MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Federal agency to spearhead new drug-development center.The Obama administration has become so concerned about the slowing pace of new drugs coming out of the pharmaceutical industry that officials have decided to start a billion-dollar government drug development center to help create medicines.The new effort comes as many large drugmakers, unable to find enough new drugs, are paring back research. Promising discoveries in such illnesses as depression and Parkinson's that once would have led to clinical trials are instead going unexplored because companies have neither the will nor the resources to undertake the effort. Drug companies have typically spent twice as much on marketing as on research, a business model that is increasingly suspect.The initial financing of the government's new drug center is small compared with the $45.8 billion that the industry estimates it invested in research in 2009. The cost of bringing a single drug to market can exceed $1 billion, according to some estimates.Hopes of new money may be optimistic. House Republicans have promised to cut the kind of discretionary domestic spending that supports the health institutes, and officials are already bracing for significant cuts this year.But Collins has hinted that he is willing to cannibalize other parts of the health institutes to bring more resources to the new center."There are some people that would say this is not the time to do something bold and ambitious because the budget is so tight," he said. "But we would be irresponsible not to take advantage of scientific opportunity, even if it means tightening in other places."For the plan to go into effect by October, the administration must by law get rid of one of the 27 centers and institutes already in existence at the NIH — something that has never been done before. So the administration plans to downgrade the National Center for Research Resources, in part by giving some of its functions to the new drug center.Researchers and staff members connected to the research resources center have inundated a complaint blog about the coming change. Mark Lively, a professor of biochemistry at Wake Forest University and a member of an advisory council to the research resources center, said he could not understand why the administration was moving so quickly with its plans."And the NIH is not likely to be very good at drug discovery, so why are they doing this?" Lively asked.Hmmmm.....Why?Read the full story here.

• Provisional results show South Sudan votes to secede.Provisional results from South Sudan's referendum show that almost 99 percent of voters have chosen independence, the referendum commission's website said on Sunday after 98.7 percent of the votes had been counted.The referendum was promised under a 2005 north-south peace deal which ended Africa's longest civil war. A vote for secession was widely expected because of persistent tension between the mainly Muslim north and southerners who mainly Christian or follow traditional religions."As of now, 100 percent of the North and (overseas) votes and 98.7 percent of the South votes have been processed," the commission's website (southernsudan2011.com/) said.The provisional and incomplete results showed that 98.81 percent of voters wanted secession, it said, confirming earlier returns.The votes need to be sent to the commission's headquarters in Khartoum for checking before the preliminary results are announced in a week. The south is likely to declare independence on July 9.Exactly how the two will disentangle their economies, share oil wealth and demarcate the border remain to be decided.The disputed central Abyei region remains the major sticking point as both sides claim the area, which saw deadly clashes between tribes during the week-long referendum this month.Most analysts believe neither north nor south wants or can afford a return to all-out war. The south's budget is 98 percent derived from oil, most of which is produced in the south, but which is refined, transported and administered by the north.Both sides have used proxy militias which could provoke wider clashes.The civil war between north and south, fueled by differences over oil, ideology, ethnicity and religion, claimed an estimated 2 million lives and destabilized much of east Africa.Hmmmm.....The countdown to war has started....again.Read the full story here.

• HT:CreepingSharia.NY: Teens Desperate to Help Stop Honor Killings.Buffalo, NY (WKBW)Young Iranian girls are forced into abusive, temporary marriages. Their heart wrenching personal stories were shared by muslim author Nadia Shahram at Buffalo Seminary all girls high school, and the stories struck a chord with the teens even though they live in a completely different world.“Reading about how girls younger than me are getting married off and how they’re abused by their husbands and beaten and really looked down on by all of society, that seemed really wrong,” said Eliza Hopkins, a sophomore at Buffalo Seminary.“It’s a horrible thing when you can’t really turn for people to help, and I just hope that those girls know that here in Buffalo Seminary they have support,” said Jourdan Green, also a sophomore at Buffalo Seminary.Hmmm......There is no "honor" in murder!Read the full story here.

• Obama to Press Centrist Agenda in His Address.WASHINGTON — President Obama will outline an agenda for “winning the future” in his State of the Union address on Tuesday night, striking a theme of national unity and renewal as he stresses the need for government spending in key areas and an attack on the budget deficit. Mr. Obama previewed the themes in a video e-mailed Saturday evening to supporters who had helped in his election campaign. But the video made plain that his speech would be geared more broadly toward the political center, to independent voters and business owners and executives alienated by the expansion of government and the partisan legislative fights of the past two years. “My No. 1 focus,” he said, “is going to be making sure that we are competitive, and we are creating jobs not just now but well into the future.” As he indicated to supporters, Mr. Obama plans to cite reasons for optimism but acknowledge that more needs to be done. “An economy that was shrinking is now growing again. We’ve created more than a million jobs over the last year. The stock market is back up, and corporate profits are healthy again,” he said in the video. “So we’ve made progress, but as all of you know, from talking to friends and neighbors, seeing what’s happening in your communities, we’ve still got a lot more work to do.”Hmmmmmm....... We’ve created more than a million jobs over the last year.How many jobs did you destroy last year would be more interesting to know.Read the full fairytale story here.More here.

• Dr Kermit Gosnell: Woman 'forced to go through with abortion she wanted to halt' at 'House of Horrors' clinic.A woman treated in a ‘House of Horrors’ abortion clinic said she decided to keep the baby at the last minute - but medics hit her and continued with the termination.Davida Johnson, 30, developed veneral disease and suffered four miscarriages after being treated.Philadelphia doctor Kermit Gosnell allegedly snapped the spinal cords of seven newborn babies. He has been charged over the deaths along with nine of his employees – including a 15-year-old high school student.Ms Johnson said the clinic was full of dazed women sitting in dirty, bloodstained recliners when she went to undergo the procedure in 2001 - but changed her mind.Davida Johnson explained: 'I said, “I don't want to do this,” and he smacked me. They tied my hands and arms down and gave me more medication,' she said.Ms Johnson, then 21, turned to Gosnell after being scared away from Planned Parenthood in downtown Philadelphia by protestors.Someone sent her to the West Philadelphia clinic, at the Women's Medical Society, saying anti-abortion protesters wouldn't be a problem there and she said she paid $400.Besides his abortion practice, authorities said, Gosnell ranked third in the state for the number of prescriptions he wrote for OxyContin, the highly addictive narcotic painkiller.Authorities allege that he left blank prescriptions for such drugs at his office and allowed staff to make them out to cash-paying patients who streamed in during the day, when he wasn't there.Hmmmm.....The death penalty is to easy for "People" like this.Life on the chaingang without parole!Read the full story here.

• The United States has a choice in Tunisia.The ongoing Tunisian Intifada cannot yet quite be termed a revolution; Tunisians are still revolting, aspiring for bread and freedom. This intifada will go down in history as a revolution if it gets either bread or freedom – and as a great revolution if it gets both. Internally, “the one constant in revolutions is the primordial role played by the army,” Jean Tulard, a French historian of revolutions, told Le Monde in an interview, and the Tunisian military seems to be forthcoming so far. Externally, the United States stands to be a critical contributor to either outcome in Tunisia, both because of its historical close relations with the Tunisian military and because of its regional hegemony and international standing as a world power, but the U.S. seems to be shortcoming so far.The Tunisian Intifada has proven that democracy and regime change can be homemade without any U.S. intervention. Ironically, any such U.S. intervention is now viewed in the region as a threat of a counterrevolution that would preempt turning the intifada into a revolution. A U.S. hands-off policy is the only way to democracy in Tunisia but a hands-off policy is absolutely not a trademark of U.S. regional foreign policy. The U.S. thus now has a choice now in Tunisia, but it is a choice that requires a U-turn both in its approach to Arab democracy and in its traditional foreign policy.The U.S. risks losing strategically in Tunisia unless it decides on such a historic U-turn, because the Tunisian Intifada politically targeted a U.S.-supported regime and economically targeted a failed U.S. model of development. On Nov. 13, 2007, the Georgetown University Human Rights Institute and Law Center hosted a conference to answer the question, “Tunisia: A Model of Middle East Stability or an Incubator of Extremism?” But Tunisia now has given the answer: Tunisia is neither; it is on an indigenous Arab way to democracy and moderation.Read the full story here.

• Iran announces launch of new cyber police units.TEHRAN, Iran — Iran's state TV says the country has launched its first cyber police unit in the latest attempt by authorities to gain an edge in the digital world. The Internet has been a key outlet for Iran's political opposition since the disputed presidential election in 2009. Iran also has been trying to boost its Web defenses after the Stuxnet computer worm made its way into computers involved with its nuclear program.The Sunday report quotes Iran's top police chief, Gen. Ismail Ahmadi Moghaddam, as saying the Net has provided opportunities to "others" for spying as well as misuse of both public and private information.The first cyber cops patrolling the Web are in Tehran. Gen. Moghaddam says they will be in all police stations in the country by early 2012.Read the full story here.

• Iran - Min of Health warns stuxnet worm has spread to medical equipment.According to Mehr News Agency, Deputy for Research and Technology within the Ministry of Health statement said medical imaging devices against stuxnet impaired function and why are the hospitals has warned.However, Reza Tqypvr, Minister of Communications and Information Technology in the Persian month Mehr 89 of 28 identified perpetrators stuxnet spy worm release said. Tqypvr to Iranian state television said: "The path through the release stuxnet portable flash memory had been identified." He expressed that the people wanted or unwanted spyware worms have moved into the country, had added: "Some of these foreign experts who were traveling in industrial centers, and some people who through ignorance memory portable transmit the worm Says". According to him, "almost all areas have been identified stuxnet infected computers."Read full story here.(Google Translate).

• Can the economy block the second term chances of the Obama administration? Yes, it can!The United States is still struggling with the economic recession. The Bush administration wrecked the economy which played quite an important role in the election of a Democrat president. Nevertheless, the U.S. could not leave the crisis behind with its new administration. Actually, the numbers are slightly better but the recovery is taking place at a slow pace. The voters underlined its inadequacy in the midterm elections by giving control of the House to the Republican Party. They may do the same for the Oval Office in 2012 as well.The economy holds the top of the list as the most important problem of the country. According to a Gallup poll conducted on Jan. 7-9, 29 percent of Americans responded that the most important problem in the country is unemployment and 26 percent gave the answer of the economy in general. Thus, the main concerns pertain to the economy and this situation may continue for some time. Last week Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress that the recovery for the job market may take four or five years. From past experiences we know that the U.S. electorate tends to punish the incumbent presidents for bad economic performance and reward for their successes. Hence, the continuance of the current economic situation may end with a disaster for the Obama administration in the 2012 presidential elections.Hmmmmmm........Yes it can and yes it will!Read the full story here.

• Senate Republicans to Oppose Obama’s Spending Plans.The Senate’s top Republican, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, said on Sunday that his party will vigorously oppose the spending initiatives President Obama plans to include in his State of the Union address on Tuesday because “it’s not a time to be looking at pumping up government spending.”And the number two Republican in the House, Representative Eric Cantor of Virginia, said that his party would press ahead with its plans for immediate cuts in spending, including in the defense budget. “Every dollar should be on the table,” he said. In a video Mr. Obama sent to supporters on Saturday that gave a preview of the speech, the president indicated that he would seek to balance an attack on the deficit with increased spending in fields like education, research and technological innovation that he called crucial to long-term job growth.Speaking on Fox News Sunday, Mr. McConnell countered that “The American public, as one pundit put it, issued a massive restraining order,” against government spending and excessive debt in November’s Congressional elections. Mr. Cantor, the House majority leader, said in an appearance on NBC’s “Meet the Press,” that a key confrontation between Democrats and Republicans over the issue of spending would come when Congress will be asked by the president to raise the ceiling on the national debt. Mr. Cantor has called that vote “a leverage moment,” when Republicans can extract concessions for their support. “Let me be clear,” Mr. Cantor said. “Republicans are not going to vote for this increase in the debt limit unless there are serious spending cuts and reforms.”Mr. McConnell did not outline where he would like to cut spending, but Senator John McCain of Arizona, the Republican presidential candidate in 2008, said Washington needs “to take on some of the sacred cows.” “Agriculture subsidies are outrageous today,” he said, in an appearance on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”. “Ethanol is a joke.” Another target should be federal subsidies to the Post Office, which Mr. McCain called a “model of inefficiency.” “And then we have to go after entitlements,” Mr. McCain said. “And entitlements have to be on the table sooner rather than later. You and I could write the solution to Social Security problems on the back of an envelope.”Hmmmm........The only solution there is vote Obama out in 2012!Read the full story here.

• Secret docs: PA ceded much of Jerusalem.Al-Jazeera network publishes 1,600 confidential papers detailing concessions made during past 20 years of peace negotiations, including deal offered by Olmert to accept 1,000 Palestinian refugees a year for 'humanitarian' reasons.Secret documents published by Al-Jazeera reveal that the Palestinian negotiations team to talks with Israel agreed to cede almost all Jewish neighborhoods in east Jerusalem during secret talks between the sides.The latest publication of thousands of classified Palestinian documents is considered the largest leak to date of protocols from the past 20 years of negotiations between Israel and the Palestinians.The documents reveal large gaps between the official Palestinian position and the personal stance of the negotiating team members.According to the leaked documents, the Palestinians agreed that Israel annex all Jewish neighborhoods in Jerusalem, except for Har Homa.However, Israel was unwilling to make any concessions in return.  The documents, also published by UK-based newspaper the Guardian under the title "Slow death of Middle East Peace Process," indicate that the Palestinian leadership offered land transfers around Jerusalem.According to the leaked papers, which will be published in full in the upcoming days, reveal that the Israeli leadership covertly approached Israeli-Arab citizens and asked if they would be willing to move to a new Palestinian state, when such a state is established.According to the records, the Palestinians expressed willingness to cede territory in the West Bank and east Jerusalem – including developed settlement blocks – in return for undeveloped land at the north of the Jordan Valley, south Mount Hebron and east of the Gaza Strip.The Palestinian agreed to let Israel keep Jerusalem's Jewish Quarter, as well as East Talpiot, Gilo, the French Hill and and Pigat Ze'ev at the north of the capital.According to a January 2010 document, Saeb Erekat told US special envoy to the Middle East George Mitchell that the Palestinians have agreed to give Israel "greater Jerusalem" – the largest Jerusalem in the history of the Jewish people.In addition, Erekat claimed the Palestinians agreed to a demilitarized Palestinian state. "What more can we give?" Erekat was quoted as saying.Hmmmm......."The never ending Story"?Read the full story here.

• European carbon market suspended over fraud fears.The European carbon market has been thrown into turmoil after the scandal-hit scheme was suspended for a week over suspicions of fraud.More than €2bn (£1.7bn) of trade is likely to be disrupted after the European Commission said it would prevent transactions until January 26. The suspension follows allegations that 475,000 carbon credits worth €7m were stolen in a hacking attack on the Czech carbon register. It appears that the intangible allowances were bounced between eastern European countries before disappearing without a trace. France's Bluenext exchange was the first to close its platform, while Austria, Poland, Estonia and Greece also shut their registries for trade. This is not the first challenge to the credibility of the €90bn annual market in carbon allowances. But it has been plagued by fraud, with Europol estimating that carbon trading criminals trying to play the system may have accounted for up to 90pc of all market activity in some European countries during 2009. Fraudulent traders mainly from Britain, France, Spain, Denmark and Holland pocketed an estimated €5bn. Carbon allowances are particularly susceptible to fraud because they are high value, intangible and easily moved between different countries. The Commission said on Wednesday it "will work to ensure that this transitional measure can be lifted swiftly for all those registries with adequate security measures". Kjersti Ulset, manager for the European carbon market at Point Carbon, said: "Hacking attacks of this type have also occurred elsewhere within the European Union in the recent past. Hmmmm.....Makes you wonder why the Obama administration wants to make cap and trade the number one priority?1 Billion Dollar for re-election a lot of money needs to be found.Read the full story here.

• Women alone should work in lingerie shops.Hellooooooo...What's wrong with this idea?DAMMAM: Most young Saudi women are hesitant to work at women-only clothes shops at a time when many of their counterparts can be seen in security staff and supervisor uniforms at commercial complexes where men are also allowed to shop.Most lingerie shops are staffed by men, largely foreigners. Even after some women activists launched a campaign to boycott such shops a few months ago, only a small number of Saudi women came forward to work as sales staff at these outlets.There are young Saudi women working as security staff and supervisors at almost all the commercial complexes opened in the recent past. Wearing uniforms, they watch the shoppers coming in and going out of showrooms and sell not only women’s garments but also that of men and children.On the other hand, there are some women who have been working in the sales sections of some traditional shops across the Kingdom. The strange thing is that even Saudi men are reluctant to work at these shops. About 98 percent of Saudi employees hired at these shops left the outlets after spending only a few days there, Al-Riyadh Arabic daily reported.Mahran Hamad, manager of a famous international brand lingerie firm in Alkhobar, said that his company had employed Saudi sales staff in the beginning.“But all of them left the firm after a few days. They were not willing to work at sales counters, especially at lingerie shops. Therefore, we had no other option but to hire foreigners to work as sales staff,” he said.Hamad noted that salesmen face the same awkward situation as women customers at most lingerie shops.“They may not have knowledge of some new brands or types of lingerie that customers want. Women customers are also hesitant to ask about the actual sizes and types they need. Most often both salesmen and women customers are too shy to go into details, and hence they keep mum,” he said, adding that salesmen should be replaced with saleswomen at least at lingerie shops. Hamad noted that young Saudi women are working as security guards at one of the showrooms at the commercial market where he works.Muhammad Al-Sayyid, a sales official of another international brand that employed a number of Saudis, said that women shoppers prefer saleswomen to men. He said some women shoppers leave the shop when they see Saudi salesmen in the lingerie section.Fahd Nasir, a young Saudi man who quit his job as a salesman at a lingerie shop, said it was impossible for him to respond to the queries made by women shoppers. “The working environment was quite unsuitable for men like me, and therefore I quit the job after working only a single day,” he said.On his part, Fahd Al Nafeei, a specialist in human resources, said that the law should be applicable to all. “There should not be any difference from place to place and job to job. If women can work as sales staff at traditional shops, what prevents them from being employed at women-only garment shops at major commercial markets?Umm Abdullah, who has been working as a saleswoman at Dammam's traditional market since its opening 28 years ago, says that she obtained a license to run a sales outlet at the market. “I face no difficulties in selling products to both men and women customers,” she said, while favoring the call to restrict sales jobs at women’s clothes shops to women.Hmmmm.....a young Saudi man who quit his job as a salesman at a lingerie shop, said it was impossible for him to respond to the queries made by women shoppers?Hey man just imagine if there were 72 virgins around?Read the full story here.

• HT:CrossRoadsArabia.Looking at Saudi Marriage.As an institution, Saudi marriage is a bit of a mess. Large numbers of Saudi women are choosing (or being force to conclude) that marriage is not in their futures. This produces the so-called ‘spinster crisis’. There’s the government-created problem of trying to force Saudis to marry Saudis, making it difficult for them to marry non-Saudis. Then there’s polygamy, fully authorized religiously, but dangerous sociologically and psychologically, particularly when the additional wives are kept in secret. There’s the issue of misyar marriages, a contracted, usually short-term marriage undertaken (it seems) largely to relieve male sexual tensions, but with no protections for the wife. And finally, there’s the problem of child marriages, particularly when we see a 70-year-old marrying a 10-year-old girl.Saudis are aware of the problems and are looking to straighten out the mess, but it’s hard going. Arab News reports on two aspects, government barriers to marriage to non-Saudis.Read the full story here.

• HT:RFERL.Kyrgyz Mosques Under Greater Scrutiny As Ties Between Islam, Extremism Emerge. Several dozen men gathered for midday prayers on a recent Sunday afternoon at the Alai central mosque in the southern Kyrgyz city of Osh.The mosque once had the reputation of attracting worshippers from Osh's Kyrgyz and Uzbek communities in nearly equal proportions. On this day, however, there are only a handful of Uzbeks attending prayers. The drop could be blamed on the still-simmering tensions between the two groups following the outbreak of deadly ethnic clashes in the country's south last June. But one Uzbek, 50-year-old Bakhadyr Tajibaev, says it's jobs, not emotions, that are behind the dwindling number of Uzbeks at the Alai mosque. "Many of them left, they emigrated," says Tajibaev, a distinguished-looking man with a full white beard and a pressed blue shirt. "They went to Russia to look for work. Since the conflict, there hasn't been much work here. That's why a lot of them are leaving." Tajibaev expresses faith that many of his fellow Uzbeks will soon return to the scarred city as the local economy returns to normal. And when they do, he says, they'll return to this mosque for prayers with their Kyrgyz neighbors."Muslims have never had a conflict with each other," Tajibaev says, looking over to the Kyrgyz imam, who nods in agreement. "Even when we had the conflict here in Osh, we didn't do it. We were together, all of us Muslims who understand Islam."Read the full story here.

• WASHINGTON: US puts Taliban Pakistan leader on terror list.The United States on Thursday placed an alleged leader in the Pakistani Taliban movement, Qari Hussain, on a terrorism blacklist."This action will help stem the flow of finances to Hussain by blocking all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Hussain has an interest and prohibiting all transactions by US persons with Hussain," the State Department said in a statement.The US government said that the group helmed by Hussain, Tehrik-E Taliban Pakistan (TTP), is "notorious for recruiting and training men of all ages as suicide bombers.""Hussain has gained particular notoriety for his heavy recruitment of children," the State Department said.Placing him on the terror list blocks "all property subject to US jurisdiction in which Hussain has an interest," and prohibits "all transactions by US persons with Hussain," the statement added.Read the full story here.

• HT:TheGhostFighters.Abercrombie Gets Bailed Out By Hawaiian Attorney General.Hawaii’s AG, Dave Louis Emerges From Obama’s Legal ‘Rabbit Hole’ To Rescue Hawaii’s Shrinking Governor From Pointless Birth Certificate Crusade.Honolulu, HI – Please excuse the laughter you hear from the gallery, but we told you so. Welcome to the party, Neil. It took you a while to come around, but we’re happy to have you on board.It appears that Hawaiian Governor Neil Abercrombie will be forced to conclude his chivalrous expedition to prove Barack Obama was born in Hawaii, after all. The new governor may not have been born yesterday, but he chose to take the obstinate route to this destination, and alas, merely finds himself among the other millions of American underlings who have already traveled the same “Obama Eligibility” road. All that outrage and “offendedness” only to realize it all ends at the office of the Hawaiian attorney general.It’s too bad, too. We thought he actually had a chance at redeeming Obama’s mum and dad…Not!Calling Abercrombie a “fool” is too harsh. However, let’s just say he’s politically selective in the application of his intelligence. If there were a way to capture Abercrombie’s futility in a 17 second video, his weak attempt to expose Obama’s epic lie, (…er..uh..truth), might be featured on YouTube’s “Fail” channel among the roster of hilarious, but painful, clips.Let this be a lesson to the rest of you governors and congressional simpletons. Obama’s grandeur shall remain divinely hidden, and there is nothing you can do about it. Who do you think you are, anyway? The government?Taylor, a veteran of the Obama eligibility saga since 2007 says the tragic consequences of Obama’s deception are reflected by Abercrombie’s example in futility.“America has slowly become the laughing stock of global politics because their president walks around ‘illegitimately naked’ while his delusional supporters applaud him as though he were wearing the ‘costume of eligibility’,” quipped Taylor, “…and the obtuse media, the lawyers, the judges and congress say nothing, know nothing and do nothing. It’s quite pathetic.”Hawaii A.G. David Louie told the governor he “…was not legally permitted to disclose information from vital records without the person’s consent,” Abercrombie spokeswoman Donalyn Dela Cruz said.Not surprisingly, Dela Cruz continued, “There’s nothing more that Governor Abercrombie can do within the law to produce Obama’s document. Unfortunately, there are conspirators who will continue to question the citizenship of our president.”Perhaps the Governor of Hawaii will fancy some questions of his own about Obama’s citizenship now, as well.To paraphrase words of a bizarre fairy tale’s heroine, “You are nothing but a pack of cards!”Hmmmmm.....A strong sense of identity gives man an idea he can do no wrong; too little accomplishes the same.Djuna Barnes.Read the full story here. And more important read the comments!

• Saudi Arabia - Bridegroom turns out to be mentally ill.A Saudi bride who waited impatiently to see her bridegroom got the shock of her life when he walked in for the wedding clutching his father’s hand like a child. Only then she knew he was a mentally retarded person.The bride, in her 20s, burst into crying and quickly asked for a divorce as hundreds of guests stared in disbelief at the bridegroom who the bride met for the first time, the Arabic language Sharq newspaper reported from the eastern province of Ihsaa on Sunday.“Her father could not ask about the bridegroom before marriage as he was in jail… her mother was also unable to see him as she was ill,” the paper said.“When she saw the bridegroom holding his father’s hand like a child, she started to cry hysterically… when she came round, she asked for divorce,” the paper added, without saying whether she was divorced.Source.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Muslims in Italy tell those concerned over Christianophobia: Convert to Islam!"Islam is the true religion; convert to Islam!” was the demand issued by a Pakistani radical Islamic organization, led by Malik Shaib, to promoters of a demonstration to be held on January 26 in Rome. The demonstraters express concern over Christianophobia in Muslim-dominated countries and, in particular, the case of Aasi Bibi - a Pakistani Christian woman who was sentenced to death for blasphemy according to Islamic law.The demonstration, known as “Italy for Asia Bibi: freedom, justice, human rights” has been promoted by a group of parliamentarians and Italian civil associations, including the multi-partisan Association of Parliamentary Friends of Pakistan, Association of Italy-Pakistan International Cooperation (Isiamed), Association of Pakistani Christians in Italy, Amnesty International – Italian Section, Community of Sant'Egidio, TV2000, Religions for Peace, and Padana Onlus.The invitation, written in Urdu, Pakistan's radical organization and forwarded to the Organising Committee, which has now informed the agency Fides, shows how the international initiatives enjoy attention and are significant for the scenario of Pakistan.The demonstration aims to reaffirm the urgency of respect for religious freedom, dignity and inalienable rights of all Pakistani citizens, of any religion; to launch a message of peace, closeness and solidarity to Asia Bibi, seeking her immediate release. It also calls for the abolition of the blasphemy law and the death penalty in Pakistan. The initiative involves more than 35 associations from the academic world, the Catholic world, from other religious communities such as Sikhs, Jews and Muslims, giving a visible sign of the extensive involvement of civil society in Italy.The Association of Pakistani Christians in Italy wrote “We thank the promoters and supporters. We want to fight for the freedom of Asia Bibi and we intend to send a message to Pakistani President Ali Zardari. We trust in the Pakistani justice system that it will verify her innocence. We support the abolition of the blasphemy law (art 295b and 295c) because it is exploited for private vendettas and jealousies, which have nothing to do with insulting the Prophet or the Koran.”Hmmmm......"There can only be one"?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.video: Sheik of Al-Azhar Ahmad Al-Tayyeb: "The Pope Is Not Bothered When Millions of Muslims Are Killed".Read and see the full see the story here.

• And now for something completely different.Logitech wants you to introduce a mouse in your living room.How does an idea of a mouse in your living room sound? Yes, that was our first reaction too but Logitech here is talking about a wireless mouse for your PC and TV, which can can be used on soft surfaces such as a sofa or tablecloth.The company today unveiled the Wireless Mouse M515, which "features a sealed bottom case that makes gliding on fabric easy and worry free, and a hand-detection sensor so the mouse is only active when you want it to be," it said in a media statement.“Millions of people are connecting their computer to the TV, and the M515 mouse was built to address the unique needs of this experience,” said said Yousef Atwan, General Manager, Logitech Middle East FZ-LCC. “As technology evolves and consumers’ habits change, Logitech continues to develop navigation devices that make it easier to control and access the things people love to do in the digital world.”The M515 is expected to be available in UAE beginning in June for a suggested retail price of Dh250, the statement added. With its hand-detection sensor, the Logitech Wireless Mouse M515 is active only when you’re gripping it — the mouse is only active when you want it to be, and it stays asleep when you don’t. A sealed bottom — so fabric fuzz won’t collect in the sensor opening — gives you cursor control no matter what surface you’re using your mouse on. And the easy-gliding base makes mousing around on couches (and blankets, cushions, clothing, carpets, even desks) easy.Logitech’s newest mouse also offers up to two years of battery life, helping you save time and money by eliminating the need to change batteries frequently. And, you’ll enjoy plug-and-forget wireless connectivity thanks to the tiny Logitech Unifying receiver.Read the full story here.

• HT:What'sUpWithThat.Cold Fusion Going Commercial!?Cold fusion isn’t usual fare for WUWT, at best it’s not a focus here, at worst it’s sorry science, and we talk about that enough already. However, it never has died, and this week there’s news about it going commercial. Well, it won’t be available for a couple years or so, but the excitement comes from a device that takes 400 watts of electrical power in and produces 12,000 watts of heat out.Most people regard cold fusion as a black eye on science. It’s credited with the advent of science by press release and its extraordinary claims were hard to reproduce. Yet, unlike the polywater fiasco of the 1970s, cold fusion has never been explained away and several experiments have been successfully reproduced. Neutrons, tritium, and other products kept some researchers working long after others had given up. Even muons (from Svensmark’s Chilling Stars) have been suggested as a catalyst. Everyone agrees that theoretical help would provide a lot of guidance, but for something that flies in the face of accepted theory, little help has come from that.Grandiose claims of changing the world have been lowered to “show me something that replaces my water heater.” Attempts at scaling up the experiments that could be reproduced all failed. Even had they worked, a lot of systems used palladium. There’s not enough of that to change the world.The bottom line is that Italian scientists Sergio Focardi and Andrea Rossi have a unit they claim takes in 400 watts of electricity and, with the assistance of nickel-hydrogen fusion, puts out 12 kilowatts of heat. Okay, that’s interesting and the power amplification doesn’t require some of the extremely careful calorimetry early experiments needed. The elements involved are affordable and if it works, things become interesting. (There are undisclosed “additives” to consider too.) The reactor is going commercial in the next few years, which may or may not mean it’s ready.Several details have not been disclosed, but there will be a paper out on Monday. Dr. Rossi reports:Yes, I confirm that Monday Jan 24 the Bologna University Report will be published on the Journal Of Nuclear Physics. I repeat that everybody will be allowed to use it in every kind of publication, online, paper, written, spoken, without need of any permission. It will be not put on it the copyright.The mechanism involved is claimed to be fusion between nickel and hydrogen. This is a bit unusual, as the typical claims are for reactions involving deuterium (proton + one neutron) and tritium (proton + two neutrons) with the gas filtering into a palladium lattice. In this case, it’s reacting with the substrate.Nickel has several isotopes that naturally occur, the belief is that all participate in the reactions. In http://www.journal-of-nuclear-physics.com/files/Rossi-Focardi_paper.pdf discusses finding copper, which has one more proton than nickel, and various isotopes that do not occur in natural nickel. It also observes that gamma radiation is not observed while the reactor was running. Comments in other articles make suggestions about why that is. Apparently they see a short burst of gamma waves when the apparatus is shutdown.Rossi leaves several hints in his comments, e.g. instability when the pressure of the hydrogen is increased, including explosions. (The commercial unit is designed to need enough electrical power so it can be shut down reliably.)What should we make of all this? In a skeptical group like this, some healthy skepticism is warranted. On the other hand, the energy release is impressive and very hard to explain chemically or as physical storage in a crystal lattice. It will be interesting to see how things develop.Hmmmm.......To be followed anxiously by every oil producing country?Read the full story here.HT:AstuteBloggers.

• And now for something completely different!New Japanese fashion: LED lights for your teeth.New York: Method Man might have helped make gold fronts famous, but it looks like Japanese schoolgirls could be the driving force behind a new era of fashionable accessories for your teeth. Instead of gold, however, these "fronts" contain bright multicolored glowing LED lights.The new fashion accessories were originally created as an experiment by two Japanese designers and are now being used in a commercial advertising a winter sale at a Japanese clothing store, Laforet Harajuku. They are quickly becoming a sought after accessory.The LED smiles can easily be affixed to your teeth and glow different colors while you smile. The colors can be changed wirelessly through a computer interface. Of course they work best in the dark.Motoi Ishibashi, one of the designers involved in the project, explained in a blog post that the original idea for the LED smiles came after he saw a video last year of LED Throwies, which are little lights that can be affixed to a magnet and thrown on metal surfaces. They are like lighted graffiti.Mr. Ishibashi and Daito Manabe, the other designer and technologist on the project, are offering workshops in Japan showing people how to build their own LED smiles.Hmmmmm.....Wow darling your smile looks like a powersurge today?Read the full story here.