MFS - The Other News

Number plate of Franz Ferdinand's car A 11 - 11 - 18  ..... Coincidence?



                          Morning Posting.

• HT:Foreignpolicy. Iran blocked, but Saudi Arabia accepted for U.N. Women board.SERIOUSLY?This morning the U.N.'s new umbrella agency for women's rights issues elected its board members. The election had attracted controversy because two of the candidate countries were among the world's most notorious abusers of women's rights, Iran and Saudi Arabia. This morning, with strong lobbying from the United States, Iran's election to the board was blocked. Human rights groups had strongly opposed Iran's election, pointing in particular to the recent death sentence of Sakineh Mohammadi Ashtiani for the crime of adultery. The 54 countries who sit on the UN’s Economic and Social Council did, however, accept the membership bid by Saudi Arabia.In fact, according to the U.N. Development Program's own Gender Empowerment Measure, Saudi Arabia is actually a worse country for gender equality than Iran. Neither does particularly well, but of the the 93 countries ranked, only Yemen scores lower than Saudi Arabia.A country where women aren't allowed to drive, aren't allowed out alone and aren't allowed the sunshine on their skin, that country gets to decide womens issues for the UN?Hmmm.....are they really so sure that Islam will rule the Western World and will dictate them what to do?Read the full story here.Related : Women could endanger their health by wearing burqas.Hmmm..perhaps they can start with this?

• Video: Man in Wheelchair Rescues Store Clerk.Surveillance footage from a Vancouver, B.C. convenience store captured a customer in a wheelchair tackling a man who was having a confrontation with the cashier.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:TheDailyBeast.Obama's G-20 Misfire.The European and Asian powers have had it with being lectured by the U.S.—and President Obama’s letter seeking to defuse the tension ahead of Thursday’s summit is likely to make things worse, says Zachary Karabell.With the leaders of the world gathering for two days of economic points and counterpoints under the aegis of the G-20, Seoul has become the scene of a showdown between a testy set of European and Asian powers and a rather flummoxed and flat-footed America represented by President Obama in all his post-Nov. 2 glory and malaise.Hmm...you can't bully everyone,all the time?Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.Har Homa was built on Jewish-owned land.Lost in the argument over building in Jerusalem, writes Leo Rennert, is the fact that Har Homa, where most of the new apartments are being built, is built entirely on land that has been owned by Jews for nearly a century.What is utterly ludicrous about this concocted tempest in a Jerusalem teacup is that the bulk of the new apartment units are to go up in Har Homa, a Jewish neighborhood of some 12,000 residents in southeast Jerusalem. Two thirds of Har Homa is on land purchased by Jews after the First World War. The other third is owned by Arabs. The entire existing Harm Homa neighborhood was built on Jewish-owned land and plans for additional housing units also are confined to this part of Har Homa. None of this appeared in media reports or in the criticism leveled by Obama, the State Department and the European Union.All that history is brushed aside. What matters to the Times and the Post -- as well as to Obama, the State Department and the Europeans -- is their own brand of historical revisionism that ignores all Jewish ties and claims to Jerusalem for several thousands of years before the Six-Day War of 1967.Read the truth here.

• Poppy-burning Muslim protesters mar Armistice Day commemorations as millions fall silent to remember war dead.Islamic protesters sparked fury today after they burned a model of a poppy and deliberately broke the silence at Armistice Day commemorations in central London.As millions of Britons fell silent to remember those who have died in war, members of a group called Muslims Against Crusades clashed with police during an 'emergency demonstration' in Kensington, west London.As the clock struck 11am, the Islamic protesters burned a model of a poppy and chanted 'British soldiers burn in hell'.Talk about the ennemy within?Read the full scumbag story here.

• HT:Backtobasics.“Mystery” missile launched off California coast.“Huge, cruise type missile- this was no ‘aircraft contrail or illusion, optical or otherwise, and it was not ours…’”“The Pentagon knows exactly where it came from. Information ‘blackout’ called deliberate, unprecedented.”– U.S. Intelligence official. What has been described as a large “cruise type” missile was apparently launched from an undetermined location – of undetermined origin – somewhere in the Pacific Ocean approximately 35 miles north of Catalina Island and west of Los Angeles at sunset last night. The U.S. military denies any such launch, although adds that “there is no threat to the United States.”Read the full story here.Update to the story : The rumors circulating “within the [Pentagon] rings” suggest that it was a deliberate launch of a missile from “Chinese property at sea” intended as a warning to the U.S.Read the full story here.

• Why Hamas loves Obama."Abu Hussain! Palestine loves you!!!" This slogan, in English, appears on a poster and other products produced by the Palestinian Hamas movement and put on sale in Gaza. Yesterday, it adorned the front pages of several leading Arab dailies. The "Abu Hussain" is President Obama. The poster pictures him wearing the signature Arab headgear, the kaffiyeh. That the most radical Palestinian faction has declared its love for the president may be bad news for the stalled Middle East peace talks, which Obama has promised to help restart before the end of the year.Read the full story here.

• HT:BeckyDiamond.Military Uses Holocaust to Prevent Genocide.Major Ginnette Ruth studied the Holocaust in school but this Puerto Rican native never thought she would see Auschwitz-Birkenau concentration camp with her own eyes.“Walking through the actual grounds of this mass atrocity was overwhelming," she said.It is estimated that around 1.1 million people were killed at Poland's Auschwitz-Birkenau German Nazi Concentration and Extermination Camp -- more commonly known as Auschwitz."I am a mother myself so when they took me through [the barracks] where the mothers were …where the kids died, it took a personal toll on me,” she said.The Mass Atrocity Prevention in Military Practice course is the brainchild of Fred Schwartz, founder of the Auschwitz Institute and its director Tibi Galis who felt strongly that military officers would benefit from participating in a genocide prevention course.Heller strongly believes that there is a need for the U.S. military to more actively engage in genocide prevention. Heller said in Rwanda in 1994, Canadian forces needed only 5,000 “boots on the ground” and that according to him “a million people would have been saved.”Heller believes that the mid-level career military officers selected for this course are likely to be leading hundreds or possibly thousands of troops on the ground in the near future and could be in a position to see signs of a potential mass atrocity and do something to stop that train from taking off.“Every person in the world should go there and maybe we wouldn’t have this stuff popping up every decade,” said Heller.Read the full story here.

• Google Veterans Day Controversy: American Flag, Islamic Crescent Moon Doodle Sparks Internet Outrage.Motifs of the American flag have become a regular addition to Google's artistic repertoire celebrating patriotic holidays but today's Veterans Day doodle has sparked a measure of controversy. In the past Google personified its doodle with red, white and blue letters but the addition of an Islamic crescent moon-looking "e" has all the Internet abuzz. Tweets via Twitter have included a broad range of hostile opinions about 'Old Glory' appearing with the shadow of a stylized Islamic crescent moon--especially on Veterans Day. The Google doodle is definitely stirring up fears of fanning the flames of anti-Islamic sentiments in America. Was that what Google intended? Reactions on Twitter have ranged from shock to disappointment at Google's choice of doodle designs for Veterans Day. LaughTech on Twitter enlarged the logo and set its caption as "Google says, 'Happy Veterans Day, Islam'".RL from Product-Reviews.net sums up the outrage perfectly, "An American flag covering a partial showing Islamic crescent moon...good job GOOGLE...way to do your part to further fan the flames of tension between the western world and the Islamic community. Lets see how you play dumb and spin this."Hmmm...perhaps more reason to ask Google about it's relation with Obama.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheAmericanDream.Why Is Russia Building 5000 More Nuclear Bomb Shelters In Moscow By The End Of 2012?Russia certainly seems to be in a hurry to prepare for something. RT is reporting that 5,000 new nuclear bomb shelters will be constructed in the city of Moscow by the end of 2012. Russian authorities believe that these new shelters are urgently needed because the current nuclear bomb shelters will only hold approximately half the population and are quite outdated. In addition, there are apparently very few nuclear bomb shelters for those living outside the city center at this point. Officials want virtually the entire population of Moscow to be able to reach a bomb shelter within a matter of minutes. But in this era when the "Cold War" is supposed to be over, why are 5000 nuclear bomb shelters such an urgent necessity?The following is an RT video news report about these new shelters....But it isn't just Russia that has been busy building bomb shelters.A few years ago, Shanghai’s Civil Defense Office announced the completion of an absolutely massive underground shelter. It was reported that the shelter covers an area of over 90,000 square meters and could accommodate up to 200,000 people at a time.So what about the U.S. government? Are they building any bomb shelters for us?No.Basically, Americans are sitting ducks. Whether it is a rogue nation launching a nuke or a full-out nuclear war, Americans literally have nowhere to go. In the event of a nuclear attack, most of us would be lucky to have enough time to duck and cover and say our prayers.The sad truth is that the U.S. government considers the threat of nuclear war to be a thing of the past.Read the full story here.

• Former CIA Chief Defends Shariah Ban in Oklahoma.Former CIA director James Woolsey says banning Shariah law in Oklahoma is constitutional because that legal system is the only one in the world used to justify violence against women. A whopping 70 percent of Oklahomans voted Nov. 2 to amend the state constitution to outlaw the use of Islamic law in court rulings there. On Monday, a U.S. district judge issued a restraining order to block implementation of the law until she can hear arguments from Muslim groups who object that it violates their constitutional rights. Woolsey, who served as CIA director under former President Bill Clinton, is unsympathetic to the view that Oklahoma's law singles out the Muslim religion.“If they (CAIR) can find an example of another religious doctrine that permits -- indeed authorizes -- the beating of women and little girls then one might want to listen to them,” Woolsey said. “I have not heard that the Confucians or the Anabaptists, or whoever, claim that a subset of their religious doctrines authorize such beatings.”Read the full story here.

• Rich Nations Urged to Weigh 'Robin Hood' Tax to Help Poor.As President Obama huddles with world leaders for the G-20 summit in South Korea to weigh proposals aimed at stabilizing the global economy, one idea being pushed is a so-called "Robin Hood tax," aimed at collecting money from rich nations to give to the poor.The Robin Hood tax -- a global financial transaction fee that could raise hundreds of billions of dollars to pay the cost of the global financial crisis and support developing nations struggling to recover -- is not popular.Hmmmm......With more than 1 in 8 Americans now on food stamps, i think you should look at home first Mr President!Read the full scam story here.

• Boehner to Fly Commercial as House Speaker.Presumptive House Speaker John Boehner said Wednesday that he will not use the military jet provided to current Speaker Nancy Pelosi to fly from D.C. to his home district each week, but will board the same airlines as everybody else.Pelosi had claimed after she became speaker in 2007 that a military aircraft was offered to her in light of position as second in line to the presidency. But Boehner said he's not so concerned."I've talked to our security folks about the security involved in my new role. Over the last 20 years I've flown back and forth to my district on commercial aircraft and will continue to do that," Boehner, R-Ohio, said.Boehner also said it was appropriate for Pelosi to have the plane, but questioned the need for it."I think from a security standpoint having access to a plane, going to and from a district, makes a lot of sense," he said. "The question is about what's reasonable to expect the taxpayers to pick up." "Hmmm...."Bullseye " Mr Speaker!Read the full story here.

• Native American tribes seek trade ties with Turkey.Native American tribal leaders seeking trade ties with Turkish companies have offered them tax incentives to operate in their territories in the United States, the organizer of the trip said Thursday.Lincoln McCurdy, president of the Turkish Coalition of America, which organized the trip, said Thursday that the Native American tribes belong to sovereign nations that can strike their own trade deals and offer special tax incentives.The delegation, representing 17 tribes from at least 10 U.S. states, has been welcomed by the Turkish government, which wants to bolster trade ties with the United States, which is Turkey's seventh-largest trading partner.Hmmm....lets destroy the paleface US economy from within?Read the full story here.

• HT:ElderofZion.Iran publishes scenario where it would use nukes (NewsMax).Last month, NewsMax published an analysis by Ken Timmerman that received no coverage outside some blogs : For the first time since the expansion of Iran’s nuclear program was exposed in 2002, the Iranian government is dropping the pretense that it is developing nuclear technology purely for peaceful purposes. Iran has developed nuclear war plans to deter U.S. and Israeli aggression and retaliate against it, a top adviser to Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi announced in a strategic analysis.Defense Ministry analyst Alireza Saeidabadi’s detailed analysis, published last week on a website that Iran’s intelligence ministry runs, examines several scenarios in which Iran could become embroiled in a shooting war with the United States or Israel.The Iranian military should “prioritize its air force and ballistic missile fleet” in dealing with a conventional attack from Israel, Saeidabadi writes.But in the event Israel uses unconventional weapons against Iran, “then Iran should employ a nuclear strategy.”Similarly, if Iran and the United States get engaged in naval clashes in the Persian Gulf, Iran should “use its sea power for hit-and-run attacks, commando attacks, and use anti-shipping missiles” against U.S. naval vessels.“But if the United States launches an unconventional attack, Iran needs to respond with a nuclear strategy,” the Iranian defense ministry analyst contends.Hmmm....there goes "Islam forbids Nuclear Weapons"?Read the full story here.

• Iran, Turkey can be flag-bearers of nuclear disarmament.Should i laugh or cry?Iranian Foreign Minister Manouchehr Mottaki says the Islamic Republic and Turkey have potentialities to be flag-bearers of international nuclear disarmament.The top Iranian diplomat emphasized that Turkey plays an "effective and influential" role in the region and has a special regional position.Marjan praised his country's deep-rooted ties with Iran and said the two friend and neighboring countries should further promote relations due to several commonalities.Sanctions that "Bite"?Yeah whatevah.Get Turkey out of NATO NOW !Read the full deceit story here.

• Government replaces Turkey's top religious official.The Turkish government has relieved Professor Ali Bardakoğlu of his position as head of Turkey's Religious Affairs Directorate, agencies reported Thursday.Bardakoğlu was the religious affairs director for the last seven years."Radical changes are about to happen in the directorate's structure. Bardakoğlu was replaced in the scope of these changes," said State Minister for religion Faruk Çelik, daily Milliyet reported on its website.Bardakoglu said recently that wearing a headscarf was not a requirement for Muslim women and that asking the Religious Affairs Department for its views on legal arrangements was against secularism, Cumhuriyet newspaper said.Hmmmm....."The Islamic Republic of Turkey" is emerging from Iran's borders?Read the full story here and here.

• Halal meat is being served in schools, hospitals and pubs - even though vets say Islamic slaughter is cruel.The Mail went undercover at an abattoir to find the truth.The main difference here, though, is that this abattoir produces halal meat, in accordance with strict Islamic guidelines. Put simply, this means the animals killed here are not stunned with an electrical current — as they are at ­conventional slaughterhouses — to render them unconscious before they are dispatched.Instead, they are fully conscious as their throats are slit by a slaughterman as he utters prayers to Allah to ‘bless’ the animal. The ­creature then bleeds to death in a process that can take more than 30 seconds.But this is an exemption that the British ­Veterinary Association and the Government’s advisers, the Farm ­Animal Welfare Council, are objecting to, saying this form of slaughter causes ‘intolerable cruelty’. They have repeatedly demanded that it be banned.When I applied to be shown around a number of halal slaughterhouses, calls went unreturned and messages unanswered for weeks. So I decided to go undercover, ­posing as a potential buyer of halal meat for a fictional chain of high-quality ‘bespoke meats’. After four weeks, I finally ­managed to find an abattoir willing to show me the entire production ­process — from ‘squeals to meals’Now read the full story here.

• HT:Infidelbloggers.Hard Hat Pledge Blogger: "Mayor Bloomberg, You Are A Disgrace".Mayor Bloomberg you are an elitist disgrace and sicken me with your arrogant ways. Above all you are a liar. On the steps of the Winter Garden after months of me and my men repairing the damage that was done to it after the 911 attacks we all listened to you Pataki and Guliani all talk about building the Twin Towers back to her former glory even more glorious than before.How very wonderful it must be for you Mayor to have Andrew Cuomo as your Governor. Here is a man that is business partners with Andrew L.Farkas. An owner of financial institutions in Dubai that does business with Al Qeda and Bin Laden himself! Yes this is true. He also made millions with Farkas through his Sharia financing deals. By intriducing Sharia into our system of finance you have opened up a house of horrors that threatens the very fabric of our most cherished freedoms.Hopefully the media will call these Super-Megalomaniacs to explain their actions and share with us how they can go to sleep at night knowing that they are doing business with the very forces that have spilled the blood of innocents and continue to murder our brave soldiers today. May God have mercy on your wretched souls.Read the full story here.

• HT:RightTruth.Your Money...The United States is broke, but we just gave the Palestinians another $150 million dollars on top of all the previous millions. But the government is not done taking your money yet. Obama supports a so-called "Robin Hood tax," aimed at collecting money from rich nations and giving it to the poor ...The bi-partican presidential commission on the deficit is proposing we cease funding the United Nations. I've been pushing for that for years, it's a great idea.Erskine Bowles, chief of staff to former President Bill Clinton, and retired Sen. Alan Simpson, (R-Wyo.) gave up trying to get the 16 other members of the presidential commission on the deficit they co-chair to compromise and reach a consensus by a Dec. 1 deadline.So, without any warning, the two unveiled an ambitious plan of their own – one that would cut $200 billion in spending by 2015, raise taxes by $100 billion, and continue deficit cutting until 2020.Read the full story here.

• 'It doesn't concern anyone what religion you are - I bleed the same colour': First Sikh to become U.S. army soldier for nearly three decades.The first Sikh to become an enlisted U.S. Army soldier in nearly three decades is eager to move on to training as a combat medic and defend his new homeland on the battlefield.'When the bullets begin flying, it doesn't concern anyone what religion you are - I bleed the same colour,' said Simranpreet Lamba, 26, after his graduation ceremony from basic combat training.Sikhism, a 500-year-old religion founded in India, requires its male followers to wear a turban and beard and keep their hair uncut. Army policies since 1984 had effectively prevented Sikhs from enlisting by barring those items.But Lamba was granted a rare exception because he has skills the Army wants - the Indian languages Hindi and Punjabi.Read the full story here.Read more here from India's Newspaper. 

• Challenges to Islamo-feminism: Women’s Literature Critical of Islam. By Mark Silinsky.The author offered this article to 10 feminist and academic women’s journals, which were connected to universities. Every journal rejected the article. You decide why. Recent essays by Naomi Wolf and her ideological compatriots have focused light on an emerging trend in feminist literature, which is often referred to as “Islamo-feminism.” A chorus of apologetics from Georgetown to Columbia offers Islamo-feminism as a Koran-based set of beliefs that gives women independence through sexual segregation.1 If the quality of life for women in the Islamic world is not identical to that in the West, it is generally no worse.But there are those with strongly opposing views on the treatment of women in Islam. These are women writers who have experienced Islamism, have extraordinarily strong writing skills, and who have taken up the cause of women’s rights in the Islamic world. Some of these authors will likely be familiar to readers. They have appeared on television, often in verbal combat with Islamic opponents. Their books have filled a void that orthodox feminism has yet to address seriously- the legal, social, religious, and often physical subjugation of women. Women’s studies departments at universities, so quick to embrace Palestinian women, have been reluctant to criticize loudly even the most glaring pathologies – honor killings, genital mutilations, low social status, and unfair divorce laws- affecting women in the Islamic world. But four women are not quiet about these and other issues. Brigitte Gabriel, Wafa Sultan, Phyllis Chesler, and Ayan Hirsi Ali have have much to say about women and Islam. Read the full story here.

• Chase foreigners off if you don't want them, says Turkish ambassador.The Turkish ambassador in Vienna has risked a serious thrift between Austria and Turkey with statements made in an exceptional interview.Asked why immigrants from Croatia seem to do better at school than most people from Turkey, Tezcan said: "Croats are Christians and therefore welcome in the society, while Turks aren’t. They are constantly being pushed to the corners of the society."Tezcan emphasised he has been advising Turks living in Austria to learn German and respect the country's rules. He explained: "The Turks (in Austria) don’t want anything from you. They aren’t happy. They don’t want to be treated like a virus. (Austrian) Society should help them integrate – and then it would benefit from them.The Turkish ambassador said: "If you don’t want any foreigners, why don’t you chase them away? There are many countries in the world where immigrants are welcome. You have to learn how to live together with others. What kind of problem does Austria have?"Tezcan rejected calls to ban headscarves. Politicians of all Austrian parties suggested Muslim women should not be allowed to wear them amid concerns they were enforced by their husbands to do so.Hmmm......those are the people who want to enter the EU,to tell us how to live our lives?Turkey starts to sound more and more like Iran.Read the full story here.

• HT:AmericanThinker.Obama's Slave Ship.When I was young and living in Manhattan, I saw an Off-Off-Broadway play called Slave Ship. It was an experience I'll never forget.Memories of that ghastly night at the theater sauntered back into my mind's eye upon hearing some of Obama's recent utterances. To an audience of blacks, he invokes the language of slavery, fashioning himself an abolitionist freeing them from bondage. Using racially charged language, Obama relegates Republicans to the back of the bus. In a speech to Latinos, he directs the audience to align with him against the "enemy." But Obama doesn't mean the Mexican Cartel, who are holding sections of Mexico and the United States hostage. He's referring to conservatives.Recent photos of Obama have been alarming; they depict a man boiling over with rage. Have we ever witnessed a U.S. president so pugnacious, so incensed and inflamed by his own people?But to Obama, we are not his people; this is everything you need to know about Barack Obama in a nutshell. Although Obama was marketed as the post-racial, biracial uniter, this is not the man behind the mask.Obama thinks we're on his Slave Ship, and he's taking us along for a ride. He wants us to experience the same terror, helplessness, and despair as that New York audience held captive in the theater long ago. Read the full story here.

• Translating Obama (Without Rosetta Stone).So it was with great wonder that I discovered Sunday night how easily I was able to translate Obamish (the language of President Barack Obama) to English as I watched him on 60 minutes.Here’s just a sample : During the interview with Steve Kroft, Obama said the health care system itself is huge and complicated and that changing it eluded previous presidents because it was so difficult.Translation:“Only I, Barack Hussein Obama, was bright enough to pull off healthcare reform. And it was remarkably easy for me once I convinced the Democrats in Congress to pass it without actually reading it. Or worrying about how it might just decimate our economy trying to implement it… or how it might ruin the greatest medical industry the world has ever seen, one that has led to treatments and medications that save the lives of millions of people world-wide. Piece of cake, actually.”Hmmm.....“Après moi le déluge”,Louis XV.Read the full story here.

• U.S., S. Korea Fail to Reach Free-Trade Deal.SEOUL, South Korea -- In a sharp setback, the United States and South Korea failed to reach agreement on an elusive free-trade deal but will continue pressing for an accord in the weeks ahead, President Barack Obama said Thursday.Obama had hoped to announce a deal on the long-stalled pact while in South Korea for meetings of the Group of 20 economic powers, but instead he will return home empty-handed.He declined to comment on proposals released Wednesday in Washington by a deficit commission he created, choosing to wait for a final report. But he said "tough choices" will be required to reduce the federal red ink. The commission's bipartisan leaders proposed cutting Social Security benefits, deep reductions in federal spending and higher taxes for millions of Americans.Read the full story here.

• Yemen bomb timed to explode over Quebec.A mail bomb that was intercepted in England last month would have been in Canadian airspace when authorities say it was timed to detonate.Data from Houston-based Flightaware shows that UPS Flight 232 from the East Midlands to Philadelphia was 257 kilometres northwest of Quebec City at 5:30 a.m. ET.That's the time British police say the bomb was set to blow up. The plane left England at 3:20 a.m. local time on Oct. 29, two hours after landing, but the bomb had already been pulled off.The Yemen-based al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula has claimed responsibility for the bombs and has vowed to send more explosives-packed parcels.Read the full story here.

• How Is Obama’s Asia Tour "Outreach" with Muslims?Looks More like they're giving him the cold shoulder according to one Arab paper.So President Barack Obama thinks that more works needs to be done to end Muslim mistrust of the US but that he is making progress on reducing misunderstanding between the two. The US president is either living in an ivory tower, totally divorced from reality, or he is being thoroughly dishonest, hoping that Muslims can be fobbed off with fine words.As far as Muslims are concerned, nothing of any importance has been done by him to change attitudes. Muslim mistrust of the US is as great as ever.Obama had the chance to deliver after Cairo. The Muslims world wanted to believe in him. He has blown it with his inaction. He had failed totally to deliver. Muslim patience with him has now run out. Fresh fine rhetoric will not change that because Obama has shown himself not to be a man of his word.We would love to be proved wrong. We do not think we are.Hmmm....."Et tu, Brute?"Read the full story here.

• Disaster: F-16I crashes in south.Pilot, navigator missing after Air Force's most advanced plane crashes during routine training flight. No problems were reported before tragedy occurred. IDF, police rescue units search area.An Israel Air Force two-seater F-16I airplane crashed late Wednesday evening during training in the south of Israel, near Mitzpe Ramon. The pilot and navigator have been described as missing, and many Israel Defense Forces troops were involved in searching for them. Pieces of the aircraft have been located.The two missing men were identified as Major Amihai Itkis, 28, of Sde Warburg, and Major Emanuel Levy, 30, of Maale Adumim. Their families have been notified.The search was extended Thursday morning, after forces failed to locate additional pieces of the aircraft.It appears that human error was the cause of the accident, perhaps loss of orientation, but all other planes of this type were grounded immediately. Within a few days it should be possible to rule out technical fault as the cause of the disaster.Read the full story here.

• Grand Ayatollah 'Prevented From Meeting Iranian Opposition Leader'.Iranian security forces are reported to have prevented a senior cleric from meeting with opposition leader Mehdi Karrubi over the weekend.Karrubi's son Hossein told Radio Farda on November 9 that Grand Ayatollah Assadollah Bayat Zanjani had telephoned his father on the morning of November 7 to say he wanted to come to talk to him that evening."Three or four hours before his arrival, security agents appeared in front of my father's house," Hossein explained. "When the Ayatollah [Zanjani] arrived, they asked him to leave the area and not enter the house."Hossein Karrubi added that all his father's phone calls are monitored, so whenever he arranges to meet someone, security forces show up in front of his house.Read the full story here.

• Russia to voice concern over unilateral economic decisions at G20 - source.Russia will voice its concern over some countries' decisions to weaken their currencies without consultations with partners as it makes markets jittery and raises fears of the start of currency wars, a source in the Russian delegation to the G20 summit said on Thursday."We are not only talking of direct interventions on the foreign exchange market, but also of indirect exchange rate weakening through pumping liquidity into the economy. The creation of excessive liquidity by leading developed countries is also a serious problem for emerging states as this generates a considerable speculative capital inflow to their markets," he said.He also said that global economy was in a "vicious circle, where governments of leading developed countries are obliged to allocate considerable resources to save banking institutes, which result in poorer budget indices and the necessity to cut other state expenses."Read the full story here.

• Chinese Father Punished for Food Safety Activism.Man Gets 2 1/2 Years in Prison for Creating Support Group for Parents of Kids Sickened in One of China's Worst Food Scandals. A father who organized a support group for other parents whose children were sickened in one of China's worst food safety scandals was convicted and sentenced Wednesday to 2 1/2 years in prison for inciting social disorder, his lawyer said. Zhao Lianhai had pushed for greater official accountability and compensation for victims and their families after the 2008 scandal that shocked China. His sentence appeared particularly severe because the case related to a public safety incident that the embarrassed leadership had pledged to tackle in a bid to restore consumer confidence. "We'd expected it to be much less than that. It is such a harsh sentence," lawyer Li Fangping said. "The crimes he was accused of were nothing more than what regular citizens would do to defend their rights."Read the full scandal story here.

• HT:InfidelBloggers.Obama wants China to voluntarily curtail exports? Check out US employment by industry in the last 20 years.Everyone get it?We make less and less, DRAMATICALLY.We fix things.We entertain ourselves while we fix what we have designed and other produce and export back to us, and we take care of each other, apparently while the growing government manages our lives.Is there any doubt why we are in deep dung?Read and see the full disaster story here.

• Flight attendants union upset over new pat-down procedures.A flight attendants union with 2,000 members is upset over what it calls "invasive pat-downs" recently implemented by the TSA."We're getting calls daily about peoples' experiences, our members are concerned," said Deborah Volpe, Vice President of the Association of Flight Attendants Local 66.According to Volpe, complaints from flight attendants are expected to continue to increase and said some flight attendants are planning to file lawsuits.A flight attendant who contacted ABC15, and asked not to be named because they are not authorized to be speak about the issue without union approval, says there have been more complaints from flight attendants filed Wednesday morning."They've already contacted the ACLU," said Volpe when referring to some members of the union. "We don't know if somebody may have had an experience with a sexual assault and its (pat-down) going to drudge up some bad memories."Read the full story here.

• First test of 26,000 gallon 9/11 memorial fountain declared a success.A huge fountain which will make up part of the official 9/11 Memorial sputtered into life today during a trial run for its grand unveiling. The water feature, which is located where the north tower of the World Trade Centre once stood, is one of a pair which will officially open next September 11, the tenth anniversary of the attacks. The fountain will blast 26,000 gallons a minute over the 30-foot deep black granite walls, the New York Post reported.Read the full story here.

• FDA : Proposed Cigarette Product Warning Labels.The Family Smoking Prevention and Tobacco Control Act (Tobacco Control Act) requires that cigarette packages and advertisements have larger and more visible graphic health warnings. FDA issued a proposed rule, Required Warnings for Cigarette Packages and Advertisements, proposing to modify the required warnings that appear on cigarette packages and in cigarette advertisements. These new required warnings would consist of nine new textual warning statements accompanied by color graphics depicting the negative health consequences of smoking.Quit smoking before life calls it quits!Read and see the full story here.Pics here. 

• Fat tax: Will your burger be taxed like cigarettes?Best way to cut obesity, argues OECD, WHO.A ‘fat tax’ on unhealthy foods, restrictions on junk food advertising and better labelling are the most cost-effective ways to cut obesity, a study suggests.The study by experts at the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) and the World Health Organisation (WHO), suggests treating foods high in fat, salt and sugar in the same way as tobacco, where advertising is restricted and price has been pushed up to discourage use, the Daily Mail reported."This analysis clearly shows that the strategic approaches that deliver best value for money are improved awareness and information, appropriate fiscal measures and enhanced regulatory mechanisms," the authors added.Read the full story here.

• Obama steels for tough G20 summit.Sharp divisions among the G20 members over how to sustain the global recovery.After basking in accolades in India and Indonesia, President Barack Obama faced a test of his leadership mettle Thursday at a G20 summit simmering with criticism of US economic policy.Obama was due to hold high-stakes talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, and to meet other leaders at a summit taking place amid sharp divisions over how to sustain the global recovery.He also faced down-to-the-wire talks with President Lee Myung-Bak designed to salvage a US-South Korea free trade pact after months of negotiations failed to narrow gaps between the partners on a long-delayed agreement.The G20 opens Thursday as China, the target of months of impatient US criticism over its currency policy, lashes back at Washington after the Federal Reserve said it would pump 600 billion dollars into the US economy.The plan was denounced by China as indirect currency manipulation that could trigger a global meltdown, while Germany promised to deliver a frank message of concern to Obama and to the summit as a whole.Hmmm....a magician or a wizard apprentice?Read the full story here.

• Migrants from the Near East 'brought farming to Europe'.Farming in Europe did not just spread by word-of-mouth, but was introduced by migrants from the ancient Near East, a study suggests.Scientists analysed DNA from the 8,000 year-old remains of early farmers found at an ancient graveyard in Germany.They compared the genetic signatures to those of modern populations and found similarities with the DNA of people living in today's Turkey and Iraq. The study appears in the journal PLoS Biology.Hmmmm....the cradle of civilisation was in Sumer,the Sumerians their "Gods" taught them everything.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different!Chrome could preload pages for 'wicked-fast' Web.Google has begun work on a feature to let Chrome load pages before they're needed, the latest instance of the company's relentless focus on Web performance. The work, described briefly in the Chrome issue tracker, said the project to "pre-load pages in background tabs for 'wicked fast' page loads" is scheduled to arrive in the browser's code base in February. The very early stages of work has begun: support for an eventual option to enable testing the feature through Chrome's "about:flags" interface.Read the full story here.

• Pilot slams brakes, 7 tyres of Goa flight deflate.Panaji: The pilot of an Aeroflot charter flight from Goa to Moscow hit his brakes after a birdhit during take-off this morning.Seven tyres ended up deflated as a result. All 208 passengesr on board are safe. The plane has been grounded.Passengers are being accommodated on two other Aeroflot flights to Moscow.Source.