Google Removes 640 Videos from YouTube Promoting Terrorism
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Google removed 640 videos from YouTube in the second half of last year amid fears they promoted terrorism.

The Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo) made a request for five user accounts to be closed for allegedly promoting terrorism.

Google agreed and deleted the 640 videos.

The web giant has previously been criticised by politicians in Britain and the United States for hosting extremist propaganda on YouTube, its video sharing website, including as the sermons of Anwar al-Awlaki, a senior al-Qaeda cleric, who killed by a US drone strike last year.

Awlaki’s online sermons inspired Roshonara Choudhry, 21, to become the first al-Qaeda fanatic to attempt a political assassination in the UK when she stabbed MP Stephen Timms at his constituency surgery in May. » | Monday, June 18, 2012

Osama bin Laden Home Video: Terrorist Leader Shown as Frail Figure Watching Himself on TV
THE SUNDAY TELEGRAPH: Extraordinary home-made video of Osama bin Laden shows the terror supremo as a frail figure with an unkempt beard, rocking back and forth as he watches himself on television.


The remarkable footage apparently recorded at his Pakistani hideout was part of a cache of videos captured by the US commandos who killed him in a daring night-time raid last week.

It stood in stark contrast to the image he sought to portray of himself to his followers and enemies in other seized videos in which he had dyed his hair and beard a luxuriant black and donned spotless clothing for propaganda recordings. » | Philip Sherwell, New York | Saturday, May 07, 2011

Osama Bin Laden: Pentagon Releases Home Videos
BBC: The Pentagon has released home videos of Osama Bin Laden, seized at the secret Pakistani compound where he was shot dead by US commandos.

The tapes show him watching himself on television, and preparing a video message addressed to the US.

At a news briefing in Washington, intelligence officials said Bin Laden had been actively leading al-Qaeda from the compound in Abbottabad.

In total, five videos were seized during Monday's raid.

Rehearsals

In the first video, filmed in October or November 2010, Bin Laden is shown wearing a white skullcap and shirt and a golden robe. He speaks to the camera in the style of previous video addresses by the al-Qaeda leader.

Pentagon officials have removed audio from the film, citing security concerns, but said it was a message to the United States.

Three other clips appear to be rehearsals for the video message, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond in Washington. (+ video) » | Saturday, May 07, 2011

The West and the Dark Tunnel: الغرب والنفق المظلم

Islam and the West
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Part 14 & End:

Injuries at Monday's Tehran Rally

BBC: Police on Bikes Charge Protesters

Carla Bruni Sarkozy Has a Headache!

Carla Bruni Sarkozy romping on the beach with Raphaël Enthoven. Photo courtesy of Google Images
MAIL Online: Hundreds of 'highly intimate' images of the French president's wife and her former lover have been stolen during a burglary.

The photographs and videos of Carla Bruni, who is on an official trip to Spain with Nicolas Sarkozy, date from the 41-year- old's affair with philosopher Raphael Enthoven.

Thieves broke into the Paris flat of his brother, 27-year-old actor Julien Enthoven, where the prints and videos were being kept, and stole them.

Police believe the images could be posted on the web, serving to embarrass Nicolas Sarkozy or be sold for a sizeable sum, thanks to his third wife's status.

A source said: 'The thieves appeared to know exactly what they were looking for, taking highly intimate prints, a camera full of further images, videos, and numerous computer files.

'They broke into Mr Enthoven's flat in Rue Dauphine, in the sixth arrondissement, on Sunday night, smashing a window in the sitting room which looks out on to the courtyard. Nobody was at home at the time, and nothing else was taken.'

Raphael, who fathered Miss Bruni's son Aurelien, eight, is believed to have entrusted the pictures to his brother as he did not want them to embarrass his new partner, or Mr Sarkozy, a detective working on the case said. Carla's Agony as Intimate Photos of Her with Ex-lover Are Stolen in Raid on Paris Flat >>> By Peter Allen | Wednesday, April 29, 2009

Yet again, I have had a photo removed from this webite by Photobucket for contravention of their ‘terms and conditions’. This happens with alarming frequency!

Images such as these are not pornographic. I never post anything pornographic on this website; moreover, these images are freely available on Google Images. Were they to be pornographic, they should not, would not, appear on that Google source.

This image is one of Carla Bruni Sarkozy, the First Lady of France, no less than Nicolas Sarkozy, the French President’s wife! Are we therefore to conclude that Photobucket considers this photo of her to be improper or obscene? If so, this is an insult to the First Lady of France!

To me, it would appear that Photobucket is being overly sensitive. The dictionary definition of pornography is as follows:

Obscene writings, drawings, photographs, or the like, esp. those having little or no artistic merit.

Origin:

1840–50; < Gk pornográph(os) writing about harlots (porno-, comb. form of pórnē harlot + -graphos -graph ) [Source: Dictionary.com]

This photo certainly has artistic merit; and it in no way meets the criteria laid down in the dictionary for pornography.

What this also shows me is that there is a cleft between attitudes to nudity in Europe and America. Americans are probably still labouring under their puritanical past. Europe has liberated itself – long ago!

This image is hosted by ImageShack. We will see if they take a broader view. – ©Mark

Trouble Playing Videos?
It has come to my attention that some people are experiencing difficulties playing the videos placed here. After some experimentation, it has been found that these difficulties are experienced when PC-users double click on them. I therefore advise my visitors, especially those using PC's, to click on the vieos only ONCE; otherwise, they are likely to hear the video in duplicate and out of phase.

Kind regards

Mark Alexander