By Bob Tourtellotte 2 hours, 31 minutes ago

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) -
The Los Angeles Times on Wednesday
apologized for publishing a story about the 1994 shooting of
rapper Tupac Shakur, after a Web site questioned the
authenticity of documents the paper used for the report.

The story by Pulitzer Prize-winner Chuck Philips sought to
link rap music mogul Sean "Diddy" Combs to the assault on
Shakur through two men the paper said were Combs' associates.

Shortly after its publication last week, Combs called the
Times story "beyond ridiculous and ... completely false." He
strongly denied any involvement in the attack.

The Smoking Gun, a Web site that specializes in uncovering
news from legal documents and court filings, said on Wednesday
it believed Federal Bureau of Investigation documents used by
the Times were forgeries.

The paper launched an immediate investigation, and Philips
issued an apology later in the day, as did his supervisor,
deputy managing editor Marc Duvoisin.

"In relying on documents that I now believe were fake, I
failed to do my job," Philips said. "I'm sorry."

Los Angeles Times editor Russ Stanton, who took the top job
last month after several years of cutback-related upheaval at
the fourth-largest paper in the United States, said he would
launch an internal review of the documents and the reporting
surrounding the story.

"We published this story with the sincere belief that the
documents were genuine, but our good intentions are beside the
point," Stanton said in a statement published on the paper's
Web site.

"The bottom line is that the documents we relied on should
not have been used. We apologize both to our readers and to
those referenced in the documents and, as a result, in the
story. We are continuing to investigate this matter and will
fulfill our journalistic responsibility for critical
self-examination."

Shakur, one of rap's rising singers, survived a beating and
gunshot wounds to the groin, head, hand and thigh at the Quad
Recording Studios in New York City in 1994 but was killed in
1996 in a drive-by shooting in Las Vegas.

The documents have black marks covering the name of the
agent or agents who prepared them, appear as if parts were
created using a typewriter and "are nowhere to be found" in the
FBI's computer system, according to The Smoking Gun.

DETAILED ACCOUNT

The Times story, which first appeared on its Web site on
March 17 and days later in print, gave a detailed account of
the 1994 attack on Shakur.

At the time, Combs was one of rap's biggest producers with
his Bad Boy Records housing stars like the Notorious B.I.G.
(Christopher Wallace).

The 1994 attack ignited a widely reported feud between East
Coast and West Coast rappers that eventually led to the 1996
killing of Shakur. Six months later, Wallace was shot and
killed in Los Angeles.

Neither of the murders has been solved. The identity of
Shakur's attackers at Quad Studios has never been revealed.

The Times story cited "recently obtained" FBI records and
an unnamed FBI informant as saying Sabatino and talent manager
Jimmy Rosemond planned Shakur's assault. Combs and Wallace knew
Shakur was being set up, the Times said.

In its story, the Times said it contacted the FBI informant
and verified he was at Quad Studios on the night of the
assault. It said other sources verified the informant's
account.

(Editing by Mary Milliken and Eric Beech)

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By Janet Kornblum, USA TODAY 1 hour, 53 minutes ago

Larry Rosen, professor of psychology at California State University-Dominguez Hills, has long studied "the Net generation," the first to have grown up with the Internet, not to mention cellphones. In Me, MySpace and I: Parenting the Net Generation (Palgrave Macmillan), he helps parents understand social networks. His advice: Talk to your kids, learn the technology and don't panic. USA TODAY's Janet Kornblum spoke with the author.

Q: Why did you write this book?

A: For kids - what I'm calling the Net generation, anybody born after 1980 - technology is not a tool. It just is. It's part of their life. They think of it differently.

Q: How has technology influenced this generation?

A: They do things in a more abbreviated fashion. They IM (instant-message) with multiple people at the same time. They can't uni-task. They do everything on their own. They're very self-motivated.

Q: How does it specifically affect their relationships?

A: They make commitments to people online they don't even know. But their strongest commitment is to their family. They see more of the world as a social world. So social problems are very important to them.

Q: Do you think the Internet is fundamentally changing kids?

A: This world encourages us to multitask. I think it encourages kids to be much less patient. More terse.

Q: Why are social networks so popular?

A: When I grew up (a baby boomer), our social life was outside. We hung out. The next generation spent time at the mall. This generation spends time at home - connected. Kids have to be social. It's all part of the preteen and teen years and young adult years. MySpace happened to come around at the right time when you had a whole generation of kids who needed a place to be social.

Q: Weigh the positives and the negatives of social networking.

A: Because they have a combination of people they know face-to-face in the real world and people they don't, (those of the Net generation) get a lot of chances to bounce ideas and to test out things on a social network that they probably wouldn't do face-to-face.

I hear that a lot from kids - that they feel much more comfortable saying things online than they ever would off-line. That's a real positive because they get to test out their world. They get to figure out who they are.

Q: So how should parents think about social networks?

A: You can certainly use your parenting skills to help them get the most out of MySpace - to not be addicted, to not be bullied and to know what to do when you're bullied. But taking (MySpace) away from them is really like restricting going to the mall with their friends or going to school and talking to their friends. It's tantamount to making them a pariah.

Q: Can you give some solid parenting tips?

A: Talk to your kids. If the computer is in their rooms - which is not a good idea - walk in and ask them what they are doing. Ask them what's new, what they like about it - don't be judgmental. Tell them you want to learn. Kids love rules, believe it or not. Kids need limits.

They're defining a new generational attitude. But they're not new teenagers. We know what adolescents do.

You have to learn what potential problems there might be, and then, like a good, authoritative parent, you discuss those with your kids. You know there might be sexual predators out there. And you have to know: 'Well, does anyone say anything nasty to you? How do you handle that?'

Q: Compare the Internet and social networking to television.

A: Every waking minute of every day, they are interacting with some sort of technological medium, except perhaps when they're in school, and even then, kids are texting from their pockets. They're wearing iPods all day. It's just a different world for them. The impact of television on society took years and years and years. And we had a chance to adapt to it.

The kinds of tools these kids are using are vast. Nobody heard of MySpace five years ago. Nobody heard of an iPod five years ago. Nobody heard of instant messaging.

This is a rapidly changing technological world and the kids are the first ones to adapt technology.

Q: Are parents keeping up?

A: Parents have a total misconception about what their kids are doing online.

They don't know how much time they're spending. They don't have the breadth of what's happening to the kids online. They think the kids are being attacked by predators all the time. They are way over-concerned about the technology that the kids are using.

Everything is so different from year to year. No wonder the parents are afraid.

They don't have to know everything, but they've got to see what MySpace is about. They've got to understand this whole thing of kids text-messaging all day long. They have to understand what it means to have kids plugged into their iPod all day long.

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1 hour, 48 minutes ago

HONG KONG - A Chinese movie download Web site has sued a Hollywood industry group for libel over a statement that it says implies that the company admitted to piracy as part of a legal settlement.

Beijing Jeboo Interactive Science & Technology Co. filed the lawsuit against the Motion Picture Association in a Beijing court last week, company official Xie Jiangping told The Associated Press in a telephone interview.

An MPA official didn't immediately return a call seeking comment.

The libel lawsuit stems from a previous lawsuit Hollywood studios filed against Jeboo.

Five studios sued Jeboo in Shanghai in September and December for supplying Internet cafes with computer software that allowed users to download and watch illegal copies of 20 Hollywood movies, including "Hitch" and "Pirates of the Caribbean 2: Dead Man's Chest."

MPA said in a statement earlier this month the five studios reached an agreement with Jeboo. The Hollywood studios involved are Walt Disney Pictures, 20th Century Fox, Columbia Pictures, Universal Pictures and Paramount Pictures.

The statement says the defendants "confirmed the cessation of infringing activities," apologized and paid a "significant" amount of compensation.

Xie said the terms of the deal were confidential but said Jeboo never admitted to piracy.

"We cannot tolerate statements that don't reflect the truth," he said.

Jeboo claims to be China's largest distributor of non-pirated digital entertainment video.

___

On the Net:

http://www.jeboo

http://www.mpa-i.org

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By AMANDA FEHD, Associated Press Writer 1 hour, 4 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO - The maker of the popular photo-editing software Photoshop on Thursday launched a basic version available for free online.

San Jose, Calif.-based Adobe Systems Inc. says it hopes to boost its name recognition among a new generation of consumers who edit, store and share photos online.

While Photoshop is designed for trained professionals, Adobe says Photoshop Express, which it launched in a "beta" test version, is easier to learn. User comments will be taken into account for future upgrades.

Photoshop Express will be completely Web-based so consumers can use it with any type of computer, operating system and browser. And, once they register, users can get to their accounts from different computers.

Web-based software is increasingly popular, and Adobe knows it's got to get on that train, said Kathleen Maher, an analyst at Jon Peddie Research.

Many kinds of software are available for use online in a trend known as "software as a service," or "cloud computing." The earliest were e-mail programs, but they now include services to create and manage content and even whole operating systems. And they don't require time-consuming upgrades because they're maintained by the service provider.

Google Inc. provides a host of such services, as do Microsoft Corp. and others.

"This is the battlefield where Adobe and Microsoft and Google are going to fight some pretty big battles," Maher said.

Photoshop enters the online photo-management arena many years after such services first appeared. Some companies have already made a big name for themselves, like 9-year-old storage solution Shutterfly Inc., photo-editing service Picnik or image-sharing site Photobucket Inc.

Adobe says providing Photoshop Express for free is part marketing and part a strategy to create up-sell opportunities. It hopes some customers will move from it to boxed software like its $99 Photoshop Elements or to a subscription-based version of Express that's in the works.

Ron Glaz, a research analyst at IDC, says the move was necessary for Adobe to keep pace. Users are less likely to switch to a software they aren't familiar with, he said.

"They have a whole market that they are missing out on, and they need to make sure that the market is aware there is a Photoshop solution for them. As that market grows and becomes more sophisticated, hopefully it will generate money," Glaz said.

"It's one of those things, if you can't beat them, join them," Glaz said. "If they don't join them, the long run could be really painful."

___

On the Web: http://www.photoshop/express

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By Eric Auchard 33 minutes ago

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) -
Google Inc showed modest growth
during February in a closely watched report released on
Wednesday on how search sites like Google get paid by
advertisers, and its shares fell 3.2 percent.

Flat year-over-year growth by Google on the same basis in
comScore's January report, which was released in late February,
led to an 8 percent one-day drop in Google's stock the day
afterward and a fierce Wall Street debate on whether revenue
growth is slowing or if Google's own actions are to blame.

Lurking behind this discussion is investor concern that
Google's growth in terms of paid clicks has slowed from around
30 percent to 40 percent six months ago, raising the prospect
that the economy is to blame for some of Google's slowdown.

"You can't avoid the trend. Something that was humming
along at 40 percent is now near zero: Something is going on
there. Especially when the economy is getting a little
twitchy," said RBC Capital analyst Ross Sandler. Last week he
cut his 12-month price target on Google to a Street-low-level
of $530.

ComScore declined to comment on the report, saying it
publishes the data for use by clients, which include companies
in the advertising industry and Wall Street brokerages, which
use the statistics to gauge Google's quarterly revenue trends.

Shares of Google fell $14.52 to $443.67 in extended trade
on Wednesday after the release of comScore's latest click data.
The fall erased a $7.41 gain in the Nasdaq regular session.

Complicating the issue is Google's efforts in recent
quarters to improve the effectiveness of advertising shown in
the margins of its Web search services by paring back the
number of ads per page and reduce inadvertent customer clicks.

"It is not as bad as comScore data shows it but it's not as
good as Wall Street expects it to be," Sandler said.

"Clearly if you believe this data, then things are slowing
(for Google)," UBS analyst Ben Schachter said, adding that, if
paid click growth has flattened, then the only way to sustain
Wall Street revenue expectations is for Google to charge more
for the ads it sells, which may be tough as the economy slows.

Most Wall Street analysts expressed bafflement at what the
data actually means, but said the slower trend is worrisome.

"We are not quite sure what it means. Overall the report
says paid click growth is down. But in some of Google's
operating metrics, there is an interesting improvement,"
Sanford C. Bernstein analyst Jeffrey Lindsay said. "It is
premature to say that Google's revenue performance has been
impacted by the economy or anything like that," he said.

One measure of how Google is paring back ads is that
comScore data shows 14 percent reduction in the year-over-year
average number of advertisements per search result page.

"While (Google)'s paid click data does little to calm
investor fears of a slowdown in (Google)'s core business, we
believe most of the deceleration is due to the continuing
quality initiatives by the company itself," Banc of America
analyst Brian Pitz said in a note to clients on Wednesday.

Adding to the confusion for investors are competing
statistics from other sources that show Google is performing
solidly by other measures of its online ad performance.

Web search marketing firm SearchIgnite, which places $300
million in ads on behalf of large- and mid-sized advertisers
and their ad agencies, says its own data shows Google's
year-to-year paid click rate growing 29.0 percent in February.

Roger Barnette, president of Atlanta-based SearchIgnite,
said the amount of advertising spending by its clients on
Google rose 37.9 percent in February from a year ago.

"The comScore data has been a bit more conservative
regarding what they are tracking on Google. We just haven't
seen that with our clients. We see significant year over year
increases in clicks and media spending," Barnette said.

However, Barnette adds that, "Google is dealing with a lot
of macro things which they weren't dealing with a year ago."

SearchIgnite's data is based on spending patterns of its
500 advertising clients. Google attracts nearly three-quarters
of SearchIgnite client spending, Yahoo 20 percent and Microsoft
draws 6.7 percent. ComScore monitors a panel of 2 million Web
users worldwide.

(Editing by Phil Berlowitz)

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32 minutes ago

NEW YORK (Reuters) -
Online media company CNET Networks Inc
said on Wednesday it will eliminate 120 jobs, or about 10
percent of its staff, in a restructuring to help it focus on
long-term growth amid complaints from some investors.

CNET expected pre-tax restructuring charges from the job
cuts to run between $3.5 million and $4 million, most of which
will be taken in the first quarter of 2008.

The job cuts are effective immediately.

The moves come after hedge fund Jana Partners LLC won a key
court ruling earlier this month that could help it take control
of CNET's board.

Jana Partners, which holds about 10 percent of CNET's
voting stock, is leading a group of investors that wants to
"revitalize" the company and boost its share price.

CNET has said it will appeal the March 13 ruling by the
Delaware Supreme court that allowed Jana Partners and the rest
of the group to nominate additional directors to the media
company's board.

CNET shares rose 6 cents to close at $7.25 in Nasdaq
trading on Wednesday.

(Reporting by Paul Thomasch; Editing by Andre Grenon)

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Syria tightens controls on Internet use

By ZEINA KARAM, Associated Press Writer

DAMASCUS, Syria - Syria is cracking down more on Internet use, imposing tighter monitoring of citizens who link to the Web, as well as jailing bloggers who criticize the government and blocking YouTube and other Web sites deemed harmful to state security.

The tighter hand is coming even as Syrian officials show off a press center with fast Internet access and wireless technology for journalists covering this weekend's Arab League summit. The clampdown doesn't appear to be tied to the summit.

In recent days, authorities extended restrictions on Web use by requiring owners of Internet cafes to keep detailed logs of their customers, apparently to make it easier to track down anyone deemed to be a threat.

The rules, conveyed orally by security agents, require Internet cafes to record a client's full name, ID or passport number, the computer used and the amount of time spent on the device. The logs must be available to show to security agents upon demand.

"It's a new form of psychological pressure and part of the state's systematic intimidation of Internet users," said Mazen Darwish, a journalist who heads the independent Syrian Media Center.

"It works to a certain extent in the sense that it creates a kind of self-censorship among users," he told The Associated Press.

Darwish has been targeted in a crackdown on journalists. He was arrested in January as he reported on unrest over a murder in Adra, near Damascus, and is on trial before a military court for allegedly defaming state institutions. He faces up to a year in jail if convicted, he says.

President Bashar Assad, who succeeded his late father, Hafez Assad, in 2000, relaxed his father's iron grip a bit by introducing the Internet and cell phones. But he has also cracked down on dissent by jailing writers and democracy activists. Almost all print and broadcast media remain state-controlled.

In 2006, the group Reporters Without Borders ranked Syria among 13 "enemies of the Internet," calling it the Middle East's "biggest prison for cyber-dissidents."

According to the Syrian Media Center and other rights group, there are at least 153 Web sites blocked by Syrian authorities. They include sites run by the Syrian opposition, newspapers critical of the regime and networking and video-sharing sites.

Among the most popular are Facebook, which was blocked in late December, YouTube, Skype and Google's blogging engine.

Users who try to access online versions of the Lebanese anti-Syria newspapers An-Nahar and Al-Mustaqbal and the Saudi-owned daily Asharq al-Awsat get blank pages.

Lebanon's official Web site for slain former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri also is blocked. Lebanese political factions opposed to Syria's influence accuse Syria of being behind Hariri's assassination, a charge the Damascus denies.

The Syrian government does not comment on its Internet restrictions, but reports in Syrian media at the time Facebook was blocked said the ban was put in place to prevent Israeli users from infiltrating Syrian social networks.

Ahed al-Hindi, a 23-year-old who was hauled from an Internet cafe in handcuffs and a blindfold in late 2006 for criticizing the regime on an online forum, said security services often ask cafe owners to spy on clients, providing them with software for the task.

He was let go after spending a month in jail without trial, but left Syria three months later because of "nonstop harassment and intimidation" by security agents, he said.

"They made life impossible and I decided to leave the country," said al-Hindi, an economics student now living in Lebanon.

Rami al-Saadi, who manages an Internet cafe in Damascus, said it bothers him when security agents stop in to check on his business. "This is wrong. Of course I don't like it," he said.

Still, he said Syria has come a long way in just a few years, and believes it is progress that the Internet is now available in Syria.

"I remember only few years ago when we didn't even know what the Internet was," he said.

The New York-based activist group Human Rights Watch said in a recent report that around 1 million of Syria's 18 million people have online access, compared to just 30,000 in 2000.

"There is progress in the sense that it's become easier to be online," said Rasha Ibrahim, 24, a psychology graduate.

She also argued that government controls tend to backfire. "Everything forbidden becomes more tempting," she said.

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