last three paragraphs about sums it up.

Easy enough to research, isn't it.

(4-9-12) Working Class Republicans have been responsible for the rise of China and the decline of the United States is the theme of the recently aired CNBC series. They showed the quips of Chinese lame duck premier Wen Jiabao, who thanked Working Class Republicans for building up China -- which they have effectively done.

China, including its government and its people through investment pools and Chinese businesses, is now the largest purchaser of a wide variety of US assets. It isn't simply that they are the largest purchaser of US Treasury instruments and they are effectively financing the mess that George Bush left behind, but they are now the second largest buyers of US distressed and foreclosed property, while the Canadians are the first.

The strange breed of unpeople can be found everywhere, including the U.S.: in the prisons that are an international scandal, the food kitchens, the decaying slums.

The oil company says up to 40,000 barrels of crude oil was spilled 75 miles off the coast of the Niger delta

Britain said it was outraged and warned of "serious consequences." The U.N. Security Council condemned the attacks "in the strongest terms." U.S. President Barack Obama said he was disturbed by the incident and called on Iran to hold those responsible to account.

The Treasury confirmed earlier this month that contingency planning for a collapse is now under way.

Moscow in aggressive move to stop another American “humanitarian intervention”.

Russian warships have entered Syrian territorial waters in an aggressive move designed to prevent any NATO-led attack on the country under the guise of a “humanitarian intervention”.

“Russian warships are due to arrive at Syrian territorial waters, a Syrian news agency said on Thursday, indicating that the move represented a clear message to the West that Moscow would resist any foreign intervention in the country’s civil unrest,” reports Haaretz.

Russia has stepped up efforts to defend Syria in recent days, with Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov keen to frame the violence in the country as a civil war in defiance of claims by western powers that President Bashar al-Assad has overseen a bloody crackdown on innocent protesters.

As we saw prior to the attack on Libya, which was also framed as a “humanitarian intervention,” NATO powers are keen to demonize Assad’s government by characterizing attacks by his forces as atrocities while largely ignoring similar attacks by opposition forces, such as this week’s raid on a Syrian air force intelligence complex that killed or wounded 20 security police.

All that said, the present moment is arguably one in which the international order is, in fact, undergoing a fundamental transformation. The "postwar world" brought into existence as a consequence of World War II is coming to an end. A major redistribution of global power is underway. Arrangements that once conferred immense prerogatives upon the United States, hugely benefitting the American people, are coming undone.

In Washington, meanwhile, a hidebound governing class pretends that none of this is happening, stubbornly insisting that it's still 1945 with the so-called American Century destined to continue for several centuries more (reflecting, of course, God's express intentions).

Davis was charged with conspiring with others to conduct DDOS attacks against the website of the Serious Organised Crime Agency, a British law enforcement institution similar to the U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation.

It's now.

"On this day, our anonymous friend retained by the Zetas cartel has been released," the group said in a statement on its website. "We can say that while bruised, he is alive and well. He has sent us a message that if Anonymous reveals a name related to the cartel, the family of the kidnapped anonymous will suffer, and for each cartel member revealed, ten people will be put to death. The Anonymous collective has decided by consensus not to disclose the information that we have for now, as we understand that we can not ignore threats involving innocent civilians that have nothing to do with our actions."

As for the cathedral's blessing, the canon stressed that while he had not given specific backing to the occupation of St Paul's churchyard, he supported the democratic right to protest peacefully. "It's cold, isn't it going to be cold tonight?" he said. "We'll see how it goes. We're taking one day at a time and it's really good it's all worked out well for us today."

This photo, which I got from La Mina Circle in Los Angeles, reveals a tragic moment in the politics of the earth.

Chief Raoni of the Kayapó people broke down crying when he learned that the Brazilian president, Dilma Rousseff. approved construction to begin on the Belo Monte hydroelectric plant & dam project on Xingu indigenous lands.

If it does go through as planned, the Belo Monte dam will inundate nearly a million acres of rainforest & indigenous lands. The new water body will be bigger than the Panama Canal. 40,000 local and indigenous people will be forced off their native lands, all that habitat vitally useful to countless local and migratory species destroyed, and millions of unknown species of animals and plants murdered.

The goal to produce electricity is a good one, but this way of attaining it is not. It brings unconscionably high environmental and social costs, and could just as easily be met through greater investments in energy-efficient, place-appropriate methods of generation.

Maybe Silvio Berlusconi mistook Angela Merkel for a lady on the prowl instead of the leader of one of the globe's more stable economies: The cringe-inducing Italian PM's latest involves a phone conversation—with a newspaper editor, not a fraternity brother—in which he reportedly refers to the 57-year-old German chancellor as "an un@!$%#able fat ass." The phone call turned out to be taped, as these things so often are, and is now making the rounds as part of a blackmail investigation.

A Berlusconi-owned newspaper dismisses the reports as "gossip." Germany's Bild newspaper took the matter somewhat more seriously, yesterday running a headline that read: "Did Berlusconi insult our Chancellor Merkel?" It's not the first time Berlusconi has dissed his German counterpart, reports the Daily Mail. At a summit two years ago, Berlusconi let Merkel cool her heels while he chatted away on the cell phone, while the year before, he pounced on her from behind a statue as he shouted "peek a boo!"

At least one person was killed and four injured when a furnace exploded Monday at the Marcoule nuclear waste treatment site in southern France. Authorites say there was no radioactive leakage to the outside.

Sygmunt Bauman, the Jewish sociologist and one of the greatest philosophers of our time, castigated Israel harshly this week, saying it did not want peace and was afraid of it.

Bauman said Israel was "taking advantage of the Holocaust to legitimize unconscionable acts," and compared the separation fence to the walls surrounding the Warsaw Ghetto, in which hundreds of thousands of Jews perished in the Holocaust.

“You can’t tell me Japan doesn’t have the money to evacuate millions of people, they do. Unfortunately it all comes down to money. Governments should not be able to put people’s lives at risk just to save money.”

If Alex is playing devil's advocate here, it just isn't workin for him. He sounds like a man worried about his own welfare and the well being of people like him.

max does a sound job of schooling him on the root causes and foundation of the big picture.

A guillotine, the symbol of the French Revolution, has been placed Wednesday in the center of Tel Aviv’s “tent city,” turning into one of the biggest attractions in this ongoing social protest.

The surprising display arrived in Rothschild Boulevard following another long night of protests across the country, this time focusing on contractor conditions. Demonstrators in five different cities participated in rallies Wednesday night against working conditions, wearing white masks and chanting: “Contractor companies are organized crime.”

All around the planet hundreds of millions of people are waiting for events to unfold in the year 2012, that they... believe will bring either the birth of a harmonious new reality... or 'the end of the world.

But what if those events were actually to take place THIS YEAR, in 2011?

In Awakening As One's new film "The Quickening" we will explain why so many people have been experiencing the sensation that "Time is Speeding Up"; particularly since the Earthquake in Japan.

And we will also show how research indicates that this accelerated experience of reality could peak sometime around October 28th, 2011; culminating in a global experience of Unity Consciousness, which would then lead to the experience of a harmonious new way of being.

"The Quickening" will also take a look at the unfolding of current events and how they directly relate to Hopi and Mayan Prophecies, indicating that we are on the Cusp of Great Changes, which signify the shifting of the Age... and the Birth of a New World.

______________

***PLEASE watch the WHOLE video right to the end and with an OPEN MIND. Then be sure to watch this:  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m_QRSgdh_x4

Women thrust back into the lowest economic strata... globally.

A U.S. Senate resolution critical of Beijing's actions in the South China Sea "doesn't hold water" and its sponsors should promote peace in other ways, China said Tuesday.

Disputes over the South China Sea should be resolved peacefully through talks between "directly concerned parties," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei told reporters, a reference to what Beijing considers to be meddling by Washington.

The resolution adopted Monday by the U.S. Senate deplored China's "use of force" in recent incidents between Chinese vessels and those of other claimants in the potentially resource-rich waters.

The Philippines accuses Chinese vessels of intruding repeatedly into Philippine waters in recent months, while Vietnam says Chinese vessels have hindered its oil exploration surveys in an area 200 nautical miles (370 kilometers) off its central coast that it claims as its economic exclusive zone. China says it has sovereign rights over the South China Sea.

"The relevant resolution adopted by the U.S. Senate doesn't hold water," Hong said. "We hope the relevant senators can do more to promote peace and stability of the region."

Democratic Sen. Jim Webb led a bipartisan group of four senators who introduced the resolution. Webb said Southeast Asian countries were worried about China's "pattern of intimidation," and that the U.S. had a strategic interest in facilitating multilateral negotiations.

The Obama administration supports multilateral negotiations but has been less strident in confronting China.

Hong added that China wants disputes to be handled through "friendly consultations" between the parties directly concerned.

"Others without a direct stake should respect the efforts made by those directly concerned to resolve South China Sea disputes through dialogue and in a peaceful manner," he said.

More than 1,200 U.S. and Philippine navy personnel, meanwhile, began 11 days of exercises Tuesday that would include live-fire drills, tracking and interdiction and patrolling maneuvers in the Sulu Sea off the western Philippine province of Palawan, which lies near the disputed Spratly Islands.

The annual maneuvers were unrelated to recent spats between China and the Philippines over the Spratlys. They aim to generally improve both navies' ability to deal jointly with any naval threat, Philippine navy spokesman Lt. Noel Cadigal said.

The U.S. Navy deployed the guided missile destroyers USS Chung-Hoon and USS Howard, along with the diving and salvage ship USNS Safeguard and 800 personnel, including Navy Seabees and Riverine forces. Two Philippine navy patrol ships and more than 450 Filipino sailors joined the exercises, officials said.

Aside from the three ships, the U.S. Navy would deploy SH-60 Seahawk aircraft and the P-3c Orion, a long-range anti-submarine warfare patrol and surveillance plane.

One "key message" of the document is that it is not a programme to spy on Muslim communities, but doctors will be asked to identify people who may be "vulnerable" to recruitment by terrorist groups.

China reacted angrily after Vietnam said a Chinese fishing boat rammed cables from an oil exploration vessel inside its exclusive economic zone.

Beijing said Chinese fishing boats were chased away by armed Vietnamese ships in the incident on Thursday.

As one leading hedge fund manager recently stated, "There is definitely going to be another financial crisis around the corner... because we haven’t solved any of the things that caused the previous crisis." The market for derivatives is somewhere in the realm of $600 trillion.

(Reuters) - The operator of the stricken Japanese nuclear power plant said on Friday that more radioactive water could begin spilling into the sea later this month if there is a glitch in setting up a new decontamination system.

Tokyo Electric Power Co also said that two workers may have been exposed to radiation at more than twice the limit set by the government, the most serious case so far of exposure among hundreds of workers at the Fukushima Daiichi plant.

Greetings fellow denizens of the World,

Every day on which I’ve taken time to work on this piece, over a trillion becquerels (one Becquerel being a single nuclear decay, and that nuclear decay being more or less dangerous depending on the element from which it is decaying) have been emitted via steam and groundwater leakage at the Fukushima Daiichi Number One power plant in Northeastern Japan.  The earth under this nuclear power plant has subsided by more than a foot.  Reactor #4 is leaning worse than a peg-legged pirate.  Tens of millions of pounds of water, contaminated with some of the most toxic and environmentally persistent substances known to man, sit perched multiple stories above the ground in buildings compromised both by the earthquake and by massive hydrogen explosions which rocked the buildings in the days following the quake.

How did we get here?

As you’ve probably heard there was a very, very large earthquake on the western edge of the Ring of Fire on March 11, 2011.  This earthquake displaced the sea floor at up to 60 feet in some places, causing a mountain of water to rush towards Japan, in some places inundating the coastline for miles.

In the path of this fifty foot wall of water was the Fukushima Daicchi Number One Nuclear Power Plant , protected by a seawall designed for a twenty-two foot wall of water.  The reactor buildings appeared to have weathered the tsunami, although now there is some discussion that there may have been some catastrophic structural failures caused by the earthquake itself.  Power was lost.  Backup generators located on the ground floors of the plant were inundated with salt water.  As those generators were brought on-line they were destroyed by the salt/fuel mix.  There was no way to cool the reactors.  Temperatures increased to a NHK reported 2,800 degrees C.  Fuel melted (The zirconium cladding of the rods that hold the fuel pellets melt around 1,600 degrees ).  Fission of the water cooling the rods occurred.  H2 gas was fissioned alongside O2 was fissioned as well to fuel it, and the buildings exploded.  In Reactor #1 it is thought that the gases collected in the greater reactor building.  Reactor #3 and Reactor #4 appeared to explode more upward, driving some speculation that the gas had built up more intensely in the cooling ponds which projected the explosion upwards like a gun barrel.

The ‘Controlled’ Fission Process

With the style of nuclear power used at Fukushima, very high grade fuel is put into pellets and allowed to decay, generating intense amounts of heat.  The only thing that controls this process is a continuous cooling, provided by a million gallons per hour of water that is cycled past the 15 foot tall fuel rods.   If the cooling process is interrupted, the rods will heat up to Hellish temperatures.  That is their natural tendency… to heat up.  They are always attempting to heat up.  The only thing that keeps them from heating up is active cooling.  This is what makes this version of ‘controlled’ fission so dangerous and ‘controlled’ instead of controlled… we are only in ‘control’ as long as active cooling is taking place.  Research is currently underway that involves using Thorium in the rods, which requires a constant bombardment of X-Rays for fission to continue occurring.  If the power were to go out, the X-Ray beam would go out, and the rods would automatically cease decaying and cool down.  This is smart.  This is not what we have been doing for the last 50 years.

Instead, in this particular NPP’s Reactor #3, we have mixed plutonium with uranium in our relentless quest to get more from less.  More energy comes from less material when using the more potent plutonium.  By engaging the risk of using the most deadly material known to man, plutonium, with a half life of 23,000 years, these nuclear power plants were able to eek an extra 5% of energy production out of the fuel rods. 

What is the situation right now?

Right now it is believed that some portion of the fuel rods have melted in reactors #1, #2, and #3 and are pooled on the floor of their respective containment vessels.  TEPCO categorizes the current situation as serious but stable.  What they mean by this is that there is active cooling taking place of the reactor cores, and that the core melt material is staying fairly cool.  In my opinion this is about as stable as the situation at Fukushima can be for the next several years.

Today TEPCO is reporting that it believes that the piping into the reactor vessels may have been damaged in the Quake, and if not damaged by the actual shaking then the complex structures were almost certainly damaged from the molten fuel in the hours after the quake pooling at the bottom of the vessels and melting leaks into the sub-structure piping.  This would explain where many of the millions of gallons of water that are ‘disappearing’ are going… straight into the local groundwater system, which is seeping into the ocean.  TEPCO has denied that much groundwater is seeping since the beginning of the event, but it has been very obvious to careful observers all along.  TEPCO issued reports of Reactor 5 and 6 basements filling up with water not long after emergency cooling of the reactors began… this was all due to surging groundwater levels on site.

Temperatures have been spiking in both Reactor #1 and Reactor #3.  TEPCO announced today that they will again increase the volume of water being pumped into the reactors by a couple more tons an hour. 

And this isn’t even considering the 1,300+ rods that are trying to heat up in Cooling Pond #4.  Currently that reactor building is leaning.  TEPCO is making some efforts to shore up the building structure, although how exactly they’re doing that they have not made clear. 

What is the worst case scenario?

For the people of the world the worst case scenario is the ejection of aerosolized fallout dust… plutonium, uranium, and on down the radioactive decay sequence… thousands of feet into the atmosphere which would allow the jet stream to spread that dust across the planet.  The only way this could happen would be via an ejection event that could propel dust up vertically via an explosion.   The explosion could come from any number of sources: pressure reactions as pressures climb dramatically from molten corium generating steam and gases; hot and cold reactions related to the pressure reactions; or the ignition of explosive fission products like hydrogen gas.  If molten corium does manage to hit a large pool of cold water, the resultant explosion would likely be a combination of all three of those forces.

There is some speculation that the corium material has already melted through the vessels and a tiny part of this process has already begun. 

If one, just one, of these reactor vessels explode, then it is likely the capacity to cool the other reactors will be lost and they will all go critical.  That is the absolute worst case.  The measurable impacts to the rest of the world will depend very much on how violent the explosions are and how high that fallout material is ejected, should these explosions occur.

The best case?  The situation as it is, but with controlled groundwater and air emissions. 

What has Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) done to shield us from this Hazard?

Considering they have had two months now to respond, not much.

TEPCO’s current plan is to repair the cooling systems in each of the reactor buildings… that is, repair blown apart cooling systems in buildings that humans will never be able to enter again.  They have produced a vague 9 month roadmap to control that outline the Plan’s steps. 

They continue injecting cooling water.  They have come up with a plan to cover the buildings in sheets. 

The cooling ponds and reactor vessels remain essentially open to the atmosphere… there has been no mitigation of possible explosions and potential for atmospheric ejection of fallout dust.

There has been no groundwater wells drilled on site.  There is no attempt being made to capture any of the radioactive seepage or to prevent the seeps from reaching the open ocean.  In TEPCO’s latest press releases they’ve mentioned adding a drainage system to their ‘9 month road map.’ 

There are no hoods, fans, or piping being installed to attempt to capture fugitive radioactive steam emissions. 

Well what would YOU have done, Mr. Smarty Pants?

The most popular idea seems to be concrete.  Concrete can’t work.  There are several reasons why… it can’t cure properly around a superhot source and would crack, and it wouldn’t allow interaction with the rods (Except perhaps by unpredictable and unwanted cracks, I suppose.)  My recommendation for the site has been the same since the beginning.  I propose a soil cap.    Soil would:   

• Support the exterior walls of the reactor buildings
• Allow for the construction of a water recycling system exterior to the reactor buildings
• Shield the radiation emanating from the reactor buildings
• Help suppress potential explosions and localize radiation spread
• Allow for steam cleansing zeolite and borax sand capable of filtering some radionuclides out of the steam
• Off-gassing structures to vent radioactive steam.

 Check out my group’s info if you’d like to read more about the soil plan: http://www.facebook.com/pages/A-Viable-Plan-for-Emergency-Containment-at-Fukushima-Support-this-Campaign/182248908488523 if you’re on board.  I also yell daily at TEPCO from @BottomfedBuddha. 

As interesting and horrifying as the nuclear events going on in Japan are, just as fascinating and potentially horrific are the public policies being implemented by TEPCO and the Japanese government.  From withholding information of potential impending catastrophe to raising schoolyard radioactivity limits to unconscionable levels, there is a lot to dissect as this dire situation marches forward.

Good luck,

OTB

The Spirit of Rachel Corrie Mission, sponsored by the Perdana Global Peace Foundation, reportedly was carrying plastic sewage pipes to help repair Gaza’s sewer system when it was intercepted Monday in international waters near Gaza, according to reports.

Its crew claimed that Israel’s Navy fired on the ship early Monday morning when it crossed into Gazan waters. Israel denies firing on the ship, which returned to the Egyptian port of El Arish, where the crew reportedly began making arrangements to transfer the aid through the Rafah crossing.

The ship had left a Greek port on May 11 in an attempt to break the blockade. Members of the mission, named for an American pro-Palestinian activist who was run over by an Israeli tank in a controversial accident, were anti-war activists and journalists. Seven Malaysians, two Irish, two Indians and one Canadian passenger participated in the mission.

The foundation told the Bernama Malaysian National News Agency that it preferred to deliver the aid by sea in order to establish Gaza’s right to control its own territorial waters.

Humanity:

The quality of being humane; the kind feelings, dispositions, and sympathies of man; especially, a disposition to relieve persons or animals in distress, and to treat all creatures with kindness and tenderness.

Libya, after Washington removed it from the blacklist of “rogue states,” has sought to carve out a space at the international level focusing on “diplomacy of sovereign wealth funds.” Once the U.S. and the EU lifted the embargo in 2004 and the big oil companies returned to the country, Tripoli was able to maintain a trade surplus of about $30 billion per year which was used largely to make foreign investments. The management of sovereign funds has, however, created a new mechanism of power and corruption in the hands of ministers and senior officials, which probably in part escaped the control of the Gadhafi himself: This is confirmed by the fact that, in 2009, he proposed that the 30 billion in oil revenues go “directly to the Libyan people.” This aggravated the fractures within the Libyan government. U.S. and European ruling circles focused on these funds, so that before carrying out a military attack on Libya to get their hands on its energy wealth, they took over the Libyan sovereign wealth funds. Facilitating this operation is the representative of the Libyan Investment Authority, Mohamed Layas himself: as revealed in a cable published by WikiLeaks. On January 20 Layas informed the U.S. ambassador in Tripoli that LIA had deposited $32 billion in U.S. banks. Five weeks later, on February 28, the U.S. Treasury “froze” these accounts. According to official statements, this is “the largest sum ever blocked in the United States,” which Washington held “in trust for the future of Libya.” It will in fact serve as an injection of capital into the U.S. economy, which is more and more in debt. A few days later, the EU “froze” around 45 billion Euros of Libyan funds.

the discussion is about Gold, actually.

The democracy uprising in the Arab world has been a spectacular display of courage, dedication, and commitment by popular forces -- coinciding, fortuitously, with a remarkable uprising of tens of thousands in support of working people and democracy in Madison, Wisconsin, and other U.S. cities. If the trajectories of revolt in Cairo and Madison intersected, however, they were headed in opposite directions: in Cairo toward gaining elementary rights denied by the dictatorship, in Madison towards defending rights that had been won in long and hard struggles and are now under severe attack.

Each is a microcosm of tendencies in global society, following varied courses. There are sure to be far-reaching consequences of what is taking place both in the decaying industrial heartland of the richest and most powerful country in human history, and in what President Dwight Eisenhower called "the most strategically important area in the world" -- "a stupendous source of strategic power" and "probably the richest economic prize in the world in the field of foreign investment," in the words of the State Department in the 1940s, a prize that the U.S. intended to keep for itself and its allies in the unfolding New World Order of that day.

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on the scrap metal crimewave, shorting US treasuries and other signs of economic chaos. In the second half of the show, Max talks to author and blogger, Cory Doctorow, about copyright extremists and about watching robots throw buildings at each other.

In life, Pall Arason sought attention. In death, he is getting it: The 95-year-old Icelander's pickled penis will be the main attraction in one of his country's most bizarre museums.

Sigurdur Hjartarson, who runs the Phallological Museum in the tiny Icelandic fishing town of Husavik, said Arason's organ will help round out the unusual institution's extensive collection of phalluses from whales, seals, bears and other mammals.

Several people had pledged their penises over the years -- including an American, a Briton, and a German -- but Arason's was the first to be successfully donated, Hjartarson said.

"I have just been waiting for this guy for 15 years," he told The Associated Press in a brief telephone interview.

The Japanese government is trying to calm fears about radiation levels and food safety in the region around the heavily damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power facility, even as it has raised the severity rating of the crisis to the highest possible level. "Radiation is continuing to leak out of the reactors. The situation is not stable at all," says Dr. Michio Kaku, professor of theoretical physics at the City University of New York and the City College of New York. "The slightest disturbance could set off a full-scale meltdown at three nuclear power stations, far beyond what we saw at Chernobyl."

Despite inflation falling slightly, the Retail Price Index is still at 5.3pc with food and fuel rising rapidly, yet pensioners will only see the basic state pension increase by 4.5pc this year and other benefits by just 3.1pc.

In fact, even the standard Retail Price Index can understate older people's living costs. Age UK Enterprises' Silver RPI measure shows that since 2008 inflation has been higher for older people than for those under the age of 55. This is partly due to low mortgage interest rates – which are less likely to impact on older people – as well as cost increases on products and services like food and energy that over-55s spend proportionately more on.

As a result, we know these are difficult times for many older people and growing numbers are struggling to make ends meet. 1.8 million pensioners live below the poverty line and research that Age UK will release tomorrow shows millions more are teetering just above it. Bills accrued over the cold winter months have put a huge amount of pressure on people's finances and many are still paying the price now.

Nuclear Engineer Arnie Gundersen demonstrates How Fukushima's Fuel Rods Melted and Shattered

MOSCOW (AFP) – A prominent imam who discouraged youth from joining Islamic militants has been shot dead in his home in the strife-torn southern Russian republic of Dagestan, news reports said Saturday.

Magomed Saiputdinov was slain by automatic gunfire in a nighttime attack near the Chechen-border town of Kizlyar, agencies quoted a spokesman for the local interior ministry as saying.

"He was widely known for his uncompromising stand against any forms of violence, condemning the murder of innocent people and other atrocities of the Chechen underground," Interfax quoted a police statement as saying.

Saiputdinov was the sixth Muslim religious leader to be killed in the republic in the past year, with the previous fatal attack occurring on November 1, 2010, RIA Novosti quoted the National Anti-Terror Committee as saying.

Dagestan has experienced some of the most deadly violence in Russia's mostly Muslim southern periphery since peace was largely restored in neighbouring Chechnya just under a decade ago.

The Caspian Sea republic experiences almost daily shootings and bombings that officials blame on local criminals and Islamists with links to Chechnya.

Leading offshore drilling contractor Transocean Ltd. (NYSE: RIG - News) announced that its rig Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 has drilled to the deepest water depth of 10,194 feet, offshore India. The ultra-deepwater drillship was jointly owned by Quantum Pacific Group and was operating for India's listed company, Reliance Industries.

The Dhirubhai Deepwater KG2 rig commenced operations, under a five-year drilling contract, about a year ago and capable of functioning in water depths of up to 12,000 feet. The rig is outfitted to construct wells up to 35,000 feet deep. The vessel features advanced drilling capabilities in offshore operations including significant offline tubular-handling and stand-building capabilities, advanced mud system designs, systems for building, storing and running several subsea trees and efficient riser and blowout preventer handling systems.

BERLIN, April 12 (UPI) -- Turkey's ambition to become an energy hub has been one of the major hurdles for new Europe-bound natural gas pipelines, an energy expert said Tuesday.

"Turkey doesn't want to be just an energy transit country," German gas expert Roland Goetz Tuesday told the foreign press corps in Berlin. "Ankara wants to dictate pipeline plans, and it wants to make a profit itself."

This desire, Goetz added, has led to problems for two very different natural gas pipeline projects -- Nabucco and South Stream.

Backed by the European Commission, Nabucco would bring Central Asian and Middle Eastern gas to Europe in a bid to diversify Europe's energy import structure away from Russia. South Stream was jump-started by the Kremlin to bypass traditional transit countries Ukraine and Belarus and transport Russian gas unilaterally to Europe.

What unites the pipelines is that they both run through Turkish territory.

Fukushima workers and Japanese officials raised the severity level at the crippled nuclear plant to the maximum level 7, the same as the world's worst nuclear disaster at Chernobyl.

The Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency raised its evaluation based on an estimate radioactive materials exceeding the threshold for level 7 have been released into the environment, noting, however, the release from the Fukushima Daiichi plant was about 10 percent of that from the former Soviet nuclear plant, Kyodo News reported Tuesday.

Japan's regulatory agency and the Nuclear Safety Commission of Japan said 370,000 terabecquerels to 630,000 terabecquerels of radioactive materials have been emitted into the air from its Nos. 1, 2 and 3 reactors.

(A becquerel is the activity of a quantity of radioactive material in which one nucleus decays per second. One terabecquerel equals 1 trillion becquerels.)

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said the government is "sorry to Fukushima residents, the Japanese people and the international community" about the nuclear disaster triggered by the 9-magnitude March 11 quake and tsunami.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co. also apologized for being unable to stop the radiation leak, pointing to the possibility total emission of radioactive substances eventually may eclipse the 1986 Chernobyl incident.

And so we get the latest confirmation that China is now very invested in the Euro, ostensibly at the expense of the US Dollar. According to the Spanish government, China already holds €25 billion in Spanish debt, which explains where Chinese foreign buying interest has gone (most certainly not to US Treasurys) in 2011 (certainly not toward purchasing US Debt, where Chinese holdings have barely moved recently). Additionally, China, as Spain's soon to be largest creditor, has said it will help fund a restructuring of the Cajas debt: after all there is nothing better than consensual pre-petition arrangement between creditor and insolvent debtor.

HOUSTON (AP) -- Halliburton Co. said Monday that it has been contracted by Exxon Mobil Corp. to use three drilling rigs to provide oil drilling services at a large field under development in southern Iraq.

The contract from ExxonMobil Iraq Ltd. covers services for 15 wells at the 8.6 billion-barrel West Qurna Phase I oil field, one of Iraq's largest. Financial terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Exxon's partners in the Qurna project include two Iraqi state-owned companies and an affiliate of Royal Dutch Shell PLC. ExxonMobil Iraq is the lead contractor on the field, with a 60 percent stake. It said last month that initial field production at the Qurna I field increased 17 percent to 285,000 barrels per day, exceeding its 10 percent improvement target. Under an agreement between Iraq and the companies, production from the West Qurna I field should reach 2.825 million barrels a day after 6 to 7 years.

Shares of Houston-based Halliburton rose 8 cents to $48.21 in morning trading.

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About 15,000 people took to the streets in Tokyo on Sunday to protest against the nuclear power industry after a devastating earthquake caused meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant, the Kyodo agency said on Sunday.

"No to nuclear bombs! No more Fukushima!" chanted the protesters, some of them with little children, to the sounds of rock music and raggy performed by musicians in bright clothes.

"I learnt about the demonstration through Twitter, said a 43-year-old protester who had brought his children aged two and six. "I want to do everything possible to stop nuclear power industry, not for our sake but for the sake of our children."

With radiation continuing to spew from six damaged nuclear reactors at the Fukushima plant, Japanese authorities will finally expand the evacuation zone from 12 miles to 18 miles, reports Reuters. Engineers said they were no closer to restoring the nuclear facility's cooling system, an essential step to getting the reactor under control. They hope to seal the leaks that are sending gallons of radioactive water into the ocean today, far later than originally planned.

The continuing troubles at the Fukushima reactors have badly undermined public confidence in the government. Prime Minister Naoto Kan's ruling party lost nearly 70 seats in local elections yesterday, but analysts say the disaster will ensure he stays in office for months longer. "The great disaster was a double tragedy for Japan," said the Sankei newspaper in an editorial today. "The first tragedy was the catastrophe caused by the earthquake, tsunami, and the nuclear accident. The other misfortune was that the disaster resulted in prolonging Prime Minister Kan's time in office."

The Euro-American attack on Libya has nothing to do with protecting anyone; only the terminally naive believe such nonsense. It is the West's response to popular uprisings in strategic, resource-rich regions of the world and the beginning of a war of attrition against the new imperial rival, China.

President Barack Obama's historical distinction is now guaranteed. He is America's first black president to invade Africa. His assault on Libya is run by the US Africa Command, which was set up in 2007 to secure the continent's lucrative natural resources from Africa's impoverished people and the rapidly spreading commercial influence of China. Libya, along with Angola and Nigeria, is China's principal source of oil. As American, British and French planes currently incinerate both "bad" and "good" Libyans, the evacuation of 30,000 Chinese workers is under way, perhaps permanently. Statements by western officials and media that a "deranged and criminal Colonel Gaddafi" is planning "genocide" against his own people still await evidence. This is reminiscent of fraudulent claims that required "humanitarian intervention" in Kosovo, the final dismemberment of Yugoslavia and the establishment of the biggest US military base in Europe.

Billionaire investor George Soros talks about the ECB's decision to raise its benchmark lending rate on Bloomberg TV with Michael McKee and Sara Eisen.

Recently, the U.S. Federal Reserve's debasement of the dollar has opened the door to hyperinflation. Already, there is strong international pressure to replace the dollar as the reserve currency, possibly with a basket of currencies linked to gold. The evidence is building.

First, the International Monetary Fund is touting itself as a possible world central bank that would issue the new currency. At present, it is talking of something similar to the experimental issue of Special Drawing Rights (SDRs) in 1969. The experiment failed when the gold convertibility of SDRs was withdrawn. This experience might encourage a new world currency linked to gold -- but convertible probably only for central bankers -- as was the U.S. dollar until August 1971.

This is a Must Read Interview!! Voltairenet interviews Professor Peter Dale Scott: In his book The Road to 9/11, now available in French, Professor Peter Dale Scott traces back the history of the "Deep State" in the United States, that is to say the secret structure that steers defense and foreign policy behind the facade of democracy. His analysis lifts the veil on the group that organised the September 11 attacks and which finances itself through international trafficking networks. Regarded as a reference book, The Road to 9/11 already features as recommended reading at military-diplomatic academies.

This interview is a follow-up to the article " Afghanistan: Opium, the CIA and the Karzai Administration", by Peter Dale Scott, Voltaire Network, 13 December 2010.

Editor's notes: The western press and even Al Jazeera have failed to report today's demonstrations in Tahir Square, Cairo accurately. Thousands of Egyptians marched from the square to the Israeli Embassy, demanding that the current military government end diplomatic relations with Israel in wake of the recent assault on Gaza by the IDF.
Israel claims that a school bus was attacked with a mortar round this week and it was necessary for the army to respond with tanks, helicopters, rockets and a step-up of the nightly bombing campaign that has gone on for months.
Skeptics doubt Israel's claim of an attack from Gaza, citing Israel's propensity for fabricating threats and the bizarre choice of weapons. From an American intelligence source who has worked with Israel for decades:

Fukushima Meltdown Confirmed - by Stephen Lendman

On April 6, Reuters reported that "the core at Japan's Fukushima nuclear reactor has melted through the reactor pressure vessel," Rep. Edward Markey told a House hearing on the disaster, saying:

"I have been informed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) that the core has gotten so hot that part of it has probably melted through the reactor pressure vessel."

Recklessly promoting nuclear proliferation, America's NRC is notorious for coverup and denial of its harmful effects. As a result, their rare admission virtually confirms a full core meltdown in one or more reactors, meaning vast amounts of radiation are being uncontrollably released into the atmosphere, water and soil, spreading over a vast area. It's the ultimate nightmare scenario now unfolding, but don't expect major media reports or government officials to explain.

Nonetheless, on April 6, New York Times writers Matthew Wald and Andrew Pollack headlined, "Core of Stricken Reactor Probably Leaked, US Says," stating:

America's NRC "said Wednesday that some of the core of a stricken Japanese reactor had probably leaked from its steel pressure vessel into the bottom of the containment structure, implying that the damage was even worse than previously thought."

Far worse, in fact, because molten core material then burns uncontrollably through the concrete foundation, meaning all bets are off.

On April 5, Times writers James Glanz and William Broad headlined, "US Sees Array of New Threats at Japan's Nuclear Plant," saying:

American engineers warned "that the troubled nuclear plant....is facing a wide array of fresh threats that could persist indefinitely, and that in some cases are expected to increase as a result of the very measures being taken to keep the plant stable, according to a confidential" NRC assessment.

Identified threats include:

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on the Class A backing both the Triple A rated and the A listed. In the second half of the show, Max talks to James Howard Kunstler about entropy made visible and a return to the medieval.

TESTIMONY OF
Michael Corradini
American Nuclear Society
BEFORE THE
HOUSE ENERGY AND COMMERCE COMMITTEE
SUBCOMMITTEE ON OVERSIGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS
April 6, 2011

Chairman Stearns, Ranking Member DeGette, members of the
Subcommittee, thank you for the opportunity to testify.

Corradini

I am currently chair of the Nuclear Engineering and Engineering Physics program at the University of Wisconsin, Madison. I am also involved in a
number of nuclear energy activities for the National Academies, the Department of Energy, and the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. Specifically, I am a member of the DOE Nuclear Energy Advisory Committee and chair of its Reactor Technology Subcommittee. In addition, I am a member of the French Atomic Energy Scientific Committee and the NRC's Advisory Committee for Reactor Safeguards.

Another earthquake has hit Japan, this one measuring 7.4 in magntude on the Richter scale. Japanese authorities have issued a tsunami warning for the country's northeast coast, which is still digging out from the rubble of last month's wreckage. The epicenter of the quake is 73 miles from the beleaguered Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear power plant where workers have struggled to cap reactor leaks and restore power to the plant to cool reactor fuel rods.

This week, Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on the black hole of bankers' debts in Ireland, virtual pigs in Australia and free workers in America. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Alex Jones about food stamps and financial terror.

India, which relies on oil imports from Iran, has been making payments to Hamburg's Europaeisch-Iranische Handelsbank, German business daily Handelsblatt reported this week.

The money flows through the Bundesbank, Germany's central bank, and is then wired by EIH to Iran. U.S. authorities have accused the EIH of funding Iranian weapons purchases but Berlin says there is no evidence that this is actually happening.

Oil climbed to the highest level in 30 months in New York on speculation that U.S. economic growth may support demand and a protracted conflict in Libya will curtail supply.

Barack Obama recently issued an executive order imposing a wave of sanctions against Libya, not only freezing Libyan assets, but barring Americans from having business dealings with Libyan banks.

So raise your hand if you knew that the United States has been extending billions of dollars in aid to Qaddafi and to the Central Bank of Libya, through a Libyan-owned subsidiary bank operating out of Bahrain. And raise your hand if you knew that, just a week or so after Obama's executive order, the U.S. Treasury Department quietly issued an order exempting this and other Libyan-owned banks to continue operating without sanction.

I watched this video click here earlier today on Russian TV in which Dr.Chris Busby, British scientist and expert on the health effects of ionizing radiation, says that what is most similar between Fukushima and Chernobyl is how much we are being lied to about the seriousness of the consequences. He actually said that Fukushima may be worse because of the high population in the area. Sadly, I spent the rest of the day learning about one of the most evil and horrific scientific and political coverups of all time.

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on American household wealth declining by 23% while billionaires see their wealth rise by 25%. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Dmitry Orlov for an update on the state of economic collapse in America.

The billionaires' club is growing. Forbes magazine's annual list shows there are now 1,210 billionaires around the world - that is 199 more than last year. Although the world's top three earners are unchanged from last year, the newcomers in the list of the world's richest, did not come from the U.S. or Western Europe, but from Russia and the Asia Pacific region.

The magazine's list of the world's richest people mirrors the remarkable changes in the global economy.

Magazine chairman Steve Forbes says of the 200 new billionaires this year, the majority are from the BRIC countries - Brazil, Russia, India and China.

Oil prices settled at a two-and-a-half-year high Thursday, rising 2.4% to end near $107 a barrel, as the U.S. dollar weakened and turmoil in the Arab world continued to stoke supply concerns.

The main U.S. oil contract, West Texas Intermediate, for May delivery added $2.45 to end at $106.72 a barrel. Brent crude, the European benchmark, rose $2.12 to $117.25 a barrel.

The rally came as the dollar fell 0.6% against the euro on speculation the European Central Bank is poised to raise interest rates to ward off rising inflation.

Eurostat, the European Union's statistics agency, estimated Thursday that euro area inflation rose 2.6% in March, up from 2.4% in February.

While inflation has also ticked higher in the United States, the Federal Reserve is not expected to raise interest rates soon, even as the central bank signals an end to its asset purchase program.

This time Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on well-armed television presenters, bankrupt crusaders and a reign of terror in central banking. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Isa Blumi about Yemen, Libya and the militarization of borders.

DOHA: Libya will get its first independent satellite channel which is to be launched in Doha tomorrow.

The channel will start beaming tomorrow at 6.30pm with the launch ceremony taking place at Doha's Souq Waqif.

A group of Libyans from abroad and inside the country is setting up the new station to broadcast news and commentary about Libya for a Libyan audience, with the aim of countering Libyan state propaganda and promoting dialogue about the country's future after Muammar Gaddafi's four-plus decades in power appear to be drawing to a rapid close.

The channel, to be called simply Libya TV is being launched after less than two weeks of hurried preparation. Its founder is the avuncular Mahmud Shammam, a well-known Libyan expatriate journalist who edits Foreign Policy's Arabic edition.

Libya TV's initial team of 19 young staffers was assembled partly over Facebook, Shammam says.

Plutonium found in soil at the crippled Fukushima nuclear complex heightened alarm over Japan's lengthy battle to contain the world's worst atomic crisis in 25 years.

Plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said the radioactive material, which is used in nuclear bombs, was traced in soil at five locations at the complex, hit by an earthquake and tsunami on March 11.

RSS Feed
Radiation Detected in Soil & Seawater Around Fukushima

Mar 28, 2011, 06:51 by David Hope

Radiation continues to seep out of Japan's troubled reactor buildings. Seawater near Japan's damaged nuclear power plant in Fukushima is highly radioactive, the country's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency said Saturday.

Also Saturday, Yukio Edano, Japan's chief Cabinet secretary and government spokesman, suggested Tokyo Electric Power has been dilatory in providing information on the crisis, Kyodo News Service reported. He urged the company to be more forthcoming.

The nuclear agency said radioactive iodine-131 was found at a concentration 1,250 times the legal limit Friday near the drains of the four reactors battered this month by an earthquake and tsunami.

However, the agency said the sea would "significantly dilute" the radiation and because an area about 15 miles in all directions is under evacuation orders, there wouldn't be any fishing in the area.

"Let's take the current U.S bombing of Libya. The rationale behind United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973 is to protect civilians from being beaten, shot up, and generally abused.

But while this applies to Libya, it does not apply to Bahrain, Saudi Arabia, or Yemen, where civilians are also being shot up, beaten, and generally abused. Is this because Moammar Gadhafi is uniquely evil? Crazier and odder, certainly, but being in the "opposition" in any of those countries is not a path to easy retirement. Civil liberties don't exist, prisons are chock full of political prisoners, and getting whacked if you don't like the leader is an operational hazard.

So what's it all about? Okay, here is the cynical joke: "Is it all about oil? Nope. Some of it is about natural gas."

Too simplistic? Maybe, but consider the following."....

Lifting the Veil of Nuclear Catastrophe and Cover-up: A Doomsday Scenario Unfolds With Characteristic Foolishness

Only after the last tree has been cut down… the last river has been poisoned… the last fish caught, only then will you find that money cannot be eaten.

– Chief Seattle

For there shall arise false mesiahs, and false prophets, and shall shew great signs and wonders; insomuch that, if it were possible, they shall deceive the very elect.

– Mathew 24

As the sun set over quake-stricken Japan on Thursday 17 March 2011, we learned that four of six Fukushima nuclear reactor sites are irradiating the earth, that the fire is burning out of control at Reactor No. 4′s pool of spent nuclear fuel, that there are six spent fuel pools at risk all told, and that the sites are too hot to deal with. On March 16 Plumes of White Vapor began pouring
from crippled Reactor No. 3 where the spent fuel pool may already be lost. Over the previous days we were told: nothing to worry about. Earthquakes and after shocks, tidal wave, explosions, chemical pollution, the pox of plutonium, contradicting information too obvious to ignore, racism, greed — add these to the original Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse: Conquest, War, Famine and Death. The situation is apocalyptic and getting worse. This is one of the most serious challenges humanity has ever faced.

The U.S. nuke industry is blaming Japanese experts, distancing itself from the monster it created. Instead of sending nuclear or health experts to assistance the Japanese people in their time of desperate need, US President Barack Obama first sent teams of intelligence agents and FEMA trained military grunts with special security clearances. The Pentagon floated a naval strike force led by the nuclear-powered aircraft carrier Ronald Reagan off the coast of Japan: advertised as a 'humanitarian' operation, the strike force was repositioned after it was partially irradiated. Can we trust officials and the corporate news media to tell us what is happening in an honest, timely, transparent manner? Are there precedents to the nuclear crisis in Japan? What is the U.S. defense establishment really concerned with here?

OSAKA : One of the reactor vessels at a stricken Fukushima nuclear power station in Japan may be damaged, the plant's operator said on Friday, after high levels of radiation were detected.

Two workers at the plant were hospitalised on Thursday with radiation burns after stepping in highly radioactive water in the basement of the number three reactor's turbine building.

"It is possible that the pressure vessel containing the fuel rods in the reactor is damaged," a spokesman from Tokyo Electric Power Co. told AFP.

The new safety scare is a setback to urgent efforts to restore power to the all-important cooling systems at the Fukushima No. 1 plant, located 250 kilometres (155 miles) north of Tokyo.

"Radioactive substances have leaked to places far from the (number three) reactor," said a spokesman for the nuclear safety agency, Hideyuki Nishiyama.

"As far as the data show, we believe there is a certain level of containment ability but it's highly possible that the reactor is damaged," he added.

This week Max Keiser and co-host, Stacy Herbert, report on the bright side of inflation and nuclear meltdown and examine Saif al Islam Gaddafis allegations that President Sarkozy owes him money. In the second half of the show, Max talks to Business Insider's Joe Weisenthal about being a paper bug for dollars, yen and central banking.

A day after government officials sparked fears of nuclear-tinged drinking water in Tokyo, the threat appeared to abate early Thursday after new tests revealed lower than expected levels of radiation.

Tokyo Gov. Shintaro Ishihara told reporters that he was reversing his Wednesday recommendation that babies not drink tap water following tests showing radioactive iodine amounts had dipped below dangerous levels.

Despite promises from officials to distribute more than 240,000 bottles of water to families with young children, Ishihara's earlier warning prompted panicked residents of Japan's largest city to snap up water in unprecedented amounts, leading to concerns over hoarding.

"I've never seen anything like this," said store clerk Toru Kikutaka after taking stock of the empty shelves at his supermarket.

There were also worries over contaminated food as reports surfaced of high radiation levels in raw milk and vegetables. Many countries, including the U.S., are restricting imports from Japan.

New tests Thursday showed that radioactive iodine in Tokyo's tap water has dropped to levels considered safe for babies -- just hours after authorities announced plans to distribute bottled water to tens of thousands of parents around the Japanese metropolis.

Tests from 6 a.m. at the Kanamichi Water Purification Plant, which provides water to 23 wards in Tokyo as well as five other cities, showed 79 becquerels of radioactive iodine per kilogram of water, the city government said in a news release.

TOKYO (AP) — Radiation levels in Tokyo tap water more than twice what is considered safe for infants added to food safety woes Wednesday as rising smoke prompted a new evacuation of workers trying to stabilize Japan's radiation-leaking nuclear plant.

Radiation has seeped into vegetables, raw milk, the water supply and even seawater in areas surrounding the plant since a magnitude-9 quake and killer tsunami crippled the Fukushima Dai-ichi power plant nearly two weeks ago. Broccoli was added to a list of tainted vegetables Wednesday, and U.S. officials announced a block on Japanese dairy and other produce from the region.

Tap water in downtown Tokyo measured 210 becquerels per liter of iodine-131 — more than twice the recommended limit of 100 becquerels per liter for infants, officials from the Tokyo Water Bureau said.

Infants are extremely vulnerable to radioactive iodine, which can cause thyroid cancer, experts say. However, officials urged calm, saying drinking small amounts of tap water was fine for babies, and that the current level did not pose an immediate health risk to children or adults.

"We advise against using the tap water for drinking and for making infant formula for babies under 1 year old," said Shintaro Ishihara, Tokyo's governor.

MOSCOW (Reuters) – The United States and Russia clashed over Libya Tuesday, with Moscow advocating a ceasefire and U.S. defense chief Robert Gates saying some Russians had swallowed Muammar Gaddafi's "lies" about civilian deaths.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, after talks with Gates at his residence outside Moscow, accused coalition forces of carrying out "indiscriminate" air strikes.

Prime Minister Vladimir Putin unleashed new criticism of the biggest armed intervention in the Arab world since the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq in 2003, saying those responsible for civilian deaths should "pray for the salvation of their souls."

The tough talk added to criticism from other emerging powers such as China, India and Brazil of coalition bombings meant to destroy Gaddafi's air defenses and create a no-fly zone.

Russia abstained in the U.N. Security Council vote last week allowing military action, but Putin lambasted the resolution on Monday and compared it to "medieval calls for crusades."
[ For complete coverage of politics and policy, go to Yahoo! Politics ]

Those remarks triggered a rare rebuke from Medvedev, revealing a rift in Russia's ruling tandem ahead of a 2012 election, but the two closed ranks on the issue Tuesday.

"The President of the Russian Federation is in charge of foreign policy, and there can be no division there," Putin, visiting Slovenia, said in remarks televised live in Russia.

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu vowed decisive action against militants and suggested that future operations would not be surgical.

"No state would tolerate ongoing rocket fire on its cities and its citizens, and the state of Israel obviously will not tolerate it," he said.

Gaza's Hamas rulers said their prime minister had been in contact with militant factions trying to keep the post-war truce from unravelling. But in the meantime, the Gaza interior ministry announced that it had evacuated security installations and scaled back the number of security forces on the street to lessen their risk of becoming targets.

The Islamic Jihad militant group said it fired rockets at four Israeli cities to avenge Israel's killing of eight militants and civilians in Gaza the day before.

The group said one of its fighters was killed yesterday in an Israeli air strike, and Israeli police said an Israeli civilian was wounded by rocket shrapnel in southern Israel's largest city, Beersheba.

A small faction allied with Gaza's ruling Hamas militant group claimed responsibility for a volley of mortars that struck Israel.

The killing of three children and their uncle on Tuesday, in what Israel called a mistaken shelling, dramatically escalated the recent violence.

Dozens of weeping women dressed in black gathered at the house of three of the victims. Pieces of flesh stuck to the outer wall of the house, which was pocked by shrapnel.

New Delhi, March 23: India's armed forces are closely monitoring the war in Libya despite New Delhi's reservations against the "Allied" intervention because they are in the market to buy the weapons being used to bomb the North African country.

"We learnt from Iraq and Afghanistan also and we are watching what's going on — it's part of our job. This is what globalisation means," a senior air force officer said, during a discussion here.

"Many of the (weapons) platforms that are in the operations (in Libya) are the ones we are evaluating," he added.

Most of all, the Indian Air Force is following the bombing campaign by the US, UK, France and eight other countries because variants of four of the six aircraft that are competing for an estimated $12 billion Indian contract have been deployed by the coalition.

Air Chief Marshal P.V. Naik has said India expects to contract 126 medium multirole combat aircraft by July.

"We are watching. We analyse every conflict. We learnt from Iraq and Afghanistan also," a senior air force officer said.

Criticism of Western air strikes against Libya has intensified, with China and India saying the intervention has gone beyond a No Fly Zone and is directly harming Libyan civilians. Both countries abstained from last week's United Nations Security Council vote. Since the air strikes began, China and India have said the attacks have been disproportionate and self-serving.

Reporter: Alma Mistry
Speakers:Professor David Goodman, University of Sydney; B Raman, former Additional Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India, former head of counter-terrorism at India's intelligence agency, Reseacrch and Analysis Wing

MISTRY:

* Listen:
* Windows Media

Blair, JP Morgan employee... visits with Gaddafi and is treated like a brother?

Praiseworthy though it is to have preoccupations about the safety of fellow human beings, it is also the duty of the leaders of the international community to think carefully before they act and not fall into the trap of the Balkans Syndrome, when guilt at not having acted earlier provoked a knee-jerk reaction with disastrous consequences: the travesty of international law called Kosovo. And since when can a heavily armed group of bearded Islamist fanatics be described as "unarmed civilians"?

Here is a thought experiment concerning two men who have issued money. One issued gold and silver coins that will today bring more in dollars than he charged for them. The other issued paper notes that are today worth but a fraction the gold or silver they were worth at the time they were issued. One man is facing the possibility of years in prison after a federal jury found his issuing of money to have been a crime. The other man is walking around free and being treated by the authorities with great deference.

Which is which?

After weeks of warning from the Pentagon about the downsides of launching a no-fly zone over Libya, the U.S. and its major European allies declared war on Muammar Gaddafi and his forces holding on to power in the north African nation. NATO surveillance aircraft have been scouring Libya for potential targets for more than a week. Warplanes from the U.S. and other allies, flying from any of several bases in Italy in the region, could begin taking out Libyan air defense sites and tank formations within hours. But U.S. officers suggested that U.S. action might not be imminent, and that other NATO warplanes might strike first, perhaps aided by U.S. cruise missiles from several of six American warships -- and a submarine -- in the Mediterranean.

There is no water left in the spent fuel pool of reactor 4 at Japan's Fukushima nuclear plant, resulting in "extremely high" radiation levels, the chair of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission warned overnight.

As the nuclear emergency deepened and the death toll from the March 11 earthquake and tsunami passed 12,000, NRC chairman Gregory Jaczko told US legislators that if America was facing a similar situation, it would order a much larger evacuation zone than Japan has (20km), and so the US has called on Americans within 50 miles (80 kilometres) of the Japan nuclear plant area to leave.

Japanese military helicopters were due to dump water on the nuclear plant, which has been hit by four explosions and two fires, to help contain the overheating, but were forced back due to radiation.

Engineers have been desperately battling a feared meltdown at the 40-year-old plant since the earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems and fuel rods began overheating.

But chief government spokesman Yukio Edano said radiation levels from the plant posed no immediate health threat outside a 20km exclusion zone that has already been evacuated.

However Mr Jaczko said he understood that secondary containment had been destroyed and there is no water in the spent fuel pool.

If we could rely on the Japanese and American governments to inform us of any danger, we wouldn't have to be so vigilant.

But given the American government's cover up of the severity of the BP oil disaster, the health risk to New Yorkers after 9/11, and numerous other health issues, we will have to educate ourselves.

For example, the U.S. Surgeon General has recommended that West Coast residents stock up with potassium iodide, while other government officials say that is unnecessary, because radiation levels will not be high enough. But no government has disclosed radiation readings in the West Coast, so we can't verify for ourselves whether or not there is currently any danger. See this and this.

As ABC News notes, experts says that Japan has a long history of nuclear cover-ups.

The New York Times points out:

The different radioactive materials being reported at the nuclear accidents in Japan range from relatively benign to extremely worrisome.

The central problem in assessing the degree of danger is that the amounts of various radioactive releases into the environment are now unknown, as are the winds and other atmospheric factors that determine how radioactivity will disperse around the stricken plants.

BBC reports (scroll down on left side):

Japanese engineer Masashi Goto, who helped design the containment vessel for Fukushima's reactor core, says the design was not enough to withstand earthquakes or tsunami ...

Indeed, Goto said:

"It is difficult to say, but that would be a core meltdown. If the rods fall and mix with water, the result would be an explosion of solid material like a volcano spreading radioactive material. Steam or a hydrogen explosion caused by the mix would spread radioactive waste more than 50km. Also, this would be multiplied. There are many reactors in the area so there would be many Chernobyls.

If NRC Chairman Gregory Jaczko is correct, this would mean there's nothing to stop the fuel rods from getting hotter and ultimately melting down. The outer shell of the rods could also ignite with enough force to propel the radioactive fuel inside over a wide area.

after spending some time on the old research keyword highway... these are just a few of the intersting pieces of information i was able to pull together in a short amount of time:

• Chernobyl accident is equivalent to 500 nuclear bombs used in Hiroshima in 1945.
• The releases contaminated an estimated 17 million people to some degree.
• 143,000 people have been evacuated from contaminated areas of Ukraine
• 600,000 people took part in liquidating effects of the disaster, 100,000 of which already died or are now handicapped
• Cases of leucosis and thyroid cancer exceed average by 2 and 5 times correspondingly among the Chernobyl victims.
• There are 1.8 million people residing on the territories of Ukraine, Russia, and Belarus, which are still defined as contaminated
• For the 14 years since the disaster 300,000 died in Ukraine alone from the radiation sickness

http://www.chernobyl.com.ua/ChernobylFacts.htm

Key facts:
* The cloud of radioactive strontium, caesium and plutonium affected mainly Ukraine and neighbouring Belarus, as well as parts of Russia and Europe.

* Estimates for the numbers of direct and indirect deaths from the disaster vary.

* The Chernobyl Forum, a group of eight U.N. agencies, and the governments of Ukraine, Belarus and Russia, have estimated the death toll at only a few thousand as a result of the explosion. U.N. agencies have said some 4,000 people will die in total because of radiation exposure.

* The environmental group Greenpeace puts the eventual death toll far higher than official estimates, with up to 93,000 extra cancer deaths worldwide.

* The Chernobyl Union of Ukraine, a non-government body, estimates the present death toll from the disaster at almost 734,000.

* The disaster was the object of a cover-up by secretive Soviet authorities who did not immediately admit to the explosion.

* The accident dented the image of reformist Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev who had earlier launched his 'glasnost' policies for greater openness in Soviet society.

* Chernobyl engineers shut down the last functioning reactor, Number Three, in December 2000. Radioactive nuclear fuel is still being removed from the plant.

* A make-shift cover -- the 'Sarcophagus' -- was built in six months after the explosion. It covers the stricken reactor to protect the environment from radiation for at least 30 years. This has now developed cracks, triggering an international effort to fund a new encasement.

* Ukraine is seeking a further 600 million euros ($840 million) to help finance the new convex structure which will slip over the ageing 'Sarcophagus' and allow the old reactor to be dismantled.

* International donors are expected to agree to the funding at a conference in Kiev in April on the eve of the 25th anniversary of the disaster.

* Officials say it could be up to 100 years before the station is completely decommissioned.

* A 30-km (19-mile) exclusion zone is in place round the disaster site.

http://www.reuters.com/article/2011/03/15/uk-nuclear-chernobyl-facts-idUSTRE72E69R20110315

the above is interesting in that there is a clear and distinct difference in opinion and fact... from those who had something to lose by sticking entirely to the truth and those who didn't.

3- Nuclear rain from the Chernobyl disaster fell as far away as Ireland

The explosion of Reactor No. 4 created an immense radioactive cloud that was detected all over Europe and even fell to the ground in Ireland in the form of light “nuclear rain.” Although that was well over two decades ago, the ramifications of the Chernobyl disaster are still being felt in the British Isles. According to a new study conducted by the British Ministry of Health, 369 farms and 190,000 sheep in Britain still contain faint traces of radioactive fallout from Chernobyl. On the positive side, the number of affected sheep is down nearly 95% from 1986 when 4,225,000 of the woolly mammals were placed under restrictions across the UK.

http://www.askmen.com/entertainment/special_feature_400/469_chernobyl-5-things-you-didnt-know.html

These are just a few of the pieces of a radiation puzzle we are all now beholden to put together.

It may be safe to say that NOAA will downplay this situation, as they have in the past. So in light of that, my curiosity abounds.

The Hysplit trajectory at NOAA states that the jet stream will be moving over the western United states in no more then seven days. They also state something to the effect that the radiation will 'fall' or be 'dragged' by precipitation into the water between there and the U.S., and what is left will not reach 'dangerous' levels. While i would love nothing better then to believe this.... SURPRISE!... In my opinion i find this difficult to believe. (http://www.wunderground.com/blog/JeffMasters/comment.html?entrynum=1764 has a bit of info as well)

I am interested in any information the reader might have regarding global history... i.e. Chernobyl and their neighbors, most specifically Germany. How did things turn out for them? I am doing my homework, but, wanted to put this out there and see what others already know, and wade through the disinformation a bit faster then usual.

If anyone even sees this... and responds... i much appreciate it.

Days after an earthquake and tsunami devastated a huge swath of Japan, the nation is struggling with immediate fears of nuclear disaster while trying to get aid to millions of people and shore up the banking system.

Powerful aftershocks have kept survivors on edge, including a magnitude 6.0 temblor that hit offshore, about 60 miles outside the capital of Tokyo, around midday local time Wednesday.

Up to 450,000 people have crammed into makeshift evacuation centers across the country, waiting for a return to some sense of normalcy. Millions of people spent a fifth night with little food, water or heating in near-freezing temperatures and snow as they dealt with the loss of homes and loved ones.

More than 11,000 people are officially listed as dead or missing, and most officials believe the final death toll will be well over 10,000 people.

In an extremely rare address to the nation Wednesday, Emperor Akihito expressed his condolences and urged Japan not to give up.

FUKUSHIMA, Japan — Japan suspended operations to prevent a stricken nuclear plant from melting down Wednesday after a surge in radiation made it too dangerous for workers to remain at the facility.

Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano said work on dousing reactors with water was disrupted by the need to withdraw.

The level of radiation at the plant surged to 1,000 millisieverts early Wednesday before coming down to 800-600 millisieverts. Still, that was far more than the average

"So the workers cannot carry out even minimal work at the plant now," Edano said. "Because of the radiation risk, we are on standby."

Experts say exposure of around 1,000 millisieverts is enough to cause radiation sickness.

Earlier officials said 70 percent of fuel rods at one of the six reactors at the plant were significantly damaged in the aftermath of Friday's calamitous earthquake and tsunami.

News reports said 33 percent of fuel rods were also damaged at another reactor. Officials had said they would use helicopters and fire trucks to spray water in a desperate effort to prevent further radiation leaks and to cool down the reactors.

SOMA, Japan — Radiation spewed Tuesday from a crippled nuclear power plant in tsunami-ravaged northeastern Japan in a dramatic escalation of the 4-day-old catastrophe, forcing the government to tell people nearby to stay indoors to avoid exposure.

In a nationally televised statement, Prime Minister Naoto Kan said radiation has spread from four reactors of the Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear plant in Fukushima province that was one of the hardest-hit in Friday's 9.0-magnitude earthquake and the ensuing tsunami.

"The level seems very high, and there is still a very high risk of more radiation coming out," Kan said.

This is the worst nuclear crisis Japan has faced since the atomic bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki during World War II.

Kan warned there are dangers of more leaks and told people living within 19 miles (30 kilometers) of the Fukushima Dai-ichi complex to stay indoors to avoid radiation sickness.

Fuel rods have been exposed to air at a third reactor at Japan's Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, sharply raising the risk of a meltdown, plant officials say. Three reactors are being cooled with seawater at the plant after its emergency cooling system failed.

Rock On....!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

from Wisconsin to Cairo... bankers are on the run.

We've put together this nice little graphic which reflects our view the global economy is in a very unstable equilibrium and list many of the issues and headwinds it faces.

Global economic growth, based on monetary or credit induced asset inflation, exchange rate manipulation, perpetual stimulus and negative real interest rates straddles a tight wire and very narrow path with inflation on one side and deflation on the other.

By default, stagflation then becomes almost the steady state economic growth path.

We don't pretend to capture all the issues or believe they are mutually exclusive as many are endogenous and depend on each other. Some can even be categorized either as deflationary or inflationary depending on the, or lack of, policy response.