Topic: SEX - on November 3, 2008 at 9:55:00 AM CET
The red lights are going out all over Europe—but not elsewhere
WHEN the Netherlands legalised brothels eight years ago, the mood was upbeat. Politicians thought they were well on the way to solving one of the world’s perpetual policy dilemmas: how to stop all the bad things that are associated with the sex trade (coercion, violence, infectious diseases) while putting a proper, and realistic, limit to the role of the state.
The Dutch were hoping that links between prostitution and multiple forms of crime, from money laundering to smuggling, could finally be severed. Ultimately, they believed, the buying and selling of sexual services would become a freely undertaken transaction, in which the state would only be involved as a regulator and tax-collector. The police could then concentrate on criminals, instead of harassing people engaged in exchanges that were nobody’s business but their own.
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Topic: POLITIK - on November 2, 2008 at 5:01:00 PM CET
John Cleese on Sarah Palin
The former Monty Python star answers Vinvin's questions and shares his unsparing thoughts and views about vice presidential nominee, Sarah Palin.
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 2, 2008 at 4:46:00 PM CET
Tijuana streets flow with the blood of rival drug cartels
A vicious turf war has claimed 2,700 lives in Mexico this year. Its front line runs through Tijuana, the gateway to San Diego and the vast US drugs market, where 15 people were murdered in the space of 72 hours last week. Ed Vulliamy reports on a border town living in fear, where honest citizens pay a cruel price for the greed of others
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Topic: DRUGS - on November 2, 2008 at 4:45:00 PM CET
New Bolivian President Suspends Indefinitely US-Led Drug Enforcement Operations
President Evo Morales has announced he is suspending "indefinitely" the operations of the US Drug Enforcement Administration in Bolivia.
Mr Morales accused the agency of having encouraged anti-government protests in the country in September.
He did not say whether its staff would be asked to leave the country, as coca- growers have been pressing him to do.
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Topic: COMPUTER - on November 2, 2008 at 4:41:00 PM CET
Late scores: Germany 1 Microsoft 0 - German Foreign Ministry Migrates Desktops To OSS
Here's another example of 'German Engineering' — The Foreign Ministry in Germany is migrating all of its 11,000 desktops to GNU/Linux and other open source applications. According to the article, 'this has drastically reduced maintenance costs in comparison with other ministries.
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Topic: SECURITY - on November 2, 2008 at 4:36:00 PM CET
Virtual Heist Nets 500,000+ Bank, Credit Accounts
A single cyber crime group has stolen more than a half million bank, credit and debit card accounts over the past two-and-a-half years using one of the most advanced strains of computer spyware in existence, according to research to be published today. The discovery is among the largest stolen data caches ever recovered.
Researchers at RSA's FraudAction Research Lab unearthed the massive trove of purloined data while tracking the activities of a family of spyware known as the "Sinowal" Trojan, designed to steal data from Microsoft Windows PCs.
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Topic: STRANGE - on November 2, 2008 at 4:34:00 PM CET
Mann samt Klo ins Krankenhaus gebracht
Die Sitzung mutierte zum Alptraum: Da Unbekannte einen Toilettensitz mit Superkleber beschmierten, klebte ein Mann aus Mittelengland auf dem Klo fest. Ärzte befreiten den Geleimten schließlich von der Unglücksschüssel:
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Topic: POLITIK - on November 2, 2008 at 4:24:00 PM CET
And Now For Something Completely ... John Cleese on Election Follies
Countdown with Keith Olbermann: Joe Wuzelbacher ... The plumber who isn't licensed...The would-be business owner who isn't trying to buy a business
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Topic: COPYRIGHT - on November 1, 2008 at 5:48:00 PM CET
Bender's Anti-Piracy Warning
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Topic: COMPUTER - on November 1, 2008 at 1:52:00 PM CET
Trojan virus steals banking info
The details of about 500,000 online bank accounts and credit and debit cards have been stolen by a virus described as "one of the most advanced pieces of crimeware ever created".
The Sinowal trojan has been tracked by RSA, which helps to secure networks in Fortune 500 companies.
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Topic: POLICE REPORT - on November 1, 2008 at 1:50:00 PM CET
U.S. border police arrest Mexican troops
U.S. border police arrested seven Mexican soldiers after they accidentally strayed over the international boundary into Arizona, authorities said.
The U.S. Border Patrol said agents encountered the troops in a Humvee a short distance north of the border near Yuma, in far west Arizona, early on Friday.
"The Border Patrol agents on scene established a dialogue with the subjects, who identified themselves as members of the Mexican military," the Border Patrol said in a news release.
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Topic: STRANGE - on November 1, 2008 at 1:36:00 PM CET
Old Soviet Death-Ray Gun, Kazakhstan
Dominating the Kazakhstan skyline, like a giant death-ray gun from a sci-fi movie is a decrepit, rusting radioastronomy tower. The photograph was taken at Tien Shan Astronomical Observatory (TSAO) near the Great Almaty Lake, which sits at 2800m altitude.
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