There is evidence that central banks in several regions of the World are building up their gold reserves. What is published are the official purchases.

A large part of these Central Bank purchases of gold bullion are not disclosed. They are undertaken through third party contracting companies, with utmost discretion.

US dollar holdings and US dollar denominated debt instruments are in effect being traded in for gold, which in turn puts pressure on the US dollar.

In turn, both China and Russia have boosted domestic production of gold, a large share of which is being purchased by their central banks:

It has long been assumed that China is surreptitiously building up its gold reserves through buying local production. Russia is another major gold miner where the Central bank has been purchasing gold from another state entity, Gokhran, which is the marketing arm and central repository for the country's mined gold production. Now it has been reported by Bloomberg that the Venezuelan Central Bank director, Jose Khan, has said that country will boost its gold reserves through purchasing more than half the gold produced from its rapidly growing domestic gold mining industry.

In Russia, for example, Gokhran sold some 30 tonnes of gold to the Central Bank in an internal accounting exercise late last year. In part, so it was said at the time, the direct sale was made rather than placing the metal on the open market and perhaps adversely affecting the gold price.

China is currently the world's largest gold producer and last year it confirmed it had raised its own Central Bank gold holdings by more than 450 tones over the previous six years. Mineweb.com - The world's premier mining and mining investment website Venezuela taking own gold production into Central Bank reserves - GOLD NEWS | Mineweb

The personal doctor of Ariel Sharon says the comatose former Israeli prime minister responds to pinches and opens his eyes when spoken to.

Dr Shlomo Segev made the remarks in a programme broadcast on Saturday (local time) on Israeli television that coincided with the fifth anniversary of the massive stroke that incapacitated the ex-prime minister.

The 82-year-old Sharon is a former war hero who led Israel from 2001 until the 2006 stroke that left him comatose. Severe haemorrhaging caused significant brain damage and he has been in a vegetative state since. Former Sharon spokesman Raanan Gissin told The AP there has been no change in Sharon's condition.

Sharon was moved home in November, but Gissin said he has since been returned to the long-term care facility outside Tel Aviv for treatment.

The assassination of Iranian nuclear scientisis, a computer virus, and international sanctions have been put as reasons for the delay.

Israel has revised downward its assessment of when Iran might acquire nuclear weapons.

Israel believes that Iran will not be able to produce a nuclear bomb before 2015. That is the assessment of the outgoing head of Israel's Mossad intelligence agency, Meir Dagan, in a briefing published on Friday. Previous Israeli estimates suggested that Iran could have the bomb in a year or two.

Dagan based his revised assessment on several factors, including sabotage, domestic unrest in Iran, the bite of international sanctions and technical difficulties.

Israeli analyst Gerald Steinberg says one problem is foreign sabotage, such as the Stuxnet computer virus, which invaded Iran's nuclear facilities. It is widely believed that the virus was planted by Israel.

A memoir by a top former Turkish intelligence official claims that a worldwide moderate Islamic movement based in Pennsylvania has been providing cover for the CIA since the mid-1990s.

The memoir, roughly rendered in English as Witness to Revolution and Near Anarchy, by retired Turkish intelligence official Osman Nuri Gundes, says the religious-tolerance movement, led by an influential former Turkish imam by the name of Fethullah Gulen, has 600 schools and 4 million followers around the world.

In the 1990s, Gundes alleges, the movement "sheltered 130 CIA agents" at its schools in Kyrgyzstan and Uzbekistan alone, according to a report on his memoir Wednesday by the Paris-based Intelligence Online newsletter.

The book has caused a sensation in Turkey since it was published last month.

Gulen could not be reached for comment.

But two ex-CIA officials with long ties to Central Asia cast doubt on Gundes's charges.

Former CIA operative Robert Baer, chief of the agency's Central Asia and Caucasus operations from 1995 through 1997, called the allegations bogus. "The CIA didn't have any 'agents' in Central Asia during my tenure," he said.

It's possible, Baer granted, that the CIA "turned around this ship after I left," but only the spy agency could say for sure, and the CIA does not comment on operational sources and methods.

I have a feeling that Refusenik types like me will be the next crop to be harvested. (The first being overt "threats" to the government.)

Everything's already in place; the circle is closing. Soon it will be impossible to pretend we still live in an even semi-free country.

I try to practice avoidance - for example, not flying anymore to avoid being scanned/felt up. But I know that eventually, it will be impossible - illegal - to avoid being scanned (and much else, besides). For example, they are going to require us all to carry a biometric National ID card - not merely a driver's license. Without it, you will be unable to function (legally) and be subject to arrest merely for going about your peaceful, harming no one else business without it. Just wait.

100's of contractors and private employee's of the U.S. Government have purchased child pornography and have neither been prosecuted or even investigated. Yes, you heard correctly, Child Pornography (CP).

Project Flicker had discovered the activities in CP of as many as 5200 people, many of whom were linked to fleet zip codes or military addresses.The investigation by the pentagon ran for eight months and only cross referenced 3500 ties with pentagon employees according to a senator.

Test Was Designed by Psychologist Who Inspired CIA's Torture Program

An experimental, Army mental-health, fitness initiative designed by the same psychologist whose work heavily influenced the psychological aspects of the Bush administration's torture program is under fire by civil rights groups and hundreds of active-duty soldiers. They say it unconstitutionally requires enlistees to believe in God or a "higher power" in order to be deemed "spiritually fit" to serve in the Army.

Comprehensive Soldier Fitness (CSF) is a $125 million "holistic fitness program" unveiled in late 2009 and aimed at reducing the number of suicides and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) cases, which have reached epidemic proportions over the past year due to multiple deployments to the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and the substandard care soldiers have received when they return from combat. The Army states that it can accomplish its goal by teaching its service members how to be psychologically resilient and resist "catastrophizing" traumatic events. Defense Department documents obtained by Truthout state CSF is Army Chief of Staff George Casey's "third highest priority."

CSF is comprised of the Soldier Fitness Tracker and Global Assessment Tool, which measures soldiers' "resilience" in five core areas: emotional, physical, family, social and spiritual. Soldiers fill out an online survey made up of more than 100 questions, and if the results fall into a red area, they are required to participate in remedial courses in a classroom or online setting to strengthen their resilience in the disciplines in which they received low scores. The test is administered every two years. More than 800,000 Army soldiers have taken it thus far.

But for the thousands of "Foxhole Atheists" like 27-year-old Sgt. Justin Griffith, the spiritual component of the test contains questions written predominantly for soldiers who believe in God or another deity, meaning nonbelievers are guaranteed to score poorly and will be forced to participate in exercises that use religious imagery to "train" soldiers up to a satisfactory level of spirituality.

Thursday's groundbreaking for a $1.5 billion National Security Agency data center is being billed as important in the short term for construction jobs and important in the long term for Utah's reputation as a technology center.

"This will bring 5,000 to 10,000 new jobs during its construction and development phase," Sen. Orrin Hatch, R-Utah, said on Wednesday. "Once completed, it will support 100 to 200 permanent high-paid employees."

Officially named the Utah Data Center, the facility's role in aggregating and verifying dizzying volumes of data for the intelligence community has already earned it the nickname "Spy Center." Its really long moniker is the Community Comprehensive National Cyber-security Initiative Data Center - the first in the nation's intelligence community.

A war is coming.

Congressional Republicans have already made clear that their top priority, once they take control of Congress in the next session, is to make sure President Obama is a one-term president.

But there is a second priority that many Republicans in Congress, and in state legislatures around the country, have promised to pursue: the further restriction of women's reproductive rights.

As Mother Jones reported in December:

If you thought the abortion battle during the health care debate was fierce, just wait until Republicans take over the House in January. Strengthened by congressional victories in the midterm elections, Republican abortion foes plan to push hard in the new year. Their top goals: enshrine tough restrictions on abortion funding into federal law and defund Planned Parenthood.

The incoming Speaker of the House, John Boehner, is a staunch opponent of women's reproductive rights, with a 100 percent rating from the National Right to Life Committee. In fact, last year, he received the 2010 Henry J. Hyde Defender of Life Award for his "extraordinary leadership in the fight to prevent taxpayer-funded abortion and for his work to protect women's health in his own state of Ohio." After the November election, his staff held a meeting with terrorist Randall Terryto receive Terry's list of forced birth demands for the new Republican majority.

The Obama administration said Monday that 13 companies whose deepwater drilling activities were suspended last year may be able to resume drilling without detailed environmental reviews.

The companies - including Chevron USA Inc. and Shell Offshore Inc. - will be allowed to resume work at previously drilled wells, as long as they meet new policies and regulations, officials said.

"For those companies that were in the midst of operations at the time of the deepwater suspensions [last spring], today's notification is a significant step toward resuming their permitted activity," said Michael Bromwich, director of the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, Regulation and Enforcement.

The decision is a victory for the drilling companies, which in the past had routinely won broad waivers from rules requiring detailed environmental studies. After the disastrous BP spill in April, the Obama administration pledged it would require companies to complete environmental reviews before being allowed to drill for oil.