Bird Flu Panic Hits China! BREAKING UPDATE 9th Case of H7N9 In China. Shanghai Is Activating Emergency Response Plan…. There Is No Vaccine To Cure It… Time-line… EXPERT: It Remained Unknown Where The Virus Came From And How It Had Spread.

Unverified reports on Chinese microblogs Tuesday say there’s a fourth case of H7N9 in the eastern city of Nanjing. Authorities say either they did not know about it or are declining to comment.

Read more:

http://www.ctvnews.ca/health/china-reports-4-more-critically-ill-with-rare-bird-flu-1.1220297#ixzz2PJ4HPgU5

BEIJING: China today reported a fourth case of the H7N9 bird flu believed to be a new type of deadly virus that claimed two lives so far, creating anxiety among the health officials about how to deal [...]

Russia says it will defend Iran and Syria if the west starts a war:

China increases Iranian oil imports as West boycotts them:
http://blogs.rediff.com/mkbhadrakumar/2012/02/18/china-steps-up-iran-oil-imports/

Iranian President Ahmadinejad to visit Bejing, China, in March:
http://www.ecns.cn/2012/02-14/8095.shtml

Liquidity Crisis: French Banks Resume Tumble After ECB Announces One Bank Taps Dollar Swap Line For $500 MM Again

by ZH

The French bank trio is once again on the ropes, with BNP leading the decliners at -5%, following the latest weekly Fed swap line release update from the ECB according to which one bank had subscribed for $500 million of dollars at emergency funding, confirming that anything coming out of the Libor market (where the average rate increased once again from 0.355% to 0.356% [...]

China Steps up Silver Purchases

Carefully hidden in the depths of a recent Forbes blog was perhaps one of the most important stories for all of 2011, at least for silver.  Robert Lenzner wrote that “China’s Industrial and Commercial Bank (ICBC) reports purchases of physical gold and gold-related investments are growing at record setting rates.”

The post goes on, “In January alone ICBC sold 7 tons of gold– almost half [...]