Another anti-police brutality protest turned violent in the French city of Rennes, with masked youths and police engaging in running street battles. The unrest follows the death of a young environmental activist earlier this week.

Overnight Thursday, protesters in the northwestern city lobbed flairs at police and flipped over cars, some of which they set ablaze. Police responded by firing tear gas. The number of arrests or injures, if any, remains unclear.

A similar protest in Paris on Wednesday also descended into violence. Around 250 people gathered outside City Hall in Paris, with some throwing rocks at police and writing "Remi is dead, the state kills" on walls, The Local's French edition reports. At least 33 people were taken into police custody following the unrest.

The Texas Department of Public Safety might as well be called the Texas Department of Public Invasiveness.

They've launched a plan to fingerprint every single person of driving age in the state, after which they will add the person's prints to the criminal database.

Is it just me or is that a rather Dystopian plan?

It's that time of year when people don sinister masks, spray themselves with fake blood, and generally go all out for a good fright. But here at EFF, we think there are plenty of real-world ghouls to last all year-round. Fortunately, we won't let them hide under your bed. Sometimes our work sounds like science fiction, but the surveillance techniques and technology we fight are all too real. Here are some of the beasts hiding in your backyard that we've been fighting to expose:

Automated License Plate Readers

Automated License Plate Readers (ALPRs) are cameras that can either be mounted on squad cars or stationary. They read license plates and record the time, date, and location a particular car was encountered. And they're paving the way for wholesale tracking of every driver's movements. ALPRs can scan up to 1,800 license plates per minute, and can collect data on vast numbers of vehicles. In Los Angeles, for example, the Los Angeles Police Department and Sheriff's Department collect data on 3 million cars per week.

The gas deal between Ukraine and Russia became possible because Europe realized that it wouldn't get the gas if it didn't get behind Ukraine, Wall Street analyst Michael Hudson told RT.

RT: How important is this gas deal for Ukraine and for Europe?

Michael Hudson: It's apparently most important for Europe because it was Europe that gave in on the deal. The problem was never about the price of the Russian gas. The problem was whether Ukraine was doing to keep up trying just to run up a larger and larger gas bill every month and every year and finally default. In the US Treasury, strategists have already discussed in public how Ukraine can simply avoid paying Russia the money that it owed by going to court and stalling it. So Russia understandably said, "We need credit in advance." Mr. Oettinger of the European Commission said "Wait a minute, Russia, why don't you just lend them the money. They will repay you." And Mr. Putin at the Valdai Club speech in Sochi last week made it very clear. Look, [Russia] has already lent them 11 billion dollars, much more than anyone else has lent to Ukraine. Ukraine is bankrupt, it's torn itself apart. Why didn't perhaps a European Bank underwrite the loan? Finally, Mr. Oettinger gave in. Europe said "OK, the IMF is going to lend Ukraine the money to pay Russia for the gas for the balance of the year." So that Ukraine would end up owing the IMF money and the European Commission money, not Russia. So Russia will not be exposed to having to lend any more money to a dead-beat economy.

Victim groups have come to the "unanimous" decision that Fiona Woolf should be replaced as the head of an inquiry into historical child sex abuse.

Pressure has mounted on Woolf, the Lord Mayor of London, over her connections with Lord Brittan - the former home secretary who faces scrutiny over his role in an alleged establishment cover-up of abuse within Government - with campaigners arguing she is "unsuitable" to lead the investigation.

But Downing Street said today that Prime Minister David Cameron "is absolutely clear that he thinks she can do this job with integrity and impartiality".

Alison Millar who represents survivors of child abuse as the head of the abuse team at law firm Leigh Day, said: "Representatives of survivors were unanimous that Fiona Woolf is unsuitable to lead this inquiry.

Representatives also called for a full statutory inquiry with powers to seize documents and compel witnesses to give evidence.

"The unanimous view from the representatives of all the groups present today is that there needs to be a statutory inquiry with full compulsory powers to seize documents and compel witnesses to give evidence; concern was raised that if the inquiry was not headed by a high court judge then it would not be practically possible to take criminal proceedings for contempt if truthful evidence was withheld," said Millar.

"The constitution of the current panel, it was felt, needs to be substantially revisited and enhanced so that it is more representative of the situations in which abuse occurred and engages the diverse range of people who have been abused."

The statement comes after documents published last night showed that a letter from Woolf regarding her links with Lord Brittan and his wife was redrafted seven times, with guidance from Home Office officials, before being sent to Home Secretary Theresa May.

President Vladimir Putin said on Friday that Russia takes the world situation and the Ukrainian conflict into account when ensuring the country's security.

"The world in the 21st century has not become more stable or more secure. The past threats have not disappeared and in a number of regions they have gotten worse. A seriously tense hot spot still remains on our borders in southeastern Ukraine," Putin said during a military awards ceremony.

"I want to emphasize that Russia has no plans of being drawn into a confrontation that we are forcibly being tangled into. We are open to equal and respectful dialogue in all issues of the global and regional agenda. Our military doctrine carries a defensive character. Its main task is to provide for the country's sovereignty, for peace and tranquility of our citizens," Putin said.

Speaking at the St George Hall in the Kremlin, the Russian president noted that the ceremony is being held on the eve of the National Unity Day - a holiday which "symbolizes the solidarity and the fortitude of our people, which helped [us] overcome any obstacles and win."

Russia, Ukraine, and the European Commission have signed an agreement on gas supply and transit conditions until March 2015 during talks in Brussels.

The agreement was signed by Russian Energy Minister Aleksandr Novak, Ukrainian Energy Minister Yury Prodan, and vice president of the EC in charge of energy, Guenther Oettinger. The signing was witnessed by European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and the EC's new vice president in charge of energy, Marosh Shefchovich.

Ukraine will be able to receive the needed volumes of Russian gas until the end of March based on a pre-payment plan at a price of $378 per 1,000 cubic meters, Oettinger said during the press conference.

Speaking at a briefing after the signing of the deal, Oettinger assured that Ukraine said it is ready to pay $1.451 billion of its gas debt to Russia "immediately."

According to Oettinger, Kiev will be able to pay back $3.1 billion of its gas debts before the end of the year. However, he added that the final figure will depend on the decision of the international Stockholm court of arbitration on the gas debt dispute.

Leaders of Portsmouth's Muslim community have condemned the Islamic State (IS formerly ISIS/ISIL) as a "violent and terrible regime" in an attempt to stop more young people travelling to join the fight in Syria.

Imams, with the city council and police, have signed a joint statement urging members of the community not to join the extremist Muslim group.

"We are united in our condemnation of hatred, violence and racism. We are united in our condemnation of the group known as the Islamic State," the statement read.

The comments come with the news that a fourth man from Portsmouth has been killed in the Syrian conflict. A photograph of the body of Mehdi Hassan, 19, was published on Twitter on October 17.

"Support for the group which calls itself Islamic State or Caliphate is illegal, and utterly opposed to everything that those who follow the Islamic faith believe in," the statement adds.

Three other Portsmouth men, Iftekar Jaman, 23, Mamunur Roshid, 24, and Hamidur Rahman, 25, were killed in Syria after travelling to join the conflict in October 2013.

Burkina Faso's President Blaise Compaore said on Thursday he would stay in power at the head of a transitional government until after elections, rejecting opposition calls for him to step down immediately following a day of violent protests.

The head of the armed forces, General Honore Traore, had earlier dissolved parliament and announced talks with all political parties to create an interim government to take the West African country to democratic elections within a year.

The move came after at least three protesters were shot dead and scores wounded in clashes with security forces as demonstrators attacked the homes of senior members of the ruling party and symbols of Compaore's long rule.

Hundreds of people had earlier stormed parliament, looting the building and setting it on fire, while others ransacked state television, forcing it off the air.

Protests also gripped Bobo Dioulasso, Burkina's second-largest city, and other towns across the gold and cotton-producing country.

Igor Shuvalov, the top Kremlin official responsible for the economy: Sanctions force companies to modernize, be more efficient, less complacent. We've been saying this for months: sanctions are helping Russia. Western media is getting this badly wrong.
This is an account of comments made by Igor Shuvalov, Russia's Deputy Prime Minister in charge of the economy, last week in Sochi.

Western leaders might care to reflect on them and on what Shuvalov reports Putin telling Biden (see the two paragraphs at the end).

This is an extract from an interview to Russia Direct, by the American political scientist, Nikolai Petro.

"Russian First Deputy Prime Minister Igor Shuvalov put forward the view that, if they last long enough, Western sanctions will be an impetus for modernization.

The very worst thing that the West could do now is to lift sanctions quickly. This would have the short-term effect of telling government officials and the heads of state enterprises that they need do nothing to change.

Russia would be caught in a more stringent liquidity crunch, as it waited for the end of sanctions to take effect, but still could not obtain credit cheaply or quickly. Shuvalov therefore concluded that, "the sooner sanctions are lifted, the worse for Russian modernization."

He went on to list several reasons why conditions are now optimal for Russian modernization: Falling gas prices are forcing Russian producers to be more productive; sanctions are forcing Russian companies to search for new sources of international funding at a time when the emerging economies have more cash liquidity than their Western counterparts; low debt and high cash reserves means that Russian investment programs can continue without foreign borrowing - at most, he said, if further sanctions are imposed, Russia will delay full implementation of current programs for two years.