China

China is moving to rein in Web sites it deems inappropriate. The Communist nation has targeted Google and Baidu, the two dominant search engines there. The charge is spreading pornography and vulgarity.

China's Ministry of Public Security and six other government agencies launched the campaign on Monday.

The government "decided to launch a nationwide campaign to clean up a vulgar current on the Internet and named and exposed a large number of violating public morality and harming the physical and mental health of youth and young people," said a report on state television.

Planned solar projects in the U.S. seemed to be one-upping each other throughout 2008, ending with the enormous planned 500 MW facility in San Luis Obispo CA. But now the Chinese are in on the game and, surprise, they're even bigger...planning a solar project twice as large as any currently planned, with a capacity of a full gigawatt.

China is starting a long-delayed introduction of third-generation mobile phone service, setting off a politically charged scramble by foreign and Chinese equipment makers for up to $41 billion in orders.

Chinese sales could be crucial for suppliers such as Motorola Inc., Alcatel-Lucent SA and Nokia-Siemens Networks as global demand slumps. State media say the largest Chinese carrier, China Mobile, expects to sign up 100 million 3G subscribers -- more than most nations' entire mobile markets -- in the next three years.

Considering how long they've had to do this, it's pretty freaking amazing...the Obama administration, at Change.gov, has just put up an online question asking and rating system that is, really, quite robust and useful.

It wouldn't be a good ending to the year without speculation about yet another new Apple product. Rumors of an Apple iPhone nano have run rampant in recent months and resurfaced as silicone-mold cases designed for iPhone nanos have appeared on the Internet.

Vaja, a case manufacturer, listed the iPhone nano on its Web site among products for which it provides accessories. Since reports of the listing hit the Internet, however, the iPhone nano listing has disappeared.

A few weeks back, we started noticing that some electric car companies were looking a little less strong in this sagging economy. Now, both Tesla Motors and Chinese automaker BYD have pushed back the introduction of two yet-to-be-seen electric vehicles.

There are a lot of headlines scattered around the internet talking about the "surprise" of Chinese auto-maker, BYD's first mass-produced plug-in car. It is, indeed, a big deal.

New Alcatel-Lucent chief Ben Verwaayen faces a difficult job Friday as he tries to convince shareholders he can turn around the troubled French-U.S. telecommunications equipment maker the way he did BT Group PLC.

Verwaayen, credited with transforming the British telecoms company into a broadband Internet powerhouse, will be expected to pull off similar results at Alcatel-Lucent SA, a company still beset by integration problems two years after its creation in a giant trans-Atlantic merger, analysts say.