The dome is in the world's largest class of post-caldera volcano, with a volume of over 32 cubic kilometers. The composition of this lava dome is different from the magma that caused the giant caldera to erupt - it shows the same chemical characteristics as the current post-caldera volcano on the nearby Satsuma Iwo-jima Island. It is possible that currently a giant magma buildup may exist under the Kikai Caldera.

There is roughly a 1 percent chance of a giant caldera-forming eruption occurring within the Japanese archipelago during the next 100 years. An eruption like this would see over 40 cubic kilometers of magma released in one burst, causing enormous damage.

The raids came after an Israeli F16 fighter was shot down by Syrian air defences. The pilots survived, but it was Israel's first loss of a warplane in battle since 1982. "We inflicted on Saturday a heavy blow to Iranian and Syrian forces," Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday's cabinet meeting. "We made clear to everyone that our rules of engagement will not change in any way. We will continue to harm anyone who tries to harm us. This was our policy and this will remain our policy."

Conricus warned on Saturday that Syria and Iran were "playing with fire", but stressed that Israel was not seeking an escalation. "This is the most blatant and severe Iranian violation of Israeli sovereignty" in recent years, Conricus said.

Iran dismissed Israeli "lies" and said Syria had the right to defend itself against Israeli attacks. Iranian foreign ministry spokesman Bahram Ghasemi said "Iran does not have a military presence in Syria, and has only sent military advisers at the request of the Syrian government." Russia stressed the need to "avoid any measure that could lead to a dangerous escalation".

Netanyahu spoke with both Russian President Vladimir Putin and US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson after Saturday's confrontation. Netanyahu has met regularly with Putin in recent months in a bid to convince Russia to keep Iranian forces away from Israeli territory. Russia and Israel have also established a hotline to avoid accidental clashes in Syria.

"In the last year, the world has gotten closer — much too close — to the brink of a significant conflict," wrote Munich Security Conference (MSC) Chairman Wolfgang Ischinger, who has served as Germany's former ambassador to the US and UK.

Ischinger pointed to ever-louder saber rattling between the US and North Korea, the growing rivalry between Saudi Arabia and Iran, and ongoing tensions between Russia and NATO in Europe. The latest MSC report followed up on last year's forecast that the United States under President Donald Trump could forfeit its established role as the guarantor of international security by acting unilaterally and furthering an American-centric vision at the cost of its traditional allies.

"The world's most powerful state has begun to sabotage the order it created," the report said, quoting John Ikenberry, a US foreign policy expert at Princeton University. The report quotes German Chancellor Angela Merkel as a reminder of Europe's newfound predicament: "The times in which we could completely depend on others are, to a certain extent, over … We Europeans will have to take our fate into our own hands."

The first overtly nationalist party to enter the German parliament in half a century has already taken over a number of formal traditions usually handed to opposition leaders. It has installed Peter Boehringer, an outspoken critic of eurozone rescues and the European Central Bank, as chair of the influential budget committee.

Through Boehringer, the AfD will be able to appoint like-minded civil servants to vacant secretarial positions and slow down the parliamentary process for policies of which it disapproves, but not gain any more voting power. The budget committee has been chaired for the last three years by Gesine Lötzsch of leftwing Die Linke – not long ago a controversial party in its own right for its ties to the ruling party of communist East Germany, and for some, an indicator of the chairmanship’s limited political influence.

The AfD has also secured the chairmanship of two further parliamentary committees, for legal affairs and tourism. “The AfD tolerates Nazi slogans, gets caught up in internal fights and uses parliament as an agitprop stage,” leftwing daily taz commented in a recent op-ed. “But that doesn’t seem to affect their popularity. Apparently AfD voters want precisely that: a rightwing protest party.”

The new headquarters is designed to accelerate troop and equipment transport around the continent. Unusually, it will not be integrated into the current NATO command structure.  The offer, made by German Defense Minister Ursula von der Leyen, has been accepted by other NATO member states, the German news agency dpa reported on Thursday, though the final decision will be made at a summit of NATO defense ministers next week. 

The German Defense Ministry refused to confirm the report, saying in a statement only that "the possible installation of a NATO support command center" was indeed part of NATO's current plans, and that Germany, because of its geographical situation and importance as a NATO partner, would naturally be considered as a location.

The body parts came from a Portland business called MedCure Inc. A so-called body broker, MedCure profits by dissecting the bodies of altruistic donors and sending the parts to medical training and research companies. MedCure sells or leases about 10,000 body parts from US donors annually, shipping about 20 percent of them overseas, internal corporate and manifest records show.

In addition to bulk cargo shipments to the Netherlands, where MedCure operates a distribution hub, the Oregon company has exported body parts to at least 22 other countries by plane or truck, the records show.

Among the parts: a pelvis and legs to a university in Malaysia; feet to medical device companies in Brazil and Turkey; and heads to hospitals in Slovenia and the United Arab Emirates. Demand for body parts from America — torsos, knees and heads — is high in countries where religious traditions or laws prohibit the dissection of the dead.

Unlike many developed nations, the United States largely does not regulate the sale of donated body parts, allowing entrepreneurs such as MedCure to expand exports rapidly during the last decade. No other nation has an industry that can provide as convenient and reliable a supply of body parts.

Yes, that would have not been a positive thing for the economy in the short-term, but we must start addressing our long-term priorities.  If we do not do something about this exploding national debt, it could potentially destroy our republic all by itself. Earlier today, I was absolutely horrified when I learned of a budget deal in the Senate that would increase federal spending by about 200 billion dollars in each of the next two years…

Our federal debt is going to hit 21 trillion dollars some time this year, and they want to throw hundreds of billions of dollars more spending on top of what we are already doing? This alone is why we need true conservatives all over the nation to run for Congress.  Our endless greed is literally destroying the bright future that our children and our grandchildren were supposed to have.

As interest rates rise, it won’t be too long before we are paying more than a trillion dollars a year just in interest on the national debt.  And when America plunges into a debt nightmare, there won’t be anyone in the entire world big enough to bail us out. America cannot be great again if we are drowning in debt.  What is happening in Washington is utter madness, and it should greatly anger all of us that our irresponsible politicians are systematically destroying the greatest republic that the world has ever seen.

Now, one day later, we find that while Deutsche Bank may be spared for now - if not for long - billions in US real estate will not be, and in a scene right out of the Wall Street movie Margin Call, HNA has decided to be if not smartest, nor cheat, it will be the first, and has begun its firesale of US properties.

The company's total debt is nearly 600 billion yuan or just under US$100 billion. Which means that the HNA firesale is just beginning, and once the company sells the liquid real estate, it will move on to everything else, including its stake in all these companies, whose shares it has already pledged as collateral.

So keep a close eye on Deutsche Bank stock: while HNA may have promised John Cryan it won't sell any time soon, companies tend to quickly change their mind when bankruptcy court beckons. Finally, the far bigger question is whether the launch of HNA's firesale will present a tipping point in the US commercial (or residential) real estate market. After all, when what until recently was one of the biggest marginal buyers becomes a seller, it's usually time to get out and wait for the bottom.

Berlin is obviously seeking to delay the formulation of EU positions on the future relationship with the United Kingdom as long as possible, to prevent giving London tactical advantages in the negotiations. The 27 EU countries have, in fact, quite diverging interests in relationship to Great Britain. The German automobile industry is exerting massive pressure to keep the United Kingdom in the customs union.

German car companies expect annual losses of up to two billion euros, if new trade barriers are erected. On the other hand, the Eastern and Southeastern European countries attach great importance to freedom of circulation. For example, the money Polish residents in Great Britain send home amounts to 1.5 percent of the Polish Gross Domestic Product (GDP). Other countries receive three to six percent of their GDP this way.