• Trusted shippers program attracts drug smugglers

    The Customs-Trade Partnership Against Terrorism, or C-TPAT, program was supposed to list trusted shippers with the U.S. Customs and Border Protection (CBP) agency, so that these shippers’ trucks would have to spend less time at border checkpoints; trouble is, drug traffickers know this, and they use the system to smuggle their shipments into the United States

  • Cumbria flood bridges facing safety checks

    Heavy rains in north-west U.K. cause six bridges in Cumbria to collapse; engineers are now examining the safety of the county’s 1,800 bridges; forty waste treatment works which have been put out of action, and 1,300 homes were flooded

  • Governments worry about more cases of drug-resistant H1N1

    Health officials in the United Kingdom and the United States report the likely person-to-person spread of a drug-resistant strain of H1N1; most patients thus far infected with the strain have already been immune-deficient

  • If disaster struck, most U.S. employees could not work remotely

    If major business interruptions — such as severe weather, mass illness, major road closings, or public transit strikes — occurred, the majority of employees in U.S. organizations could not work remotely

  • Using rope to fight pirates

    New antipiracy device uses compressed air to fire a plastic cylinder containing either a coiled rope or net up to a range of 400 meters; the coiled line of net or rope, which has a parachute attached to the end, will unravel and lay out across the surface of the water; as a pirate boat travels through the water its propeller shaft will pick up the line and become entangled

  • Axxana, a data storage and recovery specialist raises $9 million

    Axxana, an Israeli developer of data disaster recovery solutions, has raised $9 million in Series B funding; Carmel Ventures led the round, and was joined by return backers Gemini Israel Funds and serial investor Moshe Yanai

  • Gene synthesis companies establish measures to counter bioterrorism

    The five largest synthetic DNA companies will establish common security measures to prevent the use of synthetic DNA by bioterrorists; among other things, the “Harmonized Screening Protocol” will screen gene sequences against a regulated pathogen database

  • Judge: Corps' mismanagement doomed homes in New Orleans

    The judge’s 156-page decision could result in the federal government paying $700,000 in damages to three people and a business in those areas — but it also sets the stage for judgments worth billions of dollars against the government for damages suffered by as many as 100,000 other residents, businesses, and local governments in those areas who filed claims with the corps after Katrina

  • Doubts raised on nuclear industry viability

    There are two problems facing the nuclear power industry: civilian and military stockpiles and re-enriched or reprocessed uranium sources contribute 25,000 of the 65,000 tons of uranium used globally each year; the rest is mined directly, but scientists say that nobody knows where the mining industry can find enough uranium to make up the shortfall; also, the cost per kilowatt of capacity generated by nuclear power is $4,000; generating identical capacity from coal costs $3,000, and the cost for natural gas generation is $800; this makes the nuclear option a big financial gamble

  • Texas running out of water

    Texas’s population of about 24.3 million is expected to hit about 45.5 million by 2060, and the water supply can not come close to keeping pace; if the state were to experience major drought conditions with that many more people, officials estimate almost every Texan would be without sufficient water and there would be more than $90 billion in economic losses

  • New Zealand rated least corrupt country; Somalia declared most corrupt

    The authoritative Transparency International’s annual corruption report, which rates 180 countries, found New Zealand to be the least-corrupt country in the world — scoring 9.4 out of 10; Somalia is the world’s most corrupt country, scoring a lamentable 1.1, propping up Afghanistan (1.3), Myanmar (1.4), Sudan (1.5), and Iraq (1.5); perennial most-corrupt winner Nigeria secured the joint 130th place on the list, sharing a score of 2.5 with Honduras, Lebanon, Libya, Maldives, Mauritania, Mozambique, Nicaragua, and Uganda

  • Maersk Alabama fend off pirates

    The Maersk Alabama was seized by Somali pirates in April and its captain taken hostage (he was later released by U.S. Navy commandos); last week, Somali pirates try to hijack it for the second time — but this time the ship used evasive maneuvers, Long-Range Acoustic Devices (LRADs), and small arms fire were among the tactics used to fend off the attackers

  • Preparing for agroterror attacks in Wisconsin

    FDA awards funds to states’ program aimed at making the food supply chain better protected against agroterror attacks; the Wisconsin program will use the money to fund a computer program using licensing and inspection information to develop computer maps that track where contaminated food may have been distributed

  • A landmark investment to finance Canada-U.S. grid connection

    The biggest Canada-U.S. power grid project — a privately funded 1,200- to 1400-megawatt transmission line between Quebec and southern New Hampshire — will lower the cost of power throughout New England; the project could also meet one third of the New England’s Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative commitments with the hydroelectric power Hydro-Québec could pump through the line

  • Possible costs of tougher U.S. food safety bill worry small farmers

    Small farmers worry about a rewrite of the U.S. food safety regulations expected to be debated by a Senate committee this week; in particular, small farmers say rules designed to prevent transmission of food-borne illnesses by large growers and packers will overwhelm small growers