Japan's space agency probes possible data leak

TOKYO (AP) — Japan's space agency says it is investigating a possible leak of data about its Epsilon rocket due to a computer virus. The Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency says an infected computer was disconnected from its networks after a virus was found earlier this month. It is checking to see if any data was siphoned from it. JAXA said in a statement that information about the Epsilon, due to be launched next year, its M-5 rocket and H2A and H2B rockets may have been compromised. The agency said it is tightening security to prevent any further leaks. Japan is hoping to compete with the U.S., Russia, Europe and others as a satellite launch vehicle provider and has developed the Epsilon to reduce costs and speed up launch times.

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Guard says Manning protest annoyed brig staff

FORT MEADE, Md. (AP) — Some workers at a Marine Corps brig housing a soldier charged with sending U.S. secrets to WikiLeaks became annoyed at a demonstration on his behalf the day before a confrontation that led to tighter restrictions on him, a former guard testified Saturday. The testimony by former Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jonathan Cline undercut government efforts to show that Pfc. Bradley Manning's tight confinement conditions were justified to prevent him from killing or hurting himself. The defense claims the nine months Manning spent in virtual isolation, sometimes without clothing, amounted to illegal pretrial punishment. Manning and his attorneys want all the charges dismissed. Cline testified on the fifth day of a pretrial hearing at Fort Meade, near Baltimore. He was called as a prosecution witness to talk about a Jan. 18, 2011, incident in which Manning hid behind an exercise machine and wept after he was scolded by another guard for failing to respond properly to a command. Later that day, the brig commander, Chief Warrant Officer 4 James Averhart, added "suicide risk" to Manning's maximum-custody conditions. That was after they had what Manning described as a heated argument about the incident. Manning testified Thursday that the guards seemed angry that morning as they escorted him in leg irons and handcuffs to an exercise room. He said their attitude made him nervous, culminating in his odd behavior. "I thought I was going to be attacked or assaulted or something like that," Manning said. Cline testified that some brig workers were annoyed that a pro-Manning protest a day earlier had closed Quantico's main gate, forcing them to take alternate routes home. Cline said he wasn't personally affected by it. Defense attorney David Coombs has implied the guards took out their irritation on Manning by bullying him. Cline and another former guard, Marine Lance Cpl. Joshua Tankersly, both testified that except for the Jan. 18 incident, Manning was always compliant and respectful. Another former brig worker, Marine Corps Gunnery Sgt. William Fuller, testified that Manning was often uncommunicative and withdrawn, possibly signaling a suicide risk. Fuller testified that before Jan. 18, he had considered recommending to Averhart that Manning be removed from "prevention-of-injury," or POI, status because of his improved behavior. Manning was on either POI or even more restrictive "suicide risk" status during his entire stay at Quantico in maximum custody. His behavior Jan. 18 "gave us cause for concern," Fuller said. "That kind of reset things, unfortunately." Manning was at Quantico from July 2010 to April 2011. Then he was moved to pretrial confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kan. He has been held in medium custody since arriving there. The 24-year-old native of Crescent, Okla., worked as an intelligence analyst in Baghdad in 2009 and 2010. He is charged with 22 offenses, including aiding the enemy and violating federal espionage and computer security laws. He could get life in prison. He is accused of sending to the website WikiLeaks more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, classified memos, Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, Guantanamo Bay prison records and a 2007 video clip of a U.S. helicopter crew gunning down 11 men. It was later determined that one of those men was a news photographer. The Pentagon said its troops mistook camera equipment for weapons.

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Brig counsellor: Manning's history, behaviour outweighed doctor's opinion of self-harm risk

FORT MEADE, Md. - An Army private charged with sending U.S secrets to the website WikiLeaks had a history of suicidal thoughts and aloof behaviour that outweighed a psychiatrist's opinion that he was no risk to himself, two former counsellors testified Sunday. Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Jordan and Marine Master Sgt. Craig Blenis testified on the sixth day of a pretrial hearing for Pfc. Bradley Manning at Fort Meade, near Baltimore. The hearing is to determine whether Manning's nine months in pretrial confinement at the Marine Corps brig in Quantico, Virginia, were so punishing that the judge should dismiss all charges. The 24-year-old intelligence analyst is accused of sending hundreds of thousands of classified documents to the secret-spilling website in 2009 and 2010 when he was stationed in Baghdad. The counsellors, both of whom worked in the brig, sat on a board that recommended to the brig commander that Manning remain in maximum custody and on either injury-prevention or suicide-risk status — conditions that kept him confined to his cell 23 hours a day, sometimes with no clothing. Jordan said under cross-examination by defence attorney David Coombs that besides the mental-health report, he considered evidence that Manning had contemplated suicide six to eight months earlier after his arrest in Iraq. The evidence included a noose Manning had fashioned from a bedsheet while confined in Kuwait, and a written statement he made upon arrival at Quantico in July 2010 that he was "always planning and never acting" on suicidal impulses. Jordan acknowledged Manning had been a polite, courteous and nearly trouble-free detainee at Quantico. "Wouldn't his past six months of performance be an indicator of his potential for future behaviour?" Coombs asked. But Jordan maintained that Manning's unwillingness to converse with him and other brig staff was a warning sign he was at risk of self-harm. Jordan said he considered the opinion of the brig psychiatrist, Navy Capt. William Hocter, that Manning was no longer at risk of self-harm. But Jordan said the weight he gave to Hocter's views was diminished because another detainee had recently killed himself after his custody status was reduced on Hocter's advice. "I would consider it, but I would always consider it with care, sir," he told Coombs. Blenis, who spent more time with Manning, said Manning chose not to speak most of the time except for short, yes-or-no answers. He said Manning spurned his offers to play chess or work brain teasers by arrogantly responding, "They're a little below my level." "I've got a person not communicating with me that's sitting in his cell, not doing anything," Blenis said. He said he supported the brig commander's decision in March 2011 to strip Manning of all clothing at night and place him on suicide watch after Manning told another staffer that if he really wanted to kill himself, he could use the elastic waistband on his underwear. "If someone tells me they're going to shoot themselves in the face, I'm not going to give them a gun," Blenis said. Manning was moved in April 2011 to pretrial confinement at Fort Leavenworth, Kansas. He's been held there in medium custody since then. Earlier Sunday, the military judge said Manning's trial, previously set to begin Feb. 4, would be pushed back to sometime in March due to lengthy pretrial proceedings. The hearing on Manning's confinement was to recess Sunday and resume Wednesday. Manning is charged with 22 offences, including aiding the enemy and violating federal espionage and computer security laws. He could get life in prison. He is accused of sending to WikiLeaks more than 250,000 diplomatic cables, classified memos, Iraq and Afghanistan war logs, Guantanamo Bay prison records and a 2007 video clip of a U.S. helicopter crew gunning down 11 men in Iraq. It was later determined that one of those men was a news photographer. The Pentagon said its troops mistook camera equipment for weapons. The case has spawned an international support network of people who believe the U.S. government has gone too far in seeking to punish Manning, who was a low-level intelligence analyst in Baghdad.

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China's Wanda in talks with "well-known" hotels for U.S. buys

BEIJING (Reuters) - China's privately-owned Dalian Wanda Group, the world's largest movie theater owner, is in talks with "well-known" hotel chains for acquisition opportunities in the United States, its chairman said on Monday. Wanda, which also has interests in real estate, tourism and department stores, bought U.S.-based movie theater chain AMC Entertainment for $2.6 billion in September in one of China's biggest overseas entertainment investments, and an example of how Beijing is expanding its 'soft power' abroad. The company will invest $10 billion in the United States over the next decade and is in talks with famous hotel brands for acquisitions in the Washington D.C. area, New York and Los Angeles, Wang Jianlin, Wanda's chairman, told Reuters in an interview. "We are in discussions with hotel management companies in the United States and are seeking opportunities for mergers and acquisitions; and we are in negotiations with the city governments of Washington D.C., New York City and other American cities for the construction of hotels, department stores and commercial properties," Wang said. After completing the AMC buy, a studio executive said Wanda was nearing an agreement with Fox film studio to co-produce films in China. Wang told Reuters he will be working with 3-4 of the top-6 movie studios in the United States on deals to co-finance and co-produce movies. Though a cinema mogul, Wang says he does not watch movies often. As China's third-richest man, according to Forbes, Wang faced little backlash over his AMC acquisition. But other major Chinese companies have hit a brick wall of opposition when trying to buy foreign assets. Telecoms equipment makers Huawei Technologies and ZTE Corp were cited in October by a U.S. congressional report as being a potential security threat.

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Nokia Siemens venderá su unidad de redes de fibra óptica

FRANCFORT (Reuters) - El fabricante de equipos de telecomunicaciones Nokia Siemens Networks (NSN) dijo el lunes que venderá su unidad de redes de fibra óptica a Marlin Equity Partners. NSN no brindó detalles financieros sobre la venta, pero dijo que se completaría en el primer trimestre del año que viene. Como consecuencia del acuerdo, unos 1.900 empleados, principalmente en Alemania y Portugal, serán transferidos a la nueva empresa, informó NSN en un comunicado. Nokia Siemens Networks, que compite con Ericsson, Huawei y Alcatel Lucent, está llevando a cabo un plan de reducción de costos que incluye el despido de un cuarto de su plantilla de empleados y la venta de líneas de productos, con la meta de concentrarse en la banda ancha móvil. La sociedad entre Nokia Oyj y Siemens AG ha implicado una fuga de beneficios para los dueños de las firmas, pero la misma reportó ganancias récord en el tercer trimestre, ayudada por las ventas de equipamiento para la cuarta generación de redes de alta velocidad LTE en Japón y Corea. Se espera que la reestructuración derive en un ahorro de 1.000 millones de euros (1.300 millones de dólares) en costos para fines de este año.

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Australia royal hoax radio station to review procedures

PERTH, Australia/LONDON (Reuters) - An Australian radio station under fire over a prank call to a hospital treating Prince William's pregnant wife Kate said on Sunday it would review its procedures after a nurse's apparent suicide. New South Wales Police said they were in contact with London's police force and were ready to assist in any investigation, as the incident sparked fresh soul-searching over the behaviour of the media. Jacintha Saldanha, 46, was found dead in staff accommodation near London's King Edward VII hospital on Friday after putting the hoax call through to a colleague who unwittingly disclosed details of Kate's morning sickness to 2DayFM's presenters. A recording of the call, broadcast repeatedly by the station, rapidly became an internet hit and was reprinted as a transcript in many newspapers. Public amusement at the prank turned to disgust after news of Saldanha's death swept around the globe. The station's owners pulled presenters Michael Christian and Mel Greig off the air as leading companies cancelled advertising. The station's parent company, Southern Cross Austereo (SCA), said it would fully cooperate in any investigations in a letter to the head of the King Edward hospital. "I can assure you we are taking immediate action and reviewing the broadcast and processes involved," SCA chairman Max Moore-Wilton said. "We are all saddened by the events of the last few days. They are truly tragic... The outcome was unforeseeable and very regrettable," he added. The station's presenters have come under attack from around the world on social media sites and were "extremely distressed", an SCA spokeswoman said. Both were keen to speak publicly about the incident, but were in too fragile a condition to do so, the spokeswoman added. The hospital's chairman Lord Glenarthur had described their actions as "appalling" in a letter to SCA on Saturday. Saldanha, married with two children, was originally from India and came to Britain around 10 years ago. Her husband's family in the southern Indian state of Karnataka said she had spoken regularly to them but neither she or her husband had mentioned the hoax call, they told Britain's Observer newspaper. A post mortem into the cause of her death will be held early next week, possibly as soon as Monday. An inquest will follow, and London police may want statements from the two presenters, although they had yet to make a formal request. "It's been indicated that the London Metropolitan Police may wish to speak to the people involved in the matter from 2DayFM," said New South Wales Police Deputy Commissioner Nick Kaldas. "But we haven't been asked to do anything yet, and we certainly have not been asked to interview anyone, or line up any interviews for the Met," he added. The tragic fallout from the radio stunt has rekindled memories of the death of William's mother Diana in a Paris car crash in 1997 and threatens to cast a pall over the birth of his and Kate's first child. The couple's baby will be third in line to the British throne after William and his father Prince Charles. The royal family are enjoying a boost in popularity in Britain after a period when they were seen as dated and out of touch. William and Kate's wedding at London's Westminster Abbey last year rekindled public enthusiasm for royalty, which has been sustained during this year's jubilee celebrations for Queen Elizabeth's 60 years as monarch.

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EU leaders in Norway to pick up Nobel Peace Prize

OSLO, Norway (AP) — European Union leaders on Sunday hailed the achievements of the 27-nation bloc, but acknowledged they need more integration and authority to solve problems, including its worst financial crisis, as they arrived in Norway to pick up this year's Nobel Peace Prize. Conceding that the EU lacked sufficient powers to stop the devastating 1992-95 Bosnia war, European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso said that the absence of such authority at the time is "one of the most powerful arguments for a stronger European Union." Barroso spoke to reporters with EU Council President Herman Van Rompuy and the president of the EU Parliament, Martin Schulz, in Oslo, where the three leaders were to receive this year's award, granted to the European Union for fostering peace on a continent ravaged by war. Nobel committee chairman Thorbjoern Jagland will present the prize, worth $1.2 million, at a ceremony in Oslo City Hall, followed by a banquet at the Grand Hotel, against a backdrop of demonstrations in this EU-skeptic country that has twice rejected joining the union. About 20 European government leaders, including German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Francois Hollande and British Deputy Prime Minister Nick Clegg, will be joining the ceremonies. They will be celebrating far away from the EU's financial woes in a prosperous, oil-rich nation of 5 million on the outskirts of Europe that voted in 1972 and 1994 in referendums to stay out of the union. The decision to award the prize to the EU has sparked harsh criticism, including from three peace laureates — South African Archbishop Desmond Tutu, Mairead Maguire of Northern Ireland and Adolfo Perez Esquivel from Argentina — who have demanded the prize money not be paid out this year. They say the bloc contradicts the values associated with the prize because it relies on military force to ensure security. The leader of Britain's Independence Party, Nigel Farage, in a statement described rewarding the EU as "a ridiculous act which blows the reputation of the Nobel prize committee to smithereens." Hundreds of people demonstrated against this year's prize winners in a peaceful torch-lit protest that meandered through the dark city streets to Parliament, including Tomas Magnusson from the International Peace Bureau, the 1910 prize winner. "This is totally against the idea of Alfred Nobel who wanted disarmament," he said, accusing the Nobel committee of being "too close to the power" elite. Dimitris Kodelas, a Greek lawmaker from the main opposition Radical Left party, or Syriza, said a humanitarian crisis in his country and EU policies could cause major rifts in Europe. He thought it was a joke when he heard the peace prize was awarded to the EU. "It challenges even our logic and it is also insulting," he said. The EU is being granted the prize as it grapples with a debt crisis that has stirred deep tensions between north and south, caused soaring unemployment and sent hundreds of thousands into the streets to protest austerity measures. It is also threatening the euro — the common currency used by 17 of its members — and even the structure of the union itself, and is fuelling extremist movements such as Golden Dawn in Greece, which opponents brand as neo-Nazi. Barroso acknowledged that the current crisis showed the union was "not fully equipped to deal with a crisis of this magnitude." "We do not have all the instruments for a true and genuine economic union ... so we need to complete our economic and monetary union," he said, adding that the new measures, including on a banking and fiscal union, would be agreed on in coming weeks. He stressed that despite the crisis all steps taken had been toward "more, not less integration." Van Rompuy was optimistic saying that EU would come out of the crisis stronger than before. "We want Europe to become again a symbol of hope," he said. The EU says it will donate the prize money to projects that help children in conflict zones and will double it with EU funds. The European Union grew from the conviction that ever-closer economic ties would ensure century-old enemies like Germany and France never turned on each other again, starting with the creation in 1951 of the European Coal and Steel Community, declared as "a first step in the federation of Europe." In 60 years it has grown into a 27-nation bloc with a population of 500 million, with other nations eagerly waiting to join, even as its unity is being threatened by the financial woes. While there have never been wars inside EU territory, the confederation has not been able to prevent European wars outside its borders. When the deadly Balkans wars erupted in the 1990s, the EU was unable by itself to stop them. It was only with the help of the United States and after over 100,000 lives were lost in Bosnia was peace eventually restored there, and several years later, to Kosovo.

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Romanian exit polls: center-left gov't wins vote

BUCHAREST, Romania (AP) — Romania's center-left government won a clear victory in Sunday's parliamentary elections, according to exit polls. The result could inflame the personal rivalry between the nation's top two officials and bring yet more political upheaval. The prime minister's governing alliance had about 57 percent of seats in the 452-seat legislature, according to a poll published after elections on national television TVR. Coming in second was a center-right group, allied to President Traian Basescu, which polled over 18 percent. A populist party headed by a media tycoon won about 13 percent, according to the poll. First results are expected Monday. Basescu and Ponta are bitter rivals after the government tried to remove Basescu from office in an impeachment vote in July, a bid that failed as too few people voted to make the election valid. Basescu has indicated he won't appoint the 40-year-old Ponta again, calling him a "compulsive liar" and saying he plagiarized his doctoral thesis. Ponta says Basescu is a divisive figure who overstepped his role as president by meddling in government business. "We won a clear majority, a majority recognized by our adversaries who have to accept the rules of democracy," Ponta said after the vote. "I assure them we will treat the opposition with the respect that we did not get when we were in opposition." Ponta became prime minister in May, the third prime minister this year, but his appointment brought a bitter battle with Basescu, whose mandate expires in 2014. Basescu could nominate someone else, but his choice would have to be approved by Parliament. If his candidate fails in two rounds of voting, Parliament could be dissolved. As he voted, Basescu again accused the government of the former communist country of failing to devote itself to democratic reforms. He said Romania must continue its "path toward the West" and show the world it is "headed toward Brussels, not Moscow, and Washington, not Beijing." For his part, Ponta said he remains committed to leading Romania to a better future. Many Romanians are fed up with the power struggle between the top two leaders, especially as the country remains one of the poorest and most corrupt members of the European Union. Romania is enduring deep austerity cuts in return for a €20 million ($26 million) bailout to help its foundering economy. Sunday's vote was hampered by heavy snow and authorities asked the army and the defense ministry to help clear roads closed by blizzards. About 250 polling stations were prevented from opening on time, officials said. Turnout was more than 30 percent three hours before the polls closed. Heavy rain was falling in Bucharest early Sunday, but it eased off later. Valentina Lupan, an architect voting in Bucharest, said she was determined to cast a ballot, despite the bad weather. "People will go and vote even if there's snow and rain because they've had enough," she said. "We've had enough of being insulted and humiliated. We want a normal life." Besides the failed bid to impeach Basescu, the country has seen three prime ministers and Cabinets this year and huge anti-austerity protests. The EU and the U.S. criticized the government for failing to respect the rule of law and of ignoring constitutional rules during the impeachment attempt. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe monitored Sunday's vote.

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Georgia details nuke black market investigations

BATUMI, Georgia (AP) — On the gritty side of this casino resort town near the Turkish border, three men in a hotel suite gathered in secret to talk about a deal for radioactive material. The Georgian seller offered cesium, a byproduct of nuclear reactors that terrorists can use to arm a dirty bomb with the power to kill. But one of the Turkish men, wearing a suit and casually smoking a cigarette, made clear he was after something even more dangerous: uranium, the material for a nuclear bomb. The would-be buyers agreed to take a photo of the four cylinders and see if their boss in Turkey was interested. They did not know police were watching through a hidden camera. As they got up to leave, the police rushed in and arrested the men, according to Georgian officials, who were present. The encounter, which took place in April, reflected a fear shared by U.S. and Georgian officials: Despite years of effort and hundreds of millions of dollars spent in the fight against the illicit sale of nuclear contraband, the black market remains active in the countries around the former Soviet Union. The radioactive materials, mostly left over from the Cold War, include nuclear bomb-grade uranium and plutonium, and dirty-bomb isotopes like cesium and iridium. The extent of the black market is unknown, but a steady stream of attempted sales of radioactive materials in recent years suggests smugglers have sometimes crossed borders undetected. Since the formation of a special nuclear police unit in 2005 with U.S. help and funding, 15 investigations have been launched in Georgia and dozens of people arrested. Six of the investigations were disclosed publicly for the first time to The Associated Press by Georgian authorities. Officials with the U.S. government and the International Atomic Energy Agency declined to comment on the individual investigations, but President Barack Obama noted in a speech earlier this year that countries like Georgia and Moldova have seized highly enriched uranium from smugglers. An IAEA official, who spoke anonymously because he was not authorized to comment, said the agency is concerned smuggling is still occurring in Georgia. Four of the previously undisclosed cases, and a fifth — an arrest in neighboring Turkey announced by officials there — occurred this year. One from last year involved enough cesium-137 to make a deadly dirty bomb, officials said. Also, Georgian officials see links between two older cases involving highly enriched uranium, which in sufficient quantity can be used to make a nuclear bomb. The AP's interviews with the two imprisoned smugglers in one case suggested that the porous borders and the poverty of the region contributed to the problem. The arrests in the casino resort of Batumi stand out for two reasons: They suggest there are real buyers — many of the other investigations involved stings with undercover police acting as buyers. And they suggest that buyers are interested in material that can be used to make a nuclear weapon. "Real buyers are rare in nuclear smuggling cases, and raise real risks," said nuclear nonproliferation specialist Matthew Bunn, who runs Harvard's Project on Managing the Atom. "They suggest someone is actively seeking to buy material for a clandestine bomb." The request for uranium raises a particularly troubling question. "There's no plausible reason for looking for black-market uranium other than for nuclear weapons— or profit, by selling to people who are looking to make nuclear weapons," Bunn said. ______________ Georgia's proximity to the large stockpiles of Cold War-era nuclear material, its position along trade routes to Asia and Europe, the roughly 225 miles (360 kilometers) of unsecured borders of its two breakaway republics, South Ossetia and Abkhazia, and the poverty of the region may explain why the nation of 4.5 million has become a transit point for nuclear material. Georgian officials say the radioactive material in the five new cases this year all transited through Abkhazia, which borders on Russia and has Russian troops stationed on its territory. Abkhazia's foreign ministry said it has no information about the Georgian allegations and would not comment, but in the past it has denied Georgian allegations. Russia maintains that it has secured its radioactive material — including bomb-grade uranium and plutonium — and that Georgia has exaggerated the risk because of political tension with Moscow. But while the vast majority of the former Soviet Union's nuclear arsenal and radioactive material has been secured, U.S. officials say that some material in the region remains loose. "Without a doubt, we are aware and have been over the last several years that not all nuclear material is accounted for," says Simon Limage, deputy assistant secretary for non-proliferation programs at the U.S. State Department. "It is true that a portion that we are concerned about continues to be outside of regulatory control." U.S. efforts to prevent smuggling have prioritized bomb-grade material because of the potential that a nuclear bomb could flatten a U.S. city. But security officials say an attack with a dirty bomb — explosives packed with radioactive material — would be easier for a terrorist to pull off. And terrorist groups, including al-Qaida, have sought the material to do so. A study by the National Defense University found that the economic impact from a dirty bomb attack of a sufficient scale on a city center could exceed that of the September 11, 2011, attacks on New York and Washington. The U.S. government has been assisting about a dozen countries believed to be vulnerable to nuclear smuggling, including Georgia, to set up teams that combine intelligence with police undercover work. Limage says Georgia's team is a model for the other countries the U.S. is supporting. On Jan. 6, police arrested a man in Georgia's capital, Tbilisi, and seized 36 vials with cesium-135, a radioactive isotope that is hard to use for a weapon. The man said he had obtained the material in Abkhazia. In April, Georgian authorities arrested a group of smugglers from Abkhazia bringing in three glass containers with about 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of yellowcake uranium, a lightly processed substance that can be enriched into bomb-grade material. "At first we thought that this was coincidence," said Archil Pavlenishvili, chief investigator of Georgia's anti-smuggling team. "But since all of these cases were connected with Abkhazia, it suggests that the stuff was stolen recently from one particular place. But we have no idea where. " Days later, more evidence turned up when Turkish media reported the arrest of three Turkish men with a radioactive substance in the capital, Ankara. Police seized 2.2 pounds (1 kilogram) of cesium-135, the same material seized in January in Tbilisi. Georgian officials said the suspects were residents of Germany and driving a car with German plates, but that the material had come from Abkhazia. Turkish authorities said the men had entered Turkey from Georgia. Information provided by German authorities led to the arrest in June of five suspects in Georgia with 9 vials of cesium-135 that looked very similar to the vials seized in January. The Batumi investigation started after the arrest of two men in the city of Kutaisi in February 2011 year with a small quantity of two radioactive materials stolen from an abandoned Soviet helicopter factory, according to Georgian officials. The men said that a businessman, Soslan Oniani, had encouraged them to sell the material. Police interviewed Oniani and searched his house, but found insufficient evidence to arrest him, according to officials. Still, they kept monitoring him through phone taps and an informant. Georgian officials say Oniani was a braggart, who played on his relationship with his cousin, Tariel Oniani, a well- known organized crime boss convicted in Russia of kidnapping. Early this year, Soslan Oniani started talking about a new deal. Through surveillance and phone taps, police learned of the meeting in Batumi and monitored it. While no money passed hands, the men discussed an illegal deal, which is sufficient for prosecution in Georgia. Tests by Georgian authorities later revealed that one lead cylinder held cesium-137, two strontium-90, and the fourth spent material that was hard to identify. All are useful for making a dirty bomb, although the material in the cylinders alone was not enough to cause mass casualties, according to data provided by Georgian nuclear regulatory authorities. The arrested Turks denied knowing they were negotiating for radioactive substances. They claimed to be musical instrument experts, who had come to Batumi seeking to buy violins. A skeptical interrogator asked them if they were familiar with the famed instrument maker Stradivarius. One man said he had never heard of him. The two Turks and the seller, Oniani, were convicted in September in a Georgian court, according to officials, and sentenced to six years in prison each. _______________ The Georgian smuggling cases suggest that the trade in radioactive materials is driven at least in part by poverty and the lingering legacy of Soviet corruption in a hardscrabble region. Georgian officials say that because of U.S. backed counter-smuggling efforts, organized crime groups seem to have concluded that the potential profit from trade in these materials doesn't justify the risk. But individuals sometimes conclude they can make a quick buck from radioactive material. For instance, in one newly disclosed case last year, authorities arrested two Georgian men with firearms, TNT and a lethal quantity of cesium-137. One was a former Soviet officer in an army logistics unit, who told police that at the end of his service in the early 90s, he had made a second career stealing from the military. "He openly said: 'I was a logistics officer and my second duty was to steal everything possible," according to Pavlenishvili. The man kept the cesium for years before he and a relative tried to sell it last year to a Georgian undercover officer. He did not try to sell the weapons or explosives. Poverty and corruption also appear to have played into three smuggling incidents in 2003, 2006 and 2010 that involved bomb-grade highly enriched uranium. In 2003, an Armenian man, Garik Dadaian, was arrested when he set off a radiation detector provided by an American program at a checkpoint on the Armenian-Georgian border. Days later, the man was released and returned to Armenia under murky circumstances. Dadaian's name resurfaced in 2010 on a bank transfer slip in the pocket of the two smugglers arrested with highly enriched uranium. The men had obtained the material from Dadaian and were offering it as a sample of a larger quantity. Police say forensic analysis suggests the uranium may have come from the same batch seized in 2003. Russian investigators suspected Dadaian got the nuclear fuel from a manufacturing plant in Novosibirsk, Russia, where several disappearances of material have been documented. Pavlenishvili said Dadaian bribed prosecutors to win his release and take some of the uranium. The two smugglers in the 2010 case were Sumbat Tonoyan, a dairy farmer who went bankrupt, and Hrant Ohanian, a former physicist at a nuclear research facility in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. The AP interviewed both at a prison about 25 miles (40 kilometers) outside Tbilisi, where they are serving sentences of 13 and 14 years. In separate interviews, each man blamed the other for the idea of smuggling uranium, and talked of financial hardship. Ohanian said his daughter needed urgent medical care that he couldn't afford, and Tonoyan said a bank had seized his house after his dairy factory collapsed. "I didn't have a job and I couldn't pay the bank," he said in Russian through an interpreter. The men also claimed they believed the material they were selling was to be used for scientific work, not nefarious purposes. Ohanian said a Georgian contact, who was also arrested, told him relations with Moscow were so bad that Georgian scientists could not get the uranium they needed from Russia on the open market. "I feel guilty because I behaved like an idiot," he said. "I should have known and I would never do something like this again."

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Britain launches genome database for patients' DNA

LONDON (Reuters) - Up to 100,000 Britons suffering from cancer and rare diseases are to have their genetic codes fully sequenced and mapped as part of government plans to build a DNA database to boost drug discovery and development. Prime Minister David Cameron said on Monday he wanted Britain to "push the boundaries" of scientific research by being the first country to introduce genetic sequencing into a mainstream health service. His government has set aside 100 million pounds for the project in the taxpayer-funded National Health Service (NHS) over the next three to five years. "Britain has often led the world in scientific breakthroughs and medical innovations, from the first CT scan and test-tube baby through to decoding DNA," he said in a statement. "It is crucial that we continue to push the boundaries and this new plan will mean we are the first country in the world to use DNA codes in the mainstream of the health service." The government said building a database of DNA profiles will give doctors more advanced understanding of a patient's genetic make-up, their illness and their treatment needs. This should help those who are sick get access to the right drugs and more personalised care more quickly. The database should also help scientists develop new drugs and other treatments which experts predict "could significantly reduce the number of premature deaths from cancer within a generation", Cameron's office said in a statement, "By unlocking the power of DNA data, the NHS will lead the global race for better tests, better drugs and above all better care," Cameron said. "If we get this right, we could transform how we diagnose and treat our most complex diseases not only here but across the world, while enabling our best scientists to discover the next wonder drug or breakthrough technology." Some critics of the project, known as the "UK genome plan", have voiced concerns about how the data will be used and shared with third parties, including with commercial organisations such as drug companies. Genewatch, a campaign group fighting for genetic science and technologies to be used in the public interest, has said anyone with access to the database could use the genetic codes to identify and track every individual on it and their relatives. Cameron's office stressed, however, that the genome sequencing would be entirely voluntary and patients will be able to opt out without affecting their NHS care. It added the data would be "completely anonymised before it is stored". The government's chief medical officer Sally Davies said the new project and the 100 million pounds of funding for it "opens up the possibility of being able to look at the three billion DNA pieces in each of us so we can get a greater understanding of the complex relationship between our genes and lifestyle."

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