MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Japan 5.1!More info here.

• CNN’s Zakaria Papers Over Mass Murder....Iran doesn't commit suicide bombings, Frighteningly his bio promotes Zakaria as “the most influential foreign policy adviser of his generation”.(AIM).Fareed Zakaria of CNN has written a column for The Washington Post that serves as an excuse for letting Iran develop and acquire nuclear weapons. MJ Rosenberg, Senior Foreign Policy Fellow at Media Matters Action Network and contributor to Al-Jazeera, was absolutely ecstatic, saying Zakaria had done “a terrific job destroying some arguments for war with Iran,” and that he had done so by “citing history.” But Zakaria’s “history lesson” gets an “F.”Touting the theory of mutually assured destruction, which prevented the U.S. and the Soviet Union from annihilating one another with nuclear weapons, Zakaria suggested that Iran could be deterred from using nuclear weapons. He quoted Gideon Rose, the editor of Foreign Affairs magazine, as saying that deterrence “is less disastrous than preventive war.” Rose is a former National Security Council official in the Clinton Administration and a prominent official of the Council on Foreign Relations.Zakaria said that “While the Iranian regime is often called crazy, it has done much less to merit the term than did a regime such as Mao’s China. Over the past decade, there have been thousands of suicide bombings by Saudis, Egyptians, Lebanese, Palestinians and Pakistanis, but not been a single suicide attack by an Iranian.”This is deceptive to the point of dishonesty. Why would he go back in history to the time of Mao’s China, but only examine suicide bombings over the last ten years?The answer is that the facts about Iranian suicide bombings do suggest a craziness on the part of the regime. The strange formulation of “over the past decade” enabled him to ignore the fact that, on October 23, 1983, Iran ordered and carried out the suicide bombing of the U.S. Marine barracks in Lebanon, killing 241 American military personnel. An Iranian drove the car bomb into the barracks.Hmmmm......And Iran funds hundreds of foreign terrorists........ever heard of Hamas?Read the full story here.

• Iran stops oil sales to British, French companies: official.(HurriyetDaily).Iran has stopped selling crude to British and French companies, the oil ministry said on Sunday. "Exporting crude to British and French companies has been stopped ... we will sell our oil to new customers," spokesman Alireza Nikzad was quoted as saying by the ministry of petroleum website. The move appeared to be in retaliation for a decision by the European Union in January to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1 over its disputed nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at building bombs. Iran denies this. Iran's oil minister said on Feb. 4 that the Islamic state would cut its oil exports to "some" European countries. "We have our own customers ... The replacements for these companies have been considered by Iran," Nikzad said.Read the full story here.

• Karzai tells Americans: don’t talk to Taliban ‘on our behalf’.(Dawn).ISLAMABAD: Afghan President Hamid Karzai may have struggled in Pakistan to get the desired support for reconciliation with the Taliban, but his trip revealed that he was not on the same page with the Americans about their peace efforts despite having endorsed the establishment of group’s office in Qatar.“Americans cannot negotiate on our behalf with the Taliban and with us on behalf of the Taliban,” President Karzai, who was visibly uneasy with the Qatar initiative, told a group of journalists.He was quick to clarify his government’s withdrawal of objection to the Taliban setting up their liaison office. “We only and only agreed to the establishment of office of the Taliban in Qatar. … Venue of talks, actual talks between us and Taliban, should be something we decide. Our preference is Saudi Arabia or Turkey.”Mr Karzai’s statement and what he portrayed as “intellectually candid” discussion with the Pakistani delegation at the bilateral meeting (that was seen by Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar as “hard talk”) reflect a serious disconnect between the stakeholders in the Afghan peace process and growing frustration in Kabul about not being meaningfully involved by the US in the process and Pakistan supposedly not delivering the Taliban leaders for peace talks. The Taliban, meanwhile, haven’t unambiguously indicated their willingness to participate in the peace process.Apparently the scenario looks confusing and it’s unclear how the process would go ahead despite the excitement about Qatar office.It appears that Pakistan has its eyes fixed on post-2014 situation whereby Nato would, as per its commitment, have completed its drawdown and an unclear future for Mr Karzai, who wouldn’t be able to run for another term after completing two tenures.Under this emerging setting Mr Karzai has expanded his contacts beyond the government in Islamabad and has engaged with political and religious leaders, who he thinks could be helpful to him.Starting with meetings with Jamaat-i-Islami, JUI-F and PML-N after his arrival, the Afghan president stayed for an extra day after the conclusion of the trilateral summit and met with JUI-S chief and Taliban’s ‘spiritual leader’ Maulana Samiul Haq, PML-Q leaders Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain and Mushahid Hussain, ANP delegation led by Haji Adeel, PPP-S leader Aftab Sherpao and PkMAP chief Mehmood Khan Achakzai.The common strand in all these meetings was a plea for support to the reconciliation efforts and stopping Taliban insurgents from using Pakistani soil for attacks against Afghanistan.Read the full story here.

• Police arrest 11 Palestinians near Temple Mount.(JPost).Police arrested 11 Palestinians during clashes with stone-throwers who targeted tourists at the Temple Mount on Sunday.Three officers were wounded during the clashes, Police Spokesperson Micky Rosenfeld said, describing the incident as a "disturbance on the Temple Mount."Stone-throwers attacked a group of Christian tourists that were visiting the site. At least 40 officers entered the Temple Mount to deal with the situation, where Rosenfeld said some 50 Palestinians were participating in the rock throwing.Police arrested three suspects on the scene who were involved directly in the attacks. By the afternoon, police announced that eleven people had been arrested, nine of whom were minors who were caught throwing stones.Rosenfeld said the Waqf, which manages the Muslim holy sites on the Temple Mount, participated with police to quiet the tense situation.Despite Palestinian claims of religious Jews trying to storm the Temple Mount, police said that no Jews were around the site. The incident came after unfounded Palestinians reports that a group of "religious [Jewish] Israelis" tried to "storm" the Temple Mount - where the Aksa mosque and Dome of the Rock are located - on Sunday morning, according to Jordanian semi-official newspaper Ad-Dustour.Palestinian sources claimed over the weekend that a group of Jews would attempt to storm the Temple Mount in order to "strengthen Israeli sovereignty over the site," according to the Jordanian newspaper.Read the full story here.

• The sins of the fathers.(Dawn)By Fahad Faruqui. Shakila was only eight-years-old when she and her cousin were abducted from their home. One night, men armed with AK-47s barged into her house and dragged her out as recompense for dishonoring an influential man in the district.You may wonder how a girl of such tender age could have dishonored a grown up? Well, she had nothing to do with the offense; the wealthy man’s wife, however, had eloped with Shakila’s uncle. And the wealthy man wanted compensation the traditional way.The young girls were confined in a dark room for three months. After about six months, they were allowed to wash their clothes for the first time. For sustenance, they were provided bread and water every alternate day. And they were repeatedly beaten.“They tortured us in a way that no human being would treat another,” Shakila said to the New York Times.Shakila’s case is not a unique one when we talk of Afghanistan; young girls are given away to make up for the wrongdoings of others, including murder, adultery and anything that’s not condoned by society. This custom dates back to jahiliyyah (the age of ignorance).This cultural form of justice — in which a girl is traded to settle the dispute — is called “baad.” The practice was deemed illegal as per the Elimination of Violence against Women Act of 2009, but it continues to prevail in Afghanistan. The reason given for the practice is the corruption in the legal system, due to which people resort to “jirgas,” where the local elders decide about what needs to be done. And, yes, giving away women to settle the dispute is in the cards.One can’t say how common it is for girls to be traded to nullify the wrongdoings of someone else in the family. Even if a girl is married to a member of the aggrieved family, it doesn’t mean that she won’t be maltreated. Taking a girl in marriage has the advantage of ensuring that the feud will not continue because, by hook or by crook, the two families become relatives.Shakila’s cousin escaped. And the beatings intensified for Shakila. One day she managed to escape and reach her sister’s house. The family was unable to recognise the malnourished Shakila.What’s most troubling is that the family is not against the practice — this should give you a sense of how deep-rooted this tradition is in Afghanistan (and of course Pakistan). What troubled them was the fact that at birth she was promised in marriage to her cousin in Pakistan, hence she was not their “property” to give away.“We did not mind giving girls,” Gul Zareen told the New York Times. “But she was not mine to give.”Read the full story here.

• Ukraine - Femen Topless Protesters Investigated Over Flag Abuse.(RN).In a first, Ukrainian topless protesters Femen face a criminal case in their home country, though not over their practice of stripping in public for a good cause.A group of unnamed Femen activists may end up in prison for up to four years over climbing onto the balcony of the residence of the Indian ambassador in Kiev and tearing down the Indian flag, local police said on Friday.The activists were enraged by the Indian Foreign Ministry ordering thorough checks into all Ukrainians aged 15 to 40 seeking to enter the country, saying it would help weed out the numerous prostitutes in search of a job.The protesters tore down the Indian flag, beat it about doors and windows and threw it on the ground. Despite temperatures of minus 4 degrees Celsius, all of them were topless.The incident resulted in two cases opened on separate charges of hooliganism and desecration of state symbols, Ukrainian police said. No one was charged as of Friday evening.Femen, media darlings due to their methods of protests, have been active since 2008, staging political protests in Ukraine and outside the country. The group declared freedom of speech and protection of women’s rights as its goals.Group members never faced criminal cases before, getting away with fines or brief arrests. However, hapless activists who tried to stage a protest against the authoritarian ruler of Belarus, Alexander Lukashenko, in December reported severe abuse by local KGB, which beat them up, shaved them bald, stripped them naked and threw them out in a forest. The KGB denied the incident.Read the full story here.