Man Found With Suspicious Materials in Virginia

 

A Marine Corps reservist who was found in Arlington National Cemetery overnight after it had closed, and then ran from approaching federal parks police was arrested on Friday, the authorities said.

The man, identified as Yonathan Melaku, 22, of Alexandria, Va., had been carrying a backpack, which federal authorities said contained “suspicious materials,” though they later determined it was not an explosive substance, said Chris Allen, a spokesman with the Federal Bureau of Investigation.

“Initial contact with Melaku found he was carrying items which caused initial concerns about the public’s safety, prompting the F.B.I. and other agencies to respond to the scene and roads around the Pentagon to be shut down,” the F.B.I. said in a statement.

The authorities searched Mr. Melaku’s car, a red 2011 Nissan, which was parked in a wooded area near the Pentagon, and directly off of Route 27 and Route 110. They did not find anything suspicious, Mr. Allen said.

Mr. Melaku’ house in Alexandria was also searched by the F.B.I. and the Fairfax County Police Department, the F.BI said.

Mr. Melaku joined the Marine Corps Reserve in September 2007 and holds the rank of lance corporal, the authorities said, having been awarded the National Defense Service Medal and the Selected Marine Corps Reserve Medal.?

He has not been deployed overseas, the authorities said.

View the original article here

Bomb Found in Ireland Hours Before Queen Arrives

The bus was traveling from Ballina in the west of Ireland toward Dublin and the device was found in Maynooth, 40 miles from Dublin. About 30 passengers had left the bus when it was stopped and searched, apparently after a tip by an informant, the police said.

News agencies reported that the Irish police also found a sham device, harmless but meant to appear to be a bomb, at a tram station in North Dublin. And a bomb threat that was received in London was regarded as credible by the police.

Despite the alarms, the queen and her husband, Prince Philip, flew into a military airfield outside Dublin, shrouded by one of the biggest security operations in recent years, both for the monarch and for President Obama, who is scheduled to visit the country early next week. The combined security effort is estimated to cost as much as $42.4 million, a large sum for a country in a deep economic slump.

The queen’s four-day visit, heavy with symbolism, is meant to finally signal reconciliation between Britain and a country that fought a bitter independence war against the British throne early in the 20th century. No reigning monarch had visited the island since the founding of the Irish Free State in 1922; the queen’s grandfather, King George V, was the last British monarch to visit, in 1911, when Ireland was still part of the United Kingdom.

The queen is to lay a wreath later Tuesday at a garden of remembrance, honoring those who fought against her forebears. She is also to visit the Croke Park stadium where British forces fired into a crowd during Ireland’s independence war and killed 14 people.

The Irish President, Mary McAleese, told the state broadcaster that the queen’s visit was “an extraordinary moment in Irish history,” while David Cameron, the British Prime Minister, said there was “a great sense of history and occasion” to the visit. But the symbolism was also offset by questions of security.

Planned routes for the queen to travel while in Dublin have been cleared for days of parked cars, and access to some areas has been blocked. More than 5,000 manholes, culverts and drains have been checked and sealed. Even the Dublin Zoo, which is close to where the queen will be staying, will be closed for two days.

Police north and south of the Irish border have arrested dissident republicans, detaining some of them, and surveillance is high. Citizens are being subjected to random searches around Dublin and elsewhere.

The measures reflect worries that dissident republicans who are opposed to both the Good Friday agreement in Northern Ireland and to the very presence of a British monarch on the island will mount some kind of attack. Weeks before the monarch’s visit, dissident republicans in Northern Ireland appeared armed and with their faces masked in a cemetery in Northern Ireland to warn Elizabeth that she was not welcome.

On Monday, the British police said that they had received a credible bomb threat in central London on the eve of the queen’s journey.

In a statement, a spokesman for Scotland Yard said on Monday that “a bomb threat warning has been received” but that it was “not specific in relation to location or time.”

Some areas of London were cordoned off, but no device was found, leading police to assume that the coded message was a hoax meant to complicate Elizabeth’s plans.

Central points around Trafalgar Square and Buckingham Palace were cordoned off as the police investigated the threat, and a suitcase left outside a hotel was destroyed by the police on Monday morning. Parts of the Mall were also shut down.

Police officials urged Londoners to be vigilant, but the threat designation for Irish-related terrorism had not been increased.

While the source of the threat remained unclear, suspicion immediately fell on dissident Irish republicans who have opposed the power-sharing government in Northern Ireland. The government includes the mainly Protestant unionists, who seek to keep the province a permanent part of Britain, and the mainly Catholic republicans, who want a united Ireland.

Opinion surveys suggest that many Irish people do not object to the monarch’s visit, but a minority remains opposed, accusing Britain of occupying Northern Ireland to thwart aspirations for a single Ireland.

Douglas Dalby contributed reporting from Dublin.

 

Pornography Is Found in Bin Laden Compound Files, U.S. Officials Say

WASHINGTON — The enormous cache of computer files taken from Osama bin Laden’s compound contained a considerable quantity of pornographic videos, American officials said on Friday, adding a discordant note to the public image of the Islamist militant who long denounced the West for its lax sexual mores.

The officials, speaking on condition of anonymity about classified material, would not say whether there was evidence that Bin Laden or the other men living in the house had acquired or viewed the material.

The discovery of the pornography, first reported by Reuters, may not be surprising in a collection of five computers, 10 hard drives and dozens of thumb drives and CDs whose age and past ownership is not known.

But the disclosure could fuel accusations of hypocrisy against the founder of Al Qaeda, who was 54 and lived with three wives at the time of his death, and will be welcomed by counterterrorism officials because it could tarnish his legacy and erode the appeal of his brand of religious extremism.

In a 2002 “letter to the American people,” Bin Laden denounced American culture for its exploitation of women’s bodies in dress, advertising and popular culture.

“Your nation exploits women like consumer products or advertising tools, calling upon customers to purchase them,” he wrote. “You plaster your naked daughters across billboards in order to sell a product without any shame. You have brainwashed your daughters into believing they are liberated by wearing revealing clothes, yet in reality all they have liberated is your sexual desire.”

A team of intelligence analysts under the C.I.A.’s direction has been working to review the material seized from Bin Laden’s house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, by the Navy Seal team that killed him. Officials have said the material shows that Bin Laden was making notes about new ways to attack the United States and sending instructions by courier to subordinates and Qaeda affiliates.

Asked about the contents in an interview with Bloomberg Television, Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr. said, “I’m not sure we have any plot” that the intelligence review had found.

“On the other hand, he did seem to have a goal around the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11,” Mr. Holder said. “Certainly, he wanted to harm and was in the advanced operational stage of pulling the levers in the Al Qaeda organization.”

But the Obama administration also released unflattering video footage of a gray-bearded Bin Laden, wearing a cloak and a ski cap and clutching a remote control while watching his own statements on television. The suggestion that he must have dyed his beard for video recordings and was intensely concerned with his image could erode his reputation in the Muslim world as a charismatic and selfless leader.

Also on Friday, Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, confirmed that American interrogators had questioned Bin Laden’s three wives for the first time on Thursday, 10 days after they were taken from the compound by Pakistani security forces. He declined to give more details, saying, “I can’t characterize the interaction.”

The three widows, Khairiah Sabar, Siham Sabar and Amal Ahmed Abdulfattah, who is also known as Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, had been held and questioned for days by Pakistani officials before the C.I.A. interrogators spoke to them. Ms. Abdulfattah, who is Yemeni, was shot in the leg during the assault on Bin Laden’s compound by Navy Seal commandos.

American officials have many urgent questions for them: where other top Qaeda operatives are, where Bin Laden lived before moving to Abbottabad and whether any Pakistani military or intelligence officers visited the compound. But the wives are believed to have lived cloistered lives, and it is unclear what they may know or be willing to tell.

 

Einstein immigration papers found

 10 May 2011 Last updated at 09:17 ET  The landing card was issued to Albert Einstein when he arrived at Dover Recently discovered immigration papers documenting Albert Einstein's 1933 escape from Nazi Germany are being displayed for the first time - at a Liverpool museum.

The German-born Jewish scientist fled his native country after Hitler labelled him an enemy of the regime.

The landing card, issued when he arrived at Dover, was discovered at Heathrow Airport.

It is being exhibited at Merseyside Maritime Museum in Liverpool.

Escape from Germany

The card, signed by the Nobel Prize-winning physicist, records Einstein's arrival from Belgium on 23 May, 1933.

It lists his profession as "Professor" and his nationality as "Swiss".

Continue reading the main story

What's remarkable is that the landing card bears his signature, has his profession as 'professor' and lists his nationality as Swiss”

End Quote Lucy Gardner Merseyside Maritime Museum Landing cards were once completed by all passengers arriving in the UK.

The reverse of the card states that Einstein was heading for Oxford.

Lucy Gardner, assistant curator of Merseyside Maritime Museum's Border and Customs gallery, said: "We didn't know this landing card ever existed until we visited UK Border Agency officers at Heathrow.

"We were keen on acquiring any documents relating to immigration but were stunned to find paperwork relating to such a prominent historical figure as Albert Einstein."

Einstein was a professor at the Prussian Academy of Science in Berlin from 1914.

When Hitler's regime took over Germany and began its repressive measures against Jews in particular, Einstein resigned from his position.

Einstein, who died in 1955, settled in the United States after spending a period under armed protection in England.

His 1921 Nobel Prize was awarded for his services to theoretical physics.

Lucy Gardner said the immigration card revealed Einstein's feelings about his country's government.

"What's remarkable is that the landing card bears his signature, has his profession as 'professor' and lists his nationality as Swiss.

"This shows how Einstein had renounced his German citizenship only weeks earlier in angry reaction to Nazi policies."

After Houston Officers Are Shot, Suspect Is Found Dead

HOUSTON (AP) — A man opened fire on two police officers Saturday, injuring them as part of a two-hour episode that began at a downtown Houston bus station and ended with the suspect found dead in a parking garage three blocks away, officials said.

The incident began about 5:15 p.m. Saturday when a Greyhound ticket agent checked the baggage of an unidentified man, saw an exposed handgun butt and alerted an off-duty police officer working security at the station, Houston Police spokesman John Cannon said.

Officer Fernando Meza, a two-year veteran of the force, followed the man outside, demanded his bag, then used a Taser in a failed effort to subdue the man, Cannon said. Instead, the man opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun, wounding Meza in the hand.

The gunman darted across the street to a McDonald's restaurant where he encountered Officer Timothy Moore, who was responding to a report of an officer in distress. There, his first gun empty, the man pulled another gun from his bag and fired at the 12-year police force veteran, wounding him in the leg, Cannon said.

Witnesses say they saw the man apparently bleeding from a wound to his side as he fled two blocks to the Amegy Bank parking garage, beside Interstate 45, and exchanged gunfire with arriving tactical unit officers as he darted inside, Cannon said.

Police closed the interstate and tactical officers searched and cleared each level of the multilevel garage. Officers found the unidentified man dead with a gunshot wound to the head at 7:05 p.m., Cannon said.

The freeway was reopened and the man's body taken to the Harris County medical examiner's office for autopsy and identification, he said.

"There were 80 to 100 patrons in the bus station waiting room or waiting to board their buses just outside," Cannon said, adding that it was nearly miraculous that no one else was injured and that neither police officer's wound appeared to be life-threatening. "That's why Officer Meza waited until the man was outside."

View the original article here

Former Agent for Pinochet Is Found Slain in Argentina

The former agent, Enrique Arancibia Clavel, was found in his apartment on Thursday with multiple stab wounds, and a cash box containing wads of bills was apparently missing, leading investigators to suspect robbery, two government officials said Friday.

“The victim ran a taxi business with four drivers, and it’s believed the motive is there — that he kept a lot of money that wasn’t deposited in banks,” one of the Argentine officials said.

Investigators also suspect that Mr. Arancibia Clavel knew his attacker, because there were no signs of forced entry to the apartment, said the officials, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. The police have not yet made any official statements on the case.

Mr. Arancibia Clavel was sentenced to life in prison in 2004 for organizing the car bombing in Buenos Aires of a former Chilean army chief, Carlos Prats, a leading critic of General Pinochet, and his wife, Sofía Cuthbert. He was later freed when Argentine judges ruled that the statute of limitations had expired.

In Chile on Friday, the Pratses’ daughters and Mr. Arancibia Clavel’s family said they were too shocked to comment.

Hugo Guttiérrez, a Communist member of the human rights commission in Chile’s lower house of Congress, said it was important to learn the circumstances of the former secret-police agent’s death. Mr. Arancibia Clavel took part in Operation Condor, a group effort by South America’s dictatorships to eliminate leftist dissent in all of their countries.

General Pinochet died in 2006 at 91.

 

5 Females Found Murdered in Acapulco

 VOA News ?April 24, 2011

People look at a crime scene where three women were found brutally murdered at a beauty parlor in the resort city of Acapulco, April 23, 2011

Mexican police say the brutally murdered bodies of four women and a teenage girl have been found in the Pacific coast resort of Acapulco.

Authorities say all the victims apparently had a connection to a local beauty parlor.

Officials say the semi-nude and bound bodies of two of the women and a 14-year-old girl were found with their throats slashed early Saturday in the salon.

Police say the other victims, who also had their throats cut, were found later in the day in other parts of the resort town.

Acapulco, a popular tourist destination, has increasingly been the scene of violent battles between rival drug cartels. ?

On Friday, the U.S. issued a new travel warning for U.S. citizens in Mexico, urging them to exercise caution amid rising drug-related violence.

Nearly 35,000 people have been killed in Mexico's drug-related violence since the end of 2006, when President Felipe Calderon ordered a military-led crackdown on the country's drug cartels.

[All VOA blogs...]

Going Green
Watch Rebecca Ward's report on the BP?Gulf oil spill - one year later.

 

Tracking File Found in iPhones

The report came from a technology conference in San Francisco, where two computer programmers presented research showing that the iPhone and 3G versions of the iPad began logging users’ locations a year ago, when Apple updated its mobile operating system.

After customers upgraded the software, a new hidden file began periodically storing location data, apparently gleaned from nearby cellphone towers and Wi-Fi networks, along with the time.

The data is stored on a person’s phone or iPad, but when the device is synced to a computer, the file is copied over to the hard drive, the programmers said. The data is not normally encrypted; although users can encrypt their information when they sync their devices, few do.

To some privacy advocates, the storing of the data was a clear breach. “The secretive collection of location data crosses the privacy line,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy policy organization based in Washington. “Apple should know better than to track iPhone users in this way.”

Others said the discovery of the hidden file was unlikely to have a major practical impact on privacy and security.

“It is more symbolic than anything else,” said Tim O’Reilly, a longtime technology pundit and founder of O’Reilly Media. “It is one more sign of how devices are collecting data about us and potentially sharing it with others. This is the future. We have to figure out how to deal with it.”

Law enforcement officials can already get this type of location information from cellphone companies, Mr. O’Reilly said; there are, however, conflicting rulings in federal courts about whether they need a search warrant.

But sitting on a home computer, the data could now be more vulnerable to access by hackers or others, he said. And information about a person’s locations over time could be accessible to strangers if a phone or iPad was lost or if it was attacked by malware.

The news of what appeared to be a security problem immediately ricocheted across the Internet as bloggers on technology and Apple-centered sites debated the many questions left unanswered by the report.

It is unclear, for example, whether Apple is gaining access to the information in any way. It is also unclear how precise the location data is and why it is being stored at all.

The programmers said they had asked Apple’s product security team about their findings but did not receive a response. Apple also did not respond to a request for comment from The New York Times.

The report even attracted attention from political figures, like Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, who sent Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, a letter asking why Apple was “secretly compiling” the data and what it would be used for.

Some privacy experts said the issue was not the legality of storing this information but whether Apple was playing fair with its customers.

“Collecting this data is not illegal, but it does matter whether or not this is explicitly spelled out in Apple’s terms of use,” said Christina Gagnier, a lawyer specializing in privacy and copyright. “Apple constantly changes their privacy policy, and it’s questionable whether most users are aware this is happening.”

Apple has an obligation to its customers to allow them to opt out of being tracked, said Ian Glazer of Gartner Research, who is a director in the company’s identity and privacy group. “There is no way to really turn this tracking off,” he said. “It needs to be visually obvious, or in the settings, to see that this is happening on your phone.”

Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden presented the paper at the O’Reilly Where 2.0 conference, a gathering of experts on location technology. Mr. Allan said in a blog post that beyond the issue of storing the information is the question of “how Apple intends to use it — or not.”

Mr. Allan, who has written books that teach people how to program, also said that the data being collected would be transferred to a new product when customers buy a new phone or iPad, and then sync it.

Mr. Warden, a former Apple employee, posted a free downloadable application on his Web site for Mac computers that allows users to see their stored location data on a map.

Whatever the privacy implications, the report was a burst of bad publicity for Apple on a day when it again reported stellar earnings results.

“It doesn’t matter how Apple explains its way out of this, just the fact that consumers know that their phone is being tracked is a very big deal,” said Chenxi Wang, a vice president of Forrester Research who specializes in security and risk.

Miguel Helft and John Markoff contributed reporting.

 

Tracking File Found in iPhones

The report came from a technology conference in San Francisco, where two computer programmers presented research showing that the iPhone and 3G versions of the iPad began logging users’ locations a year ago, when Apple updated its mobile operating system.

After customers upgraded the software, a new hidden file began periodically storing location data, apparently gleaned from nearby cellphone towers and Wi-Fi networks, along with the time.

The data is stored on a person’s phone or iPad, but when the device is synced to a computer, the file is copied over to the hard drive, the programmers said. The data is not normally encrypted; although users can encrypt their information when they sync their devices, few do.

To some privacy advocates, the storing of the data was a clear breach. “The secretive collection of location data crosses the privacy line,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy policy organization based in Washington. “Apple should know better than to track iPhone users in this way.”

Others said the discovery of the hidden file was unlikely to have a major practical impact on privacy and security.

“It is more symbolic than anything else,” said Tim O’Reilly, a longtime technology pundit and founder of O’Reilly Media. “It is one more sign of how devices are collecting data about us and potentially sharing it with others. This is the future. We have to figure out how to deal with it.”

Law enforcement officials can already get this type of location information from cellphone companies, Mr. O’Reilly said; there are, however, conflicting rulings in federal courts about whether they need a search warrant.

But sitting on a home computer, the data could now be more vulnerable to access by hackers or others, he said. And information about a person’s locations over time could be accessible to strangers if a phone or iPad was lost or if it was attacked by malware.

The news of what appeared to be a security problem immediately ricocheted across the Internet as bloggers on technology and Apple-centered sites debated the many questions left unanswered by the report.

It is unclear, for example, whether Apple is gaining access to the information in any way. It is also unclear how precise the location data is and why it is being stored at all.

The programmers said they had asked Apple’s product security team about their findings but did not receive a response. Apple also did not respond to a request for comment from The New York Times.

The report even attracted attention from political figures, like Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, who sent Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, a letter asking why Apple was “secretly compiling” the data and what it would be used for.

Some privacy experts said the issue was not the legality of storing this information but whether Apple was playing fair with its customers.

“Collecting this data is not illegal, but it does matter whether or not this is explicitly spelled out in Apple’s terms of use,” said Christina Gagnier, a lawyer specializing in privacy and copyright. “Apple constantly changes their privacy policy, and it’s questionable whether most users are aware this is happening.”

Apple has an obligation to its customers to allow them to opt out of being tracked, said Ian Glazer of Gartner Research, who is a director in the company’s identity and privacy group. “There is no way to really turn this tracking off,” he said. “It needs to be visually obvious, or in the settings, to see that this is happening on your phone.”

Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden presented the paper at the O’Reilly Where 2.0 conference, a gathering of experts on location technology. Mr. Allan said in a blog post that beyond the issue of storing the information is the question of “how Apple intends to use it — or not.”

Mr. Allan, who has written books that teach people how to program, also said that the data being collected would be transferred to a new product when customers buy a new phone or iPad, and then sync it.

Mr. Warden, a former Apple employee, posted a free downloadable application on his Web site for Mac computers that allows users to see their stored location data on a map.

Whatever the privacy implications, the report was a burst of bad publicity for Apple on a day when it again reported stellar earnings results.

“It doesn’t matter how Apple explains its way out of this, just the fact that consumers know that their phone is being tracked is a very big deal,” said Chenxi Wang, a vice president of Forrester Research who specializes in security and risk.

 

Tracking File Found in iPhones

The report came from a technology conference in San Francisco, where two computer programmers presented research showing that the iPhone and 3G versions of the iPad began logging users’ locations a year ago, when Apple updated its mobile operating system.

After customers upgraded the software, a new hidden file began periodically storing location data, apparently gleaned from nearby cellphone towers and Wi-Fi networks, along with the time.

The data is stored on a person’s phone or iPad, but when the device is synced to a computer, the file is copied over to the hard drive, the programmers said. The data is not normally encrypted; although users can encrypt their information when they sync their devices, few do.

To some privacy advocates, the storing of the data was a clear breach. “The secretive collection of location data crosses the privacy line,” said Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a privacy policy organization based in Washington. “Apple should know better than to track iPhone users in this way.”

Others said the discovery of the hidden file was unlikely to have a major practical impact on privacy and security.

“It is more symbolic than anything else,” said Tim O’Reilly, a longtime technology pundit and founder of O’Reilly Media. “It is one more sign of how devices are collecting data about us and potentially sharing it with others. This is the future. We have to figure out how to deal with it.”

Law enforcement officials can already get this type of location information from cellphone companies, Mr. O’Reilly said; there are, however, conflicting rulings in federal courts about whether they need a search warrant.

But sitting on a home computer, the data could now be more vulnerable to access by hackers or others, he said. And information about a person’s locations over time could be accessible to strangers if a phone or iPad was lost or if it was attacked by malware.

The news of what appeared to be a security problem immediately ricocheted across the Internet as bloggers on technology and Apple-centered sites debated the many questions left unanswered by the report.

It is unclear, for example, whether Apple is gaining access to the information in any way. It is also unclear how precise the location data is and why it is being stored at all.

The programmers said they had asked Apple’s product security team about their findings but did not receive a response. Apple also did not respond to a request for comment from The New York Times.

The report even attracted attention from political figures, like Senator Al Franken, Democrat of Minnesota, who sent Apple’s chief executive, Steven P. Jobs, a letter asking why Apple was “secretly compiling” the data and what it would be used for.

Some privacy experts said the issue was not the legality of storing this information but whether Apple was playing fair with its customers.

“Collecting this data is not illegal, but it does matter whether or not this is explicitly spelled out in Apple’s terms of use,” said Christina Gagnier, a lawyer specializing in privacy and copyright. “Apple constantly changes their privacy policy, and it’s questionable whether most users are aware this is happening.”

Apple has an obligation to its customers to allow them to opt out of being tracked, said Ian Glazer of Gartner Research, who is a director in the company’s identity and privacy group. “There is no way to really turn this tracking off,” he said. “It needs to be visually obvious, or in the settings, to see that this is happening on your phone.”

Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden presented the paper at the O’Reilly Where 2.0 conference, a gathering of experts on location technology. Mr. Allan said in a blog post that beyond the issue of storing the information is the question of “how Apple intends to use it — or not.”

Mr. Allan, who has written books that teach people how to program, also said that the data being collected would be transferred to a new product when customers buy a new phone or iPad, and then sync it.

Mr. Warden, a former Apple employee, posted a free downloadable application on his Web site for Mac computers that allows users to see their stored location data on a map.

Whatever the privacy implications, the report was a burst of bad publicity for Apple on a day when it again reported stellar earnings results.

“It doesn’t matter how Apple explains its way out of this, just the fact that consumers know that their phone is being tracked is a very big deal,” said Chenxi Wang, a vice president of Forrester Research who specializes in security and risk.

Miguel Helft and John Markoff contributed reporting.

 

Bad X-Rays Found Again at a Brooklyn Hospital

Claudia Hutton, a spokeswoman for the New York State Department of Health, said state regulators suspected that similar cases were occurring at other hospitals. The department is deciding whether to conduct spot checks around the state to determine the extent of the problem.

The inspection at the Brooklyn hospital, the State University of New York Downstate Medical Center, in March, was prompted by an article in The New York Times in February, revealing that in 2007 the hospital had discovered that premature babies — the most vulnerable of all patients — were frequently subjected to whole-body X-rays when only chest exams had been ordered. These errors had never been reported to state health officials.

Downstate officials said they had promptly put an end to the risky X-ray practices. But last month, state inspectors reviewed chest X-rays of premature babies taken late last year and early this year and found 27 instances of infants’ irradiated beyond the chest area without proper shielding. Some premature infants were over-radiated multiple times, inspection records show.

“We were disappointed to find so many X-rays in our sampling that did not have adequate shielding to protect infants from being exposed to excess radiation,” said Dr. Nirav R. Shah, the state health commissioner. “Additional training and monitoring must be put into place to rectify this situation.”

In a brief statement released on Tuesday by Ronald Najman, a Downstate spokesman, the hospital said that in the wake of the inspection, it had addressed the issues raised by regulators “to ensure that we provide quality care to our patients.” The statement did not say why the problems had continued after radiologists at the hospital said they had stopped the original improper scanning practices.

Children are particularly vulnerable to radiation’s effects because their cells divide quickly and because they face an ever-increasing number of radiological procedures over their lifetime as new medical uses are found for radiation. X-rays are invaluable in diagnosing internal complications. But minimizing exposure is important because most scientists believe the effects of radiation are cumulative, meaning the more radiation one receives, the greater the chances of developing cancer later in life.

The state inspection on March 9 found “neonatal imaging was not provided in accordance with physician orders and the facility policies and procedures,” according to a statement of deficiencies sent to the hospital on March 21.

The first case cited in the report involved a baby born prematurely at 26 weeks who received five chest X-rays over a period of two months in which the radiation was not properly limited, or coned, to the chest area. For example, one “showed the patient’s neck, chest, abdomen, the upper arms and a small section of the right thigh.”

A second baby who was to have a chest X-ray had an image taken that included “the entire head, left arm, right arm, chest and abdomen,” the report said.

According to the state, one radiologist explained the wide areas of irradiation by saying that “technologists were sometimes instructed at the bedside by physicians to include additional areas of interest in the chest X-ray.”

Ms. Hutton, the state health department spokeswoman, said that explanation was unacceptable when the official medical record called only for a chest X-ray. “You shouldn’t be taking X-ray views not ordered by the doctor,” she said, “and if the doctor ordered them, they should be in the chart.”

According to the inspection report, the 27 improper X-rays were found among 542 chest images reviewed by state inspectors.

Ms. Hutton said if a fine was imposed, it would probably be a small one. “We just want compliance,” she said. “This is not a revenue stream for us.”

The hospital’s failure to report the problems in 2007 rankled state regulators. “You could have called us and said, ‘We just found something really bad,’?” Ms. Hutton said. “We had to learn about the issue from The New York Times.”

The Times article quoted extensively from internal e-mails at Downstate, including one from 2007 in which Dr. Salvatore J. A. Sclafani, the radiology chairman, wrote that he was “mortified” to find that the same premature infant had received about 10 whole-body X-rays when only a simple chest X-ray had been ordered. “Full, unabashed, total irradiation of a neonate,” Dr. Sclafani said, adding, “This poor, defenseless baby.”

Dr. Sclafani recently took a leave from his position to do research.

Downstate officials told The Times during the winter that back in 2007, the hospital had instituted procedures intended to minimize exposure to radiation. The steps included reducing the radiation dose administered to pediatric patients undergoing CT scans and eliminating CT scans that were not absolutely necessary.

According to doctors familiar with Downstate procedures, those steps did reduce exposure to radiation from CT scans.

 

Bones found near New York beach

 11 April 2011 Last updated at 19:10 ET  Police found two more sets of remains near Jones Beach in New York on Monday Police have found what they suspect may be human remains in two separate locations near a New York beach, in the same area where eight corpses have already been discovered.

A skull was found in brush about 90ft (27m) from a highway on Long Island on Monday, Lt Kevin Smith said.

Another set of remains was unearthed earlier in the day.

Since December, eight corpses have been found in the region. Police suspect a serial killer could be at large.

The latest discovery was made as police expanded their search from Long Island's Suffolk County to Jones Beach in Nassau County, just east of the New York City border.

Police also made several discoveries of bones on Monday that were quickly determined to be animals.

Of the skull, Lt Smith said: "Whether it is human or not, is unknown at this point."

Craigslist escorts

The latest search was sparked by the discovery of four sets of remains in the past two weeks along Ocean Parkway, which leads to the popular Jones Beach State Park.

Police sent the two sets of remains, which were found several miles apart, to the medical examiner's office to confirm whether they were human.

The bodies of four women who worked as escorts were found in the region in December.

Those remains, which were identified using DNA and dental records, were found while authorities were following up on the disappearance of a woman from New Jersey seen working as a escort in the Long Island area.

Investigators continue to search for the remains of Shannan Gilbert, a New Jersey woman who was last seen in May at nearby Oak Beach, where she had arranged to meet a client she had met through Craigslist.

Police have not officially linked the discoveries in the past several weeks with those found in December.