Testing Times For The US E-Passport

The US Department of Homeland Security announced on Friday that it's launching a second test of its electronic passport initiative next week, as it seeks to curtail the use of bogus passports at international airports.

Testing of the e-passports, which carry biometric identification technologies, will be conducted at San Francisco International Airport, as well as Changi Airport in Singapore and Sydney Airport in Australia. The testing began in January, and will continue until 15 April, with the help of the Australian, New Zealand and Singaporean governments.

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New Zealand Taxi Drivers To Face English Testing

Taxi drivers will be taken off the road if they can't understand their passengers or know where passengers want to go, under new rules in the pipeline.

The changes will mean taxi drivers have to sit more stringent area knowledge and English language tests, enforceable under the new Land Transport Amendment Act.

Taxi drivers who don't make the grade will be taken off the road.

The legislation, passed last year by Parliament, followed complaints about taxi drivers' abilities.

High-profile incidents of taxi troubles have included that of New Zealand First leader Winston Peters, who refused to pay Somali driver Muhiyadin one night in 2003, insisting he had to walk the last section of his trip home in the Wellington suburb of Ngaio after a late night out because the driver didn't know the way.

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Debate Over Effectiveness of DNA Testing Continues

DNA has the power to cut short nightmares -- the horror of an innocent man behind bars for a crime someone else committed, the fear of a murderer walking free and looking to kill again.

In the past 16 years, DNA testing has freed scores of prisoners found to be wrongfully convicted, resolved old mysteries including murders and rapes and transformed the debate over the death penalty. It has shaken the foundations of the criminal justice system itself.

DNA proved pivotal again on Thursday, when an analysis confirmed that Roger Keith Coleman was indeed the man who raped, stabbed and nearly beheaded his sister-in-law, as a jury concluded.

Coleman was executed in 1992, proclaiming his innocence as he went to the electric chair.

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NHL To Begin Drug Testing

Last November, Richard Pound, the president of the World Anti-Doping Agency, made headlines in North America when he claimed as many as a third of the players in the NHL take some form of performance-enhancing substances.

According to a report in the Globe and Mail of Toronto, the world will find out if Pound's statements are correct beginning Sunday.

On Thursday, the Globe and Mail reported the NHL will begin the drug testing included in the new collective bargaining agreement Sunday. Previously, the NHL had no drug-testing policy.

"I know I've been constantly watching what I put in my body," Edmonton Oilers defenseman Chris Pronger told the Globe and Mail on Wednesday. "I think this process has us on edge because it's not an exact science.

"When you play 82 games, 28 to 30 minutes a game, you need to replenish your system with a protein shake now and again. But you're putting a lot of faith in the company that makes the protein powders. When these products are made, you never know what substances get mixed up or left on the conveyer belt."

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US FDA Moves to Improve Early Testing of New Drugs

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. health officials issued new guidance on Thursday on how to conduct small, early human tests of experimental medicines in an effort to help researchers identify sooner which drugs have a chance at reaching the market.

The guidelines, in part, detail ways to make small batches of experimental medicines to test tiny doses in people. Previously, researchers had to meet costly requirements for large-scale manufacturing to do early tests, Food and Drug Administration officials said.

Studying small doses can be useful because new technology enables scientists to see if an experimental drug behaves as expected in the body and reaches its intended target, such as a tumor, officials said.

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Scientist Remains Unsatisfied With Re-testing Of Evidence

PHILADELPHIA - The scientist who did the initial DNA tests for the Roger Keith Coleman case said he always expected new tests would back him up - but he's still not satisified.

Edward Blake, who runs Forensic Science Associates in Richmond, Calif., is still raising questions about the investigation. For him, the re-testing of DNA evidence using the latest technology hardly nails shut the 25 year-old murder case. "I am concerned as a scientist," he said, calling the retesting, "a cynical exercise in manipulating a scientific investigation."

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Practical Intelligence Testing Begins

D3Publisher of America announced today that PSP puzzler PQ: Practical Intelligence Quotient is now shipping to a cerebrally developed North America. The game offers a series of 3D puzzles to test players' problem-solving skills, and lets the bright -- or the boneheaded -- post their scores for the world to see.

PQ uses a measuring system created with help from Professor Masuo Koyasu of Japan's Kyoto University, whose PQ measurement is much higher than yours.

"This is our first title for PSP and we are confident that it is the perfect game for the platform," commented D3Publisher's Yoji Takenaka. "PQ offers players a meaningful reward for completing the game, an actual intelligence score. It will attract PSP users who are looking for a great game at a great price."

The great price is $29.99, the rating is "E" for Everyone, and the place is your local retailer. We leave it up to you to figure out how to get there.

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