FORT MEADE, Maryland (Reuters) - The U.S. Army private accused of providing secret documents to the WikiLeaks website pleaded guilty on Thursday to misusing classified material he felt 'should become public,' but denied the top charge of aiding the enemy.
Private First Class Bradley Manning, 25, entered the pleas prior to his court martial, which is set to begin on June 3, in a case that centers on the biggest leak of government secrets in U.S. history.
Military judge Colonel Denise Lind accepted the guilty pleas late in the afternoon. Manning pleaded guilty to a series of 10 lesser charges that he misused classified information and faces a maximum of 20 years in prison for those offenses.
'I believe that if the general public ... had access to the information ... this could spark a domestic debate as to the role of the military and foreign policy in general,' Manning, dressed in full military uniform, testified calmly.
Reading from a 35-page statement as he remained seated next to his lawyers, the short, slight private described his feelings after he submitted the secret information to WikiLeaks.
'I felt I accomplished something that would allow me to have a clear conscience,' said Manning, who spoke under oath for more than an hour.
'This was the type of information... should become public,' he said.
At the hearing, through his attorney Manning pleaded not guilty to the most serious charge, of aiding the enemy.
Manning, who has been jailed for more than 1,000 days, could face life imprisonment if convicted of that charge at his June trial.
Under a ruling last month by Lind, Manning would have any sentence reduced by 112 days to compensate for the markedly harsh treatment he received during his confinement. While at the Quantico Marine Base in Virginia, Manning was placed in solitary confinement for up to 23 hours a day with guards checking on him every few minutes.
Manning admitted to unauthorized possession and willful communication of classified information from the Combined Information Data Network Exchange Iraq and the Combined Information Data Network Exchange Afghanistan, two military databases. He called the two tables of documents he sent to WikiLeaks 'two of most significant documents of our time.'
He also admitted to misuse of documents from the U.S. Southern Command pertaining to Guantanamo Bay, a memo from the United States Army Intelligence Center, and records from a military operation in Farah province in Afghanistan.
One of the classified U.S. military videos he said he leaked showed the 2007 attack by Apache helicopters that killed a dozen people in Baghdad, including two Reuters news staff, photographer Namir Noor-Eldeen, 22, and his assistant and driver Saeed Chmagh, 40.
Manning, an Army intelligence officer, testified that he first tried to give the information to his 'local paper,' the Washington Post, but when a journalist there was not interested he left a message at The New York Times, which never returned his call. He then planned to visit the offices of Politico, but when a winter storm cancelled his plans, he turned to WikiLeaks.
Manning was arrested in May 2010 while serving in Iraq and charged with downloading thousands of intelligence documents, diplomatic cables and combat videos and forwarding them to WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks began exposing the U.S. government secrets in the same year, stunning diplomats around the world and outraging U.S. officials who said damage to national security from the leaks endangered U.S. lives.
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange has taken refuge in the Ecuadorean Embassy in London since June to avoid extradition to Sweden for alleged sex crimes.
(The story deletes reference to Quantico in paragraph 9)
(Editing by Barbara Goldberg, Paul Simao and Tim Dobbyn)
Saturday, March 2, 2013
Friday, March 1, 2013
White House, lawmakers resume cybersecurity bill talks
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - U.S. House Intelligence Committee Chairman Mike Rogers said on Friday negotiations with the White House on a new cybersecurity bill have resumed, and the two sides are not 'that far apart' after making progress this week.
The Michigan Republican told Reuters that both sides are 'very close' on agreeing about the roles that the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies would play to better defend against cyber attacks.
They are also negotiating ways to minimize the transfer and use of personal information from companies to the government, Rogers said. No written drafts have been exchanged, the talks are informal and no deal is imminent, a committee staffer said.
In a joint interview with the senior Democrat on his committee, Dutch Ruppersberger, Rogers said the talks have been aided by increasing concerns about the costs of cyber attacks.
'What helped is that The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal were all hacked and they talked about it publicly,' Rogers said. 'It is starting to raise awareness. I can feel movement.'
Though thousands of important companies have been losing data to hackers in China and elsewhere for a decade, the number of companies publicly admitting such breaches has been growing. Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook confirmed attacks in a recent campaign.
Rogers said both sides of the talks and an expanding part of the public understand that the likelihood of a devastating destructive attack is growing as the list of cyber powers lengthens to include actors like Iran.
He said he had 'a high degree of confidence' that Iran was behind the August 2012 attack on Saudi Aramco that crippled some 30,000 PCs.
He also blamed Iran for a campaign against banks in recent months with what are known as denial-of-service attacks, which have disrupted access to some websites, and he said more intrusive or destructive hacking could follow.
'That's a probing action,' said Rogers, who is privvy to classified intelligence reports. 'We know it's not the best they have to offer.
'You have this non-rational actor that has the capability to cause chaos to people's networks and could be economically destructive.'
The joint bill by Rogers and Ruppersberger emphasizes sharing threat information among companies and the government. It passed the Republican-dominated House last year, but failed in the Democrat-controlled Senate after administration objections.
The White House wants a more comprehensive bill that also sets minimum security standards for vitally important companies. But Ruppersberger said last month's executive order on that issue eased some pressure to include such provisions.
A second gulf between the parties has been over the personal information on customers and users that would be turned over to the government.
The current House bill would give broad protection from lawsuits to companies that surrender user data believed to be related to 'threats' to their networks to DHS, which could then share it with intelligence agencies that could use it for other national security matters.
But Rogers said the personal information was not essential. 'Candidly, you don't need a lot of personal information to fight the threat,' he said, adding that details of new malicious software was essential.
Ruppersberger, of Maryland, said companies complained that they had no way to 'minimize' personal information attached to 'millions of conversations' and that they were working through that issue in the White House talks.
Their comments follow an interview with White House cybersecurity policy adviser Michael Daniel on Monday at the same RSA conference, the largest annual gathering of security professionals.
Daniel told Reuters then that the administration would identify its goals for a new law within two months.
Only after a law passes to shore up defense, the House members said, can the country focus on building support among allies to confront economic espionage from China and others.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Leslie Gevirtz)
The Michigan Republican told Reuters that both sides are 'very close' on agreeing about the roles that the Department of Homeland Security and other government agencies would play to better defend against cyber attacks.
They are also negotiating ways to minimize the transfer and use of personal information from companies to the government, Rogers said. No written drafts have been exchanged, the talks are informal and no deal is imminent, a committee staffer said.
In a joint interview with the senior Democrat on his committee, Dutch Ruppersberger, Rogers said the talks have been aided by increasing concerns about the costs of cyber attacks.
'What helped is that The New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal were all hacked and they talked about it publicly,' Rogers said. 'It is starting to raise awareness. I can feel movement.'
Though thousands of important companies have been losing data to hackers in China and elsewhere for a decade, the number of companies publicly admitting such breaches has been growing. Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, and Facebook confirmed attacks in a recent campaign.
Rogers said both sides of the talks and an expanding part of the public understand that the likelihood of a devastating destructive attack is growing as the list of cyber powers lengthens to include actors like Iran.
He said he had 'a high degree of confidence' that Iran was behind the August 2012 attack on Saudi Aramco that crippled some 30,000 PCs.
He also blamed Iran for a campaign against banks in recent months with what are known as denial-of-service attacks, which have disrupted access to some websites, and he said more intrusive or destructive hacking could follow.
'That's a probing action,' said Rogers, who is privvy to classified intelligence reports. 'We know it's not the best they have to offer.
'You have this non-rational actor that has the capability to cause chaos to people's networks and could be economically destructive.'
The joint bill by Rogers and Ruppersberger emphasizes sharing threat information among companies and the government. It passed the Republican-dominated House last year, but failed in the Democrat-controlled Senate after administration objections.
The White House wants a more comprehensive bill that also sets minimum security standards for vitally important companies. But Ruppersberger said last month's executive order on that issue eased some pressure to include such provisions.
A second gulf between the parties has been over the personal information on customers and users that would be turned over to the government.
The current House bill would give broad protection from lawsuits to companies that surrender user data believed to be related to 'threats' to their networks to DHS, which could then share it with intelligence agencies that could use it for other national security matters.
But Rogers said the personal information was not essential. 'Candidly, you don't need a lot of personal information to fight the threat,' he said, adding that details of new malicious software was essential.
Ruppersberger, of Maryland, said companies complained that they had no way to 'minimize' personal information attached to 'millions of conversations' and that they were working through that issue in the White House talks.
Their comments follow an interview with White House cybersecurity policy adviser Michael Daniel on Monday at the same RSA conference, the largest annual gathering of security professionals.
Daniel told Reuters then that the administration would identify its goals for a new law within two months.
Only after a law passes to shore up defense, the House members said, can the country focus on building support among allies to confront economic espionage from China and others.
(Reporting by Jim Finkle and Joseph Menn; Editing by Tiffany Wu and Leslie Gevirtz)
Hungry Americans get "A Place at the Table" in new documentary
NEW YORK (Reuters) - What do a police officer, a teacher, a rancher, and a second grader have in common? They all go hungry despite living in one of the wealthiest countries in the world.
Documentary film 'A Place at the Table,' which opens nationwide on Friday, shines a spotlight on the prevalence of hunger in the United States through the personal stories of some of the millions of Americans who struggle to feed themselves and their families.
'There is this perception that it's a tiny marginalized group of people who are facing it, but at this point we're looking at 50 million Americans,' director and producer Lori Silverbush told Reuters.
Silverbush and fellow director Kristi Jacobson said that the scope of problem remains largely hidden in the United States because people often associate hunger with images of children with sunken cheeks in developing countries. Many citizens are also ashamed to admit they cannot afford enough food.
'It's not what we are conditioned to think hunger looks like,' Jacobson said.
Hunger and obesity sometimes coexist in the same person, and 'A Place at the Table' draws connections between this seeming paradox.
In the film, New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle notes that the price of processed foods has decreased by 40 percent since 1980 while the price of fruit and vegetables has gone up by the same amount. The price disparity has helped drive the obesity epidemic, especially among low-income groups, she contends.
FOOD DESERTS BEREFT OF FRUIT, VEGETABLES
Tremonica, a second grader in the Mississippi Delta featured in the film, suffers from both hunger and obesity, and her mother says that she often cannot afford fresh food for her daughter.
'I think it's really important to think about hunger and obesity as opposite sides of the same coin,' said Bill Shore, founder and chief executive of Share Our Strength, which works to eradicate child hunger in the United States.
Access to healthy food can be a problem in 'food deserts,' a term for areas in both urban and rural communities where fresh food is scarce.
North Philadelphia mom Barbie is filmed taking a two-hour round trip bus ride to get to a supermarket with a better selection than the ones in her neighborhood.
Even with a full-time job, she often finds herself feeding her children tins of cheap, small, prepared meals because she can't find or afford much else.
Jacobson and Silverbush hope that their film helps raise awareness about hunger and inspires people to take action.
'We know how to fix hunger. It's not a mysterious condition that we don't know what causes it,' Silverbush said.
'When we speak to (U.S.) legislators, they tell us that their phones aren't ringing on this issue, they're not getting texts, they're not getting emails. That's why we made this movie, to convince people that if they decide to engage on this they will have agency and we will change it,' she said.
Some of the solutions proposed in 'A Place at the Table' include expanding food stamps, ensuring that all children who qualify for free school lunches have access to them, implementing nutrition education, reexamining farm subsidies, and revising guidelines for federal food assistance.
A social media-based action campaign accompanies the launch of the film to connect people with information about anti-hunger efforts.
(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)
Documentary film 'A Place at the Table,' which opens nationwide on Friday, shines a spotlight on the prevalence of hunger in the United States through the personal stories of some of the millions of Americans who struggle to feed themselves and their families.
'There is this perception that it's a tiny marginalized group of people who are facing it, but at this point we're looking at 50 million Americans,' director and producer Lori Silverbush told Reuters.
Silverbush and fellow director Kristi Jacobson said that the scope of problem remains largely hidden in the United States because people often associate hunger with images of children with sunken cheeks in developing countries. Many citizens are also ashamed to admit they cannot afford enough food.
'It's not what we are conditioned to think hunger looks like,' Jacobson said.
Hunger and obesity sometimes coexist in the same person, and 'A Place at the Table' draws connections between this seeming paradox.
In the film, New York University nutrition professor Marion Nestle notes that the price of processed foods has decreased by 40 percent since 1980 while the price of fruit and vegetables has gone up by the same amount. The price disparity has helped drive the obesity epidemic, especially among low-income groups, she contends.
FOOD DESERTS BEREFT OF FRUIT, VEGETABLES
Tremonica, a second grader in the Mississippi Delta featured in the film, suffers from both hunger and obesity, and her mother says that she often cannot afford fresh food for her daughter.
'I think it's really important to think about hunger and obesity as opposite sides of the same coin,' said Bill Shore, founder and chief executive of Share Our Strength, which works to eradicate child hunger in the United States.
Access to healthy food can be a problem in 'food deserts,' a term for areas in both urban and rural communities where fresh food is scarce.
North Philadelphia mom Barbie is filmed taking a two-hour round trip bus ride to get to a supermarket with a better selection than the ones in her neighborhood.
Even with a full-time job, she often finds herself feeding her children tins of cheap, small, prepared meals because she can't find or afford much else.
Jacobson and Silverbush hope that their film helps raise awareness about hunger and inspires people to take action.
'We know how to fix hunger. It's not a mysterious condition that we don't know what causes it,' Silverbush said.
'When we speak to (U.S.) legislators, they tell us that their phones aren't ringing on this issue, they're not getting texts, they're not getting emails. That's why we made this movie, to convince people that if they decide to engage on this they will have agency and we will change it,' she said.
Some of the solutions proposed in 'A Place at the Table' include expanding food stamps, ensuring that all children who qualify for free school lunches have access to them, implementing nutrition education, reexamining farm subsidies, and revising guidelines for federal food assistance.
A social media-based action campaign accompanies the launch of the film to connect people with information about anti-hunger efforts.
(Editing by Jill Serjeant and Eric Walsh)
Facebook to showcase new look for newsfeed on March 7
SAN FRANCISCO (Reuters) - Facebook Inc will unveil a new look for its popular 'newsfeed' next week, the latest move by the Web company to revamp key elements of its 1 billion member social network.
Facebook will showcase the newsfeed makeover at a media event on March 7 at its Menlo Park, California headquarters, the company said in an emailed invitation to reporters on Friday.
The event will be Facebook's second high-profile product event this year, following the rollout of its social search feature in January.
Facebook's newsfeed, which displays an ever-changing stream of the photos, videos and comments uploaded from a user's network of friends, is one of the three 'pillars' of the service, along with search and user profiles, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said.
The last major update to Facebook's newsfeed was in September 2011. Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and the company has shifted its focus to creating 'mobile first experiences,' as more people now access the social network every day on mobile devices than on desktop PCs.
The mobile version of Facebook still lacks many of the features available on the PC version, said Brian Blau, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner. 'So maybe this is a way to bring some of that together,' he said.
Shares of Facebook, the world's No.1 social network, were up nearly 2 percent, or 52 cents, at $27.77 in midday trading on Friday.
(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)
Facebook will showcase the newsfeed makeover at a media event on March 7 at its Menlo Park, California headquarters, the company said in an emailed invitation to reporters on Friday.
The event will be Facebook's second high-profile product event this year, following the rollout of its social search feature in January.
Facebook's newsfeed, which displays an ever-changing stream of the photos, videos and comments uploaded from a user's network of friends, is one of the three 'pillars' of the service, along with search and user profiles, Chief Executive Mark Zuckerberg has said.
The last major update to Facebook's newsfeed was in September 2011. Since then, the company has incorporated ads directly into the feed and the company has shifted its focus to creating 'mobile first experiences,' as more people now access the social network every day on mobile devices than on desktop PCs.
The mobile version of Facebook still lacks many of the features available on the PC version, said Brian Blau, an analyst with industry research firm Gartner. 'So maybe this is a way to bring some of that together,' he said.
Shares of Facebook, the world's No.1 social network, were up nearly 2 percent, or 52 cents, at $27.77 in midday trading on Friday.
(Reporting By Alexei Oreskovic; Editing by Marguerita Choy and David Gregorio)
FAA looking into safety of sky-high Harlem Shake dance
NEW YORK (Reuters) - A sky-high video of the Internet dance craze Harlem Shake that went viral on YouTube has captured the attention of aviation officials who said on Friday they are looking into the event over safety concerns.
In the video called, 'Harlem Shake Frontier Flight 157,' members of the ultimate Frisbee team from Colorado College and other passengers are shown frenetically dancing in the aisle and in front of seats last month on the packed Frontier Airlines flight from Colorado Springs to San Diego, California.
'If we find any evidence of a violation of Federal Aviation Regulations, then we would pursue it,' FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said in an email.
The song-and-dance craze typically begins with one dancer who is quickly joined by others, some of whom are in costume.
Frontier Airlines defended its decision to allow the college students to dance on board the flight thousands of feet over the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
'We have a policy not to comment on things that are under investigation by the FAA, but I can tell you that all safety measures were followed and the seatbelt sign was off,' Frontier Airlines spokeswoman Kate O'Malley said in an email.
Frontier crew members had taped their own version of the dance a few weeks earlier, though on firmer ground inside an air terminal.
The college students said they had come up with the idea a few days before the flight. They had asked the flight staff for permission before beginning the dance and were shown how to use the public address system.
'When we got to the airport we were kind of ready and had brought costumes and stuff,' Matt Zelin, a sophomore at the college, told the college newspaper, The Catalyst.
'Obviously I hope that this whole situation is solved with the FAA ...,' Zelin added. 'I don't see there being any reason why this should cause any trouble. We asked the staff and they said it was safe.'
The video, which had been viewed more than 732,000 times by early Friday afternoon, can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG6p0z_W2Bo&feature=youtu.be
(Reporting by Noreen O'Donnell; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Eric Walsh)
In the video called, 'Harlem Shake Frontier Flight 157,' members of the ultimate Frisbee team from Colorado College and other passengers are shown frenetically dancing in the aisle and in front of seats last month on the packed Frontier Airlines flight from Colorado Springs to San Diego, California.
'If we find any evidence of a violation of Federal Aviation Regulations, then we would pursue it,' FAA spokesman Allen Kenitzer said in an email.
The song-and-dance craze typically begins with one dancer who is quickly joined by others, some of whom are in costume.
Frontier Airlines defended its decision to allow the college students to dance on board the flight thousands of feet over the Grand Canyon in Arizona.
'We have a policy not to comment on things that are under investigation by the FAA, but I can tell you that all safety measures were followed and the seatbelt sign was off,' Frontier Airlines spokeswoman Kate O'Malley said in an email.
Frontier crew members had taped their own version of the dance a few weeks earlier, though on firmer ground inside an air terminal.
The college students said they had come up with the idea a few days before the flight. They had asked the flight staff for permission before beginning the dance and were shown how to use the public address system.
'When we got to the airport we were kind of ready and had brought costumes and stuff,' Matt Zelin, a sophomore at the college, told the college newspaper, The Catalyst.
'Obviously I hope that this whole situation is solved with the FAA ...,' Zelin added. 'I don't see there being any reason why this should cause any trouble. We asked the staff and they said it was safe.'
The video, which had been viewed more than 732,000 times by early Friday afternoon, can be seen at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xG6p0z_W2Bo&feature=youtu.be
(Reporting by Noreen O'Donnell; Editing by Patricia Reaney and Eric Walsh)
German lawmakers back Internet copyright, Google critical
* Critics say bill too vague to help publishers
* Search engine Google says will hurt consumers
BERLIN (Reuters) - German lawmakers approved a bill on Friday that aims to protect publishers' copyright on the Internet but critics branded it too weak for failing to make search engines such as Google pay for displaying news snippets.
The bill, which follows years of debate, comes as the newspaper industry in Germany, as elsewhere, struggles to find new sources of revenue as readers and advertisers move online in droves.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition, which faces an election in September, watered down its original plans amid pressure from Internet lobbyists, lawyers and others who argued that it undermined freedom of information.
Google launched an ad campaign in German newspapers and set up a web information site called 'Defend your web' to lobby against the proposals, saying they would mean less information for consumers and higher costs for companies.
The 'ancillary copyright' bill now makes clear that search engines can publish 'individual words or small snippets of text such as headlines' without incurring any costs.
They will have to pay for use of longer pieces of content, though opposition parties said the wording of the bill was vague and could lead to courts having to rule on individual cases.
The opposition parties could still block the bill in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, where the government has no majority.
'It is not at all clear who is now meant to be protected from whom and why there is this law,' said the opposition Greens on their website on Friday, saying the bill served neither cash-strapped publishers nor the free flow of information.
Google echoed such criticism.
'The law is neither necessary nor sensible. It hampers innovation and hurts the economy and Internet users in Germany,' said Kay Oberbeck, communications director at Google.
But the association of German newspaper publishers welcomed the bill as 'an important element in the creation of a fair legal space in the digital world'.
They have argued that search engines raise the vast majority of their revenues from online advertising and that a substantial part of these come directly or indirectly from the free access to professional news or entertainment content produced by media.
The German draft bill states explicitly that it is not intended to protect newspapers from the effects of ongoing structural changes in the market.
(Reporting by Gareth Jones and Matthias Sobolewski; Editing by Michael Roddy)
* Search engine Google says will hurt consumers
BERLIN (Reuters) - German lawmakers approved a bill on Friday that aims to protect publishers' copyright on the Internet but critics branded it too weak for failing to make search engines such as Google pay for displaying news snippets.
The bill, which follows years of debate, comes as the newspaper industry in Germany, as elsewhere, struggles to find new sources of revenue as readers and advertisers move online in droves.
Chancellor Angela Merkel's centre-right coalition, which faces an election in September, watered down its original plans amid pressure from Internet lobbyists, lawyers and others who argued that it undermined freedom of information.
Google launched an ad campaign in German newspapers and set up a web information site called 'Defend your web' to lobby against the proposals, saying they would mean less information for consumers and higher costs for companies.
The 'ancillary copyright' bill now makes clear that search engines can publish 'individual words or small snippets of text such as headlines' without incurring any costs.
They will have to pay for use of longer pieces of content, though opposition parties said the wording of the bill was vague and could lead to courts having to rule on individual cases.
The opposition parties could still block the bill in the Bundesrat, the upper house of parliament, where the government has no majority.
'It is not at all clear who is now meant to be protected from whom and why there is this law,' said the opposition Greens on their website on Friday, saying the bill served neither cash-strapped publishers nor the free flow of information.
Google echoed such criticism.
'The law is neither necessary nor sensible. It hampers innovation and hurts the economy and Internet users in Germany,' said Kay Oberbeck, communications director at Google.
But the association of German newspaper publishers welcomed the bill as 'an important element in the creation of a fair legal space in the digital world'.
They have argued that search engines raise the vast majority of their revenues from online advertising and that a substantial part of these come directly or indirectly from the free access to professional news or entertainment content produced by media.
The German draft bill states explicitly that it is not intended to protect newspapers from the effects of ongoing structural changes in the market.
(Reporting by Gareth Jones and Matthias Sobolewski; Editing by Michael Roddy)
Alibaba to roll out credit payment service for e-commerce platforms: report
SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Alifinance, a unit of Alibaba Group, will soon roll out a credit-line service for businesses and consumers on its e-commerce platforms, the Sina Technology news website said on Friday.
The credit will be provided via Alipay, the affiliated e-commerce payment unit of Alibaba Group.
A pilot version of the program, which will be first available for users of Taobao Marketplace and Taobao Mall on mobile devices, will be rolled out in certain parts of China.
An Alipay spokeswoman declined to comment.
The report said that Taobao Marketplace and Taobao Mall businesses that use the service will be charged an initial discounted fee of one percent.
According to technology research firm Analysys, Taobao Marketplace and Taobao Mall had a majority of market share in China's consumer-to-consumer market and business-to-consumer platform.
(This story was corrected to fix the headline and lead, and to adds the second paragraph to make it clear that the credit will be provided by Alifinance, via Alipay)
(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Matt Driskill)
The credit will be provided via Alipay, the affiliated e-commerce payment unit of Alibaba Group.
A pilot version of the program, which will be first available for users of Taobao Marketplace and Taobao Mall on mobile devices, will be rolled out in certain parts of China.
An Alipay spokeswoman declined to comment.
The report said that Taobao Marketplace and Taobao Mall businesses that use the service will be charged an initial discounted fee of one percent.
According to technology research firm Analysys, Taobao Marketplace and Taobao Mall had a majority of market share in China's consumer-to-consumer market and business-to-consumer platform.
(This story was corrected to fix the headline and lead, and to adds the second paragraph to make it clear that the credit will be provided by Alifinance, via Alipay)
(Reporting by Melanie Lee; Editing by Matt Driskill)
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