(Reuters) – Google Inc has launched a small network of balloons over the Southern Hemisphere in an experiment it hopes could bring reliable Internet access to the world’s most remote regions, the company said late Friday. The pilot program, Project Loon, took off this month from New Zealand’s South Island, using solar-powered, high-altitude balloons that [...]

By Constance Watson LONDON (Reuters) – Forget abandoning carbohydrates or detoxing. The new dieting craze sweeping Britain and taking off in the United States lets people eat whatever they like – but only five days a week. “The Fast Diet”, also known as the 5:2 diet, is the brainchild of TV medical journalist Michael Mosley [...]

This is the “alien” a Chinese farmer claimed he electrocuted to death three months ago after finding it on the bank of the Yellow River. The man, identified as Li from eastern China’s Shandong province, posted about the encounter on his blog. It soon became an Internet hit. But on Wednesday the hoax was officially [...]

By Andrea Shalal-Esa WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Thomas Drake is one of the few people who understands from personal experience what the future may hold for Edward Snowden, the 29-year-old former NSA contractor who exposed the U.S. government’s top secret phone and Internet surveillance programs. His advice for Snowden: “Be lawyered up to the max and [...]

By Mark Hosenball and John Whitesides WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The Obama administration on Thursday defended its collection of the telephone records of millions of Americans as part of U.S. counterterrorism efforts, re-igniting a fierce debate over privacy even as it called the program critical to warding off an attack. The admission came after Britain’s Guardian [...]

By Lawrence Hurley WASHINGTON (Reuters) – In a major victory for law enforcement agencies, a divided Supreme Court on Monday ruled that police can take a DNA sample from someone who has been arrested and charged but not convicted of a serious crime. On a narrow 5-4 vote the court reversed a decision last April [...]

By Irene Klotz CAPE CANAVERAL, Florida (Reuters) – Radiation levels measured by NASA’s Mars Curiosity rover show astronauts likely would exceed current U.S. exposure limits during a roundtrip mission to Mars, scientists said on Thursday. The rover landed on Mars in August to search for habitats that could have supported past microbial life. Results taken [...]

An interactive map I created for UWECI