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The USA Freedom Act, introduced in to the US House of Representatives as HR 3361 and to the US Senate as S. 1599, on Thursday passed out of House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence and on to the House floor. Foreign Policy reported the bill was "the most aggressive NSA reform bill under consideration in Congress", however, after amendment, the bill has been questioned for extending the Patriot Act and the reduction of reform to Section 702 of the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. The USA Freedom Act had the stated goal of ending t

Roughly 300 protesters turned up yesterday for the return of Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence Party, to Edinburgh after last year's disastrous attempt at a press conference in a pub at the foot of The Canongate. Unseen by protesters or public, Farage is believed to have left the venue around 7:30pm. Farage's last visit saw protesters leaving him barracked in the bar by police, with several taxis refusing to take the party leader and Member of the European Parliament (MEP) for South East England to the airport. Given the hostile rec

The broadcast of popular Australian TV show Q&A was interrupted on Monday night by a student protest targeting Australian Education Minister Christopher Pyne. The protest was in response to proposals from the Commission of Audit for the May 13 budget suggesting the deregulation of university education. Christopher Pyne had been the focus of many questions on the panel before the protest. One question initially directed at Pyne from the audience was given to former parliamentary speaker Anna Burke to discuss first. When she started to answe

Citing violations of its policy regarding "Marine mammal items", eBay terminated an online listing on Monday by the town of Cape St. George, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada, for a 40 ft (12 m) sperm whale carcass reportedly beached upon its shores about a week prior. With an initial asking price of 99 cents, bidding for the carcass reportedly rose to C$238.03 within 15 bids. Reports variously state the final price of the whale, prior to the removal of the listing from the auction site on Monday at about 2:30pm, was C$2,025 or C$2,075. Listed

A three-try second half has seen University of the Sunshine Coast defeat Toads 27 points to 20 yesterday in their second round Sunshine Coast Rugby Union at Woombye, Australia. Trailing 10–6 at half time, University piled on three tries in the final twenty minutes. In the other result of the round, Maroochydore defeated Caloundra 43 points to 22.

Carlton Lindbergh Johnson, a 77-year-old pastor, was found guilty on three charges of raping and sexually abusing minors yesterday in Muskegon, Michigan. Johnson was arrested in June of 2013 following allegations to police from one of the victims in 2012. Johnson — who held a position as church leader at the Faith Congregational Church of God in Christ in the Jackson Hill neighbourhood of Muskegon — awaits sentencing in June for the two counts of first-degree criminal sexual conduct and one second-degree criminal sexual conduct charge. By thei

The Russian Parliament passed a new bill on Tuesday to restrict and regulate blogging and social media content, expected to be enforced in August. The bill comes following Russian actions in Ukraine and a Russian crackdown on domestic criticism. Under the bill, bloggers with 3000 or more daily views will face a similar level of legal liability as media organisations. These bloggers will be required to register their identities with Russia's consumer rights protection agency, Rospotrebnadzor; they may not spread extremist material or violate ci

The presenter of BBC's Newsnight show, Jeremy Paxman, said on Wednesday he is to leave after 25 years. The BBC said Paxman had postponed his departure, after deciding upon it last summer, because Newsnight was going through "a difficult period". Paxman became a notorious political interviewer after tearing a great number of political leaders apart: In an interview with Michael Howard regarding the 1995 dismissal of the director of the prison service, Derek Lewis, when Howard didn't directly answer a question, Paxman asked again — eleven more t

Gerry Adams, the leader of the Irish republican party Sinn Féin, was arrested Wednesday by the Police Service of Northern Ireland as part of an investigation of the 1972 disappearance and murder of Jean McConville, a mother of ten. McConville was taken from her flat in Divis in west Belfast shortly before Christmas of 1972, then shot. The Irish Republican Army (IRA) later admitted to the abduction and killing. A statement from the police said: "Detectives from the serious crime branch investigating the abduction and murder of Jean McConville i

Ahead of Sunday's scheduled canonization of Pope John Paul II, in the Italian village of Cevo, a massive stone and wood crucifix dedicated to the late pontiff collapsed, instantly crushing a man to death and landing another in the hospital. Reports variously say the collapse took place on Wednesday or Thursday. Marco Gusmini, 21, died after part of the wood of the crucifix splintered and broke, sending it, along with the attached statue of Jesus Christ, toppling to the ground. He was reportedly posing for a photograph under the monument. The

Scientists at Chicago's Field Museum and New York's American Museum of Natural History have discovered three new species of yellow-shouldered bats, genus Sturnira, in the Neotropics. On Wednesday open-access journal ZooKeys published their paper on two of the new species, Sturnira bakeri and Sturnira burtonlimi. The two new species were previously confused with S. ludovici, and S. lilium and S. luisi, respectively. With the discovery, genus Sturnira now has the most species of any genus in family Phyllostomidae, the leaf-nosed bats. Species S.

Eastern Slovak village Buzica, located southwest of Košice on the Slovakian–Hungarian border, was awarded “European Stork Village” by German environmental foundation EuroNatur. The mayor of Buzica, Jozef Mohňanský, received the award last Saturday. Mohňanský told the TASR news agency, In 2013 there were eleven breeding pairs recorded. Storks nest in the village center on electricity poles and on artificial breeding platforms raised by local authorities. Local residents respect storks. The village holds an annual festival for the arrival o