Alright, now we have a 3-way cold war.  Though I don't foresee China and Russia getting into any large arguments in the near future.

     WASHINGTON (AP) - "Nearly half the country thinks near-record gasoline prices will cause serious hardship, prompting ever more people to consider trading their gas guzzlers for more fuel-efficient cars, an AP-Ipsos poll says.

      Yet there are signs that more people also are clinging to their driving and vacation habits while grudgingly accepting the higher price tag. The government said this week that prices for a gallon of regular gasoline had hit a nationwide average of $3.22, nearly 50 percent higher than in January and pennies shy of the all-time mark.

      How is this going to change the way you spend money?  Think about it, and plan.

     HUTCHINSON, Kan. (Fox) —  "Torrential rainfall and strong winds whipped through parts of Kansas Thursday, flooding small towns, prompting evacuations, closing highways and blowing limbs from trees.

      Rainfall ranging from 5 to 7 inches was not uncommon, authorities said.

      Dozens of flooded roads were closed by the second deluge in three weeks and many of them were expected to require another round of repairs, said Saline County deputy emergency management director Dean Speaks.

      "It's taken out the roads that we fixed (after the first flooding)," Speaks said. Numerous government facilities, homes and businesses in the Salina area were flooded.

      Everyone in the Saline County towns of Bavaria and Hedville — about 80 people — evacuated their homes overnight due to flooding, he said. Centers were set up for the evacuees.

      Fifty homes in Ogden, near Fort Riley, were being voluntarily evacuated as area creeks rose.

      From Garden City in the southwest to Belleville in the north-central region near Nebraska, waves of violent, slow-moving storms on Wednesday dropped several inches of rain while pelting the countryside with large hail..."

      Yeah the U.S. is pissed alright.  China can pull the plug on the U.S. $, and that's all she wrote folks.

     WASHINGTON (Fox) - "House Minority Leader John Boehner, in a shockingly blunt admission Tuesday night to a small group of Republicans, called the immigration bill praised by congressional leaders and the White House a 'piece of s---," FOX News confirmed Wednesday.

      "I promised the president today that I wouldn't say anything bad about ... this piece of s--- bill," Boehner said, according to a report in the National Journal's Hotline blog.

      Boehner spoke to the private reception for the Republican Rapid Responders on Capitol Hill Tuesday night. FOX News confirmed the Ohio lawmaker's comments.

      Boehner released a statement earlier Tuesday saying he had "significant concerns" about provisions in the Senate proposal that would "reward illegal immigrants who have consistently broken our laws.".."

     KINSHASA, Democratic Republic of Congo (Reuters) -- "U.N. peacekeepers from Pakistan trafficked arms for gold with a militia in the Democratic Republic of Congo, human rights groups said Wednesday, adding a U.N. inquiry into the affair was deliberately slowed.

      The United Nations denied any arms were handed over and said an inquiry under way for more than a year would be completed in three weeks. Pakistan rejected the accusations as malicious and distorted but said it was investigating.

      The allegations threaten to strike another blow to the image of the 17,000-member peacekeeping mission in Congo, credited with guiding the vast central African country to historic polls last year but repeatedly plagued by scandal.

      The accusations are from late 2005, when Pakistani peacekeepers were stationed in the mining town of Mongbwalu in the eastern Ituri district, where fighting between ethnic militias continued after the official end of a 1998-2003 war.

      "Pakistani officers were involved in illegal smuggling of between $2-$5 million in gold out of Ituri. We have very solid information on this," said Anneke Van Woudenberg, a senior researcher with U.S.-based Human Rights Watch.

      She said the peacekeepers colluded with Congolese military, local armed groups and Indian businessmen.

      "They all became part of one group," she said.

      Joel Bisubu, a researcher with Congolese human rights group Justice Plus, said the peacekeepers -- meant to help disarm thousands of militia members -- returned weapons to the Front of Nationalists and Integrationalists, an armed group accused by the Congolese government of war crimes.

      "There was cooperation between the Pakistanis and the FNI," Bisubu said. "The weapons were meant to be surrendered. But there was a shady operation whereby the Pakistanis handed the weapons back."

More:

U.S. hurricane forecasters urge safety on oil stockpiles

Gas price hikes' cost: $146 a car so far this year

      Well now, how does this affect your bottom line?

     WASHINGTON (Reuters) - "The United States plans to let a landmark nuclear arms reduction treaty with Russia expire in 2009 and replace it with a less formal agreement that eliminates strict verification requirements and weapons limits, a senior U.S. official says.

      This would continue President George W. Bush's practice of repudiating arms control as a means of curbing nuclear weapons while relying more on countermeasures like export controls, interdiction and sanctions.

      This approach makes many arms control experts uneasy, but the Democratic-led U.S. Congress has shown little interest in the START treaty's fate. Some congressional aides say whatever Bush does, his successor -- who takes office in January 2009 -- could seek modifications.

      While the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty or START "has been important and for the most part has done its job," Assistant Secretary of State Paula DeSutter told Reuters the pact is cumbersome and its complicated reporting standards have outlived their usefulness.

      In the post-Cold war era, many provisions of the 1991 START accord, which mandated deep nuclear weapons cuts, "are no longer necessary. We don't believe we're in a place where we need have to have the detailed lists (of weapons) and verification measures," added DeSutter, who handles arms control and verification issues.

      Russia agrees the treaty should not be extended but wants it replaced with another legally binding treaty that makes further cuts in strategic forces, so the two sides have significant differences..."

       Indonesia and China have been reluctant to provide samples, fearing the vaccines produced may be too expensive.

       The agreement aims to ensure that an up-to-date vaccine can be produced and that affected countries can afford it.

      A WHO official said the agreement, due to be adopted on Wednesday was "a big step forward in virus sharing."

       Although experimental vaccines based on the H5N1 virus exist, in order to ensure that any new vaccine would work, it must be based on the latest strain of the virus.

Vaccine dispute

      Indonesia - one of the countries most affected by the avian influenza outbreak - only recently began sharing its latest strain samples again, having blocked them since December.

      It had argued that the pharmaceutical companies would use the samples to produce a commercial vaccine that was beyond the country's economic reach.

      Health minister Siti Fadillah Supari said last week that developing countries sought a fair share of the commercial benefits derived from the H5N1 samples they provide.

      But WHO Director-General Dr Margaret Chan has accused countries that refused to provide timely samples of crippling the fight against a possible flu pandemic.

      News of the deal emerged as Ghana reported that it had found a second confirmed case of the H5N1 virus in the centre of the country, some distance from the first case, discovered at the beginning of May.

      Since the H5N1 virus emerged in South East Asia in late 2003, it has claimed more than 180 lives around the world.

      Indonesia has been hardest hit, with more than 70 deaths.

      Scientists fear the virus could mutate to a form which could be easily passed from human to human, triggering a pandemic..."

More:

My big fat American gas tax

Report: Energy Use to grow world-wide by %57 in 2030

Gasoline price at inflation adjusted peak

Gas prices climb to another record high

      All signs point to ->  "Kiss your Gas Goodbye."

     Ohio (Reuters) - "Treating skin wounds with a gel made from a patient’s own blood platelets speeded healing, researchers said in a study showing how doctors may be able to harness the body’s innate healing ability.

      Skin wounds treated with this gel healed about 10 percent more quickly than wounds in the same people treated with only an antibiotic ointment, Monday’s study in the Archives of Facial Plastic Surgery showed.

      The researchers cautioned that this was a small pilot study — only eight people were examined — but said the concept could change the way doctors deal with wounds, from surgical incisions to, potentially, internal injuries..."

• China to launch a lunar orbiter in the second half of 2007
• Exploration plans include landing a probe on the moon, collecting soil samples
• China is the third country to launch a man into space aboard its own rocket
 

      If the Chang'e I orbiter succeeds in orbiting the moon, the next step would be an attempt to land. Ultimately a moon rover would collect samples before returning to earth, Sun Laiyan said in a speech at Beijing Jiaotong University.

      "The moon probe project is the third milestone in China's space technology after satellite and manned spacecraft projects, and a first step for us in exploring deep space," Sun said.

      Plans for a lunar orbiter launch in 2007 were included in China's white paper on its space program, unveiled last year.

      The moon rover mission would be due in 2012, Xinhua said, citing unidentified earlier reports.

       A forecast released Monday by the National Association for Business Economics puts the growth of the gross domestic product at 2.2 percent for this year. The rate was 2.7 percent in the group’s previous survey, in February.

More:

Housing to weigh more than expected on growth-forecast

      Buy your homes to live in; not for their equity.  Lesson number 1.

     CAMARILLO, Calif. (AP) - "The average price of self-serve regular gasoline hit a record high of $3.18, rising more than 11 cents over the past two weeks, according to a nationwide survey released Sunday.

      The latest figure topped the record of $3.07 set two weeks ago, which had been the highest price since the average cost of a gallon of gas hit $3.03 on Aug. 11, 2006, according to the Lundberg Survey of 7,000 gas stations across the country.

 
     POST FALLS, Idaho (Fox)  —  "Two home-schooled teenagers in this northern Idaho town say they are carrying loaded guns to the library, grocery store and other public areas for self-defense, as a crime deterrent, and to educate others about their rights.

     Zach Doty, 18, carries a loaded Glock handgun on his hip. His 15-year-old brother, Steven, carries a .22-caliber rifle in a sling on his back.

     Police have been called on several occasions to question the teens but have not found the teens to be in violation of the law.

     In Idaho, residents 18 and older can openly carry a firearm in public. And those ages 13 to 17 who have parental permission can carry a rifle in public.

     "I certainly don't anticipate that I'll need to use it, but I'd rather have it and not need it than to not have it and need it," Zach told the Coeur d'Alene Press. "There's no reason for me to hide a weapon."

      Average gas price tops $3.15 a gallon for the first time on Saturday, to reach seventh straight record high.

     NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- "Gasoline prices hit their record high for the seventh straight day Saturday, as gas costing less than $3 a gallon is becoming a rare find anywhere in the country.

      The motorist group AAA said the average price for a gallon of self-serve unleaded hit $3.157 in its latest reading, based on a daily survey of up to 85,000 gas stations. That's up from Friday's record of $3.129.
The nation's retailers say soaring gas prices are prompting U.S. consumers to cut back on their purchases and shopping trips.

      The nation's retailers say soaring gas prices are prompting U.S. consumers to cut back on their purchases and shopping trips.

      The group warned in congressional testimony this week it believes that more record prices could be on the way. It's forecasting prices will approach $3.25 a gallon over the next 60 days.

      Prices are now up 3.4 percent in just the last week, and have risen 10.1 percent over the last month.

Topping post-Katrina records

      Before this week's series of record-high gas prices, the highest price ever recorded in the survey was $3.057, which was set Sept. 4 and Sept. 5, 2005, in the wake of Hurricane Katrina, which disrupted refinery operations and pipelines and caused a temporary spike in prices. The only other time that the AAA national average has topped the $3 mark was in August 2006, after Israel invaded Lebanon and oil futures shot higher. Gas prices topped out at $3.036 in that spike.

      But problems in gasoline supplies and refinery output sent the average gas price above the $3 a gallon mark on May 4, and it's been climbing relatively steadily since. On Sunday, May 13, it set a new record, reaching $3.0637, and it's been up from there each day since..."

     Worried yet?  If you are not prepared for this to go higher, it is already too late.

      Hunan Province, China (BBC) - "China has confirmed a new outbreak of the deadly H5N1 strain of the bird flu virus in the central province of Hunan, state media has reported.

       More than 11,000 poultry died of the virus in Shijiping village near Yiyang city, the Agriculture Ministry said.

       Some 53,000 birds have since been culled and officials say that the outbreak is now under control.

       China's last reported case was in March, when chickens died at a poultry market near the Tibetan capital, Lhasa.

       There were no reports of human infection in the latest outbreak.

       A total of 15 people have died in China from the H5N1 virus and millions of birds have been culled.

       Officials are working to vaccinate billions of domestic poultry by the end of May in preparation for the northward migration of wild birds in the summer, Xinhua news agency has said.

       Since the H5N1 virus emerged in South East Asia in late 2003, it has claimed more than 180 lives around the world. Indonesia has been hardest hit, with more than 70 deaths.

       Scientists fear the virus could mutate to a form which could be easily passed from human to human, triggering a pandemic and potentially putting millions of lives at risk..."

     Washington  (Fox) - "It's time to send for George Smiley.  Russia’s covert foreign intelligence operations against America have reached Cold War levels under President Vladimir Putin, according to Washington officials.

      White House intelligence advisers believe no other country is as aggressive as Russia in trying to obtain U.S. secrets, with the possible exception of China.

      In particular the SVR, as the former KGB’s foreign intelligence arm is now known, is using a network of undercover agents in America to gather classified information about sensitive technologies, including military projects under development and high-tech research.

      Yuri Shvets, a former KGB agent, said: “In the days of the Soviet Union, the number of spies was limited because they had to be based at the foreign ministry, the trade mission or the news agencies like Tass. Right now, virtually every successful private company in Russia is being used as a cover for Russian intelligence operations.”.."