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News Update:

02:42 / 24.04.03

(I figured maybe we could use a thread for news stories or developments that probably don't need a thread of their own....)

Wow! Cyprus Border Opened!

Thousands of Cypriots crossed Europe's last great dividing line yesterday after a surprise decision by the Turkish Cypriot side to throw open the heavily guarded border, despite the recent collapse of peace talks.

The so-called "green line" had severed north from south since Turkey invaded the island in 1974 in response to a Greek-engineered coup. It is manned by troops on both sides with the United Nation's longest-serving peacekeeping mission sitting in the no-man's land between.

Crowds were heaviest at Cyprus's answer to the Berlin Wall, a barbed-wire frontier that cuts through the capital, Nicosia.

Groups of ethnic Greeks and Turks waved at each other as they walked across the buffer zone that 24 hours earlier had been a no-man's land.

That's really great news. Wow again.

10:10 / 24.04.03

Hopefully the groundswell of popular support for a more open boarder will see a lasting peace settlement finally achieved and that this isn't simply a holding tactic from the north...

23:15 / 13.02.04

Hey, cool!

Cyprus Unification in works...

a major breakthrough, Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders agreed Friday to resume full negotiations next week to end the 30-year division of Cyprus before it joins the European Union on May 1.

The agreement caps a lengthy and often tortuous effort by Secretary-General Kofi Annan to end one of the world's longest and most intractable disputes. It came after three days of grueling talks, including a marathon session that dragged on into the early hours Friday among the Greek and Turkish Cypriot leaders as well as Greek and Turkish diplomats. Under the deal brokered by Annan, negotiations will resume Feb. 19 in Cyprus. If the Greek and Turkish sides fail to reach an agreement, Annan will decide any outstanding issues — but Greek and Turkish Cypriots will have the final say on the agreement in referendums in April.

"We have not yet solved the problem," Annan cautioned, "but I really believe that after 40 years, a political settlement is at least in reach, provided both sides summon the necessary political will."

09:52 / 14.02.04

T'row him inna fie-ah!

This isn't worth its own thread either, since it'll probably blow over in a few days anyway...

The scabrous video that's launching a thousand "harrumphs" is getting harder to find after months of being stashed in the more obscure corners of the Interweb. The Guardian and Tiscali Entertainment reported on it last week, the latter lifting its text from a now-defunct Reuters link. Dirty Kuffar mates fine dancefloor toasting with horrific images starting with a clumsily-edited scene showing US Marines shooting Iraqis and cheering, Chechen rebels executing captured Russian soldiers, and finally the WTC. In between are funny images of various world leaders morphing into monkeys, devils or pigs.

So far, only bloggers and CBS News (which may have crashed my browser...grrr!) have taken notice. Actually, the Dutch TV program NOVA did a story a month ago about Moroccan kids listening to hardcore anti-western hip-hop and this video was mentioned.

And here's a Palestinian video that lifts music from the PC game Halo. Microsoft are not pleased. You hear that, Hamas and Osama? America's gonna sue you back into the stone age! It's this kind of corporate-lawyer chest-thumping that comes closest to making me cheer for terrorists. Bullets beat briefs.