Author: mediahitman

Uruguay is just one step away from becoming the first country in Latin America to legalize marijuana. On Tuesday, the Senate is to vote on a historic bill that would regulate the production and sale of cannabis for adults at a price of $1 per gram. The legislation, put forward by President Jose Mujica, was approved by the lower chamber of congress in late July. It is believed that the bill’s passage through the Senate is almost certain given that Mujica supporters, the leftist Broad Front hold the majority in the upper chamber.

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A sandwich shop owner endured eight hours of questioning by police and had his computer seized for three weeks – after making tasteless Nelson Mandela jokes on the internet. Neil Phillips, who runs Crumbs in Rugeley, Staffordshire, says he was also finger-printed and DNA-swabbed after officers received complaints about what he insists were harmless gags.

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Washington knew Syrian rebels could produce sarin gas but “cherry-picked” intel to blame President Assad for the Aug. 21 attack on Ghouta, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative journalist Seymour Hersh has revealed, citing senior US security sources. The report was published in the London Review of Books after two of Hersh’s regular publishers, The New Yorker and The Washington Post, turned the article down.

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Pro-European Union protesters occupying Kiev’s city administration building said Monday that armed riot police had stormed the offices of the main opposition political party in downtown Kiev. Meanwhile, scores of riot police officers began dismantling barricades set up by protesters more than a week ago to block off government buildings. Protesters had been given a Tuesday deadline to leave.

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The US is ramping up pressure to secure a Trans-Pacific Trade Deal with conditions that could undermine the national interests of nations involved. WikiLeaks documents say talks are “paralyzed,” with the US refusing to compromise on disputed issues. Anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks has released two documents revealing the state of negotiations for the Trans-Pacific Partnership (TPP).

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The FBI can secretly activate a computer’s webcam to spy on an individual without turning on the indicator light, a former official revealed to the Washington Post in an article published Friday. According to the Washington Post’s account of what Marcus Thomas — former assistant director of the FBI’s Operational Technology Division in Quantico — said

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By George Hunter Detroit police are considering making a second run at using “ShotSpotter” technology that uses sound sensors to find where gunshots are coming from, Chief James Craig said Friday. The possibility of using the technology was among the revelations by Craig during an online chat with Detroit News readers on detroitnews.com. The chats are part of an ongoing effort by The News to connect readers with decision-makers and other influential people in southeastern Michigan.

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By James Fluere According to a news release from Flinders University, researchers have found massive reserves of fresh water beneath oceans, offering new chances to prevent an emerging global water crisis. They discovered that approximately 500,000 cubic km of low-salinity water are hidden beneath the seabed on continental shelves around the globe. The water has been found off Australia, China, North America and South Africa.

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Sweden’s intelligence agency has not only spied on Russian leadership, sharing intelligence with the NSA, but also apparently engaged in industrial espionage against business targets such as Russia’s energy companies, Sveriges Television reports. According to a wire, obtained by Swedish TV program ‘Mission: Investigate’, Sweden’s National Defense Radio Establishment (FRA) shared intelligence on Russia with Washington.

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Billions of dollars annually are being used to fund operations conducted by the United States intelligence community, the likes of which allow the government to eavesdrop on emails, listen to world leaders’ phone calls and about everything in-between. One thing that budget hasn’t bought, however, is subtlety. The US National Reconnaissance Office launched a top-secret surveillance satellite into space Thursday evening

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The Naval Research Lab just launched a drone from a submerged submarine – giving a huge edge to the future of special operations. It took six years to develop and launch an all-electric, fuel cell-powered, folding-wing drone aircraft from a submerged submarine. The eXperimental Fuel Cell Unmanned Aerial System, or XFC UAS, was fired from the submarine’s torpedo tube using a “Sea Robin” launch system

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Mexican police located a stolen truck which contained dangerous radioactive material the UN warned could be used to construct a “dirty bomb.” The safety container holding that cargo was found empty, with the material abandoned nearby. The vehicle was found close to where it was stolen outside of Mexico City as it was transporting cobalt-60 from a hospital in Tijuana to a radioactive waste storage center.

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The US National Security Agency collects and logs almost 5 billion cellphone records each day indicating a user’s location around the world, according to a new report from the records leaked by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden. The program gives intelligence analysts the ability to track the movements of individuals throughout the world and map any social connections they have. Though suspicions have been high that geo-location was included within the intelligence agency’s widespread surveillance data nets

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