Switzerland has reportedly decided it will not extradite National Security Agency whistleblower Edward Snowden to the US if he comes to testify against the NSA's spying activities, Swiss media said. In the document, titled “What rules are to be followed if Edward Snowden is brought to Switzerland and then the United States makes an extradition request,” Switzerland’s Attorney General stat [...]

Nearly 500 protesters were arrested in three dozen US cities on Thursday as fast-food workers and supporters staged sit-ins and acts of civil disobedience nationwide to call attention to their low wages and lack of union representation. Organizers of the strike said that, all told, actions at fast-food restaurants occurred at about 150 cities nationwide, from Manhattan’s Times Square to Littl [...]

Last week, a US military lawyer on the defense team for self-proclaimed 9/11-attacks mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed resigned from the Army in protest of the "show trial" conducted by the US at Guantanamo Bay. Maj. Jason Wright resigned on Aug. 26, according to NPR. He accused the US government of “abhorrent leadership” on human rights and due process at the military detention center at G [...]

A group of State Duma MPs want to speed up the enforcement of the recently-approved law obliging all web firms, including social networks, to store the personal data of Russian users on the country's territory. The suggestion is being sponsored by lawmakers from parliamentary majority party United Russia, nationalist party LDPR and the Communist Party of the Russian Federation. They say that th [...]

The EU parliamentary elections have seen a marked shift towards both right-wing and Euroskeptic political parties. From the National Front to UKIP, RT has drawn up a list of the need-to-know political parties coming to prominence in the EU. The National Front far-right party in France gleaned 25 percent of the votes in the latest EU elections, according to early results. It’s well ahead of th [...]

As one of the preconditions to authorizing close to $300 million in aid, the United States is pressuring El Salvador to purchase genetically modified seeds from Monsanto instead of non-GM seeds from local farmers. According to Sustainable Pulse, a website covering developments related to genetically modified organisms and sustainable agriculture, the US will reportedly withhold $277 million in [...]

Ukraine's Cabinet has asked the country's parliament to consider dropping the country's non-aligned status and seek membership of NATO. Prime Minister Arseny Yatsenyuk’s government submitted to the parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, a draft bill that would cancel Ukraine’s non-aligned status and revive the country’s quest to join NATO – a path ditched by ousted President Viktor Yanukovich [...]

The United States Department of Transportation is taking the next step towards creating a "vehicle-to-vehicle" communications system that will allow light autos on the road to receive and broadcast critical information to one another. Last week, the DOT’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, or NHTSA, published an “advance notice of proposed rulemaking” in the Federal Register [...]

Julian Assange plans to leave the Ecuadorian Embassy in the near future, he told a press conference at the embassy's London compound, where he's been holed up for two years. The WikiLeaks founder gave no further details. "I am leaving the embassy soon, but perhaps not for the reasons [reported]," he told journalists, refusing to clarify what his reasons are. [...]

GCHQ is scanning servers in multiple foreign countries for vulnerable ports, according to German newspaper Heise. Using a tool called Hacienda, the intelligence agency seeks to "master the internet" for sources of espionage. Spanish for estate, Hacienda can port scan all of the servers in a country to provide information on user endpoints and scan for potential vulnerabilities. The ability to p [...]

The officer-involved shooting death of teenager Michael Brown this week and the subsequent protests across the United States have rekindled interest in another case of alleged excessive force blamed on the Ferguson, Missouri Police Department. Nearly four years to the day before Ferguson Police Officer Darren Wilson opened fire and killed Brown, 18, a complaint filed in federal court accused th [...]

A petition with over 100,000 signatures backing Pulitzer-winning journalist James Risen was handed to the Department of Justice in Washington, urging an end to legal action against him for refusing to reveal a source about a CIA operation in Iran. The petition demands that the US government not pursue an “illegal case” against Risen, an author and two-time Pulitzer Prize-winning New York Ti [...]

Fourteen Pulitzer Prize-winning journalists issued strong individual statements Monday that voiced emphatic support for New York Times reporter James Risen and urged the Justice Department to stop threatening him with harsh fines or imprisonment. Many of the statements from the Pulitzer winners included scathing criticisms of the Obama administration for a range of policies related to freedom o [...]

The State of Israel's ability to flout international law at will is measured in the fact it has ignored or violated 32 UN Security Council resolutions since 1982, more than any other UN member, all as a result of US vetoes. Compare this to Iraq, which under Saddam violated two UN Security Council resolutions, with the result that two wars were waged against it, along with a 13-year long period [...]

Police officers in New Jersey swear to uphold the United States Constitution as part of their oath of office. But one cop has decided that, because "in his eyes" President Barack Obama doesn't follow the document, he doesn't have to either. Special Police Officer Richard Recine, a part-time employee of the Borough of Helmetta Police Department, was caught on video saying, "Obama has decimated t [...]

Edward Snowden has received a residence permit in Russia, which is valid for three years, starting on August 1, the former NSA contractor's lawyer announced. “On the first of August he received a three-year residence permit,” lawyer Anatoly Kucherena told reporters. [...]

US President Barack Obama is reportedly considering options to move on immigration reform via executive action despite protests from disapproving members of Congress. The Obama administration has offered little in the way of details as a review of potential options by the Departments of Justice and Homeland Security continues. [...]

For the first time in American history, a chamber of Congress has authorized its leader to sue the President of the United States. In a 225-201 vote, the House of Representatives backed Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) in his decision to file a lawsuit against President Obama over his handling of the Affordable Care Act. Boehner and other Republicans allege that Obama has flouted his constitutiona [...]

Moscow will respond to NATO's expansion towards Russia's borders, President Vladimir Putin said at the emergency Security Council meeting in Moscow. Here are his key quotes on Russia's defense, Western sanctions, and violence in eastern Ukraine. [...]