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Gold Prices Spike on Safe-Haven Appeal, South Korea Buy to $1660.10
NEW YORK (TheStreet ) — Gold prices hit record highs Tuesday as the Bank of Korea bought more gold and as the Senate passed the debt ceiling deal.
Gold for December delivery popped $22.80 to close at $1,644.50 an ounce at the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange. The gold price has traded as high as $1,646.80 and as low as $1,618.80 while the spot gold price was skyrocketing almost $30, according to Kitco’s gold index.
Silver prices added 78 cents to close at $40.09 an ounce. The U.S. dollar index was up 0.22% at $74.48 while the euro was down 0.36% vs. the dollar.
With the debt-ceiling issue basically behind U.S. markets, investors are now looking at the health of the economy and the picture isn’t bright. Worries of slowing global growth were the main factors boosting gold prices.
Not only have quarterly growth numbers been anemic and July’s manufacturing index was barely above the critical 50 growth-mark, but the debt plan aims to Read more…
Giant Fungus Discovered in China
Small fragments have broken off the single giant fungusThe most massive fruiting body of any fungus yet documented has been discovered growing on the underside of a tree in China.
The fruiting body, which is equivalent to the mushrooms produced by other fungi species, is up to 10m long, 80cm wide and weighs half a tonne.
That shatters the record held previously by a fungus growing in Kew Gardens in the UK.
The new giant fungus is thought to be at least 20 years old.
The first example of the new giant fungus was recorded by scientists in 2008 in Fujian Province, China, by Professor Yu-Cheng Dai of the Herbarium of biology at the Chinese Academy of Sciences in Shenyang and his assistant Dr Cui.
“But the type collection was not huge,” Prof Dai told BBC Nature.
However, “we found [the] giant one in Hainan Province in 2010.”
The researchers were in the field studying wood-decaying fungi when they happened upon the specimen, which they describe in the journal Fungal Biology.
“We were not specifically Read more…
Chinese Nuclear Accident Alleged
Ming-class submarines.by DAVID AXE
A nuclear submarine in the port of Dalian in northern China has suffered an accident and is leaking radiation, according to a former Japanese fighter pilot-turned-blogger.
“The area is strictly closed off by the Chinese military, and the situation is said to be very dangerous,” Mamoru Sato wrote in Japanese of the alleged July 29 incident.
As with all news stories about Chinese military developments, Sato’s account should be read with a healthy dose of skepticism. As of July 31, no major media had reported on the alleged accident. The only corroboration came from Twitter user “28481k(Alan Lai),” who wrote, “Bohai is closed after a suspected nuclear leak occurred on new nuclear submarine building in Dalian.”
Bohai is one of the shipyard complexes in the vicinity of Dalian.
If true, Sato’s report could spell big trouble for the Chinese navy. The People’s Liberation Army Navy’s first aircraft carrier, the former Read more…
China Is Filling Gaps In Its Military With Lots And Lots Of Missiles
 PLA DF-31A mobile ICBM TELs Image: AUS Airpower |
Despite the stealth jets, an aircraft carrier and drones, China’s military is relatively weak, according to military analyses parsed by Wired. To compensate Beijinghas been buying lots and lots of missiles:“All kinds of missiles: short-range and long-range; land-based, air-launched and sea-launched; ballistic and cruise; guided and “dumb … “For every category of weaponry where the People’s Liberation Army (PLA) lags behind the Pentagon, there’s a Chinese missile to help make up the difference.”
One disadvantage for China, for instance, is a dearth of air-refueling tankers — just 14 compared to 500 in the U.S. Air Force alone. This means of the Read more…
Stealth Fighter or Bomber?
A photo from a Chinese aerospace exhibit, posted on an Internet forum, provides the first new evidence in more than six months regarding the role and capabilities of China’s first stealth fighter prototype.
The photo depicts the underside of a scale model of the Chengdu J-20, showing the angular fighter’s three weapons bays open and eight air-to-air missiles mounted inside. The missile loud-out includes one short-range infrared-guided missile in each of two small side bays, plus six medium-range missiles packed into the single, large, belly bay.
Since shortly after the J-20 made its public debut on Christmas Day, the consensus among Western observers has been that the new fighter is optimized for air-to-ground attacks against heavily defended targets. That belief stems from the J-20’s apparent large size: up to Read more…
We Need Military Buildup to Match China’s
In the online magazine The Diplomat, former U.S. Representative to the UN Robert O’Brien presents an excellent if disturbing overview of China’s alarming military buildup.
He notes that “China has big maritime ambitions, and they are backed up by a naval build-up unseen since Kaiser Wilhelm II decided to challenge British naval power with the building of the High Seas Fleet at the turn of the last century.”
That buildup is symbolized by the scheduled launch next month of China’s first aircraft carrier–a ship as symbolic of maritime power in our day as dreadnoughts were in the time of the kaisers.
At least Britain was Read more…
Giant Meteorite Discovered in China
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| A group of researchers led by Baolin Zhang, a meteorite specialist at the Beijing Planetarium, study a giant meteorite that was found in a remote, mountainous region in northwest China. CREDIT: China Central Television |
This story was updated at 5:36 p.m. EDT.
A massive space rock – one that could rank as one of the largest meteorites ever recovered – has been found in a remote and mountainous region in northwest China, according to news reports.
The huge and oddly-shaped rock was found in the Altai mountains in China’s Xinjiang Uygur province, according to Sky and Telescope magazine. Earlier this month, Baolin Zhang, a meteorite specialist at the Beijing Planetarium, led a small team up a 9,500-foot (2,900-meter) summit to investigate reports of the supposed meteorite.
“This is a huge iron meteorite,” Zhang said in footage from China Central Television. “It may be the second largest iron meteorite, which can cause a sensation in China and also attract attention from [the] world’s meteorite fields. It comes from outside solar system and it is of great appreciating value and of more scientific Read more…
Big gaps in Australia’s cyber defences
Australia has not plugged all the gaps in its online defences despite the threats posed by the rapid rise of cyber espionage and “hacktivism”, a government-commissioned report has found.
The report discusses the results of cyber war games called Cyber Storm, involving Australia and 12 other countries last year, which simulated a large-scale international cyber security incident.
Citing “gaps” in the cyber security procedures of both government and Australian industry, the report’s author, former army intelligence officer Miles Jakeman, noted that there were areas where “communications and planning could be further developed”.
The gaps were acknowledged by the federal Attorney-General, Robert McClelland, during a speech at a cyber security conference in Canberra yesterday.
“[The report] did highlight gaps within existing government and business cyber incident processes … this feedback allows both government and businesses to take steps to improve our cyber security,” he said.
The report is further evidence that the Read more…
Chinese jets chase U.S. surveillance jet over Taiwan Strait
A colonel in the Canadian Forces takes photos through the window of a civilian aircraft playing the role of a hijacked airliner as it is escorted by two Su-27 Russian fighter jets. (Associated Press)
By Bill Gertz
Two Chinese warplanes intercepted an American spy plane over the tense Taiwan Strait last month in China’s most aggressive challenge to U.S. surveillance flights since a 2001 collision that touched off an international crisis.
According to defense officials, the intercept took place June 29. The two Chinese jets flew from a base in China to head off an Air Force U-2 spy plane over the dividing line in the 100-mile wide Taiwan Strait.
“In general, these reconnaissance flights are conducted in international airspace, as are the PRC [Chinese] intercepts, which Read more…
China And Iran To Bypass Dollar, Plan Oil Barter System, And A Deeper Dive Into The Iranian Oil Bourse
One of the more notable events in the past week was the previously discussed reopening of the Iranian Oil Bourse, an attempt by Iran to launch a venue that bypasses US sanctions against Iran which has prevented payment in the world’s reserve currency for Iranian goods. “Big deal”, some will say, this is not the first time Iran has attempt to upstage the Great Satan. Well, true, although as OilPrice said last week, “what it would take for Iran’s new exchange to survive and flourish are some heavy-duty customers that Washington would be wary of picking a fight with, and Tehran already has one – China… China, the world’s largest buyer of Iranian crude oil, has renewed its annual import pacts for 2011. In 2010 Iran supplied about 12 percent of China’s total crude imports. According to the latest report of the China Customs Organization, Iran’s total oil exports to China stood at Read more…
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