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Posts Tagged ‘China’

Rising world food prices may soon hit Africa hard, but could be a future boon

February 21, 2011 1 comment

Damaged rice is seen in a paddy field destroyed by flood- waters near a village in Manmunai West in Batticaloa district, about 199 miles east of Colombo, Sri Lanka, on Jan. 26. The floods inundated rice paddies, and according to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, at least 15.5 percent of the main annual rice harvest could be lost.

Andrew Caballero-Reynolds/Reuters

Johannesburg, South Africa

Global food prices reached a historic high last month, a fact that may cause even the most comfortable of Americans to cinch in their belts and cut back on spending.

But what about the world’s poor?

“Global food prices are rising to dangerous levels and threaten tens of millions of poor people around the world,” World Bank Group President Robert Zoellick said Tuesday as he announced the bank’s findings that about 44 million people in developing countries have been pushed into poverty since Read more…

Military Wants More Global Partnerships In Space

February 21, 2011 Comments off

US Needs To Better Protect Satellites, Military Says

 

AP Photo/Department of Defense, Cherie Cullen
LOLITA C. BALDOR, Associated Press

Posted: 5:02 am EST February 20, 2011Updated: 10:21 am EST February 20, 2011

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military needs to better protect its satellites and strengthen its ability to use them as weapons as the uncharted battlefield of space becomes increasingly crowded and dangerous, Pentagon leaders say. A new military strategy for space, as mapped out by the Pentagon, calls for greater cooperation with other nations on space-based programs to improve America’s ability to deter enemies. “It’s a domain, like air land and sea,” said Gen. Kevin Chilton, who led U.S. Strategic Command until he retired late last month. “Space is not just a Read more…

NATO Warns of Food Crisis and More Unrest, Prices Increase 15% in Four Months

February 21, 2011 Comments off
The potential of high food prices to act as a trigger for social and political changes has been evident across North Africa and the Middle East in 2011. Higher food prices, coupled with a financial downturn, have impacted hard on the region’s people. Those hit hardest are the poor, who spend a higher percentage of their money on food. 

The World Food Program’s representative in one of the countries which has seen protests, Yemen, recently stated: ‘There is an obvious link between high food prices and unrest.’

Credit: NATO

The 2008 food crisis was a warning of things to come. More recently, food prices rose by 15% in just the period October 2010 to January 2011, according to the World Bank’s Food Price Watch.

This time, the impacts have been felt more keenly in political and security circles. The President of Read more…

Arrests as China web users call for revolution

February 20, 2011 Comments off

As many as 100 high-profile Chinese activists and human rights lawyers have been rounded up by authorities, according to their supporters.

They are reportedly being held in custody without charges.

The detentions follow calls on the internet for Read more…

The Middle East and Then the World

February 19, 2011 1 comment

Tony Cartalucci
Activist Post
February 19, 2011

Beginning in North Africa, now unfolding in the Middle East and Iran, and soon to spread to Eastern Europe and Asia, the globalist fueled color revolutions are attempting to profoundly transform entire regions of the planet in one sweeping move. It is an ambitious gambit, perhaps even one born of desperation, with the globalists’ depravity and betrayal on full display to the world with no opportunity to turn back now.

To understand the globalists’ reasoning behind such a bold move, it helps to understand their ultimate end game and the obstacles standing between them and their achieving it.

The End Game

The end game of course is a world spanning system of global governance. This is a system controlled by Anglo-American financiers and their network of global institutions ensuring the world’s Read more…

China cracks down on call for ‘Jasmine Revolution’

February 19, 2011 Comments off

By CARA ANNA

The Associated Press
Saturday, February 19, 2011; 10:05 AM

BEIJING — Chinese authorities cracked down on activists as a call circulated for people to gather in more than a dozen cities Sunday for a “Jasmine Revolution.”

The source of the call was not known, but authorities moved to halt its spread online. Searches for the word “jasmine” were blocked Saturday on China’s largest Twitter-like microblog, and the website where the request first appeared said it was hit by an attack.

Activists seemed not to know what to make of the call to protest, even as they passed it on. They said they were unaware of any known group being involved in the request for citizens to gather in 13 cities and shout “We want food, we want work, we want Read more…

China Prevents Release of U.N. Report on North Korea

February 19, 2011 1 comment

China has advised other nations on the U.N. Security Council that it intends to prevent the release of a U.N. document that charges North Korea with flouting international sanctions placed on its nuclear activities, Reuters reported yesterday (see GSN, Feb. 16).

The Security Council committee that monitors implementation of U.N. sanctions on the Stalinist state received the report at the end of January from the U.N. Panel of Experts on North Korea. Western diplomats said Beijing advised it would not allow the report to be forwarded to the broader Security Council for dissemination. The decision was perplexing to some as a Chinese expert was involved in drafting the report.

As one of five permanent Security Council members, China has veto authority over decisions made by the body. As the sanctions committee must have total agreement on all actions, Beijing can also block the Read more…

Gold Climbs, Silver Touches 30-Year High Amid Inflation Concern

February 18, 2011 Comments off

bloomberg.com

Gold rose to a one-month high as rising consumer prices boosted investor demand for an inflation hedge. Silver touched a 30-year high.

The cost of living in the U.S. climbed in January for a seventh month, the government said today. The U.K. consumer- price index rose to a 26-month high last month, a report this week showed. The precious metal has fallen 2.6 percent this year after rallying 30 percent in 2010 and touching a record in December.

“Gold is ready to resume its uptrend because of the worsening outlook for inflation,” said James Turk, founder of GoldMoney.com, which held $1.4 billion of precious metals and currencies for investors at the end of January.

Gold futures for April delivery climbed $10, or 0.7 percent, to $1,375.10 an ounce at 1:42 p.m. on the Comex in New York. Earlier, the price touched $1,385.40, the highest since Read more…

NASA: Huge Solar Flare Jamming Radio And Satellite Signals, Could Affect Electric Grid, Bright Auroras Expected

February 17, 2011 Comments off

According to NASA, a large solar eruption triggered a giant geomagnetic storm that has disturbed radio communications and could disrupt electrical power grids, radio and satellite communication in the next days

The calm before the storm. Three CMEs are enroute, all a part of the Radio Blackout events on February 13, 14, and 15 (UTC). The last of the three seems to be the fastest and may catch both of the forerunners about mid to late day tomorrow, February 17. Watch this space for updates on the impending — G2, possibly periods of G3 — geomagnetic storming.
Watch Today’s Space Weather for the most recent activity.

This is a composite image of the Sun at the moment of the X2.2 flare. Image courtesy of SDO

(NASA)

Credit: NASA/SDO

A strong wave of charged plasma particles emanating from the Jupiter-sized sun spot, the most powerful seen in four years, has already disrupted radio communication in southern China.

Solar Activity Forecast:  Read more…

New North Korean Space Launch Site Appears Completed

February 17, 2011 Comments off

Steve Herman

voanews.com

Image taken from the Ikonos satellite, January 10, 2011 

Photo: GeoEye and Globalsecurity.org

Image taken from the Ikonos satellite, January 10, 2011

New satellite imagery seen by VOA News shows North Korea has completed a launch tower at its second missile launch facility, in the country’s northwest.  Intelligence analysts in the United States and South Korea are keeping a close eye on the facility, near Tongchang-dong.

The site is seen as a critical element in Pyongyang’s quest to build a missile capable of delivering a nuclear weapon across the Pacific.

The satellite pictures were taken during the past month. Most significantly, the photographs reveal Read more…