MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.8 - 5.9 - 5.1 !More info here.

• Europe - Nuclear Event in MultiCountries situation update  on Monday, 14 November..Here.

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

• Canary Islands - El Hierro earthquake and volcano eruption – Update 21.  here , Live webcams here and here.

• BREAKING: Court Order Allows #OccupyWallStreet Back Into Zuccotti Park.(BigGovernment).The Occupy movement’s professional victims were about to have the worst day ever thanks to a few pesky things called law and order, but thankfully, rich One-Percenter lawyers stepped in to save the debt-beguiled squatters. You know what that means: ready your pens for more Rap Sheet entries.NEW YORK (AP) – The National Lawyers Guild says it has obtained a court order that allows Occupy Wall St. protesters to return with tents to a New York City park.The guild says the injunction prevents the city from enforcing park rules on Occupy Wall Street protesters.Mayor Michael Bloomberg says the city knew about the court order but has not seen it. He says the city plans to go court immediately.Zuccotti Park was cleared overnight so that crews could clean it. Bloomberg says that was done “to reduce the risk of confrontation.”He says the city had planned to allow the protesters back in the park after it was cleaned. Under the city’s plans, protesters would not be allowed to use tents, sleeping bags, or tarps and would have to follow all park rules.Hmmm.....Just let the firebrigade hoose it down with water every hour of the night.Read the full story here.

• NYPD Clearing Occupy Wall Street From Zuccotti Park in Surprise Raid.(BigGovernment).Just hours after local residents protested against Occupy Wall Street, New York Police Department officers are moving into Zuccotti Park, clearing activists (temporarily) and their tents (permanently) from the site.Police have donned riot gear and have apparently prepared special equipment, including a Long Range Acoustic Device (LRAD), for possible use in confrontations with activists.

Live feed at Breitbart.tv, and another live feed below:

Watch live streaming video from occupynyc at livestream.com

An aerial view is available here.NBC New York reports:

Hundreds of police officers, some in riot gear, descended on Zuccotti Park after midnight Tuesday in a surprise sweep of the Occupy Wall Street headquarters.It comes just two days ahead of a massive planned demonstration Thursday marking the movement’s two-month anniversary.Police handed out letters to protesters ordering them to temporarily evacuate the park. Police said the eviction will improve health conditions.Campers were ordered to remove all their tents. Police claimed it was a health issue.Protesters were told they will be allowed to return to the park in several hours, after the park is inspected, but without their property, which will be brought to a sanitation garage.On Twitter, stunned activists are calling for crowds to descend to the park to confront police and protest.

UPDATE (2:16 am EST): Activists gather their property and leave, as police remove remaining tents and equipment. An onlooker accuses officers of “complete disregard for personal belongings.”

UPDATE 2 (2:24 am EST): Twitter users claim media have been barred from the area of Zuccotti Park; the Occupy Wall Street live feed above may be one of the only sources of live images. Here is another nearby live feed:

UPDATE 3 (2:40 am EST): Thus far the NYPD’s careful tactics have apparently succeeded in clearing Zuccotti Park. Activists are regrouping in nearby streets, and may attempt to return tomorrow or to court arrest, but for many of the activists, the party seems over.Read the full story here.More pictures here.

• The Same Old 'Emperor' Obama.(RightWingNews).By David Limbaugh.President Obama’s various remarks at the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation CEO business summit in Honolulu over the weekend show he is simply incapable of growing in office. In just a few short statements, we saw many of the familiar practices through which he has alienated such a large percentage of the American people and damaged the economy.Away from his teleprompter, he treated us to further insults of Americans, his unfriendly attitude toward business and the private sector, his narcissism, and his refusal to accept responsibility for his own actions.In his Monday evening press conference from APEC, Obama showed that he can’t shake his narcissistic impulses. One would think that with all that has been written about Obama’s “me, myself and I” fixation, he would at least try to pretend to be other-directed on occasion, to show he has the capacity to think of his position as something larger than himself.In his opening remarks, he didn’t say that “we” or “Americans” want other nations to buy American-made goods, but “I want them to,” and so “I’ve been doing everything I can to make sure” we stay competitive. He didn’t say, “The United States was honored to host APEC this year,” but “I’ve been proud to host APEC this year.”When NBC’s Chuck Todd asked him to clarify his “hot mic” conversation with French President Nicolas Sarkozy, in which they both insulted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, he refused to comment, which means he refused to deny, much less apologize for offending the leader of our staunch ally, Israel, when he told Sarkozy, “You’re fed up with (Netanyahu), but I have to deal with him even more than you do.”Two days earlier — on Saturday — Obama had modified his comment in September that Americans had “gotten a little soft” in competing in international markets. At APEC, Boeing CEO Jim McNerney asked him to consider the Chinese perspective and their concern about impediments to investment in the United States. How, wondered McNerney, would he address their dissatisfaction over these obstacles?Rather than addressing the question directly, Obama deflected any responsibility for the situation and said, “We’ve been a little bit lazy, I think, over the last couple of decades. We’ve kind of taken for granted – well, people will want to come here and we aren’t out there hungry, selling America and trying to attract new business into America.”I happen to believe that comment is absurd on its face, as even my small hometown in Missouri has made great efforts to bring foreign businesses into the community, sometimes successfully. Other communities throughout the United States daily engage in a competitive effort to attract businesses into their cities and states, and for the president to characterize them as “lazy,” demonstrates he is as out of touch with Americans as he is disdainful toward them.He might consider responding to the question next time, which involved impediments to doing business that often put American companies and communities at a competitive disadvantage in attracting foreign businesses. Doesn’t Obama owe us all an answer to that question?But to answer would require Obama to account for his own deplorable economic record and his hostility toward business, the private sector and the free market. A fair, reasonable response would have included his acknowledgment of how much damage his policies have caused to the American business climate, instead of an indictment of every American besides himself.With his accelerating mounds of regulations, his imposition of Obamacare, his increased taxes, his incessant spending and the resulting jobs-challenged economy, why would foreign companies be any more excited about the Obama business climate than American businesses are?Obama’s aptly titled “Regulatory Czar,” Cass Sunstein, protests, “the annual cost of regulations has not increased during the Obama administration.” But the Heritage Foundation has called Sunstein out on that, just releasing a study showing that the administration is churning out regulations at a significantly faster pace than previous administrations. Obama recently announced reforms to eliminate burdensome, obsolete rules, but they were more hype than substance. Our regulatory costs are continuing to increase with no end in sight.While little austerity was practiced in the regulatory area during the George W. Bush era, Obama has easily outpaced his predecessor. Through the end of March 2011, Obama had piled on $40 billion in new costs to the economy, more than doubling Bush’s additions. In fiscal year 2010, Obama added $26.5 billion in costs, making it the record year for increased regulatory costs.With Obama at the helm, in economic terms, among others, we’ve got the worst of all possible worlds: a rigid commitment to policies that harm rather than help, and personality traits that prevent him from admitting, learning from and correcting his mistakes. We’ll just have to wait a little longer.Hmmmm.....America 'burns' the Emperor Golfs.Read the full story here.

• Obama Declares War On Mousepads And Coffee Mugs In Bid To Trim Government’s Excessive Spending On Swag.(DailyMail).Barack Obama is taking a scythe to souvenirs.The President has begun a war against mousepads, coffee mugs and other commemorative items in a bid to curb unnecessary government spending and tackle America’s $14trillion deficit.This week he signed an executive order directing government agencies to cut back on ‘extraneous promotional items’, which the White House says cost taxpayers billions of dollars a year.The action means the purchase of pens, cell phones and laptops will all come under investigation, with departments being urged to put together plans on how to reduce wasteful spending and increase efficiency.Mr Obama’s goal is for the executive branch to reduce expenditures by 20 per cent in areas covered by the executive order. The administrative step does not require action by Congress.‘At a time when families have had to cut back we thought that it was entirely appropriate for our governments and our agencies to try to root out waste, large and small, in a systematic way,’ Mr Obama said when signing the order which directs federal agencies to ‘limit the purchase of promotional items’ such as plaques, clothing, and commemorative gifts.He said agencies must root out waste large and small, adding that the weak economy makes those efforts even more important and requires tough choices.From logo-emblazoned baseball caps and T-shirts to branded key rings and backpacks, almost every agency has storerooms full of ’swag’ ready to be handed out to staff and visitors.In his order, Mr Obama said the stocking of such gifts must be limited, ‘in particular where they are not cost-effective’. Travel decisions, IT purchasing and printing must also be reassessed.From the education and health departments to the American Battle Monuments Commission and the CIA, all parts of the government must submit a plan with specific cost reductions within 45 days.If agencies heed the call, the administration estimates $4billion worth of savings can be made. But this equates to just 0.1 per cent of the federal budget.Already the Department of Energy has said it can save $16m by cutting back on travel, while Nasa plans to cut $17m by sending fewer workers to meetings and asking employees to share rental cars when they do go, the Financial Times reported.Some branded items are, however, excluded from the cuts, such as the jackets FBI agents wear on a raid - that is work-related, the administration says.Hmmmm.....It's still OK and highly promoted to sell objects with anything on it related to Obama's reelection.Read the full story here.

• Obama golfs with friend who was arrested in prostitution sting.(TheHill).President Obama golfed on Monday with his long-time friend Robert Titcomb, who in May plead no contest to soliciting a prostitute, according to the White House pool report.“The president’s fourball at the Mamala Bay Golf Course includes his long-time friend Robert “Bobby” Titcomb who was arrested and plead no contest in May to soliciting a prostitute, Marvin Nicholson, and White House advance man Pete Selfridge,” the report read.In April, Titcomb was arrested in Honolulu and charged with a misdemeanor for soliciting a prostitute after he approached an undercover police officer. Titcomb's attorney, William Harrison, said at the time that Titcomb did not fully agree with the facts of the case, but plead no contest because he wanted to take responsibility.He was fined $500 and the conviction was expunged from his record in October, following six months without further incident.Obama and Titcomb have been friends since attending the Punahou School together in Honolulu, according to Hawaii News Now. The two are long-time golf partners as well.Hmmm......“When the character of a man is not clear to you, look at his friends.” ~ Japanese Proverb.Read the full story here.

• Who is Obama’s Favorite Middle East Leader? An Anti-American Radical Who Loathes America and Israel.(DocsTalk).By Barry Rubin.Suppose that during the Cold War years, the American president’s favorite leader and guide to Latin America was Fidel Castro. That would worry you, right? But such a notion is ridiculous, isn’t it? Not today it isn’t. President Barack Obama can’t stand Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. In a recent statement to French President Nicholas Sarkozy, caught by a microphone both men thought was off, Obama said: "You're fed up with him, but I have to deal with him every day!"There is, however, a man who Obama loves to deal with, if not every day at least as often as possible: Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan.As Turkish expert Soner Cagaptay put it, “The United States and Turkey are on a honeymoon, with President Obama and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan having formed what is probably the best relationship between a U.S. president and a Turkish prime minister in decades…. Obama and Erdogan seem to have really hit it off…. The two leaders speak often… and frequently agree on policy.” I would also stress that Erdogan is Obama’s tutor on Middle East affairs:

--When Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and other Obama Administration officials claim that Islamists like the Muslim Brotherhood are really moderate and will be further moderated by being in power, the only example provided was that Erdogan’s regime is moderate.

--The U.S. government announced last September 11 its self-described main initiative for the tenth anniversary of the attacks on America. It was an international counterterrorist organization with Turkey as the sole co-chair. Israel was not invited to join.

--When the U.S. government wanted to put together anti-Israel tirades, which Turkey’s opposition leader has called going to the verge of war with Israel, has brought no U.S. criticism, pressure, or lessening of the Obama-Erdogan love affair.

--Despite the Turkish government’s opposition to additional sanctions on Iran last year and Erdogan’s effort to sabotage U.S. efforts by cutting a separate deal with Tehran, Obama was not perturbed.

--Erdogan’s close and supportive relationship with Hizballah and Hamas have not brought any U.S. negative reaction.

--Erdogan has publicly stated that he believes Iran is not seeking nuclear weapons and that Iranian President Ahmadinejad was his friend. Lately they haven’t been getting along so well. Why, Turkish moderation? No, Erdogan wants a Sunni Islamist regime in Syria; Ahmadinejad wants the current Damascus government which is his ally.

--The regime’s foreign minister Ahmet Davutoğlu wrote a book in Turkish saying that his plan was to move from alliance with the West to one with the Islamist world in order to fight the West. The book has never been translated and the regime has bought up copies. No Western news media has written about it. Recently, he wrote a book in English saying the regime wanted to be friends with everyone and loved the West. This has been widely reviewed and favorably discussed.

--Far from being a moderate Muslim or even a moderate Islamist, Erdogan has been carrying out the fundamental transformation of Turkey into an Islamist dictatorship.

--Under the guidance of Erdogan's regime, much of the Turkish media has been generating anti-Americanism. Polls show a huge rise in anti-American public opinion which Erdogan has augmented, not combatted.

--Among Erdogan's past statements was his famous remark that democracy is like a streetcar and you just must decide where to get off. The Turkish model is inspiring Islamists elsewhere not toward moderation but merely toward patience in implementing their programs. They participate in elections not because they believe in democracy but because they know they will win the elections and then can consolidate power and irreversibly transform their societies along the lines they wish.

--U.S. embassy reporting from Ankara, as we can see from Wikileaks, showed the radical Islamism of Erdogan’s regime on many occasions. Obama simply ignored it.He has certainly not arrived at that destination but he is well on the way. The independent power of every Turkish institution has been broken. Thousands of dissidents have been arrested and thrown into jail for years on flimsy charges. Turkey has more journalists in prison than any other country in the world. The list of oppression, repression, and Islamization goes on and on.In other words, Erdogan tells Obama that there’s nothing to fear from Islamists in places like Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and elsewhere. They are really moderates or soon will be. Of course, Erdogan doesn’t care a Smyrna fig for U.S. interests or democracy or moderation. He only wants to promote Islamism in general and Turkish leadership of the Middle East in particular.But, they say, Erdogan is now opposed to Iran. Sure, though their economic relations continue to be very strong, but only about which country would be the Islamist power in the region. If it serves his purpose, Erdogan will guide Obama into siding with the Sunni Islamists (the Muslim Brotherhood and himself) against the Shia Islamist bloc (Iran and the Syrian regime).If so, we will soon be told that the Sunni Islamists are really moderate. Just as backing them is the “best” way to combat al-Qaida, it will also be portrayed as the “best” way to defeat Iran.Erdogan is a con-man in this regard; Obama is his sucker we are their victims. As a result, nations will be enslaved (or further enslaved); the prospects for real democracy will recede, Israel will face tremendous dangers, and U.S. interests will suffer greatly.Let us, then, summarize the situation:

The president of the United States adores a radical, anti-American Islamist who supports radical terrorist groups, seeks to overthrow U.S. allies and replace them with other radical Islamist governments, and wants (no, he doesn’t say it publicly, but what do you think?) Israel wiped off the map. This is a formula for disaster. And it is precisely what we are seeing every day.Hmmmm.....I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes. ~ Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read the full story here.

• 'All Muslims should be kicked out of the military', claims leading Tennessee Republican.(DailyMail).A Republican politician has sparked religious fury by demanding all Muslims be forced out of the U.S. military.Tennessee State Representative Rick Womick claimed serving Muslims posed a significant threat and needed to be kicked out of the armed forces because their religion commands them to lie.Interviewed on Veteran's Day by the Think Progress website he said: 'Personally I don't trust one Muslim in our military because they're commanded to lie to us.'And if they really are a devout Muslim and follow the Koran and the and the Sunnah, then I feel threatened because they're commanded to kill me.'Mr Womick was attending the 'Preserving Freedom Conference hosted by the controversial group, the Sharia Awareness Action Network.Asked if he felt that serving Muslims should be 'forced out' he replied: 'Absolutely yes.'He later reasserted his opinions in an interview with the Murfreesboro Daily News adding: 'Who are we at war with?'We are at war with al-Qaeda and the Taliban, who are Muslims. It's a Catch-22. They are not allowed to kill their fellow Muslims, we're at war with Muslims. 'The only solution I see is that they not be allowed in the military.'Womick, a Baptist and member of the National Rifle Association, served as a pilot in the Air Firce during the first Gulf War.The Washington-based Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) demanded the Tennessee General Assembly rebuke Womick for his comments. But he described them as a 'radical Islamic group'.He added: 'Whatever they have to say, I choose to ignore.'Saleh Sbenaty of the Islamic Center of Murfreesboro told the Tenneseean: 'It's really sad to see Mr. Womick's comments coming on Veterans Day,' said Sbenaty.'He needs to be reminded that there are thousands of Muslims who serve and are serving (in the U.S. military), and there are many of them who gave up their lives to preserve the freedom of this country and the freedom that he is enjoying.'There are an estimated six million Muslims living in the U.S. with around 3500 serving the military and many seeing action in Iraq and Afghanistan.Mr Sbenaty added: 'Al-Qaida doesn't believe in freedom of religion.'They want to rule the world according to their views. And Mr. Womick wants to rule the United States according to his narrow vision.'In 2009 13 people were killed at Fort Hood in Texas after a Muslim officer allegedly went on a rampage yelling 'Allahu Akbar', weeks before he was due to serve in Afghanistan.Major Nidal Malik Hasan has been charged with 13 counts of murder and 32 counts of attempted murder.He is due to stand trial in March 2012.Read the full story here.

• Interview With Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi,'We Are Prepared for Everything'.(Spiegel).In an interview with SPIEGEL, Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi, 62, dismisses accusations that Iran is building a nuclear bomb as Western propaganda and accuses Tehran's enemies of waging a secret war against it. Read the full 'standard denial' story here.

• Israel - Israel's giant UAV becomes operational.(YNet).Dubbed 'world's most advanced UAV' and weighing five tons, Eitan unmanned aerial vehicle to begin operations in several months.The Air Force's largest unmanned aircraft is scheduled to begin operations within several months after eight years in development, Ynet learned. In the past it was reported that the Eitan UAV (“strong” in Hebrew) the size of a Boeing 737 was developed to reach Iran and Sudan. Several Eitan UAVs are scheduled to begin operations in the various combat sectors including Gaza and Lebanon. Eitan is 14 meters long and has 26 meter-long wings. It is able to fly for 20 hours straight at a maximum speed of 143 Knots and reach a maximum altitude of 41,000 feet. It weighs five tons and can carry up to one ton.Eitan is meant to be utilized in complex intelligence gathering missions. It has already been dubbed "the most advanced UAV in the world."The "heavy UAV," as it has been called, will also attempt to distinguish between terrorists and civilians in sensitive combat regions. "For the first time in military history we have a combatant who takes part in intercepting military targets with no direct threat to his life," Lieutenant-Colonel Ido Frumer said. "This requires a very solid ideal system and that is why we have arranged for an ethics workshop during the training course." Lieutenant Dudi, an IAF instructor added that "UAV operators are able to make life and death decisons away from the battlefield and we have taught them how to make the right decisions under pressure. On the one hand they will stick to IDF values which emphasize persistence and on the other we have stressed the importance of morality."Read the full story here. Video Here.

• IDF chief says 'major Gaza offensive' needed.(YNet)."The recent escalation and loss of life – as well as the disruption of the southern residents' daily routine – will eventually make it necessary for the army to launch a major offensive in Gaza," IDF Chief Benny Gantz told the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tuesday. Gantz said a terror cell which was recently targeted by Israeli aircraft in Rafah was conducting tests for the development of an advanced rocket-firing system. "The attack on the cell managed to delay the development of Islamic Jihad's rocket-firing system," the army chief said.Addressing the Palestinians' "frustration" over the stalled bid to win full membership of the United Nations, Gantz said "the prospect of a violent flare-up still exists." As for the plan to cut the Defense Ministry's budget, Gantz said Israel cannot allow any budget decrease to affect the army's level of preparedness.In the next conflict, he said, the army "will have to shorten the duration of the fighting as much as possible. This swiftness must be based on quality intelligence and on operating at a fast pace."The chief of staff also mentioned the August terror attack on the road to Eilat, in which eight Israelis were killed, saying the IDF's activity along the western border between Israel and Egypt has shifted from preventing infiltrations to focusing on being prepared for terror attacks. "Sinai has become an area in which the many infrastructures allow for hostile terrorist activity – both from Gaza and global Jihad – while undermining Egyptian sovereignty," he said.Gantz said he has instructed the 30 contractors working on the security fence along the Israeli-Egyptian border to pick up the pace and complete the job by the end of 2012.Read the full story here.

• Breakthrough: Israel Develops Cancer Vaccine.(DocsTalk).By Rivka Borochov.Vaxil’s groundbreaking therapeutic vaccine, developed in Israel, could keep about 90 percent of cancers from coming back.As the world’s population lives longer than ever, if we don’t succumb to heart disease, strokes or accidents, it is more likely that cancer will get us one way or another. Cancer is tough to fight, as the body learns how to outsmart medical approaches that often kill normal cells while targeting the malignant ones.Hadassah HospitalIn a breakthrough development, the Israeli company Vaxil BioTherapeutics has formulated a therapeutic cancer vaccine, now in clinical trials at Hadassah University Medical Center in Jerusalem. If all goes well, the vaccine could be available about six years down the road, to administer on a regular basis not only to help treat cancer but in order to keep the disease from recurring. The vaccine is being tested against a type of blood cancer called multiple myeloma. If the substance works as hoped — and it looks like all arrows are pointing that way — its platform technology VaxHit could be applied to 90 percent of all known cancers, including prostate and breast cancer, solid and non-solid tumors.“In cancer, the body knows something is not quite right but the immune system doesn’t know how to protect itself against the tumor like it does against an infection or virus. This is because cancer cells are the body’s own cells gone wrong,” says Julian Levy, the company’s CFO. “Coupled with that, a cancer patient has a depressed immune system, caused both by the illness and by the treatment.”The trick is to activate a compromised immune system to mobilize against the threat.A vaccine that works like a drug. A traditional vaccine helps the body’s immune system fend off foreign invaders such as bacteria or viruses, and is administered to people who have not yet had the ailment. Therapeutic vaccines, like the one Vaxil has developed, are given to sick people, and work more like a drug.Vaxil’s lead product, ImMucin, activates the immune system by “training” T-cells –– the immune cells that protect the body by searching out and destroying cells that display a specific molecule (or marker) called MUC1. MUC1 is typically found only on cancer cells and not on healthy cells. The T-cells don’t attack any cells without MUC1, meaning there are no side effects unlike traditional cancer treatments. More than 90% of different cancers have MUC1 on their cells, which indicates the potential for this vaccine.“It’s a really big thing,” says Levy, a biotechnology entrepreneur who was formerly CEO for Biokine Therapeutics. “If you give chemo, apart from the really nasty side effects, what often happens is that cancer becomes immune [to it]. The tumor likes to mutate and develops an ability to hide from the treatment. Our vaccines are also designed to overcome that problem.”For cancers in an advanced stage, treatments like chemo or surgery to remove a large tumor will still be needed, but if the cancer can be brought down to scale, the body is then able to deal with it, Levy explains. ImMucin is foreseen as a long-term strategy — a shot every few months, with no side effects — to stop the cancer from reoccurring after initial treatments, by ensuring that the patient’s own immune system keeps it under control.In parallel, the company is also working on a vaccine that treats tuberculosis, a disease that’s increasing worldwide, including in the developed world, and for which the current vaccine is often ineffective and treatment is problematic.cancerours cellBased in Ness Ziona, Vaxil was founded in 2006 by Dr. Lior Carmon, a biotechnology entrepreneur with a doctorate in immunology from the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovot. In June, Vaxil signed a memorandum of understanding to merge its activities into Sheldonco, a company traded on the Tel Aviv Stock Exchange.Read the full story here.

• Iran versus Israel travelers.(YNet).Iranians traveling to Israel could go to prison for up to five years instead of only three months, after Iran's parliament revised an existing ban for such trips.The measure apparently reflects Tehran's security concerns over archenemy Israel. Iran claims to have dismantled several purported Israeli spy rings in recent years and arrested Iranians with alleged links to Mossad.Iranian state TV on Monday reported that parliament passed a new amendment, expanding the current prison term for travel to Israel to between two and five years. Under a 1972 ban imposed by US-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi, offenders faced possible imprisonment of up to three months.At the time, the law was designed to mostly avert travel to communist countriesThe Iranian decision comes two days after a mysterious blast rocked a military base outside Tehran, killing 17 people including a senior Revolutionary Guards officer. A Western intelligence source told Time Magazine on Monday that he estimates that the Mossad was behind Saturday's explosion at the Iranian missile base. "Don't believe the Iranians that it was an accident," the official said.Read the full story here.

• Turkey has lost faith in Syria: Turkish Prime Minister Erdoğan.(HurriyetDaily).Turkish FM: We gave last chance to Syrian leadership but they did not seize it.Turkey has abandoned hope that Syria will respond to international demands to halt violence and initiate democratic reforms, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan said today."We no longer expect the Assad government to show honest, persuasive, brave and determined leadership," Erdoğan told his party's lawmakers. "No one expects him to respond to the demands of the international community anymore." Erdogan, once a close political ally and a personal friend of Syrian leader Bashar al-Assad, has for months expressed frustration at Assad's failure to listen to his people."The Syrian government is on a very dangerous and narrow path, like the edge of a knife," he told the weekly meeting. "It is our common desire for him to turn back from this path, which has a cliff at the end." Erdoğan slammed Assad over weekend attacks on Turkey's diplomatic missions in three Syrian cities."It is the honour of every country to protect foreign citizens and diplomats. Syria should understand that trying to send a message through those attacks shows weakness and ignorance," he said.Thousands of pro-regime protestors armed with knives and batons attacked Turkish diplomatic missions in the Syrian capital Damascus as well as Aleppo and Latakia on Saturday over Turkey's support for an Arab League decision to suspend Syria.Around 5,000 demonstrators smashed the windows of Turkey's honorary consulate building in Latakia and burned a Turkish flag.Turkey hailed the Arab League decision as "timely and one of common sense." On Sunday, Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu met with representatives of the Syrian opposition movement, the Syrian National Council, which was founded in Turkey in August.The council, the country's largest and most representative opposition grouping, sought permission to set up an office in Turkey. A Turkish diplomat who declined to be named said Ankara was considering the request.Read the full story here.

• "Blame it on the VODKA?" - Mystery of the 'alien corpse' woman stored in her fridge for two years (why do they all turn up in Russia?).(DailyMail).If the aliens really are landing, this latest picture seems to confirm that their first port of call on Earth will be Russia.After other claims of extraterrestrial life in Siberia, the latest reported sighting has seen a Russian women claiming to have kept a frozen alien corpse in her fridge.The mysterious 'lifeform' was reportedly kept in Marta Yegorovnam's freezer in western Russia's Petrozavodsk city for two years, while she took five pictures to prove its existence.The body, the third alien sighting in Russian in recent months, was reportedly spotted after crashing near to her summer house in 2009. She approached what appeared to be a crash site with flaming wreckage and crumpled metal which she described as 'unbearably hot'.Near the twisted hulk that Marta Yegorovnam claims was a crashed UFO lay the dead body.The being is two feet long, has an enormous head, large bulbous eyes and an appearance somewhere between a fish and a humanoid.The small creature also appears to have what looks like a string-like arm protruding from its body.Naturally, she did what most would in the same situation and stored the alien in her fridge for two years, according to Unexplained Mysteries.The website reported that two men have since turned up at her home a few days ago and confiscated the corpse for investigative purposes, claiming to be from the Karelian Research Center of the Russian Academy of Sciences.'The incredible footage was unearthed by noted paranormal writer and expert 40-year old Michael Cohen.He said: 'This could be an elaborate hoax, however the possibility that this might be a genuine alien should not be discounted,' said Michael.'Russia is a hotbed of UFO activity and possible alien craft has been tracked by both military and civilian agencies. 'In all likelihood most alien beings would look strange to us, much like this specimen.'The latest alien claim to come out of Russia comes after footage filmed in August the remote Irkutsk region of Siberia, appears to show a strange glowing craft and five aliens walking about in the snow.Hmmmm......На здоровье!Read the full story here.