The right to know and the right to privacy

May 14, 2014 - Daily News Briefing

The seeming perpetuity of online information and the speed at which it can be retrieved trouble many people.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

To read this post and thousands more articles, subscribe today!

An explosion and a fire at a coal mine in western Turkey killed at least 17 workers Tuesday and trapped another 200 or more miners underground, the country’s disaster agency said as it launched a massive rescue operation. A power distribution unit exploded Tuesday afternoon at a mine in the town of Soma, local official Mehmet Bahattin Atci told reporters. The town is 155 miles south of Istanbul.

”American Idol” singer Clay Aiken won what had been a hotly contested Democratic primary for a North Carolina congressional seat, according to a final, unofficial vote count that was posted Tuesday, a day after the accidental death of his closest rival. Aiken will face Republican incumbent Renee Ellmers in November in the GOP-leaning district where Mitt Romney won nearly 6 in 10 votes in 2012. On Monday, second-place finisher Keith Crisco died after falling at his home.

Two miners killed inside a West Virginia coal mine worked for a company that had so many safety problems federal officials deemed it a “pattern violator,” a rare designation reserved for the industry’s worst offenders. The mine is owned by a subsidiary of St. Louis-based Patriot Coal. The workers at Brody No. 1 were killed when the floor collapsed Monday night during a coal burst, a violent failure of a roof, pillar or wall of coal along a passage inside the mine, according to the company and state and federal officials. Coal bursts have been a hazard for decades.

Student lender Sallie Mae has agreed to pay $60 million to resolve allegations that it charged military service members excessive interest rates on their student loans, the federal government announced Tuesday. The deal settles a government lawsuit that asserted that the student loan giant violated the rights of service members by imposing interest rates above the 6 percent permitted by federal law and by improperly seeking default judgments against them. The lawsuit was the Justice Department’s first against owners of student loans.

Militants unleashed a wave of car bombings in Iraq on Tuesday, killing at least 34 people and sending thick, black smoke into the Baghdad skies in a show of force meant to intimidate the majority Shiites as they marked what is meant to be a joyous holiday for their sect. It was the deadliest day in Iraq since April 28, when militant strikes on polling stations and other targets killed 46.

Three college friends of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect will be tried separately, but those trials do not need to be moved out of Massachusetts, a federal judge ruled Tuesday. Judge Douglas Woodlock ruled that Azamat Tazhayakov will stand trial on June 30, followed by Dias Kadyrbayev on Sept. 8, and Robel Phillipos on Sept. 29. Their lawyers had asked the federal judge to move the trials out of state.

An Israeli court sentenced former Prime Minister Ehud Olmert to six years in prison for his role in a bribery scandal, capping the stunning downfall of a politician who just a few years ago hobnobbed at the White House and claimed to be close to reaching a historic peace agreement with the Palestinians. Olmert, the first prime minister sentenced to prison, is set to become the latest in a string of top Israeli politicians to serve time for serious crimes. The scandals have fueled a feeling of public sorrow over the state of the country’s political system mixed with relief that no one is above the law.

Lakhdar Brahimi resigned Tuesday as the joint UN-Arab League envoy to Syria after trying for nearly two years to overcome “almost impossible odds” to end a civil war that has claimed more than 150,000 lives, the United Nations chief announced Tuesday. With Brahimi at his side, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon blamed the failure of the peace effort on the warring parties, but especially the Syrian government. He also blamed the deeply divided Security Council and countries with influence on the fighting sides. Ban pledged to keep working to achieve peace and urged all involved to rethink what they can do to bring hope to the Syrian people.

In a landmark ruling that could rock the Internet search-engine industry, Europe’s highest court said Tuesday that people are entitled to some control over what pops up when their name is Googled. The Court of Justice of the European Union said Google must listen and sometimes comply when individuals ask the search giant to remove links to newspaper articles or websites containing information about them. The ruling applies to EU citizens and all search engines in Europe, including Yahoo and Microsoft’s Bing. It remains to be seen whether it will change the way Google and its rivals operate in the US and elsewhere around the world.

Compiled from wire service reports

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

Compiled from wire service reports

“The object of the Monitor is to injure no man, but to bless all mankind.” – Mary Baker Eddy

The Daily News Briefing is published Monday through Friday by The Christian Science Publishing Society in Boston, Massachusetts.

Subscribe Now to read this post!

Are you sure?

Forgot to add folder?

Tags Error