April 30, 2009

Confusion over Mexico's swine flu toll





By Kim Landers in Mexico City for AM
ABC NEWS

Mexico's deadly swine flu outbreak is on the brink of sparking a global pandemic, but there is still confusion about how many people have died from the virus.

Mexico's Government has confirmed 260 people have swine flu but only 12 have died. The confirmed total is a long way short of the 180-plus suspected deaths in the country.

In Mexico City, mobile health clinics have sprung up to deal with people who feel sick.

One caravan is parked near the historic city centre and hundreds of people, including Jessica Avanto, have lined up to see the doctor.

Ms Avanto describes her three-year-old son's symptoms. She says he has a runny nose and a cough.

The toddler is wearing a face mask and is playing happily with his Incredible Hulk action figure but his mother says he has been sick for days.

An interpreter says Ms Avanto is hopeful her son does not have the virus.

"He hasn't had a fever and it's an important symptom," he said. "But she's worried about it and that's why she came here."

The swine flu outbreak began more than a week ago but the mobile health clinic has only been running for two days.

Leopoldo Llanos has a sore throat and a cold and he is lining up as well.

An interpreter says Mr Llanos has been sick since Monday.

"He says he's really worried and was walking past the clinic when he decided to stop," he said.

"He says he went to one of the main hospitals in Mexico City but they told him they could only treat him if he had all the symptoms. Because he doesn't have a fever, they turned him away."

Fabian Ismael Villasenor is the doctor who is seeing patients at the clinic after they have had their temperatures checked by an assistant and described their symptoms too.

"The clinic is trying to reduce panic, to focus on prevention and education, but is also checking if people have swine flu and if they do, to send them to hospital," he said through an interpreter.

He says he has not seen anyone with swine flu, nor does he expect to see many people who have the virus.

Mexico's President Felipe Calderon is urging people to stay home over the next five days in a bid to halt the spread of swine flu.

Only essential businesses, such as supermarkets, hospitals and chemists will stay open.

And only critical government workers, such as police and soldiers, will be on duty.

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Swine Flu: Pandemic or Propaganda?

April 29, 2009

WHO raises pandemic alert to level five



(CNN) -- The World Health Organization raised the swine flu alert to level five Wednesday indicating it fears a pandemic is imminent.

On Wednesday, the outbreak grew in terms of confirmed cases, people killed and countries with infections.

Health officials are scrambling to get more information about the virus for which there is no vaccine.

"All countries should immediately activate their pandemic preparedness plans," said Dr. Margaret Chan, the World Health Organization's director-general.

She added: "We do not have all the answers right now but we will get them."

Earlier, Dr. Anthony Fauci, director of the U.S. National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases, said: "It's a virus that we've never seen before. There's no background immunity in the population and it is spreading from human to human, all of which has the potential for a pandemic."

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Toddler is first U.S. swine flu death

WASHINGTON - A government official confirmed the first U.S. death from the new H1N1 swine flu on Wednesday, a 23-month-old child who died in Texas.

It is the first death from swine flu reported outside Mexico, the country hardest hit by the influenza outbreak. The disease is suspected of killing more than 150 people in Mexico and sickening over 2,400 there.

The official gave Reuters no other details on the case. U.S. officials have confirmed 65 cases of swine flu, most of them mild.

Meanwhile, the World Health Organization was holding an emergency "scientific review" of the outbreak to determine exactly what is known about how the disease spreads, how it affects human health and how it can be treated.

Experts will take part via telephone from the United States, Mexico and other countries where people have been infected by swine flu. The U.N. health body said a report will be published shortly after the meeting.

MSNBC Story

WSJ: 'Nano-Silver Swine Flu Protection'

CHARLES TOWN, W.Va., April 27, 2009 /PRNewswire-FirstCall via COMTEX/ -- American Med Tech, Inc. (Pink Sheets: RBRM) today offered a specially assembled home protection kit for swine flu based on the germ killing power of silver. ( http://www.rebuildermedical.com/outbreak).
"We spent the entire weekend assembling swine flu kits from existing inventory already boxed in pre-paid overnight FED-EX boxes," said David B. Phillips, Ph.D. CEO.
Additionally, Dr. Phillips reports: "We have been selling our nano-silver based medical hygiene products for the last 5 years. Our silver ion based products were developed as a cure for the highly contagious skin disease Molluscum Contagioisum and to protect the delicate skin of diabetics. The problem with washing your hands with normal hand cleaners to kill swine flu virus is that they contain harsh chemicals. Your hands may be clean immediately after washing, but the harsh chemicals make your skin vulnerable to infections minutes afterward. Silver ions are used in hospitals and medical equipment to kill germs and virus non-invasively and is completely safe for children and older people. "
Finally, Dr. Phillips told reporters today: "Swine flu is transferred by touching a contaminated surface and then touching your mouth, nose, or eyes. Even touching your hair if it has virus that has settled on it and then touching your nose can infect you, so we have protection for your hair, hands, nasal and oral cavities as well. All our products are hypo-allergenic."
"We have had inquiries from all over the globe today. We will focus on protecting the U.S. residents first."

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April 27, 2009

GOOGLE MAPS TRACKS SWINE FLU

Follow the outbreaks

Kazakhstan Bank Stops Repaying Foreign Debt




By ANDREW E. KRAMER
Published: April 24, 2009

MOSCOW — The largest bank in the Central Asian nation of Kazakhstan, whose economy soared when oil prices were high, announced on Friday that it could no longer repay $11 billion in foreign debt.

The bank, BTA, said it would pay only interest to foreign creditors, who lavished the country with loans during the commodity boom. The move underscored the growing financial instability in countries all across the former Soviet Union.

The financial industry in Kazakhstan grew explosively until credit markets seized up two years ago. Rather than raise money through deposits, banks borrowed excessively from international lenders. Those lines of credit dried up in Kazakhstan quicker than elsewhere, given the risky nature of doing business in the country.

The government has responded with efforts to shore up its finances with new oil deals.

This week, Kazakhstan’s national oil company agreed to form a joint venture with a subsidiary of the China National Petroleum Corporation to develop petroleum licenses in Kazakhstan. The country holds about 3 percent of the world’s oil reserves. In the deal, China agreed to provide Kazakhstan with $10 billion in loans.

In a statement about the default, BTA said its freeze on the repayment of principal became necessary when some creditors demanded accelerated, or early, repayments. If the bank had met their requests, the statement said, it would have run counter to a stated intention of treating all creditors equally.

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April 26, 2009

Swine Flu Outbreak Coincided With Obama's Trip To Mexico


By Thomas Black

April 25 (Bloomberg) -- Mexican President Felipe Calderon declared an emergency in his country’s swine flu outbreak, giving him powers to order quarantines and suspend public events.

Authorities have canceled school at all levels in Mexico City and the state of Mexico until further notice, and the government has shut most public and government activities in the area. The emergency decree, published today in the state gazette, gives the president authority to take more action.

“The federal government under my charge will not hesitate a moment to take all, all the measures necessary to respond with efficiency and opportunity to this respiratory epidemic,” Calderon said today during a speech to inaugurate a hospital in the southern state of Oaxaca.

At least 20 deaths in Mexico from the disease are confirmed, Health Minister Jose Cordova said yesterday. The strain is a variant of H1N1 swine influenza that has also sickened at least eight people in California and Texas. As many as 68 deaths may be attributed to the virus in Mexico, and about 1,000 people in the Mexico City area are showing symptoms of the illness, Cordoba said.

Obama’s Visit

The first case was seen in Mexico on April 13. The outbreak coincided with the President Barack Obama’s trip to Mexico City on April 16.
Obama was received at Mexico’s anthropology museum in Mexico City by Felipe Solis, a distinguished archeologist who died the following day from symptoms similar to flu, Reforma newspaper reported. The newspaper didn’t confirm if Solis had swine flu or not.

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April 24, 2009

Seven people in U.S. hit by strange new swine flu


WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Seven people have been diagnosed with a new kind of swine flu in California and Texas, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention reported on Thursday.

All seven people have recovered but the virus itself is a never-before-seen mixture of viruses typical among pigs, birds and humans, the CDC said.

"We are likely to find more cases," the CDC's Dr. Anne Schuchat told a telephone briefing. "We don't think this is time for major concern around the country."

Only one of the seven cases was sick enough to be hospitalized and all have recovered, Schuchat said.

CDC officials are unsure whether the cases are related to an unusually late and severe flu season in Mexico in which 20 people have died.

"Generally the period of infection ends during the last week of February and the first week of March, but this year there was an atypical situation where the transmission period was prolonged until April," Mexico's Ministry of Health said in a statement.

Canadian officials have asked doctors to keep an eye out for cases of respiratory illness among travelers from Mexico.

"Symptoms from those seriously ill in Mexico include high fever, headache, eye pain, shortness of breath and extreme fatigue with rapid progression of symptoms to severe respiratory distress in about five days," the British Columbia Center for Disease Control said in a statement.

In the United States, the CDC reported the new strain of swine flu on Tuesday in a boy and a girl from California's two southernmost counties.

Now, five more cases have been found via normal surveillance for seasonal influenza. None of the patients, whose symptoms closely resembled seasonal flu, had any direct contact with pigs.

Two of the new cases were among 16-year-olds at the same school in San Antonio "and there's a father-daughter pair in California," Schuchat said. The boy whose case was reported on Tuesday had flown to Dallas, but the CDC has found no links to the other Texas cases.

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April 20, 2009

WHO NEEDS FRANKENFOODS?



By: Organic Consumers Association

What's wrong with Genetic Engineering?

Genetic engineering is a radical new technology, one that breaks down fundamental genetic barriers -- not only between species, but between humans, animals, and plants. By combining the genes of dissimilar and unrelated species, permanently altering their genetic codes, novel organisms are created that will pass the genetic changes onto their offspring through heredity. Scientists are now snipping, inserting, recombining, rearranging, editing, and programming genetic material. Animal genes and even human genes are being inserted into plants or animals creating unimagined transgenic life forms. For the first time in history, human beings are becoming the architects of life. Bio-engineers will be creating tens of thousands of novel organisms over the next few years. The prospect is frightening. Genetic engineering poses unprecedented ethical and social concerns, as well as serious challenges to the environment, human health, animal welfare, and the future of agriculture. The following is just a sampling of concerns:

* Genetically engineered organisms that escape or are released from the laboratory could wreak environmental havoc. Genetically engineered "biological pollutants" have the potential to be even more destructive than chemical pollutants. Because they are alive, genetically engineered products are inherently more unpredictable than chemical products -- they can reproduce, migrate, and mutate. Once released, it will be virtually impossible to recall genetically engineered organisms back to the laboratory. A report published by 100 top American scientists warned that the release of gene-spliced organisms "...could lead to irreversible, devastating damage to the ecology."

* Gene-splicing will likely result in unanticipated outcomes and dangerous surprises. Biotechnology is an imprecise science and scientists will never be able to ensure a 100 percent success rate. Serious accidents are bound to occur. Researchers conducting experiments at Michigan State University recently found that genetically altering plants to resist viruses can cause the viruses to mutate into new, more virulent forms, or forms that can attack other plant species. Some other scary scenarios: foreign genes from genetically engineered plants could be carried by pollen, insects, wind, or rain, and flow into other crops, as well as wild and weedy relatives. Disaster would follow if genetically engineered crop traits, such as insect and virus resistance, found their way into weeds, for instance. Genetically altered plants could produce toxins and other substances that might harm birds and other animals. Genetic engineering of plants and animals will almost certainly endanger species and reduce biological diversity. By virtue of their "superior" genes, some genetically engineered plants and animals will inevitably run amok, overpowering wild species in the same way that introduced exotic species, such as kudzu vine and Dutch elm disease which have created problems in North America. What will happen to wild species, for example, when scientists release into the environment carp, salmon, and trout that are twice as large, and eat twice as much food, as their wild counterparts? Another danger lies in the creation of new kinds of crops and domesticated animals. Once researchers develop what is considered to be the "perfect tomato" or "perfect chicken" these will be the ones reproduced in large numbers; "less desirable" species would fall by the wayside. The "perfect" animals and plants could then be cloned (reproduced as exact genetic copies), reducing even further the pool of available genes on the planet.

* Genetically engineering plants to be herbicide-tolerant will lead to increased use of chemicals in agriculture and further contamination of the environment. Biotech companies love to say that genetic engineering will end the use of dangerous chemicals in agriculture. But the leaders in biotechnology are the giant chemical companies like Monsanto, Du Pont, and Rhone-Ponlenc; they aren't interested in losing profits from the sale of chemicals. These companies are genetically engineering plants to be resistant to herbicides that they manufacture so they can sell more herbicides to farmers who, in turn, can apply more poisonous herbicides to crops to kill weeds. In fact, crops genetically engineered to be herbicide-tolerant account for nearly half of the applications for field testing submitted to the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) since 1988. Even genetically engineering crops to produce their own pesticides presents dangerous problems. Pests will eventually evolve that are resistant, then stronger chemicals will be needed to get rid of the pests. And what will happen when the pesticide gene spreads to weeds and other unwanted plants?

* The genetic engineering of crops and food-producing animals can produce toxic and allergic reactions in humans. Someone allergic to peanuts or shellfish, for example, would have no way of knowing if a tomato or other food had been altered with proteins from these substances, and could have a fatal reaction by eating such genetically altered foods. In addition, genetic engineers can take proteins from bacteria they find in the soil, the ocean --- anywhere --- and incorporate them into human food. Such substances have never been in the food supply before, so their toxic or allergenic characteristics are unknown.

* Genetically engineered products do not have a good track record for human safety. In 1989 and 1990, a genetically engineered brand of L-tryptophan, a common dietary supplement, killed more than 30 Americans and permanently disabled or afflicted more than 5,000 others with a potentially fatal and painful blood disorder, eosinophilia myalgia syndrome, before it was recalled by the FDA. The manufacturer, Showa Denko K.K., Japan's third largest chemical company, had used genetically engineered bacteria to produce the over-the-counter supplement. It is believed that the bacteria somehow became contaminated during the recombinant DNA process. There were no labels on the product to identify the product as having been genetically engineered. The patenting of genetically engineered foods, and widespread biotech food production, will eliminate farming as it has been practiced since the beginning of humankind's appearance on the planet. If the trend is not stopped, the patenting of transgenic plants and food-producing animals will soon lead to tenant farming in which farmers will lease their plants and animals from biotech conglomerates and pay royalties on seeds and offspring. Eventually, within the next few decades, agriculture will move off the soil and into biosynthetic industrial factories controlled by chemical and biotech companies. Never again will people know the joy of eating naturally produced, fresh foods. Hundreds of millions of farmers and other workers worldwide will lose their livelihoods. The hope of creating a human, sustainable agricultural system will be destroyed.

* The genetic engineering and patenting of animals reduces living beings to the status of manufactured products and will result in much suffering. In January 1994, then-USDA Secretary Mike Espy announced that USDA scientists had completed genome "road maps" for cattle and pigs, a precursor to ever more experimentation on live animals. In addition to the cruelty inherent in such experimentation (the mistakes are born with painful deformities, crippled, blind, and so on), these "manufactured" creatures have no greater value to their "creators" than mechanical inventions. Animals genetically engineered for use in laboratories, such as the infamous "Harvard mouse" which contains a human cancer-causing gene that will be passed down to all succeeding generations, were created to suffer. A purely reductionist science, biotechnology reduces all life to bits of information (genetic code) that can be arranged and rearranged at whim. Stripped of their integrity and sacred qualities, animals who are merely objects to their "inventors" will be treated as such. Currently, more than 200 genetically engineered "freak" animals are awaiting patent approval from the federal government.

* No one is regulating genetically engineered organisms adequately or properly testing them for safety. In 1986, Reagan-era policymakers stitched together a patchwork of pre-existing and only marginally appropriate statutes to ease the way for new biotechnology products. But these laws were created years ago to deal with chemicals -- not the unpredictable living products of genetic engineering. To date, no suitable government apparatus has been set up to deal with this radical new class of potentially overwhelming environmental and health threats. The FDA's policy on genetically altered foods illustrates the problem. In May 1992, then Vice President Dan Quayle, and head of the Competitiveness Council, announced the U.S. Food and Drug Administration's newly developed policy on biotech foods: genetically engineered foods will not be treated differently from naturally produced foods; they will not be safety tested; they will not carry labels stating that they have been genetically engineered, nor will the government keep track of foods that have been genetically engineered. As a result, neither the government nor consumers will know which whole or processed foods have been genetically engineered. Vegetarians and followers of religious dietary restrictions face the prospect of unwittingly eating vegetables and fruits that contain genetic material from animals -- including humans. And health risks will be discovered only by trial and error -- by consumers. USDA oversight is no better. This agency has the conflicting task of both promoting and regulating agriculture, including genetically engineered plants and animals used for food. Indeed, the USDA is a primary sponsor of biotech research on plants and animals.

* By patenting the genes they discover and the living organisms they create, a small corporate elite will soon own and control the genetic heritage of the plant. Scientists who "discover" genes and ways of manipulating them can patent -- and thus own -- not only genetic engineering techniques, but the very genes themselves. Chemical, pharmaceutical, and biotech companies such as DuPont, Upjohn, Bayer, Dow, Monsanto, Cib-Geigy, and Rhone-Poulenc, are urgently trying to identify and patent plant, animal, and human genes in order to complete their take-over of agriculture, animal husbandry, and food processing. These are some of the same companies that once promised a carefree life through pesticides and plastics. Would you trust them with the blueprints of life?

* Genetic screening will likely lead to a loss of privacy and new levels of discrimination. Already, people are being denied health insurance on the basis of "faulty" genes. Will employers require genetic screening of their employees and deny them work on the basis of the results? Will the government have access to our personal genetic profiles? One can easily imagine new levels of discrimination being directed against those whose genetic profiles reveal them to be, for example, less intelligent or predisposed to developing certain illnesses.

* Genetic engineering is already being used to "improve" the human race, a practice called eugenics. Genetic screening already allows us to identify and abort fetuses who carry genes for certain hereditary disorders. But within the next decade, scientists will likely have a complete map of the human genome to work with. Will we abort fetuses on the basis of non-life-threatening impairments such as myopia, because someone is predisposed towards homosexuality, or for purely cosmetic reasons? Researchers at the University of Pennsylvania have applied for a patent to genetically alter sperm cells in animals so traits passed down from one generation to the next can be changed; the application suggests that this can be done in humans too. Moving from animal eugenics to human eugenics is one small step. Everyone wants the best for their children; but where do we stop? Inadvertently, we could soon make the efforts of the Nazis to create a "superior" race seem bumbling and inefficient.

* The U.S. military is building an arsenal of genetically engineered biological weapons. Although the creation of biological weapons for offensive purposes has been outlawed by international treaty, the U.S. continues to develop such weapons for defensive purposes. However, genetically engineered biological agents are identical whether they are used for offensive or defensive purposes. Areas of investigation for such weapons include: bacteria that can resist all antibiotics; extra-hardy, more virulent bacteria and viruses that live longer and kill faster; and new organisms that can defeat vaccines or natural human or plant resistances. Also being studied are the development of pathogens that can disrupt human hormonal balance enough to cause death, and the transformation of innocuous bacteria (such as are found in human intestines) into killers. Some experts believe that genetically engineered pathogens that can target specific racial groups are being developed as well.

* Not all scientists are sanguine about genetic engineering. Among the doubters is Erwin Chargoff, the eminent biochemist who is often referred to as the father of molecular biology. He warned that all innovation does not result in "progress". Chargoff once referred to genetic engineering as "a molecular Auschwitz" and warned that the technology of genetic engineering poses a greater threat to the world than the advent of nuclear technology. "I have the feeling that science has transgressed a barrier that should have remained inviolate," he wrote in his autobiography, Heraclitean Fire. Noting the "awesome irreversibility" of genetic engineering experiments being planned, Chargoff warned that, "...you cannot recall a new form of life... It will survive you and your children and your children's children. An irreversible attack on the biosphere is something so unheard-of, so unthinkable to previous generations, that I could only wish that mine had not been guilty of it."

What's in your water?

Obama climate adviser open to geo-engineering to tackle global warming



The global warming situation has become so dire that Barack Obama's chief scientific adviser has raised with the president the possibility of massive-scale technological fixes to alter the climate known as 'geo-engineering'.

John Holdren, who is a member of the president's cabinet, said today the drastic measures should not be "off the table" in discussions on how best to tackle climate change. While his office insisted that he was not proposing a dramatic switch in policy, Holdren said geo-engineering could not be ruled out.

"It's got to be looked at. We don't have the luxury of taking any approach off the table," Holdren said in an interview with Associated Press. He made clear these were his personal views.

The suite of mega-technological fixes includes everything from placing mirrors in space that reflect sunlight from the Earth, to fertilising the oceans with iron to encourage the growth of algae that can soak up atmospheric carbon dioxide. Another option is to seed clouds which bounce the sun's rays back into space so they do not warm the Earth's surface.

Such global-scale technological solutions to climate change may seem fantastical, but increasing numbers of scientists argue that the technologies should at least be investigated.

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UN torture investigator: Obama has broken International law


UN official suggests US courts can still try accused torturers

The United Nation’s top torture investigator has suggested it is illegal under International law for President Barack Obama to announce that the United States government has no intention of prosecuting low-level CIA officers who carried out torture sanctioned by the Bush Administration.

President Barack Obama’s release on Thursday of four Bush administration memos sanctioning torture has been widely praised. However, word that government will go so far as to offer a fully-paid legal defense for agents who applied torture techniques to terror war prisoners has triggered loud criticism.

“Like all other contracting states to the UN convention against torture, the US has committed to conduct criminal investigations of torture and to bring all persons to court against whom there is sound evidence,” Manfred Nowak, the UN’s Special Rapporteur on torture, told Austrian weekly paper Der Standard.

“They are party to the convention and the convention is very, very clear,” Nowak told the paper. “The fact that you carried out an order doesn’t relieve you of your responsibility.”

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AP IMPACT: Tons of released drugs taint US water

By JEFF DONN, MARTHA MENDOZA and JUSTIN PRITCHARD, Associated Press Writers Jeff Donn, Martha Mendoza And Justin Pritchard, Associated Press Writers – 2 hrs 34 mins ago

U.S. manufacturers, including major drugmakers, have legally released at least 271 million pounds of pharmaceuticals into waterways that often provide drinking water — contamination the federal government has consistently overlooked, according to an Associated Press investigation.

Hundreds of active pharmaceutical ingredients are used in a variety of manufacturing, including drugmaking: For example, lithium is used to make ceramics and treat bipolar disorder; nitroglycerin is a heart drug and also used in explosives; copper shows up in everything from pipes to contraceptives.

Federal and industry officials say they don't know the extent to which pharmaceuticals are released by U.S. manufacturers because no one tracks them — as drugs. But a close analysis of 20 years of federal records found that, in fact, the government unintentionally keeps data on a few, allowing a glimpse of the pharmaceuticals coming from factories.

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Celente: “America lives in a fascist state”


April 15, 2009

Fluke? Credit crisis was a heist

By Jim Jubak

It was no accident.

The folks in power in Washington and on Wall Street want to pretend that the current global financial crisis -- you know, the one that reduced household net worth in the United States by $11.2 trillion in 2008, according to the Federal Reserve -- was an accident caused by some unfortunate confluence of greed and asleep-at-the-switch regulators.

What we're now living through, though, is the result of a conscious, planned looting of the world economy. Its roots stretch back decades. And it wouldn't have been possible without the contrivances of the bought-and-paid-for folks who sit in Congress.

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Genetic fingerprint pioneer calls for innocents to be dropped from DNA database

The scientist who pioneered genetic fingerprinting, Professor Sir Alec Jeffreys, has said the government is risking losing public support for the DNA national database by holding the details of thousands of innocent people.

Prof Sir Alec, whose work more than 20 years ago revolutionised crime detection, said innocent people were effectively "branded as criminals" by the insistence of keeping genetic details on the database regardless of a conviction.

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