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Archive for April 16, 2011

Disasters to slash Australian growth by 1 pct

April 16, 2011 1 comment

AFP

SYDNEY — The hit to exports from Japan’s quake and tsunami, devastating floods in its own northeast and a rallying dollar has shaved 1.0 percent off Australia’s growth forecasts, according to a report.

Accompanied by a slump in consumer spending, the disasters have led the Treasury to downgrade growth from the 3.25 percent flagged in November’s budget update to 2.25 percent, said The Age newspaper on Saturday, citing an internal memo.

The devastation and nuclear crisis in key trading partner Japan wiped 0.25 percent from economic growth, according to the memo, with Australia’s Read more…

Categories: Australia Tags: , , , ,

Nigeria: National identity registration to begin after polls

April 16, 2011 2 comments

234next.com

Lead Image A new national identity registration would begin after the elections, the National Identity Management Commission, said on Wednesday, after the initial efforts by the federal government years ago could not yield the desired results.

Chris Onyemenam, the Director General, National Identity Management Commission, the guest speaker at the April edition of Information Value Chain Breakfast Forum, stated this at a monthly breakfast forum organised by Digital Jewels Limited. He said registration had already Read more…

Categories: Coming Events, Nigeria Tags: , , , , , ,

Face Recognizing Glasses to be Used by Brazilian Cops

April 16, 2011 Comments off

telegraph

A small camera fitted to the glasses can capture 400 facial images per second and send them to a central computer database storing up to 13 million faces.

The system can compare biometric data at 46,000 points on a face and will immediately signal any matches to known criminals or people wanted by police.

If there is a match a red signal will appear on a small screen connected to the glasses, alerting the police officer of the need to take further action or make an arrest.

The devices will soon be tested at football matches and concerts and police in Brazil, South America’s biggest country, are already planning to use them Read more…

Categories: Biometrics, Brazil, Technology Tags: , , , , , ,

Surging Food Prices Could Thrust Millions Into Poverty In Emerging Europe: World Bank

April 16, 2011 Comments off

WASHINGTON, April 16 (Bernama) — The recent price hikes in food and energy could push more than five million people in Eastern Europe and Central Asia into poverty, reports the China’s Xinhua news agency, quoting World Bank’s official.

Yvonne Tsikata, the director for Poverty reduction and economic management of the World Bank’s Europe and Central Asia region said: “The poorest people in the region will suffer the most from the high food and energy price inflation, which reduces their purchasing power’.

She said that the region’s poor often spend half of their income on food, and Read more…

Categories: asia, Europe, Food Crisis Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Gas prices surge toward $4, threaten economic recovery

April 16, 2011 3 comments

lakelandtimes

Click Map to enlarge

Gas prices continued to gallop toward $4 a gallon early this week, both in the area and across the state, as prices in Minocqua and Rhinelander hit $3.99 on Tuesday, even as prices for crude oil eased, at least temporarily.

Across the nation, according to GasBuddy.com on Wednesday morning, the national average price for a gallon of regular gasoline stood at $3.79; in Wisconsin, the average was $3.87. Four states, including Illinois, have seen prices already surpass $4.

Crude oil prices moved downward Tuesday from $113 a barrel – the highest price since September 2008 – to $106, a Read more…

Categories: Oil, United States Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , ,

The Truth About Silver and Inflation

April 16, 2011 1 comment

http://inflation.us

Silver futures surged today to a new 31-year high of $43.05 per ounce. Silver is up 146% since NIA declared silver the best investment for the next decade on December 11th, 2009, at $17.40 per ounce. All we need is for silver to rise by another 15.5% and silver will reach its all time high set in 1980 of $49.45 per ounce.
 
Keep in mind, silver’s high of $49.45 per ounce in 1980 would equal about $140 per ounce in today’s dollars adjusted to the consumer price index and about $400 per ounce in today’s dollars adjusted to Read more…
Categories: Inflation, Silver Tags: , , , , , , ,

Study: Half of supermarket meat may have staph bug

April 16, 2011 Comments off

AP

ATLANTA (AP) — Half the meat and poultry sold in the supermarket may be tainted with the staph germ, a new report suggests.

The new estimate is based on just 136 samples of beef, chicken, pork and turkey purchased from grocery stores in Chicago, Los Angeles, Washington, D.C., Flagstaff, Ariz. and Fort Lauderdale, Fla.

Proper cooking kills the germs, and federal health officials estimate staph accounts for less than 3 percent of foodborne illnesses, far less than more common bugs like salmonella and E. coli.

The new study found more than half the samples contained Staphylococcus Read more…

Categories: Food, United States Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , , ,

Ugandan police battle students, opposition

April 16, 2011 Comments off

AFP

A plain clothed security opperative charges down a road in Kasangati

KAMPALA — Fresh battles pitted Ugandan police against students in Kampala, and against opposition supporters in a western province Friday, a day after similar clashes left 57 people injured, officials said.

Opposition supporters are protesting a rise in the cost of living and what they say is bad governance by President Yoweri Museveni. On Thursday police fought running battles with opposition supporters hurling stones in several Read more…

Categories: Protests, Uganda Tags: , , , ,