MFS - The Other News

              
                       Afternoon Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 11. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Middle East Live Blog April 10 here .(Al-Jazeera)

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world increased seismic activity in Japan  today between 5.0 and 7.1! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 82.  Source.

• Earthquake - Japan Prefecture of Ishikawa.

• Iranian students hurl firebombs at Saudi embassy.TEHRAN, Iran – Scores of Iranian students have attacked the Saudi Arabian embassy with firebombs to protest the Gulf country's role in cracking down on anti-government protesters in Bahrain.The official IRNA news agency says protesters tried to attach a flag of the Lebanese group Hezbollah to the embassy's gate Monday, but were prevented by police. Protesters chanted slogans against Saudi and Bahraini leaders, both followers of Sunni Islam.Iran, predominantly Shiite Muslim, has denounced the deployment of a Saudi-led force to help prop up Bahrain's monarchy. A government crackdown against Bahrain's Shiite-led protests has killed at least 27 people. Authorities say they see Iran's influence among the opposition, though there are no visible links.Hmmmm....i'm getting visions of petrol at 500$/Barrel.Read the full story here.

• Minsk metro blast leaves several (Seven) dead,56 wounded.A blast tore through a metro station near Belarus President Alexander Lukashenko's main office in the capital Minsk on Monday, killing at least five and wounding several commuters, according to reports.It was not immediately clear what caused the explosion, which hit the Oktyabrskaya metro station in the city centre. The exit to the metro leads directly to both Mr Lukashenko's main working office and his residence. Ambulances and fire engines were seen racing to the scene. Witnesses told AFP that dark plumes of smoke rose from the station tunnel, with dozens of people walking out in a daze, covered in pieces plaster and their clothing tattered. At least one person had both legs maimed by the blast, a witness said.The Interfax news agency separately said that at least 30 people were carried out on stretchers from the station. The RIA Novosti news agency reported that at least 10 people were hurt in the blast, adding that the ceiling of the underground station may be in danger of collapse. The explosion comes amid growing political tensions inside Belarus linked to the trials of opposition members who rallied against Mr Lukashenko's controversial re-election on December 19. Tens of thousands of people demonstrated through central Minsk on election night after Mr Lukashenko's overwhelming victory was announced, with police wielding truncheons moving in against the protesters and arresting hundreds. Several presidential candidates remain in KGB jails, facing prison terms of up to 15 years for organising riots and mass disorders. Dozens of other opposition leaders face shorter jail terms in trials that began this year. The arrests have added to the Lukashenko regime's growing international isolation, with both the European Union and the United States announcing travel bans and economic sanctions against some Belarussian state companies. However despite the political unrest, Belarus is normally considered a safe country and has never been touched by large-scale militant attacks such as those carried out by Islamist militants in Moscow.Hmmmm....."Lukashenko the last dictator from the ex-USSR period". Read the full story here.More here .

• HT:Memri.Article In Hamas Paper: Israel's Claim Of Attack On Bus Is Exaggerated – Just Like Holocaust.In an article in the Hamas daily Falastin, 'Imad Al-Hadidi rejected Israel's claim that the bus struck by a 'missile of the resistance' near the Gaza strip on April 7 was transporting school pupils, calling it a lie and saying that the pupils had disembarked a short time before the missile struck.He said that the bus could not have been transporting pupils because it was so far from the settlement and also because there were no photographs of the wounded children or of ambulances taking them to hospital. Al-Hadidi added that Israel was distorting history and inventing tearjerker stories in a bid for sympathy – just like it exaggerated about the Holocaust.Hmmmm.....The people the Obama regime and the left support!Read the full story here.

• HT:AmericanThinker.Obama's Fort Hood Jihadist.By Pamela Geller.We have been hearing for years that the White House is withholding evidence on the Fort Hood jihadi, Major Nidal Malik Hasan. Now comes direct confirmation of this from Hasan's own lawyer.

Major Hasan, also known as Soldier of Allah, according to his business card, mowed down thirteen U.S. soldiers while screaming Allahu akbar on the Fort Hood military base in Texas a year and a half ago, in November 2009. Yet his trial keeps on being postponed. On March 30, Lt. Gen. Robert Cone, the outgoing commanding general at Fort Hood, granted a request from John Galligan, Hasan's lawyer, to delay the trial until late April. Galligan, however, disclaims responsibility for all the delays, blaming them on none other than Barack Hussein Obama.

Rick, a reader of my website, AtlasShrugs.com, forwarded to me an email exchange he had with Galligan. Rick wrote to Galligan last Thursday: "The American people are getting pretty upset about all of these delays." On Friday, Galligan responded: "Delays are due to prosecution/White House refusal to disclose evidence. Blame them for the delays."So where is justice? This Islamic supremacist should have been executed by now. What's the hold up? Galligan's blaming Obama is consistent with how the White House has behaved throughout this case. Back in November of 2010, I wrote at Atlas Shrugs that the Obama administration was "still covering up the motivation behind the attack." Even worse, in October 2010, a soldier at Fort Hood who caught Hasan's jihad murders in two videos on his cell phone camera was ordered by his commanding officer to delete both videos. This is unacceptable. An army officer ordered the destruction of evidence in a jihadist attack on American soldiers? The officer should be on trial for obstruction of justice. And back in April 2010, Senators Joe Lieberman (I-CT) and Susan Collins (R-ME) had to subpoena the Obama White House to get information it was withholding for a congressional investigation into the Fort Hood jihad massacre.Also, a fellow psychiatrist recalled a lecture Hasan gave (a "grand round" is the term for it) when he was a medical resident at Walter Reed: "It freaked them out." Normally, a lecturer focuses on a particular disease or disorder and recent research or treatment options. Instead, Hasan reportedly harangued the doctors and staff about what the Qur'an teaches about non-believers going to hell, being scalded, beheaded, etc. A Muslim psychiatrist in the audience reportedly challenged Hasan about his interpretation of the Qur'an, but he would not back down (because he was right). Other sources said that several in the audience suggested afterward that Hasan might be a shooter someday.Yet Obama has continued to withhold evidence in the Fort Hood jihadist attack and, as Galligan has just revealed, continues to shield the Muslim terrorist. So crippled has our military (and other branches of government) become by this self-imposed Sharia (do not insult Islam!), that despite the staggering loss of U.S. soldiers in Hasan's Fort Hood massacre, the chief concern of Army Chief of Staff Gen. George W. Casey, Jr. in the bloody aftermath of the Fort Hood jihad was that "speculation could potentially heighten backlash against some of our Muslim soldiers and what happened at Fort Hood was a tragedy, but I believe it would be an even greater tragedy if our diversity becomes a casualty here."That was the concern.By Gd, what have they done? They have abandoned, by their own volition, the only weapon of survival -- they are practicing suspension of the mind, refusing to think. Who is looking out for Americans? We know who is looking out for the jihad in America. John Galligan just reminded us.Hmmmm....."I will stand with my muslim Brothers'?Read the full story here.

• Chicago school bans some lunches brought from home.To encourage healthful eating, Chicago school doesn't allow kids to bring lunches or certain snacks from home — and some parents, and many students, aren't fans of the policy.Fernando Dominguez cut the figure of a young revolutionary leader during a recent lunch period at his elementary school."Who thinks the lunch is not good enough?" the seventh-grader shouted to his lunch mates in Spanish and English.Dozens of hands flew in the air and fellow students shouted along: "We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch! We should bring our own lunch!"Fernando waved his hand over the crowd and asked a visiting reporter: "Do you see the situation?"At his public school, Little Village Academy on Chicago's West Side, students are not allowed to pack lunches from home. Unless they have a medical excuse, they must eat the food served in the cafeteria.Principal Elsa Carmona said her intention is to protect students from their own unhealthful food choices."Nutrition wise, it is better for the children to eat at the school," Carmona said. "It's about the nutrition and the excellent quality food that they are able to serve (in the lunchroom). It's milk versus a Coke. But with allergies and any medical issue, of course, we would make an exception."Carmona said she created the policy six years ago after watching students bring "bottles of soda and flaming hot chips" on field trips for their lunch. Although she would not name any other schools that employ such practices, she said it was fairly common.A Chicago Public Schools spokeswoman said she could not say how many schools prohibit packed lunches and that decision is left to the judgment of the principals."This is such a fundamental infringement on parental responsibility," said J. Justin Wilson, a senior researcher at the Washington-based Center for Consumer Freedom, which is partially funded by the food industry."Would the school balk if the parent wanted to prepare a healthier meal?" Wilson said. "This is the perfect illustration of how the government's one-size-fits-all mandate on nutrition fails time and time again. Some parents may want to pack a gluten-free meal for a child, and others may have no problem with a child enjoying soda."For many CPS parents, the idea of forbidding home-packed lunches would be unthinkable. If their children do not qualify for free or reduced-price meals, such a policy would require them to pay $2.25 a day for food they don't necessarily like.Many Little Village students claim that, given the opportunity, they would make sound choices."They're afraid that we'll all bring in greasy food instead of healthy food and it won't be as good as what they give us at school," said student Yesenia Gutierrez. "It's really lame. If we could bring in our own lunches, everyone knows what they'd bring. For example, the vegetarians could bring in their own veggie food."

"I would bring a sandwich or a Subway and maybe a juice," said seventh-grader Ashley Valdez.

Second-grader Gerardo Ramos said, "I would bring a banana, orange and some grapes."

"I would bring a juice and like a sandwich," said fourth-grader Eric Sanchez.

"Sometimes I would bring the healthy stuff," second-grader Julian Ruiz said, "but sometimes I would bring Lunchables."Hmmmm......Chicago........"Let them eat school lunches!"Read the full story here .

• HT:Memri.Salafi-Jihadist Movement in Jordan Threatens Demonstration in Amman, Warns of 'Storm of Jihad'.For the past month, the Salafi-jihadist movement in Jordan has been holding demonstrations in which protesters wave Al-Qaeda flags, denounce the Jordanian regime, and demand the instatement of shari'a law in the country and the release of the movement's prisoners.

Last week, the Jordanian security apparatuses arrested four Salafi-jihadist activists: 'Abd Al-Nasser Khamaysa, Mustafa 'Abd Al-Latif, Muhammad Abu 'Omar, and Furas Al-Na'lawi.In response, the movement threatened that, if they were not released, it would hold a sit-down demonstration this Tuesday (April 12) from ten in the morning until ten at night in Amman's Gamal 'Abd Al-Nasser Square. One of the movement's senior leaders in Jordan, Abu Muhammad Al-Tahawi, said that this was only "the first step in the escalation," and that "all options are open." It should be noted that 'Abd Al-Nasser Square is the most central junction in the capital, and that the authorities generally forbid sit-down demonstration held in the square. Two weeks ago, a demonstration organized by the March 24 Youth led to clashes with security forces, ending with one person dead and 100 wounded. Salafi-Jihadist Leader to Jordanian Intelligence: Learn a Lesson from What Happened to the Egyptian National Intelligence Apparatus.Imam of Irbid Mosque to Jordanian Authorities: Implement the Shari'a, Otherwise the Storm of Jihad Will Reach Jordan

Another speaker at the demonstration was the imam of the Khalil Al-Rahman mosque in Irbid, Sheikh Muhammad Al-Khatib. He said that the masses had taken to the streets "to declare with one voice: We want to restore the Islamic Caliphate," and added: "The righteous Caliphate will soon return, Allah willing." Addressing the Jordanian authorities, he warned: "[Even] if you survive the political storm [rising] out of Tunisia, Egypt and Libya, the storm of military jihad is [rising] out of Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Iraq, and Yemen. It will undoubtedly pass through Jordan, unless you fix the situation and implement Allah's law."Our War Is against the Jews and Their Agents in JordanAnother Salafi-jihadist leader in Jordan, Dr. Sa'd Al-Hunaiti, said at the demonstration that "the Salafi movement is being targeted because [its demands] are so lofty... [Our demands] surpass all those of the opposition, because we are demanding to impose shari'a [law]. Implementing the shari'a will bring down all of Allah's enemies who are [conducting] security coordination with the Jews, and all those who are sending the Muslims to fight as mercenaries alongside the Jews and Crusaders in Afghanistan..." He added that "the demand to implement the shari'a is causing the oppressors and infidels everywhere to lose sleep." Responding to a statement by Israeli Knesset Member Binyamin Ben Eliezer, who expressed concern for the stability of the Jordanian regime, Al-Hunaiti said: "Our war is against the Jews and their collaborators and agents in Jordan... When the [Jordanian] masses began to [protest], they [i.e., Jordanian King 'Abdallah] fired [former prime minister] Samir Al-Rifa'i and brought us Ma'rouf Al-Bakhit in his stead. [The latter] is a military figure who served as an advisor to the Jordanian intelligence and as an ambassador to the Jews, so he is from the camp [of the Jews and their collaborators and agents in Jordan]."Hmmmm......Thank you Hussein for all the 'Change'.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Iranian Majlis Member: Adopt A More Aggressive Position Vis-à-vis Saudi Arabia.Iranian Majlis member Ruhollah Hosseinan, who is close to Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei, has called on the regime to adopt a more aggressive position vis-à-vis the massacre he says that Saudi Arabia is carrying out in Bahrain, and proposed that the regime prepare for a military move. Iranian armed forces joint chief of staff Maj.-Gen. Hassan Firouzabadi said that Saudi Arabia made a mistake sending its forces into Bahrain, and that the U.S. is behind the move.Hmmm.....Obama already trembling in his golf shoes.Read the full story here.

• IHH Organizing Another Flotilla - This Time with an Airplane.The people who brought you last year’s Turkish IHH ill-fated anti-Israel convoy to Gaza are organizing another one – this time with an airplane.Virulently anti-Israel Bulent Yaldrim, director of the Turkish terrorist-affiliated IHH group, said last week at a monthly event commemorating last year’s Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza that preparations are underway in full force for an even bigger one. “Weh IHH ill-fated anti-Israel convoy to Gaza are organizing another one – this time with an airplane.Virulently anti-Israel Bulent Yaldrim, director of the Turkish terrorist-affiliated IHH group, said last week at a monthly event commemorating last year’s Mavi Marmara flotilla to Gaza that preparations are underway in full force for an even bigger one. “We have just one problem,” he said, “and that is the virus called Zionism.” The speech was reported by the Meir Amit Intelligence and Terrorism Information Center (ITIC).The upcoming convoy, to be named Freedom Fleet II, was scheduled to take place around the anniversary of last year’s flotilla, near the end of May. However, Yaldrim said it will probably happen only around late June, partly because he is hoping to purchase an airplane to take part in the anti-Israel convoy campaign.Neither Israel nor the Oslo Accords sanction the landing of airplanes from abroad in Gaza.Israel's Blockade is Legal

According to international maritime law, Israel is within its rights in placing a maritime blockade upon an entity with which it is in a state of armed conflict, such as Hamas. When a maritime blockade is in effect, no vessels are permitted to enter the blockaded area, and any vessel that violates or attempts to violate the maritime blockade may be captured or even attacked.”Hmmm....In the old days they would put a minefield to prevent ships from entering.....Sigh 'the good old days' Read the full story here.

• Grocery Chain Told to Rehire 'Violent' Arab Workers.A grocery store that fired 21 Arab workers at once must hire them all again, Justice Ravit Tzaddik of the Tel Aviv District Labor Court ruled Sunday. The store was accused of racial discrimination in the firings.Store managers at the Kimat Chinam branch in Modiin said the Arab workers in question created an atmosphere of violence and intimidation, threatened customers and fellow workers with physical violence, and were involved in sexual harassment in the workplace.Some of the workers even bragged that they were involved in the murder of five members of the Fogel family in Itamar, and did so in the presence of Jewish workers and customers, management said.They denied that the firings were motivated by the workers' ethnic background. Six Arab workers remain at the store in question, and almost 25% of workers at the Kimat Chinam network are Arab, they said, “So we cannot be considered a company that discriminates between its workers.”However, the workers told a different story. Workers said they were discriminated against by the manager, and had been fired with no warning, without a chance to tell their side of the story. All Arab workers at the Modiin branch were fired, they claimed, including some who had worked at the store prior to the appointment of the most recent manager, who had not had any complaints about them.The suit against the firings was brought by Attorney Ina David Sultanovich, on behalf of the Ministry of Trade and Labor's Equal Opportunities Commissioner. The Commissioner, Tziona Kenig-Yair, was formerly Director of the Women's Lobby, which is funded by the controversial New Israel Fund.The NIF is a left-wing umbrella group that distributes funds – suspected to be primarily from foreign donors – to Arab and far-left Jewish organizations in Israel.In representing the workers, Sultanovich responded to the claim that they had bragged about the murders in Itamar by saying that only a single worker, at most, had claimed to be involved in the slayings, and that managers had failed to provide first-hand testimony regarding the incident.Some criticized Kenig-Yair's behavior in the case as hypocritical. The Women's Lobby usually trumpets cases of sexual harassment brought against Jewish leaders, and often calls for those accused of harassment to be fired. However, in this case, Kenig-Yair supported Arab men accused of harassment, and the Women's Lobby and political left have remained silent.Minister of Trade and Labor Shalom Simchon praised the ruling. The ruling sends a clear message to employers that the government will not tolerate racism, he said.“We see absorbing Arab employees in the workplace as being of utmost importance,” he said. “We will continue to work to prevent discrimination against them.”Hmmmm.....So they murder Jews,but you can't fire Arabs bragging about it?Read the full story here.

• Former Leader of Ivory Coast Is Captured to End Standoff.ABIDJAN, Ivory Coast — The Ivory Coast strongman, Laurent Gbagbo, was captured on Monday after a week-long siege of his residence and placed under the control of his rival claimant to power, according to the French military and a senior American diplomat.Both French ground forces and troops loyal to Alassane Ouattara, the internationally recognized winner of Ivory Coast’s election last year, had pressed into the city toward the residence where Mr. Gbagbo has been holed up. “It is my pleasure to announce officially that the former president of Cote d’Ivoire, Laurent Gbagbo, has been arrested,” said Youssoufou Bamba, Mr. Ouattara’s representative to the United Nations. “He is alive and he will be brought to justice to respond to the crimes he committed. In this way, the Cote d’Ivoire reaches the end of its tragedy, of its nightmare.” “His era is over,” Mr. Bamba added, saying Mr. Gbagbo was now “under our custody.” Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, a French military spokesman in Abidjan, Ivory Coast’s main city, confirmed Mr. Gbagbo’s capture but denied reports that the French military had been involved in seizing him, saying Mr. Gbagbo had been taken solely by forces loyal to Mr. Ouattara. “I can affirm that categorically,” Commander Daguillon said. “There was not one single French soldier in the residence.”In Paris, Laurent Teisseire, a spokesman for the French Defense Ministry, said, “Mr. Gbagbo surrendered to Mr. Ouattara’s forces.” While French forces “patrolled” in Abidjan on Monday, he said, “they did not enter into the perimeter” of the Gbagbo residence and did not participate in his capture. For months, Mr. Gbagbo has refused to accept Mr. Ouattara’s victory, insisting that he is still the legitimate president of this West African nation. A senior American diplomat, who spoke in return for anonymity because of the fluidity of the situation, said Mr. Gbagbo was being held at Mr. Ouattara’s headquarters at the Golf Hôtel in Abidjan. “My understanding is that he is at the Golf Hôtel and is under the control of the Ouattara government,” the diplomat said. Mr. Teisseire, the ministry spokesman in Paris, also said that Mr. Gbagbo had been taken to the hotel.Hmmmm.......Another country became an Islamic bastion thanks to the Islamic United Nations.Read the full story here.

• HT:Elliott Abrams: Pressure Points.Russia + Syria + Hizballah = Hamas.On April 6, Hamas terrorists fired a Russian Kornet laser-guided missile at a school bus in southern Israel. How did Hamas get such a missile?It turns out that Russia does not license others to produce this missile; every single Kornet is manufactured in Russia at the KBP factory. The KBP web site helpfully touts all the wonderful qualities of this weapon.So how did Hamas get its hands on the Kornet it used to try to kill dozens of Israeli schoolchildren? Syria is the obvious guess, as Russia sells Kornets to Syria and Syria maintains close relations with Hamas and Hizballah. The United States has previously sanctioned the KBP plant for providing missiles to Syria that then reached Hizballah, as this Israeli news item notes. The only thing we don’t know is whether it was Hizballah or Syria who turned Kornets over to Hamas.The ultimate culprit remains Russia, which is selling Syria missiles that it has every reason to know will be given to terrorist groups. Russia is of course a member of the Middle East Quartet, whose goal is supposed to be peace—not arms supplies to terrorists. If the scheduled Quartet meeting takes place this Friday, April 15, Sec. Clinton should lead off by telling Russia Foreign Minister Lavrov that this must stop. A discussion of how Russian arms get to terrorists who murder Israelis would be a great deal more useful than hours of debate over what tactics to use in the United Nations.Meanwhile, the Asad regime’s cozy relations with terrorists groups provides yet another reason we should hope the people of Syria are successful in their efforts to rid themselves of the odious dictatorship under which they live.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Lebanese Daily: Syria Accusing Muslim Brotherhood Operating From Turkey Responsible For Unrest.In his column in the Lebanese daily Al-Safir, which is close to Syria, Talal Sleiman calls on Syrian President Bashar Al-Assad to immediately begin reforms as he promised, before the bloody events in the country get out of control, and even if it involves a high cost to the regime, which in any case has reached the time when it should be replaced. The Al-Akhbar daily reports, citing Syrian sources, that Syria sees the Muslim Brotherhood, primarily those operating from Turkey, as responsible for the demonstrations in Syria, and that this could worsen Turkey-Syria relations.Hmmmm.....Iran.....Turkey.....Obama's favorite 'ally'.Read the full story here.