Six workers at Japan’s Fukushima nuclear plant have been been doused in radioactive water, its operator says. The incident happened after a worker removed a pipe connected to a water treatment system at the plant, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco) said. Some of the water has leaked from the tanks, pipes and damaged structures, leading […]

Atlas is a humanoid robot capable of crossing rough terrain and maintaining its balance on one leg even when hit from the side. And WildCat, the four-legged robot that can gallop untethered at up to 16mph (26km/h). These are the latest creations of Boston Dynamics, a US robotics company part-funded by the Defense Advanced Research […]

Nearly four years after its controversial ruling in Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission, the Supreme Court is once again taking up the issue of the regulation of money in politics. This time, the risk to the integrity of elected officials, and public confidence in government, may be even greater. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/opinion/politicians-for-sale.html?emc=eta1 The court is scheduled […]

Brazil’s president, Dilma Rousseff, crisply demanded an explanation on Monday from Canada over revelations that a Canadian intelligence agency had spied on Brazil’s mining and energy ministry and a top Brazilian diplomat, a development contributing to festering resentment in Brazil over the targeting of the nation by foreign intelligence agencies.http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/08/world/americas/brazil-leader-asks-canada-to-explain-its-spying.html   Ms. Rousseff called the […]

Buildings that don’t have cameras are thinking about getting them. Buildings that do have them are thinking about getting more or upgrading their systems. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/06/realestate/more-surveillance-cameras-at-new-york-residences.html?pagewanted=all   Debates about privacy versus security — from airport screening to phone-line tapping and Internet tracking — rage on and on. But in the singular world of New York real […]

A group of some 50 people stormed the Arena Pantanal, in the western city of Cuiaba, as it was being inspected by the Secretary General of Fifa, Jerome Valcke. They shouted slogans and held banners criticising the huge amounts spent in preparations for the World Cup.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-latin-america-24453842 “Go home!” and “World Cup for whom?” read […]

A woman with a young child was shot to death after driving her car through a checkpoint outside the White House and on Capitol Hill.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/us/gunfire-reported-outside-the-capitol.html?ref=us The chase began at 2:12 p.m. when Ms. Carey, who was driving a black two-door Infiniti with Connecticut plates, tried to drive through a White House checkpoint at 15th […]

Campaigners are trying to force a change in UK law after accusations of mass UK internet surveillance. Three privacy campaign groups have open legal proceedings in Europe in a bid to alter UK bugging legislation.  http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-24388499   Three privacy groups have launched a bid to take the UK government to court in Europe after revelations […]

The National Security Agency conducted a secret pilot project in 2010 and 2011 to test the collection of bulk data about the location of Americans’ cellphones.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/us/nsa-experiment-traced-us-cellphone-locations.html?ref=us   In his testimony, Mr. Clapper revealed few details about the project. He said that the N.S.A. does not currently collect locational information under Section 215 of the […]

US Federal Prosecutors were pursuing a notable user of Lavabit, Ladar Levison’s secure e-mail service: Edward J. Snowden, the former National Security Agency contractor who leaked classified documents that have put the intelligence agency under sharp scrutiny.   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/us/snowdens-e-mail-provider-discusses-pressure-from-fbi-to-disclose-data.html?ref=us   Mr. Levison was willing to allow investigators with a court order to tap Mr. Snowden’s e-mail […]

Homicide investigators said Wednesday that they would charge 10 police officers with torture and murder in the disappearance of an impoverished construction worker from Rocinha, one of Rio de Janeiro’s largest slums. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/03/world/americas/brazilian-officers-will-be-charged-with-torture-and-murder.html?ref=world The disappearance in July of the 42-year-old laborer, Amarildo de Souza, set off street protests against police brutality in Rio, São Paulo […]

Diplomats at the United Nations said Thursday that the resolution by France, the former colonial ruler of the Central African Republic, would demand the transitional government’s compliance with previous promises.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/world/africa/france-central-african-republic.html?ref=world   It would threaten unspecified sanctions against “those who violate transitional agreements, impede the transitional process and fuel violence,” The resolution, which could be brought […]

The United States and Japan agreed on Thursday to broaden their security alliance.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/04/world/asia/japan-and-us-agree-to-broaden-military-alliance.html?hp The agreement calls for construction of a new missile-defense radar system in Japan, deployment of American drone aircraft here for the first time and joint efforts to combat cyberattack threats. For Japan, the agreement appeared to give American approval to its […]

One of the world’s biggest Web companies, Google, must defend itself against accusations that it is illegally wiretapping in the course of its everyday business — gathering data about Internet users and showing them related ads.   http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/technology/google-accused-of-wiretapping-in-gmail-scans.html?ref=us The accusations, made over several years in various lawsuits that have been merged into two separate cases, ask […]

Torture is widespread in Libyan jails run by militias that toppled the Qaddafi government in 2011, according to a United Nations report released Tuesday.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/world/africa/libya-27-tortured-to-death-in-jails-run-by-militias-un-report-says.html?ref=world  United Nations investigators, who had periodic access to various detention centers, said there was evidence that 27 people had been tortured to death in the prisons, 11 of them this […]

The United Nations mission in Iraq said Tuesday that 979 people were killed there in September, most of them civilians caught up in the violence by insurgents, who appear determined to rekindle the tensions between Sunnis and Shiites that pushed the country to the brink of civil war in 2006-2007.  http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/world/middleeast/iraq-nearly-1000-killed-last-month.html?ref=world Since April, more than […]

Nuclear engineers in southeastern Sweden have been wrestling with a giant swarm of jellyfish that forced the shutdown of the world’s largest boiling-water reactor. http://www.nytimes.com/2013/10/02/world/europe/jellyfish-invasion-paralyzes-swedish-reactor.html?ref=world   The plant’s operator said that over the weekend, a huge cluster of moon jellyfish clogged the cooling water intake pipes at the Oskarshamn nuclear power plant on the Baltic […]