MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Opec only likely to act if oil rally lasts.Opec will only hold an emergency meeting if oil climbs above $100 and stays there, although the group's Gulf members could informally add supply if needed, a delegate from a Gulf Opec member state said on Thursday. Brent crude this week hit a 27-month high of close to $99 a barrel, raising concern in consuming countries about the impact of higher fuel costs on the tenuous economic recovery."Opec will only have an extraordinary meeting if oil prices exceed $100 and stay there. We don't want the market to panic," the delegate told Reuters."And if the prices reach $100 and we see that there is a need of supply from our customers, Gulf countries will start producing above their quotas, but this has not happened yet."Most officials in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) maintain there is no need to change a production-restraining policy adopted in 2008, in the aftermath of economic crisis. Opec is not scheduled to hold another meeting until June.That stance was reiterated earlier on Thursday by Libya's top oil official, who said $100 oil would not harm the world economy and there was no need for OPEC to add more supplies."We think there is enough supply and there should not be any meeting at this point in time," Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation, told Reuters by phone.Opec's core Gulf members -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates -- are the most able to pump extra oil in the 12-member group because they hold the bulk of the world's unused oil production capacity.The third delegate said Gulf states were producing within their agreed limits, adding it was too early to say whether Opec would decide on an output change when its next scheduled meeting took place in June.By contrast, the International Energy Agency, which represents 28 industrialised countries, has warned about the risks to economic recovery from rising oil prices.The IEA said in December that Opec might come under pressure to increase supplies in 2011.Hmmmmm.....Notice how nobody mentions the actual Chairman of the Opec Iran?Read the full story here.

• Wanted: 47 Al Qaeda commanders sought by Saudi Arabia - including the son-in-law of Osama Bin laden.A group of 47 Al Qaeda commanders have been identified by Saudi Arabia – and they include the son-in-law of Osama Bin Laden.All the men are believed to be living outside the country and were described as posing a ‘serious threat to the public’.Suspect Muhammad Salim Barikan, who was thought to have been killed in a drone attack by the U.S., married Bin Laden’s daughter Fatima in 1996.Hmmmm....Wanted Bin laden and his 47 Robbers?Read and see the full story here.

• Riots erupt around Tunisian capital. TUNIS, Tunisia — A protester was fatally shot and a journalist was hit in the leg by police gunfire Thursday as rioting youths clashed with authorities in Tunisia's capital, witnesses said. The second day of violence in the heart of Tunis sharply escalated a conflict between protesters angry over unemployment and repression and an authoritarian government that appears more and more willing to use force to put down its greatest challenge in at least a generation.At least 23 people, possibly dozens more, have now been killed.On Thursday, rioters hurled stones at trams and government buildings in Tunisia's capital. The smell of tear gas filled the air, and so many stones littered the streets that it was difficult to walk through the city, normally quiet and tightly controlled.In one clash near the state radio headquarters in central Tunis, police fired on protesters with bullets, two witnesses said. One protester was hit by a sniper on the balcony of a building overlooking the violence, said witness Hassene Ayadi, who lives in the surrounding La Fayette neighborhood.In the melee, an American journalist was wounded in the leg, according to another witness who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concerns for his security. The witness said police did not appear to be targeting the journalist, who was taken to the Charles Nicolles Hospital.The unprecedented violence has revealed deep anger against autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has clamped down on civil liberties, jailed opponents and tightly controlled the media during 23 years of rule in the Mediterranean tourist haven.The government's death toll stands at 23, while opposition figures and witnesses say it is much higher.The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, known by its French acronym FIDH, said Thursday it has tallied 66 dead in the unrest, including seven people who killed themselves.French and Swiss citizens visiting their native country were among those killed, the two European governments said.Hmmmm.....Tunesia ....Algeria...Who's next?Read the full story here.

• As antisemitism rises, more of Belgium’s Jews immigrate to Israel. Figures released by the Jewish Agency indicated an increase of 63 percent in the number of Belgian Jews who immigrated to Israel in 2010 when compared to the previous year: 250 compared to 152 in 2009. Key causes include increasingly open antisemitism in recent years, and the rise of violent attacks against members of the community, especially its highly-visible ultra-orthodox members.Belgium’s Jewish community numbers about 40,000 from the national population of 10.8 million (0.003). Roughly half are members of the Jewish community of Antwerp, famous for its involvement in making the city a leading global center of the diamond trade, but increasingly under threat in recent years.It should be mentioned that the Belgian organization The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism issued in 2009 a report, indicating a surge in antisemitism in the country. Between 2004 and 2008, the Centre recorded some 60 antisemitic incidents each year. The same number of incidents was recorded in the first four months of 2009. About one third of the incidents are hate-mails. The Belgian organization attributed this surge to the growing tensions in the Middle East.Video:"I feel safer to talk to an Arab in Israel,then here in Brussels".Hmmm.....1939 revisited?Read and see the full story here.

• EU sends out £4.4m diaries to schools which list Muslim, Chinese and Hindu holidays... but miss out Christmas and Easter.The European Union has sent millions of diaries to schools which list the dates of Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese festivals - but omit any mention of Christian celebrations.In an extraordinary move, three million 2011 notebooks were printed at a cost of £4.4million to the taxpayer. Around 350,000 of the diaries have already been shipped to schools in the UK alone. There is no record for Christmas, Easter or Lent - despite bureaucrats carefully listing the EU’s self-styled ‘Europe Day’ on May 9.The EU was forced to apologise in the wake of the blunder as religious groups expressed their disbelief.John Dalli, consumer commissioner said: 'We regret this' and apologised. While the apology is general, there has been a specific, grovelling apology sent to the French government and to the French Catholic Bishop Conferences which had complained directly to Brussels.European Catholic Commission spokeswoman Johanna Touzel described the mistakes 'just incredible.' 'Christmas and Easter are important feasts for hundreds of millions of Christians and Europeans.'If the Commission does not mark Christmas as a feast in its diaries then it should be working as normal on December 25,' she added.Hmmm....We first carried this story at MFS on the 19 th of December 2010.And it happens often that we carry a story first.Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelSeen.The Two-State Delusion VIII: The New Middle East Paradigm:Wavering U.S. Resolve?By Dr. Arnold M. Soloway, President Emeritus and Founder of the Center for Near East Policy Research* President Obama’s publicly stated opposition to a united Jerusalem logically concentrates attention on other positions and actions he has taken that ominously diminish the U.S.-Israel relationship: His eloquent Cairo apology to and effusive praise for the Muslim world, while implicitly criticizing Israel; his very deferential attitude in various encounters with Arab leaders, contrasted with the utter disdain and disrespect he publicly showed Israel’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu; his endorsement of a Ground Zero mosque; his repeated acerbic demands on Israel alone, while courting terrorists that Israel must contend with every day. President Obama also seems to ignore the grim prospect that the “Two-State Solution” would effectively advance the P.L.O.’s “Strategy of Stages” for the destruction of Israel.Although giving occasional rhetorical assurance that “the American-Israel bond is unbreakable”, judged by his actions, President Obama has shown little concern for the existential threat to Israel from a nuclear-powered Iran and how that would affect our own security interests. Rather, he has warned Israel against taking preventive defensive action to thwart Iran. But permitting Iran to go nuclear and pandering to terrorists and their state sponsors, while disavowing America’s exceptional commitment to protect and advance freedom in the world, is strategically and morally unacceptable.Taken together, these negative perceptions are troubling to all who are concerned about our own security and future as well as that of Israel. They lead to a most disturbing conclusion. Despite a long, mutually beneficial relationship, and the rhetorical assurances, Israel’s security and survival appear less important to President Obama than his ardent cultivation of Arab-Muslim favor.Hmmmm...."They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

• Minnesota Wrestling Coach Put on Leave for Reportedly Insulting Obama, Challenging Him to a Fight.An Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter has been placed on administrative leave from his job at a Minnesota high school after he insulted President Obama’s intelligence and challenged the commander in chief to a fight.Jacob Volkmann told Fox News Radio that he is under investigation by White Bear Lake High School, where he has worked as a part-time assistant wrestling coach for three years.“They didn’t like how I was representing the school,” he said. “They said I was representing them bad because of what I said about the president and his policies.”Marisa Vette, the school district’s director of communications, confirmed to Fox News Radio that Volkmann is on paid leave. She refused to say if his comments about President Obama sparked the investigation.“We have an employee who is on leave and the district is investigating in accordance with the law,” Vette said. She declined to elaborate on the investigation or any complaints that were made against Volkmann.Volkmann’s comments came during a New Year’s Day interview after he had won a fight. A reporter asked who Volkmann would like to fight next and he replied, “Obama.”“He’s not too bright,” Volkmann told MMA Fighting. “Someone’s got to knock some sense into that idiot.”The comment prompted a visit by the U.S. Secret Service after they received several calls accusing the fighter of threatening the president. However, Volkmann said the comments were tongue-in-cheek.In a later interview, he backed off the “idiot comment,” telling The MMA Hour, “The only regret I have is calling him an idiot. I don’t think he’s an idiot, but I do think he’s making a lot of mistakes.”Volkmann was not arrested and he was not charged, but on Monday he was told to report to the school district’s human resources department. After a half-hour interview, he said he was put on paid administrative leave. Volkmann said several parents had called to complain that he was wearing a school shirt and a hat during one of his interviews.“It’s a little irritating to be honest,” he said. “I think it’s kind of ridiculous that the school is pretty much saying you can’t voice your opinion and if you do voice your opinion you definitely can’t voice it against the policies of the president.”Hmmmm.....Freedom of Speech....Transparancy.......USSR......Gulag?Read the full story here.

• Muslim Husband 'who hacked brother-in-law to pieces caught when bird dropped severed thumb from the sky'. A husband who hacked his brother-in-law to pieces was caught when a severed thumb 'fell from the sky' after being dropped by a bird, a court heard today.Mohammed Riaz, 33, allegedly kidnapped Mahmood Ahmad, 41, and tortured him to death in an attempt to track down his estranged ex-wife Nahid Ahmad.He enlisted the help of five accomplices to kidnap, imprison and murder father-of-two Mahmood with a mechanical butcher's saw, St Albans Crown Court heard.His remains have never been found and the gang was only arrested after a member of the public found Mahmood's severed left thumb in a car park.A prosecutor told the jury that CCTV footage captured the digit falling mysteriously from the sky and police believe it might have been dropped by a bird which had picked it up.Riaz, of no fixed abode, denies murder, conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to imprison and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.Sharif Mohammed, 37, Faisal Chowdhury, 18, Arnold Alexander Yousaf, 18, and Armizada Hussain, 37, all pleaded not guilty to murder and conspiracy to imprison.Chowdhury and Yousaf pleaded not guilty to the further charge of conspiracy to kidnap and Mohammed and Hussain denied conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.Riaz's sister Sabra Sultana, 36, from Ilford, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to imprison and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.In a bid to track down Nahid, Riaz allegedly hatched a plan to kidnap Mahmood and torture him into divulging details of her new address.The court heard that on March 7 neighbours witnessed Mahmood being bundled into a car by Chowdhury and Yousaf on the doorstep to his home.He was allegedly taken to Hussain's home in Manor Park, east London, where he lived with his girlfriend, Sabra Sultana, 36, who is also Riaz's sister.The jury heard that neighbours heard cries of 'leave me alone' and 'let me go' and a scream 'full of fear or terror' between 2am and 4am on March 7.Ahmad, who is survived by his wife Farah Manir, was never seen alive again.Hussain and Sultana are alleged to have cleaned the murder room at a later date and arranged for workers to remove furniture and bathroom units.However, the court heard that police later found traces of Ahmad's blood on the floor and on the wall in the bathroom.Hmmmm.....Ever heard the saying"The truth will be known,even if the crows have to tell"?Read the full story here.

• South Korea buries 1.4m pigs ALIVE in bid to eradicate foot and mouth disease.South Korea has buried 1.4million pigs alive after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease on the peninsula.The controversial measure has been brought in after 115 cases of the disease were confirmed, originating in the city of Andong.The country is also battling an outbreak of avian flu and recently raised its alert level to 'watch' after discovering the virus at poultry farms in four provinces.Slaughter houses have been asked to work on holidays to boost meat supply after the mass cull saw wholesale prices of beef, pork and chicken soared by 22 per cent in the last month.President Lee Myung-bak held an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday to discuss measures of containing the rapidly-spreading disease.South Korea has already vaccinated 1.2million livestock against foot and mouth since November in eight of its 16 provinces.It nows plans to expand the programme across the country, except for Jeju Island.A statement from the agriculture ministry said: 'Today's meeting reviewed current measures and decided to strengthen preemptive measures.'The government will import more vaccines to cover 11million livestock. Before the outbreak, South Korea only had 300,000 doses.Read the full story here.

• HT:CrossRoadsArabia.Population.Here’s a link to an absolutely fascinating graphic via Google. The chart shows life expectancies against fertility rate (how many children a woman will bear) from 1960 to 2008 for each country of the world. The size of the population is indicated by the size of the circle. Disturbing, because they are so visually apparent, are the countries in which life expectancies go zipping off to the left due to political and military turmoil.Saudi life expectancy grows continuously throughout the period, with the fertility rate starting to drop around 1964. Compare it to whatever country you like, but the change is very significant. Here’s another chart showing the statistics for the Arabian Peninsula as a whole. It makes it very clear that Yemen is the odd-man-out.You can spend hours playing around with this chart. I applaud whomever came up with it because the graphical presentation is utterly clear and the information it contains extremely important.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:MichelleMalkin.Michelle Malkin Video flashback: Yes, some college students do know how to act at a massacre memorial.Reader Joshua Jones, who lived through the Virginia Tech shooting rampage and attended the campus memorial where President Bush spoke, e-mails his response to the whooping and hollering during President Obama’s memorial tribute to the Tucson massacre victims at the University of Arizona tonight.I was a sophomore member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets (VTCC). Several of my friends and the woman I love most dearly were supposed to be in Norris Hall. Thankfully none of them were due to being late, ill, or simply choosing to skip classes. I was sequestered in the Pamplin College of Business building during the attack.President Bush spoke for barely 10 minutes if that. He was solemn, dignified and respectful-although the microphone that broadcast into the rest of the coliseum was barely working and we could barely hear and understand him as a result-we got the point he made.President Obama’s disgusting attempt at what appears to be a political rally in the wake of a similar massacre is beyond reprehensible.Hmmmm......."Together we thrive" on the murder of innocent people?Read the full story here.

• Why the Left Bears Responsibility for the Arizona Shootings.Last week, mentally disturbed youth Jared Lee Loughner shot 20 people at a rally in Tucson, Ariz., including congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The left, led by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, immediately capitalized on the bloody murders, stating without evidence that Loughner had been inspired by the "the anger, the hatred, the bigotry" of our current political climate.Over the course of the following days, Dupnik and his allies blamed talk radio, conservatives who spread "mistrust of government," Sarah Palin, Nevada senatorial candidate Sharron Angle and Rush Limbaugh.There is enough blame to go around for this shooting spree. Unfortunately for Dupnik and his allies, that blame lies almost exclusively with the left.More than that, we know that he is loony. According to Sheriff Dupnik himself, Loughner has been in trouble with the law repeatedly; he was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. And more tellingly, "there had been earlier contact between Loughner and law enforcement after he had made death threats." Dupnik's office knew that Loughner was expelled from the junior college for frightening behavior -- his classmates said he exhibited "kind of hysterical laughing, kind of creepy ... his hands and his parts of his body were shaking and trembling like he was under the influence of drugs or something like that." Some feared for their lives.Let's leave aside Loughner's ideology -- we cannot assume that his leftist leanings were either rational or thoroughgoing, since he was clearly mentally ill. Let's focus instead on the two institutions that are supposed to prevent incidents like this: law enforcement and the mental health establishment.Law enforcement falls under Sheriff Dupnik's domain. Dupnik still has not answered why his office ignored the threats, why they failed to investigate properly, and why Loughner was allowed to roam free and buy a firearm. Even at the most basic level, Dupnik has not explained why Tucson is so crime-ridden altogether.More importantly, Dupnik blew it on this case, in large part because he appears not to understand the nature of madness. Dupnik believes that true mental instability does not exist. Apparently, all acts of madness must be attributed to others' influence. Not coincidentally, this is the leftist view of mental illness -- the left feels that, as Simon and Garfunkel put it, "the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls" (it's no coincidence that another of Loughner's favorite books was "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," where all the inmates are the sane).The left has blamed society for Jared Loughner. Ironically, they're correct -- but it's the society created by the left that is responsible, not the vaguely and idiotically defined "violent rhetoric society" of which they complain. Soft thinking has consequences.Hmmmm.....Was Loughner left roaming free with the thought that one day we could "Use" him?Read the full story here.

• Jobless claims jump, wholesale food costs surge.U.S. jobless claims jumped to their highest level since October last week while food and energy costs lifted producer prices in December, pointing to headwinds for an economy that has shown fresh vigor.However, a surge in exports to their highest level in two years helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit in November, an encouraging sign for fourth-quarter economic growth.Despite a string of recent data that had signaled a pickup in the economy's momentum, the figures on Thursday showed the job market continues to struggle.The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly to 445,000 from 410,000 in the prior week, a Labor Department report showed. It was the biggest one-week jump in about six months and confounded analyst forecasts for a small drop to 405,000.The jobs data weighed on U.S. stocks, which were off slightly in late morning. Government debt prices were trading little changed as concerns about Europe's debt struggles helped support the market.Hmmmmm....."Together we thrive" towards the abyss?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Pakistani Lawmaker Marvi Menon Slams Anti-Hindu Violence in Pakistan, Says: 'This is the Biggest Failure of the So-Called Islamic Republic of Pakistan – That Its Minorities Don't Feel Safe On Their Own Soil'.The December 21, 2010 kidnapping of Lakki Chand Garji, one of the most revered Hindu spiritual leaders in Pakistan and an official of the Kala Mata temple in the Kalat district of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, led to strong protest by minority Hindus in the province. This kidnapping is just one in a series of such violent incidents against the Hindu minority in Pakistan. In recent years, a number of Hindus in Pakistan have been kidnapped for ransom or for forced conversion to Islam, especially in Sindh province. These incidents are generally ignored by the Pakistani authorities, because the Hindu minority lacks support among government officials as well as in the local society, which is predominantly Muslim.The kidnappings of Hindus have become frequent recently in the interior areas of Sindh; according to a report, members of the minority community are now migrating to urban centers and in many cases to India. A media report of mid-October 2010 noted: "Since the beginning of this year, at least eight children of this family have been kidnapped and released in return for a hefty ransom [in interior Sindh]."In March 2009, 35 Pakistani Hindus from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATAs) of Pakistan went to India and asked for asylum. Jagdish Sharma, the Hindu community leader who accompanied them to India, said: "In Pakistan, we were living in extreme fear, due to the domination of a strong group of Taliban who are running a parallel government." Also in July 2009, a group of 100 Pakistani Hindus went to India and sought permission to live there.This migration to India is part of a pattern. In September 2009, an Indian website reported: "In the past four years, some 5,000 Hindus may have crossed over from Pakistan, never to return.""The Hindu Community Is Peaceful – So What Is Its Biggest Sin? It Is a Minority In a Land Where There Is No Rule Of Law".Hmmmm....A perfect example of interfaith dialog Islamic radicals style.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Pakistani Daily Reports – ‘Child Marriages: 10-Year-Old Girls Traded for Rs. 100,000 [$1,150 Roughly]’.On November 29, 2010, police officials in the Pakistani town of Sheikhupura raided a wedding hall and arrested the bridegroom and wedding guests as the marriage of a six-year-old girl, Uzma, was being solemnized. Bilal Zafar, a local police officer, confirmed the arrest of Maulvi Ghaus, the cleric who was solemnizing the marriage, as well as the 23-year-old bridegroom. Zafar stated, we received a tip-off about the marriage but it took us a while to find the place as the wedding was being conducted in secret."The incident drew an angry response from a newspaper reader, who wrote: "Surely this is a sign of pedophilia; how else does one justify a man in his 20s marrying a girl who is just six years-old? Why are we as a society so tolerant of such barbaric and medieval practices?" It seems that a large number of child marriages are taking place in Pakistan, especially in the rural areas of Sindh province, though only a few such cases are actually reported by the Pakistani media.In the Dadu district a local journalist was found dead last year after reporting on the marriage of a young girl. A newspaper reader argued recently that child marriages are taking place because government officials are not implementing the provisions of the Child Marriage Restraint Act [of] 1929, which dictates: (1) Punishment for a male adult above 18 years of age for marrying a female child under 16 years of age; (2) punishment for performing such a child marriage; and (3) punishment for negligently failing to prevent the performance of a child marriage."It might look like child's play but little girls dressed up in bridal gowns and jewellery are too often married off to men much older than them in a terrifying aspect of reality. Some parents may marry them off because they have no money or give their hands in marriage to settle disputes. Other motivating factors include family politics or inheritance battles [especially among the landed feudal class]."While the exact number of cases remains unknown, it can be regarded as a common phenomenon with roughly 58 percent taking place in rural and 27 percent in urban areas [of Pakistan]."Pakistan has the Muslim Family Law as well as the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 on its statute books. Moreover, the country also became a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Children in 1990, in which early marriage refers to the marriage of people less than 18 years of age. The government's adherence to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), should also have served as a deterrent against child marriages. These promises and laws, however, remain on paper, with little or no implementation.Hmmm.....Obama "Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Want your hen party to go with a bang? Meet the Midnight Rider - the world's biggest limo with room for 40 guests... and even pole dancing.Any hens or stags planning on hiring a limousine to celebrate their nuptials should feast their eyes on this souped up mega monster... complete with pole for would-be dancers.The Midnight Rider is officially the world's heaviest limo according to the 2011 Guinness Book of Records and could also be the biggest.At 70ft long, the 13ft high behemoth has 22 wheels and weighs a hefty 22.7 tons.Boasting room for 40 hard-partying revellers, the Midnight Rider has also popped the champagne cork for being the tallest as well as the largest limousine for hire.Owner Pamela Bartholomew Machado, from California, said: 'It's the world's grandest limousine, boasting 460sq ft of pure luxury, and is the only one of its kind.'It's more like a travelling nightclub, even though it's classified as a limo.'Those lucky enough to afford the £650-an-hour rental fees can expect to be served by a 'crew' of five.Hmmmm....Is it tax deductable?Read the full story here.