China arrests members of online underground gambling ring, and other brief report ...

* Google has developed a South African incarnation - Google.co.za - an engine that allows one to confine one\'s search to SA sites and use one\'s language of preference: English, Afrikaans, Sesotho, isiZulu or Xhosa. Full Cape Times report

And, Google is thinking of entering the voice over IP market. It is currently looking for a \'strategic negotiator\' to help the company deal with telecoms companies to put together a \'global backbone network\' which will help it increase the services it can provide. Full report in The Guardian * Education Minister Naledi Pandor has launched the SA Education Internet portal, developed to support the school curriculum. The portal, \'Thutong\' provides \'effective and engaging software\', electronic content and online learning resources. Full Cape Times report Visit the Thutong portal * Malaysia\'s government is to review the 17-year-old Copyright Act next week and is considering proposing mandatory jail terms for producers, distributors and vendors of pirated movies and music discs. While piracy is punishable by a maximum of five years in jail, this is rarely imposed and offenders usually are sentenced to less than a year in jail and fines. Full AustralianIT report * Microsoft has launched a subscription service that combines Outlook with its Web-based Hotmail service. This is the first package that ties the company’s desktop software to a MSN service. Microsoft Office Outlook Live includes Outlook 2003, making the latest version of the e-mail client the first product within the popular Office productivity suite to be offered as a downloadable subscription service. The annual subscription service includes 2GB of online storage, the ability to send up to 20MB attachments and spam and virus protection. Full InformationWeek report * The online music market is expected to double in 2005. Last year more than 200 million tracks were sold in the US and Europe – a tenfold increase on the previous year. And, the number of online music stores quadrupled last year to more than 230, according to the International Federation of the Phonographic Industry. The IFPI said research firm Jupiter expects the $330 million online music market to double in 2005. Full CNN/Money report * America Online has introduced a new Internet search engine as part of an effort to gain a larger share of the online advertising market. The service – AOL Search – will sort results by geography and topic and offer a suggestion tool. America Online is bolstering its search features to compensate for its inability to win market share in Web advertising from Google, the most-used Internet search engine, and Yahoo. Full New York Times report * Mozilla’s free Web browser Firefox has nibbled away more ground from Microsoft over the past month and now boasts a market share of nearly 5%, according to research firm WebSideStory. The group noted that usage of Firefox has almost doubled in the past three months. Full IOL report * Apple is shaking up its approach to the SA market and is planning a range of new retail stores to satisfy demand. The Californian company has closed its one-man SA sales office but has significantly strengthened its local distributor, Core Group, which will trade under the name Apple IMC Southern Africa. Full Financial Mail report * Portuguese police have arrested teenager Marco Guerra, who set up a personal Web page that featured pictures of himself posing with a machine gun along with cash he said he had obtained through crime. He was charged with illegal possession of firearms and drugs after police conducted a search. Full report in The Age