic action, suggesting: "The granting of exceptional powers to the [European] commission (or another body) to take enforceable measures in the country concerned so as to ensure the stability of the euro area."

It added: "In case of consistent non-compliance, political sanctions such as the temporary suspension of voting rights [in EU councils]" might be imposed. Senior EU officials said this suggestion had been dropped in recent days.

As part of a German-led drive for a eurozone "fiscal union", Van Rompuy highlighted the potential for harmonising pension reforms, social security systems, labour market policy, and financial regulation: "Consideration could be given to use legislation to define minimum common features." Officials also said this idea had run into stiff resistance in recent days.

Other "possible further steps" generating a "higher degree of economic convergence" in the eurozone could include reinforcing the commission's and the Eurogroup's rights of prior scrutiny "of all major economic reform plans" and sanctions if the commission's recommendations to individual countries are ignored. Van Rompuy also raised the possibility of using the EU budget to reward sound fiscal conduct within the eurozone – and to punish recalcitrants.

On the two most important rules governing the single currency – that budget deficits do not exceed 3% of gross domestic product and that national debt ceilings stay within 60% of GDP – Van Rompuy called for "stricter rules" and "extended capacity of the EU institutions to enforce them".

Countries in breach of the euro rulebook could have to submit draft budgets "for approval" to the Eurogroup and the commission. The document said "a budget adopted not in line with the stability and growth pact [euro rulebook] could be considered in breach of EU obligations".

While most of the options listed might appeal to the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, and her campaign to entrench a new era of rigour in the eurozone, Van Rompuy broke ranks with Berlin's objection to eurobonds, though he was careful to stress that any mutualisation of eurozone debt would need to be gradual. "A staged criteria-based process could be envisaged and be a powerful incentive for fiscal discipline."

The eurozone blueprint agreed on Monday between Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy is focused on medium-term reforms. But Van Rompuy argued that "the current situation calls for immediate action. Beyond stabilisation tools, some structural steps for deepening the economic union can be implemented rapidly."

From Fukushima to Charlie Sheen – the Twitter hashtags that dominated 2011

 

A shop in Tahrir Square is spray painted with the word "Twitter" during the Egyptian uprising. Photograph: Peter Macdiarmid/Getty Images

From Charlie Sheen to the Arab spring, Twitter has revealed its most talked-about hashtag topics for 2011.

 

The top hashtag this year was #egypt, following the downfall of president Hosni Mubarak in February. The second most popular was #tigerblood – the phrase coined by Sheen following his acrimonious axing from hit US sitcom Two and a Half Men in March.

 

News events dominated Twitter's hashtags this year, including the Japanese earthquake in March, the Egyptian revolution and the Super Bowl.

 

Sheen was the most tweeted about actor of 2011, according to Twitter, as he quickly attracted millions of followers on the social network amid the media frenzy around his high-profile firing. The momentous downfall of Mubarak, which many saw as the tipping point for the Arab spring uprising, was the most talked-about news story of the year on Twitter.

Durban talks unlikely to result in climate change deal

 

Ban Ki-moon at the Durban talks where he says a 'binding climate change agreement may be beyond our reach – for now'. Photograph: Mike Hutchings/Reuters

A global legally binding deal on climate change is likely to be off the table, at least "for now", the United Nations secretary-general has said in his most downbeat assessment of the talks.

Assessing the nine days of negotiations at Durban so far, Ban Ki-moon told delegates: "It may be true, as many say: the ultimate goal of a comprehensive and binding climate change agreement may be beyond our reach – for now."

He said that the "grave economic troubles in many countries" had overshadowed the talks, now in their second week and with three days to go. But he also blamed "abiding political differences [and] conflicting priorities and strategies for responding to climate change". As a measure of the low expectations, Ban said he was looking for just "incremental advances".

The key issues at the talks are now clear: whether the "green climate fund" is permitted to go ahead; the future of the Kyoto treaty, which is in grave doubt; and whether there can be a new global legally binding treaty on the climate in future, or a weaker compromise. What is still unclear, with just three full negotiating days to go, is whether any of these can be resolved.

For the multibillion dollar green fund to start distributing money to developing countries at last, the US – which has been blocking its launch – says it needs to be satisfied of the "transparency" of its governance. Todd Stern, US special envoy for climate change, said: "There are about 20 parties who have serious issues with the fund."

But he added: "I have no reason to think this is hung up at this point. We have been a very strong supporter of the fund. I'm pretty optimistic about it."

If it proceeds, it is likely to be the only major issue to be resolved here.

More complex is the future of the Kyoto protocol, the world's only treaty stipulating cuts in greenhouse gas emissions, which the US has never joined and will not. The first "commitment period", under which developed countries undertook to cut their emissions by an average of 5%, runs out in 2012. But Japan, Canada and Russia have said they will not join a proposed extension, leaving the European Union as the only major developed economy willing to consider it.

However, the EU is setting tough conditions – it wants major emerging economies such as China to agree to a "roadmap" by which they too would take on legally binding commitments on emissions in the future, at the latest by 2020. China has never agreed to make such international commitments before – currently, its target to curb emissions is only binding at a national level.

China's role so far at the talks has been ambiguous. Minister Xie Zhenhua, who heads the delegation, caused a small flurry of excitement when he spoke on Monday of China's willingness to participate in a "legal document". But as other countries were quick to point out, there is no clarity on what this could mean. Both the US and the EU warned that the Chinese position – that developed countries should agree to a legally binding agreement to cut emissions but China and other developing countries could get away with weaker commitments – appears unchanged.

On Tuesday, Xie Zhenhua reiterated his country's support for a continuation of the Kyoto Protocol (KP). "A second commitment period is a must. KP should be continued. Developed countries should honour their commitments", said Xie Zhenhua.

Jacob Zuma, South Africa's president, said both developed and developing countries needed to shift position. "Parties need to be reassured that should some of them commit to a second commitment period under Kyoto in a legally binding manner, others would be ready to commit to a legally binding regime in the near future … [Developing] country parties also need assurances that adequate and sustainable long term funding will be delivered."

This will not be resolved at Durban, which means that the question of whether the world will sign up to a full legally binding global deal on the climate will remain hanging, as will the question of whether the world is likely to cut its emissions by the drastic amounts needed without such a deal.

Outside the rarified wrangling of the conference chamber, there were warnings from scientists and economists. The International Energy Agency, one of the most respected bodies on energy policy, warned that the number of fossil fuel power stations and other energy hungry infrastructure that we build in the next three to five years may determine the whole future of the planet – because building such infrastructure, which will be around for decades to come, will "lock in" a world of high emissions. Scientists writing in Nature said on Sunday that global emissions from fossil fuels had risen by half since 1990, when these long-running UN negotiations were just beginning.