ISLAMABAD – Pakistan blocked YouTube and many other Internet sites Thursday in a widening crackdown on online content deemed offensive to Islam, reflecting the secular government's sensitivities to an issue that has ignited protests in the Muslim country.
The move came a day after the government obeyed a court order to block Facebook over a page called "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day!" that encourages users to post images of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. Most Muslims regard depictions of the prophet, even favorable ones, as blasphemous.
Supporters of an Islamist political party protested against Facebook in at least three cities in small and peaceful rallies. The government, which is unpopular among many Islamists for siding with the United States in the war against the Taliban and al-Qaida, is hoping that the website bans will lessen anger in the days ahead.
"We are ready to die protecting the honor of our beloved Prophet Muhammad," said Aysha Hameed, one of 1,000 female protesters in Multan city.
Others — mostly members of the more secular, educated elite — accused the government of blocking freedom of expression and hurting small businesses that use Facebook for marketing. Many questioned need for the entire Facebook and YouTube sites to be blocked, instead of individual pages on them.
About 20 million of Pakistan's 180 million people are Internet users and social networking sites are among the most popular, especially among those younger than 25. Pakistan's Internet service providers' association said usage had dropped by about 25 percent since Wednesday.
The offending Facebook page encourages users to post images of the prophet on May 20 to protest threats made by a radical Muslim group against the creators of the American TV series "South Park" for depicting Muhammad in a bear suit during an episode earlier this year.
"Such malicious and insulting attacks hurt the sentiments of Muslims around the world and cannot be accepted under the garb of freedom of expression," Foreign Ministry spokesman Abdul Basit said.
Pakistan and other Muslim nations saw large and sometimes violent protests in 2006 when a Danish newspaper published cartoons of Muhammad, and again in 2008 when they were reprinted. Later the same year, a suspected al-Qaida suicide bomber attacked the Danish Embassy in Islamabad, killing six people.
The telecommunications authority did not say what material on YouTube prompted it to block the site and more than 450 other unidentified pages, only citing "growing sacrilegious contents." Wahajus Siraj, the head of the Internet service providers' association, said the ban was because images of the Prophet Muhammad were also cropping up on the video-sharing site.
Blackberry service was halted for around 10 hours as efforts were made to stop mobile access to Facebook.
The government acted against Facebook and YouTube after it failed to persuade the websites to remove the offensive material, the telecommunications authority said. It said representatives from the two websites were welcome to contact the Pakistani government to resolve the dispute.
Facebook said the page was not a violation of its terms, but suggested it may be prepared to take it down.
"In cases like this, the approach is sometimes to restrict certain content from being shown in specific countries," it said in a statement.
In Washington, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters Thursday that the United States respects Pakistan's legal efforts to protect citizens from offensive speech. He said many images on Facebook were deeply offensive to Muslims. But he said Pakistan must also be sure not to restrict the speech of those using the Internet.
Pakistan is governed by a secular political party that has little time for Islamic issues. But arguing against the court order would leave it open to accusations by its political opponents of siding with those blaspheming the prophet.
"The Islamist parties have been on the back foot for a while, this is a nice little issue for them to campaign about," said Cyril Almeida, a liberal media columnist. "There is no way you can have a rational debate in Pakistan about freedom of speech when one side is talking about blasphemy."
The five customers in the Dandy Net Cafe in Islamabad late Thursday afternoon agreed with the ban.
"We are very happy our government and our court has taken these actions," said Mohammad Aamir Chohan, a 28-year-old engineer. "I know blocking these sites is not a solution to the problem, but we have sent a message to the world not to hurt the feelings of Muslims."
Feelings were just as intense among those opposed to the ban.
"Sad and embarrassing day in the history of Pakistan," one user posted on the microblogging site Twitter.
Reba Shahid, the editor of Spider, a monthly print magazine about the Internet, said the government "might as well take away cell phones and shut off electricity, do the whole thing."
"You're stemming the flow of information, you're stemming my growth as an intellectual, you're stemming my access to the rest of the world. I might as well go home and sleep," she said.
Pakistan blocked access to YouTube for two days in 2008 because of what it said was unIslamic content. Turkey, Thailand, Indonesia and Morocco have all blocked access to YouTube in the past for various reasons, while China routinely bans Facebook and YouTube.
It remains to be seen how successful the government will be at keeping Internet users away from the blocked sites. Citizens often have little trouble working around a ban by using proxy servers and other means.
"What's common to Facebook and Lashkar-e-Taiba?" one user on Twitter wrote, referring to a Pakistani militant group that is banned but has an alleged front group that operates openly. "They are both banned in Pakistan, but Pakistanis can still find them if they want to."
YOU CANT BE SERIOUS GET OVERIT... WHATEVER HAPPEN TO FREEDOM OF SPEECH!
___
Associated Press writers Sebastian Abbot, Zarar Khan and Anita Chang in Islamabad and Foster Klug in Washington contributed to this report.
Thursday, May 20, 2010
Megan Fox dropped or did she quite transformers 3?
Megan Fox has been axed from " Transformers 3," Access Hollywood has confirmed.
A source at Paramount, the studio behind the film, told Access that Megan, who played star Shia LaBeouf 's love interest in the franchise, would not return for the third movie.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: ' Transformers ' Sexy Siren Megan Fox
The source said that in order to take Shia's character - Samuel James Witwicky -- in a new direction, it was better if Sam wasn't tied down to a love interest.
On Wednesday night, however, reps for the actress told People that it was Megan's decision to leave the movie.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: See Megan Fox & More Stars In Their Underwear
" Megan Fox will not be starring in ' Transformers 3,'" the reps told the mag. "It was her decision not to return. She wishes the franchise the best."
A rep for Megan was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Access Hollywood on Wednesday.
Nikki Finke, who first reported the news for Deadline that Megan was out, claimed that decision was "ultimately" director Michael Bay 's.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Summer Movies 2010
Bay's rep was also not immediatley available for comment when contacted by Access.
The news of Megan's departure from the " Transformers 3" cast comes just months after a dispute emerged between Megan, unnamed " Transformers " crewmembers and even the director.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Katy! Zoe! Megan! Oh My! Maxim's 2010 Hot 100: The Top 20
Megan compared her director to "Hitler" and "Napoleon" during an interview with Britain's Wonderland Magazine's September /October 2009 issue.
"He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation," Megan said at the time.
"He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is," she continued. "So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward."
Shortly thereafter, members of the " Transformers " crew posted an open letter on the director's site, condemning the actress for her behavior on set, calling Megan, "the grump of the set," as well as "thankless, classless, graceless" and "unfriendly."
The letter was quickly removed and Michael eventually addressed all the comments a short while later.
"I don't condone the crew letter to Megan. And I don't condone Megan's outlandish quotes," Bay wrote in a blog post on his official Web site. "But her crazy quips are part of her crazy charm. The fact of the matter I still love working with her, and I know we still get along. I even expect more crazy quotes from her on Transformers 3."
" Transformers 3" has reportedly already begun filming.
Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
A source at Paramount, the studio behind the film, told Access that Megan, who played star Shia LaBeouf 's love interest in the franchise, would not return for the third movie.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: ' Transformers ' Sexy Siren Megan Fox
The source said that in order to take Shia's character - Samuel James Witwicky -- in a new direction, it was better if Sam wasn't tied down to a love interest.
On Wednesday night, however, reps for the actress told People that it was Megan's decision to leave the movie.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: See Megan Fox & More Stars In Their Underwear
" Megan Fox will not be starring in ' Transformers 3,'" the reps told the mag. "It was her decision not to return. She wishes the franchise the best."
A rep for Megan was not immediately available for comment when contacted by Access Hollywood on Wednesday.
Nikki Finke, who first reported the news for Deadline that Megan was out, claimed that decision was "ultimately" director Michael Bay 's.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Summer Movies 2010
Bay's rep was also not immediatley available for comment when contacted by Access.
The news of Megan's departure from the " Transformers 3" cast comes just months after a dispute emerged between Megan, unnamed " Transformers " crewmembers and even the director.
VIEW THE PHOTOS: Katy! Zoe! Megan! Oh My! Maxim's 2010 Hot 100: The Top 20
Megan compared her director to "Hitler" and "Napoleon" during an interview with Britain's Wonderland Magazine's September /October 2009 issue.
"He's like Napoleon and he wants to create this insane, infamous mad-man reputation," Megan said at the time.
"He wants to be like Hitler on his sets, and he is," she continued. "So he's a nightmare to work for but when you get him away from set, and he's not in director mode, I kind of really enjoy his personality because he's so awkward, so hopelessly awkward."
Shortly thereafter, members of the " Transformers " crew posted an open letter on the director's site, condemning the actress for her behavior on set, calling Megan, "the grump of the set," as well as "thankless, classless, graceless" and "unfriendly."
The letter was quickly removed and Michael eventually addressed all the comments a short while later.
"I don't condone the crew letter to Megan. And I don't condone Megan's outlandish quotes," Bay wrote in a blog post on his official Web site. "But her crazy quips are part of her crazy charm. The fact of the matter I still love working with her, and I know we still get along. I even expect more crazy quotes from her on Transformers 3."
" Transformers 3" has reportedly already begun filming.
Copyright 2010 by NBC Universal, Inc. All rights reserved.
Paris where is the Pink panthor when you need him?
PARIS – A broken alarm system made it as easy as 1-2-3: A masked intruder clipped a padlock, smashed a window and stole a Picasso, a Matisse and three other masterpieces from a Paris museum Thursday — a $123 million haul that is one of the world's biggest art heists.
Offloading the artwork may prove a tougher task, however, with Interpol and collectors worldwide now on high alert.
In what seemed like an art thief's fantasy, the alarm system had been broken since March in parts of the Paris Museum of Modern Art, according to the city's mayor, Bertrand Delanoe.
The museum, in a tony neighborhood across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, reopened in 2006 after spending $18 million (euro15 million) and two years upgrading its security system. Spare parts had been ordered to fix the alarm but had not yet arrived, the mayor said in a statement.
So with no alarm to worry about, a lone masked intruder entered the museum about 3:50 a.m., said Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall. The thief cut a padlock on a gate, then broke a side window and climbed inside — his movements caught on one of the museum's functioning cameras, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
The intruder later slipped back out, carrying the canvases and leaving behind empty frames. The whole thing took 15 minutes, a police official said.
Three security guards were on duty overnight, but "they saw nothing," Girard said. A night watchman discovered the theft around 7 a.m.
The stolen works included Pablo Picasso's "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas), an ochre-toned Cubist oil painting worth an estimated $28 million (euro23 million), and "La Pastorale" (Pastoral), a pastel-hued oil painting of nudes on a hillside by Henri Matisse worth about $17.5 million (euro15 million), Girard said.
Also seized were "La femme a l'eventail" (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani, "L'olivier pres de l'Estaque" (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque and "Nature morte aux chandeliers" (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Leger.
Estimates of the total value of the paintings varied: The prosecutor's office initially put their worth as high as $613 million (euro500 million) but later downgraded the figure to about $111 million (euro90 million). Girard said the total value was about $123 million (euro100 million).
The broken alarm system also renewed concerns about museum security in the French capital. There was no operating surveillance system when a thief made off with a red sketchbook of 33 Picasso drawings from the nearby Picasso Museum while it was undergoing renovations last summer.
Within hours of Thursday's heist, red-and-white tape surrounded the Museum of Modern Art and signs on the Art Deco building's ornate bronze doors said it was closed for "technical reasons."
On a cordoned-off balcony, police wearing blue gloves and face masks examined the museum's broken window and the discarded frames. The paintings appeared to have been carefully removed from the disassembled frames, not sliced out.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters. Stephane Thefo, a specialist at Interpol who handles international art theft investigations, expressed doubt that one person could have pulled it off the heist, even if only one person was caught on camera.
Many high-profile art thefts have ended in failure, with the artworks recovered as thieves struggle to trade their illegal bounty for cash. But some famous stolen works remain at large — such as those seized more than two decades ago from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Alice Farren-Bradley of the Art Loss Registry in London said the Paris theft appeared to be one of the biggest art heists ever, considering the prominence of the artists, the value of the paintings and the high profile of the museum.
However, she said it will be "virtually impossible" to sell such prominent paintings on the open market and typically stolen art fetches lower prices on the black market.
"Very often they can be used as collateral to broker other deals" involving drugs or weapons, she said. "They are not necessarily going to be bought by some great lover of the arts."
Art expert Jean-Marie Baron said the heist could have been organized by thieves who plan to sell the paintings to wealthy individuals in Russia, China or elsewhere, and "who won't verify the origins of the paintings." Another possibility was that the thieves planned to "ransom" the paintings in exchange for a big insurance payout, he said.
The FBI estimates the market for stolen art at $6 billion. The Art Loss Register has tallied up to 170,000 pieces of stolen, missing and looted art and valuables.
Picasso is the world's most stolen artist due to his prolific output and the value of his works. The Art Loss Register lists some 550 missing Picasso pieces, including paintings, lithographs, drawings and ceramics, as of 2007.
Hours after Thursday's heist, the director of the neighboring Palais de Tokyo modern art museum called the thieves "imbeciles."
"Those paintings are absolutely unsellable. First off because these are very well known paintings. And also because we are in a new civilization ... of instant global communication," Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr told AP Television News. "The entire planet has pictures of these paintings."
The loss is "like the death of a family member," lamented Flemming Friborg, manager of Copenhagen's Glyptotek museum, known for its Impressionist collection.
Offloading the artwork may prove a tougher task, however, with Interpol and collectors worldwide now on high alert.
In what seemed like an art thief's fantasy, the alarm system had been broken since March in parts of the Paris Museum of Modern Art, according to the city's mayor, Bertrand Delanoe.
The museum, in a tony neighborhood across the Seine River from the Eiffel Tower, reopened in 2006 after spending $18 million (euro15 million) and two years upgrading its security system. Spare parts had been ordered to fix the alarm but had not yet arrived, the mayor said in a statement.
So with no alarm to worry about, a lone masked intruder entered the museum about 3:50 a.m., said Christophe Girard, deputy culture secretary at Paris City Hall. The thief cut a padlock on a gate, then broke a side window and climbed inside — his movements caught on one of the museum's functioning cameras, according to the Paris prosecutor's office.
The intruder later slipped back out, carrying the canvases and leaving behind empty frames. The whole thing took 15 minutes, a police official said.
Three security guards were on duty overnight, but "they saw nothing," Girard said. A night watchman discovered the theft around 7 a.m.
The stolen works included Pablo Picasso's "Le pigeon aux petits-pois" (The Pigeon with the Peas), an ochre-toned Cubist oil painting worth an estimated $28 million (euro23 million), and "La Pastorale" (Pastoral), a pastel-hued oil painting of nudes on a hillside by Henri Matisse worth about $17.5 million (euro15 million), Girard said.
Also seized were "La femme a l'eventail" (Woman with a Fan) by Amedeo Modigliani, "L'olivier pres de l'Estaque" (Olive Tree near Estaque) by Georges Braque and "Nature morte aux chandeliers" (Still Life with Chandeliers) by Fernand Leger.
Estimates of the total value of the paintings varied: The prosecutor's office initially put their worth as high as $613 million (euro500 million) but later downgraded the figure to about $111 million (euro90 million). Girard said the total value was about $123 million (euro100 million).
The broken alarm system also renewed concerns about museum security in the French capital. There was no operating surveillance system when a thief made off with a red sketchbook of 33 Picasso drawings from the nearby Picasso Museum while it was undergoing renovations last summer.
Within hours of Thursday's heist, red-and-white tape surrounded the Museum of Modern Art and signs on the Art Deco building's ornate bronze doors said it was closed for "technical reasons."
On a cordoned-off balcony, police wearing blue gloves and face masks examined the museum's broken window and the discarded frames. The paintings appeared to have been carefully removed from the disassembled frames, not sliced out.
Investigators were trying to determine whether the intruder was operating alone, Girard told reporters. Stephane Thefo, a specialist at Interpol who handles international art theft investigations, expressed doubt that one person could have pulled it off the heist, even if only one person was caught on camera.
Many high-profile art thefts have ended in failure, with the artworks recovered as thieves struggle to trade their illegal bounty for cash. But some famous stolen works remain at large — such as those seized more than two decades ago from Boston's Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum.
Alice Farren-Bradley of the Art Loss Registry in London said the Paris theft appeared to be one of the biggest art heists ever, considering the prominence of the artists, the value of the paintings and the high profile of the museum.
However, she said it will be "virtually impossible" to sell such prominent paintings on the open market and typically stolen art fetches lower prices on the black market.
"Very often they can be used as collateral to broker other deals" involving drugs or weapons, she said. "They are not necessarily going to be bought by some great lover of the arts."
Art expert Jean-Marie Baron said the heist could have been organized by thieves who plan to sell the paintings to wealthy individuals in Russia, China or elsewhere, and "who won't verify the origins of the paintings." Another possibility was that the thieves planned to "ransom" the paintings in exchange for a big insurance payout, he said.
The FBI estimates the market for stolen art at $6 billion. The Art Loss Register has tallied up to 170,000 pieces of stolen, missing and looted art and valuables.
Picasso is the world's most stolen artist due to his prolific output and the value of his works. The Art Loss Register lists some 550 missing Picasso pieces, including paintings, lithographs, drawings and ceramics, as of 2007.
Hours after Thursday's heist, the director of the neighboring Palais de Tokyo modern art museum called the thieves "imbeciles."
"Those paintings are absolutely unsellable. First off because these are very well known paintings. And also because we are in a new civilization ... of instant global communication," Pierre Cornette de Saint-Cyr told AP Television News. "The entire planet has pictures of these paintings."
The loss is "like the death of a family member," lamented Flemming Friborg, manager of Copenhagen's Glyptotek museum, known for its Impressionist collection.
Friday, May 14, 2010
NBC CANCELS the Tv show heros WITHOUT A SEASON FINALE!
NBC Cancels Once-Mighty Heroes
By Natalie Abrams
Fri May 14, 3:19 PM PDT
After four seasons on NBC, Heroes has been canceled, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Fall 2010 TV Scorecard: Which shows are returning? Which aren't?
The super-series averaged less than 5 million viewers in its latest season. The network had considered giving the Tim Kring-produced drama a few more episodes to wrap up storylines, but the cost of the show and NBC's expanding fall slate led to Heroes' cancelation.
Report: NBC likely to cancel Heroes
Law & Order, Trauma and Mercy were also canceled by the network, which has already ordered 11 new series for the fall, including J.J. Abrams' Undercovers and Jerry Bruckheimer's Chase.
NBC cancels Law & Order, picks up SVU and Law & Order: Los Angeles
Reps for the NBC series declined TVGuide.com's request for comment
By Natalie Abrams
Fri May 14, 3:19 PM PDT
After four seasons on NBC, Heroes has been canceled, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
Fall 2010 TV Scorecard: Which shows are returning? Which aren't?
The super-series averaged less than 5 million viewers in its latest season. The network had considered giving the Tim Kring-produced drama a few more episodes to wrap up storylines, but the cost of the show and NBC's expanding fall slate led to Heroes' cancelation.
Report: NBC likely to cancel Heroes
Law & Order, Trauma and Mercy were also canceled by the network, which has already ordered 11 new series for the fall, including J.J. Abrams' Undercovers and Jerry Bruckheimer's Chase.
NBC cancels Law & Order, picks up SVU and Law & Order: Los Angeles
Reps for the NBC series declined TVGuide.com's request for comment
Monday, May 10, 2010
TWITTER CRASHES-EVERYONE NOW HAS 0 FOLLOWERS 0 FOLLOWING
BUT FOUND A VIRUS IN THERE SOFTWARE THIS IS THE MESSAGE THEY SENT OUT
Follow bug discovered, remedied. 21 minutes ago
We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to “force” other users to follow them. We’re now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place. Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we’re aware and this too should shortly be resolved.
Update (10:18 AM PST): Of note: protected updates did not become public as a result of this bug.
Follow bug discovered, remedied. 21 minutes ago
We identified and resolved a bug that permitted a user to “force” other users to follow them. We’re now working to rollback all abuse of the bug that took place. Follower/following numbers are currently at 0; we’re aware and this too should shortly be resolved.
Update (10:18 AM PST): Of note: protected updates did not become public as a result of this bug.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
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