MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan 4.8 ! More info here.

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

• Breaking Al Arabiya - “The Free Army of Syria” warns security forces against attacking civilians.MASSACRE IN SYRIA: Some 121 civilians killed.(AlArabiya).Syrian forces killed at least 121 civilians and wounded hundreds in major tank assaults on Hama and other cities that began at dawn on Sunday to crush pro-democracy demonstrations, activists said.“The army and security forces launched an attack on Hama and opened fire on civilians, killing 95 people,” Ammar Qorabi, who heads the National Organization for Human Rights, told AFP.He said that elsewhere, “19 people were killed in Deir Ezzor in the east, six more died in Harak in the south and one in Al Bukamal,” also in the east.Several observers wondered if Mr. Assad was truly in charge of the situation. Some suggested that his brother, Maher, may be leading the assault against pro-democracy protesters. Maher Assad is known for his personal brutality and intolerance of dissent.Reports have suggested that President Assad’s immediate family is in London, including his wife Asma. Mrs. Assad is particularly popular throughout Syria and internationally because of her humanitarian concerns, social work – and her great beauty.While speculation increased Sunday afternoon about her husband’s whereabouts and whether he was still in control of Syria, world condemnation of the Syrian brutality slowly started.The Obama Administration did not directly issue a condemnation from Washington. But a US embassy official in Damascus said on Sunday Syrian authorities had launched a war against their own people by attacking the city of Hama to try to crush pro-democracy demonstrations.The Facebook page of the “Syrian Reveolution Against Bashar Al Assad” posted videos an army unity that has defected in Hama. Another video showed a police station in the city torched down in fighting between defected soldiers and security forces.One of the residents, a doctor, said there were 51 people wounded at Badr hospital alone, which was running short of blood for transfusions. He said tanks had surrounded another main hospital, Al Horani.Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan, once one of Mr. Assad’s main allies, said in May that “we do not want to see another Hama massacre,” and warned the 45-year-old president that it would be hard to contain the consequences if it were repeated.Hmmmm.......Just when Turkey's top brass resigns?Read the full story here.

• "You got to be kidding"?U.S. commanders in Afghanistan concerned about fighting throughout Ramadan and its effect on troop withdrawal.(DailyMail).The top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, who must submit plans for the initial withdrawal of American troops by mid October, has spoken of his concerns about fighting throughout Ramadan.Adm. Mike Mullen, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said commanders are hearing that Taliban leaders may leave their fighters in the country to try to regain lost ground during the Islamic holy period which begins on Monday.Speaking to reporters travelling with him in Afghanistan, Mullen said Marine Gen. John Allen, who has just taken over as top U.S. commander here, needs time to evaluate the combat, training and other requirements before presenting a detailed withdrawal plan.Mullen's comments for the first time laid out a deadline for Allen to structure the planned withdrawal of 10,000 U.S. troops by the end of the year, as announced by Barack Obama.'The next month will be very telling,' said Mullen, noting that often the Taliban leaders will travel back to Pakistan for Ramadan. It's unclear at this point what they will do, or if there will be any decline in the fighting.A Western official said that while Taliban leaders have pushed for an increase in violence through Ramadan, information suggests there will be some spikes but that they don't have the ability to carry off a sustained surge.The official, speaking on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the issue, said some leaders and fighters had already left Afghanistan to cross the border into Pakistan, but it is too soon to tell how many may stay.Mullen said that commanders are seeing some signs of improved security, but his comments came amid a series of spectacular deadly attacks across the south, including a bombing on Sunday outside the main gate of the police headquarters in the southern Afghan city of Lashkar Gah. The suicide bomber killed at least 11 people in a city where Afghans had only recently taken control of security.Hmmmmm.............Read the full story here.

• Moody's: Neither debt plan protects the nation's AAA rating.(TheHill).The "limited magnitude" of both debt plans put forward by congressional leaders would not put the nation's AAA credit rating back on solid footing, Moody's Investors Service announced Friday."Reductions of the magnitude now being proposed, if adopted, would likely lead Moody's to adopt a negative outlook on the AAA rating," the credit rating agency said in a new report. "The chances of a significant improvement in the long-term credit profile of the government coming from deficit reductions of the magnitude proposed in either plan are not high."It added that "prolonged debt ceiling deliberations" have increased the odds of a downgrade, but that the firm is still confident policymakers will avoid a default."It remains our expectation that the government will continue with timely debt service," the firm said.It also clarified that as far as it is concerned, the nation will only default if it misses an interest or principal payment on U.S. debt, not if it misses payments on other obligations like federal employee salaries or Social Security benefits.The report also gives credence to a claim popular among Republicans: that the government has enough cash to avoid a default even past the Aug. 2 deadline set by the Treasury Department."If the debt limit is not raised before August 2, we believe that the Treasury would give priority to debt service payments and could thus postpone a potential debt default for a number of days," it said. "Revenues would be more than adequate for some period of time to meet those payments, although other outlays would be severely reduced as a result."Moody's previously put the nation's top credit rating on watch for a downgrade on July 13, as lawmakers continue to fight over a deal to raise the debt limit.While Moody's is confident it will not have to downgrade the nation's rating because of a default, it maintained that long-term debt and deficit problems will continue to weigh on the AAA mark.As Republicans and the White House fight over the length of a debt limit increase, Moody's said it would not reaffirm the nation's AAA rating unless there is at least a six-month boost to the debt limit.However, if the nation were to default for a short period of time, Moody's said it would knock its credit rating down to AA, under the assumption that the default would be quickly rectified and investor losses would be minimized. However, in the "extremely unlikely" situation that investors do lose on Treasury investments, a lower rating could be given.Read the full story here.

• Air Force Pulls Christian-Themed Ethics Training for Nuclear Missile Officers After Publication of Truthout Report.(BlacklistedNews). The Air Force, in response to an exclusive report published by Truthout earlier this week, has withdrawn materials used in a training session that relied upon passages from the New and Old Testament and a quote from an ex-Nazi SS officer to teach missile officers about the morals and ethics of launching nuclear weapons.The Nuclear Ethics and Nuclear Warfare training "has been taken out of the curriculum and is being reviewed," said David Smith, chief of public affairs of Air Education and Training Command at Randolph Air Force Base in Texas. "The commander reviewed it and decided we needed to have a good hard look at it and make sure it reflected views of modern society."Smith said the ethics training has been in place for "20-plus years" and the decision to remove it was made on Wednesday after Truthout's report was published. He added that it will now be "given thorough scrutiny" and "folks will be appointed to look at what we have and determine its utility and if they think its useful to continue having an ethics course they will develop a new course."The course was led by Air Force chaplains and took place during a missile officer's first week in training at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California. Officers who train to be missileers were required to attend the ethics course, which included a PowerPoint presentation on St. Augustine's "Christian Just War Theory" as well as numerous examples of characters from the New and Old Testament the training materials asserted engaged in warfighting in a "righteous way."St. Augustine's "Qualifications for Just War," according to the way the Air Force characterized it in slides used in the ethics training, are: "to avenge or to avert evil; to protect the innocent and restore moral social order (just cause)" and "to restore moral order; not expand power, not for pride or revenge (just intent)."One of the PowerPoint slides also contained a passage from the Book of Revelation that claims Jesus Christ, as the "mighty warrior," believed some wars to be just.At the conclusion of the ethics training session, missile officers were asked to sign a legal document stating they will not hesitate to launch the nuclear-armed Intercontinental Ballistic Missiles (ICBM) "if lawfully ordered to do so by the President of the United States or his lawful successor."The documents' blatant use of religious imagery and its numerous references to the New and Old Testament would appear to constitute a violation of the First Amendment establishing a wall of separation between church and state.Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity"."Interfaith Dialog Islamic Style"!An Islamic and anti-Christian poster in the middle of Via Dolorosa, the route through the Old City of Jerusalem.(VaticanInsider).It was placed in the middle of Via Dolorosa, the route through the Old City of Jerusalem where thousands of pilgrims pass each day. “Jesus said: I am indeed a servant of Allah, Allah is my Lord and your Lord, so you will pray only Him”. It is written in clear English, preceded by the Shahada, the Islamic profession of Islamic faith, and followed by a reference to the verse of the Koran in question. Next to the figure of a hand with index finger raised, as if in warning, and reference to the web site www.islam-guide.com for those who want to know more.It looks like a regular poster, but the substance is that of a clear provocation against Christians. Because the banner in question did not just pop up anywhere, but in the middle of the Via Dolorosa, the route within the Old City of Jerusalem through which every day thousands of pilgrims retrace the stations of the hill of Jesus up to Calvary, the place of his crucifixion.It has been there for a few days, a "guest" on the railing of one of many homes in the Muslim neighborhood where Via Dolorosa has passed through for centuries. It is located in front of the third station, recalling Jesus first fall along his way to the cross: there is a church here, where Christians alternate each day in prayer before the Eucharist, exposed from day to dusk. This is where Muslims decided to place this banner which bears the isncription “only Allah is to be worshipped”.From Saturday, then, as well as the one on Via Dolorosa there is also another second banner, identical to the first and always inside the Old City. It a little more hidden, but its position is no less sensational: in fact, it is located inside the courtyard of the Mosque of Omar, which is the closest to the basilica of the Holy Sepulcher, only a few tens of meters separate it from the place most revered by Christians.Ironically, this small mosque actually has a history that tells of an important gesture of respect made ​​by a Muslim towards Christians. In fact, when in the year 638 the caliph Omar, the second successor of Muhammad, came to Jerusalem as a conqueror did not accept the invitation of the patriarch Sophronius to enter and pray in the Holy Sepulcher: knowing, in fact, that the gesture would lead to the transformation of the basilica into a Muslim location, Omar stayed outside and for this reason a mosque was built there. Today, however, there is a message of intolerance toward Christians.So therefore, if the news of the mosque in Jordan named after the figure of Jesus spread around the world these days, what is happening in Jerusalem is completely opposite. Recalling how the fact that Jesus is mentioned in the Koran as a prophet is not necessarily an element of encounter between Christians and Muslims. Indeed, often it has been an opportunity for anti-Christian polemic.It should also be added that this is not the first initiative of its kind in the Holy Land: Similar banners have existed in Nazareth for a while, a legacy of controversy which at the end of the nineties arose around the project to build a large mosque next to the Basilica of the Annunciation (the church that commemorates the place where according to tradition, the angel gave Mary the news that she would become the mother of Jesus). That was also a project that was obviously provocative, since Nazareth already has numerous mosques and there was no other reason to build a new one right there. In the end the Israeli authorities revoked the permits and only the banners remained. Now - however - the appearance of the same message right in the heart of the Old City of Jerusalem and on the eve of the beginning of the month of Ramadan is a very worrying sign.Hmmmm.......The 'Religion of Peace"?Read the full story here.

• Iranian woman blinded in acid attack spares man who did it from same fate.(DailyMail).An Iranian woman has valiantly declared that she doesn't want to see 'eye for an eye' justice done towards the man who blinded her in an acid attack.Ameneh Bahrami spared Majid Mohavedi from the same fate that she suffered after he poured liquid on her face, taking her sight, when she turned down his marriage proposal.She had been due to mete out the punishment to him but spared him at the last minute, Iranian media reported today.Miss Bahrami was blinded in 2004 when Mohavedi poured acid onto her face after she spurned his hand in marriage.In 2008, a court sentenced Mohavedi to be blinded in both eyes for taking away Ms Bahrami’s sight, using the principle of retribution permitted under Iran’s Islamic law.'I have been trying for seven years to get the qisas [retribution] sentence, but today I decided to pardon him,' Ms Bahrami was quoted as saying by the ISNA news agency.Tehran prosecutor general Abbas Jafari Dolatabadi praised Ms Bahrami’s move as a 'courageous act', and said the judiciary had until then been determined to carry out the sentence.'Everything was ready for carrying out the qisas on Majid’s eyes, but Ameneh pardoned him on the brink of the execution of the sentence,' Dolatabadi told ISNA.'Ameneh is seeking compensation for other injuries inflicted on her,' he added, but did not give any further details.A lawyer for Mohavedi had previously said his family would have great difficulty in finding the amount of money sought by Mr Bahrami to commute the sentence, as their only asset was a house in Tehran.Hmmmm......To err is human , to forgive divine?Read the full story here.

• Now America warns troops they might not be paid as debt stand-off threatens to plunge world economies back into recession.(DailyMail).American soldiers in Afghanistan have been warned they may not be paid after President Obama failed in an 11th-hour attempt to reach a settlement over the U.S. deficit. In a crisis that has potentially devastating consequences for the world economy, the U.S. will run out of money to pay its bills next Wednesday unless squabbling Washington legislators raise the country's $14.3 trillion (£8.7tn) debt ceiling.Troops fighting in Afghanistan have been told that the Obama administration is expected to make their salaries a lower priority than interest payments to foreign bond-holders.More than $1.2 trillion of America's vast debt is owned by China and another $328bn is owned by UK private investors and pension funds.The Obama administration is expected to continue to pay them next month, along with pensioners.Other social programmes, including medical care for the poor and help for the country's unemployed, also will be fully funded, according to insiders. But that will leave no money to pay federal employees, including troops. America's top military official, Admiral Mike Mullen, delivered the stunning news to soldiers at a meeting at Kandahar air base in southern Afghanistan.Asked if they will be paid if Mr Obama is unable to resolve the deadlock, he said: 'I honestly can't answer that question.'I have confidence that at some point in time, whatever compensation you are owed, you will be given.'Troops will be ordered to continue to work, the admiral said. Economists say the U.S. could be plunged into recession if the Republican-controlled House and the Democratic Senate cannot agree on legislation.After weeks of intense partisanship, the White House and congressional leaders made a desperate, last-minute stab at compromise late on Saturday night to avoid a government default'There is very little time,' declared President Barack Obama.Back-channel talks held the best hope for a compromise.'No one believes this will really happen,' a City financial expert told The Mail on Sunday, 'so no one has thought through the consequences.Even if the U.S. continues to make interest payments to creditors, it will unnerve markets and probably lead to a lowering of its credit rating. 'That means the value of U.S. bonds held by banks will fall and they will have to raise more capital in order to meet their required asset levels and that in turn could force up interest rates, causing a recession.'Senate Democrats killed a bill passed by the Republican-controlled House late on Friday.Democrats opposed it as 'extremist' while Right-wingers said it did not go far enough. And all 43 Republicans in the Senate have signed a letter, saying they will not vote for a rival Democrat plan to raise the debt limit. Mr Obama pleaded for compromise, saying: 'There is very little time.' As the warring continued, Mr Obama was described by The New York Times, as 'largely a bystander'.Hmmmm........If he really wanted to destroy America , would he have done anything different?Read the full story here.

• An Outright Historical Economic Fairy Tale at Whitehouse.gov.(TheVirtuousRepublic).When someone lies to you face, what do you call them? Pathological? All politicians obfuscate, but this President purposefully takes the facts, reorganizes them to suit his needs, and presents them as unchallengeable facts.As evidence, I present this front page post from the White House.When will President Obama become accountable for what happens during his watch and stop blaming Bush? He has been president for nearly 2 1/2 years, yet, his administration puts out charts like this.Notice the inherit dishonesty in this chart. Obama cites “defense and domestic spending” as adding $1.7 trillion to the national debt under Bush. Yet, and let me reiterate, YET, look at the chart closely…there is no listing of “defense and domestic spending” on the Obama side of the ledger. Apparently discretionary spending isn’t spending according to this White House, when it happens under that watch.Another dishonest part of this chart created by the Obama administration is charging the Bush years $1.4 trillion for the Afghan and Iraq wars. Yet, once again, this is absent on the Obama side of the ledger. Did the wars end the day Obama took office? You can’t shift accounts due because it was a policy created by your predecessor. By Obama’s reasoning, he ought to be blaming FDR and LBJ for the deficits caused by Social Security, Medicare, and Medicaid.Not unexpectedly, this isn’t the end of the untruthfulness of this White House posting. Look how Obama labels the Bush drug benefits for seniors as unfunded, Yet (there is that word again), on the Obama side, the Stimulus and the 2010 tax deal, for instance, have no such label. Was the Recovery Act fully paid for? Really?Now for the ultimate act of dishonesty, the Obama White House claims Bush added $7 trillion to our national debt while, while the former parishioner of Reverend Jeremiah Wright is said to have only added $1.7 trillion to the debt. That is 100%, pure, B.S. and it points to a horrible defect that plagues Obama, in that he refuses to take responsibility for his own actions.Obama was inaugurated on January 20th, 2009. He had been a U.S. Senator since January of 2005. The Democrats won full control of the Congress in 2007. And, Obama himself voted for TARP. Thus, the first full month that he was president, was February of 2009. Like every other president in history, he is responsible for what happens under his watch, and more importantly, he and his party, directly influenced, if not controlled much of the spending from 2007, on.Concurrently, Americans should consider that an affront, that their President would fudge the math regarding our fiscal mess. Not only does this show that Obama is not trustworthy, but it highlights the glaring reality that this administration will recolor history, use accounting gimmicks, and juggle the books to make themselves look good, but they absolutely refuse to do anything about the fundamental problem of our out of control spending. It is the message, it is the placing of blame. They will create a post that required hours of inventive math, but this White House will not even put forth a plan to deal with our fiscal mess.Now you know why Boehner walked out on Obama. How do you negotiate with a pathological liar whose desk placard must read the “Buck stopped on January 19th, 2009″.Read and see the full story here.

• Assad the'Reformer'in action - Slaughter in Syria: 45 killed as tanks storm rebel city of Hama.(DailyMail).The Syrian military killed at least 45 civilians in the central city of Hama before dawn today as tank shells slammed into the streets.Residents said they woke up to machine guns being fired at random wounding dozens of people.'Troops entered Hama at dawn today,' a resident told The Associated Press by telephone. 'We woke up to this news, they are firing from their machine guns randomly and there are many casualties.'The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had compiled the names of 13 dead from hospitals and residents in Hama, but the figure could not be independently confirmed.The Syria-based Local Co-ordination Committees said it had the names of four victims, but that there were more bodies that had yet to be identified.The city has been in a state of revolt for the past month.Residents of northern Hama told Reuters that tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute there. They also confirmed deaths in the area.It has been reported that electricity and water supplies had been cut in a tactic regularly used by the army when storming towns to crush demonstrations.The government has blamed armed terrorist gangs for most killings during the revolt but reports suggest the protests have been largely peaceful, with only isolated cases of people arming themselves against the military assault.Most foreign media has been banned from the area making it difficult to verify reports of the fighting. An estimated 1,600 civilians have died in the crackdown on the largely peaceful protests against President Bashar Assad's regime since the uprising began more than four months ago. Most of the dead were killed in shootings by security forces on anti-government rallies.Hmmmmm.......Hillary and Erdogans 'buddy'.Read and see the full story here.More here (Video report).

• Iran holds new hearing for US Hikers a.k.a. 'spy suspects'.(AlYazeera).Two Americans jailed in Iran on charges of espionage could be released after a court hearing in the capital, Tehran, their lawyer said.The hearing began on Sunday for Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, both 29, who were arrested along with Sarah Shourd, 32, on the unmarked border between Iran and Iraq on July 31, 2009.Iran accuses the three of "spying and illegally entering the country".They have denied the charges and said they were only hiking in the semi-autonomous Kurdish region of northern Iraq, near the Iranian border.Dorsa Jabbari, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Tehran, spoke to the lawyer representing the three Americans."He is confident that his clients might be released because there is not enough evidence against them," Jabbari said."Sara Shourd has not been summoned to attend the hearing. Their lawyer believes that this could be a good sign and his clients could be free."Shourd, who is being tried in absentia, returned to the United States following her release on humanitarian and medical grounds in September 2010, for which a bail of about $500,000 was paid."Since the hearing date coincides with the two year anniversary of their arrest, and it is the beginning of the holy month of Ramadan, I am hopeful that this case has a happy ending," their lawyer Masoud Shafii told the AFP news agency on Wednesday, referring to the Muslim fasting month when compassion, the spirit of caring and sharing is advocated."I believe that they are innocent; the espionage charges have no relevance. Even if the court does not accept my defence, the two years they've spent behind bars is punishment enough," he added.Ahead of the new hearing, the families of the detained issued a statement on Friday in New York, and Shourd used her statement to wish Muslims in Iran and everywhere a blessed Ramadan on behalf of the families of the two men."Please, if you could make a little room in your prayers on the eve of Ramadan for my fiancé, my friend and our families, it would mean the world to us," she said.Shourd, who did not attend the February 6 hearing, told AFP in Washington that she will not return to Iran to join the other two in the dock.She said she had sent Iran's revolutionary court a five-page evaluation by a clinical forensic psychologist, who concluded she was at high risk of psychological problems if she returned to face espionage charges.Shafii said he has met Bauer and Fattal only twice, the last time on February 6, 2011 when they appeared in court for the first hearing."I still have not met them (for) the lawyer-client meeting that I have requested. They told me that they will inform me and I am still pursuing it," he said.The US government has appealed for the two men to be released, insisting that they have done nothing wrong.Iran and the US have no direct diplomatic relations, so Washington has been relying on an interests section at the Swiss embassy to follow the case.Hmmmm.........Read the full story here.

• UK - Muslim teenagers sprayed burka onto scantily-clad models because they offended their religion.(DailyMail).Two Muslim teenagers have admitted defacing advertising hoardings featuring scantily-clad models and painting a 'burka' over them because they offended their religious views.Mohammed Hasnath and Muhammed Tahir, both 18, used black paint to cover up the picture of a female model on a hoarding advertising Lynx deodorant. The duo proceeded to paint over the faces on several other advertisements around London's East End, claiming it was a 'sin' for them to be uncovered. The youths, who represented themselves, had both denied initial charges of religious aggravated criminal damage.However, they both pleaded guilty to six counts of criminal damage when they appeared at Thames Magistrates Court in east London. Taiwo Akinrowo, prosecuting, told the court: 'On the morning of February 26th this year a member of the public called the police because they had seen three males damaging the bus shelters. 'One of the males was seen to paint on the female angel in the advert for Lynx. On the other side was an advert for the film 'Drive Angry' and this male was seen to paint on the female image next to Nicholas Cage. 'Police were called and began to monitor the males and they saw them walking along Whitechapel Road towards Osborne Street where they then used the paint on the window of the Money Shop on the faces of the females. 'The police officers arrived and the defendants ran away. They were then stopped by police, arrested and interviewed and they gave full and frank admissions as to what they had done. 'They told them that the way the women had been photographed was against their religion and they said it was a sin in Islam for a male to look twice at a woman who is not covered. 'If a man looks at a woman the first time it could be accidental, but if they look again it is a sin and they did not want children and other people seeing the image of these woman who were not covered. 'Consequently they began to paint over burkas around the faces of the women. When arrested, Mr Hasnath's clothes were covered in black paint and they also had the brushes on them.Referring to the fact that the charges were originally religious aggravated criminal damage, Hasnath told the court: 'We don't have anything against anyone. 'We have black friends, white friends and Chinese friends. We are not racist. 'The pictures - that is someone's daughter. If someone was to look at our wife or mother or daughter with a bad intention we would not like it so we were just trying to do good.' Hasnath, of Poplar, and Tahir, of Tower Hamlets, both east London, were both ordered to pay costs of £283 each and were each released on a 12 month conditional discharge. A third defendant, Abdul Hakim Langaigne, 24, of Thamesmead, south east London, who was also charged with six counts of criminal damage, failed to appear in court. A warrant was issued for his arrest.Read the full story here.

• UK - What has become of the  'moderate' Muslims?Probe into secretive Sharia law courts scrapped as Muslim leaders close ranks.(DailyMail).Ministers have abandoned an inquiry into the rise of secretive Sharia councils that deal in Islamic justice – because the Muslim courts refused to help.The failure of the Ministry of Justice probe has generated new fears among politicians and pressure groups about the increasing influence of Sharia courts. They are worried the courts' decisions may run against the law of the land, particularly in divorce settlements for women.The scrapping of the inquiry comes in a week when Islamic extremists have launched a campaign to declare 'Sharia-controlled zones' across Britain.Hate preacher Anjem Choudary has claimed responsibility for the scheme, which has so far seen posters put on lampposts in several London boroughs declaring that within the 'zones' there should be 'no gambling', 'no music or concerts', 'no porn or prostitution', 'no drugs or smoking' and 'no alcohol'.The Daily Mail has previously published photographs of Choudary in his student days breaking all but one of the zone laws – holding a cannabis joint, downing a pint of cider, playing cards and leering at porn.But the abandonment of the Government's Sharia inquiry has fuelled fears that such radicals will be able to continue their intimidating activities unchecked. The Ministry of Justice had launched an inquiry into the operation of Sharia courts in Britain because of rising fears that the secretive system has undue influence. The number of Sharia courts here is unknown, although an estimate of 85 made by the Civitas think-tank in 2009 is widely accepted.The failure of the Government's investigation was disclosed to MPs by Justice Minister Jonathan Djanogly.He told Tory backbencher Kris Hopkins that before last year's general election his department acted to 'commission an exploratory study of Sharia councils in England with respect to family law'.Mr Djanogly said: 'This identified a number of challenges to undertaking robust research in this area. The study was therefore limited and adds little to the evidence base. 'The findings cannot be regarded as a representative assessment of the operation of Sharia councils. Following expert peer review of the draft report, the Ministry of Justice decided not to publish the findings.'A further statement to the Mail made it clear the 'challenges' researchers experienced boiled down to the Sharia courts failing to co-operate.The Ministry of Justice said: 'The report was essentially an exploratory study which identified a number of challenges to undertaking more robust research. 'The challenges to undertaking more robust research were that the councils are generally run on a volunteer basis, were short staffed and very busy, so there were practical difficulties in speaking with respondents. 'There was also reluctance to discuss the private work of the councils and respondents were wary of the stereotypical ways in which their organisations were represented in the media.' Sharia law is also under scrutiny in the Lords, where the independent peer Baroness Cox has tabled a Bill seeking to make it a crime for anyone to take over the rights of the state's criminal or family courts.Hmmmm.......welcome to "Londonistan".Read the full story here.

• EU: Jihadist calls for tourist Jihad,and attacks on Belgiums.(IslamInEurope).Via De Telegraaf and Standaard (Dutch): Jihadist Abu Suleiman al-Nasser wrote on the Shumukh al-Islam forum that Muslims should go to Europe posing as tourists in order to murder Europeans. Al-Nasser wrote on the site that Muslims should buy a sharp knife when they're in Europe. "You could murder more than a hundred people. Walk about and choose your victims." He wrote that Geert Wilders is an ideal victim. "He looks like a fat calf."Meanwhile, the American intelligence website SITE reports that Jihadists are calling for attacks on Belgium and Belgians in retaliation for the recently enacted burqa-ban. According to one Jihadist: "If you have the freedom to make such decisions, then you must also accept our freedom to take action. I call our Muslim brothers in Belgium to do what they can: bomb them, destroy them, torture and murder them."Read the full story here.

• 'Iran to deploy submarines in intl. waters on 90-day mission'.(Mehr). TEHRAN, – Iran plans to dispatch submarines to international waters on a 90-day mission, Navy Commander Habibollah Sayyari said on Saturday. Sayyari said he told the Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution during his recent visit to Bandar Abbas, in southern Iran, that the Navy is ready to send submarines to the international waters on a 90-day mission.He also pointed to the domestically-manufactured Yunis submarine, which has recently accomplished its 67-day mission to the international waters, saying the submarine set a new record.The Yunis submarine was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden and the Red Sea in order to gather data on those areas.Hmmmmm.........Read the full story here.

• PA workers threaten strike.(YNet).Public servants in West Bank claim they have not received full salaries, threaten to start strike on Tuesday.Bassam Zakharna, the Palestinian Authority's workers union chairman announced Sunday that the public sector at the West Bank will open an indefinite general strike on Tuesday to protest the delay of pay. Zakharna announced that the union is suspending talks with the government claiming that the Treasury had stopped updating the union about the salary crisis. "It's a fabricated crisis and the government's policy is meant to frustrate the workers," he said. The step comes amid an acute financial crisis in the West Bank. PA workers are under immense pressure at this time of year as the Ramadan fast sets in Sunday night. Muslims will mark Eid al-Fitr at the end of August. Households spend more on food during this time of time prompting outrage over the delay of salaries. The financial crisis has also prompted an Arab League meeting. Palestinian Prime Minister Salam Fayyad has repeatedly urged Arab states to assist the PA in light of its financial crisis. This is the second time the PA has delayed pay for public servants.Hmmmm....On the other hand the more money they receive from the West ....the lower their GDP?Read the full story here.

• The Islamist Attaturk Erdogan's and Turkey's future?(DocsTalk).By J.E. Dyer.More than 40 military officers are currently being held on charges of being involved in the conspiracy. It’s hard to pinpoint what the generals’ intentions are with their mass resignation. They are too old and experienced to believe that they would be currying popular support by perpetrating a dramatic action. They can’t expect their resignation to put popular pressure on Erdogan, who just won reelection with a healthy majority of the seats in Turkey’s parliament.The alternative possibilities are that they have simply given up, and decided to spend their golden years doing something else (perhaps outside of Turkey), or that they are organizing to confront Erdogan.The likeliest possibility is that they are giving up, or rather getting out of the way.Erdogan has the backing of everyone from the EU and the US to Iran and Saudi Arabia. Not to mention the bigoted and racist Turkish public. He has shown himself to be a strong leader. And he is throwing in enough neo-Ottomanism to sweeten the pot.The adamant secularism that seemed to mean so much is over. The idea that you can't be a powerful Muslim state has been drowned in gallons of oil money and Western terror appeasement. The process took longer than it did in Egypt, where Islamic mores dominated long before Tahrir Square got around to toppling the last military officers and secularism was a distant memory outside of the circles of the rich. But it's still done.Ataturk is dead. Turkish Islamists will remember Erdogan as the Islamic Ataturk, who did for Turkish Islamism what Ataturk did for Turkish secularism.The real threat on the horizon for the Islamists isn't the military, which exists only as a punching bag and a scapegoat for European Turkish experts. It's Kurdish nationalism, which is still the ticking time bomb.Tensions in Syria and Iraq are feeding Kurdish nationalistic dreams. And while the US and EU continue to look away from Erdogan's racist brutalization of the Kurds, the dismantling of the Turkish military makes a civil war more likely. Not less.The loss of the upper ranks of the Turkish military and their replacement by Islamist cronies, combined with the growing shift away from the United States, means a weaker and less competent military. A military that's sufficient to murder a few Kurdish teenage girls, but might not fare as well against a full uprising. Or a full scale invasion of Kurdistan.Hmmmm.......The Kurds won't go as easy as the Armenians.Read the full story here.