Pakistan blocks Facebook and YouTube over blasphemous material

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has blocked the popular video sharing website YouTube in a bid to contain blasphemous material, officials said on Thursday.

The blockade came hours after the Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) directed Internet service providers to stop access to social network Facebook indefinitely on Wednesday because of an online competition to draw the Prophet Mohammad (Peace be upon him) in gross violation of fundamental human rights pertaining to one’s religion.

Wahaj-us-Siraj, the CEO of Nayatel, an Internet service provider, said PTA issued an order late on Wednesday seeking an "immediate" blockade of YouTube.

"It was a serious instruction as they wanted us to do it quickly and let them know after that," he said while talking to a UK-based news agency.

YouTube was also blocked in the Muslim country in 2007 for about a year for what it called un-Islamic videos.

A PTA official, who declined to be identified, said the action was taken after the authority determined that some sacrilegious caricatures of the Prophet Mohammad were transferred from Facebook to YouTube.

Representation of any prophet is deemed un-Islamic and blasphemous in Islam, let alone the caricature or cartoon of these divine personages.

Siraj said the blocking of the two websites would cut up to 25 percent of total Internet traffic in Pakistan.

"It'll have an impact on the overall Internet traffic as they eat up 20 to 25 percent of the country's total 65 giga-bytes traffic," he said.

Publications of similar cartoons in Danish newspapers in 2005 sparked deadly protests in Muslim countries. Around 50 people were killed during violent protests in Muslim countries in 2006 over the cartoons, five of them in Pakistan.

Al Qaeda claimed responsibility for a suicide attack on Denmark's embassy in Islamabad in 2008, killing six people, saying it was in revenge for publication of the caricatures.

First non-Latin Internet domain names activated

Saudi, Egypt, UAE to get Arabic internet domain names

CAIRO:  Three Mideast countries have become the first to get Internet addresses entirely in non-Latin characters.

Domain names in Arabic for Egypt, Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates were added to the Internet's master directories on Wednesday, following final approval last month by the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers, or ICANN. It's the first major change to the Internet domain name system since its creation in the 1980s.

Registrations for websites to use those names are to begin soon. On Thursday, Egypt granted three companies approval to register names using the country's new Arabic suffix.

Until now, websites had to end their addresses with ".com" or another string using Latin characters. That meant businesses and government agencies still had to use Latin characters on billboards and advertisements, even if they were targeting populations with no familiarity with English or other languages that use the Latin script.

Non-Latin characters were sometimes permitted for the portions of the Internet address before the suffix. But Arabic websites generally haven't had that option because Arabic characters are written right to left, conflicting with Latin suffixes written left to right.

"Introducing Arabic domain names is a milestone in Internet history," Egyptian Communication and Information Technology Minister Tarek Kamel said in a statement.

"This great step will open up new horizons for e-services in Egypt" as well as boosting the number of online users and enabling Internet service providers to enter new markets by "eliminating language barriers."

After DU Cobalt-60 disaster, Sibal wants guidelines at universities

INDIA:  After radioactive material was sold as scrap by Delhi University leading to the death of a labourer, HRD Minister Kapil Sibal today directed UGC to frame guidelines immediately on procurement, use and disposal of hazardous substances by varsities.

In a letter to the University Grants Commission, the HRD Ministry said the guidelines should stipulate the methods for procurement, handling, storage and disposal of such material which could be fatal.

UGC Chairman Prof Sukhadeo Thorat also met Sibal and discussed the issue. At present, universities get the radioactive materials for their labs with the permission of regulating agencies.

The Department of Atomic Energy (DAE) has framed certain guidelines which are supposed to be followed by the universities for procurement and handling of such materials.

However, UGC does not have any policy to this effect.

"The UGC will prepare the immediately guidelines and issue a direction to all universities to follow the guidelines," a ministry official said.

Sibal will also consult other ministers for a comprehensive policy of handling of hazardous materials by the research agencies under the respective ministries.

Exposure to the radioactive material has led to the death of a scrap shop worker in west Delhi. A few others, including the shop owner, are undergoing treatment after they were exposed to the same material earlier this month.

The source of material was traced to chemistry department of Delhi University. The Cobalt-60 was imported by the varsity in 1968 from Canada. The material was lying in a room for 25 years and the chemistry department wanted to sell it off.

Eleven sources of radiation were detected in the Mayapuri scrap market where Cobalt-60 was recovered this month. It is a radioactive isotope of cobalt, which is a hard, lustrous, grey metal and is used in cancer therapy machines and other medical equipment.

The Cobalt-60 that may still be out there in Delhi

DELHI: There is the likelihood of deadly metallic pencils that carry the radioactive Cobalt-60 lying in the open somewhere in Delhi.

India's nuclear watchdog is investigating the Delhi University radioactive Cobalt-60 leak and has said Mayapuri, in the heart of the Capital, is still a big concern.

An extensive search is on for the nuclear metallic pencils believed missing and NDTV has exclusive pictures of this waste that carries deadly radiation.

The photographs above are a first look at the nuclear scrap material seized by the board. These pencils contain the Cobalt-60 that has already claimed one life in India's first case of radiation poisoning.

The first image (1) shows what is called the "cage". It has 48 slots to hold 48 Cobalt-60 pencils. There is only one pencil stuck in one of those slots.

In the second image (2) is a deadly pencil in a cylinder. The authorities have found 5 of these pencils.

The third image (3) is that of the actual Cobal-60-bearing aluminium pencil. Each pencil is about 24 cm long.

The fourth image (4) is of lead-lined bins with the nuclear waste inside them.

The regulatory board has issued a lookout for the missing pencils. It has also cautioned people to keep away if they come across these metallic pencils and immediately inform the police.