Network news

Stephen Fry wishes the GNU project a happy 25th birthday! GNU stands for “GNU’s Not Unix”, and is a complete, free operating system. GreenNet proudly runs GNU/Linux on its servers.

The combination of GNU and Linux is the GNU/Linux operating system, now used by millions. There are many distributions of GNU/Linux, many of which are tailored for desktop use. GreenNet currently recommends Ubuntu to people interested in exploring a free, community-developed computing environment.

For an introduction to free software, see Stephen Fry’s birthday message.

Further information

The GNU Project

Ubuntu

Activists and indigenous groups condemn Gordon Brown’s offer of military help for Shell in the Niger Delta.

At the G8 Gordon Brown promised to send equipment, trainers and ‘advisors’ to the Nigerian military to “ensure oil production can bring prosperity” and to make sure that there’s a ‘sustainable peace’ in the area.It’s very hard to make an obscene profit when locals keep attacking your oil platforms, as the oil giants have been finding out to their cost since the Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta (MEND) began its campaign in 2005.

MEND responded by saying their ceasefire with the Nigerian government was over, and that British interests would “suffer the consequences.” And they’re not known for making idle threats.

This Thursday, the 47,000 barrels-per-day Eni pipeline was blown up by attackers in what the company, in a rare candid moment, called a ‘community dispute’. The dispute in question is pretty clear; one between the community and the oil industry. Within 24 hours of this attack more than 30 militants attacked the naval boat protecting oil facilities belonging to Shell Petroleum Development Company.

Report by SchNews.

Further information

Nigerian activists reject UK plan

Remember Ken Saro-Wiwa Campaign - The Niger Delta Today

Join the call for Zimbabwean exiles to be allowed to work and acquire skills in the UK. The British government can help exiled Zimbabweans by allowing them to acquire the skills they need to rebuild their country when the opportunity comes. Instead, thousands of Zimbabwean exiles in the UK live in limbo – de-motivated and de-skilled, and prevented by law even from working as volunteers.
The Strangers in Citizens campaign is calling for the Home Office to enable Zimbabweans resident in the UK to have:

• Temporary access to work
• Job placement and training

On Friday, 11th July, the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu will lead a service at St Margaret’s Church, Westminster Abbey at 12.00. This will followed by a rally and walk to the Home Office; Parliament Square and the South Bank at 1.30pm

Further information

London Citizens

Independent Assylum Commission

Support UKUUG‘s work to stop Micro$oft hijacking the XML">OOXML standard.
The High Court has rejected the UKUUG’s application for a Judicial Review of BSI‘s actions in voting ‘yes’ to the fast-tracking of the Microsoft sponsored DIS29500 (XML">OOXML) in April 2008. UKUUG is appealing that decision since it believes that the judge was wrong in his reading of the papers. The matter will now be heard in open court.

UKUUG believe that problems in XML">OOXML might be resolved but only after a thorough and open examination of over 1,000 technical and several legal issues by experts in this field from all interested stakeholders. Only some 20% of issues initially found were adequately discussed at the BRM, XML">OOXML is thus riddled with technical holes; no one can implement it. Fast tracking is for established tried and tested specifications that need only occasional tweaks to
keep them copper bottomed.

UKUUG is concerned about costs, especially if it should lose. BSI‘s lawyers say that their bill is some £25,000 to date. This is expected to rise.

Further information

Wikipedia on OOXML

More bloggers than ever face arrest for exposing human rights abuses or criticising governments, says a recent University of Washington report.

Since 2003, 64 people unaffiliated with news organisations have been arrested for publishing their views on a blog, according to the 2008 World Information Access (WIA) report. And last year, three times as many people – 36 – were arrested for blogging about political issues than in 2006, the report revealed.

More than half of arrests since 2003 were made in China, Egypt and Iran, but British, French, Canadian and American bloggers have also been detained. The average prison sentence for blogging was 15 months, while the longest sentence recorded was eight years.

Arrested bloggers exposed corruption in government, abuse of human rights,or suppression of protests. The report said the rising number of arrests indicates blogging’s growing political importance, especially in times of political uncertainty such as around general elections or large protests.

This year, the report predicts the number of bloggers arrested will exceed 2007 numbers thanks to greater popularity of blogging as a medium, greater enforcement of net restrictions, and elections in China, Pakistan, Iran and the U.S.

Further information

Ars Technica (technology news website)

WIA report

BBC story

Join the Zim Human Rights Forum on 26 June – the International Day in Support of Victims of Torture.
The Zimbabwe Human Rights NGO Forum has been documenting political violence since its inception in 1998 and, since July 2001, has been issuing Monthly Political Violence Reports. In addition, the Human Rights Forum has issued a total of 34 special reports, many of these concerned with violence during elections. The Human Rights Forum has consistently indicated that the majority of violence recorded has been undertaken by both state agents and supporters of the ZANU (PF) party. The Human Rights Forum has been vindicated in its allegations, both by reports of independent human rights organisations and bodies as well as by the decisions of the Zimbabwean courts.

Join the call for Primark to take responsibility, not cut and run.
Labour Behind the Label is calling on Primark to reverse its knee jerk reaction to the Panorama documentary which exposes the widespread use of subcontracting in the manufacture of embroidered goods, including the employment of home workers under extremely bad conditions and possible instances of child labour. Primark has now severed contracts with the three Indian suppliers in advance of the screening of the BBC Panorama investigation. This action will undoubtedly result in those workers who were brave enough to speak about their conditions, being punished.

You can help to put pressure on Primark to change its policy in support of garment workers by

• Emailing Primark telling them not to cut and run at Labour Behind the Labour
• Writing to to George Weston, Chief Executive of AB Foods, owners of Primark,expressing your concerns.
  Associated Bristish Foods Plc.,
  Weston Centre,
  10 Grosvenor Street,
  London, W1K 4QY

Further information

BBC Panorama programme

Imapctt

The Guardian

A recipe for improved internet diversity or corporate takeover? Plans to open up the address system on the internet are currently under discussion. The net's regulators will vote on Thursday to decide if the strict rules on so-called top level domain names, such as .com or .uk, can be relaxed. If approved, it could finally allow non-Latin Asian and Arabic characters to be used in domain names. It would also allow for companies to turn their brands into domain names while individuals could also carve out their own corner of the net. Top level domains are currently limited to individual countries, such as .uk (UK) or .it (Italy), as well as to commerce, .com, and to institutional organisations, such as .net, or .org. The Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers (Icann), which acts a sort of regulator for the net, as well as overseeing the domain name system, has been working towards opening up net addresses for the last three years.

Further information

ICANN

Current top level domains

…is the government. Support Burma Campaign’s call to bring human rights and democracy to Burma.

In the wake of the devastating Cyclone Nargis that hit Burma on 2 May, more than one million people are homeless, up to 128,000 killed.

This natural disaster was turned into a man-made catastrophe by Burma’s brutal regime. They blocked international aid and left thousands without food, shelter or medicine. The real disaster in Burma is the government.

Burma is ruled by one of the most brutal dictatorships in the world. It ruthlessly persecutes, imprisons and tortures human rights and democracy activists. Thousands of men, women and children are used as slave labour. Out of sight in the jungles of Eastern Burma, more than 3,000 villages have been destroyed, rape is used as a weapon of war against ethnic women and children. Countless civilians have been killed in the regime’s war of ethnic cleansing.

The people of Burma have asked for our support. Every day they live in fear of arrest, torture and imprisonment. The Burma Campaign UK is answering their call but they urgently need your help. Please join the campaign or make a donation.

…to register your opposition to the planned hike in low flying planes across East London. You have until 19th June to give your feedback on a planning application that could result in a change from 9 flights a day to 12 flights an hour over Hackney – one the most densely populated parts of the country. Use the Newham Council website to respond to City Airport’s planning application .

Further information

AirportWatch

Pledge against airport expansion

Independent newspaper article on airport expansion