April 13, 2009

North Korea rejects U.N. statement, six-party talks

Per Market Watch, North Korea condemned the latest statement from the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday and stated it will break off six-party talks and restart its nuclear program.

Initial reaction from Twitterers in East Asia showed that some were surprised by the developments and others were not:

  1. slient wave海定則波寧
    XIEZIJIE (Ningbo, China) RT @BreakingNews: BULLETIN -- NORTH KOREA SAYS IT WILL BOYCOTT SIX-PARTY TALKS.!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
  2. Kristie Lu Stout CNN
    klustout (Hong Kong) NKorea foreign ministry after condeming UN statement: "We have no choice but to further strengthen our nuclear deterrent..." #nkorea
  3. David Feng (馮琰)
    DavidFeng (Beijing, China) Thinking of leaving Twitter again now that North Korea's thinking of giving up the ghost re: the six-party talks.
  4. Tony Henderson
    tonyhen (Hong Kong) north korea restarts nuclear weapons programme - w3hat do you expect you (Japan-US) Twits
  5. Alan Soon
    alansoon (Singapore) North Korea quits 6-party talks to protest UN statement


Related Breaking Tweets story:
U.N. to condemn North Korea launch, April 11, 2009


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Featured TwitPic: Fireworks finale at Disney World


"Fireworks finale" (Posted by @nthngprsnl of Virginia at Magic Kingdom, Disney World, Orlando, Fla., April 13, 2009)

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China releases human rights action plan

Per New York Times, China issued its first action plan on human rights promising to improve the protection of liberties that are often neglected and violated.

The document calls for measures to discourage torture, protect rights to a fair trial and uphold rights already guaranteed in the Chinese constitution but are ignored or suppressed by authorities, according to the article.

Per Xinhua News Agency, the Chinese government admitted that it still "has a long road ahead in its efforts to improve its human rights situation."

Twitter users reacted to the news with skepticism:

  1. To Protect Bloggers
    cpb (Global) Hilarious! China creates a (LOL) "human rights action plan"! http://is.gd/sd68
  2. sanjeev
    sanjeevn (Boston, Mass.) China Releases Human Rights Plan http://bit.ly/BGqRF Aah.. why do I react to that headline with cynicism. A planning commission in charge?
  3. Tricia Adams
    Trish1981 (South Bend, Ind.) China releases a human rights action plan My guess is it was distributed as a pamphlet consisting mostly of pictures of happy Chinese people
  4. Mofobro
    Mofobro (Tanglin, Singapore) @weirdchina I don't know what you're smoking, but I want some of it! China will do [expletive] for human rights, minorities, polution, NOTHING!


Other Twitterers were more optimistic:

  1. weirdchina.com ✓ weirdchina (China) in China, as a foreigner living among the Chinese, I have learned that baby steps = progress
  2. leadglobally leadglobally (Park City, Utah) China delivers first human rights plan - "the times they are a changing".


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U.S. lifts Cuba travel restrictions

Per The Washington Post, U.S. President Barack Obama is reversing several policies involving the United States' relationship with Cuba, following up on campaign promises to Cuban-Americans in Florida that changes would come.

Obama has lifted travel restrictions, eased trade embargoes, and will encourage companies to build satellite and communications infrastructure between the two nations, per the Post.

Floridian Twitterers were quick to respond to the policy changes:

  1. Michelle Lacamoire
    michi421 (Miami, Fla.) Well, it's about time! RT @miamiherald Some travel restrictions to Cuba will be lifted. http://tr.im/iIPO
  2. Bettina Inclan
    BettinaInclan (Miami, Fla.) and it starts... On Monday, the Obama will lift some travel and gift restrictions for Cuban Americans....
  3. Michael Vega
    cubanmike82 (Miami, Fla.) Time to plan a trip to Cuba! http://tinyurl.com/dk67my
  4. induce
    induce1 (Miami, Fla.) Even though I'm not even cuban, this obama/Cuba thing got me feeling emotional/happy/content in my choice/excited for the future.
  5. Jody Brewster
    jodybrewster (Pembroke Pines, Fla.) Holy [expletive], Obama eases restrictions on Cuba! Ok maybe Rudo is right
  6. Frank Nardo
    Nardo58 (Cape Coral, Fla.) @ricksanchezcnn It's time now,1962 Cuban Missle Crisis has long passed,lets start with a new era of relationship with Cuba and it's citizens
  7. Luie
    LuieT (Hialeah Gardens, Fla.) 60 plus years of failed policy and now? CHANGE! President Obama kept his words and we are seen it now! As a Cuban-American in SouFla,Yeah


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Amazon's LGBT literature glitch

Per guardian.co.uk, several books dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) issues had their sales rankings removed from the Amazon Web site, causing much criticism online.

An Amazon spokeswoman blamed a "glitch" for the situation and said it is being fixed, per the article.

Many Twitterers are expressing their opinions of the event, as well as the fact that it is indeed a hot topic on Twitter:

  1. Gwyn's Mom
    gwynsmom (San Jose, Calif.) I guess people do read my posts after all. Got 5 msgs about 'Amazon censorship' today. Amazon is not CENSORING anyone, people!!! #amazonfail
  2. Sarah G.
    sarahmanader (Vermont) It warms my heart that Twitter has been such an effective medium for the Amazon censoring issue. #amazonfail
  3. seansinclair
    seansinclair (Washington, D.C.) #Amazonfail - WTF Amazon?? All LGBT books are "adult material" but hetero erotica is not? I call shenanigans.
  4. Sarah Urban
    surban (Madison, Wisc.) I am so miffed at Amazon. I won't shop there until they change their ridiculous prejudiced policy.
  5. Lauren Gutterman
    OutHistory (Undisclosed) To sign petition protesting Amazon's "adult books policy" go to: http://tinyurl.com/d5dbo3
  6. maike R.W.
    Maike_R_W (Undisclosed) more than 13.000 have signed the petition against Amazon's new Adult policy. YAY US! #amazonfail
  7. pts
    pts (Undisclosed) People freaking out about Amazon, read this and take a deep breath: http://tinyurl.com/d279nf
  8. legalaid
    legalaid (Washington, D.C.) Amazon Anger Rises on Twitter http://tinyurl.com/cxdu59
  9. ɹןʇnqן
    lbutlr (Denver, Col.) if #amazonfail indicates a anti-homosexual slant at Amazon, I think they are going to be in for a huge ass reaming. poor choice of words?


Some affected authors have also made their views known on the subject. Jennifer Finney Boylan (@JennyBoylan) was among them.

  1. Jenny B.
    JennyBoylan Trans content just a dangerous as gay content, apparently. Finally, we're included in something! #amazonfail
  2. Jenny B.
    JennyBoylan I'm going to give amazon one day to prove it's a "glitch". My life is no glitch, and neither is the book about my life. #amazonfail
  3. Jenny B.
    JennyBoylan Also: today PEN and editors at Random House immediately got on the case. Author's Guild? No response. #amazonfail.
-- this quote was brought to you by quoteurl

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Mikeyy virus infests Twitter

More than 10,000 "Mikeyy" tweets have popped up in the past hour, and high-profile accounts including @breakingnews, @zaibatsu, @jeanlucr, and @murnahan were among those compromised (do not visit these pages until the situation subsides).

Some were baffled by the latest attack, the most advanced yet, which included malicious links and requests for retweets. The newest virus was presumably released by the same perpetrator who initiated the #stalkdaily worm, Mikeyy Mooney according to Breaking News Online.

Here's a collection of tweets amidst the chaos:

  1. Gisselle
    GisselleBella (New York/Vegas) @cdashspade yeah don't fall for anything that has to do with Mikeyy...this is his third time and now he's doing more advanced sh*t
  2. Chris X Robinson
    XRobinson (San Diego, Calif.) It's actually kind of fun to watch the Mikeyy worm on Tweet Deck. (Make sure you don't view profiles in yr browser.) One big mess, though.
  3. Rob Nelson
    guruvan (New York, N.Y.) ANOTHER BOGUS TWEET: "How TO remove new Mikeyy worm! RT!! " DO NOT CLICK ON SHORT LINKS IN THIS TWEET
  4. Sebastian Cario
    elcario (Dieburg, Germany) that darn #Mikeyy got me without clicking a profile... strange. #twittergewurme
  5. Danny!
    DannySwain (Atlanta, Ga.) @alice_wonder LOLz just thought I'd have a lil fun with this Mikeyy thing...figures when I finally sign up for Twit I gotta deal with this
  6. Zach Holman
    holman (Palo Alto, Calif.) This Mikeyy attack is actually slightly cool. Pretty quick uptake and trending. It's fun to reverse engineer these things.
  7. Kamikka McCoy
    mynameiskaye (Atlanta, Ga.) @jheneaiko u have the mikeyy virus.. download tweetdeck.. adn stop using twitter.com... seriosuly..


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A Day in Seoul

Seoul is home to more than 10 million people and is the second largest metropolitan area in the world next to Tokyo. Here's what some people are up to in the capital of South Korea this Monday morning.

  1. Gilbert Corrales
    samiq just got the update from my family after easter time. good to hear my mom on the phone ;-)
  2. Tara-Chan
    tarachan012 Okay. Time to get to work. Need to stop watching realtime #amazonfail XD
  3. 허진호 (Jin Ho Hur)
    hur 옥외 테이블에서 케익과 함께 커피 마시기에 정말 좋은 날씨. wifi만 있었으면 완벽하였을텐데 ^^ (With cake and coffee at outdoor tables drinking really good weather. I could only complete the link that was sent would have wifi ^ ^)
  4. Denise Miller
    denisermiller First bday party with 4-year-olds today. Whole class brought her presents, and dressed-up bday girl gave stickers in return. Pretty adorable
  5. John Ramey
    tBOBXerxes sittin at home and eating some ddokboki. Gotta love an hour and a half long lunch break.
  6. Dan Gray
    seouleats I just got finished from lunch. I went to the Bistro Corner for lunch. They have the best onion rings
  7. JoongWook Kim
    JoongWook I've just got joined this site 'twitter'. I'm eager to have friends in here.


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