This week’s deployment of Black-hawk helicopters in Chicago is only the latest in a series of “urban warfare training” exercises that have become a familiar feature of American life. As elsewhere, this exercise was sprung unannounced on a startled civilian population. Conducted in secrecy, apparently with the collusion of local police agencies and elected officials, Democrats and Republicans alike, the oste ...

(Reuters) - A German town has halted a scheme offering asylum seekers 1.05 euros an hour to carry luggage at a station after rail operator Deutsche Bahn refused permission due to a public outcry and criticism that the project harked back to colonial times. ...

Thousands rally at interior ministry in Tunis, hours after opposition figure was assassinated in front of his house. Riot police fired tear gas at protesters in the Tunisian capital Tunis as thousands massed following the assassination of opposition politician Mohamed Brahmi. ...

Detroit hit the Trifecta yesterday—the third in a series of body blows that politicians have landed on the city’s working people. The Michigan legislature passed “right-to-work” in December and gave the governor the right to impose “emergency managers” on cities two days later. When Detroit’s emergency manager Kevyn Orr announced Chapter 9 bankruptcy Thursday, he was following a predicted trajectory that wi ...

Police ban all 'public gatherings and rallies' in huge swath of city centre from 9am and 8pm on Thursday, including Syntagma Square, focal points of scores of anti-austerity demonstrations. The Greek police has banned public protests in central Athens on Thursday for the duration of the visit of German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble, a decision the main opposition party Syriza described as "fascist and ...

Today, 16th of June, a general strike is taking place in Greece. Demos have been organized in more than 60 cities in Greece. This is the fourth general strike in Greece this year (following walkouts on 20 February, 1 May and 13 June).  ...

Microsoft has collaborated closely with US intelligence services to allow users' communications to be intercepted, including helping the National Security Agency to circumvent the company's own encryption, according to top-secret documents obtained by the Guardian. ...

Video of the brutal attack by the Greek Police against the solidarity to the hunger striker Kostas Sakkas demonstration. http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=cj9PufVmW9I   ...

At least 34 people have been killed in an attack outside the headquarters of the Republican Guard in Cairo, an Egyptian health ministry official says. Khaled el-Khatib said initial reports indicated 34 people were killed and 300 wounded in shooting outside the building in the early hours of Monday. Earlier, Egyptian military officials had said gunmen killed at least five supporters of the former president a ...

Opposition leader and former UN nuclear agency head named by interim president days after Mohamed Morsi was overthrown. ...