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AFP Friday, Jun 01, 2012

YANGON - The tormentor-in-chief of Myanmar's heavily censored media will put down his black marker pen for good in a month, signalling the end of one of the world's most draconian press scrutiny regimes.

Tint Swe, head of the Press Scrutinisation and Registration Department (PSRD), said he will release its iron grip on the country's media in the latest significant reform for a country emerging from decades of repression.

"There will be no press scrutiny job from the end of June. There will be no monitoring of local journals and magazines," he told AFP in an interview in his office in Yangon.

"I would say it is the right time rather than we are ready. When we have parliament and government working on democratic process, how can censorship work at the same time?," he said.

Stifling pre-publication censorship - applied in the past to everything from newspapers to fairy tales and the winning lottery numbers - was one of the key symbols of junta-ruled Myanmar, where even seemingly innocuous details were scrubbed from public discussion.

Sweeping reforms under a new quasi-civilian government have seen a lighter touch from the once ubiquitous censors, with less controversial publications freed from scrutiny last year.

Editors across the news media are now eager to have the same freedom. A more open climate has seen private weekly news publications publish an increasingly bold range of stories, including those about opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi, whose very name was taboo in the past.

Tint Swe directed the PSRD for seven years, mercilessly changing headlines, slashing paragraphs or scrapping entire articles deemed critical of the military and its cronies.

"He had one of the worst jobs in Myanmar," said an editor at a news weekly who requested anonymity. "He was pressured from above by ministers, officials and powerful business people to keep stories out and pressured from below by editors to keep stories in."

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Media censorship in Myanmar to ease: Official

In its latest effort to squash efforts by Beijing to restrict online content, Google (GOOG) began warning people in mainland China on Thursday that certain keywords in searches may trigger the governments Internet blocks and break their connection.

Google, which has long fought against Internet censorship in China, launched this week a new feature on its search engine there that informs users which keywords are likely to trigger censorship blocks and cause a system outage for more than a minute.

- Google

The tech titan said it started reviewing the system after complaints by users on mainland China of spotty service. After taking a long, hard look at its system, it found no internal problems, but noticed specific keywords, such as the character Jiang, which is a popular surname that also means river, can cause connection problems.

The new mechanism includes a drop-down menu that appears under the search bar when problematic keywords are typed. The warning informs users that going through with the search may temporarily break your connection to Google, and ensures that that the interruption is outside Googles control.

Users can choose to either search anyway or edit search terms.

By prompting people to revise their queries, we hope to reduce these disruptions and improve our user experience from mainland China, Google said in its official blog on Thursday. Of course, if users want to press ahead with their original queries they can carry on.

Google appointed a team of engineers in the U.S. to review the 350,000 most popular search queries in China. They looked at multiple signals to identify disruptive queries, and then identified specific terms at the root of the issue.

Weve observed that many of the terms triggering error messages are simple everyday Chinese characters, which can have different meanings in different contexts, Google said.

For example, Jiang, the surname and word for river, not only causes problems on its own in a search, but will break connectivity if also searched with Lijian, the name of a city in the Yunnan Province, or the Jinjiang Star hotel chain.

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Google Wages Keyword Battle Over China's Censorship

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Billionaire John Malone's push to take over Sirius (SIRI) XM Radio Inc. is setting up a potential clash with Sirius Chief Executive Officer Mel Karmazin, who stands to lose power under the deal.

Malone's Liberty Media Corp. (LMCA) plans to assert control of the largest U.S. satellite radio provider after receiving approval from the Federal Communications Commission, the Englewood, Colorado-based company said yesterday in a filing. The move would put Karmazin, who helped turn around Sirius after years of losses, under the command of Malone and Liberty CEO Greg Maffei.

"I could see a situation where there could be conflicting personalities," Brett Harriss, an analyst at Gabelli & Co. in Rye, New York, said in an interview. "These are two high- powered guys in Mel and John."

Patrick Reilly, a Sirius spokesman, declined to comment. Courtnee Ulrich, a Liberty spokeswoman, didn't respond to a telephone call and e-mail.

Liberty, the holder of interests in businesses ranging from cable programmer Starz LLC to the Atlanta Braves baseball team, has asked the FCC to reconsider the agency's May 4 dismissal of its application for permission to take control of Sirius, according to a filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission.

Spinoff Plan?

Liberty's move has fueled speculation that Malone wants to spin off his stake in New York-based Sirius. Liberty will probably execute a so-called Reverse Morris Trust, which involves splitting off its Sirius stake as a separate entity and giving its stockholders the option to hold or sell their Sirius shares, according to James Ratcliffe, an analyst at Barclays Capital Inc. in New York.

To execute the spinoff, Liberty must have Sirius's board approval. Sirius is in talks with Liberty about the company's ownership interest, according to a separate filing by Sirius. It said Sirius doesn't expect to disclose developments in the discussions.

The New York Post reported today that Maffei may want to run the satellite broadcaster directly, leading Karmazin to leave after the Sirius CEO's contract expires on Dec. 31. Maffei is tired of being a portfolio manager for a broad swath companies, the Post reported, citing a person familiar with the matter.

Sirius shares declined 1.3 percent to $1.87 at 10:28 a.m. in New York. The stock has slid 17 percent since Liberty filed its application with the FCC on March 20. Liberty shares, up 7.2 percent this year, fell 1.3 percent to $83.69.

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Malone's Push for Sirius Control Sets Up Karmazin Clash

PETERBOROUGH, N.H., June 1, 2012 /PRNewswire/ -- PeoplesVC today announced it has integrated its stock crowdfunding site with Facebook, the nation's largest social networking site, so entrepreneurs, startups, and existing businesses can harness the power of social networking to raise capital for their company.

(Logo: http://photos.prnewswire.com/prnh/20120509/NE03136LOGO )

PeoplesVC.com has established itself as the leading stock-based Crowdfunding Portal, and is exclusively focusing on Crowdfunding securities rather than 'donation' or 'project-based' crowdfunding in which funders give or donate money for projects. PeoplesVC has responded to recently passed legislation known as the "Crowdfunding Act" which has legalized, for the first time, stock offerings of up to $1 Million from startups and existing businesses directly to the public.

"Most small businesses have never heard of Crowdfunding, but already have a deep on-line social network established," commented PeoplesVC spokesperson Mr. Noah Tier. "The entire fundraising process is more about relationships than anything else, and considering a user could easily have 125,000 tier II friends-of-friends, by integrating the PeoplesVC venture capital platform with the Facebook application interface, we have created possibly the most powerful fundraising tool imaginable," added Mr. Tier.

PeoplesVC was the first stock Crowdfunding site to open its doors to entrepreneurs and small businesses.

The Company recently announced it had created the first on-line calculator tool that calculates how much Investors can invest in Crowdfunded businesses, as this number can be different for each investor because it depends upon personal financial information such as income and net worth.

Recent reports have predicted that the average American will invest 1% of their income in crowdfunded companies, which will create a sizable capital market opportunity for entrepreneurs, startups, and small businesses.

Facebook is a Registered Trademark owned by Facebook, Inc.

About PeoplesVC.com

PeoplesVC's "Crowdfunding Portal"was founded to enable individual investors to participate in Venture Capital investments and the growth and success of small companies, while helping entrepreneurs succeed through grassroots funding. Harnessing the power of the Internet, Social Networking, and recently passed U.S. laws, PeoplesVC.com "Crowdfunding Platform" is a catalyst for rapid change, jobs growth, and innovation. The company can be found online at http://www.PeoplesVC.com/

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PeoplesVC equity Crowdfunding site integrates with Facebook® Social Network API