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Drought worsens fears of inflation
A rare drought that has wreaked havoc in central and southern China is expected to send grain prices soaring as experts predict the worst disaster of its kind in 50 years could offset the government’s efforts to curb inflation and threaten its annual CPI target of 4 percent.
Five provinces in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River – Hubei, Hunan, Jiangxi, Anhui and Jiangsu, a major grain-producing region – have suffered the most serious drought in decades.
The drought had affected 34.8 million people, over one million livestock, and 3.7 million hectares of farmland as of Friday, causing direct economic losses of 14.9 billion yuan ($2.3 billion), the Ministry of Civil Affairs said.
As farmers struggled to find new water sources for their crops, many fishing boats found themselves grounded as the river and lakes shrank, and residents in the region found the prices of vegetables, rice and aquatic products rising.
“Prices of some fruit and vegetables have increased to 6 yuan per kilogram on Tuesday from 3.6 yuan last week,” Jin Zhengsheng, 50, a resident of Kunshan, Jiangsu Province, told the Global Times.
Huang Xianyin, 41, a villager from Xinjian county, Jiangxi Province, also noticed the hikes.
“It’s not only vegetables. Read more…
New concerns over Lyme disease
Ted Simons can’t remember the content of a recent phone conversation. When he reads, an activity he has always enjoyed, he has trouble understanding and retaining what he’s read.
Yet Simons, a performer and composer of music, can still play the piano and remember thousands of songs. The 78-year-old Westport resident and his wife Jean don’t know exactly what’s wrong with him.
Tests have shown it’s unlikely he has Alzheimer’s disease, though he shows signs of dementia. The couple have tried various therapies, but nothing has worked for long. In talking to doctors, the Simons have developed a possible, unexpected cause for Ted’s confusion and memory problems: Lyme disease.
The illness, spread by tick bites, can affect different organ systems, including Read more…
Netanyahu says will give up some land for peace
WASHINGTON – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said explicitly for the first time on Tuesday he was prepared to give up some settlements for peace, but he laid out familiar demands unlikely to draw the Palestinians back to the negotiating table.Treated to standing ovations from US lawmakers just days after strained talks with President Barack Obama, Netanyahu said he was ready for “painful compromises.” But Palestinians swiftly rejected his list of conditions as unacceptable.
The right-wing Israeli leader’s speech to Congress capped a turbulent five-day visit to Washington that laid bare his differences with Obama on how to revive the moribund peace process and raised little hope for getting new talks off the ground any time soon.
Though Netanyahu recognized in the clearest terms yet that Israel would have to abandon some Jewish settlements built Read more…
Flights out of Scotland cancelled as ash cloud from Iceland volcano ‘will drift over UK within hours’
A Scottish airline has cancelled 36 flights tomorrow as the ash cloud billowing from a volanco in Iceland approaches UK airspace.
Regional carrier Loganair, which flies out of Glasgow, announced that there would be no flights following a Civil Aviation Authority warning that disruption could not be ruled out.
The Met Office is predicting the plume of ash from the Grimsvotn volcano will begin to drift over parts of Scotland in the next few hours and would cover all of Ireland, Scotland and parts of northern Britain by 6am tomorrow.
Asked whether this would cause some disruption to flights, a CAA spokesman said: ‘That’s the way it’s looking certainly at the moment.’
William Hague, however, has said he does not predict the volcano will not cause the chaos seen a year ago. The Foreign Secretary has said that Britain has more information on how ash clouds move and is less likely to have to enforce a blanket flight ban.
Last April airports across the UK were shut down for five days. With school half-term holidays next week any disruption to UK airports would cause chaos for hundreds of thousands of families.
H.J.res. 62. Amending the Constitution to end states rights?
H. J. Res. 62, Proposing an amendment to the Constitution of the United States to give States the right to repeal Federal laws and regulations when ratified by the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States
Sounds like a great deal..right? Wrong! The states already have the right to repeal Federal laws and regulations. It is called nullification under the 10th Amendment.
Or, states can refuse to contract with the Federal government or any of its privately owned corporate agencies thereby refusing the contract and any of its provisions (regulations or laws).
Secondary to this action, is the refusal to accept any federal funding offered to implement what is usually a series of laws or regulations, (these being written by unelected bureaucrats, lobbyists and other interested stakeholders), meant to deprive you of your rights, intrude on your privacy, interfere with your right to engage in business and otherwise reduce and abrogate your constitutionally protected freedoms.
Article 5
The Congress, whenever two thirds of both Houses shall deem it necessary, shall propose Amendments to this Constitution, or, on the Application of the Legislatures of two thirds of the several States, shall call a Convention for proposing Amendments, which, in either Case, shall be valid to all Intents and Purposes, as part of this Constitution, when ratified by the Legislatures of three fourths of the several States, or by Conventions in three fourths thereof, as the one or the other Mode of Ratification may be proposed by the Congress; Provided that no Amendment which may be made prior to the Year One thousand eight hundred and eight shall in any Manner affect the first and fourth Clauses in the Ninth Section of the first Article; and that no State, without its Consent, shall be deprived of its equal Suffrage in the Senate.
Any amendments to the Constitution must be ratified by the legislatures of three/fourths of the states. Congress, neither House nor Senate, has the authority to alter or amend anything in the Constitution in and of their respective bodies.
So what are they after? 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…
Fluoride: The Hard to Swallow Truth Documentary (VIDEO)
Cleric: Jihad coming to ‘heart of America
The death of Osama bin Laden will bring a “new era of jihad,” predicted British extremist cleric Anjem Choudary.
Warning there are motivated jihadists “in the heart of America,” Choudary said al-Qaida will likely carry out revenge operations with “meticulous accuracy” and “devastating affect” comparable to that of the 9/11 attacks.
Choudary is the founder and former chief of two Islamic groups disbanded by the British authorities under anti-terror legislation.
Speaking today in an interview with “Aaron Klein Investigative Radio” of New York’s WABC Radio, Choudary said that while bin Laden was a “lion of Islam … there are many lions waiting to take his place.”
“I do believe that the death of Sheikh Osama will bring in a new era of jihad,” Choudary told Klein.
“Post-Osama bin Laden, I believe the mujahedeen around the world will have something to prove, that the jihad is not about an individual.”
Choudary said instability for U.S. forces in Iraq and Afghanistan “will be a complete nightmare Read more…
Future of forensic science: New laser beam that analyses a single hair can reveal what you had for breakfast
A new laser can tell scientists what you ate for breakfast – just by looking at one of your hairs.
The beam gives unprecedented sensitivity to chemical analysis and allows researchers to create an hour-by-hour picture of what an individual has eaten.
They can even tell where a person has been by examining the chemicals which are in their hair.
Scroll down for video
Breakthrough: A laser beam that ‘hole punches’ a single strand of hair has given scientists unprecedented sensitivity to chemical analysisPrevious techniques had burned hair samples but the new method breaks them down instead and Read more…
US deficit up 15.7% in first half of fiscal 2011
AFP
WASHINGTON — The US budget deficit shot up 15.7 percent in the first six months of fiscal 2011, the Treasury Department said Wednesday as political knives were being sharpened for a new budget battle.
The Treasury reported a deficit of $829 billion for the October-March period, compared with $717 billion a year earlier, as revenue rose a sluggish 6.9 percent as the economic recovery slowly gained pace.
The Treasury argued that the pace of increase in the deficit was deceptive because of large one-off reductions in expenditures made during the first half of fiscal 2010, compared with previous and subsequent periods.
Those included a $115 billion reduction in funds spent on the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) — the financial institution bailout program — in March 2010.
But 2011 so far has also seen significant increases in spending on defense, Social Read more…
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