Society

The mood within Google's China headquarters is "business as usual" with most staff believing they will not lose their jobs if the Internet giant closes its Chinese search engine.

In January, Google threatened to abandon google.cn and quit China altogether over allegations of cyber attacks.

However, according to sources within the US company's Beijing office no official word has been given to employees about their fate, or the reported imminent closure of the Google.cn site, despite the news being replayed as a certainty around the world.

"There will certainly be no exodus," according to one employee inside their China operation who wished to remain anonymous.

Like many web surfers in Beijing, Zhang Rui browses adult websites around midnight. But while others download content, she helps remove it.

Zhang, the mother of a 10-year-old, is one of a group of Beijing mothers helping the government censor content in China's chaotic cyberspace.

As part of a year-long national campaign to prevent teenagers from accessing "harmful content", the Beijing Association of Online Media initiated a special panel of "mom judges" two months ago, inviting about 150 of them to help officials find "obscene and harmful content".

Some critics have said instead of raising parents' awareness of children's online habits, the initiative might cause the embarrassing scenario of a mother reporting her own son or daughter to the authorities.

The potentially sensitive nature of the job has likely discouraged many applicants and fewer than 50 mothers signed agreements with the authority during the program's launching ceremony.

Chinese paramilitary policemen examine the crash site of a cargo truck carrying boxes of watermelons in Baoshan, South China's Yunnan province, March 7, 2010. The truck driver lost control due to brake failure, struck the barrier for road construction, and slammed into the barracks at the border checkpoint, killing two policemen and the driver. A passenger in the truck and eight policemen also got injured.

The construction site of the new Beichuan county seat, Sichuan province, on Feb 5, 2010.

Construction of the new Beichuan county seat, which was devastated by the deadly earthquake in May 2008, will be finished in October this year, Wu Jingping, Party secretary of Mianyang city, said at a news conference in Beijing on Thursday.

More than 10,000 houses are being built in the new seat of Beichuan, about 23 km from the original location, Wu said.

"These houses, ranging from 70 square meters to 120 sq m, are being built as affordable or low-rent housing, and will help about 35,000 people," the mayor said, adding that roads, schools, hospitals and other infrastructure are also under construction.

The old town of Beichuan will be open to the public at the two-year anniversary of the earthquake in May this year. Some quake relics are to be preserved as sites for education and as a memorial, Wu said.