Wednesday, June 30, 2010

In light of California's woes --- Cali-fun-ication

Cali-FUN-ication!


Some people think that life in California is easy -- but it's really hard work.





We've got board meetings.








Lots of board meetings!






We're always playing catch up.



We're really just a bunch of pencil pushers.





We work with some real characters.








We're always working weekends.










We burn the midnight oil.






Hey, it's a dirty job...


...But somebody's gotta do it.

So, if this looks like your kind of work, we've got just one question for you:

WHEN CAN YOU START?


Un juez utiliza conceptos de 'la tradición judía' para condenar a un hispano

Video: Manuel Aguilera

  • Su camión colisionó contra un coche en que viajaban 4 personas de origen judío
  • 'Es mi decisión imponer una sentencia de doble chai, 36 años'
  • Chai -18- significa vida según la tradición judía
  • Según el primer informe policial, la conductora tenía barbitúricos en sangre
  • 'Se han ensañado porque es un latino muerto de hambre', dice su madre

"Se han ensañado porque es un latino muerto de hambre. Le han condenado como si fuera un asesino en serie". Rosario Yara llora impotente, desde Lanzarote, la suerte de su hijo Flavio, condenado a 36 años en una prisión del norte de Florida.

Flavio Santisteban, hijo de españoles nacido en Cuba, conducía su camión por una autopista en Miami el 11 de febrero de 2005. Según su testimonio, sintió un golpe por detrás y se salió de la carretera. Una vez en la mediana, salió de su vehículo y fue a auxiliar a las cuatro personas que viajaban en el coche con el que había colisionado.

Pudo escuchar sus voces y comprobar que estaban bien pero en 1 segundo se precipitó la tragedia. Explotó la carga que transportaba en su camión y el fuego arrasó la escena del accidente.

Lo siguiente que recuerda Flavio es cuando despierta en un hospital con el cuerpo quemado. Allí junto a su esposa, Cari Ann, también cubana hija de españoles, le comunican que los cuatro pasajeros del vehículo habían muerto.

"Desde el primer momento los abogados nos dijeron que Flavio no tenía ninguna responsabilidad, que había sido un accidente", recuerda Cari Ann. Tres abogados, supuestamente contratados por la compañía aseguradora de la empresa de Flavio, se encargaron de su defensa en el juicio civil.

Allí Flavio y su mujer se enteraron de que las 4 víctimas del siniestro -Gloria Meryl Halpern, Anita Epstein, Alain B. Klein y Deborah Klein- pertenecían a familias judías con un gran poder económico.

El acusado con su mujer e hija.

El acusado con su mujer e hija.

Los abogados no permitieron a Flavio declarar alegando que su falta de dominio del idioma inglés jugaría en su contra. Finalmente, el juez Jeffrey Streitfeld, de origen judío (al igual que las víctimas) dictaminó que las familias tenían derecho a una indemnización superior a los 31 millones de dólares.

La esposa y la madre de Flavio acusan a Streitfeld de no ser imparcial y de haberse involucrado personalmente en el caso. Este juez reclamó a su colega Mily Rodríguez-Powell poder llevar el asunto también por la vía criminal. El acusado fue condenado por 4 cargos de homicidio. "Yo no soy abogado pero me han dicho que para elevar la cantidad de la indemnización en la causa civil, ayuda mucho una sentencia penal en contra", se lamenta Cari Ann.

Cambio de conductor en el vehículo de las víctimas

El comportamiento del juez -que ha creado sospechas en la familia y en el que basan sus alegaciones- tiene como primer punto oscuro el sorpresivo cambio del conductor del vehículo de las víctimas.

Cuando la patrulla de la Policía de carreteras llegó al lugar de los hechos se registró en un informe que aseguraba que la conductora era Deborah Klein, de cuyos análisis se desprendió que tenía en la sangre gran cantidad de barbitúricos.

Como por arte de magia durante el juicio apareció una segunda investigación en la que se mantenía que quien conducía era Gloria Mery Halpen y que Deborah iba en el siento de atrás.

Este es uno de los detalles que han llevado a Armando Valladares (conocido opositor anticastrista) a involucrarse en el caso. Valladares permaneció 22 años en la cárcel en Cuba. Fue liberado a instancias del ex presidente francés, Francoise Mitterand y llegó a ser embajador de los Estados Unidos en la Comisión de Derechos Humanos de la ONU.

Ahora lucha por enmendar lo que considera "una injusticia que se ha vuelto a cebar en el más débil". Con una foto del vehículo quemado, que no fue admitida como prueba por el juez, señala los destrozos que demostrarían que la responsable del accidente sería la conductora del coche, no del camionero.

'La tradición judía' resultó determinante

Pero lo más llamativo es la sentencia por la que Streitfeld condena a Santisteban y en la que utiliza ante las cámaras que les estaban grabando conceptos religiosos y numerología de la tradición judía.

"En la tradición judía hay un concepto de chai, 18, que significa vida. Es algo que deseo tener presente para imponer una sentencia sobre la pérdida de la vida de cuatro personas judías. Es mi decisión imponer una sentencia de doble chai, 36 años en la prisión estatal de la Florida", afirma el juez mientras el condenado escucha la traducción por unos cascos.

Ahora Rosario Yara, la madre de Flavio que emigró desde España huyendo de la represión franquista tras la guerra y después tuvo que hacer lo mismo por la persecución del castrismo, libra una nueva batalla.

Ha pedido el amparo de Enrique Múgica, el defensor del pueblo en España, mientras su nuera pelea en los tribunales de Florida. "Esto ha sido un atropello de personas muy poderosas en contra de un infeliz", se lamenta Valladares que en breve visitará España en busca de apoyos para la causa de Flavio.

Spying is OK, Everybody Does It







Only a few days after Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Obama went to Ray's Hell Burger to bond and eat some dead animals, 10 Russian spies are arrested.




The alleged "deep-cover" spies are accused of working for the SVR, the Russian Federation version of the CIA. Mikhail Fradkov, director of the SVR, reports directly to Mr. Medvedev. {more}

Their job, according to the court papers in the case, was "to search and develop ties in policymaking circles" in the United States.

Each of the 10 was charged with conspiracy to act as an agent of a foreign government, which carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison on conviction.

Federal law prohibits individuals from acting as agents of foreign governments within the United States without notifying the U.S. attorney general.{more}

Develop ties in policymaking circles to influence policy, acting as agents of foreign governments? Now where have I heard about other groups seemingly doing the same thing.

Oh yeah, AIPAC.

If the FBI and the Justice Department are finally cracking down on these un-American foreign agent spies, then the arrest of hundreds of AIPAC foreign agents must be imminent.

Or maybe since the 'antics' of Israel are getting a little too hot and the talk about Israel's history of spying in America is increasing, it's time to show the public that they're not the only spies in town.


Heck, those Russians may have been planning the next 9/11 and I bet they would have filmed/documented the event and danced and sang as they were doing it.





What's the big deal? We don't have spies in Moscow?

And what about that Israeli/American spy Jonathan Pollard? Isn't he still locked up?

Might as well let him go. Just like all the Mossad agents picked up immediately after 9/11 were set free to go back home.

It's just spying ..... everybody does it.

China to hold naval drills to counter US-SKorean moves

BEIJING (PTI): In a move that could escalate tensions in the surcharged Korean peninsula, China said its military forces would kick-off live ammunition exercises in East China Sea from Wednesday in an apparent response to a joint naval manoeuvre between US and South Korea.

"The People's Liberation Army (PLA) of China will launch a six-day, live ammunition drill starting on Wednesday in the East China Sea, a move that analysts said is in response to a joint exercise between the United States and Republic of Korea (ROK) navies in the Yellow Sea," state run China Daily said Tuesday.

East China Sea is off the coast of one of China's main cities Shanghai facing the Korean peninsula and Japan.

The PLA decision was taken on June 24 and released to the media ahead of the commencement of planned exercises by US and South Korea Monday, the Daily said.

But the South Korean navy has already announced that its joint exercises with US have been postponed to July, it said.

According to the PLA announcement, all vessels will be prohibited from entering its designated exercise area from midnight to 6 pm, from June 30 to July 5.

"They must follow orders of the Chinese navy to ensure safety," it said.

An officer of the Ministry of Defence said the PLA's planned drill is routine.

But some analysts said it was rare that China publicise its military exercises days in advance.

The exercises were announced as US-South Korea geared up to conduct their exercises in the aftermath of the drowning of South Korean naval vessel allegedly by North Korea few months ago.

Pyongyang denied its involvement, but an international panel that investigated the incident pointed to a North Korean torpedo being responsible for the sinking of the vessel in which 42 sailors were killed.

The move by China regarded as close ally of Democratic People's Republic of Korea (DPRK-North Korea) seen as an attempt to flex its muscles to stave off any military action against DPRK.

Meanwhile as the pressure mounted North Korea on Monday vowed to strengthen its nuclear weaponry "in a newly developed way" to cope with persistent US hostility and its military threat which was interpreted by many western analysts as a warning that it may have developed a more powerful hydrogen bomb.

Pyongyang also accused the US of bringing heavy weapons into the border truce village of Panmunjom and warned of "strong military countermeasures".

Defending China's move to hold the exercises the China Daily said US and ROK earlier cited DPRK as the target of their drill.

Quoting analysts it said the move is clearly related to the presence of aircraft carrier USS George Washington near China's shores, which put major cities including Beijing and China's coastlines under the US carrier's combat scope.

"Though the Chinese government did not say anything about the drill, anybody with common sense on military strategy will bet that they are related," said Shi Yinhong, a senior expert on US studies at Beijing-based Renmin University of China.

Foreign Ministry spokesman Qin Gang said earlier this month that Beijing is seriously concerned about the US-ROK joint exercise and is closely following the matter.

"Under current situations, relevant parties should exercise restraint and refrain from doing things that may escalate tensions and harm the interests of the countries in the region," Qin said.

Ma Xiaotian, the PLA's deputy chief of staff, said at an annual security conference in Singapore on June 5 that one of the major obstacles in China-US military relations is the "high-intensity surveillance of US warships and planes in the South China Sea and East China Sea".

US Defence Secretary Robert Gates was also present at the meeting.

The US and ROK said the joint exercise is targeted at the DPRK after the deadly sinking of an ROK warship in March, but it is "still extremely rare for a major power to send an aircraft carrier that close to another major power," Shi said.

"Any large country has its bottom line for military vigilance and pride. The US-ROK drill has drawn angry response from the Chinese public and I think that is one reason behind its delay."

Chen Hu, editor-in-chief of the World Military magazine affiliated to the Xinhua News Agency, said Beijing does not necessarily see the US-ROK exercise as a provocative act.

"Instead, the PLA can take the presence of the giant aircraft carrier fighting group as a 'drill target'," he said.

Workers' strike hits Greece

Thousands of Greek workers have staged a 24-hour strike, in protest against the government's austerity measures, bringing much of the country to a standstill.

The strike shut down public services and disrupted transportation on Tuesday as public and private-sector employees prepared to march in Athens, the capital, at around 0900 GMT.

Nearly 100 domestic flights have been cancelled, although international flights will not be affected, and train services were severely reduced.

Workers are protesting against the government's austerity measures, which include a radical pension reform, aimed to help the country solve its huge debt and budget deficit crisis.

Local media, schools, banks and municipal offices also shut down in the action - the fifth walkout by major public and private sector unions this year.

Tuesday's strike has also left hospitals with only emergency staff.

Port unrest

But authorities took swift action to stop the city's main port of Piraeus from being blockaded, where hundreds of Communist-affiliated strikers had gathered at the harbour in an attempt to stop tourists boarding ships bound for the Greek islands.

The recurring labour unrest has cost Greece booking cancellations and millions of euros in damages at a time when the debt-hit nation is struggling to maximise its revenues and revive its economy.

"Greek islanders are counting on the next month for funds," Manolis Galanakis, deputy chairman of Greek coastal shipping associations, told Mega television.

Barnaby Phillips, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Athens, said tear gas had been dispersed to dispel crowds at the port.

"There were some quite dramatic scenes this morning with tear gas being fired by the police, dispersing trade unions, many tourists running away very frightened," he said.

"Precisely not the kind of images Greece needs and it tries to get the tourist industry reinvigorated, after it got off to a slow start after all the trouble throughout the spring."

The action comes as parliament starts to discuss reforms that would raise the retirement age, cut employee benefits and curtail early pensions in an effort to bring economic recovery.

'Deeper recession'

But many Greeks do not believe the financial measures will yield a positive outcome.

"These measures will not help. They will only lead to deeper recession and poverty," Despina Spanou, board member of the public sector union ADEDY, said.

"Workers will clearly answer the government and this reform which abolishes social security," Spanou said.

However, the government insists the spending cuts are vital.

"We deeply believe what we are doing is in the interests of the Greek people," George Petalotis, a government spokesman, said.

The southern European country avoided bankruptcy last month after receiving the first instalment payment of a $136bn emergency loan package from the European Union and the International Monetary Fund.

In return, Athens has passed severe austerity measures, cutting pensions and salaries and raising consumer taxes.

Wikipedia's million-dollar faux pas

Proving again that sometimes the facts get in the way of a good story


Hey, look, someone donated a million dollars to Wikipedia - anonymously, no less.

At least that was the headline on Digg last Friday and we could all see it was true because there was a link to the online database of donors and a plain-as-day screen capture, a cropped version of which you see here.

(2010's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries)

A million smackaroos from a benefactor too shy to even accept a public thank-you? Now that's news, so I fired off an e-mail to Jay Walsh, Wikipedia's head of communication, to see if A) he could confirm that it was indeed true; and, B) if he could tell me anything at all about the bashful donor. Walsh's reply:

"In fact it turns out there was a slight glitch in how that donation was reported through our system. The amount is 100% correct, but the donation should have been attributed to the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation. We've corrected the link and donation here:

"This is the third part of a three-year, one million dollars per year grant that was announced back in March, 2008.

"Glad the Digg folks pointed this out, and we're now tracking the comment/donation input system a bit more carefully."

There are easy wisecracks to be made here about Wikipedia and accuracy. Too easy.

Welcome regulars and passersby. Here are a few more recent Buzzblog items. And, if you'd like to receive Buzzblog via e-mail newsletter, here's where to sign up.

2010's 25 Geekiest 25th Anniversaries.

California considers digital ads on license plates.

Good news for the economy: More people are quitting their jobs.

Scientist 'infected by computer virus' catches publicity fever

8 in 10 browsers leave identifiable "fingerprints," EFF warns.

Dear Apple: Please make "magical" disappear from your iPad marketing.

How the 'Net would have saved Coke from New Coke.

Clever video technique shows there really are two sides to any story.

Doing the Laptop Drive of Shame, Part III

True: This site is not Snopes.com

Cell-phone gabber in fast-food line gets his just deserts

Cash-strapped states cut everything, except the grass

Click this link .... http://nalert.blogspot.com/2010/06/cash-strapped-states-cut-everything.html

14 Scary Facts About The The US Real Estate Nightmare

Record low new home sales in May

Image: AP

In May, sales of new homes in the United States dropped to the lowest level ever recorded. To be more precise, new home sales dropped 32.7 percent to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 300,000. A "normal" level is about 800,000 a month. New homes have never sold this slowly ever since the U.S. Commerce Department began tracking this data back in 1963.

Unemployed dumping car leases

The unemployed are walking away from their car leases in droves as more laid-off workers see their jobless benefits cut off, reports LeaseTrader.com.

The company, which helps match up people who want out of their car leases with those looking for a shorter-term lease, said it expects to process 7.3% more listings in June from people whose unemployment benefits have ended or are about to end.

"Unemployment benefits have been keeping millions of Americans afloat since the recession began," said Sergio Stiberman, chief executive of LeaseTrader.com. "When the clock runs out on benefits, people still jobless look to find ways of further cutting their bills. The ability to transfer a car lease contract can save a person more than $500 each month while keeping their credit intact."

The company said the majority of its lease listings are in California and other high-unemployment states including Florida, Arizona, Nevada and Michigan. California's unemployment was 12.4% in May, third highest in the nation.

LeaseTrader.com noted the surge in listings coincides with the failure by Congress to approve HB 4213, a bill that would allow extended unemployment benefits through November.

One version of the bill was approved by the House just before Memorial Day, but it has gotten bogged down in the Senate in a disagreement over how to pay for the $100 billion cost. Unemployment aid is just one of a host of issues included in the bill that have delayed its passage.

The California Employment Development Department estimates more than 234,000 laid-off workers in this state alone have had their benefits cut off since the last unemployment extension bill expired in early June.

800,000 mortgages in California are 30+ days late or in foreclosure. Only 132,000 show up in the MLS.....

Click this link ........... http://tinyurl.com/2crpmqq

China military denies exercise aimed at U.S

(Reuters) - The Chinese military denied media reports that an artillery drill in the East China Sea was a rebuke of a planned military exercise between South Korea and the United States.

Analysts and a military officer said the live ammunition exercise starting on Wednesday that will close off parts of the East China Sea off China's coast over six days were routine and the timing was coincidental.

"The PLA artillery exercise in the East China Sea and the joint U.S.-South Korea exercise in the Yellow Sea are a complete coincidence," Li Daguang, a professor at China's National Defense University told the Wen Wei Po, a Hong Kong newspaper under mainland control.

"The outside world shouldn't read anything into this."

Li, a People's Liberation Army (PLA) officer, said the firing exercise was a routine one and "not aimed at the U.S.-South Korea joint exercise."

But the China Daily, the country's official English-language newspaper, said some analysts saw the announcement of the exercise as a "response to a joint exercise between the United States and Republic of Korea navies in the Yellow Sea."

The Yellow Sea lies to the north of the East China Sea, and the areas of the two exercises would not overlap.

China's Foreign Ministry said last week it was concerned about reports a U.S. aircraft carrier may join the anti-submarine exercise with South Korea following a standoff with North Korea over the sinking of a warship from the South.

"Though the Chinese government did not say anything about the drill, anybody with common sense on military strategy will bet that they are related," one expert on China-U.S. relations, Shi Yinhong of Renmin University in Beijing, told the China Daily.

The joint exercise that had been expected this month will most likely take place in July, although a date has yet to be set, the Pentagon said on Monday.

Washington has not officially said whether an aircraft carrier could participate, as some news reports have suggested, citing Pentagon sources.

Beijing has been angered by U.S. navy ships engaging in surveillance in waters close to China's southern coast.

Earlier this year, Beijing curtailed contacts with the Pentagon over continued U.S. arms sales to Taiwan, the self-ruled island that China claims as its own territory.

Defense Secretary Robert Gates said this month China's decision to break off military-to-military contacts could undercut regional stability.

Gates said the PLA was the main obstruction in the way of improved relations, and suggested its position was at odds with that of the country's political leadership.

(Reporting by Chris Buckley; Editing by Sugita Katyal)

On the developments in Kyrgyzstan

Two sister nations have been made to confront each other and shed blood as a result of well-planned provocations and plots designed and executed in a very professional way. These two nations have lived together as brothers and sisters throughout our history and shared the same homeland and culture.

It has been an additional sorrow for us to see that some media outlets both in Turkey and abroad have been reflecting these events somewhat differently as to how they really are in a rather one-sided discourse. It is in no way true to describe these events as genocide or ethnic conflict; approaching the unrest as such does not provide any solution and is manifest proof that those who assume so have been taken in by the provocateurs. Armed conflicts took place in downtown Jalal-Abad and Osh, where the provocations were staged. In the Nookat, Uzgen and Aravan districts of Osh, Kadamjay in Batken, where there is a dense Uzbek population, and in some regions of Jalal-Abad, there has not been any record of conflict or fight, and this only shows that all the bloodshed was a result of failing to remain firm against incitement. Both nations have been deeply affected, and there are casualties on both sides.

An article published on June 17, 2010, in Today’s Zaman was far from reflecting the truth about the unrest, both in its headline and content. The Kyrgyz citizens in Turkey and the entire Kyrgyz nation have been more deeply hurt by the fact that this article appeared in a newspaper that is notable for its principle of having an objective approach.

We pray for the lives lost, wish a speedy recovery to the wounded and patience for both of our sister nations.

We pray that the solidarity between these two sister nations may last forever in peace and that they do not fall prey to incitement again. We hope that days of peace and serenity come and bring bliss to our country.

Affinity and Culture Society of Kyrgyzstan

G20 Toronto Police Rape Threats + Strip Searched - Amy Miller

Click this link ...... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RcXhEd_mDt4&feature=watch_response

2nd UPDATE: EU Expands Stress Tests To Include Up To 120 Banks

BRUSSELS (Dow Jones)--Ongoing stress tests on European banks have been expanded to include 70 to 120 banks to give an idea of national as well as regional resilience, a source familiar with the matter said Tuesday.

The tests, conducted by the Committee of European Banking Supervisors in ...

Obama comments on N Korea 'irresponsible': China state media

China's state media on Tuesday slammed US President Barack Obama for suggesting Beijing had turned a blind eye to North Korea's actions, calling his remarks "irresponsible and flippant".

At the Group of 20 summit in Canada at the weekend, Obama said China must not show "willful blindness" over Pyongyang's "belligerent behaviour", noting he had spoken bluntly to Chinese President Hu Jintao on the matter.

The English-language Global Times hit back at the US leader, saying he should have taken Beijing's concerns into consideration before "making irresponsible and flippant remarks about China's role in the region".

The newspaper, noting Beijing's role as host of the on-off six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear disarmament, said: "It is thus not China that is turning a blind eye to what North Korea has done and has not done."

"Instead, it is the leaders of countries such as the US that are turning a blind eye on purpose to China's efforts," said the commentary in the paper, which is run by the Communist Party's mouthpiece, the People's Daily.

The United States and Seoul have led a push for a UN censure of Pyongyang for the sinking of a South Korean warship in March that killed 46 sailors, but the Security Council has yet to issue a formal condemnation.

China, a close ally of the impoverished North, has been reluctant to endorse a UN condemnation over the sinking until it has assessed the evidence in the incident for itself.

The Global Times acknowledged that China's efforts to convince North Korea to give up its nuclear programme had not all been effective, but said maintaining contact with Pyongyang was vital.

"The US cannot ignore the fact that China remains the most important channel of effective communication in this situation," the paper said.

"Closing the channel would leave the situation deadlocked. That is by no means what the world wants."

Chaos erupts in Greece over austerity measures

Police fire tear gas and stun grenades to disperse masked protesters


ATHENS, Greece — Dozens of masked youths clashed with police at a union protest Tuesday in Athens during the country's fifth general strike this year against the cash-strapped government's planned pension and labor reforms.

Riot police fired tear gas and stun grenades to disperse troublemakers who threw chunks of marble smashed off metro station entrances and set rubbish bins on fire. Running clashes continued along a major avenue — lined with shuttered shops and banks — as rioters armed with wooden clubs made repeated sallies against police.

Seven policemen were injured in the clashes, and 13 demonstrators were detained, six of whom were arrested, police said. Riot police chased demonstrators into a main subway station, and an AP photographer saw police detain one young man in a subway car, spraying him with pepper spray.

Demonstrators smashed bus stops and phone booths, and broke windows at three shops and two bank branches. The demonstration ended after a few hours, and rioters melted away toward the central Exarcheia district — a traditional anarchist hangout.

However, Tuesday's clashes were far more muted than the riots that erupted during a previous general strike on May 5, when three people died after becoming trapped in a bank torched by rioters.

Businesses shut down, tourists exasperated

In response to the Tuesday protests, local media were shut, hospitals operated with emergency staff and public offices were mostly closed.

Businesses in central Athens rolled down their metal shutters but many elsewhere were open as usual.

"We have again taken to the streets. we are striking we are resisting the slaughtering of our rights," said Ilias Vrettakos, a vice president of the main public sector union.

Some tourists, a sector accounting for almost a fifth of Greece's GDP, were exasperated by the cancellation of some ferries to islands. About 60 domestic flights were also cancelled but international flights were unaffected.

Issues behind the Greece protests
The socialist government, which has 157 seats of 300 in parliament, was to begin preliminary consideration of an overhaul of pensions later on Tuesday. It will raise women's retirement age from 60 to match men on 65 and demand more years at work to qualify for a pension.

The government says the reforms of the creaking system are essential to stave off bankruptcy for Greece, where debt has reached 133 percent of GDP in 2010.

Participation in protests has waned, however, partly as Athenians escape to the islands for summer holidays. Unions representing about 2.5 million workers, half the workforce, back the strike.

On the big May 5 protest, three people were killed in the fire-bombing of an Athens bank. About 25,000 people turned out for the last similar strike on May 20.

The repeated strikes, protests that have sometimes turned violent and a rise in small bomb attacks since riots in 2008 have hurt tourism, which accounts for nearly a fifth of Greece's 240 billion euro ($297 billion) economy. A senior official was killed last week by a booby-trapped bomb.

But economists said the strike was far from shutting down the economy and that it was hard to estimate the drain on GDP.

"My sense is that there is so much waste in the public sector, and it's essentially public employees on strike, that I don't see much effect," said Gikas Hardouvelis, chief economist at Eurobank EFG Group.

Concurrent strikes in Spain
Meantime, Spanish workers shut down the Madrid metro system in anger at a 5 percent public sector pay cut.

The strikes in both Spain and Greece on Tuesday highlight widespread resistance to Europe-wide austerity measures as the euro and shares tumbled ahead of a deadline for banks to repay a giant European Central Bank cash injection.

Spanish Economy Minister Elena Salgado said she hoped the European Central Bank was aware of the situation of her country's stressed banks, some of which have been shut out of inter-bank lending due to worries over bad debts and public finances.

"The ECB says it doesn't like governments to tell it what to do. I simply say I hope that in this occasion, as in others, the ECB will be aware of the needs of the Spanish financial system," Salgado told Spanish radio.

Copyright 2010 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

Stocks slammed by global slowdown fears

NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Stocks tumbled Tuesday, with the Dow falling as much as 326 points and the S&P hitting an 8-month low after a big drop in consumer confidence and signs of a bigger slowdown in the global economy.

Investors plowed into the safety of government debt, sending the 10-year note yield below 3% for the first time in 14 months.

Dow Jones industrial average (INDU) dropped 268 points, or 2.7%, after having earlier lost as much as 326 points. The Nasdaq (COMP) composite fell 85 points, or 3.9%.

The S&P 500 (SPX) slid 33 points, or 3.1%, falling to a fresh 2010 low of 1035.18 before recovering a little to close at 1041.24. It was the lowest close since November and could bring in more selling in the next few days, according to technical market pros.

Stocks slipped at the open on global concerns but the selling picked up steam after the release of the Consumer Confidence index for June. Confidence slumped to 52.9 from 62.7 in May, the Conference Board reported, with the decline reflecting worries about the labor market and economic outlook. Confidence was expected to fall to 62, according to economists surveyed by Briefing.com.

Concerns about the job market and economy have dragged on stocks on and off for the last two months, with the major gauges falling into a correction after hitting rally highs in late April. A correction is a plunge of at least 10% off the highs. As of Tuesday's close, the S&P is off 14.6% from the highs of late April.

Tuesday's woes were sparked by a weak reading on Japanese export demand and household spending and a revised reading on Chinese leading economic indicators. In Europe, a fresh round of protests by Greek citizens opposed to government austerity measures kept worries about Europe's ability to cut its debt front and center.

The euro, something of a proxy for European debt worries, fell.

"Between euro worries, some notes of a slowdown out of Asia and a bad consumer sentiment number, there are very few reasons for stocks to rise, and plenty for them to fall or flatten out," said Karl Mills, president and chief investment officer at Jurika Mills & Keifer.

"The largest concern on a broad level remains the issue of debt, both in Europe and the U.S.," he said.

Stocks ended a choppy session lower Monday after leaders of the G-20 nations agreed to both continue to promote economic recovery and to cut deficits in half by 2013. The group of 19 countries and the European Union met at a summit last weekend in Toronto.

On the move: Declines were broad based, with all 30 Dow issues falling, led by Boeing (BA, Fortune 500), Caterpillar (CAT, Fortune 500), Chevron (CVX, Fortune 500), IBM (IBM, Fortune 500) and United Technologies (UTX, Fortune 500).

A variety of financial stocks slumped, with the KBW Bank (BKX) sector index off by 3.5%. Components JPMorgan Chase (JPM, Fortune 500), Bank of America (BAC, Fortune 500) and Wells Fargo (WFC, Fortune 500) all lost 4%, while Citigroup (C, Fortune 500) fell 6%.

World markets: European markets stumbled across the board, with Britain's FTSE 100 losing 3.1%, Germany's DAX giving back 3.3% and France's CAC 40 falling 4%.

Asian markets slumped. Japan's Nikkei fell 1.3%, Hong Kong's Hang Seng slid 2.3% and China's Shanghai Composite slumped 4.3%.

Housing market: Home prices rose 3.8% in April versus a year ago, according to the S&P/Case-Shiller Home Price Index of 20 major housing markets. That was a bigger jump than expected, with economists looking for a climb of 3.4% after a boost of 2.3% in March. Home prices also rose 0.8% in April from March levels.

However, prices remain off over 30% from the peak.

Companies: Electric car maker Tesla Motors debuted on the Nasdaq under the ticker TSLA, rising 12% from its IPO price late Monday.

Tesla priced its shares at $17 each, above the $14 to $16 target range, allowing it to raise over $226 million in the IPO.

Currency: The euro slumped 0.7% versus the dollar but remained above the four-year low of $1.188 hit earlier in the month. The dollar was down 1.1% versus the yen.

Commodities: U.S. light crude oil for August delivery fell $2.83 to settle at $75.94 a barrel on the New York Mercantile Exchange.

COMEX gold for August delivery gained $3.60 to $1,242 an ounce.

Bonds: Treasury prices rallied, lowering the yield on the 10-year note to 2.97% from 3.03% late Monday. Treasury prices and yields move in opposite directions.

Market breadth: Market breadth was negative and volume was moderate. On the New York Stock Exchange, losers beat winners 11 to one on volume of 1.6 billion shares. On the Nasdaq, decliners topped advancers eight to one on volume of 2.58 billion shares. To top of page

Choosing healthy foods now called a mental disorder

(NaturalNews) In its never-ending attempt to fabricate "mental disorders" out of every human activity, the psychiatric industry is now pushing the most ridiculous disease they've invented yet: Healthy eating disorder.

This is no joke: If you focus on eating healthy foods, you're "mentally diseased" and probably need some sort of chemical treatment involving powerful psychotropic drugs. The Guardian newspaper reports, "Fixation with healthy eating can be sign of serious psychological disorder" and goes on to claim this "disease" is called orthorexia nervosa -- which is basically just Latin for "nervous about correct eating."

But they can't just called it "nervous healthy eating disorder" because that doesn't sound like they know what they're talking about. So they translate it into Latin where it sounds smart (even though it isn't). That's where most disease names come from: Doctors just describe the symptoms they see with a name like osteoporosis (which means "bones with holes in them").

Getting back to this fabricated "orthorexia" disease, the Guardian goes on to report, "Orthorexics commonly have rigid rules around eating. Refusing to touch sugar, salt, caffeine, alcohol, wheat, gluten, yeast, soya, corn and dairy foods is just the start of their diet restrictions. Any foods that have come into contact with pesticides, herbicides or contain artificial additives are also out."

Wait a second. So attempting to avoid chemicals, dairy, soy and sugar now makes you a mental health patient? Yep. According to these experts. If you actually take special care to avoid pesticides, herbicides and genetically modified ingredients like soy and sugar, there's something wrong with you.

But did you notice that eating junk food is assumed to be "normal?" If you eat processed junk foods laced with synthetic chemicals, that's okay with them. The mental patients are the ones who choose organic, natural foods, apparently.

What is "normal" when it comes to foods?

I told you this was coming. Years ago, I warned NaturalNews readers that an attempt might soon be under way to outlaw broccoli because of its anti-cancer phytonutrients. This mental health assault on health-conscious consumers is part of that agenda. It's an effort to marginalize healthy eaters by declaring them to be mentally unstable and therefore justify carting them off to mental institutions where they will be injected with psychiatric drugs and fed institutional food that's all processed, dead and full of toxic chemicals.

The Guardian even goes to the ridiculous extreme of saying, "The obsession about which foods are "good" and which are "bad" means orthorexics can end up malnourished."

Follow the non-logic on this, if you can: Eating "good" foods will cause malnutrition! Eating bad foods, I suppose, is assumed to provide all the nutrients you need. That's about as crazy a statement on nutrition as I've ever read. No wonder people are so diseased today: The mainstream media is telling them that eating health food is a mental disorder that will cause malnutrition!

Shut up and swallow your Soylent Green

It's just like I reported years ago: You're not supposed to question your food, folks. Sit down, shut up, dig in and chow down. Stop thinking about what you're eating and just do what you're told by the mainstream media and its processed food advertisers. Questioning the health properties of your junk food is a mental disorder, didn't you know? And if you "obsess" over foods (by doing such things as reading the ingredients labels, for example), then you're weird. Maybe even sick.

That's the message they're broadcasting now. Junk food eaters are "normal" and "sane" and "nourished." But health food eaters are diseased, abnormal and malnourished.

But why, you ask, would they attack healthy eaters? People like Dr. Gabriel Cousens can tell you why: Because increased mental and spiritual awareness is only possible while on a diet of living, natural foods.

Eating junk foods keeps you dumbed down and easy to control, you see. It literally messes with your mind, numbing your senses with MSG, aspartame and yeast extract. People who subsist on junk foods are docile and quickly lose the ability to think for themselves. They go along with whatever they're told by the TV or those in apparent positions of authority, never questioning their actions or what's really happening in the world around them.

In contrast to that, people who eat health-enhancing natural foods -- with all the medicinal nutrients still intact -- begin to awaken their minds and spirits. Over time, they begin to question the reality around them and they pursue more enlightened explorations of topics like community, nature, ethics, philosophy and the big picture of things that are happening in the world. They become "aware" and can start to see the very fabric of the Matrix, so to speak.

This, of course, is a huge danger to those who run our consumption-based society because consumption depends on ignorance combined with suggestibility. For people to keep blindly buying foods, medicines, health insurance and consumer goods, they need to have their higher brain functions switched off. Processed junk foods laced with toxic chemicals just happens to achieve that rather nicely. Why do you think dead, processed foods remain the default meals in public schools, hospitals and prisons? It's because dead foods turn off higher levels of awareness and keep people focused on whatever distractions you can feed their brains: Television, violence, fear, sports, sex and so on.

But living as a zombie is, in one way quite "normal" in society today because so many people are doing it. But that doesn't make it normal in my book: The real "normal" is an empowered, healthy, awakened person nourished with living foods and operating as a sovereign citizen in a free world. Eating living foods is like taking the red pill because over time it opens up a whole new perspective on the fabric of reality. It sets you free to think for yourself.

But eating processed junk foods is like taking the blue pill because it keeps you trapped in a fabricated reality where your life experiences are fabricated by consumer product companies who hijack your senses with designer chemicals (like MSG) that fool your brain into thinking you're eating real food.

If you want to be alive, aware and in control of your own life, eat more healthy living foods. But don't expect to be popular with mainstream mental health "experts" or dieticians -- they're all being programmed to consider you to be "crazy" because you don't follow their mainstream diets of dead foods laced with synthetic chemicals.

But you and I know the truth here: We are the normal ones. The junk food eaters are the real mental patients, and the only way to wake them up to the real world is to start feeding them living foods.

Some people are ready to take the red pill, and others aren't. All you can do is show them the door. They must open it themselves.

In the mean time, try to avoid the mental health agents who are trying to label you as having a mental disorder just because you pay attention to what you put in your body. There's nothing wrong with avoiding sugar, soy, MSG, aspartame, HFCS and other toxic chemicals in the food supply. In fact, your very life depends on it.

Oh, and by the way, if you want to join the health experts who keep inventing new fictitious diseases and disorders, check out my popular Disease Mongering Engine web page where you can invent your own new diseases at the click of a button! You'll find it at: http://www.naturalnews.com/disease-...

Sources for this story include:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/society/2...

Airport body scanners deliver radiation dose 20 times higher than first thought, warns expert

Full body scanners at airports could increase your risk of skin cancer, experts warn.

The X-ray machines have been brought in at Manchester, Gatwick and Heathrow.

But scientists say radiation from the scanners has been underestimated and could be particularly risky for children.

They say that the low level beam does deliver a small dose of radiation to the body but because the beam concentrates on the skin - one of the most radiation-sensitive organs of the human body - that dose may be up to 20 times higher than first estimated.

An airport staff member demonstrates a full body scan at Manchester Airport

An airport staff member demonstrates a full body scan at Manchester Airport. Now a U.S expert has said the X-Ray may deliver a higher radiation dose to the skin than first thought

Dr David Brenner, head of Columbia University's centre for radiological research, said although the danger posed to the individual passenger is 'very low', he is urging researchers to carry out more tests on the device to look at the way it affects specific groups who could be more sensitive to radiation.

He says children and passengers with gene mutations - around one in 20 of the population - are more at risk as they are less able to repair X-ray damage to their DNA.

Dr Brenner, who is originally from Liverpool but now works at the New York university, said: 'The individual risks associated with X-ray backscatter scanners are probably extremely small.

'If all 800 million people who use airports every year were screened with X-rays then the very small individual risk multiplied by the large number of screened people might imply a potential public health or societal risk. The population risk has the potential to be significant.'

Following trials, the airport scanners were officially introduced at Manchester Airport in January, at Heathrow Terminal 4 in February and at Gatwick in May this year.

The most likely risk from the airport scanners is a common type of skin cancer called basal cell carcinoma, according to the academic.

The cancer is usually curable and often occurs in the head and neck of people aged between 50 and 70. He points out it would be difficult to hide a weapon on the head or neck so proposes missing out that part of the body from the scanning process.

'If there are increases in cancers as a result of irradiation of children, they would most likely appear some decades in the future. It would be prudent not to scan the head and neck,' he added.

He recently aired his concerns to the Congressional Biomedical Caucus in the US - members of Congress who meet to exchange ideas on medical research.

Dr Brenner urged them to look at his concerns but said it was important to balance any health issues against passengers' safety when flying.

He said: 'There really is no other technology around where we're planning to X-ray such an enormous number of individuals. It's really unprecedented in the radiation world.'

The Civil Aviation Authority said the radiation received from the scanning process is the equivalent to two minutes radiation received on a Transatlantic flight

The Civil Aviation Authority said the radiation received from the scanning process is the equivalent to two minutes radiation received on a Transatlantic flight

The Civil Aviation Authority, Department for Transport and Health Protection Agency insist that the technology is safe and say their tests show it would take 5,000 trips through the scanner to equal the dose of a single chest X-ray.

They said in the climate of high security, it is essential that security staff use 'all means possible' to minimise risks to airline security.

The CAA said: 'The device has been approved for use within the UK by the Department for Transport and has been subjected to risk assessments from the Health Protection Agency.

'To put the issue in perspective, the radiation received from the scanning process is the equivalent to two minutes radiation received on a Transatlantic flight.

'Recent press publications have been a little alarmist and may have heightened concern in frequent travellers who may worry about their repeated exposure.

'Under current regulations, up to 5,000 scans per person per year can be conducted safely.'

Jeju islanders want love, not war

Plans for a missile base on South Korea's Jeju island, 450 kilometers, from Shanghai have threatened to disturb a precarious balance of power in the East China Sea. But Washington's aspirations to use the base have been blocked by residents of the island.

The administration of South Korean President Lee Myung-bak announced commitments in 2008 and 2009 to purchase and deploy a fleet of Aegis destroyers equipped with US anti-ballistic missile and radar systems, built jointly by Hyundai and Lockheed-Martin. To date, opposition to construction of the base and a pending lawsuit have delayed preparation of a home port for the ships. But following the March 26 sinking of the South Korean



corvette Cheonan, the government has grown less tolerant of dissent.

The Cheonan incident has also accelerated preparation of a long-term US deployment in the region, including talk that a US carrier group may arrive shortly. ABC TV reported the proposal, which the Department of Defense subsequently denied. With the decision on the Jeju naval base remaining in abeyance, however, China's People's Liberation Army (PLA) has not announced its response.

The use of Jeju for bellicose purposes has long seemed counter-intuitive to its inhabitants. The island was declared a World Heritage site by the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization in 2007 due to its unique geological and natural characteristics. It has become a model for Asia's ecotourism industry - and a favorite of Korean honeymooners, who get free sex-education classes at the Jeju Loveland theme park. The tourist economy is complemented by exports of seafood, livestock and agricultural products.

The Korean government sought public approval for siting the naval base at the Jeju villages of Hwaseon in 2002, and Miwi in 2005, but the proposal was rejected. When the base was proposed for Gangjeong in 2007, 94% of villagers opposed deployment. Pressure for the base has grown since construction of the new fleet was announced. Opponents of the base on Jeju have reported that numerous arrests and unusually high fines have arisen from their protests.

But residents of one tiny fishing village are resolute. Last month, they announced they would fight the administration ''to the death'' before allowing their island paradise to be turned into another Okinawa, where more than half the 47,000 American troops stationed in Japan are based. With pressure growing on the administration to begin construction, and the US Navy scheduling embarkation, the Choenan incident could not come at a more critical juncture.

South Korean defense and intelligence officials initially said that the sinking of the Cheonan - with the loss of 46 lives - did not involve North Korea. An international investigation, however, blamed Pyongyang for the incident. It was followed by a crackdown against the report's critics, and concerns persist that Seoul may be drifting toward rigid tendencies thought to have been abandoned when it ended one-party rule in 1987.

Civil investigator SC Shin, assigned by the Korean National Assembly to participate in the Cheonan investigation, found no evidence of damage to the interior of the ship, no burning of cable housings, nor any signs on sailors' bodies of pressure, burns or shrapnel from the alleged torpedo explosion.

He reported that the ship radioed naval headquarters and the Coast Guard that it had been grounded. Shin also reported that four Aegis destroyers of between 6,800 and 9,600 tonnes were participating in a naval exercise 130 kilometers from the scene, and he described the 1,200 ton Cheonan being split in two as the likely result of a collision with a much larger ship. After he made his findings public, he was charged with defamation by defense officials who blamed the wreckage on a North Korean torpedo, and he was questioned by the Seoul Prosecutor's office. A member of the National Assembly who contradicted the report's conclusions was also charged with defamation.

Shin was not the first to be subject to such treatment. Some of the country's most prominent journalists were arrested in 2008, imprisoned and prosecuted, also on charges of defamation, following reporting of a Lee administration deal to lift a ban on imports of American beef and claims that the end of restrictions left consumers inadequately protected against mad cow disease.

The United Nations special rapporteur on the Promotion and Protection of the Right to Freedom of Opinion and Expression, Frank LaRue, said the right to free expression and free assembly had diminished not long after Lee's election. Media ownership had become more concentrated, said LaRue, who was refused meetings with any government ministers and was tailed by the National Intelligence Service on his recent visit to Korea.

China's interest in the base on Jeju has been piqued by the possibility that the nuclear aircraft carrier USS George Washington would be included in the new US deployment. The Beijing newspaper Global Times found that 96% of respondents to its online poll said that the carrier's deployment in the East China Sea posed a threat to China.

Beijing has built up its naval force in the decade since Jeju island first attracted Washington's attention, but China's small nuclear deterrent force is vulnerable to the large presence of anti-ballistic missiles (ABM).

China's deterrent is aimed at US strategic targets and discouraging the US from making a first strike. The ABM deployment - euphemistically labeled missile "defense" by its promoters - carries with it the threat of attacking an enemy's deterrent force before it can be launched, thus permitting a first strike without risk of retaliation.

Chinese Air Force Colonel Dai Xu, a frequent commentator of strategic issues, describes ABM deployments on Japanese and now on Korean ships as "a crescent-shaped ring of encirclement", which "begins in Japan, stretches through nations in the South China Sea, to India and ends in Afghanistan". On completion of Seoul's new fleet, the Lockheed-Hyundai partnership plans to market Aegis ships to India. Hence, the balance of power in Asia may rest on the resolution of the stand-off between Lee and his opponents, under the cloud of the Choenan incident.

The incident is politically sensitive to Lee and US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, who played an important part in promoting the investigation. Lee was chairman and chief executive officer of Hyundai until he resigned in 1992 to run for public office. While in congress, Clinton received so many donations from Lockheed-Martin that New York Magazine once questioned whether she had become "the senator from Lockheed". [1]