Rihanna Photographed in Mexico

Los Angeles (E! Online) – Rihanna has resurfaced.
After being shuttled to various locations over the past two weeks to protect her privacy, the 21-year-old star was photographed this weekend on the beach in Punta Mita, Mexico. She previously logged short stints in Los Angeles and her native Barbados.
Photos of her south-of-the-border sojourn first ran in today's print edition of the New York Daily News and were later obtained by E! News. She does not appear to show any of the bruising that was so clearly visible in her leaked police photo.
The images were reportedly snapped at a private villa on Saturday, a day after she celebrated her milestone birthday in L.A. Aside from a few backseat shots, it's the first time Rihanna's been photographed in public since the Feb. 8 altercation with Chris Brown that left her hospitalized.
Yesterday the L.A. district attorney's office said the investigation was still open and no decision on charges has been made.

Baby died after 'mother's kiss'

A newborn baby girl may have died when her mother kissed her, an inquest in Lancashire has heard.
Jennifer Schofield was 11 days old when her vital organs failed after contracting a strain of herpes in November 2006.
The baby's mother, Ruth, 35, of Binyon Court, in Lancaster, transmitted the virus by kissing her or breastfeeding.
Coroner Dr James Adeley recorded a narrative verdict, and said nobody was blamed for failing to spot the virus.
The inquest heard the infection herpes simplex virus (HSV) was the type passed on through a cold sore.
'Totally devastated'
Mr Adeley said Miss Schofield probably caught HSV in the late stages of her pregnancy after she developed flu-like symptoms days before giving birth.
Jennifer became unwell and and died in Lancaster Royal Infirmary in December.
Miss Schofield has since been campaigning to raise awareness of the condition, which kills an estimated six babies a year in the UK.
She has written to the prime minister asking for more literature to be put in clinics about the illness.
She added: "I have been left totally devastated and heartbroken by the death of Jennifer. The pain has not lessened.
"More needs to be done as this can happen to anyone without them knowing about it."

T.I. Returns to Court to Rap About Responsibility

Here's something you don't see everyday: A rap superstar was in court but this time he wasn't answering any charges. Instead, T.I. returned to the Georgia Supreme Court to speak to teenage kids about the importance of education, responsibility, among other things.
"You can see from me that nobody is too rich, too famous, too cool, too good-looking or too young to make a mistake and pay a price for it," said T.I. "More important than the mistake you make, though, is what you are able to take away from that mistake. How can you use that mistake to ensure you will never make a similar mistake again?"
T.I. begins a one-year federal prison term for illegal weapons possession next month.

Manchester United Ace Cristiano Ronaldo: Inter Wanted Me

The Portuguese has revealed how close he came to wearing the Nerazzurri shirt, and he has insisted that the Red Devils have more chances to progress in the Champions League.Vince Masiello
27 Feb 2009 09:00:19

Photo Gallery
Zoom
Related Links
Teams
Inter
Manchester United
Players
Cristiano Ronaldo
FIFA World Player of the Year Cristiano Ronaldo stole the show on Tuesday night as Manchester United travelled to San Siro to face Inter in the first leg of their Champions League last 16 tie.Beneamata goalkeeper Julio Cesar had to perform miracles to keep him at bay and ensure the tie will be decided at Old Trafford.“Julio Cesar truly did great things - his saves were superb,” Ronaldo told the Corriere dello Sport.“I was impressed by [Davide] Santon; he is a really interesting lad and a great footballer. [Zlatan] Ibrahimovic is a great striker and a reference point for Inter. Our defenders will need to be very focussed to stop him at Old Trafford.“However, if we will play as well as we did in the first leg, I’m sure we will go through.”Former Inter midfielder Luis Suarez has recently admitted that Inter kept a close eye on Ronaldo in the past and could have signed him before United pounced in 2003.“It was a long time ago and I don’t even remember it well,” asserted Ronaldo. “I was 17 or 18 and someone mentioned the possibility of a move to Inter.“I can’t really recall what they were saying, but we did discuss it. Then Manchester United arrived and I came here.”Vince Masiello, Goal.com

Arsenal trail Valencia defender ahead of summer shake-up

Arsene Wenger is trailing Valencia defender Raul Albiol, 23, as he looks to launch a major shake-up of his defence this summer.
Arsenal also enquired Albiol's teammate Carlos Marchena in January.
Meanwhile, Salomon Kalou has admitted it would be a "dream" to play for Arsene Wenger and hinted that he might quit Stamford Bridge in the summer.
The Arsenal boss tried to sign the Chelsea forward last summer but a £6million bid was turned down.
"Arsene Wenger said he thought of signing me? That's an honour for me," Kalou told setanta.com.

Barack Obama to pull US troops out of Iraq by 2010

President Barack Obama is to announce that he will withdraw the bulk of US troops from Iraq by the end of August 2010.

Obama budget plan eyes climate, clean energy

President Barack Obama's first budget plan moves aggressively to tackle climate change and shift the nation from reliance on foreign oil to green energy. President Barack Obama's first budget plan moves aggressively to tackle climate change and shift the nation from reliance on foreign oil to green energy.
The proposed budget released Thursday by the White House would rely on $15 billion a year, beginning in 2012, from auctioning off carbon pollution permits to help develop clean-energy technologies, such as solar and wind power. But Congress has yet to write a bill that would regulate heat-trapping gases and collect that money.
Across the government, Obama's commitment to dealing with climate change is apparent.
There's more money at NASA for space-based monitoring of greenhouse gases, expanded support at the Energy Department for finding ways to economically capture carbon emissions from coal-burning power plants, and more money for the Interior Department to mitigate the impact of climate change on public lands and wildlife.
The document also asks Congress to approve an additional $19 million for the Environmental Protection Agency to measure how much climate-related pollution industries are releasing.
The administration "will work expeditiously" to get Congress to approve an 83 percent reduction in global warming emissions by mid-century, the budget document says.
The administration's success on global warming will depend on a second set of priorities outlined in the budget document to reduce the nation's dependence on fossil fuels, including oil and coal, by quickening the transformation to renewable energy and development of technologies to help people use less energy.
The budget would impose a new excise tax and fees on companies that take oil and natural gas from federal waters and reimposes a tax — again largely targeting the oil industry — to pay for cleaning up Superfund sites.
The budget calls for "significant increases" in cutting-edge research into renewable energy, including solar, wind and geothermal sources and ways to produce non-corn ethanol, and eventually a gasoline-like fuel, from plants.
"By investing in groundbreaking research, making homes and businesses more energy efficient and deploying solar, wind, biomass and other clean energy, this budget will help ensure that America once against leads the world in confronting our global economic, energy and climate challenge," said Energy Secretary Steven Chu.
The budget calls for collecting $646 billion between 2012 and 2019 from the auctioning of greenhouse pollution allowances under a yet-to-be enacted plan to combat climate change. Democratic leaders in Congress hope to produce a climate bill this year, but there is disagreement over whether allowances should be auctioned to given to carbon-intensive industries to hold down costs.
House Republican leader John Boehner of Ohio criticized Obama's auction plan, calling it "a carbon tax which will increase taxes on anyone who uses electricity, anyone who drives a car." But White House officials who briefed reporters on the budget said large portions of the money from the auctions would be used to help people offset higher energy costs.

What's the Best Diet? Eating Less Food

Low fat, low carb, high protein - there's a diet plan of every flavor. And if you're one of the millions of people who struggle with weight, you've probably tried them all, likely with little success. That wouldn't surprise Dr. Frank Sacks, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of a new study published in the Feb. 26 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine, whose findings confirm what a growing body of weight-loss evidence has already suggested: one diet is no better than the next when it comes to weight loss. It doesn't matter where your calories come from, as long as you're eating less. (Read about environmentally friendly food.)
"We have a really simple and practical message for people: it's not so much the type of diet you eat," says Sacks. "It's how much you put in your mouth."
In the analysis of 811 obese patients from Massachusetts and Louisiana, participants were randomly assigned to one of four heart-healthy diets: low fat or high fat, with either average or high levels of protein. All four regimens also included high amounts of whole grains, fruits and vegetables and substituted saturated fat, found in foods such as butter and meat, with unsaturated fat, found in vegetable oil and nuts. The participants were encouraged to exercise 90 minutes a week. (See the top 10 food trends of 2008.)
On average, the study participants lost about 13 lb. after six months of dieting, or about 7% of their starting weight, regardless of which diet plan they followed. At the one-year mark, the dieters had regained some of the lost weight, and after two years, average weight loss was about 9 lb. Only about 15% of participants were able to lose 10% of their body weight or more. Across the board, however, patients lowered their risk of diabetes and reduced blood levels of bad cholesterol (LDL) while increasing good cholesterol (HDL) and overall heart health.
Catherine Loria, one of the study's co-authors and a nutritional epidemiologist with the National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which funded the study, was encouraged by the findings. "People do have to choose heart-healthy foods," she says, but "I think the beauty of the study is that they have a lot of flexibility in terms of the dietary approach."
But that's where the trouble begins. It's hard enough to figure out what to eat. Eating less of it is even harder. Researchers had hoped to get study participants to eat 750 calories less than they expended each day - an objective that proved unsustainable. Dieters adhered to the initial plan for the first several weeks, but by the six-month mark, they were consuming only 225 calories less than they expended - about a third of the goal - according to a calculation based on overall weight loss. "It's very difficult to reduce your calories enough to really sustain a lot of weight loss," Loria says. (See pictures of facial yoga.)
One failure of most diet plans is that people get hungry and quit, says Sacks, who acknowledges that the sudden reduction of 750 calories in his study was perhaps too steep. "I think what that teaches us is that maybe it's better to make a more gradual change in intake," says Sacks. "That's what I recommend to my patients: let's try to pick a gradual or realistic reduction in calories that's not going to make you really hungry a lot and that you can sustain day after day."
But eating less, however simple it may sound, is hardly a one-man job. Some nutrition experts argue that the balance of responsibility needs to fall more heavily on society at large. Martjin Katan, a professor of nutrition and health at Amsterdam's VU University, wrote an accompanying editorial that analyzed the merits of the diet study. He suggests that focusing on individual diet plans of any kind may be misguided, and that only community-wide change will truly be able to stem the tide of obesity. He points to a small town in France that tapped all of its residents to solve the problem - building more outdoor-sports facilities and creating walking routes, hosting cooking classes and even intervening with at-risk families. After five years, obesity among children was down to 8.8%, less than half the rate of neighboring towns. That success, he writes, "suggests that we may need a new approach to preventing and to treating obesity and that it must be a total-environment approach."
It's a useful lesson for American adults, two-thirds of whom are overweight or obese. Long-term weight loss has proved frustratingly elusive for many obese individuals, but study after study has shown that community and peer support help people take off weight - and keep it off. In this study, the participants who took advantage of group and individual counseling offered as part of the diets had far greater success than those who chose to go it alone. Over the course of two years, participants who went to at least two-thirds of the counseling sessions dropped about 22 lb., 13 lb. more than the average of the entire study population. "Losing weight and sustaining it for two years is difficult," Sacks says. "To help people do that, they need some level of support to keep their motivation and focus."
But the bottom line, according to most obesity experts, is to set realistic goals. Expect what is achievable: a 250-lb. person isn't likely to slim down to supermodel proportions in her lifetime, but she may be able to lose 10 or 20 lb. A moderate 5% or 10% reduction in body weight can significantly improve health, by lowering cholesterol and the risk of heart disease, stroke and diabetes. For many doctors who work with obese patients, the goal is not thinness but well-being - and, ultimately for the patient, self-acceptance.
As for the secret to losing weight? There is none. "It's basic physiology," Loria says. "Eat fewer calories than you expend."
See 9 kid foods to avoid.
See pictures of what makes you eat more food.
View this article on Time.com
Related articles on Time.com:
What's the Best Diet? Eating Less Food
Do Diet Foods Lead to Weight Gain?
Which Are Worse: Calories from Carbs or Fat?
Can Sugar Substitutes Make You Fat?
The Myth of Moderate Exercise

IT admin stole students' nude Facebook pics, cops say

As if we need more proof that people will post anything to social networking sites, we now have this: A former computer administrator at the University of Massachusetts is facing charges he illegally obtained nude pictures of some 16 students by breaking in to their Facebook accounts.
Robert T. DeCampos Jr., 30, of Dartmouth, Massachusetts was arraigned on 13 misdemeanor counts of unauthorized access to a computer and one felony count of larceny over $250, according to news reports. They cited court documents that claimed DeCampos used the students' email accounts to gain access to their personal Facebook accounts. From there, he was able to download nude and partially nude photos that had been posted there.
Police searching DeCampos's apartment found a flash drive containing the photos of the woman obtained during a two-day period in October. Investigators also allegedly discovered "attempted 'upskirt' photos of unsuspecting women" shopping at electronics retailer Best Buy, where DeCampos worked part time.
DeCampos was sacked from his admin job on October 20, four days after the alleged trespasses were discovered. He previously spent two years as the computer manager for the Dartmouth police, ending in 2006.

Facebook to let users give input on policies

NEW YORK - Facebook is trying its hand at democracy.
The fast-growing online hangout, whose more than 175 million worldwide users could form the world's sixth-largest country behind Brazil, said Thursday that those users will play a "meaningful role" in deciding the site's policies and voting on changes.
Facebook is trying to recover from last week's policy-change blunder, which prompted tens of thousands to join online protests. At issue was who controls the information, like photos, posts and messages, that people share with their friends on the site.
As Facebook becomes an integral part of its users' daily lives, a place to muse about everything from relationships to root canals, they understandably worry about who gets access to their private information and whether it could end up in the wrong hands.
On Thursday, founder Mark Zuckerberg sought to reassure users that they own their information, not Facebook. And in a broader step, the company also said its users will get a hand in determining the various policies — such as privacy, ownership and sharing — by reviewing, commenting and voting on them before they are put in place.
If more than 7,000 users comment on any proposed change, it would go to a vote. It would be binding to Facebook if more than 30 percent of active users vote. Based on Facebook's current size, that would be nearly 53 million people. By comparison, a group created to protest Facebook's new terms has roughly 139,600 members as of Thursday.
"As people share more information on services like Facebook, a new relationship is created between Internet companies and the people they serve," Zuckerberg said in a statement. "The past week reminded us that users feel a real sense of ownership over Facebook itself, not just the information they share."
Zuckerberg said the purpose of Facebook is to make the world more transparent by giving people the power to share information, and as such Facebook itself should be transparent as well.
It is unusual, but not entirely unprecedented, for companies to let users help shape their governing policies. LiveJournal, a social diary site that's part blog, part social network, let users share their thoughts on a proposed set of user policies last year — though it didn't go as far as calling for a vote.
Earlier this month, the site quietly updated its terms of use — its governing document — sparking an uproar after popular consumer rights advocacy blog Consumerist.com referred to them as "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever."
After tens of thousands protested, Facebook decided to revert to its previous user policies while it figured out how best to update them.
The latest controversy was not the first time Facebook angered its users, who have come to expect a sense of privacy even as they share things with friends. From its start as a college students-only site five years ago, Facebook has always billed itself as a guarded place that gives its users control over who can access their profiles, posts and even list of friends. But there have been several hiccups along the way.
In late 2007, a tracking tool called "Beacon" caught users off-guard by broadcasting information about their shopping habits and activities at other Web sites. After initially resisting, the company ultimately allowed users to turn Beacon off. A redesign of the site last year also prompted thousands to protest, but in that case Facebook kept its new look.
Palo Alto, Calif.-based Facebook is privately held. Microsoft Corp. bought a 1.6 percent stake in the company in 2007 for $240 million as part of a broader advertising partnership.

Facebook to let users give input on policies

Arsenal, Arshavin asks for more time to be up to speed

Andrey Arshavin admits he needs time to adapt to the pace of the Premier League after making his Arsenal debut in Saturday's 0-0 draw against Sunderland.
"I am doing everything I can to be fully fit as soon as possible," The Daily Mail reported he said. "If I played on Saturday in the Russian Premier League, I think I would have been okay but the English Premier League is quicker. So I will have to see how long it takes me to be up to speed."
"I enjoyed my debut in front of so many spectators but am disappointed we did not get the result," added Arshavin. "Sunderland played very defensive."

Why Facebook users must still be cautious

It all started with an article in The Consumerist, which noted that a change to Facebook's Terms of Service had been instituted, seemingly on the sly*, that extended the company's access to your content essentially forever. Here at Neowin we made an effort to take apart the new Facebook TOS to see just how onerous they were.Facebook bounced back, pumping out spin to media outlets big and small, about how they were retreating from the "forever" addition to their TOS. They retreated to their previous TOS which, following their spin campaign, was supposed to make everything in the world all right again. Clarifications about how you remain the owner of your content--clarifications that do not appear in older versions of the TOS archived online at web.archive.org--surfaced (re-surfaced?).Fearing that masses of Facebook users would be jumping ship, as we reported here as well, they are now seeking to open the matter up to take in the views of their members.On 21 February, Techcrunch passed on, without critical comment, the views of Chris Kelly, Facebook's Chief Privacy Officer. The gist of their uncritical account was that the whole thing was "a scandal that was essentially cooked up by Consumerist". Rightly enough, they received dozens of indignant responses from people who had chosen to take the word of Facebook's TOS over that of its privacy PR man. One response, typical of many, used the metaphor of a used-car salesman: whatever he may say, it is never a good idea to sign any contract until you have actually read it!But this incident has drawn more attention to the supposedly unproblematic TOS Facebook had been using prior to this incident and has resorted to using now. Although it is unlikely the company could provide the service users expect without such terms, it is important for users to recognise that uploading content to Facebook can still have undesired consequences. If, for instance, you upload a novel you have written or a photo you have taken and grant others ("Friends") access to it, then you have used the Facebook service to disseminate your work in a way that ceases to be under your control. It is not as extreme as, for instance, making it into a freely available torrent, but you cannot control its distribution within (and beyond) the Facebook web space. In this sense, it is well to be cautious about using Facebook or any other similar web service to share your creative works.*Technically, the change they made was not on the sly: part of their TOS states that it is effectively up to you to keep visiting their TOS webpage to find out if anything has changed--this is serious. How many people are going to do that? And how often should they do it? Whenever they add something to their Facebook account? Every day? Every ten minutes? Clearly this is an issue that, in the interest of transparency, should also be addressed. If, after all, it is easy enough for them to send out a mass message to Facebook users asking for their feedback on the current TOS problems, it should be equally easy for the company to notify account-holders of changes to the TOS. Further, users should ideally be allowed to indicate whether they wish to continue using Facebook under the new terms by being offered a chance to accept or reject them.Edit: This article is not anti-Facebook. If this author has anything against anyone, it is against those who treat the contracts into which they enter without due vigilance--and this author readily admits to having too often in the past been guilty of this as well. We are all responsible for our actions. There are problems with Facebook's relations with its users, and these are problems Facebook has acknowledged time and again. Indeed, the company's move to call for comments from the public about their TOS is both responsible and commendable, in this author's view.

Jamaica regulators ban sex, violence from airwaves

KINGSTON — Jamaican regulators say they are forbidding all explicit references to sex and violence over the airwaves.
The new rules from the island's broadcast commission ban any song or music video that depicts sexual acts or glorifies gun violence, murder, rape or arson.
The Saturday announcement follows a Feb. 6 ban that specifically targeted dancehall tunes and videos depicting "daggering" — a dance style popular among Jamaican youth that features pelvic grinding simulating sex.
The beat-driven fusion of reggae and rap known as "dancehall" is hugely popular in Jamaica despite recurrent controversy over its lyrics and the dance style.
The latest ban also targets hip-hop and soca, a dance music that originated in Trinidad and Tobago.

Rihanna won't discuss Chris Brown, but thanks fans

As police probe whether one of their own leaked a picture of a bruised and beaten woman that appears to be Rihanna, the image is sparking a discussion of the impact it could have on the issue of domestic violence.
The celebrity Web site TMZ, which posted the photo Thursday night, did not explain its origin. The site wrote only that it was taken after an altercation between platinum-selling singer and her boyfriend, fellow pop star Chris Brown.
Los Angeles Police Chief William Bratton acknowledged Friday afternoon that the photo could prove embarrassing to the woman pictured, a view shared by some advocates for abused women. But in the welts and marks on the face of the woman in the photo, some also saw a teaching moment.
"If it could happen to Rihanna, it could happen to anyone," said Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women. There are an estimated 4.8 million domestic violence attacks on women and another 2.9 million attacks on men each year, according to the National Center for Injury Prevention and Control.
"Maybe it is a good idea if it's her, if young girls see this," said Susan Murphy-Milano, a Chicago author and advocate for battered women. She said she hopes it makes them think, "Is the next picture going to be of her in a morgue?"
Both women expected the image, which even Bratton wouldn't go so far as to confirm was Rihanna, could spark a new awareness about domestic violence.
"The reality that domestic violence can happen to anyone, even someone with fame and celebrity, ought to bring home the point that this is a problem for our entire society," Gandy said. "We can't avoid or ignore it."
Bratton told reporters that along with launching an internal investigation into whether the photo is police evidence, he is also looking into how TMZ obtained the picture. He said the department may pursue a felony conspiracy case against TMZ and whomever might have helped them get the image.
Bratton said he suspected someone within the department leaked the photo, but did not elaborate or go so far as to confirm that it came from police evidence files.
"We are not treating this lightly," Bratton said. "It's an embarrassment to this department if in fact evidence was leaked.
"It's going to be a very painful experience for any personnel from this department and possibly those who they may have engaged in a conspiracy with to violate the laws of California."
TMZ did not say how it obtained the image and a publicist for the site did not return a phone or e-mail message seeking comment Friday.
Brown, 19, was arrested Feb. 8 on suspicion of making felony criminal threats, but police have not publicly identified his alleged victim. The woman was Rihanna, according to a person familiar with the situation, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and requested anonymity.
A spokesman for Brown said the singer had no further comment beyond a statement released Sunday in which he said he was "sorry and saddened" about the incident. His attorney has not returned calls seeking comment.
Rihanna broke her silence on Friday, her 21st birthday, by releasing a statement through Rubenstein Associates.
"At the request of the authorities, Rihanna is not commenting about the incident involving Chris Brown," the statement read. "She wants to assure her fans that she remains strong, is doing well, and deeply appreciates the outpouring of support she has received during this difficult time."
The singer canceled a planned birthday bash in New York and postponed concerts overseas in the days following the incident.
Prosecutors are still waiting for police to present more evidence against Brown. Bratton said Friday that detectives are working quickly to finish that investigation, and the inquiries into the leak.
Both Gandy and Murphy-Milano said one of the reasons the photo's release is so shocking is because domestic violence isn't in the spotlight except for when it involves high-profile couples.
"Such a graphic image may give people pause and make them think about what we're doing for the women who don't have resources to escape and take care of themselves," Gandy said. She said the country's economic problems will translate into more domestic violence cases as families suffer financial strain.
And from a painful image, Murphy-Milano hoped a new advocate for battered women might have been made.
"I think she could be a very important voice and a tool for other people," she said of Rihanna. "She could turn this around," Murphy-Milano said, and tell others, "'Don't be me.'"

Contaminated blood cases 'tragic'

Gareth Lewis: 'I had my house painted with 'Aids scum''
A public inquiry has condemned the failings that led to thousands of people being infected with HIV and hepatitis C from contaminated blood. The independent privately-funded inquiry called the use of contaminated blood products to treat patients with haemophilia a "horrific human tragedy".
The report suggested UK authorities had been slow to react, but accepted it was hard to directly apportion blame.
In the 1970s and 1980s, nearly 5,000 people were exposed to hepatitis C.
Of these, more than 1,200 were also infected with HIV.
Almost 2,000 of those people have since died as a result.
What we need now is to see some very swift action from the government
Sue ThreakallTainted Blood
The two-year inquiry, led by Lord Archer of Sandwell, said the main responsibility for the tragedy rested with the US suppliers of the contaminated blood products.
He said commercial interests appeared to have been given a higher priority than patient safety.
Much of the blood had come from down-at-heel "skid row" donors, such as prison inmates, whose risk of hepatitis C and HIV was much higher than that of the general population.
However, Lord Archer also criticised the UK government at the time for being slow to realise the extent of the danger faced by patients.
He said there was "lethargic" progress towards national self-sufficiency in blood products in England and Wales, where it took 13 years compared to just five years in Ireland.
But he added: "It is a bit late to say who is to blame when little can be done about it.
"What the government ought to address is the needs of people now."
Compensation
To do this, he recommended that compensation schemes for those who were affected be improved.
He also said a public inquiry should have been held earlier.
He said some witnesses were unable to fully recollect what had happened because of the passage of time.
And Lord Archer lamented the decision of the Department of Health not to give evidence publicly - there were several private meetings with officials - and with-hold certain documents.
"It is hard to say what we could have found out."
Sue Threakall, from the campaign group from Tainted Blood whose husband died after being given contaminated blood, welcomed the report.
She said: "What we need now is to see some very swift action from the government.
"All we have ever wanted is the truth, and some justice."
FROM THE TODAY PROGRAMME
emp_load.getEmpEmbeddedParams("emp_7905186");
Cannot play media.You do not have the correct version of the flash player. Download the correct version
More from Today programme
Christopher James, chief executive of the Haemophilia Society, agreed.
He said the way victims had been treated to date had not been right and he urged ministers to make up for this.
"We've said for some time that the current level of payments and the method of payment are inappropriate and not fit for purpose.
"It is now up to the government to look at the report.
"We want them to act on it urgently and significantly."
A Department of Health spokesman said: "We have great sympathy for the patients and families affected and will study the findings of Lord Archer's report in detail."
He added there was now "robust screening" of blood and blood products taking place.
Haemophilia is a rare inherited bleeding disorder in which the blood does not clot normally.
There is no cure, but the condition can be managed using a clotting chemical, known as factor VIII.
But in the early 1970s, patients were treated with blood products that came in a dry powder form which could then be reconstituted with water.
From 1973, the powder was made commercially in the US, and the blood it used often came from patients who had been paid for giving their blood.
Between then and the mid-1980s, 4,670 people in the UK with haemophilia were exposed to hepatitis C.
In 1981, it was discovered that some plasma was infected with HIV.
Since the mid-1980s, plasma products have been heat-treated to kill viruses.
Download the correct version
More from BBC Radio 5 liveThere have been payments to people infected with HIV, and in 2004, the Skipton Fund was set up for people infected with hepatitis C, but no payments were made to those who died before 2003.
The public inquiry said compensation should be paid directly through the Department of Work and Pensions just as other benefits are to create a standardised and fair system to give people better access to care and support.
Publication of the report follows the news last week of the first case of vCJD in a patient with haemophilia - discovered during a post-mortem after the patient died from other causes.
Up to 4,000 haemophilia sufferers have been warned they could be at risk of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease.

Privacy law call in Facebook row

The row over Facebook's change in its terms of service governing users personal data highlights the need for a privacy law, claims a leading watchdog.
The Electronic Privacy Information Centre was on the brink of filing a legal complaint when Facebook announced it would revert to its old policy.
The new terms seemingly gave Facebook vast control over users' content.
"This row underlines the need for comprehensive privacy laws," said Epic's president Marc Rotenberg.
"It is great that Facebook has responded by going back to its old terms of service. That is a step in the right direction, but these issues don't go away.
"It's going to be an ongoing concern for users until we get privacy laws in place," Mr Rotenberg told the BBC.
"Feedback"
Epic, along with 12 other consumer and civil liberty groups, were intending to file a complaint with the Federal Trade Commission about the policy changes when it was stopped in its tracks.
"We got a call late last night from Facebook and they said that they were thinking of going back to their original terms of service," said Mr Rotenberg.

Countless Facebook users cancelled their accounts following the changes
"We said that if they would agree to do that, we wouldn't see the need to file the complaint."
In a blog post, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg wrote: "Over the past few days, we have received a lot of feedback about the new terms we posted two weeks ago.
"Because of this response, we have decided to return to our previous Terms of Use while we resolve the issues people have raised."
Mr Zuckerberg said Facebook would draw up a new document in conjunction with its users. The company has set up a special group called "Facebook Bill of Rights and Responsibilities" to let users have their say.
The group had more than 55,000 members just a few hours after its creation.
"Overarching and scary"
Originally Facebook's founder Mark Zuckerberg defended the changes, unveiled on 4 February noting they were to "better reflect how users used the site."
He had said they were made to ensure that if a user deleted his or her account, any comments he or she had left on a friend's Facebook page would not also disappear.
Tens of thousands of users voiced their anger at the changes
That was not how they were interpreted.
Over the weekend, a popular consumer advocacy blog, The Consumerist , raised alarm bells over the issue.
It defined the changes as meaning "anything you upload to Facebook can be used by Facebook in any way they deem fit, forever, no matter what you do later".
Users took notice and created Facebook groups to oppose the changes. One of the biggest, "People Against the New Terms of Service" grew to over 90,000 in a matter of days.
Group founder Julius Harper Jr of Los Angeles hypothesised that if Facebook wanted to it could take his photographs and "I could see my face on the side of a bus and there would be no recourse to complain".
Such situations were never intended said Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt.
"Facebook does not, nor have we ever, claimed ownership over people's content. Your content belongs to you," he stressed.
"Wake up"
The issue has raised concerns over who does own personal material, from photos to videos to comments stored on a social networking site.
Facebook is the world's biggest with 175 million users.

The Electronic Privacy Information Centre had planned to file a complaint
"This just reflects the ongoing process of people trying to figure out the internet," John Byrne, a senior analyst at Technology Business Research Inc. told Computerworld.com.
"The lesson that should be learned is that these content sites are not your own personal diaries. Consider it more as publishing and less about your personal circle of friends. People need to wake up," suggested Mr Byrne.
Simon Davies of Privacy International criticised Facebook for allowing commercial and legal concerns to override its commitment to users.
"It appears to be going down the same road as Google. Its halo is beginning to slip," Mr Davies told the BBC.
He advised users to "ratchet their privacy settings up to the maximum" to restrict advertisers' access to their data and ensure that their details are fully protected.
Back in 2007, Facebook faced a firestorm of criticism when it introduced a service called Beacon. Users were concerned Facebook would provide advertisers with too much of their information.
Mr Rotenberg said Facebook is not alone in trying to juggle the needs of users with the need to make money.
"There is always a tug of war over users' data."
However Mr Rotenberg said he was impressed with the speed in which Facebook acted and hoped such willingness to listen will continue.
"Mark Zuckerberg said users should be able to own and control their information. If everyone starts with that principle we can end up in a very good place. On a lot of these issues where there is confusion on that point, I see a lot of debate."

Online child abuse images warning

Children's charities have expressed "serious concerns" many UK households still have access to images showing child sex abuse via their computers.
The government had asked all internet service providers (ISPs) to block illegal websites by the end of 2007.
But firms providing 5% of broadband connections have still failed to act.
One of them, Zen Internet, said in a statement: "We have not yet implemented the IWF's recommended system because we have concerns over its effectiveness."
It is understood other ISPs have cited the cost of blocking the illegal material as a reason not to participate in the scheme.
This is a battle over the merits of self-regulation versus legislation
Rory Cellan-Jones
BBC's Technology correspondent
Read Rory's thoughts in fullBut the NSPCC's Zoe Hilton said: "Allowing this loophole helps feed the appalling trade in images featuring real children being seriously sexually assaulted."
The blocked websites come from a list supplied by the Internet Watch Foundation (IWF), but some smaller providers refuse to use the list.
Easy access
The Children's Charities Coalition on Internet Safety (CCCIS) says self-regulation is not working and it is calling for firmer action by the government.
Ms Hilton said: "Over 700,000 households in the UK can still get uninterrupted and easy access to illegal child abuse image sites.
The government is currently looking at ways to progress the final 5%
Home Office minister Alan Campbell
"We now need decisive action from the government to ensure the ISPs that are still refusing to block this foul material are forced to fall into line. "Self-regulation on this issue is obviously failing - and in a seriously damaging way for children."
Home Office Minister Alan Campbell said: "In 2006 the government stated that they wished to see 100% of consumer broadband connections covered by blocking, which includes images of child abuse, by the end of 2007.
"Currently in the UK, 95% of consumer broadband connections are covered by blocking. The government is currently looking at ways to progress the final 5%."

Acrobat Reader has dangerous bug

ADOBE HAS WARNED that there is a critical bug in Acrobat Reader and users should disable Javascript for two weeks while Adobe comes up with a patch.
The flaw causes the software to crash and could allow an attacker to take control of the computer once it has been exploited.
Symantec security researcher Patrick Fitzgerald said that the vulnerability is caused by a PDF parsing error. It affects Adobe Reader 9 and earlier versions, and Adobe Acrobat Standard, Pro, Pro Extended 9, and earlier versions. µ
L'InqNetwork Computing

Facebook polls users on TOS update

The recent uproar over Facebook's changed TOS has been significant. Even after CEO Mark Zuckerberg issued a statement on behalf of Facebook regarding the issue, it appears that Facebook wants more feedback from its users. Facebook has begun to run a poll in its users' News Feeds asking them their opinion on the TOS change. The poll gives three options, no, I don't know, and yes.
The introduction of this poll by Facebook is interesting for a couple of reasons. First, and most obviously, the mere existence of the poll seems to suggest that Facebook is considering changing its terms of use. At the very least, it looks like its is willing to look at user feedback on the decision, potentially affecting what they do in the future. Second, this is a great usage case for its newly introduced polling system that Facebook talked about at Davos. The poll features live results, as seen in the screenshot below, but unfortunately the user cannot access these results again after they have voted.

Facebook's users give a resounding "Yes."
As you can see, the Facebook community is speaking loudly on this issue. The votes are leaning toward "Yes," with a significant portion being uninformed about the issue and answering "I don't know." The users who think that the TOS should remain the same only account for 6 percent of the total user base. It's great to see that Facebook, at the very least, wants to hear what their users are saying. Hopefully we will see more creative uses of the polling system in the future.
Harrison Hoffman is a tech enthusiast and co-founder of LiveSide.net, a blog about Windows Live. He is a member of the CNET Blog Network, and is not an employee of CNET. Disclosure.
Topics:
Facebook
Tags:
Facebook,
privacy
Share:
Digg
Del.icio.us
Reddit
cnet_news406:http://news.cnet.com/8301-13515_3-10166388-26.html
Yahoo! Buzz
Recent posts from The Web Services Report
Facebook polls users on TOS update
Crap, I Missed It! aims for the email alert market
Twitter impostors surface to sell book
Facebook tells Meebo to rework Chat integration
Boxee plugs into Joost, MTV Music
Pandora 2.0 for iPhone released
Soonr launches killer document sync for iPhone
Brightkite is Facebook Connect's newest adopter
Related
From CNET
Facebook: Relax, we won’t sell your photos
Which apps are using the new Facebook APIs?
Minor outage at Facebook Monday
From around the web
Facebook faces furor over content rights CNN - Tech
Facebook: Relax, We Won’t Sell Your Photos CBS News
More related postspowered by Sphere

Nas Expecting Son, Confirms Damian Marley Album

Nas took to the blogs late last week to update fans about his wife, R&B singer, Kelis’ pregnancy. The pair just recently announced the exciting news that they are expecting their first child together [click to read].
In a blog posted to Russell Simmons' website, Globalgrind.com, Nas enthusiastically announced that he and Kelis will indeed be expecting a baby boy.
“Personally, life is good,” he wrote on the site. “I'm sure that y'all heard K is expecting. The Internet seems to be more excited than I am. It's crazy! I got too much to think about, and I didn't wanna leave all my fans out the loop. But I wanted to let ya'll know from me personally that I'm having my first SON!!!!!”
This will be the Hip Hop couple’s first child, after having married back in 2005 in an Atlanta wedding. Nas has one 15 year-old daughter from a previous relationship with ex-fiancée, Carmen Bryan. In addition to the joyful baby news, Esco also updated fans on the status of his upcoming album with reggae artist Damian “Jr. Gong" Marley.
"I been celebrating life ya'll,” he continued. “Also I want you all to know that the Nas and Damian Marley album is coming in the next few months. It's something we have been secretly working on. Tour this summer too!”
As he told MTV news at the Grammy Awards show about the album, "[Damian and I are] tryin' to build some schools in Africa with this one, and trying to build empowerment. We're tryin' to show love and stuff with this album. So, the record's… all about really the 'hood and Africa also as well. That's coming out real soon."
There’s no news yet on when exactly that album will be dropping.

Lil Wayne Sued 1.3 Million Over Canceled NY Shows

The saying goes, “fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.” For Rochester, New York’s RMF Productions, the third time Lil Wayne [click to read] canceled on them called for more than embarrassment. According to TMZ, RMF’s General Manager Edward Strickland has filed a lawsuit against Wayne, amounting to $1.3 million.
Strickland, who was the promoter for all three shows, alleges that he wired Wayne an advanced payment of $100,000 last October, but has yet to see any returns after Wayne canceled his performance at the Blue Cross Arena due to a weak sound system. After rescheduling for a December 6 performance, Weezy went missing in action again.
The final straw came on January 21, when Wayne once again stood up Rochester and Strickland, explaining that it was due to “logistics of the band,” via email. Allegedly, Wayne and his band could not all make the Rochester gig as they had to travel to Calgary the next day for their “I Am Music” tour [click to read]. Because the Rochester show was separate from the tour, Wayne and his management decided to skip New York in favor for Canada, with plans to reschedule an extra leg of the tour for spring 2009.

Prosecution Eases Up on Pirate Bay Charges

The four people behind popular BitTorrent destination the Pirate Bay are now in court charged for copyright-related laws.ZoomJust yesterday, defense for the Pirate Bay said that the website could not be held responsible for the actions of its users. The four leaders of the site, Fredrik Neij, Gottfrid Svartholm, Peter Sunde and Carl Lundstrom, accused of having a hand in both the spread and the resulting pirated material -- causing the motion picture and recording industries to demand $13.5 to make up for lost revenues. If found guilty, the four could also face up to two years’ jail time.Things took an interesting turn on the second day of the trial, as the prosecution amended its charges against the Pirate Bay, dropping all mention of "complicity in the production of copyrighted material," according to the Local.The charges will now fall mainly in the production of the torrent files, which aid in the spread of the pirated material but have no involvement in the actual soft or hard copies of the copyrighted works."A sensation," quipped Pirate Bay defense lawyer Per Samuelsson. "It is very rare that you win half the case after one and a half days and it is clear that the prosecutor has been deeply affected by what we said yesterday."Legal counsel for the music industry side of the prosecution, Peter Danowsky, isn’t seeing it as as loss as much as a strategic move. “It’s a largely technical issue that changes nothing in terms of our compensation claims and has no bearing whatsoever on the main case against The Pirate Bay. In fact it simplifies the prosecutor’s case by allowing him to focus on the main issue, which is the making available of copyrighted works,” he said in a statement.

Facebook: Relax, we won't sell your photos

On an otherwise placid holiday weekend, one blog's commentary on a change to Facebook's terms of service created a firestorm of banter on the Web: does the social network claim ownership to any user content on the site, even if the user deletes it?
Facebook reorganized its terms of service last Wednesday. In a blog post, company legal representative Suzie White provided an explanation. "We used to have several different documents that outlined what people could and could not do on Facebook, but now we're consolidating all this information to one central place," White wrote. "We've also simplified and clarified a lot of information that applies to you, including some things you shouldn't do when using the site."
The blog post sounded benign. But the brouhaha arose on Sunday over a revision in the wording of Facebook's policy over what happens to profile content--shared items, blog post-like "notes," photos--when members delete their accounts.
Consumer advocacy blog The Consumerist phrased Facebook's fresh policy as "We Can Do Anything We Want With Your Content. Forever," pointing out that Facebook's ToS spruce-up removed several sentences in which the company said its licenses on user content expired upon account deletion. And that's where the hysteria began.
"Facebook should now be called The Information Blackhole," one Consumerist commenter proclaimed. "What goes in never comes out. Be careful what you huck in there."
Truth be told, most Facebook users won't give a hoot, the same way that the flurry over the Beacon advertising program in late 2007 was fueled by a few vocal privacy advocates while the general population didn't seem to care about it one way or the other. But for advocates of copyright reform and privacy, not to mention photographers and writers who may want the photos they upload or "notes" they write on Facebook to eventually lead to some kind of profit, the news was alarming.
Some prominent Twitterers and bloggers, like New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones, announced that they were deleting their Facebook accounts or pulling all uploaded content.
So Facebook issued somewhat of a clarification on Monday to explain what the change really meant.
"We are not claiming and have never claimed ownership of material that users upload," a statement from Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt read. And indeed, Facebook's terms of service do say that "User Content and Applications/Connect Sites" are exempt from its claims on content ownership.
"The new Terms were clarified to be more consistent with the behavior of the site," Schnitt's statement continued. "That is, if you send a message to another user (or post to their wall, etc...), that content might not be removed by Facebook if you delete your account (but can be deleted by your friend)."
The statement also noted a few fine points. First, Facebook's license only permits it to use user content "in connection with the Facebook Service or the promotion thereof," indicating that CEO Mark Zuckerberg does not plan to make the site profitable by selling scandalous user photos to the National Enquirer when those Facebook members run for elected office.
And second, if that Facebook content was not public, the site will respect the member's chosen privacy settings. In other words, if your profile and the photos you have uploaded to it are only accessible to people on your friends list, Facebook says it does not have the right to show those photos to anyone outside your friends list.
Facebook has expressed disapproval when photographs and profile screenshots normally protected by the site's login wall or privacy settings have been made public on the Web. The site reportedly threatened gossip blog mogul Nick Denton with an account deletion when one of his properties, Gawker, posted photographs found on a socialite's Facebook profile. Suffice it to say it would be hypocritical for Facebook to publicly distribute, let alone sell, the same content itself.
Things are a little bit murky for sure, though. Unlike the Yahoo-owned Flickr, Facebook does not have extensive copyright preferences, meaning that a professional photographer might want to choose a media-sharing site where there's less of a gray area as to what can actually happen down the road.
But as Facebook becomes more and more of a content-sharing hub, especially now that the Facebook Connect product expands its reach to third-party sites, it's likely there will be a louder cry among members--especially those involved in creative industries who use their Facebook profiles for professional promotion or publicity--for clearer terms.
The way they stand now, Facebook's terms of service claim that the company does not have ownership over content, yet that it does have "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (to)...use, copy, publish, stream, store, retain, publicly perform or display, transmit, scan, reformat, modify, edit, frame, translate, excerpt, adapt, create derivative works, and distribute" material as long as it doesn't violate the privacy preferences set by the user.
Considering Facebook content is login-protected by default, the outcry should be quelled somewhat by that "subject only to your privacy settings" phrasing. Still, this is a debate that might not go away so quickly.
UPDATE at 2:38 p.m. PST: Zuckerberg wrote a post for the Facebook blog later on Monday about the issue: "We still have work to do to communicate more clearly about these issues, and our terms are one example of this," he wrote. "Our philosophy that people own their information and control who they share it with has remained constant. A lot of the language in our terms is overly formal and protective of the rights we need to provide this service to you. Over time we will continue to clarify our positions and make the terms simpler."
Zuckerberg continued: "We're at an interesting point in the development of the open online world where these issues are being worked out. It's difficult terrain to navigate and we're going to make some missteps, but as the leading service for sharing information we take these issues and our responsibility to help resolve them very seriously."

DNA sample could reveal your face

LEAVING EVEN THE SMALLEST AMOUNT OF DNA at the scene of a crime is enough to get you convicted, according to a boffin from Pennsylvania State University.
Dr Mark Shriver claims that there is enough information in a DNA sample to build up an identi-kit picture of a person's face.
His forensic molecular photofitting relies on mapping genes that are linked to skin pigmentation and, in its more complex form, to groups of genes that control facial structure. It has just been used to convict a serial killer in Florida.
In that case most of the witnesses claimed that Derek Todd Lee was white, but genetic analysis of DNA evidence left at the crime scenes showed he was African American.
Shriver wants to broaden the technique by mapping genes that define facial shape. He thinks he can link the gene mix with fixed points on the face, for example eye corners and separation, corners of the mouth, nose tip and length and face edges. µ

Rihanna 'Attack': Brown Says He's Saddened

Singer Chris Brown has issued a statement saying he is "sorry and saddened" over his reported assault on Rihanna.
Rihanna and Brown performing together in New York
But the statement does not confirm Rihanna was attacked, nor does it shed any light on the incident.
"Words cannot begin to express how sorry and saddened I am over what transpired," the 19-year-old said.
"I am seeking the counselling of my pastor, my mother and other loved ones, and I am committed, with God's help, to emerging a better person."
The alleged assault took place just after midnight on February 8 in Los Angeles.

Rihanna at recent awards bash in US
Police were called to the Hancock Park area after reports a couple had been fighting in a rented Lamborghini.
The woman - identified in reports as Rihanna - was taken to hospital for treatment to her injuries.
Brown, her boyfriend, gave himself in to police later that day and was released on $50,000 bail.
At some point, she will speak out. I hope she will stand up for women all over the world.Rihanna's concerned father Ronald Fenty
The couple were both due to perform at the Grammy Awards that evening but both cancelled.
Brown's statement went on: "Much of what has been speculated or reported on blogs and/or reported in the media is wrong.
"While I would like to be able to talk about this more, until the legal issues are resolved, this is all I can say."
He added: "I have not written any messages or made any posts to Facebook, on blogs or any place else. Those posts or writings under my name are frauds."

Sky Showbiz
Celebrity news & gossip, all the shots, and the frocks, from the girls in the know
Brown has not been charged but a court date has been set for March 5 if he is.
Rihanna, 20, has yet to speak about her injuries but her father Ronald Fenty has indicated she will issue a statement.
"At some point, she will speak out. I hope she will stand up for women all over the world," he is quoted as saying.
Rihanna, who won a Grammy in 2007 for her hit single Umbrella, is currently staying in her native Barbados.

Clinton issues warning on N Korea

Secretary of State Hillary Clinton says the United States is watching North Korea very closely to see if it ends "provocative language and actions".
Speaking in Japan, Ms Clinton promised that the US would offer North Korea aid if it completely eliminated its nuclear programme.
On Monday, Pyongyang announced that it was preparing to launch a long-range missile as part of a space programme.
Mrs Clinton is in the Japan on the first leg of an Asian tour.
She began her trip to Japan with a visit to the Meiji shrine and a meeting with US embassy staff.
She took part in a ceremony at the shrine, dedicated to the father of modern Japan Emperor Meiji, where the priest stressed balance and harmony.
"It's not only a good concept for religious shrines, it's a good concept for America's role in the world," Mrs Clinton said.
She had earlier described America's relations with Asia as indispensable.
"We need to be looking to create more balance, more harmony," she said.
Hillary Clinton: 'We must advance efforts towards a complete denuclearisation'
Her comments came after sabre rattling by North Korea amid speculation that Pyongyang is preparing to launch a long-range missile, which it says is part of its space programme.
Representatives of the US, South Korea, North Korea, China, Russia and Japan will be holding security talks in Moscow at the end of the week as part of efforts to re-start the Six Party Talks intended to bring an end to North Korea's nuclear programmes.
"The North Koreans have already agreed to dismantling. We expect them to fulfil the obligations that they entered into," Mrs Clinton told reporters en route to Japan.
Japanese stress

Mrs Clinton chose to visit Asia on her first trip as US secretary of state
On her arrival in Tokyo on Monday, Mrs Clinton stressed the "vitally important" alliance between Japan and the US - something welcomed in comments by Japanese Foreign Minister Hirofumi Nakasone.
Her visit comes at a time of intense economic and political stress for the Japanese government of Prime Minister Taro Aso.
His popularity has plunged to new lows, his finance minister has been forced to resign, and the economy has shrunk so much that a minister likened the situation to the end of World War II.
"These are hard times economically for the Japanese people, just as it is in many places around the world," Mrs Clinton said.
"I am absolutely confident we will navigate our way through these difficulties," she said.
She is scheduled to meet the leader of the main opposition Democratic Party of Japan, Ichiro Ozawa, to have tea with the Japanese empress and to meet the families of Japanese citizens who were abducted decades ago by North Korean agents.
Mrs Clinton will also sign an agreement to move about 8,000 Marines on the Japanese island of Okinawa to the US Pacific territory of Guam.
Asian partners
This is the first time Asia has been the initial trip for a new US secretary of state since the 1960s.
By making Japan her first stop, Mrs Clinton is seeking to reassure America's key ally in the region that its relationship with Washington is still strong and will remain so, says the BBC's state department correspondent.
Mrs Clinton will then visit Jakarta, followed by Seoul. But her final stop, Beijing, will be at the heart of the tour, our correspondent adds.

Spammers Hijack Facebook Group of 1.5 Million

In another indication of how easy it is for malware authors to leverage Web 2.0 technologies, spammers have taken control of a Facebook site with more than 1.5 million users.
The site, 5,000,000 against the new version of Facebook, was set up by Adam Stanborough in September for Facebook members unhappy with the social networking site's redesign in July. It gained one million members within 12 days, according to the Herald and Weekly Times.
A blog posting at Graham Cluley's Make Money Fast said spammers had put up advertisements on the site. Cluley is senior technology consultant for security vendor Sophos,
These advertisements are for get-rich-quick schemes and one is a guide on how to seduce women, according to the blog. A check of the site today though, by InternetNews.com, showed the ads had disappeared.
RELATED ARTICLES
Phishers Hit Twitter UsersFake Celeb Profiles in Spam AttacksLegit Web Sites Heavily CompromisedOnline Trust: A Thing of the Past?
For more stories on this topic:
"Our investigation showed a third party was involved in distributing the spam," Facebook spokesperson Barry Schnitt told InternetNews.com by e-mail. "We've cleaned up the site."
This is the latest attack on a social networking site by malware authors exploiting Web 2.0 technologies to distribute spam.
In January, hackers broke into the Twitter accounts of then President-elect Barack Obama and 32 other people, prompting the micro-blogging service to tell users to change their passwords.
Just one day later, spammers launched attacks using fake profiles of celebrities on the LinkedIn professional social networking site and on Google (NASDAQ: GOOG) Blogspot.
LATEST NEWSApple Takes Biggest Bite of U.S. Wi-Fi UsageBy the Numbers: Could Cisco Buy VMware?Nokia Challenges Apple's App StoreMicrosoft Hit With Suit Over XP 'Downgrade' FeesGoogle Opens the Door for Paid Android Apps
Late last month, Websense Security Labs found that hackers were distributing malware through blogs on MyBarackObama.com, an online community site put up by President Obama's team. Their blogs led to a Web site purporting to host a YouTube pornographic video. Clicking on that video would ultimately lead to visitors downloading malware onto their PCs.
The hackers have been distributing their BarackObama.com URLs all over the Web by adding them to their comments on various blogs and leveraging user generated content management systems used by Web 2.0 sites.
The threat to legitimate Web sites
This bears out predictions from a survey conducted by messaging and data protection firm Websense, which found hackers are increasingly compromising legitimate sites, mainly social networking or search sites. They are able to target the Web 2.0 elements of these sites because the sites allow users to upload their own content.
Attacks like this could hurt the trusted site concept the Internet depends on, Web and e-mail security vendor Marshal8e6 has said. It has warned that social networking sites in particular are emerging as a source of security threats, because it is easy to set up profiles on them and they have lax user safeguards.
One potential solution for bloggers and social networking site owners comes from Websense. The company said its Defensio Web service takes posts and comments on blogs and Web sites, scours them for malicious content or links, and, if it finds these, removes them. The application is free for personal use.
"We can place the technology onto blogs and places that have forums to capture bots spamming their URLs in real time," Stephan Chenette, manager of security research at Websense Security Labs, told InternetNews.com.

China launches campaign to break sex taboos

BEIJING (Reuters) – China on Sunday launched a national sex education campaign aimed at breaking traditional taboos and getting more people to seek treatment for sexually transmitted diseases and infertility.
Just seven percent of women and slightly more than eight percent of men seek immediate medical help for sexual problems, while more a third of people never seek help, said one of the campaign's advisors.
"These numbers are shocking," Xia Enlan, head of the obstetrics and gynaecology department of the Capital University of Sciences' Fuxing Hospital, told a news conference.
"The numbers who get medical attention for sexual problems are extremely small," she added. "This delays treatment for some very serious diseases."
The campaign, called "The sunshine project to care for gender health," will feature posters, competitions and sponsorship of an international sex toy fair in Beijing, organisers said, in a bid to breach "painful topics" of sex.
It will be fronted by Hong Kong starlet Yvonne Yung and her husband Will Liu, who will be the campaign's "image ambassadors."
"Sexual health is an important part of family life and good for helping build a harmonious society," said Cui Yandi of the China Woman and Child Development Centre, one of the programme's main sponsors.
China reported a one-fifth rise in syphilis last year, with a total of 257,474 cases, according to the Health Ministry, though gonorrhoea cases dropped by a tenth.
HIV/AIDS in China is also now mainly sexually transmitted. In the past, most infections were caused by intravenous drug use.
By the end of 2007, China had an estimated 700,000 people infected with HIV, up from an earlier estimate of 650,000, but is believed to have many unreported cases.
While the government has rolled out a television campaign to promote condom use, a major move for a country where talking about sex is problematic for many people, Xia said traditional shyness about discussing sex remains a huge issue.
"It's taboo. The influence of feudalistic thinking has been around for many years. People are not very open," she told Reuters.
"People need to talk about it now that the economy has been growing so fast and we're becoming more and more open," Xia said.
"The traditional way of thinking has not been broken," she added. "We need more publicity, and to talk about these issues in the open. That's why we need this campaign."

Pirate Bay copyright test case begins in Sweden

copyright test case involving one of the world's biggest free file-sharing websites that could help music and film companies recoup millions of dollars in lost revenues started on Monday in Stockholm.
Four men linked to The Pirate Bay were charged early last year by a Swedish prosecutor with conspiracy to break copyright law and related offences.
Companies including Warner Bros., MGM, Columbia Pictures, 20th Century Fox Films, Sony BMG, Universal and EMI are also asking for damages of more than 100 million crowns ($12 million) to cover lost revenues.
Sites like The Pirate Bay allow people to download songs, movies and computer games without paying and the trial is being closely watched to see to what extent the entertainment industry can protect copyright against Internet users.
"This is not a political trial, it's not about shutting down a people's library and it's not a trial that wants to prohibit file sharing as a technique," said Monique Wadsted, a lawyer representing Warner Brothers, Columbia, MGM and other major media and computer games companies.
"It's a trial regarding four individuals that have conducted a big commercial business making money out of others file sharing ... copyright protected works."
The accused -- Peter Sunde, Gottfrid Svartholm Warg, Fredrik Neij and Carl Lundstrom -- denied the charges.
The group that controls The Pirate Bay, launched in 2003, says that since no copyrighted material is stored on its servers and no exchange of files actually takes place there, they cannot be held responsible for what material is being exchanged.
The prosecution says that by financing, programing and administering the site, the four men promoted the infringement of property rights by the site's users.
The trial could last as long as three weeks and the four accused face up to two years in jail if convicted.

TV stations get ready to cut analog signal

In theater superstition, a bad dress rehearsal is supposed to foretell a good opening night.
If so, the U.S. might be in good shape when it turns off the last analog TV broadcasts in June, because the lead-up to the smaller-scale turnoff Tuesday has been confusing to both viewers and TV stations.
For years, the government and industry has said Feb. 17 would be the day when analog TV signals go away, and viewers who lack cable or satellite would have to tune in to digital signals. But when funding ran out for coupons to subsidize TV converter boxes, Congress became concerned that viewers wouldn't be ready, and hurriedly passed a bill to delay the deadline to June 12.
At the same time, Congress left the door open to stations to keep the Feb. 17 date. When a third of U.S. full-power stations said they'd like to do so, the Federal Communications Commission put its foot down, placing extra conditions on some of them. Only late Friday did it become clear, or nearly so, which stations would shut down analog four days later, and which would wait for a few more months.
A patchwork of 641 stations across the country, mainly in thinly populated areas, are still turning off their analog broadcasts this week or have already done so. The most populous markets where many or all major-network stations are cutting analog include San Diego and Santa Barbara, Calif.; Providence, R.I.; La Crosse and Madison, Wis.; Rockford, Ill.; Sioux City, Iowa; Waco, Texas; Macon, Ga.; Scranton, Pa.; and Burlington, Vt.
"I think this whole delay is ridiculous," said Robert Prather, president of Gray Television Inc., an Atlanta-based company that owns 36 stations. "It's just going to cause confusion among consumers. There's no reason in the world for it that I can understand."
No one really knows how many viewers will be affected this week. Nielsen Co. said 5.8 million U.S. households, or 5.1 percent of all homes, were not ready for the analog shutdown, but it's unclear how many of them are in early-shutdown areas. Also, the National Association of Broadcasters has taken issue with Nielsen's numbers, saying they exaggerate the problem by counting households that have digital converters but haven't connected them.
"The ones who aren't going to be ready aren't going to be ready in June any more than they are now," Prather said.
Gray applied to keep the Feb. 17 date for most of its stations, but the push-back from the FCC left it with 14 that could. As a final twist, Gray over the weekend decided to turn those off on the 16th, some in the afternoon and the rest at midnight, because its lawyers interpreted the rules as saying analog should be "off the air by the 17th" rather "go off the air on the 17th."
Other stations differ in their interpretation, and plan to cut analog sometime on Tuesday.
Meanwhile, newspaper inserts from RadioShack Corp. proclaimed across the country this weekend that Feb. 17 is the day when viewers "must take action to continue receiving TV broadcasts," even though two-thirds of TV stations, and nearly all the ones in major cities, will remain on the air in analog for a few more months. A spokeswoman for the company was unavailable on Monday, a holiday.
Station owners contacted by The Associated Press are confident the large majority of viewers are prepared for the change, even if the message has been muddled on the timing.
KSFY, an ABC affiliate in Sioux Falls, S.D., also planned to shut down its analog transmitter at midnight Monday.
"If we really, deep down, thought that the market wasn't ready for it, we would have, with the others, said, `Yeah, let's wait till June,'" said Kelly Manning, the station's general manager.
Alan Miles, a former analyst at Barclays Capital who studied the analog shutdown, said the whole process has been "botched politically," starting with Congress' order that the entire country had to kill analog at once. Nearly every other country is shutting down or planning to shut down analog broadcasts area by area. Only small, cable-dominated countries like the Netherlands have eliminated analog TV all in one go, like the U.S. planned to do on Tuesday.
Then, Miles said, the coupon program was underfunded, leading to the delay, which has turned into a disorganized partial shutdown.
"There will be problems with the transition, inevitably," Miles said. "So I almost feel like it's better to just get it over with rather than postpone the pain."
One benefit of having some stations shut down analog early is that the FCC's DTV call center (1-888-CALL-FCC) will now have a better chance of handling calls from viewers wondering how to get their TV signals back. Together with industry partners has nearly 4,300 operators ready to help.
Also, the delay provides a chance for the converter box coupon program to catch up. The stimulus bill that President Barack Obama is expected to sign on Tuesday contains $650 million in additional funding. Once that's available to the National Telecommunications and Information Administration, it can clear the 4 million coupon backlog in a few weeks.

Real Madrid lead football rich list

Manchester United may be champions of Europe, but it's been revealed they still lag behind Real Madrid in the list of the world's richest clubs.
The strength of the euro against the pound has helped Real Madrid maintain their position at the top, despite a 21 per cent increase in revenue for United, according to the Deloitte Football Money League.
"Manchester United's success in winning the Premier League and Champions League has contributed to significantly-increased revenue in 2007/08, but the depreciation of the pound against the euro means they remain in second position" - Dan Jones
Barcelona are third in the list, while Bayern Munich have climbed to fourth above Chelsea and Arsenal, who are fifth and sixth respectively.
United are due to announce their financial figures shortly, but it's predicted the Premier League champions will reveal revenue of £257 million in 2007/08 compared to £210 million in the previous 12 months.
Dan Jones, partner in the Sports Business Group at Deloitte, said: "Real Madrid's 4 per cent revenue growth is more modest than recent years, but the club have doubled their revenues since 2002 and have a lead of £32.5m over Manchester United.
"Real have announced they are budgeting for revenues of 400 million euros (£360 million) in 2008/09, so it will be difficult for rivals to replace them at the top of the Money League next year."
He continued: "Manchester United's success in winning the Premier League and Champions League has contributed to significantly-increased revenue in 2007/08, but the depreciation of the pound against the euro means they remain in second position."
All the English clubs suffered from the currency issue. Barcelona's revenue increased by only 6 per cent, while Chelsea and Arsenal enjoyed rises of 11.5 per cent and 18 per cent respectively yet both Premier Leagues sides saw themselves fall a place.
Liverpool have gone up a place to seventh with a 25 per cent rise in turnover.
Mr Jones added: "If the value of the pound had not depreciated, there would have been nine, rather than seven English clubs in the top 20 - and Manchester United would have topped the Money League ahead of Real Madrid."

Chris Brown Had Reportedly Roughed Up Rihanna Before

on Sunday morning in Los Angeles, but TMZ is reporting that the 19-year-old singer will almost certainly be charged with felony domestic battery in the case.
Citing unnamed "law enforcement" sources, the site reported early Thursday (February 12) that Rihanna told police that the alleged incident inside the couple's rented Lamborghini on the morning of the Grammys was not the first time Brown has attacked her. And though the evidence for the criminal-threats charge he was booked on Sunday night is described as "weak," the singer could face other charges once the D.A. takes the case, the site said.
The matter was kicked backed to police on Wednesday after the D.A.'s office cited insufficient evidence for the criminal threats charge, which is more serious than a domestic battery count. Numerous sources have said that the D.A. is reluctant to try such a high-profile case unless the evidence is very solid, which is why more evidence was requested.
TMZ also claimed to have a more detailed rundown of event leading up to the alleged attack, which reportedly left Rihanna with a bruised and bloody face and bite marks on her arm and fingers. According to the police report cited by TMZ, after Brown allegedly received a text message from another woman, the couple got into an argument. TMZ reported that Rihanna would not initially tell police what set the fight off, but after the fight began, she "ordered him to drive her home and 'faked a call' to someone, saying things like, 'He's dropping me off. Make sure the cops are there.' "
The threat of police involvement reportedly enraged Brown, which is the basis of the criminal-threats charge. According to the report, Brown, 19, then allegedly began attacking Rihanna with his fists. During the fight, Rihanna reportedly took the keys out of the ignition and threw them outside the car.
TMZ claimed that the reports also include information that Rihanna told the police about an "ongoing and escalating abusive relationship" with Brown. Sources have also told MTV News that the relationship had hit a rough patch in recent weeks.
As both singers continue their silence in the wake of the incident, and the career fallout for Brown escalated to include sponsorship losses and radio stations dropping his songs, two unnamed friends also told US Weekly magazine that Brown may have roughed up Rihanna in the past. One unidentified friend said that Brown always had a "volatile" relationship with Rihanna and a confidant of the singer reportedly told the magazine that she had visible bruises on her neck in early December.
At the time, the friend reportedly asked, "is everything was OK with her and Chris," saying Rihanna explained, "'We broke up again.' I didn't pursue the issue further."
Brown's sister, Lytrell "Tootie" Bundy, told Extra on Wednesday that the singer is "doing good" and that, "he's coping ... He's doing ... [as well] as to be expected."She described her brother, who has been open about the alleged domestic abuse he and his sister witnessed in their home as children, as a "good boy — never violent."

Rapper 50 Cent Gone Too Far in Rap Feud with Rick Ross, Khaled

Nude photo of Madonna auctioned for $37,500 in NYC

A full-frontal, nude photo of a 20-year-old Madonna fetched $37,500 at auction Thursday, an apparent record auction price for a photograph of the superstar singer.
An unnamed European buyer bought the picture, which had been expected to sell for up to $15,000, according to Christie's auction house.
Madonna, then known as Madonna Louise Ciccone, was a dancer trying to make ends meet when she answered a newspaper ad seeking a nude model. She may have earned as little as $25 for the 1979 photo session.
Lee Friedlander's raw, explicit black-and-white image appeared in Playboy in 1985. Friedlander has said of the photo session that Madonna "seemed very confident, a street-wise girl. She told me she was putting a band together but half the kids that age are doing that. She was a good professional model."
The photograph auctioned Thursday was one of six from that shoot that appeared in Playboy; the other five pictures were sold together in 2003 for $7,170.
A Herb Ritts photo of Madonna's "True Blue" album cover, which sold for more than $15,000 in 2006, is the most expensive photograph of the singer to sell previously at auction, Christie's said.
Another photograph of Madonna, by Helmut Newton, sold Thursday for $18,750, beating a $15,000 estimate. In that shot, also sold to Playboy in the 1980s, Madonna sports lingerie, curly blond hair and a seductive expression. A man kneels beside her.
The Madonna photos were among 150 images, by some of the biggest names in photography, auctioned from the collection of Leon and Michaela Constantiner. They feature fashion and other celebrity icons.
The sale fetched more than $900,000 in all, including a top price of $242,500 for "Sie Kommen," Newton's images of nude models for the Italian and French versions of Vogue in the 1980s.

Boss sackings add to Chelsea loss

Chelsea Football Club has revealed a £65.7m ($95m) loss for the financial year to the end of June 2008.
The amount includes a total of £23m in compensation paid to Jose Mourinho, Avram Grant and five coaches who left the club during the year.
However, it does not cover the sacking of Luiz Felipe Scolari, who was axed from Stamford Bridge this week.
The latest in a string of hefty losses will ultimately be borne by Chelsea's Russian owner, Roman Abramovich.
Continuing commitment
The BBC has learned that Mr Abramovich's investment in the club has reached £710m.
He has now changed part of that investment from an interest-free loan into shares in the club, as a sign of continuing commitment to Chelsea.
The move will also help defuse European criticism that Chelsea is a heavily indebted business, says BBC business correspondent Nils Blythe.
In another attempt to scale back its debt, the club is aiming to pay for any purchases this summer by selling players.
'Strong business base'
The club has also reiterated its intention "to require zero cash funding from the owner [Roman Abramovich] at the beginning of the financial year 2009/2010".
Chelsea chief executive Peter Kenyon added: "There is no doubt that the positive upward trends of turnover and the continued reduction in losses shows that Chelsea is building a strong business base to build on in what will be challenging times.
Like an investment bank Chelsea is taking a vow to live slightly less high on the hog
BBC business editor Robert Peston
Read more of Robert's blog here
"This is even more evident given that the results were adversely affected by the exceptional items."
He also said that any squad restructuring in the summer would be funded predominantly by sales, and that over the past five years the club had "consistently reduced our net transfer spend".
The BBC's business editor Robert Peston said Mr Abramovich and the club's executives were "doing what they can to transform Chelsea from a trophy asset that only a multi-billionaire could own into a something that might be describable as a business".
Our correspondent added: "And if that remarkable transformation were achieved, Abramovich could perhaps sell the club without suffering a humiliating loss and without leaving Chelsea as an over-mortgaged financial wreck."
Losses reduced
Of the £23m compensation paid to former managers and coaches, the bulk of the money was paid to Jose Mourinho.
His replacement, Avram Grant, lasted just eight months before leaving the club to be succeeded by Scolari - who reports suggest could walk away with £7.5m having been only seven months into a two-year contract.
The club's loss is slightly better than the £74m lost last year and £80.2m in 2006/7. It is also some way short of the record £140m announced by Chelsea in 2004/2005.
The club came fifth on the list of the world's richest clubs in 2007/8 - behind Real Madrid, Manchester United, Barcelona and Bayern Munich.
However, Deloitte's Football Money League is based on revenue and does not take debt into account.
Some European clubs have been critical about the level of debt that some leading English clubs, such as Chelsea and Manchester United, are carrying.

Brazils Kaka says Chelsea’’s sacking of Scolari a big mistake

Brazilian star Kaka has told Chelsea they have made a big mistake by sacking Phil Scolari so quickly. The A C Milan superstar was part of Scolaris World Cup-winning Brazil squad of 2002 and was also given his first cap by the axed Blues boss.Kaka said: I dont understand how a club that wants so bad to win titles can take such a bad decision as this.Just because Chelsea had a couple of bad matches. It was a big mistake. Im sure, in a few weeks or months, hell be coaching an even bigger club than Chelsea, The Sun quoted him, as saying.