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Edward Snowden, the fugitive who exposed the mass-surveillance practices at the National Security Agency, is now on Twitter, and he already has more followers on the social network than the NSA.

His account, which has been verified by Twitter as authentic, isn't hard to find: It's @Snowden. His attorney, Ben Wizner of the American Civil Liberties Union, confirmed to the Los Angeles Times that Snowden himself controls the account.

Snowden gained almost 300,000 followers in less than two hours after he tweeted his first message Tuesday morning. Soon after, he posted a cheeky swipe at his former employer, the NSA, whose account only has 76,000 followers. (The NSA is also the only Twitter account that Snowden follows.)

The NSA did not immediately respond to The Times’ request for comment about Snowden, a former contractor for the agency who has been granted asylum in Russia to avoid espionage and theft charges in the U.S. related to his 2013 leaks. But Twitter's interim chief executive, Jack Dorsey, responded to Snowden’s first tweet:

Dorsey's welcome is not an outlier. Although Snowden is officially a wanted man in the eyes of the U.S. Justice Department, his voice has been repeatedly amplified by America's most esteemed mass-media institutions.

After the Guardian and the Washington Post published a series of stories about NSA's surveillance practices based on Snowden's disclosures, judges awarded both outlets Pulitzer prizes.

After documentarian Laura Poitras created a film about Snowden's leaks, "Citizenfour," the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences gave her an Oscar for best documentary. Snowden's story will also be featured in a major Hollywood movie, "Snowden," starring Joseph Gordon-Levitt and directed by Oliver Stone.

Twitter, one of Silicon Valley's most popular social-media companies, accommodated Snowden's wish to join Twitter by clearing out an old account that had claimed the @Snowden handle but had not tweeted for three years, according to The Intercept.

A Twitter spokesman did not immediately respond to an interview request from The Times seeking more information about the company's decision to give Snowden the blue "verified" checkmark given to public figures and celebrities.

Twitter's policies forbid users from using the service "for any unlawful purposes or in furtherance of illegal activities," which implies the company believes that Snowden using its service while avoiding prosecution doesn't constitute a crime. (U.S. Army whistleblower Chelsea Manning also has a verified Twitter account, which is reportedly remotely operated by supporters who relay Manning's messages from prison.)

Snowden himself noted that the government would likely be interested in his presence on Twitter with an allusion to Ft. Meade, Md., the home of the NSA.

Snowden's choice to join Twitter was also notable for security reasons, given that he has shown how the NSA's broad collection of Americans' personal information was made possible by cooperation with the tech and communications companies that often hold that information.

Twitter's terms of service note that the company may collect a user's "IP address, browser type, operating system, the referring web page, pages visited, location, your mobile carrier, device information (including device and application IDs), search terms, and cookie information."

In a recent interview with Fusion, Snowden noted that he was worried about joining social-media services for security reasons.

"Exploit codes [could be embedded] into the transactions I’m receiving from a legitimate service and compromise the security of my devices. I’ve been working for a long time on improving that and creating set-ups that are more robust and survivable when you do get owned," Snowden told Fusion, adding: "How do you limit the damage? How do you recover in the wake of a compromise? I’ve made a lot of strides in that and am looking forward to, hopefully, participating [on social networks] in a more open and active manner in the near future."

One of the tipping points appears to be a recent interview that Snowden conducted with celebrity astrophysicist Neil DeGrasse Tyson.

"I tried to find you on Twitter, and I couldn't find your handle ... you kind of need a Twitter handle, so like, @Snowden, maybe, is this something you might do?" Tyson asked Snowden.

"That sounds good, I think we gotta make it happen," Snowden replied, laughing. "You and I will be Twitter buds ... your followers will be the Internet, me and the NSA, it'll be great."

And sure enough, one of Snowden's first tweets was directed at Tyson, with a nod toward the recent discovery of water on Mars.

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Scientists have confirmed that liquid water flows on Mars. New research suggests the dark streaks that seasonally appear and fade away on the surface of Mars are caused by running, salty water.

"It took multiple spacecrafts over several years to solve this mystery, and now we know there is liquid water on the surface of this cold, desert planet,” Michael Meyer, lead scientist for NASA’s Mars Exploration Program, said in a press release.

Scientists have long assumed that Mars holds water, based on things like photographs of river flows on the planet and data from rovers, but we've lacked any direct evidence until now. The new research was published today, September 28, in the journal Nature Geoscience.

The dark streaks, some of which reach over 100 meters long, were first noticed in 2010. They're called recurring slope lineae (RSL) and they only appear on slopes near the planet's equator during warm weather, and then fade away when temperatures drop. Now new images and data from the Mars Reconnaissance Orbiter show the streaks contain hydrated salts. Scientists already know these salts precipitate out of liquid water.

The data and images don't show the actual liquid water, but the streaks of salt wouldn't be there without some recent influx of water, Mary Beth Wilhelm of NASA's Ames Research Center, said during a press conference.

Mars is extremely cold: the average temperature is about minus 67 degrees Fahrenheit — but these salts are capable of lowering the freezing point of water enough to where liquid water could flow during Mars' warm season.

"The hydrated salts would lower the freezing point of a liquid brine, just as salt on roads here on Earth causes ice and snow to melt more rapidly," according to the NASA press release.

The paper doesn't speculate as to where the water is coming from though. The next step to figuring that out is to survey more of these streaks at the same high resolution, former NASA astronaut John Grunsfeld said during the press conference.

Some scientists suspect it's likely that microbial life exists under the surface of Mars, and this discovery is more support for that hypothesis. "We haven't been able to say whether life exists beyond the Earth, but following the water is a critical element of that," NASA's director of planetary science Jim Green said during the press conference.

Now at least we know the right spots to search for signs of life on Mars, he added. That said, these salty streaks only appear on very steep slopes and rocky terrain, so it will be difficult to investigate them up close.

NASA would need to create a specially designed rover capable of navigating the terrain, Grunsfeld said. There's also concerns about possibly contaminating the Martian water with Earth microbes if we sent a rover to collect samples.

We will send humans to Mars in the near future, and this is more evidence that the resources for humans to eventually live on the surface are already there, Grunsfeld said during the press conference.

"It seems that the more we study Mars, the more we learn how life could be supported and where there are resources to support life in the future," Meyer said in the press release.

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Russia and the United States agreed on Monday to look for a diplomatic end to the Syrian civil war but clashed over the central question of whether Syrian President Bashar al-Assad should retain power.

During a 90-minute meeting, U.S. President Barack Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed that their armed forces should hold talks to avoid coming into conflict in Syria after a Russian military buildup there over the last several weeks.

The United States, France and allied countries are bombing Islamic State militants, who have exploited power vacuums to seize parts of Syria and neighboring Iraq as part of a stated goal of creating an Islamic caliphate.

The reinforcement of the Russian military presence in the country, including the addition of tanks and warplanes, has brought fears of inadvertent or accidental clashes among the forces as well as U.S. questions about Moscow's main goal.

Speaking after his meeting with Obama, Putin told reporters Russia was pondering what more it could do to support Syrian government and Kurdish forces against Islamic State militants.

"We are mulling over what we would really do extra in order to support those who are in the battlefield, resisting and fighting with terrorists, ISIS (Islamic State) first of all," Putin said, ruling out deploying Russian ground troops.

"There is (an) opportunity to work on joint problems together," Putin said of his talks with Obama, which a U.S. official described as "businesslike."

A senior U.S. official, speaking on condition of anonymity, told reporters after the meeting: "The Russians certainly understood the importance of there being a political resolution to the conflict in Syria, and there being a process that pursues a political resolution."

U.S.-Russian ties have been deeply strained by Moscow's March 2014 annexation of Crimea from Ukraine and its support of pro-Russian separatists in the eastern part of the country.

Earlier in the day, relations between the two leaders appeared frosty - they clinked glasses at a lunch, but Obama had a piercing look as Putin smiled - and they laid out starkly differing positions toward Assad in their addresses before the annual United Nations General Assembly gathering of world leaders.

Obama said he was willing to cooperate with Russia and Iran to try to end the four-year civil war in Syria, in which at least 200,000 people have died and millions have been driven from their homes. But he described Assad as its chief culprit.

In contrast, Putin said there was no alternative to cooperating with Assad's military to fight Islamic State militants, and called for the creation of a broader international anti-terrorist coalition. This appeal may compete with the coalition that the United States has assembled to fight Islamic State.

"The United States is prepared to work with any nation, including Russia and Iran, to resolve the conflict," Obama, who spoke before Putin, told the world body. "But we must recognize that there cannot be, after so much bloodshed, so much carnage, a return to the prewar status quo."

Obama did not explicitly call for Assad's ouster, and he suggested there could be a "managed transition" away from the Syrian president's rule, the latest sign that despite U.S. animus toward Assad it was willing to see him stay for some period of time.

Obama dismissed the argument that authoritarianism was the only way to combat groups such as Islamic State, saying: "In accordance with this logic, we should support tyrants like Bashar al-Assad, who drops barrel bombs to massacre innocent children, because the alternative is surely worse."

Putin differed, suggesting there was no option but to work with Assad, a longtime ally of Russia. "We think it is an enormous mistake to refuse to cooperate with the Syrian government and its armed forces who are valiantly fighting terrorism face-to-face," Putin said in his speech.

"We should finally acknowledge that no one but President Assad’s armed forces and (Kurdish) militia are truly fighting the Islamic State and other terrorist organizations in Syria," he said.

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Here are five things to know about the Russian economy:

1. Economic misery

Russia's economy will shrink by 3.4% this year, and by a further 1% next year, according to the International Monetary Fund. Ordinary Russians are feeling the pain. Prices have shot up by nearly 16% in the year to August, official data show, and around 22 million Russians are now living in poverty.

Falling real wages and high interest rates have hit domestic demand.

"Credit conditions in Russia have tightened substantially over the past six months or so, with households and small businesses being particularly hard hit," Liza Ermolenko, emerging markets economist at Capital Economics, wrote in a recent research note. "We don't expect a significant turnaround anytime soon," she added.

2. Low oil prices

Oil is Russia's biggest earner. Around 70% of its exports are energy-related, and 50% of government revenue comes directly from the oil sector.

Oil has dropped from well above $100 per barrel last summer to around $45 per barrel.

Analysts estimate Russia loses $2 billion for every dollar fall in the global oil price.

The low oil prices are also dragging down the ruble, which has dropped by nearly 20% against the dollar since July.

3. Sanctions pain

Western countries have slapped Russia with tough economic sanctions over Moscow's role in the crisis in Ukraine. The embargo has left Russian companies unable to raise money in Europe, blocked arms trade, and restricted access to oil drilling technology.

Russia has introduced a retaliatory ban on imports of food and agricultural products from the West.

"It's a shock to the confidence of the population, and the confidence of foreign investors, and therefore the investment for the economy," said Ernesto Ramirez Rigo, IMF mission chief for Russia, earlier this month.

The value of imports to Russia dropped by 39% in the first eight months of the year, while exports are down 30%.

4. No new friends

Moscow turned to China last year after being hit with sanctions by the West. But the plan for a deeper economic relationship is not working out.

China's slowdown is making it harder for Beijing to deliver on promises it made to Moscow, and Chinese investors are spooked by Russia's deep economic crisis. Bilateral trade has dropped by a third in 2015, and Chinese investment into Russia is down 25%.

5. It's not just oil and sanctions

Low oil and sanctions are hitting Russia hard, but the country has many other economic problems.

The IMF says Russia needs to get serious about deep economic reforms if it wants to return to growth. The country's aging population is starting to be unable to pay its welfare bills, and a large amount of bureaucratic red tape and corruption is hurting domestic investment and productivity, the IMF said.

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Separatists on Sunday won a clear majority of seats in Catalonia's parliament in an election that sets the region on a collision course with Spain's central government over independence.

"Catalans have voted yes to independence," acting regional government head Artur Mas told supporters, with secessionist parties securing 72 out of 135 seats in the powerful region of 7.5 million people that includes Barcelona.

The strong pro-independence showing dealt a blow to Spanish Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy, three months before a national election. His center-right government, which has opposed attempts to hold a referendum on secession, has called the separatist plan "a nonsense" and vowed to block it in court.

Spain's constitution does not allow any region to break away, so the prospect remains highly hypothetical.

The main secessionist group "Junts pel Si" (Together for Yes) won 62 seats, while the smaller leftist CUP party got another 10, according to official results. They jointly obtained 47.8 percent of the vote in a record turnout of 78 percent, a big boost to an independence campaign that has been losing support over the last two years.

Both had said before the vote that such a result would allow them to unilaterally declare independence within 18 months, under a plan that would see the new Catalan authorities approving their own constitution and building institutions like an army, central bank and judicial system.

Addressing supporters of Junts pel Si in central Barcelona, Mas said a "democratic mandate" now existed to move forward with independence.

The vote in Catalonia, Spain's second-most populous region, is widely expected to influence the course of the Spanish general election in December.

Spain's two dominant parties - the ruling People's Party and the opposition Socialists - lost tens of thousands of votes compared with the last election in 2012, boding ill for their national ambitions, although the PP suffered a much deeper setback than its rival.

"Many have voted for Junts pel Si even if they don't favor secession because they saw the vote as a blank cartridge... and a way to gain a stronger position ahead of a negotiation," said Jose Pablo Ferrandiz from polling firm Metroscopia.

Opinion polls show a majority of Catalans would like to remain within Spain if the region were offered a more favorable tax regime and laws that better protect language and culture.

While investors do not see secession as an immediate material risk, financial markets may react negatively on Monday. The gap between Spanish five-year bond yields and the higher yields on the Catalan equivalents has been hovering near its widest point in two years in the run-up to the vote.

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German prosecutors launched an investigation on Monday into former Volkswagen (VOWG_p.DE) boss Martin Winterkorn over the rigging of vehicle emissions tests, as the carmaker suspended three top engineers in an attempt to tackle the crisis.

The investigation into Winterkorn, who quit on Wednesday after almost nine years at the helm of Europe's largest carmaker, is into "allegations of fraud in the sale of cars with manipulated emissions data," the prosecutor's office said.

Volkswagen, which has admitted to cheating diesel emissions tests in the United States, is under huge pressure to get to grips with the biggest business scandal in its 78-year history.

It named company veteran Matthias Mueller on Friday as chief executive and agreed to appoint a U.S. law firm to conduct a full investigation.

Sources familiar with the matter said on Monday it had also suspended the heads of research and development at its core VW brand, luxury division Audi and sports car maker Porsche.

But the crisis shows no sign of dying down.

Two German newspapers said on Sunday Volkswagen's own staff and one of its suppliers had warned years ago about the illegal use of so-called "defeat devices" to detect when a car was being tested and alter the running of its diesel engine to conceal their emissions of toxic nitrogen oxides.

Environmental campaign group Transport & Environment (T&E) published new data on Monday showing that some new Mercedes, BMW and Peugeot cars use 50 percent more fuel than laboratory tests show, saying this was evidence of a wider industry problem.

T&E, which works closely with the European Commission, said its data did not prove other firms were using defeat devices. But it said the gap between lab results and road performance had grown to such an extent for emissions of both carbon dioxide and nitrogen oxides that further investigation was needed to discover what carmakers were doing to mask emissions.

"The Volkswagen scandal was just the tip of the iceberg," said Greg Archer, clean vehicles manager at T&E, adding the gap between lab tests and real-world performance cost a typical driver 450 euros ($504) per year.

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