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Probability Maps Help Detect Food Contamination

Sandia's stochastic network metholodogy accelerates spread of food-borne illness // Source: sandia.gov

submitted by Luis Kun

Homeland Security News Wire - October 1, 2012

Researchers demonstrate how developing a probability map of the food supply network using stochastic network representation might shorten the time it takes to track down contaminated food sources; stochastic mapping shows what is known about how product flows through the distribution supply chain and provides a means to express all the uncertainties in potential supplier-customer relationships that persist due to incomplete information

Uncovering the sources of fresh food contamination could become faster and easier thanks to analysis done at Sandia National Laboratories’ National Infrastructure Simulation and Analysis Center (NISAC).

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Obama uses UN speech to condemn extremism

Barack Obama paid a personal tribute to Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya who was killed in the attack on Benghazi. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

Image: Barack Obama paid a personal tribute to Chris Stevens, the US ambassador to Libya who was killed in the attack on Benghazi. Photograph: Mary Altaffer/AP

guardian.co.uk - September 25th, 2012 - Julian Borger

President Barack Obama today sought to reset US relations with the Arab world in the wake of anti-American riots triggered by an amateur video insulting the prophet Mohamed, that led to the death of the US ambassador to Libya, Chris Stevens.

Obama used his speech to the UN general assembly, expected to be his last major foreign policy address before the November elections, to pay a personal tribute to Stevens, highlighting the murdered diplomat's passion for Arab culture and support for democracy, and present it a model for American-Arab relations.

The president also restated the US position on the Iran nuclear programme: that there was still time for diplomacy, but not "unlimited time".

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Safe Cities Initiatives

submitted by Mike Kraft

linkedin.com

Terrorism, man made incidents, natural disasters and the current global economic climate, have forced cities to implement Safe City technologies and strategies. Safe City key elements include Social Media Analytics/Monitoring, Critical Infrastructure Protection, and leveraging emerging homeland security technologies to gain greater situational awareness for law enforcement professionals. The purpose of this group is to discuss emerging trends and technologies in the Safe City arena and serve as a networking environment for Safe City professionals. Emerging technologies in this area are PSIM (Physical Security Information Management), Biometrics-Access Control, Social Media Analysis-Monitoring, Explosives and Narcotics Trace Detection and Tactical & Emergency Communications Systems.

http://www.linkedin.com/groups?gid=4418022&goback=.gde_1528217_member_165228150

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Sudan Refugees Flee Intensified Bombing Runs

foxnews.com - Associated Press - September 19, 2012

Newly arrived refugees at a camp along the volatile South Sudan-Sudan border say renewed fighting between rebels and Sudan's military is likely to send thousands more people to an expanding camp here filled with refugees of war and hunger.

As the fighting intensified, tens of thousands began streaming into South Sudan. Since February, the population of Yida has skyrocketed from 17,000 to around 65,000 refugees.

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Video - MSF - An Improved Situation in Yida Camp, South Sudan

youtube.com - September 18, 2012

After Doctors Without Borders/Médecins Sans Frontières (MSF) scaled up its operations in Yida refugee camp in South Sudan, the mortality rate fell sharply in just one month.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=2GZYb6fP1N8

Location

United States
31° 43' 41.4012" N, 148° 32' 6.5616" W
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Pakistan's Escalating Vaccine Tensions

cfr.org - Laurie Garrett - July 18th, 2012

Last year the CIA deployed a Pakistani physician to execute a phony hepatitis vaccine campaign in Abbottabad, hoping to extract blood samples from the children living inside a compound, thought to house Osama bin Laden and his family. Because of the vaccine deception, multiple imams and Taliban leaders have declared that vaccines are CIA plots. The ruse may also be responsible for what appears to have been an assassination attempt against a World Health Organization immunization convoy that injured two people on July 17.

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U.S. ship fires on fishing boat in Persian Gulf, killing 1

The Rappahannock, which refuels warships, had just passed through the Strait of Hormuz when a fishing boat started to approach it. The supply ship fired on the craft, killing one and injuring three. (Cale Hatch / U.S. Navy / March 21, 2012)Image: The Rappahannock, which refuels warships, had just passed through the Strait of Hormuz when a fishing boat started to approach it. The supply ship fired on the craft, killing one and injuring three. (Cale Hatch / U.S. Navy / March 21, 2012)

latimes.com - David S. Cloud - July 16th, 2012

Fearful of a terrorist attack, a U.S. Navy fuel resupply ship that had just passed through the Strait of Hormuz in the Persian Gulf opened fire at a 50-foot fishing boat moving toward it, killing one person and wounding three, U.S. officials said.

A security team aboard the Rappahannock, which refuels warships, fired a .50-caliber machine gun Monday after the smaller boat "disregarded warnings and rapidly approached" about 10 miles off Jebel Ali port in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, according to the Navy's 5th Fleet, which is based in neighboring Bahrain.

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The U.K. August 2011 Riots Could Have Been Predicted

Burned-out hulk of stores and apartments after night of rioting // Source: wikipedia.org

Homeland Security News Wire - July 5, 2012

Researchers studying urban violence have developed a new method which can help city authorities to assess the conditions where conflict could potentially tip into violence; Participatory Violence Appraisal (PVA), used in Kenya and Chile, could have helped to anticipate the tipping points that led to last summer’s riots in cities across the United Kingdom, the researchers say

A University of Manchester team researching urban violence has developed a new method which can help city authorities to assess the conditions where conflict could potentially tip into violence.

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Sierra Leone: Taylor Verdict a Warning to War Crimes Perpetrators

Former Liberian President Charles Taylor takes notes in court. RNW

allafrica.com - April 26, 2012

Dakar — The landmark guilty verdict today against former Liberian President Charles Ghankay Taylor is a warning to those most responsible for atrocity crimes that they can be held accountable.

A decade after the war in Sierra Leone, the Special Court's ruling marks the first time that a former head of state has been found guilty of war-time atrocities by an internationally-backed court since the Nuremberg trials.

The verdict is a fresh lesson to all those in power that they do not enjoy impunity and a sign of hope in Sierra Leone that those most responsible for the heinous crimes of the eleven-year civil war (1991-2002) are being brought to book.

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South Sudan Economy On the Verge of Collapse, World Bank Warns

South Sudanese citizens show support for their government’s decision to shut down all oil production. (Photo Courtesy Issac Billy/UN

allafrica.com - May 6, 2012

Washington — The newly independent state of South Sudan is quickly headed towards an economic cliff in light of its decision to shut down oil production which went into effect earlier this year, says a confidential report by the World bank.

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