Well, slug us with a sideways shovel six ways from Sunday! Youku and Tudou have just announced that they will be merging into a single company today, in an agreement that would see the two companies engage in a 100 percent stock-for-stock transaction. The marriage between the two online video giants results in a new (and unimaginatively titled) entity called Youku Tudou Inc. The move means netizens in China now have a single web destination that combines a huge cache of content, licensed, unlicensed, amateur and otherwise. more ›

Xinhua News Agency (in English here) says a first ever joint action by Chinese and US police has led to the arrest of a 26-year-old Fujian man, Wang Yong, who it said is the founder of "Sunshine Entertainment Alliance", the world's largest Chinese-language porn ring. more ›

In case you were wondering what exactly would be going on at the Expo, they've now officially launched their entertainment website. And lo and behold, who is to appear there: Chinese cowboys, dubious fashion, the muppets of Sesame Street! O. M. G. What are you waiting for? Get your tickets now! more ›

Since we broke the story on CNN's site outtage in China yesterday, the story was picked up by top US blogs such as Mashable and Gawker, although mainstream media continue to be strangely silent blissfully unaware of what happened. CNN's PR machine has since leapt into action as it seeks to explain what happened. This morning we received an email from CNN Worldwide's Director of Public Relations, Jennifer L. Martin, directing our attention to their report of yesterday's event here. In case some of you still have problems accessing the site, here it is:

CNN was targeted Thursday by attempts to interrupt its news Web site, resulting in countermeasures that caused the service to be slow or unavailable to some users in limited areas of Asia. more ›