FACEBOOK TO CHARGE FOR SOME MESSAGE DELIVERY
SAN FRANCISCO: Facebook on Thursday (Friday in Manila) began testing the feasibility of charging to guarantee that messages from strangers make it into inboxes of intended

recipients at the social network. The Facebook Messages test, limited to the United States, lets a sender pay a dollar to make sure an electronic missive is routed to someone’s “inbox” even when the person isn’t in their circle of friends. Dabbling with getting people to pay to connect with Facebook members comes as the social network strives to tap the potential to make money from its membership base of more than a billion people. Facebook said that it wanted to determine whether adding a “financial signal” improves its formula for delivering “relevant and useful” messages to members’ inboxes.

CHINA SHIPS IN DISPUTED WATERS, FIRST SINCE JAPAN POLL
TOKYO: China sent its ships into territorial waters around disputed islands on Friday, in the first incursion since Japan elected a new government. The move is a setback to hopes in Tokyo that Beijing might use the poll as a chance for a fresh start after months of bitter wrangling and rhetoric over an issue that neither side is prepared to budge on. Japan’s coastguard said three surveillance vessels were inside the 12-nautical mile band around the Tokyo-controlled Senkakus, which Beijing calls the Diaoyus, with a fisheries patrol ship logged in adjacent waters. China has sent its ships into the islands’ waters 19 times since Tokyo nationalized the chain in September, according to a coastguard tally, with analysts saying Beijing intends to prove it can come and go as it pleases in the area.

INDIAN PARTIES LET RAPE ACCUSED RUN FOR OFFICE
NEW DELHI: At least 20 men accused of raping women ran in Indian elections in the last five years, according to a think-tank report published amid growing outrage over the gang-rape of a student on a bus. The Association for Democratic Reforms (ADR) study was released on Thursday as political parties lined up to condemn the rape of the 23-year-old woman, which has triggered widespread protests against how women are treated in India. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, the ruling Congress party chief Sonia Gandhi and opposition lawmakers have condemned the savage assault last Sunday but the ADR said many Indian parties fielded candidates who were facing rape accusations.    
AFP