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His tribe once controlled huge swaths of what is now New York and Connecticut, but the shrunken reservation presided over by Alan Russell today hosts little more than four mostly-dilapidated homes and a pair of rattlesnake dens. The Schaghticoke Indian Tribe leader believes its fortunes may soon be improving. As the U.S. Interior Department overhauls its rules for recognizing American Indian tribes, a nod from the federal government appears within reach, potentially bolstering its claims to surrounding land and opening the door to a tribal-owned casino. “It’s the future generations we’re fighting for,” Russell said. The rules floated by the...

Where’s your car? Well, dude, it’s in a huge Orwellian police database. That might seem like the plot of a bad movie, but since around 2010, police agencies in San Diego County have quietly used a network of sophisticated devices called license-plate readers (LPR) to monitor and record the movements of thousands of everyday drivers. Even as you read this, police cars equipped with LPR are patrolling the streets, automatically scanning and photographing every license plate in sight, tagging each with a GPS coordinate and filing the information away. For years. With 36 million scans and counting—an average of 14...

Defense Minister Ehud Barak has agreed to give formal recognition to the purchase of Hevron's Peace House by Jews, and has instructed the Civil Administration accordingly. However, this does not necessarily mean that the residents of the house will be allowed to live in it anytime soon. Barak's decision follows a September 13 decision by Jerusalem's District Court to approve the sale of the house to Tal Construction and Investments – Karnei Shomron. Barak's bureau announced that the decision was reached after consultations with the Attorney General and Government Legal Advisor, and with the military administration of Judea and Samaria....

The US has agreed in principle to release high-ranking Taliban officials from Guantánamo Bay in return for the Afghan insurgents' agreement to open a political office for peace negotiations in Qatar, the Guardian has learned. According to sources familiar with the talks in the US and in Afghanistan, the handful of Taliban figures will include Mullah Khair Khowa, a former interior minister, and Noorullah Noori, a former governor in northern Afghanistan. More controversially, the Taliban are demanding the release of the former army commander Mullah Fazl Akhund. Washington is reported to be considering formally handing him over to the custody...

Ambassador Lopez stated that the head of the Honduran Armed Forces and the Defense minister are currently in Israel acquiring equipment that is needed by the institution. Tegucigalpa, Honduras Israel’s ambassador to Honduras said yesterday that the decision of the government of Honduras to advocate for the recognition of Palestine at the United Nations (UN) is like “sticking a knife in the heart of the people and government of Israel “. The diplomat offered these statements from Israel to Telenoticias. It was learned that the ambassador was in his country due to “consultations” he is making with his government after...

IF YOUR face and name are anywhere on the web, you may be recognised whenever you walk the streets—not just by cops but by any geek with a computer. That seems to be the conclusion from some new research on the limits of privacy. For suspected miscreants, and people chasing them, face-recognition technology is old hat. Brazil, preparing for the soccer World Cup in 2014, is already trying out pairs of glasses with mini-cameras attached; policemen wearing them could snap images of faces, easy to compare with databases of criminals. More authoritarian states love such methods: photos are taken at...

After naming Ayman al-Zawahri as Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden's successor on Thursday the terror group, unsurprisingly, said it "will never recognize any legitimacy for the alleged state of Israel," Reuters reports. "We assure our people in Palestine that we will not accept any compromise with anyone regarding the land of Palestine," the Al-Qaeda statement read. A United States counter-terrorism official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told Reuters that Washington believed the announcement was genuine, but the State Department was dismissive of the communique’s significance.

Netanyahu while in the UK and France, is threatened with possible recognition of a Palestinian State. A legal and political overview of what could result. A specter is haunting Israel. As the Palestinian Authority is threatening to declare statehood in September with UN recognition, Contrary to a widespread misconception, the UN did not establish the State of Israel. many Israelis seem to believe that the Apocalypse is near. What is approaching, however, is not a Big Bang but a Big Flop.

The public debate in Israel over the Palestinian plan to seek UN support for statehood in September is based on a fundamental misconception: the UN General Assembly cannot by itself establish or recognize a Palestinian state. It can admit new members to the UN only after they have been nominated first by the UN Security Council, where any of the five permanent members could veto the nomination.

WASHINGTON -President Barack Obama says the United States intends to formally recognize Southern Sudan as a sovereign, independent state in July. Obama made the announcement Monday in a statement congratulating the people of Southern Sudan for "a successful and inspiring" referendum. Election officials said Monday that more than 98 percent of ballots in the Jan. 9 vote were for independence. That means South Sudan will become the world's newest country in July. Obama said that after decades of conflict the image of millions of southern Sudanese voters deciding their own future was an inspiration to the world. He also said...

Lt. Col. Terry Cook, commander, 3rd Battalion, 82nd Field Artillery Regiment, pins a U.S. Army Achievement Medal to the uniform of an Iraqi Emergency Services Unit Policeman, May 11. The IP were being rewarded for their hard work and dedication in Kirkuk City. Photo by Pfc. Justin Naylor, 1st Cavalry Division. KIRKUK — Partnership is the term used by U.S. military officials to describe the cooperative relationship between Iraqi Police (IP), Army and U.S. Soldiers following the Security Agreement signed between the two countries, January 1. This includes daily missions maintaining security in Kirkuk province, and it also means sharing...

Because of an continuing disability of my hands I will need to move to speech recognition software. I need a laptop that can handle the internet, the software, Word and a few other programs. Internet recommendations say 2 to 5 gig of working memory to use Dragon expediently. I am having a difficult time finding a 3 to 5 gig laptop that is affordable. One can add memory but is it accessble? Anybody been down this road recently. I would appreciate your input.

WASHINGTON, April 8, 2008 – Military children and their sacrifices took center stage here last night during a reception attended by Defense Department dignitaries. Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates talks with 10-year-old Will Bacon, right front, his brother, Jake, 9, and their mother, Christine, during an Our Military Kids reception in Washington, D.C., to honor military children April 7, 2008. The boys' father, Missouri National Guard Maj. Matt Bacon, is currently deployed to Iraq. Photo by Samantha L. Quigley, Department of Defense  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. “Our Military Kids,” a nonprofit organization that provides grants that keep...

FORT HUACHUCA — Landing on Omaha Beach 10 days after D-Day in 1944, Hans Spear found himself moving through France, Belgium, Holland and finally into Germany as Nazi forces fell back from areas they had conquered. Although Spear wore the uniform of an American soldier, he was considered an “enemy alien” by the U.S. government. His ability to speak German fluently was badly needed as Nazi functionaries and members of the German military were captured in the waning days of World War II. Spear’s capability to speak German like a native was easy — he was German born and raised...

While watching the CBC national news last Monday evening, I heard about Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence from Serbia, and the next day I read the same news in the Whig-Standard. In addition, the CBC's Politics show broadcasted comments by a Parti Quebecois member of Quebec's National Assembly who was delighted about Kosovo's declaration of independence, and Montenegro's earlier declaration of independence, from Serbia. This Quebec politician suggested that these two events set precedents for the future separation of Quebec from Canada. It appears that people have a very short memory about the history of the former Yugoslavia. The independence...

Taiwan has submitted its first formal application to join the United Nations, a government spokesman has said.He said an application signed by President Chen Shui-bian had been delivered to the UN Secretary General. The Chinese foreign ministry immediately dismissed the move, saying it was "doomed to failure". Taiwan has long campaigned to join the UN but all such attempts have been blocked by China which regards the island as a breakaway province. The government in Taipei held the UN seat for China until 1971 when it was replaced by Beijing. This was the first time the country launched a...

(CBS) PHILADELPHIA The city of Philadelphia is planning to unveil three dozen street signs marking the ‘Gayborhood’ Wednesday. The 36 signs adorned with the internationally recognized symbol of a rainbow, also known as the ‘Freedom Flag,’ will be placed from Chestnut to Pine Streets between 11th and Broad Streets. During a brief ceremony at 13th and Locust Streets, the Philadelphia Gay Men’s chorus is expected to sing “Somewhere Over The Rainbow” as confetti canons cap off the celebration. Philadelphia will join four other cities, San Francisco, Chicago, Montreal and Toronto, who have dedicated permanent installations designating gay-friendly neighborhoods.

N. Korea seeks recognition as nuke power TOKYO, April 2 KYODO North Korea sought recognition as a nuclear-weapon state at a working-group meeting under the six-party talks on Pyongyang's nuclear programs as a condition of incapacitating its nuclear facilities, sources involved in the multilateral talks said Sunday. The meeting of the working group to discuss the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula was held in Beijing on March 17 and 18.

Abbas comments on Israel recognition http://www.ndtv.com/morenews/showmorestory.asp?id=101062 Associated PressSunday, February 18, 2007 (Ramallah, West Bank): The world will have to deal with a new Hamas-Fatah coalition even if its platform falls short of international demands such as recognition of Israel, Mahmoud Abbas told a US envoy, according to an aide to the Palestinian president.