NEW Yorkers were left a little confused overnight as more than a million copies of a fake newspaper were handed out by a team of pranksters rallied through the web.
"Iraq War Ends" read the headline of a fake "special edition" of The New York Times, dated July 4, 2009, which was handed out to commuters as they rushed for work.
"Court Indicts Bush On High Treason Charge" and "Public Universities To Be Free" read some of the other spoof headlines, next to an admission by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice that the US Government had known Iraq did not have access to weapons of mass destruction.
As many as 1.2 million copies of the 14-page newspaper were handed out, along with an online spoof of the Times' website at www.nytimes-se.com.
Gawker identified the pranksters behind the stunt as The Yes Men, a liberal group famous for practical jokes.
According to the blog, The Yes Men organised the lightning operation by rallying a group of volunteers through secret emails and text messages.
An email reprinted on Gawker gave detailed instructions on where to collect copies of the fake newspaper and encouraged volunteers to spread the word by email.
"TONIGHT – and especially, TOMORROW MORNING (WEDNESDAY) – a year of work involving dozens of collaborators comes to a head," the email read.
Volunteers were reminded that they "did not know" who was behind the prank, and that the organisers wanted to remain secret.
"We want to maintain maximum mystery around this, for as long as possible – at least for a couple of days," the message said.
However Gawker reported that the email was sent from an account linked to The Yes Men and that the volunteers were collected from a website run by the group.
At first glance, the parody, which uses the Times' Gothic-style font on the nameplate, could easily be mistaken for the real thing.
A Times spokeswoman said: "This is obviously a fake issue... We are in the process of finding out more about it.''
One of the newspaper's own online commentators had a wittier retort:
"Sorry, folks, the paper isn't free. And the Iraq war isn't over, at least not yet."
There have been layoffs at Current Media, the cable network co-founded by former U.S. Vice President Al Gore.
A statement from Current put the number of layoffs at about 60 positions, with 30 more to be refilled, the company said in a statement. That's less of a hard hit than the 20 percent cuts that a source close to Current hinted to CNET News on Tuesday. The statement read: "Approximately 60 positions have been eliminated in the company's three U.S. offices, and approximately 30 new positions created," the statement read.
The source also said additional layoffs would be coming in January, which a Current representative denied
Posted by: Frank G ||
11/12/2008 07:59 ||
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#1
So no layoffs in the Tehran office yet, that's a relief.
Approached outside the company's San Francisco headquarters, one laid-off Current employee said that she hadn't seen it coming.
"Not only was this uncalled for, but there was continuous deliberation during the last two or three months," the former employee said. "Every meeting we've had with the VP of our department has been a lot of 'Don't worry, your positions are secure.' And that has been repeated for the last two to three months."
EL-ARISH, EGYPT - Armed Bedouin tribesmen on Tuesday briefly kidnapped a truckload of 25 Egyptian policemen in northern Sinai in protest at the killing of one of their number, a security official said.
The kidnapping was part of a wave of protests by Bedouin, who frequently complain of marginalisation and police abuse, following the death of an alleged Bedouin drug smuggler in a shoot-out with police on Monday. "The Bedouin freed them in a mountainous area near the Israeli border," the official said of the 25 policemen, requesting anonymity.
Their release came around two hours after the police were seized by three pick-ups of armed Bedouin as they were heading for the Israeli border.
Monday's killing sparked protests around the northern Sinai desert, including the besieging of a police station in the small town of Madfouna on the Israeli border. At least 12 people were wounded in the protests. Four policemen, including an officer, and four protesters were hurt in the Madfouna protest, an interior ministry statement said, with the situation reportedly calm on Tuesday evening.
The Bedouin have been protesting in Madfouna since police killed the tribesman in Monday's shoot-out. Hundreds turned out to protest the shooting, firing guns into the air and burning tyres. One policeman and three Bedouin were wounded in a shoot-out following another protest on Tuesday in Wadi al-Azareq, also in north Sinai, a security official said.
Bedouin say police routinely carry out arrests in north Sinai and that they feel under threat of having their car licences confiscated or homes searched at any time. In July, the detention of one of their number in the Sinai without charge saw hundreds of Bedouin burn tyres and block roads in protest.
A spate of bombings that hit popular tourist destinations in Sinai between 2004 and 2006 led to massive sweeps of the peninsula with thousands of Bedouin arrested.
It was either the Bedouin or the Muslim Brotherhood, and the Bedouin were easier to thump ...
The Egyptian government has regularly promised to pump money into the impoverished north Sinai and there have been several attempts in recent months at a rapprochement between authorities and the Bedouin.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe indicated Monday that he would move quickly to form a government, despite the collapse one day earlier of a new round of power-sharing talks that have stalled over the allocation of ministries.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Police charged batons at a rally of Jamaat-e-Islami at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram Mosque in the capital, leaving at least 30 Jamaat workers injured. Witnesses said police resorted to baton charge when Jamaat and Shibir activists tried to come out of the mosque premises after completing their rally ignoring police request and breaking the Emergency Power Rules (EPR) at about 4:30pm.
Around five thousands of Jamaat workers gathered on the mosque premises around 4:00pm as part of the party's countrywide protest programme demanding release of detained Jamaat leaders Matiur Rahman Nizami and Ali Ahsan Mohammad Mojahid and BNP leader M Saifur Rahman.
The road from Paltan crossing to Dainik Bangla was blocked for about an hour causing huge sufferings to the commuters.
However, Jamaat publicity secretary Tasnim Alam claimed that around 100 activists were injured in police beating at the rally that was organised by Jamaat Dhaka city unit.
Additional Deputy Commissioner of Police for Motijheel area AKM Nahidul Islam told reporters that some unruly activists tried to occupy the road illegally and police just charged batons to disperse them.
Meanwhile, a press release of police headquarters said lifting ban on political meeting and procession by the government was misinterpreted and the political parties were violating the EPR unexpectedly. The release urged all to obey the law and refrain from such political programmes.
Jamaat Dhaka city unit secretary Hamidur Rahman Azad told reporters that they were holding the rally peacefully to protest the arrest of BNP and Jamaat leaders and to demand their release but police attacked them without any provocation. Speaking at the meeting, Jamaat leaders alleged that the arrest of BNP and Jamaat leaders was a plot to keep the four-party out of the upcoming polls. Jamaat Assistant Secretary General Mohammad Kamaruzzaman was the chief guest at the rally, which was presided over by Jamaat Dhaka city unit Ameer Rafiqul Islam Khan.
Meanwhile, our correspondents from Chittagong, Khulna, Sylhet and Pabna reported that Jamaat and Shibir activists held rallies demanding release of the detained BNP and Jamaat leaders.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
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(SomaliNet) After the conservative opposition and the ruling Sandinistas both declared themselves winners of the local elections, mass rioting broke out in the Nicaraguan capital Managua.
Witnesses say thousands of supporters from the two parties attacked each other with clubs and stones.
Shots were reportedly fired. Several people were injured in the violence and some sources even say there were fatalities. During the election earlier today, two people were injured in violent incidents and more than 30 people were arrested.
Preliminary election results put left-wing President Ortega's ruling party in the lead. A number of sources spoke of electoral fraud, but these reports are impossible to verify, as the Nicaraguan government decided not to admit observers.
The local elections are seen as a test of Mr Ortega's popularity, who, according to critics, is becoming increasingly authoritarian.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
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The Russian president has asked lawmakers to extend the presidential term from the current four years to six but to make the rule only applicable to his successors. Why not just bump it up to 60 years?
Posted by: Fred ||
11/12/2008 00:00 ||
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Why not for life, which can be long or conveniently short?
India today (November 12) successfully test fired 'Shaurya', a medium-range surface-to-surface ballistic missile, to be used by its Army. With a 600-km range, the missile is capable of hitting targets deep inside Pakistan and China.
The indigenous missile was launched from an underground facility with an in-built canister at 11.25 am from Complex-3 of the Integrated Test Range at Chandipur, DRDO sources said in Balasore, Orissa. The sleek missile, with a flight duration of 485 seconds, roared into the sky leaving behind a thick yellow and white smoke on a clear sunny day, they added.
The sophisticated tactical missile is capable of carrying conventional warheads with a payload of about one tonne.
"With longer shelf-life, as it is stored in a canister just like the BrahMos supersonic cruise missile, the Shaurya is easily transportable and user-friendly. This is a technology development project," DRDO sources told news agencies in New Delhi.
Though there was speculation that the missile was a land version of the under development K-15 submarine launched ballistic missile, DRDO sources said the surface-to-surface missile had nothing to do with K-15 'Sagarika' project. "The missile was test fired from a 30-40 feet deep pit with in-built canister specially designed for the purpose. There was no water in the pit," the sources said.
"The test was conducted to check some of the vital parameters of Shaurya missile," the DRDO sources said.
The solid propellant, two-staged missile is little over 10 metres in length and about half-a-metre in width, they said.
As a precautionary measure, the district administration of Balasore temporarily evacuated 364 families residing within two km radius of the launch site and took them to safety at a nearby shelter before the missile test.
The launch of Shaurya has come nearly nine months after India had successfully tested the 'Sagarika' missile under the K-15 project this February off the coast of Visakhapatnam from a pontoon simulating the conditions of a submarine.
Posted by: john frum ||
11/12/2008 05:36 ||
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The Pentagon has a new secret weapon to neutralize sites containing chemical or biological weapons: rocket balls. These are hollow spheres, made of rubberized rocket fuel; when ignited, they propel themselves around at random at high speed, bouncing off the walls and breaking through doors, turning the entire building into an inferno.
The makers call them "kinetic fireball incendiaries." The Pentagon doesn't want to talk about them, but published documents show that the fireballs have undergone tests on underground bunkers...
Each fireball is a hollow spherical shell with a hole in it; when the inside is ignited, the hole acts as a rocket nozzle. The kinetic fireballs eject an extremely high-temperature exhaust which will heat up the surrounding volume to over 1,000 F within seconds. Their random ricocheting around ensures that they will fill any space they occupy, and they are capable of diffusing throughout a multiroom structure.
#1
Regarding the mortgages, looks like he's applying the Soros method of adding funds to banks to bring them up to their reserve requirements.
Paulson said 40 percent of U.S. consumer credit is provided through selling securities that are backed by pools of auto loans and other such debt. He said these markets need support.
"This market, which is vital for lending and growth, has for all practical purposes ground to a halt," Paulson said.
"Other such debt."
Ah, now we are bailing out consumer loans? And this was discussed when?
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Police charged batons at a rally of Jamaat-e-Islami at the north gate of Baitul Mukarram Mosque in the capital, leaving at least 30 Jamaat workers injured. Witnesses said police resorted to baton charge when Jamaat and Shibir activists tried to come out of the mosque premises after completing their rally ignoring police request and breaking the Emergency Power Rules (EPR) at about 4:30pm.
