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.
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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