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RADIATION?/ JET STREAM – MEGA STORM forms in the Pacific! March 17, 2011 (Video)
Russia warns of “full-scale military action” following Security Council vote on Libya

AFP Photo / Adek Berry
Following a decision by the UN Security Council to take “all necessary measures” against Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, Russian politicians and experts are warning of further destabilization in the region.
The UN Security Council voted on Thursday to impose a no-fly zone, which includes the possible use of military force, against pro-Gaddafi forces.
Presently, the Libyan strongman’s military is successfully beating back a large anti-government uprising, and is in the process of consolidating his forces around Benghazi, a city to the north where the “interim Libyan government” is penned in.
Diplomats said the resolution, which was written in the eleventh hour of the Libyan conflict, allows for a wide range of actions, including strikes on air-defense systems and missile attacks from ships.
Indeed, full-blown military activity could commence “within hours,” they said.
Russia and four other council members – China, Germany, Brazil and India – abstained from Read more…
Japan raises nuclear alert level

Japan holds minute silence one week on from quake
Japan has raised the alert level at a stricken nuclear plant from four to five on a seven-point international scale for atomic incidents.
The crisis at the Fukushima Daiichi site is now two levels below Ukraine’s 1986 Chernobyl disaster.
The head of the UN’s nuclear watchdog warned in Tokyo the battle to stabilise the plant was a race against time.
The crisis was prompted by last week’s huge quake and tsunami, which has left at least 16,000 people dead or missing.
The Japanese nuclear agency’s decision to raise the alert level to five grades Fukushima’s as an “accident with wider consequences”.
It also places the situation there on a par with 1979’s Three Mile Island nuclear accident in Read more…
Dr. Michio Kaku on Japan’s Nuclear Crisis: ‘We’re Very Close to the Point of No Return’
RBS says CNY has the potential to become global reserve currency
The FINANCIAL — The Royal Bank of Scotland Plc (RBS) believes Chinese Renminbi (CNY) can potentially become a world reserve currency comparable to the USD.
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This is one of the findings in the newly released research report ‘CNH Market Guide: A precursor to internationalisation of the Chinese Renminbi’, the most comprehensive research yet to look at the offshore CNY market in Hong Kong, also known as the CNH market.
The combination of growth in the offshore CNY market and the sheer size of the Chinese economy will support the Chinese government’s ambition to internationalise its currency, according to RBS.
“China now holds 30% of the world’s USD9trn foreign reserves. The other 70% which does not belong to the People’s Republic of China (PBOC) could potentially be held in CNY. As China’s share Read more…
Ex-FEMA chief says Arkansas should prepare for quakes
Former Federal Emergency Management Agency director James Lee Witt is urging Arkansans to better prepare for major earthquakes in light of the natural disaster that’s ravaging Japan.
Witt made the comments at a rotary club gathering in downtown Little Rock on Tuesday.
He says that people in Arkansas need to make sure that the state’s bridges, schools and nursing homes are capable of withstanding earthquakes, especially with a rash of quakes hitting the towns of Greenbrier and Guy and the presence of the New Madrid Fault in northeast Arkansas, where seismologists say a major quake could occur any time.
President Bill Clinton appointed Witt to head FEMA in 1993. He’s now considered one of the nation’s go-to guys for disaster response.
Djibouti evicts US vote group ahead of election
Djibouti’s government has kicked out an American election monitoring group less than a month before the nation’s presidential election, a vote opposition politicians are boycotting because they say the president is repressing dissent.
Djibouti is a tiny East African nation that hosts the only U.S. military base in Africa. Situated on the Gulf of Aden between Somalia, Ethiopia, Eritrea and Yemen, the city-state is a major shipping hub in a volatile region.
The country is nominally democratic, but events leading up to the April 8 presidential election appear to show a hardline approach by President Ismail Omar Guelleh at a time when democracy movements are upending administrations.
Democracy International, a U.S. group that works on democracy and governance programs, was halfway through a two-year, $2.2 million U.S. government-funded contract when it was accused of assisting opposition politicians and barred from the country earlier this month. Read more…
30 whales stranded on Tasmanian South Bruny Island beach
Could another earthquake be on the way due to the whale beaching?

RESCUE MISSION: The pilot whale stranding on Tasmania’s South Bruny Island. Picture: Tasmania Parks and Wildlife Service Source: PerthNow
A POD of about 30 pilot whales has stranded on Tasmania’s South Bruny Island.
The whales are believed to be pilot whales and became stranded late this afternoon.
Department of Parks and Wildlife spokeswoman Liz Wren said about 12 of the whales were still alive and Parks and Wildlife are on the beach trying to help the stranded mammals.
She said more staff from the marine team of the department were on their way to help.
It is understood workers from salmon farm company Tassal were also on the Read more…
The Coming “Egyptian Moment” in South Africa
As we watch the Egyptian government concede to the demands of their citizens and closely follow the unraveling of the North African governments, one must acknowledge the millions of youth who are courageously going against the grain by breaking down social and political barriers. The global disenfranchisement of youth in underserved communities is creating a perfect storm for additional revolutions to occur around the world.
As a South African, I wonder how South Africa’s leadership might respond if it were to reach a similar tipping point with its disenfranchised youth — where conservative estimates tell us that more than half of South Africans under the age of 25 are unemployed. I do believe it would be foolish for South African leaders to think that these unemployed and disconnected youth may not one day ignite a revolution.
As signs of discontentment emerge at Read more…
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