Friday, May 4, 2012



US adds 115,000 jobs in April, fewer than expected - 5/4/12

The US economy created 115,000 jobs during April, down on the previous month and fewer than analysts had expected, official figures have shown.
Employment has been rising for the past eight months, but the jobless rate has been stuck above 8% since early 2009.
The weak report pushed US and European shares lower, with the Dow Jones index falling 168 points to 13,038.
Both the Nasdaq and the Standard & Poor's 500 had their worst week of the year, while markets in London, Paris and Frankfurt closed almost 2% lower.
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Greek socialist leader Venizelos warns of 'mass poverty' - 5/4/12



http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-17966333
Speaking at his own closing rally in the city of Alexandroupolis, New Democracy leader Mr Samaras said "the Left "wants to destroy everything... The Left feeds off the crisis."
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In graphics: Eurozone crisis - 5/4/12



Annual GDP growth - percentage change from previous year
This chart shows how much GDP has grown, or contracted, every year since the launch of the euro.
It shows very clearly the damage caused to the whole of the eurozone by the financial crisis.
Notice that while Portugal did not experience a huge dip in 2009, its GDP growth was relatively low for much of the previous decade, which made the big infrastructure projects it was pursuing difficult to afford.
The chart shows data for all of the countries that officially use the euro as well as the UK, which is included to allow for comparisons.
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Mexico drugs: 23 bodies found in Nuevo Laredo - 5/4/12



At least 23 people have been killed in gruesome circumstances in the Mexican city of Nuevo Laredo, on the US border.
Nine bodies with signs of torture were found hanging from a bridge.

Hours later, 14 decapitated bodies were discovered in a vehicle, police said. Their heads were found in ice boxes dumped outside the mayor's office.
Nuevo Laredo is the scene of a feud between two of Mexico's biggest drugs gangs, who are fighting for control of smuggling routes into the US.
A message left with the hanged bodies said they were members of the Gulf drugs cartel who had been killed by the rival Zetas gang.
Police said they believed the dead were members of a criminal gang, but could not confirm who was responsible.
Pictures showed the blood-stained bodies - some of them bound and gagged - hanged by the neck from the bridge over the main road from Nuevo Laredo to Monterrey.
Mexican media reports suggest the decapitations may have been carried out in retaliation for the hangings, but the authorities have not confirmed this.
Mexico's drugs cartels have long been engaged in bloody battles for control of smuggling routes into the US.
Around 50,000 people have died in drug-related violence in Mexico since 2006, when President Felipe Calderon began deploying troops to fight the cartels.
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Thursday, May 3, 2012



'Seven dead' in blasts in Russia's Dagestan region - 5/3/12



At least seven people have been reported killed in two explosions on the outskirts of Makhachkala, capital of Russia's Dagestan region.
The explosions happened late on Thursday near a police post in the city, local media reports say.
Medical and police officials said more were injured in the blasts.
Dagestan and neighbouring Russian republics have been plagued by violence in recent years between Islamist militants and Russian security forces.
The explosions happened at a checkpoint on the road to the city of Astrakhan.
"Human body fragments are scattered at the checkpoint. There are a lot of them there," a local police source told the Russian Interfax news agency.
The explosions occurred about 15 minutes apart, but the construction of the bombs and how they were set off was still under investigation, Interior Ministry spokesman Vyacheslav Gasanov told the Associated Press news agency.
Dagestan, a predominantly Muslim, multi-ethnic republic which borders Chechnya, has seen some of the worst militant violence in the North Caucasus in recent years.
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Nigeria's Potiskum cattle market raid 'kills dozens' - 5/3/12



At least 34 people have been killed in an attack on a cattle market in north-eastern Nigeria, security officials have told the BBC.
Another 29 people were injured, said Nigerian military spokesman Col Dahiru Abdussalam.
The market in Potiskum, Yobe state, was set on fire by gunmen armed with explosives.
Police say the attack may be in revenge for the killing by traders of a man who had earlier tried to steal cattle.
"A group of gunmen armed with around 20 explosives and assault rifles attacked the Potiskum cattle market," police spokesman Toyin Gbadegesin told the AFP news agency.
"They threw explosives and shot indiscriminately, setting fire to the market, killing lots of livestock and wounding many people, mostly cattle dealers," he said.
A gang of men locked the gate of Potiskum's fenced cattle market, trapping many traders and livestock inside, residents told the BBC.
The market - a bustling trading hub, with cattle on sale from neighbouring Chad, Cameroon and Niger - was razed to the ground late on Wednesday and many animals were also burned to death, residents say.
Witnesses say they saw several bodies being removed from the market.
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Mark 13:
6For many shall come in my name, saying, I am Christ; and shall deceive many.
7And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.
8For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.


'US to continue surrounding Russia & China claiming it's for Iran' - 5/3/12



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KR283 – Keiser Report: Mafia vs OWS (ft. Geralde Celente) - 5/3/12



We discuss Treasury Secretary Secretary Timothy Geithner is like a monkey who sees no evil, hears no evil, speaks no evil while Wall Street ‘elks’ are protected by the police from protestor ‘wolves.’
In the second half of the show Max talks to trends forecaster, Gerald Celente, about economic problems and years of heated geopolitical disputes to come.
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Wednesday, May 2, 2012



American CEOs enjoy 15% pay rise in second year of double-digit hikes - 5/2/12



Edward Breen of Tyco, Michael Johnson of Herbalife and Sam Palmisano of IBM received pay packages of over $60m. Photograph: AP/Getty Images
America's top bosses have handed themselves double-digit pay rises for the second year in a row, according to interim figures from the most comprehensive survey of CEO pay.
The Guardian's exclusive first look at the research by GMI Ratings reveals that rising share prices helped drive a 15% pay hike for the average US CEO in 2011, with the average compensation package hitting $5.8m.
It comes on the back of a 28% pay rise the year before. The two years of double-digit growth follow two years of decline in 2008 and 2009.
The boom time for chief executives contrasts sharply with the wider economy, where average wages have been little better than flat. A compensation survey by Mercer found US employers planned average increase in base pay of 3% in 2012. Inflation is about 2.7%.
Last year, the census bureau reported that the income of the typical American family had dropped for the third year in a row. The median family income in 2010 was $49.445, 7.1% below its 1999 peak and when adjusted for inflation roughly at levels last seen in 1996.
CEOs in the top 500 companies, enjoyed, on average, total realised compensation of $12.1m
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COMMENT: Smiling faces. ... Or are they smirking, or chuckling? ... Or even LAUGHING AT YOU...?


Hiring worries weigh on stocks - 5/2/12



May 02 - U.S. stocks closed mixed after new data revealed disappointing jobs data ahead of the government's monthly employment report. Bobbi Rebell reports
according to Yelena Shulyatyeva, US Economist, BNP Paribas: "We think that winter month hiring was slightly overestimating the underlying pace of labor market improvement and that is because we had such a record warm winter so the companies really didn't need to fire that many workers and likewise they don't really need to hire that many in spring so we now see a somewhat slower pace of employment growth". Today's payroll numbers are sparking concerns about possible weakness in the monthly jobs report from the government which is due out Friday. Today, the government reported the biggest decline in new factory orders in three years in March- though they were slightly better than forecasts.
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COMMENT: Investors (the elite) say to employed and unemployed alike: "Let them eat cake."


South Africa: A ticking time bomb



New statistics show there are 2.8 million unemployed young people in South Africa.
The country’s unemployment is now above 40 percent if you count working- age people who have given up on finding work, making it the only country in the world that has
fewer employed workers than people on welfare, according to economist Mike Schüssler. Such worrying figures have fueled speculation that the country faces the possibility of greater social upheaval in the near future. “This is a crisis. We call it a ticking bomb,” Cosatu’s general secretary, Zwelinzima Vavi, warned in February. “We think that one day there may be an explosion.” Bible prophecy predicts
that rioting and chaos will soon erupt in South Africa and across the Anglo-Saxon world.
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Earthquakes 5.0+ 4/27/12 thru 5/1/12




Mark 13:
7And when ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars, be ye not troubled: for such things must needs be; but the end shall not be yet.
8For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.