RTFA: http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=0802181633…

Damage to several undersea telecom cables that caused outages across the Middle East and Asia could have been an act of sabotage, the International Telecommunication Union said on Monday.
“We do not want to preempt the results of ongoing investigations, but we do not rule out that a deliberate act of sabotage caused the damage to the undersea cables over two weeks ago,” the UN agency’s head of development, Sami al-Murshed, told AFP.
Five undersea cables were damaged in late January and early February leading to disruption to Internet and telephone services in parts of the Middle East and south Asia.

Oh cra…NO CARRIER

RTFA: http://www.metafilter.com/68915/Psychologists-Prot…

Citing the organization’s “sharp shift in values and direction,” Ken Pope, prominent member of the American Psychological Association (and a former chair of its Ethics Committee), resigned his membership on February 6. He’s the latest of a growing number of professional psychologists who have quit APA in protest of its position on the use of psychologists in government interrogations in the “War on Terror.”

The APA has stopped short of banning members from conducting torture, and instead has issued statements that prohibit members from performing specific actions during interrogation. It has become clear that certain APA members are actively involved in torture on behalf of the US government, and although the APA has been pressed on the issue, the APA has remained silent. Therefore, the statements by the APA that would condemn torture have been shown to be hollow.

In all, this amounts to a tacit approval of torture practices by APA members.

RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20080219/ts_nm/cuba_cas…

HAVANA (Reuters) - Ailing Cuban leader Fidel Castro stepped down on Tuesday 49 years after taking power in an armed revolution, closing the book on a Cold War career that turned him into a leftist icon and a tyrant to his foes.

Castro, 81, who has not appeared in public since undergoing stomach surgery almost 19 months ago, said he would not seek a new term as president or leader of Cuba’s armed forces when the National Assembly meets on Sunday.

His retirement raised expectations for change on the communist island, but Cuba experts said limited economic reforms were more likely than swift political change.

RTFA: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080219/ap_on_go_su_co…

WASHINGTON - The Supreme Court rejected a challenge Tuesday to the Bush administration’s domestic spying program.
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The justices’ decision, issued without comment, is the latest setback to legal efforts to force disclosure of details of the warrantless wiretapping that began after the Sept. 11 attacks.

The American Civil Liberties Union wanted the court to allow a lawsuit by the group and individuals over the wiretapping program. The 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals dismissed the suit, saying the plaintiffs could not prove their communications had been monitored.

RTFA: http://science.nasa.gov/headlines/y2008/13feb_luna…

On Wednesday evening, February 20th, the full Moon over the Americas will turn a delightful shade of red and possibly turquoise, too. It’s a total lunar eclipse-the last one until Dec. 2010.

FYI