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Creepy ghost town emerges from sea in Argentina

Friday, May 10th, 2013

FOXnews.com


A strange ghost town that spent a quarter century under water is coming up for air again in the Argentine farmlands southwest of Buenos Aires.

Epecuen was once a bustling little lakeside resort, where 1,500 people served 20,000 tourists a season. During Argentina’s golden age, the same trains that carried grain to the outside world brought visitors from the capital to relax in Epecuen’s saltwater baths and spas.

The saltwater lake was particularly attractive because it has 10 times more salt than the ocean, making the water buoyant. Tourists, especially people from Buenos Aires’ large Jewish community, enjoyed floating in water that reminded them of the Dead Sea in the Middle East.

Then a particularly heavy rainstorm followed a series of wet winters, and the lake overflowed its banks on Nov. 10, 1985. Water burst through a retaining wall and spilled into the lakeside streets. People fled with what they could, and within days their homes were submerged under nearly 10 meters (33 feet) of corrosive saltwater.

Now the water has mostly receded, exposing what looks like a scene from a movie about the end of the world. The town hasn’t been rebuilt, but it has become a tourist destination once again, for people willing to drive at least six hours from Buenos Aires to get here, along 340 miles (550 kilometers) of narrow country roads.

People come to see the rusted hulks of automobiles and furniture, crumbled homes and broken appliances. They climb staircases that lead nowhere, and wander through a graveyard where the water toppled headstones and exposed tombs to the elements.

It’s a bizarre, post-apocalyptic landscape that captures a traumatic moment in time.

One man refused to leave. Pablo Novak, now 82, still lives on the edge of the town, welcoming people who wander into the wrecked streets.

“Whoever passes nearby cannot go without coming to visit here,” Novak said while showing The Associated Press around. “It’s getting more people to the area, as they come to see the ruins.”

Many residents of Epecuen fled to nearby Carhue, another lakeside town, and built new hotels and spas, promising relaxing getaways featuring saltwater and mud facials.

“Not only do we have Epecuen with the ruins and its natural wealth, but we also can increasingly offer other alternatives,” said Javier Andres, the local tourism director.

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North Korea moves missiles from launch site, senior US official says

Tuesday, May 7th, 2013

FOXnews.com


North Korea has moved its missiles away from a coastal launch pad after weeks of speculation the country was planning another missile or nuclear test, a senior U.S. defense official confirms to Fox News.

Pentagon officials say the two Musudan missiles have been taken from the launch site and are being returned to garrison.

However, special assistant to the president and senior director for Asian affairs Daniel Russel cautioned Monday that despite the news, it would be premature to make a judgment on whether this North Korean provocation cycle is going up, down or zigzagging.

“Many analysts have anticipated North Korea’s provocation cycle would culminate in some grand fireworks display and no one can rule that out,” he told Fox News.

The prospect of a North Korea missile or nuclear test following weeks of harsh rhetoric from Pyongyang concerned South Korea, the U.S. and others.

Secretary of State Kerry warned North Korea last month not to conduct a missile test, saying it would be an act of provocation that “will raise people’s temperatures” and further isolate the country and its people.

A White House official tells Fox News they are continuing to monitor the situation.

The medium-range Musudan missile has a range of 2,180 miles capable of flying over Japan, Foreign Minister Yun Byung-se told lawmakers in Seoul in March.

If the Musudan missile is launched, it would be the first mobile test of this weapon.

Fox News’ Jennifer Griffin and The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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WHO: H7N9 virus ‘one of the most lethal so far’

Wednesday, April 24th, 2013

By Peter Shadbolt, CNN

CNNnews.com

Hong Kong (CNN) — As the death toll from China’s bird flu outbreak rose to 22 with news of another victim in eastern Zhejiang Province, the World Health Organization warned the H7N9 virus was one of the most lethal that doctors and medical investigators had faced in recent years.


“This is an unusually dangerous virus for humans,” Keiji Fukuda, WHO’s assistant director-general for health, security and the environment told a news conference in Beijing Wednesday.

“We think this virus is more easily transmitted from poultry to humans than H5N1,” he added, referring to the bird flu outbreak between 2004 and 2007 that claimed 332 lives.

READ: Researchers: Elderly more at H7N9 risk

“This is definitely one of the most lethal influenza viruses that we have seen so far.”

As investigations continue into the possible sources of infection, Fukuda warned that authorities were still struggling to understand the virus. The WHO said China must brace for continued infections.

Fukuda’s warning came as Taiwanese health authorities said they’ve confirmed the first human case of H7N9 in Taiwan — one they said was imported from China.

A 53-year-old Taiwanese man who worked in eastern China was confirmed to have H7N9 on Wednesday, the Taiwanese Centers for Disease Control said. His condition was described to be severe.

He had been traveling back and forth regularly between China’s Jingsu province and Taiwan, health officials said.

“According to the case, he had not been exposed to birds and poultry during his stay in Suzhou (in Jingsu province) and had not consumed undercooked poultry or eggs,” the Taiwanese CDC said.

Taiwanese health officials said they are screening travelers arriving from China for signs of H7N9.

Fukuda, meanwhile, said WHO officials “are at the beginning of our understanding of this virus.”

“(The situation remains) complex, difficult and it is evolving,” he said.

So far there is no evidence of sustained human-to-human transmission, the authorities say.

“We do want to note, however, that if limited person-to-person transmission is demonstrated in the future, this really will not be surprising,” Fukuda warned, adding that it was critical to remain vigilant, monitoring the virus’s spread and mutation.

READ: Bird flu eats up Yum profits in China

“We are not sure that the clusters were caused by common exposure to a source of the virus or were due to limited person-to-person transmission,” he said. “Moreover we have not seen sustained person-to-person transmission.”

While some elements of the outbreak have baffled investigators — specifically why the virus tends to target an elderly demographic and the fact that it is asymptomatic or mild in some cases and lethal in others — authorities have claimed some significant victories in the fight against a pandemic.

Anne Kelso, the director of a WHO-collaborating research center, said researchers had seen a “dramatic slowdown” in human cases in Shanghai after the city’s live poultry market was shut on April 6. Describing the finding as “very encouraging,” she said evidence suggests the closure of live poultry markets is an effective way to stop the spread of the virus.

The joint inspection team from China’s National Health and Family Planning Commission and the World Health Organization also found that, so far, no migratory birds have tested positive for the virus, taking another worrying route of transmission out of the equation.

It said the H7N9 virus is only being found in chickens, ducks and pigeons at live poultry markets.

WHO officials said there are already efforts underway in other countries to develop a vaccine after Chinese officials admitted international help would be needed with this.

Meanwhile, the National Health and Family Planning Commission said in its daily update on H7N9 cases that a total of 108 H7N9 cases have been reported in China, including 22 deaths. Most cases have been confined to Shanghai and neighboring provinces in eastern China.

CNN’s Ivan Watson and Feng Ke in Beijing contributed to this report.

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We will shoot down North Korean missile if allies at risk: US

Tuesday, April 9th, 2013

AFP

The Times Of India

WASHINGTON: A top US military commander said Tuesday he favored shooting down a North Korean missile only if it threatened the United States or Washington’s allies in the region.



When asked by lawmakers if he supported knocking out any missile fired by North Korea, Admiral Samuel Locklear, head of US Pacific Command, said: “I would not recommend that.”

But the four-star admiral told the Senate Armed Services Committee he would “certainly recommend” intercepting an incoming North Korean missile “if it was in defense of our allies” or the United States.

Amid widespread speculation North Korea could be preparing a missile launch, Locklear also said he was confident the US military would be able to detect quickly where any missile was headed.

“It doesn’t take long for us to determine where it’s going and where it’s going to land,” said Locklear, who oversees American forces in the Asia-Pacific region.

The US military has a powerful radar in Japan to help track a possible missile launch as well as naval ships in the area equipped with anti-missile weaponry. Japan and South Korea also have their own missile defense systems.

The Pacific Command chief’s comments underscored the delicate balancing act faced by President Barack Obama as his administration attempts to demonstrate US resolve without aggravating the crisis on the Korean peninsula.

Given North Korea’s repeated violations of UN Security Council resolutions that bar the pursuit of long-range ballistic missiles and nuclear weapons, Pyongyang represents “a clear and direct threat to US national security and regional peace and stability,” Locklear said.

North Korea has issued dire threats that it could stage an attack on the United States with nuclear weapons, but experts doubt it is able to do so.

Both the admiral and lawmakers voiced concern that possible miscalculation could trigger an unintended war, and Locklear acknowledged the situation was “volatile.”

To try to manage tensions, a new joint military plan between the United States and South Korea was designed to carefully counter North Korea’s provocations but “without unnecessary escalation,” he said.

With Pyongyang issuing almost daily threats against Washington and its allies, the United States was struggling to discern the motives and behavior of the Stalinist state’s young leader, Kim Jong-Un, he said.

“We have limited understanding of North Korean leadership intent, which remains a concern to long-term stability,” Locklear said in written testimony.

Senator Carl Levin, chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee, said hopes had long been dashed that North Korea’s leader would be a reformer.

“Any guarded optimism about North Korea that may have accompanied the December 2011 death of long-time dictator Kim Jong Il has faded as the new regime has adopted many of the same destructive policies …as its predecessors,” Levin said.

The senator and other lawmakers expressed frustration over China’s role, saying it needed to use its influence with North Korea to defuse the crisis.

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US ‘Elects’ New Syrian Leader…A Guy From Dallas!

Thursday, March 21st, 2013

Daniel McAdams
Lew Rockwell Blog
March 21, 2013

In the name of democracy, the US government has supported a variety of armed opposition fighters in Syria seeking to overthrow that country’s president, Bashar al-Assad, who according to a wide variety of sources information enjoys support from the majority of the Syrian people.

So to promote democracy in Syria, the US government has taken it upon itself to choose a new leader for Syria.

And in keeping with the US tradition of supporting the Chalabis of the world, this democratic answer to Syria’s problems lives in Dallas, TX, and was educated in Indiana. He has not set foot in the country he now “rules” in more than thirty years. Also, he is, like the other US puppets to emerge from the phony “Arab Spring” an Islamist from the Muslim Brotherhood.

That is what the US government calls “democratic legitimacy.”

It would be comical if the US was not on the verge of attacking Syria, perhaps on the false Tonkin pretense that the Syrian government recently used a chemical weapon in Aleppo. And irony is always lost on bulllies: we are just ten years out from the last time the neo-cons neo-conned us into a war based on a lie. Oh…but this time it is different, we are told. This one is really for democracy!

UPDATE: See this fascinating interview for a glimpse of the real feeling on the ground in Aleppo”

“People here don’t like the regime, but they hate the rebels even more. …I, and many other residents of Aleppo saw firsthand how the armed rebels were acting on the ground, and the various crimes and looting they were committing with impunity. Another reason is that there are foreign jihadi fighters with extremist ideologies here.”

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