Syria suicide bombers kill 55, ceasefire in tatters - 5/10/12



Two suicide car bombers killed 55 people and wounded 372 in Damascus on Thursday, state media said, the deadliest attacks in the Syrian capital since an uprising against President Bashar al-Assad began 14 months ago.
The blasts further shredded a ceasefire that was declared by international mediator Kofi Annan on April 12 but that has failed to halt bloodshed pitting Assad's security forces against peaceful demonstrators and an array of armed insurgents.
Opposition leaders said Annan's peace plan was dead, while Western powers insisted it remained the best way forward.
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At least 55 killed in twin blasts at Damascus intel compound, terrorists blamed - 5/10/12



At least 55 people have been killed and 372 others injured by two powerful blasts in the Syrian capital on Thursday morning. The car bombs detonated near a military intelligence building.
The blasts happened in quick succession during the morning rush hour, just as employees were arriving to work. An initial small explosion was followed by a much larger blast allegedly targeted at paramedics and security forces arriving at the scene, AP reports.
The explosion left two craters – three and six meters wide – in front of the military compound. The two cars were stuffed with more than 1,000 kilograms of explosives, said Syrian Foreign Ministry spokesman Jihad Makdissi.
Makdissi also said that in addition to 55 dead – some of them already identified – and 372 injured, there were at least 15 sets of unidentified remains, implying that the death toll was likely to rise. Syrian authorities have urged people to donate blood for the injured.
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Mexican police discover at least 15 dismembered bodies near Guadalajara - 5/9/12



State prosecutor says written messages typical of gang killings were found at scene, and suggests link to earlier abductions
At least 15 dismembered bodies have been found in two vans near Lake Chapala, south of the city of Guadalajara in western Mexico, according to police.
Jalisco state prosecutor Tomas Coronado said the count is preliminary because 15 severed human heads were found, meaning that at least that many people, but possibly more, had been cut up and put in the vans.
"The bodies are dismembered," Coronado said in an interview transcript provided by his office. He said authorities received a phone call alerting them to the presence of the vehicles on a dirt access road a few miles from Lake Chapala, which is popular with tourists and American retirees.
The two vehicles were found by the side of a highway early on Wednesday and were towed to government offices to unload the bodies.
The area has been the scene of bloody turf battles between the Jalisco New Generation gang, allied with the Sinaloa cartel, and the Zetas drug cartel.
Mexican drug cartels frequently dismember the bodies of their victims or leave them stuffed into vehicles. The gangs also frequently leave handwritten messages alongside their victims' bodies, and Coronado said that such messages were found in the vans.
"They are clearly messages between rival groups that are in conflict," he said.
Coronado said the killings may be linked to the abduction of 12 people who later escaped in the same area on Tuesday. A woman who was allegedly watching the captives was detained. She told investigators that the kidnappings were "a repercussion of what happened in Tamaulipas".
That was an apparent reference to the killings of 23 people whose bodies were found last Friday in the border city of Nuevo Laredo, in northern Tamaulipas state. The bodies were found hanging from a bridge or decapitated and dumped near city hall.
Messages were found in Nuevo Laredo threatening the Gulf cartel, which has joined Sinaloa to battle the Zetas, a gang of former Mexican special-forces soldiers. The killings could therefore be part of a wide-ranging, tit-for-tat battle between Sinaloa and the Zetas, in which both sides have been known to massacre dozens of people accused of supporting the rival gang.
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Malawi devalues kwacha by 33%, leading to panic-buying - 5/7/12



Shoppers in Malawi have been scrambling to buy basic goods, fearing huge price rises after the currency was devalued by 33%.
The BBC's Raphael Tenthani in Blantyre says that many shops had run out of staple foods such as sugar, cooking oil and bread by the end of Monday.
The kwacha was devalued as part of moves by the new government to restore donor funding.
The former government had rejected IMF calls to devalue the currency.
Our reporter says that other goods such as rice, maize flour and orange squash were running short in Blantyre's Chichiri shopping centre - the main retail area in Malawi's biggest city.
He has been told that the same panic-buying is also happening in Malawi's main towns.
The scramble comes despite economists saying they did not expect the devaluation to immediately lead to higher prices, as many businesses were expecting the move and were already using the new exchange rate.
The central bank announced that one dollar would now be worth 250 kwacha, up from 168, while the peg to the US currency would be scrapped.
"The devaluation of the kwacha and the liberalisation of the foreign exchange market are expected to continue the government's efforts to reach agreement with the IMF," said Reserve Bank of Malawi Governor Charles Chuka, adding that this would hopefully lead to more donor funding in the next few months.
The International Monetary Fund has long urged Malawi to cut the value of its currency, saying this would boost exports and reduce demand for imports.
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Revelation 6:
1And I saw when the Lamb opened one of the seals, and I heard, as it were the noise of thunder, one of the four beasts saying, Come and see.
2And I saw, and behold a white horse: and he that sat on him had a bow; and a crown was given unto him: and he went forth conquering, and to conquer.
3And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.
4And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another: and there was given unto him a great sword.
5And when he had opened the third seal, I heard the third beast say, Come and see. And I beheld, and lo a black horse; and he that sat on him had a pair of balances in his hand.
6And I heard a voice in the midst of the four beasts say, A measure of wheat for a penny, and three measures of barley for a penny; and see thou hurt not the oil and the wine.

Earthquakes 5.0+ 5/2/12 thru 5/6/12

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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'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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