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The CCTV technology identifies suspicious individuals and behaviour and then acts to stamp out crimes before they happen.

When a crime looks like it is going to occur, the system will verbally warn the perpetrator and then if necessary alert the nearest police officer.

ISIS, short for Integrated Sensor Information System, is being developed by a team at Queen’s University Belfast at its Centre for Secure Information Technologies.

It is designed to work with the extensive network of CCTV cameras already installed on buses and trains as well as in stations, airports and on the street.

It centres on specially developed “computer vision technology” that analyses images picked up by CCTV and is able to profile individuals to see if they pose a risk and then to check for patterns of behaviour that may be suspicious or anti-social.

The computer constantly assesses the situation and if it becomes a major risk alerts a control room who can send out a verbal warning or alert officers nearby to stampout crimes before they occur.

Criteria that ISIS will look for are likely to include clothing such as hooded tops, sudden movements, odd behaviour such as moving seats and verbal aggression.

Metal detectors, motion detectors and even microphones could eventually be added to sharpen the system further.

“We have four million cameras across the country at present but their impact on anti-social behaviour is actually fairly negligible,” said Dr Paul Miller, who is part of the 50-strong team.

“We aim to develop a system which helps to make crime-free buses, trains, stations and airports a reality. We think it will be a strong deterrent.”

Headquartered in Crystal City, Virginia, just outside Washington, the FBI’s National Security Branch Analysis Center (NSAC) maintains a hodgepodge of data sets packed with more than 1.5 billion government and private-sector records about citizens and foreigners, the documents show, bringing the government closer than ever to implementing the “Total Information Awareness” system first dreamed up by the Pentagon in the days following the Sept. 11 attacks.

Such a system, if successful, would correlate data from scores of different sources to automatically identify terrorists and other threats before they could strike. The FBI is seeking to quadruple the known staff of the program.

Data from Chandrayaan-1 also suggests that water is still being formed on the Moon. Scientists said the breakthrough — to be announced by Nasa at a press conference today — would change the face of lunar exploration.

The discovery is a significant boost for India in its space race against China. Dr Mylswamy Annadurai, the mission’s project director at the Indian Space Research Organisation in Bangalore, said: “It’s very satisfying.”

The FBI is assisting state and local police with their investigation, the law enforcement source told The Post’s Spencer S. Hsu. The law enforcement source was unsure of the cause of death.

It is a federal crime to attack a federal worker during or because of his federal job. Sparkman was an Eagle scout who moved to southeast Kentucky to be a local director for the Boy Scouts of America, his mother told the AP. He later became a substitute teacher in Laurel County and earned extra money as a Census field worker.

The Census Bureau has suspended operations in Clay County, Ken. where Sparkman was found pending the investigation. Hundreds of thousands of temporary workers across the country walk door-to-door conducting various demographic surveys. The Census will hire more than 1 million temporary workers to conduct follow-up interviews for next year’s 2010 decennial Census.

“We are deeply saddened by the loss of our co-worker, and our thoughts and prayers are with William Sparkman’s son, other family and friends. We are monitoring the developments closely,” Commerce Secretary Gary Locke said in a statement Wednesday night. The Census Bureau is part of the Commerce Department. “Mr. Sparkman was a shining example of the hard-working men and women employed by the Census Bureau. The work they do on a daily basis is not easy but is a great and important service to our nation.”

There was no immediate comment from Census Director Robert M. Groves. Office of Personnel Management Director John Berry may also comment on the situation later today at an event in Washington. He has spoken frequently about the denigration of federal employees.

News of the apparent murder of a Census employee comes during an already busy period for the Census Bureau. Groves told a Congressional panel on Tuesday that he fears next year’s headcount will be impaired by the recession and continuing concerns about immigration. The agency also recently cut ties to the controversial community organizing group ACORN, one of more than 10,000 civic organizations, churches and corporations recruited to help increase participation in next year’s Census.

In written testimony obtained by Reuters for a U.S. congressional hearing on Thursday, Eric Kolchinsky said the firm’s credit policy group is weak and short staffed, and its analysts are “bullied” by managers who override their decisions to generate revenue.

Kolchinsky said he was suspended by Moody’s because of a warning he sent the New York-based company’s compliance group about what he believed to be a securities violation.

In a statement, Moody’s said it “takes seriously all allegations of potential impropriety” and has a strict non-retaliation policy for employees who raise complaints.

Congress and regulators are cracking down on the ratings industry, blamed for exacerbating the financial crisis by assigning top ratings to mortgage-linked securities that later crumbled as home prices fell.

Kolchinsky said Moody’s methodologies for rating complex products are inadequate and do not realistically reflect the risk of the underlying securities.

Moody’s shares slid 8.4 percent on Wednesday, closing down $1.87 at $20.49. In contrast, shares of McGraw-Hill Cos, which owns Moody’s main rival Standard & Poor’s, fell just 1.7 percent.

Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc is Moody’s largest shareholder, but has been reducing its stake over the last couple of months.

CONCERNS RAISED LONG AGO

Kolchinsky first raised concerns about the methodology for rating complex structured debt in 2007, according to a source familiar with the events and a memo Kolchinsky sent to Moody’s chief compliance officer.

Moody’s changed its methodology for rating collateralized loan obligations late in 2008, but nevertheless continued to affirm investment-grade ratings it knew would later be downgraded deep into “junk” status under the new methodology, said the source familiar with the memo.

As a result, Kolchinsky said Moody’s assigned some ratings that did not reflect all the information it had, the source said.

Kolchinsky also accused Moody’s of knowingly issuing a rating that was wrong, said the source.

He sent a 14-page memo to Moody’s chief compliance officer in 2009 about the particular methodology and rating but felt that his concerns were not taken seriously.

That memo has been submitted to the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee where Kolchinsky will be testifying on Thursday, the source said.

Four people were arrested and $5 million in U.S. and Mexican currency was seized during the raid Monday in the industrial city of Monterrey, according to an army statement. Soldiers, acting on an anonymous tip, also seized drugs, money counting machines, cell phones and five vehicles.

Monterrey and the surrounding state of Nuevo Leon, which borders Texas, have been a focus of the federal government’s crackdown on police corruption.

The cash and seized items were displayed at military barracks north of the city, with dozens of white envelopes containing some of the cash arranged in rows on a table.

Envelopes at the front of the rows had yellow post-it notes with the names of police precincts in Monterrey and other municipal forces in Nuevo Leon state. One was labeled “press.”

Army officials refused to say more about what the money was intended for, declining to comment beyond the statement.

In June, nearly 80 police officers suspected of working with drug smugglers were arrested in 18 towns across Nuevo Leon after soldiers found lists of police names in the possession of traffickers.

Since then, Monterrey police have been banned from sitting in parked cars or using cell phones while on duty because of concerns they may be acting as lookouts for gangs. Police in Mexico’s third-largest city have also been prohibited from setting up sobriety checkpoints because they allegedly used them to extort motorists.

The resort city of Cancun, meanwhile, fired 30 police officers in an effort to clean up the image of another force long plagued by corruption. Cancun Mayor Gregorio Sanchez said the city government “had lost confidence” in the work of the officers and some of them may have been working for criminal gangs.

The purge came a week after eight former top police and prosecution officials in Quintana Roo state, where Cancun is located, were ordered to stand trial on charges of aiding drug cartels.

Earlier this year, the Cancun police chief was arrested on suspicion of involvement in the assassination of an army brigadier general hired to root out corruption in the city.

Think military and you think macho, not meditation, but that’s about to change now that the Army intends to train its 1.1 million soldiers in the art of mental toughness. The Defense Department hopes that giving soldiers tools to fend off mental stress will toughen its troops at war and at home. It’s the first time mental combat is being mandated on a large scale, but a few thousand soldiers who have participated in a voluntary program called Warrior Mind Training have already gotten a taste of how strengthening the mind is way different — dare we say harder? — than pounding out the push-ups.

Warrior Mind Training is the brainchild of Ernst and two friends, who were teaching meditation and mind-training in California. In 2005, a Marine attended a class in San Diego and suggested expanding onto military bases. Ernst and her colleagues researched the military mindset, consulting with veterans who had practiced meditation on the battlefield and back home. She also delved into the science behind mind training to analyze how meditation tactics could help treat — and maybe even help prevent — post-traumatic stress disorder.

Rooted in the ancient Samurai code of self-discipline, Warrior Mind Training draws on the image of the mythic Japanese fighter, an elite swordsman who honed his battle skills along with his mental precision. The premise? Razor-sharp attention plus razor-sharp marksmanship equals fearsome warrior.

The Samurai image was selected after careful deliberation; it was certifiably anti-sissy. “We took a long time to decide how we were going to package this,” says Ernst, who moved to North Carolina in 2006 and teaches classes at Fort Bragg as well as Camp Lejeune, a Marine base near the coast. “There are a lot of ways you could describe the benefits of doing mind training and meditation. Maybe from a civilian approach we would emphasize cultivating happiness or peace. But that’s not generally what a young soldier is interested in. They want to become the best warrior they can be.”

The benefits of Warrior Mind Training, students have told instructors, are impressive: better aim on the shooting range, higher test scores, enhanced ability to handle combat stress and slip back into life at home. No comprehensive studies have been done, though a poll of 25 participants showed 70% said they felt better able to handle stressful situations and 65% had improved self-control.

The results were intriguing enough that Warrior Mind Training has been selected to participate in a University of Pittsburgh study on sleep disruption and fatigue in service members that will kick off early next year.

For now, success is measured anecdotally.

On patrol in Iraq two years ago, John Way would notice his mind straying. “Maybe I should be watching some guy over there and instead I’m thinking, ‘I’m hungry. Where’s my next Twinkie?'”

The Treasury’s $700 billion bank-investment program represents a fraction of all federal support to resuscitate the U.S. financial system, including $6.8 trillion in aid offered by the Federal Reserve, Barofsky said in a report released today.

“TARP has evolved into a program of unprecedented scope, scale and complexity,” Barofsky said in testimony prepared for a hearing tomorrow before the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform.

Treasury spokesman Andrew Williams said the U.S. has spent less than $2 trillion so far and that Barofsky’s estimates are flawed because they don’t take into account assets that back those programs or fees charged to recoup some costs shouldered by taxpayers.

“These estimates of potential exposures do not provide a useful framework for evaluating the potential cost of these programs,” Williams said. “This estimate includes programs at their hypothetical maximum size, and it was never likely that the programs would be maxed out at the same time.”

Barofsky’s estimates include $2.3 trillion in programs offered by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., $7.4 trillion in TARP and other aid from the Treasury and $7.2 trillion in federal money for Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac, credit unions, Veterans Affairs and other federal programs.

Treasury’s Comment

Williams said the programs include escalating fee structures designed to make them “increasingly unattractive as financial markets normalize.” Dependence on these federal programs has begun to decline, as shown by $70 billion in TARP capital investments that has already been repaid, Williams said.

Barofsky offered criticism in a separate quarterly report of Treasury’s implementation of TARP, saying the department has “repeatedly failed to adopt recommendations” needed to provide transparency and fulfill the administration’s goal to implement TARP “with the highest degree of accountability.”

During the mission, dubbed Operation Steel Kickoff, the Guardsmen will fall under the direction of the U.S. Secret Service and will support local, state and federal agencies. Guard members will serve as a regional response force, augment law-enforcement personnel, provide crowd and traffic control, and help with security.

“Everybody is excited and honored to participate in such a global event,” said Lt. Col. Dale Waltman of Cornwall.

Waltman, who works full-time at Fort Indiantown Gap, is the commander of 1st Battalion, 107th Field Artillery Regiment from New Castle, Lawrence County. For the G-20 Summit, he is commander of Task Force Security, comprising more than 600 Pennsylvania National Guardsmen.

Waltman arrived in New Castle on Sept. 16 to begin assembling the task force, then moved into Pittsburgh on Sunday. Since then, the soldiers and airmen of the task force have been training on a variety of different tasks, he said.

“We just reviewed some basic communication skills, and we worked on some specific equipment skills so everybody has that common knowledge,” he said.

The Guardsmen have also completed civil-disturbance and crowd-control training in anticipation of the thousands of protesters who are expected for the summit.

“We’re not anticipating that nothing is going to happen,” Waltman said. “We’ve been briefed on the possibility that there will be some protesters coming into the city, but they haven’t given us a specific number.”

Also in Pittsburgh for the summit are several members of the Fort Indiantown Gap public-affairs office. Capt. Jay Ostrich of Cornwall said the public-affairs specialists’ primary mission is to do news features on the Guardsmen taking part in the mission.

“Basically what we’re doing is helping to tell the Guard story here,” he said.

Ostrich said the public-affairs specialists could also be called to help with crowd control if needed. If that were to happen, he said, he is confident they would be able to meet any contingency.

“We’ve been side by side with the soldiers as they did their training,” Ostrich said. “We’re well prepared to defend ourselves as well, but hopefully the need doesn’t arise.”

The G-20 is a group of finance ministers and central bank governors from 20 economies: 19 of the world’s largest national economies, plus the European Union.

This week’s summit was originally planned for New York City but was changed to Pittsburgh in May. Pittsburgh was selected by the Obama administration to highlight the city’s economic recovery after the collapse of its manufacturing sector in the latter half of the 20th century.