Mail.com

MADISON, Wis. (AP) — While tiny houses have been attractive for those wanting to downsize or simplify their lives for financial or environmental reasons, there’s another population benefiting from the small-dwelling movement: the homeless.

There’s a growing effort across the nation from advocates and religious groups to build these compact buildings because they are cheaper than a traditional large-scale shelter, help the recipients socially because they are built in communal settings and are environmentally friendly due to their size.   Continue reading “Tiny houses help address nation’s homeless problem”

Joaquin "El Chapo" GuzmanMail.com

WASHINGTON (AP) — Mexico’s most powerful drug cartel leader employed high-tech communications gadgetry and sophisticated counterespionage practices to elude an international manhunt for 13 years, The Associated Press has learned. In the end, however, life on the run unraveled for Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman in a decidedly low-tech way.

A traditional wiretap in southern Arizona pointed authorities to a cellphone being used by a top associate. Within a day, Guzman was captured in a high-rise beachfront condominium in Mazatlan, Mexico.   Continue reading “Kingpin’s high-tech gadgetry helped him stay free”

Reuters/Lucy NicholsonRT News

A new report published by the United States Department of Agriculture demonstrates that the vast majority of corn and soybean crops grown in America are genetically-engineered variants made to withstand certain conditions and chemicals.

But while GMO seeds have been sowed on US soil for 15 years now, the latest USDA report reveals that Americans still have concerns about consuming custom-made, laboratory-created products, albeit nowhere near as much as in Europe.   Continue reading “GMO crops may cause major environmental risks, USDA admits”

Spencer Platt/Getty Images/AFPRT News

Lawmakers in a number of US states are pushing legislation that aims to force officials to begin testing tens of thousands of rape kits that contain evidence against sexual predators who committed their crimes years ago, and in one case three decades.

Countless victims across the US have spent years pleading with local law enforcement and regional representatives to begin examining the backlog of rape kits, which could contain the DNA of a rape suspect still at large.   Continue reading “Potential sexual predators walk free as thousands of rape kits remain untested”

Satellite dishes are seen at GCHQ's outpost at Bude, close to where trans-Atlantic fibre-optic cables come ashore in Cornwall, southwest England (Reuters/Kieran Doherty)RT News

Secret units within the ‘Five Eyes” global spying network engage in covert online operations that aim to invade, deceive, and control online communities and individuals through the spread of false information and use of ingenious social-science tactics.

Such teams of highly trained professionals have several main objectives, such as “to inject all sorts of false material onto the internet” and “to use social sciences and other techniques to manipulate online discourse and activism to generate outcomes it considers desirable,”The Intercept’s Glenn Greenwald reported based on intelligence documents leaked by former NSA contractor Edward SnowdenContinue reading “Western spy agencies build ‘cyber magicians’ to manipulate online discourse”

Kolin Burges, AaronMail.com

TOKYO (AP) — A major bitcoin exchange has gone bust after secretly racking up catastrophic losses, other virtual currency companies said Tuesday — a potentially fatal blow for the exotic new form of money.

The website of Tokyo-based Mt. Gox was returning a blank page Tuesday. The disappearance of the site follows the resignation Sunday of Mt. Gox CEO Mark Karpeles from the board of the Bitcoin Foundation, a group seeking legitimacy for the currency, and a withdrawal ban imposed at the exchange earlier this month.   Continue reading “Major bitcoin exchange is insolvent”

Mail.com

For Cherie Lash Rhoades, an appeals hearing was her last chance to keep her small house on a tiny American Indian reservation in the high desert of northeastern California. During the eviction meeting at tribal headquarters, the former Cedarville Rancheria chairwoman is accused of killing four people, including three relatives.

Court documents allege she opened fire with a 9 mm semi-automatic pistol at the building in Alturas, Calif., on Thursday, killing four and wounding two. She was arrested as she stabbed one of the wounded, whom she had chased into the parking lot with a kitchen knife, the documents say. She stopped when a man tackled her and the undersheriff of Modoc County handcuffed her, authorities said.   Continue reading “Ex-tribal chair accused of killings faces hearing”

Reuters / Erik De Castro RT News

Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel’s reported plan to scale back the US Army to its smallest numbers since World War II, as well as slashing pay and perks for service personnel, promises to be an uphill battle in Congress.

After more than a decade of fighting two protracted wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the US military is showing some wear and tear, at least on the budgetary front. In an effort to adhere to President Obama’s pledge of scaling back military operations abroad, compounded by the grim reality of austerity measures following years of prodigious spending, the epoch of expensive US overseas military occupations appears to have waned, according to the New York Times.    Continue reading “US military plans steep cutbacks, roils ranks”

AFP Photo / Justin SullivanRT News

Gun makers in the United States produced a record number of weapons in 2012, as new government data suggests Democratic presidents may actually be a boon to firearms manufacturers.

According to numbers released by US Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives, more than 8.5 million guns were produced in 2012, compared to about 6.5 million in 2011. That’s a 31 percent increase, and the highest number recorded since the agency began tracking gun production in 1986.   Continue reading “Gun production in US sets new record with 30 percent increase”

Exxon Mobil CEO and Chairman Rex Tillerson.(Reuters / Kevin Lamarque )RT News

The CEO of ExxonMobil – the top producer of natural gas in the US – has joined a lawsuit that challenges the construction of a water tower connected to hydraulic fracturing operations near his Texas home, given that it may reduce the property value.

CEO Rex Tillerson and other plaintiffs claim the hydraulic fracturing – or fracking – project will cause unwanted noise and traffic associated with trucking water from the 160-foot tower to the drilling site, The Wall Street Journal reported.   Continue reading “Exxon CEO: Don’t frack in my backyard”

Credit: NASART News

The United States plans to send into orbit a pair of satellites to monitor spacecraft from other countries, as well as to track space debris, the head of Air Force Space Command said.

The United States plans to send into orbit a pair of satellites to monitor spacecraft from other countries, as well as to track space debris, the head of Air Force Space Command said.   Continue reading “US Air Force reveals ‘neighborhood watch’ satellite program”

Joaquin "El Chapo" GuzmanMail.com

CULIACAN, Mexico (AP) — For 13 years Joaquin “El Chapo” Guzman watched from western Mexico’s rugged mountains as authorities captured or killed the leaders of every group challenging his Sinaloa cartel’s spot at the top of global drug trafficking.

Unscathed and his legend growing, the stocky son of a peasant farmer grabbed a slot on the Forbes’ billionaires’ list and a folkloric status as the capo who grew too powerful to catch. Then, late last year, authorities started closing on the inner circle of the world’s most-wanted drug lord.   Continue reading “Noose closed on Mexican drug lord as allies fell”

AFP Photo / Brendan SmialowskiRT News

A US judge has handed down sentences to three peace activists, including an 84-year-old nun, who were convicted of breaking into a Tennessee defense facility where enrichment material for nuclear weapons is held, and staging a protest on federal property.

Sister Megan Rice, 84, Greg Boertje-Obed, 57, and Michael Walli, 63, were found guilty in May of destroying US government property and causing more than $1,000 in damage to federal property in the demonstration.   Continue reading “Elderly nun among anti-nuke peace activists sentenced to prison”

Joe Raedle / Getty Images / AFPRT News

With one person missing and presumed dead in an explosion at a natural gas well in a small Pennsylvania town, the company responsible is now under fire after apparently apologizing to the local community by handing out vouchers for free pizza.

It took five days for emergency crews to safely extinguish a fire that was set by an explosion that shook the small town of Bobtown, located in the far southwestern corner of the state. The blast gave off a loud hissing noise that could be heard from hundreds of yards away.   Continue reading “Free pizza! Chevron issues controversial apology to town plagued by fracking explosion”

The world's first bitcoin ATM in Vancouver.(AFP Photo / David Ryder)RT News

Seattle looks set to become the first US city to introduce cash machines that will cater solely for crytocurrency bitcoin. Canada was the first to install bitcoin ATMs and there are plans to introduce cash points in London and Singapore this year.

Las Vegas-based company, Robocoin, has announced the installation of the first automated teller machines (ATMs) in Seattle later this month. Following in the footsteps of Canada, which introduced the machines last year, the new ATMs will come equipped with scanners that recognize government-issued identity, such as passports and drivers’ licenses.   Continue reading “Seattle to become first US city to pioneer bitcoin ATMs”

Jamie Coots.(Screenshot from YouTube user National Geographic)RT News

A Kentucky preacher and reality TV star, whose sermons involved handling of deadly snakes, has died from a snake bite. He refused medical treatment, because he relied on God’s protection to save him from the venom.

Pastor Jamie Coots was found dead at about 10pm EST on Saturday at his house in Middlesboro, Kentucky, local police reported Sunday.   Continue reading “Snake-handling preacher dies from bite after refusing anti-venom”

Reuters / JerryLaizureRT News

A Valentine’s Day outing turned tragic for one Oklahoma family who claims five police officers beat their father to death during a confrontation outside a local movie theater.

The death is currently under investigation, and three police officers have been placed on administrative leave as the probe unfolds.   Continue reading “Father trying to stop family fight beaten to death by Oklahoma cops”

Members of jihadist group Al-Nusra Front take part in a parade calling for the establishment of an Islamic state in Syria, at the Bustan al-Qasr neighbourhood of Aleppo, on October 25, 2013.(AFP Photo / Mahmud AL-Halabi)RT News

Around 250 British jihadists have returned to the UK after training and fighting in Syria, a senior Whitehall security official told the Sunday Times. Security services are monitoring the “extremist tourists”, fearing they might carry out attacks at home.

Ministers have been informed that more than 400 Britons went to Syria to engage in militant activities, and “Well over half of those who traveled out have come back,”the official told the Times.   Continue reading “Extremist tourists: 250 jihadists reportedly return to UK”

Mail.com

GENEVA (AP) — Locking the pilot out of the cockpit, an Ethiopian Airlines co-pilot hijacked a plane bound for Italy on Monday and diverted it to Geneva, where he asked for asylum, officials said.

One passenger said the hijacker threatened to crash the plane if the pilot didn’t stop pounding on the locked door. Another said passengers were terrified “for hours” as the plane careened across the sky.   Continue reading “Co-pilot hijacks plane to Geneva, seeks asylum”