News of Interest

Library confrontation points up privacy dilemma
July 19 2008

By JOHN CURRAN
Associated Press Writer
RANDOLPH, Vt. (AP) -- Children's librarian Judith Flint was getting ready for the monthly book discussion group for 8- and 9-year-olds on "Love That Dog" when police showed up.

They weren't kidding around: Five state police detectives wanted to seize Kimball Public Library's public access computers as they frantically searched for a 12-year-old girl, acting on a tip that she sometimes used the terminals.

Flint demanded a search warrant, touching off a confrontation that pitted the privacy rights of library patrons against the rights of police on official business.

"It's one of the most difficult situations a library can face," said Deborah Caldwell-Stone, deputy director of intellectual freedom issues for the American Library Association.

Complete Story
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Invasion at Potters Field!?!


Alien ship crashes into Potters Field? Movie stunt, promo, invasion... no one is quite sure what the deal is with this 'exhibit' over in Potters Field in London.
Gizmodo report

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US Exclusionary Rule - Time for Modification?

The Times has an interesting article on the US exclusionary rule and its lack of counterpart in foreign legal systems, and how the US uniqueness in automatically excluding evidence could come to an end next year when the Supreme Court hears a case to challenge Mapp v. Ohio.

New York Times Article

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Across China, Security Instead Of Celebration
Police Crack Down on 'Hostile Forces,' Apply New Safety Measures

By Edward Cody
Washington Post Foreign Service
Saturday, July 19, 2008; Page A01
YENGISHAHAR, China -- Shortly after dawn on July 9, the local government here bused several thousand students and office workers into a public square and lined them up in front of a vocational school. As the spectators watched, witnesses said, three prisoners were brought out. Then, an execution squad fired rifles at the three point-blank, killing them on the spot.

The young men had been convicted of having connections to terrorist plots, which authorities said were part of a campaign aimed at disrupting the Beijing Olympics by the East Turkestan Islamic Movement, an underground separatist organization here in the vast Xinjiang region of western China. The group has long fought for independence on behalf of the region's Muslim Uighur inhabitants.

The public execution of the men was a dramatic example of the massive, unforgiving security operation that has been mounted in China to protect the Beijing Games from what Communist Party authorities describe as an urgent threat of violence and anti-government protest.

Full Story