Two and a half years after nearly 300 girls were kidnapped from a school in northeastern Nigeria, the government said on Thursday that 21 of them had been freed, the biggest breakthrough in an ordeal that has shocked the world and laid bare the deadly instability gripping large parts of the country.
Boko Haram, the radical Islamist group that has killed thousands of civilians, overrun villages and terrorized the region, seized the girls from a school in the town of Chibok on April 14, 2014. For many around the globe, the mass abduction provided a stunning introduction to a militant group that had been waging war against Nigerians for years.
Soon after the girls were kidnapped, an international campaign began urging the Nigerian government to do more to secure their release, using the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls and drawing support from Michelle Obama and others.
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A still from a video released in August showing a man described as a Boko Haram fighter with some of the girls abducted from a school in Chibok, Nigeria, in 2014.
In a sign of deep political tension within the Taliban, a collection of religious leaders in the group’s headquarters in Pakistan issued a letter of rebuke this month to the new insurgent leader over his bloody crackdown on dissenting commanders.
It was unclear whether the letter, a copy of which was obtained by The New York Times and confirmed in interviews with several Taliban commanders, would amount to more than a symbolic setback for the Taliban leader, Mullah Akhtar Mansour. He has aggressively consolidated power since he was named leader in July. Commanders say he has kept a grip on the group’s biggest sources of income, including the trafficking of opium.
The Taliban commanders and members of the group’s ruling council at the headquarters in Quetta, Pakistan, most of whom spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss internal negotiations, differed on how much weight was carried by the letter from the religious leaders. But they agreed that it reflected unease over infighting and deadly crackdowns ordered by Mullah Mansour, including the deployment of hundreds of fighters to kill a rival senior commander this month.
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An Afghan police officer searching for drugs in Nimroz Province this spring. The top Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Mansour, has a tight grip on trafficking of opium by the Taliban.Credit Bryan Denton for The New York Times
National Aeronautics and Space Administration has produced something(fuel) out of nothing(empty space), paving a way to the stars in the process. The new ‘impossible’ microwave propulsion system, ‘Cannae Drive’ is a concept from inventor Roger Sawyer, which NASA was initially sceptical to test.
The propulsion system uses just electricity to produce propulsion. Usually, according to the law of “equal and opposite reactions, thrusters need to eject some mass. All scientists face the question of how to get the maximum thrust from the least amount of fuel.
The New York Times reports tonight that Google has acquired Boston Dynamics, builder of terrifying walking robots DARPA-related projects like WildCat/Cheetah, Atlas, Petman and Big Dog. Andy Rubin has moved over from leading Android to directing Google’s robotics efforts and tweeted a link to the story, commenting that “The future is looking awesome!” While we’re sure it does — if you always thought the T-1000 was just misunderstood — reactions from meatbags are ranging from slightly uneasy to completely freaking out that a company with robots that go anywhere is teaming up with a company that seems to know everything about us.
There’s no word on how much Google spent to snap up the robotics company, but its founder Marc Raibert is quoted by the Times saying “I am excited by Andy and Google’s ability to think very, very big, with the resources to make it happen.” When we interviewed Raibert during Expand earlier this year (included after the break) he specifically highlighted his company’s recent growth and the possibility of building consumer-focused robots in the future.
Did you know you can lose weight without traditional dieting? That’s what one new weight loss product wants you to believe, after claiming you can lose 30 pounds in six months, without depriving yourself†.
It’s called the SENSA® Weight Loss System, and it’s one of the most talked-about weight loss products on the market today –featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Dateline NBC. Some are calling the SENSA® diet “revolutionary” because of its radically new approach to weight loss.
SENSA® boldly claims to help users lose significant weight. All users have to do is shake scented “Tastants” on their food, and watch the weight come off.
A harrowing account of one group of Algerian hostages’ desperate flight for freedom credited an unusual gadget for helping to save their lives.
Liviu Floria, a Romanian gas worker, fled the scene of the hostage crisis at the Tiguentourine plant last week, following two days of hiding from the terrorists on the plant grounds, The New York Times reports.
Floria said he and seven others climbed a fence and escaped into the desert, navigating for miles across unfamiliar terrain using only a distant light and the compass application on Floria.
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Liviu Floria, a Romanian oil and gas industry specialist speaks on his cell
phone during an interview with the Associated Press, in Pitesti, Romania,
about his experiences during last week’s hostage taking at a natural gas
plant in Algeria. At least 81 people have been reported dead, including 32
Islamist militants, after a bloody, four-day hostage situation at Algeria’s
remote Ain Amenas natural gas plant. (AP Photo/Vadim Ghirda)
Did you know you can lose weight without dieting? That’s what one new weight loss product wants you to believe, after claiming you can lose 30 pounds in six months, without changing what you eat.
It’s called the Sensa Weight Loss System, and it’s one of the most talked-about diet products on the market today –featured in The New York Times, Time Magazine, and Time Magazine. Some are calling the Sensa diet “revolutionary” because of its radically new approach to weight loss.
MY wife and I attended my 30-year college reunion a couple of weekends ago, but the partying was bittersweet. My freshman roommate, Scott Androes, was in a Seattle hospital bed, a victim in part of a broken health care system. Strip away the sound and fury of campaign ads and rival spinmeisters, and what’s at stake in this presidential election is, in part, lives like Scott’s.
Scientists are a famously anonymous lot, but few can match in the depths of her perverse and unmerited obscurity the 20th-century mathematical genius Amalie Noether.
Film and Writing Festival for Comedy. Showcasing best of comedy short films at the FEEDBACK Film Festival. Plus, showcasing best of comedy novels, short stories, poems, screenplays (TV, short, feature) at the festival performed by professional actors.
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James' World 2 