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“Designed in California.”

“Hello from Seattle.”

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We’re not exactly up on our French, let alone our French telecommunications law, but we’re hearing that Apple’s supposed launch of the iPhone in that country is being held up by two different regulations that prevent the iPhone from being the locked-down revenue-generating machine Apple wants it to be. The first, a law passed in 1998, requires that carriers unlock any phone upon customer request — for a fee during the first six months of a contract and for free after that. Notably, all three major French carriers — including Orange, which was supposed to get the iPhone — have lost lawsuits challenging this law. The second, which we’re slightly less clear on, apparently requires carriers to sell both locked and unlocked phones. Tensions over the regulations have apparently strained the relationship between the companies to the point where Orange spokespeople are saying things like “the risk we’re evaluating this week is that Apple crosses France off,” but really, who expected Apples and Oranges to mix without someone getting a little bruised?

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For 40 years, the French government has been fighting a secret war in Africa, hidden not only from its people, but from the world. It has led the French to slaughter democrats, install dictator after dictator – and to fund and fuel the most vicious genocide since the Nazis. Today, this war is so violent that thousands are fleeing across the border from the Central African Republic into Darfur – seeking sanctuary in the world’s most notorious killing fields

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Every year, at least 2 million functionally illiterate adults join the ranks of Americans who can’t read.

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California resident Timothy Smith on Friday filed a class-action lawsuit against Apple, alleging that the iPhone maker violated the state’s antitrust law. The suit was filed on behalf of Smith by Damian Fernandez, the attorney who’s been seeking plaintiffs for a class-action case against Apple over iPhone bricking.

Specifically, Timothy P. Smith v. Apple Inc. charges the iPhone maker with violating the Cartwright Act, because, according to the court papers, “Apple prohibits iPhone consumers from using and purchasing a cell phone service other than through AT&T.”

The suit also says that cell phone unlocking is completely legal, citing traditional copyright law as well as the more recent Digital Millennium Copyright Act.

In addition, Smith’s suit claims that “as a result of Apple’s unlawful and anti-competitive conduct, consumers continue to pay artificially inflated prices for the iPhone and AT&T’s cell phone service.”

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Technology aside, the whole episode has clearly been a public-relations disaster for Apple. Earlier this week, I thought things had died down.

However, with the filing of this suit, it seems like the PR heat will continue.

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De Russische maffia is erin geslaagd op grote schaal Belgische bankrekeningen te plunderen. De criminele organisatie heeft de systemen voor internetbankieren van drie banken gekraakt. Daar zitten zelfs twee hoogbeveiligde grootbanken bij. Het federaal parket voert een onderzoek naar de organisatie.

De banken zijn zeer verontrust, maar houden de zware veiligheidsproblemen verborgen voor hun klanten.

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De getroffen banken hebben de gedupeerde klanten meteen vergoed om de commerciële schade te beperken en de zaak stil te houden. Febelfin, de belangenvereniging van de Belgische banken, viel gisteren uit de lucht. ‘Moesten we weet hebben van dit onderzoek, dan zouden we daarover communiceren, maar dat is niet het geval’, luidt het. De Commissie voor het Bank-, Financie- en Assurantiewezen (CBFA) is wel op de hoogte.

In mei vorig jaar waarschuwde het auditkantoor Deloitte dat onlinebankieren nog veiligheidslacunes vertoonde. Febelfin reageerde toen dat ‘er geen enkele reden tot bezorgdheid was’.

De juiste vertaling voor “een enkele reden tot bezorgdheid” is uiteraard “weet je wel wat het kost om dat op te lossen!”

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Twenty years ago, televangelist Oral Roberts said he was reading a spy novel when God appeared to him and told him to raise $8 million for Roberts’ university, or else he would be “called home.”

Now, his son, Oral Roberts University president Richard Roberts, says God is speaking again, telling him to deny lurid allegations in a lawsuit that threatens to engulf this 44-year-old Bible Belt college in scandal.

Richard Roberts is accused of illegal involvement in a local political campaign and lavish spending at donors’ expense, including numerous home remodelling projects, use of the university jet for his daughter’s senior trip to the Bahamas, and a red Mercedes convertible and a Lexus SUV for his wife, Lindsay.

She is accused of dropping tens of thousands of dollars on clothes, awarding nonacademic scholarships to friends of her children and sending scores of text messages on university-issued cell phones to people described in the lawsuit as “underage males.”

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Mrs. Roberts – who is a member of the board of regents and is referred to as ORU’s “first lady” on the university’s website – frequently had cell-phone bills of more than $800 per month, with hundreds of text messages sent between 1 a.m. to 3 a.m. to “underage males who had been provided phones at university expense.”

Soon the tide will turn, and we’ll start hearing stories of flamboyant gay activists who secretly have boring heterosexual marriages.