World News

on June 24, 2013 in World News

Hastings Sent Colleagues Email Hours Before Crash

LOS ANGELES (KTLA) — The crash that killed journalist Michael Hastings was  ruled an accident by police, but conspiracy theories continued to circulate on  Friday. Hastings, 33, was killed in a fiery solo-vehicle crash in Hancock Park early  Tuesday morning. He was best known for a 2010 Rolling Stone article that led to the  resignation of Gen. Stanley McChrystal, who was the former U.S. and NATO  commander in Afghanistan. Staff Sgt. Joseph Biggs told KTLA that he received an email from Hastings on  Monday. Biggs had known Hastings since 2008, when the journalist was embedded in his  unit in Afghanistan…. View Article

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on June 24, 2013 in World News

NSA controversy boosts interest in ‘private’ Internet search engines

  Internet users are taking a fresh look at “privacy” search engines that do not store data or track online activity, in light of the flap over US government surveillance. While Google’s market share has not seen a noticeable dent, privacy search engines like US-based DuckDuckGo and European-based Ixquick have seen jumps in traffic from users seeking to limit their online tracks. “I think people are seeking out privacy alternatives,” said Gabriel Weinberg, founder of DuckDuckGo, an engine created in 2007, which does not store IP addresses or create profiles of users. The stored data has become a concern following… View Article

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on June 24, 2013 in World News

Russia defiant as U.S. raises pressure over Snowden

  Reuters) – Russia defied White House pressure on Monday to expel former U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden to the United States before he flees Moscow on the next stop of his globe-crossing escape from U.S. prosecution. Snowden, whose exposure of secret U.S. government surveillance raised questions about intrusions into private lives, was allowed to leave Hong Kong on Sunday after Washington asked the Chinese territory to arrest him on espionage charges. The 30-year-old flew to Moscow as a transit stop before heading elsewhere, several sources said. But reports he would fly to Cuba were put in doubt when… View Article

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on June 24, 2013 in World News

Mayor of Illinois’ Third-Largest City Quits Bloomberg Anti-Gun Group

New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg’s anti-Second Amendment group, Mayors Against Illegal Guns, has lost another member, this time the mayor of Rockford, Illinois–the state’s third largest city. At a townhall-styled appearance on June 22 in nearby Loves Park, Illinois, Rockford Mayor Larry Morrissey announced that he has, indeed, quit Mayor Bloomberg’s gun group because Bloomberg’s group was not fulfilling what Morrissey felt was the group’s stated intentions. Morrissey has for some time been saying he intended to quit the anti-gun group and some citizens wondered if this was just electioneering, but at this most recent townhall event, Mayor Morrissey has… View Article

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on June 24, 2013 in World News

Former Facebook Security Chief Works for NSA

Facebook’s former security chief Max Kelly now works for the National Security Agency (NSA), reports the New York Times. Kelly, whom the Center for Responsive Politics lists as having donated $1,150 to the Obama campaign in 2008, also previously worked at the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). He left Facebook for the NSA in 2010, one year after the social media giant reportedly joined the NSA’s top-secret PRISM program. Kelly’s position at the NSA is presently unknown. The revelation is the latest example of the growing fusion between so-called Big Data Silicon Valley tech firms and government. Indeed, given the… View Article

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on June 23, 2013 in World News

Now it’s Muslim lawyers demanding Obama’s arrest

            President Obama has appointed Muslims to high U.S. government positions, once  declared America no longer Christian, is working on direct talks with the  Taliban and has plans to hand over weapons to Muslims in Syria. He has also advocated for the “Arab Spring” movement that has put hard-line  Islamic leaders in power in the Middle East. None of that, however, is good enough for a Muslim Lawyers Association based  in South Africa. Members there are taking that nation’s National Prosecuting Authority to  court for refusing to make plans to arrest Obama when he visits… View Article

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on June 23, 2013 in World News

Fox Shep Smith Mocks FBI Surveillance

Washington (CNN) — FBI Director Robert Mueller acknowledged the law enforcement agency uses drone aircraft in the United States for surveillance in certain difficult cases. Mueller told the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday that drones are used by the FBI in a “very, very minimal way and very seldom.” He did not say how many unmanned surveillance vehicles (UAVs) the FBI has or how often they have been used. But a law enforcement official told CNN the FBI has used them a little more than a dozen times but did not say when that started. The official said drones are… View Article

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on June 23, 2013 in World News

Palin: Abolish the IRS

On Saturday, former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin said that the IRS–and much of the federal bureaucracy–needs to be abolished. Appearing on Fox News’ “Cashin In” with Eric Bolling, Palin said that she agreed with Tea Partiers who want to abolish the IRS, suggesting that it would undercut much of the cronyism rampant in Washington. She said the tax code needs to be simplified with the adoption of a flat tax. “That way we can abolish the bureaucracy that is so burdensome and expensive, and it would allow some sledgehammering of the crony capitalism and the corruption within [government],” Palin said. When asked about… View Article

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on June 23, 2013 in World News

Hong Kong Lets Snowden Slip Away to Russia–En Route to Cuba?

News agencies report that Edward Snowden, the former contractor who exposed National Security Agency (NSA) surveillance programs, left Hong Kong early Sunday, en route to Russia. His final destination, according to Russian sources cited by the Wall Street Journal, is the communist dictatorship of Cuba, though activists from Wikileaks asserted that Snowden is traveling via Russia with Wikileaks legal advisors to a “democratic” country. Hong Kong, which has an extradition treaty with the United States, declined to comply with a request by the U.S. government that it detain Snowden, who was formally charged with espionage and theft in federal court in Virginia… View Article

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on June 23, 2013 in World News

Genetic chains: Alarming new study of Monsanto feed on pigs

  UK Environment officials praise GMO crops as ‘safer than conventional’ ones, but a recent study reveals more sobering evidence that the world urgently needs to ask fundamental safety questions about genetic engineering of the human food chain. The first long term study of the effects on inner organs from a diet of Monsanto GMO maize and GMO soya has just been released. The results are shocking and validate the September 2012 long-term study by Prof. Gilles-Eric Seralini of the effects on rats of a diet of GMO Maize. Despite the fact that feeding pigs and cattle and other animals… View Article

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