Google receives more than 14,000 state demands for private user data

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PRIVATE INFORMATION on Google users was demanded by governments or police more than 14,000 times in 26 developed countries in the second half of last year, according to figures released for the first time by the internet group yesterday.

In an effort to highlight online censorship, Google disclosed that it had received more requests from the US than anywhere else and that it complied with anywhere from three-quarters to more than 90 per cent of the requests, depending on the country in which they were made.

Google received a record 4,601 requests from the US to disclose internet users’ private data in the six months to December, up 28 per cent year on year.  read more

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China’s “conflict handbags” and “blood laptops”

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On Thursday, more than six workers were beaten and taken away by local security guards as management sought to end a strike at a South Korean-owned factory in Panyu, a satellite city of Guangzhou, the capital of southern Guangdong province.  Workers in blue uniforms confronted police, deployed in large numbers.

One of the detained employees, a 20-year-old migrant from Chongqing, was grabbed by the neck and dragged away.  “They are thugs, photographing us, beating us anyway they please,” said a female co-worker to Hong Kong’s South China Morning Post.  “My friend is a very frail girl, how can she take that brutality by so many men?”  read more

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Don’t be distracted by Greece: Americans must also face financial facts

Forget Greece. Or at least put Greece to one side: the real financial disaster waiting to happen is on the other side of the Atlantic. It is a disaster born of self delusion, in a nation that prides itself on plain speaking and openness.

There is much to be celebrated in the United States. They have Osama bin Laden’s scalp. They have a vibrant and open political system. The things, material and intellectual, that people want and admire still tend to be American.   read more

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Don’t be distracted by Greece: Americans must also face financial facts

Forget Greece. Or at least put Greece to one side: the real financial disaster waiting to happen is on the other side of the Atlantic. It is a disaster born of self delusion, in a nation that prides itself on plain speaking and openness.

There is much to be celebrated in the United States. They have Osama bin Laden’s scalp. They have a vibrant and open political system. The things, material and intellectual, that people want and admire still tend to be American.   read more

Related articles by Zemanta:

• U.s. Condemned for Liquidating Osama Bin Laden Says Pakistanis
• The End of Osama Bin Laden: It’s Never The End
• Why Are the Banksters Jumping on Greece When It Does Not Have the Worst Debt-to-gdp Ratio? Something to Ponder?
• Osama Bin Laden Dead

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Medicare Paying Some Nursing Home Legal Fees

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa — Iowa’s nursing homes and assisted-living centers serve more than 40,000 Iowans. When one of those nursing homes hires a lawyer to fight allegations of abuse or neglect, did you know your tax dollars often end up footing the bill? An investigation shows that Eastern Iowa nursing homes sought Medicaid reimbursement for more than $2.2 million in legal and accounting fees and professional services in 2010. Medicaid pays for legal fees even if a nursing home loses a citation appeal or lawsuit — a fact that bothers one Cedar Rapids woman.

From a young age, Marlys Ingles acted as the eyes for her mother and father. Both were blind. “I always felt very protective of my parents. I think you have a different relationship with your parents when they have disabilities.” When Ingles’ mother, Darlene Hart, died on Dec. 30, 2005, at Crestview Acres Nursing Home in Marion, Ingles wanted to find out what happened. State inspectors learned that Hart suffered a heart attack and staff failed to perform CPR as instructed by Hart and her doctor. Ingles decided to sue the nursing home.   read more

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