Monday, August 31, 2015

Gold hunters blocked from site of alleged Nazi gold train

Associated Press 
By MONIKA SCISLOWSKA6 hours ago
Railway guards patrolling tracks to prevent gold hunters and history buffs from getting harmed by passing trains near the site where two men allegedly found a Nazi gold train hidden underground near Walbrzych, Poland, on Monday, Aug. 31, 2015. Authorities have ordered visitors barred from the area for safety reasons. (AP Photo/STR) POLAND OUT
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WARSAW, Poland (AP) — Polish authorities have blocked off a wooded area near a railroad track after scores of treasure hunters swarmed southwest Poland looking for an alleged Nazi gold train.
The city of Walbrzych and its surrounding wooded hills are experiencing a gold rush after two men, a Pole and a German, informed authorities through their lawyers that they have found a Nazi train with armaments and valuables that reportedly went missing in the spring of 1945 while fleeing the Red Army.
Inspired by a local legend since World War II, people with metal detectors and ground-penetrating equipment are combing the area and its still-used railway tracks. Some of them have arrived from Germany.
The gold fever intensified after deputy Culture Minister Piotr Zuchowski said last week he had seen contours of the train on an image from a ground- penetrating device.
The alleged site is somewhere between the 61th and the 65th kilometer of the tracks that wind their way between Walbrzych and Wroclaw.
Provincial governor Tomasz Smolarz said Monday that police, city and railway guards are now patrolling the area and blocking treasure hunters to prevent any accidents with trains running on the tracks.
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FILE - Aug. 28, 2015 file picture of the potencial …
FILE - Aug. 28, 2015 file picture of the potencial site where a Nazi gold train is believed to be hi …
"A few hectares (acres) of land are now being secured. People have been barred from the woods" surrounding the site, he said.
"Half of Walbrzych's residents and other people are going treasure hunting or just for walks to see the site. We are worried for their security," police spokeswoman Magdalena Koroscik told The Associated Press. People walking down the tracks can't escape "a train that emerges from behind the rocks at 70 kph (43 mph)."
A man taking a selfie on the tracks reportedly narrowly missed being hit, she said.
Smolarz is also asking the military to examine the site with earth-penetrating equipment to look for any hidden train.
Authorities said numerous previous reports of a find have only yielded rusty pieces of metal.
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China Might No Longer Be The World's U.S. Treasury King

Benzinga 
By Wayne Duggan21 hours ago
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Reports are out that China may be well on the path to becoming dethroned as the global king of U.S. Treasuries. According to sources familiar with the matter, China has recently begun liquidating its massive U.S. Treasuries stake to help support its hobbled currency.
The Strategy
Over the past month, the People’s Bank of China (PBOC) has been dumping UDS and buying yuan to stabilize the exchange rate. The latest available Treasury data indicates that China likely holds about $1.48 trillion of U.S. government debt.
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Major Impact On Treasuries Market
Although the decision by China to scale-down its massive U.S. Treasuries position is far from shocking given its current currency predicament, the liquidation of such a large position, if it continues, could wreak havoc on the Treasuries market.
“It would change the outlook on Treasuries quite a bit if you started to price in a fairly large liquidation of their reserves over the next six months or so as they manage the yuan to whatever level they have in mind,” Cantor Fitzgerald analyst Owen Callan says.
Despite a sharp drop in the stock market, China’s unloading may be responsible for the surprising support in Treasury yields during a time when worried stock investors would typically be flocking into the safer investment and driving yields lower.
China Dethroned?
According to the most recent Treasury data, China remains at the top of the list of global holders of U.S. Treasury debt, responsible for more than 20 percent of outstanding Treasuries.
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However, if China’s liquidation continues, it could soon be dethroned by Japan, which held more than 19 percent of total U.S. Treasuries by last count.
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Influential Christian sect ends protests in Philippines

Associated Press 
By JIM GOMEZ11 hours ago
Members of the religious sect Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) block a main highway during a protest against the Justice Department on Sunday, Aug. 30, 2015 in suburban Mandaluyong city, east of Manila, Philippines. The sect members, who have been doing street protests for four days, has expressed dismay over efforts by Justice Secretary Leila De Lima's department to investigate a criminal complaint filed by an expelled sect minister against the religious group's top leaders. (AP Photo/Aaron Favila)
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MANILA, Philippines (AP) — Thousands of members of a politically influential Christian sect on Monday ended five days of street protests that set off huge traffic jams in the Philippine capital and sparked outrage from motorists.
Evangelist Bienvenido Santiago of the Iglesia ni Cristo church said without elaborating that his group had ended their protests peacefully in Manila after holding talks with government officials.
"The Iglesia and the government have talked and explained their sides," Santiago said. "Everybody is now calm."
President Benigno Aquino III, who convened a meeting with his Cabinet, the national police chief and military chief of staff, late Sunday to discuss the then escalating protests, welcomed the sect's decision to abruptly halt the protests, which were starting to spread to key provinces.
"Through good will and the convergence of efforts, the rule of law has been upheld," presidential spokesman Edwin Lacierda said. "We were resolved not to inflame passions, which could have given an opening to those with selfish agendas to further exacerbate conflict."
The Iglesia group began protesting after Justice Secretary Leila de Lima took steps to investigate a criminal complaint filed by an expelled Iglesia minister against church officials, citing the church's right to be accorded religious autonomy under the constitution.
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Members of the religious sect Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church …
Members of the religious sect Iglesia Ni Cristo (Church of Christ) holds a slogan as they wave their …
De Lima said it was her duty to investigate criminal complaints and legal experts added that failure for her to do so would constitute a crime.
Thousands of sect members rallied at de Lima's Manila office on Thursday and then shifted their protests to the main EDSA highway, site of two "People Power" uprisings that have toppled two presidents in nearly three decades. The crowd at one major intersection swelled to more than 20,000 at one point, according to police.
The large gatherings worsened traffic jams in a bustling district of shopping malls, and office and residential high-rises. Commuters vented their ire on social media, prompting a protest spokesman to apologize.
The 101-year-old religious group wields political clout because its large numbers of followers vote as a bloc in national elections. Politicians have courted its vote, and administration and opposition candidates eyeing next year's presidential elections issued carefully crafted statements on the protests.
The secretive church has been wracked by infighting, with some of its ranking leaders facing and denying allegations of abducting ministers critical of the leaders and of misusing funds. After the internal strife became public, a minister filed a complaint for illegal detention against several sect leaders, an allegation the church called as a lie but which de Lima said had to be investigated.
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Japan complains to UN over Ban's China military parade visit

AFP 
14 hours ago
People make a vow in front of the Museum of the War of the Chinese People's Resistance Against Japanese Aggression, in Fangshan district of Beijing, on July 7, 2015
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Tokyo said on Monday it has complained to the United Nations over Secretary General Ban Ki-moon's plan to attend a huge military parade in Beijing to mark the 70th anniversary of Japan's defeat in World War II.
Top government spokesman Yoshihide Suga called on the UN to be "neutral", after Tokyo issued a complaint to the 193-member body on Friday.
"We want to encourage member countries to look to the future and not to unnecessarily focus on particular events in the past," Suga told a press briefing Monday.
The display planned for Thursday, a show of strength which comes as China takes a more assertive stance regionally, will see 12,000 soldiers and 500 pieces of hardware roll through Tiananmen Square, with almost 200 aircraft flying overhead.
Chinese officials listed two dozen heads of state and government as attending, with Russian President Vladimir Putin, South Korea's Park Geun-Hye and South Africa's Jacob Zuma among the most prominent.
The UN's Ban is also on the list, while Japanese officials, including Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, are staying away.
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Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, …
Secretary General of the United Nations, Ban Ki-Moon, spekas during a press conference in Paris, on  …
Tokyo previously said the nationalist Abe had decided to put off a visit to China around the time of the parade owing to opposition at home over his controversial bid to expand the role of Japan's military.
But local media said the government was concerned about the anti-Japanese nature of the display.
Abe had previously expressed a desire to meet Chinese President Xi Jinping in early September, but the talks had not been confirmed.
"The Japanese government's 'concern' about UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon's visit to Beijing betrays the narrow-mindedness of the Shinzo Abe administration and its obstinacy in clinging to wrong perceptions of history," the China Daily newspaper said in an editorial Monday.
"Such an open display of displeasure is against diplomatic etiquette, not to mention that Japan's concerns are ill-grounded as well as unreasonable."
Former Japanese prime minister Tomiichi Murayama -- who issued a landmark apology for the war in 1995 -- will be present at the commemorations in a personal capacity.
France and Italy will send their foreign ministers, officials said, but the governments of the US, Germany and Canada will be represented only by their resident ambassadors.
China has struggled to attract global interest for the parade as world leaders are wary of the tone of the event, and the risk of lending it legitimacy.
Beijing is becoming increasingly assertive in the region and regularly accuses Tokyo of failing to show sufficient contrition for Japan's 20th-century invasion of China.
The conflict is officially known in the country as the "Chinese People's War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression and the World Anti-Fascist War".
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