The US military is handing over leftover equipment from the Iraq conflict to police under a military surplus program. Civil liberties groups have criticized the initiative as unnecessary and a move toward the militarization of American law enforcement. American law enforcement agencies have received 165 MRAPs – 18 ton, armored vehicles with gun turrets – this year, according to an AP investigation.... 

Tensions are still running high in Egypt as Cairo sentences 21 girls to 11 years in jail each, while arresting 17 mosque imams in Gharbeyah over what they call incitement against the military. The misdemeanors court in Alexandria handed down 11-year sentences to 21 female demonstrators for their role in anti-government protests, al-Shorouk reported on Wednesday. Seven of the demonstrators, who were... 

Finnish authorities took an eleven-month-old baby from Russian woman Irina Kulikova. A court of Finland ruled that there was a danger for the little girl to be “kidnapped” to Russia, Finnish human rights activist Johan Beckman said. Eleven months ago, Irina Kulikova, a Russian citizen, gave birth to a daughter in Finland. After childbirth, the woman had to remain at hospital for a while.... 

An Israeli woman has been sentenced to paying $140 per day for refusing to circumcise her one year old son until the boy undergoes the procedure as required by Jewish law. “The baby was born with a medical problem, so we couldn’t circumcise him on the eighth day as is customary,” Haaretz has quoted the boy’s mother Elinor as saying. The boy is now over one year old. “As time went on, I started... 

Parents in Duplo, Ill., are up in arms over a book portraying white Americans as racist – required reading for their fourth-graders under the Common Core curriculum. Students at Bluffview Elementary School were told they would be tested and graded on the book, “Barack Obama,” part of the Scholastic “Reading Counts” program, according to EAGNews. The author, Jane Sutcliffe, has written numerous... 

In a mission statement last year the US National Security Agency described how it would continue to expand its power and assert itself as the global leader in clandestine surveillance, according to a new report based on the Edward Snowden leaks. The five-page document brought to light Friday by the New York Times reveals the intelligence agency’s intention to “aggressively pursue legal authorities... 

The biggest inconvenient truth is Al Gore has refused the environmental solutions he has been screaming for since 1994/5. I’ve told Al for a long time now screaming for a solution isn’t a solution, and neither is suppressing the solution you scream for. Al has spent decades announcing that the world needs something that will somehow finally achieve, what everyone else has proven they can’t,... 

Recently discovered Snowden information reveals the NSA infected more than 50,000 computer networks worldwide with malware, the Dutch news outlet NRC.nl reports. Not only does the NSA snoop your personal communications, the agency also excels at infecting computer networks with malicious software. Edward Snowden, the former NSA analyst roundly excoriated by government as a dangerous leaker, has revealed... 

After a long court hearing over allegations Samsung violated Apple patents, a US jury has awarded the US tech giant $290 million. This brings the total Apple patent fines against Samsung to $929 million. The South Korean manufacturer intends to appeal. The sum was lower than the initial $379.8 million asked by Apple’s advocates. The federal court of San Jose, California requires the South Korean... 

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is currently considering whether to require all new cars to include communication technology that constantly broadcasts a vehicle’s location, speed, and perhaps even the number of passengers inside. This new technology, dubbed “vehicle-to-vehicle” (V2V) communications, would be used to alert drivers to possible hazards and improve the safety... 

German Chancellor Angela Merkel uses her mobile phone before a 2011 meeting at a European Union summit in Brussels. German politicians have agreed on measures to keep their internal communications safe in light of the recent reports about spying by the US National Security Agency (NSA) on top German officials. On Thursday, the interior ministry of the Christian Democratic Union (CDU) and their Social... 

The United States is silently watering down the text of an anti-spying UN resolution introduced by Germany and Brazil in order to ensure any extra-territorial violation of online privacy remains legal, according to a document obtained by The Cable. According to a government document obtained by the publication, the US has circulated a confidential communique entitled “Right to Privacy in the... 

Promo video shows user scanning fingerprint to leave containment area of TSA-backed detention pod. TSA ‘detention pods’ currently being rolled out at major airports across the U.S. have biometric and object-detecting capabilities, according to promotional material from Eagle Security Group, the company that manufactures the devices. As we reported yesterday, the pods, which critics have likened... 

The TSA is funding the rollout of exit pods at major airport terminals across the country that temporarily detain passengers before they are allowed to leave, another example critics say of how the federal agency’s policies treat travelers as prisoners. Travelers are forced to be bottlenecked through the pods as they leave the airport terminal. A robotic voice gives instructions to wait inside... 

Oprah Winfrey made several racially-charged statements during a BBC interview Friday while promoting her recent film, “The Butler.” The BBC’s Will Gompertz asked Winfrey if racism is still a contemporary issue. “It’s gotten better,” she said. “Are there still places where people are terrorized because of the color of their skin, because of the color of their black skin? Yes. But there...