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Yes, Islamists Are Coming Through Mexico
Said Jaziri was seen getting in the trunk of a smuggler’s car by bystanders, captured only by luck and their patriotism.
When chaos reigns supreme in a nation that shares an almost two-thousand mile border with the United States, and that border is not protected to the extent it should be, undesirable elements sneaking their way from Mexico into the U.S. becomes the rule instead of the exception. We have all been made aware of the drug shipments that come into the U.S. through the porous and undermanned Mexican border, and we all know of the steady stream of Mexicans that for decades have snuck through looking for a better life in the U.S. for themselves and their families back in Mexico. However, it is next to impossible to tell who else comes across the U.S./Mexico border until they are apprehended, or worse.
On January 11, U.S. Border Patrol agents pulled over a BMW near the Golden Acorn Casino, 50 miles east of San Diego, California. The vehicle was driven by Kenneth R. Lawler. Border Patrol agents found Lawler had tucked away in the trunk of his car a souvenir of sorts from Mexico: a radical Muslim cleric by the name of Said Jaziri.
Lawler was arrested and is being held on charges of alien smuggling, while Jaziri is being held for Read more…
Germany deploys contactless national ID
Germany began issuing the new contactless national ID to citizens in November. The program is one of the first contactless-only electronic ID programs. It also employs a unique privacy scheme to protect cardholders.
National ID cards aren’t new in the European Union and many countries use smart card technology to power the credentials. But the contactless German ID is a bit of a departure from what other countries have done and thus necessitated a slightly different take on existing contactless smart cards.
The country expects to issue 60 million cards over the next 10 years to replace existing paper documents, says Rudy Stroh, executive vice president of the ID business and country manager for Germany at NXP Semiconductors. NXP is providing the chip–its 128-kilobyte SmartMX secure contactless microcontroller–for the German e-ID.
“The contactless technology used in the e-ID enables strong privacy protection,” Stroh says.
The first difference between the German ID card and other contactless smart cards is that is can only be read from four centimeters, whereas most other cards can be read from Read more…
NASA Issues 2012 Warning and Possible End of The World as we know it.
I had a POST on this about 2 weeks ago that goes in-depth on this issue. Hopefully it will become more mainstream now.
MORE EVIDENCE OF PHOTON BELT: Astrophysicist Alexia Demetriev says our solar system is entering an interstellar energy cloud
In light of recent news, the following information is paramount. On July 14, 2010 we learned that our sun is passing through an interstellar energy cloud which excites/energizes the sun. NASA, along with The National Academy of Science and other world renowned scientist are so concerned about this up and coming solar maximum in late 2012, that way back in March 10, 2006 NASA issued a solar storm warning (in writing) for 2012. What NASA omitted in their 2006 solar storm warning is what prompted NASA in the first place to issue a 2012 solar storm warning four years in advance? Then in 2010, NASA again warns the general population of a pending solar storm, telling the population to get ready for a once in a lifetime solar storm. Despite that news agencies and websites like this one are beginning to cover this developing story, no high government official has yet to stick his or her neck out to make an official announcement about the catastrophic implications as to allow the global population to begin preparing.
The following scientific data revealed by Alexei Dmitriev further supports NASA’s original 2012 solar storm warning issued back in March of 2006. Read more…
Oil Prices: Egypt’s Crisis Could Hurt Europe First
Some crude oil prices brushed $100 a barrel Monday as fears escalated that the violence in Egypt would spread to other parts of the oil-producing Middle East. But so far, no reports have surfaced that the disturbances in Egypt have disrupted oil deliveries.
Brent crude oil surged to $99.97 a barrel on London’s ICE futures exchange, up about 5% since the beginning of last week, when violence spread from Tunisia to Egypt. In U.S. trading, West Texas Intermediate shot up 1.7% on Monday, but was still about $10 a barrel cheaper than Brent crude, its European counterpart.
Julius Walker, a senior analyst at the International Energy Agency in Paris, says the organization has received no reports that oil shipments were being delayed, but the website of the agency that runs the Suez Canal has been shut down by the ban on Internet use in Egypt, so a precise reading isn’t available.
“Nothing has been affected. It’s just the worry of it,” Walker says.
A Chokepoint for Europe-Bound Oil
Egypt is a small oil producer, and its output is almost exactly equal to Read more…
Russia threatens NATO with nukes
Press TV
The Russian president has called on NATO to clarify Moscow’s role in a European missile system, warning if no agreement is reached, Russia will be forced to deploy “offensive” nuclear weapons.
“So this is not a joking matter. We expect from our NATO partners a direct and unambiguous answer,” Dmitry Medvedev said during a meeting with Russia’s NATO envoy Dmitry Rogozin.
“In either case, we are either together with NATO, or we separately find an adequate response to the existing problem,” he said.
Under former US President George W. Bush the United States proposed a plan to deploy a missile system in Poland and the Czech Republic — a plan which was fiercely opposed to by Russia. Moscow said it would deem such a deployment a threat to its sovereignty and would properly respond to it.
US President Barack Obama later scrapped the plan proposing Russia to join the missile system.
Russia and NATO agreed to cooperate on a joint missile system plan in Europe during a NATO-Russia Council meeting in Lisbon in November last year.
The parties agreed to formulate terms for cooperation on the missile system by June 2011.
“Either we agree to certain principles with NATO, or we fail to agree, and then in the future we are forced to adopt an entire series of unpleasant decisions concerning the deployment of an offensive nuclear missile group,” Medvedev was quoted by AFP as saying.
Ireland’s Titanic Bailout at Risk, Iceland looms ahead
The announcement by Brian Cowen that he was resigning as the leader of the Fianna Fail party, but is going to stay on as Taoiseach (Prime Minister) until the March 11 election, has put the Irish bailout into question. The November bailout of the Irish economy consisted of a series of different financing packages being combined into a larger total.
The first funds available under the bailout were provided by the raiding of the Irish retirement fund by its bankers. The next steps were to be funded by the EU and IMF funding sources, once the people of Ireland were legally subjected to the bailout requirements. The bailout never made it to a full vote before the collapse of the Fianna Fáil party.
This leaves Ireland in the unique position of being able to reclaim its future, by denying its past. The citizens of Ireland have not accepted the bailout. The coalition is not expected to be able to put the matter to a vote before the election.
“All we know is we are going to get an election on or before March 11 but that is about it,” said Micheal Marsh, professor of politics at Trinity College Dublin, calling the events of the past week “bizarre.” Read more…
Europe faces a new crisis
Yevgeny Kryshkin
The European Union is facing a new phase of the economic crisis. This depressing forecast was made by a report on the World Economic Situation and Prospects-2011 presented by the United Nations Conference on Trade and Development. Our commentary is by Yevgeny Kryshkin.
Despite the fact that the EU has taken tough austerity measures and is planning to cut the budget deficit, it is risking another economic recession. This opinion was expressed by the authors of the report. They emphasize that a repeated recession in the EU countries and stagnation in the U.S. and Japan may trigger another wave of a global economic crisis.
This pessimistic assessment is based on the state of affairs in the economies of Greece, Ireland, Portugal and Spain, the four countries that were most affected. Greece and Ireland managed to avert a collapse of their financial systems. However, this required incredible joint efforts by all EU member states. Ireland alone received 85 billion euro and with serious risks. Stabilization loans from the International Monetary Fund and the EU are being used to cover budget deficits and support banks. Nevertheless, neither Ireland nor Greece has solved the problems that they faced last year. Here is an opinion from an expert at the Institute of Europe, Vladislav Belov.
“The situation is developing according to the prior scenario. Greece, Spain, Portugal and Ireland have taken austerity measures to reduce the budget deficit through cutting government spending, the salaries of public servants and social expenses, and increasing taxes. At the same time, France and Germany are making attempts to consolidate their efforts. However, the problem has not been solved yet. As before, there is a danger of default, as far as the Euro-zone goes,” Vladislav Belov said.
Gold May Gain as Europe Debt Concern, Price Drop Spur Demand
Sungwoo Park
Jan. 18 (Bloomberg) — Gold may gain as concerns that the European sovereign-debt crisis may linger boost demand for precious metals as a protector of wealth, and as a price drop in the past two weeks spurs physical buying. Platinum gained.
Bullion for immediate delivery was little changed at $1,364.18 an ounce at 1:33 p.m. in Seoul. The metal, which rose to a record $1,341.25 in December, dropped 4 percent this month, heading for the first monthly decline since July. The February- delivery contract rose 0.2 percent to $1,363.50 an ounce in New York.
“Around this level, we still see quite good physical demand,” Bruce Ikemizu, head of commodity trading at Standard Bank Plc in Tokyo, said today by phone. “I’m rather pessimistic. The problems won’t be resolved overnight. This European financial problem will be a long-term bullish factor for gold and precious metals.”
The euro was little changed against the dollar after yesterday falling 0.7 percent amid concern that an agreement among European finance ministers will fail to contain the region’s debt crisis. Euro-area finance ministers indicated after a meeting yesterday they aren’t facing immediate pressure to tame the crisis, while pledging to strengthen the safety net for debt-strapped countries.
Morgan Stanley raised its gold forecast through 2015, the bank said in a report today. It expects gold to average $1,400 an ounce this year, 6 percent more than a previous forecast.
Assets in 10 gold exchange-traded products dropped 6.54 metric tons to about 2,078 tons as of Jan. 14, the lowest since Sept. 15, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.
Platinum for immediate delivery gained 0.5 percent to $1,813.70 an ounce. Spot palladium declined for a fourth day, dropping 0.4 percent to $791.50 an ounce, while silver was little changed at $28.2975 an ounce.
Mount Etna blasts lava, ash into the sky
Mount Etna, the famous Sicilian volcano, turned on the fireworks Wednesday as it shot lava hundreds of feet into the air.
Volcanic tremors at Mount Etna, on the Italian island, were detected around 4 p.m. EST on Tuesday. The tremors peaked the next morning and lava began erupting at the Southeast Crater, about 4,500 feet high. The crater pit overflowed with lava and ash plumes spewed into the air, which forced a local airport to halt service. The ash plumes had stopped after nearly 12 hours today, according to the Italian Institute of Vocanology, citing surveillance cameras observing Etna.
But more eruptions could be on the way.
“This eruption is very similar to more than 200 episodes of lava fountaining at the summit craters of Mount Etna — including 66 from the Southeast Crater in the year 2000,” said Boris Behncke, a volcanologist and expert on Mount Etna. “The same vent that erupted last night already produced nearly identical — though longer-lasting — episodes in September and November 2007 and most recently on May 10, 2008.”
Etna is the largest active volcano in Europe and one of the world’s most well-known. While 2010 was an exceptionally calm year for Etna, it is nearly constantly active and there is rarely a full year that passes without some eruptive activity on Etna, Behncke told OurAmazingPlanet.
“We expected Etna to return to activity in this period,” Behncke said. “There had been lots of premonitory signals.” Read more…
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