Ultimate Big Brother 'basics are in place'

From 'Electronic Police State' report cites U.S.

In what may be the first assessment of its kind, a private company that offers a range of privacy products for computers and other technology is ranking the United States No. 6 in the world for having the most aggressive procedures for monitoring residents electronically.

The report, called The Electronic Police State [pdf], assesses the status of governmental surveillance in 52 nations around the globe for 2008.

The document was released Cryptohippie, Inc., which was set up in 2007 through the acquisition of several little-known but highly regarded providers of privacy technologies.

Not surprisingly, China and North Korea ranked No. 1 and No. 2, with Belarus and Russia following up. But the United Kingdom ranked fifth followed by the United States.

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Kent State: 39 years after 4 students were slain we're still asking 'why?'

2009 Commemoration Headlines

Filo and Vecchio return to KSU

Inextricably linked by the annals of history for the past 39 years, Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer John Filo and his subject, Mary Vecchio, were reunited Tuesday at Kent State University.

The last time he saw her on the campus was through the lens of his camera as he took his historic picture on May 4, 1970, after the shootings on campus that left four dead and nine wounded.

Filo, then a senior photojournalism major, is now photography director for CBS in New York. Vecchio, then a 14-year-old runaway from Florida, is a respiratory therapist in Florida.

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Kent State marks anniversary of 1970 shootings

KENT -- Today is the 39th anniversary of the 1970 National Guard shootings that killed four Kent State University students during an anti-war protest.

On May 4, 1970, four students were killed and nine others were wounded, one of whom suffered permanent paralysis.

Some of the students who were shot had been protesting against the American invasion of Cambodia, which then-President Richard Nixon had just announced in a television address on April 30.

Other students who were shot had merely been walking nearby or observing the protest from a distance.

The event is commemorated in the Crosby, Stills, Nash and Young song "Ohio."

KSU will hold its annual symposium marking the anniversary.

© 2009 The Associated Press