Al Qaeda Threatens Major Attack in Britain

In what they claim will rival "Hiroshima and Nagasaki," terrorists from Al Qaeda are threatening a major terrorist attack in Great Britain.

TimesOnline Reports:

The report was compiled by the Joint Terrorism Analysis Centre (JTAC) - based at MI5’s London headquarters - and provides a quarterly review of the international terror threat to Britain. It draws a distinction between Osama Bin Laden and Al-Qaeda’s core leadership, who are thought to be hiding on the Afghan-Pakistan border, and affiliated organisations elsewhere.

The document states: “While networks linked to AQ [Al-Qaeda] Core pose the greatest threat to the UK, the intelligence during this quarter has highlighted the potential threat from other areas, particularly AQI [Al-Qaeda in Iraq].”

The report continues: “Recent reporting has described AQI’s Kurdish network in Iran planning what we believe may be a large-scale attack against a western target.

“A member of this network is reportedly involved in an operation which he believes requires AQ Core authorisation. He claims the operation will be on ‘a par with Hiroshima and Naga-saki’ and will ‘shake the Roman throne’. We assess that this operation is most likely to be a large-scale, mass casualty attack against the West.”

Crippling Drought in Australia

Australia is facing the worst drought that nation has ever seen, requiring the government to enact drastic measure to ensure the agriculture sector is not decimated and that the population has an adequate water supply.

From The Independent:

Australia is in the midst of a crippling drought, the country's worst on record. Many towns and cities have been forced to enact drastic water restrictions as reservoirs have run dry. Rivers have been reduced to a trickle. The drought has severely damaged the agricultural sector. Farmers are raising emaciated cattle and sheep. Cotton-lint production has plummeted. Wine grape and rice output has collapsed. Agricultural production has fallen by almost one-quarter in a year. And it is estimated that the drought has knocked three-quarters to 1 per cent off the country's growth as a whole.

And now the government is reaching for desperate measures. Australia's Prime Minister, John Howard, has announced there may be a ban on the use of the country's largest river system for irrigation unless there is significant rainfall over the next two months. The government is preparing to wrest regulatory control of the Murray and Darling rivers from the five states through which they run to ensure that water is reserved for urban drinking supplies and farmers' domestic use.

What a Day

I can't begin to express my sadness at the events unfolding today at the Virginia Tech campus in Blacksburg, VA: 32 Dead in Shooting Rampage at Virginia Tech. This has been the most tragic shooting of it's kind in US history.

In other news:

• 2nd heaviest rain in NYC 's history.
• Flooding in Boston, New Jersey, West Virginia.
• Bee population being decimated by mysterious cause.

Crops Decimated in Southeast

In damage estimates being compared to that of a hurricane, the southern states are seeing utter destruction of peach, apple, blueberry and hay crops due to the record cold temperatures being experienced there. In some areas, 90% of the yearly crop has been destroyed. This will not only raise the price of fruit in your local supermaket, but will also increase the cost of meat as farmers have to pay more for things like hay and other livestock feed that have been affected.

CNN reports:

In South Carolina, at least 90 percent of the peach crop was destroyed and officials said Wednesday they would seek federal aid.

"This is comparable to a hurricane," Agriculture Commissioner Hugh Weathers said of the damage to the state's $40 million-a-year industry. "Growers say we'll be fortunate to get 10 percent of a crop."

In Georgia, farmers and agriculture officials were still assessing the damage, but the weekend freeze may have wiped out more than half the state's peach crop.

"There's no doubt we had damage," said Joe McManus, a commodities specialist with the Georgia Farm Bureau. "It's just a matter of to what extent. Peaches, I'm hearing 50 [percent] plus."

The freeze also killed off a large portion of Georgia's $60 million-a-year blueberry crop.

"Most anything that was green got damaged," said Danny Stanalan, extension coordinator for southeast Georgia's Bacon County. "Our blueberries took a hard hit."