• Safety engineers welcome Obama’s chemical facility safety Executive Order

    The American Society of Safety Engineers (ASSE) said it supports President Obama’s Executive Order to improve federal agency coordination of U.S. chemical facility safety and security oversight. The ASSE notes that while the causes of each chemical incident are unique and require careful investigation to help ensure similar incidents do not reoccur, common to every incident are the often overlapping and sometimes confusing layers of regulatory responsibility over facilities where potentially harmful chemicals are produced or stored.

  • Small modular reactors (SMEs) a “poor bet” to revive U.S. nuclear renaissance: report

    A shift to small modular reactors (SMRs) is unlikely to breathe new life into the troubled U.S. nuclear power industry, since SMRs will likely require tens of billions of dollars in federal subsidies or government purchase orders, create new reliability vulnerabilities, as well as concerns in relation to both safety and proliferation, according a report issued last week.

  • Immigration reform should consider families, social ties: study

    Immigration judges should be allowed to consider a person’s family and social ties to the United States before ordering the deportation of legal permanent residents for minor offenses, says a new study. The study aso found that 98 percent of all deportees are sent to Latin America and the Caribbean even though people from those countries do not make up 98 percent of all immigrants.

  • Israeli drone strike, in coordination with Egypt, destroys militants’ rockets deployed on Egyptian territory

    The growing intelligence cooperation between Egypt and Israel was in evidence earlier today (Friday) when the Israel Air Force (IAF), in coordination with the Egyptian military, used drone strikes to destroy ready-to-launch rockets and rocket launchers on Egyptian territory, killing five Egyptian militants in the process. The rockets were deployed on Thursday in a desert area near the town  of Rafah, and were discovered by an Egyptian surveillance fly-over.

  • Obama administration renews drone campaign in Yemen

    Responding to intelligence information about planned terrorist attacks by Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), information which led to the closure of twenty-two U.S. embassies in the Middle East and North Africa and a travel warning issued by the Department of State, the Obama administration has launched a series of drone strikes in Yemen over the past ten days.

  • DHS tentatively grants asylum to seven Mexicans

    DHS has tentatively granted asylum to seven Mexican immigrants. Some of the immigrants were previously living the United States illegally, but left and tried to re-enter as part of a protest against the U.S. deportation policies, and in support of granting citizenship to immigrants who were to the United States as children.

  • Govt.: lawyer jailed for helping imprisoned terrorist not entitled to medical early release

    The government told U.S. District Judge John Koeltl that he does not have the authority to release an ailing disbarred civil rights lawyer who is currently serving a 10-year prison sentence for allowing a imprisoned Egyptian sheik to communicate with his followers. Lynne Stewart, 73, is suffering a recurrence of her breast cancer, but the government says that she is not telling the truth when she says she has only eighteen months to live.

  • First charges filed in Benghazi attack

    Eleven months after the attack, U.S. federal officials have filed the first charges in the attack on the U.S. consulate in Benghazi, Libya on 11 September 2012. Among those charged is Ahmed Abu Khattala, a prominent Libyan militia leader. Others named as defendants were not disclosed. The charges initially were sought in New York months ago, and are still under seal. Attorney General Eric Holder had promised congressional leaders earlier this year that the Justice Department would soon publicize the action the Justice Department would be taking.

  • Boko Haram leader deposed following cease-fire agreement with Nigerian government

    Sheikh Abubakar Shekau, the leader of Nigeria’s Boko Haram, appears to have been deposed by more moderate members of the Islamic group. The change of leadership follows a cease-fire agreement between the Islamic organization and the Nigerian government, reached in talks on 25-26 June. Violence has continued however, and Boko Haram, which since 2009 has been conducting an increasingly violent campaign against the Nigerian government and Western influence in the country, may split as more radical elements decide to create a new militia.

  • Interpol issues global alert following nine al Qaeda-linked prison breakouts

    Interpol, in a statement issued from the organization’s headquarters in Lyon, France, urged law enforcement agencies around the world to show “increased vigilance,” following prison breakouts over the past nine month in nine countries, including Iraq (22 July), Libya (27 July), and Pakistan (31 July). More than 2,500 terrorists have escaped in these nine prison breakouts.

  • FBI terrorism unit investigates animal rights group after pheasant farm attack

    An FBI Joint Terrorism Task Force has launched an investigating after an animal rights group announced on its Web site that its members cut open fencing around a and releasing more than a dozen pheasants from the aviary at Ash Grove Pheasant Farm and Orchard in Riverside, California. The incident took place 22 July.

  • Muslim American groups launch campaign to block Kelly's nomination to DHS post

    Muslim-American groups have launched a campaign to block New York City Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly from becoming DHS Secretary. American Muslims are uneasy with Kelly for what they regard as lack of sensitivity to Muslim concerns, and lack of judgment when it comes to dealing with Muslims. Civil rights advocacy groups and groups representing African American and Latino law enforcement officers have joined forces with the Muslim groups in the campaign against Kelly.

  • Lawmakers criticize FDA, CDC for Cyclospora outbreak foot-dragging

    Lawmakers want to know why it has taken so long for food-safety authorities to respond to the cyclospora outbreak which, so far, has sickened at least 418 people in sixteen states. They also want to know why the FDA and CDC have been tight-lipped about the specific products carrying the parasite — health authorities in Nebraska and Iowa have pointed to bagged salad containing romaine and iceberg lettuce as well as carrots and cabbage as the source – and who is the manufacturer of the contaminated products.

  • U.S. closes 21 embassies, issues travel alert following “credible” al Qaeda threat

    The U.S. State Department issued a travel alert Friday warning al Qaeda may launch attacks in the Middle East, North Africa, and several other places. The department also closed twenty-one embassies and consulates this weekend. “Current information suggests that Al Qaeda and affiliated organizations continue to plan terrorist attacks both in the region and beyond, and that they may focus efforts to conduct attacks in the period between now and the end of August,” the State Department said in a statement.

  • Russia grants Snowden a 1-year temporary refugee status

    Edward Snowden has left Moscow’s Sheremetyevo airport and has entered Russia after he had been granted temporary asylum – the official language: a temporary refugee status — for one year. It is not yet known whether Snowden’s plan is to stay in Russia permanently, or whether he will try to move on to one of the four Latin American countries — Venezuela, Bolivia, Nicaragua, and Ecuador – which last month had offered him asylum. U.S. lawmakers said Russia’s decision had damaged U.S.-Russian relations, and the White House hinted that President Obama may cancel a planned summit meeting with Putin in Moscow in September.