Godfather Cites Progress In Reducing Gun Violence

CHICAGO (CBS) — Mayor Emanuel still acknowledges progress in the city’s efforts to reduce gun violence in Chicago. But, he says he’s concerned about the spate of violence overnight, reports WBBM Political Editor Craig Dellimore.

Mayor Emanuel doesn’t shy away from the violent night that followed the first really warm day of the year.

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2013/05/01/emanuel-cites-progress-in-reducing-gun-violence-despite-recent-shootings/

Gold Futures Raid Leads To ‘Extraordinary’ Demand For Bullion Globally

by GoldCore

 

Today’s AM fix was USD 1,414.00, EUR 1,080.46 and GBP 920.63 per ounce.
Yesterday’s AM fix was USD 1,397.00, EUR 1,070.17 and GBP 917.09 per ounce.

Cross Currency Table – (Bloomberg)

Gold rose $14.80 or 1.08% yesterday to $1,388.00/oz and silver ended with a loss of 0.26%.

Gold in USD, by Tick, – (Bloomberg)

Gold extended gains above $1,400 an ounce on signs that jewelers, investors and store of value buyers of gold are [...]

WH Official: ‘This is a joke. We’re wasting the president’s time and ours’

He is dining with Republicans after advisers openly mocked suggestions that he do so. He is visiting Capitol Hill after telling aides that such a gesture was beneath him and the dignity of his office. And, as an ultimate indignity, he is talking to reporters. What’s gotten into President Obama?

A better question might be what has left the president – and the answer would be: Much of his political capital.

Obama’s sudden burst of public [...]

Farrakhan recruits Chicago gangs to serve as ‘natural soldiers’ for Nation of Islam… Urges them to stop using guns against each other ‘like savages’

UNIVERSITY VILLAGE — Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan told thousands of followers Sunday he was planning to reach out to gang leaders to help “protect” the Nation of Islam.

That came at the Nation of Islam’s annual Saviours’ Day convention. Farrakhan, 79, renewed the call for blacks to pool money and buy as much land as possible, in order to “control means of production” and produce food and other goods, such as clothing.

Farrakhan [...]

£17m bonus bonanza for top Barclays bosses despite string of scandals

This is Money
February 18, 2013

Five top bosses at Barclays will share a jackpot worth up to £17million despite being tainted by a string of scandals.

[...]

Finance chief Chris Lucas, under investigation over Barclays’ 2008 emergency fund-raisings in the Middle East, could receive up to £5m. This includes a tranche of his 2011 bonus which pays out this May.

[...]

Luke Hildyard, of campaign group the High Pay Centre, said: ‘Multi-million pound payments to [...]

What Happens to a Financial System When Its Two Biggest Pillars Collapse?

by Phoenix Capital Research

 

Those EU leaders who have yet to be implicated in scandals are not faring much better than their more corrupt counterparts. In France, socialist Prime Minister Francois Hollande, has proven yet again that socialism doesn’t work by chasing after the wealthy and trying to grow France’s public sector… when the public sector already accounts for 56% of French employment.

France was already suffering from a lack of competitiveness. [...]

CISPA’s back: Hacking, online espionage resurrect cybersecurity bill

The Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection act (CISPA) will be reintroduced before the US House next week following a spate of cyber espionage and hacking attacks. Civil liberties advocates have criticized the bill for violating privacy laws.

The House Intelligence Committee’s Chairman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) and ranking member Rep. Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Md.) will attempt to breathe new life into CISPA on Wednesday.

http://rt.com/usa/news/cispa-congress-reintroduce-act-825/

Looting Breaks Out In Argentina

from Zerohedge:

If you were wondering why the Argentinian leadership were unwilling to pay off a few ‘annoying’ hedge funds with a few billion dollars (and were pissed about losing one yacht), then perhaps this report from the BBC will enlighten. Argentina authorities have sent hundreds of troops to the southern city of Bariloche after a spate of looting. Critically, Bariloche is not some shanty-town, it is one of the nation’s [...]

Britain issues new guidelines on prosecuting offensive online comments

LONDON – People who post offensive messages on social networks such as Facebook and Twitter should face criminal charges only if their comments are harassing or threatening and not simply in bad taste, according to new legal guidelines in Britain that follow a spate of controversial prosecutions.

Free-speech advocates here have been alarmed in recent months by a number of incidents in which users of social media have been arrested and jailed for [...]

Jacob Weisberg: Bloomberg shows the way on gun control

from FT:

Last Friday 20 children and six adults were shot dead at an elementary school in Newtown, Connecticut. The same day a group of schoolchildren was attacked in China’s Henan province. There, the assailant wielded a knife and the result was injuries to 23 children and an adult but no deaths. This follows an established pattern. Like the US, China has experienced a spate of attacks on schoolchildren. But without [...]

Cate Long: Muniland, the Happiest Place on Earth?

from Capital Account:

Municipal bonds, traditionally seen as a safe investment, were the basis of Meredith Whitney’s crisis warnings in 2010. She predicted hundreds of billions of dollars in defaults, telling CBS’s 60 Minutes “there is not a doubt in my mind that you will see a spate of municipal bond defaults… fifty to one hundred sizable defaults. This will amount to hundreds of billions of dollars’ worth of defaults… it will [...]

Investor Sentiment: I Wish I Had A Nickel…

by thetechnicaltake

 

I wish I had a nickel for every time I have been told that technical analysis doesn’t work or that TA doesn’t work because Ben Bernanke is backstopping the markets. I would be a very rich man. Truth be told, my market analysis is a little bit more comprehensive than just TA, and for that matter, my TA is little bit more rigorous than what most are doing. Be that [...]

1000s Of Small Banks Could Close, More Companies Reported To Be Laying Off Workers Or Closing Outlets

On Friday, TheBlaze reported on a spate of post-election layoffs and company closing announcements. Sadly, that trend appears to be continuing.

Fortune Magazine says that in the wake of Obama’s re-election, thousands of banks are at risk, with small banks taking the biggest beating:

Now that President Obama has been re-elected, analysts, consultants and dealmakers have turned from whether Dodd-Frank will be repealed to what it means for banks now that it’s likely here [...]

You are NOT allowed to commit suicide: Workers in Chinese iPad factories forced to sign pledges

Factories making sought-after Apple iPads and iPhones in China are forcing staff to sign pledges not to commit suicide, an investigation has revealed.

At least 14 workers at Foxconn factories in China have killed themselves in the last 16 months as a result of horrendous working conditions.

Many more are believed to have either survived attempts or been stopped before trying at the Apple supplier’s plants in Chengdu or Shenzen.

Appalling conditions: An [...]

US Military Deaths in Afghanistan Hit 2,000

Associated Press
September 30, 2012

U.S. military deaths in the Afghan war have reached 2,000, a cold reminder of the human cost of an 11-year-old conflict that garners little public interest at home as the United States prepares to withdraw most of its combat forces by the end of 2014.

The toll has climbed steadily in recent months with a spate of attacks by Afghan army and police against American and NATO troops, [...]

Romney: ‘I’m going to win Ohio’

TOLEDO, Ohio—Mitt Romney projected confidence Wednesday that he’s going to win Ohio, in spite of a recent spate of polls showing him trailing President Barack Obama in this crucial swing state.

“I’m going to win Ohio,” Romney told NBC’s Ron Allen in an interview. “I’m going to become the next president.”

In a separate interview with ABC’s David Muir, Romney downplayed several recent polls that suggest he’s losing ground to Obama in [...]

BREAKING: Anti-US protesters rally near US consulate in Karachi Pakistan – killed

1 killed as anti-US protesters rally near US consulate in Karachi – reports

One person was reportedly killed and six others injured by police fire when anti-US protesters clashed with security forces outside the US consulate in Karachi, Pakistan’s largest city.

Police deployed water cannons, and fired tear gas and warning shots to disperse crowds of angry protesters, who threw rocks at the US consulate and set fire to a nearby police [...]

BREAKING: Islamic Australians Mass Protest at US Embassy in Sydney

Eight people were arrested and six officers were injured after a protest swept through the Sydney CBD this afternoon.

Police said that, about 1pm today, a group marched from Sydney Town Hall to Martin Place, where a confrontation occurred between protesters and police outside a building housing the US consulate.

The protests were triggered by a US film, Innocence of Muslims, portraying the prophet Muhammad as a womaniser and paedophile.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/police-gas-sydney-protesters-20120915-25yrb.html#ixzz26XmhjT6E

Eight people were [...]

Five Must-Haves for Junior Mining Companies: Aleksandra Bukacheva

Brian Sylvester of The Gold Report (9/14/12)

Valuation disconnects among producers, rising gold price and juniors facing funding crunches are among the factors fueling a spate of M&A activity. In her first exclusive Gold Report interview, Aleksandra (Sasha) Bukacheva, a mining research analyst with Fraser Mackenzie in Toronto, shares her list of likely targets and suitors in the zinc, copper and precious metals spaces.

The Gold Report: Sasha, what are four or [...]

China’s shadow banking system is collapsing

by Mike “Mish” Shedlock, Global Economic Trend Analysis

 

A collapse of property schemes, commodity schemes, and other investments schemes in China is well underway. The Ponzi schemes all had one thing in common: they needed an ever-growing pool of suckers to pay the returns promised to investors.

Well, the pool of greater fools finally ran out, and Shadow Bankers Vanished Leaving China Victims Seeing Scams

 

 

“China’s slowest economic growth in three years and a slumping [...]

At least 18 killed as S. African police open fire on thousands of striking miners (Photos)

RT.com
August 16, 2012

At least 18 bodies were seen lying bloody and motionless on the ground after local police opened fire on striking miners, a South African news agency reports. Some of the protesters were allegedly armed with machetes and spears.

The incident is believed to have occurred after police, in the process of laying down barricades of barbed wire, were outflanked by a crowd of 3,000 demonstrators.

Nine people had been killed [...]

Egypt considering violating treaty with Israel; Sending troops, tanks to border

NEW YORK – Egypt’s Islamist President Mohammed Morsi is studying the possibility of keeping tanks in the Sinai Peninsula on a permanent basis, according to a senior Egyptian military official who spoke to WND.

The military buildup would violate a key provision of peace accords signed with Israel in 1979 that calls for the total demilitarization of the peninsula.

Over the last two weeks, there have been reports of Egypt sending in [...]

Robotics Professor Warns Drones Will “Lead To A Sanitised Factory Of Slaughter”

We are witnessing the beginning of “the industrial revolution of war”

Steve Watson
Infowars.com
Aug 3, 2012

A prominent artificial intelligence expert has urged that president Obama is setting a horrendous precedent by embracing drone technology as a means of covert warfare.

Professor Noel Sharkey of Sheffield University, penned a piece in The Guardian today that slams the use of missile strikes using unmanned ariel vehicles, warning that what we are seeing is just the beginning of [...]

Ex Greek Representative: “IMF Knew Austerity Program was Impossible to Succeed”

via english.capital.gr:

Only a month after Greece installed a new government, the country is facing renewed peril. Its official lenders are signaling a growing reluctance to keep paying the bills of the nearly bankrupt nation, even as the government is seeking more leniency on the terms of its multibillion-euro bailout.

Adding to the woes, there is little agreement within either side. The Greek government is itself a motley coalition of conservatives and Socialists, [...]

Euro’s Medicine May Be Making Greece’s Symptoms Worse

Only a month after Greece installed a new government, the country is facing renewed peril. Its official lenders are signaling a growing reluctance to keep paying the bills of the nearly bankrupt nation, even as the government is seeking more leniency on the terms of its multibillion-euro bailout.

Adding to the woes, there is little agreement within either side. The Greek government is itself a motley coalition of conservatives and Socialists, [...]

Australian officials call for ban on hunting great white sharks to be lifted after spate of fatal attacks

Launched search and destroy mission after surfer was bitten in half this weekend

Western Australia has called on the federal government to lift a ban on hunting great white sharks after the fifth death in its waters within a year.

Fisheries Minister Norman Moore said the spate of attacks was ’cause for great alarm’ following the death of 24-year-old surfer Ben Linden, who was bitten in half by a shark on Saturday.

Mr Moore [...]

OZ: ‘Let us kill great whites,’ as species claims its fifth victim

Western Australia called on the federal government yesterday to lift a ban on the fishing of great white sharks following an unprecedented fifth death in its waters within less than a year.

Speaking after a 24 year old surfer, Ben Linden, was bitten in half by a “massive” shark on Saturday, the state’s Fisheries Minister, Norman Moore, said the spate of fatal attacks was “cause for great alarm”. He added that [...]

This powerful chart shows housing could be headed lower again

From Pragmatic Capitalism:

The recent spate of negative economic news continued on Wednesday with the release of mortgage purchase applications, which showed a continued decline, even as mortgage interest rates hit historic lows and the wholesale trade data which showed accelerating weakness in consumption trends. This, of course, is really not new information for our regular readers as we have been discussing the weakening economic trends for several months now.

The mortgage [...]

Chicago police sergeant: “Tribal warfare” on the streets

(CBS News) CHICAGO – Chicago is in the grips of a deadly gang war. At least 275 people have been killed in the city so far this year and many more have been shot, many of them innocent bystanders to the gang violence. Among the latest victims were 12- and 13-year-old girls shot Tuesday night. They survived.

Sgt. Matt Little leads one of the teams in Chicago’s Gang Enforcement Unit. There [...]

Convicted rapist gets penis bitten off

Prison dog savages sex killer rapist where it hurts

AN EVIL sex killer wanted for a string of rapes in Ireland had the top of his penis bitten off after picking a fight with a prison guard dog. Nigerian Kristoff Alauya was left in agony and needed stitches to his arms, stomach and manhood after being savaged by the highly trained alsation when he kicked it in the head.

 

The convicted sex [...]

Chinese ‘cannibal’ attack caught on camera as drunk bus driver leaps on woman and chews on her face

The recent terrifying spate of ‘cannibal attacks’ seems to have spread to China, as a drunk bus driver was caught on camera gnawing at a woman’s face in a horrific random attack.

The unfortunate woman will apparently require plastic surgery to repair the damage done by her crazed attacker.

According to local news reports, the driver, named Dong, had been drinking heavily during lunch with his friends before the outburst on Tuesday.

He [...]

Mom who choked and punched son, 3, while ‘high on bath salts’ pictured running naked through street – moments before she was Tasered to death

This startling image shows a woman who beat her three-year-old son while allegedly high on ‘bath salts’ running naked through the street – moments before police used a Taser to subdue her.

Pamela McCarthy, 35, went into cardiac arrest after the struggle with state troopers outside her apartment in Munnsville, New York on Tuesday. She later died in hospital.

Neighbours had called police at 7.45 p.m. to say the woman was punching [...]

Mother, 35, who choked and punched son, 3, while ‘high on bath salts’ dies after she is Tasered by cops

A woman who was allegedly high on bath salts as she choked and punched her three-year-old son has died after state troopers used a Taser to subdue her.

Pamela McCarthy, 35, went into cardiac arrest after the struggle with police at her apartment in Munnsville, New York and later died in hospital.

It is just the latest incident involving bath salts, an illegal synthetic drug believed to be behind a spate of [...]

Is America addicted to cannibalism? Expert says psychological disorder causes desire to eat human flesh

The recent spate of horrifying cannibal attacks could be caused by an addiction to eating human flesh.

Cannibalism causes euphoria after the person turns their fantasy into a reality said Karen Hylen, a therapist at Summit Malibu Treatment Center in California.

In the past, cannibalism has been linked to religion or people have resorted to it for sheer survival. However now a connections has been made with addiction and mental illness. 

‘People who have [...]

Greek hospital ‘threatens to keep baby until mother can pay the cost of delivering the child’

Hospital denies the claim, but campaigners say it is merely the latest in a spate of cases

A hospital in austerity-stricken Greece told a new mother she could not take her baby home until she had paid the cost of delivering the child, it has been claimed.

Helena Venizelou Maternity Hospital in Athens threatened to keep hold of the child, the mother said, until she paid up 1,200 euros (£970) they were [...]