Floods and Fires Worldwide

I have compiled this information from the Lunatic Outpost thread:

Moscow Choked by Smoke as Forest, Peat-Bog Fires Spread, Delaying Flights

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2010-08-08/moscow-choked-by-smoke-as-forest-peat-bog-fires-spread-delaying-flights.html

Hundreds of wildfires burn in Canada’s British Columbia

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-10895107

Lightning-sparked fires in WA prompt smoke warning

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2012513642_apwawashwildfires2ndldwritethru.html

Forest Service warns of Tongass National Forest fire risk (Alaska)

http://www.ktuu.com/Global/story.asp?S=12935773

Record Hot Summer Ignites Forest Fires in Iran

http://www.greenprophet.com/2010/08/iran-forest-fire-summer/

Fresh showers worsen flood conditions (Pakistan)

http://www.hindustantimes.com/Fresh-showers-worsen-flood-conditions/Article1-583955.aspx

500 missing after floods in Indian Kashmir

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5i7_dGpMHlOOvey4p70kg_XYQIfLAD9HF7QIG0

Ten dead, thousands evacuated in central Europe floods (Poland, Germany, Czech Republic)

http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gKNPodd6YyMED2TbzQCIq0ZDL0Vw

At least 65 die in China flooding

http://www.journalgazette.net/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20100808/NEWS/308089936/1006/NEWS

Floods could cost farmers up to $3B (Canada)

http://www.calgaryherald.com/Floods+could+cost+farmers/3371918/story.html

Moscow authorities on Sunday opened more than 120 “anti-smog” centers to give residents an escape from record-breaking heat and choking smoke from wildfires blazing around the capital. Dozens of flights were grounded at local airports.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100808/ap_on_re_eu/eu_russia_fires

Trash clogging Three Gorges Dam

http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/worldnews/article-1300606/Chinas-Three-Gorges-dam-threat-vast-floating-islands-rubbish.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

At least 127 dead, more than 1,000 missing after landslides in northwest China

http://wireupdate.com/wires/8483/at-least-127-dead-more-than-1000-missing-after-landslides-in-northwest-china/

Morgues and crematoria ‘overcrowded’ as toxic smog chokes Moscow

http://rawstory.com/rs/2010/0809/toxic-smog-choking-moscow-shows-sign-abating/

Via Lunatic Outpost:

http://lunaticoutpost.com/Topic-Floods-n-Fires-worldwide?page=1

Arctic freeze and snow wreak havoc across the planet

Arctic air and record snow falls gripped the northern hemisphere yesterday, inflicting hardship and havoc from China, across Russia to Western Europe and over the US plains.

There were few precedents for the global sweep of extreme cold and ice that killed dozens in India, paralysed life in Beijing and threatened the Florida orange crop. Chicagoans sheltered from a potentially killer freeze, Paris endured sunny Siberian cold, Italy dug itself out of snowdrifts and Poland counted at least 13 deaths in record low temperatures of about minus 25C (-13F).

The heaviest snow yesterday hit northeastern Asia, which is suffering its worst winter weather for 60 years. More than 25 centimetres (10in) of snow covered Seoul, the South Korean capital — the heaviest fall since records began in 1937.

In China, Beijing and the nearby port city of Tianjin had the deepest snow since 1951, with falls of up to 8in and temperatures of minus 10C. In the far north of China, the temperature fell to minus 32C. More than two million Beijing and Tianjin pupils were sent home and 1,200 flights were delayed or cancelled at Beijing’s international airport.

The same far-eastern weather system took its toll of Sakhalin, the Russian island off Siberia, which was hit by blizzards and avalanches. Farther west, in northern and eastern India, more than 60 people, mainly homeless, died of exposure. Thousands of schools were closed. In Uttar Pradesh, the state neighbouring Nepal, the authorities spent £1.3 million on blankets and firewood for needy households.

Western Russia suffered a deep freeze as snow swept across the Baltic and north-central Europe, leaving the worst devastation in Poland, where 13 people died, bringing the toll from the cold this winter to 122.

Up to ten skiers died or were missing in avalanches. The worst incident was in the Diemtig Valley in Switzerland on Sunday, when avalanches hit a group of skiers and then the rescuers who went to their aid. Eight people were pulled from the snow alive, but four died, including an emergency doctor, and three more were missing.

In Italy, emergency services struggled with rare cold and ice. Motorways in the northeast were closed and military helicopters were sent to Sicily with medical aid.

In the United States, heavy snow fell again on the northeast.

In Burlington, Vermont, a record 33in of snow fell in a weekend storm. The previous record in a three-day period was set in 1969. Residents of the Northern Plains were warned to expect lethally cold temperatures of about minus 30C.

The icy conditions of Western Europe, which broke records in half a dozen countries in December, are expected to last for at least another week.

Guo Hu, the head of the Beijing Meteorological Bureau, linked this week’s conditions to unusual atmospheric patterns caused by global warming.

Meteorologists were also trying to find a pattern in the heavy rains that have hit equatorial regions and the southern hemisphere in the past week.

At least 20 people have been killed in flash floods in Kenya after torrential rains made thousands homeless.

In Australia, the authorities declared a natural disaster along the Castlereagh River as it peaked after torrential rain, forcing 1,200 residents to abandon their homes for high ground.

In Brazil, the death toll from flooding and mudslides over the past four days rose above 80.

Closer to home, forecasters have warned Britons to brace themselves for a freezing cold, bleak new year — this winter is set to be the coldest for more than 30 years.

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/weather/article6975867.ece

Polish PM: Poland not buying swine flu vaccination unless it has been properly tested

WARSAW, Poland – Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Friday that his government won’t buy vaccines for swine flu that have not been properly tested or from producers who won’t take responsibility for possible side effects.

Tusk told reporters that vaccine producers were pressuring governments to buy, but were also demanding that all responsibility and compensation for possible negative side effects fall upon government shoulders.

“Today we are dealing with great pressure from pharmaceutical firms … we are dealing with expectations that hundreds of millions of zlotys (dollars) will be spent on vaccine while no one wants to guarantee that it has no side effects,” he said.

He stressed that the few dozen swine cases in Poland have been mild and no deaths have been reported.

Some independent health experts have been advising vaccination after a recent surge in flu cases in neighbouring Ukraine saw more than 700,000 cases and 109 deaths of people with flu-like illness in recent weeks.

Fourteen of the fatalities were swine flu cases, Polish news agency PAP reported, citing Ukraine’s chief doctor Oleksandr Bilovol.

Polish health officials said a military medical laboratory in Pulawy was testing samples taken in Ukraine from sick people. Poland is also sending face masks to Ukraine.

On Thursday, the World Health Organization said that the swine flu virus has become the predominant flu strain worldwide.

In some countries, swine flu accounts for up to 70 per cent of the flu viruses being sampled, according to Dr. Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s top flu official.

While most people recover from the illness without needing medical treatment, officials are also continuing to see severe cases in people under 65 – people who are not usually at risk during regular flu seasons.

http://www.metronews.ca/ottawa/live/article/361921–polish-pm-poland-not-buying-swine-flu-vaccination-unless-it-has-been-properly-tested

Europe Unwinding

*Keep in mind that everything is orchestrated. When things collapse, the ones at the top gain. It has been in the works for a very, very long time.*

Dear Friends,

To underscore my statement that “It has hit the fan,” please review the following:

Forex failure continues in Poland
Posted by Izabella Kaminska on Feb 16 21:43.

It’s getting bleaker by the minute in Eastern Europe. In case you didn’t catch the latest from the Telegraph’s Ambrose Evans-Pritchard, he warned at the weekend how a growing crisis in Eastern Europe could cause nothing less than a total collapse in the West, or as he put it: “If one spark jumps across the euro zone line, we will have global systemic crisis within days.”

To make his point Evans-Pritchard quotes Morgan Stanley’s Stephen Jen on the fact that Eastern Europe has borrowed a total of $1,7oobn abroad. Furthermore about $400bn of that debt has to be rolled over this year – a number equivalent to about a third of the region’s GDP.

As we outlined a couple of weeks ago, the concern is now greatest not for the retail mortgage sector, which practiced the issuance of foreign-currency based mortgages on a grand scale, but for corporates — which it appears practiced the art of  derivative forex exposure on an even grander scale.

And so it comes as no surprise on Monday that yet another corporate forex failure has occurred in Poland, this time at Polski koncern Miesny Duda, a  Polish meatpacking business. The stock sank to a record low on the news. As Bloomberg reports:

More…

An unwind is taking form right now, this minute, (9:10PM ET) that may or may not be contained by international Central Bank action.

Even if central Europe does not financially implode the world money system today, it is just around the corner.

There are so many risks threatening us now that survival of any monetary status quo is doubtful.

Protect yourself.

It has hit the fan, right now, and all that is thanks to OTC derivative manufacturers and distributors.

Respectfully yours,
Jim

http://jsmineset.com/index.php/2009/02/17/europe-unwinding/

Russia to move missiles to Baltic

Russia is to deploy new missiles in a Baltic enclave near Nato member Poland, Russian President Dmitry Medvedev says.

Short-range Iskander missiles in the Kaliningrad region would “neutralise” the planned US anti-missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic, he said.

The US says its shield is a defence against missiles from “rogue” nations, but Moscow sees it as a direct threat.

Mr Medvedev also said he wanted to extend Russia’s presidential term to six years from the current four.

He did not explain if he wanted to extend his own term, or change the rules for his successor.

There has long been speculation that Mr Medvedev is a stop-gap so that Prime Minister Putin – who served the maximum two consecutive terms – can return to the top job, correspondents say.

‘Conceited’ US policy

In his first state-of-the nation address, Mr Medvedev said Moscow would deploy the Iskander missile system in the Kaliningrad region – between Nato members Lithuania and Poland – to “neutralise – if necessary – the [US] anti-missile system”.

“Naturally, we also consider using for the same purpose the resources of Russia’s navy,” he said.

Mr Medvedev also said Russia would jam the US anti-missile system electronically.

In his speech to lawmakers, the Russian leader also said the August war in Georgia had resulted from a “conceited” US foreign policy.

He said “the conflict in the Caucasus was used as a pretext for sending Nato warships to the Black Sea and also for the foisting on Europe of America’s anti-missile systems”.

Mr Medvedev, who succeeded Vladimir Putin in May, vowed that Russia “won’t retreat in the Caucasus”.

Turning to administrative reforms, he told parliament that he wanted to extend the Russian presidential term from four to six years.

Mr Medvedev also blamed Washington for the global financial crisis, but said Russia would “overcome” the challenge.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/europe/7710362.stm

Russia threatens military response to US missiles

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev is warning his country may respond to a U.S. missile shield in Europe through military means.

Medvedev says that the deployment of an anti-missile system close to Russian borders “will of course create additional tensions.”

“We will have to react somehow, to react, of course, in a military way,” Medvedev was quoted as saying Tuesday by the RIA-Novosti news agency.

Russian officials have already warned of a military response to the U.S. plans, but the statement by the Russian leader was likely to further aggravate already tense relations with the West. The comments come after Medvedev recognized two Georgian regions as independent nations, prompting criticism from the U.S. and Europe.

http://www.newsvine.com/_news/2008/08/26/1788486-russia-threatens-military-response-to-us-missiles

US-Poland missile deal “cannot go unpunished” says Russia

MOSCOW – An agreement that will allow the United States to install a missile defense battery in Poland exposes the ex-communist nation to an attack, a Russian general said Friday.

Poland and the U.S. struck a deal on Thursday to deepen military ties and place a missile interceptor base in Poland.

Gen. Anatoly Nogovitsyn, deputy chief of the Russian general staff told reporters Friday that the agreement exacerbates U.S.-Russian relations that are already tense because of fighting between Georgian and Russian forces. He said the deal “cannot go unpunished.”

And in the strongest threat Russia has issued in reaction to plans to put elements of a missile defense system in former Soviet satellite nations, the Interfax news agency quoted Nogovitsyn as saying Poland was risking attack.

“Poland, by deploying (the system) is exposing itself to a strike — 100 percent,” Interfax quoted Nogovitsyn as saying.

Washington says the planned system, which is not yet operational, is needed to protect the U.S. and Europe from possible attacks by missile-armed “rogue states” like Iran. The Kremlin, however, feels it is aimed at Russia’s missile force.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20080815/ap_on_re_eu/russia_us_missile_defense

THIS WILL MAKE RUSSIA HAPPY!!!!!!!

Poland and the United States will sign a deal on Thursday to place parts of the US global missile shield on Polish soil, government sources said. The sources said that under the deal, US negotiators agreed to Polish demands for greater military cooperation in return for Warsaw’s consent to host the installation.

“This agreement will include a declaration of US military cooperation in case of a threat to Poland from third states,” one source said after two days of talks in Warsaw. The deal will now have to be endorsed by the Polish parliament, the sources said. (Reuters)

http://www.ynetnews.com/articles/0,7340,L-3582810,00.html