Illegal downloaders will be sent a warning e-mail, then a letter if they continue, and finally must appear before a judge if they offend again.

The judge can impose a fine, or suspend their access to the internet.

The law was backed by President Nicolas Sarkozy and the entertainment industry.

An attacker hurled a statuette at Italian Premier Silvio Berlusconi, striking the leader in the face at the end of a rally on Sunday and leaving the stunned 73-year-old media mogul with a bloodied mouth, police said.

The attack occurred after Berlusconi had just finished delivering a long, vigorous speech at the rally to thousands of applauding supporters from his Freedom People party in the square outside the cathedral.

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation is trying to figure out who is sending laptop computers to state governors across the U.S., including West Virginia Governor Joe Mahchin and Wyoming Governor Dave Freudenthal.

State officials in Vermont told him they've received similar unsolicited orders, Schafer said. Representatives from that state could not be reached for comment Thursday.

The Pirate Party, which first rose to prominence in Sweden during June's European elections, has now been officially launched in Finland, the group's leader said on Wednesday.

Copyright holder organisations in Finland were outraged at the news of the group's formation.

"We are absolutely against the idea that any political party can give their support to the idea of free use of protected content," said Arto Alaspaeae, the director of IFPI Finland (International Federation of the Phonographic Industry).

Tough new restrictions have been imposed on foreign media reporting.

Iran's police chief, Gen Ahmadi Moqaddam, has warned action will be taken against any unauthorised protest, and "will quell any unrest".

Journalists have also been banned from attending or reporting on any "unauthorised" demonstration - and it is unclear which if any of the protests are formally authorised.

North Korea's communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making programme in defiance of new UN sanctions.

North Korea's foreign ministry threatened war on any country that dared to stop its ships on the high seas under the new sanctions approved by the UN Security Council on Friday as punishment for the North's latest nuclear test.

The group - which campaigned on reformation of copyright and patent law - secured 7.1% of the Swedish vote.

Rickard Falkvinge, the party leader, told the BBC the win was "gigantic" and that they were now negotiating with four different EU Parliamentary groups.

"When the Pirate Bay got hit, people realised the wolf was outside the front door."

The parliament's 736 seats are up for grabs. Preliminary figures suggest the lowest-ever turnout, at 43.39%.

BBC correspondents say the figures will dent the EU's credibility.

Provisional figures released by the EU suggested turnout was at an all-time low in some countries, including France (40.5%) and Germany (42.2%).

In addition to the usual suspects such as China and Russia, Europe came in for heavy criticism with Finland, Norway, Spain, Italy, Greece, the Czech Republic, Hungary, and Poland all on the Watch list.

By wildly overstating its claims on many countries, the US has undermined its credibility and confirmed criticisms that the report lacks reliability or objective analysis.

The Special 301 Report does more than just anger US allies. It also calls into question their ongoing support for US international intellectual property policies such as the negotiation of the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement and the proceedings at the World Trade Organisation against China over its copyright rules.

Just a few days ago it was announced that German political parties would be allowed to campaign and engage the public via the social networking site StudiVZ.

The Pirate Party, however, was not allowed to have one and instead operated on a standard user account registered by an individual.

StudiVZ noticed that the Pirate Party account was not a "real person" and despite it having a thriving network with hundreds of followers, it was summarily deleted.

The Pirate Party said it condemned the anti-democratic behavior of StudiVZ's operators and called for the "opening up of the platform for all recognized parties in Germany."