San Francisco - The Turkish government has banned access to photo slideshow service Slide in the country, after a local court found that the site was "harboring pictures and articles that are considered to be insulting to Ataturk," in a country where insulting the founder of the republic is a crime, according to a Slide spokesperson.

Beijing - Google's (NASD: GOOG) YouTube has been blocked from the view of Chinese Internet users, after dozens of videos documenting protests against Chinese rule in Tibet appeared on the site over the weekend, the Associated Press reports.

This must be the first YouTube hit for an official government - Singapore's Media Development Authority (MDA), which regulates and censors media and the arts, has somewhat unexpectedly put together a rap video about the city-state's media ambitions. Watch it here.

New York - Rockstar Games, a unit of Take-Two Interactive, announced on Wednesday that it will publish "Manhunt 2," a sequel to its violent action title, for PlayStation 2, PSP and Nintendo Wii this summer. The original game was banned in Germany, Australia and New Zealand, and pulled from store shelves by a number of U.K. retailers, after it was found at the crime scene of a murdered teenager there. The sequel is being developed at Rockstar London, in conjunction with Rockstar North, while the Wii version is being created at Rockstar Toronto. Separately, Rockstar announced on Wednesday that it will bring its previously PSP-only "Grand Theft Auto: Vice City Stories" title to the PlayStation 2; the game is slated for release in North America on March 6 and in Europe on March 9.

Shanghai - Baidu, the leading search engine in China, has won a license from the Chinese government to provide original news reports on its website, Reuters reported, citing government and industry sources.