MFS - The Other News

                    Afternoon   Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 03. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And  here (BBC).

• Sirya live blog - March 30  here.(Al -Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 4.4 and 5.2 today. More info here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 70.

• HT:BigGovernment.McConnell Swipes Obama on Domestic Energy Production.Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell swiped at President Obama this week for comments he made in the course of calling for a significant reduction in oil imports.Obama, outlining his new energy “blueprint,” said he wants to slash Americans’ dependence on foreign oil by as much as one-third. But McConnell claimed that this is mere posturing by the administration, which he suggested was positively disinterested in taking basic steps that would enable the U.S. to become energy independent.According to McConnell, “Over the past two years, the administration has undertaken what can only be described as a war on American energy. It’s cancelled dozens of drilling leases. It’s declared a moratorium on drilling off the Gulf Coast. It’s increased permit fees. It has prolonged public comment periods. In short, it’s done just about everything it can to keep our own energy sector from growing. As a result, thousands of U.S. workers have lost their jobs, as companies have been forced to look elsewhere for a better business climate.”McConnell indicated that he sees limited prospects for bipartisan support for a strategy designed to deliver energy independence, saying “Tell a Democrat in Washington that gas prices are too high, and, as if on cue, they’ll throw together a speech or a press conference to suggest that we open an underground oil reserve that was created to deal with calamities, not market pressures; they’ll take you on a tour of some alternative car plant that promises to have one of its $100,000 prototypes to market 25 years down the road; or they’ll quietly release some report to the media about how energy companies aren’t working hard enough to extract oil — while schizophrenically claiming American reserves are minuscule and that more production isn’t the solution.”In his speech, Obama said, “I’m setting a new goal: . . . When I was elected to this office, America imported 11 million barrels of oil a day. By a little more than a decade from now, we will have cut that by one-third.” But Leader McConnell also said he would like to know how that fits with Obama’s comments last week in Brazil. ”Just last week he told Brazilians that he hopes America becomes a major customer of Brazilian oil,” McConnell noted. ”Well, which is it?”Obama’s and McConnell’s comments come as gas prices continue to rise across the country, hitting a national average of $3.58 per gallon last week, according to AAA.Hmmm....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• IDF prepares for multi-front war in war games.In the face of a changing Middle East, the IDF held a set of war games this week aimed at preparing the military for all-out war against Hezbollah, Syria and Hamas.The exercise did not include soldiers or live-fire exercises, but was held to drill commanders and their decisions in the event of a large-scale war on multiple fronts.The exercise was the first overseen by new Chief of General Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz. It was organized by Maj.-Gen. Gershon Hacohen, head of the IDF Colleges.The IDF stressed that the drill was part of the military’s routine exercise program and included all of its various branches – ground, air and navy – with an emphasis on interoperability and operational continuity.The scenarios simulated during the drill included a war with Hezbollah in Lebanon, sparked by a terrorist attack overseas as well as the involvement of Syria, Hamas and Iran.“The drill is part of our need to retain a level of readiness,” Gantz said.Defense Minister Ehud Barak and members of the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee visited the base where the exercise was held, even though the political echelon did not play an active role in the war games.Hacohen said the exercise was meant to prepare the IDF for a future war in light of the recent changes in the region.“The IDF is utilizing this opportunity to drill itself and to formulate new understandings,” he said.Hmmmmm.....With Obama as "Commander in chief' it comes down to the fact that nobody is safe now he knows he can get around Congress!Read the full story here.

• GOP Senators Will Force Vote on Obama’s Authority to Wage War in Libya Without Congressional Approval.Two senators concerned about US military strikes on Libya warned Friday they aimed to force a vote on whether President Barack Obama has the authority to wage war without congressional approval.“We believe the answer is that he does not,” Republican Senators Rand Paul and Mike Lee said in a letter to Democratic Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and Republican Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell.Paul and Lee said they would block legislation pending in the Senate until Reid schedules a debate and vote on a resolution offered by Paul that states Obama “does not have the power to unilaterally authorize a military attack in a situation that does not involve an actual or imminent threat to the nation.”“While we realize there are other matters the Senate had planned to work on, it is our belief that there is very little we are doing that rises to the level of a constitutional question regarding war,” they wrote.“We do not take this responsibility lightly, and we believe the Senate is abdicating its responsibility at this very moment,” they said in the letter, which Paul’s office made public.Hmmmm.....Frankly he doesn't care a bit what Congress says or does.Read the full story here.

• Obama Loses $84 Billion in Government Motors Bailout, Still Considers It A “Success”.Barack Obama has some ‘splaining to do about taxpayers’ profitable “investment” in General Motors. It turns out the president is imagining things.Though Democrats tout the auto bailout as a success, recent reports illustrate the taxpayer cost of the GM auto bailout was substantially larger than the Obama administration and a Congressional Oversight report has owned up to.“American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my administration invested in GM,” President Obama said, according to a piece in USA Today last November. Steven Rattner, former head of the Treasury’s auto task force agreed, telling CNN in November: “Recent progress at GM gives reason for optimism that it may be possible for taxpayers to get every penny back.”…However, a March 16 Congressional Oversight report, tells a different story. It estimates taxpayers will be out of $25 billion. Additionally, the report points out that “full repayment will not be possible unless the government is able to sell its remaining shares at a far higher price.”That’s only the beginning. Both the White House and the Congressional Oversight report omit the fact that during its bankruptcy, GM got a $45 billion tax break, courtesy of the American people.Hmmmm.....How great it is to spend other people their money.Read the full story here.

• Ex-Mujahedeen Help Lead Libyan Rebels.DARNA, Libya—Two former Afghan Mujahedeen and a six-year detainee at Guantanamo Bay have stepped to the fore of this city's military campaign, training new recruits for the front and to protect the city from infiltrators loyal to Col. Moammar Gadhafi. The presence of Islamists like these amid the opposition has raised concerns, among some fellow rebels as well as their Western allies, that the goal of some Libyan fighters in battling Col. Gadhafi is to propagate Islamist extremism.Abdel Hakim al-Hasady, an influential Islamic preacher and high-school teacher who spent five years at a training camp in eastern Afghanistan, oversees the recruitment, training and deployment of about 300 rebel fighters from Darna. Mr. Hasady's field commander on the front lines is Salah al-Barrani, a former fighter from the Libyan Islamic Fighting Group, or LIFG, which was formed in the 1990s by Libyan mujahedeen returning home after helping to drive the Soviets from Afghanistan and dedicated to ousting Mr. Gadhafi from power. Sufyan Ben Qumu, a Libyan army veteran who worked for Osama bin Laden's holding company in Sudan and later for an al Qaeda-linked charity in Afghanistan, is training many of the city's rebel recruits. Both Messrs. Hasady and Ben Qumu were picked up by Pakistani authorities after the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan in 2001 and were turned over to the U.S. Mr. Hasady was released to Libyan custody two months later. Mr. Ben Qumu spent six years at Guantanamo Bay before he was turned over to Libyan custody in 2007.They were both released from Libyan prisons in 2008 as part of a reconciliation with Islamists in Libya. For the U.S., the situation recalls the problems that followed America's ill-fated alliance with the Afghan Mujahedeen fighting the Soviets in the 1980s. Many went on to al Qaeda and other violent radical Islamist groups.Adm. James Stavridis, the North Atlantic Treaty Organization's supreme allied commander in Europe, pointed to this concern when he told a Senate committee on Tuesday that U.S. intelligence has picked up "flickers" of al Qaeda among rebel groups in Libya. He also said they were a minor element among the rebels.Col. Gadhafi has gone out of his way to paint the popular uprising against his rule as an al Qaeda plot. He has singled out Mr. Hasady and the city of Darna as the capital of an alleged Islamist emirate, a baseless claim.Hmmmm......Wouldn't it be great if Ghadaffi gave us the keys to Obama's 'connections'?read the full story here.

• Obama regime gives another 129 waivers to unions and others.The Obama Administration has rolled out another 129 waivers to one provision of the new health reform law, with almost half of those new exemptions going to various union groups.The extra waivers bring the total to 1,168, giving businesses, health plans, unions and others an exemption from a portion of the law that in 2011 requires an annual benefit limit of no less than $750,000.In other words, these 1,168 waivers allow companies to limit health insurance payouts to less than $750,000 — those annual benefit limits will be phased out by 2014.The waivers now cover almost three million Americans, but the feds argue that is “less than 2 percent of all Americans who have private health insurance.Almost half of the new round of waivers were given to union health benefit programs, a fact that is sure spur new complaints from health law critics in the Congress, who see these waivers as evidence that the Obama health plan is flawed.Among the unions that were recently approved for waivers:

Teamsters Local 237 in New York, covering over 51,000 workers

Carpenters District Council of Kansas City Welfare Plan, for 20,898 workers

Southeastern Iron Workers, for 5,143 policies

Minneapolis Retail Meat Cutters and Food Handlers for 10,720

the Fulton Fish Market Welfare Fund for 1,211

Among the non-union recipients of new waivers, those included very average sounding businesses like the Mary Cariola Children’s Center in Rochester, NY, the Tumex Corporation of Yuma, Arizona, Belo Tank Xpress and Lexus of Austin.Links to a list of waivers can be found here.  Hmmm.....Why do i keep thinking that all waiver receivers pledge allegiance to dear leader for the coming elections?Read the full story here.

• HT:MEForum.Muslim Jihad in Christian Ethiopia.Lessons for the West.Not only does last week's jihadist rampage against Ethiopia's indigenous Christians highlight the travails Christians encounter wherever Islam has a sizable population, but it offers several insights, including some which should concern faraway, secular nations with Muslim minorities.According to Fox News : Thousands of Christians have been forced to flee their homes in Western Ethiopia after Muslim extremists set fire to roughly 50 churches and dozens of Christian homes. At least one Christian has been killed, many more have been injured and anywhere from 3,000 to 10,000 have been displaced in the attacks that began March 2 after a Christian in the community of Asendabo was accused of desecrating the Koran.For starters, this "medieval" attack is a reminder that countless churches have been destroyed or desecrated by jihadist terror since Islam rose to power in the Medieval era, evincing centuries of continuity. While the media may mention the more "spectacular" attacks on churches—in Iraq, in Egypt—most attacks go either unreported or underreported. (Some Muslim nations, such as U.S. "friend-and-ally" Saudi Arabia, nip it in the bud by outlawing churches in the first place.)

Moreover, the dubious excuse used to justify this latest barbarous outburst—"desecration of the Koran"—is a reminder of the double-standards Bibles suffer in the Islamic world, where they are routinely confiscated and burned. Indeed, even as Muslim Ethiopians were rampaging, Muslim nations hailed as being "moderate"—Malaysia and Bangladesh—also made headlines last week with their deplorable treatment of Christians and Bibles. Worse, the West helps standardize such a biased approach: the U.S. government—Obama, Hillary, and any number of other grandstanding politicians—rose up in condemnation when a virtually anonymous, small-town pastor threatened to burn the Koran, while saying nary a word about the countless Bibles daily mutilated in the Muslim world (a 2003 fatwa that ruled the Bible suitable for use by Muslims when cleaning after defecation went largely unnoticed).Such a gutless approach is not surprising considering the sort of people who advise the military, such as Lt. Cmdr. Youssef Aboul-Enein, who recommends that, if ever an American soldier desecrates a Koran, U.S. leadership must offer "unconditional apologies," and emulate the words of Maj. Gen. Jeffrey Hammond: "I come before you [Muslims] seeking your forgiveness, in the most humble manner I look in your eyes today, and say please forgive me and my soldiers," followed by abjectly kissing a new Koran (Militant Islamist Ideology, p. 26).That Muslims are an otherwise peaceable minority group in Ethiopia, but in enclaves where they represent the majority, they attack their outnumbered Christian countrymen—giving them a tweaked version of Islam's three choices to infidels—suggests that Muslim aggression and passivity are very much rooted in numbers: the more Muslims, the more potential for "assertive" behavior.This has lessons for the West, especially Europe, which in recent years has seen an unprecedented influx of Muslim immigrants, reaching some 53 million, a number expected to "nearly double by 2015, while the non-Muslim will shrink by 3.5%," due to higher Muslim birth rates. In short, it is a matter of time before Muslims account for significant numbers in Europe—perhaps not the majority, but, as the Ethiopian example establishes, a majority is not necessary for the winds of jihad to blow.

As Jonathan Racho, an official at International Christian Concern, said, "It's extremely disconcerting that in Ethiopia, where Christians are the majority, they are also the victims of persecution." This oddity is explained by Prime Minister Meles Zenawi's assertion that Ethiopian Islamists "have changed their tactics and they have been able to camouflage their activities through legal channels"—a strategy regularly implemented by Islamists wherever they are outnumbered, like in the U.S., prompting countermeasures such as Islamist Watch and the Legal Project.

Indeed, the story of Islam's entry into Ethiopia, one of the oldest Christian civilizations, is illustrative. Around 615, when the pagan Quraysh were persecuting Muhammad's outnumbered Muslim followers in Arabia, some fled to Ethiopia seeking sanctuary. The Christian king, or "Negus" of Ethiopia, welcomed and protected these Muslim fugitives, ignoring Quraysh demands to return them—and thus winning Muhammad's gratefulness. Today, 14 centuries later, when Islam has carved itself a solid niche in Ethiopia, accounting for 1/3 of the population, Muslim gratefulness has turned to something else—not least a warning to Western states.Hmmm......"We don't want to take over your country"?Read the full story here.

• Darrell Issa, Department of Justice clash on gun probe.The Obama administration was surprised to receive a subpoena from the Oversight and Government Reform Committee as part of an investigation into a program to track U.S. guns sold in Mexico, considering they had agreed to cooperate, a senior Justice Department official wrote to the committee’s chairman.Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.), the chairman of the top investigative committee in Congress, subpoenaed the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives for documents related to Operation Gunrunner, which traces weapons sold by American dealers to drug cartels in Mexico.The Justice Department, though, is in the midst of several Operation Gunrunner investigations of its own, making it difficult for the agency to supply information to the committee. One investigation deals with the illegal sale of arms in Mexico. Another deals with an agent who was killed on the border.The agency says it was trying to cooperate with Issa’s committee, nonetheless. Before the committee issued the subpoena, the department sent a letter to Issa, saying it intended “to produce a number of responsive documents within the next week.”It is standard operating procedure for Congressional committees to back off investigations if federal law enforcement agencies are conducting criminal investigations. That isn’t cutting it for Issa’s staff.“The Department of Justice has asserted the investigations into the death of two federal agents will broadly prohibit them from sharing documents related to Project Gunrunner,” said committee spokesman Frederick Hill. “We find this position unacceptable.”Hill also said that Cummings is citing “revisionist history” because he did not request a committee vote on the subpoena Thursday when Issa notified him of the subpoena.Read the full story here.

• Indians rank third in receiving US green cards in 2010.People born in India ranked third after Mexico and China in a list of countries whose nationals were among over a million people who received legal permanent residence status (LPRs), popularly known as green cards, in the US last year, according to official figures.The list was topped by Mexicans with 139,120 green cards followed by Chinese with 70,863 and Indians with 69,169.The number of Indians receiving green cards jumped significantly than the previous years - 57,304 in 2009 and 63,352 in 2008."The leading countries of birth of new LPRs were Mexico (13 per cent), China (7 per cent), and India (7 per cent)," said a report issued by the Department of Homeland Security.They were followed by Philippines (5.6 per cent) and the Dominican Republic (5.2 per cent), it said."These five countries accounted for nearly 38 per cent of all new LPRs in 2010," the report said.Together, Asia and North America accounted for 70 per cent or more of the LPR flow each year from 2008 to 2010.However, the number of individuals granted LPR status in 2010 decreased 7.8 per cent from 1,130,818 in 2009 to 1,042,625.Family-sponsored immigrants - immediate relatives of US citizens and family preference classes of admission - represented 66 per cent of the total LPR flow in 2010.Immediate relatives of US citizens accounted for 46 per cent of all individuals granted LPR status in 2010. Spouses of US citizens represented 57 per cent of immediate relative LPRs.Parents of US citizens accounted for 24 per cent, and children of US citizens, including adopted orphans, comprised 19 per cent.According to the report, California was the state of residence of one-fifth (20 per cent) of persons granted LPR status in 2010.Other leading states of residence included New York (14.2 per cent), Florida (10.3 per cent), Texas (8.4 per cent) and New Jersey (5.5 per cent). These five states represented the residence of 58 per cent of new LPRs in 2010, it said.Hmmmm.....No information on the religion they follow.Read the full story here.

• Hidden in a cave for 2,000 years... is this the first-ever portrait of Jesus?The image is eerily familiar: a bearded young man with flowing curly hair. After lying for nearly 2,000 years hidden in a cave in the Holy Land, the fine detail is difficult to determine. But in a certain light it is not difficult to interpret the marks around the figure’s brow as a crown of thorns.

The extraordinary picture of one of the recently discovered hoard of up to 70 lead codices – booklets – found in a cave in the hills overlooking the Sea of Galilee is one reason Bible historians are clamouring to get their hands on the ancient artefacts.

If genuine, this could be the first-ever portrait of Jesus Christ, possibly even created in the lifetime of those who knew him.The tiny booklet, a little smaller than a modern credit card, is sealed on all sides and has a three-dimensional representation of a human head on both the front and the back. One appears to have a beard and the other is without. Even the maker’s fingerprint can be seen in the lead impression. Beneath both figures is a line of as-yet undeciphered text in an ancient Hebrew script.

Astonishingly, one of the booklets appears to bear the words ‘Saviour of Israel’ – one of the few phrases so far translated. The owner of the cache is Bedouin trucker Hassan Saida who lives in the Arab village of Umm al-Ghanim, Shibli. He has refused to sell the booklets but two samples were sent to England and Switzerland for testing.

A Mail on Sunday investigation has revealed that the artefacts were originally found in a cave in the village of Saham in Jordan, close to where Israel, Jordan and Syria’s Golan Heights converge – and within three miles of the Israeli spa and hot springs of Hamat Gader, a religious site for thousands of years. According to sources in Saham, they were discovered five years ago after a flash flood scoured away the dusty mountain soil to reveal what looked like a large capstone. When this was levered aside, a cave was discovered with a large number of small niches set into the walls. Each of these niches contained a booklet. There were also other objects, including some metal plates and rolled lead scrolls.

The area is renowned as an age-old refuge for ancient Jews fleeing the bloody aftermath of a series of revolts against the Roman empire in the First and early Second Century AD.It is also close to caves that have been used as sanctuaries by refugees from the Bar Kokhba revolt, the third and final Jewish revolt against the Roman Empire in 132AD.The codices seen by The Mail on Sunday range in size from smaller than 3in x 2in to around 10in x 8in. They each contain an average of eight or nine pages and appear to be cast, rather than inscribed, with images on both sides and bound with lead-ring bindings. Many of them were severely corroded when they were first discovered, although it has been possible to open them with care.

The codex showing what may be the face of Christ is not thought to have been opened yet. Some codices show signs of having been buried – although this could simply be the detritus resulting from lying in a cave for hundreds of years. Unlike the Dead Sea Scrolls, the lead codices appear to consist of stylised pictures, rather than text, with a relatively small amount of script that appears to be in a Phoenician language, although the exact dialect is yet to be identified. At the time these codices were created, the Holy Land was populated by different sects, including Essenes, Samaritans, Pharisees, Sadducees, Dositheans and Nazoreans.Many of the books are sealed on all sides with metal rings, suggesting they were not intended to be opened. This could be because they contained holy words which should never be read. For example, the early Jews fiercely protected the sacred name of God, which was only ever uttered by The High Priest in the Temple in Jerusalem at Yom Kippur.

The original pronunciation has been lost, but has been transcribed into Roman letters as YHWH – known as the Tetragrammaton – and is usually translated either as Yahweh or Jehovah. A sealed book containing sacred information was mentioned in the biblical Book of Revelations. This interpretation of the books as proto-Christian artefacts is supported by Margaret Barker, former president of the Society for Old Testament Study and one of Britain’s leading experts on early Christianity. The fact that a figure is portrayed would appear to rule out these codices being connected to mainstream Judaism of the time, where portrayal of lifelike figures was strictly forbidden because it was considered idolatry. If genuine, it seems clear that these books were, in fact, created by an early Messianic Jewish sect, perhaps closely allied to the early Christian church and that these images represent Christ himself.

However another theory, put forward by Robert Feather – an authority on The Dead Sea Scrolls and author of The Mystery Of The Copper Scroll Of Qumran – is that these books are connected to the Bar Kokhba Revolt of 132-136AD, the third major rebellion by the Jews of Judea Province and the last of the Jewish-Roman Wars. Feather says that all known codices prior to around 400AD were made of parchment and that cast lead is unknown. They were clearly designed to exist for ever and never to be opened. The use of metal as a writing material at this time is well documented – however the text was always inscribed, not cast.The director of Jordan’s Department of Antiquities, Ziad al-Saad, has few doubts. He believes they may indeed have been made by followers of Jesus in the few decades immediately following his crucifixion.

‘They will really match, and perhaps be more significant than, the Dead Sea Scrolls,’ he says. ‘The initial information is very encouraging and it seems that we are looking at a very important and significant discovery – maybe the most important discovery in the history of archaeology.’ If he is right, then we really may be gazing at the face of Jesus Christ.Hmmmm....What is most amazing is that they surface now.As the Son of the Living God, the Lord Jesus Christ, often stated….“the scriptures must be fulfilled.“…Mark 14:49.

"And in that day will I make Jerusalem a burdensome stone for all people: all that burden themselves with it shall be cut in pieces, though all the people of the earth be gathered together against it"….Zech. 12:3

And may everyone take heed….."Gather yourselves together, yea, gather together, O nation not desired; Before the decree bring forth, before the day pass as the chaff, before the fierce anger of the LORD come upon you, before the day of the LORD’S anger come upon you. Seek ye the LORD, all ye meek of the earth, which have wrought his judgment; seek righteousness, seek meekness: it may be ye shall be hid in the day of the LORD’S anger"….Zeph. 2:1-3 He That Has Ears To Hear, Let Him Hear…Read the full story here.