MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• The official English twitter account of Prime Minister’s Office of Japan. Most of the information provided here will be translation of @ Kantei_Saigai.

• Libya Live Blog - March 20. Here.

• Libya - Airstrikes begin on Libya targets.French warplanes have hit four tanks used by forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi on the outskirts of the opposition stronghold of Benghazi, on a day when opposition fighters in the city reported coming under constant artillery and mortar fire.Source.

• Updated !15 Earthquakes in the last 14 hours in North-America ,lots of seismic activity globally today! More info here.

• Updated : The wind directions over Japan. Here.

• Radioactive iodine detected in Tokyo tap water.Trace amounts of radioactive iodine were discovered in tap water in Tokyo in the wake of the disaster at the crippled nuclear plant Fukushima, Japanese media said on Saturday.Radiation above the national safety level was also found in the water supply infive other prefectures, said an official from Japan's science ministry, which is monitoring radiation levels.Source.

• Google reacts to Japanese tsunami with a Person Finder tool. Here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 45.

• Swedish Government: Radiation To Cover Entire Northern Hemisphere.Suggesting that levels of radiation leaks from the stricken Fukushima plant are being grossly underreported by Japanese authorities, a Swedish government agency told Reuters today that not only will the radiation reach North America, but it will subsequently cover the entire northern hemisphere.“Lars-Erik De Geer, research director at the Swedish Defense Research Institute, a government agency, was citing data from a network of international monitoring stations established to detect signs of any nuclear weapons tests,” reports Reuters.“Stressing that the levels were not dangerous for people, he predicted the particles would continue across the Atlantic and eventually also reach Europe.”De Geer said he was “convinced it would eventually be detected over the whole northern hemisphere,” according to the report, adding that radioactive particles would “eventually also come here,” referring to Europe.De Geer’s prognosis arrives on the back of a study of data by the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty Organization, which confirmed that the radioactive plume from Fukushima would reach the Aleutian Islands on Thursday before hitting southern California late on Friday. The CBTO has a network of radiation monitors deployed globally that can detect radioactive particles such as caesium and iodine isotopes.Read the full story here.

• Libya - More then 110 Cruise missiles fired!US launches cruise missiles from warship on Libyan targets.Western forces bombard areas of Tripoli and fuel storage tanks; French war planes also hit four Libyan tanks near Benghazi; attacks come after UN-mandated military intervention gets underway in Libya.The United States launched cruise missiles from a warship against Libyan targets, a US official told Reuters on Saturday on condition of anonymity.Libyan state television also reported the "crusader enemy", a reference to Western forces, bombarded civilian areas of Tripoli and fuel storage tanks that supplied the city of Misrata in west Libya.In one of the brief headlines it cited a spokesman from the Libyan armed forces. It did not give further details. Earlier, French air force jets destroyed some tanks and armored vehicles during a UN-mandated intervention in Libya, a French defense ministry official said on Saturday."Yes, we have destroyed a number of tanks and armored vehicles," the official said, adding that he could not immediately confirm the number.Al Jazeera television reported earlier that four Libyan tanks had been destroyed to the south west of the Libyan city of Benghazi.The first shot was fired by a French aircraft and destroyed a military vehicle at around 1645 GMT, French defense ministry and army officials said."A first target was engaged and destroyed," ministry spokesman Laurent Teisseire told reporters.An armed forces spokesman told the same briefing that the operation to halt Muammar Gaddafi's advance on rebel forces involved around 20 planes and an area 100 km by 150 km (60 by 100 miles) around the eastern rebel stronghold of Benghazi.France's Charles de Gaulle aircraft carrier will leave France for Libya on Sunday, the spokesman added. A central command center for the operation was still being set up.Earlier Saturday, French President Nicolas Sarkozy announced that Western air forces, with Arab League approval, had gone into action over Libya and were preventing Gaddafi's forces from attacking Benghazi."As of now, our planes are preventing air attacks on the city of Benghazi," he said adding that military action supported by France, Britain, the United States and Canada and backed by Arab nations could be halted if Gaddafi stopped his forces attacking.Also Saturday, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said in Paris that the United States would bring its "unique capabilities" to bear to help its European and Canadian allies in enforcing a UN resolution on Libya."If the international community is to have credibility ... then action must take place," Clinton told a news conference.Hmmmm......Yup really the time for the 'commander-in-chief to go to the beach in Rio!Fiddle while Rome burns?Read the full story here.

• Libya - Libyans form human shield at Gaddafi's compound.TRIPOLI - Thousands of Libyans packed into Muammar Gaddafi's heavily fortified Tripoli compound on Saturday to form a human shield against possible air strikes by allied forces.Fireworks erupted into the night sky and people fired defiant shots into the air at the compound after allied warplanes went into action in eastern Libya to stop the Libyan leader's forces attacking the rebel-held city of Benghazi.Libyans from all walks of life streamed into the Bab Al-Aziziyah compound, shouting slogans and holding portraits of Gaddafi. Loudspeakers boomed songs praising the leader."My mother and father told me that they (Western warplanes) would attack the compound so I came here to protect our leader," said one 10-year-old boy, Mahmoud .Source .

• Yemen's US-backed leader fails to stop uprising.President blames opposition for 'incitement and chaos' that led to violent confrontations, deaths. SANAA, Yemen — A crackdown that killed dozens failed to stop massive demonstrations against Yemen's U.S.-backed president, as crowds of thousands clashed Saturday with security forces smashing their protest camps and even seized control of one southern city. In the capital, the government had to bring out tank units and other military forces to protect key buildings as crowds swelled. Protesters also stood their ground in the southern city of Mualla, surging out of their destroyed encampment and encircling a police station.More than a month of daily protests calling for political freedoms and an end to corruption have presented President Ali Abdullah Saleh with the most dire challenge to his 32 years of running Yemen, a deeply impoverished land of restive tribes and numerous conflicts on the southern tip of the Arabian Peninsula.In the bloodiest single day of the uprising, Yemeni forces killed at least 46 people and injured hundreds in the capital on Friday, including with snipers firing on demonstrators from rooftops. That prompted condemnation from the U.N. and the United States, which backs his government with hundreds of millions in military aid to battle a potent al-Qaida offshoot based in Yemen's mountainous hinterlands.Hmmmmm......All that 'outreach' to Muslims has made the world such a safer place?Oh but that's why 'the royal family' the Presidential family  is in Rio "All's quit at the Western Front".Read the full story here.

• President Obama lands in Brazil while conservatives blast trip during chaos in Japan, Libya.President Obama just can't please conservatives.The president landed in Brazil Saturday morning for the start of a three-nation Latin American tour, while a right-wing chorus back home assailed him for traveling while emergencies and chaos reign in Libya and Japan.The administration says the main goal of Obama's trip is to strengthen economic partnerships and foster job creation in the U.S."As we respond to these immediate crises abroad, we also will not let up in our efforts to tackle the pressing, ongoing challenges facing our country, including accelerating economic growth. That's why, over the weekend, I'll be in Latin America," Obama said in his weekly address.Obama had his family in tow in Brasilia. First lady Michelle Obama,daughters Malia and Sasha, and the girls' grandmother and godmother went through the receiving line of Brazilian and American officials.Fox & Friends' Steve Doocy ripped Obama's trip on Friday as a 'vacation," saying it's inappropriate for a president to go on such a jaunt while officials in Japan race to prevent a total nuclear meltdown, and Libyan dictator Moammar Khadafy continues his assault on rebels, in spite of UN threats and his own promise of a ceasefire."What is happening with the president while all of this is going on in the United States and around the world?" Doocy said. "He's going on vacation. He's going to Rio. You've got to be kidding. Taking his family. It sounds like a vacation to me. Rio? Hello?"The Washington Times ran an editorial this week titled 'Obama Couldn't Care Less," declaring 'the president parties while the world burns."And conservative television commentator Monica Crowley told Fox Business Channel that 'Perception is reality. He's always shooting hoops, he's having Terry Bradshaw nights at the White House, he's in Rio. The world is aflame! Go to work!"Hmmmm......Perhaps creating some more off-shore drilling in Brazil Mr President?Apparently 89 % of the voters on the poll think the President should be in America doing the job he's supposed to do!Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina."The War On Christianity".Time is Running Out for Iraq's Christians, Says Archbishop.Iraq's ancient Christian community has run out of time and will disappear soon, a senior Iraqi churchman has said.Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil made his alarming prediction at a press conference for the launch of the Aid to the Church in Need report on oppressed Christians abroad, Persecuted and Forgotten?Speaking in Westminster yesterday, alongside Archbishop Vincent Nichols, Archbishop Warda said that there were fewer than 200,000 Christians left in Iraq and "the time for waiting" was running out.Declaring that figure to be "optimistic", he said: "From what we have seen so far our people have lost patience. The past is terrifying, the present is not promising. All is left is the very limited choice of emigration, to Jordan and Turkey."He cited Mosul, one of the most dangerous cities in the world to be a Christian, where hundreds were driven out in October 2009, saying: "In 2003 there were 4,000 Chaldean families, 1,000 Christians from other churches, and 11 active Chaldean churches. Now six churches have been closed, and if it goes this way, it won't be this long before certain areas of Iraq are evacuated."We have freedom of worship, but not freedom of religion, that is not allowed, in any Islamic state."He described how many Christians in Baghdad and Mosul had received warnings through text messages or bullets, sometimes delivered by policemen. Some clerics received three bullets, one representing murdered priest Fr Ragheed Ganni, another for the murdered Archbishop Rahho, and another for the intended victim.He said that, although Christians were safer in the Kurdish-controlled regions of northern Iraq, they still lacked economic security and were so impoverished some had resorted to prostitution. Some 5,000 Christian families had fled to the Kurdish-controlled region and yet, he said, the Iraqi Government cared so little for them that they had demanded European governments paid for their resettlement."It was a strange statement," he said of the Government's demand: "They are not some group who have emigrated from Europe. They do not come from Europe!"Aid to the Church in Need's report found that persecution was intensifying in two thirds of the worst countries, and that many Christian communities in the Middle East faced extinction within a generation. Archbishop Warda thanked the charity and asked Christians in the west to raise awareness and making politicians aware of what was going on."We need to bear the cross," the archbishop said, "but it is getting heavy."Hmmmm.....Of course no word is heard from defender of the oppressed the selfconfessed 'Christian' President,come to think of it when did he go last to church?Read the full story here.

• HT:Sheikyermami.UN Tyranny: now they’re coming after your kids!Do you think the socialist dictators, Muslims, moonbats, and other assorted thugs, kooks, and degenerates infesting the United Nations could do a better job of raising your children than you can? Do you think their authoritarian dictates should trump America’s Constitution? Do you think Democrats should be allowed to use international treaties to effect a back-door repeal of the Second Amendment as a prelude to transitioning from soft tyranny to hard tyranny? Then by all means don’t waste a whole minute letting your Senators know that We the People will not take kindly to Hussein Obama being allowed to ram through the cuddly sounding but oppressive United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child.Hussein Obama could present the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) to the senate for ratification soon. If ratified, the CRC would have the power to sweep away local, state and even federal laws that protect your parental rights. The CRC would effectively allow the United Nations to dictate to American citizens how they can raise their own children. SR 99 is a resolution that would prevent the CRC from even being introduced in the senate for consideration. All we need are 34 senators to co-sponsor the resolution to demonstrate that President Obama does not have the 67 votes needed to ratify the CRC.Hmmmm......Deconstructing the Constitution one line at the time!Read the full story here.

• Report: European governments “completely puzzled” about Obama Regime’s position on Libya.Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's meetings in Paris with the G8 foreign ministers on Monday left her European interlocutors with more questions than answers about the Obama administration's stance on intervention in Libya. Inside the foreign ministers' meeting, a loud and contentious debate erupted about whether to move forward with stronger action to halt Col. Muammar al-Qaddafi's campaign against the Libyan rebels and the violence being perpetrated against civilians. Britain and France argued for immediate action while Germany and Russia opposed such a move, according to two European diplomats who were briefed on the meeting. Clinton stayed out of the fray, repeating the administration's position that all options are on the table but not specifically endorsing any particular step. She also did not voice support for stronger action in the near term, such as a no-fly zone or military aid to the rebels, both diplomats said. "The way the U.S. acted was to let the Germans and the Russians block everything, which announced for us an alignment with the Germans as far as we are concerned," one of the diplomats told The Cable. Clinton's unwillingness to commit the United States to a specific position led many in the room to wonder exactly where the administration stood on the situation in Libya. "Frankly we are just completely puzzled," the diplomat said. "We are wondering if this is a priority for the United States." On the same day, Clinton had a short meeting with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in which Sarkozy pressed Clinton to come out more forcefully in favor of action in Libya. She declined Sarkozy's request, according to a government source familiar with the meeting. Sarkozy told Clinton that "we need action now" and she responded to him, "there are difficulties," the source said, explaining that Clinton was referring to China and Russia's opposition to intervention at the United Nations. Sarkozy replied that the United States should at least try to overcome the difficulties by leading a strong push at the U.N., but Clinton simply repeated, "There are difficulties." One diplomat, who supports stronger action in Libya, contended that the United States' lack of clarity on this issue is only strengthening those who oppose action.Hmmmmm......How about"I will stand with my Muslim Brothers"?Read the full story here.

• IDF: Assassination of Hamas leaders possible.Gaza escalation may prompt IDF to hit military wing leaders, army says.Hamas: Don't test us.The latest escalation in Gaza rocket attacks on southern Israel may lead to assassinations of Hamas military wing leaders, the IDF warns, with army officials saying they cannot discount this possibility. Military officials made it clear that Saturday's barrage of some 50 mortar shells at the western Negev will not be ignored, adding that the army's aerial attacks Saturday afternoon were merely "the first bullets" in Israel's response.The IDF's initial response included massive tank and aerial fire directed at some 10 Hamas targets, including outposts and observation posts. The army's strike lasted 45 minutes and the IDF says Hamas men who manned various positions were hurt. The Gaza Health Ministry spokesman said earlier that at least one senior Hamas man was killed and four civilians were wounded in the IDF strikes.The army struck across the Strip after Hamas and other terror groups fired dozens of mortar shells at southern Israel earlier in the day. Hamas Spokesman Ismail Radwan said the mortar barrages came in reaction to Israeli Air Force attacks that killed group members and warned Jerusalem "not to test Hamas' response."Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.Turkey Shifts Eastward.Observing Turkey is a more than frustrating experience. There is no difficulty in finding knowledgeable people who insist there's been no alteration in its objective of joining the European Union and incorporating into the European political and economic world. After all, Turkey has been a valued NATO member since 1952. At the same time there are equally perceptive commentators who contend that the dream of a secular Westernized Turkey has shifted away from its European-aimed target of recent years.Contrary to those wishful thinkers who seek closer Turkish ties with the West, there is no chance that Turkey will soon come close to membership in the European Union as long as it continues to jail journalists on fanciful terrorism charges. According to the Financial Times, about sixty journalists are now imprisoned. The charges range all the way from personal libel to outright conspiracy to overthrow the government.These reporters and commentators have joined the approximately one hundred military officers who already have been jailed for purported participation in a coup plot originating in 2003. There appears no question that some form of coup was being planned at the time -- and since then. But it is equally clear that a large portion of the evidence has been fabricated, and in a rather amateurish manner.Behind this is the growing belief within the ruling, Islam-conscious Justice and Development Party (AKP) that right wing forces are moving for an overthrow of what the AKP considers "democratic change." This may in fact contain an element of truth if one associates such change with AKP dominance.It is also true, however, that AKP leadership has done little to strike down Article 301 of the penal code that criminalizes any anti-government statements. This legal device is the core of the highly objectionable security element of the authoritarian 1982 constitution that Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan has so often excoriated.PM Erdogan, choosing to show an exceptionally thin political skin, reacted strongly to the European Parliament report that condemned "deterioration in the freedom of the press" in Turkey and called on the Ankara government to "uphold the principles of press freedom." Erdogan not only referred to the report as "unbalanced", but he said, "…the people who have prepared this document lack balance as well." Not quite the tone that encourages votes for EU membership…This tough talk may sound well locally among his supporters, but it certainly plays into the hands of those who wish to show Erdogan and the AKP actually are using the same repressive measures as did opposition military-aligned political powers about which they have complained. The basic obstacle faced by the AKP, President Abdullah Gul, and PM Erdogan is the lack of promised action on the existing constitution. This 1982 document created after a coup carried with it little of the types of freedom of speech and press that mark Western legal, political, and social concepts.Perhaps the most striking example of the Erdogan Administration's willingness to run counter to EU and American recent positions was the official opposition from Ankara to sanctions of any kind against Col. Qaddafi's Libya. The explanation given by Turkey's foreign minister was that such actions would be counterproductive. According to VOA News, "PM Erdogan accused Western countries calling for intervention of being motivated by Libya's huge oil reserves." Again, not the most diplomatic of comments for an EU-aimed prime minister.The actions of the Turkish premier appear to indicate that any interest he once had in European Union membership has been substantially diminished by the less than lukewarm interest on the part of France and Germany. Erdogan's AKP-dominated government acts as if it has been freed from having to hew to Western precepts of democracy as a requirement to Turkey's EU membership -- and greets this with a sigh of relief.Political Islam would now appear to be Turkey's guidepost under its current government. The key question is how PM Erdogan and his energetic president, Abdullah Gul, perceive Turkey's neo-Islamist role in the Middle East. How the United States and its Western European allies plan to respond to this new characterization of modern Turkey will be played out in the very near future.The days of Mustapha Kemal Ataturk's military --guarded secularist state appears to have ended, though, according to some, brought on by their own excesses. Nonetheless, Turkey under the religious-minded AKP seems headed in the same iron-fisted direction so condemned in the past by its members. Assuming a leadership role in the Middle East region will require Turkey's Islamic-preoccupied civilian government to create an entente with its own secularist military forces -- a tactic more easily said than done.Hmmmmm......Welcome to Turkey Iranian style!Get Turkey out of NATO NOW!Read the full story here.

• HT:SheikYermami.Fartwa: Using Drug-dealers Money to Build Mosques is Halal!Using Unlawful Wealth to Finance Mosque Renovations.

Q: ’Our mosque was severely damaged by fire, and we needed to collect money to rebuild it. Many people have donated. The problem is that some substantial donations were received from people who are known to be drug dealers. Now, what should we do with that money?’

A: unlawfully earned wealth is only unlawful for those who earned it. Therefore, if such wealth is donated to build a mosque, it may be accepted and used for such purpose.Hmmmm.......Read the full story here.

• Ahmadinejad: God has chosen my successor.Iranian president tells council heads in Tehran, 'Future has already been determined. God knows who will come after me'.Mahmoud Ahmadinejad says his replacement as Iranian president has already been chosen by God, a local website reported Saturday. "Friends told me, 'We are concerned about the future,'" Ahmadinejad said in a meeting with council heads in Tehran. "I told them, 'The future has already been determined. Go to work and the results will come.'"One of them asked me, 'Who will be next?' I said, 'Don't you think God knows who's next.'" Ahmadinejad did not name anyone specific, but according to Iranian estimates he was implying that he wants his associate Esfandiar Rahim Mashai to replace him. Mashai served as Ahmadinejad's deputy in the past, before being fired for saying that the Iranian people are friends of Israel. Mashai currently serves as head of the president's bureau. The two are also related, as one of Ahmadinejad's sons is married to Mashai's daughter. This isn't the first time that Ahmdinejad, a devout Shiite Muslim, predicts the political future his country. A week before the controversial presidential elections in 2009, Ahmadinejad told his people that he would win. "I reiterated before the elections that something big was going to happen," Ahmadinejad said. "After the elections someone asked me, 'What was that big thing?' I replied, 'Is there anything bigger than this?'"Hmmmmmm........If you ask me he's hinting at 'the hidden Imam'.Read the full story here.

• HT:PBS.Tehran's Merchant Fleet Sails Close to Wind.Staff at state shipping agency admit to changing ships' names, owners and even paintwork to evade sanctions.The tall building occupied by Iran's shipping agency looks a lot different from other government offices in Tehran. Instead of ideological symbols, the dominant theme here is nautical -- anchors, lanterns and sails. The staff, too, look different. There are more smart suits, ironed collars and well-shaven faces around.The general air of tidiness reflects the seriousness with which Islamic Republic of Iran Shipping Lines, IRISL, goes about its business. With a commercial fleet of 169 ships carrying nearly a third of Iranian exports and imports, the firm is the dominant player in Iran by a long stretch, although there are a number of private shipping companies as well.Staff at IRISL see themselves as waging a full-scale, if hidden, international war to circumvent international sanctions and keep the freight moving.In 2008, the U.S. Treasury Department placed IRISL on its sanctions list on the grounds that its vessels were carrying military freight. Then it was barred from taking out insurance and loans in London, and finally, last year, the United Nations Security Council approved a new set of sanctions which included the right to inspect, confiscate and, where necessary, destroy the IRISL freight.The U.N. resolution provoked a strong reaction from Tehran, where parliament instructed the government to mete out equal treatment to ships belonging to states that inspect Iranian vessels, and to provide naval protection to commercial shipping where necessary.Its most recent financial statement, for the Iranian year ending March 2010, indicates that its 35 customers include Iran's Defense Industry Organization.Even so, IRISL always insists that it complies with all laws and regulations. At the same time, it says it cannot be responsible for the content of freight, and must trust statements made by owners and by port officials. But officials there, speaking on condition of anonymity, acknowledge that the company uses whatever loopholes it can to get round restrictions on what it can carry.A recently-retired ship's captain says IRISL's long experience and intimate knowledge of the laws of the sea means it is well equipped to get round obstacles."Most of the experts working for this organization were educated in Europe, they know the international rules very well and can identify loopholes that were not foreseen when embargo laws were passed," he said.A mid-ranking IRISL official said, "Many of the employees are no fans of Iranian government ideology or policies, but regardless of their political views, they care about the national interest and also about safeguarding their jobs, so they're ready to take on challenges in unpredictable situations."The official admitted that the company used a range of tactics such as changing a vessel's registered name or owner, setting up shell companies, sailing under flags of convenience, counterfeiting shipping documents, and sometimes even repainting a ship."Everyone knows we use these hide-and-seek tactics, but the point is whether they can catch us out," he added.Hmmmm.......Arrrr "Sanctions that bite"?Read the full story here.

• Man sets fire to wife and dumps her near hospital.A Yemeni man poured petrol on his Saudi wife and set her on fire before driving her to a nearby hospital and dumping her scorched body near the gate, a newspaper in the Gulf Kingdom reported on Thursday.Horrified passers-by carried the groaning woman, in her 40s, into the hospital where doctors raced against time to save her life, Sharq said.The woman, who could barely speak, whispered to her rescuers that her husband dosed her with petrol and set her ablaze.“Police said they caught the fleeing husband just as he was trying to cross the border into Yemen,” the paper said in a report from the southern province of Jazan near the border with Yemen. “They said the man has another wife and that he confessed to burning his Saudi wife following an argument.”Hmmmmm.......Read the full story here.