MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• HT:NewZeal.CPUSA - Laying a Foundation for Revolt.The Communist Party USA wasted no time in sending out what at first glance appears to be sincere condolences for the Arizona shooting that occurred yesterday in Tucson where Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, Federal Judge John Roll, a nine year-old girl and many others were shot by Jared Lee Loughner. At last count 6 are confirmed dead and 13 are wounded, 5 are in critical condition including Mrs. Giffords.However, read their whole post. It is, to say the least, illuminating. The title of the post is: Communist Party mourns victims in AZ shooting; Decries incitement. Once again, we see Communists and Progressives accusing the Right of what they are actually doing.Along with a slew of radical Leftists, the media and CPUSA are slandering the Right and all its components however they can. RedState put it best in their post this morning:It should not be, but the media, under the guise of “a full exposition” of the evil in Arizona, is back to subtly and not so subtly pinning the blame for the attempted assassination of the Congresswoman and the related shootings on the tea party movement, Sarah Palin, Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck, me, you, and everyone right of center.Violently insane Leftists tend to commit horrific acts on a regular basis especially when they don't get their way politically. And that brings us back to CPUSA. Their first real volley blaming yesterday's horrific actions against Conservatives and the Right is a classic:While we do not yet know the motivation of the crime, many have surmised that the motivation is political because of the atmosphere of violent language and threats against Rep. Giffords and other Congressional Democrats. Political or not, the extreme right-wing tea party movement and their anti-government rantings and ravings helped create an atmosphere that allowed or even encouraged this attack. For instance, until the day of the event when it was removed, Sarah Palin featured Giffords on her webpage with the congresswoman's district in the crosshairs of a gun, targeting her for her support of healthcare reform.First off, what Palin had on her webpage was a graphic of a surveyor's symbol. Not cross-hairs. Finally, but certainly not least: This shooting marks a dangerous and sad day for our country. It's up to the American people to say, "Enough" to the hate, the racism, incitement to violence and the fascist-like behavior of anti-government thugs. Political violence and assassination has no place in our democracy.First, this is a Republic, not a democracy. But, I suspect, you know this. Americans are saying 'enough' to the hate, the racism and the incitement to violence, but they know it is coming from the Left, not the Right. You want big government with all-controlling regulation. It is our duty as Americans to stand up and say NO to big government. It's a matter of survival. The only fascists I see here are CPUSA and all your cronies. The violence is coming from your followers and from radical fringe extremists on the Left so far. You will not goad us into violence so you can have the government clamp down on us.Read the full story here.

• Saudi woman sentenced to 3 years jail for beating and stabbing maid ! A Saudi woman who beat, stabbed and burned her Indonesian maid has been jailed for three years by a court in Medina.Reports in the Saudi media said that the unnamed employer was sentenced on Sunday even though she claimed no knowledge of the wounds inflicted on the domestic help, Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23. When pictures of her injuries – burns to her head caused by a hot iron and cuts to her lips inflicted with scissors – appeared, the Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono demanded justice for the "extraordinary torture". The Saudi woman was sentenced under a new royal decree to combat human trafficking. The maid had appeared in court last week to show the judge the marks left by the violence, so severe she suffered broken bones an internal bleeding. While recovering in hospital in Medina she underwent surgery, her employer was arrested and the Saudi government apologised for the abuse which it described as an isolated incident. But a lawyer acting for the Indonesian embassy in Saudi Arabia, Abdulrahman al-Muhamadi, said he planned to appeal the verdict demanding a harsher sentence.Hmmmm....Why sentence her under a new royal decree?Does Sharia law no longer work?Read the full story here.

• HT:TundraTabloids.Obama and media accuse conservatives of using 'vitiolic' rhetoric political language.

1. Obama: “They Bring a Knife…We Bring a Gun”
2. Obama to His Followers: “Get in Their Faces!”
3. Obama to His Mercenary Army: “Hit Back Twice As Hard”
4. Obama on ACORN Mobs: “I don’t want to quell anger. I think people are right to be angry! I’m angry!”
5. Obama on the private sector: “We talk to these folks… so I know whose ass to kick.“
6. Obama to voters: Republican victory would mean “hand to hand combat”
7. Obama to democrats: “I’m itching for a fight”
8. Obama to Latino supporters: “Punish your enemies.”
9. Obama to lib supporters: “It’s time to Fight for it.”Hmmmm.....Sounds really "Peacefull" ?Read the full story here.

• HT:StrategyPage.Insurance Companies Form Private Navy.A major British insurer (Jardine Lloyd Thompson) is organizing a private armed escort service for ships operating off Somalia. Called the Convoy Escort Programme (CEP), the 18 small patrol boats will offer armed escort through the Gulf of Aden, and reduce overall security and insurance costs for ships using the service. It's all about money, as the insurance companies don't like the spiraling ransom costs, and especially the unpredictability of the pirates. While the insurance companies can pass the costs onto those who buy their insurance, the pirates could rapidly increase the number of ships their steal, and force the insurance companies to incur losses, not to mention the risk of more ships foregoing insurance and using increased shipboard security and armed guards.The CEP is not a done deal yet. A country has to sign on to allow the patrol boats to fly their flag (and thus provide a national legal system to operate under). The patrol boats will carry heavy machine-guns (12.7mm/.50 cal), armed crews (all former military) and small boats to check suspected pirates. CEP will coordinate with the anti-piracy patrol, and let the larger warships spend more time pursuing the pirates that are now operating much farther from the Somali coast.Hmmmm....."There will be doubloons t' be made in this mates!Thar she go's. "Read the full story here.

• Carolyn McCarthy readies gun control bill.One of the fiercest gun-control advocates in Congress, Rep. Carolyn McCarthy (D-N.Y.), pounced on the shooting massacre in Tucson Sunday, promising to introduce legislation as soon as Monday targeting the high-capacity ammunition the gunman used.McCarthy ran for Congress after her husband was gunned down and her son seriously injured in a shooting in 1993 on a Long Island commuter train.“My staff is working on looking at the different legislation fixes that we might be able to do and we might be able to introduce as early as tomorrow,” McCarthy told POLITICO in a Sunday afternoon phone interview.Gun control activists cried it was time to reform weapons laws in the United States, almost immediately after a gunman killed six and injured 14 more, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords, in Arizona on Saturday.Many said that people with a history of mental instability, like the alleged shooter, Jared Lee Loughner, should not be able to buy a gun — and no one should be able to buy stockpiles of ammunition used by the 22-year-old assailant.McCarthy said she plans to confer with House Speaker John Boehner and Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to see “if we can work something through” in the coming week.McCarthy’s spokesman confirmed the legislation will target the high-capacity ammunition clips the Arizona gunman allegedly used in the shooting, but neither he or the congresswoman offered any further details.Hmmmm......That didn't take long,"Guns don't kill people,people kill people"In this case he could just as well have used a car to drive in to the crowd,if he didn't have a gun.Read the full story here.

• Dances with Jews!(Video) Hundreds of participants from 30 cities around globe take part in Bnei Akiva youth movement video clip in honor of movement's 12th international convention. Hundreds of kids and teens, members of Bnei Akiva, the largest religious Zionist youth movement in the world, took part in an upbeat music video, dancing to an Oif Simchas version of 'Am Yisrael Chai' (The People of Israel Live). The special clip was created in honor of the movement's 12th international convention, which is set to open on Wednesday in Jerusalem.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:BigGoverment.The Arizona Tragedy and the Politics of Blood Libel.American journalists know how to be exquisitely sensitive when they want to be. As the Washington Examiner’s Byron York pointed out on Sunday, after Major Nidal Hasan shot up Fort Hood while shouting “Allahu Akhbar!” the press was full of cautions about not drawing premature conclusions about a connection to Islamist terrorism. “Where,” asked Mr. York, “was that caution after the shootings in Arizona?”Set aside as inconvenient, apparently. There was no waiting for the facts on Saturday. Likewise, last May New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg and CBS anchor Katie Couric speculated, without any evidence, that the Times Square bomber might be a tea partier upset with the ObamaCare bill.So as the usual talking heads begin their “have you no decency?” routine aimed at talk radio and Republican politicians, perhaps we should turn the question around. Where is the decency in blood libel?To paraphrase Justice Cardozo (“proof of negligence in the air, so to speak, will not do”), there is no such thing as responsibility in the air. Those who try to connect Sarah Palin and other political figures with whom they disagree to the shootings in Arizona use attacks on “rhetoric” and a “climate of hate” to obscure their own dishonesty in trying to imply responsibility where none exists. But the dishonesty remains.To be clear, if you’re using this event to criticize the “rhetoric” of Mrs. Palin or others with whom you disagree, then you’re either: (a) asserting a connection between the “rhetoric” and the shooting, which based on evidence to date would be what we call a vicious lie; or (b) you’re not, in which case you’re just seizing on a tragedy to try to score unrelated political points, which is contemptible. Which is it?Read the full story here.

• HT:Intellicept3.Video : What Could China Possibly Get From Buying European Debt?Stratfor analyzes what China could want from acquiring European debt. Interesting analysis here by Marko Papic which could provide avenues for China in Europe which are more than financial considerations.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:DougRoss.15% of America's oil supply just shut down thanks to major pipeline leak while Obama's pointless drilling moratorium continues.Thanks to the policies of the no-drill Democrats, we will likely see gas prices hit new 52-week highs within the next few weeks.Operators of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System, shut Jan. 8 while a leak is repaired, can’t say when the pipeline that carries 15 percent of U.S. crude oil output will be flowing again.The shutdown has forced oil companies including BP Plc to suspend 95 percent of production from the North Slope area. The system, an 800-mile network crossing the northernmost U.S. state, was closed at about 8:50 a.m. Alaska time Jan. 8, operator Alyeska Pipeline Service Co. said in a statement... Oil futures in New York jumped as much as 2.2 percent to $89.98 a barrel, advancing for the first time in three days.Meanwhile, the president's pointless oil drilling moratorium continues, endangering tens of thousands of jobs, billions in revenue for energy firms and America's national security. Some Texas oil men are considering leaving the U.S. and investing in Israel instead.I wonder if President Obama's $13-a-week "tax cuts" for the middle class will compensate for $4-per-gallon gas?Hmmmm.....Protecting America's interests?Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Pakistan: Blasphemy case registered against mentally challenged Muslim.LAHORE: The Kot Addu police have registered a case under the blasphemy law against a mentally challenged Muslim at the request of a local mosque’s cleric allegedly in an attempt to settle a rivalry with the family of the accused.The case has been registered against Muhammad Amjad, son of Muhammad Nazir, by the cleric of their local mosque named Muhammad Sajid in Chak 621 PDA Chowk Sarwar Shaheedwala area of Kot Addu.The case number 4/11 was registered by the Chowk Sarwar police on Wednesday while the complainant has also accused Amjad’s father Muhammad Nazir and a relative Muhammad Iqbal of conspiring to desecrate the holy Quran with the main accused.The police raided the house of the accused and rounded up the son and his father on the same day on Sajid’s request, who stated in his registered FIR against Amjad that he set the holy Quran on fire in the courtyard of the mosque, where he (Sajid) is serving as the chief cleric, and then ran away.Sajid claimed that the incident took place on Wednesday morning, but he did not see Amjad perpetrating the act personally, and only found the desecrated Quran in the mosque premises, while his students told him that the deed was committed by Amjad. Moreover, he has also stated in the FIR that Amjad committed the blasphemy on the orders of his father Nazir and a relative Muhammad Iqbal, and sought action against both of them as well.However, locals and human rights activists dealing with the case told Daily Times that Amjad had been mentally challenged since his birth and was not aware of the worldly affairs, and it was impossible for him to conspire or understand the meaning of blasphemy at all.One human rights activist, Napolean Qayoom, told Daily Times that the whole area knows that Amjad was mentally challenged and the police’s registration of the case against him under the blasphemy law despite knowing the fact sounded like another example of the misuse of the controversial blasphemy law in the country.He said he was personally monitoring the case and would try his level best to provide legal aid to the victims while seeking action against the culprits who committed such a mischief during an already fragile situation in the country.Hmmmm....Things like this happened in Europe in Medieval times.Read the full story here.

• Washington concerned as Turkey is leaving the West.Since taking power in landslide democratic elections in 2002, the Justice and Development Party, or AKP, is leading Turkey in a new direction, both domestically and in terms of foreign policy. This direction includes rapprochement with Iran; working more closely with the Islamist regime of Sudan despite the indictment of its president on genocide charges; supporting the Hamas movement which rules Gaza; and fostering stronger ties with Russia and China. Turkey’s leaders have distanced themselves from the United States and have deliberately worked to undermine relations with the country’s former friend and ally Israel while failing to reach a breakthrough with neighboring Armenia.Increasing Turkish frustration with the European Union’s haughtiness and the United States’ perceived indifference opened a window of opportunity for Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu to begin implementing a policy described in his book “Strategic Depth.” In his work, Davutoğlu emphasizes a “zero problems with neighbors” approach to regional foreign policy relations. Thus, Turkey's new foreign policy concept is to emerge as a regional hegemon through developing economic presence, interdependence, and a conspicuously important diplomatic role. To this end, Turkey has promoted visa-free tree travel with “Shams” – the former greater Syrian provinces of the Ottoman Empire, including Lebanon, Syria and Jordan. It has also moved closer to Russia, China, Iran, and the neighboring Muslim states.After all, the AKP government offered Russia a condominium in the Caucasus during the Russo-Georgian war, delayed U.S. aid from reaching Georgia during the same 2008 conflict, became an advocate for Iran, possibly facilitated arms transfers to al-Qaeda and Hezbollah, and ignored Obama's requests to improve relations with Israel. It is true that Turkey has devoted resources to the war in Afghanistan and peacekeeping in the Balkans – and for that the U.S. is grateful. But such acts do represent sufficient grounds to assume that all is well in the relationship.Turkey is facing a tough choice: if it wants to emerge as a “First World” economy and a liberal democracy, it needs to protect its interests in the West and expand ties with the United States. Such a choice would dictate both internal and foreign policy priorities, different from policies aimed at becoming a leader of the Muslim and Middle Eastern worlds. If, instead, Turkey prefers to be a “Sultan” of the East, it will continue to emphasize the priorities that are now in place: attack Israel, develop ties with radical Islamists from Tehran to Gaza to Khartoum, and irreversibly change the nature of the country.Hmmmm.....Turkey wants a new Ottoman Empire and it's high time to get them out of NATO.Read the full story here.

• Turkish Minister Calls for Formation of Iran-Turkey Chamber of Commerce.TEHRAN (FNA)- Turkish Energy and Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz called on the Iranian and Turkish officials to pave the ground for the formation of a Joint Chamber of Commerce between the two countries. "1,300,000 Turkish companies are members of different chambers of commerce, and this presents an opportunity which should be taken for the further expansion of Iran-Turkey cooperation and we should establish Iran-Turkey Joint Chamber of Commerce," Yildiz said. He made the remarks in a meeting with Caretaker of the Iranian Foreign Ministry Ali Akbar Salehi here in Tehran on Saturday, stressing that the further development of brotherly ties between the two countries needs expansion of the activities run by the economic institutions. During the meeting, Salehi announced Iran's readiness for joint investment with Turkey in third party countries, and said, "The strategic opportunities of Iran and Turkey shouldn't be influenced by the aspirations and tendencies of the other parties." Hmmmm...."Investment in third party countries"lets call a cow a cow : "investments in Iraq"who are already ongoing.Sanctions that bite?Whatevah ! Is there not a single politician left in the Western hemisphere who has a bit of grit in his body to speak up?Get Turkey out of NATO!Read the full scam story here.

• Head of the Mossad Meir Dagan’s Iran legacy. Ariel Sharon appointed Dagan in October 2002, telling him, the story goes, that he wanted “a Mossad with a knife between its teeth.” Looking back at Meir Dagan’s eight-year leadership of the Mossad, one is struck by how starkly it differed, at least in the public perception and the ramifications, from that of his predecessor, the English-born Efraim Halevy.The debonair Halevy, a nephew of Cambridge philosopher Isaiah Berlin, had focused, among other areas, on improving international relations in friendly countries and quiet intelligence gathering. Whatever daring missions he approved made few headlines.In contrast, Dagan’s rough-and-tumble stint was chock full of controversial operations that restored the Mossad’s public reputation for ruthless, bold actions.This approach sometimes strained diplomatic relations – see, for instance, the fallout from the Mahmoud al- Mabhouh assassination in Dubai last January. It also evidently meant the Mossad had a wealth of attractive intelligence to bring to the table in its dealings with the CIA, MI6 and other friendly parallel organizations. It is no wonder that Dagan has been prominently mentioned in numerous WikiLeaks documents released so far, as a sought-after source of information.Dagan’s strong Jewish identity seems to have been a major motivating force. The post-Holocaust “never again” mantra was central to his worldview.He was born in 1945, reportedly in a train somewhere between Poland and Russia, to two survivors. On his first day as director, it is said, he hung a photo on the wall of his office at Mossad headquarters north of Tel Aviv of an elderly bearded Jew draped in a prayer shawl kneeling down in front of two Nazi soldiers with fists in the air.“Look at this picture,” Dagan would often urge visitors, according to an interview that appeared this past Holocaust Remembrance Day in Yediot Aharonot. “This man, kneeling down before the Nazis, was my grandfather just before he was murdered. I look at this picture every day and promise that the Holocaust will never happen again.”Ariel Sharon appointed Dagan in October 2002, telling him, the story goes, that he wanted “a Mossad with a knife between its teeth.”The two men had been close for decades. In 1970 Sharon, as head of the IDF’s Southern Command, had selected Dagan to command the Rimon counterterrorism unit that operated in the Gaza Strip. Rimon members disguised themselves as Palestinian taxi drivers, farmers and even women to carry out assassinations of Fatah terrorists.If it ultimately turns out that the Mossad was linked to some of these “setbacks,” and they proved significant in the struggle to thwart Teheran, this would be Dagan’s biggest legacy. Making sure those are not the last such “setbacks” could be incoming Mossad head Tamir Pardo’s biggest challenge.Obviously, sabotage cannot delay the Iranians indefinitely. But it can buy time. Meir Dagan may have bought the free world a lot of that already.Hmmmm....You can't delay destiny forever.Read the full story here.

• Farms shut as cancer poisons are now found in chickens.Germany's poisoned eggs scare has spread to chickens after investigators reported raised levels of cancer-causing dioxin in meat.Three chickens out of 15 samples of chicken, turkey and pork sent to the European Commission showed a dioxin concentration twice as high as legal levels.Eating the meat ‘would not have been harmful in the short term since the contamination levels were so low,’ an agriculture ministry spokesman in Germany said yesterday.The tested chickens had not been sold in shops, but it is possible that other infected meat has entered the food chain in Germany.However, it is not thought that any infected poultry from Germany has been sold in Britain.The meat scare follows last week’s admission that tainted eggs from chickens which ate feed contaminated with dioxin entered the UK food chain.Around 5,000 farms were shut across Germany and thousands of chickens culled after feed from a chemical company near Hamburg was tainted.The feed from the Harles & Jentzsch firm went to 25 distributors in Germany and from there to thousands of farms. Liquid egg processed from 130,000 suspect eggs moved from Holland into British supermarkets in products such as mayonnaise and pastries. The agriculture ministry in Schleswig-Holstein, which monitors Harles & Jentzsch, said it had proof the company had been producing tainted food for nine months. Some feed had 77 per cent more dioxin than EU safe levels.German prosecutors will attempt to determine this week how many infected eggs reached the food chain in Britain from poisoned feed.With one in five consumers in Germany avoiding all eggs, EU food safety chiefs want to know how many millions have been sold since the problem.Agriculture minister Ilse Aigner called the conduct that led to excessive levels of the highly toxic chemical entering animal feed a ‘criminal act’, adding that German farmers had been ‘innocently dragged into this situation by the sick machinations of a few people’.Around 3,000 of the closed farms were reopened yesterday.
  Hmmmm....MFS :"In 2000 there was also a Dioxin scandal in Belgium.One ten thousand part of a grain of salt is the maximal amount of Dioxin a person should absorb during his lifespan.Dioxin is a million times more poisonous then Cadmium and Arsenic used in rat poisons.Dioxin is also one of the strongest cancer causing products,you don't want it in the food chain!"Read the full story here.

• MEMRI:Saudi Poet Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shimri: How Many Times Have We Heard Sermons Praying For Annihilation of Others. Saudi Poet Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shimri: Muslims to Blame for Denmark Cartoon Crisis...'How Many Times Have We Heard, Since We Were Children, Friday Sermons - In Which All Other Denominations And Religions Are Accused of Heresy? They Pray Day and Night: Oh Allah, Annihilate Them, Oh Allah, Turn Their Sons Into Orphans And Their Women Into Widows...We Are Constantly Provoking People'Interviewer: "You appeared on a radio show, and said that you refused to defend the Prophet Muhammad, during the crisis of the offensive cartoons in Denmark."Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shimri: "That is correct."Interviewer: "You support rapprochement, yet you refuse to defend the Prophet Muhammad?"Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shimri: "When talking about the defense, we need to talk about how the attack began."Interviewer: "Where did it begin?"Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shimri: "The attack began from our side, not from Denmark."Interviewer: "In what way?"Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shimri: "Did Denmark launch a war against the Muslims, and destroy the mosques of the Islamic communities there, or was it an individual who drew the cartoons? It was a single person. Is it reasonable to expect a country – or all the Muslim countries – to sever diplomatic ties with Denmark, because one person drew cartoons?! [...]"What Denmark did – was it the action or the reaction?"Interviewer: "You may think it was the reaction, but it was the action."Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shimri: "How many times have we heard, since we were children, Friday sermons – and you know how vehement our religious discourse is, including at school – in which all other denominations and religions are accused of heresy? They pray day and night: 'Oh Allah, annihilate them, oh Allah, turn their sons into orphans and their women into widows,' and so on. This vehement rhetoric is not in keeping with the Koran, which says: 'Do not revile their gods, lest they revile your God;' 'Unto you your religion, and unto me my religion.' We are constantly provoking people, but when we ourselves are harmed, we say: They did this, that, and the other to us. This is wrong. We need to examine ourselves. Who affronts the Prophet Muhammad on a daily basis? We do."Interviewer: "How?"Abd Al-Rahman Al-Shimri: "With all our interpretations to hadiths, and the use we make of false hadiths and myths. You see the results." [...]Read and see the full story here.Video here.

• HT:Imra.Iran Deports Alleged Female Spy after Investigations Reveal Her Psycho Problems.TEHRAN (FNA)- An informed source said on Sunday that Iran has deported Hall Talayan after investigations showed she has lied about being an American spy and carrying spying devices."This women claimed to have spying devices in her teeth and surrendered herself to the Iranian border guards," the source told FNA, and added, "But further investigations revealed that she had psychological problems and her claims about being a spy and carrying spying devices were not true.""She was deported via Jolfa borders after her psychological problems were proved," the source continued.The woman identified as Hall Talayan, 55, was detained by the border officials in the border town of Nordouz, 370 miles (600 kilometers) Northwest of the capital Tehran after she came to the Iranian border guard units, claiming to be a US spy.According to the Iranian officials, the US woman was arrested as she was entering Iran from Armenia without a visa.Talayan had told the security forces that she was carrying 'espionage devices' such as a microphone implanted in her teeth.She had also asked the Iranian authorities not to return her to Armenia in fear of her life.Source.

• Crackdown Anniversary: Khamenei Launches a 10-Day Assault on the Green Movement.The website of Iran's supreme leader ayatollah Ali Khamenei announced that for 10 days it would be publishing the leader's remarks and directives on the post-election events in Iran under the title, "Thoughts and Lessons" as a way to commemorate the violent and bloody crackdown of post-election protestors that took place last year, which it proclaims as the victory over the seditionists, the term officials use to describe the Green Movement and pro-reform supporters. The occasion is known as the Dey 9 event in Iranian official parlance and fell on December 30th in 2010 (Dey is the tenth month of the Iranian calendar and the number 9 stands for the 9th day of that month).Supporters of ayatollah Khamenei and Mahmoud Ahmadinejad proclaimed December 30, 2010 to be the response to the disrespectful actions and demonstrations that protesters engaged in on Ashura - the day Shiites commemorate the death of imam Hussein, the grandson of prophet Mohammad 1400 years ago in the town of Kerbala - in 2009. The government's response to the anti-government demonstrations came in the form of a violent crackdown, which the government now calls "a victory" and celebrates. Demonstrations were held in Tehran and other Iranian cities on December 30, 2010 by government supporters.Read the full story here.

• HT:JIDaily.Lost & Found !The Bnei Menashe ("Children of Menasseh", Hebrew בני מנשה) are a group of more than 9,000 people from India's North-Eastern border states of Manipur and Mizoram who claim descent from one of the Lost Tribes of Israel.In 1974, a strange letter from northeastern India landed on the desk of Israel's then Prime Minister Golda Meir. It was sent by a group of Indians claiming to be descendants of the tribe of Menashe, one of the ten tribes "lost" to Jewish history after the Assyrians destroyed the northern kingdom in 721 B.C.E. The writers hoped the prime minister would recognize their portion in the extended family of Israel. Although Golda didn't respond, the Indians persisted, and their persistence paid off: today, 1,700 members of the community called Bnei Menashe, the children of Menashe, live in Israel. Recently the ministry of immigrant absorption urged the government to bring the remaining 7,000 members of the community home.Are the Bnei Menashe really descendants of one of the ten lost tribes? It depends on whom you ask. The Indians themselves harbor no doubts. Their forefathers sang a traditional song about crossing the Red Sea; they have a history of circumcising their children on the eighth day; and, rice-eaters, they once celebrated a springtime festival in which they ate unleavened bread.Read the full story here.Video here.