Roundup - 18/01/2010

• China has confirmed the deaths of eight missing officers in Haiti. The four members of the UN peacekeeping force and four officials from the Ministry of Public Security were killed after the UN headquarters in Port-au-Prince collapsed during last Tuesdays earthquake. 18 Chinese nationals are now believed to have been killed in the earthquake. It is feared that the total death toll may rise to 100,000.
  
  
  
• A small earthquake in south west China has triggered landslides which killed 7 people. The earthquake struck 100km south west of Guiyang, Guizhou on Sunday afternoon. One person is still missing and nine others are in hospital.
  
  
  
• Two Chinese engineers have been kidnapped along with four Afghans in northern Afghanistan. The team were working on a road project with a Chinese company in Qaisar district. Afghan Islamic Press has reported that the kidnapping was conducted by the Taliban. Qaisar was previously considered one of the safest areas of Afghanistan but the war has been spreading over the last year and in October the Taliban attacked the police station in Qaisar's Faryab, kidnapping eight police officers.
  
  
  
• Yahoo has been criticised by its Chinese partner, Alibaba, over its stated support for Google. Yahoo announced that it was 'aligned' with Google on the dangers of hacking at the weekend. Alibaba, which runs Alibaba.com and Taobao.com, said that Yahoo's statement was 'reckless.'
  
  Yahoo has, like all other foreign internet companies in China, bowed to the will of the PRC. A source for the Straits Times says that China knew about the cyber attacks on foreign companies before being told by Google, but had taken the decision to remain silent on the issue.
  
  
  
• Texting services have been restored to Xinjiang more than six months after riots left almost 200 people dead. The July riots led to texting, the internet and international phone calls in the province being stopped in an effort to prevent the organisation of mobs and the circulation of photos which could inflame ethnic tensions in the region. These service have finally been restored over the last few weeks.