Week ending 23 December 2007

News from 18/12/07 to 23/12/07

Inside Ebola's zone of death

This new strain is feared to kill more slowly than previously, leaving more time for the disease to spread. There is no vaccine and no cure. The only hope is to contain the lethal virus, but Ebola moves fast and is hard to track. If just one infected person boards a plane, this could become a global outbreak.

ECB Lends 348.6 Billion Euros, Easing Year-End Cash Drought

The European Central Bank loaned 348.6 billion euros ($501.5 billion) for two weeks to banks to bring down the cost of money at year-end.

Cashed-up China set to hunt down more US bargains


The coming collapse of the modern banking system


HOUSING - SIMPLE AS THAT


Russia’s Big Energy Secret

Putin wields gas as a weapon. But the reality is that Russia can barely meet its own growing demand.

Bush orders cuts in nuclear stockpile


The $750,000 note that won't buy a loaf of bread

Zimbabwe's currency is fast losing value as annual inflation hovers above 14,000 per cent. Officially, Z$750,000 is worth £12.50. But at this week's widely-used parallel exchange rates, it is worth about 8p.

U.S. Senate Report: Over 400 Prominent Scientists Disputed Man-Made Global Warming Claims in 2007


$45 Trillion Gap Seen in US Benefits


Analysis: China's fuel oil reserves


Shopping giant falls as US crisis hits home

AUSTRALIA'S second-biggest shopping centre owner has joined the RAMS home loans provider as a casualty of the global liquidity crisis.

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Also of interest:
North American Union [YouTube]
A Christian Christmas in Snowy Iran
The Roundup Ready Gene—will it create world starvation?

Week ending 17 December 2007

News from 10/12/07 to 17/12/07

World bankers resort to firebreak

Never before have the central banks of North America, Europe, and Britain, acted together as such a unified phalanx, but never before have transatlantic credit markets seized up with such violent effect.

Mobile Labs to Target Iraqis for Death

U.S. forces in Iraq soon will be equipped with high-tech equipment that will let them process an Iraqi’s biometric data in minutes and help American soldiers decide whether they should execute the person or not, according to its inventor.

U.S. Army To Lay-Off 200,000 Civilians, Contractors


Children are targets of Nigerian witch hunt

Evangelical pastors are helping to create a terrible new campaign of violence against young Nigerians. Children and babies branded as evil are being abused, abandoned and even murdered while the preachers make money out of the fear of their parents and their communities.

Kosovo President: Independence Days Away


Russia vows to stop unilateral Kosovan independence


Russia orders British Council to shut down operations


Russia plans no forces build-up after CFE freeze

Russia has no plans to mass armed forces near its Western borders after freezing compliance with a landmark arms treaty signed at the end of the Cold War, senior government and army officials said on Saturday.

But Russia's top general said the firing of a weapon from a U.S. anti-missile system in eastern Europe could be misread by the country's defenses, triggering the launch of an intercontinental ballistic missile in return.

Ray of hope: Can the sun save us from global warming?



Oil-Rich Nations Use More Energy, Cutting Exports

The economies of many big oil-exporting countries are growing so fast that their need for energy within their borders is crimping how much they can sell abroad, adding new strains to the global oil market.

Derivative Trades Jump 27% to Record $681 Trillion

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Also of interest:
A few facts about biological agents the government and media will never tell you about
Is a New Solar Cycle Beginning?

Week ending 9 December 2007

News from 02/12/07 to 9/12/07

China warns US to keep out of Taiwan

A ROW between China and the US over port visits to Hong Kong has extended into a renewed move by Beijing to prevent foreign naval vessels sailing through the 180km-wide Taiwan Strait.

Warships head to Mediterranean in Russian show of strength

Russia has dispatched an 11-ship aircraft carrier group to the Mediterranean Sea as a first step towards re-establishing a naval presence in the region.
The manoeuvres are part of an effort to resume regular Russian naval patrols around the world, according to the Russian defence minister, Anatoly Serdyukov.

Iran ‘nuclear bombshell’ splits US

American intelligence agencies startled the world last week by judging “with high confidence” that while Tehran continued to enrich uranium – which could be used for nuclear power or bombs – it had halted its nuclear “weaponisation” programme in 2003, before the MI6 meeting.

US: Iran Still Poses Missile Threat

The United States says it will not alter plans to build a missile defense system in Europe despite findings by U.S. intelligence agencies that Iran does not have an active nuclear weapons program.

Iran drops dollar from oil deals: report

Major crude producer Iran has completely stopped carrying out its oil transactions in dollars, Oil Minister Gholam Hossein Nozari said on Saturday, labelling the greenback an "unreliable" currency.

"Doomsday Seed Vault" in the Arctic


Bush mortgage plan freezes subprime rates for 5 years

Faced with a wave of costly home foreclosures, the Bush administration and financial institutions agreed to a five-year freeze on interest rates for certain Americans who face default on their subprime mortgages.

Hill Close To Deal on War Funds

House Democratic leaders could complete work as soon as Monday on a half-trillion-dollar spending package that will include billions of dollars for the war effort in Iraq without the timelines for the withdrawal of combat forces that President Bush has refused to accept...
If the bargain were to become law, it would be the third time since Democrats took control of Congress that they would have failed to force Bush to change course in Iraq and continued to fund a war that they have repeatedly vowed to end.

[U.K.] Psychotropic Drug Prescriptions to Children Skyrocket 400 Percent in Ten Years


Somalia violence kills nearly 6,000 since '06 - group


[U.S.] National Debt Grows $1 Million a Minute


Behind Chavez's Defeat in Venezuela

On Dec. 2, voters rejected Chavez's request to change the country's constitution to give him greater powers and allow him to serve as President for life.

Australian rice crop at record low

Bush handed blueprint to seize Pakistan's nuclear arsenal

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Also of interest:

NASA Sees Arctic Ocean Circulation Do an About-Face
Ex-Mexican prez: 'Amero' on the way
North American currency union - Wikipedia
The Story Of Stuff

Week ending 1 December 2007

News from 26/11/07 to 01/12/07

Paris rioters 'criminals' says PM

The number of police injured in the clashes is unusually high and the violence more intense than that which gripped the country for weeks in 2005, police unions have said.
...
The 2005 unrest, sparked by the accidental deaths of two youths, spread from a nearby suburb of Paris to other cities and continued for three weeks, during which more than 10,000 cars were set ablaze and 300 buildings firebombed.

Chinese tiger has nothing in tank

CHINA is running out of fuel. Police are guarding petrol stations in several inland provinces to prevent fights, as shortages of petrol and diesel are causing huge queues of trucks, buses and cars.

[U.S.] Home foreclosures soar 94 percent: RealtyTrac

NEW YORK (Reuters) - Home foreclosure filings in October edged up 2 percent from September but at 224,451 were a whopping 94 percent higher than a year earlier, real estate data firm RealtyTrac said on Thursday.

Bangladesh cyclone: Now food shortage threatens millions

With aid teams still trying to get emergency supplies to those affected by Cyclone Sidr – a massive storm that struck 10 days ago, killing 3,200 – officials have said up to three million people risk being short of food for the next six months. The storm, the biggest for more than a decade, destroyed between 50 and 90 per cent of the region's rice crop.

Turkey: Military Ready to Move on Rebels

Turkey's prime minister said Friday the government had granted authorization to the military to launch a cross-border operation against Kurdish rebels based in northern Iraq at any time.

Russians live the caviar dream


China: Navy Spat Not a Misunderstanding

China hinted Thursday that Congress' honoring of the Dalai Lama and U.S. arms sales to Taiwan led it to cancel a U.S. Navy visit to Hong Kong, an incident that could open a new rift in military relations that had warmed in recent years.

More bad news for the dollar as the UAE gets ready to dump it

A serious crisis looms ahead of the US dollar as the UAE along with other Gulf Cooperation states are reportedly considering a move to dump the US currency.

Russia pulls out of Nato arms pact

President Vladimir Putin has withdrawn Russia from a key post-cold war international arms treaty, paving the way for the deployment of Russian forces closer to Europe.

UK troops ready for Kosovo crisis

Britain yesterday offered to be the first Nato country to send extra troops to Kosovo within weeks, as the Conservatives and Balkan experts warned of a potentially violent crisis brewing.

"A Crude War Of Revenge" - Tariq Ali on Afghanistan

"Every month dozens of women commit self-immolation to end their desolation," says Afghan Parliament member, Malalai Joya. Bush didn't invade Afghanistan to liberate women anyway. It was all a hoax. Bush believed that Taliban would recognize America's superior firepower and run for the hills. They did. But now they're back. And the tide has turned. The Taliban have regrouped, filled their ranks with new recruits, and now they're stronger than ever. Morale is high. The world's best-equipped, high-tech war machine is being beaten by a ragtag collection of medieval-minded fundamentalists armed with muskets and sabers. It's a bigger fiasco than Iraq.

The Financial Tsunami: Sub-Prime Mortgage Debt is but the Tip of the Iceberg


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Also of interest:
The years best [actual] headlines of 2007
Power shocker — $160 rise
Localise and go organic to avert post-peak famine - Heinberg