Google reveals Japan wreckage

Satellite images showing Japan before and after Friday's massive earthquake provide a startling picture of how dramatic and destructive the disaster actually was, writes Cnet.

To help illustrate the damaging power of the quake and the ensuing tsunami, Google has compiled a collection of high-resolution before-and-after satellite images that depict the areas affected most by the devastation.

"We're working to provide this data directly to response organisations on the ground to aid their efforts," Ryan Falor, of the Google Crisis Response team, said in a Google LatLong blog post. "We hope this new updated satellite imagery is valuable for them, as well as everyone else following this situation to help illustrate the extent of the damage."

A federal judge has ruled that the US government may demand that three associates of Julian Assange hand over Twitter account information in the criminal investigation into WikiLeaks, reports the BBC.

The three users of the social network had appealed against an earlier ruling. Their legal team had argued the request was a violation of their constitutional rights of free speech and association.

The judge ruled that those freedoms do not shield members from complying with legitimate government investigations. The American Civil Liberties Union, the rights group which represented the Twitter users, said they planned to appeal against the ruling.

More than 300 000 PlayStation 3 (PS3) consoles that were being stockpiled in the Netherlands can now be distributed across Europe after a Dutch court ruled in favour of Sony, states the Guardian.

In February, the Korean electronics firm LG won an injunction against Sony, which led to shipments of PS3 consoles being seized by Dutch customs officials.

The action stemmed from a legal case instigated by LG, which alleges Sony has infringed patents in the manufacturer of the PS3 console's Blu-ray drive. Meanwhile, Sony is also taking action against LG for allegedly infringing its own patents in the production of smartphones.

The earthquake that rocked Japan on Friday seems likely to have knock-on effects on global electronic component supply, analysts have warned, according to ZDNet.

The quake caused unscheduled halts at some semiconductor fabs and damaged national infrastructure, which could mean damaged integrated circuit batches and future problems in component supply.

"The major impact [of the quake] on Japan's semiconductor production is not likely to be direct damage to production facilities, but disruption to the supply chain," research firm iSuppli wrote on Friday. "Suppliers are likely to encounter difficulties in getting raw materials supplied and distributed and shipping products out."