Xi Jinping is returning the courtesy bestowed last year, when President Vladimir Putin included Beijing into the first foreign trip of his third presidential term. This exchange of first foreign visits is seen as the two powers’ effort to bolster their common clout in the world arena now that Russian-Chinese relations “are the best in their centuries-long history,” as Vladimir Putin put it in his recent interview to ITAR-TASS.

According to the Russian president, the two countries are working on quite an ambitious common goal “to shape a new, more just world order.” What they have so far been doing to achieve it is they jointly countered US and its allies’ position on most pressing issues like the Syrian crisis, the situation around Iran, and Middle East settlement.

“Both countries share a strong common interest in seeking a more multipolar world and preventing the United States from dominating the global political and economic order,” Joseph Cheng, political analyst and professor at Hong Kong City University told RT. China and Russia have on many occasions made use of their right of veto in the UN Security Council to curb intervention and aggression.

In Nicosia, the country's biggest bank urged politicians to make haste and cut a deal with their EU partners as parliament considered proposals to nationalize pension funds, pool state assets and split the country's second-largest bank in a desperate effort to satisfy those exasperated European allies.

The governor of the Central Bank, Panicos Demetriades, warned political leaders the country would face a disorderly bankruptcy on Tuesday unless they approved the bills, an official present at the talks said. "The next few hours will determine the future of the country," government spokesman Christos Stylianides said before the parliamentary debate. "We must all assume our share of the responsibility."

Even if the measures are approved, there was no confirmation they would raise the 5.8 billion euros demanded by the EU in return for a 10 billion euro ($12.9 billion) bailout to avoid a default. The biggest local bank, the Bank of Cyprus, urged the government to go back and make a deal from the European Union, under which larger deposits over 100,000 euros, would be taxed. It was preferable, it said, to a collapse of the system and a return to the Cypriot pound which would wipe out assets.

In detailed notes of the call seen by Reuters, one official described emotions as running "very high", making it difficult to come up with rational solutions, and referred to "open talk in regards of (Cyprus) leaving the euro zone". The call was among members of the Eurogroup Working Group, which consists of deputy finance ministers or senior treasury officials from the 17 euro zone countries as well as representatives from the European Central Bank and the European Commission. The group is chaired by Austria's Thomas Wieser.

Cyprus decided not to take part in the call, a decision that several participants described as troubling and reflecting the wider confusion surrounding the island's predicament. "The (Cypriot) parliament is obviously too emotional and will not decide on anything, if Cyprus does not even feel that they can attend the call it is a big problem for us," the French representative said, according to the notes seen by Reuters."We have never seen this."

"The economy is going to tank in Cyprus no matter what," the notes quoted him as saying. "Restrictions on capital will probably be imposed," he said, adding that further conference calls would be organised in the coming days.

The European Union, the IMF and the ECB are pushing Cyprus into bankruptcy while risking a contagion effect that could lead to the meltdown of the eurozone. European leaders have already bailed out Greece, Portugal, Spain and Italy. Why is the Cyprus bailout so special? Why do the European leaders prefer to push the country into bankruptcy and raid the Cypriot bank accounts instead of saving it?

The gold reserves of Cyprus stand at 13.9 tons. While not a big amount in itself, these reserves represent “physical gold” not “paper gold” which makes it very valuable from a market manipulation perspective. If the central banks and financial institutions that are suppressing the gold prices are running short on “physical gold”, then each ounce of real, assayed, not rehypothecated gold is priceless.

Time has shown that the gold market manipulators are extremely powerful and will go to any lengths to keep the gold and silver prices down. If they have to force a country into bankruptcy in order to get 13.9 tons of physical gold and use it to suppress the prices, they’ll do it. If they have to create a distraction for the media, like a “special levy on bank accounts”, they’ll do it. If they are successful, it is very likely that Italian or Spanish gold reserves will be targeted next.

In a recent interview with Vice magazine, evolutionary psychologist Geoffrey Miller admits to have donated his DNA to an endeavor headed up by the world’s largest genetic research institution based in China’s Shenzhen province. Miller, by his own admission, is one of 2000 “brainiacs” selected by IBG Shenzhen for their transhumanist project. Asked how the company goes after potential DNA-contributors, Miller answers:

“They seem mostly interested in people of Chinese and European descent. They’re basically recruiting through a scientific conference, through word of mouth. You have to provide some evidence that you’re as smart as you say you are. You have to send your complete CV, publications you’ve produced, standardized-test scores, where you went to college… stuff like that.”

Miller also takes the liberty of speaking for the Chinese people when it comes to the state’s top-down transhumanist program underway, claiming in so many words that the Chinese people are fine with these interventions. Contrasting US attitudes to such eugenic interventions to Chinese ones, Miller asserts:

“We have ideological biases that say, ‘Well, this could be troubling, we shouldn’t be meddling with nature, we shouldn’t be meddling with God.’ I just attended a debate in New York a few weeks ago about whether or not we should outlaw genetic engineering in babies and the audience was pretty split. In China, 95 percent of an audience would say, ‘Obviously you should make babies genetically healthier, happier, and brighter!’ There’s a big cultural difference.”

Argentines are buying more gold than ever to protect their savings from the Western Hemisphere’s fastest inflation reported Bloomberg. Banco de la Ciudad de Buenos Aires, Argentina’s only bank offering gold bullion coins and bars to investors and savers is negotiating with mining companies to purchase gold direct as surging demand depletes the scrap supply.

Argentines are utilizing gold to hedge their savings as economists forecast the peso will lose more value than any currency in the world, and President Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner forbids dollar purchases. Banco Ciudad is the only bank left that trades in gold after Fernandez banned the purchase of certified 99.99% pure gold for savings in July.

The bank sells it at 99.96% purity, according to Carlos Leiza, who oversees the lender’s gold trading. Gold sold by Banco Ciudad also isn’t recognized internationally, making it more difficult to determine its value, he said.

In other cases, it found evidence of doctors making more “rapid” and “premature” life-and-death decisions in cases involving the disabled than other people. People with special needs are also less likely to be diagnosed quickly with conditions such as cancer and “all aspects” of medical care were “significantly” worse for them than for the wider population, it concluded.

As a result they can expect to die an average of 16 years earlier than those without a disability, it found. The gap rises to as much as 20 years among women.

Last week, officials retrieved nearly 6,000 pig carcasses from the Huangpu River network. They insisted that water from the river was safe. Residents have condemned the local government's failure to account for the carcasses, which some believe have been dumped by farmers upstream. Workers have been pulling dead pigs from rivers that supply Shanghai with drinking water for the past 11 days, sparking alarm on internet chat sites.

Correspondents say that the carcasses are embarrassing for the city's authorities, who want Shanghai to be seen as an international financial centre. The scandal has also highlighted China's difficulties with food safety as pork is one of the country's most popular meats. The scandal comes amid growing concerns about China's environment, including recent record smog levels in Beijing, and water and air pollution affecting villages.

You see, the banking system of Cyprus absolutely dwarfs the GDP of that small island nation. Cyprus is known all over the world as a major offshore tax haven, and wealthy Russians and wealthy Europeans have been pouring massive amounts of money into the banking system over the last several decades.

Yes, those bank deposits are supposed to be insured, but the truth is that there is no way that the government of Cyprus could ever come up with enough money to cover the massive losses that we are potentially looking at. This is a case where the banking system of a nation has gotten so large that the national government is absolutely powerless to stop a collapse from happening. If those banks fail, depositors may end up getting 50 percent of their money or they may end up getting nothing. We just don’t know how bad the damage is yet.

And considering the fact that many of the largest corporations and many of the wealthiest individuals in Europe have huge mountains of cash stashed in Cyprus, the fallout from a banking collapse could potentially be absolutely catastrophic. So Cyprus needs to come up with some money from somewhere in order to keep that from happening.

The simple fact is that they know they cannot let any country leave, no matter how small, for "once one country goes, the whole deck of cards will come tumbling down." There is now "clear irreconcilable differences" between the North and the South of Europe and now that they have done this in one country, "they are quite capable of doing it in Italy, Spain and anywhere."

The message that sends to people is "get your money out while you can." As far as his British constituents, he strongly recommends George Osborne (UK Chancellor) urge ex-pats to remove all their money and do monthly transfers from home. "Do Not Invest In The Euro-Zone," he concludes, "you have to be mad to do so - as it is now run by people who do not respect democracy, the rule of law, or the basic principles upon which Western civilization is based."

"They are propping up a Eurozone that, in the end, will collapse in disastrous failure and they are prepared to do anything to do so."

"We regret the decision," Schaeuble told ZDF television. "Cyprus requested an aid programme. For an aid programme we need a calculable way for Cyprus to be able to return to the financial markets. For that, Cyprus' debts are too high."

Schaeuble added that it was a "serious situation" now in Cyprus and said the country had no one to blame for its situation other than itself. He said he doesn't think its "business model " works anymore and warned Cyprus must act quickly.

Cyprus is clearly in a bind, and it doesn't look like the EU has much figured out on what to do next.