The morning glory robbery got its name from the fact that it happens first thing in the morning-before the banking office is opened. Either the robber breaks into the office undetected, or hides in the office the day before and waits overnight for the members of the staff to arrive the next morning.

Morning Glory robberies   and Closing Time robberies are the most daring and most costly in the banking industry. And if you have experienced such a robbery, chances are several factors have come into play:

• The robbery has been well planned in advance.
• The robbers have staked out the location well in advance.
• There’s a chance some banking staff member was involved.

These type robberies are so devastating that the BPA (Bank Protection Act) requires all bank security plans to have a working opening and closing plan approved by the Board of Directors. In my former employment, the bank Audit Department took an active role in the opening and closing procedures by policing the procedures during the branch audits.

 MORNING OPENING PROCEDURE

The opening procedure should always be used when opening the bank each morning and at any other time the banking office is reopened if all employees left while the office was closed. And the process should always involve two employees.

(It is not feasible, within the scope of this article, to include a detailed opening procedure.  This procedure should be made a part of the bank’s overall “Master Security Plan” and should be considered confidential. All bank employees should declare this confidentiality, by a signed agreement. However, with permission of the bank, this author can assist in this policy draft)

 The following opening procedure precautions are advised, but are not mandatory:

• The number of employees having keys should be held to an absolute minimum.
• The opening inspection should be held before other employees are normally scheduled to arrive.
• All employees should be scheduled to arrive before vault opening.
• Employees should be discouraged from arriving prior to opening inspection and should be reminded that doing so endangers their safety.
• Customers should not be admitted prior to beginning of banking hours. If, however, it is necessary to admit someone, the same procedure for admitting employees should be followed.

 CLOSING PROCEDURE

The closing is similar in nature to a reversible opening procedure. First survey the lobby for suspicious persons and inspect areas, such as coupon booths, and the break room, where someone may be hiding. Then, initiate the closing procedure, as quickly as all customers have left the banking office. Remember, once all customers have left, lock all doors and do not allow customers to reenter the banking lobby.

(As in the opening procedure, it is not feasible to include a detailed opening procedure within the scope of this article. This procedure should be made a part of the bank’s overall “Master Security Plan” and should be considered confidential. All bank employees should declare this confidentiality, by a signed agreement. However, with permission of the bank, this author can assist in this policy draft)

The following precautions should be made a part of the closing procedure. The last person leaving the bank should:

• Open all blinds and curtains, including those at drive-in windows.
• Turn on all night lights not controlled at main panel or by timer or photo electric cell.
• Lock all exterior doors.

POINTS TO PONDER

• Does your financial instruction have an Opening and Closing procedure?
• If so, have the procedures ever been challenged?
• Have the procedures ever failed?
• How long have the procedures been successful?

 In my tenure, as Security Director of a major interstate bank, the bank’s opening and closing procedures were never compromised. Not like some other banks, in the same geographical area, in which severe losses were realized.

Remember, the only procedure for preventing the so-called’ morning glory” robbery is a comprehensive “opening and closing” policy. However, the policy is of no effect, unless practiced religiously on a daily basis.

And today, as never before, pressures are mounting to open the banking offices early for a number of reasons, including early meetings, customer account business, etc. So, be careful. Always know and follow the banks excepted audit and security precautions.

© ROBEY for Security World News, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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 British authorities reported that three individuals had been detained over the supposed attempted killing of a police officer as fierce insurrections swept across London and extended to other metropolises for the first time.

One of the people interviewed said that the streets of London are gripped with absolute fear.The authorities revealed that the accused were arrested and are in custody in the Brent district of Northern London. This was after a police officer was hit by a vehicle and hospitalized. The police officer together with a coworker, who sustained slight injuries, had pulled over a couple of vehicles with the certainty that the occupants had been implicated in the plundering of a neighboring electrical shop.The authorities revealed in a statement that the police officer was really injured as one of the vehicles drove away from the crime scene. It was later pulled over and the three individuals inside the car detained.On Monday, the riots extended to not only the middle class dwellings, but also to improvised districts within London. Violence also spread like bushfire outside London for the first time in the cities of Manchester plus Liverpool which are located in North England. There is a police station which was set ablaze in Birmingham, approximately two hundred kilometers Northwest of London.David Cameron, the British Prime Minister was compelled to cut short his vacation and was being expected to preside over an urgent meeting with various government leaders on Tuesday. The meeting is meant to assess the government’s reaction to the violence that seems to spreading like a bushfire to other cities.At least a total of 300 people have been detained so far and a further 40 charged in violence that started Saturday night following a peaceful demonstration in a North London neighborhood turned ferocious.Persons had assembled in Tottenham to demonstrate the killing of Mark Doggal, who was shot and slain by the local authorities within the same neighborhood on Thursday.So far, more than 1,800 additional riot police have been deployed not only in London, but also in surrounding cities with an aim of providing backup to the to the local police forces. Even after the government responded to some of the issues being raised, the violence still continues.Fighting started in the early afternoon in Hackney, a town situated in Eastern London, where a majority of young men putting on bandanas coupled with masks over their faces broke the windows of an establishment and pillaged shortly after 4 p.m. in the evening.Eyewitnesses revealed that it took approximately thirty minutes for the authorities to get there and to take control off the key streets.Demonstrators hurled cement bricks on top of glass bottles at riot police adorned in riot gear, as onlookers praised them on in a number of cases. There was a young man in a hood who assaulted and kicked a newscaster recording the scene.

© Ralph for Security World News, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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It is critical that you learn as much as possible about the potential candidate you are about to hire. You should also ask for references. Laws may vary from one state to another, therefore is highly recommended that you recruit someone with experience in carrying out background checks or consult with a lawyer prior to proceeding with the process.

Before running a background check on a prospective security guard, it is best if you obtained a written consent from the candidate. In reality, to acquire numerous records, consent is needed. If the prospective candidate has given you the go ahead to proceed with the background check, restrict yourself to only the information you require. Thereafter, use the information acquired to assess the candidate’s ability to become a good security guard. What’s more is that, any personal information acquired about the potential candidate ought to be strictly confidential.

Normally whilst one is recruiting a security guard the most critical question is whether or not the candidate has a criminal history. Establishing the extent of criminal history check hinges largely on the state’s law. In most cases, the law only allows you to look at the verdicts which are directly connected to the job at hand.

Another problem which most university campuses are worried about is worker’s compensation entitlements. The law will not permit you to show favoritism and shun hiring someone just because the candidate has filed a claim before. The only way through which you can use worker’s compensation entitlements when assessing service potential is to establish whether or not previous injuries might prevent the potential security guard from performing his or her job as described.

Running a personal history check whilst employing a security guard can be a thorough procedure. There is a lot of information which one can discover from running personal history checks. At the same time, it is critical that you respect the candidate’s private information.

© Cristiano Ronaldo for Security World News, 2011. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Egypt under the rule of Mubarak saw many changes, most of which was for the worse of the country’s status. During his time, though being a so-called democracy, there was apparently no list of candidates to choose from during the elections. And it has been found out the out of the total population of Egypt, only about 40 percent are registered voters, and only 25 percent of them actually participate in the process, and they are loyal to the existing president. And as a result, in all the elections, Mubarak emerged out as the only voted candidate. This over the time infuriated the people, who participated in the revolution against him, to end dictatorship in Egypt.

Mubarak used his military power to oppress the people. There was mass political unrest throughout the nation. Most of the people attended the voting only due to presence of strict military forces, who supervised the elections. The military was controlled directly by the president, so they took his side, and almost forced the people to cast their votes in his favor. Thus this created mass uprising against him leading to the end of his dictatorship.

In 2005, Mubarak pointed out that his rule was not a perfect example of a democratic nation. So he devised a new set of rules, so that there were more candidates to choose from during the elections. He allowed leaders from different political parties to step up in the process. But there were restrictions that prohibited the people who opposed him to stand in the elections. So with the help of police force and self-important laws, he got elected quite easily. This made the people form a group opposing his rules, which eventually led to the freedom from dictatorship.

The government under Mubarak was highly corrupted. He made civil laws that oppressed the people both politically and religiously. He made laws that made him more powerful, and led to prolonging his president ship over Egypt. He forcefully imprisoned many of his opposing leaders, opened illegal facilities for their imprisonment and detention, and provided power to the military to arrest common people out of slight suspicions. As a result, Egypt was rated one of the most corrupted nations of 2010 under his dictatorship.

Finally, the people outburst in rage on 25^th January, 2011, causing mass protests, ignored his curfew order and emergency rules. Military lost control of the rising mob, and finally Egypt got freedom of dictatorship on 11^th February, 2011, when Mubarak fled to Cairo, and his president ship got dissolved.

© Cristiano Ronaldo for Security World News, 2011. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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It became known that this supplier re processed poultry that has reached the expiry date on their products. Additional media investigation also exposed that chicken products are recycled by rinsing the chicken in chlorine water and injected with salt water to prolong the shelve life of the product. Once the poultry is reprocessed it returns to the shelves with new expiry dates.

Apart from reprocessing poultry that has reached the expiry date, the weight of the chicken is not a true reflection of the actual product, because the chicken weighs more because of the salt or pickled water injected into the poultry. In some instances products contain up to 60% injected pickled water. Still the consumer pays for the poultry by weight. One kilogram chicken will consist of 600 grams of water and only 400 grams of actual chicken!

Making the matters more bizarre is that large chain stores such as Pick n Pay, Shoprite/Checkers, and various other stores actually sell these frozen poultry products. According to a report from the African Business Review, Supreme Poultry also supplies Nando’s and KFC with chicken products.

According to previous employees of Supreme Poultry the reprocessing of frozen chicken is common practice for several years already. A previous production manager at one of the factories admitted that numerous tons of unsold expired chicken are returned to the factory at Botshabelo and are reprocessed for reselling.

The health risk pertaining to this kind of practice is that there are no guarantees that the reprocessed frozen chicken is not spoiled already. It is common knowledge that it is dangerous to refrozen any meat, fish, or poultry because it creates the ideal opportunity for hazardous microorganisms to multiply that can cause food poisoning.

Consumers are hideously misled with an expiry date that is replaced with a second and even third one on a particular product. One can not help to wonder on what guidelines or regulations the expiry dates are attached to products and how well it is controlled. The problem is that especially infants, pregnant women, elderly people, people suffering from malnutrition, and immune impaired people can suffer serious consequences from these fraudulent practices.

© Miljo for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Thus this is really a very crucial problem for most organizations who do not want their private data to be leaked over net as this may disrupt their confidential data and as a result may pose danger to their security. But though it is disadvantageous but the government cannot put a bar on ‘WikiLeaks’ because this would be against the fundamental human right “the freedom of speech”. WikiLeaks believes that by allowing the citizens to know about the inner integrities of these organizations will prevent any type of scam and illegal activities.

How to prevent leakage of confidential official data through WikiLeaks?

Data transfer for a PC can take place through various means like fire wire ports, USB ports, card slots etc; all these are hardware data transfer methods but another type of data transfer method which is mainly responsible for WikiLeaks transfer is through internet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth or any other internet data transfer methods. So to prevent the flow of such confidential data one should have proper control on all the modes of data transfer modes. This can be implemented by the use of dedicated software. The sudo user is mainly responsible for regulating the functions of this software after proper authentication.

These soft ware applications mainly offer the following features to prevent undesirable data flow:

1. It detects any kind of unauthorized activity in removal storage media, optical drives or network protocols like internet, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and blocks it if it fails to authenticate.
2. The administrator or the sudo user is responsible to set the parameters on which blocking and unblocking will be done.
3. This software has various demon processes which keep sending information to the software about the activity of the various drives for time to time.
4. Also it provides data encryption facility to encrypt the data in a unique format while transferring to ensure its security.
5. This software also has integrated features like firewall, antivirus and many other utility software.

Thus these dedicated software applications are the most advanced and most efficient method of safeguarding the confidential official data for the hands of WikiLeaks.

Build a Home Surveillance Camera System. Security cameras are everywhere now

© Cristiano Ronaldo for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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A computer virus that may leave Windows users vulnerable to digital hijacking is spreading through companies across the world.

It is hard to imagine a world without computer technology today and it is even more difficult to comprehend how things were done in the past without any computers. Long gone are the days that computers were only use for commercial and industrial use. Today computers play a much larger role in education and leisure activities than ever before.

Although the use of a computer seems innocent, regretfully there is always the risk of your computer being hacked. Computer hijacking occurs mostly when a computer is connected to a network like the internet, with no anti virus software installed.

Computer hijacking can be prevented if you take precautionary steps and if you use good common sense while using your pc. Investing in good anti virus software is very important and avert from making use of P2P file sharing software is a good start. Another basic, yet often overlooked step is not to open emails of which you do not know the origin. Most email servers have spam or junk folders as a precautionary measure, but some hackers manage to sidestep them too. Another obstacle for hackers is making use of complicated passwords. Too often people make use of the most obvious passwords such as names or names spelled backwards that it is a breeze for a hacker to gain access to your information.

The purpose of anti virus software is to prevent hackers to upload destructive or intrusive files onto your computer while internet connections are secured by making use of the firewall on your pc.

Computer hackers commonly use P2P file sharing software to gain access to your computer by sharing common files such as movies or music files. Manny times the hackers add a keystroke logger to the file that you unsuspecting download. Once the keystroke logger is activated through the download and installation via the music or movie file, every keystroke you make on your pc is transmitted to the computer of the hacker. The most common result of this type of hacking is identity theft.

Concerning emails, most hackers use email to hack a pc by sending emails, usually with attachments. The attachment contains a specific code to run a hacking command. Once you open the attachment, the command starts running and this way the hacker gains access to what ever information is available on your pc. Never open suspicious email or email that you are not familiar with. The safest way is to simply just delete it without opening it.

Most of us use our computers to store personal information such as our banking and financial information. Online memberships and especially financial accounts entail making use of passwords. As mentioned before, making use of easy identifiable information for a password make it easy for hackers to gain access. A good mix of letters and numbers in combination makes it hard for hackers to decipher

Computer hackers often pursue wireless networks and especially new wireless networks because they are easy targets. When the network is initially installed, there is not any level of security present. The best way to secure a wireless network is to log onto the router and set the security settings to require a password before access is gained to the network.

Because of the ever changing and advancement of technology, computer hackers make sure they remain up to date as well. Therefore, they create and use new viruses constantly. Consequently, it is very important to make sure that all security software is updated on at least a weekly basis. The majority of security software has an automatic daily update to ensure maximum protection. Some security software does not have that function and requires that you do updates on a manual basis.

© Miljo for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Before September 11, 2001 no one in the Western world cared about suicide bombers. Today, everybody fears them and their way of life has been turned into movie plots. And yet nobody cares how a person ends up blowing himself/herself up; everybody just assumes they do it out of hatred and malevolence.

And yet the causes of such a behavior are not so simple, nor so obvious. The act itself is inconceivable and the mentality and the reasoning behind this act are incomprehensible to the majority of people. Suicide bombing is perceived as an unnecessary act of malice committed by a violent, deranged individual. People tend to disregard the fact that, at least in the eyes of the Islamic community, a suicide bomber acts out of ideological conviction, rather than out of malice.

The groups of fanatics that are usually responsible, at least morally, for the actions of suicide bombers are formed around a common ideology, namely religion, that supports the core beliefs of its members. In their fanaticism, and perhaps in their naivety, suicide bombers allow themselves to be convinced by the most powerful members of their group that all their actions can be justified through religion and that they will be rewarded for them by their God in the afterlife.

Statistics show that in most cases, contrary to popular belief, people who become suicide bombers are not necessarily mentally ill or poorly educated, they do not exhibit signs of alcohol abuse or suicidal tendencies, nor are they necessarily driven by poverty. The cause could simply be defined as peer pressure.

Peer pressure is a reality in all cultures and in all walks of life. The difference lies in the way peer pressure manifests itself. In Western cultures, people who succumb to peer pressure behave in much less violent and dangerous manner. In Islamic cultures, the reaction is an extreme one with devastating consequences that affect tens, maybe thousands of people.

The responsibility for the atrocities committed by these people who the majority of us perceive as monsters rests with the terrorist organizations that brainwash them. The process of creating a suicide bomber starts with recruiting a young male with strong religious beliefs.

The next step is to manipulate and exploit their beliefs to the point where these young individuals feel that it is their holly mission, their true calling to sacrifice themselves for, allegedly, the greater good. They perceive the action of suicide bombing as a heroic sacrifice made in the name of a much greater cause.

In order to ensure the “success” of the operation, the group asks them to commit to the cause officially, through a pact. And it is precisely this pact, a sacred one in the minds of these young fanatics that keeps them from changing their mind at the last minute.

One might then conclude that, even though, suicide bombing is perceived as an individual violent act, it is in fact a group action made possible by hundreds of years of indoctrination.

© Cristiano Ronaldo for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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The Labour party in the United Kingdom however was skeptical and said that the deal was only necessary as there were “big questions” about the United Kingdom’s defenses.  The spokesman from Downing Street said “This summit marks a deepening of the UK-France bilateral relationship. Ours is now a strategic partnership tackling together the biggest challenges that face our two countries.*

This meeting between the two countries takes place two weeks after the United Kingdom government announced a cut in the number of personnel in its armed forces. This move is aimed at reducing the fiscal deficit that the nation currently carries. This treaty enables the United Kingdom to save up to 750 million pounds over four years by reducing drastically the number of warheads required. The two countries have also agreed to keep an aircraft carrier at sea between them. They will be able to use the carrier for training and operations. It’s interesting to see how countries have collaborated to cut down on their defense spending, exchange nuclear technology and possibly prevent a Greece like situation.

*quotes taken from TOI (31/10)

© Pranav Sood for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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There has been an alarming rise in violence in not just Iraq but also Afghanistan. Recent months have also witnessed a record casualty rate of foreign troops. All of this will be taken into consideration when President Obama reviews the United States Afghanistan strategy later this month. Officials have given July 2011 as the tentative date of the withdrawal of the troops from Afghanistan. They have also maintained that this timeline is a flexible one and the decision would be reviewed from time to time.

The soldiers at the outpost have given account of the attack. They say that the insurgents attacked from all directions with rocket propelled grenades and small arms. This was a very bold attack say security experts. There must be effective steps taken to curb the new found boldness of the Taliban insurgents.

© Pranav Sood for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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1. The first thing that you need to do is zero in on a few likely career options for yourself. AT this stage, you may be aware of a few areas of interest to you. Although it is not necessary to make a sure choice of career, it is very helpful to at least narrow down your options to four or five possible career fields.
2. You should then select courses that will best help you arrive at your career goals and will enable you to enter a particular area. The colleges that are offering this course should be selected and their policies should be studied.
3. You can go online and browse through testimonials of students who have passed out from the college that you are considering applying to. If most of them are positive, you are making the right choice. However, if most of them are negative, you should consider dropping this option. You can conduct a lot of research related to the college’s history, traditions, faculty, teaching practices, placements, relevance to your future career, etc. by visiting their website.
4. The best thing to do is to visit a few college campuses in order to get a first-hand account of what exactly is your college life going to be like in case you take admission there. This way you do not depend on hearsay and other people’s opinions and have a chance of forming your own ones based on your experience. You can also talk to the existing students and get a fair idea of what the college is really about.
5. You may sometimes be tempted to strike a certain reputed college off your list because you may feel that you may not be able to afford its fees. However, before you do so, you should explore all funding options and try to find out more about their scholarship programmes instead of letting a perfect opportunity escape. Most top rated colleges offer all kinds of scholarships to students showing high caliber.
6. You can also consult the rating lists for different colleges in your country as well as abroad in order to find out the best ones for your field of study. Although such lists should not be blindly trusted, they can offer a lot of insight into the educational experiences of various colleges.

The above mentioned tips, if followed can help you arrive at the best choice of college or university for yourself so that your career is secured for the future.

© Cristiano Ronaldo for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | One comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Albeit the worsening plight of women in war torn areas, only an average of 8 percent are allotted to sit for peace negotiations. In return, the needs, priorities and issues of the sector are put in sideline.

The United Nations’ Charter bears primary principles and purposes that uphold and protect international peace and security. The charter gives emphasis on the welfare of civilians, particularly women and children, as they are adversely affected by armed conflicts. They compose the number of displaced persons and some of them were killed in cold blood during arm fighting. Women have incomparable role in peace and security preservation, prevention of hostilities and peace building. The UN charter recognizes these roles of women and upholds it.

Furthermore, the UN charter also reaffirms the necessity to fully implement international human rights and humanitarian law that will protect the well being of women and children in times of conflict and after the conflict. Special needs of women should always be taken into account. In this regard, the Windhoek Declaration and Namibia Plan of Action mainstreams gender perspective in multidimensional peace and security support operations. And in conjunction to the women mainstreaming efforts, peacekeeping personnel were also trained to meet the special needs and protect the human rights of women and children. Peace of mind and security of living are the main concerns in the effort.

The first legal document from the United Nation Security Council was the UNSCR 1325. It was signed on October 31, 2000. It mandated parties in arm conflict to respect the rights of women during the combats. Women are also given the right to participate in peace negotiations and post-conflict resolutions and reconstructions. In this case, an increase women’s participation on decision making is uphold. The UNSCR 1325 now reached one decade of existence. This UN Security Council’s resolution is truly an exceptional feat or women and a big leap to forward the cause of the sector. As women become the direct victims of the brunt of war and the occurring devastations of a war conflict.

At present, there are growing numbers of supporters of the aforementioned security resolution. Women around the globe, from ordinary housekeepers to court judges and other professionals, are consolidating their efforts to abridge unwanted plights of the sector. The cause is not only to address issues of women in war zones but also the issues of gender equality. The resolution is not just all about women, peace and security, what makes it even remarkable is the recognition of the role of the sector to appease hostilities and take part in peacemaking process.

The question of hope for women in war zones are not anymore put in the bleak horizons. Peace and security will be furthered finely and effectively with women’s participation in the process. It is a right, not a privilege!

© Miljo for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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Asia accounts two-third of the one billion people that are suffering from chronic hunger around the globe. Food security becomes an even more daunting future for Asia given the rapid population growth, increased demands from diet preferences, continuing decrease of land and water resources, expensive energy cost, and the effects of climate change. Asia is now known as the continent where the largest numbers of poor constituents live, the most vulnerable region on the impacts of climate change and composed of countries suffering economic shocks. 

The increasing demand of food for large and growing population in Asia is just one of the many factors of food insecurity. The dwindling amount of land for rice production is happening. Large track of lands are now devoted to cash crops, most of them are not edible. Among them are jathropa and carcus oil for biodiesel. On the other hand, massive land conversion from agricultural to residential use are prevalent as real estate developers gained favourable “go signals” from the government.   

For people living in the region and other regions of the world, Asia’s ability to feed itself is very important. Over the past half century, Asia proved a bright and promising spot that it can give its constituents affordable food supplies. As rice is the main staple food of the region, every family enjoyed inexpensive cost to buy it. Now, the Green Revolution’s historical gains are at risk. Hungry population in Asia pegs at 65%. The agricultural research and rural investment suffered declining trends. It resulted to shortages in food supply. The region became vulnerable to famine again.

In contradiction to this situation, Asia is home to the biggest rice exporters of the world, namely Vietnam and Thailand. However, it is also home of the biggest importer of food products like the Philippines and Indonesia. The two giants in terms of global food production and consumption are also in Asia, and they are China and India. Meaning, there are lots of interwoven facts that contributed to food insecurity in the region. As poverty became the primordial problem of Asia, it was always masked with vibrant national economies of countries therein. But underneath the dynamism lies a stagnant and ever reducing social services distribution. Families live under meagre government support services and little income. Majority of household’s budget goes to food alone. Asia’s rural poor are composed of agricultural workers who do not even posses their own land. They are the main worker that can sustain food security but most of them are only making less than $1.25 per day. It makes access to food very costly. The problem of food security causes hunger and malnutrition.

Availability, access and utilization are food security concerns that must be addressed. If Asia will not rise up from deep slumber and will not think of measures to abridge food security problem, its poor constituents will die of famine.

© Miljo for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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When individuals decide that they can make a difference, and use their interests, passions and time for good, some pretty interesting things happen. In June of 2010 Jeff Eagle had come to the aid of an elderly man wandering and lost in a Campbell, California city park.  This elder gentleman had Alzheimer’s, had no idea how to get home, and needed attention from authorities.  While this situation was not technically an emergency it was urgent, and Mr. Eagle became frustrated at the events that inspired from what he felt should have been a simple 30 second phone call to local police. 

Using his smart phone Jeff searched for the local (non-emergency) phone listing for the police. No lucky there. Next Jeff remembered 311 and dialed assuming he would directly connected to the Campbell Police department. Instead Jeff was connected with San Francisco law enforcement personnel (50 miles away).  For a phone transfer to the Campbell police to happen Mr. Eagle was required to listen to a legal disclaimer statement and then he was transferred.  In total the time to connect this seemingly simple call was 12-15 minute. 

After this park adventure Jeff kept thinking that while mobile phone technology allows for quick access, there are times when the connections are not convenient and can be inefficient, cumbersome, and frustratingly slow. With the advent of smart phones and built in GPS technology anyone could have the nation’s police department at their fingertips with quick and easy access. And so Police Anywhere was born.

Police anywhere detects the user’s current location automatically and displays local law enforcement information. Police anywhere works with wifi and cell networks, requires internet for the auto-locate, and has law enforcement phone numbers for the entire United States.

This application has seemed to hit a nerve with neighborhood associations, parents of college bound kids, and just the safety and security conscious. This application is worth checking out.

www.policeanywhereapp.com

Remember, child safety is something to not take lightly. Making a smart choice now can possibly help to save your child or other loved one’s life should he or she go missing.

© Admin for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
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1. There is a certain area in mines that is called a false floor. This area although exactly resembling the area around is actually a false floor that can cave in with the least amount of pressure. The thickness of such a floor is quite less when compared to that of the surrounding area. It may crack or completely give way when humans walk on it and send you plummeting to your death. The bottom of such flooring can be water filled or a deep hole. It is thus important to test the floor carefully before treading on it. It is also advisable to walk with a light step and not to run or jump in mines.
2. Mines can have small openings at various places through which it is quite easy to fall. This problem is aggravated during night time as one is not able to make out the presence of such holes without light. It is thus better to restrict all work and expeditions related to mines to daytime or when enough lighting is present.
3. In mining caves, there can be water bodies at various junctures throughout the length of the caves. It is easy to slip and fall into these water bodies if you fail to see them. The visibility is reduced because of the blackness of the water in dim lighting. It is advisable to wear life jackets when during mining.
4. There may be wooden bridges at various places in the mine to aid the movement of men and materials from one part to another. These structures can be quite weak and can break with the slightest of excessive weight placed upon them. It is important to test such structures time and again for their stability level than risk precious lives by ignoring safety protocols.
5. A common event in coal mines is a sudden gas explosion. Such an explosion of a harmful gas can take place when human beings unmindfully put pressure on a weak spot where the gas has an outlet to escape. These explosions are very sudden and do not give enough time to the victim to rush to safety. These kinds of explosions cause many injuries every year. Quality, protective clothing can help overcome this risk to a certain extent.
6. The structure of the cave mines can be weak in some places as they have been in existence over thousands of years. Even a loud echo or a jump can trigger the fall of the roof over your head. So, it is advisable not to talk too loudly or mess too much with the structure of the cave.

The above mentioned points elucidate the dangers that accompany mining and ways in which they can be prevented. Although these dangers cannot be completely ruled out and are a part and parcel of cave mining, awareness about them can help bring down the number of mining accidents that occur every year.

© Cristiano Ronaldo for Security World News, 2010. | Permalink | No comment | Add to del.icio.us
Post tags: dangerous situations, disasters, safety protocols