MFS - The Other News

                      Morning Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 10. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 10. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 5.3 - 5.4 activity. More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 105.
  On 09.05.2011 at 14:42 GMT+2
  
  Tokyo Electric Power Co. (TEPCO) on Monday detected radiation levels in the building housing the faltering No. 1 reactor that far exceeded expected levels reaching as high as 700 millisieverts per hour, the utility firm said. The latest readings for the troubled reactor has lead Japan's Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency to embark on new radiation shielding measures so that work to bring the crisis under control can go ahead with risks of massive doses of deadly radiation poisoning hopefully being lessened for the TEPCO workers and their affiliates as they attempt to embark on a massive project to install a nuclear fuel cooling system. TEPCO is currently mulling ideas to protect its workers -- some who have only had a single medical check since the March 11 triple disasters and many who have been exposed to levels of radiation far exceeded legal levels -- such as constructing a metal tunnel for people to walk through, or using lead sheeting to provide increased protection against radioactive substances and increase safer mobility for the workers moving around in high-radiation areas. An area with a double-digit millisievert level, let alone three-digit figures, is quite tough as a working environment. So we have to do the work by using some shielding,'' Hidehiko Nishiyama, a spokesman for the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency, told a press conference.
  
  TEPCO during the press conference were unable to confirm whether the latest measures would be a success and could not say unequivocally whether Asia's largest utility's well-publicized schedule to stabilize the plant's troubled reactors by October would be met. TEPCO said that as 10 to 70 millisieverts per hour were detected in areas where workers would be expected to spend prolonged periods of time inside of the No. 1 reactor, restoration work is possible. But the utility firm opened the main access points to the reactor and in doing do freely released 500 million becquerels of radioactive substances into the atmosphere, where it had gathered in the upper part of the reactor following a massive hydrogen explosion on March 12. Seven TEPCO representatives and two from the nuclear agency entered the reactor in the early hours of Monday morning and measured radiation, working and safety conditions inside the reactor for roughly 30 minutes. Following the reconnaissance mission, the nine people involved were exposed to radiation ranging from between levels of 2.7 millisieverts and 10.56 millisieverts, according the Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency. The installation of such cooling equipment is likely to be hampered by high radiation, as the group found several radiation " hot spots," especially around pipes suspected to be clogged with highly radioactive material. The nuclear agency and the Environment Ministry on Monday also began taking readings from highly contaminated rubble from the vicinity of the stricken No. 1 nuclear plant and remove some of the debris and bring it back to laboratories in Tokyo for further tests. The radioactive rubble continues to emit radiation into the atmosphere, the ministry said. Source : Here .

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

• WTF?Terrorists in Iraqi Prisons Have Cellphones And Are Free To Phone Media And Direct Acts Of Terrorism.(Memri).The security and defense committee of the Iraqi parliament characterized the owning of cellular phones by terrorists held in Iraqi prisons as "a big scandal." A member of the committee who refused to give his name said that the absence of deterrent laws allow officers and prison guards to cooperate with the terrorists and to facilitate their obtaining cell phones at low cost. A number of major terrorist acts were carried out with the help of instructions provided from within the Iraqi prisons.Hmmmm.....Who needs enemies with the Obama regime in charge?Read the full story here.

• State Department Ignores Christian Slaughter.(Aina)."It's time to speak out against hate," declared Secretary of State Hillary Clinton in a video introducing the State Department’s new "campaign to stop bigotry." Created by the Obama administration's Special Representative to Muslim Communities, Farah Pandith, and Special Envoy to Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Hannah Rosenthal, 2011 Hours Against Hate will "promote respect across lines of culture, religion, tradition, class, and gender." (All 23 current classifications of gender? Just wondering.) The campaign was launched at the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Vienna, February 17, 2011.

At the OSCE, Pandith raised legitimate concerns about the defacing of mosques and of Jewish tombs, schools, synagogues, and kosher shops. But she also said that the "latest trends show growing movements that target 'the other' -- be they immigrants, or religious and ethnic minorities, in the name of protecting the identity and 'purity' of their nation." By 2011 Hours Against Hate standards, British Prime Minister David Cameron's declaration that multiculturalism has failed is a dangerous targeting of "the other." Pandith also noted that "permissibility of anti-Muslim speech is growing." Really? A host of individuals facing charges, paying fines, and hiding from death threats would be surprised to hear this. But then it seems permissible to target "the other" of "the other."

"Hate is hate, no matter who the target is," 2011 Hours Against Hate intones. But some targets of hatred appear to be more equal than others. Perhaps because some leftist elites never got over their assumption that Christians are the persecutors, not the persecuted, they have difficulty speaking out against hatred aimed at those whom the mainstream media sees as hate-mongers.

On April 29, 2011, the State Department's Office of International Religious Freedom (IRF) co-sponsored a 2011 Hours Against Hate event. Hosted by George Washington University, the event was billed as a "Town Hall Discussion on U.S. efforts to combat discrimination and hatred against Jews, Muslims, and others." Hopefully, the 100 million-plus Christians experiencing persecution around the world today, along with Hindus, Sikhs, Baha'i, etc., are included in "and others." The IRF office should be reminded that advocates for persecuted Christians played a major role in its creation, along with the creation of the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom(USCIRF). Both were mandates of the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act (IRFA).Though outspoken in their denouncement of hurtful language, the folks at Foggy Bottom have been silent about the massacre of hundreds of Christians in Kaduna State, and several other states in northern Nigeria that took place after Nigeria's federal elections last month. Angry that Christian President Goodluck Jonathan defeated Muslim candidate Muhammadu Buhari, Islamists in the Shariah-ruled north began rioting on Monday, April 18, 2011, after preliminary results of the April 16 election were announced. Soon newspapers featured grisly photos of charred bodies lining the streets. Hundreds of churches were burned and thousands of Christian-owned businesses destroyed, according to the Christian human rights group, Open Doors. And International Christian Concern reported that the Kaduna-based Civil Rights Congress was still "discovering more details of massacres that have been carried out in the hinterland." Upwards of 40,000 Christians have been displaced in the past few weeks.In its comments about the situation in Nigeria, the U.S. State Department disregarded the religious aspect of the post-election mayhem. Secretary of State Clinton's April 19 statement on the elections (available in Arabic as well as English) "deplored violence," but ignored the targeting of Christians. Clinton congratulated Goodluck Jonathan for winning Nigeria’s presidential election, and applauded "the people of Nigeria for their enthusiastic and orderly participation." She did caution that the process was "far from perfect," though, and called on the country’s Independent National Electoral Commission “to transparently review and take appropriate and transparent action on all allegations of “under-age” voters, violence and intimidation, ballot stuffing, and inordinately high turnout in some areas of the country."Although some, including U.S. State Department officials, would paint the post-election violence as purely political, the head of the advocacy group Justice for Jos, attorney Emmanuel Ogebe, refutes this claim. While Muslims and Christians in southern Nigeria get along fine, on this particular occasion there is an intersect between religion and politics when it comes to the Shariah-compliant north. And besides that, Ogebe says that for the Islamists in northern Nigeria, "anything is used as an excuse to kill Christians — beauty pageants, lunar eclipses, school exams, political elections…." These are the sundry reasons in the last dozen years alone that have sparked violent, deadly attacks against Christians. He calls it their "default setting."Ogebe reported that strikes on Christians took place simultaneously in rural districts of a dozen Nigerian states (northern). Some initial attacks took place in the middle of the night, when the Christians were least able to defend themselves. And anti-Christian sentiment was inflamed in many of northern Nigeria's mosques, since in those areas Islamists emerged from mosques with the goal of killing anyone who is an "infidel" whether they voted for the Christian president or not. Victims were made to quote the Quran, not identify for whom they had voted. Nigerian church leaders agree with Ogebe. In a May 3, 2011 press briefing in Kaduna State, leaders of the Christian Association of Nigeria (CAN) called for a federal investigation into the violence that targeted Christians. "Islamic attacks on churches reflect [the] religious dimension of political conflict," said Compass Direct News Service.Pretending the jihad against Nigerian Christians is mere political division and remaining silent about the egregious persecution is about as sensible as pretending the terrorist threat against America is a criminal justice issue, or pretending that justified concerns about the spread of Shariah are Islamophobia that can be squelched by a campaign against hate.Hmmmm....A 'regime' that encourages the killing of Christians, Jews and Budhists!Selfconfessed 'Christian' indeed,beware of false prophets.Read the full story here.

• Brigitte Gabriel: Islamist Persecution of Muslims, Christians, Jews and Minorities.(BigPeace).“It’s of concern, of course, not because all Muslims are behaving this way but because those who are doing it in the name of Shariah are unmistakably seeking this kind of supremacist outcome and it won’t stop with Christian populations and it won’t stop with people in other parts of the world.” – Frank Gaffney concerning recent flash points in Salifist violence against minorities.Today on Frank GAffney’s Secure Freedom Radio, author of They Must Be Stopped, Brigitte Gabriel sets the record straight on the recent history of violent Islamist persecution of Christians, Jews, minorities and other Muslims from the vantage point of an American Arab woman. It has never been more timely to check the historical record against public stereo types. Listen to Brigitte and Frank hear the full story here.

• “Lula” and Barack’s Common Marxist Ties.(NewZeal).Brazil’s immediate past president Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva, a former labor boss, built his Workers Party, an alliance of communists, Trotskyites, “liberation theologists”, black radicals, environmentalists and labor militants, into the most powerful political force in Latin America.Working with Cuba, “Lula” as he is commonly known, has had an huge influence in the revolutionary wave that has swept Latin America since the early 90s.Less widely known is that Lula has enjoyed support and advice from the US’s largest Marxist organization Democratic Socialists of America, since at least the year he founded his Party, 1981.Incidentally, this is around the same time that Barack Obama began his thirty year association with the organization.Obama became involved with D.S.A. when he attended their Socialist Scholars Conferences in New York in the early 1980s. the connection may have gone back even into the late 1970s when he associated with members of Occidental College’s Democratic Socialist Alliance.The Obama/D.S.A. relationship blossomed in Chicago and has never wavered since.D.S.A. member Stanley Gacek is a labor attorney and A.F.L.-C.I.O. and was a long time International Affairs Assistant Director, responsible for the Federation’s relations with Latin America and the Caribbean. He has spoken and written extensively on Brazilian labor and politics and has been a friend and adviser to President Luis Ignacio Lula da Silva and the Workers Party since the early 1980s.In November 2010 Obama awarded John Sweeney the Presidential Medal of Freedom.Socialist revolution is international in scope.The same people who helped deliver Brazil to the socialists and communists, are working to do the same to the U.S.This may help explain why Barack Obama lets Brazil drill for Gulf oil, but denies American companies the same right.He is simply looking after his real friends.Hmmmm..........Democracy or Dictatorship?Read the full story here.

• New Phones being adapted to broadcast "Dear Leader" his messages.(DailyMail). New emergency alert SMS system set to launch (but you can’t block the President’s messages).It's easy to ignore a phone message from someone you don't know that well. But when Barack Obama sends you a text, you listen.A national emergency alert system that will send messages to mobile phones during disasters is set to launch in New York City and Washington by the end of year.The Commercial Mobile Alert System will direct emergency messages to mobile phones in case of a terrorist attack, natural disaster or other serious emergencies.Citizens can opt out of receiving most of the messages, unless they are from the President himself.'If there’s a terrorist bomb set to off in Times Square, you’d be able to tell everyone in the vicinity to get out of there,' one New York official to the New York Post.The alert plan was approved by Congress in 2006 under the Warning Alert and Response Network Act.Federal Communications Commission Chairman Julius Genachowski and Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Craig Fugate said the new national system will be selective in what it sends out.'These are really focused on the highest levels of alerts, and those that require urgent action,' Fugate said.Genachowski added that officials expect the alerts 'to be very limited.There will be at least three levels of messages, ranging from a critical national alert from the president to warnings about impending or occurring national disasters to alerts about missing or abducted children. People will be able to opt out of receiving all but the presidential alerts, Genachowski said.A special chip is required to allow the phone to receive the messages, and starting next year all new phones will have the technology. Some smart phones already have the chip and software updates will be available when the network goes online later this year, Genachowski said.Fugate said cell phones turned on in the direct vicinity of a disaster - an evacuation zone, for instance - would receive a message warning them of the impending danger. The alert would show up on the phone's front screen, instead of the traditional text message inbox, and arrive with a distinct ring and likely a vibration.Messages are expected to get through even if traditional phone lines are swamped.Hmmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Iran Training “Sleeper” Terrorists in Venezuela?(NewZeal).Iran’s Revolutionary Guard is allegedly training a large number of Kuwaitis, Bahrainis and Saudis in a private training camp located in Waheera, a remote area near the borders of Venezuela and Colombia, and intends to use them to carry out terrorist activities within their respective countries and other areas across the world in case Iran is attacked militarily, Al-Seyassah daily quoted a reliable source as saying.The trainees are first sent to Venezuelan capital Caracas or Colombian capital Bogota via Damascus and from there, they are sent to the border region in cars, one of the militants who broke away from the Iranian group told the daily.Reportedly, the training camp is run by some Iranian intelligence officers and others affiliated to the Revolutionary Guard in cooperation with Hezbollah and Hamas. The trainees were given courses in making bombs, carrying out assassinations, kidnapping people and transporting the hostages to other locations.The trainees have been trained to act in case there is a war against Iran. As per the plan, all embassies of Gulf countries, Egypt, Morocco and Jordan in Latin American countries were to be targeted. These bombings, however, will not be carried out by Iranian Shiites, but mercenaries from poorer countries like Venezuela, Columbia, Ecuador and Bolivia besides some other supporters from Hamas and other individuals so that Iranian involvement won’t even be suspected.Hmmmm......Any idea why Obama doesn't stand up to Iran?Because all his friends are allies of Iran !Read the full story here.

White House PC police fix the Bin Laden press release.(IsraelMatzav).The White House PC police have fixed up the press release announcing Osama Bin Laden's death no longer being a threat to the American people. I thought you would like to see it. I received it by email: Subject: Press Release of bin Laden Raid

Here's a re-write of the press release for the bin Laden raid, as approved by the PC police for publication: Dateline: The White House — Monday, May 2, 2011

Yesterday the President ordered a raid against an al Qaeda compound in Abbottabad, an affluent suburb of Islamabad, Pakistan. A small U.S. team found Osama bin Laden living in a large house in the center of a secured compound. The raid accomplished its objective, and 9/11 mastermind bin Laden no longer is a threat to America.

President Obama privately assured world leaders that although the U.S. finds some satisfaction in Mr. bin Laden’s demise, this does not mean that he thinks American culture is superior to any other. Nor should international leaders assume that military action was America’s first choice. We are all citizens of the world.It can now be revealed that Mr. Obama had extended the hand of friendship to Mr. bin Laden, and would have much preferred to arrange a “beer summit” in the back yard of the White House to discuss their differences. However, since Mr. bin Laden wanted to express his personhood by bringing a rusty knife to the summit, with the intent to saw off Mr. Obama’s head while shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Mr. Obama had no choice but to have Mr. bin Laden shot dead. Several bystanders were killed in the raid, but thankfully, no small animals were harmed.The president regrets that it was not possible to fuel the special operations helicopters with eco-friendly bio fuels, due to the requirements of secret equipment located in the Blackhawk’s tail. However, as part of Mr. Obama’s continuing commitment to a clean environment, the Administration purchased carbon footprint offsets for the aviation fuel used in the raid. The SEALs also took care to protect the environment by using ammunition that had been forged with lead extracted from enemy dead bodies and shots that had previously missed their targets. This prudent recycling reduced the amount of lead that would seep into Abbottabad’s wells and water tables.Read the full 'story' here.

• Boehner hands Obama a yellow card for Taking a “Victory Lap” After Bin Laden Killing.(The Hill) — President Obama is taking “somewhat of a victory lap” following the killing of Osama bin Laden, House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) said Monday.Boehner largely praised Obama’s decision to execute the raid on the al Qaeda leader’s Pakistani compound and the president’s decision not to release photos of bin Laden’s body. But he said that Obama has gone to lengths to take credit for bin Laden’s slaying.“There’s no question that there is somewhat of a victory lap going on,” Boehner said on conservative talker Sean Hannity’s radio show.Some of Obama’s critics questioned his conduct following the bin Laden mission in lieu of his decision not to release the reportedly “gruesome” photos of bin Laden’s body.Critics say there is disparity between the president’s schedule last week, when he held several events with military members and retired veterans, and his comments on CBS’s “60 Minutes,” when he justified the decision to withhold the photos, saying “we don’t spike the football” and it “is not who we are.”Several members of the administration and lawmakers from both political parties pressured Obama to release the photos to prove bin Laden’s death to any doubters, especially those in the Muslim world. But ultimately, Obama disagreed, saying they could inflame radicals sentiments.Hmmmm.....My guess these pictures will surface shortly before the elections.Read the full story here.

• Obama's half-brother runs questionable charity.(NYPost).President Obama's half-brother runs an off-the-books American charity that claims to support poor Kenyans -- but it lies about its federal status and no one knows how it spends its money. The group, the Barack H. Obama Foundation, was named after the president's father and founded by his sibling Abon'go Malik "Roy" Obama, a 53-year-old polygamist who recently made headlines by adding a third wife -- who's still in her teens. Its Web site claims to have provided drinking water in Kenya's Siaya District, which includes the Obama clan's ancestral village. The organization also says it has completed a madrassa, or Muslim school, and is building an imam's residence. A photo of the tidy little school building is displayed on the site.That and other photos on the site are the only purported evidence that the nonprofit has accomplished any of its mission. A group of Missouri State college students who visited the Obama family village of Kogelo in 2009, and who met the president's half-brother, felt something was amiss. They sensed he was an "operator" and decided to give their donation of 400 pounds of medical supplies directly to a local clinic. "We didn't know what he was going to do with them," said Ken Rutherford, a former Missouri State professor who led the trip and who shared in the 1997 Nobel Peace Prize for his work to ban landmines. Rutherford said the Obamas' relatives are the only Muslims in a village of 4,000 Christians and that Malik has a private mosque on his property. Malik started his charity the year his brother ran for president. The foundation claims to be a tax-exempt, federally recognized nonprofit. It is not.Nor are there any filings of its expenditures, which the IRS requires of larger charities. Alton Ray Baysden, a former State Department employee at whose Virginia home the charity was founded in 2008, admitted the organization has not even applied for tax-exempt status. "We haven't been able to find someone with the expertise to do this," he told The Post. "We are informally scouting for an executive director, someone who knows how to register the charity." The charity is not even registered in Virginia, a requirement for soliciting donations in that state. The foundation's Web site includes a donation form that says it has nonprofit status. Charity expert Marcus Owens said knowingly telling donors contributions are tax-deductible if they are not could amount to fraud. "If they haven't applied for exemption, they can't promise their donors that contributions are deductible," said Owens, a lawyer and former IRS official.Malik Obama, reached in Kenya, said the foundation has a budget of $250,000. When asked about why it wasn't a registered charity, Malik, an accountant by trade, said that he was "in process" of changing that. The White House did not return a message seeking comment.Hmmmmm......"Obamas' relatives are the only Muslims in a village of 4,000 Christians "?Read the full story here.

• Michelle Obama welcomes rapper to White House who called for burning of George Bush.(DailyMail).First Lady Michelle Obama has invited a rapper who called for the burning of George Bush to perform at the White House.Lonnie Rashid Lynn Jr, who uses the stage name ‘Common’, will be welcomed at an event celebrating American poetry on Wednesday.He is expected to take part in rap workshops with schoolchildren in the afternoon before performing in the evening.In footage on YouTube he is seen calling for the burning of the former president.‘Burn a Bush cos for peace he no push no button,’ the hip-hop artist raps in one video, which has more than 800,000 views.Other song lyrics reportedly include threats to shoot the police.The controversial rapper hails from President Obama’s hometown Chicago and has also rapped about the former Illinois senator.Hmmmm.....Another 'proud of my country moment'?Read the full story here.

• 'Religion of peace' angered by Christians plan to introduce another official religion in Malaysia.(Al-Arabia).Malaysia’s government was seeking ways on Monday to defuse religious tensions following reports that church leaders were working toward making Christianity an official religion, reports The Associated Press. Muslim activists have filed police complaints demanding an investigation into what they believe is a threat to Islam in this Muslim-majority country.Christian leaders deny the allegations saying these accusations are intended to create suspicions and divisions between Malay Muslims and religious monitories.The allegation surfaced on the Internet in a post by two anonymous political bloggers and went largely unnoticed until on Saturday, when the Utusan Malaysia newspaper reported it on its front page under the headline “Malaysia a Christian nation?”The story said that at a recent meeting dozens of pastors reportedly pledged to make Christianity an official religion and ensure that the prime minister is Christian. Christians comprise 10 percent of Malaysia’s 28 million population.Opposition politician Lim Guan Eng said on Monday, “The government would have to bear full responsibility for any undesirable consequences on the Christian community in Malaysia because of Utusan’s report,” reported AP.Malaysia prides itself on its multiethnic peace between majority Malays, and minority Christians and Tamils. Nevertheless, there have been occasional communal disputes. Malys feel that the Chiense dominate the economy, and Chinese and Tamils both feel that the government’s affirmative action program favors unqualified Malays.Last January, 11 churches were attacked and vandalized after a court verdict that allowed minorities to use the word “Allah” as a translation for God. Nevertheless, observers said that it seemed unlikely that Malaysia, officially an Islamic state, would want to permit another official religion, even though the country is widely considered tolerant of all faith.Hmmmmm.........Total explosion of violence in 3...2....1?Read the full story here.

• Pakistan PM Warns of 'Full Force' Response to Future U.S. Raids.(FOX).Pakistan's prime minister warned the United States Monday that his country could respond to any future U.S. raids on its soil with "full force," in the latest escalation of rhetoric in the wake of Usama bin Laden's death. Pakistani Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani, like other officials in Islamabad, said the killing of bin Laden in northern Pakistan was a positive step. But, reflecting concerns that the unilateral strike violated his country's sovereignty, Gilani sent a clear message to the United States. He warned any "overt or covert" attack would be met with a "matching response" in the future. "Pakistan reserves the right to retaliate with full force. No one should underestimate the resolve and capability of our nation and armed forces to defend our sacred homeland," Gilani said. White House Press Secretary Jay Carney has said the president reserves the right to enter Pakistani territory to act against terror suspects if Pakistan will not, and reiterated that message when asked about Gilani's speech. He said Monday that while the U.S. takes Pakistanis' concerns seriously, the U.S. does "not apologize" for the raid."It's simply beyond doubt in his mind that he had the right and the imperative to do this," Carney said Monday. With analysts combing through the bin Laden files for clues on the whereabouts of Al Qaeda's Ayman al-Zawahiri or Taliban chief Mullah Omar, some are calling on Obama to strike again while Al Qaeda and its allies are staggering. "We have no right to keep our troops on the defense dying, when we know where some of the highest-ranking people in the Taliban are," Bing West, former assistant defense secretary, told Fox News on Monday. Former CIA Director Michael Hayden said that if the U.S. gets bin Laden's deputy -- presumed to be al-Zawahiri -- in its sights, "the same calculus" that was used on bin Laden should apply. But the thought already has Pakistani leaders fuming. Husain Haqqani, Pakistan's ambassador to the U.S., told ABC's "This Week" that the Pakistani government wants to continue "joint operations," but is concerned about the nature of the raid last weekend.Obama, in an interview with CBS' "60 Minutes," confirmed that he did not inform Pakistani officials of the raid in advance, though he praised Pakistan's cooperation considering "we've been able to kill more terrorists on Pakistani soil than just about any place else."Read the full story here.

• Iran’s Leader Orders Murder of Protesters in Syria.(BigPeace).An official source within the Sadr movement, the Iraqi Islamist national movement led by Muqtada al-Sadr, is insisting that Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei of Iran has declared the protesters in Syria to be “God’s enemies,” ordering the Revolutionary Guards and Lebanese Hezbollah to fiercely combat the protesters in Syria and enter into an armed battle with them.In an interview with Al Arabiya, the source, who wished to remain anonymous, revealed that Ayatollah Khamenei held a covert meeting in Tehran with commanders of the Revolutionary Guards, representatives of the Syrian embassy, members of Hezbollah, and leaders of the Sadr movement. There, he demanded that all operational and logistic forces be applied in order to stamp out the blaze of sedition in Syria and to destroy those who are enemies of God in that country.Experts have construed Ayatollah Khamenei’s comments regarding Syria as a form of religious fatwa, which has a direct effect in spreading terror and insecurity in Syria, increasing Iran’s role in destabilizing Arab countries.What’s more, according to the website Green Voice of Freedom, an informed source inside President Ahmadinejad’s administration revealed that the deputy chief of Iran’s National Police, Ahmad-Reza Radan, was part of a security delegation that visited the Syrian capital two weeks ago amidst the intensification of repressions against anti-government protesters in Syria.Radan was a key figure in the brutal suppression of the Iranian protesters following the June 2009 elections in Iran.Ever since the Islamic Revolution in Iran, Syria has proven a staunch ally to the radicals ruling Iran. It has also provided a passageway for the Revolutionary Guards into Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, arming Hezbollah and Hamas.The Revolutionary Guards also have several bases in Syria, where they train and arm militias in the expansion of their terrorist activities in the region and beyond.The Obama administration has substantiated charges of Iranian complicity in Syrian repression. On April 26, U.S. Ambassador to the United Nations Susan Rice announced that the United States had evidence of active Iranian support for the Syrian government’s suppression of the peaceful demonstrators.For its part, the Syrian opposition has also claimed that members of the Iranian Revolutionary Guards have participated in the shooting and killing of the Syrian protesters. But the leaders of Iran know full well that they have the power to prevent the opposition from succeeding. The fall of Bashar al-Assad’s government in Syria could be a devastating blow to the policies of the radicals in Iran and its proxies in the region, and the mullahs are determined not to let that happen.Hmmmmm.....Hillary ...."Assad is a reformer", save the people in Egypt and Tunesia but let them die in Syria?Read the full story here.

• Arizona Says It Will Ask Supreme Court to Overturn Decision Striking Down Enforcement of Immigration Law.(Yahoo).PHOENIX – Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer announced Monday she will ask the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a ruling that put the most controversial parts of the state’s immigration enforcement law on hold.The planned appeal to the high court comes after Brewer lost an initial appeal April 11, when a three-judge panel of the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals refused to reverse a lower court’s order that prevented key parts of the law from being enforced.Attorney General Tom Horne said going directly to the Supreme Court and skipping a possible second appeal to the 9th Circuit will save time in resolving the case, while Brewer said she is confident “Arizona will prevail in its fight to protect its citizens.”The state must file the appeal by a July 11 deadline, the officials said. The Supreme Court has discretion on whether to hear the appeal on the lower court’s order.“It seems like this is a big enough national issue that it will ultimately be determined by the United States Supreme Court,” Horne said.In its April ruling, the 9th Circuit panel said federal officials are likely to prove the law is unconstitutional and succeed in their argument that Congress has given the federal government sole authority to enforce immigration laws.The Arizona law isn't the only one that has challenged federal primacy in immigration.The U.S. Supreme Court is mulling arguments in an appeal by groups that are trying to overturn a 2007 Arizona law that prohibits employers from knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.Civil rights groups have filed a lawsuit aimed at halting a new immigration law in Utah, saying it violates constitutional rights to due process and is too much like portions of Arizona's immigration law.Read the full story here.

• Council forbids pork and wine buffet outside Muslim prayer hall.(RFI).Authorities in the French city of Nice have forbidden a far-right group to hold a "porchetta and rosé apéritif" outside a Muslim prayer hall. The Nissa Rebela nationalist group says it has already submitted a second request for permission for the event after its first was rejected on Wednesday.The permit was denied on technical grounds, according to the Alpes-Maritimes regional council.Under French law, organisers must seek a licence for all public gatherings at least three days before the event takes place. Nissa Rebela applied after this deadline, the council said.The group's members could face six months in prison and a 7,500-euro fine if they go ahead with the event without permission.But Nissa Rebela insists that the event is still on. The group is calling its supporters to gather outside a Muslim prayer hall on Nice's rue de la Suisse on Friday evening, where it will be serving pork and wine.The worshippers at the hall have been conducting evening prayers in the street, since they say the building is too small to house them.Anti-racism groups and local politicians have strongly condemned Nissa Rebela's plans. The event is deliberately provocative and designed to stir up hatred, said the mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi.Nissa Rebela courted controversy in 2005 with a stunt that saw them hand out pork soup to homeless people, thereby excluding Jews and Muslims.The group has 15 candidates in local elections this month.Hmmmm.....Ah ! ça ira?Read the full story here.

• Earthquake shifted Japan's land mass, leaving coastal areas under water at high tide.(Yahoo).ISHINOMAKI, Japan - When water begins to trickle down the streets of her coastal neighbourhood, Yoshiko Takahashi knows it is time to hurry home.Twice a day, the flow steadily increases until it is knee-deep, carrying fish and debris by her front door and trapping people in their homes. Those still on the streets slosh through the sea water in rubber boots or on bicycle."I look out the window, and it's like our houses are in the middle of the ocean," says Takahashi, who moved in three years ago.The March 11 earthquake that hit eastern Japan was so powerful it pulled the entire country out and down into the sea. The mostly devastated coastal communities now face regular flooding, because of their lower elevation and damage to sea walls from the massive tsunamis triggered by the quake.In port cities such as Onagawa and Kesennuma, the tide flows in and out among crumpled homes and warehouses along now uninhabited streets.A cluster of neighbourhoods in Ishinomaki city is rare in that it escaped tsunami damage through fortuitous geography. So, many residents still live in their homes, and they now face a daily trial: The area floods at high tide, and the normally sleepy streets turn frantic as residents rush home before the water rises too high."I just try to get all my shopping and chores done by 3 p.m.," says Takuya Kondo, 32, who lives with his family in his childhood home.Most houses sit above the water's reach, but travel by car becomes impossible and the sewage system swamps, rendering toilets unusable.Scientists say the new conditions are permanent. Japan's northern half sits on the North American tectonic plate. The Pacific plate, which is mostly undersea, normally slides under this plate, slowly nudging the country west. But in the earthquake, the fault line between the two plates ruptured, and the North American plate slid up and out along the Pacific plate.The rising edge of plate caused the sea floor off Japan's eastern coast to bulge up — one measuring station run by Tohoku University reported an underwater rise of 16 feet (5 metres) — creating the tsunami that devastated the coast. The portion of the plate under Japan was pulled lower as it slid toward the ocean, which caused a corresponding plunge in elevation under the country.Some areas in Ishinomaki moved southeast 17 feet (5.3 metres) and sank 4 feet (1.2 metres) lower."We thought this slippage would happen gradually, bit by bit. We didn't expect it to happen all at once," says Testuro Imakiire, a researcher at Japan's Geospatial Information Authority, the government body in charge of mapping and surveys.Imakiire says the quake was powerful enough to move the entire country, the first time this has been recorded since measurements began in the late 19th century. In Tokyo, 210 miles (340 kilometres) from Ishinomaki, parts of the city moved 9 inches (24 centimetres) seaward.The drop lower was most pronounced around Ishinomaki, the area closest to the epicenter. The effects are apparent: Manholes, supported by underground piping, jut out of streets that fell around them. Telephone poles sank even farther, leaving wires at head height.Read the full story here.