Katy Perry lights the way for Super Bowl’s girl power moment

By Eric Kelsey LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – There is a strong chance of a neon-colored spectacle, perhaps some flying and definitely songs of female empowerment when pop singer Katy Perry takes the stage during halftime at the Super Bowl, the most-watched 12 minutes on U.S. television. The pink-loving Perry may seem a mismatch for the macho world of NFL football

Read more

Davos bosses fret over threats to Internet free trade

The issue is a hot topic at this year's World Economic Forum in Davos, and the forum is seeking to provide a platform for debate over ways to maintain an open, cross-border Web in the face of pressures for national regulation. Quite frankly, there is a temptation,” said Vittorio Colao, chief executive of mobile telecoms group Vodafone, who pointed to different regulatory regimes as an impediment to network traffic. A 2014 report by the Boston Consulting Group estimated the Internet economy will be worth $4.2 trillion in the major Group of 20 (G20) economies by 2016 and, if it were a country, it would rank among the top five in the world, ahead of Germany

Read more

In China, VPN internet access tools suffer further disruptions

Internet services that allow people to freely access blocked websites and apps from within China have seen more severe disruptions this week, said three providers, moves that Chinese state media said were justified. The services affected include popular Virtual Private Network (VPN) providers Astrill, StrongVPN and Golden Frog, which are engaged in a technological arms race to one-up China’s highly sophisticated Great Firewall internet censorship system.

Read more

Accused Silk Road operator maintained journal about website: U.S

By Nate Raymond NEW YORK (Reuters) – The accused operator of the online black marketplace Silk Road had a digital journal on his laptop detailing the development of the website and predicting it would become a “phenomenon,” jurors heard on Wednesday. Prosecutors showed jurors in Manhattan federal court journal entry excerpts dated in 2010 and 2011 found on a laptop seized when the FBI arrested Ross Ulbricht, who authorities say operated the website where drugs and other illicit goods could be bought with bitcoins. “Silk Road is going to become a phenomenon and at least one person will tell me about it, unknowing that I was its creator,” a 2010 journal entry on Ulbricht's laptop said.

Read more

Google sticks to EU only application of ‘right to be forgotten’

By Julia Fioretti BRUSSELS (Reuters) – Google is only removing search results from European websites when individuals invoke their “right to be forgotten”, contrary to regulators' guidelines, but will review that approach soon, the company's chief legal officer said on Monday. The issue of how far the so-called right to be forgotten should extend has concentrated the minds of Europe's privacy regulators since the continent's top court ruled in May that individuals could have “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” information removed from search results.

Read more

China investigates state television producer amid corruption probe

Chinese anti-graft authorities are investigating a television producer related to a disgraced former presidential aide probed for graft last month, the media reported on Monday, as the leadership widens a crackdown on corruption. Luo Fanghua, an executive of the business channel at state broadcaster China Central Television (CCTV), is the latest of several of the network’s senior producers, executives and journalists to face investigation for corruption

Read more