Google Users To Be The Stars Of Online Ads

Google is facing a privacy backlash after revealing plans to use pictures of Google+ users in online advertisements - without their permission.

The Internet giant says that from November 11 it may publish usernames, profile photographs, reviews and ratings in what it is calling "shared endorsements".

The idea is to give online adverts a "social" context, making them less annoying and more engaging for Internet users suspicious of commercial marketing.

How the new ads will look

Users who like a song in the Google Play store or rate a favourite restaurant could find their approvals harvested and published as official recommendations.

Google's plans are similar to shared endorsements currently used by Facebook, which faced legal action over the practise in 2011. It ended up paying $20m (£12.49m) in damages to users whose pictures it had used without permission.

Users warn they will change their picture to Google boss Eric Schmidt

In a statement on its website Google said: "To ensure that your recommendations reach the people you care about, Google sometimes displays your reviews, recommendations and other relevant activity throughout its products and services.

"This sometimes includes shopping contexts, like Google Music play store and ads. Your profile name and photo may appear with the recommendation".

MPs declared last month that they were "unimpressed" with Google

Users will be able to opt out of the plans but privacy campaigners are concerned many people could be unaware they have already been opted in without their consent.

Some activists are warning of a campaign of digital disobedience to subvert the plans. Ideas swapped on social media sites include users changing their profile pictures to that of Google boss Eric Schmidt.

Facebook was fined $20m (£12.49m) for a similar system in 2011

In response, Google said in a statement: "The privacy and security of our users is one of our top priorities.

"We believe our Terms of Service updates are a positive step forward in clarifying important privacy and security details for our users, and are in full compliance with the law."

Last month MPs accused Google of failing to crack down on illegal downloads and using "flimsy" excuses for its lack of action.

The Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee said it was "unimpressed" with the Internet giant's efforts to tackle online piracy.

22.57 | 0 komentar | Read More

Illegal Immigration In US Now Hard To Ignore

By Greg Milam, US Correspondent

The United States is locked in a fierce debate over immigration, with an estimated 11 million illegal immigrants.

But frustration is growing at the lack of political action to answer the big immigration questions.

Earlier this month, thousands of people rallied in 150 cities in 40 of the 50 states to put pressure on Washington to deliver an overhaul to the country's immigration rules.

They fear the momentum for change is fading after almost unprecedented co-operation between Republicans and Democrats towards reaching agreement earlier this year.

The results of last year's presidential election demonstrated, particularly to Republicans, that the fast-growing immigrant population in states like Colorado meant the issue could not be ignored.

But a plan that would have offered a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already living in the US appears to be in jeopardy with renewed wrangling between the parties.

Some believe the US border is way too porous

Immigration has often fallen behind other issues like guns, the economy and international concerns like Syria.

Reshma Shamasunder, executive director of California Immigrant Policy Centre, said: "People are fed up with inaction, they're fed up with Congress every year promising they're going to do something and then not doing it.

"We haven't had an immigration overhaul in this country for decades and our immigration laws are so outmoded and outdated that not only are they not serving immigrants well, they're not serving the American people well.

"So I think there is a huge appetite among Americans to do something."

Without an overhaul, she says, the problem is going to get worse.

Sky News spoke to a man, originally from Central America and now living legally in the US, who had sent $2,000 (£1,255) to a nephew waiting just across the border in Mexico. He will pay a so-called "coyote" to smuggle him into America.

Critics of immigration reform point to cases like that and say the government needs to urgently address border crossings that are way too porous.

California recently reached the landmark moment when whites were no longer the majority. By the middle of next year, Latinos will make up a greater proportion of the population.

The state's governor, Jerry Brown, recently signed into law a raft of new bills that increase protections for immigrants and campaigners say the rest of the US needs to follow suit.

But it remains an emotive issue and one it is increasingly hard to ignore.

:: Immigration UK: A week of special coverage on Sky from October 14 to 18 - watch on Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 82, Skynews.com and Sky News for iPad

22.57 | 0 komentar | Read More

Moscow Race Riots: Police Arrest 1,200 In Raid

Police have arrested 1,200 people at a Moscow vegetable warehouse in pre-emptive raids following riots there on Sunday.

The disturbances erupted after a native Russian was stabbed to death on Thursday night. His death was blamed by the protesters on a migrant from the north Caucasus, a region in southern Russia.

Natives of the Caucasus, most of whom are Muslims with dark complexions, often work in shopping centres and at vegetable markets in the Russian capital.

Protesters had claimed CCTV pictures showed the killer to be Caucasian

After seeing unidentified CCTV pictures, the protesters believed a dark-skinned Caucasian killed 25-year-old Yegor Shcherbakov in a dispute over his girlfriend as the couple returned home on Thursday.

Demonstrators chanting 'White Power' and 'Russia Forward' vandalised shops and market stalls in the district of Biryulovo on the southern outskirts of Moscow.

Police arrested at least 200 of the protesters on Sunday before launching dawn raids on the vegetable warehouse on Monday morning.

Moscow police spokesman Andrei Galiakberov said on television that they are investigating some of the detainees for possible criminal connections.

Police also said that they found a car full of cash and unlicensed arms on the premises.

President Vladimir Putin said earlier this month that Russia needed migrant labourers in industries such as construction, but - in a nod to anti-migrant sentiment - suggested their numbers could be restricted in other sectors, including trade.

Growing nationalism among ethnic Russians combined with an influx of workers from former Soviet republics has led to increased tensions between native Muscovites and migrants.

22.57 | 0 komentar | Read More

New York Man Held As Children Lived In Filth

New York police responding to a domestic dispute found four children living in a house in Queens filled with pets including pit bulls and snakes.

Officers said they had found evidence of animal cruelty and danger to the four children, and arrested their 29-year-old father.

According to local reports, they found 15 pit bulls, 10 of them puppies, two boa constrictors and a lizard.

The New York Post said the Richmond Hill apartment was littered with debris and dog faeces.

The newspaper said the man's wife was taken in for questioning.

It quoted neighbours as saying the couple fought all the time and the father would put snakes on the children if they misbehaved, and also beat the dogs.

Last week, a Denver couple were arrested after police found their small children - four boys - living in filthy conditions.

22.57 | 0 komentar | Read More

Temple Stampede: At Least 109 Worshippers Dead

At least 109 people have been killed in a stampede at a Hindu temple in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Although the true cause of the stampede has yet to emerge, it has been reported that Pilgrims visiting the remote Ratangarh temple panicked after rumours spread that a bridge carrying 20,000 worshippers was about to collapse.

In the panic that followed, people were crushed to death or died after falling or jumping into the river below, officials said.

Rumous this bridge was about to collapse may have started the panic

The crush killed mostly women and children and although many bodies were pulled from the river, there are fears some bodies may have been washed away.

At least 130 people were injured in the incident which happened about 200 miles southeast of Delhi. Many of those who drowned while trying to save others, India's News Tribe website reported.

The incident happened at a bridge over the river Sindh where more than half a million pilgrims had gathered to take part in rituals.

Initial rumours suggested a police baton charge had caused the stampede, but this has been denied by senior officers.

A map showing the location of Datia

Engineers say the bridge was not damaged, and images from the scene showed vehicles and people using the bridge after the stampede occurred.

Relatives have been gathering outside a state-run hospital on Monday to take away the bodies after autopsies had been carried out.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan announced he had ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

Madhya Pradesh's government said it was offering Rs150,000 (£1,540) to the families of those who were killed and Rs50,000 (£513) to those who were seriously injured.

Bodies of Hindu devotees are loaded onto a truck following the tragedy

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tweeted: ''On this day of festivities, our hearts and prayers are with the victims and their families.''

The worshippers were gathering at the temple as part of the celebrations for the Navratri festival.

The 10-day festival includes an event marking the victory of the Goddess Durga over the buffalo demon in Hindu mythology.

In 2006, at least 35 devotees died at the same spot after they were washed away when a dam in a neighbouring province opened its sluice gates, causing a deluge.

22.57 | 0 komentar | Read More

Australia On Alert For Extreme Summer

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

Australians are being warned to brace themselves for an increase in heatwaves, cyclones, severe thunderstorms and ferocious bushfires as the country heads towards summer.

Australia has recently sweltered through record breaking weather and meteorologists say they are expecting more records to be broken after the country's hottest 12 months on record, including the hottest ever September, hottest ever day, and second warmest winter.

Tom Saunders, senior meteorologist at the Sky News Australia Weather Channel, says: "Through this summer we are expecting another hot one for Australia, above average temperatures throughout the country with at least one or two heatwaves through the southern states.

"We are expecting 11 to 14 tropical cyclones off our northern coastline, and we are expecting an above average number of severe thunderstorms for eastern and southern parts of Australia."

Australia's seas are said to be getting hotter

Warmer than average sea surface temperatures around Australia's coast are partly to blame, adding heat and moisture to the atmosphere.

"Our seas have been warming up over the past few decades and even in the past 12 months the sea surface temps off the west coast and south coast of Australia have been the highest on record," says Mr Saunders.

Last January, Australia recorded its hottest ever day - hitting a national average of 40.3 degrees Celsius, the hottest place being Oodnadatta in South Australia's far north which reached a blistering 47C.

While hot, dry, breezy days might be welcomed by tourists and those living near Australia's beaches, for many living inland such conditions raise the frightening prospect of fierce bushfires.

Windsor in New South Wales was affected by bushfires last month

The 2013 bushfire season began early in Australia and firefighters, many of them volunteers in rural areas, are preparing for a dangerous few months ahead.

"It's a wake up call to everybody living in bushfire prone areas," says commissioner Shane Fitzsimmons from the New South Wales Rural Fire Service.

"We've got a vegetation growth the likes of which we haven't seen for many decades and with the sign ahead for a continuing hot dry period as we lead into summer, it shapes up for a signal to a long hot difficult bushfire season."

Many in Australia know the pain such fires can cause. In what became known as 'Black Saturday' in February 2009 as many as 400 blazes killed 173 people, and injured 414.

22.56 | 0 komentar | Read More

Greenpeace Arrests: Briton Writes From Jail

A British video journalist arrested for piracy after covering a Greenpeace protest against drilling in the Arctic, has said he is preparing for a long prison sentence.

Kieron Bryan was on board Greenpeace's Arctic Sunrise ship carrying 30 people, including six Britons, who attempted to occupy the Russian drilling platform Prirazlomnaya in the Pechora Sea.

The cameraman from London says those arrested feel like 'pieces in a game'

Mr Bryan, 29, said in a letter sent to his family in Devon that he is suffering from "horrible uncertainty and anxiety" after being denied bail by Russian authorities last week.

The offence of piracy carries a 15-year prison sentence in Russia.

Protesters outside the court in Murmansk where Mr Bryon was denied bail

"The food is basic or grim but I'll not starve," he wrote. "The guards can't communicate but are polite and harmless, likewise my cell mate can barely string two words of English together but he is fine with me.

"We draw pictures and speak pigeon (sic) versions of the other's language - it's funny in a farcical way.

Six of the Greenpeace team arrested by Russian police

"Lack of communication has been really tough - I just hope my lawyer can get messages to you. I will ask him to send you the prison address - packages are allowed (with restrictions, keep the nail file out!).

"Things to keep me occupied are always welcome - I'm running out of books since we've swapped between the group already. Hopefully Greenpeace and the embassy can help there too."

Greenpeace campaigners attempt to occupy the platform

Images released by Greenpeace showed Russian security forces abseiling from a helicopter before seizing the ship and crew at gunpoint.

Mr Bryan added that those arrested were "pieces in a game we didn't want to participate in".

He went on: "I'm trying to prepare myself for a lengthy sentence. Everyone says it's very unlikely but all of this feels unlikely.

Russian security forces abseiled onto the ship and arrested the activists

"I'll get through this, we all will."

Mr Bryan's family have stressed he is a journalist rather than an activist, and that he is not a member of Greenpeace.

"If everyone was arrested for writing an article, journalists would not exist," Mr Bryan said in his final address to a court in Murmanks last week when his appeal was refused.

He is currently being held in a Russian detention centre awaiting trial.

22.56 | 0 komentar | Read More

Temple Stampede Kills Scores Of Worshippers

More than 91 people have reportedly been killed in a stampede at a Hindu temple in the central Indian state of Madhya Pradesh.

Some reports said the stampede occurred when police used batons to control a huge crowd that had gathered at the Ratangarh Temple near the village of Chand Pur, in Datia District.

As the devotees attempted to flee, hundreds of people ran towards a bridge across the Sindh river and an unknown number are believed to have fallen in.

Dozens are feared to have died and at least 100 were injured in the incident on Sunday.

A map showing the location of Datia

Others claimed the stampede happened when a rumour swept through a crowd of 20,000 crossing the bridge that it was about to collapse.

Many of those who drowned did so while trying to save the lives of others, India's News Tribe website reported.

The true cause of the stampede, which happened about 200 miles southeast of the capital Delhi, has yet to emerge.

The incident happened at a spot on the Sindh river where more than half-a-million pilgrims have gathered to take part in rituals.

Local Deputy Police Inspector General D K Arya denied that a baton charge had taken place.

The body of one of those who died in the stampede

He said: "More than 100 others have been injured ... There was no baton charge."

Rescue teams have been combing the water to pull out bodies and in an attempt to find survivors.

The worshippers were gathering at the temple as part of the celebrations for the Navratri festival.

The 10-day festival includes an event marking the victory of the Goddess Durga over the buffalo demon in Hindu mythology.

Chief Minister Shivraj Singh Chauhan announced he had ordered a judicial probe into the incident.

Madhya Pradesh's government said it was offering Rs150,000 (£1,540) to the families of those who were killed and Rs50,000 (£513) to those who were seriously injured.

Prime Minister Manmohan Singh tweeted: ''On this day of festivities, our hearts and prayers are with the victims and their families.''

In 2006, at least 35 devotees died at the same spot after they were washed away when a dam in a neighbouring province opened its sluice gates causing a deluge.

22.56 | 0 komentar | Read More

Cyclone Phailin Destroys Land But Spares Lives

A huge evacuation effort in India has spared its eastern states from widespread loss of life after cyclone Phailin flooded towns and destroyed thousands of homes.

The storm, which brought winds of over 125mph (200kph) and heavy rain, was the strongest to hit India in more than a decade.

However, authorities said only 14 deaths have been confirmed so far.

This toll is expected to rise because officials have been unable to reach some areas that have become isolated by blocked roads and downed communication links.

Around one million people left Orissa and Andhra Pradesh states before the storm made landfall.

People fled their villages as the weather worsened

"Damage to property is extensive," said Amitabh Thakur, the top police officer in the Orissa district worst-hit by the cyclone. "But few lives have been lost."

In Gopalpur, where the storm made landfall, power lines sagged nearly to the ground and a strong surf churned off the coast.

"Everyone feels very lucky," said Prabhati Das, a 40-year-old woman who came from the town of Behrampur, about 7 miles (10km) inland, to see the aftermath at the coast.

But for the people living along the coast, many of whom live as subsistence farmers in mud-and-thatch huts, the economic toll will be immense.

Seawalls were damaged in the winds

Heavy rains and surging seawater destroyed more than 500,000 hectares (1.23 million acres) of crops worth an estimated 24 billion rupees (£246m), according to Orissa's disaster minister, S N Patro.

British Prime Minister David Cameron described the damage as "shocking," and said in a Twitter message that Britain would do "what it can to help".

A cargo ship carrying iron ore, the MV Bingo, sank on Saturday as the cyclone barrelled through the Bay of Bengal, and its crew of 18 - made up of 17 Chinese and one Indonesian - went missing for a day, coast guard officials said.

They were rescued on Sunday after their lifeboat was found about 115 miles (185km) off the Indian coast, coast guard Commandant Sharad Matri said.

The cyclone was rated as a level 6 when it hit

The storm weakened significantly after making landfall early on Saturday night, with some areas reporting little more than breezy drizzles on Sunday.

Indian officials spoke dismissively of American forecasters who had warned of a record-breaking cyclone that would drive a massive wall of water - perhaps as large as 9m high (30ft-high) - into the coastline.

"They have been issuing warnings, and we have been contradicting them," said L.S. Rathore, director-general of the Indian Meteorological Department. "That is all that I want to say.

"As a scientist, we have our own opinion and we stuck to that. We told them that is what is required as a national weather service - to keep people informed with the reality without being influenced by over-warning," he said at a news conference in New Delhi.

The Indian government had faced immense public criticism after its slow response to a series of deadly floods and mudslides in June in the northern state of Uttarakhand, where more than 6,000 people were killed.

But officials took few chances with Phailin, especially given memories of a 1999 Orissa cyclone that devastated the coastline and left at least 10,000 people dead.

22.56 | 0 komentar | Read More

Peru Drug Pair Transferred To Notorious Prison

Why Peru Became The Cocaine Hotspot

Updated: 2:26am UK, Sunday 15 September 2013

By Pete Norman, Sky News Online

Peru has overtaken Colombia as the world's leading cocaine producer, according to experts.

Home to the ancient Inca civilisation, Peru is rugged, remote and the ultimate source of the mighty Amazon river.

It is also home to a long-running guerrilla campaign by the leftist Shining Path group.

While urban and coastal inhabitants have benefited greatly from market-focused economic development since the early 1980s, when military rule ended, the rural poor have gained little.

Its hilly, isolated and fertile regions are home to the guerrillas, who rely on cocaine production, hostage-taking and corruption for funds.

According to the CIA, Peru was the world's largest coca leaf producer until 1996, when neighbouring Colombia took the lead.

It says that in 2009 Peru had 100,000 acres under coca leaf production compared to Colombia's 286,000 acres - with the potential to produce 225 metric tons of pure cocaine.

US-supported efforts to reduce or eradicate coca leaf in Colombia have now tipped the scales of production towards Peru.

Aerial spraying of herbicide in Colombia has affected coca crops covering 250,000 acres while manual eradication has been done on another 150,000 acres.

The UN has said Colombia reduced its area under coca cultivation by 25% in 2012 - the biggest annual reduction since the international body began monitoring it in 2001.

Around 30 Britons are now in Peruvian prisons on drug-related convictions, according to the Foreign and Commonwealth Office.

The UN Office of Drugs and Crime is expected to release its official 2012 Peru coca crop estimate in September.

Its World Drug Report 2011 said that although the area under coca leaf production was around 75% of the 1990 area, the current yield might be up to a third greater.

While Colombia still supplies virtually all of North America's cocaine, the CIA said much of the drug exported from Peru through land, air and sea routes is destined for Europe and other markets.

North America and Europe cocaine consumption has stabilised in recent years while growth has increased in Oceania and Asia Pacific regions.

It said: "Finished cocaine is shipped out from Pacific ports to the international drug market, (while) increasing amounts of base and finished cocaine, however, are being moved to Brazil, Chile, Argentina, and Bolivia for … trans-shipment to Europe and Africa."

Smaller quantities are carried through air routes by so-called drug mules, while larger loads travel by sea to west Africa prior to distribution throughout Europe.

22.56 | 0 komentar | Read More