Old Japanese maps on Google Earth unveil secretsTOKYO — When Google Earth added historical maps of Japan to its online collection last year, the search giant didn't expect a backlash. The finely detailed woodblock prints have been around for centuries, they were already posted on another Web site, and a historical map of Tokyo put up in 2006 hadn't caused any problems.

LONDON - Social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace might be a great way of meeting new people, but they are turning British people into introverts, a new survey has found. In the study led by market research company Mintel, over 50 pct of the adults revealed that they spend more time chatting online than they do actually speaking to friends and family.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama's tech-savvy administration has taken another leap into cyberspace with the roll-out of 'White House 2.0.' linking it to social networks MySpace and Facebook and hot micro-blogging service Twitter. 'Today the White House is taking steps to expand how the administration is communicating with the public,' the White House blog said Friday announcing the additions to the recently launched official Flickr photostream.

TORONTO - Seventeen new cases of human swine flu took the Canadian total to 51 Friday even as the government launched a Citizen Readiness Campaign to check the spread of the virus. As part of the nation-wide campaign, the government is putting advertisements in dailies and weeklies May 2 and May 4 to raise public awareness about flu infection.