Facebook has moved quickly to shut down a loophole which made some accounts accessible without a password. The bug was exposed in a message posted to the Hacker News website. The message contained a search string that, when used on Google, returned a list of links to 1.32 million Facebook accounts. In some cases clicking on a link logged in to that account without the need for a password. All the links exposed the email addresses of Facebook users. Throwaway account The message posted to Hacker News used a search syntax that exposed a system used by Facebook that lets users quickly log back in to their account. Email alerts about status updates and notifications often contain a link that lets a user of the social network respond quickly by clicking it to log in in to their account. More»

A law that aims to protect children from harmful internet content by allowing the government to take sites offline has taken effect in Russia. The authorities are now able to blacklist and force offline certain websites without a trial. The law was approved by both houses of parliament and signed by President Vladimir Putin in July. Human rights groups have said the legislation might increase censorship in the country. The law is the amendment to the current Act for Information. The authorities say the goal is to protect minors from websites featuring sexual abuse of children, offering details about how to commit suicide, encouraging users to take drugs and sites that solicit children for pornography. More»

The site, on which users seek money for creative or product-based ideas, has so far raised more than $340m (£211m) - with 5% of each successful pledge going to Kickstarter. Until now, new businesses using the site to raise cash for projects had to set up an account in the US. Founder Yancey Strickler told the BBC that he planned to expand the site to other countries soon. "The request to expand internationally has long been one of our most requested features," he told the BBC. "We certainly are interested. We're going to see how the UK launch goes and figure out the next moves from there. There's a lot of places that will be interesting." Perks Since launching in 2009, more than 70,000 projects have been pitched on Kickstarter - with a success rate of just over 40%. More»

Today, Google celebrates the alignment of the sun on the face of King Rameses II’s statue in the inner sanctuary of the temple of Abu Simbel - a bi-annual event which occurs on the date of his birth (22nd of February) and the date of his coronation (22nd of October) - the latter also signifying the start of the harvest season for Ancient Egyptians. The Abu Simbel temple was carved into stone after being commissioned by Pharaoh Rameses II between 1279 and 1213 B.C as his piety to the gods as well as his own deification and in order to celebrate his domination of Nubia. It is located 275 kilometers southeast of the city of Aswan. The original temple was positioned on the bank of the Nile, but it was raised up 60 meters by an international relocation project supported by UNESCO in the 1960’s to save it from flooding. The spectacle of the solar alignment draws thousands of tourists every year to Abu Simbel to watch this unique phenomenon unfold. The doodle depicts the inner sanctuary of the temple being lit by the sun rays as they hit the faces of the statues of Rameses II alongside the statues of the gods Amun-Ra, Ra-Horakhty except for that of Ptah - god of the underworld - whose statue always remains in darkness. Doodles are known as the decorative changes that are made to the Google logo  to celebrate different people, events or special dates such as holidays, anniversaries, and the lives of famous artists and scientists.  Over the years, doodles on the Google homepage have made searching on Google more fun and enjoyable for its users worldwide More»

Reports of a large explosion emerged on Twitter at 2:49 p.m. Friday afternoon, with people hearing it from Mar Mikhael to Downtown Beirut, before the news of the deadly bomb blast had reached mainstream media. But the initial picture was hazy with little more than images of a huge smoke cloud billowing from the direction of Sassine.As soon as it became clear a car bomb was behind the huge explosion, and before confirmation later in the evening that Information Branch chief Wissam al-Hasan was the target, speculation soon abounded as to the motive of the attack, which killed at least four others and left at least 110 wounded. Several politicians initially took to Twitter expressing hope that everyone was okay and as phone networks were down across the city, Telecommunications Minister Nicolas Sehnaoui tweeted that mobile transmissions stations were being moved to the bomb site to “facilitate rescue efforts.” However, many on Twitter soon condemned the way in which some politicians appeared to be using the attack to extend certain agendas, urging restraint and a need for calm reflection in the wake of a tragedy. “The last thing I want to hear right now is what some Lebanese politician thinks about this,” Iyad El-Baghdadi tweeted. More»

Twitter has blocked access to a neo-Nazi account at the request of the German government. The tweets will no longer be visible to users in Germany although the rest of the world will be able to view them. It is the first time the social networking site has implemented its local censorship policy, which came into force in January. That policy allows it to block content in specific countries if tweets violate local laws. Announcing the decision, Twitter's general counsel Alex Macgillivray said: "Never want to withhold content; good to have tools to do it narrowly and transparently." In the tweet, he published links to the letter sent by German police, requesting the account be closed. The letter outlined how the government had banned the organisation Besseres Hannover, a right-wing extremist group from Lower Saxony. "It is disbanded, its assets are seized and all its accounts in social networks have to be closed immediately," the letter read. More»

The new website enables users to search over 4,000 restaurant listings across Dubai, Abu Dhabi, Qatar, Kuwait and Oman; has a growing list of over 500 searchable recipes from readers, restaurant and celebrity chefs; has editorial sections dedicated to Healthy Eating and Cookery & Baking; a forum for all things gastronomic, as well as Meal Deals & Competitions sections. ExpatWomanFood.com is the latest venture by ExpatWoman CEO and founder, Jane Drury, and is based on the need for readers in the region to have fully searchable restaurant data and listings at their fingertips, as well as informative, locally based food articles. "ExpatWomanFood.com is the culmination of six months' work in design, development and research. We spent considerable time looking at how to optimise the experience for site users. Technically, the search facilities perform very well, and the site is stocked with recipes, food and restaurant news and offers. Our core readers are women who have busy lives - they are cooking for their family or themselves or they are looking to find restaurant recommendations and reviews, which makes the expansion into this sector perfect for them. The beauty of the Food & Drink site is that it also appeals to everyone- whatever sex, age or nationality- as food unites us all. The launch of this user-friendly, packed with information portal will be of great benefit to our readers and also to our clients. Launching fully stocked with content, and benefitting from the strong search engine ranking of the parent site ExpatWoman.com, ExpatWomanFood will quickly build traffic. We've had a tremendous response from food and restaurant clients and look forward to working with them to continually enhance our offering for readers," says Drury. More»

Yahoo has appointed a Google executive as its next chief operating officer, paying him a hefty pay package worth about $58m (£36m) over four years. Henrique de Castro had worked for Yahoo's new chief executive, Marissa Mayer, at Google. He will oversee sales and operations, Yahoo said. Mr de Castro will get an annual salary of $600,000 as well as $36m in stock options. Yahoo has been trying to rebuild itself after falling behind its rivals. Yahoo was one of the pioneers in internet search and email and continues to remain one of the biggest names in the industry. It has been losing ground as it has not been able to keep with the likes of Google in the search engine area. "This is a pivotal point in Yahoo's history, and I believe strongly in the opportunity ahead," Mr de Castro said. Yahoo's share of US online advertising revenues fell to 9.5% last year, down from 15.7% in 2009. More»

Google is to be told by the EU to change the way it gathers personal information if it is to avoid "high risks to the privacy of users". Twelve recommendations were outlined in a letter signed by 24 of the EU's 27 data regulators, Reuters reported. It follows a nine-month investigation into the company's data collection practices. Since March, Google has combined data from sites like YouTube and Gmail to better target its advertising. It meant 60 individual privacy policies for individual Google-owned sites were merged into a single policy for all of its services. Reuters quoted the letter ahead of the EU's official announcement, which will take place on Tuesday. Google has maintained the policy complies with EU law. But regulators immediately raised concerns about the changes when they were implemented earlier this year. The French data regulator, CNIL, was tasked by the EU to investigate the policy on behalf of the other countries in the EU. More»

A French nonprofit said it was considering making complaints against some Twitter users following an explosion of French-language anti-Semitic messages. SOS Racisme, a Paris-based anti-discrimination organization, made the statement after the phrase "UnBonJuif" on Wednesday became the third most popular hashtag among French Twitter users. Literally meaning "a good Jew," it served thousands of Twitter users to enter what the French daily Le Monde termed "a competition of anti-Semitic jokes." One Twitter user posted a picture of an emaciated Jewish woman taken in a Nazi concentration camp as an example of "a good Jew." Others tweeted that "a good Jew is a dead Jew." Jonathan Hayoun, president of the Union of French Jewish Students, called on Twitter to "put in place a new system to moderate" anti-Semitic tweets. On Monday, the most popular hashtag in France was "LaRafle," meaning "the roundup" - the title of a 2010 film about the Holocaust-era deportation of French Jews that was aired the previous day by a public broadcaster. Twitter defined the LaRafle hashtag as "related to UnBonJuif." Many tweets containing the LaRafle hashtag were anti-Semitic, and some users denied the Holocaust. More»