Parental controls to be part of new Sony PS3

Parental controls to bepart of new Sony PS3
SAN JOSE, Calif. -- Sony Corp. has become the latest of the video game console makers to announce parental controls in it newest machine, according to the Entertainment Software Association. Now, all three major console makers are promising parents the means to help restrict their children's access to violent video games. Sony will place the controls on its forthcoming machine, PlayStation 3, according to the ESA. The company wasn't immediately prepared to comment. Microsoft Corp. had already placed parental controls in its new Xbox 360, which debuted last week. Earlier this month, Nintendo Inc. announced similar plans for its next-generation machine, Revolution, due out in 2006.
School administratorsseize student newspapers
OAK RIDGE, Tenn. -- Copies of a high school's student newspaper were seized by administrators because the edition contained stories about birth control and tattoos, stirring a First Amendment debate. Administrators at Oak Ridge High School went into teachers' classrooms, desks and mailboxes to retrieve all 1,800 copies of the newspaper Tuesday, said teacher Wanda Grooms, who advises the staff, and Brittany Thomas, the student editor. The Oak Leaf's birth control article listed success rates for various methods and said contraceptives were available from doctors and the local health department. Superintendent Tom Bailey said the article needed to be edited so it would be acceptable for the entire school. The edition also contained a photo of an unidentified student's tattoo, and the student had not told her parents about the tattoo, Bailey said. The paper can be reprinted if the changes are made, he said. First Amendment experts were critical of the seizure. "This is a terrible lesson in civics," University of Tennessee journalism professor Dwight Teeter said. "This is an issue about the administration wanting to have control. Either the students are going to have a voice, or you're going to have a PR rag for the administration."
Senator: Bush should useFDR style to explain war
WASHINGTON -- The chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee suggested Sunday that President Bush use an FDR-style presentation to update people on progress in the war in Iraq. Sen. John Warner, R-Va., recalled that during World War II, President Franklin D. Roosevelt often went on the radio in "fireside chats" to explain to the nation in detail the conduct of the war in Europe and Asia. "I think it would be to Bush's advantage," said Warner, who served in the Navy during the war. "It would bring him closer to the people, dispel some of this concern that understandably our people have, about the loss of life and limb, the enormous cost of this war to the American public," he said. The Senate voted 79-19 on Nov. 15 to urge the Bush administration to explain publicly its strategy for success in Iraq and to provide quarterly reports on policy and military operations.
Water service restoredto city after chemical spill
HARBIN, China -- Running water returned to this northeast city of 3.8 million people Sunday, ending a five-day shutdown attributed to a chemical spill that embarrassed the government and highlighted China's mounting environmental problems. However, officials warned that what was coming out the tap in frigid Harbin still was too dirty to drink. Water service started returning to this provincial capital shortly before 6 p.m. after the government said toxins spewed into the Songhua River by a chemical plant explosion had returned to safe levels. Residents said service did not resume in some areas for several more hours. Local television showed the governor of Heilongjiang province, where Harbin is located, drinking a glass drawn from the tap in a Harbin family's home after service resumed. But the government warned the public that supplies lying in pipes for five days were too dirty to drink.
Another Time reporterto testify in CIA case
WASHINGTON -- A second Time magazine reporter has agreed to cooperate in the CIA leak case and will testify about her discussions with Karl Rove's attorney, a sign that prosecutors are still exploring charges against the White House aide. Viveca Novak, a reporter in Time's Washington bureau, is cooperating with Special Counsel Patrick Fitzgerald, who is investigating the leak of CIA operative Valerie Plame's identity in 2003, the magazine reported in its Dec. 5 issue. Novak specifically has been asked to testify under oath about conversations she had with Rove attorney Robert Luskin starting in May 2004, the magazine reported.