Australia's nutter MP, Fred Nile, is red-faced after Parliament's IT audit suggests he checked porn sites – clicking them up to 200,000 times.

The Daily Telegraph has the scoop, but Nile today claims his staff were using his log-in to conduct research purposes. Particularly researching the Sex Party according to his staff.

The Christian Democrat adds that a huge 200,000 hit-count on the suspect' NSFW sites is surely impossible.

Nile is holding on, though another NSW politician's career is over after he was similarly discovered having accessed porn at work. Ports Minister Paul McLeay resigned following his net history revelation.

In a teary media conference, McLeay said he had apologised to the Premier. The audit, by the Department of Parliamentary Services, is understood to have found more than 60,000 suspect hits on McLeay's log-on. I am quite embarrassed to be standing here before you. This behaviour is not the standard expected of Government ministers, he said.

A firewall was installed in July for Legislative Assembly MPs so they could not view pornography, but Legislative Council President Amanda Fazio elected not to install a firewall for the Upper House. Before news of McLeay's resignation broke, Ms Fazio yesterday said she was refusing to implement a similar ban in the Upper House saying she was against internet censorship. She said MPs should be able to research pornography.

Nile's comeuppance follows a long line of attacks against LGBT communities from from the early 80s right up to this week. Wading unhelpfully into the NSW debate on same-sex couples adopting children, he bizarrely claimed at a rally on Tuesday that some women would abort their children rather than risk them being raised by gay couples.

The Bible-thumper's hatred towards homosexuality is well-documented through his long political career. He used to frequently state that being gay was an "immoral and unnatural lifestyle choice" and described Mardi Gras as a "public parade of immorality and blasphemy." He has labels his Green Party rivals as "anti-family."

Update: Crap filter definitions make for false accusations

4th September.  Based on article from news.com.au

An audit of politicians' internet use that claimed the scalp of a state minister ranked the newspaper site news.com.au as the most visited adult website.

The audit supposedly showed whether NSW MPs had been visiting adult links such as gambling and pornography sites. However Legislative Council president Amanda Fazio yesterday revealed the audit had incorrectly classified news sites as adult because they contained links to or advertisements for adult dating sites.

Both news.com.au and smh.com.au (Sydney Morning Herald) were classified as adult sites in the audit.

The definition of what has been classed as an adult site is something we're reviewing, she said: What surprised us... the biggest (site) of what is classed as an adult site being hit by the parliament is the news.com.au site. Because there are adult matchmaking links or ads on their site, every time someone accesses news.com.au and they go from one article to another, that's counted as an individual hit on an adult site.

The bungle is one of the most embarrassing examples to date of the problems that can occur when governments and organisations try to regulate internet use.

The revelation could also absolve some MPs tangled in the web porn scandal at NSW parliamentary offices that erupted this week.

Opposition Leader Barry O'Farrell said every politician had been tainted by the scandal and asked for the matter to be settled quickly.

Update: Democratically elected representatives have to ask permission to access more adult areas of the internet such as news websites

6th September.  Based on article from sify.com

Politicians at New South Wales Parliament House will now be able to access porn sites (including mainstream news sites with links to porn sites) with prior permission and only if it's for research.

Upper House President Amanda Fazio has reviewed the policies over Internet use. The new guidelines will allow staffers to seek an exemption to view adult sites if they need to research, reports the Daily Telegraph.

Fazio said a memo will be issued to MPs this week of the new arrangements, with the permission slip already available on the parliament intranet.

Salt is a 2010 US spy thriller by Phillip Noyce. See IMDb

A re-edited version with an alternative ending was passed 15 uncut for:

• UK 2010 Sony video version

The BBFC explained their rating:

SALT is an action espionage thriller starring Angelina Jolie as CIA agent Evelyn Salt. She is forced to go on the run after being accused by a defector of being a Russian deep-cover sleeper agent.

This is an extended version of a film that was classified 12A in the cinema and 12 on DVD for moderate violence and one use of strong language. Additional material present here meant this version of the film was classified 15 for strong violence.

The BBFC's Guidelines at 12A'/'12 state that Moderate violence is allowed but should not dwell on detail. There should be no emphasis on injuries or blood, but occasional gory moments may be permitted if justified by the context. SALT includes several fast-paced fight scenes featuring moderate violence, with crunchy kicks and blows. In most scenes little is seen in terms of blood or injury detail but there are a few sequences of strong violence, including a woman being repeatedly beaten and smashed into a desk as she fights a dirty agent and a woman pulling a chain around a man's neck to throttle him. The film also opens with a torture scene in which a plastic tube is forced into Salt's mouth and filled with water, with some brief emphasis on her struggle. These stronger scenes exceed the terms of the 12A'/'12 Guidelines and are more appropriately placed at 15 where Violence may be strong but should not dwell on the infliction of pain or injury. The strongest gory images are unlikely to be acceptable. Strong sadistic or sexualised violence is also unlikely to be acceptable.

SALT also contains a single use of strong language that is neither aggressively delivered nor directed. This would have been permissible at 12A'/'12 where the Guidelines state that The use of strong language (for example, 'fuck') must be infrequent.

Previously the BBFC suggested the cuts for 12A for:

• UK 2010 cinema release.

This film was originally shown to the BBFC in an unfinished version. The BBFC advised the company that the film was likely to receive a 15 classification but that the requested 12A certificate could be achieved by making cuts in six sequences in order to reduce a scene of torture, four violent scenes and a scene of strangulation. When the finished version of the film was submitted, all six scenes had been reduced acceptably and the film was classified 12A.

How should we as Baptists regard the growing popularity of Mixed Martial Arts (MMA) and the Ultimate Fighting Championship (UFC)?

Simply put, we should hate it.

Psalm 11:5 says, The LORD examines the righteous and the wicked. He hates the lover of violence. This is a hard verse for at least two reasons. First, it does not say that God simply hates violence, but rather, that God hates those who love violence. Second, it confronts our culture's lust for violence, a lust which many Christians indulge rather than reject.

UFC and MMA comprise a lucrative mainstream business of entertainment violence. Gate revenue for UFC fights in 2007 totaled $2.8 million and $200 million for pay-per-view. An international phenomenon, one UFC fight in Dublin sold all 10,000 seats in two weeks. Surprisingly, an estimated one-third of fans are female. UFC and MMA fighters have been featured on mainstream shows such as 60 Minutes and Dr. Phil, and on ESPN.

What exactly are people paying to see? MMA and UFC offer a simple formula. Two people are put in an enclosed or confined space, usually an octagon cage, and fight until one of them is deemed (by the referee) too injured to continue or taps out, meaning he just can't take any more beating. Fighters wear minimally padded gloves which lead to more blood, and those bloody images are then used to market the sport.

Those who pay to see the fights also pay to see octagon girls, scantily clad eye-candy between bouts. MMA and UFC are far from a harmless sport. They are a sinful amalgam of blood lust and female objectification that reflects our cultures growing desensitization to the inherent value of human life.

UFC and MMA amounts to violence porn, a term which has been applied to movies with wanton violence such as SAW, where violence is not part of the plot, it is the attraction. Violence for violence's sake, as opposed to instrumental or redeeming violence, desensitizes the viewer to the graphic horror of watching two people pummel each other for the sake of entertainment. UFC and MMA offer exactly the kind of violence condemned in Psalm 11:5. Ezekiel 7:23 decries, the city is full of violence. Why are Christians supporting violence in the city?

Early Christians were objects of violent persecution, being thrown into Roman coliseums for the amusement of the masses. Two-thousand years later, some Christians are now in the stands, cheering and supporting the blood and violence. Christians must avoid any support or association with the entertainment violence of MMA and UFC. We must not envy the men of violence or choose any of their ways (Proverbs 3:31).

Or have we forgotten the words of Christ? Blessed are the peacemakers.

The Slayer is a 1981 US horror by JS Cardone. See IMDb

Passed 18 uncut for:

• UK 2010 Cornerstone R2 DVD at UK Amazon
• UK 2001 Protected/Vipco R0 DVD

Previously the BBFC cut 14s for an 18 rating for:

• UK 1992 Vipco VHS

From IMDb:

• Edited to shorten a pitchfork murder

And before that, Vipco released the uncut VHS in June 1982. It appeared on the video nasties list in October 1983 but was dropped in April 1985

Review from UK Amazon: Minimal Gore

The Vipco DVD is grainy and washed out.

The film is quite good. two couples fly to a quiet island for a well-earned break, but Kay knows the horror that is waiting for them & sure enough they are killed off by this monster. Once the killings start & the storm comes, there's a good atmosphere .

Unfortunately, the gore is way too minimal - with a decent pitchforking scene being its only saviour.

It's reported the Zimbabwe's censorship board has declared it will now be a crime for artists to perform without an entertainment licence.

Solomon Chitungo, an official with the Censorship Board, is quoted as saying; This is not a new thing it has always been there but it's just that it was not applied strictly and artists have been performing illegally. The certificate will be valid for 12 months. It's just like a drivers licence, we are also just issuing a licence to provide entertainment and if one is to be found without the certificate we will stop the show and confiscate their equipment, he said.

Newsreel has been told artists will now need to pay US$25 a year while institutions will have to cough up US$155 a year to get the entertainment licence. While the law is not new, as the censorship board official admitted, their motivation in dusting-off an outdated law from Ian Smith's Rhodesian regime is meant to find yet another way of controlling free expression.

Armed policemen, including masked special-forces officers, have raided the Moscow office of the The New Times, one of Russia's few opposition-minded media outlets.

During the raid, on September 2, Russian police Colonel Stanislav Pashkovsky pressed the magazine's editor in chief, Yevgenia Albats, to hand over recordings of interviews and other material used in a February report on alleged abuse of power by the country's feared OMON riot police.

The magazine posted videos of the raid on its website.

The article in question, entitled Slaves of OMON, cited police sources who alleged that riot police have been given permission to commit abuses when breaking up protests: It was an article about the violations taking place inside Moscow's OMON -- how they are given instructions on how to break up Marches of Dissent, how it is explained to them that supporters of the Russian opposition are the enemies of Russia, Albats said.

With large illuminated lettering affixed to its pasty white facade proclaiming Adult Movies, the all-night Ueno Okura Theater has been entertaining fans of erotic cinema for nearly five decades.

The two-screen building, however, closed recently due to safety concerns and aesthetic problems resulting from its aged interiors.

But the theater widely regarded as Japan's top outlet for soft-core pink pornographic films will continue inside a new complex across the alley and begin targeting a different type of cinemagoer: women.

Female customers can't typically come to this kind of place because they feel embarrassed, says the theater's bespectacled general manager, Hidekazu Saito. But we want them to come without hesitation.

Due to unfold Sunday in the new theater complex was a special ladies only event featuring a speaking engagement with three adult-film actresses (Chisato Shoda, Maki Tomoda and Riri Koda) and the screening of two new films. These include director Tetsuya Takehora's Shiofuki Hanayome no Sei Hakusho (White Paper on a Gushing Bride's Sex Life), a coming-of-age story about a young woman seeking love.

The new building is accommodating to female sensibilities. With a well-lit lobby and bright red and blue signs covering its sloping concrete exterior, the new Okura creates a more modern atmosphere compared with the drab tile flooring and faded earth-tone wall coverings of the old structure.

Ueno Okura TheaterPink films, or pinku eiga, date back to the 1960s. These short films (usually running for 60 minutes) are made by small companies, most notably Okura Eiga, which operates the Ueno Okura, and differ from conventional porn flicks in that the story lines are generally more broadly developed.

Originally the Okura opened under the Toei film company in 1951. It was 11 years later that it screened Flesh Market, a tale of torture and bondage directed by Satoru Kobayashi that is typically considered to be Japan's first pink film. By 1971, it was entirely dedicated to the pink genre.

Around that time, the Okura was one of eight theaters in Ueno offering erotic entertainment. That number slowly dwindled over the next few decades as home video crept into the market.

Longtime fans should not be disappointed with its reincarnation. The number of screens has increased by one to three, the former basement theater has been relocated to the second floor, and a wheelchair space and headphones for the hearing impaired are provided.

The recent closing of numerous long-running theaters in Tokyo was not a deterrent in deciding the fate of the Okura. Saito believes that if the theater were simply closed the genre would slowly die. If we lose this, we'll lose pink films, he says. This is to save them.

Blackberry phones have a reputation for security, and are therefore commonly used by journalists concerned they or their sources could be at risk of government or criminal surveillance. What should journalists working under these conditions make of these new developments? Will their online security be diminished?

There have been persistent reports that BlackBerry's maker,  RIM, has faced pressure to placate security services in India and Saudi Arabia.

Can journalists still depend on it for secure communications?

Judging from all the evidence, the answer depends on where you obtained your BlackBerry. BlackBerrys are sold either directly to individual consumers by mobile companies, or provisioned by corporate (or government) IT departments as the mobile extension of their own, private, messaging systems.

If you have been issued a BlackBerry by your employer, or use it to access company mail via what RIM calls a BlackBerry Enterprise Server (BES), the security of your device is in the hands of your employer, not RIM. Companies are worried about snooping, too, so RIM has purposefully secured its enterprise offerings so that not even RIM can spy on their traffic. As a side effect, this means communication is almost certainly secure from government interception, even if those governments require RIM to keep its servers in their control. If you feel you are in a vulnerable position, and use a corporate BlackBerry, speak to your IT department about its security.

If you have a consumer BlackBerry bought from a mobile phone company, you do not have the protection of RIM's corporate security system. Locating RIM servers in these countries (as many of them have demanded) would give the local authorities the ability to straightforwardly intercept all but SSL/TLS (https) Web traffic, and would allow local law enforcement to obtain access to stored e-mail.

One common service used by both enterprise and consumer BlackBerry owners is PIN-to-PIN messaging, the feature that allows BlackBerry owners to send free messages to any other BlackBerry user. PIN-to-PIN has the strongest reputation for privacy. Unfortunately, while it is certainly harder to intercept than SMS (text) messages, the encoding system that RIM uses to send PIN messages can theoretically be decoded.

In summary: if you're a journalist using an enterprise BlackBerry given to you by your employer for work purposes, you are probably well-protected from casual interception (although you should never depend on the inviolability of your communication systems). If you are using a consumer BlackBerry, do not presume to be any better protected from surveillance than someone using an ordinary mobile phone.

The Home Office is to review UK extradition agreements with other countries, including the controversial and some say unbalanced agreement with the United States.

According to reports, the review will include the Extradition Act 2003 which implemented into law the UK-United States extradition treaty. It will also consider the European Arrest Warrant, which was used for 50% more arrests last year.

The review fulfils the pledge made in the coalition's program for government to review the operation of the Extradition Act – and the US/UK extradition treaty – to make sure it is even-handed.

The former Home Secretary, David Blunkett, has told the BBC that the agreement with the US was forged very much in the shadow of the September 11 2001 attacks. He also regrets some of its features:

The problem, campaigners say, is that whereas the U.S. extradition agreement may have been designed with suspected terrorists in mind, in fact it has been used to extradite many who have nothing to do with terrorism, such as Gary McKinnon. It is also accused of being unbalanced in favour of the US.