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Wikileaks 1 - New York Times 0

ITESPRESSO, LE POINT (France)

Worldcrunch

A column published on the New York Times' website had the web abuzz on Sunday, reports French website ITespresso. It was revealed later in the day, after many people including journalists and college professors had retweeted the column, that the whole thing was a hoax.

On Sunday, Bill Keller, former executive editor of The Times and Op-Ed columnist, wrote an opinion piece (see below) defending Wikileaks and condemning "backroom pressures by the Obama Administration's State Department to expand its financial blockade targeting Wikileaks." He wrote: "You don't have to embrace Assange as a kindred spirit to believe that what he did in publishing those cables falls under the protection of the First Amendment. ... I've said repeatedly, in print and in a variety of public forums, that I would regard an attempt to criminalize WikiLeaks' publication of these documents as an attack on all of us, and I believe the mainstream media should come to his defense."

The column, says ITespresso, garnered a number of reactions on the Internet, including from the London Guardian's columnist Dan Gillmore and Nick Bilton, NYT tech writer, who called it an "important piece" in a tweet that he later deleted.

The article, uses a fake domain name, www.opinion-nytimes.com, instead of www.nytimes.com, but the page, which is designed like a New York Times page, is very convincing.

What's was even more convincing for Bill Keller readers, is that the column is actually written from his own words: emails he sent to the GigaOM technology blog in response to an article about how attacks on WikiLeaks threaten the rights of all media entities.

Wikileaks admitted to the hoax later on Sunday.

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Society

Tales From A Blushing Nation: Exploring India's 'Issues' With Love And Sex

Why is it that this nation of a billion-plus has such problems with intimacy and romance?

Photo of Indian romance statues

Indian romance statues

Sreemanti Sengupta

KOLKATA — To a foreigner, India may seem to be a country obsessed with romance. What with the booming Bollywood film industry which tirelessly churns out tales of love and glory clothed in brilliant dance and action sequences, a history etched with ideal romantics like Laila-Majnu or the fact that the Taj Mahal has immortalised the love between king Shahjahan and queen Mumtaz.

It is difficult to fathom how this country with a billion-plus population routinely gets red in the face at the slightest hint or mention of sex.

It therefore may have come as a shock to many when the ‘couple-friendly’ hospitality brand OYO announced that they are “extremely humbled to share that we observed a record 90.57% increase in Valentine’s Day bookings across India.”

What does that say about India’s romantic culture?

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