GERMANY
Facebook policy ‘disliked’
A data protection authority is “unliking” Facebook’s “Like” button. The state of Schleswig-Holstein’s data protection commissioner, Thilo Weichert, on Friday ordered state institutions to shut down the fan pages on the social networking site and remove the “Like” button from their Web sites, saying it leads to profiling that violates German and European law. Facebook insisted that is in full compliance with European data protection laws. Weichert issued a statement saying technical analysis by his office shows Facebook violated German and European data protection laws by passing content data to the social network’s servers in the US. “Whoever visits facebook.com or uses a plug-in must expect that he or she will be tracked by the company for two years,” Weichert said. A Facebook spokesman conceded that the company can see “information such as the IP address” of users who visit a site with a “Like” button.
UNITED STATES
Drug ring doctor arrested
A doctor who wrote nearly a million prescriptions for a popular painkiller last year has been charged in a strike against a ring that smuggled prescription drugs to Mexico from the US, according to an indictment obtained on Friday. The unusual operation brought a flood of yellow and blue hydrocodone tablets to Tijuana pharmacies, where American addicts snapped them up over the counter on jaunts across the border from San Diego, investigators said. Authorities speculate that it was easier for smugglers to unload large batches of pills at those loosely regulated pharmacies than to distribute them in small amounts through street dealers. It’s also profitable: A smuggler who buys a pill for about US$2 in the US can sell it to a Mexican pharmacy for about US$3.50, and the American addict pays about US$6 to bring it back home.
UNITED KINGDOM
Prisons full to the brim
Prison population has hit a record high following the jailing of hundreds of people involved in the country’s recent riots, according to figures released on Friday. Prison officials said they were working hard to contain the flow of convicts. Statistics released by the Ministry of Justice showed that the total prison population in England and Wales has reached 86,654 — just 1,500 places below the operational capacity. Prison authorities said they faced an “unprecedented situation” and were working on emergency plans to boost capacity “should further pressure be placed on the prison estate.” The figures show that a net of 700 people have been added to the country’s prison system during the last seven days.
UNITED STATES
Hero says he is illegal alien
A man who chased down a suspected child abductor and saved a six-year-old girl from what could have been a horrible fate was honored as a hero on Friday. However, he is also gaining a new kind of celebrity: As a poster child of sorts for immigration rights in state and national immigration debates. Antonio Diaz Chacon, 23, is married to a US citizen and has been in the country for four years. However, Chacon says he abandoned attempts to get legal residency because the process was difficult and expensive. Diaz Chacon revealed his immigration status to Univision this week and confirmed that he is illegal, prompting chatter on the Internet and social networking sites that his case underscored immigrant rights positions in the ongoing political
Republican US lawmakers on Friday criticized US President Joe Biden’s administration after sanctioned Chinese telecoms equipment giant Huawei unveiled a laptop this week powered by an Intel artificial intelligence (AI) chip. The US placed Huawei on a trade restriction list in 2019 for contravening Iran sanctions, part of a broader effort to hobble Beijing’s technological advances. Placement on the list means the company’s suppliers have to seek a special, difficult-to-obtain license before shipping to it. One such license, issued by then-US president Donald Trump’s administration, has allowed Intel to ship central processors to Huawei for use in laptops since 2020. China hardliners
A top Vietnamese property tycoon was on Thursday sentenced to death in one of the biggest corruption cases in history, with an estimated US$27 billion in damages. A panel of three hand-picked jurors and two judges rejected all defense arguments by Truong My Lan, chair of major developer Van Thinh Phat, who was found guilty of swindling cash from Saigon Commercial Bank (SCB) over a decade. “The defendant’s actions ... eroded people’s trust in the leadership of the [Communist] Party and state,” read the verdict at the trial in Ho Chi Minh City. After the five-week trial, 85 others were also sentenced on
‘DELUSIONAL’: Targeting the families of Hamas’ leaders would not push the group to change its position or to give up its demands for Palestinians, Ismail Haniyeh said Israeli aircraft on Wednesday killed three sons of Hamas’ top political leader in the Gaza Strip, striking high-stakes targets at a time when Israel is holding delicate ceasefire negotiations with the militant group. Hamas said four of the leader’s grandchildren were also killed. Ismail Haniyeh’s sons are among the highest-profile figures to be killed in the war so far. Israel said they were Hamas operatives, and Haniyeh accused Israel of acting in “the spirit of revenge and murder.” The deaths threatened to strain the internationally mediated ceasefire talks, which appeared to gain steam in recent days even as the sides remain far
RAMPAGE: A Palestinian man was left dead after dozens of Israeli settlers searching for a missing 14-year-old boy stormed a village in the Israeli-occupied West Bank US President Joe Biden on Friday said he expected Iran to attack Israel “sooner, rather than later” and warned Tehran not to proceed. Asked by reporters about his message to Iran, Biden simply said: “Don’t,” underscoring Washington’s commitment to defend Israel. “We are devoted to the defense of Israel. We will support Israel. We will help defend Israel and Iran will not succeed,” he said. Biden said he would not divulge secure information, but said his expectation was that an attack could come “sooner, rather than later.” Israel braced on Friday for an attack by Iran or its proxies as warnings grew of