News Bits: Yes, Heath. But also, debugging DRM, Gaza Strip news & decriminalizing Mary

- Actor Heath Ledger was found dead in his downtown Manhattan apartment by the police. Some reports say he died from an overdose.
- Vermonters get to weigh in this week on a bill before the Legislature that would decriminalize possession of small amounts of marijuana.
- Tens of thousands of Palestinians poured from the Gaza Strip into Egypt Wednesday after masked gunmen with explosives destroyed most of the seven-mile barrier dividing the border town of Rafah.
- The watch-through-your-fingers duo of No Country for Old Men and There Will Be Blood led the pack with eight nominations each. As the only Best Picture nominees to score all-important editing nods, they're certainly the two front-runners.
- Sun's Adam Leventhal has made a disturbing discovery about Apple's version of DTrace, a free/open debugging tool that Leventhal helps to oversee: Apple has deliberately broken DTrace to prevent it from being used to examine the inner workings of iTunes.
- Nixzmary Brown may have bought her stepfather, accused of killing the 7-year-old girl, a mug that read "World's Greatest Dad." The mug has been entered into evidence.
- Beginning today, TheAtlantic.com is dropping its subscriber registration requirement and making the site free to all visitors.
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