BEIJING — Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton on Friday embraced a statement from China that blind activist Chen Guangcheng could seek permission to study abroad, with her spokeswoman urging the Chinese government to “expeditiously process” his application for a passport and other documents. Read full article > >

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U.S. pushing China to allow Chen Guangcheng to study abroad

STOCKHOLM — The owner of cash-strapped car maker Saab filed for bankruptcy protection on Wednesday in a last-ditch attempt to salvage a brand crippled by production stoppages, withheld salary payments and mounting debt. Swedish Automobile, formerly known as Spyker Cars, said Saab and its subsidiaries Powertrain and Tools were included in the application for a voluntary and “self-managed” reorganization filed at a local court in southwestern Sweden. Overseas units were excluded. If approved by the court and Saab’s creditors, an initial three-month court-administered reorganization phase would halt any debt collection processes as well as potential bankruptcy filings. Some of Saab’s creditors have threatened to put it into bankruptcy amid its problems in paying suppliers and staff. Read full article > >

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Swedish carmaker Saab files for bankruptcy protection amid output stoppages, witheld salaries

MOSCOW — Russian authorities have refused to allow a new political party to field candidates in upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections, showing an unwillingness to allow the opposition any voice in the process. The party was formed in December, and its application for registration — official status — was regarded as a test of government tolerance for a degree of electoral freedom. But the Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that it had rejected the application, saying the 46,000 signatures submitted as those of party members included names of the underage, the unregistered and the dead, leaving the party short of the 45,000 signatures required. Read full article > >

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Russian government refuses to register new opposition party

MOSCOW — Russian authorities have refused to allow a new political party to field candidates in upcoming parliamentary and presidential elections, showing an unwillingness to allow the opposition any voice in the process. The party was formed in December, and its application for registration — official status — was regarded as a test of government tolerance for a degree of electoral freedom. But the Justice Ministry announced Wednesday that it had rejected the application, saying the 46,000 signatures submitted as those of party members included names of the underage, the unregistered and the dead, leaving the party short of the 45,000 signatures required. Read full article > >

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Russian government refuses to register new opposition party

Where were you on this one, Apple? Google Inc. has announced plans to unveil Google Wallet, a mobile device application that will allow consumers to make purchases with the swipe of their smartphones. Google said that the application will launch this…

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Google Phones to Act as Credit Cards

In a post about Easter eggs hidden in various Apple icons yesterday, I asked readers if they could figure out a puzzle that has stumped us all for years: What’s the significance of the default number on the Calculator icon? I’m sure you’ve seen it before and dismissed it: Oh, just a placeholder, you might have thought. Doubtful. Apple’s developers and designers have carefully created all of their application icons, working small references to everything from Latin-esque jargon that is used industrywide to the company’s headquarters in Cupertino, California, into the small graphics. (Read the original post: ” The Secrets Hidden Inside Apple’s Most Famous Icons .”) One member of the Reddit community, CaptainPain , pointed to a comment thread from a similar post about Apple Easter eggs on the UsingMac website  that provided a possible explanation. “The .75 refers to the year 1975, the year Jobs and Wozniak formed Apple,” according to the comment. ”The 12374218 is the number of seconds into the year 1975 (143 days = May 23rd) for when the actual ‘production’ has begun [sic].” Sounds plausible. Was the mystery finally solved? I fired off an email to Steve Wozniak, the engineer who co-founded Apple with Steve Jobs, asking for confirmation. His response: “yeah, that must be it, ha ha.”

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The Secret Behind Apple’s Calculator Icon Revealed

After just three days on the iTunes App Store, the WikiLeaks app was downloaded 2,860 times. At $1.99 each, that’s $5,691.40 in sales, more than half of which was donated to “organizations that work to promote the future of online democracy,” according to the app’s description. (The page has been completely removed, but you can still view the Google cache .) And then Apple stepped in and removed it. Why? Nobody is really sure. Apple is famous for thoroughly considering all applications before approving them for the App Store. The WikiLeaks app must have passed the test. Company representatives didn’t respond to a request for comment from TechCrunch’s Alexis Tsotsis . But Apple isn’t the first company to cave on pressure against WikiLeaks and those that support them in any way: MasterCard, Visa and PayPal have all cut ties to the organization — and Internet hackers responded with attacks. “The Wikileaks app gives instant access to the world’s most documented leakage of top secret memos and other confidential government documents,” the app’s description page read. “The Wikileaks app reflects old and recent cable updates, WikiLeaks Tweets and the WikiLeaks Website completely formatted for iPhone and iPad.” (There’s a screenshot from the application at the top of this post.) For those let down by the app’s removal, there are other options. The WikiLeaks application, built by Russian developer Igor Barinov, is still available for download on Android phones. (There are at least a half dozen WikiLeaks-related apps for Android users — apparently a more transparency-friendly bunch.) And, while it lasts, Truthseeker is a free iPhone application that aggregates news, podcasts and more from alternative sources. One of those sources just happens to be WikiLeaks. “Truthseeker has no political agenda,” according to the app’s description. “Truthseeker just gives you access to the news behind the news and let’s you make up your own mind.”

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Apple Blocked the WikiLeaks App, but Truthseeker Is Still Available

Google’s interactive human anatomy site gives a detailed peak inside the body For the aspiring medical student or simply any curious mind, Google Lab’s new Body Browser offers an amazingly in-depth look at the different layers of the human body. The 3D model, currently only viewable as a female, lets the user interact with six different biological systems in multiple planes. Beginning with the skin as its default viewpoint, a toggle bar guides you through the other levels right down to the central nervous system. Alternatively you can switch the toggle to adjust the opacity of each layer independently, letting you fine tune exactly what systems you want to see in conjunction with any of the other five. The detail is truly impressive, loaded with anatomical information on details from the large muscles of the back all the way down to the fragile endings of the plantar nerve. All layers can be viewed with or without labels, you can zoom in on any area and the model rotates 180

Acting Football Association chairman Roger Burden withdraws his application for the permanent post over England’s 2018 World Cup vote failure.

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Burden to leave FA chairman role

A doctor accused of failing to spot signs that Baby P was being abused has her application to be removed from the medical register rejected.

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Baby P ‘resignation’ is refused

A museum commissions young artists to create new work that riffs off of classics in their collection Classic works of art combine with modern applications at Intersections , a progressive series of contemporary art projects. Started in October of 2009 by The Phillips Collection in Washington D.C., the initiative explores, “intriguing intersections between old and new traditions, modern and contemporary art practices, and museum spaces and artistic interventions” by commissioning a young artist to create a work inspired by a classic piece in their collection. The project launched with a video projection called ” Brain Storm ” that projected landscapes of Cezzane, Dove, and Kadinsky onto the walls of the museum’s modern art space, the Goh Annex in October 2009. Since then, the collection has continued to evolve to different mediums including sculptures, wall drawings and monochrome paintings. Some pieces in the current collection include Tayo Heuser’s Pulse , a group of wall-mounted sculptures inspired by Mark Rothko’s paintings and the architecture of the Goh Annex, as well as Linn Meyers’s at the time being , a wall drawing inspired by the Vincent van Gogh’s, “The Road Menders.” Through these pieces, viewers can see the melding between old art forms and the application of new techniques. See the full collection of the Intersections Art Projects here . The series will continue to be on display at the The Phillips Collection with the newest project arriving on 1 October 2010.

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Intersections Art Projects