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Archive for February, 2011

Saudi King Orders $37 Billion in Benefits to People To Quell Any Unrest

February 24, 2011 Comments off

news.yahoo.com

RIYADH (Reuters) – Saudi King Abdullah returned home on Wednesday after a three-month medical absence and unveiled benefits for Saudis worth some $37 billion in an apparent bid to insulate the world’s top oil exporter from an Arab protest wave.

The king, who had been convalescing in Morocco after back surgery in New York in November, stood as he descended from the plane in a special lift. He then took to a wheelchair.

Hundreds of men in white robes performed a traditional Bedouin sword dance on carpets laid out at Riyadh airport for the return of the monarch, thought to be 87.

Abdullah left his ailing octogenarian half-brother, Crown Prince Sultan, in charge during his absence.

Before Abdullah arrived, state media announced an action plan to help lower- and middle-income people among the 18 million Saudi nationals. It includes pay rises to offset inflation, unemployment benefits and affordable family housing.

Saudi Arabia has so far escaped popular protests against Read more…

Categories: Saudi Arabia Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Control over your food: Why Monsanto’s GM seeds are undemocratic

February 24, 2011 Comments off

Large biotech agribusinesses like Monsanto control much of the global seed market with genetically modified (GM) crops. This centralization of GM seeds threatens food safety, food security, biodiversity, and democratic ideals.

By Christopher D. Cook / February 23, 2011

www.csmonitor.com

Question: Would you want a small handful of government officials controlling America’s entire food supply, all its seeds and harvests?

I suspect most would scream, “No way!”

Yet, while America seems allergic to public servants – with no profit motive in mind – controlling anything these days, a knee-jerk faith in the “free market” has led to overwhelming centralized control of nearly all our food stuffs, from farm to fork.

The Obama administration’s recent decision to radically expand genetically modified (GM) food – approving unrestricted production of agribusiness biotech company Monsanto’s “Roundup Ready” alfalfa and sugar beets – marks a profound deepening of this centralization of food production in the hands of just a few corporations, with little but the profit motive to guide them.

IN PICTURES: From Field to Fork: The foreign and domestic food chain

Even as United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) officials enable a tighter corporate grip on the food chain, there is compelling evidence of GM foods’ ecological and human health risks, Read more…

Categories: Biotechnology, Genetically modified Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

FROM THE DESK OF PASTOR JOHN HAGEE

February 24, 2011 1 comment

For the past few days the world has been watching the Middle East implode! The streets of the nation of Egypt have been packed with riots and bloodshed. The Administration of Mubarak is apparently coming to an end. From my sources of information, I believe the Muslim Brotherhood is now in the driver’s seat to determine the future of Egypt .

The American media, with the exception of FOX News, is presenting the Muslim Brotherhood as moderate and lovers of democracy. This is utter nonsense. This is the hysterical jabber of our State Department that once again has fumbled the ball in the Middle East .

Making a long story short; if the Egyptian drama works out like the Fall of the Shah in Iran in 1979 (and I think it will) there will be a person approved of the Muslim Brotherhood to become Egypt’s new leader. He will appear initially as a moderate and within a few weeks embrace Sharia which is the Islamic law that now governs Iran .

Israel will be surrounded by Read more…

Categories: Bible Prophecy Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

IMF says weaker dollar would help global growth

February 24, 2011 Comments off
The International Monetary Fund called for a weaker dollar to help the United States reduce its deficits with the rest of the world and rebalance the global economy, in a report released Wednesday. 

The International Monetary Fund called for a weaker dollar to help the United States reduce its deficits with the rest of the world and rebalance the global economy, in a report released Wednesday.

AFP – The International Monetary Fund called for a weaker dollar to help the United States reduce its deficits with the rest of the world and rebalance the global economy, in a report released Wednesday.

In the report prepared for a Group of 20 finance chiefs meeting last week, the IMF said that its calculations showed the dollar remains “on the strong side” of medium-term fundamentals, while the euro and the Japanese yen were “broadly in line” and several Asian currencies, including China, were undervalued.

To address global imbalances, the G20 should allow the dollar to Read more…

Categories: Dollar, IMF, world Tags: , , , , , , , , ,

As Arab world shakes, Iran’s influence grows

February 24, 2011 1 comment

Michael Slackman

New York Times

MANAMA, Bahrain — The popular revolts shaking the Arab world have begun to shift the balance of power in the region, bolstering Iran’s position while weakening and unnerving its rival, Saudi Arabia, regional experts said.

While it is far too soon to write the final chapter on the uprisings’ impact, Iran already has benefited from the ouster or undermining of Arab leaders who were its strong adversaries and has begun to project its growing influence, the analysts said. This week Iran sent two warships through the Suez Canal for the first time since its revolution in 1979, and Egypt’s new military leaders allowed them to pass.

Saudi Arabia, a U.S. ally and a Sunni nation that jousts with Shiite Iran for regional influence, has been shaken. King Abdullah on Wednesday signaled his concern by announcing a $10 billion increase in welfare spending to help young people marry, buy homes and open businesses, a gesture seen as trying to head off the kind of unrest that fueled protests around Read more…

Categories: Iran, Middle East Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Russia, Iran to Ink Medical Isotope Export Deal

February 24, 2011 Comments off

globalsecuritynewswire.org

An agreement is being finalized for Russia to export medical isotopes to Iran, the Russian state-owned nuclear firm Rosatom announced yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 22).

Israeli President Shimon Peres delivers a speech in Madrid today. Peres said the passage of two Iranian navy ships through the Suez Canal to the Mediterranean Sea showcased the potential threat of a nuclear-armed Iran (Javier Soriano/Getty Images).

A spokesman for the organization did not elaborate on the timing of the anticipated signing, RIA Novosti reported. Tehran’s need for molybdenum 99 and iodine 131 was addressed in talks between Iranian officials and Rosatom head Sergei Kiriyenko (RIA Novosti, Feb. 22).

The deal would involve transfers of each isotope from Russia to Iran every week, Interfax reported.

Under a 2009 bid put forward by the International Atomic Energy Agency, Iran would have exchanged 1,200 kilograms of low-enriched uranium for material to fuel a medical isotope production reactor in Tehran. The Middle Eastern state ultimately rejected the plan worked out with France, Russia and the United States, which was aimed in part at deferring Iran’s ability to produce sufficient weapon material for a bomb long enough to more fully address U.S. and European concerns about Iranian enrichment activities. Tehran has insisted its atomic ambitions are strictly peaceful.

Iran since December has two rounds of talks with Germany and permanent U.N. Security Council member states Read more…

Categories: Iran, Russia Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

2 million Egyptians in Tahrir Square chant “To Jerusalem we are heading, Martyrs in the millions.”

February 24, 2011 Comments off
Categories: Egypt, Israel Tags: , , , ,

New Currency Arrangement and Revaluation of Gold Reserves Predicted

February 24, 2011 Comments off

Chris Powell, Secretary/Treasurer of gata.org, is asked by James Turk, Director of The GoldMoney Foundation and Founder of GoldMoney if we’re heading towards a monetary train wreck. Chris expects the central banks to mobilize gold back into the monetary system. This would perhaps mean a new currency arrangement and a revaluation of the gold reserves. View the full 34-minutes interview at: www.goldmoney.com/powell-turk.

Categories: GOLD Tags: , ,

Somali pirates threaten to murder more hostages after deaths of four Americans

February 23, 2011 Comments off
the USS Enterprise
Somalia pirates detained after Tuesday’s killings are being held on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise. Photograph: Todd Cichonowicz/AP

 

Pirates in Somalia have said they are ferrying ammunition and men to the 30 hijacked vessels under their control, and threatened to kill more captives following the violent end to a hostage standoff that left four Americans dead.

The US military said that 15 Somali pirates detained after the killings on Tuesday could face trial in the United States. The pirates are being held on the aircraft carrier USS Enterprise off East Africa. The FBI is investigating the killings of Phyllis Macay and Bob Riggle, of Seattle, and Jean and Scott Adam, of Los Angeles, who had made their home aboard their yacht Quest since December 2004.

Pirates hijacked the yacht last Friday and held the four hostage. When a US warship Read more…

Categories: pirates, Somalia Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

“Shocking Images” Coming Out of Greece

February 23, 2011 Comments off

theblaze.com

Protesters have once again taken to the streets in Greece today. And once again, the marches have turned violent as rioters are hurling firebombs at police. And the Associated Press reports many of them are wielding communist flags.

During one firebomb attack, rioters hit a police officer directly, engulfing him in flames:

Read more…

Categories: Greece, Protests Tags: ,