Web Of Blackwater (Xe) Companies Revealed

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Blackwater Worldwide created a web of more than 30 shell companies or subsidiaries in part to obtain millions of dollars in American government contracts after the security company came under intense criticism for reckless conduct in Iraq, according to Congressional investigators and former Blackwater officials.

While it is not clear how many of those businesses won contracts, at least three had deals with the United States military or the Central Intelligence Agency, according to former government and company officials. Since 2001, the intelligence agency has awarded up to $600 million in classified contracts to Blackwater and its affiliates, according to a United States government official.

The Senate Armed Services Committee this week released a chart that identified 31 affiliates of Blackwater, now known as Xe Services. The network was disclosed as part of a committee’s investigation into government contracting. The investigation revealed the lengths to which Blackwater went to continue winning contracts after Blackwater guards killed 17 Iraqi civilians in Baghdad in September 2007. That episode and other reports of abuses led to criminal and Congressional investigations, and cost the company its lucrative security contract with the State Department in Iraq.

Read moreWeb Of Blackwater (Xe) Companies Revealed

Prof. Nouriel Roubini: No Defence Left Against Double-Dip Recession

Just that there never was a defense. This entire financial crisis has been engineered.

This will also not be a double-dip recession, but the Greatest Depression ever.


The United States, Japan and large parts of Europe have exhausted their policy arsenal, leaving them defenceless against a double-dip recession as recovery slows to ‘stall speed’.

Nouriel Roubini said the US growth rate was likely to fall below 1pc in the second half of the year
Nouriel Roubini said the US growth rate was likely to fall below 1pc in the second half of the year Photo: BLOOMBERG

“The US has run out of bullets,” said Nouriel Roubini, professor at New York University, and one of a caste of luminaries with grim forecasts at the annual Ambrosetti conference on Lake Como.

“More quantitative easing (bond purchases) by the Federal Reserve is not going to make any difference. Treasury yields are already down to 2.5pc yet credit spreads are widening again. Monetary policy can boost liquidity but it can’t deal with solvency problems,” he told Europe’s policy elite.

Dr Roubini said the US growth rate was likely to fall below 1pc in the second half of the year, despite the biggest stimulus in history: a cut in interest rates from 5pc to zero, a budget deficit of 10pc of GDP, and $3 trillion to shore up the financial system.

The anaemic pace compares with rates of 4pc-6pc at this stage of recovery in normal post-war recoveries.

Read moreProf. Nouriel Roubini: No Defence Left Against Double-Dip Recession

New Zealand Earthquake Causes New 3.5M-Wide Fault Line in Earth’s Surface, Christchurch Under Curfew, State Of Emergency Declared

* At least 500 buildings destroyed after quake
* Water and supplies starting to return to city
* Earthquake rips open new faultline

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A man walks over a damaged road in Paiapoi, 20 kilometres south of Christchurch following the weekend’s devastating earthquake / AP

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The powerful 7.1-magnitude earthquake smashed buildings, cracked roads and twisted rail lines around the city / AP

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THE powerful earthquake that smashed buildings, cracked roads and twisted rail lines in Christchurch also ripped a new 3.5m-wide fault line in the Earth’s surface.

At least 500 buildings were destroyed in the 7.1-magnitude quake that struck New Zealand at 4.35am on Saturday near the South Island city of about 400,000 people.

The earthquake cut power across the region, roads were blocked by debris, and gas and water supplies were disrupted.

Christchurch Mayor Bob Parker yesterday said power had been restored to 90 per cent of the city and water supply had resumed for all but 15 to 20 per cent of residents.

Read moreNew Zealand Earthquake Causes New 3.5M-Wide Fault Line in Earth’s Surface, Christchurch Under Curfew, State Of Emergency Declared

Guatemala Floods: President Alvaro Colom Declares State of Emergency


Added: 4. September 2010

Related article: Heavy rains devastate Guatemala (BBC News)


Guatemala floods leave 20 dead, emergency declared

state-of-emergency-in-guatemala
A bus was caught in a landslide killing at least ten people near central Chimaltenango city

GUATEMALA CITY — At least 20 people were killed in Guatemala in landslides triggered by weeks of driving rains, according to figures released by national emergency and rescue services.

President Alvaro Colom has declared a national emergency in the wake of the disaster.

“Top priority at present is dealing with this emergency. There are no funds left to deal with earlier disasters like the one caused by tropical storm Agatha,” in late May, Colom told reporters after a surveying tour of the country Saturday

He said damage estimates across Guatemala after weeks of rain stood at 350-500 million dollars, or 40 percent of the damage wrought by Agatha, which killed 183 people in Central America, including 165 in Guatemala earlier this year, and left thousands homeless.

The latest rains have triggered several dozen landslides around the country.

One swept away a bus on a road near central Chimaltenango city killing at least 10 people and injuring 20.

The other killed four people inside a house in western Quetzaltenango.

Read moreGuatemala Floods: President Alvaro Colom Declares State of Emergency

3 Babies Die Within Hours After They Were Vaccinated

See also:

First batch of untested (!) flu vaccines approved by the FDA causes seizures in children

3 Dutch babies die after pneumococcal vaccine, Dutch authorities pull Pfizer’s Prevenar batch

Shocking H1N1 Swine Flu Vaccine Miscarriage Stories From Pregnant Women

Boy developed Guillain-Barre syndrome within hours after swine flu vaccination, but CDC says no clear link

More shocking information on vaccines at the end of the article.


vaccine

BANGLADESH – Three babies died within hours after they were vaccinated against measles under Expanded Programme of Immunisation (EPI) at Kalikapur Community Health Clinic of Guabaria union in the district’s Hizla upazila early yesterday.

The victims were identified as Toma, daughter of Profulla Dhali; Tisha, daughter of Pancham Kolu; and Pranto, son of Anil Kolu.

Pancham Kolu said health assistant Taslima, who is in charge of the clinic, vaccinated the infants Wednesday afternoon. She pushed the doses from a broken ampoule over the objection of the mothers of the babies, he alleged.

Later at home, the mothers found the babies drowsing. Soon, the ten-month-olds went into convulsion and started vomiting and suffering from diarrhoea.

The mothers rushed the ailing three to Hizla Upazila Health Complex where the infants were given initial treatment. Around 2:30am yesterday, Toma breathed her last.

Pranto and Tisha were referred to Barisal Sher-e-Bangla Medical College and Hospital after their condition deteriorated but both died on the way to the hospital, said their mothers.

Upazila Health Officer Shuvangkar Baroi admitted that the three died after taking EPI vaccines.

Read more3 Babies Die Within Hours After They Were Vaccinated

Top German Economist: EU Austerity Policies Risk Civil War In Greece

Greece should have defaulted on its debt and have the banksters and stupid investors eat the losses.

Instead the people in Greece and the EU will be presented with the bill of this crisis, that was created by corrupt elite criminals.

Former Bundesbank Head Karl Otto Pöhl: Bailout Plan Is All About ‘Rescuing Banks and Rich Greeks’

The people of Greece know this:

Max Keiser on Greece: ‘The IMF is a Financial Mafia’:

“The only solution for Greece is to arrest the Goldman Sachs bankers immediately and all those involved in the fabrication of Greek economic data in 2000, when you became a member of the eurozone. The next step is to nationalize all banks like Sweden did in 1993. The International Monetary Fund is that last thing you need. You will lose your sovereignty. It exercises terrorism. You will be raped in such a way, that it will be the worst pain you have ever felt.

If someone burns down your house in order to sell you charcoal, would you consider this logical? That is exactly what Goldman Sachs did to the Greek economy. They burned you down like arsonists and then they tell you not to worry they’ll give you charcoal. It’s outrageous. The IMF has said that it can provide Greece with help. The Wall Street investment hedge funds are attacking Greece’s bond market so that the Greek economy collapses. And they’re doing this for a simple reason; to force the Greek people to ask for help from the IMF. The IMF will say, we came because you asked for our help. Wall Street bankers work very closely with the IMF. It’s a financial mafia and the hedge funds are the assassins. Research conducted on Goldman Sachs in the USA and in Europe show how big a mafia it is. They are involved in illegal activity throughout the world.

The entire bailout was totally unconstitutional.


Greece’s austerity measures cannot prevent default and will lead to a breakdown of the political order if continued for long, a leading German economist has warned.

EU austerity polices risk civil war in Greece, warns top German economist Dr Sinn
Hans-Werner Sinn, head of Germany’s prestigious IFO Institute, said it was impossible to cut wages and prices by 30pc without major riots. Photo: EPA

“This tragedy does not have a solution,” said Hans-Werner Sinn, head of the prestigious IFO Institute in Munich.

“The policy of forced ‘internal devaluation’, deflation, and depression could risk driving Greece to the edge of a civil war. It is impossible to cut wages and prices by 30pc without major riots,” he said, speaking at the elite European House Ambrosetti forum at Lake Como.

“Greece would have been bankrupt without the rescue measures. All the alternatives are terrible but the least terrible is for the country to get out of the eurozone, even if this kills the Greek banks,” he said.

Dr Sinn said Greece is an entirely different case from Spain and Portugal, which still have manageable public debts and can bring their public finances back into line with higher taxes.

“Greece would have defaulted in the period between April 28 and May 7, had the money not been promised by the European Union,” he said, describing the failure of the EU’s bail-out strategy to include a haircut for the banks as an invitation to moral hazard.

“There should be a quasi-insolvency procedure for countries. Creditors have to accept a haircut before any money flows for rescue plans, otherwise we’ll never have debt discipline in the eurozone,” he said.

Read moreTop German Economist: EU Austerity Policies Risk Civil War In Greece

And Now: Mandatory Flu Shot Pushed For Healthcare Workers (With Unemployment As Only Alternative)

This years seasonal flu vaccine will be mixed with the left over swine flu vaccine.

I am not joking.

Healthcare workers refuse to get these flu shots, because they know what’s in it:

Dr. Rima E. Laibow: The Globalist Depopulation Agenda

– Dr. Russell Blaylock:

“No one should take the swine flu vaccine–it is one of the most dangerous vaccines ever devised. It contains an immune adjuvant called squalene (MF-59) which has been shown to cause severe autoimmune disorders such as MS, rheumatoid arthritis and Lupus. This is the vaccine adjuvant that is strongly linked to the Gulf War syndrome, which killed over 10,000 soldiers and caused a 200% increase in the fatal disease ALS (Lou Gehreg disease). This virus H1N1 kills by causing a “cytokine storm”, which means that it cause the body’s immune system to overreact and that is why it is killing young people and is a mild disease in the elderly. (The elderly have weakened immune systems.) This vaccine is a very powerful immune stimulator and carries the real possibility of making the lethality of the virus much greater.

Doctor, cited on FOX News as expert on infectious diseases, would not give highly toxic swine flu vaccine to his children:

Doctor: “I have more concern about the vaccine than I do about the swine flu.”
‘Vaccine has 25,000 times the level of mercury then would be considered toxic if it was food or water.’

Squalene: The Swine Flu Vaccine’s Dirty Little Secret Exposed

Dr. Gary Null Speaking Out at the NYS Assembly Hearing on Vaccinations, Fraud, Junk Science, Crimes Against Humanity and Profit

Nanoparticles used in untested swine flu vaccinees

Dr. Leonard Horowitz: The CDC’s Vaccination Genocide

Former Assistant Secretary of Housing: ‘I believe one of the goals of the swine flu vaccine is depopulation’

More shocking information on vaccines at the end of the article.


Healthcare workers should get a flu shot or lose their jobs, two health groups say

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The swine-flu scare of 2009 turned a spotlight on a controversial issue: Should healthcare workers be required to have an annual flu vaccine? Most studies suggest that healthcare workers should be vaccinated to help stop the spread of flu. But surveys show a sizable portion of people who work in hospitals, clinics and doctor’s offices don’t want to get an annual flu shot. According to a Rand Corp. survey issued last year, 39% of healthcare professionals said they would not get a flu vaccine, even with the threat of pandemic flu.

A policy paper published Tuesday says healthcare workers are ethically obligated to get a flu vaccine. The paper was written by representatives of the Society for Healthcare Epidemiology and is endorsed by the Infectious Diseases Society of America.

Agreeing to an annual flu shot should be a condition of initial and continued employment in healthcare facilities, the authors said. Exceptions should be permitted only in cases where a flu vaccine is not recommended for medical reasons.
The reasons for the heavy-handed approach are multiple, the authors state. Voluntary vaccination has not worked to increase the proportion of workers who are immunized. Moreover, studies show the spread of flu is reduced when all of the workers in a health facility are vaccinated. Death rates from complications of flu also decrease. Finally, mandatory vaccination will mean that a sufficient number of healthy workers will be available during disease outbreaks.

Read moreAnd Now: Mandatory Flu Shot Pushed For Healthcare Workers (With Unemployment As Only Alternative)

Portugal Elite Paedophile Prostitution Ring: Carlos Cruz Jailed For Seven Years

See also:

Pentagon Declined To Investigate Hundreds Of Purchases Of Child Pornography


Portuguese TV presenter among six convicted over child prostitution at Casa Pia state-run orphanages

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Portuguese TV presenter Carlos Cruz, who paid for sex with a 14-year-old boy, the court was told. Photograph: Tiago Petinga/EPA

One of Portugal’s most famous television presenters and a former ambassador were among six men found guilty yesterday of involvement with a paedophile prostitution ring that exploited children from state-run orphanages.

The guilty verdicts handed down to TV presenter Carlos Cruz and the five others exposed the truth of more than three decades of rumours about systematic abuse of young boys at the 230-year-old Casa Pia network of orphanages.

It was only when Joel, a former orphanage boy, came forward in 2002 and accused some of the country’s best-known names of being involved that Portugal woke up to full horror of the scandal.

Members of Portugal’s media, civil service and professional elite were alleged to be regular abusers of the boys, some younger than 14. Even well-known politicians were involved, it was initially rumoured. A flood of accusations from boys who had passed through the Casa Pia system followed. Some 32 boys alleged at least 800 crimes.

The case pitted the orphanage boys against a group of well-educated, influential people – including a former ambassador to Unesco, a lawyer, a doctor and Cruz. Yesterday, eight years after they dared to speak out, the boys finally won their case.

The four men and two former orphanage employees received sentences of between just under six years and 18 years. Carlos Silvino, a 53-year-old Casa Pia worker who confessed to 600 crimes and gave evidence against other defendants was sentenced to 18 years.

“The court recognised that we were telling the truth,” said Bernardo Teixeira, one of the victims. “It’s a happy ending for us. The paedophiles are going to jail.”

Read morePortugal Elite Paedophile Prostitution Ring: Carlos Cruz Jailed For Seven Years

Pakistan: Rich ‘Diverted Floods To Save Their Land’

pakistan-floods
Pakistanis displaced by the floods return to their homes in Shikapur, in Sindh province

A senior Pakistan diplomat has accused “powerful” figures of diverting floodwaters into unprotected areas to save their own land.

Abdullah Hussain Haroon, Pakistan’s representative to the UN, has called for an inquiry into a “handful” of cases where influential people took “advantage of these floods and saved themselves” in a disaster that has left more than 1,600 people dead.

Mr Haroon, one of a number of senior officials including a former prime minister who have made the allegations, called for a full judicial inquiry amid claims that unprotected villages had been swamped, forcing the inhabitants to abandon their homes.

However, he said the incidents of embankments being breached by a few influential figures should not hamper the international effort to help the millions affected by the flooding.

The International Monetary Fund said yesterday that it will give Pakistan £290m in emergency aid over the coming weeks. The IMF’s managing director, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, said yesterday that discussions on repayment of a £7.1bn loan would continue.

The announcement came amid continuing pressure on Pakistan over its handling of the unprecedented floods that have affected more than 18 million people and caused nearly £28bn of damage to infrastructure and agriculture, the mainstay of the economy.

Read morePakistan: Rich ‘Diverted Floods To Save Their Land’

Pentagon Declined To Investigate Hundreds Of Purchases Of Child Pornography

Related article:

Several Dozen Pentagon Workers Used Their High-Level Security Clearances To Purchase And Download Child Pornography

Criminals!


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A 2006 Immigration and Customs Enforcement investigation into the purchase of child pornography online turned up more than 250 civilian and military employees of the Defense Department — including some with the highest available security clearance — who  used credit cards or PayPal to purchase images of children in sexual situations. But the Pentagon investigated only a handful of the cases, Defense Department records show.

The cases turned up during a 2006 ICE inquiry, called Project Flicker, which targeted overseas processing of child-porn payments. As part of the probe, ICE investigators gained access to the names and credit card information of more than 5,000 Americans who had subscribed to websites offering images of child pornography. Many of those individuals provided military email addresses or physical addresses with Army or fleet ZIP codes when they purchased the subscriptions.

In a related inquiry, the Pentagon’s Defense Criminal Investigative Service (DCIS) cross-checked the ICE list against military databases to come up with a list of Defense employees and contractors who appeared to be guilty of purchasing child  pornography. The names included staffers for the secretary of defense, contractors for the ultra-secretive National Security Agency, and a program manager at the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency. But the DCIS opened investigations into only 20 percent of the individuals identified, and succeeded in prosecuting just a handful.

The Boston Globe first reported the Pentagon’s role in Project Flicker in July, citing DCIS investigative reports (PDF) showing that at least 30 Defense Department employees were investigated.

But new Project Flicker investigative reports obtained by The Upshot through the Freedom of Information Act, which you can read here, show that DCIS investigators identified 264 Defense employees or contractors who had purchased child pornography online. Astonishingly, nine of those had “Top Secret Sensitive Compartmentalized Information” security clearances, meaning they had access to the nation’s most sensitive secrets. All told, 76 of the individuals had Secret or higher clearances. But DCIS investigated only 52 of the suspects, and just 10 were ever charged with viewing or purchasing child pornography. Without greater public disclosure of how these cases wound down, it’s impossible to know how or whether any of the names listed in the Project Flicker papers came in for additional scrutiny. It’s conceivable that some of them were picked up by local law enforcement, but it seems likely that most of the people flagged by the investigation did not have their military careers disrupted in the context of the DCIS inquiry.

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Among those charged were Gary Douglass Grant, a captain in the Army Reserves and a judge advocate general, or military prosecutor. After investigators executing a search warrant found child pornography on his computer, he pleaded guilty last year to state charges of possession of obscene matter of a minor in a sexual act in California. Others included contractors for the NSA with Top Secret clearances; one of them — a former contractor — fled the country after being indicted and is believed to be in Libya.

Read morePentagon Declined To Investigate Hundreds Of Purchases Of Child Pornography

Winston Churchill ‘ordered assassination of Benito Mussolini to protect compromising letters’

Winston Churchill ordered the assassination of Benito Mussolini as part of a plot to destroy potentially compromising secret letters he had sent the Italian dictator, a leading French historian has suggested.

winston-churchill-ordered-the-assassination-of-benito-mussolini
Churchill chose to holiday under a false name only a few miles from the spot Mussolini was seized Photo: GETTY

Pierre Milza, an expert on fascist Italy, theorizes that the wartime prime minister may have wanted Mussolini dead to prevent the letters, in which Churchill expressed his admiration for his Italian counterpart before the outbreak of the Second World War, coming to light.

“There is no doubt, judging by his public declarations back in the 1920s and early 1930s, that Churchill was a fan of Mussolini. Roosevelt too,” Mr Milza said.

“Churchill even once said: ‘Fascism has rendered a service to the entire world… If I were Italian, I am sure I would have been with you entirely’.

“But that was understandable in 1927, as then a fascist did not mean a friend of Hitler and accomplice to genocide. But when you are head of state and legitimate war hero of the British people, you don’t really want all that put up in lights.”

Officially, Mussolini and his mistress Clara Petacci, were seized by Italian Communist partisans near Dongo on Lake Como as they tried to flee to Switzerland in April 1945.

Despite disguising himself as a drunk German officer in a mixed Italian and SS convoy, he was spotted. Both he and Petacci were shot and their bodies subsequently trussed up in a square in Milan the following day.

Read moreWinston Churchill ‘ordered assassination of Benito Mussolini to protect compromising letters’

Alcohol Drinking In Britain Sees Sharpest Fall Since Records Began In 1948 (Recovery!)

Cheers!

See also:

UK: Winter fuel payment cuts to hit millions of pensioners, despite pre-election promises

UK: Pensioners are burning books to keep warm


Consumers drank on average five bottles of wine fewer last year as health concerns and the recession combined to bring biggest drop in alcohol consumption since records began.

There were 821 million fewer pints of beer drunk in 2008 compared with 2009, according to the British Beer and Pub Association
There were 821 million fewer pints of beer drunk in 2008 compared with 2009, according to the British Beer and Pub Association Photo: ALAMY

The average person drank the equivalent of 89 bottles of wine during the year, down from more than 94 bottles, according to new statistics.

It was the largest drop in alcohol consumed since 1948, as health concerns and the recession encouraged consumers to cut back.

This 6 per cent fall in alcohol consumption is the largest annual drop since records began in 1948, when the British Beer and Pub Association started collecting figures. The figures include all alcohol sales, both from supermarkets and at pubs.

It is the fourth annual decline in the last five years, with the average person consuming the equivalent of 8.4 litres of pure alcohol, down from 8.9 litres.

The data, compiled from Government tax receipts, back up Office for National Statistics figures published earlier this year, which suggested that after many years of people drinking less at pubs, they had also started to cut back at home for the first time.

Read moreAlcohol Drinking In Britain Sees Sharpest Fall Since Records Began In 1948 (Recovery!)

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Responds to Federal Government Suit


Added: 2. September 2010

Related information:

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Being Sued By Federal Government

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: ‘Mexican Drug Cartels Literally Do Control Parts Of Arizona’

Mexican Drug Cartel Puts $1 Million Bounty On Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Head

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: ‘Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy’

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Being Sued By Federal Government

Related information:

Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Responds to Federal Government Suit

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: ‘Mexican Drug Cartels Literally Do Control Parts Of Arizona’

Mexican Drug Cartel Puts $1 Million Bounty On Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Head

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: ‘Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy’


An Arizona sheriff is being sued by the US Justice Department after refusing to hand over records for a year into an investigation into allegations his department discriminates against Hispanics.

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Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio Photo: AFP/GETTY

The lawsuit claims that they have been trying since March last year to get Sheriff Joe Arpaio and officials to comply with its investigation of alleged discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures.

Sheriff Arpaio called the actions harassment, adding that his office will not hand over additional documents because the federal authorities have not said exactly what they are investigation.

“They have hundreds of thousands of reports, hundreds of thousands,” he said. “They’re so broad, we’re trying to narrow it down. We’re trying to work with them.”

The lawsuit is the latest action against Arizona by the federal government, which earlier sued the state to stop its strict new immigration law that requires police officers to question people about their immigration status if there is reason to suspect they are in the country illegally.

“The actions of the sheriff’s office are unprecedented,” said Thomas Perez, assistant attorney general for the department’s civil rights division. “It is unfortunate that the department was forced to resort to litigation to gain access to public documents and facilities.”

Read moreArizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio Being Sued By Federal Government

Global Food Shortage Fears As Russia Extends Wheat Export Ban

Yes, the elite will stage a global food crisis, which is why I have told you to prepare for it a long time ago.


Vladimir Putin has announced Russia will not lift a ban on grain exports before next year’s harvest, extending the embargo for another year, sparking fears over a global food shortage.

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A combine harvests on a field in a village 50km south of Moscow. The drought in Russia has led to rising world grain prices Photo: GETTY

The Russian prime minister said that it was “necessary to note that we will only be able to consider lifting the grain export ban after next year’s harvest … and we have clarity on the balances”.

His announcement came after deadly protests in Mozambique and the UN’s Food and Agriculture Organisation calling an emergency meeting to discuss the shortages.

The export ban is aimed at keeping the Russian domestic market well supplied with grain after Russia, which the world’s third largest wheat exporter last year when it sold 21.4 million tonnes of grain, after the country suffered a record drought which destroyed a quarter of its harvest.

Forest and brush fires flared up again on Thursday, killing two people and burning down more than 160 houses and buildings. Mr Putin is keen to avoid any signs of social unrest ahead of elections due in 2012.

The export ban from such a key global exporter sent wheat prices to 231.5 euros a tonne, just short of last month’s two-year high of 236 euros, sparking worries of a crisis in global food supplies.

A rise in the price of state-controlled food, water and electricity prices have sparked protests in Mozambique where seven people have been killed and hundreds left injured after clashes with police. The price of a loaf of bread is due to rise by 25 per cent on September 6.

The Rome-based FAO said that their emergency meeting was called due to “an enormous number” of inquiries over concerns “about a possible repeat of the 2007-08 food crisis”

Abdolreza Abbassian, of the FAO, said: “This is quite serious. Two years in a row without Russian exports creates quite a disturbance”.

Read moreGlobal Food Shortage Fears As Russia Extends Wheat Export Ban

US Veterans Get Ecstasy to Treat Their PTSD

Ecstasy destroys the liver and the brain!


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A pair of psychiatric experts think they’ve got the answer to the soaring number of troops coming back from war with PTSD: have them undergo intensive psychotherapy – while they’re rolling on ecstasy.

Dr. Michael Mithoefer and Anne Mithoefer, a psychiatric nurse, are the South Carolina pair who’ve been spearheading research into ecstasy, known clinically as MDMA, since 2000. After one successful study on 21 PTSD patients between 2004 and 2008, they’ve now received the final okay from FDA and DEA officials to start a study entirely devoted to former military service members.

“My sense is that, especially after we published the results of the first study, these institutions are more open to the idea,” Dr. Michael Mithoefer tells Danger Room. “Obviously, this is still new and experimental, and it can take time to get through to big institutions.”

With $500,000 in funding from MAPS (the Multidisciplinary Association for Psychedelic Studies), the two are recruiting 16 veterans – they’re hoping for a 50-50 split between men and women, and want most of the participants to have been diagnosed within the last 10 years.

“These will mostly be veterans from Iraq or Afghanistan, because longer duration of PTSD means more complicating factors,” Dr. Mithoefer says, adding that he does anticipate enrolling 4 vets from earlier wars and is still accepting applications.

Read moreUS Veterans Get Ecstasy to Treat Their PTSD

Peru: Amazon River Level At 40-Year Low

amazon-river-level-in-peru-at-40-year-low
Amazon shipyards have been left high and dry

The Amazon river has dropped to its lowest level in 40 years in north-eastern Peru, causing severe economic disruption in a region where it is the main transport route.

At least six large boats have been stranded near the port city of Iquitos.

The low water level is the result of a prolonged spell of dry weather, Peru’s national meteorological office said.

The river is expected to fall further before the rainy season begins next month.

Cut off

Iquitos and other towns in Peru’s rainforest region have no road links to the rest of the country, and depend on the Amazon and its tributaries for transport.

Read morePeru: Amazon River Level At 40-Year Low

Change: Obama Administration Forbids Sale of 850,000 Antique Rifles

obama-administration-forbids-sale-of-850000-antique-rifles
A photo of M1 Garands (National Park Service)

The South Korean government, in an effort to raise money for its military, wants to sell nearly a million antique M1 rifles that were used by U.S. soldiers in the Korean War to gun collectors in America.

The Obama administration approved the sale of the American-made rifles last year. But it reversed course and banned the sale in March – a decision that went largely unnoticed at the time but that is now sparking opposition from gun rights advocates.

A State Department spokesman said the administration’s decision was based on concerns that the guns could fall into the wrong hands.

“The transfer of such a large number of weapons — 87,310 M1 Garands and 770,160 M1 Carbines — could potentially be exploited by individuals seeking firearms for illicit purposes,” the spokesman told FoxNews.com.

“We are working closely with our Korean allies and the U.S. Army in exploring alternative options to dispose of these firearms.”

Gun control advocates praised the Obama administration for taking security seriously.

“Guns that can take high-capacity magazines are a threat to public safety,” said Dennis Henigan of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence. “Even though they are old, these guns could deliver a great amount of firepower. So I think the Obama administration’s concerns are well-taken.”

But gun rights advocates point out that possessing M1 rifles is legal in the United States — M1s are semi-automatics, not machine guns, meaning the trigger has to be pulled every time a shot is fired — and anyone who would buy a gun from South Korea would have to go through the standard background check.

Read moreChange: Obama Administration Forbids Sale of 850,000 Antique Rifles

Daily Currency Trading Volume Hits Record $4 Trillion

Just wait for the currency markets meltdown!

Expect another ‘Problem – Reaction – Solution’ scenario created by the elite anytime soon.

Here is some background on the BIS (Bank for International Settlements):

BIS: Currency Collapse May Stimulate Economic Expansion (Bloomberg)

Remember?

President Medvedev Shows Off Sample Coin of New World Currency at G8 (Bloomberg)


Percentage share of the U.S. dollar has continued its (not so) slow decline

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FRANKFURT (MarketWatch) — Daily turnover in the world’s foreign-exchange markets has soared to $4 trillion, the Bank for International Settlements said Wednesday.

In its survey, conducted every three years, the Basel, Switzerland-based BIS found that global turnover in April 2010 was up 20% from $3.3 trillion in April 2007.

Spot transactions led the rise, increasing to $1.5 trillion a day in 2010 from $1 trillion in 2007. Other forex instruments saw turnover rise 7%, for an average daily turnover of $2.5 trillion.

Britain retained its title as the top player in the forex market, with British-based banks accounting for 36.7% of daily turnover, up from 34.6% in 2007.

The United States followed with 18%, while Japan accounted for 6%. Rounding out the top players, Switzerland, Singapore and Hong Kong accounted for 5% each, while Australia-based banks accounted for 4%.

The percentage share of the U.S. dollar has continued its slow decline witnessed since the April 2001 survey, while the euro and the Japanese yen gained relative to April 2007.

Among the 10 most actively traded currencies, the Australian and Canadian dollars both increased market share, while the pound sterling and the Swiss franc lost ground. The market share of emerging-market currencies increased, with the biggest gains for the Turkish lira and the Korean won.

The U.S. dollar had a share in 85% of all transactions, continuing a “slow retreat” from its 90% peak in 2001 just after the introduction of the euro, the BIS said.

The euro gained two percentage points since the 2007 survey to account for 39% of all transactions. The Japanese yen also increased its market share by two percentage points to 19%, but remained below its 2001 peak of 23.5%.

Read moreDaily Currency Trading Volume Hits Record $4 Trillion

Food Riots In Mozambique, Six People Killed – Government To Raise Water And Electricity Prices By 30 Percent And Price Of Bread By 25 Percent

A private television station in Mozambique says six people have been killed as police shoot at protesters.

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Police officers arrest protesters during a rally in the neighbourhood of Benfica, in the suburbs of Maputo, Mozambique Photo: EPA

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A demonstrator throws a tyre on to a burning barricade during riots in Mozambique’s capital Maputo Photo: REUTERS

The S-TV station says the dead included one child. The station gave few other details. Police could not immediately confirm the report.

Police opened fire Wednesday on stone-throwing crowds who were protesting rising prices in this impoverished country.

Mozambicans have seen the price of a loaf of bread rise by 25 percent, from four to five meticais (from about 11 cents to about 13 U.S. cents) in the past year. Fuel and water prices also have risen.

Protests over high prices erupted into violence in Mozambique in 2008.

Protestors stoned cars and buildings in Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, today during a national strike against plans to raise state-controlled food, water and electricity prices.

Security forces have made arrests and are looking for the people who sent out the original text messages calling for the strike, police spokesman Arnaldo Chefo said in an interview in the city today.

“Our efforts are to stop the strike and we have mobilized all our resources to control it,” he said. “We do not know who is organizing it, but we are trying to identify the strike leaders or organizers.”

The government plans to raise water and electricity rates by 30 percent today and the price of bread by 25 percent on Sept 6.

Fuel and cement prices have also risen. Riots in 2008 against food and fuel price increases left at least three people dead.

Read moreFood Riots In Mozambique, Six People Killed – Government To Raise Water And Electricity Prices By 30 Percent And Price Of Bread By 25 Percent

American Deaths In Afghanistan Surpass Highest Annual Record

All these soldiers could be still alive …

Obama: ‘I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am President, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank.’

See also:

575 American Soldiers Have Died In Afghanistan During Barack Obama’s Presidency, The Same Number As During George Bush’s Entire Time In Office


The number of US soldiers killed in the Afghan war in 2010 is the highest annual toll since the conflict began almost nine years ago.

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Photo: AFP/GETTY IMAGES

A total of 323 US soldiers have been killed in the Afghan war this year, compared to 317 for all of 2009, according to figures based on the independent icasualties.org website.

Foreign forces suffered a grim spike in deaths last month as the Taliban insurgency intensified, with NATO confirming on Wednesday that a sixth US soldier was killed on one of the bloodiest days this year.

At 490, the overall death toll for foreign troops for the first eight months of the year is rapidly closing in the number registered in all of 2009, which at 521 was a record since the start of the war in late 2001.

In all 1,270 American troops have lost their lives, out of 2,058 foreign military fatalities, since the conflict began with the US-led invasion of Afghanistan following the September 11 attacks on New York and Washington in 2001.

US President Barack Obama on Tuesday warned that the United States faced a “very tough fight” in Afghanistan, with more casualties and “heartbreak” to come.

“We obviously still have a very tough fight in Afghanistan,” Mr Obama told troops in Texas as the United States marked the formal end of combat operations in Iraq.

“We have seen casualties go up because we are taking the fight to al-Qaeda and the Taliban,” Obama said. “It is going to be a tough slog.”

Read moreAmerican Deaths In Afghanistan Surpass Highest Annual Record

Mystery Over Russian General Yuri Ivanov, Deputy Head Of GRU, Found Dead On Turkish Beach

Russian media question official version of death of Yuri Ivanov, that he died going for a swim

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Gen. Yuri Ivanov, 52, deputy head of GRU, the Russian military’s overseas intelligence arm of Russian military, was found dead in mysterious circumstances

A mysterious accident in which one of Russia’s most powerful spies was found dead on a Turkish beach has provoked speculation that the deputy head of the country’s foreign military intelligence service had been murdered.

The badly decomposed body of Yuri Ivanov washed up last month on the shore of the Mediterranean, and was discovered by Turkish villagers in the province of Hatay, Turkish newspapers reported today. Reports suggest that he was quietly buried in Moscow over the weekend.

Ivanov was the second in command at Russia’s foreign military intelligence unit, the GRU. The general had last been deployed to review military installations in Syria, amid Kremlin attempts to reassert its influence in the Middle East, reports suggested.

Major General Ivanov’s body was found on 16 August but was only identified last week. Russia’s Red Star newspaper confirmed his death on Saturday in a brief obituary. Russia’s defence ministry declined to comment further.

Today, however, the Russian media questioned the official version of his death – that he had died while going for a swim – and pointed out that, as a top-ranking spy, he would have been accompanied everywhere by bodyguards.

Read moreMystery Over Russian General Yuri Ivanov, Deputy Head Of GRU, Found Dead On Turkish Beach

Russia: Lost Gold Of Tsars Found In Lake Baikal, The World’s Deepest Lake

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Kolchak’s gold in a Russian bank Kazan in 1918 before being moved onto the Lake Baikal train

A RUSSIAN mini-submarine may have found billions of pounds worth of lost gold in a Siberian lake, it was revealed yesterday.

Explorers have long searched for lost Tsarist treasures dating from the Bolshevik Revolution, when forces loyal to the deposed royal family fled the advancing Red Army.

Legend has it that 1,600 tons of gold – which could now be worth billions of pounds – was lost when anti-Communist commander Admiral Alexander Kolchak’s train plunged into Lake Baikal, the world’s oldest and deepest freshwater lake.

Last year, parts of a train and ammunition boxes were found.

And in recent days, the Mir-2 submersible has discovered “shiny metal objects” 1,200 feet below the surface at Cape Tolstoy. “Deep-sea vehicles found rectangular blocks with a metallic gleam, like gold,” said one source.

Explorers attempted to grab hold of the blocks with a manipulator arm but failed because of loose gravel on the bottom of the lake. Sources say that the submariners know the exact spot and are planning a new mission to determine if they have found the gold.

The Moscow News independent newspaper yesterday ran a story on the find, with the headline: “Lost gold of the Whites found in Baikal”. The story described the lost gold as “one of the great mysteries” of the Russian Revolution.

Read moreRussia: Lost Gold Of Tsars Found In Lake Baikal, The World’s Deepest Lake

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: ‘Mexican Drug Cartels Literally Do Control Parts Of Arizona’

See also:

Mexican Drug Cartel Puts $1 Million Bounty On Arizona Sheriff Joe Arpaio’s Head

Arizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: ‘Our Own Government Has Become Our Enemy’


Signs in Arizona warn of smuggler dangers

Drivers advised to travel north

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ASSOCIATED PRESS Federal police stand guard by Texas-born kingpin Edgar ASSOCIATED PRESS Federal police stand guard by Texas-born kingpin Edgar “La Barbie” Valdez during his presentation to the press in Mexico City on Tuesday. Valdez, who was captured on Monday by federal police, faces drug-trafficking charges in the U.S. and has been blamed for a vicious turf war that has included bodies hung from bridges and shootouts in central Mexico.

The federal government has posted signs along a major interstate highway in Arizona, more than 100 miles north of the U.S.-Mexico border, warning travelers the area is unsafe because of drug and alien smugglers, and a local sheriff says Mexican drug cartels now control some parts of the state.

The signs were posted by the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) along a 60-mile stretch of Interstate 8 between Casa Grande and Gila Bend, a major east-west corridor linking Tucson and Phoenix with San Diego.

They warn travelers that they are entering an “active drug and human smuggling area” and they may encounter “armed criminals and smuggling vehicles traveling at high rates of speed.” Beginning less than 50 miles south of Phoenix, the signs encourage travelers to “use public lands north of Interstate 8” and to call 911 if they “see suspicious activity.”

Pinal County Sheriff Paul Babeu, whose county lies at the center of major drug and alien smuggling routes to Phoenix and cities east and west, attests to the violence. He said his deputies are outmanned and outgunned by drug traffickers in the rough-hewn desert stretches of his own county.

“Mexican drug cartels literally do control parts of Arizona,” he said. “They literally have scouts on the high points in the mountains and in the hills and they literally control movement. They have radios, they have optics, they have night-vision goggles as good as anything law enforcement has.

“This is going on here in Arizona,” he said. “This is 70 to 80 miles from the border – 30 miles from the fifth-largest city in the United States.”

He said he asked the Obama administration for 3,000 National Guard soldiers to patrol the border, but what he got were 15 signs.

Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer condemned what she called the federal government’s “continued failure to secure our international border,” saying the lack of security has resulted in important natural recreational areas in her state being declared too dangerous to visit.

In a recent campaign video posted to YouTube, Mrs. Brewer – standing in front of one of the BLM signs – attacked the administration over the signs, calling them “an outrage” and telling President Obama to “Do your job. Secure our borders.”

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer Slams President Obama: Warning Signs Are Not Enough

BLM spokesman Dennis Godfrey in Arizona said agency officials were surprised by the reaction the signs generated when they were put up this summer.

Read moreArizona Sheriff Paul Babeu: ‘Mexican Drug Cartels Literally Do Control Parts Of Arizona’