• 
  
  
  Home
• 
  
  Backlog
  Reduction
• Laboratory
  Assessment &
  Enhancement
  Services
• 
  
  Customized
  Training
• 
  
  Biometric
  Identification
  • What is it?
  • Why Is It Important? »
    • Corporate Responsibility
  • What Is It Used For? »
    • Kidnap/Ransom
    • Disaster Situations/
                     Incident Investigation
  • Modes of Identification »
    • DNA
    • Friction Ridge Skin
    • Facial Recognition
    • Iris Capture
    • Dental X-Ray
    • Other Modes
  • Risk Assessment & Custom BI
  • FAQs
• 
  
  Other
  Services
  • Law Enforcement
  • Corporate/Insurance
• 
  
  
  Resources
• 
  
  
  About Us
  • Matt Schwarz
• 
  
  
  Contact

K&R News

2014-09-15 | Array Professors as Respondents for Wrong Identification: HC in Beas Tragedy Case
The professors had identified a male dead body found on June 19 as that of M Shiva Prakash, which was handed over to his parents. But another dead body was recovered on July 13 in decomposed state with belongings of M Shiva Prakash. The body was sent to Hyderabad and according to the report of Forensic Science Laboratory there, on the basis of DNA test, the body was that of Shiva Prakash.

2014-09-09 | Assess your risk to employee kidnapping
Kidnap and Ransom (K&R) insurance policies are relatively inexpensive and serve two main purposes: to financially reimburse companies for losses that they sustained from an event like kidnapping, extortion, hijacking and detention; and to provide priority access to highly experienced crisis response consultants, who offer invaluable advice to clients during an incident.

2014-09-03 | 'No ransom' hostage policy
Kidnapping hostages is an easy spoil, one al-Qaeda leader wrote to another in 2012, marveling over the amount of money terrorist groups can extort from the West with little effort. Indeed, al-Qaeda and its franchises have taken in more than $125 million in ransom since 2008, according to an estimate by The New York Times, including $66 million in the last year alone. The money makes terror groups bigger and more difficult to defeat — and more likely to take additional hostages.

2014-09-01 | Forensics is not just for crime solving
Identifying dead bodies is a science, said the forensic expert who led a team composed of personnel from the Department of Health, International Red Cross and Asia Foundation in Yolanda-hit Leyte and Samar provinces. “Do you have dental records or a file with your fingerprints on it?” she asked her young audience. Dentures, DNA and fingerprints were still the best ways to identify people, she said. Prosthetic devices, like hip replacements, could also be significant as they had serial numbers.

2014-08-27 | Forensic experts identify 173 victims of Malaysia Airlines crash
“I think that the fact we have gotten DNA profiles in quite a short time from three-quarters of the remains is good. But I am, of course, not satisfied,” Heijnen told reporters in The Hague. “We want more DNA profiles from remains and we will carry on to get them. It becomes, understandably, more difficult and sadly more time consuming to do that but taking care is paramount.”

2014-08-25 | James Foley's Kidnapping And Death Reveal Inconsistencies In US, European Policies
One kidnapping and ransom expert said that in not accepting the deal offered by ISIS the United States was showing the inconsistency its kidnapping policy. “You could question if there is some hypocrisy involved,” said Mike Ackerman, a former CIA operative who is now the director of the Ackerman Group, which offers expertise in counterterrorism and negotiation. “They did a prisoner swap for Bergdahl in exchange for five senior terrorist leaders. Why not Foley?”

2014-08-25 | The murky world of hostage negotiations: is the price ever right?
As the risks to westerners working abroad have increased in recent years, K&R insurance has coalesced into a formalised industry with standardised prices, procedures and middlemen. The business has also boomed. Foreign oil, mining and security firms are expanding into new territories and insurance premiums are rising – from $50m (£30m) a decade ago to at least $250m (£150m), according to British security company Control Risks, the largest and best-known crisis response firm. Increased publicity from Somali piracy and Arab spring-related kidnapping cases has accelerated this trend.

2014-08-21 | A look at govt ransom polices in US, Europe
A look at how the United States and various European nations have dealt with hostage-taking and ransom demands for their citizens in recent years:

2014-08-18 | ‘Identification of bodies was a disaster after air crash’
Eventually, out of 158 bodies, 136 were handed over, while the rest were kept until DNA results come. “Out of 22 bodies, DNA samples of just 10 claims matched. This meant that 12 bodies had been mistakenly claimed by others,” he said.

2014-08-15 | Family ‘relieved’ as MH17 victims Mary and Gerry Menke identified
Tony Abbott said the Dutch forensic investigators were working to the “highest possible standard”. “As we have watched this situation over the days and weeks since the atrocity … no-one could fail to have been moved and I guess reassured by the extraordinary dignity and solemnity with which the Dutch received our dead, and their own and the dead of other countries,” the Prime Minister said.