Since the March 11 disasters, more than 560,000 hotel reservations have been canceled in Japan. It goes in hand with the recent report that tourism has dropped by 75%.
The Japan Tourism Agency expects hotel cancellations to continue, as Japan keeps getting hit with intense aftershocks. Also, hotel reservations for April and May are down […] Continue Reading…
“If the United States would not allow CNOOC to purchase Unocal, will not itself guarantee China a steady energy supply and opposes Chinese purchases of Iranian oil and gas, how can China survive?”-Zhang Guobao, former vice chairman National Development and Reform Commission
In 2005 China tried to buy California based Unocal. The […] Continue Reading…
Radioactive strontium has been detected in soil and plants, beyond the 30km (18.6 miles) zone around Fukushima Daiichi.
Strontium 90 is produced by nuclear reactors. It’s half life is about 29 years. It is absorbed by your bones, leading to disorders such as bone cancer.
Officially, this is the first time the detection of strontium has […] Continue Reading…
Under Bush Jr, the United States lost two ambassadors in South America. The Obama administration has lost another, bringing the total to three.
Those countries are Bolivia, Ecuador and Venezuela. So President Obama’s recent trip to Latin America did little to mend relations.
Even U.S. ally Columbia, is leaning towards Hugo Chavez in Venezuela.
Looks like the […] Continue Reading…
The ceasefire ping pong game continues.
The African Union recently got the Libyan government to agree to their ceasefire deal, but the rebels said no.
Rebel leaders refused the plan, because it does not require Gaddafi, and his sons, to step down.
In what seems to be a contradiction of the International Committee of the Red Cross’s […] Continue Reading…
“Our economy is in a severe state.”-Masaaki Shirakawa, Bank of Japan
The Bank of Japan is struggling to figure out how to pull Japan’s economy out of the dumps after the March 11 disasters. Officials now admit the economic situation is worse than first thought.
One analyst pointed out that Japan was already in a recession, […] Continue Reading…
It just doesn’t stop, since April 8, Japan has been hit with dozens of aftershocks of 5.0 or bigger, including two 7.0 quakes.
In the past few hours Japan has been hit with several large aftershocks, and they’re spread all over the big island of Honshu. The latest aftershock hit Fukushima and Ibaraki Prefectures, magnitude […] Continue Reading…
“We are concerned that Iran will try to undertake transactions related to the proliferation of weapons, evading the provisions of Security Council of the United Nations.”-U.S. Embassy cable 226556, September 2009.
The latest documents released by WikiLeaks shows the U.S. fearful of Ecuadorian ties to Iran, and that the U.S. considered Ecuador’s […] Continue Reading…
The Bolivian government will nationalize all gas stations within 50km (31 miles) of their border. The move is part of the new Law on Development and Security.
About 30 gas stations are within the 50km nationalization zone.
Bolivia is surrounded by Brazil, Paraguay, Argentina, Chile and Peru.
The government said they are in the process of negotiating […] Continue Reading…
“The Japan-U.S. alliance could collapse, completely contrary to [the recent trend of] being strengthened.”-Nagashima Akihisa, Democratic Party of Japan House of Representatives
The Daily Yomiuri is reporting that from the beginning, U.S. offers of help with the nuke crisis at Fukushima Daiichi, were given the cold shoulder by Japan’s government.
On 12 March, the U.S. ambassador […] Continue Reading…