China on Tuesday began offering its own satellite navigation system to users, as an effort to move away from the nation’s reliance on the U.S.-built NAVSTAR GPS network. Beidou now offered location, timing and navigation data to China and surrounding areasannounced the project’s spokesman Ran Cheng. China has been working on the system since 2000 to provide an alternative to the US government-run Global Positioning System (GPS). The move should make China’s military less dependent on foreign technology. A launch earlier this month delivered the tenth of Beidou’s satellites into orbit. Beijing plans to send a further six satellites into space by 2012 to extend the

Apple has admitted that 15 of its Chinese suppliers are violating environmental regulations and poisoning the local population. Apparently Jobs mob has sent five employees to meet with five different Chinese environmental groups on November 15, only to learn about several troubling environmental issues at as many as 22 parts suppliers. Chinese environmentalist groups claimed the factories were releasing toxic gasses, heavy metal sludge and other pollutants. It is the first time that Apple has admitted wrongdoing in relation to environmental pollution from any of its Chinese supply chains. Jobs mob has always claimed it was committed to “the highest standards of social responsibility

Facebook has signed an agreement with Chinese search engine giant Baidu to set up a new social networking site in China, a leading web portal reported Monday. The new website will not be linked to Facebook’s global service, which is currently blocked in China, the report on Sohu.com said, citing unnamed Baidu employees. The agreement follows several meetings between Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg and Baidu’s chief executive Robin Li, it added, and comes amid reports the US social networking giant is eyeing a move into mainland China. Baidu spokesman Kaiser Kuo refused to comment when contacted by AFP, and the Sohu report was later taken off the website. Facebook downpl