Tiananmen Square – the epicentre of a student pro-democracy protest 20 years ago – has been flooded with armed police and teams of plain-clothed security officials

A virtual lockdown has been put in place to prevent any demonstrations on this most sensitive anniversary.

Foreign television crews have been barred entry to the vast square – and several were detained.

It is thought that more than 2,000 people – mostly students – were killed when the Chinese army put down the protest on June 3 and 4, 1989 – turning tanks and machine guns on the unarmed crowd.

However, the Communist Party has never revealed the precise total of those killed.

The Chinese have now reacted angrily to a call by US Secretary of State Hillery Clinton to publish the names of those killed or missing during the crackdown.

Channel 4’s 4ip project has sparked a glimmer of hope in the broadcast industry given the state of the economy at present.

Where commercial media companies are purely focused on the most secure money-generating digital projects, Channel 4 has the luxury of being able to explore potentially powerful digital businesses as well as public service projects. They have been given £20m to spend over three years which fails to compete with TV commissioning budgets but represents a substantial opportunity for a low-cost, influential and increasingly important sector brimming with creative talent.

The 4iP Fund aims to deliver publicly valuable content and services on digital media platforms with significant impact and in sustainable ways. It represents one of the biggest and most exciting calls-to-action for new and emergent digital media companies in the UK.

Tom Loosemore head of 4Ip and former head of Web 2.0 at the BBC and Ofcom digital strategy adviser has declared 4ip projects will be allowed to fail.

“We’re ‘learning by doing’. And on the internet, if you’re not failing, you’re not taking enough risks. The trick is to fail really quickly and cheaply – to fall forward, fast. We put huge emphasis on getting running code out there quickly and cheaply, with enough built-in enough flexibility to adapt to how people actually use products. And we’re not afraid to drown puppies.”

“Times are tough, but it would be remiss for a public institution with a remit for innovation to ignore seismic changes in people’s media preferences and behaviours – particularly amongst those growing up with the internet.”

4iP hopes to be fully integrated with Channel 4 by 2011, and hop that other institutions will follow suit by then.  

SONY has unveiled the latest in its Playstation Portable line of hand-held devices, the PSP Go, as it races to catch rival Nintendo in the mobile gaming arena.

“We call it the worst kept secret of E3,” said Sony Computer Entertainment president Kaz Hirai. “There will be more content that is easier to get on your PSP. It’s entertainment everywhere.”

Go, which is half the size of the original PSP, can download and store video, pictures and games and has built-in wireless Internet and Bluetooth capabilities. All future PSP videogame titles will be available for digital download, skipping any need to buy software on disks, according to Sony.  A new Sense Me feature analyses music stored in Go devices and then creates playlists to suit the user’s moods. Go gadgets will also be built with a video delivery service Sony launched last year. Hot videogame franchises including Gran Turismo, Metal Gear Solid, and Resident Evil are creating new games tailored to Go devices, according to Sony.

The gadget goes on sale October 1 in the US and Europe for about $US249 ($303), before hitting stores in Japan November 1st.

Sony Australia said the Go would be released locally on October 1 but could not confirm a price.

Sony aims to sell 15 million units of the PSP – which competes with Nintendo’s DS – in the financial year to March, up from 14.1 million units a year earlier.

Nintendo’s gaming consoles and hand-held devices have in past months outsold its rivals’ products. It’s DSi, released in the United States on April 5, sold roughly 800,000 units in the month, far outpacing Sony’s PSP handheld.

The DS franchise overall sold more than 1 million units.

The UK government has signalled its commitment to ensuring everyone in the country has access to broadband speeds of two megabit per second by 2012. Earlier this year Lord Carter set out his interim recommendations for Digital Britain, in which he proposed a Universal Service for broadband.

He recommended a minimum of 2Mbps, which the government has now backed.

The Treasury said the cost would be met in part by underspend from the BBC’s promotion of Digital TV switchover. The government’s backing of 2Mbps was contained in the Budget Report

That speed would “allow virtually everyone to experience the benefits of broadband, including the increasing delivery of public services online”.

It added: “It will also offer advantages to UK businesses, both those located in areas that will benefit from the network upgrade and those that make use of online channels to engage with their customers.” The government said Universal Service would be complemented with “further support to improve basic digital skills and promote broadband take-up”.

David Carradine, who played Uma Thurman’s nemesis Bill, in Quentin Tarrantino’s Kill Bill sequels, has been found dead in a Bangkok hotel room

The 72-year-old was in Thailand filming his latest film Stretch, according to his personal manager, Chuck Binder.The

Kung-Fu specialist is best remembered for his role as Kwai Chang Caine in the 1970s US TV series Kung Fu.

News of the cause of death has yet to be released.

BT is to roll-out super-fast broadband to all of its 4.8million customers at no extra charge.
The company, Britain’s biggest broadband service, will start offering the upgrade to 20 megabits per second to any customer, even those on its cheapest package, which costs £15.60 a month.
The rollout is part of the firm’s planned upgrade of lines to so-called ADSL2+ technology. The firm said the rollout would start with 40% of the UK this summer and reach 55Existing customers will have to sign a new 12-month contract to get the boost, while throttling of video streams in peak hours for some customers remains.

Earlier this week BT was criticised when it was revealed it cut the speed of customers on its cheapest broadband package to below 1Mbps in peak hours when using services like the iPlayer and YouTube.
That so-called traffic management will remain in place with the new speeds. Download caps for the cheapest two packages, of 10 gigabytes and 20 gigabytes, will also continue, the firm said.
A DVD quality film, which currently takes just under 3 hours to download, should be able to be downloaded in just over half an hour.
In a statement, Gavin Patterson, chief executive officer, BT Retail, said: “Unlike other providers, BT is upgrading customers to 20Mb/s for free. High-speed broadband provides a faster and more reliable service that will transform the way we live, work, learn and play.”
BT said it was starting trials of its fibre optic 40Mbps service in Whitchurch, South Wales and Muswell Hill, London this summer, with the aim of offering these speeds to 40% of the country in the future.
The speed boost to 20Mbps is less than the firm’s originally stated aims of offering up to 24Mbps. On its website, BT says in tests “we’ve found that only a tiny number of customers can actually get 24Mb”. % of customers by March 2010.

With twilights 5 award assault on the MTV movie awards this week you would think most of the fallout would be centred around the movie and its cast members. But one event has dominated the news since the award ceremony and has everybody talking about it whether they saw the incident or not.
This incident has come to be known as Kugelsackgate, and if you havn’t guessed already this is the incident involving Detroit Rapper Eminem, and Sacha Baron Cohen as his alter ego Bruno.

The now infamous incident which saw Baron Cohen’s character Bruno make his entrance on wires, wearing angel wings, knee high boots and a white thong wedged where the sun don’t shine, come crashing down on top of the 8 mile rapper with his scantily covered behind all in Shady’s face.
This lead to Eminem’ s band members D12, trying to free him from the grasps of Homosexual character Bruno, once freed Eminem walked out cursing at Bruno and the event.

Many were quick to criticise Eminem’s reaction, stating that he himself made jokes at the expense of others, and he had this coming to him.
But it has been revealed that Eminem was in on the prank, and had rehearsed the stunt prior to the award show. MTV writer Scott Aukerman revealed the stunt, which saw the bare-bottomed comedian descend on Slim Shady’s lap, was in fact a well-rehearsed sketch.

He said: ‘Yes, the Bruno/Eminem incident was staged. That’s all anyone wants to talk about, so let’s get it out of the way. They rehearsed it at dress and yes, it went as far as it did on the live show then.’

With Eminem’s comeback album Relapse recently released and Sacha Baron Cohen’s new film “Bruno” set for release in mid July, this incident has been heralded as the perfect P.R stunt.

The Premier League has become the most popular football league in the world over the past decade, available in 662m homes. They plan to overhaul the way they sell their overseas rights as part of a drive to further grow the appeal of English top-flight football in emerging markets such as China, Africa and India. Under the current deal, the premier league sells the rights on a territory-by-territory basis; income from overseas rights has more than doubled to £625m, a figure that is expected to increase further when the new contracts are offered on a staggered basis across the rest of the year. Last time, 81 deals covered 211 territories.

At its two-day AGM, which begins today, the Premier league chief executive, Richard Scudamore, and his head of international broadcasting and media operations, Phil Lines, will put forward a plan designed to counter the threat of American sports and rival leagues.

Previously the league has tended to sell the rights to the highest bidder. But in the overseas markets it will look to make at least one package of live matches ­available to a free-to-air broadcaster in a bid to expand its reach.

Having already banked almost £2bn from domestic live rights and highlights for the three seasons from 2010-11, the Premier League is hopeful of persuading the chairmen that it is worth taking a hit in emerging markets in return for growing their reach. In any case, the overall total is still expected to top the existing £2.7bn brought in under the current deal.

They are likely to argue that not only will a longer-term approach lead to bigger returns further down the line, but will increase their own possibilities for merchandise sales, tours and other spin-off benefits. In China, the Premier League was seen as having made a strategic error by signing an exclusive deal with the pay-TV operator WinTV, available in only a handful of homes. The NBA and other football leagues, including the German Bundesliga, are available on the Chinese state ­broadcaster, CCTV.

The overseas TV deal is one of several items on a packed agenda at the AGM, including the proposals made by the league in response to culture secretary Andy Burnham’s questions on the future of the game. Chairmen will vote on new financial controls and a strengthened fit-and-proper-persons test, as well as discussing how best to implement new rules designed to promote the development of home-grown players.

The next generation of Windows is coming out with a brand new sensitive touch screen which could spell the end of the mouse.

Microsoft’s new PC operating system now has a final launch date. This week the company revealed that it will make Windows 7 available to the public on October 22. That should be a huge boost for the OS as new PCs will have it installed and ready for the busy holiday shopping season.

Microsoft decided to go ahead with the launch date following a good response to the already released release canidate version of Windows 7. Microsoft also plans to have a program where people who buy a Windows Vista PC close to the release of Windows 7 to upgrade to the new OS

Last year the software giant made about a third of its £60bn income from selling the operating system. Windows Vista has been attacked for being too complicated and Microsoft bosses hope the new system will restore public confidence in the product.

Users with touch-sensitive screens will be able to control their computers with the touch of a finger, rather than with a keyboard and mouse. The device, as popularised on the iPhone and iPod Touch by Apple, is a direct challenge to Microsoft’s arch-rival. Microsoft is battling against a growing market in netbooks – smaller PCs ideal for surfing online and emailing. One of the leading manufacturers, Acer, has become the first to announce a line of small PCs to run Google’s new Android operating system.

Free upgrades to the new system will be offered to computer buyers shortly ahead of the launch. Microsoft said: “We’ve produced the best Windows operating system ever, designed according to how people want to use it.”The primary focus throughout the development of Windows 7 has been quality.”

Tonight will see the tenth year of the social phenomenon that is Big Brother return to our screens and any contestants hoping for a luxurious five star experience will receive a rude awakening tonight, when one by one they take the walk through the hostile crowd and into the house where they face a potential 13 weeks of hell as this year is anticipated to be the toughest Big Brother yet.

The 16 contestants, who have been kept away from the media for the past few weeks, are billed by Channel 4 as the “most diverse group yet”, coming from a number of different countries and ranging in age from 18 to 40.

But this year the eight male and eight female inhabitants of the house have been told that they are not official housemates until they have earned the title by completing a series of tasks over the next three days. Until they are officially Big Brother 10 housemates they will not receive their suitcases along with their personal belongings, the “contestants” will only have access to the Big Brother compound’s living room, which has no beds or creature comforts apart from a toilet and the garden for some much needed fresh air. The “contestants” three day torture will be compiled by only being able to wash using an outside bath, which can only be filled with cold water using a hole-ridden bucket.

Once fully fledged housemates they will be competing for a £100,000 prize. The show, which launches tonight at 9pm on Channel 4, is due to run for 13 weeks, ending at the beginning of September.