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Archive for February 16, 2011

Stonehenge Beneath the Waters of Lake Michigan

February 16, 2011 Comments off

Has a Stonehenge like structure been discovered underneath the waters of Lake Michigan. If so, the site could be around 10,000 years old!

[Image: Standing stones beneath Lake Michigan? View larger].

In a surprisingly under-reported story from 2007, Mark Holley, a professor of underwater archaeology at Northwestern Michigan University College, discovered a series of stones – some of them arranged in a circle and one of which seemed to show carvings of a mastodon – 40-feet beneath the surface waters of Lake Michigan.
If verified, the carvings could be as much as 10,000 years old – coincident with the post Read more…

Inflation in China rises as food prices soar

February 16, 2011 Comments off

A woman selects vegetables on a store inside a market in Beijing, China Tuesday, Feb. 15, 2011.  A jump in food prices pushed China's inflation higher

Consumer prices rose 4.9 percent, driven by a 10.3 percent jump in food costs, data showed Tuesday. That was up from December’s 4.6 percent rate and close to November’s 28-month high of 5.1 percent.  Inflation is politically dangerous for Beijing because it erodes the Chinese public’s economic gains and threatens acceptance of communist rule. China’s poorest families spend up to half their incomes on food and are hit hard by price rises.

In January, the price of fresh fruit soared by 34.8 percent over a year earlier, while eggs rose 20.2 percent, the National Bureau of Statistics reported.

Adding to a squeeze on food supplies, China’s wheat-growing northeast is in the grip of a severe drought that threatens its crop. Beijing has launched a $1 billion emergency campaign of cloud-seeding to induce rains and expanded irrigation.

Also in January, inflation that so far has been confined mostly to food began to spread to Read more…

Tens of thousands march against Yemen’s president

February 16, 2011 Comments off

By AHMED AL-HAJ
Associated Press

SANAA, Yemen (AP) – Thousands of people marching for the ouster of Yemen’s U.S.-allied president clashed Tuesday with police and government supporters, and at least three demonstrators were injured in a fifth straight day of Egypt-inspired protests.

Police tried to disperse the demonstrators using tear gas, batons and stun guns, but about 3,000 protesters defiantly continued their march from Sanaa University toward the city center, chanting slogans against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, including “Down with the president’s thugs!”

The procession gained momentum with hundreds of students and rights activists joining along the way.

The unrest comes as ties between the U.S. and Saleh have been Read more…

South Korea chaos after ‘heaviest’ snowfall (Video)

February 16, 2011 Comments off

BBC News

The heaviest snowfall in more than a century on South Korea’s east coast is causing widespread chaos.

Hundreds of houses have collapsed under the weight of the snow. One newspaper described it as a snow bomb.

The South Korean government has deployed 12,000 soldiers to rescue stranded residents.

The worst weather has been in Gangwon province. Weather experts say there will be more snowfall in the area in the coming hours.

“I am 83 years old. It’s the heaviest snow in my life. I am really grateful for the soldiers’ help,” said Park Chae-ran.

The BBC’s Nick Ravenscroft in Seoul says that Read more…

NATO Saw Potential For Russian Tactical Nuke Use, Cable Says

February 16, 2011 Comments off

NATO in 2009 judged that the Russian armed forces remained ready to use tactical nuclear arms to respond to low-level or other military conflicts, the Associated Press reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 14).

In general, the alliance assessed that Russia’s military was prepared to deal with no more than a medium-level conflict in the nation’s western sector, according to a diplomatic dispatch from the U.S. mission to NATO made public by the transparency organization WikiLeaks. Two large-scale Russian military drills conducted in 2009 were handicapped by personnel shortfalls and outdated technology, the document said (Slobodan Lekic, Associated Press/Google News, Feb. 14).

“(Russia is) still relying on the use of tactical nuclear weapons, even in local or regional conflicts,” the Xinhua News Agency quoted the dispatch as saying.

NATO’s conventional military edge is thought to be a key reason for the nuclear power’s continued holding of an estimated 2,000 battlefield nuclear weapons within Russian borders. Comparatively, the United States is believed to have only 200 nonstrategic nuclear arms fielded in five NATO states.

Washington has announced it wants to begin talks within one year with Moscow on negotiating a pact that would limit the two sides’ tactical nuclear weapons. The former Cold War antagonists recently enacted the New START arms control pact, which caps each sides’ deployed strategic nuclear arsenal at 1,550 (Xinhua News Agency/People’s Daily Online, Feb. 15).