MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity Japan 5.5; Russia 5.2 ; Papua New  Guinea 5.3  and Chile 5.3  ! More info here.

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

• BREAKING NEWS: Congressman Darrell Issa to Eric Holder- ‘You Own Fast and Furious’.(BigGovernment).As you will recall, Attorney General Eric Holder sent a letter to Senate and Congressional investigators on Friday, October 7^th. It was a self-serving attempt to get Congressman Issa and Senator Charles Grassley to call off the chase that was clearly leading investigators to Holder’s front door.To make a long story short, I just received an email from Congressman Issa’s office that proves the investigators are not only going to continue their pursuit, but that Holder is their central focus.The email contained a copy of an absolutely scathing letter which Issa has sent in response to Holder’s not-so-veiled attempt he stall the investigation last Friday.

Here are pertinent excerpts:

Dear Attorney General Holder:

From the beginning of the congressional investigation into Operation Fast and Furious, the Department of Justice has offered a roving set of ever-changing explanations to justify its involvement in this reckless and deadly program. These defenses have been aimed at undermining the investigation. From the start, the Department insisted that no wrongdoing had occurred and asked Senator Grassley and me to defer our oversight responsibilities over its concerns about our purported interference with its ongoing criminal investigations. Additionally, the Department steadfastly insisted that gunwalking did not occur.

Once documentary and testimonial evidence strongly contradicted these claims, the Department attempted to limit the fallout from Fast and Furious to the Phoenix Field Division of the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF). When that effort also proved unsuccessful, the Department next argued that Fast and Furious resided only within ATF itself, before eventually also assigning blame to the U.S. Attorney’s Office in Arizona. All of these efforts were designed to circle the wagons around DOJ and its political appointees.
To that end, just last month, you claimed that Fast and Furious did not reach the upper levels of the Justice Department. Documents discovered through the course of the investigation, however, have proved each and every one of these claims advanced by the Department to be untrue.It appears your latest defense has reached a new low. Incredibly, in your letter from Friday you now claim that you were unaware of Fast and Furious because your staff failed to inform you of information contained in memos that were specifically addressed to you. At best, this indicates negligence and incompetence in your duties as Attorney General. At worst, it places your credibility into serious doubt.

… Mr. Attorney General, you have made numerous statements about Fast and Furious that have eventually been proven to be untrue. Your lack of trustworthiness while speaking about Fast and Furious has called into question your overall credibility as Attorney General. The time for deflecting blame and obstructing our investigation is over. The time has come for you to come clean to the American public about what you knew about Fast and Furious, when you knew it, and who is going to be held accountable for failing to shut down a program that has already had deadly consequences, and will likely cause more casualties for years to come.
Operation Fast and Furious was the Department’s most significant gun trafficking case. It related to two of your major initiatives – destroying the Mexican cartels and reducing gun violence on both sides of the border. On your watch, it went spectacularly wrong. Whether you realize yet or not, you own Fast and Furious. It is your responsibility.

With such an open rebuke of Holder, wherein Issa has unapologetically put the blame for Fast and Furious squarely upon him, it will interesting to see how long President Obama can afford (politically) to keep Holder on board.Read the full story here.

• BREAKING: Violence Feared at #OccupyChicago Today (UPDATED).(BigGovernment).Big Government has learned that anarchist groups, led by Lisa Fithian and working with Democrats and unions on the ground in Chicago, intend forcibly to disrupt the Mortgage Bankers’ Association meeting at the Hyatt Regency Chicago and other locations this afternoon.Violence is possible, as local police and security officers seem unprepared for a confrontation with thousands of activists converging on the Hyatt from multiple other staged demonstrations in Chicago.

Fithian, a veteran anarchist organizer who is widely credited with shutting down the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle in 1999, has apparently arrived in Chicago after participating in the #OccupyWallStreet demonstration in New York.

According to Big Government sources, Fithian is currently training union leaders from the Service Employees’ International Union and the Teamsters Union in preparation for today’s demonstration. Her strategy may be to draw law enforcement officers to multiple protest sites, then to shift demonstrations suddenly to one central site.Democratic activists and leaders, including Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), are expected to address the demonstrators today as part of “Stand Up Chicago,” a broad coalition of community organizing groups coordinated by the SEIU and promoted by left-wing bloggers in the area.The Chicago demonstration is the latest example of cooperation between anarchists, unions, and Democrats, who share an interest in targeting America’s free market system–some with the explicit intention of destroying it, others with the hope that the spectacle will help President Barack Obama’s re-election efforts by “inspir[ing] the progressive base.”Citizen journalists are urged to record and report the demonstrations, and to contact law enforcement regarding any illegal or violent activity. Follow #OccupyChicago, #TakeBackChicago, and #occupymortgagebankers to monitor protest activities on Twitter.Read the full evolving story here.

• Democratic Party Going All-In On Occupy Wall Street Protests, Circulates Petition To “Stand With” Them.(NationalReview).Robby Mook, the executive director of the DCCC just sent out a fund-raising email titled “@Stake: Occupy Wall Street.” It contains the following:

PETITION: I Stand with #OccupyWallStreet

Protestors are assembling in New York and around the country to let billionaires, big oil and big bankers know that we’re not going to let the richest 1% force draconian economic policies and massive cuts to crucial programs on Main Street Americans.Out-of-touch Republican Majority Leader Eric Cantor said he is “increasingly concerned by the growing mobs.” Mobs? That must be what Republicans refer to as the middle class, or maybe the millions of unemployed Americans across the country.As Democratic Leader Nancy Pelosi told reporters, “The message of the American people is that no longer will the recklessness of some on Wall Street cause massive joblessness on Main Street…”Help us send a message straight to Eric Cantor, Speaker Boehner, and the rest of reckless Republican leadership in Congress:Sign our petition right now and help us reach 100,000 strong standing with #OccupyWallStreet protestors across the country.If you follow the link, it will take you the DCCC’s website.Hmmmm......"To protect The Constitution?"Read the full story here.

• Dozens of Fast and Furious Weapons Found in Mexico Cartel Enforcer’s Home.(LATimes).High-powered assault weapons illegally purchased under the ATF’s Fast and Furious program in Phoenix ended up in a home belonging to the purported top Sinaloa cartel enforcer in Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, whose organization was terrorizing that city with the worst violence in the Mexican drug wars.In all, 100 assault weapons acquired under Fast and Furious were transported 350 miles from Phoenix to El Paso, making that West Texas city a central hub for gun traffickers. Forty of the weapons made it across the border and into the arsenal of Jose Antonio Torres Marrufo, a feared cartel leader in Ciudad Juarez, according to federal court records and trace documents from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.The smugglers’ tactics — quickly moving the weapons far from ATF agents in southern Arizona, where it had been assumed they would circulate — vividly demonstrate that what had been viewed as a local problem was much larger. Six other Fast and Furious guns destined for El Paso were recovered in Columbus, N.M.“These Fast and Furious guns were going to Sinaloans, and they are killing everyone down there,” said one knowledgeable U.S. government source, who asked for anonymity because of the ongoing investigations. “But that’s only how many we know came through Texas. Hundreds more had to get through.”Torres Marrufo, also known as “the Jaguar,” has been identified by U.S. authorities as the enforcer for Sinaloa cartel chieftain Joaquin “Chapo” Guzman. The Fast and Furious weapons were found at one of Torres Marrufo’s homes April 30 when Mexican police inspected the property. It was unoccupied but “showed signs of recent activity,” they said.The basement had been converted into a gym with a wall covered with built-in mirrors. Behind the mirrors they found a hidden room with the Fast and Furious weapons and dozens more, including an antiaircraft machine gun, a sniper rifle and a grenade launcher.Read the full story here.

• Issa Demands White House Hand Over Documents On $4.7 Billion In Solar Loans Pushed Through To Meet Sept. 30 Deadline.(TheHill).House Oversight and Government Reform Committee Chairman Darrell Issa (R-Calif.) is demanding Energy Department documents relating to more than $4.7 billion in loan guarantees for solar projects approved Sept. 30, the deadline for financing under the stimulus law.Issa’s quest for documents — spelled out in an Oct. 7 letter to Energy Secretary Steven Chu obtained by The Hill on Monday — signals a deepening of his loan guarantee probe, which joins a separate House Energy and Commerce Committee investigation of the failed solar panel manufacturing company Solyndra.Issa’s letter, noting “concerns” that the $535 million guarantee for Solyndra in 2009 was rushed, says the same questions apply to the four solar power generation projects approved at the end of September.“$4.75 billion in loan guarantees given on the last day of the program raise similar concerns that the evaluation of loan guarantees may have been rushed to meet the deadline,” Issa writes.The letter seeks documents about the financing for First Solar Inc., SunPower Corp. and Prologis Inc. by Oct. 21. The documents include Energy Department communications with the companies involved, internal department communications, and communications with the White House.Issa said on "Fox News Sunday" that his panel is looking for “political interference” in the loan guarantee decisions.An Energy Department spokesman defended the clean-energy loan guarantees issued on deadline late last month.Administration emails released Oct. 7 include communications showing a senior Treasury Department official's concerns that the Energy Department’s early 2011 decision to restructure the struggling company’s loan arrangement might have been illegal.Republicans allege the administration rushed the Solyndra financing in 2009 for political reasons, and are also faulting the restructuring that put private investors ahead of taxpayers for repayment if the company went under.But on "Fox News Sunday" Issa rejected any comparison between his criticism of the Obama administration’s actions on loan guarantees and his own advocacy for financing.“There’s a big difference between sending a letter in for an existing pot of money for a program that I voted against and having the ability to act to pick winners and losers,” Issa said on the program Sunday.Read the full story here.
  
   

• Judicial Watch Releases Comprehensive Special Report on President Obama’s 45 Czars.(JW).Judicial Watch, the public interest organization that investigates and prosecutes government corruption, today released “President Obama’s Czars,” a special report on the President’s appointing of “policy advisors,” many of whom enjoy positions of power and authority in the administration and yet have not been subjected to vetting and confirmation by the U.S. Senate. Judicial Watch’s extensive investigation exhaustively documents these czar appointments and details the control these czars exercise over government operations.

From the report’s introduction:

“This Judicial Watch Special Report analyzes the proliferation of so-called ‘czars’ in the Obama administration. President Barack Obama has installed personal advisors in czar positions in the White House and has created new czar positions elsewhere in the Executive Branch. As of the date of this report, the number of czars that have been appointed by the President, or by others in his administration, appears to total 45. In addition, there are as many as 18 other unfilled or planned czar positions.
“Many of these ‘czars’ are unconfirmed by the Senate and are largely unaccountable to Congress. Further, their activities are often outside the reach of the Freedom of Information Act (FOIA), creating a veil of secrecy about their precise role in the administration.”The new report is available at Judicial Watch’s website

• Czars appointees have seized unprecedented control over major aspects of government policy and programs. In some instances, unconfirmed czars have authority, in seeming violation of the U.S. Constitution, over certain Senate-confirmed officers.
• A number of the czars have been linked to scandals, thefts and kickbacks, flagrant and offensive statements, conflicts of interest, and radical leftist political ideologies and policies.
• “Barack Obama’s unconstitutional use of czars to help run his administration is at odds with republican, limited, and accountable government. Obama has simply installed his radical leftist allies in various positions of power while thumbing his nose at Congress and the American people. As we document in this report, too many of these czars have proven to be corrupt or radicals (or sometimes both). No wonder the Obama administration fights tooth and nail to allow these czars to operate in secret. Nevertheless, Judicial Watch managed to develop this comprehensive list of czars as part of efforts to ensure government accountability.”Read the full story here.
  

• Craig's List Ad: Working Families Party Offers Job For Occupy Wall St. Protestors at $350-650 a Week.(InfidelBloggers).By Pastorius.I guess it depends upon your experience and qualifications, huh?For God's sake.The Working Families Party (WFP) (www.workingfamiliesparty.org) is New York's most energetic, independent and progressive political party. Formed in 1998 by a grassroots coalition of community organizations, neighborhood activists, and labor unions, we came together to build a society that works for all of us, not just Wall Street CEOs and the well-connected. WFP is independent from corporate and government funding and in-addition we are community based; community funded and equally uninfluenced by both major parties. Our agenda focuses on economic and social justice, corporate accountability, job creation, environmental protection, and investment in education and healthcare. For the past twelve years the WFP has been at the fore front of progressive politics, Leading the fight and helping to frame the debate. The WFP has a proud record of fighting for issues that matter and has been instrumental in implementing key pieces of legislation such as Raising New York's Minimum Wage, Enacting Living Wage Laws, Creating Thousands of Jobs In the Green Economy, Passing Healthcare Reforms on the Local Level, Fighting for Affordable Housing, Keeping Tuition Costs Low, A Progressive Tax Code, Reliable/Cost Effective Public Transit System, Public Financing Of Elections and Corporate Accountability . In addition, we have an unapologetic stance on supporting and pushing good candidates to enact progressive legislation The WFP is seeking immediate hires. You must be an energetic communicator, with a passion for social and economic justice. Only outgoing, articulate dedicated, determined candidates will be considered for the positions. For those candidates that qualify WFP offers substantial paid-training provided by senior leadership, on varied issues such as: advocacy, public speaking, mobilizing, fundraising, networking and organizing. We invest in passionate people with excellent communication skills and a full benefits package is offered to those candidates that qualify. In addition, there is opportunity for advancement and travel to our satellite chapters and out of state affiliates. This is not a policy job! Through direct action you will be shaping NY state politics for the next 20 years. If you care about New York and want to help educate and mobilize around legislative campaigns-then we look forward to hearing from you!

Apply at http://www.workingfamiliesparty.org/jobs/.

Compensation: $350-$650 A Week Depending On Responsibility and Length Of Time On Staff . Principals only. Recruiters, please don't contact this job poster. Please, no phone calls about this job! Please do not contact job poster about other services, products or commercial interests.Hmmmm......"Occupy Wallstreet"the 'hottest' job in town?Read and see the full story here.

• Egypt:At least 36 dead in clashes between Copts and Egyptian security forces.(AlArabiya). At least 36 people were killed and 272 injured in clashes between Coptic Christians and Egyptian security forces on Sunday near the state television building, known as Maspero, in Cairo, Egypt’s health ministry said.Egypt’s army rulers, meanwhile, imposed a curfew on Cairo’s Tahrir Square and downtown area, the state media announced. Tahrir Square was the epicenter of the February uprising that overthrew former President Hosni Mubarak.A correspondent of Al Arabiya, whose office buildings are in the Maspero area, said there was heavy gunfire in the clashes as protesters seized weapons from torched military vehicles. She said she saw bodies outside the building but did not know if they were wounded or dead.The clashes were prompted by an attack on a Coptic Christian church in Merinab village in Aswan on Sept. 30 by Muslims who said the church did not have the proper license to build a dome. State television said the church was attacked after Aswan governor Mustafa al-Seyyed was reported as saying Copts had built it without the required planning permission.“Down with the marshal,” the demonstrators chanted on the march to Maspero, referring to Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi who took power in February after Mubarak’s ouster in the face of mass street protests.“We were marching peacefully,” Talaat Youssef, a 23-year old Christian trader, told Reuters at the scene.“When we got to the state television building, the army started firing live ammunition,” he said, adding that military vehicles ran over protesters, killing five. His account could not be immediately confirmed.“The army is supposed to be protecting us,” Youssef said.Hundreds fought with sticks on a Cairo bridge and protests later spread to Tahrir Square, the focal point of the February uprising, as Muslims joined the rally in a show of solidarity. Smoke from tear gas swirled over the square as thousands of protesters chanted “The people demand the fall of the field marshal”.A Reuters witness said the army had moved in to contain the unrest, beating some protesters with batons.State TV and sources said at least 150 people were injured on Sunday, without saying how many of them were protesters. It had earlier said three of the dead were soldiers.The government has appealed for calm. Prime Minister Essam Sharaf said he had contacted security and church authorities to contain the situation.In a televised speech he called the clashes unjustified violence that raised fears about Egypt's transition to democracy. “The only beneficiary of these events and acts of violence are the enemies of the January revolution and the enemies of the Egyptian people, both Muslim and Christian,” he said on his Facebook page.“The absence of a state of law is the cause of what is happening. Freedom of expression is the basis of a democratic society and a state of law,”Political analyst Amr Hashim Rabei told Al Arabiya.“This has not happened for months. Coptic leaders should ask protesters to exercise calm and follow their case in courts.”Speaking to Al Arabiya from Tahrir Square, Bashir Abdel-Fattah, of the official daily Al-Ahram, said more numbers of Copts were heading to the area of clashes. “Copts from different neighborhoods of Cairo are still coming to the area in increasing numbers,” Abdel-Fattah said.Sectarian clashes are frequent in Egypt where Copts, who make up 10 percent of the 80-million-strong population, have been the target of attacks and have repeatedly accused the authorities of systematic discrimination.Read the full story here.Pictures here.

• Egypt, Protesters killed in Maspero protest refused accurate death certificates.(NikyaMasr).CAIRO: Almost 300 protesters are in front of The Coptic Hospital in downtown Cairo, waiting for the hospital to release accurate death certificates for those killed last night when the military opened fire on a Coptic Christian protest.The hospital is not releasing accurate information about the cause of death for those who died last night. It has claimed that people who were rolled over by tanks, for instance, had died of asphyxiation.Most of the bodies are in the hospital at the moment, as Egyptians gather around to protest the false death certificates.A Bikyamasr correspondent from the scene reported that the bodies are on the floor in the room of a hospital without air conditioning. A group of citizens put blocks of ice on the bodies to prevent them from decomposing.A few bodies of the deceased have already arrived at the Abbasseya Cathedral, where many have gathered already for a funeral mass today.Pope Shenouda, the leader of the Coptic church, made a statement earlier today imploring people to wait for accurate death certificates before burying their loved ones.Pope Shenouda is set to preside over the burial mass.Many gathering in front of the hospital have demanded that the bodies should not be buried without proper documentation, but others reportedly have little faith that their loved ones will receive accurate certificates, and want to move ahead with the burial ceremonies to honor those who died.The hospital will not release any information.Some have suggested that the bodies should be moved to another hospital for accurate autopsies, however this has not yet materialized amid fears that moving the bodies will set back the process further.The clashes broke out after the country’s military, security forces and citizens fired upon a protest set to advocate for Coptic rights and protection in front of Egypt’s Maspero state TV building on Sunday.Read the full story here.

• Jewish Woman in Labor Survives PA Lynch Attempt.(IsrealNationalNews).Palestinian Authority terrorists continued their attacks on innocent Jewish motorists over Yom Kippur, this time attacking a woman in labor and her husband as they rushed to the hospital. The husband, Ariel Goldman of Pnei Kedem, told Arutz Sheva that the two were lucky to escape with their lives.Their ordeal began near Har Homa at 2:30 a.m., as they drove to Hadassah Ein Karem hospital in Jerusalem. Suddenly, they encountered a point in the road that had been blocked by large stones.As Goldman slowed the car, looking for a way around the trap, several Palestinian Authority terrorists jumped out and began to hurl rocks at the car.The attack turned into a game of cat and mouse, as Goldman looked for ways around the rocks and tried to keep moving, while the terrorists followed the car and continued to pelt it with heavy stones, using a tactic that recently resulted in two deaths near Hevron.The terrorists “had murder in their eyes,” Goldman said.He finally managed to pass the stone barrier and speed away from the group of attackers, only to encounter a second group that attempted to stone the car near the Jerusalem neighborhood of Talpiot. Goldman managed to speed away a second time.A policewoman he later encountered appeared uninterested by his story, but promised to notify her superiors, he said.Ariel Goldman and his wife managed to reach the hospital, where she gave birth to a baby boy. Both the baby and mother are in good condition.Read the full story here.

• Iranian lawmaker:"Women who violate scarf law should be stripped of passports".(Alarabiya).A member of Iranian parliament’s judicial commission on Sunday demanded the government withdraw passports from women who violate a law requiring them to wear the Muslim headscarf, Fars News Agency reported. “The government is giving the green light for non-compliance with the veil and the police have failed to stand up to this phenomenon alone,” Mohammad Taghi Rahbar was quoted as saying.He added that 236 members of the Iranian parliament, in a letter sent to the cabinet, demanded strict measures against violators of the headscarf law. “Our dear government did not pay any attention to a letter of representatives, but it gave the green light for non-compliance with the veil,” Rahba said.He said the situation of non-compliance with the headscarf law was “worse now than during the rule of reformists,” referring to the former administration of President Mohammad Khatami. He said state television was partly to blame for not urging women to comply with the law. “I don’t know what kind of brains are running the state television, which airs silly programs,” the conservative head of the clerical bloc in parliament said.Iranian “morality police” hold occasional crackdowns in major cities against women who do not wear the headscarf in the manner required by authorities. The Iran Star website has recently called on women to briefly remove their headscarves every Thursday in protest against the suppression of women’s rights in the Islamic Republic.Read the full story here.

• Iranian student lashed 74 times for 'insulting' Ahmadinejad.(YNet).An Iranian student was released on Sunday from prison after an 11-month incarceration but not before he was subjected to 74 lashes for sending an insulting letter to Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. Peyman Aref, a student of political science at Tehran University, was jailed because of anti-government political activity. He was found guilty of spreading propaganda against the regime. According to a report in the Guardian, Aref was lashed with his wife present in the room. "My crime was that I had written a letter to Ahmadinejad and reminded him what he had done to universities," he said.Aref was most likely punished because he had refused to begin the letter with the formal greeting of 'Salam' as a sign of protest."Lashing people sentenced to various charges such as those caught drinking alcohol is common in Iran but political activists are usually lashed for ambiguous charges such as desecrating Islam or prophets," an Iranian journalist based in Tehran told the newspaper. "Lashing Aref for insulting Ahmadinejad is shocking and unprecedented." Meanwhile, an Iranian opposition website reported Sunday that actress Marzieh Vafamehr has been sentenced to a year in jail and 90 lashes for her role in a film about the limits imposed on artists in the Islamic republic."A verdict has been issued for Marzieh Vafamehr, sentencing her to a year in jail and 90 lashes," Kalameh.com reported."Her lawyer has appealed the sentence, which was handed down yesterday (Saturday)," the report added, without giving further details.Vafamehr was arrested in July after appearing in "My Tehran for Sale," which came under harsh criticism in conservative circles.The film, produced in collaboration with Australia, tells the story of a young actress in Tehran whose theatre work is banned by the authorities. She is then forced to lead a secret life in order to express herself artistically.The Fars news agency said the movie had not been approved for screening in Iran and was being distributed in the country illegally.Vafamehr was released in late July after posting unspecified bail.Read the full story here.More (Pictures) here.

• “Global warming is a bogus proposition…”(WUWT).That headline from Zhang Musheng, one of China’s most influential intellectuals according to this article in the Sydney Morning Herald.A new study by the Netherlands Environment Assessment Agency shows China now emits far more greenhouse emissions than any other country, with emissions doubling between 2003 and 2010.China’s carbon emissions rose 10 per cent last year alone, to 9 billion tonnes, compared with 5.2 billion tonnes for the United States.The report showed India’s emissions also rose rapidly, by 9 per cent, although its total emissions are still only one-fifth of China’s.The most startling finding, however, is that China’s per capita emissions are now higher than several rich nations including France and Italy. China’s per capita emissions could even overtake the US within six years, the study said.”If the current trends in emissions by China and the industrialised countries including the US would continue for another seven years, China will overtake the US by 2017 as highest per capita emitter among the 25 largest emitting countries,” said the Netherlands report, which was sponsored by the European Commission and is based partly on BP energy consumption statistics.Read the full story here.

• Dutch Freedom Party parliamentarian, Wim Kortenoeven warns of Turkish Imperialsm and extreme Islamism in OSCE meeting.(TundraTabloids).Read the full story here.

• Pakistan - Masked Men Storm Girls’ School, Beat Students and Teachers, Warn Them to Dress Modestly.(Vinienco).In a first for the garrison city, sixty masked men carrying iron rods barged into a girls’ school in Rawalpindi and thrashed students and female teachers on Friday.The gang of miscreants also warned the inmates at the MC Model Girls High School in Satellite Town to “dress modestly and wear hijabs” or face the music, eyewitnesses said.Fear gripped the area following the attack and only 25 of the 400 students studying in the college were present on Saturday. The school employs 30 female teachers.Attendance in other educational institutions also remained low. After hearing about the attack, all schools in the city shut down, an official of the Rawalpindi District Administration (RDA) told The Express Tribune.A student of the girls’ school managed to inform the administration of the nearby boys’ high school of the attack. “[However,] the armed gang was so powerful that we could not rescue our teachers and colleagues over there,” Noail Javed, a grade 10 student, said.In-charge of MC High Schools in Rawalpindi issued a notification to the heads of all girls’ schools to take pre-emptive measures to avoid such incidents in future. According to the notification, a gang comprising 60 to 70 miscreants entered into the school from a gate that was “strangely open”.All the MC school heads were assigned the responsibility of protecting the students by the notification. A school headmistress wishing not to be named said, “How is it possible for us to protect the students from such elements. The city administration should review its security plan.”The notification also suggested that the heads should not inform the students about the situation, so that they are not alarmed into skipping school. “Police is investigating the matter,” the notification said. Following the notification, the heads of the schools also shared the numbers of relevant police stations with the teachers in case of any untoward situation in future.Asjad Ali, a student of class 9 at the nearby boys’ high school, said that his younger brother Awais, a student of grade 5, was also among those who were brutally beaten by the miscreants with iron rods. “The police did not come,” he said.A police official of the New Town Police Station, asking for anonymity, told The Express Tribune, “We were under strict instructions to do nothing.”District Education Officer Qazi Zahoor and Rawalpindi Commissioner Zahid Saeed were not immediately available for comments.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different !Siberian region 'confirms Yeti exists'.(HurriyetDaily).A Russian region in Siberia on Monday confidently proclaimed that its mountains are home to yetis after finding "indisputable proof" of the existence of the hairy beasts in an expedition.The local administration of the Kemerovo region in the south of Siberia said in a statement on its website that footprints and possibly even hair samples belonging to the yeti were found on the research trip to its remote mountains."During the expedition to the Azasskaya cave, conference participants gathered indisputable proof that the Shoria mountains are inhabited by the 'Snow Man'," the Kemerovo region administration said in a press-release.The expedition was organised after Kemerovo's governor invited researchers from the United States, Canada, and several other countries to share their research and stories of encounters with the creature at a conference."They found his footprints, his supposed bed, and various markers with which the yeti marks his territory," the statement said. The collected "artifacts" will be analysed in a special laboratory, it said.Yetis, or Abominable Snowmen, are hairy ape-like creatures of popular myth, that are generally held to inhabit the Himalayas.But some believe Russia also holds a population of yetis, which it calls Snow Men, in remote areas of Siberia.Kemerovo region's Shoria is a sparsely populated territory in Western Siberia that has historically been a territory of coal and metal mining. The region, the administrative center of Kuznetsk coal basin, has pursued the elusive Yeti for several years as it tries to develop tourism into its mostly industrial economy.Considering the latest findings, the region may "create a special research center to study the Yeti" in the regional university and "create a journal" dedicated to the science of the Yeti, the administration's statement said.Read and see the full story here.