Editor's note: This is part of a series being done by AlterNet on the effects of the extraction economy called "Hitting Home." Senior editor Tara Lohan is on a three month road trip to "document the country’s dependency on fossil fuels and extraction methods that contribute to global warming."

Since the end of the Cold War 12 of the world’s 15 deadliest conflicts have occurred in Africa – but global media has invariably focused on smaller conflicts elsewhere. Nick Harvey looks at why some of the world’s worst violence is often ignored.

The latest revelations about PRISM, a secret means for the National Security Agency (NSA) to collect our emails and other material without warrants, suggest that the British government cannot or will not protect its own innocent citizens from Washington’s spying.

Worse still, we law-abiding citizens are expected to trust that those secret types who spy on us – who clearly don’t trust us – are equally law abiding. Why should we assume they are? If we hold them to the paranoid standard that they hold us to, then they too must be open to account.

The shadowy and secretive National Security Agency (NSA) has been exposed to the light of day by revelations that show the vast extent of U.S. government spying, at home and around the globe.

The truth about two outrageous surveillance programs--apparently run for years by the world's biggest spying agency with the support of Democrats and Republicans alike--has been revealed to the world in back-to-back exposés in the Guardian and other publications.