RENEE MONTAGNE, host:
Our business news starts with a human rights group suing Yahoo.
The World Organization for Human Rights U.S.A. has accused the Internet pioneer of providing information to the Chinese government that led to the arrest and torture of dissidents. Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and other American technology companies who do business in China all have signed a pledge to abide by the country's censorship laws.
One U.S. corporation, Cisco Systems, has been criticized for selling equipment that allows China to block access to many Internet sites. In a lawsuit filed yesterday, the American human rights group says the data Yahoo provided helped Chinese authorities track down pro-democracy activists. A spokesman for Yahoo said the company has no choice but to comply with China's censorship laws or its employees would face civil or criminal penalties. Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.