Canada Thanksgiving 2010 - 11 Th of October

                          Morning Posting.

• U.S. Won’t Recover Lost Jobs Until March 2020 At Current Pace.The U.S. economy lost 95,000 jobs in September, far worse than expectations for no change in employment. More Census-related temp jobs ended, as expected, but state and local governments slashed staff far more than predicted.So far in 2010, the U.S. has added just 613,000 jobs — for a monthly average of 68,111.Employment bottomed in December 2009 at 129.588 million — two years after peaking at 137.951 million. At this year’s pace, the U.S. won’t recoup all those 8.36 million lost jobs* until March 2020 — 147 months after the December 2007 high.The U.S. needs to create 125,000-150,000 jobs each month just to absorb new workers and prevent unemployment from rising. So returning to the old peak employment a decade later would hardly suggest a healthy labor market.(Unemployment held at 9.6% last month as the separate household employment survey reported an increase in jobs. But the underemployment rate rose 0.4 point to 17.1%, matching the 2010 high.)The bottom line: It’s quite possible that the next recession will hit before the U.S. returns to old employment highs.My Take on this :There's a big devaluation coming for the US $  ordered by its G-20 counterparts at its October 21-23 meeting, i don't want to put up any %,but between 10 - 25% would be a low estimate according to me.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Breaking News.Explosives found in bag in New York cemetery.New York City authorities have removed a plastic bag filled with explosives which were found in a historic Manhattan cemetery.The military-grade C4 explosives did not have a detonator attached and posed no immediate danger, officials said.Streets in New York's East Village neighbourhood remained blocked off.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Nuclear Religious Bomb!Pope Benedict XVI is denouncing "terroristic ideologies" that spur violence in God's name.Benedict said Monday as he opened a meeting of bishops from around the Middle East that such ideologies were a "false divinity" that must be "unmasked."Thank God!Read the full news here.Click here for comments.

• Axelrod: Chamber of Commerce turned off credit card verification on its web site and allowed money-laundering through prepaid cash cards.David Axelrod would make a wonderful satirist. Long after most folks had forgotten about the hundreds of millions of dollars reportedly raised by the Obama campaign from suspicious sources, the White House senior adviser demanded that the United States Chamber of Commerce prove a negative.Say, that reminds me: did you remember that, of the $744 million Obama raised for his presidential campaign, only $485 million could be accounted for?Obama's campaign website intentionally turned off all credit-card security, an unprecedented step that allowed fake names and addresses for donations. The website intentionally allowed this to occur.Read the full scam conspiracy story here.Click here for comments.

• Shoes to be Thrown at Obama Shoe Photo.A protest will be held this at 7 PM evening outside the United States Embassy in Tel Aviv against the undue pressure being exerted by the Obama Administration upon Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.Among the attention-arousing gimmicks scheduled for the protest will be the throwing of shoes – a common Moslem protest act – at a cardboard likeness of President Obama. The specific target will be a large photo of Obama with his feet up on the table, speaking firmly to Netanyahu. “Obama shows us his shoes, we’ll show him our shoes,” the organizers say.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:FloppingAces.You Want To Investigate Foreign Donations? Start With Obama.My God, does hypocrisy stink. You can smell it right through your computer screen. Democrats are all wee-wee’d up about the Chamber of Commerce donating to campaigns this year.Of the $744 million Obama raised for his campaign, only $485 million is accountable.Are you really worried about foreign money? So show us you mean it, Barack. This is a great place to start.Read the full scam story here.Click here for comments.

• How radical Islam seduced the academics.The Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab case highlights the pusillanimity of those who should be confronting extremism.A few months ago, I sat in a magnificent Victorian lecture hall at University College London. It was once one of finest centres of intellectual inquiry in Europe, thanks to the efforts of its founder, the sternly anti-clerical philosopher Jeremy Bentham. It did not take me long to realise that fear of clerical fascism had led Bentham's trembling successors to abandon intellectual inquiry and basic intellectual standards along with it.He described how a friend of his, "an eminent scientist", strolled in to take a look at an art exhibition organised by the UCL Islamic Society. "'Was he a believer?' asked an obviously Muslim student. 'No,' replied my friend, 'he didn't believe in any god, as it happened.' 'Then,' the young man confidently informed him, 'we shall have to execute you.' My friend laughed it off after lodging a mild complaint. It could, of course, have been Abdulmutallab who made the threat."I am willing to bet that the laughter of the eminent scientist was of the tinny and nervous variety. I will wager further that equally tinny and nervous laughs are being heard on campuses across Britain.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:WeaselZippers.Australian PM Refuses to Wear Hijab in Afghanistan.Praise Prime Minister Julia Gillard for one aspect of her trip to Afghanistan. She didn’t sell out her secular, feminist principles.Mrs PM i salute you!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Black Republicans offer hope after Barack Obama's failures on race.The Obama presidency has not led to a post-racial America, says Toby Harnden, but black Republicans in Congress could help break down barriers.Campaigning a few miles from Fort Sumter, where the first shots of the Civil War were fired in 1861, Tim Scott described last week how he was born into poverty and a broken home, much like Barack Obama."My dad was gone by the time I was seven," the black candidate for the House of Representatives told a mixed group of students at Fort Dorchester High School in North Charleston. "I was flunking out of high school. I failed geography, civics, Spanish and English. When you fail Spanish and English, you are not bilingual, you are bi-ignorant."But the conclusions that Scott, 45, drew were very different from those of Obama.Scott, an avowed Tea Party supporter, dismisses the accusation that the movement is racist, saying: "this whole race issue is a diversion away from the real basic platform of the Tea Party".Obama made history by winning the White House. But it will take the likes of Scott to break down the racial barriers in America that the first black president has been content to leave in place.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Prime Minister Says British Aid Worker May Have Died At U.S. Hands.British Prime Minister David Cameron has said that a British aid worker kidnapped in Afghanistan may have been killed by U.S. forces instead of her captors in a botched rescue attempt.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• 14-year old fights to become rabbi.Boy petitions High Court against Chief Rabbinate, demanding his ordination exam be checked.A 14-year old boy has petitioned the High Court of Justice against Chief Rabbi Shlomo Amar with a demand to obligate the Chief Rabbinate to check his ordination exam. If the court rules in his favor, the boy will be in line to become the world's youngest rabbi.The Chief Rabbinate responded to the petition Sunday by explaining that according to its guidelines, only those who studied in a yeshiva for four years after the age of 18 can take the ordination exam.Hmmm...you can learn how to drive a car in a day,but this doesn't make you a professional racedriver.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• French motorists have just days' worth of fuel left as strike at Marseille port enters third week.French motorists have been warned that fuel supplies may only last another two weeks maximum as a strike at a key oil port enters its third week.The country is gearing up for nation-wide protests tomorrow that would affect all of France's refining sector.Workers at France's top oil port of Fos-Lavera, near Marseilles, continued a strike into its 15th day today and the nearby La Mede oil plant said over the weekend it had half idled its capacity and will fully shut down in a couple of days.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:KitmanTV.MEMRI President On Muslim Jew-Hate and Holocaust Praise.An absolute Must Watch!The last clips analysed by Yigal Carmon, which deals with the deep felt muslim longing for a second Holocaust - which the Umma will be given the "priviledge" of executing - is about as sick as it gets... Admittedly, the left funding and hiding this jew-hate in the arab world for decades- while at the same time accusing every freedom loving patriot of being a national socialist- is a good second on this sick-list though.Readthe full story here.Click here for comments.

• Manchin: If health reform can't be fixed, 'repeal the whole thing'.West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin (D), who is in a tough fight for a Senate seat, said Monday he'd support repealing the healthcare reform law if it can't be fixed.Manchin, who's been falling behind in his race against Republican John Raese, said he supports repealing part of the bill but would support repealing all of it if a partial repeal doesn't fix its problems."The president's plan — 'Obamacare,' as it's been called — is far too reaching. It's overreaching. It needs to have a lot of it repealed," Manchin said Monday on Fox News. "If you can't fix that, repeal the whole thing."Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:LogisticsMonster.AYFKM?: Ready To Have Your 401(k) Seized To Bailout Union Pensions?Fascism is alive and well in the District of Criminals. Fascism is the only way to describe a federal government so full of themselves that they believe seizing Americans’ 401(k)s is perfectly acceptable; nevermind the immorality or un-Constitutionality of the move. They really do believe that it is their money and they just let us use it.I found the link to this story on Market-Ticker and one needs to give credit to a master when it is due (which is just about every day with this guy. I am so freakin’ glad Karl is on the internet!)Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:JihadWatch.U.S. Embassy sponsors Irish Muslim business conference: Imam calls for Sharia Law in all business dealings.When is the Embassy seminar on Jewish entrepreneurs and business in Ireland? When is the Embassy seminar on Christian entrepreneurs and business in Ireland? When is the Embassy seminar on Hindu entrepreneurs and business in Ireland? When is the Embassy seminar on Buddhist entrepreneurs and business in Ireland?There would seem to be a Constitutional issue involved here -- isn't the U.S. Government involving itself in promoting a religion via such a seminar? And what a surprise that that religion would turn out to be Islam.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Netanyahu and Obama on the brink -- again.The crisis in the Middle East peace talks over Israeli settlement construction is "coming to a head," Israeli ambassador to the U.S. Michael Oren told me in a video interview on Wednesday. If the process fails -- which currently seems as likely as not -- another fracture between the Obama administration and the Israeli government of Binyamin Netanyahu may follow.So why has the Obama administration chosen to focus its diplomacy on extracting a purely symbolic but next-to-impossible concession from Netanyahu? That will be the question worth asking if the peace process breaks down this weekend.Because only in case of refusal he can go to the UN and ask for UN backing to impose a peaceplan on Israel!That's why...wake up smell the ARAB coffee!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Iran arrests two ‘fake’ foreign journalists.Tehran says they planned to interview the family of Sakineh Ashtiani who was convicted of adultery.Iran's judiciary has arrested two foreign nationals who it said were posing as journalists, the students' news agency ISNA reported Iran's prosecutor general as saying on Monday."Two foreigners posing as journalists have been arrested in Iran," said Gholamhossein Mohseni-Ejei."We were informed that ... the two planned to interview the family of Sakineh Ashtiani ... They entered Iran as tourists and conducted an interview with her son." The ISNA report did not give the nationalities of the two foreigners.Read the full story here.More on this story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Israel Aircraft introduces new UAV that takes off like a helicopter.Israel Aircraft has introduced two new unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) that are capable of taking off like a helicopter, i.e. vertically. They are known as Panther and mini-Panther.Panther combines the flight capabilities of fixed wing airplane with helicopter-like hovering, takeoff and landing, by employing two tilt-rotor propellers, and a vertical lift augmenter propeller providing additional lift for hovering, takeoff and landing. This configuration enables the Panther to be runway-independent, taking off and landing from unprepared areas.I'd guess that this would be particularly applicable in situations like Operation Cast Lead, for example, where the IDF was hunkered down in urban warfare and wanted to get a better look.Hopefully this one will not be sold to Turkey.Read and see the full story here and here.Click here for comments.

• Far-right support surges in Vienna.The far-right resurged in local elections Sunday in Vienna, the Austrian capital, securing the biggest gains in votes and mandates following a campaign laced with anti-Islamic rhetoric.With only absentee ballots left to be counted, the anti-immigration Freedom Party won 27 percent and 28 seats in the regional parliament — up from 13. That's a significant boost from the 14.8 percent they garnered during 2005 elections, and near their record high of 27.9 percent, achieved in 1996, when the late Joerg Haider was at the party's helm."With a hand on my heart, I am deeply grateful for the confidence the Viennese have given me and I know what that responsibility means," Freedom Party chief Heinz-Christian Strache said.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:Memri.Video:Hamas Preacher Sheik Ismail Aal Radhwan: Those Who Negotiate with Israel Will Be Gathered in the Hellfire, along with the Apes and Pigs.See the whole thing here.Click here for comments.

• Video: Book thrown at Obama’s head during rally; streaker also taints event.A book was thrown at Barack Obama’s head during his Germantown rally yesterday in Philadelphia, while a streaker also tainted the event that was supposed to rally Obama’s hardcore base of predominantly black supporters. Few white people were to be seen in the crowd in the Germantown neighborhood of Northwest Philadelphia, known for its huge African-American population. The tainting of what was supposed to be a pump-up rally of the last few vestiges of Obama’s remaining support in the country instead degenerated into something of a debacle, with the Secret Service now facing questions regarding their apparent laxity in security that actually allowed a book to narrowly miss hitting Obama’s head and a flabby streaker to disrupt the rally.Read the full story here.More here and here.Click here for comments.

• HT:JewishOdysseus.Arab kid-terrorists stone jews in Israel but fail to kill him.If you read enough stories about Arab mobs attempting to lynch Jews in Israel, you notice a few common themes:1--Use of very young children (or women) to freeze the "Yahud" target;2--A team of older killers who step forward when the kids have completed their task;3--Redundant camerawork to ensure that an anti-Jewish narrative can be fabricated from the incident, no matter what actually happened.Read the full story here.click here for comments.

• HT:AmnonJonathan."ISLAMOPHOBE" - OUT "BACKLASHOPHOBE" - IN.There is reasonable suspicion that reporters and photographers took an active part in the attack which occurred Friday Oct 9th against David Barry, "Elad" Chairman and his son to produce media spin.Photographer Number 4 is a photographer of Walla participating in the lynch.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:ElderofZion.More cars stoned in Silwan (video).Israel's Channel Two interviews a woman, Keren Levy, who (along with her daughter) passed by the exact spot that David Be'eri was ambushed by rock throwers on Friday. She was hysterical as she shows the large rocks that managed to break her window.For some reason, the international media that was on the scene must have moved on at that point.During the interview, the Israeli journalists get attacked themselves by stones.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BarenakedIslam.AFGHANISTAN: Obama’s policies are the reason why deaths of women by self-immolation are on the rise.It’s simple, really. The Obama Regime has begun negotiating with Taliban terrorists and the women know that once the Taliban are allowed to rule again, their lives will become even more of a living Hell than they already are.Truly i wish a group of these poor women could show up on the White House lawn and let them see what life with the Taliban Means.Read and see this horrific story,warning extremely graphic images here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BigPeace.They Call It Intelligence.Reading Patrick Poole’s splashy coverage of the FBI’s VIP treatment of Kifah Mustapha — a known Hamas operative and unindicted co-conspirator in the landmark Holy Land Foundation terror financing trial — will make your head spin with this dizzying question: How could the same officials charged with securing the nation against the very terrorism Mustapha’s activities supported (as laid out in court documents filed by federal investigators) have possibly invited him into the top-secret National Counterterrorism Center (NCTC) and the FBI’s training center at Quantico during a six-week “Citizen’s Academy” hosted by the FBI as “outreach” to the Muslim community?“The plugs had to be pulled on our [watch] system” just to get Mustapha in the NCTC door, Poole, writing online at Big Peace, quoted a Department of Homeland Security official as saying. After all, “the NCTC has Kifah Mustapha on the highest watch list we have.” Unbelievable.So who pulled those plugs? Wouldn’t it be great to get a bunch of national security pooh-bahs into one room to try to find out? It would be — and so it was.Read the full story here.Click here for comments. 

• Hungary braced for second toxic spill as cracks in reservoir widen.Workers raced to build an emergency dam in western Hungary today as cracks in a reservoir widened, threatening to unleash a second torrent of toxic sludge on the village of Kolontar and nearby rivers.More than one million cubic metres of the waste material leaked out of the alumina plant reservoir into villages and waterways earlier this week, killing seven people, injuring 123 and fouling rivers including a local branch of the Danube.Kolontar was evacuated on Saturday after cracks appeared in the northern wall of the reservoir, threatening a second spill of the toxic red sludge, which swept through neighbouring areas on Monday, toppling cars and wreaking havoc in houses.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Albanians Who Saved Jews During WWII Honored In Pristina.PRISTINA -- A ceremony honoring the Albanian concept of "besa" and those Albanians who saved Jews from Nazi persecution has been held in Pristina.The event on October 7 was marked by the opening of the photo exhibit "Besa: Albanians Who Saved Jews During World War II," by American photographer Norman Gershman, at the Kosovo Art Gallery in Pristina.Besa means "keeping your promise" and taking care of those in need, even under difficult circumstances. It is the backbone of Albanian culture and at the heart of Albanians' code of honor.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:TeaandPolitics."Blasphemy UN Resolution": US NGO "Open Doors" campain on Freedom of Believe.Who is Behind the Resolution?The countries supporting this resolution are, ironically, the very Islamic-majority countries of the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC) that persecute Christians and other minority faiths. Members of minority faiths such as Christians or Jews who make truth claims or even evangelize can be accused of "defamation" and can be punished under national blasphemy laws.Your voice makes a difference!We need to encourage key countries to change their vote on this resolution. These countries are not easily influenced by American citizens. But they are more receptive to pressure from our federal legislators. So ask your legislator to pressure key countries to change their vote on the Defamation of Religions Resolution today!Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• EXCLUSIVE: New York Violating MOVE Act.More than one week after its extended deadline, New York still hasn’t mailed out absentee ballots to all its 320,000 military servicemen and women and overseas voters, in clear violation of the MOVE Act, FoxNews.com has learned.In an e-mail sent October 5, New York State Board of Elections co-directors Robert A. Brehm and Todd Valentine wrote:“County Boards of Elections have reported to our office that UOCAVA ballots have been transmitted to voters within their respective jurisdictions except in the City of New York, and the following counties: Erie, Niagara, Putnam and Westchester.”And, as of Oct. 9, these ballots still have not been mailed to voters in these counties, who will now have less than 25 days to receive, mark and return their ballots, federal and state officials told FoxNews.com. New York City alone has about 50,000 servicemen and women and overseas voters.In a statement to FoxNews.com, Sen. Schumer said:"Put these ballots on the next plane to Afghanistan. These soldiers sacrifice their lives to protect our freedoms, they should never, ever be denied their right to vote. I wrote and passed this law so our brave men and women overseas would no longer be disenfranchised and there is absolutely no excuse for failing to get this done. The boards of election should immediately get these ballots to each and every one of our service members around the world. They should overnight them if they have to -- no ifs, ands or buts."Sen. Cornyn gave this statement to FoxNews.com:"The fact that New York government officials failed to live up to the clear terms of the waiver is shocking, in light of how much our troops have sacrificed in the years since 9/11. This is a clear violation of federal voting rights law. If DOJ does not file a suit to right this wrong as soon as the courts open on Tuesday, then we will know once and for all that DOJ is not serious about safeguarding military voting rights."Hmmmm....Transparancy.....Obama....NO WAY!Read the full treason story here.Click here for comments.

• Obama Turns his Back on an Ally in Danger.In December, something unremarkable happened: the home of Bangladeshi pro-democracy dissident Salah Uddin Shoaib Choudhury was attacked. It was unremarkable because President Obama has removed the security and attendant American trial observers that his predecessor put in place to protect Shoaib. So this sort of thing tends to happen.A home invasion these days doesn’t really shake Shoaib–it’s nothing compared to what he’s been put through for standing up for freedom, the West, and moderate Islam.Shoaib, editor of the pro-Western, pro-Israel Bangladeshi newspaper The Weekly Blitz (which produces an English-language online weekly as well) was about to board a plane to Tel Aviv on Nov. 29, 2003 when he was arrested and charged with sedition, blasphemy, treason, and espionage.It wasn’t until word reached Republican Rep. Mark Kirk of Illinois that Shoaib saw any improvement in his treatment. Throughout a marathon meeting with the Bangladeshi ambassador, Kirk never backed down. Finally, the ambassador promised Shoaib would be released, the charges dropped.Eventually, Shoaib was released from prison on bail. But the charges were never dropped, and Shoaib is still on trial for his life. The Bush administration made sure there were American observers at his trial dates to remind the Bangladeshi court that the Islamists weren’t the only ones watching.“But, things suddenly changed since January 2009,” Shoaib says. “The U.S. Embassy in Dhaka not only stopped sending any observer to the court, but they also stopped inquiring about my case and trial as well they stopped inviting me to any function or reception at U.S. Embassy.”Furthermore, Shoaib reminded me last week, while Bush was president, “a political officer of U.S. Embassy was closely maintaining contact with me. But, since Mr. Obama became president, all such communications suddenly stopped.”While not much was known about Obama before he ran for president, his disdain for American allies was clear as day to anyone following Shoaib’s case back then. Every single member of Congress approached about Shoaib’s case–Republican and Democrat–was happy to try to help and line up congressional support for Shoaib. All except for one, that is: Barack Obama.One piece of great irony in this whole episode: Kirk–Shoaib’s original and tireless congressional advocate–is running for Obama’s old Senate seat.Almost two years ago Shoaib told me, “We shall continue to fight our good battle against radical Islam. And, one day, we shall win.” I agree, but unfortunately it will be without the help of this president.Would Obama have acted anyother way if he were a Muslim?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BacktoBasics.Hidden poisons: Death for sale on supermarket shelves.Pretty poisons sit on your neighborhood grocer’s shelves—packaged in eye-catching colors, labeled with household names. Some—designed by faceless individuals ensconced in gleaming corporate towers—sport cute cartoon characters calculated to entice you into purchasing the product.Cartoon characters? The products may as well be labeled with skulls and crossbones.The unvarnished truth is many pre-packaged foods offered to the unwary, uncaring and ignorant consumer are nothing but juggernauts of nutritional death—ticking chemical time bombs.And depending on the poison, some of the bombs will explode sooner than others.How many consumers are aware, for example, that if they take vitamin C supplements on a daily basis they should at all costs avoid certain processed foods like the plague?Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:NewZeal."One Nation" Rally Organizer Linked to "Greensboro Massacre", Black Radical Congress.A key organizer of last Saturday's "progressive" One Nation Rally in Washington DC was linked to one of the most violent incidents in US political history - the 1979 "Greensboro Massacre".Roz Pelles, the Washington DC based Civil Rights Director, of the AFL-CIO served as one of three key "senior managers" of the rally - her official title "Steering Committee Liaison".Twenty one years later Roz Pelles was a leader of another controversial organization, the Black Radical Congress.In March 1998 “Endorsers of the Call” to found a Black Radical Congress included Roz Pelles, Washington, DC.Participants in the B.R.C.'s founding conference in June 1998 included several activists connected to Barack Obama.It shows how much the U.S. labor movement has lost its way that the AFL-CIO would appoint someone like Roz Pelles to a key civil rights position.It shows how out of touch is the US "progressive" movement that someone of Roz Pelles' background would be entrusted with such an important position. Let alone be appointed to be one of the three "senior managers" of a progressive rally which would be endorsed by the Democrats' organizing arm, Organizing for America.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:BacktoBasics.Prince Charles Loses His Last Marble.The man whose polo ponies’ farts are responsible for more carbon emissions in a week than your car gives off in an entire year is lecturing everybody about global warming again — and his descent into eco-madness is accelerating.Prince Charles is proof-positive that, if you’re not careful, having it so good for so long can apply a healthy amount of grease to your grip on reality.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Obama’s Offer to Israel.Regarding the Obama administration’s offer to Israel to extend its freeze on settlement construction, you deem the incentives “overly generous” and you “can’t understand why Mr. Netanyahu hasn’t grabbed it”Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Top 10 movies banned in the Middle East and a surprise.Here's a great article on the top ten movies that are banned in the Middle East. I urge you to read it.1991’s Not Without My Daughter, starring Sally Field and Alfred Molina, is a movie that probably no studio exec would dare “greenlight” today, thanks to a stultifying Hollywood environment of political correctness. Released only a few days before the Gulf War began, and based on one of the two “most hated” books in Iran (the other being Salman Rushdie’s infamously blasphemous The Satanic Verses), it depicts the daring real-life escape of American citizen Betty Mahmoody and her daughter from Iran.Mahmoody was being kept a virtual prisoner by her husband, who beat and threatened her, and by his strictly devout family, who pressured her to conform to the life of a submissive Muslim wife. Though some Iranian characters in the film were treated sympathetically, Not Without My Daughter earned a ban from the Iranian leadership for embarrassing the mullahs and for exposing their oppression and the grim reality of life for women under sharia law.Read and see the movie & full story here.Click here for comments.

• Closing stores for prayer hurts Saudi market.Tradition lowers employees’ productivity: businessmen.A group of businessmen are voicing concerns about the impact of closing businesses during prayer times in Saudi Arabia saying the Islamic tradition is damaging to the economy, Al Arabiya TV reported Saturday.Abdulah al-Ahmed, CEO of al-Bandar Group told Al Arabiya TV show “Meet the Press” with Dawood al-Shirian that closing down shops during prayer times causes “severe” financial damages to his group, adding that employees’ productivity is also negatively affected.Meanwhile, judicial researcher, Abdulah al-Owait, said that there is no legal basis for closing down shops.And in contrast to al-Otaibi, he said that “protecting money should be at the frontier of religious priority, and not closing the stores will also give a better Islamic attribute to the country.”Recent statistics reveal that the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice has 23,710 reported cases of people not praying or not closing down their shops, and the number of detained for violating the these two criteria reached up to 25,000.Read the full story here.Click here for comments.

• 'Like eating an elephant': The quest to honour Crazy Horse.As parts of the USA mark Native American Day the BBC has been getting a close up look at the sculpture that could one day eclipse the faces of American presidents at Mount Rushmore.For more than 60 years workers have been painstakingly carving the shape of Chief Crazy Horse on a mountain in South Dakota. If completed it is set to be the largest sculpture in the world - but there are decades of work left.Read and see the full story here.Click here for comments.

• Armless pianist wins China's Got Talent.A piano player who has no arms and plays the instrument with his toes has won the nationally televised China's Got Talent competition.Liu Wei, who lost his arms in an accident at the age of 10, won the contest with his performance of You're Beautiful, originally by James Blunt.He told the judges: "At least I have a pair of perfect legs." The 23-year-old Beijing-born musician has been invited to perform with Taiwanese pop star Jolin Tsai.He also has the chance to perform in Las Vegas for three months and a possible recording contract, Chinese media reported.Read the full story here and more here.Click here for comments.