Domestic drones are already reshaping U.S. crime-fighting

GRAND JUNCTION, COLO. (Reuters) - As U.S. authorities grapple with how to regulate the use of unarmed drones in U.S. skies, a small network of police, first responders and experts is already flying unmanned aircraft.

These operators say rapidly evolving drone technology is already reshaping disaster response, crime scene reconstruction, crisis management and tactical operations.

Critics of U.S. domestic drone use worry about privacy and safety.

Several dozen local police departments, federal agencies and universities have special FAA permits to fly drones in U.S. airspace.

More: http://www.reuters.com/article/2013/03/03/us-usa-drones-lawenforcement-idUSBRE92208W20130303

Chadian troops 'kill' al-Qaeda leader in Mali

Source: Al Jazeera



The president of Chad, Idriss Deby, announced on Friday that Chadian troops, who are part of a larger African force fighting in northern Mali, have killed one of al-Qaeda's leading commanders in that country.

Deby's spokesman said that he announced Abdelhamid Abou Zeid's death during a ceremony on Friday for Chadian soldiers killed in fighting in Mali. Abou Zeid is the Algerian leader of al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

His death, which could not immediately be verified, would be a major blow to the group and to its growing influence in North Africa.

Officials in Mali and in France, which is leading an international military intervention in Mali against fighters linked to AQIM, could not confirm reports of Abou Zeid's death.

Read more: http://aje.me/Z3nNve

Syria crisis: European countries expected to start arming rebels

Source: The Gaurdian

Some European countries are expected to break with Washington and start supplying the Syrian rebels with weapons in the next few months, the representative of the Syrian opposition in Britain has told the Guardian.

The National Coalition's London representative, Walid Saffour, predicted that by the next meeting of the western and Arab Friends of Syria group in Turkey, due in late spring or early summer, "there will be a breakthrough that will end the restrictions of the European countries".

"This would be for the ammunition we require, the quality weapons we need to deter the Syrian regime from using aeroplanes and Scud missiles to bomb villages and bakeries," Saffour said. "We on the ground are advancing steadily but we are suffering from a lack of ammunition. We expect that to change at the next Friends of Syria meeting in Istanbul."

Another opposition figure involved in supplying the rebels said there had been a noticeable relaxation in recent days of the strict restrictions the US and Turkey had put on arms flows over the Turkish border. He claimed a Syrian army helicopter and a Mig warplane had been shot down in the past two days, for the first time by imported missiles.

Read more: http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2013/mar/01/syria-crisis-european-countries-rebels

Florida man swallowed by sinkhole in bedroom

A Florida man fell into a sinkhole that opened suddenly Thursday night beneath the bedroom of his suburban Tampa home, calling out to his brother for help as he fell, the brother said Friday.

"I heard a loud crash, like a car coming through the house," Jeremy Bush told CNN affiliate WFTS. "I heard my brother screaming and I ran back there and tried going inside his room, but my old lady turned the light on and all I seen was this big hole, a real big hole, and all I saw was his mattress."

Bush frantically tried to rescue his brother, Jeff Bush, by standing in the hole and digging at the rubble with a shovel until police arrived and pulled him out, saying the floor was still collapsing.

More: http://www.cnn.com/2013/03/01/us/florida-sinkhole/index.html

Shocking Statistic