R 2.3 crashes when attempting package installation

Thanks, Matt.

I am using the latest R (2.3) within Emacs/ESS on an iMac G5.

When I type "install.packages()" within R, the program crashes,  
generating the
following error:

install.packages()

--- Please select a CRAN mirror for use in this session ---

Problem #1 - the repository you try doesn't have the packages - try  
the main CRAN site first and then some other mirror near you.

*** caught segfault ***
address 0x5f4d4550, cause 'memory not mapped'

Problem #2 - it shouldn't crash. Strangely enough this crash happens  
even with old builds of R as well. I have traced it down to  
localization of the HTTP code, but can't figure out why it should  
die. Minimal reproducible code is

download.file("http://www.google.com/foo","/tmp/foo")

(the site doesn't matter as long as it responds with 404). I'll see  
if I can come up with a fix (possibly over the weekend) ...

Cheers,
Simon