Southern California's summer to end with a chill: It was the coldest in decades link

Farewell summer, we hardly knew ye!
The last day of summer is Wednesday, but meteorologists say the season barely bothered to show up in the region this year. So cooler fall will make an almost noiseless entrance Thursday, hardly indistinguishable from the summer Southern Californians just experienced.
“Summer played hooky on us. It never really showed up,” said Bill Patzert, a climatologist for the Jet Propulsion Laboratory in La Canada Flintridge. “We leaped from spring to fall.”
Patzert said a low-pressure trough that stalled along the West Coast from Alaska to southern Baja California kept the summer cooler than usual, with many overcast days. Monthly temperatures in downtown Los Angeles from April to now have averaged between one to three degrees cooler than normal.
Patzert said it’s one of the coolest summers in decades.
Jamie Meier, a meteorologist for the National Weather Service in Oxnard, said that LAX tied the coldest average temperature for August on record, going back to 1944. 

The Santa Barbara airport also broke a record for coolest August, she said. The weather service is predicting a La Nina cycle that could mean drier-than-normal conditions. That isn’t always the case during La Nina, said Meier. But more often than not it is, she said.
Thoughout the summer, communities across Southern California set record low temperatures, notably Los Angeles International Airport and other coastal areas.

Global food risk from China-Russia pincer

World food supplies are caught in a pincer as China becomes a net importer of corn for the first time in modern history and Russia's drought inflicts even more damage than expected, raising the risk of a global grain shock in 2011.

By Ambrose Evans-Pritchardlink

Russia has already disrupted grain supplies by imposing an export ban until late 2011 Photo: Bloomberg News

Wheat prices have risen 70pc since June to $7.30 a bushel Photo: Getty Images

The Moscow bank Uralsib said half of Russia's potato crop has been lost Photo: Photolibrary.com

Global corn stocks are at their lowest level for 37 years Photo: Reuters

The Moscow bank Uralsib said half of Russia's potato crop has been lost and the country's wheat crisis will drag on for a second year, forcing the Kremlin to draw on world stocks.

Wheat prices have risen 70pc since June to $7.30 a bushel as the worst heatwave for half a century ravages crops across the Black Sea region, an area that supplies a quarter of global wheat exports. This has caused knock-on effects through the whole nexus of grains and other foods.

"We had hoped things would calm down by September, but they haven't: more commodities are joining in," said Abdolreza Abbassanian, grain chief at the UN's Food and Agriculture Organisation.
The UN fears a repeat of the price spike in 2008 that set off global food riots. Wheat prices are still far below the $13 peak they reached then, and the global stocks to use ratio is still "safe" at 22pc. However, the outlook is darkening.
"It is not yet a crisis but things are precarious. If there is another bad year in Russia and Ukraine, this will leave us prone to shocks. All it takes then is one piece of bad news," he said.
Chris Weafer, Uralsib's chief economist, said Russia's wheat harvest will be near 60m tonnes this year, far short of the 75m consumed locally. The country has intervention stocks of 9.5m. "We think Russia faces shortfall of 17m tonnes and will have to import next year," he said.
Moscow has already disrupted grain supplies by imposing an export ban until late 2011, but markets have not discounted the risk of Russia becoming a substantial importer.
Luke Chandler at Rabobank said the drought has gone on long enough to hit winter wheat planting and damage yields for next year's spring wheat. "At this stage there is no substantial recovery in subsoil moisture levels in Russia," he said.
Ominously, a corn crunch is also creeping up on the world. Global stocks are at their lowest level for 37 years, at a stock to use ratio of 13pc. "This is getting extremely tight," said Mr Chandler, questioning whether the US should divert 36pc of its corn crop into ethanol for fuel.
Corn prices have jumped 40pc since June, reaching $5 a bushel. This was first blamed on lower US crop yields due to bad weather, but China has since revealed that it imported a record 432,000 tonnes in August.
Sudakshina Unnikrishnan from Barclays Capital said China may soon become a "structural" corn importer. While it imported corn in 1994, that was due to bad harvests. This time the cause is a permanent shift towards meat-based diets. This has led to a steady rise in the use of corn for animal feed. More than 70pc of China's corn is now used in feed. It takes about seven kilos of grain to produce one kilo of beef.
There is a widely-held view that roaring "agflation" and record gold prices signal inflation, evidence that ultra-loose monetary policy in the US and Europe is leaking excess liquidity into the world. Japan is the latest country to boost liquidity, launching "unsterilised" yen sales.
However, this year's spike is narrower. Crude oil is at $75 a barrel, half the 2008 peak. The CRB commodity index is back to 2004 levels. Natural gas prices have fallen this year. Copper has surged, but other base metals have lagged. While gold is in vogue, this is partly due to diversification out of euros and dollars by Asian governments, and loss of faith in Western leadership.
Central banks must make a tricky judgement call, deciding whether food shortages are inflationary or deflationary. They can be either. Policy makers in the US and Europe misread the commodity spike of 2008 as the start of a 1970s inflation spiral, when in reality it sapped broader demand. Central banks tightened policy, just as their economies were buckling. The financial system crashed two months later. Inflation collapsed in short order.
The US Federal Reserve does not want to repeat that mistake. Its minutes this week warned of "downside risks" to inflation. The message is clear: the Fed plans to steel its nerves this time and "look through" any spike in resource costs.

Just One Really Bad Year Away From A Horrific World Faminelink

The shocking announcement by the Russian government of a 12 month extension of its wheat export ban and the outbreak of food riots in Mozambique are stark reminders that the world is just one really bad year away from a horrific world famine.  As you read this, the world is already really, really struggling to feed itself.  Approximately 1 billion people throughout the world go to bed hungry each night.  Somewhere in the world someone starves to death every 3.6 seconds, and 75 percent of those are children under the age of five.  And those are the statistics that we have seen while North America has been producing record harvests.  So what is going to happen when the United States and Canada have really bad harvests for a year or two as world demand for food continues to skyrocket?  That is a very sobering question.
Don't think that it can't happen.  Russia was the third largest wheat exporter in the world last year, but because of the massive heatwave and the horrific fires that have devastated that nation, they have banned all wheat exports for over a year.  That's right.  Russia just announced a 12 month extension of its wheat export ban and authorities around the globe are now scrambling to find a way to avoid the terrible food riots that we saw back in 2008.  The announcement by the Russian government sent wheat prices to close to a two-year high.
With wheat prices soaring, dozens of nations around the globe already living on the very edge of poverty are wondering how in the world they are going to be able to feed their people.
The UN’s Food and Agriculture Organization has called an emergency meeting to discuss the burgeoning crisis.  But if there is simply not enough food then there is not enough food.
Already, food riots in Mozambique this week have left at least seven people dead and at least 280 injured.  The riots in Maputo, the capital of Mozambique, broke out over the government's decision to raise bread prices a whopping 30 percent.  Food warehouses have been looted and police in Maputo actually opened fire on the demonstrators at one point.
But what else can the people there do?  When people lose everything they have and they are starving they tend to lose it.  It is just human nature.
So will all this rioting change anything?  Unfortunately, no.  The government of Mozambique says that the bread price increases are "irreversible".
Prices around the world have gone up.  The game has changed.  Hundreds of millions around the world who can barely afford to feed themselves are going to find it even harder to buy their daily bread.
The UN Food and Agriculture Organization says that its global food price index shot up 5% between July and August.  That is a huge one month jump.
Of course wheat prices are leading the way.  Wheat prices have surged nearly 70 percent since January of this year.
Food prices have even been going up in the United States.  We live in a truly global economy now, and the U.S. is not immune from what is going on in the rest of the world.  According to recent reports, the price of food is going up significantly at places like Wal-Mart.
And there are signs that things could soon get even worse.
Pakistan just experienced the worst flooding ever recorded in that nation, and needless to say harvests there have been completely obliterated.  At one point, one-fifth of the entire nation of Pakistan was under water.  The chaos the flooding has caused is unimaginable.
Massive swarms of crop-destroying locusts have invaded over 40 villages in the African nation of Guinea-Bissau and there are reports that the locust swarms are heading north toward Senegal.
In Australia, farmers are bracing for what is being called the worst locust plague in a generation.  It is easy to laugh about a "plague of locusts", but for many farmers in Australia it is a nightmare of unprecedented proportions.
Meanwhile, experts tell us that global demand for food will more than double over the next 50 years.
So where in the world is all of that extra food going to come from?
Up to this point, North America has experienced uncharacteristically good weather for 18 consecutive years and has enjoyed many record harvests during that time.
So what happens when the good weather stops someday?
There is no guarantee that we are always going to have a huge abundance of food in this nation.
A major disaster or emergency combined with a bad harvest season could change things in America very, very quickly.  Many Americans are realizing that if things go really bad the U.S. government is not going to be able to take care of everyone.  Right now, the number of "preppers" in the United States is absolutely exploding.  Storing up food and supplies has suddenly become fashionable again.
And rightly so.  The truth is that "U.S. strategic grain reserves" are at ridiculously low levels.  If a true food crisis hit, those reserves would be gone almost overnight.
Let's hope that the crisis in Russia is resolved soon and that food shortages don't start spreading throughout the world.
But someday if the world does experience a horrific famine, are you and your family prepared?

 

Western Australia Wheat Forecast Reduced, Group Sayslink

By Wendy Pugh

Sept. 22 (Bloomberg) -- Western Australia’s grain industry forecasting group cut its state wheat production outlook by 18 percent because of dry weather and warned that crops may deteriorate further as rain fails to arrive.

Output may be 4.473 million metric tons, the Perth-based Grain Industry Association of Western Australia said in a report based on observations and data as of Sept. 16. That compares with 5.486 million tons forecast by the group earlier this month.

Reduced production will curb exports from the state, the country’s largest producer last year, as global output drops. Grain regions in the southwest have been mostly dry this month, after below-average falls in August, even as wet weather boosts output potential in the eastern states.

“The forecast has nothing in the rain gauge for at least two weeks,” Alan Meldrum, association project manager, said by phone today. “We have crops trying to mature on almost nothing and to make matters worse, now it is into late September the temperatures are going up.” There was still downside to the latest forecast, he said.

Wheat for December delivery on the Chicago Board of Trade gained 0.6 percent to $7.22 a bushel at 4:09 p.m. Melbourne time. suspend grain exports until after next year’s harvest. Futures touched $8.68 a bushel last month, the highest since August 2008, after Russia announced an export ban because of drought.

National Output

Australian wheat production may be 25.1 million tons this season and exports may gain to 18.4 million tons, the second highest on record, the Australian Bureau of Agricultural and Resource Economics-Bureau of Rural Sciences said Sept. 14. Western Australia’s output may be 6.1 million tons, compared with 8.2 million tons last year, it said.

The country is forecast to be the third-largest wheat exporting nation in 2010-2011, after the U.S. and Canada, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Shipments from Russia may drop to 3.5 million tons from 18.6 million tons in 2009-2010 because of drought, according to the USDA.

Dry weather is forecast to persist for at least the next week in Western Australia’s grain areas as a high-pressure system prevents rain moving into the region, Patrick Ward, a Perth-based meteorologist at the Bureau of Meteorology, said.

“There is essentially no rain really forecast to the end of the month,” he said today. The bureau will release its seasonal outlook for October-to-December tomorrow.

Total Western Australian crop production is forecast at 7.57 million tons, the grain industry association said, down from its previous outlook for 9.15 million tons. The canola forecast was cut to 867,000 tons from 963,000 tons.

Merredin in the wheat-growing area has received 9 millimeters (0.4 inch) of rain so far this month compared with the September average of 26 millimeters, while Wongan Hills has had 10 millimeters compared with an average 29.3 millimeters. The central wheat belt received no reported rain in the past seven days, according to Bureau of Meteorology data.

Russia May Sell More Weapons to Syria as U.S., Israel Protestlink

Russia will complete the delivery of anti-ship missiles to Syria this year and may sell more arms to the Mideast nation after assessing the impact on the regional balance of power, Defense Minister Anatoly Serdyukov said.
“All weapons within the earlier contract will be delivered by year end,” Serdyukov said in an interview in Moscow. Syria has made new requests “that are being considered at present,” he said. “Pre-contract work can last a few months to a few years. There is no guarantee a contract will be signed in the end.”
The U.S. said this week it shares Israel’s concern that the proliferation of “advanced weapons” may destabilize the Middle East. Defense Secretary Robert Gates made the same point to Serdyukov during meetings last week in Washington, Defense Department spokesman Geoff Morrell said Sept. 20.
Serdyukov’s comments on Syria came as he said Russia and the U.S. are trying to build a “new format of relations” on defense issues, including cooperation in Afghanistan. Russia earlier this year scrapped the delivery of S-300 air defense systems to Iran in compliance with international sanctions against the country.
“The president of Russia has taken a decision not to deliver S-300s,” said Serdyukov, 48. “This is dictated by a complicated military and political situation in the region and support of the United Nations sanctions against Iran.”
‘Serious Assessment’
Serdyukov declined to discuss details of the new requests from Syria.
“We are conducting a serious assessment of how it may affect the existing balance of forces in the region,” Serdyukov said. “We understand that it would not be right to upset it. Therefore all these nuances and analyses are being thoroughly assessed.”
Under an existing contract, Russia will supply Yakhont cruise missiles worth more than $300 million to Syria, the Moscow-based Interfax news service reported Sept. 19. The agreement contains safeguards to prevent weapons from being transferred to other parties, Serdyukov said.
“The Israelis and perhaps to some extent the Americans voice apprehension that these weapons can somehow fall into the hands of terrorists,” he said. “The contract has provisions for a series of controlling measures that will not allow for this to happen.”
Serdyukov held talks with Gates on Sept. 15 in Washington, their first meeting since 2008, when relations soured after Russia routed Georgia’s U.S-trained army in a five-day war over the breakaway republic of South Ossetia.
‘Serious Breakthrough’
The defense chiefs agreed to set up working groups on the issues of greatest concern and use a three-tier decision-making process in which issues are reviewed first by local experts, then military chiefs of staff and finally at the ministerial level. Serdyukov said he invited Gates to Moscow and hopes he will visit in the first half of 2011.
“Within a month I will prepare a letter to Gates addressing what interests us and where we would like to cooperate,” Serdyukov said. “It will be a serious breakthrough,” complete with practical steps in areas such as equipment and training.
The most contentious issue for Russia, the U.S. plan to deploy a missile defense system, wasn’t discussed in detail last week. Instead, the talks focused on how the topic should be addressed and in what time period, Serdyukov said.
“All our proposals made in 2007 remain in force,” he said. “It is quite likely new proposals will emerge.”
‘Neighborly Relations’
U.S. President Barack Obama last September said he was scrapping former President George W. Bush’s proposal to deploy a missile shield in Poland and the Czech Republic in the face of Russian opposition. He promised a more flexible system to protect against threats to the U.S. and its European allies, providing an opportunity to revisit earlier Russian proposals.
Russia’s 2007 plan would put the radar warning and control system for the missiles in Azerbaijan, a former Soviet republic that shares a border with Iran, using existing equipment installed by the Soviet Union. The facility would be under the joint control of the U.S. and Russian militaries.
Serdyukov said Russia also wants improved relations with the North Atlantic Treaty Organization, whose eastward expansion tops the list of external dangers in a military doctrine approved by President Dmitry Medvedev in February.
“We consider it a certain danger that NATO is expanding and advancing to our borders,” Serdyukov said. “The military doctrine, nevertheless, does not limit our aspiration to develop constructive and good neighborly relations with the U.S. and other NATO member countries in the long-term.”
Afghanistan Cooperation
The main threat to Russia is terrorism, which is why the armed forces are being overhauled to respond to local conflicts, Serdyukov said.
Russia is facing an increasing wave of terrorist attacks mainly originating in the North Caucasus region. The region is plagued by an Islamist insurgency, the country’s highest unemployment rates and rampant corruption.
Russia has supported the U.S. fight against terrorism by letting the American military ship cargoes across its territory to Afghanistan, and the government is considering increased cooperation, Serdyukov said.
While Russia won’t send troops, it is ready to train specialists and deliver military equipment, the defense minister said. Talks are underway to deliver 20 Mi-17 helicopters to Afghanistan, he said.
Serdyukov said Gates assured him that the U.S. will use the Manas air base in neighboring Kyrgyzstan only as long as operations in Afghanistan continue.
“They do not consider it a fundamental or a permanent installation,” Serdyukov said

 

North and South Korea on the brink of war, Russian diplomat warns ~ link ~ 
 

In Moscow's bleakest assessment of the situation on the Korean peninsula yet, Russian deputy foreign minister Alexei Borodavkin said tensions between the two countries were running at their highest and most dangerous level in a decade. 

"Tensions on the Korean Peninsula could not be any higher. The only next step is a conflict," he told foreign policy experts at a round table on the subject in Moscow.

Rioting in East Jerusalem after Israeli security guard kills Palestinian ~ link ~A massive riot broke out in occupied East Jerusalem today following the funeral of a Palestinian civilian killed in a pre-draw shooting by an Israeli security guard. The funeral procession broke down into violence, with rioters clashing with Israeli police and eventually a number of Israeli police armed with high powered weapons occupied the al-Aqsa Mosque, one of the holiest sites on the planet for Muslims.
By evening the clashes appeared to have quieted down, and though there were some injuries on both sides there do not appear to have been any additional killings. The Israeli police have left the mosque and a tenuous calm seems to be returning.


The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions Campaign against Israel ~ link ~

The Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions campaign moves ahead in Washington, California, British Columbia, Harvard and Brown Universities, and the Netherlands,

In July, in Rachel Corrie’s hometown of Olympia, Washington state, the popular Food Co-op announced that no Israeli products would be sold at its two grocery stores. Archbishop Desmond Tutu, a principal endorser of this new Israel Divestment Campaign, issued a statement endorsing the boycott. “The Olympia Food Co-op has joined a growing worldwide movement on the part of citizens and the private sector to support by non-violent tangible acts the Palestinian struggle for justice and self-determination.”

In a surprise move in August, Harvard University divested itself of all its Israel investments, almost $40m worth of shares, including Pharmaceutical Industries, NICE Systems, Check Point Software Technologies, Cellcom Israel and Partner Communications. Initially, Harvard gave no explanation for its actions to the SEC. John Longbrake, spokesman for Harvard, maintained that Harvard has not divested from Israel, that these changes were routine and did not represent a change in policy. But was Harvard in fact caving under BDS calls and trying to do so as quietly as possible to avoid a Zionist backlash? In the past, Harvard has divested from companies for purely political reasons, but they did so publicly. For instance, five years ago, Harvard divested from PetroChina in order to protest China’s actions in Sudan.

 

Scottish homes hit as torrential rain causes floodinglink

by admin on Sep.23, 2010, under National News

This shop in Largs was among the properties flooded

Torrential rain has caused flooding across parts of east and west Scotland.
The worst affected areas included Aberdeenshire and a number of towns in North Ayrshire, where homes and businesses have been hit.
Houses have been evacuated and schools closed in Portsoy, Banff, after Loch Soy burst its banks. Problems have also been reported in nearby Fordyce.
The Scottish Environment Protection Agency currently has 15 flood watches in place.
The Met Office has also issued rain alerts for Aberdeen, northern Aberdeenshire, Moray, central Tayside and Fife, Lothian and Borders, Dumfries and Galloway and Strathclyde.

Businesses in Rothesay were affected by flooding during the night

Grampian’s Fire Service’s flooding response unit has been sent to Portsoy where crews are helping people from flooded properties.
The brigade said homes in Soy Avenue were among the worst hit. Schools in the area have also been shut.
Residents at the Meadows care home in Huntly have also been moved to a nearby rest centre at The Gordon Schools.
An Aberdeenshire Council spokeswoman said: “The majority of the flooding is confined to the north west of Aberdeenshire and we are continuing to monitor situations elsewhere.”
Between 1745 BST and 2300 BST on Wednesday, Strathclyde Fire and Rescue said it received 117 calls about flooding from the public.
The rain affected properties and caused road closures in Kilbirnie, Glengarnock, Fairlie and Largs in North Ayrshire.
Fire crews were also called out to flooding in Rothesay and Helensburgh, in Argyll and Bute.
At its peak, 65 firefighters from Argyll and Bute, North Ayrshire, Glasgow, Renfrewshire and Inverclyde and North Lanarkshire community fire stations were called to deal with flash flooding.
Mark Asbury, who lives in a flat on Main Road in Glengarnock, said it was the worst case of flooding he had seen.
The area is susceptible to floods and in 2008 a major clean-up operation took place in Kilbirnie when the River Garnock burst its banks.
Mr Asbury said: “It is flooded to the front of my house – it is unbelievable. I’ve never seen anything like it.”
Nigel Sutherland from Rothesay said his local area was also badly hit.

Homes have been evacuated in Aberdeenshire after Loch Soy burst its banks

He told the BBC: “Three town centre pubs flooded, and closed last night. Carpets were ripped up and chucked out on the street.
“The drains couldn’t cope with the deluge. Personally, I’ve never seen such heavy rain in all my life, and I’m 57 and have also seen monsoons in the Far East.”
During the evening flood waters caused a wall to collapse onto the Glasgow to Largs main railway line near Pencil View, Largs.
The line was immediately closed by Network Rail.
Parts of the M9 spur road near the Forth Road Bridge have also been affected by flooding.
Sections of the A96 between Inverness and Aberdeen were also flooded overnight.
In the north east, Grampian Police said surface water was making roads treacherous, in particular the A947 between Turriff and Fyvie where some vehicles had become trapped.

 

Man rescued during flash floods in Bilston

by admin on Sep.24, 2010, under National News

A man has been rescued from his car after flash flooding hit part of the Black Country.
His car became stuck under a bridge in Darkhouse Lane, Bilston, on Thursday evening.
Firefighters attended a total of eight incidents after receiving 13 calls between 2000 BST and 2100 BST.
Five people in a taxi and two people in another car had to leave their vehicles after becoming stranded in deep water in Station Road, Darlaston.
In another incident, two fire engines were called to a Hindu temple in Wellington Road, Bilston, which had flooded.
A spokesman for the fire service said that the water had now subsided.