Three babies dead, Libya's secret chemical weapon, Hackers retaliation of SOPA and PIPA

Three babies dead after infection at Belfast hospital

On Thursday, it was revealed that two babies had died at the Royal Maternity Hospital after an outbreak of an infection called Pseudomonas. Pseudomonas is a bacteria that can cause infections in the chest, blood, and urine. The first child died on 6 January, the second on 13 January and the third on Thursday night. For security all babies in the neonatal unit have now been swabbed for the infection however the results are not yet in. the babies who were in the neonatal unit will be moved “within the next few hours” at which point the unit will undergo a “deep clean”. There is now an effort under way to identify the source of the Pseudomonas infection. The bacteria itself it is not infectious, but it exists in water or where things are moist. The health minister said identifying the source was a priority.

Libya's Muammar Gaddafi had chemical weapon cache

Former Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi had an undeclared stockpile of chemical weapons, the body that oversees a global ban. The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) stated that inspectors visited Libya this week. Among the chemical munitions they found were stocks of sulfur mustard agent, which can cause severe blistering. It said Gaddafi's government had succeeded in destroying 54% of its declared sulfur mustard and about 40% of the precursor chemicals before operations had to be suspended in February 2011 when the destruction facility stopped working. Libya now has until 29 April 2012 to submit a detailed plan and a date by which the destruction of the materials will be completed. However, delays on action to meet such a goal by other major stockpilers and signatories - including the US and Russia - means that it is highly unlikely this deadline will be met.

Hackers retaliate over Megaupload website shutdown

The Department of Justice (DoJ), FBI and the Motion Picture Association of America (MPAA) among others have been bombarded with internet traffic. Web links have been been distributed which, when clicked, make the user's computer part of the attack. The DoJ announced on Thursday that it had taken action to force Megaupload and related domain names offline, and had charged the firm's co-founders and others with violating piracy laws. Four of the employees have been arrested in Auckland, New Zealand, at the request of the US authorities. It said that 10 sites had been taken offline in response to the Megaupload shutdown including the FBI, Universal Music, RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) and Hadopi - the French government agency responsible for "protecting creative works on the internet". It noted that such attacks were illegal, meaning that users taking part in the action were breaking the law.