God is fine, but internet users take the name of Allah in vain

By Nick O'Malley and agencies
February 27, 2006

YAHOO! has changed its rules on the words it allows in email addresses after a man discovered he could not register an account because his surname contained the word Allah.

Ed Callahan said he tried to establish the email account with the internet portal in the US after his mother, who has the same surname, could not get one.

He discovered that email addresses with other religious words were allowed, but not those that included Allah.

"On one level this is just silliness. But we have a war on terrorism and it's migrating to be a war on Muslims - this just shows the confusion there is between the two and how pervasive this is," Mr Callahan told the online journal The Register.

The incident has become a talking point on technology blogs. Many engaged in the debate have noted that Yahoo! was at the forefront of a recent campaign to keep the internet free of Government censorship in the US.

Yahoo! now says it has changed its policy to allow the word. In a written statement, the company defended the previous policy as an attempt to protect users from hateful speech.

"A small number of people registered for IDs using specific terms with the sole purpose of promoting hate and then used those IDs to post content that was harmful or threatening to others, thus violating Yahoo!'s terms of service," the statement said.

Another internet user with the letters of Allah in his online name, "Kallahar", claims to have tested Yahoo!'s system before it was changed to see which other words were banned. God was allowed, but Allah was banned; Bin Laden was banned, but "terrorist" was allowed.

Mr Callahan, who set up a webpage in protest at what he saw as discrimination against Muslims on behalf of Yahoo, has a new email address which includes the phrase "alla is in Callahan".

Tenants line up 10 deep

Tenants line up 10 deep - rents market turns into a scrum

By Bonnie Malkin and Jonathan ChancellorFebruary 25, 2006 from smh.com.au

SYDNEY is in the grip of a rental drought that is pushing up rents by as much as 5.5 per cent and inundating open inspections with scores of desperate tenants.

The number of vacant properties fell to a five-year low this month, and real estate experts warn that the drought will continue until the property market picks up.

They blame the squeeze on first-time buyers deciding to stay out of the market in the hope that prices will fall further, and a lack of new investment properties.

Figures from the Real Estate Institute of NSW show the vacancy rate fell to 2.1 per cent in Sydney, down 0.3 percentage points on February last year and 1.3 on February 2004. The middle ring of Sydney was hit hardest this month, with vacancy rates falling from 2.3 per cent in January to 1.7 per cent.

"There is not much to rent at all," said the institute's president, Cristine Castle. "Instead of having 10 or 15 properties, you have got two or three." Any figure below 2 per cent should set off "alarm bells", she said.

The situation is in stark contrast to the renters market of a few years ago when landlords used sweeteners of rent-free weeks and free appliances to lure tenants.

The NSW manager of Century 21, David Colman, said rentals were traditionally scarce in late summer, but this year was worse than usual.

His opposite number at RUN Property, Michael Conolly, said one open inspection in Woollahra this week had attracted more than 30 viewers. Units and houses in the inner west and North Shore attracted about three applications each, and other properties in the eastern suburbs between 8 and 10.

Between one and two applications per property was the norm, Mr Conolly said.

The squeeze on rentals has already driven prices up. Figures from the institute show rents rose most in inner Sydney, where the median price of three-bedroom properties jumped last year from $450 a week to $475.

Across Sydney the median rents of two-bedroom properties rose by $10 during the year. Mr Conolly said rentals in Crows Nest, Bondi Junction, Newtown and Coogee were the most popular and some parts of the inner-west were demanding $20 to $40 a week more for properties than they had in 2005.

"On some occasions we see people fighting for the property. They rush to get back and put a deposit down," he said.

Mr Colman blamed the problem on a lack of first-time buyers and said the situation would not improve until investors returned.

Ms Castle agreed, saying: "Whenever we sell an investment property it's not an investor buying it but a home owner, so there are less rentals." She warned that rents would continue to increase and if people wanted to avoid soaring prices "they should think about buying".

One prospective renter, Todd Sly, is already feeling the pressure. The 22-year-old has been looking for a two-bedroom apartment in the eastern suburbs for a month and has seen 15 so far.

Initially he expected to pay about $300 a week for a unit in Bondi Junction, Coogee or Centennial Park, but was now looking at between $350 and $400.

Mr Sly, who is lucky to be able to look midweek, said he shared most open inspections with between eight and 10 other hopefuls, and the competition was fierce. "If you see an older couple there, you think you're probably not in the running because they have probably both got jobs and are more stable as tenants in the eyes of the property agents."

Mr Sly has resorted to asking agents to alert him before properties come onto the market.