MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.4 ; New Zealand 5.0 !More info here.

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

• Obama to Erdogan: 'We'll defend Turkey before we defend Israel'? (IsraelMatzav).Syrian reformist Farid Ghadry calls this story 'hard to believe,' but I would call it 'too good bad to check' because it confirms so many of the things that we have suspected about Barack Hussein Obama all along, and makes his defeat in 2012 all the more urgent. Two days ago, I heard from a very well connected Turkish friend who told me something worth writing about.He said “There is an exuberant atmosphere of narcissism rampant amongst the close advisors of Erdogan. They all believe if Turkey attacked Israel, the United States will stand by Turkey”.Is it possible the knowledge these close Erdogan advisors have is the result of President Obama, our US Commander-in-Chief, giving them that impression?If what was told to me is true, and there is no reason to doubt the sincerity and access of my friend, never did the United States favor any other Middle Eastern country over Israel. This explains fully the support the Obama Administration is giving the Islamists. It’s an indirect way for Obama to look the other way while Syria, Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and the traditional close allies of the US sweat bullets having to deal with the Muslim Brotherhood.We have a say in Arabic that goes “A cooking pan found its cover” or Tanjarah La’et Qataha, which is another way of saying “They are a perfect fit”.Is it possible the Islamist Erdogan is the cooking pan frying the region and Obama is covering for him. I don't find it hard to believe. Look how Obama has kissed up to radical Islam: The speech in Cairo, the bow to Saudi King Abdullah, his poor treatment of Israel in general and of Prime Minister Netanyahu in particular. Do I need to go on? Unfortunately, this is completely plausible.Hmmm....The one thing that binds them together is their 'love' for israel.Read the full story here.

• Arab League imposes sanctions on Syria; freezes assets, bans trade, travel.(AlArabiya).Arab foreign ministers gathered in Cairo on Sunday to vote on a list of sanctions against Syria, designed to contain President Bashar al-Assad’s regime and quash the bloody crackdown on anti-government protest.The organization has imposed a set of “unprecedented sanctions” against the regime which go into effect immediately.The sanctions include freezing of assets, a halt on dealing with Syria’s central bank and stopping investments and a travel ban on high ranking officials, Sheikh Hamad Bin Jasim Bin Jaber Al Thani told reporters today in Cairo.Thani told a news conference that the measures had been accepted, but that Iraq had abstained and would refuse to implement them, while Lebanon “disassociated itself.”Despite the Arab ministers saying that sanctions are not intended to hurt ordinary people, fears are mounting that a vote on these measures could plunge Syria deeper into economic crisis.“If that is to happen [the sanctions], it will be very unfortunate because the damage will be to all sides,” Syrian Economy Minister Mohammed Nidal al-Shaar told AFP.But he said that he did not expect all Arab countries to back the recommendation.Among those who are expected to oppose the sanctions are Syria’s immediate neighbors Lebanon, Jordan and Iraq who may be wary of damage to trade and commercial interests, or have political reservations.The vote comes after Damascus defied an ultimatum to accept observers under an Arab League peace plan and put an end to the eight-month crackdown.“Today’s meeting will focus on two issues. First approving the decisions taken by the economic council yesterday and finding a way to force them on the Syrian regime that does not let the regime find a way to skirt them,” a senior League source told Reuters.“The most important thing we are seeking is that sanctions make a difference and get implemented,” he said, asking not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.The League for decades avoided action against its 22 members but the pan-Arab body has been galvanized by pressure from Gulf Arabs already angry at Syria’s alliance with their regional rival Iran and changes brought about by Arab uprisings.Bahrain and Qatar on Sunday called on their citizens residing in Syria to leave the unrest-swept country, following a similar move by the United Arab Emirates which advised its citizens to stay away. The Gulf states issued the call on the day the Arab League was deciding on sanctions.Read the full story here.

• Muslim medical students boycotting lectures on evolution... because it 'clashes with the Koran'.(DailyMail).Muslim students, including trainee doctors on one of Britain's leading medical courses, are walking out of lectures on evolution claiming it conflicts with creationist ideas established in the Koran.Professors at University College London have expressed concern over the increasing number of biology students boycotting lectures on Darwinist theory, which form an important part of the syllabus, citing their religion.  Similar to the beliefs expressed by fundamentalist Christians, Muslim opponents to Darwinism maintain that Allah created the world, mankind and all known species in a single act.Steve Jones emeritus professor of human genetics at university college London has questioned why such students would want to study biology at all when it obviously conflicts with their beliefs.He told the Sunday Times: 'I had one or two slightly frisky discussions years ago with kids who belonged to fundamentalist Christian churches, now it is Islamic overwhelmingly.'They don't come [to lectures] or they complain about it or they send notes or emails saying they shouldn't have to learn this stuff.'What they object to - and I don't really understand it, I am not religious - they object to the idea that there is a random process out there which is not directed by God.'Earlier this year Usama Hasan, iman of the Masjid al-Tawhid mosque in Leyton, received death threats for suggesting that Darwinism and Islam might be compatible.Sources within the group Muslims4UK partly blame the growing popularity of creationist beliefs within Islam on Turkish author Harun Yahya who, influenced by the success of Christian creationists in America, has written several books denouncing Darwinist theory.Yahya associates Dawinism with Nazism and his books are and videos are available at many Islamic bookshops in the UK and regularly feature on Islamic television channels.Speakers regularly tour Britain lecturing on Yahya's beliefs.One such lecture was given at UCL in 2008 and this year's talks have been given in London, Manchester, Leeds, Dundee and Glasgow.Evolutionary Biologist and former Oxford Professor Richard Dawkins has expressed his concern at the number of students, consisting almost entirely of Muslims, who do not attend or walk out of lectures.Hmmm....."The origins of Bigot species"?Read the full story here.

• Iran: We'll fire 150,000 missiles at Israel if attacked.(YNet).Iranian Defense Minister General Ahmad Vahidi said Israel would be attacked with 150,000 missiles if it launches any military action against the Islamic Republic, the Iran Independent News Service reported Sunday.Speaking before 50,000 army volunteers in Bushehr, the minister said "Iran is not Iraq or Afghanistan, if the Americans make the mistake and attack Iran, we will show them how to fight,” adding “Israel has to be punished for what it has done to the Muslims in Palestine and Lebanon." However, according to Iranian news outlets Vahidi did not specify if the missiles would be fired from Iran or other locations.On Saturday a senior commander of Iran's powerful Revolutionary Guard said the country would target NATO's missile defense shield in Turkey if the US or Israel attacks the Islamic Republic. Gen. Amir Ali Hajizadeh, head of the Guards' aerospace division, was quoted by the semi-official Mehr news agency as saying the warning is part of a new defense strategy to counter what it sees as an increase in threats from the US and Israel. Read the full story here.

• GOP leader: Stop radical Islam in Egypt.(HTW).A top House Republican said Tuesday the primary goal of U.S. policy in Egypt should be to “stop the spread of radical Islam,” an objective that has been little mentioned by Obama administration officials in recent weeks.Majority Leader Eric Cantor, R-Va., also said at a news conference he hopes the street protests taking place in Cairo and elsewhere will lead to a democratic society that “stands for human rights, progress and equal opportunity.”In his remarks, Cantor did not criticize President Barack Obama over his handling of the two-week crisis.GOP leaders have privately urged members of the rank and file not to second-guess Obama’s approach to the crisis, in which hundreds of thousands of Egyptians have staged demonstrations demanding that President Hosni Mubarak surrender power.Asked about criticism leveled recently by another Republican lawmaker, Cantor said, it would not be “helpful for this President, who is having a tough enough time as it is, to have 535 members of Congress to opine on his conduct of foreign policy.”Yet with his remarks, which aides said were planned in advance, Cantor appeared to be articulating a different policy objective than the one Obama has spoken of most frequently.“I think the primary goal should be to stop the spread of radical Islam. That is where our focus should be,” he said.Since the protests first arose, Obama has called for a transition to a government — regardless of its leader — that grants greater freedoms than Mubarak allows in a nation of 80 million.“The future of Egypt will be determined by its people. It’s also clear that there needs to be a transition process that begins now. That transition must initiate a process that respects the universal rights of the Egyptian people and that leads to free and fair elections,” the president said late last week.Asked whether Cantor’s remarks stemmed at least in part from his position on Israel, Cantor spokesman Brad Dayspring said the majority leader “has consistently made clear that the expansion of radical Islam is a global danger and is bad for America and our allies.”Other traditional congressional supporters of Israel have also remained on the sidelines while Obama grapples with the protests in Egypt.Simultaneously, one of the most powerful lobbying organizations in Washington, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, has been largely silent on the fast-moving developments. AIPAC holds considerable sway with lawmakers and many take their lead from the group.Hmm.....Nothing in all the world is more dangerous than sincere ignorance and conscientious stupidity. ~ Martin Luther King, jr. Read the full story here.

• U.K. Foreign Office warns, Prepare for riots in euro collapse.(LondonTelegraph).British embassies in the eurozone have been told to draw up plans to help British expats through the collapse of the single currency, amid new fears for Italy and Spain.A senior minister has now revealed the extent of the Government’s concern, saying that Britain is now planning on the basis that a euro collapse is now just a matter of time.“It’s in our interests that they keep playing for time because that gives us more time to prepare,” the minister told the Daily Telegraph.Recent Foreign and Commonwealth Office instructions to embassies and consulates request contingency planning for extreme scenarios including rioting and social unrest.Diplomats have also been told to prepare to help tens of thousands of British citizens in eurozone countries with the consequences of a financial collapse that would leave them unable to access bank accounts or even withdraw cash.Fuelling the fears of financial markets for the euro, reports in Madrid yesterday suggested that the new Popular Party government could seek a bail-out from either the European Union rescue fund or the International Monetary Fund.There are also growing fears for Italy, whose new government was forced to pay record interest rates on new bonds issued yesterday.The yield on new six-month loans was 6.5 per cent, nearly double last month’s rate. And the yield on outstanding two-year loans was 7.8 per cent, well above the level considered unsustainable.Italy’s new government will have to sell more than EURO 30 billion of new bonds by the end of January to refinance its debts. Analysts say there is no guarantee that investors will buy all of those bonds, which could force Italy to default.The Italian government yesterday said that in talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy, Prime Minister Mario Monti had agreed that an Italian collapse “would inevitably be the end of the euro.”The EU treaties that created the euro and set its membership rules contain no provision for members to leave, meaning any break-up would be disorderly and potentially chaotic.If eurozone governments defaulted on their debts, the European banks that hold many of their bonds would risk collapse.Some analysts say the shock waves of such an event would risk the collapse of the entire financial system, leaving banks unable to return money to retail depositors and destroying companies dependent on bank credit.The Financial Services Authority this week issued a public warning to British banks to bolster their contingency plans for the break-up of the single currency.Some economists believe that at worst, the outright collapse of the euro could reduce GDP in its member-states by up to half and trigger mass unemployment.Read the full story here.

• PayPal’s Links to Palantir, a Metasearch Technology Used by Intelligence, Law Enforcement and Military Organizations.(Cryptogon).And guess where they’re located? That’s right: Facebook’s former building.I couldn’t make it up if I tried.Via: Bloomberg: An organization like the CIA or FBI can have thousands of different databases, each with its own quirks: financial records, DNA samples, sound samples, video clips, maps, floor plans, human intelligence reports from all over the world. Gluing all that into a coherent whole can take years. Even if that system comes together, it will struggle to handle different types of data—sales records on a spreadsheet, say, plus video surveillance images. What Palantir (pronounced Pal-an-TEER) does, says Avivah Litan, an analyst at Gartner (IT), is “make it really easy to mine these big data sets.” The company’s software pulls off one of the great computer science feats of the era: It combs through all available databases, identifying related pieces of information, and puts everything together in one place.Depending where you fall on the spectrum between civil liberties absolutism and homeland security lockdown, Palantir’s technology is either creepy or heroic. Judging by the company’s growth, opinion in Washington and elsewhere has veered toward the latter. Palantir has built a customer list that includes the U.S. Defense Dept., CIA, FBI, Army, Marines, Air Force, the police departments of New York and Los Angeles, and a growing number of financial institutions trying to detect bank fraud. These deals have turned the company into one of the quietest success stories in Silicon Valley—it’s on track to hit $250 million in sales this year—and a candidate for an initial public offering. Palantir has been used to find suspects in a case involving the murder of a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement special agent, and to uncover bombing networks in Syria, Afghanistan, and Pakistan. “It’s like plugging into the Matrix,” says a Special Forces member stationed in Afghanistan who requested anonymity out of security concerns.Palantir’s engineers fill the former headquarters of Facebook along University Avenue in the heart of Palo Alto’s main commercial district. Over the past few years, Palantir has expanded to four other nearby buildings as well. Its security people—who wear black gloves and Secret Service-style earpieces—often pop out of the office to grab their lunch, making downtown Palo Alto feel, at times, a bit like Langley.The origins of Palantir go back to PayPal, the online payments pioneer founded in 1998. A hit with consumers and businesses, PayPal also attracted criminals who used the service for money laundering and fraud. By 2000, PayPal looked like “it was just going to go out of business” because of the cost of keeping up with the bad guys, says Peter Thiel, a PayPal co-founder.Read the full story here.

• Obama Policies Endanger World, Could Propel Mideast War.(DocsTalk).Three years of President Barack Obama’s policies have made the world a more perilous place, aggravating a Mideast situation that could result in an all-out war with a nuclear-armed Iran, Frank Gaffney tells Newsmax.TV.“The world will become substantially more dangerous” if the evisceration of the U.S. military, the undermining of American allies — notably Israel — and the emboldening of its enemies continues under the Obama administration, said Gaffney, the founder and president of the Center for Security Policy“All of these things really are adding inexorably to the dynamic that . . . war can be taken safely with the United States standing on the sidelines rather than being the reliable ally of Israel that has helped deter such conflicts in the past,” Gaffney said in the exclusive Newsmax interview.“There’s been a further, if you will, gathering of the storm clouds . . . that only further reinforces my concern that, probably before the next election, you may see this break out in way that results in a regional cataclysm,” Gaffney said. “The next year may prove even more problematic. Were the president to be completely unrestrained by the necessity of being re-elected, I feel that far more damage might be done in several different areas.”Among his concerns are the establishment of Shariah in Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, and Syria; the rise of Hezbollah in Lebanon; and the strengthening of Hamas in Gaza.“Whether we’re likely to see a caliphate emerge any time soon, I don’t know,” Gaffney said. “We’re certainly seeing people who aspire to that goal, believing more and more and more that they will accomplish it.”His primary concern remains the Iranian nuclear weapons program.“I don’t think anything will dissuade the Iranians from fulfilling their longstanding objective of obtaining nuclear weapons,” he said. “They’ll have to be stopped.”There is a strong likelihood that Iran will develop a nuclear weapon before the next election, he said.“My guess is that, if it’s not matter of weeks off, it may be months at most, and the trouble is, we don’t know, and we may not know until either there’s a nuclear test or there’s a nuclear explosion,” he said.Gaffney offered two strategies to thwart nuclear Iran:

1. The United States could help the Iranian people succeed in overthrowing “a regime that they detest and that has ruinously misruled them for so long.”
2. Another country could use military force to disrupt or destroy the nuclear program.

“Sanctions, I don’t think, are going to help in either of those respects,” he said. “They certainly haven’t to date.”When asked whether Israel would be the first to strike Iran, Gaffney replied: “Whether Israel will do it remains to be seen. There’s talk, and my experience tells me that when there’s talk, that usually means there’s not going to be action. But I think there’s no doubt that the Israelis increasingly recognize that what is happening with ineffective sanctions, with an America that is not taking the lead or, worse, is actually trying to engage the mullahs of Iran is that an existential threat to the Jewish state is becoming ever more of an imminent peril.”When asked whether the United States would support Israel if the country struck first, Gaffney answered, “Under the Obama administration, it seems exceedingly unlikely that there will be any kind of support for the Israelis should they decide, actually, to go for it with Iran. My guess is the Israelis are going to be very leery of sharing with us information about what we’re doing out of a concern that the Obama administration would, at a minimum, feel constrained to discourage them from doing so and may actually take more direct steps to prevent them from being able to execute such a strike.”Read the full story here.

• Arab Winter.(DocsTalk).By Michael Youssef.After making numerous phone calls and speaking to many Christian leaders in Egypt this week, I have learned that what is really happening on the ground is far removed from the television reporters’ happy endorsement of democracy seekers. To describe what is really going on around the country as “barbaric” would be an understatement. While some of the protestors may be true democracy lovers, the widespread terrorism on display defies all human decency.The truth about recent events in Egypt reveals that the country has disintegrated into a total anarchy and barbarianism that would make the Vikings blush.Peaceful Christians are being beheaded in their own homes. Their possessions are being carried off as police either stand helplessly by or, for a portion of the booty, turn a blind eye. And surprise, surprise! Nearly all the victims of beheadings were Christians killed by Muslim fundamentalists. Not only are the Egyptian Islamists poised to take over the country next Monday if the election is held as scheduled, but these acts of terrorism are serving as propaganda tools to “prove” that they and they alone can bring order to the country with their Sharia law. So, for now at least, these terrorist acts reinforce their cause and agenda.So much for President Obama’s “Arab Spring.” When history books are written truthfully, they will reveal that the President’s speech in Cairo, one he insisted the Islamists attend, set this barbarism in motion. Another misstep by President Obama was his demand that his ambassador in Cairo negotiate with what, at the time, was an outlawed entity known as the “Muslim Brotherhood.” This gave the Islamist group a huge comfort level in their push to take over.While I cannot enter into the man’s heart or know his motive, I do wonder how Mr. Obama can sleep at night knowing that his misguided foreign policy emboldened pro-Islamists and caused the deaths of thousands of innocent people.It gives me no comfort to say, “I told you so.” But back in January of this year, I warned of such mayhem taking root in Egypt.Indecisive leadership kills innocent people and causes disasters. Take President Jimmy Carter’s vacillating support for the Shah of Iran. In one breath, Carter would support the beleaguered leader, and in the next, he would praise the Iranian Revolution. That indecisiveness led to 52 Americans being taken hostage for 444 days inside the U.S. Embassy in Tehran.It is precisely the same kind of vacillation and accommodation on the part of Mr. Obama that has emboldened the Islamists around the world. As a result, we have seen jihadist-led bloodbaths from Yemen to Syria and from Libya to Egypt.On a positive note, it is not too late for Mr. Obama to admit he was wrong and change his policy. In fact, it would be very courageous for him to say, “I was wrong about the Islamists.” Then he could reverse his policy of accommodation, fire his Islamist advisers in the White House and the State Department and start anew — with a clean slate of truthfulness and honesty. Until then, we can only wait, hope and pray.Michael Youssef, PhD is an Egyptian-born American and founding rector of The Church of The Apostles. His messages are broadcast 3800 times a week into 200 countries through Leading The Way Ministries.Read the full story here.

• IDF commander estimates Lebanese army will join Hezbollah in next conflict against Israel.(YNet).A mysterious blast in a Hezbollah depot in South Lebanon rocked the relatively quiet northern sector this week prompting reports that Israel was behind the explosion. On the other side of the border, the IDF is ready for any development which may involve Hezbollah or even the Lebanese Armed Forces (LAF). Commander of the Herev Battalion Lieutenant-Colonel Shadi Abu Fares oversaw a drill simulating border clashes earlier this week. Abu Fares says that Lebanese troops deployed on the border prevented pro-Palestinian protesters from approaching the border fence on Naksa Day last June, but are unlikely to flee to the north in the next conflict."It is our estimate that they will take part in the fighting. They are regarded as the enemy. We have no intention of opening fire at them and they are aware of their responsibilities on the border," Abu Fares told Ynet.Tensions between Israel and the LAF have grown in the past year and a half, as Lebanon moved from pro-Western rulers to a Hezbollah-affiliated regime. Last August, an IDF patrol driving along the border was attacked. Some Lebanese reports claimed that a Lebanese soldier was injured in the incidence which occurred exactly one year after Lieutenant-Colonel Dov Harari was killed in a fire exchange on the border.No other battalion is as familiar with the Lebanese border as the Druze Battalion. Its combatants have spent the last decade deployed in the area.But even they cann't predict what shape the next conflict will take. "The main scenario we are preparing for is one of infiltration which also entails an abduction threat," Lt. Col. Abu Fares says. "The war has greatly deterred Hezbollah and Nasrallah is still hiding in bunkers fearing a targeted killing. Since the war Hezbollah has not fired one shot but its men are still hidden on the line."Read the full story here.

• Iranian passenger planes dodging international sanctions by refuelling in U.K. Kent.(DailyMail).Iranian planes banned from refuelling in countries that have economic ties with the U.S. are dodging the sanctions by filling up at a privately owned airport in Kent.The Iran Air flights are allowed to land at Heathrow however they are not able to refuel for the journey home at any airport that has trade links with the U.S.Owners of the UK's smallest airport, in Manston, Kent - a former RAF base in the Second World war- have struck up a deal to supply the planes that carry up to 266 passengers with the fuel they need.Owned by New Zealand company Infratil, Manston airport have insisted that the arrangement does not breach the economic sanctions imposed by the U.S..A spokesman told the Sunday Express: 'We are complying with all the regulations laid down by the Civil Aviation Authority. There is no reason why we shouldn't do it.'As a small airport we have to do business where we can. We have flight from Iran Air refuelling on a regular basis.'Infratil which also earns an airport in Glasgow made a loss of £6million last year.The sanctions which affect Western Europe were imposed over safety after fears that Iran is developing nuclear weapons.Oil giants BP and Shell are refusing to service Iranian jets at Heathrow while the UK has announced that all credit and financial institutions to cease trading with Iran.A spokesman for the Civil Aviation Authority told the newspaper: 'We don't get involved in the politics of whether it is right for the planes to land there because of sanctions in place in the UK.'Read and see the full story here.

• Syrian dissidents say activist journalist's pregnant wife kidnapped in Egypt.(Bikyamasr).CAIRO: Mona El-Gharib, an Egyptian 25-year-old pregnant student at al-Azhar University and wife of a Syrian dissident was reported to be kidnapped in Cairo on Friday afternoon.Thaer El-Nashef, her Syrian husband, was informed of the kidnapping through an anonymous text message, Ammar Qurabi, head of the National Organization for Human Rights in Syria, said.“We have your wife and we are going to sexually assault her so that you learn how not to insult your masters again,” El-Nashef cited the text message.According to El-Nashef, she left their home in Mohandessin to visit her parents nearly two miles away. But she never got there.El-Nashef is a journalist and serves as a TV anchor for several networks, including January 25 TV, which was launched after the revolution to topple Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak.Until 2006, he had worked as a correspondent for Syria’s state-agency SANA. Since 2007, he has been living in Egypt, appearing often on Egyptian TV-shows, discussing the uprisings and being a vocal opponent of the regime.In recent weeks, several reports have cited kidnappings and the disappearance of Syrian citizens.In Lebanon, where thousands of Syrians have crossed in order to escape unrest in their country, Prime Minister Najib Mikati confirmed in an interview on November 4 that opposition figures from Syria had been kidnapped in Lebanon.According to CNN, the US State Department announced this summer that “it had received reports that Syrian mission personnel had been conducting video surveillance of people participating in peaceful demonstrations in the United States.”As he had been receiving other threats from Syrian agents for weeks, El-Nashef blames the Syrian intelligence operating in Egypt for the kidnapping.While protesters are gathering at the Syrian Embassy, the Egyptian police is currently trying to find out the origin of the text messages.Although Al-Nashef said he received further text messages, including one that threatened that his wife would be raped, and another saying his wife would be killed if he went to the media with the story, he has filed a complaint about the kidnapping.Syria is facing mounting international pressure to end a bloody crackdown on an uprising against the rule of President Bashar Assad. More than 3,500 people have been killed so far and the Arab League was meeting Saturday to consider the possibility of sweeping economic sanctions.The Syrian Embassy in Egypt issued a statement in which it strongly denied the claim, calling it “lies fabricated by Syrian dissidents in Egypt” seeking to harm Syrian-Egyptian relations.Read the full story here.

• Hugo Chavez Brings First Shipment of Gold to Venezuela From Foreign Vaults as Global Economy Slides.(BlacklistedNews).By Madison Ruppert – Editor of End the Lie.In August Venezuela’s President Hugo Chavez announced that he would be repatriating the foreign-held gold reserves in American and European banks and they received the first shipment of gold from European countries on Friday.The Venezuelan central bank reports that about $300 million in gold was brought in to Caracas by plane and they plan to bring 160 tons held abroad back to Venezuela.The president of the central bank, Nelson Merentes said that the first shipment came from “various European countries” by way of France and called the arrival of the gold bullion a “historic” moment for his country, according to the Wall Street Journal.Hugo Chavez said, “Now [the gold] will go to a place from which it should have never left: the central bank vaults [in Caracas]; not those in London or in Europe, but our own land.”This is likely quite a good move as Western banks are becoming increasingly exposed to massive amounts of derivatives and sovereign debt crises that are wracking several economies.These crises very well might be engineered by central banks and their “too big to fail” cronies just as the crash in 2008 was, and Chavez might preempting a possible gold run by demanding physical delivery of his gold now before there is no gold to deliver.While Merentes would not give the specific number of tons of gold brought shipped to Venezuela on Friday, he said that the shipment was worth roughly $300 million.This comes as U.S. stocks see the worst Thanksgiving drop since 1932 and all indicators show the European sovereign debt crisis continuing to worsen.Chavez’s repatriation of gold reserves is part of his initiative to nationalize the Venezuelan gold sector, something which the Wall Street Journal says “puzzled economists.”The Wall Street Journal published speculation that it could have to do with internal arbitration cases involving nationalizations and Venezuela seeking to prevent having their assets seized abroad.They claim that it reduces transparency and would “raise more questions over the central bank’s declining reserves.”How exactly they know the status of the reserves is not said, and Venezuelan figures posit a much more logical explanation for the move.Venezuelan officials said that they were seeking to minimize exposure to the overly indebted Western economies of the United States and Europe, while leveraging the high price of gold that only seems to be rising.They also said that they were seeking to invest in developing allies like Russia and China which have also been investing in the Venezuelan economy and continue to grow at rates not seen in the West.There has also been a steady attack on Chavez coming from the United States and the West in general so his choice to demand his gold now prevents Western nations from seizing his assets held abroad as they did to Gaddafi.The Wall Street Journal does seem to be able to pin down a number of how much gold Venezuela actually has.First they say that before Friday, Venezuela held nearly $11 billion worth of gold, or 211 tons, out of 365 tons of reserves stored in banks in the United States, Canada and Europe.According to the World Gold Council, Venezuela holds the 15^th-largest gold reserves and Chavez said, “It’s the economic reserve for our kids. It’s growing, and it’s going to keep growing, both gold and economic reserves.”The signs are not looking good and Chavez demanding physical delivery of his gold just reflects the global awareness that something is seriously wrong with the world economy and it is not getting better any time soon.Hmmm....Better to hold one bird in your hand, than ten birds in the sky.Read the full story here.

• Arab league plan to freeze assets, impose travel ban on senior officials and halt commercial flights to Syria.(Ynet).Arab states plan to cut commercial ties with Syria's government and freeze its assets as they step up pressure to end months of political violence in the country, a draft document to be discussed by Arab ministers on Sunday showed. The sanctions would also include a travel ban on senior Syrian officials and a halt to commercial flights to the country, according to the Arab League document seen by Reuters on Saturday.Dealings with Syria's central bank would be halted, it said, but basic commodities needed by the Syrian people would be exempted from the list of sanctions.The document, drawn up by the Arab League's Social and Economic Committee at a preparatory meeting in Cairo in Saturday, would need to be ratified by ministers before coming into force.Damascus missed a Friday deadline to agree an Arab League proposal to send monitors to Syria, where the United Nations says 3,500 people have been killed in the eight-month uprising against President Bashar Assad.The Arab League turned against Assad this month, suspending Syria's membership of the regional body in a surprise move that broke with months of low-key diplomacy.The draft document said Arab states would freeze the financing of projects on Syrian territory and Arab central banks would monitor bank transfers and letters of credit to make sure they comply with the sanctions. Remittances sent home by Syrians working abroad would not be blocked."It is important that the international community move to resolve this problem and deliver a powerful message to the Syrian government," said Turkish Deputy Prime Minister Ali Babacan, who was invited to attend Saturday's committee meeting.He said the sanctions must not affect the daily life of Syria's people or threaten their most basic needs such as access to water."We know that the Arab League during its meetings today and tomorrow will take strong decisions to stop the violence in Syria," said Babacan.The Arab League suspended Syria's membership two weeks ago over Damascus' violent crackdown on dissent and its failure to implement the League's plan to end the unrest, Voice of America reported.Read the full story here.

• “Unity turns PA into terror-entity” Israeli deputy FM Ayalon said Saturday.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Israeli Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon Saturday slammed newly re-found Palestinian unity, saying that a Fatah-Hamas unity government would “turn the Palestinian Authority into a terror entity.”“Such a move will deal a debilitating blow to the changes of reaching a settlement,” he said, adding that the foreign ministry is looking into the possibility of “cutting off Gaza’s infrastructure from Israel completely.”After a meeting in Cairo on Thursday, Hamas and Fatah stated to have reached agreements to finally end the rivalry that split the West Bank and Gaza into separate administrations under each party in 2007.After the meeting, they communicated to have reached complete agreements on the way forward, and that elections for a unity government will be coming up shortly.Prior to the Cairo meeting, Ahmed Youssef, former political adviser of Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh, announced an agreement that the next Palestinian government will be based in Gaza. The next prime minister may also be a resident of Gaza, he added.Such statements have further angered Israeli leadership, who fiercely oppose Hamas and has consequently refused to negotiate with the Islamist group.However, this does not mean unity talks will be dismantled.“The threats (by the Israeli government) reassure us that we are taking the right track … the Palestinian people can’t be angered or frightened when they do anything that serves their interest,” Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal told reporters.“Why would we be worried while the enemy practices tyranny against the Palestinian people indiscriminately on a daily basis?” he said.Israeli Minister of Public Diplomacy and Diaspora Affairs Yuli Edelstein added to the critic of the deal.As Meshaal and Abbas were discussing the reconciliation in Cairo, he said the unity plans prove that “Abbas is accepting Hamas’ aggressiveness and terrorist ways against Israel and supporting the murder of innocent civilians.”“From today the Authority is a terror group with all its implications. Abbas has chosen to escalate the conflict between Israel and the Palestinians and the consequences of the partnership with Hamas will be disastrous to the entire region,” he added.The Israeli government is currently withholding Palestinian tax revenues, money that the Palestinian Authority is in urgent need of to function as a governing authority.The money has been frozen since the PA was accepted into UNESCO last month, as Israel also subsequently cut all funding to the UN body. Prime Minister to Abbas’ government, Salam Fayyad, vowed to step down from his post earlier this month to welcome Hamas’ demands for a new PM if unity was to materialize.Friday, Fayyad slammed Israeli withholding of Palestinian funds.“This is our money,” he said, repeating his proposal to step down.The former rival factions met in Cairo Wednesday to discuss further efforts to conclude a unity deal that has been waiting to be ratified since May when an interim leadership should have formed to prepare for elections.However, the process has been obstructed as the parties couldn’t agree on ministers to appoint for the interim government, and President Abbas appointed current Prime Minister Salam Fayyad who was rejected by Hamas.Since the recent Cairo meeting, the parties have scheduled to meet again in December in order to “activate the leadership framework” of Palestinian factions to take part in the way forward.Hmmm....The Obama regime paying terrorists their 'wages' with U.s. taxpayer money.Read the full story here.

• Editorials in Pakistani Dailies Voice Concern Over Persecution of Hindus in Pakistan.(Memri).On November 7, 2011, the first day of the Eid al-Adha celebrations in Pakistan, three doctors belonging to the minority Hindu community were shot dead in Pakistan's Shikarpur town following a dispute over a Muslim dancing girl. According to Ramesh Kumar, the chief of Pakistan Hindu Council, the dispute erupted after local Hindu boys brought a Muslim dancing girl to the area. Following complaints from local Muslims, policemen raided the house where the Muslim girl had been dancing and arrested four Hindu boys. Later, elders from the two communities agreed to resolve the dispute after the three-day Eid al-Adha celebrations, but before the matter could be resolved, armed men shot dead the three doctors. The Hindu community has held protests in the Sindh province.The Hindu doctors' killing has highlighted the growing persecution of Hindu minority in Pakistani society, especially by Islamic extremists. Hindus constitute only about two percent of the population in the predominantly Islamic nation of Pakistan. In September 2011, the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), a non-governmental organization, warned against the continuing persecution of Hindus and expressed concern over kidnappings of Hindus for ransom and their forced conversion to Islam.Tahir Hussain and Zahoor Shahwani of the HRCP told journalists that the situation is serious in Baluchistan province, where dozens of Hindus were kidnapped in recent years for ransom. "Many Hindus have now stopped sending their children to school because of a lack of security. Traders, doctors and retailers are being kidnapped or threatened [in Baluchistan]," stated a Pakistani media report. In Pakistan's other provinces, especially Sindh and Punjab, similar reports have revealed a pattern in the persecution of Hindus, which show widescale prevalence of ransom and forced conversion into Islam. In December 2010, the Urdu daily Roznama Jasarat reported that 27 Hindu families from Pakistan had filed requests for political asylum before the High Commission of India in Islamabad. In October 2010, a committee of the Pakistani Senate expressed concern over reports that Hindu girls in the country's Sindh province were being abducted and converted to Islam by force.In editorials, excerpted below, several Pakistani newspapers expressed concern over the Hindu doctors' killing, which is being seen as part of a continuing pattern of violence against minorities in Pakistan. "A recent study by the U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom found that hatred for Hindus is instilled in official Pakistani textbooks. The study said that 'Hindus are repeatedly described as extremists and eternal enemies of Islam whose culture and society is based on injustice and cruelty.' From a young age, Pakistanis are taught that being Hindu equates to being Indian, while the cultural and economic role played by the community in Pakistan is ignored."Repression against the Hindu community is especially acute in Sindh. In recent years, young Hindu girls have been kidnapped and forced into marriage after being unwillingly converted to Islam. Local clerics claim that the girls willingly converted and so no crime was committed. In fact, they welcome the supposed 'conversions' for bringing more people to the Muslim fold. "In Baluchistan, too, where Hindus have been part of the community for centuries, they are now being forced to flee out of fear for their lives. All of this is taking place with officials turning a blind eye, even if they are not actually sanctioning it. The hope would be that the murders on Eid would be the last straw. Unfortunately, the history of violence against Hindus would make that diagnosis far too optimistic."Following the doctors' killings, the editors of the liberal newspaper Dawn observed in an editorial titled "Hate Crime:""The events that led to the murder... of three doctors belonging to the Hindu community in a town near Shikarpur remain shrouded in mystery as conflicting details have emerged in the press. It is irrelevant whether the Muslim girl at the center of the murders was an entertainer or simply someone in love with a Hindu man. The offence committed had all the trappings of a hate crime which was rightly denounced by the highest in the government, Sindh's opinion leaders, nationalist parties and civil society. "It appeared a case of the perpetrators making a horrible example of the members of the minority community in a bid to further push the Hindu community to the wall, with a view to keeping in place the social apartheid practiced against it. Unfortunately, as reported by Hindu leaders, there has emerged a pattern in the rising number of cases of kidnapping for ransom, forced conversions and violence against the community over the past few years."The perpetrators comprise Islamic extremists who see nothing wrong in forcibly converting or harassing the minority community, totally disregarding the deep-rooted culture of peaceful coexistence that has been the hallmark of Sindhi society for centuries."In January 2011, courageous Pakistani lawmaker Marvi Menon, who earlier this year resigned her membership of the parliament, wrote an article, criticizing the growing anti-Hindu violence in Pakistani society, stating:  "It's not easy these days being a Hindu in Pakistan. The number of cases of members of the Hindu community being kidnapped for ransom is on the rise, both in Sindh and in Baluchistan. While recently attending a meeting of the National Assembly's Standing Committee for Law and Justice, I realized that a stringent law was already in place under which a person convicted of this offence could be sentenced to life in prison or even death. As usual, the discussion revolved around the fact that while we had good laws, they were not being implemented."Personally, I am against capital punishment – and the logic is quite straightforward: since we don't give life, we have no right to take it away. And hence life imprisonment is acceptable but not capital punishment. However, the rise in cases of kidnapping, often of children, has altered this view. Those who kidnap people for ransom need to be dealt with a heavy hand – more so because in Pakistan where we hardly ever see anyone punished for this crime. "In August, before the floods hit [the province of] Sindh, I visited a Hindu Sindhi family in [the town of] Kashmore whose six-year-old had been kidnapped. The mother's [mental] state was enough to convince me to press for severe punishment as a deterrent to stop this kind of crime."I was told that Hindus were being targeted because, by and large, they lacked political clout and made for easier targets. Furthermore, those involved in kidnapping for ransom often had connections to powerful people, and this explained why, in most instances, the kidnappers were never caught."The tragedy is that as a result of these kidnappings, many Hindu families have migrated to India. After all, it is better to live in another country than in perpetual fear. This is the biggest failure of the so-called Islamic Republic of Pakistan – that its minorities don't feel safe on their own soil...."Hmmmm.......The religion of peace.Read the full story here.

• BPA being absorbed from canned food: study.(GlobeAndmail).Is it safe to eat canned foods?That’s a question worth asking after a new study found a huge spike in urinary levels of the chemical bisphenol A – commonly known as BPA – in a group of volunteers who ate canned vegetable soup for several days. BPA, which has been linked to a variety of health disorders, is used in the lining of many food and beverage cans.The results suggest BPA is being absorbed by the canned food and then ingested by consumers.“We were very surprised by the numbers,” said the senior author of the study, Karin Michels of Harvard Medical School in Boston. “It makes you feel a little uneasy about cans.”The experiment involved 75 participants. Half of them were asked to eat a 12-ounce bowl of canned vegetable soup at lunch for five consecutive days. After a two-day break, they consumed the same-sized serving of fresh vegetable soup for five lunches in a row. The other volunteers did the experiment in the reverse order – starting with five days of fresh soup, followed by five lunches of canned soup.Urine samples were collected on several occasions, usually a few hours after the noon-time meal.The analysis revealed that when participants ate the canned soup they experienced more than a 1,000 per cent increase in their urinary concentrations of BPA, compared to when they dined on fresh soup.The study, published this week in the Journal of American Medical Association, represents one of the first attempts to measure BPA urine levels soon after the consumption of canned foods.Even so, the study raises more questions than it answers. Because all urine samples were collected the same time of day, the researchers can’t say how high the BPA levels rose. Nor can they say how quickly the BPA was excreted from the body. Plus, a lot more research is needed to determine the long-term health effects from this type of exposure.Although the team investigated only canned vegetable soup, the researchers suspect they would find similar results with other canned food and possibly canned beverages as well.Hmmm.....In Canada BPA has been banned in Baby bottles on September 2010.In the European Union and Canada, BPA use is banned in baby bottles.Read the full story here.