The latest from The Most Important News....
A magnitude-6.7 earthquake rattled northeast Japan early Thursday in the same area where a massive quake triggered a deadly tsunami in March, but there were no immediate reports of injuries or damage.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai on Thursday welcomed Barack Obama's plans for a U.S. troops drawdown and said it's a sign that Afghanistan is ready to take control of security in the war-torn nation.
Syrian troops massed near the Turkish border, witnesses said on Thursday, raising tensions with Ankara as President Bashar al-Assad uses increasing military force against a popular revolt.
Lebanon's Hezbollah is preparing for a possible war with Israel to relieve perceived Western pressure to topple Syrian President Bashar Assad, its guardian ally, sources close to the movement say.
Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Thursday that the Islamic Republic is not afraid of manufacturing nuclear weapons, but does not intend to do so.
The European Union's foreign policy chief, Catherine Ashton, says she is not sure that there will be a vote in the United Nations in September on recognition of a Palestinian state and that the wording of the resolution is still uncertain.
Severe flooding is causing chaos in North Dakota.
Two Republicans pulled out of high-profile budget talks today, saying that Barack Obama needs to address Democratic demands that tax increases are needed to reduce the nation's debt.
As of June 20th, the U.S. national debt was $14,344,524,186,068.19.
The national debt will exceed the size of the entire U.S. economy by 2021 — and balloon to nearly 200 percent of GDP within 25 years — without dramatic cuts to federal health and retirement programs or steep tax increases, congressional budget analysts said Wednesday.
Federal Reserve officials are more pessimistic about prospects for economic growth and employment than they were two months ago.
Ben Bernanke made the following statement yesterday: "We don’t have a precise read on why this slower pace of growth is persisting."
The Federal Reserve plans to "embed" even more workers at top Wall Street banks.
The U.S. Department of Energy said Thursday it will release 30 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve to alleviate Libyan supply disruptions -- driving already sinking prices lower.
The price of food continues to soar all over the United States.
Livestock prices have increased 138% since March 2009.
World food prices that rose 37 percent in a year, driving 44 million more people into poverty, are a “plague” that need action from world leaders now, French President Nicolas Sarkozy says.
According to a recent poll, 48 percent of Americans believe that "another Great Depression" is likely within the next 12 months.
In the week ending June 18, the advance figure for seasonally adjusted initial claims was 429,000, an increase of 9,000 from the previous week's revised figure of 420,000.
U.S. jobs have been leaving the country at a staggering pace.
America has lost 11.7 million jobs and 440,000 businesses over the past 11 years.
Excluding petroleum products, China accounts for 70 percent of America's trade deficit in goods.
The Chinese government is using sovereign wealth funds and Chinese state-owned enterprises to buy up economic assets and huge tracts of land all over the United States.
The People's Bank of China, the country's central bank, said on Thursday that it has signed a revised bilateral currency settlement agreement with the Central Bank of the Russian Federation.
In less than 40 years India will overtake the US as the world’s second-largest trading nation, pushing today’s superpower into third place and Europe in to the little leagues, according to a new report by Citi.
India imported a staggering $8.96 billion of gold and silver in May.
Greece won the consent of a team of EU-IMF inspectors for its new five-year austerity plan after committing to an additional round of tax rises and spending cuts.
Greece's new finance minister said the government has been encouraging Greek banks to participate in a solution to the country's crippling debt crisis, just days ahead of a crucial Parliamentary vote that could stave off a devastating default.
Rioting is becoming a common thing all over the globe.
All over the United States, thieves are stealing copper wire, train tracks and even drain covers.
With a bill that would ban invasive TSA pat downs in Texas set to be heard by the state legislature on Friday, the federal agency has indicated that it will take legal action to prevent the law being implemented, indicating that the government could once again resort to threatening Texas with a blockade that would impose a de facto “no fly zone” over the state.
It is being reported that Fukushima nuclear fuel has burned through the containment vessel and is sitting on the concrete foundation of the plant leaking into the groundwater.
Heavy rains in South Dakota recently triggered a sinkhole which swallowed two vehicles and ended up claiming two lives.
An indigenous tribe of 200 people who have never had contact with the outside world has been discovered living in Brazil's Amazon rainforest.
In his encyclical Caritas in Veritate, Pope Benedict XVI came out forcefully in favor of environmental protection and "sustainable" economic development.
The death of an Arizona man who recently visited Germany may be linked to the food-poisoning outbreak in Europe, health officials said Thursday.
A shocking new study published in a prestigious medical journal has found a direct statistical link between higher vaccine doses and infant mortality rates in the developed world, suggesting that the increasing number of inoculations being forced upon children by medical authorities, particularly in the United States which administers the highest number of vaccines and also has the highest number of infant deaths, is in fact having a detrimental impact on health.
On Monday, former Vice President Al Gore discussed climate change and population control at the Games for Change convention in New York City.
Lastly, Jews and Israelis, or passengers carrying any non-Islamic article of faith, will not be able to fly on Delta Air Lines flights from the U.S. to Saudi Arabia under Delta's new partnership with Saudi Arabian Airlines.
Armed westerners have been filmed on the front line with rebels near Misrata in the first apparent confirmation that foreign special forces are playing an active role in the Libyan conflict.
Eight generals from embattled Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi's army have defected to Italy, the Italian Foreign Ministry told CNN Monday.
Is NATO preparing to hit Moammar Gadhafi harder than ever?
Most people do not realize it, but Yemen is coming apart at the seams right now.
An Israeli Cabinet minister says the civilized world must take joint action to avert the Iranian nuclear threat, including a pre-emptive strike if necessary.
The Muslim Brotherhood claims that it wants a diverse parliament after elections in September and is not seeking to impose Islamic law on Egypt, the head of the group's newly formed political party said in an interview.
On Saturday, before Songda degraded into a tropical storm, TEPCO said some reactor buildings were uncovered and radiation would spread due to the storm. “We have made utmost efforts, but we have not completed covering the damaged reactor buildings,” said an official at that time.
Within a 20 km radius around the stricken plant at Fukushima, a Chernobyl-style dead zone is developing, with levels of 1.48 million becquerels a square meter measured within that area.
Gasoline costs a dollar more per gallon than it did last Memorial Day.
The average Memorial Day cookout is going to cost 29 percent more this year than it did last year.
The Japanese earthquake and tsunami in March appears to have damaged the U.S. economy much more than expected.
High input prices, supply chain disruptions from the tsunami disaster in Japan and slowing demand from China have combined to brake manufacturing momentum in Europe, the United States and Asia in recent months.
Even the United Nations is now warning that the U.S. dollar could collapse.
Reports that Greece has not met any of the fiscal targets set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the European Union (EU) as part of its 110 billion euros ($157 billion) bailout knocked down the euro Monday, as other countries in the euro zone are threatened with being dragged into the Greek morass.
The European Union is racing to draft a second bailout package for Greece to release vital loans next month and avert the risk of the euro zone country defaulting, EU officials said on Monday.
It is being reported that if a new Greek bailout package is approved, outside authorities will take over various functions related to tax collection (a big time problem in Athens) and privatizations.
The ECB owns 50 billion EUR worth of Greek bonds, and has loaned 90 billion EUR to Greek banks. A Greek default would compromise the balance sheet of the ECB.
Greek citizens are pulling billions out of their banks as the country descends into chaos.
Tens of thousands of Greeks vented their anger at the nation’s political classes in Athens on Sunday, staging the biggest in a week of protests as the government seeks backing for yet more austerity.
If Greece defaults, it is going to be a complete and total financial disaster.
Ireland may have to ask for another loan from the European Union and International Monetary Fund because it will struggle to return to debt markets to raise funds next year, a government minister said on Sunday.
The Bank of England's chief economist has admitted that the UK faces two "bleak" years as it grapples with inflation and economic adjustments.
China is stepping up buying in Japanese government bonds, particularly notes with less than one year to maturity, market players say, in what looks like a fresh drive to diversify its ballooning foreign reserves.
In a move that is certain to be detrimental to the American economy, President Barack Obama is personally pushing for Russia’s entry into the World Trade Organization, even working behind the scenes to resolve some of the outstanding issues.
Saudi Prince Al-Waleed bin Talal said Sunday that he wants oil prices to drop so that the United States and Europe don't accelerate efforts to wean themselves off his country's supply.
A weak dollar, mounting inflationary fears and skyrocketing gold and silver prices are prompting some states to convert precious metals into legal currencies.
China now consumes 53% of the world's cement.
The cost of airline travel has increased exponentially, mostly due to surcharges and fees which can add $500 or more to the price of round-trip airfare.
Is the U.S. Postal Service on the verge of collapse?
Sometimes controversial trends analyzer Gerald Celente is forecasting that a return to the gold standard will not be enough to save the U.S. economy from collapsing.
Sarah Palin told CNN on Monday that she plans to take her "One Nation" bus tour to Iowa, the state that votes first in the race for the Republican presidential nomination.
Texas Rep. Ron Paul performed well in the latest CNN poll of potential Republican primary voters.
Barack Obama is sending even more troops over to Iraq.
Iraqi cleric and militia leader Moqtada al-Sadr has threatened to take up arms against U.S. troops unless they leave the country by the end of the year.
An internal bulletin from the Kenyan National Security Intelligence Service, or NSIS, states that the Kenyan government in 2009 commissioned a cultural museum in the Obama home village of Kogelo to honor the "birthplace of President Barack Obama" and rededicate the tomb of his father, Barack Obama Sr.
African swine fever (ASF), a viral disease harmless to people but lethal to pigs, is likely to spread beyond Russia and the Caucasus region into Europe, the United Nations’ food agency said on Thursday.
The Church of Scotland is preparing for dozens of ministers to come out as homosexuals following a historic vote to allow practicing gay clergy.
Northern Europe is facing the worst drought it has seen in 35 years.
One U.S. Congressman is saying that we need to move our families out of the cities.
A study scheduled for publication in the Pace Environmental Law Review closely examined public information on 1,300 cases in which the National Vaccine Injury Compensation Program compensated families. Significant brain injuries were found in compensated patients as a direct result of vaccinations. Eighty-three cases specifically resulted in autism and are being called, “the tip of the iceberg.”
Some authorities want to add lithium to our drinking water to "improve" our mental health.
It turns out that dancing at the Jefferson Memorial in Washington D.C. is illegal.
Chilling technology straight out of Minority Report that would subject Americans to pre-crime interrogations and physiological scans to detect “malintent” at sports stadiums, malls, airports and other public places has moved closer to being implemented after Homeland Security’s FAST program passed its first round of testing.
Lastly, starting next year all new cellphones will be required to contain a chip that will allow the president to broadcast "emergency alerts" to the cellphones whenever the president wants.
Barack Obama has announced to the world that the U.S. military has killed Osama Bin Laden. At this point nobody can examine the evidence because supposedly the body has been dumped into the North Arabian Sea from aboard a U.S. aircraft carrier. U.S. officials say that this was necessary because "Islamic law" requires a rapid burial.
It turns out that Islamic law actually requires burial in the ground if at all possible.
The compound where Osama bin Laden was supposedly killed by U.S. forces is located a bit more than 1,000 yards from a Pakistan Military Academy.
Pakistan declared the killing of Osama bin Laden a “major setback” to global terrorism, but it will inevitably come under pressure to explain how the al-Qaeda leader was holed up in a mansion near a military facility.
Thousands of people poured into the streets outside the White House and in New York City early Monday, waving U.S. flags, cheering and honking horns to celebrate al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden's death.
Not everyone is celebrating the death of Osama bin Laden. Between 800 - 1,200 protestors marched in Quetta, Pakistan on Monday, to pay homage to Osama Bin Laden.
The Taliban has already threatened fresh attacks on Pakistani leaders and US targets.
The London Guardian has suggested that the fake image of a dead Osama Bin Laden used by several British mainstream media websites this morning on their front pages was the work of “conspiracy theorists” who claimed it was genuine.
An article in the New York Times reported that Osama Bin Laden was dead back in 2002, and an article on Fox News reported that Osama Bin Laden was dead back in 2001. In fact, there have been quite a few reports of the death of Bin Laden over the years.
As news of Osama bin Laden's death made its way across the globe Sunday night, Internet traffic exploded.
The Chinese official news agency Xinhua is reporting that Osama Bin Laden was killed by Pakistani forces, and that U.S. forces merely swooped in the pick up the body.
Adolf Hitler's death was made public 66 years to the day before Bin Laden's.
The State Department issued a travel alert Monday, warning Americans traveling or living abroad to be cautious about anti-American violence in the wake of Osama bin Laden's death.
On Monday, the NYPD flooded the city’s subway system with additional cops. The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, “out of an abundance of caution,” said it has added more police at airports, the George Washington Bridge and ground zero.
China has again urged an end to fighting in Libya, saying it has "always opposed" any action not authorized by the U.N. Security Council, after Libya said Muammar Gaddafi's youngest son and three grandchildren were killed in a NATO airstrike.
The British embassy in Tripoli was set on fire and other western missions were ransacked by angry Libyan crowds recently in retaliation for a Nato air strike that killed members of Muammar Gaddafi's family.
Persistent, heavy rains have helped swell the Mississippi and Ohio rivers to the highest levels ever recorded, said an Army Corps of Engineers official Sunday.
The F5 tornado that ripped through the Tuscaloosa, Alabama area recently was reportedly so monstrous that it is still kind of difficult to believe that it was actually real. The thing was a mile wide and scientists are estimating that it had winds that exceeded 260 miles an hour. According to National Geographic, this monster tornado may have traveled a whopping 300 miles across Alabama and Georgia.
After jumping more than 3 cents over the weekend, gas prices across America could top $4 a gallon this week, according to one industry analyst.
The number of "low income jobs" in the U.S. has risen steadily over the past 30 years and they now account for 41 percent of all jobs in the United States.
The U.S. dollar is becoming incredibly weak.
Honda has warned its U.S. dealers that there will be shortages later in the summer of popular models such as the just-on-sale, redesigned Civic compact.
Mainland China has decreased its holdings of U.S. Treasury securities since last October, according to a report updated today by the U.S. Treasury Department.
Atlantic City has been very busy putting homeless people on a bus and sending them back where they came from.
According to the American Association of Medical Colleges, we face a shortfall of more than 150,000 doctors over the next 15 years.
Billions of dollars in unclaimed life insurance benefits are at the center of a legal wrestling match as cash-strapped state governments step up their efforts to go after unclaimed insurance benefits.
It sounds like Donald Trump has definitely decided to make a run for the White House in 2012.
Facebook has removed dozens of political activist profiles from its site, causing an outcry from campaigners trying to organize anti-austerity protests this weekend.
Sleeping too little or for too long disrupts how we think and can age the brain by up to seven years, a new study has shown.
Bank of Japan Governor Masaaki Shirakawa said on Saturday that the country's economic outlook was very severe and that the central bank would take appropriate action to support the economy.
Radioactive leakage from fuel rods at a nuclear power plant in the city of Tsuruga in Fukui prefecture on Honshu island of Japan are believed to be the cause of a surge in the density of toxic substances detected in coolant water, the prefectural government said Monday.
Furious parents in Fukushima have delivered a bag of radioactive playground earth to education officials in protest at moves to weaken nuclear safety standards in schools.
The northwest coast of the U.S. could be devastated by a huge movement of undersea plates known as a ‘megathrust’ earthquake, scientists say.
Ecuador's Tungurahua volcano recently hurled massive pyroclastic boulders more than a mile in a powerful eruption that prompted at least 300 people to flee their homes, authorities said.
A former Miss USA's claims of being groped during a pat-down at Dallas-Fort Worth International Airport could be a felony under a bill gaining momentum in the Texas Legislature.
Barack Obama’s father was forced to leave Harvard University before completing his Ph.D. in economics because the school was concerned about his personal life and finances, according to newly public immigration records.
The once outlawed Muslim Brotherhood said Saturday its new political party will contest half of the seats in Egypt’s parliamentary elections in September, revealing plans to become a major force in the country’s post-revolution politics.
Israeli fighter jets are conducting drills at a military base in Iraq in preparation for a strike on Iran, the Islamic Republic's Press TV is reporting.
Debka is reporting that Hezbollah is preparing to pull its heavy, long-range weapons out of storage in Syrian military facilities – no longer sure they are safe there – and risk transporting them to Lebanon.
Lastly, Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil al-Arabi on Sunday called on the United States to recognize a Palestinian state.
As day broke Thursday, people throughout the South began to survey the wreckage left behind after dozens of tornadoes ripped through six states killing hundreds of people.
The vast majority of fatalities from the tornadoes occurred in Alabama, where well over 100 people perished, said Yasamie August, Alabama Emergency Management Agency spokeswoman.
UK newspapers are reporting that British troops could be deployed to the Libyan border to guard refugees fleeing the Gaddafi regime.
World Bank President Robert Zoellick Thursday says that he hopes the institution will have a role in rebuilding Libya as it emerges from current unrest.
Syrian security forces have killed at least 500 civilians in a crackdown on a "peaceful democratic uprising", Syrian human rights organization Sawasiah said on Thursday.
Radiation readings at Japan’s Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear station have risen to the highest level since an earthquake and tsunami knocked out cooling systems.
In the first quarter of 2011, U.S. gross domestic product (GDP) only increased by 1.8 percent, significantly down from the 3.1 percent of growth in the last quarter of 2010.
The Labor Department says that new claims for unemployment benefits jumped 25,000 to a seasonally adjusted 429,000 for the week ending April 23. That's the highest total since late January.
After sifting through about one million applications, McDonald’s hired more than 60,000 workers nationwide in conjunction with its National Hiring Day earlier this month.
It turns out that it is now easier to get into Harvard than it is to get a job at McDonald's.
Wal-Mart says that their customers are running out of money.
Rampant inflation is starting to show up in a lot of different areas of the economy.
As gas prices approach record highs, gas-related thievery is on the rise.
Declining total gasoline stocks in the critical central U.S. Atlantic Coast region may be putting some in the U.S. Atlantic Coast gasoline market on edge as the country moves toward the high-demand summer gasoline season.
Gold settled at a fresh record high above $1,531 on Thursday, while silver soared to an all-time high, as a falling dollar and signs that the Federal Reserve would maintain a loose monetary policy boosted precious metals' appeal as a hedge against inflation and economic uncertainty.
Is the decline of the U.S. dollar about to accelerate?
House prices are falling again—and the decline is accelerating.
The battle over debit card fees is turning ugly.
If the U.S. economy get rid of all debt there would literally be no money.
If you break down the U.S. national debt, it comes to more than $45,000 per citizen, or almost $127,000 per taxpaying American.
State budget cuts will force Philadelphia's schools to lay off 3,820 employees - including 12% of the district's teachers - to close a gaping budget shortfall next year.
55% of Americans believe that the U.S. economy is either in a depression or a recession.
More Americans than ever are stockpiling food and emergency supplies.
In many areas, sales of guns and rifles are setting new records.
Standard and Poor's, one of the top credit rating agencies, is warning that the cost of rebuilding Japan could hit 50 trillion yen, and it has downgraded the outlook for Japan's debt rating from "stable" to "negative".
Are you against raising the debt ceiling? If so, according to former Bush Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill you are actually part of al-Qaeda.
In an effort to enhance online security and privacy, the Obama administration has proposed Americans obtain a single ID for all Internet sales and banking activity. But a new Rasmussen Reports poll finds most Americans want nothing to do with such an ID if the government is the one to issue it and hold the information.
Navigation device maker TomTom has apologized after getting busted for selling user data to local police in Europe.
It turns out that there are all kinds of problems with the "birth certificate" that Barack Obama has released.
Now Donald Trump wants Barack Obama to release his college records.
Fox News host Glenn Beck says that some of the so-called “birthers” are actually supporters of Barack Obama.
California’s AB 354 was passed in September of last year, making proof of whooping cough vaccinations mandatory for both public and private school students starting in the 2011-12 school year. However, health representatives told Mercury News that the law makes most students ineligible for attendance.
Superman renounces his U.S. citizenship in a new issue of Action Comics.
Belief in a god, or a supreme being, and some sort of afterlife is strong in many countries around the globe, according to a new Ipsos/Reuters poll.
A Methodist church in Ohio is publicly declaring that being gay is a gift from God.
Last week a group of pro-abortion activists vandalized and desecrated a Christian pro-life display students at Clarion University put up at their Pennsylvania campus.
Charlie Veitch, who many of you will know as the leader of the Love Police activist group, has been arrested by British police in a pre-crime raid on charges of “conspiracy to cause a public nuisance” at tomorrow’s Royal Wedding.
Lastly, Rev. David Wilkerson, founding pastor of Times Square Church in New York City and author of the well-known book The Cross and the Switchblade, was killed Wednesday in a head-on collision in Texas. He was 79.
