The Department of Homeland Security's Office of Inspector General has issued a report on U.S. Customs and Border Protection's use of American Recovery and Reinvestment Act (ARRA) funds on land ports of entry. OIG finds that CBP is using the funds to build or rebuild ports along the northern border with features and sizes that are unsupported by operational requirements. OIG also finds that CBP is building and repairing ports that were recommended for closure or have a high potential for such.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection has issued a press release on the October 4, 2011 COAC meeting held in El Paso, Texas. CBP Deputy Commissioner David V. Aguilar opened the meeting and co-chaired it with Tim Skud, a Deputy Assistant Secretary of Treasury.
On October 3, 2011, the Office of Foreign Assets Control issued two new General Licenses for Syria. General License No. 13 authorizes certain services in connection with the overflight or emergency landing of U.S. owned aircraft in Syria provided no payments are made to certain blocked persons and General License No. 14 authorizes transactions with respect to telecommunications provided that no payment involves certain debits to an account of the Government of Syria or are to certain blocked persons.
India's Minister of Commerce, Industry and Textiles has set the target of doubling trade between India and Myanmar by 2015. The Minister stated that construction of the Kaladan Mulitmodal Transit Transport Project by 2013 will transform the trade between North East India and the world. The project would comprise of a waterway component and a roadway component and envisages a direct trade corridor between Indian ports on the eastern seaboard and Sittwe Port in Myanmar, and an alternate route through riverine transport and by road. The two countries recognize the need to start collaborating to build a Land Customs Station at India-Myanmar Border at Mizoram (in North East India) to facilitate the movement of vehicles and goods entering and leaving that state.
Nintendo of America (NOA) will promote several new videogames at New York Comic Con, Oct. 13-16 at the Javits Center in New York, it said Wednesday. Games that the company plans to spotlight are Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, Mario Kart 7, Pokemon Rumble Blast, Star Fox 64 3D, Super Mario 3D Land and Tetris: Axis for the 3DS, Sega’s Shinobi and Sonic Generations for the 3DS, Nintendo’s Fortune Street, Kirby’s Return to Dream Land and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword for the Wii, Activision’s Skylanders: Spyro’s Adventure for the Wii, and Nintendo’s Dragon Quest Monsters: Joker 2 and Professor Layton and the Last Specter for the DS. NOA said it will also, on Oct. 14, host an exclusive screening of Professor Layton and the Eternal Diva, an animated feature film based on its series of puzzle-based mystery games.
CBP has posted the following presentations, draft COAC recommendations, etc. for its COAC meeting on October 4, 2011:
Verizon will launch a Z-Wave-based home security and monitoring service Oct. 11, charging its FiOS and DSL subscribers $9.95 monthly for a service that allows them to monitor their homes through video feeds from the Internet, company officials said. Verizon is shipping the service with one, two and five Z-Wave device kits. Verizon postponed introduction of the service twice in May and July before landing on a 12-state rollout this month. Verizon unveiled the home security offering at CES in January, but it first disclosed plans for the service in FCC documents filed two years ago. Verizon also is expected to use Z-Wave in a home energy management platform.
Top FCC officials may decide to discuss ways the agency will implement some of the many recommendations in the report on the future of the media industry at an event Monday in Phoenix, agency officials watching the deliberations said. They said FCC Chairman Julius Genachowski and Steve Waldman, who wrote the 478-page report finished in June, may talk about concrete steps the agency will take to act on its suggestions on the broadcasting industry. Genachowski’s office and Waldman appeared to be working out the details on Friday of the extent of the recommendations that will be implemented, with a view to possibly discussing some at the hearing, agency officials said. Waldman leaves the agency at week’s end.
Verizon is extending its fiber networks in Singapore to increase coverage and doubling capacity for enterprise customers with access to assets like submarine cable landing stations and area data centers, the company said. The Singapore network will initially support speeds of 40 Gbps and will ultimately support speeds of 100 Gbps and beyond, Verizon said. Additionally, the expansion will improve Verizon’s cloud computing business with access to six additional data centers throughout the country, allowing cloud computing customers in Singapore to use the network to connect to Verizon’s Asia-Pacific data and cloud center in Hong Kong, Verizon said.
Verizon is extending its fiber networks in Singapore to increase coverage and doubling capacity for enterprise customers with access to assets like submarine cable landing stations and area data centers, the company said. The Singapore network will initially support speeds of 40 Gbps and will ultimately support speeds of 100 Gbps and beyond, Verizon said. Additionally, the expansion will improve Verizon’s cloud computing business with access to six additional data centers throughout the country, allowing cloud computing customers in Singapore to use the network to connect to Verizon’s Asia-Pacific data and cloud center in Hong Kong, Verizon said.