MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 03. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 03. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 03 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 6.2 - India 5.9  ! Lots of activity in Turkey.More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 128.On 02.06.2011 at 20:47 GMT+2
  
  The level of radioactive water has fallen significantly in the No. 1 reactor building at the Fukushima No. 1 nuclear power plant, Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Thursday. The water level, which had risen 376 millimeters in the 24 hours from 7 a.m. on Monday, fell one millimeter in the following 24 hours, and plunged 79 millimeters from 7 a.m. Wednesday to 7 a.m. on Thursday. The underground water level around the No. 1 reactor facility is higher than the water level in the reactor building. TEPCO is checking whether the water is leaking from the No. 1 reactor building into the turbine building of the No. 2 reactor. The utility said the water temperature in the temporary storage pool for spent nuclear fuel rods in the No. 2 reactor had declined from 70 C at 11 a.m. on Tuesday to 42 C Thursday morning. As a cooling system for water outside the reactor building has been working since Tuesday, the water temperature has declined. Regarding the No. 3 reactor, TEPCO said it would transfer contaminated water accumulated in the turbine building to a condenser. However, as the condenser is already used to store contaminated water, TEPCO will transfer 2,000 tons of contaminated water to a condensate storage tank first to provide space.Source : Here .

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

• Europe - Latest official Situation Update on E-Coli epidemic No. 31 - On 03.06.2011 at 05:02 GMT+2

'It's completely new to us, we've never experienced anything like it,' says Michaela Kiemes, ward manager at Kiel University Clinic. The 44-year-old and her colleagues have been caring for a flood of patients over the past two weeks who have been infected with the enterohaemorrhagic Escherichia coli (EHEC) bacteria, and are experiencing its alarming symptoms first hand. The cause of the outbreak - which has spread across Europe but is centred in northern Germany - remains unclear, and little research has been done on its treatment. Doctors and nurses, patients and their relations have all been pushed to their limits. 'We're sleeping badly, and have bad dreams,' Kiemes says quietly. 'We can't get the images of suffering patients out of our heads.' The neurological breakdowns of patients are particularly concerning. 'When their condition gets worse, then it's dramatic.'

The clinic is currently treating around 180 patients suffering from EHEC, of whom 95 have life-threatening haemolytic-uraemic syndrome (HUS), a form of kidney failure caused by E coli. Around every other HUS patient suffers serious neurological complications. The patients become disoriented, have difficulty expressing themselves, suffer convulsions. Some become apathetic, others make strange noises. Some get such strong cramp attacks they have to be restrained. Since the first EHEC patients arrived in the hospital, the wards treating them have been on a 'complete emergency footing,' Kiemes says. Doctors and co-workers have worked through weekends and days off, delaying their holidays in order to help out. In daily meetings they examine the situation from all angles. The patients 'spend all their time thinking,' says Keimes. 'They're mentally exhausted because they don't know what EHEC is, where it's come from and what happens next.'

What's worst is when patients realize that particularly severe cases have been taken to intensive care. 'Then they wonder whether they'll come back and are afraid of what will happen to them.' The situation is also a nightmare for relatives. Like the doctors and nurses, they have to disinfect themselves thoroughly before entering the wards, as well as donning green overalls, gloves and masks to cover their mouths. The protective clothing then has to be left behind after each visit. In the corridor outside they have to change immediately into new overalls, in order to minimize the chances of spreading the infection. 'Is she worse?' asks one mother, sounding frightened and shocked, when she discovers that her daughter is not in her usual room. The 40-year-old has been moved to intensive care. Her partner is carrying two plastic bags filled with her belongings out of the room. 'The uncertainty is horrible,' the mother and partner say.

They are despondent because they do not know where their loved one caught the infection - or whether she will get better. Doctors are battling in the dark, surprised by the length of the illness and its unpredictable developments. Gastroenterologist Stefan Schreiber bemoans the fact that, despite intensive questioning about eating habits, there has as yet been no eureka moment, when doctors discover which food links the cases. 'It will only be over when we find the source of the infection and we don't have any infections for two, three weeks,' he says. 'It really annoys me that we still haven't found the cause.' Schreiber believes that the blame lies with cheap, mass-produced and easily contaminated food. 'That will always create weak points.' Source.

• Boehner Gives Obama Two Weeks On Libya: Either Abide By War Powers Act Or Disengage US Forces.(ABC).In the immortal words of the vice president, this could be a big $%^ing deal: House Speaker John Boehner, R-Ohio, is throwing what one Republican calls “a legal and political hot potato at the President.”In a resolution to be voted on in the House tomorrow, Boehner is giving the president two weeks – until the Pentagon Appropriations bill comes up – to either:

a) Ask for authorization for the military intervention in Libya, or

b) Figure out how to disengage the US from the NATO operation in Libya.

The resolution states: “The President has not sought, and Congress has not provided, authorization for the introduction or continued involvement of the United States Armed Forces in Libya. Congress has the constitutional prerogative to withhold funding for any unauthorized use of the United States Armed Forces, including for unauthorized activities regarding Libya.”

Boehner is explicitly and formally stating that the president did not check the box on the War Powers Act before sending the US military to intervene in Libya.Hmmmmm......Dictatorship versus Congress.Read the full story here.

• US offers Turkey lead role in Mideast talks in flotilla bargaining, report says.(TodaysZaman).The US administration is mulling offering the Turkish government a deal under which Turkey would host peace talks between Israelis and Palestinians in exchange for a recovery in Turkish-Israeli ties and the prevention of a second flotilla that is expected to depart for Gaza from sailing later this month, a news report said on Friday.Organizers say the flotilla, including ships from Turkey and several European countries, is to depart at the end of June. A similar mission last year turned bloody, with Israeli commandos killing eight Turkish and one Turkish American activist in a raid on one of the ships on May 31. Turkey has scaled down its relations with Israel since then, recalling its ambassador and severing political dialogue. Ankara now says Israel should apologize for the killings and offer compensation for victims in order for ties to normalize. Israel rejects this, saying the commandos acted in self-defense.Citing unnamed sources, the Turkish Hürriyet daily said on Friday that the US was about to officially ask Turkey to host Israeli-Palestinian peace talks in return for stopping the second flotilla and ending the crisis in its ties with Israel. Under the US proposal, Turkey will host peace talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders, similar to the major peace talks that took place in the past, such as a 1991 conference in Madrid and secret talks in Oslo in 1993.US officials are currently testing the waters to see how Ankara would react to such an offer, the daily said. But an American official said the Turkish side seems unwilling to accept the proposal as Ankara insists that there will be no progress in Turkish-Israeli ties without Israel apologizing for the May 31, 2010 incident.Israeli officials said they were not aware of any such proposal, according to the report.The new flotilla is set to create further tensions among Turkey, the United States and Israel. Israel has said it would resort to the use of force if necessary to stop the flotilla. Turkey has rejected calls to stop the flotilla, saying it is a civilian initiative and that the government has no say in it. Turkey also warned Israel not to “repeat the same mistake” it made last year.The United States is on the Israeli side and has said it has expressed its concerns to the Turkish government.(Yeah whatevah)“We have made clear through the past year that groups and individuals who seek to break Israel's maritime blockade of Gaza are taking irresponsible and provocative actions that entail a risk to their safety,” Mark Toner, the deputy spokesman of the US State Department, said at a press conference on June 1.“We've raised our concerns with the Turkish government as well, and we've also met … with some of these NGOs. … We want to just reiterate that there are established and efficient mechanisms for getting humanitarian assistance through to Gaza, and that's been our message consistently,” Toner also said.Hmmmm.......Permit me to doubt this greatly, and why then send a US boat to take part in the Flotilla,named "The audacity of Hope"?A very meager smokescreen.Read the full story here.

• Ya'alon: Military strike may be needed to stop Iran nukes.(JPost).Strategic Affairs Minister Moshe Ya'alon called on the world to prevent Iran from obtaining nuclear weapons, by all means necessary, including a military strike, the Associated Press reported on Monday. Ya'alon made the comments in an interview to Russian news agency Interfax ahead of a visit to Moscow."We strongly hope that the entire civilized world will come to realize what threat this regime is posing and take joint action to avert the nuclear threat posed by Iran, even if it would be necessary to conduct a pre-emptive strike," Yaalon said.Ya'alon emphasized that not only Israel would be endangered by a nuclear-armed Iran. "An Iran possessing nuclear weapons would be a threat to the entire civilized world," he stated.Western analysts say increasingly tough sanctions on Iran as well as the Stuxnet virus and possible other sabotage have delayed Iran's nuclear progress, even though they say the country now has enough low-enriched uranium for two bombs if refined more.Enriched uranium can be used to fuel power plants, Iran's stated aim, or provide bomb material if processed much further.Mark Fitzpatrick, a senior fellow for non-proliferation at the International Institute for Strategic Studies think tank, said last week that "the totality of the evidence indicates beyond reasonable doubt" that Iran was seeking a capability to make such weapons.If Iran decided to "weaponize" enrichment, it would need about 16 months to yield the first bomb's worth of highly enriched uranium at its Natanz enrichment facility, if all centrifuge machines were used for this purpose, he said.At least six months would then be required to fashion the highly-refined uranium into a weapon, Fitzpatrick added. Developing a missile to deliver it would add to the timeline, the former senior US State Department official said.An IAEA report last week said it had received new information about possible illicit military dimensions to Iran's nuclear activities"The latest IAEA report includes evidence that what originally were thought to be just paper studies also include actual experiments, including on triggers for a nuclear weapon," Fitzpatrick said.Hmmmm......They can't expect aid from Obama , so the best defence is the attack,God willing Saudi Arabia might help.Read the full story here.

• 'This product is for use on armed Muslim terrorists only.Did a pork-coated bullet kill Bin Laden? Yes, says firm who claim its pig fat gun oil is bought by U.S. military personnel.(DailyMail).Was Osama bin Laden shot with a bullet soaked in pork fat, denying him a place in paradise?Yes, if one rather shady website, that peddles gun oil containing liquefied pig fat, is to be believed.The makers of Silver Bullet Gun Oil claim it contains 13 per cent USDA liquefied pig fat thus making the product 'a highly effective counter-Islamic terrorist force multiplier.'The apparent owner of the gun oil site, who goes by the name 'The Midnight Rider,' explains how the pig fat will transfer onto anything the bullet strikes.This 'effectively denies entry to Allah's paradise to an Islamo-fascist terrorist,' Rider adds.The oil, which costs $8.95 for 4oz, apparently puts the 'fear of death into them (terrorists)'.In Islam consumption of pork is forbidden, but the Quran also states that if one is forced to consume the meat then they are guiltless and therefore not disqualified from paradise. The website also notes its customers include members of the U.S. military.'Thousands of bottles of Silver Bullet Gun Oil have been distributed since July of 2004 by its creator to members of ALL U.S. Military branches,' it claims.A promotional YouTube video for the oil shows a picture of Bin Laden and the claim: 'Killed with a weapon using Silver Bullet Gun Oil'.'Midnite Rider' also known as 'Warrior of YAHWEH,' claims to be a former Marine scout sniper on the site.Pictures of the 'production line' show a masked men wearing regulation Marine camouflage uniform, that is officially off-limits for civilians. A disclaimer on the website also reads: 'This product is for use on armed Muslim terrorists only. 'We do not promote discrimination against any race or religion, only terrorists.'A spokesman for the U.S. Army's weapons-procurement command told the Southern Pverty Law Center's Hatewatch - a not-for-profit that monitors the evolving problem of online bigotry - that he was unfamiliar with Silver Bullet, 'though he conceded that a soldier or marine could theoretically purchase the oil on his or her own and use it on the battlefield.'Hmmmmm.....Reminds me of The British Army in India used a combination of lard (pig fat) and tallow (cow fat) to grease the cartridges,resulting in offending both the Muslims and the Hindus.Read the full story here.

• Report: Lebanese 'Naksa Day' march postponed.(Ynet). Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper, Palestinians sources claim planed march on Israel's border canceled due to US pressure.Lebanon's al-Akhbar newspaper reported Friday that the committee organizing the "Naksa Day" march on Israel's border has decided to postpone it following pressure by Washington on Beirut. One of the newspaper's sources said the similar marches planned in Syria, Jordan, Egypt, Gaza and the West Bank, may also be cancelled.According to the report the final decision to delay the "Naksa Day" events was made Thursday night. An Islamic Jihad Movement official in Lebanon conveyed similar messages, announcing that "after the Palestinian forces learned about the current situation in Lebanon we're leaning towards cancelling the marches planned for Sunday along the borderline with Palestine.""The organizers are expected to make an official announcement in the next few hours, clarifying the reasons for the cancelation and deciding upon alternative steps they might take to ensure the marches and parades take place in all of the Palestinian refugee camps in Lebanon," said the Islamic Jihad official. The al-Akhbar report claimed the main reason behind the delay is due to pressure on Beirut put on by the US embassy via Assistant Secretary of State Jeffrey Feltman. Meanwhile, UNIFIL forces talked with the Lebanese army in an attempt to prevent this provocative initiative. According to the report, the committee organizing the "Naksa Day" march stressed they have no intention to create a crisis within the borders of Lebanon. They have made it clear that holding the march is a "sacred value" but that the timing is given to change. "If we won't be able to head towards the border on Jun 5, then we'll try to do it on any other date," said a Palestinian official in Lebanon. Another official addressed the decision to postpone the march, saying: "It will leave the Israeli enemy in a state of suspense and anxiety." Meanwhile, the Lebanese al-Safir newspaper quoted Palestinian sources claiming preparations for the marches in Syria are still on. The sources promised the Sunday march from Damascus will be a lot bigger than the one on "Nakba Day." Read the full story here.

• John Bolton how to Block the Palestine Statehood Ploy.(WSJ).Congress can take a cue from Jim Baker in 1989 and threaten to cut U.S. money for the U.N.Now that Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and his recent sparring partner Barack Obama are back in their corners, the next Arab-Israeli political flash point could be this fall at the U.N. General Assembly. The Palestinian Authority is lobbying Assembly members to legitimize its claim to international status as a “state.”Recognizing “statehood” does not mean U.N. membership, but it would nonetheless be a major Palestinian success. A resolution recognizing a Palestinian “state” could also declare its boundary to be the 1967 borders (in actuality, merely the 1949 armistice lines), with or without President Obama’s caveat about “agreed upon swaps” of land.The obvious Palestinian objective is to remove the issues of statehood and boundaries from the realm of bilateral negotiations with Israel, making them fait accompli. Last fall, the Palestinians focused on obtaining a Security Council resolution for this purpose. They believed, for whatever reason, that Mr. Obama would not order an American veto, as his predecessors would have done without hesitation. Many thought the administration might even vote “yes” rather than abstain.When it became clear that U.S. opposition in the Security Council was likely, on statehood or on U.N. membership, Palestinian attention shifted to the General Assembly, where there is no veto. General Assembly resolutions are not legally binding, and that body has no authority to recognize states, although its actions can be politically powerful, as the 1975 “Zionism is racism” resolution demonstrated.This is déjà vu all over again. In late 1988, Palestinians issued a “declaration of statehood,” changing their U.N. observer delegation’s name from “Palestine Liberation Organization” to “Palestine” to sound more like a state, which scores of countries recognized. The Palestinians then campaigned to join U.N. bodies like the World Health Organization, reasoning that since U.N. agency charters allow only states as members, the admission of “Palestine” would prove that it, too, was a state.Ridiculous in the real world but not in the U.N., the PLO effort gained overwhelming support there. George H.W. Bush’s new administration and Israel protested that “Palestine” manifestly did not meet customary international law definitions of statehood, such as having a clearly defined territory and exercising a government’s legitimate domestic and international responsibilities. Third World countries rallied almost unanimously to the PLO, and Europe’s response was weak. European diplomats believed Washington’s opposition was merely pro forma due to the “Jewish lobby.”Faced with the near certainty of defeat, Secretary of State James Baker warned publicly: “I will recommend to the President that the United States make no further contributions, voluntary or assessed, to any international organization which makes any changes in the PLO’s status as an observer organization.”No politician of Mr. Baker’s skill would publicize his proposals unless he knew that the president would accept them, and this reality was rapidly understood internationally. Although defeating the PLO campaign required further maneuvering, Mr. Baker’s statement was the death knell of the “statehood” push.The lesson for today is plain. If President Obama wants to block a General Assembly Palestinian statehood resolution, he should act essentially as Messrs. Bush and Baker did. Yet Mr. Obama is highly unlikely to do anything so decisive, which is why many in America and Israel remain gravely concerned about this latest Palestinian diplomatic ploy.Accordingly, we should turn to Congress, which has a rich history of dealing with U.N. actions it doesn’t appreciate. Rather than wait for a Baker-like threat, Congress should legislate broadly that any U.N. action that purports to acknowledge or authorize Palestinian statehood will result in a cutoff of all U.S. contributions to the offending agency. If the General Assembly ignored this warning, all funds would be cut off to the bloated Secretariat in New York, but not to separate agencies like the World Health Organization, the International Atomic Energy Agency, and others with their own governing bodies and funding mechanisms.The logic is the same today as it was in 1989. Moreover, our current federal budget deficits provide another attractive reason to reduce U.N. contributions. If political realities make it impossible to cut off funding completely, perhaps a partial reduction, say 50%, might be a suitable compromise.Although the General Assembly will not convene again until September, there is no time to waste. Fatah’s coalition with Hamas already provides statutory grounds (since the U.S. lists Hamas as a terrorist organization) to eliminate funding for the Palestinian Authority. Reducing U.S. funding to the U.N. is the next available, highly visible, target of opportunity. It presents the U.N. membership with a fascinating question: Would they rather recognize Palestinian statehood, or keep America’s money?Read the full story here.

• Trumka: “Being called a socialist is a step up for me.”(BigGovernment).Good news! We’re all one step closer to being able to call socialism by its name! According to a Bloomberg report, AFL-CIO chief Richard Trumka “said he’d like to see the U.S. become more like a European nation that provides pensions and health care for all its citizens. He said he is accustomed to criticism and doesn’t mind if conservatives call that socialism.”Trumka added that “Being called a socialist is a step up for me.”*Glad we’ve cleared that up!It was so confusing to figure out another name for a union movement that has been pushing socialized medicine, cradle-to-grave entitlements, government monopoly of the school system, European-style regulation, higher taxes on working Americans to fund high government-employee salaries, auto bailouts to save union (and union boss) jobs, killing secret ballots in favor of card check, eroding private property rights, and more.* This is a true statement when one recalls that Trumka blamed a victim for his own death at the hands of militant union strikers.Hmmmm.....Only make it a national movement to have "National socialisme".Read the full story here.

• If he really wanted to destroy America, would he do anything different?Obama’s War on Coal Takes a New Turn.(BigGovernment).Cap-and-trade legislation may have failed in Congress in 2010, but that doesn’t mean that this is the last we will hear from this economically-harmful policy.The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) through the Clean Air Act has been busily proposing and finalizing nearly 200 major policy rules aimed at curbing carbon and other particulate emissions. This despite the fact that the Clean Air Act was never intended for this purpose and widespread opposition exists among the business community, citizens and states.One particular regulation that is generating deep concern among the business community is the Utility Maximum Achievable Control Technology rule or better know as the MACT rule. This rule would require coal-fired plants to reduce emissions of particular toxic air pollutants.The big problem with this is MACT would require coal-fired power plants to install very costly equipment to comply with the regulation. In some cases, these companies simply can’t afford to buy the equipment and for others the needed equipment isn’t commercially available.If this rule is implemented, it would force the shut down of many coal-fired power plants. For states like Ohio, who rely on coal power for 90 percent of their energy, this is a major problem. According to some estimates, enough coal-fired power plants would close to equal about 30-70 gigawatts of electricity generated nationwide. A single gigawatt of energy can power about 750,000 homes.In a time where national unemployment hovers around 9 percent, these regulations threaten to lead to more job losses and do some serious damage to the economy. The American Legislative Exchange Council estimated that the EPA regulation will eliminate 2.5 million jobs, depress investment by $300 billion by 2014 and reduce GDP by up to $500 billion.Many states and local communities are already voicing strong concern about the EPA’s regulations. States like Michigan and Utah have claimed that the EPA has overstepped their regulatory jurisdiction and urged the U.S. Congress to intervene and provide much needed oversight over the agency.More citizens, communities and states need to join in the call for Congress to intervene if the EPA is to be reined before it does the anticipated damage to our economy, which recent speculation has suggested could be headed for more trouble.Hmmmmm......And the replacement technology for this loss of energy is........Thin air?Read the full story here.

• "The Evil Djini made me do it" defence,Sheikh: Terror suspect possessed by devil.(Ynet).A sheikh familiar with an Arab truck driver who went on a recent rampage in Tel Aviv says the man, Issa Ibrahim Islam, was "possessed by the devil" at the time of the incident. The sheikh claims he treated Islam, who he said was in a difficult mental state before the incident took place. The truck driver prayed at his mosque frequently, the sheikh said. On the recent "Nakba Day," Islam went on a rampage with his truck in southern Tel Aviv, killing one person and wounding 17. The sheikh, who was interrogated by police Wednesday, said that Islam was "possessed by the devil," which prompted him to press the gas pedal of his heavy truck. Islam has been under arrest since the incident and continues to insist that the rampage was not a deliberate or terror-related act.The sheikh said he treated Islam using alternative methods in the days before the incident. The treatment included rubbing oil on the suspect's stomach while reciting Koran verses. The sheikh was summoned for an interrogation after Islam's relatives, including his brother, claimed that the terror suspect was in a difficult mental state, which prompted him to go on the rampage. Islam's attorney, Mufid Badir, told Ynet: "I asked the police before…to look into his mental history, in light of the medical and alternative treatments he underwent…I don't understand how they gave him a license to drive a heavy truck given his mental state." Hmmmmm.....Perhaps condem the Djini and the 'host vessel' to life without parole?Read the full story here.

• “The Audacity of Hope.” I demand Obama tell them to change the name of the boat.(AstuteBloggers).Americans Are Joining Flotilla to Protest Israeli Blockade. When an international flotilla sails for Gaza this month to challenge Israel’s naval blockade of the Palestinian territory, among the boats will be an American ship with 34 passengers, including the writer Alice Walker and an 86-year-old whose parents died in the Holocaust. ... The Americans have named their boat “The Audacity of Hope,” lifting the title of a book by President Obama to make a point, said Leslie Cagan, a political organizer who is the coordinator of the American boat. Hmmmm.....If the US is 'telling' Turkey to persuade their subjects not to participate in this flotilla why not do the same with your own people?Read the full story here.

• Indiana Says It Will Defy Obama Admin Order to Continue Funding Planned Parenthood.(NationalJournal). Indiana officials said Thursday they will defy a federal order to continue funding Planned Parenthood and other clinics that offer abortion services.Republican Gov. Mitch Daniels signed a law in May that would cut off federal funding from Indiana clinics that perform abortions. The law is primarily aimed at the state’s Planned Parenthood clinics, which get federal family planning grants to administer services unrelated to abortion.Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services Administrator Donald Berwick said on Wednesday the federal government could not endorse the law because it restricts access to a range of important family planning services. Federal money cannot be spent directly on abortion services anyway, but most clinics that offer abortion also offer other family planning and health services, from breast cancer screening to birth control advice.Indiana says it will implement the amendment despite Berwick’s warning.“The way the law was written, it went into effect the moment the governor signed it,” Marcus Barlow, a spokesman for Indiana’s Family and Social Services Administration, said in a telephone interview.“We were just advised by our lawyers that we should continue to enforce Indiana law.”Hmmmm......Dictatorship or democracy?Read the full story here.

• "The missiles did not explode".Two dead, 52 injured as Russian arms depot continues to explode.(Rainovosti).Two people have died and at least 52 have been injured in ongoing explosions at an artillery arsenal in Russia's Volga region Republic of Udmurtia, a spokesman for the Emergencies Ministry said."As of now, 52 people turned for medical assistance, 25 were hospitalized with two of them already discharged," the spokesman said.The republic's health minister, Vladimir Muzlov, said earlier two elderly people died from heart attacks caused by stress from the explosions.The Defense Ministry has reported one person as missing in the incident, but did not say whether the individual was a civilian or a military serviceman.At around 11:10 p.m. Moscow time [19:10 GMT] on Thursday shells began to explode in an artillery depot near the village of Pugachevo in Udmurtia. The facility belongs to the Defense Ministry's missile and artillery directorate and is tasked mainly with munitions disposal.Currently, the intensity of explosions has dropped to a third of the initial level, but military officials are still unable to say when the series of explosions will stop, a Defense Ministry spokesman said.A group of seven aircraft from the Emergencies Ministry has arrived at the scene from Moscow to deal with the blaze and explosions, including two planes with special equipment, two firefighting planes and three helicopters.That is in addition to the previously deployed 200 personnel, 30 firefighting units and three firefighting trains. A fourth train is to arrive from the neighboring republic of Tatarstan soon.According to the Russian presidential press service, some 13,500 people were evacuated from the nearby residential areas, while the regional emergencies department says 28,000 people were evacuated.A senior Russian military official has confirmed that artillery rockets are stored at the arsenal, but added that there is no threat of them exploding."The missiles did not explode. They are kept in a concrete storage unit with 70-cm (27.6 inches) thick walls," Deputy Defense Minister Dmitry Bulgakov said.A police source said earlier that rockets for Grad multiple rocket launcher systems started to explode in underground storage facilities on Friday morning.Eyewitnesses said fragments of the detonated shells were spotted up to two kilometers (1.6 miles) from the blast site.Irina, a resident of the nearby town of Agryza, said the evacuation was well organized and began at around midnight with buses taking people away."These sounds [of explosions] woke us up and we did not understand anything... it was very scary. No one had time to grab their documents, money or valuables," Irina said adding that she, her son, a daughter-in-law and two grandchildren fled the town by car.The blast-hit facility stores from 5,000 to 10,000 railway carriages with various ammunition. It is believed 18 storage facilities are on fire.The accident forced the Emergencies Ministry to temporarily close the Yelabuga-Izhevsk zone of the M7 federal highway, connecting Moscow and Ufa, the capital of the Urals republic of Bashkortostan. The nearby railway link was also closed.The incident is the second major accident involving munitions explosions at a Russian army base in a week. Last Thursday, a military arsenal in the republic of Bashkortostan, which borders Udmurtia, was rocked by a series of explosions as artillery ammunition exploded, causing the evacuation of nearby residents and leaving 160 homeless. No-one died in that incident.Hmmmm......."The missiles did not explode. They are kept in a concrete storage unit with 70-cm (27.6 inches) thick walls,".Read the full story here.

• Moldovans Rally To Protest Formal Recognition Of Islam.(Rferl).CHISINAU -- Hundreds of Moldovans have taken to the streets in Chisinau to protest the government's recognition of the country's tiny Muslim minority, RFE/RL's Moldovan Service reports.Some participants in the rally warned that the decision would open the door to terrorism and lead to mass conversions to Islam."We want to guard our borders and to defend our Orthodox faith.... The Muslims are like a virus. If you let in just a few they will multiply," one female participant at the rally told RFE/RL, refusing to give her name.Another woman in the crowd outside the government building said Muslims would introduce polygamy and "harems" to Moldova. And a priest named Gheorghe was quoted by local media as saying at the rally that the Muslims "are all instructed in terrorism."The rally was organized by several Orthodox Christian associations under the umbrella of the powerful Moldovan Metropolitan Church, which has for weeks criticized the government's decision in March to register the Islamic League as a representative of the Muslim faith.Also today, the Moldovan Antidiscrimination Coalition NGO organized a much smaller counterprotest outside the headquarters of the Metropolitan Church, asking it to stop what it called "its endless campaigns of intolerance."Earlier this year, the Moldovan Orthodox Church and conservative politicians forced the pro-Western government to shelve a bill that would have banned discrimination against many minorities, including religious groups and gays.Officially there are just 2,000 Muslims living in Moldova. But the Islamic League says the number is closer to 17,000, though not all of them are registered as Muslims because previous governments considered Islam to be illegal. Read the full story here.

• Iranian Woman Calls for ‘Slut Women’ to be Stoned…on the Pages of Calif. Paper.(TheBlaze).Infidelity seems rampant in our culture and during these times. Just recently, Arnold Schwarzenegger is alleged to have had a love child with his housekeeper. So what’s the solution to this problem? Shamci Rafani of Visalia, CA has a proposal: stone the “sluts” responsible.In a letter to the editor that appeared in yesterday’s Visalia Times-Delta, Rafani — herself the victim of infidelity — angrily calls for the death of woman who knowingly engage in an affair. And she didn’t hold back: But the woman who had been aware of her wrongdoing, and yet had done it without any shame or fear, must be punished severely.Yes, in many countries, the public will stone that woman to death.Believe me, that might be the right answer to the behavior of these kind of loose women, who want to blame it all on men.My main question is, how many more families have to be destroyed?These women not only must not be awarded, but they must pay for destroying the happiness and the future of their victims, especially this woman who lived with the family and had become a member of that family.These slut women do not know how to say no. To my judgment, these women who freely sleep with married men must be severely punished and put to death. If the lawmakers do something about it, you will find less stories like Arnold’s.Those are some strong words. And the absurdity of them raises more then a few questions. The man one: Is this a joke? Gawker went digging and found that, no, it’s not a joke. Rafani is a real woman, and bringing adultress women to justice has become her life goal: The Visalia Times-Delta didn’t respond to our inquiry. By phone, Shamci Rafani assured us that she is a real person, a 77-year-old immigrant from Iran. She says her husband left her thirty years ago for another woman, and since then she has been dedicated herself to speaking out against “sluts” in letters to the editor and a self-published book.I guess there‘s nothing like a woman’s scorn. And I guess adulterers in the U.S. should be glad that capital punishment — unlike in Iran and other countries in the Mideast– is reserved for the killers and traitors.Hmmmm....Aren't you glad Sharia isn't practiced in the US?Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Federal Judge Bans Religious Words From Texas Graduation Ceremony, Says One Student Would “Suffer Irreparable Harm”.(Fox-Todd Starnes).(Todd Starnes/FNR) – A federal judge has ordered a Texas school district to prohibit public prayer at a high school graduation ceremony. Chief U.S. District Judge Fred Biery’s order against the Medina Valley Independent School District also forbids students from using specific religious words including “prayer” and “amen.”The ruling was in response to a lawsuit filed by Christa and Danny Schultz. Their son is among those scheduled to participate in Saturday’s graduation ceremony. The judge declared that the Schultz family and their son would “suffer irreparable harm” if anyone prayed at the ceremony.Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott said the school district is in the process of appealing the ruling and his office has agreed to file a brief in their support.“Part of this goes to the very heart of the unraveling of moral values in this country,” Texas Attorney General Greg Abbott told Fox News Radio, saying the judge wanted to turn school administrators into “speech police.”“I’ve never seen such a restriction on speech issued by a court or the government,” Abbott told Fox News Radio. “It seems like a trampling of the First Amendment rather than protecting the First Amendment.”Hmmmmmm.....“Part of this goes to the very heart of the unraveling of moral values in this country,” AMEN.Read the full story here.

• Austrian Freedom Party Leader Greets Recall of Turkish Ambassador.(StopTurkey).Heinz-Christian Strache, the leader of the anti-immigration Austrian Freedom Party has welcomed the recall of Turkey's ambassador to Austria, Kadri Ecvet Tezcan, who is to be re-assigned to Israel later this month. He deplored the fact that it had taken so long, however, insisting that the ambassador should have been recalled immediately last November after he had "insulted the Austrian people in a scandalous way" and acted "like a colonial lord". Strache called on the new ambassador to immediately distance himself from his predecessor and to denounce his remarks.For an indication of how much anger the Turkish ambassador managed to provoke last year, take a look at the YouTube video above, which shows a debate in the Austrian parliament in which the MP Ewald Stadler fiercely denounces Kadri Ecvet Tezcan and Turkey, and highlights the persecution of Christians in Turkey.Hmmmmm.....Off course the Turkish ambassador is the perfect choice for Israel.Read the full story here.