Southern California man convicted last year of hacking into the Lexis-Nexis owned consumer database Accurint was arrested on charges on extortion Friday after allegedly hijacking the MySpace account of an internet celebrity.

Jeffrey Robert Weinberg, 22, was arrested by LAPD detectives in Southern California early Friday morning, a department spokeswoman confirmed. While police aren’t discussing the particulars, the arrest follows a detailed blog post by “Amor Hilton” an 18-year-old Los Angeles woman who says she helped detectives build a case against  Weinberg after he hijacked her MySpace account and demanded nude photos and “phone sex” in exchange for its return.

Hilton’s weekly live video show Bare Naked on the amateur streaming site Stickam, has made her an online celebrity of sorts.  She named herself for fashion model Nicky Hilton, sister of heiress Paris Hilton. Weinberg was one of a gang of hackers who penetrated Paris Hilton’s cell phone account in 2005, theWashington Post reported last year. 

According to her blog post, Hilton found herself locked out of her MySpace account on December 28th, the same day she began receiving harassing phone calls from a hacker calling himself “V.I.P.” — a handle used by Weinberg in the past. The calls continued over the course of several days, and often took a threatening tone, she says.

  And if you would believe it, so are Japanese pop diva Ayumi Hamasaki, Bollywood queen Aishwarya Rai, US President George Bush and even Singapore’s Minister Mentor Lee Kuan Yew.If you type in Mr Lee’s name on the Find Friends function on the social networking site, you will find four profiles with his name - three with his photos.One of the profiles lists 13 friends - which include ‘Tony Blair’, ‘Mao Ze Dong’ and ‘Gregori Rasputin’ - the latter two being, respectively, a deceased Chinese leader and the infamous Mad Monk of Russia who was murdered in the early 20th century.An Eric Lee from Malaysia writes on this profile, ‘Err… who exactly are you ah?’, to which, ‘Mr Lee’ responds: ‘Go read your papers.’Facebook fake? Quite likely.And there are a slew of them. There is even one open profile of Singapore Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong, where the only application added is an IQ test.Fake celebrity profiles made headlines recently after two bogus Facebook profiles of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari were found on the site.Bilawal is the 19-year-old son of recently-assassinated Pakistani politician Benazir Bhutto. He took over his late mother’s position as party chairman of the Pakistan People’s Party.

Inside a cramped conference room at Toronto’s Mars Discovery Centre, angel investors listened closely as Nussar Ahmad pitched the future of the Internet.

Equipped with just a cellphone and a laptop connected to the web, Ahmad, director of Addictive Mobility, demonstrated how his company’s latest software application has the ability to cash in on the world of social networking - the web’s latest gold mine.

Using code supplied by Facebook, Ahmad’s software can take pictures snapped on a camera phone and instantly send them to a Facebook profile page.

When MySpace.com invaded parts of Western Europe last year, it launched customized versions of its site that looked very similar to the original American one. The result: It caught up with and in many cases surpassed local competitors. Now MySpace is embarking on a tougher assignment — moving into countries where Internet conditions require a much more individualized approach.

Having already built local versions for 22 countries and territories outside the U.S., the News Corp.-owned Internet giant starting this month and into next year has plans to launch custom sites in India, Russia, Poland, South Korea and Turkey, according to Travis Katz, managing director of international for MySpace. In each of these countries, Web cultures vary dramatically from that in the U.S. and much of Europe.

In some countries, such as India and parts of Latin America, average Internet speeds are comparatively very slow. So MySpace is developing a less-sophisticated version that probably won’t automatically stream video and music while users are surfing the site, although users could launch such features manually.

At the other end of the spectrum, South Korea boasts average Internet speeds many times faster than the U.S. and a much savvier Web culture. Blogging being hugely popular, MySpace is recasting its South Korean version as more of a blogging service, with new tools that make it easier for users to publish and promote their blogs through their profiles.

In other countries, such as Turkey, social networking is a less-familiar concept, requiring MySpace to design on-site tutorials that explain to users how to navigate the site, find profiles for music bands and search for friends. Language differences pose different problems elsewhere: MySpace is contemplating a move into Israel, but the predominant use of Hebrew there would require a site redesign for users who read right to left.

MySpace executives say launching in these countries won’t generate much revenue anytime soon. But establishing a presence in countries such as India and Russia is important for the day when Internet conditions improve. “We are placing strategic bets,” says Katz. “We are looking at places where there is not a ton of money to be made in the next five or 10 years, but we want to be well-positioned when things get there.”

MySpace parent News Corp. has bought Dow Jones & Co., publisher of The Wall Street Journal.

Expanding its global footprint is a top priority for MySpace, fighting intensifying competition from rivals such as Facebook Inc. While MySpace retains a big lead in the U.S., Facebook is growing quickly. And outside the U.S., Facebook has passed MySpace — drawing 55 million unique non-U.S. visitors in October to MySpace’s 45 million, according to comScore Inc.

While MySpace has a strong lead over Facebook in Europe, Facebook is the No. 1 social-networking site in a combined category for Africa and the Middle East, according to comScore. And Facebook is likely to become a bigger threat elsewhere: The company also has announced it is translating the site into new languages.

MySpace faces competition from other players elsewhere. In Latin America, where MySpace is a relatively small player, rivals such as Google Inc.’s social-networking site Orkut, and Fotolog and hi5 have loyal followings. Fotolog was recently acquired by French Internet company Hi-Media SA, which intends to market the site aggressively throughout Europe and Latin America. Russia-based Internet company SUP recently paid an undisclosed amount for U.S. blogging and social-networking service LiveJournal, which has nearly 14 million unique monthly visitors world-wide, according to comScore.

MySpace was one of the first U.S. social-networking sites to roll out local versions. Beginning in Europe last year, the company launched customized sites in the United Kingdom, France, Spain, Italy and Germany, since expanding to Austria, Sweden and Denmark, among others.

By Jessica E. Vascellaro

Runner+ is the social network for runners. There are all kinds of tools to help you track and improve your running. You can log in your stats and they can be downloaded in Excel format, or you can see them in a bunch of different charts, or you can compare them to the stats of your friends for a little friendly competition. If you want to keep your stats private, that´s also a possibility. There´s also a forum and various groups to help you with lots of advice, tips, and the latest running news. There´s also a list of power songs recommended by other runners using the site. Videos from YouTube associated with running are available as well. Keep up to date and in shape with Runner+.

“RUNNER+ is a site for runners and joggers who want to achieve more through community and technology. RUNNER+ provides a thriving forums area, groups, member tips & advice, videos, a blog with the latest news, and more. If you use running systems such as the Nike+ iPod Sport Kit, then you will benefit even more. Creating an account is free and only takes a minute.