Reports say people flying from Nigeria, Pakistan, Syria, Iran, Sudan, Yemen and Cuba will have pat-down body searches and have carry-on baggage searched.

The Transportation Security Administration said in a statement that the new rules apply to passengers flying from or through countries on the US State Department's "State Sponsors of Terrorism" list - Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria - and "other countries of interest".

The new law, which was passed in July, means that blasphemy in Ireland is now a crime punishable with a fine of up to €25,000 (£22,000).

The justice minister, Dermot Ahern, said that the law was necessary because while immigration had brought a growing diversity of religious faiths, the 1936 constitution extended the protection of belief only to Christians.

Illegal downloaders will be sent a warning e-mail, then a letter if they continue, and finally must appear before a judge if they offend again.

The judge can impose a fine, or suspend their access to the internet.

The law was backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy and the entertainment industry.

MySpace has replaced Imeem songs and playlists embedded on blogs and elsewhere on the web with advertisements for generic ringtones and the MySpace Music service.

Now, thousands of independent artists are not being paid money they're owed and countless posts on Listening Post and elsewhere on the web feature not Imeem's songs or playlists, but rather advertisements like the ones pictured to the above right.

The big news in security circles this week is the fact that a security researcher claims to have cracked the encryption used to keep GSM mobile phone calls private.

"This is theoretically possible but practically unlikely," said Claire Cranton, an association spokeswoman. She said no one else had broken the code since its adoption. "What he is doing would be illegal in Britain and the United States. To do this while supposedly being concerned about privacy is beyond me."

Why the government has granted exclusive rights to this industry group to collect and distribute money to musicians is troubling enough. But it's made worse by the fact that if SoundExchange "can't find" musicians to give the money to, it gets to keep the money.

As we've seen over and over again, many of these collections societies use sampling and counting methods that greatly overvalue big stars (who need the money less) at the expense of up-and-coming artists.

The long-awaited decision, while not unexpected, was the first in the United States in which a federal judge found that BitTorrent search engines are an unlawful avenue (.pdf) to free movies, music, videogames and software.

Fung, in an e-mail, said his sites should be protected by safe-harbor provisions of the copyright law, which immunize search engines from infringement liability if they promptly remove works when a rights-holder notifies them to take down infringing content.

Passengers are reporting that new restrictions are in place, and their severity varies flight to flight. Among the reports: No electronics allowed.

The New York Times is reporting that no one will be able to move from their seats during the last hour of flight. That means no bathroom breaks, no accessing carry-on luggage, nothing.

So you can't even play video games to distract yourself from how badly you have to pee.

A Nigerian man has been charged with attempting to destroy a plane after he allegedly tried to detonate a bomb on a passenger jet arriving in the US.

Mr Abdulmutallab reportedly told investigators he had links to al-Qaeda and had received the explosives in Yemen.

A preliminary investigation found that security procedures were followed correctly, and the man had a valid US visa.

It said army charities had been contacted by Endemol, the production company behind the Channel 4 show, asking for case studies of homeless or injured troops.

Annabelle Fuller, of the Army Benevolent Fund, told the newspaper: "We're a charity, not a selection box for bad TV programmes. The people we help are often vulnerable."

Commander John Muxworthy, of the UK National Defence Association, added: "How anyone could even attempt to try to take advantage of these people and their suffering is staggering."