The attacks came days after a Canadian-American couple held hostage by the Taliban were freed from the area in Pakistan’s northwest, striking a rare positive note in the country’s often-fraught relations with the United States.

On Friday, U.S. drones were seen hovering near where American Caitlan Coleman, her Canadian husband, Joshua Boyle, and their three children, all born in captivity, were freed, after having been kidnapped by the Haqqani network while backpacking in Afghanistan in 2012.

“Four unmanned drones fired six missiles in Monday’s attack, and four more were dropped in two strikes on Tuesday,” Baseer Khan Wazir, the top administrative official in the Kurram Agency, part of Pakistan’s restive Federally Administered Tribal Areasm, told Reuters.

The drones fired missiles on Taliban hideouts, killing at least 31 people over two days, he added, with all three attacks taking place on the Afghan side.

“Twenty people were killed yesterday, mostly from the Afghan Taliban, and 11 more were killed in today’s attacks,” Wazir told Reuters.

Taliban sources said 18 members of the Pakistan-based Haqqani militants, allied to the Taliban, were killed in Monday’s strike and six in one of Tuesday’s attacks.

“There were some mud-built houses which were being used by the mujahideen (Afghan Taliban fighters),” said a member of the Afghan Taliban, who asked not to be identified.

No prominent militants were in the area when the drones targeted two or three different compounds, he added. Another Taliban source said two commanders were killed in Monday’s attack, however.

Witnesses said they heard the drones and saw plumes of smoke before seeing 20 makeshift coffins moved out of the area. Residents of the area said the strikes were no more than 300 meters (yards) from the Pakistan side of the border.

“There are always drones hovering over this border area, but this was the first time four drones were noticed at the same time,” said Kurram resident Gulab Sher.

–

Source: Reuters

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The drone – dubbed Aquila – flew for one hour and 46 minutes in Arizona.

On Aquila’s maiden voyage last summer, the autopilot system was confused by heavy wind and crash-landed.

This time, the drone flew at an altitude of 3,000ft, a long way from Facebook’s intended 60,000ft goal.

The social network has ambitious plans for its drone fleet and eventually wants to have them communicating with each other via lasers and staying in the air for months at a time.

The test – which took place in May but is only now being made public – went “perfectly”, according to a blog post detailing the flight.

Facebook had initially heralded its June 2016 test a success but later admitted the drone had crashed on landing.

The crash was only revealed when it emerged that it had been investigated by the National Transportation Safety Board.

This time, the engineering team added “spoilers” to the wings to increase drag and reduce lift during landing. They also modified the autopilot software and applied a smoother finish to the craft.

The team filmed the landing and included the video in the blog post.

Director of aeronautical platforms Martin Luis Gomez said the drone had suffered “a few minor, easily repairable dings”.

Aquila – which has a wingspan of a Boeing 737 – is part of Facebook’s ambitious plans to connect the world to the internet.

This week, it announced that it has two billion users, more than a quarter of the world’s population.

–

Source: BBC

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Inusah Fuseini, during his tenure, promised to deploy drones in fighting the menace, but the idea did not see the light of day.

[contextly_sidebar id=”XFsOt7k6kwpjHNWFOIltlS4qnodT8m9y”]Explaining his debacle on the Citi Breakfast Show on Monday, the former Minister said “we didn’t even deplore the drones” because “when I suggested the use of drone, I think heaven was breaking loose so it didn’t get the necessary support.”

Mr. Fuseini made the remark on the back of a hint by the current Minister of Lands and Forestry, Mr. John Peter Amewu, to deploy similar technology in combating illegal mining in Ghana.

Mr. Amewu also promised to fix electronic trackers on earth moving equipment in order to track their activities and clamp them down if they are seen in mining areas.

Mr. Fuseini, who is the Member for the Tamale Central Constituency welcomed the idea and said it was a step in the right direction.

“…Drones were little creatures like toys which are manufactured to fly with cameras, so when you deploy them, they will give you real time report about how galamsey activities are taking place. Indeed in Malaysia, drones are used to track illegal logging in their forests. Immediately a tree is felled, and the drones are within the perimeter of that illegal activities taking place, it sends real time pictures to a centre and it allows the centre to deploy investigators immediately to the site, and there is a real possibility of arresting the person who had logged the tree.”

“To extend it to tractors means he [Peter Amewu] wants to know where the earth moving equipment are at any particular given time, so that if they are in the mining areas, he could reasonably say that these earth moving equipment are not doing the work for which they were imported into this country in order to descend on them.”

Concerted effort needed

The former Minister further called for concerted efforts from stakeholders in tackling illegal mining head-on.

“You have to get the chiefs involved because there is no land in Ghana that is not owned by a traditional area or government. So if people can go on to lands with impunity then it means there is some form of connivance at that local level. The assemblies must have the primary responsibility of protecting our water bodies, lands and natural resource. Then you look at the opinion leaders in the area. Civil society organizations must also help because our rivers are being polluted. We as a people must make a determination that we want to promote inter-generational equity, we can’t leave this country worse off than what was given to us,” he added.

Ghana may soon import water if galamsey is not stopped

A number of water treatment plants have been shut down across the country because their water sources have been polluted by activities of illegal miners.

According to the the Director for Natural Resources at the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA),  Carl Fiati, Ghana may soon import drinking water from neighbouring countries if illegal mining also known ‘galamsey’ is not checked.

“We anticipated this problem long time ago, that there’s going to come a time when we continue the way we are going as a country, we are going to destroy all our water bodies and import water for drinking,” Mr. Fiati added.

–

By: Godwin A. Allotey/citifmonline.com/Ghana
Follow @AlloteyGodwin

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Three F/A-18 Super Hornets were used to release the Perdix drones last October.

The drones, which have a wingspan of 12in (30cm), operate autonomously and share a distributed brain.
A military analyst said the devices, able to dodge air defence systems, were likely to be used for surveillance.

Video footage of the test was published online by the Department of Defense.

“Perdix are not pre-programmed synchronised individuals, they are a collective organism, sharing one distributed brain for decision-making and adapting to each other like swarms in nature,” said William Roper, director of the Strategic Capabilities Office.

“Because every Perdix communicates and collaborates with every other Perdix, the swarm has no leader and can gracefully adapt to drones entering or exiting the team.”

The drones were originally designed by engineering students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and were first modified for military testing in 2013.

“When looking at how you deal with air defence systems that are optimised to spot very large, fast-moving aircraft, small, cheap disposable drones seem to be one solution,” said Elizabeth Quintana, at the Royal United Services Institute, a military think tank.

She added that the system would probably be used for surveillance purposes in the near term.

In May, the US Navy tested a system that could launch drones into the sky for rapid deployment.

Asian competition
And late last year, the Chinese also demonstrated a swarm of larger, fixed-wing drones.

Ms Quintana pointed out that China had significant resources both in electronics and drone-manufacturing.

The world’s best-selling consumer drones are made by DJI, a Chinese company.

“They have a tremendous amount of expertise in the country,” she told the BBC.

“It’s going to be very interesting – it won’t just be about who has the biggest swarm but also about who can out-manoeuvre who.”

–

Source: BBC

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Date: May 31, 2014 

Time: 19:00 GMT

After pitching camp in the Netherlands for almost a week now, all is set for the Black Stars to test their might against the Netherlands before jetting off to Miami for the next phase of their World Cup preparations.

Saturday’s game will be the second time both sides face off after a 2010 encounter saw the Black Stars suffering a humiliating 4-1 defeat at the hands of their Dutch counterparts.

Goals in that game were scored by Dirk Kuyt, Rafael van der Vaart, Robin van Persie, and Wesley Sneijder.

Dutch coach Louis van Gaal will field his first choice XI for the World Cup and in the new 5-3-2 system he has implemented in recent weeks.

“Before the match, I will announce my 23 man squad,” the coach told reporters. “On Monday I have to give my list to Fifa, but I will make my decision earlier. Against Ghana our starting XI during the World Cup will play.”

However, in recent times, the Netherlands have been a pale shadow of themselves after failing to secure a single win in their last four (4) games.

Their recent disappointment came in a recent friendly against Ecuador when they had to rely on a late first half Robben Van Persie stunner to beat Ecuador at the Amsterdam Arena.

Louis van Gaal will be without the services of veteran attacking midfielder, Rafael Van Der Vaart  and Right back, Daryl Janmaat  after they all suffered injuries while training this week.

Galatasaray’s Wesley Sneijder and Bayern Munich’s Arjen Robben are all expected to make a comeback into the Dutch starting line-up after both players missed their last friendly against Ecuador.

The Black Stars on the other hand will be with a full house after Michael Essien, Kevin-Prince Boateng, Adam Larsen  Kwarasey and Sulley Muntari reported to camp this week.

Kwesi Appiah: “The unity is so great and discipline is very high,” he said ahead of Saturday’s match against the Dutch in Rotterdam. “Discipline plays a big role, if you want to be successful, 100 per cent lies with the players’ behaviour and so far it has been good.

“There is this kind of competition, no one is sure of himself at the moment. Everybody is attentive to whatever is taught in training. Everyone tries to do whatever he can and for me, it’s good for the team and I am really impressed.”

Tactics

The Ghana Black Stars are expected to appear in a 4-2-3-1 setup which will see them building-up play in a slow manner and try to catch the Dutch on fast counter break with their swift and trickery wingers.

On the Other hand, the Netherlands will line-up in an adventurous 5-3-2 formation which will allow their wing-backs join attack often and launch crosses to feed both Sneijder and Van Persie with the right balls.

Possible Netherlands line-up: Cillessen, Verhaegh, Blind, Martins-Indi, De Vrij, Vlaar, Clasie, De Jong, Sneijder, Robben, Van Persie

Possible Ghana line-up: Kwarasey, Opare, Afful, Akaminko, Boye, Essien, Muntari, Asamoah, Ayew, Boateng, Gyan

By: Benjamin Epton Owusu/citifmonline.com/Ghana

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