Warns ISPs to control online content over fears of revolt
The glorious people of Republic of China has ordered a widespread crackdown on the internet in attempts to prevent uprisings like those seen in Tunisia, Egypt and Libya.
The secretary of the Communist Party, Liu Qi has warned internet service providers (ISPs) in the country that they must tighten control of online content to "prevent the spread of fake and harmful information" and that the internet companies should "resist" such information, the Associated Press reports.
It's not clear how the Chinese government expects the ISPs to control content online, but it's likely that it wants them to monitor people's online activities and disconnect those participating in the spread of dissenting views.
The exact punishment for not cooperating was not disclosed, but Beijing could shut down an ISP altogether if it proves defiant.
The government-approved Beijing Internet Media Association also called on its 104 members to police the internet for "rumors or vulgar contents", saying that the public "should be led toward a correct direction" - the proper direction being support of the government, of course.
Puppet Masters
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It may seem like a bad joke but it's reality at the perpetually inept Transportation Security Administration (TSA), the 55,000-employee monster created after 9/11 to avoid another terrorist attack. Instead the agency that embarrasses innocent citizens with invasive, genital-groping personal searches has been marred by a series of gaffes that have left the country vulnerable amid increasing threats of terrorism.
Since its creation the TSA has made headlines for regularly missing guns and bombs during random tests at major U.S. airports, approving background checks for illegal immigrants to work in sensitive areas of busy airports and clearing dozens of illegal aliens to train as pilots just as several of the 9/11 hijackers did. The agency has also seen several agents arrested for official misconduct, including stealing from passengers' bags at some of the nation's busiest airports.
The investigation was first revealed in May, when Google said in a government filing that it set aside $500 million for the potential settlement of a Department of Justice investigation into its advertising practices, which decreased its quarterly profits by 22 percent.
© Yaniv Ohana
Grad hits Beer Tuvia Regional Council
Grad hits Beer Tuvia Regional Council
The Israel-Hamas ceasefire was breached again Wednesday as seven rockets hit southern communities. A rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip exploded in an open field south of Ashkelon Wednesday evening. Minutes later, two additional rockets hit an open area near Ofakim. Shortly thereafter, two other rockets landed near the Eshkol Regional Council, which later saw two extra Qassam landings.
There were no reports of injuries or damage. An alarm was sounded in Beersheba and other southern communities.
© Photographer: Mark Wilson/Getty Images
Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
Former U.S. Vice President Dick Cheney.
Cheney, 70, who suffered four heart attacks before becoming President George W. Bush's vice president, was worried about the possibility "that I might have a heart attack or a stroke that would be incapacitating," he said in the interview. "There is no mechanism for getting rid of a vice president who can't function."
Cheney signed the letter in March 2001, two months after the inauguration. Bush knew about it as did a member of the vice president's staff, according to the NBC excerpts.
The former vice president has been beset by heart trouble. In February 2010, he was hospitalized for what doctors described as a "mild" heart attack, his fifth, and he underwent surgery later that year to implant a pump to assist his heart.
© Getty Images
Mustafa Abdel Jalil, the chairman of Libya's Benghazi-based national transitional council, announced an amnesty or pardon for any of the colonel's inner circle "who kill Gaddafi or capture him".
© Associated Press
A Garuda Indonesia airliner.
A Garuda Indonesia airliner.
Would-be flight attendants in South Korea have accused Indonesia's national airline of making them strip nearly naked and have their breasts handled in medical check-ups, provoking a storm of criticism.
Several dozen candidates for 18 highly-coveted female flight attendant positions with Garuda Indonesia were required to strip down to their panties to screen out those with tattoos or breast implants, one applicant told AFP.
She declined to be named, saying she was still waiting to hear whether she had got a job after the tests last month.
"The hand examination on breast was held since those with implants can have health issues when air pressure falls during flights," Yonhap news agency quoted an airline official as saying.
Cabin crew are banned from having tattoos and workers hired in other countries such as Japan and Australia were also subject to a similar process, the agency quoted the official as saying.
But the move baffled industry peers and angered women's rights groups, which called the process unnecessary and intrusive.
Well now, boys and girls. I'm kind of in Hobson's Choice-land today. This has come up on my radar and I am bound to engage it. I have no choice, even though I might seem to have a choice. Let me digress for a moment.
My good friend Roy and I were in Uberlingen at the lake this weekend. I like to get away with Roy, when I can, to have conversation. Roy is from India and a native of that land. For some reason we can sit and talk for hours and it's all good. Roy is a very bright fellow of spiritual inclination. He's also very well read and honest as the day is long. He told me a story this weekend, which was distressing to me to say the least. His father was a soldier and his father told him the tale. I spoke about it on the radio show this Sunday night.
Roy told me that Gandhi was not at all as he is made out to be and that he actually wanted the British to stay and worked to that end and that it was Chandra Ghosh who drove them out, even though they didn't actually leave, they just went underground and behind the scenes. I haven't researched this and have no idea of how true it is. As with all things, I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle but actually, at right angles to everything else.
I mention this because it is possible that all of our assumptions concerning everyone are wrong and that brings me to today's brief.
My good friend Roy and I were in Uberlingen at the lake this weekend. I like to get away with Roy, when I can, to have conversation. Roy is from India and a native of that land. For some reason we can sit and talk for hours and it's all good. Roy is a very bright fellow of spiritual inclination. He's also very well read and honest as the day is long. He told me a story this weekend, which was distressing to me to say the least. His father was a soldier and his father told him the tale. I spoke about it on the radio show this Sunday night.
Roy told me that Gandhi was not at all as he is made out to be and that he actually wanted the British to stay and worked to that end and that it was Chandra Ghosh who drove them out, even though they didn't actually leave, they just went underground and behind the scenes. I haven't researched this and have no idea of how true it is. As with all things, I believe the truth lies somewhere in the middle but actually, at right angles to everything else.
I mention this because it is possible that all of our assumptions concerning everyone are wrong and that brings me to today's brief.
© Michael Appleton for The New York Times
After the hearing on Tuesday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, center, said in a statement that the criminal inquiry had been “a nightmare for me and my family.”
After the hearing on Tuesday, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, center, said in a statement that the criminal inquiry had been “a nightmare for me and my family.”
A prosecutor spoke first, quickly summarizing what had been obvious for weeks: the Manhattan district attorney's office had little confidence in its case, and even less trust in the accuser it had initially championed. A defense lawyer was next, saying simply, "We do not oppose the motion."
Then the judge spoke.
And just like that, the sexual-assault case against Dominique Strauss-Kahn was dismissed Tuesday, bringing an abrupt end to what had been a three-month episodic criminal investigation, each chapter offering a sensational twist on the underlying storyline: Mr. Strauss-Kahn, a man of international power and prestige, was accused of sexually assaulting an immigrant hotel housekeeper after she entered his suite to clean it.
The dismissal order issued by Justice Michael J. Obus of State Supreme Court in Manhattan brought some semblance of legal vindication to Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, after his stunning and embarrassing arrest more than three months ago. He was taken into custody on May 14 aboard an Air France jet at Kennedy International Airport, and then appeared disheveled and in handcuffs before news cameras.
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On top of the $160 billion in loans from the Treasury Department, banks - including those based overseas - borrowed $669 billion from the Fed, with the Fed's peak balance at one point reaching a staggering $1.2 trillion.
According to Bloomberg, the $1.2 trillion is about the same amount as homeowners owe on 6.5 million delinquent mortgages, three-times the size of the federal deficit in 2008, and more than the total earnings of federally insured banks in the last decade.
The Fed had refused to disclose the specific sums it lent to the banks in 2008 - but was compelled to by the Dodd-Frank regulatory reform law.
