September 02, 2015:
U.S. stocks suffer 3rd-worst drop of year on weak China data
Published: Sept 1, 2015 5:11 p.m. ET
U.S. stocks suffered their third-worst loss of the year on Tuesday as part of a global rout sparked by a new round of weak Chinese economic data.
China’s official manufacturing purchasing managers index fell to a three-year low, triggering a wide selloff in stocks across Asia and Europe that then spread to the U.S.
The S&P 500 SPX, -2.96% sank 58.33 points, or 3%, to 1,913, with all of its 10 sectors in the red. The Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -2.84% lost 469.68 points, or 2.8%, to 16,058.35. All 30 of its components closed lower.
Click on Link:
http://www.marketwatch.com/story/china-growth-fears-slam-us-stock-futures-sharply-lower-2015-09-01
China's Stock Markets Plunge Further Amid Rumors That Foreign Manipulation Is To Blame For Fall
July 03 2015 4:40 AM EDT
SHANGHAI -- China's stock markets continued their plunge Friday, to end the week 12 percent lower, amid a growing debate about who’s to blame for the recent sell-off, which has wiped close to 30 percent off the market’s valuation in less than a month.
That mood has now turned to anger, as more than $2.65 trillion in market value has been wiped out in three weeks. And the search for a scapegoat continued on Friday. The official Xinhua news agency reported that Financial News, a newspaper under China’s Central Bank, had repeated allegations that foreign banks and traders might be to blame for what some have described as “malicious” short-selling of Chinese shares -- although other media said investors had only themselves to blame.
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Beijing abandons large-scale share purchases
Jamil Anderlini
Sunday, 30 Aug 2015 | 8:18 PM ET
China's government has decided to abandon attempts to boost the stock market through large-scale share purchases, and will instead intensify efforts to find and punish those suspected of "destabilising the market", according to senior officials.
For two months, a "national team" of state-owned investment funds and institutions has collectively spent about $200 billion trying to prop up a market that is still down 37 per cent since its mid-June peak.
China's leaders feel they mishandled the stock market rescue efforts by allowing too much information to become public, according to senior regulatory officials speaking at a meeting late on Thursday — an account of which has been seen by the Financial Times.
Click on Link:
http://www.cnbc.com/2015/08/30/china-to-abandon-attempts-to-boost-stock-market.html
Why is EU struggling with migrants and asylum?
28 August 2015
The flow of desperate migrants from the Middle East and Africa hoping to reach Europe is already much higher than in the same period in 2014.
Recent trends show that thousands of people are attempting a perilous route through the Western Balkans with the ultimate destination in Germany and other northern EU countries.
Click on Link:
http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-24583286
Illegal Immigration: Is Europe Losing Control of its Borders?
January 19, 2015
by Sylvain Charat
The cargo ship recklessly headed towards the coast of Italy. The crew had abandoned ship and the Italian coast guard scrambled to intervene. After regaining control of the ship the coast guard discovered a troubling reality: 800 illegal immigrants were hiding in the hull of the ship. These men, women, and children—most of them coming from Africa—were exhausted and terrified by the ordeal. Later that day—December 31, 2014—the ship was brought safely to the Italian harbor of Gallipoli where the migrants got off.
Scenes like this play out almost on a daily basis. Two days later, the same scenario occurred with another cargo ship that was carrying roughly 450 illegal immigrants. Illegal migrants from Africa, Syria, Palestine, Afghanistan, and Iraq are desperately trying to cross the sea to reach Europe.
Click on Link:
http://www.visionandvalues.org/2015/01/illegal-immigration-is-europe-losing-control-of-its-borders/
Migrants: Austria tightens up border controls
31/08/2015 - 18:12 CET
The Austrian authorities have tightened controls on incoming lorries after last week’s gruesome discovery of 71 dead migrants in a truck.
Officials say 200 asylum seekers have been discovered and five alleged people traffickers arrested.
Austrian Interior Minister Johanna Mikl-Leitner told reporters they are seeing people traffickers becoming increasingly brutal and unscrupulous and have to combat that with tougher measures.
Click on Link:
http://www.euronews.com/2015/08/31/migrants-austria-tightens-up-border-controls/
Europe’s huddled masses
Aug 16th 2014
Whether they seek shelter from persecution or economic opportunity, illegal migrants are keenest to reach Europe’s richer, northern countries. Many migrants head directly to these countries, often by air, arriving on a legal visa and staying on when it expires. But geography and the economics of migration mean that the most desperate travel by sea and land from Africa and the Middle East. And their first contact with western Europe is on the continent’s periphery—Mediterranean islands like Lampedusa and Malta for the dangerously overcrowded boats from Africa, Greece’s eastern frontier with Turkey for those trekking from Syria and beyond.
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Pentagon Says Odds Of Clash With Russia, China Rising
By RFE/RL
July 02, 2015
A Pentagon report July 1 warned of a "low but growing" probability that the United States will get drawn into a war with the world's other major military powers, Russia and China, and predicted the consequences would be "immense."
"The probability of U.S. involvement in interstate war with a major power is assessed to be low but growing," said the 2015 National Military Strategy report.
Russia has "repeatedly demonstrated that it does not respect the sovereignty of its neighbors and it is willing to use force to achieve its goals," it said.
Click on Link:
http://www.rferl.org/content/russia-us-china-world-powers-clash-odds-growing/27105452.html
Russia's Rising Military: Should the U.S. Send More Nuclear Weapons to Europe?
July 21, 2015
Russia’s actions in Ukraine, its military modernization program, and its more bellicose stance toward the West in general have raised concerns in NATO. The alliance needs to pay attention to territorial defense and its own military capabilities. But deploying more U.S. nuclear weapons in Europe is not a good response.
Relations between Moscow and the West have crashed to a post-Cold War low over the past two years. Russia’s military seizure of Crimea violated the cardinal rule of the European security order dating back to the 1975 Helsinki Final Act: states should not use force to change borders.
Click on Link:
http://nationalinterest.org/feature/russias-rising-military-should-the-us-send-more-nuclear-13381
Russia rising: Everything you need to know about how Moscow is flexing its muscles
Richard Allen GreeneInez TorreKevin Taverner
(CNN) -- At sea, on land and in the air, Russia has been flexing its military might this year in a way that hasn't been seen in a generation. NATO has scrambled jets more than 100 times to intercept Russian aircraft near European airspace in 2014 -- three times as often as in 2013 or 2012, the alliance says. Sweden launched a huge naval operation in search of a mystery submarine in October, an Estonian security service operative was abducted in September, and Russian aircraft buzzed American and Canadian ships in the spring and summer.
The incidents are outlined in "Dangerous Brinkmanship", a European Leadership Network report which describes three of the incidents as "high risk" and calls 11 others "serious."
Click on Link:
http://www.cnn.com/interactive/2014/11/world/russia-west/
Human Plague — United States, 2015
August 25, 2015
Since April 1, 2015, a total of 11 cases of human plague have been reported in residents of six states: Arizona (two), California (one), Colorado (four), Georgia (one), New Mexico (two), and Oregon (one). The two cases in Georgia and California residents have been linked to exposures at or near Yosemite National Park in the southern Sierra Nevada Mountains of California. Nine of the 11 patients were male; median age was 52 years (range = 14–79 years). Three patients aged 16, 52, and 79 years died.
Plague is a rare, life-threatening, flea-borne zoonosis caused by the bacterium Yersinia pestis. During 2001–2012, the annual number of human plague cases reported in the United States ranged from one to 17 (median = three cases) (1). It is unclear why the number of cases in 2015 is higher than usual. Plague circulates among wild rodents and their fleas in rural and semirural areas in the western United States (2). Transmission to humans occurs through the bite of infected fleas, direct contact with infected body fluids or tissues, or inhalation of respiratory droplets from ill persons or animals, including ill domesticated cats and dogs (3). The usual incubation period between exposure and illness onset is 2–6 days.
