Supreme Court justices are vigorously debating the Digital Age question of where the line should be drawn between free speech and illegal threats.
The case argued today involves a man convicted of making violent threats after he posted Facebook rants about killing his estranged wife, harming law enforcement officials and shooting up a school.
New European Council chief Donald Tusk and US President Barack Obama urged Russia today to pull back from eastern Ukraine, in a telephone call on Tusk’s first day in office, the EU said.
“We shared our concerns over the crisis in Ukraine and agreed on how important it is for Russia to withdraw from eastern Ukraine, to stop supplying troops and equipment, to allow effective control of the border,” former Polish premier Tusk said in a statement released by Brussels.
Edward Snowden, co-winner of the Right Livelihood Award, has called on the United Nations to propose new measures to protect individual privacy and human rights.
Speaking by video link to the award ceremony in Swedish Parliament, the former NSA systems analyst said Monday that the prize recognizes “the work of so many people.”
Spurred by the Ferguson, Missouri shooting, President Barack Obama is calling for USD 75 million in federal spending to get 50,000 more police to wear body cameras that record their interactions with civilians.
However, Obama is not seeking to pull back federal programs that provide military-style equipment to local law enforcement.
NASA’s quest to send astronauts out into the solar system begins this week with a two-laps-around-Earth test flight.
The new Orion spacecraft is not going to Mars just yet; Thursday’s debut will be unmanned and last just 4½ hours. But it will be the farthest a built-for-humans capsule has flown since the Apollo moon missions, shooting 3,600 miles out into space in order to gain enough momentum to re-enter the atmosphere at a scorching 20,000 mph (32,000 kph).
Russian President Vladimir Putin today said Russia could not currently continue with the construction of the South Stream pipeline to deliver gas to Europe after Bulgaria blocked construction under the sea.
“Taking account of the fact that until now we have not received permission from Bulgaria, we believe that in the current conditions Russia cannot continue with the realisation of this project,” Putin said at a news conference alongside Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara.
US Secretary of State John Kerry held a meeting with Pakistani Army Chief General Raheel Sharif during which they discussed regional security issues.
“They discussed several items of mutual interest including ongoing efforts toward regional peace and security,” the State Department Spokesperson, Jen Psaki, said today, a day after the meeting between Kerry and Gen Sharif at the Foggy Bottom headquarters of the State Department.
The Thai and Malaysian premiers agreed today that stalled talks on ending southern Thailand’s deadly Muslim insurrection could only resume once all rebel attacks cease and its various insurgent groups come to the table as one.
The conditions spelled out by Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak, agreed in a meeting with hardline new Thai leader Prayut Chan-O-Cha, appeared to cast doubt on any speedy resumption of the peace talks on the bitter and stubborn conflict.
Rajasthan High Court has asked the state and central governments to present their replies on the issue of ban on manufacturing and storage of tobacco and its products.
The court, while seeking reply in six weeks, has expressed concern over the increasing number of deaths caused by the consumption of tobacco.
US Secretary of State John Kerry will meet Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in London on December 4 on the sidelines of a major conference on Afghanistan.
Kerry is travelling to the British Capital to attend the important London Conference on Afghanistan, which is being attended by Sharif, Afghan President Ashraf Ghani and chief executive officer Abdullah Abdullah.
Britain’s former prime minister Gordon Brown, who waited patiently for the top job only to be voted out after three years, today said he was stepping down from parliament after three decades.
The 63-year-old, who was ousted in 2010, had briefly returned to the political spotlight this year to help snatch victory for the “No” camp in Scotland’s historic independence referendum.
But he confirmed today he would not be standing again in next May’s general election as a lawmaker for the centre-left Labour party, bringing the curtain down on his stormy Westminster career.
State police say four people are dead in three shootings in north-central West Virginia.
State police spokesman Lt Michael Baylous says two of the shootings happened in the Westover area and the other occurred in the Cheat Lake area.
All three shootings occurred today.
Baylous identified the two victims from the Cheat Lake shooting as 39-year-old Sharon Kay Berkshire of Westover and 28-year-old David Frum.
Officials say police are searching for a suspect named Jody Hunt in the case.
More details weren’t immediately available.
The head of a British parliamentary committee refused entry to Hong Kong today said that MPs had “every right” to visit, as a government spokesman said China’s reaction was “counter-productive”.
Richard Ottaway, chairman of the House of Commons Foreign Affairs Committee, spoke after China refused to grant visas to members of the committee to visit Hong Kong, where violence re-erupted overnight with clashes between pro-democracy protesters and police.
Police searched today for a suspect following three shootings in north-central West Virginia that caused local schools to be placed on lockdown.
Monongalia County sheriff’s Chief Deputy Perry Palmer said the shootings occurred this morning. More details weren’t immediately available and it wasn’t immediately clear whether anyone was injured.
911 director Mike Wolfe said police are searching for Jody Hunt in the case. Police also are searching for a 2011 Ford F-150 extended cab truck with a license plate that’s blacked out and unreadable.
The United States is not ready to enforce a no-fly zone over Syria, the White House said today, after reports it was in talks with Turkey about setting up a refugee safe haven in the north of the country.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest told reporters that Washington was “open to discussing a range of options with the Turks” but that a no-fly zone was not on the table “at this point.
Gunmen hurled grenades and sprayed bullets at a bar in the northeastern Kenyan town of Wajir today, the latest in a series of attacks in the region, the Red Cross said.
One person was “feared dead” and five others were rushed to hospital with wounds, said the Kenyan Red Cross, which reported “three blasts and gunshots” at a club in the town, where Somalia’s Al-Qaeda-affiliated Shebab and other militia have carried out a string of raids.
Gunmen appeared to have targeted a bar popular with workers from outside the majority Muslim town.
Highlighting the potential of “Make in India”, Indian Consul General B.S. Mubarak has showcased its purpose and benefits to Kingdom of Saudi Arabia business leaders, with an aim to increase bilateral trade and seek stronger co-operation between two friendly countries speaking at Jeddah Diwaniyah. The new government in India is giving Make in India a big boost. Make in India is an international marketing campaigning slogan coined by the Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi on September 25, 2014 to attract businesses from around the world to invest and manufacture in India.
A Nazi war criminal who topped most wanted lists over the Holocaust is “almost certain” to have died in Syria four years ago, a Nazi-hunting group said today.
“I am almost certain that he’s no longer alive,” Efraim Zuroff, director of the Simon Wiesenthal Centre’s Jerusalem office, told AFP.
Zuroff said that according to a German intelligence officer, Alois Brunner “died four years ago in… Damascus,” where he had fled seeking refuge decades ago.
An Egyptian militant group that pledged allegiance to the Islamic State organisation last month has claimed it was behind the killing of an American oil worker in August.
“We claim the murder of American oilman William Henderson in the Western Desert” of Egypt, Ansar Beit al-Maqdis said on Twitter.
The message was accompanied by pictures of Henderson’s work identity cards and his passport, without providing any more details.
Egyptian security sources contacted by AFP today said police had received information that jihadists had killed Henderson in August.
Namibian Prime Minister Hage Geingob has won the country’s presidential election, the Electoral Commission said today, with the ruling SWAPO party securing a landslide win in national polls billed as the continent’s first e-vote.
Geingob, 73, who ran on a platform of “peace, stability and prosperity”, becomes president-elect with a massive haul of 87 percent of the vote.
“I have the honour and privilege to declare Geingob… duly elected as the winner,” electoral commission chairwoman Nontemba Tjipueja announced.
The global smartphone market will see cooler growth in the next few years, amid “cutthroat” competition that will bring down prices for many consumers, a market tracker said today.
A forecast by the research firm IDC indicates smartphone sales of 1.5 billion units in 2015, a rise of 12.2 per cent from the current year’s estimate. That would mean growth falling by more than half from the 26 per cent pace of 2014.
The sluggish growth is likely to continue through 2018, IDC said, with the average increase over the period just 9.8 percent.
A mentally ill British man will stand trial in the US next year on charges of trying to set up an Al-Qaeda training camp in Oregon 15 years ago, a judge said today.
Haroon Aswat, 40, is accused of traveling to the United States in 1999 on a mission to set up a training camp in the remote hamlet of Bly, in the northwestern state of Oregon, to train militants who wanted to fight in Afghanistan.
Prosecutors say he was sent on the mission by radical British preacher Abu Hamza, who was convicted in New York earlier this year on 11 kidnapping and terrorism charges.
Chip maker Cypress Semiconductor is buying flash memory product maker Spansion in an all-stock deal worth USD 1.59 billion.
Spansion stockholders will get 2.457 shares of Cypress stock for every Spansion share they own. Shareholders of each side will own about 50 per cent of the new company, which will keep the name Cypress Semiconductor Corp.
The companies valued the deal at USD 4 billion. They expect it to close in the first half of 2015, and they expect to cut annual costs by USD 135 million within three years.
Nearly three dozen prisoners awaiting trial in a crowded jail in a provincial city north of the Haitian escaped by sawing through steel bars, authorities have said.
Thirty-four prisoners crawled through the window at the jail in Saint Marc and fled into the darkness, according to officials with the Haitian National Police.
Saint Marc Police Commissioner Berson Soljour said four of the men had been recaptured, but the rest remained at large. He said all of those who escaped had been awaiting trial, including one facing a charge of murder.
Actor Eddie Redmayne has revealed he gave a bad audition for an unnamed role in the upcoming eighth instalment of ‘Star Wars’.
The 32-year-old actor said the audition for ‘Star Wars: Episode VII – The Force Awakens’ crushed his ‘childhood dream’ of starring in a ‘Star Wars’ film, reported Contactmusic.