31st August 2010

Problem bank list climbs to 829
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- The government's list of troubled banks hit its highest level since 1993 during the second quarter, although the pace of growth continued to slow, according to a government report released Tuesday. The number of banks at risk of failing rose by 53 to 829, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said in its quarterly survey of the nation's banking system. That increase marks the smallest rise since the first quarter of 2009. However, it's still nearly double the 416 banks that were on the FDIC's watch list a year ago and is up from 775 in the first quarter of this year… So far this year, 118 banks have failed, with 45 closings during the last quarter.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/08/31/news/companies/fdic_problem_bank_list/ 

Al-Maliki: 'Iraq today is sovereign and independent'
BAGHDAD — Iraq's prime minister said the country had won sovereignty and stood as an equal to the United States after the U.S. military formally ended combat operations on Tuesday, despite political deadlock and violence. U.S. troop numbers were cut to 50,000 in advance of the Aug. 31 milestone... The six remaining U.S. military brigades will turn their focus to training and advising Iraqi police and troops as Iraq takes responsibility for its own destiny ahead of a full withdrawal of U.S. forces by the end of next year. "Iraq today is sovereign and independent," Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told Iraqis in a televised address to mark the U.S. forces' shift to assisting rather than leading the fight against a Sunni Islamist insurgency and Shiite militia. "With the execution of the troop pullout, our relations with the United States have entered a new stage between two equal, sovereign countries." Obama promised war-weary U.S. voters he would extricate the United States from the war, launched by Bush with the stated aim of destroying Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. No such weapons were found. Almost a trillion dollars have been spent and more than 4,400 U.S. soldiers and over 100,000 Iraqi civilians killed since the 2003 invasion.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38930385/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

Video: U.S. Drawdown from Iraq Leaves Void – Analyst Kamran Bokhari looks at the implications of the U.S. drawdown in Iraq and Washington’s strategy for countering Iranian ambitions in the region. (http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100831_dispatch_us_drawdown_iraq_leaves_void)

 30th August 2010

France, Egypt want Med Union summit to underpin Mideast talks
The presidents of France and Egypt met on Monday in Paris to discuss how a planned November summit of the Mediterranean Union could contribute to a Middle East peace accord after the resumption of direct Israeli – Palestinian talks.
AP - The presidents of France and Egypt want a planned November summit of leaders from around the Mediterranean to underpin a possible Middle East peace accord. French President Nicolas Sarkozy says “new hope presents itself” with the resumption of direct talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders later this week in Washington. Sarkozy hosted Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak for talks Monday in Paris and insisted afterward that “no one can make peace alone in the Middle East.” They also discussed the Union for the Mediterranean summit in Barcelona planned for November. Sarkozy also said the group of 27 European Union nations and 16 southern Mediterranean and Middle East countries could encourage talks toward Mideast peace.
http://www.france24.com...

'I hope to find a brave partner as Begin found in Sadat'
Netanyahu gives speech to Likud supporters ahead of trip to Washington for peace talks, says Israel will not be satisfied by only "papers and promises" but is ready to seek a "real peace." Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu sought to create a strong image at a meeting with Likud party supporters on Monday, giving his last speech before he leaves to Washington for peace talks. The prime minister was keen to cast himself in the role of his famous Likud predecessor and peacemaker, Menahem Begin, as someone strong enough to create a permanent peace. "I can do that [achieve peace] better than anyone else. Likud supports real peace," said Netanyahu. "Only a Likud government can bring a peace agreement that will guarantee the security of Israel forever."
http://www.jpost.com/Israel/Article.aspx?id=186490 

'PA to have state institutions in year'
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad announced his intention to continue moving forward with the second year of a two-year program of institutional capacity-building to lay the groundwork for a future Palestinian state at a cabinet meeting held in Ramallah on Monday. A document released by Fayyad's office forecasted that the PA would complete all the major reforms and initiatives necessary for the creation of an independent state within the coming year.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=186474 

Comment: Naysayers Are Not Always Right – An Israeli prime minister widely described as a hawk, and an Arab leader perilously isolated and reviled by the radicals, enter into peace talks—what chance do they have of succeeding? Not much, according to many commentators writing about the relaunch of direct talks in Washington this week between Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. The former, say the skeptics, is too unyielding to strike a historic deal, and the latter too fragile. And yet, a similar situation existed more than 30 years ago when Menachem Begin, Israel’s famously hardline leader, met at Camp David with Egyptian president Anwar Sadat, whom the rejectionist Arab states had labeled a traitor. Begin and Sadat surprised the naysayers by reaching a peace accord that has endured through many Middle East crises. Netanyahu and Abbas can triumph as well, provided that the spirit of Camp David is preserved.
(http://www.newsweek.com/2010/08/28/how-israel-views-the-upcoming-peace-talks.html)

Bible: 1 Thessalonians 5 – 1But of the times and the seasons, brethren, ye have no need that I write unto you. 2For yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord so cometh as a thief in the night. 3For when they shall say, Peace and safety; then sudden destruction cometh upon them, as travail upon a woman with child; and they shall not escape. 4But ye, brethren, are not in darkness, that that day should overtake you as a thief. (please refer to ‘The Day of the Lord cometh…’ booklet at http://www.fcogl.org...)

Roadside bombs kill 7 U.S. troops in Afghanistan
KABUL — Two separate roadside bomb attacks in Afghanistan killed seven U.S. service members in southern Afghanistan Monday, NATO said. The deaths bring to 14 the number of U.S. troops killed in action in eastern and southern Afghanistan over the past three days. A spike in U.S. troop numbers in Afghanistan to over 120,000 has brought increased fighting and a rising death toll. Forty-nine U.S. service members have died in Afghanistan this month.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38917373/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/ 

Video: Deadly month for Americans in Afghanistan – In an ominous new tactic, some Afghan insurgents are dressing in American uniforms purchased in Kabul or other towns. Over the past months, 49 Americans have died. NBC's Tom Aspell reports.
(http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38917373/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/)

29th August 2010

Pakistan survivors stalked by disease as waters ebb
ISLAMABAD (Reuters) - A month after torrential monsoon rains triggered Pakistan's worst natural disaster on record, flood waters are starting to recede -- but there are countless survivors at risk of death from hunger and disease. The disaster has killed at least 1,643 people, forced more than six million from their homes, inflicted billions of dollars of damage to infrastructure and the vital agriculture sector and stirred anger against the U.S.-backed government which has struggled to cope. Despite generally lower water levels, officials said they were still battling to save the delta town of Thatta, 70 km (45 miles) east of Karachi, in the southern province of Sindh. Water has broken the banks of the Indus near Thatta and also topped a feeder canal running off the river… Sindh relief commissioner Riaz Ahmed Soomro said about 95 percent of the delta town's 300,000 residents had already fled.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSSGE67S010 

Thousands affected by flooding in southern Mexico
VILLAHERMOSA, Mexico — Authorities in Mexico's Gulf coast state of Tabasco are evacuating about 7,000 people and preparing to dig relief channels to avoid further flooding from the Grijalva River. Weeks of steady rains have caused a half-dozen rivers to overflow, partially flooding the homes or croplands of more than 60,000 people in about 200 towns. Dams in the area are near capacity. The federal government has declared a state of emergency for 12 low-laying Tabasco townships, freeing emergency funds.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38904950/ns/world_news-americas/ 

Thousands flee as long-sleepy Sumatra volcano erupts
JAKARTA (Reuters) - Thousands of Indonesians were evacuated from the slopes of a volcano on Sunday after it erupted for the first time in more than 400 years, spewing out lava and sending smoke and dust 1,500 metres (5,000 feet) into the air. Mount Sinabung, in the north of the island of Sumatra, began erupting around midnight after rumbling for several days, prompting some villagers to panic before the mass evacuation got under way. Indonesia is on the so-called Pacific Rim of Fire, an arc of volcanoes and geological fault lines triggering frequent earthquakes around the Pacific Basin. The eruption triggered the highest red volcano alert… "This is the first time since 1600 that Sinabung has erupted and we have little knowledge in terms on its eruptive patterns," said Surono, head of Indonesia's vulcanology centre. Authorities took at least 12,000 people from high risk areas on the slopes of the 2,460-metre volcano to temporary shelters. Local TV showed showed women and children wearing face masks in cramped tents. The area around the volcano is largely agricultural.
http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/SGE67S011.htm 

28th August 2010

Iraq on highest alert for terror attacks
BAGHDAD — Iraq's prime minister put his nation on its highest level of alert for terror attacks, warning of plots to sow fear and chaos as the U.S. combat mission in the country formally ends on Tuesday. The Iraqi security forces who will be left in charge have been hammered by bomb attacks, prompting fears of a new insurgent offensive and criticism of the government's preparedness to protect its people. Still, President Barack Obama left no doubt Saturday in his weekly radio address that the U.S. is sticking to its promise to pull out of Iraq despite the uptick in violence. In a statement to state-run television, Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said Iraqi intelligence indicated an al-Qaida front group and members of Saddam Hussein's outlawed Baath party are collaborating to launch attacks "to create fear and chaos and kill more innocents." "We direct the Iraqi forces, police and army and other security forces, to take the highest alert and precautionary measures to foil this criminal planning," al-Maliki said in the statement issued late Friday. A senior Iraqi intelligence official on Saturday said security forces believe suicide bombers have entered the country with plans to strike unspecified targets in Baghdad by month's end.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38894060/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/ 

27th August 2010

Iran: 25 Kilograms of 20 Percent Enriched Uranium Produced
Iran has made 25 kilograms (55 pounds) of 20 percent enriched uranium for its Tehran medical reactor, Iranian representative to the International Atomic Energy Agency Ali Akbar Salehi said Aug. 27, DPA reported. Iran is attempting to finish its fuel producing site by September 2011 so that it may convert the uranium into fuel rods, Salehi said. Iran could produce 5 kilograms of uranium enriched to 20 percent each month, he added.
http://www.stratfor.com/sitrep/20100827_iran_25_kilograms_20_percent_enriched_uranium_produced 

Cold empties Bolivian rivers of fish
Antarctic cold snap kills millions of aquatic animals in the Amazon
With high Andean peaks and a humid tropical forest, Bolivia is a country of ecological extremes. But during the Southern Hemisphere's recent winter, unusually low temperatures in part of the country's tropical region hit freshwater species hard, killing an estimated 6 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles and river dolphins. Scientists who have visited the affected rivers say the event is the biggest ecological disaster Bolivia has known, and, as an example of a sudden climatic change wreaking havoc on wildlife, it is unprecedented in recorded history... The extraordinary quantity of decomposing fish flesh has polluted the waters of the Grande, Pirai and Ichilo rivers to the extent that local authorities have had to provide alternative sources of drinking water for towns along the rivers' banks.
http://www.nature.com/news/2010/100827/full/news.2010.437.html 

World markets slump amid growing economic fears
LONDON — World markets slumped on Friday as investors awaited confirmation of what many people have felt for some time: The U.S. economy barely has a pulse. Investors fretful about a slowing global recovery were awaiting a speech by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke as well as revised U.S. economic growth data for the second quarter that is expected to confirm the slowing pace of the economic recovery. Signs world growth is losing momentum have rattled world markets in recent weeks. Investors were awaiting guidance from Bernanke, who is expected to give insight on whether the Fed will support the struggling economy with fresh injections of cash. His comments on the U.S. economy, the world's largest, might give investors some insight into how deep the slowdown will be. The revised U.S. economic growth data for the second quarter is expected to confirm the slowing pace of the economic recovery, in the wake of this week's bleak housing data.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38877175/ns/business-world_business 

UK faces new wave of homegrown attacks: report
(Reuters) - Britain faces a new wave of attacks from poorly trained but highly motivated homegrown militants, as the al Qaeda threat shifts from big, sophisticated bomb plots to acts by individuals, a report said on Friday. A shift in al Qaeda tactics, the growing radicalization of Muslims in prisons and a foreign policy that "serves to focus alienation and resentment," was fuelling the threat, the study by the Royal United Services Institute think tank argued. "The conditions are all there for a series of attacks that could begin at any time," said the report, co-authored by the Director of RUSI, Professor Michael Clarke, who has advised the government on security matters. There have been 20 significant Islamist plots against Britain since 2000. Only one has been successful, the July 2005 London bombings by four young Britons which killed 52 people. More than 230 people have been jailed for planning attacks. Britain is on its second highest threat level of "severe," meaning a terrorist attack is considered to be highly likely, and the RUSI report said Britain had more to fear than any other Western country from homegrown terrorism.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67Q06820100827 

26th August 2010

Iran: Unusual Emergency Landings in Turkey
A Mahan Air-operated Airbus A300 passenger flight from Tehran to Dusseldorf, Germany, made an emergency landing at Ataturk International Airport in Istanbul at 10:02 a.m. local time... Approximately one hour later, an Iran Air-operated A300 flying from Tehran to Stockholm, identified on the Iran Air website as flight 763, reported technical problems with an engine in Bulgarian airspace... also made a successful technical landing at Ataturk International Airport... The incidents are noteworthy, as it is highly unusual for two aircraft to have to make emergency landings within an hour of one another and even more unusual that both flights originated from the same airport. These incidents may simply be representative of Iran’s inability to maintain its commercial aircraft under the weight of sanctions and financial restrictions, but given Iran’s ongoing confrontation with the West over its nuclear program, ulterior motives for the landings cannot be ruled out.
http://www.stratfor.com...

Massive solar storm to hit Earth in 2012 with 'force of 100m bombs'
Melbourne (ANI): Astronomers are predicting that a massive solar storm, much bigger in potential than the one that caused spectacular light shows on Earth earlier this month, is to strike our planet in 2012 with a force of 100 million hydrogen bombs. Several US media outlets have reported that NASA was warning the massive flare this month was just a precursor to a massive solar storm building that had the potential to wipe out the entire planet's power grid... Similar storms back in 1859 and 1921 caused worldwide chaos, wiping out telegraph wires on a massive scale. The 2012 storm has the potential to be even more disruptive. "The general consensus among general astronomers (and certainly solar astronomers) is that this coming Solar maximum (2012 but possibly later into 2013) will be the most violent in 100 years," News.com.au quoted astronomy lecturer and columnist Dave Reneke as saying. "A bold statement and one taken seriously by those it will affect most, namely airline companies, communications companies and anyone working with modern GPS systems. "They can even trip circuit breakers and knock out orbiting satellites, as has already been done this year," added Reneke. No one really knows what effect the 2012-2013 Solar Max will have on today's digital-reliant society. Dr Richard Fisher, director of NASA's Heliophysics division, told Reneke the super storm would hit like "a bolt of lightning", causing catastrophic consequences for the world's health, emergency services and national security unless precautions are taken. NASA said that a recent report by the National Academy of Sciences found that if a similar storm occurred today, it could cause "1 to 2 trillion dollars in damages to society's high-tech infrastructure and require four to 10 years for complete recovery".
http://in.news.yahoo.com/139/20100826/981/tsc-massive-solar-storm-to-hit-earth-in_1.html 

Scarcity of jobs puts more at risk of foreclosure
WASHINGTON (AP) - One in 10 American households with a mortgage is at risk of losing its home, and the foreclosure crisis could worsen if jobs remain scarce. About 9.9 percent of homeowners had missed at least one mortgage payment as of June 30, the Mortgage Bankers Association said Thursday. That number, adjusted for seasonal factors, was barely down from a record-high of more than 10 percent as of April 30. The Labor Department said requests for unemployment benefits fell sharply last week. The drop in first-time claims to a seasonally adjusted 473,000 was the first decline in a month and a hopeful sign after a raft of dismal economic reports. Still, unemployment claims remain much higher than they would be in a healthy economy. Employers are reluctant to hire as economic growth appears to be slowing.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9HRAKKO0&show_article=1

25th August 2010

Iraq: Serial Bombings Across the Country
Militants conducted (at the latest count) 34 attacks in 16 cities across Iraq on Aug. 25 that have killed 77 people so far and wounded nearly 400 more. Five attacks took place in Baghdad alone. Most of the attacks targeted the police and military (27 of the dead are security forces), but markets and neighborhoods also were attacked. The attacks appear to have started approximately 8 a.m. local time and continued through the morning rush hour period. The purpose of these attacks could have been to send a message that militants can still strike anywhere in Iraq... Attacking such an expansive set of targets simultaneously indicates that a significant number of cells were involved. The coordinated timing of these attacks implies a significant amount of prior planning, though the extent of joint planning and coordination (rather than simply an agreement to strike at a certain time) remains unclear. The timing of the attacks is also auspicious — a day after the United States announced that it had reached its drawdown objective for the end of August.
http://www.stratfor.com...

Comment: Reflections on Iraq and the American Grand Strategy – On Tuesday, the number of uniformed U.S. military personnel in Iraq officially dropped below 50,000 for the first time since the opening days of the 2003 American-led invasion. But despite a relatively peaceful drawdown over the course of 2010 — ongoing militant attacks across the country notwithstanding — the situation in Iraq remains extraordinarily tenuous and the American position in the wider region remains uncertain... A lack of planning and adequate preparation for following through with non-military means to ensure the desired political outcome meant that while the intermediate military objective of seizing Baghdad was achieved, the ultimate political objective was not. That desired outcome must be understood in the context of three key regional balances of power. The United States has long relied on managing and manipulating the Israeli-Arab, the Persian-Arab (the now-wildly off-kilter Iraqi-Iranian balance) and Indo-Pakistani rivalries to ensure its interests in the Muslim world from the Mediterranean to the Hindu Kush. The United States gambled on the Iraqi-Iranian balance of power in the hopes of establishing a stalwart ally in the region, thereby shifting the balance heavily in its favor. But Washington lost the gamble it made on Iraq’s post-invasion fate. Seven years on, the United States is now struggling to prevent the opposite outcome from what was originally intended, to limit the extent of Iranian influence with the regime in Baghdad. The implications of failing to install a stable, pro-American government in Baghdad — or even the now much-tempered and as of yet unconsolidated goal of establishing a relatively self-sufficient and neutral regime — are only now beginning to play out. The single most powerful American hedge against Iranian influence in the region since the invasion has been the U.S. military presence in Iraq, which is currently set to draw to a complete close in 16 months’ time. And present-day Iraq, even if it manages to avoid Iranian domination, is ill-prepared and ill-suited to serve as a counterbalance to a resurgent and emboldened Persia anytime soon.
(http://www.stratfor.com...)

Video: Security analyst Ben West examines the Aug. 25 militant response to the U.S. drawdown of forces in Iraq. (http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100825_dispatch_coordinated_attacks_across_iraq)

Withdrawal timeline 'invigorates' Taliban, Afghan officials say
KABUL — The Obama administration's plan to start withdrawing troops from Afghanistan in the summer of 2011 is giving a morale boost to the Taliban, Afghan officials said Wednesday, echoing remarks made by a top U.S. military official a day earlier. "This is giving more reason and propaganda for the anti-government elements to prolong the fight," Afghan Defense Ministry spokesman Zahir Azimy said of President Barack Obama's timetable on Wednesday, according to Reuters. "Such assertions could be used in favor of insurgents for ... empowering their forces and giving reasons to fight," he said. "The withdrawal should be based on the capability of the Afghan security forces." U.S. Marine Corps General James Conway said on Tuesday that plan to start withdrawing American troops in July 2011 had likely energized the Taliban. Conway claimed Obama’s timeline to begin withdrawal is "giving the enemy sustenance" by sending the message that all they have to do is wait for the Americans to leave to take over control of Afghanistan… He acknowledged that Americans are "growing tired of the war" in Afghanistan. Pointing out that 60 percent of Americans polled recently are against the war, Conway said America's "leadership has to do a better job of explaining the last chapter" of the war and the consequences should the U.S. abruptly pull out of Afghanistan.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38848589/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

Survived Pakistan's floods, but killed by disease
Mother of four fell sick; 'after 12 or 14 hours she was dead,' brother says. Tauda, a mother of four, fell sick with stomach cramps and diarrhea in a camp for flood victims on Tuesday. Less than 14 hours later, she died. "We think it was because of the water," said her brother, Mohammad Hashim, as he prepared to bury her on Wednesday. With some 6 million people made homeless by Pakistan's floods, many of them living in appalling conditions, fears are growing that many could die from sickness and hunger.The government has warned of the spread of epidemics, and particularly of the risk of water-borne diseases.Tauda had been living in one of the better camps that have sprung up around Sukkur, the main city in Sindh province's rice-growing belt, much of which is under water.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38849381/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/

Hamas' large-scale terror plot sets off high Israel, Palestinian alerts
The belligerent speech delivered by Hamas' Damascus-based political leader Khaled Meshaal Tuesday, Aug. 24 only confirmed the information reaching Israel and the Palestinian Authority intelligence services that the extremist Palestinian group is set for large-scale terror attacks against Israeli and Palestinian West Bank targets. DEBKAfile's intelligence and counter-terror sources report Hamas is setting its sights on torpedoing the direct Israel-Palestinian negotiations Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas are to launch in Washington on Sept. 2. Hamas is said by our sources to be preparing to activate its West Bank networks for coordinated strikes against a major target inside Israel and another associated with Abbas' power base or the US- and British-trained Palestinian security forces. However, if those networks are thwarted by the preventive measures set in motion meanwhile, Hamas will resort to attacks from the Gaza Strip which it controls or further South from Sinai, across the leaky Egyptian-Israeli border. Hamas last attacked Israel on Aug. 2, sending a cell from its military wing, the Izzedin al-Qassam Brigades, to infiltrate Sinai through the arms tunnels running under the Gaza-Sinai border for a rocket attack on the twin Red Sea towns of Israeli Eilat and Jordanian Aqaba. This attack was more extensive than admitted at the time. Our military sources report that seven Iranian-made Grade missiles were fired, hitting the two towns. Two also knocked over two Egyptian military observation towers on the Israeli border and left casualties.Israeli and Palestinian security officials do not rule out a Hamas strike from Lebanon or even from the Mediterranean Sea…. The direct talks with Israel, he said, aimed at "liquidating" the Palestinian cause. Meshaal's speech was the last straw, Palestinian and other Arab intelligence officials said Wednesday: The breach between him and Mahmoud Abbas must be seen as final and irrevocable.
http://www.debka.com/article/8989/

24th August 2010

Economy Caught in Depression, Not Recession: Rosenberg
Positive gross domestic product readings and other mildly hopeful signs are masking an ugly truth: The US economy is in a 1930s-style Depression, Gluskin Sheff economist David Rosenberg said Tuesday. Writing in his daily briefing to investors, Rosenberg said the Great Depression also had its high points, with a series of positive GDP reports and sharp stock market gains. But then as now, those signs of recovery were unsustainable and only provided a false sense of stability, said Rosenberg. Rosenberg calls current economic conditions "a depression, and not just some garden-variety recession," and notes that any good news both during the initial 1929-33 recession and the one that began in 2008 triggered "euphoric response." "Such is human nature and nobody can be blamed for trying to be optimistic; however, in the money management business, we have a fiduciary responsibility to be as realistic as possible about the outlook for the economy and the market at all times," he said. The 1929-33 recession saw six quarterly bounces in GDP with an average gain of 8 percent, sending the stock market to a 50 percent rally in early 1930 as investors thought the worst had passed. "False premise," Rosenberg said. "And guess what? We may well be reliving history here. If you're keeping score, we have recorded four quarterly advances in real GDP, and the average is only 3%.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38831550

23rd August 2010

Talks to Resume: US Wants Deal in One Year
The United States on Friday announced that direct talks between Israel and the Palestinian Authority would resume at the beginning of September. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said that she invited Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and PA chief Mahmoud Abbas “to relaunch direction negotiations to resolve all final status issues, which we believe can be completed within one year.” The talks will kick off with a peace summit, which Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak and Jordan's King Abdullah will also attend. World leaders praised the renewed talks, with United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-moon saying in a statement Saturday that “we should all be aware that this is an opportunity that must not be wasted.” EU leaders made similar statements, with German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle that “it's now up to the two parties to look ahead and have the courage to find solutions for all the key open questions.”
http://www.israelnationalnews.com...

Ground Zero Imam Says U.S. Worse than al-Qaeda
New audio has surfaced of the imam behind the controversial mosque near Ground Zero allegedly telling an audience overseas that the United States has been far more deadly than al-Qaeda. "We tend to forget, in the West, that the United States has more Muslim blood on its hands than al-Qaeda has on its hands of innocent non Muslims," Feisal Abdul Rauf said at a 2005 lecture sponsored by the University of South Australia. After discussing the U.S.-led sanctions against Iraq under Saddam Hussein, Rauf went on to argue that America is to blame for its testy relationship with Islamic countries. "What complicates the discussion, intra-Islamically, is the fact that the West has not been cognizant and has not addressed the issues of its own contribution to much injustice in the Arab and Muslim world." The audio was uncovered by blogger Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs.
http://www.humanevents.com/article.php?id=38673

22nd August 2010

Moderate quake off Greece
ATHENS - A MODERATE earthquake of 5.4 magnitude hit an area in the Ionian Sea off the coast of Greece on Sunday without causing casualties or major damage, Greek and US authorities reported. The epicentre of the tremor, which occurred at 1023 GMT (6.23pm S'pore time), was located near the island of Zante, 329 kilometres west of Athens, seismologists at the Athens observatory said. There were no casualties and no significant damage, local authorities said. The quake was felt most strongly on Zante, local police said. The US Geological Survey rated the magnitude as 5.6.
http://www.straitstimes.com/BreakingNews/World/Story/STIStory_569542.html

Nearly 260,000 flee flooding along China-North Korea border
Nearly 260,000 people in northeastern China and North Korea have fled their homes as heavy rains caused the Yalu River to swell over its banks, state news outlets in those countries reported Sunday.
Most of those evacuated were in China, where the state news agency Xinhua said 253,500 people had to evacuate. China's flood control authorities said later Sunday that the river had dropped below warning levels -- but more rain was forecast, which was expected to hamper flood control work, Xinhua said. Authorities warned the danger had not yet passed.
At least four people have died in the region since Thursday and 48 townships flooded in Dandong, Liaoning province, Xinhua said. One person was missing. No new casualties were reported Sunday, Xinhua said.
http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/asiapcf/08/22/china.flooding/#fbid=A1SkOwHjRgW&wom=false

Iran unveils bomber drone that aims to deliver peace and friendship
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says craft has 'main message of peace and friendship' but is intended to deter aggression. Iran has unveiled an unmanned, long-distance bomber drone described by the country's president, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, as "an ambassador of death" to Tehran's enemies. At a ceremony today, Ahmadinejad said the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) – named Karrar, meaning "striker" in Persian – had "a main message of peace and friendship" but was intended to deter aggression "and keep the enemy paralysed in his bases". The presentation came as technicians began fuelling the Islamic republic's first nuclear power station, at Bushehr, in a development Israel has described as "totally unacceptable".
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/22/mahmoud-ahmadinejad-iran-bomber-drone

Tropical Storm Frank forms off Mexico's coast
MIAMI — Tropical Storm Frank has formed in the Pacific off Mexico, and storm warnings have been issued for parts of the coast. Forecasters at the National Hurricane Center in Miami said Sunday that the storm had maximum sustained winds of 50 mph (85 kph). It was about 140 miles (225 km) south-southeast of Puerto Angel, Mexico. It was moving west at 7 mph (11 kph). Mexico has issued a tropical storm warning for the coast from Puerto Angel west to Punta Maldonado. Watches also were in effect for parts of the coast. Frank was forecast to move parallel to Mexico's coast and could become a hurricane in the next couple of days. Meanwhile, a tropical depression was still far from land as it moved west across the Atlantic. It also could become a hurricane in the coming days.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gVWjsPEiqe1tEu2mhBIRaxxGi8owD9HOM1F81

Somalia rebels looking increasingly like Taliban
Men are forced to grow beards. Women can't leave home without a male relative. Music, movies and watching sports on TV are banned. Limbs are chopped off as punishment, and executions by stoning have become a public spectacle. Somalia is looking more and more like Afghanistan under the Taliban — two rugged countries 2,000 miles apart, each lacking a central government, each with a hard-line Islamist militia that cows the public into submission. Al-Shabab in Somalia and the Taliban in Afghanistan — their tactics increasingly mirror each other. Those tactics worked for the Taliban until the U.S. invasion overthrew it in 2001, and now they are making a comeback. Meanwhile, al-Shabab has gained control over large swaths of this arid Horn of Africa country.In the latest adoption of tactics long used by the Afghan militants, al-Shabab is ordering households in southern Somalia to contribute a boy to the militants' ranks. Childless families have to pay al-Shabab $50 a month. That's Somalia's per capita income…"One more thing we deeply share is the hatred of infidels," the commander, Abu Dayib, told The Associated Press.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5hyhXBRG_5y9tMRW6iL6qsKcNSlpAD9HOA2200

'Al-Qaida prepares for Israel-Iran war'
Al-Qaida is ready to exploit a war "by the Jews against Iran," the Sunni group's second-in-command in Yemen, Saeed al-Shehri, said in an audio message this month, according to the Daily Beast. The mostly Shi'ite nation of Iran is an enemy to Al-Qaida, and al-Shehri predicted that after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear installations, Iran would blame Saudi Arabia - which reports say may let Israel fly through its airspace to attack Iran - and use the opportunity to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia.
Al-Shehri said Israel would then seize territory from surrounding Arab nations to establish "the greater state of Israel," and the Sunni Arab population of the Middle East would be trapped between the “Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula," the Daily Beast reported. According to the Daily Beast, Al-Qaida would benefit from an Israel-Iran war because if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear installations, Iran would use its proxies to lash back at Americans in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=185413

21st August 2010

Over 50,000 evacuated as floods hit northeast China
More than 50,000 people have so far been evacuated from a city in northeastern China after flooding from a rain-swollen river that also borders North Korea, the official Xinhua News Agency said on Saturday. Homes and roads in Dandong city have been submerged under the water after the Yalu River, which runs between China and North Korea, broke its banks, Xinhua reported. Heavy rain began pounding the area from early Friday cutting off some power and communication lines. China's National Meteorological Center also warned on Saturday that torrential rains will hit China's northeastern, central and southwestern regions in the next 24 hours. On Tuesday, China's state media reported that heavy rains in western China have killed at least another 51 people, adding to the more than 2,000 people who have died in flooding and landslides nationwide so far this year.The Yalu is one of two main rivers dividing China from diplomatically isolated North Korea.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67K0JE20100821

Flooding submerges new towns in Pakistan's south
SUKKUR, Pakistan -- About 150,000 Pakistanis were forced to move to higher ground as floodwaters from a freshly swollen Indus River submerged dozens more towns and villages in the south, a government spokesman said Saturday. Officials expect the floodwaters will recede nationwide in the next few days as the last river torrents empty into the Arabian Sea. Survivors may find little left when they return home, however: The waters have washed away houses, roads, bridges and crops vital to livelihoods. Already, 600,000 people are in relief camps set up in Sindh province during the flooding over the past month. As the latest surge approached, "
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/21/AR2010082100282.html

Israel: Iran's Bushehr nuclear plant totally unacceptable
As fueling of Iranian nuclear facility begins, Ahmadinejad warns that a strike on Iran would be answered with "harsh and painful" response; US: Plant does not pose proliferation risk. With Iranian and Russian engineers loading fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant at Bushehr on Saturday, Israel expressed astonishment at how a country that completely thumbs its nose at the world regarding its nuclear program will be able to enjoy the benefits of nuclear energy. "It is totally unacceptable that a country that blatantly violates decisions of the United Nations Security Council and the International Atomic Energy Agency, and ignores its commitment to the Non-Proliferation Treaty charter, will enjoy the fruits of using nuclear energy," Foreign Ministry spokesman Yossi Levy said. "The international community," he added, "must increase pressure on Iran, so that it will obey international decisions, halt its activity in the field of enrichment and construction of heavy water reactors, and will fully reply to the accusations raised against it."
The Foreign Ministry was pointedly making no reference to the Russian involvement in the reactor, an apparent effort not to say anything that could in any way complicate Israel's relations with Moscow.
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=185512

20th August 2010

Iran broadcasts missile launch on state television
Iran has test fired a surface-to-surface missile, according to the country’s defence minister Ahmad Vahidi’s announcement comes a day before Iran is scheduled to launch its Russian-built first nuclear power plant in the southern port city of Bushehr. Television images showed the sand coloured Qiam (Rising) blasting into the air from a desert terrain, amid chants of “Allahu Akbar” (God is greatest). The words “Ya Mahdi” were written on the side of the missile, referring to Imam Mahdi, one of the 12 imams of Shiite Islam, who disappeared as a boy and whom the faithful believe will return one day to bring redemption to mankind. Mr Vahidi, who was speaking during Friday prayers in Tehran, did not say when the launch took place nor did he disclose the precise range of the missile. “The missile has new technical aspects and has a unique tactical capacity,” he said on state television, adding that the device was of a “new class.” “Since the surface-to-surface missile has no wings, it has lot of tactical power, which also reduces the chances of it being intercepted,” he said. On Tuesday, Mr Vahidi had said that Qiam was to be test fired during the annual government week, the period when Tehran touts its achievements in various fields. This year government week begins on Monday.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk...

'Al-Qaida prepares for Israel-Iran war'
Report: Al-Shehri warns against "the greater state of Israel."
Al-Qaida is ready to exploit a war "by the Jews against Iran," the Sunni group's second-in-command in Yemen, Saeed al-Shehri, said in an audio message this month, according to the Daily Beast. The mostly Shi'ite nation of Iran is an enemy to Al-Qaida, and al-Shehri predicted that after Israel attacked Iranian nuclear installations, Iran would blame Saudi Arabia - which reports say may let Israel fly through its airspace to attack Iran - and use the opportunity to seize the holy cities of Mecca and Medina in Saudi Arabia. Al-Shehri said Israel would then seize territory from surrounding Arab nations to establish "the greater state of Israel," and the Sunni Arab population of the Middle East would be trapped between the “Jews in the Middle East and Iran in the Peninsula," the Daily Beast reported. According to the Daily Beast, Al-Qaida would benefit from an Israel-Iran war because if Israel attacked Iran's nuclear installations, Iran would use its proxies to lash back at Americans in the Gulf, Iraq, and Afghanistan.
http://www.jpost.com/MiddleEast/Article.aspx?id=185413

19th August 2010

US ends Iraq war, leaves two civil conflicts on the boil
The crossing of the US 4th Stryker Brigade and 2nd Infantry Division from Iraq into Kuwait Thursday morning, Aug. 19, ended America's combat involvement in the seven and-a-half year Iraq war. DEBKAfile's military and Baghdad sources note that, for Washington, the war which cost 4,400 American lives and $1 trillion - is over, as per US President Barack Obama's pledge. But for Iraq, it is just beginning: At least two civil conflicts are at boiling point - Sunni-Shiite strife and hostilities between the two Muslim factions and the Kurds of the North - and Iran's followers stand ready to seize Iraq's oil-rich South potentially sparking yet another world conflagration. The political vacuum in Baghdad created by Nouri al-Maliki's refusal to step down or join a unity government is unsustainable and the cause of a rising spiral of violence. Neither of the two leading Iraqi parties which emerged from the general election earlier this year – Maliki's State of Law Party and ex-prime minister Iyad Allawi's Iraqiya Party – is seen capable of commanding a parliamentary majority any time this year.
Dropping out of negotiations for joining Allawi in a coalition government, the transitional prime minister has turned his attention to preparations for a Shiite war against the Sunnis to be launched as soon as the Americans are gone. He has lined up senior Shiite commanders in the Iraqi Army who are willing to lead an all-out offensive against the Sunnis in Baghdad and central and western Iraq. According to US intelligence, they are preparing to capture large parts of Baghdad as well as Habaniya, Ramadi, Tikrit, Falluja and sections of Anbar Province, in order to achieve two objectives. One is to defeat Sunni forces, forcing them to accept their loss of political influence and bow to his conditions, or else face more casualties, the loss of more territory in the cities and more debacles. The second is to crush the power bases the Saudis are building in Iraq at great expense.
While the Saudis and the Syrians are spending money to buy off Maliki's supporters, he plans to physically destroy the Sunni power centers in which they are investing.
His plans could ignite a Shiite-Sunni war lasting from one to two years up to late 2012 or early 2013. At least one to one-and-a-half million Iraqi Sunnis will be put to flight and flood neighboring Jordan which has neither the resources not the utilities to support that many refugees. A second Iraqi community, the Kurds of the north, is in the midst of war preparations out of a bitter sense of betrayal by Washington. They are furious over America quitting the country without solving the critical issue of Kirkuk and its oilfields. Calculating that the Shiites and Sunnis will be caught up in their own war and have no soldiers to spare for stopping them, the Kurds have lined up this strategic northern city for capture as soon as September….Tehran is also eyeing rich spoils in Iraq's post-American era.
The networks in Iraq run by the Iranian Intelligence Ministry, the MOIS, and the Revolutionary Guards Al Qods Brigades have joined forces with their Iraqi allies to take over the southern oilfields centering on the city of Basra, which account for about 60 percent of the country's oil output.
This would be Iran's payback for the energy sanctions President Barack Obama imposed in July.
Iran also covets the two holiest cities of the world Shiite movement, Karbala and Najaf.
The ayatollahs in Tehran are planning a double coup in Iraq - possession of Iraq's oil riches plus command of its two most treasured religious sites.
http://www.debka.com/article/8969/

Wall Street tumbles, spooked by shock US jobless, manufacturing data
Wall Street tumbled after disappointing US jobless data and a surprise contraction in factory activity - a key guage of the economy - heightened worries over the sustainability of the recovery. The Dow Jones was trading down 1.5pc at 10255 at lunchtime in New York. The broader S&P 500 and the technology rich Nasdaq both fell around 1.7pc. European markets were also hit as the data reinforced fears about the scale of the US economic slowdown and a possible fall back into recession. London's FTSE 100 index of leading British shares closed down 1.7pc to 5211, with Germany's DAX and the CAC-40 in France losing 1.8pc and 2pc respectively. "This double-dip prospect for the US keeps coming up so any signs of concern here could again precipitate another wave of selling," said Will Hedden, sales trader at IG Index. Sentiment was knocked by figures showing the number of American filing for jobless benefits jumped unexpectedly to the psychologically sensitive 500,000 level last week, the highest in nine months. Economists had expected 475,000.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk...

Budget analysts see 2010 deficit at $1.3 trillion
This year's federal deficit will exceed $1.3 trillion, Congress' official budget analysts projected Thursday in a report underscoring election year perils both parties face as they struggle to balance conflicting demands to trim budget shortfalls, spark the economy and cut taxes. The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office said this year's budget gap would be $71 billion less than last year's red ink, thanks to a reversal of recent trends that have seen years of steadily rising government spending and falling federal revenues. Even so, that would leave this year's deficit as the second largest ever in dollars, trailing only last year's $1.4 trillion. To put those numbers in perspective, the shortfalls for 2009 and 2010 are each three times as big as the government's annual deficit had ever been previously. The report immediately became fodder for partisan finger-pointing over the deficit, a concern of voters in the shadow of this fall's elections, which will determine control of Congress
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5g-YziTsAJw1ofv-BiXk2MoSXknwQD9HMLJ880

18th August 2010

Iran's secret pipeline into the U.S.
Iran Air 744 is a bimonthly flight that originates in Tehran and flies directly to Caracas with periodic stops in Beirut and Damascus. .. The mere existence of the flight was a significant concern for U.S. intelligence officials, but now a broader concern is who and what are aboard the flights. "If you [a member of the public] tried to book yourself a seat on this flight and it doesn't matter whether it's a week before, a month before, six months before -- you'll never find a place to sit there," says Offer Baruch, a former Israeli Shin Bet agent. Baruch, now vice president of operations for International Shield, a security firm in Texas, says the plane is reserved for Iranian agents, including "Hezbollah, the Revolutionary Guard (IRGC) and other intelligence personnel." Current and former U.S. intelligence official fear the flight is a shadowy way to move people and weapons to locations in Latin America that can be used as staging points for retaliatory attacks against the U.S. or its interests in the event Iranian nuclear sites are struck by U.S. or Israeli military forces. "My understanding is that this flight not only goes from Caracas to Damascus to Tehran perhaps twice a month, but it also occasionally makes stops in Lebanon as well, and the passengers on that flight are not processed through normal Venezuelan immigrations or customs. They are processed separately when they come into the country," says Peter Brookes, senior fellow for National Security Affairs at the Heritage Foundation. The 16-hour flight typically leaves Tehran and stops at Damascus International Airport (DAM), which is Syria's busiest... After a 90-minute layover, the flight continues the remaining 14 hours to Venezuela's Caracas Maiquetía International Airport (CCS). Upon arrival, the plane is met by special Venezuelan forces and sequestered from other arrivals. "It says that something secretive or clandestine is going on that they don't want the international community to know about," says Brookes, a former deputy assistant defense secretary for Asian and Pacific Affairs and CIA employee. ..In addition to speculation about who is aboard, there are significant concerns that the Boeing 747SP airplane might be transporting uranium to Tehran on the return flight. The U.S. government has enacted strong sanctions against Iran because of its nuclear program and there are worries the flight might provide an opportunity to skirt the embargo against materials that might be used for the program.
http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2029721

Time is running out for the West
The Great Recession has dramatically shrunk the time left for the big AAA states to prevent a full-blown sovereign debt crisis as their demographic time-bomb threatens, US rating agency Moody's has warned. "Genuinely adverse debt dynamics were only expected to materialise in 15 to 20 years. The crisis has 'fast-forwarded' history, eroding all the time available to adjust, " said the group's quarterly Sovereign Monitor. Moody's fears that the US will crash through its safety buffer by 2013 if growth falters (adverse scenario), with interest payments topping 14pc of tax revenues. The debt-to-revenue ratio has already doubled in three years to 430pc. The US, UK, Germany, France, and Spain are all at risk of an "interest rate shock", either because they must roll over a cluster of short-term debt (US, France, Spain) or because deficits are so large. Countries that "fail to demonstrate the level of social cohesion required to stabilise debt" will lose their AAA rating. "Intra-generational" conflict between young and old requires careful handling. States that delay pension reform risk spiralling downwards. Moody's said the world had changed since Europe's debt crisis. None of the large sovereign states can still assume it is credit-worthy. "The burden of proof now falls on governments," it added. Britain has the safety cushion of long debt maturities, but the structural deficit is causing debt "to grow an unsustainable rate": the UK is clearly one of the weaker countries in the AAA peer group.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/7950775/Time-is-running-out-for-the-West.html

17th August 2010

US Says Bankruptcies Reach Nearly 5-Year High
U.S. bankruptcy filings have reached the highest level since 2005, government data released on Tuesday show, as the economy slows and the unemployment rate hovers just below double digits. There were 422,061 bankruptcy filings between April and June, according to the Administrative Office of the U.S. Courts, up 9 percent from 388,148 in the prior three-month period, and up 11 percent from 381,073 a year earlier. For the year ended June 30, there were 1.57 million bankruptcies, up 20 percent from 1.31 million a year earlier. Consumer bankruptcies rose 21 percent to 1.51 million, and business bankruptcies rose 9 percent to 59,608.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38744090

US says China's military has seen secret expansion
The growth of China's military is shrouded in secrecy which could give rise to "misunderstanding and miscalculation", a US defence department report says. China has been upgrading its land-based missiles, expanding its submarine force and nuclear arsenal, the Pentagon's annual report to Congress said. It also said that China has extended its military advantage over Taiwan. The report confirms US concerns about the rapid growth of China's military. The billions of dollars in expenditure has been conducted largely out of the public eye, the report alleges...Recent commentaries from the Chinese military establishment have complained about large-scale military exercises held by the US and South Korea. They have spoken of an alleged policy of US "encirclement" that threatens China's core interests. Washington is also embarking on a new round of exercises with South Korea which it describes as purely defensive. Military-to-military contacts between the US and China have been suspended and China refused to meet US Defence Secretary Robert Gates.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-pacific-10995111

Bank of England Governor warns that Britons face higher inflation for longer
British consumers should prepare for lingering higher inflation, the Bank of England Governor has warned, as latest figures show a sharp jump in food prices. Figures from the Office for National Statistics showed a 3.4pc increase in the cost of food over the last year, with fruit being 10pc more expensive. The last year also saw a sharp rise in the cost of travel, which climbed an average 7.8pc. Mervyn King, the Bank's Governor, voiced surprise that prices are higher than he had expected in a letter of explanation to the Chancellor George Osborne. While the overall consumer prices edged down to 3.1pc from 3.2pc in June, it remains above the Bank's own 2pc target, and the small decline will do little to ease the fear of some economists that a high cost of living will undermine Britain's fragile recovery..."Food price inflation has moved up strongly ... and that's perhaps a trend that's going to continue over the next 12 months," said Philip Shaw, an economist at Investec
http://www.telegraph.co.uk...

'Israel has days to strike Bushehr'
WASHINGTON – Israel has only mere days to launch an attack on Iran’s Bushehr nuclear reactor if Russia makes good on its plan to deliver fuel there this weekend, former US ambassador to the UN John Bolton warned Tuesday. He said that once Russia has loaded the fuel into the reactor -- slated for Saturday – Israel would no longer be willing to strike for fear of triggering widespread radiation in an attack. “This is a very, very big victory for Iran,” Bolton told The Jerusalem Post. “This is a huge threshold.”
Bolton, who also once oversaw US non-proliferation policy, said that when Russia announced the plans to load the fuel last Friday, “the element of surprise was essentially taken away” from Israeli calculations. Bolton noted that he doesn’t “have a clue” as to whether Israel would actually attack, but he said, “If Israel was right to destroy the Osiraq reactor, is it right to allow this one to continue? You can’t have it both ways.” Israel took out Iraq’s Osiraq reactor during a stealth mission in 1981. It is also believed to have conducted a similar strike on an alleged Syria nuclear site in 2007...Iran expert Ilan Berman of the American Foreign Policy Council said that the uranium enrichment plants are the real backbone of Iranian efforts and expenditures to get a nuclear weapons capability, and he suspected that they, rather than Bushehr, would be Israel’s primary targets in any attack.
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/Article.aspx?id=185060

16th August 2010

The Kremlin's Smokescreen
As the Russian wildfires continue to burn, the Kremlin's spin machine is in high gear, as the government attempts to cover up the true scale of the disaster. The country's leadership duo, Dmitry Medvedev and Vladimir Putin, have been using the same PR stunts and propaganda gimmicks they have relied on in the past. It sounded like a huge finale when a heavy thunderstorm came crashing down on Moscow in the early hours of last Friday. But it was too early to celebrate the end of Russia's wildfire disaster. After scorching the region for exactly two months, with daytime temperatures of over 30 degrees Celsius (86 degrees Fahrenheit), on Friday morning the heatwave continued. The suffering will go on, at least for this week. A total of 505 existing wildfire hotspots were still blazing on Friday. While the Emergency Situations Ministry was already announcing that the fires were being brought under control, the heat had sparked new fires at 245 new locations. To make matters worse, it is primarily in areas contaminated with radioactivity that firefighters still have to battle the flames. It was only last week that the government admitted that fires have been burning since mid-June in the very districts that were contaminated with radionuclides following the nuclear accident at Chernobyl, Ukraine in 1986. Although there is no danger that the fires will again cause a plume of radioactive fallout to extend as far as Western Europe, there is a significant risk for local residents. ..Did the blaze in a munitions factory outside Perm on Wednesday night also have something to do with the wildfires? There was a series of explosions at the facility, which has a long history, having produced explosives for the feared Katyusha rockets during World War II. Shortly beforehand, not far from Perm, a number of villages had burned down… Even if many of these stories don't reach average citizens, for many Russians the government's credibility has hit rock bottom even without these latest reports. The Ministry of Agriculture announced that there was no reason to raise bread prices. But this flies in the face of the fact that many Moscow shops have already put up notices informing consumers that "in connection with the higher cost of flour" bread prices are being increased by up to 20 percent. On Thursday, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, who has returned to the Black Sea to resume his vacation, also acknowledged the seriousness of the situation and issued a warning to speculators. He said that since "the most sensitive food category is affected," the government and public prosecutor's office would have to "carefully observe pricing policies." It may be that the grain mills are using the current fire crisis to make some necessary changes to their business, which was already ailing. But the news that this year's grain harvest is expected to produce only 60 million tons -- one-third less than the level achieved in 2009 -- has triggered widespread unease.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/world/0,1518,711985,00.html

Putin pushes ahead with fueling up Iran's reactor Saturday
Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin decided it was safe to go ahead and load Iran's first nuclear reactor with fuel on Aug. 21 - effectively making it active - after the Kremlin's weekend announcement of this intent seemed not to trouble the US and Israel, DEBKAfile's sources in Moscow and Tehran report. He decided the two governments had either been caught flatfooted or come to terms with a Russian-sponsored nuclear project that would allow Iran to produce weapons-grade plutonium. The impression Russian officials tried to convey that the reactor would only go on stream in late September was meant to deflect US or Israeli pressure, which in the event was not forthcoming. Monday, Aug. 16, therefore, Moscow further announced that Sergei Kirienko, the head of the Russian state nuclearcorporation Rosatom, would visit Bushehr Friday, Aug. 20, to see for himself how far the work on the 1,200-1,300 MWe reactor had progressed. He expects to be accompanied by Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko. Moscow furthermore disclosed it had guaranteed a 10-year supply of reactor fuel for Bushehr. Then, on Aug. 21, Ali-Akbar Salehi, head of the Atomic Energy Organization of Iran, will join the Russian officials at a press conference to coincide with the transfer of fuel to the Bushehr reactor and mark its effective inauguration. Salehi also announced that Iran would build another 10 installations for enriching uranium inside protected mountain caves - in addition to the three known facilities which brought Iran under UN and Western sanctions.
The announcements from Moscow, our sources say, broadcast due warning to would-be attackers that the Iranian reactor at Bushehr is now under Russia's protection.
http://www.debka.com/article/8972/

China Favors Euro Over Dollar as Bernanke Alters Path
China, whose $2.45 trillion in foreign-exchange reserves are the world’s largest, is turning bullish on Europe and Japan at the expense of the U.S. The nation has been buying “quite a lot” of European bonds, said Yu Yongding, a former adviser to the People’s Bank of China who was part of a foreign-policy advisory committee that visited France, Spain and Germany from June 20 to July 2. Japan’s Ministry of Finance said Aug. 9 that China bought 1.73 trillion yen ($20.1 billion) more Japanese debt than it sold in the first half of 2010, the fastest pace of purchases in at least five years. “Diversification should be a basic principle,” Yu said in an interview, adding a “top-level Chinese central banker” told him to convey to European policy makers China’s confidence in the region’s economy and currency. “We didn’t sell any European bonds or assets, instead we bought quite a lot.” China’s position may make it harder for the greenback to rebound after falling as much as 10 percent from this year’s peak in June as measured by the trade-weighted Dollar Index.
http://www.bloomberg.com...

Denmark Tightens Its Generous Jobless Benefits
How long is too long to be paid to go without a job? As extended unemployment swells almost everywhere across the advanced industrial world, that question is turning into a lightning rod for governments. For years, Denmark was held out as a model to countries with high unemployment and as a progressive touchstone to liberals in the United States. The Danes, despite their lavish social welfare state, managed to keep joblessness remarkably low. But now Denmark — which allows employers to hire and fire at will while relying on an elaborate system of training, subsidies for those between jobs and aggressive measures to press the unemployed into available openings — is facing its own strains. As a result, it is beginning to tighten up. Struggling to keep its budget under control after the financial crisis, the government in June cut into its benefits system, the world’s most generous, by limiting unemployment payments to two years instead of four. Having found that recipients either get work right away or take any job as their checks run out, officials are also redoubling long-standing efforts to move Danes more quickly out of the safety net.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/17/business/global/17denmark.html?_r=1

Flood victims in Saxony hit again
Houses in the eastern German state of Saxony were flooded Monday for the second time in a week, just after homeowners began rebuilding. The damages had already been estimated in the hundreds of millions. Many homes in the eastern German state of Saxony stood under water Monday for the second time in a week, as rivers in the region rose again. "It's very bitter for those affected," said a spokesperson for the county government in "Saxon Switzerland", a district in the Elbe Sandstone Mountains where the Kirnitzsch River Monday morning swelled to the highest alarm point. The spokesperson added that residents of several of the homes that were inundated Monday had just begun rebuilding after the last flood struck a week ago. The region received rainfall of over 40 liters per square meter (1.57 inches) overnight, causing rivers to rise, flooding roads and triggering landslides.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5915418,00.html

15th August 2010

Jobless millions signal death of the American dream for many
Even the criminals have fallen on hard times in America's poorest city as the long-term unemployed struggle to keep a grasp on normality…The headline jobless figure of 9.5% is bad enough but does not begin to convey the problem as it fails to measure those who have stopped looking for work. Over the past three months alone more than a million Americans have fallen into that category: effectively giving up hope of finding a job and dropping out of the official statistics. Such cases now number some 5.9 million and their ranks are likely to grow as millions more find their jobless status becoming a permanent state of hopelessness. Surveys show that with each passing week on the dole their chances of finding a job get slimmer. Though corporations, especially in the banking sector, are posting healthy profits, they are not hiring new workers. At the same time, government cuts are sweeping through city and state governments alike, threatening tens of thousands of jobs and slicing away at services once thought vital. Schools, street lighting, libraries, refuse collection, the police, fire services and public transport networks are all being scaled back. America appears to be a society splitting down the centre, shattering the middle class that long formed the cultural bedrock of the country and dividing it into a country of haves and have-nots. "A once unthinkable level of economic distress is in the process of becoming the new normal," warned Nobel-prize winning economist Paul Krugman in a recent New York Times column. Or, as Steven Green, an economics lecturer at Baylor University, put it to the Observer: "We are really in a tough spot right now." There is a new name for those falling down the black hole of joblessness that has opened up in America's economy. They are the 99ers.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/15/jobless-millions-death-american-dream

Meat prices set to jump after wheat crop failures
Fresh from the swine flu epidemic that hit pigs across the globe last year, meat prices are facing a new contagion: the fear that rising wheat prices will make animals more expensive to rear. Wheat has jumped 45pc this year after Russia suffered crop failure and banned exports. Now knock-on rises are already in evidence in the US meat market, where experts are predicting further shortages and price increases to come... When grain prices spike, it can even cost US and European farmers more to feed their animals than they will get for selling them – which happened during the corn shortage in the winter of 2008. In the UK, prices haven't started reacting strongly yet, but it's a matter of time, according to Peter Kendall, leader of the UK's National Farmers Union. He told The Sunday Telegraph over the weekend that rising wheat prices are threatening the trade of livestock producers.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk...

Israel sees battlefield hidden in southern Lebanon
Military claims Hezbollah moves fighters, weapons into villages. With tensions mounting along their shared border, Israel's military says Hezbollah is moving fighters and weapons into the villages of south Lebanon, building up a secret network of arms warehouses, bunkers and command posts in preparation for war. The Israeli military has begun releasing detailed information about what it calls Hezbollah's new border deployment, four years after a cross-border raid by its guerrillas triggered a 34-day war...Hezbollah, which is armed by Iran and Syria and is more powerful than the Lebanese military, stayed out of the Aug. 3 fight. But its leader, Sheik Hassan Nasrallah, threatened that he would intervene next time. He has also said that if war breaks out again his forces will fire rockets into Tel Aviv. Neither side has signaled that another war is imminent, but the Israelis' unusual openness about what they claim to know of Hezbollah's preparations seems to have two goals: to show the reach of their intelligence, and to stake their claim that if another war breaks out and many civilians die, it will be because Hezbollah placed its armaments and fighters in their midst.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38707834/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

14th August 2010

'Junk' Bonds Hit Record
U.S. companies issued risky "junk" bonds at a record clip this week, taking advantage of keen investor appetite for returns amid declining interest rates and tepid stock markets. The borrowing binge comes as the Federal Reserve keeps interest rates near zero and yields on U.S. government debt are near record lows. Those low rates have spread across a variety of markets, making it cheaper for companies with low credit ratings to borrow from investors. Corporate borrowers with less than investment-grade ratings sold $15.4 billion in junk bonds this week, a record total for a single week, according to data provider Dealogic. The month-to-date total, $21.1 billion, is especially high for August, typically a quiet month that has seen an average of just $6.5 billion in issuance over the past decade. For the year, the volume of U.S. junk bonds has exceeded $155 billion, 80% higher than in the year-ago period and easily on pace to surpass the record $163.6 billion total for 2009. Investors have been snapping up the new non-investment-grade bonds, having grown frustrated with stocks and with the meager yields on safer government and high-grade corporate bonds. .. The refinancings, on the whole, are positive for the economy, because they help companies with too much debt avoid default or bankruptcy. But they do little to create new economic growth, and in some cases simply delay an inevitable reckoning... Some market observers worry that yield-hungry investors are pushing the bond markets to potentially fraught levels.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748703960004575427690901781072.html?mod=WSJ_hpp_LE

FTWhatsNewsCollection
Obama Strongly Backs Islam Center Near 9/11 Site
President Obama delivered a strong defense on Friday night of a proposed Muslim community center and mosque near ground zero in Manhattan, using a White House dinner celebrating Ramadan to proclaim that “as a citizen, and as president, I believe that Muslims have the same right to practice their religion as anyone else in this country.”… The community center proposal has led to a national uproar over Islam, 9/11 and freedom of religion during a hotly contested midterm election season. In New York, Rick A. Lazio, a Republican candidate for governor and a former member of the House of Representatives, issued a statement responding to Mr. Obama’s remarks, saying that the president was still “not listening to New Yorkers.”
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/14/us/politics/14obama.html?_r=1&src=mv&ref=homepage
6 Iraqi forces killed as checkpoints attacked
Gunmen killed six Iraqi security personnel Saturday, including a pair of sleeping policemen who were shot and set on fire, amid persistent debate over whether Iraqi forces can protect the country as U.S. troops leave. The early-morning shootings at Baghdad checkpoints demonstrated the insurgents' aim to weaken confidence in the government and aggravate sectarian tension as all but 50,000 U.S. troops head home by the end of August.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38702566/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/

13th August 2010

Fed's Hoenig: Keeping Rates Too Low 'Dangerous Gamble'
The Federal Reserve is undertaking a "dangerous gamble" by keeping rates at near zero for so long, and must start raising rates or risk damaging the nascent U.S. recovery, a top Federal Reserve official said on Friday. Hoenig has been the lone dissenter on the Fed's policy-setting panel, which on Tuesday repeated the U.S. central bank's pledge to keep interest rates extraordinarily low for an "extended period." The Fed took the further step of saying it would begin reinvesting cash from maturing mortgage bonds to buy more government debt. The decision reflected the Fed's concern over the slowdown in the economic recovery it helped bring about by cutting rates to near zero in December 2008 and buying nearly $1.3 trillion in mortgage-linked debt to shore up the housing market
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38693128

Diseases intensify risks in Pakistan flood crisis
SUKKUR, Pakistan (Reuters) - Disease outbreaks pose grave risks to victims of Pakistan's worst floods in decades, aid agencies said on Friday, causing fresh concern about already complicated relief efforts. The floods, triggered by torrential monsoon downpours, have engulfed Pakistan's Indus river basin, killing more than 1,600 people, forcing two million from their homes and disrupting the lives of 14 million people, or 8 percent of the population. At a hospital in Mingora, the main town in Swat valley, an official who asked not to be named told Reuters one case of cholera was confirmed. A German humanitarian organisation said there were also six suspected cases there. An epidemic could create another disaster for Pakistan. A health crisis would tax aid agencies which are facing vast logistical challenges because of the damage and illness caused by the widespread flooding. The United Nations is worried about water-borne diseases. There have been 36,000 suspected cases of potentially fatal acute watery diarrhoea reported so far. It says the floods have affected about one-third of Pakistan. "This is a growing concern. Therefore we are responding with all kinds of preventative as well as curative medication ... for outbreaks," Maurizio Giuliano, the U.N. humanitarian operation spokesman, told Reuters.
http://uk.reuters.com...

Iran nuclear plant start date set
Russia says it will undertake a key step next week towards starting up a reactor at Iran's first nuclear power station. Russia's state atomic corporation, which is building the plant, said engineers will begin loading the Bushehr reactor with fuel. However, it could be six months before the reactor is fully operational. Russia has been helping build the plant since the mid-1990s, amid tensions over Iran's nuclear programme. "The fuel will be charged in the reactor on 21 August. From this moment, Bushehr will be considered a nuclear installation," spokesman Sergei Novikov said... If and when the plant finally starts operating, it will be a moment of national pride.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-10963821

Eurozone growth surpasses US on strong German gains
Strong growth in Germany, bolstered by gains in France and Spain, helped secure better-than-expected economic results on Friday that saw the eurozone outstrip US recovery figures. But some analysts warn that the global recovery could be peaking.
AFP - Powerhouse Germany posted its best growth since reunification on Friday, driving Europe past the United States in a four-year record… With 2.2-percent growth between April and June, double forecasts, Germany was "playing in a league of its own," according to Brussels-based ING economist Carsten Brzeski… After suffering its worst post-war recession in 2009, "we are now experiencing XL growth," German Economy Minister Rainer Bruederle said of the data, the best since reunification in 1990 after a 45-year Cold War division... Frankfurt-based Commerzbank analyst Christoph Weil agreed that the German growth, routinely described as "stellar," was above all driven by rising overseas demand and low interest rates. "This speed is unlikely to be sustained," he cautioned… Amsterdam-based Nick Kounis of ABN AMRO said worries over a "double-dip" recession now centre "on the other side of the Atlantic."
http://www.france24.com/en/20100813-eurozone-growth-climbs-past-us-levels-economy-gdp-markets 

Palestinian Authority ready for peace talks, Ashton says
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The Palestinian Authority is ready for direct talks with Israel, with Ramallah likely to give a definitive go-ahead perhaps as early as Sunday, according to EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton. The EU high representative made the comments in a letter to European foreign ministers ahead of their informal meeting after the summer break. "President Abbas is very close to accepting direct talks, but has requested a few more days for final consultations," she wrote to the bloc's 27 foreign policy chiefs, who are to meet from 10 to 11 September in Brussels, in a letter seen by EUobserver. "In principle, President Abbas should be in a position to give a definitive answer by Sunday or early next week." The two sides have engaged in indirect talks since the spring. Once Mr Abbas has signed off on talks, direct negotiations would then begin "later in August," according to the Ashton text.
http://euobserver.com/9/30619/?rk=1 

12th August 2010

Scientists: Summer fires, floods augur global warming
Weather fits predictions; 'There is no time to waste,' says climatologist
NEW YORK — Floods, fires, melting ice and feverish heat: From smoke-choked Moscow to water-soaked Pakistan and the High Arctic, the planet seems to be having a midsummer breakdown. It's not just a portent of things to come, scientists say, but a sign of troubling climate change already under way. The weather-related cataclysms of July and August fit patterns predicted by climate scientists, the Geneva-based World Meteorological Organization says — although those scientists always shy from tying individual disasters directly to global warming. The experts now see an urgent need for better ways to forecast extreme events like Russia's heat wave and wildfires and the record deluge devastating Pakistan. They'll discuss such tools in meetings this month and next in Europe and America, under United Nations, U.S. and British government sponsorship. "There is no time to waste," because societies must be equipped to deal with global warming, says British government climatologist Peter Stott.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38676877/ns/technology_and_science-science/ 

Video: Extreme weather wreaks havoc across U.S – Violent storm in Washington, D.C. left nearly 100,000 people without power Thursday. NBC's Tom Costello reports…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38676877/ns/technology_and_science-science/ 

Strong Quake Rattles Ecuador, Peru
Quitto, Ecuador (AHN) - A massive 6.9-magnitude tremor rocked Ecuador and Peru on Thursday, injuring one person since its epicenter was in the remote Amazonian region. The United States Geological Survey said that quake, which lasted for 40 seconds, hit the region at around 6:54 am local time (1154 GMT). Experts said that the quake’s epicenter was some 210km deep under the Amazonian jungle and that’s why there was no substantial damage above ground. The USGS said that Ambato was the only city 145km west to the epicenter site. This was the second biggest quake after Ecuador faced a 7.2-magnitude tremor 12 years ago. The USGS initially measured the quake’s strength at 6.7-magnitude, raised it to 7.2, but finally settled at 6.9.
http://www.allheadlinenews.com/articles/7019576981?Strong%20Quake%20Rattles%20Ecuador,%20Peru 

Deluge, landslides hit China region again
Heavier rain expected through Friday — so too are more slides
ZHOUQU, China — Overnight thunderstorms caused new landslides and flooding that swept away more homes in a remote area of northwestern China on Thursday as the death toll rose to 1,117. The National Weather Center forecast heavy rains in the coming days — up to 3.5 inches of precipitation was expected in the already saturated region on Friday — and said the threat of additional landslides along the Bailong River was "relatively large." The overnight deluge triggered slides that swept away six houses in Xizangba village, blocked a river near Libazi village, and obstructed a key road used to ferry relief goods, the official Xinhua News Agency said, citing local authorities in Gansu province… Tents set up as emergency shelters were flooded and traumatized victims said the storms were a frightening reminder of the deluge that brought on Sunday's disaster in which three villages in Gansu province's Zhouqu district were swallowed in waves of mud and rubble-strewn water.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38670214/ns/world_news-asiapacific/ 

U.S. not in a position to attack Iran: Islamic Revolution Guards Corps commander
TEHRAN -- The United States is not in a position to carry out its military threats against Iran, according to Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Commander Major General Mohammad Ali Jafari… He stated on Wednesday that the U.S. has deployed thousands of troops in the region under the pretext of the Afghanistan and Iraq wars, but Iran will never capitulate to illegal demands made through military intimidation… Jafari added that the enemy has stepped up its soft war against the Islamic Republic since they know that a military attack is not an option… MP Gholamreza Karami also dismissed the possibility of a new war in the Middle East region. The United States and Israel are in an extremely difficult position and cannot afford to initiate a new war, he said in Tehran. Karami also advised Iran’s military establishment to remain on high alert in the face of any potential attack.
http://www.tehrantimes.com/index_View.asp?code=224688 

Iraq army 'not ready' until 2020
Iraq's most senior military officer has said that his security forces will not be able to secure the country until 2020 and asked the US to delay its planned withdrawal. The US government plans to withdraw its combat troops by the end of August, and to remove all troops by the end of 2011. But Lieutenant General Babaker Zerbari said that his forces - particularly the air force - are not ready to take over. He said the planned withdrawal will create a "problem" and increase instability in Iraq. "At this point, the withdrawal is going well, because they are still here," Zerbari told the AFP news agency on Wednesday. "But the problem will start after 2011 - the politicians must find other ways to fill the void after 2011. If I were asked about the withdrawal, I would say to politicians: the US army must stay until the Iraqi army is fully ready in 2020."
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/middleeast/2010/08/201081222714832769.html 

11th August 2010

USS Truman posted opposite Hormuz as Iranian threats spiral
To meet increasingly defiant Iranian threats to US regional military forces, Washington has detached the USS Truman carrier from support duty for Afghanistan in the Arabian Sea and reassigned it to Dubai opposite the Gulf of Oman and the Straits of Hormuz with thousands of marines aboard. IRGC Navy chief announced the introduction of twelve new torpedo and missile cruisers and speedboats equipped for striking air carriers. Another IRGC commander said mass graves had been dug for American troops.
http://www.debka.com/article/8961/

White House: On track to end Iraq combat role
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama is satisfied that United States can safely end its combat role in Iraq on schedule at the end of the month, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said Wednesday after the president was briefed by his national security team and the top U.S. commander in Iraq. Obama met with Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, national security adviser James Jones and, by videoconference, the U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno. "The president heard directly from General Odierno, who said that we were on target to complete our drawdown by the end of August. Already we have removed over 80,000 troops from Iraq since President Obama took office," Gibbs said. He said Odierno reported that the security situation has retained the significant improvements made over the last couple of years and that Iraqi security forces are fully prepared to take over. Obama has vowed both to end the official U.S. combat mission on schedule and to move all remaining U.S. troops off Iraqi soil by the end of 2011.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38662938/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/ 

America Is 'Bankrupt Mickey Mouse Economy': Chief Investment Officer
America is a "Mickey Mouse economy" that is technically bankrupt, according to Jochen Wermuth, the Chief Investment Officer (CIO) and managing partner at Wermuth Asset Management. "America today looks like Russia in 1998. Consumers, companies and the government are all highly indebted. America as a result is a bankrupt Mickey Mouse economy," Wermuth told CNBC. The comments followed news that the Fed was extending its quantitative easing program following what the Federal Open Market Committee (FOMC) described as a fall in the pace of growth in output and employment. The Fed has spent the past three years on a route of aggressive rate cuts and purchases of trillions in various securities but it is running out of measures it can take, Pimco's co-CEO Mohamed El-Erian told CNBC… "US credit risk is huge and America has two options, either default or let the currency depreciate substantially against currencies such as the yuan and the rouble," he explained. "Last night's news from the Fed simply creates the right conditions for dollar weakness and a reduction in US liabilities to foreign investors and governments," Wermuth said.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38654017 

Comment: U.S. Is Bankrupt and We Don't Even Know It
Let’s get real. The U.S. is bankrupt. Neither spending more nor taxing less will help the country pay its bills. What it can and must do is radically simplify its tax, health-care, retirement and financial systems, each of which is a complete mess. But this is the good news. It means they can each be redesigned to achieve their legitimate purposes at much lower cost and, in the process, revitalize the economy. Last month, the International Monetary Fund released its annual review of U.S. economic policy. Its summary contained these bland words about U.S. fiscal policy: “Directors welcomed the authorities’ commitment to fiscal stabilization, but noted that a larger than budgeted adjustment would be required to stabilize debt-to-GDP.” But delve deeper, and you will find that the IMF has effectively pronounced the U.S. bankrupt. Section 6 of the July 2010 Selected Issues Paper says: “The U.S. fiscal gap associated with today’s federal fiscal policy is huge for plausible discount rates.” It adds that “closing the fiscal gap requires a permanent annual fiscal adjustment equal to about 14 percent of U.S. GDP.” The fiscal gap is the value today (the present value) of the difference between projected spending (including servicing official debt) and projected revenue in all future years… Is the IMF bonkers? No. It has done its homework. So has the Congressional Budget Office whose Long-Term Budget Outlook, released in June, shows an even larger problem. Based on the CBO’s data, I calculate a fiscal gap of $202 trillion, which is more than 15 times the official debt. This gargantuan discrepancy between our “official” debt and our actual net indebtedness isn’t surprising. It reflects what economists call the labeling problem. Congress has been very careful over the years to label most of its liabilities “unofficial” to keep them off the books and far in the future…
(Laurence Kotlikoff, an economics professor at Boston University, talks about the state of the U.S. economy. Kotlikoff speaks with Erik Schatzker on Bloomberg Television's InsideTrack)
http://www.bloomberg.com...

U.S. Deficit in July Totals $165.04 Billion
The U.S. government spent itself deeper into the red last month, paying nearly $20 billion in interest on debt and an additional $9.8 billion to help unemployed Americans. Federal spending eclipsed revenue for the 22nd straight time, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. The $165.04 billion deficit, while a bit smaller than the $169.5 billion shortfall expected by economists polled by Dow Jones Newswires, was the second highest for the month on record. The highest was $180.68 billion in July 2009… For all of fiscal 2009, the U.S. ran a record $1.42 trillion deficit. Fiscal 2010 might run a little higher—the Obama administration sees $1.47 trillion… Years of deficit spending by Washington have led to a mounting national debt. Interest payments so far in fiscal 2010 amount to $185.25 billion; by contrast, corporate taxes collected by the government during the same 10 months were $139.71 billion. Interest payments in July alone were $19.9 billion.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052748704901104575423601722830706.html 

Russian fires hit Chernobyl-affected areas, threatening recontamination
Russia's state forest watchdog says fires covering hundreds of hectares have been recorded on lands contaminated by the Chernobyl disaster. Experts warn that the blazes could lift nuclear particles into the atmosphere. Wildfires covering hundreds of hectares were recorded in Russia's Bryansk region near the border to Belarus and Ukraine throughout the past week, the country's state forest watchdog said on Wednesday. "According to data from August 6, in the Bryansk region alone 28 fires covering an area of 269 hectares (664 acres) were recorded on these radioactive lands," an official told Russia's Interfax news agency. "There are maps of the [radioactive] contamination, and there are maps of the fires. Anyone can put the two together. Why deny this information?" the official added. Earlier this week, officials from the Russian emergency ministry denied there had been wildfires in the Bryansk region…
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5890452,00.html 

Dead Fish Washing Up On NJ's Delaware Bay Beaches
MIDDLE TOWNSHIP, N.J. (AP) ― Tens of thousands of dead fish have washed ashore along the Delaware Bay in southern New Jersey. State environmental and wildlife officials say it's not yet clear what killed the fish, which appear to exclusively small menhaden, also known as peanut bunker. The wash-up, discovered Wednesday morning, encompassed a large stretch of the shoreline just north of Cape May. The heaviest amounts were in an area of Middle Township known as Pierce's Point. New Jersey's Bureau of Marine Water Monitoring reviewed results of water samples taken Wednesday by federal environmental officials and found no indication of toxic phytoplankton species, such as red tide. State officials also are analyzing oxygen levels in the water.
http://cbs3.com/local/Fish.Dead.Ashore.2.1855306.html 

Scientists find new superbug spreading from India
(Reuters) - A new superbug could spread around the world after reaching Britain from India -- in part because of medical tourism -- and scientists say there are almost no drugs to treat it. Researchers said on Wednesday they had found a new gene called New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase, or NDM-1, in patients in South Asia and in Britain. NDM-1 makes bacteria highly resistant to almost all antibiotics, including the most powerful class called carbapenems, and experts say there are no new drugs on the horizon to tackle it. With international travel in search of cheaper healthcare increasing, particularly for procedures such as cosmetic surgery, Timothy Walsh, who led the study, said he feared the new superbug could soon spread across the globe. "At a global level, this is a real concern," Walsh, from Britain's Cardiff University, said in telephone interview. "Because of medical tourism and international travel in general, resistance to these types of bacteria has the potential to spread around the world very, very quickly. And there is nothing in the (drug development) pipeline to tackle it."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE67A0YU20100811 

Pakistan floods could weaken government, EU diplomat says
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - The flood disaster in Pakistan could worsen the security situation in the country by making its democratically-elected government look ineffective, a senior EU diplomat has said. Speaking to EUobserver by phone from Islamabad on Tuesday (10 August), Tomas Niklasson, the acting head of the EU delegation to Pakistan, said a security analysis should be carried out once the immediate priority of disaster relief has been dealt with. "We will have to ask questions about what impact it will have on government capacity, how it will affect perceptions of government response, the economy, foreign investors - the floods will affect a lot of things in the country and could have implications on the security situation," he explained… Mr Niklasson said the current atmosphere in Islamabad is "deceptively" calm: "There's no panic in the streets. But when you speak to government people, to people from other [EU] member states, when you speak to any Pakistani - this is really, really big." He noted that many parts of the country are already too lawless for EU officials to visit in order to assess aid needs. "Many areas outside Islamabad are out of bounds for us. Parts of the Northwest Province are out of bounds, the Swat valley ... Human development and assistance workers are being targeted. It's not a matter of being from the EU. In some areas, a foreigner, even people from other parts of Pakistan, if not specifically invited, would be seen as an unwelcome guest.
http://euobserver.com/9/30602/?rk=1

10th August 2010

Huge ice island could pose threat to oil, shipping
STOCKHOLM -- It's slowly drifting across Arctic waters, an iceberg four times the size of Manhattan that broke off from a glacier in Greenland over the weekend. Potentially in the path of this unstoppable giant are oil platforms and shipping lanes _ and any collision could do untold damage. In a worst case scenario, large chunks of it could reach the heavily trafficked waters where another Greenlandic iceberg sank the Titanic in 1912. It's been a summer of near Biblical climatic havoc across the planet, with wildfires raging in Russia and floods claiming lives across Asia. But the moment the Petermann glacier cracked _ giving birth to the biggest Arctic ice island in half-century _ may symbolize a warming world like no other. "It's so big that you can't prevent it from drifting. You can't stop it," said Jon-Ove Methlie Hagen, a glaciologist at the University of Oslo. Few images can capture the world's climate fears like a 100 square mile (260 sq. kilometer) chunk of ice breaking off Greenland's vast ice sheet, a reservoir of freshwater that if it collapsed would raise global sea levels by a devastating 20 feet (6 meters). The world's newest ice island also evokes two terrors that have lodged into the collective imagination: The old one of the Titanic and, in endangering oil rigs in its path, the new one of the Gulf oil spill.
http://poten.com/NewsDetails.aspx?id=10574043 

Russia fires cause "brown cloud", may hit Arctic
* Noxious clouds a health problem from Asia to Amazon * Russia soot might coat Arctic ice, hasten thaw
OSLO (Reuters) - Smoke from forest fires smothering Moscow adds to health problems of "brown clouds" from Asia to the Amazon and Russian soot may stoke global warming by hastening a thaw of Arctic ice, environmental experts say. "Health effects of such clouds are huge," said Veerabhadran Ramanathan, chair of a U.N. Environment Programme (UNEP) study of "brown clouds" blamed for dimming sunlight in cities such as Beijing or New Delhi and hitting crop growth in Asia. The clouds -- a haze of pollution from cars or coal-fired power plants, forest fires and wood and other materials burnt for cooking and heating -- are near-permanent and blamed for causing chronic respiratory and heart diseases. "In Asia just the indoor smoke -- because people cook with firewood -- causes over a million deaths a year," Ramanathan, of the University of California, San Diego, told Reuters. Moscow's top health official said on Monday that about 700 people were dying every day, twice as many as in normal weather, as Russia grapples with its worst heat wave in 130 years.
http://lite.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/LDE6790RD.htm 

Russia battles to defend nuclear sites from fires
MOSCOW (AFP) – Russia fought a deadly battle Tuesday to prevent wildfires from engulfing key nuclear sites as alarm mounted over the impact on health of a toxic smoke cloud shrouded over Moscow. Two soldiers were killed by blazing trees as they worked to put out a fire dangerously close to Russia's main nuclear research centre, while workers were also mobilised to fight blazes near a nuclear reprocessing plant. After almost two weeks of fires that have claimed over 50 lives and even part destroyed a military storage site, the authorities said they were making progress in fighting fires that still covered 174,035 hectares of land… The emergencies ministry said that over the last 24 hours, 247 new fires had appeared, more than the 239 that were extinguished, and 557 fires were still raging across the affected region.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/afp/20100810/ts_afp/russiaheatwavefires_20100810101712 

Heatwave could cost Russia almost one percent of GDP
The worst heatwave in Russian history is likely to cost the economy almost one percent of GDP, according to economists. The summer's drought, forest fires and smog will be significant factors in eroding economic growth. Economists are suggesting the current heatwave in Russia could cost the economy between 5 and 12 billion euros ($7-15 billion) and undermine the current modest economic revival in the country. The figure accounts for immediate losses in the agricultural, industrial and services sector, but does not factor in losses that stem from a spike in deaths and illnesses. The heatwave has been accompanied by a persistent drought, and forest fires which have caused a thick smog to descend over Moscow... An estimated 10 million hectares (25 million acres) of agricultural land has been destroyed due to fire and drought. Alexander Morozov, chief economist for Russia and the CIS at HSBC, expects the heatwave and its aftermath to shave 1 percentage point off GDP growth.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5887442,00.html 

7.5 Magnitude Quake Spawns Tsunami in Vanuatu
SYDNEY: Panicked residents of Vanuatu raced for higher ground after a powerful earthquake rattled the South Pacific island nation and generated a small tsunami on Tuesday. The 9-inch wave was observed off the capital Port Vila, the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center said. Police said there were no immediate reports of major damage or injuries from the wave or the 7.5 magnitude quake that preceded it, though buildings shook and power lines were down. “It was quite a significant earthquake, and we’re still having a few aftershocks,” Ben McKenzie of the New Zealand High Commission told The Associated Press by phone from Port Vila. The quake hit about 25 miles northwest of Port Vila at a depth of 22 miles, the U.S. Geological Survey said.
http://www.asianetindia.com...

9th August 2010

Pakistan floods a megadisaster of epic proportions
ISLAMABAD — The number of people suffering from the massive floods in Pakistan exceeds 13 million — more than the combined total of the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami, the 2005 Kashmir earthquake and the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the United Nations said Monday. The death toll in each of those three disasters was much higher than the 1,500 people killed so far in the floods that first hit Pakistan two weeks ago. But the U.N. estimates that 13.8 million people have been affected — over 2 million more than the other disasters combined. The comparison helps frame the scale of the crisis, which the prime minister said Monday was the worst in Pakistan's history. It has overwhelmed the government... "The number of people affected by the floods is greater than the other three disasters combined," Maurizio Giuliano, spokesman for the U.N. Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs, told The Associated Press… The total number of people affected in the three other disasters was about 11 million — 5 million in the tsunami and 3 million in each of the earthquakes — said Giuliano. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said Monday that the floods were a bigger crisis than the 2005 Kashmir earthquake that killed nearly 80,000 people and the army's operation against the Taliban in the Swat Valley last spring that drove more than 2 million people from their homes. "The magnitude of the tragedy is so immense that it is hard to assess," said Gilani during a visit to the central Pakistani city of Multan… Meanwhile, the disaster is expected to be a major blow to Pakistan's fragile economy, the International Monetary Fund said on Monday.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38621584/ns/weather/ 

Ground shaken by Mexico quake still moving
The 7.2-magnitude earthquake that rocked the American Southwest and Mexico's Baja California in April is continuing to deform the ground there, new NASA radar images show. Data from NASA's airborne Uninhabited Aerial Vehicle Synthetic Aperture Radar (UAVSAR) have shown that some faults in the area west of Calexico, Calif., have continued to move at Earth's surface, most likely in the many aftershocks that have rumbled after the initial April 4 quake. This fault motion is likely to be what is known as "triggered slip," caused by changes in stress in Earth's crust from the main quake rupture… Many aftershocks have been located west of Calexico. In this area, there are many small "cuts," or discontinuities, in the interferogram color. These are caused by ground motions on small faults that have occurred since April 13, ranging from half an inch to a few inches… The April 4, 2010, El Mayor-Cucapah quake was centered 32 miles south-southeast of Calexico, Calif., in northern Baja California. The quake, the region's largest in nearly 120 years, was also felt in southern California and parts of Nevada and Arizona. There have been thousands of aftershocks, extending from near the northern tip of the Gulf of California to a few miles northwest of the U.S.-Mexico border. The area northwest of the main rupture, along the area of California's Elsinore fault, has been especially active.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38631046/ns/technology_and_science-science/

8th August 2010

Flood situation turns critical in Germany, central Europe
Water levels have reached record highs in eastern Germany and central Europe as a broken dam in Poland flooded rivers and forced residents to leave their homes. At least seven people have died. Widespread flooding brought on by strong rainfall in central Europe and the bursting of a dam in Poland have caused heavy damage and the deaths of at least seven people. The deep, eastward-flowing river Viola in the municipality of Neukirchen in Saxony raged on Saturday. Water levels were highest in Zgorzelec on the river Neisse at 7.4 meters, according to Sunday reports from Polish broadcaster TVN24. Parts of the city were submerged and several historic buildings have been damaged. The Neisse has swollen dramatically after a dam on the Witka reservoir in Poland broke on Saturday evening… Water levels in Saxony, eastern Germany also broke records, with the state flood agency measuring 7.02 meters on Sunday morning in the border town of Goerlitz - the highest since the government began keeping records in 1912. Normal water levels in the summer are around 1.7 meters.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5877059,00.html 

127 dead, thousands missing in China landslides
BEIJING – Rubble-strewn floodwaters tore through a remote corner of northwestern China on Sunday, smashing buildings, overturning cars and killing at least 127 people. Half of an entire town was under water and an estimated 2,000 more people were missing in the latest deluge in a summer that has seen China's worst seasonal flooding in a decade. Terrified residents fled to high ground or upper stories of apartment buildings after a debris-blocked river overflowed during the night in the northwestern province of Gansu. Worst hit was the county seat of Zhouqu in the province's Gannan Tibetan Autonomous Prefecture, with the official Xinhua News Agency reporting half of it under water. Many houses collapsed and streets were covered with a yard (meter) of mud and water after the early morning landslides, it said.
The landslides struck after heavy rains lashed the country late Saturday and the Bailong River overflowed, Xinhua quoted the head of Zhouqu county, Diemujiangteng, as saying,
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100808/ap_on_re_as/as_china_floods 

7th August 2010

Fidel Castro Goes Live With Warning of Nuclear Holocaust
Former Cuban President Fidel Castro warned today of imminent nuclear war and said the world's fate was in President Barack Obama's hands, as he addressed the Cuban National Assembly for the first time since taking ill four years ago. Castro said the most recent U.N. sanctions on Iran will trigger a nuclear holocaust if the United States inspects the country's ships come September, as called for in the June resolution. Only world pressure on Obama can avert the conflagration that will bring all major economies to a standstill, he said. "In this critical situation President Barack Obama is the one who will have to give the order for this so-often announced and proclaimed attack," Castro said, calling on world leaders to weigh in with the U.S. president before it's too late.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/fidel-castro-warns-nuclear-holocaust/story?id=11350666 

Iraq forces take over from last U.S. combat brigade
Iraq (Reuters) - The United States handed over control of all combat duties to Iraqi security forces on Saturday in a further sign its withdrawal is on track despite a political impasse in Iraq and a recent rise in violence. President Barack Obama said last Monday he would stick to his promise to end U.S. combat operations in Iraq by August 31, with security being left in the hands of Iraq's own U.S.-trained army and police. "Today is an extremely important day as we continue to progress toward turning over full responsibility to the Iraqi security forces," General Raymond Odierno, top commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told reporters after a departure ceremony for the last U.S. combat brigade.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6760WK20100807 

WikiLeaks to Publish New Documents
(AP) The online whistle-blower WikiLeaks said it will continue to publish more secret files from governments around the world despite U.S. demands to cancel plans to release classified military documents. "I can assure you that we will keep publishing documents — that's what we do," a WikiLeaks spokesman, who says he goes by the name Daniel Schmitt in order to protect his identity, told The Associated Press in an interview Saturday… The demand to stop publishing more classified documents, which the Pentagon has no independent power to enforce, is primarily aimed at preventing release of approximately 15,000 secret documents that the website WikiLeaks has said it is holding and possibly classified U.S. State Department cables. The Pentagon also hopes to stop WikiLeaks from making public the contents of a mammoth encrypted file recently added to the site. Contents of that file remain a mystery and Schmitt did not want to comment specifically on the content of a file the group posted online with the label "Insurance" in recent days. Schmitt said that the group is committed to the security concerns of the world's entire population — which may in some cases be opposed to the United States' national interests. "WikiLeaks is a globally acting organization," he said. "In that respect we are responsible toward the people of the world and not the people or the specific interests of one particular nation."
http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/wireStory?id=11348963 

Ahmadinejad: 9/11 terror attacks death toll was exaggerated
Iranian President says no Zionists were killed in the World Trade Center because 'one day earlier they were told not to go to their workplace.' Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks were exaggerated in a fresh broadside at the United States just days after U.S. President Barack Obama voiced willingness to talk to Iran. Well-known for his anti-American and anti-Israeli rhetoric, the hardline populist Ahmadinejad also repeated his denial of the Holocaust, on which the consensus of historians is that six million Jews were exterminated by Nazi Germany. Ahmadinejad said the Sept. 11 attacks with hijacked airliners on New York and Washington D.C. had been trumped up as an excuse for the United States to invade Afghanistan and Iraq.
http://www.haaretz.com...

More rains hit flooded Pakistan, Islamists step up
SUKKUR, Pakistan — Authorities evacuated thousands of Pakistanis living along expanding rivers on Saturday as forecasts predicted even more heavy rain could deepen the country's flood crisis. As the prime minister appealed for national solidarity, hardline Islamists rushed to fill in the gaps in the government's aid effort. Pakistani officials estimate as many as 13 million people throughout the South Asian nation have been affected by the worst flooding in the country's 63-year history, though the United Nations, apparently using different metrics, has put the number at roughly 4 million. About 1,500 people have died… helping in the relief effort are Islamist charities, including the Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation, which Western officials believe is linked to Lashkar-e-Taiba. Lashkar is the militant group blamed for the deadly 2008 attacks in Mumbai, the financial capital of India, Pakistan's regional archrival. The Falah-e-Insaniat Foundation says it is running 12 medical facilities, providing cooked food for 100,000 people every day, and plans to open shelters soon. "The magnitude of this tragedy is so severe, and the area affected is so vast, that the government alone cannot meet the needs of such a large number of affectees," said Atique Chauhan, a spokesman for the foundation.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38604118/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/ 

Cold kills 6 million fish, 1000s of alligators, dolphins
Over 1 million fish and thousands of alligators, turtles, dolphins and other river wildlife are floating dead in numerous Bolivian rivers in the three eastern/southern departments of Santa Cruz, Beni and Tarija. (3 Aug. 2010 - Update: The number of dead fish and other water-dependent wildlife has increased to about 6 million.) The extreme cold front that hit Bolivia in mid-July caused water temperatures to dip below the minimum temperatures river life can tolerate. As a consequence, rivers, lakes, lagoons and fisheries are brimming with decomposing fish and other creatures. Unprecedented: Nothing like this has ever been seen in this magnitude in Bolivia. Inhabitants of riverside communities report the smell is nauseating and can be detected as far as a kilometer away from river banks.
http://www.boliviabella.com/1-million-fish-dead-in-bolivian-ecological-disaster.html 

Lingering smog choking Moscow
MOSCOW — A miasma of smoke from wildfires continued cloaking the sweltering Russian capital Saturday and was expected to hang in until Tuesday. The heavy smog turned the city's spires into ominous blurs and grounding flights while glum pedestrians trudged the streets with faces hidden by surgical masks and water-soaked bandanas. The smoke crept into many buildings Friday, hovering about the ceiling in entryways. The State Historical Museum, on Red Square was forced to close because it couldn't stop its smoke detectors from going off. "The Russian capital is waiting for a 'wind of change' to disperse it," the Russian news agency RIA reported Saturday. The smell of fires burning around Moscow will remain in the air until wind changes its direction on Tuesday, meteorologists told RIA. Airborne pollutants such as carbon monoxide were four times higher than average readings Friday, the worst seen to date in Moscow, city health officials reported. The concentration appeared likely to intensify; the state news agency ITAR-Tass reported smoke was thickening in the city's southeast late Friday. The fires, which are raging across much of western Russia, come after weeks of extraordinary heat — daily highs of up to 100 (38 C) compared with the summer average of 75 — and practically no rain.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38589939/ns/world_news-europe/ 

6th August 2010

AP Exclusive: New al-Qaida leader knows US well
MIAMI (AP) - A suspected al-Qaida operative who lived for more than 15 years in the U.S. has become chief of the terror network's global operations, the FBI says, marking the first time a leader so intimately familiar with American society has been placed in charge of planning attacks. Adnan Shukrijumah, 35, has taken over a position once held by 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, who was captured in 2003, Miami-based FBI counterterrorism agent Brian LeBlanc told The Associated Press in an exclusive interview. That puts him in regular contact with al-Qaida's senior leadership, including Osama bin Laden, LeBlanc said. Shukrijumah (SHOOK'-ree joohm-HAH') and two other leaders were part of an "external operations council" that designed and approved terrorism plots and recruits, but his two counterparts were killed in U.S. drone attacks, leaving Shukrijumah as the de facto chief and successor to Mohammed - his former boss. "He's making operational decisions is the best way to put it," said LeBlanc, the FBI's lead Shukrijumah investigator. "He's looking at attacking the U.S. and other Western countries. Basically through attrition, he has become his old boss."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38588735/ns/us_news-security/ 

Poland growing in stature on EU stage, new president says
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - Poland's new President Bronislaw Komorowski described the country as a leading EU power ready to shape the future of the union in his inaugural speech on Friday. "It is from our initiative that the Eastern Partnership came about and that reflection was deepened on the Common Security and Defence Policy. We are joining the group of European leaders. We want to strengthen, inspire and invigorate the Old Continent," he said at his swearing-in ceremony in the Sejm, referring to a Polish scheme to boost EU relations with post-Soviet countries. "I want the office of the President to become a centre of reflection on the future of united Europe, because the discussion on this subject is taking place in Europe and Poland's voice should not be absent." The Polish head of state, who is responsible for foreign and defence policy, noted that he will make his first official visit to Brussels, followed by Paris and Berlin… Cultivating closer links with the Visegrad countries (the Czech Republic, Hungary and Slovakia) and Ukraine came next in the order of the keynote speech. Continuation of the recent "Polish-Russian reconciliation" was mentioned as a final priority. The rhetoric marks a shift from Mr Komorowski's predecessor, the late Lech Kaczynski, who attached greater weight to Polish-US relations
http://euobserver.com/9/30593/?rk=1 

Pakistan president: Door to talks with Taliban still open
LONDON — Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari says he's willing to consider reopening negotiations with the Taliban in his country — a statement that came amid a flurry of criticism that some elements within Pakistan remain sympathetic to the extremist movement. Zardari told The Associated Press on Friday that his country never closed the door to talks with the Taliban… Last year, the Pakistani government struck a deal with the Taliban in the Swat Valley that gave them effective control over the region. The militants violated the agreement and moved into another region, prompting an all out offensive by the Pakistani army. Although some U.S. and British politicians have suggested talking to the "enemy" may be the only way to win the war, many in the U.S. administration and Pakistan's other Western allies have publicly urged the country to continue fighting the Pakistani Taliban, not talk to them.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38601503/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/ 

Giant ice 'island' breaks off Greenland glacier
An ice "island" four times larger than Manhattan and up to 600 feet tall has broken off the world's northernmost glacier, a University of Delaware researcher reports. The chunk of Arctic ice that calved off Greenland's Petermann Glacier is the biggest in almost 50 years. The icy isle, which broke off early yesterday, is at least 100 square miles and as a thick as "up to half the height of the Empire State Building," according to a university news release. In mid-July, other scientists on a Greenpeace ship predicted the calving, the Sydney Morning Herald reported last month. They said that, altogether, 500 billion metric tons of ice was set to crumble from the glacier. "Ocean warming currents are circulating around the fjord here and eroding the underbelly of Petermann glacier at an incredible rate, which is 25 times that of the surface melt," said Alun Hubbard, a glaciologist at the University of Wales. There's been a revelation in the last couple of years in the role that warming oceans play in triggering the enhanced acceleration, breakup and thinning of these outlet glaciers." A National Ice Center scientist writes in The Washington Post that while iceberg creation is a regular occurrence, the newest is unusual for its size, which is more typical of Antarctic icebergs.
http://content.usatoday.com...

One of Indonesia's most active volcanoes erupts
Officials say one of Indonesia's most active volcanoes has erupted. Mount Karangetang is located on Siau, part of the Sulawesi island chain. Surono, a disaster official, said it spewed lava and hot ash hundreds of yards (meters) into the air on Friday. He says several villagers living on the mountains slopes are missing. Indonesia, the world's largest archipelago, is located on the so-called Pacific "Ring of Fire," an arc of volcanoes and fault lines encircling the Pacific Basin.
http://www.jpost.com/Headlines/Article.aspx?id=183894 

Flash floods kill at least 50 in Indian Kashmir
SRINAGAR (AP): A top police official says at least 50 people have been killed after a sudden downpour and flashfloods hit a major town in Indian Kashmir's remote and mountainous Ladakh region. Kuldeep Khoda, the state police chief, says a massive rescue operation including police, paramilitary and the army is under way in Leh town, the main town of the region. In Srinagar, army spokesman Lt. Col. J.S. Brar, says the flooding injured scores of people and has damaged telephone towers and the region's airport. The area is a high-altitude desert about 11,500 feet (3,500 meters) above sea level, and normally experiences very low precipitation.
http://www.thehimalayantimes.com...

Dense wildfire smog grips Moscow in heatwave
A thick blanket of smog - thought to be the worst so far - has shrouded Moscow as peat fires continue to burn just outside the city. The smog has disrupted air traffic at Domodedovo, one of Moscow's main international airports. Many Russians are wearing masks as the temperature rises close to 40C (104F).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10890557 

Russia fires pose nuclear threat
The Russian government warned on Thursday that raging wildfires could pose a nuclear threat to neighbouring countries, with the natural disaster already spilling across Russian borders in terms of food markets. Russian emergencies minister Sergei Shoigu said heat from fires in the Bryansk region near the frontier with Belarus and Ukraine, which was contaminated following the Chernobyl disaster in 1986, could release harmful radioactive particles into the atmosphere. "In the event of a fire there, radionuclides could rise [into the air] together with combustion particles, resulting in a new pollution zone," he explained on national television. Russia earlier this week removed radioactive material from the Sarov nuclear weapons research centre in the Nizhny Novgorod region as a precaution. It also shifted conventional artillery rockets from a garrison near Naro-Fominsk, southwest of Moscow. The fires, which have already killed 50 people, have also destroyed millions of hectares of crops, leaving Russians in doubt on food security as wheat prices continue to rise.
http://euobserver.com/9/30591/?rk=1 

Russia to impose temporary ban on grain exports
Russia is to ban the export of grain from 15 August to 31 December after drought and fires devastated crops. "I think it is advisable to introduce a temporary ban on the export from Russia of grain and other agriculture products made from grain," Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin said. Russia, one of the biggest producers of wheat, barley and rye, exported a quarter of its 2009 grain output. Mr Putin's announcement sent wheat prices to a 23-month high. They had already hit 22-month highs earlier this week due to concerns about the impact of the drought and fires on Russian wheat exports.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-10879138 

Video: Russian Grain Shortage – Russia has been hit by fires and drought due to abnormally hot weather, causing the government to declare a state of emergency in several of its grain producing regions. Analyst Eugene Chausovsky discusses the geopolitical implications. (http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/20100805_dispatch_russian_grain_shortage)

5th August 2010

US troop pullout will destroy Iraq, says Tariq Aziz
Saddam Hussein's most loyal deputy, Tariq Aziz, has accused Barack Obama of 'leaving Iraq to the wolves' by pressing ahead with a withdrawal of combat troops in the face of festering instability and a surge in violence. In his first interview since he was captured shortly after the fall of Baghdad more than seven years ago, Iraq's former deputy prime minister and long-time face to the world said the United States would cause the death of Iraq if it continued to withdraw its combat forces. "We are all victims of America and Britain," he told the Guardian from his prison cell in Baghdad. "They killed our country in many ways. When you make a mistake you need to correct a mistake, not leave Iraq to its death." Speaking only days after Obama confirmed that the US would be ending its combat mission in Iraq this month with the withdrawal of thousands of troops, Aziz said the country was in a worse state than before the war. "For 30 years Saddam built Iraq and now it is destroyed. There are more sick than before, more hungry. The people don't have services. People are being killed every day in the tens, if not hundreds. "I was encouraged when [Obama] was elected president, because I thought he was going to correct some of the mistakes of Bush. But Obama is a hypocrite. He is leaving Iraq to the wolves."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/aug/05/tariq-aziz-interview-iraq

Comment: Iran poised to fill vacuum after U.S. withdrawal
BAGHDAD - Every conversation I have in Iraq these days reaches back in history. When I ask policemen, government officials or Iraqi journalists what they think will happen after U.S. combat troops leave at the end of this month, our discussions inevitably become two-hour examinations of Islamic and Middle Eastern history. This is not simply an American pullout. Here August 2010 is seen as a turning point for Iraq.
The biggest concern many Iraqis seem to have is that the U.S. combat withdrawal will leave a power vacuum that will be filled by Iraq’s traditional rival and longtime enemy, Persian Iran. For seven years the United States has exerted its influence in Iraq bluntly, sending in troops, tanks and contractors. Iran’s strategy to influence its neighbor has been slower, cheaper, but also effective.
In the early 16th century, just a few decades after Christopher Columbus landed on America’s shores, the last great Islamic empire was fighting to rule the Middle East, the Mediterranean and the rest of the world. From his capital on the Bosporus, Istanbul, the hero of the Ottoman Empire Sultan Suliman “The Magnificent” seemed undefeatable. Suliman’s mission was to impose Ottoman domination around the globe. His call to war was jihad. Suliman believed he was a Muslim successor to the Roman Caesars. He liked to be called Caesar. Suliman’s dream was to unite the world under one ruler and one God. Suliman’s ability to raise soldiers, build warships and transport armies was unmatched by his Christian adversaries in Europe. Suliman skillfully used North African corsairs, Christian mercenaries and slaves and an elite corps of riflemen armed with arquebuses to spread the Ottoman superpower.
While European armies fought Suliman with stone-ball cannons, swords and “Greek Fire” - a medieval flamethrower - one city-state tried a different approach to confront the Ottomans. The Venetians were the great shippers of the age. It was a lucrative trade that made the people of St. Mark so wealthy they built their almost magical capital on water. Despite their riches, the Venetians knew they could never confront Suliman in a direct flight. So the Venetians played coy and used politics. The Venetian strategy was to undermine the Ottoman Empire from within. They spied relentlessly on the Ottoman court, the “Sublime Porte” in Istanbul’s opulent Topkapi palace. They bribed Ottoman officials handsomely. They bought Suilman’s advisers summarily. It allowed the Venetians to confront a superpower, at least for a while.
Five centuries years later, many Iraqis believe Iran has played a similar game with the United States in Iraq. Iran knew it could never take on American army divisions and Air Force wings in a direct confrontation in Iraq. So Iran infiltrated the Iraqi government. For seven years Iran has spied relentlessly on Iraqi governments in the Topkapi of today, Baghdad’s grim, prison-like Green Zone. Iran has bribed Iraqi officials handsomely. Iran has bought Iraqi advisers summarily. It has allowed Iran to confront a superpower, at least for a while.
Iran could well be the biggest benefactor of the American withdrawal.
(By Richard Engel, NBC chief foreign correspondent).
http://worldblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2010/08/05/4823640-iran-poised-to-fill-vacuum-after-us-withdrawal  

Russia wildfires still spreading - 50 dead
Russia is still fighting to extinguish nearly 600 wildfires in an emergency that has now claimed 50 lives. Foreign reinforcements are arriving, Russian officials say, including two Canadair water-bombing planes from Italy. Ukraine and Belarus are also sending firefighters. One fire threatens a shelter housing some 1,000 animals in the Moscow area. The Moscow smog eased on Thursday, though an acrid smell persisted from peat fires burning outside the city... Forecasters expect Moscow's high temperatures to persist for several more days... Seven regions are under a state of emergency. Russian officials say there are now 589 wildfires raging across 196,000 ha (484,326 acres). More than 160,000 firefighters have been deployed. In the Nizhny Novgorod region, east of Moscow, firefighters have been battling blazes near a major nuclear research facility in Sarov. As a precaution, all nuclear materials have been removed from the site, which is about 400km (250 miles) from Moscow.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10881892 

Follow-up: Merkel offers Russia help fighting wildfires – Chancellor Angela Merkel offered to help Russian efforts to put out hundreds of wildfires in a telephone conversation with President Dmitry Medvedev late on Wednesday. Merkel expressed "solidarity and the German readiness to help in the face of the devastating fires," according to a German government statement. The Russian head of state was said to have thanked Merkel for her "display of solidarity," going on to say the relevant Russian authorities would assess whether German help could be useful. The Germans did not specify the exact nature of the aid offered to Moscow by Merkel. Italy has already come to the Kremlin's aid, putting two specialized firefighting planes at Russia's disposal. ( http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5867872,00.html )

Scientists cautious after report says Gulf spill is 'contained'
The Gulf of Mexico has dodged the worst effects of the oil slick from the BP oil spill, according to a government report released on Wednesday. The report, compiled by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) and the United States Geological Survey (USGS), says that three quarters of the oil “has evaporated or been otherwise contained”. The spill from BP’s Macondo well, part of the Deepwater Horzon drilling platform that exploded in April, has receded to the point that skimming vessels are having trouble finding any oil to remove from the water. The study estimates that one quarter has “evaporated or dissolved” while 16 percent has “naturally dispersed”. One third of the total spill has been removed by human effort, including skimming, use of chemical dispersants and burning and direct recovery from the water above the well, according to the report. The remaining 26 percent “includes oil that is on or just below the surface as light sheen and weathered tar balls, has washed ashore … or is buried in sand and sediments.” Scientists, however, are concerned that this 26 percent could continue to pose unknown risks to the future of the Gulf coast’s shoreline.
http://www.france24.com...

Magnitude 7 earthquake shakes Papua New Guinea
CANBERRA, Australia (AP) — A magnitude 7 earthquake shook Papua New Guinea on Thursday, U.S. Geological Survey said. There was no risk of a significant tsunami, possibly because the quake was 34 miles (54 kilometers) below the Earth's crust. Papua New Guinea lies on the "Ring of Fire" — an arc of earthquake and volcanic zones that stretches around the Pacific Rim and where about 90 percent of the world's quakes occur.
http://world.foxnews.mobi/quickPage.html?page=23930&external=399301.proteus.fma 

Ahmadinejad says Iran building three-stage rocket
President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran is working on a three-stage rocket to carry a satellite 1,000 kilometres (more than 600 miles) into space, Fars news agency reported on Thursday. "The country's scientists are working on a three-stage rocket that will take us to 1,000 kilometres," Ahmadinejad, quoted by Fars, told a local television in the western city of Hamedan. He said the rocket's engines would have a thrust of between 120 and 140 tonnes, four times greater than the rocket thrust used to launch Iran's first satellite into space in February 2009. "Last time, we sent a satellite to 250 kilometres ... Next year it will be sent to 700 kilometres, and the year after that to 1,000 kilometres," he said. The launch of Iran's first satellite, named Omid, stirred a wave of criticism from Western countries which fear the potential uses of the Islamic republic's ambitious space programme.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.1fdd62d1d5fae296fbd87d17e1df4c8e.3e1&show_article=1 

4th August 2010

2010 is year of extreme weather
While Pakistan has been hit by catastrophic flooding, Russia has endured a lethal heatwave. Some 1,200 people have been killed in the deluges sweeping Pakistan, but in Moscow more than 30 are reported to have died in wildfires as temperatures have soared to a new record for the region of 38C (100F). It marks out 2010 as the year of extreme weather - and experts predict the pronounced conditions will continue across the globe. Last month alone the UK was hit by a hosepipe ban, saw tarmac melting on roads and the population was issued health warnings about the dangers of too much sun. Yet despite the heatwave, it was also the wettest July ever recorded. According to provisional statistics from the Met Office, the country was 46 per cent wetter than average and some areas faced devastating floods. Britain was not alone. The mercury climbed to its highest point in decades in other parts of Europe, the U.S. and Japan as record temperatures were recorded…
http://www.dailymail.co.uk...

Food stamp use hit record 40.8m in May
WASHINGTON — The number of Americans who are receiving food stamps rose to a record 40.8 million in May as the jobless rate hovered near a 27-year high, the government reported. Recipients of Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program subsidies for food purchases jumped 19 percent from a year earlier and increased 0.9 percent from April, the US Department of Agriculture said in a statement on its website. Participation has set records for 18 straight months.
http://www.boston.com...

3rd August 2010

Some wildfires raging out of control in Russia
KADANOK, Russia – Some of the devastating wildfires sweeping western Russia are out of control, Russia's emergency chief said Tuesday, as fears grew there were not enough firefighters to battle them… The blazes, coming after weeks of record-breaking heat and practically no rainfall, have killed 40 people and destroyed nearly 2,000 residences. The fires also leaped into a military base near Moscow, destroying the headquarters building and 13 buildings containing unspecified aviation equipment, the federal Investigative Committee said Tuesday. The fire at the base was reported by some Russian media last week, but the statement was the first official confirmation. Shoigu told a televised news conference that "a tense situation" continues in the fight against fires near one of Russia's largest nuclear research facilities, in Sarov some 400 kilometers (250 miles) east of Moscow.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100803/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_fires 

Iraq: Car bomb kills 15 south of Baghdad
BAGHDAD — A car bomb ripped through an outdoor market Tuesday in a mainly Shiite city southeast of Baghdad in the deadliest of a series of attacks that killed at least 23 people nationwide, officials said. The blast in Kut, 100 miles (160 kilometers) southeast of Baghdad, targeted a popular outdoor market that sells food and clothes at about 5.30 p.m., killing at least 15 people and wounding 60, according to police and health officials. The attack came hours after suspected al-Qaida militants killed five Iraqi soldiers at a western Baghdad checkpoint, planting the terror group's black banner before fleeing. It was the second time in less than a week that al-Qaida's flag has appeared at the scene of an attack. The uptick in violence has raised concerns that insurgents are successfully taking advantage of the enduring political vacuum nearly five months after Iraq's parliamentary elections failed to produce a clear winner.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38534523/ns/world_news-mideastn_africa/ 

Pakistan's leader says world losing Afghan war
LONDON — The U.S.-led coalition's battle against the Taliban has already been lost because of its failure to win over the Afghan people, Pakistan's president warned Tuesday before tough talks this week with Prime Minister David Cameron, who has accused the country of exporting terrorism. President Asif Ali Zardari told the French daily Le Monde online that the coalition had "underestimated the situation on the ground and was not conscious of the scale of the problem" against the Taliban largely because "we have lost the battle to conquer the heart and soul" of the Afghan people. Long-term help — not just military reinforcements — was needed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38537752/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/ 

Floodwaters surge into Pakistan's heartland
KOT ADDU, Pakistan (AP) — Floodwaters surged into Pakistan's heartland and swallowed dozens of villages Tuesday, adding to a week of destruction that has already ravaged the mountainous northwest and killed 1,500 people. The rush of muddy water over river banks in Punjab threatened to destroy vast stretches of crops that make the province Pakistan's breadbasket, prompting the U.N. to warn that an estimated 1.8 million people will need to be fed in the coming weeks. Adding to the misery, fresh rains in the northwest threatened to overwhelm a major dam and unleash a new deluge, while rescue workers struggled to deliver aid to some 3.2 million people affected by the floods despite washed-out bridges and roads and downed communication lines. The government has struggled to cope with the scale of the disaster at a time when it is grappling with a faltering economy and a brutal war against the Taliban.
http://www.foxnews.com...

Political Killing Stokes Tensions in Pakistan City
The ruling party in Pakistan's largest city accused its main political rival of supporting Islamist militants suspected of assassinating a party leader, further stoking tensions Tuesday after 45 people died in a night of revenge attacks and arson. The accusation appeared to reflect the complex and vicious political and ethnic faultlines that crisscross Karachi, also Pakistan's commercial hub and home to the main port for supplies to U.S. and NATO troops across the border in Afghanistan.
http://abcnews.go.com/International/wireStory?id=11310453 

Peru Plague Outbreak Kills 1, Infects At Least 31
LIMA, Peru (AP) - Peru's health minister says an outbreak of plague has killed a 14-year-old boy and infected at least 31 people in a northern coastal province. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte says authorities are screening sugar and fish meal exports from Ascope province, located about 325 miles (520 kms) northwest of Lima. Popular Chicama beach isn't far away. Ugarte says the boy, who had Down syndrome, died of bubonic plague July 26. He said Monday that most of the infections are bubonic plague, with four cases of pneumonic plague. The former is transmitted by flea bites, the latter by airborne contagion. The disease is curable if treated early with antibiotics. The first recorded plague outbreak in Peru was in 1903. The last, in 1994, killed 35 people.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/08/02/ap/latinamerica/main6737632.shtml 

Powerful quake hits eastern Indonesia
JAKARTA, Indonesia (AP) — A powerful earthquake struck waters off of eastern Indonesia on Tuesday. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake had a preliminary magnitude of 6.3 and was centered off Sulawesi island, around 26 miles (42 kilometers) beneath the ocean floor. Some buildings shook in Manado, 100 miles (160 kilometers) east of the epicenter, and in the nearby cities of Bitung and Tondano… Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that make the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity. A giant quake off the country on Dec. 26, 2004, triggered the Indian Ocean tsunami that killed 230,000 people, half of them in Indonesia's westernmost province of Aceh.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5gCeFe6qrUA2J6TpqBUjMoyp8nthAD9HC14HG0

2nd August 2010

Obama: U.S. combat role in Iraq is ending
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama said Monday that he is on track to fulfill his campaign promise of ending the war in Iraq as he marked a milestone in winding down major combat operations there this month. Despite a deadlock in Baghdad on efforts to form a new government, Obama highlighted achievements in Iraq and discussed the formal shift taking place in the disposition of U.S. troops as they transition to a more advisory role. "As a candidate for president, I pledged to bring the war in Iraq to a responsible end," Obama said in his speech to the Disabled American Veterans convention in Atlanta. "Shortly after taking office, I announced our new strategy for Iraq and for a transition to full Iraqi responsibility. And I made it clear that by August 31, 2010 America's combat mission in Iraq would end. And that is exactly what we are doing — as promised, on schedule."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38518416/ns/politics/ 

Garbage islands threaten China's Three Gorges dam
(Reuters) - Thousands of tons of garbage washed down by recent torrential rain are threatening to jam the locks of China's massive Three Gorges Dam, and is in places so thick people can stand on it, state media said on Monday. Chen Lei, a senior official at the China Three Gorges Corporation, told the China Daily that 3,000 tons of rubbish was being collected at the dam every day, but there was still not enough manpower to clean it all up. "The large amount of waste in the dam area could jam the miter gate of the Three Gorges Dam," Chen said, referring to the gates of the locks which allow shipping to pass through the Yangtze River. The river is a crucial commercial artery for the upstream city of Chongqing and other areas in China's less-developed western interior provinces. Pictures showed a huge swathe of the waters by the dam crammed full of debris, with cranes brought in to fish out a tangled mess, including shoes, bottles, branches and Styrofoam. Some 50,000 square meters of water (more than half a million square feet) had been covered by trash washed down since the start of the rainy season in July, the report said. The trash is around 60 centimeters (two feet) deep, and in some parts so compacted people can walk on it, the Hubei Daily added. "Such a large amount of debris could damage the propellers and bottoms of passing boats," Chen said, "The decaying garbage could also harm the scenery and the water quality."
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6710SH20100802 

Rockets hit Israel and Jordan resorts
Jordan (Reuters) - Rockets from Egypt's Sinai, where Islamist militants have operated in the past, hit Israel's and Jordan's Red Sea port resorts on Monday, killing a Jordanian civilian and injuring three others, Jordanian and Israeli police said… Jordanian Minister of State Ali al-Ayed said the kingdom would continue its "fight against terrorists who undertake callous attacks that targets innocent people." Israeli President Shimon Peres condemned the rocket fire and said Israel and Jordan, who made peace in 1994, were "partners in the uncompromising struggle to eradicate terrorism." "There is a real struggle in the Middle East between the peace camp of moderate countries and the camp of extremists, who want to sabotage any chance for peace," Peres said.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSTRE6710LN20100802 

1st August 2010

Explosion levels home of Gaza leader
JERUSALEM (AP) - Israel's prime minister issued a stern warning Sunday to Gaza's Hamas rulers after a weekend of rocket attacks from the Palestinian territory on Israeli communities. Benjamin Netanyahu told his Cabinet that Israel holds the Islamic militant group responsible for the rare flare-up in violence and would retaliate for any attack against its people. "I see the Hamas as directly responsible for any attack that comes from the Gaza Strip toward the state of Israel and the international community should see it this way as well," Netanyahu said. "Israel reserves the right to defend its citizens and we will continue to use all means to protect the people of Israel and the children of Israel."
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip -- Palestinians say a huge explosion has leveled the Gaza home of a senior Hamas commander, causing multiple casualties. Palestinians say the blast was caused by an Israeli airstrike, but Israel denies that.
http://www.forbes.com/feeds/ap/2010/08/01/general-ml-israel-palestinians_7815330.html 

U.S. Has Iran Attack Plan, Mullen Says
The United States military has a plan to attack Iran in order to prevent the country from developing a nuclear weapon, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff revealed Sunday. Adm. Mike Mullen, the top-ranking U.S. military officer, said a military strike would have severe downsides -- but so would a nuclear-armed Iran. He described the challenge as a choice between two very bad options. "I am extremely concerned about both of those outcomes," he said. But Mullen, speaking on NBC's "Meet the Press," said the military option is an important one. He said it's a decision that's up to the president to make. "The military options have been on the table and remain on the table," he said. "It's one of the options that the president has. ... I hope we don't get to that, but it's an important option and it's one that's well understood." Asked whether the U.S. military has an attack plan, Mullen said: "We do." He did not elaborate.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2010/08/01/mullen-says-military-strike-plan-iran/ 

Pakistan flooding death toll hits 1,100
U.N. estimates some 1 million people nationwide have been affected by the disaster
NOWSHERA, Pakistan — The death toll from massive floods in northwestern Pakistan rose to 1,100 Sunday as rescue workers struggled to save more than 27,000 people still trapped by the raging water.
The rescue effort was aided by a slackening of the monsoon rains that have caused the worst flooding in decades in Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province. But as flood waters started to recede, authorities began to understand the full scale of the disaster. "Aerial monitoring is being conducted, and it has shown that whole villages have washed away, animals have drowned and grain storages have washed away," said Latifur Rehman, spokesman for the Provincial Disaster Management Authority. "The destruction is massive." The flooding, which the U.N. estimates has affected 1 million people nationwide, comes at a time when the Pakistani government is already grappling with a faltering economy and a war against the Taliban.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38499994/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/ 

31st July 2010

Pakistan Spy Scraps UK Talks after PM's Comments
LONDON (AP) - A diplomatic spat with implications for international counterterrorism escalated Saturday after Pakistan's spy chief canceled a visit to London following comments by the British leader suggesting Pakistan exports terrorism. Pakistan confirmed President Asif Ali Zardari will come to Britain for a planned trip next week, but relations between the two countries have been strained by Prime Minister David Cameron's blunt remarks during a visit to Pakistan's nuclear rival, India. Cameron, who took office in May, said Pakistan must not be allowed to "promote the export of terror whether to India, whether to Afghanistan or to anywhere else in the world." Cameron later conceded that Pakistan had made moves against terror organizations, but said "it still needs to take further steps." The remarks outraged Pakistani officials. Wajid Shamsul Hasan, Pakistan's ambassador to Britain, called the comments "an immature reaction from an immature politician." A senior Pakistani intelligence official confirmed that Saturday Inter-Services Intelligence chief Lt. Gen. Ahmed Shujaa Pasha had called off a trip planned for next week, when he had been due to discuss security cooperation with British intelligence bosses. The official spoke on condition of anonymity in line with his agency's policy. On Saturday about a dozen protesters from the Islamist group Shababe Milli burned an effigy of Cameron in the city of Karachi.
http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/07/31/ap/world/main6730846.shtml 

2 strong earthquakes hit Iran, over 200 injured
TEHRAN: Two strong earthquakes shook different parts of Iran in less than 24 hours, injuring more than 200 people and damaging hundreds of homes, Iranian media reported on Saturday. The first quake, which had a magnitude of 5.7, struck villages and towns in the northeast on Friday evening, injuring more than 200 people, said Mojtaba Sadeqian, governor of the town hardest hit, Torbat-e Heydariyeh. Two of the injured were in critical condition, the official IRNA news agency quoted him as saying. The semiofficial ILNA news agency reported a higher injury toll, putting the number at 274. Iranian TV footage showed parts of buildings reduced to rubble and homes strewn with shattered glass and other debris. Communications were also temporarily disrupted. Late Saturday morning, a magnitude 5.8 earthquake rattled the Negar region, 670 miles (more than 1,000 kilometers) south of the capital, Tehran. There were no reports of casualties, but state television said there was extensive damage.
http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com...

WikiLeaks founder vows more leaks
The WikiLeaks website has received additional “very significant” material about U.S. military abuses from anonymous whistleblowers since the publication of its leaked Afghan war logs and plans to post the new documents within weeks, the group’s founder said Friday. In an interview with NBC News, Julian Assange, the controversial WikiLeaks chief, said in just the last few days the website has received a "wide variety" of fresh material, including documents on the oil giant BP and "internal abuses," including sexual abuse, within the U.S. military. The enormous international publicity given the Afghan documents has “emboldened” more whistleblowers to step forward and contact the organization, he said. Assange’s vow to publicize more internal government documents comes in the wake of furious criticism of WikiLeaks from the Obama administration and members of Congress over its publication of 91,000 classified U.S. documents on the war in Afghanistan — at least some of which appear to identify the names of U.S. and Afghan government informants and cooperative parties in the war against the Taliban.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38493475/ns/us_news-security/

30th July 2010

Recession was deeper than government previously thought
Recession inflicted more damage on economy than previously thought, government data show
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The recession was deeper than the government previously thought. The Commerce Department, in revisions issued Friday, estimates the economy shrank 2.6 percent last year -- the steepest drop since 1946. That's worse than the 2.4 percent decline originally estimated. The economy's plunge underscores why the unemployment rate surged to 10.1 percent in October, a 26-year high. The revisions in gross domestic product, or GDP, now show zero growth in 2008. That compares with a 0.4 percent gain previously estimated.The economy also grew less in 2007 (1.9 percent) than earlier thought (2.1 percent). For all three years, consumers spent less and home builders cut more deeply than had been thought. Those factors help explain the downward revisions on the economy.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/Recession-was-deeper-than-apf-3247751846.html?x=0&.v=3 

US finance chiefs wary on outlook
Confidence among US finance chiefs dipped for the first time in more than a year on concerns about the economic outlook and the cost of financial and healthcare reforms, according to a second-quarter survey to be published on Friday... “With unemployment levels still high, it is not surprising that CFOs have retracted some of the economic confidence they expressed earlier this year,” said Marie Hollein, chief executive of FEI. Since the last survey was conducted in early April, Europe has been rocked by a sovereign debt crisis and industrial production has begun to slow in parts of Asia, prompting concerns about a double-dip recession. Last week Ben Bernanke, chairman of the Federal Reserve, said in congressional testimony that while the central bank expects “continued moderate growth” for the US, the economic outlook remains “unusually uncertain”.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/61fcb032-9b33-11df-baaf-00144feab49a.html 

US embassy vehicles torched in Afghan capital
AFP - Rioting erupted in Kabul Friday when scores of Afghan men set fire to two US embassy vehicles after one collided with a civilian car killing a number of occupants, officials and witnesses said. Television pictures showed the vehicles in flames and young Afghan men throwing stones at them. NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said it had despatched a quick reaction force to the area, outside the American embassy and near US and Afghan army bases in the centre of the city. An ISAF official said the vehicles involved belonged to the US embassy. "We don't know yet how many people were killed in the accident," interior ministry spokesman Zemarai Bashery said.
http://www.france24.com/en/20100730-us-embassy-vehicles-torched-afghan-capital 

Poisoning scare hits U.S. Embassy in Paris
PARIS — Two employees of the U.S. Embassy in Paris were examined for suspected poisoning on Friday after opening a suspicious envelope, but preliminary results indicated it was not harmful, the embassy said in a statement. "The Embassy confirms that a suspicious envelope was received. Per Embassy security procedures, the two employees who were exposed to it were evaluated by medical professionals and the envelope is being analyzed by a laboratory," the statement said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38483154/ns/world_news-europe/ 

US Consulate in Ciudad Juarez closes for security
MEXICO CITY — The U.S. closed its consulate in the Mexican border city of Ciudad Juarez on Thursday pending a security review, an unexpected decision that comes months after drug gangs killed three people tied to the consulate. The U.S. Embassy announced the consulate will "remain closed until the security review is completed" and said it would reschedule appointments for visa applications. The embassy did not say what prompted the review, and a spokesman said there would be no comment beyond the statement. A U.S. employee of the consulate, her husband and a Mexican tied to the consulate were killed March 13 when drug gang fired on their cars as they left a children's party in the city across from El Paso, Texas.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38479237/ns/world_news-americas/ 

July becomes deadliest month for U.S. forces in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Three U.S. service members were killed in blasts in Afghanistan, bringing the toll for July to at least 63 and making it the deadliest month for American forces in the nearly 9-year-war. A NATO statement Friday said the three died in two separate blasts in southern Afghanistan the day before. The statement gave no nationalities, but U.S. officials say all three were Americans… These latest casulties add to the Pentagon's tally of 1,197 U.S. military deaths in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38481601/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/ 

Flooding kills hundreds in Pakistan and Afghanistan
Whole villages have been washed away
Floods caused by heavy monsoon rains have killed hundreds of people in Pakistan and Afghanistan.
Some 325 people died in north-west Pakistan, while across the border in Afghanistan at least 60 were killed. In Pakistan, several rivers burst their banks, washing away villages, roads and bridges. Some power supplies have been cut to prevent more electrocutions. Officials say the floods are the worst the region has experienced in more than 80 years, and further rain is forecast. Nearly half a million people have been displaced and hundreds are thought to have drowned, with more killed in landslides or crushed by collapsing buildings. Transport and communication links have been badly affected, even away from the worst-hit areas, says the BBC's Aleem Maqbool, in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10815265 

Gibraltar: an ecological time bomb
Illegal fuel dumping, leaking oil, industrial pollution...In Gibraltar, the population and the ecosystem are under threat. France 24 investigated how and why this was allowed to happen. See video…
http://www.france24.com...

29th July 2010

Saudi king in Syria amid regional tensions
DAMASCUS, Syria – Syria on Thursday warned the United States to stop trying to interfere as Arab leaders try to defuse heightened tensions in the Middle East. Saudi King Abdullah, who arrived in Syria on Thursday, was expected to travel with the Syrian president to Beirut on Friday to help calm concerns over pending indictments in the 2005 assassination of Lebanon's former prime minister. U.S. State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley told reporters in Washington this week that he hoped Syrian President Bashar Assad would "listen very attentively" to Abdullah, a U.S. ally. Washington has urged Syria to move away from its alliance with Iran. Syria responded that the U.S. "has no right to determine our relationships with regional states or interfere in the content of the talks." …Relations between Syria and Saudi Arabia have begun to thaw in recent years, and Thursday's visit by the Saudi monarch is a sign the countries are trying to show a united front as tempers mount in the region, including those in Lebanon over the investigation into who killed former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri. Late Thursday, Syria's official news agency said Assad and Abdullah agreed that the "challenges facing Arabs, mainly in occupied Palestine, necessitate that all (Arabs) double their efforts to upgrade inter-Arab relations."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100729/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_syria_saudi 

Poll: Pakistanis have negative view of U.S.
WASHINGTON — Despite billions in aid from Washington and a shared threat from extremists, Pakistanis have an overwhelmingly negative view of the United States, according to results of a Pew Research Center poll released Thursday. Most Pakistanis want improved relations with the United States, according to the poll. But most view the U.S. with suspicion, support for American involvement in the fight against extremists has declined, and nearly two-thirds want U.S. troops out of neighboring Afghanistan. Nearly six in 10 Pakistanis polled described the U.S. as an enemy and only one in 10 called it a partner. Public attitudes in Pakistan figure importantly in the Obama administration's strategy for strengthening the U.S. partnership with Pakistan to help defeat al-Qaida and stabilize Afghanistan. Another U.S. worry is the prospect of Pakistan's nuclear weapons falling into the hands of militants.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38473964/ns/world_news-south_and_central_asia/ 

Al-Qaida plants flag, burns bodies in Iraq attack
BAGHDAD (AP) — Militants flew an al-Qaida flag over a Baghdad neighborhood Thursday after killing 16 security officials and burning some of their bodies in a brazen afternoon attack that served as a grim reminder of continued insurgent strength in Iraq's capital. It was the bloodiest attack in a day that included the deaths of 23 Iraqi soldiers, policemen and other security forces across the country who were targeted by shootings and roadside bombs. The mayhem serves as a stark warning that insurgents are trying to make a comeback three months after their two top leaders were killed in an airstrike on their safehouse, and as the U.S. military presence decreases day by day... A day before the Azamiyah attack, Vice President Joe Biden predicted there would not be an extreme outbreak of sectarian violence in Iraq as all but 50,000 U.S. forces leave the country at the end of August. He said the American troops left behind would be more than enough to help Iraqi forces maintain security... The Azamiyah blast was the deadliest of a series of attacks around the country, aiming to kill and maim members of Iraq's security forces who are increasingly taking over security from Americans.
http://www.newstimes.com/news/article/Al-Qaida-linked-group-claims-TV-bombing-in-Baghdad-594832.php 

Raging Russian fires destroy homes, people flee
MOSCOW MILLS — Raging forest fires encircled a southern Russian city and tore through provincial villages Thursday, forcing mass evacuations as Moscow suffered through a record, weeks-long heat wave and smog cloud caused by peat-bog fires. Some 212,506 acres (86,000 hectares) were burning nationwide, and flames all but encircled the city of Voronezh, 300 miles southeast of Moscow… Hundreds of homes in surrounding villages burned to the ground, the ministry said. The Interfax news agency reported that the 340 homes were destroyed in a village near Nizhny Novgorod, around 250 miles east of Moscow… The mercury hit 100 (37.8 Celsius) on Thursday, beating by a fraction a record set on Monday, the country's news agencies reported. Muscovites have been urged to skip work and stay indoors due to the heat and potentially dangerous smog from peat bog fires outside the city, as the third week of a protracted heat wave approached. While the heat, which is relatively mild for the United States but highly unusual in Northern Europe, was expected to ease in the coming days, the smog from the peat bogs could be around for weeks, officials have said.
http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2010/07/29/4777753-raging-russian-fires-destroy-homes-people-flee

28th July 2010

Terror group claims it will make Greece 'warzone'
ATHENS, Greece — A Greek terrorist group vowed Wednesday to step up attacks and turn Greece into a "warzone" after claiming responsibility for the killing of a journalist linked to a popular blog. The group calling itself Sect of Revolutionaries claimed in a statement it would wage a campaign of deadly attacks against police, businessmen, prison staff and journalists it considers corrupt. "We are at war with your democracy," the group said. "Tourists must learn that Greece is no longer a safe haven of capitalism. We intend to turn it into a warzone of revolutionary activity with arson, sabotage, violent demonstrations, bombings and assassinations." The militant group said it would not carry out indiscriminate attacks, and made no direct threat to tourists. The sect of Revolutionaries emerged after Greece was hit by widespread rioting in December 2008, sparked by the police's fatal shooting of a teenage boy. Since the riots, Greek authorities have battled increasingly deadly attacks by militant groups. Last month, a letter bomb exploded inside the heavily guarded Civil Protection Ministry and killed a close aide of the minister.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38442855/ns/world_news-europe/ 

Cameron alienates France and Germany over Turkey's EU bid
The idea of Turkey joining the EU continues to be an uncomfortable one for many in the bloc. British Prime Minister David Cameron has thrown his support behind Turkey's bid, setting the UK apart from France and Germany. During his visit to Turkey this week, German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle tiptoed around the topic, reiterating that Germany places "great importance on deepening mutual ties and binding Turkey to Europe." The party line is that the German government does not support Turkey becoming a full member of the EU and instead promotes the idea of a 'privileged partnership. 'Westerwelle's words echo those of the Chancellor Angela Merkel in Prague last year who pushed for a "close connection" with Turkey, but certainly did not endorse Turkey's bid. Merkel's counterpart in France, President Nicolas Sarkozy has been more direct in his approach. "I don't think that Turkey has a place in the EU. On this question, my opinion has not changed," he said. While Merkel and Sarkozy cannot change the fact that EU negotiations with Turkey started in 2004, they can continue to stall the process. The negative views from France and Germany contrast strongly with the impassioned rhetoric of British Prime Minister David Cameron during his recent trip to Ankara... "I believe it's just wrong to say Turkey can guard the camp but not be allowed to sit inside the tent," Cameron said in Ankara. The new prime minister's views jar slightly with many in Europe... The rumor-mill in Brussels suggests that Cameron's support may not be purely out of solidarity with Turkey, but a political move aimed at weakening the EU.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5844962,00.html

27th July 2010

US braces for blowback over Afghan war disclosures
WASHINGTON – Operatives inside Afghanistan and Pakistan who have worked for the U.S. against the Taliban or al-Qaida may be at risk following the disclosure of thousands of once-secret U.S. military documents, former and current officials said. As the Obama administration scrambles to repair any political damage to the war effort in Congress and among the American public by the WikiLeaks revelations, there are also growing concerns that some U.S. allies abroad may ask whether they can trust America to keep secrets, officials said. Speaking in the Rose Garden Tuesday, President Barack Obama said he was concerned about the massive leak of sensitive documents about the Afghanistan war…
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100727/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/us_afghanistan_wikileaks

US 'fails to account' for Iraq reconstruction billions
A US federal watchdog has criticised the US military for failing to account properly for billions of dollars it received to help rebuild Iraq. The Special Inspector General for Iraq Reconstruction says the US Department of Defence is unable to account properly for 96% of the money. Out of just over $9bn (£5.8bn), $8.7bn is unaccounted for, the inspector says. ...the report says that a lack of proper accounting and poor oversight makes it impossible to say exactly what happened to most of it. According to the report, the Pentagon is unable to fully account for $8.7bn of funds it withdrew between 2004 and 2007, and of that amount it "could not provide documentation to substantiate how it spent $2.6bn"... "The breakdown in controls left the funds vulnerable to inappropriate uses and undetected loss," the report said.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-south-asia-10774002 

Ahmadinejad: US and Israel plot wars within three months
DEBKAfile's Iranian sources quote President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as saying: "We have precise information that the Americans have devised a plot, according to which they seek to launch a psychological war on Iran. They plan to attack at least two countries in the region within the next three months," he said, without specifying which countries were the subjects of the alleged conspiracy, only hinting that America's senior military ally in the region, Israel, was directly involved. Ahmadinejad spoke Monday night in an interview restricted to the controlled Iranian media which make a point of stressing the late hour. He said the plot had two objectives: "First of all, they (the Americans) want to hamper Iran's progress and development since they are opposed to our growth," he said and secondly, "They want to save the Zionist regime, because it has reached a dead end and the Zionists believe they can be saved through a military confrontation."
http://www.debka.com/article/8932/ 

Prime minister: France is at war against al-Qaida
PARIS — France is "at war" with al-Qaida and will step up efforts to fight its North African offshoot after it executed a French hostage in the Sahara, Prime Minister Francois Fillon said Tuesday. French President Nicolas Sarkozy confirmed the killing Monday, vowing that the perpetrators "will not go unpunished." …His prime minister said Tuesday that France will reinforce efforts to work with governments in northwest Africa fighting al-Qaida in the sparsely populated swath of desert that includes the borders dividing Mauritania, Mali, Algeria and Niger. "We are at war against al-Qaida," Fillon said on Europe-1 radio. He said France "thwarts several attacks every year," without elaborating. French Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said Tuesday from Mauritania that the Sahel region in question "will not be left to terrorist bands, arms and drug traffickers."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38424612/ns/world_news-europe/ 

26th July 2010

Push for Serbia EU accession speed-up in wake of Kosovo court ruling
EUOBSERVER / BRUSSELS - A number of EU states are in favour of speeding up Serbia's EU accession process in the wake of Belgrade's loss at the International Court of Justice over Kosovo's declaration of independence. The foreign ministers of Italy, Slovakia and Austria pushed for such a move heading into Monday's meeting of EU foreign ministers, the first time EU governments discussed the implications of the ICJ's finding last week. Ahead of the day's meeting, Italian foreign policy chief Franco Frattini told reporters: "At a time when we should understand Serbia's disappointment ... we need to help a sincere pro-European like [Serbian President Boris] Tadic with very positive message." …Austria's foreign minister, Michael Spindelegger, also suggested some movement on Serbia's accession prospects was warranted "The important thing for Serbia is that we make their prospect of progress towards Europe concrete," he said, hinting that the autumn would be an appropriate time for such a move. Using similar language, Slovakia, one of the EU's five member states refusing to recognise Kosovar independence, also argued for a "concrete roadmap" for Serbian accession. Asked about a speed-up in the process, Slovak foreign minister Mikulas Dzurinda told reporters after the meeting: "I am for this ... This direction in relations between Belgrade and the EU community I consider substantial. We need to keep Belgrade with us more closely than before. We will do our best to add our voice to this, giving something like a concrete roadmap. The closer Serbia is to the EU, the better for Serbia, the Balkans and the EU, so I won't put any barriers in the way."
http://euobserver.com/9/30540/?rk=1 

Iran sanctions: Last throw of diplomatic dice?
New European Union sanctions are finally targeting the engine of the Iranian economy: oil and gas. New investment by EU companies is being banned, and the list of banned items is being extended to include so-called dual-use equipment - pipes that could be used for military purposes, for example. There are also other financial measures. They add to similar action taken by the United States recently. These both go further than four rounds of UN sanctions, all of which avoided taking action against Iran's energy sector, mainly because of Russian and Chinese objections. But if they fail to bring Iran to the nuclear negotiating table, what then? Is this the last throw of the diplomatic dice? Already, the distant drum beats heralding war talk are beginning to sound. In Washington, for example, Gen Michael Hayden - who was head of the CIA from 2006-09 - said that under President George W Bush, an attack on Iran was "way down on our list". But now, he told CNN, he thought this "may not be the worst of all possible outcomes". "We engage. They continue to move forward. We vote for sanctions. They continue to move forward. We try to deter, to dissuade. They continue to move forward," he said. The latest attempt to change Iran's policy is based on the hope that, in the end, the cost of not negotiating an end to its enrichment of uranium will be too high.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10764751 

Iran warns EU against imposing sanctions
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has said the EU will "regret" the economic sanctions it is planning to impose on Tehran later today at a foreign ministers' meeting in Brussels. "Anyone who adopts a measure against the Iranian nation … should know that Iran will react swiftly," Mr Ahmadinejad was quoted as saying on Sunday by Iran's English-language Press TV channel, reports the BBC. "Experience shows such a reaction by the Iranian nation will cause you to regret it." The warning came before the EU is set to sign off what officials have touted as the toughest economic sanctions yet - going much further than the fourth set of UN sanctions agreed in June - in a bid to stop Iran's uranium enrichment programme.
http://euobserver.com/9/30537/?rk=1

25th July 2010

Chavez warns of US oil cutoff in Colombia dispute
CARACAS, Venezuela (AP) - President Hugo Chavez threatened Sunday to halt oil sales to the United States if Venezuela is attacked by its U.S.-allied neighbor Colombia. Chavez said during a speech to thousands of supporters that if there were an "armed aggression against Venezuela" from Colombia backed by the U.S., "we would suspend shipments of oil." Chavez said "we wouldn't send one more drop" of oil to the United States, which is the top buyer of oil from the South American country. The Venezuelan leader cut off diplomatic relations with Colombia on Thursday after outgoing President Alvaro Uribe's government presented photos, videos and maps of what it said were Colombian rebel camps inside Venezuela. Chavez calls it a bogus show intended to smear his government and has said the Uribe could be trying to lay the groundwork for an armed conflict.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9H68VFO0&show_article=1 

EU poised to impose new sanctions on Iran
The European Union is expected to impose new economic sanctions on Iran today, going well beyond the measures approved by a UN resolution last month. The EU’s foreign ministers, meeting in Brussels, are likely to ban all new investment by European companies in the Iranian oil and gas sectors. This will form part of what some diplomats describe as the most wide-ranging sanctions the EU has ever agreed against any country. The measures are expected to include an asset freeze on some 40 Iranian companies believed to be linked to the country’s nuclear programme. This would be in addition to the 40 companies singled out in last month’s UN resolution. The sanctions will also clamp down on financial transactions between the EU and Iran… The measures on oil and gas are probably the most significant. The EU will ban any export of key technologies that Iran needs for exploration for, and refining and manufacturing, liquefied natural gas.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/c059169e-97fe-11df-b218-00144feab49a.html 

U.S. aircraft carrier ups pressure on N. Korea
ABOARD USS GEORGE WASHINGTON — A nuclear-powered U.S. supercarrier led an armada of warships in exercises off the Korean peninsula on Sunday that North Korea has vowed to physically block and says could escalate into nuclear war. U.S. military officials said the maneuvers, conducted with South Korean ships and Japanese observers, were intended to send a strong signal to the North that aggression in the region will not be tolerated. The military drills, code-named "Invincible Spirit," are to run through Wednesday with about 8,000 U.S. and South Korean troops, 20 ships and submarines and 200 aircraft. The Nimitz-class USS George Washington was deployed from Japan. "We are showing our resolve," said Capt. David Lausman, the carrier's commanding officer. North Korea has protested the drills, threatening to retaliate with "nuclear deterrence" and "sacred war." The George Washington, one of the biggest ships in the U.S. Navy, is a potent symbol of American military power, with about 5,000 sailors and aviators and the capacity to carry up to 70 planes.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38398304/ns/world_news-asiapacific/ 

Moderate earthquake hits Mindanao Moro Gulf
HONG KONG (Xinhua) - An earthquake measuring 5.6 on the Richter scale hit Moro gulf, Mindanao in the Philippines, at 0818 GMT Sunday, according to a bulletin released by the US Geological Survey. The epicenter, with the depth of 611 km, was initially determined to be 6.793 degrees north latitude and 123.603 degrees east longitude.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=596599&publicationSubCategoryId=200 

NASA's Deep Space Camera Locates Host of 'Earths'
Scientists celebrated Sunday after finding more than 700 suspected new planets -- including up to 140 similar in size to Earth -- in just six weeks of using a powerful new space observatory. Early results from NASA’s Kepler Mission, a small satellite observing deep space, suggested planets like Earth were far more common than previously thought. Past discoveries suggested most planets outside our solar system were gas giants such as Jupiter and Saturn -- but the new evidence tipped the balance in favor of solid worlds. Astronomers said the discovery meant the chances of eventually finding truly Earth-like planets capable of sustaining life rose sharply. NASA so far formally announced only five new exoplanets -- those outside our solar system -- from the mission because its scientists were still analyzing Kepler’s finds to confirm they are actually planets. “The figures suggest our galaxy, the Milky Way [which has more than 100 billion stars] will contain 100 million habitable planets, and soon we will be identifying the first of them,” said Dimitar Sasselov, professor of astronomy at Harvard University and a scientist on the Kepler Mission. "There is a lot more work we need to do with this, but the statistical result is loud and clear, and it is that planets like our own Earth are out there."
http://www.foxnews.com/scitech/2010/07/25/nasas-deep-space-camera-locates-host-earths/?test=latestnews 

24th July 2010

Communication cut out after earthquakes hit Mindanao
COTABATO, Philippines (Xinhua) -- Telecommunication lines in some areas in the southern Philippines were cut out following the three strong earthquakes that struck the south region on early Saturday. Philippine Long Distance Telecommunication services were temporarily cut out in the southern city of General Santos and nearby areas following two aftershocks between 7.3 and 7.6 magnitudes. Three major earthquakes struck the southern part of the Philippines on Saturday morning, the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) reported. The quakes happened in succession, with the first striking at 6:08 a.m. The next two tremors happened at 6:51 a.m. and 7:15 a.m.
http://www.philstar.com/Article.aspx?articleId=596267&publicationSubCategoryId=200 

Three major earthquakes strike close to Mindanao, Philippines
NEW YORK (BNO NEWS) — Three major earthquakes struck close to a Philippines island on early Saturday morning, seismologists said, but they were located too deep to cause damage or create tsunami waves. The first earthquake, at 6.08 a.m. local time (2208 GMT Friday), had a magnitude of 7.3 on the Richter scale and was centered about 100 kilometers (65 miles) southwest of Cotabato, a city located on the Philippines island of Mindanao. It struck about 604.5 kilometers (375.6 miles) deep, making it an extremely deep earthquake, according to the United States Geological Survey (USGS). On August 16, 1976, a massive 8.0-magnitude earthquake struck 65 kilometers (40 miles) of Saturday’s earthquake, killing more than 7,000 people.
http://wireupdate.com/wires/7967/three-major-earthquakes-strike-close-to-mindanao-philippines/ 

Bank failure tally passes 100 for the year
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- A Minnesota bank was closed by government regulators Friday, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. said, bringing the total number of failed banks this year past 100. Community Security Bank of New Prague, Minn., was the 101st in a string of small, regional banks to fail this year. While conditions have improved for many of the nation's largest banks, the lingering effects of the financial crisis continue to take a toll on local lenders across the country.
http://money.cnn.com/2010/07/23/news/economy/bank_failures/ 

White House predicts record $1.47 trillion deficit
WASHINGTON – New estimates from the White House on Friday predict the budget deficit will reach a record $1.47 trillion this year. The government is borrowing 41 cents of every dollar it spends. That's actually a little better than the administration predicted in February. The new estimates paint a grim unemployment picture as the economy experiences a relatively jobless recovery. The unemployment rate, presently averaging 9.5 percent, would average 9 percent next year under the new estimates… While there's a slight improvement in the deficit for the current year, next year's predicted $1.42 trillion worth of red ink — that's 37 cents of borrowing for every dollar spent — is looking worse. It's about $150 billion more than previously predicted, because of still-slumping tax revenues. White House budget director Peter Orszag said the numbers represent a "fiscal situation that requires attention." Deficits have skyrocketed since the recession took hold in 2008 and Congress responded with a massive bailout of the financial system and last year's $862 billion stimulus measure.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100723/ap_on_bi_ge/us_budget_deficit_2 

China may switch to currency basket for forex rate
Central bank official suggests move away from dollar as benchmark
LOS ANGELES (MarketWatch) -- A top Chinese central bank official suggested switching away from the U.S. dollar as a benchmark for the yuan's foreign-exchange rate, switching instead to a basket of currencies, according to remarks published Thursday. In comments posted to the People's Bank of China Web site, the central bank's Deputy Gov. Hu Xiaolian said using a basket of currencies from the nation's top trading partners would allow the Chinese yuan to better reflect trading fundamentals.
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-may-link-yuan-trade-to-currency-basket-2010-07-23

23rd July 2010

N. Korea threatens 'physical response' to U.S. military drills
HANOI, Vietnam — North Korea threatened Friday to mount a "physical response" to United States' military drills in the region. Its government claimed that the exercises with South Korean forces would violate its sovereignty.The statement came as top American and North Korean diplomats were meeting face-to-face Friday at an Asian security conference. The North has denied responsibility for the sinking of the Cheonan navy ship that killed 46 Sout Korean sailors, despite an international investigation that found otherwise. The U.S. and South Korea are demanding an apology from Pyongyang, dooming any prospects of a breakthrough to help ease tensions on the Korean peninsula. All members of the stalled six-nation talks aimed at ridding the North of its nuclear weapons attended Friday's meeting in the Vietnamese capital of Hanoi, but there was little hope of a thaw.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38375802/ns/world_news-asiapacific/ 

Floodwaters test China's dams
The worst flooding seen in China in a decade has put growing pressure on the country's network of dams and reservoirs with many, including the landmark Three Gorges Dam on the Yangtze river, close to capacity. Two typhoons - Conson and Chantu - and weeks of heavy rain have caused widespread flooding across several of China's southern provinces, affecting 110 million people… The rising flood waters have begun to test the limits of the Three Gorges Dam, the largest in the world spanning China’s longest river, the Yangtze. Huge amounts of water thundered out of its massive spill-gates on Friday as the government of Jiangxi said the eastern province downstream was at a "critical juncture" in flood control.The provincial ordered authorities to redouble flood prevention work along dozens of lakes and rivers already swollen by weeks of heavy rains. "Over the next 20 to 30 days, the high water level of the Yangtze River's Jiujiang section and Poyang Lake will continue. The flood situation is very grim," the provincial government said in a statement. With a wall running over two kilometres wide and 185 metres tall, it was built at a cost of $27bn. The reservoir behind the dam holds around 39 trillion litres of water, but it is now reaching its limit with floodwaters sitting just 16 metres below the dam's maximum capacity, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. Already authorities have been forced the close the massive shipping locks built into the dam.
http://english.aljazeera.net/news/asia-pacific/2010/07/20107232382616811.html 

Tropical storm forces Gulf oil spill vessels to pull back
Tropical storm Bonnie has forced the evacuation of oil spill vessels in the Gulf of Mexico Friday, threatening to further delay efforts to put an end to the largest environmental disaster in US history.
REUTERS - Tropical Storm Bonnie threatened efforts to plug BP's Gulf of Mexico oil leak on Friday and officials said many of the vessels and rigs involved in the operation would prepare to move out of the system's path… Among the rigs involved is the one drilling the relief well that will permanently kill the leak. It had been on track to intercept the ruptured well by mid-August. Officials have said an evacuation could force a delay of 10 to 14 days in operations. But the blown-out well will remain capped even as the evacuation forces a temporary halt to operations, including monitoring.
http://www.france24.com/en/20100722-tropical-storm-oil-spill-bp-gulf-mexico-usa-caribbean-weather

22nd July 2010

International court rules that Kosovo independence is lawful
The International Court of Justice in The Hague has declared that Kosovo's independence is in line with international law. The ruling is a blow to Serbia but has been welcomed by Germany and the US... Kosovo's independence from Serbia, which it unilaterally declared in February 2008, complies with international law, according to Thursday's ruling from the International Court of Justice (ICJ) in The Hague. Although non-binding, the ruling was keenly watched by Serbia and the international community. Serbia had requested the ICJ to rule on Kosovo's declaration, which it believes is unlawful and will pave the way for instability and further secessionist movements, a view shared by its ally Russia, but rejected by many countries, including the US and Germany. German foreign minister Guido Westerwelle, currently on a trip to Uganda, welcomed the court ruling. "The verdict confirms our legal view that the declaration of independence of the Republic of Kosovo was lawful," according to a statement from Germany's Foreign Ministry. "The future of Serbia and Kosovo is in the EU," the statement adds. The European Union is prepared to "facilitate a process of dialog" between Serbia and Kosovo, according to the EU's foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5826328,00.html 

N Korea warns US drill, sanctions endanger region
HANOI, Vietnam (AP) — North Korea on Thursday warned the United States that imposing fresh sanctions and holding military drills with South Korea this weekend will endanger the entire region and destroy hopes for a nuke-free Korean peninsula. The remarks precede an Asian security meeting in the Vietnamese capital, Hanoi, on Friday, attended by U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton and the top diplomats from both Koreas four months after the sinking of a South Korean warship that killed 46 sailors. The North has been blamed but denies responsibility. "If the U.S. is really interested in the denuclearization of the Korean peninsula, it should halt the military exercises and sanctions that destroy the mood for dialogue," North Korean spokesman Ri Tong Il told reporters on the sidelines of meetings Thursday. Sanctions, he said, escalate the U.S.'s "hostile policy toward North Korea." …In a sign of how tense relations are — and how difficult such meetings would be — U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates struck back Thursday at North Korea's criticism of the military drills. "My response to that is that I condemn their sinking of the Cheonan," Gates said to reporters in Jakarta, Indonesia. South Korea has said the naval drills are defensive training exercises that do not violate the U.N. Security Council statement and that the sanctions are not to avenge the ship sinking but instead target the North's illicit nuclear activities.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jAnZ3wmrVOsH7r52mOBJtSdF--zQD9H47MRO2 

21st July 2010

China braces for typhoons as record-breaking floods leave 1,000 dead, missing
Landslides topple houses and smother communities, but worst is yet to come
BEIJING — More than 1,000 people have died or disappeared in severe flooding in China so far this year, and the heaviest rains are still to come, a senior official warned Wednesday. This year's floods, which have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage already, have exacted the highest death toll since 1998, which saw the highest water levels in 50 years... Tropical storm Chanthu is expected to hit China's southern island of Hainan and Guangdong province this weekend. Six to eight typhoons are expected this year. Already, three-quarters of China's provinces have been plagued by flooding and 25 rivers have seen record-high water levels, Liu said. Flooding, particularly along the Yangtze River basin, has overwhelmed reservoirs, swamped towns and cities, and caused landslides that have smothered communities, including toppling 645,000 houses. The Three Gorges Dam faced its highest levels ever this week and water breached the massive dam.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38338713/ns/world_news-asiapacific/ 

China oil spill doubles in size, called 'severe threat'
BEIJING — China's largest reported oil spill emptied beaches along the Yellow Sea as its size doubled Wednesday, while cleanup efforts included straw mats and frazzled workers with little more than rubber gloves. An official warned the spill posed a "severe threat" to sea life and water quality as China's latest environmental crisis spread off the shores of Dalian, once named China's most livable city.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38337393/ns/world_news-world_environment/ 

US financial system support up $700 bln in past year
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Increased housing commitments swelled U.S. taxpayers' total support for the financial system by $700 billion in the past year to around $3.7 trillion, a government watchdog said on Wednesday. The Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program said the increase was due largely to the government's pledges to supply capital to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and to guarantee more mortgages to the support the housing market. Increased guarantees for loans backed by the Federal Housing Administration, the Government National Mortgage Association and the Veterans administration increased the government's commitments by $512.4 billion alone in the year to June 30, according to the report.
http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSN2010140720100721 

20th July 2010

Quakes hit southern Iran, no casualties reported
Several earthquakes, the largest with a magnitude of 5.8, struck southern Iran near its Gulf coast early on Wednesday, the country's seismological center said, but state media said there was no word of any casualties. The center reported a series of quakes measuring 5.8, 5.2, 4.1 and 3.9 in a sparsely populated southern region."No reports of possible casualties have been received yet," Iranian state television said. The U.S. Geological Survey said the first and largest quake was very shallow, with a verified epicenter only 6.2 miles deep. It was located 55 miles southwest of Lar, close to the southern coast.
http://www.reuters.com/article/...

China shows military strength ahead of US drill
Robert Gates in Seoul for talks on North Korea Jul 20, 2010 U.S. eyes military drills over North Korea. China has shown off its growing military strength with naval exercises off its eastern coast, shortly before Washington and Seoul are expected to carry out their own drills which Beijing has criticised. State television broadcast images on Tuesday it said showed the East Sea Fleet on recent manoeuvres, including helicopters and a submarine launching a long-range missile underwater.
http://in.reuters.com/article/...

China surpasses U.S. as top energy consumer
China has overtaken the United States as the world's largest consumer of energy, according to data from Paris-based International Energy Agency, a landmark that has implications for oil prices and U.S. global energy policy. News reports citing data from the IEA said China consumed the equivalent of 2.25 billion tons of oil last year, slightly above U.S. consumption of 2.17 billion tons. The measure includes all types of energy: oil, nuclear energy, coal, natural gas and renewable energy sources.IEA chief economist Fatih Birol told the The Wall Street Journal in an interview that the milestone marks "a new age in the history of energy." China's government rejected the IEA's statistics.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/...

Hundreds of dead penguins wash ashore in Brazil
Hundreds of penguins that apparently starved to death are washing up on the beaches of Brazil, worrying scientists who are still investigating what's causing them to die. About 500 of the black-and-white birds have been found just in the last 10 days on Peruibe, Praia Grande and Itanhaem beaches in Sao Paulo state, said Thiago do Nascimento, a biologist at the Peruibe Aquarium. Most were Magellan penguins migrating north from Argentina, Chile and the Falkland Islands in search of food in warmer waters. Many are not finding it: Autopsies done on several birds revealed their stomachs were entirely empty - indicating they likely starved to death, Nascimento said. Scientists are investigating whether strong currents and colder-than-normal waters have hurt populations of the species that make up the penguins' diet, or whether human activity may be playing a role.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/...

19th July 2010

China seals key port after major oil spill
One of China's biggest ports shut Monday after an pipeline explosion triggered a major offshore oil spill. Armed with absorbers and dispersants, more than 500 fishing boats were deployed Monday to help contain the slick.
The aftermath of the weekend fire could add to pressure for stricter environmental standards in China, already reeling from a toxic copper mine leak in the south of the country that burst into headlines last week amid accusations of a cover-up. The fire began on Friday while a crude oil tanker was being off-loaded in Dalian. Nobody was hurt, but hundreds of firefighters battled flames for more than 15 hours, and state media said about 1,650 tons of oil had spilled into the sea. Oil was seen over an area covering 71 square miles, with 19 of those described as "severe." The clean-up operation may take five days, officials said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/...

Al-Qaida's Zawahri slams Arab leaders
Al-Qaida's second-in-command Ayman al-Zawahri slammed Arab leaders who are allied to the West, saying they were more harmful than Israel to the Palestinians, according to an Internet message posted on Monday. "These Arab Zionists with whom we live and exchange smiles ... are more dangerous than the Jewish Zionists," a speaker who sounded like Zawahri said in an audio recording posted on Islamist websites often used by al-Qaida. Zawahri, an Egyptian militant leader, singled out Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak for his decision to enforce a blockade of Gaza's border with Egypt, helping Israel's blockade of the Palestinian territory. "Who surrounds our people in Gaza ...? Is it not the leader of the Arab Zionists, Hosni Mubarak?" Zawahri also directly addresses U.S. President Barack Obama, according to an English translation of the message from NBC News.
"O'Obama whether you admit or not, the Muslims have defeated you in Iraq and Afghanistan, and they will defeat you - and the powers that brought you - soon Inshallah in Palestine, Somalia, and the Islamic Maghreb."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/...

Iraqi cleric meets with PM candidate in Syria
Anti-American Iraqi cleric Muqtada al-Sadr took a rare, public step into the political arena Monday, meeting in neighboring Syria with the man directly challenging Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki for his office.The talks between al-Sadr, who is nominally allied with al-Maliki, and former premier Ayad Allawi, who heads the heavily Sunni-backed Iraqiya coalition, appeared to be as much about showing al-Maliki that al-Sadr is keeping his options open as it was about any firm political agreement between the two men in the offing.
http://nbcsports.msnbc.com/id/38310000/ns/sports/

Allies plan to leave Afghanistan by 2014
The strategy sits for now on a table in a locked-down Afghan capital: Hand over security in all 34 provinces to the government by the end of 2014 - more than three years after President Barack Obama's date for the start of an American troop drawdown. By Tuesday, it will be adopted at a one-day international conference , giving war-weary Americans and Europeans a date for when their involvement in Afghanistan may begin to come to an end. It will also give President Hamid Karzai a chance to show whether his struggling government is making progress toward running the country. The conference comes at a time of growing anxiety in the U.S. and Europe about the course of the war - concerns underscored by Taliban attacks on Monday that killed six Afghan police and two American soldiers. A major security operation virtually shut down Kabul for the conference in which some 60 nations will focus on the postwar transition.
Afghan officials want the U.S. and other international donors to give them a greater say in spending the billions of dollars in aid and reconstruction funds that have flowed into the country since the war began in 2001 - often with only limited results and amid allegations of corruption and mismanagement that have bolstered the Taliban in the eyes of many ordinary Afghans.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/...

17th July 2010
 

EU chief diplomat to visit Gaza, push for opening of Israeli blockade
EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton is in the Middle East on for talks focusing on Israel's blockade of Gaza and a possible European policing role in the opening of border crossings. Ahead of the trip, Ashton said she would visit the Gaza Strip on Sunday and urged Israel to alter its policy of blockading the territory, which is ruled by the militant Hamas party. "We've made it clear that we want to see the potential for the people of Gaza to live an ordinary life," Ashton said in the West Bank town of Ramallah at a joint news conference with Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad. "There needs to be an opening of the crossings for both people and goods to flow in both directions." Reports say Ashton will explore the possibility of a trial EU mission which could be deployed to monitor the opening of a crossing between Israel and the Gaza Strip at Kerem Shalom, near the Egyptian border. Israel has agreed to relax its economic and political embargo on goods entering Gaza. The move comes after international outrage over an Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound aid flotilla in May, which left nine Turkish activists dead. "We have welcomed the announcements made by Israel following the flotilla incident and are now awaiting their implementation," said Ashton adding that the EU was prepared to help police security inspections of goods and people entering Gaza. European governments have urged Israel to increase the number of crossing points and ease restrictions on the movement of people. Israel says it now blocks only weapons and goods that could be put to military use. Germany has also expressed its disapproval of rumors in the Israeli press that Lieberman might officially divide the Palestinian territories of Gaza and the West Bank. The two regions effectively have different governments already, although Gaza is officially accountable to the administration of Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas. "We do not want the idea of a Palestinian state to be threatened by establishing different states or regions, by separating them, dividing them, or perhaps pitting them against one another politically," German Foreign Minister Guido Westerwelle said..."From our perspective that's not conducive to a lasting peace process... We want a safe, protected state of Israel, but also a safe and autonomous Palestinian state."
http://www.dw-world.de/...
 

Moscow pledges Tehran oil products - against US embargo
Countering the new US embargo on petroleum and oil distillates embargo on Iran, Russian Energy Minister Sergei Shmatko and Iranian Oil Minister Masud Mir-Kazemi Wednesday, July 14 signed a series of far-reaching energy-related agreements, including a deal to sell Tehran Russian petroleum products and petrochemicals. DEBKAfile's Moscow sources report that the pacts aim squarely at the law signed by President Barack Obama on July 2 to hit Iran's Revolutionary Guards Corps' prime source of income, imported refined oil products including gasoline. The Russian and Iranian energy ministers contracted specifically to "increase cooperation in transit, swaps and marketing of natural gas as well as sales of petroleum products and petrochemicals." The accords also set up "a joint bank to help fund bilateral energy projects." This latter provision bypasses the US ban on the banks and insurance companies involved in funding refined oil supplies to Iran by creating a shared banking instrument for handling the funding of fuel purchases. Russian insurance firms connected with the new joint bank may insure shipments. By this step, Moscow moved to offset the penalties America imposed on Iran in the wake of UN Security Council sanctions of June 9 and challenged the United States to blacklist Russian firms by invoking the new US law closing American markets to companies and banks doing energy business with Iran. Important multinationals have already complied with this US edict, including two oil giants, the American-British BP and the French Total - which have ordered their vast networks of partners and subsidiaries to deny fuel to Iranian consumers - and Lloyds insurance as well as the United Arab Emirates. But punishing Russian breakers of the US sanction could trigger a serious crisis in relations with Russia. Sources on Moscow do not believe Obama will find upsetting his newly "reset" ties with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin worth the candle, especially in the light of the new joint mechanisms and bank for conducting their business. At the same time, DEBKAfile sources predict that US inaction against the Russian sanctions-busting transactions with Iran will encourage other countries and international business interests, particularly in the Caucasus and Central Asia which share borders with Iran, to follow their lead and defy the US embargo. According to the latest rumors flying around the oil markets, China and Turkey are willing to help Iran evade the fuel sanctions... Even the heavy presence of US and Iraqi troops nearby appears to pose no deterrent to the prospective traffic - much less its absence on Iran's other borders. An important factor too is Putin's personal and active support - disclosed here by DEBKAfile's Moscow sources - for the mechanisms to break Obama's anti-Iran fuel embargo. These mechanisms could not have been set up overnight; they required time and attention...President Medvedev commented that Iran was closer than ever to building a nuclear weapon, knowing that the US maneuver for deterring Iran from making the last leap in its race for a nuke was about to be sabotaged by his own government. As for the impact on Israel, DEBKAfile's sources note that the Russian step has demolished the last remnant of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's strategy which, during all his eighteen months in office, relied on Tehran being held back from attaining a nuclear weapon by expanded international sanctions harsh enough to hurt its economy. He trusted Obama's new energy sanctions to be the ultimate preventative - until Wednesday, when Moscow stepped in to pull their punch.
http://www.debka.com/article/8910/
 

16th July 2010

3.6 magnitude earthquake shakes D.C. area
A 3.6 magnitude earthquake woke the Washington metro region Friday, rattling homes and startling people. The U.S. Geological Survey says it happened at exactly 5:04:49 a.m. about 3 miles under the earth's surface. There were no reports of injuries or damage, but transportation crews are inspecting bridges in Maryland and D.C. Maryland State Highway Administration spokesman David Buck says no damage had been found as of Friday morning. By mid-morning, more than 13,000 people had logged on to the U.S. Geological Survey's website to report feeling the quake, some from as far away as Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The website said earthquakes east of the Rocky Mountains can be felt over an area as much as 10 times larger than a similar magnitude earthquake on the West Coast. The USGS received 6,500 reports about this quake. While minor, this quake was out of the norm for the region. Baldwin say the area's last earthquake was 2.0 in 2008. The region also had a 2.7 quake in 1993.
http://wtop.com/?nid=25&sid=2004187

46% say Obama is pro-Palestinian
US President Barack Obama’s efforts to reach out to the people of Israel last week – when he hosted Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu for a positive meeting at the White House and gave his first interview as president to an Israeli television station – were not very successful, according to a Smith Research poll for The Jerusalem Post. When asked whether they saw Obama’s administration as more pro-Israel, more pro- Palestinian or neutral, just 10 percent of Israeli Jews said more pro-Israel, 46% said more pro-Palestinian, 34% said neutral and 10% did not express an opinion.
http://www.jpost.com/International/...

15th July 2010

World at Risk of Folding in on Itself: Deputy Doom
The global economy is at risk of folding in on itself unless policy makers face up to the threats of inflation inflexibility and exchange-rate inflexibility, according to Arun Motianey, director of fixed income strategy at Roubini Global Economics. A Japan-like outcome is a big risk for the developed world with deflation a big danger, he said. Recent figures show that the recovery is sputtering in the US while China's booming growth has slowed down slightly, as Beijing unwinds stimulus measures. The Bank of Japan revised upwards is economic forecast but reiterated it will maintain its easy money policy. In his new book "SuperCycles" Motianey says the world has managed to recover from a number of shocks since the Latin American debt crisis, but getting over the financial crisis will be much harder. "The global rebalancing mechanism through flexible exchange rates is not working as well as it should," Motianey said. "Many emerging markets are resisting changes in nominal exchange rates. Higher inflation is causing some correction in real terms but it is too little and may turn out to be too late," he added.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38255206

NOAA: June, April to June, and Year-to-Date Global Temperatures are Warmest on Record
Last month’s combined global land and ocean surface temperature made it the warmest June on record and the warmest on record averaged for any April-June and January-June periods, according to NOAA. Worldwide average land surface temperature was the warmest on record for June and the April-June period, and the second warmest on record for the year-to-date (January-June) period, behind 2007.The monthly analysis from NOAA’s National Climatic Data Center, which is based on records going back to 1880, is part of the suite of climate services NOAA provides government, business and community leaders so they can make informed decisions.
http://www.noaanews.noaa.gov/stories...

300,000 urged to flee Japan rains, China next
Typhoon Conson earlier killed at least 37 in Philippines. Heavy rains and powerful winds battered East Asia on Thursday, pressing authorities to evacuate hundreds of thousands of people from their homes in Japan and putting China on alert for its worst floods in years. In the Philippines, power was gradually restored to millions of homes in and around Manila after Typhoon Conson hit the capital harder than expected on Tuesday night. Officials raised the death toll in the Philippines to 37, with 42 missing. The typhoon was downgraded to a tropical storm on Thursday, but the Philippines' weather bureau said it was expected to regain strength as it moved over the South China Sea and headed towards southern China and northern Vietnam. Conson was due to hit land late on Friday, the Tropical Storm Risk website said. China's Xinhua news agency said the storm would make landfall in Hainan island's southern resort city of Sanya before moving into Guangdong and Guangxi, bringing heavy rain.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Argentina legalizes gay marriage in historic vote
Argentina legalized same-sex marriage Thursday, becoming the first country in Latin America to declare that gays and lesbians have all the legal rights, responsibilities and protections that marriage brings to heterosexual couples. After a marathon debate in Argentina's senate, 33 lawmakers voted in favor, 27 against and 3 abstained in a vote that ended after 4 a.m. Since the lower house already approved it and President Cristina Fernandez is a strong supporter, it becomes law as soon as it is published in the official bulletin, which should happen within days. The law is sure to bring a wave of marriages by gays and lesbians who have found Buenos Aires to be a welcoming place to live. But same-sex couples from other countries shouldn't rush their Argentine wedding plans, since only citizens and residents can wed in the country, and the necessary documents can take months to obtain. While it makes some amendments to the civil code, many other aspects of family law will have to be changed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/...

Chavez: Venezuela rethinks relations with Vatican
CARACAS, Venezuela — President Hugo Chavez announced Wednesday that Venezuela would rethink its relations with the Vatican as tensions rise between his government and Catholic Church representatives who accuse the socialist leader of becoming increasingly authoritarian. During a televised speech, Chavez instructed his foreign minister to "examine" relations with the Vatican. Without elaborating, he questioned the validity of an agreement giving the Catholic Church privileges that are not extended to other religious organizations in Venezuela. Chavez also challenged the authority of Pope Benedict XVI, saying the pope "isn't God's emissary on Earth." There was no immediately reaction from the papal nuncio in Caracas. Chavez and Venezuela's Catholic Church are clashing like never before. In recent weeks, Chavez has said that Christ would whip church leaders for suggesting that he's steering Venezuela toward a Cuban-style Marxist dictatorship. He also accused Cardinal Jorge Urosa of misleading the Vatican with warnings that Venezuela is drifting toward dictatorship.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com...
 

14th July 2010

Haiti: Summer storm floods 'safe' refugee camp
Torrents of water and high winds collapse 344 tents. A summer storm ripped through tents and sent solar-powered streetlights crashing down at the government's primary relocation camp for people left homeless by the January earthquake. The storm damage on Monday, six months to the day after the disaster, intensified questions about why people were moved to the remote location from tent camps in the Haitian capital.The Associated Press reported this week that area has been slated for major development by Haitian officials and businessmen, who are in ongoing negotiations with South Korean garment firms to build factories there, and that the land it is on belongs to a company whose president headed the relocation effort.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

41 die in China landslides triggered by storms
BEIJING — Workers raced to build waterways to drain overflowing reservoirs in southeastern China and thousands were evacuated following torrential rains that triggered flash floods on Wednesday. Heavy rains overwhelmed three reservoirs in Poyang county in northern Jiangxi province, forcing the evacuation of more than 10,000 people, the official Xinhua News Agency reported. Torrential storms have pelted the Yangtze River basin this week — including parts of Sichuan, Jiangsu, Zhejiang, Jiangxi and Anhui provinces. In western China, the death toll from landslides triggered by heavy rains rose to 41, with dozens still missing, Xinhua reported. In the worst-hit community of Xiaohe in Yunnan province, the death toll climbed to 17 following a landslide that swept through town before dawn on Tuesday, Xinhua said. Two landslides killed 14 in neighboring Sichuan province while in Hunan province, 10 people including four young children died in two separate slides this week, the report said.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/i...

Deadly typhoon cuts power across northern Philippines
A crane, trees, power lines and walls collapsed when Typhoon Conson hit Manila . The first typhoon of the season has hit the Philippines with unexpected force, killing at least 22 people and left millions without power. Typhoon Conson hit north-east Quezon province and the central island of Luzon, and surged through the capital and six other provinces. President Benigno Aquino criticised weather forecasters who failed to predict the storm would hit Manila. The Asian typhoon season often hits the Philippines with greatest force. Twelve people were reported injured and 57 are thought to be missing after the storm which had winds of 120km/h (75mph).
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/...

13th July 2010

Federal budget gap tops $1 trillion through June
Federal budget gap through June tops $1 trillion amid GOP resistance to more gov't spending. The federal deficit has topped $1 trillion with three months still to go in the budget year, showing the lasting impact of the recession on the government's finances. In its monthly budget report, the Treasury Department said Tuesday that through the first nine months of this budget year, the deficit totals $1 trillion. That's down 7.6 percent from the $1.09 trillion deficit run up during the same period a year ago. Worries about the size of the deficit have created political problems for the Obama administration. Congressional Republicans and moderate Democrats have blocked more spending on job creation and other efforts. Republicans also have held up legislation to extend unemployment benefits for the long-term jobless because of its effect on the deficit.
http://finance.yahoo.com/news/...

More than 1,000 exposed to dengue in Florida: CDC

Five percent of the population of Key West, Florida -- more than 1,000 people -- have been infected at some point with the dengue virus, government researchers reported on Tuesday. Most probably did not even know it, but the findings show the sometimes deadly infection is making its way north into the United States, the researchers said. "We're concerned that if dengue gains a foothold in Key West, it will travel to other southern cities where the mosquito that transmits dengue is present, like Miami," said Harold Margolis, chief of the dengue branch at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. "These cases represent the reemergence of dengue fever in Florida and elsewhere in the United States after 75 years," Margolis said in a statement. "These people had not traveled outside of Florida, so we need to determine if these cases are an isolated occurrence or if dengue has once again become endemic in the continental United States." Dengue is the most common virus transmitted by mosquitoes, infecting 50 million to 100 million people every year and killing 25,000 of them.
http://www.reuters.com/...

Russia longs for breather in fierce heatwave
One of the fiercest heatwaves in its history has engulfed Russia, withering crops, causing the worst drought in 130 years and prompting a top public health official to call for Spanish-style siesta breaks. Central parts of European Russia, the Volga region, southern Urals and Siberia have all been suffering from the scorching heat, which started in late June and often reaches 40 degrees Celsius (104 Fahrenheit) in the shade. Similar conditions have only occurred five times -- in 1919, 1920, 1936, 1938 and 1972 -- since Russia started recording temperatures 130 years ago, Valery Lukyanov, deputy head of Russia's main weather forecast centre Roshydromet, told Reuters. "This is the sixth year in history when late June and early July pose a real threat from the point of view of abnormal temperatures," he said, adding that Moscow could set its own record if temperatures hit 37C. The capital's previous high of 36.6 was registered in 1936, Lukyanov said. "God forbid us to set such records," he added. The Russian Grain Union, an industry lobby, said the country was seeing the worst drought in 130 years. It had already shrivelled grains on 9 million hectares, roughly one fifth of the total area sown to this year's harvest. The Kommersant business daily, citing estimates by agribusiness companies, said on Tuesday that combined losses of Russia's agricultural industry could total $1 billion this year.
http://www.kyivpost.com/news/russia/detail/73341/

Euro sinks after Moody's downgrades Portuguese debt
The euro hit a one-week dollar low after international credit ratings agency Moody's cut Portugal's debt rating by two notches. The market reaction, however, was muted. Moody's Investor Service, the international ratings agency, lowered Portugal's sovereign debt rating on Tuesday by two grades to A1 from Aa2. The agency said the country's growth is still weak and that its debt continues to climb. It said it expected Portugal's debt troubles to continue for the next two to three years and called on the government to enact further austerity measures in the 2011 budget. The euro dropped to a one-week low of $1.2533. The wider market reaction was muted, however, as Moody's is only playing catch-up with rival agency Standard & Poor's, which still rates Portuguese debt two notches lower at A-.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5788407,00.html
 

12th July 2010
 

Report: Fidel Castro set to warn of nuclear war
HAVANA — Former Cuban leader Fidel Castro, who has lived in seclusion since falling ill four years ago, will appear on Cuban television and radio Monday evening to discuss his theory that the world is on the verge of nuclear war, the Communist Party newspaper Granma said in its Monday online edition… Castro is scheduled to appear on the Mesa Redonda, a daily talk show about current events that is usually transmitted live and seen across the island. Castro writes opinion columns, or "Reflections," for Cuba's state-run media that in recent weeks have focused on his prediction that nuclear war will soon break out, sparked by a conflict between the United States and Iran over international sanctions against Iran's nuclear activities. "The empire is at the point of committing a terrible error that nobody can stop. It advances inexorably toward a sinister fate," he wrote on July 5. The "empire" is how Castro usually refers to the United States, his bitter foe from the time he took power in Cuba in a 1959 revolution. In a column published on Sunday night, Castro said the "principal purpose" of his writings has been to "warn international public opinion of what was occurring." He said he has reached his dire conclusion based in part on "observing what happened, as the political leader that I was during many years, confronting the empire, its blockades and its unspeakable crimes." The columns have attracted little attention internationally and caused little reaction in Cuba, but Castro promised to continue his lonely fight to warn the world of the coming disaster.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

11th July 2010

"Irrational" Iran can't get nuclear arms-Netanyahu
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "Irrational regimes" like Iran cannot be allowed to have nuclear arms and it is a mistake to think Tehran's ambitions can be contained, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on U.S. television. Netanyahu, who met President Barack Obama last week during a visit to Washington and New York, told "Fox News Sunday" that Iran was "just moving on with its efforts" to develop nuclear weapons -- a prospect he called "very, very dangerous." Asked whether a nuclear Iran could be contained, he said: "No, I don't. I think that's a mistake, and I think people fall into a misconception." "I don't think you can rely on Iran," Netanyahu said in a taped interview. "And we should not allow irrational regimes like Iran to have nuclear weapons. It's the ultimate terrorist threat today." Netanyahu declined to say whether he had any deadline for allowing diplomacy with Iran to run its course. "We always reserve the right to defend ourselves," he said, reiterating a core policy of Israel, which does not confirm or deny widely held beliefs that it has the only nuclear arsenal in the Middle East.
http://alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/N11143778.htm 

Haiti recovery paralyzed 6 months after deadly quake
Reconstruction stalled by disorganization, corruption
CORAIL-CESSELESSE, Haiti — The government, already weak before the magnitude-7 quake and still hobbled by its aftermath, is trying to build anew in places like Corail-Cesselesse, a nearly empty swath of land that begins about 9 miles north of the capital. But the effort is paralyzed by disorganization, bitter rivalries and private deals being struck behind its back. Multiple families claim title to almost every scrap of real estate. Already one reconstruction official has been forced to step down for steering a public project to his company's private land at Corail-Cesselesse. Wealthy landowners vow the "new Haiti" will become yet another vast slum unless the government rebuilds on their terms… In the moments after the disaster all Port-au-Prince began pouring into twilit streets. Homes, still collapsing, had in a moment become death traps. Camps rose on public and private spaces, squares, parks and golf courses… Bodies were everywhere, laid out under sheets, cardboard or nothing. Most were cleared by garbage trucks and front-loaders. Others were burned. Some are still being found. But an estimated 26 million cubic yards of rubble continues to make most of the capital impassable. Even with 300 trucks working daily, 98 percent of it remains…
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

10th July 2010
 

Thousands evacuated in China as dam threatens to burst
(Reuters) - Flooding, landslides and torrents of mud have killed 50 people in southern China and the government has evacuated thousands of people from homes near an overfilled, leaking reservoir, officials and state media said. The Wenquan reservoir in northwestern Qinghai province is holding more than three times its safe capacity -- over 230 million cubic meters of water when it was designed for a maximum of 70 million the Xinhua news agency said. If it bursts, the city of Golmud, around 130 km (80 miles) away and home to more than 200,000 people, could be flooded with water up to 4 meters (yards) deep in some areas. More than 9,000 people in immediate danger have already been evacuated. Power and water plants are at risk, and the high-altitude railway to Tibet is some 40 km (25 miles) away so could also be affected, Xinhua said, citing the local government. The reservoir has been badly maintained because the area is usually prone to drought. Water levels are still rising because of snowmelt in nearby mountains, and heavy rains are forecast for Sunday night and Monday, Xinhua added… In South China, some 42,000 homes have collapsed, and another 121,000 damaged and hundreds of thousands of hectares of crops have been spoilt or destroyed.
http://www.reuters.com/...

9th July 2010
 

Netanyahu: Talks could bring peace in 2011
NEW YORK - Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu says he plans to "confound the critics and the skeptics" and make peace with the Palestinians, possibly within a year. Netanyahu told the Council on Foreign Relations in New York that despite "warranted" skepticism, given the dismal record of Mideast peace talks, his timetable could indeed be reached if Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas sits down with him. Abbas was reported Wednesday in the official Palestinian Authority daily Al-Hayat al-Jadida as supporting negotiations with Israel as the only workable option for the administrative organization established to govern parts of the West Bank and Gaza Strip… In his Council on Foreign Relations talk Thursday, Netanyahu said he thought the Israelis and Palestinians "should seize the moment, and it is a challenging and important moment, when we have the ability to achieve peace," Haaretz reported. And he repeated his vision of "two states for two peoples in which a demilitarized Palestinian state recognizes the Jewish state of Israel."
http://www.upi.com/Top_News/...

Survey: Europeans back veil ban, Americans opposed
PARIS — While most Americans oppose banning face-covering Islamic veils, most western Europeans questioned in a new global poll say the garments should be forbidden — especially in France, where a ban may soon be a reality. Several European countries have been considering bans on such veils, with special attention on France, home to western Europe's largest Muslim community and a strongly secular government. The lower house of France's parliament is expected to approve a divisive bill Tuesday that would make it illegal to wear full-face veils in public. The government says such veils oppress women. Only a very small minority of French Muslim women wear veils such as the niqab or burqa, and many French Muslims fear a ban would stigmatize the whole Islamic community. A survey by the Pew Global Attitudes Project found that an overwhelming 82 percent of French respondents support a ban. The poll found 71 percent support in Germany, 62 percent in Britain and 59 percent in Spain. In the United States, 28 percent of those questioned said they would approve a ban.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

8th July 2010
 

Wulff champions EU bodies on maiden Brussels visit
Fresh from being elected Germany's new president, Christian Wulff has made his first visit to Brussels, the bureaucratic heart of the European Union, where he championed the role of the EU’s key institutions.
Germany's new president, Christian Wulff, has presented a strong pro-European image during his inaugural visit to Brussels, the capital of the European Union. Wulff met with European Commission President Jose Manuel Barroso and said that the work done by the EU parliament and the EU commission should receive greater recognition than it was currently getting. He said changing the image of the two institutions would be "my contribution to Europe," adding that unity in the 27-nation EU was integral to Europe having a stronger voice on the world stage. "Europe is of fundamental importance for Germany ... if Europe can speak with one voice on the great international questions, then we will have more influence," Wulff said.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/...

Official: Terror arrests linked to global plot
OSLO, Norway — Three suspected al-Qaida members were arrested Thursday in a Norwegian bomb plot linked to the same terrorist planners behind thwarted schemes to blow up New York's subway and a British shopping mall. The men were part of a terrorist plot spanning several continents, a senior U.S. official told NBC News on Thursday. "Norway is a node of a larger terrorist plot that included other locations in Europe as well as the United States and Pakistan," the official told senior investigative producer Robert Windrem. The alleged Norwegian plot, underscoring changing al-Qaida tactics in the decade since the 9/11 attacks, was said to involve powerful peroxide bombs similar to ones aimed for detonation in New York and Manchester, England.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

7th July 2010
 

Australian vegetable prices to rise after mass poisoning
Australians have been warned to prepare for skyrocketing vegetable prices after millions of seedlings were poisoned in a suspected case of industrial sabotage. The price of tomatoes, peppers, courgettes and aubergines was predicted to increase up to three times after seven million vegetable plants were attacked at two nurseries in Queensland. Police are investigating the incident, which took place in the town of Bowen. Officers believe a herbicide was injected into the irrigation system used by the nurseries about a week-and-a-half ago. The poisoning is expected to have a large knock on effect on the vegetable industry, wiping $50m out of the local economy, which relies heavily on agriculture during the winter months.
Carl Walker, the Bowen District Growers Association (BDGA) spokesman, said that 350 hectares of production land had been lost as a result of the poisoning.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/...

Mexico, Texas evacuate homes as Rio Grande floods
NUEVO LAREDO, Mexico — Reservoirs along the U.S.-Mexico border rose to their highest levels in decades after days of drenching rain, forcing officials to close two border bridges Wednesday, dump dam water into flooded rivers and evacuate tens of thousands from homes, with yet another storm on the way. The dramatic rise of the Rio Grande caused by Hurricane Alex and continuing rains forced the closure of one major border crossing between downtown Laredo, Texas, and Nuevo Laredo, Mexico, and another crossing known as the Colombia Bridge, about 20 miles upriver. Officials evacuated the flood-threatened Vega Verde subdivision in Del Rio, Texas, some 110 miles (180 kilometers) upstream from Laredo, while high waters in the northern Mexican state of Coahuila have already damaged some 10,000 homes — many swamped in waist-deep water. "That means there are 40,000 people who don't have any place to sleep," Gov. Humberto Moreira told the Televisa network Wednesday. To the southeast, Mexican officials evacuated nearly 18,000 people from houses...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38128242/ns/weather/

6th July 2010

EU-Chinese 'misunderstanding' on the rise, warns senior Beijing official
EUOBSERVER / STRASBOURG - China's deputy foreign minister has warned that the level of "misunderstanding" between Brussels and Beijing is on the rise, despite the EU's new architectural framework, designed in part to improve the bloc's dialogue with the international community. Ms Fu Ying made the comments in an interview with EUobserver in Strasbourg on Tuesday, ahead of a series of meetings with senior European Parliament officials. "I think the misunderstanding is strong on the European side and is growing on the Chinese side as well," said Ms Fu, whose portfolio includes handling her country's relations with Europe and Taiwan. "Since 2008, the perceived China-bashing sentiment of European countries has hurt China and Chinese people," explained Beijing's most senior female official, whose previous positions include three years as ambassador to the UK. And while China hopes for an improvement under the Lisbon Treaty, the EU's new rulebook that creates a stronger foreign policy supremo in the shape of Catherine Ashton, so far there has been little tangible evidence of change. "Since 2008, the perceived China-bashing sentiment of European countries has hurt China and Chinese people," explained Beijing's most senior female official, whose previous positions include three years as ambassador to the UK. And while China hopes for an improvement under the Lisbon Treaty, the EU's new rulebook that creates a stronger foreign policy supremo in the shape of Catherine Ashton, so far there has been little tangible evidence of change.
http://euobserver.com..

5th July 2010

Investors fear rising risk of US regional defaults
Investors are worried that the risk of default for US local governments is growing, amid signs that some regions are facing the same type of difficulty in curbing pension and budget deficits as some eurozone countries. The yield attached to some forms of infrastructure municipal bonds has risen relative to US Treasury bonds because of fears that cash-strapped local governments will struggle to repay these loans. Absolute borrowing costs for regional governments remain relatively low in historical terms because of the Federal Reserve’s ultra-loose monetary policy. But any swings in municipal yields will be watched closely by investors, since they suggest that the fiscal anxieties about the eurozone could now infect the US. “The risk in the second half of the year is that investor attention switches from Europe to the US,” said Robert Parker, senior adviser at Credit Suisse Securities, who singled out parts of California, as well as towns and cities in Illinois, Michigan and New York state as among the most vulnerable.“You will see investor concern about the viability of those cities and therefore you will see, inevitably, further spread widening in the municipal bond market.”
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/fb933f08-885b-11df-aade-00144feabdc0.html

Dow Repeats Great Depression Pattern
The Dow Jones Industrial Average is repeating a pattern that appeared just before markets fell during the Great Depression, Daryl Guppy, CEO at Guppytraders.com, told CNBC Monday. “Those who don’t remember history are doomed to repeat it…there was a head and shoulders pattern that developed before the Depression in 1929, then with the recovery in 1930 we had another head and shoulders pattern that preceded a fall in the market, and in the current Dow situation we see an exact repeat of that environment,” Guppy said. The Dow retreated 457.33 points, or 4.5 percent last week, to close at 9,686 Friday. Guppy said a Dow fall below 9,800 confirmed the head and shoulders pattern.
http://www.cnbc.com/id/38092759

Turkey threatens 'to sever ties' with Israel
AFP - Turkey ratcheted up tension with Israel on Monday, warning it will sever ties unless Ankara gets an apology for the raid on an aid convoy to Gaza but the Jewish state said it will never say sorry for defending itself. Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu warned that relations would be cut unless Israel apologises or accepts the conclusions of an international inquiry into the May 31 attack on the Gaza-bound aid convoy,
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu ruled out any apology on Friday and a senior Israeli government official said on Monday after Davutoglu's remarks that Israel would never say sorry for defending itself. "Israel will never apologise for defending its citizens," the official told AFP, echoing Netanyahu's remarks. "Of course, we regret the loss of life but it was not the Israeli side that initiated the violence," the official said.
Davutoglu stressed that he had presented Turkey's position during talks in Brussels on Wednesday with Israeli Trade Minister Benjamin Ben Eliezer, in what was the first high-level contact since the crisis erupted. "We will not wait to eternity for an Israeli answer," Davutoglu said. "If they do not make any move (to meet Turkey's expectations), the process of isolating Israel will continue," he added.
http://www.france24.com/...

Fusion of militants seen as new threat
Chairman of the joint chiefs warns of a 'synergy of terrorist groups'
WASHINGTON — U.S. officials boast that al-Qaida has never been weaker, its upper ranks decimated because of the stepped-up drone attacks in Pakistan and special operations raids in Afghanistan. At the same time, they warn, in seeming contradiction: An even greater number of well-trained terrorists are setting their sights on the United States. Across the remote tribal lands between Afghanistan and Pakistan where terror groups hide, U.S. officials say they've seen a fusion of al-Qaida and others targeted by U.S. forces, including the Haqqani group and the Pakistani Taliban, who formerly focused only on their local areas.
Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said the groups have become a "synergy of terrorist groups" with "an expanding desire to kill Americans." At the same forum, National Counterterrorism Center Director Michael Leiter warned that the "troubling alignment" extends all the way to Yemen and Africa. The dispersed network is making terror plots harder to spot and prevent, he said. The officials are speaking publicly in an effort to convince the American public — and U.S. ally Pakistan — that the time to hit harder is now, while al-Qaida is weakened. Failure to do that means an even stronger enemy, they argue.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38095340/ns/us_news-security/

4th July 2010
 

With the US trapped in depression, this really is starting to feel like 1932
The US workforce shrank by 652,000 in June, one of the sharpest contractions ever. The rate of hourly earnings fell 0.1pc. Wages are flirting with deflation. "The economy is still in the gravitational pull of the Great Recession," said Robert Reich, former US labour secretary. "All the booster rockets for getting us beyond it are failing."
"Home sales are down. Retail sales are down. Factory orders in May suffered their biggest tumble since March of last year. So what are we doing about it? Less than nothing," he said. California is tightening faster than Greece. State workers have seen a 14pc fall in earnings this year due to forced furloughs. Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger is cutting pay for 200,000 state workers to the minimum wage of $7.25 an hour to cover his $19bn (£15bn) deficit. Can Illinois be far behind? The state has a deficit of $12bn and is $5bn in arrears to schools, nursing homes, child care centres, and prisons. "It is getting worse every single day," said state comptroller Daniel Hynes. "We are not paying bills for absolutely essential services. That is obscene." Roughly a million Americans have dropped out of the jobs market altogether over the past two months. That is the only reason why the headline unemployment rate is not exploding to a post-war high... Republicans on Capitol Hill are filibustering a bill to extend the dole for up to 1.2m jobless facing an imminent cut-off. Dean Heller from Nevada called them "hobos". This really is starting to feel like 1932. Washington's fiscal stimulus is draining away. It peaked in the first quarter, yet even then the economy eked out a growth rate of just 2.7pc. This compares with 5.1pc, 9.3pc, 8.1pc and 8.5pc in the four quarters coming off recession in the early 1980s. The housing market is already crumbling as government props are pulled away...
On Friday, Jacques Cailloux from RBS put out a "double-dip alert" for Europe. "The risk is rising fast. Absent an effective policy intervention to tackle the debt crisis on the periphery over coming months, the European economy will double dip in 2011," he said...
Last week the Bank for International Settlements called for combined fiscal and monetary tightening, lending its great authority to the forces of debt-deflation and mass unemployment. If even the BIS has lost the plot, God help us.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/...

As US fights, China spends to gain Afghan foothold
Every day, Afghans wait in long lines at the Chinese Embassy for visas to let them cross the border to trade. As the US and its NATO allies fight to stabilize Afghanistan, China has expanded its economic footprint with several high-profile investments and reconstruction projects. In 2007, it became the country's largest foreign investor when it won a $3.5 billion contract to develop copper mines at Aynak, southeast of Kabul. The US is in favor of the Chinese investment… the relationship has blossomed in recent years. In March, President Hamid Karzai made his fourth trip to Beijing, bringing back agreements on economic cooperation, technical training and lower tariffs for Afghan goods.The emerging alliance is giving Kabul an alternative to its sometimes strained ties with the West. The two neighbors share a narrow, mountainous border, the Wakhan Corridor, and links that date back centuries to the caravans of tea, spices and other riches that traveled the Silk Road.Afghanistan is "well aware that the US is likely to only be a temporary ally so it's looking for a longer-term partner in the region. China would be an obvious choice," said security analyst Christian Le Miere, editor of Jane's Intelligence Review.
http://www.chinadaily.com.cn/...

3rd July 2010

Goldman Sachs warns on global economic slowdown
Fresh fears over a global economic slowdown were raised on Saturday after Goldman Sachs' chief economist warned that data from China and the US revealed that any recovery was facing a "challenging period" and that evidence from America was "troubling".
As Britain enters a self-imposed period of austerity to deal with an historically large budget deficit, Jim O'Neill, one of the world's foremost economists, said that events beyond our shores could pose more of a problem than any domestic economic problems. Writing in The Sunday Telegraph, Mr O'Neill, head of global economic research at Goldman, said: "What is clear is that a persistently struggling US, in addition to a major disappointment in China, would not be good news for the rest of us." ... The warnings come just days after Goldman downgraded its forecast for GDP growth in China this year from 11.4pc to 10.1pc. China is currently carrying out a difficult rebalancing operation of slowing its high speed economic growth without killing the global economic recovery. While China is still growing, the outlook in the US is "distinctly chilly", Mr O'Neill warns, and the country could be threatened by a period of deflation.
"Despite our global optimism of the past year, we have remained rather cautious about the US, expecting the past problems of housing excess and domestic savings weakness to plague domestic consumption for some time," he writes. "What is more troubling recently is that the housing market indicators have turned especially weak again." The other danger highlighted by Mr O'Neill is the concern that too many G20 economies undertaking austerity measures at the same time could reverse the global economy recovery...
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics...

Video: A More Powerful EU Presidency?
Analyst Peter Zeihan examines European Union President Herman Van Rompuy’s historic opportunity to bring power to the position he holds.
http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/...

Ahmadinejad calls sanctions against Iran pathetic
TEHRAN — The latest sanctions against Iran are pathetic, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Saturday, warning world powers they would regret their bullying. In his first speech since U.S. President Barack Obama signed into law sanctions targeting Iran's vulnerable fuel imports, Ahmadinejad said the measures would not hurt the economy or stop Iran taking a greater role in world affairs. "They know that there is a sleeping lion in Iran which is waking up and if she wakes up all the relationships in the world will change," he told industrialists. "Their pathetic acts show they know what a great human power is hidden in Iran." The U.S. law followed sanctions agreed by the U.N. Security Council and the European Union, all aimed at pressuring Tehran to curb a nuclear program some countries fear is aimed at making a bomb -- something Iran denies. "They thought that by having meetings and talking to each other and signing papers they could stop a great nation's progress," Ahmadinejad said. "Iran is much greater than what they can perceive it in their small minds," he added. "We know that if this Iranian civilization awakes then there would be no more room for arrogant, corrupt and bullying powers."
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

2nd July 2010
 

6 bombers strike USAID site in Afghanistan
KABUL, Afghanistan — Six suicide bombers attacked a USAID compound Friday in northern Afghanistan, killing at least four people and wounding several others, officials said. Two of the dead were foreigners. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack… Five other attackers then stormed a building used by Development Alternatives Inc., a Washington, D.C.-based global consulting company that has a contract with the United States Agency for International Aid, or USAID, to work on governance and community development in the area. The bombing triggered a five-hour gunbattle with security guards and police
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Strong quake hits off Vanuatu
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - A magnitude 6.8 quake struck off the Pacific Ocean island nation of Vanuatu on Friday, the United States Geological Survey said. The quake was centred 144 miles (230 km) north northwest of Santo and at a depth of 41 miles (25 miles), it said.
http://www.alertnet.org/...

1st July 2010

Iran: Sanctions won't stop us
Mottaki tells Security Council: UN measures won't affect nuke program.
The latest round of Security Council sanctions against Iran will not prevent the country from proceeding with its nuclear program, Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki said Thursday. In a letter addressed to the fifteen member-states of the UN Security Council and communicated by AFP, Mottaki wrote that Teheran “considers that the adoption of such resolutions [against Iran] will not affect its utterly peaceful nuclear program.” He reportedly added that the “hasty adoption” of “unjust and illegal” new sanctions had only made the Islamic republic “more determined” to go ahead with its plans.
http://www.jpost.com/IranianThreat/News/...

Indonesia's Last Glacier Will Melt Within Years
Lonnie Thompson spent years preparing for his expedition to the remote, mist-shrouded mountains of eastern Indonesia, hoping to chronicle the affect of global warming on the last remaining glacier in the Pacific. He's worried he got there too late. Even as he pitched his tent on top of Puncak Jaya, the ice was melting beneath him. The 3-mile- (4,884-meter-) high glacier was pounded by rain every afternoon during the team's 13-day trip, something the American scientist has never encountered in three decades of drilling ice cores. He lay awake at night listening to the water gushing beneath him. By the time they were ready to head home, ice around their sheltered campsite had melted a staggering 12 inches (30 centimeters). "These glaciers are dying," said Thompson, one of the world's most accomplished glaciologists. "Before I was thinking they had a few decades, but now I'd say we're looking at years."
http://abcnews.go.com/International/...

Weather hinders oil spill cleanup
(Reuters) - Tropical storm Alex slowed oil clean-up and containment efforts in the Gulf of Mexico on Thursday, with any permanent fix to BP Plc's ruptured deep-sea oil well still several weeks away.
BP denied a rumour, which helped lift the share price in London, that the gushing leak had finally been capped. Alex hit land as a hurricane over northeastern Mexico late on Wednesday, well to the west of the spill site, but its high winds and rough seas delayed the British energy giant's plans to expand the volume of oil it is siphoning from the well. The bad weather also threatened to push more oil-polluted water onto the U.S. Gulf Coast shore and forced the halt of skimming, spraying of dispersant chemicals and controlled burns of oil on the ocean surface. The worst oil spill in U.S. history is in its 73rd day. It has caused an environmental and economic disaster along the Gulf Coast, hurting fishing and tourism industries, soiling shorelines and killing wildlife. Talk that BP had managed to cap the leak helped a spike in the UK-based company's London share price on Thursday, but BP officials shot down the rumour.
http://uk.reuters.com/...

30th June 2010

'Terror may follow Iran sanctions'
Oren warns Teheran may use Hizbullah, Hamas to start new ME war
Iran might respond to sanctions passed against it in the US last week with terrorist violence in the Middle East, said Israel's Washington Ambassador Michael Oren on Tuesday in an interview with Foreign Policy magazine. Oren said that Teheran would respond to the sanctions by either returning to the negotiating table or by starting a war in the Middle East to divert attention from the sanctions and its nuclear program. He said that in the case of Iran deciding to start a war, they would use Hamas and Hizbullah to attack Israel and perhaps others.
http://www.jpost.com/International/...

Pope Shuffles Vatican Bureaucracy Before Vacation
Pope Shuffles Vatican Bureaucracy, Names Head Of New Office To Fight Secularization
VATICAN CITY (AP) - Preoccupied for months by the clerical sex abuse scandal, the pope on Wednesday shuffled the Vatican bureaucracy before heading off on vacation. His most significant appointment: the head of a new office designed to fight secularism in the West. Pope Benedict XVI tapped a trusted Italian, Monsignor Rino Fisichella, to head the Pontifical Council for Promoting the New Evangelization, a new Vatican department designed to reinvigorate Christianity in the parts of the world where it is falling by the wayside. Benedict has made rekindling the faith in Europe a priority of his papacy, and the appointment of Fisichella served as a tacit acknowledgment that his efforts to date needed more focus and heft.
Benedict has been particularly concerned about Europe's increasing secularization and has focused his foreign trips on the continent as a result. His 2010 travel itinerary, for example, lists Malta, Cyprus, Portugal, Britain and Spain. "The pope knows this issue well from his long experience as a teacher and as an acute observer of historic and cultural moments," Fisichella was quoted as saying by the ANSA news agency. "It's evident that he sees at this moment a need to bring forward again the message of Jesus Christ so that people today can reinvigorate their faith." The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, said Wednesday that re-evangelizing the West was "central" to Benedict's concerns as pope.
http://www.cbsnews.com/...

Strong earthquake hits Mexico, one dead
People nervous following quakes in Haiti and Chile
OAXACA, Mexico (Reuters) - A strong 6.2-magnitude earthquake struck southern Mexico early on Wednesday, leaving one man dead and shaking buildings as far away as Mexico City but sparing infrastructure from serious damage. The U.S. Geological Survey said the quake struck near the town of Pinotepa Nacional, around 80 miles (125 km) southwest of the colonial city of Oaxaca, Police patrols checking surrounding towns did not report fallen buildings
http://uk.reuters.com/...

29th June 2010

Chaos erupts in Greece over austerity measures
ATHENS, Greece — Dozens of masked youths clashed with police at a union protest Tuesday in Athens during the country's fifth general strike this year against the cash-strapped government's planned pension and labor reforms. Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse troublemakers who threw chunks of marble smashed off metro station entrances and set rubbish bins on fire. Running clashes continued along a major avenue — lined with shuttered shops and banks — as rioters armed with wooden clubs made repeated sallies against police. Seven policemen were injured in the clashes, and 13 demonstrators were detained, six of whom were arrested, police said. Riot police chased demonstrators into a main subway station, and an AP photographer saw police detain one young man in a subway car, spraying him with pepper spray. Demonstrators smashed bus stops and phone booths, and broke windows at three shops and two bank branches. The demonstration ended after a few hours, and rioters melted away toward the central Exarcheia district — a traditional anarchist hangout.
In response to the Tuesday protests, local media were shut, hospitals operated with emergency staff and public offices were mostly closed.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

28th June 2010

Taiwan and China sign landmark trade agreement
China and Taiwan have signed a historic trade pact, seen as the most significant agreement since civil war split the two governments 60 years ago.
The Economic Co-operation Framework Agreement (ECFA) removes tariffs on hundreds of products.
It could boost bilateral trade that already totals $110bn (£73bn) a year. Correspondents say that, economically, the deal favours Taiwan but that Beijing hopes for political gains in its long-standing unification campaign. The deal is seen as the culmination of efforts by Taiwan's President Ma Ying-jeou, elected two years ago with a vow to reduce tension with the mainland.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/...

Rumors of Military Maneuvers Against Iran - Ahmadinejad : Iran will retaliate
Ahmadinejad : US Gov can't even cap an oil well and put peoples lives at risk by stockpiling nuclear weapons
Iran says the US allegation about the military nature of Tehran's nuclear program is "a psychological war" aimed at creating a negative attitude towards the country. On Sunday, CIA director Leon Panetta said he "thinks" Iran has enough low-enriched uranium to produce two atomic weapons within two years, without elaborating on the source of the conjecture. Such remarks are some kind of psychological warfare aimed at creating a negative mentality about Iran's peaceful nuclear program, Iran's Foreign Ministry spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said in reaction to Panetta's comments, IRNA reported. "The US officials, especially their intelligence apparatus, know that Iran's nuclear program is not a military one, but is aimed at peaceful purposes." Mehmanparast went on to say that those who spread such false news seek to divert world's attention from the main cause of concern, namely the nuclear arsenals of certain countries and regimes which threaten the security of the nations.
http://beforeitsnews.com/news...

Video: Dispatch-Rumors of Military Maneuvers against Iran Analyst Reva Bhalla examines rumors of U.S. and Israeli military maneuvers at a critical juncture in U.S.-Iranian dealings. http://www.stratfor.com/analysis/...

27th June 2010

Israel setting up Saudi base for Iran raid?
An Iranian allegation that Saudi Arabia is allowing Israel to use its territory in preparation for attacking Iran nuclear sites has stirred a flurry of reports in the Israeli media. The allegation could not be independently confirmed, and the Saudis deny cooperating with the Israeli military.
The Jerusalem Post website on Sunday said reports that the Israeli military had established a base in Saudi Arabia originated with Iranian and Israeli news outlets. The Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Ha'aretz were among Israeli media carrying the reports credited to Fars, the semi-official Iranian news agency. The Fars report was also picked up by international outlets such as UPI. The reports said the Israeli base is about five miles from Tabuk in northwest Saudi Arabia. The Islam Times said Israeli airplanes landed at an international airport and Israeli soldiers unloaded military equipment on June 18 and 19. Saudi officials canceled commercial air traffic and, one traveler told the Islam Times, paid to put up passengers in nearby four-star hotels to prevent them from expressing anger. Tabuk, the closest Saudi city to Israel, is just south of Jordan, the Post said.
The claim follows a report two weeks ago in the London Times Magazine that Saudi Arabia had given Israel permission to fly through a narrow corridor of airspace in northern Saudi Arabia to shorten the flight time Israeli jets need to reach Iran.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

Arsenic water killing 1 in 5 in Bangladesh
WHO calls it 'largest mass poisoning of a population in history'
CHANDIPUR, Bangladesh — Hanufa Bibi stoops in a worn sari and mismatched flip-flops to work the hand pump on her backyard well. Spurts of clear water wash grains of rice from her hands, but she can never get them clean. Thick black warts tattoo her palms and fingers, the result of drinking arsenic-laced well water for years. It's a legacy that new research has linked to one in five deaths among those exposed in Bangladesh — an impoverished country where up to half of its 150 million people have guzzled tainted groundwater. The World Health Organization has called it "the largest mass poisoning of a population in history," as countless new wells continue to be dug here daily without testing the water for toxins. "The magnitude of the arsenic problem is 50 times worse than Chernobyl," said Richard Wilson, president of the nonprofit Arsenic Foundation and a physics professor emeritus at Harvard University who was not involved in the study. "But it doesn't have 50 times the attention paid to it." ... The wells were meant to provide clean drinking water to help prevent deadly waterborne diseases, such as cholera. But they unintentionally tapped into arsenic deposits in the ground, releasing the odorless, colorless and tasteless toxin into water used for drinking and cooking. Arsenic has been linked to cancers, liver ailments, skin diseases, heart problems and other health issues.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/...

26th June 2010

Major quake near Solomon Islands
(Reuters) - A 6.9 magnitude quake struck near the Solomon Islands on Saturday, the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) said, and officials in the capital Honiara said there were no immediate reports of damage. USGS reported the quake struck at a depth of 35 km (21.7 miles) off Kira Kira, but officials said it was felt quite strongly in the capital, more than 200 km (124 miles) away from the epicentre.
http://uk.reuters.com/article/idUKTRE65P0PQ20100626 

25th June 2010

Germany Warns US Not to Become 'Addicted to Borrowing'
The US has heavily criticized German austerity measures in recent days. Now, Germany's finance minister has fired back, warning against becoming addicted to deficit spending and noting that history has made the country extremely wary of national debt and inflation. Conflict, it would seem, will be everywhere in Toronto this weekend as world leaders gather for the G-20 summit to discuss possible reforms to the global financial system… German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schäuble poured more fuel on the fire in a contribution published Friday in the business daily Handelsblatt. Referring to US demands that Germany abandon austerity in favor of additional economic stimulus measures, Schäuble said that "governments should not become addicted to borrowing as a quick fix to stimulate demand. Deficit spending cannot become a permanent state of affairs." Schäuble said that he cannot relate to accusations that Germany hasn't done its part to stimulate the economy, pointing out that Berlin passed a massive stimulus package in 2008. "Additionally," he said, "we also have so-called automatic stabilizers (such as high social welfare expenditures) that do not play as big a role in the countries that are now criticizing us." Merkel's finance minister also pointed out that "while US policymakers like to focus on short-term corrective measures, we take the longer view and are, therefore, more preoccupied with the implications of excessive deficits and the dangers of high inflation." Schäuble remarked that, while US economic history has taught the country to be wary of deflation, Germany's history has resulted in widespread fear of deficits and inflation. Schäuble's remarks were just the latest in a trans-Atlantic back-and-forth that has continued all week.
http://www.spiegel.de/international/business/0,1518,702849,00.html 

US growth estimate revised down to 2.7%
The US economy grew at an annual rate of 2.7% in the first three months of 2010, slower than previously estimated. The Commerce Department had previously estimated growth at 3% versus the same period in 2009. The new figure is disappointing as it is only the third quarter since the US economy stopped contracting, and in past recoveries growth has been faster... Business investment and consumer spending - important components of GDP - were both revised down.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10417801.stm 

Geithner says US can 'no longer drive global growth'
US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the BBC that the world "cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past". He said that other major economies would have to grow more for the global economy to prosper. He also played down any differences in policy between the US and Europe regarding deficit reduction. Mr Geithner was speaking in Washington ahead of G8 and G20 meetings this weekend in Toronto. He said all members of the group were "focused on the challenge of [building] growth and confidence", and would be working to this end at the meetings. The Group of Eight and Group of 20 rich and developing nations are assembling on Friday for three days of talks on emerging from the worst financial crisis since the Great Depression.
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/business/10406463.stm

24th June 2010

Germany defends austerity measures on eve of world summit
The leaders of the world's industrialized and emerging countries are converging on the Canadian city of Toronto for crucial talks on overcoming the global financial crisis and boosting economic growth.
At the summits of the G8 and G20 nations to be held over this weekend, German Chancellor Angela Merkel is expected to play a key role in the discussions. Merkel wants to press ahead with tighter regulation of financial markets, but at the same time faces widespread criticism for not doing enough to help overcome the economic crisis. In recent months, Merkel has appeared to be on something of a crusade aimed at re-establishing the supremacy of politics over economics, as she herself put it. And she is expected to pursue this crusade fiercely at the Toronto summit. Merkel blames rampant financial speculation, not only for the meltdown in the banking sector in 2008, but also for the debt crisis that has engulfed most industrialized nations this year...
Angela Merkel appears to have rallied most of the European Union states behind her agenda. But, unless she can get the rest of the leaders attending the Toronto summit on board, that may turn out to be a hollow victory. In a massive effort to stymie criticism ahead of the summit, Merkel and German Finance Minister Wolfgang Schaeuble launched a media blitz on Thursday, choosing prominent English-language newspapers in an ongoing war of words with Washington. "Governments should not become addicted to borrowing as a quick fix to stimulate demand," wrote Schaeuble in the Financial Times. "Deficit spending cannot become a permanent state of affairs," he added. Merkel defended her plans and said that even the International Monetary Fund acknowledged that Germany has done "more than in many other countries" to stimulate growth. In the run-up to the G8 meeting, however, billionaire financial investor, George Soros, issued a withering attack on what he termed "dangerous" German economic policy.
http://www.dw-world.de/dw/article/0,,5728688,00.html 

Brazilian mayor: Floods have flattened entire town
RIO DE JANEIRO - Torrential waters flattened a small town as floods raged through two states in northeastern Brazil and the death toll was expected to surpass 44 as rescuers searched Wednesday for hundreds of people reported missing. Mayor Ana Lopes said the entire town of Branquinha, population 12,000, will have to be rebuilt in a different location. Television footage showed a train station washed away, its tracks ripped from the earth. Cars lay overturned and strewn along a riverbank. Dazed people wandered about streets littered with couches, chairs and mountains of mud… Storms last week dumped a month's worth of rain on parts of neighboring Alagoas and Pernambuco states, near the point where Brazil juts farthest east into the Atlantic. The Civil Defense Department said in a statement that 29 deaths had been reported so far in Alagoas, while 15 were reported dead in Pernambuco. At least 120,000 people were driven from their homes by the rains, but many found shelter in schools, churches or with family members. In May 2009, flooding in the same areas killed at least 44 people and displaced 380,000.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37873185/ns/world_news-americas/ 

China flooding death toll jumps to 365
Rain makes rescues harder; 2.4 million displaced so far
FUZHOU, China - Flood-battered parts of south China battled fresh downpours on Thursday after at least 365 people died as rivers broke their banks and landslides cut road and rail links in a week of torrential rain. The government has rushed troops, food and tents to flood-hit regions, where millions of residents have been displaced by pelting rain that has swollen reservoirs and caused economic losses of around 70.9 billion yuan ($10.4 billion)… The threat from the flooding is not over yet. Rescuers in Changkai town, near Fuzhou, were slowed by rain as they tried to reach residents perched in flooded towns and villages. More rain is still expected… More torrential rains are expected for the southern regions of Guizhou, Hunan, Jiangxi, Zhejiang, Fujian, and Guangxi in the next two days, Xinhua reported. The flood-battered Changkai dyke near Fuzhou suffered a fresh breach on Wednesday. About 100,000 residents fled after a first break in its wall late on Monday.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/37896894/ns/weather/ 

Land mines shifted by Bosnia flooding
'Only God knows where those mines went,' says one mine clearer
SARAJEVO, Bosnia-Herzegovina - Floods in Bosnia displaced thousands this week as they washed away homes, crops and bridges. The torrents have also swept loose a perhaps even bigger concern: land mines planted during the Bosnian war. Since the end of the war in 1995, authorities have done their best to clear away the estimated 1 million