Ron Paul Wins Support to Audit Fed Reserve

Rep. Ron Paul so far has won 245 co-sponsors to a bill that would require a full-fledged audit of the Federal Reserve by the end of 2010.

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Rep. Ron Paul, shown here speaking to the American Conservative Union last February, is winning supporters to a new bill. (Reuters Photo)

All of a sudden, Congress is paying close attention to Ron Paul.

The feisty congressman from Texas, whose insurgent “Ron Paul Revolution” presidential campaign rankled Republican leaders last year, now has the GOP House leadership on his side — backing a measure that generated paltry support when he first introduced it 26 years ago.

Paul, as of Tuesday, has won 245 co-sponsors to a bill that would require a full-fledged audit of the Federal Reserve by the end of 2010.

Related articles:
Ben Bernanke is a Total Failure Unsuited for Role as Fed Chairman
Ben Bernanke warns on auditing the Federal Reserve
Ron Paul: The Obama administration gives a tremendous amount of more power to the Federal Reserve, the very institution that created our problem (6/18/09)

Paul attracted just 18 co-sponsors when he authored a similar bill, which died, in 1983. While the impact Fed policies have on inflation is once again a concern, fears about loose monetary policy and excessive federal spending appear even more widespread in 2009.

“In the past, I never got much support, but I think it’s the financial crisis obviously that’s drawing so much attention to it, and people want to know more about the Federal Reserve,” Paul told FOXNews.com.

With the Federal Reserve holding interest rates at rock-bottom levels, pumping trillions into the economy and now poised to have new powers to oversee the financial system under President Obama’s proposed regulatory overhaul, Paul said lawmakers want transparency.

“If they give them a lot more power and there’s no more transparency, that’ll be a disaster,” he said.

Read moreRon Paul Wins Support to Audit Fed Reserve

Former Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein: Obama ‘shuts his eyes’ to ‘open confessions’ of Bush-era war crimes

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Velvet Revolution attorney Kevin Zeese, speaking at the National Press Club on Monday.

Speaking at the National Press Club on Monday, former Reagan administration Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein lamented President Barack Obama’s decision to shut his eyes to open confessions of war crimes by members of the prior administration.

“It’s at the highest levels that the rule of law finds its greatest majesty,” he told reporters. “That’s why the United States was so idolized after Nixon left. We said that the most powerful man in the world is subject to the law. He cannot defy it.”

Fein was making the historical argument with respect to the Obama administration’s continued refusal to investigate the Bush administration’s torture program, which was designed and specifically authorized by high-level officials.

“[Today] we have an instance where the President of the United States — Harvard Law Review, a Constitutional Law professor who knows what the law is — shuts his eyes to open confessions,” he said. “We authorized torture, for which there is no exception.”

Fein was speaking on behalf of Velvet Revolution, a coalition of over 150 peace and religious groups, that is leading the charge to get attorneys involved in the Bush administration’s torture program thrown out of office and the legal profession.

Read moreFormer Associate Attorney General Bruce Fein: Obama ‘shuts his eyes’ to ‘open confessions’ of Bush-era war crimes

Debasing the Currency is Leading to Financial Collapse . . . Just As It Has for Thousands of Years

In a fascinating 22-page study of money and currency, Christopher Weber shows that every government – from Athens, to pre-collapse Rome, to the Islamic countries in the Middle Ages – which stuck to the Greek standard of coins has been stable and prosperous.

Specifically, the Athenian Drachma contained 65.6 grains of silver. Even after Greece declined as a superpower, its currency remained stable.

The Roman Denarius, Byzantine Bezant, and Islamic Dinar all copied the Drachma, using around 65.6 grains of gold or silver in their coins.

For the many centuries the Romans, Byzantines, and Islamic rulers left this precious metal content alone, they had stable and prosperous money supplies and nations.

But after the Romans and Byzantines started to whittle down the precious metal content of their coins – and after the Muslims started issuing paper money – their currency went down the drain, their prosperity plummeted and their empires collapsed.

This may all sound like ancient history, except that Weber points out that:

The US dollar has been depreciating for generations. Seventy years ago it was first devalued from $20.67 a gold ounce to $35. Then 35 years ago the devaluation started gaining strength. The dollar has lost over 90% of its gold value since August 15, 1971.

History is repeating . . . Sound money is again being trashed, which is causing the collapse of the American empire.

Monday, June 29, 2009

Source: Washington’s Blog

5 US States Brace For Shutdowns

Time is running out for the legislatures in Arizona, California, Indiana, Mississippi and Pennsylvania to solve budget gaps.

Reporting from Indianapolis and Denver — The last time Indiana missed its deadline for passing a budget and had to shut down the government was during the Civil War.

But on Monday, as lawmakers raced to hammer out an agreement over school funding, state agencies began preparing 31,000 workers to be temporarily out of a job. Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels has warned residents that most of the state’s services — including its parks, the Bureau of Motor Vehicles and state-regulated casinos — would be shuttered unless a budget is passed today.

Indiana is one of five states — along with Arizona, California, Mississippi and Pennsylvania — bracing for possible shutdowns this week as time runs out for lawmakers to close billion-dollar gaps in their fiscal 2010 budgets.

Of the 46 states whose fiscal year ends today, 32 did not have budgets passed and approved by their governors as of Monday afternoon, according to the National Conference of State Legislatures.

Although the majority of those are expected to pass eleventh-hour budgets, the fiscal futures of a handful remain uncertain, said Todd Haggerty, an NCSL research analyst.

“It’s a lot of states that are coming down to the wire,” Haggerty said. “It’s far more than we’ve seen in the past, and it’s because of the state of the economy.”

Read more5 US States Brace For Shutdowns

Ben Bernanke is a Total Failure Unsuited for Role as Fed Chairman

Bernanke is ‘the perfect puppet’ and a ‘total success’ for the elitists … but a total disaster for the people.

Jim Rogers: We are going to have another Depression in the U.S. (Video):
“Mr. Bernanke has never been right. He has been in the government for six or seven years, he has never been right.”

Marc Faber: Bernanke Is An Economic Criminal And In My Opinion He Is A Madman (06/06/09) (Video)

Such ‘competence’ needs to be rewarded by the other perfect puppet:

Obama proposals to greatly increase the power of the Federal Reserve



ben-bernanke

Inquiring minds are reading Bernanke Flubs Tryout, Still Up for Leading Role by Caroline Baum.

Most often I agree with Caroline, but not this time.

After trashing (and rightfully so) Bernanke’s last appearance before Congress, Caroline somehow arrives at the following conclusion.

It would be hard to find someone more suited for the job of Fed chairman than Bernanke. His performance yesterday has nothing to do with his unique qualifications for the position. … Unless President Barack Obama wants a solo pilot, he would do well to tap Bernanke for a second term.

Let’s take a look at the qualifications of which Baum speaks.

Ten Qualifications

1) Bernanke is either a liar or has a memory problem. I believe the former. Either way, there is a problem when a Fed chairman cannot recall a conversation with another Fed governor over something as critical as the Bank of America/Merrill Lynch merger. See Bernanke Suffers From Selective Memory Loss; Paulson Calls Bank of America “Turd in the Punchbowl” for my take.

2) Bernanke claims to be a student of the great depression yet amazingly concludes the cause was misguided Fed policy after the stock market crash. This is nonsense. The cause of the great depression and the cause of the current depression (yes we are in a depression), is the massive expansion of credit and debt fostered by the Fed itself. Bernanke is no student of history, he is a dunce.

3) Bernanke has on many occasions promised transparency. This is an outright lie. There is no transparency and Bloomberg has filed freedom of information lawsuits requesting information that should have been disclosed. Moreover, Congress had to subpoena the Fed in regards to the Bank of America / Merrill Lynch shotgun wedding which is how we know about Bernanke’s selective memory loss. What else is Bernanke hiding?

Read moreBen Bernanke is a Total Failure Unsuited for Role as Fed Chairman

Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Stand: His Way or IOUs

California is on track to run out of cash by the end of July.

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Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger tells reporters that he is resolute about state fiscal reforms. Schwarzenegger’s high-stakes strategy could close the budget abyss or cause a meltdown of state government.
(AP)

Reporting from Sacramento — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, seeking to conquer what could be the last budget crisis of his tenure, is engaged in a high-stakes negotiating strategy with lawmakers that could force him to preside over a meltdown of state government.

As legislators have scrambled to stop the state from postponing payment of its bills and issuing IOUs starting next week, the governor has vowed to veto any measure that fails to close the state’s entire $24-billion deficit.

In doing so, Schwarzenegger has sent the message that he would rather allow the state to begin shutting down than let lawmakers push its troubles off for months by closing only part of the shortfall. The latter prospect could swallow up the rest of his governorship.

“Whatever needs to be done,” Schwarzenegger told reporters outside his Capitol office Friday when asked why he would be willing to delay payments to needy Californians. “I know that there is a history in this building of always being late with the budget, to drag it out and to kick that can down the alley. . . . I don’t think we have this luxury this time.”

Read moreGovernor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Last Stand: His Way or IOUs

Military coup in Honduras: Protesters demand return of ousted president Manuel Zelaya

Demonstrations in capital after 56-year-old ruler removed from power in military coup


Protesters take to the streets of Tegucigalpa after troops ousted President Manuel Zelaya

Protesters in Honduras yesterday put up roadblocks in the capital, Tegucigalpa, as they demanded the return of the president, Manuel Zelaya, hours after he was ousted in a military coup.

Hundreds of people, some wearing masks and armed with sticks, put up barricades near the presidential palace as governments across the region condemned the first military overthrow in central America since the end of the cold war.

What has so far been a bloodless coup could yet turn lethal.

Shots were fired near the presidential palace last night,but it was unclear who was shooting or whether there were any casualties.

Soldiers seized Zelaya, who was in his pyjamas, early yesterday and took him to neighbouring Costa Rica by plane.

The 56-year-old president, looking dishevelled but calm, said he had been expelled by “rightwing oligarchs” and promised to return to Honduras.

Read moreMilitary coup in Honduras: Protesters demand return of ousted president Manuel Zelaya

What Depleted Uranium Does to Children in Iraq: Japanese Journalist

Don’t tell me how easy it is to shield depleted uranium and how harmless it is:

Inhaled or ingested DU particles are highly toxic, and DU has been classified as an illegal weapon of mass destruction by the United Nations.

Iraq, Gaza, Afghanistan and now also parts of Pakistan are contaminated almost forever:

“More than ten times the amount of radiation released during atmospheric testing [of nuclear bombs] has been released from DU weaponry since 1991,” said Leuren Moret, a U.S. nuclear scientist. “The genetic future of the Iraqi people, for the most part, is destroyed. The environment now is completely radioactive.”

“Because DU has a half-life of 4.5 billion years, the Middle East will, for all practical purposes, be radioactive forever.”

Source: Depleted Uranium Shells Worse Than Nuclear Weapons

Hitler, Stalin and Mao pale compared to this disaster.

Related information:
The Weapon of Mass Destruction Is Cancer
War-related birth defects in Fallujah
IRAQ: ‘Special Weapons’ Have a Fallout on Babies
Cheney can only call Iraq a success if he has a mindset like Hitler
Over 70,000 deaths, and over 1 million disabilities among American soldiers attributed to Iraq Wars says U.S. government data
Beyond Treason (Documentary):

Beyond Treason investigates causes of Gulf War Illness and continuing deaths of gulf war veterans. Beyond Treason outlines: – exposure to depleted uranium munitions used on the battlefield. – chemical and biological exposures. – experimental vaccines given.




There is widespread contamination with cancer-causing depleted uranium munitions in Afghanistan and Iraq causing dramatically rising birth deformities. This video was censored on you tube…Lets see how long it will stay up this time…


Added: June 26, 2009

On the Edge with Max Keiser and Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing (06/26/09)

1 of 4:

Read moreOn the Edge with Max Keiser and Catherine Austin Fitts, former Assistant Secretary of Housing (06/26/09)

India turns to cloud seeding to make rain

India is developing new techniques to create rain artificially amid growing fears over the late arrival of the monsoon season.

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A delay in the arrival of this year’s monsoon has left India’s paddy fields parched and caused water-shortages throughout the main cities Photo: AFP/GETTY

Scientists at its Institute of Tropical Meteorology disclosed a new series of “cloud seeding” experiments as fears of a drought grip a country praying for the heavens to open.

A delay in the arrival of this year’s monsoon has left India’s paddy fields parched and caused water-shortages throughout the main cities. A heatwave has claimed at least 24 lives, with the absence of the rain’s cooling effect on 45 degree C temperatures has caused power-cuts, while school summer holidays have been extended by a week in the hope of a downpour.

India’s agriculture, stock markets and the fortunes of its political parties traditionally depend on good monsoon rains. In one state, Andhra Pradesh, which has had only half the expected rainfall this month, farmers fear their crop yields could fall by 30 per cent.

The Indian government has used American cloud seeding technology in the past but is now developing its own techniques to guarantee monsoon clouds break into torrential rains.

Read moreIndia turns to cloud seeding to make rain

Russia considers bail-out for banks; Government to take board seats and have veto rights

Russia is looking at a bail-out of its banks that would go further than the emergency action taken by the US, amid growing fears that bad loans could paralyse the country’s economy.

Igor Shuvalov, deputy prime minister, will consider taking stakes in troubled banks when a group of experts on the financial crisis meets on Friday to discuss ways to recapitalise Russia’s banking system, according to a draft proposal seen by the Financial Times.

The proposal, one of several under consideration, would see the government issue OFZ treasury bills, a type of bond, to boost the balance sheets of the biggest banks. In return, the state would receive preferred shares.

Unlike the US bank bail-out, the Russian scheme would see the government take board seats and have veto rights.

Read moreRussia considers bail-out for banks; Government to take board seats and have veto rights

Ben Bernanke warns on auditing the Federal Reserve

“My concern about the legislation is that if the GAO is auditing not only the operational aspects of the programs and the details of the programs but making judgments about our policy decisions would effectively be a takeover of policy by the Congress and a repudiation of the Federal Reserve would be highly destructive to the stability of the financial system, the Dollar and our national economic situation.”

Related information:
US House to debate Ron Paul’s ‘Audit the Fed’ bill
Ron Paul: Audit the Fed Update (06/12/09)
Ron Paul: The Obama administration gives a tremendous amount of more power to the Federal Reserve, the very institution that created our problem (6/18/09)

Yes, the truth would be destructive to the Federal Reserve banksters.

Auditing the Fed is actually the same as abolishing it and Ben Bernanke and Ron Paul know that.

Read moreBen Bernanke warns on auditing the Federal Reserve

Russian luxury yachts offer pirate hunting cruises for £3,500 per day

Luxury ocean liners in Russia are offering pirate hunting cruises aboard armed private yachts off the Somali coast.

pirate-flag

Wealthy punters pay £3,500 per day to patrol the most dangerous waters in the world hoping to be attacked by raiders.

When attacked, they retaliate with grenade launchers, machine guns and rocket launchers, reports Austrian business paper Wirtschaftsblatt.

Passengers, who can pay an extra £5 a day for an AK-47 machine gun and £7 for 100 rounds of ammo, are also protected by a squad of ex special forces troops.

The yachts travel from Djibouti in Somalia to Mombasa in Kenya.

Read moreRussian luxury yachts offer pirate hunting cruises for £3,500 per day

China reiterates its call to replace the US dollar

dollar-345 The dollar has been the world’s reserve currency for decades

China’s central bank has reiterated its call for a new reserve currency to replace the US dollar.

The report from the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) said a “super-sovereign” currency should take its place.

Central bank chief Zhou Xiaochuan has loudly led calls for the dollar to be replaced during the financial crisis.

The bank report called for more regulation of the countries that issue currencies that underpin the global financial system.

“An international monetary system dominated by a single sovereign currency has intensified the concentration of risk and the spread of the crisis,” the Chinese central bank said.

The dollar fell after the report was released. The US currency dropped 1% against the euro to $1.4088, and declined 0.8% versus the British pound to $1.6848.

SDRs

Mr Zhou caused a stir earlier this year when he said the dollar could eventually be replaced as the world’s main reserve currency by the Special Drawing Right (SDR), which was created as a unit of account by the IMF in 1969.

Read moreChina reiterates its call to replace the US dollar

British Airways: 800 staff offer to work for free

Almost 7,000 British Airways staff have agreed to take part in cost-saving measures, including 800 who said they will work unpaid for up to a month, the airline has announced.

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Almost 7,000 BA staff have agreed to take a pay cut

Of the 40,000-strong workforce, 6,940 employees volunteered for the measures – with most opting for unpaid leave – which the company said will save up to £10 million.

Chief executive Willie Walsh, who has already announced that he will work unpaid for the month of July, said: “This is a fantastic first response. I want to thank everyone who has volunteered to help us pull through this difficult period.

“This response clearly shows the significant difference individuals can make.”

Options offered to staff included volunteering for between one and four weeks’ unpaid leave or unpaid work, with the pay deduction spread over three or six months.

Staff who have offered to work unpaid will still receive shift allowances and other payments, although they will forego their basic pay.

BA said around 4,000 staff had volunteered for unpaid leave, 1,400 will switch to part-time work and 800 put their names forward for unpaid work, while 740 overseas staff also volunteered to take part in the cost-saving drive.

The airline has been looking to slash costs as part of its survival plan after unveiling an annual loss of £400 million.

Around 2,500 jobs have been cut since last summer and the airline wants to shed another 3,000 posts across its business.

Read moreBritish Airways: 800 staff offer to work for free

Journalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder

(NaturalNews) As the anticipated July release date for Baxter’s A/H1N1 flu pandemic vaccine approaches, an Austrian investigative journalist is warning the world that the greatest crime in the history of humanity is underway. Jane Burgermeister has recently filed criminal charges with the FBI against the World Health Organization (WHO), the United Nations (UN), and several of the highest ranking government and corporate officials concerning bioterrorism and attempts to commit mass murder. She has also prepared an injunction against forced vaccination which is being filed in America. These actions follow her charges filed in April against Baxter AG and Avir Green Hills Biotechnology of Austria for producing contaminated bird flu vaccine, alleging this was a deliberate act to cause and profit from a pandemic.

Related article: Baxter: Product contaminated with live H5N1 avian flu virus

Summary of claims and allegations filed with FBI in Austria on June 10, 2009

In her charges, Burgermeister presents evidence of acts of bioterrorism that is in violation of U.S. law by a group operating within the U.S. under the direction of international bankers who control the Federal Reserve, as well as WHO, UN and NATO. This bioterrorism is for the purpose of carrying out a mass genocide against the U.S. population by use of a genetically engineered flu pandemic virus with the intent of causing death. This group has annexed high government offices in the U.S.

Specifically, evidence is presented that the defendants, Barack Obama, President of the U.S, David Nabarro, UN System Coordinator for Influenza, Margaret Chan, Director-General of WHO, Kathleen Sibelius, Secretary of Department of Health and Human Services, Janet Napolitano, Secretary of Department of Homeland Security, David de Rotschild, banker, David Rockefeller, banker, George Soros, banker, Werner Faymann, Chancellor of Austria, and Alois Stoger, Austrian Health Minister, among others, are part of this international corporate criminal syndicate which has developed, produced, stockpiled and employed biological weapons to eliminate the population of the U.S. and other countries for financial and political gain.

Read moreJournalist Files Charges against WHO and UN for Bioterrorism and Intent to Commit Mass Murder

Fitch downgrades California’s general obligation debt

CHICAGO, June 25 (Reuters) – Fitch Ratings on Thursday downgraded the rating on California’s general obligation debt and said it may lower the rating again, citing the state’s continued fiscal and economic stress.

The agency cut the state’s rating by one notch to A-minus, placing it four notches above speculative, or “junk” status, and making it the lowest rating of any U.S. state.

Read moreFitch downgrades California’s general obligation debt

California eyes IOUs as deficit worsens

LOS ANGELES/NEW YORK, June 25 – California’s controller said on Wednesday that he would have to issue IOUs in a week if lawmakers are unable to quickly solve a $24bn budget deficit, as the state’s treasurer plans to tap a reserve fund to meet debt service costs.

The measures came as a budget crisis deepened in the most populous US state and the gridlocked legislature failed to pass a proposed $11bn in cuts.

“Next Wednesday we start a fiscal year with a massively unbalanced spending plan and a cash shortfall not seen since the Great Depression,” said John Chiang, controller, while announcing that he would be forced to use IOUs to pay the state’s bills beginning on July 2.

“The state’s $2.8bn cash shortage in July grows to $6.5bn in September and after that we see a double digit freefall,” Mr Chiang said. “Unfortunately, the state’s inability to balance its checkbook will now mean short-changing taxpayers, local governments and small businesses.”

Read moreCalifornia eyes IOUs as deficit worsens

Pharmacy Promotion: Sam’s Club Giving Kids Candy In Pill Bottles

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Couldn’t believe my Eyes!

Walked into Sam’s Club in SBY today at noon with mother,wife and kids.

There was a table in the entry where they check your club card and faster than I could get my card back in my wallet an employee was handing my two daughters actual prescription pill bottles with candy packed in them. What the …???

Now my 3 year old thinks all prescription pill bottles are just tasty snacks…

What in the world are they thinking over there?

sam1

There will be some calls on Monday morning from SBY to Arkansas to be sure.
I’m pissed, really pissed, what kind of pharmacy marketing is this…???

Posted by Joe Albero
Sunday, June 21, 2009

Source: SBYNEWS

Panasonic’s Tiger-Resistant Laptop

Don’t believe manufacturers’ claims. We put Panasonic’s Toughbook through real survival tests.

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BURLINGAME, Calif. — Call it the James Bond of laptops.

We dropped the Panasonic CF-30 “Toughbook,” kicked it, stood on it and tried to back over it with a Volkswagen JettaTDi. (That left a mark–on the pavement.)

We poured Diet Coke on the keyboard. Then we used the lid to crush the can.

You might think this is unnecessary testing for a laptop. Advertising is always brimming with over-the-top claims. We’ve heard about “durable” notebooks before. But the ones we lug to press conferences seem to be as touchy as a bunch of squirrels. Surely, Panasonic’s claims of toughness are, well, over-the-top.

We found, however, that Panasonic’s Toughbook performed as promised. Fair enough. So we came up with some tests that were decidedly unfair.

We used the Panasonic Toughbook to serve Doritos. Then we crushed the chips to dust between the keyboard and the screen, the same screen we used as a dartboard. The darts poked holes in the screen’s protective coating, but the display underneath remained undamaged. Not a single dead pixel.

So we presented the $3,460 Toughbook to Nalin, a white tiger who lives at Six Flags Discovery Kingdom in Vallejo, Calif. Nalin treated it like a cat toy, knocking it to the ground, gnawing on the screen and licking every inch of its surface. He must have smelled those Doritos.

The tiger chewed off five keys, but that turned out to be just cosmetic. We could still type without them, and were able to glue four back on later (we made sure Nalin didn’t swallow anything). The fifth just snapped back into place.

elephant-toughbook

Next, Liz, a 10,000-pound Asian elephant, stepped on it, stood on it, dropped it onto a concrete slab, stood on it again–balanced on three legs–and then tossed it around some more. Liz put two small cracks in the laptop’s magnesium alloy lid and popped the hard drive out.

The drive slid right back in to the Toughbook’s chassis, which rebooted without a glitch. The screen was undamaged, although it was hard to see through the tiger hair and congealed drool.

That’s when we remembered: We’re allergic to cats.

Five days later, we turned from tests to something better described as execution: We took the laptop to the Jackson Arms firing range in South San Francisco to shoot it with a Ruger Mark III .22 pistol from 15 yards.

Dell declined to loan us a rugged laptop to shoot, saying they didn’t have the “inventory excess to participate this time around.”

Panasonic, meanwhile, was about to have one less notebook. We removed the battery to minimize the mess, and aimed.

Goodbye, Mr. Toughbook.

Or so we thought. We put a bullet through the laptop. Then we booted it up. We were able to log in. Our test file was still there. The screen had a hole in it, but was still usable.

Read morePanasonic’s Tiger-Resistant Laptop

ECB lends record €442 billion to banks

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The European Central Bank said today that it lent a record €442.24 billion at 1 per cent in one-year funds to commercial banks.

The previous record for the central bank’s refinancing operations was €348.6 billion in two-week funds on December 18, 2007 as crisis-hit commercial banks scrambled to bolster their balance sheets during the crunch year-end period.

Read moreECB lends record €442 billion to banks

Gang of wealthy German pensioners kidnaps and tortures financial adviser who lost their savings

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Kidnapped: James Arnburn was held at a house on the shores of Lake Chiemsee during his ordeal (file picture)

A gang of wealthy pensioners kidnapped and tortured a financial adviser in Germany after he lost £2m of their savings during the financial crisis.

Dubbed ‘The Geritol Gang’ by police – after the arthritis drug – the kidnappers seized James Arnburn and subjected him to a four-day ordeal

He was burned with cigarettes, beaten with a chair leg and chained up ‘like an animal’

Mr Arnburn, 56, described how two of his kidnappers, identified only as Roland K, 74, and Willy D, 60, hit him with a Zimmer frame outside his home in Speyer, west Germany before binding him with duct tape.

He was bundled into the boot of a silver Audi saloon and driven 300 miles to the home of Roland K on the shores of Lake Chiemsee in Bavaria.

As the financial advisor, who runs investment firm Digitalglobalnet, was bundled into the cellar another couple, retired doctors Gerhard and Iris F, aged 63 and 66, arrived to assist his kidnappers.

Mr Amburn said: ‘I had known these people for 25 years. I had no reason to be afraid. But as I went into my home I was jumped from the rear and struck.

‘They bound me with masking tape until I looked like a mummy. It took them quite a while because they ran out of breath. When they loaded me into the car I thought I was a dead man.

‘I was bleeding from my eyes, nose and my mouth. But the nightmare had only just started.’

Read moreGang of wealthy German pensioners kidnaps and tortures financial adviser who lost their savings