BEIJING - China's foreign ministry said on Tuesday the country was within its rights to block websites with content illegal under Chinese law, including websites that referred to China and Taiwan as two separate countries.

China regularly blocks sites it finds unsavory, particularly those related to Tibet or critical of the Communist Party.

It considers self-ruled Taiwan as a breakaway province that must be reunited with the mainland, by force if necessary.

Access to the Chinese-language versions of the BBC, Voice of America and Hong Kong media Ming Pao News and Asiaweek has been blocked since early December, according to a report by Asiaweek this week. They remained blocked on Tuesday.

"We can't deny that some websites continue to have p

Swedish security firm Lavasoft pioneered spyware protection with their venerable Ad-Aware utility. On Monday, the company released a new standalone antivirus program, Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix, priced at $23.95.

Based on technology from Avira, the product cleans up viruses and other malicious software and also includes real-time protection to prevent further infection.

Users can schedule standard or custom scans on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Helix can also schedule a scan for every login, or at any interval. The product's MailGuard feature scans incoming email and attachments and removes any viruses found. WebGuard prevents downloads of malicious files. According to Lavasoft, Helix protects against the worst threats – viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, bo

Cyber security is now a major national security issue – one that the Obama administration must handle with a comprehensive and nationwide strategy that respects the privacy and civil liberties of American citizens, according to a Monday report from the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

"America's failure to protect cyberspace is one of the most urgent national security problems facing the new administration," according to the 96-page report.

The non-profit CSIS started studying this issue in August 2007 after a number of cyber attacks hit federal agencies like the Defense Department, Homeland Security, Commerce, and NASA. CSIS' intent was to draft recommendations that the next administration could put in place to avoid future cyber mishaps.

WASHINGTON - Doctors who put aside their paper pads and prescribe medicines electronically may be more likely to choose lower-cost drugs, saving money for patients and insurers, U.S. researchers said on Monday.

Only about 6 percent of U.S. doctors use "e-prescribing" even though doing so may improve efficiency and reduce errors such as a pharmacy misreading a doctor's sloppy handwriting or dispensing a different drug with a similar name.

Dr. Michael Fischer of Brigham and Women's Hospital and Harvard Medical School in Boston and colleagues detailed another e-prescribing benefit: encouraging doctors to choose cheaper drugs.

The researchers evaluated a program in Massachusetts in which two large insurers worked with a maker of e-prescribing systems, Zi