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LONDON (Reuters) - Interpol said on Wednesday it was launching a special task force to tackle a growing problem of pedophiles using fake "modeling" sites on the Internet to gain access to children. The sites do not contain sexually graphic images, but serve as a front, enabling pedophiles to contact the site owners and gain physical access to the so-called child models, or to buy images of the children being abused. "This trend requires the urgent attention of law enforcement, but the significant investigative resources required are simply not available in most national police forces, which is why Interpol is...

Task Force Grizzly soldiers prepare for a night operation in Pashmul, Kandahar province, Afghanistan, in mid September. Operation Medusa, which lasted approximately 20 days, was a successfully operations that effectively pushed enemy insurgents from this region of the country. Army photo by Sgt. Mayra Kennedy Task Force Grizzly Soldiers Eliminate Insurgents Operation Medusa which lasted approximately 20 days, was a successful operation that effectively pushed enemy insurgents from this region of Afghanistan. By U.S. Army Sgt. Mayra Kennedy 345th Mobile Public Affairs Detachment PANJWAYI, Afghanistan, Oct. 10, 2006 -- A small number of soldiers from the 207th Infantry Brigade...

The LA County Gun Task Force has served another search warrant on the home of another member of the fifty caliber community. On Monday September 18th, eighteen police cars swarmed the neighborhood where the FCSA member lives and served a search warrant signed by Judge Steven Kleifield of the LA County Superior Court. The officers were at the residence for several hours and confiscated all semi-automatic firearms belonging to the victim. The probable cause for issuing the search warrant was not available in the body of the affidavit so the reason for the search is unknown at this time. It...

Assembly Republican Leader George Plescia of San Diego announced Friday the members of a newly-formed task force on illegal immigration. The all-Republican group will hold town hall meetings across the state in the coming months to determine the costs illegal immigrants impose on local communities and the state, Plescia said in a news release. It will hear testimony from law enforcement, elected officials, business owners and the public. The information it gathers may be used to write legislation to address the issue, according to the release. The panel includes Assembly members Shirley Horton, R-Chula Vista; Chuck DeVore, R-Irvine; Audra Strickland,...

The University of California's procedures for reporting executive pay are "wholly unacceptable" and must be overhauled, a task force said Thursday. More financial oversight and public accountability is needed after reports showed UC gave executives millions in bonuses and other perks while student fees were raised to offset funding cutbacks, according to findings presented to UC's governing Board of Regents. The report pointed to a university culture of secrecy, further complicated by vague policies and lack of oversight. The report blamed President Robert C. Dynes and other leaders for failing repeatedly to fully disclose executive packages to regents and said...

TAJI, Iraq – Task Force Baghdad Soldiers captured a terror suspect and seized bomb making materials from his home during a cordon and search operation conducted in a Taji neighborhood on the evening of Sept. 20. The Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 13th Armored Regiment Soldiers, also seized 20 flares, four rocket-propelled grenades, and additional evidence indicating the suspect had been building bombs. The Soldiers took the suspected terrorist into custody for questioning.

CAMP STRYKER, Iraq – Task Force Baghdad Soldiers uncovered a large weapons cache in the outskirts of western Baghdad while conducting a morning patrol on Sept. 24. Soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 130th Infantry Regiment, 48th Brigade Combat Team, have been successful in finding weapons caches within their area of operations. In less than a month they have found six weapons caches of significant size, two of which were extremely large. Capt. James H. Alexander, Jr., an operations officer with 2nd Bn, 130 Inf. Regt., attributes this success to the troops on the ground. “I’m very impressed with these Soldiers, they...

NEW ORLEANS, Sept. 15, 2005 – The Crescent City will be dry long before originally thought, the commander of Task Force Unwatering said here Sept. 14. "All I'm thinking about is water," said Army Col. Duane Gapinski, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers task force that is draining the floodwaters from New Orleans. The corps has made incredible progress, officials said. Since Hurricane Katrina flooded the city Aug. 30, engineers and workers have been feverishly damming up breached levees, strengthening canal walls and getting huge pumps on line. The results are plain to see. "Right now in the metropolitan...

OCEAN SPRINGS, Miss., Sept. 6, 2005 – A private airport here has been converted into a forward operating base from which more than 1,500 soldiers and airmen from the Alabama National Guard are supporting disaster-relief operations for Jackson, George and Greene counties in Mississippi as part of Task Force Alabama. "We are providing humanitarian assistance, zone recons, and we're providing a presence," the task force's chief of staff, Army National Guard Lt. Col. Nicky Medley, said. Like many storm victims, task force soldiers are living in austere conditions. Most soldiers are sleeping outdoors, a few in vehicles. Some soldiers also...

BAGHDAD – Tips from Iraqi citizens led to the discovery by U.S. Soldiers of a weapons cache Aug. 23. Soldiers of D Company, 172nd Infantry Regiment, Task Force 1-118th Field Artillery, 3rd Brigade heard small-arms fire near their position while conducting security operations north of Baghdad. The Soldiers moved toward the sound of the gunfire but found a deserted fighting position that contained two mortar rounds, 12 mortar fuses, and a 155-millimeter artillery shell. While the Soldiers searched the area, Iraqi civilians approached and said they knew where to find more weapons. The men of D Co. found two 203-millimeter...

The scenes of the Hurricane Katrina disaster are beyond horrific. As they play across our television screens, they look more like the pictures of last December's Southwest Asia tsunami than anything we've ever seen in America. No one can even collect the dead, because an increasingly desperate search for the living goes on into the night. As the Red Cross and FEMA organize disaster relief, and as Americans reach into their hearts and their pockets to donate to help fellow Americans, there is another part of America working hard. There is one thing the tsunami and Katrina have in common:...

During the election process, Iraqi police will provide security at the polling sites; Iraqi army troops will provide additional security in the vicinity. By U.S. Army Sgt. Daniel W. Bailey 22nd Mobile Public Affairs Detachment FORWARD OPERATING BASE NORMANDY, Iraq, Aug. 31, 2005 — To ensure Iraqis in the Diyala Province are confident they can vote safely for the upcoming constitutional referendum and in the December national elections, Task Force Liberty soldiers are keeping a close eye on the polling stations to make sure everything runs smoothly. With the start of voter registration, U.S. soldiers from 2nd Battalion, 34th Armored...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 29, 2005 – Multinational forces from Task Force Freedom detained 17 suspected terrorists in Iraq on Aug. 28, U.S. military officials reported today. Soldiers from 1st Battalion, 5th Infantry Regiment, detained six individuals suspected of terrorist activity and seized weapons from a vehicle during separate operations in southern Mosul. Soldiers from 3rd Battalion, 21st Infantry Regiment, detained four individuals suspected of terrorist activity during a cordon-and-search operation in northern Mosul. Soldiers from the same unit seized another weapons cache in western Mosul consisting of a one 60 mm mortar, several rifles including AK-47s assault rifled, rocket-propelled grenade launchers,...

U.S. soldiers bring toys -- and smiles -- to the young patients during a visit to the Baghdad hospital. CAMP TIGERLAND, Iraq, Aug. 15, 2005 — Task Force Baghdad soldiers spent part of the day July 31 bringing smiles to a Baghdad children’s hospital during a humanitarian aid mission. U.S. Army Command Sgt. Major James Mays, from Pineville, La., senior enlisted noncommissioned officer of the 256th Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division; and Lt. Col. (Dr.) Joseph Dore, from Charlotte, N.C., brigade surgeon, hosted the mission at the General Children’s Hospital in Baghdad, bearing toys and stuffed animals for young...

HADITHA, Iraq (Aug. 10, 2005) -- Insurgents in the Haditha region of the Al Anbar province were met by a group of unfamiliar faces Aug. 5 when the Marines of 3rd Battalion, 2nd Marine Regiment arrived in support of Operation Quick Strike. The Marines traveled about 100 miles southeast of their area of operation in Al Qa’im overnight to help 3rd Bn., 25th Marines, clear the towns of Haqliniyah, Bani Dahri and Barwanah just south of the city of Haditha. The task force conducting Quick Strike included many different units task organized for the mission. Each unit, including those from...

As U.S. soldiers were investigating a tip about a terrorist associated with a recent attack which killed one U.S. soldier and 24 Iraqi children, a car bomb detonated. BAGHDAD, Iraq, Aug. 9, 2005 — A terrorist failed to cause significant U.S. casualties or damage in a vehicle-borne improvised explosive device attack Aug. 6 in east Baghdad. Two U.S. soldiers and one Iraqi civilian sustained minor wounds from the attack. The vehicle, described by soldiers on the scene as a Volkswagen van, approached the halted convoy of 1st Battalion, 9th Field Artillery, 2nd Brigade Combat Team, 3rd Infantry Division around 9:30...

FRESNO, Calif. (AP) - Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Friday created a task force charged with improving the economy and quality of life in California's San Joaquin Valley, a quickly developing region beleaguered by high unemployment, suburban sprawl and some of the nation's dirtiest air. The California Partnership for the San Joaquin Valley establishes a 26-member panel that includes government representatives and those from the private sector. "I want to make this task force a model for how state governments can work together more effectively with local governments and the regional economy," the governor said. "The valley is home to the...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, the co-chairman of a congressional task force to examine United Nations reform, said Friday he was impressed with U.N. officials' apparent desire to fix the world body. Gingrich, a Republican, said U.N. officials recognized that the opportunity was right after years of promises that had brought no significant change. "There was no argument today about the fact that there are systems that just don't work, there are patterns that just aren't acceptable," Gingrich told reporters during a visit to the United Nations. He was accompanied by fellow co-chair George Mitchell, a...

-OPERATION FALCON- (Or Operation Horsefeathers ?) A massive roundup of fugitives has been carried on over the past few days, on a nationwide scale.Newscasters tell us - breathlessly-10,000 fugitives have been "taken off the streets" !! Really ? Such fugitive roundups are nothing new. I was involved in them (peripherally) once or twice a year for at least 5 years before I retired.They work like this: Every police department in the nation has a backlog of fugitive warrants. Most are for failure to appear minor offenses,but a hefty percentage involve non-appearance on more serious matters. Periodically, the US Marshal's Service...

OLYMPIA, Wash. - A task force has found that public trust in Washington state's election system was damaged by last year's tight gubernatorial race that took two months to resolve, and it recommended a package of reforms. The task force, created by Gov. Christine Gregoire in the wake of her razor-thin victory, recommended moving the primary date to earlier in the year, requiring voter identification at the polls, and color-coding provisional ballots so they won't be counted before voters' registration is confirmed. In a 23-page report obtained by The Associated Press, the task force declared that imperfections and mistakes in...