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Israeli forces open fire at Palestinian protesters
Jon Donnison in Ramallah: “Palestinians are feeling emboldened and inspired by the uprisings elsewhere [in the Middle East]”
Israeli forces have fired on groups of protesters at borders with the Palestinian territories, Syria and Lebanon.
Reports say that at least 12 people have died and dozens more have been injured.
In one incident, thousands of Palestinian supporters from Syria entered the Golan Heights, Israel says.
Palestinians are marking the Nakba or Catastrophe, their term for the founding of the Israeli state in 1948.
Hundreds of thousands of Palestinians fled or were forced out of their homes in fighting after its creation.
Responding in a televised address to Sunday’s violence, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said he hoped “calm and quiet will quickly return, but let nobody be mistaken, we are determined to defend our borders and sovereignty”.
Impetus
Clashes have been taking place at four separate borders or crossing points – at Erez in Gaza, near Ramallah in the West Bank, on the Golan Read more…
I.M.F. Names Replacement as Chief Awaits Arraignment
Hours after its chief, Dominique Strauss-Kahn, was arrested in connection with the alleged sexual attack of a maid at a Midtown Manhattan hotel, the International Monetary Fundon Sunday named John Lipsky as acting managing director.
Mr. Lipsky, the I.M.F.’s first deputy managing director, is a former U.S. Treasury executive and onetime banker at JP Morgan. William Murray, an I.M.F. spokesman, said that Mr. Lipsky, who has been overseeing the logistics of the bailout of the Greek economy, would meet with members of the I.M.F. board in Washington later in the day, according to Reuters.
“In line with standard I.M.F. procedures, John Lipsky, first deputy managing director, is acting managing director while the M.D. is not in D.C.,” Mr. Murray said in a statement. “Mr. Lipsky will chair the informal Board session today.”
Mr. Strauss-Kahn, 62, was awaiting arraignment on Sunday afternoon in Manhattan. The New York Police Department formally arrested him at 2:15 that morning “on charges of criminal sexual act, attempted rape, and an unlawful imprisonment in connection with a sexual assault on a 32-year-old chambermaid in the luxury suite of a Midtown Manhattan hotel yesterday” about 1 p.m., Deputy Commissioner Paul J. Browne, the department’s chief spokesman, said.
Reached by telephone, Benjamin Brafman, a lawyer, said he would be representing Mr. Strauss-Kahn with William Taylor, a lawyer in
Washington.
“We have not yet been able to meet with our client and we may have more to say tomorrow,” said Mr. Brafman, who said he had been contacted Read more…
United States to hit debt ceiling on Monday
WASHINGTON — The debt-laden US government’s credit card will hit its limit Monday, creating a cash crunch that puts the country’s credit standing at risk as politicians battle over its long-term deficit.
Reaching the $14.29 trillion ceiling set by Congress will not have an immediate impact on government finances, because the Treasury has found about ten weeks of wiggle-room in short-term adjustments and an unexpected April jump in tax revenues.
But with Republicans refusing to increase the ceiling without massive future spending cuts, the longer the fight over bridging the country’s deficit goes on, the higher the stakes will get.
If nothing is done by about August 2, there is a chance the United States, which has always merited a top-grade credit rating, could do the unthinkable — default on its debt payments.
Few think it will get that far, as the White House leads behind-the-scenes talks on a grand strategy on the deficit — with Republicans insisting on spending cuts and Democrats demanding tax increases as well.
Still, some liken the fight to a game of chicken being played with the country’s credit standing at Read more…
USDA: Food prices to rise further during rest of 2011
World instability+Food Prices+Oil+Floods+Droughts+Inflation=A Hungry and Broke You/Me
A federal study finds food prices will take a bigger bite out of Iowans’ food budgets this year. Rick Volpe, an economist with the U-S Department of Agriculture, says a trip to the grocery store will mean either less food in your cart or less money in your wallet.
“It will be hard to pay roughly the same amount you paid in 2010,” Volpe says. “There is no question that the food budget is going up for a lot of households.” Volpe says the highest price hikes will be seen in the supermarket’s meat and dairy cases.
“We’re forecasting a seven-to-eight-percent increase in retail beef prices and six-and-a-half to seven-and-a-half for pork,” he says. “Your milk, yogurt and cheese, we are forecasting about a five-percent increase.”
Volpe says there are several reasons for the hike in food prices but the rising cost of fuel is foremost. Triple-A-Iowa says the Read more…
Bedbugs with ‘superbug’ germ found
We’ve all heard the expression “don’t let the bed bugs bite.” Well that’s exactly what they do, and a new study shows some of them may be carrying a staph infection superbug.
First of all the study is very small and preliminary. Canadian scientists found drug-resistant staph bacteria in bedbugs at a hospital in British Columbia. Experts say while the bugs cause a lot of discomfort they have not been known to spread disease. Just the word bedbug gives a lot of people the willies.
The small pests were nearly wiped out 70 years ago, but they are once again a growing problem.
Karen Christie is an infection preventionist with ProMedica. She says, “In the state of Ohio, we’ve seen a real increase and part of the reason for that is they are resistant to some of the pesticides that are used to treat and kill bedbugs.”
The Centers for Disease Control released a study on the potential bedbug superbug this week. Doctors at a Vancouver hospital did research after seeing a spike in bedbugs and staph infections from a neighborhood near the hospital. Five bed bugs were crushed and analyzed. Methicillin resistant staphylococcus aureus or MRSA was found on three of the bugs. MRSA is resistant to several Read more…
House approves biometrics listing bill -MANILA, PHILIPPINES
MANILA, PHILIPPINES
THE HOUSE of Representatives approved on second reading on Tuesday a bill that seeks to clean the voter record in preparation for the midterm elections in 2013.
The Web site of the Bills and Index service stated that House Bill 3469 requires all voters to have their biometrics data — photographs, fingerprints and signature — taken by an election officer.
The bill, aside from ensuring that the Automated Fingerprint Identification System will identify double registrants and other irregularities, is seen to also discourage cheating.
Data from the Commission on Elections (Comelec) showed that there were 704,542 voters with double or multiple registration in May 2010 general elections.
The bill defines such voters as those registered in more than one city or municipality.
Only half of the 50.8 million voters have biometrics data, the Comelec said.
The bill seeks to prohibit those without biometrics data from voting. Read more…
Silver to Surge to $450/oz and Gold to $12,000/oz – Cazenove’s Robin Griffiths
Gold and silver are higher this morning with the dollar, the British pound and commodity currencies falling in value. It is too early to tell whether the recent margin driven, paper sell off on the COMEX is over but physical supply remains limited while demand remains robust, particularly in China, India and wider Asia.
Cross Currency Rates
Knowledgeable experts continue to urge investors to own gold and silver due to the likelihood of much higher prices, currency and inflation risk.
One of the most respected global technical and macro strategists in the world, Robin Griffiths has said that silver and gold could rise to $450 and $12,000 per ounce respectively due to the debasement of Read more…
India’s Army Could Receive WMD-Resistant Gear
Russia announced that it would provide its military with these suits earlier this month.
India’s army could receive new gear designed to provide protection against chemical, biological or nuclear materials, the Press Trust of India reported on Wednesday (see GSN, April 26).
Kanpur’s Defense Material and Stores Research Development Establishment “has developed a new NBC or nuclear-biological-chemical suit that would be proved effective against any kind of dangerous weapons or chemicals and protect soldiers from any sort of attack,” agency head Arvind Kumar Saxena said.
“The organization [has] developed the chemical attack-resistant suit, but the suits necessary for the nuclear and biological war situation has not been prepared,” the official said. “The work on the biological suit is likely to be completed by 2013, whereas the preparation for the Read more…
Rising Mississippi takes aim at Cajun country
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| Workers build a temporary levee in Krotz Springs, La., Thursday, May 12, 2011, in advance of possible flooding if the Morganza Spillway north of Baton Rouge is opened. Crews were rushing to build temporary levees to protect properties that have been built outside of the town’s permanent ring levee over the last few decades. (AP Photo/Patrick Semansky) |
BUTTE LAROSE, La. (AP) — In the latest agonizing decision along the swollen Mississippi River, federal engineers are close to opening a massive spillway that would protect Baton Rouge and New Orleans but flood hundreds of thousands of acres in Louisiana Cajun country.
With that threat looming, some 25,000 people in an area known for small farms, fish camps, crawfish and a drawling French dialect are hurriedly packing their things and worrying that their homes and way of life might soon be drowned.
People in this riverfront community gathered at their volunteer fire station to hear a man dressed in Army fatigues deliver an Read more…
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