MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 11. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 12. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 12 . Here. (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.9  ! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 129.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 - 52 - On 12.06.2011 at 03:44 GMT+2
  
  The worst of the E. coli outbreak may be over, says Germany's health minister. But despite confirming the source of the bacteria, the woes continue for many sick patients - and especially for European vegetable farmers.German Health Minister Daniel Bahr warned Saturday that the number of deaths from an E. coli outbreak may increase. His statement came even as German authorities lifted their warnings on fresh vegetables. Bahr cautioned that "further deaths are not ruled out, as painful as that is." He said, however, that he was hopeful the worst of the outbreak, which has claimed at least 31 lives in Germany and caused over 3,000 illnesses, was now over. "The wave is gradually abating," Bahr was quoted Saturday as telling the Bild am Sonntag newspaper. "There is reason to hope the worst is now over." German authorities announced Saturday that they located the source of the bacteria. The Federal Institute for Risk Assessment (BfR) confirmed test results announced on Friday that identified bean sprouts in the northern village of Bienenbüttel as carrying the virulent E. coli strain EHEC-0104. "These results are an important step in the chain of evidence," said BfR director Andreas Hensel. Officials investigating an organic farm in northern Germany said on Saturday they do not expect to take legal action against it for causing an E.coli outbreak. "Everything we have looked into until now shows the farm was flawless," said Gert Hahne, spokesman for the consumer protection office of Lower Saxony state, where Bienenbüttel is located. "It is hygienic and followed all the regulations."Source.

• "Guess who's coming to dinner? A dictator.(Mediamatters).During the opening of Fox Business' Follow the Money on Friday, Eric Bolling teased a segment about the White House hosting the president of Gabon by saying, "Guess who's coming to dinner? A dictator. Mr. Obama shares a laugh with one of Africa's kleptocrats. It's not first time he's had a hoodlum in the hizzouse."During the tease, an image appeared of Obama meeting with the Gabonese president, Ali Bongo, at the White House:As Bolling said that Obama had previously hosted "a hoodlum in the hizzouse," footage of the rapper Common aired.The inclusion of Common may not make much sense to people who aren't regular viewers of Fox News -- it's a reference to the right-wing media's ginned-up smear of him as a "'cop killer' rapper" in the days before his recent performance at the White House. Later in the show, Bolling teased the segment again: "Smile for the birdie. Our president's sitting with one of Africa's most wanted. It's not the first time he's had a hood in the big crib."This time, an image of Bongo with a flashing tooth showed up as Bolling said, "Smile for the birdie":Bolling began the segment itself by saying, in part, "So what's with all the hoods in the hizzy? A month after the White House hosted the rapper Common, who glorifies violence on cops, the president opened his doors to one of Africa's most evil dictators. Here's Ali Bongo, the Gabonese president, who's been accused of human rights violations and plundering billions of his country's dollars."During the segment, Human Events editor Jason Mattera declared that "Barack Obama likes to defecate on American allies,"Hmmmm......Inge Bongo:"[Ali] got very violent," she says. Inge claims that witch doctors convinced her husband that something was wrong with her. "he had me kidnapped several times, he had me mutilated, he beat me beyond recognition."Read the full story here.

• White House Insider: Obama’s Rage Over Netanyahu Meeting: "What the F-ck was that?"(Newsflovor).Shortly after the photo-op meeting and “working lunch” with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the one that saw President Obama openly chastised by the Prime Minister for Obama’s earlier public comments regarding wanting to see Israel return to its 1967 borders, the president verbally “went off” on Richard Daley in the private study area that adjoins the Oval Office. President Obama’s verbal attack was clearly heard by numerous staff up and down the West Wing hallways. The essence of the president’s rage and embarrassment can best be summed up with him yelling out very loudly, “What the f-ck was that!?” That phrase was apparently repeated a number of times in the span of about five minutes, a time period in which Obama’s voice became “louder and louder” and culminating in Obama exclaiming, “Never again! Do you understand me? Never again!” Any response by Bill Daley back to the president, if given, was not overheard.Daley was soon after seen walking slowly down the hallway back toward his own office. He appeared “unconcerned” and was walking alone. His mood was apparently good enough that he took the time to speak briefly with some junior staffers before continuing down the hall. There was no sign of the president, though Valerie Jarrett did make an appearance on her way into the Oval Office. This was viewed as somewhat of a rare thing as Jarrett has apparently not been seen much on the lower levels of the West Wing for the last month or so. Neither she nor the president was seen for some time after that. The president did not emerge until it was time to make another brief speech at a nearby location later that afternoon. I did not receive information on whether or not Daley accompanied the president on that short trip, but the president’s mood was described as “much improved” when he returned.Oh, and another little FYI in case you missed it. Obama had a recent “meeting” with some of his former top advisers very recently. In my line of work that means only one thing. This administration is absolutely sh-tting itself right now. The cover is being blown off, the fingers of blame are being pointed, and discussions over who is going to take the fall are happening this very moment. Things are going rather well for us. Not too bad for an old news almost out to pasture relic huh? Much work remains to be done though.Hmmmm.......How long before he delivers the final blow to Israel? Read the full story here.

• The Obama way?“…the more illegals that vote, the better the Obama administration thinks it will do…”(RossRightAngle).Attorney General Tom Horne accused the Obama administration Tuesday of trying to thwart Arizona’s voter-ID laws in a bid to get more illegal immigrants to the polls — presumably to cast ballots for the president and Democrats.Horne acknowledged that a brief filed by the Department of Justice in a case to be heard next month by the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals centers around the agency’s argument that Arizona’s law requiring proof of citizenship to register is pre-empted by federal law. But Horne, a Republican, told Capitol Media Services he sees something more sinister.“I think the motive is that the more illegals that vote, the better the Obama administration thinks it will do,’’ he said.Horne, however, said that in one year there were about 200 incidents reported of people who were not citizens having registered to vote. “And about 10 were prosecuted,’’ he said….Horne said the problem is not so much caused by those not in the country illegally but by organizations like ACORN that have registration drives and pay people to sign people up to vote. “Those people fool people into registering,’’ he said.Horne linked the Department of Justice legal brief to other ongoing battles between Arizona and federal government.He said the Obama administration, after failing to secure the border itself, went to court to block the state from enacting its own laws aimed at illegal immigration. And Horne cited recent comments by the president arguing that the border is safe, saying he is trying to “create a false sense of complacency.’’ And he said the latest court filing amounts to arguing that people should be able to register without providing information to prove citizenship, “thus enabling illegal aliens to register to vote.’’Horne said there is no reason for the Obama administration to insert itself into the fight, other than for political reasons….Hmmmm......Thugocracy or Democracy?Read the full story here.

• YES students say NO to going home to Muslim countries; seek asylum in Canada.(RefugeeResettlement).How many of you have ever heard of this program—Youth Exchange and Study? I hadn’t until I saw this story from the The Star (Toronto) yesterday about Muslim high school students invited to the US to help bring about “improved understanding” between cultures and instead many just hopped on over to Canada and asked for asylum—so much for taking their new found understanding back to their Muslim homelands! And, so much for the US sending our brave soldiers to Afghanistan to secure THEIR country.Indeed, so many students left for Canada that the US State Department has suspended the program.Before I get into the story from St. Catherine’s that brought my attention to YES, check out the description of the Kennedy-Lugar YES program* for students from Muslim countries.And for more, have a look at this US State Department AFS-USA Cluster Coordinator Manual (I kid you not that is the title of some d*** bureaucrat manual—no wonder we are sick of too much government!). Here is what the USDOS AFS-USA CCM tells us about YES (September 11th made them do it!):

The September 11th terrorist attacks of 2001 and the apparent negative view of Americans held in some regions, as well as the anti-Islamic or anti-Arab sentiment that gripped some places in the United States, brought renewed focus to the need for improved understanding across our cultures. Having long known that the benefits of high school exchange programs extend beyond the student into the community at large, the international education community responded to this call with an initiative to increase exchanges between the United States and countries with significant Muslim populations. 2003-2004 marked the inaugural year of the Youth Exchange Study (YES) Program. [emphasis is mine---ed]Great huh!Now here is the reality of what they created. From The Star (Last stop on the Afghan railway?)Read the full story here.

• 'Charming' Saudi threatens US over Israel.(IsraelMatzav).And to think that Maureen Dowd of the New York Times once referred to him as 'charming.' He's anything but charming in this distortion-filled op-ed in the Washington Post. As the main political and financial supporter of the Palestinian quest for self-determination, Saudi Arabia holds an especially strong position. The kingdom’s wealth, steady growth and stability have made it the bulwark of the Middle East. As the cradle of Islam, it is able to symbolically unite most Muslims worldwide. In September, the kingdom will use its considerable diplomatic might to support the Palestinians in their quest for international recognition. American leaders have long called Israel an “indispensable” ally. They will soon learn that there are other players in the region — not least the Arab street — who are as, if not more, “indispensable.” The game of favoritism toward Israel has not proven wise for Washington, and soon it will be shown to be an even greater folly.This lecture about the 'human rights' of 'Palestinians' might not have been quite so annoying had the government that Tooki represents not arrested five women in Riyadh on Thursday... for the crime of driving. That's not a crime for women in Israel - the only country in the Middle East that shares values with the United States. The only thing the Saudis share with the United States is oil. For now.Read the full story here.

• Muslim slash attack in NY supermarket meat aisle.(NYPost).A crazed man made a Pathmark meat aisle extra bloody this morning when he plunged a knife into an elderly shopper’s neck, allegedly after the perpetrator stepped on the victim's foot, police and store employees said.Abdullah Mohammed, 51, of 125th Street, was at the Harlem supermarket yesterday morning when he started arguing loudly at the customer service desk with William Perry, 70, a former truck driver. Perry was at the desk buying Lotto tickets when Mohammed stepped on his foot, irking the older man, according to his older brother, Charles Perry.Mohammed, who was clad in a peach linen suit, was booted out of the store, but stormed back in minutes later and cornered Perry in the meat aisle, two employees said. He then allegedly whipped out a razor and slashed Perry across the neck."People ran out of the store. One guy was screaming, ‘Oh my God, I’ve never seen anything like this,’" said Rafael Feliciano, a repairman who witnessed the melee.A heroic store employee tackled Mohammed and subdued him until the police responded to the meat aisle melee, cops said. Mohammed was dragged out of the supermarket screaming "at everyone around him," Feliciano said.Mohammed was arrested and charged with assault in the first degree. Perry was taken to Harlem Hospital and was likely to survive his injuries, police said.Hmmmm.......Who walks around with a razor in his pockets?Read the full story here.

• Iran: Israel nuclear threat to Mideast.(Ynet). Tehran convenes NPT summit, urges international community to pressure Israel into joining Non-Proliferation Treaty.Iran convened its second nuclear summit Sunday and urged the international community to pressure Israel into subjecting its nuclear program to international oversight, as well as join the Non-Proliferation Treaty. The convention was held under the banner of "Nuclear Energy for All, Nuclear Weapons for None." Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, who was first to address the conference, blamed Israel and the United States for being an obstacle en route to a nuclear weapon-free Middle East. Salehi called the Israeli nuclear arsenal "the main threat to the Middle East," and rebuked the United States: "Being Israel's main sponsor… It has the responsibility to halt its nuclear threat to the region." The two-day Tehran conference is set to focus mainly on Israel's policy of nuclear ambiguity and its refusal to neither confirm nor deny its possession of nuclear weapons. He also argued that instead of depriving Iran from civil nuclear energy, world powers should focus on Israel's "underhanded secrecy." Hmmmm.....Obama probably nodding in approval?read the full story here.

• UK Police 'covered up' violent campaign to turn London area 'Sharia compliant'.(Telegraph).Police have been accused of “covering up” a campaign of abuse, threats and violence aimed at “Islamicising” an area of London.Victims say that officers in the borough of Tower Hamlets have ignored or downplayed outbreaks of hate crime, and suppressed evidence implicating Muslims in them, because they fear being accused of racism.The claims come as four Tower Hamlets Muslims were jailed for at least 19 years for attacking a local white teacher who gave religious studies lessons to Muslim girls.The Sunday Telegraph has uncovered more than a dozen other cases in Tower Hamlets where both Muslims and non-Muslims have been threatened or beaten for behaviour deemed to breach fundamentalist “Islamic norms.”One victim, Mohammed Monzur Rahman, said he was left partially blind and with a dislocated shoulder after being attacked by a mob in Cannon Street Road, Shadwell, for smoking during the Muslim holy month of Ramadan last year."“Two guys stopped me in the street and asked me why I was smoking,” he said. “I just carried on, and before I knew another dozen guys came and jumped me. The next thing I knew, I was waking up in hospital“He reported it to the police and they just said they couldn’t track anyone down and there were no witnesses,” said Ansar Ahmed Ullah, a local anti-extremism campaigner who has advised Mr Rahman. “But there is CCTV in that street and it is lined with shops and people.”Teachers in several local schools have told The Sunday Telegraph that they feel “under pressure” from local Muslim extremists, who have mounted campaigns through both parents and pupils – and, in one case, through another teacher - to enforce the compulsory wearing of the veil for Muslim girls. “It was totally orchestrated,” said one teacher. “The atmosphere became extremely unpleasant for a while, with constant verbal aggression from both the children and some parents against the head over this issue.”One teacher at the Bigland Green primary school, Nicholas Kafouris, last year took the council to an employment tribunal, saying he was forced out of his job for complaining that Muslim pupils were engaging in racist and anti-Semitic bullying and saying they supported terrorism. Mr Kafouris lost his case, though the school did admit that insufficient action had been taken against the behaviour of some pupils. The number of assaults on teachers in Tower Hamlets resulting in exclusions has more than doubled from 190 in 2007/8 to 383 in 2008/9, the latest available year, though not all are necessarily race-related.Tower Hamlets’ gay community has become a particular target of extremists. Homophobic crimes in the borough have risen by 80 per cent since 2007/8, and by 21 per cent over the last year, a period when there was a slight drop in London as a whole.Last year, a mob of 30 young Muslims stormed a local gay pub, the George and Dragon, beating and abusing patrons. Many customers of the pub told The Sunday Telegraph that they have been attacked and harassed by local Muslim youths. In 2008 a 20-year-old student, Oli Hemsley, was left permanently paralysed after an attack by a group of young Muslims outside the pub. Only one of his assailants has been caught and jailed.Even during meetings of the local council, prominent supporters of Tower Hamlets’ controversial directly-elected mayor, Lutfur Rahman – dropped by the Labour Party for his links to Islamic fundamentalism - have persistently targeted gay councillors with homophobic abuse and intimidation from the public gallery.Mr Golds said: “If that happened in a football stadium, arrests would have taken place. I have complained, twice, to the police, and have heard nothing. A Labour colleague waited three hours at the police station before being told that nothing would be done. The police are afraid of being accused of Islamophobia. Another Labour councillor said that the Met is now the reverse of what it must have been like in the 1970s, with a complete lack of interest when white people make complaints of harassment and hatred.”In February this year, dozens of stickers appeared across Tower Hamlets quoting the Koran, declaring the borough a “gay-free zone” and stating that “verily Allah is severe in punishment.”The Sunday Telegraph has learned that during a routine stop-and-search at the time police found a young Muslim man with a number of the stickers in his possession. He was released without charge on the advice of the Crown Prosecution Service. Police also had CCTV images of a second unidentified Muslim youth posting the stickers at a local railway station, but refused to release the pictures for several weeks.Hasnath’s “interests” on his Facebook page include Khalid Yasin, a hate preacher who describes Jews as “filth” and teaches that homosexuals must be killed. Yasin has spoken at least four times since 2007 at the East London Mosque, Tower Hamlets’ most prominent Muslim institution. Although the mosque claims to be against extremism, discrimination, and violence, it has hosted dozens of hate, extremist or terrorist preachers and also hosted a “Spot The Fag” contest.In the same week that it issued a press release condemning the anti-gay stickers, the mosque was also due to host a “gala dinner” with Uthman Lateef, a homophobic hate preacher.The mosque is controlled by a fundamentalist group, the Islamic Forum of Europe, which says that it is dedicated to changing the “very infrastructure of society, its institutions, its culture, its political order and its creed ... from ignorance to Islam.”There is no suggestion that any mosque official has been personally involved in any act of violence or intimidation. However, in an email obtained by The Sunday Telegraph, one IFE activist, Abu Talha, used the name of the group to threaten a local Muslim woman who ran a dating agency.“I am asking you kindly to stop these activities as it goes against the teachings of Islam,” he wrote. “Let me remind you that I have a huge network of brothers and sisters who would be willing to help me take this further…If by tomorrow you haven’t changed your mind … then the campaign will begin.” The dating agency has now closed and the woman has left the area.Mr Ahmed Ullah said: “There has been a gradual increase in these kinds of attacks, that’s for sure.” A spokesman for the Metropolitan Police said: “When any allegation of crime is made to us, we investigate appropriately. We will always take action against hate crime in accordance with, and within the confines of, the law.”Hmmmmm......."The Religion of Peace'.Read the full story here.

• Turkey sometimes NATO 'ally' offered Gaddafi "guarantee" to quit Libya.(TodaysZaman). Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said on Friday his country had offered a "guarantee" to Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi if he left Libya, but said Ankara had received no answer."Gaddafi has no way out but to leave Libya, through the guarantees given to him, it seems," Erdoğan told NTV broadcaster in an interview. "We ourselves have offered him this guarantee, via the representatives we've sent. We told him we would help him to be sent wherever he wanted to be sent. We would discuss the issue with our allies, according to the response we receive. Unfortunately we still haven't got a response from Gaddafi." Erdoğan, whose country is a member of NATO, did not specify what kind of guarantee his country had offered to Gaddafi. Muslim Turkey had sizeable trade and commercial ties with Gaddafi's Libya, and evacuated more than 20,000 citizens working there as violence engulfed the North African desert nation. Since the uprising against Gaddafi's rule began in February, Erdoğan has distanced himself from the Libyan leader. Ankara has called on Gaddafi several times to order a cease-fire and to quit in order to allow a transition of power. In the interview, Erdoğan expressed frustration at what he called Gaddafi's stalling tactics."I have contacted him six or seven times. I sent our special representatives, but we always faced stalling tactics. They tell us they want a cease fire, we tell them to take a step, but the next day you find out that some places were bombed." "We're asking them 'what are you doing' and they tell us they fired back because they were fired at. There's nothing like that. We were closely watching at that time."Hmmmmm.....Get Turkey out of NATO before they act the same way in case of conflict with Iran.Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Pakistan: Christians are forbidden to eat in restaurants.(PCP).Lahore: June 8, 2011. “The Muslim dominated society of Pakistan forbids Christian to eat in any restaurant in Pakistan, a Christian student is forbidden to drink water in a glass in schools in which Muslim student drinks water, a roadside Vendor will beat you and charge you for cup in which you drink tea when he recognize you as Christian, it is Pakistan where Muslim members of National Assembly of Pakistan can block a move to offer prayers for slain Christian member of parliament, so, its not surprising if Muslim members of ruling party in Punjab Assembly are resisting on presentation of annual budget by a Christian Minister Michael Kamran on June 10, 2011” said Dr. Nazir S Bhatti, President of Pakistan Christian Congress PCC, here today.Dr. Nazir Bhatti said that hate among religious communities in Islamic Republic of Pakistan is created by Sharia legislation and Pakistan Assembly and Muslim parliamentarians are responsible for it weather they are moderate, liberal or Islamic.The Sharia laws imposed by General Zia-Ul- Haq turned religious minorities in Pakistan to be infidel citizens who must pay Islamic Tax to live in Islamic Republic of Pakistan and present regime kept status- quo to prevail hate among religious communities.“The Islamic Republic of Pakistan constitutionally empowers Muslims to abduct a Christian woman, her enforced conversion and marriage to a Muslim and protects violence against Christians” said Nazir Bhatti.Hmmmm....the 'people' the Obama regime gives Billions of taxpayer Dollars.Read the full story here.

• "Only In Belgium?"365 days without a government,Who needs government? Miss Belgium asks.(Emirates247).As the country marks a year of political mess Monday, a whole 12 months without an official government, even Miss Belgium is joining exasperated calls to politicians to break the impasse."Belgium is beautiful! We have so much, the sea in Flanders, the forest in Wallonia," said 19-year-old beauty queen Justine de Jonckheere. "But I must admit the country has problems."Ministers hold endless meetings to reach an understanding, but never do," she told the daily Le Soir. "They need to put a little water in their wine!"The country of 11 million people that hosts global powerhouses, the EU and NATO, on Monday becomes the first nation in recent history to remain without a government for an entire year -- a feat due to a festering language divide splitting the Dutch-speaking north and French-speaking south.While a caretaker government that lost last year's June 13 elections has reduced the deficit and even sent warplanes to join the NATO-led campaign in Libya, the impasse is feeding fears of a looming carve-up of the country.An opinion survey Friday showed two-thirds of Belgians continue to believe the country can survive its fiercest crisis to date -- though the proportion was highest in French-speaking Wallonia, at 79 percent, followed by 74 percent in bilingual Brussels and 62 percent in Dutch-speaking Flanders.But as feuding politicians repeatedly fail to bridge the divide by forming a workable coalition, the flak in Belgium's language battle continues to fly.The Brussels transport minister a few weeks back ordered songs in both Dutch and French to be aired again on the city subway system after it transpired that rail authorities were broadcasting solely in English, Italian or Spanish to avoid recrimination from the different communities.And last month a fierce linguistic row spattered the political arena when Dutch separatists complained of the poor Dutch or little Dutch spoken by French-language politicians."Even today, negotiations to form a government take place in French. That, after all, is not normal," said Belgian Flemish leader Bart De Wever.De Wever's separatist N-VA party led the June 2010 polls in Flanders, while French-speaking Socialists headed by Elio Di Rupo led the field in Wallonia.But with no outright majority, efforts to bridge both the language divide and the wide political chasm between Di Rupo's leftwingers and De Wever's liberal-leaning separatists have floundered time after time.Representing the wealthier 6.2 million Dutch speakers, the N-VA refuses to foot the bill for the 4.5 million francophones living in the rust belt of Wallonia.De Wever played down fears of a deepening crisis, saying it was not the first in a country whose efforts in grappling with its different communities have long made it a case-study in compromise for political scientists."I can only hope that after the many difficulties we have faced, that we can get to a new stage and find a consensus, which would be a confederal system."At issue in heated talks during almost 12 months has been a deadlock over Flemish demands for greater autonomy, notably in fiscal and social policy.Belgium's already largely devolved system, where the central government runs defence, diplomacy, finance, justice and social security, has enabled the caretaker government to lurch more easily than would a more highly centralised system."We face a complex situation," Di Rupo told AFP."There are different political goals, and this is a country of coalition, not a country of bipartisan politics and parliamentary majorities. This is a country where we speak three languages, so it's a complex multicultural, multilingual laboratory."To resolve our problems this time, we will need a little further time."Hmmmmm........????Read the full story here.