News Thread

For the talkin' of jibba jabba.
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Invictus
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Re: News Thread

Post by Invictus »

Putin Plays Piano, Carols for Charity

"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
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Re: News Thread

Post by Siege »

:lol:

With every passing day Vladimir Putin looks less like a James Bond villain and more like, well, James Bond! Flies bombers, tranquilizes tigers, does bare-chested fly-fishing, judoes with kids, drops water on forest fires... And sings the blues! It's completely outrageous, can you imagine how anyone would have reacted if you'd told 'em this is what the Russian PM would be doing back in the Yeltsin days?

Seriously, I'm just waiting for him to ride a rocket up into space. If he did that, I could die a happy man.

(I'm thinking he probably had the guy playing the synthesizer disappeared off to a Siberian gulag right after the concert though!)
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Re: News Thread

Post by Mobius 1 »

what is this i don't even

Putin, mang. If nothing else, he's easily the most interesting world leader on the stage right now.
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Re: News Thread

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http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldne ... ament.html

Brawl breaks out in South Korean parliament

Hundreds of MPs screamed and wrestled in South Korea's parliament as a rivalry over a contentious law descended into a brawl.


At least one MP required treatment in hospital following the clash over new media reform laws.

MPs from the ruling Grand National Party occupied the speaker's podium in a bid to quickly pass the bills aimed at easing restrictions on ownership of television networks. Opposition parties responded by stacking up furniture to block ruling party members from entering the main hall of the National Assembly.

The parliament plunged into chaos, as lawmakers scuffled and shouted abuse at each other. Women MPs from the rival parties joined in the melee, grabbing each other by the neck and trying to bring opponents to the floor.

The YTN television network reported some were injured. One woman MP was seen lying on a blue mattress with nurses checking her blood pressure. She was later taken to hospital.

The scenes were not unusual to South Korea's confrontational and melodramatic politics, where rival parties sometimes resort to violence to get their way. Last year, opposition MPs used sledgehammers to pound their way into a parliamentary committee room to block the ruling party from introducing a bill to ratify a free trade pact with the United States.
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Re: News Thread

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Happens all the time in SK.
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
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REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
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Re: News Thread

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GASP AND MARVEL AT THE BLOOD QUR'AN OF SADDAM HUSSEIN
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It was etched in the blood of a dictator in a ghoulish bid for piety. Over the course of two painstaking years in the late 1990s, Saddam Hussein had sat regularly with a nurse and an Islamic calligrapher; the former drawing 27 litres of his blood and the latter using it as a macabre ink to transcribe a Qur'an. But since the fall of Baghdad, almost eight years ago, it has stayed largely out of sight - locked away behind three vaulted doors. It is the one part of the ousted tyrant's legacy that Iraq has simply not known what to do with.

"It was wrong to do what he did, to write it in blood," says Sheikh Samarrai. "It is haraam [forbidden]."

Despite this, Sammarie says he acted as the document's protector during the mayhem that followed the US-led invasion in 2003, hiding pages in his house and moving others among the homes of his relatives.

"I knew this would be much sought after and we made the decision to protect it. But to see this now is not easy. There are three keys and none of them are held in the one place. I have one, the police chief in the area has another and there is a third in another part of Baghdad. There has to be a decision of a committee to let you in."
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
Coming NEVER
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Re: News Thread

Post by Malchus »

It's just too easy too make jokes about blood tomes and Saddam playing with dark forces. Or, you know, use the idea in Comix. :P
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Re: News Thread

Post by Magister Militum »

Beware the revenge of Murkowski, tea baggers and GOP alike!
Lisa Murkowski isn’t gunning down caribou on national TV like that other famous Alaskan, but the Republican lawmaker is going rogue in the Senate just weeks after staging the most stunning back-from-the-dead political win of the 2010 cycle.

Murkowski is already showing a fierce independent streak, becoming the only Republican to cast votes on all four items on President Barack Obama’s wish list: a repeal of “don’t ask, don’t tell,” a tax-cut compromise, the START deal and cloture for the DREAM Act.

The lame-duck votes capped a strange political odyssey for the Alaska Republican — one that started Aug. 31 when she conceded the GOP primary to tea-party-backed Joe Miller, continued when she resigned her leadership job in September and ended when she waged Alaska’s first successful statewide write-in bid to retain her seat. (See: The ABC's of Murkowski's write-in bid)

Now, she heads back to the Senate with a fresh six-year term without owing much to either her home state party establishment or her Washington leadership.

Murkowski’s willingness to defy Republican top brass after a bitter fight to keep her seat may mark a pivotal point in her career as she emerges as a real maverick foil to Sarah Palin, the conservative idol who put Alaska politics on the national map. And while conservatives who helped oust Murkowski from the GOP ticket in Alaska may howl about her being a “Republican In Name Only,” Murkowski could enjoy a powerful perch as a much-sought-after moderate in an almost evenly divided Senate. (See: Murkowski: Palin's no leader)

“She's a person who makes up her own mind, does what she thinks is right and always keeps the concerns of her state at the forefront,” moderate Sen. Susan Collins (R-Maine) told POLITICO of Murkowski, adding that the Alaskan was an important ally in helping overturn DADT.

“I can’t speak for Lisa’s plans; all I can tell you is that she is an extraordinarily effective senator and I’m sure she’s going to continue to play an absolutely critical role in the caucus and in the Senate.”

Collins, who calls Murkowski one of her “favorite people,” is not alone in her praise. Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Jeff Bingaman (D-N.M.) emphasized Murkowski’s pragmatism as a venerable partner in attacking energy issues that typically draw partisan ire.

“She’s very interested in getting good results and not playing politics with issues,” Bingaman told POLITICO. “She and I have worked together well on the energy committee, and I think we have been able to operate that committee well on a bipartisan basis with her help.”

Murkowski is also developing a significant working relationship with Senate Majority Whip Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), who was one of the top negotiators on the DREAM Act, a bill that would have established a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants who enroll in college or the military. (See: Murkowski expects to retain seniority)

A Durbin aide said Murkowski was open to conversations on the DREAM Act “for a number of weeks,” and that the two senators “spoke regularly” on the issue before this weekend’s failed cloture vote, in which only three GOP members broke with their party.

The dramatic closing weeks to one of the most productive legislative sessions in history — and Murkowski’s role — might be one of the most interesting political prologues to a new Congress punctuated by the arrival of young conservatives. (See: Obama touts 'season of progress')

Murkowski declined to be interviewed for this story — and Alaskan officials have not yet certified her election because of pending suits from Miller. Randy DeSoto, a Miller spokesman, criticized Murkowski’s lame-duck votes in a statement to POLITICO.

“In supposedly voting ‘for Alaska,’ Lisa Murkowski must make the case why the Bush tax cuts shouldn't be permanent, why we're rewarding people for breaking our immigration laws, why DADT was not working and why the Senate should not take further time to review START,” DeSoto said.

Murkowski’s recent record may translate into a future as a key player for Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.), who leaned heavily on Collins, her Maine colleague Sen. Olympia Snowe and Massachusetts Republican Sen. Scott Brown to break filibusters on priorities like Wall Street reform and unemployment insurance extensions when he needed to flip just one Republican to press forward. (See: Arlen Specter says goodbye)

Though Alaska is more conservative than the New England states, a diminished Democratic majority in 2011 could throw Murkowski into the mix of potential swing votes for Reid, who will need seven Republicans in addition to the support his full caucus for any given measure. Reid and Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) likely will be in a constant tug of war to keep moderate members of their respective caucuses in tow. Meanwhile back home, Murkowski owes much of her write-in success to moderates as well as Democrats who voted for her in an effort to keep Miller out.

In her statement defending her DREAM Act vote, Murkowski left the door open for further work on immigration issues in 2011.

“Congress needs to embrace the wider immigration question, starting with securing our borders, and I plan to work with my colleagues on this issue in the new Congress,” she wrote.

Murkowski’s lame-duck votes are not without precedent. She sided with Democrats in nearly 20 percent of votes in the 110th Congress, the cycle before she was up for reelection. She has a pattern of working constructively with Democrats on energy issues. White House officials — particularly energy czar Carol Browner, who is expected to take on an elevated role for Obama in the new year — consistently have cited Murkowski as someone they can work with. (See: Drilling reviews draw Senate fire)

“Even when she was in leadership, she was a pretty independent-minded senator,” said one top GOP aide. “She is generally always involved in the process of trying to reach some sort of end result — she wasn't about stopping whatever the other side was doing.”

And most notably, Murkowski has gone on the record multiple times to express her disdain for Senate tea party champion Jim DeMint, setting her up as a potential opponent to the new caucus of conservative-leaning Republican senators — like Rand Paul of Kentucky and Mike Lee of Utah — heading to Washington in January.

“Some of the Republicans in the Congress feel pretty strongly that he and his actions potentially cost us the majority by encouraging candidates that ended up not being electable,” Murkowski told POLITICO last month, adding that DeMint was “out for his own initiative” rather than the good of the party. (See: Murkowski to DeMint: Stay out of Alaska)

It's also possible that the infusion of these DeMint-backed conservatives into the GOP Conference could strengthen the bonds between Murkowski and moderates like Collins, Snowe and increasingly Brown — with the last two up for reelection in 2012.

Collins and Snowe were outspoken supporters of the Alaskan senator in a caucus meeting after Murkowski’s primary defeat when the full GOP Conference decided not to act on removing Murkowski as ranking member on the energy committee, even though Republican committee members had supported doing so.

According to multiple accounts of the meeting, many other members of the GOP establishment, along with retiring senators, spoke against removing Murkowksi from her top slot on the energy panel — an indication that she still finds general support among GOP ranks, despite the fact that Republicans were obligated to back Miller as the party nominee. (See: Murkowski keeps committee slot)

Though Murkowski’s top spot on the committee is not guaranteed when the Senate starts back up in January, she has a good working relationship with Bingaman and helped craft the energy bill that became the last hope this summer for Democrats looking to move on the issue after talks between Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.), Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) broke down.

Aides who work closely with members on both sides of the aisle are reluctant to say whether Murkowski has changed her approach since surviving the Miller saga of 2010. Instead, they emphasize that the Alaska Republican is doing what she always has done by attracting more attention for it now because of her fight to stay in Congress.

“Her natural inclination [to work pragmatically] will probably get more attention than it used to — I don't know that her attitude will change so much as it will get more attention for doing what she always used to do,” a senior GOP aide said.

But back in Alaska, others have taken a different view. Ivan Moore, an Alaskan pollster who also pens a column for the Anchorage Press, pointed to Murkowski’s “don’t ask, don’t tell” vote as a sign of a "new Lisa.”

“There’s a new paradigm now, and with it comes a watershed political moment for her personally,” Moore wrote, noting that 60 percent of Murkowski voters in the last election supported repeal. “She has made her position quite clear — she supports repeal of DADT. ... Good for her, I reckon. I think she has conclusively detached herself from her former allegiance to the right and is charting a new course. DADT was her first real test, and I think she passed.”
How a ostracized write-in managed to beat Palin's dim witted golden boy IN ALASKA still kinda boggles the mind (of course, he is a moron, so perhaps it's not that unbelievable), but its obvious she was not amused. Combined with another article that noted the visible cracks in Mitch 'the Human Turtle' McConnell's iron grip, I have the feeling that the GOP is going be much more muddled this session. If anything, things are going to be much, much more messy.
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Re: News Thread

Post by Invictus »

Ladies and Gentlemen, the Winner of the Holocaust:

Image

Courtesy of Fox News!
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
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REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

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Re: News Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Mmmm. I used to be worried that Fox was deliberately and maliciously mislabeling its stuff, like how when Republican politicians do something bad Fox News "accidentally" mislabels them as "D" rather than "R".

But this reassures me that they are just incompetent, which is actually relieving to know. Fair and balancedly incompetent. :D
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Re: News Thread

Post by Mobius 1 »

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In other news, Pete Postlehwaite is dead at 64. nooooooo
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Re: News Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Damn. That fucking sucks. And to think I rewatched The Lost World on cartoon network just the other night too...

If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and -

DON'T GO INTO THE LONG GRASS!


Heh. Man.

Those of the greatest generation of actors are passing away one by one. :(
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Re: News Thread

Post by Czernobog »

Shroom Man 777 wrote:Damn. That fucking sucks. And to think I rewatched The Lost World on cartoon network just the other night too...

If you find yourself alone, riding in the green fields with the sun on your face, do not be troubled. For you are in Elysium, and -

DON'T GO INTO THE LONG GRASS!


Heh. Man.

Those of the greatest generation of actors are passing away one by one. :(
I hope another generation of great actors comes along, for if not, the world will be a somehow darker place.
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Re: News Thread

Post by Shroom Man 777 »

Maybe actors are like fine wine, they'll ferment with time. (That rhymes)

So when, say, Leonardo DiCaprio or Jude Law or Ewan McGregor are all ancient and old, they'll have such on-screen gravitas that to future audiences they'll be to them what the likes of Peter Postlehwaite and Christopher Lee was to us.

I mean, Christopher Lee used to be best known for being Dracula in B-movies, and now we all think 'woah he's a gravitas-y erudite and scene-chewing Saruman/Count Dooku'.

But Christopher Lee was also in British special forces during WW2 doing real-life James Bond stuff, so yeah...
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Re: News Thread

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Saudi Arabia 'detains' Israeli vulture for spying
Saudi Arabian officials have "detained" a vulture on accusations of being a spy for Israel, media reports say. The griffon vulture was carrying a GPS transmitter bearing the name of Tel Aviv University, prompting rumours it was part of a Zionist plot.

Israeli wildlife officials dismissed the claims as ludicrous and expressed concern about the bird's fate. The vulture, which can have a wing span of up to 265cm (8ft 8in), was caught after it landed in the desert city of Hyaal a few days ago. When locals discovered the GPS transmitter, they suspected the worst and handed it over to the security forces, said Israel's Ma'ariv newspaper. Conspiracy theories quickly began circulating in Saudi newspapers and on websites that the bird was involved in espionage.

Israeli officials told Ma'ariv they were "stunned" by the allegations and concerned that the bird could meet a horrible punishment in the notoriously severe Saudi justice system.

"The device does nothing more than receive and store basic data about the bird's whereabouts, and about his altitude and speed," a bird specialist at Israel's Park and Nature Authority told the newspaper. The data would be used to improve understanding of the endangered species' behaviour.

"Now, this poor bird is paying a terrible price. That's very sad," said the unnamed expert.

"I hope they release the poor thing."

The vulture is the latest animal to be accused of being an unwitting Mossad operative. In December, the governor of Egypt's South Sinai province, Mohamed Abdul Fadil Shousha, suggested the spy agency may have had a hand in a string of deadly shark attacks off the coast of the Sharm el-Sheikh resort. He said it was "not out of the question" that Mossad had put the killer shark in the area. The Israeli foreign ministry dismissed that allegation, saying the governor "must have seen Jaws one time too many, and confuses fact and fiction".
"This explanation posits that external observation leads to the collapse of the quantum wave function. This is another expression of reactionary idealism, and it's indeed the most brazen expression."
-
REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 1 - Rey Quirino Versus the Dark Heart of the Philippines
"...a literary atrocity against the senses..." - Ford

REBUILD OF COMIX STAGE 2 - Advent Rey Returns: REVERGELTUNG
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Re: News Thread

Post by Siege »

Maybe the Mossad's lethal legion of Lammergeiers is behind the recent string of baffling bulk bird bereavements in America and Sweden too.

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Re: News Thread

Post by Czernobog »

Editorial I found, touching on freedom of speech, freedom of information and international law (I do not advocate piracy):

http://www.macfergus.com/niels/dmca/cia.html
Censorship in action:
why I don't publish my HDCP results

Niels Ferguson
August 15, 2001
Summary


I have written a paper detailing security weaknesses in the HDCP content protection system. I have decided to censor myself and not publish this paper for fear of prosecution and/or liability under the US DMCA law.
Introduction

My name is Niels Ferguson. I'm a professional cryptographer. My job is to design, analyse, and attack cryptographic security systems, a bit like a digital locksmith. I work to make computer systems and the Internet more secure. You would think that people would be in favour of that, right?

Computer security and cryptography are hard. It is easy to make mistakes, and one mistake is all it takes to create a weakness. You learn from your mistakes, but there are too many mistakes to make them all yourself. That's why we publish. We share our knowledge with others, so that they don't have to repeat the same mistake. Take a look at my publications. You will see a mixture of new designs, analyses, and attacks. This is how we learn and how we improve the state of the art in computer security.
HDCP

Recently I found the documentation of the High-bandwidth Digital Content Protection (HDCP) system on the internet. HDCP is a cryptographic system developed by Intel that encrypts video on the DVI bus. The DVI bus is used to connect digital video cameras and DVD players with digital TVs, etc. The aim of HDCP is to prevent illegal copying of video contents by encrypting the signal.

HDCP is fatally flawed. My results show that an experienced IT person can recover the HDCP master key in about 2 weeks using four computers and 50 HDCP displays. Once you know the master key, you can decrypt any movie, impersonate any HDCP device, and even create new HDCP devices that will work with the 'official' ones. This is really, really bad news for a security system. If this master key is ever published, HDCP will provide no protection whatsoever. The flaws in HDCP are not hard to find. As I like to say: "I was just reading it and it broke."

What do you do when you find a result like this? First, you have to write it down and explain it. Then you publish your paper so that the mistakes can be fixed, and others can learn from it. That is how all science works. I wrote a paper on HDCP, but I cannot publish it.
DMCA

There is a US law called the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), that makes it illegal to distribute "circumvention technology", such as systems that break copyright protection schemes. HDCP is used to protect copyrights. There are lawyers who claim that a scientific paper like mine is a circumvention technology within the meaning of the DMCA, because it explains the weaknesses of a system. I have been advised by a US lawyer who works in this field that if I publish my paper, I might very well be prosecuted and/or sued under US law.

This is outrageous.
The risk to me

I travel to the US regularly, both for professional and for personal reasons. I simply cannot afford to be sued or prosecuted in the US. I would go bankrupt just paying for my lawyers.

I want to make it quite clear that Intel, who developed the HDCP system, has not threatened me in any way. But the threat does not come only from Intel. The US Department of Justice could prosecute me. Any other affected party, such as a movie studio whose films are protected with HDCP, could sue me under the DMCA. That is a risk I cannot afford to take.

The simple alternative would be to never travel to the US again. This would harm me significantly, both professionally and personally. It would lock me out of many conferences in my field, and keep me away from family and friends.

It all sounds a bit too far-fetched, right? Who would sue over the publication of an article? Well, there are very good reasons to believe that I risk a lawsuit if I publish my paper. A team of researchers led by Professor Edward Felten was recently threatened with a DMCA-based lawsuit if they published their own scientific article. The resulting court case is still pending.
Freedom of speech

We have this little principle called the freedom of speech. It is codified in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the US Constitution, and Dutch law. The whole point of freedom of speech is to allow the free circulation of ideas and to let the truth be heard. There can be no doubt that my paper is protected by the free speech rights.

The DMCA imposes a serious restriction on the freedom of speech. The DMCA makes it illegal to talk about certain security systems. The equivalent law for non-digital protection systems would make it illegal to warn people about a cheap and very weak door lock being installed on their houses because criminals could also use that same information.

In western society we restrict the freedom of speech only for very serious reasons, and after careful consideration. For example, it is illegal to shout "fire" in a crowded theatre, or to ask someone to commit a murder. The DMCA restricts the freedom of speech because the movie industry is afraid of losing money. Below I will argue that the DMCA does not achieve that goal, but that aside: do we really want to sell our freedom of speech for money?

The DMCA is a scary development. Next time that commercial interests clash with the freedom of speech, the industry will point to the DMCA and claim they need equivalent protection. They might outlaw the publication of a report detailing bad safety features in a car, or of flaws found in a particular brand of tires. After all, those publications harm industry too. Where will it stop?
Jurisdiction

The DMCA is a US law. I am a citizen of the Netherlands, and I live and work in Amsterdam in the Netherlands. Why do I care about the DMCA at all?

The USA is apt to apply its own laws way beyond its own borders. Dmitry Sklyarov, a Russian programmer, was arrested last month in the US. He is charged with violating the DMCA while performing his work in Russia as an employee for a Russian firm. As far as we know, what he did was perfectly legal in Russia, and in most other countries in the world. He is now out on bail, but cannot leave northern California until further notice.

Where does this lead to? What if countries start applying their own laws to the things people do in other countries? Will you be arrested next time you go abroad? Do you really want to take that holiday in China if you have more than one child? Are you sure that Germany allows you to have those links to political pamphlets on your web site? This type of extraterritorial application of national law violates a basic human right, because you cannot possibly know which laws apply to you. Imagine living in a country where the laws are kept secret, and you never know whether you are violating a law.

Suppose a US citizen works for a firearms manufacturer in the US, making guns. One of those guns turns up here in Amsterdam and is used to commit a crime. This person takes a holiday over here in Europe, and is arrested for violating the Dutch firearms laws because he helped manufacture the gun in the US. That is what happened to Dmitry. Is that fair? Is that how we want to run this world?

The principle of applying national laws to anybody that publishes anything anywhere in the world is terrifying. If we allow this principle to be used, we will never be free again. You will get a choice. You can decide to never leave your country for any reason whatsoever. This means you might not even be able to attend a wedding or funeral of a loved one. Alternatively, you can restrict all your statements to satisfy the laws of all the countries you could conceivably travel to. You might as well not say anything, because it is very hard to find something that is legal in all jurisdictions. We either lose our right to travel, or our right to speak and be heard. Which fundamental human right do you want to give up today?
DMCA does not work

The DMCA is a fundamentally flawed law. It is ineffective, and actually harmful to the interests it tries to protect. It stops me publishing my paper now, but someday, someone, somewhere will duplicate my results. This person might decide to just publish the HDCP master key on the Internet. Instead of fixing HDCP now before it is deployed on a large scale, the industry will be confronted with all the expense of building HDCP into every device, only to have it rendered useless. The DMCA ends up costing the industry money. No points for guessing who ends up paying for it in the end.

In the long run, the DMCA will make it much easier to create illegal copies. Why? If we cannot do research in this area, we will never develop good copyright protection schemes. We will be stuck with flawed systems like HDCP, to the delight of the criminals.

The DMCA has been called the Snake Oil Protection Act. When a manufacturer makes a defective product, you expect them to fix it. Not in this case. The DMCA protects the manufacturer of a defective product by making it illegal to show that the product is defective. Who came up with this idea?
Copyright law

Copyright law is a careful balance between the rights of the author and the public interest. The author gets a limited-time exclusive right to reproduce his work. The public gets free use of the work once the copyright expires. Furthermore, the public gets certain "fair use" rights. These include the right to use short quotes from the work in a review, for example, and the right to create a parody. If you buy a copy of a copyrighted work, you also have the right to make an extra copy for your own use. A student can make a copy of a page in his textbook to mark it up while he studies.

In a sneaky way the DMCA eliminates all these "fair use" rights of the public. As long as the work is protected using copyright protection technology, none of the "fair use" rights can be exercised, because it is illegal to create or own the tool with which you can exercise your fair use rights. Copyright expires, but the DMCA ensures that even when it does, the work still does not enter the public domain. The US supreme court has held that the "fair use" rights are exactly the safety valve that prevent the copyright law from violating free speech rights. This might be another reason why the DMCA is unconstitutional.

In Dmitry's case, he wrote software that decoded encrypted digital books. His software has many uses. Many digital books only allow the book to be viewed on the screen. If you are blind and want to read the book on your braille display you have to use something like Dmitry's software. This is perfectly legal under the "fair use" rules of copyright law, but the DMCA forbids it thereby prohibiting blind people from accessing such books.
Why this mess?

Why did the movie industry campaign for the DMCA if it doesn't work? The movie and record industry have a history of claiming that new technologies will bankrupt them. When video recorders were first introduced, they swore that they would go bankrupt if people could record movies. Now they make a lot of money selling video tapes. Now they swear that they will go bankrupt if we do not restrict the freedom of speech and the public's fair use rights. Why should we believe them this time around?

The DMCA exists because the movie and record industry lobbied heavily for it. It is a very one-sided law that clearly has not been thought through properly. The industry has managed to eliminate the careful balance of the copyright law and replace it with a law that effectively gives them an unlimited monopoly on copyrighted works. Could it just be that this is the real motive behind their lobby?
Can we fix the DMCA?

Sure. That wouldn't even be very difficult. Making and selling unauthorised copies of copyrighted works is already illegal in most jurisdictions. We could change the copyright law to impose stiffer penalties if the copyright violation involves breaking a copyright protection scheme. A bit like the difference between trespassing and breaking and entering. A law like this would achieve exactly what we want: it would restrict illegal copying of copyrighted works. It would not restrict the freedom of speech, or do away with our fair use rights.
More information

You can find lots more information about the DMCA and the cases of Professor Felten and Dmitry Sklyarov on the EFF web site.
Update Sept 14, 2010

Today Engadget reported that someone has published the HDCP master key. I don't have the tools to verify it, but it certainly has the right format for an HDCP master key.

Nine years ago I wrote [The DMCA] stops me publishing my paper now, but someday, someone, somewhere will duplicate my results. This person might decide to just publish the HDCP master key on the Internet. Instead of fixing HDCP now before it is deployed on a large scale, the industry will be confronted with all the expense of building HDCP into every device, only to have it rendered useless. The DMCA ends up costing the industry money. No points for guessing who ends up paying for it in the end.

My only question is: what took them so long?
Update Sept 17, 2010

According to CNET Intel has confirmed that the leaked master key is correct.
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Re: News Thread

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/ ... opped.html

Genghis Khan the GREEN: Invader killed so many people that carbon levels plummeted

Genghis Khan has been branded the greenest invader in history - after his murderous conquests killed so many people that huge swathes of cultivated land returned to forest.

The Mongol leader, who established a vast empire between the 13th and 14th centuries, helped remove nearly 700million tons of carbon from the atmosphere, claims a new study.

The deaths of 40million people meant that large areas of cultivated land grew thick once again with trees, which absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

And, although his methods may be difficult for environmentalists to accept, ecologists believe it may be the first ever case of successful manmade global cooling.

‘It's a common misconception that the human impact on climate began with the large-scale burning of coal and oil in the industrial era,’ said Julia Pongratz, who headed the research by the Carnegie Institution's Department of Global Ecology.

‘Actually, humans started to influence the environment thousands of years ago by changing the vegetation cover of the Earth's landscapes when we cleared forests for agriculture,’ she told Mongabay.com.

The 700million tons of carbon absorbed as a result of the Mongol empire is about the same produced in a year from the global use of petrol.

CAST OUT TO DIE, HE ROSE UP TO CREATE AN EMPIRE
Genghis Khan

Originally known as Temüjin of the Borjigin, Genghis was born holding a clot of blood in his hand. His father was khan of a small tribe, but he was murdered when Temüjin was still very young. The new tribal leader wanted nothing to do with Temüjin's family, so with his mother and five other children, Temüjin was cast out and left to die. Of all those in this list, he is the only one to start with nothing. From the most brutal beginning possible, Genghis survived to unite the Mongolian tribes and conquer territories as far apart as Afghanistan and northern China. He left a mountain of skulls that remained for years in China. Genghis Khan paved the way for his grandson Kublai to become emperor of a united China and founder of the Yuan dynasty. In all, Genghis conquered almost four times the lands of Alexander the Great. He is still revered in Mongolia and in parts of China.

The Carnegie study measured the carbon impact of a number of historical events that involved a large number of deaths.

Time periods also looked at included the Black Death in Europe, the fall of China's Ming Dynasty and the conquest of the Americas.

All of these events share a widespread return of forests after a period of massive depopulation.

But the bloody Mongol invasion, which lasted a century and a half and led to an empire that spanned 22 per cent of the Earth’s surface, immediately stood out for its longevity.

And this is how Genghis Khan, who repeatedly wiped out entire settlements, was able to scrub more carbon from the atmosphere than any other despot.

‘We found that during the short events such as the Black Death and the Ming Dynasty collapse, the forest re-growth wasn't enough to overcome the emissions from decaying material in the soil,’ explained Pongratz.

‘But during the longer-lasting ones like the Mongol invasion... there was enough time for the forests to re-grow and absorb significant amounts of carbon.’

Though the Khan will remain known as Genghis the Destroyer and not Genghis the Green, Dr Pongratz hopes that her research will lead to future historians examining environmental impact as well as the more traditional aspects of study.

‘Based on the knowledge we have gained from the past, we are now in a position to make land-use decisions that will diminish our impact on climate and the carbon cycle,’ she said.

'We cannot ignore the knowledge we have gained.’
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Re: News Thread

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Naco Narcs Nab Mexican Mob Makeshift Marijuana Mangonel
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NACO, Ariz. — Drug smugglers used a catapult to fire contraband over the border between Mexico and Arizona, authorities said Wednesday.

National Guard troops operating a remote video surveillance system on Friday evening saw several people using the device beside a border fence near the town of Naco, and Border Patrol agents contacted Mexican authorities, NBC station KVOA of Tucson reported, citing U.S. Customs and Border Protection.

Mexican authorities disrupted the operation, but the alleged smugglers fled the scene in a Humvee, leaving the catapult behind — along with 45 pounds of marijuana and an SUV.

Night-vision video taken by the National Guard and supplied by KVOA shows several men preparing the catapult and launching packages before fleeing.

Still images taken at the scene shows soldiers testing the catapult, which was powered with elastic and was brought in mounted on a trailer. It's not clear from the video whether they are Mexican or U.S. troops.

"I have not seen anything like that in my time before as a Border Patrol agent ... although we are trained to handle any kind of a threat that comes over that border," Tucson sector Border Patrol spokesman David Jimarez told Reuters.

U.S. authorities said the dismantling of the operation was an example of close cooperation between American and Mexican agencies.
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Re: News Thread

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Republicans Vote To Repeal Obama-Backed Bill That Would Destroy Asteroid Headed For Earth
WASHINGTON—In a strong rebuke of President Obama and his domestic agenda, all 242 House Republicans voted Wednesday to repeal the Asteroid Destruction and American Preservation Act, which was signed into law last year to destroy the immense asteroid currently hurtling toward Earth.

The $440 billion legislation, which would send a dozen high-thrust plasma impactor probes to shatter the massive asteroid before it strikes the planet, would affect more than 300 million Americans and is strongly opposed by the GOP.

"The voters sent us to Washington to stand up for individual liberty, not big government," Rep. Steve King (R-IA) said at a press conference. "Obama's plan would take away citizens' fundamental freedoms, forcing each of us into hastily built concrete bunkers and empowering the federal government to ration our access to food, water, and potassium iodide tablets while underground."

"We believe that the decisions of how to deal with the massive asteroid are best left to the individual," King added.

Repealing the act, which opponents have branded 'Obamastroid,' has been the cornerstone of the GOP agenda since the law's passage last August. Throughout the 2010 elections, Republican candidates claimed that the Democrats' plan to smash the space rock and shield citizens from its fragments was "a classic example of the federal government needlessly interfering in the lives of everyday Americans."

"This law is a job killer," said Rep. Virginia Foxx (R-NC), who argued the tax increases required to save the human species from annihilation would impose unbearably high costs on businesses. "If we sit back and do nothing, Obamastroid will result in hundreds of thousands of lost jobs, which we simply can't afford in this economy."

"And consider how much money this program will add to our already bloated deficit," Foxx continued. "Is this the legacy we want to leave our children?"

Many GOP members have also criticized the legislation for what they consider pork-barrel spending, claiming the act includes billions in "giveaways" to NASA, nonperishable food manufacturers, and pharmaceutical companies contracted to produce mass volumes of vitamin D supplements in the likely event that dust from the asteroid's impact blots out the sun for a decade.

In an effort to counter Republicans' claims, Democrats have asserted that the long-term benefits of preventing the United States from being incinerated by an explosion several billion times more powerful than the Hiroshima bomb would far outweigh the initial monetary outlay.

In support of their position, Democrats have pointed to estimates from the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office that show repealing the law could result in a loss of up to $14 trillion in the nation's GDP.

"I will be the first to admit this is not a perfect bill, by any means," said Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-MD), who has argued that the measure does not go far enough in deflecting the ensuing debris that will rain down on Earth once the asteroid has been destroyed. "But it is absolutely a bill that each and every American needs now if we want to move forward as a country."

According to political pundits, the showdown over whether to let the asteroid blast a 150-mile-wide, 20-mile-deep crater in the Earth's crust represents a potential turning point for the nation, and could completely reshape the American political landscape for many centuries to come.

"If efforts to destroy the asteroid are successfully overturned, then there will be major ramifications for both Obama and his Republican opposition, as well as the American populace at large," political scientist Alan Abramowitz said on Face The Nation Sunday. "This could have a huge impact come 2012."

With repeal rhetoric reaching a crescendo, the president used his weekly radio address Saturday to state his case for destroying the one-trillion-ton asteroid before it barrels into Earth at 60,000 miles per hour.

"I am more than willing to work with my Republican colleagues to improve the Asteroid Destruction Act," Obama said. "But let me be clear: Repeal is not an option."

"While I recognize that intelligent minds may disagree on this issue, I believe we have an obligation to prevent our citizens from having their flesh seared off in a global firestorm that transforms our planet into a broiling molten wasteland," Obama added. "I think Americans deserve better."
:mrgreen:

I don't need to give the source, do I?
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Re: News Thread

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What.

http://thescotsman.scotsman.com/news/Te ... 6707586.jp
'Telepathy' of child used as evidence in abuse case


By John Forsyth and Gareth Rose


AN OFFICIAL report into the future of a child's welfare used evidence based on telepathy, in a move criticised by a sheriff as "dangerous".
A psychotherapist told a court an eight-year-old boy mentally communicated feelings of fear through his bad behaviour, leading her to believe he had been abused. The evidence was put forward by a children's reporter to support separating a baby girl from her parents.

Sheriff Alistair Watson, sitting in Kilmarnock, said calling Dr Debbie Hindle as an expert witness had been "diametrically opposed to that of the responsible investigator".

It came as a senior QC warned children's reporters, who protect youngsters vulnerable to abuse, are increasingly from a social work or administration background, rather than a legal one.

Sheriff Watson said: "The danger of relying on evidence of this (telepathic] evidence should be self evident, but apparently is not to the reporter or Dr Hindle."

Dr Hindle provided therapy for the boy, named in court as D, who had been abused by his mother's partner, DC, in 2006. Her evidence was used to support an application for child protection order for a baby girl born to the sex offender and his partner. Despite approving the order as the father of the child was a section one offender, Sheriff Watson took the unusual step of criticising the reporter.

He said: "Sadly, the interventions of clinical or therapeutic professionals have had disastrous results in notorious cases, and it was to be hoped that lessons were learned, such that this type of evidence would not be produced subsequently. Sadly, it appears the lessons of the past are easily forgotten."

He added: "The role of the reporter is a highly important one in terms of child protection, but it is also an important one in relation to the public interest, which requires that professional judgment be applied before the presentation of materials in court. To suggest that one might take three or perhaps four wholly unreliable pieces of evidence and ask the court to conclude that between them they form one reliable source is a most dangerous approach."

Allegations D had been abused first surfaced in 2002, when he was four. He was interviewed jointly by police and East Ayrshire Council social workers, who also came in for criticism from the sheriff for "a very poorly conducted interview".

D and two siblings were taken into care in 2004. The court heard their mother, JC, had "considerable lifestyle difficulties". The three were adopted in 2006. It was then that D, now eight, made comments to his adoptive mother that made her believe he had been abused.

He was interviewed again by police, and this time DC was convicted.

It was in 2006 that D started receiving therapy from Dr Hindle, who saw him for weekly sessions for two years. She worked for NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde but is now retired. NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde said it was unable to comment.

A spokeswoman for the Scottish Children's Reporter Administration (SCRA) said the sheriff's observations and the outcome of the case were under review by the head of practice.

She was unable to say who the reporter was, whether they were still working on cases, what the SCRA's policy was on bringing cases based on telepathic evidence or whether Dr Hindle had given evidence in previous cases.

Janys Scott, QC, who specialises in family law, said legal experience among children's reporters had reduced. "Now those at the head of the organisation tend to have an administration background," she said. "With less emphasis on the legal part of things, that is leading to a lack of a critical look at what evidence is going to stand up in court."

Anne Houston, chief executive of Children 1st, said: "We do know that the experiences a child has during the child protection process can have a very serious negative impact if not handled sensitively and consistently.
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Re: News Thread

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Not really a news article, but I had to repost this:

Ed Miliband, the Labour leader now known as CUBE DX-9
Poor old Ed Miliband. Those aren't my words. Those are the words your mind thinks whenever you see him on television. And then you feel bad for thinking that, which makes you feel vaguely sorry for him again, and that in turns feeds back into the initial pity you experienced, and the whole thing becomes a sort of infinite commiseration loop that drowns out whatever he's actually saying and doing.

I keep reading that if he really wants to build support for Labour, Miliband doesn't actually have to do anything: just sit back, let the coalition slowly appal and repel the population, and voilà: future votes will be his, by osmosis. This low-risk strategy seemed to be working. And then, bafflingly, over the past few weeks he's decided to break the spell by granting interviews and popping up for photo opportunities.

First he was interviewed by Piers Morgan for GQ magazine. Incredibly, he managed to withstand the urge to vomit long enough to describe himself as "a bit square", and mutter something about wanting to share a desert island with Teri Hatcher, Rachel Weisz and Scarlett Johansson. I can't work out whether that's a reality show I'd like to see or not.

Then he went to Afghanistan, shadowed by ITN's Tom Bradby, who was compiling a profile piece. Unfortunately, Ed looks incredibly silly in a helmet and flak jacket. Like a toucan in a fez, it just doesn't go. Rather than making Ed look like a thrusting leader, the end result was several minutes of footage which, with the sound off, looked like a report about a small boy who'd won a competition to go and see a war.

You can understand why his press advisers keep shoving him in front of the microphones and cameras. They want the voting public to get to know him. The trouble is they're getting to know him as "that drippy guy". It's not his fault. He's burdened with an inherently drippy demeanour. Image shouldn't matter, but it's impossible to blot out.

Rather than making Ed more accessible, his PR team should be doing the opposite. He's never going to come across as "one of us", so why not actively go in the other direction? Make him unknowably distant.

Here's an idea: get Ed to seal himself inside a featureless metal cube and insist on conducting all political business from within it. And vow never to be seen in public outside the box. No nerdy face for us to judge, no wet mannerisms to chortle at. Nothing to get a glib critical foothold on. Just cold, blank steel. Ditch the name Ed Miliband and insist on being referred to as "CUBE DX-9" instead.

CUBE DX-9 wouldn't speak, either. It would communicate exclusively via typewritten messages, each about the length of a fortune cookie prediction, which would come whirring out of a tiny slot on its front. Crucially, these would be brief, gnomic proclamations about sensitive issues that would a) be open to interpretation and b) provoke intense debate. And once any debate had started, CUBE DX-9 would refuse to be drawn into it. CUBE DX-9 never clarifies its position. It simply issues a contentious statement, maintains an enigmatic silence, and trundles away, leaving argument in its wake. Did I mention CUBE DX-9 has wheels? Well it does. It also has an ear-splitting siren that goes off whenever someone tries to touch it.

Admit it. You think it's a stupid idea. But think again. Picture the first Prime Minister's Questions in which David Cameron finds himself going up against CUBE DX-9. For one thing, he'd look pretty desperate arguing with a box. Also, the agonising delay between responses from CUBE DX-9 would remove the element of pantomime jousting and turn the whole thing into a tense psychological thriller. Sometimes CUBE DX-9 would fall silent for a full 45 minutes, emitting a low hum or possibly the odd bit of smoke. Will it issue another statement? Is it broken? What's it going to say next? Every time you saw it, the surrounding aura of mystery would be irresistible.

Furthermore, since the public would never get to see what's inside CUBE DX-9, there would also be intense debate over whether Ed Miliband was actually in there or not. Naturally, CUBE DX-9 would simply ignore any inquiries on this subject, or shrug them off by issuing a statement such as "CUBE DX-9 CONTENTS NOT YOUR CONCERN", then firing a laser bolt over the interviewer's head as a warning not to proceed with that line of questioning.

I'd vote for the sod. And in the aftermath of CUBE DX-9's inevitable election to the highest office in the land, political leaders worldwide would be clamouring for an inscrutable impersonal shell of their own. Before long there'd be a Chilean mayor who rolls around inside a gigantic onyx egg, and a German chancellor who consists of nothing but a runic symbol flickering on a monitor accompanied by a vaguely menacing drone.

And we'll all feel much better about our elected masters. Yes we will. Stop lying. We will.
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Re: News Thread

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Mubarak Walks Like an Egyptian wrote:Vice-President Omar Suleiman made the announcement on state television

Hosni Mubarak has stepped down as president of Egypt, after weeks of protest in Cairo and other cities.

The news was greeted with a huge outburst of joy and celebration by thousands in Cairo's Tahrir Square - the heart of the demonstrations.

Mr Mubarak ruled for 30 years, suppressing dissent and protest, and jailing opponents.

US President Barack Obama said that Egypt must now move to civilian and democratic rule.

This was not the end but the beginning and there were difficult days ahead, the US president added, but he was confident the people could find the answers.

"The people of Egypt have spoken, their voices have been heard," Mr Obama said. "Egypt will never be the same again."

"They have made it clear that nothing less than genuine democracy will carry the day."
'God help everybody'
Continue reading the main story
President Hosni Mubarak
Hosni Mubarak

* Elevated from vice-president when Anwar Sadat was assassinated in 1981
* Supported Sadat's policy of peace with Israel
* Maintained emergency law for entire presidency
* Won three elections unopposed
* Fourth term secured in 2005 after allowing rivals to stand
* Economic development led many Egyptians to accept continued rule
* Survived 1995 assassination attempt in Ethiopia
* Faced Islamist threat within Egypt, including Luxor massacre of 1997 and Sinai bombings
* Regularly suppressed dissent, protests and political opponents

Announcing Mr Mubarak's resignation, Vice-President Omar Suleiman said the president had handed power to the army.

Mr Suleiman said on state TV that the high command of the armed forces had taken over.

"In the name of God the merciful, the compassionate, citizens, during these very difficult circumstances Egypt is going through, President Hosni Mubarak has decided to step down from the office of president of the republic and has charged the high council of the armed forces to administer the affairs of the country," he said.

"May God help everybody."

Later an army officer read out a statement paying tribute to Mr Mubarak for "what he has given" to Egypt but acknowledging popular power.

"There is no legitimacy other than that of the people," the statement said.

The military high command is headed by Defence Minister Mohamed Hussein Tantawi.

US diplomatic cables published by Wikileaks described Field Marshal Tantawi as "aged and change-resistant", but committed to avoiding another war with Israel.

Mr Mubarak has already left Cairo and is in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh where he has a residence, officials say.

In Cairo, thousands of people gathered outside the presidential palace, in Tahrir Square and at state TV.

They came out in anger following an address by Mr Mubarak on Thursday. He had been expected to announce his resignation but stopped short of stepping down, instead transferring most powers to Mr Suleiman.

"The people have brought down the regime," they chanted in reaction to the news of his eventual resignation less than 24 hours later.

Opposition leader Mohamed ElBaradei said: "This is the greatest day of my life."

"You cannot comprehend the amount of joy and happiness of every Egyptian at the restoration of our humanity and our freedom."

The Muslim Brotherhood, Egypt's banned Islamist opposition movement, paid tribute to the army for keeping its promises.

"I salute the Egyptian people and the martyrs. This is the day of victory for the Egyptian people. The main goal of the revolution has been achieved," said the Brotherhood's former parliamentary leader, Mohamed el-Katatni.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
Yolande Knell BBC News, Cairo

It is hard to know where to look as you walk through central Cairo. Everyone in this mega-city has spilled out onto the streets to party.

Soldiers lift small, smiling children onto their tanks to pose for photos, whole families are flying flags and wearing matching hats in red, white and black as they walk along the Corniche by the Nile, and motorcyclists precariously weave their way through the crowds yelling "Egypt, Egypt".

The excited din from Tahrir Square, the scene of the massive protests against President Mubarak that began on 25 January, can be heard from miles off. It is packed with huge crowds.

The demonstrators' barricades that had controlled entry to the square have been dismantled, and security checkpoints at which people showed identification and had their bags searched have all gone.

Some people are already packing up their tents in the campsite nearby. They have achieved what they set out to do.

Ayman Nour, Mr Mubarak's rival for the presidency in 2005, described it as the greatest day in Egypt's history.

"This nation has been born again. These people have been born again, and this is a new Egypt," he told al-Jazeera TV.

Meanwhile Amr Moussa, a former Egyptian foreign minister, announced that he would leave his post as secretary general of the Arab League "within weeks", the Egyptian news agency Mena reported. He hinted that he might stand for president.

The BBC's Jon Leyne in Cairo said the announcement caught everyone by surprise: all over the city, drivers honked their horns and people fired guns into the air.

But the army takeover looks very much like a military coup, our correspondent adds.

The constitution has been breached, he says, because officially it should be the speaker of parliament who takes over, not the army leadership.
'Historic change'

There was jubilation throughout the Middle East and North Africa, including in Tunisia, where people overthrew their own president last month.

A military spokesman on state TV 'salutes' Hosni Mubarak's service

For the Arab League, Mr Moussa said events in Egypt presented an opportunity to build a national consensus.

Meanwhile, Iran described the recent events as a "great victory".

A senior Israeli official expressed the hope that Mr Mubarak's departure would "bring no change to its peaceful relations with Cairo".

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon said he respected the "difficult decision" taken in the people's interests, and called for an "orderly and peaceful transition".

European Union leaders reacted positively to the news of Mr Mubarak's resignation.

Foreign policy chief Baroness Ashton said the EU "respected" the decision.

"It is important now that the dialogue is accelerated leading to a broad-based government which will respect the aspirations of, and deliver stability for, the Egyptian people," she said.

UK Prime Minister David Cameron said this was a "really precious moment of opportunity to have a government that can bring the people together", and called for a "move to civilian and democratic rule".

German Chancellor Angela Merkel welcomed the "historic change" in Egypt.

US Vice-President Joe Biden said Egypt had reached a pivotal moment in history.

The anti-government protests that began on 25 January were triggered by widespread unrest in Egypt over unemployment, poverty and corruption.

They followed a popular uprising in Tunisia which brought about the downfall of President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali.
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Re: News Thread

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VIVE LE REVOLUTION!


Seriously, good for them.
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Re: News Thread

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Oops. Looks like they're still revolving...

Egypt army struggles to clear Tahrir Square protester.

There is a tense stand-off in Cairo's Tahrir Square as protesters who have camped there for 20 days thwart army efforts to clear the area.

Thousands more people have made their way to the square, the focal point of the uprising that led to President Hosni Mubarak's departure on Friday.

The army seems undecided on how to respond to the fresh influx, reports the BBC's Jon Leyne from the scene.

The military police chief has called for tents to be cleared from the area.

"We do not want any protesters to sit in the square after today," said Mohamed Ibrahim Moustafa Ali, the head of military police.

US President Obama earlier welcomed the new military leadership's pledge to work towards civilian rule.

It has reaffirmed Egypt's commitment to all its international treaties.

In a statement read out on state TV on Saturday, the army said it had asked the current government to stay on until a new one was formed.
Die-hard protesters

Tempers frayed on Sunday morning as protesters realised hundreds of policeman - who had become hugely unpopular for their violent attempts to suppress the uprising - had entered the square.

The police chanted: "It's a new Egypt, the people and the police are one," echoing a popular chant by the anti-Mubarak groups in support of the army during the height of the demonstrations.
Continue reading the main story
At the scene
image of Paul Danahar Paul Danahar Middle East Bureau Chief

Tahrir square hasn't been this tense for days. Many of the demonstrators woke to find the army had swarmed into the square and had begun to dismantle protesterss' tents.

The tanks that had been blocking access to the square were pulled back and traffic began flowing on to the roads where protestors were standing.

There was growing anger in the square as more and more soldiers began slowly but forcefully to squeeze the protesters out of the areas they had been holding for weeks.

Then a roar went up from the crowd as they realised hundreds of policeman had entered the square. These were the same men that just weeks ago had been beating and tear-gassing them and the crowd were furious.

For a few minutes there was a tense stand-off as the two sides confronted each other before the police march peeled away and left the square.

The crowd chanted back: "Get out, get out!"

For a few minutes there was a tense stand-off as the two sides confronted each other, before the police march peeled away and left the square.

Although there were reports of scuffles between soldiers and die-hard protesters in the square on Sunday morning, our correspondent said the operation to clear the area had previously been conducted unprovocatively.

A hardcore of several hundred protesters had remained marooned on a traffic island in the heart of the square, saying they would not move until a full timetable of reform was drawn up.

Throughout the weekend, an army of volunteers and municipal workers has cleared away debris from the streets.

Earlier, Mr Obama "welcomed the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces' announcement today that it is committed to a democratic civilian transition, and will stand by Egypt's international obligations," a statement released by the White House said.

The announcement, which was read by a senior officer on state TV, implicitly confirms that the country's 1979 peace treaty with Israel will remain intact.

Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu also welcomed the announcement, saying the treaty was a cornerstone of Middle East stability.

Meanwhile the authorities banned three senior officials close to Mr Mubarak - former Prime Minister Ahmed Nazif, former Interior Minister Habib al-Adli and current Information Minister Anas al-Fekky - from foreign travel, saying they were under investigation.

Mr Mubarak resigned on Friday after 18 days of protests, being flown to his luxury residence in the Red Sea resort of Sharm el-Sheikh having handed power to the high command, a body composed of high-ranking generals.
'Return to normal'

The military statement said the current government and regional governors would "act as caretakers", looking to guarantee "a peaceful transition of authority in a free democratic framework which allows an elected civilian authority to rule the country, to build a free democratic country".

The military promised to hand over power to an elected civilian administration

Later state media reported that the high command's leader, Mohamed Hussein Tantawi, had met Prime Minister Ahmed Shafiq and other senior officials to discuss "the immediate return of life to normality".

He discussed with Interior Minister Mahmoud Wagdy the rapid return to duty of the police, who left the streets in the early days of the protests, reports said.

The police force in Egypt was widely perceived as an instrument of repression under Mr Mubarak.

The military has managed to give the impression of being above politics, a unifying force for the nation, but the opposition wants an early and clear indication that this country is heading in a new direction and not simply swapping one dictatorship for another, says our correspondent.

The demonstrations were triggered by widespread unrest over unemployment, poverty and corruption.
Ah Brother! It's been too long!
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