Friday, February 18, 2011
Almost all terrorists escaped from Egyptian prison
JERUSALEM – The vast majority of Islamic terrorists who were being held inside Egypt's prisons have escaped in recent weeks, WND has learned.
According to information obtained by WND from Egyptian security officials, out of hundreds of jailed terrorists, only nine Islamic terrorists currently remain in any Egyptian prison.
Those terrorists include two from the Palestinian Islamic jihad; one Hezbollah militant; one member of the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigades, the declared military wing of Fatah; and three members of Jihadiya Salhafiya, which is an Islamic group allied with al-Qaida.
The jailed terrorists include three recaptured Palestinians who had escaped from prison and who were part of a larger cell suspected of planning attacks against tourist sites and economic targets, including the Suez Canal.
WND reported those three were recaptured earlier this week.
Seven more members of the cell, including gunmen from Hezbollah and the Iranian Revolutionary Guards, are at large after escaping from prison amid the recent riots in Egypt targeting the regime of President Hosni Mubarak, the intelligence official said.
WND
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Read more:Almost all terrorists escaped from Egyptian prisonhttp://www.wnd.com/?pageId=264841#ixzz1EKBnogBz
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Army wants rapid-fire rubber bullets for crowd control
THE US army is planning to field "rubber bullets" for machine guns. Military officials claim the ammunition will allow them to more effectively quell violent protests without loss of life, but human rights campaigners are alarmed by the new weapon.
The final design for the XM1044 round has not been selected, according to an order placed on the Federal Business Opportunities website last month, but the army's Joint Non-Lethal Weapons Directorate has been working on a ring aerofoil projectile for some years. The round is a hollow plastic cylinder 40 millimetres across, looking something like a short toilet-paper roll. In flight its shape generates lift, giving it a longer range.
The army's existing crowd-control rounds are single shots fired from handheld grenade launchers with a range of about 50 metres - the XM1044 would double this range. It would be supplied in belts for the Mk19 grenade launcher, a truck-mounted weapon that can fire almost six rounds per second. The Mk19 has been exported to some 30 countries, including Egypt.
"The US army has a requirement for a rapid-fire non-lethal capability," says Ken Schulters, project manager for close combat systems at Picatinny Arsenal in New Jersey. "All currently fielded non-lethal ammunition is single shot."
Firing rapidly at long range is likely to be dangerously inaccurate, says Angela Wright of Amnesty International. "Such a weapon system would allow for a burst of non-accurate fire at a crowd, with high risk of hitting bystanders, ricochets and of hitting vulnerable areas of the body," she says.
Despite being hollow and plastic, if a round were to strike someone in the head, it could severely injure or kill them, she adds.
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China's hunger for gold fuels bull run
Keep in mind that the FED NOW IS THE BIGGEST holder of the US. debt.
Chinese are moving to real money.....
CHINESE gold demand nearly tripled in the last 10 years, helping fuel gold's record-breaking bull run.
Gold futures set a fresh five-week high today, with the most actively traded April-delivery contract settling up 0.7 per cent, or $US10, at $US1,384.70 a troy ounce on the Comex division of the New York Mercantile Exchange.
Prices for the yellow metal reached an all-time record of $US1432.50 a troy ounce in December on strong purchases from investment and jewellery sectors.
The precious metal has rallied 400 per cent over the past decade, gaining around 27 per cent in 2010 alone, as instability in global financial markets and a more streamlined system for investing in physical gold boosted prices.
Chinese investors, who bought 579.5 tonnes of the metal last year according to the World Gold Council, were a key factor behind the soaring prices.
Around 400 tonnes of gold were consumed in the form of gold jewellery, with the remainder coming from the bar and coin sector. They are considered investment purchases due to the high gold-carat content of jewellery sold in the region.
China is the world's largest gold producer, making a record 340.9 tonnes in 2010, up 8.6 per cent on the year, according to the China Gold Association.
But local demand for gold outstripped supply, as investors worried about protecting their wealth from escalating inflation that hit a two-year high of 5.1 per cent in November 2010. Investors consider gold as a store of value and a hedge against inflation.
China's demand growth for gold investment could be 40-50 per cent in 2011, with a corresponding rise for gold jewellery of 8-10 per cent, Wang Lixin, the council's China managing director, told reporters.
At the same time, Chinese authorities continue to loosen policies affecting how people invest in gold. November saw Shenzhen-based Lion Fund Management Co win regulatory approval to invest in gold exchange-traded funds outside the country, opening the door for mainland investors to purchase physical gold on the world market.
Business With the wall street Journal
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http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/news/chinas-hunger-for-gold-fuels-bull-run/story-e6frg90o-1226008092364
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Global demand will require the mining industry to mine process and move more materials in the next 20 years, than it has in the past 10 000 years
JOHANNESBURG (miningweekly.com) – Global demand will require the mining industry to mine, process and move more materials and minerals in the next 20 years than it has in the past 10 000 years, says Rio Tinto CE diamonds and minerals Harry Kenyon-Slaney.
“We expect consumption trends to lead to a doubling in the demand for iron-ore, copper and aluminium over the next 15 to 20 years,” Kenyon-Slaney says.
He says that the 21st century offers great opportunities for Africa and for mining companies to do business on the continent.
“Rio Tinto has a global head, but a local heart, and we will play a important part in responsible development in Africa.
“We’re committed to partnering the community where we do business, for their long-term benefit, and to working tirelessly with governments to overcome the challenges that they face,” Kenyon-Slaney adds.
With eight operations in Southern Africa and West Africa representing the spectrum of its portfolio, Rio Tinto intends to employ more women and more Africans in leadership roles.
The company has interests in aluminium in Guinea and Cameroon, iron-ore in Guinea, copper in South Africa, titanium dioxide in South Africa and Madagascar, diamonds in Zimbabwe and uranium in Namibia.
The company has spent more than $70-million in greenfield exploration across Africa in the last three years, which amounts to 13% of global exploration expenditure.
Among the company’s developmental pursuits is to produce a more concentrated titanium dioxide slag in South Africa, which is further refined in Canada through a proprietary upgrading process.
A new R1,2-billion tailings treatment plant, which last week processed its first product, has been established at Richards Bay Minerals in Kwazulu-Natal.
Rio Tinto is investing more than $350-million in local infrastructure in Madagascar, including a deep-water port to accommodate ilmenite exports and open up the area to other vessels in support of local economic development.
The company supplies 60% of South Africa’s copper metal from Palabora, where it is designing for the second lift of the underground block cave and where it is working with South Africa’s State-owned Industrial Development Corporation to establish an iron-making facility using the large reserves of magnetite.
In diamonds, it is a fundamental principle of Rio Tinto, which mines diamonds at is designed to certify the origin of rough diamonds from sources that are free of conflict.
“We work with the Kimberley Process and the national government, so that the certificates are provided for the Murowa diamonds, which has nothing to do with Marange, which is a completely separate part of Zimbabwe that has nothing to do with Rio Tinto,” Kenyon-Slaney says.
Kimberley Process certification provides Rio Tinto with the appropriate governance to market its Zimbabwe diamonds.
“We’ve been working in Zimbabwe for the best part of 50 years. We have a strong position in the country. We do wonderful work in the local community and we continue to access the optionality around Murowa.
“In the event that there is additional value at Murowa, we will look at it, but it’s a long-term process, and we continue to work with the government and the local authorities to look for opportunities,” he tells Mining Weekly Online.
Currently a moderately sized 140 000 ct/y operation, the Murowa resource is understood to have the potential to be expanded to six or seven times its current production.
Kenyon-Slaney describes Zimbabwe as being “highly prospective”.
Zimbabweans own 22% of Murowa through Rio-Zim, while Rio Tinto owns 78%.
“We expect consumption trends to lead to a doubling in the demand for iron-ore, copper and aluminium over the next 15 to 20 years,” Kenyon-Slaney says.
He says that the 21st century offers great opportunities for Africa and for mining companies to do business on the continent.
“Rio Tinto has a global head, but a local heart, and we will play a important part in responsible development in Africa.
“We’re committed to partnering the community where we do business, for their long-term benefit, and to working tirelessly with governments to overcome the challenges that they face,” Kenyon-Slaney adds.
With eight operations in Southern Africa and West Africa representing the spectrum of its portfolio, Rio Tinto intends to employ more women and more Africans in leadership roles.
The company has interests in aluminium in Guinea and Cameroon, iron-ore in Guinea, copper in South Africa, titanium dioxide in South Africa and Madagascar, diamonds in Zimbabwe and uranium in Namibia.
The company has spent more than $70-million in greenfield exploration across Africa in the last three years, which amounts to 13% of global exploration expenditure.
Among the company’s developmental pursuits is to produce a more concentrated titanium dioxide slag in South Africa, which is further refined in Canada through a proprietary upgrading process.
A new R1,2-billion tailings treatment plant, which last week processed its first product, has been established at Richards Bay Minerals in Kwazulu-Natal.
Rio Tinto is investing more than $350-million in local infrastructure in Madagascar, including a deep-water port to accommodate ilmenite exports and open up the area to other vessels in support of local economic development.
The company supplies 60% of South Africa’s copper metal from Palabora, where it is designing for the second lift of the underground block cave and where it is working with South Africa’s State-owned Industrial Development Corporation to establish an iron-making facility using the large reserves of magnetite.
In diamonds, it is a fundamental principle of Rio Tinto, which mines diamonds at is designed to certify the origin of rough diamonds from sources that are free of conflict.
“We work with the Kimberley Process and the national government, so that the certificates are provided for the Murowa diamonds, which has nothing to do with Marange, which is a completely separate part of Zimbabwe that has nothing to do with Rio Tinto,” Kenyon-Slaney says.
Kimberley Process certification provides Rio Tinto with the appropriate governance to market its Zimbabwe diamonds.
“We’ve been working in Zimbabwe for the best part of 50 years. We have a strong position in the country. We do wonderful work in the local community and we continue to access the optionality around Murowa.
“In the event that there is additional value at Murowa, we will look at it, but it’s a long-term process, and we continue to work with the government and the local authorities to look for opportunities,” he tells Mining Weekly Online.
Currently a moderately sized 140 000 ct/y operation, the Murowa resource is understood to have the potential to be expanded to six or seven times its current production.
Kenyon-Slaney describes Zimbabwe as being “highly prospective”.
Zimbabweans own 22% of Murowa through Rio-Zim, while Rio Tinto owns 78%.
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