The South American country of Guyana plans to close hundreds of Internet cafes that it accuses of bypassing the telephone company system to offer cheap international calls.

The Revenue Authority accuses the cafes of tax evasion because they do not charge sales tax or other fees for calls made through Internet-based phone services like Skype, Vonage and Packet8.

The tax agency says cafes are multiplying so fast that "their collective impact on the national revenue is too significant to ignore."

It says callers who use phone companies Digicel and the Guyana Telephone & Telegraph Co. account for 16 percent of the country's sales tax revenues.

Since its launch in March, video-streaming site Hulu has become a popular place to catch TV shows, video clips and movies for free on the Web.

Apparently, the folks behind Hulu - which is a joint venture between General Electric Co.'s NBC Universal and News Corp. - aren't the only ones that think this is a good idea.

This week, Sling Media, which makes the Slingbox device that lets you watch your home TV remotely, rolled out a "beta" version of its own video-streaming site, Sling.com. Owing to deals with Hulu and a number of the same partners that Hulu has, Sling.com has much of the same content. But there is one neat twist: if you have a Slingbox device, which lets you control and watch your TV from any Mac- or Windows-based computer equipped with high-speed Internet access, you can also use the site to control your Slingbox.

It's definitely not breaking any ground as far as content is concerned - the only full-length movie I spotted on Sling.com that Hulu didn't have was blaxploitation horror flick "Blacula" - but overall the site makes a pretty good alternative, especially if you have a Slingbox, which starts at $180.

Sling.com has a fairly clean look, and I found it easy to navigate. You don't need to create a site profile if you just want to watch TV shows, movies or clips, but it's necessary if you want to set up subscriptions to channels and shows so you'll be alerted when new content is added to the site. Unlike with Hulu, you don't have to log in to watch R-rated movies. And Slingbox users who want to watch live TV can use the e-mail address and password associated with their Slingbox to log in.

As with Hulu, Sling.com is free to use but there are commercial interruptions during TV shows and movies, shorter than the ones you'd sit through when watching TV.

I spent some time watching the show "30 Rock" and teen cheerleader classic "Bring it On." "30 Rock" looked pretty good, but "Bring it On" was pixelated and jerky at times when viewed on both Firefox and Internet Explorer over my high-speed Internet connection. A newer computer with a dual-core processor probably wouldn't have the same problem.

You can watch in a browser window or in full-screen mode. Depending on what you're watching, the full-screen mode may look fuzzy because of the low resolution of the feed.

Sling.com does have a number of content partners besides Hulu, including CBS and comedy Web sites CollegeHumor and 23/6. The site also has deals with the Associated Press and Reuters for news videos.

The site's coolest feature is that it lets Slingbox owners watch live TV online. Before, this required the installation of a standalone program called SlingPlayer. Setting up to watch through the Web browser is much easier and quicker, though it requires the installation of a proprietary plugin that works only on Windows-based PC's running Mozilla's Firefox or Microsoft's Internet Explorer. Sling Media said it hopes to have the feature working with Macs in a few months.

The option of watching through the Web browser would make it much easier to jump on my non-TV owning friends' computer if we had a sudden craving for a cable television fix. I liked being able to use an on-screen remote to watch content that had been recorded to a home DVR or to record new things to watch later.

Hong Kong's key stock index advanced for a fourth straight session Friday as investors bet Wall Street will extend gains when trade resumes following the Thanksgiving holiday.

The blue chip Hang Seng index rose 336.18 points, or 2.5 percent, to 13,888.24.

The benchmark index has gained 9.7 percent this week, during which the Chinese government slashed a key interest rate by the largest amount in 11 years to spur economic growth and the U.S. government announced a bailout of Citigroup.

Analysts said investors anticipated the Dow Jones industrial average would extend recent gains after the U.S. stock market was closed Thursday for Thanksgiving.

"Investors are having some wishful thinking that the U.S. stocks will continue to rise as market sentiments are improving," said Conita Hung, head of research at Delta Asia Securities.

Most stocks gained Friday except Chinese financials. Telecom heavyweight China Mobile added 2.3 percent to 71.10 Hong Kong dollars. China Unicom rose 6.6 percent to HK$9.56, China Telecom was 3.5 percent higher at HK$2.95.

In commodities, upstream oil producer CNOOC soared 5.8 percent to HK$6.25 and Sinopec gained 3.2 to HK$5.15.

Bucking the trend, top lender ICBC lost 0.5 percent to HK$3.80 while China Contruction Bank dropped 2.6 percent.

Insurer Ping An insurance fell 5.7 percent to HK$29.25. Rival China Life was off 2.7 percent to HK$19.94.

The U.S. dollar was mixed against other major currencies in European trading Friday afternoon. Gold fell.

The euro traded at $1.2705, down from $1.2899 late Wednesday in New York. U.S. markets were closed Thursday for a holiday.

Other dollar rates:

-95.62 Japanese yen, down from 95.73

-1.2141 Swiss francs, up from 1.2035

-1.2356 Canadian dollars, up from 1.2271