National / International News

Get close to the stars and cars of the past

Dozens of state attorneys general say they are going to closely watch how Google safeguards privacy from now on. The announcement comes just after the search giant agreed to pay $7 million to settle charges it collected personal data from people's wireless networks with its mapping cameras. 

Experts say a new test of privacy will come when the Google's electronic eyeglasses hit the market late this year. Sure, Google Glass is mostly a wearable display screen, but it also acts as a video and audio recorder.

Harvard Law professor Jonathan Zittrain joins Marketplace Tech host David Brancaccio to explain Google's privacy problem when it comes to the high-tech spectacles.

More than 18 million of the UK's pets could die early because of their diet, the PDSA charity warns. The Today programme met some of their owners.

Pro-shark fishing nations narrowly fail to overturn landmark regulations on three endangered species at the Cites conference in Bangkok.

This final note today, which speaks volumes about:

1. Health care pricing in this country
2. Why the daily discount site Groupon is in such a bad place.

This offer popped up today in a friend of mine's email inbox. An MRI, including a carotid artery scan, brain aneurysm scan, or both, with 3-D imaging and private consultation -- starting at just $39.

The brain scan package is worth $900; so with the Groupon, your savings are 96 percent.

Or...it's just crazy.

The amazing thing? More than 140 have been purchased.

Arsenal boss Arsene Wenger says it is a "wake-up call" after all English clubs are eliminated from the Champions League.

A farming union claims a 15% rise in the number of cows in Wales slaughtered due to bovine TB shows the disease is "out of control" in the countryside.

Inside a courthouse in Steubenville, Ohio, a judge is considering whether a 16-year-old girl was so drunk that she couldn't consent to sex with two high school football players. Outside, the case continues to spawn debate over teen drinking, sex, football culture, and the ability of social media to amplify it all.

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Lawyers, prosecutors and judges across Massachusetts are sorting through thousands of cases that may now unravel. With a former chemist accused of falsifying more than 30,000 test results, hundreds of former defendants have already been released and police are bracing for an uptick in crime.

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From Chris Christie to Jeb Bush, a slew of potential candidates for president have been getting attention. Most of them are speaking this week at the Conservative Political Action Conference, but a few pointedly were not asked.

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Labour would look to establish a network of regional banks if elected to help small business get access to finance, Ed Miliband says.

Homeland's Damien Lewis joins the cast of The Vicar of Dibley for a new 10-minute episode, written by Richard Curtis in aid of Comic Relief.

India's Supreme Court orders Italy's ambassador not to leave the country after Rome refuses to return two marines charged with murdering two fishermen.

Tapeworm parasites have had their genetic code mined for weaknesses in an effort to find new treatments by UK researchers.

Hair-like structures inside the throats of filter-feeding whales tangle to trap food, according to a study.

A new and controversial frontier in mining is opening up as a British firm joins a growing rush to exploit minerals in the depths of the oceans.

British politicians and religious leaders welcome the election of Argentine Cardinal Jorge Bergoglio as the new Pope.

An adult education college pays out £450,000 in consultancy costs for a building project that may never happen, a BBC Wales investigation reveals.

Jonathan Trott urges Nick Compton not to "rest on his laurels" as he looks to secure a place in England's Ashes side.

Credit unions could shrink - or even close - when Welsh government funding is withdrawn this year, a report warns.