• Aussie students develop new way to visualize fingerprints left on paper

    Two University of Technology, Sydney students develop a method which relies on the application of heat to the sample, with the fingerprint development accomplished in a matter of seconds

  • Some in U.K. government wanted compulsory DNA cards

    In 2003 and 2004, some civil servants considered — and wrote detailed reports about — including DNA or iris biometrics as well as digital photographs in the ID card scheme and the police wanted carrying the cards to be compulsory

  • Administration urged to end exclusion of foreign scholars

    A coalition of academic groups says the federal government’s practice of denying visas to foreign scholars critical of U.S. foreign policy harms the national interest

  • North Dakota EMS employees use disaster money for booze

    Nearly $200,000 of the roughly $810,000 the Bismarck, North Dakota-based EMS group received between 2004 and last year to help produce a plan to fight bioterrorism and other mass disasters was used on “unallowable or questionable” items

  • Report: Israel may attack Iran with missiles

    New study says that Israel would use conventionally tipped ballistic missiles rather than planes to destroy Iran’s nuclear weapon facilities; the destruction of these facilities is feasible — the problem lies with the likely Iranian retaliation to such an attack

  • U.K. government flags ID cost increase

    The U.K. government says that passports will account for a smaller proportion of the cost of the national identity scheme’s overall cost than previously stated; introducing and producing passports containing fingerprints will cost about 70 percent of the £4.785 million budget for the National Identity Scheme for U.K. nationals

  • GAO: TSA may not meet deadline for cargo checks

    Passenger planes carry about 7.6 billion pounds of cargo a year; all suitcases have been screened since 2002, but cargo has been subject to much looser inspection requirements, raising concerns that terrorists could slip a bomb into a package; TSA was given an August 2010 deadline or guarantee that all cargo carried on passenger planes is being screened

  • Northern Ireland terror attacks make for uneasy St. Patrick's Day

    The dissident republican splinter terror groups which killed two British soldiers and a Northern Ireland police officer this weekend hope to re-ignite sectarian violence in the province; far from igniting a new civil war, the attacks brought together Protestant and Catholics; for the sake of Northern Ireland’s stability and future, however, the unresolved policing issue should be addressed soon

  • European Commission calls for single EU patent

    EC says that the absence of a single Europe-wide patent law is hindering the growth of technology companies in the European Union

  • UNC students win cyber defense competition

    University of North Carolina students win, for the second time in four years, the DHS-sponsored Southeastern Region Collegiate Cyber Defense Competition

  • American adults flunk basic science

    National survey of American adults find an alarmingly low level of scientific literacy

  • Inventors: Reforming U.S. patent bill will have a chilling effect on innovation

    There are those who argue that the current U.S. patent and copyright laws have a chilling effect on innovation and creativity; then there are those who argue that effort to reform these laws and limit damages U.S. inventors can claim from infringing companies will stifle innovation and creativity; the debate continues

  • Obama to bolster food safety

    Each year, about 76 million people in the United States are sickened by contaminated food, hundreds of thousands are hospitalized, and about 5,000 die; thirty-five years ago, the FDA. did annual inspections of about half of the nation’s food-processing facilities; last year, the agency inspected just 7,000 of the nearly 150,000 domestic food facilities; its oversight of foreign plants was even spottier

  • U.S. searching for a nuclear waste graveyard

    Congress has killed the Yucca Mountain nuclear repository project, so the United States has no central location for storing nuclear waste; 50,000 metric tons of toxic nuclear waste that has already been produced by the U.S. nuclear plants; 30,000 metric tons more of nuclear waste is expected to be generated in the coming decades

  • Project allowing Mexican long-haul trucks into U.S. ends

    Two years ago the Department of Transportation launched a pilot project allowing Mexican long-haul trucks to carry their cargo from the Mexican origin all the way to the U.S. destination, without transferring the cargo to an American carrier; Congress removed funding for the project from the omnibus spending bill