US police fatalities rise %37 in 2010

The number of police fatalities in the Unites States has seen a dramatic increase in 2010 with most killings reported in the states of Texas, California, Illinois and Florida.


2010 has shaped up to be a deadly year for US law enforcement officers as figures show at least 160 police officers have been killed in the line of duty this year, marking a 37 percent increase from the 117 deaths last year, the Associated Press reported on Tuesday.

The figures have been compiled by the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which is a nonprofit institution honoring the nearly 19,000 US police officers who have died in the line of duty throughout history.

The report has also pointed to a rise in the number of shooting deaths, with fifty-nine federal, state and local officers killed by gunfire in 2010, a 20 percent jump from last year's figures.

"A more brazen, cold-blooded criminal element is on the prowl in America, and they don't think twice about killing a cop," said Craig Floyd, the director of the memorial fund.

He also stated that the growing financial woes gripping many law enforcement officers in the United States may have largely contributed to the rise in their fatalities.

"We're asking our officers to do more with less. We're asking them to fight conventional crime," Floyd noted.

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Cops' Use of Illegal Steroids a 'Big Problem'
FROM AOL

The badge and a steroid-filled syringe -- it's not the typical image most have for the abuse of performance-enhancing drugs. But as more within law enforcement get nabbed in steroid investigations nationwide, observers say that usage levels among police officers could rival the seediest patches of the pro sports landscape.

"It's a big problem, and from the number of cases, it's something we shouldn't ignore," Drug Enforcement Administration spokesman Lawrence Payne told AOL News. "It's not that we set out to target cops, but when we're in the middle of an active investigation into steroids, there have been quite a few cases that have led back to police officers."

The pace of investigations into steroid use in the police ranks has picked up in recent months:
A former police officer in Canby, Ore., who allegedly took delivery of some steroids while on duty pleaded guilty in February to purchasing steroids.
An officer in South Bend, Ind., pleaded no contest in March to selling steroids.
A Cleveland police officer was sentenced to a year in prison and five years of supervised release in April after he was found guilty of illegally purchasing steroids.
A dealer in Paw Paw, Mich., allegedly told authorities that he supplied "several police officers" with steroids, which led one Kalamazoo officer to resign in May.

Victor Conte, founder of the now-defunct lab known as Bay Area Lab Co-Operative that supplied numerous athletes with steroids and other banned substances, said it wouldn't surprise him if as many as a quarter of police officers were using some kind of performance-enhancing drug.

Seem high? While there are no empirical studies on the prevalence of steroids in law enforcement, the recent revelations that 248 police officers and firefighters from 53 agencies were tied to a Jersey City, N.J., physician gives some credence to Conte's estimate. The monthslong investigation by The Star-Ledger of Newark also found that taxpayers often footed the bill for the drugs since many were prescribed.

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New US military computer made from nearly 2,000 PlayStation consoles

The United States Air Force has transformed almost 2,000 Japanese Sony PlayStation consoles into a powerful supercomputer suitable for military tasks.

By Danielle Demetriou in Tokyo 6:30AM GMT 13 Dec 2010

The new computer, which has been named the Condor, was created from the gaming devices at the US Air Force Research Laboratory (AFRL) in New York State in a bid to create a cost effective and green alternative to conventional technology.
The Condor consists of a cluster of 1,760 Sony PlayStation 3 processors fused with high-end technology to create a device which is 50,000 times faster than the average consumer laptop.

Believed to be the 34th most powerful supercomputer in the world, the device will handle tasks including artificial intelligence research, pattern recognition detection and the analysis of heavy quantities of images from surveillance systems.

As well as being cheaper than any equivalent device required to conduct the same tasks, the Condor also consumes less than a tenth of the power of comparable supercomputers, according to Mark Barnell, director of AFRL's High Power Computing.
"The total cost of the Condor system was approximately $2 million, which is a cost savings of between 10 and 20 times for the equivalent capability," he said.

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FROM REUTERS

(Reuters) - North Korea stepped back from confrontation over "reckless" military drills by the South on Monday and reportedly issued a new offer on nuclear inspections, drawing a cautious response from Seoul and Washington.

Air-raid bunkers on the South Korean island of Yeonpyeong shook during South Korea's live-fire artillery exercise, which went on for more than 90 minutes.

But the North Korean guns that had shelled the island after a similar drill last month stayed silent, bringing a measure of relief in a crisis that raised fears of war along one of the world's most heavily fortified frontiers.

"The revolutionary armed forces of the DPRK did not feel any need to retaliate against every despicable military provocation," the official KCNA news agency said, quoting a communique from the North's Korean People's Army Supreme Command that called the drills a "childish play with fire."

The U.N. Security Council remained deadlocked in its efforts to ease tensions on the Korean peninsula, but North Korea's refraining from retaliation and the nuclear offer reportedly made to U.S. trouble-shooter Bill Richardson offered some breathing space.

Richardson, speaking to CNN from Pyongyang, said he sensed a greater flexibility among North Korean officials.

"Their tone was more positive, as if they realized they'd gone into the precipice with their very negative actions," said Richardson, who has had extensive past contacts with North Korea.

"They seemed to realize that they had maybe gone too far and now was a time to reach out," Richardson said, according to a transcript released by CNN.

But others remained worried.

"The situation is very tense," Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in Moscow. "There can be no optimism in this situation."

The United States said North Korea's decision not to retaliate simply showed it was behaving "the way countries are supposed to act." It reacted cautiously to word of the nuclear offer, saying it would wait for concrete evidence of North Korea's intentions.

"We've seen a string of broken promises by North Korea going back many, many years," State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley said. "We'll be guided by what North Korea does, not by what North Korea says it might do under certain circumstances."

South Korean financial markets took the day's events in their stride, recovering from early falls, but international investors remained concerned, with the cost of insuring South Korean sovereign debt for five years rising 10 percent.

The mercurial North had threatened it would strike back if its neighbor went ahead with the live-fire exercise.


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'I didn't think of Iraqis as humans,' says U.S. soldier who raped 14-year-old girl before killing her and her family
By MAIL FOREIGN SERVICE


Steven Dale launches appeal against five life sentences because he was tried in civilian court
He says warzone sent him crazy and deaths of two colleagues had 'messed me up real bad'

An Iraq War veteran serving five life terms for raping and killing a 14-year-old Iraqi girl and killing her parents and sister says he didn't think of Iraqi civilians as humans after being exposed to extreme warzone violence.

Steven Green, a former 101st Airborne soldier, in his first interview since the 2006 killings, claimed that his crimes were fuelled in part by experiences in Iraq's violent 'Triangle of Death' where two of his sergeants were gunned down.

He also cited a lack of leadership and help from the Army.

'I was crazy,' Green said in the exclusive telephone interview from federal prison in Tucson, Arizona. 'I was just all the way out there. I didn't think I was going to live.'

Green talked about what led up to the March 12, 2006, attack on a family near Mahmoudiya, Iraq, that left him serving five consecutive life sentences.

The former soldier, who apologised at sentencing for his crimes, said he wasn't seeking sympathy nor trying to justify his actions - killings prosecutors described at trial in 2009 as one of the worst crimes of the Iraq war.

But Green said people should know his actions were a consequence of his circumstances in a war zone.

'If I hadn't ever been in Iraq, I wouldn't be in the kind of trouble I'm in now,' Green said. 'I'm not happy about that.'

Green was discharged with a 'personality disorder' before federal charges were brought against him.

Prosecutors sought a death sentence, but a federal jury in Paducah, Kentucky, opted for five life sentences on charges including the rape and murder of 14-year-old Abeer Qassim Al-Janabi and the shooting deaths of her mother, father and younger sister.

Four other soldiers were convicted in military court for various roles in the attack. Three remain in military prison.

Green is challenging the Military Extraterritorial Jurisdiction Act, which allows the federal government to charge an American in civilian court for alleged crimes committed overseas. He was the first former soldier convicted under the statute. The U.S. 6th Circuit Court of Appeals has scheduled arguments for January 21.

Green is challenging the constitutionality of that law, saying it gives the executive branch too much leeway over whom to prosecute. Prosecutors say the law should be upheld.
'I've got some hope, but I'm not delusional about it,' said Green, now 25. 'I hope it works. But, whenever they give you multiple life sentences, they're not planning on letting you out.'
Green didn't testify at trial. During sentencing, he apologized and said he expects to face 'God's justice' when he dies.


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FROM URUKNET/ AP

Iranian nuclear scientist killed in bomb attack

November 29, 2010

Motorbike-riding bombers killed a leading Iranian nuclear scientist and wounded another by planting explosives on their cars as they drove to work today.

State TV swiftly blamed Israel for the attacks. At least two other Iranian nuclear scientists have been killed in recent years in what Iran has said is part of a covert attempt by the West to damage its controversial nuclear programme.

Head of the country's nuclear operation Ali Akbar Salehi, issued a stern warning as he rushed to hospital to see the surviving scientist, Fereidoun Abbasi.

"Don't play with fire. The patience of the Iranian nation has limits. If it runs out of patience, bad consequences will await enemies," he said.

Mr Salehi, one of Iran's vice presidents, was apparently referring to Israel and the US, which Iran alleges are trying to damage its nuclear programme.

Tehran's uranium enrichment program is at the centre of a bitter row between Iran on one side and the US and its allies on the other. Uranium enrichment is a process that can be used to produce both nuclear energy and nuclear weapons.


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