Buffett bets $27bn on US

Warren Buffett on Tuesday struck the biggest deal of his life with the $26.6bn purchase of Burlington Northern Santa Fe, one of the largest US railroad operators, in what the billionaire investor called an “all-in wager” on America’s economic future.

The cash-and-shares deal by Mr Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway, which already has a 22.6 per cent stake in BNSF, caps a long search by the legendary investor for an “elephant” deal to deploy his vast cash pile.

Can you imagine having 26.6 billion dollars, nice not?, so warren bufet had his biggest deal of his life bettig to have a business in railroad in the USA, i think most of u are asking yourselves how did he got this amount of money during this time of crisis? Surely not from the Lotery, so how did Buffet acquired all this, not selling iphones, software, etc. The biggest part of his furtuned was made of "Old-Fashioned" business, as this one of the Railroad, also you could say that Warren Buffet could be kind of crazy betting for this type of business during this crisis but here is a very good explanation of this movement by warren Buffet:" Bankers said the BNSF take-over was typical of Mr Buffett: a deal at a low point in the economic cycle for a group with few rivals in a sector set to benefit from long-term trends such as rising oil prices and stricter environmental standards." So Buffet is practicaly alone and he can only, win and win with not a huge competence, Good Deal huh?

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/6078eb54-c87a-11de-a69e-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

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North Korea produces plutonium with 'weapons potential'

(CNN) -- North Korea has completed reprocessing thousands of spent fuel rods, producing plutonium which could be used in nuclear weapons, state-run media reported Tuesday.

North Korea "successfully completed the reprocessing of 8,000 spent fuel rods by the end of August as part of the measure taken to restore the nuclear facilities ... to their original state," according to the official KCNA news agency.

A story that would never end, North Korea once again is making products as plutonium that coul be for nuclear weapons, North Korea is putting force to return to the six-party negotiation by Russia, Japan, China, North Korea and USA. Also one interest thing in the article is that says that North Korean leaders and Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao last moth to talk about this six-party negotiation and how they can restablish the Nuclear production, but we have to know that North Korea and China are both comunist countries, and the only one that is way intereseted to stop this nuclear production is the USA, so, can we think in a alliance between China and NK against the USA?

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/11/03/nkorea.nuclear/index.html

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Stalemate Looms in Obama's Mideast Peace Effort

The Obama Administration's bid to relaunch an Israeli-Palestinian peace process is falling apart faster than you can say settlement freeze — in no small part because President Barack Obama began his effort by saying settlement freeze. On Monday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton found herself struggling to persuade skeptical Arab foreign ministers to see the silver lining in Israel's "No, but ..." answer to the U.S. demand that Israel halt all construction in the occupied West Bank and East Jerusalem. At least Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was offering to restrain settlement activity, Clinton said, but Arab leaders, whom Obama had hoped would make reciprocal gestures toward normalization of ties with Israel, were not buying. For Arab League secretary Amr Moussa, Clinton's message offered a grim outlook for the Administration's peace efforts: "I still wait until we have our meetings and decide what we are going to do," Moussa reportedly said on Monday in Morocco, where Clinton was meeting with Arab leaders. "But failure is in the atmosphere all over."

What's happening with Obama? What's happening with that big afro-american president that can convince anyone who he talks to? Even with the help of the wonderful women Clinton he could not convince Arab and Israeli leaders to have an agreement, but the question is why if the Prime Minister of Israel was offering to restrain settlement activity in the West Bank territory, why didnt the leaders of the Arabs didnt agree, why didnt if Israel would stop to build in te west banks they didnt agree after talking with Obama and after saying that they would agree?.

The arab leaders think that even the US is saying that Palestinians would have a biggest benefit, the US administratation by Obama is not the greatest one and they say somethings and they do other things.

I think no one can stop or freeze this conflict only the regions that are fighting for the lands, if Israel and the Palestinians reach an agreement would be ok , but if in this agreement other nations are participating, the history would be repeat.

http://www.time.com/time/world/article/0,8599,1934119,00.html

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Gaza on swine flu alert

Gaza City (CNN) -- Swine flu has not reached Gaza yet but with 1.5 million residents squeezed into 360 square kilometers it would appear to be a small miracle.

Gaza's Ministry of Health knows it is a matter of when not if the virus will get in. Moain Kariri, Director of Health Education, said: "It could be here tomorrow or the day after, you know there are no borders among bacteria and viruses."

The Middle East one of the most problematic areas of the earth since ancient time, thanks to the religious idelogies and the cultural ones making a riot that we could say is one of the most old ones in the world between countries, but what about the people in those areas ? What about their lives, their families, their problems, would this people live with an other huge problem, as in this case swine flue.

Imagine between the war and the riots in Gaza who's going to give the vaccines., where theres no government, the only one who can give these vaccines could be the UN and i think they wouldnt do it in thi situation, so what would happen if the swine flu arrives to Palestinian territory that is one of the most densely populated areas on the planet?

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/11/03/gaza.flu/index.html

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Dalai Lama Says Trip to a Disputed Region in India Isn’t Political

Here is a recent article that talks about Dalai Lama's , something related to some topics in our classes about the China-Tibet situation and conflicts:

BEIJING — The Dalai Lama said Saturday that the Chinese government was wrong to attribute political motives to his travels, including a planned trip in early November to a Buddhist mountain enclave in northeastern India that China claims as its territory.

“The Chinese government considers me a troublemaker, so it is my duty to create more trouble,” he said jokingly, according to The Associated Press. “The Chinese government politicizes too much wherever I go. Where I go is not political.”


So, as we see in the article China's government has several problems with these visits to Disputed and controversial regions as Taiwan and Tawang a China-India territory that allways has been claim by China as a Tibet's territory, but the question is are these visits by the Dalai Lama are politcal or only in a religious way?, also we have to take care in the fact that China has always been fighting the Tibet territorie, and all historical and main things and events of the Tibet are not in the mind of the Chinese government, so we can assume that China made this declaration only to say that they have always had the thruth in this aspect with Tibet and to say they're the good ones, also we have to take in care the Chinese way of think, they are just seeking for an oportunity to make a declaration about how Tibet, Dalai Lama is bad etc, just as this case Dalai Lama is just traveling and they make a huge problem of something that doesnt hurt anyone. As he said in these words: "I am surprised the Chinese government is negative about my visit,” the Dalai Lama said during a visit to Tokyo. “If it creates some problems, that is sad.”

An other really interest fact is that President Obama didnt meet with him when Dalai Lama asked for as the article says: "Mr. Obama’s decision not to meet with the Dalai Lama is part of a new attempt to find common ground with China that American officials call “strategic reassurance", but which has drawn criticism from human rights advocates and some prominent Republicans."

The New York Times- http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/d/_dalai_lama/index.html

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China & India, "Two Economic Monsters"

We've all heard that China is becoming one of the most powerful countries, economically speaking, yet there is another country who does not want to be left behind, and it is a country not everybody is aware of; India.

Both countries have somehow found a way to improve their economic situation across the years. But, how have they done this?...

We can say China's Economic improvement started after 1978, after World War II was over. Before this, China's average growth per year was of roughly 6 percent a year. After 1978, it's average growth was of about 9 percent. There were also several years that it reached 13 percent of average growth.

Even today their economy is still on the rise. Though, today, China's impressive GDP growth might face a few threats, such as: Undervalued Currency, Nonperforming Bank Loans, Inefficient state-owned prices, and growing income disparities.But still, there is another fact, development, both economical and social in China go hand to hand; what used to be the lower classes can now we considered middle class. The countries' infrastructure has been improved as well, and there is a chance that China could stop being just a "very large industry" that supplies treats all over the world.This issue has created a worldwide doubt... Will China become a threat to the world? Especially, for its major rival, The United States.

"Per capita income has nearly quadrupled in the last 15 years, and a few analysts are even predicting that the Chinese economy will be larger than that of the United States in about 20 years". Say Zuliu Hu & Mohsin S. Khan in their article "Why is China Growing so Fast"

For more information visit this link: [http://www.imf.org/EXTERNAL/PUBS/FT/ISSUES8/INDEX.HTM]

China and India are countries recognized by all the world. Their economic growth has been really fast in the last century. Both countries have developed their economic situation using infrastructure, low labor and high trading range to raise their position in comparison with other power countries. Indiaprincipally started to trade with high industry products, not only with products of rawmaterial.This is how their numbers have increased since 1980.

To know more about the way India's economy has being managed visit: [http://www.indianchild.com/india_economy_growth.htm] and

[http://www.economywatch.com/indianeconomy/indian-economy-overview.html]

- Globalisation, a current issue.

How positive can Globalisation be? What are it's negative aspects?

In one hand, globalisation has really opened doors to new cultures in different countries. It is easy now to see anItalianin Mexico, a French in Tokyo or a Mexican in Los Angeles (haha).

Trading opportunities has also being encouraged by this matter. Countries are now basing its economy a little bit more in trading than they used to.

Also the appearance of new technologies thanks to globalisation, although most of the time you read in tags "Made in China", "Made in Japan", "Made in Taiwan" etcetera. But still, it has become a positive aspect in countries development.

But Globalisation is still not a fairytale. The mixing of cultures is slowly "destroying" them. This new technologies, well, if you've seen the film "I Robot", you might think about it twice before having a robot doing your chores.

Another issue of globalisation is the fact that countries have become more and more dependent to each other; and this, in the long run, could become worse.

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China seeks big stake in Nigerian oil

(Financial Times)A Chinese state-owned oil company is in talks with Nigeria to buy large stakes in some of the world’s richest oil blocs in a deal that would eclipse Beijing’s previous efforts to secure crude overseas.

O.K. I think it would be boring for you seeing all this topics nd news related to China, but it would be indifferent and not at all inteligent to overpass this news, China's news are important nowadays all over the world, i think there's not a single country that is not interested in what happens in China, that's why I put this new here so you can read it and make your own thought.

China is attempting to buy a large quantity of stakes of the richest oil blocs in Nigeria, with this China could compete now with the most important and big companies in the Business ( the wester ones) as Exxon, Shell, Total, etc. These two Chinisse oil enterprises are Sunrise and CNOOC, the last one is attempting to to buy 6bn barrels of oil, equivalent to one in every six barrels of the proven reserves in Nigeria, imagine how much barrels are, China would own one of six barrels of all oil that Nigeria has. I think this i a good business by China to have a better economic stability and would compete with all of these big and powerful countries, this means more power , more trade , mo relations , more of all.

Link: http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/9d714f96-ac60-11de-a754-00144feabdc0.html?nclick_check=1

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No Detail Is Overlooked as China Prepares to Celebrate it's 60th government aniversary

BEIJING — Domesticated pigeons of this city, take note: Until Oct. 1, you are prohibited by government edict from flying over the center of China’s capital.

Do not take it personally, however. The government is preparing to observe the 60th anniversary of the People’s Republic of China with a parade that will make 76 trombones look like a child’s plastic kazoo. And nothing — not unauthorized window-peeping, nor marchers’ mental health, nor even the chance that pigeons might muck up displays of aerial might — is being left to chance.

China one of the most powerful countries of the world is expecting to do one of the biggest celebrations in History, the celebration of its 60th anniversary of the communist government. I think the government is thinking about all the things that this aniversary and the stablishment of communism 60 years ago. After China was Independence from Japan , what does this meaning , between this time China started from a little countriy (in power) that only produced natural resources to be one of the most Powerful countries all over the world , with technology advances, good trade agreements and an inmense power and influence in all the world.

I think this celebration is deserved because not only that is one of the most powerful countries also because of their history, all the choices and event they had to past to be this stable community even its government is communism, we can prove this because the relationships that China has with other Countries that have different politic ideals like capitalism, this is why we should be aware of this event, i think one of themost important of the year.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/world/asia/29beijing.html?_r=2&hp

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Foreign Airlines Ahead of U.S. on Cellphone Use

Cellphone use on airplanes, it would seem, is on extended hold in the United States.

The national union representing flight attendants wants Congress to ban in-flight phone calls, and survey after survey of airline passengers shows strong opposition to allowing cellphones on planes.

You may think that this is not an important theme, or is irrelevant for the blog, but sometimes is good to see not only the things in their outside and simplest form you have to observe it in different ways and think in what does this helps or what it provoques. And in this case we can see this in a improvement for the Globalisation. This is caused because the necesity of comunicate day by way, in this new world we cannot even turn off the phone to enjoy the flight. Now we have to comunicate almost in all the time of the day, this necesity to have new oportunities, new agreements etc. This world is rounds in the Globalisation, imagine all the trades, agreement or business you can do now with this new improvement in Planes, in those two three or even more than ten hours you can now make your business, who could even thought in the past in this, to talk in the air, but why? Because of Globalisation.

Link: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/09/29/technology/29phones.html?ref=technology

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Iran test-fires long-range missiles

(CNN) -- Days before a key meeting with Western leaders, Iran test-fired two types of long-range missiles Monday in part of what the Islamic republic called routine military exercises, its state-run media reported.

Two long range missiles were thrown in Qom, Iran. What does this affects in the world? With this we can see that those Middle East countries are interested yet in the production and in the investments of war arms. This produce a real fear in all the countries that sorround this area in the middle east; this is because of the thought of these countries " What would happened if this technology advance to the way Iran be the most advanced country in this theme ( missiles) ", as the Foreing Ministry of France stated " These tests can only reinforce the worries of countries in the surrounding region and the international community ". We can see that the other countries have this way to think also, for example the US asked Iran to say that if this tests were peaceful , but why did they asked this? For the fear to be equalized or overcome, and that the power would be divided in more countries. It is a good new to investigate and understand it i lend the link here:

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/09/28/iran.missile.tests/index.html

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China set to provide first swine flu vaccines

China has developed a vaccine for swine flu and is set to become the first country in the world to begin mass inoculations, but there are concerns over possible side effects, the World Health Organization (WHO) has said. China is the first one to have an approved vaccine for the swine flue and will be the first one to distribute, What does this means? that China is starting to be the number 1 country in several cases, this one is the a good example the numer one who invented this vaccine, the number 1 that always is innovating to create new things that attract countries and institutions in this case the WHO to have relationships with China, and what does China win? Economic Power and Political Power in the world , if China follows this procedure of being the one that is innovating, the Countries and The institutions would give China a big power in the choises that the countries have to take and these one would start to be more dependt to China, and with this power and relationships i think China would become in the Number 1 Power of the World.

Here is the link of this New so you can read it and have a better conclusion: http://edition.cnn.com/2009/HEALTH/09/09/china.swine.flu.vaccine/index.html

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Remember the airstrike in Afghanistan made by the NATO that killed about 90 people the last 4 of September? Now US commanders and ANGELA MERKEL are demanding a big investigation in this case. Here we can see the political power of this lady how she can demand important things to institutions and countries, an interesting fact of this times.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, has appointed a Canadian officer to lead a formal investigation into a NATO airstrike that killed at least 90 people.

Gen. Stanley McChrystal has announced who will lead the probe into the NATO airstrike.

Maj. Gen. C.S. Sullivan, who serves as the air component element director and deputy director of joint operations for the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force, known as ISAF, will lead the probe, an ISAF statement said Tuesday.

The panel, which will include a U.S. Air Force officer, a German officer and a legal adviser, will coordinate with the Afghan investigation team named by Afghanistan President Hamid Karzai.

McChrystal visited the scene of the massive explosion in northern Kunduz province and concluded that civilians had been killed or injured in the airstrike.

The German commander in the area called in the strike last Friday as Afghans tried to siphon fuel from two tankers hijacked by the Taliban a day earlier.

German Chancellor Angela Merkel on Sunday called for a quick and thorough investigation.

"If there have been civilians among the victims, I will, of course, deeply regret this," she said.

The death toll has varied, depending on the source, but local Afghan officials have said at least half of those killed were civilians.

The Taliban gave villagers the go-ahead to drain the tankers carrying fuel earmarked for ISAF after they became stuck in the mud when the militants tried to drive them through the Kunduz River. The military thought there were no civilians near the trucks at the time of the attack, ISAF Capt. Elizabeth Mathias said Friday.

The investigation is expected to take several weeks.

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/asiapcf/09/08/afghanistan.appointment.nato.airstrike/index.html?iref=newssearch

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Two importarnt quotes of WorldWars that we have to know

Im sharing here two very important quotes related to the next "world wars" that would happen in the future, i think that we have to take care of and think in what will finish these 2 confrontations in the future:

"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV will be fought with sticks and stones"-Albert Einstein


"If the Third World War is fought with nuclear weapons, the fourth will be fought with bows and arrows." - Lord Louis Mountbatten

I think that both quotes are correct, as we have seen during this past years power natations have invested in nuclear weapons and in their advances, i think that there would be a new world war, now we have to wait and see what will happen when it finishes , i think it would be Catastrophic.

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The "Zimmerman Telegram"

As we discussed briefly in class in The Great War (WW1) the Germans wanted to make an agreement with México , in this agreement it was stated that Germany will give the lost territories of México specifically New Mexico, Texas, and Arizona if México joins the German cause,The Zimmerman telegram was a secret communication from German Foreign Minister Arthur Zimmerman to the German Minister to Mexico, von Eckhardt. This telegram was not succesful because the British intercepted it.

Here you can see the coded and the decoded version of it:






Just imagine what would happened, if the British couldnt intercept this telgram, how would the Great War turned, would México have right now those territories?, would Germany won the war?

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Altough the next video is in German it conatins som valuable information in the whereabouts of the "opening" of the Berlin Wall

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