Eeyores News and view

Dollar Declines as Nations Mull Reserve Currency Alternatives
June 2 (Bloomberg) -- The dollar weakened beyond $1.43 against the euro for the first time in 2009 on bets record U.S. borrowing will undermine the greenback, prompting nations to consider alternatives to the world’s main reserve currency.
The euro gained for a fourth day versus the dollar as the Russian government said emerging-market leaders may discuss the idea of a supranational currency. The pound rose to the highest level since October and the Canadian dollar traded near an eight-month high on speculation signs of a recovery in U.S. and U.K. housing will spur higher-yield demand.
“There’s been a lot of talk out of Russia about a new global currency, and that’s contributing toward this latest bout of dollar weakness,” said Henrik Gullberg, a currency strategist in London at Deutsche Bank AG, the world’s largest currency trader. “These latest comments are just adding to the general dollar weakness we’ve seen recently.”
The dollar slid 1.1 percent to $1.4317 per euro at 4:21 p.m. in New York, from $1.4159 yesterday. It touched $1.4331, the weakest level since Dec. 29. The dollar depreciated 1.1 percent to 95.54 yen, from 96.59. The euro traded at 136.77 yen, compared with 136.78.
Sterling rose as much as 0.9 percent to $1.6596, the highest level since Oct. 30, while the Canadian dollar advanced 1.2 percent to C$1.0806, near the strongest level since Oct. 3.
Pending sales of existing homes in the U.S. climbed 6.7 percent in April, the National Association of Realtors said today. The median forecast of 32 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News was for a 0.5 percent gain. Banks in the U.K. granted 43,201 home loans that month, the highest level in a year, the Bank of England said.
Russia on Currency
Russian President Dmitry Medvedev may discuss his proposal to create a new world currency when he meets counterparts from Brazil, India and China this month, Natalya Timakova, a spokeswoman for the president, told reporters by phone today. Russia’s proposals for the Group of 20 meeting in London in April included studying a supranational currency.
“We need some kind of universal means of payment, which could create the basis of a future international financial system,” Medvedev said in a June 1 interview with CNBC. “Naturally, because of the crisis in the American economy, attitude to the dollar has also changed.”
Regional reserve currencies are an “unavoidable” part of “regionalizing” the global financial system, Deputy Finance Minister Dmitry Pankin said in Moscow today.
The Dollar Index, which ICE uses to track the currency’s performance against the euro, yen, pound, Canadian dollar, Swedish krona and Swiss franc, fell as much as 1 percent to 78.33, the lowest level since Dec. 18.
‘Opportunity to Sell’
“The market is looking for the opportunity to sell the U.S. dollar,” said Jack Spitz, a managing director for foreign exchange at National Bank of Canada in Toronto. “It took decades for the euro to be established. I can only imagine how long it would take for the BRIC countries to put together a currency.”
There’s no replacement currency for the dollar in the short term, Guo Shuqing, former head of China’s foreign-exchange administrator, said in an interview with the Financial Times for an article published yesterday.
The Dollar Index reached 89.62 on March 4, the highest level since 2006, as the global recession spurred investors to take refuge in Treasuries notes and bills.
Demand for the record amount of debt the U.S. is selling will remain sufficient, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in an interview today with state media outlets in China.
Chinese ‘Understanding’
The Chinese have a “very sophisticated understanding” of why the U.S. government is running up deficits, said Geithner in Beijing, pledging to rein in borrowing later. The U.S. will “do everything that is necessary” to preserve confidence in the nation’s financial markets, he said.
The dollar also declined on speculation “smaller” central banks started today’s selling of the greenback, said Sebastien Galy, a currency strategist at BNP Paribas SA in New York.
“If people believe that there is official pressure behind it, then obviously it puts pressure on euro-dollar on the upside,” Galy said. “Small central banks have an incentive in doing something because if they’re the first movers, they will not suffer by far as much as the big ones.” Galy predicted the euro may reach $1.4360 today, a peak last reached in December.
The euro fell earlier versus the yen as Europe’s jobless rate rose in April to the highest level in almost 10 years. Unemployment in the 16-member euro region increased to 9.2 percent from 8.9 percent in March, the European Union statistics office in Luxembourg said today.
ECB’s Rate
The European Central Bank will keep its benchmark rate unchanged at 1 percent on June 4, according to the median forecast of 54 economists surveyed by Bloomberg News. The ECB said last month it would buy 60 billion euros ($86 billion) of covered bonds.
The euro’s rally against the dollar may be entering its “last stage,” and investors would likely benefit from selling the euro against the greenback, according to UBS AG, the world’s second-biggest foreign-exchange trader.
Europe’s currency is poised to weaken toward $1.30, analysts led by Mansoor Mohi-uddin, Zurich-based chief currency strategist at UBS, wrote in a note to clients yesterday. The analysts reiterated forecasts for the euro to trade at $1.40 in one month’s time and then drop.
“We remain positive on the U.S. dollar and think that the greenback is likely in its final stage of weakness,” the analysts wrote. “Equity and bond flows have the potential to surprise and could lend support to the dollar.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=a3X76sjV801Y&refer=worldwide

Obama says Iran's energy concerns legitimate
By NANCY ZUCKERBRODThe Associated PressTuesday, June 2, 2009 3:40 PM
LONDON -- President Barack Obama reiterated that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it takes steps to prove its aspirations are peaceful.
In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, Obama also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it to set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.
Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.
"Without going into specifics, what I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations. On the other hand, the international community has a very real interest in preventing a nuclear arms race in the region," Obama said.
The comments echo remarks Obama made in Prague last month in which he said his administration would "support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections" if Iran proves it is no longer a nuclear threat.
Iranian state television described the news as Obama recognizing the "rights of the Iranian nation," a phrase typically used to refer to Iran's nuclear program.
The president has indicated a willingness to seek deeper international sanctions against Tehran if it does not respond positively to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program. Obama has said Tehran has until the end of the year to show it wants to engage.
"Although I don't want to put artificial time tables on that process, we do want to make sure that, by the end of this year, we've actually seen a serious process move forward. And I think that we can measure whether or not the Iranians are serious," Obama said.
Obama's interview offered a preview of a speech he is to deliver in Egypt this week, saying he hoped the address would warm relations between Americans and Muslims abroad.
"What we want to do is open a dialogue," Obama told the BBC. "You know, there are misapprehensions about the West, on the part of theMuslim world. And, obviously, there are some big misapprehensions about the Muslim world when it comes to those of us in the West."
Obama leaves Tuesday evening on a trip to Egypt and Saudi Arabia aimed at reaching out to the world's 1.5 billion Muslims. He is due to make his speech in Cairo on Thursday.
Obama sounded an optimistic note about making progress toward resolving the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, although he offered no new ideas for how he might try to secure a freeze on new building of Israeli settlements. The United States has called for a freeze, but Israeli leaders have rejected that.
Asked what he would say during his visit about human rights abuses, including the detention of political prisoners in Egypt, Obama indicated no stern lecture would be forthcoming.
He said he hoped to deliver the message that democratic values are principles that "they can embrace and affirm."
Obama added that there is a danger "when the United States, or any country, thinks that we can simply impose these values on another country with a different history and a different culture."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/06/02/AR2009060200947_pf.html

Government mistakenly posts list of U.S. nuclear sites
WASHINGTON (AP) — The government accidentally posted on the Internet a list of government and civilian nuclear facilities and their activities in the United States, but a U.S. official said Wednesday the posting included no information that compromised national security.
The 266-page document was published on May 6 as a transmission from President Obama to Congress. According to the document, the list was required by law and will be provided to the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Some of the pages are marked "highly confidential safeguards sensitive."
Damien LaVera, a spokesman for the National Nuclear Security Administration, said the document had been reviewed by a number of U.S. agencies and that disclosure of the information did not jeopardize national security. He said the document is part of an agreement on nuclear material inspection under the IAEA's nuclear nonproliferation effort.
"While we would have preferred it not be released, the Departments of Energy, Defense and Commerce and the NRC all thoroughly reviewed it to ensure that no information of direct national security significance would be compromised," LaVera said in a statement.
An Energy Department official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the official was not authorized to discuss the situation publicly, said none of the sites on the list is directly part of the government's nuclear weapons infrastructure.
Included in the report, however, are details on a storage facility for highly enriched uranium at the Y-12 complex at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Tennessee and some sites at the Energy Department's Hanford nuclear site in Washington state, this official acknowledged.
The publication of the list was first reported in an online secrecy newsletter Monday. The document had been posted on the Government Printing Office website, but has since been removed from that site.
In a statement, the Government Printing Office said Wednesday: "Upon being informed about potential sensitive nature of the attachment in this document, the Public Printer of the United States removed it from GPO's website pending further review. After consulting with the White House and Congress, it was determined that the document, including sensitive attachment, should be permanently removed from the website."
The GPO said it processes and produces approximately 160 House documents during the two-year congressional cycle, and the list was received by the agency in the normal process and produced under routine operating procedures.
The document includes both government and civilian nuclear facilities, all of which have various levels of security, including details and the locations of the nation's 103 commercial nuclear power reactors, information readily available from various sources.
For instance, there are nuclear reactors at the Westinghouse Electric Company in Pittsburgh. This facility is currently working on research into what happens when there are accidents with the nuclear reactors. The project started in 2006 and is expected to end in 2012, according to the document.
There are "zero" national security implications to the publication of this document, said Steven Aftergood, director of the Federation of American Scientists' Project on Government Secrecy. Aftergood found the document on the GPO website and highlighted it in his online bulletin.
"I regret that some people are painting it as a roadmap for terrorists, because that's not what it is," Aftergood said.
"This is not a disclosure of sensitive nuclear technologies or of facility security procedures. It is simply a listing of the numerous nuclear research sites and the programs that are underway," Aftergood said. "And so it poses no security threat whatsoever."
http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2009-06-03-nuclear-sites-list_N.htm

Does the 2nd Amendment protect .50-cals?
This issue will almost certainly see a lot more litigation; this opinion is clearly based on Heller and yet bases its result on invalid assumptions. .50 caliber weapons are declared to be "unusual and dangerous", and "assault weapons" have "such a high rate of fire and capacity for firepower that it's function as a legitimate sports or recreational firearm is substantially outweighed by the danger that it can be used to kill and injure human beings."In truth, of course, .50 caliber weapons are only moderately unusual; they are very popular for long-distance sport shooters and have been manufactured for civilian use for years. There are almost no crimes committed with these rifles, so in practice, their manufacture for civilian sale is not especially dangerous.The situation with assault weapons is similar. Assault weapons are simply ordinary semiautomatic rifles that happen to be designed for something other than hunting. They are used and possessed peacefully by millions of people, as well as being useful for self-defense in the home. It would be very difficult to conceive of a way that assault weapons would not pass the "common use" test from Heller, at least when before an honest judicial panel that has been presented with the proper evidence.
http://triggerfinger.org/weblog/entry/7692.jsp

Collector puzzled over seizure of his vintage war plane by customs agents
Posted by Anita Debro -- Birmingham News June 03, 2009 5:45 AM
Mark Almond/Birmingham NewsClaude Hendrickson III says he wants to fly the Douglas AD-4N Skyraider in air shows and eventually donate it to the Southern Museum of Flight.A vintage airplane collector said Tuesday that government agents have impounded his rare 1952 military aircraft he imported from France last fall and are threatening to destroy the plane because of a missed step in bringing it into the country.
Claude Hendrickson III said U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agents seized his Douglas AD-4N Skyraider about six weeks ago at the Bessemer Municipal Airport hangar he leases.
"(ICE) basically said we smuggled the plane into the country. My question is how do you smuggle this into the country," Hendrickson asked pointing to the single-engine aircraft that was commonly used as an attack bomber during the Vietnam War.
Hendrickson's Skyraider is believed to be one of only four of its kind that remain in the U.S.
The airplane, which Hendrickson bought for $100,000 last May, since its seizure has been moved to another hangar at the Bessemer Airport.
Hendrickson said he is not allowed to fly the plane or perform any work on it until ICE agents release it.
ICE spokesman Temple Black on Tuesday declined comment on the case and forwarded questions to the U.S. Attorney's Office in Birmingham.
Officials in the U.S. Attorney's Office declined specifics on the matter, but said "ICE continues to investigate the case."
Hendrickson said he was not trying to bring the plane into the country illegally. He said he believed he followed all steps to import the plane.
The 48-year-old businessman hired attorneys Joe Lassiter and Anthony Johnson. Hendrickson said his attorneys on Tuesday met with lawyers in the U.S. Attorneys in Birmingham regarding the plane.
Hendrickson said he has been advised that ICE had 60 days to file any criminal charges against him. He said the plane has already been impounded for about 45 days.
MISSED PAPERWORK:
Hendrickson, who lives in Shelby County, said he was in Texas on business when federal agents seized the plane at the Bessemer Airport in May.
He flew into the airport as soon as he heard about the seizure and briefly met with ICE agents.
Hendrickson said ICE agents told him then that he had failed to fill out a form required by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco Firearms and Explosives when he imported the plane into the states from France.
Hendrickson said he was unaware he had to register the plane with ATF since he removed the aircraft's artillery while it was still in France.
Hendrickson did register the plane with the FAA.
The FAA issued a certificate of registration on the airplane in September 2008, according to the agency's Web site. The registered owner of the aircraft, according to the FAA, is Dixie Equipment LLC, the business Hendrickson owns.
IN HONOR OF FATHER:
Hendrickson's father, Claude F. Hendrickson Jr., is a retired captain in the Navy. The elder Hendrickson flew planes like a Skyraider during his service.
It was his father's service as a Naval pilot that sparked the younger Hendrickson's fascination with airplanes. The younger Hendrickson owns several vintage military aircraft that he houses in Bessemer including the exact SNJ-4 warbird his father flew during his time in the military.
He and his father made the trip to France last year for the Skyraider. After inspecting the aircraft, the two men hired a pilot to fly a 15-day trip to get the plane from Europe to Buffalo, N.Y.
The Hendricksons planned to enter the plane in air shows across the country. Hendrickson already flies several of his military planes in air shows.
The younger Hendrickson said once the Skyraider had made a successful run in air shows, he planned to donate the aircraft in his father's honor.
"Ultimately, my intentions from the beginning have been to fly this plane for five to 10 years in air shows and then donate it to the Southern Museum of Flight in my father's name."
Now, Hendrickson worries that the government will destroy the vintage aircraft.
"I just don't get it," Hendrickson said. "This is a part of American history. It is of no danger to the government."
News staff writer Robert K. Gordon contributed to this report.
http://blog.al.com/spotnews/2009/06/collector_puzzled_over_seizure.html

Eeyores news and view

How's the economy? Guys, check your dumpy drawers
June 2, 2009 - 7:00am
UNDATED - Guys, how closely did you pay attention to your underwear this morning?
It may sound ridiculous, but you can tell a lot about the economy by checking out a man's underwear drawer.
The more frayed and saggy a guy's boxers and briefs, the worse the economy is.
The theory is since few people see it, underwear is the first thing men stop buying when the economy tightens.
Women's underwear isn't as good an economic indicator because the experts say women are less tolerant of wearing grungy underwear.
If you're looking for good news, underwear sales -- which declined through January -- leveled off in February and March, indicating the economy may be stabilizing.
Of course, guys, you might want to buy some new drawers before your wives and girlfriends have to make the suggestion. Hint: It could help your love life.
http://wtop.com/?sid=1687459&nid=456

Police: Man upset at military shoots 2
A Muslim convert who said he was opposed to the U.S. military shot two soldiers outside an Arkansas recruiting station, killing one, police said Monday.
"This individual appears to have been upset with the military, the Army in particular, and that's why he did what he did," Little Rock Police Lt. Terry Hastings said.
"He has converted to (Islam) here in the past few years," Hastings said. "We're not completely clear on what he was upset about. He had never been in the military.
"He saw them standing there and drove up and shot them. That's what he said."
Police Chief Stuart Thomas said Pvt. William Long, 23, of Conway was killed. Pvt. Quinton Ezeagwula, 18, of Jacksonville was wounded and in stable condition, Thomas said.
Police arrested Abdul Hakim Mujahid Muhammad, 23, of Little Rock, Thomas said. The suspect was previously known as Carlos Bledsoe, he said.
The soldiers wore fatigues, had recently completed basic training and volunteered to help attract others to the military, Thomas said.
He said the gunman targeted the military but was not believed to be part of a broader scheme.
Interviews with police showed that Muhammad "probably had political and religious motives for the attack," the police chief said.
Thomas said Muhammad would be charged with first-degree murder, plus 15 counts of committing a terroristic act. He said those counts result from the gunfire occurring near other people.
Hastings said the attacker pulled up in a car outside the Army-Navy recruiting office around 10:30 a.m. and fired at the soldiers outside.
According to the Associated Press, the vehicle was stopped on Interstate 630 a short time later, and the suspect was taken into custody. Police found an assault rifle in the vehicle.
Jim Richardson, the manager at a drug store around the corner from the Army-Navy center, said people at the store didn't realize anything was amiss until they heard sirens outside.
"Nobody heard any gunshots," Richardson said.
Lt. Col. Thomas Artis of the Oklahoma City Recruiting Battalion, which oversees the Little Rock office, said the victims were not regular recruiters.
He said they were serving two weeks in the Little Rock office.
As part of the Hometown Recruiting Assistance Program, the soldiers were sent to "talk to friends, folks in the local area. They can show the example, 'Here's where I was, and here is where I am,' " Artis said.
Artis said neither of the soldiers had been deployed for combat.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/military/2009-06-01-army-recruiter-killed_N.htm?csp=34

Gates: NKorea nuke progress sign of `dark future'
SINGAPORE (AP) - North Korea's progress on nuclear weapons and long-range missiles is "a harbinger of a dark future" and has created an urgent need for more pressure on the reclusive communist government to change its ways, U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Saturday.
He said the North's nuclear program does not "at this point" represent a direct military threat to the United States and he does not plan to build up American troops in the region. But the North's efforts pose the potential for an arms race in Asia that could spread beyond the region, he added. At an annual meeting of defense and security officials, the Pentagon chief said past efforts to cajole North Korea into scrapping its nuclear weapons program have only emboldened it.
North Korea's yearslong use of scare tactics as a bargaining chip to secure aid and other concessions—only to later renege on promises—has worn thin the patience of five nations negotiating with the North, Gates said.
"I think that everyone in the room is familiar with the tactics that the North Koreans use. They create a crisis and the rest of us pay a price to return to the status quo ante," he said in a question and answer session after his speech at the Shangri-La Dialogue.
"As the expression goes in the United States, `I am tired of buying the same horse twice.' I think this notion that we buy our way back to the status quo ante is an approach that I personally at least think we ought to think very hard about. There are perhaps other ways to try and get the North Koreans to change their approach," he said.
The sharp statements were echoed by the South Korean defense minister and even China, North Korea's strongest ally. They reflect fears throughout the region that last week's nuclear and missile tests by North Korea could spiral out of control and lead to fighting.
"President Obama has offered an open hand to tyrannies that unclench their fists. He is hopeful, but he is not naive," Gates said in his speech.
"Likewise, the United States and our allies are open to dialogue, but we will not bend to pressure or provocation. And on this count, North Korea's latest reply to our overtures is not exactly something we would characterize as helpful or constructive. We will not stand idly by as North Korea builds the capability to wreak destruction on any target in Asia—or on us. At the end of the day, the choice to continue as a destitute, international pariah is North Korea's alone to make. The world is waiting."
The North said it would no longer honor a 1953 armistice truce with South Korea after Seoul joined a 90-plus nation security alliance that seeks to curb nuclear trafficking on the seas.
Additionally, the U.N. Security Council is drafting financial and military penalties against North Korea as punishment for the weapons testing. Similar penalties approved after the North's 2006 atomic test have been only sporadically enforced, and largely ignored by China and Russia.
"I think that the combination of their progress in developing nuclear technology, and their progress in developing multistage long-range missiles, is a harbinger of a dark future," Gates said. "What is now central to multilateral efforts ... is to try to peacefully stop those programs before they do in fact become a `clear and present danger,' as the expression goes."

This takes a smart person to figure out this is a bad thing?
Gates also warned North Korea against secretly selling its weapons technology to other outlaw nations.
Later, at what officials called the first-ever meeting among defense chiefs from the U.S., Japan and South Korea, Gates asked his counterparts to begin considering other steps against the North should it continue to escalate is nuclear program. The military leaders did not discuss specific potential actions, but U.S. officials who attended the half-hour meeting said any steps would be taken in self-defense.
South Korean Defense Minister Lee Sang-hee said the talks "could not have come at a better time."
"North Korea perhaps to this point may have mistakenly believed that it could be perhaps rewarded for its wrong behaviors," Lee told reporters. "But that is no longer the case."
Earlier Saturday, Lt. Gen. Ma Xiaotian, the second-in-command of the General Staff of China's military, told the security forum that Beijing "has expressed a firm opposition and grave concern about the nuclear test."
The Obama administration said it planned to send a delegation on Sunday to Tokyo, Seoul, Beijing and possibly Moscow over the next week to discuss how to respond to North Korea.
"The reality is that given the objectives of the six-party talks that were established some years ago, it would be hard to point to them at this point as an example of success," Gates said in response to a question after his speech.
Those countries—the U.S., South Korea, China, Russia and Japan—"need to think freshly about where we go from here."
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D98GR6S81&show_article=1

Alaska may be in N.Korea Missile Reach
June 01, 2009 Associated Press
SEOUL, South Korea - North Korea has transported its most advanced missile, believed to be capable of reaching Alaska, to a launch site on its west coast near China, news reports said today.
The reclusive communist country was also reportedly bolstering it defenses and conducting amphibious assault exercises along its western shore, near disputed waters where deadly naval clashes with the South have occurred in the past.
South Korea's Yonhap news agency said the missile had been sent by train to the newly completed missile facility of Dongchang-ni, about 40 miles from the Chinese border.
Yonhap, quoting government sources, said the missile could be ready to launch in a week or two. South Korean media have speculated that the North wants to time the launch for around June 16, when South Korean President Lee Myung-bak has a summit in Washington with President Barack Obama.
With the launch, Pyongyang could also thumb its nose at U.N. Security Council attempts to rein it in after last week's nuclear test and a series of short-range missile launches.
U.S Defense Secretary Robert Gates, speaking at a news conference in the Philippines, said North Korea appears to be working on a long-range missile but it's not clear yet what they plan to do with it.
Lee, hosting a conference of Southeast Asian leaders on the southern island of Jeju, warned the North against any provocation.
"If North Korea turns its back on dialogue and peace and dares to carry out military threats and provocations, the Republic of Korea will never tolerate that," Lee said in his regular radio address. "I want to make clear that there won't be any compromise on things that threaten our nation's security."
Adding to tensions this week, the trial starts Thursday in Pyongyang of two American journalists, Laura Ling and Euna Lee, accused of entering the country illegally and engaging in "hostile acts."
North Korea faced strong international criticism after its last long-range missile launch, on April 5. The North said the launch was of a rocket intended to put a satellite in orbit. That modified version of the Taepodong-2 rocket flew about 2,000 miles, crossing over Japan before crashing into the Pacific Ocean.
In late April, the North threatened to conduct nuclear and long-range missile tests unless the Security Council apologized for criticizing the launch. On Friday, it threatened to take a further "self-defense" measure if the Security Council provokes it. That threat was seen as referring to an ICBM test.
In another sign that a new launch is in the works, the North has designated a large area off its west coast as a "no-sail" zone through the end of next month, the Chosun Ilbo newspaper said, citing unidentified intelligence officials.
Yonhap said North Korean troops conducted amphibious assault maneuvers along with west coast. Other media carried similar reports. South Korean defense and intelligence officials refused to comment.
On Yeonpyeong island, one of South Korea's northernmost islands near North Korea, South Korean naval boats and a warship were patrolling waters around the disputed western sea border, but no incidents were reported.
The area is rich in fish, and May and June are the crab-catching season, meaning the waters are generally crowded with commercial ships.
Experts said the missile preparations were especially significant because the North has never launched a long-range missile from the northwestern base.
Kim Tae-woo, vice president of Seoul's state-run Korea Institute for Defense Analyses, said he thinks the North chose the site because of its proximity to China, making it more risky for the U.S. to strike.
The missile being prepared for launch is believed to be an intercontinental ballistic missile with a range of up to 4,000 miles, the JoongAng Ilbo newspaper reported, citing an unnamed South Korean official.
That would put Alaska within striking range.
Today, the North said again that it is being provoked by South Korea and the United States, saying that the number of spy planes operating in its airspace has risen dramatically.
"The U.S. imperialists and the South Korean puppets perpetrated at least 200 cases of aerial espionage against the DPRK in May, or 30 cases more than those in the same month of last year," it said in a report in its official Korean Central News Agency.
The DPRK is an abbreviation of North Korea's official name.
The North's missile and nuclear programs have been considered a top regional security concern, though the regime is not yet believed to have mastered the technology to make a nuclear warhead small enough to mount on a missile.
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=1532.0;topicseen

Eeyore's News and View

So many challenges face the President of the US. He will shine or fail right now. Hopefully he will put away his childish agenda and face these new (and old) challenges as a man. The Bible is very clear about praying for those in authority so that we can lead a quite and peaceable life. All of our leaders need our prayers. From the last article i have posted, is a article put together form an interview on Cspan. It is scary because he still believes all we have to do is spend more money and every thing will be alright. We are headed down a steep hill, instead of applying the breaks, he just continues to press the accelerator. Maybe that is the plan.
Iran sends warships to Gulf of Aden - navy
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran has sent six warships to international waters, including the Gulf of Aden, to show its ability to confront any foreign threats, its naval commander said on Monday.
Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, quoted by the ISNA news agency, made the announcement five days after Iran said it test-fired a surface-to-surface missile with a range of 2,000 km (1,200 miles), putting Israel and U.S. bases in the area within reach.
Iran said on May 14 it had sent two warships to the Gulf of Aden to protect oil tankers from the world's fifth-largest crude exporter against attacks by pirates but ISNA did not make clear whether they were among the six Sayyari talked about.
Iranian waters stretch along the Gulf, the Strait of Hormuz and the Sea of Oman. Iran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz, through which about 40 percent of the world's traded oil is shipped, if it were attacked over its nuclear programme.
"Iran has dispatched six ... warships to international waters and the Gulf of Aden region in an historically unprecedented move by the Iranian Navy," Sayyari told a gathering of armed forces officials, IRNA reported.
Sayyari said that preserving Iran's territorial integrity in its southern waters called for the "perseverance and firmness" of the navy.
The move to dispatch the warships "is indicative of the country's high military capability in confronting any foreign threat on the country's shores," Sayyari said.
The ISNA report did not mention the threat of pirate attacks, which, fuelled by large ransoms, have continued almost unabated despite the presence of an armada of foreign warships patrolling the Indian Ocean and Gulf of Aden.
In January, pirates released an Iranian-chartered cargo ship carrying 36,000 tonnes of wheat to Iran from Germany that was seized in November. In March, a regional maritime official said Somali villagers had detained another Iranian vessel.
Nearly 20,000 ships pass through the Gulf of Aden each year, heading to and from the Suez Canal. Seven percent of world oil consumption passed through the Gulf of Aden in 2007, according to Lloyd's Marine Intelligence Unit.
On May 20, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran had tested a missile that defence analysts say could hit Israel and U.S. bases in the Gulf, a move likely to fuel concern about Tehran's nuclear ambitions.
The United States and its allies suspect the Islamic Republic is seeking to build nuclear bombs, a charge Tehran denies, but President Barack Obama has offered a new beginning of diplomatic engagement with Iran if it "unclenches its fist".
http://in.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idINIndia-39868320090525

North Korea tests nuclear weapon 'as powerful as Hiroshima bomb'
North Korea today risked further international isolation after it claimed to have successfully tested a nuclear weapon as powerful as the atomic bomb that destroyed Hiroshima.
The test comes less than two months after the North enraged the US and its allies by test firing a long-range ballistic missile.
The KNCA news agency, the regime's official mouthpiece, said: "We have successfully conducted another nuclear test on 25 May as part of the republic's measures to strengthen its nuclear deterrent."
Officials in South Korea said they had detected a tremor consistent with those caused by an underground nuclear explosion. The country's Yonhap news agency reported that the North had test fired three short-range missiles immediately after the nuclear test from a base on the east coast.
The underground atomic explosion, at 9.54am local time, created an earthquake measuring magnitude 4.5 in Kilju county in the country's north-east, reports said.
President Barack Obama called the test a matter of grave concern to all countries. "North Korea is directly and recklessly challenging the international community," Obama said in a statement. "North Korea's behaviour increases tensions and undermines stability in north-east Asia."
The UN security council will hold an emergency meeting in New York later today to discuss its response to the latest escalation in the crisis. Obama and other leaders did not offer details on the council's possible response.
China, North Korea's key ally, said it was "resolutely opposed" to the test, urging its neighbour to avoid actions that would sharpen tensions and return to six-party arms-for-disarmament talks.
Japan, which considers itself high on the North's potential hit list, said it would seek a new resolution condemning the test.
Russian defence experts estimated the explosion's yield at between 10 and 20 kilotons, many times more than the 1 kiloton measured in its first nuclear test in 2006 and about as powerful as the bombs the US used against Hiroshima and Nagasaki at the end of the second world war. One kiloton is equal to the force produced by 1,000 tons of TNT.
The force of the blast made the ground tremble in the Chinese border city of Yanji, 130 miles away.
The North Korean news agency said the test had been "safely conducted on a new higher level in terms of its explosive power and technology of its control. The test will contribute to defending the sovereignty of the country and the nation and socialism and ensuring peace and security on the Korean peninsula and the region."
Gordon Brown described the test as "erroneous, misguided and a danger to the world". The prime minister added: "This act will undermine prospects for peace on the Korean peninsula and will do nothing for North Korea's security.
South Korea and Japan condemned the test, North Korea's second since it exploded its first nuclear device in October 2006 in defiance of international opinion. That test prompted the UN security to pass a resolution banning Pyongyang from activities related to its ballistic missile programme.
The South Korean president, Lee Myung-bak, convened a session of the country's security council after seismologists reported earthquakes in the Kilju region, site of the North's first nuclear test.
In Tokyo, Japan's chief cabinet secretary, Takeo Kawamura, said the test was "a clear violation of the UN security council resolution and cannot be tolerated".
North Korea had warned of a second nuclear test after the UN condemned its test-launch of a ballistic missile on 5 April and agreed to tighten sanctions put in place in 2006.
Pyongyang insisted it had put a peaceful communications satellite in orbit, but experts said the technology and methods were identical to those used to launch a long-range Taepodong-2 missile.
After the UN refused to apologise for condemning the launch, North Korea expelled international inspectors, threatened to restart its Yongbyon nuclear reactor – which it had agreed to start dismantling in 2007 – and walked away from six-party nuclear talks.
Today's test will add to fears that the North is moving closer to possessing the ability to mount a nuclear warhead on long-range missiles that are capable, in theory, of reaching Hawaii and Alaska.
"This test, if confirmed, could indicate North Korea's decision to work at securing actual nuclear capabilities," Koh Yu-hwan, a professor at Dongkuk University in Seoul, told Reuters.
"North Korea had been expecting the new US administration to mark a shift from the previous administration's stance, but is realising that there are no changes. It may have decided that a second test was necessary. [It] seems to be reacting to the US and South Korean administrations' policies."
Analysts believe the North Korean leader, Kim Jong-il, hopes to use the test to shore up support from the military amid mounting speculation that he is about to name one of his three sons as his successor.
Kim, 67, appears to be re-establishing his grip on power since reportedly suffering a stroke last August. Today's test is a direct challenge to attempts by Obama to engage the North and stem the spread of nuclear weapons.
Despite promising a fresh start to bilateral relations, Obama, who denounced last month's missile launch as "a provocation," has so far failed to persuade North Korean to enter into negotiations.
Kim Myong-chol, executive director of the Centre for Korean-American Peace in Tokyo, who is close to Pyongyang, said the test was a reminder that North Korea "is going it alone as a nuclear power".
"North Korea doesn't need any talks with America. America is tricky and undesirable," he said. "It does not implement its own agreements.
"We are not going to worry about sanctions. If they sanction us, we will become more powerful. Sanctions never help America; they are counter-productive … We don't care about America and what they say."
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/25/north-korea-hiroshima-nuclear-test

Two Illinois Banks Seized, Bringing U.S. Tally This Year to 36
May 22 (Bloomberg) -- Two Illinois banks with combined assets of almost $1 billion were closed by regulators, pushing the toll of failed U.S. lenders to 36 this year amid the longest recession since the 1930s.
Strategic Capital Bank in Champaign and Citizens National Bank in Macomb were closed and the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. was named receiver of both, the FDIC said. Strategic Capital’s deposits were assumed by Midland States Bank of Effingham, Illinois, and deposits at Citizens National were purchased by Morton Community Bank.
“Deposits will continue to be insured by the FDIC, so there is no need for customers to change their banking relationship to retain their deposit insurance coverage,” the FDIC said.
Regulators are closing banks at the fastest pace in 15 years, including BankUnited Financial Corp. in Florida yesterday, and pumped $200 billion into the biggest banks in a Treasury rescue program. Costs from closing banks in the second quarter climbed to more than $8 billion, including $4.9 billion for BankUnited, from $2.28 billion in the first, FDIC data show.
Midland States will buy $536 million of Strategic Capital’s $537 million in assets, with the FDIC sharing losses on about $420 million of them, the regulator said. Midland States will assume all of the failed bank’s $471 million in deposits. Strategic Capital’s lone office will open on May 26 as a branch of Midland States.
Morton Community Bank
Morton Community will buy $240 million of Citizens National’s $437 million in assets and signed a loss-sharing agreement with the FDIC on $200 million. Half of Citizens National’s $400 million in deposits will go to Morton Community, with the other $200 million in brokered deposits being paid directly to the brokers, the FDIC said.
Citizens National has offices in four Illinois cities, according to its Web site. The FDIC said they will open tomorrow as branches of Morton Community.
The failures are the fourth and fifth in Illinois this year. The FDIC estimates the seizures will cost the federal government’s deposit insurance fund a combined $279 million.
U.S. regulators are signaling that economic conditions are improving. FDIC Chairman Sheila Bair said May 12 that banks have “moved beyond the liquidity crisis” of last year.
“We are now in the cleanup phase,” Bair said in a speech in Washington. “But to be honest, there’s still more pain to go.”
Recession
The Commerce Department on April 30 said personal incomes fell in March for the fifth time in the past six months. The S&P/Case-Shiller Index of home prices in 20 major U.S. cities dropped in February, extending a decline that began in January 2007. The Labor Department May 8 reported employers shed 539,000 jobs in April, extending the decline to 5.7 million jobs since December 2007
The FDIC insurance fund is down 64 percent from its peak at the start of the second quarter last year, reflecting the shutdown of 22 lenders from April through December. The agency voted 4-1 today to impose a fee of 5 cents per $100 of assets, excluding Tier 1 capital, backing away from a proposal of 20 cents per $100 of insured deposits. The FDIC estimates the fee will raise $5.6 billion, lifting the fund from its lowest level since 1994.
U.S. regulators conducted unprecedented stress tests on 19 of the biggest banks, concluding on May 7 that losses could reach $599.2 billion in the next two years under economic conditions that are worse than economists forecast. The FDIC will report first-quarter bank earnings May 27.
FDIC-insured banks lost $32.1 billion from October through December, the first aggregate quarterly loss since 1990. The agency insures deposits at 8,305 institutions with $13.9 trillion in assets.
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=a42Xg57jVTzM

Half of Israelis back immediate strike on Iran
Just over half of Israelis back an immediate attack on the nuclear facilities of arch-foe Iran but the rest want to wait and see the results of US diplomacy, according to a poll released on Sunday.
Fifty-one percent support an immediate Israeli strike on Iran's nuclear sites, while 49 percent believe the Jewish state should await the outcome of efforts by the US administration to engage with the Islamic republic, said the survey published by Tel Aviv University.
But 74 percent of those questioned said they believe that new US President Barack Obama's efforts will not stop the Islamic republic from acquiring atomic weapons.
Israel, widely considered to be the Middle East's sole if undeclared nuclear armed state, considers Iran its arch-foe after repeated statements by President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for the Jewish state to be "wiped off the map."
Israel and Washington accuse Iran of trying to develop atomic weapons under the guise of a civilian nuclear programme, a charge Tehran has repeatedly denied.
Opinion is split among left- and right-wingers about whether to attack Iran's nuclear sites, with 63 percent of those leaning to the right favouring a strike, compared with 38 percent of those leaning to the left, the poll said.
It was carried out by Tel Aviv University's Centre for Iranian Studies among 509 Israeli adults and had a 4.5-percent margin of error.
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=CNG.278ae37b736a0478b7223156a3bcf18a.401&show_article=1

Swine Flu Is Spreading Wider Than Official Data Show
Swine flu is spreading more widely than official figures indicate, with outbreaks in Europe and Asia showing it’s gained a foothold in at least three regions.
One in 20 cases is being officially reported in the U.S., meaning more than 100,000 people have probably been infected nationwide with the new H1N1 flu strain, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. In the U.K., the virus may be 300 times more widespread than health authorities have said, the Independent on Sunday reported yesterday.
Japan, which has reported the most cases in Asia, began reopening schools at the weekend after health officials said serious medical complications had not emerged in those infected. The virus is now spreading in the community in Australia, Jim Bishop, the nation’s chief medical officer, said yesterday.
"I think we will see the number rise,” Bishop told Australian Broadcasting Corp. radio today after confirming the nation’s 17th case and saying test results are pending on 41 others. “This is going to be a marathon rather than a sprint.”
Forty-six countries have confirmed 12,515 cases, including 91 deaths, according to the World Health Organization’s latest tally. Almost four of every five cases were in Mexico and the U.S., where the pig-derived strain was discovered last month. Most of those infected experience an illness similar to that of seasonal flu. The main difference is that the new H1N1 strain is persisting outside the Northern Hemisphere winter.
Summer Disease?
“While we are seeing activities decline in some areas, we should expect to see more cases, more hospitalizations and perhaps more deaths over the weeks ahead and possibly into the summer,” Anne Schuchat, CDC’s interim deputy director for science and public health program, told reporters on a May 22 conference call.
The U.S. has officially reported 6,552 probable and confirmed cases, Schuchat said. “These are just the tip of the iceberg. We are estimating more than 100,000 people probably have this virus now in the U.S.”
There have been nine deaths and more than 300 known hospitalizations, she said. The fatalities exclude a woman in her 50s who died in New York over the weekend.
China reported cases today in Shanghai and the eastern province of Zhejiang, taking its tally of confirmed infections to 12. Taiwan confirmed the island’s first domestically transmitted case and reported two imported infections, giving it nine. South Korea confirmed 12 more cases, bringing its total to 22, while the Philippines confirmed a second infection today.
Caribbean Honeymoon
Russia’s health ministry confirmed the country’s second case, in a man who honeymooned in the Dominican Republic. He returned from the Caribbean May 18 and was hospitalized two days later in the Kaluga region southwest of Moscow, Gennady Onishchenko, head of the ministry’s public health department, said on state television today. His wife wasn’t infected.
Japan has the most cases outside North America, with 345 as of today, according to the health ministry. Chile’s tally reached 74 after 19 cases were recorded yesterday, while Argentina’s total increased by three to five.
Eighteen European countries have confirmed 349 cases, a third of whom were probably infected in their home country, the Stockholm-based European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control said in a report yesterday. The U.K. and Spain have the most reported cases, with 133 each. About 60 percent of cases in the U.K. are linked to “in-country transmission,” ECDC said.
Thousands of people have caught the virus in the U.K. and suffered mild symptoms, or none at all, over the past weeks, John Oxford, professor of virology at the University of London, told the Independent.
Already a Pandemic
Community spread of the new virus in a second region means WHO’s criteria for a pandemic has been met, said Michael T. Osterholm, director of the Center for Infectious Disease Research and Policy of the University of Minneapolis.
Britain’s Health Secretary Alan Johnson told WHO Director- General Margaret Chan at the organization’s annual meeting last week that disease severity and other determinants besides geographic spread need to be considered before the pandemic alert is raised to the highest of WHO’s 6-level scale.
“The move to phase 6 means that emergency plans are instantly triggered around the globe, and in the U.K. this would mean increased vigilance and activation of the UK’s own ‘inter- pandemic’ phases,” the U.K.’s Department of Health said in a May 18 statement.
At phase 6, many pharmaceutical companies would switch from making seasonal flu shots to pandemic-specific vaccine, potentially creating shortages of an immunization to counter the normal winter flu season, the department said.
‘Risk of Harm’
WHO is reviewing its pandemic response plans, including the prerequisites for a pandemic, in the wake of the swine flu threat, said Keiji Fukuda, the agency’s assistant director- general of health security and environment. A move to phase 6 would “signify a really substantial increase in risk of harm to people,” Fukuda told reporters during a May 22 briefing.
Some of the guidelines were prepared in anticipation of a pandemic sparked by the H5N1 strain of avian flu, which killed 61 percent of 429 people confirmed to have contracted that virus, Chan told the World Health Assembly on May 18. “This has left our world better prepared, but also very scared,” she said.
Rather than redefine what constitutes a pandemic, health officials should help people understand the current threat may resemble the 1957 or 1968 pandemics, in which fewer than 4 million people died, rather than the 1918 Spanish flu, blamed for killing about 50 million, said Osterholm at the University of Minneapolis.
“The bigger problem is scientific integrity,” he said. “If they want to change the definition, then go ahead. But don’t say that we are not in phase 6 right now because we don’t want to go there.”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=agHVPFaC5R.M&refer=worldwide

British banks revolt against Obama tax plan
The decision, which would make it hard for Americans in London to open bank accounts and trade shares, is being discussed by executives at Britain's banks and brokers who say it could become too expensive to service American clients. The proposals, which were unveiled as part of the president's first budget, are designed to clamp-down on American tax evaders abroad. However bank bosses say they
are being asked to take on the task of collecting American taxes at a cost and legal liability that are inexpedient.
Andy Thompson of Association of Private Client Investment Managers and Stockbrokers (APCIMS) said: "The cost and administration of the US tax regime is causing UK investment firms to consider disinvesting in US shares on behalf of their clients. This is not right and emphasises that the administration of a tax regime on a global scale without any flexibility damages the very economy it is trying to protect."
One executive at a top UK bank who didn't want to be named for fear of angering the IRS said: "It's just about manageable under the current system - and that's because we're big. The danger to us is suddenly being hauled over the coals by the IRS for a client that hasn't paid proper taxes. The audit costs will soar. We'll have to pay it but I know plenty of smaller players won't."
The British Bankers Association (BBA) and APCIMS had a meeting with European counterparts 10 days ago to discuss the crisis. A delegation is set to meet the US Treasury's Internal Revenue Service on 16th June to demand they drop the reforms.
Ahead of the meeting APCIMS, whose members manage £400bn of Britain's wealth and employ 25,000 people, has sent a letter to the IRS complaining that the "unfair" proposals represent "no benefit but... significant cost" to its members.
President Obama's proposals are built on the so-called Qualified Intermediary system which was intended to ensure Americans paid the correct tax wherever they were domiciled. Foreign financial institutions that handle American money have to fill in a US tax form on behalf of the client that has to be audited too. In return, the banks receive a QI seal of approval as a qualified intermediary.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/banksandfinance/5374095/British-banks-revolt-against-Obama-tax-plan.html

'WE'RE OUT OF MONEY'
Sat May 23 2009 10:32:18 ET

In a sobering holiday interview with C-SPAN, President Obama boldly told Americans: "We are out of money."

C-SPAN host Steve Scully broke from a meek Washington press corps with probing questions for the new president.

SCULLY: You know the numbers, $1.7 trillion debt, a national deficit of $11 trillion. At what point do we run out of money?

OBAMA: Well, we are out of money now. We are operating in deep deficits, not caused by any decisions we've made on health care so far. This is a consequence of the crisis that we've seen and in fact our failure to make some good decisions on health care over the last several decades.

So we've got a short-term problem, which is we had to spend a lot of money to salvage our financial system, we had to deal with the auto companies, a huge recession which drains tax revenue at the same time it's putting more pressure on governments to provide unemployment insurance or make sure that food stamps are available for people who have been laid off.

So we have a short-term problem and we also have a long-term problem. The short-term problem is dwarfed by the long-term problem. And the long-term problem is Medicaid and Medicare. If we don't reduce long-term health care inflation substantially, we can't get control of the deficit.

So, one option is just to do nothing. We say, well, it's too expensive for us to make some short-term investments in health care. We can't afford it. We've got this big deficit. Let's just keep the health care system that we've got now.

Along that trajectory, we will see health care cost as an overall share of our federal spending grow and grow and grow and grow until essentially it consumes everything...

SCULLY: When you see GM though as “Government Motors,” you're reaction?

OBAMA: Well, you know – look we are trying to help an auto industry that is going through a combination of bad decision making over many years and an unprecedented crisis or at least a crisis we haven't seen since the 1930's. And you know the economy is going to bounce back and we want to get out of the business of helping auto companies as quickly as we can. I have got more enough to do without that. In the same way that I want to get out of the business of helping banks, but we have to make some strategic decisions about strategic industries...

SCULLY: States like California in desperate financial situation, will you be forced to bail out the states?

OBAMA: No. I think that what you're seeing in states is that anytime you got a severe recession like this, as I said before, their demands on services are higher. So, they are sending more money out. At the same time, they're bringing less tax revenue in. And that's a painful adjustment, what we're going end up seeing is lot of states making very difficult choices there...

SCULLY: William Howard Taft served on the court after his presidency, would you have any interest in being on the Supreme Court?

OBAMA: You know, I am not sure that I could get through Senate confirmation...

Developing...
http://www.drudgereport.com/flashocs.htm

Eeyore's News and View

Jim Rogers: Food Prices Will Skyrocket
Wednesday, May 13, 2009 12:21 PM
By: Dan Weil Article Font Size
Renowned investor Jim Rogers says that the rally in stocks and the dollar will soon end, thanks to the Federal Reserve’s massive easing policy.
“I’m not buying shares anywhere,” he tells Bloomberg TV.
“I’m not selling short yet. But…if it keeps going like this, I’ll have to start selling short eventually. I don’t see the stock market as a great place to be in the next two to three years, maybe even the next decade.”
As for the dollar, “we’re going to have a currency crisis probably this fall or the fall of 2010,” Rogers says.
“It’s been building up for a long time. We’ve had a huge rally in the dollar, an artificial rally. …
The U.S. dollar is a very flawed currency.”
Bonds also are overvalued, he says.
And where does Rogers see investment opportunities? Commodities, as he has argued for months.
“The only place I know where the fundamentals are getting better is raw materials,” he explains. “We’re going to have serious food shortages. … Prices are going to go through the roof.”
Whether the economy rebounds or not, “commodities are going to lead it,” Rogers says.
“Commodities are still the best place to be because supply is declining, and governments are printing huge amounts of money.”
Nassim Nicholas Taleb, famous for his prescient financial forecasts, agrees with Rogers.
With governments around the world wildly printing money, gold and copper may “rally massively,” he told a recent conference.
http://moneynews.newsmax.com/streett...mo_code=7FCC-1
http://frc4u.org/phpbb/index.php?topic=1343.0;topicseen

Pakistan Is Rapidly Adding Nuclear Arms, U.S. Says
WASHINGTON — Members of Congress have been told in confidential briefings that Pakistan is rapidly adding to its nuclear arsenal even while racked by insurgency, raising questions on Capitol Hill about whether billions of dollars in proposed military aid might be diverted to Pakistan’s nuclear program.
Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, confirmed the assessment of the expanded arsenal in a one-word answer to a question on Thursday in the midst of lengthy Senate testimony. Sitting beside Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates, he was asked whether he had seen evidence of an increase in the size of the Pakistani nuclear arsenal.
“Yes,” he said quickly, adding nothing, clearly cognizant of Pakistan’s sensitivity to any discussion about the country’s nuclear strategy or security.
Inside the Obama administration, some officials say, Pakistan’s drive to spend heavily on new nuclear arms has been a source of growing concern, because the country is producing more nuclear material at a time when Washington is increasingly focused on trying to assure the security of an arsenal of 80 to 100 weapons so that they will never fall into the hands of Islamic insurgents.
The administration’s effort is complicated by the fact that Pakistan is producing an unknown amount of new bomb-grade uranium and, once a series of new reactors is completed, bomb-grade plutonium for a new generation of weapons. President Obama has called for passage of a treaty that would stop all nations from producing more fissile material — the hardest part of making a nuclear weapon — but so far has said nothing in public about Pakistan’s activities.
Bruce Riedel, the Brookings Institution scholar who served as the co-author of Mr. Obama’s review of Afghanistan-Pakistan strategy, reflected the administration’s concern in a recent interview, saying that Pakistan “has more terrorists per square mile than anyplace else on earth, and it has a nuclear weapons program that is growing faster than anyplace else on earth.”
Obama administration officials said that they had communicated to Congress that their intent was to assure that military aid to Pakistan was directed toward counterterrorism and not diverted. But Admiral Mullen’s public confirmation that the arsenal is increasing — a view widely held in both classified and unclassified analyses — seems certain to aggravate Congress’s discomfort.
Whether that discomfort might result in a delay or reduction in aid to Pakistan is still unclear.
The Congressional briefings have taken place in recent weeks as Pakistan has descended into further chaos and as Congress has considered proposals to spend $3 billion over the next five years to train and equip Pakistan’s military for counterinsurgency warfare. That aid would come on top of $7.5 billion in civilian assistance.
None of the proposed military assistance is directed at the nuclear program. So far, America’s aid to Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure has been limited to a $100 million classified program to help Pakistan secure its weapons and materials from seizure by Al Qaeda, the Taliban or “insiders” with insurgent loyalties.
But the billions in new proposed American aid, officials acknowledge, could free other money for Pakistan’s nuclear infrastructure, at a time when Pakistani officials have expressed concern that their nuclear program is facing a budget crunch for the first time, worsened by the global economic downturn. The program employs tens of thousands of Pakistanis, including about 2,000 believed to possess “critical knowledge” about how to produce a weapon.
The dimensions of the Pakistani buildup are not fully understood. “We see them scaling up their centrifuge facilities,” said David Albright, the president of the Institute for Science and International Security, which has been monitoring Pakistan’s continued efforts to buy materials on the black market, and analyzing satellite photographs of two new plutonium reactors less than 100 miles from where Pakistani forces are currently fighting the Taliban.
“The Bush administration turned a blind eye to how this is being ramped up,” he said. “And of course, with enough pressure, all this could be preventable.”
As a matter of diplomacy, however, the buildup presents Mr. Obama with a potential conflict between two national security priorities, some aides concede. One is to win passage of a global agreement to stop the production of fissile material — the uranium or plutonium used to produce weapons. Pakistan has never agreed to any limits and is one of three countries, along with India and Israel, that never signed the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty.
Yet the other imperative is a huge infusion of financial assistance into Afghanistan and Pakistan, money considered crucial to helping stabilize governments with tenuous holds on power in the face of terrorist and insurgent violence.
Senior members of Congress were already pressing for assurances from Pakistan that the American military assistance would be used to fight the insurgency, and not be siphoned off for more conventional military programs to counter Pakistan’s historic adversary, India. Official confirmation that Pakistan has accelerated expansion of its nuclear program only added to the consternation of those in Congress who were already voicing serious concern about the security of those warheads.
During a hearing of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Thursday, Senator Jim Webb, a Virginia Democrat, veered from the budget proposal under debate to ask Admiral Mullen about public reports “that Pakistan is, at the moment, increasing its nuclear program — that it may be actually adding on to weapons systems and warheads. Do you have any evidence of that?”
It was then that Admiral Mullen responded with his one-word confirmation. Mr. Webb said Pakistan’s decision was a matter of “enormous concern,” and he added, “Do we have any type of control factors that would be built in, in terms of where future American money would be going, as it addresses what I just asked about?”
Similar concerns about seeking guarantees that American military assistance to Pakistan would be focused on battling insurgents also were expressed by Senator Carl Levin of Michigan, the committee chairman.
“Unless Pakistan’s leaders commit, in deeds and words, their country’s armed forces and security personnel to eliminating the threat from militant extremists, and unless they make it clear that they are doing so, for the sake of their own future, then no amount of assistance will be effective,” Mr. Levin said.
A spokesman for the Pakistani government contacted Friday declined to comment on whether his nation was expanding its nuclear weapons program, but said the government was “maintaining the minimum, credible deterrence capability.” He warned against linking American financial assistance to Pakistan’s actions on its weapons program.
“Conditions or sanctions on this issue did not work in the past, and this will not send a positive message to the people of Pakistan,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because his country’s nuclear program is classified.
http://www.theledger.com/article/20090518/ZNYT03/905183012?Title=Pakistan-Is-Rapidly-Adding-Nuclear-Arms-U-S-Says

WHO annual meeting dominated by swine flu
GENEVA (AP) - Swine flu and the possibility of a vaccine topped the agenda Monday as the World Health Organization opened its annual meeting amid concern that the virus continues to spread - and kill - around the globe.
WHO said health experts are examining newly reported cases in Spain, Britain and Japan, where more than 120 people have been infected, prompting school closures and cancellations of public events.
In the New York borough of Queens a school assistant principal became the city's first death linked to the disease.
The five-day meeting in Geneva, which involves health officials from the agency's 193 member states, will focus on fighting the swine flu outbreak and efforts to produce a vaccine.
WHO Director-General Dr. Margaret Chan will give experts' recommendations on which companies should produce a vaccine, how much they should make and how it could best be distributed.
The issue of producing a vaccine is sensitive, particularly for southern hemisphere countries where the annual flu season is about to begin. Seasonal flu can claim as many as 500,000 lives a year globally. But to have enough vaccine to confront a pandemic from a new strain such as swine flu, companies would switch production from vaccine production for seasonal flu.
WHO estimates up to 2 billion doses of swine flu vaccine could be produced yearly, though the first batches would not be available for four to six months.
As of Sunday, the swine flu virus - which WHO calls the A (H1N1) virus - has sickened at least 8,480 people in 40 countries, killing 75 of them, mostly in Mexico.
Chile was the latest country to announce its first case of swine flu on Sunday.
Japan's Health Ministry confirmed dozens of new cases Sunday, prompting the government to close schools and cancel events such as Kobe's annual festival. By Monday, Japan's tally rose from five confirmed cases to more than 120.
Most of the new cases involved high school students in the western prefectures of Hyogo and Osaka who had not traveled overseas. Health officials said they were recovering in local hospitals or at home.
WHO spokesman Gregory Hartl said in-country transmission rates were a key factor in whether the global body decides to increase its pandemic alert level. Right now, the world is at phase 5 - out of a possible 6 - meaning a global outbreak is "imminent."
"We already know about the UK and Spain, that they have a relatively high number of cases compared to other European countries. So by simple virtue of the fact that they have more cases they need to be kept an eye on," Hartl said in an interview Sunday with AP Television News.
"There seems to have been activity in the last few days in Japan so we need to watch that, too," he said.
Spain and Britain have had the highest numbers of cases in Europe, reporting 103 and 101 cases, respectively. Britain on Sunday announced 14 new cases - 11 of them transmitted within the country.
A pandemic could be triggered if the virus starts to be transmitted from person to person on a large scale outside the Americas, WHO experts have said. But it would have to jump among people outside schools, hospitals and other institutions that typically pass on such viruses quickly.
"We don't want to prejudge anything, but certainly this is something we are watching with interest," Hartl said of the weekend developments in Japan.
U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon will visit WHO on Tuesday to meet with senior representatives from the vaccine industry, but the U.N. declined to name the companies.
WHO's health assembly will run through May 22, five days shorter than initially planned because health ministries are busy fighting the swine flu outbreak.
Taiwan received an observer seat on the World Health Assembly and is taking part for the first time in 38 years.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090518/D988JC080.html

Developments on swine flu worldwide
May 18, 2009 - 7:03am By The Associated Press
(AP) - Key developments on swine flu outbreaks, according to U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, World Health Organization and government officials:
_Deaths: Global total of 76 _ 68 in Mexico, six in U.S., one in Canada and one in Costa Rica. Officials said Canadian, U.S. and Costa Rican victims also had other medical conditions.
_Confirmed cases: WHO says 40 countries have reported more than 8,829 cases, mostly in U.S. and Mexico.
_CDC says 46 U.S. states plus District of Columbia have combined 4,714 confirmed and probable cases. Most probable cases are eventually confirmed.
_The World Health Organization opens its annual meeting in Geneva amid concern that swine flu continues to spread _ and kill _ around the world.
_A high school assistant principal has become the first New York City death linked to the outbreak. He had been sick for nearly a week before his school was closed on Thursday.
_A wave of new confirmations sends the number of swine flu cases in Japan soaring to 135, health officials say, prompting the government to order the closure of nearly 2,000 schools and the cancelation of community events.
_South Korea quarantines Vietnamese traveler after preliminary tests show she probably has swine flu.
_Chile confirms its first two cases of swine flu in two women who arrived from the Dominican Republic. The women, ages 25 and 32, are hospitalized and in good condition, Health Minister Alvaro Erazo said.
_Officials in Peru say a U.S. man living in that country has become the South American nation's second confirmed case of swine flu. Health Minister Oscar Ugarte says the 37-year-old man is a resident of the southern city of Arequipa.
___
On the Net:
CDC: http://www.cdc.gov/h1n1flu
WHO: http://sn.im/who-flu


'Killer Chip' tracks humans, releases poison
Saudi inventor applies for rights to GPS-linked lethal security device
Posted: May 16, 200911:00 pm Eastern
By Jay Baggett© 2009 WorldNetDaily
You can run, but you cannot hide ... and if you try, one push of a button will cause a lethal poison to immediately begin flowing through your body.
That's the Orwellian future a Saudi inventor was seeking to bring to Germany until that nation's patent office announced last week it was rejecting his request to patent what has been dubbed the "Killer Chip."
The tiny semiconductor device is intended to be surgically implanted or injected into the body, according to the patent application, for the purpose of tracking visitors from other nations by global-positioning satellites and preventing them from overstaying their visas.
A German Patent and Trademark Office spokeswoman told Deutsche Presse Agentur the inventor's application, titled "Implantation of electronic chips in the human body for the purposes of determining its geographical location," was submitted in October 2007 and published 18 months later, as required by law, in a patents database.
Under Germany's patent law, inventions that are unethical or a danger to the public are not recognized.
In recent times the number of people sought by security forces has increased," the Jeddah-based inventor wrote in his application.
Patent application diagram
The device would emit encrypted radio waves that would be picked up by satellites and "used to track fugitives from justice, terrorists, illegal immigrants, criminals, political opponents, defectors, domestic help, and Saudi Arabians who don't return home from pilgrimages," Sweden's The Local reported.
The application included a request to patent a model B of the device that could release poison to "eliminate" the individual if he or she became a security risk.
"I apply for these reasons and for reasons of state security and the security of citizens," the statement reads.
German law allows foreigners to apply for patents in the country through a local representative. In the case of the "Killer Chip," a Munich law firm
was used.
"Most people apply for a patent in several countries, and this inventor probably did too," Stephanie Krüger of the Patent Office said.
That leaves open the possibility the Saudi inventor will find success in another country.
http://www.worldnetdaily.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=98386

This guy reminds me of Jimmy Carter, without the face lift
Biden Reveals Location of Secret VP Bunker
Vice President Joe Biden, well-known for his verbal gaffes, may have finally outdone himself, divulging potentially classified information meant to save the life of a sitting vice president.
According to a report, while recently attending the Gridiron Club dinner in Washington, an annual event where powerful politicians and media elite get a chance to cozy up to one another, Biden told his dinnermates about the existence of a secret bunker under the old U.S. Naval Observatory, which is now the home of the vice president.
The bunker is believed to be the secure, undisclosed location former Vice President Dick Cheney remained under protection in secret after the 9/11 attacks.
Eleanor Clift, Newsweek magazine's Washington contributing editor, said Biden revealed the location while filling in for President Obama at the dinner, who, along with Grover Cleveland, is the only president to skip the gathering.
According to the report, Biden "said a young naval officer giving him a tour of the residence showed him the hideaway, which is behind a massive steel door secured by an elaborate lock with a narrow connecting hallway lined with shelves filled with communications equipment."
Clift continued: "The officer explained that when Cheney was in lock down, this was where his most trusted aides were stationed, an image that Biden conveyed in a way that suggested we shouldn't be surprised that the policies that emerged were off the wall."
In December 2002, neighbors complained of loud construction work being done at the Naval Observatory, which has been used as a residence by vice presidents since 1974.
The upset neighbors were sent a letter by the observatory's superintendent, calling the work "sensitive in nature" and "classified" and that it was urgent it be completed "on a highly accelerated schedule."
Residents said they believed workers were digging deep into the ground, which would support Biden's report of a secret bunker, but officials never confirmed the purpose of the work performed.
The revelation is the latest from Biden, who has a long history of political blunders.
Most recently, he said in a televised interview that if a family member asked him about traveling he'd advise staying away from public transportation or confined spaces to avoid swine flu -- a remark described as "borderline fearmongering" by an airline spokesman.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/05/17/oops-biden-reveals-location-secret-vp-bunker/?test=latestnews

Eeyore's News and View

Germany drags eurozone faster into slump
The recession in the eurozone intensified markedly in the first quarter, dragged down by an almost 4 per cent contraction in the German economy.Gross domestic product in the 16-country region fell by a much larger-than-expected 2.5 per cent in the period – outpacing the US slowdown – according to official data released on Friday. The contraction deepened what was already the worst recession in continental Europe since the second world war. The final quarter of 2008 had seen a 1.6 per cent fall in GDP.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/559213f8-411d-11de-bdb7-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2F559213f8-411d-11de-bdb7-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fworld

Hong Kong suffers record contraction
By Xi Chen and Reuters in Hong Kong
Published: May 15 2009 14:40 | Last updated: May 15 2009 14:40
Hong Kong’s economy contracted at the fastest rate since the Asian financial crisis in the first three months of this year as exports passing through the territory saw their biggest drop in more than half a century.
The government on Friday predicted gross domestic product would contract by up to 6.5 per cent this year, after announcing the economy had shrunk at an annual rate of 4.3 per cent in the first quarter of 2009.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/d3bff08c-4141-11de-bdb7-00144feabdc0,Authorised=false.html?_i_location=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fcms%2Fs%2F0%2Fd3bff08c-4141-11de-bdb7-00144feabdc0.html&_i_referer=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.ft.com%2Fworld

US prices fall most since 1955
By Alan Rappeport in New York
Published: May 15 2009
Prices in the US fell in the year to April at the fastest annual rate since 1955, labour department figures showed on Friday, as declining energy prices pulled back the cost of living.
Separately on Friday official figures showed that US industrial output slid again in April, but at a more modest pace than in prior months, and consumer confidence rose in May to the highest level seen since before the collapse of Lehman Brothers last September.
Consumer prices fell by 0.7 per cent over the year to April and were flat from March due to sagging prices of petrol, electricity and food. Slumping prices have lessened pressure on consumers who have seen their wealth and employment savaged by the recession.
But core prices, which exclude food and energy and are the measure by which economists judge the risk of general deflation, rose by 0.3 per cent from March and were 1.9 per cent higher than in April 2008. More than 40 per cent of the monthly increase, however, was due to a 9.3 per cent jump in the price of tobacco which has been driven by a government tax that recently took effect.
Energy prices fell by 2.5 per cent in April and have plunged by 25.2 per cent during the last 12 months. The annual rate of inflation is expected to bottom this summer because they will be compared with the year before when petrol prices peaked, said Mike Englund, an economist at Action Economics. Housing, food and apparel prices were all down last month, while the cost of education and medical care rose.
The results on Friday were in line with analysts’ expectations. Economists remain divided about whether price inflation or deflation remains a persistent risk. Although consumers have benefited from lower prices, the expectation of falling prices can lead to a deflationary trap.
Such fears were stoked after prices were flat or declined during the final five months of 2008. As the economic recession deepened in the second half of last year companies slashed prices to clear stocks.
The Federal Reserve has said it remains “focused like a laser beam” on finding ways to stimulate the economy that do not fuel inflation. Ben Bernanke, Fed chairman, said earlier this month that he was working on plans to avert inflation in the event that recent tentative signs of economic stabilisation morph into recovery. He has maintained that inflation is likely to remain low during the next two years and that a rate of 2 per cent would be a healthy target.
“The broad inflation debate is a tussle between those who focus on the disinflationary forces resulting from a startling increase in spare capacity, and those with a visceral inflation fear,” said Alan Ruskin, strategist at RBS Greenwich Capital.
Friday’s report follows figures on Thursday which showed that US wholesale prices rose last month. The producer price index for finished goods rose by 0.3 per cent in April from previous month, but has fallen by 3.7 per cent year-on-year, the biggest annual drop since 1950.
Separately on Friday, the Federal Reserve said that US industrial production dropped in April for the sixth month running, falling by 0.5 per cent. The decline was slower than the 1.7 per cent fall the month before, but industrial output has now plummeted by 12.5 per cent during the last year on weak factory and manufacturing output as global demand has continued to erode.
Paul Dales, an economist at Capital Economics, noted that much of the strength in April’s industrial output was due to a 1.4 per cent rebound in motor vehicle output. This is likely to be reversed in May, he said, due to the idling of plants caused by the Chrysler bankruptcy.
Meanwhile, the capacity utilisation rate, a measure of the proportion of plants in use, across all industries fell from 68.1 per cent to 67.9 percent, the lowest level since records began in 1967.
In spite of the mixed results, signs that the economic crisis may be starting to turn a corner have left consumers feeling less gloomy. According to the Reuters/University of Michigan preliminary index of consumer sentiment, confidence rose in May for the third straight month. The index is up from 65.1 in April to 67.9 this month, leaving behind the record low reached last November, and was fuelled by improved expectations about the future of the economy.
“The apocalyptic tone to public discourse on the economy is steadily abating,” Mr Englund said.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/854d81ce-40c1-11de-8f18-00144feabdc0.html?ftcamp=rss

Mohamed ElBaradei warns of new nuclear age
The number of potential nuclear weapons states could more than double in a few years unless the major powers take radical steps towards disarmament, the head of the UN's nuclear watchdog has warned.
In a Guardian interview, Mohamed ElBaradei said the threat of proliferation was particularly grave in the Middle East, a region he described as a "ticking bomb".
ElBaradei, the outgoing director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said the current international regime limiting the spread of nuclear weapons was in danger of falling apart under its own inequity. "Any regime … has to have a sense of fairness and equity and it is not there," he said in an interview at his offices in Vienna.
He has presided over the IAEA for more than 11 years and is due to retire in November at the age of 67. A bitter diplomatic battle is under way over his successor.
The IAEA director general is the custodian of a global arms control regime that is increasingly beleaguered. It was built around the 1970 nuclear non-proliferation treaty (NPT) and the goal of restricting membership of the nuclear club to five postwar powers. It has been under strain in the last four decades, with Israel, India, Pakistan and North Korea developing weapons outside the NPT. But now ElBaradei says the system is in danger of collapse, with an abrupt spread in nuclear weapons technology.
"We still live in a world where if you have nuclear weapons, you are buying power, you are buying insurance against attack. That is not lost on those who do not have nuclear weapons, particularly in [conflict] regions."
He predicted that the next wave of proliferation would involve "virtual nuclear weapons states", who can produce plutonium or highly enriched uranium and possess the knowhow to make warheads, but who stop just short of assembling a weapon. They would therefore remain technically compliant with the NPT while being within a couple of months of deploying and using a nuclear weapon.
"This is the phenomenon we see now and what people worry about in Iran. And this phenomenon goes much beyond Iran. Pretty soon … you will have nine weapons states and probably another 10 or 20 virtual weapons states." ElBaradei pointed to the spread of uranium enrichment technology around the world, but he was most concerned about the Middle East.
"When you see a lot of concern about the Middle East, it's a result of people feeling totally repressed by their own government and feeling unjustly treated by the outside world. This combination makes it a ticking bomb."
ElBaradei described the acquisition of nuclear weapons by a terrorist group as the greatest threat facing the world, and pointed to the rise of the Taliban in Pakistan: "We are worried because there is a war in a country with nuclear weapons. We are worried because we still have 200 cases of illicit trafficking of nuclear material a year reported to us."
He argued that the only way back from the nuclear abyss was for the established nuclear powers to fulfil their NPT obligations and disarm as rapidly as possible. He said it was essential to generate momentum in that direction before the NPT comes up for review next April in New York. "There's a lot of work to be done but there are a lot of things we can do right away," ElBaradei said. "Slash the 27,000 warheads we have, 95% of which are in Russia and the US. You can easily slash [the arsenals] to 1,000 each, or even 500."
Only deep strategic cuts, coupled with internationally agreed bans on nuclear tests and on the production of weapons-grade fissile material, could restore the world's faith in arms control, he argued.
"If some of this concrete action is taken before the NPT [conference], you would have a completely different environment. All these so-called virtual weapons states, or virtual wannabe weapons states, will think twice … because then the major powers will have the moral authority to go after them and say: 'We are doing our part of the bargain. Now it is up to you.' "
ElBaradei won global fame – and the Nobel peace prize for himself and his agency – by standing up to the Bush and Blair governments over claims of Iraqi weapons of mass destruction. His relationships with the Obama administration, and to some extent the Brown government, are better, since both have embraced banning nuclear weapons. Obama has started talks with Moscow on mutual cuts in arsenals.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2009/may/14/elbaradei-nuclear-weapons-states-un

The pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred in three waves
Influenza Strikes
http://1918.pandemicflu.gov/the_pandemic/01.htm
Throughout history, influenza viruses have mutated and caused pandemics or global epidemics. In 1890, an especially virulent influenza pandemic struck, killing many Americans. Those who survived that pandemic and lived to experience the 1918 pandemic tended to be less susceptible to the disease.
From Kansas to Europe and Back Again:
Where did the 1918 influenza come from? And why was it so lethal?
In 1918, the Public Health Service had just begun to require state and local health departments to provide them with reports about diseases in their communities. The problem? Influenza wasn't a reportable disease.
But in early March of 1918, officials in Haskell County in Kansas sent a worrisome report to the Public Health Service. Although these officials knew that influenza was not a reportable disease, they wanted the federal government to know that ?18 cases of influenza of a severe type? had been reported there.
By May, reports of severe influenza trickled in from Europe. Young soldiers, men in the prime of life, were becoming ill in large numbers. Most of these men recovered quickly but some developed a secondary pneumonia of ?a most virulent and deadly type.?
Within two months, influenza had spread from the military to the civilian population in Europe. From there, the disease spread outward? to Asia, Africa, South America and, back again, to North America.
Wave After Wave:
In late August, the influenza virus probably mutated again and epidemics now erupted in three port cities: Freetown, Sierra Leone; Brest, France, and Boston, Massachusetts.
In Boston, dockworkers at Commonwealth Pier reported sick in massive numbers during the last week in August. Suffering from fevers as high as 105 degrees, these workers had severe muscle and joint pains. For most of these men, recovery quickly followed. But 5 to 10% of these patients developed severe and massive pneumonia. Death often followed.
Public health experts had little time to register their shock at the severity of this outbreak. Within days, the disease had spread outward to the city of Boston itself. By mid-September, the epidemic had spread even further with states as far away as California, North Dakota, Florida and Texas reporting severe epidemics.
The Unfolding of the Pandemic:
The pandemic of 1918-1919 occurred in three waves. The first wave had occurred when mild influenza erupted in the late spring and summer of 1918. The second wave occurred with an outbreak of severe influenza in the fall of 1918 and the final wave occurred in the spring of 1919.
In its wake, the pandemic would leave about twenty million dead across the world. In America alone, about 675,000 people in a population of 105 million would die from the disease.
Find out what happened in your state during the Pandemic
Mobilizing to Fight Influenza:
Although taken unaware by the pandemic, federal, state and local authorities quickly mobilized to fight the disease.
On September 27th, influenza became a reportable disease. However, influenza had become so widespread by that time that most states were unable to keep accurate records. Many simply failed to report to the Public Health Service during the pandemic, leaving epidemiologists to guess at the impact the disease may have had in different areas.
World War I had left many communities with a shortage of trained medical personnel. As influenza spread, local officials urgently requested the Public Health Service to send nurses and doctors. With less than 700 officers on duty, the Public Health Service was unable to meet most of these requests.
On the rare occasions when the PHS was able to send physicians and nurses, they often became ill en route. Those who did reach their destination safely often found themselves both unprepared and unable to provide real assistance.
In October, Congress appropriated a million dollars for the Public Health Service. The money enabled the PHS to recruit and pay for additional doctors and nurses. The existing shortage of doctors and nurses, caused by the war, made it difficult for the PHS to locate and hire qualified practitioners. The virulence of the disease also meant that many nurses and doctors contracted influenza within days of being hired.
Confronted with a shortage of hospital beds, many local officials ordered that community centers and local schools be transformed into emergency hospitals. In some areas, the lack of doctors meant that nursing and medical students were drafted to staff these makeshift hospitals.
The Pandemic Hits:
Entire families became ill. In Philadelphia, a city especially hard hit, so many children were orphaned that the Bureau of Child Hygiene found itself overwhelmed and unable to care for them.
As the disease spread, schools and businesses emptied. Telegraph and telephone services collapsed as operators took to their beds. Garbage went uncollected as garbage men reported sick. The mail piled up as postal carriers failed to come to work.
State and local departments of health also suffered from high absentee rates. No one was left to record the pandemic? s spread and the Public Health Service? s requests for information went unanswered.
As the bodies accumulated, funeral parlors ran out of caskets and bodies went uncollected in morgues.
Protecting Yourself From Influenza:
In the absence of a sure cure, fighting influenza seemed an impossible task.
In many communities, quarantines were imposed to prevent the spread of the disease. Schools, theaters, saloons, pool halls and even churches were all closed. As the bodies mounted, even funerals were held out doors to protect mourners against the spread of the disease.
Public officials, who were unaware that influenza was a virus and that masks provided no real protection against viruses, often demanded that people wear gauze masks. Some cities even passed laws requiring people to wear masks. Enforcing these laws proved to be very difficult as many people resisted wearing masks.
Advertisements recommending drugs which could cure influenza filled newspapers. Some doctors suggested that drinking alcohol might prevent infection, causing a run on alcohol supplies. Some folk healers insisted that wearing a specific type of amulet or a small bag of camphor could protect against influenza.
States passed laws forbidding spitting, fearing that this common practice spread influenza.
None of these suggestions proved effective in limiting the spread of the pandemic.
Communications During the Pandemic:
Public health officials sought to stem the rising panic by censoring newspapers and issuing simple directives. Posters and cartoons were also printed, warning people of the dangers of influenza.
Although the Public Health Service was aware that much of the nation? s large immigrant population did not speak or read English, posters used English almost exclusively. But even native English speakers found the posters and directives confusing. And limited understanding of influenza, combined with the rapidity of its spread, meant that these directives were often ignored or poorly understood.
Fading of the Pandemic:
In November, two months after the pandemic had erupted, the Public Health Service began reporting that influenza cases were declining.
Communities slowly lifted their quarantines. Masks were discarded. Schools were re-opened and citizens flocked to celebrate the end of World War I.
Communities and the disease continued to be a threat throughout the spring of 1919.
By the time the pandemic had ended, in the summer of 1919, nearly 675,000 Americans were dead from influenza. Hundred of thousands more were orphaned and widowed.
http://www.endtimesreport.com/three_waves.html