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UNHCR shocked at mounting violence in Côte d’Ivoire
ABIDJAN, Côte d’Ivoire, March 18 (UNHCR) – The UN refugee agency said on Friday it was shocked at the escalating violence in Côte d’Ivoire, which has led to continuing population displacement. Fighting this week in the country’s commercial centre, Abidjan, has been at its fiercest level since the political crisis began after the presidential election in November.
On Thursday, residents of the city’s northern suburb of Abobo came under heavy shelling, leaving at least 25 people reported dead and many more injured. Earlier in the week, several other parts of Abidjan also registered attacks. Read more…
U.S. Dollar at 15 Month Low
The dollar fell to a 15-month low against a basket of currencies on Tuesday, with sterling among the biggest gainers after a rise in UK inflation increased the chances of a UK interest rate hike sooner rather than later.
Relative interest rate expectations also lifted the euro to its highest against the dollar this year, but a reported options barrier at $1.4250 and a sharp sell-off in euro/sterling following the UK inflation data capped its gains.
Consumer prices in the UK last month rose by 4.4 percent, a 28-month high, and more than double the Bank of England’s mid-point target of 2 percent. Money markets are now fully pricing in a quarter point rate hike from the Bank of England in July, versus August before the data.
The yen, meanwhile, was little changed on the day in a tight Read more…
A First: Fully Armed Chinese Missile Frigate Spotted Off Libyan Coast
Though China abstained from a UN Security Council vote authorizing a no-fly-zone in Libya, and are not among the 16 nation coalition involved in Operation Odyssey Dawn, for the first time in modern day naval history, a Chinese warship sailed in the Mediterranean Sea. The 4000 ton Xuzhou missile frigate sailed to Libya after being deployed of the coast of Yemen, on the other side of the Red Sea.
The missile frigate’s role is not exactly clear, but based on China’s position thus far it is not likely that the ship is part of the US, UK and French led attack. The People’s Daily, the Communist Party’s newspaper, earlier pointed to Iraq and Afghanistan, and criticized the US for launching a third attack “on a sovereign nation,” so the chances that China is providing assistance are slim. While China may be flexing some of its military might, they are more than likely in the area strictly to observe operations – for the time being.
Japan quake set Texas aquifer in motion
When the earth shook during the March 11 earthquake off Japan, it had enough force to move water deep inside the Edwards Aquifer in Central Texas.
Within 15 minutes of the magnitude-9.0 earthquake, the Edward Aquifer Authority’s J-17 monitoring well in Bexar County started to vibrate, with the water level fluctuating about a foot.
“It moved up and down for almost two hours,” said Roland Ruiz, a spokesman for the water authority. “We thought it was certainly interesting that a quake that far away would register in the aquifer.”
It isn’t the first time vibrations from earthquakes have shown up in the aquifer. Last year’s 8.8 quake in Chile and 7.0 temblor in Haiti were also detected.
The Dec. 26, 2004, earthquake off Sumatra, Indonesia, caused the largest fluctuation in the aquifer when the water level moved about 2.6 feet. That 9.1 quake triggered a tsunami that killed more than 200,000 people.
The Edwards Aquifer Authority provides water to 1.7 million people in South Central Texas, including San Antonio.
“It just seems to be a natural ripple effect felt halfway around the world,” said Ruiz, who added that the “sloshing around” inside the aquifer did not create any problems.
Bill Hanna, 817-390-7698
Concern about mission creep grows as more bombs fall on Libya
Barely 48 hours into the Libyan war, the American general running the air strikes came under fire about mission creep even while insisting that allied warplanes won’t hunt Moammar Gadhafi or back the rebels seeking to oust him.
“I have no mission to attack that person. And we are not doing so. We are not seeking his whereabouts or anything like that,” said General Carter Ham, U.S. regional commander for all of Africa.
Concerns over mission creep continue to be raised around the world – including in Canada – as a new set of strikes hit Triopoli late Monday. On a day in which Canadian CF-18s flew their first missions over Libya and Defence Minister Peter MacKay said Canada had a “moral duty” to participate, all four opposition parties endorsed Canadian involvement in the mission but pressed for details over how long the mission would last, what it would cost, and how it would Read more…
US Fed to release crisis bailout data
AFP/File – A view of the US Federal Reserve in Washington, DC. The US Federal Reserve said Monday it would release … WASHINGTON (AFP) – The US Federal Reserve said Monday it would release data on its emergency aid to banks after the Supreme Court rejected arguments to keep it secret.
The Supreme Court declined to review a ruling that forces the Fed to publish the names of banks that borrowed from its discount window in April and May 2008, months before the industry fell into a panic.
The discount window is a Fed facility banks can tap for short-term financing when they experience liquidity shortages, as some did when financial markets began to crumble with the housing market crash.
The Supreme Court’s decision effectively backed a request by the Read more…
Magnetic Monster: Geomagnetic Field Reveals Increasing Danger of ‘Continent Killing’ Quakes
The earth’s history is one of violence.
 Image: ‘Doomsday’
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(CHICAGO) – Russian geophysicist Pogrebnikov concurs with his colleagues at Harvard and Stanford: the earth may be in for a hell of a time.
Imagine events just short of doomsday and you’ll have a small glimpse of the global catastrophes that may lie just ahead.
Some scientists have seen this future—and the future is damn scary.
The former geologist Jim Berkland also “sees the future” on a regular basis, at least as far as earthquakes are concerned. He watches the geomagnetic field by watching aberrations in animals: odd actions, bizarre events, eerie mass deaths.
And the world’s animals are self-destructing in swarms, hordes, flocks.
The magnetite embedded in many animal’s brains make them sensitive to changes in the magnetic field. When that field is disrupted, some animals go mad. They get lost. Whales beach themselves. Birds desperately soar in confused flight and crash into each other, the ground and buildings.
Sometimes they just fall from the sky and die.
Berkland, a former USGS scientist has an 80 percent success rate predicting significant Read more…
CNN talks about how Humans will MERGE with computers, NO LIE!
GLOBAL Earthquake OVERVIEW – March 20, 2011 – Areas of concern, USA, EU, ASIA..(Video)
Chávez’s purchase of $15 billion in weapons causes concern in Latin America
Venezuelan President Hugo Chávez’s purchases of weapons totaling more than $15 billion causes concern in Latin America.
With the acquisition of hundreds of tanks, helicopters and bulletproof vehicles as well as submarines and missile networks, Venezuela is arming itself at a speed unprecedented in the history of the South American country.
Experts consulted by El Nuevo Herald have said that Hugo Chávez’s has created unrest in the region with purchases to expand its military that total more than $15 billion.
The analysts warned that the purchases are made in an improvised fashion, following a “dubious” process with no bidding or prior studies, which could lead the country to acquire a Russian technology difficult to adopt and rejected by segments of the National Armed Forces.
The funds Chávez is using for the purchase of these new weapons, the largest in the nation’s history, are in Read more…
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