WASHINGTON — The U.S. is tracking a suspected Chinese surveillance balloon that has been spotted over U.S. airspace for a couple days, but the Pentagon decided not to shoot it down due to risks of harm for people on the ground, officials said Thursday. The discovery of the balloon puts...
Videos Show Fatal Stabbing on California Subway Platform
OAKLAND — More than a year after a young woman was stabbed to death by a stranger on a California subway platform, jurors deciding the fate of the accused killer saw on Wednesday video of the horrific attack. The surveillance video showed a man pull a kitchen knife from his...
Rare Video Shows 5 Mountain Lions Together in California
JACKSON — Five California mountain lions were seen together on home surveillance video in a rare gathering of the notoriously solitary big cats. The footage was recorded at a rural residence at the edge of the El Dorado National Forest east of Sacramento, KTXL-TV reported Wednesday. “We shared the videos and photos with several...
CES Gadget Show: Flying Taxis, Toilet Paper Robots and More
LAS VEGAS — Flying taxis and a robot that can fetch toilet paper when you're stranded on the loo were among the technologies showcased this week at the annual CES gadget show in Las Vegas. The annual technology conference is the place for big brands and startups alike to unveil their products...
Report: Popular Chat App a Spy Tool for Mideast Government
NEW YORK — A chat app that quickly became popular in the United Arab Emirates for communicating with friends and family is actually a spying tool used by the government to track its users, according to a newspaper report. The government uses ToTok to track conversations, locations, images and other...
US Takes Step to Require DNA Samples From Asylum-Seekers
WASHINGTON — The Trump administration is planning to collect DNA samples from asylum-seekers and other migrants detained by immigration officials and will add the information to a massive FBI database used by law enforcement hunting for criminals, a Justice Department official said. The Justice Department on Monday issued amended regulations...
Can AI-Powered Cameras Thwart Mass Shooters?
Paul Hildreth peered at a display of dozens of images from security cameras surveying his Atlanta school district and settled on one showing a woman in a bright yellow shirt walking a hallway. A mouse click instructed the artificial intelligence-equipped system to find other images of the woman, and it...
Sketch of Suspect Released in California Campus Slaying
FULLERTON — Police on Tuesday released a sketch and surveillance images of a suspect in the stabbing death of a retired college administrator at California State University, Fullerton. Authorities were trying to identify the man a day after Steven Shek Keung Chan, the university's former budget and finance director, was...
Edward Snowden Book Coming Out Sept. 17
NEW YORK — Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden has written a memoir. The book by the man whose leaks of classified documents transformed the debate about government surveillance is coming out Sept. 17. Metropolitan Books, an imprint of Macmillan Publishers, announced Thursday that Snowden's "Permanent Record" will be...
Fast-Growing Web of Doorbell Cams Raises Privacy Fears
The woodsy community of Wolcott, Connecticut, doesn't see a lot of crime. But when the police chief heard about an opportunity to distribute doorbell cameras to some homes, he didn't hesitate. The police who keep watch over the town of 16,000 raffled off free cameras in a partnership with the...