Google lets users measure the power of words

Number-crunchers can rejoice as Google Inc offers deeper access to the underlying figures for users' Web searches, giving some insight into trends based on the relative popularity of various words.

The Internet search leader is expanding its existing Google Trends service to allow users to see underlying numerical data on the popularity of any particular search in Google's vast database of search terms, relative to others.

Google Trends was begun two years ago as an entertaining but limited way to indicate what the world is thinking about over time, at least in terms of Web searches.

Now Google is giving users the ability to search across terms in its database, instantly chart how they compare to other search terms, then export the underlying numerical data into a common spreadsheet format to compare with other data.

Google Trends (http://trends.google.com/) lets users compare demand for various search terms and see how popularity differs across geographic regions, cities or languages.

A year ago, the company introduced Hot Trends, which gave users insight into fast-rising Web search trends with data refreshed several times daily. The tool's power only grows as people conduct more and more of their everyday activities online, with Web search often their primary starting point.

The data in Google Trends stretches back to 2004. While the service is based on the many billions of individual searches performed each year, Google Trends only reveals data on the aggregate numbers of searches, not the searches themselves.

National differences in the endless human search for sex or love can vary widely, according to a Google Trends chart. http://tinyurl.com/5jt5ce/

Google Trends users can also chart the explosion of interest in the term "backdating" since 2006, reflecting the scandal over how hundreds of companies backdated options for executives. http://tinyurl.com/5l8osu/

Searches for the word "Microsoft" had a more than two-to-one-lead in searches over "Apple" three years ago, but Apple had virtually closed the gap by the end of 2007.

Then news reports of its takeover bid for Yahoo appears to have stoked a recovery in Microsoft this year. Searches for Microsoft have outnumbered those for Apple by about 7 to 5 in recent weeks, according to Google Trends data.

Users must be registered and signed into a Google account to use the service. One can then see the evolution of new terms or concepts through Google searches, including the rise of "Google Trends" itself. http://tinyurl.com/6zd6pg/.

(Editing by Braden Reddall)

Parents call on Confucius for exam good fortune

The Temple of Confucius in the center of Shanghai's old town was unusually full Wednesday morning.

Crowds of people, most of them in their 40s and 50s, burned incense, lit candles and prayed in and around Dacheng Hall where there is a sculpture of Confucius and also where national exams were held during the times of the imperial dynasties.

The good luck notes they hung on the trellises and trees outside the hall gave away their reasons for being there. Most read something like, "Dear Confucius, please help my son/daughter in the college entrance exam".

With the national examinations starting on Saturday, a growing number of parents have turned to Confucius, as a way to ease the pressure.

A cleaner at the temple, surnamed Xu, told China Daily that local people hardly ever visit the temple, but in the past week, hundreds of them had been.

"There are so many visitors coming these days, all the oil and incense burners keep filling up and I have to empty them several times a day," Xu said.

Visitors pay 12 yuan ($1.75) for a piece of notepaper, incense sticks, two candles and a length of red ribbon.

At the Temple of Confucius in Beijing, visitors have to pay 188 yuan for a wooden tablet on which to write their wishes, although the shelf on which these are then placed is now full, the Beijing Youth Daily reported Wednesday.

One of the visitors at the Shanghai temple Wednesday was 47-year-old Ye Qing. She said she was making a wish for her son who is hoping to study telecommunication engineering at East China Normal University.

"It will work if I am sincere enough," she said.

About 100,000 Shanghai students will sit the college entrance exam between Saturday and Monday, and their parents are doubtless all hoping for the same good fortune.

Many, like Ye, have booked hotel rooms close to the test venues.

Staff at several hotels in the city's Minhang district said they have been taking bookings since the beginning of last month, and many are now full, the Xinmin Evening News reported.

Sun Yu, a teacher at the Shanghai Foreign Language School, said parents are prepared to do whatever they can to help their children succeed, including enrolling them in expensive, extracurricular classes.

High school student Vicky Yang said all her classmates spend at least 500 yuan a month on exam-related books and extra lessons.

"Some pay up to 20,000 yuan a semester for classes that promise to help students secure a university place," she said.

Apart from books and classes, parents also buy their children special tonics to drink, Yang said.

"If you collected up all the empty bottles of tonic my classmates have drunk, you could make a small hill."

World Economic Forum on Africa kicks off in Cape Town

The 18th World Economic Forum on Africa kicked off in Cape Town, South Africa on Wednesday under the theme of "Capitalizing on Opportunity."

Klaus Schwab, founder and executive chairman of World Economic Forum, said in the opening ceremony that Africa needs partnership.

Some key issues and key risks and challenges that Africa is facing would be addressed at the meeting.

John Kufuor, president of Ghana, Thabo Mbeki, president of South Africa, Bingu Wa Mutharika, president of Malawi, Pierre Nkurunziza, president of Burundi and Raila Odinga, prime Minister of Kenya were present at the opening ceremony.

The leaders expressed optimism about Africa's future. Kufuor said that the opportunity for Africa was immense, and, with time and good coordination, the Africans could make it a powerful entity.

This opinion was agreed by President Nkurunziza, who said Africa was a rich continent and it had no right to be poor.

Africa has seen annul economic growth of more than 5 percent for four consecutive years. In the year of 2008, the growth rate in sub-Saharan Africa is expected at 6.2 percent.

However, the continent also faces many challenges. President Mbeki pointed out that the instability was the major risk that impacts Africa negatively.

In a report dubbed "Africa@ risk" released before the forum, the experts of Global Risk Network said Africa was facing 26 interconnected global risks, of them, four have been identified as being critical for Africa's future.

They are food insecurity, political instability, external economic shocks and climate change. More than 800 decision-makers, experts and entrepreneurs from 50 countries participate in this forum which will last to June 6.

The first one to be stressed is food insecurity which has emerged as a major risk for Africa. High and rising food prices impact disproportionately on poorer communities, high dependence on food imports and food aids lead potentially to social unrest.

Another negative factor is political instability. Eight out of the 10 most vulnerable and weak states are in Sub-Saharan Africa. Political instability, institutional incapacity and social unrest inhibit foreign capital inflows and lower investment appetites, negatively affecting economic opportunities.

Meanwhile, Africa is vulnerable to economic shocks. Any pronounced slowdown in world growth would affect African exports of agricultural products, minerals and hydrocarbons. Africa's dependence on natural resource exports has made many countries vulnerable to commodity price shocks that are outside their control. Sudden increases in export revenues or import costs can cause currency instability and budget uncertainty.

In the medium term, growing income inequalities might generate social unrest and violent conflicts.

The wealthiest decile of the population across the continent still controls between 30 to 60 percent of total income.

Many African countries appear in the lowest positions of the United Nations' Human Poverty Index.

Africa contributes least to global climate change, with only 5 percent of greenhouse gas emissions, but it is the most vulnerable region to the expected negative effects.

In other regions there is still a sense that the consequences of climate change lie in the future, in Africa it's being felt now.

The impacts on the continent include greater frequency and severity of extreme weather events, raising the threat of further food and water insecurity and more poverty, disease and population displacement.

These impacts are idiosyncratic: there will be local winners and losers. At the same time, opportunities will be created by the need for new investments.

These four threats to Africa's future are not isolated risks. Their drivers, triggers and potential consequences are highly interconnected. They will all be addressed in the meeting.

Since the forum started many years ago, the participants had made some progress to help Africa, said E. Neville Isdell, chairman and chief executive officer of Coca-Cola here on the same day.

"People come together to bring about the solutions to engage the triangle of government, society and business, make them work effectively," he said.

Safest 2008 luxury cars

Mercedes M class (Photo/cardomain.com)

Luxury automakers are quick to install the latest gadgets in their newest models. Most, like parking assist and advanced climate-control systems, are expensive gizmos there for the enjoyment of the passenger.

Others, like electronic stability control (ESC), can save lives.

That's what drivers of the Audi A6 will find in the 2008 model. Equipped with a remote-control trunk and Bose sound system as standard features, the $46,006 A6 also comes standard with ESC.

That's a good thing, since some are calling ESC the most revolutionary automotive safety device since the seat belt.

"We've seen ESC reduce fatalities by as much as half in some instances," says Russ Rader, a spokesman for the Virginia-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety. "ESC is especially great at reducing the fatalities for single-car crashes."

ESC immediately found favor with insurance companies and regulatory agencies when it was first introduced to the mass market in 2004. It works by monitoring and comparing a driver's intended course with a vehicle's actual direction. Hit an icy patch or a spot of gravel on a turn and ESC will brake tires individually to control skidding.

Rader calls ESC "the most important safety feature people have never heard of."

Behind The Numbers

To be a 2008 IIHS "Top Safety Pick," a vehicle must have ESC as an available feature. This year's list is made up of 34 vehicles, most of them SUVs.

Vehicles also must have received the top rating of "good" in each of the IIHS's three crash tests--the 40-mph front impact, 31-mph side impact and 20-mph rear impact tests are designed to mimic real-world conditions.

Luxury autos (those over $30,000) making the grade include the $34,995 Subaru Impreza WRX STi and the $31,935 Totota Tundra.

Unfortunately for the penny-pinching worrier, many Top Safety Picks don't come cheap, and additional safety features raise sticker prices.

What auto features are you most attracted to? Weigh in. Add your thoughts to the Readers Comments section below.

The Mercedes M class SUV, for example, offers ESC as a standard feature, but also comes with a tire-pressure warning system and automatic crash notification, which instantly alerts emergency services if the car is in a collision. With an MSRP of $52,750, the M class is the most expensive car on the list.

While the Audi A6 retails for less, adding optional rearview cameras, cornering lights and Xenon headlamps can cost an additional $6,050 when the premium and technology packages are added.

Still, if safety is what you seek, money should be no object.

(Andrew Egan, Forbes.com)

Cross-Straits ties 'must meet expectations'

The Communist Party of China (CPC) and the Kuomintang (KMT) should firmly maintain peaceful development of cross-Straits relations and live up to the expectations of people, Jia Qinglin, member of the Standing Committee of the CPC Central Committee Political Bureau, said Tuesday.

"The two sides should live up to the expectations of people, safeguard the good trend in cross-Straits relations, grasp and make good use of the rare opportunity, and make persistent efforts, so as to jointly open up a new chapter for the peaceful development of cross-Straits relations," said Jia, while meeting with visiting KMT Chairman Wu Poh-hsiung in Beijing.

Jia also said that the two parties should intensify communication and strengthen the interaction of grassroots organizations in order to push forward exchanges in all aspects.

Jia, also chairman of the National Committee of the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference, highlighted the importance of Wu's visit, who is here at the invitation of the CPC Central Committee and General Secretary Hu Jintao.

Wu arrived in Beijing on the second stop of his six-day mainland trip Tuesday afternoon.

He was welcomed Tuesday at Beijing's Capital International Airport by Chen Yunlin, director of the Taiwan Work Office of the CPC Central Committee.

In his speech at the airport, Wu said that as new opportunities appear across the Straits, "we should not waste these opportunities but instead make continuous efforts for positive interaction".

He wished the upcoming Beijing Olympic Games a great success.

In a welcoming speech, Chen spoke highly of Wu's mainland visit, saying it showed "the two parties are willing to shoulder the major historic task entrusted by people of the two sides to jointly create a great future for our nationality".

Leading his 16-member delegation, Wu also paid homage to Dr Sun Yat-sen's Mausoleum in Nanjing, capital of East China's Jiangsu province.

Wu laid a floral wreath at Dr Sun's statue in the memorial hall and made bowed for a minute in reverence.

Sun Yat-sen, a founder of Kuomintang, or the Nationalist party of China, died in 1925 in Beijing and his coffin was moved to and buried in Nanjing in 1929.

In his speech at the mausoleum, Wu stressed that both the mainland and Taiwan belong to the Chinese nation, and are "closely tied by blood", which no one could obliterate. He said that both sides across the Taiwan Straits should face history directly, reality squarely and open up to the future.

He said Kuomintang will send a delegation to Nanjing next year to attend memorial activities of the 80th anniversary of Dr Sun Yat-sen's internment at the mausoleum.

Wu is scheduled to meet Hu Jintao, general secretary of the CPC Central Committee, today, and fly to Shanghai tomorrow to visit Taiwan businessmen based there.

Xinhua contributed to the story

1-child policy has exceptions after China quake

Chinese officials said Monday that the country's one-child policy exempts families with a child killed, severely injured or disabled in the country's devastating earthquake.

Those families can obtain a certificate to have another child, the Chengdu Population and Family Planning Committee in the capital of hard-hit Sichuan province said.

With so many shattered families asking questions, the Chengdu committee is clarifying existing one-child policy guidelines, said a committee official surnamed Wang.

"There are just a lot of cases now, so we need to clarify our policies," said Wang, who declined to elaborate.

The May 12 quake was particularly painful to many Chinese because it killed so many only children.

The earthquake has left more than 65,000 people dead so far, with more than 23,000 missing. Officials have not been able to estimate the number of children killed.

Chinese couples who have more than one child are commonly punished by fines. The announcement says that if a child born illegally was killed in the quake, the parents will no longer have to pay fines for that child - but the previously paid fines won't be refunded.

If the couple's legally born child is killed and the couple is left with an illegally born child under the age of 18, that child can be registered as the legal child - an important move that gives the child previously denied rights including free nine years of compulsory education.

China's one-child policy was launched in the late 1970s to control China's exploding population and ensure better education and health care. The law includes certain exceptions for ethnic groups, rural families and families where both parents are only children.

The government says the policy has prevented an additional 400 million births, but critics say it has also led to forced abortions, sterilizations and a dangerously imbalanced sex ratio as local authorities pursue sometimes severe birth quotas set by Beijing and families abort girls out of a traditional preference for male heirs.

Though commonly called a one-child policy, the rules offer a welter of exceptions and loopholes, some of them put into practice because of widespread opposition to the limits.

For example, in large parts of rural China, most families are allowed a second-child, especially if the first was a girl. Local officials often have wide discretion on enforcement, a fact that has made the policy susceptible to corruption.

Many Chinese have shown interest in adopting earthquake orphans, and Monday's announcement says there are no limits on the number of earthquake orphans a family can adopt. The adoptions, or even a future birth to a family that adopts an orphan, will not face the limitations of the one-child policy.

Officials estimated last week that the quake left about 4,000 orphans, but they warned they would make every effort to connect children with other family members.

Lebanon elects president after months of turmoil

Lebanon's new president Michel Sleiman appealed for unity after his election on Sunday, a move hailed as the start of a new era after a bitter political feud threatened to plunge the nation into civil war.

"Let us unite... and work towards a solid reconciliation," the 59-year-old former army chief said after being sworn in following his election by parliament. "We have paid dearly for our national unity. Let us preserve it hand-in-hand."

Celebratory shots were fired into the air and fireworks lit up the sky as crowds of people, cheering and waving Lebanese flags, poured into the streets across Lebanon, including Beirut and Sleiman's hometown of Amsheet.

The election was welcomed by the international community led by US President George W. Bush who gave his staunch backing to the Sunni-led government in its 18-month standoff with the mainly Shiite Muslim Hezbollah-led opposition.

Sleiman was elected by 118 votes in a much-delayed parliament session attended by Arab and Western dignitaries that followed a deal hammered out Wednesday in Qatar between the rival Lebanese politicians.

"This is a historic moment," said parliament speaker and opposition stalwart Nabih Berri. "I ask God to help you succeed in steering the Lebanese ship to a safe haven... today no-one in the world can turn Lebanon into a killing field."

Sleiman's main challenge will be to impose himself as a neutral figure and reconcile the Western-backed ruling coalition and the opposition, which is supported by Iran and Syria.

After Sleiman was sworn in, the government of Prime Minister Fuad Siniora resigned in line with the constitution but will stay on in a caretaker role.

Bickering between the two camps had left the presidency vacant since pro-Syrian Emile Lahoud's term ended in November. Nineteen previous attempts to get lawmakers together to elect a successor failed.

On Wednesday, the rivals finally agreed to elect Sleiman, form a national unity government in which the opposition has veto power and draft a new electoral law for a parliamentary election due next year.

The accord came after 65 people were killed in street battles this month between Hezbollah and their allies and pro-government forces.

It was the deadliest sectarian violence since the 1975-1990 civil war and which threatened to spiral into all-out conflict after Hezbollah, the most powerful armed group in Lebanon, seized control of mainly Sunni west Beirut.

Sleiman said he would seek friendly relations with Syria, Lebanon's former powerbroker which has been accused by Washington of stoking the crisis.

As president -- a position reserved for a Maronite Christian under Lebanon's multi-confessional system -- Sleiman will have to tread a fine line to keep the neutrality he maintained during 10 years as army chief.

He is the third army leader to become president after Fouad Chehab in 1958-1964 and Lahoud, who was elected in 1998 but whose term was controversially extended by three years under a Syrian-inspired constitutional amendment in 2004.

Bush said he looked forward to "an era of political reconciliation".

"I am confident that Lebanon has chosen a leader committed to protecting its sovereignty, extending the government's authority over all of Lebanon, and upholding Lebanon's international obligations under UN Security Council resolutions."

UN chief Ban Ki-moon expressed hope the vote will lead to the "revitalisation of all of Lebanon's constitutional institutions and a return to political dialogue."

Syrian state television said it was a "historic occasion," noting that it coincided with the eighth anniversary of Israel's withdrawal from Lebanon after 22 years of occupation.

"The new Lebanese president enters Baabda palace (the presidential headquarters) with the green light of all Lebanese and enormous Arab and international support," a presenter said.

Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki, whose government is also blamed by Washington for fometing the political deadlock, said: "Attaining calm and security in this country is attaining calm and security on the level of the region as a whole."

Of the 127 MPs who voted, six cast blank ballots and several voted for other politicians, including slain Rafiq Hariri and other MPs killed since 2005.

Many Lebanese voiced cautious hope the vote will restore stability.

"I have a lot of hope in this election," said Aida Aoun. "But then again we have seen so many others get elected and then deceive us."