Chinese Authorities Shoot Down Videogame Rumor

This game is over before it even started.China's Ministry of Culture said that it isnot considering lifting the nation's banon videogame consoles, according to Tech In Asia.Reports that Chinamight lift its banon systems like Microsoft's Xbox 360 and Sony's PlayStation surfaced last week in a number of media outlets, including Tech In Asia.However, that story, whichfirst appearedinChina Daily, appears to be false.The anticipated approval of videogame consolescaused a spikein Microsoft and Sony stockand spurred some starry-eyed pundits tospeculate about billion-dollar paydaysfor console makers.Thailand Being Governed From AfarFor the past 18 months, the governing party in Thailand apparentlyhas been making political decisions from abroad, according toThe New York Times.Thaksin Shinawatra, a former prime minister who has been in exile for more than four years, is exercising "rule by Skype,"The Timesreported. He "circles the globe in his private jet" and talks with ministers via cellphone, socialmedia and email.In this way, Shinawatra, whomThe Timescharacterized as the nation'smost famous fugitive, can avoid corruption charges while still helping to run the country.Shinawatra -- who was deposed by a military coup in 2006 and whose sister, 18 years his junior, is the nation's official prime minister -- has homes in Dubai and London and regularly visits Asian countriesneighboring Thailand. One Thai official toldThe Times, "If we've got a problem, we give him a call."Pirate Bay Founder Could Be Nearing TrialGottfrid Svartholm, the Swede who cofounded file-sharing site The Pirate Bay,could be formally charged with hackingwithin a month, according to Torrent Freak.Svartholmwas arrestedin Cambodia late last summer and subsequently deported to Sweden.He faced allegations of hacking into Logica, an IT company that, according to Torrent Freak, works for Swedish tax authorities.The presumption at the time of Swartholm's arrest was that hewould receive a long overdue jail sentencestemming from a Pirate Bay-related conviction. (The other Pirate Bay founders -- the ones who didn't flee the country -- werealready sentenced.)Israel Investing in Cyberdefense, OffenseIsrael is heavilyinvesting in cybersecurityas a means both to protect itself and as "a national growth engine," according to Bloomberg.Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has been "channeling resources" into Israel's cyberwarfare operations to help the country wage war with its enemies, chiefly Iran.Israeli government networks are attacked tens of thousands of times per day, according to SoufanGroup, a New York-based security adviser cited by Bloomberg.A side-effect of Israel's cyberinvestments, which include high school programs designed to create cybersecurity-savvy citizens,is a healthy tech sector, including security networks. Technology accounts for half of Israel's industrial exports, Bloomberg said, and exports account for 40 percent of its GDP.Chat Apps Cause Dip in Chinese SMS VolumeMobile messaging services like WeChat arereducing Chinese mobile users'SMSvolume, according to The Next Web.The number of text messages sentvia mobile networks grew just 2.1 percent in 2012 -- compared to a 9percent spike in wireless service penetration, reported The Next Web,citing datareleased by China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.In years past, texting was the No. 1way to communicate among youngChinese mobile users, but Internet-based messaging services, which are often cheaper, are starting to rule the day.China has more than 1.1 billion mobile subscribers. WeChat, one of the top "SMS replacements," has about 300 million users.