Twenty-one countries, including US allies France and Mexico, have now joined talks to hammer out a UN resolution that would condemn “indiscriminate” and “extra-territorial” surveillance, and ensure “independent oversight” of electronic monitoring.

On the FDA Voice blog, Daniel McChesney, Ph.D. explains that the proposed new regulations would "require facility owners to have a food safety plan and to have controls in place to minimize any potential hazards."

This makes sense to me. Remember, our own store engages in food packaging, and we have already undergone USDA organic certification, FDA inspections and county-level health department inspections. I am not opposed to any of these because if we are going to have a relatively safe supply of foods in this country, we do need some fundamental standards to be enforced among those who manufacture and package foods.
 

Hundreds are marching on the National Mall in Washington, DC to protest covert NSA surveillance operations on the anniversary of the Patriot Act. The organizers are planning to present Congress with a petition which has acquired over 570,000 signatures.

Stop Watching Us is a collective of 100 public advocacy groups, among them the American Civil Liberties Union, Freedom Works, as well as individuals like Chinese artist/activist Ai Weiwei and Glenn Greenwald, the journalist who worked with Edward Snowden to expose many of the NSA’s surveillance procedures. The rally is scheduled to begin at 11:30 am local time on October 26 – the 12th anniversary of the US Patriot Act.

More on: http://rt.com/usa/nsa-rally-mass-surveillance-786/

  http://goldenageofgaia.com/2013/10/eastern-europe-rampant-corruption-massive-protests/

http://tinyurl.com/m4gghl4

It’s the “Wild East” of the European Union. Here nationalism, cronyism, anti-Semitism, anti-Roma racism and corruption — above all corruption — strut and dominate the public arena.

Where to begin?

Perhaps in the Czech Republic. They’re holding parliamentary elections on the weekend. The reason? The Czech government collapsed because the prime minister, Petr Nečas, was forced to resign.

His senior aide, who was also his lover and is now his wife, had ordered the country’s security services to spy on the prime minister’s then wife and report back. The aide wanted to push through a speedy divorce.

Then there’s Romania where large street demonstrations against corruption are the order of the week, the month, the year, not to mention last year and the year before.

The demonstrations have brought down ministers and governments without ending the problem.

■Police end protesters siege of Bulgarian parliament

■Canadian gold mine project in Romania could go to referendum

The documents leaked to media outlets by former NSA contractor Edward Snowden this year have brought national intelligence gathering and surveillance operations under a level of scrutiny not seen in decades. Often left out of this conversation, though, is the massive private surveillance industry that provides services to law enforcement, defense agencies and corporations in the U.S. and abroad – a sprawling constellation of companies and municipalities. "It's a circle where everyone [in these industries] is benefitting," says Eric King, lead researcher of watchdog group Privacy International. "Everyone gets more powerful, and richer."