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Friday 08.10.2012

Gold Bulls Strengthen On Outlook For Additional Stimulus
By Nicholas Larkin - Bloomberg.com
Gold traders are the most bullish in five weeks as investors expanded their bullion holdings near a record on mounting speculation that central banks will have to do more to bolster economic growth.
Fifteen of 30 analysts surveyed by Bloomberg said they expect prices to rise next week and eight were bearish. A further seven were neutral, making the proportion of bulls the highest since July 6. Investors bought about $850 million of gold through exchange-traded products this month, taking the total of 2,411.7 metric tons to within 0.1 percent of the all- time high set July 5, data compiled by Bloomberg show.

A High Frequency Attack on Gold
BY DIMITRI SPECK - FinancialSense.com
On June 7th, 2012, the price of gold dropped by $22 in less than a second, guided by a computer algorithm during late trading
Sharp price drops in gold, for example $10 within a few minutes, can be observed frequently. Often they occur several times per week. The decline that happened on June 7, 2012 looks, at first glance, like such a drop as well, although some observers immediately noticed the extremely high speed. Market reports assessed the timeframe from "43 seconds" to "less than 5 minutes". According to spot price data with minute precision, the decrease was $20 in less than 2 minutes. The intraday chart below shows the price development in the spot market on June 7, 2012. The relevant decline is marked in red.

America's Greatest Threat
BY MONTY GUILD with TONY DANAHER - FinancialSense.com
By a host of measurements, the dependence of Americans on the largesse of the Federal government is growing at a rapid rate. This dependence is worrisome because it poses two dangers — to American economic stability and to the fabric of civil society. The economic danger has captured the news in the current election cycle, with both candidates trying to show how their respective plans are a way out of the closing debt and deficit trap. Total Federal debt is on course to reach 100 percent of GDP in two years, and historical analysis shows such debt levels as a tipping point at which economic negatives worsen dramatically.

It's the Economy, Not the Uncertainty, Stupid
By Matthew O'Brien - TheAtlantic.com
There's one certainty about the economy. Uncertainty is bad for it.
Actually, there's another certainty about the economy. Uncertainty never goes away. Sometimes we forget this; then we belatedly remember it. This alternating cycle of optimism and pessimism is what Keynes famously called "animal spirits" -- in other words, the psychological drama that drives our economic drama.

A Poor $16 Billion 30-Year Treasury Long Bond Auction
By JON C. OGG - 247WallSt.com
The U.S. Treasury has not had the best week when it comes to Treasury debt auctions. The 30-Year $16 billion Long Bond auction was a dud. You have to consider that the 30-year 'on the run' Treasury was yielding 2.79% after a 5 basis point rise shortly before the auction results were announced. This auction went out with a yield of 2.825%, indicating weak demand. The bid-to-cover ratio was only 2.41 (under a 2.65 average) and direct bidders were only 7.7% of the offering. The indirect bidders (foreign central banks and entities) did manage to buy 36.7% of the offering.

Blink! U.S. Debt Just Grew by $11 Trillion
By Laurence Kotlikoff and Scott Burns - Bloomberg.com
Republicans and Democrats spent last summer battling how best to save $2.1 trillion over the next decade. They are spending this summer battling how best to not save $2.1 trillion over the next decade.
In the course of that year, the U.S. government's fiscal gap -- the true measure of the nation'sindebtedness -- rose by $11 trillion.
The fiscal gap is the present value difference between projected future spending and revenue. It captures all government liabilities, whether they are official obligations to service Treasury bonds or unofficial commitments, such as paying for food stamps or buying drones.

El-Erian Says Be Wary Of Steepening Yield Curve
By John Detrixhe and Tom Keene - Bloomberg.com
Investors should be wary of a steepening yield curve in the U.S. Treasury market, according to Pacific Investment Management Co.'s Mohamed El-Erian.
While yields on government securities due in eight years and less are anchored by Federal Reserve monetary policy, bond buyers should be wary of longer-maturity debt, El-Erian, the chief executive officer of the world's largest manager of bond funds, said in a "Bloomberg Surveillance" radio interview with Tom Keene and Ken Prewitt.

Nationalism in the 1930s help bring Hitler to power
Europe: The Resurgence of Nationalism!
By Brad McDonald - theTrumpet.com
As nationalist sentiment intensifies, Europe's leaders have precious little time to make integration work.
Perhaps it's a crude way to view it, but the essence of the European Union's current crisis is captured in the photo of German Olympic discus throwerRobert Harting celebrating his recent gold medal. Take a glance at the photo and look past Harting, his proud smile and taut, powerful core.
Look at the flag.
Thinking …
Thinking …
Notice: Harting isn't cloaked in the EU flag.

'The Fourth Reich' Has Arrived
From theTrumpet.com
The Fourth Reich has taken over Europe, according to Il Giornale, a right-wing Italian newspaper. In a headlining story last Friday, Alessandro Sallusti, the editor in chief for the paper, asserted that Italy is "no longer in Europe. It is in the Fourth Reich."
These bold comments come in the wake of recent non-productive talks between Italy, Spain and the European Central Bank (ECB) over fiscal aid for the two struggling members of the eurozone. ECB President Mario Draghi has put pressure on Italy and Spain to formally apply for aid from the bank before any steps are taken to provide assistance. If either nation were to make a formal request, strict conditions would be enforced by the ECB in exchange for buying its bonds—strict conditions that would essentially put either nation at the mercy of the German-influenced ECB.

The House has Burnt Down
BY HUGO SALINAS PRICE - FinancialSense.com
The house has burnt down. Nothing is left of it but a pile of wet ashes. Pop and Mom and their numerous progeny gaze at the ruins, speechless.
Pop turns to the family and says: "Mom and I will have a summit meeting tomorrow, to find a solution to this problem. Tomorrow we'll have the definitive solution to this crisis; in the meantime we'll sleep in a tent that our German neighbors will rent us."
The European house has burnt down financially. In 1999 the Euro was installed as the single currency for a central group of European nations. The interest rates of the various nations were to be set by "diktat" of the European Central Bank. No nation was to be allowed to have a Fiscal Deficit of more that 3% of GNP.

Euro-architect hints at Greek exit
BY VALENTINA POP - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Former European Central Bank (ECB) chief economist and German central banker Otmar Issing has warned that the eurozone may split up - another voice in the chorus talking about a Greek exit from the common currency.
"Everything speaks in favour of saving the euro area. How many countries will be able to be part of it in the long term remains to be seen," Issing wrote in his latest book, entitled: "How we save the euro and strengthen Europe."

More than half young Greeks are unemployed
BY NIKOLAJ NIELSEN - EUObserver.com
BRUSSELS - Greek youth unemployment figures released on Thursday (9 August) by the Hellenic Statistic Authority marked another record high at 54.9 percent in May compared to around 41 percent to the same period last year.
"It is indeed a matter of deep concern for the commission and the unprecedented level of unemployment in Greece, in particular for youth unemployment," European Commission spokesperson Olivier Bailly told reporters in Brussels.

Hard landing for China as factory prices fall and deflation looms
Factory gate prices in China fell at an accelerating rate of 2.9pc in July as the economy flirted with industrial recession, prompting calls for further stimulus to head off Japanese-style deflation.
By Ambrose Evans-Pritchard - Telegraph.co.uk
"Severe deflation pressures are rippling across the country," said Alistair Thornton and Xianfeng Ren from IHS Global Insight. "Deflation, not inflation, is the greatest short-term threat to the Chinese economy."
"The hard landing has happened," said Charles Dumas from Lombard Street Research. "We don't believe offical data. We think GDP slowed to a 1pc rate in the second quarter."
A blizzard of weak data has caught policy-makers off guard, though shares rallied in Shanghai on hopes for monetary loosening fromChina's central bank after consumer price inflation (CPI) fell to 1.8pc.

What's Fed To Do As 15 Of 18 Banks Fixing Libor Aren't American
By Caroline Salas Gage - Bloomberg.com
Mark Calabria at the Cato Institute usually isn't shy about criticizing Timothy F. Geithner. Yet he says it was ultimately up to the British to deal with the manipulation of Libor, as only three of the 18 banks that set the London interbank offered rate are based in the U.S.
Geithner was president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York in 2008 when he learned about banks under-reporting Libor, the global benchmark for $500 trillion of securities. He sent a memo in June of that year to Bank of England Governor Mervyn King raising concerns and recommending changes in how the rate is calculated. Little has been done to address the issue since, and King said last month that he only just learned of wrongdoing and Geithner didn't highlight malpractice.

Libor needs to be replaced, says Sir Mervyn King
Libor has stopped working and should be replaced, said Sir Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of England.
By Helia Ebrahimi and Angela Monaghan - Telegraph.co.uk
Presenting the central bank's inflation forecasts, Sir Mervyn said that banks had stopped using Libor effectively since the financial crisis. "What's become apparent is there is no such thing as the interbank borrowing rate," he said. "The dominant feature in setting interbank borrowing rates is now the credit risk associated with the potential failure of a bank, and that varies from bank to bank.
"So the idea of having a panel to sort out the interbank rate no longer makes sense." Last week, the Government launched a review into the potential of an alternative rate-setting process in an effort to reform the key interest-rate benchmark that is used to help set the price of mortgages and loans.

Standard Chartered faces downgrading of credit rating
Claims that Standard Chartered broke US sanctions against Iran could lead to credit rating being downgrading, the agency Fitch warned
By Jill Treanor - Guardian.co.uk
Claims that Standard Chartered broke US sanctions against Iran could result in its credit rating being downgraded, the agency Fitch warned on Thursday. The agency said it was still "too early" to judge the outcome and that there needed to be "more clarity". The bank is due to appear before the New York state department of finance services next week and it has been suggested that George Osborne has asked his US counterpart Tim Geithner to ensure it is treated fairly. The chancellor is said to have been reassured that there would be a coordinated approach between all the regulators involved – something which Sir Mervyn King of the Bank of England has also called for.

Sir David Walker to chair Barclays: profile
The career of Sir David Walker, the former Bank of England executive who is to be named the new chair of Barclays, has spanned both public and private sectors.
By James Quinn - Telegraph.co.uk
Sir David Walker, who is to be named the new chairman of Barclays, has held positions at Morgan Stanley and the Bank of England.
He was also tasked with reviewing the corporate governance at British banks and other financial groups in 2009. Among his 39 recommendations were that directors should spend 30 days on the job and that chairmen should spend more time at banks; have better qualifications; more responsibilities; and be subject to annual re-election.

Treasury's Secretive $2.4 Trillion Mutual Fund Guarantee
By John Carney | CNBC
Details about a secretive government program to bail out money-market mutual funds are finally coming to light.
Acting without any explicit Congressional authority, the U.S. Treasury guaranteed in excess of $2.4 trillion of money market funds after the giant Reserve Primary Fund "broke the buck" following the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers. The program, which ended on Sept. 18, 2009, seems to have successfully prevented a panicked run by money-market fund investors.
But until now, the Treasury has kept the identities of the funds that received government backing and the amounts guaranteed secret. It was not clear how many funds obtained backing or for how much taxpayers were on the hook during the program's duration.

Capitol Bancorp Of Michigan Makes Chapter 11 Filing
By Don Jeffrey - Bloomberg.com
Capitol Bancorp Ltd., (CBCR) a Lansing, Michigan, lender, filed for bankruptcy with a prepackaged reorganization plan after a proposed restructuring failed.
Capitol Bancorp, in its Chapter 11 petition filed today in U.S. bankruptcy court in Detroit, listed total assets of $112.2 million and debt of $195.6 million.
The company also reported today a net loss of $10.3 million in the quarter that ended June 30, compared with a loss of $16.4 million a year earlier. The loss was due to "continued costs associated with problem asset resolution."

In Social Psychology, Left-Wing Agenda is King
Prejudice and discrimination in the ivory tower? Say it ain't so!
By Ryan Robertson - MRC.org
Those tolerant liberals! It's not news that in the arts and the soft sciences academia is intractably left-wing. It is noteworthy to see the bias categorized and quantified.
The journal Perspectives on Psychological Science has published an article by researchers Yoel Inbar and Joel Lammers, psychology professors at Tilburg University in the Netherlands.
It's based on their study showing the abundance of anti-conservative animus in its own field of social psychology.

Salon's Joan Walsh Equates Matt Drudge's Site
to White Supremacist Page 'Stormfront'
By Kelly McGarey - NewsBusters.org
Good liberals like Salon.com writer Joan Walsh don't believe in racial profiling. But political profiling, well, that's a different story.
In her August 8 article, "Spotting white supremacists," Walsh used the recent horrendous Sikh temple shooting as an occasion to dust off a widely-maligned 2009 Department of Homeland Security report that suggested that domestic terrorist incidents were likely to hail from extremists on the political right. She also used the occasion to slander conservative Matt Drudge by comparing his website to that of a white supremacist group called Stormfront [emphasis mine]:

Camden NJ, Population 77,344 Fires Entire Police Force,
270 Officers; Why Cities are Going Bankrupt
By Mike Shedlock - GlobalEconomicAnalysisBlog.com
In an effort to rein in costs, the city of Camden NJ will fire its entire 270 member police force and instead will use Camden County officers.
Mayor Dana Redd and Police Chief Scott Thomson noted that for the same price, Camden can have 400 county officers on staff. That is nearly a 50% increase in the number of officers for the same price.
Of course the unions are howling.
In these cases, the county typically hires most or all of the officers at lower wage and benefit levels, but the article only notes a very vague "some current Camden officers will get jobs on the new force."

Postal Service Losing $42,335,766 Per Day
By Jon Street - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) - The U.S. Postal Service has been losing an average of $42,335,766 per day in fiscal 2012.
On Thursday, the service reported a third quarter (April 1-June 30) net loss of $5.2 billion, bringing its fiscal year-to-date net loss to $11.6 billion.
There were 274 days in the first three quarters of fiscal 2012. Thus the Postal Service has lost, on average, $42,335,766 per day in this fiscal year.

HP Braces for Huge Loss After $8 Billion EDS Writedown
Reuters - CNBC.com
Hewlett Packard warned of a mammoth quarterly loss after writing down $8 billion on the value of its services business, most of which it acquired four years ago with its $14 billion purchase of EDS.
The world's largest computer maker also plans to replace its head of services, a vast but sluggish division that new CEO Meg Whitman wants to reshape into a stronger competitor to the likes of IBM.
Whitman, the former eBay CEO who took up the computing giant's helm in 2011 to some skepticism about her technology and hardware credentials, is trying to turn around the company.

It's Just Business:
How Corporate America Made Slaves of the Young
By Christian Neumeister - Truthdig.com
Companies across the nation are gleefully denying interns fair wages for their work, in flagrant violation of long-standing labor law, and have the nerve to tell the world they are doing these people a favor.
Huge numbers of college students and recent graduates in a tight labor market are too scared to ask for compensation. Consequently, many interns must work for years in unpaid positions to build their résumés while depending on their parents for financial support. Not only do unpaid internships stop some from paying down a collectively exploding student debt, they compound the economical class differences between those who can afford to work for free and those who can't.

CBO: Obamacare Will Leave 30 Million Uninsured
By Patrick Burke - CNSNews.com
(CNSNews.com) -- A new Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report says that under the Affordable Care Act, a.k.a. Obamacare, 30 million non-elderly Americans will remain without health insurance in 2022.
One of the main arguments the Obama administration made for passing the Affordable Care Act was that it would provide coverage for the uninsured.
Currently, accoriding to CBO, there are 53 million uninsured persons in the United States, including uninsured illegal aliens. The CBO estimates that in 2022--8 years after the Affordable Care Act has been fully implemented--30 million people will remain uninsured.

Bill Moyers: The Case for Medicare
Truthdig.com
Medicare is an issue near and dear to PBS host Bill Moyers. He was, after all, a key aide to President Lyndon Johnson when the health program was developed and passed in Congress. With Medicare marking its 47th anniversary last week, Moyers shared his thoughts about the program, and how he says it can be saved.
Moyers & Company:
... Lyndon Johnson had warned: "We will face a new challenge and that will be what to do within our economy to adjust ourselves to a life span and a work span for the average man or woman of 100 years."
That longevity, and the cost, are what we must now reckon with. As the historian Robert Dallek has written, Medicare and Medicaid, the similar program for the very poor, "… did not solve the problem of care at reasonable cost for all Americans," but "the benefits to the elderly and the indigent … are indisputable."

Bill Moyers Essay: Everyone Should Be Entitled to Medicare [video]
Bill shares his thoughts on the 47th anniversary of Medicare — the apex of Lyndon Johnson's ambitious vision for America. Bill was a key Johnson aide as they developed Medicare and pressed Congress to pass it. How to save Medicare today? The answer, says Bill, is obvious: make it available to every American.

WashPost Notes Departing Komen CEO's Large Salary,
Ignores Planned Parenthood CEO's Larger One
By Jill Stanek - NewsBusters.org
Susan G. Komen for the Cure's founder and CEO is stepping down. Nancy Brinker is joined on her fall on the sword by her president and two board members, all denying the Planned Parenthood debacle had anything to do with it.
Meanwhile, a Washington Post op-ed on Brinker's demise, "Nancy Brinker's Komen shakeup too little and way too late," had nary a contrary word to say about Planned Parenthood or its CEO while noting:
Brinker's own reputation was on the line as her $417,000 salary and the top executive's first-class air travel became part of the debate about whether the organization had strayed from its mission.

In Colorado, no news taxes -- ever?
If a Government Can't Tax, Is It Really a Government?
A ground-breaking Colorado case
tests a constitutional guarantee.
By Garrett Epps - TheAtlantic.com
Could Congress invalidate your state's constitution and demand it be rewritten?
The answer -- disconcertingly enough for those who regard the states as "sovereign," as against the federal government -- is almost certainly yes. It won't happen, of course. But last month, a related question emerged that may have more practical importance: Could a federal court do the same thing?
The clause that raises this question is called the Guaranty, or "Republican Form of Government," Clause of Article IV, § 4. It provides that "[t]he United States shall guarantee to every State in this Union a Republican Form of Government . . . ." The clause, usually obscure, is relevant now because of a preliminary district court decision on July 30 in Kerr v. Hickenlooper, a case in which members of Colorado's legislature have gone to court to argue that the state's own constitution is unconstitutional.

Citigroup tries another tack to dig out of the housing crisis:
turn owners into renters
AP - WashingtonPost.com
Citigroup will try something new to keep struggling homeowners out of foreclosure: turn them into renters.
CitiMortgage announced the program Wednesday and painted it as a way to help homeowners stuck in houses they can't afford. The New York-based bank, however, won't manage the program. Instead, it is handing the reigns to an investment firm. The bank just sold a $158 million mortgage portfolio to investment firms that will manage the program.

Banks Take High From Homeowners and Sell Low to Investors
Posted by Alexander Reed Kelly - Truthdig.com
Record low interest rates on mortgages and refinancing deals are reducing costs to homeowners. But banks are making unusually high profits by selling bundles of those loans to investors at similarly low rates, which means borrowers could be saving even more.
DealBook at The New York Times:
Banks are making unusually large gains on mortgages because they are taking profits far higher than the historical norm, analysts say. That 3.55 percent rate for a 30-year mortgage could be closer to 3.05 percent if banks were satisfied with the profit margins of just a few years ago. The lower rate would save a borrower about $30,000 in interest payments over the life of a $300,000 mortgage.

Wells Fargo's Home-Loan Hegemony
Spurs Stability Risk: Mortgages
By Dakin Campbell - Bloomberg.com
Wells Fargo & Co. (WFC)'s grip on the U.S. mortgage market has tripped alarms among regulators and lawmakers concerned that the bank's control over one of every three new loans could hurt consumers and undermine markets.
Wells Fargo and its two largest rivals, JPMorgan Chase & Co. (JPM) and U.S. Bancorp, made half of all U.S. home loans in the first half, according to Inside Mortgage Finance, an industry publication. Wells Fargo alone controlled 33.1 percent. In mortgage servicing, which involves billing and collections, four firms have 50 percent of the business, and Wells Fargo is No. 1 in that field, too, with 18.5 percent.

U.S. Mortgage Delinquencies Rise For First Time In Year
By John Gittelsohn - Bloomberg.com
The U.S. mortgage delinquency rate increased for the first time in a year as slowing economic growth left more borrowers struggling to pay their bills.
The share of home loans at least 30-days late rose to 7.58 percent in the second quarter on a seasonally adjusted basis, up from 7.4 percent in the previous three months, the Mortgage Bankers Association said in a report today. The rate for seriously delinquent loans, those more than 90 days behind, climbed to a seasonally adjusted 3.19 percent from 3.06 percent.

World's Oldest Shipping Company Closes In Industry Slide
By Isaac Arnsdorf - Bloomberg.com
The world's oldest shipping company sold its last vessel and is going out of business, according to the liquidator.
Stephenson Clarke Shipping Ltd., started in 1730, has been placed into liquidation, according to a statement from accounting firm Tait Walker. The Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, England- based shipper, which employed nine people, sold off its final vessel in July, according to the statement.
The Baltic Dry Index, a gauge of rates to transport dry- bulk commodities including grains and coal by sea, is down 55 percent this year and on course for a fourth annual slide in five years, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The current slump is "one of the worst experienced for many years," the shipping company said in the statement.

Google to pay record $22.5m fine to FTC over Safari tracking
Internet giant tracked iPhone, iPad and Mac users by circumventing the privacy protections on Safari web browsers
By Charles Arthur - Guardian.co.uk
Google is to pay a record $22.5m (£14.4m) fine to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) in the US after it tracked users of Apple's iPhone,iPad and Mac computers by circumventing privacy protections on the Safari web browser for several months at the end of 2011 and into 2012.
The fine is the largest paid by one company to the FTC, which imposed a 20-year privacy order on Google in March 2010 after concerns about the launch of its ill-fated Buzz social network.

States skirmish for drone test sites
FAA to tap six proving grounds
By Ben Wolfgang-The Washington Times
LAS VEGAS — As drone technology begins its boom, states across the nation are jockeying for their piece of the pie.
By the end of the year, the Federal Aviation Administration will select six unmanned aerial vehicle test sites to determine how drones — available for personal and commercial use by September 2015 — handle varying weather, altitude and other conditions.
At least 26 states, including Virginia and Maryland, have expressed interest in hosting one of the locations, expected to generate millions of dollars in economic activity and guarantee the states a hand in the next great technological revolution.

NYPD unveils new $40 million super computer system
that uses data from network of cameras, license plate readers and crime reports
Domain Awareness System is a joint venture between city and Microsoft. Commissioner Ray Kelly says system is able to access information through live video feeds and allow cops to get reading on radioactive substances
BY ROCCO PARASCANDOLA and TINA MOORE - NYDAILYNEWS.com
The NYPD is starting to look like a flashy, forensic crime TV show thanks to a new super computer system unveiled Wednesday near Wall St.
The Domain Awareness System designed by the NYPD and Microsoft Corp. uses data from a network of cameras, radiation detectors, license plate readers and crime reports, officials said.
"We're not your mom and pop police department anymore," Mayor Bloomberg crowed. "We are in the next century. We are leading the pack."

Using 3D technology to enhance customer experience
Lingerie brand Empreinte has been pushing the boundaries of in-store technology with 3D holographic models
Guardian.co.uk
What was the thinking behind the hologram campaign?
The idea of the campaign was to create a real buzz around the brand and our new concept store. The hologram was actually just one piece in an otherwise global communication strategy, which had two main objectives – create awareness and drive people to the store.
This global strategy also included meeting with bloggers, advertising on fashion blogs and with social media insiders, posting a hologram video on YouTube, and a PR strategy targeting consumers and women's magazines.

The Meaning of Square:
What's So Great About a Cashless Society?
By Derek Thompson - TheAtlantic.com
The larger significance of Starbucks partnering with the mobile payments software company Square is bigger than faster lines for coffee. But what is it, exactly?
One small step for vanilla lattes, one giant leap for mankind, is how the world characterized the deal yesterday between Starbucks and Square, the new mobile payment company that, in addition to the iconic square swiper shown above, can identify people and their financial information as they approach a register, match the merchant with the customer's face and payment info and allow transactions to happen without cash, credit, or even arms:
"That's $5."
"I'm Derek Thompson."
"Thanks, you're all set."
... and I'm out the door with my drink.
This is what a cashless society looks like. And it is cool. But, like, how cool really?

Virus found in Mideast can spy on finance transactions
Cyber surveillance virus that has been found in Israel, Lebanon and PA comes from the makers of Stuxnet, security firm says
Reuters - YnetNews.com
A new cyber surveillance virus has been found in the Middle East that can spy on financial transactions, email and social networking activity, according to a leading computer security firm, Kaspersky Lab.
Dubbed Gauss, the virus may also be capable of attacking critical infrastructure and was built in the same laboratories asStuxnet, the computer worm widely believed to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's nuclear program, Kaspersky Lab said on Thursday.

Newly discovered malware linked to Stuxnet, Flame
By Hayley Tsukayama - WashingtonPost.com
Researchers said Thursday that they have identified a new kind of malicious software that appears to be the creation of the same state-sponsored program that produced the viruses known as Stuxnet and Flame.
The malware, the researchers said, shares characteristics with the previously identified viruses, which were aimed at computers tied to Iran's nuclear program. But the new software has been found primarily in Lebanon. It is designed to steal information, including customer data from banks as well as PayPal and Citibank.

Underground sect found after nearly a decade
in Russian city of Kazan
Reuters - Independent.co.uk
Seventy members of an Islamist sect who have been living in an underground bunker without heat or sunlight for nearly a decade have been discovered living on the outskirts of the city of Kazan in Russia, local media reported.
The sect members included 20 children, the youngest of whom had just turned 18 months. Many of them were born underground and had never seen daylight until the prosecutors discovered their dwelling on 1 August and sent them for health checks.

Globalist's viewpoint on Syria
Toward a Syria Consensus
By Javier Solana - Project-Syndicate.org
MADRID – The feeling is growing stronger by the day that Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's regime is approaching a tipping point. Kofi Annan, the United Nations and Arab League special envoy, has abandoned as hopeless his efforts to implement an internationally agreed six-point plan to end the violence. Now the international community must think seriously about how to minimize the dangers inherent in Syria's domestic turmoil.
Lack of agreement within the UN Security Council has prolonged the conflict and contributed to changing its nature. What began as a popular uprising inspired by the demands of the Arab Spring has taken on increasingly sectarian and radical tones. This reflects loss of hope in international support, while making it more difficult to achieve a negotiated solution.

ESADE Center for Global Economy (Javier Solana) is quietly reshaping the global economy for one world governance, under cover of climate change and saving the environment... Agenda 21 in action to result in one world government, and NWO.

ESADEgeo expands its global governance research through a collaboration agreement with the Ramón Areces Foundation
The agreement will expand research on critical governance mechanisms that affect the global economy and the climate
ESADE's Center for Global Economy and Geopolitics (ESADEgeo) has reached a collaboration agreement with the Ramón Areces Foundation to promote research as part of its Global Governance research programme. The objective of this programme is to research the main international factors that influence global governance in areas such as energy, natural resources and the environment.
The Ramón Areces Foundation, known for its contribution to scientific and technical research in Spain, has made a two-year commitment to contribute to the ESADEgeo programme's development. Today, the Ramón Areces Foundation is known as an international leader in the study of economic and governance-related globalisation, and for working alongside businesses, governments and social organisations.

Now Is Not Yet Time for Syria Military Intervention
Editors - Bloomberg.com
Syria is breaking apart. The regime is under pressure, the death toll from the conflict has accelerated, and calls are growing for the U.S. and its allies to intervene militarily to cut short the emerging civil war between Sunni and Alawite Muslims.
This would be a mistake. Just because policies followed to date have failed, it doesn't mean that the military options on the table will work. They may not improve the final outcome of a conflict that's unlikely to stop once President Bashar al-Assad has gone.

Saudi Arabia threatens to strike any Israeli aircraft en route to Iran
S. Arabia: We'll intercept any IAF aircraft en route to Iran
US officials transmit message from Riyadh saying any Israeli aircraft crossing its airspace en route to Iran will be shot down. Israeli officials claim Saudi threat is yet another American attempt to foil strike
YnetNews.com
More obstacles? Saudi Arabia has informed Israel that it would intercept any Air Force aircraft crossing its airspace en route toIran, Yedioth Ahronoth reported on Thursday.
The explicit message was transmitted via the United States, during talks with Obama administration officials in Jerusalem.

Syrian rebels withdraw fighters from Aleppo stronghold
Free Syrian Army orders main fighting units to leave suburb of Salahedin after intensive shelling by regime planes and tanks
By Martin Chulov in Aleppo
and Ian Black, Middle East editor - Guardian.co.uk
Syrian rebels fighting the regime of Bashar al-Assad have withdrawn all their main fighting units from their stronghold in the Salahedin area of Aleppo, after heavy shelling by government forces.
The pullout from the northern city was ordered just after sunrise on Thursday after a night of intensive attacks by planes and tanks on all three rebel frontlines.
Free Syrian Army (FSA) commanders claimed the withdrawal was tactical and said a small force had stayed behind to oppose any advance by government forces. But the move seemed to mark a significant moment in the fight for control of southern Aleppo, which had raged for more than two weeks, claiming several hundred casualties.

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