MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Tonga 5.3 and Fiji 5.1 ! More info here.

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

• Iran gives US Hikers eight-year sentences for spying, entering the country illegally.(Msnbc).U.S. citizens Shane Bauer and Josh Fattal, detained in Iran for more than two years, have been found guilty of spying and given sentences of eight years each, Iranian state TV reported Saturday. "In connection with illegal entry into Iranian territory each was given three years in jail and in connection with the charge of cooperating with American intelligence service, each was given five years in jail," the IRINN website reported, quoting an informed judiciary source. They say they were hiking in the mountains of northern Iraq and, if they crossed the unmarked border into Iran, it was by mistake. Bauer and Fattal, both 29, have been held in Iran's Evin Prison since shortly after their arrest along the border with Iraq exactly two years ago on Sunday. It's not clear if the eight year jail sentence will include the time they have already served.The case has added to tensions between the United States and Iran that were already high over issues like Tehran's disputed nuclear program. The Americans' lawyer, Masoud Shafiei, had hoped that the two men who be immediately released after the final court hearing at the end of July, because it coincided with the two-year anniversary of their arrest and came near the start this week of the holy Muslim month of Ramadan, when pardons are traditionally handed down. Shariei said on July 31 that he was hopeful that, even if found guilty, they would be sentenced to time already served and released. The two have 20 days to appeal their sentence, NBC's Ali Arouzi reported Saturday.Bauer's fiance, Sarah Shourd, was arrested with them on July 31, 2009, but was released in September of last year on $500,000 bail. She did not return to Iran for the rest of the trial, but Shafiei said he delivered a defense for her as well. The Americans say they were only hiking in a scenic and largely peaceful area of northern Iraq near the Iranian border.While other parts of Iraq remain troubled by violence, the semiautonomous Kurdistan region has drawn tourists in recent years, including foreign visitors, to its scenic mountains. Speaking on July 31, Shafiei insisted the authorities have no evidence to prove espionage, and he pointed out the area where they were detained has a porous border. "The espionage charge is irrelevant, and the charge of illegal entry is inconsistent with the facts. There was no clear border line and my clients are not guilty. I've provided a sufficient defense," he said. The U.S. government has appealed for the two men to be released, insisting that they have done nothing wrong. The two countries have no direct diplomatic relations, so Washington has been relying on an interests section at the Swiss Embassy in Tehran to follow the case. Shourd, now 32, and Bauer got engaged in prison before she was released on what Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said were humanitarian grounds following health issues. Shourd told the New York Times last November that they stepped off an unmarked dirt road, inadvertently crossing from Iraq into Iran only because a border guard of unknown nationality gestured for them to approach. She said they had no idea they were so close to the border. Hmmmmm.......This won't be a 'Marthas Vineyard' holiday stay, sleepwell Mr President!Read the full story here.

• US troops may stay in Afghanistan until 2024.(Blacklistednews).(Source:Telegraph)The agreement would allow not only military trainers to stay to build up the Afghan army and police, but also American special forces soldiers and air power to remain.The prospect of such a deal has already been met with anger among Afghanistan’s neighbours including, publicly, Iran and, privately, Pakistan.It also risks being rejected by the Taliban and derailing any attempt to coax them to the negotiating table, according to one senior member of Hamid Karzai’s peace council.A withdrawal of American troops has already begun following an agreement to hand over security for the country to Kabul by the end of 2014.But Afghans wary of being abandoned are keen to lock America into a longer partnership after the deadline. Many analysts also believe the American military would like to retain a presence close to Pakistan, Iran and China. Both Afghan and American officials said that they hoped to sign the pact before the Bonn Conference on Afghanistan in December. Barack Obama and Hamid Karzai agreed last week to escalate the negotiations and their national security advisers will meet in Washington in September.Rangin Dadfar Spanta, Mr Karzai’s top security adviser, told The Daily Telegraph that “remarkable progress” had been made. US officials have said they would be disappointed if a deal could not be reached by December and that the majority of small print had been agreed.Dr Spanta said a longer-term presence was crucial not only to build Afghan forces, but also to fight terrorism.“If [the Americans] provide us weapons and equipment, they need facilities to bring that equipment,” he said. “If they train our police and soldiers, then those trainers will not be 10 or 20, they will be thousands.“We know we will be confronted with international terrorists. 2014, is not the end of international terrorist networks and we have a common commitment to fight them. For this purpose also, the US needs facilities.”Afghan forces would still need support from US fighter aircraft and helicopters, he predicted. In the past, Washington officials have estimated a total of 25,000 troops may be needed.Dr Spanta added: “In the Afghan proposal we are talking about 10 years from 2014, but this is under discussion.” America would not be granted its own bases, and would be a guest on Afghan bases, he said. Pakistan and Iran were also deeply opposed to the deal.Andrey Avetisyan, Russian ambassador to Kabul, said: “Afghanistan needs many other things apart from the permanent military presence of some countries. It needs economic help and it needs peace. Military bases are not a tool for peace.“I don’t understand why such bases are needed. If the job is done, if terrorism is defeated and peace and stability is brought back, then why would you need bases?“If the job is not done, then several thousand troops, even special forces, will not be able to do the job that 150,000 troops couldn’t do. It is not possible.”A complete withdrawal of foreign troops has been a precondition for any Taliban negotiations with Mr Karzai’s government and the deal would wreck the currently distant prospect of a negotiated peace, Mr Avetisyan said.Abdul Hakim Mujahid, deputy leader of the peace council set up by Mr Karzai to seek a settlement, said he suspected the Taliban had intensified their insurgency in response to the prospect of the pact. “They want to put pressure on the world community and Afghan government,” he said.Read the full story here.

• Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer: Obama Acts Like He’s A “King That As Above The Law” On Immigration.(Newsmax).Republicans are attacking President Barack Obama for acting like a “king that is above the law” in deciding to pick and choose which illegal aliens to deport.“The Obama administration cannot get its amnesty schemes through Congress, so now it has resorted to implementing its plans via executive fiat,” said Arizona Gov. Jan Brewer.“We need to remind President Obama that we elected a president that serves beneath the law and did not anoint a king that is above the law.”Joining her criticisms were two other border-state Republicans, Reps. Michael McCaul and Lamar Smith of Texas.“It’s just the latest attempt by this president to bypass the intended legislative process when he does not get his way,” McCaul said.Smith said, “The Obama administration should enforce immigration laws, not look for ways to ignore them.”And Florida Rep. Allen West jumped into the fray, too, calling for a House investigation into the guidelines. In an exclusive interview with Newsmax.TV, he accused Obama of “shredding the Constitution” with the new guidelines. “It is a form of amnesty and it does go against our Constitution and it very much concerns me because now we are rewarding people for an illegal activity,” he said.“Think about the strain that is going to come on the types of services and things that we have to provide,” West added, saying aliens are getting a free pass.Hmmmm......More like Acting as an totalitarian  Emperor on everything.Read the full story here.

• Christian Genocide in Somalia.(Aina).The Islamist terrorist group al Shabab is intentionally starving Somali Christians in territory it controls. It's just the latest incident in the terror group's systematic efforts to eradicate all of Somalia's Christians.According to the International Christian Concern (ICC), al Shabab's intentional denial of humanitarian aid has resulted in the deliberate starvation of 18 Christians in the Somali cities of Afgoye, Baidawa, and Kismayo. As ICC spokesman Jonathan Racho said, "Any Somali that is suspected of being a Christian, or a friend of a Christian, does not receive any food aid."Unfortunately, the ongoing and purposeful elimination of the small Somali Christian community at the hands of al Shabab has gone largely unrecognized and unreported, eclipsed by the other horrors of rape, torture and murder perpetrated upon most of Somalia's Muslim population by the Islamist terrorist group.It goes without saying that al Shabab's brutality has been well documented, most recently in a report issued by Human Rights Watch, which found the terror group continuing to carry out public beheadings and floggings; forced recruitment of children into its forces; and the denial of humanitarian assistance to the 2.2 million starving Somalis in al Shabab-controlled territory.So, it shouldn't surprise that al Shabab, which has openly professed its intention to rid Somalia of a Christian presence, is focusing its particular brand of barbarity on Somali Christians. After all, this is the same group that in August 2010 banned three Christian Aid Groups that it stated were "acting as missionaries under the guise of humanitarian work" while at the same time spreading what they termed as "corrupted ideologies in order to taint the pure creed of the Muslims in Somalia."In a disturbing report gathered from Open Doors, a British-based Christian aid organization, Somali Christians gather secretly at pre-arranged meeting places to worship. According to the report, "These believers dare not meet for longer than three hours. Careful not to leave any tracks, they abandon the meeting place separately at intervals…When caught with a Bible, Christians face certain death."One of these underground believers said, "We know that anyone suspected of being a Christian will be tortured or even killed. So we pray secretly. We have prayed in mosque prayer rooms but despite our precautions many of our friends have been killed. We now live in fear." Another Christian said he converted from Islam and told his family who then kept him in a dark room for 13 days without food until his mother begged the father to let him go.One truly horrifying incident occurred in December 2010, when a 17-year-old girl who converted to Christianity was shot to death by relatives. The young girl had escaped her village after her parents had shackled her to a tree and tortured her for leaving Islam Yet, while persecution has been the norm for Somali Christians, al Shabab has taken it to a whole new and brutally disturbing level.

In 2008, al Shabab members sliced the head off of Mansuur Mohammed, a 25 year-old convert to Christianity. According to witnesses, the insurgents took a video of the slaughter and circulated it in Somalia purportedly to instill fear among those contemplating conversion from Islam to Christianity.

In July 2009, al Shabab beheaded seven prisoners it accused of abandoning the Muslim faith;

in August 2009 four Somali Christian women working for an NGO orphanage were beheaded after refusing to renounce their faith;

and in July 2009 a 40-year-old Christian mother of 10 and her 23-year-old daughter, who was six months pregnant at the time, were both raped and held captive for five days before the terrorists left them for dead.

In July 2010, Muhammad Guul Hashim Idiris, a Christian convert from Islam, was taken by al Shabab members to a makeshift soccer stadium, attended by hundreds, and executed. A statement from Sheik Adan Yare, the al Shabab governor of the Bakol region, read: "Our holy warriors have today…executed in front of angry Muslim witnesses a young man who insulted our beloved prophet."

In September 2010 al Shabab members broke into the home of Osman Abdullah Fataho, an active participant in the underground Christian community, and shot him dead in front of his wife and four children. The terrorists then took Fataho's children as recruits to be trained as child soldiers in its organization.

In January 2011 insurgents slit the throat of Asha Mberwa, a recent convert to Christianity and mother of four; in March 2011 al Shabab insurgents shot Madobe Abdi to death. Abdi's alleged crime was not that he was a convert from Islam but rather was an orphan raised as a Christian.

Finally, in May 2011 militants shot and killed Yusuf Ali Nur on suspicion he was a Christian as well as killing 21-year old Christian convert Hassan Adawe Adan, dragging Adan outside and shooting him several times before shouting Allahu Akbar (“God is great”).Yet, while al Shabab has worked fervently to kill all of Somalia's Christians, the terror group has other avenues by which it hopes to wipe all vestiges of Christianity's presence from Somalia.For example, in April 2010 al Shabab outlawed school teachers using bells to signal the beginning of class because "Christian churches also sound bells." According to an al Shabab spokesman, Sheik Farah Kalar, "All schools must stop using the bell to summon students; otherwise they will face punishment."Most recently, al Shabab instituted a ban on Samosas, a popular Somali food staple, from its territory because the pastry is fried in a triangular shape that looks suspiciously similar to the Christian Holy Trinity symbol.So, tragically, the news that al Shabab is now using the current famine in Somalia to deliberately kill Somali Christians isn't very astonishing. Rather, what truly is amazing is that there are still Christians left alive in that ravaged country in which to be killed.Hmmmm......These are the Somali 'people' Turkish PM Erdogan and wife went to visit and help yesterday, i wonder if a single Christian received anything at all?Read the full story here.

• Arab League to hold meeting on Gaza.(YNet).The Arab League announced Saturday that it has called an emergency session over the Israeli airstrikes on Gaza Strip, to be held on noon Sunday. League spokesman Mahmoud Abdel Aziz said that "The Arab League received a request from the Palestinian state… and after negotiations it decided to host an urgent meeting on the level of the permanent representatives."Earlier Saturday, the Palestinian Ma'an news agency reported the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas plans to appeal to the United Nations' Security Council and ask that it too call an emergency meeting over Israel's strikes in Gaza. IAF aircrafts have mounted several strikes on terror hubs and smuggling tunnels in Gaza Strip since Thursday.The action was taken in retaliation to a series of deadly terror attacks by Gaza-based terrorists, as well as incessant rocket fire on Israel. On Friday, Hamas' military wing, the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades, announced its ceasefire with Israel was null and void.Read the full story here.

• Related - Egypt withdraws ambassador from Israel while Arab League plans urgent meeting.(AlArabiya).Earlier on Saturday, Egypt recalled its ambassador from Israel to protest the deaths of at least three Egyptian troops killed in a shootout between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian militants who had launched a deadly attack on Israel from Egyptian soil.The decision sharply escalated tensions between the neighboring countries, whose 1979 peace treaty is being tested by the fall of Egypt’s longtime autocratic leader, Hosni Mubarak.Egypt’s interim government accused Israel of violating that treaty and said the envoy would be withdrawn until Israel concludes its investigation into the Egyptian security forces’ deaths. Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman Yigal Palmor said the Israeli government was holding consultations on the Egyptian move. He had no further comment.The Cabinet, which was appointed by the ruling military council that took over power after Mubarak’s ouster, revised an earlier statement saying the envoy, Yasser Reda, would be summoned for consultation - something that would have signaled a lower-level spat. Israel was likely to see that as a worrisome sign that Egypt’s new leaders would be more responsive to public opinion about the Jewish state, which remains overwhelmingly unpopular because of its conflict with the Palestinians.The cross-border attack has also reinforced Israeli fears that the leaders of post-Mubarak Egypt would not assert control over the increasingly lawless Sinai Peninsula, whose porous borders with both Israel and the Hamas-ruled Gaza Strip make it an attractive staging ground for Palestinian militant attacks on Israel. Israel says Gaza militants armed with guns, explosives, mortars and an anti-tank missile, killed eight Israelis in a roadside ambush on Thursday after infiltrating Israel through Sinai.The ambush also has threatened to stoke the Mideast conflict as retaliatory violence between Israel and Gaza militants spiked. Israeli airstrikes killed at least 12 Palestinians, most of them militants, Friday in Gaza, and nine Israelis were wounded by Palestinian rockets fired into southern Israel.On Saturday, one of those rockets struck three Palestinians who were illegally residing in Israel, injuring two of them seriously, police said.The Egyptian troops were killed as Israeli soldiers went after suspected Palestinian militants involved in Thursday’s deadly attack.Israel has offered conflicting accounts about how the Egyptians were killed and the Israeli military has promised an investigation. But the Egyptian Cabinet, in a strongly worded statement, held Israel “politically and legally responsible for this incident,” saying lax security on its side allowed the ambush to take place.“The Egyptian ambassador to Israel will be withdrawn until we are notified about the results of an investigation by the Israeli authorities,” the Cabinet statement said, demanding an immediate probe.It said Egypt would take all measures and send reinforcements to protect its borders and “to respond to any Israeli military activity at the Egyptian borders.”It was the first time in nearly 11 years that Egypt decided to withdraw its ambassador from Israel. The last time was in November 2000 when the Egyptians protested what they called excessive use of violence during the second Palestinian uprising.The decision to withdraw Reda was announced as hundreds of protesters gathered outside the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, demanding the expulsion of the Israeli envoy. A Palestinian flag was unfurled at the site, and some of the demonstrators threw firecrackers at the building.Mohammed Adel, a leader of the protests that toppled Mubarak, welcomed the Cabinet decision, saying, “It proves to all that the Egyptian revolution is capable of imposing its rules on the Israeli enemy.”The clamor against Israel also spilled into the political arena.“Israel and any other (country) must understand that the day our sons get killed without a strong and an appropriate response, is gone and will not come back,” declared Amr Moussa, a former Arab League chief and now an Egyptian presidential hopeful. He tweeted his statement along with, “the blood of our martyrs which was spilled while carrying out their duties, will not be shed in vain.”An Israeli military officer, speaking on condition of anonymity in line with military regulations, initially said a suicide bomber, not Israeli soldiers, killed the Egyptian security forces. He said the attacker had fled back across the border into Egypt and detonated his explosives among the Egyptian troops.Israeli media also reported that some of the sniper fire directed at the Israeli motorists Thursday came from near Egyptian army posts and speculated that the Egyptian troops were killed in the cross fire.It was not possible to reconcile the different versions.Although Egypt’s new leaders have asserted their commitment to the landmark peace treaty with the Jewish state, Israel has worried that a regime more hostile to it would emerge in post-Mubarak Egypt.While relations between the two countries have been chilly since Egypt became the first Arab nation to make peace with Israel in 1979, Israel valued Mubarak as a source of stability with shared interests in containing Iran and its radical Islamic proxies in the region - including the Hamas militant group that rules Gaza.Israel fears that Egypt’s political upheaval and the resulting power vacuum in Sinai will open dangerous new opportunities for Gaza militants to open a new front against it along the Sinai frontier. While keeping up sporadic rocket attacks against Israel, Gaza militants have refrained from large-scale attacks since Israel conducted a punishing three-week war against them two-and-a-half years ago.Hamas praised the attacks Thursday but denied any involvement. Israel accused a Hamas-allied group, the Popular Resistance Committees, of carrying out the ambush, but holds Hamas responsible for all violence coming from the Palestinian territory.Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu visited some of the wounded in the hospital Friday. “We killed the head of the group that sent the terrorists, but this is just an initial response,” he said. “We have a policy to extract a very heavy price from those that attack us and that policy is being implemented in the field.”Read the full story here.

• Lebanon prevents UN condemnation of terror attack.(YNet).WASHINGTON – Murder of Israelis permitted? Lebanon, which is currently a member of the United Nations Security Council, prevented early Saturday a condemnation of the recent terror offensive in southern Israel. Israel’s UN Ambassador Ron Prosor expressed his disappointment with Beirut’s move, noting that Lebanon is itself “a state controlled by a terrorist organization.” The UN envoy said that the latest fiasco proved that the UN has become “blind and deaf” when it comes to condemning terror attacks against Israeli citizens. “The Security Council’s silence is deafening,” Prosor said.A draft proposal for a presidential statement was distributed to the Security Council’s 15 members Thursday. The United States, Europe and India vigorously supported a harsh UN denunciation of the murderous attack in Israel, yet the Arab representative in the Council, Lebanon, announced Friday that it will endorse such censure only if it is “balanced” with a condemnation of Israel’s retaliatory strikes in the Gaza Strip.Europe, the US and Israel rejected the Lebanese equation, in essence burying the condemnation and demonstrating yet again that the UN is unable to address some of the most vital issues on its agenda.Referring to the UN failure to condemn the terror offensive, Ambassador Prosor said that “we are dealing with a blatantly clear terror attack against innocent Israeli civilians.”“The UN secretary general condemned it, the Americans condemned it, the European Union condemned it, yet the bottom line is that the Security Council again failed as a body,” he said. “Every time an issue pertains to Israel, we see deafening silence. They become blind and deaf.” While the UN refrained from condemning Thursday’s string of terror attacks in Israel, which left eight people dead, Palestinian spokesmen were quick to issue scathing condemnations of Israel’s retaliatory operations in the Gaza Strip. On Friday, Senior Fatah official Nabil Shaath accused Israel of committing war crimes in the Strip and seeking to escalate regional tensions."Israel's madness will not deter the Palestinian leadership from appealing to the UN,” he said. In a press release, Shaath alleged that Israel was looking for an excuse to impose collective punishment against the Palestinian people, saying: "This is a war crime.” Later Friday, Hamas’ military wing also condemned what it referred to as an Israeli “massacre,” announcing that the lull which prevailed in the Gaza region for the last few months is now over.Read the full story here.

• Syrian tanks roll into Homs; security forces kill at least 33 protesters across country.(AlArabiya).Tanks rumbled into the central city of Homs at dawn Saturday, a day after security forces killed at least 33 anti-regime protesters across Syria, adding urgency to a UN mission expected this weekend.“Several tanks took up positions at dawn in the district of Al-Khalidiyeh” in the central city of Homs, Rami Abdel Rahman, head of the Britain-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, told AFP.“Throughout the night and this morning shots were heard from Al-Khalidiyeh to Baba Amr and Inshaat,” he added, referring to two other central locations in the city.Regime forces were also conducting arrests in the city of Latakia early Saturday, the Observatory said, adding that many of those picked up were minors.According to the rights advocacy group the death toll from Friday's crackdown on protesters rose to 33, including 15 people who were killed in the southern province of Daraa where 25 others were also wounded.It said security forces had also killed 15 civilians in the central province of Homs, including five in the flashpoint neighbourhood of Al-Khalidiyeh.Three protesters were also shot dead on Friday in the Damascus suburbs of Harasta and Douma, the Observatory said.The United Nations said that a UN humanitarian mission would visit Syria this weekend to witness the effects of the crackdown on protesters.UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Navi Pillay told the Security Council on Thursday there was “reliable corroborative evidence” that Syrian forces are deliberately shooting anti-regime demonstrators.Pillay also said in an interview with France 24 television that her body had drawn up a list of 50 Syrians in senior positions that she said were responsible for violent repression.The civilian death toll from the security force crackdown on the protests has now passed 2,000, UN Under Secretary General B. Lynn Pascoe also told the Security Council on Thursday.On Friday the Observatory reported that 20,000 people had marched in Al-Khalidiyeh alone on a day of protest demanding the fall of Assad's autocratic regime.People poured into the streets of major towns as they emerged from Friday prayers, with the largest anti-regime demonstration reported in Homs.Friday's rallies put to the test a commitment given by embattled Syrian President Bashar al-Assad to UN chief Ban Ki-moon the previous day that his security forces have ended operations against civilians.On the political front, a group of “revolutionary blocs” announced Friday the formation of a coalition called Syrian Revolution General Commission, vowing to bring down the regime.It said the coalition of 44 groups was set up due to “the dire need to unite the field, media and political efforts” of the pro-democracy movement.Meanwhile, the European Union added 20 new names to a list of Syrian individuals and businesses hit with sanctions, with a deal also now close for a ban on oil imports.European nations buy most of Syria's oil exports, which amounted to some 148,000 barrels a day in 2009, according to the US Energy Information Administration.Hmmmmm.......Meanwhile 'buddy' Erdogan keeps covering for Assad and Iran, while slaying Kurds.Read the full story here.

• Turkey bombed Kurdish civilian areas.(Firat).The Ministry of Peshmerga (Kurdish fighters) of the autonomous region of Kurdistan has denounced the bombing of "civilian areas" by the Turkish Air Force since Wednesday, while committed to exercise its right of self-defense in case of attack against the Kurdish region. The Kurds in Turkey tomorrow form a human shield on the border to protest against the bombing."Above all, the bombing of the territory of Kurdistan is illegitimate," said Jabbar Yawar, the Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga, in an interview Friday, August 19 Kurdish Diha to the agency, based in Turkey.The Turkish air force and artillery shelling since Aug. 17 areas under the control of the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK), which are also hundreds of villages far from the positions of the guerrillas.PKK areas extend for hundreds of miles between Turkey, Iran and Iraq, covering seven areas: Qandil, Metin, Zap, Xakurke, Xinere, Haftanin and Zagros. The guerrillas have no fixed camps, and most of PKK fighters are inside the Turkish border.Turkey has launched 25 cross-border land operations against the PKK, which premiered in 1983 and the last in February 2008. The goal of each operation was the final liquidation of the PKK, but this armed organization, which is considered a "terrorist" group by many countries, has emerged stronger after each ground, winning the sympathy of millions of Kurds in all parts of Kurdistan and Europe.Turkish planes bombed 28 targets and artillery pounded 96 others in the region during the attacks Thursday, according to the Turkish military authorities, who claim to be "attention to the protection of civilians." The Turkish army said it had struck 60 goals on Wednesday night by aircraft and 168 others by artillery.

"There are several villages in the bombed areas and the inhabitants of those villages are civilian," said senior Kurdish. "The attacks result in the destruction of several houses of the villagers, killing their livestock, causing damage on farms and forcing the inhabitants to leave their homes. "According to local sources, the bombing on August 19 at 9:30 Qandil area caused the fire in the farms of the village of Kozin, causing extensive damage and depriving people of electricity. During the August 17 bombing against the village of Zargele in the region of Qandil, a house was destroyed.Kwestan Ahmed, the head of the region Werte, always Qandil, said homes built far from the villages by the residents were the target of attacks by the Turkish Air Force, agency quoted Kurdish Firat. "It's cruel," he said, saying the attacks have caused extensive damage in the villages.The Secretary General of the Ministry of Peshmerga has warned that the Kurdish government undertakes to exercise its right of self defense in case of attack against the Kurdish region. "As a Kurdish government, we consider these attacks as a violation of the rights of our citizens. We believe that this problem will never be solved by airstrikes and artillery. This is a political problem and ultimately it will be resolved through dialogue, according to the federal government of Kurdistan. "The Kurds of Turkey will form Saturday, 20 August a human shield against the bombing, organizing a march to the border of the autonomous region of Kurdistan. This is the fourth human shield action since 2004. The march will begin Saturday in Hakkari and Sirnak, two border towns.Moreover, the Iranian army deployed reinforcements on the border with Iraq, Kurdish sources said. July 16, the Iranian regime had launched a major operation in coordination with Turkey along the border under the pretext of fighting the PJAK, the Party for a Free Life in Kurdistan, a Kurdish political and military organization that calls for autonomy a democratic confederal system.Heavy fighting took place for about three weeks that have resulted in the death of such three generals and seven high-ranking military officials in the ranks of the Iranian army. PJAK claimed to have killed over 250 soldiers, rejecting all attempts to cross the Iranian border in the region of Qandil.Read the full story here.

• Victorian-Era Bone Disease Making a Comeback in England.(BBC).The NHS should consider checking pregnant women’s vitamin D levels to protect babies from the “Victorian” bone disease rickets, an expert says.A Journal of Medical Screening article suggests rickets was returning, with many women not getting enough vitamin D, which comes mainly from sunlight.People with dark skin, and women who cover up for cultural or religious reasons, are at particular risk.The Department of Health is reviewing the evidence on vitamin D screening.The editorial was by Dr James Haddow, a US expert in pre-natal screening.

Breastfeeding mothers - His article described cases of seizures, heart failure and rickets in children whose mothers were vitamin D deficient.Dr Haddow said it was time to look at screening pregnant women with a blood test, focusing initially on those most at risk.“Any strategy aimed at avoiding symptomatic vitamin D deficiency in offspring would logically include assuring adequacy of maternal vitamin D during pregnancy.“Attending to this aspect of maternal and child health has added significance for mothers who breastfeed.”A recent study in inner-city Birmingham found that almost one in two Asian women were vitamin D deficient.The level was one in three in the wider Asian community, one in four in the black population and one in eight among Caucasians.One of the authors, Dr Jonathan Berg, director of pathology at City Hospital, Birmingham, says some local GPs are already screening pregnant women from the Asian community, although there is no formal protocol.The trust also offers a vitamin D blood-test for those who are not in at-risk groups, for £20. Dr Berg says a lot of people were having the check.“Screening in selected populations is currently the way forward, but clearly it is very difficult for the NHS to test everyone. We are seeing a big increase in demand from the ‘worried well’.”

Free supplements - A consultant paediatrician at Ealing’s hospital, Dr Colin Michie, says the increased use of high-factor sun-cream means a lot of women who are not in at-risk groups are also vitamin D deficient.He says the idea of screening is interesting, but he argues that providing free vitamin D supplements for all pregnant women would be cheaper and easier.He believes this would lead to healthier babies and would save the NHS money.A spokesman for the Department of Health in England said: “All pregnant women are advised to take vitamin D supplements.“Our priority is to ensure health professionals provide consistent advice and implement the current recommendations.”The department has asked the scientific advisory committee to review the evidence on vitamin D requirements for different population groups.Read the full story here.

• Turk Stabs Two Northern Irish Women to Death After Denied Permission to Marry 15-Year-Old.(Telegraph).The 17-year-old is believed to have murdered Marion Elizabeth Graham and Kathy Dinsmore after Ms Graham refused to allow him to marry her daughter, Shannon.Turkey's state-run news agency Anatolia, reported that teen, named locally as Recep Celik, took them in a taxi to a quiet woodland area of the regional capital Izmir, where he killed them both.The alarm is said to have been raised by the daughter after the women failed to return home, prompting police to search the estate they were staying where the discovered bloodstained clothing in a bin.An Irish diplomat has been dispatched from Ankara, to look after Shannon, 15, who was not with the women at the time of attack. Both women were 54 and from the Newry Area of County Down.The suspect reportedly denied any involvement when first confronted but confessed while being interrogated by police. His father and the taxi driver have also been detained, Anatolia reported.Ms Graham is said to own property in Kusdasi and spent long spells at the Aegean coast resort, which is visited by thousands by British and Irish tourists every year.Both women were travelling on Irish passports and are understood not to be British citizens.South Down MP Margaret Ritchie said she was shocked by the deaths and offered her sympathy to the bereaved families."My thoughts are with those involved in this terrible incident," she said. "And also with their families, who never got the chance to say goodbye to their loved ones. I think all the people of South Down will be saddened by this news."Hmmmm......Keep Turkey out of the European union!Read the full story here.More here.

• 5 decapitated bodies, 2 scalped, found in popular Acapulco spots.(Washingtonpost).ACAPULCO — Mexican authorities say two decapitated and scalped bodies were left outside a Sam’s Club store in Acapulco and three headless corpses were found on the main tourist strip in the resort city.Guerrero state police say in a statement that the bodies discovered outside the Sam’s Club were cut into more than 20 pieces. The skin on their faces and scalps had been removed and left in a woman’s purse at the scene.The state police said the three other decapitated bodies were found Saturday in a car parked on the boulevard Miguel Aleman near a gas station 200 meters (656.17 feet) from the Sam’s Club. One of the victims was a woman. The heads have not been located.Nearly two dozen Acapulco gas stations closed temporarily Friday in protest of escalating violence.Hmmmm.........Now why would anyone want the US -Mexican border guarded better?Read the full story here.