Russia's Rouble Collapsing as Oil Prices in Freefall

As the price of oil plummeted to below $60 a barrel on increased Saudi production, Russia's already sluggish economy took a significant hit when Russia's central bank announced they would increase the key interest rate from 10.5% to 17% in a drastic move announced earlier this week.

The move was done in part to halt the Russian Ruble's drastic slide against the Dollar and Euro- as of Wednesday afternoon, the Ruble was trading at just over 60 to the dollar [down from 68 prior to interest rate hikes- NANESB!] and just under 75 to the Euro.

Although Russia has been on the receiving end of lukewarm sanctions from the USA and European Union after Russia annexed the Crimea and parts of eastern Ukraine, it's apparent that the recently plummeting energy prices have played a role in Russia's latest economic crisis.

This leaves Putin with the difficult choice of trying to prop up the mostly resource-based Russian economy or continue his costly military campaign against the Ukraine [I'm of two minds on this- while I'm glad Putin's finally reeling after attacking a neighboring country unprovoked, let's also keep in mind that no matter how dangerous and belligerent a Kremlin flush with petrodollars was the Eastern Europe, an unstable Russia that feels it has nothing left to lose may end up being more dangerous to the region. Also, who's to say the contagion would be confined exclusively to Russia?- NANESB!].

A financial joke devised to poke fun at Putin comes true http://t.co/WNRH5tkHFo pic.twitter.com/3DigQSw7Qt

— The Political Hat (@ThePoliticalHat) December 16, 2014

Over the last several weeks, the implied rationale behind Saudi Arabia's increase in production was that they were attempting to undermine the fracking boom in the US and Canada, temporarily saturating the global market with cheap oil and making the labor intensive practice unprofitable for North American companies. While this strategy would mean the Saudis would lose money in the short-term, they would (in theory) benefit in the long run from reduced competition from oil shale in west Texas and North Dakota.

However, others have theorized that Russia was the intended target of a clandestine Saudi economic attack all along. With President Obama ignoring his own self-declared 'Red Line' in Syria and seeking rapprochement with Iran- despite the Islamic Republic's stated desire to obtain nuclear weapons- the Arabian kingdom has decided to act unilaterally and go after Syria and Iran's benefactor in Russia economically. If that is the case, then undercutting Russia's state-run Gazprom by flooding the global marketplace with cheap oil has proven devastatingly effective so far- moreso than tepid the tepid sanctions levied on Russia after invading the eastern Ukraine.

Whether it's to undercut Russia or the fracking boom in the USA, the Saudi strategy is sure to cause problems among other OPEC members who are just as reliant on oil as Russia and may not be able to ride out low prices like the House of Saud. Even more problematic for some OPEC nations such as Iran and Venezuela is that Russia is their primary benefactor.

The move by Russia's Central Bank comes a little over a month after Russia and China agreed to a lucrative $300B energy deal which would give China's quasi-state run China National Petroleum Corp a partial stake in west Siberian oil and gas fields. In October, China and Russia had signed an agreement to swap nearly $100B of currency, so China may be on the hook as well if the Ruble continues its collapse.

The rate increase has also triggered bickering amid Putin's inner circle and prompted many Russians swarming markets to buy goods before the prices went up.

Death Toll Rises From Terrorist Attack on Market in Western China

China's state-run Xinhua news agency reports that at least 31 people were killed after attackers in SUV's plowed through a crowded marketplace and threw home-made explosives at pedestrians in the western city of Urumqi this week. At least one of the vehicles crashed and exploded, according to witnesses.

Early reports put the death toll at 31, but that number may have risen to 43. The attack took place around 8 AM local time on Thursday, shortly after senior citizens were finishing their morning exercises and shopping or having breakfast near the marketplace.

"We were about to pay for vegetables, when all of a sudden this car came from behind and knocked us over and then it exploded," said 50-year-old Zhou Ping, interviewed at an Urumqi hospital Thursday night. "When I got up, I was covered in vegetables and dirt and blood."

"Two minutes later, another car came that went farther down the road and exploded too, like they wanted to commit suicide. I was in complete shock," said Zhou. She escaped serious injury but her sister was badly wounded with gashes to the eyes, legs and back.

Wu Gang, 54, an ambulance driver who lives in the neighborhood and was off-duty on Thursday, said there were multiple explosions.

"We heard these bangs, one after another. It sounded like fireworks or maybe construction, but then we heard the sirens and knew it was an attack," said Wu.

Witnesses said the attackers had to have known the city fairly well to strike when the area around the market was as crowded as it was and that one of the vehicles was reportedly flying a flag bearing Uighur script.

The attacks come about a month after the Urumqi train station was attacked by bomb and knife-wielding assailants, killing three in an attack that coincided with a visit to the region by Chinese president Xi Jinpeng.

Authorities are blaming the uptick in violence on Islamic separatist groups that want to weaken Beijing's grip on the traditionally Turkic region of Xinjiang. Shortly after the attack, the Turkestan Islamic Party reportedly sent out an unverified claim of responsibility.

In March, 33 people were killed when machete-wielding assailants hacked passengers and vendors in the south-western Chinese city of Kunming. China's state-run media has tight control over the details of sensitive information such as the terror attacks in both Kunming and Urumqi. However, outside observers believe the Uighurs and separatist Turkestan Islamic Party have shifted tactics from hit and run attacks on Chinese authorities to targeting civilians in both Xinjiang and further afield.

Today's Train of Thought- And They're Off! May 8th, 2014

Today's train of thought takes us to the Bluegrass State in the leadup to the Kentucky Derby- despite the very visible presence of a steam locomotive, this shot was taken in the not too distant past.

Besides the mint juleps and Southern belles in big hats, the Kentucky Derby also brings out special excursions for the railroads that serve Louisville. CSX, Norfolk Southern, Canadian Pacific, RJ Corman Lines and Amtrak have all operated special trains for the sole purpose of shuttling VIPS to Churchill Downs [CP sold their former Milwaukee Road line to Louisville, KY to the Indiana Railroad a few years ago, and Amtrak stopped service to Kentucky's largest city in 2003, but Amtrak power still hauls a charter train from Chicago to Louisville for the Derby- NANESB!].

Here, railpictures.net contributor Chase Gunnoe caught RJ Corman's 2010 Kentucky Derby special steaming through West Frankfort, KY under rainy skies with a rather distinct lashup on May 1, 2010. Leading the charge is Chinese-made QJ 2-10-2 steam locomotive #2008, followed by one of RJ Corman's Railpower GenSet demonstrators and a pair of F units from My Old Kentucky Dinner Train on Corman's Bardstown line. The big Chinese QJ, which the late RJ Corman had imported from China and fired up for service on the old Louisville & Nashville 'Old Road' Line in 2008 goes by the moniker "Big Smokey"- somewhat ironic considering that the QJ is actually newer than the F-units behind it.

Corman's QJ has another 15 or so miles to go before uncoupling from the rest of the train in a siding at Christiansburg, KY. Ever since the 1990s, CSX has prohibited the operation of steam locomotives on their rails, and RJ Corman's line in Kentucky exercises trackage rights on CSX around Louisville, meaning the F units will take the passenger consist the rest of the way.

Despite the rainy and overcast weather, the Kentucky Derby went off that day and Thoroughbred Super Saver was the Derby winner.

Cathay Pacific Flight Attendant's Union Says Uniform 'Too Sexy'

Flight attendants for Hong Kong-based Cathay Pacific Airlines are reportedly asking the airline to go back to the drawing board with uniforms that were introduced in 2011, claiming the blouses are too short and the skirts are too tight and attract unwanted attention. According to the flight attendants union representative, the shorter blouse exposes the attendants midriff to passengers whenever she reaches up- such as doing routine tasks like assisting passengers with putting luggage in the overhead compartment.

The Flight Attendants Union (FAU) also says the skirts of the uniforms, introduced in 2011, are too tight-fitting, but says management has so far rejected its pleas for a modesty makeover.

FAU honorary secretary Michelle Choi said: "The blouse is too short and does not cover enough. Whenever a flight attendant bends down, her waistline is exposed.

"We believe the company intentionally does this to make us look a bit sexier and to let the passenger see more."

Choi said she believed the too-revealing uniforms were contributing to an apparent rise in incidents of sexual harassment of cabin crew by passengers, which she now estimates to affect each cabin crew member on one in every 10 flights.

Asked why she thought cases of sexual harassment seemed so prevalent, she said: "I think part of the reason is that we treat our passengers so well. They are spoilt in some ways.

"Some of the Marco Polo Club [frequent flier] members think they can do things to us because they are privileged and we somehow allow it. That is very bad.

"They think it is part of their privilege … Afterwards, they believe they can apologise and everything is settled."

Choi added: "When you report it to the flight manager, they always say it is the crew member's decision whether or not to call the police. They tell you, 'It's your decision. Do you want to delay the flight by calling the police?'

"That puts stress on the flight attendant and it is sad the company is not actively supporting and protecting us in cases like this … [Inflight managers] should be trained to have a stronger mindset to protect the crew."

Choi called for the company to issue specific guidelines on how to deal with instances of harassment on flights.

The FAU had passed on complaints from its members, she said, but no action had been taken to adjust the uniforms. The matter is expected to be raised during a meeting with management on May 13.

In a written response to the South China Morning Post Cathay Pacific Airlines defended the uniforms and said the 2011 overhauls were the result of feedback from flight attendants and other employees. Throughout the Hong Kong-based airline's 67 year history, there have been a total of nine uniform changes- the most recent changes had also drawn comparisons to the 'redshirts' from the 1960s TV Series Star Trek.

Report- Mainland China on Pace to Become World's Most Christian Nation in 15 Years

I had originally meant to post this on Easter, but got caught up with the remarkable Sunday that both the Red Sox and Bruins had.

Despite decades of crackdowns and persecution by China's Communist Party, a recent Daily Telegraph article claims that mainland China's Christian community is growing so steadily that communist China could be poised to have the highest number of churchgoers in the world by 2030.

Officially, the People's Republic of China is an atheist country but that is changing fast as many of its 1.3 billion citizens seek meaning and spiritual comfort that neither communism nor capitalism seem to have supplied.

Christian congregations in particular have skyrocketed since churches began reopening when Chairman Mao's death in 1976 signalled the end of the Cultural Revolution.

Less than four decades later, some believe China is now poised to become not just the world's number one economy but also its most numerous Christian nation.

"By my calculations China is destined to become the largest Christian country in the world very soon," said Fenggang Yang, a professor of sociology at Purdue University and author of Religion in China: Survival and Revival under Communist Rule.

"It is going to be less than a generation. Not many people are prepared for this dramatic change."

China's Protestant community, which had just one million members in 1949, has already overtaken those of countries more commonly associated with an evangelical boom. In 2010 there were more than 58 million Protestants in China compared to 40 million in Brazil and 36 million in South Africa, according to the Pew Research Centre's Forum on Religion and Public Life.

Prof Yang, a leading expert on religion in China, believes that number will swell to around 160 million by 2025. That would likely put China ahead even of the United States, which had around 159 million Protestants in 2010 but whose congregations are in decline.

By 2030, China's total Christian population, including Catholics, would exceed 247 million, placing it above Mexico, Brazil and the United States as the largest Christian congregation in the world, he predicted.

Although the Chinese Communist Party remains wary of Christianity in general, the Maoist Cultural Revolution-era restrictions on religion were gradually rolled back by Mao's successor Deng Xiopeng in the late 1970s. However, the Communist Party Central Committee restricts both the Catholic and Protestant denominations to certain government-approved houses of worship where scripture that is considered subversive is avoided by clergy [typically under duress from the government- NANESB!]. However, instead of squelching the practice of Christianity within China's borders, the restrictions placed on officially-sanctioned churches have given rise to unsanctioned 'underground churches' throughout the nation since the 1990s [interestingly, Yang didn't specify if his projections included the unsanctioned underground churches in China- NANESB!]. Parishoners for these clandestine houses of worship range from elderly farmers in China's remote provinces to well-heeled cosmopolitan, iPhone toting, Audi-driving young women in Beijing. Venues for these masses and sermons can be anything from a remote farmhouse to a vacant office building in newly-constructed suburbs.

Although traders and missionaries erected houses of worship in the 17th and 18th centuries, Christianity was first introduced into China in the 8th Century, the Tang Dynasty decreed that Buddhism, Christianity and Zoroastrianism be banned and that their assets be forfeited to Emperor Wuzong in 845. As for the more recent resurgence of Christianity in mainland China, missionaries and travelers from South Korea have been in contact with Chinese nationals, using that opportunity to proselytize [despite the Chinese government's disapproval of such activities- NANESB!].

While Christianity hasn't endured a recent crackdown like the government unleashed against practitioners of Falun Gong in the late 1990s, the issue has come to the forefront lately after local officials attempted to condemn a church in Wenzhou for demolition earlier this month. In response, thousands of Christians from throughout the southern province of Zhejiang engaged in civil disobedience, forming a human chain around the church while setting up a makeshift kitchen and sleeping inside the church in shifts.

Unlike Falun Gong, there Chinese Communist Party may have to proceed cautiously in regards to the condemned church not only because of the increasing number of practicing Christians, but also the advent of Chinese-language social media platforms such as Weibo [NASDAQ- WB] and public opinion turning against the party due to a number of high profile corruption scandals involving senior Communist officials.

Search for Missing Malaysian Jetliner Focuses on Southern Indian Ocean

Searchers attempting to track down Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 are focusing their efforts on a remote stretch of the Indian Ocean thousands of miles off the coast of Western Australia ever since satellite imagery showed what appeared to be large metal debris churning on the ocean's surface.



Vessels and aircraft from Australia, China and the UK are combing the seas some 2000 km off the coast of Perth, WA are reportedly tracking down the most promising lead on the missing airliner since the Malaysia Airlines 777 vanished from radar tracking a month ago. Over the weekend, searchers have confirmed they've detected an unidentified 'Ping' that is reportedly consistent with a plane's black box.

Angus Houston, who is coordinating the multinational search, said an Australian navy ship had detected two sets of pulse signals which sounded "just like an emergency locator beacon". The development was, he said, a "promising lead".

The first set was heard on Saturday and lasted for two hours and twenty minutes. The Ocean Shield ship then lost contact with the "pings" but turned around and later heard further signals for 13 minutes. It has since lost contact again and was last night trying to relocate the signals.

Significantly, Mr Houston said, the second set included two distinct sounds which would be consistent with transmissions from separate pingers attached to the black box's flight data recorder and cockpit voice recorder.

The new signals are not believed to be related to those detected by a Chinese ship about 345 miles to the south.

Adding to the urgency of the search, the black box pinger has passed the 30 day point at which its battery life is expected to end – though it could last a further two weeks. The aircraft and its 239 people on board disappeared on March 8.

"We're already one day past the advertised shelf life," said Mr Houston. "We hope that it keeps going for a little bit longer."

Mr Houston said it would probably take days to confirm whether the plane has been found and a potential recovery of the aircraft would take a "long time", possibly months.

"What I'd like to see now is us find some wreckage because that will basically help solve the mystery."

Mr Houston said the area in the Indian Ocean where the plane is believed to be located is 14,800 feet deep. An underwater autonomous vehicle will be dispatched to comb the ocean bed for possible wreckage but its depth limit is also 14,800 feet.

Relatives of some of the passengers as well as investigators have been critical of Malaysia's handling of the missing airliner with officials alternately withholding information from searchers or issuing contradictory statements. Recently, one Malaysian official speaking on the condition of anonymity speculated that the aircraft may have deliberately avoided Indonesian airspace after Indonesian military officials told him the missing airliner was never detected on Indonesia's military or civilian radar.

Ten Days Later, Still No Answers on Whereabouts of Missing Malaysia Airlines Flight MH370

More than ten days after a Malaysian Airlines 777-200 vanished from radar, investigators are no closer to finding the missing airliner than they were the weekend Kuala Lumpur to Beijing Flight MH370 disappeared. Apparently the first three days were spent looking for signs of the downed airliner in the wrong ocean, as both the Malaysian and Thai military radar tracked an unidentified aircraft on a westward trajectory across the Malay peninsula shortly after air traffic controllers in Malaysia and Vietnam had lost track of MH370.

Since the March 8th disappearance, every new development has seemingly been a false lead or raised more questions than answers. Theoretically the aircraft could be on the bottom of the Indian Ocean or at a remote landing strip anywhere between Kazakhstan and the Australian Outback, but there have been no signs of the missing flight since March 8th. My pet theory about the plane being hijacked or intentionally crashed by Islamists working on behalf of Uighurs in western China seems to be not farfetched enough.


However, searchers were erroneously directed to a debris field in the South China Sea after media reports began circulating that a Chinese satellite had snapped images of what appeared to be wreckage and debris on the water- presumably from MH370. Investigators are now convinced that the missing flight banked left and continued westward in an erratic pattern long after the transponder was disabled, heading in the direction of India's remote Nicobar Islands when it was last tracked by radar. According to avionics data that was sent to the engine's manufacturer via satellite, the missing airliner was aloft for at least another four hours. However, the signals sent via satellite could not be used to pinpoint the aircraft's exact location.

Over the weekend, Malaysian officials ruled that Flight MH370's disappearance was due to a deliberate act and was treating the disappearance as a hijacking. Aviation officials believe that the aircraft flew as high as 45,000 feet- beyond the manufacturer's recommended cruising altitude- and at times as low as 4900 feet once it pivoted west.

Villagers along Malaysia's eastern coast reported to local police that they had heard what sounded like a low-flying jet the same night MH370 went missing. Authorities in the Maldives are also investigating a report that fishermen on the southern island of Kuda Huvadhoo saw a white 'jumbo jet' with red stripes flying overhead at a low altitude shortly after dawn- colors consistent with the Malaysia Airlines paint scheme.

Currently, 26 nations- including the USA- are involved in the search for the missing airliner. More than 150 of the 239 passengers and crew on board the vanished airliner were from China and that country has undertaken a search of their western territories in the event that MH370 resumed a northbound trajectory after vanishing.

Investigators are also looking at both the pilot and co-pilot. Captain Zaharie Ahmad Shah had more than 30 years flight experience and had built a home-made flight simulator at his suburban Kuala Lumpur residence. On Monday, police raided Shah's residence and were combing through the flight simulator for any possible clues. Shortly after the plane's disappearance, an Australian TV report claimed that MH370's co-pilot, Fariq Abdul Hamid, had allowed an Australian woman and her friend into the cockpit during a December 2011 flight from Phuket, Thailand to Kuala Lumpur, representing a major security breach.

China-Bound Malaysia Airlines Flight Goes Missing- All 239 On Board Feared Dead

A Boeing 777 carrying passengers from Kuala Lumpur to Bejing vanished while flying off the southern tip of Vietnam and has triggered a frantic search effort in international waters to find any trace of the aircraft. Malaysia Airlines flight MH370 was last detected by Vietnamese air traffic controllers some 125 nautical miles southwest off the coast of southernmost Ca Mau province.

The plane was a Boeing 777-200- the average age of such aircraft in Malaysia's fleet is just over 14 years. Both Malaysia Airlines and the Boeing have a pretty good safety record- the only fatal accident involving a 777 was in July 2013 at San Francisco International Airport when an Asiana flight crash-landed and three people were killed. Malaysia Airlines hasn't had a fatal accident since a 1995 plane crash in the eastern Malaysian state of Sabah where 34 people were killed after a Fokker 50 crashed on approach.

More ominously, Malaysian officials have begun examining a potential terrorism angle in MH370's disappearance.

Malaysia’s director general of civil aviation told a news conference Saturday night that authorities had reviewed closed-circuit TV footage of passengers and their luggage and hadn’t seen anything of concern. But Prime Minister Najib Razak cautioned that it was "too early" to come to any conclusions, and other officials said nothing was being ruled out of consideration at this point.

At least two of the passengers listed on MH370's manifest boarded using stolen passports from Austria and Italy.

One passenger was traveling with a stolen Austrian passport, Austria's Foreign Ministry said Saturday. A 30-year-old Austrian whose name was on the passenger list for the flight wasn't on board. His passport was stolen in Thailand in 2012, a ministry spokesman said, confirming a report in German newspaper Die Welt.

Another passenger on the list, Italian Luigi Maraldi, was also not on the plane, Italy's Foreign Ministry said Saturday. Mr. Maraldi's passport was stolen in Thailand a year and a half ago, his father said.

Malaysia Airlines had no confirmation from Malaysian authorities that stolen passports were used to board the flight, said Ignatius Ong, a member of the airline's crisis-management team. One European security official said it wasn't uncommon for passengers to board flights using stolen passports.

At least 153 passengers on Flight MH370 are Chinese nationals. The flight went missing less than a week after 29 people were killed in a mass stabbing by knife wielding assailants at a train station in the southwestern Chinese city of Kunming. Local police shot dead five of the suspected assailants and Chinese officials called the attack a well-organized 'premeditated, violent terrorist attack'- although the state-run media didn't identify the assailants and some social-media accounts of the attack were censored.

On late Saturday afternoon, the Vietnamese Air Force reported that an oil slick between six and nine miles long had been spotted off the southern coast. While there was no independent confirmation that the slick was that of flight MH370, it is consistent with an airliner crashing at sea. Malaysian civil aviation officials said that there was no distress signal or other signs of trouble from the flight, leading them to believe that whatever had happened to flight MH370 was quick and catastrophic.

The USS Pinckney and a P3-C Orion aircraft have also been searching for signs of the aircraft and naval assets from Singapore, Philippines and China have also been deployed.

UPDATE 3/9- According to a Malaysia Airlines spokesperson, the tickets for the two unidentified people travelling on the stolen EU passports had consecutive numbers, indicating the tickets were booked together. The tickets were also paid for using Thai Baht and booked through the China Southern Airlines website. The Italian passport was reported stolen in the Thai city of Phuket last year. China Southern [NYSE: ZNH] is a code-share partner with Malaysia Airlines, among others.

Todays Train of Thought- The Iron Rooster Crows One Last Time, January 31st 2014

Today's train of thought takes us all the way to Inner Mongolia in the twilight of mainline steam in China. What is sometimes referred to as the iron horse in North America sometimes goes by the moniker Iron Rooster in China- at least according to the 1988 Paul Theroux travelogue Riding the Iron Rooster.


The 587 mile Jitong Railway line- an amalgamation of Jinling and Tongliao, the two cities at each endpoint- is fairly new. Construction began in the 1990s by China's state-run railways to serve the interior of rural inner Mongolia, but despite being one of the newest lines on the people's republic of China the line featured several otherwise-obsolete technologies such as semaphore signals and manned crossing gates that would be gradually be eliminated as the right-of-way was incrementally upgraded [interestingly, this rationale was not applied to the line to Lhasa, Tibet that was completed in 2006- NANESB!].


Part of this backdated technology included the 'QJ' class steam locomotives, and the sight of the massive 2-10-2's steaming across viaducts, through tunnels and up mountain grades in the dead of winter was a big selling point for a number of USA and UK-based travel agencies specializing in rail travel. But like the crossings and signals, the technology was eventually updated by the Chinese state railways and by 2005 the Jitong line was fully dieselized.


Here, railpictures.net contributor Steve Armitage caught QJs #6851 and #6639 storming up Shangdian Summit in Inner Mongolia after a recently-passed storm dumped some white stuff on the western side of the summit on February 24, 2004. While the two pictured QJ are out of service, three of their brethren have been shipped to the USA and periodically see service on the Iowa Interstate and the late RJ Corman's Kentucky Lines.

Happy Chinese New Years From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

In what could be a promising sign for the Denver Broncos, January 31st marks the beginning of the Chinese New Year- with this weekend kicking off the year of the horse. According to the Chinese Zodiac, people born in the year of the Horse are characterized as outgoing, energetic and thrive when they're the center of attention.

These traits were probably what disgraced former Communist party official Bo Xilai was looking for in policewomen in the tourist hub of Dailan when he announced the formation of an all-female mounted patrol. During Xilai's meteoric rise to Chinese Communist Party Central Committee heir apparent, the all female horseback patrols were started with retired racehorses donated from Hong Kong in the early 2000s. The idea was to have the patrols become a source of civic pride and tourist attractions in their own right [apparently they even have their own reviews (in Mandarin) on Tripadvisor- NANESB!] but have come under scrutiny lately. The policewomen also give tours of the training grounds and equestrian performances during the warmer months, charging tourists ¥50 (or around US$ 8) for admission. However, under Chinese law, police officers aren't allowed to engage in business activities putting the policewomen at odds with some of the law's they're tasked with enforcing.

Then again, attractive women riding horseback on public dime was the least of Xilai's problems. The former mayor and governor was accused of keeping fellow officials under electronic surveillance, his own chief of police accused him of corruption and Bo's wife was implicated in the 2011 murder of a British businessman. In September 2013, Bo was sentenced to life in prison and stripped of all his assets.

As for the women on horseback, a retired traffic policeman in Dailan filed a request regarding the cost of maintaining the horses and the overall effectiveness of the unit. According to the released report, the monthly cost of feed and supplies is about ¥2500 (around $405) while the monthly salary of the policewoman ranges from ¥1800 to ¥3800.

According to Dailan's current mayor, there's been public criticism of the policewomen on horseback but said it's 'too soon to talk about cancelling it' and while admitting some of the criticism is valid, the program shouldn't be cancelled on a whim. Over the last decade, a number of other cities in China- such as Shenzhen or Baotou- have also followed Dailan's lead.

UN Climate Official: Communism Most Effective Form of Government to Fight Global Warming

Once upon a time, if you were suspicious of climate change alarmism on the grounds that it was some sort of international plot to undermine representative government and economically cripple developing nations, you would've been written off as some sort of fringe black-helicopter conspiracy theorist. 'What do you mean global warming is simply a tactic to scare free societies into allowing unelected and unaccountable bureaucrats to control an increasing number of aspects of their daily lives? That's just right-wing climate-denier crazy talk!'

However, nowadays it seems as though some of the adherents to the cult of global warming are confident enough to be more straightforward on their endgame.

Enter UN Climate Chief Christina Figueres, who openly declared earlier this week that Communist governments were the best means to combat global warming. In her prepared statements, she favorably cited Beijing for making improvements in China's environmental policy, whereas 'climate change' legislation has mostly died in the United States Congress [although the White House has been using regulatory fiat through the EPA to circumvent lawmakers- NANESB!].

China may be the world’s top emitter of carbon dioxide and struggling with major pollution problems of their own, but the country is “doing it right” when it comes to fighting global warming says Figueres.

“They actually want to breathe air that they don’t have to look at,” she said. “They’re not doing this because they want to save the planet. They’re doing it because it’s in their national interest.”

Figueres added that the deep partisan divide in the U.S. Congress is “very detrimental” to passing any sort of legislation to fight global warming. The Chinese Communist Party, on the other hand, can push key policies and reforms all on its own. The country’s national legislature largely enforces the decisions made by the party’s Central Committee and other executive offices.

Environmentalists often hail China as a model for fighting global warming, since they are a “leader” in renewable energy. The country set a goal of getting 15 percent of its power from renewable sources by 2020. In 2012, China got 9 percent of its power from renewables — the U.S. by contrast got 11 percent in 2012.

However, the country still gets 90 percent of its power from fossil fuels, mostly from coal. In fact, Chinese coal demand is expected to explode as the country continues to develop. China has approved 100 million metric tons of new coal production capacity in 2013 as part of the government’s plan to bring 860 million metric tons of coal production online by 2015.

China has publicly made big efforts to clean up its environment. The country’s booming industrial apparatus has caused so much pollution that the skies have been darkened over major cities and the air quality has heavily deteriorated.

The Wall Street Journal notes that China’s air quality was so bad that about “1.2 million people died prematurely in China in 2010 as a result of air pollution” and Chinese government figures show that “lung cancer is now the leading cause of death from malignant tumors. Many of those dying are nonsmokers.”

The Soviet bloc’s environmental track record was similarly dismal.

The Communist Party’s National Action Plan spent $275 billion to combat rampant pollution through 2017, including reducing particulate matter 2.5 levels in the Beijing region by 25 percent.

Beijing's long-standing air pollution problems became an international issue when the city hosted the 2008 Summer Olympics, leaving athletes to wonder if they'd be competing for medals amid a thick blanket of smog. China's Communist government was able to partially alleviate that problem in the weeks and months leading up to the Olympiad by severely restricting vehicle traffic in Beijing and relocating factories and power plants to provinces outside the capital- however, after the closing ceremonies in August 2008 the pollution returned and has only worsened since then.

The problems aren't limited to Beijing, however. Pollution in major waterways like the Yangtze River are killing off fish and making the water unfit for human consumption. China has also suffered widespread deforestation over the past few decades with dozens of square kilometers being clear-cut simultaneously. To the east and across the Yalu River in North Korea, deforestation is thought to have contributed to the massive drought and famine in the 1990s.

Figueres' claim that communism is somehow better for the environment than a free market and democratic system is also laid to waste by just a cursory look at the former Soviet Union. Perhaps the most stark example of communist stewardship of the environment would be the irradiated and uninhabitable territory around the former nuclear power plant in Chernobyl. An April 1986 meltdown and explosion at the facility just outside the city of Pripyat sent plumes of highly radioactive materiel into the skies over the western USSR as well as Scandinavia and western Europe. Unlike the devastation wrought at Japan's Fukushima-Daiichi nuclear plant in the immediate aftermath of the catastrophic 2011 Sendai quake and tsunami, Chernobyl happened due to a simple test. To this day, an 'exclusion zone' of nearly 2600 km stretches through what is now the Ukraine and Belarus with Chernobyl and the ghost city of Pripyat at the epicenter.

But ecological catastrophe in the former communist Eastern bloc isn't just limited to Chernobyl. Factories in Russia and the former Soviet satellite states are still home to factories that spew pollutants into the air and water unchecked- with some cities competing for the dubious 'honor' of being the most polluted spot on earth.

The Aral Sea- at one time one of the largest lakes in the world- has been shrinking at an exponential rate since a massive Soviet public works project in the 1960s diverted water from two of the rivers that fed the Aral sea to irrigate cotton fields. By the 1991 breakup of the USSR, the central Asian former Soviet republics of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan inherited two polluted, shrunken and depleted lakes where there used to be one Aral Sea. Considered one of the biggest environmental catastrophes on the planet, between 1960 and 1998 the total area of the Aral Sea shrunk by more than 60%. Although Kazakhstan has been able to partially restore the northern portion of the Aral Sea in recent years, the southern half continues to recede leading to sights such as a pier stretching out over nothing but grey desert or camels standing near the hulks of abandoned ships, miles away from the nearest navigable body of water.

Even more problematic is a former Soviet bioweapons facility that was once housed on Vozrozhdeniya Island in the Aral Sea- the facility was once on an island and Red Army scientists experimented with weaponized strains of botulism, smallpox and anthrax. In 1971 a weaponized strain of smallpox was released and infected a passing research vessel. An infected crewmember disembarked at the port of Aralsk and infected their family. The disease spread and Soviet officials quarantined the city and vaccinating some 50,000 residents- although this incident wasn't generally known to the public until 2002. Since the outbreak, Vozrozhdeniya became a peninsula and then part of the mainland as the Aral Sea shrunk. The facility itself was hastily abandoned in 1992 shortly after the collapse of the USSR and weaponized strains of anthrax and bubonic plague were improperly stored in containers that continue to deteriorate over time.

Lake Baikal- the world's largest freshwater lake and dubbed 'The Pearl of Siberia'- also suffered considerably in Soviet times. The 25 million year old lake is home to several species not found elsewhere such as the Baikal seal or golomyanka fish. In the 1960s, the Baikalsk Pulp and Paper Mill was constructed along the lake's southern shore and discharged waste directly into the lake. Ironically, even though the plant continued operation well into post Soviet times, it was ultimately killed by capitalism when it was shut down in 2009 due to unprofitability.

Perhaps the most galling thing about Figueres' statement is that she likely knows EXACTLY how poor a steward of the environment communism has been but has decided to praise the same system that drained the Aral Sea and gave us Chernobyl and countless polluted rivers and lakes throughout Eastern Europe and Central Asia. More likely, the people pushing for unilateral government action on 'global warming' are doing so under the premise that they'll be exempt or they can purchase some sort of exemption through carbon offsets or a cap and trade system. I suspect even if they get their way, the carbon footprint of aircraft, ships, trains and automobiles won't bother them so long as those methods of transportation are providing them with conveyance or goods and services.

Breaking Bad, Gangham Pyongyang Style- North Korea Reportedly Manufacturing Crystal Meth for Export

Thai Prime minister displaying seized methamphetamine in June 2012

With the series finale of Breaking Bad - AMC's popular drama about a New Mexico high school chemistry teacher who receives a terminal cancer diagnosis and decides cooks meth with a former student- coming up this weekend, it seems as though North Korea wants to get in on the act. But can it really be considered Breaking Bad if you're already in the most despotic nation on the face of the earth to begin with?

A report from South Korea's Chosun Ilbo newspaper from earlier this year alleges that North Korean diplomats have been ordered to sell drugs to give Kim Jong Un's government foreign currency reserves with which the regime uses to reward loyal officials and further their nuclear weapons program.

The drugs in question are said to be locally manufactured crystal methamphetamine produced in state-run facilities, which is then reportedly smuggled across the border and sold in China.

However, some of that meth has made its way back into North Korea or never even left, creating an epidemic of drug users on the most totalitarian state in the world. With a scarcity of medicine, North Koreans have reportedly taken to using meth to alleviate ailments and some defectors claim parents encourage their children to take the drug to help them stay alert for their studies.

Despite official denials from Pyongyang, North Korea has been allegedly raising funds to shore up their foreign currency reserves for years through illicit means- including drug trafficking, counterfeiting, money laundering, arms trafficking and insurance fraud. Many of these activities are said to be overseen from a mysterious agency known as Bureau 39 headquartered inside the ruling Worker's Party headquarters in Pyongyang.

One Man's Trash Fish Is Another Man's Dinner- Fishermen and Restaurants Look to Fish Once Considered Undesirable

A face only a mother could love- and even then, that's kinda iffy. Monkfish- also known as known as goosefish- apparently tastes better than it looks.-Photo courtesy of Katrinshine

With new regulations set to cripple New England's traditional commercial fishing industry, an unlikely group of fishermen, environmentalists and restaurateurs are attempting to come up with new concepts to keep fishermen working and seafood on the menu as limits are placed on cod and haddock.

One such solution is the marketing of 'trash' fish- fish that was once considered a nuisance and undesirable by fishermen- to consumers throughout the east coast.

Most people have only ever seen a scorpion fish in an aquarium. Unless they dine at Carolina Crossroads Restaurant in Chapel Hill, N.C., where they’ll find the spiny, venomous creature on the menu.

It’s called trash fish dining, and it’s catching on with chefs around the country searching for fresh ways to fill their menus with sustainable — and delicious — seafood.

“The fishermen would be like, ‘This is all trash, junk,’ but I said, ‘I’ll pay fair price for it if you’ll bring it back to the dock,’” says James Clark, the restaurant’s executive chef. “Eat some butter-poached scorpion fish and you’ll swear it’s lobster.”

Chefs such as Clark go beyond the usual recommendation to eat small, lower-food-chain fish like sardines, and instead delve full force into little-known local catches that many anglers regard as nuisance or “trash” fish. Clark’s menu also offers triggerfish, drum, white grunt and other obscure species.

Meanwhile, New Haven, Conn., sushi restaurant Miya’s features invasive species such as shore crabs and moon snails. At San Francisco’s Incanto, chef Chris Cosentino serves sea slug, tuna spines and roasted fish heads. And at Arrows restaurant in Ogunquit, Maine, award-winning chefs Mark Gaier and Clark Frasier built a “Trash Fish Dinner” around whiting, mackerel and other less desirable species.

Besides introducing the public to lesser-known fish, these top chefs also are promoting a broader concept of how to eat sustainably from the ocean, a concept that conservation experts say could help secure the world’s seafood supply. Just three fish — shrimp, canned tuna and salmon — account for more than half of all U.S. seafood consumption, according to the trade association the National Fisheries Institute.

The 'trash fish' offerings have proven popular with a number of customers, although there is some re-branding involved. For instance, slimehead becomes orange roughy or the Atlantic goosefish becomes monkfish to make it sound more palatable to potential consumers.

Invasive species like the Asian Carp along the Mississippi River are getting similar treatment. Although there isn't much market for the carp in the Midwest, the state of Illinois signed into a contract with China to sell 30 million pounds of carp the Chinese back in 2010. Although there is carp available in China, the rivers there are notoriously polluted. The carp from the Illinois and Missisiippi Rivers, however, are marketed as fresh and clean offerings for upscale Chinese restaurants

Foreign Manufacturers Expressing Renewed Interest In Opening Shop in the USA

Reversing a decades-long trend of offshoring manufacturing, foreign companies have recently started to set up facilities in the United States- taking advantage of a productive workforce, a cheaper dollar and proximity to their largest customer base.

The trend is similar to foreign automakers who have been opening up plants over the last 30 years throughout the United States- primarily in right to work states in the southeast and Texas. However, this time around, these include foreign companies that specialize in electronics, aerospace, chemicals and energy.

In 2011, British-based Rolls-Royce began making engine parts here in Virginia and shipping them to Europe and Asia to be assembled in jet engine factories. That same year, Siemens, a German company, started making power-plant turbines in Charlotte, N.C., most of which it's shipping to Saudi Arabia and Mexico.

Faced with rising demand from airlines worldwide, Rolls-Royce decided to build a new factory in Virginia to make jet engine discs and ship them across the Atlantic rather than expand similar plants in the U.K. A big reason was to be closer to its customers in the Southeast. Boeing began making 787 Dreamliners in Charleston, S.C., in 2011 and Airbus is building its first U.S. assembly plant in Mobile, Ala.

CEOs of those companies "can see that you're making quality parts in super-modern facilities with the best working practices," says William Powers, chief financial officer of Rolls-Royce North America.

The company's gleaming, $170 million factory in rural Prince George employs 100 and looks nothing like the labor-intensive textile, tobacco or furniture plants that were the region's economic lifeblood decades ago. On a sprawling, spotless white factory floor, rows of hulking computerized machines cut and shape discs that cost $25,000 to $75,000 apiece. Workers are scarce. Two can operate eight machines at a time and 12 make up a shift.

Rolls-Royce is planning two more factories on the Prince George County site.

While automation is part of the story, the Southeast also offered Rolls-Royce a flexible work environment. In Virginia and other southern right-to-work states where union representation is low, factory employees typically can both set up and operate a machine, as well as run multiple machines.

By contrast, in the U.K. and elsewhere in Europe, collective bargaining agreements often limit workers at Rolls-Royce and other companies to single, repetitive tasks, increasing labor costs, Powers and Sirkin say. Partly as a result, from 2005 to 2010, worker productivity increased much faster in the U.S. than in western Europe.

Also contributing to faster U.S. productivity gains: The country was hit harder by low-cost competition from Asia, forcing manufacturers here to cut waste and do more with fewer employees.

The kicker is that many of these products aren't even destined for customers in the USA. For example, turbines made at Siemens' Charlotte, NC plant are usually destined for Mexico or Saudi Arabia. The engine blades made at the Rolls Royce facility in Virginia are used aircraft like the Airbus A-380.

It isn't just European or British conglomerates getting in on the action. China's Golden Dragon Precision Copper Tube- one of the world's largest specialty producers of copper tube for air conditioning and small engines- opened up a $100 million plant in Thomasville, AL employing as many as 300 people back in 2011.

The deadly March 2011 Japanese tsunami has also factored into various companies' decision to shift production. The widespread devastation the earthquake, tsunami and nuclear meltdown triggered snarled the supply chain for the automotive industry. Months after the tragedy, Bridgestone Corporation announced an expansion of their Aiken County, SC plant. However, Bridgestone isn't the only tire manufacturing company in the Palmetto state to expand their footprint- French competitor Michellin broke ground on a $750 million plant in Anderson, SC last year. The plant will make tires for heavy equipment such as earthmovers.

SURVIVING MARATHON BOMBING SUSPECT TAKEN INTO CUSTODY AFTER MASSIVE MANHUNT

A man stepping outside of his Watertown, MA home for a cigarette on Friday afternoon provided the pivotal lead for authorities in the largest-ever manhunt in the city of Boston.

The city of Boston was under lockdown on Friday morning after a chaotic police chase from Cambridge to Watertown, MA and shootout where two men identified as suspects in the Patriot's Day bombing of the Boston marathon opened fire on police and lobbed grenades at them as they were pursued.

The chaos began on Thursday night when an MIT Campus police officer responding to reports of a disturbance was shot and killed and a motorist in Cambridge was carjacked by two men.

Tarek Ahmed, 45, told Fox News that the victim, whose Mercedes-Benz was reportedly stolen by Dzhokhar and Tamerlan Tsarnaev at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, was a young Caucasian man between 20 and 25 years old. Ahmed claimed that he was working at gas station on Memorial Drive, when the man ran into his store screaming, “Call the police! Call the police! These people are trying to kill me!”

"I thought he was drunk. I didn't believe him when he came in, it just sounded very crazy," Ahmed said. Despite his skepticism, Ahmed let the man, who has not been identified, inside to use his phone.

"He came very fast and was nervous and was afraid of the guy. He said they pushed him out of car," he said. "He went inside and closed the door. He was shaking and very nervous. I only believe him when the cops came."

Ahmed said that police collected surveillance videos from the station when they arrived, and also took photos from another store across the street where the suspects might have gone inside to purchase something. Police later released photographs of Dzhokar Tsarnaev exiting a Bank of America ATM in Watertown, Mass., at 11:18 p.m., where he withdrew $800, according to the NY Times.

Ahmed, who told reporters that he believed that the suspects had shoved the man out of the car after stopping to withdraw the money, said he was very shaken up after the encounter.

The gunmen were chased by police into a residential area of nearby Watertown- the FBI later claimed that at least five explosive devices were thrown at pursuing officers and the suspects and officers exchanged more than 200 rounds. One suspect, identified as 27 year old Tamerlan Tsarnaev was hit and later pronounced dead at Boston's Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center. The other, known as Suspect 2 since Thursday Afternoon's FBI Press Conference, was identified as 19 year old Dzhokhar Tsarnaev, the younger brother of Tamerlan. During the firefight, MBTA Police officer Richard Donahue is struck and wounded- he remains in critical-but-stable condition as of Friday night.

Police immediately set up a perimiter around the Laurel Street area in Watertown and began searching for the subject. Gov Deval Patrick ordered MBTA buses, subways and commuter rail service closed down and area residents were warned to stay inside. Schools in the area- both public schools and the numerous colleges- were shut down as a precaution and a number of events scheduled for Friday night, including both the Bruins and Red Sox home games, are postponed.

By early Friday evening the lockout was lifted and the Massachusetts State Police hold a press conference where they infer that Dzhokhar has likely escaped the dragnet, but was likely still in the state of Massachusetts. That's when Dave Henneberry stepped out for a smoke in the backyard of his Franklin Street home and noticed that one of the straps covering the tarp on his boat was askew and went in for a closer look. That's when he noticed blood streaked along the side of the boat that was parked on a trailer in his backyard. After grabbing a stepladder, Henneberry grabbed the tarp and peered inside, spotting more bloodstains and reportedly seeing a body crumpled inside.

That's when Henneberry retreated back into his house and dialed 911. Not only had Dzhokhar been wounded in the shootout with police, but the 19 year old reportedly ran over his wounded brother in an attempt to get away.

By 8:58 PM ET, the following message was sent over the Boston Police Department's twitter account:

CAPTURED!!! The hunt is over. The search is done. The terror is over. And justice has won. Suspect in custody.
— Boston Police Dept. (@Boston_Police) April 20, 2013

The announcement led to widespread spontaneous celebrations throughout a city that had been on edge since Monday.


The two brothers were identified as ethnic Chechens from southern Russia. According to the FBI, Tamerlan Tsarnaev was interviewed by the FBI at the behest of a foreign agency in 2011- many speculate Russia owing to the longstanding conflict between Moscow and the breakaway, predominantly muslim Chehcen republic in the south. Tamerlan had reportedly returned to the area 10 years ago using a passport from the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzistan while Dzhokhar was sworn in as a US citizen on September 11, 2012. The brothers had reportedly been in the country since 2003.

With one suspect dead and the other in custody, police in New Bedford took three people into custody for questioning and searched off-campus housing at UMass-Dartmouth on Friday on reports that the younger Tsarnaev brother may have resided there at one time.

Monday's bombing killed 29 year old Krystle Campbell, 29, of Arlington, MA, Eight year old Martin Martin Richard of Dorchester, MA and a 23 year old BU grad student from China named Lu Lingzi.

North Korea Threatens Nuclear Strike on South Korea, US Military Bases

Female North Korean soldiers in high heels on patrol along the Yalu River along the border with China. Reuters photo/Jacky Chen

Tensions on the Korean Peninsula have been ratcheted up in recent weeks as North Korea has threatened to attack South Korea and the United States after the United Nations approved a fresh round of sanctions for the secretive Stalinist nation, up to and including scrapping the 1953 armistice that led to a ceasefire in the Korean War.

A North Korean general said on Tuesday that Pyongyang was scrapping the armistice. But the two sides remain technically at war as the civil war did not end with a treaty.

North Korea threatens the United States and its "puppet," South Korea, on an almost daily basis.

"Since the United States is about to ignite a nuclear war, we will be exercising our right to preemptive nuclear attack against the headquarters of the aggressor in order to protect our supreme interest," the North's foreign ministry spokesman said in a statement carried by the official KCNA news agency.

North Korea conducted a third nuclear test on February 12, in defiance of U.N. resolutions, and declared it had achieved progress in securing a functioning atomic arsenal. It is widely believed that the North does not have the capacity for a nuclear strike against the mainland of the United States.

With tensions high on the Korean peninsula, the U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to expand its sanctions on North Korea. The new sanctions were agreed after three weeks of negotiations between the United States and China, which has a history of resisting tough measures against its ally and neighbor.

The resolution specifies some luxury items North Korea's elite is not allowed to import, such as yachts, racing cars, luxury automobiles and certain types of jewelry. This is intended to close a loophole that had allowed countries to decide for themselves what constitutes a luxury good.

"These sanctions will bite and bite hard," said U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice.

The export of luxury goods to North Korea has been prohibited since 2006, though diplomats and analysts said the enforcement of U.N. sanctions has been uneven.

Shortly after North Korea issued their threats and said they would no longer abide by the armistice the United States deployed stealth bombers for joint excercises with South Korea at the end of March. In response, the North has positioned mobile missile launchers on the country's east coast and blocked South Korean workers from entering a joint manufacturing facility at the border in Kaesong in advance of threatened missile tests.

David Guttenfelder/AP Photo

There has also been a noticeable buildup of troops along China's border with North Korea in recent weeks. China remains North Korea's primary ally in the region, although public sentiment in China seems to have turned against North Korean leader Kim Jong Un for his ill advised nuclear brinksmanship as much of North Korea's population is starving.

China still holds significant leverage with North Korea, but the current situation on the Korean peninsula benefits Beijing by diverting resources from Japan's Self Defense Forces. Since late 2012, Chinese aircraft and vessels have repeatedly made incursions into the disputed Senkaku Islands, which are claimed by both Japan and China.

China-Based Solar Giant Suntech Files For Bankruptcy

Once the largest manufacturer of solar panels, China's Sun Tech Holdings filed for bankruptcy last week after defaulting on a $541 Million bond payment this month.

Suntech said in a news release that a group of eight Chinese banks filed a petition for insolvency and restructuring of its main operating subsidiary in China in the Wuxi Municipal Intermediate People's Court in Jiangsu province.

Wuxi Suntech told the court it woudln't file an objection to the petition, Suntech said, adding that the court will decide whether to accept the petition in the next few days. If the petition is approved, Suntech will continue to produce solar products to meet customer orders, Suntech added.

The banks are owed as much as 7.1 billion yuan (US$1.14 billion) and include Industrial & Commercial Bank of China, Agricultural Bank of China and Bank of China, the official Xinhua news agency reported earlier.

The filing has triggered volatility that has rippled across China's renewable energy sector in the days following Sun Tech Holdings initiating bankruptcy protection. Shares of Sun Tech [NYSE- STP] closed down 28.81% since the March 20th filing while shares in Yingli Green Energy [NYSE- YGE] declined 13.89% since Wednseday and LDK Solar [NYSE- LDK] was down 6.87% since Tuesday.

According to industry observers, Sun Tech's path to bankruptcy in China was paved with numerous warnings and red flags. In June of last year, a representative at the Luxembourg-based, Sun Tech-controlled Global Solar Fund was accused of fradulently obtaining a guaranteed $680 million loan by pledging nonexistent German bonds as collateral. The following month, prosecutors in Italy filed criminal charges against  the Global Solar Fund for illegally building solar farms in Italy to milk that country's generous renewable energy subsidies.

A prosecutor in the southern Italian city of Brindisi has formally charged five of the fund's subsidiaries with illegal construction of solar power plants, accusing them of sidestepping the approval process in order to exploit Italy's generous renewable-energy subsidies.

The charges are that GSF subsidiaries failed to obtain the correct permit to build solar plants of more than 1 MW by splitting each park up into several smaller units that qualified for a less rigorous and faster permitting process.

In some cases, the GSF subsidiaries prematurely announced completion of construction on the plants in order to meet a deadline needed to qualify for incentives, court documents show.

The trial involving these five solar plants is set to begin on December 6.

Another 11 of the companies controlled by the fund are under investigation, and charges will be sought against them, said Nicolangelo Ghizzardi, the prosecutor handling the cases.

Sun Tech hastily reached a settlement with the Luxembourg-based GSF earlier this month in the hopes of raising enough cash for the $541 million bond payment they eventually defaulted on.

Happy Valentine's Day Chinese New Year From Not Another New England Sports Blog!

Fair warning- the actual Valentine's Day is hardly even upon us and after spending the last couple of days helping out around the local florist, I'm already burned out over it. This isn't necessarily "Bah! Humbug!" because there's no Bar Rafaeli look-alike waiting for me with open arms at Casa De Fenway [I have 364 other days to complain about THAT- NANESB!], I just burned out on Valentine's Day quicker than many people because of my work as an 'insider' (so to speak) over the last couple of days.

To the best of my knowledge, the florist that's hired me on as a temp has done no business in regards to Chinese New Years, which actually started a couple of days ago on Feb 10th. Then again, the Lunar New Year apparently involves everything but flowers. There are feasts with friends and neighbors, family reunions, burning incense, prayers for a safe and prosperous New Year's. Gifts could also include flowers, but money in red envelopes is considered customary. Another custom is for a person to pay off their debts before the New Year so they can start the next year in the red.

In case you ere wondering, this year is the Year of the Snake on the lunar calendar, so if you were born in 1953, 1965, 1977, 1989 or 2001, you're pretty much a Snake.

Unfortunately, single women in China in their late 20s or early 30s are often referred to unflatteringly as 'leftovers' and chastised by their family for not having a spouse yet. The overlap of Chinese New Year's and Valentine's Day on the western calendar has seemingly created an uptick of single women 'renting' boyfriends when they return home to visit family during Lunar New Years.

Rent-a-boyfriend is the latest must-have purchase for single Chinese women desperate to soothe relatives who are quick to judge their unmarried status. In China, single women in their late 20s are dubbed "leftovers" - even by state media - and reproached by parents.

Valentine's proximity this year to celebrations for the Lunar New Year - when the Chinese traditionally return home to their families - has made it particularly difficult for many of female singletons to avoid difficult questions and parental disappointment.

Online searches for "rental boyfriend" have gone up by 884 percent compared to last year, according to China's most popular shopping website, Taobao.

Entreprenuerial Chinese men have set about exploiting the embarrassing social pressure and offering their services as holiday companions - for a price.

Thousands of announcements featuring a range of services, with a basic package costing 400-800 yuan ($60-$120) per day, have been posted on Taobao - a popular Gumtree-style website in China.

Extras include kissing (50 yuan per kiss), watching a movie (10 yuan per hour) and shopping (15 yuan per hour).

[As I'm writing this, the temperature in Harbin, China is -11°. I suspect 'cuddling' could also be thrown in as for a few additional yuan- NANESB!]

"$130 a day to 'pretend' to be your boyfriend and fool around with you for a few days? You drive a hard bargain, but you have yourself a deal!"

And yes- I cannot let the mere mention of China or a major holiday in Asia pass without some completely gratuitous cheongsam imagery.

Of course, I seem to be inadvertently promoting this false notion that all women in China and elsewhere in Asia wear are- cheongsams all the time. That simply isn't the case. For the most part, they're usually reserved for more formal occasions and depending on the designer and fabric, many cheongsams are unaffordable to most Chinese. Of course, some places that cater to western visitors may have the staff wearing cheongsams instead of western garments because that's what the visitors are likely expecting- is sort of a chicken and egg kind of deal.

This isn't necessarily limited to China, either. A popular reality show in South Korea featured a number of contestants strutting their stuff in the silky garment that can be traced back to the Qing dynasty. Korea's Next Top Model contestant Hwang Mi Hee looks particularly stunning in the red cheongsam and gold trim she's sporting above.

China has a more traditional festival called Qixi that has been called the "Chinese Valentine's Day" since the 1990s- although that's somewhat misleading, since Qixi takes place in August. Instead of a boyfriend, fiancee or husband giving gifts, women in the same family will make offerings of flowers and tea to the spirits of two lovers named Niu Land and Zhinu while praying to find a good husband or to carry a child if already married.

Quickie Sports Chowdah Update: Knockaround Guys- Former Sox Hitters Feast on Boston Pitching; Gone in 60 Seconds- Minutemen Flat in MAC Football Debut

RED SOX- What a way to head into the final month of the season- and make no mistake about it; September WILL be the final month of the Red Sox 2012 season.

Following Monday's win against Kansas City at Fenway, the Sox made their way to the West Coast where they proceeded to get swept by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim, including closer Alfredo Aceves blowing a 1-run lead in the bottom of the 9th on Tuesday.

As bad as that was, it paled in comparison to Friday night's series opener against the Oakland A's. A number of former Sox players and prospects came back to haunt the Old Towne Team in a 20-2 drubbing.

Aaron Cook didn't even last three innings in Friday night's start, leaving the game as the Sox trailed 6-0. Limiting my mentions of Oakland's offensive contribution to just the former Red Sox or farm hands, catcher George Kattaras went 3-5 with 2 homers and 5 RBI, Brandon Moss went 4-5 with a homer and 4 RBI, Josh Reddick went 2-5 with 4 RBI and a homer and Coco Crisp had a relatively quiet night, going 0-5 with a walk and a run scored....but hey- why do down when the former Red Sox now in green and gold accounted for 13 RBI against their former team.

The A's bats burned through Cook, Tazawa, Aceves, Bard, Breslow, Melancon and Padilla during Friday night's romp. So far on this west coast road trip, the Red Sox are winless and have been outscored by a 31-12 margin in three games against the Angels and the Labor Day weekend series opener against Oakland.

For those of us who inexplicably feel that the remaining month of Red Sox baseball will be a worthwhile investment of our time, Saturday's game from Oakland gets underway at 9:05 PM Eastern, 6:05 Pacific. Felix Doubront [10-6; 4.79 ERA] will get the start against AJ Griffin [3-0; 2.42 ERA] and the game will be televised on NESN.

NCAA FOOTBALL- The UMASS Minutemen football program's debut as a member of the FBS Mid-America Conference took off with a resounding *splat!* Thursday night after getting shut out by former Yankee conference archrival UConn 37-0 at East Hartford, CT.

UConn's sophomore QB Chandler Whitmer threw for 219 yards going 15-25 while UConn scored touchdowns on offense, defense and special teams against the Minutemen. The Minutemen hope to rebound next week with a 'home' game at Gillette Stadium in Foxbourough, MA against the Indiana Hoosiers. Curiously, the away game at East Hartford was closer to UMASS' Amherst campus [where they played for decades as a FCS and Division 1AA team- NANESB!] than upcoming home games in Foxbourough- on the opposite end of the Bay state from Amherst.

UConn, meanwhile, will host the North Carolina State Wolfpack at East Hartford next weekend. NC State is coming off a 21-35 loss to Tennessee on Friday night.

Meanwhile, New England's better know FBS College Football team- the Boston College Eagles- will kick off their regular season on Saturday against archrival Miami at the home opener on Chestnut Hill.

NCAA VOLLEYBALL- The Lady Eagles trek out the the West Coast has been a little more successful than the Red Sox- although now that I think about it, that's not saying much.

Mississippi State freshman Middle Blocker Sarah Nielsen had 13 kills for the Bulldogs in Friday night's losing effort against Boston College at the Luxe City Center Trojan Invitational in Los Angeles. Mississippi State Bulldogs Photo

The Lady Eagles started out their West Coast road trip by dropping their opening match against the Northern Iowa Panthers 3 games to 1 on Friday, but rebounded against the Mississippi State Bulldogs later on in the day to win by a 3 games to 1 margin and improving their record to 4-2.

Boston College's Katty Workman lived up to her surname with 20 kills against the Bulldogs on Friday- Courtney Castle added to that total with a strong performance of her own including 16 kills. On the Mississippi State side of the court, freshman Sarah Nielsen led the Bulldogs with 13 kills followed by Taylor Scott with a dozen to her name.

The Lady Eagles will take on host USC on Saturday afternoon before their next match is set to take place at the Spring Hill Suites Invitational at College Park, MD next weekend where they will face Maryland, George Washington and Tennessee.

ELSEWHERE IN NCAA VOLLEYBALL- The defending NCAA women's champions got their regular season off to a rather unique start with an exhibition game against professional Chinese volleyball club Jiangsu ECE at the John Wooden center earlier this week. The Chinese club would win the contest in five sets, with the professionals from the other side of the Pacific never trailing in the decisive fifth set.

On Friday, the defending national champions faced off against Northeastern at the UCSB Invitational- just up highway 101 from their campus- where they handed the Lady Huskies their first defeat of the season with a 3-0 sweep, winning 25-21, 25-18 and 25-21. The Bruins head into the 2012 season ranked #3 in the nation while Northeastern is 4-1 despite the loss. On Saturday, Northeastern will take on the tournament host UCSB Gauchos followed by the Idaho Vandals before facing off against the Cal Poly Mustangs on Sunday.

Juche Apparently Isn't Rocket Science

Just in case you were wondering, 'Juche' is a political thesis from the late North Korean dictator Kim Il Sung that supposedly emphasised military and economic self-reliance. This is somewhat ironic, considering that Sung and his successors have relied heavily on imported food and materials long before the 1991 collapse of the Soviet Union- one of North Korea's main trading partners.

As North Korea dedicated its efforts to building up their military arsenal in recent years, North Korean civilians have endured drought, famine and government crackdowns. This did not change after Kim Il Sung's 1994 death or the December 2011 passing of his son Kim Jong Il. Within weeks of Kim Il Jong's death, his youngest son and heir apparent- Kim Jong Un- took power.

In carrying on his father and grandfather's traditions of flouting treaties and international agreements, North Korea had been preparing all month to launch a long-range rocket. As US, South Korean and Japanese forces in the region went on heightened alert, the secretive North Korean government took the unusual step of allowing foreign reporters in to view the Sohae launch site, which is in the northwestern part of the country along the border with China. At the end of March, Japan's defense ministry announced they would shoot down North Korea's rocket should it pass over Japanese territory. In 2009, a long-range rocket from North Korea overflew Japan's home islands during a similar launch.

The US State Department says the launch is a breach of United Nations Security Council sanctions andan agreement reached between the USA and North Korea in February of this year restricting further development of North Korea's long-range weaponry. The North Korean regime, however, insists that Thursday's launch was to put a satellite into orbit to mark Kim Il Sung's 100th birthday. Japan, the South and the USA believe the lauch is to further develop long range missile technology.

However, in what was probably the least surprising development since the sun rising in the east, the Unha ("galaxy") rocket followed a similar trajectory to that of Keith Olbermann's broadcast career- crashing and burning spectacularly shortly after launch. The Nork rocket reportedly didn't even make it as far as 100km before exploding over the East China Sea.

In a rare move, the state-run news agency reported to a North Korean audience that the launch was unsuccessful. North Korean broadcasts are typically reserved for flowery, melodramatic propaganda heaping nonstop praise on the communist government. South Korean military experts believe that Un will try and deflect attention away from the failed launch or a military provocation directed against the South.