Six In The Morning Friday June 27

ISIS gains in Iraq put Saudi forces on highest alert

From Mohammed Jamjoom, CNN

June 27, 2014 -- Updated 0323 GMT (1123 HKT)

King Abdullah has ordered that "all necessary measures" be taken to protect Saudi Arabia against terror threats, the state-run SPA news agency reported Thursday.

"Anticipating (that) the terrorist organizations or others might carry out actions that might disturb the security of the homeland, the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques has ordered taking all necessary measures to protect the gains of the homeland and its territories in addition to the security and stability of the Saudi people," SPA said.

The news agency referenced the crisis in Iraq, where militants with the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) are seeking to create an Islamic caliphate that encompasses portions of Iraq and Syria.

North Korea tests new precision guided missiles

South Korean defence officials said the projectiles fired from an eastern port city flew about 120 miles before harmlessly landing off its east coast

AGENCY

 

 

Friday 27 June 2014

North Korea said today that leader Kim Jong Un has guided the test launches of its newly developed precision guided missiles.

It was a possible reference to three short-range projectiles South Korean officials say the North fired toward its waters a day earlier.

South Korean defence officials said the projectiles fired from an eastern port city flew about 120 miles before harmlessly landing into the waters off its east coast.

The exact type of those projectiles and the North's intentions were not immediately known.

Ukraine rebels free four abducted OSCE observers

Four abducted observers from the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe have been freed by pro-Russian rebels in eastern Ukraine. Another team of four observers is still being held hostage.

Pro-Russian separatists in south-eastern Ukraine early on Friday released four out of eight international observers, captured over a month ago, according to the Organization for the Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) team in Kyiv.

The four observers were brought by heavily armed rebels to a hotel in downtown Donetsk, where they were handed over to their colleagues. The city, along with several others in the regions, declared independence from Kyiv after a disputed referendum.

Speaking to reporters, the self-styled "prime minister" of the self-proclaimed Republic of Donetsk, Alexander Borodai, said the observers were freed without conditions and identified them as nationals of Denmark, Turkey, Switzerland and Estonia.

Days of Terror: Iraqi Christians Live in Fear of ISIS

By Katrin Kuntz in Qaraqosh, Iraq

Some 40,000 Christians live in Qaraqosh, a town near Mosul, Iraq. Residents have been gathering daily in 12 local churches as ISIS jihadists advance towards the community. Their existence is a precarious one.

It was the evening of Tuesday, June 10 when Salam Kihkhwa walked into a mobile phone shop in the Qaraqosh city center to purchase more minutes for his phone. Kihkhwa surfs the Internet for several hours each day and was carrying an iPhone 5s in his hand as he navigated his way past brackish puddles on the edge of the road. He set a few wrinkled dinar notes down on the counter to pay for a pack of Winchesters. Just at that moment, he recalls, he heard the scream: "The jihadists are in the city!"

Salam no longer remembers where the scream came from or whether it was a man or a woman. But he knows he left his cigarettes and money on the counter, grabbed his phone and made a run for it. Hundreds of others joined him, and the crowd kept swelling as it dashed through the streets of Qaraqosh.

Rise of the robots increases concerns about industrial safety

June 27, 2014 - 2:46PM

John Markoff and Claire Cain Miller

New York: From driverless cars to delivery drones, a new generation of robots is about to revolutionise the way people work, drive and shop. But this new breed of robots will need to have increased autonomy to achieve optimum productivity. With these robots working outside cages there are growing concerns this could lead to an increase in industrial accidents.

Robots have long toiled alongside workers in factories and warehouses, where they load boxes, drill and weld car parts, or move food from one conveyor belt to the next.

Now experts worry about the dangers that robots pose to the humans who work alongside them.

NASA's deep-space craft readying for launch

By Carter Maguire, Special to CNN June 26, 2014 -- Updated 1733 GMT (0133 HKT) |

The U.S. space shuttle program retired in 2011, leaving American astronauts to hitchhike into orbit. But after three long years, NASA's successor is almost ready to make an entrance.

Orion, the agency's newest manned spaceship, is being prepared for its first mission in December. In future missions, it will journey into deep space -- to Mars and beyond -- farther than humans have ever gone before.

Orion comes loaded with superlatives. It boasts the largest heat shield ever built and a computer 400 times faster than the ones on the space shuttles. It will be launched into space on the most powerful rocket NASA has ever made.