Financial Armageddon is coming

Fuego Volcano Shoots Ash, Lava in Guatemala

GUATEMALA CITY – All eyes in central Guatemala are looking up towards the Fuego, or Fire, volcano.

The Fuego volcano has begun shooting lava and columns of ash into the air, and authorities have raised the alert level in the area.

The volcano overlooks the tourist city of Antigua and is one of Central America's most-active volcanoes.

Guatemala's National Seismology, Vulcanology, Meteorology and Hydrology Institute said in a statement Saturday that Fuego shot ash 16,400 feet (5,000 meters) into the air. Lava flows reached up to 3,280 feet (1,000 meters) in length.

David de Leon, spokesman for the national disaster agency, said authorities have raised the alert level because Fuego is in an effusive stage. The measure involves closing nearby highways, installing monitoring stations and readying emergency workers.

De Leon said while no evacuations have been ordered, there might be if Fuego's activity increases.

Read more: http://latino.foxnews.com/latino/news/2012/05/20/guatemala-fuego-volcano-belches-ash-lava/#ixzz1vVnkwrPD

EU banks fear a Greek exit could cause bank run across continent

THE spectre of funding problems is once again haunting Europe's banks.

Even after the European Central Bank pumped more than €1 trillion ($1.29 trillion) of cheap three-year loans into hundreds of banks, the continent's financial system remains vulnerable to the prospect that stampedes of customers could yank their deposits from institutions perceived as shaky.

The Australian

Fukushima Reactor 4 poses massive global risk

More than a year after a devastating earthquake and tsunami triggered a massive nuclear disaster, experts are warning that Japan isn't out of the woods yet and the worst nuclear storm the world has ever seen could be just one earthquake away from reality.

The troubled Reactor 4 at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant is at the centre of this potential catastrophe.

Reactor 4 -- and to a lesser extent Reactor 3 -- still hold large quantities of cooling waters surrounding spent nuclear fuel, all bound by a fragile concrete pool located 30 metres above the ground, and exposed to the elements.

A magnitude 7 or 7.5 earthquake would likely fracture that pool, and disaster would ensue, says Arnie Gundersen, a nuclear engineer with Fairewinds Energy Education who has visited the site.

The 1,535 spent fuel rods would become exposed to the air and would likely catch fire, with the most-recently added fuel rods igniting first.

The incredible heat generated from that blaze, Gundersen said, could then ignite the older fuel in the cooling pool, causing a massive oxygen-eating radiological fire that could not be extinguished with water.

"So the fear is the newest fuel could begin to burn and then we'd have a conflagration of the whole pool because it would become hotter and hotter. The health consequences of that are beyond where science has ever gone before," Gundersen told CTVNews.ca in an interview from his home in Vermont.

Worst-case scenario

There are a couple of possible outcomes, Gundersen said.

Highly radioactive cesium and strontium isotopes would likely go airborne and "volatilize" -- turning into a vapour that could move with the wind, potentially travelling thousands of kilometres from the source.

The size of those particles would determine whether they remained in Japan, or made their way to the rest of Asia and other continents.

"And here's where there's no science because no one's ever dared to attempt the experiment," Gundersen said. "If it flies far enough it goes around the world, if the particles stay a little bigger, they settle in Japan. Either is awful."

Essentially, he said, Japan is sitting on a ticking time bomb.

The damaged Reactor 4 cooling pool was reinforced by workers who went in and "jury-rigged" it after the tsunami, but the structure still contains a massive amount of fuel, Gundersen said.

Reactor 3 has less fuel inside its cooling pool, but it has not been strengthened since the disaster and poses a greater risk of failing.

"Reactor 3 has a little less consequences but a little more risk, and Reactor 4 has more consequences but…a little less risk," he said.

Finding a fix

The solution, Gundersen said, is for the Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) to immediately begin the process of transferring the fuel rods from the cooling pools to dry cask storage -- a massive and costly endeavour, but one he said is absolutely essential.

To even begin the removal process at Reactor 4, TEPCO would first have to construct a crane capable of lifting the 100-tonne fuel rod canister, since the original crane was destroyed in the disaster last year.

In order to do that, they would have to build a massive structure around the existing pool to support the new crane, which would then be used to lift the fuel rod canister from the water, down to the ground and into a steel and concrete dry-cask.

All this of course, has to be done in a highly contaminated area where workers must wear protective suits and limit their radiation exposure each day, adding time and expense to the process.

Still, with the consequences so high, Gundersen said there's no time to lose.

"This is a 'now' problem, this is not a 'let's-wait-until-we-get-the-cash-flow-from-the-Japanese-government' problem. The consequences of a 7 or 7.5 earthquake don't happen every day, but we know it happened last year so you have to anticipate that it will happen," Gundersen said.

‘Fate of the world' depends on Reactor 4

He's not alone in pressing the Japanese government to adopt a sense of urgency about the Reactor 4 dilemma.

Robert Alvarez, a former top adviser at the U.S. Department of Energy, also expressed concern in a letter to Akio Matsumura, a Japanese diplomat who has turned his focus to the nuclear calamity.

Matsumura had asked Alvarez about the risk associated with Reactor 4.

"The No. 4 pool is about 100 feet above ground, is structurally damaged and is exposed to the open elements," Alvarez said in his response. "If an earthquake or other event were to cause this pool to drain this could result in a catastrophic radiological fire involving nearly 10 times the amount of Cesium-137 released by the Chernobyl accident."

Mitsuhei Murata, Japan's former ambassador to Switzerland and Senegal, has also made it his mission to convince the UN and the world that urgent action is needed.

"It is no exaggeration to say that the fate of Japan and the whole world depends on No. 4 reactor," Murata said in a recent letter to UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, in which he urged him to back efforts to address the problem.

Last week, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said most major threats have been eliminated and "cold shutdown" status had been achieved in December.

But Noda declined to comment directly on the risk posed by Reactor 4, only telling The Wall Street Journal's Asia edition that it was important to "remain vigilant."

"We have passed a situation where people have to run far away or evacuate," he said. "Ahead of us are time-consuming tasks like decontamination and decommissioning (of the plants). We will proceed with the utmost care."

Gundersen said the remaining challenges at the Fukushima Da-Ichi site are not technological. Everyone knows what needs to be done and how to do it, he said. The challenge lies, rather, in convincing Japan that action must be taken now.

That will require international pressure, as well as international investment, on a grand scale, he said.

"We're all in a situation of having to pray there's not an earthquake. And there's the other half of that, which is pray to God but row toward shore. And Tokyo's not really rowing toward shore right now," Gundersen said.



Read more: http://www.ctv.ca/CTVNews/World/20120518/fukushima-dai-ichi-risk-reactor-4-120519/#ixzz1vVmXeXtD

'Jews plan to storm Temple Mount on J'lem Day'

A leading Palestinian Muslim cleric has called on Palestinians to "be alert for possible infiltration of fanatic Jews" onto Jeruslaem's Temple Mount during Jerusalem Day celebrations on Sunday, Palestinian News and Information Agency (WAFA) reported on Saturday, despite a rerouting of the parade by police to avoid Muslim-majority areas.

Sheikh Yousef Ideis, head of the Palestinian Territory's Muslim Sharia court, called on Palestinians to flood the Temple Mount on Sunday, which is a highly revered location for both Jews and Muslims, in order to be present should Jewish "fanatics decide to break into it," according to WAFA.

Police in Jerusalem announced this week that the annual Dance of Flags in honor of the national holiday - which marks the capture and unification of Jerusalem following the 1967 Six-Day War - will not pass through east Jerusalem or the Muslim Quarter due to disruptions during last year's march.

The parade, which in 2011 attracted up to 40,000 people and features live music and floats, will snake its way from King George Street in downtown Jeruaslem to Argon to the Old City, remaining in mostly Jewish-populated areas.

Last year, 24 people - the majority of them Jewish - were arrested and three wounded by flying rocks as Palestinians and Jews clashed during the parade.

Israeli police have called on Palestinian merchants whose shops lie in the path of the planned demonstration to keep their stores shuttered on Sunday in order to prevent possibly tense encounters with marchers, WAFA said. Jews taking part in Jerusalem Day's celebrations in previous years have vandalized Palestinian property and attacked individuals, according to the Palestinian report.

Jerusalem Post

'today we take an oath for a built up Jerusalem, Israel's eternal capital'

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu tells Knesset plenum 'today we take an oath for a built up Jerusalem, Israel's eternal capital'

The Knesset plenum on Monday convened a special session to mark Jerusalem Day, which was celebrated on Sunday.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Opposition Chairwoman Shelly Yachimovich (Labor) and Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin addressed the plenum during the event.

"We need to stop for one day every year and realize that we are witnessing and experiencing the fulfillment of a prophecy, the yearning for Zion, the return to Zion and the revival of Zion" Netanyahu told the Knesset plenum.

The prime minister came to the defense of visionary of the state Theodor Herzl, saying "he foresaw the problem and the solution, but he didn’t give up on Zion.

"He raised his right hand and said – If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, let my right hand wither. Today we are raising our hand with the same oath. We are taking an oath for a built up Jerusalem, the eternal capital of Israel," he said.

At the opening of the special session, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin said "Jerusalem Day is not a religious holiday, nor does it belong to rightists. Any attempt to attribute Jerusalem Day (to a particular group) removes it further from the heart of our shared Jewish identity.

"Disputing over Jerusalem is unbearable, yet being indifferent to its fate is a failure of the Zionist enterprise and Jewish education," he noted.

On Sunday, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned that partitioning Jerusalem could result in a religious war.

Speaking at a state ceremony marking Jerusalem Day in the capital's Ammunition Hill, Netanyahu said: "If we place this quadrate of the Temple Mount in the hands of others, I doubt we will be able to avoid a religious war.

"I know what history has taught us: only under Israeli sovereignty were peace and quiet among the faiths maintained."

Netanyahu further added, "Israel without Jerusalem is like a body with a weak heart. Never again will our heart be divided.

"A nation willing to sacrifice its heart would convince its enemies it has no desire to fight for anything. Jewish history has changed forever: the divided city has been united and will stay that way.

"Our generation has a great privilege of witnessing the realization of the words of the prophets. It is up to our generation to secure this change for generations to come."

Ynet

Top Commander Reiterates Iran's Commitment to Full Annihilation of Israel

TEHRAN (FNA)- Chief of Staff of the Iranian Armed Forces Major General Hassan Firouzabadi said threats and pressures cannot deter Iran from its revolutionary causes and ideals, and stressed that the Iranian nation will remain committed to the full annihilation of the Zionist regime of Israel to the end.

Addressing a defense gathering here in Tehran on Sunday, General Firouzabadi said that nations should realize the threats and dangers posed by the Zionist regime of Israel.

He reiterated the Iranian nation and Supreme Leader's emphasis on the necessity of support for the oppressed Palestinian nation and its causes, and noted, "The Iranian nation is standing for its cause that is the full annihilation of Israel."

The top military official reminded that the Iranian Supreme Leader considers defending Palestine as a full religious duty and believes that any kind of governance and rule by anyone other than the Palestinians as an instance of usurpation.

Earlier this year, Supreme Leader of Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei stressed in explicit remarks Iran's direct involvement in the Palestinian and Lebanese confrontation with Israel, including the Lebanese Summer 2006 33-day resistance against the Zionist regime.

"Wherever Iran interferes, it announces it in a very straightforward manner. For instance, we interfered in confrontations against Israel, which resulted in the (Lebanese) victory in the 33-day war and (Palestinians' victory in) the 22-day (Gaza) war," Ayatollah Khamenei said, addressing millions of Friday Prayers worshippers on Tehran University Campus in February.

"In future too, we will support and help everyone who opposes the Zionist regime," the Leader underscored.

"The Zionist regime is a real cancerous tumor that should be cut and will be cut, God Willing," Ayatollah Khamenei underscored.



FARS