読み上げている人（読み上げ順、Name(Age), Nationality, Sex）
- Elaina P. Kimsey (30代), USA, female
- Chris Levens(30代), USA, male
- Maria Eriberta(25), Philippine, female
- Leah Lique(30), Philippine, female
China warns Google to obey rules even if it pulls out
DownloadGoogle should obey Chinese government rules even if it decides to retreat from the country over hacking and censorship complaints, a Chinese government spokesman said on Tuesday.
Investors sold off Google Inc shares a day earlier after signs the company could soon shut its Web search site in China, Google.cn, two months after saying it would not abide by Beijing's censorship rules and was alarmed by hacking from inside China.
Shares of Google fell nearly 3 percent in regular trading on Monday to close at $563.18. Shares of Baidu, the No.1 search engine in China, rose 4.8 percent to $576.84.
Google has not unveiled any plans, leaving users to guess whether the company may seek to unilaterally do away with the Chinese-mandated filters that censor content on google.cn or announce it is shutting down the site.
In what appeared to be a reminder that China would not welcome any abrupt steps, a spokesman for the Ministry of Commerce said Google should follow rules even if it decides not to stay in the country.
"On entering the Chinese market in 2007, it clearly stated that it would respect Chinese law," the spokesman, Yao Jian, told reporters in answer to a question about Google.
Japan still No. 2 economy - for now
DownloadThe Japanese economy grew 1.1% in the final quarter of 2009 when compared with the third quarter, barely holding off China to remain the second-largest economy in the world, Japan's Cabinet Office reported Monday.
Japan's nominal gross domestic product -- a basic measure of a country's overall economic output -- grew at an annual rate of 4.6% for the year, making it worth ￥474.9 trillion, or $5.273 trillion, based on current exchange rates.
Japan's economy was helped by a rebound in exports, led by sales to China, which is Japan's largest overseas market.
Despite the upbeat news about Japan's economy, analysts say China's blistering growth will drive it past Japan's economy sometime in 2010.
A fast-growing Chinese economy finished 2009 with a GDP value of 33.53 trillion yuan -- equal to $4.906 trillion -- but has been growing at an annual rate of 8 to 10%, or twice that of Japan.
Tokyo Tower
DownloadTokyo Tower is a communications and observation tower located in Shiba Park, Minato, Tokyo, Japan. At 332.5 metres, it is the tallest artificial structure in Japan. The structure is an Eiffel Tower-inspired lattice tower that is painted white and international orange to comply with air safety regulations.
Built in 1958, the tower's main sources of revenue are tourism and antenna leasing. Over 150 million people have visited the tower since its opening. FootTown, a 4-story building located directly under the tower, houses museums, restaurants and shops. Departing from here, guests can visit two observation decks. The 2-story Main Observatory is located at 150 meters, while the smaller Special Observatory reaches a height of 250 meters.
The tower acts as a support structure for an antenna. Originally intended for television broadcasting, radio antennas were installed in 1961 and the tower is now used to broadcast both signals for Japanese media outlets such as NHK, TBS and Fuji TV. Japan's planned switch from analog to digital for all television broadcasting by July 2011 is problematic, however. Tokyo Tower's current height is not high enough to adequately support complete terrestrial digital broadcasting to the area. A taller digital broadcasting tower known as Tokyo Sky Tree is currently planned to open in 2011.
