At the end of the 1990s, Korea developed its own encryption technology, SEED, with the aim of securing e-commerce. Users must supply a digital certificate, protected by a personal password, for any online transaction in order to prove their identity. For Web sites to be able to verify the certificates, the technology requires users to install a Microsoft ActiveX plug-in.

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It forced consumers to use Internet Explorer because it was the only browser ActiveX plug-ins were compatible with. By default, Web developers optimized not only banking and shopping Web sites for Internet Explorer, but all Web sites.

Unsurprisingly, this later caused all sorts of problems. And this, kids, is why "standardizing" on a vendor-specific solution, as opposed to an actual open standard, is an idiotic idea.

In 1989, the Emperor Showa was buried at the Musashino Imperial Mausoleum in the Hachioji district of Tokyo, with the structure alone costing Y2.6 billion (£19.89 million).

Acutely aware of the nation's perilous financial situation – Japan's national debt stood at 229.77 per cent of GDP in 2011, the highest in the world – as well as the need to raise funds to pay for the reconstruction of large parts of the northeast of the country that were devastated by last year's earthquake and tsunami, the imperial couple have apparently taken it upon themselves to be less of a burden on the nation.

What does this mean for you? Well, if need be, the government can read your email, Facebook messages, forum postings, web history, pretty much anything you’ve ever done on the internet. You may believe that as you’re not a terrorist or child pornographer, the government should have no reason to, but the problem is the language in this bill is so loose, they can access your information for almost any reason at all. Ever visited a torrent site or watched an unofficial YouTube video of copyrighted material? Ever reposted a picture without the explicit permission of the rights holder? Well, you’re now tangentially related to a cybersecurity crime, and your entire internet history is fair game for careful examination. And don’t think Google Chrome Incognito mode will save you.

The Japanese government says NOT carrying out decontamination work may be an option in areas near the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant where radiation readings are likely to stay high for at least a decade.

I sin harme over Anders Behring Breiviks ugjerninger overgår de politiske kommentatorene hverandre i å finne uttrykk for sin avsky. Men de bommer når denne avskyen rettes mot Breiviks framtreden i retten. Bildet av en «iskald» Anders Behring Breivik som «ryster og sjokkerer» med sin oppførsel stemmer ikke med virkeligheten.

Den Anders Behring Breivik som sitter i tiltaleboksen i rettssal 250 i Oslo tingrett, er en drapsmann som gjør det han får beskjed om og som svarer samarbeidsvillig og reflekterende på spørsmål. At hans gjerninger 22. juli i fjor ikke er til å begripe, er ikke det samme som at alt han i dag sier og gjør er monstrøst.

Det er et tap for den norske offentligheten at ikke alle interesserte gis anledning til å følge rettsprosessen direkte slik at de selv kunne ha dannet seg et inntrykk av det det som foregår og mannen som sitter tiltalt, uten politiske kommentatorers filtre.

Restrictions in sizeable parts of Fukushima's evacuation area have been relaxed, enabling some residents to visit at will and work towards a permanent return. Two towns have opened, and a third will follow in two weeks' time.

At midnight on 1 April the restrictions on several areas within 20 kilometres of the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant were revised. A significant part of these had shown dose rates caused by ambient radioactivity to be below 20 millisieverts per year - the government's benchmark for the return.

These towns are considerably farther from the Fukushima Daiichi power plant than Okuma, where our family used to live, though.

Nagel concluded that democracies rarely or never elect the best leaders. Their advantage over dictatorships or other forms of government is merely that they "effectively prevent lower-than-average candidates from becoming leaders."

The SavetheInternet.com Coalition is two million everyday people who have banded together with thousands of nonprofit organizations, businesses and bloggers to protect Internet freedom.

When US-born Dave Aldwinckle became a Japanese citizen named Arudou Debito in 2000, two Japanese officials told him that only now did he have human rights in Japan. Such prejudice galvanized him into becoming a crusader against anti-gaijin (foreigner) discrimination after braving death threats to him and his family. Is Arudou throwing the egg of morality and legality against the rock of ancient bias? In this exclusive interview with Asia Times Online contributor Victor Fic, he sees Japan turning inward.

The Japanese government is launching a large-scale cleanup of the fields, forests, and villages contaminated by the Fukushima nuclear disaster. But some experts caution that an overly aggressive remediation program could create a host of other environmental problems.

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Ten months after the nuclear disaster, trust in the authorities is nearly nonexistent. Without it, Japan’s government risks the biggest cleanup fiasco of all: a decontamination effort that carries huge financial and environmental costs but still fails to convince Fukushima residents that their homes, farms, and forests are safe once again