News roundup

• Senate Republicans Split on Wording Gay-Marriage Ban
• Afghans sell to the world online
  Boy, they're doing so much better now, aren't they?
• Bush Again Tops Kerry on Terrorism, Poll Shows
  Also shows what a bunch of saps take polls.
• Al Qaeda Messages Posted on U.S. Server
  Want to bet it was running a Micro$oft OS?
• Man Accused of Infiltrating Computer at Verizon

  A Westchester County man illegally infiltrated an internal computer at Verizon more than 100 times this year, forcing the telecommunications company to spend at least $120,000 to retool its security system, prosecutors charged in a federal indictment yesterday.

  Maybe they should have spent money on getting a secure system BEFORE he broke into it? (I am NOT insinuating that this justifies the breakin. It justifies hiring competent employess, like myself.)
• France raps 'US Aids blackmail'

  In a veiled attack on the US, France has criticised bilateral trade deals that force poor nations to give up rights to make cheaper anti-Aids drugs.
  President Chirac said such deals undermined an international accord that lets poor countries produce such drugs.
  In a statement to an Aids conference in Bangkok, he said such policy would be tantamount to "blackmail".

• US 'needs terror policy debate'

  A senior US intelligence official has told the BBC that the American-led war in Iraq was "a gift of epic proportions to Osama Bin Laden".
  The official, identified as Anonymous, is preparing to publish a new book which says that the US is losing the battle against the al-Qaeda network.
  He told the BBC's Newsnight programme that the US needed to have a debate about its policies in the Middle East.
  He said the military option alone was "a bloody and unsuccessful tool".

• Gay Marriage Vote Could Reignite 'Culture War'
• Bush Criticizes Kerry Over Iraq Vote, Bush-Bashing
  "Gosh, now why would anyone want to criticize lil' ol' me?"
• Mexico Attorney General Has Microchip Fitted in Arm

  Mexico's attorney general said on Monday he had had a microchip inserted under the skin of one of his arms to give him access to a new crime database and also enable him to be traced if he is ever abducted.
  Attorney General Rafael Macedo said a number of his staff had also been fitted with chips which will give them exclusive and secure access to a national, computerized database for crime investigators that went live on Monday.
  "It's an area of high security, it's necessary that we have access to this, through a chip, which what's more is unremovable," Macedo told reporters.
  "The system is here and I already have it. It's solely for access, for safety and so that I can be located at any moment wherever I am," he said, admitting the chip hurt "a little."

  That's kind of creepy.
• Justice Dept. Report Details Use of Patriot Act
  I might be doing a lengthier analysis of this, once I finish reading it.
• Discrimination on Wall St.? The Numbers Tell the Story
  Who'd'a thunk it?