China Clamps Down on Websites

Chinese authorities have shut down and fined dozens of websites carrying pornographic material, pirate movies and online games.

Fifty-three websites with pornographic or violent content have been closed, the official Xinhua news agency reported.

China has the world's second-largest population of internet users, with more than 100 million people online but access to web content is strictly controlled.

Meanwhile, New York Times researcher Zhao Yan remains in detention despite the charges against him relating to state secrets being dropped last week.

Mr Zhao, who worked in the Times' Beijing bureau, was detained in 2004 and faced a possible 10 years in jail.

Charges against him were dropped last Friday ahead of next month's visit by the president, Hu Jintao, to Washington. However, Mr Zhao remains in custody and today his sister, Zhao Kun, was turned away when she tried to press for his release.

Ms Zhao said she had been told the prosecutor handling Mr Zhao's case was at a detention centre and could not meet her.

"I don't know why they haven't released him. But I want to know when they will let him go," the sister told Reuters.

The Chinese authorities would be breaking the law if they held Mr Zhao past midnight (4pm GMT) on Wednesday, when his five-day appeal period expired, according to Mr Zhao's lawyer, Mo Shaoping.

Mr Zhao could reject the decision to drop charges against him and seek a court trial for a not-guilty verdict, but he has decided against appealing, the lawyer said.

Details of the charges have not been revealed, but they are believed to relate to a New York Times report on the former Chinese leader Jiang Zemin. The newspaper said Mr Zhao had not been involved in the story.