BEIJING — Chinese air travelers have tried opening emergency doors without authorization 12 times in barely four months on planes that were taxiing or at a standstill, and one man was put on trial in the country's first such legal case, the Civil Aviation Administration of China said Monday.

There is no immediate explanation for the apparent spike in the behavior this year, although Chinese are traveling in record numbers, many of them flying for the first time and lacking basic aviation safety knowledge.

The man, identified only by his family name of Piao, stood trial Monday on the charge of endangering public safety in the northeastern city of Yanji, the administration said in a statement.

Piao opened an emergency door on an Asiana Airlines flight on Feb. 12 when the plane was taxiing, causing the emergency slide to eject and prompting the flight crew to take emergency measures to halt the aircraft, the administration said.

Why is the federal government distributing obscene amounts of military equipment, weapons and ammunition to police departments around the country? Why is the military using southwestern states as a staging ground for guerilla warfare drills (Jade Helm 15)? What exactly is the U.S. government preparing for? Whatever the answer, John W. Whitehead, in this week's vodcast, warns of the pending day when our so-called "government of the people, by the people, for the people" is no longer answerable to "we the people."

The attack on bloggers critical of Islam has taken on a disturbing regularity in Bangladesh with yet another writer hacked to death Tuesday.

Ananta Bijoy Das, 32, was killed Tuesday morning as he left his home on his way to work at a bank, police in the northeastern Bangladeshi city of Sylhet said.

Four masked men attacked him, hacking him to death with cleavers and machetes, said Sylhet Metropolitan Police Commissioner Kamrul Ahsan.

The men then ran away. Because of the time of the morning when the attack happened, there were few witnesses. But police said they are following up on interviewing the few people who saw the incident.

"It's one after another after another," said Imran Sarker, who heads the Blogger and Online Activists Network in Bangladesh. "It's the same scenario again and again. It's very troubling."

A California woman has sued her former employer, which fired her shortly after she disabled a GPS tracking feature on her company iPhone. The app was used to monitor employees even on their personal time, the lawsuit alleged.

Myrna Arias has claimed that her boss, John Stubits, at money transfer service Intermex in Bakersfield boasted about monitoring employees' locations while they were not on the job, according to the lawsuit filed in Kern County Superior Court.

Arias, a sales executive for the company, said she was "scolded" and subsequently fired -- even though she "met all quotas during her time with Intermex -- after she uninstalled Xora, a mandatory job-management app that was applied to company phones.

"After researching the app and speaking with a trainer from Xora, Plaintiff and her co-workers asked whether Intermex would be monitoring their movements while off duty," the suit says.

"Stubits admitted that employees would be monitored while off duty and bragged that he knew how fast she was driving at specific moments ever since she installed the app on her phone. Plaintiff expressed that she had no problem with the app's GPS function during work hours, but she objected to the monitoring of her location during non-work hours and complained to Stubits that this was an invasion of her privacy. She likened the app to a prisoner's ankle bracelet and informed Stubits that his actions were illegal. Stubits replied that she should tolerate the illegal intrusion...."

The suit alleged invasion of privacy, retaliation, and unfair business practices, among other accusations.

"This intrusion would be highly offensive to a reasonable person," the lawsuit claimed.

Arias' attorney told Ars Technica that the mandatory app was intrusive in its constant monitoring.

"The app had a 'clock in/out' feature which did not stop GPS monitoring, that function remained on," Gail Glick said.

"This is the problem about which Ms. Arias complained. Management never made mention of mileage. They would tell her co-workers and her of their driving speed, roads taken, and time spent at customer locations. Her manager made it clear that he was using the program to continuously monitor her, during company as well as personal time."

Arias is seeking damages in excess of $500,000. Intermex did not immediately respond to Ars Technica for comment.

A gunman killed three relatives and a neighbor in a late-night rampage in a Swiss village before turning his weapon on himself, local police said on Sunday.

The presumed killer, a 36-year-old Swiss national who was separated from his wife and the couple's three children, shot dead his father-in-law, mother-in-law and brother-in-law, police told a news conference.

The killings took place late on Saturday in and around a residential building in Wuerenlingen, a community of some 4,500 people north-west of Zurich.

Police said the gunman lived in another part of Switzerland and was known to police for violent behavior. The murder weapon was unregistered, they said.

Metro suspended service on several lines between Foggy Bottom in Washington and Rosslyn in northern Virginia for about three hours after a report of smoke.

The delays caused major disruptions Monday morning for commuters on the orange, blue and silver lines and trains were still running on just one track in the afternoon.

Metro blames an insulator along the third rail that may have been giving off smoke and says repairs have been made in the area. Metro apologized to commuters on its website, saying it was aware that many experienced long, crowded trips.

Fire department spokesman Timothy Wilson says smoke dissipated while firefighters were at the Foggy Bottom station. Lt. Sarah Marchegiani with the Arlington County Fire Department says firefighters at the Rosslyn station only found an odor.

At least four people have been killed in a military plane crash near Seville airport in Spain.

The plane, a new Airbus A400M, reportedly developed a fault just after take-off on a test flight.

Local media say that those on board were Spanish Airbus employees. Two have also been seriously injured.

Spain's Prime Minister Mariano Rajoy has expressed his sorrow over the incident which took place about 1.6km (1 mile) away from San Pablo airport.

Local media say that the plane had signalled that there was a fault with its systems just before the crash.

The plane reportedly hit an electric power line as the pilots tried to make an emergency landing.
The survivors have been taken to hospital by helicopter. A Spanish interior ministry spokesman told The Associated press news agency that one person had been conscious when they were taken out of the wreckage.

Only a year after the joint drills of the Richland County Sheriff's Department and the US military raised eyebrows, the RCSD has once again announced that the department will be conducting drills that involve the joint training of civilian law enforcement and the US military.

On May 8, it was reported by WLTX that the Richland County Sheriff's Department will be conducting drills in conjunction with the 3rd Special Forces Group out of Fort Bragg, North Carolina. The exercises will take place at late-night and pre-dawn and will run from May 8 until May 15.

Citizens have now been informed that Sheriff's Department and Military vehicles will be traveling in the Lower Richland County community near Eastover and Hopkins as well as Elgin near Screaming Eagle Road. The vehicles will also be traveling in the North Richland County area near Monticello Rd.

An American family flying with United Airlines from Houston to Portland were forced off the plane after an emergency landing because the pilot wasn't "comfortable" with an autistic child on board. The shocked family is filing a lawsuit.

The emergency stop was made in Salt Lake City, KOIN 6 News reported citing Donna Beegle, who was traveling with her autistic 15-year-old daughter Juliette Forbes.

The incident unfolded after Donna realized that her daughter had not eaten dinner yet. "She started getting a little upset and I started thinking, 'You know what? She didn't eat her dinner," the mother said. "I know her, when she gets over hungry or over thirsty, she really struggles because she can't tell us and she gets really frustrated."

Could a quiescent sun portend a new little ice age: a chilly era for humanity and agriculture?
President Obama, Al Gore and other alarmists continue to prophesy manmade global warming crises, brought on by our "unsustainable" reliance on fossil fuels. Modelers like Mike Mann and Gavin Schmidt conjure up illusory crisis "scenarios" based on the assumption that carbon dioxide emissions now drive climate change. A trillion-dollar Climate Crisis industry self-servingly echoes their claims.

But what if these merchants of fear are wrong? What if the sun refuses to cooperate with the alarmists?

"The sun is almost completely blank," meteorologist Paul Dorian notes. Virtually no sunspots darken the blinding yellow orb. "The main driver of all weather and climate ... has gone quiet again during what is likely to be the weakest sunspot cycle in more than a century. Not since February 1906 has there been a solar cycle with fewer sunspots."

"Going back to 1755, there have been only a few solar cycles that have had a lower number of sunspots during their maximum phase," Dorian continues. This continued downward trend in solar sunspot cycles began over 20 years ago, when Earth stopped warming. If it continues for a couple more cycles, Earth could be entering another "grand minimum," an extended period of low solar activity.

That would mean less incoming solar radiation, which could have a marked cooling effect - as happened during previous decades-long episodes of low solar activity. The "Maunder Minimum" lasted 70 years (1645-1715), the "Dalton Minimum" 40 years (1790-1830); they brought even colder global temperatures to the "Little Ice Age."

Solar activity is in free fall, Reading University (UK) space physicist Mike Lockwood confirms, perhaps "faster than at any time in the last 9,300 years." He raised the likelihood of another grand minimum to 25% (from 10% three years previously). However, he claims a new little ice age is unlikely.