MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 22. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Syria Live Blog - April 22. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world low seismic activity in Japan  today between 4.5 and 5.9! 6.3 in the Salomon IslandsMore info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 96.On 23.04.2011 at 04:02 GMT+2
  
  As of midnight on April 22, all areas within a 20-kilometer radius of the stricken Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant were designated a no-entry zone, meaning residents who have fled elsewhere are prohibited from re-entering, and those who have not yet evacuated are legally bound to do so. The enforcement of such a no-entry zone should be conducted in consideration of evacuees' needs and wishes. After the nuclear power plant accident, residents within the 20-kilometer radius were advised by the national government to evacuate. The majority left, but at least several dozen are still believed to be in the area, and before the evacuation became legally-binding, many evacuees are known to have been returning to their homes to pick up belongings they had left behind. It is not advisable for people to keep entering the zone while radiation leaks from the plant.
  
  Local governments have also raised concerns about the possibility of burglary. The national government has tried to explain the necessity of a no-entry zone designation to local municipalities. While the frustration of local residents who have no idea when they will be permitted to return to their homes is understandable, the measure seems to be unavoidable under the circumstances. Although the no-entry order stipulates that non-compliance could result in incarceration or a fine of up to 100,000 yen, police do not plan to forcibly remove residents who want to stay in the area.
  
  Some 80,000 people in about 27,000 households will be affected by the enforcement of the no-entry zone. Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano revealed that residents -- excluding those whose homes are within a 3-kilometer radius from the plant -- will be given opportunities for brief visits to their homes. Only one person from each household will be allowed to make the trip, they can only stay at their home for a maximum of two hours, and they will be asked to keep the amount of items that they take back out to a minimum. The visiting locals will wear protective gear and radiation detectors on their visits, be screened for radiation levels upon their exit from the caution zone, and be cleansed of radioactive material if necessary. The government hopes to conduct the first round of brief home visits among those who are interested over the course of a month or two. As for the order in which interested residents will make the visits, we hope that the government takes a flexible stance, respecting the decisions residents make amongst themselves.
  
  There are many uncertain factors in implementing this temporary-visit system. It may not be appropriate for residents to go home on some days, due to weather or the direction of wind, which may carry radioactive material. How will local residents' safety be assured if a new problem occurs at the power plant? And how will the national and local governments will respond if some residents refuse to return to evacuation shelters after their brief home visits? The government and local municipalities should run simulations to prepare for foreseeable scenarios. Residents' confusion and discontent over what they feel was a sudden decision on the part of the national government, and their anger over the fact that they could theoretically be punished for returning to their own homes, is understandable. This is a strained effort, however, to allow as many people as possible to visit their homes in a legal manner, albeit briefly. We hope all parties involved act in a level-headed manner.
  
  There are those who refuse to leave the 20-kilometer radius, citing such reasons as responsibility for their livestock and the inconvenience and discomfort of moving at their old age, and efforts to convince them to evacuate are likely to continue. To ensure that those residents can receive the help they are entitled to under the law, it is the government's responsibility to secure evacuation shelters and compensation for them.Source : Here .

• Japan  : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog

• Children being sexually Molested in Lybia?(Al-Arabia).A disturbing report released by a British aid organization puts the spotlight on children being subjected to sexual assault during the conflict between pro and anti Muammar Qaddafi forces. Save the Children reported that it interviewed nearly 300 children, some as young as eight, in six relief camps in Benghazi and heard stories of rape and murder “committed within the last four weeks in Ras Lanuf, Ajdabyia and Misrata,” the organization said.Michael Mahrt, who conducted the survey, said children spoke of “soldiers” committing the crimes but could not ascertain which side they represented. Mr. Mahrt quoted one instance in which mothers who had fled the fighting reported on four or five teenage girls in Ajdabyia who were kidnapped and raped for four days. An eight-year-old girl was reportedly assaulted in front of her siblings, also in Ajdabyia. While the reports were unconfirmed, Mr. Mahrt said they “were consistent.”“The stories are similar that we get across these camps. I am completely confident that this happened,” he told Reuters.Children also reported watching their fathers being murdered and mothers being raped before being beaten themselves. Mr. Mahrt also said, “Some children were displaying signs of physical and emotional distress: being withdrawn, refusing to play and waking up crying in the night.”The charity has called on “the international community to ensure that all parties respect children's right to be protected from violence and abuse.”Save the Children has said it is increasing “its child protection work in Benghazi, training social workers to provide youngsters with psycho-social support.”Hmmmm......."children being subjected to sexual assault during the conflict between pro and anti Muammar Qaddafi forces."Read the full story here.

• 'Gas Guzzler-In- Chief'?Obama To Use New Secret Service Armored Bus On Campaign Trail.(TPM).As the Secret Service prepares for the 2012 campaign, they're purchasing two new buses, at least one of which will be used by President Barack Obama as he travels around the country, TPM has learned. The Secret Service says that while the armored vehicles will be used by Obama during the 2012 presidential campaign, they'll be a security asset for future presidents as well."We've never been fully comfortable with the security provided by a bus we lease and then try to retro-fit," Secret Service spokesman Jim Mackin told TPM."This would be just like other vehicles we're adding to our fleet," Mackin said. "We'd use them for the campaign, but they're not for campaign purposes. They would be part of our fleet -- just like our limos, just like our follow-ups, just like our emergency vehicles.""If we have a candidate who has leased a bus and we're going to be protecting that candidate, we're going to look to enhance the security of that vehicle," Donovan said. "This is just the next step, and as I said, something that we're overdue for."The cost of installing equipment, removing equipment and repairing the damage to the leased vehicles also factored into the Secret Service's decision to purchase their own buses.Donovan said the vehicles are "almost at completion," but said the Secret Service wasn't releasing any information on what company was contracted to build the buses at this time.Hmmmmm......I wonder how much such an armored bus consumes?Probably more then Hitler's armored Mercedes,amazing how dictators fear for their life?You think it's bad conscience?Read the full story here.

• Al-taqiyya a.k.a. The art of lying !Keith Ellison:'Turkey best example of how Islam, democracy can coexist’.Keith Ellison, the first Muslim member of the US Congress, has said Turkey is the most important country in the region and the best example of how Islam and democracy can coexist. Ellison, visiting Turkey upon the invitation of the Turkish Confederation of Businessmen and Industrialists (TUSKON), had talks with Turkish officials, including Finance Minister Ali Babacan, in Ankara. The congressman told Today’s Zaman in an interview that it is very important for Turkey to undertake humanitarian aid mission in this region, while praising Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan’s initiatives with respect to the unrest and chaos in the Mideast and North Africa. Ellison pointed to the historical link between the US and Turkey and said the ties will continue to grow closer in the future, too.Historical link?....... Is he talking WWI Galipolli when the Turks were Shooting at the Allies?Turkey is also the Number One violator of the Human Rights and the country with more then 50 journalists in Jail or and awaiting a trial.Indeed "Democracy and human rights don't thrive in a Sharia environment". Read the full fairytale story here.

• PRESS RELEASE: Statement-DR. TERRY JONES: 1st Amendment, Dearborn.We posted the bond. We made it very, very clear that we posted this under the greatest protest!The arrests, the whole proceedings, were a definite violation of our Constitutional rights. As a matter of fact, we were arrested and had not even committed a crime. It is a complete violation of our First Amendment Right of Freedom of Speech. It was clearly influenced by the mosque. We were told that we were able to present our message in front of one of the "Free Speech Zones", but we were NOT allowed to present our message in the grassy area in front of the mosque. Thus making it very clear that this is not about our message, and not about us, but about the place. In other words, it is all about the location which is the Islamic Center.

Sharia is much closer than we thought. The judge even made a statement, that if the mosque elders and leadership would have desired the restraints placed on us of not going near the mosque be lifted, then he would have taken that into consideration.Thus proving that this whole thing is a direct violation of Freedom of Speech and that they are favoring the religion of Islam.The City of Dearborn used the court as an instrument to prevent our protest from taking place today as scheduled, and has now violated our civil liberties by preventing us from exercising our freedom of speech as planned. We will be in contact with legal representation and plan to protest next week in front of the Islamic Center. Source.

• TSA passenger screener charged in distributing child pornography.A passenger screener at Philadelphia International Airport is facing charges that he distributed more than 100 images of child pornography via Facebook, records show.Federal agents also allege that Transportation Safety Administration Officer Thomas Gordon Jr. of Philadelphia, who routinely searched airline passengers, uploaded explicit pictures of young girls to an Internet site on which he also posted a photograph of himself in his TSA uniform.Homeland Security agents arrested the TSA officer March 24, and he is being held without bail.Although the case was unsealed Thursday, neither the indictment nor the news release mentioned Gordon's job searching airline passengers for TSA.The arrest comes as TSA grapples with several other incidents involving screeners, including a YouTube video posted last week by parents angry about the pat-down their 6-year-old daughter received at an airport in New Orleans. TSA officials said the pat-down was proper; the parents said the girl was "groped."Citing privacy rules, TSA spokeswoman Ann Davis would not say if Gordon has been suspended from his job, but noted that he had been in federal custody since his arrest.Gordon's job as a TSA screener was in jeopardy last year for unrelated reasons, according to an online newsletter of the American Federation of Government Employees.Citing a family issue, it said Gordon was having "difficulty maintaining his work schedule." The union lawyer helped convince TSA officials that a change in shift schedule resolved the problem, the newsletter said, and Gordon returned to work.Hmmmm.....Who screenes the staff working at the TSA?Read the full story here.

• American free speech burried,and Jones is jailed.(NoDhimmitude).Some American citizens think that burning a Qur'an is worse than murdering a thousand people, so Terry Jones should not be allowed to demonstrate in front of a mosque in Dearborn, Michigan. In fact, he is now in gaol.Dearborn Police Chief Ron Haddad testified that Imam Hassan Al-Qazwini, who heads the Islamic Center, told him that for some members of his mosque, burning the Quran was considered a major crime. Qazwini expressed concern about how some young members of his mosque might react to Jones, Haddad testified.Wayne County Assistant Prosecutor Robert Moran said in court that Qazwini talked about how some feel Quran-burning "is worse than more than 1,000 deaths. That's what the citizens of this society believe."Moran used that as one reason why Jones should not be allowed to protest outside the Islamic Center, saying it would lead to a breach of the peace.But in his closing arguments, Jones said that the fact that such a view about Quran-burning concerns him, raising questions about Islam and violence, he said.Robert Sedler, a constitutional law professor at Wayne State University, called the entire proceedings unconstitutional. He said the U.S. Supreme Court has found that it's the job of the police to protect speakers at such events and said it is unconstitutional to require protesters to post a bond for police protection."What basis did the state have for arguing that they would breach the peace?" Sedler said. "It's a matter of First Amendment requirement: The government can't stop a speaker from speaking because of danger from a hostile crowd."Read the full story here.

• Updated - Free Speech "Martir" Jones released!DEARBORN, Mich. (AP) -- A Florida pastor's planned demonstration outside a Michigan mosque was scuttled Friday after a jury determined the protest would constitute a breach of the peace and he was briefly jailed for refusing to pay what authorities called a "peace bond."The Rev. Terry Jones, whose past rhetoric against Muslims has inflamed anti-Western sentiment in Afghanistan, said he refused to pay the $1 bond because to do so would violate his freedom of speech. He later paid it and was released.But Dawud Walid, the executive director of the Michigan chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations, said Jones and Sapp should have been allowed to demonstrate outside the mosque to show that Muslims in Dearborn would not have rioted in response."Mr. Jones has been made as a martyr for free speech," Walid said.Hmmmm...."CHANGE".....Sharia law or The Constitution?Read the full story here.

• Turkey has lower grades in education than all EU members.(TodaysZaman).In a recently announced European Union report on education, Turkey ranked near the bottom of all 33 countries included in the study due to a high percentage of dropouts, a low rate of success and a lack of qualified teachers. The report covers all EU member states and additionally, Croatia, Macedonia, Iceland, Turkey, Norway and Liechtenstein. It contains overviews and detailed statistics identifying which countries perform above or below the EU average and compares the scores of the countries in several categories, also including the 2020 education benchmarks.The 174-page report put Turkey’s problems regarding education under the spotlight. Referring to the results of Turkish students in the latest Program for International Student Assessment (PISA), a two-hour test given to a half million students in more than 70 countries, it was noted in the report that Turkey continues to score slightly better in every test, but it is still much below the EU average. The report also revealed that Turkey spends 2.59 percent of its gross domestic product (GDP) on education, while this figure is 6.02 for Belgium and 7 percent for Iceland.In the 18-24 age group with at most a lower secondary education and no further education or training, 44.3 percent of Turkish students drop out, while the average is 14.4 percent in the EU, which aims to lower this figure down to 10 percent by 2020. In Turkey, 14.7 percent of students go on to obtain a tertiary education, which is much lower than the EU average of 40 percent.Turkey was in the third place from the bottom, scoring better than Romania and Bulgaria, where almost half of students are low performers in mathematics.According to 2009 data, Turkey was seventh in a list of countries that send the largest number of students abroad as part of the Erasmus student exchange program after Poland, Italy, Germany, England, Spain and France. In the 2008-2009 academic year Turkey sent 6,920 students abroad and received 2,360 students as part of the program.Hmmmm....One more reason to keep Turkey out of the European Union!Read the full story here.

• Lost and Found department - Beijing's Confucius statue mysteriously removed.(NDtv).Beijing: The mysterious removal of a statue of Confucius opposite Beijing's Tiananmen Square sparked an online flurry of speculation Saturday by Chinese looking for an explanation. One report says the monument was simply moved inside a nearby museum.The statue of the 2,500-year-old sage was unveiled just three months ago in the Communist government's most visible endorsement yet of a cultural icon it had once reviled.On Saturday, it was missing from the pavement on the north side of the recently reopened National Museum of China, with no notice as to where or why it had gone.Online forums were abuzz with speculation as to its fate. The news portal sina.com quoted a museum staffer saying it had been moved inside to a new sculpture garden. The staffer, who wasn't identified by name, said the statue had been displayed outdoors while the garden was being completed.The 31-foot (9.5-meter) bronze sculpture of a robed Confucius had sat just northeast of Tiananmen Square roughly facing a massive portrait of Mao Zedong, founder of China's Communist regime, hanging from famed Tiananmen Gate at the entrance to the Forbidden City.Confucius was at the center of Chinese civilization for nearly two millennia but was widely denigrated by Mao, who railed constantly against traditional culture and what he called "feudal thinking."Thirty-five years after Mao's death, the statue's appearance was seen as proof of Confucius' rehabilitation as an underlying ideology for a society that has largely discarded communist ideology, even as it retains the one-party Leninist political system.Already in recent years, Confucius has featured in new books and training courses, as well as in a poorly received state-funded biopic last year starring famed Hong Kong actor Chow Yun-Fat in the title role.While the statue's new location could not be verified, Internet users speculated as to whether its removal had been planned all along, or had been prompted by political pressure.Hmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Priest narrowly avoids being attacked by two swordwielding Islamic extremists in southern Turkey.(Hurriyetdailynews).A Catholic priest in the southern province of Adana narrowly avoided a potential attack by two sword-wielding suspects, according to reports.Francis Dondu, a priest at Adana’s Aziz Pavlus Latin Italian Catholic Church, left his church on Thursday after Maundy Thursday services to visit a local family. After he left, two people armed with swords and blades, 26-year-old Serhat E. and 26-year-old İbrahim K., knocked on the church door, allegedly with plans to kill Dondu.The suspects, who were carrying a one-meter-long sword and blades, asked for the priest, but were told by a custodian that he was not there.The suspects then allegedly forced their way into the church, breaking down statutes of Jesus and Mary and destroying other church belongings with the sword and blades they were carrying with them. The church servant notified the police, who arrived on the scene and eventually subdued the pair.“We were walking when a man offered us a job to distribute bibles. We argued with the man after we refused the job, and then took our blades and went to the church,” the suspects reportedly said in initial testimony.The attack at the church was not a provocation for terrorist purposes, Adana Gov. İlhan Atış said Friday.“[The suspects] were extremely drunk people who had run off the rail,” the governor said, adding that the investigation into the case was continuing.An alcohol test at the police station resulted in Serhat E. blowing 0.018 and İbrahim K. blowing 0.029. Hmmmm....How come when Muslim attack Christian priests it's never their fault? Read the full coverup story here.

• Turkish children suffer from high rates of parental abuse, study says.(Hurriyetdailynews).Daily Milliyet has granted its Annual Research Award in memory of journalist Örsan Öymen to Associate Professor Sezer Ayan from Cumhuriyet University in Sivas for her study titled “Family and Violence.” The research emphasizes that one third of children are beaten by adults at home and one in two mothers beats her children.Daily Milliyet has granted its Annual Research Award to a study on violence in the home in the Central Anatolian province of Sivas that showed 33 percent of children are beaten at home and that children exposed to abuse are more likely to be aggressive.“Domestic violence is always an issue in Turkey,” Associate Professor Sezer Ayan said, adding that she interviewed a total of 655 students in 70 primary schools for the study in Sivas.In the families surveyed, more than half of the parents said they had loud fights, mostly due to children or money. More than one in four men slap, kick and beat their wives, or pull their hair or cause material damage in the house, Ayan said.When fathers fight with mothers, they usually scold their children as well, some even beating them.“It seems children were beaten for not doing what they were told, having fights with siblings or for not studying. Girls are exposed to violence by their mothers as boys are by their fathers,” she said.“Almost half of the children in the study were also beaten by teachers at schools. Most parents justify violence in school because they think teachers are always right,” said Ayan.Her researched revealed the fact 54 percent of mothers beat their children.The study showed 14 percent of children were slapped using slippers, 10 percent were slapped in the face, and 9 percent were punished by pulling their ears. Another 10 percent were scolded.“Thirty-two percent of children are exposed to violence by either their mother or father at least once a week,” Ayan said.Forty-six percent of fathers beat their children, according to Ayan, who said: “Children beaten up by their mothers are exposed to violence by their father and vice versa. Fifteen percent of fathers who beat their children slap them in the face.”“The legitimization of violence in Turkish families as a method of solution to problems is another reason behind domestic violence,” Ayan said.Hmmmm.....Keep Turkey out of the European Union!Read the full story here.

• Queers Against Israel Apartheid quits Toronto parade.(JTA)Queers Against Israeli Apartheid said it will not participate in the Toronto Pride Parade.The group, which has raised controversy with its planned participation in the parade, was announced its decision in an April 15 news release.Mayor Rob Ford said on the same day that the city should withhold the funds until after the parade to ensure that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid does not actually march. Ford has said he would withhold city funding from the parade if the group participates.Pride Toronto received $123,807 from the city last year.Toronto's city manager said in a report that the group's participation does not violate the city's anti-discrimination policy, allowing the city to go forward with providing funding for the 2011 event. The city said it would fund the parade as long as all of the groups participating adhered to the city's anti-discrimination policy.Queers Against Israeli Apartheid's withdrawal was presented by the organization as a "challenge" to Ford. The organization said it will hold its own event this week.“Rob Ford wants to use us as an excuse to cut Pride funding, even though he has always opposed funding the parade, long before we showed up,” Queers Against Israeli Apartheid spokesperson Elle Flanders said in the news release. “By holding our Pride events outside of the parade, we are forcing him to make a choice: Fund Pride or have your real homophobic, right-wing agenda exposed.”The Canadian Jewish Congress, which has voiced its objection to the organization's participation, said it was pleased that Queers Against Israeli Apartheid had withdrawn from the parade.“This is a positive step and reaffirms what Canadian Jewish Congress has been saying all along: There is absolutely no place in the Pride Parade for hateful and discriminatory messages," said CJC's CEO, Bernie Farber. "The Pride Parade should be about openness and inclusivity and not about divisive, inflammatory messaging, which serves only to create a hostile and toxic environment.”Read the full story here.