If you ever wondered how did the Soviet students partied, how did they look like, did they really have fun and all this back fifty years ago then here is a rare chance. Thanks to those once private photos of Soviet students of prestigious Moscow university now we can see what those Soviet students were up to!
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If you ever wondered how did the Soviet students partied, how did they look like, did they really have fun and all this back fifty years ago then here is a rare chance. Thanks to those once private photos of Soviet students of prestigious Moscow university now we can see what those Soviet students were up to!
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These days some editions try to commemorate Chernobyl incident or how they say in Russia "Chernobyl Catastrophe". The reason is because it happened exactly thirty years ago, in April 1986. So we decided to post something too. We posted the best spooky shots we could get our hands on. The story is as follows. Just four years after the incident, in year 1990, Russian photographer goes straight inside the destroyed reactor building, the most dangerous place in Chernobyl and took those photos. Scary.
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Right here it all happened. Inside the Reactor No. 4. What a brave photographer, huh?
What shocks us most, it was a woman. Yes, woman-photographer risked her life to bring those photos to you 26 years later.
This is what she saw there.
These days some editions try to commemorate Chernobyl incident or how they say in Russia "Chernobyl Catastrophe". The reason is because it happened exactly thirty years ago, in April 1986. So we decided to post something too. We posted the best spooky shots we could get our hands on. The story is as follows. Just four years after the incident, in year 1990, Russian photographer goes straight inside the destroyed reactor building, the most dangerous place in Chernobyl and took those photos. Scary.
loading...
Right here it all happened. Inside the Reactor No. 4. What a brave photographer, huh?
What shocks us most, it was a woman. Yes, woman-photographer risked her life to bring those photos to you 26 years later.
This is what she saw there.
Tehran intends to complete the construction of the Persian Gulf Star Refinery next year, ending the need for foreign gasoline imports, the Shana news agency reports.
When fully operational, the refinery in Bandar Abbas will be able to produce 36 million liters of petrol per day. Its daily output will also include four million liters of liquefied petroleum gas (LPG), three million liters of jet fuel and 130 tons of sulfur.
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According to Iran, state-run NIORDC has less than a 20 percent share in the $3.8 billion project, with private-owned companies holding the majority stake.
When the first phase of the refinery is operational, the plant will produce 12 million liters per day of Euro-4 standard gasoline. Production was previously impossible due to Iran's lack of technology and the inability to buy it abroad because of sanctions.
The second phase will increase the capacity to 24 million liters per day, the third – to 36 million liters per day. Iran’s daily gasoline consumption is about 70 million liters.
In addition, the plant will process about 360,000 barrels per day of gas condensate supplied from the South Pars field.
Initially scheduled to start operating in 2013, the plant's opening has been postponed several times.
Iran's oil production has declined sharply after the embargo on its oil exports was introduced by Western countries over its nuclear program. After the lifting of the oil embargo, Tehran intends to return to pre-sanctions level of production at four million barrels per day and is opposed to any production freeze.
In April, Iranian Oil Minister Bijan Zanganeh said with the sales of crude and condensate, Tehran managed to boost its exports to more than two million barrels per day.
Liverpool and Sevilla head into Thursday's Europa League semi-final first-leg ties eying a potential place in next year's Champions League.
With neither team looking likely to qualify through their domestic league positions, the Europa League offers them the best of opportunity of competing in Europe's top club tournament next season.
Jurgen Klopp's Liverpool tackle Villarreal in the last four, with the Spanish team presenting a big hurdle to their hopes of reaching the final.
Since losing their opening group match against Rapid Vienna, Villarreal have won eight and drawn three games and boast a perfect record at home.
Liverpool are undefeated in the competition, with five victories and seven draws from their 12 games.
Villarreal have reached the semi-final stage on two previous occasions, while Liverpool won the competition when it was named the UEFA Cup in 1973, 1976 and 2001.
The two teams reached the last four in contrasting circumstances. Villarreal enjoyed a comfortable 6-3 aggregate success against Sparta Prague, while Liverpool produced a stirring comeback to defeat Borussia Dortmund 5-4 after two epic encounters.
Villarreal are the only semi-finalists who have never won this competition, with Sevilla (2006, 2007, 2014, 2015) and Shakhtar Donetsk (2009) adding to Liverpool's three successes to make it eight victories between them.
Liverpool have been beaten just once in their previous 12 games in all competitions and will fancy their chances of overcoming a Villarreal team who have lost two of their last three matches.
READ MORE: Liverpool benches Mamadou Sakho after defender fails drug test
History also points to a Liverpool victory, with the Premier League team losing just nine of their previous 32 UEFA games against Spanish teams.
Villarreal are without a victory in their last 10 meetings with English opponents, having won their first three.
Sevilla face Ukraine's Shakhtar in the second semi-final, aiming to maintain their excellent recent record in the competition.
The Spanish side's victory over Dnipro Dnipropetrovsk in 2015 was their second Europa League win in a row and the fourth time they have claimed the trophy.
Sevilla are unbeaten in five meetings with Ukrainian clubs and have won both their previous matches in Ukraine.
Shakhtar have a poor record against Spanish teams, winning just four out of 21 games.
Both teams entered the competition after being eliminated from the Champions League group stages.
Sevilla have won three, drawn one and lost two of their six games, while Shakhtar have won five and drawn one of their six matches.
Since reaching the semi-final, Sevilla have struggled for form, winning just once in three games. By contrast, Shakhtar have lost just twice in their previous 19 matches.
Despite this, Sevilla are strong favorites to earn a crack at a third successive Europa League title.
Their record in this competition speaks for itself, and Shakhtar's previous struggles against Spanish teams point towards a Sevilla victory, with Liverpool their most likely final opponents.
The Transdniestrian parliament has approved a statement dismissing as unfounded rumors any allegations that lawmakers were discussing the possibility of removing Russian peacekeepers from the self-proclaimed republic.
“The Supreme Soviet of the Transdniester Moldovan Republic expresses bewilderment and maintains that the reports about alleged initiation of dismantling of the peacekeeping operation, which have been spreading through the Transdniestrian sector of the internet, are obviously destructive and unfounded speculations, possibly of a political character,” reads the document, as quoted by RIA Novosti. The lawmakers also called upon all citizens of the republic not to react to these “provocations.”
READ MORE: Russia hints at AMD placement in Transdniester
The statement also called the Russian peacekeeping contingent in the republic “an unshakeable guarantee of peace, security and stability on the [River] Dniester’s banks… Only maintaining and strengthening of the current peacekeeping format can create conditions for the dialogue between the Transdniester Moldovan Republic and the Republic of Moldova and normalization of bilateral relations,” the document reads.
In addition, the chairman of the Supreme Soviet, Vadim Krasnoselsky, told MPs that he intended to prepare and draft a bill that would introduce criminal responsibility for the denial of the positive role of the Russian peacekeeping force in the settlement of the Moldova-Transdniester conflict. He noted that the attempts to hush the positive role of Russian peacekeepers could lead to resumed military conflict, loss of human live and dismantling of Transdniestrian statehood.
The unrecognized Republic of Transdniester has a population of over 500,000, most of whom are ethnic Russians and Russian-speakers. It came into existence in 1990 because its population did not approve of the nationalist policies of post-Soviet authorities in Moldova and their (yet-unfulfilled) plans to merge with Romania. In 1992, the dispute developed into a full-scale military conflict that has been settled with the help of joint peacekeeping force that still remains in the region. Currently this force is comprised of 402 servicemen from Russia, 492 from Transdniester, 355 from Moldova and also five observers representing Ukraine.
READ MORE: Russian Deputy PM pledges support to Moldova’s breakaway region
In mid-2014, Russia and Transdniester signed a number of agreements on cooperation in trade, economy, education and culture. This was done as a reply to the Association Agreement between Moldova and the EU that deprived Transdniester of any opportunity to sell its products to European countries.
The resolution, calling for lifting EU sanctions against Russia, was submitted by 85 French MPs. Thierry Mariani, member of the center-right Republicans party who initiated the parliamentary debate, says the document "calls on the French government not to extend the restrictive measures and economic sanctions imposed on Russia by the European Union."
The debate on canceling sanctions was held at the National Assembly for the first time, the politician said. Mariani stressed that anti-Russian sanctions should be lifted because they only cause harm. "Useless and ineffective sanctions against Russia have today become a heavy burden for French agriculture. That's why I urge members of the parliamentary majority to show responsibility and independence in this issue," he told TASS.
Earlier this year, France’s Minister of Economy, Industry and Digital Affairs Emmanuel Macron said that by this summer France will assist in lifting Western-imposed sanctions on Russia.
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In December last year, the European Union prolonged its sanctions against Russia – originally initiated in August of 2014 – for another six months.
An increasing number of European politicians have become more skeptical about the sanctions, pointing out that they have proven to be politically ineffective and economically harmful for both Russia and European countries. Italy initially delayed the decision to prolong anti-Russian measures, demanding the issue be discussed rather than merely rubber-stamped.
EU sanctions against Russia were first introduced in July 2014 for one year, and were later extended over the crisis in Ukraine and the reunification with Crimea.
The sanctions included imposing restrictions on lending to major Russian state-owned banks, and defense and oil companies. In addition, Brussels imposed restrictions on the supply of weapons and military equipment to Russia, as well as military technology, dual-use technologies, hi-tech equipment and technology for oil production.
Russia responded by imposing an embargo on agricultural produce, food and raw materials against countries that joined the anti-Russian sanctions. Imports of beef, pork, poultry meat, fish, cheese, milk, vegetables and fruit were banned. Moscow also launched a policy of import substitution.
DETAILS TO FOLLOW
A fascinating account details how British extremist Mohammed Emwazi fled the UK and passed through six countries to became the notorious Jihadi John - the British face of Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL).
The Kuwaiti-born, London-raised 27-year-old was killed by a drone strike in 2015 after becoming infamous for his role in video beheadings of UK citizens captured by the terror group.
The 8,000-word account of the journey was published in the group’s monthly magazine, and is told through the eyes of an unnamed fighter who claims to have travelled with Emwazi along established migration routes to the IS stronghold of Raqqa in summer 2012.
Smuggled across the English Channel in a truck, they fighter noted how “the controls are much stricter entering the UK than outgoing.”
The fighter and Emwazi, who was known to British intelligence, got to Brussels and bought flights to Albania “without fear that British services are alerted.”
Once in the Belgian capital, they shaved their heads and ate in a café. The fighter relates how they traveled on UK passports but had two fake French ones as backup as well as 30,000 euros in cash.
Fearing a direct flight to Albania might raise suspicions, the pair pretended they were planning to get connecting flights to Corfu in Greece. In fact they paid people smugglers €1,000, and crossed into Kastoria, Greece, then took a taxi to Salonika, where they were detained for four days.
Released a short time later, they made their way to Istanbul and after being processed by authorities, were given a two-month free-movement visa.
With the help of IS agents they then made their way to Syria. The account identifies Emwazi by another alias - Abu Muharib al-Muhajir - and raises questions about both intelligence sharing in the EU and the effectiveness of British intelligence services.
Emwazi was first seen in an execution video in 2014. He was involved in the recorded headings of American journalist Steven Sotloff and British humanitarian workers Alan Henning and David Hanes.
Modern fighting vehicles are losing the battle against increasingly-effective armor-piercing weapons. DARPA engineers decided to break this trend with a high-speed hard target without excessive armor – a GXV-T buggy. Eight contracts have been awarded.
GXV-T stands for Ground X-Vehicle Technology. DARPA expects its progeny to be stripped of typical ‘problems’ of the existing fighting vehicles, which have been gaining in weight due to additional protecting armor and, because of that, losing mobility and speed. Overweight modern armored machines are also increasingly expensive to develop and their deployment costs have surged over the last decades.
DARPA says it has an eye on something truly revolutionary: a fast and mobile ground platform that carries no steel plates yet provides effective protection to the personnel.
“We’re exploring a variety of potentially groundbreaking technologies, all of which are designed to improve vehicle mobility, vehicle survivability and crew safety and performance without piling on armor,” Major Christopher Orlowski, DARPA program manager, said in a press release Tuesday.
“DARPA’s performers for the GXV-T are helping defy the ‘more armor equals better protection’ axiom that has constrained armored ground vehicle design for the past 100 years, and are paving the way toward innovative, disruptive vehicles for the 21st century and beyond.”
The basic four principles behind the GXV-T are declared to be Enhanced Mobility, Survivability through Agility, Crew Augmentation and Signature Management.
To combine all this in one vehicle, DARPA intends to rethink most basic elements of a fighting vehicle. The GXV-T is going to get revolutionary wheel/track and suspension technology, autonomously detect incoming threats and deal them with “active repositioning armor” doing vertical and horizontal movement or avoid them through considerably augmented agility and off-road terrain capabilities.
“It's about breaking the 'more armor' paradigm and revolutionizing protection for all armored fighting vehicles,” DARPA program manager Kevin Massey said.
The personnel inside the GXV-T is promised to have improved situational awareness thanks to multiple onboard sensors, including 360-degree high-resolution visualization of data, so the vehicle is expected to effectively operate in “closed-cockpit” mode.
And of course, a strong point of the GXV-T is going to be its stealth capabilities. To avoid detection, the vehicle ought to have reduced basic signatures, such as decreased optical visibility to adversaries, minimal acoustic, infrared and electromagnetic detectability.
DARPA claims that both the US Army and Marine Corps have already expressed interest in the GXV-T’s promised capabilities.
To the moment eight companies, among them one British and seven American have joined the project, being awarded contracts to develop elements of the future GXV-T.
The research entities that are going to invent the vehicle are the US Carnegie Mellon University, Honeywell International Inc., Leidos, Pratt & Miller, Raytheon BBN, Southwest Research Institute and SRI International.
The only foreign contractor that would assist DARPA with the GXV-T is going to be Britain’s QinetiQ Inc.
First announced in August 2014, the GXV-T program’s schedule has not been publicly announced yet.
With the 2016 World’s Strongest Man competition in his sights, Game of Thrones star Hafthor Bjornsson has revealed the alarming amount of food he has been eating daily in preparation.
The Icelandic powerhouse finished third in last year’s event and is again expected to be one of the frontrunners to claim the prestigious crown in 2016.
Outside of his television responsibilities of fulfilling the role of ‘The Mountain’ in the massively popular series Games of Thrones, Bjornsson is training hard for the strongman event.
Wisely telling regular people not to follow his example, the 6ft 9in, 400lb monster gets through the following on a daily basis.
6:50: Morning workout! Cardio + CORE for 30min Bcaa, Glutamine + handful of almonds
7:30: 8 eggs + 200gr Oats + blueberries & strawberries + avocado
9:30: 400gr Beef, 400gr Sweet potatoes, handful of spinach & greens
11:50: Bcca, glutamine
12:00: 400gr Chicken + 400gr potatoes, greens + some fruits
14:00: Blender = 150gr oats or sweet potatoes, 2 bananas 150gr kelloggs rice krispies, frozen berries, handful almonds, peanut butter and glutamine
14:30: Training strongman, Bcaa, glutamine, Vitargo
17:30: 60gr protein + 2 bananas
18:00: 500gr beef + potatoes, greens
20:30: 500gr salmon + 500gr sweet potatoes
22:30: 50gr casein protein or 6 eggs + avocado + 30gr almonds + 50gr peanut butter
Eating 11 times a day, Bjornsson’s dedication to bulking up even sees him wake up in the middle of the night to take onboard even more protein.
According to the Facebook post, the 27-year-old is consuming a whopping 8.3 pounds of food every day.
A former professional basketball player in his native Iceland, Bjornsson turned to Strongman in 2010 and has been his country’s strongest man for the last five years.
In the World’s Strongest Man competition he has finished third on three occasions and was also runner-up in 2014.
Reigning champion Brian Shaw is the man to beat in this year’s event.
Monsanto says it has developed breakthrough technology to help make its crops more resistant to bugs and pests. The new techniques will help target insects that have developed resistance to previously genetically modified crops.
The research was conducted by scientists at Harvard University in conjunction with Monsanto. The aim was to try and speed up the process of generating proteins, which have properties that can kill pests.
The team was using PACE (phage-assisted continuous evolution) technology, which is able to eliminate insects that have grown resistant to prior agricultural solutions. The PACE method is 100 times faster than other methods in trying to identify protein with insect killing properties, according to the research team.
“Scientific breakthroughs like PACE technology are key to continue bringing solutions to farmers to help them get more out of every acre,” Tom Adams, vice president of biotechnology at Monsanto said in a press release.
“The remarkable progress that’s been made in applying PACE to agriculture biotechnology is a huge testament to the success that comes when parties work together and collaborate to advance science in a way that can bring long-term benefits to global agriculture.”
The importance of the technique means that the proteins are able to be developed at faster than the insects and pests are able to become resistant.
“It’s a breakthrough in a way we can handle resistance in the future,” Tom Malvar, the head of insect control discovery at Monsanto said, according to the Agriculture journal. “This technology is not limited to insect control. We envision this having broad applications,” he added.
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In November, a report by Greenpeace slammed the genetically modified (GM) crop industry, for failing to tackle problems regarding superbugs caused by insects becoming resistant to previously genetically modified crops.
“GM crops can only increase yield by reducing losses to pests in years of high infestation, and this effect is not permanent as pesticide-producing crops lead to resistant ‘superbugs’. GM crop yields have often failed to isolate the effects of GM technology from other factors, or to compare like-for-like farms,” the report stated.
GM corn and soyabeans have given smaller yields in recent years in the US due to pests and weeds becoming resistant to weedkillers used to protect the plants.
In March, the US Department of Agriculture announced its intention to end regulation of Monsanto’s GM corn that is engineered to resist the company’s herbicide, meaning that farmers will now be able to plant the corn strains without permits.
However, the move was slammed by critics, with the National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition, a nonprofit advocating pro-family farm policies, saying the unregulated process could lead to environmental damage.
“Without a coordinated and thorough evaluation of the full technology package, and a meaningful analysis of impacts, adding yet another new crop/herbicide package will continue adding to the existing harmful effects on herbicides on ecological systems, human health, and farmers' livelihoods through herbicide drift and non-target crop losses; the widespread increase in herbicide-resistant weeds; and environmental and public health impacts,” the group said in a statement.
In November, protesters took to the streets in hundreds of cities around the world for the 2015 Million Mask March, which saw activists storm the doors of Monsanto in Washington, DC. In May, activists from over 400 cities spoke out against GMOs and Monsanto’s monopoly over the food supply.
Activists accuse the agricultural corporation of selling toxic chemicals, which are bad for people’s health, water supplies, vital crop pollinators and the environment in general. The giant is also criticized for its attitude towards food safety regulations and staunch opposition to GMO labeling. Small farmers blame Monsanto for monopolizing the seed market.
In January, Seattle announced its intention to sue Monsanto over allegations the company polluted the Lower Duwamish River and city drainage pipes, becoming the sixth city to file a lawsuit against the bio-tech giant.
“Long after the dangers of PCBs were widely known, Monsanto continued its practice of protecting its business interests at our expense,” City Attorney Pete Holmes said in a statement. “The City intends to hold Monsanto accountable for the damage its product wreaked on our environment.”
Russia has circulated a statement at the UN Security Council calling for the investigation of the mass killings which took place in Ukraine’s city of Odessa almost two years ago when dozens of people were burned alive.
The proposed document is also said to focus on the implementation of the Minsk agreements.
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"We have circulated a very simple draft statement which underlines the need to implement the Minsk peace agreements and also contains an appeal to investigate tragic events in Odessa on 2 May 2014, when 48 people were burnt to death," Russia's Envoy to the United Nations Vitaly Churkin said. "We wonder what the reaction of the Security Council's members will be."
Churkin said that Moscow expects the statement to be adopted as early as on Thursday after the Security Council session at Ukraine's request takes place.
On May 2, 2014, dozens of people died trapped inside Odessa's House of Trade Unions, which was set ablaze by pro-Kiev radicals. Also 250 were injured in clashes around the area.
Russia appealed to the UN and OSCE to conduct an impartial investigation of the events back in 2014, but the proposal was rejected.
Talking about the upcoming meeting, Churkin said he did not know what the goal of the session is, but stressed he is always open for a good dialogue.
The UN Security Council session is to be held on April 28 upon the request of Ukraine’s President Petro Poroshenko, who said the reason for the initiative is the “worsening situation in Donbass and Russia’s failure to implement the Minsk agreements.”
The remains of the ‘Russian Rambo’ killed in the battle for Palmyra have been recovered by Kurdish forces more than a month after the 25-year-old special forces officer heroically called an airstrike in on himself when pinned down by Islamic State terrorists.
“At the request of the Russian Federation, the defense units of the Kurdish people have managed to get the body of the Russian serviceman killed near Tadmur [from Islamic State terrorists],” a Syrian People’s Protection Units (YPG) representative told RIA Novosti.
The body of Alexander Prokhorenko was handed over to the Russian government, the spokesman added. No other details about the operation to recover the body have been shared with the news outlet.
Orenburg city native Prokhorenko, dubbed ‘Russian Rambo’ by the international media, died a hero when he called an air strike on himself while surrounded by Islamic State militants during a battle near Palmyra.
Sent in as an operator on a mission in early March to detect the terrorists’ most important targets to provide coordinates for Russian warplanes to strike, his position was compromised on March 17. Instead of fleeing and risking being captured alive, the first lieutenant relayed to mission command that his position should be struck.
His courage in battle was honored by the highest military award – Hero of Russia – which was awarded to his wife. Orenburg has also honored the soldier by naming a street in his honor.
In stark contrast to glossy ISIS propaganda, a video filmed by a terrorist’s helmet camera during his final battle with Kurdish Peshmerga troops near the Iraqi city of Mosul, demonstrates chaos and panic running through the ranks of the terrorists.
The video was obtained by Vice News who say it comes from a clash that took place 30 miles north of Mosul in March 2016, although no exact date has been specified.
Before taking to battle, one of the fighters talks into the camera to give his “message” and “speak about the operations of martyrdom because it’s the closest way to paradise.”
While the fighters seem pretty confident in their improvised armored vehicle early on, the sense of courage soon dissipates and panic sets in as they try to fire their weapons and find their ammunition.
The men seemed particularly angered with one of their own fighters named “Abu Hajaar,” who kept complicating the remainder of his terrorist comrades’ lives.
The men are seen ducking for cover within their truck while they scramble for their weapons with one man shown to be firing a rocket into the distance.
“Good job, but you roasted us too,” says one of the men.
The arguing then continues with Abu Hajaar again taking the brunt of it after hitting one of the others. “What’s wrong with you, Abu Hajaar?” one of the men shouts.
As the shooting continues and the vehicle falls under fire, the men try and fire a second rocket but struggle to find one that fits the barrel.
The terrorists are eventually forced to leave the vehicle after it is struck by a Kurdish rocket which also killed the driver. As they retreat, the man wearing the headcam is shot and is heard screaming as he hits the ground.
The man continues to fire more bullets as he tries to shield himself by rolling away. The video concludes shortly afterwards, as well as the terrorist’s life, apparently.
Israeli settlers reportedly backed by security forces have stormed the Al-Aqsa mosque in Jerusalem for the fourth time since the beginning of the Passover week. They shouted racist slogans and attempted to conduct religious rituals forbidden at the site.
A new string of clashes erupted at the Al-Aqsa mosque, a major holy site for Muslims and Jews, on Wednesday as far-right Israeli settlers under heavy protection from police broke into the mosque, local media reported. Two groups of around 50 men were said to have shouted racist and provocative slogans and attempted to pray although it is forbidden for Jewish people to do so at the site.
A number of Israelis and Palestinians were detained for violating the site’s regulations since the first day of Passover. The clashes were first reported on Friday when Israeli settlers stormed the mosque and took a baby goat to the site to carry out a sacrificial ritual. Police managed to prevent the procedure by arresting at least seven people.
A number of arrests were also made this week.
“Israel Police escorted roughly 1,050 people to the Temple Mount, including 885 tourists and over 100 Israelis, and during the visit 13 were removed from the area for not behaving according to the security measures that were implemented,” said Micky Rosenfeld, a police spokesman, the Jerusalem Post reported on Sunday.
“Police also had to move out of the area Palestinians who were chanting ‘Allahu Akhbar’, but no other incidents took place, and no one was injured or arrested,” he said.
On Tuesday ultra-nationalist Israelis allegedly beat up the site’s guards and threatened to slaughter them, according to local media.
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“Israeli settlers stormed Al-Aqsa Mosque this morning under the protection of the Israeli police. They beat the guards and threatened to slaughter them,” spokesman of the Public Relations Department in the Jerusalem Islamic Awqaf Firas Al-Dibs said as quoted by Middle East Monitor.
According to the spokesman, the settlers said “we will slaughter you during our festivals instead of goats”.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu announced last week Israel would heighten security around the site during Passover in order to prevent “riots.”
“As Passover approaches, all sorts of extremists will spread lies about our policy concerning the Temple Mount,” he said.
On Sunday in a statement given to Petra news agency, Jordan’s Sate Minister for Media Affairs condemned the storming of the Al-Aqsa mosque by Israeli settlers and police, saying that such actions are a violation of international law and will lead to serious consequences. He demanded that Israeli security forces immediately halt such practices and deny entry to Israeli settlers approaching the site, and called for the removal of Israeli security forces from the area.
Minecraft, the blocky 3D construction game where players can generate interactive worlds, just immersed itself in virtual reality. The Swedish company Mojang that manufactures the game calls it a “marvel of modern science.”
“Get your goggles ready!” Mojang declared on Wednesday as it launched its virtual reality edition of Minecraft that can be played on Gear VR-compatible Samsung phones.
“With a VR headset on, coming face-to-face with monstrous mobs takes on new meaning; creeping into dark caves inspires even greater trepidation thanks to 3D audio; and the light of a gorgeous sunrise seems to envelope you more completely,” added Mojang.
The Gear VR version supports cross-platform play with both the non-VR mobile game as well as the Windows 10 release.
“It works by slotting your Samsung phone into the Gear VR and displaying one whole Minecraft world to each of your eyes!” said the company in a statement.
The video game Minecraft enables players to build constructions out of textured cubes in a 3D generated world. Other activities in the games include exploration, resource gathering, crafting and combat.
The virtual reality edition can be supported by Galaxy S6/S6 Edge, Galaxy S7/S7 Edge and Note 5, and the screen resolution “is pretty fabulous,” according to the company.
“[It’s always amazing to plug yourself into the world of Minecraft without any cables tethering you to a PC,” said Mojang. “Just make sure you don’t tread on the cat!”
The company recommends reading up on the safety information and suggests regular breaks as “longer sessions can make some players feel a bit icky or strain tired eyes.”
Minecraft was created in 2011 by Swedish programmer Markus “Notch” Persson, and later developed and published by Mojang. Microsoft purchased Mojang for $2.4 billion in 2014.
After losing big in this Tuesday’s voting, the presidential underdogs from both camps are revamping their strategies. Ted Cruz hopes to boost his run with a former rival at his side, and Bernie Sanders is laying off staffers as he shoots for victory.
This week started badly for both candidates, who sustained significant setbacks after losing in the majority of the five states’ primaries: Connecticut, Delaware, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Rhode Island.
On Tuesday, Bernie Sanders managed to pick up his sole victory in Rhode Island, winning 13 delegates versus rival Hillary Clinton’s 11 delegates. The former secretary of state added 216 delegates to her camp from four states, reaching a total 1,662.
Even after securing 163 delegates from Maryland, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Delaware, Sanders remains 297 delegates behind Clinton. The Vermont senator, however, has not lost hope for a big win in the remaining 14 contests before the Democratic presidential nomination convention in July.
“I think we do have a path to victory,” Sanders told CNN. “We’re going to fight for every last vote until California and the DC primary.”
California and five other states are scheduled to hold Democratic primaries on June 7, and the final voting occurs a week later in Washington, DC.
To focus much of his camp’s effort on winning, Sanders is going to lay off hundreds of campaign staffers across the country.
“We want to win as many delegates as we can, so we do not need workers now in states around the country,” Sanders told The New York Times. “We don’t need people right now in Connecticut. That election is over. We don’t need them in Maryland. So what we are going to do is allocate our resources to the 14 contests that remain, and that means that we are going to be cutting back on staff.”
The Democratic hopeful has not revealed an exact number of his staffers to be laid off, only saying that many people will be affected by the change.
“We have had a very large staff, which was designed to deal with 50 states in this country; 40 of the states are now behind us. So we have had a great staff, great people,” he said.
In California, Sanders hopes to hold rallies for “hundreds of thousands” of people.
“California will have the most staff,” Sanders said, adding that grabbing a victory there would “send a real message to the American people and to the delegates that this is a campaign that is moving in the direction it should.”
On the Republican side, Senator Ted Cruz of Texas is also betting on California after losing all five states Tuesday. Cruz only managed to gain three delegates, compared to 109 for his main rival, frontrunner Donald Trump. Even Ohio Governor John Kasich, considered a distant third place in the GOP primary, secured five delegates.
In a last-ditch bid to catch up with Trump, Cruz brought former presidential competitor Carly Fiorina onboard. Having suspended her own presidential run after losing New Hampshire in February, the former business executive at Hewlett-Packard Co. gave a speech as Cruz’s presumptive vice president to an Indianapolis crowd Wednesday.
Cruz admitted that it was an “unusual” move this early in the race but said that it gives voters a clear choice.
"After a great deal of consideration and prayer, I have come to the conclusion that if I am nominated to be president of the United States that I will run on a ticket with my vice presidential nominee Carly Fiorina," Cruz said during the Indianapolis rally, less than a week before the next primary in Indiana.
Praising her in a half-hour long speech, Cruz explained his choice-to-be by describing Fiorina as “superbly skilled, superbly gifted at helping unite this party.”
READ MORE:Former tech CEO Carly Fiorina becomes Republican presidential candidate
Fiorina may seem a good fit for Cruz’s campaign, especially with a little over a month left until the voting California, where she had some primary success in the past. In 2010, Fiorina won the Republican Senate primary but failed to win the subsequent general election.
Now Cruz is focusing on the crucial Indiana contest, where he must win big to catch up with Trump and block him from getting closer to securing the 1,237 delegates necessary to win the nomination.
Following Cruz’s speech, Trump blasted the decision to announce a running mate as a “waste of time.”
“I think it’s really a waste of time, honestly,” Trump said, suggesting that it was an attempt to attract more attention to his campaign. “You have to first get the nomination. … He has zero chance.”
With a total 953 delegates, Trump needs to win 284 delegates to reach an absolute majority to become the nominee. From here, that is roughly one-third to half the delegates in the remaining primaries, some of which are winner-take-all.
The Secretary of the Interior and scientists are drawing attention to a massive die off in seagrass in the Florida Bay. The marine plant deaths threaten not only the submerged ecosystem, but the local sport fishing economy worth $1.2 billion a year.
The Florida Bay, which runs along the Keys, is famous for its pristine turquoise water. Over 40,000 acres of the Bay, however, is now cloudy with floating dead grasses.
“[Being] out of balance at a time of climate change is really going to have a huge impact on South Florida, if we don’t do something about it,” Interior Department Secretary Sally Jewell, who surveyed the dead grass last week in a visit to the Everglades, said, according to The Washington Post. “This is what we get when we don’t take care of Florida Bay.”
Seagrasses are “grass-like flowering plants” submerged in marine and estuarine waters, according to the National Park Service Everglades website. They occupy about 2.2 million acres in the state and perform a number of life sustaining functions. They trap fine sediment and particles in their leaves to help maintain water clarity. The plants stabilize the Bay’s bottom with their roots and rhizomes as well as provide shelter for fish, crustaceans and shellfish. The grasses are also an important food source for marine animals and water birds.
There are competing theories as to what is causing the die-off. Florida did experience a drought 2014 to 2015, but Brian La Pointe, a researcher with Florida Atlantic University, argues it is the nutrient runoff from lawns and agriculture choking the water with nitrogen, which causes algae to overbloom.
Other experts argue it is the construction of homes, roads and cities as people move to the area, stifling the flow of fresh water from mainland Florida. Six million people now live in South Florida and rely on the Biscayne aquifer for drinking water.
Waterflows from Shark River Slough in mainland Florida to the Everglades and into Florida Bay have dropped to just a quarter of previous annual flows, causing the Bay to become twice as salty as normal, according to The Washington Post. Salty conditions result in less oxygen for the seagrass and create intolerable conditions for marine organisms such as sea bass, snappers, pink shrimp, spiny lobsters and spotted seatrout, which attract sport fishing to the tune of $1.2 billion a year for the local economy.
During her visit, Secretary Jewell announced a $144 million “bridging” project to elevate Highway 41, which connects Miami to Tampa and runs through the Everglades. Constructed almost a hundred years ago, the highway interrupts water flowing south into the Everglades. Lifting the bridge, they hope, will restore freshwater flow levels, but the project is not scheduled to be completed until 2020.
James Fourqurean, a marine scientist who studies seagrass at Florida International University, said the die-off, which began mid-2015, has “started faster as far as we can tell this year.”
“In the 80s, it continued to get worse for three years,” Fourqurean told The Washington Post.
Fourqurean is referring to 1987 when the die-off was so extreme it became a topic of national news headlines. Florida Bay became a river of dead grass. The casualty prompted Congress to approve federal funding for the Comprehensive Everglades Restoration Plan. But 15 years later, the area is still not getting enough fresh water flowing into the Bay.
Fourqurean and Everglades experts think that what they are experiencing is a “serious environmental breakdown.”
Much attention has been paid to the loss of coral reefs, but seagrass ecosystems are equally in trouble. In a study in 2009, scientists found the grasses globally had declined by 29 percent since the late 19th century.
Golam and Shamima Rabbi, a Muslim couple, were Bangladeshi immigrants who paid forward their time in the US, housing other Bangladeshi immigrants in their San Jose home and volunteering at a local Islamic center. Yet on Sunday, they were found murdered.
Police were summoned to the Rabbis’ home on Sunday after friends realized they hadn’t heard from Golam or Shamima in a few days. Their friends went to the quiet cul-de-sac where they lived in San Jose and found the door unlocked, The Washington Post reported. Upon entering, they found the pair’s bodies.
Next to them was a note written in black magic marker that read: "Sorry, my first kill was clumsy,” KGO reported.
But that was not the only cryptic message on the scene. KNTV reported that an anonymous source who had been in the house found a continuation of the note. The middle section allegedly described how the wife begged for her life and concluded with, “I can’t be like you, telling a lie. I can’t love someone without telling them.”
The meaning of these notes is still unclear and the police have not offered many further details. So far, all that is known is that police do not believe that the killing was random, but they do not believe it was a hate crime.
The couple had two sons, a 17-year-old who has been located and and another in his 20s named Haseeb. Police are seeking Haseeb, although they have been clear in stating that he is only being sought out for information, not as a suspect.
“At this time he is not considered a suspect but may have information regarding this incident,” said San Jose police spokesman Albert Morales.
The killings have shaken San Jose’s Bangladeshi community. Evergreen Islamic Center Board Member Hasan Rahim told KNTV, "I can’t ever remember this happening in the Bangladeshi community. It’s never happened."
Rahim had been friends with the Rabbis for three decades.
"I can’t fathom it," he said. "They were so eager to make the community better. They were so soft spoken. I never saw my friend angry or agitated."
Golam Mustakim, a nephew of the couple, shared his memories of the Rabbis, who provided his family with shelter when they first immigrated to the US.
“They not only brought us here, they also brought us food and shelter – at least until we found our means to survive. [They] displayed this same kindness to other families in the United States,” Mustakim told the San Francisco Chronicle.
Police have asked for anyone with information regarding the Rabbis’ murders to contact Detective Sgt. Pat Guire or Detective Ken Tran of the San Jose Police Department’s Homicide Unit at 408-277-5283.
The Hubble Space Telescope’s “eagle eye” has spotted a tiny, previously unseen dark moon orbiting Makemake, a dwarf planet friend of Pluto’s. Makemake’s bright light had obscured the moon, which now may reveal more about the recently-discovered planet.
A team of researchers who found Makemake back in 2005 also happened upon its petite moon, nicknamed MK 2. Estimated to be 100 miles across in diameter, MK 2 is circling the dwarf planet at an approximate distance of 13,000 miles.
Makemake, a relatively recent discovery itself, is located in the Kuiper Belt, home to several dwarf planets. Measuring just 870 miles in diameter, it is one of five dwarf planets recognized as such by the International Astronomical Union.
It is also the second brightest icy dwarf planet after Pluto. Its brightness is one of the main reasons why researches could not see its moon until now. MK 2 is more than 1,300 times fainter than Makemake.
Thanks to Hubble’s unique ability to catch faint objects near bright ones, they plucked out MK2 from Makemake’s glare last April.
“Our preliminary estimates show that the moon’s orbit seems to be edge-on, and that means that often when you look at the system you are going to miss the moon because it gets lost in the bright glare of Makemake,” Alex Parker of Southwest Research Institute, Boulder, Colorado said in a statement.
Parker and his team announced their discovery in a Minor Planet Electronic Circular Tuesday. The same Hubble technique that helped them find Pluto’s small satellites in 2005, 2011, and 2012 was used.
MK 2’s detection is hoped to bring more insight not just into Makemake, but the dwarf-planet system in general, its mass and evolution.
“Makemake is in the class of rare Pluto-like objects, so finding a companion is important,” Parker said. “The discovery of this moon has given us an opportunity to study Makemake in far greater detail than we ever would have been able to without the companion.”
The researchers still need to learn more about MK 2’s orbit, whether it is elliptical or circular. If, for example, it is circular, the moon would complete a circuit around Makemake in 12 days or longer, researches assume.
Knowing the shape of the moon’s orbit would also be helpful in order to find answers about Makemake’s origin. A tight circular orbit means that MK 2 most likely appeared after a collision between Makemake and another Kuiper Belt object several billion years ago. If the moon moves in a wide, elongated orbit, it is more likely to have been a captured object from the Kuiper Belt, taken when the solar system was younger.
Another curious fact is MK 2’s charcoal black color. Parker’s team believes it comes from the fact the moon is so small that it lacks the gravitational power necessary to hold onto a bright, icy crust. If true, this would make MK 2 similar to comets and other Kuiper Belt objects, many of which have the same feature.
Russia’s new Vostochny Cosmodrome has conducted its first space launch on Thursday. A Soyuz rocket boosted three scientific and distance viewing satellites into orbit.
The historic launch came a day behind schedule. First planned for Wednesday, it was aborted at the last minute when automatic safety systems detected a fail signal in one of their sensors.
“The first launch from a new pad is an important and sensitive event. Things like this happen. We will work it out,” the head of the Russian space agency Roscosmos, Igor Komarov, said in comments on the hitch.
The launch on Thursday was observed by Russian President Vladimir Putin, who decided to stay for an extra day to personally take part in the event. Vice-Prime Minister Dmitry Rogozin – something of a ‘space tsar’ in the Russian government – also watched the launch at the site, and was joined by the chief of Russian Space Troops, Lt. Gen. Aleksandr Golovko.
Vostochny is located in a desolate area of the Amur Region in Russia’s Far East, which allows spent stages to safely land in the taiga or neutral waters. Its construction was launched in 2012, as Russia saw the need for a domestic launch site for civilian rockets.
Russia has the large military launch facilities Plesetsk and Kapustin Yar, but for civilian launches has to rely primarily on the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan.
The launch of the Soyuz-2.1a rocket from Vostochny came after a delay. It was initially scheduled for December 2015, but the construction of the launch pad and other facilities went pass the deadline. The current roadmap says the cosmodrome should have up to 10 launches annually in the next several years. The first manned mission to the International Space Station is expected to be launched from Vostochny after 2023.
As the role played by the new cosmodrome increases, Russia intends continue launches from Baikonur. The standing lease contract with Kazakhstan ends in 2050. Compared to that site, Vostochny allows somewhat smaller payloads to be launched because it is located six degrees further north.
The work at the cosmodrome is continuing as additional launch pads are being constructed. The total cost of the project is estimated at around $2.7 billion. During its peak the process involved up to 8,000 workers and 1,000 heavy duty vehicles.
The Soyuz rocket launched from Vostochny on Tuesday used a new third stage Volga. Its payload includes the scientific satellite Mikhailo Lomonosov, an experimental nanosatellite SamSat-218 and a civilian distance viewing satellite Aist-2D. A day ahead the launch it was blessed by an Orthodox Christian bishop, a traditional ceremony for Russian space missions.
As the main Paris attacks suspect Salah Abdeslam appeared in a French court for the first time since his extradition, his Belgian lawyer described his former client as a “little moron” and more of a follower than a leader, with the “intelligence of an ashtray.”
Refusing to address charges formally brought against him by the French court on Wednesday, Abdeslam claimed to be tired from the “quite rough” extradition, when elite French military police flew him to France. The 26-year-old Abdeslam has been scheduled to appear in court on May 20.
The sole survivor of the Islamist cell which killed 130 people in a series of shootings and suicide bombings in Paris on Nov. 13 stands accused of belonging to a terrorist organization, murder, kidnapping and possessing weapons and explosives.
As Abdeslam was handed over to the French authorities and a French defense team, his Belgian lawyer, Sven Mary, who has spoken to the suspect on eight occasions following his capture in Brussels on March 18 after a four-month manhunt, said that the Paris suspect would most likely cooperate with the investigation.
“I think Salah Abdeslam is of capital importance to this investigation. I would even say he is worth gold. He cooperates, he communicates,” Mary said in an interview with the Liberation newspaper.
Assessing his interaction with the jihadist, the Belgian attorney described his departing client as being a “little moron from Molenbeek, more a follower than a leader. He has the intelligence of an empty ashtray.”
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Mary said that Abdeslam’s perception of reality was an example of the “GTA generation,”“who thinks he lives in a video game.”
According to the lawyer, the suspect was radicalized over the internet, as the jihadist had no clue about the Koran and the radical interpretation of the holy book’s verses.
“I asked him if he had read the Koran, and he replied that he had looked up what it meant on the Internet,” Mary said. “A year and a half ago he was clubbing in Amsterdam. The only explanation I can find is that it was internet propaganda that gave the impression that Muslims were unfairly treated.”
Due to the severity of Abdeslam’s crime, Mary believes that the trial should actually take place in the international criminal court.
“These people committed war crimes,” he told Liberation.
But for now, the suspect's fate lies in the hands of his French lawyer Frank Berton while the 26-year-old is being held in isolation at the Fleury-Merogis prison complex outside of Paris.
“He told me naturally that he has things to say and he will say them. He wants to talk,” Berton told BFMTV. “What counts and what matters for us as his lawyers is simply that he gets a fair trial, that he is sentenced for things he did and not things that he didn't do. That’s vital because he is the sole survivor.”
So far Abdeslam has confessed to his defense team that he had arranged logistics for the November 13 attacks in Paris and was planning to blow himself up at the stadium before having a change of heart at the last minute.
The Palestinian envoy to the UN has defended the rights of his countrymen to resist Israeli occupation, comparing Tel Aviv’s labeling of Palestinians as “terrorists” to the Nazi suppression of Warsaw Ghetto uprising fighters.
The comments were made during a press conference held by Riyad Mansour, the Permanent Observer of Palestine to the United Nations, which occurred 10 days after he and Israel’s ambassador to the UN, Danny Danon, exchanged heated verbal accusations with regards to the wider definition and condemnation of terror.
During a UN Security Council meeting back on April 18 Danon accused Palestinians of teaching “hatred” in schools and naming streets after “terrorists.” Danon also lashed out against Mansour’s failure to condemn “all” acts of terrorism.
“You pay the families of terrorists,” the Israeli envoy said. “You glorify terrorism. Shame on you for doing that.”
“Shame on you for killing thousands of Palestinian children,” Mansour retorted.
Riyad Mansour (State of Palestine) on the protection of civilians in the State of Palestine - Press Conference https://t.co/9yvWTUtG3W UNw…
— iCastNews (@iTeam_iCastNews) April 27, 2016
Speaking on Wednesday, Mansour accused Danon of labeling all Palestinians terrorists, drawing parallels with all occupying forces in the history of humankind – and most notoriously to the Nazi regime which tried to destroy all resistance to their rule.
“[Israel’s] representative on the UN Security Council trying to show that all the Palestinian people who have legitimate rights to resist occupation in legitimate ways – he paints them as terrorists,” Mansour said in New York.
“Guess what?” he added. “All colonizers, all occupiers, including those who suppressed the Warsaw [Ghetto] uprising, labeled those who resisted them as terrorists.”
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Responding to Mansour’s fresh accusations, Danon stressed that “any comparison between the Nazi regime and the democratic State of Israel is despicable and must be condemned by the international community.”
The Israeli Ambassador accused Palestinians of “continuing to lie to the world and turn to the international community with ridiculous claims instead of focusing their efforts on fighting terror and incitement.”
Replying to charges of Israeli detention of minors, Danon said that some “terrorists” deserved no other treatment.
“When we arrested the sixteen-year-old who killed Dafna Meir, an innocent mother of six, we treated him like the terrorist that he is,” Danon said. “A murderer who belongs in prison for life.”
In the meantime Mansour announced that on May 6 the UN Security Council will have an informal meeting on the protection of civilians in Palestine.
“Our desire is to find any form of protection to protect our people from the brutality of this occupation,” he said.
The first of 12 appropriations bills the US Senate must pass to keep the government funded past September 30 suffered a legislative roadblock, thanks to Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Arkansas), infamous for his opposition to the Iran nuclear deal.
Usually bipartisanship is a precursor to approving legislation, not sinking it. But on Wednesday, four Senate Republicans joined with their Democratic colleagues to prevent the passage of an energy and water appropriations bill.
With the fiscal year 2016 ending on September 30, Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell has made it his goal to implement a neat and clean process for passing 12 funding bills for the fiscal year 2017, but so far events have not been going according to plan.
The funding failed to get the required 60 votes, with senators voting 50-46 in order to avoid what would have been an imminent follow-up vote on amendments, including one by Sen. Cotton deemed a “poison pill.”
Cotton’s amendment would have prohibited any further purchases of heavy water from Iran as allowed under the US-Iran-led international agreement limiting Iran’s civilian nuclear energy program, which went into full effect this year.
Last Friday, the Obama administration finalized an $8.6 million deal to buy 32 metric tons of heavy water leftover from Iran’s Arak reactor, the Associated Press reported. Heavy water is non-radioactive and has medical as well as other industrial uses, but Iran is restricted on how much it can keep under the nuclear deal.
While President Obama has threatened a veto against any congressional effort to disrupt those transactions, Cotton and his allies claim they were given no notice of Friday’s deal and introduced the amendment to prevent further acquisitions.
“If President Obama intends to make future purchases of Iranian heavy water that will subsidize Iran's nuclear industry, then he should say so,” Cotton said in a statement Wednesday. “His own Secretary of Energy has said there will be no more purchases. But the vehemence with which the White House is opposing my amendment raises the question of whether President Obama is being straight with the American people."
My amendment simply seeks to stop US dollars from going to Iran.
— Tom Cotton (@SenTomCotton) April 27, 2016
Cotton also took to Twitter to respond to White House spokesman Josh Earnest, who said Cotton was determined to sabotage the Iran nuclear deal. Cotton tweeted, "My amendment simply seeks to stop US dollars from going to Iran."
Cotton was the author of an open letter addressed to Iranian leaders and co-signed by 46 other Republican senators. It was sent in the heat of international negotiations and carried veiled threats of the constitutional powers that Congress could exercise against any deal, although the deal has been recognized as an executive agreement, not a treaty with Iran.
Under the $8.6 million buy, the heavy water will be researched or re-sold from the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ride, Tennessee.
The Savannah River National Laboratory near Jackson, South Carolina has previously certified Iran’s heavy water’s high purity.
Do you have $8 million burning a hole in your pocket? If so, take a moment to learn about Cal-Nev-Ari, Nevada. This tiny town in the desert is home to an airstrip, a diner, and a casino and it could all be yours for the low, low price of $8 million.
Located by the California and Arizona borders, Cal-Nev-Ari is off of a stretch of Highway 95 and has a population of roughly 350 people, NPR reported. But 51 years ago, the sleepy desert town had a population of just two people: Nancy and Slim Kidwell who, along with their cat and dog, founded Cal-Nev-Ari.
Nancy Kidwell explained that she and her late husband founded the town around an abandoned airstrip. For some, a dusty military runway would not be a draw. However, for the two aviators, the thought of building a town around it was a dream that they were determined to have a reality. Using the Pittman Land Act, the couple purchased 650 acres of land in 1965, the Press Democrat reported.
In order to settle the vacant land, they had to prove that the town could sustain itself by digging a well, rigging up an irrigation system, and planting 20 acres of barely. "It takes a lot of intestinal fortitude because there's a lot of hardships," Nancy Kidman told NPR, adding, "No power out here in the middle of the summer. We could work until about noon and then we had to get in the shade cause it just got too hot."
The two went on to use the airstrip to market the Cal-Nev-Ari as the first fly-in casino town in the state. Cal-Nev-Ari is by no means bustling, but over the years retirees have found themselves in the mobile homes while pilots use the town’s dirt roads to taxi planes from driveways to the runway.
Slim Kidman passed away in 1983 and her second husband died in 2011, leaving the responsibility of the town to Nancy. At 78, the woman who her employees view “like a mother” is ready to retire. She told NPR, "I'm not going to be here forever. And I have to provide for the future of this town while I'm still able to do so."
Prior to the real estate market crash, Kidman courted multiple offers for the town. However, the recession caused buyers to lose interest. The price was set at $17 million in 2010 and has since dropped to $8 million with Cal-Nev-Ari's casino, diner, convenience store, 10-room motel, RV park and mile-long dirt airstrip thrown in.
With most of the town industry just breaking even, Listing broker Fred Marik explained that the possibilities for Cal-Nev-Ari are bountiful. So far, he has received inquiries from buyers looking to use the land for a retirement community, a renewable energy project, a motorsports park, a survival school, a dude ranch, a shooting range, or even a marijuana resort – pending legalization.
What happens to Cal-Nev-Ari is left to be seen, but Kidman is ready to pass the torch.
"It's time for someone else to do something with it," the 78-year-old said. "Fifty-one years is long enough."
Residents in Dudley, Massachusetts have complained about the possibility of a Muslim graveyard being built on empty farm land. The residents of the small town are the latest in a list of towns expressing anti-Muslim concerns.
The land for the cemetery was bought by the Islamic Society of Greater Worcester (ISGW), a local Islamic center, because the nearest Muslim cemetery is presently located 90 miles away. Some Dudley residents claimed that their concerns were based on water contamination, AP reported, due to the fact that Muslims do not traditionally embalm their dead or use coffins. These concerns are somewhat contradicted bu the fact that embalming has been linked to toxicity in the water and ground. The commonly-used formaldehyde, which has recently been found to cause cancer, can take up to 10 years to dissipate, gradually contaminating its surroundings.
Other concerns expressed included a fear of “crazy music” and an increase in traffic on a small road.
Residents previously expressed their reasons for not wanting the cemetery. “Why not go bury your dead at a Christian cemetery,” a confused Jarrod Manzi said during a February town meeting. “Why do you need your own cemetery if you’re willing to violate jihadi law?”
During a meeting in Dudley earlier this month, a Muslim resident said “I deserve to be buried here. I deserve to be die in the town where I work hard. I don’t want my family to (have to) go far away.”
ISGW has said it will alter its plan to use less of the land, and even offered to give some of the land back to the town. The zoning board has until July to make a decision, CBS reports.
Dudley joins Farmersville, Texas, Walpole, Massachusetts, Carlisle, Pennsylvania, and Farmington, Minnesota in complaining about Muslim cemeteries in their towns, with some managing to stop the process, according to AP.
Residents of Farmersville complained at a town meeting last August. "People don't trust Muslims. Their goal is to populate the United States and take it over," said Barbara Ashcraft, a local resident, said.
“Everywhere y’all have been, y’all have caused some kinda controversy in schools, and the government led y’all have y’alls way, we’ll that ain’t goin’ happen in Farmersville,” said another Farmersville resident at the meeting in August 2015.
Pastor David Meeks told Fox News: “You just can’t trust them. I don’t believe they’re going to tell the truth about this issue. Eventually there’ll be a mosque, there’ll be a training center there.”
One resident claimed she was concerned the cemetery would become an eyesore, despite the fact that Islam says graves should not be adorned with monuments, like Christians do.
A proposed cemetery proposed which would occupy three acres in Walpole had residents up in arms, citing concerns about diseases spreading into the water. “How could we sleep at night wondering if the water’s going to be contaminated in six months, six years?” one resident told WCVB. The town’s Jewish cemetery doesn’t appear to cause the same concern, despite the Jewish practice of not embalming the dead.
In Pennsylvania, the West Pennsboro Township Board refused to grant permission for a Muslim cemetery last year, citing concerns about water contamination and declining property values. One resident said it was a slap in the face to veterans and another called for Bosnian Muslims to used “typical burial customs,” The Sentinel reported. Fox reported that the ruling had been overturned by a judge.
In January, a judge overturned a denial of a permit for a cemetery near Farmington Minnesota. Judge David Knutson said there was a “lack of any justification based on the health, safety and general welfare of the local residents,” according to AP.
The judge ruled that the Castle Rock Township must grant a permit to the Al Maghfirah Cemetery Association.
The Brady Campaign, which aims to prevent gun violence, has released an extension for the browser Chrome, that withholds the names of mass killers and swaps their pictures with those they have murdered.
"You can wipe away the killer's name and image from your screen, and replace it with something that truly deserves our attention – the victims," says the description of the just-launched tool.
The Brady Campaign, named after Ronald Reagan’s aide who was disabled during the 1981 assassination attempt, has argued that media fascination with gruesome and audacious killers encourages others to also commit high-profile crimes.
“30% of mass killings, and 22% of school shootings, are inspired by previous gun related events. These events are always covered by the media, who plasters the killer’s name, image and motives all over their broadcast channels,” said its statement. “So, if the media continues to give these killers their 15 minutes of fame, then it’s time to take matters into our own hands.”
The activist group Gun Violence Archive has documented 88 confirmed mass shootings this year alone in the US, among a total of over 16,000 gun-related incidents, resulting in the deaths of over 4,100 people.
Over the past week alone, a gunman in Appling in Georgia shot five people from his wife’s family, before killing himself, reportedly after discovering she planned to divorce him. In Piketon in Ohio, eight people were subjected to “execution-style” murders, with police attempting to find out if the spree was motivated by a criminal turf war, or a more showy reason.
The Brady Campaign, along with a similar group, called No Notoriety, formed after the 2012 Aurora cinema shootings, say that they are having some influence in toning down the alluring portraits of mass murderers, with fewer mentions of their names and displays of photos.
But some journalists have spoken out against the campaigns, saying they are in conflict with their professional duties, or are likely to be ineffective due the wide range of media sources and a persistent interest in murderers from the audiences themselves.
The House voted 419-0 on a bill requiring law enforcement to obtain a warrant to look through Americans’ emails, no matter how old they are. The bill would update a 30-year-old law that doesn’t require a warrant for emails older than 180 days.
The Email Privacy Act, HB 699, closes a loophole in the 1986 Electronic Communications Privacy Act that allows emails to be accessed by law enforcement with only a subpoena to the company storing them – not a warrant – if the stored communication is more than 180 days old.
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It was swiftly and unanimously passed on to the Senate, following a unanimous vote by the House Judiciary Committee earlier this month. The bill garnered a historic 314 co-sponsors, almost three-quarters of the house, with many legislators agreeing that the bill is long overdue.
“Under current law, there are more protections for a letter in a filing cabinet than an email on a server,” said Representative Suzan Delbene (D-Washington) during the 40-minute debate period.
The bill originally had even stronger protections on privacy, requiring law enforcement to notify the person whose electronic communications are being accessed within 10 days. However, to alleviate concerns brought forth by law enforcement organizations, this provision was removed in an amendment added by the House Judiciary Committee chairman Bob Goodlatte (R-Virginia). Now notification would be at the discretion of the third-party service storing the email.
Bipartisan support for the potential law exists within the Senate version as well, with Democrats such as Dick Durbin of Illinois and Republicans such as Ted Cruz of Texas co-sponsoring the bill.
An Oklahoma jury found former Oklahoma reserve officer Robert Bates guilty of second-degree manslaughter for the 2015 shooting death of Eric Harris. Bates had claimed that he mistakenly fired his service weapon when he meant to use his stun gun.
Harris was unarmed and restrained at the time of the shooting which was captured on video.
Bates, 74, could be sentenced to up to four years behind bars.
The shooting took place after Harris ran from officers during an illegal gun sales bust.
Subsequent investigations uncovered an internal 2009 memo from the Tulsa County Sheriff's Office skeptical of Bates' qualifications to serve as a volunteer deputy. Bates, who is also a wealthy insurance executive, was also shown to have made cash donations amounting to tens of thousands of dollars as well as vehicles and equipment to the agency, the Associated Press reported.
Referring to Harris' death as "excusable homicide," defense attorneys for Bates pointed to the victim's poor health and tests showing methamphetamine in his system. Prosecutors, however, called on a deputy who testified that Bates was falling asleep on the job before Harris took off running, a sign of culpable negligence, AP reported.
The reserve deputy program under which Bates was deputized has since been discontinued, following an independent review finding a "system-wide failure of leadership and supervision." The 2009 internal memo showing favoritism for Bates, despite his lack of training, led to the resignation of the sheriff, Stanley Glanz, according to AP.
A revival of the program is currently in the works.
ISIS has considerable manpower, heavy armor and air defenses in the Middle East and is striving to extend its reach into Europe, Africa, Central and Southeast Asia, hoping to become a “Terrorist International,” a senior Russian military officer warned.
“The overall strength of Islamic State’s (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) groupings reaches around 33,000 militants, including 19,000 in Iraq and 14,000 in Syria,” deputy director of Russia’s Main Intelligence Directorate (GRU) Sergey Afanasiev said during the Moscow International Conference on Security on Wednesday.
IS militants are well-armed with “tanks, armored personnel carriers (APCs), anti-tank and anti-aircraft missiles including man-portable air-defense systems,” he emphasized.
The Moscow International Conference on Security was hosted by the Russian Defense Ministry. This year’s edition gathered high-profile military and diplomatic delegations from 80 countries to address pressing challenges to international security, such as global terrorism.
Russia was represented by Defense Minister Sergey Shoigu, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov, the country’s military leadership and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
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“Terror threats in Europe have significantly increased,” Afanasiev continued, noting that the EU nationals who went to the Middle East to fight alongside IS, are now coming back, “ready to utilize their experience.”
According to GRU’s assessment, more than 800 jihadists have returned to Germany over the past four years, with a “tense situation persisting in areas inhabited by Islamic diasporas in Austria, Belgium, France and other Western European countries.”
“Moreover, they try to finance their activities … by running illegal migration and drug trafficking routes to Europe.”
Besides Europe, IS deliberately advances into Central Asia, where the security environment appears to be volatile because of the low-intensity conflict in Afghanistan. “Islamist leaders strive to gain ground there by using the region’s conflict potential and stirring up inter-ethnic and inter-faith discord.”
IS is building up its units in the region and set up a whole network of training camps all across Afghanistan and beyond, Afanasiev warned.
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He noted that Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan, Hizb ut-Tahrir, Laskhar-e-Tayba and other Islamist factions have already pledged their allegiance to IS.
“The overall strength of IS-linked groups, which are formally independent, is around 4,500 militants.”
In Africa, Islamic State relies on its ally, Boko Haram, a 8,000-strong Islamist group in Nigeria. In Mali, Algeria, Mauritania and Niger, Al-Qaeda-linked groupings tend to compete with IS for money and influence.
“In the meantime, if they would manage to negotiate a deal on specific matters, we cannot rule out creation of a ‘Terrorist International’.”
But another pressing challenge that arises is Islamic State’s pivot towards Southeast Asia, the senior GRU officer explained. “IS’ leaders are looking forward to include into Caliphate territories of Brunei, Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, Thailand and the Philippines,” thus extending their influence “over the entire region with the population of over 250 million Muslims.”
The international community has to unite forces and get rid of “politicized bloc-centric approach to combating terrorism,” Afanasiev added, as its success or failure will largely depend on a collaborative effort of all the countries concerned.
A meth lab in Arizona is standing out not because of the drugs or counterfeit cash police found inside, but rather the person behind the operation: the fundraiser for John McCain’s Senate re-election bid.
Emily Pitha was arrested after the lab was found in her Maricopa County home on Tuesday. Pitha, 34, was a staff member for retired US Sen. Jon Kyl (R-Arizona) and was listed as the RSVP contact for Sen. John McCain’s (R-Arizona) re-election fundraiser, Raw Story reported.
Police investigated Pitha’s north-central Phoenix home after receiving a tip about possible drug activity at her home. The warrant was in response to a parcel from the Netherlands that was signed for by Pitha’s boyfriend, Christopher Hustrulid. The delivery was found to contain over 250 grams of MDMA – raw ecstasy, AZ Central reported.
Unspecified quantities of LSD, cocaine, heroin, methamphetamine, and $7,000 in cash along with counterfeit money also turned up in the investigation of Pitha’s home. In addition, a separate building on the property was found to contain a grow operation for marijuana. The drug charges against Pitha and Hustrulid are numerous and have yet to be publicized.
AZ Central also reported there being bomb-making material found in the meth lab. However, it is unclear whether or not Pitha participated in making explosives or if the material for making meth was just particularly volatile.
Pitha and Hustrulid are also facing child endangerment charges related to a 5-year-old and a 10-year-old living in their home. Detective Doug Matteson, the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office spokesman, said that the children "had easy access to all of [the] drugs and materials, even the bomb-making materials that were located in the back with the meth lab."
Ryan O'Daniel, campaign manager for Sen. John McCain, issued a response to the arrest on Tuesday, announcing the firing of Pitha.
"We commend the hard work and dedication of our law enforcement officers in their fight to keep our community safe from illegal drugs and associated criminal activity. The campaign immediately terminated any relationship with Ms. Pitha upon learning of her alleged involvement in the operation,” the campaign statement read.
Citing dangers to US military dominance, the Pentagon’s top civilian and military officials pleaded with Congress to give them almost $600 billion in funding for 2017. Russia and China topped the list of challenges, with ISIS bringing up the rear.
Testifying before the defense subcommittee of the Senate Appropriations Committee on Wednesday, Defense Secretary Ash Carter and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Joseph Dunford made the case for a budget of $582.7 billion for the 2017 fiscal year, including the Overseas Contingency Operations (OCO) fund.
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Carter described the “five evolving challenges” driving the Pentagon’s planning and budgeting for the near future, naming “Russia, China, North Korea, Iran, and terrorism.”
In the Asia-Pacific, “China is rising, which is fine, but behaving aggressively, which is not,” Carter said, citing Beijing’s land reclamation efforts in the South China Sea. “China is investing in capabilities to counter third-party – including the United States – intervention during a crisis or conflict,” Carter added.
Money-wise, fighting Islamic State (IS, formerly ISIS/ISIL) terrorists in Iraq and Syria remains one of the Pentagon’s priorities, with the requested budget for Operation Inherent Resolve doubling to $7.5 billion in 2017. However, Carter requested only $250 million for “enabling Syrian anti-ISIL forces” – down from $600 million requested for 2016 for a program that lawmakers have described as a “total failure.”
On the other hand, the budget requested for beefing up US presence in Europe has been more than quadrupled to $3.4 billion. Carter said this was necessary to reassure NATO allies in face of what he called “Russian aggression” in Ukraine, Georgia and Moldova.
The Pentagon wants to quadruple the budget to protect European allies from #Russia. That is $3.5 billion for 2017.
— Bricio Segovia (@briciosegovia) April 27, 2016
“We have a lot of concerns about Russia,” Carter said, citing Moscow’s alleged expertise in “hybrid warfare.”
Rather than giving the Russian aerospace forces credit for helping the Syrian government defeat IS in Aleppo and Palmyra, Carter accused Moscow of “pouring gasoline on a civil war, fueling the very extremism Russia claims to oppose.”
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General Dunford gave Russia credit for “increasingly sophisticated military capabilities and doctrine,” and called it a “peer competitor” to the US in cyberspace. It was his explanation of the US military’s mission that put the fear of Russia – and China – into context, however.
The US armed forces “must be capable of simultaneously defending the homeland while waging a global counterterrorism campaign, deterring potential aggressors, and assuring allies,” Dunford told lawmakers, while possessing such overwhelming capabilities that US troops are never sent into a fair fight.
Billions and billions of dollars will be required to fulfill that tall order. However, unless Congress can head off the spending cuts mandated by the sequestration policy, the Pentagon might face $100 billion in cuts between 2018 and 2021, “which would introduce unacceptable risks,” Carter warned.
Carter also took a jab at the House Armed Services Committee’s markup of the defense budget, which seeks to divert about $18 billion from the warfighting OCO fund “and spend that money on programmatic items we didn’t request.”
