Quran Burner Fired by Employer

The protester who burned pages from the Koran outside a planned mosque near Ground Zero has been fired from NJTransit, sources and authorities said Tuesday.

Derek Fenton’s 11-year career at the agency came to an abrupt halt Monday after photographs of him ripping pages from the Muslim holy book and setting them ablaze appeared in newspapers.

Fenton, 39, of Bloomingdale, N.J., burned the book during a protest on the ninth anniversary of Sept. 11 outside Park51, the controversial mosque slated to be built near Ground Zero.

Source: NY Daily News

Pakistan Floods: An Opportunity to End Feudalism?

Any nation cannot progress with its 70% population suppressed by a handful of people. Presently, the government faces a unprecedented trust deficit even in its home-constituencies.

Is it an opportunity to end feudalism once and for all?Can the anger be directed to this cause?

ReliefWeb: Floods Update

This report was issued by UNOCHA Pakistan. It covers the period from 23 to 25 August. The next report will be issued on or around 27 August.
I. HIGHLIGHTS/KEY PRIORITIES
• Significantly scaled up assistance in Sindh and Punjab continues to be required; WASH, health, shelter and food interventions remain the key priorities.
• New areas in Sindh have been inundated in recent days as floodwaters move through the south of the province.
• With a growing risk of outbreaks of waterborne disease, close coordination between health and WASH clusters is of increasing importance.
• The logistics cluster continues to scale up its capacity to support in-country movement of relief items; reaching populations cut off by floodwaters, landslides and damaged infrastructure is an overarching challenge and additional airlift capacity is required.
• The Pakistan Initial Floods Emergency Response Plan (PIFERP) is now 60% covered. A revised version of the plan, taking into account the large increase in numbers in need of assistance, is due to be launched during the third week of September.

  Source: Relief Web

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Eye of Horus: The Taranis – Unmanned Stealth Bomber

By Daily Mail Reporter
Last updated at 5:22 PM on 12th July 2010

Looming ominously like a space ship from Star Wars, this is the future of unmanned flight. Defence firm BAE Systems today officially unveiled its first ever high-tech unmanned stealth jet. The Taranis, named after the Celtic god of thunder, is about the same size as a Hawk jet and is equipped with stealth equipment and an ‘autonomous’ artificial intelligence system. The plane will test the possibility of developing the first ever autonomous stealthy Unmanned Combat Air Vehicle (UCAV) that would ultimately be capable of precisely striking targets at long range, even in another continent.

The trial aircraft cost £143 million pounds to construct and spearheads BAE’s drive to convince the Ministry of Defence to invest in the next generation of unmanned aircraft. Almost invisible to ground radar, it is designed to travel at high jet speeds and cover massive distances between continents.

The plane is built to carry out intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance on enemy territory using onboard sensors. And it has been designed to carry a cache of weapons – including bombs and missiles -, giving it a potential long-range strike capability. It can be controlled from anywhere in the world with satellite communications.


Experts say the cutting-edge design is at the forefront of world technology and as advanced as any US development. The plane began development in December 2006, and is intended to prove the UK’s ability to produce a stealthy UAV. Taranis will be stealthy, fast, able to carry out use a number of on-board weapons systems and be able to defend itself against manned and other unmanned enemy aircraft.

Any future need hinges on the outcome of the Strategic Defence and Security Review, which will conclude around October. Speaking at the unveiling ceremony at BAE Systems in Warton, Lancashire, Minister for International Security Strategy Gerald Howarth said: ‘Taranis is a truly trailblazing project.


‘The first of its kind in the UK, it reflects the best of our nation’s advanced design and technology skills and is a leading programme on the global stage.’

He added: ‘Taranis shows the UK’s advanced engineering, research, technology and innovation sector at its world-beating best.’ Taranis is an informal partnership of the UK MoD and industry  British engineering firms including BAE Systems, Rolls Royce, QinetiQ and GE Aviation. Rolls-Royce will focus on the next generation propulsion system for the Taranis demonstrator.


Speaking on behalf of the industry team, Nigel Whitehead, Group managing director of BAE Systems’ Programmes & Support business, said: ‘Taranis has been three and a half years in the making and is the product of more than a million man-hours.  ‘It represents a significant step forward in this country’s fast-jet capability. This technology is key to sustaining a strong industrial base and to maintain the UK’s leading position as a centre for engineering excellence and innovation.”


The Taranis prototype will provide the MOD with knowledge on the technical and manufacturing challenges and the potential capabilities of Unmanned Combat Air Systems. Test flights for the Taranis plane are due to start in 2011.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-1294037/Taranis-The-143million-unmanned-stealth-jet-hit-targets-continent.html#ixzz0tXD5xLAR

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Guardian: US appoints first cyber warfare general

US appoints first cyber warfare general

Pentagon creates specialist online unit to counter cyber attack amid growing fears of militarisation of the internet

The Pentagon is channelling a growing volume of troops and resources into countering cyber warfare. Photograph: Mike Nelson/AFP/Getty Images

The US military has appointed its first senior general to direct cyber warfare – despite fears that the move marks another stage in the militarisation of cyberspace.
The newly promoted four-star general, Keith Alexander, takes charge of the Pentagon’s ambitious and controversial new Cyber Command, designed to conduct virtual combat across the world’s computer networks. He was appointed on Friday afternoon in a low-key ceremony at Fort Meade, in Maryland.
The creation of America’s most senior cyber warrior comes just days after the US air force disclosed that some 30,000 of its troops had been re-assigned from technical support “to the frontlines of cyber warfare”.
The creation of Cyber Command is in response to increasing anxiety over the vulnerability of the US’s military and other networks to a cyber attack.
James Miller, the deputy under-secretary of defence for policy, has hinted that the US might consider a conventional military response to certain kinds of online attack.
Although Alexander pledged during his confirmation hearings before the Senate committee on armed services last month that Cyber Command would not contribute to the militarisation of cyberspace, the committee’s chairman, Senator Carl Levin expressed concern that both Pentagon doctrine, and the legal framework for online operations, had failed to keep pace with rapid advances in cyber warfare.
In particular Levin voiced concern that US cyber operations to combat online threats to the US, routed through neutral third countries, “could have broad and damaging consequences” to wider American interests.
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