“Number nine. Number nine. Number nine.”

The repetitive refrain from one of The Beatles’ most mind-bending journeys into psychedelia — “Revolution 9,” the audio pastiche from “The White Album” — is now serving as the backbeat of a big day for the biggest band in rock ‘n’ roll history.

On Wednesday — 9/9/09 — remastered versions of the Beatles catalogue will be released, giving listeners what the remaining members of “The Fab Four” say is the closest reproduction ever of how their music sounded in the studio.

The same day, the video game “The Beatles: Rock Band” is set to be released by Harmonix. Modeled after the already popular “Rock Band” game, and closely supervised by The Beatles and their estates, the game lets players sing and strum along on a huge list of Beatles classics over scenes ranging from Liverpool’s Cavern Club to their final performance on a London rooftop.

And on top of that, there’s rampant speculation that a planned “music-themed” announcement by Apple Inc., also scheduled on 9/9/09, could involve the supergroup.

The Beatles are one of a handful of groups whose music has never been approved for sale by Apple’s iTunes, and the timing of the announcement has fueled speculation that could finally change — or even that specialized Beatles iPods, like the ones sold in 2004 loaded with U2’s music, could be in the works.

It’s a remarkable amount of buzz for a band whose roots stretch back nearly five decades. And it’s a clear sign, observers say, that through time and a multitude of cultural shifts, the group’s hold on the public’s imagination has endured.

“People are still looking at Picasso. People are still looking at artists who broke through the constraints of their time period to come up with something that was unique and original,” said Robert Greenfield, a former associate editor at Rolling Stone magazine who has written about the band. “In the form that they worked in, in the form of popular music, no one will ever be more revolutionary, more creative and more distinctive than The Beatles were.”

Research shows that more than 40 years after their last public performance, Paul McCartney, John Lennon, George Harrison and Ringo Starr’s music remains as interesting to young people now as it ever was.

A Pew Research survey released last month showed that 81 percent of respondents between ages 16-29 said they liked The Beatles. Eleven percent said they dislike the band and only 4 percent said they have never heard of them.

By comparison, current rockers Coldplay received 39 percent positive responses, with 45 percent saying they’d never heard of them. Forty-two percent said they like hip-hop star Kanye West.

“To put this in perspective: Try imagining young adults back in the 1960s putting the big jazz bands of the roaring ’20s at the top of their list of favorites,” the survey reads. “Not very likely.”

Walter Everett, professor and chairman of music theory at the University of Michigan, said his students know The Beatles catalogue as well today as they would have 30 years ago.

He said the cultural phenomenon that was The Beatles — the frenzy-inducing early concerts, the furor when John Lennon said the group was “more popular than Jesus,” the pre-Internet obsession over “Paul is dead” rumors — made them something more than just another rock group.

“They were just idolized,” said Everett, who has written several books on the band. “It was a musical revolution, but [also] the hair, the clothing, their attitude about the establishment, their support of everybody, young and old alike, to try to understand each other at a very difficult time.

“Some of that message endures.”

But at the heart of the phenomenon, experts agree, is the music. From the charming, school-boy bop of “I Want To Hold Your Hand” to the blistering assault of “Helter Skelter,” the songs, they say, were just that good.

“The point is how great the music is,” Greenfield said. “It isn’t about the fact that The Beatles were willing to practice and get better at what they did — it was the fact that that band contained at least two-and-a-half geniuses [Lennon, McCartney and, at times, Harrison].”

Tens of thousands of people have marched through the Venezuelan capital, Caracas, in rival demonstrations for and against President Hugo Chavez.

Opponents held a rally against what they called the president’s growing authoritarianism.

They were concerned about an education law they fear could lead to socialist indoctrination in schools.

Meanwhile, one government minister told Chavez supporters that 29 more radio stations would be closed, reports said.

The radio closures are part of a continuing campaign against what the government considers to be right-wing media, with 34 stations already closed down.

Education concerns

The anti-Chavez protesters were angry about a new education law that boosts the government’s control over schools and universities.

The law requires schools to base their teaching on “the Bolivarian Doctrine” - a reference to the ideals of 19th Century independence hero Simon Bolivar, such as Latin American unity and national self-determination.

Anti-Chavez protesters fear his new education law

A previous attempt at education reform was one of the factors that led to mass protests in 2002, eventually culminating in a failed coup attempt against Mr Chavez.

“It’s very concerning because education is Venezuela’s future,” engineering student Carlos Delgado told the Associated Press news agency.

Opponents were also angry at the government for shutting dozens of radio stations last month.

More were expected to be shut, Infrastructure Minister Diosdado Cabello announced on Saturday.

“Another 29 will be gone soon,” he told a pro-Chavez rally, Reuters reported.

At other rallies in Caracas and elsewhere, thousands of Chavez supporters dressed in red and danced to salsa to counteract the opposition protests.

“We are here today to support our president and reject the opposition march,” said parliament worker Nelson Guanchez, 27, told Reuters in Caracas.

Mr Chavez - who is in Iran as part of an overseas tour aimed at building a new alliance to counter the global dominance of the US - spoke by phone to the rally.

He told supporters he was proud of them, and shouted a popular “Chavista” slogan, Reuters said: “Homeland, socialism, or death”.

Colombian criticism

The rallies came a day after protests across Latin American about Mr Chavez’s policies.

Friday’s demonstrations were organised by Colombian activists after Mr Chavez criticised Colombia for allowing US forces access to seven military bases.

The Venezuelan leader has already frozen diplomatic relations with Colombia and blocked bilateral trade.

An estimated 5,000 people took part in protests in the Colombian capital Bogota, and thousands more in the capitals of Venezuela and Honduras.

Smaller demonstrations were held in other Latin American capitals, as well as in New York and Madrid.

It’s Geek Pride Week in Atlanta as thousands of fans take over four downtown hotels for Dragon*Con, an annual celebration of science fiction, fantasy, comics and gaming.

Karen Lee and husband Dillan dressed like comic book characters for Dragon*Con in Atlanta, Georgia.

Where else — OK, other than San Francisco or New Orleans — are city streets shut down for a ragtag parade of zombies, superheroes, robots, Klingons and Middle Earth dwellers?

Where else can comic book collectors rub shoulders with movie stars, vampires, alternate-history speculators and Harry Potter look-alikes, all while taking part in a lively game of Godzilla Bingo?

The whole thing is a bit of a shock to college football fans in town for the season-opening game between Alabama and Virginia Tech, one of whom called it a “freak show.” But those aliens grow on you after a while.

“At first I thought it was really strange,” Hokies fan Emily Nardone of Ashburn, Virginia, said. “But now I see everybody’s having so much fun. And I enjoy looking at the freaks.”

One Dragon*Con “freak” getting a lot of looks was Karen Lee of Cullman, Alabama. She was dressed a dramatic, cleavage-baring winged costume inspired by “Dawn” comic book artist Joseph Michael Linsner.

Lee made the costume by hand at home. “My living room is completely demolished,” she said. Her husband, Dillan, made up as the Batman character Two-Face, said he could attest to the condition of the living room.

Lee is entered in a Dawn look-alike contest with a top prize of $1,000.

“The theory behind the concept of Dawn is just paying homage to women of all shapes and sizes,” she said. “She can be blonde, brunette or redhead. So basically, it’s just inviting women to get up there and do their interpretation of what they think beauty in women is.” i

Fashion augmented with gadgetry is what drew Pendleton, South Carolina, librarians Gypsey Teague and Marla Roberson to a Dragon*Con workshop on Steampunk costuming.

Steampunk is sci-fi set in a Victorian aesthetic. Think pearl-handled, brass-barreled ray guns. The movies “League of Extraordinary Gentlemen” and “Wild Wild West” are examples of the genre.

“Anything your imagination can come up with, you can do,” Roberson said as she marveled at a vendor’s shoes that had little copper boilers and compasses on them.

But it seems there’s a certain element of snobbery in Steampunk. A crew of Steampunk pirates entered the room, decked out in their tricorn hats and eye patches. Teague was not impressed.

“Where’s your molecular destabilizer?” she sniffed.

Out in the hallway, Steampunk time travelers Candace and Kane Bacon were just arriving. They’re new to the game, but Kane had a copper staff with dials on top and a big metal backpack with dials and knobs strapped to his back. A large brass key dangled from the sash around Candace’s waist, and she carried a basket of dinosaur eggs they’d found.

“Some of it we had just [lying] around the house, antique stuff,” Candace said. “Other parts we got from Lowe’s. The backpack is made from radio parts; my dad is in the radio business, and he got some old radio parts for us. And yard sale gadgets.”

She said she was a Steampunker before she knew what Steampunking was.

“I’d always liked Jules Verne and H.G. Wells, that type of stuff,” she said. “I decorated my living room in antiques and like, old compasses, and I didn’t realize that that was Steampunk until we actually got here” to last year’s Dragon*Con, she said.

The Johnson City, Tennessee, couple chose to forego the hotels and stay with a friend just outside Atlanta and ride MARTA, the public rail system, in to the convention.

MARTA’s central Five Points station was peopled Saturday morning with anime heroines, a wizardess with green lipstick and an incongruous ladybug who appeared to be about 8 years old — all mingling with football fans, a few of whom were in pretty outlandish getups themselves.

There were no incidents, however, as intergalactic military police were on hand everywhere to maintain order.

Back at the Marriott Marquis, thousands of attendees snaked through lobbies on several levels. Among them was Melinda Ellington, an international affairs student at Georgia Tech. She carried an orange and yellow parasol and wore a green jumpsuit as the spaceship mechanic Kaylee from the short-lived Joss Whedon TV series “Firefly.”

“You meet anyone who likes ‘Firefly,’ it’s weird because we immediately become like family,” she said on the hotel’s mezzanine. “A very large, creepy, incestuous family, but family nonetheless.”

In the lobby below her, a 20-piece brass band blasted a set of Henry Mancini show tunes while thousands of attendees filed past. They needed to keep moving, lest anyone be late for the Evil Geniuses for a Better Tomorrow Recruiting Session and Bake Sale.

A rescue operation is under way in the Philippines after a ferry sank with more than 960 people on board.

Coastguards say 931 people have now been rescued from the SuperFerry 9 but nine people have died and more than 30 are still unaccounted for.

The passenger ferry was sailing off the southern Zamboanga peninsula when it began listing.

It issued a distress call, prompting the coastguard, the navy, the air force and private boats to help.

In pictures: Philippines ferry sinks

The Philippine Defence Minister, Gilberto Teodoro, told the BBC that the rescue operation had been helped by good weather and the presence of other vessels close to the site.

The SuperFerry 9 was said to be carrying 847 passengers and 117 crew plus four sea marshals on its journey from General Santos to Iloilo.

A statement issued on the SuperFerry website said that the ship began listing to the right at 0230 on Sunday (1830 GMT Saturday).

Passengers were told to don life jackets while the captain tried to correct the list, the statement said.

When the captain determined that the list was irreversible, he gave the order to abandon ship, and life rafts were launched.

Shocked passengers were brought ashore by other vessels

The statement said that the crew were the last to leave the ship at 0842 local time, when the ferry tilted and sank.

Officials said that those rescued were transferred to navy ships, two nearby civilian vessels and other smaller boats which had responded to the Mayday call.

The coastguard in Manila said nine bodies had been brought in so far by rescue boats and fishing vessels. However the death toll could rise if reports of more fishing boats bringing in dead bodies proved accurate.

The Philippine air force and army have sent helicopters to help in the search for those still missing.

The cause of the sinking was unknown, but the weather was reported to be fair at the time of the incident.

The ferry ran into trouble about 530 miles (860km) south of the Philippine capital, Manila.

One passenger said the ship began listing in the middle of the night, but he was assured by the crew that everything was all right.

However, a couple of hours later the situation worsened.

“The ship shifted suddenly and some people just panicked,” a man named as Roger Cinciron was quoted as telling a local radio station by phone. He was speaking from one of the life rafts as he waited to be rescued.

The ferry had been due to arrive in Iloilo later on Sunday, AP quoted the ship’s owner, Aboitiz Transport System, as saying.

A BBC correspondent says maritime accidents are common in the Philippines because of tropical storms, poor ship maintenance and lax safety enforcement.

A victim of an ISAF airstrike on a hijacked oil tanker is carried into the Kunduz hospital on Friday.

The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan said Saturday he was convinced that civilians, in addition to militants, were among those wounded in a NATO airstrike that killed at least 90 people in northern Afghanistan.

A victim of an ISAF airstrike on a hijacked oil tanker is carried into the Kunduz hospital on Friday.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal toured the site of the massive explosion that occurred early Friday as Afghans tried to siphon fuel from two tankers that were hijacked late Thursday by the Taliban in Kunduz province.

The fuel was earmarked for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF.

ISAF Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said Friday the military believed there were no civilians near the trucks at the time of the attack. NATO learned afterward that this was not the case.

“It’s important to me that we be as honest with the Afghan people and with people around the world as possible,” he said.

“Of course, you don’t know all the facts until an investigation’s complete. And I clearly don’t know all the facts now, and would not want to affect a potential investigation by making some conclusion that might be inappropriate.

“But from what I have seen today in going to the hospital, it’s clear to me that there were some civilians that were harmed at that site.”

The total death toll has varied depending on the source, but local Afghan officials have said at least half of those killed were civilians.

NATO and Afghan authorities were investigating.

The Taliban gave villagers the go-ahead to drain the tankers after they became stuck in the mud when the militants tried to drive them through the Kunduz River.

With the trucks stuck on the riverbank, the German commander of the NATO forces in the area called in the airstrike, the German military said. No German soldiers or planes were involved in the attack.

Afghan President Hamid Karzai said Friday he was “deeply saddened” by the deaths and reiterated that no civilians should be killed or injured in anti-terrorist military operations.

U.S. Brig. Gen. Eric Tremblay released a statement saying, “ISAF will do whatever is necessary to help the community, including medical assistance and evacuation as requested. ISAF regrets any unnecessary loss of human life.”

Gordon Brown declined to put formal pressure on Libya to get compensation for IRA victims, No 10 has confirmed.

The victims say Libya should pay compensation because it supplied the IRA with explosives used in atrocities.

Mr Brown told a victims’ lawyer it was not “appropriate” to discuss the claims, but aides have denied he was trying to protect oil deals with Libya.

Democratic Unionist MP Jeffrey Donaldson said the PM had done far less for victims than US leaders had.

‘Strongly opposed’

Mr Brown’s office released a letter written by the prime minister to IRA victims’ lawyer Jason McCue last October in which Mr Brown wrote that the government did not “consider it appropriate to enter into a bilateral discussion with Libya on this matter”.

He added that Libya would be “strongly opposed to reopening the issue.”

In an earlier letter dating from last September, the prime minister told Mr McCue that Libya was now an “essential partner” in the fight against terrorism and it was in the UK’s interests for that co-operation to continue.

Mr McCue has been lobbying the government to raise the matter of compensation at the highest levels of the Libyan government.

His campaign follows out-of-court deals agreed by Libya with three American victims of IRA atrocities.

More than 100 UK IRA victims, who had been pursuing similar claims through the American courts, had been excluded from those deals.

Mr Donaldson told the BBC that the US government had “held the Libyans’ feet to the fire” in order to win a multi-million pound settlements for its nationals.

“I want to know - and the victims are entitled to know - why Gordon Brown does not have the same desire to stand up for the victims of IRA terrorism as George Bush showed standing up for American victims,” he said.

“He got a multi-million dollar deal in terms of compensation from the Libyans.”

Mr Donaldson is part of a cross-party group of MPs preparing to travel to Tripoli for talks about compensation.

The victims’ campaign has been boosted by the Scottish government’s decision to free Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali al-Megrahi on compassionate grounds.

The victims argue Libya should show similar compassion regarding their demands.