More text about the pragmatic significance of hashlib.

Misc/NEWS

@@ -293,7 +293,16 @@ Library
 -------
 
 - Added the hashlib module.  It provides secure hash functions for MD5 and
-  SHA1, 224, 256, 384, and 512.
+  SHA1, 224, 256, 384, and 512.  Note that recent developments make the
+  historic MD5 and SHA1 unsuitable for cryptographic-strength applications.
+  In <http://mail.python.org/pipermail/python-dev/2005-December/058850.html>
+  Ronald L. Rivest offered this advice for Python:
+
+      "The consensus of researchers in this area (at least as
+      expressed at the NIST Hash Function Workshop 10/31/05),
+      is that SHA-256 is a good choice for the time being, but
+      that research should continue, and other alternatives may
+      arise from this research.  The larger SHA's also seem OK."
 
 - Added a subset of Fredrik Lundh's ElementTree package.  Available
   modules are xml.etree.ElementTree, xml.etree.ElementPath, and