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The European defence contractor, EADS, has submitted a new bid to supply refuelling aircraft for the US Air Force.
Arch-rival Boeing's bid is expected to be delivered to the Pentagon soon.
The contract, which has been long delayed, is worth 35bn (23bn).
Earlier, a long-running World Trade Organisation (WTO) investigation into whether Boeing receives illegal subsidies from the US government postponed its decision on the matter.
Both the US and the European Union have reported each other's companies to the WTO, alleging illegal subsidies.
The WTO has already ruled – at the end of June – that the EU had paid illegal subsidies to the EADS subsidiary, Airbus.
The EU and Airbus criticised the delay over the Boeing decision.
“The time lag between this case, and the United States case against support to Airbus… has constantly increased over the six years this dispute has been running and the gap is now at nearly a year,” the EU's executive Commission said.
Meanwhile, EADS is hoping that the US will find something to please within the pages of its 8,000 page-plus proposal for the defence contract, which it has submitted a day ahead of deadline.
The US hopes to have chosen a winner by November.
It is replacing its current fleet of tankers, some of which date back to the late-1950s.
Several previous attempts to choose a contractor have failed – one because of a dispute between Boeing and its then-rival Northrop Grumman.
The decision is highly political.
Although EADS plans to build its craft within the US, it is seen as very much a European business.
Boeing's supporters in Congress argue the recent WTO ruling shows EADS has an unfair advantage over Boeing.

Source:BBC

The US is to deport 10 people who spied for Moscow in exchange for four people convicted of espionage in Russia.
A judge in New York ordered the immediate deportation of the 10, and it is thought they may leave in hours.
The 10 had pleaded guilty to spying for a foreign country but a charge of laundering money was dropped.
Details of the four being freed by Russia were not given other than that all had had “alleged contact with Western intelligence agencies”.
The mother of Anna Chapman, one of the 10 Russian agents, said she expected her to fly home to Russia on Friday.
The 10 pleaded guilty to “conspiracy to act as an unregistered agent of a foreign country”.
It was the first time they had all appeared in public together since being arrested last month.
An 11th suspect went missing after being released on bail in Cyprus, where he had been arrested.
Prosecutors said the accused had posed as ordinary citizens, some living together as couples for years, and were ordered by Russia's External Intelligence Service (SVR) to infiltrate policy-making circles and collect information.
One of the Russian prisoners expected to be freed by Moscow is nuclear specialist Igor Sutyagin, who was earlier transferred to Moscow from a prison near the Arctic Circle.

Marine Corps Gen James Mattis has been nominated to replace Gen David Petraeus as head of US Central Command.
The US Senate will have to confirm the nomination by Defense Secretary Robert Gates.
Central Command is responsible for overseeing the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Gen Petraeus was confirmed last week as the US commander in Afghanistan, replacing sacked Gen Stanley McChrystal.
Gen McChrystal caused controversy after making derogatory remarks about senior civilian officials in a magazine article.
Gen Mattis, a counterinsurgency expert, led 2004's battle of Falluja in Iraq.

Source:BBC

BP has been given 24 hours to answer questions on the Gulf of Mexico oil spill, says the US government's incident commander.
Adm Thad Allen sent a letter to the oil giant's managing director Bob Dudley saying the company must hand over “detailed plans and timelines” on stopping the leak.
The information is needed before BP is allowed to change caps on the oil well.
Switching caps would allow more oil to be captured.
The new cap on the well will have a more secure seal, with BP also connecting a third containment ship to capture more oil.
But while the caps are being changed the rate oil is spilling out will increase.
If the third containment ship, the Helix Producer, has not been connected when the change of caps is made, there will only be one vessel capturing oil.
BP's latest moves are also part of efforts to create a system for tackling the leak that is prepared for potential hurricanes.
The US National Hurricane Center issued a warning on Wednesday about a tropical depression which has formed in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tropical storms could disrupt efforts to contain oil which has been leaking from the site of the Deepwater Horizon rig since April.
BP says its operation to drill a relief well to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is “slightly ahead of schedule”. Adm Allen confirmed this during a press conference on Thursday.
Crews expect to reach the Deepwater Horizon well roughly 18,000ft (5,500m) below sea level and drill into its outer casing in seven to ten days.
But crews won't know how much time it will take to stop the leak until they reach the well.
Adm Allen said if the oil is leaking out through different parts of the well, it would likely take until the middle of August to stop the gushing oil with mud and cement.
“If you have to exhaust all means for the ways that hydrocarbons are coming up the pipe, then that puts you into middle August,” he said.
Adm Allen then added if the oil is only travelling up the well's centre pipe, BP may be able to stop the flow sooner.

Source:BBC

Cuban dissident Guillermo Farinas has ended his hunger strike after the government announced it was freeing 52 political prisoners.
Mr Farinas, who has been refusing food for over 130 days, was reported to have been near death in recent days.
The BBC's Michael Voss, in Havana, says this is the largest prisoner release for years in Cuba and may be a turning point in ties with the US and EU.
The death of another hunger striker in February piled the pressure on Cuba.
Mr Farinas began his fast after Orlando Zapata Tamayo's death, following an 85-day hunger strike.
Following Wednesday's announcement, Spain's foreign minister called on the European Union to soften its Common Position on Cuba.
The 1996 policy calls for advances in human rights and democracy before relations with Cuba can be normalised.
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said she was encouraged by the Cuban move, which she described as “something that is overdue, but nevertheless very welcome”.
Cuba has always denied that it has political prisoners, calling them mercenaries paid by the United States to undermine Havana's rule, according to our correspondent.
He says President Raul Castro has been stung by the strength of international criticism following the death of Mr Tamayo in February.

Source:BBC

Ten people accused of spying for Russia are due to appear in a New York court, amid reports that they will be swapped for suspected agents held in Russia.
It will be the first time the alleged deep-cover agents appear in public together since their arrests last week.
Correspondents suggest the suspects may enter a plea which will facilitate a Cold War-style prisoner exchange.
The mother of one of the suspects, Anna Chapman, said she expected her to fly home to Russia on Friday.
Neither US nor Russian officials confirmed or denied the assertion.
The family of a man jailed by Russia for espionage told the BBC he has had to confess in order to be included.
Igor Sutyagin has been transferred from an Arctic prison camp to a Moscow jail.
After being moved from a prison camp in the far north of Russia to a jail in Moscow this week, he told his family he would be flown to Vienna on Thursday and released as part of a deal between the US and Russian governments.
Earlier, Sutyagin's lawyer was quoted by Russian media as saying he had arrived in the Austrian capital, but his father Vyacheslav denied the reports.
“This is all speculation, don't take it seriously,” he told the BBC.
Austrian officials have neither confirmed nor denied the reports.
'Resolution'
The BBC's Kim Ghattas, outside the federal court in New York, says this is the first time the 10 men and women accused of being unlawful agents for Russia will appear in court together since they were arrested.
After being told of the charges against them they will be able to enter a plea.

Aid agencies have warned that their ability to keep delivering basic services in earthquake-stricken Haiti is being stretched to the limit.
The Red Cross said aid agencies were still providing most of the clean water and toilet facilities six months after the devastating earthquake.
Prime Minister Rene Preval has said his government does not have enough money to run and re-build the country.
The quake killed up to 230,000 people and left one million homeless.
The 7.0-magnitude earthquake struck the area around the capital, flattening homes and buildings in a wide area.
Most of those who lost their homes are now living in temporary encampments.
“We are all stretched to our capacity and simply containing a critical situation, rather than solving it,” said Alastair Burnett, an operations manager with the British Red Cross.
Reconstruction has been slow because of the scale of the disaster and a shortfall in humanitarian funding for Haiti.
“From this moment on sanitation must be integrated into wider plans to rebuild Haiti and long-term solutions must be found,” Mr Burnett said in a report released on Thursday by the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies.
Charity Medicins Sans Frontieres (MSF) warned that frustration was growing among Haitians with the “dire reality” of their living conditions.
“There is a staggering gap between the enthusiasm and promises for aiding the victims of the earthquake in the early weeks, and the dire reality on the ground after half a year,” said MSF's head of mission in Haiti.
One bright spot, however, was that provision of medical services to the majority of Haitians was better than before the earthquake, MSF said.

Source:BBC

Ten suspected Russian spies are being moved to New York to face charges ahead of a possible prisoner swap. Reports suggest Washington may opt to deport the 10 in exchange for Russian prisoners, including nuclear scientist Igor Sutyagin. Readers of the BBC News website and have been sending their comments. Translated from Sturmflieger, Moscow, says:
I remember how just a short while ago the “democratic” press and all “democrats” were lamenting the fate of the jailed “innocent” Sutyagin and other “victims of the FSB scam”. And now it is looking like the United States are quite keen getting those “victims” through a swap. And what about the strict US laws on spying and money-laundering? They are keen to swap the Russian “spies” even before they have been convicted in court. Maybe they are just afraid that in court all this nonsense about the gorgeous Chapman and the other “spies” will be exposed. I wonder whether it is wise on the part of Russia to exchange them for the not so innocent Sutyagin.Sergey Kotov, St Petersburg, says:
There is nothing unlawful about this exchange. Sutyagin can choose – to stay in prison for breaking the Russian law or to give up Russian citizenship and be sent abroad. Actually, he made the choice between Russia and the US when he started collecting secret data and by that doing harm to Russia. He will go to his new bosses now.Sergey Khokhlachev, St Petersburg, says:
I would suggest that instead, Russia frees its prisoners that have been put up for a swap in the next 24 hours. They could stay in Russia and with their intellect they could yet do a service to Russia. As for the agents caught in the US, I am confident that they will be released in the States too. I suspect that many of them are reluctant to be deported to Russia. They have disclosed their citizenship and real names, one can easily guess what could happen to them. Mr Che, Russia, says:
This is quite a unique approach. To free its failed agents Russia is exchanging them for hostages from among its own people. I wonder if next time its agents are caught the FSB will just arrest random people in the streets to swap them later. Vladimir Zontov, Moscow, says:
To me it looks as if the Americans have decided to secure the release of their own agents and to do so they have caught some random people who had some connection to Russia. They haven't even had time to fabricate espionage charges so they went for “money-laundering”. Dagnur, Krasnoyarsk, says:
I wonder how the people defending Sutyagin can be so sure that he is not a spy. Hundreds of Russian scientists collect open source data and publish it in foreign journals and they don't get arrested for it. I am sure that in addition to open source information Sutyagin had collected something else, that we have not been informed about for obvious reasons. As for the spy exchange – this is a normal practice and it has been in place for decades, from back in the Soviet times. Andrey, Russia, says:
Russia should urgently secure the release of these people. If they are agents, what if one of them decides to stay and tell the Americans everything? Yevgeny, Moscow, says:
What “swap” are we talking about? Sutyagin did not plead guilty and yet he is off to Vienna where he will be received as a martyr and a victim.Coleman Nee, Yarmouthport, MA, says:
A condition of any swap should be that Russia admits that these individuals were indeed Russians planted in the US by its intelligence service. Unless that happens, the efforts by Medvedev to gain US confidence and investments will come to nothing as the distrust will remain.Dave Parsons, Goodyear, Arizona, says:
This is a good deal for everyone involved. But what happens to the American citizens' children? Which side initiated the swap? Does this imply that the Russian spies are who the US says they are? Perhaps there is some “quid pro quo” in this deal with Iran. Are we giving back these spies in exchange for Russia to honour and enforce sanctions? Good relations with the Russians is always a good idea. I see no downside here, so far. But the complete story isn't out yet. Keep digging, reporters.Elan Remford, Somerset County, NJ, says:
It depends upon whether Igor Sutyagin was actually a spy of any consequence, and the relative value he might be able to offer in exchange for the ten “illegals”. It seems the only worth they have been to Russia thus far is limited to the significant investment made in funding their Western existences. If Mr Sutyagin is a legitimate private citizen who has not committed a crime, his detention and prosecution should be matters for international diplomacy, not barter.Frank, New York City, says:
Of course it would be a good idea to swap the agents. Having an understanding of the capabilities and intentions of foreign nations is something that every country engages in. In my view, it helps ensure the peace by giving all the players the piece of mind of knowing what others are up to. Lets just get the swap over with and get on to new espionage operations – you didn't expect them to end did you?Paul, Battle Creek, says:
Last year President Obama said the cold war was over decades ago. So much for political idealism.Tom, Boston, says:
All this effort to undermine and work against one another. Imagine if we put these resources into cooperative work. I wonder what we could accomplish?Dennis Harvey, Staines, UK says:
It's pretty obvious that the US wants these technically able people out of Moscow. The Russian agents arrested by the Americans appear to be small fry and would have been under CIA observance for some time with that goal in mind. On the face of it the US stands to gain big time, Russia very little. So the question is what else will the Russians get in return? There just has to be more to this.Craig, Nottingham, UK says:
If someone has committed a crime they should face the punishment. If there was a swap it would make it political rather than judicial, and would make a mockery of the law and the whole judicial system.Christian Lamprecht, Bratislava, Slovakia, says:
Seems a bit risky to me – any info these spies may have can then be passed on once they are back in safe hands. How do we know they were not forced to act as double agents? Surely we have to assume that those imprisoned, under whatever conditions, may have divulged more than those under better conditions. It would be a very grey area in my opinion, all depending on the sensitivity of the exchange and the level of espionage.JG, Germany, says:
A swap seems like a good way to keep US-Russia relations cordial. The ten arrested in the US have apparently not passed on any particularly sensitive material, so the “price” of the swap to the US is not high. Sending them back to Russia now avoids the costs (to the US taxpayer) of trials and of their subsequent imprisonment. The sad aspect in this affair is that of the children. Brought up as US citizens, they may have considerable difficulty adjusting to life in Russia and are likely to resent the loss of friends and opportunities in the US, caused by their parents' choices.Vincent Murphy, Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, says:
The whole affair stinks of deep hypocrisy. The US has no moral authority to apprehend and jail foreign spies whilst still involving itself in sending spies to foreign nations. Even if this were not so, this incident should be dealt with as a charge against the Russian government by the US government, seeking the extradition of those who authorised and funded the operation. The “spies” themselves are just pawns – if there is a crime, the criminals are senior politicians and civil servants.

Source:BBC

As the US waits for the Gulf of Mexico oil leak to end, one man’s passion for his town’s picturesque way of life has inspired a small Alabama community to take matters into its own hands to protect its shores.Magnolia Springs reminds me of a Norman Rockwell painting. He depicted heart-warming scenes of American life in the 1950s, from boy scouts to happy homecomings after the war. A canopy of oak trees frames the main street here, American flags fly outside the ante-bellum wooden houses, and mothers and their children bicycle around. The waterside houses along the Fish River are among the last in the nation to have their post delivered by boat. As one proud local told me, “we don’t have a Wal-Mart supermarket”. The lawns are immaculate, not a weed in sight, no easy task in the humid south. The volunteer fire station boasts antique firefighting equipment, alongside the more modern tools. But there is nothing old-fashioned about the thinking inside. Protecting paradiseJamie Hinton is the chief of the town’s volunteer fire department. A tall, broad man with a slow, southern accent, he is devoted to this idyllic place. When the Deepwater Horizon rig started spewing out oil in April, Jamie immediately began to worry. Louisiana is only two state lines away from Alabama. Once the oil started to move down the Gulf coast, Jamie feared it would be carried into the waters of Mobile Bay, and pollute the town’s Fish and Magnolia rivers. A conversation with his county emergency management official was not reassuring. So Jamie began to find out where he could get supplies of boom, to absorb the oil. Then Jamie and his friends decided boom alone would not be enough to protect Magnolia Springs. So they rented barges, to block the waves from carrying oil into their waters. Official approval for this plan was granted some time after its execution. Jamie became the embodiment of the virtues of American self help in the face of federal bureaucracy, declaring he would go to jail if he had to, he was only doing what was right. He chuckles when he recounts how a BP official turned up soon afterwards, and said he was in Magnolia Springs to do whatever Jamie wanted. Two months after that 15 minutes of fame, the boom and the barges protecting Magnolia Springs have not yet been tested by any actual oil. The slick has swirled around ominously, but has not made it to here. Jamie has not stopped worrying though. “Even if they capped the leaking well tomorrow,” he says, “the oil will be in the water for two years and it will come to us eventually.” Team spiritThe problem is that the money Magnolia Springs is getting from the state of Alabama via BP runs out on 1 September. The barges and the boom cost 50,000 a week to maintain. “Where will you get that money?” I ask Jamie. “If everyone gives 10, that will be a start,” he replies. The story of Magnolia Springs and the oil spill, however it ends, reads like a Hollywood feel-good movie promoting the American values of self reliance and ingenuity. And if the tale ever was made into a movie, what better place to film it than here. Yet this is not fiction, it is real life, and Jamie Hinton and so many others in the town responded from the heart to the oil spill. They were not acting. As the Mayor, Charlie Houser told me, “I was baptised in these waters, I fished in them, I could not stand by and see them ruined.” Restoring faith”Preserving a way of life,” was a phrase I heard over and over. Having seen the damage Hurricane Katrina brought to the Gulf Coast in 2005, and observed the lackluster federal response, Jamie Hinton knew the dangers of waiting for help. As Charlie Houser explained: “The lesson from here is that you just don’t know what you’re capable of until you’re tested. People surprise you and themselves with what they can do.” In the town’s only restaurant, Jessie, Jamie stops by for lunch. The talk is of boom suppliers, and have you heard that tar balls washed up in Texas. It strikes me that this is a scene Norman Rockwell could have painted in his later, more provocative years. Just as Rockwell exposed racism in America with a famous 1964 painting, so Magnolia Springs is displaying a steeliness in the face of bureaucratic incompetence, showing the nation it is possible to help yourself rather than wait to be rescued. Jamie Hinton, the plain-speaking fire chief, is baffled by the interest in him. He does not want to be a hero – he simply wants to keep this town as it is for future generations. How to listen to: From our own CorrespondentRadio 4: Saturdays, 1130. Second weekly edition on Thursdays, 1100 (some weeks only) World Service: See Download the Listen on Story by story at the

Source:BBC

BP says its operation to drill a relief well to stop the Gulf of Mexico oil leak is “slightly ahead of schedule”.
A spokeswoman for the company told the BBC it was “ahead of the original schedule of completion in August”.
Asked about comments made by Bob Dudley, the man in charge, that finishing by 27 July was possible, she emphasised the caveats in what he said.
Mr Dudley said completion between 20 and 27 July was possible but only “in a perfect world with no interruptions”.
In his interview with the Wall Street Journal newspaper earlier this week, Mr Dudley added that such a “perfect case” was threatened by the hurricane season in the region and was “unlikely”.
The US National Hurricane Center issued a warning in the early hours of Wednesday about a tropical depression which has formed in the Gulf of Mexico.
Tropical storms could disrupt efforts to contain oil which has been leaking from the site of the Deepwater Horizon rig since April.
Although the depression is not predicted to become a major hurricane, tropical storm warnings were issued for the Texas and Mexico coastlines.
BP is facing massive clean-up costs and compensation claims as a result of the Gulf of Mexico oil leak.
Spokeswoman Sheila Williams repeated Mr Dudley's caveats about whether the relief well could be completed by 27 July, saying such an outcome would only be possible without delays or interruptions caused by hurricanes or unforeseen problems.
She also said that as the drilling for the relief well got deeper and closer to the leaking pipe the operation would become “more delicate and technically difficult”.
Since the oil started leaking BP has tried a number of different ways to plug the well, including a failed “top kill” procedure which tried to staunch the flow by pumping huge quantities of mud into the blowout preventer (BOP) that sits on the seabed.
The company began drilling for the first of two relief wells on 2 May, and for a second on 16 May.
The US government has been highly critical of BP's handling of the oil leak.
Congressmen have accused Chief Executive Tony Hayward of not taking responsibility for the disaster, while questioning him about alleged cost-cutting measures that could have contributed to the explosion and leak.
On Wednesday the US government asked BP to tell it of any major asset sales or merger deals in advance, as it continues to keep a close eye on the oil giant.
The highly unusual request was made in a letter from the US Department of Justice, dated 23 June.
BP told the BBC it had yet to respond to the letter.
In its most recent update, BP said the oil leak had now cost it 3.12bn (2bn), though the total cost is forecast by analysts to be tens of billions of dollars.
As a result, the company has said it will look at selling some assets and attracting new investment.
Mr Hayward visited Abu Dhabi on Wednesday, with media reports speculating he was in the region to entice wealthy investors.
BP said Mr Hayward's visit was routine.
Speculation has grown in recent days about potential investors in BP, including the Kuwaiti Investment Authority, China's PetroChina and the US oil giant Exxon Mobil.
These reports, as well as statements from BP saying the company had no plans to issue new shares, have helped the company's share price to rally this week – including a 5% rise on Wednesday.
But despite the bounce, BP's shares have almost halved in value since the Deepwater Horizon explosion on 20 April.

Source:BBC

Euro MPs have approved a new deal to allow US anti-terror investigators to access Europeans' bank data.
The vote followed tough negotiations with US authorities after a previous agreement was blocked by the European Parliament in February.
EU negotiators say the new deal gives EU officials authority to monitor the US investigators' actions.
The deal gives the US access to bulk data from Swift, a firm that handles millions of bank transactions daily.
Washington says the Swift deal is crucial to fighting terrorism, as part of the US Terrorist Financing Tracking Programme (TFTP) set up after the September 2001 attacks on the US.
Top US officials, including Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, lobbied the EU over the data transfer deal.
In February Euro MPs rejected an earlier draft agreement, saying the privacy safeguards were inadequate.
The fact that the US was secretly accessing Swift bank data did not come to light until 2006.
Under the new deal, the EU police agency Europol will assess whether specific data requests are necessary for the fight against terrorism before the data is sent to the US, the European Commission says.
The Commission will appoint EU officials to monitor the US investigators' actions.
There is also a requirement that bulk data can never be sent to third countries.
The Commission says the data transferred under TFTP can include identifying information about the originator and/or recipient of the transaction, including name, address, national identification number and other personal data related to financial messages.

Source:BBC

Speculation is growing that the US and Russia are preparing a Cold War-style prisoner swap.
The US lawyer defending one of 10 suspected Russian spies has said the case could be resolved when they face formal charges later on Thursday.
The family of a Russian convicted of spying for the US said he was transferred from a prison in the far north earlier this week to be swapped.
Neither Russian nor US authorities have commented on the reports.
The 10 suspects in the US accused of spying for Russia are being moved to New York to face charges.
In New York on Wednesday, a court unsealed an indictment against the 10 and an 11th suspect who went missing after being released on bail in Cyprus.

A man suspected of killing at least 10 people over more than 20 years has been arrested in the US city of Los Angeles.
Lonnie Franklin Jr, 57, is alleged to be the serial killer called the “Grim Sleeper” by California's media.
Most of the victims were prostitutes in Los Angeles who were sexually assaulted and then shot between 1985 and 2007.
The attacker was given his nickname because he apparently stopped killing from 1988 to 2002.
Detectives have spent years investigating the killings.
The apparent breakthrough came after Mr Franklin's son – who is currently in prison – was swabbed for DNA using a technique known as a “familial search”. The convict's DNA indicated he was a close relative of the serial killer.
The prisoner's family tree was then drawn up, with his father eventually emerging as a suspect.
Detectives later swabbed a cup used by Mr Franklin at a restaurant to obtain a DNA profile to compare with DNA evidence found at crime scenes.

Source:BBC

German officials have launched legal proceedings against Facebook for accessing and saving the personal data of people who do not use the site.Facebook could face fines of tens of thousands of euros under privacy laws. The social networking firm confirmed it had received a letter about the action. “We consider the saving of data from third parties, in this context, to be against data privacy laws,” said Johannes Caspar, head of Hamburg’s Data Protection Authority. Mr Caspar said he had received a number of complaints from people who had not signed up to Facebook, but whose details had been added to the site by friends. He accused Facebook of saving private data of non-members without their permission, to be used for marketing purposes. Switzerland is also reported to be concerned about the use of third-party data. Facebook has until 11 August to formally reply to the legal complaint against it. The California-based company told the BBC in an email that it was “currently reviewing (the complaint) and will readily respond to it within the given time frame”. “Millions of Germans come to Facebook each day to find their friends, share information with them and connect to the world around them,” wrote spokesman Stefano Hessel. Facebook has nearly 500 million users worldwide but according to figures by ComScore is only the fourth biggest social network in Germany. ‘Human right’This is not the first time the social networking site has landed in hot water with data protection officials. At the beginning of the year, Canada’s privacy commissioner launched an investigation into the site following complaints about privacy policies. And back in May, Facebook faced a storm of criticism for the way it handled members’ data after unveiling new privacy settings. A number of US senators made public calls at the time for the company to rethink its privacy safeguards. Consumer Watchdog said it was not surprised that Europe was driving this latest legal action against Facebook. “There are much stronger privacy laws in Europe than here, where privacy is viewed as a consumer protection issue as opposed to a fundamental human right,” the group’s John Simpson told BBC News. “We see that a number of Silicon Valley companies don’t really understand how seriously privacy issues are taken in Europe and they will continue to run afoul of data protection laws there. I also think there is a growing reaction in the US that we should beef up our privacy laws along the lines of those in Europe.” Street ViewGermany has some of the world’s most stringent data-protection laws, while the Hamburg Data Protection Authority has a reputation for taking possible privacy breaches by internet companies seriously. It was the first to launch an investigation into search giant Google for intercepting personal data from unsecured wireless networks while gathering photos and data for its popular Street View project. That investigation is still going on, although last week Google said it was close to handing over the data it had collected to German officials. A number of other countries have also launched investigations while more than 30 states in the US are considering pooling resources to investigate whether Google broke any laws.

Source:BBC

CNN has sacked a veteran Middle East editor after she wrote on Twitter that she “respected” a late senior Lebanese cleric said to have inspired Hezbollah.
A CNN official said Octavia Nasr was leaving the US TV news network because her credibility had been “compromised”.
Nasr has described her 140-character remarks about Grand Ayatollah Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, who died on Sunday, as an “error of judgement”.
She said she had been referring to his “pioneering” views on women's rights.
Ayatollah Fadlallah, Lebanon's top Shia Muslim cleric, died at the age of 74. He was customarily described as the spiritual leader of the militant movement Hezbollah when it was formed in 1982 – a claim both he and the group denied.
Ms Nasr was CNN's senior editor of Middle East affairs and had been with the network for two decades, largely in an off-camera role.
After hearing of Ayatollah Fadlallah's death, she wrote on the micro-blogging site Twitter: “Sad to hear of the passing of Sayyed Mohammad Hussein Fadlallah… One of Hezbollah's giants I respect a lot.”
In a blog post on Tuesday, she wrote: “Reaction to my tweet was immediate, overwhelming and provides a good lesson on why 140 characters should not be used to comment on controversial or sensitive issues, especially those dealing with the Middle East.”
The offending Twitter post now appears to have been deleted.
The US and Israel view Hezbollah as a terrorist group.

Source:BBC

A British firm which created the quiz show Who Wants To Be A Millionaire? has won a multi-million pound legal battle against Disney over unpaid profits.
A Los Angeles jury awarded Celador 269m (177m) after ruling it failed to get a fair share of profits from screenings of the show in the US.
Celador chairman Paul Smith described the verdict as “justice” after an eight-year “David and Goliath” fight.
The Walt Disney Company said it would “aggressively” seek to reverse it.
The jury agreed that Disney's Buena Vista Television and ABC breached an agreement that entitled Celador to half of the profits.
The quiz was a huge success when it first aired in the US in 1999, boosting audience ratings.
'Tiny minnow'
But Celador, a production company, went to court claiming it had been cut out of profits agreed in its contract.
Mr Smith said the case came down to competing interpretations of that contract.
“It's been eight years – two years of trying to settle it out of court and then six years in court,” he said.
“It's a very daunting prospect. Disney is an absolute giant and we are a tiny little minnow.
“I don't think they believed a small independent producer would go after them and indeed be so determined.
“We were determined and we were not going to give up.”
Mr Smith said he screamed when he first learned of the verdict via e-mail from his lawyer.
He added: “As they say, justice has been done. It's money to which we were entitled. We've had to wait eight years for it.”
The Walt Disney Company said it believed the court's decision was “fundamentally wrong” and it would “aggressively seek to have it reversed”.

Source:BBC