Foto:  AFP

Daarnaast is een aantal overheidskantoren dichtgegaan en zijn ambtenaren naar huis gestuurd.

Het hevigste deel van de storm trekt waarschijnlijk woensdagmiddag lokale tijd over Washington. De storm is eerder al over het middenwesten van de Verenigde Staten getrokken.

Op luchthavens in Chicago werden meer dan elfhonderd vluchten geschrapt.

Door: Novum 

January 11, 2013 – PORTLAND, Or. - New research is giving us some insight into when a major earthquake could strike the Northwest. The research was done in part by Stanford geophysics Professor Paul Segall. He has been tracking a series of very small tremors that rumble deep within the earth. The slow tremors happen roughly every summer along the Cascadia Subduction Zone, an undersea fault about 70 miles off the Oregon Coast. Over the last decade, data shows the tremors have been getting progressively bigger. Last summer, the Pacific Northwest experienced a notably large one. Experts believe those tremors are adding stress to the offshore fault. Using this data, Segall built a computer model which suggests it will be one of those tiny quakes that triggers a major magnitude 9 earthquake. “What we do see is that ultimately one of these tends to develop into a fast and potentially, damaging earthquake,” said Segall. Segall said that scientists don’t yet know how big those tremors need to get before they explode into a mega-thrust quake. And that means a major earthquake in the Pacific Northwest could still be hundreds of years away. But, he added, those tiny tremors are a good reminder that we always need to be prepared. Scientists discover the largest-known spiral galaxy. –King 5 

San Andreas stress rupture could shake entire state: For the first time, scientists and emergency planners are examining whether a super quake could affect both Northern and Southern California, rendering the entire state helpless in the aftermath of the “Big One.” Seismologists have warned Southern California that a major quake on the lower San Andreas Fault, the so-called Big One is inevitable. But that the population centers of both Southern and Northern California could be affected simultaneously by one quake on the San Andreas Fault has only recently been recognized as a possibility. The study by Professor Nadia Lapusta at the California Institute of Technology (Caltech) and Japanese collaborator Hiroyuki Noda focused on explaining the behavior of two devastating quakes in Asia: the 1999 magnitude 7.6 temblor in Taiwan, and the 2011 magnitude 9.0 quake off the eastern coast of Japan. In both cases, the quake spread across so-called “creeping“ fault segments long thought to be incapable of transmitting quakes, according to Caltech Staff Seismologist Kate Hutton, a Lapusta colleague. “The general idea until this paper was that they would stop a quake,” Hutton said. It was believed the slow, creeping movement prevents stress from building up  and keeps  such a segment stable, Hutton added. Lapusta and Noda developed a computer model to explain how under certain conditions “a rupture could just kind of barge right through,” Hutton said. “Now the question is how this would apply to California.” Such a creeping zone has been identified in a stretch of the San Andreas Fault in central California, just north of seismically active Parkfield. The Great San Francisco quake of 1906 occurred on the San Andreas north of the creeping zone. The 1857 Fort Tejon quake occurred to the south. No known quake has ever spanned across that creeping zone. Whether the model developed by Lapusta and Noda could apply there would depend on local geological variables not yet completely understood, Hutton said. –NBC LA

                                                 Countdown to a catastrophic mega-quake in the U.S.

Klik hier om de embedded video te bekijken.

http://theextinctionprotocol.wordpress.com/2013/01/11/california-quake-model-looks-for-mega-quake-along-cascadia/

http://www.godlikeproductions.com/forum1/message2107973/pg1

http://newyork.cbslocal.com/2013/01/10/farley-severe-strain-of-flu-reaches-epidemic-proportions-in-new-york-city/

http://www.boston.com/dailydose/2013/01/09/boston-hospitals-and-nursing-homes-implement-stricter-measures-against-the-flu/RK4iOR0EWN84klun02uc7H/story.html

On December 7, 2012 Russia’s Federal Agency for Agricultural Control, Rosselhohznadzor, banned the imports of meat containing ractopamine. This is a food additive that allows to reduce the content of fat in beef and pork. The drug is added to food so that animals grow the muscle mass instead of fat. According to researchers, ractopamine affects the human cardiovascular system, and in some cases can cause food poisoning. This drug is banned for use in 160 countries, including China and Russia. It is allowed in 24 countries, including Canada and the United States. Codex Alimentarius of the World Health Organization, adopted in July 2012 in Rome by representatives of 186 countries, allows the contents of ractopamine in meat.

Formally, Russia does not prohibit the delivery of pork and beef from the United States. It only notified a number of countries, including the US of A, of the need to provide documents saying that animals had not been fed ractopamine – the drug that is banned in Russia. However, the warned countries (in addition to the U.S. the list includes Canada, Brazil and Mexico and excludes 20 countries where the drug is used) do not have the appropriate expertise, because there was no need to have it before. Rosselkhoznadzor promised to introduce a transitional period for those countries, until about the end of January 2013. However, specific implementation mechanisms remain unclear.

As for foreign countries, the move of the Russian Agency for Agricultural Control will hit the United States most. Russia is the fourth largest importer of U.S. meat and spends about $500 million a year on it. The Russian market consumes 0.6 percent of all beef and 1.4 percent of pork produced in the United States. More than 200 containers of meat products worth about $20 million are currently on their way to Russia from the United States.

However, the lack of U.S. meat on the Russian market will affect the Russian economy. The pork from the United States comes fourth on the volume of shipments to Russia. In total, the share of imported meat in the Russian market makes up not less than a third.

The United States regards the ban of meat imports as a political move. According to American analysts, Russia has reacted so to the recent adoption of the Magnitsky Act by the U.S. Congress. On December 6, the U.S. Senate almost unanimously (92 votes “for” and 4 – “against”) approved the bill that imposed visa and financial sanctions against Russian officials involved, according to Washington, in the death of Sergei Magnitsky, a lawyer of Hermitage investment fund. The first three parts of this document are devoted to the interaction of Russia and the U.S. in the WTO. In particular, the bill abolishes the Jackson-Vanik amendment for Russia and Moldova, which was adopted in 1974. It is expected that U.S. President Barack Obama will sign the bill in the near future.

“This seems to be in retaliation to the Senate’s passage of the trade bill with Russia … there is certainly no doubt about it,” Rich Nelson, chief strategist at research and brokerage company Allendale Inc, said.

Russian officials were surprised to know that US analysts associated the ban on meat imports with the Magnitsky Act.

“One can speculate about whether it was done in retaliation or not, but the measure was based on the content of some additives in meat that are contrary to Russian sanitary standards,” deputy director of the Institute of the USA and Canada, Victor Supyan told Pravda.Ru.

Previously, the Russian side promised to take comprehensive, multidimensional and extremely strong measures should the Magnitsky Act be adopted in the USA. Presently, the United States accuses Russia of violating WTO rules. “All WTO members break these rules. This is normal,” Deputy Prime Minister Arkady Dvorkovich said in response to similar accusations in November of this year in an interview with the Kommersant newspaper. However, on Saturday, U.S. officials said they were expecting actions from Russia to change the situation. The U.S. side expressed a hope that in the near future Russia would remove the ban on the imports of meat, thus fulfilling its obligations as a WTO member. Russia, in turn, does not see any violations in its actions.

Bron: pravda.ru

The former Miami chief of the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement was sentenced to nearly six years in prison and 20 years of supervised release on Friday after pleading guilty to Internet child-pornography charges.

In court on Friday, Anthony Mangione did not say why he started viewing child pornography, the Sun-Sentinel reported from West Palm Beach.

According to court documents, Mangione, 52, who led the fight to hunt down child-porn suspects, was caught sending pictures of children engaging in sex after AOL detected the images and contacted the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children.

Investigators found a dozen computers and 16 cellphones when they searched Mangione’s Parkland home in April 2011. Soon after, Mangione retired from ICE after being sent on administrative leave.

David Howard, Mangione’s attorney, defended the 27-year law enforcement officer in a court filing saying that Mangione had “successfully overcame his” problems in an attempt to get the U.S. District Judge Kenneth A. Marra to sentence Mangione to the mandatory minimum of five years in prison.

Bron: Truthistreason.net

Het geniekorps van het Amerikaanse leger krijgt de leiding over een mysterieus ondergronds bouwproject op een Israëlische vliegbasis net buiten Tel Aviv. Het project draagt de naam ‘Site 911’, weet de Washington Post.

Naar schatting gaat het project zo’n 100 miljoen dollar kosten en neemt de bouw meer dan twee jaar in beslag.

Op de eerste verdieping komen klaslokalen, de derde verdieping zal een aula herbergen en verder krijgt het complex een laboratorium met schokbestendige deuren. Het complex zal zwaar worden bewaakt. Bouwvakkers hebben een speciale toegangspas nodig.

Ondergrondse hangars

Volgens het geniekorps mogen aanstaande 3 december alleen Amerikaanse aannemersbedrijven op de contracten bieden. De Verenigde Staten voeren al lange tijd militaire bouwprojecten uit voor het Israëlische defensieleger. Zo heeft het land voor een slordige 500 miljoen dollar aan militaire installaties gebouwd in de Negev.

Door de jaren heen heeft het Amerikaanse geniekorps ondergrondse hangars gebouwd voor Israëlische gevechtsbommenwerpers en ook leverde het korps diverse nucleaire installaties af (hoewel Israël niet toegeeft over dergelijke wapens te beschikken), zo blijkt uit publicaties van het korps.

Site 911 wordt één van de grootste projecten tot nu toe. De bouwvakkers die worden ingehuurd door de Amerikaanse aannemers mogen alleen afkomstig zijn uit de Verenigde Staten, Canada, West-Europese landen, Polen, Moldavië, Thailand, de Filipijnen, Venezuela, Roemenië en China. Palestijnen zijn niet welkom.

Er komt één toegangspoort en de bewakers moeten Israëlisch staatsburger zijn en ervaring hebben opgedaan in de Israëlische luchtmacht. Het verzamelen van informatie over activiteiten op en rond de basis is verboden.

Mezoeza

Het ontwerp van het complex is in handen van het bekende Israëlische bedrijf Ada Karmi-Melamede Architects. Iedere deur of deuropening van toiletten en badkamers in het gebouw van Site 911 zal worden voorzien van een mezoeza.

Een mezoeza is een tekstkokertje dat volgens traditioneel Joods gebruik op deurposten wordt aangebracht. Het bevat teksten uit de Tora. Volgens het geniekorps zal de tekst in het Asjkenazisch of het Sefardisch worden geschreven.

Wat is het doel van Site 911? De Washington Post vroeg het aan het Pentagon, maar het geniekorps liet even later weten dat een woordvoerder van het Israëlische ministerie van Defensie geen antwoord had op die vraag.

Het geniekorps zoekt daarnaast nog een aannemer voor een ander geheim project in Israël. Dat bouwproject gaat ook ongeveer 100 miljoen dollar kosten en neemt zo’n 21,5 jaar in beslag.

Het doel van Site 911 is vooralsnog onduidelijk.

Bron: Niburu.nl

“We are proud to defend the people of Palestine and Hamas … and that our assistance to them has been both financial and military,” he said without elaborating, in remarks reported by parliament’s website, ICANA.ir.

Iran has never made a secret of its support for Israel’s foes Hamas and the Islamic Jihad in the Gaza Strip but generally eschews mention of sending military aid.

The Jewish state has accused Iran of supplying Hamas with its Fajr 5 missile, used to target Tel Aviv since an Israeli offensive on Gaza was launched on November 14.

Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief General Mohammad Ali Jafari said on Wednesday that Tehran was only responsible for having shared the missile’s “technology.” Jafari said: “Iran provides technical assistance to all Muslims who fight against world arrogance,” a term used by Iranian officials to describe the West and Israel, the ISNA news agency reported.

The Fajr 5 missiles launched at Tel Aviv “have not been delivered from Iran, but their technology has,” Jafari said, adding that the missiles were being “rapidly produced” in Gaza.

November/21/2012

Bron Hurriyetdailynew