Sunday, 04 April 2010 08:58
'Barking mad eurocrats want to rename the English Channel the “Anglo-French Pond”. Under a Government-backed scheme, bankrolled by British taxpayers, officials have been working on breaking down national barriers by creating new regions for Europe. Under the plan, a vast swathe of southern England was joined to western Belgium and northern France in 2003 to become the Arc Manche region of Europe. With the first map of the region being drawn up, the divide between the countries is being played down by giving the Channel a new name.
Documents seen by the Sunday Express reveal that the Department for Communities and Local Government is backing the downgrade. The Channel was named the Oceanus Britannicus by the geographer Ptolemy in the second century AD. Yet more than £1.1million of taxpayers’ cash is being used to erase it from maps that will be sent to schools across the south of England. Caroline Spelman, Shadow Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, said: “British taxpayers’ money is being used literally to wipe our nation off the map, erase a thousand years of history and downgrade the English Channel to the insulting status of a ‘pond’.
“Hard-working families and pensioners will be outraged to see Gordon Brown’s department that has been responsible for a doubling of their council tax is wasting their cash on this propaganda.'
Read more: Eurocrats Want to Rename the English Channel ' The Anglo French Pond'
Sunday, 04 April 2010 08:40
'The amount of sea ice covering the Arctic dramatically increased last month, reaching levels not seen at this time of year for nearly a decade. Returning ice - after years of declining cover - has astonished climate scientists who blamed unusually cold weather over the Bering Sea. Researchers said they recorded the most ice in March since 2001 - and that the cover is approaching long-term average levels for the first time in ten years.
The scientists who released the data stressed that last month's rise was part of yearly variations in ice cover and could not be taken as a sign that global warming is coming to an end. But sceptics argued that the findings undermined 'alarmist' claims that the North Pole could be free of summer ice by 2013.
Sunday, 04 April 2010 07:57
'How cold and callous can we become? When, as a society and as a nation, we can undergo a massive earthquake under our very feet and before our very eyes, how can we just ignore its victims?
RealtyTrac, the California-based authority on property trends and valuations, projects 4.5 million home foreclosures before the end of this year. That’s 4.5 million homes, and with four people to a household that is eighteen million people. Eighteen million men, women and children put out into the road, people who must scramble to find shelter and scramble to find new schools for their children.
Last year it was 2.8 million homes or 11.2 million Americans put out into the road. In two years that is 29.2 million people just put out into the road.'
Read more: Eighteen Million, Out in the Road
'Pilots taking medication for mild or moderate depression will soon be allowed in the cockpit under new Federal Aviation Administration guidelines that reverse a nearly 70-year ban. Clinically depressed pilots, including those undergoing therapy or prescription treatment, are currently prohibited from flying.
The policy change, which takes effect Monday, was sparked by reduced risk of antidepressant side effects, such as drowsiness, and a need to "change the culture and remove the stigma" associated with the illness, said FAA Administrator Randy Babbitt.'
Read more: FAA Says Pilots Can Now Fly While Medicated on Antidepressant Drugs
Sunday, 04 April 2010 06:53
'Imagine being charged with a crime, but an imaginary friend takes the rap for you.
That is essentially what happened when Pfizer, the world's largest pharmaceutical company, was caught illegally marketing Bextra, a painkiller that was taken off the market in 2005 because of safety concerns.
When the criminal case was announced last fall, federal officials touted their prosecution as a model for tough, effective enforcement. "It sends a clear message" to the pharmaceutical industry, said Kevin Perkins, assistant director of the FBI's Criminal Investigative Division.
But beyond the fanfare, a CNN Special Investigation found another story, one that officials downplayed when they declared victory. It's a story about the power major pharmaceutical companies have even when they break the laws intended to protect patients.'
Read more: Feds Found Pfizer Too Big to Nail, So They Looked the Other Way on Massive Fraud
Sunday, 04 April 2010 06:48
'Whew. That was fast. It didn't take long for Wall Street to figure out how to game Obama's new mortgage modification program, did it? The plan was hyped as help for "struggling homeowners", but it turns out, it's just another stealth bailout for pudgy bank-execs. It's funny, the program hasn't even kicked in yet and, already, bigtime speculators are riffling through their filing cabinets looking any garbage paper they can find to dump on Uncle Sam. Take a look at this on today's Bloomberg report:
"Subprime-mortgage securities are rising at an accelerating pace as the U.S. begins to encourage reductions to homeowners’ balances, which may lead to fewer foreclosures and a quicker end to the housing slump....Senior-ranked bonds tied to borrowers with poor credit will mostly benefit after the Treasury Department said for the first time it would seek to cut the size of mortgages, reducing the likelihood that loan modifications will fail, according to JPMorgan Chase & Co., Morgan Stanley and Barclays Plc. (Bloomberg)
What does it mean? It means that Obama's mortgage modification extravaganza has touched-off a gold rush in toxic paper. Subprime securitizations, which had been worth next to nothing, are now the hottest trade on Wall Street. It's a subprime bonanza! The investment sharpies are scarfing up all the crummy MBS they can get their hands on, because they know they can trade it in for Triple A FHA-backed loans when the program get's going. It's another swindle cooked up by Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to keep the brokerage clan in the clover. Here's how a Wall Street veteran explained it to me.'
Read more: More Toxic Paper: New Subprime Bonanza in the Housing Market
Sunday, 04 April 2010 06:40
'The Indian government will stand by its decision to take part in a nuclear meeting slated for mid-April in the Iranian capital, Tehran, in a move that is set to irk the US administration.
According to a report published by The Hindustan Times on Sunday, the conference dubbed “Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapon for None" will be held on April 17 and 18 in Tehran. The Indian Ambassador to Iran, Sanjay Singh, will represent India at the event, which will be attended by ministers, officials and nuclear experts from over 55 countries.
The decision to participate in the international nuclear disarmament meet comes while Washington continues its efforts to impose new sanctions against Iran over its nuclear program.'
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