MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• US Tax Chief Warns 21 Million Americans Facing Tax Increase of $3,900 for 2010.IRS chief urges Congress to act on tax breaks, AMT 'patch'.IRS Commissioner Doug Shulman warned lawmakers Wednesday that making retroactive changes to the tax code in early 2011 could create an "unprecedented and daunting operational challenge" that could lead to service disruptions and delayed refunds for millions of taxpayers.Several popular tax breaks expired at the end of 2009, including a deduction for educators' out-of-pocket classroom expenses and a property-tax deduction for homeowners who claim the standard deduction. Congress hasn't acted on legislation that would extend the incentives through 2010.Even more significantly, Congress hasn't enacted a stopgap measure that would limit the number of taxpayers subject to the alternative minimum tax. The AMT is a parallel tax system that eliminates many popular deductions and credits, resulting in a higher tax bill. It was originally intended to prevent wealthy taxpayers from using loopholes and deductions to avoid paying any taxes. But it was never indexed to inflation, and in recent years, Congress has enacted a "patch" to limit its growth. If Congress fails to act by year's end, more than 21 million taxpayers will face an average tax increase of $3,900 for tax year 2010.Read the full story here.

• Update 1.Israel - Northern disaster: Mass evacuation ordered as fire rages on.Thousands of northern residents evacuated from homes as massive fire rages on; at least 40 Prison Service cadets killed en route to evacuating area jail, driver of bus lost control, Internal Security Minister Aharonovitch says.More than 12,000 northern Israel residens were being evacuated from their homes as a massive fire that claimed the lives of at least 40 people continued to rage Thursday night. Israel's firefighting chief, Shimon Romach said he was not optimistic about the prospects of containing the fire at this time."I'm hoping that with our effort tonight and tomorrow we'd be able to contain the fire, yet the wind is making it difficult for us and it's expected to grow stronger by early morning. Hence, I cannot paint an optimistic picture at this time," he said. The Haifa Municipality said that all Hanukkah events scheduled for the weekend were canceled in light of the tragedy.Read the full story here , here and here.

• Update 2.Carmel fire: Haifa Police Chief critically injured.Minutes after being interviewed, Deputy Commander Ahuva Tomer drove behind the bus of prison guards that caught fire.Head of the Haifa Police Department, Deputy Commander Ahuva Tomer was critically injured on Thursday as a result of the huge brushfire in the Carmel region. Tomer was driving behind the bus full of prison guards that burned up in the flames. Two more police officers were declared missing on Thursday.Deputy Commander Tomer was taken to Carmel Hospital in Haifa, where a team of 20 doctors worked a great length to revive her, finally succeeding in restoring a pulse – "against all odds," in their words.Just before she was injured, Tomer spoke about the fire in an interview to Israel Radio. "We're talking about a large fire that spread because of strong winds. The winds are blowing in the direction of the sea, therefore we are not worried for the villages of Isfiya and Daliat al-Carmel." Deputy Commander Tomer is considered to be one of the best-known and highest-ranking officers in the northern region. She made history in 1997 when she was appointed police commander in Nahariya, and again in 2009 when she was appointed commander of the Haifa station, the largest in Israel.Read the full story here. More live updates here.Channel 2 reports that the fire simultaneously started this morning in 3 separate locations.Police investigation of causes of Carmel fire focusing on criminal motives.HT:Muqata.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Faith and Loyalty: Murdering innocent and love of country | Islam's perspective.Another attempted terrorist attack today by a misguided Muslim American. This time it was a Somali born, 19 year old, naturalized citizen of the United States. The trend again and again shows us a misguided individual who calls himself a Muslim, filled with hate, trying to kill innocent citizens without any regard of killing children or women.I, as an Ahmadi Muslim American, am disgusted by this attempt to kill my fellow citizens in Oregon. Killing of an innocent citizen irrespective of what religion they believe in is prohibited in Islam. We, the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community (www.alislam.org), believe in the true teachings of Islam which is to not be part of violent jihad, obey by the laws of the country you live in and most importantly loyalty to the country you live in.It is the duty of all Muslims living in the US to be loyal to the United States of America. Their should not be any bewilderment on choosing Islam and loyalty to one’s country. Misguided Muslim Americans only need to look at the example of the Holy Prophet (peace be upon him) who beautifully said loving one's country is part of the faith.Mosques in the US need to instill the Islamic values of loyalty to one's country among their members and most importantly the youth. Muslims are clearly told in Quran not to create disorder and it is the duty of every Muslim to follow the laws of the land they live in.It is time that all Muslims join the efforts of Ahmadiyya Muslim Community to be activists of peace, follow the teachings of real Islam, and either love this great country of ours or leave it.Source.

• Prosecuting WikiLeaks For Publishing Documents Would Raise Serious Constitutional Concerns, Says ACLU. According to news reports, the government is looking into whether it could prosecute WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange under the Espionage Act for publishing classified government documents he obtained from a third party. WikiLeaks, along with multiple news outlets, published thousands of pages of U.S. diplomatic cables on Sunday. The American Civil Liberties Union said that prosecuting WikiLeaks would have serious First Amendment implications.“We’re deeply skeptical that prosecuting WikiLeaks would be constitutional, or a good idea. The courts have made clear that the First Amendment protects independent third parties who publish classified information. Prosecuting WikiLeaks would be no different from prosecuting the media outlets that also published classified documents. If newspapers could be held criminally liable for publishing leaked information about government practices, we might never have found out about the CIA’s secret prisons or the government spying on innocent Americans. Prosecuting publishers of classified information threatens investigative journalism that is necessary to an informed public debate about government conduct, and that is an unthinkable outcome.“The broader lesson of the WikiLeaks phenomenon is that President Obama should recommit to the ideals of transparency he invoked at the beginning of his presidency. The American public should not have to depend on leaks to the news media and on whistleblowers to know what the government is up to.”Read the full story here.

• HT:InvestigativeProject.US Ambassador Visits UK Mosque With Radical Ties.The U.S. ambassador to the United Kingdom visited and praised a well-known extremist mosque in London Monday, and invited its youth to participate in an embassy-funded initiative to travel to the United States. The East London Mosque(ELM) hosted recent speeches by al-Qaida in the Arabian Peninsula leader and now Specially Designated Global Terrorist Anwar al-Awlaki, a prominent leader of extremist group Jamaat-e-Islami Bangladesh, and a wide variety of other radical leaders. That's beside hate and terrorism promoted by the mosque's leaders and the Islamic Forum for Europe (IFE), a group headquartered in the mosque complex.U.S. ambassador Louis B. Susman went to ELM, which, in combination with the adjoined London Muslim Centre, holds more than 5,000 worshippers. During his visit, Susman said he had "great admiration" for the mosque and was "looking forward" to a dialogue with community members. He also invited young people from the community to enroll in the U.S. embassy's cultural and interfaith program, which coordinates trips for young leaders to the United States.On Thursday, State Department spokesman Andy Laine said Susman's visit to the ELM was among several mosque visits Susman made as "part of President Obama's call for a renewed dialogue with Muslim communities around the world." Susman toured the mosque and met privately with young members. Laine did not address the ELM's connections with radicals.Hmmmm.....Obama's "outreach to Muslims",the world is much safer now just ask the TSA and passengers.Read the full story here.

• On World AIDS Day, Larry Kramer, who first warned of epidemic, rips 'Do-nothing' Obama.On World AIDS Day, the man who first sounded the alarm about the AIDS epidemic and shamed the government into action for a decade, had some choice words for President Obama.In an interview with the New York Daily News about growing older with HIV, Kramer, now 75 and writing a novel about America and AIDS, offered up his views on the current president.“Mr. Do-Nothing Obama will say today ‘Lets think of all the poor dead people’- or ‘let’s honor all the dead’ instead of fighting for the living."He has been really useless in terms of both HIV and gay issues. An exceedingly large disappointment to me, how useless he has been."He is simply not a leader. He may be president, but he is not a leader.”Hmmmm.....but,but,but......i'm not playing golf as much as i used to?Read the full story here.

• Muslim imam who lectures on non-violence in Germany is arrested for beating up his wife.A Muslim imam who lectures on non-violence and advises the German government on interfaith issues has been arrested in Germany for beating up his wife.Sheikh Abu Adam, 40, is now on remand in Munich while his wife, 31, is being guarded by police.She was allegedly assaulted so badly that she suffered a broken nose and shoulder and numerous cuts and bruises.Media reports claimed the woman, who has borne one of his ten children, wanted to live a more 'western' lifestyle and was allegedly attacked after telling her husband.The police said they received a call from a lawyer hired by the victim.Adam is alleged to have shouted a verse from the Koran at his wife as he beat her.The line said: 'Good women are obedient. They guard their unseen parts because God has guarded them.'As for those from whom you fear disobedience, admonish them and send them to beds apart and beat them.'The imam is said to have refused to let police officers into his home, but they forced their way past him because they feared the woman's life was in danger.A week ago, he held a lecture at the city's Catholic University entitled 'An Islam which distances itself from violence'.Hmmm....yeah that's pretty obvious by now.Read the full story here.

• Wikileaks - SUBJECT: Violence in suburbs:comments of terrorism.

1.  During a conversation November 3 with terrorism investigating judge Jean-Francois Ricard, Poloff asked for his analysis of recent violence in the suburbs (ref A). Ricard began by saying that no one in the French government should be surprised by what has happened. Successive governments have tried and failed to integrate suburbs with high immigrant populations. For "the last twenty years," said Ricard, the GOF has known that the suburbs have become areas where respect for the state has dried up. As a result of this inattention, the suburbs with high immigrant populations have lost their French identity and have built up an identity based on the "cites," (similar to the "projects"). French symbols of authority, like the fireman and policeman, are considered to be "assassins" and worthy of being targeted. In addition, gangs and radical Islamic groups have an interest in keeping the cites free of GOF influence to maintain their freedom of operation. French intelligence can only do so much, said Ricard. The areas need a substantial GOF presence, i.e., police and gendarmerie.
2.  Ricard criticized many current French analyses as "tired leftist critiques" uttered by those who have no understanding of the world of the cites. He said they focused only on socio-economic problems, viewing the cites inhabitants as victims of precarious living situations -- young people who are unemployed and uneducated, with poor prospects for the future. When he had been an ordinary investigating judge in the northern suburb of Bobigny, Ricard said people were relatively well-off. They had cars and televisions and other material possessions. Other areas of France, such as the north near Belgium, were much poorer, said Ricard. The real problem was the GOF's failure to be present in these areas. Inhabitants developed a sense of being apart from French society, and over time, became proud of this. The combination of setting oneself apart, real and/or imagined grievances against the GOF, state inattention, and the interest of gangs and other groups, including Islamists, to accentuate this divide, has led to the current unrest, said Ricard.
3.  If the unrest dies out "very quickly," this would be bad news, said Ricard. It would mean that gangs and other groups in the cites exert a powerful control over those currently burning cars and assaulting police. These gangs have no interest in triggering a massive GOF response, because it would mean the long-term "occupation" of the cites. If the unrest goes on for much more than a week, Ricard said it would signify that the cites have become completely anarchic. He speculated that one reason for the riots might have been Sarkozy's announcement in late October of an increased GOF security presence in the cites [Ed: The riots continued for two more weeks]Source.HT:IslamInEurope.

• HT:IsraeliGirl.Anti Semitics target Jews at Indiana University.Several anti-Semitic crimes have occurred on and around the Indiana University campus in the past week. Jewish books have been vandalized and several Jewish centers have been damaged.Please watch and share to expose this despicable hate crime and raise awareness to anti Semitism.Read and see the full story here.

• Immigrant angler arrested after using SHOTGUN to blow fish out of river.It may not be as easy as shooting fish in a barrel.But most anglers would still consider it cheating - and against the law.So when a group of Eastern European fishermen fired a shotgun into a river in the hope of landing a fresh pike, the catch of the day eventually belonged to the local police force.’Firing shotguns at fish used to be a thing gamekeepers used to do to get rid of pike in trout fisheries.’It is not very clever or effective thing to do now though. It makes a lot of noise and draws attention.’A local angler added: ‘Poaching is a very serious issue and there are major problems in that area with fish thefts.’Yesterday a spokesman for Cambridgeshire police said of the incident last month: ‘We had a report that a man had fired a shotgun into the river.’'The member of the public who called us had expressed concern about what was happening.’The arrested men was with some other men and the gun had been put in a car by the time we arrived.’Earlier this year migrant workers were accused of ‘raping and pillaging’ a river by preying illegally on fish and swans of the River Nene in Peterborough.Carp is also a delicacy for the Czechs, traditionally eaten on Christmas day. There are an estimated 25,000 living in the UK.Supermarket giant Tesco sells 240 tons of carp - equivalent to 30 double-decker buses - in December at its stores in the Czech Republic. Customers usually take the fish home live, writhing in plastic bags.Read the full story here.

• Iranian Cleric: Female Athletes Should Not Compete Abroad.An eminent Iranian cleric has said female athletes should not compete in sporting events abroad -- days after the Islamic Republic sent its biggest female contingent in recent years to the Asian Games.Grand Ayatollah Safi Golpayegani said on November 30 that sending Iranian female athletes to international events is a "disgrace" and should not be allowed.His comments come after Iran sent 88 sportswomen to China to take part in last month's 2010 Asian Games -- the biggest contingent since the 1979 Revolution. More than a dozen won medals, including Khadijeh Azadpour, who won a gold medal in the women's Wushu competition.Ayatollah Abbas Kabi, a member of the Society of Qom Seminary Teachers, criticized Iranian state television for showing women competing in the event. He said it was "deplorable" and "bizarre."Analyst Rostampour added that the authorities are worried that they will no longer be able to prevent female Iranian athletes from participating in international events: "They want to uproot this young plant before it grows."
  Hmmm....Iran and women rights ,like light and darkness?"Read the full story here.

• Scientists attach barcodes to mouse embryos – human ones coming soon.Fans of the film Blade Runner may remember a scene in which the maker of an artificial snake is identified by a microscopic serial number on one of its scales. Well, in a rare case of present-day technology actually surpassing that predicted in a movie, we’ve now gone one better – bar codes on embryos. Scientists from Spain’s Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona (UAB), along with colleagues from the Spanish National Research Council, have successfully developed an identification system in which mouse embryos and oocytes (egg cells) are physically tagged with microscopic silicon bar code labels. They expect to try it out on human embryos and oocytes soon.Hmmmm......scan him/here or just old fashion name him?Read the full story here.

• Updated.Israel's deadliest fire leaves 40 dead.Blaze breaks out in Carmel, forcing authorities to evacuate Damon Prison, Beit Oren near Haifa. Bus carrying some 50 passengers catches fire. Magen David Adom says 40 prison guards killed. Deadliest fire known in Israel: Firefighters battled a large blaze Thursday in the Carmel Forest near Haifa, which left dozens dead and brought life to a halt for many communities. Prison guards who came to the rescue of the prisoners paid with their lives: 40 guards were making their way to Damon Prison were burned alive. MDA set up a first aid mobile unit but began its evacuation since no injured were left on scene.Magen David Adom said a bus carrying some 50 jailers which left the Damon Prison caught fire. It was further reported that 40 prison guards were killed. MDA reported that three others were severely wounded, another lightly injured and two more people's condition is unknown. MDA confirmed the death of 22 out of the 40 people. Some of the injured men and women were members of the rescue forces and firefighters who risked their lives fighting the flames. Four IDF helicopters and one Air Force helicopter arrived at the scene to assist with evacuation. The fire continues to burn in the Carmel area, including inside kibbutz Beit Oren.Read the full story here.

• Fifteen dead and airports closed as wild weather lashes Europe.HEAVY snowfalls forced some of Europe's busiest airports to close and wreaked havoc on roads and railways yesterday as a cold snap swept the continent, claiming at least 15 lives. Eight people died of exposure in Poland, three in the Czech Republic and two in Lithuania, officials said yesterday.And in the UK, two died in accidents blamed on the weather - one in a motorcycle crash and the other after falling into a freezing lake.In some parts of Germany temperatures dropped to as low as minus18C, while heavy rain in Italy triggered the collapse of two Roman walls in Pompeii and flooding in Venice.Albania proclaimed a state of natural disaster in the north with more than 200 people evacuated from one region as hundreds of homes were flooded.Transport chaos hit the whole of the continent, and Britain - shivering in the coldest December 1 on record in one of the earliest snowfalls - was one of the worst affected.Read the full story here.More on Europe in Winter here.

• Leaking Siberian ice raises a tricky climate issue.CHERSKY, Russia – The Russian scientist shuffles across the frozen lake, scuffing aside ankle-deep snow until he finds a cluster of bubbles trapped under the ice. With a cigarette lighter in one hand and a knife in the other, he lances the ice like a blister. Methane whooshes out and bursts into a thin blue flame.Gas locked inside Siberia's frozen soil and under its lakes has been seeping out since the end of the last ice age 10,000 years ago. But in the past few decades, as the Earth has warmed, the icy ground has begun thawing more rapidly, accelerating the release of methane — a greenhouse gas 23 times more powerful than carbon dioxide — at a perilous rate.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Jennifer Lopez trying to stop sex tapes showing deviant behaviour.THE legal battle over Jennifer Lopez's sex tapes continues, with revelations they allegedly show her displaying "deviant behaviour". J Lo, now 41, is trying to stop her ex-husband Ojai Noa's agent releasing the tapes publicly.Lopez is embroiled in a new sex tape scandal and has launched a legal battle to prevent the films being made public.Noa's agent Ed Meyer said the videos include the singer and actress exposing herself in public while riding a scooter, RadarOnline reported today, citing court documents.Meyer said among the 21 hours of home movies is footage of Lopez "exposing her genital area in public" and displaying other "deviant behavior.""JLo is riding a scooter in public in Cuba, while talking to the camera and numerous by-standers, with her privates in as plain view as Paris Hilton, Britney Spears and Lindsay Lohan have in the past," Meyer said."This is among other nudity on her part in the now 21 hours of home movies, that we have so far recovered."Noa wants to include the tapes in a feature film being made with Mayer."However, Noa & Meyer have never ever intended to market this and the many other racy, damaging & expositive scenes from the Home Videos," a court document states."It must also be stated that in Noa's Home Videos, Lopez gives her full consent to Noa taping her".In November 2009, Lopez again sued Noa for breach of contract and invasion of privacy, citing a previous confidentiality agreement between the two of them to prevent Noa from releasing his planned film, How I Married Jennifer Lopez: The J-Lo and Ojani Noa Story and "previously unseen home video footage".But Meyer has argued in the court filing that he is not held to a prior settlement between the former couple because he did not benefit from it and didn't know Noa at the time.Hmmm....The truth ,nothing but the "Naked" truth?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Buy once a "Spicy" ornament for your Rolls-Royce.The Russian car tuner Dartz unveils a new stunt.Having previously changed automotive interiors in to some crafted from the leather of whale penises, he has now turned to the iconic Spirit of ornament of a Rolls-Royce . Literally and figuratively. The statue, which traditionally represents a woman who bends over with her arms stretched backwards, is now replaced by a couple making love "doggy style". Dartz calls his version of the mascot "Spirit of Xstasy. The racy frame is offered with a Rolls-Royce Phantom. The price was not disclosed.Hmmm....only one "Style"? Read and see the full story here.(Google Translate).