September 29 - October 5, 2012
World News
27
TURKS AND CAICOS WEEKLY NEWS
Brazilian court orders Google Court upholds German Catholic exec’s arrest over online videos Church membership tax
A BRAZILIAN court has issued an arrest order for a Google official there, arguing that he violated the South American country’s election law when he didn’t respond to a request to take down YouTube videos that allegedly slandered a candidate for mayor in upcoming elections. The warrant from a judge in the southwest state of Mato Grosso do Sul accuses Fabio Jose Silva Coelho, Google’s president in Brazil, of “disobedience” for not removing YouTube videos about Alcides Bernal, who is running for mayor in the city of Campo Grande. The order also says Brazilian Internet service provider Embratel must block the Google-owned YouTube website in the city for 24 hours. A Google spokesman did not be immediately respond to a request for comment. In court documents, the company argues that it isn’t
responsible for the contents of the videos and asks for the case to be dismissed. Under Brazilian law, the penalty for disobeying a judge’s order could be up to six months in prison or a fine. Earlier this month, another company executive faced a similar order in the northern state of Paraiba for a video that allegedly slandered a mayoral candidate there. That case was dismissed after Google successfully convinced the judge that it was not responsible for the contents of the video, but simply provided a platform for its diffusion. In August, Facebook faced an order to remove a page criticizing a political candidate or be forced to go dark in the country for 24 hours. The judge in that case suspended his decision two days after it was issued. (CNN)
GERMANY’S Roman Catholics can only remain part of the Church if they pay a membership tax, a court has ruled. All Germans who are officially registered as Catholics, Protestants or Jews pay a religious tax of 8-9% on their annual income tax bill. This had been challenged by a retired law professor who said he wanted to remain a Catholic but not pay the tax. Last week, a new bishops’ decree warned that anyone not paying the tax would be denied the right to religious rites. The German church levy was introduced in 1803 in compensation for the nationalisation of religious property. In 2011, the Catholic Church received 5bn euros (£4bn; $6.4bn) and the Protestant Church 4.5bn euros from taxpayers, each adding up to the bulk of the churches’ income, the BBC’s Berlin correspondent Stephen Evans said. He added that this arrangement, whereby the state collects taxes on behalf of religious groups and then
German bishops said Catholics refusing to pay the Church tax would be denied religious burial.
reimburses them, was unusual in Western secular societies. ALARM OVER DECLINE Hartmut Zapp, a retired professor of church law, filed a legal challenge in 2007, arguing that under Catholic doctrine, Church membership was determined by a person’s beliefs and not by a financial relationship. (BBC)
US police gun down 83-year-old woman responding to 911 call she made Governor Brown arrived in one of Google’s driverless vehicles.
Driverless car bill is signed in California A bill to bring driverless cars to roads in California has been signed. State Governor Jerry Brown backed legislation on Tuesday, and said: “Today we’re looking at science-fiction becoming tomorrow’s reality”. The bill was signed at the headquarters of Google, which has been testing a fleet of 12 autonomous computer-controlled vehicles for several years. Google co-founder Sergey Brin said self-driving cars would be “far safer” than those driven by humans. Other manufacturers, including Audi, Ford and Volvo have also been experimenting with the technology. Emergency back-up The bill, drawn up by Senator Alex Padilla, will establish safety and performance regulations to test and operate the vehicles on roads across the state. It requires the California Department of Motor Vehicles to draft the regulations by 2015. A licensed driver would still be
required to sit behind the wheel, however, in order to provide back-up in an emergency. Google has said that it has logged more than 300,000 miles in its cars without an accident - although one of its vehicles was involved in a minor crash in summer 2011. The company said it was being driven manually at the time. “I think the self-driving car can really dramatically improve the quality of life for everyone,” Google co-founder Sergey Brin said, adding that he thought the vehicles would be commercially available within the decade. ‘DARN DRIVERLESS CARS’ The cars are powered and controlled using a combination of sensors, location tracking and on-board computing power to drive the vehicle safely. Other less ambitious autonomous driving functions are already in use across the car industry - such as guided parking and adaptive cruise control.
A POLICE officer shot and killed an 83-year-old woman in her own backyard. Delma Towler dialed 911 to report a burglary but when police arrived, one officer killed her outside her home in Altavista, Va. “It’s not over yet. I’m going to get some justice because our mother did not deserve to die like this ... to be gunned down like she was an animal or a criminal,” Towler’s daughter Linda Langford told The News and Advance. Towler had never fired her gun before that night. She fired a warning shot out the window to scare the burglar off. Then she started walking through her backyard toward her sister’s house. She grasped the gun for protection from the reported intruder - not the police, her family maintains. The police “heard shots fired from within the residence. As the officers took cover, they saw a woman armed with a handgun leave the back of the house,” according to a statement released by the Virginia State Police. The two responding officers claim that they fired Towler after she refused to put her weapon down. The woman reportedly did not have her glasses on or hearing aid in at the time. The police statement also alleges that Towler pointed her gun at the officers — a point her son Robert
Delma Towler was walking through her backyard carrying her handgun when police shot and killed her.
Barbour does not buy. “Mom ain’t gonna hurt no police officer or nobody else. She was a good Christian woman and she wouldn’t hurt a soul,” Barbour said. The officer who killed Towler is currently on administrative leave, according to WDBJ7. “If I have to spend every penny, someone’s going to pay,” said Langford. “They took my mama.” (Nydailynews.com)
Pfc. Patrick Edward Myers, 27, was charged on Tuesday with manslaughter.
Soldier charged with manslaughter after trying to cure another of hiccups A SOLDIER trying to scare another soldier out of hiccups shot his comrade in the face, killing him, authorities said Tuesday. Both soldiers, joined by a third man, were drinking alcohol and watching football at the time of the Sunday night incident, authorities said. “The victim had the hiccups. The suspect pulled out a gun to scare him in order to stop the hiccups,” said spokesman Carroll Smith of the Killeen, Texas, Police Department. Pfc. Patrick Edward Myers, 27, was charged on Tuesday with manslaughter, and Justice of the Peace Garland Potvin set his bond at $1 million, police said. Killed was Pfc. Isaac Lawrence Young, 22, of Ash Grove, Missouri, a motor transport operator at the Army base, the military said. Young entered active duty in May 2011 and arrived at Fort Hood in October 2011, the Army said. Myers is a soldier at the base, as was Young at the time of his death, said Fort Hood spokesman Chris Haug. Police responded to a shooting shortly after 10 p.m. Sunday and found a man shot in the face and two other men at the residence, Killeen police said.