US ponders how much monitoring needed against attack

LIVERMORE, CALIFORNIA, Dec 29: At lawrence livermore lab in northern California and other national labs, US scientists are hard at work devising new inventions to monitor unlikely but horrific dangers that could stem from future terrorist attacks.

One such device is a black box about two-thirds the size of a refrigerator that seeks signs of anthrax, plague, smallpox or other biological attacks. A circular knob on the top acts as the sensor and an antenna transmits information.

The inside fuses a Chemistry set with a computer brain. If an attack agent is suspected, the device performs a DNA test.

"This is something that is in place for the very unlikely but very-high-consequence act," said John Dzenitis, who helped develop the autonomous pathogen detection system.

Given the huge price tag and technical limitations, do the latest high-tech inventions to detect biological, chemical or other 21st century threats adequately address present-day security needs?

So many experiments are under way at Livermore that the lab sometimes resembles quartermaster Q’s gadget shop in the James Bond films. "If you hear a bang, it’s an experiment going on," Charles Mcmillan, who oversees Livermore’s high explosive division, said as he led a visitor through the high-security lab.

His unit, which has the cryptic name of "B division", has developed a hand-held device to detect radiation and determine its source material. "I think every bomb squad should have one of these," said Mike Dunning, one of Radscout’s developers.

But as with many of these cutting-edge devices, there are limitations. The portable device which refrigerates germanium crystal to minus 280 fahrenheit (-173 celsius) is just a bit smaller and lighter than a car battery — which could be burdensome.

Could they make it any smaller? "Regrettably the laws of science don’t allow us to do this right now," Dunning said.

A division of Ametek Inc says it has this year sold more than 50 of its slightly larger radiation detectors based on earlier Livermore research for 50,000-75,000 dollars.

At the Idaho National Engineering and Environmental Laboratory, scientists have developed a system that zaps a truck with high-energy neutrons to seek hidden explosives. But the device takes five minutes and will not detect less than 500 lb (227 kg) of explosives.

Livermore’s biological detector, which might cost about 100,000 dollars a pop when mass produced, will work only in a limited area against 15 specific biological agents. "A small release that might not impact many people you might not be able to detect," said Dzenitis.

"You pick the places you care about the most," he said. "You can imagine a lot of these in Manhattan."

The detector also requires weekly checks. But that is an improvement over a manual system at the 2002 Olympics that was checked every four hours, Dzenitis said.

Researchers are clearly seeking smaller, cheaper devices.

"It is a matter of cost. Ultimately what you would like is for ... Every guy at an airport to have a radiation detector the size of this pen that costs a buck," said Bruce Goodwin, Livermore’s Associate Director for Defence and Nuclear Technologies. "And by the way they should all be hooked together on a wireless network linked to a computer looking for detection patterns."

"I don’t think we are there yet and part of the problem is the detectors are too big and too expensive."

Since the September 2001 attacks, the United States has invested billions in new domestic security devices. This year, for example, Northrop Grumman has been installing a 175 million dollars postal service biohazard detection system.

Some security experts say that deploying any new type of device, even if expensive, will eventually spur lower costs.

"By forcing the deployment of these, we will create a market, we will enable manufacturers to increase production, and as you do that (you) move away from making rolls royces to making, you know, Hondas," said Brian Jenkins, Director of the National Transportation Security Center at the Mineta Transportation Institute.

A member of an Aviation Safety Commission in the Clinton administration, Jenkins cited the recent fall in the cost of explosive detection machines at airports. He also pointed to the London subway system, which now has 5,000 of once expensive closed-circuit video cameras.

"That generally has been the trajectory of most technologies, whether we talk about computers or automobiles. They get better and they get cheaper," he said.

Yet even with greater cost savings and better technology, the devices will never provide total security, experts say, just enhanced safety and at the cost of many billions. (AGENCIES)

Blind girl sues pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson

LOS ANGELES, Dec 29: A seven-year-old girl has sued US pharmaceutical giant Johnson and Johnson, claiming it failed to warn of a possible allergic reaction to a children’s drug that left her blind.

Sabrina Brierton Johnson’s family yesterday filed suit against the firm in Los Angeles, accusing it of deceit by concealing the potentially horrific side effects of the over-the-counter anti-inflammatory drug children’s motrin.

The youngster’s parents gave her a recommended dose of the drug after she came home complaining of a headache when she was six, but the drug led to an acute allergic reaction known as Stevens-Johnson Syndrome, the suit alleged.

The girl and her family claim that Johnson and Johnson learned of the disastrous potential side effects of children’s motrin during clinical trials but failed to warn consumers.

"Johnson and Johnson made a reckless, callous decision when it decided not to tell the public that Stevens-Johnson syndrome is one of the adverse side effects of taking children’s motrin," said Sabrina’s father, Kenneth Johnson.

"Not a day goes by that joan and I don’t say to ourselves, `if we had only known, if we had only known.’ We hope that this lawsuit will put an end to their indifference," he said.

Johnson and Johnson could not immediately be reached for comment. Stevens-Johnson syndrome is a rare but violent allergic immune system response that causes fever and blistering, which may affect the cornea and other parts of the eye. (AFP)

Manmohan to meet Aziz in Dhaka

ISLAMABAD, Dec 27: Prime Minister Manmohan Singh will meet his Pakistani counterpart Shaukat Aziz on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Dhaka in January.

A joint statement issued at the end of two-day Secretary-level talks here said the two Prime Ministers would meet on the sidelines of the SAARC summit in Dhaka in January.

External Affairs Minister K Natwar Singh will also meet Pakistan Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri during the SAARC summit.

Foreign Secretary Shyam Saran and his Pakistani counterpart Riaz Khokhar will meet in New Delhi between July and August next year to review the overall progress in the composite dialogue. (UNI)

Morocco at war with professional beggars

RABAT, Dec 29: Professional beggars prowling about the streets of Moroccan cities with "rented" and drugged children to attract charity may have their days numbered.

The Government plans to crack down on the scam used by faux beggars in growing numbers for a kind of "emotional blackmail," a Cabinet Minister was quoted as saying yesterday.

"We must fight against this professional, organised begging with children that are either rented or stolen (from their parents), numbed with narcotics or malnourished," said Social Development, Family and Solidarity Minister Abderrahim Harouchi.

The minister, in an interview with daily Le Matin, quoted a report from a local NGO which said about 15 percent of children under 7 seen with beggars in the streets were "rented" for between 50-100 dirhams (6 to 12 dollars) per week.

Many ordinary Moroccans know of the scam, usually conducted by young women who often target foreign tourists in major cities like the capital Rabat, Casablanca, Fez or Marrakesh.

Some say this tarnishes the image of the Muslim kingdom, where about 14 per cent of its 30 million people live under the poverty line — about one dollar a day. (AGENCIES)

WFP says needs around 30 million dollars in Tsunami aid

ROME, Dec 29: The UN world food programme said it would need to raise around 30 million dollars to respond to the Tsunami disaster in Sri Lanka, Thailand and Indonesia, where millions of survivors are searching for food and shelter.

On the same day it delivered its first truckload of food rations, the WFP said it had tapped an initial 1.5 million dollars in emergency aid for the three countries — where more than 47,000 people were confirmed dead yesterday.

A WFP spokeswoman said the total food aid needs were assessed at 28-30 million dollars, but warned this was a preliminary estimate.

"This is a back-of-the-envelope calculation at this point. But we know very well that as (rescue teams) get deeper into the pockets of the hardest-hit areas, the figure could change," WFP spokeswoman Brenda Barton told .

She added that India, where officials fear nearly 10,000 people were killed, had not requested WFP support.

The Rome-based agency delivered its first truckload of aid to Sri Lanka yesterday, where more than a million people are homeless, many sheltered in Buddhist temples and schools.

A dozen districts have received 168 tonnes of WFP provisions so far. The WFP said this came from a 4,000-tonne stockpile in Sri Lanka — enough to provide emergency rations to half a million people for two weeks.

"There are national Governments that have a very strong capacity to assist ... Obviously what we’re doing is supplementing that and we’re going to backstop it in a big way," Barton said.

She said the WFP would deliver its first food rations to Indonesia within the next two days.

"Where you have your warehouses is not necessarily where you have been hit. That takes a couple of days, on the Government side, in any of these countries to organise and plan," she said. (AGENCIES)

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