United States Drone wars ( Will drones replace Border patrol Agents ) Star wars defense

Domestic drones are the commercialization of military technologies to be used against the citizens of the United States by various entities. Domestic Drone Countermeasures, LLC (http://www.DomesticDroneCountermeasures.com) (DDC) has taken on the task of commercializing military technologies for use as domestic drone countermeasures.
DDC offers many different, large area, small area, mobile and fixed drone countermeasures and systems. All countermeasures are non-offensive, non-combative and not destructive. Drones will not fall from the sky, but they will be unable to complete their missions.
DDC's countermeasures are highly effective and undefeatable by most current domestic drone technologies. Multiple layer systems ensure success by impeding typical drone sensors, infrared and camera capability and their effectiveness.
Due to the growth of drone technology, the domestic drone countermeasure market is expected to grow quickly. In fact, the countermeasure market is likely to be as large as the current drone market itself. DDC and others in the domestic drone countermeasure industry are likely to require significant capital investment for rapid growth to catch up with domestic drone development.
DDC staff has significant experience in aircraft, military and high-end commercial systems to provide complex solutions that work and are able to survive in mobile applications and harsh environments. DDC's solutions are designed and manufactured in the USA by DDC or its subcontractors. DDC products are powered by APlus Mobile ruggedized computer systems.
About Domestic Drone Countermeasures, LLC

Domestic Drone Countermeasures, LLC (DDC), founded in 2013, is a privately held OEM/ODM that designs, develops and manufactures domestic drone countermeasure systems using American made components when available or DDC custom designed components that are manufactured in the United States by DDC or its sub-contractors. For more information please visit: http://www.DomesticDroneCountermeasures.com & http://www.APlusMobile.com
This article was originally distributed on PRWeb. For the original version including any supplementary images or video, visit http://www.prweb.com/releases/2013/2/prweb10457908.htm

ARIZONA DANGER ALERT ( United States Congress is going to Lay OFF 7000 Customs and BP Agents ) Danger zone

• Public safety: Under sequestration, U.S. Customs and Border Protection would also have to lay off more than 7,000 officers and agents, undermining border security efforts across the country and in Southern Arizona. The Department of Justice also would be forced lay off approximately 1,000 federal agents and 1,300 correctional officers at the Bureau of Prisons.


TERRORISTS


•Defense: The Department of Defense would have to reduce all garrison and training budgets by more than 20 percent and cut $3 billion from defense health programs. Reducing military readiness and targeting service members’ hard-earned benefits is not the way to cut military spending.

•Health care : More than $1.6 billion would be cut from medical research grants through the National Institutes for Health, our nation’s premier institution for medical research. This would mean a reduction in research projects that aim to find treatments and cures for devastating and costly diseases like cancer, Alzheimer's, heart disease and diabetes. Additionally community health centers would have to stop serving 900,000 patients as a result of cuts of $120 million, and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention would provide 540,000 fewer doses of vaccines.

• The University of Arizona: The University of Arizona could lose hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants for research from NIH, the National Science Foundation, NASA and other federal agencies. Their research helps to create high-wage jobs in our community—we cannot afford to lose these grants.

Everywhere I go in my district, I hear from constituents and small businesses owners across the political spectrum who are deeply concerned about these automatic budget cuts going into effect. I’m concerned about these cuts and I'm also deeply distressed by the perpetual dysfunction in Washington that has made manufactured crises routine. Congress must act now.

 

  

Iran News ( 5 more drug dealers executed in Iran for Drug related charges )

Five Prisoners Were Executed For Drug-Related Charges in Iran

Wednesday 27 February 2013

Iran Human Rights, February 27: According to the official Iranian media five prisoners ave been hanged in three different Iranian cities. All the prisoners are convicted of drug-related charges.
Three prisoners hanged in the prison of Qazvin on February 24:
The official website of the Iranian judiciary in Qazvin reported that three prisoners were hanged in the prison of Qazvin on Sunday February 24. The prisoners were identified as "J." (33) charged with possession of 24 grams of cannabis and 440 grams of Shisheh; "M." (32) charged with possession of 223 grams of heroin and 412 grams of Shisheh and "M." (28) charged with possessing 470 grams of Shisheh.
One prisoner was haned in the prison of Behbehan, southwestern Iran:
According to the official website of the Iranian judiciary in Khuzestan one prisoner was hanged in the prison of Behbehan Sunday February 24. The prisoner was identified as "A. Gh." and was convicted of trafficking of 3485 grams of crack, said the report.
One prisoner was hanged in the prison of Sari (northern Iran) today:
The official Iranian news agency IRNA reported that one prisoner was executed in the prison of Sari (northern Iran). The prisoner who was not identified by name was convicted of drug trafficking, said the report. No further details were given.

New Zealand ( Film Director killed by great white shark )

Large shark kills 46-year-old TV and short-film director off New Zealand

• From ASSOCIATED PRESS
• Last Updated: 4:46 PM, February 27, 2013
• Posted: 7:55 AM, February 27, 2013

AP

Police in inflatable rubber boats shoot at a shark off Muriwai Beach near Auckland, New Zealand.

AUCKLAND, New Zealand — A shark possibly 14 feet long killed a swimmer near a popular New Zealand beach on Wednesday, then disappeared after police attempting to save the man fired gunshots at the enormous predator.
Muriwai Beach near Auckland was closed after the fatal attack, one of only about a dozen in New Zealand in the past 180 years.
Police recovered the body of the victim, identified as Adam Strange, a 46-year-old television and short film director, the New Zealand Herald said. Strange won a Crystal Bear award for best short film at the 2009 Berlin Film Festival, according to his company's website.

AP

Police comfort a woman believed to be a family member of a man attacked by a shark at Muriwai Beach near Auckland, New Zealand

The newspaper said his family issued a statement expressing their shock and requesting privacy.
Pio Mose, who was fishing at the beach, told the Herald he saw the swimmer struggle against the huge shark. He told the man to swim to the rocks, but it was too late.
"All of a sudden there was blood everywhere," Mose said. "I was shaking, scared, panicked."
Police Inspector Shawn Rutene said in a statement that the swimmer was about 650 feet offshore when the shark attacked. He said police went out in inflatable lifesaving boats and shot at the shark, which they estimated was 12 to 14 feet long.
"It rolled over and disappeared," Rutene said, without saying whether police were certain that they killed the creature.
About 200 people had been enjoying the beach during the Southern Hemisphere summer at the time of the attack. Police said Muriwai and other beaches nearby have been closed until further notice.
Police did not say what species of shark was involved in the attack. Clinton Duffy, a shark expert with the Department of Conservation, said New Zealand is a hotspot for great white sharks, and other potentially lethal species also inhabit the waters.
Attacks are rare. Duffy estimated that only 12 to 14 people have been killed by sharks in New Zealand since record keeping began in the 1830s.
"There are much lower levels of shark attacks here than in Australia," he said. "It's possibly a function of how many people are in the water" in New Zealand's cooler climate.
He said that during the Southern Hemisphere summer, sharks often come in closer to shore to feed and to give birth, although that doesn't necessarily equate to a greater risk of attack.
"Ninety-nine percent of the time they ignore people," he said. "Sometimes, people get bitten."

China ( Environmentalist beaten after calling out Chinese Chief )

Chinese environmentalist beaten after calling on official to swim in polluted creek

A Chinese environmentalist was allegedly subjected to a vicious five-hour attack after attempting to draw attention to the putrid state of the country's waterways by challenging a local official to swim in a creek near his home.

Chen Yuqian's daughter posted photos online showing injuries to his face after he was beaten Photo: Chen Yuqian

By Tom Phillips, Shanghai

8:30AM GMT 27 Feb 2013

Chen Yuqian, a 60-year-old resident of Pailian village in Zhejiang province, was one of at least three concerned citizens who last week called on Chinese environmental officials to brave the rivers they were supposed to be keeping clean.

A businessman from the same province vowed to pay 200,000 yuan (around £20,000) to his local environmental protection chief if he dared bathe in a rubbish-clogged river near Rui'an City.

Mr Chen, a farmer who has spent the last decade fighting pollution, posted his challenge on the internet, hoping it would trigger government action.

Instead, his daughter says he was severely beaten by a gang of baton-wielding men at around 6am last Sunday.

"My father was alone at home," said 32-year-old Chen Xiufang. "Some 40 people turned up in plain clothes, some holding batons. The only thing they said was: "[You] used the internet, you always use the internet!"  

"The whole thing lasted four or five hours until the police arrived. My father got hit in the head by six or seven people, with their fists. He is now feeling dizzy and sleeping all the time," she added, claiming the attack had been orchestrated by local officials.
Calls to the mobile phone of the local Communist Party chief went unanswered on Wednesday.
Ms Chen said her father had been campaigning against paper mills that he believed were releasing toxic waste into the river near their home since 2003.
His activism began after family members started suffering from mysterious red blisters they suspected were the result of contact with contaminated land and water.
"No one has really ever cared about our lives or our plight," she said. "If we can't work and live normally, and drink water safely, then what is the point in us living at all?"
The claims come amid reports that China's environmental protection agency is refusing to publish the findings of a nationwide survey of soil pollution claiming the data constitutes a "state secret". It has been estimated that up to 10 per cent of Chinese farmland is contaminated with toxins such as arsenic, lead, mercury and cadmium.
Dong Zhengwei, the Beijing lawyer trying to obtain the pollution study, said he planned to appeal.
"Environmental protection is directly related to each of our lives and we have no time to lose now," he said.

Palestinian Family ( Claims family member tortured to death in Jail )

Family of Palestinian man found dead in Israeli jail claims he was tortured

The family of a Palestinian prisoner who died in Israeli custody claimed on Monday that his body bore the marks of injuries that indicated he had been tortured to death by his jailers.

Palestinian women mourn during the funeral of Arafat Jaradat Photo: AP

By Robert Tait, Sa'eer

6:38PM GMT 25 Feb 2013

Relatives of Arafat Jaradat, 30, also accused Israeli soldiers of beating him with rifle butts after arresting at his home in the West Bank town of Sa'eer, near Hebron, in the early hours of February 18.

They said he screamed out in pain and shouted, "Oh mother, Oh mother" as troops dragged him to a military jeep after arresting him for suspected militant activity that included charges of throwing stones.

Mr Jaradat, a father-of-two, died on Saturday while in detention at Megiddo prison in central Israel. Prison authorities initially said he had died of a heart attack.

^{Mr Jaradat's death further heightened rising Israeli concern over a recent wave of unrest in the West Bank (Reuters)}

The preliminary findings of an autopsy conducted by Israel's National Centre for Forensic Medicine subsequently failed to determine the cause of death. A summary released by the Israeli health ministry said "no signs of external trauma were found apart from those pertaining to resuscitation [attempts]".

Michelle Obama News ( DNA traces her to white ancestors )

Using DNA To Trace Michelle Obama’s Past

mfiske | 09/12/2012

First Lady Michelle Obama always suspected that she had white ancestors. But she had no idea who they were. With DNA testing and research, I was able to solve that mystery and finally identify the white forbears who had remained hidden in her family tree for more than a century.
All across the country, growing numbers of people are turning to DNA testing as a tool to help unlock the secrets of their roots, using companies such as ancestry.com, among others. When I started researching my new book, “American Tapestry: The Story of the Black, White and Multiracial Ancestors of Michelle Obama,’’ I pored over historical documents that I found in local archives, courthouses and libraries as well as records that I found online on ancestry.com and other state and local databases. But I knew that DNA testing would be the only way to unearth the truth.
I suspected that Mrs. Obama’s white ancestors belonged to the white Shields family that had owned her great-great-great grandmother, Melvinia Shields. So I persuaded several descendants of the black and white Shields to do DNA testing.
The results showed that the two families were related. The DNA testing indicated that Melvinia’s owner’s son was the likely father of Melvinia’s biracial child, Dolphus Shields. (Dolphus Shields is the first lady’s great-great grandfather.)
This was painful news for many of the Shields descendants. They knew that that Melvinia might have been raped and that their kinship originated during slavery, one of the darkest chapters of our history.
But last month, members of both sides of the family – black and white — put aside the pain of the past. They got together for the very first time in Rex, Georgia at a ceremony to commemorate Melvinia’s life. They swapped family stories, posed for photographs, exchanged phone numbers and had a meal together.

It was something to see.
David Applin, who is Melvinia’s great-grandson, said the reunion was “wonderful.” And Jarrod Shields, who is the great-great-great grandson of Melvinia’s owner, described it as a day “my family will never forget.”

This story was contributed by guest blog author Rachel L. Swarns
Rachel L. Swarns has been a reporter for the New York Times since 1995. She has written about domestic policy and national politics, reporting on immigration, the presidential campaigns of 2004 and 2008, and First Lady Michelle Obama and her role in the Obama White House. She has also worked overseas for the New York Times, reporting from Russia, Cuba, and southern Africa, where she served as the Johannesburg bureau chief. She lives in Washington, D.C., with her husband and two children.