Brazil’s public prosecutor wants to suspend use of glyphosate, the active ingredient in Monsanto’s pervasive herbicide Roundup. A recent study suggested glyphosate may be linked to a fatal kidney disease that has affected poor farming regions worldwide. The Prosecutor General’s office is also pursuing bans on the herbicide 2,4-D and seven other active herbicide ingredients in addition to glyphosate:... 

A new study has revealed that the human nose is capable of distinguishing at least one trillion different smells, millions beyond the previous estimates. “Our analysis shows that the human capacity for discriminating smells is much larger than anyone anticipated,” said study co-author Leslie Vosshall, who is head of Rockefeller University’s Laboratory of Neurogenetics and Behavior. The research... 

Twitter has filed lawsuits in several Turkish courts to challenge an access ban on its service recently pushed through by Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan. The move comes on the same day an Ankara administrative court moved to suspend the ban. “It’s now been six days since the Turkish government blocked access to Twitter. Throughout this time, we’ve been engaged in a discussion with Turkish authorities... 

Egyptians throw Molotov cocktails towards riot police vehicles during clashes following a demonstration outside Cairo University on March 26, 2014. Egyptian police have once again clashed with anti-government protesters in various cities across Egypt, following the announcement of Field Marshal Abdel Fattah el-Sisi’s presidential nomination. Tens of anti-coup protesters were injured and arrested... 

​New satellite images show more than 100 objects in the southern Indian Ocean that could be pieces of wreckage from a Malaysian airliner that disappeared from radar on March 8 with 239 people on board, Malaysia’s acting transport minister said. Hishammuddin Hussein told a news conference on Wednesday that the images were discovered by France-based Airbus Defence and Space on March 23. The... 

A stunning new report prepared by the Main Intelligence Directorate of the General Staff of the Armed Forces (GRU) circulating in the Kremlin today leaves no doubt as to why President Barack Obama warned this week that his greatest fear was not Russia, but rather a nuclear bomb being exploded in the heart of New York City, as it reveals that the pilot of the missing Malaysia Airlines Flight 370, Captain... 

Why in the world is the Vatican searching for extraterrestrial life? Does the Catholic hierarchy know something about alien life that the rest of us do not? Why is the largest religious organization on the planet spending so much time and energy looking for “brother extraterrestrial”? Earlier this month, the Vatican Observatory cosponsored a major conference on extraterrestrial life that brought... 

US Senator Rand Paul (R-Ky.) said he takes some credit for President Obama’s decision to end the National Security Agency’s metadata collection program. In an interview after Obama announced the change on Tuesday, Paul was asked on “Fox and Friends” if it would make him happy for phone companies, not the government, to retain the metadata. “Well, you know, I don’t want to take... 

North Korean men used to be able to choose their haircuts from a list of state approved styles but sadly, those days are over. All North Korean men will now be required to get the exact same haircut as their supreme leader, Kim Jong-Un, within the next 72 hours or face death by firing squad. Pyongyang introduced the law weeks ago but many North Korean men were reportedly dragging their feet when it... 

The United States is set to free convicted Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard to save the so-called peace talks between Palestinian Authority (PA) and Tel Aviv, reports in the Israeli news media say. With the talks on the brink of collapse, US officials have offered to release Pollard, 59, as a carrot to Israel to break the deadlock over a scheduled release of Palestinian prisoners languishing in Israeli... 

Sharia principles are to become enshrined in the UK legal system for the first time, with The Law Society publishing guidelines for drawing up documents according to Islamic rules, which would exclude non-believers and encroach on women’s rights. The new guidelines were produced by The Law Society earlier this month. Under the guidance, High Street solicitors will be able to write Islamic wills... 

Brazil has scored big for net neutrality after its lower house of Congress approved a groundbreaking post-Snowden bill that protects its users’ privacy rights, albeit with some sacrifices. The measure did not go as smoothly as could have. To ensure success, President Dilma Rousseff had to let it through at the cost of allowing companies such as Google and Facebook to store user information outside... 

Ukraine Su-25 flies below a passenger aircraft during military exercises near capital, Kiev. Ukraine’s acting President Oleksandr Turchynov has reportedly asked the parliament to approve a set of military exercises with NATO, a move that could place US troops in direct proximity with Russian forces in Crimea. Turchynov said Ukraine is willing to conduct two sets of joint military drills with... 

The Department of Defense is conducting military training in Broward County this week, with exercises involving low flying helicopters that will ‘scare the cr*p out of people’, according to one local reporter. After residents in downtown Fort Lauderdale began reporting low flying military helicopters last night at around 8pm, news reports emerged hours later containing details of a DoD training... 

A large number of demonstrators have poured into the streets of Albuquerque in the US state of New Mexico to protest the fatal shooting of a homeless man by the police. The demonstration was held on Tuesday evening. The protesters marched toward the Police Headquarters chanting “We want justice,” holding signs “APD is guilty,” and demanded justice for James Boyd, the Associated...