MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation update: U.S. Atka  5.7 ;  Greenland 5.1 and New Zealand 5.1  !More info here.

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

• 'Emperor' Obama says he’ll be taking ‘executive actions’ without Congress on ‘regular basis’ to ‘heal the economy’.(DailyCaller).President Barack Obama told an audience in Nevada on Monday that he will be announcing “executive actions” his administration will take to “heal the economy” without the “dysfunctional” Congress.“I’m here to say to all of you and to say to the people of Nevada and the people of Las Vegas, we can’t wait for an increasingly dysfunctional Congress to do its job. Where they won’t act, I will,” Obama said.“I’ve told my administration to keep looking every single day for actions we can take without Congress, steps that can save consumers money, make government more efficient and responsive, and help heal the economy. And we’re going to be announcing these executive actions on a regular basis,” the president said.Hmmmm......One dictator disappears in the world, another one rises?Read the full story here.

• "The Most Transparant Government EVAH!" - Obama Rule Would Allow Feds to Lie about Existence of Official Records.(BigGovernment).A proposed rule to the Freedom of Information Act would allow federal agencies to tell people requesting certain law-enforcement or national security documents that records don’t exist – even when they do.Under current FOIA practice, the government may withhold information and issue what’s known as a Glomar denial that says it can neither confirm nor deny the existence of records.The new proposal – part of a lengthy rule revision by the Department of Justice – would direct government agencies to “respond to the request as if the excluded records did not exist.”Open-government groups object.We don’t believe the statute allows the government to lie to FOIA requesters,” said Mike German, senior policy counsel for the American Civil Liberties Union, which opposes the provision.The ACLU, along with Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington and OpenTheGovernment.org said the move would “dramatically undermine government integrity by allowing a law designed to provide public access to government to be twisted.Hmmmm......Aren't you happy you voted for Mr 'Transparency'?Read the full story here.

• Google Speaks Truth to Power.(WSJ).Eric Schmidt, executive chairman of Google, recently recounted a dinner in 1995 featuring a talk by Andy Grove, a founder of Intel: "He says, 'This is easy to understand. High tech runs three times faster than normal businesses. And the government runs three times slower than normal businesses. So we have a nine-times gap.' All of my experiences are consistent with Andy Grove's observation." Schmidt explained there was only one way to deal with this nine-times gap, which this column hereby christens "Grove's Law of Government." That is "to make sure that the government does not get in the way and slow things down." He contrasted innovation in Silicon Valley with innovation in Washington. "Now there are startups in Washington," he said, "founded by people who were policy makers. . . . They're very clever people, and they've figured out a way in regulation to discriminate, to find a new satellite spectrum or a new frequency or whatever. They immediately hired a whole bunch of lobbyists. They raised some money to do that. And they're trying to innovate through regulation. So that's what passes for innovation in Washington."Hmmm........"Ouch that hurts".Read the full story here.

• Barack Obama’s 2012 re-election campaign starts a Tumblr.(BarracudaBrigade).Facebook and Twitter. Since his election, President Obama's White House has continued to embrace social technology, conducting a town hall on Twitter, getting late-adopter Joe Biden to join (@VP) and even signing the president up for Foursquare.Now, President Obama appears to be the first 2012 candidate with a Tumblr.The president's reelection campaign opened the account--BarackObama.Tumblr.com--on Monday."We'd like this Tumblr to be a huge collaborative storytelling effort," the welcome post on Obama's Tumblr page reads. "A place for people across the country to share what's going on in our respective corners of it and how we're getting involved in this campaign to keep making it better."The campaign suggests that users share posts for re-blogging, a "few paragraphs about how your latest phonebanking gig went," a "chart you saw that made you go 'woah,'" or "jokes, particularly if they're funny.""There will be trolls among you: this we know," the campaign added. "We ask only that you remember that we're people—fairly nice ones—and that your mother would want you to be polite."Hmmmm.......Cause eveyone knows Democrats are 'Nice' people.Read the full story here.

• RJC Rejects ADL/AJC Pledge: "We will not be silenced" on Israel.(Rjchq).Washington, D.C.  -- The Republican Jewish Coalition (RJC) responded today to a call from the Anti-Defamation League and the American Jewish Committee, asking Jewish groups to pledge not to use Israel as a "political wedge issue" or, in the words of ADL's Abe Foxman, to "avoid polarizing debates" and refrain from questioning "the current administration's foreign policy approach vis-à-vis Israel". RJC Executive Director Matt Brooks stated in response: "An open and vigorous debate on the questions confronting our country is the cornerstone of the American electoral process. Allowing the American people to see where candidates stand, pro and con on critical issues, is the hallmark of our free and democratic political system. For this reason, the RJC will not be a signer to this pledge. "This effort to stifle debate on U.S. policy toward Israel runs counter to this American tradition. Accordingly, the RJC will not be silenced on this or any issue."Hmmmm.......Someone trying to silence 'free speech'? Read the full story here.Related: ADL/AJC joint statement and the text of the pledge. 

• CAIR Teams Up With Hezbollah To Attack Romney For Hiring Walid Phares To Advise Him On National Security.(FSM). Al Manar – the official broadcasting arm of the terrorist group Hezbollah – is again attempting to discredit (and thus silence) respected American national security experts. And as a means of doing so, they are touting a now-public letter by the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) which refers to respected foreign policy analyst Dr. Walid Phares as “an associate to war crimes” and a “conspiracy theorist.”The issue stems from the fact that the Mitt Romney presidential campaign has named Phares to its team of national security advisors.CAIR, which authored the letter and sent it to Romney, doesn’t approve of the appointment. Neither does Hezbollah.In a posting on Hezbollah’s official TV broadcast arm al Manar, the terrorist organization (implicated by a UN Tribunal in the 2005 assassination of Rafiq Hariri of Lebanon) attacked Professor Walid Phares. They cited an article which was based on a CAIR letter leveling vicious attacks on the Jihadism expert and author of The Coming Revolution: Struggle for Freedom in the Middle East. The Hezbollah propaganda arm warned that, by appointing Phares as one of his advisors on Middle Eastern affairs, Republican hopeful Mitt Romney is echoing the appointment by the State Department of Heinz Mahoney as deputy ambassador for the US in Damascus.Observers noted that this wasn’t the first time CAIR and Hezbollah media campaigns converged to the point of merging. Last Spring, CAIR, accused by many to be a front for the terror group Hamas, also sent a letter to Rep. Pete King demanding the removal of Professor Phares from the list of expert witnesses in the hearings on Jihadi radicalization. That letter was also picked up and publicized by the Iranian-backed daily al Akhbar in Lebanon. Writing in as Siyassa of Kuwait, Hamid Ghuriafi said “the campaign of incitement waged by Nihad Awad, director of CAIR, against Professor Walid Phares, a Congressional advisor, is full of lies and misrepresentations. It was executed at the request of the Iranian regime after Phares appeared in an American movie (“Iranium”) released two weeks ago. In that film, Phares called on the Obama Administration and the international community to expedite a regime change in Tehran by supporting the democratic Green revolution in Tehran, which could lead to the crumbling of the Khamenei-Ahmedinejad regime.”Read the full story here.

• Mosque developer can't take care of vermin-infested apartment building.(Commonsensewonder).By Isabel Vincent And Melissa Klein.The developer who wants to build a $100 million mosque and community center near Ground Zero can’t take care of a rat-ridden apartment building with just 14 units.Sharif El-Gamal, the main developer behind the mosque, has nearly 400 open violations that he has refused to fix despite a court order. His company owes the city $61,633 in fines, fees and taxes for the property at 1835 Amsterdam Ave.El-Gamal, a principal in the company that owns the Washington Heights building, is due in court Thursday. If he doesn’t show up, he risks being sent to jail.He already failed to appear at a Sept. 28 hearing.Tenant Madeline Javier has been locked in a legal battle with El-Gamal and his partners to try to fix the problems in her $647-a-month apartment.She claims in legal papers that her bathroom ceiling collapsed, blocking the tub, toilet and sink, and that dust and vermin worsened her and her children’s asthma. She said the conditions forced her to flee to live in her mother’s home for two years.“It’s really bad,” Javier said. “They always promise they’re going to fix, and they don’t do nothing.”More than 150 complaints about the building, including rats, roaches and lack of heat, were logged with the city from July 2010 to May 2011.The building’s staircase “was obstructed with construction debris, and the fire escapes were also obstructed,” according to legal papers.There are 366 housing-code violations that the owner hasn’t addressed, according to the city Department of Housing Preservation and Development.HPD sued El-Gamal’s company, Washington Heights Holdings II, to fix the problems and reached a consent order in September. It also fined the company $5,550. It’s unclear if any work has been done.Read the full story here.

• Saudi cleric: Kidnap Israeli soldier - get $100,000.(Ynet). Saudi cleric Dr. Awad al-Qarni is offering a $100,000 reward to anyone who kidnaps Israeli soldiers. He is responding to an ad published by the Libman family offering a similar reward for anyone who catches the person who murdered their relative Shlomo Libman. Libman was killed by terrorists near the settlement of Yitzhar in 1998. "The press reported that the Zionist settlers will pay huge amounts of money to whoever kills the freed Palestinian prisoners," al-Qarni said. "In response to these criminals I declare to the world that any Palestinian who will jail an Israeli soldier and exchange him for prisoners will be rewarded with a $100,000 prize," he wrote on his Facebook page. Al-Qarni's post has already received more than 1,000 likes and extensive coverage in Hamas-affiliated newspapers in Gaza. Al-Qarni is a famous Muslim cleric who often guests on TV shows and operates his own website where he discusses various religious law issues. The Palestine-Islam issue is particularly close to his heart.Meanwhile in Gaza, Hamas Minister Fathi Hamad admitted that Israel's withdrawal from the Strip enmabled Hamas to hide Gilad Shalit for so long. In an interview with Lebanese daily as-Safir Hamad said that the "military campaign in Gaza abolished any security coordination with Israel and the Strip's liberation allowed us to conceal Shalit for five years." Hamad stressed that Izz al-Din al-Qassam, Hamas' military wing managed to keep Shalit captive despite Israeli attempts to extract him and admitted that they paid a heavy price for keeping Shalit captive. "That is why the deal is a triumph for the Palestinian people and residents of Gaza who have sacrificed 600 lives during Israel's first response to the bold abduction."Read the full story here.

• New Jerusalem neighborhood beyond Green Line set to win approval.(YNet).Will a new Jewish neighborhood be built outside the Green Line for the first time since Har Homa? In the wake of its deteriorating international status and the Palestinian independence bid at the UN, Benjamin Netanyahu's government is expected to push forward plans to build 4,000 housing units in the area of Givat Hamatos in southern Jerusalem, Ynet has learned. According to the itinerary of the Jerusalem District Housing and Planning Committee, which operates under the Interior Ministry, on December 8th committee members will discuss objections to the establishment of parts B and C of the neighborhood, which is slated to include about 1,400 housing units.Part A of the plan includes the construction of 2,610 housing units was put up for objections before the Sukkot holiday.According to Peace Now, if the building of 1,400 housing units gets the green light in December, the bulldozers will begin work in less than two years. Part C of the plan was already discussed in 2008, while a hearing into objections was held in February 2010. It was then decided that another discussion would be held, which is now planned to take place in December. Part B of the plan was submitted in March 2010 and is now brought before discussion on objections. "The fact that they waited with the plans for 18 months is no coincidence," Peace Now said. "The Israeli government clearly intends to promote this plan at this time." The movement further claimed that half of the lands where the new neighborhood is slated to be built are owned by Palestinians and could have been used to expand the neighborhood of Beit Tzafafa. "The plan is another slap in the face for Abbas and a present for Hamas," Peace Now Secretary-General Yariv Oppenheimer said.According to Oppenheimer, "The prime minister continues with his path to crush any prospects of an agreement and expands the borders of Jerusalem towards Bethlehem. Approval of the plan days after the implementation of the Shalit deal would further weaken the moderate forces in the region and play into the hands of Hamas."Read the full story here.

• Libya’s grand mufti, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ghariany, said that Qadhafi is an infidel.(Almasryalyoum).Opinion is divided among religious figures over the treatment of the body of former Libyan leader Muammar Qadhafi, with some condemning what they call the abuse of his corpse, while others have declared him an infidel, and therefore not entitled to an Islamic burial.Qadhafi was killed near his home town of Sirte on Thursday, and disturbing images of him being roughed-up and finally killed by angry fighters quickly circulated around the world.Sheikh Mahmoud Ashour of Al-Azhar's Islamic Research Academy in Egypt, said: “Islam prohibits abusing the corpse of any human being. In Islam, people should respect the dignity of the dead body."Meanwhile, Coptic priest Father Alkomos Abdel Maseeh said, “The dead body has sacred. A simple description of what happened [to Qadhafi’s corpse] is that it is against all norms and human rights standards.”On Saturday, in Misrata, the curious and the relieved filed for a second day through a market cold store to view the former Libyan leader's body. The spectacle is seen by some as running contrary to the laws of Islam, whereby the body should be buried as soon as possible.Muatassim Qadhafi, one of Muammar' sons, was also killed on Thursday, and his body is yet to be buried.However, Libya’s grand mufti, Sheikh Sadiq al-Ghariany, said that Qadhafi is an infidel, and that funeral prayers for him in mosques or by the Muslim public, sheikhs and scholars go against Islamic law.Ghariany said on Sunday in a fatwa – a religious opinion concerning Islamic law – and broadcast by Libyan media, that Qadhafi had gone against Islamic traditions and that his words and deeds during his reign showed that he was not a Muslim.The prevailing opinion in the Islamic world is that a Muslim cannot go against the rulings of the Quran or the Sunnah, the practices and sayings of Prophet Mohamed.Ghariany went on to say, “There is a valid reason for not praying for him, which is for him to become an example for other rulers."He added that Gaddafi "may be buried in a Muslim cemetary, washed and prayed for by his family and relatives only”.Ghariany said the former ruler “should be buried in an unmarked grave to avoid causing a rift between Libyans and so that his grave does not become a shrine."Read the full story here.HT: IsraelMatzav.

• Libya: Gaddafi to be buried in 'secret desert location'.(TheTelegraph).Gaddafi's body has been on public display in a cold storage container in Misurata alongside another son Mutassim and his army chief since they were all killed in Sirte on Thursday."He will be buried in a simple burial with sheikhs attending the burial. It will be an unknown location in the open desert," a National Transitional Council (NTC) official said, adding that the decomposition of the body had reached the point where the "corpse cannot last longer"."No agreement was reached for his tribe to take him," he added. Asked if Mutassim would be buried in the same ceremony, the official said: "Yes."Gaddafi loyalists had requested that he be buried in his hometown of Sirte, whereas officials wanted to prevent his grave becoming a loyalist shrine.Saif al-Islam, Gaddafi's anointed heir, is near Libya's borders with Niger and Algeria and planning to flee the country using a forged passport, another unnamed NTC official said on Monday night.Meanwhile, the interim rulers faced further questions over their conduct during the war to oust Col Muammar Gaddafi, after the discovery of an apparent massacre of regime supporters in rebel-controlled territory in Sirte.Human Rights Watch said 53 people appeared to have been shot dead in a hotel in the centre of the city when it was under the control of fighters from Misurata. The badly decomposed bodies, some with their hands bound behind their backs, were found in a garden of Hotel Mahari.The group called on the NTC to carry out an immediate investigation into the deaths, and was echoed last night by the US State Department, which urged Libya to uphold human rights. It called the allegations "extremely disturbing".Peter Bouckaert, emergencies director of Human Rights Watch, said: "The evidence suggests that some of the victims were shot while being held as prisoners, when that part of Sirte was controlled by anti-Gaddafi brigades who appear to act outside the control of the NTC."If the NTC fails to investigate this crime it will signal that those who fought against Gaddafi can do anything without fear of prosecution."France and the EU warned the NTC to respect human rights after Mr Jalil's speech on Sunday in which he singled out a ban on polygamy as legislation which would have to be swept aside.However, Mr Jalil said on Monday: "I would like to assure the international community that we as Libyans are Muslims, but moderate Muslims."Alain Juppe, the French foreign minister, said: "We will be watchful that the values that we defended alongside the Libyan people are respected."Hmmmm......Could it be that Saif al-Islam knows were the 'skeletons' are buried in the UK?Read the full story here.

• Updated -Libyan official says bodies of Qaddafi, son buried in secret location.(AlArabiya).A Misrata military council official says Muammar Qaddafi, his son Motassim and a top aide have been buried in a secret location, with a few relatives and officials in attendance.In a text message read to The Associated Press, spokesman Ibrahim Beitalmal is quoted as saying the burial took place at 5 a.m. Tuesday, and that Islamic prayers were read over the bodies. The information could not be independently verified.The three bodies had been held in cold storage in Misrata since Qaddafi was captured near his hometown of Sirte on Thursday. Qaddafi died in unclear circumstances within hours of his capture, and Libya’s new leaders have promised an investigation.Beitalmal has said the burial site would remain secret to prevent vandalism.An official with the National Transitional Council had said that Qaddafi would be buried on Monday “in a simple burial with sheikhs attending.”“It will be an unknown location in the open desert,” the official told Reuters by telephone, adding that the decomposition of the body had reached the point where the “corpse cannot last longer.”“No agreement was reached for his tribe to take him,” he added. Asked if Qaddafi’s son Motassim would be buried in the same ceremony, the official said: “Yes.”Read and see (video) the full story here.

• UNESCO to recognize Palestine?(YNet).The Palestinian bid for statehood may have been postponed to November but the coming days may see progress for the PA's campaign. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) will open its 26th General Conference in Paris on Tuesday. During the conference, which will end on November 10, the UN's 193 member states will vote whether to accept the PA as a full UNESCO member state. Earlier this month, UNESCO's Executive Board recommended accepting the PA as a full member state. The Palestinians now need to obtain two thirds of the votes at the General Assembly to be accepted by the UN. The Security Council is slated to discuss the matter in November and the UNESCO vote is seen as a prelude to the General Assembly. The conference has already been dubbed the "mini-assembly."Israel believes the process of recognition should be held in the Security Council and General Assembly and not in unauthorized institutions such as UNESCO. State officials have criticized the body for taking this unprecedented step. "This is beyond their jurisdiction," one state official told Ynet. "UNESCO wasn't created to decide about who is a country and who is not." Israel fears that if the PA is accepted as full UNESCO member it will promote controversial activities such as recognizing Palestinian heritage sites and embroiling Israel in the political arena. Last year, the organization determined that Rachel's Tomb was in fact a Muslim mosque. "No doubt that if they are accepted their room for maneuver will grow," a state official said.Israel also fears the UNESCO vote will set a precedence which will induce other UN bodies to recognize Palestine. The Foreign Ministry has instructed Israeli missions around the world to spread messages against the move.Education Gideon Sa'ar is set to speak before the UNESCO conference and meet with foreign officials in a bid to influence their vote. The UNESCO vote does not allow member states to abstain, but only to vote against or in favor which renders chances to block recognition unlikely. Nevertheless, the Foreign Ministry is not losing hope. Israel has received promises from several European states who said they will oppose the move in addition to the US, which is pressuring the PA to withdraw the bid. Earlier this week the New York Times reported that US legislation dating back more than 15 years mandates a complete cutoff of American financing to any United Nations agency that accepts the Palestinians as a full member. "UNESCO depends on the United States for 22 percent of its budget, about $70 million a year," the paper noted. Read the full story here.

• Syria recalls its envoy from Washington in tit-for-tat move.(Alarabiya).Syria's ambassador to the United States has been recalled to Damascus, official Al-Ikhbariya television said on Monday, amid an escalating spat that has seen Washington call home its envoy to Syria due to safety concerns.“Syria's ambassador to the United States, Imad Mustapha, will leave Washington for Damascus to hold consultations with Syrian leaders,” the report said. There were no further details.Earlier on Monday a U.S. embassy official in Damascus said that ambassador Robert Ford, an open critic of President Bashar al-Assad’s crackdown on political dissent, has left Syria indefinitely for security reasons.“Ambassador Robert Ford was brought back to Washington as a result of credible threats against his personal safety in Syria,” State Department spokesman Mark Toner said.“At this point, we can't say when he will return to Syria. It will depend on our assessment of Syrian regime-led incitement and the security situation on the ground.”Asked if the United States had any plans to expel the Syrian ambassador to Washington, Imad Moustapha, a U.S. official said: “Not at this time.”Robert Ford left Syria over the weekend following a series of incidents that resulted in physical damage but no casualties, Western diplomats told Reuters earlier.“Articles, more inciting against Ford than usual, have appeared in state media recently. He left on Saturday,” said one of the diplomats, who like others asked not to be identified due to the sensitivity of the issue.Ford, a veteran diplomat, infuriated Syria’s rulers by getting in touch with a seven-month-old grassroots protest movement demanding an end to 41 years of Assad family rule.Haynes Mahoney, the Deputy Chief of Mission at the U.S. Embassy, emphasized Monday that Washington had not formally recalled Ford, according to The Associated Press.Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different!Teen violence linked to heavy soda diet: study.(Emirates24/7).PARIS — Researchers in the United States said on Tuesday they had found a "shocking" association -- if only a statistical one -- between violence by teenagers and the amount of soda they drank.High-school students in inner-city Boston who consumed more than five cans of non-diet, fizzy soft drinks every week were between nine and 15-percent likelier to engage in an aggressive act compared with counterparts who drank less."What we found was that there was a strong relationship between how many soft drinks that these inner-city kids consumed and how violent they were, not only in violence against peers but also violence in dating relationships, against siblings," said David Hemenway, a professor at the Harvard School of Public Health."It was shocking to us when we saw how clear the relationship was," he told AFP in an interview.But he stressed that only further work would confirm -- or disprove -- the key question whether higher consumption of sweet sodas caused violent behaviour.The new study was based on answers to questionnaires filled out by 1,878 public-school students aged 14 to 18 in the inner Boston area, where Hemenway said crime rates were much higher than in the wealthier suburbs.The overwhelming majority of respondents were Hispanic, African-American or mixed; few were Asian or white.Among the questions were how much carbonated non-diet soft drink, measured in 12-ounce (355-millilitre) cans, the teens had drunk in the previous seven days.They were also asked whether they drank alcohol or smoked, carried a weapon or showed violence towards peers, family members and partner.What emerged, said Hemenway, was evidence of "dose response," in other words, the more soda was consumed, the likelier the tendency towards violence.Among those who drank one or no cans of soft drink a week, 23 percent carried a gun or a knife; 15 percent perpetrated violence towards a partner; and 35 percent had been violent towards peers.At the other end of the scale, among those who drank 14 cans a week, 43 percent carried a gun or a knife; 27 percent had been violent towards a partner; and more than 58 percent had been violent towards peers.Overall, teens who were heavy consumers of sugary fizz were between nine and 15 percentage points likelier to show aggressive behaviour compared with low consumers, even when ethnicity and other confounding factors were taken into account.This is a magnitude similar to the link found, in previously researched, with alcohol or tobacco.Hemenway said the study had included a couple of questions aimed at taking a children's home background into account, including whether the teen had taken a meal with his family in the previous days.As it was only intended as a preliminary investigation, the questionnaire did not ask what kind of sodas the teens drank, he said."This is one of the very first studies to examine" the question, said Hemenway."We don't know why (there is this strong association). There may be some causal effect but it's also certainly plausible that this is just a marker for other problems -- that kids who are violent for whatever reason, they tend to smoke more, they tend to drink more alcohol and they tend to maybe drink more soft drinks. We just don't know."We want to look at it more carefully in following studies."The study, published in a British journal, Injury Prevention, will revive memories of the "Twinkie Defence," a US legal landmark in which a killer successfully argued that his behaviour had been swayed by eating junk food.The defendant in this case, Dan White, had been charged with homicide. His lawyer's successful pleading led to conviction of a lesser charge, of voluntary manslaughter.Several studies elsewhere have established a link between very high sugar consumption and lack of social bonding or irritable and anti-social behaviour.Some diet research has also pointed the finger at the lack of micro-nutrients as a source of aggression, but this work is still in its early stages.Read the full story here.