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Why the world is quiet as Syria crackdown continues
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, pictured here at the UN Food and Agriculture Organization in Rome Friday, also spoke in Italy about the US plan to keep pressure on Syria for political reforms.
The United States on Monday suggested it is using the current weak position of the Syrian government on the world stage to try to pressure it into dropping its support for Hezbollah, the extremist organization in Lebanon.
In an interview with the US-funded Radio Sawa, US Ambassador to Syria Robert Ford said the US is demanding from the Syrian government that it immediately cease its assistance to Hezbollah and treat Lebanon as a friendly and sovereign country.
Aside from that development, however, the US – like much of the international community – appears to have adopted a muted response to Syria in the wake of its continuing crackdown on dissidents.
Officially, the Obama administration says that unlike Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi, President Bashar al-Assad still has time to reverse Read more…
Earthquake deaths increasing worldwide – UN report
Charlotte Bellis took this photo in the Christchurch CBD shortly after the quake struck. – Source: ONE News
Fatalities from earthquakes are increasing worldwide but the chance of dying in a weather-related disaster is diminishing the United Nations said today.
The UN report also claimed economic losses from catastrophes are rising in all regions often due to a lack of investment
Damage to infrastructure – schools, health centres, roads, bridges – is soaring in many low- and middle-income countries despite improvements in many early warning systems, it said in the Global Assessment Report on Disaster Risk Reduction.
Rich countries are also increasingly exposed, with damage on the rise following floods in Australia and earthquakes in Japan and New Zealand already this year, it said.
“Progress is mixed,” UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said in the report.
“The recent events in Japan point to new and catastrophic risks that need to be anticipated,” he warned, referring to the earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan last March that triggered the worst nuclear crisis in 25 years.
Disasters have already caused more than $300 billion in losses so far this year, roughly the same as in all of 2010, a UN Read more…
Warm Water Causing Cold Winters
This map shows sea‑surface temperatures averaged over eight days in September 2001, as measured by NASA’s Terra satellite. Dark red represents warm water (32 degrees Celsius) and purple is cold (‑2 degrees Celsius). The Gulf Stream can be seen as the orange strip extending from the eastern U.S. toward the Atlantic.Imagine this: you are standing outside in New York City while waiting for a cab. It is in the winter and you are likely freezing. What if you were doing the same thing, but in Porto, Portugal?
Porto shares the same latitude at the Big Apple, but in Portugal you would be about 10 degrees warmer.
This happens for the northeastern coast of the U.S. and eastern coast of Canada. This is also true in other parts of the world. When the northeastern coast of Asia is colder, the Pacific Northwest is warmer.
Researchers at the California Institute of Technology have found an explanation. The culprit is warmer water off the eastern coasts of Read more…
Nuclear plant workers release unknown amount of radioactive tritium into Mississippi River
(NaturalNews) Workers at the Grand Gulf Nuclear Plant in Port Gibson, Miss., last Thursday released a large amount of radioactive tritium directly into the Mississippi River, according to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), and experts are currently trying to sort out the situation. An investigation is currently underway to determine why the tritium was even present in standing water found in an abandoned unit of the plant, as well as how much of this dangerous nuclear byproduct ended up getting dumped into the river. Many also want to know why workers released the toxic tritium before conducting proper tests.
The Mississippi Natchez Democrat reports that crews first discovered the radioactive water in the plant’s Unit 2 turbine building after heavy rains began hitting the area last week. Unit 2 was a partially-constructed, abandoned structure that should not have contained any radioactive materials, let alone tritium, which is commonly used to manufacture nuclear weapons and test atomic bombs (http://www.nirs.org/radiation/triti…). Read more…
Poverty spikes to record highs in US
The number of American people living in poverty has soared to record-high levels, with African Americans suffering the bulk of the economic hardship in the US, reports say. Read more…
China’s yuan at record ahead of Washington talks
HONG KONG (MarketWatch) — China’s yuan rose to a fresh record against the U.S. dollar on Monday, edging up a fraction from its close in the previous trading session ahead of senior-level talks between Chinese and U.S. officials, slated for later Monday in Washington. China’s central bank set the official central parity rate for the U.S. dollar at 6.4988 yuan, compared to Friday’s setting of 6.5003 yuan. The level represented a record high against the dollar, according to the state-run Xinhua news agency. The U.S. dollar dropped below the 6.50-level for the first time on April 29, and was at 6.4955 around midday in East Asia on Monday, according to FactSet data.
Record wildlife die-offs reported in Northern Rockies
SALMON, Idaho — A record number of big-game animals perished this winter in parts of Montana, Idaho and Wyoming from a harsh season of unusually heavy snows and sustained cold in the Northern Rockies, state wildlife managers say.
“Elk, deer and moose — those animals are having a pretty tough time,” said Wyoming Game and Fish biologist Doug Brimeyer.
Snow and frigid temperatures in pockets of Idaho, Montana and Wyoming arrived earlier and lingered longer than usual, extending the time that wildlife were forced to forage on low reserves for scarce food, leading more of them to starve.
Based on aerial surveys of big-game herds and signals from radio-collared animals, experts are documenting high mortality among offspring of mule deer, white-tailed deer and pronghorn antelope.
This comes as big-game animals enter the last stretch of a period from mid-March through early May that is considered critical for survival.
Wildlife managers estimate die-offs in the tens of thousands across thousands of square miles that span prairie in northeastern Read more…
Fukushima Groundwater Contamination Worst in Nuclear History (Video)
Pakistan Prime Minister to warn US over Osama bin Laden raid
Pakistan’s prime minister will on Monday warn the United States it will defend its air space if American forces mount another raid on terrorists suspected of hiding inside the country.
Yusuf Raza Gilani will seek to restore some dignity in an address to the nation after the humiliation caused when American forces killed Osama bin Laden at a compound close to Pakistan’s main military academy in Abbottabad last week without alerting Pakistan.
A senior government source close to the prime minister said while Mr Gilani will take an aggressive stand to shore up the government’s position.
The source said: “The Prime Minister will say that the United States should not have bypassed Pakistan. We have made a huge contribution in fighting terrorism. We’ve arrested close to 100 al-Qaeda people, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.
“We’ll take appropriate action if any further violation takes place. We will defend our air space by any means we have.”
He will say that Washington’s decision to launch the raid without consulting Islamabad had plunged military and political relations Read more…
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