EDMONTON - Alberta's human services minister says it's full speed ahead with proposed legislation to help protect children despite concerns from the privacy commissioner. Dave Hancock said Thursday he still hopes to pass the bill in the current legislature sitting. "We'll have to have a respectful disagreement on some of these points," Hancock said.

A Spanish court refused Wednesday to extradite a former HSBC bank employee to Switzerland where he is wanted for allegedly stealing data that exposed thousands of suspected tax dodgers. Herve Falciani, a 40-year-old French-Italian, was arrested in Barcelona in July 2012 after he arrived by boat from France. Switzerland asked for Falciani to be extradited to face charges of violating Swiss banking secrecy laws and revealing industrial secrets.

Embattled Bayern Munich president Uli Hoeness, at the centre of a tax evasion scandal, first came into the crosshair of authorities in the middle of last year when his name appeared on a CD listing Germans with Swiss bank accounts, a report said Sunday. German tax investigators have repeatedly launched nationwide raids in recent years against hundreds of suspected tax dodgers, based on data on Swiss bank account holders listed on computer disks the authorities purchased from unknown sources.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel is "disappointed" like many people in the country in the president of German football giants Bayern Munich, Uli Hoeness, her spokesman said Monday after alleged tax evasion revelations. "Many people in Germany are now disappointed in Uli Hoeness, the chancellor is also among these people," Steffen Seibert told a regular government news briefing. He recognised positive achievements by Hoeness, including on the integration of immigrants which had brought him into contact with Merkel on a project last year, Seibert said.