Sundar Pichai to testify before US House in November: Report
Washington, Sep 29 : Google CEO Sundar Pichai met Republican lawmakers here on Friday and agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in November to allay concerns over privacy issues and the tech giant's entry into the Chinese market.
According to a report in USA Today, Pichai confirmed to testify in November during a private meeting with GOP lawmakers on Capitol Hill.
"Pichai has agreed to testify before the House Judiciary Committee in November to address concerns over the Internet giant's business practices," said the report.
"As big tech's business grows, we have not had enough transparency and that has led to an erosion of trust and perhaps worse -- harm to consumers," House Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy was quoted as saying.
Pichai also met US President Donald Trump's economic adviser Larry Kudlow and reportedly told the White House that he would attend an upcoming Trump roundtable with tech executives.
"We remain committed to continuing an active dialogue with members from both sides of the aisle, working proactively with Congress on a variety of issues, explaining how our products help millions of American consumers and businesses, and answering questions as they arise," Pichai said in a statement.
"Google has a lot of questions to answer about bias in its search results, violations of user privacy, anticompetitive behaviour and business dealings with repressive regimes like China," McCarthy earlier tweeted.
The news about Google's plan to build a censored search engine in China broke in August when The Intercept reported that the search platform would blacklist "sensitive queries" about topics including politics, free speech, democracy, human rights and peaceful protest, triggering internal protests among some Google employees.
Two weeks after that report, Pichai told the company's employees that the China plan was in its "early stages" and "exploratory".
Earlier in September, Google was given "the empty chair treatment" at a Senate Intelligence Committee hearing as neither Pichai nor Larry Page, Chairman of Google's parent company Alphabet, showed up at the event on election interference, attended by Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey and Facebook COO Shreyl Sandberg.
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B'desh: Lawyer killed in clash between security personnel, followers of Hindu leader
Dhaka, Nov 26: A lawyer was killed on Tuesday during clashes between the security personnel and followers of a Hindu community leader, who was denied bail and sent to jail by a Bangladesh court, according to local media reports.
The victim was identified as Saiful Islam, a 35-year-old assistant public prosecutor and a member of the Chattogram District Bar Association, the Dhaka Tribune newspaper reported.
Citing Dr Nibedita Ghosh, a duty doctor at the emergency department of Chittagong Medical College Hospital, the paper said that six others were injured in the clashes that erupted after Chattogram’s Sixth Metropolitan Magistrate court denied bail to prominent Hindu leader Chinmoy Krishna Das Brahmachari, arrested on sedition charges.
Nazim Uddin Chowdhury, president of the Chittagong Lawyers' Association, said that protesters dragged a lawyer from beneath his chamber and hacked him to death.
As Das was being taken away in a police van, he addressed the crowd through a hand mike, urging them to remain calm.
Around 3 pm, the law enforcement agencies resorted to sound grenades, tear gas shells, and baton charges, dispersing the protesters.
Deputy Commissioner of City Police Liaquat Ali confirmed one death but said they were still investigating the cause.
The Daily Star newspaper reported that at least 10 people, including journalists, were injured during the clash.
