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Magyarország
5 4 9 A kormány ismét felhívással fordul minden megyei jogú városhoz és Budapesthez, hogy vállaljanak felelősséget egy-egy kisebb kárpátaljai magyar közösség sorsáért, nyújtsanak segítséget neki a humanitárius katasztrófa elkerüléséhez - mondta a Miniszterelnökséget vezető miniszter. A kormány kifejezi, hogy a békés ukrajnai megoldásban érdekelt, és különösen fontosnak tartja az ország egységét, stabilitását - emelte ki a miniszter. Hangoztatta: Magyarország kész együttműködni az ukrán kormánnyal, hogy a helyzet stabilizálódjon.
Erdély
5 4 9 Az autonómiáról, a regionális átszervezésről, a magyar egyházi ingatlanok visszaszolgáltatásáról, valamint a Marosvásárhelyi Orvosi és Gyógyszerészeti Egyetem (MOGYE) ügyéről egyeztetett az Erdélyi Magyar Nemzeti Tanács küldöttsége Stefannal, a román Elnöki Hivatal belpolitikai tanácsadójával - közölte az EMNT. A Cotroceni-i palotában szerdán lezajlott találkozón Sándor, az EMNT ügyvezető elnök az EMNT tevékenységét, valamint a Demokrácia Központok munkáját ismertette. Mátis alelnök az Erdélyi Magyar Néppárt regionalizációs kerettörvény-tervezetét mutatta be. Nagy alelnök az eddig elkészült autonómiatervezeteket ismertette. A küldöttség átadta Iohannis államfő tanácsosának a Székely Nemzeti Tanács - 2004-ben a parlament elé is beterjesztett, utóbb elutasított - törvénytervezetét, amely Székelyföld jogállását szabályozná.
Great Britain
9 April 2015 UN urged to ban 'killer robots' before they can be developed. Fully autonomous weapons, already denounced as “killer robots”, should be banned by international treaty before they can be developed, a new report urges the United Nations. Under existing laws, computer programmers, manufacturers and military commanders would all escape liability for deaths caused by such machines, The report is released ahead of an international meeting on lethal autonomous weapons systems at the UN in Geneva starting on 13 April. Blinding laser weapons were pre-emptively outlawed in 1995 and combatant nations since 2006 have been required to remove unexploded cluster bombs. Military deployment of the current generation of drones is defended by the Ministry of Defence and other governments on the grounds that there is always a man or woman “in the loop”, ultimately deciding whether or not to trigger a missile.Rapid technical progress towards the next stage of automation, in which weapons may select their own targets, has alarmed scientists and human rights campaigners. “Prototypes exist for planes that could autonomously fly on intercontinental missions [the UK’s Taranis] or take off and land on an aircraft carrier [the US’s X-47B]. Fully autonomous weapons, once deployed, would make their own determinations about the use of lethal force.The report calls for a prohibition “on the development, production and use of fully autonomous weapons through an international legally binding” agreement, and urges states to adopt similar domestic laws. “Weapons could not be held accountable for their conduct because they could not act with criminal intent, would fall outside the jurisdiction of international tribunals and could not be punished. (Source: THe Guardien): http://tinyurl.com/kc7soyz
United States
April 10, 2015 US, Russian war games rekindle Cold War tensions. Russia is so close that the F-16 fighter pilots can see it on the horizon as they swoop down over a training range in Estonia in the biggest ever show of U.S. air power in the Baltic countries. The simulated bombs release smoke on impact, but the M-61 cannon fires live ammunition, rattling the aircraft with a deafening tremor and shattering targets on the ground. The four-week drill is part of a string of non-stop exercises by U.S. land, sea and air forces in Europe — from Estonia in the north to Bulgaria in the south — scaled up since last year to reassure nervous NATO allies after Russia's military intervention in Ukraine. U.S. and Russian forces are now essentially back in a Cold War-style standoff, flexing their muscles along NATO's eastern flank. The saber-rattling raises the specter that either side could misinterpret a move by the other, triggering a conflict between two powers with major nuclear arsenals despite a sharp reduction from the Cold War era. In recent months, Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania with a combined population of just over 6 million, tiny armies and no combat aircraft or vehicle have seen hundreds of U.S. armored vehicles, tanks and helicopters arrive on their soil. Normally based in Aviano, Italy, 14 fighter jets and about 300 personnel from the 510th Fighter Squadron are training together with the Estonians — but also the Swedish and Finnish air forces. Meanwhile, Spain's air force is in charge of NATO's rotating air patrols over the Baltic countries. In Moscow the U.S. Air Force drills just 60 miles (100 kilometers) from the Russian border are seen in a different light. "It takes F-16 fighters just a few minutes to reach St. Petersburg" - Foreign Ministry spokesman Lukashevich said, referring to the major Russian port city on the Baltic Sea. He expressed concern that the ongoing exercise could herald plans to "permanently deploy strike aircraft capable of carrying nuclear weapons at the Russian border." Moscow also says the U.S. decision to deploy armored vehicles in Eastern Europe violates an earlier agreement between Russia and NATO. Russia has substantially increased its own military activity in the Baltic Sea region over the past year, prompting complaints of airspace violations in Estonia, Finland and Sweden, and staged large maneuvers near the borders of Estonia and Latvia. The Pentagon has said that some 3,000 U.S. troops will be conducting training exercises in Eastern Europe this year. Welcoming the U.S. fighter squadron to Estonia, U.S. Ambassador Levine said the air drill was needed "to deter any power that might question our commitment to Article 5" — NATO's key principle of collective defense of its members. (Source: Yahoo): http://tinyurl.com/pte8zpn
FOTO Apr 9, 2015 Vice President Biden appears to have a pacifier in his mouth. Former New York City Mayor Bloomberg's daughter posted a Facebook photo (Source: Business Insider): http://tinyurl.com/lxhh9ew
April 8, 2015 Gearing up for robot war. Deputy Defense Secretary Work outlined the Pentagon’s plans for an advanced war-fighting strategy involving robot weapons and remote-controlled warfare. In a speech to the Army War College Strategy Conference, Mr. Work said the “third offset strategy” will rely heavily on autonomous systems that will allow machines and U.S. technological superiority to win wars. The third offset will be designed to defeat states like China, which is developing niche, offset weapons such as anti-ship ballistic missiles and anti-satellite arms. “The real essence of the third offset strategy is to find multiple different attacks against opponents across all domains so they can’t adapt, or they adjust to just one, and they died before they can adapt again,” he said. The third offset will be designed to defeat states like China, which is developing niche, offset weapons such as anti-ship ballistic missiles and anti-satellite arms. Mr. Work said the “Air Sea Battle” concept, designed to break into Asia against Chinese missiles and submarines, has evolved into “Air Land Battle 2.0.” The revised concept will involve avoiding being targeted by massive Chinese missile salvos or submarine attacks through “getting into their networks, blowing them up and keep them from seeing you,” he said. Next, salvo attacks will be countered with defenses designed to hit missiles and destroy submarines and missile-carrying bombers before they fire. Last, after surviving the massed strikes, joint assault forces will be injected to make it an “air-land battle.” The Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the Pentagon’s high-tech development center, is working on a program called Squad X that is focusing on human-machine interaction at the tactical level. The program includes ground robots, microdrones and squad-sized military units equipped with intelligence and super-lethal weapons that can cover large areas. Robot-driven vehicles also are coming, along with human-sized robots used as porters, firefighters, countermine robots, and countersniper robots. (Source: The Washington Times:): http://tinyurl.com/ldxtfyv
8 April 2015 America's massive methane mystery: NASA set to investigate unexplained hotspot over the 'four corners' intersection in Southwest. Small 'hot spot' responsible for producing the largest concentration of the greenhouse gas methane seen over the United States. Area near the Four Corners intersection of Arizona, Colorado, New Mexico and Utah covers 2,500 square miles. Hotspot predates widespread fracking in the area. An instrument on a European Space Agency satellite measuring greenhouse gases showed a persistent atmospheric hot spot in the area between 2003 and 2009. The amount of methane observed by the satellite was much higher than previously estimated. This indicates the methane emissions should not be attributed to fracking but instead to leaks in natural gas production and processing equipment in New Mexico's San Juan Basin, which is the most active coalbed methane production area in the country. Natural gas is 95-98 percent methane. Methane is colorless and odorless, making leaks hard to detect without scientific instruments. After the U.S. energy crisis of the 1970s, techniques were invented to extract the methane from the coal and use it for fuel. By 2012, coalbed methane supplied about 8 percent of all natural gas in the United States. In March 2014 the Obama Administration announced a strategy to reduce methane emissions under its Climate Action Plan. (Source: The Mail): http://tinyurl.com/ldeuf6b
April 8, 2015 Bust of Snowden Monday, April 6, 2015. An installation of a bust of the former National Security Agency contractor Snowden in Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park, in New York. After several mysterious artists put a 4-foot-high, 100-pound sculpted bust of the whistleblower now exiled in Russia; it was sneaked into Brooklyn's Fort Greene Park on a New York City war memorial on Monday before dawn.Parks officials have ordered the bust removed. Animal New York, a city news website, reported that the activists sneaked the 4-foot-tall, 100-pound bust of Snowden before dawn Monday The idea for the tribute was conceived by two New York City-based artists, joined by a West Coast sculptor. In a statement to the online outlet, they said they had "updated" the memorial to American POWs who died during the Revolutionary War "to highlight those who sacrifice their safety in the fight against modern-day tyrannies. It would be a dishonor to those memorialized here to not laud those who protect the ideals they fought for, as Snowden has by bringing the NSA's 4th-Amendment-violating surveillance programs to light." (Source: Yahoo): http://tinyurl.com/nh7xzmn
April 7, 2015 US aerospace command moving comms gear back to Cold War bunker. The US military command that scans North America's skies for enemy missiles and aircraft plans to move its communications gear to a Cold War-era mountain bunker, officers said. The shift to the Cheyenne Mountain base in Colorado is designed to safeguard the command's sensitive sensors and servers from a potential electromagnetic pulse (EMP) attack, military officers said. Admiral Gortney, head of NORAD and Northern Command, said that "because of the very nature of the way that Cheyenne Mountain's built, it's EMP-hardened." (Source: Yahoo): http://tinyurl.com/p3azpgd
Space
April 7, 2015 Do pilots believe in UFOs? Many of them do and here is my close encounter story April 10, 1989 It was about 8 p.m. and we had just taken off from Kansas City International Airport bound for Waterloo, Iowa. It was a beautiful evening, with a full moon, clear skies and crisp early spring temperatures. The weather forecast for Waterloo was as nice, with clear skies and unlimited visibility. Our cruise altitude was 15,000 feet. We established a Northeasterly heading, pointed strait at Waterloo, about 200 miles ahead. There were thin wispy clouds all around. Despite the presence of these clearly visible wispy clouds everywhere, we weren't flying through any of them. There was also a white disc dimly but clearly visible through those clouds just off to our right.(Source: The New York Daily News): http://tinyurl.com/pkjm5jx
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