An Australian stunt actor is suing Warner Bros. studio claiming he suffered permanent brain damage while working as Ed Helms' stunt double for the filming of "Hangover 2," court documents said.
Scott McLean, a veteran of dozens of movies and TV shows, was in a medically induced coma for two months after a high-speed, head-on collision on the set in Bangkok, Thailand, on December 17, 2010.
McLean, who now lives in a Sydney rehabilitation facility, "suffers ongoing seizures, speech impediments, physical impediments, and brain trauma," according to the lawsuit filed Tuesday in a federal court in Los Angeles.
Along with the studio and the film's second unit director, Brian Smerz, the lawsuit names stunt coordinator Russell Solberg as a defendant.
It alleges that Solberg, who was in charge of the shoot, changed the timing of the sequence while the stunt was in progress.
He "commanded the driver" of the car in which McLean was a passenger to speed up, which "resulted in a serious and unplanned head-on collision with an oncoming vehicle."
Warner Bros. spokesman Paul McGuire sent a studio statement to CNN Wednesday.
"We were shocked and saddened by this accident and have been working closely with Scott and his family throughout his treatment and recovery," McGuire said. "We have offered continual support since the accident occurred and we are working together to try and resolve any outstanding issues
Comment: i think that this a very goof movie but it looks like it have many problems on its developing, it would be batter if the become concentrate on the problems that they have to see
Wednesday, August 31, 2011
news
Gadhafi sons weigh 'victory or martyrdom' versus surrender
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Two sons of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared to offer divergent and sometimes contradictory answers Wednesday to a question many of their countrymen are grappling with: Keep fighting or surrender?
"Victory or martyrdom!" a defiant Saif al-Islam Gadhafi told Rai TV, a Syrian television station, in a telephone call during which he called on his countrymen to rise up.
"Everyone should move now, begin to attack these gangsters," he said. "Attack everyone, day and night, until we clean this country from those gangsters and those traitors."
He added, "Wherever you see the enemy, attack them. They are weak, they have suffered lots of losses and they are now licking their wounds."
Gadhafi did not divulge the whereabouts of his father, but said, "The leader is fine. We are fighting and we are drinking tea and drinking coffee and sitting with our families and fighting."
Gadhafi said he was speaking from a suburb of Tripoli, where he had met with residents and found their morale was high. He also said he had recently visited the family's compound Bab al-Aziziya in Tripoli, an improbable statement.
"No one is afraid or frightened," he said.
Moammar Gadhafi's family photos
Libyan teen: I was forced to kill rebels
Burned Gadhafi family nanny gets care
Gadhafi's 19-year-old female executioner
Rebel forces were largely composed not of Libyans but of foreign mercenaries, he said. Any Libyans who may have appeared with rebel forces were acting under duress and threat, he said. "They hold them hostage and they tell them either we rape your women or you will have to make this announcement."
Referring to the rebels' ultimatum to the people of Sirte to surrender by Saturday or face attack, Gadhafi predicted rebel attackers would find 20,000 fighters "ready, willing and able" to defend the loyalist stronghold where his father was born.
Saif al-Islam said he had spoken with tribal leaders who were meeting in Bani Walid "and they all agreed unanimously that this is our country and we will defend it."
In response, NTC member Abdulrazag Elaradi told CNN that he is not aware of any meeting by tribal leaders in Bani Walid to support Gadhafi. He said the rebels were not involved in any negotiations with loyalist forces.
Saif al-Islam's brother, Saadi Gadhafi, appeared to be open to the possibility of surrender, but with a catch. "If this will prevent bloodshed, we will do it, just give us guarantees," said a man identified by Al Arabiya as Saadi Gadhafi.
"We need to stop the bloodshed right away," Saadi Gadhafi said, adding that he was speaking on behalf of his father.
He said he could not say whether he was in close touch with Moammar Gadhafi, but added, "If the rebels want to lead this country; we don't have an objection to that. In the end we are all Libyans and we are all together."
Asked if his father was willing to surrender, Saadi said, "Stop the fire and all ways of negotiations are open."
Asked if he was willing to hand Sirte to rebel forces without a fight, he said, "Nothing is impossible."
Whatever happens, he added, "I don't have a weapon and will never fight a Muslim Libyan."
'Bad time to be a black man in Libya'
Gadhafi town falls to rebels
Captives executed in Libya
Sadistic brutality in Libya
RELATED TOPICS
* Libya
* Libyan Conflict
* Moammar Gadhafi
* Arab Spring
Despite that talk, Saadi Gadhafi told CNN Wednesday in an e-mail that he was leaning against surrendering to the rebels. "Since they don't want to negotiate, I don't think I will go to them and surrender myself," he wrote. "They have already killed thousands of people and destroyed the country. I'd rather surrender myself to a real government than ... to those guys."
Moammar Gadhafi and Saif al-Islam along with the former head of military intelligence, Abdullah Al-Senussi, have been charged by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity.
The scions' comments came as Libyans celebrated their first Eid al-Fitr in four decades free of the iron grip of their father.
Eid marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
But the enthusiasm in the capital was tempered by grim humanitarian conditions.
The United Nations estimated that 60% of Tripoli's 1.6 million residents had no access to clean drinking water as temperatures approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. U.N. agencies have sprung into action to supply water and food in what the global body described as an "alarming" situation.
The chaos typical of any transfer of power through violence was visible at a Tripoli jail, where prisoners said they had been picked up on suspicion of being mercenaries for Gadhafi.
As many as 15 black African prisoners crowded each cell in the stifling heat. "They're saying we have worked with Gadhafi," said Ibraheem Enas Afseni, a Ghanaian who said he had been picked up en route to his job as a day laborer. "We have not worked with Gadhafi. We are here struggling to get money and go back to our country."
"Every day, I cry," said Blasnina Dawali, who said she had set out a week ago to buy food and was picked up en route. "They're treating us like animals."
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants entered the country as day laborers long before the unrest began.
The man temporarily in charge of the jail, Alaa al-Ameen Abu Rass, acknowledged that many of his charges were likely innocent, but said it was not his concern. "I didn't bring them here," he said.
Libyan prisoners appeared to be getting better treatment. They had more space to move, and better access to the scant water supplies. "Right now, they're treating us good, but some people come here and they call us dogs, and they go, like, 'You worked for Gadhafi,' something like that, but most of us don't," said Firas Salaheddin Mustaf.
Such occurrences are to be expected, said Fouad Ajami, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. "Whenever an order that has been oppressive comes apart, there will always be repression, there will always be dark deeds," he said.
Gadhafi's whereabouts remained unclear 11 days after opposition forces stormed the capital and captured his Tripoli compound.
Rebels now have their sights set on the remaining bastions in Libya under Gadhafi's control, including Sirte. Fighters were waiting about 65 miles from the town, biding their time until they get orders to go in.
With Gadhafi's fall, security in the country remained a key concern.
But the United Nations special adviser on Libya said the transitional council had rejected the possibility of U.N. military observers, though it would welcome a key role in helping Libya.
"It's very clear the Libyans want to avoid military deployment by the U.N. or others," Ian Martin told reporters. "They are very seriously interested in assistance with policing to get the public security situation under control and gradually develop a democratically accountable security force."
But Martin said it's not clear what form international assistance might take.
Aref Nayed, spokesman for the interim council's stabilization team, said Libya will cooperate with the United Nations in security matters, including the training of police and efforts to de-mine and remove unexploded ordnance.
"The U.N. contribution is very much welcomed and appreciated," Nayed said. "However, we don't anticipate asking for any U.N. forces to be involved and of course we also don't want any troops on the ground from any nation."
At present, Tripoli has no police on the streets even as the humanitarian crisis escalates.
Representatives from about 60 countries and organizations will gather Thursday in Paris to meet with the interim council to discuss plans for a new Libya.
The council has indicated it wants to hold democratic elections within 18 months, and conference attendees will want to hear how the rebels plan to accomplish that task, said Jean-David Levitte, chief foreign policy adviser for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Levitte also said some attendees want to reach a consensus on unfreezing Libyan funds frozen by a U.N. resolution. They know of at least $50 billion of such funds. Already, the United States, France and the United Kingdom have said they will support unfreezing the money.
comment: i think Only CNN had the dreamy thoughts of the rebels being anything but murderers, traitors, criminals, and outsiders funded by the west. Libyans where beheaded, raped, murdered, and their culture and infostructure systematically destroyed both those who we call our enemy combatants elsewhere. Soon, the guns we have been arming these killers with will be fighting our own troops elsewhere, or in LIbya for that matter. This was a war crime, and American leaders, along with other world leaders, should be imprisoned and executed in my opinoin
Tripoli, Libya (CNN) -- Two sons of Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi appeared to offer divergent and sometimes contradictory answers Wednesday to a question many of their countrymen are grappling with: Keep fighting or surrender?
"Victory or martyrdom!" a defiant Saif al-Islam Gadhafi told Rai TV, a Syrian television station, in a telephone call during which he called on his countrymen to rise up.
"Everyone should move now, begin to attack these gangsters," he said. "Attack everyone, day and night, until we clean this country from those gangsters and those traitors."
He added, "Wherever you see the enemy, attack them. They are weak, they have suffered lots of losses and they are now licking their wounds."
Gadhafi did not divulge the whereabouts of his father, but said, "The leader is fine. We are fighting and we are drinking tea and drinking coffee and sitting with our families and fighting."
Gadhafi said he was speaking from a suburb of Tripoli, where he had met with residents and found their morale was high. He also said he had recently visited the family's compound Bab al-Aziziya in Tripoli, an improbable statement.
"No one is afraid or frightened," he said.
Moammar Gadhafi's family photos
Libyan teen: I was forced to kill rebels
Burned Gadhafi family nanny gets care
Gadhafi's 19-year-old female executioner
Rebel forces were largely composed not of Libyans but of foreign mercenaries, he said. Any Libyans who may have appeared with rebel forces were acting under duress and threat, he said. "They hold them hostage and they tell them either we rape your women or you will have to make this announcement."
Referring to the rebels' ultimatum to the people of Sirte to surrender by Saturday or face attack, Gadhafi predicted rebel attackers would find 20,000 fighters "ready, willing and able" to defend the loyalist stronghold where his father was born.
Saif al-Islam said he had spoken with tribal leaders who were meeting in Bani Walid "and they all agreed unanimously that this is our country and we will defend it."
In response, NTC member Abdulrazag Elaradi told CNN that he is not aware of any meeting by tribal leaders in Bani Walid to support Gadhafi. He said the rebels were not involved in any negotiations with loyalist forces.
Saif al-Islam's brother, Saadi Gadhafi, appeared to be open to the possibility of surrender, but with a catch. "If this will prevent bloodshed, we will do it, just give us guarantees," said a man identified by Al Arabiya as Saadi Gadhafi.
"We need to stop the bloodshed right away," Saadi Gadhafi said, adding that he was speaking on behalf of his father.
He said he could not say whether he was in close touch with Moammar Gadhafi, but added, "If the rebels want to lead this country; we don't have an objection to that. In the end we are all Libyans and we are all together."
Asked if his father was willing to surrender, Saadi said, "Stop the fire and all ways of negotiations are open."
Asked if he was willing to hand Sirte to rebel forces without a fight, he said, "Nothing is impossible."
Whatever happens, he added, "I don't have a weapon and will never fight a Muslim Libyan."
'Bad time to be a black man in Libya'
Gadhafi town falls to rebels
Captives executed in Libya
Sadistic brutality in Libya
RELATED TOPICS
* Libya
* Libyan Conflict
* Moammar Gadhafi
* Arab Spring
Despite that talk, Saadi Gadhafi told CNN Wednesday in an e-mail that he was leaning against surrendering to the rebels. "Since they don't want to negotiate, I don't think I will go to them and surrender myself," he wrote. "They have already killed thousands of people and destroyed the country. I'd rather surrender myself to a real government than ... to those guys."
Moammar Gadhafi and Saif al-Islam along with the former head of military intelligence, Abdullah Al-Senussi, have been charged by the International Criminal Court in The Hague for crimes against humanity.
The scions' comments came as Libyans celebrated their first Eid al-Fitr in four decades free of the iron grip of their father.
Eid marks the end of the holy month of Ramadan.
But the enthusiasm in the capital was tempered by grim humanitarian conditions.
The United Nations estimated that 60% of Tripoli's 1.6 million residents had no access to clean drinking water as temperatures approached 100 degrees Fahrenheit. U.N. agencies have sprung into action to supply water and food in what the global body described as an "alarming" situation.
The chaos typical of any transfer of power through violence was visible at a Tripoli jail, where prisoners said they had been picked up on suspicion of being mercenaries for Gadhafi.
As many as 15 black African prisoners crowded each cell in the stifling heat. "They're saying we have worked with Gadhafi," said Ibraheem Enas Afseni, a Ghanaian who said he had been picked up en route to his job as a day laborer. "We have not worked with Gadhafi. We are here struggling to get money and go back to our country."
"Every day, I cry," said Blasnina Dawali, who said she had set out a week ago to buy food and was picked up en route. "They're treating us like animals."
Hundreds of thousands of immigrants entered the country as day laborers long before the unrest began.
The man temporarily in charge of the jail, Alaa al-Ameen Abu Rass, acknowledged that many of his charges were likely innocent, but said it was not his concern. "I didn't bring them here," he said.
Libyan prisoners appeared to be getting better treatment. They had more space to move, and better access to the scant water supplies. "Right now, they're treating us good, but some people come here and they call us dogs, and they go, like, 'You worked for Gadhafi,' something like that, but most of us don't," said Firas Salaheddin Mustaf.
Such occurrences are to be expected, said Fouad Ajami, a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution. "Whenever an order that has been oppressive comes apart, there will always be repression, there will always be dark deeds," he said.
Gadhafi's whereabouts remained unclear 11 days after opposition forces stormed the capital and captured his Tripoli compound.
Rebels now have their sights set on the remaining bastions in Libya under Gadhafi's control, including Sirte. Fighters were waiting about 65 miles from the town, biding their time until they get orders to go in.
With Gadhafi's fall, security in the country remained a key concern.
But the United Nations special adviser on Libya said the transitional council had rejected the possibility of U.N. military observers, though it would welcome a key role in helping Libya.
"It's very clear the Libyans want to avoid military deployment by the U.N. or others," Ian Martin told reporters. "They are very seriously interested in assistance with policing to get the public security situation under control and gradually develop a democratically accountable security force."
But Martin said it's not clear what form international assistance might take.
Aref Nayed, spokesman for the interim council's stabilization team, said Libya will cooperate with the United Nations in security matters, including the training of police and efforts to de-mine and remove unexploded ordnance.
"The U.N. contribution is very much welcomed and appreciated," Nayed said. "However, we don't anticipate asking for any U.N. forces to be involved and of course we also don't want any troops on the ground from any nation."
At present, Tripoli has no police on the streets even as the humanitarian crisis escalates.
Representatives from about 60 countries and organizations will gather Thursday in Paris to meet with the interim council to discuss plans for a new Libya.
The council has indicated it wants to hold democratic elections within 18 months, and conference attendees will want to hear how the rebels plan to accomplish that task, said Jean-David Levitte, chief foreign policy adviser for French President Nicolas Sarkozy.
Levitte also said some attendees want to reach a consensus on unfreezing Libyan funds frozen by a U.N. resolution. They know of at least $50 billion of such funds. Already, the United States, France and the United Kingdom have said they will support unfreezing the money.
comment: i think Only CNN had the dreamy thoughts of the rebels being anything but murderers, traitors, criminals, and outsiders funded by the west. Libyans where beheaded, raped, murdered, and their culture and infostructure systematically destroyed both those who we call our enemy combatants elsewhere. Soon, the guns we have been arming these killers with will be fighting our own troops elsewhere, or in LIbya for that matter. This was a war crime, and American leaders, along with other world leaders, should be imprisoned and executed in my opinoin
What's next for Superman?
With 52 new #1 issues from DC set to hit comic book stores in the fall, Grant Morrison, the acclaimed writer of “All-Star Superman,” now wrapping up a years-long Batman story arc, seems to be an obvious choice to reboot Superman in “Action Comics” #1.
According to Morrison, Superman – who started out as a champion of the oppressed in his earliest stories, and had no problem breaking the law in the process – is going back to his roots.
“One of the first things I did was to take away the costume,” he said. “He’s the Bruce Springsteen Superman as I call him. Right now, he’s wearing a t-shirt and jeans. So it’s all about making him relatable again. We want to bring him back to more of a global symbol, but at least acknowledge Americana. He’s more a folk superhero, a Paul Bunyan for the 21st century.”
Morrison’s Clark Kent is different as well: ”He’s a young, crusading journalist, who actually does as much for the cause of social justice as Superman. He’s a journalist rooting out corruption wherever he finds it. So both Clark and Superman are now working to the same ends.”
At the same time, Morrison has a new book out, “Supergods,” that delves even deeper into the superhero mythos. “It’s a history of the superhero concept from ‘Action Comics’ #1 in 1938 to now with films and video games,” he said. “It’s also a philosophical story as to how this geek culture, this outsider culture has suddenly become absolutely mainstream.”
Morrison attributes the return of superhero popularity to the current climate. “The space program has ended so ‘Star Trek’s’ not going to happen. So we’ve kind of run out of the positive energy of futurity. So superheroes have kind of risen up. I kind of started to develop that idea, the superhero as a living notion. Particularly now with medical technology, in 25 years we will have real superhumans with longer lives, faster people and smarter people.”
For Morrison, it’s coming full circle. “The book starts with ‘Action Comics’ #1, and we end with the writer of ‘Supergods’ writing the adventures of Superman in ‘Action Comics’ #1.”
comment:
movie directors make attempts to change the style that gave us Superman in the first place and I think that`s bad.
Sony rolls out 'personal 3-D' goggle set
(CNN) -- A shiny headset that lets you watch 3-D video, play video games or listen to music -- not to mention looking at home on an extra from your favorite sci-fi film -- is on the way.
Sony on Wednesday announced the HMZ-T1, a head-mounted "personal 3-D viewer," will be rolled out later this year.
The headset includes a pair of goggles housing a 0.7-inch, high-definition OLED panel that Sony says is the equivalent of a 62-foot virtual screen.
It includes virtual surround-sound and can be used for watching movies or other videos, listening to music and playing video games (we're assuming they'd prefer you to do so on the PlayStation, although they say the headset is hardware-neutral).
"This new 3-D viewing style provided by 'HMZ-T1' will enable users to enjoy the movie theater-like experience whilst relaxing on their living room sofa, thus further expanding Sony's 3-D world," the company wrote Wednesdayin a news release.
The headset will be released in Japan (where else?) on November 11 for the equivalent of about $780, according to Sony. No release dates for other countries were given.
Sony had rolled out a prototype version of the headset at January's Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, but it was far from fully formed and no timeline for its release was announced then.
If it all seems a little Geordie La Forge from "Star Trek: Next Generation" to you, well, you're not alone.
"Geordi La Forge may not be scheduled to don his replacement eyesight for another 329 years, but Sony's the latest company to take a stab at the basic idea," Sean Hollister wrote Wednesday for tech site This is My Next.
Hollister got to test-drive the headset and, while generally positive, said it's a bit front-heavy and not entirely comfortable. But he called its visuals "nothing short of stunning."
"[T]hose twin 0.7-inch OLED displays shot out deliciously crisp images with deep blacks and beautiful vibrant colors," he wrote.
Gizmodo's Mat Honan also gave the experience high marks.
"This was one of the more immersive entertainment experiences I've yet had," he wrote. "When I tried playing 'Gran Turismo', I found myself pivoting my head to look left and right although that has no effect on the display (of course). It was just a natural reaction.
"I felt like I was in the driver's seat of a car, and was scanning the road as I normally would. When we popped in a 3-D movie, I actually ducked a bit as a shark swam overhead."
Opinion: How incredible technology is! A year ago LED plasma T.Vs a year before that ultra narrow plasma Tvs and before that plamas. Now, a set of 3D googles, which you can use it as a television or play video games for only $739... wow I thought it would be quite more expensivet; the bad news, these amazing googles will be selling only in Japan and the Sony company doesn't know when the device will sell to the other part of the world.
Facebook intends to launch its long-rumored music service next month with Spotify, MOG and Rdio as three of the company's launch partners, Mashable has learned.
The music and media platform will be announced at Facebook's f8 developer conference on September 22. It will allow users to listen to music from within Facebook.com. Evidence of Facebook's music platform first surfaced in the code of Facebook's video chat service.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, Facebook will not directly host or stream any music or media. Instead, it will rely on partners to provide the content. This is in contrast to Apple, Google and Amazon's strategy of hosting music content on their servers. Facebook's plan is to become a platform for media content in the same way it is a platform for applications and games.
One of our sources specifically mentioned three music services as launch partners: Spotify, Rdio and MOG. It's unclear whether Facebook has lined up other launch partners for its music platform or whether Facebook will open up its platform to other developers. One of our sources noted, however, that Facebook doesn't like playing favorites, so our bet is that Facebook will open up its music platform to other third-party developers.
We've also heard whispers that Facebook intends for this platform to go beyond music -- for example, it's possible that Netflix could stream movies through Facebook. However, we don't know if Facebook will go beyond the music platform announcement at f8.
Update: "There's nothing new to announce," a Facebook spokesperson told us. "Many of the most popular music services around the world are integrated with Facebook and we're constantly talking to our partners about ways to improve these integrations."
Father charged after throwing crying off boat says he was joking
August 31, 2011 -- Updated 2215 GMT (0615 HKT)
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
- NEW: "We were having fun. We thought it would be funny," the father says
- A man allegedly hits his 7-year-old son, then throws the boy overboard
- Three passing boats rescue the boy from Newport Harbor
- The father is charged with felony child endangerment and resisting arrest
(CNN) -- A father, who is accused of smacking his crying seven-year-old and throwing him off a moving boat, said he did nothing wrong.
Sloane Briles, 35, of Irvine, California, has been charged with felony child endangerment and resisting arrest, the Orange County Sheriff's Office said. He was released Monday in lieu of a $100,000 bond.
Though he was arrested and witnesses were alarmed, Briles told CNN affiliate KTLA "we were having fun, it was a harbor cruise!"
He said he did not hit his son and he "did nothing except jump in the water with my kid."
Briles, who's divorced, was on the tour boat Sunday afternoon with his two sons, ages 6 and 7, when he got into an argument with his current girlfriend, said sheriff's office spokesman Jim Amormino.
The boat takes passengers past Newport Beach houses that are or were occupied by celebrities, including the home where the late John Wayne lived, Amormino said.
His 7-year-old son became upset about the argument and started crying, Amormino said.
RELATED TOPICS
The father took the boy to the bow of the boat and told him, " 'If you don't stop crying, I'm going to throw you overboard,' " Amormino said.
"And he hits the kid a couple of times," Amormino said. "The boy is crying. He picks him up and throws him overboard. They are in the middle of a harbor, and there is a lot of boat traffic."
Briles disputed the police and witnesses account of the event and said it was just a joke.
"We jumped in together," Briles told the affiliate. " We thought it would be funny. We were just screwing aroung."
The boy's life was endangered several ways, authorities said.
"The main one was throwing him off the front of the boat because the boat could run over him. There was the danger of him being hit by the prop. And the other danger is that because there are so many boats out there, it's no place to swim, and because he's so small, the other boats wouldn't have seen him," Amormino said.
The boy was also "only a fair swimmer," Amormino said.
"But luckily, three boats saw the kid and converged on him, and plucked him from the water," Amormino said.
"The father did jump in (after his son), but the crowd on the boat became angry when he was hitting the kid and became more angry when he threw him overboard," Amormino said. There were 85 people on the tour boat.
A sheriff's patrol boat responded to a call about the incident. After deputies boarded the tour boat, one of them suffered minor injuries to the hand and elbow during Briles' arrest, authorities said.
Deputies took the two boys to their harbor station and later turned them over to their mother, Amormino said.
Comment: well i think it is stupid that he got aretsed for that. I mean it was a stupid thing to do also butt i mean he was thrown in the water and nothing happened. I mean he did hit him butt well things happen.
news
A torrent of leaked U.S. diplomatic cables obtained by the anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has been published in the last few days, with at least 170 of them naming sources whose identity was meant to be protected, according to an analysis of the documents by CNN.
Altogether nearly 143,000 of the cables obtained by WikiLeaks last year had been published by Tuesday, out of a total of 251,000 the group says it possesses.
Academics in China, human rights activists in Syria, bankers in Turkey, a Coca-Cola executive in Nepal and British members of Parliament are among dozens of confidential sources named in the cables, which have appeared unredacted on websites such as cablesearch.org.
On its website Tuesday, WikiLeaks said it had published 133,877 cables in the past week, but has denied any part in releasing unredacted cables, maintaining that it was "totally false" to suggest it had exposed any sources. On its Twitter feed WikiLeaks said: "The issue relates to a mainstream media partner and a malicious individual."
WikiLeaks originally worked with a number of media outlets to redact the cables, but has recently fallen out with several of them, including The New York Times and The Guardian in the UK. WikiLeaks said a story on the latest releases that appeared in Tuesday's edition of The New York Times, was a "sleazy hack job."
Just how the unredacted cables found their way onto websites remains a matter of dispute. Last week a German magazine, Der Freitag, said it had found a large encrypted file online and was able to obtain the password to unlock it.
The WikiLeaks website was only intermittently available late Tuesday and Wednesday. The group said it had been a target of a cyber attack, saying on its Twitter feed Tuesday: "WikiLeaks.org is presently under attack."
Responding to the latest releases, U.S. State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said Tuesday: "We continue to carefully monitor what becomes public and to take steps to mitigate the damage to national security and to assist those who may be harmed by these illegal disclosures to the extent that we can."
The U.S. government has previously said that it reached out to sources whose names were in the cables. Some at risk from possible exposure in the cables are said to have been relocated.
Some sources face at worst potential embarrassment by being identified as sources, and many of the cables are marked as "confidential" rather than "secret." But for others, especially in states with authoritarian regimes, their contacts with U.S. officials may be more hazardous.
One cable sent from the U.S. embassy in Syria in 2009 requested that the identity of three sources be strictly protected. Two were human rights activists, one of whom was briefly detained this year as unrest spread across the country. It does not appear that the activist's detention in May was linked to the cable.
A "confidential" cable sent from the U.S. Embassy in Beirut in 2007 discussed Lebanese judges who might be nominated to the Special U.N. Tribunal investigating the assassination of former Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. The cable, from then U.S. Ambassador Jeffrey Feltman, notes: "Strictly protect. These persons are at risk of being threatened or assassinated for agreeing to act as Tribunal judges." The cable goes on to say that one possible nominee had confided to U.S. diplomats that "as an unmarried bachelor with no children and no close relatives in Lebanon, he is more dispensable than judges with family obligations."
Another cable that quoted several representatives of Vietnam's Muslim community was marked "Protect all."
A cable from the embassy in Beijing discussed alleged links between pollution and birth defects. Two expert informants -- both Chinese -- were marked "strictly protect", one of whom confided that "the Chinese government, in her view, does "not encourage" information about the relationship between pollution and birth defects to be made available.
Not all those identified are informants. One cable names 23 Australians alleged to have had contact with the radical Islamist cleric Anwar al Awlaki in Yemen. The cable, sent by the U.S. Embassy in Canberra in January 2010 recommends that all of them are placed on no-fly or terrorism watch lists.
The Australian Attorney General Robert McClelland condemned the publication of the cable Tuesday -- saying that in the past "WikiLeaks has decided to redact identifying features where security operations or safety could be put at risk. This has not occurred in this case."
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange responded that the Australian government had been caught "ratting out 23 Australians to the US embassy without due process."
U.S. diplomats fear that the sudden release of so many cables, including the identities of many informants, will have a chilling effect on sources in the future, as well as posing problems for some of those now readily identifiable through the unredacted cables circulating online.
I THINK THIS IS AMAZING AND ALL THE PEOPLE THAT DO THAT IS PRETTY SMART.
Facebook to launch music platform with Spotify, MOG and Rdio
By Ben Parr, Mashable
August 31, 2011 -- Updated 2105 GMT (0505 HKT) | Filed under: Social Media
It's unclear whether Facebook has lined up other launch partners.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Music and media platform will be announced at Facebook's f8 developer conference
Platform will allow users to listen to music from within Facebook.com
"There's nothing new to announce," a Facebook spokesperson told us
(Mashable) -- Facebook intends to launch its long-rumored music service next month with Spotify, MOG and Rdio as three of the company's launch partners, Mashable has learned.
The music and media platform will be announced at Facebook's f8 developer conference on September 22. It will allow users to listen to music from within Facebook.com. Evidence of Facebook's music platform first surfaced in the code of Facebook's video chat service.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, Facebook will not directly host or stream any music or media. Instead, it will rely on partners to provide the content. This is in contrast to Apple, Google and Amazon's strategy of hosting music content on their servers. Facebook's plan is to become a platform for media content in the same way it is a platform for applications and games.
One of our sources specifically mentioned three music services as launch partners: Spotify, Rdio and MOG. It's unclear whether Facebook has lined up other launch partners for its music platform or whether Facebook will open up its platform to other developers. One of our sources noted, however, that Facebook doesn't like playing favorites, so our bet is that Facebook will open up its music platform to other third-party developers.
We've also heard whispers that Facebook intends for this platform to go beyond music -- for example, it's possible that Netflix could stream movies through Facebook. However, we don't know if Facebook will go beyond the music platform announcement at f8.
Update: "There's nothing new to announce," a Facebook spokesperson told us. "Many of the most popular music services around the world are integrated with Facebook and we're constantly talking to our partners about ways to improve these integrstions
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i love fb ,, i think that fb music would be grate because it would haave more and more fun but the 5t of nov fb would die
By Ben Parr, Mashable
August 31, 2011 -- Updated 2105 GMT (0505 HKT) | Filed under: Social Media
It's unclear whether Facebook has lined up other launch partners.
STORY HIGHLIGHTS
Music and media platform will be announced at Facebook's f8 developer conference
Platform will allow users to listen to music from within Facebook.com
"There's nothing new to announce," a Facebook spokesperson told us
(Mashable) -- Facebook intends to launch its long-rumored music service next month with Spotify, MOG and Rdio as three of the company's launch partners, Mashable has learned.
The music and media platform will be announced at Facebook's f8 developer conference on September 22. It will allow users to listen to music from within Facebook.com. Evidence of Facebook's music platform first surfaced in the code of Facebook's video chat service.
According to two sources familiar with the matter, Facebook will not directly host or stream any music or media. Instead, it will rely on partners to provide the content. This is in contrast to Apple, Google and Amazon's strategy of hosting music content on their servers. Facebook's plan is to become a platform for media content in the same way it is a platform for applications and games.
One of our sources specifically mentioned three music services as launch partners: Spotify, Rdio and MOG. It's unclear whether Facebook has lined up other launch partners for its music platform or whether Facebook will open up its platform to other developers. One of our sources noted, however, that Facebook doesn't like playing favorites, so our bet is that Facebook will open up its music platform to other third-party developers.
We've also heard whispers that Facebook intends for this platform to go beyond music -- for example, it's possible that Netflix could stream movies through Facebook. However, we don't know if Facebook will go beyond the music platform announcement at f8.
Update: "There's nothing new to announce," a Facebook spokesperson told us. "Many of the most popular music services around the world are integrated with Facebook and we're constantly talking to our partners about ways to improve these integrstions
d
i love fb ,, i think that fb music would be grate because it would haave more and more fun but the 5t of nov fb would die
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