The U.S. military is involved in airstrikes targeting suspected militants, night raids aimed at kidnapping terror suspects, airlifts of French and African troops onto the battlefields of proxy wars, and evacuation operations in destabilized countries. Much of what the U.S. military does in Africa is train, advise, equip and fund local armies.   read more

Obama announced the U.S. government would impose sanctions on 27 close friends and associates of Putin. The list included billionaires Gennady Timchenko and brothers Arkady and Boris Rotenberg. The three men jointly own a concert venue, Hartwall Areena, in Helsinki, Finland, which is supposed to host several concerts featuring Miley Cyrus, Justin Timberlake, Robbie Williams, Peter Gabriel, Aerosmith, Elton John and Nine Inch Nails.   read more

According to Fred Hagans, the lawyer representing Buttaccio’s family, BP denied Buttaccio cell phone access to the company’s wireless network because he was not in a management position. Had he been able to access it, he could have received “texts and news updates that allowed others to stay hidden and survive the attack.” In addition, the suit claims, BP had not put a plan in place to deal with an attack.   read more

The streak of Americans dying in the wars-on-terror finally ended in March, after more than a decade of continuous fatalities. March 2014 witnessed zero U.S. deaths in Afghanistan, the first time without an American life lost in that conflict or the Iraq war since 2003. However, it took only one day into April for the U.S. to again record a fatality. On April 1, Army Captain James E. Chaffin died in Kandahar, Afghanistan. The 27-year-old’s death was not combat related.   read more

Prokhorov still has political ambitions back in Russia, where it was rumored he wants to run for mayor of Moscow. But currently he can’t run for office, not since Putin pushed through a law outlawing any Russian with foreign assets from being elected. Second, the Obama administration has already imposed some sanctions against Russia’s elite, and if more are put into place, that could leave Prokhorov’s NBA franchise vulnerable.   read more

According to the report, Saudi textbooks have included the following passages: “Kill the person who changes his religion … for there is no benefit in keeping them alive.” “It is permissible to kill a sorcerer” (particularly notable given Saudi police arrested more than 200 people in 2012 alone for alleged sorcery). Pagans, Christians and Jews are “the worst creatures” who “will dwell in hellfire.” God made Jews out of “swine and apes.”   read more

Of all crude oil imported to the U.S. in 2006, 22% came from Africa; nearly a third of China’s oil imports currently come from that continent. It has been projected that those percentages will increase for both countries. African oil is particularly desirable to refiners because it tends to be high-quality with a low amount of sulfur.   read more

The program can look “into the past” and allow spies to “retrieve audio of interest that was not tasked at the time of the original call.” When a subject is identified, the NSA can use the month’s worth of calls to get a history of his or her movements, associates and plans. Civil libertarians warned that it is just a matter of time before the NSA expands the program to more countries and employs technology that allows it to go back even further in time.   read more

“For a variety of reasons, our intelligence relationships are rarely disrupted by foreign political perturbations, international or domestic,” the NSA document states. “First, we are helping our partners address critical intelligence shortfalls, just as they are assisting us. Second, in many of our foreign partners’ capitals, few senior officials outside of their defense-intelligence apparatuses are witting to any SIGINT [Signals Intelligence] connection to the U.S./NSA.”   read more

An American gun manufacturer has outraged Italians over what they say is a crass manipulation of Renaissance art just to sell an assault weapon. Illinois-based ArmaLite produced an ad showing Michelangelo’s David holding an AR-50A1 bolt-action rifle. The ad was published in major Italian newspapers and websites. The condemnation from government and cultural fronts was sharp and immediate. “The image of David, armed, offends and infringes the law,” said Italy's minister of culture.   read more

U.S. Presidents Bill Clinton, George W. Bush and Barack Obama have all contended that the treaty, which forbids imprisonment without trial and arbitrary killings, among other abuses, does not apply to actions taken outside the United States. This interpretation has allowed these presidents to violate anti-torture and other provisions by holding prisoners outside the United States, including at Guantánamo Bay and at “black sites” around the world.   read more

Liew and Maegerle, along with three other individuals, stole chemical manufacturer DuPont’s recipe for titanium dioxide, a widely used chemical responsible for $17 billion annually in sales. Titanium dioxide is a whitening agent that is used in products ranging from paints and plastics to toothpaste, sunscreen and cosmetics to the insides of Oreo cookies, the “M”s on M&M candies and the honey mustard sauce served at McDonald’s and Wendy’s. On food labels it often goes by the name “E171.”   read more

It’s unclear why the two L.A. gangbangers traveled all the way to the Middle East to help Assad. Their whereabouts only became known after they posted a video online showing them fighting on what they claimed was the front lines of the Syrian civil war. “We’re kind of concerned about their recruitment and whatever other associates they have here," said LAPD's Mike Downing. "What we’re worried about is the ones we don’t know about here or coming back to the U.S.”   read more

The U.S. and its allies owe the world an explanation for civilians killed in drone strikes, according to UN official Ben Emmerson, who uncovered at least 37 drone attacks that killed non-combatants. Carried out between 2006 and 2013 by the U.S., the UK and Israel, the attacks resulted in civilian deaths in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Yemen, Somalia and Gaza. Emmerson said nations responsible must offer an “explanation for the use of deadly force” impacting civilians in 30 of those attacks.   read more

The technology was used in China’s “Golden Shield” program, which censored and tracked Internet use. The system was used to find the named plaintiff in the suit, Du Daobin, who was prosecuted for writing articles critical of the Chinese Communist Party and urging fair treatment for farmers. The Cisco ruling could signal a tightening of the use of the Alien Tort Statute. Similar suits against foreign companies have been dismissed in recent months.   read more

The report questioned the Border Patrol policy of allowing the use of deadly force against individuals who throw rocks or other objects at agents. Border Patrol officials sat on the report, which was completed in February 2013. When members of Congress requested copies of the investigation last fall, the CBP turned over a censored summary that left out discussion of vehicle-related and rock-throwing shootings.   read more