The All Pakistan Newspapers Society (APNS) has set a minimum cover price formula for newspapers in Pakistan, and newspapers that violate the new rule will be denied distribution in Akhbar Markets, Dawn reported.

The formula, effective Wednesday, was decided in collaboration with the Akhbar Farosh Federation, a press release from APNS stated.

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A newspaper that reported rumours of a marriage between Vladimir Putin and a 24-year-old gymnast has closed the day following the report, after the Russian president told journalists the reports were unacceptable, The Independent reported Monday.

Moskovsky Korrespondent first reported the affair, but Putin denied he and his wife Ludmilla divorced, and thathe is to wed Alina Kabaeva. Meanwhile, the newspaper's editorial team said the story had no factual basis.

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The Malaysian government has shut down a paper serving ethnic minority Indians, a punishment for its news editor criticising the government on social and political issues, the Associated Press reported.

The Tamil-language Makkal Osai, or People's Voice, received a letter from the Home Ministry on Wednesday, stating that its operating license would not be renewed, according to its news editor B. R. Rajan.

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The Freedom Newspaper is accusing the Gambia Telecommunication Company (GAMTEL), the country’s main Internet service provider, of blocking the online paper’s Web sites’ IP-address because of a story it carried about the company, online newspaper Foroyaa reported Wednesday.

The Freedom Newspaper reported March 9 that GAMTEL was on the edge of total bankruptcy for its misconduct.

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A senior official at the Chinese state council information office announced that the country welcomes closer ties with other countries to develop China's growing digital media sector, but also warned that foreigners should not use “Internet issues” tamper with the country's “internal affairs,” the Guardian reported last week.

Cai Mingzhao, a vice minister with the information office, explained China's digital media policy to a roundtable discussion held at Reuters' London offices Thursday.

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A newspaper company that distributes in Plano, Texas, is suing Plano over an ordinance that allows the city to prohibit the distribution of printed materials if residents complain, The Dallas Morning News reported Monday.

The lawsuit brought on by Addison, Texas-based American Community Newspapers, will soon head to a federal appeals court, in the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans.

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The New South Wales Supreme Court is asking for new powers that would enable the court to penalise the media pay for criminal case retrials if the original trial is aborted due to news reports, The Australian reported Tuesday.

Judge Roderick Howie called for the court to be able to “make orders against a publisher for the financial consequences of publishing an article which results in the discharge of a jury even though the article does not amount to a criminal contempt.”

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The Fiji Sun's publisher, Russell Hunter, was deported Tuesday after his paper printed reports that the country's finance minister, Mahendra Chaudhry, had engaged in tax evasion.

Hunter was described by the Fijian government as being a threat to national stability. He was given deportation documents Monday night by four soldiers and an immigration official and arrived in Australia Tuesday afternoon, the Sydney Morning Herald reported Wednesday.

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Weekly business newspaper The Myanmar Times, which is closely tied to Burma's ruling junta, may soon be permitted to publish the country's first privately owned daily newspaper since the military took over power in Myanmar in 1962, The Irrawaddy reported Monday.

Sources in Rangoon told The Irrawaddy, a Thailand-based newspaper that covers Burma and Southeast Asia, that it seems “very likely” The Myanmar Times will receive permission to publish the new privately owned daily following a national referendum held by the regime, which is scheduled for May.

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An Astana court has ordered one of Kazakhstan's only independent newspapers to be closed, saying that errors were made when the newspaper was registered, RadioFreeEurope reported Friday.

The owner of the newspaper, Law and Justice, have said the order is an attempt at shutting down an independent media outlet that reports on Kazakh judiciary corruption, and has nothing to do with their registration.

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Editors of four national dailies in Bangladesh, as well as 30 editors and publishers of local dailies, urged their government to implement policies that would help newspapers survive during difficult times.

The editors of Amar Desh, Amader Shomoy, Manabzamin and Bhorer Kagoj and others addressed the government at the “Problems of the newspaper industry” forum, organised by the Progressive Democratic Party, The Daily Star has reported Wednesday.

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Andris Tiltnieks has filed a £3.7 million libel claim against the publishers of the Guardian newspaper.

Tiltnieks is the head of The Baltic Work Team, a company that employs Bulgarian workers to do manual labour. A Guardian article, published in August 2007, claimed the company illegally employed and exploited the workers, not paying them for 34 days and forcing them to live on scraps and by scavenging vegetables from fields where they worked, and housing them in dirty caravans. The story also stated that Tiltnieks had his gangmaster licence revoked for abuses of employment law, Press Gazette reported Thursday.

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More than 800 users from around the world have joined a Facebook group formed to defend 23-year-old Afghani journalism student Sayad Parwez Kambaksh, who was sentenced to death by an Afghan court for insulting Islam. Another group, Save Sayed Pervez (sic) Kambaksh, has garnered more than 2,000 members, and a total of 19 groups on Kambaksh's behalf have been created on the social networking site.

Kambaksh's crime: downloading from the Internet and distributing to fellow students a paper that states the oppression of women is not justified by the Koran or Muhammad's teachings.

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Saying that time for a negotiated solution is running out, the European Union is preparing to complain to the World Trade Organization about China's restrictions on financial news from foreign providers, Bloomberg News reported Tuesday.

EU Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson has written the proposal for the WTO to initiate a “dispute settlement procedure” over strict Chinese measures that affect “the supply of financial information services to China,” according to a European Commission document.

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Australian Prime Minister Kevin Rudd announced the federal government does not support Australian Federal Police Commissioner Mick Keelty's call for a media blackout during terrorism cases, ABC News reported Friday.

Keelty announced in a speech Tuesday that the media should not be allowed to report on terrorism cases until they are finalised in court.

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