Mozilla, the non-profit group that created the Firefox web browser, has said it plans to allow its 450 million users to block the internet tracking that allows third parties to monitor their movements online. When the plans were first mooted in February, one advertising executive reportedly described them as “a nuclear first strike” against the advertising industry. Tracking allows firms to follow a user's tastes and target them with appropriate online ads.

Google has asked the US Foreign Intelligence Surveillance (FISA) court to allow it to publish details of the number of data requests made by a secretive body, invoking the first amendment in a legal challenge that is aimed at easing concern among users following recent revelations regarding the activities of the National Security Agency.

What made the whistleblower give up his Hawaiian idyll?

Apple shows a dip in popularity among under-30s

A report on the conflict in Syria by the European Council for Foreign Relations argues two things: one, arming the rebels will only make the situation worse; two, Iran needs to be brought into diplomatic discussions. Donald Macintyre backs the report in today's column for Independent Voices. There is anything but consensus on the issue however, as these pieces from the Financial Times and Washington Post illustrate.

Obama promised to close Guantanamo on his ride to office in 2008. Four years in the White House saw little progress; with blame laid partly at the feet of Congress and partly the President's own slackness. Now he's taking a second run at the notorious Cuban prison-camp, where 100 of the 166 detainees are currently on hunger strike. Here's how the editorial writers at the New York Times and Washington Post responded.

The US authorities confirmed yesterday that nearly 300 people were injured in the Boston Marathon bombings. The news came on the day the surviving suspect was said to have indicated that he and his dead elder brother had acted alone, not in concert with an international terrorist group, and that they were motivated by US military action in Iraq and Afghanistan.

The former president makes a comeback – but is America ready to reconsider his legacy?

Barack Obama is to forgo 5 per cent of his official salary in a move designed to show common cause with government workers hit by the so-called sequestration – budget cuts that are eliminating overtime for some and forcing others to take an unpaid leave of absence.

Global austerity means that local councils and town mayors are having to cut their coats according to their cloth.

Call-girl withdraws allegations after admitting she was paid to make it all up claims New Jersey Democrat in clear over sex orgy scandal but is still under investigation

The proposed creation of a pipeline - the Keystone XL - to carry oil from Canada into America has become a rallying point for US environmentalists. They argue it will damage wildlife and prolong America's dependence on fossil fuels. But a State Department draft report released Friday stated: "there would be no significant impacts to most resources along the proposed project route." Here's a selection of the American media's response.

A Republican stalwart, now 80, has owned up to a 1970s liaison with the daughter of a colleague

Out of America: US sports teams are dropping Native Indian-inspired names that are viewed as racist