- Signs of the Times Archive for Mon, 01 Sep 2008 -



Sections on today's Signs Page:

SOTT Focus
Signs Economic Commentary for 1 September 2008

Donald Hunt
SOTT.net
2008-09-01 17:09:00

Summary: Gold continued its steady rise from the recent lows below $800 an ounce. The dollar also resumed its rise against the euro.

The recent rise of the dollar has been attributed to evidence that the rest of the world is entering a recession and that the downturn will not be limited to the United States. It has also been fueled by an export-based mini-recovery in the United States. A recent revision of U.S. GDP (Gross Domestic Product) number showing a 3.5% annualized growth rate in the second quarter of 2008 shows the results of both the growth in exports from the United States and the effects of the tax rebate checks being spent in the economy.

Both, however, cannot last, as the checks have already been spent and the dollar is now rising (it was the low dollar that fueled exports). So, while a little good news is always welcome, we're not out of danger, by any means. The drop in the price of gold this summer has made all currencies seem stronger, but what is really behind it all?

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Who Wants To Be CEO of a Red, White and Blue Kakistocracy*?


Richard Sauder, PhD
2008-08-31 21:08:00

©2008 All Rights Reserved. Contact author for permission to repost or mirror

*Kakistocracy is government by the very worst, least principled, and most incompetent people. You will be forgiven for thinking that the word, kakistocracy, perhaps derives from the word, "caca", itself derived from the Latin, "cacare". In fact, kakistocracy derives from the Greek, kakos, meaning "bad".)

Let me make myself clear from the outset: I am not running for President of the United States, I just am *not doing* it, though I am constitutionally fully qualified, and, truth to tell, would be much better for the country in many ways, on many levels, than the current, thug occupant of the White House (notice that I do not refer to him as "President"). But, no, I really and truly do not aspire to be President of this godforsaken Kakistan masquerading as the USA.

Now that that crucial non-announcement is out of the way, permit me to set forth a couple of the many reasons for my subdued, cyberspace non-campaign for the Oval Office.

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Is Sott Anti-Semitic? You Be The Judge

Joe Quinn
Sott.net
2008-08-30 15:36:00

A few days ago, I received an email from a person named "Angus" who informed me that my article "Racism not defence at the heart of Israeli politics" was causing "quite a stir" in the UK and that he would like some details about me as he was planning to write something in response. From the beginning it was pretty clear what "Angus'" agenda was, but I decided to give the benefit of the doubt, at least to begin with. The exchange that ensued has left us with a much better insight into the minds and methods of those vociferous defenders of Israel that are doing so much in British academic circles to ensure that the Israeli government continues to enjoy immunity for its human rights abuses in Occupied Palestine.

Read on, it's a real trip!

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Best of the Web
Living in a Lying Nation

Sean M. Madden
iNoodle.com
2008-09-01 16:19:00

The following lead from Monday's BBC Radio 4 Today program says it all, well, sort of:



Leaders of the European Union are meeting to decide what can be done about Russia in the wake of its invasion of Georgia. The leader of the opposition, David Cameron, went to Georgia in the aftermath of the conflict - and says that Russia must be shown what is unacceptable behaviour and that the UK must continue to stand by Georgia.



If one were to rely on the mainstream propaganda machine anywhere in the West, this statement would perhaps make sense. But when, instead, one actively seeks out news from beyond the mind-bending media machine, Cameron's lie - like those told by the West's other leading liars - is criminal in its assertion that Russia was the aggressor. A lie because despite it being known by all concerned, and by NATO leaders in particular, that Russia was responding to Georgia's assault on South Ossetia, this fact is simply omitted by those who seem hell-bent on starting Cold War II, and who might spark, and even wish to spark, World War III. A criminal lie in that it is being exploited as yet one more in a long, perpetually growing list of casus belli to mask the West's own "unacceptable behaviour," its own criminal aggression.

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U.S. News
Driver Booked on Suspicion of Murder in Possible Road Rage Crash That Killed Pregnant Teen


FOX News
2008-09-01 16:22:00

LOS ANGELES - The driver of a car involved in a possible road-rage-fueled crash in California was booked on suspicion of murder, as friends mourned the deaths of the pregnant teen and two others killed in the wreck.

Police said they believe two cars were traveling at up to 70 mph when one struck the other late Wednesday night. The Nissan Maxima driven by 19-year-old expectant mother Cristyn Cordova was hit. She lost control and slammed into a tree.

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Anti-war veterans march on GOP convention

Brian Bakst
The Associated Press
2008-09-01 11:19:00

About 100 veterans marched in formation to the site of the Republican National Convention on Monday, hoping their experience would lend credibility to their anti-war message.

Many members of Iraq Veterans Against the War were in uniform as they pressed for a meeting with the presidential campaign of John McCain. They want McCain to back additional services for military veterans, particularly those suffering with post-combat mental health problems.

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Assessing the Political Impact of Bristol Palin's Pregnancy

Chris Cillizza
washingtonpost.com's Politics Blog
2008-09-01 13:54:00

Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin announced moments ago that her 17-year-old daughter, Bristol, is five months pregnant and is planning to keep the baby and marry the father.

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Hurricane Gustav Evacuees in Tennessee may not return

Colby Sledge
The Tennessean
2008-09-01 09:21:00

Image
©George Walker IV, the Tennessean
Melanie Windhausen and Deatrick Holley, both of New Orleans, watch storm coverage on television.


More than 4,300 Hurricane Gustav evacuees - many survivors of Hurricane Katrina three years ago - arrived in Tennessee Sunday, including nearly 1,500 in Nashville.

And chances are, most of them aren't going back this time.

"With the trajectory as it is, it's going to be more devastating than Katrina," said Deatrick Holley, better known to New Orleans residents and visitors as performance artist Goldie the Golden Cowboy.

"We're seeing the end of something really great."

Hurricane Gustav is expected to make landfall today near New Orleans, a little more than three years after Hurricane Katrina left most of the city underwater and killed about 1,700 people along the Gulf Coast.

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USS Vella Gulf Headed To Mediterranean Sea As Part Of A Massive Deployment


WTKR News Channel 3
2008-08-31 03:44:00

A massive deployment of sailors and Marines continued Saturday morning when the USS Vella Gulf left Naval Station Norfolk. These sailors are a part of a group of nearly 6,000 that deployed this week with the Iwo Jima Expeditionary Strike Group.

The 320 sailors aboard the Vella Gulf are headed to the Mediterranean Sea and the Persian Gulf to work with allies on maritime security operations.

Some families got an extra day with their sailor. The Vella Gulf was supposed to pull out on Friday, but was delayed one day.

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Grandstanding by McCain: GOP convention now must be 'call to action'

Lisa Lerer
Politico
2008-08-31 02:58:00

John McCain said he would change the Republican National Convention from a "celebratory event" to a "call to the nation for action," during a Sunday visit to Jackson, Miss., where he was briefed on preparation efforts happening on the Gulf Coast.

"I pledge that tomorrow night, and if necessary, throughout our convention if necessary, to act as Americans, not Republicans, because America needs us now no matter whether we are Republican or Democrat," said McCain.

Hurricane Gustav could accelerate from a Category 3 to a Category 5 storm, meteorologists warned, and is expected to hit New Orleans as early as midday Monday.

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Some Prisoners Declared Innocent, but Not Free

Maya Schenwar
Truthout
2008-08-15 19:05:00

not free
©Peter MacDiarmid / Getty


Due to endless litigation, conflicting legal technicalities, or inadequate transitional facilities, prisoners who are innocent may find themselves behind bars indefinitely.

Former Black Panther Albert Woodfox, convicted of murdering a prison guard with two other inmates, has spent the last 35 years in prison, most of it in solitary confinement. Last month, Woodfox's conviction was overturned by a federal judge. However, despite being cleared of charges, Woodfox remains incarcerated, as the Louisiana attorney general's office persists in challenging the judge's decision.

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Slavery Haunts America's Plantation Prisons

Maya Schenwar
Truthout
2008-08-30 18:40:00

slave prison
©Paul Giambarba / truthout


On an expanse of 18,000 acres of farmland, 59 miles northwest of Baton Rouge, long rows of men, mostly African-American, till the fields under the hot Louisiana sun. The men pick cotton, wheat, soybeans and corn. They work for pennies, literally. Armed guards, mostly white, ride up and down the rows on horseback, keeping watch. At the end of a long workweek, a bad disciplinary report from a guard - whether true or false - could mean a weekend toiling in the fields. The farm is called Angola, after the homeland of the slaves who first worked its soil.

This scene is not a glimpse of plantation days long gone by. It's the present-day reality of thousands of prisoners at the maximum security Louisiana State Penitentiary, otherwise known as Angola. The block of land on which the prison sits is a composite of several slave plantations, bought up in the decades following the Civil War. Acre-wise, it is the largest prison in the United States. Eighty percent of its prisoners are African-American.

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An Open Letter to Nancy Pelosi: Save Yourself and Our Republic

Donald Rankin III
opednews.com
2008-08-30 18:36:00

Pelosi Bush
©Unknown


Dear Madame Speaker,

How are you these days? Since I don't imagine you're devoid of thought or conscience, I suppose you've felt better. You're probably choking down mountains of antacids, analgesics and sleep aids, and if by some chance you aren't, you certainly should be.

I know I've certainly enjoyed happier, healthier times, and I'm not even protecting gangsters like you are! My problem? Washington's cresting corruption has so filled me with bile that I can rarely put it from my mind. It's variably interfered with my work, recreation, sleep, digestion, heart rhythms - everything! Worst of all, whenever I write about or discuss this I fear I'm inviting myself to Gitmo. If you'll please take my advice, I think that we and millions more will feel better and eventually enjoy brighter days.

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The Land of the Silent and the Home of the Fearful

Dave Lindorff
CommonDreams News Center
2008-08-28 18:29:00

I was a speaker last night at an anti-war event sponsored by the Unitarian Universalist Congregation of Monmouth County, Progressive Democrats of America and Democrats For America in Lincroft, NJ, near the shore. It was a great group of activist Americans who want to see this country end the Iraq War, turn away from war as a primary instrument of policy, and start dealing with the pressing human needs of the country and the world.

Yet even in this group of committed people, one woman stood up during the question-and-answer session and said, "I want to get involved in writing emails to members of Congress urging them to cut off funding for the war and other things, but if I do that won't I end up getting put on a "watch list'" or something?"

I told her the short answer was yes, she probably would.

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Bush cancels, GOP weighs shorter convention

Tom Raum
Associated Press
2008-08-31 12:20:00

President Bush, Vice President Cheney and prominent GOP governors are all skipping the Republican National Convention, and the party is considering shortening its big four-day event as Hurricane Gustav approaches the Gulf Coast with potentially deadly strength.

The convention, a marquee event meant to send presidential candidate John McCain into the fall campaign with a burst of energy and good feeling, already was becoming overwhelmed by alarming news of the hurricane just three years after deadly Katrina struck New Orleans.

On Sunday, GOP officials were in round-the-clock meetings and tracking the path of the storm, trying to determine how to complete the official business of nominating McCain while also being sensitive to the thousands of people fleeing the Gulf Coast - more than 1,000 miles down the Mississippi from St. Paul.

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Crackdown begins: Food Not Bombs house among Saturday raids

Paul Schmelzer
Minnesota Independent
2008-08-30 12:12:00

MnIndy RNC reporter Jeff Severns Guntzel is at the Minneapolis Food Not Bombs house, which was raided by police this morning. Facts are still coming in, but Guntzel says that at 8 a.m. neighbors near the home, located at 2301 23rd Avenue South, reported hearing a loud bang followed by yelling. A single police squad car was parked out front. When Guntzel arrived he saw eight or nine officers enter the house in what he says is a joint operation between officers of the Ramsey County Sheriff's Department, the Minneapolis Police Depatment, and the FBI. According to one witness who was in the house at the time of the raid, the action is related to last night's raid on the RNC Welcoming Committee's "convergence space." Several other spaces have been raided this morning.

Around 9:20, two Minneapolis Police Property & Evidence trucks pulled up. Present were a Hennepin County Sheriffs' crime lab truck, a Ramsey County Sheriffs' squad and an MPD squad, plus at least four unmarked cars parked facing the wrong direction in traffic. Police tape is marking off the yard.

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Flashback: Fee-free college for poorest US students puts Ivy League to shame

Leonard Doyle
The Independent
2008-07-25 07:40:00

Berea University
©Unknown


Berea University in rural Kentucky is one of the wealthiest colleges in America but it only accepts the poorest applicants. The dropout rate is negligible and its students go out into the world debt-free, unlike the majority of those who emerge every year from America's universities, proudly clutching a degree but burdened by massive debts.

Berea is lucky. It has a $1bn (£500m) endowment which, wisely invested, produces enough income, topped up by fundraising, to teach 1,500 students. Some of Berea's students even leave with money in their pockets.

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Flashback: Amnesty International Focuses on Americans' Voting Rights

Haider Rizvi
OneWorld.net
2008-07-24 04:10:00

With the U.S. presidential polls just over 100 days away, a watchdog group that usually focuses on freeing political prisoners around the world has launched a campaign to make sure all Americans get to exercise their right to vote this year.

"There is no better time to rock the vote for human rights than now," said Larry Cox, executive director of the U.S. chapter of Amnesty International, a widely respected international rights watchdog group.

Last week, Cox's organization teamed up with Rock the Vote and other groups stepping up their efforts to make sure that no adult citizen of the United States is deprived of the right to vote.

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McCain hints Hurricane Gustav may suspend convention


Xinhua
2008-08-31 03:58:00

·McCain said It wouldn't be appropriate to have a festive occasion when a tragedy is near.
·McCain said that he has been in touch with the governors of the Gulf Coast states.
·McCain will formally accept the presidential nomination to be held in St. Paul, Minn.

gustav
©Xinhua/Reuters
The center of Tropical Storm Gustav is pictured over the Caribbean Sea in this NOAA satellite image taken early August 29, 2008. Gustav, which strengthened back to a hurricane on Friday as it headed toward the Cayman Islands, was expected to build to a dangerous Category 3 storm by the time it hits land in the United States on Tuesday, U.S. emergency officials said.


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UK & Euro-Asian News
UK: 4th man charged with terror offense

Meera Selva
Associated Press
2008-09-01 20:00:00

LONDON - British police charged a fourth man Monday in connection with alleged threats to assassinate Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

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Report: French police suspect psychotic serial murderer


Deutsche Presse-Agentur
2008-08-16 17:37:00

Paris - The brutal and what seems to be unprovoked murder of an 11-year-old boy in France has prompted investigators to suspect the work of a psychotic serial murderer over more than a decade.

Stephane Moitoiret was quickly identified and arrested as the possible killer by genetic material on the boy, called Valentin, who was found with 44 stab wounds near the city of Lyon on July 28.

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Owner of Russian opposition website killed


Reuters
2008-09-01 17:27:00

An opposition internet news site owner in Russia's troubled Ingushetia region was fatally shot yesterday soon after being detained by police, and his colleagues called for a rally to protest his death.

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Deepcut: Never before have I been so moved, or enraged, by a play

Mark Lawson
The Guardian
2008-08-29 19:15:00

Theatre can produce many reactions: grief, enjoyment, amusement, boredom, back pain. But last week, for the first time in 30 years of ticket stubs, I came out of a playhouse feeling rage and guilt, and wanting to march to Downing Street to demand an answer.

The play, a production by the Sherman Cymru company touring to the Traverse in Edinburgh, was Deep Cut, an investigation into the deaths from gunshot wounds of four British army privates at Deepcut barracks in Surrey between 1995 and 2002. If you yawningly think you know this story and are tempted to turn the page, the point of this piece is that I am no longer sure that we do know, and turning pages may have kept killers from justice.

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Spanair denies it considered transferring passengers before crash


Agence France Presse
2008-08-30 17:06:00

Madrid - Spanair denied Saturday government claims that it considered transferring passengers to another plane after detecting a problem with the jet that crashed last week in Madrid, killing 154 people.

spanair crash
©AFP
A helicopter flies over the site where a Spanair jetliner skidded off the runway at Madrid's airport on August 20, 2008


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Russia and the West: A Dialogue of the Deaf

John Laughland
The Brussels Journal
2008-08-27 13:15:00

Perhaps the most revealing remark made during the crisis over South Ossetia was that by the British Foreign Secretary, David Miliband, who attacked Russia in very strong terms for having reverted to "a 19th century approach to politics".

Milliband's hatred of Russia is built into his political DNA. His grandfather, Samuel Miliband, was a Warsaw-born Communist who famously fought in the Red Army but who then left the Soviet Union for Belgium when Stalin became top dog in Moscow. As a lifelong Trotskyite and supporter of world revolution, Miliband was disgusted by Stalin's decision to create socialism in one country alone and by his de facto restoration of Great Russian nationalism.

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Most Germans against Georgia joining NATO


RIA Novosti
2008-08-29 10:48:00

In a recent opinion poll carried out in Germany, 56% of Germans said they were against Georgia joining NATO, the pollster said on Friday.

The poll published by Leipziger Volkszeitung indicated that only 24% out of 1001 respondents believe that the former Soviet republic should join the alliance.

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Russia: Missing plane made emergency landing in East Siberia


RIA Novosti
2008-08-30 10:38:00

Russia's Emergencies Ministry said on Saturday that a missing An-2 aircraft with four people on board had been forced to make an emergency landing and had not crashed.

"The plane made an emergency landing after a fault occurred," a spokesman said, but gave no details of the cause of the problem.

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Italy: Ryanair jet makes emergency landing


The Press Association
2008-08-30 10:32:00

A Ryanair aircraft has been forced to make an emergency landing - the second in the last week.

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Over half of Poles are in favor of sanctions against Russia


RIA Novosti
2008-08-30 10:31:00

Over 50% of Poles think that economic sanctions should be imposed on Russia following the conflict in South Ossetia, the Gfk Polonia research center said on Saturday.

According to the opinion poll, carried out in Poland, 53% of respondents said Warsaw should push the EU to introduce sanctions against Russia during an emergency meeting on the crisis in Georgia and South Ossetia on Monday. While 49% of respondent think Russia should be blocked from joining the WTO and 46% think Russia should be excluded from the Group of Eight leading industrialized nations.

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US seeks to offset Russian energy dominance


Agence France Presse
2008-08-30 08:21:00

Washington will seek to boost alliances and offset Russian energy dominance when Vice President Dick Cheney visits Georgia, Azerbaijan and Ukraine next week, a White House official said.

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Hypocrite Miliband And The Myth Of Western Moral Superiority

Craig Murray
craigmurray.org.uk
2008-08-27 18:54:00

David Miliband was making great show today of fulminating in Kiev against Russian disregard of international law. Yet simultaneously he is continuing the sorry British record of participation in war crimes and contravention of the UN Convention Against Torture, Article IV of which covers "complicity" in torture. Both of these are serious breaches of international law.

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Around the World
Japan's Prime Minister Resigns

Martin Fackler
The New York Times
2008-09-01 17:37:00

TOKYO - Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced on Monday night that he would resign, abruptly ending his chronically unpopular government after just a year and leaving Japan's governing party scrambling to find fresh leadership ahead of crucial national elections.

Image
©Toru Hanai/Reuters
Prime Minister Yasuo Fukuda announced his resignation at a news conference at his official residence in Tokyo on Monday.


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Afghans protest in Kabul over civilian deaths


Reuters
2008-09-01 03:07:00

Hundreds of protesters blocked a road in Kabul on Monday accusing U.S.-led troops of killing three members of a family, including two children, in a raid in the city, residents and witnesses said.

NATO and U.S. military officials could not be reached for comment on the allegation, the latest in a string of incidents that have angered Afghans and caused a split between the Afghan government and foreign troops.

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Bangkok bomb raises fears of violent campaign

Chalathip Thirasoonthrakul
Reuters
2008-09-01 04:13:00

A small bomb exploded in a Bangkok police booth in the small hours of Monday as a stand-off between the Prime Minister and protesters occupying his office entered its seventh day with no sign of either side backing down.

A senior government source said the blast, which shattered nearby windows but caused no injuries shortly after 1 a.m. (2:00 p.m. EDT on Sunday), was a signal the People's Alliance for Democracy (PAD) was taking its campaign to another level.

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Zimbabwe: Zimbabweans Hit By Famine

Kitsepile Nyath
Nigeria Daily News
2008-08-30 12:54:00

It has become a daily routine for villagers in this dry and dusty region. Each morning they forage through the hinterlands in search of wildlife and fruits that have become their only source of sustenance.

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Australia: Barry Hempel feared dead in Stradbroke Island air mishap

Michael Wray, Jeremy Pierce and Alex Dickinson
The Courier Mail
2008-09-01 05:50:00

A search has resumed for an experienced aerobatics pilot and a passenger feared dead after a converted Russian stunt plane plunged into the ocean off Stradbroke Island.

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Australia: Two dead in glider crash at Toogoolawah near Brisbane


The Courier Mail
2008-09-01 05:44:00

Two people have died after a glider crashed near the Watts Bridge Airfield in Toogoolawah, north-west of Brisbane.

Toogoolawah Glider Crash
©Nathan Richter
Emergency services at the scene of the glider crash at Toogoolawah in which two men died.


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Taliban move on Khyber Pass to choke off NATO forces

Nick Meo Peshawar
Telegraph
2008-09-01 00:09:00

Taliban raiders are trying to strangle NATO's mission in Afghanistan by stepping up attacks on convoys in the Khyber Pass, the perilous mountain trail that carries most supplies into the country.

A prominent tribesman from the regional administration, the Khyber Agency, said that the Pakistani army was close to losing control of the pass.

"You see vehicles destroyed by rockets on the side of the road," said the man, who cannot be named for his own safety. "The wreckage isn't there for long, the army soon removes it to make it look as if they are still in control of the road. But they are on the verge of losing it."

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Japan: 75% fear major quake will hit where they live


The Yomiuri Shimbun
2008-08-31 18:42:00

Seventy-five percent of people fear a strong earthquake may hit the area they live, according to a Yomiuri Shimbun survey.

The survey shows an increasing number of people fear a major quake in the wake of other strong earthquakes in recent years. In a 2002 survey, 59 percent of people said they were worried, which jumped to 72 percent in a survey held in December 2004 following the Niigata Prefecture Chuetsu Earthquake.

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Brazil bets on nuclear powered submarine to protect oil fields


Mercopress
2008-08-29 18:28:00

Brazil will spend 160 million US dollars by the end of next year on the development of a nuclear-powered submersible to protect the oil reserves found recently off its coast, said Defence minister Nelson Jobim on Friday.

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Brazil intel agency accused of illegal wiretaps

Bradley Brooks
Associated Press
2008-08-30 17:12:00

Rio De Janeiro, Brazil - Brazil's national intelligence agency will investigate accusations that its agents tapped the phones of top government officials including the president of the Supreme Court, officials said Saturday.

Silva
©AP Photo/Dario Lopez-Mills
Brazil's President Luis Inacio Lula da Silva, center left, and Marta Suplicy, center right, Sao Paulo mayoral candidate of the ruling Workers Party, wave to supporters as they ride in an open car during a rally in Sao Paulo, Saturday, Aug. 30, 2008. Mayoral elections are scheduled for Oct. 5, 2008. At back is Suplicy's running mate Aldo Rebelo


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Flashback: Congo: The Human Cost of Cheap Cell Phones

Kathleen Kern
OpEdNews
2008-07-24 07:53:00

This is Chapter 5 of Steven Hiatt's book A Game as Old as Empire: The secret world of economic hitmen and the web of global coruption published by Berrett-Koehler Publishers.

Goma's hospital has one tent for rape victims awaiting surgery and one for victims recovering from surgery. In the pre-op area, I held a month-old girl who was entranced by the dim electric light hanging from the ridgepole. She arched her back and waved her arms, straining to encounter this exciting new world and oblivious of the atrocity that had created her life.

The mother told me her baby's name was Esther. Clasping her breasts, she said she had no milk. She did not tell me what operation she was waiting for. Perhaps her rapist(s) had caused a fistula, penetrating the wall between her rectum and vagina with penises, guns, or machetes. Hundreds of other injuries are possible. We had seen pictures of women who had been shot in the vagina, who had had salt rubbed in their eyes until they were blind (and thus could not identify their assailants), who had been burned or had limps amputated after being raped.

A week earlier we had been in Bukavu, where we had visited the office of a human rights organization and seen glory photos of a recent massacre in the nearby village of Kanyola. The assailants were members of the Interahamwe militia that had carried out the genocide in Rwanda. They had hacked their victims to death with machetes or burned them instead of using guns, so that UN peacekeepers at a nearby base would not hear the slaughter. The human rights worker showing us the pictures had recently replaced the previous director of the agency, Pascal Kabungulu Kimbembe. After a local Congolese army officer had threatened him, Kimbembe had been assassinated in front of his home earlier in the year.1

These low-tech acts of barbarism engulfing eastern Congo are outgrowths of a global demand for high-tech consumer goods such as cell phones, laptop computers, and PlayStations. Coltan (short for columbite-tantalite), an ore vital for manufacturing these devices, has been a particular concern for those investigating the involvement of multinational corporations in the violence: 80% of the known coltan reserves in the world are in Congo, making it potentially as strategically important to the U.S. military as the Persian Gulf.2 But demand for gold, diamonds, copper, zinc, uranium, cobalt, cadmium, timber, and other resources in which Congo is rich has also contributed to the holocaust that has overtaken the country during the past decade.

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Mexicans protest surging crime in mass marches

Sophie Nicholson
Agence France-Presse
2008-08-30 21:11:00

Mexico City - Thousands of Mexicans filled the streets of towns and cities across the country Saturday in silent protests against escalating murders, kidnappings and impunity.

Image
©AFP/File/Alfredo Estrella
Pink wooden crosses stand in the place where the corpses of eight murdered women were found in 2001 in Ciudad Juarez, in the Mexican state of Chihuahua. Thousands of Mexicans filled the streets of towns and cities across the country Saturday in silent protests against escalating murders, kidnappings and impunity.


Violence has again spiked since President Felipe Calderon, who took office at the end of 2006, launched a crackdown on drug trafficking and related attacks, including the deployment of more than 36,000 soldiers across the country.

A swarm dressed in white, many carrying white flowers, set off from the capital's Independence Angel monument at 6 pm (2300 GMT) in the largest march, walking in silence towards the main Zocalo square, which has a capacity for 160,000 people.

Similar protests began earlier Saturday across the country, and many others, in all 32 states of Mexico, set off in unison.

Organizers hoped to bring hundreds of thousands to the streets, as in 2004 when almost half a million protested, forcing the government to carry out police purges and reforms.


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Thailand protests hit police headquarters


Reuters
2008-08-30 15:32:00

BANGKOK - Protesters trying to overthrow Thailand's government attacked Bangkok's police headquarters yesterday as demonstrations against Prime Minister Samak Sundaravej spread from the capital, disrupting air and rail services.

About 30 people were injured after police repelled a crowd of about 2,000 on a fourth day of protests. The demonstrations have raised fears of major violence and military intervention less than two years after a coup in September 2006.

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Afghan official 'saw bodies of 50 children' killed in US strike


Agence France-Presse
2008-08-30 13:36:00

Kabul: An Afghan politician told AFP Friday how he had helped dig out the bodies of women and children after US-led air strikes a week ago, reiterating with another official that around 90 civilians were killed.

The US-led coalition disputes the number and says only five civilians died along with 25 Taliban. US officials have also reportedly questioned the figure because of a lack of physical evidence.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity to the Associated Press, US defense officials said that the Afghan and UN counts of the civilians killed in the raid were overstated. The sources said that the US administration was pushing for a joint probe into the incident in order to reconcile the conflicting accounts of the incident.

"I saw with my own eyes bodies of 50 boys and girls under 15 years of age," said Herat provincial councillor Naik Mohammad Ishaq.

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Big Brother
Moberly Residents Protest Taser Usage

Brandon Lewis and Jessica Holley
KOMU
2008-08-29 18:24:00

Columbia - Dozens of Moberly residents protested the death of Stanley Harlan Firday night.

Moberly police Tased Harlan twice two nights ago after they say he resisted arrest. But protesters have a different story. They say Moberly officers used excessive force and do so frequently.

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Deputies taser mentally ill inmate twice in court


Fox29/Associated Press
2008-08-30 18:21:00

Fort Lauderdale, Fla. - Broward County deputies shocked a mentally ill inmate with Tasers in court after the man asked deputies for a few minutes to catch his breath before he was led from the courtroom.

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Police State: Massive police raids on suspected protestors in Minneapolis

Glenn Greenwald
Salon.com
2008-08-30 17:52:00

Protesters here in Minneapolis have been targeted by a series of highly intimidating, sweeping police raids across the city, involving teams of 25-30 officers in riot gear, with semi-automatic weapons drawn, entering homes of those suspected of planning protests, handcuffing and forcing them to lay on the floor, while law enforcement officers searched the homes, seizing computers, journals, and political pamphlets. Last night, members of the St. Paul police department and the Ramsey County sheriff's department handcuffed, photographed and detained dozens of people meeting at a public venue to plan a demonstration, charging them with no crime other than "fire code violations," and early this morning, the Sheriff's department sent teams of officers into at least four Minneapolis area homes where suspected protesters were staying.

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Privatizing the Police State: Blackwater Gearing Up for Hurricane Gustav

R.J. Hillhouse
The Spy Who Billed Me
2008-08-29 19:53:00

Blackwater Worldwide is currently seeking qualified law enforcement officers and security personnel to potentially deploy to provide security in the possible aftermath of Hurricane Gustav.

This is the first time Blackwater has mobilized under its controversial Homeland Security contracts. Blackwater did deploy security personnel to assist New Orleans in wake of Hurricane Katrina and this resulted in great controversy since it was the first time a private military corporation had deployed on US soil.



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Axis of Evil
Man jailed for Lockerbie terrorist attack was framed by police


BBC News
2008-08-28 15:52:00

Scottish police had information that might have changed the outcome of the Lockerbie bombing trial, a BBC TV programme has learned.

The information could have affected the credibility of key evidence, but was not passed to the defence team.

Libyan national Abdelbaset ali Mohmed al-Megrahi is serving life for killing 270 people in the 1988 bombing.

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Propaganda Alert! British Black Ops forces kill hundreds in Iraq "secret war"

Sean Rayment
Telegraph UK
2008-08-31 13:43:00

Hundreds of terrorists have been killed by the SAS waging a "secret war" against al-Qaeda in Iraq, The Sunday Telegraph can disclose.

More than 3,500 insurgents have been "taken off the streets of Baghdad" by the elite British force in a series of audacious "Black Ops" over the past two years.

It is understood that while the majority of the terrorists were captured, several hundred, who were mainly members of the organisation known as "al-Qa'eda in Iraq" have been killed by the SAS.

The SAS is part of a highly secretive unit called "Task Force Black" which also includes Delta Force, the US equivalent of the SAS.

The prime targets have been those intent on joining the wave of suicide car bombers that claimed around 3,000 lives a month in Baghdad at the height of the terrorist campaign in 2006.



Comment: "The Sunday Telegraph can disclose."

Read: Official Office of Propaganda wishes to diseminate the following message.

Notice the switch from "terrorists" to "insurgents" and then back to "terrorists" again.



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David Kelly's closest female confidante on why he COULDN'T have killed himself


UK Daily Mail
2008-09-01 10:54:00

A female confidante of Dr David Kelly raised disturbing new questions last night over how the Ministry of Defence weapons inspector was able to kill himself.

After his body was discovered in woods near his Oxfordshire home in July 2003, a Government inquiry led by Lord Hutton ruled that he committed suicide by slashing his left wrist with a knife and taking an overdose of co-proxamol, a painkiller commonly used for arthritis.

He was said to be anguished about being named as the source of a BBC report, which alleged that Tony Blair 'sexed up' a dossier justifying the invasion of Iraq.

But five years after his death at 59, his close friend, American military linguist Mai Pederson, has come forward to dispute this account.

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Why did a heat-seeking helicopter fly over the exact spot where David Kelly's body was found - and detect nothing?

Miles Goslett
UK Daily Mail
2008-08-24 11:05:00

Police failed to find the body of missing Government scientist David Kelly despite using a helicopter with heat-seeking equipment and flying over the exact spot where his corpse was later discovered.

Dr Kelly's body was found in July 2003 at the height of the controversy over Britain's invasion of Iraq.

Unusually, no inquest into his death has ever been held. Instead, the Hutton Inquiry was set up by Tony Blair to investigate the circumstances surrounding his death.

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Flashback: CENTCOM's Master Plan and U.S. Global Hegemony

Robert Higgs
The Independent Institute
2008-07-22 21:33:00

Many people deny that the U.S. government presides over a global empire. If you speak of U.S. imperialism, they will fancy that you must be a decrepit Marxist-Leninist who has recently awakened after spending decades in a coma. Yet the facts cannot be denied, however much people's ideology may predispose them to distort or obfuscate those facts.

How can a government that maintains more than 800 military facilities in more than 140 different foreign countries be anything other than an imperial power? The hundreds of thousands of troops who operate those bases and conduct operations from them, not to mention the approximately 125,000 sailors and Marines aboard the U.S. warships that cruise the oceans, are not going door to door selling Girl Scout cookies. United States of America is the name; intimidation is the game.

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Bush Seeks to Affirm a Continuing War on Terror

Eric Lichtblau
The New York Times
2008-08-29 17:27:00

Washington - Tucked deep into a recent proposal from the Bush administration is a provision that has received almost no public attention, yet in many ways captures one of President Bush's defining legacies: an affirmation that the United States is still at war with Al Qaeda.

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Bush quietly seeks to make war powers permanent, by declaring indefinite state of war

John Byrne
The Raw Story
2008-08-30 17:41:00

As the nation focuses on Sen. John McCain's choice of running mate, President Bush has quietly moved to expand the reach of presidential power by ensuring that America remains in a state of permanent war.

Buried in a recent proposal by the Administration is a sentence that has received scant attention -- and was buried itself in the very newspaper that exposed it Saturday. It is an affirmation that the United States remains at war with al Qaeda, the Taliban and "associated organizations."

Part of a proposal for Guantanamo Bay legal detainees, the provision before Congress seeks to "acknowledge again and explicitly that this nation remains engaged in an armed conflict with Al Qaeda, the Taliban, and associated organizations, who have already proclaimed themselves at war with us and who are dedicated to the slaughter of Americans."

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Torture and liberty

James Bovard
In Flanders Fields
2008-08-30 20:28:00

Is torture compatible with liberty? Unfortunately, this is no longer a hypothetical question. Many Americans who claim to support individual freedom also favour permitting the government to torture suspected terrorists or other purported enemies of the United States. This controversy is reminiscent of a disagreement between the famous economists F. A. Hayek and John Maynard Keynes. Hayek's Road to Serfdom (1944) brilliantly restated the classical warnings on Leviathan, showing the similarities in trends between Nazi Germany and Western democracies. Keynes claimed that Hayek had gone too far in his criticism because "dangerous acts can be done safely in a community which thinks and feels rightly, which would be the way to hell if they were executed by those who think and feel wrongly." Many have embraced Keynes's assumption in the post-9/11 era. They have accepted that a democratic government should be permitted to unleash itself if the rulers promise to do good things. They have ignored or shrugged off the specific methods used because of their confidence that politicians "think and feel rightly."

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Flashback: America's Cyborg Warriors

Tom Burghardt
Global Research
2008-07-23 21:55:00

As the costs of imperialist war skyrocket, securocrats find themselves under the gun so to speak, of corporate and Pentagon masters demanding "results."

No matter that the solutions sought are for "smart" weapons--particularly those that "think"--systems they believe capable of dominating global south and "homeland" cities. This quest for technological mastery has been dubbed by Pentagon theorists as "network-centric warfare" (Rumsfeld's "Revolution in Military Affairs" [RMA]) a "transformational" process that turn cities, any city, into a limitless "battlespace."

Indeed, current U.S. Army doctrine for fighting in urban environments define the problem as central to U.S. "national security,"

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Flashback: North Kansas City company settles charge related to boycott of Israel

Dan Margolies
Kansas City Star
2003-06-27 18:39:00

Cook Composites and Polymers Co. has agreed to pay a $6,000 fine to settle charges that it violated Commerce Department regulations aimed at countering the Arab boycott of Israel.

The department's Bureau of Industry and Security had charged that, in response to a request from a customer in Bahrain, Cook had furnished information stating that the goods being shipped were not of Israeli origin and did not contain Israeli materials.

The bureau also charged that Cook had failed to report its receipt of the request.

Cook, of North Kansas City, neither admitted nor denied the allegations, but agreed to pay the $6,000 civil penalty.

The anti-boycott provisions bar U.S. companies from providing information about their business relationships with Israel. They also require that receipt of boycott requests be reported to the Bureau of Industry and Security, formerly known as the Bureau of Export Administration.

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Middle East Madness
Children killed in NATO artillery attack

Claire Mackay
Associated Press
2008-09-01 20:00:00

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan says it has accidentally killed three children in the eastern province of Paktika.

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Nasrallah: 'Failed' IDF generals caused Georgia defeat in war


Haaretz
2008-08-15 16:02:00

Hezbollah leader Hassan Nasrallah on Thursday asserted that "failed" Israeli generals had caused Georgia's defeat in its current war with Russia.

"Israel exported failed generals in order to train the Georgian armed forces, including general Gal Hirsch, and we all know that the Georgian army was defeated by the Russian forces," Nasrallah said in a speech to mark two years since the end of the Second Lebanon War.

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Relations sour between Kurds and central Iraq government

Fadhel Dhaher
Azzaman
2008-08-30 00:16:00

Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki has asked Kurdish militias known locally as peshmerqa to evacuate areas south of the "green line" demarcating the autonomous Kurdish enclave in northern Iraq.

Maliki has went as far as sending Iraqi troops to flush out the Kurdish militias from villages, towns and cities officially not part of the Kurdish region. Iraqi troops have reportedly spread their control in the string of towns and villages in the restive Province of Diyala which the Kurds claimed as their.

Kurdish self-rule areas include the provinces of Arbil, Sulaimaniya and Dahouk but the Kurds have sent in their militias to the oil-rich city of Kirkuk and scores of villages and towns in the provinces of Mosul and Diyala.

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Abbas to meet Olmert with package of demands


Xinhua
2008-08-30 19:22:00

Ramallah -- Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas and Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert will meet on Sunday for more talks on essential final-status issues, Palestinian sources said on Saturday.

The meeting will take place in Jerusalem and the Palestinian and Israeli chief negotiators, Ahmed Qurei and Tzipi Livni, will attend the meeting, the sources added.

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U.S. arrests key Iraq official for suspected ties to militia

Ned Parker and Saif Hameed
Los Angeles Times
2008-08-29 18:07:00

Baghdad -- A senior Iraqi official, who oversaw the purging of Saddam Hussein loyalists from government jobs, has been arrested for his activities in connection with a violent Shiite Muslim militia, his political backers and supporters said.

Ali Lami was detained Wednesday by U.S. forces at Baghdad's airport as he arrived from Lebanon, said Iyad Kadhim Sabti, a spokesman for the committee that removed members of Hussein's Baath Party from government positions.

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Flashback: The Geopolitics of Iran: Holding the Center of a Mountain Fortress

John F. Mauldin
The Market Oracle
2008-07-24 04:27:00

To understand Iran, you must begin by understanding how large it is. Iran is the 17th largest country in world. It measures 1,684,000 square kilometers. That means that its territory is larger than the combined territories of France, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Spain and Portugal - Western Europe. Iran is the 16th most populous country in the world, with about 70 million people. Its population is larger than the populations of either France or the United Kingdom.

Under the current circumstances, it might be useful to benchmark Iran against Iraq or Afghanistan. Iraq is 433,000 square kilometers, with about 25 million people, so Iran is roughly four times as large and three times as populous. Afghanistan is about 652,000 square kilometers, with a population of about 30 million. One way to look at it is that Iran is 68 percent larger than Iraq and Afghanistan combined, with 40 percent more population.

More important are its topographical barriers. Iran is defined, above all, by its mountains, which form its frontiers, enfold its cities and describe its historical heartland. To understand Iran, you must understand not only how large it is but also how mountainous it is.

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Detainees in Al Jalama Israeli prison on hunger strike

Saed Bannoura
International Middle East Media Center
2008-08-29 22:15:00

Freedom
©Unknown


Lawyer Bothaina Doqmaq, head of the Mandela Institute in Palestine, reported on Friday that the detainees in several sections and in solitary confinement in Al Jalama Israeli prison and interrogation center started a hunger strike on Thursday in protest to the harsh living conditions and the administration's rejection to move them to ordinary sections although they ended their interrogation period.

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Iran warns any attack would start 'world war'


Agence France-Presse
2008-08-30 05:48:00

A senior Iranian military commander has warned that any US or Israeli attack on the Islamic republic would start a new world war, the state news agency IRNA reported on Saturday.

"Any aggression against Iran will start a world war," deputy chief of staff for defence publicity, Brigadier General Masoud Jazayeri, said in a statement carried by the agency.

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Refusing to Oppress

Neve Gordon
Antiwar.com
2008-08-30 13:23:00

Eighteen-year-old Sahar Vardi is currently in an Israeli military prison. She is being punished for the crime of refusing to be conscripted into the Israeli military.

A few weeks before her imprisonment she wrote Israel's Minister of Defense, Ehud Barak, explaining her decision to become a conscientious objector. "I have been to the occupied Palestinian territories many times, and even though I realize that the soldier at the checkpoint is not responsible for Israel's oppressive policies, that soldier is still responsible for his conduct..." She summed up her letter to Barak with the following words: "The bloody cycle in which I live - made up of assassinations, terrorist attacks, bombings, and shootings - has resulted in an increasing number of victims on both sides. It is a vicious circle that is sustained by the choice of both sides to engage in violence. I refuse to take part in this choice."

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Egypt opens sealed Gaza crossing


Ynet
2008-08-30 10:40:00

Rafah crossing to remain open for two days, allowing thousands of Egyptian citizens stuck in Gaza to return home. Palestinians: Reopening crossing goodwill gesture ahead of Ramadan.

Palestinian officials said Egypt has opened its sealed border crossing with the Gaza Strip, allowing hundreds of people to enter and leave the coastal territory.

Egypt opened the Rafah crossing on Saturday for two days, allowing thousands of Egyptian citizens stuck in Gaza to return home. They are also allowing hundreds of Palestinians needing medical treatment to enter Egypt.

Palestinians with foreign residency permits will also leave Gaza. Palestinians stuck in Egypt will be able to return to Gaza.

Egyptian sources said some 100 people have crossed into Egypt and 200 Palestinians have returned home to Gaza, while Palestinian officials said more than 500 Egyptians and Gazans with foreign residency permits have already crossed into Egypt and they expect hundreds more to follow.

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Damage Control! Iraqi girl tells of ordeal as suicide bomber

Tim Cocks
Reuters
2008-08-29 10:02:00

Rania is only 15-years old, but in the past week the softly spoken Iraqi girl has been drugged, strapped with explosives, arrested by men she nearly blew up and then shoved into a detention centre.

Now she finds herself at the heart of a propaganda war being waged by the Iraqi security forces against the same al Qaeda militants who tried to use her as a remote-controlled bomb.


Comment: We have already covered this story here:

Propaganda Photo-op?

However, the PTB are spreading it on pretty thick since normally we do not get to speak with "suicide bombers" since they are... well... blown-up.

There is a strange sort of truth here. The first 2 paragraphs claim that al-Qaeda drugged her before putting a bomb on her. Consider though the following equation:

al-Qaeda = CIA

Suddenly, the story has an entirely new meaning. This is, in fact, assuming the story is not entirely a fabrication.



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Israel's new "wet jobs" plan


IRIN
2008-08-29 19:30:00

If the Israeli Ministry of Finance manages to push through some reforms as part of the proposed 2009 budget, there may soon be almost no Palestinian workers in Israel's construction sector.

"We are supporting a plan where the idea is to increase the number of Israelis in the workforce," an official at the Ministry of Finance told IRIN on condition of anonymity.

"We want to create a situation where there is no interest in hiring Palestinian workers instead of Israeli ones," he added.


Comment: The evolution of the apartheid state...



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"We refuse to serve in the Israeli occupation"


Shministim 2008
2008-08-28 19:26:00

A group of high school graduates refusing their mandatory conscription into the Israeli army, objecting to Israel's human rights violations in the territory it occupies, recently released a statement outlining their position. Three of those who signed have been arrested upon refusing to serve. Their statement follows:

We, high school-graduate teens, declare that we shall work against the Israeli occupation and oppression policy in the occupied territories and the territories of Israel. Therefore we will refuse to take part of these actions, which are being done under our name as part of the IDF [Israeli army].

Our refusal comes first and foremost as a protest of the separation, control, oppression and killing policy held by the state of Israel in the occupied territories, as we understand that this oppression, killing and routing of hatred will never lead us to peace, and they are all contradictory to the basic values a society that pretends to be democratic should have.

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Caught on camera: Israeli justice in a nutshell

Gideon Levy
Haaretz
2008-08-28 19:09:00

This is Israeli justice in a nutshell: Lt. Col. Omri Burberg, the battalion commander suspected of giving an utterly illegal order to shoot a bound Palestinian, is wandering free and being considered for a senior training post in the Israel Defense Forces. Meanwhile, Jamal Amira, the father of Salam, the amateur camera operator who filmed the shooting, spent 26 days in an Israeli jail, until a military judge was so kind as to release him on bail last week.

"Although the claim that the IDF sought revenge is weak," wrote Lt. Col. Yoram Haniel, the military judge, "one cannot overlook the fact that out of all the protestors, only the complainant was arrested."

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Flashback: Back the boycott

Ilan Pappe
The Guardian
2005-05-24 19:19:00

Ilan Pappe, whose case was a focus of the lecturers' boycott vote, appeals to UK colleagues not to back down

The Association of University Teachers' decision to reconsider its motions on the academic boycott of Israel seems to confuse procedure and principle. I am not a trade union activist, neither am I a British citizen, but I understand there may - or may not - have been procedural, and even tactical, errors in the way the decision was taken. Either way, these issues cannot be the focus of the debate over sanctions and boycott. Judging by the amount of time spent - especially by the opponents of the new AUT policy - on debating procedural matters and tactics, there is a risk of the wider public losing sight of the main issue, namely the need to apply external pressure on Israel as the best means of ending the worst occupation in recent history.

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Grand Theft Economics
Laboring longer is growing trend for Americans

Dave Carpenter
The Associated Press
2008-08-31 14:14:00

Americans are changing the game plan for retirement, with millions laboring right past the traditional retirement age and working into their late 60s and beyond.

While the average retirement age remains 63, that standard may soon be going the way of the gold watch - a trend expected to accelerate as baby boomers close in on retirement without sufficient savings.

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Report card: U.S. workers worse off


CNN News
2008-09-01 13:29:00

NEW YORK (AP) -- This Labor Day finds workers in worse shape than they've been in years, according to a scorecard released Monday by Rutgers University.

In its first national labor scorecard, the Rutgers School of Management and Labor Relations said more than 10 percent of Americans are unemployed, discouraged from seeking work or underemployed. That is a nearly 25-percent increase from one year earlier.

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Gulf oil output at a trickle ahead of Gustav

Erwin Seba, Bruce Nichols, Robert Campbell and Haitham Haddadin
Reuters
2008-08-31 19:07:00

Houston - U.S. energy companies shut nearly all offshore oil production and were racing to bring down flood-prone Louisiana refineries on Sunday ahead of Hurricane Gustav's landfall, which could rival the wrath of 2005's Hurricane Katrina.

Gustav is expected to be a Category 3 hurricane with wind speeds up 127 mph when it hits the Louisiana coast on Monday in the first major test of the U.S. energy industry's preparedness since the devastating 2005 hurricane season.

Over 96 percent of U.S. Gulf oil production and 82 percent of natural gas output had been closed as of Sunday afternoon, the U.S. Minerals Management Service said.

The Gulf normally pumps 1.3 million barrels per day (bpd) of oil, a quarter of all U.S. production, and 7.4 billion cubic feet of natural gas, about 15 percent of domestic output.

At least nine refineries with a combined capacity of 2.2 million bpd, or 12.5 percent of U.S. refining capacity, were being shut along the south Louisiana coast ahead of Gustav's projected arrival west of New Orleans on Monday.

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Manufactured Famine

George Monbiot
Celsias
2008-08-31 18:46:00

A new wave of food colonialism is snatching food from the mouths of the poor

fish in Senegal
©Unknown
Fish in Senegal


In his book Late Victorian Holocausts, Mike Davis tells the story of the famines that sucked the guts out of India in the 1870s. The hunger began when a drought, caused by El Nino, killed the crops on the Deccan plateau. As starvation bit, the viceroy, Lord Lytton, oversaw the export to England of a record 6.4 million hundredweight of wheat. While Lytton lived in imperial splendour and commissioned, among other extravangances, "the most colossal and expensive meal in world history", between 12 and 29 million people died(1). Only Stalin manufactured a comparable hunger.

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Flashback: New Nukes Not Ready for Prime Time

Harvey Wasserman
Counterpunch
2008-07-25 08:50:00

A devastating blow to the much-hyped revival of atomic power has been delivered by an unlikely source---the Nuclear Regulatory Commission. The NRC says the "standardized" designs on which the entire premise of returning nuclear power to center stage is based have massive holes in them, and may not be ready for approval for years to come.

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Flashback: The death-knell of Bernankeism

Martin Hutchinson
PrudentBear.com
2008-07-21 21:40:00

The producer and consumer price indexes announced last week were significant in that they sounded the death-knell of Bernankeism. No longer will it be possible to inflate the money supply by pretending that inflation in the real economy is not a problem; other means will have to be found to perpetuate the shell-game.

In previous months, the consumer price index (CPI)in particular had benefited from some very fishy seasonal adjustments to remain close to the Fed's targets and only a little above 4% on a year-to-year basis. Even so, the rise of the producer price index (PPI)at 7.2% in the year to May 2008 should have caused alarms. This month, all possibility of doubt was lost. The CPI rose 1.1%, putting it fully 5% above its level in June 2007, while the PPI rose a staggering 9.2% on a year to year basis.

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Hope that Europe will escape economic crisis with limited damage dashed for good

Holger Schmieding
Newsweek
2008-08-30 21:17:00

After a flying start into 2008, European economic growth ground to a halt over the spring and summer. Six months ago many observers had hoped that at least the 15 eurozone countries could weather the global storm unleashed by the U.S. mortgage crisis with limited damage. These hopes have now been dashed for good. The eurozone is mired in stagnation. We cannot even rule out a genuine recession. But the U.S. credit crisis is not the major culprit. The oft-touted scare scenario, namely that European banks burned on the U.S. market would deny credit to worthy borrowers at home, has not come true.

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US: Georgia Bank Closes in 10th Failure This Year

Madlen Read
Associated Press
2008-08-30 21:10:00

Integrity Bank of Alpharetta, Ga., on Friday became the 10th U.S. bank to fail this year, done in by the very business it was built on -- real estate lending. Regions Bank of Birmingham, Ala., will assume all of Integrity Bank's $974 million in insured and uninsured deposits in 23,000 accounts, and about $34.4 million of its $1.1 billion in assets.

The remainder of Integrity's assets will be retained by the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. The FDIC said it estimates that Integrity's failure will cost its deposit insurance fund $250 million to $350 million.

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The UK is facing its worst economic crisis in 60 years


BBC
2008-08-30 08:28:00

The UK is facing its worst economic crisis in 60 years, Chancellor Alistair Darling has admitted.

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Why Prince Charles is right: we need GM free food and agriculture for food security

Dr. Vandana Shiva
UK Telegraph
2008-08-21 22:57:00

Dr. Vandana Shiva
©Associated Press
Dr Vandana Shiva: the world needs to listen to Prince Charles's message on GM crops


We are grateful to Prince Charles for cautioning the world on the blind and head long rush worldwide to spread GM seeds and crops especially in the Third World.



"*Prince Charles warns GM crops risk causing the biggest environment disaster

*Prince Charles accused by scientists of abusing position over GM comments



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Brazil: Big capital takes over agriculture

Joao Pedro Stedile
Green Left
2008-08-15 21:57:00

In recent years, there has been an intensive, continuous process of concentration and centralisation of corporations operating and controlling the entire production process of global agriculture.

Concentration is the concept used in political economy to explain the movement of large corporations to combine, accumulate, and become large groups. In every sector of production, an oligopoly is being created, with a few corporations controlling the sector.

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The Living Planet
Sun Makes History: First Spotless Month in a Century

Michael Asher
DailyTech
2008-09-01 14:16:00

The sun has reached a milestone not seen for nearly 100 years: an entire month has passed without a single visible sunspot being noted.

sunspot1
©Solar and Heliospheric Observatory (SOHO)
The record-setting surface of the sun. A full month has gone by without a single spot.




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New Zealand: Magnitude 5.8 quake causes no damage


The Associated Press
2008-09-01 12:56:00

A moderate magnitude 5.8 earthquake rattled New Zealand's central North Island on Monday, but there were no immediate reports of damage or injury.

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US: Gustav slams Louisiana coastline west of New Orleans

Michael Kunzelman and Mary Foster
Associated Press
2008-09-01 12:45:00

New Orleans - A weakened Hurricane Gustav slammed into the heart of Louisiana's fishing and oil industry Monday, avoiding a direct hit on flood-prone New Orleans and boosting hope that the city would avoid catastrophic flooding.

Image
©AP Photo/Bill Haber
Water is pushed over the flood wall into the upper 9th Ward from the effect of Hurricane Gustav, in New Orleans, Monday, Sept. 1, 2008.


Wind-driven water was sloshing over the top of the Industrial Canal's floodwall, but city officials and the Army Corps of Engineers said they expected the levees, still only partially rebuilt after Hurricane Katrina, would hold. The canal broke during hurricanes Betsy and Katrina, flooding St. Bernard Parish and the Lower 9th Ward.

"We are seeing some overtopping waves," said Col. Jeff Bedey, commander of the Army Corps of Engineers' hurricane protection office. "We are cautiously optimistic and confident that we won't see catastrophic wall failure."

Of more immediate concern to authorities was a barge that broke loose from its moorings and crashed into two anchors scrapped ships. The was no damage to the canal.

The National Hurricane Center in Miami said Gustav hit around 10:30 a.m. EDT Monday near the Cocodrie, a low-lying community in Louisiana's Cajun country about 72 miles southwest of New Orleans. Forecasters once feared a storm that chased nearly 2 million from the coast would arrive as a devastating Category 4 with much more powerful winds.

While New Orleans avoided a direct hit, the storm could be devastating where it did strike. For most of the past half century, the bayou communities that thrived in the Barataria basin have watched their land literally disappear. A combination of factors - oil drilling, hurricanes, river levees, damming of rivers - have destroyed marshes and swamps that once flourished in this river delta.

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The 'consensus' on climate change is a catastrophe in itself

Christopher Booker
Telegraph
2008-08-31 03:28:00

As the estimated cost of measures proposed by politicians to "combat global warming" soars ever higher - such as the International Energy Council's $45 trillion - "fighting climate change" has become the single most expensive item on the world's political agenda.

As Senators Obama and McCain vie with the leaders of the European Union to promise 50, 60, even 80 per cent cuts in "carbon emissions", it is clear that to realise even half their imaginary targets would necessitate a dramatic change in how we all live, and a drastic reduction in living standards.

All this makes it rather important to know just why our politicians have come to believe that global warming is the most serious challenge confronting mankind, and just how reliable is the evidence for the theory on which their policies are based.

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Update: Death toll in China quake rises to 22


NDTV.com
2008-08-30 18:39:00

The death toll in the earthquake measuring 6.1 on the Richter scale that hit southwest China's Sichuan province on Saturday rose to 22, officials said.


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India: Slight intensity earthquake hits Arunachal Pradesh


The Economic Times
2008-08-30 18:37:00

New Delhi: A slight intensity earthquake, measuring 4.8 on the Richter Scale, shook parts of Arunachal Pradesh on Saturday.

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Magmatically Triggered Slow Earthquake Discovered At Kilauea Volcano, Hawaii


Science Daily
2008-08-31 18:16:00

From June 17-19th 2007, Kilauea experienced a new dike intrusion, where magma rapidly moved from a storage reservoir beneath the summit into the east rift zone and extended the rift zone by as much as 1 meter.

Kilauea Volcano
©James Foster, HIGP/SOEST
A schematic cross-section from north to south through Kilauea Volcano, showing the structure of the volcano and the mobile south flank. The June 17 dike intruded into the East Rift Zone and triggered the slow-slip event, that most likely occurred on the decollement fault between the volcano and the pre-existing sea floor, approx. 15 to 20 hours later.


Researchers from the University of Hawaii at Manoa (UHM), Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego, and the U.S. Geological Survey (USGS) Hawaiian Volcano Observatory have now discovered that the 2007 dike intrusion was not the only action going on: the dike also triggered a "slow earthquake" on Kilauea's south flank, demonstrating how magmatism and earthquake faulting at Kilauea can be tightly connected.

Slow earthquakes are a special type of earthquake where fault rupture occurs too slowly (over periods of days to months) to produce any felt shaking. Slow earthquakes of magnitude 5.5-5.7 have been previously found to periodically occur on the flanks of Kilauea, and have been identified by ground motion data on Global Positioning System (GPS) stations. A general understanding of slow earthquake initiation, however, is still unresolved.

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Philippines: Aftershocks felt in Bicol region

Jaymee T. Gamil
Southern Luzon Bureau
2008-08-31 18:44:00

A magnitude 5.1 earthquake struck the Bicol region Saturday evening, followed by an aftershock Sunday morning, reports from the Philippine Institute of Volcanology and Seismology (Phivolcs) showed.

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Baltic States Failing To Protect Most Damaged Sea


Science Daily
2008-08-31 17:56:00

Nine Baltic sea states all scored failing grades in an annual WWF evaluation of their performance in protecting and restoring the world's most damaged sea.


Baltic Sea
©iStockphoto/Janno Vään
The poor state of the Baltic Sea environment has received attention this summer because of the extensive algal blooms caused by eutrophication and for recent scientific reports on the vast "dead zones" on the sea bottom.


The assessment, presented today at the Baltic Sea Festival, graded the countries on how well they are doing in six separate areas - biodiversity, fisheries, hazardous substances, marine transport and eutrophication - and on how they have succeeded in developing an integrated sea-use management system.

The best grade (an F for just 46 per cent) was received by Germany, followed by Denmark (41 per cent) and the worst were Poland (25 per cent) and Russia (26 per cent).

"It is a shame no country could be given a satisfactory total score," said Lasse Gustavsson, CEO of WWF Sweden. "The Baltic Sea is influenced by a multitude of human activities, regulated by a patchwork of international and national regulations and authorities.

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Shot In The Arm For Sumatran Elephants And Tigers


Science Daily
2008-08-31 17:52:00

The Indonesian government is to double the size of a national park that is one of the last havens for endangered Sumatran elephants and tigers.

elephant
© iStockphoto/Afriadi Hikmal
Encroachment by palm oil plantations into elephant habitat have greatly increased conflicts between humans and elephants.


Tesso Nilo National Park was created in 2004 with 38,000 hectares of forest. Today's declaration will see that figure increase to 86,000 by the end of this year.

"This is an important milestone toward securing a future for the Sumatran elephant and tiger," said Dr. Mubariq Ahmad, WWF-Indonesia's Chief Executive. "To ensure the commitment is effectively implemented we must redouble our efforts to eliminate poaching and illegal settlements within this special forest."

With more than 4,000 plant species recorded so far, the forest of Tesso Nilo has the highest lowland forest plant biodiversity known to science, with many species yet to be discovered.

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'Lost World' Beneath The Caribbean


Science Daily
2008-08-31 16:56:00

Scientists at the National Oceanography Centre, Southampton, are set to explore the world's deepest undersea volcanoes and find out what lives in a 'lost world' five kilometres beneath the Caribbean.

Image
©Unknown


The team of researchers led by Dr Jon Copley has been awarded £462,000 by the Natural Environment Research Council to explore the Cayman Trough, which lies between Jamaica and the Cayman Islands. This rift in the Caribbean seafloor plunges to a depth of more than 5000 metres below sea level. It contains the world's deepest chain of undersea volcanoes, which have yet to be explored.

The researchers are planning two expeditions over the next three years using the UK's newest research ship, RRS James Cook. From the ship, the team will send the UK's remotely-operated vehicle Isis and a new British robot submarine called Autosub6000 into the abyss.

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Volcanic Sunsets


Space Weather
2008-08-31 15:56:00

This weekend, observers around Europe are reporting the same "volcanic sunsets" widely observed last week in North America. "The evening sky on Aug 29th was conspicuously purple," reports Marco Langbroek of Leiden, the Netherlands.

"This was probably due to aerosols in the stratosphere spewed by the August 7th eruption of the Kasatochi volcano in the Aleutian Islands." He photographed the display using his Canon 450D:

Volcanic sunsets
©Marco Langbroek


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New Orleans ports brace for Hurricane Gustav


Reuters
2008-08-30 04:32:00

Houston - Ship movement along the Mississippi River south of New Orleans stopped on Saturday as powerful Hurricane Gustav churned toward the Louisiana coast, and port operators made last-minute preparations.

The landfall location for Gustav, now a Category 4 hurricane with top winds of 150 miles per hour (240 kph), was still uncertain, but forecasters said Gustav was likely to near the central Louisiana coast by late Monday or early Tuesday.

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Gustav Now Major Hurricane - And Picking Up Steam

Willie Drye
National Geographic News
2008-08-30 04:21:00

Declared a Category 4 storm Saturday afternoon, Hurricane Gustav continues to strengthen and will soon reach Category 5 status - the highest - according to U.S. officials.

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Historic volcanic activity and mass extinction of marine life explored

Sarah Malik
The Gateway
2008-08-30 21:28:00

University of Alberta scientists discover volcanic eruptions on the ocean floor caused a drop in CO2 concentrations and a mass extinction of marine life

It sounds like a science fiction movie: a warm and watery North Pole, high carbon dioxide levels, giant clams trolling ocean floors, and volcanoes as large as a Canadian province. Then, a massive wipeout of ocean life.

This dystopia is not fiction, but an episode in Earth's long history, occurring 94 million years ago during the Cretaceous period. A geological mystery for years, recent discoveries have enabled two University of Alberta scientists to shed light on what caused this large-scale extinction.

Steven Turgeon, one of the leading researchers in the study that has garnered international attention and whose findings are now largely accepted, said he is "97 per cent" sure that it was volcanic activity in the ocean bed that triggered a chain reaction, ultimately resulting in the widespread extinction of marine life.

"Previously there was some speculation that it might have been caused by a meteorite," said Turgeon, who worked with Robert Creaser, also an Earth and Atmospheric Sciences professor. "Both volcanism and meteorites have the same isotopic signature. But we now know from our analysis of deposits that what caused the dinosaurs to die off did not cause this."

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Health & Wellness
Belief in conspiracy theories means less HIV testing in South Africa

Michael Carter
Aidsmap
2008-09-01 13:17:00

South Africans who believe in a conspiracy theory that HIV was introduced by white people as a way of controlling the black population are significantly less likely to have had an HIV test, according to a study published in the September 1st edition of the Journal of Acquired Immune Deficiency Syndromes. For the South African government to restore the public's faith in their response to HIV, they need to "present a consistent and strong prevention platform about the importance of testing", argue the investigators.

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Culture of surveillance may contribute to delusional condition

Sarah Kershaw
International Herald Tribune
2008-08-29 13:01:00

Psychosis in the 21st century looks something like this: You think your every move is being filmed for a reality television show starring you, and that everyone in your life is an actor.

Or you think you are under intense surveillance by an army of spies, whom you refer to as the "www people," as in the World Wide Web, and they wiretap your furniture and appliances.

Or else you refuse to drink water because you fear that another cup drawn from your faucet will, once and for all, deplete the world's water supply.

Those thoughts are from three case studies of what psychiatrists interested in the intersection of mental illness, culture and society are calling, respectively, Truman Show delusion, Internet delusion and climate change delusion; all of them a window, through madness, into the modern world.

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Fish Oil Supplements Help With Heart Failure, Statins Show No Effect

Ed Edelson
The Washington Post
2008-08-31 21:07:00

Daily supplements of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids -- the kind found in fish oil -- reduced deaths and hospitalizations of people with heart failure, an Italian study found. But a cholesterol-lowering statin drug had no beneficial effect in a parallel heart failure trial.

"This confirms what we've been seeing for a couple of decades in observational studies," Dr. Dariush Mozaffarian, an associate professor of medicine and epidemiology at Harvard Medical School and the Harvard School of Public Health, said of the fish oil trial. "There is a benefit of omega-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids for heart failure patients."

Both findings were published online Aug. 31 in the journal The Lancet and presented at a meeting of the European Society of Cardiology, in Munich, Germany.

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Flu Shot Does Not Reduce Risk Of Death, Research Shows


Science Daily
2008-08-31 16:48:00

The widely-held perception that the influenza vaccination reduces overall mortality risk in the elderly does not withstand careful scrutiny, according to researchers in Alberta. The vaccine does confer protection against specific strains of influenza, but its overall benefit appears to have been exaggerated by a number of observational studies that found a very large reduction in all-cause mortality among elderly patients who had been vaccinated.

The study included more than 700 matched elderly subjects, half of whom had taken the vaccine and half of whom had not. After controlling for a wealth of variables that were largely not considered or simply not available in previous studies that reported the mortality benefit, the researchers concluded that any such benefit "if present at all, was very small and statistically non-significant and may simply be a healthy-user artifact that they were unable to identify."

"While such a reduction in all-cause mortality would have been impressive, these mortality benefits are likely implausible. Previous studies were likely measuring a benefit not directly attributable to the vaccine itself, but something specific to the individuals who were vaccinated - a healthy-user benefit or frailty bias," said Dean T. Eurich,Ph.D. clinical epidemiologist and assistant professor at the School of Public Health at the University of Alberta. "Over the last two decades in the United Sates, even while vaccination rates among the elderly have increased from 15 to 65 percent, there has been no commensurate decrease in hospital admissions or all-cause mortality. Further, only about 10 percent of winter-time deaths in the United States are attributable to influenza, thus to suggest that the vaccine can reduce 50 percent of deaths from all causes is implausible in our opinion."

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Hurt feelings 'worse than pain'


BBC News
2008-08-29 08:28:00

The old adage "sticks and stones can break your bones, but words can never hurt you", simply is not true, according to researchers. Psychologists found memories of painful emotional experiences linger far longer than those involving physical pain.

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US: Bone That Blends Into Tendons Created By Engineers


Science Daily
2008-08-31 23:31:00

Collagen scaffold
©Georgia Institute of Technology
A microscopic image of a 10 mm collagen scaffold containing a uniform distribution of skin cells (blue) seeded on top of a 3-D polylysine gradient (green).


Engineers at Georgia Tech have used skin cells to create artificial bones that mimic the ability of natural bone to blend into other tissues such as tendons or ligaments. The artificial bones display a gradual change from bone to softer tissue rather than the sudden shift of previously developed artificial tissue, providing better integration with the body and allowing them to handle weight more successfully.

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New lens implant offers hope for kids with lazy eye


Associated Press
2008-08-18 23:08:00

Megan Garvin
©Associated Press
Megan Garvin wears oversize dark glasses and is still groggy after intraocular lens implant surgery.


Dr. Paul Dougherty delicately slipped a tiny lens inside the right eye of 7-year-old Megan Garvin - a last-ditch shot at saving her sight in that eye.

The California girl became one of a small number of U.S. children to try an experimental surgery to prevent virtual blindness from lazy eye diagnosed too late, or too severe, for standard treatment.

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US: Small device provides big pain relief

Eric Eyre
Saturday Gazette-Mail
2008-08-07 23:02:00

Charleston, West Virgina - It's no coincidence Charleston anesthesiologist Tim Deer was the first physician to implant the world's smallest rechargeable spinal cord stimulator in patients who suffer from chronic pain.

Dr. Deer, a pain medicine specialist with St. Francis Hospital, helped to develop and test the silver-dollar-size medical device over the past five years.

"It's like a pacemaker for the spine," Deer explained. "I have the ideas, the engineers make it work."

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Black raspberries slow cancer by altering hundreds of genes


ScienceDaily
2008-08-29 19:29:00

New research strongly suggests that a mix of preventative agents, such as those found in concentrated black raspberries, may more effectively inhibit cancer development than single agents aimed at shutting down a particular gene.

Researchers at the Ohio State University Comprehensive Cancer Center examined the effect of freeze-dried black raspberries on genes altered by a chemical carcinogen in an animal model of esophageal cancer.

The carcinogen affected the activity of some 2,200 genes in the animals' esophagus in only one week, but 460 of those genes were restored to normal activity in animals that consumed freeze-dried black raspberry powder as part of their diet during the exposure.

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Flashback: Neuroplasticity - Rewiring the Brain


The Daily Telegraph
2008-07-25 07:01:00

Can a damaged brain change its own structure and learn to replace lost functions? Conventional neuroscience once said no, but pioneers in the field have achieved miraculous transformations. From his investigation of their work, Norman Doidge tells the story of the perpetually falling woman.

Image
©Unknown


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Low-income? No car? Expect to pay more for groceries


University of Chicago Press Journals
2008-08-22 10:56:00

Households located in poor neighborhoods pay more for the same items than people living in wealthy ones, according to a new study in the Journal of Consumer Research.

Author Debabrata Talukdar (Columbia University) examines the impact of what has been dubbed the "ghetto tax" on low-income individuals. His study found that the critical factor in how much a household spends on groceries is whether it has access to a car. "Arguably, as the bigger, more cost-e