Todays World News

"Haitians are lining bodies along the streets of Port-au-Prince, where thousands are feared dead after a massive earthquake destroyed much of the capital. The 7.0 magnitude quake that struck Tuesday was the most powerful to hit the Caribbean nation in 200 years. The temblor collapsed the presidential palace, ministries, homes, schools, monuments and the city's largest hospital. The International Red Cross says up to 3 million people have been affected. Bodies were pulled Wednesday from the collapsed United Nations headquarters in Port-au-Prince. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon says more than 100 U.N. personnel are missing, including the mission chief, Hedi Annabi. "

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - The largest earthquake ever recorded in the area shook Haiti on Tuesday, collapsing a hospital where people screamed for help. Other buildings also were damaged and scientists said they expected "substantial damage and casualties." With communications disrupted there were no reports of deaths or injuries soon after the quake, as powerful aftershocks shook the country. The earthquake had a preliminary magnitude of 7.0 and was centered about 10 miles (15 kilometers) west of the capital of Port-au-Prince, the U.S. Geological Survey said. It had a depth of 5 miles (8 kilometers). It was the largest quake recorded in the area, said USGS analyst Dale Grant, and the last major one since a magnitude-6.7 temblor in 1984. An Associated Press videographer saw the wrecked hospital in Petionville, a hillside Port-au-Prince district that is home to many diplomats and wealthy Haitians. Elsewhere, a U.S. government official reported seeing houses that had tumbled into a ravine. Haiti's ambassador to the U.S., Raymond Joseph, said from his Washington office that he spoke to President Rene Preval's chief of staff, Fritz Longchamp, just after the quake hit. He said Longchamp told him that "buildings were crumbling right and left" near the national palace. He said he has not gotten through by phone to Haiti since. Don Blakeman, an analyst at the USGS in Golden, Colorado, said such a strong quake carried the potential for widespread damage."

"TEHRAN, Iran - A senior physics professor who publicly backed Iran's opposition leader was killed when a bomb-rigged motorcycle exploded as he left for work Tuesday. The government blamed the U.S. and Israel for the attack. The blast apparently was set off by a remote trigger, but it was unclear why the professor was targeted. The victim was a 50-year-old researcher with no prominent political voice, no published work with military relevance and no declared links to Iran's nuclear program. Hard-line backers of the Islamic system have urged stronger measures to try to crush and intimidate anti-government forces. But the Tehran University professor, Masoud Ali Mohammadi, was far from a front-row political player. He joined a list of 240 faculty members in a declaration supporting opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi before June's disputed presidential election, but did not take any known high-profile role in the protests after the vote. The attack was an oddity in Tehran, where such targeted bombings are rare. "There's a lot of conflicting and confusing aspects to this," said Mehrzad Boroujerdi, an Iranian affairs expert at Syracuse University. "About the only thing we can probably say is that this may bring lots more pressure on the opposition.""

"WASHINGTON - The Pentagon has ordered 3,100 troops, mostly based in Fort Hood, Texas, to deploy to Afghanistan as part of President Barack Obama's plan to beef up U.S. forces there. Defense Department spokesman Bryan Whitman said Tuesday the 4th Combat Aviation Brigade of the 4th Infantry Division should arrive in summer. The 2,600 soldiers assigned to the brigade will be accompanied by about 500 support troops. Obama is sending 30,000 more troops to Afghanistan with the expectation that U.S. troops would start leaving by July 2011. About 25,000 troops have been given deployment orders. Fort Hood was the site of shootings last November that killed 13. An Army psychiatrist, Maj. Nidal Hasan, has been charged in the case."

"PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti - Desperately needed aid from around the world slowly made its way Thursday into Haiti, where a leadership vacuum left rescuers scrambling on their own to save the trapped and injured and get relief supplies into the capital. President Barack Obama announced that "one of the largest relief efforts in our recent history" is moving toward Haiti, with thousands of troops and a broad array of civilian rescue workers flying or sailing in to aid the stricken country - backed by more than $100 million in relief funds. To the Haitians, Obama promised: "You will not be forsaken." The nascent flow of rescue workers showed some results: A newly arrived search team pulled a U.N. worker alive from the organization's collapsed headquarters. He stood, held up a fist in celebration, and was helped off to a hospital. Planes carrying teams from China, France, Spain and the United States landed at Port-au-Prince's airport with searchers and tons of water, food, medicine and other supplies - with more promised from around the globe."

"BEIJING - In China's first official response to Google's threat to leave the country, the government Thursday said foreign Internet companies are welcome but must obey the law and gave no hint of a possible compromise over Web censorship. Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu, without mentioning Google by name, said Beijing prohibits e-mail hacking, another issue cited by the company. She was responding to questions about Google at a regular ministry briefing. "China's Internet is open," Jiang said. "China welcomes international Internet enterprises to conduct business in China according to law." Google Inc. said Tuesday it would stop censoring search results in China and might shut down its China-based Google.cn site, citing attempts to break into accounts on its Gmail service used by human rights activists."

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http://TrendsResearch.com Gerald Celente talks with Russia Today on Obama's bank tax.

"Three steps to take to protect your account data from getting into the wrong hands Whether by choice or necessity, American consumers are increasingly relying on debit rather than credit cards. Debit card spending has risen steadily, growing from 47.7 percent of purchases made with plastic in 2003 to 58.9 percent in 2008 and it is expected to surpass 67 percent by 2013, according to the Nilson Report, a newsletter that tracks the consumer payment industry. When you use a debit card, the money is immediately taken from your checking account. While using debit guarantees that you pay as you go, these cards have downsides, including a growing appeal to thieves. "As economic conditions have worsened, there's been a noticeable increase in all types of card fraud," says Avivah Litan, an analyst specializing in fraud detection and prevention at Gartner Research in Stamford, Conn. "But ATM and debit-card fraud is the top area of concern we're hearing about from banks all over the world." More from ConsumerReports.org: * Pros and Cons of Debit Cards * Credit Card Perks * Post-Recession Investing Unlike credit-card thieves, who usually charge merchandise and then resell it to come up with money, people who create counterfeit ATM or debit cards by stealing your PIN and other account data can simply pull cold cash from your bank account. Using a technique known as skimming, they set up equipment that captures magnetic stripe and keypad information when you input your PIN at ATM machines, gas pumps, restaurants, or retailers. Here's how you can protect yourself: Don't Type in Your Pin at the Pump Be especially vigilant at gas stations, Litan says. "Gas pumps are notorious for skimming because they're produced by only a couple of different manufacturers, and if someone gets the key to one from a disgruntled employee, they can insert a skimming device inside the pump where it can't be seen," she says. She recommends using a credit card rather than a debit card whe

"A nonprofit organization devoted to advancing religious liberty for Christians has scoured the news, sought the opinion of its e-mail subscribers and selected a list of "the top 10 incidents of anti-Christian defamation, bigotry and discrimination in the U.S. from last year." "It is arguable that anti-Christian hatred has spilled over into material forms of persecution in 2009," said Gary Cass of the Christian Anti-Defamation Commission. "Christians were killed and bullied for their witness, ministers and churches threatened with violence and vandalized for standing for marriage and Christians were fired for not compromising their faith. If these are not bona fide examples of persecution, than I wonder what more it might take?" CADC subscribers chose from a list of 20 stories - both those that made headlines and those that were conspicuously absent from wide media coverage - to pick their top 10. The winners included a wide array of events deemed to insult, injure or marginalize Christianity. They included acts of violence, laws and judgments, actions by schools against students and decisions by the Obama administration to promote causes and leaders at odds with Christian teaching. (Story continues below) Here, then, is the list, as reported by the CADC: 1. "The Federal Hate Crimes Bill that attacks religious liberty and freedom of speech." As WND has reported, Canada's experience with "hate crimes" legislation has caused many American Christians to fear the U.S. will follow a similar path of censoring or even punishing in the name of "hate speech" people who declare the Bible's teachings on homosexuality. Gerald Chipeur is an attorney working to defend a Canadian pastor whose letter to the editor of a local newspaper prompted a complaint, a $5,000 fine and a court order not to express his beliefs further. "

"If you have family and loved ones in Haiti, here is a page that may help you find out how they are doing. Looking For Loved Ones - CNN.com put this together and has already been able to provide valuable information for loved ones. Posted by MysticBren at 9:32 AM 0 comments Thursday, January 14, 2010 Dear USA And The World, Let's Help Haiti! After watching the tragedies unfolding in Haiti, I took the time to make a donation through Save The Children. Wanting to do more, I have put together this page, listing legitimate charitable organizations that are actively sending help to Haiti, along with information on how to help. Just click on the red text to take you to each organizations donation page, many of which are designated for Haiti."

"FAYETTEVILLE, West Va.-Perched on a platform 50 feet above the ground in a big hemlock named Fern, Geoff Elliott points to an unwelcome Asian import: a little bug known as the hemlock woolly adelgid. Small fuzzy white nymphs cling to the undersides of hemlock branches throughout the grove of trees. Both nymphs and adult adelgids can work quickly to destroy hemlocks 150 feet tall. "This tree is believed to be somewhere between 200 and 300 years in age and can be taken out by the adelgid in as little as two to four years," says Mr. Elliott, a tour guide for Adventure West Virginia Resort LLC, which operates zip-line tours through the treetops. The company is trying to educate visitors about the dangers of the invasive insect as it diminishes the landscape the business relies on. "Without any action we could lose the species," said Mark Whitmore, a forest entomologist at Cornell University. He described the hemlock as a "keystone species," because it provides shade that cools streams so fish can survive as well shelter for birds and animals. Losing it would be like "having all your front teeth fall out," he said. As global trade has mounted, more goods are coming in from overseas, sometimes bringing with them the accidental cargo of destructive bugs and plants. An estimated 500 million plants are imported to the U.S. each year, and shipments through one plant inspection station doubled to 52,540 between 2004 and 2006, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Today, about 30 new invasive insects are discovered annually in the U.S., up sharply over the last decade, the USDA says. "

"A seriously damaged national port. An already swamped airport. Hospitals in shambles. A homeless president. No fuel. A capital city without phone service or electricity. As military and rescue teams began to stream in Thursday from the U.S. and other countries, veterans of past disasters say the grim realities of the Haiti earthquake set it apart from many other calamities, including the 2004 tsunami that devastated communities around the Indian Ocean, killing an estimated quarter million people. "There are a lot of dimensions that make this an especially complicated situation," said Steve Hollingworth, chief operating officer at the Atlanta-based relief group CARE. Haiti's almost nonexistent government and its battered infrastructure are among the top challenges that will plague relief efforts in coming days and weeks, aid veterans say. Also high on their lists: the country's extreme poverty and history of violence. "When a country's capital city is decimated, you lose a lot in terms of staging and organization," said Randy Martin, head of global emergency operations at Mercy Corps International. Little organization and crumbling infrastructure has stalled relief efforts in Haiti, where time is running out for possible survivors in the rubble. Military and aid groups began to encounter huge obstacles getting relief into the country, less than two days after the earthquake killed an estimated 45,000 to 50,000 people. U.S. military specialists reestablished communications at the Port-au-Prince airport, but a lack of fuel and a crammed tarmac prompted the Haitian government to halt incoming flights. While one airport runway was usable, air-traffic control was limited, able to handle only four aircraft at a time, logistics companies said. "

"Four missiles fired by a US drone aircraft in the northern Pakistani tribal region of North Waziristan have killed three militants, officials say. They say that a militant camp was also destroyed by the missiles. Separately Pakistani intelligence officials say US drone missiles recently killed a militant on the FBI's most-wanted terrorists list. The man, named as Jamal Saeed Abdul Rahim, is believed to have died on 9 January in North Waziristan. The FBI's Web site says that Mr Rahim has a $5m bounty on his head and is wanted for his alleged role in the 1986 hijacking of Pan American World Airways flight during a stop in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi. Taliban sanctuaries More than 700 people have been killed in about 77 US drone strikes since August 2008. A surge in such strikes has been ordered by US President Barack Obama, with seven drones hitting the tribal north-west this month alone. "

"January 2010 Newsletter Media Around the world today, Christians suffer because they choose to follow Christ. From North Korea, where the dictatorship promotes itself as a godhead, to Somalia where Muslim militants execute Christians, to Colombia where believers exist in the midst of violent guerilla groups, followers of Jesus continue to dare to live for Christ. "

"Malaysia: Churches Firebombed print story download (PDF) email story share Share on Facebook Share on MySpace! no media Eight churches have been attacked in Malaysia following a court decision that allows Christians to use "Allah" in their prayers and publications when referring to God, according to The Associated Press (AP). On Sunday, Jan. 10, three churches were firebombed. "On Sunday, a Molotov cocktail was hurled at the All Saints Church in Taiping town in central Perak state early in the morning before it opened," state police chief Zulkifli Abdullah told AP. "Police found burn marks on the wall but there was no damage to the building," he added. Despite the attacks, thousands of Christians attended services and prayed for unity and an end to the attacks. The attacks on churches began on Jan. 8 and 9, when four churches were hit with firebombs. "No one was hurt and all suffered little damage, except the Metro Tabernacle Church," AP said. "Parishioners there moved services after fire gutted the first floor." The attacks followed a Dec. 31 High Court decision overturning a government ban prohibiting non-Muslims from using the word "Allah" in prayers and literature. The court had ruled on a petition by Malaysia's Roman Catholic Church, whose main publication, the Herald, uses the word "Allah" in its Malay-language edition. The government has appealed the verdict."

"Taking advantage of the ado surrounding the failed airliner bombing and the new prominence of the al Qaeda peril, the Obama administration has finally given up its sanctions strategy for averting the rise of a nuclear-armed Iran. US secretary of state Hillary Clinton was tasked with the public announcement: "The Obama administration wants to keep the door to dialogue open with Iran," she said Jan. 4, then added a remark which let Iran off completely of the American hook: "…although the United States has avoided using the term deadline, it cannot wait indefinitely to hear form Iran." Her words explicitly backtracked on statements by other senior administration officials, including National Security Adviser James Jones, in recent interviews that Tehran's deadline for responding to international proposals expired on Dec. 31. DEBKAfile's Iranian sources report that Tehran sees Washington as so eager to reach the negotiating table that it is falling back from effective penalties step by step, including an embargo on refined oils and benzene, and even willing to forgive Iran's failure to meet a highly publicized international deadline. "Our goal is to pressure the Iranian government, particularly the Revolutionary Guards elements without contributing to the suffering of Iranians," Clinton explained. Threatening Iran's Revolutionary Guards instead of its regime is nothing but a feeble face-saver, our Iranian sources maintain, since the IRGC, whose financial operations and its management of Iran's nuclear program subsist on alternative "black market" economic mechanisms is hardly vulnerable to international sanctions."

"By joining Fox News in a deal announced Monday, the former Republican vice presidential nominee gains instant access to an audience that gives Sean Hannity, Glenn Beck and Bill O'Reilly the highest ratings in cable news -- and a clear boost if she attempts another run for national office. "This gives her a platform she can use to stay relevant, to stay in the public eye and to flush out some of her policy positions," said Republican strategist Todd Harris, who once worked for Palin's 2008 running mate, John McCain. "To the degree it gives her a direct line to the kinds of people who vote in Republican primaries, it does give her an advantage." Out-of-work politicians are increasingly using television and radio to stay on the political radar and keep their options open, which is one reason that former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee, an also-ran in the 2008 White House race and possible 2012 contender, is now hosting a weekend show, also on Fox. The former Alaska governor will appear as a pundit on various Fox shows, beginning Tuesday on "The O'Reilly Factor," and host an occasional series that was already in the works, "Real American Stories," which will examine inspirational tales involving ordinary citizens who have suffered setbacks. Palin has used similar language in speeches, and apologized during the presidential campaign for referring to small towns as "the real America" and the "pro-America areas of this great nation." Palin said in a statement that she is "thrilled" to be joining Fox, adding, "It's wonderful to be part of a place that so values fair and balanced news." "

"Magnitude 6.9 Date-Time * Sunday, April 04, 2010 at 22:40:39 UTC * Sunday, April 04, 2010 at 03:40:39 PM at epicenter * Time of Earthquake in other Time Zones Location 32.093°N, 115.249°W Depth 32.3 km (20.1 miles) Region BAJA CALIFORNIA, MEXICO Distances * 26 km (16 miles) SSW (211°) from Guadalupe Victoria, Baja California, Mexico * 61 km (38 miles) SW (227°) from San Luis Río Colorado, Sonora, Mexico * 64 km (40 miles) SW (225°) from San Luis, AZ * 173 km (108 miles) ESE (106°) from Tijuana, Baja California, Mexico Location Uncertainty horizontal +/- 5.8 km (3.6 miles); depth +/- 21.1 km (13.1 miles) Parameters Nph=014, Dmin=76 km, Rmss=0.2 sec, Gp=292°, M-type=local magnitude (ML), Version=1 Source * California Integrated Seismic Net: * USGS Caltech CGS UCB UCSD UNR Event ID ci14607652"

"Almost 1,500 earthquakes have been recorded in Yellowstone National Park during a recent swarm over the last two weeks. Since Jan. 17 when the swarm began, there have been 1,497 earthquakes with magnitude 0.4 to 3.8 recorded on the west side of the park through 9 a.m. Thursday, Jan. 28, the park said in a news release. Over the last couple days, a pair of earthquakes of magnitude 3.1 and 3.2 occurred in the park, according to the University of Utah Seismograph Stations. The magnitude 3.1 event occurred at 12:52 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 27. The magnitude 3.2 occurred at 1:46 a.m. Jan. 28. Both shocks happened about nine miles to the southeast of West Yellowstone and about 10 miles to the northwest of Old Faithful. Both quakes were reported felt in the park. The largest earthquake in the swarm as of 9 a.m. Jan. 28 was a magnitude 3.8. Of the 1,497 located earthquakes, 12 events were of magnitude larger than 3, 111 events were of magnitude 2 to 3, and 1,374 events were of magnitude less than 2. There have been multiple personal reports of ground shaking from observers inside the park and in surrounding areas for some of the larger events, according to the park. Earthquake swarms are relatively common in Yellowstone, the park said. "Yellowstone Volcano Observatory scientists still consider that the swarm events are likely the result of slip on pre-existing faults and are not thought to be caused by underground movement of magma. Currently there is no indication of premonitory volcanic or hydrothermal activity, but ongoing observations and analyses will continue to evaluate these different sources," the park said in the news release. Click here for felt reports."