After the end of the Cold War there was a widespread perception both in the West and Russia that the time of ideological animosity and human rights problems had passed into history. Nevertheless, the adoption of the Magnitsky Act, passed recently by the US Congress and by the EU in 2011, sees human rights used as a weapon in international relations once again.

The proponents of the Magnitsky Act believe that it is supposed to replace the Jackson-Vanik amendment adopted by the US in 1974 in order to punish the then Soviet Union for forbidding Jewish emigration. But the two are not practically comparable.

The Jackson-Venik amendment covered the whole of the USSR and affected the nationwide economy while the Magnitsky Act includes a list of about 60 officials, accused of being involved in the imprisonment and death of anti-corruption whistle-blower Sergei Magnitsky, who are banned from entering the US and the EU and whose assets are frozen.

Although the act only affects a tiny minority of officials, it has attracted public attention in the country, both for and against. A survey in November by the Levada Center in Moscow found that 39 percent of Russians agreed with the law, while 14 percent were opposed to it, and 48 percent said they were undecided.

The NSA has turned over documents on the controversial "Perfect Citizen" program to EPIC in response to a FOIA request. "Perfect Citizen" is an NSA program that monitors private networks in the United States. The redacted documents obtained from the federal agency by EPIC state that "[t]he prevention of a loss due to a cyber or physical attack [on Sensitive Control Systems, like large-scale utilities], or recovery of operational capability after such an event, is crucial to the continuity of the [Department of Defense] , the [Intelligence Community], and the operation of SIGNIT systems." The NSA claims that Perfect Citizen is merely a research and development program. The documents obtained by EPIC suggest that the program is operational.

The Department of Homeland Security has been forced to release a list of keywords and phrases it uses to monitor social networking sites and online media for signs of terrorist or other threats against the U.S.

The intriguing the list includes obvious choices such as 'attack', 'Al Qaeda', 'terrorism' and 'dirty bomb' alongside dozens of seemingly innocent words like 'pork', 'cloud', 'team' and 'Mexico'.

Released under a freedom of information request, the information sheds new light on how government analysts are instructed to patrol the internet searching for domestic and external threats.

The words are included in the department's 2011 'Analyst's Desktop Binder' used by workers at their National Operations Center which instructs workers to identify 'media reports that reflect adversely on DHS and response activities'.

Department chiefs were forced to release the manual following a House hearing over documents obtained through a Freedom of Information Act lawsuit which revealed how analysts monitor social networks and media organisations for comments that 'reflect adversely' on the government.

However they insisted the practice was aimed not at policing the internet for disparaging remarks about the government and signs of general dissent, but to provide awareness of any potential threats.

As well as terrorism, analysts are instructed to search for evidence of unfolding natural disasters, public health threats and serious crimes such as mall/school shootings, major drug busts, illegal immigrant busts.

The list has been posted online by the Electronic Privacy Information Center - a privacy watchdog group who filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act before suing to obtain the release of the documents.

In a letter to the House Homeland Security Subcommittee on Counter-terrorism and Intelligence, the centre described the choice of words as 'broad, vague and ambiguous'.

President Obama has signed 23 executive orders designed to address the problem of gun violence in America. The following are the items addressed:

Gun Violence Reduction Executive Actions:

1. Issue a Presidential Memorandum to require federal agencies to make relevant data available to the federal background check system.

2. Address unnecessary legal barriers, particularly relating to the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act, that may prevent states from making information available to the background check system.

3. Improve incentives for states to share information with the background check system.

Parents are often asked by their children to solve unsolvable problems. When woken by nightmares, my daughter seeks reassurance that bad dreams won't return when she closes her eyes again. I offer a fresh pillow, inviting her to think that somehow it will foster only happy visions.

If I cajoled them to, my kids could scratch out some tear-jerking pleas for the President to put an end to nightmares, lost stuffed animals, and illnesses of all kinds. Yet that really shouldn't be the impetuous for nation-altering legislation. Grown-ups - including politicians - may have a duty to offer children reassurance after a trauma, but we cannot pretend that we have the power to wipe bad things out of existence.

Using children's pleas to end violence is about the most grotesque rhetorical tool available to politicians. Our natural instincts are to want to shield children from life's pain. Yet fixating on our desperate desire to protect children from harm distracts from the truly important, adult business of assessing what solutions are actually available.

There have been various instances this past year of politicians saying confusing things about abortion. Often, we're left in disbelief over the blatant invalidity of their claims. Now we can add to the list a statement by Rep. Ron Mendive of Couer d'Alene, Idaho.

During a legislative breakfast meeting, the Republican lawmaker shocked everyone when he asked the Idaho chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union if their pro-abortion stance also meant they were supporters of prostitution.

According to the Couer d'Alene Press, Mendive said:

"I think that there's kind of a double standard...with abortion there are two beating hearts, and prostitution, there's just one. If a woman were going to make a choice to be a prostitute, that's her decision as to what to do with her body."

This month will see a number of patients sentenced, sent to prison despite compliance with state medical marijuana laws

Fallout from the Obama Administration's aggressive federal enforcement in medical marijuana states has reached a fever pitch this month with three people being sentenced, two others due to surrender to federal authorities to serve out sentences of up to five years in prison, and one federal trial in Montana currently scheduled for January 14th. Two of the three people being sentenced in the coming month -- Montana cultivator Chris Williams and Los Angeles-area dispensary operator Aaron Sandusky -- face five and ten years to life, respectively.

"The number of sick patients being locked up by the Obama Administration is unprecedented and deplorable," said Kris Hermes, spokesperson for Americans for Safe Access, the country's leading medical marijuana advocacy organization. "Aggressive enforcement is an unacceptable means of addressing medical marijuana as a public health issue," continued Hermes. "The Obama Administration is lying to the American people when it says it's not targeting individual patients and these cases are clear evidence of that." Montana patient cultivator Richard Flor died in August while serving out a 5-year prison sentence.

The beleaguered government of Mariano Rajoy has been embarrassed by revelations that its party's former treasurer had a bank account in Switzerland containing up to €22 million.

Luis Bárcenas held the treasury post in the conservative Partido Popular (PP) from 2008 until 2009, when he resigned because of an investigation into his part in a massive fraud network. He stepped down from the party in 2010.

The inquiry into that case continues and information a Spanish judge has requested from Swiss authorities shows details of an account held under the politician's name which coincides with the time he was managing the PP's finances.

The data shows Mr Bárcenas kept an average of €15 million in the account, which was open between 2005 and 2009. In 2007 it contained just over €22 million.

The PP's deputy leader, María Dolores de Cospedal, hinted yesterday at the concern within the party's leadership. "Of course this will cause outrage, how can it not? I'm outraged by it," she said.

However, she sought to distant the government from Mr Bárcenas by highlighting that he was no longer in the PP.

The Justice Department rarely checks references for potential law-enforcement hires as recommended by official groups that oversee personnel practices, according to a report released Thursday by the agency's inspector general.

The Office of Personnel Management and the Merit Systems Protection Board encourage all government agencies to use reference checks whenever selecting new employees, the report said.

Inspector General Michael E. Horowitz found that the Justice Department only requires the verification procedure for new attorney applicants. Even then, not all divisions within the agency follow protocol, the report said.

Only three out of 39 divisions have created written policies that provide clear reference-checking guidance for hiring officials, according to the analysis.

The inspector general noted that some hiring officials "are simply not bothering to check references," concluding that inconsistencies within the department's practices "create risk that components are not uniformly and thoroughly screening applicants."

No doubt, Whole Foods has played a key role in propelling organic foods into the mainstream. The specialty supermarket chain has more than 300 stores and plans to continue expanding. But Mackey is not the crunchy granola liberal one might conjure while perusing aisles of earnestly labeled blue corn chips and gently misted red peppers.

He's a self-styled libertarian: a vegan who sells sustainably raised meat, a man who compares the government's health care overhaul to "fascism" but wants to improve American diets.

And he thinks big businesses have an obligation to change customers' perception that big corporations are "primarily selfish and greedy." (Not that he's opposed to profits. In fact, Whole Foods posted a 49 percent boost in quarterly earnings in November.)

Mackey sat down with Inskeep to discuss his philosophy and the new book he co-authored, Conscious Capitalism.