The test of the developmental DF-ZF hypersonic glide vehicle was monitored after launch Friday atop a ballistic missile fired from the Wuzhai missile launch center in central China, said officials familiar with reports of the test. US intelligence officials have assessed that China plans to use the glider to deliver nuclear weapons through increasingly sophisticated missile defenses.

The DF-ZF also could be used as part of a conventional strategic strike weapon capable of hitting targets around the world within an hour. Mark Schneider, a former Pentagon strategic forces specialist, said the new Chinese hypersonic glider is a serious threat. “The Chinese probably see this as one of their ‘assassin’s mace’ weapons which are designed to defeat the US.”

Now it seems like our media companies have, as they say, kicked it up a notch. The emergence of virtual-reality devices may seem like a really neat way to give kids a more immersive experience. Indeed, earlier this year McDonald’s launched a promotion in Sweden of Happy Meal boxes that could be turned into virtual-reality viewers.

Unfortunately, we have no idea what the effect of putting these headsets on kids will be. And the manufacturers seem to acknowledge that. Samsung’s manual for its Gear VR reads: “Not for use by children under 13. Watching videos or playing games with the Gear VR may affect the visual development of children. When children, age 13 or older, use the Gear VR, adults should limit their usage time and ensure they take frequent breaks. Adults should monitor children closely after using the Gear VR if children feel discomfort.” Ha!

What are the chances such a device would be in the home of any kid and they wouldn’t actually get the chance to use it? Pretty slim. But parents should beware. Kids who are still getting used to what is a part of the real world may not be ready for a virtual one yet.

There followed a predictable flurry of condemnation, including chastisement from the president of Germany’s own Bundesbank, Jens Weidmann, who saw it as a challenge to the independence of the European Central Bank. Thereby reprimanded, Mr Schäuble has since rowed back somewhat on his remarks.

He didn't need to. The German finance minister was, as ever, bang on the money; negative interest rates are indeed part of an increasingly potent cocktail of complaint against Europe which is fueling support for the anti-immigrant, anti-euro Alternative für Deutschland (AfD). Mr Schäuble should not be pilloried for saying so.

Other German politicians have gone further still. Hans-Peter Friedrich, a former interior minister, said that the ECB’s easy-money policies had led to “a massive loss” of the central bank’s credibility, and he called for the installation of a German president to restore monetary discipline to the central bank’s ever more unconventional ways.

Germans look at the ECB’s ever more desperate attempts to generate growth, and all they see is a massive transfer of wealth from creditor to debtor nations. Such transfers may be just about tolerable within nations, where shared interest in adversity is more readily accepted, but when it happens between nations, it is certain to cause a backlash. To Germans, it looks as if they are being made to pay through the burden sharing actions of the ECB for the past profligacies of the Club Med nations.

The further integrated union would not only take a central hold over economic and fiscal matters, as well as internal markets, but would also include social and cultural affairs and foreign, security and defence policy of member states. The paper says “concrete” proposals” to enhance European Union (EU) integration will be drawn up at a meeting in Luxembourg in May, just a month before the UK holds its In/Out referendum on June 23.

The news will come as a blow to pro-EU Prime Minister David Cameron who has sought to reassure voters Britain will not be part of a European superstate. The joint declaration says: “We are convinced that new impetus must be given to European integration. We believe that more, not less, Europe is needed to respond to the challenges we face.”

It says deeper integration “should not be limited to the field of economic and fiscal matters, or to the internal market and to agricultural policy”. It adds: “It should include all matters pertaining to the European ideal - social and cultural affairs as well as foreign, security and defence policy. The current moment offers an opportunity to move forward with European political integration, which could lead to a federal union of States.”

The Gundremmingen plant, located about 120 km (75 miles) northwest of Munich, is run by the German utility RWE. The viruses, which include "W32.Ramnit" and "Conficker", were discovered at Gundremmingen's B unit in a computer system retrofitted in 2008 with data visualisation software associated with equipment for moving nuclear fuel rods, RWE said.

Malware was also found on 18 removable data drives, mainly USB sticks, in office computers maintained separately from the plant's operating systems. RWE said it had increased cyber-security measures as a result. W32.Ramnit is designed to steal files from infected computers and targets Microsoft Windows software, according to the security firm Symantec.

Conficker has infected millions of Windows computers worldwide since it first came to light in 2008. It is able to spread through networks and by copying itself onto removable data drives, Symantec said.

Breitbart London reported that the exercise was attended by 600 members of various European police and military forces, in a bid to prepare the united troops of the European Gendarmerie Force. The military police group is made up of seven European nations, including Spain, Romania, Poland and Germany, and aims to quell post conflict scenarios within EU member states.

The group’s website reported that: “The aim of the [2016, April 15th] Comprehensive Live Exercise will be capacity building of police and gendarmes who will participate in international stabilisation missions and projects with a police component.” It went on to describe the exercises carried out, including “carousel training, with attention being given to all policing skills, including community policing and social patrols, crowd and riot control, SWAT teams and forensic investigation”.

European affairs spokesman for the German Government Andrej Huko asked to attend, but was blocked from coming close to the site. He claimed that the military force was preparing to shut down “political meetings” and “protests”. He went on to argue that the “militarisation of the police” is “extremely worrying and contrary in Germany to the principle of separation of police and military”.

It comes as fears rise that the European Union could form its own army, with one ex-commander of British troops in Afghanistan claiming it could undermine NATO and UK defences.

Italian PM Matteo Renzi said it would be a "flagrant breach of European rule" and the policy is "utterly removed from reality." Tensions in Europe are at boiling point after Austria outlined plans earlier this week to install a 370 metre-long fence at the Brenner Pass, which is the busiest route through the Alps for heavy goods vehicles.

It comes just weeks after the country announced large fences are also to be built at the Moschendorf, Heiligenbrunn, Heiligenkreuz and Nickelsdorf border crossing points throughout the Burgenland region, before migrants travelling by foot arrive.

The move has incensed Italian politicians. Italian interior minister Angelino Alfano criticised the plans as the numbers of migrants passing from Italy to Austria were at their lowest levels for years. Mr Alfano said: “The logic of raising barriers is unacceptable. I will tell him very clearly that unilateral decisions go against European rules.” There are also concerns any toughening of border controls at the Brenner Pass would slow traffic on an important route from Italy to Germany, Italy's top trading partner.

After close to 50 years of control over the Golan Heights, this should not have been much of a shock. But the Arab world immediately went into an uproar, and the UN Security Council has taken action. In a unanimous decision, the UN Security Council has announced that Israel’s claims to the Golan Heights are “null and void and without international legal effect.”

Asking Israel to give the Golan Heights back to Syria is kind of like asking the United States to give Texas back to Mexico. It just isn’t going to happen. But thanks in large part to pressure from the Islamic world, the UN Security Council remains bound and determined to take that strategically important sliver of land away from Israel.

Meanwhile, top rabbis over in Israel are convinced that the arrival of the Messiah is imminent. Two extremely prominent figures in the Jewish faith recently got together for a very important conversation, and this made headlines all over the world… Much of their conversation centered on expectations regarding the coming of the Messiah.

Rabbi Kanievsky said that troubles were to be expected. “It is the days before Messiah,” he explained. Rabbi Kanievsky answered that the Messiah should be arriving in the very near future. He quoted the Talmud (Megillah 17b) again, saying, “In the year after shmittah the Son of David will come.” The year after the Shemitah on the Jewish calendar ends this October, so until then messianic expectations will be running high in Israel.

But at the same time, a geopolitical drama is playing out on the world stage which may eventually result in a great war coming to the land. If the UN Security Council does decide to pass a resolution permanently dividing the land, that is going to cause tensions in the region to go through the roof.

As a reminder, the reason for the electrical rationing was the water content of Venezuela's Guri Dam, which supplies more than two-thirds of the country’s electricity. As The Latin American Herald Tribune wrote a month ago, the dam “is less than four meters from reaching the level where power generation will be impossible. Water levels at the hydroelectric dam are 3.56 meters from the start of a ‘collapse’ of the national electric system. Guri water levels are at their lowest levels since 2003.

Alas, since this plan was doomed to fail as the Venezuela economy would produce even less output as a result of the extended weekend, things went from comical to farcical overnight when the Venezuelan gift kept on giving, and the nation expanded the three-day weekend to five days, declaring a two-day work week for government workers, adding it was seeking international help to save its power grid amid a drought that threatens the capital’s main source of electricity.

Marcus Pretzell is waiting. He's a member of the European Parliament with the right-wing populist party Alternative for Germany (AfD) and he's sitting on the podium at the Yalta International Economic Forum, an event hosted by the Russian government at a resort on the occupied Crimean Peninsula. Pretzell has been seated directly next to the moderator.

The panel host then finally asks Pretzell to speak. "We at Alternative for Germany represent not only a threat to the Ukrainian government, but also to the German government," he proudly announces. The audience applauds. He then goes on to say that good economic relations with Russia "are in the interest of the German people" and that sanctions should be lifted immediately. The applause grows. In Russia, the moderator adds, people have the impression that the German people are of the same opinion as Pretzell. "Marcus, you have made 140 million new friends today."

Russia also has many friends in the AfD. Leading party officials are pursuing a clearly pro-Russian path and are trying to establish tight relations with people in President Vladimir Putin's circle. The right-wing populists are undeterred by the Kremlin's anti-liberal, anti-American and homophobic ideology. On the contrary: For large parts of the AfD party base, those factors appear to make Russia an attractive partner. At the same time, the AfD, with its critical stance toward the EU and NATO, also appears to be a natural partner for Putin.

Now, though, the relationship is advancing past the stage of discussions and conferences: The youth wing of the AfD is forming more formal ties with the youth organization of Putin's United Russia party.

On Sunday, a group of Muslims were removed from the Temple Mount by police for chanting “Allahu Akbar” at nearly 1,000 Jewish and Christian visitors who had ascended the site during the Passover holiday. Prior to that incident, 13 Jews were removed from the Temple Mount for illegally praying at the holy site.

Following Sunday’s incident, Jordanian Media Affairs Minister Mohammad al-Momani released a statement slamming the “Israeli settlers and police” for storming the “Al-Aqsa Mosque/Al-Haram al-Sharif (Temple Mount).” Al-Momani said Israel’s actions at the site were “a violation of international laws and conventions” and could lead to “serious consequences.”

“Within five years of the advent of our democracy, our country decided to spend $10 billion on weapons that we didn’t need, that we barely used, and the primary reason for that was that $300 millions in bribes were paid. And it had a profound effect of South Africa’s democracy. I tried to investigate the deal… but was stopped by my own political party — which itself had benefited from the bribes…”

“At a time when South Africa had six million people living with HIV or AIDS, our president at the time, Thabo Mbeki, said that we didn’t have the finances to provide these people with antiretroviral medication.” This story reveals the other side of the arms trade — how it can kill without even firing a shot: by using up precious resources that should have been devoted to controlling lethal diseases and other problems the world faces.

The proportion of young people who are willing to go on a date with a robot is significantly higher than the overall proportion of British adults - only 17% of whom were willing.

"Our bodies, our identities and our senses are enhancing thanks to technology and societal shifts," said Ghislaine Boddington, co-founder and creative director of East London design unit body>data>space.

"Indeed, intimacy as we know it is expanding its boundaries - enabling us to experience love and affection beyond the physical and into the virtual."

As it marched through the region, waterhemp began to develop resistance to the most commonly used herbicides of the day. A relatively new type of resistance to a class of herbicides called HPPD-inhibitors was discovered in waterhemp populations in Illinois and Iowa in 2009. Now, thanks to a new University of Illinois study, we know that some of those populations are also resistant to alternative herbicides, making them even harder to kill.

University of Illinois weed scientist Aaron Hager explains, "Ultimately, we know how to win the battle," Hager says. "If we attack waterhemp at the most vulnerable stage in its life cycle - the seed - we could beat this thing in five to seven years." Hager recommends that farmers let seeds germinate, then mechanically work the soil before planting the crop. "You've just reduced your seedbank by millions, maybe hundreds of millions, and it didn't cost you a dime," Hager notes.

According to Hager, no new herbicides are being developed that are likely to work on waterhemp long-term. "We've got to get people off this idea that we've got a chemical solution for waterhemp, because in some cases, we don't," Hager adds.

Scientists from the University of Leicester discovered there were a staggering 12 massive eruptions over the course of four million years, beginning 12 million years ago. The massive eruptions helped to form the 100 kilometre-wide Snake River Basin, with one of the most powerful eruptions occurring 8.1 million years ago. The eruption's volume exceeded 1,900 km3 and created a 1.3km thick caldera.

Furthermore, the Snake River Plain is situated on the Yellowstone Hotspot track, a region which spans from Nevada, through Oregon and Idaho and then to Wyoming where Yellowstone Volcano is located.

"The size and magnitude of this newly defined eruption is as large, if not larger, than better known eruptions at Yellowstone, and it is just the first in an emerging record of newly discovered super-eruptions during a period of intense magmatic activity between eight and 12 million years ago."