The Giant African land snail is one of the most damaging snails in the world because they consume at least 500 different types of plants, can cause structural damage to plaster and stucco on houses, and can carry a parasitic worm that can lead to meningitis in humans.

MIAMI — No one knows how they got there. But an invasion of African giant snails has southern Florida in a panic over potential crop damage, disease and general yuckiness surrounding the slimy gastropods.

The US and Florida departments of agriculture have mobilized 34 agents to battle the infestation and the US Fish & Wildlife Service is heading up an investigation into how the mollusks — which can be up to 20 centimeters long — arrived.

“This is a big snail, a very big snail,” says Suzi Distelberg, a district inspector for the Florida Department of Agriculture, as she probes one of the shells with a gloved hand.

“No it’s not empty, see… eeew. It’s very heavy, you can tell the snail is still in there.

“We’ve been told that they like to eat the stucco off the sides of the houses because it contains calcium, and the calcium helps to build their shells.”

The lissachatina fulica, or giant African land snail, can live up to nine years, and are prolific in reproduction, laying up to 1,200 eggs a year, making it extremely invasive. A single snail can create a mass that invades an entire neighborhood.

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Athens bowed to demands from its international paymasters for further budget cuts after months of bitter wrangling.

It paved the way for a deal to cut the nation’s crippling debts and secure a second bailout in two years worth £110bn.

But the rescue package faced opposition in Athens last night where unions called for a wave of strikes in protest at the new austerity measures.

German finance minister Wolfgang Schaeuble said it was still not clear that Greece would be able to cut its debts from 160pc of GDP now to 120pc in 2020.

It is feared that Greece will not be able to hit its budget targets and will eventually be forced to default.

[More]

See Also:

Forget polls, there’s only once scenario for the euro

Greeks strike against austerity, EU demands more cuts

Greeks approve ‘tombstone’ austerity deal with troika

Warner: Euro crisis averted? Don’t believe a word of it

Hannan: Quantitative easing has failed and failed again. There is only one way to explain yet another splurge.

Afternoon Updates:

12:12 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — Warner: Europe is now deliberately trying to push Greece out

12:14 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 – PM faces new problem as five cabinet members resign

12:16 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — Greece caught between protests, austerity demands

12:20 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — Greek rage nears boiling point

“The biggest police trade union said it would issue arrest warrants for Greece’s international lenders for subverting democracy, and refused to “fight against our brothers.””

12:23 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — ‘Without a New Beginning, Athens Is Lost’

12:27 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — Spain introduces sweeping labour reforms to fight joblessness

12:30 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — China’s exports and imports dip raising growth concerns

12:35 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — ECB’s Draghi shuns rate cuts, boosts bank bazooka

12:37 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 – Greek Anxiety, Weak Data Knock Stocks Sharply Lower

12:42 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — Debt crisis: live

Associate Defence Minister Fantino found himself being questioned (once again) in the Commons about the F-35 purchase, with opposition MPs mentioning the report from Michael Byers that appeared in the new issue of the Canadian Foreign Policy Journal.

Fantino dismissed the report, saying that it came from Byers who he said was not only a leftist but also a failed NDP candidate. As well, the report was done in conjunction with the Rideau Institute, and Fantino said everyone knows they are leftists as well.

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Dolan, the archbishop of New York who has been designated by Pope Benedict for elevation to cardinal, said he now questions whether he can work with Obama to settle an issue that has erupted into a political controversy.

The rule requires religious-oriented groups such as charities, hospitals and universities, but not churches, to provide coverage for birth control. The Catholic Church opposes most methods of birth control.

Dolan said he met with Obama in the Oval Office in November to discuss the issue.

“I hope he would understand that I’m a bit skeptical because … he gave me promises. So I’m a little skeptical and I’m saying, wow, I hope I can continue to work with him,” Dolan said on the CBS program “This Morning.”

[More]

See Also:

Cardinal-Designate Dolan: President Obama Needs To Stop ‘Intruding Into Internal Life Of A Church’

Southern Baptist leader: If Obama mandate isn’t changed, Christians will go to jail

Obama’s war on the Catholic Church isn’t just insensitive – it’s un-American

Afternoon Updates:

12:49 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — Obama announces compromise plan in contraceptive firestorm

Toews said that Canada will be more resilient to terrorist attacks now that the sweeping, interdepartmental strategy is in place.

“The reality is that no government can guarantee it will be able to prevent all terrorist attacks all the time,” he said. “Nevertheless, Canada is committed to taking all reasonable measures to address terrorism in its many forms.”

Building Resilience Against Terrorism: Canada’s Counter-Terrorism Strategy identifies both domestic and international terrorist threats.

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“The NDP is missing its rendezvous with history,” says pollster Jean-Marc Leger, president of Leger Marketing.

A flurry of polls published in the past few weeks have shown Quebecers’ honeymoon with the party might be over.

The NDP still ranks first among federal voters in Quebec, but a Leger Marketing online poll published in the Montreal Gazette and Le Devoir on Jan. 30 showed support in the province is down at 27%. That’s a drop of six points since October, and 15 points since the late Jack Layton led the party to Official Opposition status in last year’s federal election.

[More]

See Also:

Saganash to bow out of NDP leadership race

The Conservatives have pledged to address the concerns of Canadians by revisiting and revamping Canada’s complex and convoluted laws concerning self-defence. In meetings on Wednesday concerning the proposed Citizen’s Arrest and Self-Defence Act,  Attorney-General Rob Nicholson was asked by a Tory MP if firing a warning shot during a confrontation was a legitimate act of self-defence, or, as the Crown sometimes contends, unlawful discharge of a firearm. “I think it is [legitimate self-defence],” the Attorney-General replied.

Cue much outrage from Liberal interim leader Bob Rae. Firing a warning shot isn’t self defence, says he. It’s encouraging Canadians to be vigilantes!

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Afternoon Updates:

12:57 pm EST, February 10th, 2012 — Green: What does Bob Rae think Ian Thomson should have done?

"Support for Scottish separation is higher in England than in Scotland." Imagine that?

Do you agree that Scotland should be an independent country?

That is the question Scotland’s separatist First Minister, Alex Salmond, proposes to put to Scottish voters in a referendum sometime in late 2014. Ten words, no subordinate clauses, its meaning incapable of confusion. Compare it with this little essay in obscurity:

Do you agree that Quebec should become sovereign after having made a formal offer to Canada for a new economic and political partnership within the scope of the bill respecting the future of Quebec and of the agreement signed on June 12, 1995?.

Or how about that lengthy brain-teaser, posed to Quebecers in 1980, which began with the words “The Government of Quebec has made public its proposal to negotiate a new agreement with the rest of Canada …,” and ended, many, many words later, with “Do you give the Government of Quebec the mandate to negotiate the proposed agreement between Quebec and Canada?”

Yet, remarkably enough, Salmond’s proposed question has run into fierce opposition, on the grounds that it is loaded in favour of the separatist side. “Do you agree,” it is argued, invites people to say yes: Who wants to be disagreeable? Proposed alternatives include “Do you want Scotland to remain a part of the United Kingdom?” or “Do you want Scotland to leave the United Kingdom and become an independent country?”

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Their fears have been stoked by the apparent re-emergence of a group calling itself Liberals for Life, which is promoting Trifon Haitas’s bid to represent the party in a March 19 byelection in Toronto-Danforth.

The group has issued an “urgent message” to Liberals in the riding, urging them to support Haitas, a Greek-Canadian journalist who formerly ran for the Green party.

“Trifon Haitas is the only candidate who is committed to stop the slaughter of unborn children in Canada,” the electronic message states.

The message includes a link to an endorsement of Haitas by Campaign Life Coalition, a national organization opposed to abortion.

The byelection in Toronto-Danforth, a riding just east of downtown Toronto, was necessitated by the death of NDP Leader Jack Layton last August. Liberals are set to nominate their candidate Thursday, with Haitas facing off against advertising executive Grant Gordon.

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Rice called the vetoes “unforgivable,” and said that “any further blood that flows will be on their hands.” She said the US was “disgusted.”

Clinton called the move by Moscow and Beijing a “travesty.” She then said that the US will take action outside the UN, “with those allies and partners who support the Syrian people’s right to have a better future.”

The rhetoric employed by Obama’s top officials is striking for what it reveals about how the Obama administration perceives the purpose of rhetoric in foreign policy.

Most US leaders have used rhetoric to explain their policies. But if you take the Obama administration’s statements at face value you are left scratching your head in wonder. Specifically on Syria, if you take these statements literally, you are left wondering if Obama and his advisers are simply clueless. Because if they are serious, their indignation bespeaks a remarkable ignorance about how decisions are made at the Security Council.

[More]

Afternoon Updates:

1:06 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Critics slam Obama’s handling of Arab Spring

The articulate utility executive is nervous at the beginning of the conversation. He is groping for words — not a common occurrence for the practiced provocateur. After all, Fritz Vahrenholt, 62, who holds a doctorate in chemistry, has been a rebel throughout his life. “Perhaps it’s just part of my generation,” he says.

He is typical of someone who came of age during the student protest movement of the late 1960s, and who fought against the chemical industry’s toxic manufacturing plants in the 1970s. His party, Germany’s center-left Social Democratic Party (SPD), chose him as environment senator in the city-state of Hamburg, where he incurred the wrath of the environmental lobby by building a waste incineration plant, earning him the nickname “Feuerfritze” (Fire Fritz). He worked in industry after that, first for oil multinational Shell and then for wind turbine maker RePower, which he helped develop. Now, as the outgoing CEO of the renewable energy group RWE Innogy, he is about to embark on his next major battle. “I’m going to make enemies in all camps,” he says.

[More]

See Also:

Body Blow To German Global Warming Movement! Major Media Outlets Unload On “CO2 Lies!”

Germany’s Top Environmentalist Turns Climate Sceptic

Germany in skeptical turmoil on both Climate and Solar/Windfarms

The Himalayas and nearby peaks have lost no ice in past 10 years, study shows

Windfarms: An ill wind of change?

Afternoon Updates:

12:40 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Solyndra sold assets cheap for fast cash

12:43 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — The Next Wave In Renewable Energy From the Ocean

12:45 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Solar subsidies slashed for second time as scheme balloons over budget

12:51 pm EST, February 9th, 2012 — Delingpole: The best article on wind farms you will ever read (read the column James linked — I think he’s correct)

“Mad, isn’t it? And madder still that RTE or the BBC will continue to trot out their pet wind-enthusiasts to bluster balderdash and poppycock about global warming and how renewables are the solution — and without the contrary point of view ever being given an airing. This is dogma, as created, promulgated and enforced by the John Charles McQuaids of our time — and if sceptics are not actually anathematised from the pulpit, they are ruthlessly and systematically ignored. These dishonest, hypocritical and deceitful energy policies are now widely accepted by our political and teaching classes as being the very embodiment of environmentalist virtue. Such imbecilic virtue, if implemented as energy policy across Europe, could have brought about a human catastrophe last weekend.”