“When the jet-black Maveric flies over Florida skies, the local turkey vultures fly after it. That’s because Maveric, one of a new generation of microdrones, has a profile remarkably similar to that of a bird in flight…The Navy is buying Maveric for its SEALS, who plan to launch it from a canister out of a mini-submarine.”

http://www.aolnews.com/nation/article/special-operations-conference-unveils-small-bird-like-drones/19522225

“An Air Force military officer and a civilian employee at the Air Force Research Laboratory are just two of the people telling Danger Room co-founder Sharon Weinberger that the vehicle-mounted “block 2″ version of the pain ray is in the warzone, but hasn’t been used in combat.”

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2010/06/u-s-testing-pain-ray-in-afghanistan/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+wired%2Findex+%28Wired%3A+Index+3+%28Top+Stories+2%29%29

Mark Zuckerberg

“Police probe Facebook chief over ‘Draw Muhammad’ contest

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg is being investigated by Pakistani police under a section of the penal code that makes blasphemy against Muhammad publishable by death.”

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/06/17/zuckerberg_faces_criminal_investigation_in_pakistan/

Sudbury, Massachusetts

Two men accused in a terror plot to kill Americans face new federal charges that they conspired to provide personnel, advice, assistance and other services to al-Qaida.

A grand jury on Thursday added charges of conspiring to provide material support to a designated foreign terrorist organization in a superseding indictment against 27-year-old Tarek Mehanna of Sudbury, Mass., and 28-year-old Ahmad Abousamra. Authorities say Abousamra, who used to live in Mansfield, Mass., is now in Syria.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/06/17/4525494-2-charged-in-mass-with-conspiring-to-aid-al-qaida

Ahmad Abousamra

Tarek Mehanna

“The hardline spiritual mentor of Iran’s president has made a rare public call for producing the “special weapons” that are a monopoly of a few nations — a veiled reference to nuclear arms.

The Associated Press on Monday obtained a copy of a book written by Ayatollah Mohammad Taqi Mesbah Yazdi in which he wrote Iran should not deprive itself of the right to produce these “special weapons.”

http://www.boston.com/news/world/asia/articles/2010/06/15/iran_cleric_wants_special_weapons_to_deter_enemy/

Another source of lithium lies beneath Salar de Uyuni, Bolivia, the world’s largest salt flat.

The United States has discovered nearly $1 trillion in untapped mineral deposits in Afghanistan, far beyond any previously known reserves and enough to fundamentally alter the Afghan economy and perhaps the Afghan war itself, according to senior American government officials.

The previously unknown deposits — including huge veins of iron, copper, cobalt, gold and critical industrial metals like lithium — are so big and include so many minerals that are essential to modern industry that Afghanistan could eventually be transformed into one of the most important mining centers in the world, the United States officials believe.

Instead of bringing peace, the newfound mineral wealth could lead the Taliban to battle even more fiercely to regain control of the country.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/06/14/world/asia/14minerals.html

“New evidence has emerged of strong political and financial links between the Taliban and Pakistan’s ISI intelligence service.

A report based on a series of face-to-face interviews with Afghan insurgents, published by the London School of Economics, alleges that the Pakistani government helps the Taliban in strategic decision-making and coordination of insurgency tactics.

The report says the ISI provides Taliban fighters with training, cash and sanctuary as they fight Western troops in Afghanistan.”

http://www.abc.net.au/news/stories/2010/06/14/2926379.htm?section=world

A seven-year-old boy was murdered by the Taliban in an apparent act of retribution this week.

Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for the provincial governor of Helmand: … “His grandfather is a tribal elder in the village and the village is under the control of the Taliban. His grandfather said some good things about the Government and he formed a small group of people to stand against the Taliban. That’s why the Taliban killed his grandson in revenge.”

Qari Yousef Ahmaid, Taleban spokesman:… “We never kill children. Everyone knows a seven-year-old can’t be a spy.”

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/afghanistan/article7147378.ece