Qaeda's Zawahri appears in new tape on Internet

Pakistan

The video posted on a Web site often used by al Qaeda
showed Zawahri in white robes and white turban in front of a
green backdrop, praising Abu Khabab al-Masri and three other
militants killed in Pakistan's border region in July.

It was not clear when the tape was recorded but it was the
second audio or video tape of Zawahri to appear since he
himself was reported to have been killed or wounded in a
suspected U.S. missile strike in Pakistan's South Waziristan
tribal region.

Earlier this month, an English-language audio tape
purportedly made by Zawahri in which he attacked Pakistani
President Pervez Musharraf was dropped off at an office of
Pakistan's ARY One television channel.

U.S. television network CBS News in a report early in
August cited an intercepted letter from Pakistani Taliban chief
Baitullah Mehsud requesting a doctor be sent to treat the
wounded Zawahri.

The whereabouts of Zawahri and al Qaeda leader bin Laden
have not been known since U.S.-led forces launched a hunt for
them in Afghanistan after the al Qaeda attacks on the United
States on September 11, 2001.

(Reporting by Summer Said; editing by Tony Austin)

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Low cost Internet phone revolution beckons for India

by Penny MacRae

India's Internet service providers (ISPs) are delighted at the prospect of a new revenue stream but fixed line and mobile players are objecting that they paid high market entry fees, whereas ISPs will not have to stump up any money.

Under the plan proposed this week by the Telecom Regulatory Authority of India, people could call from their personal computers with Internet connections to a landline or a mobile phone and vice versa.

The move could ring in another big drop in calling prices in the world's fastest-growing phone market, where consumers already enjoy some of the lowest telephone costs, the regulator said.

The proposal is aimed at putting India's telecom sector "in tune with global trends" in which such "Internet-based services are very popular" and boosting paltry broadband penetration, the regulator added.

The government is keen to boost broadband use, especially in poverty-hit rural areas, where the Internet is seen as key to development.

But Cellular Operators Association of India chief T.V. Ramachandran said the regulator's proposal was not fair to existing telephone companies.

"There should be a level playing field ... it's unfair to allow unrestricted Internet telephony to ISPs at no additional cost," he said.

The telecommunications department just recently issued pan-India licences to several telecom players, charging each an entry fee of 16.5 billion rupees (37.7 million dollars).

India's largest phone company, state-run Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd., said the entry of ISPs would hurt revenues.

Under the regulator's plan, international call rates via the Internet could drop to one-two rupees (two-five cents) a minute from the average seven, while national long-distance rates could fall to less than half a rupee.

Local calls could be virtually free.

But experts say it would take a long time for broadband subscribers to pose a threat to fixed-line and mobile licence holders, given India's low Internet penetration.

India has just 4.38 million broadband subscribers, while there are 287 million mobile users and 38.9 million landline subscribers.

Internet telephony could become "the killer application" to boost broadband penetration, which has "lagged far behind the very successful mobile telephony," said Internet Service Providers Association of India head Rajesh Chharia.

Analysts are betting the government will go ahead with the idea.

"The government has been pushing reforms in telecoms, I think they'll give it the green light," said an expert at an international consultancy, who did not wish to be named.

"In other words, an increase in the ISPs' business will also result in a boom for existing telcos. Given this scenario, the government would do well to accept (the regulator's) recommendations," said Business Standard editorial.

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Sellers squawk as eBay evolves to combat rivals

by Glenn Chapman

eBay

The California firm's latest moves focus on making buying items at eBay more like standard store purchases, complete with electronic payments and fixed prices.

EBay is altering anew its fee system, making it cheaper to post items but taking a bigger percentage of sales.

"These are some of the boldest changes we've ever made," eBay spokesman Usher Lieberman told AFP.

"It is a shift in the business model for our sellers and for eBay. We are asking sellers to rethink their listing strategies and giving them economic incentives to do that."

An online eBay chat forum teemed Thursday with complaints as sellers disparaged new rules including a ban taking effect in October on payments using checks or money orders.

"EBay used to be fun," wrote an eBay user with a screen name Starfish2rcn. "Now it's run like a dictatorship."

EBay will require transactions be done using credit cards, debit cards, or online services such as PayPal, which it owns.

Sellers complain that PayPal takes a percentage of each transaction, cutting into their profits.

"We are really recognizing e-commerce in general and what our buyers are seeing anywhere else online," eBay spokeswoman Nichola Sharpe told AFP.

"It is going to make the process faster and more reliable."

Electronic payments reportedly result in far fewer complaints when it comes to consumating deals.

EBay is cutting the price of "Buy It Now" postings to 35 cents each and more than tripling the time they spend online to 30 days.

Sales of such fixed-price items reportedly account for 43 percent of eBay deals and are growing at a rate of 60 percent annually.

"We think auctions really work for unique items, rare items, hard-to-find items or one-of-a-kind-in-demand items," Lieberman said. "Fixed price really works for multiple items."

Anyone selling batches of identical items will be able to load them in single postings instead of having to list them separately, as is current practice.

The change saves sellers money and will also hopefully stop people from dominating eBay pages featuring search results for shoppers, according to Lieberman.

Enderlebuyers and sellers

Earlier this year eBay stopped letting sellers post feedback about buyers while still letting buyers critique sellers.

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Summary box: Internet usage cap raises questions

By The Associated Press

Frontier Communications Corp

WHY IT MATTERS: The proposed cap on traffic, 5 gigabytes per month, is low enough to concern people who want to watch Internet video or use online backup services. Even more casual use can exhaust the monthly allotment.

WHAT'S AT STAKE: Time Warner Cable Inc. is also trying out a 5-gigabyte cap for a low-end plan in one market. If that level becomes the norm among Internet service providers, consumers will have to keep a close eye on their Internet traffic.

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Summary box: Telecom rollouts spawn unloved boxes

By The Associated Press

THE FIGHT: A San Francisco neighborhood group's opposition to AT&T Inc.'s U-verse cabinets prompted the phone company to back down last month, at least temporarily. In another example, residents of Lower Makefield Township, Pa., are at odds with Comcast Corp. over permits for its 50 utility boxes.

POTENTIAL SOLUTION: AT&T is taking a more collaborative approach in some cities. The phone company agreed to pay Springfield, Ill., $1,500 for each U-verse cabinet it installs, to defray the cost of landscaping. In Santa Rosa, Calif., AT&T voluntarily relocated utility boxes when asked by city officials.

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'Great Firewall of China' Blocks Apple's iTunes Store

Barry Levine, newsfactor

ChinaOlympicsApple's iTunes Store

The New York-based Art of Peace Foundation has charged the Chinese government with trying to block access to Songs for Tibet, which features music by Sting, Moby, John Mayer, Dave Matthews, Alanis Morissette, Garbage and others, as well as 15 minutes of talking by exiled Tibetan leader the Dalai Lama.

Apple Investigating

The group has described China's blocking of Internet sites that it dislikes as "The Great Firewall of China," and it has called the album "a celebration of Tibet and the Dalai Lama's philosophy of peace, nonviolence and compassion." While there is no China-based iTunes store, users in that country had been able to log onto the site in the U.S.

The Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, which has authority over Internet use, has not responded to requests from news media for comments.

Apple said Friday it was looking into why access to the iTunes Store blocking. According to news reports, the popular music site has been unavailable for the past week. Huang Yuna, an Apple spokesperson based in Beijing, said the company has noticed that Chinese users have had problems logging into the site.

The album has already had some success, which the publicity surrounding the blocking could increase. The foundation said it was a top seller in the U.S., Europe and Japan, and has reached the number-four spot on Billboard's chart of top downloaded albums.

The foundation added that the Chinese government is striking back in other ways as well. It said china.org.cn, a portal site managed by the Information Office of the State Council of China, has run articles saying that "angry netizens" have asked that sites selling Songs for Tibet be boycotted.

Sites With the Word 'Tibet'

Songs for Tibet was made available on the iTunes Store shortly before this year's Olympic Games began in Beijing on Aug. 8. It was frequently featured on the site's home page. An Apple message board had hundreds of heated comments between those supporting Tibet and those supporting China, but eventually the comments were taken down.

The foundation has been trying to bring attention to the Chinese government's blocking of any site that it considers controversial, "including sites containing the word Tibet." It said the government has 30,000 Chinese monitoring e-mails and Web sites, and the organization has joined with Amnesty International is trying to open up Net access in China.

The foundation also said that other "dramatic assaults on freedoms of expression" have surrounded the Olympics, including the jailing of 1,000 Tibetan monks "to prevent disruption during the games," the forbidding of any show of support for Tibet at the Olympics, and what it described as a "secret agreement" between the International Olympics Committee limiting the Internet access of Western journalists and blocking sites that monitor human-rights violations.

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Verizon May Switch To Google for Mobile Searches

Steve Bosak, newsfactor

Wall Street JournalGoogleGoogle search barSprint PCS phones

The deal would give Verizon users a one-stop search screen rather than the layered searches they have today. The state of mobile search is chaotic, as each carrier has implemented its own structure and service. Many users already bypass the carrier search interfaces and log onto Google and Yahoo with phone browsers.

Chris Ambrosio, director of wireless strategies at Strategy Analytics, a worldwide analyst firm, said, "[Wireless] operators need to do more for their customers if they ever hope to monetize the wireless search market." He said it makes sense for Verizon to team up with Google, as the search giant already has experience in the wireless market.

Who Owns the Data is Key

Reportedly Google and Verizon have been in discussions for nearly a year, with ad revenue and search data retention the key sticking points. Although ad revenue is a paltry $200 million across the entire mobile market now, according to industry estimates, that will increase exponentially if wireless users have better search tools.

Enter Microsoft, Google and Yahoo. Verizon is rumored to have flirted with using Microsoft's search capabilities before entering into serious negotiations with Google. AT&T wireless is already carrying the Yahoo brand as an expansion of their partnership on the DSL front.

Retention of search data and who gets it is the real mother lode, however. Vendors can mine the data to not only optimize their search capabilities but also to better serve up targeted advertisements and gather potentially useful demographic data. Verizon may be digging in its heels in terms of owning that data, for good reason.

Ambrosio said, "Verizon owns a significant user base, and they don't want Google marketing directly to [users], bypassing them."

Melding Ringtones with Text Search

Ambrosio said all the search-engine providers will be players, including Microsoft. But he thinks Yahoo may have an edge so far. "Yahoo has been far more active in mobile technology, getting into Wed-based content and serving data to mobile users," he said.

While Verizon may be on the cusp of a deal with Google for a unified portal and Web search service, so far it is a holdout in supporting Google's Android phone operating system.

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