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UN calls for further Syrian cooperation The United Nations Security Council unanimously called on Syria to detain suspects in the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The resolution stopped short of threatening sanctions in the event of non-compliance. Bush nominates Alito to U.S. Supreme Court U.S. President George W. Bush nominated Judge Samuel Alito of New Jersey as Associate Justice to the U.S. Supreme Court in a formal announcement on Monday.

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Japan likely to change law to allow female heirs to the throne Prime Minister Junichiro Koizumi suggested yesterday that the government would submit a draft allowing female heirs to the Japanese Throne.

Wikipedia Current Events
U.S. Senate Minority Leader Harry Reid and his fellow Democrats force a closed session of the Senate over the recent Lewis Libby indictment. Two additional moons of Pluto are discovered. The United Nations Security Council passed a UNSC resolution (S/RES/1636 (2005)) which requests urgently and forcefully Syria's full cooperation with the investigation into the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Zanzibar's ruling Chama Cha Mapinduzi party and President Amani Abeid Karume are declared re-elected in a disputed election. Police clashed with opposition supporters, leaving 9 dead. 2 Palestinian militants, one from Hamas, the other the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade, have died following an Israeli air-strike in the Gaza Strip. North Korea and South Korea will field a united Olympics team at the next Olympic Games. Justice John Gomery releases the first part of the Gomery Commission report on corruption in the Liberal Party of Canada and the sponsorship scandal. Gomery exonerates current prime minister Paul Martin but criticizes former prime minister Jean Chretien and his Quebec lieutenant Alfonso Gagliano. 2005 Paris riots continue for the fifth consecutive night, sparked by the death of two Muslim youths from electric shock. The controversy caused by police firing tear gas into a mosque on Sunday night led to families of the dead youths pulling out of a meeting with the French Interior Minister.

U.N. denied access to Guantanamo inmates
Today United States Secretary of Defence Donald Rumsfeld renewed his denial to grant a United Nations commission access to inmates at the Guantanamo Bay detention center. The United Nations has been seeking access for almost four years now. Last week the United States offered to let United Nations representatives visit the detention center, but they refused to let United Nations representatives visit the entire detention facility or interview detainees.

The United Nation's Special Rapporteur on torture and other cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, Manfred Nowak, told reporters on Monday that even China does not impose such conditions for United Nations visits of prisons, and that the United Nations could not accept an offer to visit the United States facility under conditions that are different from other nations. He did show willingness to compromise on other controversial questions as the duration of the visit, which the United States seeks to limit to one day, and which individual United Nations representatives should be involved in the visit.

The United States has voiced objections to two of the proposed team of five United Nations inspectors; Leandro Despouy, Special Rapporteur on the independence of judges and lawyers, and Paul Hunt, Special Rapporteur on the right of everyone to the enjoyment of the highest attainable standard of physical and mental health. Paul Hunt in particular has expressed strong suspicion of torture having occurred in Guantánamo. Those approved include Nowak from Austria in position as described, Asma Jahangir from Pakistan as Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, and Leila Zerrougui from Algeria as Chairperson-Rapporteur of the Working Group on arbitrary detention.

The United States has explained their refusal to allow the United Nations access to the prisoners by stating that Guantanamo is part of the ongoing War on Terrorism.

Sony's DRM protected CDs install Windows rootkits
Mark Russinovich, of SysInternals.com, has discovered a so-called "rootkit" which is installed by Sony's new digital rights management-protected music compact disks (CDs). A rootkit is a common name for malicious software that is used by hackers or criminals to gain access to a computer system and be able to clandestinely run other malicious code. Rootkits frequently contain hidden and hard to remove files and are designed to be difficult for the user to remove.

Russinovich classifies Sony malware as a rootkit because it is alleged to introduce several serious security holes, one of which can be exploited to hide files and prevent the user from removing them. In particular, all executable files which begin with '$sys$' are hidden when the software is installed. He points out that these security holes could be exploited by hackers, or other malware producers besides Sony.

Russinovich explains that naively removing the files will result in a crippling of the operating system on the user's computer. He provides an explanation of the difficult step required to remove Sony's malware.

Playing the same CDs on computers not running the Windows operating system, or on a non-computer based CD player remains safe. As removing Sony's malware may violate the DMCA, ripping the CDs on computers running a non-Windows operating system may be the best legal and technically safe option for those who wish to listen to them under Windows.

The software is automatically installed when a Sony CD is played on a computer, and is not mentioned in their EULA. The rootkit appears to have been commercially developed by First 4 Internet and licensed to Sony.

Other rights management techniques used by music publishers recently include breaking the Red Book compact disc standard format. This technique causes many CD players to not be able to play the new CDs, but also protects against casual ripping. Fiona Apple's recent album release in the United States uses such technology.

Ericsson's CEO Tours Marconi Sites
Carl-Henric Svanberg, CEO of Ericsson, began a tour of some of Marconi's European sites this morning, starting at Coventry and moving to Beeston for the afternoon session. Genoa and Backnang will be visited on Wednesday and Thursday.

Mike Parton, CEO of Marconi Corporation, spoke of the 'good news' for all stake-holders and introduced Svanberg to a round of applause from the majority of the staff at Coventry New Century Park, while more staff from Coventry New Horizon Park listened on a conference call line.

The purpose of the tour is to communicate to approx. Eighty percent of Marconi's staff and allow them to ask questions about the asset purchase proposed by Ericsson.

Makybe Diva wins the Melbourne Cup
The 2005 Melbourne Cup has been won by Makybe Diva. Second was On A Jeune and third placegetter was Xcellent.

The Melbourne Cup is the richest horse race in Australia, with prizemoney in 2005 of A$5,000,000, and is one of the richest horse races in the world. It is run annually on the first Tuesday of November at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne, over a distance of 3,200 meters (which is slightly under 2 miles). A estimated croud of 140,000 flocked to the Flemington Racecourse to attend the race.

This is the first time in the history of the race (first run in 1861) that a horse has won the race three times, let alone in consecutive years. The win has seen Makybe Diva be compared to legendary Australian horse Phar Lap. Four other horses have won the race twice, of which three won it in consecutive years.

Makybe Diva was ridden by jockey Glen Boss, and was trained by Lee Freedman.

Makybe Diva's trainer Lee Freedman said this morning a win would be a "Herculean task" to meet. And so it proved to be.

As the winner Makybe Diva received A$3,000,000 in prizemoney, as well as trophies to the value of A$100,000. A$750,000 was awarded to the 2nd placegetter, and A$375,000 to 3rd place, with the remaining prizemoney distributed amongst the 4th to 10th placegetters.

Australian Foreign Affairs Minister denies knowledge of Guantanamo abuse allegations
The Australian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Alexander Downer, has denied that his department had notification of sexual abuse allegations made by the Australian Guantanamo Bay detainee, David Hicks in 2003/2004.

"I'd like to see the evidence for this, and we would ask those who make the claims to present us with the evidence, let us look at the evidence, because obviously we are opposed to rape," he said after the Four Corners current affairs TV program presented an exposé relating to the alleged reasons for the detention of David Hicks at Guantanamo Bay. The program included an interview with David Hicks' father Terry Hicks who said that David had told him that the Americans gave him injections and then penetrated him anally with various objects.

Mr Downer's claims were contradicted by Hicks' military lawyer, Major Michael Mori who said that an Australian official was present during an interview that was part of the US investigation in 2004 and David Hicks had detailed the issues of being assaulted during that interview. Mr Downer declined to answer these claims when approached by the ABC Radio program The World Today but a department official confirmed the Government's position that it was not aware of Mr Hicks' torture claims.

The Labor Party opposition Foreign Affairs Spokesman, Kevin Rudd said in an interview on Lateline that Mr Downer "has just washed his hands of these matters" and that he had "adopted a posture of leave it to the Americans and trust the Americans. But when it comes to Guantanamo Bay, with due respect to our friends in Washington, I don't think that's good enough.". Mr Rudd is calling for an independent third party such as the International Red Cross to investiage the claims.

Today in History
1817 - The Bank of Montreal, Canada's oldest chartered bank, opened in Montréal, Québec.

1917 - Arthur Balfour (pictured) issued the Balfour Declaration, proclaiming British support for Jewish settlements in Palestine.

1936 - BBC Television Service, the oldest television station in the world, was launched.

1947 - Howard Hughes flew Spruce Goose, the largest flying boat ever built, on its maiden flight in Long Beach, California.

2000 - The first crew arrived at the International Space Station.

November 02 is All Souls Day in Catholicism; Day of the Dead in Mexico.

Quote of the Day

"Courage! I have shown it for years; think you I shall lose it at the moment when my sufferings are to end?" ~ Marie Antoinette

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