The European Union Times |
- 19 tornadoes wreak havoc, down power in central US states
- Saudi Arabia to purchase nuclear arms from Pakistan
- What IS this strange sound from the sky
- Russia, China kick off Mediterranean navel war games
- Cyclone Pam hits New Zealand after devastating Vanuatu
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Posted: 17 May 2015 03:39 PM PDT
 At least 19 tornadoes have struck the mid-US this weekend damaging homes and causing blackouts, according to weather channels. The worst affected states are Oklahoma and Texas, which were hit by hail and destructive storms. Minnesota, Oklahoma, Texas, Missouri, Kansas, Nebraska, Wyoming, Iowa and Louisiana have all witnessed the wayward and harsh whims of May’s weather. A tornado touched down near the town of Ogden in Iowa, on Sunday. On Saturday, a “multi-vortex” tornado hit southwest of the towns of Murdock and Rosen in Minnesota on Saturday. Broken Arrow in the northeastern part of Oklahoma also reported a twister, which caused structural damage and power outages in the area. A separate and large tornado struck southwestern Oklahoma. “Elsewhere in Oklahoma, tornadoes were reported 9 miles [14 km] south of Anadarko, near Meers and Elk City along Interstate 80,” the Weather Channel said. Homes and power lines have been damaged following the severe weather in Oklahoma. The Department of Emergency Management reported over 3,000 power outages there. “We’ve gotten a lot of rain in a short time. The ground is saturated, so every time we get another big soaking, the rain causes more flash flooding,” spokeswoman Keli Cain said. “We are seeing pockets of damaging winds from Missouri south to northeast Oklahoma,” Bill Bunting, chief of operations for the National Weather Service Storm Prediction Center in Norman, also told AP. “It’s a very strong upper level disturbance.” US Highway 283 in the town of Elmer had to be shut down due to a fallen power line, the Oklahoma Highway Patrol reported. Texas was not only again struck by tornadoes as in the previous week, but also received a battering from some “baseball-sized” hail. Heavy rains and winds are still whipping across parts of the Lone Star State, as well as drenching and buffeting Kansas, Nebraska and Minnesota, who may see some more tornadoes on Sunday. Source           |
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Posted: 17 May 2015 03:32 PM PDT
 “There has been a long-standing agreement in place with the Pakistanis and the House of Saud has now made the strategic decision to move forward,” British newspaper Sunday Times quoted a former US defense official as saying in a Sunday report. “Hundreds of people at [CIA headquarters in] Langley” were trying to discover if Islamabad had already supplied the Persian Gulf nation with nuclear technology or arms, another unnamed US intelligence official said. Over the past three decades Saudi Arabia has financed considerable amounts of Islamabad’s nuclear program and provided it with billions of dollars of subsidized oil. “Given their close relations and close military links, it’s long been assumed that if the Saudis wanted, they would call in a commitment, moral or otherwise, for Pakistan to supply them immediately with nuclear warheads,” British former Foreign Secretary Lord David Owen was quoted as saying. Western military leaders “all assume the Saudis have made the decision to go nuclear,” he added. “The fear is that other Middle Eastern powers — Turkey and Egypt — may feel compelled to do the same and we will see a new, even more dangerous, arms race,” he noted. World top arms importer Back in March, Saudi Arabia became the world’s biggest importer of weapons, according to an arms trade report. According to the Global Defense Trade Report, Saudi Arabia spent over $6.4 billion on weapons purchases in 2014, putting India in the second place. Over the past year, the Saudi kingdom increased its arms imports by 54 percent. “Growth in Saudi Arabia has been dramatic and, based on previous orders, these numbers are not going to slow down,” RT quoted IHS expert Ben Moores as saying. According to a separate report, Muhammad Khilewi, an official in the Saudi mission to the UN, who requested US asylum in 1994, provided documents which allegedly described the Kingdom’s long-time support for Iraq’s nuclear weapons program during Saddam Hussein’s regime. Around $5 billion were given to the regime on the condition that functional nuclear technology and, if possible, nuclear weapons be transferred to Saudi Arabia. Source      |
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Posted: 17 May 2015 02:25 PM PDT
 Noise heard across the globe for nearly a DECADE – but nobody has an explanation. A mysterious noise from the sky is continuing to baffle people all over the world, as well as giving those who hear it sleepless nights. Sounding like a trumpet or a collective from a brass section of an orchestra, a selection of videos shot from the Canada to Ukraine, via the U.S., Germany and Belarus show strange goings on above us And the eerie sounds have been continuously heard at all different times and locations for almost a decade. Can YOU work out what the sound coming from the sky is? That same year another anonymous user shared the ‘ear-deafening’ sounds that they insisted ‘were not a hoax,’ from a quiet neighbourhood believed to be in the U.S. The first video posted on YouTube recording the unusual, unearthly sounds, was in 2008 when a user recorded the strange sounds in the sky from Homel, in Belarus. That same year another anonymous user shared the ‘ear-deafening’ sounds that they insisted ‘were not a hoax,’ from a quiet neighbourhood believed to be in the U.S. Kimberly Wookey from Terrace, British Columbia in Canada first captured the alien sound in June 2013, and since then she has managed to capture several recordings of the noise with her most recent being on May 7 this year. Writing on YouTube, where she posted the videos, Ms Wookey writes: ‘On the morning of August 29, 2013 at approximately 7:30am I was awoken by these sounds. ‘I shot out of bed realizing it was the same sounds I had heard before and I ran looking for a camera to try to capture them with. I came out into the living room to find my seven-year-old son awake and scared wondering what was going on. He had said the noises woke him up as well and shook his window. ‘I managed to record three clips showing almost five minutes of these strange sounds. After it was over and I sat down at the computer to upload the video. After checking my Facebook I noticed a lot of locals had heard the same sounds again but this time it was far more widespread. ‘I have no idea what these sounds are but it is pretty strange and I am glad that I was able to catch them this time and share what I heard. The sounds were heard again on Sept 8th at 6:30am so far we have confirmed reports of it being heard from town to the lake, 25km away.’ So what does the mother of four think the noises are? ‘I personally do not believe this has any religious connection, nor do I believe it is aliens, graders, trains, construction, etc,’ she added. ‘I do believe it could be a geophysical phenomenon.’ Kimberly was so spooked by the sound coming from the sky she contacted her local construction company to try and get an answer. Her efforts hit a dead end when the company replied informing her that none of their machines could make such a noise (see screenshot above). Another recording of the sound was captured in Kiev, Ukraine in August 2011. An eyewitness said: ‘The sound was extremely loud, with some people 30-40km from the recording also hearing it in other cities ‘It was in the news with the investigation with specialists and scientists, but there is still no exact explanation.’ Encounters with the noise has even caused some people to have vivid nightmares for days after the event. Aaron Traylor captured a recording in Montana in the U.S. on February 18, 2012, and said: ‘I’ve had vivid nightmares ever since I posted the very eerie strange sounds that has Missoula talking and looking towards the sky; awful, awful nightmares. ‘My wife woke me from a dream last night where she says I was screaming like she’s never heard me scream before. ‘I was taking my daughter out for her daily exercise along with my dog. I started to hear the sounds early on in our little adventure and the first time it was heard my dog perked her ears up and my daughter stopped in her tracks. ‘That sound was identical to the one I had taped later, and lasted just as long. Now since I’ve been following this worldwide strange sounds phenomenon for some time, the whole ‘End of the world’ thing popped instantly into my head. ‘What if this was one of those sounds? I had my phone ready to capture the next one just in case. Sure enough, five minutes later the sound had returned.’ Aaron doesn’t subscribe to the theory that the noise is made by trains or aeroplanes. ‘The Missoula rail system is one very loud and unpredictable beast. Trains connecting their loads to another is a sound very familiar to locals. Loud bangs and screeches can be heard from nearly 10 miles away at any given point throughout the day,’ he added. ‘Still, that doesn’t explain the fan-like whirring sound that can be heard at the start of the recording.’ ‘I’ve lived in this neighbourhood for nearly four years and have heard all kinds of planes coming and going overhead and on the runway. I’ve never heard a plane sound like this before. ‘My neighbourhood is very quiet and we were about three blocks away from any busy intersection during the incident. Can’t say I’ve ever heard an automobile of any kind with that kind of noise.’ A video from Germany taken from a window pans onto a street and shows a child frozen still as the chilling sounds echo over the landscape. And in Salzburgh in Austria the noise is magnified across the Eastern Alps. In Allen, Texas, U.S. back in 2012, the mysterious noise had a group of people stop what they were doing in a car park and look towards the sky, with one exclaiming: ‘It’s weird, I’ve never heard anything like that.’ Geoscientist David Deming from the University of Oklahoma has previously written about a phenomenon called The Hum – ‘a mysterious and untraceable sound that is heard in certain locations around the world by two to ten per cent of the population’. Writing in the Journal of Scientific Exploration, he said that sources of The Hum could include telephone transmissions and ‘aircraft operated by the U.S Navy for the purpose of submarine communications’. According to Nasa, the Earth has ‘natural radio emissions’. The Agency said: ‘If humans had radio antennas instead of ears, we would hear a remarkable symphony of strange noises coming from our own planet. Scientists call them “tweeks,” “whistlers” and “sferics.” ‘They sound like background music from a flamboyant science fiction film, but this is not science fiction. Earth’s natural radio emissions are real and, although we’re mostly unaware of them, they are around us all the time.’ For instance lightning can produce eerie-sounding radio emissions, Nasa added. Earthquakes can also produce sub-audible sounds, according to seismologist Brian W Stump from the Southern Methodist University in Dallas. Source      |
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Posted: 17 May 2015 02:10 PM PDT
 “The active phase of the exercises will be held in the Mediterranean between May 17 and 21. About 10 warships from the Russian Navy and the People’s Liberation Army Navy [of China] will be participating,” RT quoted a statement from the Defense Ministry as saying on Sunday. The drill’s command base will be on the flagship of the Crimea-based Russian Black Sea Fleet the Moskva, a guided missile cruiser, the statement added. The goal of joint drills “is to strengthen mutual understanding between the navies… regarding boosting stability, countering new challenges and threats at sea,” said deputy commander of the Russian Navy, vice admiral Aleksandr Fedotenkov. The drill is not aimed at any third country or linked to the region’s political situation, said Russian Deputy Defense Minister Anatoly Antonov. Earlier, the Chinese Defense Ministry announced that the drills focused on live fire exercises, escort missions, at-sea replenishment, and navigation safety. The Russian-Chinese drills are taking place at a time when NATO and its allies are carryout war games in Europe. Currently, around 600 US and Georgian troops are taking part in the “Noble Partner” military exercise, whose objective has been announced to include training Georgian soldiers for contribution to the NATO Response Force in Georgia. Source      |
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Posted: 17 May 2015 11:14 AM PDT
 New Zealand is bracing for Cyclone Pam, with flooding and power outages already underway. Some areas declared a state of emergency and locals are being evacuated. Strong winds are reported, as devastation in Vanuatu is fresh on everyone’s minds. One of the first areas to declare a state of emergency was the Chatham Islands, southeast of the two main islands of New Zealand. Over 40 people have already been evacuated from the Gisborne region in the northeastern New Zealand. The area has been getting hit with heavy rainfall on Monday, with wind speeds reaching 145km/h. People have been running to grocery shops to stock up on supplies. “… Stores have seen customers purchasing increased volumes of water, batteries, candles and canned food. Staples such as bread and milk have also featured as people made sure they had enough provisions to get through the storm,” a Foodstuffs spokeswoman told the New Zealand Herald. Gisborne residents were told to get enough emergency supplies for at least three days. The cities of Auckland and Northland in the north part of the country have been experiencing thousands of power outages throughout the day. Even though meteorologists downgraded Pam to an “intense extra tropical cyclone,” MetService warned that parts of New Zealand are at risk in light of severe weather conditions. Over 150mm of rain had already accumulated around Gisborne in the past 24hours, as Pam continues to move southeast with the same intensity. The storm is expected to reach the Chatham Islands on Tuesday. Cyclone Pam first hit Vanuatu during the weekend — a state of about 83 islands located east of northern Australia. The damage has been labeled catastrophic, according to Reuters, with least eight people killed and 20 injured. Houses, boats and bridges were said to be destroyed, as the wind reached 300kph. First aid teams arrived in Vanuatu on Sunday. One of the country’s islands, Tanna, suffered “widespread devastation,” an official at the Australian Red Cross told Reuters. “Virtually every building that is not concrete has been flattened.” Dozens more people are feared dead, but the total number of casualties and those injured can only be known later as entire remote villages in different islands are reported to be destroyed. Earlier, the UN was citing unconfirmed reports of 44 dead. Source     |
