Google TV to launch in Europe early next year

Google TV, which allows viewers to mix Web and television content on a TV screen via a browser, was launched in the United States in October but received mixed reviews and was swiftly blocked by three of the top U.S. broadcast networks.

Large parts of the television industry, like the news and telecoms industries, view Google with suspicion and accuse it of stealing their advertising revenues without contributing to the costs of making programmes.

Schmidt sought to allay the fears of Britain’s broadcasting elite in a speech to the Edinburgh television festival, the first time a non-TV executive had been invited to give the keynote MacTaggart lecture at Britain’s premier industry event.

“Some in the US feared we aimed to compete with broadcasters or content creators. Actually our intent is the opposite,” he told an audience who quickly warmed to his friendly style and liberal compliments to the quality of British television.

“We seek to support the content industry by providing an open platform for the next generation of TV to evolve, the same way Android is an open platform for the next generation of mobile,” he said.

“We expect Google TV to launch in Europe early next year, and of course the UK will be among the top priorities.” Google TV has gained little traction so far in the United States, and its set top box provider Logitech International SA slashed prices to $99 in July from an initial price of $299.

Schmidt also included a warning to British television regulators, who he said were far more stringent than their US counterparts and threatened to throttle the development of British television companies in an increasingly global market.

“Stifling the Internet – whether by filtering or blocking or just plain turning the ‘off’ switch – appeals to policy makers the world over,” he said. “Instead, policy makers should work with the grain of the Internet rather than against it.” OPPORTUNISTIC Google has long held ambitions in the television arena, hoping to extend its online advertising business, which made $28 billion for the company last year, to the big screens that still command the lion’s share of global advertising budgets.

“If his ambition was to go there and convince the TV people he wasn’t a big threat, I don’t think he achieved it,” said Keith McMahon, an analyst at research firm Telco 2.0/STL Partners.

“The message I got was that TV is such a big market that Google can’t ignore it. They’re never going to give it up.” So far, Google has had little success breaking into the TV market, despite its ownership of the world’s most popular online video site, YouTube.

Last week, however, Google agreed a deal to buy Motorola Mobility Holdings Inc for $12.5 billion, handing it the world’s leading set top box business which delivers content for many of the top cable TV companies in the United States.

The headline attraction of the deal was Motorola’s huge portfolio of wireless patents but the set top box business could help Google transform its TV project by giving it insights into pay-TV.

Google has not spelled out its plans for the set top box business, and many analysts expect it to divest the unit at the first opportunity, having no experience or previous interest in running a hardware business.

Others believe Google could change tack under CEO Larry Page, Google’s co-founder who took back the reins from Schmidt in April and has already started a social network to compete with Facebook while ditching other projects.

“Google describes itself as an opportunistic company. So while it may not have wanted to buy Motorola’s operations, it may now assess whether retaining these assets can compensate for the risk of owning them,” New York-based Nomura analyst Stuart Jeffrey wrote in a note this week.

Schmidt made no mention of the Motorola acquisition or its implications on Friday, but will hold a question and answer session in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Pakistani soldier gets death for killing youth

A Pakistani court on Friday sentenced to death a soldier who shot and killed an unarmed youth as he was begging for mercy — an incident that was caught on videotape and repeatedly broadcast on TV, triggering unusual public anger at the country's powerful military.

Five other soldiers and a civilian who were present during the June killing in a park in the southern city of Karachi were also convicted of murder and handed life sentences.

The verdicts were a rare instance of Pakistani security forces being held publicly accountable over human rights abuses, which are allegedly widespread. The killing came at a time of heightened public criticism of the army over its failure to detect or stop the unilateral May 2 U.S. raid that killed al-Qaida chief Osama bin Laden, and added to its humiliation.

Sarfraz Shah, 18, was shot on June 8 after being detained by a group of Pakistani Rangers. A local TV journalist caught the incident on tape. The footage drew public fury, and the suspects in the case were quickly arrested and put on trial.

In a brief session at the anti-terror court that heard the case, Judge Bashir Khoso told the seven men they were guilty of murder and read out the verdicts.

The men were grim-faced, but otherwise did not react. Shaukat Hayat, the lawyer for Shahid Zafar, who was sentenced to death, said he would appeal.

Salik Shah, the victim's eldest brother, burst into tears after hearing the verdict.

"I am satisfied with the verdict," he said later, outside the court. "It would somewhat console our sentiments that the murderers of my brother have been sentenced appropriately."

Officials at the time said Shah was picked up in the park on suspicion of robbery; some accounts have said he was carrying a replica or toy pistol.

The video footage shows him unarmed surrounded by the Rangers. At one point, he moved toward one of them with his arms outstretched, but he was pushed back, then shot twice in the hand and leg. While on the ground, he begged the Rangers to take him to a hospital, but they stood by as he writhed in an expanding pool of blood.

Shah was eventually taken to a local hospital and died shortly thereafter from blood loss.

Pakistani security forces are often accused of using excessive force and killing unarmed civilians, typically those suspected of being criminals or militants. The criminal justice system in Pakistan is inefficient and conviction rates are very low, meaning officers sometimes kill suspects rather than try to prosecute them, human rights activists said.

Human Rights Watch welcomed the verdicts.

"One hopes that the verdict will go some way in arresting the impunity with which Pakistan's trigger-happy security and paramilitary agencies perpetrate abuses," said Ali Dayan Hasan, the group's Pakistan director.

Pakistan rarely executes people sentenced to death, and life sentences usually are 15 years. Executions that do take place are carried out by hanging.

Bocelli to perform free show in Central Park

Italian tenor Andrea Bocelli is to perform a free concert with the New York Philharmonic on Central Park's Great Lawn in Manhattan, organizers said Tuesday.

The Sept. 15 show is to be conducted by Alan Gilbert. It is to be recorded in high definition by Thirteen for WNET for national PBS broadcast on "Great Performances" in late fall.

"Andrea Bocelli Live in Central Park" will also be released on CD and DVD by Sugar/Decca this November.

Free ticket distribution for the free concert is set to begin at 9 a.m. Thursday at the Brooklyn Academy of Music, Paradise Theatre in the Bronx, Best Buy Theater in Manhattan, Queens Theatre in the Park and St. George Theatre in Staten Island.

"The Great Lawn in Central Park is one of the most remarkable and beautiful outdoor venues in the world and it is a great pleasure to welcome Andrea Bocelli back to New York to perform there. This free concert will be a memorable cultural moment for the thousands of New Yorkers and visitors that will watch the event live in the park, and many, many more through the broadcast by WNET," New York City Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg said in a statement.

"I cannot help but smile when thinking about the upcoming concert in Central Park," Bocelli added. "It was my father's dream, and my father was right, because my artistic path would have been entirely different without the strong and sincere embrace of this extraordinary city where everything is possible, even when it seems impossible. My father will not be there, but I can count on his blessing and his kind and gentle smile to give me courage. My mother, sitting in the front row, will feel my father too, and they will be together again just like when I was a little boy performing on the fireplace steps. Perhaps they had secretly dreamed that I might have the opportunity to perform in New York City, and maybe right here in Central Park."