South Park episodes available free online
March 27, 2008
Episodes of the Colorado-based cartoon comedy television series South Park have been made available for free via streaming video on the website SouthParkStudios.com. Full-length episodes from the past 12 seasons of South Park can be seen on the site, as well as behind-the-scenes clips and information on upcoming episodes.
After new episodes of the program air on Comedy Central they will be added to the site for one week, but will then be unavailable for the next 30 days before being added to the site's archives, due to contractual obligations. SouthParkStudios.com was relaunched with free streaming episodes on March 19, and as of Comedy Central's announcement Tuesday the site had three million hits, two million video plays and one million full-episode streams. 168 of the series' 169 episodes are currently available on the site.
The site is currently in a beta format and is ad supported, but visitors can watch an unlimited number of episodes. Streaming episodes are uncensored, and each episode will have between three and four advertisements. The website also has news, games, blogs and a feature where users can create South Park avatar characters in their likeness. Fans can also choose from 3,000 episode clips from the show to embed on their blogs or websites. The website was created by WPP agency Schematic, with Toyota and Virgin as launch sponsors.
SouthParkStudios.com launched this past summer with games and other media content, in a deal between South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker where their contract with Comedy Central was extended for three years and the cable television channel agreed to split online ad revenue 50-50. Matt Stone commented on the three-year contract to produce more episodes of the series: "Three more years of South Park will give us the opportunity to offend that many more people ... And since Trey and I are in charge of the digital side of South Park, we can offend people on their cellphones, game consoles, and computers too. It's all very exciting for us."
Parker and Stone released a statement about the website: "We got really sick of having to download our own show illegally all the time, so we gave ourselves a legal alternative." Parker and Stone don't think that the move will affect DVD sales of past seasons, because fans will still want to own episodes in a "hard copy" format.
The website is managed by South Park Digital Studios LLC, a joint venture of Parker and Stone and Comedy Central. Anne Garefino, general manager of South Park Digital Studios stated: "One goal in moving forward is to make every episode of South Park available worldwide ... Currently, full episodes are not available in the U.K., Australia and a few other foreign territories, but we're not far off from making that happen. We have some contractual issues to sift through but we're getting there."
On the move to make the episodes available for free, Sam Thielman of Variety wrote: "It's a good time for Parker and Stone to distance themselves from the YouTube community given Comedy Central parent Viacom's protracted lawsuit against the Web-based video distrib, which features clips from the show." Viacom is suing YouTube for USD$1 billion in damages relating to video clips displayed on the video-sharing website. Richard Menta of MP3 Newswire wrote: "With all their content already out there Stone, Parker and Viacom realized offering South Park episodes online directly is a low risk proposition. They might as well draw some ad revenue from it."
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| China: 'the Dalai Lama is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage'
March 24, 2008
The government of China has claimed that the Dalai Lama is cooperating with Islamic extremists as part of a plot to bring the country into crises before the Olympic Games, which are due to be half in Beijing this Summer. The official newspaper of the government of China claimed that "the Dalai Lama is scheming to take the Beijing Olympics hostage to force the Chinese government to make concessions to Tibet independence."
This move comes after Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, vowed to step down from his position if things "get out of control" in Tibet, where violent demonstrations against China have killed anywhere from 13 to 100 people.
Tenzin Gyatso PHOTO Public Domain
The protests, which began in Lhasa, have since spread to neighboring provinces. In Aba, Sichuan, one witness reported 17 deaths. "Earlier today, the whole town was teeming with police and soldiers," he said. "All the shops have been closed. There are no arrests that I know of ... People are anticipating that something big is going to happen." Elsewhere in Sichuan, thousands of Tibetans turned out in the streets of Seda, according to the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
The international community has repeatedly urged China to use restraint in dealing with protesters, and to start talks with the Dalai Lama. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday, "We have really urged the Chinese over several years to find a way to talk with the Dalai Lama, who is a figure of authority, who is not a separatist, and to find a way to engage him and bring his moral weight to a more sustainable and better solution of the Tibet issue."
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| Dalai Lama threatens to resign if situation in Tibet worsens
March 18, 2008
Tenzin Gyatso, the 14th Dalai Lama, has vowed to step down from his position if things "get out of control" in Tibet, where violent demonstrations against China have killed anywhere from 13 to 100 people.
At a news conference in Dharamsala, India, the Dalai Lama said he was opposed to the use of violence against China's rule. "Violence is almost suicide," he said. "Even if 1,000 Tibetans sacrifice their lives, it will not help." However, he acknowledges that many radical Tibetans have criticized his policy of non-violence, and says that his only option is to "completely resign" if the bloodshed continues.
After making these statements, his secretary Tenzin Taklha said it would be impossible for him to resign as Tibet's spiritual leader, and that he will only be able to resign as their political leader. "If the Tibetans were to choose the path of violence, he would have to resign because he is completely committed to nonviolence," Taklha said. "He would resign as the political leader and head of state, but not as the Dalai Lama. He will always be the Dalai Lama."
The Dalai Lama responded to accusations made by China's premier, Wen Jiabao, who said there was evidence proving that the riots were "organised, premeditated, masterminded and incited by the Dalai clique". The Dalai Lama asked Chinese officials to come to his headquarters in Dharamsala and investigate. "Check our various offices," he said. "They can examine my pulse, my urine, my stool, everything."
He also suggested that the Chinese themselves may have orchestrated the protests as a way to discredit him. "It's possible some Chinese agents are involved there," the Dalai Lama said. "Sometimes totalitarian regimes are very clever, so it is important to investigate."
Wen Jiabao's remarks came at an annual news conference at the end of China's national legislative session. He said the intent of the riots was to "undermine the Beijing Olympic Games" and "serve their hidden agenda". He added, "This has all the more revealed that the consistent claims made by the Dalai clique that they pursue not independence but peaceful dialogue are nothing but lies."
Wen said China will be open to negotiation with the Dalai Lama if he recognizes Tibet and Taiwan as "inalienable parts of the Chinese territory". The Dalai Lama responded by inviting Wen to speak with him. "If the Chinese side ... accepts the reality and addresses the Tibetan problem realistically, within a few hours we can solve this problem," he said.
Although China suspects the Dalai Lama and his followers wish to break away from Chinese control, Tenzin Gyatso said that "independence is out of the question" and instead advocated greater autonomy within China. "We should not develop anti-Chinese feelings," he said. "We must live together side by side."
He said he plans to meet with Tibetan exiles who are currently marching from India to Lhasa, as he believes their ambitions to be futile. "Will you get independence? What's the use?" he asked, calling for them to stop at the border.
Meanwhile, China continued with efforts to arrest those involved in the Lhasa demonstrations, after a midnight deadline for protesters to turn themselves in passed without any apparent surrenders. Witnesses reported 4 army trucks carrying off dozens of handcuffed prisoners. Urgen Tenzin, executive director of the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy, said about 600 Tibetans were arrested Monday.
Police were seen patrolling the streets of Lhasa, carrying batons or rifles and checking for identification papers. "When the fighting began, you saw no Chinese," said John Kenwood, a Canadian tourist. "Now you see no Tibetans on the streets. The young Tibetans are probably hiding."
The protests, which began in Lhasa, have since spread to neighboring provinces. In Aba, Sichuan, one witness reported 17 deaths. "Earlier today, the whole town was teeming with police and soldiers," he said. "All the shops have been closed. There are no arrests that I know of ... People are anticipating that something big is going to happen." Elsewhere in Sichuan, thousands of Tibetans turned out in the streets of Seda, according to the Tibetan Center for Human Rights and Democracy.
The international community has repeatedly urged China to use restraint in dealing with protesters, and to start talks with the Dalai Lama. United States Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Monday, "We have really urged the Chinese over several years to find a way to talk with the Dalai Lama, who is a figure of authority, who is not a separatist, and to find a way to engage him and bring his moral weight to a more sustainable and better solution of the Tibet issue."
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| Tibetans say 80 killed in protests; China continues to crack down
March 16, 2008
The Central Tibetan Administration, headed by the Dalai Lama, says that at least 80 people have been killed in protests by supporters of Tibet against Chinese rule, despite China's claim that only ten people are dead.
"As the Tibet uprising continues, reliable sources have confirmed that at least 80 people were killed on 14th March 2008 in Lhasa," the website Tibet.net reported. They also said that many dead bodies have been stashed in front of a Public Security Department office in Lhasa, the Tibetan capital where most of the unrest occurred. The site did not name its sources.
Dalai Lama Tenzin Gyatso
The report from Xinhua, China's state-run news agency, was much different. "In Friday's riot, at least ten civilians died, mostly from burns caused by the roving mobs and some others were injured," Xinhua said, citing the Tibetan Regional Government's report. Additionally, they reported that police in Lhasa had saved 580 people, including an entire school, from the "violent array of sabotage".
Tenzin Gyatso, the Dalai Lama, condemned China's reaction to the protests, calling it a "cultural genocide". At a press conference in Dharamsala, seat of the Tibetan government in exile, he said, "They simply rely on using force in order to simulate peace, a peace brought by force using a rule of terror." He also called for an international organization to investigate the situation in Tibet.
China has declared a "People's War" against the protesters, vowing to "expose" the Dalai Lama. "We must wage a people's war to beat splittism and expose and condemn the malicious acts of these hostile forces and expose the hideous face of the Dalai Lama group to the light of day," officials were quoted as saying.
China also prevented access to video website YouTube after many international videos of the protests were posted on the website. YouTube is normally easily accessible in China, which blocks other pornographic or subversive sites with it's 'Great Firewall'.
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| Anti-China protesters clash with police in Tibet
March 14, 2008
In the Tibetan capital of Lhasa, Chinese security forces tried to control Buddhist monks and other ethnic Tibetans who were setting fire to vehicles and shops on Friday, in protest of China's rule. At least two protesters are reported to have been shot dead by riot police.
The Chinese government reacted quickly to the protests. An eyewitness report describes hundreds of police forces barricading the city's main square, some opening fire on protesters. Other reports suggest the city is under a sort of lockdown. "The Sera monastery is surrounded by Chinese soldiers or police," an eyewitness told ABC News. "I went yesterday to an area nearby to meet a Tibetan friend, and I saw the monastery surrounded by them."
The protests began rather peacefully on Monday, when a group of monks marched in Lhasa to advocate religious freedom. The march came on the 49th anniversary of Tibet's 1959 rebellion against China. When 50 or 60 of the monks were arrested, hundreds of other monks took to the streets to demand their release. Soon, ordinary Tibetans became involved as well, and the protests grew more violent.
Around 400 protesters gathered at a market near the Jokhang temple, where they were confronted by 1,000 police, according to a witness cited by the Free Tibet Campaign. Cars, buses, and military vehicles were burned as plumes of smoke rose above the city. Protesters also set fire to shops, most of which were owned by ethnic Chinese. "Some of them are looting those shops, taking out the contents and throwing them on huge fires which they've lit in the street," said James Miles, a British journalist.
Near Barkhor, one man said that two soldiers have been killed, and that Tibetans were beating Chinese residents with iron rods. Another eyewitness in Lhasa said that people were being carried away on stretchers. "People have been burning cars and motorbikes and buses," one resident said. "There is smoke everywhere and they have been throwing rocks and breaking windows. We're scared."
Psurbu Tsering of the "Tibetan Association of New York and New Jersey" said his members had received phone calls from Tibet, claiming 70 people had been killed and 1,000 arrested in Tibet. These reports could not be verified.
The unrest has reportedly spread to other provinces, and even other countries. Similar protests were seen in Nepal's capital of Kathmandu, where 1,000 protesters, including monks, gathered at a rally in support of the Tibet demonstrations. Around 12 monks were injured. In the United States, six Tibetans were arrested after holding protests outside the United Nations building in New York City.
An official from the Tibet Autonomous Region accused the Dalai Lama, Tenzin Gyatso, of orchestrating the protests, saying there was enough evidence to prove they were "organized, premeditated and masterminded" by Gyatso and his close supporters. A spokesperson for the Dalai Lama denied these allegations, saying the protests were "completely spontaneous".
In a statement, the Dalai Lama called the protests a "manifestation of the deep-rooted resentment of the Tibetan people". He insisted that both sides end the violence, telling the Chinese government to "stop using force and address the long-simmering resentment of the Tibetan people through dialogue," and he urged his "fellow Tibetans not to resort to violence."
Xinhua, the Chinese state-run news agency, reported in the early hours of Saturday that the situation had "basically returned to normal", although some people had been injured and were taken to the hospital. A Chinese official said the government is "fully capable of maintaining social stability" in Tibet.
The events prompted responses from European leaders, including Dimitrij Rupel, foreign minister of Slovenia and current President of the European Council. "We would like to see some kind of reconciliation between the Chinese authorities and the Tibetan representatives," he said.
French foreign minister Bernard Kouchner alluded to a connection between the protests and the 2008 Summer Olympics, which are set to occur in Beijing this August. "France can draw attention to the link between the Olympic Games and this Tibetan aspiration, which China has to take into account." However, he will not be supporting a boycott of the games. Neither will European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana, who said, "As far as the Olympic Games are concerned I intend to be there."
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| International arms dealer Viktor Bout arrested in Thailand
March 8, 2008
Viktor Bout, an international arms dealer, has been arrested in Thailand. Bout was arrested by the Royal Thai Police on Thursday, after checking in at a Sofitel luxury hotel in the Si Lom district of Bangkok.
Viktor Bout is suspected of supplying arms to the Taliban, Al-Qaeda, FARC, as well as combatants on both sides of African civil wars. He has been dubbed the "Merchant of Death" by the press as well as the book Merchant of Death: Money, Guns, Planes and the Man Who Makes War Possible by Douglas Farah and Stephen Braun.
At a press conference held by Thai police they said that Bout is being investigated for "procuring weapons for terrorists and conspiring with terrorists." According to Maj. Gen. Surapol Thuanthong, Bout said "The game is over" when he was arrested.
"This multi-country operation culminating in the arrest of Viktor Bout in Thailand is a model for how suspected dangerous international criminals need to be investigated, charged and brought to justice in the 21st century," said Interpol Secretary General Ronald Noble.
Federal prosecutors in the United States hope to get Bout extradited for prosecution on charges of conspiracy to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization.
The 2005 film, Lord of War has been said to have been inspired by Viktor Bout.
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| President Bush vetoes CIA waterboarding ban
March 8, 2008
United States President George W. Bush has vetoed a bill that would have banned the Central Intelligence Agency from using harsh interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, he said in his weekly radio address Saturday.
"Because the danger remains, we need to ensure our intelligence officials have all the tools they need to stop the terrorists," Bush said. "The bill Congress sent me would take away one of the most valuable tools in the war on terror - the CIA program to detain and question key terrorist leaders and operatives."
The bill, which passed the House of Representatives in November and the Senate in February despite warnings that it would be vetoed, established guidelines for intelligence activities. One of these guidelines would limit the CIA to only using interrogation methods allowed in the U.S. Army Field Manual.
The relevant text of the bill reads:
No individual in the custody or under the effective control of an element of the intelligence community or instrumentality thereof, regardless of nationality or physical location, shall be subject to any treatment or technique of interrogation not authorized by the United States Army Field Manual on Human Intelligence Collector Operations.
Among the methods prohibited in the manual are stripping prisoners naked, forcing them to perform sexual acts, beating, electrocuting, or burning them, staging mock executions, withholding food and medical attention, and the controversial technique known as waterboarding.
Waterboarding involves pouring water over a prisoner's cloth-covered face in a simulation of drowning. It is condemned as torture by many nations, human rights groups, and members of Congress.
Although Bush did not specifically mention waterboarding in his address, he did hint to it in some of his statements. "The bill Congress sent me would not simply ban one particular interrogation method, as some have implied," he said. "Instead, it would eliminate all the alternative procedures we've developed to question the world's most dangerous and violent terrorists."
Bush said that the methods used by the military are designed for interrogating "lawful combatants captured on the battlefield", not the "hardened terrorists" normally questioned by the CIA. "If we were to shut down this program and restrict the CIA to methods in the Field Manual, we could lose vital information from senior al Qaida terrorists, and that could cost American lives," Bush said.
Massachusetts senator Edward Kennedy described Bush's veto as "one of the most shameful acts of his presidency". In a statement released Friday, he said, "Unless Congress overrides the veto, it will go down in history as a flagrant insult to the rule of law and a serious stain on the good name of America in the eyes of the world."
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| Prince Charles and Camilla set sail on Leander G
March 3, 2008
Departing on a commercial airline on March 4th, Prince Charles and Camilla set sail for their 10 day Caribbean tour (thanks to the UK taxpayers). They will depart from Trinidad and will tour Tobago, St Lucia, Montserrat and Jamaica onboard Sir Donald Gosling’s Motor Yacht Leander G . The party-line reason for chartering a motor yacht for this “official” tour; a reduced carbon footprint in comparison to flying to these places.
 
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| Wikileaks.org restored as injunction is lifted
March 1, 2008
The website wikileaks.org has been brought back online following the lifting of a court injunction forcing the site to be taken down. According to a Wikileaks press release from when the site was taken offline, the injunction stated that "Dynadot [Wikileaks host] shall immediately clear and remove all DNS hosting records for the wikileaks.org domain name and prevent the domain name from resolving to the wikileaks.org website or any other website or server other than a blank park page, until further order of this Court."
Wikileaks has described the lifting of the injunction as a “blow to Bank Julius Baer.” Wikileaks also claims that Judge White lifted the case because he realized the injunction “trampled the First Amendment.”
The injunction, which a Wikileaks user described as 'blind' and 'unlawful' was granted in the California Northern District Court in San Francisco, California. The case was regarding several documents allegedly obtained from a whistleblower of the Bank Julius Baer & Trust.
Matt Zimmerman from the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) has said that "We're [the EFF are] very pleased that Judge White recognized the serious constitutional concerns raised by his earlier orders." He continued by saying that "attempting to interfere with the operation of an entire website because you have a dispute over some of its content is never the right approach. Disabling access to an Internet domain in an effort to prevent the world from accessing a handful of widely-discussed documents is not only unconstitutional - it simply won't work."
In the first press release from Wikileaks after the injunction was removed, Wikileaks started by just saying “Wikileaks wins :),” followed by a series of web links. Wikileaks did, however, release more information in a future press release.
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| Wikileaks claims ‘abuse of process’ in court case that resulted in wikileaks.org being
February 29, 2008
Wikileaks has claimed in a press release that the Swiss bank, Bank Julius Baer & Trust, has abused the system by involving an administrator of the Wikileaks group on Facebook in the court case which has recently lead to a court injunction causing wikileaks.org DNS entry to be removed. (It could still be accessed vis its IP address at http://88.80.13.160/wiki/wikileaks or one of its alternative DNS entries) The Facebook user who became involved in the court case has responded to this by saying that "I am an officer of a Facebook group, which is essentially a message board for discussion of issues relating to Wikileaks. I am not, and never have been, an officer of Wikileaks, and I request you [Bank Julius Baer & Trust] not to represent that I am."
Bank Julius Baer & Trust’s law firm said that “as an officer of a defendant in this action, my client [Bank Julius Baer & Trust] is entitled to serve you [the Facebook User] a copy of the summons and complaint pursuant.”
In a different press release, Wikileaks stated that they were not sure of the authenticity of the documents from Bank Julius Baer & Trust until the court case started. They say that the bank "in attempting to shoot the messenger has only succeeded, spectacularly, in shooting itself."
The injunction, which a Wikileaks user describes as 'blind' and 'unlawful' was granted in the California Northern District Court in San Francisco, California . The case was regarding several documents allegedly obtained from a whistleblower of the Bank Julius Baer & Trust.
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