A trio of extreme kayakers recently took their daredevilry to scorching heights when they paddled in a red-hot lava "river" near an active volcano.
As this stunning video shows, professional kayakers Pedro Oliva, Chris Korbulic and Ben Stookesberry had been on an expedition in Hawaii when they came across the fiery Kilauea volcano, which is one of the most active in the world.
The trio paddled within feet of the blistering lava flows that spewed from the volcano into the waters below, before taking to the expanding lava coastline on foot.
"The goal of our expedition was to find rivers and waterfalls in Hawaii and the possibility of finding a river of lava was so enticing," Oliva, who is from Brazil, said in the video. "The feeling of arriving [at Kilauea] in the very first light of the day and seeing the lava flowing into the ocean was really unforgettable."
As MSN notes, the three kayakers had been in Hawaii to film the latest segment of the Brazilian TV show, "Kaiak."
Featuring incredible footage of Oliva, Korbulic and Stookesberry exploring the most extreme kayaking destinations in the world, the TV program has shown the trio in locations all over the planet, including Norway, Greenland and Brazil.
But as exciting as their adventures seem, Oliva pointed out in the video that his team's extreme kayaking antics are often extremely dangerous and should not be attempted by non-professionals.
"I hope people don't see these images and think that it is safe," said Oliva of his recent brush with the steaming volcano.
"The actual ocean itself would burn your hand if you put it in there," Stookesberry told Barcroft Media of the boiling waters they kayaked on during their volcano expedition, according to AOL Travel.
The National Rifle Association on Tuesday released its long-awaited "National School Shield Report," a lengthy document that recommends that schools arm and train staff members who want to carry guns.
A few hours earlier, Indiana's House Education Committee advanced a similar measure -- but one that takes the NRA's logic even further.
While the NRA's model legislation would lift restrictions on guns in schools and require specific training for school employees who choose to carry guns, the Indiana amendment would make the state the nation's first to require all public schools to have an armed person with a loaded weapon in the building during school hours. After receiving a yet-to-be-determined training course, any school employee -- a teacher, principal, or janitor -- could become the school's guard, called "school protection officers." The amendment doesn't specify which firearms the "officers" must hold or whether the guns should be visible or concealed.
The Indiana amendment's sponsor, Rep. Jim Lucas (R), said he believes mass shootings like the one in Newtown could be prevented by more firearms. "The way they are right now, school is a gun-free zone. Tragically we see the tragic consequences of gun-free zones, defenseless zones like the Colorado theater, Columbine, and Virginia Tech," Lucas told The Huffington Post Wednesday. "We have to work to overcome the stigma that firearms are a bad thing."
The gun mandates come in response to the Newtown, Conn., elementary school shooting, in which 20 children and six adults were murdered in December 2012, and against the background of a national debate over gun-control measures. More broadly, schools across the nation are grappling with a debate in light of Newtown and other incidents of school violence: the tension between potential threats of immediate danger to children's lives and the need to make kids feel safe in a school environment.
According to Marc Egan, a lobbyist for the National Education Association, 27 states are now considering various laws that would arm people in schools. "This is not the right approach," he said. "Parents do not want to see their kids' schools turned into fortresses."
The Indiana amendment was a last-second addition to a bill praised in the NRA report, one that would create a grant to expand the capacity and funding for "school resource officers" -- specifically guards trained to prevent violence in the school setting.
Rep. Linda Lawson, an Indiana Democrat, said she wrote an amendment that sought to define a "school resource officer" as a staff member trained to prevent violence, who would not carry a firearm. Lawson said she was surprised to see Lucas' addition, saying it completely changed the law, Senate Bill 1.
Lucas, a Republican who is a "benefactor member" of the NRA, brought his amendment to the committee Tuesday. To pass, it would have to clear the state House, which has a Republican supermajority, and then the Indiana Senate. Lucas said many teachers have approached him saying that they want the right to defend themselves and carry guns in school -- but national polling data says the opposite is true. Lucas said he hadn't seen the NRA report when writing his amendment, but that the proposals follow "the same logic."
In light of the Newtown shooting, President Barack Obama came out with a plan in January that would, in addition to gun-control measures, create new federal funding for mental health professionals and -- if a school wanted it -- "school resource officers" who could be armed.
But the idea of allowing armed guards onto school grounds, even with requisite training, is controversial. "Not in a million years should they be allowed to carry firearms," Lawson said. "This is a bad bad idea, an accident waiting to happen."
The Advancement Project, the American Civil Liberties Union, and youth groups recently proposed an alternative school safety plan to counter the NRA -- and the Obama administration. "We recognized that all of the work we've been doing could be rolled back because of what seems like a reasonable response -- to put more police in schools -- but we know there are a number of long-term detrimental consequences for young people," said Judith Browne Dianis, a co-director of the Advancement Project. "A real safety plan does not include increasing police presence and armed guards in our schools."
JERUSALEM — Israeli warplanes struck targets early Wednesday in the Gaza Strip in response to rocket fire toward southern Israel, the first air strikes launched by Israel since an informal cease-fire ended eight days of cross-border fighting between Israel and Hamas-ruled Gaza.
An Israeli military statement issued Wednesday said its planes targeted "two extensive terror sites" with "accurate hits." Palestinian officials said no one was hurt in the air strikes and no damage was reported in northern Gaza.
The air raids followed the third successful rocket attack on Israel since the November cease-fire. The military reported that Gaza militants on Tuesday fired at least one rocket toward southern Israel. No one was hurt and no damage was caused. The attack was the first since rockets were fired during President Barack Obama's visit to Israel two weeks ago.
There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the rocket fire. The Israeli military says it holds Gaza's Islamic Hamas rulers responsible for any attack against the Jewish state.
Rocket fire has been rare since an informal cease-fire was reached last November. During eight days of violence in November, the Israeli military said 1,500 rockets were fired at Israel, including the first from Gaza to strike the Tel Aviv and Jerusalem areas. The rocket attacks killed six Israelis and wounded dozens. Israeli airstrikes killed 169 Palestinians, many of them militants, and caused considerable damage.
Earlier Tuesday, Palestinian prisoners rioted following news of a fellow inmate's death of cancer, and Israeli prison guards fired tear gas to quell the disturbances, an Israeli official said.
Palestinian officials said Israel was responsible for the death of Maysara Abu Hamdiyeh, charging medical negligence. The 64-year-old was serving a life sentence for his role in a foiled attempt to bomb a busy cafe in Jerusalem in 2002.
As news of Abu Hamdiyeh's death spread, Palestinian prisoners in several jails began banging on their cell doors and hurling objects. Later, protests spread to Jerusalem and parts of the West Bank.
Prisons Authority spokeswoman Sivan Weizman said three prisoners and six guards were evacuated for medical treatment after inhaling tear gas.
She said Abu Hamdiyeh was treated well by Israeli specialists and died in a hospital in Beersheba.
Weizman said the prison service asked the parole board for the prisoner's early release after his cancer was diagnosed as terminal last week, but the appeal was still being processed at the time of his death.
Palestinian prisoner affairs minister Issa Karakeh blamed Israel. "This is a serious, ugly crime committed against the prisoner Maysara due to medical negligence and reluctance to release him," Karakeh said.
In Ramallah, Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said he was working to free Palestinians from Israeli prisons.
"We were surprised with the death of our brother prisoner," Abbas said. "We attempted to have him released and take him for treatment, but the Israeli government refused to release him, which led to his death."
Later Tuesday, protests spread to the West Bank city of Hebron, where protesters threw firebombs and rocks at Israeli soldiers. The troops responded with tear gas and other riot dispersal means, the military said.
Tensions are high in Israeli lockups, where thousands of Palestinian security prisoners are being held. Some have held hunger strikes and Palestinians have held large protests demanding their release.
After decades of conflict with Israel, the issue of prisoners is emotionally charged in Palestinian society. Inmates are highly esteemed regardless of the reasons for their incarceration, which range from mass murder to throwing rocks.
The Texas district attorney killed in his home three days ago was shot 20 times, according to an unnamed federal source quoted by an NBC News report.
The source also said that Kaufman County District Attorney Mike McLelland's wife was shot once -- a revelation that conflicts with a search warrant affidavit filed by the Texas Rangers, and reported on by the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. The paper reported that each victim was shot multiple times.
That affidavit also said sheriff's deputies "observed cartridge casings inside the residence near the two bodies," according to Reuters, after friends discovered the couple's bodies in their Forney house east of Dallas.
The killing of McLelland, 63, and his wife Cynthia, 65, has alarmed officials in law enforcement across the state. Fewer than three months ago, Mark Haase, an assistant prosecutor in McLelland's office, was gunned down near the county courthouse.
Authorities investigating the McLelland murders have released no motive for the shootings, but suspicion has fallen on a white power gang called the Aryan Brotherhood of Texas. The gang's 4,000 members are active in the state's prisons, and are allegedly involved in drug dealing and prostitution.
McLelland's office was part of joint investigation that resulted in federal indictments against 34 reputed members of the white supremacist group last fall. Anxiety about security reportedly pushed an assistant U.S. attorney in Houston to withdraw from the prosecution of the alleged gang members, the Dallas Morning News reported.
A Texas high school student who protested taking what he called an "unneeded" test spoke truth to power on Twitter, and ended up getting suspended for it. Kyron Birdine, a junior at Arlington High School, will be graduating under TAKS testing standards. Regardless, he was made to take the state's new STAAR standardized test, which was implemented in spring 2012 and won't affect his graduation or college entrance prospects. Birdine thought that sitting through the test was a waste of time, and he decided to let state and local education officials know about it -- via social media.
In the essay section of the STAAR test, Birdine wrote, "I have the TAKS test to study for, not this unneeded craziness," followed by the acronym "YOLO" (you only live once) and a smiley face emoticon. He then took a photo of his response with an iPad and tweeted it at Arlington Independent School District and the Texas Education Agency (TEA).
School officials pulled the boy out of class and suspended him for four days, reportedly calling the tweet a breach of security.
Arlington ISD released a written statement to press about the incident:
Today there was an incident with a student tweeting a picture of an answer booklet for a STAAR field test. We have made an initial report of the incident to TEA and will continue to investigate further. The student has been punished in accordance with district disciplinary procedures.
North Korea said Tuesday it will escalate production of nuclear weapons material, including restarting a long-shuttered plutonium reactor, in what outsiders see as Pyongyang's latest attempt to extract U.S. concessions by raising fears of war.
A spokesman for the North's General Department of Atomic Energy said scientists will quickly begin work "readjusting and restarting" a uranium enrichment plant and a graphite-moderated, 5-megawatt reactor that could produce a bomb's worth of plutonium each year. Experts considered the uranium announcement to be a public declaration from Pyongyang that it will make highly enriched uranium that could be used for bomb fuel.
The plutonium reactor began operations in 1986 but was shut down in 2007 as part of international nuclear disarmament talks that have since stalled. It wasn't immediately clear if North Korea had already begun work to restart facilities at its main Nyongbyon nuclear complex. Experts estimate it could take anywhere from three months to a year to reactivate the reactor.
The announcement will boost concerns in Washington and among its allies about North Korea's timetable for building a nuclear-tipped missile that can reach the United States, although it is still believed to be years away from developing that technology.
The nuclear vows and a rising tide of threats in recent weeks are seen as efforts by Pyongyang to force disarmament-for-aid talks with Washington and to increase domestic loyalty to young North Korean leader Kim Jong Un by portraying him as a powerful military commander.
Hwang Jihwan, a North Korea expert at the University of Seoul, said the North "is keeping tension and crisis alive to raise stakes ahead of possible future talks with the United States."
"North Korea is asking the world, `What are you going to do about this?'" he said.
The unidentified North Korean atomic spokesman said the measure is meant to resolve the country's acute electricity shortage but is also for "bolstering up the nuclear armed force both in quality and quantity," according to a statement carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.
The statement suggests the North will do more to produce highly enriched uranium, which like plutonium can be used to make nuclear weapons. Uranium worries outsiders because the technology needed to make highly enriched uranium bombs is much easier to hide than huge plutonium facilities. North Korea previously insisted that its uranium enrichment was for electricity -- meaning low enriched uranium.
Kim Jin Moo, a North Korea expert at the Korea Institute for Defense Analyses in South Korea, said that by announcing it is "readjusting" all nuclear facilities, including a uranium enrichment plant, North Korea "is blackmailing the international community by suggesting that it will now produce weapons-grade, highly enriched uranium."
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Tuesday that North Korea appears to be "on a collision course with the international community." Speaking in Andorra, the former South Korean foreign minister said the crisis has gone too far and international negotiations are urgently needed.
A Rhode Island couple says they were speechless and moved to tears when Pope Francis hugged and kissed their disabled 8-year-old son in St. Peter's Square on Easter Sunday.
Paul and Christina Gondreau of Johnston and their five children attended Easter Mass at the Vatican. An usher directed the boy, Dominic, who has cerebral palsy, and his mother to an area designated for handicapped children, said Paul Gondreau, a theology professor at Providence College who is teaching this semester in Rome.
When the pope's vehicle arrived, the same usher motioned to the driver to stop and with the help of the mother, held the boy up to Pope Francis, who took the boy in his arms and kissed him, The boy appeared to try to bring his right arm around to embrace the pontiff.
Videos and photos of the pontiff standing in the "popemobile" and holding Dominic were transmitted worldwide. Pope Francis also hugged and kissed other children as he greeted the crowd after Mass.
A story on the Providence College website says Paul Gondreau called the moment "an incredibly moving encounter."
He says his son teaches him daily lessons about how to love.
