Category Archives: Top Stories

One of CIA’s secret prisons was probably located in the capital of Romania, Bucharest. Reporters of two Western media companies visited the European country, to take a look at the place, where the CIA could keep its Afghan POWs.

The subject of CIA’s secret prisons has surfaced again after an anonymous agent of US special services unveiled information about the existence of the prison code-named “Bright Light.” According to him, US special services would keep prominent al-Qaeda members in the “romantic” prison. Sheikh Mohammad, a suspect of 9/11 attacks in the USA, was also kept at the Romanian prison, the officer said on conditions of anonymity.

The former intelligence official also said that the prison had supposedly started working in the autumn of 2003. It happened after the CIA decided to relocate its prisoners to Romania from a secret object in Poland. The Romanian prison operated for three years. In 2006, all the prisoners were delivered to the notorious Guantanamo base.

According to the agent, the secret prison was inside the National Registry for Classified Information in Romania. The registry receives all the data from NATO and the European Union. The crews of the Associated Press news agency and Germany’s ARD Panorama TV company managed to visit the secret object.

Adrian Camarasan, an employee of the registry, said that the Americans had never been the masters in the prison. The location for the prison was perfect, the officer said. Local residents knew that there was a state-run institution in the building. However, it could never occur to anyone how they used the basement of the respectable building.

According to the Romanian official, there were six cells in the secret prison. The prisoners were tortured there for about a month. Afterwards, the attitude to the prisoners began to improve. Doctors would often examine them, whereas the food for the prisoners would be cooked according to Islamic requirements.

The story raises many questions to both the United States and Romania. The subject of CIA secret prisons appeared in 2004-2005, after the report from Swiss deputy Dick Marti. An article on the subject in The Washington Post followed soon afterwards. The Observer provided the list of the countries, where the CIA had its secret prisons. The geography of that was astonishing indeed: Morocco, Egypt, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Thailand, Ukraine, Lithuania, Poland and Romania. The suspects would be tortured with the imitation of drowning, cold, loud music, pork (which all Muslims reject), sleep deprivation, etc. Human rights activists showered then-President George W. Bush with criticism, but US officials, including former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld, rejected all of those claims.

The USA eventually acknowledged the existence of secret prisons. However, US officials did their best to justify the use of severe methods of interrogation. According to them, it was the only language that terrorist suspects could understand.

The US reputation was stained. Barack Obama ordered to close all secret prisoners as soon as he took office as President. Attorney General Eric Holder said that the activities of the CIA would be investigated. However, the investigation moves at snail’s pace.

One may have many questions to the countries that agreed to provide their territories and premises for the secret prisons. Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite admitted two years ago that the CIA had a secret prison not far from Vilnius in 2003-2004. Lithuanian ex-President Valdas Adamkus was aware of all that, of course, but he simply got away with it.

A similar scandal has begun in Poland as well. Tomas Hammarberg, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, stated that there was a secret object in Poland in 2002-2003 too. According to the official, two extremely important prisoners – Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri and Abu Zubaidah – were kept at the secret prison in Poland. Neither Polish President Bronislaw Komorowski, nor Prime Minister Donald Tusk have said a word on the subject yet.

It appears that it is now the turn for Romanian President Traian Basescu to explain the presence of CIA prisons in his country. He came to power in 2004. It was in his power to close the prison, but Basescu did not do it. The above-mentioned employee of the Romanian Registry for Classified Information said that the Romanian administration was aware of that all. It just so happens that European countries can turn a blind eye on their sovereignty to please the USA. Does that mean that Romania, Poland, Lithuania and many other “sovereign” countries are not quite independent?

Microsoft researchers have developed a new generation of Kinect motion sensor – a device that turns any flat surface into a touch screen.

Experimental sensor tracks movement on any of the human hand in the wall and it makes a portable computer.

Tests, users are able to punch numbers onto their hands and the keyboard to write a virtual “notepad” on the table.

According to researchers, it is the first step in a single day by removing the need to carry around your phone or computer.

Instead, users can have what they need, projected in front of him, and use any of the flat workspace.

The device, called the OmniTouch, a wearable camera / laser projection system installed on the user’s shoulder and connected to the computer.

It works the same way as the Kinect, motion sensor gadget to your Xbox, as the camera detects motion and depth.

Pilot: The prototype shoulder-worn system, pictured, tracks the movement of the user

Thus it is to pick up when the user moves their finger in any direction or up and down.

Striking videos uploaded onto YouTube to see a variety of subjects by pressing the buttons are projected to the arm.

Other clips show a man with a numeric keypad on his hand, which he transferred to the combination.

Applications can be anything that we currently use a computer – checking email, surfing the web, or possibly by talking to friends on Skype.

At the moment the camera and laser are quite thick, but Microsoft and the team at Carnegie Mellon University, which was developed in conjunction with OmniTouch, say it could one day be “the whole of a matchbox and as easy to use as pendant or watch.”

Science: The equipment senses depth and hand movement to work

In a research paper they say OmniTouch “allows the user to use his hands, arms and legs as a graphical, interactive surfaces.”

They write: “Today’s notebook computers offer ubiquitous access to information … It is undeniable that they have forever changed the way we work, play and interact.

“However, mobile interaction is far from resolved. Small screens and buttons on November the user experience, and otherwise keep us all full potential.

Hrvoje Benko, a researcher of the natural interaction of the Microsoft research team, added: “We wanted to take advantage of a huge surface of the real world has to offer.

“The surface on the one hand alone larger than typical smartphones.

“The tables are an order of magnitude larger than the tablet computer.

“If we are right, these surfaces in an ad-hoc on-demand way to deliver full benefits of mobility, while extending the user’s interactive feature.”
source: HeadlineTodayNews.com

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Is the E. coli outbreak that has killed at least 22 people, sickened more than 2,200, and caused widespread fear throughout Europe a case of a bad turn by Mother Nature or the result of a more sinister attack?

After all, E. coli has been identified by government officials and scientists as a potential bioterrorism agent.

Bioterrorism is defined by the Centers for Disease Control (CDC) as the intentional use of bacteria, viruses or natural toxins as a weapon to kill, injure or produce disease in people, animals or plants. Terrorists may use this kind of attack to create fear, disrupt the economy, or to get a response from the government.

Let me clarify that I don’t think there’s a need for alarm just yet, but there are a couple of things that are unique about this particular strain, compared to E. coli we’ve seen in the past.
I talked to my colleague, Dr. Philip Tierno – aka “Dr. Germ” – to find out a little more about this killer.

“This strain (0104:H4) is a hyper-toxin producer, which means it produces more toxins than the usual strain, and causes hemolytic uremic syndrome (a complication of an E. coli infection that can lead to kidney failure) at approximately double the rate of the E. coli 0157:H7 strain that we commonly see here in the United States,” he told me over the phone.

It appears to have genes that lead to both bloody diarrhea and kidney failure, as well as resistance to 14 kinds of antibiotics instead of just one. It also lacks an adhesion gene, which means the bug may have found a new way to bind itself inside the body.

In his 42 years at the department of microbiology at NYU School of Medicine, Tierno said he has never seen the 0104:H4 strain – not once – ever.

“The toxin is carried by what is called a bacteriophage (viruses that infect bacteria), and could migrate from strain to strain – that’s why it’s so powerful,” he said.

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What I find most curious is the target of this strain – statistics show that an unusually high number of adult women have fallen victim to the bug. Normally, E. coli often affects children and the elderly.

Now, there are a number of potential explanations for this outbreak, which biologists say may be the largest and deadliest in all of history. At this point, it’s impossible to pin the cause down on any one theory.

Tierno said in his opinion, it’s not a bioterrorism incident, but he also said nothing can be 100 percent ruled out.

However, I do believe it is important to consider all possibilities, and perhaps view what has happened in Europe as a warning: E. coli is a potentially deadly pathogen that can spread rapidly and widely, whether in the hands of terrorists or Mother Nature. It is vitally important to practice proper techniques in food preparation – including washing the food and/or cooking it at proper temperatures.

As far as I’m concerned, the few extra minutes those measures will take is well worth it to ensure the health and safety of you and your family.

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