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Mexican officials hope for real changes in U.S. gun policy
The majority of the guns used in drug-related violence in Mexico have come from the United States. Numbers from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives show that almost 70 percent of the 99,000 weapons seized in Mexico in 2012 came from the United States. Mexican officials are hoping that president Obama’s speeches on changing the U.S. gun policy will be more than just talk.
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Controversial full-body scanners at U.S. airports to be replaced
The controversial full-body airport scanners which upset many passengers because of the anatomically accurate images they produced, will be removed from U.S. airports by June, according to the Transportation Security Administration(TSA), ending a $40 million contract with Rapiscan Systems, the manufacturer of the scanners. Rapiscan’s backscatter X-ray scanners are being replaced by less intrusive millimeter wave scanners.
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Algeria: use of overwhelming force against hostage-takers was necessary
As the grim toll of the 4-day operation to wrest control of the Algerian gas drilling site becomes clearer, debate continues about the tactics the Algerian military pursued, which some in Western capitals consider rushed and heavy-handed. Algeria says it had no choice: the initial plan of the terrorists was to grab two-dozen foreign workers, take them to the nearby airport of Amena, hijack a plane, and fly them to Mali, then ask Western government for a hefty ransom. When that plan failed, the terrorists began preparations to blow up the entire complex, killing themselves and the 790 workers kept as prisoners on the site. Algeria says that if it did not act quickly, and with overwhelming force, the death toll would have been far higher.
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Ariz. Governor Brewer offers a softer approach to illegal immigration
Arizona governor Jan Brewer has made a name for herself for always taken a her hard line stance on the subject of illegal immigration, but recently she has begun to soften her tone on the issue. While Brewer’s position has not changed — she prefers border security over immigration reform — her tone has, as the State of the State address last week suggests.
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More states move to restrict access to personal information of gun holders
Currently, thirty-five states do not provide access to information on people who have gun licenses, except to law enforcement. Some of the states where access to such information is permitted, are now moving toward restricting such access.
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Thwarting facial-recognition, photo-tagging software
Information about when and where photographed subjects were when their pictures were taken is readily disclosed through photos taken, and the information is disclosed and distributed without their permission. The problem has become even worse due to the popularization of portable terminals with built-in cameras and developments in SNS and image search technologies. Japanese researchers offer a solution: goggles or glasses which, when equipped with near-infrared LED emitter. :
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Thorium holds promise of safer, cleaner nuclear power
Thorium as nuclear fuels has drawbacks, but its main advantage includes generating far less toxic residue. The majority of the mineral is used during the fission process, and it can burn existing stockpiles of plutonium and hazardous waste, saving the need to transport it and bury the waste in concrete. If thorium becomes available as a source of energy in the future, the world will rely less on coal and gas, and wind turbines will become a thing of the past. The risk of a global energy crunch will decrease considerably.
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Algerian hostage drama over; 48 hostages, 32 terrorists dead
Algerian forces have taken control of the gas drilling site near the Algeria-Libya border, and the authorities are trying to determine the human toll of the 4-day drama. Initial estimates indicate that forty-eight hostages and thirty-two terrorists have died in the fire exchanges between the hostage takers and the Algerian military. The Algerian government says that five of the Islamist terrorists were captured alive. The forty Islamist hostage-takers came from six different countries, and trained for the operation in a base in Islamist-controlled north Mali.
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French defense minister: campaign goal is “total reconquest” of Mali
French fighter planes continued their attacks on training bases, weapon storage sites, and Islamist troop concentrations in north Mali, paying special attention the Islamists presence in and around the major cities of Gao and Timbuktu.
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Many hostages dead in clumsy Algerian raid on gas drilling site
Sketchy news from the Sahara desert gas field site indicates that up to thirty hostages may have been killed by their Islamic captors as Algerian special forces attacked the site. Algerian officials said that the thirty dead included eight Algerians, two Britons, two Japanese, and one French national. The nationality of the other seventeen hostages killed at the site had not been established. The British government more openly, and the French and U.S. governments more elliptically, raised questions about the tactics used by the Algerian military: Algerian helicopter gunships strafed the living quarters at the site when both hostages and terrorists were inside; helicopters also destroyed four jeeps carrying both jihadists and hostages. It appears that most of the hostages were killed by Algerian fire, not by the terrorists.
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Metamaterial sensor improves security, collision avoidance
Engineers have developed a novel sensor which is more efficient, versatile, and cheaper for potential use in such applications as airport security scanners and collision avoidance systems for aircraft, cars, or maritime vessels.
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Personal genetic information vulnerable to hacking
Using only a computer, an Internet connection, and publicly accessible online resources, a team of researchers has been able to identify nearly fifty individuals who had submitted personal genetic material as participants in genomic studies.
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Minnesota counties police make big money from drug seizures
In 2011, law enforcement in southern Minnesota made a significant profit off crime busts. State Auditor Rebecca Otto released the Criminal Forfeitures Report last month, which offers information on the amount of cash and property seized by Minnesota law enforcement agencies.
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Police officers in Louisiana do not have to look for a ride home
Tighter budgets have had an effect on police departments everywhere. In Indianapolis, Indiana, and many other cities, police departments now charge officers a fee to take home their squad cars. Police departments in central Louisiana resist this trend. “This [taking home a squad car] is not a privilege,” says the director of the National Fraternal Order of Police. “It really is about maximizing response times and the ability of officers to be where they need to be.”
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Privately run detention center locks up immigrants for months
Hundreds of immigrants who have committed minor offenses have been locked up for weeks or months at a time in a Broward County, Florida facility run by a private company. The majority of the immigrants have been accused of entering the country illegally or staying longer than were allowed to.
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More headlines
The long view
How Quickly Could Iran Make Nuclear Weapons Today?
For Iran, two of the three poles in the tent of building nuclear weapons – fissile material and delivery vehicles — are essentially complete. It will take them one week to enrich enough uranium to 90 percent for one bomb (and one month to enrich enough uranium for six bombs). Iran also has a variety of delivery systems, including nuclear-capable missiles: the delivery pole is ready. Weaponization is the pole that needs more work. The accelerated weaponization program can be accomplished in a matter of six months.
Fifty-Five Hours of Risk: The Dangerous Implications of Slow Attack Attribution
Assuming that its foreign adversaries’ recent violent threats are to be taken seriously, and that the likelihood of a direct attack against the United States is, if not on the rise, at least significant enough to warrant serious attention, the United States has an urgent mandate to prepare effective cognitive defenses. Foremost among these is the ability to quickly and accurately attribute attacks to their originators, and to deliver that information to the public through a trustworthy vehicle.
Is Left-Wing Terrorism Making a Comeback in Germany? Analyzing the “Engel – Guntermann Network”
For Germany, the reemergence of more violence orientated left-wing extremist actors has diversified the threat posed by non-state actors even further. Violent left-wing extremism is also of growing concern across Europe. While left-wing violent extremism does not currently represent as acute a threat as currently manifested by jihadist and right-wing terrorist attacks, the recent concerning trend among German left-wing extremists is toward greater violence and transnationalism.
The True Dangers of Long Trains
Trains are getting longer. Rail companies had recently adopted a moneymaking strategy to move cargo faster than ever, with fewer workers, on trains that are consistently longer than at any time in history. Railroads are getting richer, but these “monster trains” are jumping off of tracks across America and regulators are doing little to curb the risk.
New Report Card to Assess, Rank Campus Responses to Antisemitism
In the face of growing antisemitism across U.S. college campuses, ADL announced that it is developing a new tool to evaluate the climate of antisemitism on individual campuses. The ADL will create comparative evaluation of how leading colleges and universities are responding to the surge of antisemitism and protecting their Jewish students.
Truth Decay and National Security
The line between fact and opinion in public discourse has been eroding, and with it the public’s ability to have arguments and find common ground based in fact. Two core drivers of Truth Decay are political polarization and the spread of misinformation—and these are particularly intertwined in the national security arena. Exposure to misinformation leads to increased polarization, and increased polarization decreases the impact of factual information. Individuals, institutions, and the nation as a whole are vulnerable to this vicious cycle.