China, U.S. Spar Over Intelligence Leaker Snowden
Officials from China and the United States have sharply disagreed over Beijing's handling of the fugitive U.S. spy agency contractor Edward Snowden. U.S. Deputy Secretary of State William Burns said Washington was "very disappointed" that China had not sent Snowden back from Hong Kong to the United States where Snowden is wanted for leaking details of secret U.S. surveillance programs.

Obama, Putin Discuss Snowden Case
U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin have discussed by telephone the case of fugitive American intelligence leaker Edward Snowden. No details about the call were immediately released.

Keeping the Internet Free
Joe Pitts
Just a few weeks ago, the Syrian government shut down the Internet nationwide during a military push against rebel forces that appear to be making progress. While service is back, it is obvious that Bashar Assad’s government has the power to take it down again. As the Chinese Communist Party transferred power, Google reported a sudden drop in Internet traffic. Gmail was down for most Chinese citizens.

South Korean singer Psy Apologizes For Decade-Old Anti-American Acts
South Korean singer Psy, famed for his viral video song "Gangnam Style," has apologized for anti-American performances a decade ago. Psy made the apology on December 8, ahead of his expected participation in an upcoming concert before U.S. President Barack Obama in Washington.

The Internet Revolution is a Liberty Revolution
Ron Paul
Until the late 1990s, individuals interested in Austrian economics, U.S. constitutional history, and libertarian philosophy had few sources of information. They had to spend hours scouring used book stores or the back pages of obscure libertarian periodicals to find the great works of Mises, Rothbard, Hayek, and other giants of liberty. Local library and university collections ignored libertarian politics and economics.

PR or Propaganda?
Joe Pitts
PRWeek, the public relations magazine, recently reported that the Department of Health and Human Services just signed a $20 million contract with PR firm Porter Novelli to promote the President’s health care law. It’s not the first time the administration has spent taxpayer money to promote the law. You might remember a series of advertisements shortly after passage of the Affordable Care Act that featured Andy Griffith.

Freedom of Speech Under Attack by Palestinian Authority
Despite previous promises to uphold freedom of speech, the Palestinian Authority has recently arrested or interrogated almost a dozen journalists and bloggers in addition to blocking Palestinian news websites critical of President Mahmoud Abbas. On Tuesday, the Palestinian General Intelligence Service detained Shadi Zamara, a young journalist and blogger.

First Extra-Biblical Evidence That Bethlehem Dates From First Temple Era
Sifting the City of David soil, archaeologists recently discovered a 1.5 cm bulla, or piece of clay for sealing a document or object, containing three lines of ancient Hebrew script, including the words: Bishv'at ("in the 7th"), Bet Lechem ("Bethlehem") and [Lemel]ekh (to/for the king")."

Year In Review: Highlights In Science And Technology
The most intriguing breakthrough in the world of science this past year may have taken place in a 27-kilometer-long tunnel deep below the border of Switzerland and France. That's where researchers at the European Organization for Nuclear Research (CERN) say they moved one possible step closer to solving one of the universe's greatest mysteries.

Internet TV Channel Challenges Kremlin’s Information Monopoly
It was a familiar scenario. A Kremlin-linked website posts embarrassing wiretaps of a prominent opposition figure's phone calls in an apparent effort to discredit him and to dispirit the regime's critics. But this time the story went way off script. Less than 24 hours after the website Lifenews.ru posted recordings of Boris Nemtsov's phone calls -- in which he referred to fellow oppositionist Yevgenia Chirikova as a "bitch or an idiot" -- the two appeared together in a television studio to make up before the public.

Kyrgyz Mosques Under Greater Scrutiny As Ties Between Islam, Extremism Emerge
Even as the Kyrgyz city of Osh was racked by interethnic violence last year, its mosques were seen as a symbol of unity. But the role of the mosques may change as Islamic leaders seek to bring them under stricter central control.

Authoritarian Governments Have Immensely Benefited From The Web
Evgeny Morozov, a noted specialist on the use of new communications technologies to promote democratic values, has a new book titled "The Net Delusion: The Dark Side Of Internet Freedom." In it, he argues that hype about "Twitter revolutions" and the enormous potential of the Internet to promote open societies and roll back authoritarianism is naive and overblown.

Democracies Confront Their Own Growing Censorship Tendencies
Arch Puddington
The murders of journalists in Russia, the jailing of bloggers in China, and the crackdown on the media in Iran regularly remind us that freedom of expression is under duress, even in an era of expanding global communications. However, considerably less attention has been paid to a new, more insidious threat to this fundamental human right.