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Zip-Line Through The Amazon Jungle With Google's Newest Street View Feature

Zip-Line Through The Amazon Jungle With Google's Newest Street View Feature


SAN FRANCISCO (AP) -- For its next technological trick, Google will show you what it's like to zip through trees in the Amazon jungle.

The images released Monday are the latest addition to the diverse collection of photos supplementing Google's widely used digital maps. The maps' "Street View" option mostly provides panoramic views of cities and neighborhoods photographed by car-mounted cameras, but Google also has found creative ways to depict exotic locations where there are no roads.

CLICK HERE TO ZIP-LINE THROUGH THE AMAZON!

In its latest foray into the wilderness, Google teamed up with environmental protection group Amazonas Sustainable Foundation, or FAS, to explore a remote part of an Amazon rainforest. Google Inc. lent FAS its Trekker device, a camera mounted on an apparatus originally designed to be carried like a backpack by hikers walking on trails.

FAS, though, sent the Trekker down a zip line. Google is renowned for going out on a technological limb, but even this project made the company nervous at first, said Karin Tuxen-Bettman, who oversees Google's Street View partnerships.

The setup required FAS workers to tread through the rainforest to find a place where they could string the zip line so the Trekker wouldn't bump into tree trunks and branches as it zoomed through the thick canopy. With the help of some monkeys who joined their scouting expedition, FAS workers found just enough room to erect a zip line for the Trekker's trip.

"One of the things that I love about working at Google is that if a partner comes to us with a crazy idea, we will probably try it," Tuxen-Bettman said.

Since Google developed the Trekker camera in 2012, the device has been dispatched on other unusual journeys. The Trekker went scuba diving in the Galápagos Islands to take underwater photographs of the preserve, and traveled on a dog sled in the Canadian Artic to photograph the tundra.

Google's Street View feature has raised privacy concerns through the years because its photographs have occasionally captured images of unsuspecting bystanders engaged in embarrassing activities or near places where they didn't want to be seen. Cars carrying Street View cameras also secretly vacuumed up emails and other personal information transmitted over unsecure Wi-Fi networks from 2007 to 2010, sparking outrage and legal action around the world.

Privacy issues shouldn't be an issue in any of the photography taken by the zip-lining Trekker. Birds and insects are the only visible forms of life in the pictures it took.



A Growing Rift Between Washington and the Gulf States on Yemen

A Growing Rift Between Washington and the Gulf States on Yemen


Activity intensified over the past week at the United Nations with respect to the deteriorating situation in Yemen -- amid further evidence of a rift over the country's future between Washington and its traditional Gulf allies.

Jamal Benomar, the United Nations special envoy to Yemen, met with Yemeni president Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi at his new headquarters in Aden. He reiterated support for Hadi as the country's legitimately elected leader, told reporters that his "resumption of duties would help to pull the country together," and called for a resolution of the crisis within the framework of the "Gulf Initiative." Meanwhile, the United Nations Security Council decided to extend the mandate of the "group of four" experts on Yemen, which was established to oversee sanctions measures employed against individuals and entities designated as threatening "peace, security or stability "in the country. And the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Friday raised alarms about a growing number of "unlawful arrests, arbitrary detention, and the targeting of journalists" in the country.

The seeming consistency of the UN position stood in contrast to conflicting signals from Washington. On the one hand, State Department Spokeswoman Jen Psaki told reporters Monday that her government would like "all parties" to "recommit themselves to the GCC initiative, National Dialogue Conference outcomes, and relevant UN Security Council resolutions." But over a week in which GCC embassies relocated to Aden in solidarity with the Yemeni president, Psaki stated that no one in the Administration had been in touch with Hadi since he arrived in Yemen, and went on to say two days later that she was "unsure about whether there had been any US contact with Hadi since Monday."

A flurry of media reports in the United States have meanwhile appeared suggesting that the United States is growing closer to Iran with respect to its Yemeni policies. Michael Vickers, the Undersecretary of Defense for Intelligence, has confirmed that the United States has an intelligence relationship with the Houthi insurgent group to counter al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula. Secretary of State John Kerry, for his part, told U.S. lawmakers last week that he "knows" that the Tehran government was "surprised" at the Houthi takeover of the capital Sanaa. The statement appeared to indicate that Kerry has been in talks with the Tehran regime over Yemen, and was persuaded by the Iranian line. Following his March 2 address to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, Kerry will again meet with Iranian foreign minister Jawad Zarif as part of negotiations over the Iranian nuclear project -- then visit Riyadh and London to discuss Yemen and other matters with Gulf foreign ministers.

On a related matter, "Stratfor," an American private intelligence company, released a report Thursday alleging that private talks were underway in the Gulf with respect to a possible "two-state solution" for Yemen. Such a settlement would eventually place new pressures on the Houthis in Sanaa: According to Muhammad Lutf al-Uryani, Yemen's former minister of water and the environment, Yemeni has approached a "state of water emergency" - and the capital itself, which stands 3300 meters above sea level with a population of more than 2.5 million, will eventually have to be moved. This costly endeavor will be extremely difficult, particularly if the Houthi rebels do not manage to wrest control over the oil fields of Marib, as they are currently attempting to do in their ongoing military campaign.

This post is a translation from Joseph Braude's weekly column in the Moroccan Arabic-language daily Al-Ahdath al-Maghrebiya,. Follow Joseph Braude on Twitter @josephbraude.

Dolce & Gabbana's Fall 2015 Show Celebrates 'Mamma' With Baby-Filled Runway

Dolce & Gabbana's Fall 2015 Show Celebrates 'Mamma' With Baby-Filled Runway


Mother's Day came early at Milan Fashion Week.

For Dolce & Gabbana's Fall/Winter 2015 show, the designers tapped model mamas like Bianca Balti, beautiful babies and toddlers to showcase their latest collection.

While the Italian fashion house has a long history of celebrating family and honoring elders in its ad campaigns (remember these stylish grandmas?), it was touching to see it all come together on the runway.

In the matching mommy-and-me shift dresses with rose embellishments or a doodle-print gown that channeled Angelina Jolie's unconventional wedding dress, Dolce & Gabbana's "point of reference" was very clear.

See front row photos and a heartwarming finale video from D&G's show below!


@DolceGabbana's family finale #MFW #FW15 #dgmamma #regram @susiebubble
A photo posted by @netaporter on




Mammas united @dolcegabbana
A photo posted by Susie Lau (@susiebubble) on




@dolcegabbana @stefanogabbana #dgvivalamamma #dgmamma
A video posted by bat_gio (@bat_gio) on




Childsplay @dolcegabbana
A photo posted by Susie Lau (@susiebubble) on








Thank you @dolcegabbana for celebrating #mamas everywhere! #mothersday #Mamamia #family #love #incrediblewomen
A video posted by PORTER magazine (@portermagazine) on


Death to Shoppers? Al-Shabaab and the Fracturing of International Jihadism

Death to Shoppers? Al-Shabaab and the Fracturing of International Jihadism


On February 22, the Somali based al-Shabaab jihadist group issued a six-minute video where it called on Muslim men to attack shopping malls in western countries. Three locations in particular were singled out in the video: Mall of America in Bloomington Minnesota; West Edmonton Mall in Edmonton, Alberta; and the Oxford Street shopping district in London. The latter is not a mall but a heavily trafficked shopping area, what in British parlance is often called a "High Street". The video went on to show stark images of the attack on the Westgate Mall in Nairobi, Kenya by al-Shabaab militants in 2013. That attack left 60 people dead and caused several million dollars of damage to the shopping complex.

On the one hand there is something almost laughable at the idea of shopping, that most exalted of activities in western consumer culture, will now become the next battlefield of the jihadist struggle. What comes next, Buffalo wings and beer? Can Monday Night Football be far behind? Will "holy war" be reduced to attacking the most visible emblems of western consumerist culture? On the other hand, the success of al-Shabaab's attack on the Westgate Mall is reason for concern. They have done it before, with deadly consequences. Shopping Malls have little in the way of security and lots of soft targets. Moreover, it has already happened in the United States once before.

On December 11, 2012, Jacob Tyler Roberts attacked shoppers at the Clackamas Town Center just outside the city of Portland, Oregon. The location is precisely the kind of large enclosed regional mall cited by al-Shabaab. Armed with a Bushmaster XM15-E2S M4 semiautomatic carbine and wearing tactical clothing and a hockey mask, Roberts ran into the mall and began shooting at shoppers. He fired a total of 17 shots, killing two people, and seriously injuring a third person. When confronted by an armed civilian, the gunmen took his own life. The incident lasted just 22 minutes and was over before police could even respond in force. Roberts had no jihadist links or any political agenda, and the attack was described as a random act of violence.

Jihadist threats against targets in the United States are bound to get heavy media attention. Such threats are seen as underscoring the growing power and reach of international jihadism and its supporters. The fact that an attack can occur literally in our own communities drives home the point that the front line of the jihadist struggle is literally in our own neighborhoods. In reality, however, such threats are a measure not of the strength of the jihadist movement but of its weakness. Moreover, it underlines the fact that the public posture of jihadist groups is often shaped by their competition with other jihadist groups for financing and militants.

Harakat al-Shabaab al-Mujahedeen (Movement of Striving Youth or Mujahedeen Youth Movement) typically contracted to just al-Shabaab or "The Youngsters" is a Somali based, Jihadist militant group that began in 2006 as a splinter group of the Islamic Courts Union. It's possible that its founding could date back as early as 2004. Historically, both its rank and file and its leadership have drawn heavily on foreign jihadists from North Africa and the Persian Gulf. Most of its financing was from external sources supplemented by revenue from a large trade in illegal elephant ivory. Moreover, largely as a result of the broad diaspora of Somalis around the globe, it was among the first jihadist organizations to recruit heavily among westernized Muslims. Since 2007, more than 40 Americans have joined the ranks of al-Shabaab. The group declared its allegiance to al Qaeda in a 15 minute video on February 9, 2012

Over the last several years, the group has steadily lost ground to Somali government forces supported by African Union troops (African Union Mission to Somalia or AMISOM). In addition, the United States has employed drone strikes to attack al-Shabaab's leadership. It has retreated from the major cities, although it still has cells that operate there, and the territory under its control is now limited to rural areas. Its total strength is estimated at approximately 8,000 militants. It has claimed that it is cooperating with the, Algerian based, al Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Boko Haram but there seems little practical result from this. Its military setbacks and the loss of significant portions of its senior leadership has created significant dissension in its ranks and it is believed that the group may split up into different militant factions.

One of the consequences of the civil wars in Iraq and Syria has been a significant drop off in material support, both financing and new militants for al-Shabaab. The current jihadist struggle in the Middle East, framed between Baghdad and Damascus, is occurring in the very cultural and historical heart of the Arab Middle East. This region is the heart and soul of Arab civilization. By comparison, what is happening in Somalia and the attempt of al-Shabaab to extend the jihadist struggle to Kenya and Uganda is, at best, a side show. Al-Shabaab has found it hard to compete against the "main event" and its capabilities have suffered accordingly. Hence the need for heightened visibility in order to recruit new militants and financial support.

Moreover, this competition for support among jihadist groups will increase as new groups emerge and as the landscape of international jihadism continues to grow more fractured. The success of the United States in attacking al Qaeda has decimated the organizations senior ranks and its ability to operate but it has not eliminated violent jihadism. Moreover, by reducing al Qaeda's control and command capabilities the U.S. has inadvertently contributed to the continued fragmentation of the international jihadist movement. Today we can see a broad arc of jihadist violence and instability that extends from West Africa across North Africa and the Middle East all the way to the foothills of the Hindu Kush in South Asia. There are literally hundreds of different jihadist organizations operating within this broad swath of violent instability, all of which compete with each other for material and financial support.

From a practical standpoint al-Shabaab has little capability for organizing or staging terrorist attacks against the American homeland. For that matter, neither does Islamic State or the remnants of al Qaeda. Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP) is probably the best equipped to carry out such attacks but even its capabilities have been significantly reduced. Instead both al-Shabaab and Islamic State have resorted to exhorting would be supporters to independently mount their own attacks against targets in the United States and Europe. The terrorist attack at the Canadian parliament in Ottawa and the Paris attacks against the offices of Charlie Hebdo and the Hypercacher supermarket are examples of this kind of strategy.

It is likely that these kind of random, "attacks of opportunity" will increase over the next several years as jihadist organizations like al-Shabaab and Islamic State find themselves being steadily rolled back. Such attacks, represent both a low cost way of attacking its opponents in the west while at the same time highlighting their effectiveness and their continued relevance on the front line of the jihadist struggle in their search for material and financial support. Fundamentally, it is a sign of weakness -- not of strength -- and the weaker these organizations become the more they will exhort would be sympathizers to engage in such acts of terrorism.

This type of terrorist violence is difficult to anticipate and control. Unlike complex operations it does not require a great deal of planning. It does not generate travel or chatter that tips off security agencies of an imminent threat. These attacks do not represent an existential threat to the United States, but they contribute to a climate of fear and apprehension. They may well produce a counter reaction against Muslim communities in the United States and may result in the radicalization of some members. That is certainly one of the primary results that jihadist groups are hoping for.

The attack at the Clackamas Town Center in Oregon is, unfortunately, a perfect template for how these kind of spur of the moment, "lone wolf", attacks might play out. Moreover, while the collateral damage of such attacks is low, though no less tragic, a sustained pattern of such attacks, especially if they are clustered during key shopping periods could have a measureable impact on the U.S. economy. While governments speak of "defeating" jihadist terrorism, the reality is that this phenomenon will continue to metastasize into other forms, some more virulent other less. Regardless of our effectiveness in waging war against jihadism, however, it will continue to persist. In the end, the most enduring legacy of jihadist violence will not be terrorism or even murder, but chaos.

Anti-Vaccination Activists To Blame For Bosnia's Measles Outbreak, Say Experts

Anti-Vaccination Activists To Blame For Bosnia's Measles Outbreak, Say Experts


SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Medical experts warned Friday the anti-vaccination lobby is growing in Bosnia, using scientifically discredited arguments to stoke parental fears in the worst-affected country in Europe's measles outbreak.

This trend — combined with a generation that could not be immunized because of lack of vaccines during Bosnia's 1992-95 war — has led to 5,340 measles cases in Bosnia, according to the World Health Organization. "I am increasingly hearing from parents about their fears due to the stuff they read on the Internet," Dr. Gordana Banduka, a pediatrician from Pale, near Sarajevo, told The Associated Press.

Bosnia's immunization rate has fallen to just 87 percent, chief epidemiologist Jelena Ravlija said, below the 95 percent rate needed to prevent outbreaks.

She said the risk of side effects is far lower than the likelihood of complications from the mumps or measles. In developed countries, measles kills about 1 in 1,000 infected people.

Jagoda Savic, head of an anti-vaccination lobbying group, said her group has found 119 cases of vaccine complications that parents claim left children permanently disabled, although doctors say most of those diseases aren't related to vaccinations.

"The bottom line is that parents do not trust Bosnia's health system, which is one of the worst in Europe. It has previously misled people regarding basic immunological facts considering vaccines," she said.

Muhidin Cosovic of Sarajevo refuses to immunize his 6-year-old daughter Leila against any diseases, including measles, since he believes a common vaccine against illnesses including diphtheria, tetanus and whooping cough is to blame for his 8-year-old son's encephalopathy. The link has never been proven, but claims like his are prompting other parents not to vaccinate their children.

"I lost the battle to prove that my son's illness was caused by the vaccine, but I haven't lost the right to publicly say it," Cosovic said.

Crowd Kills Teenage Girl Suspected To Be Suicide Bomber In Nigeria

Crowd Kills Teenage Girl Suspected To Be Suicide Bomber In Nigeria


BAUCHI, Nigeria (AP) — A crowd beat to death a teenage girl accused of planning to be a suicide bomber and then set her body ablaze Sunday, according to police and witnesses at a northeastern Nigerian market.

A second suspect, also a teenage girl, was arrested at Muda Lawal, the biggest market in Bauchi city. A spate of suicide bombings has been blamed on Nigeria's home-grown Boko Haram Islamic extremist group, which wants to enforce strict Islamic law across Nigeria. The group has threatened to disrupt Nigeria's March 28 presidential and legislative elections, saying democracy is a corrupt Western concept.

In Bauchi, the two girls aroused suspicion by refusing to be searched when they arrived at the gate to the vegetable market, said yam vendor Mohd Adamu. People overpowered one girl and discovered she had two bottles strapped to her body, he said. They clubbed her to death, put a tire doused in fuel over her head and set it on fire, he said.

It seems doubtful the girl was actually a bomber as she did not detonate any explosives when she was attacked, said Police Deputy Superintendent Mohammad Haruna. He described her as the victim of "mob action carried out by an irate crowd."

Recently some girls as young as 10 years old have been used to carry explosives that detonated in busy markets and bus stations, raising fears that Boko Haram may be using some of its hundreds of kidnap victims in bomb attacks. It's unclear whether such girls detonate explosives themselves or whether the bombs are controlled remotely.

President Goodluck Jonathan last week condemned the Boko Haram insurgents for choosing soft targets and said the series of bombings are a response to the Nigerian military's recent success in seizing back a score of towns that had been in the hands of the extremists for months.

A multinational military force including Nigeria's neighbors is being formed to stop Boko Haram's attacks outside Nigeria's borders.

Some 10,000 people died in Nigeria from Boko Haram's violence last year, compared to 2,000 in the first four years, according to the U.S. Council on Foreign Relations, and some 1.5 million people have been driven from their homes.