MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Fiji 5.2 !More info here.

• Russia submerges nuclear submarine to douse blaze.(Reuters).MURMANSK - Russia said it had won the battle with a raging blaze aboard a nuclear submarine on Friday by submerging the stricken vessel at a navy shipyard after hours of dousing the flames with water from helicopters and tug boats.There was no radiation leak, authorities said.Television pictures showed a giant plume of smoke above the yard in the Murmansk region of northern Russia as over 100 firemen struggled to douse flames which witnesses said rose 10 metres (30 feet) above the Yekaterinburg submarine."The fire has been localised," Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu told officials who were leading the firefighting effort from an emergencies control room in Moscow more than nine hours after the blaze began at 1220 GMT on Thursday.Shoigu's comments indicate the fire was still burning but that efforts to partially sink the submarine at the dock had succeeded in reducing the intensity of the flames.Russia said the nuclear reactor had been shut down and all weapons had been removed from the 167-metre (550 feet) Yekaterinburg, which launched an intercontinental ballistic missile from the Barents Sea at a firing range thousands of miles away in Kamchatka as recently as July."Radiation levels are normal," a spokeswoman for the Emergencies Ministry said. "No one was injured."After hours of trying to put out the flames, officials decided to partially submerge the hull of the 18,200-tonne submarine at the Roslyakovo dock, one of the main dockyards of Russia's northern fleet 1,500 km (900 miles) north of Moscow.Local media reports were vague, but the blaze was believed to have started when wooden scaffolding caught fire during welding repairs to the submarine, which had been hoisted into a dry dock.The submarine can carry 16 ballistic missiles, each with four warheads. Its nuclear reactor was not damaged in the fire and Russian navy submarine reactors are built to withstand enormous shocks and high temperatures."The reactor has been shut down and does not pose any danger," Interfax news agency quoted a source at navy headquarters as saying.Read the full story here.Blaze at Russian nuclear submarine Yekaterinburg; video from the scene here.

• Radical Islamist cleric and longtime Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Yusuf al-Qaradawi a Key Mediator in U.S.-Taliban Talks.(IPT).Radical Islamist cleric and longtime Muslim Brotherhood spiritual guide Yusuf al-Qaradawi serves as a "key mediator in secret talks between the U.S. and the Taliban," according to unnamed government sources referenced in a report published late Wednesday in The Hindu.In early December, the report said, "Qaradawi helped draw a road map for a deal between the Taliban and the United States, aimed at giving the superpower a face-saving political settlement ahead of its planned withdrawal from Afghanistan." The United States is expected to begin pulling out of Afghanistan in 2014.The Qaradawi-brokered deal calls for significant American commitments, including "the release of prisoners still held by the United States at Guantanamo Bay, the lifting of United Nations sanctions on its leadership and its recognition as a legitimate political group." In return, the Hindu's sources say, the Taliban would be "expected to sever its links to transnational organisations like al-Qaeda, end violence and eventually share power with the Afghan government."If true, the report raises significant questions about American strategy in the talks and the enhancement of a radical cleric's stature.Qaradawi repeatedly has lashed out against Jews, glorifying violence against them and calling for Allah to "count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one." In 2009, he prayed for the chance to kill a Jew before dying. He has readily encouraged suicide bombing as "the greatest of all sorts of Jihad in the Cause of Allah." And, perhaps most troubling when considering the nature of the talks, Qaradawi actively supported the killing of U.S. servicemen and women, writing in 2003:"Those killed fighting the American forces are martyrs given their good intentions since they consider these invading troops an enemy within their territories but without their will…Although they are seen by some as being wrong, those defending against attempts to control Islamic countries have the intention of Jihad and bear a spirit of the defense of their homeland."None of this should come as a surprise to U.S. officials. In September, Wikileaks released U.S. diplomatic cables showing, among other things, the government's awareness of the Doha-based cleric's support for "martyrdom operations" and the Iraqi insurgency.Hmmmm.....How 'deep' has the Muslim Brotherhood infiltrated the 'Obama administration'?Read the full story here.

• MF Global Chief Who Oversaw Missing $1.2 Billion Also Top EPA Financial Adviser.(BigGovernment).The same man who oversaw MF Global’s $1.2 billion in missing funds, Bradley I. Abelow, is also currently listed on the Environmental Protection Agency’s website as the current chairman of the EPA’s Financial Advisory Board.From the Washington Times: During two days of recent congressional hearings into how as much as $1.2 billion disappeared from MF Global customer accounts, the chief operating officer of the imploding investment firm responded again and again that he did not know.Yet as the House and Senate interrogated Bradley I. Abelow and other top executives at MF Global Holdings Ltd., lawmakers did not mention Mr. Abelow’s role as a financial adviser for the Environmental Protection Agency, which as of Tuesday listed him as the chairman of its financial advisory board. Even as he finds himself the public face of a bankruptcy and admitted to lawmakers that he had no idea how client funds disappeared, Congress and the administration have voiced no public concern about Mr. Abelow’s role advising the $8.6 billion government agency on its finances.Mr. Abelow also served as former New Jersey Governor Jon Corzine’s chief of staff before Mr. Corzine went on to become MF Global’s CEO. Interestingly, current EPA Administrator Lisa Smith also previously served as then-Gov. Corzine’s chief of staff. Whether the Corzine connection played any role in Mr. Abelow’s appointment to the chairmanship of the EPA’s Financial Advisory Board is as yet unclear.Mr. Abelow, who as recently as July 2011 appears to have donated $30,800 in campaign donations to the Democratic National Committee and $5,000 in June to President Barack Obama, said over a dozen times during congressional hearings that he didn’t know how MF Global customers’ funds disappeared under his watch.Still, during a Dec. 13 hearing, Mr. Abelow, whose compensation at MF Global involved a guaranteed $3 million, told the Senate Committee on Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry, that he’s deeply sorry to MF Global’s investors and employees:  As the president and chief operating officer of MF Global, I am deeply sorry for the hardship they have all endured…While I know that nothing I say can ease their pain, I hope that through my testimony today, I can help this committee understand what happened at MF Global and how we are attempting to unwind the company in a manner that provides maximum value for all parties.Several unanswered questions remain:

1. Why was Mr. Abelow’s role as chairman of the EPA’s Financial Advisory Board never brought up in either of his two appearances before congressional committees this month?
2. How did Mr. Abelow win his chairmanship on the EPA’s Financial Advisory Board?
3. Did current EPA Administrator Lisa Smith appoint or recommend Mr. Abelow to serve on the EPA’s Financial Advisory Board?The biggest unanswered question for MF Global investors remains: where is the $1.2 billion in missing MF Global funds?Judging from Jon Corzine and Bradley I. Abelow’s testimonies on Capitol Hill, that may be a question that remains unanswered for some time.Hmmmm.........$ 1 Billion needed to reelect Obama?Read the full story here.

• Merry Christmas From Saudi Arabia.(Cyberdissidents).By David Keyes.The following article first appeared on Wall Street Journal. To access, click HERE.If you want a good laugh, read the holiday card sent out by Saudi Ambassador to the United States and public relations genius Adel al-Jubeir. Citing a Quranic verse, he writes "Behold, the angels said: 'O Mary, God giveth thee glad tidings of a Word from Him: his name will be Christ Jesus, the son of Mary, held in honour in this world and hereafter and of (the company of) those nearest to God.'" Christmas greetings from an ambassador whose government prohibits Christians from worshiping publicly, building churches, wearing crosses or importing Bibles. Invoking the names of Mary and Jesus while representing a government that this year beheaded Amina bint Abdulhalim Nassar and Abdul Hamid Al Fakki for "witchcraft." Saudi Arabia has perfected the art of cognitive dissonance" or, in plain English, hypocrisy. For example, Saudi Education Minister Faisal bin Abdullah bin Mohammed recently spoke at the Saudi-U.S. Business Opportunities Forum in Atlanta. The Saudi Embassy reported that "Prince Faisal characterized the educational system in the Kingdom as a model for the Middle East and North Africa."God help us if that's true. An eighth-grade textbook currently published by the Saudi Education Ministry declares "The Apes are the people of the Sabbath, the Jews; and the Swine are the infidels of the communion of Jesus, the Christians." A ninth-grade textbook echoes "The Jews and the Christians are enemies of the believers, and they cannot approve of Muslims." Six million schoolchildren are indoctrinated with this every year in Saudi Arabia.Had Jesus been born in Saudi Arabia today, he'd likely be imprisoned, flogged or beheaded.Read the full story here.

• In the Post-Mubarak Era, Egyptian Salafi-Jihadis Renew Their Da'wa.(Memri).By: R. Green. Since the toppling of the Mubarak regime, the Egyptian Salafi groups, both mainstream and radical, have undergone major developments. The mainstream Salafis have entered Egypt's political life, winning considerable support in the parliamentary elections. These Salafis were discussed in a previous MEMRI report: Egypt's Islamic Camp, Once Suppressed By Regime, Now Taking Part in Shaping New Egypt – Part IV: For First Time in Egypt, Salafis Running in Elections. The following report will focus solely on the radical Salafis; the Salafi-jihadis.One of the byproducts of the political upheaval in Egypt since the January 25 revolution has been the resurfacing of the country's jihadi movement, formerly suppressed and restrained by the Mubarak regime. The movement's reemergence was made possible by two key factors: first, the mass release of political prisoners, many of whom belong to various Islamist movements, including the Egyptian Islamic Jihad (EIJ) and its offshoots; and second, the easing of restraints on free speech. Thanks to these developments, radical clerics and activists, long silenced, resumed preaching Salafi-jihadi ideology in mosques, on websites, and at public events in an attempt to garner support and recruit followers. Like the rest of Egyptian society, the Salafi-jihadis are currently focused on influencing the political future and character of their country. For the time being, the issue of jihad and fighting Islam's enemies is on the back burner, though it is still very much present. In recent written and spoken statements, the Salafi-jihadi clerics have focused mainly on their vision of an Islamic state and on their opposition to all forms of democracy and political participation, including the principles of the modern state and constitution – all of which they consider forms of heresy. They have expounded on these opinions in numerous books, articles, videos, and sermons presenting their opposition to democracy, man-made laws, participation in parliament, and so on. The following document will review the important figures in this movement and the main themes dominating the Salafi-jihadi discourse.Hmmm....A Must read!Read the full story here.

• U.N. “Rights” Protections Trending Toward Abortion, Islamophobia Rules.(Heritage).As the Universal Declaration of Human Rights celebrated a birthday this month, it is worth noting how this document—noble in its original intentions—is often reinterpreted by advocates of a host of issues, resulting in a laundry list of new rights claims and corresponding government responsibilities thrust upon the 193 U.N. member states. Two prime examples of this misuse concern the rights to life and religious liberty, natural rights often sacrificed to any number of social causes.With regard to abortion, the right to life promised to “everyone” in the Universal Declaration (Article 3) is rarely applied to the unborn, while a right to health or an adequate standard of living (Article 25) has been expanded substantially to include a woman’s so-called right to access abortion services. Anand Grover, whose full title is Special Rapporteur on the Right of Everyone to the Enjoyment of the Highest Attainable Standard of Health, has repeatedly made the case that decriminalizing abortion is essential to reducing maternal mortality and achieving women’s right to health. As Special Rapporteur—U.N. lingo for an appointed, and largely unaccountable, expert—Grover recently caused a stir among some member states when he issued a report claiming that legal abortion is tantamount to a human right. The report stated:  Criminal laws penalizing and restricting induced abortion are the paradigmatic examples of impermissible barriers to the realization of women’s right to health and must be eliminated…Creation or maintenance of criminal laws with respect to abortion may amount to violations of the obligations of States to respect, protect and fulfil [sic] the right to health. A group of international leaders and experts recently unveiled the San Jose Articles as a tool to counter such efforts to create a new international right to abortion.Concerning religious liberty, Article 18 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights states: Everyone has the right to freedom of thought, conscience and religion; this right includes freedom to change his religion or belief, and freedom, either alone or in community with others and in public or private, to manifest his religion or belief in teaching, practice, worship and observance.Nevertheless, these rights promised to individuals are at the center of a decade-long effort led by the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to globalize laws against blasphemy and apostasy that are common in Islamic societies. The Heritage Foundation’s DeVos Center for Religion and Civil Society recently hosted authors Nina Shea and Paul Marshall for an event to discuss their new book Silenced, in which they document this effort: In 1999, some Muslim-majority states began to argue that the UN must condemn and prohibit what the OIC labels “defamation of religions,” particularly of Islam. They have acknowledged that these “defamation of religions” resolutions are meant primarily to shield Islam and Muslims from criticism. The “defamation” push effectively seeks to redefine human rights in five ways, by:

1. Treating religious matters under hate speech bans as if they were akin to racial matters;
2. Granting rights to religions themselves rather than to individuals;
3. Creating a new right not to be offended in matters of religion;
4. Claiming that freedom of religion stands in opposition to freedom of expression;
5. Giving an expansive interpretation to the exceptions to the right of freedom of expression. (Silenced, p.206)

In building a case for a ban on the defamation of religions, its advocates paint Muslims collectively as victims of discrimination. In fact, the OIC has an Islamophobia Observatory, which publishes a monthly bulletin chronicling “manifestations of Islamophobia,” mostly in Europe and the United States.All rights claims are not equal, and as the U.N.’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights is stretched and twisted to encompass ever more social and economic rights claims—sometimes conflicting ones—natural human rights are at risk of becoming endangered.Read the full story here.

• Egypt security forces storm Freedom House, other NGO offices.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Egyptian security forces have stormed the offices of a number of local and international NGOs and human rights organizations, the Cairo Institute for Human Rights Studies reported on Thursday.The security forces, dressed in both uniforms and plainclothes, forced their way into the offices of the Arab Center for Independence of Justice and Legal Professions (ACIJP), The Budgetary and Human Rights Observatory, The National Democratic Institute’s (NDI) Cairo and Assiut offices, the International Republic Institute (IRI), Freedom House and Konrad Adenauer.According to the statement from the Cairo institute, the employees of the organizations are now under investigation by the public prosecutor and police are going through their papers, laptops and computers on the scene.Staff members of the six organizations have been warned from using their cell phones, laptops and computers; and are being isolated from contact with the outside world.In essence, they are being held prisoner inside their offices.Additionally, with regards to the ACIJP office at least, “authorities restricted access to the entire building, preventing people from entering or exiting the building.”CIHRS said that the move is part of the ruling military junta’s “campaign” against civil society and human rights groups in Egypt. In recent months, the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces (SCAF) has accused local NGOs of receiving money from abroad, and have argued to the public that the recent unrest in the country is by “foreign hands.”“The NDI, IRI, and Freedom House have been previously investigated by the ministry of justice on charges of receiving foreign funding, while the Arab Center for the Independence of Justice and Legal Professions has not been yet investigated,” said CIHRS.Investigations of the Budgetary and Human Rights Observatory was due to start on Sunday.“The storming of NGO offices is an unprecedented move in the recent history of Egyptian NGOs. In February 2011, during the 18 days Egyptian revolution, Military Police have stormed the office of Hisham Mubarak Law Center (an Egyptian NGO based in Cairo) and arrested several of its members as well as staff members of other international organizations that were present at the scene,” the statement continued.Read the full story here.

• 3 NATO troops killed by roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan; Our 'friends' the Taliban claim responsibility.(WFP).KABUL, Afghanistan — Three NATO service members have been killed by a roadside bomb in eastern Afghanistan, the alliance said Wednesday. The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, saying the target was a U.S. military convoy.NATO’s statement said that the deaths occurred Tuesday, but provided no further details about the incident or the nationalities of the troops.The Taliban said the attack took place in Paktiya province, about 100 kilometres (60 miles) south of Kabul.The latest deaths bring December's toll of foreign troops killed in Afghanistan to 23, for a total of 539 deaths so far this year. The yearly tally is considerably lower than for 2010, when more than 700 troops died. The number of wounded has remained high, dipping only slightly from last year's total of more than 5,000 service members.Also Tuesday, a community council leader in the Musa Qala district of restive Helmand province was shot and killed by insurgents along with his 20-year-old son and two-year-old grandson, the governor's office said.A statement from the office said the attack occurred late in the evening, as council leader Adbdul Baqi was heading home from his office. There were no further details.Hmmmm....Biden: "Look, the Taliban per se is not our enemy". Read the full story here.

• Who Is Going to Bail Out China?(BigGovernment).China is suffering a brutal economic “hard landing” as the pay-back for their massive Keynesian stimulus spending to revive economy growth after the 2008 credit crisis. China’s stimulus bought two years of economic boom, but the cost of this instant gratification was unleashing venomous run-away inflation that forced the central government to hammer the economy this year. Touted by most Wall Street analysts as the world’s engine of growth, we now learn that regional Chinese governments are so cash-strapped they are refusing to make interest and principal payments on their bond debt. Given the state integration of banks and the economy, if Chinese local governments are unable to pay their debts, who will bail-out China’s economy?China Daily reported this morning: “China’s biggest provincial borrowers are deferring payment on loans just two months after the country’s regulator said some local government companies would be allowed to do so.” After the economy shrank by 8% during the 2008 worldwide credit crunch; Chinese authorities responded with epic spending of borrowed money. Adjusted for the differences in size of economies, the China stimulus was twice the size and happened in half the time for the U.S. stimulus programs. But now that the world’s economies have again stalled and the European sovereign debt crisis is about to spark a deflationary spiral, the cash-flow of China heavily indebted provincial governments has evaporated.China’s Zhou Mubing, Vice-Chairman of the China Banking Regulatory Commission, announced in October the first Chinese national audit determined local governments had $1.7 trillion dollars in debt. Given China has 1/3 of the GDP as the United States, Chinese provincial government debt is twice the debt load of U.S. state and local governments. More than half this debt was issued in the last three years and Chinese state-owned-banks hold 79% of the debt.Given the severity provincial government cash-flow deficits; “Mubing announced so-called local financing vehicles that meet collateral requirements can have a one-time extension on their loans.” According to public disclosure documents, Hunan Provincial Expressway Construction Group, China’s largest provincial debtor, delayed payments of $490.5 million in interest; Guangdong Provincial Communications Group, Gansu Provincial Highway Aviation Tourism Investment Group Co and Sichuan Railway Investment Group Co that owe $31.7 billion, plan to “defer” $5.4 billion in interest payments this year; and bond prospectuses from 55 local authorities that raised money in capital markets since the November state they too do not intend to pay $4.8 billion in interest on newly issued bonds. In the U.S., such across the board action would be called defaults! American borrowers claiming negative cash-flow always have the right to try to negotiate “amend, extend, and pretend” with creditors; but this normally results in lenders gaining more collateral and operational control over the borrowers. But for China’s state-owned-banks, it would be hard to take more control from China’s state-owned-enterprises.Prior to this morning’s news, the outlook for the China banking sector seemed bright. Standard & Poors (S and P) on November 30th upgraded the credit ratings on Bank of China and China Construction Bank Corporation; while downgrading the U.S. banks, including Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley, Bank of New York Mellon and Wells Fargo. The payment freeze may be legal under Chinese law, but it will seriously curb future bank lending. As Patrick Chovanec, a professor at Tsinghua University in Beijing stated; “When companies start to roll over debt they’re not retiring debt, and banks aren’t retrieving their capital, so you’re crowding out new lending”…“This is a problem that’s going to start to bite next year.”Most Americans have no clue that China had one of history’s worst banking crises in the mid-1990s. After relaxing banking regulations in 1992 and 1993, China state-owned-banks diverted funds earmarked for agriculture and other development projects into real estate and the stock market speculation. According to the Asia Times, between 1985 and 1993 the number of state-owned-bank branches jumped from 60,785 to 143,796; total deposits expanded from $51.6 billion to $277.7 billion; and total loans vaulted from $67.9 billion to $298.9 billion. Ultimately, 2/3 of China bank loans became non-performing and between one-third (by Chinese bank officials count) and one-half (by rating agencies’ count) of the loans were written off.Once again China’s banks have financed massive real estate and stock market bubbles that are imploding. The Shanghai Stock Index is down 36.5% this year and Beijing home prices dropped by 35% in November. Speculative lending shenanigans cost China’s state-owned-banks hundreds of billions of dollars in the 1990s. It took world record growth and ten years to pay for the losses. China’s bank loans are ten times larger today and the speculative losses could be in the trillions of dollars. Where will China find the growth and the time to bail-out these losses?Read the full story here.

• Obama Administration to move ahead with $11 billion arms deal with Baghdad, despite concerns about Maliki.(AlArabiya).The arms deal between Iraq and the United States will go through despite concerns that the Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki is attempting to further consolidate his power and abandon the American-backed power-sharing government, a newspaper reported on Wednesday.The deal – nearly $11 billion worth of arms and training for the Iraqi military, according to The New York Times – includes advanced fighter jets and tanks, some of which have already been delivered, and is on despite al-Maliki’s failure to continue with an agreement that would have limited his ability to marginalize the Sunnis and change the military force into a more of a sectarian force.In 2010, the U.S. and Iraq signed an agreement that required the Sunni bloc in parliament to have a say in who runs the defense and interior ministries. But despite Maliki’s pledge, the ministries remain under his control. “It is very risky to arm a sectarian army,” Rafe al-Essawi, the country’s finance minister and a leading Sunni politician, told the newspaper. “It is very risky with all the sacrifices we’ve made, with all the budget to be spent, with all the support of America — at the end of the day, the result will be a formal militia army,” al-Essawi added.Like any other U.S. arms deals in the Middle East, the Iraqi-U.S. deal is to counter the Iranian threat, but according to the newspaper, “there are also fears that the move could backfire if the Baghdad government ultimately aligns more closely with the Shiite theocracy in Tehran than with Washington.”Joost Hiltermann, the International Crisis Group’s deputy program director for the Middle East, told the newspaper that “Washington took the decision to build up Iraq as a counterweight to Iran through close military cooperation and the sale of major weapon systems.”But Hiltermann added that “Maliki has shown a troubling inclination toward enhancing his control over the country’s institutions without accepting any significant checks and balances.”F-16 fighter jets, M1A1 Abrams main battle tanks, cannons and armored personnel carriers are among the items that will be received by the Iraqis.The newspaper said that the Iraqis have also received body armor, helmets, ammunition trailers and sport utility vehicles, which critics say can be used by domestic security services to help Maliki consolidate power.Hmmmm......Hussein wishing Merry christmas to Iran?Read the full story here.

• Video - The Story Behind Osama Bin Laden Assassination and the Pakistan Double Game.(Shoebat).The story behind how Osama Bin Laden was taken down and the treachery of Pakistan.Read and see the full story here.

• Turkish bank comfortable about Iran money transactions.(HurriyetDaily).Turkey’s state-run bank Halkbank has signaled the continuation of the lender’s role in payment of the debts from India to Iran, the bank’s general manager told Hürriyet Daily News yesterday. It emphasized that all the bank’s operations were in line with international banking rules.“As long as there would be no international regulation against [transactions], we will continue to do what is legitimate,” said Süleyman Aslan, general manager of Halkbank, at a press meeting in Istanbul. India’s state-run Mangalore Refinery and Petrochemicals concluded a successful test payment in euros through Turkey’s Halkbank for Iranian crude oil, in an effort to end a U.S.-created impasse which has seen the refiners build up over $5 billion in debts, according to a report by Reuters in August.“I can neither say yes we are making the transactions, or no we do not make them regarding the Indian debt,” Aslan said. “I do not find commenting on it appropriate.” He said the lender cares about the sensitivity of the issue related to the sanctions against Turkey’s eastern neighbor. “Both the U.S. and the EU have sanctions against Iran,” he said. “But we are not a bank operating in those countries…the limitations to the international banks and the banks operating in such countries are different.”Aslan said the bank obeys international banking rules as well as the United Nations’ sanctions against Iran. Noting that Halkbank already has a branch in Tehran, Aslan said Turkey also makes its transactions in return for the oil and gas purchases from Iran through the lender. “One way or another, we have to make these transactions. We cannot carry the money in trucks to Iran,” Aslan said. He said the bank would consider its position regarding international transactions only if the international community bans any purchase of oil and gas from Turkey’s eastern neighbor. Responding to a question as to whether the bank had been pressured to halt transactions to Iran by the United States, Aslan said there has been no pressure from the U.S. side.Halkbank had refused to open an account for an Indian oil company Bharat Petroleum (BPCL) because the company wanted to use the account to make oil payments to Iran. Since last year, India has been looking for a way to make payments to Iran, India’s second largest oil supplier, international media reported Dec.16. Aslan declined to answer questions around the issue. Hmmmm......"Aslan said there has been no pressure from the U.S. side", For Obama's buddy Erdogan 'Sanctions that benefit'?Read the full story here.

• I’m sure the mufti was joking.(HurriyetDaily).Did you read it? The mufti of the northwestern district of Keşan, Süleyman Yeniçeri, has criticized New Year celebrations. As a matter of fact, it is quite an outdated discourse. We have heard enough of “This is a Christian tradition; it does not suit a Muslim.” Nobody cares much anyway.What made me laugh the most were these words of Yeniçeri: “It is not known if Santa Claus really lived. They speak of a place and say he lived there, but it is actually a character invented by the Christian world. Santa Claus enters homes through chimneys and windows, yet he would have entered homes through the door if he was a decent person. We enter homes through doors. The Quran tells us to enter homes through doors. Why would he enter through the chimney?”As I said, I laughed hard first although later I was sorry. Somebody who is giving religious advice to society thought Santa Claus was real and did not know his entrance through the chimney symbolizes prosperity in Western traditions, or that he is a mythical figure and entertainment for children. On the contrary, he took Santa seriously and assumed him to be a “suspicious man who enters through the chimney.” I really do not want to believe the mufti of Keşan made this speech seriously. I’m sure he was joking when he said this. Hmmm....Would he know the names of the reindeers that pull santa's sleigh?Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity" - Egypt’s Islamic Research Center wants Christian TV off air.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: Egypt’s Islamic Research Center, led by Sheikh of al-Azhar Ahmed al-Tayeb, is demanding that United States Christian television station al-Karma of insulting Islam and inciting religious violence in the country.The offshoot of the Sunni Islamic world’s leading religious institution has also demanded that it be taken off air over what it described as “offensive” material directed at Muslims, daily al-Ahram newspaper reported on Thursday.The Karma television channel is broadcasted into Egypt by the country’s state-run NileSat, thus making a potential case against the channel easier to ultimately remove the channel from Egyptian households.The channel, however, is not among the most watched in Egypt, even among the Christian population.“I have never heard of it, so maybe it isn’t really a big thing, but if al-Azhar is trying to attack it then who knows,” said Noha Fahmy, a young Coptic Christian woman living in Cairo. “To be honest, the more these kind of lawsuits happen the more divisions it will create,” she told Bikyamasr.com.The Christian community in Egypt, predominantly Coptic Christian, account for some 10 percent of Egypt’s 80 million population and have long demanded better treatment and an end to what they have called “marginalization” by the majority Muslim population.On October 9, thousands of Christians took to the streets in Cairo after a series of church attacks in the south of the country demanding greater rights. The military opened fire on the protesters and ran them over with armored vehicles outside the state television building in what has become known as the “Maspero Massacre.At least 27 people were killed in the violence, which the military claims was not done by their soldiers, despite video online showing the opposite.Read the full story here.

• 'If necessary – IDF ready for Gaza op'.(YNet).Three years have passed since Operation Cast Lead and the IDF says that the operational goals set in 2009 have been largely achieved.Tuesday saw the IAF target an Islamic Jihad terror cell in Gaza, which Military Intelligence defined as a "ticking bomb" and top IDF officials told Ynet on Wednesday that Hamas knew a strike against the cell was unavoidable.Hamas is changing, becoming somewhat more restrained, a senior source told Ynet. Colonel Tal Hermoni, commander of the Gaza Division's South Brigade explained: "We took a calculate risk yesterday – even Hamas understood that this was a cell gearing to carry out a terror attack."As for the possibility that the IDF will launch another wide-scale ground campaign in Gaza – which IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen Benny Gantz said in the past was a viable option should an escalation be noted in the southern sector – Hermoni said that the IDF is ready to meet the challenge. "The reality today is different than it was three years ago. Operation Cast Lead achieved its goals and the sector is relatively calmer today. The other side reacts (to strikes), but in a measured, calculated way. If the cracks noted in the lull widen we are ready to launch another operation, different and more diverse than Cast Lead, to renew deterrence. "The decision really is in the other side's hands. If they don’t stop the rocket fire and prevent terror cells from leaving to Egypt so to cross into Israel, we'll launch a Gaza operation – and it will be a painful one." As for Hamas' tactics against Israel, Hermoni said that "the tunnels allow (terrorists) to reach us faster. They're digging tunnels on a daily basis, but we are employing intelligence to locate them. They're also getting ready for more abduction attempts." One of the biggest threats the IDF has to deal with in Gaza Strip is the growing use of anti-tank weapons, which the military said has been significantly reduced due to the successful use of the Windbreaker defense system – an active armored shield protection system installed on IDF tanks. The IDF also noted that many of the terror groups' attempts to deploy explosives and roadside bombs along the Gaza security forces have failed. The Gaza Division, Hermoni added, is constantly observing the actions of Hamas' "Rafah Brigade," which has some 2,000 combatants and its very own anti-tank warfare unit. "They've become semi-military, even though they are still a terror group. They have reconnaissance and intelligence units and a defensive dogma based on Soviet doctrines," he said. Gaza's terror groups, he added, "Aim to use attrition warfare, to destabilize Israel's international legitimacy and the home front. "They train every day and hold various maneuvers, but naturally, the IDF's abilities surpass theirs," he concluded.Hmmm......
  Victory belongs to the most persevering. ~ Napoleon Bonaparte.Read the full story here.

• Israel and South Sudan strengthen cooperation in oil and military.(Stratrisks).Southern Sudan and Israel strengthen cooperation. Salva Kiir, President of the newborn African state independent of Khartoum in July this year, made a lightning visit to the Middle East, accompanied by his ministers of Defence and Foreign Affairs. Salva Kiir met in Jerusalem Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the head of diplomacy Lieberman, Defense Minister Barak and was also received by President Shimon Peres.During the ’meeting between Kiir and Netanyahu has talked of cooperation in the fields of technology, industry, water development and the search for a solution to the issue of immigrants coming to Israel from the African country. Netanyahu asked Sava Kiir to take back as many as possible. Israel will embark on planes headed south. A mission of Israeli cooperation will come soon in Juba.The backdrop of the official agenda of the talks, there are Israeli President Salva Kiir of Sudan’s oil routes and military strategy of containment of Islamist forces operating in the Horn of Africa , like the somali shebaab, involving African countries allied with the U.S. such as Uganda, Ethiopia, Kenya and Rwanda. The independent South Sudan is in the same array of interests. Not surprisingly, the visit of Salva Kiir in Israel was preceded by the Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga, to which Netanyahu would secure a military effort to counter the jihadist insurgency in Somalia, in recent months has also affected Kenya. And it is in Lamu, Kenya, which is expected to bring in oil from Juba with an ambitious project that would deviate the routes of Sudanese oil from the Red Sea to the Indian Ocean, cutting off Khartoum.Israel does not maintain diplomatic relations with Sudan’s General Omar al-Bashir, on which hangs an international arrest warrant the ICC for war crimes and crimes against humanity for massacres committed in Darfur by the Janjaweed militias loyal to his regime. Israel accuses Sudan of providing military and logistical support to Islamic militants active in the Middle East.According to a report confirmed by the New York Times, in the spring of 2009 with the Star of David planes bombed the Sudan to hit a convoy of arms coming from ‘ Iran and destined for Gaza. The Israeli government has never admitted the attack.The friendship between Israel and South Sudan is standing. When Salva Kiir has received in recent days, Shimon Peres recalled an initial meeting with the leaders of the southern Sudanese regions in the ’60s. At the time the current Israeli president was deputy defense minister. The military support of Israel to rebel against the north south Sudan has intensified in the ’80s after the rise of al-Bashir to power with a coup. The SPLM, now in power in Juba, a revolutionary movement was breakaway in the fight against Khartoum. The South Sudan is predominantly Christian and animist-is historically opposed to the Arab-Muslim north of the country. But the question of ethnic-religious economic and strategic interests lies for control of resources, primarily oil.Israel and South Sudan have more in common now than in the past and not just economic . If the state’s youngest world seeks investment to support the development and management of oil wells on which she sits, but that still depend on Khartoum for the export of crude oil, Israel, never so isolated in the Middle East is looking for allies. The loss of a strategic partner such as Hosni Mubarak and the prospect of a statement of the Islamist forces in Egypt makes the need to counteract the block of military and economic interests of which it forms part of Khartoum, and that goes straight to Tehran, more pressing than ever to Netanyahu.Not surprisingly, the visit of Salva Kiir in Israel has provoked an immediate outcry in Sudan . According to Sudan Tribune, citing the Sudanese Foreign Ministry spokesman Al Obeid Marawih “the diplomatic meetings (between Salva Kiir and the Israelis), impacts on the interests of Sudan and its national security, especially in light of the fact that Israel and the His lobbying constitute a significant part of the international campaign to foment conflict in the western region of Darfur. ”Israel was among the first to recognize the independence of Southern Sudan . During the celebrations for the birth of the African State, in addition to the local flag, waving the Star of David. ”I am very excited to see in Israel the Promised Land and walking, and like me they are Sudanese. Without your help we would not be where we are. You have fought alongside us to create the Southern Sudan and we are ready to learn from your experience, “said Salva Kiir during his visit to Israel.Hmmmm......I can hear it clearly now "It's a Zionist plot".lolRead the full story here.

• Indonesian maid gang raped by seven men in Saudi Arabia.(BikyaMasr).DUBAI: An Indonesian maid was kidnapped and gang raped in Saudi Arabia by 7 men, a local newspaper reported.The Sabq daily newspaper said that the 23-year-old maid allegedly accepted an offer to have sex with two men, but then the men phoned their friends, who arrived and took turns raping the young woman.The crime took place between Mekka and the Red Sea port city of Jeddah, where the men had brought large amounts of liquor and the maid with them to an apartment.The newspaper reported that after the first two men had raped the woman, they phoned the five friends and invited them over for “food and sex.”“The seven then forced the maid into the car and took her to a deserted area, where they took turns in raping her savagely,” the newspaper said.“After finishing, they beat her up and dumped her near the road late night before driving away…a police patrol in the early hours of morning found the maid walking aimlessly as she looked exhausted and battered,” the report continued.Police are currently searching the area for the men.It is not the first time foreign maids have been raped in the ultra-conservative kingdom. Dozens of reports of employers raping their workers have streamed in over recent years, which has left Indonesia’s government putting an end to Saudi households recruiting women from the country.Read the full story here.

• Kenyan gay men become sex slaves in Arab Gulf. (BikyaMasr).DUBAI: Being gay in the Middle East is taboo. Crackdowns in Arab countries against homosexuals is common and swift, with many countries employing the death penalty against convicted homosexuals.Now, a new report published by Identity, a gay magazine in Kenya, reveals that gay Kenyan men are being trafficked into the Gulf as sex slaves for the wealthy.The report alleges that gay and bisexual men are lured from university campuses – particularly from Kenyatta University – with promises of high-paying jobs and then transported to labor as sex workers for men in the United Arab Emirates, Qatar and Saudi Arabia.According to the magazine, due to Kenya’s soaring unemployment rate, the men are easily fooled into this trap.The publication interviewed one Kenyan victim who was promised a job in Qatar but ended up suffering sexual abuse.Qatar specifically, has no laws against human trafficking, which has made cracking down on the practice nearly impossible.“Qatar is a transit and destination country for men and women subjected to trafficking in persons, specifically forced labor and, to a much lesser extent, forced prostitution,” the US State Department stated in a recent report.“Men and women from Nepal, India, Pakistan, Bangladesh, the Philippines, Indonesia, Vietnam, Sri Lanka, Ethiopia, Sudan, Thailand, Egypt, Syria, Jordan, and China voluntarily travel to Qatar as laborers and domestic servants, but some subsequently face conditions indicative of involuntary servitude. These conditions include threats of serious physical or financial harm; job switching; the withholding of pay; charging workers for benefits for which the employer is responsible; restrictions on freedom of movement, including the confiscation of passports and travel documents and the withholding of exit permits; arbitrary detention; threats of legal action and deportation; false charges; and physical, mental, and sexual abuse.”In the Emirates, while being openly gay is illegal, the community has blossomed in recent years. Mark, a gay Canadian man, told Bikyamasr.com that “the community has increased dramatically and people are more willing, and accepting, of the LGBT community here.”But he said the report that Kenyan men are being used as sex slaves is “not surprising.”“We have seen a lot of the elite and super wealthy want to be gay, but that would go against their traditions, so instead they often marry and then hire or do this kind of thing, to have their real desires met. It is a problem of society not opening up to the gay lifestyle and forcing it to the background,” he argued.Read the full story here.

• Canada to send live export cattle to United Arab Emirates.(BikyaMasr).Canada announced this month that they would begin live exports to the United Arab Emirates as part of an effort to bolster trade between the two countries. The move has been met with anger by animal rights advocates, who argue live export is cruel and inhumane.Canada’s agriculture ministry, however, believes the economic merits will outweigh the homegrown anger over the move.The ministry says that live cattle exported to the UAE will provide some $40 million in sales, bolstering the sector, which is home to some of the country’s strongest lobbyists.“This announcement instantly provides new export opportunities for Canadian producers, and is a significant step toward regaining access to other key markets in the region,” said Agriculture Minister Gerry Ritz.“Our Government’s top priority remains the economy, and this new market access is good news for our hard working farmers across the country.”But animal rights advocates plan to protest the move in Ottawa in the near future. They told Bikyamasr.com that the live export trade “should be abolished now and put an end to the abhorrent animal abuses that take place in the industry.”Mary Youkles, a Ottawa resident who told Bikyamasr.com that she plans to use social media to create a campaign against the move, believes that the live export trade is one of the worst endeavors in modern technology.“So many animals are crammed onto these boats and many die along the way, which are then just dumped into the ocean as if they are meaningless. It is disgusting and for our government to get involved in this is wrong,” she said.But Canadian government officials disagree.“This is great news for Canadian cattle exporters, and yet another example of how our government’s commitment to opening new markets for Canadian businesses and workers is getting results,” said Ed Fast, Minister of International Trade and Minister for the Asia-Pacific Gateway.“The UAE’s announcement advances our bilateral commercial relations, and will help our overall efforts to build on our economic and trade ties with the Gulf Cooperation Council region as a whole.”The industry itself is promoting the move as a means of boosting Canada’s international trade.“We are pleased to have regained access to the UAE market,” said Rick McRonald, Executive Director of the Canadian Livestock Genetics Association. “This is good news for exporters who have been waiting to pursue this opportunity.”Read the full story here.