Matthew 24:7 states:
For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
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| Nuclear submarine photo released by the Chinese Navy on Sunday, Oct. 27, 2013. AP Photo. |
Washington Times, Oct. 31, 2013
Chinese state-run media revealed for the first time this week that Beijing’s nuclear submarines can attack American cities as a means to counterbalance U.S. nuclear deterrence in the Pacific.
On Monday, leading media outlets including China Central TV, the People’s Daily, the Global Times, the PLA Daily, the China Youth Daily and the Guangmin Daily ran identical, top-headlined reports about the “awesomeness” of the People's Liberation Army navy’s strategic submarine force.
“This is the first time in 42 years since the establishment of our navy’s strategic submarine force that we reveal on such a large scale the secrets of our first-generation underwater nuclear force,” the Global Times said in a lengthy article titled “China for the First Time Possesses Effective Underwater Nuclear Deterrence against the United States.”
The article features 30 photos and graphics detailing, among other things, damage projections for Seattle and Los Angeles after being hit by Chinese nuclear warheads and the deadly radiation that would spread all the way to Chicago.
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| Disputed area in South China Sea. |
China should take more territory from Phl – Chinese general
Philippine Star, Nov. 1, 2013
Surround a disputed area with all types of ships, enclose it like a cabbage and hold on to it.
That’s the so-called cabbage strategy that China is employing to stake its maritime territorial claims, and a ranking Chinese military officer says his country should take more disputed territory from the Philippines, The New York Times Magazine has reported.
Quoting Maj. Gen. Zhang Zhaozhong of the Chinese People’s Liberation Army, the Sunday magazine cover article said China began taking measures “to seal and control” areas around Panatag or Scarborough Shoal, which the Chinese call the Huangyan Islands, following a standoff with the Philippines last year.
The magazine article, quoting Zhang, reported that the cabbage strategy involved “surrounding a contested area with so many boats – fishermen, fishing administration ships, marine surveillance ships, navy warships.” The island “is thus wrapped layer by layer like a cabbage,” Zhang reportedly said in a television interview given in May.
In the story entitled “A Sea of Trouble,” with the second heading “A Game of Shark and Minnow,” the NYT described the old, rusting Sierra Madre ship that the Philippine government ran aground on Ayungin Shoal in 1999 as an unlikely battleground in a geopolitical struggle that will shape the future of the South China Sea and, to some extent, the rest of the world.
Israel bombs Syria, targeting missiles shipped from Russia
New York Daily News, Oct. 31, 2013
As Israel warplanes bombed Syria's weapon stores, it was confirmed Thursday that Syria has taken a major step toward disarming itself of chemical weapons.
An explosion at a missile storage site in Latakia, Syria, was widely reported.
Israel warplanes crossed into Syrian airspace to bomb a shipment of advanced missiles shipped from Russia, it was revealed Thursday. It was at least the third time this year that Israel attacked a shipment of missiles deep inside Syria’s borders.
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| Two-year old receiving treatment for malnutrition in Kenya. Photo: AP Rebecca Blackwell |
Is the Horn of Africa facing another collapsing
state?
Asmarino Independent, Oct. 16, 2013
Eritrea's refugee crisis threatens to undermine the stability of the secretive country.
Just as the Horn of Africa is witnessing the slow restoration of one collapsed state - after more than two decades of anarchic conditions in Somalia - it may be facing the collapse of another.
The small country of Eritrea, only 20 years after gaining independence from Ethiopia, has emerged as one of the largest sources of refugees in Africa - as well as one of the most militarised societies in the world. It is increasingly displaying signs of withering state structures and an unsustainable humanitarian situation.
Although Eritrea is sometimes referred to as the North Korea of Africa, a more appropriate point of comparison may be Somalia and its descent into civil war. The already fragile security conditions in Eritrea's neighbouring states means that its collapse could have major implications for regional stability.
The small country of Eritrea, only 20 years after gaining independence from Ethiopia, has emerged as one of the largest sources of refugees in Africa - as well as one of the most militarised societies in the world. It is increasingly displaying signs of withering state structures and an unsustainable humanitarian situation.
Although Eritrea is sometimes referred to as the North Korea of Africa, a more appropriate point of comparison may be Somalia and its descent into civil war. The already fragile security conditions in Eritrea's neighbouring states means that its collapse could have major implications for regional stability.
The Telegraph -
In 2011 the worst drought in over half a century has hit parts of East Africa affecting more than 10 million people. Thousands of families travelled for days across scorched scrubland from Somalia to Kenya, including barefoot children with no food or water after their crops and livestock were destroyed by drought. More than 10 million people were affected across the Horn of Africa. Acute malnutrition reached 37% in some parts of north east Kenya and child refugees from Somalia died of causes related to malnutrition either during the journey or very shortly after arrival at aid camps.
Mass fish die-off in Belvis de Monroy, Spain
The Celestial Convergence, Nov. 2, 2013
SPAIN - Several photographs disseminated through social networks have revealed the death of hundreds of fish of different species on the island known as Belvis de Monroy, in the Valdecañas, while their authors ask for the reasons that have caused this mortality.
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| Appears a lot of carp, catfish, Blases, pike and perch dead in Belvis de Monroy Island (Valdecañas Reservoir). / Daniel Escudero |
On the issue of the Union President Fishermen Moralos, Santiago Serrano, told TODAY that days ago and reported to the general direction of the Environment the existence of thousands of dead fish floating in the waters of the reservoir Valdecañas, not only in the island of Belvis.
Serrano says it could be due to a spill upstream from the dam may Azután, in Toledo, but will not know anything for sure until you get tested for dead fish. However other sources point out that it is a fact that is repeated almost every year when there are sudden changes in temperature, algae decompose faster and the water runs out of oxygen, causing the death of species not are native. This is what is known as eutrophication.
Finally include the need to remove the remains as soon as possible to prevent infections in people who go fishing or animals that drink the swamp. - HOY. [Translated]
Chinese bats carry viruses primed to cause the next deadly pandemic
QUARTZ, Oct. 31, 2013
A colony of bats in southern China carry at least seven SARS-like viruses—and at least one of these viruses can infect people directly, according to a study... Past research suggested that people picked up SARS from mongoose-like creatures called civets, a southern Chinese delicacy, when they caught, slaughtered or served them.
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| Police raid a wet market selling civets in southern China in early 2004.Reuters/China Photo |
When the SARS virus was isolated in civets in “wet markets”, the Chinese government shuttered the markets. But the new research shows that when another outbreak of a SARS-like virus hits, that might not help much. “It changes the equation” for public health, Peter Daszak, the lead author, told the Wall Street Journal (paywall). “We can close all the markets in China and still have a pandemic.”
In the Middle East, a SARS-like virus has killed 62 people; bats are most likely the virus’s host. They’ve also likely been the “reservoir host”—meaning, one that shows no symptoms of the virus—in the outbreak of other deadly viruses, such as Ebola, Hendra in Australia and Nipah in Southeast Asia. But SARS was relatively gentle on humanity. Nothing at all like the Spanish Flu of 1917-18, which wiped out 50 million people and infected 20%-40% of the global population.
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| A family of four died in this sinkhole in Antiquera, Bohol. Contributed Photo: Paula Cacho
100 sinkholes found in Bohol after quake
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Inquirer News, Nov. 2, 2013
TAGBILARAN CITY, Philippines—Close to 100 sinkholes have been discovered in nine towns and one city in Bohol after the 7.2-magnitude earthquake that shook the province on Oct. 15.
Environment officials said not all of the sinkholes posed dangers to the public as long as no houses were built over them.
In Poblacion Uno village in the capital Tagbilaran City, however, 200 families were asked to leave their homes, as the structures were built on the roof of a sinkhole.
A sinkhole is a vacuum or cavern beneath the ground or topsoil waiting for an occurrence (earthquake or heavy rain) to rupture.
Bohol Gov. Edgar Chatto said a team from the Mines and Geosciences Bureau (MGB) was assessing the sinkholes to determine which ones posed a threat to the public.
The eight-member team is using a ground-penetrating radar to map the island for sinkholes.
Chatto said the mapping would be completed by the first quarter of 2014 and then the team would decide whether there was need for engineering intervention.
MONUMENTAL EARTH CHANGES: Mass Methane Release Accelerating - Levels In The Atmosphere Over The Arctic Ocean Increasing At Unprecedented Levels
November 02, 2013 - ARCTIC - Methane levels in the atmosphere over the Arctic Ocean are very high, as illustrated by the image below, by Leonid Yurganov, showing IASI methane readings for October 10-20, 2013.
Previous posts have discussed these high levels of methane, pointing at links between high methane levels over Arctic Ocean and earthquakes and volcanic activity.
Malcolm Light points at another factor that is contributing to the high methane levels observed over the Arctic Ocean in October 2013.
Malcolm says: The massive methane release in the Arctic this October is partly because the Gulf Stream waters got massive heating in the Atlantic off the North American coast in July. It takes the Gulf Stream currents almost 4 months to reach the emission sites along the southern side and end of the Eurasian Basin. This combined with the earthquake activity along the Gakkel Ridge and deep pyroclastic eruptions is escalating the rate of methane release by destabilizing the submarine Arctic methane hydrates at increasing rates.
The NOAA image below shows temperature anomalies for July 2013. NOAA adds that in July 2013 many regions were much warmer than average, with part of the northeastern Atlantic off the coast of North America observing record warmth.
Read more: Arctic News
