As in the Safe Harbour agreement, web firms could seek a certification that they follow certain minimum rules of consumer protection and privacy.

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So of course there is the panic trade to reduce the risk profile and to fly to bonds as the nearest short term safe harbour.

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Last month, opposition peers backed a move to ensure the panel's City Code on mergers and takeovers would provide a "safe harbour" for people accused by the FSA of market abuse.

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We need our technicians and our legal experts, from both sides of the Atlantic, to continue their dialogue to improve the Safe Harbour agreement as well as other missing elements.

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Intermediaries are understandably reluctant to ignore threats of litigation, yet without a legal safe harbour that protects them from liability, it is likely that the number of questionable defamation claims will continue to rise.

BBC: P2PNet screenshot

They don't find safe harbour in the country.

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With the integrity of the eurozone, one of the three great economic areas, in some doubt, it is seriously discombobulating for banks, sovereign wealth funds, pension funds, insurers and central banks that the safe harbour of US Treasury Bonds, US government debt, no longer looks quite the comforting refuge in a storm that it once was.

BBC: As the US loses AAA, where is a safe harbour?

"The bottom line is that, without wishing to be the slightest bit complacent, we feel that HBOS, in this particular storm and given its business characteristics, is in as a safe a harbour as is possible, while at the same time feeling commercially rather frustrated, " he wrote in the letter dated 18 March.

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Wez Smith, RSPB Langstone Harbour site manager, said the beach would now offer an "attractive and safe" nesting area for the area's little tern population during the breeding season.

BBC: Little tern