FreeBilal.org, the Web site dedicated to freeing Bilal Hussein, the Iraqi citizen and AP photographer held by the United States government on terrorist charges for the past two years, won't need to exist much longer. The United States military will comply with last week's ruling by an Iraqi judicial committee to award Hussein amnesty. According to a statement released by the U.S. government, Maj. Gen. Douglas M. Stone, commander of coalition detention facilities in Iraq, signed the release order earlier today. The statement does not confirm guilt or innocence.

Hussein, part of the AP photography team that won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005, had been held since April 12, 2006 on charges of possessing bomb-making materials, conspiracy with insurgents and helping to forge identification cards.

Dealing with pompous, asinine politicians is one of the hazards of working in television news. But Sri Lankan state broadcaster Rupavahini TV lived the dream... and held the country's Minister of Labor hostage for three hours.

Here's what happened... Mervyn Silva, Sri Lanka's Minister of Labor, stormed the offices of state broadcaster Rupavahini along with his entourage. Silva was upset that a speech he made on Wednesday had not been covered by the station. A scuffled ensured and one of Silva's aides allegedly assaulted Rupavhini's news director. Silva was then held hostage by Rupavahini's staff for more than three hours... the problem?

Rupavahini TV would have let Silva leave the building if he apologized. He eventually apologized... after Rupavahini's corporate HQ was surrounded by commandos and police with tear gas. But, wait. Silva gave a non-apology apology:

"If my action is considered as a wrong act, I would like to apologise to the employees," said Silva.

Silva has had a history of violent behavior in the past.

(Image via Al-Jazeera/Reuters)

Think your job sucks? At least you're not a publicist for the Korean Central News Agency, the government press agency of North Korea. In a press release marking Kim Jong-Il's 16th anniversary as head of the North Korean military, the KCNA writes:

When he finds himself among soldiers, he takes a scrupulous care of their life from cultural and emotional activities to meals, showing them warmer affection than their own parents would.

He took measures to let the soldiers have many photos taken so that they would be able to keep them long as mementos of their military service. When he visited a women's company in a deep valley, he took care that all conditions were taken so they could watch clear and clean TV scenes.

[...]

Concerned even over the cold wind filtering through needle holes of soldiers' winter clothes, he took care that they were replaced with better ones. He acquaints himself with the room temperature and water quality while making a round of bedrooms, wash-cum-bath houses, kitchens, non-staple food stores and other supply facilities and teaches them food processing methods, too.

That's right: Serve in the North Korean military and the Dear Leader will personally fix your television reception.

So, hmm. The bastion of press freedom known as China is building an extensive database on the 30,000 foreign journalists scheduled to cover the 2008 Beijing Olympics. But, don't worry: It's not to create blacklists, obstruct reporters or to prevent access to those rabblerousing Uighur and Tibetan secessionists.

The San Francisco Chronicle was told they have until February to disclose the names of their journalists... and the Agence France-Presse got the quote of the day, from Li Zhanjun of the Beijing Olympic organizing committee's media centre:

"Some reporters like to cover sport and some others are very interested in politics ... so we have some kind of data and information concerning that."

No comment necessary on that one, eh?

A whopping 66% of FishbowlNY readers voted No, Rosie O'Donnell should NOT get a talk show on MSNBC or anywhere else. Today's Poll:

Ow-ah. Six months after Vanity Fair was launched in Germany as a weekly magazine, Der Spiegel reports Condé Nast is running into major problems with Deutsche-Vanity Fair. A few of the highlights:

• Condé Nast is spending € 500,000 (US$670,000) weekly on the magazine, which is also suspected of exaggerating a sold print run of 120,000.

• The usually mild-mannered Spiegel accuses Vanity Fair EIC Ulf Poschardt of "flamboyant arrogance" and his staff of "burn-out syndrome."

• A photo shoot in Dresden is a sign of the editors' "desperate search for glamour."

• Editors are complaining that the magazine lacks "political relevance and journalistic seriousness."

• In a German version of the Bono/Africa VF stunt, German pop star Herbert Gronemeyer guest edited an issue of the magazine and "received little in return."

• Poschardt claims overblown expectations as a "result of the magazine's association with the legendary US edition of Vanity Fair."

• German Condé Nast publisher Bernd Runge dodged questions about the magazine's circulation.

Spiegel's verdict:

continued...

It's not just D.C. Madams slamming ABC News: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney condemned a lightning rod report by ABC News investigative wunderkind Brian Ross about President Bush's authorization of covert action against Iran.

Romney:

"I was shocked to see the ABC News report regarding covert action in Iran. The reporting has the potential of jeopardizing our national security. To put it quite plainly, it has the potential of affecting human life, we may never know."

ABC News' response:

"In the six days since we first contacted the CIA and the White House, at no time did they indicate that broadcasting this report would jeopardize lives or operations on the ground. ABC News management gave them the repeated opportunity to make whatever objection they wanted to regarding our report. They chose not to."

The story, by the way, has drawn over 1,500 comments.

EARLIER:

Sharmeen Obaid Chinoy, an award-winning filmmaker for the Discovery Channel, PBS and New York Times TV among other media outlets, is asking for help in an effort to save Ghufran Haider, a young Pakistani featured in Obaid Chinoy's 2005 film Pakistan's Double Game who saved hundreds of lives by stopping a suicide bomber in Karachi. Haider, who testified against the bomber, is in Dubai, but faces probable death in Pakistan if he returns.

Haider's visa expires May 19.

Obaid-Chinoy's memo:

continued...

AOL, via Facebook, has obtained Cho Seung Hui's Richard McBeef, a play he supposedly wrote while at Virginia Tech. A student explains the eery background to AOL:

A major part of the playwriting class was peer reviews. We would write one-act plays and submit them to an online repository called Blackboard for everyone in the class to read and comment about in class the next day. Typically, the students give their opinions about the plays and suggest ways to make it better, the professor gives his insights, then asks the author to comment about the play in class.

When we read Cho's plays, it was like something out of a nightmare. The plays had really twisted, macabre violence that used weapons I wouldn't have even thought of. Before Cho got to class that day, we students were talking to each other with serious worry about whether he could be a school shooter. I was even thinking of scenarios of what I would do in case he did come in with a gun, I was that freaked out about him. When the students gave reviews of his play in class, we were very careful with our words in case he decided to snap. Even the professor didn't pressure him to give closing comments.

EARLIER:

George W. Bush made a surprise visit to the New York Stock Exchange floor — only the second sitting president to do so

CNN's transcript:

LISOVICZ: President Bush, welcome to Wall Street. Welcome to Wall Street.

GEORGE W. BUSH, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Good to be here, thanks.

LISOVICZ: What do you think of the reception here?

BUSH: I'm impressed and grateful.

LISOVICZ: Do you think it's warmer than on Capitol Hill right now?

Kyra?

PHILLIPS: Susan Lisovicz, I knew you could do it. You of all people got the president live on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange.

LISOVICZ: I don't know -- I don't know if you saw the glance he gave me after I asked him if he would have an easier time with Capitol Hill, but it was sort of a suspicious glance, and he covered the microphone.

PHILLIPS: He covered your microphone?

LISOVICZ: He did. He did. He said -- he is -- probably about ten feet away from me right now. Anyway, it's a historic day on Wall Street, and I'm moving forward because I'm being pushed forward.

Bush, of course, has had a rather checkered history with CNN microphones, and, for that matter, so has Kyra Phillips.