Human Rights Watch is also reporting that the police have surrounded the hospital and are preventing injured protesters from accessing treatment.
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Wednesday, 16 March 2011
Saudi attacks bahrainian demonstrators (amateur video)
'The video-sharing website YouTube has removed a video showing Saudi Arabian troops attacking peaceful Bahraini protesters demanding political reform.
The footage posted on the website on Tuesday afternoon was removed hours later, reportedly under Saudi Arabia's pressure. The removal seems to be aimed at forestalling further outrage against Riyadh, which has dispatched 1,000 military forces to Bahrain.'
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has cautioned the United States and Europe against the wave of “human awakening” that is spreading throughout the world.
“The wave of human awakening will reach all parts of the world, including the US and Europe. Leaders of the US and European countries should not think that they will remain immune from this wave,” IRNA quoted President Ahmadinejad as saying on Tuesday.
“They should not think that they promote trouble in the world because they are more exposed to dangers of the wave than others,” he added.'
Radioactive Winds chase evacuees in Japan; Hawaii threatened by Fukushima fallout
'In a deepening tragedy, after an earthquake and tsunami caused four explosions at nuclear reactor plants in Japan, most of those who evacuated the area headed south, since winds normally would have pushed the radioactive clouds to the north and east. Instead, winds pushed the r-clouds south, according to The Australian. The shift in winds now threatens Hawaii with fallout from the Fukushima nuclear facilities.
Officials finally admit radiation has reached lethal levels in the area surrounding the explosions. Tokyo, 200 miles to the south, is also seeing higher levels of radiation. “[A]bnormal radiation and traces of radioactive elements were detected around Greater Tokyo, the world's most populous metropolitan region with 36 million people."'
Silver Bullion Coin Premiums Rise; Asian Demand for Gold Robust with "Illiquid Market" in Hong Kong
Precious metals experienced margin-related selling yesterday as traders on the COMEX liquidated contracts. This again shows gold's benefit as an important source of liquidity to financial markets in a crisis.
Today could see further selling on the COMEX, but physical demand for bullion remains robust with continuing safe haven demand due to geopolitical, macroeconomic and now real environmental concerns.
While gold and silver fell by more than 2% and 4% respectively yesterday, physical demand remains very robust - particularly in Asia. Premiums on gold bars in Shanghai were quoted at $5.43 over spot yesterday and Indian ex duty bullion bar premiums were $5.16 (London AM fix) and $4.08 (London AM fix). In Vietnam gold traded at $33.08 premium to world gold.
While Singapore spot prices remained at $1.00 over world gold, one dealer told Reuters that "supplies are still limited". In Hong Kong, premiums for gold bars were offered in a wide range from 90 cents over spot London prices to as high as $1.70. Reuters comments that this is "reflecting an illiquid market".
Premiums on silver eagles (1 ounce) in the wholesale market have been rising gradually in recent days which suggests that the surge in demand seen for silver bullion coins (partly due to Max Keiser's 'buy silver' campaign) continues and may be leading to a less liquid market for silver bullion coins.
Japan is struggling to avert a full blown nuclear meltdown and it is highly imprudent to suggest that there will not be serious economic ramifications from the tragedy.
It is already leading to further currency debasement with the Japanese having injected trillions of yen into markets in recent days and further damaging their already precarious national balance sheet. Japan doubled an asset-purchase program to 10 trillion yen ($124 billion) on March 14.
The Bank of Japan added 5 trillion yen ($62 billion) to the system again today after pouring in a record 15 trillion yen on March 14 and 8 trillion yen yesterday in one-day funding. That comes to some $360 billion in the last 3 days.
It seems almost certain that Japanese investors and institutions will sell a large quantity of their US Treasurys (nearly $900 billion) which will lead to higher US interest rates. The last thing the over indebted, fragile US economy can handle. This may explain the dollar's recent sickly performance and failure to make any gains in recent days despite market panic.
Nikkei Surges As BOJ Injects Another ¥3.5 Trillion: Just Add It To The Existing ¥23 Trillion Plunge Protection Tab
It's another day for the BOJ, which more than anything is hell bent on preventing a rerun of last night's tumble in the futures to a 7 handle. The solution: add another several trillion into money markets. Following Monday's ¥15 trillion plunge protection deposit, and yesterday's ¥8 trillion, just announced was the first tranche for tonight, which amounted to ¥3.5 trillion. And so the total involve to prevent the market from plunging a more 1,000 points is now ¥26.5 trillion, or $325 billion.
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