Beijing

China without Google -- a prospect that looks increasingly likely -- could mean no more maps on mobile phones. A free music service that has helped to fight piracy might be in jeopardy. China's fledgling Web outfits would face less pressure to improve, eroding their ability to one day compete abroad.

China's high-speed rail plans get more ambitious by the day.  Not satisfied with having the world's most advanced and extensive rail line in the world, China is now planning to connect its rail system to 17 other countries in Asia and Eastern Europe where it will join the European rail network.

China's top Internet regulator insisted Friday that Google must obey its laws or "pay the consequences," giving no sign of a possible compromise in their dispute over censorship and hacking.

"If you want to do something that disobeys Chinese law and regulations, you are unfriendly, you are irresponsible and you will have to pay the consequences," Li Yizhong, the minister of Industry and Information Technology, said on the sidelines of China's annual legislature.

A recent wave of cyberattacks against Google and other U.S. companies reinforced a long-evident fact: America needs to strengthen its defenses against terrorists and rogue nations capable of waging war with a keyboard.

Last month, the Internet giant announced it had been the victim of "a highly sophisticated and targeted" series of attacks resulting in the theft of intellectual property. Perhaps more worrisome was this revelation by Google: More than 30 companies from the tech, financial and chemical industries also were hit.

International journalists in China said Monday that their Google e-mail accounts have been hacked in attacks similar to the ones against human rights activists that the search giant cited as a reason for considering pulling out of the country.

In announcing a possible exit from China last week, Google did not specify how the accounts with its Gmail e-mail service were hacked into or by whom. Information since then has trickled out.

From The Washington Post:

By Aditya
Dev Sood

By Aditya
Dev Sood

By Aditya
Dev Sood