Facebook is one of the world’s most popular social networking sites

Popular social networking site Facebook is breaching Canadian law by holding on to users’ personal information indefinitely, a report has concluded.

An investigation by Canada’s privacy commission found the US-based website also gave “confusing or incomplete” information to subscribers.

Facebook says it is aiming to safeguard users’ privacy without compromising their experience of the site.

More than 200 million people actively use Facebook.

They include about 12 million in Canada, more than one in three of the population.

‘Practical solutions’

Canadian Privacy Commissioner Jennifer Stoddart laid out the findings of the report at a news conference in Ottawa.

She accepted that Facebook regarded privacy issues as a top concern “and yet we found serious privacy gaps in the way the site operates”.

Jennifer Stoddart has the power to take Facebook to a federal court

Facebook’s policy of holding on to subscribers’ personal information, even after their accounts had been deactivated, was one area that breached Canada’s privacy laws, she said.

The law requires organisations to retain such information only for as long as it necessary to meet appropriate purposes, she was quoted by the AFP news agency as saying.

The report said Facebook’s information about privacy practices was “often confusing or incomplete”, and urged the site to make its policies more transparent to users.

Facebook was also criticised for failing to adequately restrict access of users’ personal details to some of the 950,000 developers in 180 countries who provide applications, such as games, for the site.

In response, Facebook Chief Privacy Officer Chris Kelly told AFP it was working with the commission to resolve the issues.

“Overall, we are looking for practical solutions that operate at scale and respect the fact that people come to share and not to hide,” he said.

“We continue our dialogue and have every confidence that we will come to acceptable conclusions. I think the concerns are fully resolvable”.

Ms Stoddart said she would review Facebook’s progress in 30 days.

Under Canadian law, she can take the case to a federal court to have her recommendations enforced, the BBC’s Lee Carter in Toronto says.

Squid have come to the California coast before, like this one in 2005

Scuba divers off the Californian city of San Diego are being menaced by large numbers of jumbo squid.

The beaked Humboldt squid, which grow up to 5ft (1.5 metres) long, arrived off the city’s shores last week.

Divers have reported unnerving encounters with the creatures, which are carnivorous and can be aggressive.

One diver described how one of the rust-coloured creatures ripped the buoyancy aid and light from her chest, and grabbed her with its tentacles.

“I just kicked like crazy,” diver Shanda Magill told the Associated Press news agency.

“The first thing you think of is: ‘Oh my gosh, I don’t know if I’m going to survive this.’ If that squid wanted to hurt me, it would have.”

Shanda Magill holds the buoyancy aid and light that the squid ripped from her

The creatures - also known as jumbo flying squid - do not affect swimmers because they remain deeper in the water.

But dozens have been washing up on beaches in the area.

“The ones that we are getting right now have a big beak on them, like a large parrot beak,” San Diego’s Union-Tribune quoted John Hyde of the National Marine Fisheries Service as saying earlier in the week.

“They could take a chunk of flesh off you.”

‘Ram you’

Diver and amateur underwater cameraman Roger Uzun said he swam with a group of squid for about 20 minutes.

They seemed curious about him, he said, and appeared to be touching him and his wetsuit with their tentacles to see if he was edible.

“As soon as we went underwater and turned on the video lights, there they were. They would ram into you, they kept hitting the back of my head,” he told AP.

It is not the first time the squid, which can weigh up to 45kg (7 stone), have taken up residence off California’s coast.

In January 2005 hundreds of them washed up off the coast of Orange County, to the north, and in 2002 a similar invasion was reported near San Diego.

Scientists say they do not know why the squid - which usually live in deep waters further south off Mexico and Central America - have come so close in.

But one expert, Nigella Hillgarth of the San Diego-based Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told AP it was possible that the squid had established a year-round population off California.

GE boss Jeff Immelt says the firm is delivering “solid” results

General Electric’s earnings fell 47% to $2.9bn (£1.7bn) in the second quarter of 2009 from the same period last year as the slowdown took its toll.

Revenues fell 17% to $39.1bn from the same quarter last year.

The company has been hit by falling revenues and profits at Capital Finance, its finance arm.

The conglomerate, seen as a barometer of US economic health, has interests ranging from the media to finance to heavy industry.

A 13% growth in profit at its energy infrastructure division was offset by an 80% drop at Capital Finance and a 41% fall at NBC Universal, the statement said.

“In a global economic environment that continues to remain challenging, GE delivered solid second-quarter business results,” said Jeff Immelt, GE chairman and chief executive.

“We are executing through the recession by aggressively controlling costs and driving working capital improvements while continuing to invest for future growth.”

Rio Tinto is a major supplier of minerals to China

Rio Tinto has said it is “very concerned” about its four employees detained in Shanghai amid accusations of bribery and spying.

The company said the allegations are “wholly without foundation”.

Stern Hu, an Australian, and three of the firm’s other employees were detained in China last week.

The detentions come amid negotiations about iron ore prices between Australia and China and has cast a shadow on relations between the two countries.

“Rio Tinto believes that the allegations in recent media reports that employees were involved in bribery of officials at Chinese steel mills are wholly without foundation,” Sam Walsh, chief executive of Rio Tinto’s Iron Ore division, said.

“We remain fully supportive of our detained employees, and believe that they acted at all times with integrity and in accordance with Rio Tinto’s strict and publicly stated code of ethical behaviour,” he added.

Scrapped merger

The company said it continued to operate in China and is maintaining iron ore shipments from Australia.

Earlier this week, China extended its investigations into alleged spying and bribery by Rio Tinto employees to executives at five Chinese steelmakers.

Officials at Baosteel Group, Anshan Iron & Steel Group, Laigang Group and Jigang Group are being questioned.

Analysts say the allegations have cast a shadow over resource-rich Australia’s trading relationship with China.

In June, Rio scrapped a $19.5bn (£12.1bn) deal with China’s state-owned Chinalco in favour of a tie-up with rival giant BHP Billiton, which angered some in Beijing.

Google’s new web browser incorporates open source software

Internet search engine Google has seen better-than-expected quarterly results even as revenue growth slowed following the economic downturn.

The firm saw net income reach $1.48bn (£900m) in the three months to 30 June, compared to $1.25bn a year before.

Revenue rose 3% for the period at $5.52bn and just over half - 53% - came from outside the US.

Analysts reacted broadly positively to the results, noting that the firm had performed well in containing costs.

The firm was upbeat about the results “especially given the continued macro-economic downturn”.

Chief executive Eric Schmidt said: “These results highlight the enduring strength of our business model and our responsible efforts to manage expenses.”

Google earned $5.36 a share, excluding certain items, better than the $5.08 per share forecast by analysts.

Sameet Sinha, an analyst with JMP Securities said: “The numbers are good. Revenue was in line with expectations, and strong operating efficiencies were brought about by the new chief executive.”

“It definitely shows that Google is a best-of-breed company for online advertising, and it’s a must buy.”

But Ross Sandler, an analyst at RBC Capital, described the results as mixed.

“Overall, the focus is on what’s going to happen in the second half.”

Shares in the firm Google gained 1% to $442.60 on but later dropped 2.4% in after-hours trade.

Paid clicks - which include clicks related to ads served on Google sites and the sites of AdSense partners - were 15% higher year-on-year, but 2% less than in the first quarter.

The artist says his gnomes ridicule, rather than glorify, the Nazis

A garden gnome giving the Nazi salute has landed a German artist in trouble with the authorities in Nuremberg.

Prosecutors are investigating whether the gnome, which went on show in one of the city’s galleries, breaks the strict law banning Nazi symbols and gestures.

The Bavarian city is particularly sensitive about the Nazi era because Adolf Hitler used it for big rallies and leading Nazis went on trial there.

The artist, Ottmar Hoerl, says his gnomes poke fun at the Nazis.

“I’m astonished that a single garden gnome, in what is for me an obscure gallery in Nuremberg, has unleashed such a public discussion because of an anonymous denunciation by someone,” Mr Hoerl said.

The 59-year-old artist has been president of Nuremberg’s Academy of Fine Arts since 2005.

“I didn’t put it in the art gallery. Someone must have bought it and put it there. But I don’t know what all the fuss is about.

“With my gnomes I’m highlighting the danger of political opportunism and right-wing ideology. I get the feeling that this gnome has reopened an old wound,” he said.

Last year hundreds of his “Nazi” gnomes went on show in the Belgian city of Gent, in an exhibition called “Dance with the Devil”.

Mr Hoerl said that Belgians had well understood the political meaning “when one portrays the master race as a garden gnome”.

“In 1942 I would have been murdered by the Nazis for this work,” he said.

A spokesman for the Nuremberg public prosecutor’s office, Wolfgang Traeg, said “we’re checking to see if garden gnomes fall into the same clear category as posters that show the swastika crossed out”.

Daniel Radcliffe (left) is back as Harry in the latest Potter adventure

The latest Harry Potter film made more than $100 million on its first day on worldwide release, distributor Warner Bros has announced.

Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, the sixth film in the fantasy series, opened in 20 countries on Wednesday, making $104m (£63.7m) in cinemas.

The movie performed particularly well in the UK, taking more than £4.7m ($7.6m) from 1,305 screens.

Only two other films have opened more strongly in the UK and Ireland.

Domestic box office takings for the sixth Potter movie topped the £3m made by the third outing in its first day in 2004.

‘Outstanding’

Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban previously held the record for the most successful film to open in the UK on a Wednesday.

Half-Blood Prince took $58.2m (£35.7m) in the US and Canada - a tally that included a record $22.2m (£13.6m) from midnight screenings.

The only other movie to fare better from a Wednesday debut in North America is Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen, which opened last month with a $62m (£38m) haul.

“These outstanding box office numbers are another testament to the universal appeal of JK Rowling’s stories,” said Veronika Kwan-Rubinek, Warner Bros president of international distribution.

“We owe this record-breaking opening to the remarkable fans who have stood by us and who stood in line to be among the first to see Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” added studio president Alan Horn.

A spokeswoman for Pepsi said the drinks giant has no idea where “terrifying” footage of Michael Jackson’s hair catching fire in 1984 came from.

The accident, which happened when the singer was filming a commercial for Pepsi at the Shrine Auditorium in Los Angeles, left him with serious burns.

“We don’t know how the footage became available,” Nicole Bradley of Pepsi-Cola North America said in a statement.

“This was an unfortunate accident that occurred more than 25 years ago.”

The late entertainer was singing his hit song Billie Jean for a Pepsi Cola commercial when the “highly publicised” incident took place.

Jackson received second degree burns to his scalp in the accident

The footage, which surfaced for the first time this week, shows the singer’s hair being set alight by a pyrotechnic explosion.

Jackson, who was 25 at the time, was taken to hospital where he was treated for second degree burns to his scalp.

It has since been alleged the pop star became addicted to pain-killing medication as a result of the incident.

“It was a terrifying event that we’ll never forget,” Bradley continued, saying Pepsi had been “deeply saddened” by his death last month.

“We were grateful for Michael’s recovery and for the chance to continue working with him on a number of successful projects.”

A second person has died following the collapse of a stage being constructed for a Madonna concert in France.

Charles Prow, a 23-year-old from Headingley in Leeds, died overnight at a hospital in Marseilles.

Technicians had been setting up the stage at the city’s Velodrome stadium when the partially-built roof fell in on Thursday, bringing down a crane.

Madonna said she was “devastated” by the news. Her concert, planned for Sunday, has been cancelled.

Charles Criscenzo, a 53-year-old French worker, was killed outright in the accident, which took place at around 1715 (1615 BST).

Eight other people were seriously hurt, including an American who was hospitalised in a life-threatening condition.

More than 30 people suffered minor injuries and shock, according to authorities.

‘Shaking and collapsing’

The 60,000-seater Velodrome is France’s second-biggest sports arena and home to the Olympique de Marseille football club.

Fire-fighters said the accident occurred when the roof of the stage became unbalanced as it was being lifted by four cranes, toppling one of them.

The planned concert was part of Madonna’s Sticky and Sweet tour

About 50 people from a range of nationalities were working to set up the structure, city sports official Richard Miron said.

The roof “started shaking and collapsing” gradually, said Marseilles city councillor Maurice Di Nocera.

“Since it did not collapse right away that allowed several people to get out,” he said.

Madonna, who is performing on her Sticky and Sweet tour, was in Udine, Italy, when she was told of the incident.

“I am devastated to have just received this tragic news,” she said in a statement released by Live Nation, the organisers of the concert.

“My prayers go out to those who were injured and their families, along with my deepest sympathy to all those affected by this heartbreaking news.”

Mr Prow’s family have contacted the BBC, saying he was “a much-loved son, grandson, brother, uncle and friend”.

‘Great tragedy’

“Charles was a happy-go-lucky guy with a big personality and he will be deeply missed,” said a representative.

Footage posted online shows Madonna making an emotional tribute to the technicians at her concert in Italy on Thursday.

“I just wanted to take a moment to acknowledge and pay tribute to two people who lost their lives today,” she told fans at the Fruili Stadium in Udine.

“It’s a great tragedy to me,” she continued, choking back tears. “I feel so devastated to be in any way associated with anyone’s suffering.

“Let’s all just take a moment to say a prayer for Charles Criscenzo and Charlie Prow. Our hearts go out to their family and loved ones.”

Suleman has attracted criticism

The hospital where octuplets were born in January has been fined for a second time for failing to protect the family’s medical privacy.

Nadya Suleman attracted worldwide attention after giving birth to eight babies at Kaiser Permanente’s Bellflower hospital in Los Angeles.

The hospital was fined $250,000 in May over staff looking at Suleman’s records inappropriately.

The new $187,500 fine is for similar breaches of the babies’ privacy.

We have no reason to believe that anyone gave this information to anyone else or the media Jim Anderson Kaiser Permanente Bellflower Hospital

The latest fine is part of an on-going investigation into the case by the the California Department of Public Health (CDPH).

Kaiser Permanente, which carried out its own investigation into the case, said 27 people had either looked at either Suleman’s or her babies’ records without authorisation.

Of these, two were fired, nine were disciplined and 16 resigned.

Jim Anderson, a spokesman for the hospital, said: “We have no reason to believe that anyone gave this information to anyone else or the media.”

Dr Mark Horton, CDPH director, said: “We are very concerned with violations of patient confidentiality and their potential harm to the residents of California.

“Medical privacy is a fundamental right and a critical component of quality medical care.”

Controversy

Suleman - dubbed “Octo-Mom” by the media - gave birth to six boys and two girls by Caesarean section.

She attracted criticism after it was revealed that she was unemployed, and had conceived the octuplets, along with six other children, through IVF.

She said she wanted to make up for the loneliness she felt growing up as an only child.

Suleman has signed a deal to star in a reality TV series, and will be filmed for a proposed television show by production company Eyeworks.

Her lawyer said it would be “less intrusive” than other reality shows.