Eeyore's News and View

Report: Al Qaeda Group Bungled Test of Unconventional Weapon
Tuesday, January 20, 2009
By Eli Lake, Washington Times
An Al Qaeda affiliate in Algeria closed a base earlier this month after an experiment with unconventional weapons went awry, a senior U.S. intelligence official said Monday.
The official, who spoke on the condition he not be named because of the sensitive nature of the issue, said he could not confirm press reports that the accident killed at least 40 Al Qaeda operatives, but he said the mishap led the militant group to shut down a base in the mountains of Tizi Ouzou province in eastern Algeria.
He said authorities in the first week of January intercepted an urgent communication between the leadership of Al Qaeda in the Land of the Maghreb (AQIM) and Al Qaeda's leadership in the tribal region of Pakistan on the border with Afghanistan. The communication suggested that an area sealed to prevent leakage of a biological or chemical substance had been breached, according to the official.
"We don't know if this is biological or chemical," the official said.
The story was first reported by the British tabloid the Sun, which said the Al Qaeda operatives died after being infected with a strain of bubonic plague, the disease that killed a third of Europe's population in the 14th century. But the intelligence official dismissed that claim.
http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,480864,00.html

Oil dips below $33 on recession fears
Oil slipped below $33 a barrel in New York, hitting a new low for the year, on persistently weak expectations for the global economy.
By Josephine Moulds
Last Updated: 5:41PM GMT 20 Jan 2009
Analysts said the price was distorted by regional factors, such as limited storage availability, but it was indicative of the severe recession in developed countries and a drop in global demand for oil.
David Fyfe, head of oil industry and markets at the International Energy Agency, said: "There was a little support for prices with what was happening in Gaza, the cold weather, and a bit of a bump up for the Russia-Ukraine gas crisis.
"As those elements have ebbed, the market focus remains on a very weak demand prognosis. Opec is cutting back its supplies, but they are essentially chasing the market down, because all the indicators for demand are coming in so weak."
His comments come just days after Jeff Currie, head of Goldman Sachs' commodities research team and one of the industry's most closely watched analysts, said the oil price would average $30 a barrel in the first quarter, and not recover until the second half. He predicts a price of $65 a barrel by the end of the year.
Goldman Sachs, which is the bank with the biggest share of the commodities and energy markets, has been among the most bullish forecasters of the oil price. Last year it predicted a crude oil spike to $200 a barrel.
Mr Currie said oil, which has plunged from a record of $147 last July, may have reached a bottom.
The "super-cycle" was alive and well, he said, adding: "We're still true believers."
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/economics/4299222/Oil-dips-below-33-on-recession-fears.html

State of mining is bad, but it could get worse
Jan 20 03:53 PM US/Eastern
By SANDY SHORE
AP Business Writer
DENVER (AP) - Withering cost cuts across the mining industry have left tens of thousands of people without jobs from the Arizona desert to the Andes—and there is a litany of evidence that the situation is growing worse.
International mining companies also have postponed or canceled projects and padlocked the gates to mines as consumers have cut spending on cars, jewelry and housing.
Global mining giant Rio Tinto announced last week that iron ore production, used to make steel, tumbled 18 percent in the fourth quarter and said Tuesday its aluminum subsidiary would double previously announced production cuts.
Unwanted copper, gold, bauxite (used in aluminum) and iron ore, is piling up or being left underground as the worst recession in at least a generation saps demand.
"Expect inventories to get bigger and expect this continuing process (of cutbacks)," said Andrew Martyn, a portfolio manager who specializes in mining for Toronto-based Davis-Rea Ltd. "It's going to go for quite some time here."
The effect on many communities worldwide that rely on mining has been immediate. Workers are protesting job cuts and others are expected to begin migrating in large numbers in search of work, some across international borders.
"A lot of the communities are remote so that when (mines) do shut down, the town actually collapses," Martyn said.
The bulk of the layoffs in the United States are in base metals such as copper and zinc, although major companies are scaling back production of metallurgical coal for use in steel manufacturing.
Coal companies have slowed production from Wyoming to Australia.
Coal jobs are among the highest paying in many rural U.S. communities, potentially creating a dire economic ripple effect. In the past, coal companies have been more recession proof, but the average price per ton for Appalachian coal has fallen more than 35 percent since the summer.
At least 700 job cuts are likely in Tennessee and Montana by Swiss-based Glencore International AG, a commodities company.
Still, job losses have been most severe outside the United States.
Glencore's Bolivian subsidiary recently announced it will layoff several hundred people, triggering labor protests.
Thousands of miners who dig primarily for zinc in Bolivia either have been laid off or left their jobs in the Andes, the poorest region in South America's poorest country. In the mines around the small cities of Potosi and Oruro, the work force of roughly 25,000 miners and refiners has been cut roughly in half.
A controlling stake in Bolivia's largest mine, San Cristobal, has been put up for sale by Denver-based Apex Silver Mines Ltd., which is reorganizing under bankruptcy protection.
Local officials say workers may flood back into villages emptied during a two-year zinc boom that ended in 2007, or they may emigrate to Argentina in search of jobs.
Tens of thousands of mining jobs have been lost in recent months from South Africa to Jamaica as manufacturers shut down. U.S. industrial production plunged by double the amount analysts expected in December, capping the worst year for manufacturers since 2001.
"As little as three to six months ago, steel companies were running flat out around the world because China was making factories to ship goods to the rest of the Western world," Martyn said. "That process has come to a grinding halt."
There are no reliable employment numbers available for the mining industry globally because it spans such a broad geographic, economic and political spectrum, but it is clear that the number of jobs already lost is vast.
The fall off in copper, used in everything from housing to computers, has triggered thousands of layoffs in Peru, Arizona and New Mexico.
Aluminum producers like Alcoa have also slashed production, along with thousands of jobs. Those cuts have spilled over into mining.
"What all companies are doing that have bauxite and alumina facilities is they're basically retrenching," Argus Research analyst Bill Selesky said. "They may be running them at lower production levels now just to keep up with what's going on. And they won't rehire these people until they actually see an uptick in demand."
In a December address, Jamaican Prime Minister Bruce Golding announced a $6.7 million plan to boost tourism and small businesses to help offset the effects of the downturn in the bauxite-alumina industry.
Industry analysts speculate some signs of improvement could start appearing in the latter half of this year, though others say it could take up to two years.
"Companies still looking to cut costs are going to be cutting out high cost operations. A lot of that should be still to come," Barnard Jacobs Mellet analyst Patrick Chidley said.
BHP Billiton Ltd., the world's largest miner, is expected to reveal more about the state of production and exploration for the last quarter of 2008 on Wednesday, Australia time. The figures should be available late Tuesday in the United States.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D95R3LRG0&show_article=1

Japanese security robot nets intruders
Jan 22 12:34 PM US/Eastern
Japanese on Thursday unveiled a security robot that can be operated remotely by cellphone and launch a net to capture an intruder.
The prototype T-34, jointly developed by robot developer tmsuk Co. Ltd. and security company Alacom Co. Ltd., looks like a small wheeled vehicle and is loaded with sensors that detect anything untoward in an office building.
It can move at a maximum speed of 10 kilometres (six miles) per hour under the command of a person who sees real-time images of where the robot is on the screen of his cellphone.
"Security sensors often set off false alarms but examining the location with the robot will lead to more efficient operations," the companies said in a joint statement.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.c2041e940f4762afd9c98babc6561ae5.41&show_article=1

Obama to stop ousting illegals?
President asked for executive order to halt deportation, work raids
By Chelsea Schilling
© 2009 WorldNetDaily
Elvira Arellano
A former illegal alien who sought sanctuary in a Chicago church in 2006 before being deported back to Mexico has written a letter to President Barack Obama, asking him to issue an executive order to stop sending illegals home.
Elvira Arellano came to the United States illegally in 1997 and was deported. But she returned less than a week later and began working as a cleaning employee for the O'Hare International Airport. After being convicted of Social Security fraud, she faced another deportation in August 2006. She took refuge in Adalberto United Methodist Church in Chicago and called for the suspension of the nation's immigration laws and a "campaign of resistance."
She remained there for months before traveling to California where she was arrested and deported from Los Angeles in 2007.
Today, outside the U.S. Embassy in Mexico City, Arellano announced that she gave American officials a letter for Obama, asking him to stop workplace raids and deportations, the Associated Press reports. She said she believes the new president will reform U.S. immigration policy and stop separating families.
The announcement came during an immigration march in Washington, D.C., today. Several groups, organized by the Fair Immigration Reform Movement, or FIRM, marched on the offices of Immigration and Customs Enforcement for "just and humane" immigration reform. According to its website, the group aims to "lay to rest 8 years of enforcement-only immigration policy at the hands of the Bush administration."
President Obama's immigration agenda has been posted on the WhiteHouse website, where he said, "Our broken immigration system can only be fixed by putting politics aside and offering a complete solution that secures our border, enforces our laws, and reaffirms our heritage as a nation of immigrants."
The agenda calls for the following actions:
* Create Secure Borders: Protect the integrity of our borders. Support additional personnel, infrastructure and technology on the border and at our ports of entry.
* Improve Our Immigration System: Fix the dysfunctional immigration bureaucracy and increase the number of legal immigrants to keep families together and meet the demand for jobs that employers cannot fill
* Remove Incentives to Enter Illegally: Remove incentives to enter the country illegally by cracking down on employers who hire undocumented immigrants
* Bring People Out of the Shadows: Support a system that allows undocumented immigrants who are in good standing to pay a fine, learn English, and go to the back of the line for the opportunity to become citizens
* Work with Mexico: Promote economic development in Mexico to decrease illegal immigration
As WND reported earlier, Obama has also advocated issuing driver's licenses to illegal aliens.
As U.S. senator, Obama voted voted against an amendment aimed at reducing document fraud and preserving the integrity of the Social Security system. He also sponsored a bill to provide in-state tuition rates at state and community colleges to illegals.
Oscar Chacón, executive director of the National Alliance of Latin American and Caribbean Communities, told New York's El Diario Americans can expect to see a change in immigration policy as early as this year.
"There is no doubt that the Obama Administration will push immigration reform," Chacón said. "In a meeting we ... had recently with the Obama transition team's immigration advisers, they assured us that he has in his plans an immigration reform for the first year of his government."
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=86733