Kuwait has ordered local Internet service providers to block YouTube over content which could offend Muslims, Reuters reported Monday.

“Since the Web site displays the Koran in the form of songs sung with the oud (stringed instrument) ... and displays disrespectful pictures of the Prophet Mohammad ... please proceed with immediate effect in blocking the Web site www.youtube.com,” the memo stated, according the copy obtained by Reuters.

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Google Inc. has cut the amount of time it stores personal data from users' online usage habits, which is aimed to improve its privacy policies, according to a company official, Reuters reported Tuesday.

The leading online company used to store such data for 18 months, but now trimmed it to nine months.

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A Turkish court has lifted a ban on the video-sharing Web site YouTube, after numerous sites blocked themselves to protest “growing” Web censorship, the Guardian reported.

YouTube was blocked in May, following the release of video content that allegedly insulted Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, who founded the modern Turkish state.

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Doing business in China means media companies have to take care not to step on any socio-political mine fields, as the recent blocking of the iTunes Music Store (iTMS) has demonstrated.

Apple began selling an album titled “Songs for Tibet” on its iTMS when it was released, around the same time the Olympic Games in Beijing started. About 40 Olympics athletes have bought the album, Silicon Hutong reported Wednesday.

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The United Arab Emirates is closer to becoming a better place to practice journalism, as the government is closing in on passing a federal media law that would eliminate jail terms for press violations, Oxford Analytica reported Tuesday.

The law is part of a 10-year effort the UAE has made to attract outside media companies, as well as increase the number of domestic media players.

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A U.S. judge has ordered Google to reveal the video-viewing habits of YouTube users to Viacom, a decision condemned by the online company and privacy advocates, Agence France-Presse reported.

Louis Stanton, U.S. District Court Judge, backed Viacom's request for data on which YouTube users watch which videos on the site, in order to support its case in a copyright lawsuit against Google.

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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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