Hundreds of thousands around the world gathered on Saturday in a global move dubbed 'March Against Monsanto'.

Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on the March Against Monsanto campaign

Activists are calling for labeling of food containing GMOs and further scientific research of the effects of GMO crops that while banned in several countries over alleged health threats still remain legal in many others.

Protesters all across the US joined the march calling for a boycott of Monsanto products, following the Senate’s decision to turn down a bill which requires the labeling of GM food.

RT: What's wrong with GM food?

William Engdahl: The fundamental problem with GM food that it’s genetically and biologically unstable. There’s no genetic modification known to science and this I have from some of top scientists in the world on this question that’s stable – it’s always mutating. And No.2, all the GM products that are in the human and animal food chain over the last 20 years are modified primarily to do one thing – 80 per cent of all the GM is modified to accept chemicals, the pesticides. Monsanto Roundup being the most prominent of them, which are highly, highly toxic and they’re modified to be resistant to that deadly chemical so that it kills everything inside, except the Monsanto corn or the Monsanto soy beans or what will you. All those chemicals are equally as dangerous to the human food chain as the GMO seeds themselves.

RT: Why have so many people in different countries taken to the streets to demonstrate against this US company now?

WE: I think for one very simple reason Monsanto is the company. They are the world’s largest owner of seeds. They’ve bought up all those small seed companies to control those seed varieties of wheat, of rice, of corn and soy beans and so forth. No.2 Monsanto bought up a company that gives Monsanto a patent on what are called terminator seeds, which self-destruct, the seeds commit suicide after one harvest season. So, farmers are unable to take part of their seeds and replant them for the next harvest season – something that never in history has been possible before this Monsanto development. But Monsanto is the metaphor for genetic manipulation of the food chain and they are by far the largest – of course, you have other companies like Syngenta in Switzerland, you have BASF, which is a partner of Monsanto in Germany. You have Dow and DuPont Chemical. But Monsanto is really the giant of the four horsemen of the GMO Apocalypse.

RT: Why is the US government so keen to protect the interests of Monsanto?

WE: I think this is the strategic interest of the US agribusiness lobby, the lobby of Bush senior as president in 1992. Monsanto went to the White House and had a closed-door meeting with Bush, and got him to agree to make sure there are no government tests whatsoever on the health and safety of GMO products before they were released to the commercial public. That was called the doctrine of 'substantial equivalence'– it’s a fraudulent doctrine if you just analyze the name, it’s by no means scientifically rigorous. So there have been up until recently no long-term tests beyond what ninety day short-term studies Monsanto gave to the government to say ‘everything is hunky-dory.’  It turns out evidence has been uncovered by whistleblowers who say we were forced to alter the scientific data for Monsanto so it showed that the results were positive. You have the fox guarding the chicken house  here with Monsanto verifying the health and safety of its own products. But it’s the idea of monopoly on seeds, a patent on monopoly on seeds worldwide that makes the whole question of Monsanto and GMO question so extremely important in so many countries. They are trying everything to bribe and influence the European commission in Brussels. A study came out in France at the Caen university September last year, it was published in the PEW review , a serious scientific journal of toxicology , by Dr Seralini and his French colleagues, showing that rats fed with GMO Monsanto rice , or corn rather, had huge incidents of cancer tumors compared with non GMO rats. They had enormous organ damage and death rates five times that of normal rats. The study was suppressed by the EU food safety administration. It turns out that most of the scientists on the panel had ties to Monsanto. So it’s just the corruption that Monsanto tries to infiltrate its way, they try to block labeling in California, because that would damage their whole product situation in America. People are beginning to wake up. I think there is change going on not only against the Monsanto but biological engineering of our food chain.

Organizers of the major rally that swept through dozens of nations around the globe on Saturday, urge a repeal of the so-called Monsanto Protection Act, and call for a boycott of Monsanto products.

Participants in the March Against Monsanto were also demanding the right to know what they’re paying for and what their children eat. The protesters called for labeling of GM foods, which they say could pose a danger to human health, and demand further scientific research of such products.

This #MarchAgainstMonsanto makes me happy. This is a huge issue that directly affects EVERYONE!

— Stanimal032 (@Stanimal032) May 25, 2013

Follow RT's LIVE UPDATES on the March Against Monsanto campaign

RT covers the protest which is getting a mainstream media blackout, with RT's Anastasia Churkina - who as at the heart of the protest march in New York City – one of dozens of American cities that are staging protests against Monsanto.

“According to our estimates there are over 2,000 here,” she said. “All these people have gathered here today to speak out against this giant biotech corporation that for years has been accused of manipulating and corrupting farmers throughout the world and monopolizing the agriculture industry.”

Chants " #Monsanto, how many people have you poisoned today?" fill NY streets in #MarchAgainstMonsanto

— Anastasia Churkina (@NastiaChurkina) May 25, 2013

In Washington DC, a crowd of marchers gathered in front of the White House waving banners and posters.

Meanwhile, the US-based seed giant maintains that its seeds improve agriculture since it helps farmers to produce more from their land while saving resources such as water and energy. At the same time, Monsanto said on Saturday, they respect people’s rights to express their opinion on the matter, AP reported.

A company that made agent orange now makes our food...not cool. #marchagainstmonsanto to keep it natural and healthy please

— The High Chef (@The_High_Chef) May 25, 2013

A bee "die in" outside of Monsanto headquarters in DC right now. #marchagainstmonsanto #mam #m25 twitter.com/BatmanWI/statu…

— Jenna Pope (@BatmanWI) May 25, 2013

Initially a small movement, the March Against Monsanto campaign turned into a global event with an hundreds of thousands of participants in over 40 countries thanks to the efforts of activists and social networking services.

These folks NEED to be told WE THE PEOPLE won't accept your frankenfood #marchagainstmonsanto

— Sarah D. Zimmerman (@SarahDZimmerman) May 25, 2013

Over 500 people marched through downtown Anchorage, Alaska, bearing signs with slogans like “I’m not a scientific experiment” and “Demand GMO Labels.”

#MAM hundreds march against Monsanto and GMOs in Anchorage, Alaska twitter.com/kevinhedin/sta…

— Kevin Hedin (@kevinhedin) May 25, 2013

Hundreds flooded the streets of Florida calling on the US government to stop lobbying for biotechnology giants.

The People are speaking. Are you listening? #Miami #MarchAgainstMonsanto twitter.com/OccupyMIA/stat…

— Occupy Miami (@OccupyMIA) May 25, 2013

Thousands protested near the Sacramento State Capitol in California. The event featured magnificent traditional Aztec dances.

Meanwhile several hundred of activists gathered in Dallas chanting “No more lies! No more greed! We don't want your toxic seed!”

Hundreds of protesters took to the street in Los Angeles and marched towards the City Hall carrying signs with messages such as “Label GMOs, it’s our right to know” and “Real Food 4 Real People.” Rallies and colorful events were taking place all across the city until 5 pm.

The two opening days of negotiations of the Syrian opposition have been fruitless as the Islamist-dominated Syrian National Coalition refused to admit liberal opposition leaders into its ranks.

Also, the opposition failed to elect a new leader of the coalition, which remains without a chief since the resignation of Moaz al-Khatib, a former Damascus religious leader, in March.

"We are back to square one," a source in the Syrian National Coalition (SNC) told Reuters before the start of the third day of negotiations.

The source said the participants in the talks would now focus on international demands for a broadening of the Islamist-dominated group, leaving leadership issues for later.

Still, Syrian National Council representatives believe they could take part in the peace conference – if their central demand for President Bashar Assad to leave power is satisfied, Al Arabiya reports.

Still, the leaders of the Syrian National Council believe they could take part in the peace conference – if their central demand for President Bashar Assad to leave power is satisfied, Al Arabiya reports.

In an interview to British BBC the Syrian National Coalition’s spokesman Louay Safi declared that President Assad and his associates must leave the scene. He says only this condition will be enough to make opposition participate in a peace conference.

“If the government will agree to the framework, yes [we will participate]. We have welcomed the Geneva agreement from day one. We would like to find a political solution. But we don’t want to be deceived again by this regime, which has deceived us many times,” Louay Safi said.

The spokesman has not specified, though, who would represent lawful authorities of Syria at a peace conference in that case.

Earlier Moscow informed the international community that Damascus had in principle agreed to take part in a peace conference in Geneva.

Another conference, the ‘Friends of Syria’ gathering that took place in Jordan’s Amman recently has brought nothing constructive to the peace process in the war-torn Syria either.

Representational assembly attended by eleven top diplomats from Britain, Egypt, France, Germany, Italy, Jordan, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Turkey, the United Arab Emirates and the US issued a number of mutually exclusive statements.

On one hand the gathering declared it is seeking a political solution and a diplomatic breakthrough to solve the Syrian crisis. ‘Friends of Syria’ welcomed the Russian-American initiative to conduct new peace conference on Syria.

Yet in a joint declaration on May 22, the 11 participant countries maintained that Syrian President Bashar Assad will play no role in the country's future. The declaration also stressed to bolster support for the armed opposition until a transitional government is formed.

“The participants (of the ‘Friends of Syria’ meeting), who have declared themselves spokesperson for the Syrian people, have blocked the way to the international conference by saying that they were going to boost support to the Syrian opposition,” Syria’s SANA news agency commented.

“Right now we see this process is making a negative contribution to the [Geneva] decisions,” Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov told reporters in Istanbul.

“When one party (Assad) is isolated in any mechanism set up to deal with a conflict, we miss the ground for dialogue,” he added.

After the ‘Friends of Syria’ gathering in Amman and opposition meeting in Istanbul both have failed to propose any constructive ideas how to put an end to the Syrian crisis, all eyes now are on the US Secretary of State John Kerry and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov who are going to discuss peace talks in Syria next Monday in Paris.

Russian diplomats, though, have voiced concerns that an international conference on Syria in Geneva cannot be conducted immediately because of the current status of the Syrian opposition.

"The demands to urgently set a concrete date for the conference in the absence of clarity regarding who and with what powers will speak on behalf of the [Syrian] opposition just cannot be treated seriously," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesman Aleksandr Lukashevich at a press briefing in Moscow.

When Russian FM will meet his American counterpart next week, they will have to coordinate the list of participants of the future peace conference. However the question now is who among the Syrian opposition ranks would have authority to speak on behalf of all variegated opposition groups.

The soldier was patrolling in uniform with two other men as part of France's Vigipirate anti-terrorist surveillance plan when he was approached from behind and stabbed in the neck, with a knife or a box-cutter, Reuters reports.

French daily Le Parisien cited police sources as saying the suspected attacker was a bearded man of North African origin about 30 years old, and was wearing an Arab-style garment under his jacket.

"We still don't know the exact circumstances of the attack or the identity of the attacker, but we are exploring all options," French president, Francois Hollande, said of the incident.

Hollande refused to make a connection between the incident in Paris and the brutal murder of British military drummer, Lee Rigby, who was beheaded in Woolwich, South East London by two men, acting out of revenge for the UK’s involvement in Afghan and Iraqi wars.

"They tried to kill the soldier because he was a soldier," said  France's defense minister Jean-Yves Le Drian, AFP reported.

The Police Prefect for Paris’s Hauts-de-Seine area, Pierre-Andre Peyvel, said that despite losing a considerable amount of blood, the injured soldier would survive and was being treated in hospital. .

"The wound appears to be quite serious, but it's not life-threatening," he told iTele news television.

Peyvel said the attacker was able to flee into a crowded shopping area in the La Defense business neighborhood before the two other patrolling soldiers, were able to react.

However, Peyvel declined to confirm or deny the description of the perpetrator, which appeared in Le Parisien, saying that further details about his identity would follow.

France is currently on high alert for attacks by Islamist militants following its military operation in Mali this January, which prompted threats against French interests from the North African wing of Al-Qaeda.

Without a clear motive and reasoning for such attacks, there are two basic explanations that people tend to believe, activist and journalist Sukant Chandan told RT.

“People either take the French government or the British government are lying on things like Woolwich the other day, or what’s happening in Paris today, or they say it’s all about the foreign policy of France or Britain,” he said. “I think that these positions don’t hold enough substance as an explanation.”

Last night, four Sunnis and one Alawite died in clashes, the Daily Star reported. The casualties raised this week’s death toll to 28.

Fierce fighting has raged in Tripoli since last Sunday, with assailants firing rocket-propelled grenades, mortars and machine guns. The violence is seen as a spillover from the recently intensified fighting between rebels and government forces in Qusayr, Syria, near the border with Lebanon.

Most of the clashes in Tripoli were between residents of the Sunni-majority Bab el-Tebbaneh district and the Alawite-majority Jabal Mohsen district. A third party in the conflict is the Lebanese Army, which has so far failed to quell the unrest.

Although the clashes subsided in the morning, the area is still reportedly controlled by snipers.

The week-long conflict brought life to a halt in Tripoli, home to 500,000 residents, with schools and shops closed because of the violence.

This is not the first time Tripoli has witnessed an outbreak of violence between Sunnis supporting the Syrian rebels and pro-regime Alawites, the religious branch of Shia Islam to which Syrian President Bashar Assad belongs. The Lebanese Army deployed in the city last October to broker a ceasefire.

The wounded children are now being treated at a nearby hospital, and five of them are currently in critical condition.

The minivan was taking the children to a private school in Gurjat, around 112 kilometers north of the eastern city of Lahore. The children on board are believed to have been between the ages of 5 and 15. “The fire erupted in the vehicle when the children were only a few kilometers from their school,” local police chief Dar Ali Khattak told AFP.

An initial assessment of the accident indicates a short circuit near a leaking gasoline tank was triggered when the dual-fuel vehicle switched from gas to petrol.

It is relatively commonplace in Pakistan for a vehicle to run on a mixture of petrol and natural gas. The gas is stored in pressurized containers, leaving it prone to explosions.

Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio – who styles himself as 'America’s toughest sheriff' and is known for questioning the authenticity of President Barack Obama's birth certificate – was defeated in court on Friday when a federal judge ruled that his crackdown on undocumented immigrants violated the civil rights of Latino residents.

The case against Arpaio was initiated by Manuel de Jesus Ortega Melendres, a Mexican national with a US tourist visa, who claimed he was detained illegally by deputies from Arpaio's office in 2007 after he was stopped in a car near a gathering of Mexican day laborers.

Four other plaintiffs – all drivers of Latin origin who believe they were stopped on the basis of their ethnicity and treated worse than other motorists – testified in the case. No monetary retribution was sought in the suit; the plaintiffs called for an end to Arpaio's discriminatory practices.

"The great weight of the evidence is that all types of saturation patrols at issue in this case incorporated race as a consideration into their operations ," Judge G. Murray Snow of the US District Court wrote in his 142-page ruling, Reuters reported.

Judge Murray has prohibited the Sheriff’s Office from racial profiling. Its 800 deputies have been forbidden from stopping a car because Latinos are passengers, and from arresting people without substantial evidence a law has been broken.

Human rights activists hailed the ruling: "This is a victory for everyone. Singling people out for traffic stops and detentions because they are Latino is unconstitutional and just plain un-American ,” American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) director Cecillia Wang said.

Tim Casey, the lawyer for the Maricopa County Sheriff’s Office, vowed to appeal the case and denied that the organization he defended had engaged in racial profiling. He also assured the Sheriff's Office would “comply with the letter and spirit of the court’s decision .”

The ruling against Sheriff Arpaio is seen by many as landmark decision – Arizona, a US state on the border of Mexico, has long been at the forefront for the immigration debate, with local authorities frequently enacting harsh measures to curb illegal immigration.

But federal immigration policy may soon be changing, as a US Senate panel has recently approved a sweeping immigration reform bill, which lays out a 13-year path to citizenship for the country's 11 million illegal immigrants.

Abu Nusaybah, who claims to be a close friend of Adebolajo, was promptly arrested on BBC premises following an interview regarding the brutal killing in Woolwich on Wednesday. During the interview, Nusayaba stated that Adebolajo told him MI5 had “harassed” him for information on repeated occasions, and had even attempted to recruit him.

“But after him saying that he didn't know these individuals, what he said was they asked him if he would be interested in working for them. He was explicit in that he refused to work for them but he did confirm he didn't know the individuals,” Nusayaba said.

The Metropolitan Police said in a statement on Friday that a 31-year-old man had been detained in London under the Terrorism Act. Police said the arrest was not directly related to Wednesday’s murder.

Meanwhile, British police announced on Saturday evening three more arrests in the notorious Woolwich case. Three men believed to be in their 20s were apprehended on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

MI5 acknowledged on Thursday that Adebolajo had been known to them for eight years, prompting criticism that they could have taken steps to prevent the murder of 25-year-old Army Drummer Lee Rigby.

Michael Adebolajo and Michael Adebowale are suspected of hacking Rigby to death in broad daylight on Wednesday. The two suspects were shot by police during their arrest, and are now in hospital awaiting police questioning. Footage of Adebolajo surfaced showing him brandishing a bloody cleaver, claiming the attack was an “eye-for-an-eye” act to avenge Muslims killed abroad by UK troops.

Nusayaba claimed that when he became acquainted with Adebolajo, the murder suspect did not exhibit any extremist Islamist tendencies. However, following a trip to Kenya last year where Adebolajo was allegedly taken into custody by the Kenyan military and was tortured and sexually abused, Nusayaba said he changed.

“He was not his bubbly self,” Nasayaba said, adding that he became less talkative following the trip.

Relatively little is known about the two suspects who committed the atrocity in Woolwich on Wednesday, which was condemned in the UK press as “Baghdad-style violence.” It was confirmed that Adebolajo and Adebolawe are UK citizens from devout Christian families of Nigerian descent, who later converted to Islam.

He was also known to hand out radical Islamist leaflets that decried UK military involvement in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Police raided Adebolajo’s family home in Lincolnshire following the killing. The family reportedly moved away from London over concerns their son was becoming more radicalized.

There have been a number of arrests in London in connection with Wednesday’s murder. Detectives took a 29-year-old woman at a residential address in south London into custody on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder on Thursday. A 29-year-old male was also arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to commit murder.

The suicide bomber, reportedly female, died on the spot, with five police officers and eight civilians receiving injuries in the attack.

They were taken to hospitals across the city of Makhachkala, where one of the victims, a woman, passed away due to receiving heavy shrapnel wounds.

According to the Interior Ministry, two police officers, who were the closest to the suicide bomber, remain in critical condition.

A preliminary investigation identified the attacker as Madina Aliyeva, a missing person who was previously married to two Islamist militants.

Police said Aliyeva carried the bomb in a bag, and “it was detonated by the terrorist herself”.

The bomb, which consisted of an F1 hand grenade and five grenade shells filled with striking elements, had an explosive force equal to 500 grams of TNT.

The blast was reportedly so powerful that a shockwave was felt a great distance from the explosion. Police are currently searching the area for more explosives, fearing a second blast might follow.

On May 20, two bombs were detonated outside the headquarters of the court bailiff in Dagestan’s capital Makhachkala, killing four people and injuring 46.

The second blast in Makhachkala was more powerful than the first, coming after police arrived at the scene of the initial explosion.

Such double blasts are frequently used by terrorists in the North Caucasus to target police and raise the death tolls of their attacks.

Read RT’s breakdown of the March Against Monsanto here:

23:01 GMT: Marches against the biotechnology giant Monsanto have taken place in 436 cities across 52 countries with an estimated total number of participants standing at over two million, the organizers of the global event said.

“If I had gotten 3,000 people to join me, I would have considered that a success,” founder and organizer Tami Canal said. Instead, she said two million responded to her message.

22:37 GMT: In order to take full control of the global food chain the world’s largest owner of patents on seeds Monsanto is lobbying, bribing, suing small farmers out of business and altering scientific research, geopolitical analyst F. William Engdahl told RT.

22:02 GMT: Hundreds flooded the streets of Florida calling on the US government to stop lobbying for biotechnology giants.

The People are speaking. Are you listening? #Miami #MarchAgainstMonsanto twitter.com/OccupyMIA/stat…

— Occupy Miami (@OccupyMIA) May 25, 2013

21:37 GMT: Over 500 people marched through downtown Anchorage, Alaska, bearing signs with slogans like “I’m not a scientific experiment” and “Demand GMO Labels.”

21:12 GMT: Chile has joined the protest against the agricultural giant with marches and other events taking place in in Santiago and several other cities.

Local organizer of the “March Against Monsanto”, Tami Monroe Canal, told The Santiago Times that she started the movement to protect her two little daughters.

“As a parent I just can’t stand by and not do anything to protect my children as well as their friends and the generation they are a part of,” she said. “I just really worry about my kids’ future. Their health, their longevity, their fertility.”

Monsanto first began its operations in Chile in 2005 by purchasing Seminis Vegetable Seeds, a company that sold some 3,500 seed varieties to more than 150 countries. Currently Monsanto owns seed production and packaging plants in Melipilla, Viluco and Paine and experimental plants in Arica, Santa Julia, Rancagua and Temuco.

20:39 GMT: Thousands protested near the Sacramento State Capitol in California. The event featured magnificent traditional Aztec dances.

20:27 GMT: Dozens have gathered in front of Monsanto office in Buenos Aires, Argentina, dancing and protesting GMO crops. Monsanto’s largest factory in Latin America is located in Argentina, and the company invests millions into new “experimental facilities.”

20:11 GMT: Over a hundred of activists gathered in Dallas chanting “No more lies! No more greed! We don't want your toxic seed!”

20:05 GMT: The Vancouver March Against Monsanto is part of an international movement that aims to raise awareness about the impacts of genetically modified organisms in food.

Marchers gathered at the Vancouver Art Gallery beginning at 11 a.m. local time before making their way through the city.

Fearing the massive effect genetic engineering has both on the environment and health, marchers have demanded that companies be forced to label foods containing GMOs.

“There’s a growing body of evidence indicating that genetically modified crops are not benign; they affect both our health and the environment,” Global BC cites Greenpeace Vancouver Local Group member, Zac Hambrook, as saying in a statement.

19:58 GMT: “What do we want? Labels! When do we want em’? Now!” The March Against Monsanto making its way through downtown Cincinnati Ohio. 

19:50 GMT: From the East Bay to California's largest city San Diego, anti-Monsanto protests have swept through the Golden State.

19:40 GMT: Hundreds gather in San Francisco's Union Square to take part in the nationwide as well as global march against Monsanto. 

The current scene in San Francisco at the #MarchAgainstMonsanto rally @ Union Square #YAL #Anonymous twitter.com/punkboyinsf/st…

— #pUNkIsAStateOfMind (@punkboyinsf) May 25, 2013

19:30 GMT: Activists in Olympia, Washington organized a march to the state capitol and onward to help take back control of their food supply. Alliance for Global Justice, an organizer behind the march, said 888 people had initially signed up to attend the poor weather conditions might have dissuaded many from turning out.

We're chanting "down with Monsanto" outside of their headquarters in Washington, D.C. #MarchAgainstMonsanto #mam

— Jenna Pope (@BatmanWI) May 25, 2013

Outside of the Monsanto headquarters in DC. #marchagainstmonsanto twitter.com/BatmanWI/statu…

— Jenna Pope (@BatmanWI) May 25, 2013

19:00 GMT: RT’s Anastasia Churkina is following the protests from New York.

RT’s Anastasia Churkina is following the protests from New York.

Hundreds fill streets of #NY to #protest in #MarchAgainstMonsanto against #GMOs twitter.com/NastiaChurkina…

— Anastasia Churkina (@NastiaChurkina) May 25, 2013

#MarchAgainstMonsanto #MAMNYC twitter.com/NastiaChurkina…

— Anastasia Churkina (@NastiaChurkina) May 25, 2013

18:55 GMT: Environmental groups across America have blamed companies like Monsanto for the drastic decline in the honey bee population over recent years, saying the pesticides they produce have killed off millions of the vital insect in recent years.  Monsanto plans to host a "Bee Summit" in June to discuss solutions to the bee’s North American demise. "Everybody is concerned by it," Monsanto Chief Technology Officer Robert Fraley told Reuters.

The Bee Bloc outside of the White House right now. #MarchAgainstMonsanto #M25 twitter.com/BatmanWI/statu…

— Jenna Pope (@BatmanWI) May 25, 2013

18:45 GMT: Several thousand protesters marched through the streets of Vienna, Austria to rally against the US seed giant and GMO products. 

18:18 GMT: Several hundred protesters have amassed outside the White House  to demand the Obama administration change its policy towards Monsanto. In March, President Obama signed the so-called Monsanto Protection Act, which "effectively bars federal courts from being able to halt the sale or planting of GMO or GE crops and seeds, no matter what health consequences from the consumption of these products may come to light in the future.”

Rallying against Monsanto outside of the White House right now. #m25 #marchagainstmonsanto #MAM twitter.com/BatmanWI/statu…

— Jenna Pope (@BatmanWI) May 25, 2013

17:58 GMT: Protesters in Los Angeles have evoked the sweeping horrors of the French Revolution to show their disapproval for Monsanto’s practices. 

Monsanto guillotine at LA #MarchAgainstMonsanto. Live stream of their march: revolution-news.com/march-against-… #MAM twitter.com/soit_goes/stat…

— m_x (@soit_goes) May 25, 2013

17:50 GMT:  Farmers form the Consortium for the Defense of Sicilian Agriculture have pulled out all of the stops…and a tractor to protest the destructive impact of Monsanto on their livelihood and the world’s food supply.

Video: /files/news/1f/32/00/00/original_506345_monsanto_italy.mxf

17:40 GMT: #MarchAgainstMonsanto is surging on Twitter despite the virtual mainstream media blackout on the global day of action.

#MarchAgainstMonsanto trending 4th in the US; Dominated by @youranonnews and @rt_com uniteblue.com/marchonmonsanto twitter.com/TrendingBlue/s…

— Breaking News Trends (@TrendingBlue) May 25, 2013

17:37 GMT: Several dozens protesters have come out in Wichita, Kansas to take part in the worldwide call to "take back our food."

Favorite sign from the Wichita, KS #MAM. Sums #GMOs up well. We have a #RightToKnow! twitter.com/GMOFreeKS/stat…

— GMO Free KS (@GMOFreeKS) May 25, 2013

17:28GMT: Protesters are starting to fill up Chicago’s Federal Plaza, which is home to a regular farmers market, to take part in one of many anti-Monsanto protests being held throughout the United States.

Federal Plaza is starting to fill up for the #MarchAgainstMonsanto #Chicago ow.ly/i/2czqz

— OC Press (@OCPress) May 25, 2013

17:10 GMT: Dozens of demonstrators have gathered in Novi Sad, Serbia’s second largest city, to take part in the global action against Monsanto.

17:00 GMT: A small group of protesters have gathered outside of the Central Academic Theatre of the Russian Army on Suvorov Square to demand a “Russia without GMO!”

16:00 GMT: Several hundred people gathered in Paris for a peaceful protest against the US agrochemical giant Monsanto. A sit in demonstration was held on the Place du Trocadéro square, across the Seine from the Eifel Tower. Protesters could be seen waving signs claiming “"Monsanto plunders and kills the farmers and the planet.”

15:40 GMT: Japanese protesters earlier gathered outside Monsanto’s headquarters in Tokyo to chant down the company’s influence on the world’s food supply. 

14:40 GMT: Demonstrators gathered at Eastern Market in Detroit, Michigan to "Demand GMO Labeling" and join the worldwide protest against Monsanto. The "March Against Monstanto" is being held in a dozen  cities  across Michigan, including Detroit, Kalamazoo, Grand Rapids, Traverse City and Sault St. Marie. Tia Lebherz, a local organizer for Food and Water Watch, said companies like Monsanto are "squeezing out our small farmers."

Don't be a jackass, no to GMO! #marchagainstmonsanto #detroit twitter.com/jatschirhart/s…

— Julie Tschirhart (@jatschirhart) May 25, 2013

14:10 GMT: “'At Monsanto, we are committed to sustainable agriculture and to continuously improve ways in which we contribute. We are pleased that this honor recognizes that commitment,' said Jerry Steiner, executive vice president, sustainability and corporate affairs at Monsanto. 'This recognition reflects the thousands of Monsanto employees who are working together with farmers and partners around the world to improve agriculture and improve lives.'" 

"First published in 1999, the '100 Best Corporate Citizens' list ranks large-cap Russell 1000 companies based on publicly available information in seven key categories: climate change, employee relations, environmental, financial, governance, human rights and philanthropy."

Beyond the Rows: #Monsanto Named One of CR Magazine’s Best 100 Corporate Citizens monsantoblog.com/2013/04/15/mon…

— Monsanto Company (@MonsantoCo) May 25, 2013

13:50 GMT: Around 300 people have come out for the London March Against Monsanto, calling for better food labeling of products that use ingredients grown with Monsanto seeds. London Organizer Courtney Smith says the issue at heart is that Monsanto is spending millions of dollars to lobby against GMO labeling on foods.The protesters met in Victoria Park at 2:00 p.m. local time and can be seen taking up positions around Parliament.

BREAKING. "GMO? No! No! No!" 1000 #Monsanto marchers on the move taking up positions around London Parliament twitter.com/arbolioto/stat…

— Pabs (@arbolioto) May 25, 2013

13:45 GMT: The March Against Monsanto attracted a sizeable crowd on Amsterdam’s central Dam Square. 

13:40 GMT: People take to the streets of Amsterdam by bike and by foot to protest against Monsanto.

People protesting against #monsanto, Amsterdam, NL, 2013-05-25. twitter.com/spiraloff/stat…

— Spiraloff (@spiraloff) May 25, 2013

13:30 GMT: Demonstrators marching through the streets of Munich, Germany to call for the ban of genetically Engineered and Genetically Modified Organisms. Similar protests are being held in a half a dozen cities throughout the country.

13:10 GMT: Protesters marching through the streets of Cape Town, South Africa demanding that Monsanto get out of Africa.

GMO - Get Monsanto Out - of Africa, out of our planet, out of our lives!#MarchAgainstMonsanto #CapeTown#MAM25 twitter.com/nicolajackman/…

— Nikki Jackman (@nicolajackman) May 25, 2013

13:00 GMT: Members of Occupy Food Australia are currently blocking roads in Melbourne, Australia to make their presence against Monsanto felt.

Occupy Food Australia Blocking roads in Melbourne, Australia against #Monsanto ! #noGMO twitter.com/OccupyJapan12/…

—♕۩OCCUPYJAPAN۩♕(@OccupyJapan12) May 25, 2013

12:50 GMT: Activists in Hawaii have “made a #MAM light brigade”, adorning a wall with a popular March Against Monsanto hashtag fashioned from a string of lights.

via @marchagainstm #Hawaii made a #MAM light brigade #OpMonsanto #25m secure.flickr.com/photos/occupyh… twitter.com/Stop_Monsanto/…

— Stop Monsanto #MAMEs (@Stop_Monsanto) May 25, 2013

11:17 GMT: The Japanese are participating in the anti-Monsanto rallies across the country, locals report on Twitter.

11:10 GMT: Across South Africa, hundreds have taken to the streets to protest against Monsanto's policies.

10:36 GMT: Hundreds of New Zealanders gathered around the country today to protest against genetically modified food.

10:03 GMT:

#Monsanto: Do NOT feed your children genetically modified garbage from these companies: twitter.com/YourAnonNews/s…

— Anonymous (@YourAnonNews) May 25, 2013

9:00 GMT: Anti-Monsanto activists are claiming a mainstream media blackout on coverage of the protest marches.

8:20 GMT: Anti-Monsanto campaigners across the UK will march as part of a global day of protest against the GMO giant. Rallies are set to take place in London, Bristol, Glasgow, Manchester, Douglas, Torquay and Nottingham.

6:50 GMT: Sarah Saunders, an organizer of the event, said she was leading the march to “help protect the future health and food supply for my children. The long term health effects of GMOs are up for debate and I would rather my children not be science experiments."

6:20 GMT: Hundreds gathered in Brisbane, Australia, to join the global protest against Monsanto.

5:40 GMT: Pictures from Melbourne, Australia, show crowds continuing their protest against Monsanto's practices.

4:21 GMT: Over 1,000 protesters gathered in Melbourne.

@therealroseanne@melbsmc: Here at the back of the Monsanto rally at the State Library. twitter.com/MelbSMC/status…"

— colleen menzies (@colleenmenzies) May 25, 2013

March against Monsanto Melbourne Australia - the crowd gathers. #OpMonsanto #MarchAgainstMonsanto twitter.com/spiny_starfish…

— SpinyStarfishCactus (@spiny_starfish) May 25, 2013

3:37 GMT: Activists gearing up for a protest in Albany, Australia.

Some of the colourful characters in #Albany for the March Against #Monsanto this morning. #protest #wanews twitter.com/LizGwynn/statu…

— Liz Gwynn (@LizGwynn) May 25, 2013

3:00 GMT: Watch RT's Anastasia Churkina report on the upcoming global protest.

Video: /files/news/1f/32/00/00/original_monsanto-guest-churkina.asf

2:44 GMT: Activists begin gathering for Sydney protest hours before the scheduled time.

Great early turn out at the March Against Monsanto! @slowfoodozz twitter.com/slowfoodsydney…

— Slow Food Sydney (@slowfoodsydney) May 25, 2013

2:14 GMT: Nick Bernabe, a social media director for March Against Monsanto, told RT that in some parts of the world, Monsanto's tactics are leading farmers to suicide.

“If you look at what happened in India... I mean there was an epidemic of suicides of the farmers,” Bernabe said. “Monsanto sold them a kind of seed that they promised would do a certain thing and then those seeds didn’t perform how they were supposed to. And it drove a lot of those Indian farmers into sheer poverty - and they ended up committing suicide by the hundreds and thousands even.”

Meanwhile in the United States, Monsanto is known for litigating small farmers out of business, Bernabe added.

“There are a lot of small farmers they are putting out business because they have a genetic migration into crops that were not supposed to be GMO, but they are getting cross-pollinated,” he explained. “And then Monsanto comes in, they use their government cronies to go in and shut down small farmers because the genetics from the seeds they’ve patented have slowly crept into the genetics of non-GMO seeds.”

Bernabe says that activists “want to spread awareness and we want to start from the ground up.”

“The easiest thing you can do to know what’s in your food is to grow your own food,” he said. “We start there. At the very top we want labeling and a ban, but I think we should work from the ground up to have the best results.”

2:20 GMT: Hundreds of people gathered for an event in Bellingen, New South Wales, Australia.

Huge turn out in #Bellingen against #Monsanto twitpic.com/csy6mv

— Cameron Bragg (@cdbragg) May 24, 2013

1:51 GMT: 

Just back from the @westendmarkets getting ready for the@march_against Monsanto twitter.com/barnyard63/sta…

— Robert Pekin (@barnyard63) May 25, 2013

1:48 GMT:

Worldwide actions for March Against #Monsanto are happening today. Get involved and say #noGMOPHOTO twitter.com/OllyActivistDo…

— Olly Activist Dog (@OllyActivistDog) May 25, 2013

1:36 GMT: On the eve of the global protest against GMO, the US Senate overwhelmingly rejected a bill that would allow states to decide if genetically modified food products should be labeled.

Since the FDA has not made scientific conclusions, the opponents of the measure argued, GMOs should not be labeled.

“I believe we must rely on the FDA’s science-based examination before we make conclusions about food ingredients derived from genetically modified foods,” said Sen. Debbie Stabenow (D-Mich.), who chairs the Agriculture Committee.

1:00 GMT: We are beginning our extensive coverage of the global protest organized by the 'March Against Monsanto' movement. An estimated 200,000 activists are expected participate in the massive campaign spanning six continents, 40 nations, and at least 48 US states.

Video: /files/news/1f/32/00/00/original_monst250513_503025_1.mp4

Goodale is best known for using the First Amendment of the US Constitution to successfully defend the New York Times after the paper published the Pentagon Papers in 1971. The documents, leaked by Defense Department employee Daniel Ellsberg, revealed that four presidents had deliberately misled US citizens regarding the countries’ intentions in Vietnam. The Nixon administration sought to block the publication of the documents, citing national security and the Espionage Act. 

The case is especially relevant today as the Obama administration seeks to punish WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange for publishing diplomatic cables leaked by US Army soldier Bradley Manning. The New York Times, the Guardian, and other outlets would also go on to publish the same information revealed by Manning but have not been targeted for punishment by the government prosecutors. 

Speaking with RT, Goodale also gave his opinion on the recent scandals that saw the US Department of Justice tap phones used by reporters, at least once going as far as to issue a search warrant for a Fox News correspondents’ email account. All, presumably, as part of an attempt to intimidate potential leakers and media personnel into remaining silent on issues that plague the nation.  

Goodale's book, "Fighting for the Press: The Inside Story of the Pentagon Papers and Other Battles," is available now. 

RT: In your new book you indicate that former US President Richard Nixon was out to destroy the New York Times, but you also argue that if President Obama succeeds at prosecuting Julian Assange he will be worse than Nixon for press freedom, why so? 

James Goodale: Let me say one thing about Nixon. He was out to destroy the New York Times, he was out to destroy Brookings Institution, and a lot of other institutions in the United States. President Obama is not out to destroy the Times. What we’re talking about is a discreet area, which is the relationship of the press to national security. In the Pentagon Papers area of national security, Nixon was terrible. He also happened to be terrible in the whole First Amendment area. Obama, by contrast, is okay in the First Amendment area but not okay in national security. Why?

Because Obama has pursued six leakers, that’s the first bad thing he’s done. The second bad thing he’s done is pursued [reporter and leak recipient] James Risen. He’s also suing Julian Assange. If he’s pursuing Julian Assange as a co-conspirator and succeeds he’ll be worse than Nixon because Nixon tried to go after the New York Times and its reporters saying they were co-conspirators but Nixon failed. 

RT: In this context you view Julian Assange as the publisher, similar to the New York Times, similar to the Guardian, and all the other news outlets that then published what Julian Assange exposed through WikiLeaks. US officials maintain that Assange compromised national security by publishing classified documents. As you know, in America, sometimes the First Amendment is trumped by national security issues when information is disclosed when information is published that could threaten soldiers on the battlefield, or threaten the lives of soldiers here at home. Do you believe, honestly, that Assange should face no consequences whatsoever? 

JG: Yes, that’s right. The same claims were made about the New York Times when it published the Pentagon Papers. It was destroying national security, it was destroying lives. The First Amendment, in that case, trumped the claim of the Nixon administration. Now here, you have to ask yourself, ‘Well what is the First Amendment claim?’ The claim is that Assange can’t be punished if, in fact, there’s no clear and present danger to the country. If you look at the stuff that Assange published I would argue there’s no clear and present danger to the country. It’s been three years, where is the danger? You’re still here and I’m still here. All claims sound terrible when it comes to national security…In my book I look backwards at the Pentagon Papers and there was no damage to national security. You have to look at these claims with a jaundiced eye because after a period of time, you can look at them, and there’s no danger. 

RT: As you mentioned the Obama administration has prosecuted more alleged leakers under the Espionage Act than all previous administrations combined. Do you believe that leakers such as Bradley Manning should be subject to some discipline? 

JG: Yes, I do. I would think that if you started leaking information for the organization you work for then you ought to be fired. I think every organization ought to have a control over its employees, and therefore I think that the 20 years to which Bradley Manning has agreed probably is a good sentence. I think the question with Bradley Manning right now is, is he agreed to 20 years but the government wants to give him life. I just wonder if that’s appropriate but I do believe every organization ought to be able to discipline its employees. 

RT: Then do you fault the Department of Justice for trying to find out who the leakers are, because as you well know there’s been a scandal with the DoJ secretly obtaining the phone records from Associated Press journalists and they also obtained the warrant to search the email of a Fox News reporter. Do you defend the US government in trying to find out who the leakers are? 

JG: Well I think there is two things. We’ve got six leaker prosecutions, three in the whole history of the United States before then. Everyone leaks in Washington because everyone has got access to national security information. I think the Obama administration has got to dial it back. He’s dialed it back on drones but six [leak prosecutions] is too many. Once you start getting everybody, some of these cases start to blow up in your face. 

Then the second question is how you go about it. I don’t think, when the government is concerned about the behavior of its own employees, that it ought to take the press and throw them into the middle of it, which is what they have done in what we call Rosengate. James Rosen is the reporter for Fox News who was the subject of a search warrant, on a theory that he was a co-conspirator with a gentleman named Kim. I mean, when I look at you, you don’t look like a co-conspirator to me. But if you were to start covering some Washington stories, which inevitably involve national security information, you’re subject to be called a co-conspirator. Legally I could give you the whole song and dance but just for your viewers, and common sense, we know reporters aren’t co-conspirators and we know their records shouldn’t be subject to search warrants. Come on – lay off, President Obama. 

RT: Do you think they’re doing this to intimidate US journalists from seeking information and publishing these reports on national security issues? 

JG: Sure, if they did that to your colleague here you could be intimidated. They’re also trying to intimidate those who leak and, as I said, I think they should use some discretion there because when the president speaks to you, he’s leaking. Have you ever thought about that? Every piece of information in Washington, particularly the information which he has his hands on, is classified…So the impact is we have less information, we have less power, and the government – by keeping the information secret – they become more powerful. That’s not good for any of us. 

RT: As a result of the AP and Fox News scandals the New Yorker has launched Strongbox, an online drop box that allows anyone to send leaked documents without their identities ever being known. So this way if the Justice Department asks anyone from the New Yorker magazine ‘Where did you get this information? Who was your source?’ the New Yorker says ‘We don’t know.’ Don’t you find it interesting that the New Yorker is now using the First Amendment practices of Julian Assange to protect the Bradley Manning’s of the world? 

JG: It doesn’t surprise me at all, because that’s what the New Yorker should be doing in the digital age. That’s what publishers do. After the Julian Assange story broke the New York Times said they were going to set one up and I think the Wall Street Journal, too. Now Obama is saying he wants to get Assange, but Assange is just like the New Yorker, the Wall Street Journal. Obama might as well go get the New York Times, and that’s what I’m here to say I’m scared about. 

RT: During his speech on Thursday President Obama did say that he’s troubled by the possibility that the Department of Justice investigations into leaks may “chill the type of journalism that holds government accountable.” As a result, he’s calling on Congress to pass a Media Shield law to guard against government overreach. Do you think that will help to do anything or is it just rhetoric?

JG: I think it’s probably both. What he said was he wants Chuck Schumer, our Senator in New York, to put the bill in. So Schumer gets up and says ‘Look, I’m going to put it in but first we’re going to make an exception so it doesn’t cover WikiLeaks’ and the second thing he said is that it won’t cover national security. I will say, in defense of Schumer, that the old bill on which this is placed didn’t completely eliminate all national security leaks but it had a provision in there that made it very difficult to justify so I question whether that is worth the camel. But gee whiz, we’re not going to protect Julian Assange when the New Yorker is doing the same thing.

RT: There have certainly been some cases where journalists have abused their power. A recent example is that Bloomberg reporters are facing a scandal after being accused of accessing private data on the Bloomberg terminal to further their reporting. Do you see this is as big deal?

JG: Yes I think that’s a big deal. It’s a little bit like  the Rupert Murdoch scandal in London when the papers were hacking in [to a murder victim’s cell phone]. This isn’t hacking, I suppose, but it is the same effect. You’ve got to have privacy for your emails but I’m not defending the Bloomberg journalists. I think we’ve got to realize that we’re in a new, digital world and we’ve got to get clear on what the rules are because it’s so easy to cheat. 

RT: You’ve been called the father of reporters’ privileges. What do you see as the current threats to press freedom in the United States?

JG: It, frankly, is President Obama and Rosengate because this is the first time the – I hate to use the term ‘Espionage Act,’ we’ll say national security act for your viewers – has been used to get reporters. I mean, that really is frightening because it’s usually used to get leakers. Rosen is a leakee, to use legal phraseology. If the Obama administration, or at least his Justice Department, thinks they can use criminal laws to get journalists because they’re co-conspirators, honestly that is one of the worst things I’ve come across in all the years I’ve been doing this. 

RT: In closing, I mentioned your book at the beginning of the interview, what do you hope that readers get from your book?

JG: Well, the purpose of the book is to learn the lesson from the Pentagon Papers, which is to say any president who messes with national security is going to be in deep yogurt. Wake up, America. Wake up, President Obama. President Obama, don’t go after Julian Assange and call him a co-conspirator, that’s bad for everybody. 

With continued concern regarding rising college costs, the amount of outstanding student loans has now reached $1 trillion, making that the largest category of consumer debt in the US aside from home mortgages.

According to the new report, eleven per cent of school loans - one hundred and ten billion dollars' worth - are now seriously delinquent, meaning at least 90 days past due. That is a sharp increase from the 6 per cent reported in the first quarter of 2003.

The long-term consequences of the school loan repayment burden can include a graduate’s choice of jobs, as well as the ability to buy a home.

A tight job market and a continued increase in the cost of higher education leave many to question the very value of obtaining a college degree, as opposed to more vocationally oriented training.

“Today’s economy puts young graduates in a difficult position,” Jack Buckley, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which published the report, said in a statement.

“A college diploma no longer guarantees a direct pathway to the middle class, making it harder to justify the expense of a degree.”

Still, as Bloomberg reports, the employment rate for college graduates in the US is 87 per cent, as compared with 64 per cent for those with only a high school school diploma.

One item which seems to have been eclipsed in recent partisan wrangling in Congress is a looming rate increase in federal student loans, which is set to double to 6.8 per cent on July 1 assuming there is no intervention. That rate increase would impact the more than 7.4 million students who can currently apply for a 3.4 interest loan.

On Thursday, the House voted along party lines to push forward a Republican initiative to intervene in the interest rate increase, though the specifics of the plan is sure to have the student loan debate take center stage in coming weeks.

The new bill would allow student lending rates to reset every year, tied to the interest rate of a 10-year US Treasury note, plus 2.5 percentage points for federal Stafford loans. According to the Congressional Budget Office, that means that the projected rate increase on those loans would rise to 5 per cent in 2014, and 7.7 per cent in 2023.

“Who’s going to set interest rates, politicians here or the markets?” asked Representative John Kline, Republican of Minnesota.

The legislation would cap Stafford loans at 8.5 per cent, with a higher maximum of 10.5 per cent for graduate loans.

Democrats, who are thus far opposing the Republican plan, prefer to extend the current Stafford subsidized rate - subsidized meaning that interest is not accrued while a student is enrolled - at a cost of $8.3 billion to the federal government, which would in theory be paid for by closing tax loopholes.

According to The New York Times, some Democrats want to take things even further. Senator Kirsten Gillibrand has proposed locking in a 4 per cent rate for all student loans, and allowing graduates with higher interest rate loans to refinance at that rate.

President Obama has already put forth his own proposal, which, like the Republican plan would tie student loan rates to the Treasury’s borrowing costs, but would then fix that rate for the life of the loan, rather than resetting each year. The administration’s plan would also cap loan repayments at 10 per cent of a student’s income.

Delinquency rates on existing student loan debt suggests that, whatever solution Congress ultimately selects to follow, it will have to make loan repayments feasible as higher education costs continue to increase while wages have stayed roughly the same for several decades.

In addition to the Republican-sponsored bill HR1911, there are at least eight other bills aimed at modifying or freezing interest rates on federal school loans before the July 1 deadline.

The White House on Wednesday threatened to veto the Republican bill, arguing that it would not guarantee low rates due to its yearly reset.

Meanwhile, Mark Kantrowitz, publisher of Edvisors.com, says the fight over subsidized loan rates “is a distraction from the real problem, which is the amount of debt, not the cost of debt.”

Kantrowitz may well have a point. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, a recent study from Fidelity found that “70 per cent of the class of 2013 is graduating with college-related debt – averaging $35,200 – including federal, state and private loans, as well as debt owed to family and accumulated through credit cards.”

Two labor rights groups, Fast Food Forward and the Coalition of Immokalee Workers, organized rallies Thursday and Friday outside the Sofitel Hotel in midtown Manhattan, where Wendy’s executives had gathered for an annual conference. The crowd chanted “$15 and a Union,” reiterating their basic demand for higher wages and the right to organize without fear of retaliation. 

Hourly workers in the roughly 5,900 Wendy’s locations across the US often earn between $7.25 per hour, the federal minimum wage standard, and $7.45, according to the Village Voice. An average fast food worker earns approximately $11,300 annually, a sum far below the national poverty line. 

“I’m tired of working all week, going to cash my check, and the check bounces,” Marcus Rose, a Wendy’s worker in Brooklyn, told the Voice. “A lot of people have children out here, but don’t have enough money to put clothes on their back.” 

The Coalition of Immokalee Workers (CIW) also called on Wendy’s to join Taco Bell, McDonald’s, Burger King, Subway and Chipotle to provide better wages for the Florida farmworkers who supply the major chains with tomatoes. 

Wendy’s released a statement claiming, “All of our Florida tomato suppliers participate in the Fair Food Program, and are required to operate in a way that is safe and lawful for all our workers ” — a misleading assertion, according to Gerardo Reyes Chavez of the CIW. 

“Wendy’s is not participating in the Fair Food Program but its CEO has claimed in front of its shareholders that it does,” Chavez told the Nation’s Restaurant News. “Wendy’s has not signed a Fair Food agreement with the CIW. Wendy’s is not paying a penny premium to increase workers’ pay, and Wendy’s has not committed to using its purchasing power to eradicate abuses in the fields together with growers and farm workers.” 

This week's rallies follow recent protests in Detroit, Chicago, St. Louis, Washington, DC and New York calling on all major fast food brands to boost wages. 

Addressing the unrest, New York State Attorney General Eric Schneiderman announced last week that his office has opened an investigation into at least one chain, which went unnamed, for wage theft. The assertions of abuse, echoed by fast-food workers across the country, allege that many restaurant franchises have forced employees to pay out of their own pocket when the register is short, denied overtime pay, made employees work off the clock, and refused to allow breaks. 

An astounding 84 per cent of New York fast-food workers reported being victims of wage theft and a national poll of 4,500 workers found that two-thirds experience some kind of wage theft at least once a week.  

New York City councilwoman Melissa Mark-Viverito, who represents low-income neighborhoods in New York's Harlem and Bronx sections, told protesters last week the demonstrations were evidence of a “hidden crime wave” that has abused the working poor for years. 

“This is a crime wave that is not being engaged in by petty thieves, but by a multibillion-dollar industry,” she said.

So was there a knife?

According to the preliminary FBI account, Todashev, a 28-year-old Chechen immigrant living in Orlando, Florida, became violent and lunged at an FBI special agent with a knife while being questioned about his ties to alleged Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev and an unsolved 2011 triple murder in the Boston suburb of Waltham. The agent, reacting to an “imminent threat,” shot Todashev dead.

Later in the day, FBI officials backed away from that version of events, leaving no clear official account of what happened moments before Todashev was killed on Wednesday.

Witnesses report hearing multiple shots that night, and while an autopsy reportedly completed by Thursday, the report will not be released until a criminal investigation into the event is completed.

At the time of the shooting, up to half a dozen law-enforcers, including two Massachusetts State Police troopers and an FBI agent from the agency’s Boston division, were present at the condo not far from Universal Studios.

The FBI claims that moments before Todashev "just went crazy" and attacked the agent, he had agreed to sign a confession which would have implicated both him and Tamerlan in the unsolved killings in which three male victims brutally had their throats slit. The murders took place on September 11, 2011, the ten year anniversary of the World Trade Center attack.

While law enforcement sources initially said Todashev stabbed the agent with a knife, there was later “confusion” over what object he actually used to attack his questioner, ABC news reports.

“Definitely no one said that he had pulled a gun but there was some media talk about whether he had pulled a knife, and then the FBI retracted that and said we don’t know exactly what happened,” said Sahar Aziz, and Associate Law Professor at Texas Wesleyan University.
 
“So there is definitely a question of whether shooting him was a use of excessive force. Because even if, for example, he had punched the officer, it could possibly be unreasonable or unnecessary to shoot someone in defense of being punched. Usually you are supposed to use commensurate force,” she told RT.

‘He just wanted everything to be over’

The FBI first began surveillance and later questioned Todashev several days after the April 15 Boston attack took place. From all accounts, he had cooperated with investigators up until his death.

Todashev had reportedly purchased a plane ticket before the bombings occurred to return to his native Chechnya, but canceled his trip at the FBI’s request.

“He had a ticket to New York.  From there, he was going to go home [to Chechnya],” WESH Orlando quoted his friend and roommate Kushen Taramov as saying. “[The FBI was] pushing him to stay, saying, ‘we want to interview one last time.'" Taramov said Todashev canceled the ticket at the FBI’s insistence.

When news of the shooting first broke, Taramov said he and Todashev had been interviewed by FBI agents for nearly three hours on Tuesday in connection with the Boston Marathon bombings.

“(The FBI) took me and my friend, the suspect that got killed. They were talking to us, both of us, right? And they said they need him for a little more, for a couple more hours, and I left, and they told me they’re going to bring him back. They never brought him back.”

Taramov, who noted that Todashev had been interviewed on multiple occasions following the Boston attack, denies law enforcement accounts that his friend simply went crazy and attacked.

"He didn't flip out," Taramov, said.  "I think something went wrong there.  I think they just shot him.  He didn't do anything.  I know him.  He just wanted everything to be over."

Todashev did have a history of violence. According to records from the Orange County Sheriff Office, Todashev had been charged earlier this month with aggravated battery for allegedly fighting with a father and son over a parking space in a mall parking lot in Kissimmee, Florida. Todashev said he acted in self-defense.

While living in Boston, he was also arrested in February 2010 after getting into a fight with strangers. One witness stated Todashev “was clearly the aggressor,” according to police reports.

However, his father, Abdulbaki Todashev, described his son as “a very calm” man, saying his son would not become aggressive without reason.

“Never in his life would he attack anyone unprovoked,” the elder Todashev stressed.

Todashev’s estranged wife, Reniya Manukyan, said her husband was cooperating with the FBI and had nothing to hide. "He wasn't involved.  So he was not even nervous [to talk with the FBI]," local NBC affiliate News Channel 5 cites her as saying.

Manukyan said their common Chechen roots and an interest in mixed martial arts brought her husband into contact with Tsarnaev, but “they weren’t friends or anything.” “He expected that they were going to come and question him because they both come from the same place from Chechnya,” she explained.

She also denies her husband’s role in the 2011 triple homicide, though she does confirm he traveled back to Boston in the summer of 2011. DNA from that crime scene is currently being tested and compared with Todashev's DNA.

Later, in an angry post on Vkontakte, Russia’s most popular social network, Manukyan blasted the FBI with an expletive-strewn post, claiming: “ Killing my husband Ibragim was another [proof] that everything is a setup about Tsarnaev brothers as well. ”

Many questions with no answers, yet

Early on Wednesday morning, officials at the FBI headquarter in Washington dispatched a shooting-response unit to Florida to help investigators determine what had occurred.

The following day, scores of FBI employees could be seen coming and going from the condo where Todashev was killed.

In addition to the FBI's review team, a separate Shooting Incident Review Group committee will analyze the incident. The independent committee, which includes up to 13 members of the FBI, will evaluate whether use of force was justified. No new information will likely surface until those investigations are concluded.

But apart from the use of deadly force, several other questions have been raised regarding the death of Todashev.

If Todashev had a history of violence, was being interviewed in connection with a recent terrorist event, and was believed to have played a role in a related triple homicide, why was he being interviewed in his home at midnight and not at a law enforcement facility?

How did a knife or other unidentified object come into his possession during the course of the several hour interview?

If law enforcers are unwilling to state emphatically that the object in question was even a knife, was lethal force necessary to subdue him while vastly outnumbered by several agents?

Todashev had yet to be charged with a crime and had every right to refuse being questioned without having a lawyer present. From all accounts, he had been willing to cooperate with the FBI on multiple occasions. He also chose not to return home to Chechnya although he had already purchased tickets and no warrant had been issued for his arrest. If he felt cornered or pressured into making a confession, why would he attack half a dozen law enforcers rather than ask for a lawyer?

And last but not least - was the final interrogation videotaped?

“We know very little about what happened because the only source of information is the FBI and presumably it’s not in their self-interest to reveal too much information [since] there’s now an investigation into his death because this could possibly be a case of excessive force in violation of his constitutional rights,” Sahar Aziz argues.
 
Whatever happened that night, Taramov recalled an ominous conversation he had with Todashev just hours before his death.

“We had a feeling, worst case scenario something like that was going to happen…He felt inside he was going to get shot," Taramov said.

"I told him, 'everything is going to be fine, don't worry about it.' He said, 'I have a really bad feeling.'"