MFS - The Other News

                       Afternoon  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 25. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 23. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - May 27 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.7  ! Lots of activity in Turkey.More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 120.Source : Here .

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

• Obama Campaign’s Bin Laden Strategy is Clear.(WhiteHouseDossier).It’s becoming increasingly obvious that President Obama will have Osama Bin Laden on the campaign trail with him as he seeks to buff up his weak credentials as a foreign policy tough guy.The president, whose original strategy of coddling dictators has failed to gain results and who was seen early in his presidency bowing to every satrap in sight, will brandish his killing of Bin Laden as proof that he is strong on national security and foreign policy.As if this single act could erase the rest of it. It’s like complimenting someone on their sweater before you punch them in the face.He’s cutting the defense budget during time of war, has been inconsistent and indecisive on the Arab uprisings, can’t defeat Qaddafi and his band of camels and Amazon warriors, is undermining Israel – our key military ally in the region, has signalled to the Taliban that we’re desperate to get out of Afghanistan, and is trying to hand of U.S. world leadership to Europe, which effectively disarmed itself years ago.But he killed Bin Laden.The best evidence of the importance the Obama camp places on the Bin Laden killing comes from comments this week by Vice President Biden at a Democratic fundraiser in New Hampshire. From a report in the Los Angeles Times.

Biden laid out three reasons why he was optimistic about the 2012 campaign: the flawed Republican vision, the return of 2008 “surge” voters who stayed home in the 2010 midterm election, and the growing confidence he said Americans feel in President Obama’s leadership.

On the latter point, the vice president said the decision to order the raid that killed Bin Laden was a major turning point, calling it “the boldest undertaking any president has undertaken on a single event in modern history.”“The American people no longer confuse being contemplative with having courage,” he said. “The American people watched him execute the decision — not only putting the lives of those special operators on the line, but his entire future on the line as president of the United States of America. And he didn’t hesitate.”It was that decision, Biden said, which pre-empted the emerging campaign from Republicans to portray Obama as weak and indecisive. And it has led Americans to change how they’ve viewed other decisions he’s made, like the auto industry bailout and stimulus program.

“The American people now … have a crystal clear picture of how strong and decisive this president is. And that’s the last piece of the puzzle that had to be put in place for this great man,” Biden said.

Last week at a fundraising rally in Boston, Obama took credit for the operation while pretending he was only commending the troops.We’re taking the fight directly to al Qaeda. And because of the bravery of our men and women in uniform, Osama bin Laden will never again threaten the United States of America.

If you mention this at a POLITICAL rally, then you are POLITICIZING it. Please don’t hide your politicking behind the Navy Seal Team 6, Mr. President.Hmmmm....What's the chances of him releasing the Osama pics when ratings go down for him?Read the full story here.

• Poll: 12% of Israeli Jews consider Obama to be pro-Israel.(JPost).US President Barack Obama’s attempt to portray himself as pro-Israel in a high-profile speech to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee on Sunday did not succeed, according to a Smith Research poll sponsored by The Jerusalem Post.The speech was intended to correct impressions that he was hostile toward Israel, which may have been reinforced by a landmark address about the Middle East that he delivered at the State Department last Thursday, and by a tense press conference at the White House on Friday with Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu.In the AIPAC speech, Obama chose not to specifically rule out the “return” to Israel of millions of descendants of Palestinian refugees, and did not announce his first visit to Israel as president, as many hoped he would. But he did insist that Israel must remain the Jewish “homeland,” indicating opposition to the Palestinian demand for refugees’ “return, spoke about Jews’ yearning for Israel through the centuries, listed many ways in which his administration was helping Israel and clarified his position on creating a Palestinian state based on the pre-1967 lines with mutually agreed land swaps.When asked in the poll whether they saw Obama’s administration as more pro-Israel, more pro-Palestinian or neutral, just 12 percent of Israeli Jews surveyed said more pro-Israel, while 40% said more pro-Palestinian, 34% said neutral and 13% did not express an opinion.Hmmmm....I'm surprised there are still that many who believe in him,haven't learned anything from WWII.Read the full story here.

• "Spreading the wealth"?Obama sends money for Libyan refugees, invites rebels to set up DC office.(RefugeeResettlementwatch).From Xinhuanet:

BEIJING, May 25 (Xinhuanet) — A senior U.S. diplomat says President Barack Obama has invited the Libyan rebels’ National Transitional Council to open an office in Washington DC.Speaking in the de-facto rebel capital of Benghazi, “U.S. Assistant Secretary-of-State for Near Eastern Affairs”, Jeffrey Feltman, says the invitation marked an “important milestone” in the relationship with the NTC, and that he was pleased they had accepted the offer. Several countries, including France and Italy, have recognized the NTC, while the U.S., the European Union and others have established a diplomatic presence in Benghazi. In addition, Feltman announced that the US has given more than 50-million U.S. dollars to aid the Libyan people.He said, “We’ve given today 53.5 (m) million (U.S.) dollars to address the humanitarian crisis that stems from Gadhafi’s attack on his people. This is to international partners who are working in part inside Libya and in part with the refugees who are in Tunisia and Egypt. So, it’s addressing refugee needs outside Libya’s borders, it’s addressing the needs of the people of Misrata and others, it’s through international partners.”I see that Obama already dipped into the ERMA funds* he has at his discretion back in March for $15 million to Libya, so there must be some new redistribution of taxpayer dollars to “partners” in North Africa in recent days. Also, Libyan rebels traveled to Washington and London earlier this month looking for money, here, guess they hit the US taxpayer-supported lottery!We should be happy in one regard, we aren’t airlifting the “refugees” to the US (yet!).*Readers the Emergency Refugee and Migration Assistance fund is at about $100 million each year, but I cannot find anything at the moment to tell us how much Obama has already spent.Hmmmm.....Any mention of congressional approval anywhere?Read the full story here.

• A Coming Arab Winter?The Fatah-Hamas deal may presage a new Iranian approach to the Middle East.(WeeklyStandard).It can’t give many Americans much lasting pleasure that the Israeli prime minister humbled our commander in chief this week on his home turf. To be sure, a president who seems to relish provoking public confrontations with an ally may have had it coming, but in the end Netanyahu’s speech before Congress won’t satisfy too many Israelis either—or for that matter many other Middle Easterners who have come to depend on American stewardship. The fact that an Israeli leader makes the case for American exceptionalism and U.S. power better than Barack Obama is a signal that Washington has forsaken its traditional role in the Middle East at a dangerous time.Netanyahu was only the first to state the obvious in public, but other U.S. allies, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, convinced that the Americans are living in a fantasy world, are also starting to strike out on their own. If no one knows yet what new architectures and anatomies the Arab Spring will engender, putative U.S. allies and genuine adversaries, states, and even non-state actors like the Muslim Brotherhood are scrambling for position.Iranian aggression, and not the peace process, as Netanyahu was careful to remind his American audiences this past week, is still the key regional issue. With the administration turning on traditional American allies, some observers are starting to see similarities between Washington and Tehran, in one important respect. “If Obama says the status quo is unsustainable,” says Martin Kramer of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “and won’t do anything to sustain it, then Washington, like Iran, is an anti-status quo power. Others have to take it upon themselves to defend the status quo.”Netanyahu was only the first to state the obvious in public, but other U.S. allies, like Egypt and Saudi Arabia, convinced that the Americans are living in a fantasy world, are also starting to strike out on their own. If no one knows yet what new architectures and anatomies the Arab Spring will engender, putative U.S. allies and genuine adversaries, states, and even non-state actors like the Muslim Brotherhood are scrambling for position.Iranian aggression, and not the peace process, as Netanyahu was careful to remind his American audiences this past week, is still the key regional issue. With the administration turning on traditional American allies, some observers are starting to see similarities between Washington and Tehran, in one important respect. “If Obama says the status quo is unsustainable,” says Martin Kramer of the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, “and won’t do anything to sustain it, then Washington, like Iran, is an anti-status quo power. Others have to take it upon themselves to defend the status quo.”Because Riyadh no longer trusts the Americans to take on Iran, a Saudi initiative led by Prince Bandar, the Wall Street Journal reports, is putting together a large alliance, including Pakistan, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Central Asian states, to stand against the Islamic Republic.In the Arabic-speaking states, there’s also a proposed expansion of the six-member Gulf Cooperation Council to include one North African nation, Morocco, and another from the Levant, Jordan (which would gather all of the region’s hereditary rulers—sheikhs and kings and sultans and emirs—under one umbrella). The Arab press is awash with rumors that the GCC’s leading member, Saudi Arabia, has promised Rabat and Amman large influxes of cash so long as they resist Washington’s entreaties to reform—reform that, in the Saudi view, would pave the way for their own demise and eventually the fall of the House of Saud. In any case, this onetime regional organization has now become a de facto alliance of pro-U.S. states that no longer believes it can count on the Americans to advance their interests. The major Sunni Arab players outside the enlarged GCC would be Fatah, now reconciled with Hamas, and Egypt, formerly the central pillar of Washington’s Middle East policy, and now after thirty years once again up for grabs.Iran can profit from the upheavals, according to Kramer, “by building linkage with the Muslim Brotherhood.” In other words, with Syria’s problems and the possible fallout for Hezbollah, Tehran would supplement or substitute its Shia crescent with a Muslim Brotherhood crescent—a coalition stretching from Turkey’s AKP to Hamas and Egypt’s newly empowered Islamists.“The fewer Shia there are in the immediate surroundings, and there are virtually none in Egypt and the Palestinian territories, the easier that is to do,” says Kramer. “The Muslim Brotherhood has their usual reservations about Shia, but they’re not anti-Shia like al Qaeda. The landscape of the Middle East is too broken for coalitions to have only the like-minded. If Saudi Arabia and Israel could be in the American circle, the Brotherhood could be in the Iranian crescent. The Iranians and the Muslim Brotherhood both have an interest in reconstituting an arc of resistance.”Given the Obama administration’s ambiguous statements regarding the Muslim Brotherhood and other regional Islamist movements, it seems Washington is preparing for the likelihood of a region entirely remade in the image of political Islam, its Shia as well as its Sunni versions. Whether the White House is prepared to do anything to protect American interests and allies against a political current that is anti-American at its core is another question. Netanyahu’s speeches, Saudi diplomacy, and Egyptian brinksmanship are evidence that traditional U.S. allies do not believe Obama is up to the task.Hmmmm......Understatement of the Century.Read the full story here.

• Arab League to seek UN membership for Palestine.(Ynet). Addressing Arab League meeting, Palestinian president expresses fear UN bid for recognition would result in financial sanctions, urges Arab leaders to serve as 'safety net.'An Arab League committee decided on Saturday to seek full UN membership for a Palestinian state in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank, with east Jerusalem as its capital, it said in a statement.The Arab League's peace process follow-up committee said it would request membership for the state of Palestine at the UN General Assembly's meeting in New York in September.Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas said there were "no shared foundations" for peace talks with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and seeking UN recognition of Palestinian statehood was his only option. Addressing an Arab League meeting in Doha Abbas expressed concern that taking the diplomatic step opposed by the United States and Israel could result in financial sanctions and urged Arab states to fill any gap. While he left room for a compromise, saying a resumption of peace talks on terms acceptable to the Palestinians would avoid the UN move, the remarks were some of Abbas's bleakest yet on the likelihood of more negotiations. Abbas was speaking at a meeting of the Arab League's peace process committee convened in the wake of major Middle East policy speeches in Washington by US President Barack Obama and PM Netanyahu. The Palestinian leadership has said Netanyahu's ideas for peace with the Palestinians, outlined in a speech to the US Congress on Tuesday, put more obstacles in the path of an already moribund peace process. "We see from the conditions that Netanyahu laid out that there are no shared foundations ... for negotiations. Our fundamental option is to go to the United Nations," Abbas said in his opening remarks. "This is no secret, we have said it to the Americans and the Europeans and the Israelis, our only option is to go to the United Nations," he said. He expressed fear that the step would lead some states to "try to impose a siege upon us", though he did not say to which governments he was referring. "We hope that there will be a safety net from the Arab states," he said."The sound path is going to the United Nations and political struggle," Moussa said. "I believe that negotiations have become futile in light of all of these nos. What will you negotiate on?" Hmmmmm.......Psalm 83 and the "Samson" option.Read the full story here.

• Afghan police commander killed in blast.  Daood Daood among the dead after Taliban suicide attack on compound of a northern provincial governor.(Al-Arabia).A large blast has hit the compound of the governor of Afghanistan's northern Takhar province, killing at least six people, including General Daood Daood, the regional police commander, and several German soldiers, officials say.A suicide bomber detonated his explosives-laden vest in a room in the office complex within the compound where high-ranking Afghan officials were meeting members of the international coalition forces on Saturday, Faiz Mohammad Tawhedi, a spokesman for the provincial governor, Abdul Jabar Taqwa, told the Associated Press news agency."What we know is the guy who carried out the attack had a police uniform on," Tawhedi said. "How he entered the meeting room and why he was not searched, we don't know."Dr Hassain Basech, the health director of Takhar, confirmed the deaths of Daood; General Shah Jahan Noori, a provincial police chief; a secretary to Taqwa, the Takhar governor; and one of Daood's bodyguards.Basech said 10 other Afghans were wounded, including Taqwa who suffered burns to his head, hands and back.Daood, the most prominent casualty of Saturday's bombing, was a former deputy interior minister for counternarcotics.Before that, he was a close associate of Ahmad Shah Masood, the influential leader who commanded the Northern Alliance and died in an al-Qaeda suicide bombing two days before the September 11, 2001, attacks that provoked the US invasion.Al Jazeera's Qais Azimy, reporting from Kabul, said Daood is "the highest Afghan security official to have been killed since 2001"."This attack is a big shock for the officials here in Afghanistan. One top official described the incident to me as a 'nuclear attack' against Afghan security forces."The NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) said in a statement released later on Saturday that two ISAF service members had died, adding that it is their policy to "defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities".The German military told the online magazine Der Spiegel that two German troops were killed and that General Markus Kneip, ISAF's commander for northern Afghanistan, was wounded along with three of his soldiers.Major Tim James, an ISAF spokesman, confirmed that Kneip was in the compound's office complex at time of attack but had survived.The Taliban claimed responsibility for the Takhar attack, saying that it had been planning for months as part of its spring offensive called Badr - a reference to a famous battle in Islamic history.A separate violent incident was reported on Saturday in the ongoing battle between the Taliban and Afghan security forces in the northeastern province of Nuristan.A Taliban spokesman told Al Jazeera that 18 of their fighters have been killed in the past three days of initense fighting, and that the group has also captured a number of Afghan policemen.Hmmmmm....Ex deputy interior minister for counternarcotics,Karzai's brother will be happy.Read the full story here.

• Iranian advisors helping Assad "The Reformer" to crush Syrian protests: Report.(AlArabia).Iran is sending trainers and advisers to Syria to help crush anti-government demonstrations threatening to topple Iran’s most important ally in the region, The Washington Post reported late Friday.The influx of Iranian manpower was adding to a steady stream of aid from Tehran, the newspaper said, citing unnamed US officials.That aid includes not only weapons and riot gear but also sophisticated surveillance equipment that is helping Syrian authorities track down opponents through their Facebook and Twitter accounts, the sources said.Iranian-assisted computer surveillance is believed to have led to the arrests of hundreds of Syrians seized from their homes in recent weeks, the paper said.According to one diplomat and US officials, the Iranian military trainers are being brought to Damascus to instruct Syrians in techniques Iran used against the nation’s "Green Movement"’ in 2009, the Post reported.Officers from Iran’s notorious Quds Force have played a key role in Syria’s crackdown since at least mid-April, it said.US sanctions imposed against the Quds Force in April had been intended as a warning to Iran to halt the practice, said the Post.Damascus has ignored growing Western condemnation and sanctions and looks determined to crush the pro-democracy revolt by sending out security forces and tanks to subdue unrest it blames on armed groups backed by foreign powers.Hmmmm....Reaction of the 'defender of the oppressed"......Silence?Read the full story here.

• The Arab Spring from a Counter-Terrorism Perspective.(IsraelSeen).By Dr. Boaz Ganor World War III is occurring right now. It is not only a war of ideas, it is a religious war – not between Islam and the rest of the world, but first and foremost a war within the religion of Islam. It is a war of the culture of Islamic radicalism against the rest of the world, which includes the majority of Muslims worldwide.

■A few months ago, White House Counter-Terrorism Advisor John Brennan said, “Islamists and Jihadists are not our enemy.” In response, I wrote an op-ed in the Jerusalem Post which explains that moderate Arab leaders know that Jihadists and Islamists are the enemy. By saying that Islamists and Jihadists are not the enemy, the United States – the spearhead of Western society and the protector of liberal values in the world – is sending a confusing message to its allies worldwide.

■In the competition between the Iranian axis and the pragmatic axis, the Iranian axis is winning. Hizbullah is growing stronger in Lebanon and Hamas is gaining power and scoring points in Gaza for the Iranian axis. Also, the decision of Turkey to choose the Iranian axis is becoming quite clear.

■Dr. Condoleezza Rice has said that her next book is going to refer to a pillar of American foreign policy: the introduction of democracy in the Muslim world. My upcoming book will address exactly the opposite. It will be about how terrorists and fundamentalists are misusing the democratic apparatus of the state in order to promote their goals. When fundamentalists win in democratic elections, it is one man, one vote, one time.

■Is there anything we can do in order to change this negative outcome? I would call to immediately establish a second Marshall Plan, similarly to what happened after World War II, for those new regimes being established in the Muslim world and to support other pragmatic regimes that have not yet faced internal revolutions. Since imposing democracy on these societies might be counterproductive and dangerous, it should be an incremental process. At the end of the day, only Muslims can and should educate Muslims.Now read the rest of this must read posting!Read the full story here.

• Hundreds of women report rapes by Qaddafi forces.(Al-Arabia).At first, the responses to the questionnaire about the trauma of the war in Libya were predictable, if tragic: 10,000 people suffering post-traumatic stress, 4,000 children with psychological problems. Then came the unexpected: 259 women said they had been raped by militiamen loyal to Muammar Qaddafi. Dr. Seham Sergewa had been working with children traumatized by the fighting in Libya but soon found herself being approached by troubled mothers who felt they could trust her with their dark secret.The first victim came forward two months ago, followed by two more. All were mothers of children the London-trained child psychologist was treating, and all described how they were raped by militiamen fighting to keep Qaddafi in power.Dr. Sergewa decided to add a question about rape to the survey she was distributing to Libyans living in refugee camps after being driven from their homes. The main purpose was to try to determine how children were faring in the war; she suspected many were suffering from PTSD.To her surprise, 259 women came forward with accounts of rape. They all said the same thing."I was really surprised when I started visiting these areas, first by the number of people suffering from PTSD, including the large number of children among them, and then by the number of women who had been raped from both the east and west of the country," Dr. Sergewa said in an interview with The Associated Press.Rape has been a common weapon of war throughout the ages, most recently in conflicts from the Balkans in Europe to Sri Lanka in Asia and in sub-Saharan Africa, where Congo has been described as the epicenter of sexual crimes.Across the world, rape carries a stigma. But it can be a deadly one in conservative Muslim societies like Libya, where rape is considered a stain on the honor of the entire family. Victims can be abandoned by their families and, in some cases, left in the desert to die. Speaking to a journalist is out of the question.Dr. Sergewa's questionnaire was distributed to 70,000 families and drew 59,000 responses."We found 10,000 people with PTSD, 4,000 children suffering psychological problems and 259 raped women," she said, adding that she believes the number of rape victims is many times higher but that woman are afraid to report the attacks.The women said they had been raped by Qaddafi's militias in numerous cities and towns: Benghazi, Tobruk, Brega, Bayda and Ajdabiya (where the initial three mothers hail from) and Saloum in the east; and Misrata in the west.Some just said they had been raped. Some did not sign their names; some just used their initials. But some felt compelled to share the horrific details of their ordeals on the back of the questionnaire.Earlier this month, the prosecutor of the International Criminal Court in The Hague, Luis Moreno-Campo, said he has "strong evidence" of crimes against humanity committed by Qaddafi's regime, including serious allegations of "women arrested and gang raped."One of Libya's leading psychiatrists, Dr. Ali M. Elroey, told the AP that he has set up three mobile teams to treat trauma victims of the war in their homes or in temporary shelters: one for PTSD, one for other psychological problems and one for rape survivors.Dr. Elroey said they need to reach out to people in their homes because the stigma associated with psychiatric care is leaving large numbers of patients untreated.His outpatient clinic at Benghazi's psychiatric hospital has treated more than 600 patients in two months, many responding to radio and newspaper advertisements offering psychiatric help for war trauma. He said most were women, though none had acknowledged being raped.Dr. Sergewa said she has interviewed 140 of the rape survivors in various states of mental anguish, and has been unable to persuade a single victim to prosecute. None would speak to the AP about her ordeal, even with a promise to hide her identity."Some I diagnosed with acute psychosis; they are hallucinating," Dr. Sergewa said. "Some are very depressed; some want to commit suicide. Some want their parents to kill them because they don't want their families to bear the shame."Some already have been abandoned by their husbands and fear seeking treatment could get them ostracized or cast out of their communities. Others have kept the rapes a secret for fear of retribution from spouses. "They fear their husbands will take them out to the desert and leave them there to die," Dr. Sergewa said.It is likely more rapes could occur as the conflict drags on, Dr. Sergewa said."They are using rape not just to hurt women but to terrorize entire families and communities," Dr. Sergewa said. "The women I spoke to say they believed they were raped because their husbands and brothers were fighting Qaddafi."I think it is also to put shame on the tribes or the villages, to scare people into fleeing, and to say: 'We have raped your women,'" she said.Dr. Sergewa says women will continue to be targets of the militiamen, and this makes it all the more urgent to finish her study and get it published."We must throw light on what is really happening in Libya and fight to bring justice for these women, to help heal them psychologically," she said.Hmmmm......"The Arab winds of Change"?Chapter 33 verse 50 of the Koran:

"O Prophet! Lo! We have made lawful unto thee thy wives unto whom thou hast paid their dowries, and those whom thy right hand possesseth of those whom Allah hath given thee as spoils of war, and the daughters of thine uncle on the father's side and the daughters of thine aunts on the father's side, and the daughters of thine uncles on the mother's side and the daughters of thine aunts on the mother's side who emigrated with thee, and a believing woman if she give herself unto the Prophet and the Prophet desire to ask her in marriage a privilege for thee only, not for the [rest of] believers. We are aware of that which We enjoined upon them concerning their wives and those whom their right hand possess that thou mayst be free from blame, for Allah is Forgiving, Merciful." Read the full story here.

• "Turks in Berlin"Forces German University to Cancel Speech on Armenian Genocide.(StopTurkey).Stuttgart university was scheduled to host a speech and discussion event today on the theme of "Persecution, Expulsion and Annihilation of Christians in the Ottoman Empire 1912-1922". At the last minute, however, the university cancelled the event booking. When asked why, the rector of the university, Prof.-Dr. Ing. Wolfram Ressel, said that they had come under pressure from "Turks in Berlin" and that the university wished to "remain neutral". Remain neutral on the Armenian genocide?The event had been organised by a coalition of non-profit organisations, including the Association of Greeks from Pontos in Europe, the Assyrian Democratic Organisation - Central Europe Section and the Working Group on the Recognition of Genocide for Understanding Between Peoples. They issued a statement on what had occurred.The associations concerned consider it regrettable in the extreme that almost one hundreds years after the genocide of the Armenians, Assyrians/Arameans and Greeks in the then Ottoman empire that a German university does not have the courage to rent a room for a commemoration and information event intended to come to terms with this crime and thus serve the purpose of preventing future genocides. "For crimes, there can in principle be no possibility of retreating to supposedly neutral positions. The circumstances that Turkey, to this day, officially disputes the genocide of more than three million Ottoman citizens of the Christian faith and strikes to prevent public consideration of it even abroad can also not be allowed to govern the actions of a German university."Hmmmm.......Erdogan "Muslims don't commit Genocide".Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity ".Turkey's Christians under Siege.By .John Eibner, chief executive officer of Christian Solidarity International-USA, focuses on religious and ethnic conflict, mainly in the Middle East, North-East Africa and Eastern Europe. He has visited these regions on numerous human rights fact-finding and humanitarian aid missions.A Must Read.Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Algerian Christian Given Five Year Prison Sentence for Blasphemy.(Aina).Washington -- International Christian Concern (ICC) has learned that an Algerian Christian was sentenced to five years imprisonment for blasphemy in Oran on Wednesday after sharing his Christian faith with a neighbor. The verdict came days after authorities forced the permanent closure of seven Protestant churches in Algeria's Béjaia province.Siagh Krimo was charged by the Criminal Court of the Djamel District in Oran, who based their decision on Article 144 bis 2 of the Penal Code which criminalizes acts that "insult the prophet and any of the messengers of God, or denigrate the creed and precepts of Islam, whether by writing, drawing, declaration, or any other means." Krimo has ten days to appeal the sentence.Krimo, who is married with a nine month old child, was arrested on April 14, along with another Christian, Sofiane, after sharing his Christian faith with a neighbor. Sofiane was released soon after the arrest, while Krimo was detained for three days. Krimo was known to hold weekly prayer services at his home, which Algerian Christians suspect were being closely monitored by the police.The prosecutor at Krimo's trial, held on May 4, failed to present as a witness the neighbor who accused Krimo of proselytizing and making defamatory statements against the Muslim prophet Mohammad. Algerian Christians were hopeful that Krimo would be acquitted of all charges. "Good news, the judge, after having invited Krimo to use wisdom and return to Islam, has ended the affair," an Algerian church leader in Tizi Ouzou told ICC on May 4. "We hope this will end well."The prosecutor, doubtful he would win the case on so little evidence, reportedly asked the judge to have Krimo's sentence reduced to a two year imprisonment and a fine of 50,000 Algerian dinar. However, some believe that higher authorities in the Algerian government were involved in reaching the final decision. "The judge would have normally acquitted Krimo of all charges, but I think he received an order from his superiors to strike hard," said an Algerian representative of the Association of Protestant Churches (EPA).Krimo's sentence follows an order received by the EPA on May 22 to close seven Protestant churches in the province of Béjaia. The notice stated the churches are to be closed in accordance with Ordinance 06-03, which requires churches to obtain government permission to hold services. Though the EPA has made efforts to comply with the ordinance, the Ministry of Interior and the Ministry of Religious Affairs have refused to register churches or to approve permits quickly.Aidan Clay, ICC Regional Manager for the Middle East, said, "Algerian Christians have been under attack in recent weeks as laws have been increasingly enforced to discriminate against them. Earlier this week, seven churches in Béjaia were ordered to close. Now, an Algerian Christian is on the verge of being unjustly imprisoned for accusations of criticizing Islam. While Algeria professes that it upholds religious freedom, it also embraces a blasphemy law that, by its very nature, can be used to prosecute anyone who does not adhere to the religion of Islam. We urge Algeria to acquit Siagh of all charges and repeal Article 144 bis 2 of the Penal Code."Hmmmm.......Religious freedom?Yeah whatevah!Read the full story here.

• Saudi Arabia - Handcuffed teenager manages to kill policeman that alledgly tried to rape him.(Emirates247).A handcuffed Kuwaiti teenager killed a policeman by hitting him on the head with a rock, claiming the uniformed man tried to rape him, a newspaper in the oil-rich Gulf emirate reported on Saturday.The 16-year-old boy said he was returning home in the capital Kuwait City when the police man stopped him and asked for his identity card.When he replied that his ID was at home, the police man handcuffed his hand to the boy’s left hand and wanted to take him to the police centre.“The boy said the police man then tried to rape him…he picked a rock and hit the police man on his head until he was dead,” Alanba Arabic language daily said.“The boy then phoned his mother, who phoned the police centre…they found the boy sitting near the dead police man with their hands still cuffed.Read the full story here.