MFS - The Other News

                    Morning Posting.

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

• Russia's Deputy prime minister Dmitry Rogozin: "Iran is our neighbor,""And if Iran is involved in any military action, it's a direct threat to our security."(GR).BRUSSELS: Russia would regard any military intervention linked to Iran's nuclear program as a threat to its own security, Moscow's departing ambassador to NATO warned on Friday."Iran is our neighbor," Dmitry Rogozin told reporters in Brussels. "And if Iran is involved in any military action, it's a direct threat to our security."Rogozin was speaking two days after the killing of a nuclear scientist in Tehran by a hitman on a motorcycle.Kremlin Security Council head Nikolai Patrushev, who is close to Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, said Israel was pushing the United States towards war with Iran, according to the Interfax news agency.Russia, however, opposes a boycott of Iranian oil."We are definitely interested in the non-proliferation of weapons of mass destruction," Rogozin said on Friday. "But at the same time, we believe that any country has the right to have what it needs to feel comfortable, including Iran."Rogozin, often described as an anti-Western hawk, was appointed deputy prime minister in December, and will oversee Russia's defense sector when he returns to Moscow.Hmmm........The lines are drawn.Read the full story here.

• Sen. Chuck Grassley Not Buying DOJ’s Non-Recess Appointment Apologia.(Heritage).Calling the president’s illegal non-recess appointments “an escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people,” Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), ranking Republican on the Judiciary Committee, dismissed a Justice Department memo on Thursday that sought to lend retroactive constitutional weight to the president’s move.Grassley hinted at Senate “action to check and balance” the president’s power grab, though he declined to go into specifics.The DOJ Office of Legal Counsel’s memo, also debunked by Heritage’s Todd Gaziano, claims that pro forma Senate sessions do not preclude the president from unilaterally appointing federal officials. That legal opinion contradicts statements by former Obama Administration Solicitor General Elena Kagan – now a Supreme Court justice – and her deputy, Neal Katyal.The memo was released on January 6, two days after Obama non-recess-appointed Richard Cordray as head of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, meaning the president did not wait for DOJ’s official legal opinion before moving forward with the appointments.Here’s what Grassley had to say in a news release:  The Justice Department opinion is unconvincing. Its conclusion is at odds with the text of the Constitution and the administration’s own previous statements. It fundamentally alters the careful separation of powers between the executive and legislative branches that the framers crafted in the Constitution. It relies on no Supreme Court decision and many conclusions are unsupported in law or the Constitution. It recognizes that the courts might well disagree. And it flies in the face of more than 90 years of historical practice. Taken together with a laundry list of other assertions of the power to act without Congress, this is clearly an escalation in a pattern of contempt for the elected representatives of the American people. The Senate will need to take action to check and balance President Obama’s blatant attempt to circumvent the Senate and the Constitution, a claim of presidential power that the Bush Administration refused to make.Check out Gaziano’s response for a more detailed look at DOJ’s legal argument. Here’s an excerpt:The not-too-deft argument in the OLC memo is that the President is free to take the Senate at its word that it would not conduct business during any period it sees fit except that the basis for that assumption also applied from Dec. 17 to Jan. 3. With unanimous consent, such business clearly can and was conducted during the period of time that OLC ignores. Moreover, those facts defeat the repeated finding in the opinion that the Senate is not available to receive messages from the President and act on them. The action on Dec. 23 proves beyond any doubt that they can receive such messages, loudly and clearly, and can act when they want to do so. Their desire not to act cannot be converted so easily into an inability to do so.Even more brazenly, the opinion states on page 21 that: “even absent a Senate pronouncement that it will not conduct business, there may be circumstances in which the President could properly conclude that the body is not available to provide advice and consent for a sufficient period to support the use of his recess appointment power.” There is no limit on this open-ended assertion of authority of the President to determine when the Senate could properly act on his nominees.Read the full story here.

• France Downgraded by SandP, Losing Triple-A Status, cut credit ratings of Italy, Spain and Portugal by two notches.(Cnbc).Standard and Poor's will cut the credit ratings of Italy, Spain and Portugal by two notches and downgrade France and Austria by one notch, a French newspaper said Friday, without citing its sources. The newspaper, Les Echos, said that S&P would spare Germany, the Netherlands, Finland and Luxembourg in its long-awaited adjustment of euro zone sovereign ratings. It said the announcement would come at around 4:30 pm ET, after the US stock market has closed. "Remain alert tonight when U.S. markets close," one euro zone source told Reuters. US stocks slumped in reaction, though were well off their lows, while European shares closed lower. In December, S and P placed the ratings of 15 euro zone countries on credit watch negative— including those of top-rated Germany and France, the region's two biggest economies—and said "systemic stresses" were building up as credit conditions tighten in the 17-nation bloc.
  A downgrade could automatically require some investment funds to sell bonds of affected states, making those countries' borrowing costs rise still further.
  "It's been priced in for several weeks, but the market had been lulled into complacency over the holidays, and the new year began with a bounce in risk appetite, thanks partly to a good Spanish auction," said Samarjit Shankar, Director Of Global Fx Strategy at BNY Mellon in Boston.
  "But the Italian auction brought us back to earth and now we face the spectre of further downgrades." Italy's three-year debt costs fell below 5 percent on Friday but its first bond sale of the year failed to match the success of a Spanish auction the previous day, reflecting the heavy refinancing load Rome faces over the next three months. Read the full story here.

• Ruh Roh: Email Shows ATF Director Knew of Gunwalking in December, 2010.(BN).On July 4th, 2011 Acting ATF Director Kenneth Melson gave testimony to congressional investigators representing Rep. Darrell Issa and Sen. Chuck Grassley. In that interview, Melson allegedly pleaded ignorance about Operation Fast and Furious, saying that when he'd learned about guns walking, he became sick to his stomach.However, now email evidence has been uncovered that shows Melson not only knew about gunwalking at least as early as a few days after Brian Terry's death but he seemed to be much more concerned about ATF agents leaking information about Fast and Furious to the public than in actually addressing the problem.Via Western Center for Journalism:  Discovery of a January 2011 e-mail exchange between then Acting ATF Director Ken Melson and the Bureau’s chief council Steve Rubenstein has put the kibosh on Obama administration elites’ latest “we didn’t know about it” defense concerning the regime’s involvement in Operation Fast and Furious.After reading a post from an alleged ATF agent on the website CleanupATF.org, Melson contacted ATF Chief Counsel Steve Rubenstein. It appeared that Melson got the answer he was looking for because he told Rubenstein thank you and that he would be forwarding the email to Internal Affairs, which has become known as the place to go to report ATF agents whose minds aren't right (wink, wink).Instead of expressing outrage or even a modicum of concern about the charges, Melson's reaction at least seems to imply he's in support of disciplining ATF agents who had a problem with letting guns walk.This one is another bombshell and an unwelcome development if you're a member of the Barack Obama administration.Here is the email exchange in question. Hmmmm......"These boots keep on walking, one day they'll walk all over you!"Read the full story here.

• Obama Administration Airbrushes Britain out of Europe.(Heritage).By Nile Gardiner.Philip H Gordon, US Assistant Secretary for European and Eurasian Affairs, has just delivered a speech in Berlin outlining “the state of transatlantic relations”. His remarks, given at the Korber Foundation on January 11, are a scene-setter for the Obama administration’s European policy in “its final year in office before elections this November.” Like most pronouncements on Europe coming from the Obama presidency, it is fixated on Washington’s dealings with the European Union, as well as with Hillary Clinton’s “reset” of relations with Moscow. This is hardly surprising coming from a government that is eurofederalist in outlook and obsessed with kowtowing to the Russians at every opportunity, in some cases at Britain’s expense.There is a good deal of boasting in Gordon’s address about the administration’s “accomplishments”, including the NATO-led operation in Libya (previously dubbed “leading from behind” by a White House aide), alliance efforts in Afghanistan (based on a coalition built by the Bush administration), and US and EU engagement with Iran “in serious discussions without preconditions regarding the international community’s concerns about its nuclear program” (which has merely bought more time for Tehran to advance its nuclear weapons programme.)But perhaps the most striking aspect of the speech is its complete omission of America’s most important ally Great Britain, which fits in well with the words of a senior State Department official back in 2009, who insultingly told The Sunday Telegraph:"There’s nothing special about Britain. You’re just the same as the other 190 countries in the world. You shouldn’t expect special treatment."And here is what Gordon has to say about the Libya mission, without of course mentioning the fact that it was heavily driven by Britain and France, and carried out overwhelmingly with British, French and US aircraft (the Germans, significantly, opposed it): In Libya, we cooperated closely with our European allies to pass UN Security Council resolutions 1970 and 1973, which levied sanctions against the Qadhafi regime, established a no-fly zone and maritime embargo for Libya, and provided the authority to protect Libyan civilians who were under attack by the regime. With this authorization, the U.S. used its unique assets to take down Libya’s integrated air defense system in a coalition with European Allies. Ten days later, we handed command and control of the mission over to NATO, while continuing to provide the bulk of the intelligence, surveillance and reconnaissance, in-air refueling, jamming and other critical capabilities.As I’ve noted previously, the Obama presidency has treated Britain with indifference and contempt in some instances – the Falklands issue being a prime example – part of a broader strategy of downplaying traditional US alliances while kissing up to strategic competitors and hostile powers. It is a sad day when the most senior US official on Europe cannot even bring himself to acknowledge the vital role and huge sacrifices made by America’s closest partner on the battlefields of Afghanistan, while much of Europe barely lifts a finger in the war against the Taliban. Indeed, the Special Relationship has barely been a blip on President Obama’s teleprompter in the past three years, a damning indictment of a failed and confused foreign policy that has made America weaker and less feared on the world stage.Hmmmm........"I will stand with the Muslims should the political winds shift in an ugly direction."Read the full story here.

• Obama has sons?(Politico).The Washington Post's Al Kamen catches this nugget in President Obama's address to supporters yesterday in Chicago: “The first bill I signed — a bill that said that we’re going to have equal pay for equal work because I want my daughters treated the same way as my sons.”It's not the first time that a rhetorical hypothetical has tripped up the president, as when a "Muslim faith" reference was taken wildly out of context.Read the full story here.And According to a new book, Obama got sick of shaking the troops’ hands while on a trip to Baghdad. Via BuzzFeed:“He didn’t want to take pictures with any more soldiers; he was complaining about it,” a State Department official tells me. “Look, I was excited to meet him. I wanted to like him. Let’s just say the scales fell from my eyes after I did. These are people over here who’ve been fighting the war, or working every day for the war effort, and he didn’t want to take fucking pictures with them?”Source.

• The Stop Online Piracy Act Pits Hollywood Against Tech and the American People.(BigGovernment).The Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA) is a nightmarish piece of legislation moving the House Judiciary Committee currently which Hollywood is pushing hard for. The Tinsel Town lobbyists are in full press on Capitol Hill, doing all they can to get the legislation out of committee and up for a vote. The problem is, SOPA in no uncertain terms is a direct assault on a free internet.One of the reasons many of us get our news and entertainment from the Net these days is because we find the legacy media lacking. We have turned our backs on old media because it has failed to serve us. We no longer have to tolerate obvious and unceasing news bias, or watch only boxed and packaged melodrama. We are now free to pursue news and entertainment where we like with the click of a mouse or a swipe of the Ipad.Hollywood, and most of legacy media are unhappy about this and would prefer that we continue to listen to their propaganda and watch their terrible movies. I mean, how many sequels can these guys crank out? SOPA seeks to put we the media consumers back in line.SOPA is being sold as a way to stop the piracy of movies and music from overseas sites, and this is a problem, but the bill goes much further than just addressing this issue.For instance if you are the owner of a website and someone posts a bit of copyrighted material in a comments section or in a forum, the owner of the copyright can ask the government to take down your site. You may not even know that someone posted such content, yet you wake up one morning to find your site, and perhaps livelihood, gone from cyberspace with only digital tumble weeds left in its place.Imagine how this would affect some of your favorite sites, Facebook for instance.Facebook, Google, AOL, Twitter, and other online companies may go black in protest to raise awareness of SOPA, the so called “nuclear option.” The tech guys know that it’s DEFCON 5 for free speech and their business models and they are willing to forgo days of revenue to fight this bill.So SOPA has become a fight between Hollywood and Tech. Hollywood has outspent Tech lobbying for SOPA 5 to 1, and the current situation in the House Judiciary Committee reflects this. The Chair, Lamar Smith (R) Texas, and the ranking member John Conyers (D) Michigan, are fully on board along with much of the rest of the House Judiciary Committee. I am sad to say the even Congressman Bob Goodlatte, a guy I have a great deal of respect for is currently supporting this bill.However there is hope and it comes from northern California Republican congressman (they do exist) Darryl Issa.Issa said recently at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that, “SOPA was ill-conceived, written in Hollywood, and included all kinds of things that physically can’t be done, including the DNS blocking.”He also called SOPA “Unconstitutional.”Read the full story here.

• US stations two aircraft carriers opposite Iran, 15,000 troops in Kuwait.(Debka).US President Barack Obama is busy aligning Middle East allies with the next US steps on Iran. Contributing to the mounting sense in Washington of an approaching US-Iranian confrontation, the Pentagon is substantially building up its combat power around Iran, stationing nearly 15,000 troops in Kuwait - two Army infantry brigades and a helicopter unit – and keeping two aircraft carriers the region. The USS Carl Vinson, the USS John Stennis which was to have returned to home base and their strike groups will stay in the Arabian Sea.Iran is caught up in the same pre-war swirl of activity. Parliament Speaker Ali Larijani spent two days in Ankara this week. But Turkish leaders failed in their bid to sell their good offices as brokers for averting the expected collision between Tehran and the West. Before flying out of Ankara Friday, Jan. 13, Larijani commented: "We have different ways of doing things."debkafile's Iranian sources quote the Iranian official as telling his hosts that his country is prepared to take on any military aggressors. One of the responses weighed in Tehran to meet the rising military pressure might be an open declaration of Iran as a nuclear power. By accepting a visit by IAEA inspectors on Jan. 28 - to investigate charges that Iran is running a clandestine nuclear bomb program - Tehran may be moving toward that irreversible admission - or possibly its first nuclear test.Thursday night, Jan. 12, President Obama put in a call to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to discuss coordinating US and Israeli moves for a military operation against Iran, which many US media believe to be imminent.The New York Times wrote Friday under the caption: Dangerous Tension with Iran, "Many officials, experts and commentators increasingly expect some kind of military confrontation."Obama had similar conversations with other Middle East leaders this week. The and Saudi and Qatari foreign ministers, Prince Saud al-Faisal and Sheikh Hamad al-Thani, spent two days on Jan. 10-11 in Washington talking to the US president. The contents of their talks were kept under tight wraps. Friday, British premier David Cameron suddenly turned up in Riyadh for talks with Saudi King Abdullah and Crown Prince Nayef.Discussions on military preparations centering on Iran inevitably concern the need for urgent action to halt the unending carnage in Syria, Iran's close ally.Thursday, the Russian National Security Adviser Nikolai Patrushev, one of Prime Minister Vladimir Putin's closest advisers, said ominously: "We are receiving information that NATO members and some Persian Gulf States working under the 'Libyan scenario' intend to move from indirect intervention in Syria to direct military intervention."Moscow has consistently spoken out against any foreign intervention in the Syrian conflict – or even tough UN sanctions.Russia's NATO ambassador Dmitry Rogozin has suggested more than once that the West would use a military adventure in Syria as the jumping-off point for an attack on Iran.Another sign that Syria is under the military eye of the West came from an indiscreet comment Israel's Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz made Tuesday, Jan. 10 in a briefing to a Knesset panel. Israel, he said, is preparing to absorb members of Bashar Assad's Alawite sect after his downfall.Hmmmm..........Food for thought: " the 3,000 centrifuges that the Fodow site can contain as a maximum will never produce enough to supply fuel for a nuclear reactor.However, their performance is perfect for making Nuclear bombs."Read the full story here.

• Brotherhood's 'Lenin' Plotting Islamic Super-State.(CBN).By Erick Stakelbeck.WASHINGTON -- Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi has been called the most influential Islamic cleric in the world.During the past year, he's used his clout to promote the so-called Arab Spring. For al-Qaradawi, the rise of radical Islamic governments across the Middle East and North Africa means a giant step towards his vision of a united Islamic super-state -- or caliphate -- governed by Sharia law. The 86-year-old Egyptian native pushes this agenda through his website, IslamOnline, and his top-rated Al-Jazeera program, titled "Sharia and Life," which reaches tens of millions of Muslims each week."Sheikh Yusuf al-Qaradawi is more than just an ideologue. He is also a strategist," Middle East expert Walid Phares told CBN News. Phares, author of the book The Coming Revolution, said al-Qaradawi sets the tone for the Muslim Brotherhood worldwide."We're talking about a Lenin here -- a jihadi Lenin who controls the flow of the ideology but also gives the nod with regards to general strategic direction," Phares said.  "He's the mentor today for the Muslim Brotherhood," he added. "And the MB's today are about to take over in at least three to four countries in the Middle East. "Just one week after protests forced Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak out of power, al-Qaradawi returned to his homeland following a 30-year exile. He led Friday prayers for a crowd of more than 1 million in Cairo's Tahrir Square, where he called for Muslims to re-conquer Jerusalem.Phares compared it to the Ayatollah Khomenei's return to Iran in 1979."Qaradawi came to Egypt to change the Arab Spring into a Caliphate Spring," Phares told CBN News.Al-Qaradawi's fatwas, or religious rulings, have endorsed the killing of U.S. troops in Iraq and suicide bombings against Israeli civilians.He has shown a special animosity towards Jews, and not just those living in Israel.During a 2009 sermon he raged, "Oh Allah, take this oppressive, Jewish, Zionist band of people...Do not spare a single one of them...Count their numbers, and kill them, down to the very last one." Egyptian dissident Cynthia Farahat of the Center for Security Policy in Washington, D.C., told CBN News that Westerners who call al-Qaradawi a moderate ignore his words."Genocide. That's the main message: genocide," Farahat said."He (Al-Qaradawi) went as far as saying he wants to kill Jews with his own hands, with his own bare hands while sitting on his wheelchair," she said.Yet according to a recent report in The Hindu, one of India's largest daily newspapers, the Obama administration is using al-Qaradawi as a mediator in secret negotiations between the U.S. and the Taliban. An Obama administration official told CBN News the report is "not accurate."The administration has acknowledged, however, that it is engaged in dialogue with the Muslim Brotherhood and other Islamist parties.Al-Qaradawi has ambitions beyond the Middle East. He said Muslims will one day conquer America and Europe as well -- not overnight, but gradually, through immigration and proselytizing.Hmmmmm.......“I will stand with the Muslims {Brotherhood]should the political winds shift in an ugly direction?”Read the full story here.

• Afghan economy more dependent on opium, says UN.(BikyaMasr).CAIRO: A new report from the Unites Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) shows a 133 percent increase in the value of opium in Afghanistan when compared to 2010. Opium production now accounts for 9 percent of the state’s GDP, UNODC reports.Analysts believe that the dramatic spike in prices could be due to a plant disease that destroyed much of the Afghani poppy crops in 2010, driving up prices. The problem intensified with a drop in the price of wheat that same year.According to the UNODC survey, opium income accounted for US $1.4 billion last year, accounting for 90 percent of the world’s overall opium production.“Opium is therefore a significant part of the Afghan economy and provides considerable funding to the insurgency and fuels corruption,” said Yury Fedotov, Executive Director of UNODC.The UNODC reported that 60 percent of farmers surveyed in 2011 said they were attracted by the large gains of poppy cultivation.“The Afghan Opium Survey 2011 sends a strong message that we cannot afford to be lethargic in the face of this problem. We thank the Government of Afghanistan for the leadership and dedication already shown, but a stronger commitment from a broad range of national and international partners is needed to turn this worrying trend around” said Mr. Fedotov.Hmmmm.....Karzai's half brother an opium baron?Read the full story here.

• 'Citizenship Law – declaration of war on Israeli Arabs'.(Ynet).The State has "declared war on Israeli-Arabs," an attorney from the village of Qara said Thursday in response to the High Court of Justice's decision to reject another petition against a law which aims to limit the reunification of Palestinian and Arab-Israeli families. Hatam Iyat and his Palestinian wife of 11 years, Yasmin, have four children. "The Citizenship Law will lead to the expulsion of thousands of families from the country. My wife's life in Israel has become temporary. The Right has triumphed in its racist campaign," he said. "But we will not remain silent; we will take action against the law." The law, which was passed by the Knesset in 2003, states that the interior minister is entitled to grant citizenship only if the West Bank applicant has made a strong enough case that he identifies with the State of Israel and that he or his family members have cooperated with Israel or made a contribution to its security.It appears that only a few will be able to meet these criteria. A mother of two from Tamra said the law will "ruin" her family. "My husband left Nablus seven years ago, and since then we've been living here, but he has not been granted citizenship. Essentially he lives here without any rights, and the law that was upheld by the court yesterday means that our family will be destroyed. We won’t be able to live without him," she said. "I wake up each morning fearing something will happen to him at work, because in case of an accident he is not entitled to adequate medical treatment. The law basically says 'you can all die,'" she said. Shahar Shoham, head of the Migrants and Persons with No Civil Status Department at Physicians for Human Rights-Israel said, "Apart from the fundamental violation of Arab Israelis' rights, the law will create a reality in which thousands of people who are married to Israeli citizens will continue to live without any civil status or social rights." Hmmmm......"For better and for worse".Read the full story here.

• Syrians rally Friday to support ‘free army;’ Arab League chief warns of civil war.(AlArabiya).Syrian opposition groups called on Friday for mass protests across the country to rally support for the “Free Syrian Army” fighting the security forces of President Bashar al-Assad. “We will come out (to protest) day and night to honor Syria and its martyrs and its free people,” the Syrian Revolution against Bashar al-Assaad reported in its Facebook page,” in persistent challenge to the regime’s killing machine.Local Coordination Committees reported that 34 were killed on Monday, including two children, three defectors, and 8 unidentified dead bodies in Maret Noman National Hospital and 11 in Idlib.The group reported that a 13-year old girl, Asma Hajazi, also was shot dead by Assad’s security forces stationed near Rasatan. “They fired on her family’s vehicle that was traveling from Hamouya (Damascus Suburbs) to Manegh Village in Aleppo. Asma was shot by three bullets injuring the chest, hand, and groin,” the group reported on its Website.The head of the Arab League said in remarks broadcast on Friday he was worried about the prospect of a Syrian civil war with consequences for the country’s neighbors.“Yes I fear a civil war and the events that we see and hear about now could lead to a civil war,” said Nabil Elaraby, whose body currently has monitors in Syria checking its compliance with an agreement aimed at halting a crackdown on protesters.“Any problems in Syria will have consequences for the neighboring states,” he said in an interview with the Egyptian al-Hayat channel.The Arab League’s monitoring mission is struggling to salvage credibility as its members start to walk out, the opposition calls it a toothless failure and killings of anti-government protesters continue unabated.Elaraby described reports from the mission head as “worrying,” though he added that there was “no doubt that the pace of killing has fallen with the presence of the observers.” But an Arab League monitor, Anwar Malek, who had resigned, said the mission was powerless to prevent what he said were the “scenes of horror” he had seen in Homs.“The regime isn’t committing one war crime but a series of crimes against its people.”Malek’s resignation was the latest blow to a mission already criticized for inefficiency and whose members have come under attack this week from both Assad supporters and protesters.Under the Arab peace plan, Syrian authorities are supposed to stop attacking peaceful protests, withdraw troops and tanks from the streets, free detainees and open a political dialogue.Read the full story here.

• Former U.S. President Jimmy Carter blames Mubarak Gov for partial suffering of Palestinians during Muslim Brotherhood meeting.(IW).Carter also discussed the Palestinian issue, noting that his organization monitored the elections in Palestine in 2006 – elections which were free and fair but the United States and the international community refused to recognize the results. Carter then pointed out that the peace agreement signed between Egypt and Israel had two sides: the first related to Israeli and international obligations towards the Palestinian cause, and the second to military matters; but what has been implemented of the agreement is the second part, while the first – regarding Palestinian rights – has not been dealt with adequately, adding that the former Egyptian regime played a major role in the marginalization of that side.Hmmmm........For a minute i thought i heard Obama speaking.Read the full story here.

• N. Korea test-fires short-range missiles.(CNA).TOKYO: North Korea test-fired three short-range missiles into the sea between Japan and the Korean peninsula this week, a report said Friday.The hermit state lobbed the missiles into the Sea of Japan (East Sea) on Wednesday, Japan's Sankei Shimbun newspaper quoted anonymous Japanese government sources as saying.Outgoing Defence Minister Yasuo Ichikawa initially said he was "aware" the missile tests had taken place, leaving his bureaucrats scrambling when he later said only that he had intended to convey he was aware of reports of the test.The ministry said it was analysing intelligence and had put defence bodies on alert against provocative acts from the unpredictable regime, the Sankei reported.In Seoul, the South Korean defence ministry and Joint Chiefs of Staff declined to confirm the report.North Korea reportedly test-fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on December 19, the same day it announced the death of leader Kim Jong-Il.The Sankei said the latest launch was believed to have been delayed because of the former leader's death.The communist country has frequently conducted short-range missile tests in recent years. South Korean officials say they are part of routine exercises but the tests are sometimes timed to coincide with periods of tension.Since Kim's death, there has been speculation that his son and successor, Kim Jong-Un may try to burnish his military credentials by conducting missile tests.Read the full story here.

• Member of Kuwaiti royal family embraces Christ!(MohabatNews).This Kuwaiti prince announced, "First of all, I totally agree with the distribution of this audio file and I now declare that if they kill me because of this audio file, then I'll go into the presence of Jesus Christ and be with him for all eternity."Iranian Christian News Agency Mohabat News – Al-haqiqa, a Christian Arabic satellite T.V., which broadcasts Christian programs, played an audio file which it attributed to a Kuwaiti prince called "Abdollah Al-sabah".The T.V. channel claimed that Prince Abdollah Al-sabah comes from a Kuwaiti royal family which currently governs the country. The channel also said that the prince recently denounced his Islamic faith and became a Christian.The voice in the audio file introduced himself as Abdollah Al-sabah and stated, "First of all, I totally agree with the distribution of this audio file and I now declare that if they kill me because of this audio file, then I'll go into the presence of Jesus Christ and be with him for all eternity.""I'm satisfied with whatever they do to me, because the truth in the Bible has guided me to the right way".Regarding the Islamic groups who have recently gained power in Egypt, this Kuwaiti prince also stated, "Islamic communities have always wanted to attack in different parts of the world but God has preserved the world and still protects it. This is why we have recently seen disagreements appearing among Islamic groups who are now fighting with each other. They are about to divide further into different groups.This piece of news made headlines briefly on Arabic News wires and also in the Iranian government run news agency. Some independent Shiite websites contradicted this report and quoted another Kuwaiti prince, Azbi Al-sabah as saying, "there is no one in the Kuwaiti royal family by that name."Kuwait is a Middle Eastern country, neighboring Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Iran across the Persian Gulf. Its capital city is also called Kuwait.Islam is the official and dominant religion in Kuwait and almost the entire population is Muslim. Only 4% of the population is Christian and there is a tiny group of other religions. Article 2 of the Kuwaiti constitution reads, "Islam is the official religion in the country and Sharia is a main source for legislation."Hmmmm..........Jesus said "...you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free." ~ John 8:32.Read the full story here.