Anonymous undertakes protests and other actions usually with the goal of promoting Internet freedom and Freedom of Speech; thus have set their sights on the media as well as tyrannical governments.

“You are the revolution.”

Their newest war is with the system, declaring a battle with the disinformation proliferated by cable television and any given stifling measures by countries set to keep their people uninformed.

A war against, “Those who would seek to divide us” is about to launch.

“It is time to take back the power.“

Anonymous fights for Freedom, not claiming to be patriots but putting the revolution in our hands — we are misinformed through the wealthy and powerful, corporations and governments, as they pull the strings while we become even more divided.

“Join the resistance. See you on the front lines.”

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Anonymous targeted and successfully broke into the networks of both the Iranian and the Dubai governments, stealing more than 10,000 email messages as well as system usernames and passwords and releasing them online.

The Independent reports:

The Iranian Ministry of Foreign Affairs succumbed to a hacking attack perpetrated by Anonymous, which yielded the bulk of the email addresses. And, on Friday afternoon, a lone hacker – apparently with links to the group – struck the Dubai government’s system, releasing a “historic list of former gov.ae email passwords”, the domain used by the Arab Emirate.

While the first hack yielded around 10,000 emails, taken from the Iranian government and took control of some of its servers, the second was much smaller, including only around 100 usernames with passwords taken from the Dubai government, which are thought to be out-of-date. However, they serve to indicate the group’s reach just one day after another hacking group carried out an attack which yet again rocked Sony.

The hacktivist responsible for targeting Dubai said he had carried out the assault “because it’s time governments learn they have no power on the internet. This is our world”.

The revolution must be televised.

Stunned witnesses reported seeing a comet-like fireball in the sky and a number of local residents took photos of the strange ball of light.

A local bus driver, giving his name only as Yu, said he had seen a strange glowing object in the sky late on Wednesday afternoon.

‘The thing suddenly ran westwards fast, like it was escaping from something,’ he said.

Inbound flights were diverted to nearby airports while outbound flights were delayed for three to four hours.

Some Chinese experts claimed that the strange sight was actually debris from a US intercontinental ballistic missile.

Chinese officials later said that they knew what the object had been but were unable to make it public because there was a ‘military connection.’

A Chinese airport was closed after this mysterious object was spotted in the sky.

Arcing over Zhejiang’s provincial capital Hangzhou, the UFO appeared to glow with an eerie white light and left a bright trail in its wake.

Xiaoshan Airport was closed after the UFO was detected at around 9 pm and dozens of flights had to be diverted.

Photo’s Of The Chinese UFO

There were 2 published photo’s of the Unidentified Object. However the first is rumored to be a fake time-lapsed photo of a helicopter. The Second photo has yet to be explained and more accurately depicts what was captured by amateur video.

Photo 1:

Photo 2:

Time Lapse Photo’s Of Helicopters

Amateur Video Of The Chinese UFO

At most, pet shop owner Joan Higgins, 66, expected a slap on the wrist for breaking new animal welfare laws which ban the sale of pets to under-16s.

Instead, the great-grandmother was taken to court, fined £1,000, placed under curfew – and ordered to wear an electronic tag for two months.

The punishment is normally handed out to violent thugs and repeat offenders.

The prosecution of Mrs Higgins and her son Mark is estimated to have cost taxpayers £20,000 and has left her with a criminal record.

Mark, 47, was also fined and ordered to carry out 120 hours of unpaid work in the community. Last night, as an MP criticised the magistrates, Mrs Higgins – who has run the pet shop for 28 years – said the family’s eight-month ordeal had left them traumatised.

She added: ‘It’s ridiculous. I mean, what danger am I that I have to wear an electronic tag? These last few months have been a very stressful time.’

The seven-week curfew imposed by the court means she is unable to babysit her great-grandson at his home or go to bingo sessions with her sister, and will be unable to attend a Rod Stewart concert after tickets were bought for her by her nephew, actor Will Mellor.

Her son said: ‘I think it’s a farce. What gets me so cross is that they put my Mum on a tag – she’s nearly 70, for goodness’ sake.

‘She’s a great-grandma so she won’t be able to babysit a newborn baby. You would think they have better things to do with their time and money.’

Mr Higgins claimed the undercover operation was a clear case of entrapment – when a person is encouraged by someone in some official capacity to commit a crime – and said the case should never have gone to court.

He said: ‘The council sent the 14-year-old in to us. It is hard to tell how old a lad is these days. He looked much older than 14.’

He added that his mother almost fainted in the dock when magistrates told her she could go to prison for the offence. ‘I told her they wouldn’t send her to prison but she was still worried,’ he said. ‘The only other time she has been in court is when she did jury service.’

Under the Animal Welfare Act 2006 it is illegal to sell pets – including goldfish – to children under the age of 16 unless they are accompanied by an adult. Pet shops must also provide advice on animal welfare to buyers. The maximum penalty is imprisonment for up to 12 months, or a fine of up to £20,000, or both.

The Higgins family’s ordeal began when council officials heard that Majors Pet Shop in Sale, Greater Manchester, was selling animals to children.

They sent the 14-year-old schoolboy into the shop to carry out a test purchase and Mr Higgins sold him the goldfish without questioning his age or providing any information about the care of the fish.

A council officer in the shop at the time also noticed a cockatiel in a cage that appeared to be in a poor state of health. A vet found the bird had a broken leg and eye problems. It was later put down.

Mrs Higgins and her son were charged with selling the fish to a person aged under 16 and with causing unnecessary suffering to a cockatiel by failing to provide appropriate care and treatment.

Pleading guilty, Mrs Higgins told Trafford magistrates the cockatiel had not been for sale and she had been bathing its eye daily.

She had intended to take it to the vet but had been distracted and worried because her other son was in hospital.

The court heard that Mrs Higgins had possessed a licence to sell animals for many years and had never had any problems before.

She was fined £1,000 and given a community order with a curfew requiring her to stay home between 6pm and 7am for seven weeks.

Mrs Higgins did not have her licence to sell animals removed, but both she and her son were told that if they ever appeared in court for a similar offence they could face a jail sentence.

David Davies, Tory MP for Monmouth, said: ‘You simply couldn’t make it up. It is absolutely ludicrous that old ladies should be hounded through the courts and electronically tagged for something like this.

‘At a time when courts are being told not to lock up career burglars we have them issuing severe punishments like this on little old ladies.’ Mr Davies, who has served as a special constable for three years, said: ‘Not only is it traumatic for her but it is a complete waste of time and taxpayers’ money. It is ridiculous.
‘Instead of getting 14-year-old boys to act in this type of sting they should have them trying to nail people who sell drugs outside our schools.’

Trafford Council said it launched an investigation after an unsubstantiated complaint that the shop had sold a gerbil to a 14-year-old girl with learning disabilities. The council claimed the animal later died after the child placed it in a disposable coffee cup with a plastic lid on top.

But the complaint did not form part of the legal action in court and its truth cannot be verified.
Mrs Higgins said the shop had not stocked gerbils for months before the complaint anyway.

Defending the goldfish case, Iain Veitch, head of public protection at Trafford Council, said: ‘The evidence presented for this conviction clearly demonstrates that it is irresponsible to sell animals to those who are not old enough to look after them.

‘Let this conviction send out a message that we will not tolerate those who cause unnecessary suffering to animals. The council will always try to support pet and business owners so that they are able to care for their animals properly, but where they continually ignore the advice they are given, we will not hesitate to use our statutory powers.’

The goldfish was later adopted by an animal welfare officer and is in good health.

Criminals who committed more serious offenses but received lesser punishments.

Industry sources said the flour shortage was a direct result of the order by the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) forcing flour millers to cut their price by as much as P160 per bag.

Philippine Baking Industry (Philbaking) president Walter Co said five millers have stopped deliveries as of Tuesday night and they account for about 50 percent of total supply in the market.

Co said they have sent a letter to the DTI last Wednesday. “The directive to millers by DTI is to sell at P680 per bag and if they charge higher then they will be sanctioned so flour millers decided not to sell rather than be charged in court,” Co said.

Likewise, Philippine Baking Industry (Philbaking) past president and Gardenia president Simplicio Umali said that flour millers are already cancelling their deliveries. “Five millers have informed our group that they will not be able to deliver,” Umali said.

Umali warned that they can shut down their operations next week if the shortage continues. “This is the first time in 11 years that we come into a situation so we are in a panic situation now,” he explained.

“We have started to reduce the output to stretch the availability of bread for a longer time. We can supply bread until Saturday and Sunday but by Monday we are not sure anymore if we can operate if the supply does not come,” Umali said.

Umali said that the order price is at P740 which is above the DTI mandated P630 to P680 per bag. With the current situation, Umali urged the government and the flour millers to come out with a price that is acceptable to both parties.

“I am in favor that prices should be evaluated but it should not affect the supply. DTI should listen as to what the real prices in the world market is,” he noted.

In a separate interview, Trade Undersecretary Zenaida C. Maglaya said that they are looking into the shortage allegations. “We have to verify.” She said DTI operatives are currently checking on the millers.

If it is true that millers are refusing to sell their flour, Maglaya said the DTI will charge them with hoarding. “If we need to forcibly enter their plants to check if there is really no flour we will,” she said. “We have police power,” Maglaya stressed.

Maglaya said one miller has already agreed to lower their price. Delta Milling Corp. is now selling flour for P650 per bag.

Meanwhile, Universal Robina Corp. (URC), one of the five flour millers accused of holding the supply which created the artificial shortage said yesterday they are not hoarding flour.

URC together with Morning Star Flour, Philippine Foremost Milling Corporation, Liberty Mills and Wellington Flour Mills were accused of not selling flour after the Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) ordered that flour be sold at P630 to P680 per bag. The five control 50 percent of the market.

Philippine Association of Flour Millers (PAFMIL) executive director Ric M. Pinca said that was wrong in accusing the flour millers of not delivering flour.

“They have all denied that they are not selling flour,” Pinca said. Trade officials cracked down on flour millers after the reported shortage. Pinca said Aileen Ongkauko, president of Philippine Foremost said trade inspectors were at their plants yesterday and witnessed the delivery of flour.

At the same time, Pinca said millers will follow the order of the DTI. “At first we did not understand the order but now we are complying.”

He slipped an empty bottle of red wine into a binliner and stretched. At his feet was a chalk-drawn pyramid showing the structure of society, the word “pueblo” at the bottom, and the tip pointing up the hill towards Bilderberg. It’s a short pyramid today, maybe half a heavily-armed mile from Rockefeller down to Ivan.

Ivan’s bed last night – is it had been the night before – was the scrub by the roadside. “It’s not so cold in my bag,” he said. “A lot of times I travel in the mountains – in the mountains, you can sleep anywhere.”

A lone Catalonian in green trousers, he clutched a leaflet and stood in the Sitges sun as, up the hill, billionaires and finance ministers ate kiwifruit patisseries.

The shame, the awful poignancy of Bilderberg, is that, for much of the time, there are more delegates up the hill than there are protesters at the foot of it.

On that point, there’s something I’d like you to do. I’d like you to extend a grateful thought, a prayer of thanks, an idle nod of acknowledgment – a something, an anything – towards Ivan and all the others who have come to Sitges to bear witness to Bilderberg 2010.

These people are on your side, they are fighting your corner. And if you don’t think it’s a corner that needs fighting, or if it’s a corner you think is being fought by the people up the hill … well, good luck to you.

I want you to know, though, that the people who are crawling around on pine needles with long lenses, trying to identify delegates (and doing pretty well, by the way), the people who are being detained, searched, questioned, then heading out again into the hills, the people who are sitting late into the night at the campsite bar, talking about distracted populations and central banks, are not lunatics.

They are your very best friends. They’re not feeble-minded or playing some kind of game. They are deadly serious, and they are worried to death.

These people look at the state of the world and they pack a rucksack and sleep at the side of a roundabout.

The head of the IMF (and Bilderberger), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, looks at the world and declares: “Crisis is an opportunity.” He sees the precarious global economy and floats the idea for “a new global currency issued by a global central bank”.

Now, if you think that’s a good idea – if you think yet more centralisation of debt (and interest payments), and more unelected financial control is a good thing – then good luck (what are you? The chairman of Barclays?)

We already have a world, says Daniel Estulin, the arch Bilderbotherer, “where unelected bodies like the IMF can tell sovereign nations like Greece what to do”.

Estulin is here in Sitges, wearing the fanciest trousers I’ve seen in a long time. He says the Bilderberg endgame is “one world company ltd”. And the board of directors is sitting half a mile away.

And they’re being watched. I can’t say from where – I don’t know where the guerilla camerafolk are out crawling today. And I can’t ring them, because they’ve turned their mobiles off and taken out the sim cards so they can’t be triangulated by the signal.

They’re out getting sunstroke on your behalf, on my behalf. I’ll publish some of their photos, and some of their spottings, tomorrow.

Later today, a bunch of Spanish activists are providing paella for everyone in a mountain restaurant. Some of us won’t make it. Some of us will be under arrest, or lying in a ditch holding our breath until the footsteps pass.

One last time: if you think what they’re doing is ridiculous, you’re wrong. It’s the fact they’re having to do it at all that’s absurd.

This morning, a policeman screeched up beside me as I went for a stroll and told me to take the recording device out of my pocket. I did. It was a bit of driftwood from the beach. Yesterday, I had my car searched (and was detained for 50 minutes while the Mossos d’Esquadra checked and rechecked my passport).

They asked me what was in the boot. I dug them out a T-shirt. The patrolman radioed the station and read out the slogan on the shirt in heavily accented English: “I went to Bilderberg 2010 and all I got was this lousy new world order.” His partner asked me why I was laughing. I couldn’t really explain.

BIlderberg is an absurdity. The secrecy is absurd. The lack of a relationship between the event and the mainstream media is absurd. Ivan standing alone by his roundabout bed is absurd. The paranoia of the participants is more than absurd – it’s pathetic.

This year, most of the delegates were whisked into the hotel through an underground entrance, dodging the lenses, like a bunch of James Bond baddies, like a dieter creeping downstairs at midnight to eat chocolate cake from the fridge.

But the good news is that not everyone has dodged the cameras (John Elkann, the heir to Fiat, was spotted by the German blog Schall und Rauch looking particularly dapper this year). And the even better news – the very best news – is that the press seems, finally, to have woken up to Bilderberg.

We have had camera crews from Spanish TV and Spanish newspapers both local and national (Javier from El Mundo is currently up a tree with a camera). French journalists, Portuguese documentary makers and al-Jazeera are picking up the story. Russia Today has sent a film crew.

We’ve had articles in the Independent and the Times, and on the Today programme on Radio 4. Daniel Estulin has been doing interview after interview. He’s getting quotes from inside the meeting. The veil of secrecy is looking decidedly tatty. It might be time to bin it.

And yet the veil of ignorance is still holding up pretty well. As Ivan says, handing me a leaflet from the Anwok collective, “it is difficult to talk about the Bilderberg agenda if people don’t even know about the group”.

I know what he means – I’ve spoken to countless news agencies and outlets in the last few weeks, and the most common response, from journalists, editors and commissioners, is: “I’m sorry, the Bilderberg what?”

But seriously, if you work on the foreign desk of a major news corporation and you’re at the “Bilderberg what?” level of political awareness, you need to think about getting a different job. Take a sabbatical. Take up carpentry, or read a book. It’s like calling yourself a porn star and not knowing the reverse cowgirl. “The reverse what…?”

Get with the programme. Shimmy up a pine tree. Take a leaflet. Resign. You’re not helping anyone.

He was told he was not in control of his vehicle and was handed a £60 fixed penalty and three points on his licence.

The 39-year-old, who runs a furniture restoration business in Ayr, said: ”The traffic was nose to tail in the high street and the traffic stopped and I thought that was quite a good time. I stopped the van and put the handbrake on. I saw four police officers nearby.

”The traffic moved on and I was waved across by an officer.

”He said I was not in control of the vehicle.”

Mr Mancini went on: ”I was absolutely stunned.

”I said to the officer ‘You’re joking, you’re having a laugh’.

”I’ve never been in trouble with the police. I was just completely gobsmacked. I honestly thought someone was going to run out with a camera.”

Mr Mancini, who lives in Prestwick, Ayrshire, was fined on October 26 in the High Street in Ayr but has not paid the penalty.

His solicitor, Peter Lockhart, said he had written to the procurator fiscal on January 18 but a letter arrived on January 19 stating that if the fine was not paid the case would go to court.

Mr Lockhart said: ”In the letter I said ‘It should have been obvious to the officers what was going on and it beggars belief a ticket was issued’.”

”I also wrote ‘We cannot see, given the circumstances of this case, that it is in the public interest’.”

Mr Lockhart said he was waiting to hear if a court date has been set.

”We will be pleading on his (Mr Mancini’s) behalf not guilty,” he added.

A Strathclyde Police spokesman said: ”A 39-year-old man is the subject of a report to the procurator fiscal in connection with an alleged traffic offence on October 26.”

China is a major buyer of Russian weapons, and the two countries say they are trying to forge a strategic partnership, though senior Russian officials are privately concerned about an increasingly assertive China.

Russia has delivered 15 S-300 batteries to China, Interfax news agency quoted Igor Ashurbeili, director general of Almaz Antei which makes the missiles, as saying.

“We have implemented a contract to deliver to China the newest system S-300,” Ashurbeili said. He gave no details about the value of the deal. A spokesman for the plant was not immediately available for comment.

In Russia’s armed forces, an S-300 battery normally consists of four truck-mounted installations, each with four missiles held in metal tubes.

Analysts said the contracts to deliver the S-300 to China were signed in the mid-2000s and that each battery usually costs about $120-$150 million. That indicates the value of the Chinese contract was about $1.80-$2.25 billion.

“The price for one S-300 battery varies between about $120 million and $150 million,” said Konstantin Makiyenko, deputy head at the Moscow-based CAST defense think tank.

MORE ADVANCED SYSTEM

The S-300, known in the West as the SA-20, can shoot down cruise missiles and aircraft. The missiles have a range of 150 km (90 miles) or more and travel at over two km per second.

Russian arms exports rose to a post-Soviet record of $8.5 billion last year, with Algeria, India and China accounting for two thirds of deliveries. Syria, Venezuela, Malaysia and Vietnam accounted for another 20 percent of deliveries.

Moscow has said it plans to fulfill a contract to supply the S-300, nicknamed “the favorite” in Russia, to Iran, unnerving Israel and the United States.

The possible sale to Tehran of the S-300, which could protect Iran’s nuclear facilities against air strikes, has become a sensitive issue in Russia’s relations with Israel.

Russia has a more advanced air defense system, known as the S-400 “Triumph,” and Ashurbeili said the country’s armed forces were expected to receive the third battery of these “any day from now.”

A senior Russian general said last year that Moscow was now developing a fifth-generation, surface-to-air missile, the S-500, which would be able to implement the tasks of both air and space defense.

Officials have said that the new system would be capable of engaging ballistic hypersonic targets flying at a speed of 5 km (3 miles) per second.

(Editing by Diana Abdallah)

The LHC successfully collided particles at record force earlier this week, a milestone Mr Cole was attempting to disrupt by stopping supplies of Mountain Dew to the experiment’s vending machines. He also claimed responsibility for the infamous baguette sabotage in November last year.

Mr Cole was seized by Swiss police after CERN security guards spotted him rooting around in bins. He explained that he was looking for fuel for his ‘time machine power unit’, a device that resembled a kitchen blender.

Police said Mr Cole, who was wearing a bow tie and rather too much tweed for his age, would not reveal his country of origin. “Countries do not exist where I am from. The discovery of the Higgs boson led to limitless power, the elimination of poverty and Kit-Kats for everyone. It is a communist chocolate hellhole and I’m here to stop it ever happening.”

This isn’t the first time time-travel has been blamed for mishaps at the LHC. Last year, the Japanese physicist Masao Ninomiya and Danish string-theory pioneer Holger Bech Nielsen put forward the hypothesis that the Higgs boson was so “abhorrent” that it somehow caused a ripple in time that prevented its own discovery.

Professor Brian Cox, a former CERN physicist and full-time rock’n'roll TV scientist, was sympathetic to Mr Cole. “Bless him, he sounds harmless enough. At least he didn’t mention bloody black holes.”

Mr Cole was taken to a secure mental health facility in Geneva but later disappeared from his cell. Police are baffled, but not that bothered.

Of course, the UK budget has been out of control for years, so this represents the chickens coming home to roost, so to speak.

You know another budget that’s out of control?

America’s.

Here are the 10 new taxes recently implemented in the UK. Be ready to see these hit stateside sooner than later.

1. Cider Tax: 10% Sweet booze tax hike

U.S. Equivalent: Raising the alcohol tax on a specific type of drink, like wine coolers or alcopops (Barcardi Breezers, etc.) 10%.

2. Tobacco Tax: 1-2% Increase in taxes on smoking

U.S. Equivalent: A yearly increase on tobacco taxes of 1% in 2010. Thereafter, a yearly increase on those taxes of 2%.

3. Alcohol Tax: 2% Increase in all drinking taxes

U.S. Equivalent: Everything you drink with alcohol in it, from beer to whiskey, sees a 2% increase at the point of sale, including the pub and bar.

4. Gas Tax: A one pence per liter tax increase

U.S. Equivalent: An extra tax of approximately $.06 on every gallon of gasoline.

5. Landfill Tax: £8 increase per tonne of waste

U.S. Equivalent: An extra $12 in tax for every 2204 pounds of waste you or your business produces.

6. Increase in highest income tax to 50% for those making over £150,000

U.S. Equivalent: An income tax of 50% for people making over $224,000.

7. Stamp Tax: 5% increase for all residential property sales over £1 million.

U.S. Equivalent: An additional tax of 5% on every property sale over $1.5 million.

1% increase in National Insurance contributions

U.S. Equivalent: An increase of 1% on your regularly payroll contributions to Social Security.

Removal of tax haven status for Belize, Grenada, and Dominica

U.S. Equivalent: Removal of tax haven status for the Cayman Islands.

Inheritance tax exemption held at £325,000

U.S. Equivalent: Of all money inherited, only $485,193 is done tax free.

It’s important to remember that your neighbor is probably a terrorist and you should be afraid of him. Please call local police if you see anything suspicious.

World governments made immediate pledges of aid after Chilean President Michelle Bachelet requested mobile bridges, field hospitals, satellite phones, electrical generators, disaster assessment teams, water purification systems, field kitchens and restaurants, UN officials said. Collected here are recent photos from areas in Chile damaged by Saturday’s 8.8-magnitude earthquake and ensuing tsunami.

See High Quality Pictures Of The Devastation Here

Five Marines and two Afghan soldiers have been struck here in recent days by bullets fired at long range. That includes one Marine fatally shot and two others wounded in the opening hour of a four-hour clash on Wednesday, when a platoon with Company K of the Third Battalion, Sixth Marines, was ambushed while moving on foot across a barren expanse of flat ground between the clusters of low-slung mud buildings.

Almost every American and Afghan infantryman present has had frightening close calls. Some of the shooting has apparently been from Kalashnikov machine guns, the Marines say, mixed with sniper fire.

The near misses have included lone bullets striking doorjambs beside their faces as Marines peeked around corners, single rounds cracking by just overhead as Marines looked over mud walls, and bullets slamming into the dirt beside them as they ran across the many unavoidable open spaces in the area they have been assigned to clear.

On Wednesday, firing came from primitive compounds, irrigation canals and agricultural fields as the bloody struggle between the Marines and the Taliban for control of the northern portion of this Taliban enclave continued for a fifth day.

In return, Company K used mortars, artillery, helicopter attack gunships and an airstrike in a long afternoon of fighting, which ended, as has been the pattern for nearly a week, with the waning evening light.

The fight to push the Taliban from this small area of Marja, a rural belt of dense poppy cultivation with few roads and almost no services, has relented only briefly since Company K landed by helicopters in the blackness early on Saturday morning. It has been a grinding series of skirmishes triggered by the company’s advances to seize sections of villages, a bridge and a bazaar where it has established an outpost and patrol bases.

Over all, most Taliban small-arms fire has been haphazard and ineffective, an unimpressive display of ill discipline or poor skill. But this more familiar brand of Taliban shooting has been punctuated by the work of what would seem to be several well-trained marksmen.

On Monday, a sniper struck an Afghan soldier in the neck at a range of roughly 500 to 700 yards. The Afghan was walking across an open area when the single shot hit him. He died.

The experience of First Platoon on Wednesday was the latest chilling example. The platoon, laden with its backpacks, was moving west toward the company’s main outpost after several days of operating in the eastern portion of the company’s area.

Marines here often stay within the small clusters of buildings as they walk, seeking the relative protection of mud walls. But it is impossible to move far without venturing into the open to cross to new villages. As First Platoon moved into the last wide expanse before reaching the command post, the Taliban began a complex ambush.

First bullets came from a Kalashnikov firing from the south, said First Lt. Jarrod D. Neff, the platoon commander. The attack had a logic: to the south, a deep irrigation canal separates the insurgents from anyone walking on the north side, where the company’s forces are concentrated. Vegetation is also thicker there, providing ample concealment.

There have been several ambushes in this same spot since the long-planned Afghan and American operation to evict the Taliban and establish a government presence in Marja began. Each time, the Marines and their Afghan counterparts have run through the open by turns, some of them sprinting while others provided suppressive fire.

The routine had been a long and risky maneuver by dashing and dropping, without a hint of cover, as bursts of machine-gun bullets and single sniper shots zipped past or thumped in the soil, kicking up a fine white powder that coats the land. At the end of each ambush, each man was slicked in sweat and winded. Ears rang from the near deafening sound of the Marines and Afghan soldiers returning fire.

As First Platoon made the crossing under machine-gun fire, at least one sniper was also waiting, according to the Marines who crossed. After the Taliban gunmen occupied the platoon’s attention to the south, a sniper opened fire from the north, Marines in the ambush said.

Continue Reading: NY Times

People whose residences are an easy target could be woken in the middle of the night by officers trying windows and doors.

The initiative, code-named Operation Golden, is being launched in a bid to cut break-ins.

It is being trialled by Cheshire Police, who say residents who fall foul of their checks will be roused with a lecture from officers on what they could have lost.

But there is bound to be concern that the police may scare some elderly residents as they pose as burglars.

And with the political debate raging about the rights of homeowners to defend their homes, there is the danger the police themselves may be attacked by people who fear they are genuine intruders.

Insp Gareth Woods, who is heading up the operation, admitted some people will not be happy about the early hours wake-up calls.

He said: ‘If we’re told to get lost then that’s a risk we take. It’s a difficult balance to strike.

‘The bottom line is officers get a mixed reception when doing anything like this, but I say to any of my officers that if they see an insecure car or house to let the owner know, no matter what time of day or night.

He added: ‘Obviously we will be very discreet and won’t be trying every door. We will target areas where we have intelligence burglaries will be happening.’

The operation is starting in Macclesfield and will be rolled out across East Cheshire.

It has been prompted by statistics which show nearly 40 per cent of all burglaries are carried out through unlocked doors or open windows.

Police and community support officers are also distributing thousands of door-hanger cards which list security checks to be carried out before householders leave home.

Chief Insp Peter Crowcroft said: ‘There are burglars who specialise in sneak-ins. They walk around streets, nipping in and out of gardens and trying doors.

‘Most of them don’t care if anyone is in the house. Even if the family is in the next room watching TV, the criminal will walk in, grab a bag, purse or some other item of value and be out again in seconds.

Source: Daily Mail

The calls for broad retaliation over the planned U.S. weapons sales to the disputed island came from officers at China’s National Defence University and Academy of Military Sciences, interviewed by Outlook Weekly, a Chinese-language magazine published by the official Xinhua news agency.

The interviews with Major Generals Zhu Chenghu and Luo Yuan and Senior Colonel Ke Chunqiao appeared in the issue published on Monday.

The People’s Liberation Army (PLA) plays no role in setting policy for China’s foreign exchange holdings. Officials in charge of that area have given no sign of any moves to sell U.S. Treasury bonds over the weapons sales, a move that could alarm markets and damage the value of China’s own holdings.

While far from representing fixed government policy, the open demands for retaliation by the PLA officers underscored the domestic pressures on Beijing to deliver on its threats to punish the Obama administration over the arms sales.

“Our retaliation should not be restricted to merely military matters, and we should adopt a strategic package of counter-punches covering politics, military affairs, diplomacy and economics to treat both the symptoms and root cause of this disease,” said Luo Yuan, a researcher at the Academy of Military Sciences.

“Just like two people rowing a boat, if the United States first throws the strokes into chaos, then so must we.”

Luo said Beijing could “attack by oblique means and stealthy feints” to make its point in Washington.

“For example, we could sanction them using economic means, such as dumping some U.S. government bonds,” Luo said.

The warnings from the PLA come after weeks of strains between Washington and Beijing, who have also been at odds over Internet controls and hacking, trade and currency quarrels, and President Barack Obama’s planned meeting with the Dalai Lama, the exiled Tibetan leader reviled by China as a “separatist.”

MILITARY SPENDING BOOST

Chinese has blasted the United States over the planned $6.4 billion arms package for Taiwan unveiled in late January, saying it will sanction U.S. firms that sell weapons to the self-ruled island that Beijing considers a breakaway province of China.

China is likely to unveil its official military budget for 2010 next month, when the Communist Party-controlled national parliament meets for its annual session.

The PLA officers suggested that budget should mirror China’s ire toward Washington.

“Clearly propose that due to the threat in the Taiwan Sea, we are increasing military spending,” said Luo.

Last year, the government set the official military budget at 480.7 billion yuan ($70.4 billion), a 14.9 percent rise on the one in 2008, continuing a nearly unbroken succession of double-digit increases over more than two decades.

The fresh U.S. arms sales threatened Chinese military installations on the mainland coast facing Taiwan, and “this gives us no choice but to increase defense spending and adjust (military) deployments,” said Zhu Chenghu, a major general at China’s National Defence University in Beijing.

In 2005, Zhu stirred controversy by suggesting China could use nuclear weapons if the United States intervened militarily in a conflict over Taiwan.

The United States switched official recognition from Taiwan to China in 1979. But the Taiwan Relations Act, passed the same year, guarantees Taiwan a continued supply of defensive weapons.

China has the world’s biggest pile of foreign currency reserves, much of it held in U.S. treasury debt. China held $798.9 billion in U.S. Treasuries at end-October.

But any attempt to use that stake against Washington would probably maul the value of China’s own dollar-denominated assets.

China has condemned previous arms sales, but has taken little action in response to them. But Luo said the country’s growing strength meant that time has passed.

“China’s attitude and actions over U.S. weapons sales to Taiwan will be increasingly tough,” the magazine cited him as saying. “That is inevitable with rising national strength.”

(Editing by Jeremy Laurence)

The quake hit at 1:53 p.m. PST, according to the USGS.

The Associated Press reports that a hospital has collapsed and people are screaming for help.

It was centered 10 km below ground– that’s just a little greater than 6 miles– USGS reports indicate.

It happened about 14 miles (22 kilometers) west of the Caribbean nation’s capital, Port-au-Prince.

The quake was originally reported at a 7.3 by the USGS, but was later downgraded to a 7.0.

*Announces $1 billion stimulus fund to promote import substitution

By Frank Jack Daniel

CARACAS, Jan 10 (Reuters) – Venezuela’s Hugo Chavez ordered soldiers to seek out businesses that raise prices after a sharp devaluation of the bolivar currency last week, saying he will expropriate firms that engage in price gouging.

Chavez also created a $1 billion stimulus fund to jump-start the recession-hit, oil-reliant economy before elections in September when the opposition hopes to strip him of a parliamentary majority.

“Right now, there is absolutely no reason for anybody to be raising prices of absolutely anything,” Chavez said on his weekly TV show, two days after announcing a dual exchange system for the weakened currency, which had been on a fixed exchange rate.

“I want the National Guard on the streets with the people to fight against speculation,” Chavez said. “Publicly denounce the speculator and we will intervene in any business of any size.”

Inflation Outlook

Chavez devalued the bolivar as much as 50 percent on Jan. 8 for the first time in almost 5 years, as last year’s decline in oil revenue caused the economy to contract an estimated 2.9 percent, its first recession since 2003. The government set a multi-tiered currency system that Chavez says will stimulate national production by making imports more expensive.

The devaluation may add to inflation by 3 percent to 5 percent this year, Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said. The government forecast an inflation rate of 20 percent to 22 percent this year, after consumer prices rose 25 percent, according to the National Consumer Price Index.

The socialist Chavez has given the state a hefty role in managing the economy. During his 11 years in office he has nationalized most heavy industries and expropriated large farms. Business and finance are also tightly regulated.

He says the devaluation will help make Venezuelan companies more competitive but warned that the government will take over shops and give them to workers if price rises are uncovered.

Chavez gave out phone numbers during the broadcast to report price gouging and asked his defense minister to prepare an “offensive” against the practice.

After browbeating firms that might raise prices, he announced $1 billion of credits and subsidies to try to diversify the economy and get industry back on its feet. He also invited businessmen to talks with the government.

Venezuela’s economy is largely dependent on oil revenue and slipped into recession last year as crude prices fell and manufacturing and industry output crashed.

“PROTECTING THE POOR”

South America’s leading oil exporter, Venezuela imports most consumer products. Under the new system, food and medicines will be imported at an exchange rate of 2.6 bolivars to the U.S. dollar while nonessential goods will be bought at a rate of 4.3 per dollar.

Since 2005 the bolivar had been fixed at 2.15 to the dollar.

Venezuelans packed electrical goods stores on Sunday, fearing prices will double as the cost of imports rise.

Venezuelans are already struggling with electrical power and water shortages caused by drought, a high murder rate, inflation and recession. But many still support the government because of its focus on easing the economic plight of the poor.

Some analysts say the price impact of the devaluation will not be severe, pointing out that much of Venezuela’s imports are already paid for with dollars bought on a semi-legal black market, where the bolivar is worth about a third of its official rate.

The currency closed at 6.15 to the dollar on Friday.

Others have predicted that Venezuela’s inflation, already the highest in the Americas at 25 percent last year, will be pushed up by the devaluation.

However, the measures would give Chavez more cash to spend this year before the September elections.

He said subsidies introduced by his government, along with the stronger exchange rate for food and medicine, would protect the poor from a jump in inflation.

“This government protects and will continue to protect the weakest with investment and with special attention,” he said.

The devaluation is a relief for the state oil company, PDVSA, which has struggled to pay service providers and meet social spending requirements since crude prices dropped last year.

Foreign debt-holders will also be pleased, since the devaluation improves Venezuela’s finances.

Last month, BMO Capital Markets cut ratings on Colgate-Palmolive Co, Avon Products Inc and Kimberly-Clark Corp to “market perform” saying a possible currency devaluation in Venezuela could hurt the U.S. consumer goods makers’ profits.

The move cuts Mr. Chavez’s two-year-old “strong bolivar” currency by half – to 4.3 per dollar from 2.15 per dollar – for most imports and transactions. The central bank will also subsidize a stronger 2.6-per-dollar rate for imports of food, medicine and other essential items, Mr. Chavez said.

The move reflects the increasingly difficult economic and political trade-offs faced by Mr. Chavez, who has been in power for more than a decade and veered the country’s economy sharply to the left through steps like nationalization of key industries, rampant government spending, and currency and price controls.

While those unorthodox policies can work for a few years, they usually set the stage for deeper problems down the road – troubles which have started to surface and which led to the currency devaluation. The move is also a humiliating turn for a currency renamed the “strong bolivar” two years ago, when Mr. Chavez chopped three zeros off the old currency and declared the beginning of an era of monetary fortitude.

The staunchly anti-U.S. leader is gambling that the benefits of a weaker currency will offset faster inflation, which threatens the purchasing power of his mostly poor backers. Finance Minister Ali Rodriguez said devaluation, which makes the price of imported goods more expensive in local currency terms, may add 5 percentage points to the 27% inflation rate – already among the fastest in the world.

In Mr. Chavez’s favor, the measure helps narrow a growing budget shortfall, could provide limited relief to a moribund local industry, and instantly gives his oil-rich government more local currency to spend per barrel of oil exported by the state petroleum company, PDVSA. That’s a key consideration with Congressional elections looming in September.

The 55-year-old former soldier’s popularity has slid amid corruption scandals, a shrinking economy, rising crime and shortages of food and electricity. Increased spending could paper over some of these problems and boost Mr. Chavez’s popularity.

Devaluation brings “more room to increase public spending as way to spur economic activity,” says Maikel Bello, an analyst with the Caracas-based research firm Ecoanalitica.

This year’s congressional elections are especially important because, after previously boycotting some elections to protest Mr. Chavez’s growing power over democratic institutions in Venezuela, traditionally fragmented opposition parties are making a push to dramatically improve their representation in Congress.

For years, Venezuela has been able to defend an overvalued currency thanks to currency controls. Venezuelan citizens and companies can get dollars at the official rate only with government permission. That has led to a thriving black market, where those who don’t get government permission buy the U.S. currency. Even the Venezuelan government uses the black market to some degree, economists say.

On Friday, that black market rate stood at about 6.25 per dollar – well below the former official rate of 2.15 and still below the new rate of 4.30. Economists say one of the reasons for the move was an attempt to deflate the black market, a catalyst for inflation that has also spawned a frenzy of schemes to defraud the central bank of dollars.

Economists will be watching the black market rate on Monday to see whether the devaluation was big enough to cause Venezuelans to go through the legal route to get dollars or whether they will keep buying them at the unofficial rate.

In theory, the devaluation could fortify Mr. Chavez on a range of fronts. Announcing the devaluation on state television, Mr. Chavez predicted that a weaker currency would breathe new life into a domestic economy that has become almost totally dependent on imports for everything from beef and milk to automobiles during his 11-year presidency.

Devaluation “will give a boost to the productive economy, will stop imports that are not strictly necessary and will stimulate exports,” Mr. Chavez said.

The measure may buttress the banking system, which has been rocked by the closure of several institutions amid an embezzlement scandal. Many Venezuelan banks head into the devaluation holding large stocks of dollars.

Holders of dollar-denominated bonds issued by Venezuela and PDVSA will be encouraged by the move. Devaluation narrows Venezuela’s financing gap to around 3% of economic output from around 7%, according to Royal Bank of Scotland economist Boris Segura.

“This is good news,” said Mr. Segura.

However, the devaluation does little to assuage the deeper problems plaguing the Venezuelan economy, economists say.

Foremost, devaluation by itself is not enough to revive a domestic manufacturing base that’s atrophied amid a hostile operating environment. Few investors are willing to brave Venezuela’s maze of price caps, currency controls and the ever-present fear of nationalization.

Higher inflation from the move will also keep chipping away at the value of the bolivar, even at its new peg.

What’s more, by keeping a subsidized dollar rate for importing food, medicine and essential items, Mr. Chavez removes any incentive for Venezuelans to produce what they need most. It will almost certainly remain cheaper to import beef from Brazil, for example, than to produce it.

The fact that Venezuela has ceased to produce meaningful amounts of food, medicine and other basic goods under Mr. Chavez puts his government in a Catch-22 bind. Mr. Chavez can’t use devaluation to stimulate production of the most essential products because doing so would instantly make the imported versions too expensive for his mainly poor constituents.

Official devaluations are nothing new for Venezuelans, with many getting their first taste of currency controls in 1961. The peg imposed then was kept for 22 years but a decline in oil revenue forced the government to devalue in 1983, marking the beginning a downward spiral that included several adjustments to the foreign currency rate. A devaluation in 1994 amid a deep economic crisis spurred a wave of popular unrest that Chavez eventually tapped to win the presidency five years later.

Mr. Chavez is returning Venezuela to an official dual-exchange rate last tried during the economic turmoil of the 1980s. Dual exchange rates around the world are associated with corruption by bureaucrats who decide which businesses get the preferential rate, and by importers who have an incentive to falsify import invoices.

It also adds to general confusion. Venezuelans will wake up Monday to a country with three exchange rates, if you include the black market rate.

The devaluation is a humiliating turn for a currency renamed the “strong bolivar” two years ago, when Mr. Chavez chopped three zeros off the old currency and declared the beginning a of an era of monetary fortitude.

But the currency became grossly overvalued amid galloping inflation and government spending. Pressure to devalue rose as the bolivar plunged to around of third of its value on the black market.

In a bid to stem central bank dollar losses amid the black market crash, the government restricted sales of dollars. But that only made things worse, by spurring the black market to new heights and punishing companies, such as importers, that need those dollars to do business.

“Companies had frozen their activities because they couldn’t buy dollars at the official rate,” said Pedro Palma, an economics professor at IESA business school in Caracas.

Mr. Chavez maintained unfettered access to dollars for importers of staples who supplied the government’s subsidized food markets. But even that backfired. Late last year, the government jailed the nation’s biggest such importer, billionaire Ricardo Fernandez. In part, he is accused of using access to dollars to enrich himself.

Mr. Fernandez has denied wrongdoing.

via: Wall Street Journal

(BBC News) Scores of officers conducted raids on budget hotels on New Year’s Day in the western state of Selangor.

Those detained in the early hours of New Year’s Day were mainly students and young factory workers.

The Muslim couples are expected to be charged with the offence of close proximity, or Khalwat.

Under Malaysia’s Islamic Sharia Law, couples who are not married to each other should not be in a secluded area or confined space, which could give rise to suspicion that they were engaged in immoral acts.

A spokesman for the Selangor State Islamic Department says they chose New Year’s Day because many people are known to commit this offence when celebrating a major holiday.

If convicted, the couples could get a maximum penalty of two years in prison and a fine.

Sharia laws in Malaysia apply only to Malay Muslims, who make up over half the population.

This video goes one better.

The footage, taken on December 30, shows a 22-floor residential building being demolished in the city of Liuzhou in southern China, but instead topples over onto its side.

Watch the video at: Mail Online