Facebook and Farmville provider Zynga: friends for 5 more years

Facebook without "FarmVille" and "Mafia Wars"? Some Facebook members wouldn't miss them. (And some of us make a point of hiding them!) For other Facebook fans, though, the Palo Alto upstart's social-networking site wouldn't be the same without them.
Facebook and Zynga today announced a five-year deal that will keep the San Francisco upstart's social games on Facebook, while expanding the use of Facebook Credits within Zynga's games.
"Facebook was a pioneer in opening their platform in 2007 and in just three years tens of millions of Facebook users play our games everyday, from 'FarmVille' and 'Cafe World' to 'Treasure Isle' and 'Mafia Wars,' " Zyngus founder and CEO Mark Pincus said in a statement today. "We are excited about Facebook's long-term commitment to social gaming and Zynga."According to reports in blogs such as TechCrunch and VentureBeat, the deal came after negotiations between the companies over the use of Facebook Credits that were so tense Zynga was considering leaving Facebook.
Zynga said it's testing Facebook's virtual currency in selected games, and plans to roll it out in other titles in coming months. Other terms of the deal weren't disclosed.

Social games may be virtual, but there's real money to be made for companies such as Facebook and Zynga. According to a Bloomberg News report, ThinkEquity estimates social games will generate $2 billion in sales by 2012.
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Apps emerge to reset Facebook privacy settings

New third-party applications are trying to make it easier to reset Facebook privacy settings, following recent changes from the company that make a sizable chunk of profile content public by default when it was once under lock and key.
A firewall and spam filter company called Untangle launched a tool on Monday called SaveFace, which takes the form of a browser bookmark utility and sets as many Facebook profile elements as it can--contact information, friend lists and connections, wall posts--to "friends only."
"We wanted to help our customers get back to [the] Facebook of 2005," Untangle CEO Bob Walters said in a statement, in which he referred to Facebook's current privacy controls as "insane" and difficult to handle.
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Ex-Tamil Tiger fighters held in limbo

 

More than 10,000 are still in custody. Of these, 1,350 are classified as "criminals" and the government says they will be "dealt with according to the law".

He says he was not tortured. But the place lacks basic facilities. He has not been given any kind of training

Manjula Devi Wife of detained rebel fighter

Expatriate Tamils compare the conditions of this camp with that of Guantanamo Bay - but such accusations are yet to be proven. Nevertheless, activists say there is a lack of transparency.
"It is not right to hold thousands of individuals as suspects. The government needs to charge those involved with specific offences, produce them in court or release them," says Dr Yolanda Foster of Amnesty International.
"There is also a lack of information about the state of the suspects. This raises serious questions about the possibilities of ill treatment. We are calling on the government to release the detainees unless they are charged with internationally recognised offences," she adds.

Saudi forces rescue German girls held hostage in Yemen

Two young German girls who were held hostage for almost a year in the mountains of Yemen are due home tomorrow, following a dramatic rescue by Saudi special forces.
Lydia Hentschel, three, and Anna, five, were delivered into the care of authorities in neighbouring Saudi Arabia today, after an 11-month ordeal in the rugged terrain of north Yemen. They were allegedly held by Shia Houthi rebels with possible links to al-Qaida.
The fate of the girls' parents, Johannes and Sabine, both 36, who worked as Christian missionaries, and their baby brother, Simon, remains unknown.
"The childrenwill now be received into the bosom of the family. They need peace and quiet, not flashbulbs, in order to be able to work through what has happened," said the girls' uncle, Reinhard Pötschke, who was told of the rescue by the German foreign ministry on Monday. "For them and us the feelings of joy and mourning are mixed."
Pötschke, a vicar, said the family was prepared for the worst. "We have to expect that Simon is probably not alive anymore," he said. German officials refused to confirm numerous reports that the parents and their two-year-old son were dead.
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