Islamist website offers $100,000 for Iranian rapper's death
An Iranian rapper living in Germany has a $100,000 bounty on his head after an Islamist website offered a reward for anyone who kills him over a song that satirizes the Islamic Republic and irreverently addresses a historic religious figure.
The Iranian news and religion website Shia-Online.ir said hip-hop star Shahin Najafi deserved to die for a song which it said “grossly insulted” Ali al-Hadi al-Naqi, one of the 12 imams, the religious figures highly revered by Shi’ite Muslims.
Najafi denied his song focused on the revered Shi’ite imam or was meant to criticize Islam.
Scoops & scandals: How the net is changing the news in China
Chinese political dramas have grabbed global headlines, roiled the leadership ranks, and could spark a public crisis. But how do you report in such a closed media landscape? Chris Buckley explains.
![Amazon is working hard to limit the amount of states requiring the collection of sales tax on online purchases. The company recently struck a deal with the state of Texas in which the state agreed to delay the collection of sales tax. [REUTERS]](http://24.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m3ar76pZ5k1qmaoalo1_1280.jpg)
Amazon is working hard to limit the amount of states requiring the collection of sales tax on online purchases. The company recently struck a deal with the state of Texas in which the state agreed to delay the collection of sales tax. [REUTERS]
Three of China’s largest Internet companies have promised the government they will take steps to banish online rumors, state media said on Tuesday, as the ruling Communist Party fights jitters over a tricky leadership transition.
A dispatch by the official Xinhua news agency made no mention of rumors of a foiled coup in Beijing that spread on the Internet in past weeks, after the abrupt ousting of Bo Xilai, a contender for a spot in the new central leadership to be unveiled at a party congress later this year.
But the article was the latest in a series carried by state media lambasting online rumors and those who spread them.
READ MORE: China’s web giants promise to fight Internet rumors
A federal appeals court has revived Viacom Inc’s lawsuit accusing Google Inc of allowing copyrighted videos on its YouTube service without permission.
The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said a reasonable jury could have found that YouTube knew of specific infringing activity on its website. As a result, it said a lower court made a mistake in dismissing Viacom’s $1 billion lawsuit.
READ MORE: Viacom video lawsuit against Google revived
Tech Tonic: Rocky first year for Larry Page as Google CEO
It is one year since Google co-founder Larry Page took the reigns as CEO of the Internet search giant. Anthony De Rosa looks at Page’s accomplishments and failures of the past year and what he has planned for the future.
Yahoo Inc said it was laying off 2,000 employees, signaling a broad shakeup of the company.
“Today’s actions are an important next step toward a bold, new Yahoo — smaller, nimbler, more profitable and better equipped to innovate as fast as our customers and our industry require,” Chief Executive Officer Scott Thompson on Wednesday. “Our goal is to get back to our core purpose — putting our users and advertisers first — and we are moving aggressively to achieve that goal.”
READ MORE: Yahoo lays off 2,000 employees
When you ‘like’ something on Facebook or read an online newspaper, perhaps a dozen or more companies are squirreling away data on your tastes, your habits, whether you’re male or female, old or young, gay or straight.
They mean no harm. They just want to give you, the customer, exactly what you want - it’s the grandfather of all business slogans. Their dilemma, now regulators’ noses are twitching, is how to serve you, and serve themselves, when what you want is to be left alone.
There are thousands of analytics companies, audience targeters, ad brokers, ad exchanges and the like that can collect and sell data-based services on internet users for 5,000 euros a time to big brands, which then buy ad space where their potential customers might be lurking.
You only know these trackers are at work if you read the fine print. The New York Times has a disclaimer saying it hires WebTrends and Audience Science to interpret its readers’ interests, and Britain’s Guardian newspaper says it pays Criteo and Quantcast, among others, to do the same.
New York and federal authorities are investigating the meaning and origin of a graphic that surfaced on Monday on the Internet apparently threatening an al Qaeda attack on New York City.
The graphic is a stylized photograph of the Manhattan skyline superimposed with a Hollywood-style caption that says: “ALQAEDA - coming soon again in New York.”
The New York Police Department was “investigating the origin and significance of the graphic … which appeared today on a few Arabic-language al Qaeda forums that remain online at the moment,” NYPD chief spokesman Paul Browne said.
READ MORE: Authorities investigate internet threat to New York City
4.2 million people visited President Obama’s website in January — more than the Republican candidates combined.
Among the Republicans, Paul garnered the most visits to his site, boasting 830,000 in January. Gingrich’s site, Newt.org, was visited the least, with just 609,000 views.
Source: thedaily.com
