MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Erekat: PA will ask US to recognize Palestinian state if talks fail.PA chief negotiator says if Israel continues settlements and talks fail they will turn to US for unilateral declaration of state within 1967 borders. "If the Americans can't do that," added Erekat, "we may turn to the UN Security Council."Erekat stated that while the Security Council cannot legally declare a Palestinian state, its permanent members can call on other nations to individually recognize a Palestinian state.The Palestinian negotiator said that a third option would be to turn to the UN General Assembly, which does have the authority to recognize a Palestinian state.Read the full story here.

• Obama Calls Efforts to Improve Relations in Muslim World 'Incomplete Project'.Obama said policy differences with Muslim countries will linger, but that building better ties between the people of the United States and the Muslim world will foster improved overall relations.The president also expressed deep concern that Israelis and Palestinians aren't making the "extra effort" to secure a breakthrough needed to achieve Middle East Peace.Obama said he hasn't seen the kind of progress in negotiations that "could finally create a framework for a secure Israel living side by side in peace with a sovereign Palestine."Hmmm....Sovereign state of Palestina,"....Incomplete project ..when will it be complete if the USA is called the Islamic republic of America?Read the full story here.

• Obama visits a nation that knew him as Barry.The two houses where he spent part of his boyhood stand pretty much the way they did when he went back to Hawaii four decades ago. The two schools he attended have grown larger but, in spirit, remain unchanged. Some of his old friends can still be found around the neighborhood.In Mr Satjakoesoemah's living room, Mr Obama's mother taught English to the neighborhood women, including his wife, Djumiati. While the residents regarded Mr Obama's mother as a "free spirit," Barry, who was chubby, was referred to as the "boy who runs like a duck," said Mrs Satjakoesoemah, 69.Though most of the Menteng school's students have always been Muslim, Rully Dasaad, 49, a former classmate, chuckled at the idea that of all schools in the country, Menteng was equated with a madrasa.Mr Obama's family rented the guest house inside a compound belonging to a prominent physician. There, according to the neighborhood's longtime residents, the young Obama, who had already experienced differences in class and religion in his short stay in Indonesia, was exposed to another aspect of Jakarta's diversity.According to NDTV:"His nanny was an openly gay man who, in keeping with Indonesia's relaxed attitudes toward homosexuality, carried on an affair with a local butcher, longtime residents said. The nanny later joined a group of transvestites called Fantastic Dolls, who, like the many transvestites who remain fixtures of Jakarta's streetscape, entertained people by dancing and playing volleyball."Read the full story here.

• HT:Israel Matzav.Someone call PETA! In Baghdad on Monday, security found dogs with explosives implanted inside them about to be loaded onto a plane to the United States.Source.

• Turkey to host Iran talks 'soon'.Abdullah Gul, the Turkish president, announces resumption of previously failed talks on nuclear programme.The Turkish president has said his country expects to host talks between Iran and six major powers on Tehran's controversial nuclear programme "some time soon".However, Iran has also sent mixed signals over a resumption of talks.A senior aide to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the president, has said that even if Iran did agree to the talks it would not negotiate about its nuclear programme.Read the full story here.

• Faith groups divided over proposed New York Islamic center.It's a Mosque Rauf said so himself in Kazakstan a 2 weeks ago!American Christians, Muslims and those of other faiths are divided over what to do about a proposed Islamic community center near ground zero in New York, a new poll shows.While some six in 10 Catholics and Mormons think another location should be found, less than a third of Muslims, other non-Christians and non-religious Americans feel the same way, according to the Gallup survey. Jewish Americans, Protestants and other Christians fell more in the middle.No majority exists in any of the groups for building the center on the proposed location.About 40 percent of Muslims, other non-Christians and non-religious Americans support the idea, while the numbers drop to 25 percent or less for Catholics, Mormons, Jewish Americans, Protestants and other Christians.The third option was to build at the same location near ground zero, but make the facility an interfaith center.No more than 30 percent of any faith group backed the option.Hmmm.....I would say Non Muslim religions are not devided but united.Read the full story here.

• Wind - Rain and Thunder greet Barack Hussein Obama in Jakarta.US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michele Obama arrived at Halim Perdanakusuma Airport at 4:20 p.m. Obama was greeted by American Ambassador Scott Marciel and representatives of the Indonesian government, among them Foreign Minister Marty Natalegawa and his half-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng. However, the unsavory weather conditions of wind and rain interspersed with thunder-cracks did not make for a wholly welcoming homecoming.Read the full story here.

• HT:Matzav.NYC’s Newest Anti-Terror Deterrent: ‘Vapor Wake Dogs’.After spending billions on bomb-detection equipment, the Pentagon now says the best tool for the job is … a dog. And now a new generation of cunning canine will soon be sniffing for explosives on city streets.They’re called “vapor wake dogs” and CBS 2’s Tony Aiello recently put their amazing abilities to the test.On a crowded street in lower Manhattan, Aiello tried to keep an explosive secret to find out if a dog can sniff out the danger.So in the test, Aiello stayed across the street from the dog, keeping his distance because he was going to be a decoy during a test of the canine’s abilities. Aiello put on the black powder belt and a sport coat and glasses just to change his appearance a little bit. He even carried a jacket to try to hide the bulk of the belt.Raven followed her nose right towards Aiello, picked him out of the crowd and then strained at her leash as she followed him across the street.They are a four-legged anti-terror tool, sniffing out trouble.After last week’s package bomb scare vapor wake dogs are being looked at for cargo screening. The NYPD won’t say how many dogs it has acquired.Read the full story here.

• Sinhalese Muslim teenager sentenced to death in Saudi Arabia. Appeal of Catholics.Fr. George Sigamony, director of Caritas Sri Lanka, calls on all Catholics to pray after the verdict that decrees the death sentence for Rizana, just 17 years old, in prison on false charges of murder. The Asian Human Rights Commission: "Do not let Rizana Nafeek become a victim of the infamous practice of Saudi Arabia to sentence juvenile offenders to death."Read the full story here.

• Punjab: Christian woman sentenced to death for blasphemy.For the first time, a woman is sentenced to death in Pakistan for this kind of “offence”. The blasphemy law was introduced in 1986 by then Pakistani dictator Zia-ul Haq and since then it has become a tool for discrimination and violence. Part of the Pakistan Penal Code, the law imposes life in prison for defiling the Qur’an and death for insulting Muhammad.Pakistan has “crossed a line” in sentencing a Christian woman to death for blasphemy. Asia Bibi, a 37-year-old farm worker mother of two, was convicted of committing blasphemy before her fellow workers during a heated discussion about religion in the village of Ittanwali in June last year.Some of the women workers had reportedly been pressuring Bibi to renounce her Christian faith and accept Islam. During one discussion, Bibi responded by speaking of how Jesus had died on the cross for the sins of humanity and asking the Muslim women what Muhammad had done for them.The Muslim women took offence and began beating Bibi. Afterwards she was locked in a room. According to Release International, a mob reportedly formed and “violently abused” her and her children.Hmm...Religion of Peace.Read the full scandal story here.

• Landmark ruling in Turkey Buyukada orphanage returned to the Orthodox Patriarchate.After the ruling of the European Court, Turkey decides to return, the building located on the Island of the Princes to the Fanar. The decision paves the way for the requests relating to other religious buildings, monasteries, for the most part, seized by the state.The court has informed the "Fanar" that orders have been given for the final return of the building, located on the 'Island of the Princes’ to the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople. It also ordered that the land be registered to the “Rum Patrikanesi” (The Patriarchate of the Rum, as Orthodox Christians are called in Turkey), recognizing its de facto legal status.The "Fanar", having unsuccessfully exhausted all legal means at its disposal with the Turkish authorities, appealed to the Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, which on 15 June this year, accepted its case. However, one last step remains: that is, removing the status of "mazbut" from the orphanage, to arrange for its release from seizure and occupation by the General Directorate of Foundations and hand over management to administrators appointed by the Christian Orthodox community in Istanbul.Hmmm....the things you have to allow to get in the EU?Read the full story here.

• N.Y. Bedbugs invading classrooms at alarming rate, but Education Dept. says there's no epidemic.Bedbugs are creeping their way into city classrooms in record numbers.As the city sees a surge in the itsy-bitsy pests, schools are experiencing a spike in confirmed cases - 336 in the first two months of this school year compared with 135 in the same stretch last year.That's on track to surpass last year's record of 1,019 cases."I think it's an epidemic. Bedbugs are everywhere," said Anna Shter, 37, whose son is a kindergartner at Brooklyn's Public School 200, where bedbugs were discovered twice in the last month.Read the full story here.

• Hamas invites Ahamdinejad to Gaza.Islamist group calls on Iranian president to visit Strip after his October tour of Lebanon, however estimates say visit unlikely to take place.Hamas has invited Iranian President Mahmoud Ahamdinejad to visit the Gaza Strip on Monday. Ahmed Youssef, deputy Hamas foreign minister told Iranian news agency Fars that a visit from the Iranian president would lift the spirits of "the resistance front" as it did with Hezbollah in Lebanon last month.Hamas sources confirmed that Ahmadinejad had been invited to Gaza as part of Palestinian efforts to break the blockade. They told Ynet that the Iranian president had a positive response to the invitation. Nevertheless, Gaza elements estimated the visit is not likely to occur in the near future.Read the full story here.

• Taliban Tries New Afghanistan War Tactic, Pens 'Open Letter' to Congress.In a rambling "open letter" to Congress, the Taliban's spokesman said he wanted to present American lawmakers with "a true picture of the ground realities" of the war in Afghanistan, which he insisted the U.S. can't win.The spokesman, Qari Mohammad Yousaf Ahmadi, called on Congress to send a fact-finding mission to Afghanistan, apparently ignorant of the fact that representatives and senators visit Afghanistan all the time. But American lawmakers rarely leave heavily guarded U.S. facilities, moving only in armored convoys, because of the danger presented by the Taliban.The letter was e-mailed to news organizations Sunday, and it differed little from the countless statements the Taliban have released over the years. Many have been aimed at Americans, at times directly saying so.Much of the roughly 2,300-word letter, addressed to "Messers American Congressmen" and written in similarly problematic English, is stock rhetoric. It wasn't clear whether the letter was actually sent to members of Congress or simply e-mailed to news organizations.Read the full story here.

• Obama Speaking to the Muslim World: A Milestone or a Mistake?Bantarto Bandoro, an international affairs expert from the Jakarta-based Center for Strategic and International Studies, called Obama’s decision to use Jakarta as a place to send a message to the Islamic world “a big mistake” that could hurt Indonesia and would not necessarily improve America’s image.Being used by Washington as an arena to try and fix its image could jeopardize Indonesia’s reputation in the larger Islamic world, he added.Read the full story here.

• Hizbut Tahrir, Academics Speak Out Against Obama's Indonesia visit. Jakarta. “Reject Obama, President of an Imperialist State.” Those words, printed on huge banners, provided the backdrop for a panel of 15 speakers at a building within the campus grounds of the State Islamic University (UIN) Syarif Hidayatullah in Jakarta.“We want people to understand that this agreement they are going to sign will endanger the nation,” he said, referring to the comprehensive partnership. Muhammad Usman, from Airlangga University, said Obama should not visit Jakarta’s Istiqlal Mosque, the largest mosque in the country. Arim agreed, saying that “infidels are not allowed to go inside mosques.Obama "Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• Hizbullah Deputy Leader: International Tribunal Will Accuse Hizbullah In Al-Hariri Assassination.Hizbullah deputy secretary-general Sheikh Na'im Qasem said that the indictment in the case of the assassination of former Lebanese prime minister Rafiq Al-Hariri will be against Hizbullah, as reported in the German weekly Der Spiegel. He said that there will be a sword on Hizbullah's neck. He added that the tribunal could also point an accusing finger at Syria and Iran.Read the full story here.

• HT:NewZeal.Trumka "The Work That We Did Held the Senate..."Hard Leftist AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka explains the impact of the US labor movement in the mid term elections.Trumka claims to have saved several leading Democrats from the guillotine and to have earned the appreciation of President Barack Obama.Hmm....the "Jimmy Hoffa" of the 21Th Century?Read and see the full story here.

• HT:AlwaysOnWatch.Obama Sees Advantages In The Decline Of America As An Economic Power.From the Times of India:...The fact of the matter is that for most of my lifetime and I'll turn 50 next year - the US was such an enormously dominant economic power, we were such a large market, our industry, our technology, our manufacturing was so significant that we always met the rest of the world economically on our terms. And now because of the incredible rise of India and China and Brazil and other countries, the US remains the largest economy and the largest market, but there is real competition.""This will keep America on its toes. America is going to have to compete. There is going to be a tug-of-war within the US between those who see globalisation as a threat and those who accept we live in a open integrated world, which has challenges and opportunities."...Going by media reports in the US of his first day in India, his focus on jobs and investments was well received.Competition is fine.But just how is competition within the present globalization framework going to help the U.S. economy to recover and bring jobs here to the States?And how is the competitive field going to be level if more and more jobs which should be based here in the United States are outsourced to nations that pay workers $1 a day?Watch the video at the beginning of this post. BHO seems downright pleased with his admission about the economic decline of America.Read and see the full story here.

• Some Dems and White House Staffers Want Obama Removed from Office.According to investigative journalist Wayne Madsen, some Democrats and White House staffers are considering removing Barack Obama from office via Section 4 of the 25th Amendment to the Constitution: Whenever the Vice President and a majority of either the principal officers of the executive departments or of such other body as Congress may by law provide, transmit to the President pro tempore of the Senate and the Speaker of the House of Representatives their written declaration that the President is unable to discharge the powers and duties of his office, the Vice President shall immediately assume the powers and duties of the office as Acting President.Opinion Maker: "Top Democrats are still reeling from Obama's bizarre behavior at a $7500-a-plate fundraiser at a stately mansion at Brown University in Rhode Island on October 25." The President left the fundraiser after only 20 minutes and without warning, explaining that he had to go home to "tuck in the girls, walk the dog, and scoop the poop.""Some staffers have said [concerning the President's bizarre behavior] on deep background that the revelations by the ex-White House official (referred to in this story) to [blogger] "Ulsterman" [Who some staffers have been meeting with] are not even half of the story about what is actually occurring in the White House.This story also reports that Obama has been prescribed anti-anxiety medication.Hmmm....no more walking on water,but water treading?Read the full story here.

• Awlaqi calls for killing Americans 'without hesitation'.US-Yemeni radical cleric Anwar Al Awlaqi has called for the killing of Americans "without hesitation" and accused Iran of trying to impose control over Sunnis in the Gulf, SITE monitors said on Monday."Do not consult anyone in killing Americans," Awlaqi said in a 23-minute video posted on jihadist websites, according to the US monitoring group."Killing the devil does not need any fatwa (religious edict)," he added."It's either us or you," Awlaqi said, addressing Americans in the video, which first surfaced on October 23 when one minute of footage was posted on jihadist forums."America and Israel are controlling our ummah (nation) and soon Iran will interfere to get its share of the pie," he said."There is a US-Israeli struggle on one side and an Iranian on the other to impose their control on Sunni areas."The Gulf's "Sunni citizens" will be "the first victims" of Iran, said Awlaqi, speaking in Arabic from behind a desk and sporting a sheathed dagger in his belt.Read the full story here.Full text here.

• International committee vows to restore Mount of Olives.Distinguished panel confronts grave desecrations, violence and security deterioration plaguing ancient Jerusalem burial ground. The Committee unveiled a list of urgent action demands spelling out key changes on the ground to ensure the safety and sanctity of the famous Jewish cemetery. In front of an audience of close to 1,000 people, Knesset Member Danny Danon (Likud), community leader Adv. David Martin and moderator Ruthie Blum Leibowitz explored the current state of the cemetery and its significance in Jewish history as well as what is needed to rehabilitate the site.MK Danon told those on hand, “At present, there is a need to call ahead for a security escort prior to visiting Har Hazeitim to ensure the safety of visitors to the site. This is not acceptable in Israel in 2010.The Mount of Olives has been used as a Jewish cemetery for over 3,000 years and is comprised of approximately 150,000 graves. The site is also holy to Christians and there are numerous churches in the vicinity."In recent years, the cemetery has fallen into a state of general neglect and disrepair, with local Arab villagers driving across it to take shortcuts and sometimes attacking Jewish visitors to the graves," ICPHH said.Read the full story here.

• Islam Channel breaks British broadcast rules, regulator says. Britain's Islam Channel broke broadcasting regulations by condoning marital rape, encouraging violence against women, and promoting an anti-Israel, pro-Hamas line, the country's broadcast regulator Ofcom ruled Monday.One violation came during an advice program in which a female caller asked if a woman could hit her husband back if he was beating her. The host, as part of his answer, said the most a husband could do was hit her with a stick the size of a pen "just to make her feel that you are not happy with her."The same host said in another program that for a woman to wear perfume when praying in a mosque made her a prostitute in the eyes of the Prophet Mohammed. Another violation took place in a discussion about an Afghan law that, critics say, allows men to rape their wives.The Islam Channel "does not condone or encourage violence toward women under any circumstances," the broadcaster told Ofcom during the investigation.But the author of a report into the channel said it promotes "a fringe and intolerant form of Islam."The channel's agenda "risks having a negative effect not only on British Muslim communities but also on relations between Muslims and non-Muslims," he said.Read the full story here.More here.

• Until 1996, nobody called Rachel’s Tomb a mosque. Analysis: UNESCO’s recent designation flies in the face of Jewish history, Islamic tradition and Ottoman confirmation. In a series of decisions condemning Israel, the UNESCO board called upon the government to rescind its decision in February to include Rachel’s Tomb and the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hebron on Israel’s official list of national heritage sites. The sharp protests by Ambassador to UNESCO Nimrod Barkan to the UN body’s decision were expunged from the record by the chairman of the session, the Russian representative, on the pretext that they were too aggressive.A scrupulous examination of testimonies and historical sources demonstrates that defining Rachel’s Tomb as a mosque does an injustice to facts and traditions anchored in both Muslim documents and Jewish sources, and constitutes distortion, bias and deception. As opposed to the Temple Mount and the Cave of the Patriarchs, which also serve as the location of mosques, Rachel’s Tomb never served as a mosque for the Muslims. The Muslim connection to the site derives from its relation to Rachel and has no connection to Bilal ibn Rabah, Muhammad’s first muezzin.Note that in these photos from the early 1900's no Muslim cemetary or mosque exists near the Tomb. Read the full story here.

• President Obama isolated ahead of 2012. President Barack Obama has performed his act of contrition. Now comes the hard part, according to Democrats around the country: reckoning with the simple fact that he’s isolated himself from virtually every group that matters in American politics. Congressional Democrats consider him distant and blame him for their historic defeat on Tuesday. Democratic state party leaders scoff at what they see as an inattentive and hapless political operation. Democratic lobbyists feel maligned by his holier-than-thou take on their profession. His own Cabinet — with only a few exceptions — has been marginalized. “This guy swept to power on a wave of adulation, and he learned the wrong lessons from that,” said a Democratic official who deals frequently with the White House. “He’s more of a movement leader than a politician. He needs someone to kick his ass on things large and small and teach him to be a politician.”Hmmm....that's why he's in Asia?Read the full story here.

• Number of the Week: $10.2 Trillion in Global Borrowing.$10.2 trillion: The amount of money advanced-nation governments will need to borrow in 2011As the debts of advanced countries rise to levels not seen since the aftermath of World War II, it’s hard to know how much is too much. But it’s easy to see that the risk of serious financial trouble is growing.Next year, fifteen major developed-country governments, including the U.S., Japan, the U.K., Spain and Greece, will have to raise some $10.2 trillion to repay maturing bonds and finance their budget deficits, according to estimates from the International Monetary Fund. That’s up 7% from this year, and equals 27% of their combined annual economic output.Aside from Japan, which has a huge debt hangover from decades of anemic growth, the U.S. is the most extreme case. Next year, the U.S. government will have to find $4.2 trillion. That’s 27.8% of its annual economic output, up from 26.5% this year. By comparison, crisis-addled Greece needs $69 billion, or 23.8% of its annual GDP.Hmmmm.....hey big spender.......we all have to tighten our belts?Read the full "succes" story here.

• Sikhs outraged at US airport turban searches.Sikh Americans are protesting at what they say is a new policy at US airports to screen their turbans systematically, voicing fear the move would further stigmatize their faith.US officials have not confirmed a change in policy and insisted they respected religious beliefs. But they said security measures necessitated checks on "bulky" clothing such as turbans, which Sikh men are required by faith to wear.A group of Sikh American groups said they met several weeks ago with representatives of the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) who told them that airports would now screen turbans with hand-wands at all times.Current policy is erratic, with New York City airports rarely conducting secondary searches on Sikhs but airports in other cities such as Chicago and San Francisco doing so routinely, said Amardeep Singh, co-founder of the Sikh Coalition advocacy group."The TSA told us, point blank, that turbans will now be screened 100 per cent of the time," Singh told AFP on Monday."To have the government at an airport pulling the turban aside specifically and screening the turban only reinforces that view that many people already have," Singh said.If they're going to stigmatize our children and stigmatize our community and specifically stigmatize our article of faith, they better have a damn good reason," he said.Hmmm...we don't want the visit your temple ,but do want to visit your turbans?Read the full story here.

• HT:TundraTabloids.Video : Canadian Pm Harper hammers the UN on it's Anti -Semitism and Anti - Israelism.After all, we fought the Yanks in 1812 and kicked them the hell out of our country - but not with blanks.Farley Mowat.Read and See the full story here  more on this story here..

• Oklahoma's Ban on Shariah Law Blocked: Supporters Blame State Attorney General.A popular new law that bars Oklahoma courts from considering Islamic law, or Shariah, when deciding cases was put on hold Monday after a prominent Muslim in the state won a temporary restraining order in federal court.Supporters of the Oklahoma ballot initiative, which passed with 70 percent of the vote, would not comment on the impact of the ruling. But state Sen. Anthony Sykes, who co-authored the measure, charged that the judge ruled as she did because the state’s attorney general, Drew Edmondson, failed to respond to the suit.Two state legislators were quick to blast the judge's ruling and the Oklahoma attorney general, who they said did not stand up to support the new law.Oklahoma state Rep. Rex Duncan, who co-sponsored the bill, said he hadn’t seen the judge's written ruling yet, but he was disappointed that “her words from the bench indicated she had completely embraced the plaintiff’s arguments.”“They were pretty extraordinary statements from the judge,” he said.I wonder what the founding fathers would have done?Read the full story here.

• NATO officials say Russia poses no threat to West - envoy.NATO's top military and political officials assured Russia the alliance saw no threat from the country for the West, Russia's envoy to NATO Dmitry Rogozin said on Monday.Rogozin's comment followed a statement by Lithuanian President Dalia Grybauskaite, who said that "in terms of politics" NATO has finished its preparation of its plan of the Baltic states' defense.European Voice weekly earlier said NATO's defense plans implicitly singled Russia out as a military threat.Despite the NATO officials' pro-Russian statements, several alliance members continue to criticize NATO Secretary General Anders Fogh Rasmussen's policy of establishing a strategic relationship with Russia, the envoy said.Rogozin said he was very pleased "for the residents of the ex-Soviet Baltic states who could at last sleep peacefully facing the somewhat lurid menace threatening the young sickly democracies of Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia."Read the full story here.

• HT:RefugeeResetlementWatch.29 Somalis indicted for sex trafficking.MINNEAPOLIS – Twenty-nine people have been indicted in a sex trafficking ring in which Somali gangs in Minneapolis and St. Paul allegedly forced girls under age 14 into prostitution in Minnesota, Tennessee and Ohio, according to an indictment unsealed Monday.The 24-count indictment, unsealed in U.S. District Court in the Middle District of Tennessee, said one of the gangs’ goals was recruiting females under age 18, including some under age 14, and forcing them into prostitution so the defendants could get money, marijuana or liquor.The indictment details several instances in which young Somali or African American girls were taken from place to place and forced to engage in sex acts with multiple people. One girl was under 13 when she was first prostituted. Another girl was 18 when she was raped by multiple men in a hotel room, the indictment said.Also, after being closed for nearly two years, the US State Department is on the verge of resuming the fraud-ridden family reunification program that admitted as many as 36,000 Somalis fraudulently to the US between 2003 and 2008. See the latest on new regulations, here. The State Department is on the verge of re-opening the program.Read the full story here.

• HT:RefugeeResetlementWatch.Related : ORR(Office of Refugee Resettlement), where is the annual report to Congress?We began FY2011 on October 1st with a Presidential Determination letter to admit another 80,000 refugees this year, so by my calculation they owe Congress the report for 2008 and 2009. The importance of the annual report is that it tells members of Congress and the public what refugees were resettled and to which states. It tells us employment rates. It tells us what resettlement agencies are doing good jobs in finding employment and which aren’t. It tells us what the welfare useage is and relates that to previous years and so on.So as we continue high rates of refugee resettlement through the great recession years we have no official picture of how those refugees are doing.Write to your Congressman and US Senators and ask where the 2008 and 2009 annual reports are!Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Geert Wilders to speak at 'Jordan is Palestine' conference.Dutch politician Geert Wilders will speak at a conference in Tel Aviv in early December, which will be dedicated to promoting the idea that Jordan is 'Palestine. MK Eldad will present the main points of his idea at the conference, which will be held in Tel Aviv at the beginning of next month. Eldad will be followed by a guest speech by the Dutch nationalist Wilders, in which he will voice support for the idea of establishing a Palestinian state in Jordan. Former defense minister Moshe Arens and former GSS director Ami Ayalon were invited to the conference in order to respond to the speeches.So how 'mainstream' is the third largest party in the Dutch parliament with approximately one sixth of the seats (24 out of 150)? To put it in perspective, the only two Israeli parties with more than 20 (out of 120) seats in our Knesset are Likud and Kadima. Are all the other parties not mainstream? Or is 'Jordan is Palestine' gaining mainstream acceptance, at least in Holland?Read the full story here.

• President Gül: Turkey plays active role in shaping new world order.Turkish President Abdullah Gül suggested on Monday that Turkey is already playing an active part in shaping the future international order that will replace the three-dimensionally “imperfect equilibrium” that characterizes the current state of affairs after the Cold War.President Gül suggested that the new and normal order will be accomplished in the next decade and shared his thoughts about the main characteristics of the new normal international order. He suggested that this new order must address the three-dimensional deficits and that the new order countries would not be categorized as First, Second and Third World countries. Gül added that this new order must focus on the whole world and reject a Euro-centric understanding of history and international affairs.Hmmmm....can't even join the EU and wants to rule the world.Read the full powerhungry story here.

• 64-year-old father of 88 to now wed 18-year-old.Ajman's superdad aims to have 100 offspring by 2015.UAE's superdad is all set to tie the knot again, with the aim of hitting a century before 2015.Father of 88 children, 64-year-old Daad Murad Abdul Rahman will marry 18-year-old Aisha in Jaipur (Indian state of Rajastan) after Eid.Speaking to Emirates24|7, Rahman said: "The wedding was arranged by his Indian doctor. Meher [money bridegroom pays the bride's father] has been fixed at Dh20,000 and the nikkah [wedding] will be held in Jaipur."Rahman, who lives in Ajman and Manama, has 50 boys and 38 girls. The eldest son Tariq is 39 years of age and the youngest is a few months old. "I will stop marrying when I have 100 children. I hope to achieve that with this marriage."His family comprising 127 members live in seven homes spread across different emirates. Most of his children are employed in good positions (UAE Armed Forces, Police, etc). One of them is a businessman in the UK. Rahman says he has been married 15 times. However, he has only three wives at present and the rest are divorced. Some of his ex-wives, however, still stay with him.Read the full "story" here.

• "The Impact Of This Is Big, and It's Wide, and It's Bad, and It's Ugly. Inhabits The Gulf of Mexico Are Being Exposed To An Atrocity."Thousands of marine animals still in danger from hidden oil in Gulf. The problems are far from over.Scientists affiliated with the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution (WHOI) have detected a plume of hydrocarbons at least 22 miles long and more than 3,000 feet below the surface of the Gulf of Mexico, a residue of the BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill. Samantha Joye - a Marine Science Professor from the UGA, who was among the first researchers to identify underwater plumes of oil gushing from the BP oil well in the Gulf of Mexico - says the White House will no doubt attempt to silence her once again on her latest findings.Read and see the full story here.