China defends censorship move

China said it has the right to block Web sites that break its laws, after being accused of restarting the practice it halted during the August Olympic Games as part of a promise to widen media freedom, says Yahoo News.

China Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao says: "Undeniably, on some Web sites, there are some issues that go against Chinese law - for example, some Web sites treat Taiwan as an independent country, which is against our law of anti-secessionism.”

The British Broadcasting Corporation reported that China appears to have banned a number of foreign Web sites recently, including its Chinese language news site and Voice of America in Chinese.

Canon has shelved plans to start construction in January of a new digital still camera plant, in Japan, due to a rapid market decline, according to PC World.

The company said in July it would expand production of compact and digital SLR (single lens reflex) cameras, with a plant in Nagasaki in western Japan, and that the factory was to produce around 4 million cameras per year and represented a two-year investment of yen17.4 billion (US$196 million).

"Growth in demand for digital cameras has rapidly declined compared with original projections due to the global economic downturn," says Canon. "This serious drop in demand is expected to continue for a period of time and these factors led to the company's decision to delay the start of construction and operation of the new manufacturing site."

Apple has released its latest update for Mac OS X, bringing the version numbers up to 10.5.6, reports Tech News World.

Depending on a user's destination Mac, the update ranges from 190MB or so up to a 668MB combo update, which tends to be used in organisations that plan to update multiple different Macs.

The update includes dozens of general operating system fixes that enhance stability, compatibility and security. Apple has warned that users should back up their Mac before proceeding with the software update.

Pictures of a Lenovo Mobile Communications handset bearing the logo of China's largest mobile operator, have spread online, rumoured to be proof of an upcoming Android handset that's based on China's homegrown 3G (third-generation) mobile standard, says Yahoo News.

The US$100 million buyout of Lenovo Mobile was led by Hony Capital, the private equity arm of Lenovo's Beijing-based parent company, Legend Holdings. China Mobile Communications, the country's largest mobile operator, is widely expected to get a license to offer 3G services based on TD-SCDMA.

China is expected to issue licences for 3G services either this month or during January, and the Lenovo Mobile handset is likely to appear on the market at about the same time or shortly thereafter.