Jefferson County, West Virginia Since 2007, the Schonstedt Humanitarian Demining Initiative (SHDI), an initiative of Schonstedt Instrument Company, Kearneysville, W. Va., has supported the United Nations Mine Action Service (UNMAS) in its efforts to eradicate explosive remnants of war from countries around the world.

To date, 477 donated demining tools are at work in 27 countries. This project represents Schonstedt's open-ended commitment to humanitarian demining where it is most needed in the world. In recognition, and in addition to a permanent display of a Schonstedt demining tool at the United Nations (UN), a second magnetic locator unit is now featured in a recently opened exhibition in the Visitor's Center at UN Headquarters in New York City.

"This is our way of helping to rid the world of unseen explosives that maim and kill indiscriminately  that keep people from moving freely about their villages, tending their crops or sending their children to school. It's one way we're able to do some good in the world," said Bob Ebberson, Program Manager at Schonstedt.

Seven years ago, in response to an unmet need for humanitarian demining among the world's underserved populations, Schonstedt reached out to the UN with an offer of assistance. It would provide free magnetic locators for use in areas of the world where demining would not otherwise be possible, but was desperately needed. UNMAS agreed to identity and prioritize those areas and facilitate deployment of the tools. For every magnetic locator purchased for donation to UNMAS, Schonstedt matches the donation, unit-for-unit.

The International Mine Action Training Center in Nairobi, Kenya was the first recipient of magnetic locators deployed as part of the SHDI program. Most recently, Schonstedt locators have been shipped to Mali and Afghanistan.

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The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers (USACE) will be hosting another Military Munitions Support Services (M2S2) webinar on Tuesday, 25 February, 1300 - 1630 EST. The webinar will have "Munitions Classification" as the central theme and will offer several presentations on latest developments in advanced geophysics for "classifying" buried munitions.

Those interested in the webinar should register at http://www.clu-in.org/conf/tio/m2s2fy14-3/

Huntington, Maryland A woman cleaning out the storage shed of a deceased relative came across a munition item and phoned the police to report the find. Police dispatched a local bomb squad to the residence.

The bomb squad that responded found a box of miscellaneous military novelty items that also included live training rounds (exact type not reported). The bomb squad safely removed the items from the residential property for disposal. Authorities are unsure how the munitions ended up in the shed.

Chesil Beach, England A bird watcher looking for birds along the beach stumbled across a suspicious looking metal object along the shoreline. Seeing that the round disc shaped object resembled a landmine, the bird watcher quickly backed away and called the Coastguard to report the find. The Coastguard instructed the man to phone the police which he promptly did.

The police responded and cordoned off the beach area before taking pictures of the item with a digital camera. The images were then emailed to the Royal Navy bomb disposal team based in Portsmouth. EOD technicians identified the item (shown in the image below) as not being a landmine or a military munition. Instead, EOD suspected the item being an old boiler lid from the wreck of a ship. The beach was re-opened shortly afterwards. Police thanked the man for exercising caution and raising the alarm.

Smethwick, England Workers at Sims Metal Management, a scrap metal recycling facility, called the police after finding "rocket-shaped" devices mixed in with a load of scrap metal. Police responded and cordoned off the area before calling in bomb disposal experts from the Army's Royal Logistics Corps. The police took photos of the suspect munitions and emailed them to the Army. The Army indicated that the devices were most likely practice related so they allowed the police to scale back on the evacuations.

The Army responded later that same day and safely transported the two devices off-site for proper disposal. The exact type of munitions involved was not disclosed but was reportedly non-hazardous munitions debris.

Leven, United Kingdom A student's choice of props sparked panic when he displayed a hand grenade as part of a history presentation on WWII. EOD was called to the scene of a nearby fire station where the item was taken for identification. The grenade was destroyed in a controlled blast, although analysis had suggested the device had already been deactivated.