The movie named as “Innocence of Muslims” has frustrated and angered the Muslims worldwide as the movie has represented Muslims as dishonest, corrupt, and violent as well as disrespected their beloved Prophet Mohammed.

A spokesman for YouTube, controlled by Google, said today that it has started to block the privately produced film’s clips according to its community guidelines. He further said that whenever a video clip violates the rules and the company is notified about it that it is against law; the company removes that clip after examining that content in detail.

On Saturday, the Malaysian Communications and Multimedia Commission requested Google (NASDAQ:GOOG) to remove the controversial movie video clips from You Tube. It is believed that few extremist Christians living in U.S have produced that anti-Islamic movie. Google has also blocked video contents in countries including India, Egypt, Libya and Indonesia.

Worldwide protests by the Muslim communities were held against the anti-Islamic movie. The Muslim protestors targeted U.S embassies and asked U.S to take legal actions against the producers of that film.

The payout ratio reflects a great deal regarding the management effectiveness of dividend paying stocks. According to investment manager Jesper Medigan, a company that pays a dividend payout ratio of around 40% indicates that management respects the rights of minority shareholders.

Dividend paying stocks are highly eye-catching when interest rates are low. The Wall Street Journal says that market participants have gotten the lion’s share of their income from dividend yields, not dividend growth or capital gains.

Kraft Foods Inc (NASDAQ:KFT) annual dividend yield stands at 2.77% and maintains a dividend payout ratio of 57.21%. The stock has a dividend of $1.16 annually. KFT shares traded in the range of $31.88 – $41.90 in the last 52 weeks. KFT, together with its subsidiaries, manufactures and markets packaged food products worldwide.

General Mills, Inc (NYSE:GIS) manufactures and markets branded consumer foods worldwide. The company also supplies branded and unbranded food products to the foodservice and commercial baking industries. General Mills, Inc pays a dividend of $1.32 annually. The company has an annual dividend yield of 3.38% and has a dividend payout ratio at 51.05%. Shares of GIS have been floating in the range of $35.84 – $41.06 in the last 52 weeks.

Altria Group, Inc (NYSE:MO) has an annual dividend of $1.64 while keeping its dividend yield at 4.81%. The company maintains a dividend payout ratio of 75.82%. Shares of MO have been trading in the range of $25.27 – $36.29 in the last 52 weeks. MO, through its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of cigarettes, smokeless products, and wine in the United States and internationally.

The Procter & Gamble Company (NYSE:PG) together with its subsidiaries, engages in the manufacture and sale of a range of branded consumer packaged goods. The Procter & Gamble Company pays a dividend of $2.25 annually. The stock has an annual dividend yield of 3.35% and maintains a dividend payout ratio of 66.02%. Shares of PG have been floating in the range of $59.07 – $67.95 in the last 52 weeks.

The Coca-Cola Company (NYSE:KO) shares have been trading in the range of $31.67 – $40.67 in the last 52 weeks. The company pays a dividend of $1.02 annually and has a dividend payout ratio of 50.82%. The stock maintains an annual dividend yield of 2.65%. KO, a beverage company, engages in the manufacture, marketing, and sale of nonalcoholic beverages worldwide.

Disclosure: Opinions expressed in this article are those of the authors alone who have no stake in any stocks mentioned, and did not plan to acquire any stake within the next 72 hours.

The center which has been built near the Silicon Roundabout in East Central London, aims to become the epicenter of technological innovation in the British capital which is becoming a magnet for new technology projects.

Paula Byrne, CEO of Pushbutton told The Daily Telegraph that, “We are creating a center of excellence for the design and development of the next generation of television and film services for a wide range of digital devices.

The center will have a workforce of several hundred people, mostly developers responsible for creating services for web, mobile platforms and TV. It has already stared hiring and while Pushbutton is looking for skilled HTML5 video codec developers, LOVEFiLM has just posted twenty new positions for digital media experts.

London Mayor Boris Johnson considers the opening of Amazon (AMZN)’s Digital Media Development Center as ‘another strong string to the bow’ expressing the view that UK is on the fore-front in adopting on-demand services.

The choice of London for establishing such center is given by the trajectory of British video on demand industry, which is a pioneer in this field. Similarly, the two services purchased by Amazon in this market, LOVEFiLM and Pushbutton are also located in London.

Amazon.com (NASDAQ:AMZN) has made great efforts in recent years to make its presence felt in the digital content market, thanks to a series of announcements and signings. In addition to produce their own content, the firm has closed several contracts with production houses, most recently being the Warner Bros to bring popular shows like The West Wing to its online video service. The London center will further improve company’s visibility in the digital world by creating digital services that will improve the user experience with its digital content and APIs.

It is very interesting to notice here that Amazon continues to expand in the UK market without paying taxes to the British government! It was reported recently that, in the last three years Amazon made over 7.6 billion pounds through its business in the country but didn’t pay a penny in taxes. It is also reported that the UK government is now investigating this matter.

The number of worldwide subscriptions to mobile phones, packaged or prepaid, rose from less than 1 billion in 2000 to over 6 billion today, out of which almost 5 billion subscribers are from the developing countries, reports the institution. Having multiple subscriptions is becoming more common and it is now widely believed that the number of mobile phone subscriptions will soon exceed that of the human population.

The typical reaction to this kind of observation is to say that the poorest countries are most in need of food and water, utilities, and transportation, rather than a mobile phone. This is certainly true, but these phones can turn into a real survival tool and can also improve the living standards of these communities. In developing countries, people are increasingly using mobile phones to create new ways of earning a living and improving their living standards, while states use them to improve service delivery and consultation mechanisms of citizens, notes the World Bank.

InfoDev for example, is a project launched by the Finnish government and Nokia to create regional mobile innovation laboratories in Armenia, Kenya, Pakistan, South Africa and Vietnam. One result of this initiative is the use of mobile social networks to organize meetings between fledgling entrepreneurs and other stakeholders.

Sir Tim Berners-Lee, one of the creators of the Web, for his part has launched the World Wide Web Foundation to help the poorest in the world with free Internet technologies. One of his first projects is to empower African farmers to cultivate the necessary information to better improve their land and their crops. That is done using mobile enabled technology and a voice service which functions the same way we use similar devices on our computers and mobile phones.

The penetration rate of 75% estimated by the World Bank means that more people around the world have mobile phones than access to piped water (about 4.4 billion).

With the advent of laptops and especially with smartphones, access to email systems has hugely improved, making it possible to send and receive messages anywhere, anytime. However, this requires an active Internet connection and suitable equipment, which is not affordable for people in many under-developed countries. The idea of this free SMS service is to provide the basic messaging facility to some of these people.

According to reports, Google SMS works on any mobile phone regardless if its model or make. The only requirement is to have a Gmail account which is needed to complete the registration process and to activate the service. Google Inc (GOOG) has stressed this service is free, which means there are no additional cost on top of the standard rates for sending SMS.

How this works?

The new Google Inc service connects the Gmail inbox to the mailbox of a mobile phone that has been connected with the service for the email synchronization. When somebody sends the registered member an email to his Gmail account, the SMS service converts that email into plain text and forwards it to the mobile account connected. Users can view the full text version of email and can reply using the same phone. Conversely, the reply gets delivered to receiver’s Gmail account in the form of an email.

Google’s initiative opens the door to many users who have no access to internet or a smartphone, allowing them to use an email service. Increasing opportunities for access to Gmail is conducive to people familiar with the use of relevant technology.

As part of its World Wonders project, Google Inc (NASDAQ:GOOG) has added a new location to its Street View vault, which is both unusual and fascinating: Antarctica. It features panoramic images of Scott’s and Shackleton’s huts built in the early 20th century, Cape Royds Adélie Penguin Rookery, and the Ceremonial South Pole. The Mountain View company offers a virtual tour of these places.

Launched last June, the World Wonders Project is intended to offer virtual tours of cultural and historical places all around the world. So far it has 132 sites to explore and Google Inc (GOOG) seems to be expanding the list of places with little unexpected but wondrous places like the ancient temples of Kyoto and Fort Apache in the US.

Scott’s Hut is a place that many will discover for the first time. It is indeed a historic site preserved by Antarctica’s cold. It is located on Ross Island on the Southern Ocean and was built by members of the Terra Nova expedition of Robert Falcon Scott in 1911 and used until their departure in 1913.

In fact, it is a journey of 100 years into the past that Google Inc now offers through its Street View technology.

For the daunting task of recapturing Antarctica’s natural beauty in its purest form, Google had the cooperation of Polar Geospatial Center at the University of Minnesota and the Antarctic Heritage Trust of New Zealand. The World Wonder project team has used the same camera for taking images of the glorious North that is uses when taking photos inside buildings, except this time they used a tripod!

FBI had earlier announced that it will disable a network of DNS servers on July 9 that had temporarily established to halt the spread of malware DNSChanger. The decommissioning of temporary network of servers could prevent thousands of computer users who are still infected with DNSChanger, to access current services on the Internet. The FBI, according to Associated Press, estimates that over 277,000 computers and routers still contain the malicious virus.

The malware which was spread by a criminal network from the Republic of Estonia have infected about four million computers and routers connected to the Internet in more than one hundred countries between 2007 and 2011. Computer systems belonging to individuals, businesses and government entities have been infected with this curse.

The FBI announced in November 2011 that it is going to nab the culprits responsible for the spread of this malware, who operated under the guise of a company called Digital Rove. As a result, six Estonians were arrested. A court order had allowed the agency Internet Systems Consortium which publishes critical Internet infrastructure software, to deploy up to 8 March 2012 a network of healthy DNS servers so the infected computers can be cleaned and restored to their original parameters related to DNS servers. However, shortly after the original due date, disabling the network of DNS servers had been temporarily postponed till July 9, 2012.

According to an update made on 11 June by the International DNS Change Working Group, which monitors the network of DNS servers reported that 8924 unique IP addresses in Canada are associated with computers and routers that were still infested by the same malware. The Canadian Internet Registration Authority and the Canadian Cyber ​​Incident Response Center of the Ministry of Public Security, Government of Canada established a website to verify, through analysis of a DNS query, if a computer or router is infected by DNSChanger or not. If this happens, the site provides a procedure for removal of malware and restores settings for access to DNS servers. The user must confirm the IP address of an appropriate DNS server from its supplier of Internet service.

The scope of DNSChanger

According to the FBI, DNSChanger modified the DNS server settings on computers and routers to direct requests for the domain name servers – for converting URLs into numeric addresses. These servers direct users to malicious websites whose operators virtually steal the money users had transacted for a product or service they had bought over the internet.

Also, the scheme would have served to get criminal at least 14 million dollar in payments related to the legitimate Internet advertising display. These payments are paid to advertisers by website owners when their ads are displayed or when users click on their ads. Moreover, the malware deactivate the mechanisms for updating antivirus software and operating systems on infected computers.

What is DNS?

The domain name system or DNS translate domain names to Internet Protocol (IP) that computer uses to communicate with a server. When users enter a URL in their Web browsers, their computers are brought into contact with DNS servers. If computers have the wrong configuration for servers, they cannot access websites, send email or use Internet services.

A little help!

Leading computer security company McAfee has just launched some free tools that help consumers identify the risks of DNS related malware so they can modify the DNS settings.

McAfee has also just released a free tool to help consumers who may be infected by the DNSChanger virus to stay connected after the servers are closed by the FBI on July 9. The tool which is available on www.mcafee.com help users easily identify if the malware has affected their systems and offers a free solution to deal with it.

The Farnborough International Airshow is the largest aerospace showcase in the world and is capturing the attention of large audiences.

The opening ceremony was started by British Prime Minister David Cameron in the presence of 83 trade and military delegations from over 43 countries. They got a firsthand look at new commercial and military aircraft, including the Boeing Co’s 787 Dreamliner, a tilt-rotor aircraft built by Boeing and Bell Helicopter, the European four-nation Typhoon and the V-22 Osprey, a unit of Textron.

Swanson, who comes to the show every year to meet personally with foreign buyers, said that foreign sales account for about 25 % of Raytheon’s $25 billion in annual revenue. He said that he can’t understand why other defense companies are so focused on their domestic troubles.

The U.S. military market remained a very rich and potential field despite the deep cuts in spending expected in coming years, as the U.S. is still spending $500 billion dollars on it.

Northrop Grumman Corp stayed home this year by saying that it preferred air shows in Asia and the Middle East, where the emerging new weapons are in demand.

The chief weapons buyer of the Pentagon, Frank Kendall, and the Vice Admiral David Venlet, who are the in charge of the F-35 Joint Strike Fighter program, also skipped this year’s arms show and airplane bonanza, because of tight budget problems at home.

President of Boeing Military Aircraft, Chris Chadwick said continuing uncertainty about the U.S. budget has dampened the mood at the Airshow, where the rain clouds literally had darkened the sky all the day. The interest of foreign arms buyers were still not in the same form as expected.

One of the Diplomats said that Spain’s budget consolidation targets will be adjusted to give them an extra year, which is not a unilateral move. Spain needs to make the necessary cuts to reach that goal and this will be discussed on Tuesday at the Ecofin (meeting of ministers).

Two other European Union diplomats said that Spain would be given a year to reach its budget deficit targets in return for taking extra savings measures.

Under the budget rules of the EU, Spain had been due to reduce its national budget deficit to 3 percent of GDP by the end of year 2013. But a strong recession has made that a challenging target for Spain.

Spain’s economy minister will further detail the budget savings to his peers, while paving the way for Europe to grant the euro zone’s fourth-largest economy with an extra year to reach its deficit targets.

No final decision is expected at a Eurogroup meeting of euro zone finance ministers for a bailout package of Spain’s banks. A big gathering of EU finance chiefs is set to meet on Tuesday to ease a debt goal that has pressured Madrid to make cuts that are worsening a recession.

According to a source close to the Spanish government, 10 billion euros of cuts would come this year and that will be achieved by the  measures of a reduced social security payments, reduced unemployment benefits, VAT hike and changes to pensions calculations.

In return to these measures,  Madrid will be given until 2014 to reach the strict goals laid down in EU budget rules.

The report goes on to state that the iPad Mini of 7.85 inches is thinner than Amazon Kindle Fire which is 11.43 mm and is almost as thin as a iPod Touch which was 7.2 mm. Google’s forthcoming Nexus 7 is reported to have a thickness of 10.45 mm. In addition, Macotakara sources also say the iPad Mini will include 3G mobile connection.

As reported earlier in the media, both Bloomberg and the Wall Street Journal have given their support to the rumors about the release of iPad Mini and its dimensions, believing the screen with the resolution of 1024 x 768 pixels ensures full compatibility with most current applications without changing anything. Both these media groups have also supported the October launch date. It is however believed that since these news corporations already published their reports on iPad Mini’s release and its features, people are likely to give credence to this Macatakara report as well.

Some observers think Apple is making the iPad Mini in response to the launch of Google and Amazon, and in anticipation of cashing on a possible growing popularity of these devices.

The most important allies of President Bashar al-Assad, Russia and China, are not attending the Friends of Syria group meeting. The Friends of Syria group meeting is scheduled just days after world powers agreed a road-map is needed for a political transition in Syria.

The general secretary of the opposition Syrian National Council, Hassan Hashimi said, the international community is still moving too slowly towards a decision. He said he is hoping to see a tough stance taken at Friday’s so-called Friends of Syria conference in Paris.

United States and European diplomats are expected to pressure President Bashar Assad’s regime with new sanctions if he fails to deliver a U.N.-brokered peace plan.

Push for sanctions

The Paris talks follow similar events like those in Tunis and Istanbul which repeatedly called for tougher action against the Assad regime.

The Unites States and its Western allies are expected to encourage the Gulf States to do more to pressure President Bashar Assad’s regime with global sanctions. Russia and China are not at the meeting and are both key allies of Syria that hold vetoes in the United Nations Security Council.

In the opening meeting of the Paris Talks, French President Francois Hollande said it was a human and political necessity to stop the conflict.

UN diplomats are already working on drafting a procedure for restrictions on commercial activity if Mr. Assad fails to abide by UN and Arab League envoy Kofi Annan’s ceasefire plan and roadmap for a political transition in the Syrian Conflict.

The Western powers insist on lessening the role of Mr Assad in Syria’s future, but the roadmap allows Mr Assad an effective veto over any interim candidate he opposes.

Approximately 15,800 people have died in more than a year of violence in Syria, according to an activist’s statement.

It was reported on BBC yesterday that Facebook has agreed to invest an undisclosed amount of money in the project, which will have participation from among Asian telecom giants China Telecom and Malaysia’s Time Dotcom (stylized as dotCom). The construction of the underwater cable network will begin later this year and is expected to be completed by 2014, forecasts the project members.

A 10,000 km long cable is expected to be installed that will link Malaysia to Korea and Japan and will subsequently branch off to China, Hong Kong, Taiwan, Vietnam and Singapore.

Saiful Husni, CEO of Time Dotcom has indicated that the project will benefit Malaysia as the country would not have to depend on Singapore as much in regards to Internet connections.

Moreover, in the case of Facebook, it seems that Mark Zuckerberg’s social network also has among its plans the implementation of data centers in the Asia-Pacific. It only makes sense since Facebook doesn’t have the same fanfare it enjoyed couple of years ago and with a sharp decline in its growth and even sharper decline of its share price, Asia is a smart move.

Facebook’s main competitor Google had also invested in a similar cable building project a few years ago which resulted in improving its overall image in Asian countries and brought in millions of new users. Google along with other Asian companies had invested in a cable linking the US with Japan across the Pacific. It is believed that Google was responsible for 20 percent of the construction, which led to improving its services in Asian market.

Asia represents a huge growth opportunity for Facebook. A recent independent study notes that countries with the largest increase in Facebook membership are precisely in Asian region and investment in this market is likely to bring excellent financial returns.

Facebook Inc (NASDAQ:FB) shares have gained $0.27 in last trading session, raising price by 0.87% to $31.47. The company in extended hours yesterday faced a fall of -0.19% to $31.41 but still maintains monthly performance (last 21 trading days) up 21.65%. The stock ended June in positive territory, marking its first monthly rise since its May IPO.

The Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton said that she was sorry for American airstrikes in November that killed 24 Pakistani soldiers on the Afghanistan border.

By noon on Thursday, the border officials had allowed three trucks to cross into Afghanistan. When the closure was imposed, thousands of containers had piled up at the southern port city of Karachi.

The reopening of NATO supply routes is a rare bright spot in relations between the U.S. and Pakistan, which had closed the routes in retaliation for American airstrikes in November that killed 24 Pakistani border troops.

The series of disagreements between U.S and Pakistan over issues such as American drone strikes and Islamabad’s alleged support for Taliban militants, has slowed down a relationship that is vital to stabilizing neighboring Afghanistan.

During the closure of the last seven months, the U.S. was forced to use more costly and lengthy routes through the former Soviet Union.

International media reports suggested that it is an admitted fact that the U.S. and Nato pay a handsome amount of money to the militants in return for their safety and security getting supplies to Afghanistan via two land routes in Pakistan.

The Pakistani NATO truck drivers are also supposed to pay the Taliban for their own security. While anticipating the extortion by the Afghan Taliban and other militants, the All Pakistan Truck Owners Association Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa President Nasir Ali Khan has also requested that the federal government  provide protection to the Afghanistan-bound oil and goods containers.

Earlier, the agreement had been signed by 22 of the 27 EU member states, including the UK and outside Europe, the US, Japan, Australia, Morocco,  Canada, New Zealand, Singapore and South Korea have also signed the treaty.

While the treaty had been signed by 22 member states, ACTA cannot become law in the EU unless it is formally approved by the European Parliament and all member states.

Yesterday, 478 MEPs voted against the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement, with 165 abstentions and only 39 votes in favor of the agreement.

Why is it controversial?

Most of the opponents of ACTA showed their fears on its impact on civil liberties, internet freedoms, consumer privacy and human rights. The critics are particularly angry about the secrecy surrounding the written drafting of this Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement.

The critics say that all the related negotiations were done behind closed doors, without involving the industry and other interested groups.

The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement was strongly supported by the US government, but has come under fire from civil liberties campaigners right from its beginning. The supporters of ACTA reject the claims of critics by arguing that the treaty is designed to target large-scale counterfeiting businesses – not the individuals.

The executive director of the Open Rights Group, Jim Killock says, “This is a tremendous victory for the movement, for democracy and for every European citizen that has demanded that their rights be respected,”

“ACTA must be abandoned. The Commission must drop its calls to try again.”

Demetris Christofias, who is the EU’s only communist head of state or government, dismissed suggestions that his tight relations with Russia could damage his ties within Europe and said it was perfectly normal for a country to look to all its allies for help as Russia lent Cyprus 2.5 billion euros ($3.1 billion) last December.

“We need money to develop our economy and we need money to recapitalise our banks,” Demetris Christofias told Brussels-based reporters on a visit to Cyprus.

The banking sector in Cyprus is under severe strain largely due to its exposure to the Greek economy, with at least two banks needing to be recapitalised as soon as possible.

Finance officials’ estimates suggested  Cyprus with an economy that generates a little over 17 billion euros in GDP annually, may need 10 billion euros more for its banking and financial sector alone.

The Inspectors from the European Commission, the European Central Bank and the International Monetary Fund, together known as the ‘troika’ are in Cyprus this week to make a first assessment of its needs before any bailout is finalised.

Cyprus becomes the fifth euro-area nation to request a financial rescue.  Greece triggered the European debt crisis more than two years ago and the other three countries in trouble are Portugal, Ireland and Spain.