Midday Roundup: Britain asks Twitter, Facebook to help terror fight

Open up. The head of a British intelligence agency wants more access to Facebook and Twitter, saying the social networks are a vital part of Islamic militants’ communication efforts. Information gained from the sites could help foil attacks in the West, said Robert Hannigan, the new director of Britain’s Government Communications Headquarters. According to Twitter, the British government requested information 78 times in the first six months of this year. Facebook claims it doesn’t allow terrorist organizations to keep a presence on its site. Ever since former U.S. intelligence analyst Edward Snowden revealed the breadth of the U.S. electronic surveillance program, tech companies have bent over backwards to convince users their data and interactions will remain private. But Hannigan insists the companies need to work with governments trying to battle an increasingly virulent threat.

Captured. Mexican officials have arrested a mayor accused in the disappearance of 43 college students. José Luis Abarca and his wife, Maria de los Angeles Pineda, fled Iguala after the students from a small teaching college vanished on their way to protest a speech Pineda planned to give in the city about 120 miles south of Mexico City. Abarca allegedly ordered local police to stop the students. During the ensuing standoff, police shot six students and rounded up the others. Federal officials believe the officers handed the students over to a local drug gang with whom Abarca and his wife had close ties. More than 50 local officials, including many police officers, have been arrested in the case. The students have not been found, but are presumed to be dead.

Quarantine support. According to a new poll, three-quarters of Americans believe healthcare workers returning from the three West African countries in the Ebola outbreak should be quarantined for 21 days. Eighty percent of those polled said the workers should have their movements monitored, according to the Reuters/Ipsos survey. The strong public support for quarantines comes amid a legal battle in Maine, where health officials tried to persuade a nurse recently back from Sierra Leone to remain confined to her house. Kaci Hickox said the order violated her civil liberties. On Monday, the state agreed she could move about unhindered as long as she monitored her health. Rules in New York and New Jersey requiring quarantines remain in place, but it’s not clear whether officials will attempt to enforce them.

Price war? Saudi Arabia announced today it will drop oil prices, possibly in a bid to undercut the U.S. domestic market. It costs twice as much to extract a barrel of oil using the fracking process, common now in America, than it does to pull crude out of the ground in the Middle East. If prices drop too low, oil companies might halt U.S. operations, at least temporarily. In June, a barrel of crude oil cost $108. Today the price is $75.84.

Click and Clack. The longtime co-host of NPR’s popular Car Talk program died yesterday. Tom Magliozzi was 77. The Magliozzi brothers, Tom and Ray, were among talk radio’s most endearing voices, dispensing mechanical and personal advice to callers who often led their appeals by trying to imitate the odd noises their vehicles made. The duo had not recorded a new episode of the show for two years, but listeners loved it so much NPR continued to run old episodes every Saturday morning. Although the brothers aped their “dumb mechanic” personas, they were both graduates of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. The show first aired nationally in 1987.