Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman has resigned his post. Israel’s combative foreign minister, Avigdor Lieberman, unexpectedly resigned on Friday after being indicted on corruption charges, throwing the country’s political system into uncertainty just five weeks before a general election. His resignation, a day after the attorney general, Yehuda Weinstein, charged him with fraud and breach... 

The US Supreme Court has been asked to step in and make sure the military cannot detain US citizens indefinitely without charge or trial as guaranteed in this year’s National Defense Authorization Act, or NDAA. Attorneys representing the plaintiffs in the case of Hedges, et al. v. Obama filed an emergency motion with the Supreme Court on Wednesday asking the top justices in the United States to... 

The Obama administration overruled recommendations from within the US Department of Homeland Security and implemented new guidelines earlier this year that allow the government to gather and analyze intelligence on every single US citizen. Since the spring, a little-know intelligence agency outside of Washington, DC has been able to circumvent the Fourth Amendment to the US Constitution and conduct... 

A United Nation conference in Dubai has been disrupted by a suspected hacking group after the UN agreed to adopt a new Internet standard that allows governments and corporations to spy on people. The World Conference on International Telecommunications (WCIT) has convened in Dubai to debate changes to a wide-ranging communications treaty, and in particular, plans for deep-packet inspections which... 

New legislation in Washington state went into effect this week that legalizes for the first time in ages the possession of marijuana. Federal law still says otherwise, though, setting up the Justice Department to make some serious determinations. Even as smoking up became protected by state law in Washington starting Thursday, coast-to-coast prohibition as provided by a long-standing federal ruling... 

Brazilian authorities in Rio de Janeiro arrested over 60 police officers accused of bribery on December 4, 2012. Brazilian authorities have arrested 63 police officers accused of taking weekly bribes from drug gangs to not report any illegal activities committed by drug dealers in Rio de Janeiro. The policemen were taken into custody along with eleven drug dealers on Tuesday after a year-long bribery... 

Despite a flurry of grand initiatives, Doha 2012 has yielded few specifics – with Europe the only major carbon emitter prepared to set clear emissions targets. Its zeal is likely to hamper growth, while doing little to lower worldwide CO2 levels. ­The two-week UN climate change conference in the oil-funded opulence of Qatar had to be extended by a day to produce an agreement that is only as much... 

In the past week the Family Research Council has been busy praising Uganda’s commitment to Christian faith and “national repentance” — even as the Ugandan Parliament once again takes up a bill that would legally mandate the persecution of LGBT people. The bill appears to be part and parcel of dictator Yoweri Museveni’s “repentance” program, and its reappearance... 

A “doomsday prepper” in a rural area of Maryland became a target for police and the FBI after he told an undercover cop that he was “very irritated” about Barack Obama’s re-election, sparking an investigation that eventually led to 46-year-old Terry Porter being thrown in prison and having his home raided by 150 armed officers. The series of events began when an anonymous... 

Gay weddings will be held in churches under radical plans to be unveiled by David Cameron, it emerged today. The Prime Minister is to defy opposition from more than 100 Tory backbenchers to back religious groups hosting same-sex weddings. He will stop short of forcing groups which are against the policy from having to hold gay weddings, but will argue that homosexual couples should have the same rights... 

Germany is poised to reinstate an old law forbidding sex with animals after a sharp rise in incidents of bestiality along with websites promoting it. Parliament begins debating changes to the national Animal Protection Code this week with the agricultural committee of the Bundestag pledging fines of up to £20,000 for a first offence. Bestiality dropped off the statute books as a crime in 1969 but... 

GMO giants DuPont have contracted dozens of retired law enforcement officers to begin patrolling farms in the US next year to spot any potential intellectual property theft. DuPont Co, the second-largest seed country in the world, is hoping to find farmers that have purchased contracts to use their genetically modified soybean seeds but have breached the terms of agreement by illegally using the product... 

Palestinians celebrate in Ramallah on November 29, 2012 after the upgrade of Palestine’s status at the United Nations by the UN General Assembly. The United Nations General Assembly has voted overwhelmingly to upgrade Palestine’s status at the UN from “observer entity” to “observer non-member state” despite strong opposition by Israel and the US. On Thursday, the 193-member assembly voted... 

What is arguably the very last bastion of totally free speech is once again under assault by the world’s tyrants, as the United Nations is now eying regulation of the Internet – as though it was in need of being regulated. Why? It’s an age-old story. Leaders of authoritarian regimes the world over hate the free flow of information that is disseminated via the Internet. They hate the fact that... 

Americans might once again be guaranteed the right to trial: a clause in the most recent draft of next year’s defense spending bill ensures that United States citizens aren’t stripped of their right to habeas corpus. Lawmakers have included provisions in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2013 that relieves those worried with how last year’s bill allows for the indefinite...