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DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria accuses a 19-year-old detained blogger of being a spy, a Syrian official said Monday, the first comment from the authorities in a case that sparked calls by the New York-based Human Rights Watch for the young woman's release.

Tal al-Mallohi was taken into custody last December. Her blog, known for poetry and social commentary, focuses mostly on Palestinian issues and suffering.

"She was detained on accusation of spying for a foreign country," the Syrian official said. "Her spying led to an attack against a Syrian army officer by the agents of this foreign country."

The official did not specify which country al-Mallohi allegedly spied for or elaborate on the attack on the Syrian officer. He spoke on condition of anonymity because he wasn't authorized to talk to the media.

It was not clear whether al-Mallohi's arrest was connected to the blog.

Her father, Dosar al-Mallohi, told The Associated Press that he and his wife visited their daughter at Doma prison last Thursday and that she was in good health.

It was the first time they had seen their daughter or told of her whereabouts in nine months, he said, but declined to comment further.

Last month, Human Rights Watch called for al-Mallohi's release.

"Detaining a high school student for nine months without charge is typical of the cruel, arbitrary behavior of Syria's security services," Sarah Leah Whitson, Middle East director at Human Rights Watch, said at the time.

It's one of the things that was changed back after the hack...
I had forgotten how this was changed but fortunately I found my old post in google's cache:

Whenever you feel like it folks :P

Can you find all 56 games hidden in the city?

http://www.arcadeaid.com/challengingstage/quiz.htm

"MakeMe3d"
What it does:

I thought, hey that's a cool program I must definetely add it to the list here.
I didn't do it for 2 reasons:
1)It's not freeware
2)...
The second reason is because of a note I found about 3D-videos:

Important
Limits of all stereoscopic techniques

The distance between right and left pupil differs from man to man, a fact which none of the mentioned 3D techniques takes into consideration, as they are all oriented towards average values. If the inter-pupillary distance deviates from the average (parallax displacement), this may cause a feeling of illness when the brain tries to join the images of left and right eye despite the unusual perception. The higher the deviation, the more overexerted is the brain and the more often problems like dizziness, nausea or a lack of concentration will occur.

In the early stages of stereoscopy often the so-called out screen technique was used, causing moments of shock when suddenly objects or actors quasi 'jumped' out of the screen. This generated additional stress situations and is rather avoided today. This is why e.g. the 'Avatar' movie was created in the so-called InScreen technique, which creates spatial depth and which the viewer perceives as relatively comfortable.

But if anybody wants to try it:

Homepage: http://www.makeme3d.net/convert_2d_to_3d.php

WASHINGTON – Broad new regulations being drafted by the Obama administration would make it easier for law enforcement and national security officials to eavesdrop on Internet and e-mail communications like social networking Web sites and BlackBerries, The New York Times reported Monday.

The newspaper said the White House plans to submit a bill next year that would require all online services that enable communications to be technically equipped to comply with a wiretap order. That would include providers of encrypted e-mail, such as BlackBerry, networking sites like Facebook and direct communication services like Skype.

Federal law enforcement and national security officials say new the regulations are needed because terrorists and criminals are increasingly giving up their phones to communicate online.

"We're talking about lawfully authorized intercepts," said FBI lawyer Valerie E. Caproni. "We're not talking about expanding authority. We're talking about preserving our ability to execute our existing authority in order to protect the public safety and national security."

The White House plans to submit the proposed legislation to Congress next year.

The new regulations would raise new questions about protecting people's privacy while balancing national security concerns.

James Dempsey, the vice president of the Center for Democracy and Technology, an Internet policy group, said the new regulations would have "huge implications."

"They basically want to turn back the clock and make Internet services function the way that the telephone system used to function," he told the Times.

The Times said the Obama proposal would likely include several requires:

-Any service that provides encrypted messages must be capable of unscrambling them.

-Any foreign communications providers that do business in the U.S. would have to have an office in the United States that's capable of providing intercepts.

-Software developers of peer-to-peer communications services would be required to redesign their products to allow interception.

The Times said that some privacy and technology advocates say the regulations would create weaknesses in the technology that hackers could more easily exploit.

the NY Times article is here

A judge in Ontario has overturned key Canadian anti-prostitution laws, finding they force sex workers into the streets at risk to their safety.

She ruled with three prostitutes who had challenged bans on brothels, pimps and solicitation.

The ruling applies to Ontario province but could, if upheld on appeal, allow the rest of Canada to follow suit.

One sex worker said she no longer had to fear rape, robbery and murder. The government is weighing an appeal.
'Emancipation day'

Finding the laws unconstitutional, Justice Susan Himel called on the Canadian parliament to regulate the sex trade.

"These laws... force prostitutes to choose between their liberty, interest and their right to security of the person," she wrote in a 131-page ruling in the Ontario Superior Court of Justice.

Plaintiff Terri Bedford, described in court documents as a prostitute who had been beaten and raped while working in the streets of Windsor, Calgary and Vancouver, said: "It's like emancipation day for sex trade workers."

Ms Bedford said she hoped to work as a dominatrix.

"The federal government must now take a stand and clarify what is legal and not legal between consenting adults in private," she said.

Justice Himel found national laws banning brothels, forbidding solicitation of clients, and banning Canadians from managing sex workers as pimps or madams violated a provision of the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms guaranteeing "the right to life, liberty and security".

Supporters of the overturned laws fear the ruling will make Canada a haven for human traffickers.

The ruling will not go into effect for 30 days, giving the government time to appeal if it chooses.

Street prostitution in Canada has been under increased scrutiny in recent years following the trial of Robert Pickton, a Vancouver pig farmer convicted in 2007 in the killings of six sex workers.

Pickton is suspected in dozens more killings. A Canadian court this summer denied him a new trial.

Original Article

LONDON – Intelligence officials have intercepted a credible terror plot against Britain and France, raising security fears at the Eiffel Tower on Tuesday, but failing to raise the overall threat level in either country.

The Eiffel Tower was briefly evacuated Tuesday evening after officials received a bomb threat called in from a telephone booth. It was the second such alert at the monument in two weeks.

The warning came as French officials were put on alert for possible terror attacks. British officials, too, have been aware of a possible attack but the terror threat warning has not changed from "severe."

"There have been a succession of terror operations we've been dealing with over recent weeks but one to two that have preoccupied us," said one British government official who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of his work. "Still, it hasn't been to the degree that we have raised the threat level."

Another British official, who spoke on the same terms, would not confirm the plot was "al-Qaida inspired" but said there was an "Islamist connection" and that the plots were in an early stage. No other details were given.

Since the Sept. 11 terror attacks in the United States nine years ago, the terror group has moved outside of Afghanistan and Pakistan to other countries such as Somalia and Yemen.

German officials denied Tuesday they had intercepted threats, saying there had been no change to their threat level.

In Washington, a Western counterterrorism official said some missile strikes in a recent surge of attacks by unmanned U.S. drones in Pakistan were aimed at disrupting suspected terrorist plots aimed at Europe.

It wasn't known whether the drone attacks were related specifically to the plot that European authorities said they had intercepted.

The counterterrorism official said the targeted strikes were aimed at al-Qaida and other militant groups arrayed in Pakistan's tribal region near the Afghanistan border. The official spoke on condition of anonymity because the details of the terror plot remain sensitive.

The Obama administration has intensified the use of drone-fired missiles in Pakistan's border area but this month there have been at least 21 attacks, more than double the highest number fired in any other single month.

A suspected U.S. missile strike on Tuesday killed four militants in northwest Pakistan's South Waziristan region, just across the border from Afghanistan, intelligence officials said. There was no word on the identities of those killed in the attack.

The counterterrorism official, who is familiar with the drone strikes and the details of the Europe terror plots, said Tuesday that the missile strikes in Pakistan are "a product of precise intelligence and precise weapons. We've been hitting targets that pose a threat to our troops in Afghanistan and terrorists plotting attacks in South Asia and beyond."

In Paris, French police on Tuesday closed off the surroundings of the Eiffel Tower, France's most visited monument. Officers pulled red-and-white police tape across a bridge leading over the Seine River to the monument. Officers stood guard.

Bomb experts combed through the 324-meter (1,063-foot) tower and found nothing unusual, the Paris police headquarters said. Tourists were let back inside about two hours after the structure was emptied.

Jean Dupeu, a 74-year-old Paris retiree, had planned to go to dinner in the tower but found himself looking for another restaurant.

"It's surely a bad joke," he said of the threat, adding, "Now is not a good time."

National Police Chief Frederic Pechenard said last week that authorities suspect al-Qaida's North African branch of plotting a bomb attack on a crowded location in France. His warning came after al-Qaida in the Islamic Maghreb, or AQIM, claimed responsibility for the Sept. 16 abduction of five French nationals and two Africans in northern Niger.

The French parliament voted this month to ban burqa-style Islamic veils in France, a subject that has prompted warnings by AQIM. Counterterrorism officials say that is just one of several factors contributing to the heightened threat.

At the Eiffel Tower, an anonymous caller called in a warning to firefighters, the Paris police headquarters said. The company that runs the monument asked police to evacuate it.

Police responded to a similar false alert at the tower on Sept. 14, also following a phone threat. On Monday, the bustling Saint Lazare train station in Paris was briefly evacuated and searched.

As soon as the latest bomb alert ended, huge lines of eager tourists immediately formed under the tower.

Mike Yore, 43, of Orlando, Florida, was among those waiting in line at the 121-year-old iron monument.

"There's no bomb that can blow this thing up," he said.

Frankfurt – Angela Merkel’s German cabinet Tuesday ratified an ambitious blueprint for moving the country toward a low-emission energy future that calls for ending centuries of reliance on fossil fuels.

The plan calls for developing renewable energies and energy efficiency requirements to help cut greenhouse gas emission by 80 percent within four decades. It is, many say, a "green revolution" that could bolster Germany’s pace-setting role in addressing climate change.

"This is a very important step toward the restructuring of Germany’s energy future," says Miranda Schreurs, who heads the Environmental Policy Research Center at the Free University Berlin.

She says the blueprint sends a clear message to the country and its industrial concerns that the government is no longer going to support fossil fuels.

"Compared with what we see from North America, Austria, and other European countries, except for Sweden, that is going really far," says Ms. Schreurs. "It’s going to challenge other countries to do more."

Merkel's coalition of conservatives and pro-business liberals agreed on a package of 60 measures, from spending several billion euros on wind projects to expanding bio-energy to getting 6 million electric cars on German streets by 2030. It commits to combating energy waste by implementing stricter energy efficiency standards.

"We want to wake up the sleeping giant of energy efficiency," says Environmental Minister Norbert Röttgen. He says that improved energy efficiency standards could cut energy consumption by 40 percent.

The nuclear questionBut in agreeing to use nuclear power as a "bridge" toward developing renewable energy, the Merkel coalition rekindled one of the most deeply anchored elements of German culture: its visceral aversion to nuclear power.

Last week, close to 100,000 people marched against the Merkel decision to reverse an earlier commitment to end nuclear, and keep the country’s 17 nuclear plants plans running an average of 12 years beyond the year they were supposed to be phased out.

Relying on nuclear energy for another decade would give Germany the time and money it needs to develop its energy sources and keep its economy competitive, supporters say.

Opponents of extending the life of Germany's nuclear power plants say they will fight the plan. While Chancellor Merkel says her initiative needs approval only from the Bundestag (the lower house) to become law, her opponents also say it require approval in Bundesrat (upper house), where Merkel no longer holds sway. The nuclear issue could be a major sticking point in getting Merkel's energy concept passed into law.

Even though the nuclear issue has turned many environmentalists sour on Merkel's energy blueprint, many say this plan put Germany at the forefront of renewable energy.

"If the goal is 80 percent renewable, halving energy consumption, improving efficiency in buildings, the opposition is no longer right in saying that renewable energy is not tackled," says Claudia Kemfert, who heads energy and environment research at the DIW German Institute of Economic Research in Berlin. "This is far beyond what the European Union ever dreamed of."

Price tag for the green revolutionBut even though the government proposes to make nuclear power utilities contribute to paying for the development of renewable energy through a new tax, many question whether Germany can afford its green revolution.

Advancements in green energy will mean developing a system to transport and store the energy, as well. Germany’s current electricity grid cannot handle more than 30 percent of the electricity produced by renewable sources, and because renewable energy comes sporadically, on sunny or windy days, so there needs to be a better way t store it for future use.

Fritz Vahrenholt, who heads a subsidiary of energy group RWE that operates wind farms and biogas plants, says that the fluctuations of renewable energy could lead electricity prices to skyrocket and hurt Germany’s economic competitiveness.

"If we set our goals too high and dream of renewable energy covering all of our energy needs, then in the end we’re not going to have a steel, chemical, or machine-tool industry anymore – and then the Chinese will thank us," says Mr. Vahrenholt.

OTTAWA – Canada has frozen long-held plans to slap graphic new warning labels on packs of cigarettes, prompting critics to attack what they see as the tobacco industry's excessive influence on the minority Conservative government.

The federal health ministry spent six years devising the new campaign and agreeing on the details with the country's 10 provinces, which administer the public healthcare system. Earlier this month, Ottawa told the provinces the plan was on hold.

"Health Canada continues to examine the renewal of health warning messages on tobacco packaging but is not ready to move forward at this time," a spokeswoman told Reuters on Tuesday.

She also referred to recent law and order measures designed to cut the production and sale of contraband tobacco -- a key demand of the industry.

Since 2001, all cigarette packs -- which cannot be displayed openly in stores -- have carried graphic warning labels covering half the surface of the package, aimed at telling people of the health risks of smoking and getting them to quit.

Anti-smoking campaigners say the labels are tired and need to be upgraded and increased in size.

The official opposition Liberal Party said statistics showed that since the Conservatives took office in 2006, the rate at which Canadians have quit smoking has declined.

"This government is listening to the business lobby, the tobacco lobby," said legislator Ujjal Dosanjh, who was federal minister of health when the consultations were launched.

"The illegal tobacco traffic ... is important. But you can't take your eyes off this particular problem," he told Reuters, saying the government could easily fight tobacco smuggling while ensuring the warning labels were more graphic.

Meghan Leslie of the left-leaning New Democrats said the decision to freeze the anti-smoking campaign and the focus on contraband cigarettes "say to me that this is not about health ... this is about industry, at the expense of people's health, perhaps at the expense of people's lives".

"I would have expected that large warnings would be announced by now ... the government hasn't really given a clear reason why and I can't conceive of a good reason why," said Rob Cunningham of the Canadian Cancer Society.

Major producers of tobacco sold in Canada include R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co, Japan Tobacco's JTI-Macdonald unit, Rothmans Benson & Hedges Inc, which is partly owned by Philip Morris and Imperial Tobacco Canada Ltd, a unit of British American Tobacco.

Imperial Tobacco spokesman Eric Gagnon said contraband tobacco costs the industry between C$900 million ($875 million) and C$1 billion a year and undermined a host of regulations, as well as cutting into tax revenues.

"The biggest tobacco problem in Canada today is contraband. So increasing a health warning on a product that already has a 50 percent health warning -- and is also hidden from public view -- is not a public health initiative," Gagnon said.

The office of federal Health Minister Leona Aglukkaq did not respond to requests for comment.

($1=$1.03 Canadian)

US astronauts Neil Armstrong

US astronauts Neil Armstrong (right) and "Buzz" Aldrin deploy the US flag on the lunar surface 20 July 1969 during the Apollo 11 lunar landing mission. Long-lost footage of Armstrong descending the ladder of the Apollo 11 lunar module will be screened in public for the first time in Sydney next week, a prominent astronomer told AFP.

SYDNEY– Long-lost footage of Neil Armstrong descending the ladder of the Apollo 11 lunar module will be screened in public for the first time in Sydney next week, a prominent astronomer told AFP.

The footage runs for a few minutes and is considered to be some of the best footage of the historic 1969 moonwalk, but the film was lost in archives for many years and was badly damaged when found, said John Sarkissian.

It depicts the first few minutes of Armstrong's descent which was recorded in Australia as NASA was still scrambling for a signal, showing a far clearer image than was initially screened worldwide.

[Related: Space-shuttle workers facing layoffs]

Telescopes in remote Australia played a key role in the Apollo 11 mission, including provision of the television signal, after Armstrong decided to attempt the moonwalk early, putting the United States just beyond the horizon.

Sarkissian -- historian and astronomer in charge of the Australian side of the recordings restoration project -- said the unseen minutes were the "best quality of Armstrong descending the ladder."


"NASA were using the Goldstone (California) station signal, which had its settings wrong, but in the signals being received by the Australian stations you can actually see Armstrong."

"In what people have seen before you can barely see Armstrong at all, you can see something black -- that was his leg."

The segment which runs for "just a few minutes" will be screened at the awards night of Australian Geographic magazine next Wednesday, at which Apollo 11 astronaut Buzz Aldrin will be the chief guest.

"When we heard Buzz was going to be the guest of honour we thought 'what a great opportunity'," Sarkissian said.

The Armstrong footage, which has only previously been seen by Apollo veterans and other members of the astronomy community, would form part of a highlights reel of restored, digitised moonwalk footage at the awards, he added.

There was a "long detective story" involved in the search for the footage and Sarkissian said it took painstaking frame by frame work to shift the material from the deteriorating black and white film to digitial format.

"It was very damaged tape as well, that segment of Armstrong at the beginning," he said.

Digitising the recording was "significant in the space flight history context" allowing it to be preserved and copied for future generations, said Sarkissian.

WASHINGTON – An appeals court ruled Tuesday that government funding of embryonic stem cell research can continue for now.

The U.S. Court of Appeals in Washington granted the Obama administration's request to allow the funding from the National Institutes of Health while it appeals a judge's order blocking the research.

The administration had argued that stopping the research while the case proceeds would irreparably harm scientific progress toward potentially lifesaving medical treatment.

U.S. District Judge Royce Lamberth had blocked President Barack Obama's research funding guidelines because he said it's likely they violate the law against federal funding of embryo destruction.

A three-judge panel of the appeals court issued an unusually quick decision, a day after hearing arguments over whether the funding could continue while it considers the case. The court also said it would expedite the case.

Researchers hope one day to use stem cells in ways that cure spinal cord injuries, Parkinson's disease and other ailments. Opponents say the research is a form of abortion because human embryos must be destroyed to obtain the stem cells.

A 1996 law prohibits the use of taxpayer dollars in work that harms an embryo, so batches have been culled using private money. But those batches can reproduce in lab dishes indefinitely, and Obama administration issued rules permitting taxpayer dollars to be used in work with the already created batches.

The administration thus expanded the number of stem cell lines created with private money that federally funded scientists could research, up from the 21 that President George W. Bush had allowed to 75 so far.

"President Obama made expansion of stem cell research and the pursuit of groundbreaking treatments and cures a top priority when he took office," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said in a statement after the ruling. "We're heartened that the court will allow NIH and their grantees to continue moving forward while the appeal is resolved."

Ron Stoddart with Nightlight Christian Adoptions, which filed the suit and helps with the adoption of human embryos that are being stored in fertilization clinics, said the case promises to be a long and involved process. "I think that eventually Congress has to step up and deal with it," he said.

SAN JOSE MINE, Chile – The families of 33 trapped miners are in high spirits after a surge in the drilling of escape tunnels raised hopes that the men's rescue may come sooner than scheduled.

Relatives smiled, hugged and yelled "Viva Chile!" as officials reported one of the rescue drills made twice the progress Tuesday than had been expected.

They promised the families that preparations for the rescue effort on the surface would be ready by Oct. 12, and said they are planning for the possibility the miners could be pulled up nearly a month ahead of the official schedule.

But the officials also urged caution, warning that unforeseen problems could slow the work.

A siren sounded at 5 p.m. Tuesday in the camp where families have held vigil since a rock collapse blocked the mine's exit shaft Aug. 5. At first, no one knew what it meant, just that it was good news.

Then, rescue workers came down to report that the "Plan B" drill had reached 984 feet (300 meters) deep, nearly halfway to its goal, after advancing 243 feet (74 meters) Tuesday, more than twice as fast as expected.

At that pace, barring complications, the drill could break through to the miners in about five more days, and be reinforced with a metal sleeve even before Oct. 12.

We're "happy for this depth they reached. We needed just this kind of attitude," Alberto Segovia told The Associated Press. His brother Dario has been trapped in the gold and copper mine for 54 days.

Three drills are pounding through hard rock below the Atacama desert to reach the miners. "Plan B" is a U.S.-made T-130, operated in consultation with a team from Somerset, Pennsylvania, that had experience in the 2002 Quecreek mine disaster, where a similar tunnel was carved to pull out nine trapped coal miners.

Many observers had put their bets on "Plan C," a towering oil-industry drill with the power to rapidly carve a separate tunnel to a spot slightly less deep. Now it looks like either drill might be the one to reach the miners first.

Above ground, the government is rushing to set up a field hospital and a huge stage where the media can observe the rescue from a distance.

The first rescue capsule has already arrived, but workers still need to attach it to a huge spool of steel cable. These and other tools will be ready in 15 days, Interior Ministry official Cristian Barra promised Tuesday.

Barra and the rescue operations chief, Andre Sougarret, stressed, however, that just because the tools will be ready doesn't mean the rescue will happen so quickly.

There could be setbacks in the drilling, they warned, especially as the drills pass through collapsed sections of the mine or rock layers that aren't well mapped. Staying cautious, Barra said they are sticking with the official date of early November for now.

"We in 15 days will be prepared to be able to do the rescue at any moment. This doesn't mean it will happen in 15 days, but all the installations will be in place," Barra said.

If the "Plan B" drill maintains its current speed, President Sebastian Pinera may be able to keep his promise of hugging each surfacing miner and still leave for Europe on a previously scheduled trip Oct. 15-22.

But Sougarret also advised caution, saying he expects the unexpected when it comes to hard-rock drilling.

"I must insist — we have had problems in which we have had to pause the machines for more than four days at a time because of some problem with the drilling," he said. "We don't completely know the geology, we're passing close to open spaces in the mine, and so I can't confirm until we are very sure that the rescue can happen more quickly."

"We still have doubts," he added. "... It's prudent to keep talking about the first days of November."

The government said the Strata 950 "Plan A" drill reached 1,667 feet (508 meters) Tuesday morning. Once it breaks through to 2,306 feet (703 meters), this drill will need to start over again, widening the hole to its final diameter of 28 inches (70 centimeters) so that the metal sleeve and escape capsule can pass through.

The other two drills are already carving out holes this wide, and making quick progress: the T-130 "Plan B" drill reached nearly halfway to its 2,047-foot (620-meter) goal Tuesday evening, Sougarret said. The "Plan C" Rig 421 oil well drill has carved out 361 feet (110 meters) of its 1,959-foot (597 meter) goal.