Snapchat files for one of the biggest tech IPOs in years: sources www.reuters.com

Google commits to £1bn UK investment plan www.bbc.com

Google is to open a new headquarters building in London which could see 3,000 new jobs created by 2020.
The news comes as a major boost to Britain's technology sector.
Sundar Pichai, the chief executive of Google, told the BBC that the UK was still an attractive place to do business.
He said open borders and free movement for skilled migrants were "absolutely" important to the success of the technology sector in the UK.
It was Mr Pichai's first European broadcast interview since he became chief executive last year.
Sources at the technology company also said if barriers were thrown up to skilled immigration following the vote to leave the European Union, some of Google's investment could be at risk.
Turning to the "fake news" controversy in America - and choosing his words very carefully - Mr Pichai said that, at the margin, false stories about Donald Trump and Hillary Clinton could have affected the outcome of the US election as the margins were "very narrow".
And that it was important that companies like Google and other social media businesses promoted "accurate" stories to their billions of users.

Although Google refused to be drawn on the cost of the UK investment, development experts said the new building in King's Cross and the cost of employing thousands more staff was likely to put the figure at over £1bn.
At present, Google employs around 4,000 people in the UK, a figure that could now rise to 7,000.
The office space owned by Google in King's Cross will more than double.
"The UK has been a tremendous market for us," Mr Pichai told me.
"We see big opportunities here. This is a big commitment from us - we have some of the best talent in the world in the UK and to be able to build great products from here sets us up well for the long term."

The new 650,000 sq-ft headquarters has been designed by Thomas Heatherwick, the designer behind the "garden bridge" across the Thames.
He was brought in by Google after its founders, Sergey Brin and Larry Page, rejected initial designs for a new headquarters as "too boring" in 2013. Danish architects Bjarke Ingels Group are also involved in the project.
Many companies raised fears before the referendum that if Britain voted to leave the European Union, foreign investment would be affected.
Questions were raised over whether Google would commit to the new building.
But Mr Pichai made it clear the strength of the UK economy went far beyond the Brexit vote.
"The innovation we see here, the talent we have available here and how on the cutting edge of technology we are able to be here makes it an incredible place for us to invest," he said.
"We do value how open and connected it is and we can bring in talent from anywhere in the world and we value those attributes and we are optimistic that those will stay true over time.
"So we did [make the investment decision] taking into consideration [the referendum], but we are very optimistic."
He said Brexit may have complicated "secondary effects" over the longer term but it was too early to say what they may be.

I asked Mr Pichai what the government's approach should be to immigration controls.
"I want to be respectful," he answered.
"These are important questions for the citizens of the UK to answer.
"I think there are thoughtful debates to be had.
"In our experience as a company, when we have been able to bring people together and operate in an open and connected way it achieves tremendous impact over time.
"Those are the values we cherish, and we have been open and public about how we think about these things.
"When I look at London [I see] a place in which we are able to attract great talent, find great talent in the UK, thanks to a great educational system here, but it has also been a place where people are willing to come from anywhere in the world.
"Increasingly, for the kinds of complex things we do, we need to bring people who are across many disciplines - with many different backgrounds - together to solve problems. That's how you can build newer things, so that is particularly important for us."
He said that he would "worry" if controls on skilled migration were made more stringent.

Sundar Pichai said the US was "deeply divided"
Turning to events in America and the election of Donald Trump, Mr Pichai said it was clear the country was "deeply divided".
"I come from India, I am used to a vibrant democracy, and it is the same in the United States.
"It is important to remember that we had a democratic process and there has been an outcome.
"As you can see the country is deeply divided so I tend to look forward and I think we need to figure out how to constructively engage with the new administration and hear the voices of people, as at Google we care about certain values - be it freedom of expression, the notion of inclusion and fairness, building open systems, building a connected world.
"But it is also important to acknowledge that there are people, through a process like this, who feel left behind, and I am glad the democratic process gives voices to everyone."

Merkel warns Trump against slide into protectionism www.rt.com

Google, Facebook move to restrict ads on fake news sites www.reuters.com

Alphabet Inc's Google (GOOGL.O) and Facebook Inc (FB.O) on Monday announced measures aimed at halting the spread of "fake news" on the internet by targeting how some purveyors of phony content make money: advertising.

Google said it is working on a policy change to prevent websites that misrepresent content from using its AdSense advertising network, while Facebook updated its advertising policies to spell out that its ban on deceptive and misleading content applies to fake news.

The shifts comes as Google, Facebook and Twitter Inc (TWTR.N) face a backlash over the role they played in the U.S. presidential election by allowing the spread of false and often malicious information that might have swayed voters toward Republican candidate Donald Trump.

The issue has provoked a fierce debate within Facebook especially, with Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg insisting twice in recent days that the site had no role in influencing the election.

Facebook's steps are limited to its ad policies, and do not target fake news sites shared by users on their news feeds.

"We do not integrate or display ads in apps or sites containing content that is illegal, misleading or deceptive, which includes fake news," Facebook said in a statement, adding that it will continue to vet publishers to ensure compliance.

Google's move similarly does not address the issue of fake news or hoaxes appearing in Google search results. That happened in the last few days, when a search for 'final election count' for a time took users to a fake news story saying Trump won the popular vote. Votes are still being counted, with Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton showing a slight lead.

Nor does Google suggest that the company has moved to a mechanism for rating the accuracy of particular articles.

Rather, the change is aimed at assuring that publishers on the network are legitimate and eliminating financial incentives that appear to have driven the production of much fake news.

"Moving forward, we will restrict ad serving on pages that misrepresent, misstate, or conceal information about the publisher, the publisher's content, or the primary purpose of the web property," Google said in a statement.

The company did not detail how it would implement or enforce the new policy.

MACEDONIA NEWS

AdSense, which allows advertisers to place text ads on the millions of websites that are part of Google's network, is a major source of money for many publishers.

A report in BuzzFeed News last month showed how tiny publishers in Macedonia were creating websites with fake news - much of it denigrating Clinton - which were widely shared on Facebook.

That sharing in turn led people to click on links which brought them to the Macedonian websites, which could then make money on the traffic via Google's AdSense.

Facebook has been widely blamed for allowing the spread of online misinformation, most of it pro-Trump, but Zuckerberg has rejected the notion that Facebook influenced the outcome of the election or that fake news is a major problem on the service.

"Of all the content on Facebook, more than 99 percent of what people see is authentic," he wrote in a blog post on Saturday. "Only a very small amount is fake news and hoaxes."

Google has long had rules for its AdSense program, barring ads from appearing next to pornography or violent content. Work on the policy update announced on Monday began before the election, a Google spokeswoman said.

The company uses a combination of humans and artificial intelligence to review sites that apply to be a part of AdSense, and sites continue to be monitored after they are accepted, a former Google employee who worked on ad systems said. Google's artificial intelligence systems learn from sites that have been removed from the program, speeding the removal of similar sites.

The issue of fake news is critical for Google from a business standpoint, as many advertisers do not want their brands to be touted alongside dubious content. Google must constantly hone its systems to try to stay one step ahead of unscrupulous publishers, the former employee said.

Google has not said whether it believes its search algorithms, or its separate system for ranking results in the Google News service, also need to be modified to cope with the fake news issue.

Fil Menczer, a professor of informatics and computing at Indiana University who has studied the spread of misinformation on social media, said Google's move with AdSense was a positive step.

"One of the incentives for a good portion of fake news is money," he said. "This could cut the income that creates the incentive to create the fake news sites."

However, he cautioned that detecting fake news sites was not easy. "What if it is a site with some real information and some fake news? It requires specialized knowledge and having humans (do it) doesn't scale," he said.

(Reporting by Julia Love and Kristina Cooke; Editing by Jonathan Weber, Bill Rigby and Edwina Gibbs)

Work begins on Fukushima nuclear waste site www3.nhk.or.jp

Construction work has begun in Fukushima Prefecture on intermediate storage facilities for contaminated soil and waste materials from the 2011 nuclear disaster.

German economy slows in third quarter www.bbc.com

Germany's economic growth slowed in the third quarter of the year, dented by weaker exports, figures have shown.
Europe's largest economy grew by 0.2% between July and September, half the 0.4% rate seen in the previous three months.
This was slower than economists had expected and well below the 0.7% rate recorded in the first quarter.
"The development of foreign trade had a downward effect on growth," said Germany's Federal Statistics Office.
"Exports were slightly down while imports were slightly up compared with the second quarter of 2016.
"Positive impulses on the quarter came mainly from domestic demand," the statistics body added. "Both household and state spending managed to increase further."
Protectionism worry
Some analysts said that the uncertainty caused by Britain's vote to leave the European Union may have counteracted solid domestic activity.
"Brexit meets solid domestic economy. This is probably the best description of the German economic performance during the third quarter," ING Bank economist Carsten Brzeski told Reuters.
He added that there was a threat to the economy from Donald Trump's US election victory if he followed through with campaign pledges to limit foreign imports.
"If Germany's single most important trading partner, the US, really moves towards more protectionism, this would definitely leave its mark on German growth."

Russian ruble, stocks higher after Economy Minister arrest www.rt.com

Markets and currency in Russia saw gains on Tuesday following the arrest of Economic Development Minister Aleksey Ulyukayev for bribery. He is the highest-ranking Kremlin official arrested since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
The ruble was gaining about one percent trading at 65.84 against the US dollar, and 70.57 against the euro.

Gold price drops again – $1,200 in sight www.mining.com

Rio Tinto staff shaken to the core by bribery probe — CEO www.mining.com

Apple considering expansion into wearable glasses: Bloomberg www.reuters.com