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UPDATE 2-Pirates shoot dead four American hostages-US military
Due to the current instability and uncertainty of the North Africa/ Middle East crisis, one is sure to expect that pirate activity will only increase dramatically. Keep your eyes on Bahrain, that is the key…
(Adds quotes from pirates in Somalia)
By Phillip Stewart
WASHINGTON Feb 22 (Reuters) – Pirates shot dead four American hostages on a yacht they had seized in the Arabian Sea, and a firefight left two pirates dead and 13 captured, the U.S. military said on Tuesday.
The sequence of events was not immediately clear, but the U.S. military’s Central Command said the dead hostages were only discovered after U.S. forces responded to gunfire and boarded the pirated yacht, known as the Quest.
“As they responded to the gunfire, reaching and boarding the Quest, the forces discovered all four hostages had been shot by their captors,” the U.S. military’s Central Command said in a statement.
“Despite immediate steps to provide life-saving care, all four hostages ultimately died of their wounds.”
The military, which said the incident took place at about 1 a.m. EST/0600 GMT, had been monitoring the Quest since discovering it had been taken over by pirates for about three Read more…
Population, Food, Oil … Collision?
World population and growth
Factoring the net birth minus death rate in the world each year, the annual increase to world population is about 75 million people. The current world population is about 6,900,000,000, or 6.9 billion.
Annually, we add to the planet the equivalent population of any of the following scenarios,
- New York City (9 of them!)
- Los Angeles (20 of them!)
- Chicago (27 of them!)
- San Francisco (94 of them!)
- Boston (117 of them!)
- Unites States of America (25 percent of the country!)
When you think about it, this is a startling number. And that’s in just one Read more…
Libya: Protesters, security clash in capital
Associated Press
CAIRO — Protesters and security forces battled in the center of Tripoli as anti-government unrest spread to the Libyan capital and Moammar Gadhafi‘s son went on state television to proclaim that his father remained in charge with the army’s backing and would “fight until the last man, the last woman, the last bullet.”
Even as Seif al-Islam Gadhafi spoke Sunday night, clashes were raging in and around Tripoli’s central Green Square, lasting until dawn Monday, witnesses said. They reported snipers opening fire on crowds trying to seize the square, and Gadhafi supporters speeding through in vehicles, shooting and running over protesters. Early Monday, protesters took over the office of two of the multiple state-run satellite news channels, witnesses said.
The protests and violence were the heaviest yet in Read more…
Oil climbs on escalated Libya tensions
SINGAPORE (Commodity Online) : World oil prices advanced further in Asian trade Monday as political tensions spread to more countries including major oil producer Libya.
Light sweet crude for March delivery, which will expire Tuesday, was seen trading at $87.37 a barrel at 12.00 noon Singapore time while April delivery jumped to $91.35 a barrel.
In London, Brent crude for April delivery was at $103.54 a barrel.
Analysts said the black gold is likely to advance further during the day Benchmark on worries of oil supply disruptions as unrests over authoritarian governments in the Middle East escalate to more countries.
Concerns over Middle East oil supplies helped prices recover from early weakness after China raised its banks’ reserve requirements last Friday for the second time this year to combat rising inflation.
According to China’s National Development and Reform Commission, gasoline and diesel prices will go up 350 yuan per ton starting Read more…
3 Ways to Prepare for Inflation
In case you haven’t heard,inflation is on its way. Unprecedented levels of government debt and deficits will likely weaken the value of the dollar at some point, thus raising the prices of everything it buys.
But, the Federal Reserve says there’s no significant inflation yet. In fact, it recently said there might be too little inflation and will likely keep interest rates low for the foreseeable future, further increasing the money supply. Meanwhile, commodity prices are going through the roof.
The price of copper has more than tripled since the end of 2008, oil is near $90 a barrel (also near the high since the financial crisis) and prices of several food commodities like corn and wheat are near all time highs. These materials are in turn used to make many consumer goods. It’s only a matter of time before higher input prices come out the other end in the form of higher prices for consumer goods.
In fact, inflation has started to Read more…
Norway, Sweden Work to Contain Oil Spill
STOCKHOLM—The Norwegian Coastal Administration said Friday the large leakage of oil from the Icelandic container vessel Godafoss had been stopped.
At a press conference Friday afternoon, Kystverket said it had not yet been able to evaluate the full extent of the spill, although it is known to have reached the coast of Fredrikstad, southern Norway.
Coast guards from Norway and Sweden have been co-operating to manage the spill the after the vessel ran aground late Thursday.
Ragnhild Bussqvist, duty officer at Kustbevakningen, the Swedish coast guard, told Dow Jones Newswires one of its aircraft had detected a 2.5-kilometer oil stain in the area.
Johan Marius Ly, emergency department director at Kystverket, said some oil had hit the Read more…
US price increases hit consumers
Confirming what most US shoppers already suspected, the Labor Department on Thursday reported prices for everything from vegetables to unleaded fuel rose again in January.
The Labor Department’s consumer price index rose 0.4 percent for the month, a rate that was slightly higher than economists expected and which confirmed large price increases for commonly bought goods in the last year.
The figures showed gasoline prices have leaped over 13 percent in the last 12 months, while grocery prices rose slowly but Read more…
WikiLeaks Cables: Repression Has Effectively Limited Libyans’ Vision for Reform
Libyans are mobilizing for a “Day of Rage” today on February 17. Protesters in the early afternoon, according to a member of the Libyan Youth Movement, were reported to be moving to the Security Headquarters in Benghazi. The protests are said to be gaining numbers and are headed for Maydan al Shajara once more, a location that had been the site of gunfire and petrol bombs.
The same individual also reports shortages of medical supplies at Al Bayda hospital and urges international health organizations to help out. And the movement member shared reports of people in Benghazi managed to chase away “pro-government Gaddafi thugs” by throwing rocks at them.
Many in Libya believed ahead of the “Day of Rage” that the Gaddafi regime was planning to threaten Libyans with live fire and the targeting of family members if they participated in anti-government protests. Also, it was reported that Gaddafi was having government employees go protest at pro-Gaddafi rallies, and, if they refused, they would be fired.
Cables released on Libya provide context for the protests that are Read more…
The Fed is Wrong About Commodity Prices
Author: David Weinstein
I imagine he has to say it, but Bernanke is wrong when he says US monetary policy has nothing to do with international commodity prices. At the height of the Egyptian crisis, which was partly driven by rising food prices, Bernanke couldn’t say, “Oh yea, US policy economic policy is part of the problem in Egypt.” This attitude, however, is both prevalent and respected, and it’s largely wrong.
First of all, commodities as a group are not commoditized – they are not all the same. For instance, the amount of gold in the world is largely fixed relative to annual gold production. Along with its historical position as a store a value, Gold’s consistent volume about ground is a primary reason for its currency-like quality; i.e. almost entirely driven by overall liquidity. Corn production, on the other hand can vary greatly from year to year given the amount of land devoted to it and the weather. Oil is somewhere in the middle because production can vary, but the worlds known reserves are relatively fixed. The resulting differences in price volatility have been studied ad nauseam and are most simply articulated by the so-called ‘cob-web model’ (see chart below).
Very simply put: Read more…
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/gold/t24_au_en_usoz_2.gif)
![[Most Recent Quotes from www.kitco.com]](https://i0.wp.com/www.kitconet.com/charts/metals/silver/t24_ag_en_usoz_2.gif)
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