The FDA is warning that implanted medical devices, such as pacemakers and defibrillators, are often connected to networks that are vulnerable to cyber attacks that could shut down or manipulate the machinery.

Hackers with malicious intentions could introduce malware into the equipment, thereby gaining access to configure settings in medical devices or hospital networks, the Food and Drug Administration said in a warning sent to hospitals, medical device manufacturers, user facilities, and biomedical engineers. Read More

Pyongyang has proposed high-level talks with the US, KCNA state news agency reports. This comes after the North and the South canceled talks amid high tensions on the peninsula.

On Sunday KCNA delivered a statement by the North Korea National Defence Commission which said that Washington can pick a date and place for talks and the two sides can discuss a range of issues. It however warned that no preconditions should be attached. Read More

Russia is not convinced by the evidence which the US provided alleging that the government of Syria’s President Bashar Assad used chemical weapons against rebel forces.

“The Americans tried to present us with information on the use of chemical weapons by the regime, but frankly we thought that it was not convincing,” said presidential aide Yury Ushakov on Friday. Read More

The US Special Operations Forces may soon become equipped with stealth motorcycles that can silently go off-road, operate while submerged a meter underwater, and turn on infrared lighting systems at night.

With a keyless ignition, blackout capabilities, no intake or exhaust, and replaceable battery packs, the MMX motorcycle can travel quickly, efficiently Read More

Multinational military exercise ‘Eager Lion’ has been launched in Jordan amid condemnation from neighboring Syria and its ally Russia. The US brings Patriot missile batteries to the Syrian border, which could remain deployed afterwards.

The exercises will last for 12 days, bringing together about 8,000 personnel from 19 countries, mostly Arabic, but also including the US and Europe. The maneuvers will also involve some 3,000 Jordanian and 500 British troops. Read More

Whoever wants to privately enter the United States to experience there as an intern or Au Pair everyday life, should be careful when correspondence. Social networks such as Facebook employees read the immigration authorities appear like with. Two young women were placed immediately after landing back on the next plane to Germany. Read More

Robert Schroeder
MarketWatch

Citing the strength of the U.S. economy and the dollar’s standing in the world, Standard & Poor’s on Monday raised its outlook on the U.S. credit rating — even as the ratings agency said Washington lawmakers have a “lesser ability” than others countries’ to deal with public finance pressure in the long term. Read More

By Glenn Greenwald

Barack Obama has ordered his senior national security and intelligence officials to draw up a list of potential overseas targets for US cyber-attacks, a top secret presidential directive obtained by the Guardian reveals.

The 18-page Presidential Policy Directive 20, issued in October last year but never published, states that what it calls Offensive Cyber Effects Operations (OCEO) “can offer unique and unconventional capabilities to advance US national objectives around the world with little or no warning to the adversary or target and with potential effects ranging from subtle to severely damaging”. Read More

The state of Connecticut has become the first to successfully enact a law requiring food containing genetically modified ingredients to be labeled as such, though it comes with the unusual requirement that four other states must pass similar legislation.

Though supporters of GMO product labeling will likely laud the state legislature’s approval of the new bill, it represents a significant weakening of the initial proposal with the introduction of a bipartisan ‘compromise’ Read More

By John Upton

Japan cancelled a bid on 27,500 tons of Pacific Northwest wheat on Thursday — the first bite taken out of America’s wheat export market after a rogue genetically engineered strain was discovered growing like a weed on an Oregon farm. Other international buyers also reacted negatively to the news, with South Korea suspending its tenders to import U.S. wheat and European Union countries being urged to step up genetic testing of American imports. Taiwan said it may seek assurances that all imported wheat from the U.S. is GMO-free, the Wall Street Journal‘s MarketWatch reports. From Agence France-Presse: Read More

Three-dimensional (3D) printers are quickly proving to be capable of creating just about anything out of little more than thin air, and that could be the military’s key to keeping an endless arsenal of drones at its disposal.

Just as 3D-printed organs, pizza and even firearms are being made with the post-modern machinery, the United States military is eyeing the up-and-coming technology as to further their upper-hand on the battlefield. Recently, a decorated member of the US Navy made an argument for adding unmanned aerial vehicles and even munitions to the list of items that can be made with little more than a well-equipped printer and a few clicks of a mouse. Read More

In their latest and perhaps most staggering espionage feat, Chinese hackers reportedly breached the designs of more than two dozen advanced U.S. weapons systems.

This treasure trove of military technology could potentially give China a crucial advantage in an hypothetical conflict or, at the very least, boost the regime’s old-fashioned military. Read More

Michael Snyder
Economic Collapse

If you know someone that actually believes that the U.S. economy is in good shape, just show them the statistics in this article.  When you step back and look at the long-term trends, it is undeniable what is happening to us.  We are in the midst of a horrifying economic decline that is the result of decades of very bad decisions.  30 years ago, the U.S. national debt was about one trillion dollars.  Today, it is almost 17 trillion dollars.  40 years ago, the total amount of debt in the United States was about 2 trillion dollars. Read More

A high-tech United States surveillance tool which sweeps up all communications without a warrant was sent to New Zealand for testing on the public, according to an espionage expert. The tool was called ThinThread and it worked by automatically intercepting phone, email and internet information. Read More

United States Attorney General Eric Holder has informed Congress that four American citizens have been killed in Yemen and Pakistan by US drones since 2009.

It has been widely reported but rarely acknowledged in Washington that three US citizens — Samir Khan, Anwar al-Awlaki and his teenage son, Abdulrahman al-Awlaki — were executed in a September 2011 strike in Yemen. With Holder’s latest admission, however, a fourth American Read More