Author: Sunfire

RT News

Executives of major technology companies pressed Tuesday for reform of the NSA’s surveillance operations during a meeting with President Barack Obama that was initially to focus on the government’s maligned health care website.

Senior executives from Apple, Google, Yahoo, Netflix, Comcast, AT&T, Microsoft, Twitter, Facebook and others met privately Tuesday with Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and members of the White House’s national security team. The meeting, which lasted over two hours, came one day after a federal judge ruled the National Security Agency’s bulk collection of Americans’ telephone metadata is likely unconstitutional.   Continue reading “Tech execs steer away from HealthCare.gov, to NSA in Obama meeting”

RT News

Researchers at the University of Missouri and the United States Geological Survey say that chemicals used in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, could be causing serious hormonal disorders in humans.

A new report published in the latest edition of the journal Endocrinology examines a dozen chemicals used regularly in fracking — an increasingly commonplace practice of releasing natural gas from within the Earth by blasting a cocktail containing millions of gallons of water and other components deep underground.   Continue reading “Fracking chemicals disrupt human hormone functions, study claims”

Mail.com

NEW DELHI (AP) — The arrest and alleged strip search of an Indian diplomat in New York City escalated into a major diplomatic furor Tuesday as India’s national security adviser called the woman’s treatment “despicable and barbaric.”

Devyani Khobragade, India’s deputy consul general in New York, is accused of submitting false documents to obtain a work visa for her Manhattan housekeeper. Indian officials said she was arrested and handcuffed Thursday as she dropped off her daughter at school, and was kept in a cell with drug addicts before posting $250,000 bail.   Continue reading “Indian official: Diplomat’s arrest in NYC barbaric”

RT News

Over 50 years after the Bay of Pigs invasion went awry, the US federal government is still attempting to keep secrets about the failed overthrow of the Cuban government, with an Obama administration lawyer arguing this week to keep a document classified.

The National Security Archive, a private research institution, has sought to force the government to hand over the fifth of a five-volume internal account of the Bay of Pigs. The four earlier volumes were released under the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA). Penned by a CIA staff historian in the years between 1973 and 1984, the final document chronicles – and presumably critiques – the CIA’s own investigation of how the invasion went wrong.   Continue reading “CIA probe into Bay of Pigs should be kept secret – Obama admin”

RT News

By jailing four top officers of Iceland’s failed Kaupthing Bank, the country showed the world the right way to deal with the people largely responsible for the 2008 financial crisis, said Charlie McGrath, founder of news website, Wide Awake News.

The US and other nations must take it as a model for the next time the too-big- to-fail corporations screw things up and ask for a bailout with taxpayers’ money, he added.   Continue reading “Iceland’s jailed bankers ‘a model’ for dealing with ‘financial terrorists’”

RT News

The mother of jailed Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has lashed out at the Danish prison system for the conditions her son is being kept in, calling them “torture.” Svartholm Warg has been jailed in Denmark on hacking charges since November.

Svartholm Warg, 29, was extradited from Sweden to Denmark, where he has since been kept in solitary confinement. He has not been allowed so much as a book to read, much less the opportunity to communicate with other inmates or use a computer.    Continue reading “‘It’s torture’: Mother of Pirate Bay co-founder slams Danish prison conditions”

RT News

The NSA easily breaks the privacy technology popularized by encryption services throughout the world, meaning the intelligence agency can subvert such security tactics and sift through the billions of private texts and calls that are transmitted each day.

Observers have long known that military and law enforcement officials are capable of hacking into a suspect’s mobile phone, yet a report from the Washington Post based on documents provided by whistleblower Edward Snowden indicate that the NSA’s power may in fact be more expansive because of the global signals intelligence, or SIGINTs, techniques it employs.   Continue reading “NSA has ability to decode phone conversations, texts”

RT News

A rare way of life is under threat in Spain where authorities have renewed attempts to evict dozens of cave-dwelling families from their homes in an ancient settlement in Granada. Residents say “it’s a disgrace”, and are determined to resist eviction.

Throughout the week dozens of activists have been protesting the eviction they deem unlawful and unfair.     Continue reading “‘Excuse to throw us out’: Spanish cave dwellers say authorities’ actions ‘unlawful’”

Mail.com

MANAGUA, Nicaragua (AP) — Six months after the Sandinista government granted a Chinese businessman a 100-year concession to build a vast canal across Nicaragua, most of the nation is in the thrall of the imagined waterway.

In the capital, Nicaraguans snap photographs of the plaster Virgin Mary perched on an altar against the backdrop of a supertanker traversing the country’s biggest lake. “Virgin Mary, bless the great trans-ocean canal!” declares the government-sponsored invocation behind her.   Continue reading “Nicaragua in thrall of Ortega’s canal dream”

RT News

Gunmen have shot dead 18 people and injured another five working on a gas pipeline from Iran to Iraq, northeast of Baghdad. The majority of those killed were said to be Iranians.

Masked gunmen launched an attack near Baladruz, a small village in the Diyala province of Iraq. It has been reported that the group of attackers were driving three vehicles.   Continue reading “Gunmen kill 18 gas pipeline workers, mainly Iranians – Iraqi police”

Mail.com

NEW ORLEANS (AP) — Three years ago, a jury heard lurid testimony about a burned body and a brazen cover-up before convicting a former New Orleans police officer of fatally shooting a man without justification in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.

But the officer, David Warren, was acquitted of the same charges Wednesday by a different panel of jurors who didn’t hear any talk about what happened to 31-year-old Henry Glover’s body or about falsified police reports on his shooting outside a strip mall less than a week after the 2005 storm.   Continue reading “Ex-cop acquitted in retrial over deadly shooting”

Mail.com

BONNE TERRE, Mo. (AP) — Missouri executed Allen Nicklasson on Wednesday night for killing a good Samaritan who stopped to help him and his friends after their car stalled on Interstate 70 in 1994.

It was the state’s second execution in three weeks. Nicklasson, 41, was pronounced dead at 10:52 p.m. Wednesday, eight minutes after the process began. His eyes remained closed throughout and he showed little reaction to the drug, only briefly breathing heavily about 2 minutes into the process. He offered no final words.   Continue reading “Missouri executes man in 1994 good Samaritan death”

RT News

The Washington, D.C. officer charged with producing child pornography while on duty has been declared dead after being pulled from the Potomac River Tuesday evening.

The Metropolitan Police Department confirmed on Wednesday that the body of the man pulled from Hains Point, between the Potomac and the Washington Channel, was that of 32-year-old officer Marc Washington. The officer was arrested last week and charged with taking nude photographs of a missing 15-year-old girl who’d recently returned to her apartment. If convicted, he faced up to 30 years in prison.   Continue reading “DC cop accused of producing child pornography found dead”

Mail.com

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A 60-year-old man fatally shot his dementia-stricken wife at their home and then walked into a convalescent home Wednesday and killed his sister, according to police, who described the shootings as apparent mercy killings.

Lance Holger Anderson of suburban Santa Clarita surrendered at the nursing home and was booked on suspicion of murder, shocking neighbors who described him as a chatty, friendly man who doted on his frail wife.   Continue reading “Los Angeles police: Man shoots ailing wife, sister”

Mail.com

PONTIAC, Ill. (AP) — A man who for decades insisted that Chicago police tortured him until he confessed to a rape he did not commit walked out of an Illinois prison on Wednesday after spending 30 years behind bars.

“It’s just an overwhelming feeling of joy, happiness that finally it’s over with,” 59-year-old Stanley Wrice said, moments after he walked into the arms of his two daughters, attorneys and others who greeted him as he left Pontiac Correctional Center.   Continue reading “Man alleging police torture released from prison”

RT News

It appears that even employees of media mogul Rupert Murdoch’s own publications don’t too much care for the cantankerous octogenarian — and they’re not half bad at puzzles, either.

That’s at least the determination that many readers of Australia’s largest newspaper made this week after catching a curious secret message of sorts in the Sunday Telegraph.   Continue reading “Murdoch’s own newspaper calls him ‘evil’”

RT News

NASA scientists have been secretly at work for a year on a walking, humanoid-like robot meant to evoke awe in anyone who comes across it — and it looks like they’ve accomplished their mission.

Researchers at NASA’s Johnson Space Center (JSC) in Houston, Texas have released video footage of what they’re entering in a Pentagon-sponsored robotics contest later this month, and the evidence is enough to give just about anyone some spooky, sci-fi nightmares.   Continue reading “NASA unveils 6-foot-tall humanoid robot”