Headlines:

• George Soros warns European Union is going down in 3 months
• Russia and China use SCO to support Assad
• US Offers Bounty for Somali militants
• Suicides surge among US troops
• Panetta to Pakistan: US Patience 'Reaching Limits'

Details:

George Soros warns European Union is going down in 3 months:

George Soros has laid it on the line. The eurozone will begin to break up, followed by the break-up of the European Union, within three months if the politicians do not come to an agreement to re-write the treaties and centralize power. No other figure has been this apocalyptic and this specific as to the timetable. He sees this outcome as a catastrophe. I keep thinking: "Free at last! Free at last!" Soros understands the price movements of currencies better than anyone else. This is how he became a multi-billionaire. He has used massive leverage - extremely high risk - to speculate in the currency futures markets, often taking the opposite side of trades with central banks. When a man has enough wisdom to beat the currency futures markets, I give him credit. He knows something about currencies. In a recent essay, he points out that the 2008 crisis created a new realization that there is no consensus about economic theory. He insists that "economic theory has failed." On the contrary, economic theory has triumphed - Austrian economic theory. In 2007, numerous non-academic, non-tenured Austrians predicted the recession of 2008. I called it in late 2006, predicting a 2007 recession. The National Bureau of Economic Research retroactively dated it as having begun in December 2007 - just in the nick of time! Soros goes even further. This failure is the failure of academic economic theory. I believe that the failure is more profound than generally recognized. It goes back to the foundations of economic theory. Economics tried to model itself on Newtonian physics. It sought to establish universally and timelessly valid laws governing reality. But economics is a social science and there is a fundamental difference between the natural and social sciences. Social phenomena have thinking participants who base their decisions on imperfect knowledge. That is what economic theory has tried to ignore.

Russia and China use SCO to support Assad:

Ahead of U.N. discussions on Syria, a conference of Central Asian nations Thursday rejected outside military intervention to end the violence there and called for a domestic resolution. China and Russia, both attending the Beijing summit, have been seen as protecting the regime of President Bashar al-Assad, blamed for a harsh crackdown on a 15-month popular uprising. A joint statement from the 6-nation Shanghai Cooperation Organization said "all violent behavior in Syria must stop" and said the group supports a broad domestic dialogue that respects Syria's sovereignty and independence. It said the SCO members oppose military interference, unilateral sanctions and the "forced transfer of power." Despite widespread international condemnation of its actions, Syria's government has survived through a combination of brutal repression and the political backing of Moscow. Along with China, Russia has twice blocked U.N. condemnations and punitive actions against the regime. Also at the summit, the SCO granted Afghanistan observer status in a move to consolidate ties with the war-torn nation before most foreign combat troops depart by the end of 2014.Russia and China have long seen the six-nation group as a way to counter U.S. influence in Central Asia, and hope to play a significant role in Afghanistan's future development, especially in economic reconstruction. Afghanistan, whose president, Hamid Karzai, attended the summit, joins India, Iran, Mongolia and Pakistan as SCO observer states. The group also admitted Turkey as one of its three dialogue partners.

US Offers Bounty for Somali militants:

The United States is offering a new set of rewards for information on the whereabouts of leaders of the Somali militant group al-Shabab. The State Department announced the rewards Thursday through its Rewards for Justice program, marking the first time a specific premium has been placed on the heads of top members of al-Shabab, which the United States considers a terrorist group. The U.S. is offering up to $7 million for al-Shabab's operational leader Ahmed Abdi aw-Mohamed. Separate rewards of up to $5 million each were offered for four of his top associates - Ibrahim Haji Jama, Fuad Mohamed Khalaf, Bashir Mohamed Mahamoud, and Mukhtar Robow. Rewards of up to $3 million were also offered for two other top members of the group, Zakariya Ismail Ahmed Hersi and Abdullahi Yare. The U.S. placed al-Shabab on its list of terrorist organizations in 2008. The militant group has been linked to attacks in Somalia and Uganda. Al-Shabab once controlled much of Somalia and nearly all of the capital, Mogadishu, but lost most of its territory during an 18-month offensive involving African Union forces, the Somali government, Ethiopia and Kenya.

Suicides surge among US troops:

Suicides are surging among America's troops, averaging nearly one a day this year - the fastest pace in the nation's decade of war. The 154 suicides for active-duty troops in the first 155 days of the year far outdistance the U.S. forces killed in action in Afghanistan - about 50 percent more - according to Pentagon statistics obtained by The Associated Press. The numbers reflect a military burdened with wartime demands from Iraq and Afghanistan that have taken a greater toll than foreseen a decade ago. The military also is struggling with increased sexual assaults, alcohol abuse, domestic violence and other misbehaviour. Because suicides had leveled off in 2010 and 2011, this year's upswing has caught some officials by surprise. The reasons for the increase are not fully understood. Among explanations, studies have pointed to combat exposure, post-traumatic stress, misuse of prescription medications and personal financial problems. Army data suggest soldiers with multiple combat tours are at greater risk of committing suicide, although a substantial proportion of Army suicides are committed by soldiers who never deployed. The unpopular war in Afghanistan is winding down with the last combat troops scheduled to leave at the end of 2014. But this year has seen record numbers of soldiers being killed by Afghan troops, and there also have been several scandals involving U.S. troop misconduct.

Panetta to Pakistan: US Patience 'Reaching Limits':

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta on Thursday pressured Pakistan to do more to root out the al-Qaida-linked Haqqani terrorist network from its territory, saying that U.S. officials are "reaching the limits of our patience." The Haqqani group has been blamed for several attacks on Americans in Afghanistan, including last year's attack against the U.S. Embassy and NATO headquarters in Kabul. It also has ties to the Taliban and has emerged as perhaps the biggest threat to stability in Afghanistan. U.S. lawmakers from both parties have been urging the U.S. State Department to designate the Haqqani network a foreign terrorist organization. The U.S. has given Pakistan billions of dollars in aid for its support in fighting Islamist militants. Despite pressure from the U.S., Pakistan has remained reluctant to go after insurgents, particularly the Haqqani network. Panetta's remarks capped two days of blunt commentary on Pakistan. "It is an increasing concern that the safe haven exists and that there are those - likely Haqqanis - who are making use of that to attack our forces," Panetta said at a news conference with Afghan Defense Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak. "We are reaching the limits of our patience here, and for that reason it is extremely important that Pakistan take action to prevent this kind of safe haven from taking place and allowing terrorists to use their country as a safety net in order to conduct their attacks on our forces.We have made that very clear time and time again and we will continue to do that, but as I said, we are reaching the limits of our patience."