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About The Battalion. (College Station, Tex.) 1893-current | View Entire Issue (Sept. 5, 2002)
INTER MIN'! I: RNATIONAL THE BaTHI battalion 5B Thursday, September 5, 2002 igei News in Brief e tribe C^ina floods cause death, damages Beijing (AP) — Flooding has kifed 1,532 people this year in Ch na and caused $8.2 billion ^Arth of damage, the official Xihhua News Agency said W< dnesday. ^Atate media have reported n^idy 1,000 deaths from flooding and landslides over th< past three months. ^Alore than 1 million homes Hd been destroyed by flood ing by the end of August and ffOm'; 2.4 million people for ed to flee their homes, Xinhua said. ■Damage this year hasn't Ben nearly as severe as in IS >8, when summer flooding killed more than 4,000 peo ple, the report quoted offi cials of the Civil Affairs Ministry as saying. M<m says his dreams told him to kill ■SEOUL South Korea (AP) - A deranged man attacked kindergarten children with kr ives at a church cafeteria Vj^ednesday, wounding 10 of th em in a half-hour rampage that ended only after police moved in with tear gas. ■ "In my dreams, I heard a vbice saying that my wish will b< fulfilled and I will live only if I kill many people," the man — identified only by his last n<ime, Hwang — later told pt lice. "I kept hearing the v< ice even when I was awake." ■ The 53-year-old attacker also said Kim II Sung, the late founder and Stalinist presi dent of North Korea, instruct ed him to kill people, the rational news agency Yonhap reported. Many South Koreans consider Kim a dia bolical figure who started the 1950-53 Korean War, in which millions died. Kim died of heart failure in 1994. Free internet? Governments receive criticism for increased web surveillance PARIS (AP) — Several Western democracies have become “predators of digital freedoms,” using the fight against terrorism to increase surveillance on the Internet, an international media-rights group said Thursday. Reporters Without Borders criticized not only authoritarian states such as China that tightly police Internet use. but also Western governments — including the United States, Britain, France, Germany, Spain, Italy and Denmark — and the European Parliament. “A year after the tragic events in New York and Washington, the Internet can be included on the list of ’collater al damage,”’ the Paris-based group said in a report. “Cyber- liberty has been undermined and fundamental digital free doms have been amputated.” The report accused China. Vietnam and other countries hostile to dissent of using the international counterterrorism campaign “to strengthen their police mechanisms and legal frameworks relating to the Web and to increase pressure on cyber-dissidents.” Among cases cited was that of Li Dawei, a former police man sentenced in July to 11 years in prison on charges of using the Internet to subvert the Chinese government. But even among Western democracies, “many countries have adopted laws, measures and actions that are poised to put the Internet under the tute lage of security services,” Reporters Without Borders said. It said measures to record information about Web sites visited and e-mails'sent and received risk turning Internet providers and telecommunica tions firms “into potential branches of the police.” Since Sept. II, many gov ernments have sought to respond to concerns that terror ists can use the speed, ease of communication and relative anonymity of the Internet to plan attacks, swap information, transfer funds and publicize their ideas. Critics fear the measures will erode users’ privacy and freedom of speech, cause them to trust the Internet less and ultimately hurt the Internet’s value as a new communications medium. Two other advocacy groups, the Electronic Privacy Information Center and Privacy International, also said in a report this week that govern ments worldwide have made it easier for authorities to eaves drop on telephone and online conversations in order to fight terror. Reporters Without Borders cited dozens of measures adopt ed or proposed by governments to expand police powers on the Web. including: —A Canadian anti-terrorist law adopted last December “clearly undermines the confi dentiality of exchanges of elec tronic mail,” the group said. —“Magic Lantern” technol ogy being developed by the FBI will allow investigators to secretly install over the Internet powerful eavesdropping soft ware to record every keystroke on a person’s computer. —A new French law requires Internet providers to keep records of e-mail exchanges for one year and make it easier for authorities to decode messages protected by encryption software. I'm game for software. How about you? ff Roddy tO buy your Microsoft software? Well, Computing & Information Services (CIS) and software.tamu.edu are now taking credit card and electronic check pre-orders online for delivery by mail. r Select what software you want at software.tamu.edu and pay for it online with any major credit card or by electronic check. Choose "Mail my order," and you'll be the first to receive your software once the Microsoft software shipment arrives. No waiting in line, no messing around, no running out of stock. Your software, your mailbox; it's that easy. For more information on what software is available for purchase, answers to frequently asked questions, and more, visit the CIS student software store on the Web at software.tamu.edu. ers with n iimounts rvice Plfl n W™* her promotion*- •e ol multiple Monday WWflfl ho chargor software, tamu. edu your software, your way, MSC OPAS opens 30th Anniversary Season with <,< 'The Cm r ii ii cl ci it ci cl y of all TUINA. Comedies!” -NBC TV The Original New York Cast Joe Sears Jaston Williams Thursday - Saturday, September 5 - 7 at 7:30 PM Rudder Auditorium BUY YOUR TICKETS NOW Call 845-1234 or buy on-line at www.MSCOPAS.org! Three Decades of Performing Arts THIS JUST IN! MSC OPAS is hosting a community food drive on behalf of The Brazos Food Bank. Please bring a non-perishable food item when attending a performance GREATER TUNA! Discounted Ticket Prices Available for TAMU Students! presents . . . Spider- c>ety man Fri. Sept: Bt:ti @ 8:30 Sun. Sept: 8till @ 7:OOpm Rudder Theatre S 1 at dour ctv -lirj Persons with disabilities please call 845-1515 to inform us of your needs Wanna see movies like B+ a pasU of MSG Vilm, Socimbf!! What do we do? Show movies Make movies Organize the largest student run film festival in the nation: The Texas Film Festival Find us at MSC Onen Flense Sent 8 tli Applications in MSC 223 Check cut tlie website: tittns//f 11ms. tamti.edu