Thread: Latest Inflation Riot: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen, Jor

Latest Inflation Riot Tally: Algeria, Tunisia, Morocco, Yemen And Jordan

by Tyler Durden
01/14/2011 10:16 -0500

The Fed chairman is 100% confident inflation can be contained. Rapidly spreading rioting (5 countries so far) would take the under on that.

Latest on Tunisia: http://af.reuters.com/article/algeriaNe ... KJ20110114

Twelve people were killed in overnight clashes in the Tunisian capital Tunis and the northeastern town of Ras Jebel, according to accounts from two medical sources and a witness on Friday.

Ten of the victims were killed after clashes in the capital, two sources from Charles Nicolle hospital told Reuters.

A witness from Ras Jebel, who identified herself as Narjes, said: "I saw two dead people with my own eyes after police fired at youth".

Tunisian officials could not immediately be reached for a comment. It was not immediately clear whether the shootings took place before or after the country's president ordered police to stop using lethal force against demonstrators.

And now the violence has spread to Jordan: http://af.reuters.com/article/energyOil ... 0320110114

Food price protests sweeping across North Africa and the Middle East reached Jordan on Friday, when hundreds of protesters chanted slogans against Prime Minister Samir al-Rifai in the southern city of Karak.

The peaceful protest was held despite hastily announced government measures to curb commodity and fuel prices. Similar demonstrations were held in three other towns and cities across the country, witnesses said.

"We are protesting the policies of the government -- high prices and repeated taxation that made the Jordanian people revolt," Tawfiq al-Batoush, a former head of Karak municipality, told Reuters at the protest outside Karak's Al Omari mosque.

Three days ago, after riots in Algeria and Tunisia over high prices, unemployment and falling living standards, Jordan announced a $225 million package of cuts in the prices of some types of fuel and of staple products including sugar and rice.

Other Arab countries have taken similar steps. Libya abolished taxes and customs duties on food products and Morocco offered compensation to importers of soft milling wheat to keep supplies stable after a surge in grain prices.

...Morocco (google translated) http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2. ... eID=284626

Protests against price rises and unemployment moved from Tunisia to Morocco, where the streets of Rabat, yesterday, saw clashes between young protesters and police forces, which tried to prevent them from organizing a demonstration outside the Moroccan parliament, in protest against unemployment and high prices and the cost of living in Morocco

And Yemen: http://www.almasry-alyoum.com/article2. ... eID=284626

In Yemen, Yemeni President Ali Abdullah Saleh fired Minister of Oil and Chief Executive, the Yemen Petroleum Company Omar Arhabi, yesterday, due to a lack in the supply of petroleum products, not available in the market, which led to bottlenecks in front of gas stations and the creation of indignation among the citizens.

Not like there is much to add here, but we would like to add that if a rising stock market was indiciative of "wealth" then the citizens of Zimbabwe have to be the richest people in the universe.

http://www.zerohedge.com/article/latest ... and-jordan

Deposed Tunisian President Ben Ali Said To Have Fled Country With 1.5 Tons Of Gold

by Tyler Durden
01/16/2011 17:10 -0500



Not shares of AAPL, not freeze dried MREs, not shotguns shells, not even €45 million European pieces of linen in a suitcase... Gold. And one wonders why all the physical silver and gold is slowly but surely disappearing from the distributors: someone should really check the cargo hold of Lloyd's, Jamie's and Vikram's G-6 planes...and of course the extra cargo holds in the private helicopter squadron of that "other" Ben, elsewhere now known lovingly with the adjective of Blackhawk (f/k/a Helicopter).

From Le Monde (Google translated):

The family of ousted President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali of Tunisia would have fled with 1.5 tons of gold. It is an assumption of the French secret services, who try to understand how the day ended on Friday 14 January, which saw the departure of President and his family and the downfall of his regime.

According to information gathered in Tunis, Leila Trabelsi , the president's wife allegedly went to the Bank of Tunisia to look for gold bars. The governor refused. M me Ben Ali had called her husband, who had also initially refused, then surrendered. She then flew to Dubai, according to French news before leaving for Jeddah. "It seems that the wife of Ben Ali is a party with gold" , said a senior French official. "1.5 tonnes gold, that makes 45 million euros" , translated source.

Mr. Ben Ali, he does not believe his fall as fast. For proof, according to Paris, he recorded a new speech, which has not had time to appear. He would not leave the country voluntarily but would have been impeached. The army and the chief of staff who refused to fire on the crowd, have, according to European intelligence services played a leading role in the removal of Mr. Ben Ali.

It seems at least one person was smart enough to take heed in the Fed's just declassified records on what the surging price of gold means for food price inflation... and for popular revolutions derived therefrom.

The mode of departure of Mr. Ben Ali has also uncertainties. He seems to have found in the airspace of Malta, without a flight plan determined, stating that he did not, in his hasty departure from Tunisia, a precise destination. An Italian source said that the aircraft would not receive permission to land on the island. According to another hypothesis, the deposed president had left by helicopter for Tunis Malta, where he recovered his plane.

At least we now know that following the upcoming banking kleptocracy's exodus from the US, Malta may well be the newest destination location for every stripper in a 50 miles radius of Manhattan.

And like that Tunisia's official gold holdings (as per the WGC) are down by 23%:



http://www.zerohedge.com/article/depose ... -tons-gold