MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Murdoch: Mayor Bloomberg Called President Obama the Most "Arrogant" Man He Ever Met.You may recall that during President Obama’s vacation at Martha’s Vineyard, on August 27 he took in a round of golf at the Vineyard Golf Club in Edgartown, playing golf with New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg; Democratic lawyer, business man and éminence grise Vernon Jordan; and White House trip director (and former golf pro) Marvin Nicholson.In an interview with The Australian Financial Review, conservative media magnate Rupert Murdoch says ''Bloomberg said it was a pleasant day. In conversation he put a few ideas … He said it was like verbal ping pong.”Bloomberg, according to Murdoch, “came back and said 'I never met in my life such an arrogant man'."Murdoch – the Australian-born founder, chairman, and chief executive officer of News Corporation, which owns conservative media outlets ranging from Fox News Channel to the New York Post – is described by The Age as saying in the interview that President Obama “might make great speeches but doesn't get things done and doesn't listen to anybody".Hmmm...."hollow barrels make the most noise”?Read the full story here.

• Obama live in India:Islam is a great religion,over a Billion people practice it!Hmmm.....how about Christianity ,Jewish and Sikh and other religions Mr President?Promoting economy or religion on your trip MrPresident?Read and see it here.

• Indonesian President Urged to Help Islam Engage With the West. With just a few days to go until Barack Obama arrives in Indonesia, a prominent American Islamic scholar has called on President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono to show the Western world the true face of Islam.“The real battleground is between the moderates of all religions against the radicals of all religions,” Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf, founder and chief executive of the American Society for Muslim Advancement and leader of the Al-Farah mosque in New York, said at the State Palace in Central Jakarta on Friday.Feisal said Muslims should be responsible to help change negative attitudes toward Islam by intensifying interfaith dialogue and fighting radicalism. “I am convinced that with the right behavior, the right ethics, we will change the hearts and minds of people in America toward Islam,” he said.Hmmm...Iman Rauf the Ground Zero Mosque founder laying the groundwork for the U.S. President his Indonesian visit?Read the full story here.

• Obama in India; meets 26/11 survivors at the Taj Hotel.On their first stop on a four-day India visit, US President Barack Obama, and his wife Michelle, visited the 26/11 memorial at the Taj Hotel in Mumbai. The Obamas also spoke to a few survivors of the 26/11 attacks, in which 166 people, including five Americans were killed.Read and see the whole thing here and here.

• Obama Is Not Likely to Push India Hard on Pakistan.Senior American military commanders have sought to press India to formally disavow an obscure military doctrine that they contend is fueling tensions between India and Pakistan and hindering the American war effort in Afghanistan.Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top commander in Afghanistan, is among those who have warned internally about the dangers of Cold Start, according to American and Indian officials. Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and Richard C. Holbrooke, the special representative to Afghanistan and Pakistan, share these fears. The strategy calls for India to create fast-moving battle groups that could deliver a contained but sharp retaliatory ground strike inside Pakistan within three days of suffering a terrorist attack by militants based in Pakistan, yet not do enough damage to set off a nuclear confrontation.And giving Pakistan tens of Billions with the other hand?Read the full story here.

• The daily India Visit madnes.Bomb-proof tunnel with air conditioning: Obama's security go to extraordinary measures for his tour of the Gandhi museum.Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America.While lesser mortals – the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and so on – are usually happy to let their hosts handle most of the security and transport arrangements when they venture beyond their home shores, the United States creates a mini-America on the move to ensure that nothing is left to chance. Today, Barack Obama arrives in India at the start of a ten-day tour of Asia. At the heart of the White House caravan is ‘The Beast’, a gigantic, ‘pimped-up’ General Motors Cadillac which security experts say is, short of an actual battle tank, probably the safest road vehicle on the planet.Hmmmm.....how many unemployed could you feed for the cost of this extravaganza?Read the full "story" here.

• Qantas says 2 mid-air engine problems unrelated.Dramatic mid-air engine problems on Qantas aircraft which forced two emergency landings in Singapore in as many days were unrelated incidents, a spokeswoman for the Australian airline said Saturday.A Qantas A380 superjumbo carrying 466 passengers and crew was forced to return to Singapore on Thursday after an engine exploded and failed during ascent, raining debris onto an Indonesian island.And a Sydney-bound Boeing 747 turned back to Singapore shortly after take-off on Friday after reporting engine trouble, with one passenger saying she saw the affected engine sparking like fireworks.Qantas spokeswoman Olivia Wirth said while both aircraft operated on Rolls Royce-manufactured engines, they were using different models and there was no apparent connection between the incidents."These are both unrelated incidents," Wirth told the Nine Network. "They are unrelated."Hmmm....both airplanes left from the same airport,both have almost similar engine problems..both are from the same company.....coincidence ...i don't think Israeli security would think so".Read the full story here.

• Related.'Not again!': Unlucky pilot and crew grounded after SECOND Qantas engine 'explodes'.The hero pilot and cabin crew involved in a dramatic jet failure this week were forced to return to Singapore again today after a second Qantas flight was hit by engine trouble.Passengers screamed and air crew shouted for them to adopt the crash position after flames or sparks were seen coming from the engine of a Qantas flight leaving Singapore airport.After calmly landing an A380 superjet that experienced a dramatic mid-air explosion earlier this week, Captain Richard de Crespigny again failed to travel to Sydney today, as he and his cabin crew witnessed a second Qantas explosion, this time as passengers.Hmmm....both airplanes left from the same airport,both have almost similar engine problems..both are from the same company...and the same crew on board....coincidence ...i don't think so !Read the full story here.

• South Mumbai Locked Down for Obama.As the Diwali fireworks still echoed across the city Friday night, the lockdown of the heart of South Mumbai began.Barricades sprouted up across many of the streets around the Taj Mahal Palace & Tower where U.S. President Barack Obama is scheduled to spend Saturday night.Hundreds of local police roamed the neighborhood, some checking IDs and reservations of anyone trying to get within a block of the Taj.The old Colaba neighborhood that the grand hotel towers over had been sanitized for the President’s visit. Curbs carried a new coat of black and yellow paint, garbage containers had been removed from the streets and even the smelly public toilets had been closed.Hmmm.....Mumbai is ready for the Obama "Blitzkrieg" economic Visit?Read the full story here.

• HT:BloggerBase.Hector Aleem Update 11/02/'10.The persecution of Hector Aleem drags on. In this latest update, his family expresses hope that the trial is dragging to a close. Once again we are reminded that Pakistan's jails are not secure for inmates. Bear in mind that this can happen to you after Islam takes over.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheJawaReport.Where Did Revolution Muslim Go?LONDON — A United States-based extremist Islamic Web site was taken down on Friday after the British authorities complained of a post praising a young woman who stabbed and nearly killed a British lawmaker over his support for the Iraq war.The post included a list of 383 British lawmakers who voted for the war, with instructions on tracking their movements, and it called for Muslims to “raise the knife of Jihad” against them, according to The Times of London, which reported the post on Friday. It also included a link for buying a kitchen knife, the report said.The site, RevolutionMuslim.com, is no longer available.A bit late ,but better late then never, a good thing the British Goverment has some integrity don't you love this kind of "outreach"?Read the full story here.

• Obama India visit: Pak issues dos and don'ts?Ahead of Barack Obama's visit to India, Pakistan has issued a list of dos and don'ts to United States, which includes its strong opposition to the American President's endorsement of India for a permanent seat in the UN Security Council.The Pakistan government on Friday, Nov 5 made it clear that it was against Obama expressing any endorsement for India's move to become a permanent member of the UNSC.Read the full story here.

• Iran nuclear program on ‘explosive’ path, says Prince Turki al-Faisal.Iran is on an “explosive” course in the Middle East with its pursuit of nuclear enrichment and needs to clear up questions surrounding its program, Saudi Prince Turki al-Faisal said.Prince Turki, a former Saudi intelligence chief and former ambassador to the United States, said Washington should not take military steps against Iran’s nuclear program to reassure Israelis over the peace process with Palestinians. “No one denies that a nuclear Iran is a major international danger, but claiming that the US must take military action against Iran to push forward the Israeli-Palestine peace process is to attempt to harvest apples by cutting down the tree,” he said on Thursday.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheDailyBeast.Obama’s $40 Billion Man.Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid’s midterm election victory comes with a hefty price tag, argues Robert Bryce, thanks to the presiden’t plan for storing nuclear waste.Majority Leader Harry Reid beat GOP challenger Sharron Angle on Tuesday, helping assure Democratic control of the Senate for the next two years. Unfortunately for U.S. taxpayers, Reid's victory comes with a $40 billion bill—all of it related to his dogged opposition to storing nuclear waste in Nevada.Last year, the Obama administration—bowing to pressure from the Nevada pol—decimated funding for the nuclear waste disposal site at Yucca Mountain and said officials would begin looking for other sites to take the waste.Read the full story here.

• 'Holocaust grave' discovered in Romania.A mass grave containing the bodies of about 100 Jews killed during the Holocaust has been discovered in Romania, researchers say.The burial pit was found in a forest about 350km (220 miles) north-east of the capital, Bucharest.It is thought to contain the remains of men, women and children shot in 1941 by troops of the pro-Nazi Romanian regime.Up to 380,000 Jews are believed to have been killed in Romanian-controlled territory during WWII.A reminder of what humans can do to each other couldn't have come at a better time!Read the full story here.

• Anti-Hezbollah bloc: Lebanon in 'grave danger'.Former president says Hezbollah threatens Lebanon 'as entity and democratic country'.Hezbollah is undermining democracy in Lebanon by trying to torpedo a UN tribunal investigating the death of a former prime minister, members of the country's pro-Western bloc said Friday.The statement comes as Lebanon endures its worst political crisis in years. Many observers fear there could be violence if Hezbollah members are indicted by the court, which was set up to prosecute the assassins of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri."Lebanon as an entity and democratic country is in grave danger," said Amin Gemayel, a former president who spoke after a meeting of Christian politicians allied to Prime Minister Saad Hariri - the son of the slain leader.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Al-Arabiya TV Director: Religious Satellite Channels 'Too Dangerous To Be Left Unrestricted'.Complaints Are No Longer About Music and Sports Channels – "Rather, It Is Religious Satellite Channels, Which Have Spread Like Wildfire in the Arab Region"."These People Do Not Only Brainwash Youngsters, and Send Them To Fight In Wars, Or To Drive a Car Packed With Explosives... They Seek To Collect As Much Money As They Can, Even If It Was Intended For Charity or Zakat"."These religious propaganda channels are too dangerous to be left unrestricted, for they abuse their satellite space, and the principle of charitable donations. But how can they be controlled in such complex circumstances? As members of the media, we are concerned about them, but we do not dare call for them to be banned. This is because we are conscious that a potential ban would be exploited; to the extent that other stations would be suspended, simply because they do not suit the political, sporting, or personal opinions of those in charge."At the same time, how can we let extremist groups exploit such satellite chaos, and propagandize hatred, killing, and sectarian strife, whether against the Sunnis, the Shiites or Christians?Hmmm.......strange he left out the Jews...why?Read the full story here.

• Belgium Justice department wants trial for Sheika in a case of human exploitation at the Brussels Conrad Hotel !The Brussels public prosecutor will ask the Council Chamber on Tuesday to start a criminal trial against the widow of an Arab sheik and her princess daughters.Says the newspapers De Morgen and La Dernière Heure. The investigation was opened in the summer of 2008, after police took seventeen women away from the Conrad Hotel in Avenue Louise in Brussels who were exploited as slaves. According to La Dernière Heure, a total of nine persons prosecuted, including Hamda Alnehayan, the 64-year-old widow of Sheikh Muhammad bin Khalid Alnahayan, and seven of her daughters.The newspaper writes that she may be prosecuted for detention, inhuman and degrading treatment, and human trafficking. Although the Conrad Hotel itself was first endorsed, this would no longer be the case. In its indictment, the prosecution that the family Alnahayan exploited 23 women from 8 different nationalities , according to La Dernière Heure. The distinguished family from Abu Dhabi rented the fourth floor of the hotel for several months.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.In Saudi Arabia, 30 Women Inducted Into Army.The Saudi Interior Ministry has decided for the first time to induct women into the Saudi armed forces. Thirty women will be inducted to serve in passport inspection posts at major border crossings.Source.

• HT:RightTruth."HEBRON AID FLOTILLA" SAILS INTO NEW YORK.While most political and religious organizations and assorted worthwhile charities generally select such venues as tony hotel ballrooms or lavish catering halls to hold their fundraising events, The Hebron Fund has announced that it will be breaking with this tradition as they prepare to host their annual dinner in New York City on Tuesday evening, November 16th. In a symbolic departure from past rituals, this year's dinner attendees will be feasting on a sumptuous smorgasbord and listening to inspirational speeches while cruising around the island of Manhattan on a ship that can hold up to 1000 people.Billed as the "Hebron Aid Flotilla", the event was created as a response to the international condemnation of Israel's May 31st, 2010 commando raid on the MV Marvi Marmara, a Turkish flagged ship that was part of a six ship flotilla sponsored by the "Free Gaza Movement" and an Islamic Turkish NGO called the IHH (The Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief). The stated intent of those on board this ship was to break the longstanding Israeli naval blockade of Gaza. The blockade had been imposed by Israel in order to prevent the smuggling of lethal arms and weapons to Hamas terrorists who would then, in turn, use these weapons against Israeli civilians and soldiers.Read the full story here.

• Islamic fundamentalists preventing the construction of a church in Kuwait.The government and the emir have approved the project but the Kuwait City Municipal Council refuses to issue building permits or explain its reasons for doing so. About 460,000 Christians share four official churches, two Catholic, one Evangelical and one Anglican. A Coptic church is under construction.A group of Christians has complained that Kuwait City’s Municipal Council is preventing them from getting land to build a church. "The Municipal Council is the big problem preventing us from getting land; not all of the members, just the Islamic fundamentalists," said Archimandrite Boutros Gharib, head of the local Greek Catholic Church.“We found the higher levels of government say yes and the lower levels of government say no,” said Rev Andrew Thompson, the Anglican chaplain to Kuwait, who stressed that religious fundamentalists controlled the municipality.Fr Gharib noted that his church is paying US$ 6,944 a month for a villa that is also shared by two other congregations. If they did not find land soon, the church would have to close, he said. "It's all excuses. It's all lies," he said. "Every time they promise, but all their promises are for nothing."Hmmm...."Interfaith dialog in it's natural habitat?"Read the full story here.

• Pictured: The mother aged 10 who had baby with her 13-year-old cousin.It is the kind of innocent embrace you might expect from teenage sweethearts.Wearing hooped earrings and with a flower in her hair, the girl drapes her arms around her ­boyfriend’s neck.But that is where any resemblance to an ordinary young couple ends.A human tragedy and the history of a people represented in two children. Read the full story here.

• Bloodied bison escapes a fight with a grizzly bear in an incredible chase scene caught on film.These remarkable pictures show the moment a motorist found himself in the middle of a race for life between a bison and a grizzly bear.Unsuspecting Alex Wypyszinski stepped out of his car to take some scenic photographs in Yellowstone National Park, USA, when he suddenly found himself at the centre of the high speed chase.The shocked post office worker had just dropped his wife off at work when he heard a galloping sound behind him.He said: 'At first I couldn't work out what it was. It sounded like an old horse and carriage going past.As his images show a bison was escaping a grizzly bear attacker.Read and see the full story here.

• Residents, Church Vie For History-Rich Russian Isles.When you look up "Volga tours" on the Internet, most advertise a quick St. Petersburg-to-Moscow trip, though technically neither city is on the Volga.But the Volga is more than a river. It is an elaborate system of lakes, locks and manmade canals that links Russia's two most famous cities. This network also reaches far to the north into the White Sea. For centuries, it was the shortest route to Europe and it became Russia's main center of trade and defense.The Solovetsky Islands, less than 100 miles from the Arctic Circle, have become a popular destination. Their history is dramatic — and that drama is still being played out.For Russian tourists, the trip north to Solovki, as the islands are known, is worth the voyage. These remote islands sum up their country's greatest achievements and its greatest tragedy.Father Porfiry is abbot of the newly restored Solovetsky Monastery."For 500 years, this place reflected the genius and power of God. The Communist revolution was the story of a great fall. Now we have overcome all that and see the restoration of Russia and its spiritual life," he says.As part of that restoration, the Russian Orthodox Church wants to control the islands. Father Porfiry is well placed to manage this: He was an economist before taking orders, and spent time studying management at MIT.Read and see the full story here.

• Volga River Towns Fade Along With Prized Sturgeon.Astrakhan is the last major city downstream on the Volga River, on the edge of a delta reaching into the Caspian Sea. This is the spawning ground for beluga and its cousin, the highly prized Caspian sturgeon, which together produce four-fifths of the world's black caviar.Astrakhan has long been known as Russia's caviar capital — but no more. As the fish neared extinction in the 1990s, Russia declared the situation critical. It has banned all commercial sturgeon fishing in the Caspian basin and the export of all black caviar.Now, both the sturgeon and the local people struggle to survive.Not so long ago, Astrakhan's fish market glistened with heaps of affordable fresh caviar — sturgeon's gooey black eggs, often called "black gold."But these days, the only caviar legally available there is from government-regulated fish farms. There aren't a lot of them and they don't come near to meeting Russian and world demand for caviar — even at a whopping $1,000 to $2,000 per kilogram on the official market.Read the full story here.