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Gunman and Victim Identified in Ottawa Shooting

One of the two people killed in the shootout in Ottawa this morning has been identified by the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC) as Nathan Cirillo, a 24-year old Canadian soldier from Hamilton.

Ottawa police had confirmed at a press conference earlier this afternoon that two people died in the incidents early today, but did not identify either, only saying that a soldier had been killed and “a male suspect has also been confirmed deceased.”

US officials later told CBS News the name of the dead Ottawa shooting suspect is Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, a Canadian born in 1982.

After Latest Blunder, Privacy Watchdog Chief Calls Uber ‘Out of Control’

At a private dinner Friday night, Emil Michael, Uber’s senior vice president of business, suggested that the company should hire a team of journalists and opposition researchers to counter bad press and even attack members of the media that criticize the company.

Michael, who previously worked for Klout, the website and mobile app that uses social media analytics to rank users according to online social influence, suggested spending “a million dollars” on this team, which would look into “your personal lives, your families.” Michael made the statements in front of a crowd of influential New Yorkers at Manhattan’s Waverly Inn last week.

Michael specifically mentioned that such a plan could be used to spread personal details about the life of Sarah Lacy, the editor-in-chief of PandoDaily, a Silicon Valley website whose coverage of Uber has been far from positive.

A Law Designed to Target Coke Lords Is Screwing Over Legal Pot Companies

Voters in Oregon, Alaska, and Washington, D.C. headed to the polls Tuesday to decide whether to legalize sales of recreational marijuana.

But would-be weed entrepreneurs in the states might be disappointed to learn that a federal tax law designed to target coke lords in the ’80s is eating into the profits of legal pot merchants across the country.

“This is one of the most critical issues facing the industry today because it directly affects the bottom line of anyone who cultivates or sells medical or recreational marijuana,” said Taylor West, deputy director of the National Cannabis Industry Association, an association of more than 750 cannabis-related businesses across the United States. “It results in businesses paying effective tax rates of 70 to 85 percent when they should be only paying 30 or 40 percent.

Islamic State Video Is Latest in Worldwide Propaganda War

The Islamic State’s media machine took to the web again on Tuesday with the release of a high-production Hollywood-style trailer for an upcoming movie entitled Flames of War.

The 52-second clip was issued in response to President Barack Obama’s vow to “degrade and ultimately destroy [the Islamic State],” and shows flames engulfing footage of the White House and Obama, as well as images of US forces in Iraq — despite Obama ruling out putting “boots on the ground” last week.

US Airstrikes Target the Islamic State’s Seized Syrian Oilfields

At least 19 people were killed on the third day of a US-led air campaign targeting the Islamic State in Syria. Strikes focused on one of the group’s main revenue streams — the region’s captured oil fields.

Activists say that the attacks, made by the US along with five Arab allies, led to the release at least 150 people from a prison in their powerbase of Raqqa in northern Syria, as the militant group feared more strikes, according to the Associated Press.

At least 14 militants were killed in the attacks, which hit four oil installations and three oil fields near the town of Mayadeen in the east of the country. This information came from the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), which gathers reports from a network of activists on the ground, and was confirmed by two local activist groups.

Venezuelan Government Announces Disarmament Plan — Again

Venezuelan President Nicolás Maduro launched a nationwide disarmament program in Caracas over the weekend as the head of state tried to cap the alarming rates of violence endemic in his country, which has the second-highest homicide rate in the world behind Honduras.

The plan, announced on September 20 — International Day of Peace — will see the Venezuelan government establish a $47 million fund to help establish 60 centers where citizens can voluntarily surrender their firearms.

Despite passing a law last June to restrict gun sales only to members of the military and security forces, effectively outlawing civilian possession of guns ­— being caught with a firearm in Venezuela can land you with up to 20 years in prison — firearms are still a major cause of death in the country.

Historic California Rape Law Tells College Campuses: ‘Yes Means Yes’

California has enacted a historic law that forces the state’s colleges to adopt a policy of unambiguous, affirmative consent by students engaged in sexual activity.

State lawmakers approved the so-called “Yes Means Yes” law last month, and Governor Jerry Brown signed it Sunday. The state is the first to pass a law that makes affirmative consent central to school sexual assault policies.

“I don’t think there are words to describe how monumental this is for survivors of sexual assault — female, male or otherwise,” Savannah Badalich, a student at University of California, Los Angles (UCLA) and the founder of the group 7,000 in Solidarity, told VICE News.

The US Navy Is Developing ‘Drone Gunboats’ for Naval Warfare

Robots are no strangers to warfare nowadays. They are regularly used for dangerous battlefield jobs such as surveillance, explosives detection, and air strikes, and, as VICE News reported last week, they are now even used to hunt naval mines from the air. Their utility seemingly knows no bounds, and the US Navy has now revealed a plan that seemingly takes the technology even further into the future.

On Sunday, the Office of Naval Research (ONR) announced the addition of “drone gunboats” to the US military’s growing family of militarized robots. Developed using existing NASA technology, the robo-boats could be deployed within the year to protect bigger ships or to swarm an enemy with kamikaze-like coordinated attacks.

The program was partly prompted by the 2000 attack on the destroyer USS Cole by al Qaeda. In the attack, suicide bombers drove a boat laden with explosives into the hull of the guided-missile destroyer as it refueled in the Yemeni port of Aden, killing 17 US sailors.

North Korean Officials Reportedly Purged for Watching Soap Operas

North Korean leader Kim Jong-un recently executed 10 officials for watching soap operas, according to South Korea’s state news agency.

Yonhap News — which is known for having an anti-North Korean bias — reported Tuesday that 10 officials from the Workers’ Party of Korea were executed by firing squad on charges of corruption, watching South Korean soap operas, and other offenses. The report did not specify when the alleged executions took place.

Yonhap cited two South Korean lawmakers who attended a closed parliamentary audit of the National Intelligence Service, the main South Korean spy agency.

North Korea to Become First Country to Shut Borders over Ebola Fear

North Korea will be the first country in the world to shut their borders over fear of the spread of Ebola despite no reported cases of the virus in the reclusive country.

On Friday the Hermit Kingdom will bar entry to foreigners on tourist trips, although it is still unclear if the travel ban would affect members of the diplomatic or business community with ties to Pyongyang.

International travel to North Korea is rare but the country has a track record of sealing its border to foreign visitors over health concerns. In 2003 the country closed its borders because of the threat of SARS, despite not a single case being reported there.