On February 5, 2011, the US and Russia formally inaugurated the New START [PDF], which is an agreement intended to reduce the nuclear arms stockpile in both countries. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov exchanged documents in Munich that finalized two years of negotiations and marked the entering into force of the treaty. Russian President Dmitri Medvedev signed a bill ratifying the treaty in January 2011 and US President Barack Obama signed ratification documents for the treaty shortly before the treaty entered into force in February 2011. Barack Obama and Dmitri Medvedev at the New START signing in April 2010 Learn more about the
On February 5, 2010, the German Federal Court of Justice ruled that police in Germany were not permitted to secretly access computer and Internet data stored on criminal suspects' computers without proper authorization. The Court held that police hacking is illegal because no legal framework currently exists to legitimize the activity. The practice was reportedly used by German police to investigate alleged sex offenders and their viewing of Internet child pornography. The issues of hacking and privacy have been of particular concern in Europe in light of the UK phone hacking scandal in July 2011 and subsequent investigations by UK Lord Justice Brian Leveson. Flag of Germany Learn more about