Egypt eases travel restrictions for Gaza travelers (Reuters)

RAFAH, Gaza Strip (Reuters) – Egypt eased travel restrictions for residents of Gaza Saturday, eroding a blockade of the Palestinian territory imposed by Israel to isolate its Islamist Hamas rulers.

Egypt, which made peace with Israel in 1979 but whose interim military rulers want to improve relations with Palestinians, allowed nearly 300 Gazans to enter its territory at the Rafah crossing in the first hour after it opened.

By the end of the day, 450 travelers had crossed into Egypt. Only 23 were turned back because of Egyptian security concerns, a Palestinian border official said.

The official said 450 was the total number of people able to cross in a day and a half last week.

The Rafah crossing, Gaza's only door to the outside world not controlled by Israel, will operate six days a week instead of five and will open two hours longer per day.

"I believe this a unique move and positive development," said Ghazi Hamad, Hamas's deputy foreign minister.

Israel maintains a tight blockade of the Gaza Strip because Hamas refuses to recognize the Jewish state and calls for its destruction.

Israel allows most commercial goods to be brought into the Gaza Strip through land border crossings but limits the import of construction material it says could be used by Hamas to produce weapons or fortifications. It lets out a small number of Gazans, mainly for medical treatment.

Weapons and consumer goods have been smuggled for years through tunnels that run under the Gaza-Egypt border.

LOOSER TRAVEL RULES

Under Egypt's new travel guidelines, women, minors and men over 40 no longer require a visa to enter the country, meaning hundreds more passengers will be able to cross every day.

Previously, the terminal could cope with no more than 300 outgoing passengers per day and Hamad said with streamlined coordination he expected the daily numbers to triple.

"We will cooperate with Egyptian brothers to make sure the new arrangements get implemented smoothly and accurately ... We even hope that 1,000 people will be able to cross every day," Hamad, who oversees work at the crossing, told Reuters.

Palestinians say the Egyptian move marks a new era in relations after the February removal in an uprising of Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak, who helped preserve the blockade and sided with Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas, Hamas's rival.

Egypt brokered a reconciliation pact between Hamas and Fatah signed earlier this month to end a four-year feud in a move which Palestinians hope will lead to the formation of a unity government and elections within a year.

Nabil Shaath, a senior Fatah official visiting the Gaza Strip, said the easing of travel for Gazans came as a result of the reconciliation deal which "has made the job easier for Cairo ... as now they are dealing with one (Palestinian) entity."

"We are very happy, it was a brave decision by Egypt to open the crossing and to dismantle the prison imposed by Israel on the people (of Gaza)," he said.

The blockade has compounded poverty in the territory of 1.5 million. It was eased by Israel in the wake of an international outcry a year ago after it killed nine pro-Palestinian Turks in confrontations during a commando raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla.

Israel has said it hopes Cairo will not heed Hamas demands to allow commercial goods through the crossing, saying it fears more arms will be smuggled into the territory.

Shaath rejected the fears: "Opening this door does not mean Egypt wants to allow bombs and explosives ... Egypt wants to allow safe passage of individuals who want to conduct their lives."

(Additional reporting by Ahmed El-Shemi in Rafah, Egypt; Editing by David Cowell)

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Activists warn G-8 against Web restrictions (AP)

PARIS – Internet activists and digital entrepreneurs warned Wednesday that if global leaders attempt to limit access to the Web, their restrictions will be bypassed and they will become irrelevant.

The stark message adds to growing resistance — from big name companies like Google and Twitter to anonymous Internet vigilantes who have attacked government censorship networks — against creeping laws that might one day restrict services many users now take for granted.

Leaders of the Group of Eight most powerful countries begin meeting in France on Thursday to discuss issues of global concern in the wake of the Arab uprising that have been described as the first Internet-enabled revolutions.

"G-8 governments should say very clearly for once that Internet access is a fundamental human right," said Jean-Francois Julliard, who heads free speech group Reporters without Borders.

Julliard said more than 60 countries now have some form of Internet censorship in place, and that number is growing.

Tony Wang, Twitter's general manager for Europe, said attempts to crack down on free expression are self-defeating.

He declined to discuss attempts in Britain to enforce the country's strict privacy law against users of the micro-blogging site. But Wang told a panel in Paris that "the response to bad speech should be more speech."

Earlier this year, Twitter teamed up with Google to create a service allowing Egyptians to post messages on the Internet even after the government had cut Web access in an effort to quell street protests.

"We take that open communication channel for granted at our peril," Google's regional policy director Susan Pointer said.

Support for unrestricted Web access also came from the U.S. government. Alec Ross, a special adviser to U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, said Washington recently spent $28 million training democracy activists to use tools that allow them to bypass online filters.

With users become more sophisticated and technology allowing them to establish autonomous networks outside of government control, some at the meeting said authorities are fighting a losing battle.

"Government in many ways is absolutely going to, if not already has, become irrelevant," said Shervin Pishevar, the chief executive of California-based SGN, which invests in social and mobile gaming companies. "It's not going to be in control anymore with the technologies that are coming down the pipe."

That message may not be welcomed by all G-8 leaders. Their host, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, had convened Internet mavens in Paris on Tuesday to argue that the online world needs more real-world regulation.

Maurice Levy, tasked by Sarkozy with organizing what was billed as the first "e-G-8" conference, said participants hoped leaders would heed their objection to greater government interference.

"If it just changes (views) by two degrees it will be a huge victory," said Levy, the chief executive of France's ad agency Publicis Groupe SA.

Asked what she would tell the G-8, activist Nadine Wahab said the lesson from the successful uprisings in Egypt and Tunisia should be: "Leave the Internet alone."

"It doesn't belong either to companies, nor the governments nor the G-8," she said.

____

Frank Jordans can be contacted on Twitter at http://twitter.com/wirereporter

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Senators Propose Tighter Restrictions on Military Funeral Protests

Reuters

Nov. 11, 2010: Members of the Westboro Baptist Church hold anti-gay signs at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia on Veterans Day.

A bipartisan group of senators on Thursday introduced a bill to strengthen restrictions on protests at military funerals, in response to a Supreme Court ruling in favor of a Kansas church notorious for picketing troops' funerals. 

The Supreme Court last month ruled that the Westboro Baptist Church's widely despised protests count as protected speech under the Constitution. The new proposal aims not to challenge that decision, but tighten existing restrictions to give grieving families more privacy. 

"Those who fight and die in the service of our country deserve our highest respect. Their families have earned the right to bury their loved ones in peace. The SERVE Act strikes a balance between the sanctity of a funeral service and the right to free speech," Sen. Olympia Snowe, R-Maine, said in a statement. 

The SERVE Act stands for "The Sanctity of Eternal Rest for Veterans." The bill would increase the buffer zone around military funerals from 150 feet to 300 feet, and increase the buffer around routes to the funerals from 300 feet to 500 feet. 

It would also increase the amount of "quiet time" before and after services from one hour to two hours and increase penalties. 

The Westboro Baptist Church, though, has threatened to challenge statutes across the country that restrict picketing, in light of the Supreme Court decision. 

The Supreme Court ruled 8-1, with only Justice Samuel Alito dissenting, that the protests were protected speech. 

"Speech is powerful. It can stir people to action, move them to tears of both joy and sorrow, and -- as it did here -- inflict great pain," Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in his majority opinion. "On the facts before us, we cannot react to that pain by punishing the speaker. As a nation we have chosen a different course -- to protect even hurtful speech on public issues to ensure that we do not stifle public debate." 

Other co-sponsors on the military funerals bill were: Sens. Ben Cardin, D-Md.; Dan Coats, R-Ind.; Kent Conrad, D-N.D.; Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y.; John Hoeven, R-N.D.; Kay Bailey Hutchison, R-Texas; Mike Johanns, R-Neb.; Mark Kirk, R-Ill.; Mark Pryor, D-Ark.; Harry Reid, D-Nev.; Jay Rockefeller, D-W.Va.; Marco Rubio, R-Fla.; and Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.

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D.C. Mayor Gray arrested protesting budget restrictions

Evan Vucci, AP

A Capitol Hill police officer talks to D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray before he was arrested during a protest on Capitol Hill of the restrictions placed on the district as part of the federal budget deal on Monday.

EnlargeCloseEvan Vucci, AP

A Capitol Hill police officer talks to D.C. Mayor Vincent Gray before he was arrested during a protest on Capitol Hill of the restrictions placed on the district as part of the federal budget deal on Monday.

Angry that Congress appears ready to take away autonomy granted to the city in the last several years, Mayor Vincent Gray and six Council members, including the chairman, were among 41 people arrested Monday outside the Capitol while protesting the changes. Seven hours later, they were released from jail.

D.C. has a city government, but its budget and laws are subject to Congressional review. Congress has had control over the city since it was founded. District officials say Washington was used as a pawn in last week

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