Tightened airport security causes strong online reactions

TIGHTENED SECURITY MEASURES IN AIRPORTS

Endless queues. Hours of waiting… By posting online this video, a net user aimed to show the consequences of the more stringent security measures in place since the failed attack on board Northwest Airlines flight 253 on Christmas day.

And she is not the only one. Here and American man, travelling from Canada to the US on December thirty one, filmed the way in which authorities separate men and women to carry out in-depth frisking.

Members of fourteen countries are most affected by the tightened controls as remarked by Politico-The US political news site stipulates that most foreign passengers will also be subject to additional checks which could include a body scanner.

A measure which irritates many net users, such as this blogger and this American man, who consider the measure to be an attack on privacy, restricting individual freedoms.

Finally this net user describes the measures as futile, and he feels they will not prevent terrorists from striking where they wish.

IRISH BLASPHEMY LAW

A new slander law entered into force on January one in Ireland. A controversial bill in which article 36 deems blasphemy a crime, punishable by a maximum fine of 25 000 Euros. A measure strongly criticised by secular militants and a section of the blogosphere.

In a show of opposition, the association ‘Atheist Ireland’ has decided to test the law’s applicability. It has just published online a list of twenty five quotes by famous people that could be considered blasphemous under the new legislation. Quotations found in particular in the New Testament.

Many video bloggers are rising up against a measure which they feel would be more at place in the Middle Ages and which threatens freedom of expression in Ireland.

A point of view widely shared by the members of these Facebook groups, who are calling on the Government to swiftly abolish a law judged scandalous and archaic.

Meanwhile, for this female blogger, the law will be hard to implement as the definition given of blasphemy is, in her opinion, rather vague. She wonders how many offended people it would take, for a remark to be considered blasphemous.

SEXUAL ABUSE BY UN SOLDIERS

The UN does not take discipline lightly. The organisation has just launched a web site on the allegations of sexual abuse concerning its staff world wide. The site lists all presumed offenses committed by soldiers deployed by the UN in the framework of its peace keeping missions. In 2004 members of the observation mission in Congo are accused of having paid for sexual favours by under eighteen year old girls. 

UNRELEASED MICHAEL JACKSON SONG

A previously unheard song by Michael Jackson has leaked on to the Internet. It is an extract from a song recorded at the start of the 2000s, while the ‘Invincible’ album was being recorded. In this song, entitled, ‘Another day’, Jackson worked in particular with Lenny Kravitz,

VIDEO OF THE DAY

In China, muggers should watch their backs. This is what this video would have us believe in any case. It shows two thugs attempting to make their get away on a scooter, before being stopped in their tracks by a passer-by. The man in question throws his bike into their path to stop them and thereby facilitates their arrest.