The European Union Times |
- Mysterious Missile Launch Seen From Space Station
- Death toll in Philippines quake rises to 93
- Hidden Messages in New $100 Dollar Bill?
- White House rejects House Republican proposal
- Plan B: Central banks getting ready for financial Armageddon
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Posted: 15 Oct 2013 03:42 PM PDT
 The image was captured from the International Space Station by Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano. His colleague Mike Hopkins tweeted: ‘Saw something launch into space today. Not sure what it was but the cloud it left behind was pretty amazing’This oddity was all the more strange as there were no scheduled launches by NASA (due to the government shutdown) or from any U.S. commercial spaceflight company. Russia and Europe also had no scheduled launches at that time. Still, something had been fired into space. One photograph shows the wiggly trail of a white contrail, exhaust and water vapor created by a rocket’s passage through the atmosphere; odd pattern forming after being buffeted by high altitude winds. Then, in another dramatic snapshot, Parmitano posted a weird-looking cloud dominating the photograph caused by the rocket disintegrating over the Earth. (Click Image For Larger View) NASA astronaut Mike Hopkins, who is also working on the station, also tweeted his view of the cloud, saying, “Saw something launch into space today. Not sure what it was but the cloud it left behind was pretty amazing.” Seeing an unannounced rocket launch out of the window would have likely been pretty unnerving for the crew. So what was that ULO (Unidentified Launching Object)?  Italian astronaut Luca Parmitano’s picture from the International Space Station shows the trail left behind by a Russian missile launchRelated Posts:
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Posted: 15 Oct 2013 03:19 PM PDT
 Philippine officials say at least 93 people have been confirmed dead and dozens more injured by a devastating earthquake that struck the central parts of the Southeast Asian country. The 7.2-magnitude quake was centered about 385 miles (619 kilometers) south-southeast of Manila, near Catigbian, and its depth was 12 miles (20 kilometers), according to the US Geological Survey. According to the Philippines Office of Civil Defense, several hundreds others were injured when the quake collapsed buildings and roofs, and cracked roads on Bohol Island and the nearby Cebu Island. Monuments and buildings in and around one of the Philippines’ major tourist hubs were also damaged during the incident. The injured people were rushed to hospitals for medical treatment, but the death toll is expected to rise as some of the injured are said to be in critical condition. The earthquake occurred on Tuesday when offices and schools were closed for a national holiday and that may have reduced casualties. “It’s fortunate that many offices and schools are closed due to the holiday,” media outlets quoted a local administration official as saying. The temblor was followed by a number of aftershocks, which hit at a depth of 56 kilometers. The Philippines sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire, which is an area with intense seismic and volcanic activity caused by friction between shifting tectonic plates. In February 2012, more than a hundred died or went missing after a 6.9-magnitude earthquake hit the Negros Island in the Visayas, some 100 kilometers from the epicenter of Tuesday’s temblor. In 1976, a 7.9-magnitude quake struck the Moro Gulf on the southern island of Mindanao, killing between 5,000 and 8,000, according to the Philippines official estimates. Source Related Posts:
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Posted: 15 Oct 2013 02:52 PM PDT
 Video blogger claims new note contains chilling images of future nuclear attack on U.S. A video blogger claims that there are hidden messages in the new $100 dollar bill which warn of future nuclear devastation in the United States. Back in 2002, it emerged that when a $20 dollar bill was folded in a certain way it revealed images that resembled the 9/11 attacks, a story that caused quite a stir at the time since the notes were issued three years beforehand in 1998. Are the hidden images in the new $100 bill a chilling prophecy of future events, or just another example of how people are obsessed with doomsday fantasies that require a huge leap in imagination and logic to believe? Source Related Posts:
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Posted: 15 Oct 2013 02:27 PM PDT
 The White House has rejected a new proposal by House Republicans to prevent a debt default less than two days before the debt ceiling deadline. “The president has said repeatedly that Members of Congress don’t get to demand ransom for fulfilling their basic responsibilities to pass a budget and pay the nation’s bills,” White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage said in a statement on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, the latest proposal from House Republicans does just that in a partisan attempt to appease a small group of Tea Party Republicans who forced the government shutdown in the first place,” she added. The proposal would reopen the government and extend the debt ceiling, but it also would affect President Barack Obama’s signature healthcare law. Republicans wanted to fund the government until Jan. 15 and extend the debt limit until Feb. 7. Members of the GOP were in high spirits during a Tuesday morning meeting about the deal. “Democrats and Republicans in the Senate have been working in a bipartisan, good-faith effort to end the manufactured crises that have already harmed American families and business owners. With only a couple days remaining until the United States exhausts its borrowing authority, it’s time for the House to do the same,” according to the statement. Brundage said the president has vowed that lawmakers “don’t get to demand ransom for fulfilling their basic responsibilities.” President Obama was set to meet with House Democratic leaders later Tuesday. A default is imminent with no agreement over raising the country’s $16.7 trillion debt ceiling by October 17. The US federal government has been shut down since October 1. Source Related Posts:
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Posted: 15 Oct 2013 10:09 AM PDT
 If the US debt-ceiling debate goes past the eleventh hour, and the default of the world’s largest economy becomes a reality, leading central banks around the world are gearing up to minimize losses and keep the world economy functioning. If US lawmakers don’t reach a budget consensus and raise the debt ceiling by Thursday October 17, the US will become the first Western power to default since Nazi Germany in 1933, and will send markets into uncharted territory. The rest of the world is bracing itself for what would happen if the bill is rejected, and the US inches closer to defaulting on its debts, which are largely foreign- held in the form of US Treasury Bonds. Central banks have begun preparing for the worst-case scenario if US does fault, which would result in a serious devaluation of Treasury bonds, delayed payments, and a more large-scale version of the current government shutdown. “Because in the past it’s always been sorted out is absolutely not a reason to fail to do the contingency planning,” Jon Cunliffe, who will become the Bank of England’s deputy governor for financial stability in November, told UK lawmakers. “I would expect the Bank of England to be planning for it [US default]. I’d expect private-sector actors to be doing that, and in other countries as well,” said Cunliffe, who acknowledged a default as “the main risk to the [global] financial system”. The European Central Bank and the People’s Bank of China (PBC) have struck a deal that moves both banks farther from the dollar orbit. The two banks agreed to ‘swap’ $56 billion worth of yuan for $60.8 billion worth of euros. Many central banks have reserves in the form of Sovereign Wealth Funds, which are also at risk if the US defaults, as many of the assets are held in dollars. These investment vehicles could be crippled by a default. China’s is estimated at more than $1.3 trillion – the world’s largest. A historic shift Neil Mackinnon, a former UK Treasury official, told RT the US default tango marks a shift in the global economic paradigm, from West to East. If the US doesn’t act soon, “the dollar will decline and its importance will move to a multi-polar currency system and other currencies will take on board more importance,” said Mackinnon. Over the weekend, economic leaders from around the world met in Washington DC at the International Monetary Fund’s annual meeting. The fund’s managing director, Christine LaGarde, issued a harsh warning the global financial system could enter a recession if the US misses its debt deadline. The US Senate said they will announce a deal to end the shutdown and extend the debt ceiling on Tuesday, which will pass through to the House, where it will face Obama’s hard-nosed Republican opponents who want to cut funding of the Affordable Care Act. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, a Democrat, said Tuesday has the potential to be a “bright day” and bring calm back to the global markets. Source Related Posts:
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