This is highly concerning, as Unit 4 currently holds more than 1,500 spent nuclear fuel rods, and a collective 37 million curies of deadly radiation that, if released, could make much of the world completely uninhabitable. As some Natural News readers will recall, Unit 4 contains the infamous elevated cooling pool that was severely damaged following the catastrophic earthquake and tsunami that struck on March 11, 2011.

According to the Secretary of former Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan, the ground beneath Unit 4 has already sunk by about 31.5 inches since the disaster, and this sinking has taken place unevenly. If the ground continues to sink, which it is expected to, or if another earthquake of even as low as a magnitude six occurs in the region, the entire structure could collapse, which would fully drain the cooling pool and cause a catastrophic meltdown.

"If Unit 4 collapses, the worse case scenario will be a meltdown, and a resultant fire in the atmosphere. That will be the most unprecedented crisis that man has ever experienced. Nobody will be able to approach the plants ... as all will have melted down and caused a big fire," said Murata during the interview. "Many scientists say if Unit 4 collapses, not only will Japan lie in ruin, but the entire world will also face serious damages."

Because there are 31 nuclear units of a similar type to Unit 4 in the US, the American government has been downplaying the disaster to protect its own reputation, alleges Murata. This is, in fact, the primary reason why so little has been reported on the severity of Fukushima following the disaster. The American empire, in other words, does not want the world, nor the American people, to know that there is the possibility of literally dozens of Fukushima situations occurring on American soil, should the right disaster situations arise.

You can watch the full 3:51 minute translated interview with Murata at the following link:

http://youtu.be/-LCTv65aqgA

Cuba was hit hard by Sandy on Thursday, with at least 11 people killed and another 9 dead in Haiti. Cuban authorities said that Sandy was the deadliest storm to strike the country since July 2005, when Hurricane Dennis killed 16 people and caused $2.4 billion in damage. Sandy is due to strike the US on Friday afternoon, with experts raising concerns the storm could magnify in power and cause significant damage.

Forecasters said there is a possibility that Sandy could combine with a seasonal weather system, creating a hybrid storm that could ravage the East Coast of the US. “The high degree of blocking from eastern North America across the entire Atlantic Basin is expected to allow this unusual merger to take place,” forecasters at the US National Hurricane Center said.

Jeff Masters, a hurricane specialist with private forecaster Weather Underground wrote that Sandy could be a “billion dollar disaster” if it makes landfall along the Mid-Atlantic Coast. “In this scenario, Sandy would be able to bring sustained winds near hurricane force over a wide stretch of heavily populated coast,” he said.

With Halloween approaching in the US, the media has branded the hybrid weather system ‘Frankenstorm.’ Washington has urged residents of the East Coast to monitor forecasts and heed weather warnings from local authorities in the days ahead.

The hurricane currently passing the Bahamas has killed 21 people across the Caribbean, the Associated Press reported, citing local officials. “What we’re seeing in some of our models is a storm at an intensity that we have not seen in this part of the country in the past century,” an official said in a telephone interview yesterday.

“We’re not trying to hype it, this is what we’re seeing in some of our models. It may come in weaker.” The hybrid storm may strike anywhere from the Delaware- Maryland-Virginia peninsula to southern New England. The current National Hurricane Center track calls for the system to go up Delaware Bay and almost directly over Wilmington, Delaware, just southwest of Philadelphia, on October 30-31. The hurricane center warns the track is subject to change.

The 1938 hurricane killed more than 500 people after crossing Long Island and battering Connecticut and Rhode Island.

Since the beginning of the year, the Tuareg militia has controlled northern Mali. A militant Islamist faction soon took over the command of the militia. This development is a direct consequence of NATO's war on Libya, which destroyed the fragile equilibrium in the economically precarious desert-bordering regions. Disregarding this fact, Berlin reacts to this disastrous situation, caused in Mali by western aggression, by calling for another intervention.

As in Somalia, the war against Mali's insurgents is supposed to be waged by African troops with western contingents stationed at a safe distance, preparing to carry out concrete combat assignments. Last Monday, German Chancellor Merkel declared that it is "not acceptable" that "the international terrorism" will have "a secure safe haven" in northern Mali. The Malian military, according to the chancellor, is "too weak" to put down the insurgency, "it needs support" - that the Bundeswehr could provide.

Retrospectively, Berlin's initial abstention in the case of Libya is considered to have been a mistake, because, up against the Paris, Washington, London alliance, it was Berlin that came out on the short end of the stick. Since an alliance of the three NATO powers appears to be again in the making, for an intervention in northern Mali, Berlin is now acquiescing. German-French power struggles are therefore to be expected in the concrete structuring phase of the Mali operation. Hence, the German press demands in anticipation that French President François Hollande finally "renounce the 'Françafrique'."

No doubt it was collecting information in case of another confrontation with Israel, but whether the terrorist group is seeking a full-blown war is a more complicated question that may depend less on what Hezbollah wants than on the heat it is getting from its patrons. The group’s possession of so sophisticated a craft (which was assembled from Iranian-made parts) is further evidence that Hezbollah is the most advanced and best-equipped militia of its kind the world has ever seen.

Ever since it forced the Israelis’ panicky retreat from Lebanon in 2000, Hezbollah has been building up an immense military force, with firepower that 90 percent of the world’s countries don’t possess, according to Meir Dagan, the former director of Mossad, Israel’s intelligence agency. The militia’s war doctrine is based on the assumption that Israel is hypersensitive to civilian casualties, that it cannot wage a protracted war and that it will always aim for the quickest possible clear-cut victory. With this in mind, Hezbollah has constructed a complex network of underground bunkers with the goal of assuring survivability, redundancy and an ability to maintain a prolonged missile barrage against Israeli cities.

One reason that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has held back is Hezbollah’s ability to wreak havoc in Israel with its huge stockpile of some 70,000 missiles and rockets, the most powerful of which is the Scud D, with a range of 700 kilometers (about 435 miles). Were it not for Hezbollah’s missiles, a top Israeli defense official told me, Israel would have struck Iran’s sites long ago.

The country has 3,396 tons of gold worth €143 billion (£116 billion), the world's second-largest holding after the US. Nearly all of it was shifted to vaults abroad during the Cold War in case of a Soviet attack. Roughly 66 per cent is held at the New York Federal Reserve, 21 per cent at the Bank of England, and 8 per cent at the Bank of France. The German Court of Auditors told legislators in a redacted report that the gold had "never been verified physically" and ordered the Bundesbank to secure access to the storage sites.

It called for repatriation of 150 tons over the next three years to test the quality and weight of the gold bars. It said Frankfurt has no register of numbered gold bars. The report also claimed that the Bundesbank had slashed its holdings in London from 1,440 tons to 500 tons in 2000 and 2001, allegedly because storage costs were too high. The metal was flown to Frankfurt by air freight.

The refrain has been picked up by German legislators. "All the gold must come home: it is precisely in this crisis that we need certainty over our gold reserves," said Heinz-Peter Haustein from the Free Democrats (FDP). The Bundesbank said it had full trust in the "integrity and independence" of its custodians, and is given detailed accounts each year. Yet it hinted at further steps to secure its reserves. "This could also involve relocating part of the holdings," it said.