MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Pakistan: Punjab's slain Gov. Salmaan Taseer laid to rest.LAHORE: Slain Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer was laid to rest at the Cavalry graveyard in Lahore after being flown in on an army chopper from the Governor House where funeral prayers were offered on Wednesday.Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) Ulema wing General Secretary led the funeral prayers.Several PPP leaders including Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gilani and other party leaders gathered at the Governor House to participate in the prayers. Other senior leaders present at the funeral included Law Minister Babar Awan, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Interior Minister Rehman Malik. Military officials also gathered at the Governor House to participate in the prayers. A six-member MQM delegation was also present at the Governor House.High security was put in place in Lahore ahead of the governor’s funeral prayers. All roads leading towards the Governor House were closed and a large number of security personnel were deployed at the Governor House and the Cavalry graveyard.The PPP has announced a two-week mourning, while ceremonies to mark the birthday of PPP founder Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto have been cancelled.The national flag will also be put at half mast for three days. PPP workers have staged protests in various cities of Punjab to condemn the assassination. Markets and shops shut down in the province as the news of the murder spread.Hmmmm...."Islam the religion of Peace".Read the full story here.

• HT:TheBlaze.Video : Union Boss Trumka Admits Main Goal is Using Unions To Fundamentally Change America into His Progressive Vision…Not Negotiate Member Salaries.Read and see the full story here.

• NYC rabbi sues Army over no-beard policy.Menachem M. Stern cites rule waiver for Sikhs, Muslim in lawsuit.A rabbi from Brooklyn, N.Y., is suing the Army over its “no-beard” policy, claiming the service violated his religious freedoms when it rejected him because he refuses to shave.
  Menachem M. Stern’s lawsuit argues the Army is discriminating against him because it has waived the “no-beard” rule for several Sikhs and a Muslim, but not for him. Advocates hope the case, if successful, will pave the way for more bearded rabbis to become chaplains and minister to historically underserved Jewish soldiers.“While they’re stalling me, they’re taking in other religions, for instance, Sikhs and Muslims with beards and turbans at the same time,” Stern said. “At that point, my question became, ‘Who says yes and who says no?’ It shows how in a great institution such as the Army, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”In the suit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 8, Stern included his correspondence with the Army from 2009. In it, Stern informed the Army he would not shave. The Army nevertheless granted him a commission as a Reserve first lieutenant, and then it rescinded the offer the next day, citing an “administrative error” and the “no-beard” policy.Dresin said there are good reasons for the Army to accommodate bearded rabbis on its own. For one, if the Army loses in court, it could be saddled with an outcome it may not want, like bearded soldiers all over the Army.“I explained to the powers that be that if we go into the courts, the courts may rule that not only is this a waiver to be granted to rabbis, but to anyone for religious reasons,” Dresin said. “I tried to work it out amicably and I was being stonewalled.”If it allowed beards, the Army would have access to large pool of candidates from the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he said. Dedicated to Jewish outreach and education, Chabad has sent emissaries to open more than 2,600 centers in 60 countries, according to Chabadlive.com.Hmmmmm.....Now this makes we wonder why do they always depict God with a long beard?Read the full story here.HT:Jawa.

• HT:MiddleEastForum.Why Isn't Obama Pressuring the Palestinians?For the first time since the Oslo peace process started 18 years ago, Palestinian leaders are openly refusing to negotiate with the government of Israel, and U.S. President Barack Obama's administration is doing very little about it. As Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president, explained the policy on Dec. 9, "We will not agree to negotiate as long as settlement building continues." The Arab League is backing Abbas in this refusal, says League chief Amr Moussa, because "the direction of talks has become ineffective and it has decided against the resumption of negotiations."But Abbas himself negotiated with seven previous Israeli prime ministers without such preconditions. For 17 years -- from the Madrid conference of October 1991 through Abbas's negotiations with then Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, which ended in 2008 -- negotiations moved forward while Jerusalem construction continued. Madrid, Oslo I, Oslo II, the Hebron Protocol, the Wye River Memorandum, Camp David, Taba, the disengagement from Gaza, and Olmert's offer to Abbas -- all these events over the course of two decades were made possible by a continuing agreement to disagree about Israeli construction of Jewish homes in Jewish neighborhoods outside the pre-1967 line in East Jerusalem. But now, peace talks cannot even begin. Why the change?U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton acknowledges that the Palestinians are creating a new precondition for talks to begin. Settlements, she says, have "always been an issue within the negotiations.… There's never been a precondition." But Clinton has not stated any public objection to Abbas making this a new excuse not to negotiate.But the Obama administration is raising no public objection to the Palestinians' stance. It has not expressed one word of criticism of Abbas, nor used anything resembling the pressure tactics Obama has so freely used against the Israeli side. In fact, Obama did quite the opposite on Oct. 7, when he issued a special waiver of Section 7040(a) of the Foreign Assistance Act to transfer additional funds directly to the Palestinian Authority, just as it was announcing its refusal to negotiate.Members of Congress are starting to take notice of the administration's reticence to confront Palestinian intransigence. Ileana Ros-Lehtinen (R-FL), the incoming House Foreign Affairs Committee chairwoman, said on Dec. 23 of Palestinian leaders: "They know they don't have to do a darn thing; with this administration they will get a blank check, and they will always get helped out.… Try examining where they're using their money and where our U.S. dollars are going." Her Democratic counterpart, California's Howard Berman, the outgoing chairman of the committee, said a few days earlier, referring to Abbas's unilateral drive to seek early recognition of Palestinian statehood, "If they try to circumvent negotiations, they'll lose the support of a lot of people like me, and it will jeopardize their foreign aid as well."Hmmmmm....."They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Obama is Undermining Israel.The United States’ withdrawal of its demand that Israel impose a second construction freeze in order to bring the Palestinian Authority (PA) back to the negotiation table does not necessarily indicate that the Obama Administration now sides with Israel. Moreover, America’s latest move will likely result in the Administration’s abstaining from a vote on a much-rumored possible U.N. Security Council resolution recognizing the unilateral declaration of an independent Palestinian state within the 1967 borders.The U.S. House of Representatives’ resolution last month urged the Administration to “deny any unilaterally declared Palestinian state” and “veto any resolution by the United Nations Security Council to establish or recognize a Palestinian state outside of an agreement negotiated by the two parties.” However, this resolution is unlikely to stop the Administration from either supporting or abstaining from a vote on a Palestinian initiated resolution “declaring ongoing Jewish settlement in the West Bank a big obstacle to ending the conflict.”America’s withdrawing the demand that Israel freezes building in “disputed territories,” also means that the Obama Administration will not sell $3 billion worth of 20 radar-evading F-35 fighter jets to Israel. This will weaken the Jewish State’s ability to defend itself. Further destabilizing the region, and diminishing Israel’s military edge, is the U.S. sale of $97 billion worth of arms to Saudi Arabia and the Gulf States.Another sign of Obama’s Administration growing distance from Israel is the U.S. silence in the face of mounting South American support for a unilateral declaration of a Palestinian independent state.This South American initiative emerged following the July 2010 State Department’s upgrade of the Washington DC Palestinian Liberation Organization’s mission status, a move that allows the PLO office to fly the Palestinian flag.While the EU declined to recognize a Palestinian state outright in December, several member states– France, Spain, Portugal and Norway – have upgraded the status of PLO representation in their countries, as have Canada. Britain was considering a similar move at the end of December.Remarkably, neither the EU Council, nor the South American countries have discussed the Gaza Strip, which is included in the ‘67 borders, though the terrorist group Hamas rules it. Meanwhile Hamas is gaining strength in the PA controlled West Bank.It is unknown whether the Administration’s behavior towards Israel is influenced by Obama’s inaugural promise to the Muslim world: “we seek a new way forward, based on mutual interest…” However, recent developments should raise grave concerns in Israel and among its friends and all freedom loving Americans.Hmmmm....They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Violent Islamic Extremism is a ‘Mental Illness’.Violent Islamist extremism is akin to mental illness and not rooted in poverty, memories of Western imperialism, and anger over the Israeli-Palestinian situation, Robert Sibley writes in Monday’s Ottawa Citizen. This is ignored by the chattering class, Sibley writes, which believes that “[i]f only the West would apologize, make reparations, abandon Israel, leave the Middle East and Afghanistan, all would be well.”He draws this from a new book, New Political Religions, by Barry Cooper. Cooper describes a “disease of the spirit” in which people “see themselves as specially chosen by God, or even as gods themselves.” If they aren’t psychopaths, “they most definitely are spiritually disordered.”
  According to Sibley, that disorder makes it impossible for Islamists to compromise. They contend that the Koran contains Allah’s direct speech. “And because Allah’s will and action is unlimited, the Koran, as his eternal word, must apply to all times and places. There is no need to look elsewhere in responding to the human condition, regardless of changing circumstances.”“The challenge for Islamists, obviously, is whether they can achieve that transformation better through demographic domination over the next few decades or through violence. The challenge for Westerners, perhaps not so obviously, is whether they will awaken in time from their multicultural slumbers to protect their cultural heritage, and avoid, possibly, a new dark age.”Hmmmm....."Whether they can achieve that transformation better through demographic domination over the next few decades or through violence".Read the full story here.

• HT:Aim.Resurgent Turkey Flexes Its Muscles Around Iraq.A Turkey as resurgent as at any time since its Ottoman glory is projecting influence through a turbulent Iraq, from the boomtowns of the north to the oil fields near southernmost Basra, in a show of power that illustrates its growing heft across an Arab world long suspicious of it.Its ascent here, in an arena contested by the United States and Iran, may prove its greatest success so far, as it emerges from the shadow of its alliance with the West to chart an often assertive and independent foreign policy.Turkey's influence is greater in northern Iraq and broader, though not deeper, than Iran's in the rest of the country. While the United States invaded and occupied Iraq, losing more than 4,400 troops there, Turkey now exerts what may prove a more lasting legacy -- so-called soft power, the assertion of influence through culture, education and business."This is the trick -- we are very much welcome here," said Ali Riza Ozcoskun, who heads Turkey's consulate in Basra, one of four diplomatic posts it has in Iraq.Just as the Justice and Development Party of Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has reoriented politics in Turkey, it is doing so in Iraq, with repercussions for the rest of the region.While some Turkish officials recoil at the notion of neo-Ottomanism -- an orientation of Turkey away from Europe and toward an empire that once included parts of three continents -- the country's process of globalization and attention to the markets of the Middle East is upsetting assumptions that only American power is decisive. Turkey has committed itself here to economic integration, seeing its future in at least an echo of its past."No one is trying to overtake Iraq or one part of Iraq," said Aydin Selcen, who heads the consulate in Erbil, which opened this year. "But we are going to integrate with this country. Roads, railroads, airports, oil and gas pipelines -- there will be a free flow of people and goods between the two sides of the border."Posters of Turkish television serials -- from "Muhannad and Nour" to "Forbidden Love" -- sell by the tens of thousands. The action series "Valley of the Wolves" is a sensation, the lead actor lending his name to cafes. His own posters are computer-altered to show him in traditional Kurdish or Arab dress -- grist for a graduate school seminar on the adaptability of cultural symbols.Oil is still king in Iraq, and as much as anything else, underlines Turkey's interests here. The pipeline from Kirkuk, Iraq, to Ceyhan, Turkey, already carries roughly 25 percent of Iraq's oil exports.The Turks have signed on to the ambitious $11 billion Nabucco gas pipeline project, which may bypass Russia and bring Iraqi gas to Europe. Turkish companies have two stakes in oil contracts, and two more in gas projects, potentially worth billions of dollars. In a land of oil, no place has more than Basra.Hmmmm......."Outreach to Muslims"....Obama....Erdogan.The fallen soldiers thank you.Read the full story here.

• Al Qaeda suicide bomb attacks thwarted after Moroccans smash Saharan cell.An Al Qaeda cell planning suicide bombing attacks in North Africa has been smashed, the Moroccan government announced today.Police discovered three weapon caches containing 30 Kalashnikov automatic rifles and two rocket-propelled grenade launchers in the Western Sahara.Interior Minister Taieb Cherqaoui said the 27-member cell was also preparing to mount bank robberies to finance its activities.The Western Sahara is part of Morocco for decades but is the centre of a dispute with a local independence movement called the Polisario Front, which also lays claim to the territory.Al Qaeda's North African branch operates throughout the vast arid region, from Mauritania to Chad, but has not been known to have a presence in Western Sahara.The cell was led by a Moroccan citizen based in a training camp in Mali. There was another in Algeria.Al-Qaeda in Islamic North Africa, known by the acronym AQIM, is an Algeria-based group that joined Osama bin Laden's terrorist network in 2006.Algeria, Mauritania, Mali and Niger have opened a joint military HQ in the region in an unusual, united effort to combat terrorism and trafficking across borders.Read the full story here.

• Top detective blasts 'culture of silence' that allows Asian Muslim sex gangs to groom white girls... because police and social services fear being branded racist.Police and social services have been accused of fuelling a culture of silence which has allowed hundreds of young white girls to be exploited by Asian men for sex.Agencies have identified a long-term pattern of offending by gangs of men, predominantly from the British Pakistani community, who have befriended and abused hundreds of vulnerable girls aged 11 to 16.Experts claim the statistics represent a mere fraction of a 'tidal wave' of offending in counties across the Midlands and the north of England which has been going on for more than a decade.A senior officer at West Mercia police has called for an end to the 'damaging taboo' connecting on-street grooming with race. Detective Chief Inspector Alan Edwards said: 'These girls are being passed around and used as meat.'To stop this type of crime you need to start everyone talking about it but everyone's been too scared to address the ethnicity factor.'No one wants to stand up and say that Pakistani guys in some parts of the country are recruiting young white girls and passing them around their relatives for sex, but we need to stop being worried about the racial complication.'In a briefing paper, researchers at University College London's Jill Dando Institute of Security and Crime Science concurred that victims were typically white girls while 'most central offenders are Pakistani'. The offenders were not viewed as paedophiles but had picked the girls 'because of their malleability'.The report concluded that 'race is a delicate issue' that should be 'handled sensitively but not brushed under the carpet'.In total, 56 people, with an average age of 28, were found guilty of crimes including rape, child abduction, indecent assault and sex with a child. Three of the 56 were white, 53 were Asian. Of those, 50 were Muslim and a majority were members of the British Pakistani community. Mohammed Shafiq, director of the Lancashire-based Ramadhan Foundation, a charity working for peaceful harmony between different communities, said last year: ‘I think the police are overcautious because they are afraid of being branded racist.'These men are criminals and should be treated as criminals — whatever their race.’Hmmmmm....I thought Lady Justice was supposed to be blind,how can she distinct race?Read the full scandal story here.

• Indonesian maid who was burned and tortured by employer shows wounds to Saudi court.Sumiati Binti Salan Mustapa, 23, "showed the judge her injuries, especially her head," said Diddi Wahyudi, an Indonesian consular official in Jeddah.The Saudi woman was arrested after allegedly beating Sumiati so severely as to break bones and cause internal bleeding, putting a hot iron to her head and stabbing and slashing her with scissors.During the hearing, the woman "denied everything, saying that the maid has beaten herself," Wahyudi told AFP by telephone.But "the judge said that everybody knows from these pictures that (the maid) must have been beaten by someone" when he was showed photographs of Sumiati's wounds, Wahyudi added.The Indonesian official also said the Saudi woman's son has earlier testified against his mother.Wayhudi said the next hearing was set for a week later without specifying a fixed date.The case, being heard in the city of Medina, had been postponed on December 28 because the maid was not yet ready to confront the woman, Wahyudi said at the time."Sumiati is not psychologically ready to appear in court."Saudi Arabia's labour ministry said it was sorry about the case, but called it an isolated incident.In November, Wahyudi said Sumiati had undergone surgery, but that she would need to be operated on once more.Wahyudi said she was still seeking her pay and other benefits from several months of employment in Saudi Arabia."She has nothing, she does not even have a single abaya," Wahyudi said of the black cloak that all women in Saudi Arabia must wear in public."She wants her employer to be punished severely," he added.He said the Indonesian government was still pursuing the case of another maid, Kikim Komalasari, whose dead body was found near Abha earlier in November after being beaten.Two people, her employers, have been arrested in that case, Wahyudi said.Read the full story here.

• HT:NorthEastIntelligence.Obama’s Justice Department visual acceleration to global governance.Some might recall the Internet controversy that took place last July when the U.S. Department of Justice removed the American flag header from its website, replacing “Old Glory” with a solid black background. In conjunction with the stripping of the stars and stripes, controversy increased with the inclusion of a quote placed on nearly every page of the DOJ web site that reads “The common law is the will of Mankind issuing from the Life of the People.” Based on the number of e-mails I’ve received over the last few days, it is apparent that many seem to be just now learning of the USDOJ web site makeover.Whether you first learned about this change in the American Spectator which reportedly “broke” the story, or in an article penned by Stephanie Mencimer at Mother Jones who accuses “Obama-haters these days seem to find evidence everywhere of socialism creeping into the federal government,” this issue has never been more important than it is today.We at MFS were among the first to mention the makeover!We are bearing witness to the historic unveiling of the Socialist agenda at its most proactive stage.Arguing that the DOJ web site redesign and the inclusion of the abbreviated quote is mere conspiratorial nonsense are as plentiful as they are intellectual deficient, as illustrated in this article that was published at the Daily KOS. When the far left are not engaged in the nescient bashing of the existence of a larger agenda, some on the right appear to exhibit their blissful ignorance by missing entirely a tactic that seems to be in vogue under Obama, which is the tactic of omission.Obama was reported to have twice omitted references to the “Creator” (i.e. God) during speeches referencing the Declaration of Independence. That’s no big deal, according to Caroline Fredrickson, the executive director of the American Constitution Society. Copies of the ACS pocket constitution that include the Gettysburg Address reportedly omit the words “under God.” Responding to the criticism of the omission, Fredrickson cites ultra-conservative right wing “hysteria” and calls the reports of the omission as a “distraction” from the real issues. Where have we heard that before?Hmmmm.....If he looses the re-election what are the odds they will grab power?Read the full story here.

• HT:JudicialWatch.Govt. Spends $1 Mil So Illegal Border Crossers Don’t Drown.In a reprehensible waste of taxpayer funds, a government agency is spending more than $1 million to install floating devices along a canal where hundreds of illegal immigrants have drowned trying to sneak into the United States.The costly project was inspired by pressure from the mainstream media, which portrayed government officials as “indifferent and callous” that scores of illegal immigrants have died in the canal that runs along the California-Mexico border. More than 100 life-saving buoys have been bolted across the desert waterway in the last few months at a cost of $1.1 million, according to a national news wire.The floating devices are installed every half mile and each has dozens of orange balls to single them out. Initially they were going to be placed at a 45-degree angle pointing downstream toward Mexico so that anyone who grabbed a line would be pushed south by the current. Human rights advocates fought the plan, arguing that angled lines would be more deadly for determined illegal aliens so the lines are being placed straight across.Additionally, crews are posting more than 1,400 bilingual signs that warn of dangerous waters. Known as the All-American Canal, the treacherous waterway spans about 82 miles along the southern border near Calexico. It’s operated by the Imperial Irrigation District, a public agency that manages more than 3,000 miles of canals and drains and supplies water for California’s vast agriculture industry.
  Hmmmm....He sure takes care of his potential voters?Read the full story here.

• HT:Rferl.The Taseer Assassination And The Tyranny Of Fear.The killing of Salman Taseer, governor of Pakistan’s Punjab Province, is one of those epochal moments that we encounter in politics from time to time. It’s one of those moments that makes you realize that a fundamental shift has occurred, that something has broken beyond repair. I’m reminded of Ryszard Kapuscinski’s great reportage on the revolution in Iran, “Shah of Shahs.” In it, Kapuscinski describes that mysterious tipping point when a demonstrator loses his fear of the security forces and refuses to listen when the shah’s once all-powerful police order him to step back. Suddenly, all involved realize that the power of the state to cow people into obedience has been broken.The murder of Taseer has the same quality -- though here the poles are reversed. In the case of modern Pakistan, it is now the tyranny of fear that is reaching into the heart of the political system. It has become extremely hard to see how anyone can pull the country’s political culture back from the brink. It’s not just that Taseer was an advocate of a secular, pluralistic Pakistan who stood up, on a number of occasions, to the forces of intolerance -- a man who was, on various occasions, imprisoned, tortured, and beaten for publicly defending the rights of minorities and the urgency of need for the freedom of expression. It’s not just that he was the head of Pakistan’s richest and most populous province. And it’s not just that he was an example of someone from humble origins who managed to rise to one of the highest offices in the country by dint of his own hard work.No, what’s particularly worrisome about this case is the failure of the political system to protect one of its own. When the state surrenders its monopoly on violence to those who stand outside of it, it can no longer be described as a functioning state.The West, and especially the United States, should also take notice. It is time for policymakers in Washington to understand that Pakistan is not simply a vexing sideshow to the war in Afghanistan. Pakistan -- populous, chaotic, and nuclear-armed -- needs to be taken seriously in its own right. An imploding Pakistan promises immense pain and turmoil to itself and the world at large. Let’s hope that this realization doesn’t come too late.Hmmm.....Perhaps General Ashfaq Kayani will interfere before it disintegrates completely.Read the full story here.

• R. Lee Ermey and the hazards of hero worship.Late last month, one viral video managed to awaken the internet during that comatose No Man’s Land between Christmas Eve and New Year’s Day.The video showed actor R. Lee Ermey — most famous as the real life U.S. Marine drill sergeant turned fictional one in the film Full Metal Jacket (1987) — at a Toys 4 Tots fundraiser. In his inimitable fashion, Ermey loudly denounced President Obama’s “socialism.” The crowd more or less cheered, the rest of the dais blanched — and a viral video was born.According to liberal blogger John V. Moore of Windy City Watch, who originally uploaded the video to YouTube, it received close to half a million visits. It was emailed to me repeatedly by fellow conservatives and libertarians, and posted with effusive praise at numerous blogs (although, tellingly, not this one).But I’ve been blogging for more than ten years, so my fairly well-honed sense of what bandwagons not to jump on told me to quietly steer clear of Ermey’s admittedly stirring and entertaining rant.Sure enough, yesterday Ermey posted this statement on his homepage:“A Message from the Gunny‘I recently appeared at a fundraising event designed to collect toys and raise awareness for underprivileged children. While that event succeeded in raising thousands of dollars and hundreds of toys for this cause, I regret that I delivered a monologue that was inappropriately critical of the President. I was trying to be entertaining and simply went too far in this instance. I am mindful that my success as an entertainer relates in part to my experience in the Marine Corps, my devotion to its members, and the deep respect I have for members of all our Armed Forces. My comments should not be seen as reflecting on them or their views. I was just very disappointed in the amount of success that we were having raising toys and money for the underprivileged children this season. The poor economy has greatly hampered our efforts. My comments were misguided, and emotionally based, and for that I am truly sorry.’Semper Fi”!Hmmmmm.....What has become of America?Read the full story here.

• Related:Pakistan: Hardline Stance | Religious bloc condones murder.More than 500 religious scholars belonging to the Barelvi school of thought paid rich tributes to the assassin of Punjab Governor Salmaan Taseer on Tuesday and urged ‘Muslims across the country’ to boycott the funeral ceremony.While the Deoband and Barelvi leaders appear to be on the same page when it comes to condemning the slain Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) leader for terming the blasphemy law as a black law, the Barelvi scholars, who claim to be the ‘true lovers of the Holy Prophet (pbuh)’, have taken a more hardline stance.The largest body of the Barelvi group, the Jamaate Ahle Sunnat Pakistan (JASP), whose directions are considered binding on every other organisation that follows the same school of thought, issued a statement saying that “No Muslim should attend the funeral or even try to pray for Salmaan Taseer or even express any kind of regret or sympathy over the incident.”The statement which has been endorsed by senior Barelvi leaders such as Professor Saeed Shah Kazmi, Allama Syed Riaz Hussain Shah, Syed Shah Turabul Haq Qadri and Hajji Mohammad Tayyab calls the assassin Mumtaz Hussain Qadri ‘Ashiqe Rasool Ghaziye Mulk (Lover of the Prophet, Commander of the Country)’.“We pay rich tributes and salute the bravery, valour and faith of Mumtaz Qadri,” the statement said, adding that the ministers, politicians, ‘so-called’ intellectuals and anchor persons should learn lessons from the governor’s death. The scholars said that those who insult the Holy Prophet (pbuh), even if they did not intend to, were liable for death.Hajji Mohammad Tayyab, who is also the secretary general of the Sunni Ittehad Council, told The Express Tribune that scholars had “repeatedly urged the president, prime minister and Governor Taseer himself that if their knowledge about the blasphemy law are limited, they should consult them and avoid debating over the issue as it would inflame the people and then anything could happen.”Shah Turabul Haq Qadri’s son Siraj, also a senior member of the JASP, endorsed the statement and said it was now binding on every Muslim.Jamiat Ulemae Pakistan (JUP) central executive committee member Maulana Shabbir went as far as saying that in his opinion Salmaan Taseer was ‘Wajubul Qatil’ (must be killed according to divine law). “He had called the divine law of God, a black law and tried to protect a condemned blasphemer,” he said.Hmmmm.....How long before the two sides clash?Read the full story here.

• Alarm in Japan for child judo deaths.Tokyo (AsiaNews / Agencies) - According to research, on average four children die during judo classes every year in Japan. The dramatic statistics worry parents, especially now that the country is to make the sport compulsory in schools as of 2012. The parents' association Japan Judo Accident Victims is urging the government to impose strict safety rules on judo lessons in schools. The organization was created in March 2010 by Yoshihiro Murakawa. The man is convinced that his grandson Koji, 12, died as a result of a "reckless" training session. Murakawa said: "Many factors are involved here. First of all, many judo instructors at Japanese schools are too ignorant about what to do when a serious incident occurs". He also criticized those teachers who neglect simple safety measures, such as the right to grant rest to the children.Koji's mother had warned the judo master of the child’s asthma problems when she signed him up for the course in a school in Shiga Prefecture (Kansai region, in the centre of Honshu island). In 2009, the boy lost consciousness during a randori (a simulation of combat) against larger partners, despite his obvious fatigue. Koji went into a coma and died a month later. Mr. Murakawa’s complaint is not against the martial art in itself, but a "military culture" imposed by judo masters, that allows for punches and kicks as a method of teaching a rigid discipline to students. "The children - he said - for fear of being beaten must respect their coach, and never ask to rest".According to research conducted by Ryo Uchida, a professor at Aichi University of Education, since 1983 at least 110 children were killed while practicing judo. Between 2009 and 2010, as reported by a local newspaper, some 13 children have died. The latest case occurred last November and involved a child of six years of age.“Judo is an inspiring sport and very educative to one’s mind,” Uchida said.But schools must have a safety guideline.
  Hmmmm.....Bushidō...meaning the "Way of the Warrior" making it's comeback?Read the full story here.

• 64% of Turks: Freeze ties with Israel.Survey finds US, Israel seen by Turkish citizens as top threat, followed by Iran; only 27.9 percent say ties with Jewish state should be improved.The United States and Israel top the list of countries that Turks see as a threat, according to an opinion poll seen by AFP Wednesday. The survey, conducted by the Ankara-based Metropoll research company last month, found that 42.6 percent saw the United States as "the greatest external threat," with another 23.7% singling out Israel. Turkey's eastern neighbor Iran ranked third, listed by three percent of the respondents, while another neighbor and traditional rival Greece come fourth with 2.3%. Hmmmm....It's pretty clear by now where Erdogan is moving Turkey.Ennemies : Israel - USA , friends :Iran - Pakistan - Palestine - Syria and Afghanistan.Get Turkey out of NATO NOW !Read the full story here.

• HT:Translating Jihad. Al-Aqsa Foundation Accuses Israel of Attempting to Judaize Mosques.More anti-semitic fearmongering in Palestine, this time from the al-Aqsa Foundation, which was named a specially-designated global terrorist by the Treasury Department for its ties to Hamas.Zionist Plans Accelerated for Judaizing Jerusalem Mosques and the Wailing Wall.The Zionist occupation recently took a number of accelerated actions to Judaize mosques in occupied Jerusalem as well as the Wailing Wall, which is located west of the blessed al-Aqsa Mosque.The Zionist occupation has designated millions of dollars to Judaize occupied Jerusalem, such as for example the 'Ayn Salwan Mosque and the Mosque of Qariat Burj al-Nawatir, according to the al-Aqsa Foundation for Waqf [Islamic endowment] and Heritage.The foundation requested that inhabitants of the occupied lands under the 1948 boundaries, as well as inhabitants of occupied Jerusalem, intensify their visits to the mosques.Read the full story here.

• HT:WND.Now look who else is infiltrating CPAC.Conservative leader raises questions about host of popular, annual event.WASHINGTON – Another headache has emerged for the largest annual gathering of conservatives slated for next month. With the Conservative Political Action Conference under fire for allowing participation by a homosexual activist group called GOProud and for a financial scandal in which some $400,000 was misappropriated under the watch of current leadership, Frank Gaffney, a leader of the conservative movement for the last 30 years, charges that CPAC has come under the influence of the Muslim Brotherhood, which is working to bring America under Saudi-style Shariah law. Gaffney, deputy assistant secretary of defense under Ronald Reagan, is founder and president of the Center for Security Policy and co-author of the new book "Shariah: The Threat to America." He told WND that Islamism has infiltrated the American Conservative Union, the host of CPAC, in the person of Washington attorney and political activist Suhail Khan and a group called Muslims for America. Khan is a member of the ACU board and, according to Muslims for America, will assist the group's presence at CPAC during the 2011 meeting Feb. 10-12. After serving as a Republican congressional aide in the late 1990s, Khan joined the White House staff of the George W. Bush administration as a liaison to conservative and veterans groups. He was transferred to the Department of Transportation after the Sept. 11 al-Qaida terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, when it was reported that Khan's father, Mahboob Khan, leader of a large mosque in Santa Clara, Calif., had allowed Osama bin Laden's No. 2 man, Dr. Ayman al-Zawahiri, to raise money there."Suhail is the firstborn son of the late Mahboob Khan, a founding father of the Muslim Brotherhood movement in America," said Sperry, a Hoover Institution media fellow. "Suhail has been a consultant to CAIR [The Council on American-Islamic Relations] and served on committees at ISNA [the Islamic Society of North America], both of which the government says are fronts for Hamas and its parent the Muslim Brotherhood."Sperry says some members of Congress and their staffs have no idea Khan is "a Muslim activist with direct connections to Muslim Brotherhood groups implicated by the government in a conspiracy to raise millions of dollars for terrorism right here in America." "The Brotherhood's stated mission," says Gaffney, "is to destroy Western civilization from within. Their agenda for the U.S. and the world is the triumph of Shariah law worldwide under a ruler known as a caliph."According to Gaffney, Islamists in the United States are implementing a doctrine called "dawa," which he describes as a "pre-violent" form of jihad intended to advance the process of Islamizing a non-Muslim country. "Every Muslim activist is part of dawa," said Sperry.The best source about their intentions is the king of dawa, Qaradawi. Yusuf Qaradawi [is] the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood and the world's most influential Islamic cleric, according to Andrew McCarthy, the former lead prosecutor of those responsible for the first World Trade Center attack in 1993, and author of "The Grand Jihad: How Islam and the Left Sabotage America." Qaradawi famously boasted: "We will conquer Europe, we will conquer America, not through the sword but through dawa."Hmmmmm....We don't want to take over your country? Read the full story here.

• The yuan to rise by 5 percent within the year. Beijing China will allow an up to 5% appreciation of the renminbi yuan reported the newspaper China Securities Journal today. The paper is not an official publication, but it is well versed in national economic policy. The appreciation of the yuan is a major U.S. demand on China, which accuses Beijing of manipulating the value its currency to facilitate exports. For its part, Beijing has resisted raising the value to avoi higher labour costs that would lead to unemployment and social unrest. The "currency war of" has created tensions between the two superpowers. Many analysts see China's move as a "gift” by Hu Jintao to Barack Obama ahead of his state visit to the U.S., scheduled for January 19 next.Read the full story here.

• Video: Muslim KFC halal branch employee goes jihad on customer who requested bacon.A worker at a KFC restaurant in Sydney has been suspended after he was filmed screaming vicious insults and threatening to attack a customer.The violent outburst happened at a Halal-friendly KFC in Punchbowl on December 26, allegedly after a customer became angry after being refused bacon on their burger.The Punchbowl restaurant does not serve bacon or pork in accordance with Islamic law, and one employee can be heard saying "we don't have bacon" before the other begins yelling."Don't record me bitch!" he screams as he approaches the counter. "Don't f---ing record me".The employee continues to yell and smacks the cash register display on its side, before other workers grab him and lead him outside."I'm gonna f---in break your head bro," he says to the person filming as he is led around the corner out of sight.A spokesman for KFC Australia told ninemsn the employee had been suspended over the incident and offered counselling.Hmmmm......"Islam the religion of Peace"Read the full story here.

• HT:TundraTabloids.Finnish network TURKU cableTV uses Iranian Press TV for English language news service.And the owners at the new cable company do not see a problem with using (the genocidal, terrorist funding and supporting, Holocaust denying) Iran’s state PRESS TV as a English news source? Really?Here is what someone from Turku who uses Turku Cable TV sent the Tundra Tabloids after discovering that the BBC news was no longer a free service and what took its place.Hmmmm.......Connect the dots......Read the full story here.

• India Wants to Extend Range of Nuke-Capable Missile.Undettered by the failure of the upgraded nuclear-capable Agni-II Missile, the Defence Research and Development Organisation (DRDO) was working on increasing the range of the surface-to-surface intermediate range ballistic missile.Talking to reporters on the sidelines of the the 98th Indian Science Congress at SRM University at suburban Kattankulathur, DRDO Director General V K Saraswat said a component problem had led to the failure of the Agni-II Missile which had lifted off from the Wheeler Island off Orissa Coast in the first week of December. He said the quality of components were tested statistically and functionally. ''But we are working on increasing the missile range,'' he added. The test-fire of the surface-to-surface missile had failed after it deviated from its trajectory immediately after lift-off.The indigenously developed new variant of the Agni Series Missile was an improved version of the existing Agni-II Missile and would have better accuracy and range. The missile was incorporated with some advanced features to increase the accuracy. Dr Saraswat said the DRDO would get the initial operational clearance later this month for inducting the Light Combat Aircraft (LCA) into the Indian Air Force.To a question, he denied the DRDO was building satellites for strategic use.Hmmmm.....Talk peace,prepare for war?Read the full story here.

• Jackdaws in Sweden, fish in Brazil and New Zealand and crabs in England are new victims of global spate of mysterious animal deaths.

1. 50 dead jackdaws found on city street in Sweden.
2. 100 tons of sardines, croaker and catfish wash up dead on Brazilian coast.
3. Hundreds of fish dead in New Zealand.
4. And in Britain, 40,000 devil crabs join list of casualties.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Meet the homeless man with the golden radio voice... and now he is set to make a million.He's the penniless man with the golden voice... and now he's finally found the Midas touch.For years, homeless Ted Williams has been forced to eke out a living begging on the roadside in Columbus, Ohio.But now the recovering alcoholic is set to transform his life after a passing camera crew captured his priceless asset - his voice.The unlikely star was today besieged with job offers after the recording of his impossibly smooth tones spread like wildfire across the web.Hmmmm....Happy New Year !Read and see the full story here.