Malaysian police have detained a Saudi journalist accused of insulting the Prophet Muhammad in a tweet.

Hamza Kashgari posted a controversial tweet on the prophet's birthday last week that sparked more than 30,000 responses and several death threats.

He was held on arriving at Kuala Lumpur International Airport on Thursday, officials said on Friday.

It is unclear if the newspaper columnist will be extradited.

The 23-year-old tweeted on Saturday: "I have loved things about you and I have hated things about you and there is a lot I don't understand about you. I will not pray for you," the AFP news agency reported.

He has apologised for his remarks and removed the offending tweets, but that did not stem the outrage. Clerics have called for him to be charged in court.

It is considered blasphemous to insult the prophet. Blasphemy can be punishable by death in Saudi Arabia.

Malaysian authorities did not say where Mr Kashgari flew to Kuala Lumpur from. He allegedly fled his country after the Saudi king ordered his arrest, said Twitter users.

His Twitter account appears to have been deleted.

Muslim-majority Malaysia does not have a formal extradition treaty with Saudi Arabia.

However, an official who did not wish to be named told the AFP news agency that Mr Kashgari could be extradited under other bilateral security agreements.

It was reported earlier that Interpol had sought the journalist's arrest, but a spokesman denied Interpol's involvement in the case.

SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) – A privacy debate surrounding fledgling social network Path went viral this week, triggering discussions on blogs and on Twitter about how far social networks can go in using members’ private data.

Path was sharply criticized in blogs and social media forums this week after an independent software developer revealed that Path’s Apple iPhone application uploaded users’ address book data to its own servers without permission.

Its travails demonstrate how easily today’s social media startups — which by definition thrive by sharing users’ views and information — can still run afoul of users’ privacy sensitivities even at a time of constantly shifting consumer attitudes.

Path, which now has 2 million users, launched in November 2010 to considerable buzz around Silicon Valley. The service has positioned itself as a more intimate and visually appealing version of Facebook — the social network that weathered a string of privacy controversies of its own as it grew to become a multibillion-dollar company on the brink of going public.

ANGRY TWEETS

On Tuesday, Arun Thampi, a software developer in Singapore, discovered Path’s data uploads and published his findings on his website. The news went viral, sparking commentary on technology blogs and on Twitter.

Other bloggers quickly noted that Path’s practice may have run afoul of Britain’s Data Protection Act and Apple’s App Store policy prohibiting such data access.

Dave Morin, Path’s chief executive, responded on Thampi’s blog, saying that his company uploads the data to help users find and connect to their friends, and that the company had already rolled out an opt-in mechanism for the Google Android platform that asked user permission before accessing contact data.

Morin later apologized in a blog post on Path’s website, adding that the company deleted “the entire collection of user uploaded contact information from our servers.”

By then, hundreds of Path users (and many nonusers) had already vented their frustration at Morin through Twitter.

Now, as Path looks to emerge from the episode, its fate may be determined largely by the social network that it hopes to challenge: Facebook.

SHIFTING NOTIONS OF PRIVACY

Facebook’s success, and its record of shrugging off the periodic backlash over perceived privacy intrusions, has fundamentally changed consumer attitudes, analysts say.

Facebook has “shown and demonstrated that it can push the boundary of what can be considered private,” said Charlene Li, the founder of the Altimeter Group, a social media research company. “Our notions of privacy change over time, based on the utility of that information.”

But the problem, analysts say, was that Path did not ask for permission to access users’ address books — even if consumers are increasingly comfortable with the idea.

Ray Valdez, an analyst at Gartner, said the company took a hit to its reputation but will move on.

“It’s not a fatal error,” Valdez said.

Still, in papers filed last week with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission ahead of its highly anticipated initial public offering, Facebook noted explicitly the danger of potential backlashes over privacy. It said that improper access of user information could “harm our reputation and adversely affect our business.”

Even if public attitudes toward privacy appear to be softening in a free-sharing era, analysts say such controversies can pose grave threats to fledgling companies that often do not have internal checks — such as chief privacy officers at larger companies like Facebook.

For startups seeking to build a user base, the risk can be particularly acute.

“These networks exist only if you trust them,” said Li of Altimeter Group. “For these growing companies, every single step you take has to be taken with building trust in mind.”

As competition intensifies in the social networking arena, a company’s perceived sensitivity to privacy issues could affect its bottom line.

Last week, as Google Inc grappled with an outpouring of criticism over how it utilized private user information across its various products, Microsoft Corp – a chief competitor to Google – unfurled an ad touting its own privacy controls.

“Facebook has an enormous user base and can weather a few privacy storms,” said M. Ryan Calo, a fellow at the Stanford Law School Center for Internet and Society. “It may not be an existential threat when you have 800 million users, but it is a competitive differentiator that can’t be ignored.”

(Reporting By Gerry Shih, editing by Matthew Lewis)

Apple has been granted a temporary suspension of a sales ban imposed on some of its products in Germany.

Motorola Mobility had forced Apple to remove several iPad and iPhone models from its online store earlier today after enforcing a patent infringement court ruling delivered in December.

An appeals court lifted the ban after Apple made a new licence payment offer.

However, Germany-based users may still face the loss of their push email iCloud service after a separate ruling.

Patent consultant Florian Mueller, who attended the review, said that the suspension may only last a few days or weeks – but that Apple's revised proposal had been enough to allow it to restart sales.

"The Karlsruhe higher regional court believes that Apple's new offer needs to be evaluated before this injunction can enter into force again," he wrote on his blog.

"A suspension like this is available only against a bond, but Apple is almost drowning in cash and obviously won't have had a problem with obtaining and posting a bond."

He said that the bond amount was likely to have been about 120m euros ($158m, £100m).

A statement from Apple said: "All iPad and iPhone models will be back on sale through Apple's online store in Germany shortly.

"Apple appealed this ruling because Motorola repeatedly refuses to license this patent to Apple on reasonable terms, despite having declared it an industry standard patent seven years ago."

However, Motorola signalled that it would try to restore the ban.

"We are pleased that the Mannheim court has recognized the importance of our intellectual property and granted an enforceable injunction in Germany against Apple Sales International," a statement said.

"Although the enforcement of the injunction has been temporarily suspended, Motorola Mobility will continue to pursue its claims against Apple."

The sales ban relates to Motorola's patent for a "method for performing a countdown function during a mobile-originated transfer for a packet radio system".

Motorola licenses the patent to other companies on Frand (fair, reasonable and non-discriminatory) terms.

Frand-type patents involve technologies that are deemed to be part of an industry standard. In this case Motorola's innovation is deemed crucial to the GPRS data transmission standard used by GSM cellular networks across the world.

Companies must offer Frand-type patents for a reasonable fee to anyone willing to pay.

Apple had previously said it would be willing to pay the fee going forward, but the two firms dispute how much Apple should pay for failing to license the technology up until now. Missed payments are not covered by the "reasonable" rule, and Motorola is able to demand a more expensive price.

Apple's iPhone 3G, iPhone 3GS and iPhone 4 had all been affected – but not its newer iPhone 4S. All 3G models of the iPad were involved, but not their wi-fi-only counterparts.

The separate push email ban would only come into effect if Motorola decided to enforce a second judgement that Apple's iCloud and MobileMe infringed another of its innovations.

The patent relates to two-way communications between pagers and other devices and was granted in 2002.

If Motorola decides to enforce the judgement some iPhone users in Germany would lose the ability to automatically receive emails as soon as they have been sent. Instead they would either have to manually check their accounts or set their devices to periodically check for updates.

This patent is not deemed to be critical to an industry standard, so the firm does not have to license the technology to Apple even if the iPhone-maker offered to pay.

Apple said that it believed the patent involved was invalid, adding that it was appealing against the decision.

Although the two cases only apply to Germany they may have implications for other European lawsuits. EU rules say different countries' courts can reach different conclusions, but must explain why.

Mr Mueller Mr Mueller notes on his blog that Apple has brought patent claims of its own against Motorola in Germany, and that Motorola also faces a lawsuit filed by Microsoft which is due to be considered next Tuesday.

<span class="articleLocation”>(Reuters) – Apple Inc overtook Hewlett-Packard Co as the world’s largest vendor of personal computers in the fourth quarter, helped by booming demand for its iPads, research firm Canalys said on Monday.

In the fourth quarter, tablet demand helped drive the global PC market 16 percent higher than a year ago to 120 million computers, Canalys said.

Excluding tablets, the market fell 0.4 percent from a year ago, said Canalys, one of the first research firms to include tablets in PC forecasts. Other firms have said they will likely follow.

(Reporting By Tarmo Virki; editing by Andre Grenon)

MEXICO CITY (Reuters) – Cell phone company America Movil, owned by Mexican tycoon Carlos Slim, said on Friday it had approval from Brazil’s telecom watchdog Anatel to take control of cable television company Net Servicos de Comunicacao.

Under terms of the deal, America Movil’s Brazilian unit Embratel Participacoes will buy Grupo Globo Participacoes shares currently held by Net.

Once the deal closes, Embratel and its affiliates will have control of Net, the Mexican company said in a statement. No financial terms or share stakes were disclosed.

(Reporting by Cyntia Barrera Diaz)