At least eight people have been killed and nearly three million homes left without power after a rare early season snowstorm hit the east coast of the US.Governors declared states of emergency in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York as the freak winter storm dumped record-breaking levels of snow after arriving from the Atlantic. Connecticut's governor, Dannel Malloy, said the state had experienced the largest number of power outages in its history and emergency centres were opened in most cities. Maine, Massachusetts and New Jersey all said they did not expect services to return to normal for several days, while in Connecticut it could be more than a week. The storm was particularly damaging because leaves still on the trees caught more of the particularly wet and heavy snow, snapping overloaded branches. Read More
A magnitude 6.0 earthquake has struck the Rat Islands, Aleutian Islands, Alaska at a depth of 160.4 km ( 99.7 miles), the quake hit at 07:16:21 UTC Monday 31st October 2011.
The epicenter was 40 km ( 24 miles) NNE of Kiska Volcano, Alaska
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Injuries or Damage at this time
A magnitude 5.0 earthquake has struck the Gulf of Aden at a depth of 10 km ( 6.2 miles), the quake hit at 01:22:05 UTC Monday 31st October 2011.
The epicenter was 260 km ( 161 miles) SSW of Al Mukalla, Yemen
No Tsunami Warning Issued - No Reports of Injuries or Damage at this time
A magnitude 5.7 earthquake has struck Antofagasta, Chile at a depth of 31.4 km ( 19.5 miles), the quake hit at 18:53:43 UTC Sunday 30th October 2011.
The epicenter was 170 km ( 106 miles) North of Copiapo, Chile
No Reports of Injuries or Damage at this time
Airline passengers left stranded by a freak snowstorm that pounded the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic states were waiting to get to their destinations Sunday, many after spending a restless night on cots or airport floors."Whatever kind of system they had, it completely and utterly broke down," said passenger Fatimah Dahandari, who spent a night in Hartford, Connecticut's Bradley International Airport while trying to get to New York. "It looks like a refugee camp in here." More than 4 million people in at least five states were without power Sunday as the storm moved offshore. Up to five deaths, some in traffic accidents, were blamed on the storm. Dhandari said her Boston-to-New York flight diverted to Connecticut after being told there was a problem on a runway at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and the JetBlue plane did not have enough fuel to continue circling. Read More
Despite China being perhaps the only country with sufficient cash reserves to help the EU out of its crisis, the head of a Hong Kong-based investment company does not believe it will get involved at this stage.
France’s move to have the EU print more money in order to deliver Greece’s 100-billion-euro austerity package was vetoed by Germany. So the EU is left with no choice but to find real money, Francis Lun, managing director at Lyncean Holdings, told RT.
“And there are not a lot of places in the world with real money today,” he added, “And China has $3 trillion of foreign exchange reserves, so it was envisioned in a leading role in saving the euro”.
“When they [the EU] run out of money, they go to China and say please give us your foreign exchange reserve to solve the problem. But I doubt China has to play that role. It should be played by Germany, France and the EU. If you don't have money – sell your assets or raise some taxes like the US does. They will refrain from playing a leading role in saving the euro,” Lun said.
Lun believes China will hold back despite having much to gain from helping Europe in terms of “political leverage and influence.”
“When you look around the world, both the EU and the US are in deep crisis and China is the only country that is not in a financial crisis and has a huge foreign exchange surplus. China can use this money and build up a political connection and influence, so that in future in foreign policy the EU will stand on the side of China, instead of against,” Lun concludes. source
At least eight people have been killed and nearly three million homes left without power after a rare early season snowstorm hit the east coast of the US.Governors declared states of emergency in New Jersey, Connecticut, Massachusetts and parts of New York as the freak winter storm dumped record-breaking levels of snow after arriving from the Atlantic.
