‘The More Things Change’ Dept: With Shiver of Fear, Russians Sense a Return to Police-State Ways. “It is not an easy thing to quantify, much less to prove.

But among intellectuals and activists here who advocate a

democratic Russia in the Western mode, a gnawing concern is

arising that the relative freedom from state surveillance and

restriction that citizens have relished in the last decade may be

drawing to a close.” What do you expect after choosing a former KGB officer who was director of the Federal

Security Service as President? At least here in the U.S. we’ve got a bumbling ne’er-do-well businessman instead… And:

China is conducting the largest crackdown on

Internet cafés since the Web came to the country, the Internet

edition of the Shenzhen Legal Daily reported Thursday… The crackdown hits the main way rural Chinese reach the web. International Herald Tribune