Are you ready to have your veins scanned every time you use your bank account? Are you ready to use a "digital tattoo" or a microchip implant to unlock your telephone? Once upon a time we read about such technologies in science fiction novels, but now they are here. The era of widespread biometric identification and microchip implants is upon us, and it is going to change the way that we live.

Proponents of these new technologies say that they will make our private information and our bank accounts much more secure. But there are others that warn that these kinds of "Big Brother technologies" will set the stage for even more government intrusion into our lives. In the wrong hands, such technologies could prove to be an absolute nightmare.

Barclays has just announced that it is going to become the first major bank in the western world to use vein scanning technology to control access to bank accounts.

A powerful explosion heard from kilometres away has rocked a chemical plant near Bremen, in northern Germany. Several people have reportedly been injured while the plant buildings sustained "serious damage," first responders say.

More than 300 firefighters have been called in to battle the explosion and massive fire at the Bergolin company plant in Ritterhude, a city north of Bremen with a population of 15,000. The plant reportedly produces primarily industrial coatings.

picture of a hat Explosion in Bremen Germany 09.09.14 pic.twitter.com/HKQQk48aqT
- Marco Wegener (@wegener0815) September 9, 2014

The explosion was heard several kilometres away, a spokesperson for the local police department told the Bild newspaper. Several plant buildings were on fire and one factory employee has been reported missing from the scene of the accident.

Authorities have supported and will continue to support all Russian companies - both state and private - hit by Western sanctions regardless of the reasons why they were targeted, Russia's prime minister has said.

"It is the government's responsibility - to protect Russian businesses should they face unfair and unlawful actions by foreign states or foreign companies," PM Dmitry Medvedev said in a Tuesday meeting with the chief executive and co-owner of Novatek Leonid Mikhelson.

"This is definitely a violation of international law, not based on anything," the prime minister added.

Novatek is the largest independent natural gas producer in Russia. In July, the United States imposed sanctions against the company and its other co-owner, Gennady Timchenko. Currently Novatek is leading the Yamal-LNG project which is estimated to cost $27 billion. On Tuesday the prime minister said Moscow will "respond asymmetrically" should the EU impose a fresh round of sanctions, warning that Russia may shut its air corridors to Western airlines.

CPJ launches anti-surveillance campaign

NEW YORK, NY - Revelations about surveillance, intimidation, and exploitation of the press have raised unsettling questions about whether the U.S. and other Western democracies risk undermining journalists' ability to report in the digital age. They also give ammunition to repressive governments seeking to tighten restrictions on media and the Internet. To combat these trends, the Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ) today along with more than 45 supporting partners including The Associated Press, Getty Images, Bloomberg News, The Huffington Post, First Look Media, Slate, Global Voices Advocacy, and the Electronic Frontier Foundation launched the campaign "Right to Report in the Digital Age."

"When journalists believe they might be targeted by government surveillance systems, pulled into an overbroad criminal investigation, or searched and interrogated about their work at the U.S. border, their ability to inform the public is eroded," said CPJ Advocacy Director Courtney Radsch. "So too is the U.S. government's credibility on key issues such as press freedom and other human rights, Internet governance, and the rule of law."

Despite arguments to the contrary from the Obama administration, mounting evidence suggests that the U.S. economy is rapidly falling back into negative growth territory. More Americans are out of the workforce than ever before, median household incomes are at levels not seen since 1967, and consumer spending is coming to a veritable standstill. The crisis is apparently so significant that a Federal Reserve governor recently said U.S. policymakers are crafting regulations that will force bank depositors to cover any losses should their financial institutions fail.

The question that many are asking is, how did this happen? How, after six years of recovery efforts and trillions of dollars printed, is it possible that the economy is not booming again?

This week the Federal Reserve published a report that claims to have figured it out and it turns out that the renewed economic downturn has nothing to do with foreign outsourcing, high taxation, increased health care costs for business or rising consumer prices for food and energy.

No, according to the Fed it is your fault. Apparently, you are not spending enough money. In order for the economy to recover you need to stop hoarding cash now and get out there and start buying more homes, cars, vacations, and electronics. Otherwise, you'll only have yourself to blame when the system comes unhinged.

"Police are specialists in violence. They are armed, trained, and authorized to use force. With varying degrees of subtlety, this colors their every action. Like the possibility of arrest, the threat of violence is implicit in every police encounter. Violence, as well as the law, is what they represent." - Kristian Williams, activist and author

If you don't want to get probed, poked, pinched, tasered, tackled, searched, seized, stripped, manhandled, arrested, shot, or killed, don't say, do or even suggest anything that even hints of noncompliance. This is the new "thin blue line" over which you must not cross in interactions with police if you want to walk away with your life and freedoms intact.

The following incidents and many more like them serve as chilling reminders that in the American police state, "we the people" are at the mercy of law enforcement officers who have almost absolute discretion to decide who is a threat, what constitutes resistance, and how harshly they can deal with the citizens they were appointed to "serve and protect."

For example, police arrested Chaumtoli Huq because she failed to promptly comply when ordered to "move along" while waiting outside a Ruby Tuesday's restaurant for her children, who were inside with their father, using the bathroom. NYPD officers grabbed Huq, a lawyer with the New York City Public Advocate's office, flipped her around, pressed her against a wall, handcuffed her, searched her purse, arrested her, and told her to "shut up" when she cried out for help, before detaining her for nine hours. Huq was charged with obstructing governmental administration, resisting arrest and disorderly conduct.

Oregon resident Fred Marlow was jailed and charged with interfering and resisting arrest after he filmed a SWAT team raid that took place across the street from his apartment and uploaded the footage to the internet. The footage shows police officers threatening Marlow, who was awoken by the sounds of "multiple bombs blasting and glass breaking" and ran outside to investigate only to be threatened with arrest if he didn't follow orders and return inside.

A former Republican candidate for county commission in North Carolina has surrendered to police after being accused of raping a child.

The Independent Tribune reported that former Cabarrus County commissioner candidate Chad Nevada Mockerman, 39, turned himself in to police at around noon on Friday.

Mockerman was charged with statutory rape and taking indecent liberties with a minor.

Concord Police said that on August 17 Mockerman's ex-wife had informed them that he had sex with a child younger than 16 in June of 2012. The couple finalized their divorce on Friday, the same day that Mockerman was taken into custody.

An article in the The Herald Weekly explained how Mockerman enlisted "a local band, child dancers and family members" when he proposed to his then-current girlfriend on Aug. 9.

"I always thought Amanda was beautiful, but what makes me always desire her is her level of intelligence and how interesting she is," Mockerman told the paper. "I love how she let's me be me. She just takes me for who I am."

Mockerman came in last place with 3 percent of the vote in his bid for the Cabarrus County Board of Commissioners earlier this year.

The cross-border 'Five Eyes' agreement that authorizes the sharing of intelligence between Britain, America, Australia, Canada and New Zealand should be made transparent, according to an appeal launched at the European Court of Human Rights.

The secret Five Eyes spy pact allegedly outlines UK security services' collaboration with the National Security Agency (NSA) and other foreign intelligence agencies. In an effort to shed light on the agreement, Privacy International (PI) issued a legal challenge against the British government in the Strasbourg-based court. The application was filed by UK law firm Leigh Day & Co Solicitors.

The move is the most recent of a series of legal challenges stemming from revelations unveiled by American whistleblower and former NSA computer analyst Edward Snowden. The legal ploy, which came into effect on Tuesday, was orchestrated in the hope of forcing the UK government to publish details of its surveillance practices at home and abroad.

Renowned for its surveillance-related research and advocacy, PI warns the clandestine Five Eyes agreement has a profound impact on human rights in Britain and elsewhere. By failing to disclose the spy pact's details, the UK government is violating the right of British citizens to access vital information that impinges directly on their rights, the group warns.

The Palestine Solidarity Campaign urged Gaza supporters to call on MPs to take action for Palestinian human rights and to demand an end to the blockade of Gaza.

The group announced hundreds of supporters would gather at the Parliament "to call on MPs to take action for Palestinian human rights and against ethnic cleansing and racism."

Following the lobby, a mass rally will be held at the House of Commons in London later on Tuesday.

They will demand free movement for all people, goods and humanitarian aid in Gaza, an end to the arms trade and all military-industrial collaboration with Israel, and "sanctions against Israel until they abide by international and human rights law."

The ongoing blockade of Gaza began in 2007, with Israel saying it was a security measure taken in response to the Battle of Gaza, in which Hamas militarily defeated Fatah.

Vladimir Putin's most important accomplishments as president are successful foreign policy, the growing military strength, and the general improvement of living conditions in the country, according to the latest opinion poll.

The independent Levada Center released the poll on Tuesday. The strengthening of Russia's position on the international stage is Vladimir Putin's most important success according to 30 percent of those responding. The number has increased from 26 percent in 2008, and 19 percent in 2004.

Maintaining political stability in the country ranked second with 29 percent of people saying it is Putin's primary achievement, and almost the same share of respondents - 28 percent - say it is the reform of the Russian military and the general strengthening of the nation's defense capability.

About a quarter of Russians value most the improvement in living standards and the growing incomes of ordinary people, and a similar number say that with Putin as a leader they feel growing optimism.