Beijing: Google said Friday its services appeared to be back up and running normally in China, after the US web giant reported that access to its search engine and other products were being blocked.

Google and the Chinese government have for months been locked in a battle over state censorship and cyberattacks that the company says originated in China, the world’s largest online market with 420 million users.
On Thursday, a Google web page listed search, Google Ads and Google Mobile as “fully blocked” in China for the first time in weeks. …

Payerne: An experimental solar powered aircraft landed in Switzerland on Thursday at 9.01 am (0701 GMT), after completing a historic flight lasting some 26 hours.

Experimental Solar Impulse aircraft with pilot Andre Borschber onboard make a seamless landing at Payerne airbase in western Switzerland about three hours after daybreak.
“It’s the first time ever that a solar airplane has flown through the night,” said team chief Bertrand Piccard earlier.
The high-tech single-seater aircraft took off from Payerne in the early hours (0451 GMT) of Wednesday.
Solar Impulse was attempting the first such manned flight …

Geneva: An experimental solar-powered plane whose makers hope to one day circle the globe using only energy collected from the sun took off for its first 24-hour test flight Wednesday.

The plane with its 262.5-foot (80-meter) wingspan left Payerne airfield in Switzerland shortly before 7 a.m. (0500 GMT; 1 a.m. EDT) after an equipment problem that delayed a previous attempt was solved, the Solar Impulse team said.
Pilot Andre Borschberg will take the prototype to an altitude of 27,900 feet (8,500 meters) by Wednesday evening, when a decision will be made whether …

Beijing: A Google search feature was blocked in China on Thursday, the company said as it awaited Beijing’s decision on whether to renew its operating license amid tensions over censorship.

Mainland users were unable to use the search giant’s “suggest” feature, which offers possible results as they start to type a query, the company said.
“It appears that search queries produced by Google Suggest are being blocked for mainland users in China,” said Google spokeswoman Jessica Powell in an e-mail. “Normal searches that do not use query suggestions are unaffected.”
Google’s relations …

New Delhi: Microsoft chief executive Steve Ballmer on Thursday said he was unconcerned that his company had been overtaken by rival Apple as the world’s biggest technology firm in terms of market value.

Ballmer spoke to reporters in New Delhi day after Apple, maker of the iPod, iPhone and iPad, passed the software giant for the first time.
“It is a long game. We have good competitors but we too are very good competitors,” he said. “I will make more profit and certainly there is no technology company on the planet …

Washington: Facebook is disappointed at being blocked in Pakistan over a contest that encourages users to post caricatures of the Prophet Mohammed (Peace be upon him) and may make the offending page inaccessible to users there, the social network said late Wednesday.

“We are very disappointed with the Pakistani courts’ decision to block Facebook without warning, and suspect our users there feel the same way,” Facebook said in a statement to French news agency.
“We are analyzing the situation and the legal considerations, and will take appropriate action, which may include making …