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Portugal’s Government May Collapse Before EU Summit
In a report published by Reuters, the Portuguese parliament is expected to reject government austerity measures on Wednesday, which could lead to the collapse of the minority Socialist administration one day before the EU summit.
The country’s Prime Minister, Jose Socrates, has declared that he will resign if the plan is defeated, due to the fact that its rejection would force debt-ridden Portugal to seek a similar international bailout to Greece and Ireland.
If Socrates stands by his word, then he appears to be heading for the exit door as all opposition parties have proposed resolutions calling for the rejection of the measures, which would look to cut the debt by reducing pensions and state spending.
The main opposition is the Social Democrats, and the party has already begun talking about a snap election. When asked if it is likely that the government will step down, Socialist bench leader in parliament Francisco Assis said that, “If all these positions that now seem irreversible are confirmed, then yes.”
“The prime minister does not want to resign, but he cannot govern against his convictions,” Assis said.
Silver, gold gain on fast-changing global events
Silver and gold prices are climbing as developing crises from Portugal’s financial problems to uprisings in the Middle East are prompting investors to buy more stable assets.
Silver for May delivery rose 2.6 percent Wednesday to settle at $37.198 an ounce. Gold settled up $10.40 at $1,438 an ounce.
Investors are nervous as they monitor fast-changing global events.
In Portugal, lawmakers are poised to vote against more austerity measures for the debt-stressed country. Meanwhile violence in the Middle East and North Africa is raising concern about oil supplies.
The uncertainty of how those events will play out is supporting both precious metals, which have the reputation of being safer assets to hold during turbulent economic times.
Energy prices were mainly higher. Bean and grain prices fell.
Powerful sunspot emerges, extreme UV radiation detected
(TheWeatherSpace.com) — A sunspot is emerging around the southeastern limb of the Sun and it is a powerful one at that.
Labeled 1176, this sunspot may have been old sunspot 1165 when it was last seen in early March on the southwestern limb of the Sun.
Since then it has rotated to the far side of the Sun and it looks as if it was busy doing so. This sunspot will have the power to generate large solar flares for the next couple weeks as it crosses the Earth facing side of the Sun.
NASA’s Solar Dynamics Observatory has recorded very high levels of UV radiation from this sunspot, a clear signal to unsettled times ahead for it and the Earth should it blast a solar flare this way.
“If this puts a flare in this direction you can bet on more powerful earthquakes in the world,” TheWeatherSpace.com Senior Meteorologist Kevin Martin said. “We’ve been quiet and that is not a coincidence.”
A global energy war looms
Here’s an alarming chart to ponder. HSBC has calculated what would happen to energy consumption by 2050 given plausible forecasts for economic growth and assuming no constraint on resources, or that humans carry on using energy in the “taken for granted” way they do at the moment.
As you can see, demand in China, India and other emerging markets soars, but there is also quite considerable growth from advanced economies too. The big picture is that with an additional one billion cars on the road, demand for oil would grow 110pc to more than 190 million barrels per day. Total demand for energy would rise by a similar order of magnitude, doubling the Read more…
Japan battles crippled nuclear plant, radiation fears grow
Radiation found in sea water, milk, vegetables; IAEA: Overall situation at Fukushima plant remains serious; 21,000 dead or missing.
TOKYO – Rising temperatures around the core of one of the reactors at Japan’s quake-crippled nuclear plant sparked new concern on Tuesday and more water was needed to cool it down, the plant’s operator said.
Despite hopes of progress in the world’s worst nuclear crisis in a quarter of a century, triggered by an earthquake and tsunami that left at least 21,000 people dead or missing, plant operator Tokyo Electric Power Co (TEPCO) said it needed more time before it could say the reactors were stabilized.
Technicians working inside an evacuation zone around the stricken plant on Japan’s northeast Pacific coast, 250 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, have attached power cables to all six reactors and started a pump at one to cool overheating nuclear Read more…
FBI center takes on $1 billion ID project
CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The Clarksburg FBI complex is taking part in a $1 billion project that will enable law enforcement agencies to identify criminals and terrorists by physical characteristics more quickly and accurately, an FBI official said Monday in Charleston.
Earlier this month, the FBI center unveiled its “Next Generation Identification System,” which will slowly replace an older system that can no longer handle the volume of fingerprints sent to Clarksburg.
“It’s bigger, better, faster,” said Stephen Morris, a deputy assistant director at the FBI Center. “It increases capacity and accuracy.”
Morris spoke Monday at a Charleston Rotary Club luncheon at the Civic Center.
The NGI system, built by Lockheed Martin, allows FBI employees to Read more…
Is China Backing Indian Insurgents?
The arrest in January of a Chinese spy who allegedly met insurgents in the northeast of the country suggests a broader effort to destabilize India.
On January 25, 2011, Wang Qing, a Chinese spy disguised as a TV reporter, was arrested and deported after she reportedly visited the headquarters of the National Socialist Council of Nagalim (Isak-Muivah) or NSCN-IM—one of India’s largest and most troublesome insurgent groups. Indian authorities said Qing admitted to being a spy for the People’s Security Bureau, a Chinese intelligence agency, and that she had conducted a secretive four-hour-long, closed-door meeting with Thuingaleng Muivah, a key rebel leader of the NSCN-IM who is currently holding reconciliation talks with the Indian government. The rebel group, however, insisted that it was holding talks with the Indian Government in good faith and that it has had Read more…
China Tightens Censorship of Electronic Communications
BEIJING — If anyone wonders whether the Chinese government has tightened its grip on electronic communications since protests began engulfing the Arab world, Shakespeare may prove instructive.
A Beijing entrepreneur, discussing restaurant choices with his fiancée over their cellphones last week, quoted Queen Gertrude’s response to Hamlet: “The lady doth protest too much, methinks.” The second time he said the word “protest,” her phone cut off.
He spoke English, but another caller, repeating the same phrase on Monday in Chinese over a different phone, was also cut off in mid-sentence.
A host of evidence over the past several weeks shows that Chinese authorities are more Read more…
Malaysia Seen as Possible WMD Transport Hub
Malaysian Home Minister Datuk Seri Hishammuddin Hussein on Monday said his country was probably used as a midshipment point for the illicit movement of WMD materials, The Star newspaper reported (see GSN, March 18).
“It is safe for me to say that Malaysia is likely being used as a transit point and not as a destination point for WMD,” Hishammuddin said.
Authorities in the Southeast Asian state last week announced they had seized two containers from a Malaysian-flagged ship that were filled with technology that could have applications in the building of nuclear weapons. Reports indicated the vessel was heading from China to Iran.
“It will take us some time to identify the equipment, what it can be used for and to Read more…
First North Pole Ozone Hole Forming?
Spawned by strangely cold temperatures, “beautiful” clouds helped strip the Arctic atmosphere of most of its protective ozone this winter, new research shows.
The resulting zone of low-ozone air could drift as far south as New York, according to experts who warn of increased skin-cancer risk.
The stratosphere’s global blanket of ozone—about 12 miles (20 kilometers) above Earth—blocks most of the sun‘s high-frequency ultraviolet (UV) rays from hitting Earth’s surface, largely preventing sunburn and skin cancer.
But a continuing high-altitude freeze over the Arctic may have already reduced ozone to half its normal concentrations—and “an end is not in sight,” said research leader Markus Rex, a physicist for the Alfred Wegener Institute for Polar and Marine Research in Bremerhaven, Germany.
Preliminary data from 30 ozone-monitoring stations throughout the Arctic show the Read more…
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