A helicopter carrying 16 tourists and crew on a volcano sightseeing trip in Russia's far east crashed into a lake on Thursday, leaving eight people feared dead and two others in serious condition, local officials said. The Mi-8 helicopter crash-landed into Kuril Lake in the mountainous Kamchatka peninsula amid poor visibility and sank, governor Vladimir Solodov said. Staff of the Kronotsky Nature Reserve saved half of the people onboard, he added. "They approached the scene in a boat and saved eight people," Solodov said in a statement. Two of the survivors were now in intensive care with various injuries.

Virtual assistants such as Apple's Siri or Amazon's AMZN Alexa have become popular technological helpers. Ask a virtual assistant to find a restaurant or tell you today's weather, a soothing AI voice obligingly responds. So why not a virtual assistant to help the U.S. Navy find Russian and Chinese submarines? The Navy wants a virtual assistant -- like the ones found on consumer smartphones -- to help overloaded sonar operators manage multiple anti-submarine warfare (ASW) systems. In particular, active sonar on Navy cruisers and destroyers come with a variety of settings.