Lucky Marine - Sniper Shot Hits Helmet http://t.co/7UkJPcsn56 pic.twitter.com/jx1ge9bOuJ
— Legendfantasy net (@ccwx2003) April 30, 2015
Lucky Marine - Sniper Shot Hits Helmet
Thursday, April 30, 2015
Thief gets shot trying to steal motorcycle
Tuesday, April 28, 2015
Thief gets shot trying to steal motorcycle http://t.co/f6ZWczXujZ #staged pic.twitter.com/r5b0vhakx4
— Legendfantasy net (@ccwx2003) April 29, 2015
Massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Nepal, tremors across northern India
Saturday, April 25, 2015
Massive 7.4 magnitude earthquake in Nepal, tremors across northern India http://t.co/KWBjZJKKF9 #nepal #earthquake pic.twitter.com/Z23qOidt9P
— Legendfantasy net (@ccwx2003) April 25, 2015
Anniversary celebrations: Universal Studios, Hubble telescope
Thursday, April 23, 2015
The Kennedy Space Center, which has a replica of the Hubble Space Telescope in its Atlantis exhibit, this weekend will celebrate the 25th anniversary of the Hubble’s deployment. KENNEDY SPACE CENTER
THEME PARKS & ATTRACTIONS
▪ Universal Orlando, marking its 25th anniversary this year, has scheduled a series of concerts in May and June to celebrate the milestone.
The concerts open with Prince Royce on May 23 and Shawn Mendes on May 24. The other concerts are all on Saturdays: Pitbull (May 30); Kellie Pickler (June 6); Huey Lewis and The News (June 13) and Goo Goo Dolls (June 20).
The concerts will be at Music Plaza, a concert venue in Universal Studios, which opened June 7, 1990, the first of the resort’s two parks. Universal Islands of Adventure opened in 1999.
The concerts will be included in park admission.
▪ Twenty-five years ago on Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center. The telescope was released into space the next day. Now it circles Earth every 97 minutes in its orbit 340 miles above us.
This weekend, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will celebrate Hubble’s 25 years in space with activities for the public: a high-tech projection mapping show, hands-on education and activity stations and Q&As with NASA scientists, astronomers, astrophysicists and astronauts. The events are Friday through Sunday. www.kennedyspacecenter.com.
▪ Grand opening for the Orlando Eye and its two sister attractions, Sea Life Aquarium and Madame Tussauds, will be May 4, but it is being preceded by a string of other events. On April 16, the Orlando Eye’s 64,000 LEDs were lit. And on Wednesday morning, Nik Wallenda (of the Flying Wallendas circus family) will walk on the wheel while it turns. The stunt will be broadcast live on the Today show between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.www.officialorlandoeye.com.
▪ The annual Halifax Oyster Fest will be this weekend in Daytona Beach, with food, music and kids’ activities on Friday and Saturday. The festival is named for the Halifax River section of the Intracoastal Waterway, which has many oyster beds. It will offer oysters cooked -- and uncooked — a multitude of ways. Afterwards, the oyster beds will be replenished with the empty oyster shells. The festival, at Manatee Island Park, will also feature music on two stages and an interactive Kids Zone with touch tanks.www.halifaxoysterfestival.com.
▪ Wildcat Touring will offer regularly scheduled charter flights from Fort Lauderdale to Eleuthera and the Abaco Islands the Bahamas in May. The flights will go to North Eleuthera Airport on Thursdays and Sundays, and to Marsh Harbor Airport in the Abacos on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Introductory price will be $500 roundtrip, including taxes, fees and two checked bags, but that is likely to rise in June.
▪ Universal Orlando, marking its 25th anniversary this year, has scheduled a series of concerts in May and June to celebrate the milestone.
The concerts open with Prince Royce on May 23 and Shawn Mendes on May 24. The other concerts are all on Saturdays: Pitbull (May 30); Kellie Pickler (June 6); Huey Lewis and The News (June 13) and Goo Goo Dolls (June 20).
The concerts will be at Music Plaza, a concert venue in Universal Studios, which opened June 7, 1990, the first of the resort’s two parks. Universal Islands of Adventure opened in 1999.
The concerts will be included in park admission.
▪ Twenty-five years ago on Friday, the Hubble Space Telescope was launched on the space shuttle Discovery from Kennedy Space Center. The telescope was released into space the next day. Now it circles Earth every 97 minutes in its orbit 340 miles above us.
This weekend, the Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex will celebrate Hubble’s 25 years in space with activities for the public: a high-tech projection mapping show, hands-on education and activity stations and Q&As with NASA scientists, astronomers, astrophysicists and astronauts. The events are Friday through Sunday. www.kennedyspacecenter.com.
▪ Grand opening for the Orlando Eye and its two sister attractions, Sea Life Aquarium and Madame Tussauds, will be May 4, but it is being preceded by a string of other events. On April 16, the Orlando Eye’s 64,000 LEDs were lit. And on Wednesday morning, Nik Wallenda (of the Flying Wallendas circus family) will walk on the wheel while it turns. The stunt will be broadcast live on the Today show between 8 a.m. and 10 a.m.www.officialorlandoeye.com.
▪ The annual Halifax Oyster Fest will be this weekend in Daytona Beach, with food, music and kids’ activities on Friday and Saturday. The festival is named for the Halifax River section of the Intracoastal Waterway, which has many oyster beds. It will offer oysters cooked -- and uncooked — a multitude of ways. Afterwards, the oyster beds will be replenished with the empty oyster shells. The festival, at Manatee Island Park, will also feature music on two stages and an interactive Kids Zone with touch tanks.www.halifaxoysterfestival.com.
▪ Wildcat Touring will offer regularly scheduled charter flights from Fort Lauderdale to Eleuthera and the Abaco Islands the Bahamas in May. The flights will go to North Eleuthera Airport on Thursdays and Sundays, and to Marsh Harbor Airport in the Abacos on Wednesdays, Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays. Introductory price will be $500 roundtrip, including taxes, fees and two checked bags, but that is likely to rise in June.
Samsung hints next smartwatch will be round
2015/04/24 10:50
By Kang Yoon-seung
SEOUL, April 24 (Yonhap) -- Samsung Electronics Co., South Korea's No. 1 tech giant, uploaded a poster of a seemingly round watch screen on its website on Friday implying that its next smartwatch's shape will be circular.
The poster, which reads "Get Ready For The Next Gear," shows what appears to be a round smartwatch, which would be Samsung's first wearable device of its kind.
Its previous Galaxy Gear smartwatches boast a rectangular screen.
Samsung, however, did not provide any hints on detailed specifications nor the launch schedule of a new smartwatch.
While some had expected it to release another smartwatch earlier upon the introduction of its latest high-end smartphones -- the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, the firm did not do so, in an apparent bid to focus on promoting groundbreaking technologies of the new models.
In 2014, Samsung showcased the Galaxy S5 smartphone, along with the Samsung Gear Fit and the Samsung Gear 2 smartwatches.
A poster showcased by Samsung Electronics Co. on April 24, 2015, shows a round-type display, indicating the company's next smartwatch will be round, compared with its previous models with rectangular displays. (Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics)
Earlier this year, South Korea's No. 2 tech firm, LG Electronics Inc., rolled out its latest smartwatch that boasted a round 1.3-inch plastic organic light-emitting diode display.
Samsung's U.S. rival Apple Inc., meanwhile, commenced its sales of the Apple Watch around the globe Friday. The Apple's first smartwatch reportedly sold out in just six hours for the initial preorders.
Meanwhile, Samsung said it will allow developers to access its software development kit to help them build applications for the soon-to-be released Gear wearable device.
It is the first time that Samsung has released its wearable software development kit to third-party developers before the official product announcement.
"We are collaborating with our global partners to provide a better Samsung Gear experience for users," the poster also said. "We welcome more developers to join us on this journey."
The poster, which reads "Get Ready For The Next Gear," shows what appears to be a round smartwatch, which would be Samsung's first wearable device of its kind.
Its previous Galaxy Gear smartwatches boast a rectangular screen.
Samsung, however, did not provide any hints on detailed specifications nor the launch schedule of a new smartwatch.
While some had expected it to release another smartwatch earlier upon the introduction of its latest high-end smartphones -- the Galaxy S6 and the Galaxy S6 Edge, the firm did not do so, in an apparent bid to focus on promoting groundbreaking technologies of the new models.
In 2014, Samsung showcased the Galaxy S5 smartphone, along with the Samsung Gear Fit and the Samsung Gear 2 smartwatches.
A poster showcased by Samsung Electronics Co. on April 24, 2015, shows a round-type display, indicating the company's next smartwatch will be round, compared with its previous models with rectangular displays. (Photo courtesy of Samsung Electronics)Samsung's U.S. rival Apple Inc., meanwhile, commenced its sales of the Apple Watch around the globe Friday. The Apple's first smartwatch reportedly sold out in just six hours for the initial preorders.
Meanwhile, Samsung said it will allow developers to access its software development kit to help them build applications for the soon-to-be released Gear wearable device.
It is the first time that Samsung has released its wearable software development kit to third-party developers before the official product announcement.
"We are collaborating with our global partners to provide a better Samsung Gear experience for users," the poster also said. "We welcome more developers to join us on this journey."
Microsoft profit, revenue beats Wall Street view; shares up
BY BILL RIGBY
A shadow of a man using his mobile phone is cast near Microsoft logo at the 2014 Computex exhibition in Taipei June 4, 2014.
REUTERS/PICHI CHUANG
(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Thursday reported revenue and profit above Wall Street expectations, as sales of its hardware and cloud-computing services helped to offset a decline in the company's core Windows business.
Shares rose 3.1 percent to $44.70 in after-hours trading.
"The company beat across the board," said FBR Capital markets analyst Daniel Ives. "The Street will cheer these results as it appears Microsoft is back on the right track after a head-scratching performance last quarter."
Sales of Windows to computer manufacturers to install on new PCs fell 19 percent in the quarter, reflecting a sharp dip from a year ago when Windows got a brief boost from consumers rushing to buy new machines after Microsoft stopped support for the 14-year-old XP operating system.
That decline was offset by higher revenue from its Surface tablet, back-end server software and cloud-related offerings such as its online Office 365 suite of applications.
The company said its commercial cloud-related revenue for the quarter more than doubled, and was now running at $6.3 billion a year. Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday its quarterly cloud revenue rose almost 50 percent to $1.57 billion, suggesting a similar annual number.
Microsoft's overall revenue rose 6 percent to $21.7 billion, above Wall Street's average forecast of $21.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Taking out the effects of the strong U.S. dollar on currency rates, Microsoft said revenue would have risen 9 percent.
Earnings per share declined to 61 cents per share from 68 cents in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected 51 cents, on average.
(Reporting by Bill Rigby; editing by Gunna Dickson)
A shadow of a man using his mobile phone is cast near Microsoft logo at the 2014 Computex exhibition in Taipei June 4, 2014.
REUTERS/PICHI CHUANG
(Reuters) - Microsoft Corp on Thursday reported revenue and profit above Wall Street expectations, as sales of its hardware and cloud-computing services helped to offset a decline in the company's core Windows business.
Shares rose 3.1 percent to $44.70 in after-hours trading.
"The company beat across the board," said FBR Capital markets analyst Daniel Ives. "The Street will cheer these results as it appears Microsoft is back on the right track after a head-scratching performance last quarter."
Sales of Windows to computer manufacturers to install on new PCs fell 19 percent in the quarter, reflecting a sharp dip from a year ago when Windows got a brief boost from consumers rushing to buy new machines after Microsoft stopped support for the 14-year-old XP operating system.
That decline was offset by higher revenue from its Surface tablet, back-end server software and cloud-related offerings such as its online Office 365 suite of applications.
The company said its commercial cloud-related revenue for the quarter more than doubled, and was now running at $6.3 billion a year. Amazon.com Inc said on Thursday its quarterly cloud revenue rose almost 50 percent to $1.57 billion, suggesting a similar annual number.
Microsoft's overall revenue rose 6 percent to $21.7 billion, above Wall Street's average forecast of $21.1 billion, according to Thomson Reuters I/B/E/S.
Taking out the effects of the strong U.S. dollar on currency rates, Microsoft said revenue would have risen 9 percent.
Earnings per share declined to 61 cents per share from 68 cents in the year-ago quarter. Analysts had expected 51 cents, on average.
(Reporting by Bill Rigby; editing by Gunna Dickson)
Obama confronts 'cruel' reality of his drone war
By Stephen Collinson, CNN
Updated 0351 GMT (1051 HKT) April 24, 2015
President Obama: I profoundly regret what happened 02:40
Updated 0351 GMT (1051 HKT) April 24, 2015
President Obama: I profoundly regret what happened 02:40
Washington (CNN)The long trail of civilian death left by President Barack Obama's drone war finally has an innocent American face.
In an extraordinary moment, Obama appeared Thursday in the White House briefing room to apologize for the accidental killings of an American and an Italian hostage in an attack on an al Qaeda compound on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The deaths of U.S. hostage Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto were an agonizing personal blow to Obama and White House and CIA counterterrorism officials, who were forced to confront the horrifying reality that as a result of their actions, the United States killed two innocent captives.
"It is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally, and our fight (against) terrorists specifically, mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur," Obama said.
But the killings also have political and policy implications. It was a serious jolt for the drone war program, which is a bedrock of his counterterror legacy. They raised questions of whether U.S. covert agencies had done absolutely everything they could to ensure that no civilians were in the path of the drone strikes or whether the CIA was guilty of another intelligence failure.
READ: Will the drone debate come back?
The methodology of Obama's campaign against Islamic extremism -- including strikes to kill unidentified suspected militants -- and the risks inherent in basing military targeting decisions on the imperfect science of intelligence will also face new scrutiny.
The death of Weinstein also will supercharge a controversy about whether the United States, which refuses to negotiate with al Qaeda and ISIS for the release of most detained Americans, does enough to find and bring home U.S. hostages.
In a political sense, the tragedy handed the administration a new national security crisis at a time when Obama's foreign policy is already under assault from Capitol Hill critics and public alarm is rising over the threat from groups like ISIS.
Four years after the stunning special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Obama's national security legacy is being called into question on multiple fronts. The latest episode comes after a failed raid to free U.S. hostages in Syria, a controversy over a Taliban prisoner swap to free a U.S. soldier and the collapse of the Yemeni government, a vital U.S. partner in the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
EXPAND IMAGE
Obama, in his determination to end U.S. land wars in the Middle East and South Asia, significantly escalated the drone program put in place by the Bush administration and has carried out hundreds of strikes in the lawless border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan in a classified program that top officials rarely discuss publicly.
Indirectly, the deaths of the two hostages in January, which were only made public Thursday, can be traced back to that fateful presidential decision.
Grief was etched into Obama's face as he made the dramatic announcement, one of the lowest points of a presidency scarred by perpetual crises and marked by his effort to put the war on terror on a sustainable footing.
'No words' to express loss
"I realize that there are no words that can ever equal their loss," Obama said in a somber appearance that recalled his grief-stricken comments from the same podium after the Newtown school massacre in December 2012.
"As President and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni," Obama said in a grave tone. "I profoundly regret what happened."
The President did not specifically sign off on the operation that killed Weinstein, but the White House said it was conducted in line with procedures he has put in place to regulate counterterrorism operations.
U.S. intelligence agencies had been spying for months from the air on the al Qaeda hideout at an undisclosed location, but they had seen no sign that Weinstein and Lo Porto were being hidden in the building.
READ: U.S. drone strike accidentally killed 2 hostages
One key question that Obama will face -- and one that may emerge from reviews the White House and members of Congress say they will mount -- is whether the deaths of civilian hostages were an unavoidable accident or whether the intelligence community committed serious errors.
"My own instinctive reaction, without having a huge number of facts in front of me, is that if you are striking terrorists using military force for many years in a row, then something like this unfortunately becomes almost a statistical inevitability," said Daniel Benjamin, formerly the top counterterrorism adviser to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is now at Dartmouth College. "It is very hard to avoid."
The fact that it has been deemed too dangerous to put American operatives on the ground in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan and the reality that U.S. anti-terror operations are conducted from the air introduces a high degree of risk. Intelligence agencies can never know for sure who is being targeted, and civil liberties groups have long complained about the randomness of the attacks that have killed significant numbers of Pakistani civilians.
Officials refuse to give figures for the number of attacks. But the Bureau for Investigative Journalism estimates there have been more than 400 U.S. strikes in Pakistan, which have killed between 423 and 962 bystanders along with hundreds of suspected al Qaeda operatives.
Two al Qaeda operatives killed
Supporters of the program say it has been a hugely effective tool in eradicating the core leadership of al Qaeda. And although the deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto are dominating the aftermath of Obama's announcement, the White House did note that strikes also killed two key al Qaeda operatives, also Americans.
"I think the story of the drones has been one of success; it broke the backbone of al Qaeda. But at the end of the day it is not a totally accurate way to fight terrorism," said CNN intelligence analyst Robert Baer, a former CIA operative.
"There are a lot of civilian casualties. They always knew it was never 100% certain. There is no way to see whether somebody is in that building, simply because you cannot see through walls."
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California also pointed to the difficult task that U.S. spies have in getting reliable intelligence in difficult-to-reach parts of the world.
McCain: We rely on drones too much in many areas 02:28
PLAY VIDEO
"Although our intelligence is outstanding, it is not perfect," Nunes, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement.
Obama put in place protocols designed to eliminate civilian deaths in drone strikes, which have caused a significant anti-U.S. backlash in Pakistan, and explained them in a speech at the National Defense University in 2013.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California pledged to investigate the operation to ensure that those steps were properly followed in this case.
"We have to take everything with a certain degree of skepticism," Schiff said. "We owe it to the families and to the American public not to take anything as an article of faith."
The White House argued Thursday that intelligence assessments were correct in identifying al Qaeda operatives at the site of the operation but, tragically, a separate assessment that no civilians were there turned out to be incorrect.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Obama's protocols were followed fully in the case. But he suggested the tragedy could still lead to changes.
Questions about drone policy
"What's also clear, and what I would also readily admit to you, is that in the aftermath of a situation like this, it raises legitimate questions about whether additional changes need to be made to those protocols," Earnest told reporters.
It also raises questions about efforts to recover hostages. Weinstein's death followed the beheadings of U.S. hostages Steven Sotloff and James Foley and the swap of Taliban prisoners for U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who has since been charged with desertion.
In light of the Bergdahl swap, families of slain hostages have accused the administration of doing too little to save their loved ones, despite a failed rescue operation to free Foley and other U.S. hostages held by ISIS in Syria.
READ: Could Warren Weinstein have been saved?
Political blowback quickly erupted over Weinstein's death, and there are accusations that the administration erred in not finding the U.S. hostage before now.
"I think it was a very significant failure. Our country let Warren down," said Democratic Rep. John Delaney, who serves the Maryland congressional district where the Weinstein family lives and is calling for a "czar" to coordinate government efforts to trace hostages.
"We have let him down by not being able to find him. We don't have someone who wakes up every morning and can cut across all bureaucracy and can grab any resource at any agency and bring it to bear to help find these hostages."
Delaney's concerns were mirrored by those of Weinstein's family.
'Disappointing' assistance to family
"Unfortunately, the assistance we received from other elements of the U.S. government was inconsistent and disappointing over the course of 3½ years," said Weinstein's wife, Elaine, in a statement.
Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a Marine veteran of the Iraq and Afghan wars, said the U.S. government was failing detained Americans abroad.
"Warren Weinstein did not have to die," Hunter said. "His death is further evidence of the failures in communication and coordination between government agencies tasked with recovering Americans in captivity -- and the fact that he's dead, as a result, is absolutely tragic."
But Obama's statement also drew plenty of support on Capitol Hill, even from those who are usually deeply critical of his foreign policy.
"You can't stop the drone program because of this," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is mulling a run for president. "The hostages are innocent victims. I feel terrible for them, but we're at war and we've got to keep prosecuting this war."
So far, none of the other candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination has weighed in, despite making Obama's perceived failings on national security a centerpiece of the young campaign.
That may reflect an appreciation of the gravity of the choices faced by the person who holds the job they are fighting to get.
In an extraordinary moment, Obama appeared Thursday in the White House briefing room to apologize for the accidental killings of an American and an Italian hostage in an attack on an al Qaeda compound on the Afghanistan-Pakistan border.
The deaths of U.S. hostage Warren Weinstein and Italian Giovanni Lo Porto were an agonizing personal blow to Obama and White House and CIA counterterrorism officials, who were forced to confront the horrifying reality that as a result of their actions, the United States killed two innocent captives.
"It is a cruel and bitter truth that in the fog of war generally, and our fight (against) terrorists specifically, mistakes, sometimes deadly mistakes, can occur," Obama said.
But the killings also have political and policy implications. It was a serious jolt for the drone war program, which is a bedrock of his counterterror legacy. They raised questions of whether U.S. covert agencies had done absolutely everything they could to ensure that no civilians were in the path of the drone strikes or whether the CIA was guilty of another intelligence failure.
READ: Will the drone debate come back?
The methodology of Obama's campaign against Islamic extremism -- including strikes to kill unidentified suspected militants -- and the risks inherent in basing military targeting decisions on the imperfect science of intelligence will also face new scrutiny.
The death of Weinstein also will supercharge a controversy about whether the United States, which refuses to negotiate with al Qaeda and ISIS for the release of most detained Americans, does enough to find and bring home U.S. hostages.
In a political sense, the tragedy handed the administration a new national security crisis at a time when Obama's foreign policy is already under assault from Capitol Hill critics and public alarm is rising over the threat from groups like ISIS.
Four years after the stunning special forces raid that killed Osama bin Laden, Obama's national security legacy is being called into question on multiple fronts. The latest episode comes after a failed raid to free U.S. hostages in Syria, a controversy over a Taliban prisoner swap to free a U.S. soldier and the collapse of the Yemeni government, a vital U.S. partner in the fight against al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
EXPAND IMAGE
Obama, in his determination to end U.S. land wars in the Middle East and South Asia, significantly escalated the drone program put in place by the Bush administration and has carried out hundreds of strikes in the lawless border regions of Afghanistan and Pakistan in a classified program that top officials rarely discuss publicly.
Indirectly, the deaths of the two hostages in January, which were only made public Thursday, can be traced back to that fateful presidential decision.
Grief was etched into Obama's face as he made the dramatic announcement, one of the lowest points of a presidency scarred by perpetual crises and marked by his effort to put the war on terror on a sustainable footing.
'No words' to express loss
"I realize that there are no words that can ever equal their loss," Obama said in a somber appearance that recalled his grief-stricken comments from the same podium after the Newtown school massacre in December 2012.
"As President and as commander-in-chief, I take full responsibility for all our counterterrorism operations, including the one that inadvertently took the lives of Warren and Giovanni," Obama said in a grave tone. "I profoundly regret what happened."
The President did not specifically sign off on the operation that killed Weinstein, but the White House said it was conducted in line with procedures he has put in place to regulate counterterrorism operations.
U.S. intelligence agencies had been spying for months from the air on the al Qaeda hideout at an undisclosed location, but they had seen no sign that Weinstein and Lo Porto were being hidden in the building.
READ: U.S. drone strike accidentally killed 2 hostages
One key question that Obama will face -- and one that may emerge from reviews the White House and members of Congress say they will mount -- is whether the deaths of civilian hostages were an unavoidable accident or whether the intelligence community committed serious errors.
"My own instinctive reaction, without having a huge number of facts in front of me, is that if you are striking terrorists using military force for many years in a row, then something like this unfortunately becomes almost a statistical inevitability," said Daniel Benjamin, formerly the top counterterrorism adviser to then-Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who is now at Dartmouth College. "It is very hard to avoid."
The fact that it has been deemed too dangerous to put American operatives on the ground in the lawless tribal regions of Pakistan and the reality that U.S. anti-terror operations are conducted from the air introduces a high degree of risk. Intelligence agencies can never know for sure who is being targeted, and civil liberties groups have long complained about the randomness of the attacks that have killed significant numbers of Pakistani civilians.
Officials refuse to give figures for the number of attacks. But the Bureau for Investigative Journalism estimates there have been more than 400 U.S. strikes in Pakistan, which have killed between 423 and 962 bystanders along with hundreds of suspected al Qaeda operatives.
Two al Qaeda operatives killed
Supporters of the program say it has been a hugely effective tool in eradicating the core leadership of al Qaeda. And although the deaths of Weinstein and Lo Porto are dominating the aftermath of Obama's announcement, the White House did note that strikes also killed two key al Qaeda operatives, also Americans.
"I think the story of the drones has been one of success; it broke the backbone of al Qaeda. But at the end of the day it is not a totally accurate way to fight terrorism," said CNN intelligence analyst Robert Baer, a former CIA operative.
"There are a lot of civilian casualties. They always knew it was never 100% certain. There is no way to see whether somebody is in that building, simply because you cannot see through walls."
Republican Rep. Devin Nunes of California also pointed to the difficult task that U.S. spies have in getting reliable intelligence in difficult-to-reach parts of the world.
McCain: We rely on drones too much in many areas 02:28
PLAY VIDEO
"Although our intelligence is outstanding, it is not perfect," Nunes, chairman of the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence, said in a statement.
Obama put in place protocols designed to eliminate civilian deaths in drone strikes, which have caused a significant anti-U.S. backlash in Pakistan, and explained them in a speech at the National Defense University in 2013.
Democratic Rep. Adam Schiff of California pledged to investigate the operation to ensure that those steps were properly followed in this case.
"We have to take everything with a certain degree of skepticism," Schiff said. "We owe it to the families and to the American public not to take anything as an article of faith."
The White House argued Thursday that intelligence assessments were correct in identifying al Qaeda operatives at the site of the operation but, tragically, a separate assessment that no civilians were there turned out to be incorrect.
White House spokesman Josh Earnest said that Obama's protocols were followed fully in the case. But he suggested the tragedy could still lead to changes.
Questions about drone policy
"What's also clear, and what I would also readily admit to you, is that in the aftermath of a situation like this, it raises legitimate questions about whether additional changes need to be made to those protocols," Earnest told reporters.
It also raises questions about efforts to recover hostages. Weinstein's death followed the beheadings of U.S. hostages Steven Sotloff and James Foley and the swap of Taliban prisoners for U.S. soldier Bowe Bergdahl, who has since been charged with desertion.
In light of the Bergdahl swap, families of slain hostages have accused the administration of doing too little to save their loved ones, despite a failed rescue operation to free Foley and other U.S. hostages held by ISIS in Syria.
READ: Could Warren Weinstein have been saved?
Political blowback quickly erupted over Weinstein's death, and there are accusations that the administration erred in not finding the U.S. hostage before now.
"I think it was a very significant failure. Our country let Warren down," said Democratic Rep. John Delaney, who serves the Maryland congressional district where the Weinstein family lives and is calling for a "czar" to coordinate government efforts to trace hostages.
"We have let him down by not being able to find him. We don't have someone who wakes up every morning and can cut across all bureaucracy and can grab any resource at any agency and bring it to bear to help find these hostages."
Delaney's concerns were mirrored by those of Weinstein's family.
'Disappointing' assistance to family
"Unfortunately, the assistance we received from other elements of the U.S. government was inconsistent and disappointing over the course of 3½ years," said Weinstein's wife, Elaine, in a statement.
Republican Rep. Duncan Hunter of California, a Marine veteran of the Iraq and Afghan wars, said the U.S. government was failing detained Americans abroad.
"Warren Weinstein did not have to die," Hunter said. "His death is further evidence of the failures in communication and coordination between government agencies tasked with recovering Americans in captivity -- and the fact that he's dead, as a result, is absolutely tragic."
But Obama's statement also drew plenty of support on Capitol Hill, even from those who are usually deeply critical of his foreign policy.
"You can't stop the drone program because of this," said Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, who is mulling a run for president. "The hostages are innocent victims. I feel terrible for them, but we're at war and we've got to keep prosecuting this war."
So far, none of the other candidates vying for the Republican presidential nomination has weighed in, despite making Obama's perceived failings on national security a centerpiece of the young campaign.
That may reflect an appreciation of the gravity of the choices faced by the person who holds the job they are fighting to get.
Sydney Storm hoax photos include crocodiles at the train station
A waterfall gushing over the Harbour Bridge, crocodiles at the train station and surfing at the Opera House: The hoax photos that brightened up the #Sydneystorm
- In the midst of the worst storm in New South Wales in a decade people got creative with their Photoshopping skills
- While there were many genuine dramatic photos of the devastation caused, the fake ones also caused confusion
- The more unbelievable Photoshop jobs included a photo of Noah's ark majestically cruising into Sydney Harbour
A waterfall gushing over the Harbour Bridge, a man surfing waves in front of the Opera House and a crocodile stalking flood water inside a train station are just a few of the fake photos to emerge from the Sydney storm.
Social media users were left scratching their heads over some of the manipulated snaps being shared during New South Wales’ worst storm in a decade, including an image of a family-sized trampoline caught on power lines.
While there were many genuine dramatic photos to emerge from the devastating storm, such as torn up roads and floating houses, not all of them were quite what they seemed.
A waterfall gushing over Sydney's iconic Harbour Bridge while two people watched on was just one Photoshop photo to come out of New South Wales' worst storm in a decade
In Lewisham, a suburb in the Inner West of Sydney, an unlikely visitor was spotted in the flood water at the train station
Eagle-eyed Twitter users pointed out that the large trampoline believed to have blown into the sky in the cyclone-strength gusts in NSW was actually a victim of Hurricane Sandy in Milford, Connecticut, USA.
The crocodile at the bottom of the steps in Lewisham station was merely an imaginative prank, as was a reused Photoshop snap of sharks swimming at the bottom of a train station escalator.
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And the video of a wave rider surfing in front of Sydney’s Opera House was nothing but a hoax – even when it started trending for a second time.
The clip was uploaded to Twitter on Tuesday morning by popular Sydney radio duo Fitzy and Wippa, before quickly being reposted by a spell of other sources.
A hoax video showing a wave rider surfing in front of the Sydney's Opera House was trending not once but twice
Eagle-eyed Twitter users pointed out that the large trampoline believed to have blown into the sky in the cyclone-strength gusts in NSW was actually a victim of Hurricane Sandy in Milford, Connecticut, USA
The more unbelievable Photoshop jobs included a photo of Noah’s Ark majestically cruising into Sydney Harbour amidst a grey stormy backdrop and a Bondi house with sand pouring through its doors.
The Bondi prank came after sand was blown over the famous beachside suburb’s promenade and skate park in real life photos.
In other jaw-dropping pictures, the storm water in Sydney’s CBD had submerged the Opera House and knocked over the giant office blocks on the Harbour’s front while a helicopter rescued a person from the flood.
And in a nod to the #umbrellageddon hashtag that emerged on social media as Sydneysiders posted photos of their umbrellas destroyed and abandoned in the gutters, one Reddit user shared a picture of soldiers in The Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, holding up an umbrella instead of the American flag.
In one of the more unbelievable Photoshop jobs Noah’s Ark majestically cruises into Sydney Harbour amidst a grey stormy backdrop
A couple of great whites were left stranded at the bottom of a train station escalator in this imaginative Photoshop image
Photoshop master Godwin Grech posted a series of manipulated photos on Twitter, including this image of destruction with the caption: '#SydneyStorm is getting pretty serious now'
A Bondi house was pictured with sand pouring through its doors after sand was blown over the famous beachside suburb’s promenade and skate park in real life photos
The storm water in Sydney's CBD had submerged the Opera House forcing a person to be rescued by helicopter in this photo
And in a nod to the #umbrellageddon hashtag that emerged on social media as Sydneysiders posted photos of their umbrellas destroyed, one Reddit user shared a picture of soldiers in The Marine Corps War Memorial in Arlington, Virginia, holding up an umbrella instead of the American flag
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