Reomel Ramones was arrested May 8 and his live-in girlfriend Irene de Guzman was expected to surrender after seeking legal counsel, according to wire service reports covering the Love Bug - the virus that last week whipped around cyberspace faster and wider than any computer virus to date. Some reports indicated the couple has been identified as suspects several days before Ramones's arrest, but Filipino law does not include an anti-hacking law - only a law against computer fraud. Law enforcement confiscated items from de Guzman's apartment including a telephone, telephone wiring, and computer magazines, but no computers, because there were none in the house.
WASHINGTON - Microsoft is expected to propose limits on its business practices this week, in a bid to keep the government from breaking up the software giant. The company has until May 10 to file its proposal, with a government reply due May 17 and a hearing conducted by federal judge Thomas Penfield Jackson - who ruled in early April that Microsoft violated antitrust law - on May 24. The company isn't commenting on speculation about what its proposal might include. The Washington Post had reported May 7 that the proposal would include a requirement to give software developers information they need to build product in timely manners, let computer makers tinker with the desktops and conceal access to Microsoft Internet Explorer, and ban Microsoft from making restrictive agreements compelling others to promote Microsoft products over those of competitors. But a government official told the Post those ideas would be backward looking and not necessarily stop Microsoft from using monopoly power in the future as Jackson ruled they had against rival Netscape. The government proposed splitting Microsoft in half April 28 - and has since alleged that Microsoft gained an edge for computer servers by making Windows 2000 security features compatible to its own products but not to rival Unix and Linux.
WASHINGTON - If you think the West is tough on homosexuality, consider that much of the Muslim world punishes homosexuality with death. Where, then, might gay Muslims find refuge? On the Internet. American-created websites for gay Muslims are offering safe and anonymous places for one of the most fearful of all gay communities worldwide, according to Wired. "Almost every Muslim country has laws on the books against homosexuality," Faisal Alam, president of Washington-based Al-Fatiha, an online gay Muslim community, told the magazine. "In many places, the punishment may include jail time, fines, or lashing." Homosexuality is punishable by death in Iran, Afghanistan, Saudi Arabia, Libya, and Sudan. Alam told Wired at least 4,000 gays - by conservative estimate - have been executed in Iran since the 1979 Islamic Revolution. But the Net is allowing gay Muslims to find support, advice, and simple comfort anonymously, against a culture which inflicts social penalties nearly as severe as criminal ones.
--- Compiled by Humphrey Pennyworth
