Free Republic

A gas shortage and high prices will send “shockwaves through the country,” leading to landlords cutting the heat for tenants and widespread company bankruptcies, warned Klaus Müller, the head of Germany’s Federal Network Agency, which is the regulatory office for electricity, gas, telecommunications, postal services, and railway markets. Müller paints a bleak picture about the crisis in an interview with German newspaper Rheinische Post, saying it will “send shockwaves throughout the country. Banks will ramp up their business with installment loans, and ailing companies will fall into insolvency.” Müller’s office, which is a federal agency within the Federal Ministry for...

The eruption of Hunga-Tonga-Hunga-Ha'apai volcano, which sits on the seismically active Pacific Ring of Fire, sent tsunami waves across the Pacific Ocean and was heard some 2,300 kms (1,430 miles) away in New Zealand. [O]n-site instruments were likely destroyed in the eruption and the volcanology community was pooling together the best available data and expertise to review the explosion and predict anticipated future activity. Saturday's eruption was so powerful that space satellites captured not only huge clouds of ash but also an atmospheric shockwave that radiated out from the volcano at close to the speed of sound. Photographs and videos...

(CBS/AP) Gov.-elect Arnold Schwarzenegger said he expects a seamless move into his new office, naming a congressman to head his transition team after fielding calls from President Bush, Nelson Mandela and other well-wishing luminaries. Next comes the hard part: making good on a long list of campaign-trail promises to restore the California dream. Schwarzenegger's plans to attract jobs, revive a troubled economy and erase a massive deficit will have to go through a Legislature controlled by Democrats angered by the recall process some called a hostile takeover. But Schwarzenegger expressed confidence that California lawmakers would get the message voters delivered...