Apple removes pro-Palestinian programme "Third Intifada" app !

Technology giant Apple has removed a pro-Palestinian mobile application from its roster of hosted programmes after Israel complained it incited users to violence.

The "Third Intifada" application essentially reproduced the content from a website of the same name - 3rdIntifada.com - which posts news and opinion articles about Israeli aggression and the Palestinian cause.

"We removed this app from the App Store because it violates the developer guidelines by being offensive to large groups of people," an Apple spokesman said on Wednesday, according to the New York Times Bits blog.

The Third Intifada app, meant to be used on Apple mobile products such as the iPad and iPhone, was approved by the company on June 15.

Yuli Edelstein, the Israeli minister of public affairs and the diaspora, quickly sent a letter to Apple CEO Steve Jobs requesting he remove the programme and "thus continue the tradition of Apple applications dedicated to purely entertainment and informative purposes and note serve as an instrument for incitement to violence."

Edelstein's complaint was followed by another from the Simon Wiesenthal Centre, which aims to combat anti-Semitism.

'Offending programmes'

The complaints against Third Intifada were based on allegations that the programme incited violence and hatred of Israel. Apple's broadly worded app guidelines state that the company will reject apps that contain "references or commentary about a a religious, cultural or ethnic group that are defamatory, offensive, mean-spirited or likely to expose the targeted group to harm or violence".

Typical stories on 3rdIntifada.com describe demolitions of Palestinian homes by Israeli forces, the reported unearthing of a Muslim cemetery, and exhortations for Arabs in the Middle East to liberate Palestinians from "Zionist occupation".

The website noted Apple's ban in a short entry, referring to Israel as the "Zionist entity" and saying it "continues to put pressure on the whole world and all who would sympathise with the Palestinian cause".

Apple launched its app store in July 2008 and has previously removed offending programmes after complaints. This year, it removed an app that alerted users to nearby police drunk-driving checkpoints after US politicians complained and another that sought to "cure" gay people after Change.org collected more than 140,000 signatures against the religiously-inspired app.

In 2010, Apple removed an app that allowed users to track releases by the online whistleblower group WikiLeaks, saying programmes "may not put an individual or target group in harm's way".

Deadly blasts hit Baghdad neighbourhood - At least 23 people killed and another 100 wounded in Iraqi capital as bombs appear to target Shia mosque and a market.

Twenty-three people have been killed and at least 100 others injured by three bomb explosions in southwest Baghdad, Iraqi officials say. Two police officials said the bombs targeted a Shia Muslim mosque as well as a market on Thursday evening.

An Iraqi government official said: "Three improvised bomb explosions at the al-Shurta al-Rabaa market killed 17 people and wounded 35.

"There were a lot of people at the market because it is Thursday, the evening before the weekend", which begins on Friday.

An employee of Baghdad's Yarmouk hospital confirmed the casualty figure of 21.

Al Jazeera's Rawya Rageh, reporting from Baghdad, said: "The perpetrators used three wooden carts which are common for carrying vendor materials to and from the market.

"Two were placed at the entrance and exit to the market, [and] a third was placed at the centre of the market."

Witness account

An Iraqi resident, Jabir Ali, said he was about 200 yards away when one of the bombs went off near a barber shop where his cousin works.

Mobster Whitey Bulger arrested in California !

James "Whitey" Bulger, a notorious Boston gangster on the FBI's "Ten Most Wanted" list for his alleged role in 19 murders, was captured Wednesday near Los Angeles after living on the run for 16 years, authorities said. (Photo; This is an undated handout file photo the FBI released in this Dec. 30, 1998 showing reputed …)

Bulger, 81, was arrested along with his longtime girlfriend, 60-year-old Catherine Greig, in the early evening at a residence in Santa Monica, said a law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak publicly about the case. The arrest was based on a tip from the recent publicity campaign that federal authorities had regenerated, according to the official.

The two were arrested without incident, the FBI said. The FBI had been conducting a surveillance operation in the area where the arrest was made, Santa Monica police Sgt. Rudy Flores said.
Bulger was the leader of the Winter Hill Gang when he fled in January 1995 after being tipped by a former Boston FBI agent that he was about to be indicted. Bulger was a top-echelon FBI informant.
Over the years, the FBI battled a public perception that it had not tried very hard to find Bulger, who became a huge source of embarrassment for the agency after the extent of his crimes and the FBI's role in overlooking them became public.

Chinese dissident artist Ai Weiwei freed at last!

State media cites "good attitude in confessing" to tax evasion, but others credit international pressure for release.

Ai Weiwei, the renowned artist who is among the most prominent dissidents detained in China's sweeping recent crackdown on dissent, has been released on bail after confessing to tax evasion.

Ai's release after nearly three months' detention was not directly confirmed by him or his immediate family on Wednesday. However, Al Jazeera's Andrew Thomas, reporting from Beijing, was able to reach Ai and verify the news first-hand.

"He has confirmed that he has been freed - he's at home," our correspondent said.

Ai "said that he couldn't tell us anything at all except that he can't tell us anything".

Ai did say, however, that he had lost "a lot of weight" while in detention, our correspondent said.

Reacting to the news of the artist's release, Catherine Barber, deputy director of the UK-based Amnesty International's Asia Pacific programme, told Al Jazeera it "certainly looks like Ai Weiwei is under continuing restrictions" of some kind.

"All the activists released recently have been restricted, and some indeed kept in illegal house arrest after their release," she said.

"We would call on the authorities to lift all restrictions on Ai Weiwei's freedom of expression."

Poor health

The official Xinhua news agency said late on Wednesday that Ai's poor health was a factor in his release decision.

The brief report on state media said Ai had shown a "good attitude in confessing his crimes" and repeatedly pledged to pay taxes he owed.

But our correspondent said the Chinese government released Ai in order to head off further embarrassment and international pressure, and that his supporters maintain the motives behind his detention were purely political.

Formal charges against him have never been announced, and the state media report did not mention any pending charges or trial.

Ai's family and supporters have previously dismissed the tax-evasion accusations, and his wife, Lu Qing, said the company in question is registered and belongs to her, not him. The company handles the business aspects of Ai's art career.

Ai is among China's most internationally known artists and had a hand in designing Beijing's iconic Bird's Nest Olympic stadium before souring on the event. His fame has grown in recent years, both for his groundbreaking art and his bold irreverence towards authority.

A global pattern

Ai's detention at Beijing's airport on April 3 made him the most famous victim of a sweeping crackdown against dissent in China that began in February when online calls for protests similar to those in the Middle East
and North Africa began to circulate.

"China has been very, very jumpy, particularly in light of the Arab Spring, which of course started back in the beginning of the year," Al Jazeera's Thomas said.

"And China has been ... concerned that something could spread here and there definitely been a crackdown this year on all kinds of political dissent."

Hundreds of Chinese lawyers, activists, and other intellectuals have disappeared or been questioned or detained by authorities in the clampdown.

Ai had been keeping an informal tally of the detentions on Twitter. Ai was held under a form of detention known as residential surveillance somewhere outside Beijing.

Lu was permitted one brief, monitored meeting in which she said he seemed well cared for and was not being held in a formal jail.

International outcry

Ai's detention prompted an international outcry among artists, politicians and human-rights activists, and Western leaders called it a sign of China's deteriorating human rights situation.

His family and supporters said he was being punished for speaking out about the Communist leadership and social problems.

Ai has also spoken critically about a number of national scandals, including the deaths of students in shoddily built schools that collapsed during the 2008 Sichuan earthquake, children killed or sickened by tainted infant formula and a deadly skyscraper fire in Shanghai that killed 58 and was blamed on negligent workers and corrupt inspectors.

Amnesty International's Barber said on Wednesday that the same amount of international criticism should continue for the Chinese government regarding those who are still detained but lack the kind of global profile that Ai has.

"Ai Weiwei is one of 130 people detained since February and many of them are still anguishing in secret detention," she told Al Jazeera.

"Indeed, four of his associates, we believe, are still in such detention ... . It's very important that all of these people are released."

Dravid masterclass puts India on top but Windies Still have a chance to Win, if they bat well !

West Indies 173 and 131 for 3 need another 195 runs to beat India 246 and 252 (Dravid 112, Sammy 4-52, Bishoo 4-65)

On a Sabina Park track with plentiful turn and unpredictable bounce Rahul Dravid gave a resounding reminder of his value to the side with his 32nd Test century that put India on top in Jamaica. After his painstakingly constructed innings left West Indies an exacting target of 326, the home side's openers began the pursuit with an exhilarating flurry of strokes before a pair of superb catches slowed West Indies' charge. Shivnarine Chanderpaul and Darren Bravo resisted for the final hour to keep the home side's hopes alive.

Dravid, the oldest active Test cricketer, put together a masterclass reminiscent of his 2006 heroics, silencing any murmurs about his place in the side being in doubt after a barren South African tour and the emergence of a slew of youngsters. Darren Sammy captured four wickets, but he will probably still be regretting the simple slip chance he put down when Dravid had made just 6.

In an innings where the next highest scorer was No. 10 Amit Mishra with 28, Dravid prospered with the method that has worked so well for him over the past 150 Tests: playing old-school defensive cricket, shelving the fancy strokes and grinding down the opposition.

India got an early sign of the troubles ahead for the batsmen when the second ball of the day shot through, barely rising off the ground. Later in the day, a delivery from legspinner Devendra Bishoo bounced viciously, forcing the wicketkeeper to jump and try to collect it overhead.