Reuters – Chinese police arrested thousands in a drive against Internet pornography throughout 2009, officials said, vowing a deepening crackdown that critics say is being used to tighten overall censorship.

One of the coolest parts about  my job is the fact that I am always up to speed on the latest and coolest stuff in the world of search, social media and things of that nature. Over the course of the past decade, there have been no shortage of things to keep my eye on. That’s one of the cool parts of my job. What makes it interesting however is not necessarily the emergence of these new tools and/or technologies but how they end up being used.

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AP – Using the White House’s blog, a top aide to President Barack Obama on Wednesday dismissed former Vice President Dick Cheney’s criticism about Obama’s approach to dealing with terrorists as “the typical Washington game of pointing fingers and making political hay.”

AP – As the government reviews how an alleged terrorist was able to bring a bomb onto a U.S.-bound plane and try to blow it up on Christmas Day, the Transportation Security Administration is going after bloggers who wrote about a directive to increase security after the incident.

AP – A German security expert has raised the ire of the cell phone industry after he and a group of researchers posted online a how-to guide for cracking the encryption that keeps the calls of billions of cell phone users secret.

Reuters – AT&T Inc told U.S. telecoms regulators that it should set plans for phasing out older telephone networks if the government wants to make high-speed Internet access available across the country.

AP – Jack Dorsey revolutionized online socializing by co-founding Twitter in 2006. Now he wants to transform the way people exchange money.

PC World – It appears the holiday season was a very, very good one for e-reader sales. According to Amazon, the Kindle was the “most-gifted product” in the company’s history. And for the first time ever, the online retailer’s customers bought more Kindle e-books than physical books on Christmas day.

AP – AT&T Inc. suspended online sales of iPhones to New Yorkers over the weekend for unknown reasons, then abruptly started selling them again just as mysteriously on Monday.

NewsFactor – After 59 acquisitions, Google has hit a roadblock with one of its latest purchase attempts. Consumer groups have asked the Federal Trade Commission to block the search giant’s $750 million acquisition of AdMob, a mobile advertising company.