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For the first time, Indian prosecutors are taking Google, Yahoo, Facebook and other networking sites to court for refusing to remove material considered insulting to Indian leaders and major religious figures.

Government officials are upset about material insulting to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, ruling Congress party leader Sonia Gandhi and major religious figures. Some illustrations have shown Singh and Gandhi in compromising positions and pigs running through Mecca, Islam’s holiest city.

On Friday, the federal government told a New Delhi court that there was sufficient material to proceed against 21 social networking sites for offenses of “promoting enmity between classes and causing prejudice to national integration,” according to the Press Trust of India news agency.

The cases, which PTI said name companies including Google, Facebook, Yahoo and Microsoft, represent a new risk of doing business in the nation of more than 1 billion people, which is looking to technology to boost its economy and standard of living. The dispute highlights India’s difficulty in balancing the Internet culture of freewheeling discourse with its homegrown religious and political sensitivities.

Convictions could bring fines and up to five years’ imprisonment, through prosecutors have named only the companies involved rather than any executives. Metropolitan Magistrate Sudesh Kumar on Friday asked India’s External Affairs Ministry to serve summons to officials of foreign-based companies for court appearances March 13 my credit score.

In December, Telecommunications Minister Kapil Sibal said he had spoken repeatedly with officials from major Internet companies over the past three months and asked them to come up with a voluntary framework to keep offensive material off the Internet. He said that the companies told him there was nothing they could do.

There was no immediate comment by the networking sites after Friday’s court proceedings.

However, Facebook said last month that it would remove content that “is hateful, threatening, incites violence or contains nudity.”

Google said in a December statement that it removes content that violates local law and its own standards.

“But when content is legal and doesn’t violate our policies, we won’t remove it just because it’s controversial, as we believe that people’s differing views, so long as they’re legal, should be respected and protected,” Google said in a statement in December.

Sibal had shown reporters Web illustrations showing Singh and Gandhi in compromising positions as well as a site showing pigs running through Islam’s holy city of Mecca, a clear insult to Muslims.

Sibal said the Internet companies had told him that they were applying U.S. standards to their sites, and he objected, saying that they needed to be sensitive to Indian sensibilities.

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The editor of a British tabloid has outlined a culture where reporters exaggerate headlines, dramatize stories, and occasionally go too far.

Daily Star Editor Dawn Neesom was speaking at the judge-led inquiry into British media ethics set up in the wake of the phone hacking scandal centered on the now-defunct News of the World tabloid

She shied away from claims that her paper played fast and loose with the truth, but acknowledged that the paper’s mission was “to put a smile on people’s faces payday loans.”

Neesom said Thursday: “Occasionally, I admit, we do cross lines. But we do have standards.”

The Star is owned by media magnate Richard Desmond, who is also to give evidence at the inquiry.

Desmond also publishes the Daily Express and celebrity magazines OK! and New!

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all at the same time, without being forced to close down a program.

But the cool part is the controls. First, the TV’s built-in cameras use face recognition to automatically sign users into their personal profiles. Then, users can issue voice commands like "channel 34" or "guide" to control the TV. They can also use gesture controls for Web browsing, adjusting the volume and more.

Overall, the experience looks like what would happen if Apple’s (, Fortune 500) Siri voice assistant and Microsoft’s (, Fortune 500) Kinect motion-sensor system had a baby TV.

Content is accessed through the Smart TV Hub. That menu includes other features like "Family Story" — which can upload photos and videos from a mobile device to the TV — and special hubs for fitness content and for kids.

The ES8000, along with most of the other devices Samsung announced Monday, didn’t get a release date beyond "sometime this year."

On Sunday, the company unveiled a device called the InTouch, which converts regular TVs into smart TVs payday loans for bad credit. The $199 converter is a low-cost option for customers to add Internet browsing, Skype voice calling and a keyboard remote, without having to buy a new TV.

Samsung’s Monday keynote also included more on the TV and Internet-connected fronts: a 55-inch Super OLED TV, as well as connected washer/dryer and connected camera line.

In addition, two Samsung devices will soon make their 4G network debuts: the Galaxy Note phone, and the Galaxy Tab 7.7 tablet.

Samsung closed the keynote with two computer announcements. The new Series 9 Notebook is "the thinnest premium notebook on the market," the company says, at just a half-inch thick and 2.2 pounds. It boots up in just under 10 seconds.

Like many of the CES exhibitors, Samsung also unveiled a super-thin ultrabook: the Series 5 Ultra. Samsung says Web browsing on the laptop is twice as fast as on last-generation notebooks. 

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The French and German leaders are stressing that they view boosting economic growth a priority as they push through with efforts to stem the eurozone’s debt crisis.

Chancellor Angela Merkel and President Nicolas Sarkozy said Monday that Europe should compare countries’ labor market practices and learn from the best; and they called for European funds to be used in a way that create jobs.

Both leaders also said they’re prepared to consider speeding up payments into the 17-nation eurozone’s permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism, in an effort to bolster confidence.

They’re calling for a quick conclusion to negotiations on a new treaty enshrining fiscal rules.

Still, Merkel says that resolving the crisis will be “step-by-step … there’s no single-dimension solution.”

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Iran has begun uranium enrichment at a new underground site well protected from possible airstrikes, a leading hardline newspaper reported Sunday in another show of defiance against Western pressure to rein in Tehran’s nuclear program.

Another newspaper quoted a senior commander of the powerful Revolutionary Guard force as saying Tehran’s leadership has decided to order the closure of the Strait of Hormuz, a strategic oil route, if the country’s petroleum exports are blocked. Revolutionary Guard ground forces also staged war games in eastern Iran in an apparent display of resolve against U.S. forces just over the border in Afghanistan.

“The supreme authorities … have insisted that if enemies block the export of our oil, we won’t allow a drop of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. This is the strategy of the Islamic Republic in countering such threats,” Revolutionary Guard deputy commander Ali Ashraf Nouri was quoted as saying by the Khorasan daily.

Iranian politicians have issued similar threats in the past, but this is the strongest statement yet by a top commander in the security establishment.

The latest statements are certain to fuel tensions with the U.S. and its allies, which are trying to turn up pressure on Iran with new sanctions to punish it over its disputed nuclear program. The West suspects Iran is trying to make nuclear weapons, but Iran denies this.

The United Nations has already sanctioned Iran for refusing to stop uranium enrichment _ which can produce both nuclear fuel and fissile warhead material. Tehran says its nuclear program is only for energy and medical research, and refuses to halt uranium enrichment.

Kayhan daily, which is close to Iran’s ruling clerics, said Tehran has begun injecting uranium gas into sophisticated centrifuges at the Fordo facility near the holy city of Qom.

“Kayhan received reports yesterday that show Iran has begun uranium enrichment at the Fordo facility amid heightened foreign enemy threats,” the paper said in a front-page report. Kayhan’s manager is a representative of Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who has the final word on all important matters of state.

Iran’s nuclear chief, Fereidoun Abbasi, said late Saturday that his country will “soon” begin enrichment at Fordo. It was impossible to immediately reconcile the two reports.

Iran has a major uranium enrichment facility in Natanz in central Iran, where nearly 8,000 centrifuges are operating. Tehran began enrichment at Natanz in April 2006.

The Fordo centrifuges, however, are reportedly more efficient. And the site better shielded from aerial attack.

Nouri said Iran’s leadership has made a strategic decision to close the Strait of Hormuz, should the country’s exports be blocked. One-sixth of the world’s oil flows to market through the Strait of Hormuz, at the mouth of the Persian Gulf unsecured personal loans.

President Barack Obama approved new sanctions against Iran a week ago, targeting the central bank and its ability to sell petroleum abroad. The U.S. has delayed implementing the sanctions for at least six months, worried about sending the price of oil higher at a time when the global economy is already struggling. But the new sanctions nevertheless prompted a series of threats from Iranian officials about closing the Strait of Hormuz.

The newspaper paraphrased Nouri as saying that a 10-day naval war game which ended Tuesday was preparation for such a closure. The Guard, which is Iran’s most powerful military force and which has its own naval arm, has planned more sea maneuvers for February.

“The exalted leader (Khamenei) determined a new strategy for the armed forces, by which any threat from enemies will be responded to with threats,” Nouri said.

The U.S. and Israel have said that all options remain open, including military action, should Iran continue with its enrichment program.

Tehran says it needs the program to produce fuel for future nuclear reactors and medical radioisotopes needed for cancer patients.

The country has been enriching uranium to less than 5 percent for years, but it began to further enrich part of its uranium stockpile to nearly 20 percent as of February 2010, saying it needs the higher grade material to produce fuel for a Tehran reactor that makes medical radioisotopes needed for cancer patients. Weapons-grade uranium is usually about 90 percent enriched.

Iran says the higher enrichment activities _ to nearly 20 percent _ will be carried out at Fordo. These operations are of particular concern to the West because uranium at 20 percent enrichment can be converted into fissile material for a nuclear warhead much more quickly than that at 3.5 percent.

Built next to a military complex, Fordo was long kept secret and was only acknowledged by Iran after it was identified by Western intelligence agencies in September 2009.

Buried under 300 feet (90 meters) of rock, the facility is a hardened tunnel and is protected by air defense missile batteries and the Revolutionary Guard, Iran’s most powerful military force. The site is located about 20 miles (32 kilometers) north of Qom, the religious nerve center of Iran’s ruling system.

“The Fordo facility, like Natanz, has been designed and built underground. The enemy doesn’t have the ability to damage it,” the semiofficial Mehr news agency quoted nuclear chief Abbasi as saying Sunday.

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The addition of 200,000 new jobs in December shows that the economy is strengthening, Labor Secretary Hilda Solis said on Friday.

“We have seen a steady firming up of our economy” in recent months with two million jobs created in the private sector of the past year, she told CNBC television.

“Now we are seeing a better trajectory, we are moving in the right direction.”

“In the last few months, on the whole I have seen good incremental increase in the private sector jobs, so on that side of the factor I would say, ‘Hey, that is not a bad thing at all,” she said free business cards.

But she urged the extension of the payroll tax cut and further measures to support continued improvement in the jobs market.

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U.S. stocks rallied Tuesday, kicking off the new year on a high note, as investors welcomed upbeat reports on economic activity around the world.

The Dow Jones industrial average () jumped 180 points, or 1.5%, to end at 12,397. The S&P 500 () gained 19 points, or 1.5%, to 1,277. The Nasdaq () added 43 points, or 1.7%, to 2,649.

The gains came after reports on manufacturing growth in China and India came in better than expected over the weekend. On Tuesday, a report showed U.S. manufacturing activity grew at a faster rate in December.

U.S. markets were closed Monday for the New Year holiday.

"There were no major negative headlines out of Europe, and we had some data suggesting the global economy is expanding," said Dan Greenhaus, chief global strategist at BTIG.

Investors scooped up shares of companies that would benefit from a strengthening global economy.

Bank stocks, which were among the worst performing sectors last year, led the Dow higher. Bank of America (, Fortune 500), Citigroup (, Fortune 500) and JPMorgan (, Fortune 500) all posted strong gains.

Industrial names Caterpillar (, Fortune 500) and Alcoa (, Fortune 500) were also higher, as were multinationals such as GE (, Fortune 500), Microsoft (, Fortune 500) and 3M (, Fortune 500).

But traders say the market is vulnerable to concerns about the debt crisis in Europe, which has been the main driver of stock prices for several months.

Stocks in 2012: Choppy but higher

"At least for today, there’s no disaster in Europe," said Art Hogan, a managing director at Lazard Capital Markets. "The market remains focused on what’s going on in the eurozone."

Meanwhile, oil prices surged more than 4% on continued anxiety over Iran’s growing threat to shut down the Strait of Hormuz.

U.S. stocks finished little changed Friday, bringing to an end a year in which the S&P dropped just 0.04 point — the smallest annual change in history. The Dow rose 5.5% for the year, while the Nasdaq lost 1.8%.

Economy: The Institute of Supply Management’s survey of manufacturing purchasing managers rose to 53.9 from 52.7. That’s a bit better than the 53.4 forecast of economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

Any reading above 50 signals expansion in the sector.

The Commerce Department said construction spending jumped 1 quick guaranteed personal loans.2% in November, after a revised 0.2% decline in October. Analysts surveyed by Briefing.com expect construction spending to have risen by 0.5%.

Over the weekend, the Chinese government released its official reading on manufacturing activity, showing the sector expanded slightly in December, after contracting the month before. And on Monday, a report compiled by HSBC and Markit showed India’s manufacturing activity picked up significantly during the month.

The manufacturing data "provides further evidence that global industrial production is likely to be stabilizing in the months to come," analysts at Barclays Capital wrote in a note to clients.

The Federal Reserve plans to give even more detailed forecasts about where it expects its key interest rate to be years from now, according to minutes of the Fed’s December meeting released Tuesday.

Companies: Chesapeake Energy (, Fortune 500) shares rose after the Oklahoma City-based energy company announced it completed a venture with an affiliate of French oil company Total () that gives the French firm a 25% stake in more than 600,000 acres in eastern Ohio, an area rich in shale oil.

20 Stocks For January 2012

Mead Johnson Nutrition () shares gained after two U.S. government agencies said they have completed their investigation of Enfamil and found the baby formula safe to use. The Food and Drug Administration and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention had stepped in after a newborn baby died of a rare bacterial infection that they suspected could be linked to the powder-based infant formula.

World markets: European stocks also rose. Britain’s FTSE 100 () added 2%, the DAX () in Germany added 1.5% and France’s CAC 40 () gained 0.4%.

The Hang Seng () in Hong Kong added 2.4%. Markets in Shanghai () and Tokyo () were both closed for an extended New Year holiday.

Currencies and commodities: The dollar fell against the euro, the British pound and the Japanese yen.

Oil for February delivery added $4.20, or 4.2%, to $103.03 a barrel.

Gold futures for February delivery rose $33.70 to end at $1,600.50 an ounce.

Bonds: The price on the benchmark 10-year U.S. Treasury fell, pushing the yield up to 1.96% from 1.87% late Friday.  

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U.K. manufacturing (PMITMUK) shrank less than economists forecast in December as demand increased in Germany and China.

A gauge of factory output based on a survey by Markit Economics and the Chartered Institute of Purchasing and Supply rose to 49.6 from a revised 47.7 in November, the groups said in an e-mailed statement today. The median forecast of 19 economists in a Bloomberg News survey was for a drop to 47.3 from an initially reported 47.6 in November. A level below 50 indicates contraction.

The sovereign debt turmoil in Europe, the U.K.

Nigeria, Africa

Gas prices unexpectedly rose more than 30 percent for the new year in Myanmar and sparked fears of other goods costing more as well.

Motorists learned of the increase at the pump Sunday when prices increased from 2,500 kyat (3.15 dollars) to 3,350 kyat (4.2 dollars) per Imperial gallon (4.5 liters).

The government made no announcement. But with the fuel price hike, and a new 40 percent electricity cost increase announced late last year, people are concerned about inflation of consumer goods, too.

Myanmar’s energy production is not enough to meet domestic demand, and it imports petrol and other fuels. The government subsidizes gas prices and rations it to two Imperial gallons (9 liters) a day.

An unannounced price hike in 2007 sparked anti-government protests that led to the “saffron rebellion.” The military government then in power crushed it, leaving at least 15 dead and thousands arrested.

The nominally civilian government that took power early last year has made political changes that have improved its relationship with citizens.

(This version CORRECTS Corrects conversion of Imperial gallon to liter, from 4.2 to 4.5. This story is part of AP’s general news and financial services.)

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