MFS - The Other News

                       Afternoon  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.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.  Source.

• Syrian activists call for 'Children's Friday'.(Al-Jazeera).Anti-Assad demonstrators protest against government brutality, with more than 30 young people dead since March.Syrian activists have called for protests on Friday over the dozens of children killed in anti-government protests, as the opposition continues to demand the "immediate resignation" of Bashar al-Assad, the country's president.Rejecting government concessions, opposition groups at a meeting in Turkey called late on Thursday for parliamentary and presidential elections within a year of Assad's removal and vowed to work "to bring down the regime".Hillary Clinton, the US secretary of state, said the international community needs to be more united on dealing with the Syria government's crackdown on the pro-democracy movement."Right now the attitude of the international community is not as united as we are seeking to make it," she said in Washington, apparently alluding to Russia's moves blocking a proposed UN Security Council condemnation of Syria.Activists called for "Children's Friday" protests to honour the children killed in the uprising, such as 13-year-old Hamza al-Khatib whom activists say was tortured to death, a charge denied by the authorities."The people want the fall of the regime. Tomorrow, it's 'Children's Friday' of rising up against injustice, like the adults," the activists announced on their Facebook page "Syrian Revolution 2011", an engine of the revolt.The UN children's agency UNICEF says at least 30 children have been shot dead in the revolt against Assad's autocratic rule which erupted in mid-March.The more than 10-week-old revolt in Syria was sparked by the arrest and torture of 15 children and adolescents accused of painting anti-regime graffiti in the southern town of Daraa, which became a flashpoint of the deadly protests."A photo of a child who is dead or being tortured or being mutilated is much more powerful than of an adult," Patrick McCormick, UNICEF spokesman, said, referring to the Facebook campaign focused on the fate of Hamza."The use of Facebook or any image especially of children is incredibly powerful," he told AFP news agency. "They are innocent victims here, they get caught in the middle, it is not their fight."McCormick said the situation would worsen with the end of the academic year. "It will leave the children and teenagers more vulnerable because they will be out and about and not sitting in a classroom."Hmmmm....How about the innocent Jewish children killed by the Palestinians?Read the full story here.

• "Have Airforce Two - Will Travel".Michelle to Travel to Southern Africa.(Whitehousedossier).Well, it’s kind of an expensive trip to take while President Obama and Congress are engaged in a desperate struggle to slash spending, isn’t it? But the White House is making clear that, unlike her vacation to Spain last year, which cost taxpayers tens of thousands of dollars, this is an official trip. It is the kind of thing all first ladies do to promote the United States and its interests overseas.Now, does that mean she – and her mom, and her daughters – ain’t going to get in some sight seeing or sample some roast antelope at a swank Johannesburg eatery? I’m sure they will.But as long as she spends plenty of time working, this is normal first lady stuff. The schedule suggests they’ll be bouncing around too much to get too comfortable. From the White House:First Lady Michelle Obama announced that she will travel to Johannesburg and Cape Town, South Africa and Gaborone, Botswana during an official visit to Africa from June 21 – 26 focused on youth leadership, education, health and wellness. The trip is a continuation of Mrs. Obama’s work to engage young people at home and abroad, from mentoring students in the United States and encouraging them to gain international experience, to encouraging young people to excel academically, serve, and lead . . . Accompanying Mrs. Obama on this trip will be her mother, Mrs. Robinson and her daughters, Malia and Sasha Obama.In addition to advancing her international youth engagement agenda, the First Lady’s events will amplify the President’s support for democracy, development and economic opportunity across Africa. During her trip, Mrs. Obama will deliver the keynote address to a U.S.-sponsored Young African Women Leaders Forum in South Africa. Forum participants include young women from across sub-Saharan Africa who are leading or involved in social and economic initiatives in their own countries.Hmmmm.....Start the countdown for the next revolution?Read the full story here.

• Update ! Jewish Group Removes Video Of Them Singing At The White House Per ‘Obama Admin Request.'The Maccabeats deny the story about the removal of their video, on their facebook page you can read the following statement:"
  So there's a really interesting rumor circulating online about how the White House demanded we remove a video of us privately singing for the President. Never happened. We only posted the video privately in the first place, out of respect for our host. especially after we were
  treated so well by the entire staff. We think the White House has more interesting things to do than hunt down Maccabeats videos.Hmmmm....Anyway for those interested here's the video in question.Read the full story here.

• Obamabook Facebook – self appointed arbiter of “free speech” – tells Tea Party no more organizing.(floppingAces). In what is an astonishing development, Mark Zuckerberg’s social media sensation, Facebook, has been slowly and quietly clamping down on the use of the site for political purposes. Kellen Giuda, an architect who started the NY Tea Party, has a column today in The Daily Caller to expose the Facebook hypocrisy, and to announce an alternative social medium to replace the FB void after a series of policy and site changes that are designed to limit the scope of use of Facebook related to political purposes.What makes an American entrepreneur’s blood run cold is the quote from Facebook’s Adam Conner to the Wall Street Journal last month:

Meanwhile, Facebook is talking with potential Chinese partners about entering the huge China market, where the government has been cracking down on dissidents. That crackdown has come in response to the uprisings shaking authoritarian Middle Eastern regimes, movements that have used U.S.-based social-media sites like Facebook and Twitter as organizing tools.“Maybe we will block content in some countries, but not others,” Adam Conner, a Facebook lobbyist, told the Journal. “We are occasionally held in uncomfortable positions because now we’re allowing too much, maybe, free speech in countries that haven’t experienced it before,” he said. “Right now we’re studying and learning about China but have made no decisions about if, or how, we will approach it,” said Debbie Frost, Facebook’s director of international communications.It’s chilling enough that a social medium that has played such a high profile role in political interaction decides that one country is “experienced” enough to be allowed free speech, and another isn’t. But considering Facebook’s attitude towards the Tea Party, this begs the question of Mr. Conner… just what part of America, and our founding based on free speech, requires nanny censorship by a self appointed arbiter?Facebook isn’t foolish enough to outright lay on political censorship. As Guida points out, it’s been a series of steps that unmistakenly is aimed at political use of the medium. And he further suggests that the overt ties to liberal political beliefs may play a large part in thwarting Tea Party organization.The company has changed the way Facebook’s group, newsfeed and event features work, and it has restricted the ability of users to communicate with people (via messages and wall posts) who are outside of their real-life social networks.What’s more, it’s become clear that Facebook itself is dominated by liberals:

•98% of political donations from Facebook employees went to Barack Obama in the 2008 presidential election.

•Chris Hughes, one of Facebook’s co-founders, headed up Barack Obama’s successful website during the 2008 campaign. In 2009, he was featured on the cover of Fast Company magazine as “The kid who made Obama president: how Facebook cofounder Chris Hughes unleashed Barack’s base — and changed politics and marketing forever.”

•Facebook’s former attorney for privacy issues, Chris Kelly, ran for attorney general of California in 2010 on a far-left platform.

Many Americans and Tea Party organizers are waking up to this liberal culture at Facebook, which was on display at the recent Facebook townhall where Barack Obama and Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg fawned over each other.And speaking of this new a’political philosphy, if Facebook is so all fired dedicated to free speech and staying away from politics, why the heck are they interviewing the POTUS on political issues, and livestreaming it on Facebook anyway?And what happens to all those Congressional owned Facebook accounts? Aren’t they entirely political in nature? Or is it only “organizing” they seem to oppose?Hmmmm........This is why i don't use facebook.Read the full story here.

• Egypt revolution leaves Sinai increasingly lawless.(BBC).Egypt's northern Sinai is a desert region of frequent lawlessness where the Bedouin tribesmen who live have complained of being neglected and oppressed by the central government. Tim Whewell went to find out if anything has changed since Egypt's revolution."This is me with my new Kalashnikov," the young water engineer tells me as we sit by a hotel pool in El-Arish on Egypt's north Sinai coast, clicking through snapshots on his mobile phone. "Before the revolution I never needed one, but now I do. To protect my family. It's getting much more dangerous here." With his slicked-back hair, t-shirt and jeans, Fouad (not his real name) looks like any young, middle-class Egyptian.Like thousands of others he joined the crowds of protesters filling Cairo's Tahrir Square during the revolution that overthrew President Hosni Mubarak in February. But Fouad is not first and foremost an Egyptian. He is Bedouin, belonging to one of the tribes who for centuries have roamed the Sinai peninsula - the pointed tooth of wilderness that separates Africa from Asia. Once the Sinai was a land bridge. According to the Bible, it is where the Children of Israel journeyed on their 40-year trek from Egypt to the Promised Land. But more recently it has been a battleground in Egypt's wars with Israel.The Bedouin have been caught in the middle. And that is one reason, they say, why they have suffered discrimination in Egypt since it regained Sinai from Israeli occupation in 1982 - discrimination that has left them alienated and angry. "If you are Bedouin you can't join the army or the police. You can't apply to be a diplomat," another young man in north Sinai, Ahmed Salama tells me. "Maybe they are suspicious we might have some connections with the Israelis, but we don't." In the final years of President Mubarak's regime, Sinai was the most restive part of Egypt. Policemen were killed in armed clashes with Bedouin as they tried to crack down on the lucrative smuggling routes carrying weapons and building materials into the Gaza Strip, and illegal workers into Israel. Now, he says, it has all changed. Gaza has all the guns it needs, and Hamas can manufacture its own rockets. The market now is internal, within Sinai. "Because of the revolution," he says, "there are no police anymore. And the people won't allow the police to come back until there's an amnesty for Bedouin who've been wrongly prosecuted. So, till then, how can you protect your life? You have to bear arms." Two years ago, in cables later released by Wikileaks, US diplomats reported intelligence from Egypt's spy chief Omar Suleiman that Iran had been trying to recruit Sinai Bedouin to smuggle weapons to Hamas. The reports are hard to verify. Egypt may have had an interest in playing up the threat. But Israel believes the growing lawlessness in Sinai since the revolution can only make it easier for smugglers and terrorists to operate. Even the most prominent Bedouin rights activist, Musaad Abu Fajr, jailed under the old regime, does not dismiss that possibility. The forces that might seek to take advantage of the current instability in Sinai, he says, are Iran, Hamas, Hezbollah - and even al-Qaeda. But he adds: "I wouldn't blame them. I'd blame those in charge of managing Egypt. If they develop Sinai properly, no outside forces will be able to penetrate and do the damage they're doing." Read and see the full story here.

• Iran Tests Nuclear Missile Warhead Design.(Newsmax).Iran has built and tested all the elements of a nuclear weapon design similar to the bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan, in 1945, and is actively working to fit it onto a ballistic missile capable of reaching Israel, nuclear experts told Newsmax this week.The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in Vienna first revealed that Iran had been working on the tried and true nuclear weapons design three years ago. But only last week did the U.N. agency spell out the details of Iran’s nuclear weapons-related work.The tests the IAEA says Iran has carried out “seem logically to be part of a weaponization process,” said Dr. James McNally, a former U.S. nuclear weapons lab researcher. “The Iranians appear to be scoping out what needs to be done to get to their goal.”In a technically-worded section of his May 24 report to the U.N. Security Council, IAEA Director General Yukiya Amano said the Agency “remains concerned about . . . activities related to the development of a nuclear payload for a missile.”The IAEA said the weapon design uses hemispheres of highly-enriched uranium, a design consistent with an implosion device. The agency also has information showing that Iran had conducted “design work and modeling studies involving the removal of the conventional high explosive payload from the warhead of the Shahab-3 missile and replacing it with a spherical nuclear payload.”“I don’t see that as part of a peaceful nuclear program,” McNally told Newsmax in an interview.Iran has displayed its Shahab-3 missiles in public parades draped in English-language banners that read, “Israel Must be Wiped Off the Map.” It developed the missile in the mid-1990s with help from Russia and North Korea, and conducted its first successful test flight in July 1998. Iran claims it has built several hundred of the missiles, which can reach targets up to 1,200 miles, depending on the version.Taken together, the new information from the IAEA shows that Iran has carried out a “cold test” of its nuclear weapons design, former CIA nuclear weapons analyst Dr. Peter Pry told Newsmax.“These are all the components required to do not only a cold test but to actually build a screw-ready nuclear weapon short of having the fuel,” Pry said. “If you master the explosive lenses and the neutron generator, then really all you need is the fuel and the ability to shape the fuel into hemispheres.”Iran has been able to shape uranium into hemispheres for several years, according to earlier IAEA reports. In its latest report, the IAEA said that Iran has conducted “full scale experiments” of the complex high-explosive detonation component of the bomb, “work which may have benefited form the assistance of foreign expertise.”As for nuclear fuel, the latest IAEA report shows that Iran has recovered from the Stuxnet computer worm attack, and has accelerated the production of enriched uranium at its declared centrifuge plant at Natanz.“In constructing any program it is logical to identify each task needed for producing a working nuclear explosive,” McNally told Newsmax. “These steps can be carried out almost independently in order to keep a low profile and hide the proximity to the final nuclear detonation,” he added.Former assistant secretary of State for On-site Verification, Paula Desutter, saw no ambiguity in Iran’s nuclear test program. “That’s weaponization,” she told Newsmax. “There is no other reason to conduct those tests except to prepare a nuclear device.”Most Western intelligence analysts believe Iran has a parallel program and has installed enrichment centrifuges at secret sites it has not declared to the IAEA, using uranium milled from local mines that are not covered by IAEA safeguards.The move from virtual nuclear weapons state to actual nuclear weapons capability “has been authorized by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei,” Kahlili believes.“They have the knowledge, and now they have the materials. The time for speculative argument is over. They are going to have it. They are going to have the bomb,” Kahlili told Newsmax.Hmmmm.....Who's to say that one of these frequent earthquakes in Iran, wasn't an underground nuclear weapon test?Read the full story here.

• "Fall for Das vaterland"?Terrorists Claim German Jihadist Dead in Afghanistan.(Spiegel).A German jihadist has been killed in fighting with US soldiers in Afghanistan, a major terrorist organization in the region is reporting. The man from Essen appears to have been killed only two months after entering into the war-torn country. A propaganda video posted online by the terror group Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan (IMU) this week indicates that another German extremist may have been killed while fighting against NATO troops in Afghanistan. An IMU spokesman says in the eight-minute-long video that "a brother from Essen" lost his life on March 20 during a firefight with US soldiers near Kunduz, the northern Afghanistan base where the German army is stationed. The man was identified as Abdullah -- no last name was given -- and went by the nom du guerre "Miqdaad."The jihadist allegedly arrived in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border area in November 2010 before completing training at a camp in January 2011. Afterwards, he is said to have traveled to northern Afghanistan; the IMU spokesman said it had been Abdullah's wish to attack German soldiers stationed in Kunduz. In a short recording made before his death, "Miqdaad" expressed his pleasure that he was being sent into battle against Germany's armed forces and NATO. In the second part of the video, the spokesman -- Yassin C. of Bonn, who goes by the name "Abu Ibraheem" -- called on Afghans living in Germany to join the battle against "the occupiers." Just on Thursday, a German soldier was killed by an explosive device targeting the Bundeswehr.It was not possible to immediately determine the authenticity of the video on Friday. However, the website where it was found, the manner in which it had been produced, the logos included on the video and the spokesperson shown in the video all seemed to point to its veracity.If the news of the death of the young Essen man is confirmed, he would be added to a list of at least a half-dozen jihadists from Germany who have been killed in Afghanistan and Pakistan. One died while staging a suicide attack, two others were killed by US drones and at least four have been killed in combat with Pakistani or American soldiers. Read the full story here.

• 'Anonymous' hacking group breaks into Iranian government servers and steals more than 10,000 email addresses.(DailyMail).Online activist group Anonymous has hacked into the Iranian government servers and stolen over 10,000 email addresses.A single hacker broke into the Iranian Passport and Visa email centre last week in what has been described as a 'big raid'.The attack brought down the country's Ministry of Foreign Affairs website, which was still inaccessible this afternoon.The email archive accessed mainly consists of approvals, rejections and correspondence for a variety of visa and passport applications, an Iranian member of Anonymous told TheNextWeb.com.The 'hactivist' organisation is now planning to target the upcoming anniversary of Iranian president Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's June 2005 election with a DDoS attack, when a large number of hackers assault a single target.The Anonymous member said: 'It’s near the election’s anniversary. We had to do something.'For the election’s anniversary, we have a complete DDoS attack day.'Anonymous quietly posted a file containing the email addresses online on May 30.However, the file was encrypted and its contents remained unknown until last night.The attack is the latest in a series of high-profile attacks involving the organisation.Sony last month blamed Anonymous for indirectly allowing a hacker to gain access to personal data of more than 100million gamers.Anonymous denied the accusations made by the Japanese electronics firm.But it had declared war on Sony after it claimed the Sony vs George Hotz lawsuit was an attack on free speech and that Sony was abusing customer's rights through its relentless legal assault on the PlayStation 3 jailbreaker.At the time, Hotz had faced a lawsuit from Sony under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act for publishing methods that break the digital protections on the PS3 to allow the use of unauthorised programmes.Anonymous hogged the limelight last year for attacking websites of companies that had refused to offer services to the whistle-blowing website WikiLeaks.The group attacked Amazon and eBay, among others, as a part of its efforts to support WikiLeaks.Hmmmm.....I wonder if they hacked 'the hidden imam' his adress also?Read the full story here.

• Like Isaiah in the Old Testament,Blago Just Wanted To “Get The Rich To Help The Poor”.(JudicialWatch).Chicago—Like Isaiah in the Old Testament, Rod Blagojevich wanted to “get the rich to help the poor” when he offered to send Barack Obama’s close friend (Valerie Jarrett) to the U.S. Senate in exchange for a nonprofit set up by wealthy Democratic donors close to the president.The multi million-dollar charity would promote healthcare for children and “working families” and, of course, Blagojevich and his pals would run it. Instead he got criminally charged with a mountain of felonies, including trying to sell the Illinois senate seat vacated when Obama won the 2008 presidential election. On his fifth day testifying in his corruption retrial, Blagojevich continued blaming his trusted advisers for encouraging him to “leverage” his power as governor to appoint a new senator and insisting that he get “something of substance” from the president-elect in return for appointing Jarrett, who ended up going to the White House as a top aide. Blagojevich testified that he never promised or connected any deals to the senate appointment. In fact, he testified that he was only “venting” when he blasted Obama on a secret FBI recording because he offered only to be “grateful and appreciative” in exchange for Jarrett’s appointment. “F_ _ _ them,” Blagojevich is heard saying on the wire tap. That’s when he devised a plan to get Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, to help set up the healthcare nonprofit by hitting up wealthy Democratic donors like leftwing activist George Soros and investor Warren Buffett for money. To put it all in perspective for the jury, Blagojevich interjected the Isaiah Old Testament analogy. After the lunch break Blagojevich addressed recorded conversations previously played by the prosecution in which he discusses getting “tangible” and “concrete” support “up front” from Jesse Jackson Jr. before considering giving him the senate appointment. Jackson Jr. represents Chicago’s south side in the U.S. House and prosecutors have presented evidence that one of his top donors offered Blagojevich $1.5 million to appoint him senator.Read the full story here.

• Opec hints it could raise oil supplies for first time in four years.(Telegraph).Members of Opec, the oil cartel, are seriously considering raising supply for the first time since 2007 in order to dampen prices that are currently above $100 per barrel.Ahead of a key meeting next week, an Opec official said the world could do with an extra 1m barrels of oil per day to reduce volatility in the market.The 12-member group of oil-producing countries had not been expected to raise output, despite the fact that London prices went above $125 per barrel during tensions in the Middle East.However, a number of officials appear to be increasingly open to a rise in output.Ali Al-Naimi, the Saudi oil minister, said on Thursday that the cartel was prepared to act if necessary. "We have to wait and see the data. If there is a need for an increase, we would decide accordingly," he said.His comments came as oil prices unexpectedly fell below $100 per barrel in the US, as supplies continue to build up and demand has begun to fall.Paul Spedding, an analyst from HSBC, also estimated that speculation had added $30 per barrel to the oil price from October to May.Read the full story here.