The Gates of Hell

Source: adn.com

The commander of the 3rd Wing at Elmendorf Air Force Base died of a gunshot wound in his on-base residence Sunday night, the Air Force said this morning. Few details are being released, but an Air Force spokesman said there was no indication of foul play.

Brig. Gen. Thomas L. Tinsley was declared dead around 10:30 p.m., according to a statement issued by the Air Force early this morning.

Elmendorf medical authorities responded, the statement says.

There was no indication of foul play, Lt. Col. Michael Paoli, an Air Force spokesman in Washington, D.C., told The Associated Press. Locally, officials would not say if the gunshot was self-inflicted or accidental. An investigation is ongoing, they said.

Tinsley had served as the wing commander since May 2007, overseeing nearly 7,000 people. This morning his colleagues were shocked and sad, said Kelley Jeter, a public affairs officer who worked regularly with the general.
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Tinsley’s Air Force biography says he was a command pilot with more than 3,200 flight hours in the F-15, F/A-18 and F-22A fighter jets. He previously commanded Elmendorf’s 12th Fighter Squadron and the 1st Operations Group at Langley Air Force Base in Virginia.

Prior to his 3rd Wing assignment, he was executive officer to the chief of staff of the Air Force.

He was commissioned in 1984 through the ROTC program at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in Arizona. His biography says he was an F-15 instructor pilot, F-15C test pilot, wing weapons officer, exchange officer and instructor with the Royal Australian Air Force. He also has served in the Directorate for Plans and Policy on the Joint Staff and was executive assistant to the deputy for Political-Military Affairs for Asia Pacific and the Middle East.

Elmendorf’s 3rd Wing flies F-22A and F-15C fighters, C-17 Globemaster cargo jets, C-12 passenger/cargo planes and E-3 AWACS, and maintains the regional medical facility for all forces in Alaska.

Source: Press TV

Egypt has refused to allow entry to an Israeli truck carrying 3.5 ton of ceramics after high radiation levels were detected in the shipment.

Egyptian officials seized the goods at the Al-Oja border crossing after radiation detection equipment showed a high presence of radioactive material in the cargo, a security official told AFP.

A special team from the Egyptian Atomic Energy Authority (EAEA) was expected to inspect the shipment immediately, he added.

It is not the first time that an Israeli truck is denied entry to Egypt. In June, Egypt sent back to Israel a delivery of 32 tons of tiles because it was emitting high levels of radiation.

Source: CBS News

Russian authorities are hoping to make legal history by applying an American racketeering law in a Moscow court as they seek to recover billions of dollars in damages from the Bank of New York Mellon.

Hearings resume Monday in the Russian Federal Customs Service’s $22.5 billion lawsuit against the bank, which was at the center of a major money-laundering scandal in the late 1990s.

The lawsuit couldn’t come at a more sensitive time, as U.S. banks are facing substantial writedowns following the subprime mortgage crisis.

In a highly unusual move, Russia has brought the case under a famous U.S. law used to fight organized crime, and both sides have drawn on the expert opinion of some of America’s best-known legal minds in preparing their case.

The Russians have brought in Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz and Robert Blakey, one of the authors of the 1970 statute on racketeer-influenced and corrupt organizations, or RICO. Bank of New York Mellon lawyers are fielding Richard Thornburgh, a former U.S. attorney general and Pennsylvania governor.

The RICO statue has never been successfully ruled on in a foreign court, according to lawyers. If the Moscow court agrees to apply the U.S. law, some lawyers predict it would open the floodgates for a slew of similar claims.

Source: Telegraph

Papers obtained under the Freedom of Information Act show that on five occasions since 2004 private firms with police contracts have successfully applied to use the database to help them develop computer programs.

The DNA database contains records of 4.2 million people, of which a million have never been convicted of an offence. Records are rarely deleted, even if a person is not charged.

The disclosure comes ahead of a hard-hitting report from the Government’s genetics watchdog next week which will call for more safeguards on how the database is run.

Ministers say the database is a crucial tool in solving crimes. But when it was set up, there was no suggestion that profiles would be made available to private businesses for commercial purposes.

The companies involved were not given the identities of the people whose DNA profiles they analysed and used them for research that could be useful to the police. But critics said it was unacceptable that profiles had been handed over secretly without any public debate or the consent of those concerned.