U.N.’s World Health Organization Wants Tax on Internet

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,583127,00.html
The World Health Organization (WHO) is considering a plan to ask governments to impose a global consumer tax on such things as Internet activity or everyday financial transactions like paying bills online.
Such a scheme could raise "tens of billions of dollars" on behalf of the United Nations' public health arm from a broad base of consumers, which would then be used to transfer drug-making research, development and manufacturing capabilities, among other things, to the developing world.
The multibillion-dollar "indirect consumer tax" is only one of a "suite of proposals" for financing the rapid transformation of the global medical industry that will go before WHO's 34-member supervisory Executive Board at its biannual meeting in Geneva.

JPMorgan investment bankers to see record payday

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20100115/bs_nm/us_jpmorgan_compensation
NEW YORK (Reuters) – JPMorgan Chase & Co (JPM.N) on Friday announced a record $9.3 billion payday for its investment-banking employees, setting the stage for competitors like Goldman Sachs Group Inc (GS.N) to also make eye-popping payouts.
On a per employee basis, JPMorgan investment bankers, sales staff and traders, on average, are set to make about $379,000 for 2009, up more than $100,000 from 2008, when the broader financial sector was mired in crisis.
"People looking at it from the outside look at the dollars and say they are high," said Kenneth Raskin, the head of law firm White & Case's executive compensation practice. "There is no question the dollars are high. The question is whether they were deserving."

U.S. to further raise airline security, official says

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/34864969/ns/us_news-airliner_security/
WASHINGTON - The Department of Homeland Security is further increasing aviation security in response to intelligence indicating Islamist terrorists were planning another attack on the United States.

The new regulations — which are to be announced later Thursday — were not described in detail, but a senior U.S. official told NBC News on condition of anonymity that they would include further in-flight restrictions in passengers’ movement, more random pre-flight screening of passengers and an increase in the number of federal air marshals on flights.

First in the nation: California adopts mandatory green building code

http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/greenspace/2010/01/green-building-code-california-usgbc.html
California's first-in-the-nation mandatory green building code will help the state meet its tough curbs on greenhouse gas emissions and its goal of deriving a third of its energy from renewable sources by 2020. "California continues to pave the way," said Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, praising the code adopted Tuesday by the California Building Standards Commission.
The code, which takes effect in January 2011, will require that every new home, commercial building and public structure reduce water consumption by 20% below the current code. It mandates separate water meters for indoor and outdoor water use in non-residential buildings. Large landscaping projects will have to install moisture-sensing irrigation systems.

Actor Danny Glover Says Haitian Earthquake Caused by Climate Change

http://blogs.news.com.au/dailytelegraph/timblair/index.php/dailytelegraph/comments/pact_with_gaia/

Fake gold bars in Bank of England and Fort Knox

http://www.daily.pk/fake-gold-bars-in-bank-of-england-and-fort-knox-14477/
It’s one thing to counterfeit a twenty or hundred dollar bill. The amount of financial damage is usually limited to a specific region and only affects dozens of people and thousands of dollars. Secret Service agents quickly notify the banks on how to recognize these phony bills and retail outlets usually have procedures in place (such as special pens to test the paper) to stop their proliferation.
But what about gold? This is the most sacred of all commodities because it is thought to be the most trusted, reliable and valuable means of saving wealth.
A recent discovery — in October of 2009 — has been suppressed by the main stream media but has been circulating among the “big money” brokers and financial kingpins and is just now being revealed to the public. It involves the gold in Fort Knox — the US Treasury gold — that is the equity of our national wealth. In short, millions (with an “m”) of gold bars are fake!
Who did this? Apparently our own government.