Chances are, your local or state police departments have photographs of your car in their files, noting where you were driving on a particular day, even if you never did anything wrong.

Using automated scanners, law enforcement agencies across the country have amassed millions of digital records on the location and movement of every vehicle with a license plate, according to a study published Wednesday by the American Civil Liberties Union. 

Affixed to police cars, bridges or buildings, the scanners capture images of passing or parked vehicles and note their location, uploading that information into police databases. Departments keep the records for weeks or years, sometimes indefinitely.

Benjamin Netanyahu has vowed to stage the first referendum in Israel's 65-year history to give voters the final say on any peace agreement reached with the Palestinians.  The pledge came as Israeli and Palestinian negotiators prepare to hold their first direct talks in three years at a meeting in Washington in the coming week. 

John Kerry, the US secretary of state, announced last Friday that he had secured a tentative agreement to renew negotiations - prompting a chorus of criticism from Right-wingers in Mr Netanyahu's coalition who are implacably opposed to a Palestinian state. 

Mr Netanyahu, Israel's prime minister told a weekly cabinet meeting on Sunday that a decision on ending the historic conflict with the Palestinians was too important to be decided by the government alone. 

"It will be put to a referendum," he said "I believe that this is necessary. I do not think that such decisions can be made, if indeed an agreement is achieved, by this or that coalition process; it must be put to the people for a decision." 

Imagine a world where your debit card stays in your pocket at all times, and you never have to touch cash. This is a place where you don't have to remember your wallet, or even phone, when you run down to the corner store. It's a future well off in the distance, to be sure, but dozens of companies are taking the first steps to get there. 

You probably already know about payment systems like Google Wallet, which can use NFC technology to let you check out with the swipe of a smartphone. There are also services that use geo-fencing to register when you've walked into a store and when you walk out. The latest fad, however, doesn't require any extra equipment at all-at least none you'd be carrying around. You just need your face. It's a big, crazy step. But also one we have the tools to start working toward. 

At present, there's a small slew of companies using facial recognition software to handle all kinds of transactions. The work they're doing has the potential to completely change your daily life, and scare the underpants off of privacy advocates. But companies like Uniqul are mostly counting on the former. This Finnish start-up is on a mission with the stated purpose to create "the world's fastest payment system," and this week they launched a novel payments system based on facial recognition. 

The General Assembly of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) met in Orlando, Fla., this week and voted on a resolution that will embrace sexual orientation and gender identity as specially affirmed categories within the church.

According to a statement, the resolution also affirms the "faith, baptism and spiritual gifts of all Christians regardless of their sexual orientation or gender identity" and states that neither is "grounds for exclusion from fellowship or service within the church."

Williams told CP that the church allows openly gay individuals to serve in leadership roles, however, there are some churches within their council that "would have a problem with that."

You can ditch your computer and leave your cellphone at home, but you can't escape your DNA. It belongs uniquely to you - and, increasingly, to the authorities.

Countries around the world are collecting genetic material from millions of citizens in the name of fighting crime and terrorism - and, according to critics, heading into uncharted ethical terrain.

The expanding trove of DNA in official hands has alarmed privacy campaigners, and some scientists. Recent leaks about U.S. surveillance programs by former NSA systems analyst Edward Snowden have made people realize their online information and electronic communications may not be as secure as they thought. 

Could the same be true of the information we hold within our genes? DNA samples that can help solve robberies and murders could also, in theory, be used to track down our relatives, scan us for susceptibility to disease, or monitor our movements.

Earlier this year Yaniv Erlich, who runs a lab at MIT's Whitehead Institute for Biomedical Research, published a paper in the journal Science describing how he was able to identify individuals, and their families, from anonymous DNA data in a research project. All it took was a computer algorithm, a genetic genealogy website and searches of publicly available Internet records.

As Secretary of State John Kerry pushes full steam ahead to try to bring the Israelis and Palestinian back to the negotiation table, a new video is casting doubt regarding true Palestinian intentions and tactics. Palestinian Authority Minister of Religious Affairs Mahmoud Al-Habbash in an on-camera sermon on Friday hinted any peace deal secured would secretly be only a short-term arrangement by comparing it to a truce the Muslim prophet Mohammed negotiated but broke two years later.

This is just the latest example of Palestinian leaders discussing their stepwise plan to liberate Palestine from the "river to the sea," starting with the late Palestinian Authority President Yasser Arafat.

At the Friday Ramadan services, which were attended by Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas and broadcast on Palestinian television, Habbash explained to Muslim worshipers that Palestinian Authority officials "only through the wisdom of the leadership, conscious action, consideration, and walking the right path" are headed toward "achievement, exactly like the Prophet [Mohammad] did in the Treaty of Hudaybiyyah, even though some opposed it."

Speaking recently at the United Nation's launch of its "Free & Equal" campaign to promote fair treatment of LGBT persons, former archbishop and South African anti-apartheid activist Desmond Tutu declared that the issue was so close to his heart that he "would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven" and instead choose "the other place."  The 1984 Nobel Peace Prize laureate and former head of the South African Anglican Church and South African Council of Churches made the remarks last Friday, July 26, during the press event in his home country, where same-sex marriage is legal but where views remain antagonistic toward homosexuals.

Calling for greater protections for lesbians, gays, bisexuals and transgender persons, Archbishop Emeritus Tutu, 81, said, "I would refuse to go to a homophobic heaven. No, I would say sorry, I mean I would much rather go to the other place."  He added, "I would not worship a God who is homophobic and that is how deeply I feel about this."

Tutu went on to compare his advocacy for LGBT persons to his fight against apartheid, saying, "I am as passionate about this campaign as I ever was about apartheid. For me, it is at the same level." A video recording of Tutu's partial remarks can be viewed on YouTube.