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Scores flee homes as surging Mississippi nears record level
Houses have been engulfed by water in Memphis, Tennessee. Photo: Getty ImagesTourists gathered and gawkers snapped photos of the rising Mississippi River, even as more residents were told to flee their homes and the river’s crest edged towards Memphis in Tennessee.
US officials went door-to-door on Sunday, warning about 240 people to get out before the river reached its expected peak on Tuesday.
In all, residents in more than 1300 homes have been told to go, and about 370 people were staying in shelters.
The Mississippi spared Kentucky and north-west Tennessee catastrophic flooding, but some low-lying towns and farmland along the Read more…
Russian resources fuel China’s economic growth
China has increased high tech exports to Russia 300% in the past five years, while its imports from Russia are dominated by commodities, the Economic Development Ministry said.
China accounted for the bulk of Russia’s bilateral trade, which reached $60 billion in 2010. Russia has increased equipment exports by only 30% since 2005, according to a ministry report on economic relations with China.
No government documents pertaining to Russia’s relations with economic partners are ever published. There is a confidential part to Russia’s foreign economic strategy through 2020, which gives a detailed description of goals and risks related to contacts with each of Russia’s economic partners. Based on this strategy, two years ago the Economic Development Ministry worked out very specific country plans through 2012.
The 2010 report on the China plan progress is addressed to Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Zhukov, who chairs the Russian-Chinese Commission.
In 2009 Zhukov said shortly before Prime Minister Vladimir Putin’s visit to China: “Unfortunately, the share of machinery and equipment in our exports to China is sparse. Our plan is to increase exports of products with a high level of processing.”
However, the ministry report indicates that the progress has been unimpressive so far. Russia’s imports from China are $19bn Read more…
Egypt and Israel Headed for Crisis
Israeli officials have expressed alarm at a succession of moves by the interim Egyptian government that they fear signal an impending crisis in relations with Cairo.
The widening rift was underscored yesterday when leaders of the rival Palestinian factions Hamas and Fatah signed a reconciliation pact in the Egyptian capital. Egypt’s secret role in brokering the agreement last week caught both Israel and the United States by surprise.
The Israeli prime minister, Benjamin Netanyahu, called the deal “a tremendous blow to peace and a great victory for terrorism”.
Several other developments have added to Israeli concerns about its relations with Egypt, including signs that Cairo hopes to renew ties with Iran and renegotiate a long-standing contract to supply Israel with natural gas.
More worrying still to Israeli officials are reported plans by Egyptian authorities to open the Rafah crossing into Gaza, closed for the Read more…
Big Brother Gov’t Seeks to Tax and Track All Drivers
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| Dees Illustration |
Eric Blair
Activist Post
“Oh, say can you see…the land of the fee, and home of the slave?” Americans really better wake up before it’s too late. Perhaps it already is.
Today Pete Kasperowicz of The Hill reported that the Obama administration, following a March Congressional Budget Office report, has “floated” the idea of taxing drivers per mile. Kasperowicz writes:
The plan is a part of the administration’s ‘Transportation Opportunities Act,’ an undated draft of which was obtained this week by Transportation Weekly.
…Among other things, CBO suggested that a vehicle miles traveled (VMT) tax could be tracked by installing electronic equipment on each car to determine how many miles were driven; payment could take place Read more…
New study: Nations requiring the most vaccines tend to have the worst infant mortality rates
(NaturalNews) A new study, published in Human and Experimental Toxicology (http://het.sagepub.com/content/earl…), a peer-reviewed journal indexed by the National Library of Medicine, found that nations with higher (worse) infant mortality rates tend to give their infants more vaccine doses. For example, the United States requires infants to receive 26 vaccines — the most in the world — yet more than six U.S. infants die per every 1000 live births. In contrast, Sweden and Japan administer 12 vaccines to infants, the least amount, and report less than three deaths per 1000 live births.
The authors of the study, Neil Z. Miller and Dr. Gary Goldman, conducted a literature review to determine the immunization schedules for the United States and all 33 nations with better infant mortality rates than the United States. The total number of vaccine doses specified for infants aged less than one year was then determined for each country. The 34 nations were then organized into data pairs consisting of total number of vaccine doses specified for their infants and infant mortality rates. A scatter plot of the data pairs provided evidence of a positive correlation: infant mortality rates and vaccine doses tend to increase together.
Nations were also grouped into five different vaccine dose ranges. The mean infant mortality rates of all nations within each Read more…
Osama bin Laden dead: hi-tech secret may end up in China
There are growing fears that top-secret stealth technology taken from the helicopter that crashed during the raid on the home of Osama bin Laden could be smuggled into China and cause a diplomatic row.
The American troops used thermite grenades to destroy the helicopter’s main body but its rear section was left intact and taken away by the Pakistani military soon after the night raid on Monday. It is feared that if Islamabad refuses a request from Washington for the return of the tail section that the issue could turn into a diplomatic rift Read more…
Flooding forces more evacuations along Mississippi, Ohio rivers
Authorities ordered more evacuations near the Mississippi and Ohio rivers as floodwaters continued to surge southward early Friday, inundating farmlands, highways and homes.
The east-central Arkansas towns of Cotton Plant, Gregory and McClelland were under mandatory evacuations, a spokesman for the state’s emergency management department said.
Waters toppled at least one levee in the area, prompting the evacuation order, the spokesman said. The order affected about 1,000 residents from the three small towns.
In Memphis, Tennessee, riverside parks were flooded and the Shelby County Office of Preparedness warned that homes on the upscale Mud Island were among the 2,832 properties that could be affected by flooding.
“There’s nothing you can do to stop it,” said Ben Ferguson, a syndicated talk show host who lives on the island.
Floods prompted authorities to close more than 20 miles of westbound Interstate 40 in eastern Arkansas. The eastbound stretch of Read more…
Mice plague hits biblical proportions across New South Wales farms
Mice are at plague proportions in the NSW Riverina area. Source: The Daily Telegraph Source: Supplied
DROUGHTS, locusts and floods – now a mouse plague threatens to cripple winter crops.
With an estimated 8000 mice per hectare, farmers are fighting a losing war against the pint-sized enemy, which eats seedlings as quickly as they can be planted and chews through new crops.
Describing the vermin as “intelligent and crafty”, NSW Riverina farmer John Pattison said their natural predators had disappeared after recent weather events, allowing them to multiply at a fast rate.
Not seen in such numbers for 15 years, they hide underground and grab the seed as it germinates.
Primary Industries Minister Katrina Hodgkinson said she would move swiftly to increase the production of poison to meet demand.
The worst affected areas are Hillston, Wentworth, Warren, Parkes and Griffith, with mouse activity and damage also reported in other areas across the Central West, Darling, Lachlan, Hume and Riverina.
Riverina firefighters have blamed mice for chewing through wire and starting a fire which almost killed a dairy farmer. Six people have also tested positive for a rare disease carried by mice.
How Far Does Silver Fall?
With silver dropping roughly 19% in the last three days, a correction is clearly under way. Let’s take a quick look at how far it might drop.
I’ve updated the “corrections” chart, which shows all major pullbacks in silver since our bull market began in 2001. The data measure any clearly visible drop in price greater than 10%, regardless of time length. As you’ll see, some drops occurred over short periods of time, while others were prolonged.
It’s clear that silver has had some large and scary sell-offs. But the “silver” lining to that fact is the realization that our current volatility is perfectly normal.
The average of all corrections is 19%. Applied to our high of $48.70 on April 28, silver would fall to Read more…
Bad News from NASA: Proof That Comet Elenin Is Affecting Earth
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| Dees Illustration |
Dr. Mark Sircus, Contributing Writer
Activist Post
This is going to be the most extraordinary communication so fasten your seatbelts; we are in for a rough ride. I have known in my heart for months that I would have to make a communication like this but had no idea it would be this soon. Back in January, while investigating the underground city that is alleged to have been built under the new Denver Airport, reported on by the former governor Jesse Ventura, I put the puzzle together and came to the conclusion that a planetary event was in store for us in 2012.
Today I am presenting rock solid information; it does not get any better when NASA is your source. What you are about to read and see is happening. Last night, looking at a NASA mathematical model of comet Elenin, I found out that a large celestial body has already penetrated the solar system and is on course for a near and possibly horrific encounter with the earth in the fall of 2011. What we do not know is the size and mass of comet Elenin though I have no doubt that it is known by Read more…
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