Fair Proxy Web

Facebook users given grammatical freedom

SEATTLE, Washington (AP) — To be, or not to be: Now Facebook users can decide.

For years, members of the popular online hangout Facebook have been able to compose one-liners called status updates to tell friends what’s going on with them, as in, Jessica is craving egg and cheese on an English muffin.

Each update started with the member’s name and is, followed by a blank box. This led to tongue-in-cheek workarounds (say, Jessica is egg and cheesed). Others ignored to be completely and followed is with a second active verb.

To the delight of several hundred thousand Facebook users who joined protest groups online, the is quietly disappeared last Thursday, making Jessica is wants an egg and cheese muffin a thing of the past. Users now supply all their own verb.

Facebook claims 58 million active members. In comparison, the largest anti-is group, Petition to Get Rid of ‘is’ from Facebook Status Update! was 182,015 strong when its founder, Ahmed Shama, pronounced the is dead.

In an interview, Shama, a 29-year-old technology consultant who lives in Irvine, California, said he was half joking when he started the group with his brother and invited friends to join. But supporters all over the world wrote to him — and not just because they were tired of gerunds.

Many who speak languages other than English complained Facebook was imposing a very English-specific way of updating your status, said Shama.

Anti-is groups formed in Turkish and even Norwegian. Facebook hasn’t translated its site into languages other than English yet, but a spokeswoman said that’s on the agenda for early 2008.

Reeling from public outcry against a viral advertising effort, in which it published information about what members were doing and buying online, Facebook declined to speak about this issue. The company had hinted in November that it would drop the verb. It began by letting programmers write code to suppress the is if another verb was given.

Twelve thousand people have left Shama’s group since last week, and he, too, is turning his attention elsewhere.

I try to use my Facebook profile to create groups that raise social consciousness among people, whereas this was more for fun, he said, though he acknowledged the is was his biggest success so far.

Nothing came even close. E-mail to a friend

Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Hezbollah slams Bush’s ‘order’

BEIRUT, Lebanon (AP) — The militant Hezbollah group denounced President Bush on Friday for urging Lebanon’s anti-Syrian lawmakers to push through their own choice for president if necessary to resolve a long political deadlock.

Later, Parliament Speaker Nabih Berri’s office said he was postponing again a parliamentary session scheduled for Saturday to elect a new president until December 29.

It was the 10th such postponement since the first attempt to elect a new president in September.

The Western-backed, anti-Syrian bloc has avoided trying to use its slim majority in parliament to elect a president, which would escalate tensions with the opposition, led by Syrian-allied Hezbollah. Bush urged such a step for the first time Thursday.

Hezbollah’s deputy leader, Sheik Naim Kassem, said Bush’s orders will not be implemented in Lebanon.

Bush still thinks he can bet again on achieving some gains for America and Israel in Lebanon, despite consecutive and accumulated failures in the region, Kassem said, apparently referring to U.S. policies in Iraq and Hezbollah’s war last year with Israel.

Lebanon’s parliament has failed nine times to elect a president because the Hezbollah-led opposition has boycotted sessions, preventing a two-thirds quorum. The post has been empty since pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud’s term ended November 23.

Lawmakers on both sides have agreed to back army commander Gen. Michel Suleiman as a compromise candidate, but parliament must first amend the constitution to allow the military chief to become president.

Other considerations have complicated hopes for breakthrough, particularly the opposition’s demands for a new unity government that would give it veto power over major decisions.

The opposition refuses to recognize the legitimacy of Western-backed Prime Minister Fuad Saniora’s government because its Shiite members resigned last year and the constitution requires that all sects be represented in the government.

Opposition leader Michel Aoun told reporters there would be no vote Saturday because there is no agreement and all dialogue lines are broken.

The current ruling coalition is known as the March 14 group because it brought together leaders from a wide political spectrum in Lebanon for massive anti-Syrian demonstration in March 2005. Those protests, coupled with international pressure, forced Syria to withdraw its troops from Lebanon after a 29-year presence.

The deadlock in Lebanon has deflated hopes of a warming between the U.S. and Syria, which participated the Middle East peace conference last month in Annapolis, Maryland.

On Thursday, Bush called on Syria to stop interfering in Lebanon’s politics. He said that if the Lebanese parliament fails to get a quorum needed to elect a compromise president, the Western-backed majority should elect its own candidate.

The March 14th coalition can run their candidate and their parliament; majority plus one ought to determine who the president is. And when that happens, the world ought to embrace the president, Bush said.

The Hezbollah-led opposition says choosing a president without a quorum would violate the constitution.

Bush gave his direct orders to his group in Lebanon to violate the constitution, Kassem said. At a time when the Lebanese are trying to reach an accord, he is trying to create problems between them.

Bush, your orders will not be implemented and your tutelage is rejected, he said. Lebanon is not a farm that you can do whatever you want with it.

France has led international efforts to mediate between feuding Lebanese politicians.

President Nicolas Sarkozy urged Syrian President Bashar Assad in a recent phone call to facilitate the election in Lebanon, said David Martinon, a spokesman for the French leader.

France has accused Damascus of holding up the election, and the call appeared aimed at getting Syria to press its allies to compromise.
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DNA test in dock after bomb trial

LONDON, England (CNN) — UK police have suspended the use of a DNA testing technique after an accused terrorist was found not guilty in a trial that relied heavily on the technique.

A Belfast judge on Thursday cleared Sean Hoey of charges relating to the 1998 bombing in Omagh, Northern Ireland, which killed 29 people and wounded more than 300. He is the only person to have been charged directly with the killings.

Prosecutors used Low Copy Number (LCN) DNA testing in their case against Hoey.

LCN testing enables scientists to produce DNA profiles from samples expected to contain very few cells, even if they are too small to be visible to the naked eye, the Forensic Science Service (FSS) said. But it added that interpretation of LCN data must be considered carefully.

The FSS, which provides DNA testing for police forces in England and Wales, estimated the LCN method had been used 21,000 times, though that number could include multiple uses in single cases.

It said the method was particularly useful in cases where only a small amount of material was present.

A spokeswoman for the Association of Chief Police Officers said an interim suspension of the technique was ordered as a precautionary measure.

Anne Collins, spokeswoman for the Crown Prosecution Service, said the service did not necessarily believe the method was faulty, only that it merited a review.

The families of Omagh victims and the trial judge were critical of police evidence in the case, which relied on the LCN method.

The FSS said: [Interpretation] is even more important with DNA LCN, due to its sensitivity and the possibility that the DNA detected is unconnected with the offense under investigation.
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Destroying CIA tapes didn’t violate order, administration says

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Bush administration argued Friday that the CIA’s destruction of videotapes that showed the interrogations of two al Qaeda suspects did not violate a court order because the suspects were not at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Kennedy, who had ordered the hearing earlier this week, said he will consider the government’s arguments. The hearing lasted about an hour.

Kennedy had issued a court order in June 2005 that said all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay must be preserved.

Joseph Hunt, an administration attorney, said the men in the videos were held at secret locations and did not fall under the category of those who were now at Guantanamo in Cuba.

It is inconceivable that the destruction of the tapes could have violated the order, Hunt told the judge.

The administration’s legal team also argued that if the judge were to open a public investigation into the tapes, it would compromise the Department of Justice inquiry into the matter.

But David Remes, who represents 11 other prisoners argued that where there is smoke there is fire.

He said he is concerned the government may have destroyed videos of other interrogations as well, and added the government is not entitled to the presumption of regularity.

Remes asked the judge to investigate whether other tapes have been destroyed. He admitted that the request goes beyond the motions he filed in 2005 on behalf of his clients that led to Kennedy’s previous court order.

According to The Associated Press, Kennedy sounded reluctant to initiate an independent inquiry.

Why should the court not permit the Department of Justice to do just that? Kennedy asked, according to the AP.

In an emergency request filed Monday, lawyers for a group of prisoners held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay urged the judge to step in now.

They accused the White House of blocking outside inquiry into the tapes and trying to ensure that only federal agencies implicated in the destruction would carry out an internal inquiry.

The CIA admitted earlier this month to videotaping the interrogations of al Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 2002. The tapes reportedly show rough interrogation techniques, including the use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

CIA Director Michael Hayden said the tapes were destroyed in 2005 because, he said, national security could have been compromised by revealing the identities of the interrogators.

The administration argues that the tapes of the two interrogations were technically not covered by Kennedy’s order to preserve evidence because Zubaydah and al-Nashiri were not held at Guantanamo at the time of the order.

But lawyers for several other Guantanamo prisoners fighting their detention in federal courts said the government defied similar orders to preserve evidence that could clear their clients of wrongdoing. Watch President Bush discuss case

Legal experts expect Kennedy to use Friday’s hearing to establish whether further hearings are necessary in the case.

In another development relating to the interrogation of Zubaydah, the CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether former agency officer John Kiriakou illegally disclosed classified information about his capture and interrogation, government officials said.

Kiriakou last week spoke with media agencies, including CNN. He said U.S. interrogators drew valuable information from Zubaydah by waterboarding him. Kiriakou also said the procedure amounts to torture and should be retired.

Kiriakou said he was not present when other agents used the technique on Zubaydah, but that he was told the al Qaeda suspect lasted 30 or 35 seconds. Kiriakou said he himself was subjected to the treatment during his training, and lasted about five seconds before having to stop.
found here.

Administration: Destroying CIA tapes didn’t violate order

WASHINGTON (CNN) — The Bush administration argued Friday that the CIA’s destruction of videotapes that showed the interrogations of two al Qaeda suspects did not violate a court order because the suspects were not at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba.

U.S. District Court Judge Henry Kennedy, who had ordered the hearing earlier this week, said he will consider the government’s arguments. The hearing lasted about an hour.

Kennedy had issued a court order in June 2005 that said all evidence and information regarding the torture, mistreatment, and abuse of detainees now at the United States Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay must be preserved.

The attorneys also argued Friday in federal court that it would be problematic for the court to conduct its own investigation in public while the Department of Justice investigates the destruction of the tapes.

In an emergency request filed Monday, lawyers for a group of prisoners held by the U.S. military at Guantanamo Bay urged the judge to step in now.

They accused the White House of blocking outside inquiry into the tapes and trying to ensure that only federal agencies implicated in the destruction would carry out an internal inquiry.

The CIA admitted earlier this month to videotaping the interrogations of al Qaeda suspects Abu Zubaydah and Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri in 2002. The tapes reportedly show rough interrogation techniques, including the use of waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

CIA Director Michael Hayden said the tapes were destroyed in 2005 because, he said, national security could have been compromised by revealing the identities of the interrogators.

The administration argues that the tapes of the two interrogations were technically not covered by Kennedy’s order to preserve evidence because Zubaydah and al-Nashiri were not held at Guantanamo at the time of the order.

But lawyers for several other Guantanamo prisoners fighting their detention in federal courts said the government defied similar orders to preserve evidence that could clear their clients of wrongdoing. Watch President Bush discuss case

Legal experts expect Kennedy to use Friday’s hearing to establish whether further hearings are necessary in the case.

In another development relating to the interrogation of Zubaydah, the CIA has asked the Justice Department to investigate whether former agency officer John Kiriakou illegally disclosed classified information about his capture and interrogation, government officials said.

Kiriakou last week spoke with media agencies, including CNN. He said U.S. interrogators drew valuable information from Zubaydah by waterboarding him. Kiriakou also said the procedure amounts to torture and should be retired.

Kiriakou said he was not present when other agents used the technique on Zubaydah, but that he was told the al Qaeda suspect lasted 30 or 35 seconds. Kiriakou said he himself was subjected to the treatment during his training, and lasted about five seconds before having to stop.
found here.