Video - - Christians under attack in Syria, why is the Pope Silent at Easter?

Video - Christians under attack in Syria, why is the Pope Silent at Easter?In a frightening turn of Syria's civil war, Christians say they are targets of Muslim extremists who have joined the rebels. The country's Christians sided with Syrian President Bashar al Assad, who promised to protect them. Barry Petersen reports.

"Mediterranean bully" - Deputy FM: We will not allow South Cyprus to breach Turkey’s continental shelf.

"Mediterranean bully" - Deputy FM: We will not allow South Cyprus to breach Turkey’s continental shelf.(HD). Ankara won’t allow South Cyprus to breach Turkey’s continental shelf for exploration of oil and gas in the Eastern Mediterranean, said Deputy Foreign Minister Naci Koru during a Twitter interview with the International Relations Council of Turkey (UIK) on Feb.
22. “Our country and Northern Cyprus have objected to exploration activities [conducted] by South Cyprus. The unilateral stand of South Cyprus means the extortion of Turkish Cypriots’ rights,” he said, noting that Turkey had previously stated that international firms who cooperate with the Greek Cypriot government won’t be allowed to join new projects in Turkey.
Koru argued that the seat Turkey held at the UN Security Council from 2009 to 2011 enlarged the horizon of Turkish diplomacy. “Our membership at the UN Security Council has brought our connections through the world further and strengthened our ‘global playmaker’ status,” he said.
Koru also emphasized that the “zero problems with neighbors” policy put forward by the ruling Justice and Development Party (AKP) has contributed to the advancement of political dialogue as well as economical and cultural ties with neighbors, stressing that visas have been lifted in many countries as part as this policy. “This policy is based on the fact that [we should] focus not on our differences but on areas of cooperation [with neighboring countries],” he said.Hmmmm......"Empty barrels make the most noise".Read the full story here.

Christians have no right to wear cross at work, says U.K. Government.......Let's get a Tattoo like the Copts?

Christians have no right to wear cross at work, says U.K. Government .......Let's get a Tattoo like the Copts?In a highly significant move, ministers will fight a case at the European Court of Human Rights in which two British women will seek to establish their right to display the cross.
It is the first time that the Government has been forced to state whether it backs the right of Christians to wear the symbol at work.A document seen by The Sunday Telegraph discloses that ministers will argue that because it is not a “requirement” of the Christian faith, employers can ban the wearing of the cross and sack workers who insist on doing so.
The Government’s position received an angry response last night from prominent figures including Lord Carey, the former Archbishop of Canterbury.He accused ministers and the courts of “dictating” to Christians and said it was another example of Christianity becoming sidelined in official life.The Strasbourg case hinges on whether human rights laws protect the right to wear a cross or crucifix at work under Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights.
It 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 worship, teaching, practice and observance.”
The Christian women bringing the case, Nadia Eweida and Shirley Chaplin, claim that they were discriminated against when their employers barred them from wearing the symbols.They want the European Court to rule that this breached their human right to manifest their religion.
The Government’s official response states that wearing the cross is not a “requirement of the faith” and therefore does not fall under the remit of Article 9.
Lawyers for the two women claim that the Government is setting the bar too high and that “manifesting” religion includes doing things that are not a “requirement of the faith”, and that they are therefore protected by human rights.
They say that Christians are given less protection than members of other religions who have been granted special status for garments or symbols such as the Sikh turban and kara bracelet, or the Muslim hijab.Andrea Williams, the director of the Christian Legal Centre, said: “It is extraordinary that a Conservative government should argue that the wearing of a cross is not a generally recognised practice of the Christian faith.“In recent months the courts have refused to recognise the wearing of a cross, belief in marriage between a man and a woman and Sundays as a day of worship as ‘core’ expressions of the Christian faith.
"What next? Will our courts overrule the Ten Commandments?” Hmmmm......Let's get a Cross tattooed on out body like the Copts and be persecuted like them?Read the full story here. HT: AOW.

Sudanese Christians have barely a month to leave the north or face the consequences.

Sudanese Christians have barely a month to leave the north or face the consequences.(ENI) The Organization of the Islamic Cooperation(OIC) still spreads its meme that Islamofauxbia the “world’s greatest challenge”.Sudanese Christians who have barely a month to leave the north or risk being treated as foreigners are starting to move, but Christian leaders are concerned that the 8 April deadline set by Islamic-majority Sudan is unrealistic.
"We are very concerned. Moving is not easy ... people have children in school. They have homes ... It is almost impossible," Roman Catholic Bishop Daniel Adwok, the Khartoum archdiocese auxiliary told ENInews in a telephone interview on 7 March.
Sudan in February announced the deadline for the former citizens it had stripped of nationality after South Sudan's January 2011 vote to secede. The ultimatum will affect an estimated 500,000-700,000 people, who are mainly Christians of southern origin that still live in the north.
Many of them fled north during the long civil war fought between the Government of Sudan and the former rebels, the Sudan People's Liberation Movement. They have lived there for decades together with children who were born there. Few have ties with South Sudan.
The people are desperate to move, according to reports, following the deadline and increasing tensions between the two nations over oil wealth. The tensions started escalating in January after the north allegedly started taking crude oil from the landlocked south, which it was exporting through a pipeline to Port Sudan on the Red Sea."We want the rights of these people addressed by the two parliaments. Everyone has a right to choose where they want to live. It is a human right," said Adwok.
Sudan amended its laws after the south's independence to say that Sudanese people automatically lose citizenship when they acquire by right or by other means the citizenship of South Sudan. Sudanese people in the north with any parents, grandparents or great grandparents born in the South Sudan or belong to any southern ethnic group are considered that country's nationals."That's the official deadline, but we don't know how the Khartoum regime will react," said John Ashworth, an advisor of the Sudan Ecumenical Forum.
Some church leaders fear increased persecution of Christians in the north or even forced repatriation for those who may want to stay. "The fears have been there from the beginning. There could be some form of harassment, and that could intensify after that date, but for forceful removal, it is hard to ascertain," said the Rev. Don Bosco Ochieng, a Roman Catholic priest in the Rumbek diocese.Aid agencies are calling for the extension of the deadline, warning that it will create a logistical and humanitarian catastrophe.Hmmmmm.........Erdogan:"Muslims don't commit genocide".....lets wait and see."Islamophobia"? Read the full story here.

Nigeria’s Islamic extremists group Boko Haram calls for “war” on Christians.

Nigeria’s Islamic extremists group Boko Haram calls for “war” on Christians.(BM).LAGOS: A Nigerian spokesman for the Islamic militant group Boko Haram told Bikyamasr.com on Sunday that they are planning a “war” on Christians in the next few weeks.
According to the spokesman, speaking via telephone from northern Nigeria, the group “will launch a number of attacks, coordinated and part of the plan to eradicate Christians from certain parts of the country.”
Boko Haram have taken responsibility for a number of bomb attacks on Christian churches across the country since a Christmas Day bombing left dozens of people killed.The government has promised to crackdown on the group and has deployed military units across the country in an attempt to curtail the Islamic group’s activities, arresting and killing a number of members in recent weeks.
But the spokesman said the government “cannot be prepared for what is to come.”He said, without giving specific details, “we will create so much effort to end the Christian presence in our push to have a proper Islamic state that the Christians won’t be able to stay.”
On Friday, the group reportedly killed three of its own members late on Friday in the northeastern state of Maiduguri, police and military sources confirmed.“This was part of our planning and it is unfortunate,” said the spokesman.
The explosion in the Kaleri suburb of the northern city on Friday destroyed a house and dismembered the three Islamist sect members, Lieutenant Colonel Hassan Mohammed of the special military unit in Maiduguri said.Other items recovered at the scene included remote control devices, wrist watch timers, metallic drums and copies of the Qur’an, he said.The sect converts homes into bomb-making factories for attacks, the spokesman said.
As well as in Maiduguri, there have been accidental and fatal explosions in suspected Boko Haram bomb-making factories in the northern cities of Damaturu and Kaduna in recent months.
Violence blamed on the militant group, whose goals remain largely unclear, but has called for an Islamic state in Nigeria, has since mid-2009 claimed more than 1,000 lives, including more than 300 this year alone, according to rights groups.Hmmmm........In its early years, the group was popularly known as the "Nigerian Taliban" due to its shared anti-Western ideology and its willingness to use violence in an effort to impose a strict form of Shariah law.Read the full story here.

Walid Shoebat New Initiative: Rescue Christians in Pakistan (part 1 & 2)

                                                                Part I



                                                                 Part II

MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Libya Live Blog - April 30. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Syria Live Blog - April 30. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Live feed and highlights of the Royal wedding from :

"The Royal Channel"  here.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world low seismic activity in Japan  today between 4.9 and 5.0! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 101.
  On 29.04.2011 at 18:40 GMT+2
  
  Pumping radioactive water out of the underground premises of the turbine room at the second reactor of the crippled Japanese Fukushima-1 NPP has been suspended. This was announced by the Tokyo Electric Power company which is the operator of the NPP. The work is to be resumed on the 30th of April and two pumps will be used instead of one used before. The work will last until the middle of May and all in all it is planned to pump 10 tons of radioactive water out of the underground premises. This highly radioactive water will be temporarily placed in special tanks inside the station.Source : Here .

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

• Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney we’re going to have to hang the ‘Obama Misery Index’ around his neck.”(Politico).Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney stumbled over an explosive turn of phrase Friday night, telling an audience here that Republicans would figuratively “hang” President Barack Obama with bad economic news.Speaking at an Americans for Prosperity dinner, Romney’s comment came as he recalled Ronald Reagan’s 1980 presidential campaign.“Reagan came up with this great thing about the ‘misery index’ and he hung that around Jimmy Carter’s neck,” Romney said. “Well, we’re going to have to hang the ‘Obama Misery Index’ around his neck.”“I’ll tell you, the fact that you’ve got people in this country really squeezed, with gasoline getting so expensive, with commodities getting so expensive, families are having a hard making ends meet. So we’re going to have to talk about that,” Romney said.Romney continued, “We’re going to hang him —” before stopping mid-sentence.“So to speak — metaphorically,” he clarified. “You have to be careful.”Any reference to hanging — however unintentional — would be especially loaded in a campaign against the country’s first black president, as Romney apparently recognized.He quickly recovered from the gaffe and continued his remarks. Andrea Saul, a spokeswoman for the former governor, said the context of Romney’s comment was obviously benign.“It is not what the governor meant and that was very clear in what he actually said,” Saul wrote in an email, responding to a Boston Globe report on Romney’s remark. “It’s a ridiculous exaggeration of his actual comments.”The Globe’s Glen Johnson first highlighted Romney’s comment online, noting that the “mix of nervous laughter with applause indicated that some in the audience realized its potency.”Hmmmm.........Meanwhile the "Misery Index" is real and cutting deep both for black and white!Read the full story here.More here.

• Obama Promises Illegal Alien grads He’ll Keep Pushing DREAM Act.Miami (AP) — Stepping up his demand to change the nation’s immigration laws, President Barack Obama promised graduates at a vast, multicultural community college in Miami on Friday that he’ll keep working to help students not legally in the U.S. to become American citizens.The president’s renewed endorsement of the DREAM Act, which has become a rallying cry for Hispanic and other students around the country, drew enthusiastic applause from more than 3,000 graduates of Miami Dade College at their commencement ceremony. The students are part of an increasingly important political constituency in a state that will be crucial to the president’s 2012 re-election hopes.The college graduates more Hispanic students than any other higher education institution in the U.S. Obama took note that some students had recently identified themselves publicly as immigrants without legal status in the country.“Some were brought here as young children and discovered the truth only as adults,” he said. “They put their futures on the line in hopes they will spur the rest of us to live up to our most cherished values.”Hmmmm.....Some were brought here from God knows where, then proceeded to destroy America from within?Read the full story here.

• Will Obama Go Golfing Twice This Weekend?It’s about 70 degrees in the Washington area both days. Perfect weather.It's not like there's turmoil in the Middle East or hundreds of people died because of tornados?Hmmmm....“If you want others to be happy, practice compassion. If you want to be happy, practice compassion.”Daila Lama.Now i know why he got the back door.

• Police break up Muslim mob threatening to burn Christian church in eastern Pakistan.(AhmadiyyaTimes).LAHORE, Pakistan — Police broke up a mob of people armed with sticks that was threatening to attack a church Saturday after word spread that two copies of the Qur’an had been burned in eastern Pakistan, officials said.The tiny Christian minority in predominantly Muslim Pakistan is often intimidated and subjected to mob violence. The crowds marching toward the church in the city of Gujranwala blamed Christians for the burning of the Qurans.Police charged the crowd of 300 people marching toward the church, lightly injuring several protesters, said Saeed Wahla, the top administrator in the city. The protesters blocked a street with barricades of burning tires.A burned Qur’an was found Saturday, and two weeks earlier several burned pages from the holy book turned up, said Nabil Awan, another local official.Pakistan's Christians, who make up 1.6 per cent of the country's population of 180 million, live in fear of being persecuted or arrested under the country's harsh laws against blasphemy, which are often misused to settle personal scores or family feuds. The laws call for the death penalty for anyone insulting Islam, its holy book or the Prophet Muhammad.The All Pakistan Minorities Alliance, a Christian group, condemned Saturday's march and demanded the government hold an inquiry to find out who was responsible for organizing it. The group said such incidents are "just a conspiracy to destabilize the country."Hmmmm......The religion of peace.Read the full story here.

• Related- Pakistan: Ten people wounded in attacks on Christian community residences.Lahore, April 30(ANI): At least ten people, including police officials, were wounded in attacks on houses of Christian community members in Lahore on Saturday.Demonstrators attacked the residences of members of the Christian religious community in Gujranwala, and also shattered the windows of a Christian school in the neighbourhood.The attackers accused certain members of the Christian community of committing blasphemy, the Dawn reports.Police and authorities in the area arrested 25 people for their involvement in the disturbances. Three Christians, including a priest, are among those arrested by the police.The police are now patrolling the area of the incident. However, most members of the Christian community have reportedly locked their residences and fled the area. Hmmmm......The victims are arrested??Read the full story here.

• Obama Oblivious to Religious Persecution of Christians.(TheNewAmerican).All over the world, Christians are persecuted for their faith. The murder of Coptic Christians in Egypt and the protests of radical Muslims against the appointment of a Christian Governor of an Egyptian province are recent examples of that oppression.Native Christian Iraqis, in a nation where Obama still has American troops, have fled their ancestral homeland in droves to escape the brutal persecution of Muslims and the “blessings” of democracy without individual rights. Christians in China are arrested, their Bibles confiscated, and their churches ransacked — all for the state offense of practicing their faith as they wish. In fact, no communist regime allows the free practice of religion.Nations such as India, with an unmerited reputation for tolerance, allows attacks on Christians as brutal as anything seen in the Islamic world — almost especially upon those Dalits, or “untouchables,” who have converted to Christianity.Though America does not have an established state religion (despite the fretting of federal judges and the ACLU), there are plenty of other nations of the world that do: Saudi Arabia, Iran, Sikkim, Bhutan, and a host of others. These countries with non-Christian state religions do not trouble the Obama administration at all. Though President Obama delivers serious messages to celebrate Ramadan, Kwanza, and just about every religious holiday except those of the Christian religion such as Easter, leaders of Buddhist, Hindu, and Islamic nations would not dream of giving an official government Easter or Christmas message.Many people in European nations such as England, Denmark, Scotland, and Norway — which still have established state churches — have a low view of Christianity, even as brutal Muslim religious law is being enforced in their countries by street thugs, as well as by anti-religious government offices and court systems.The definition of “hate crimes” in much of the West has come to mean any sincere profession of the ancient Christian faith.So it should surprise no one that since President Obama took office, his administration has not designated a single “country of particular concern” (CPC) for religious freedom violations. The term CPC is grounded in the 1998 International Religious Freedom Act, which was intended to tie America's foreign policy to the promotion of religious freedom. It identifies any country that is a "systematic, ongoing, and egregious" violator of religious freedom. President Bill Clinton in 1999 designated Burma, China, Iran, Iraq, and Sudan as CPCs. President George W. Bush, on January 16, 2009, gave eight nations that designation — Burma, China, Eritrea, Iran, North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Sudan, and Uzbekistan.Though it is highly doubtful that the Religious Freedom Act can do much to help persecuted Christians in other countries, President Obama's failure to even make a symbolic gesture to protect such people may violate this federal law, which requires him to take specific actions against any CPC, including sanctions and diplomatic protests.None of this should be very surprising to Americans. President Obama has shown a profound, though often subtle, disdain for serious Christian faith, and has almost never condemned anti-Semitic comments from his friends in the radical Left. It should also come as no surprise that federal statutes and specially created federal commissions have failed woefully to protect liberties in America or to champion religious freedom abroad.When Americans have acted effectively to protect Christians and Jews, it has almost always come from private, voluntary cooperation (such as the boycott of German goods in the 1930s to protest Nazi anti-Semitism, or the church protests against the imprisonment of prelates in the Soviet empire. Likewise, the promotion of faith and the dispelling of slanders of Judeo-Christian traditions comes most effectively from the private donations and missions of individual Americans and organizations, who go around the world with help, comfort, and love.Hmmmm.....You are a Christian by your actions,not by pretending to be one!It's time for the Pope to expose this Anti Christ(ian) president,in the old days he would have been excommunicated a long time ago.Read the full story here.

• Egypt’s Islamists form own political party, contending they are not “theocratic”.(Al-Arabia).Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood, long-banned under the toppled regime of President Hosni Mubarak, announced on Saturday the formation of a party to contest up to half of parliament’s seats in a September election.In a statement issued after a meeting of its decision-making Shura (consultative) council, Reuters reported the group as saying that it had decided to contest “between 45 and 50 percent of parliament’s seats.”Mohammed Hussein, the group's secretary general, said at a news conference that the movement’s consultative council decided at a meeting to adopt a decision to form the new Freedom and Justice Party.“We have adopted the measures taken by the guidance council regarding the Freedom and Justice Party and adopted its program,” Agence-France Presse quoted him as saying. He said the party, which will be headed by the Brotherhood’s politburo member Mohammed al-Mursi, will be “independent from the Brotherhood but will coordinate with it.”Mr. al-Mursi also said in the conference that party was not “theocratic,” and was willing to cooperate with secular groups in the upcoming September elections. The Brotherhood, which is considered the most or the only truly organized block in Egypt was banned under the Mubarak regime, and ran in elections only as independents. The group won a fifth of the seats in a 2005 elections, but fared much worse in a November 2010 election which was dubbed by Egyptians as rigged and favoring the former ruling National Democratic Party. “It is not an Islamist party in the old understanding, it is not theocratic,” Mr. al-Mursi added.“It is a civil party,” he said at the news conference.Hmmmm......Meanwhile Obama has pledged 1,57 Billion Dollars to Egypt for 2012,"I will stand with my Muslim Brothers"? Read the full story here.

• Ahmadinejad Reportedly Not Showing Up for Work, Sparking Rumors of a Possible Power Shift.(FoxNews).Deep rifts among Iran’s ruling elite have reached an all-time high in recent weeks, according to sources, who say things have gotten so bad that President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad may have stopped showing up for work. Iran’s complex power structure has for years been compared to a multi-headed hydra, with multiple points of strength. But the struggle now appears to have boiled down to a showdown between Ahmadinejad and Iran’s Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei – once viewed as Ahmadinejad’s biggest cheerleader. Dr. Mohsen Sazegara, one of the founders of Iran’s Revolutionary Guard and now an opposition figure living in the U.S., says it’s a classic Iranian power struggle. “We have always had this divide by two system, since the founding of the Islamic Republic. The main problem here is a lack of democratic mechanisms in the constitution of the country. There will always be disagreements, and competition for power.” And no clear way to resolve them. There have been disputes over positions in the cabinet, with the apparent sidelining of longtime Ahmadinejad confidante Esfandiar Rahim-Mashaei, often viewed as the man to take the torch from Ahmadinejad when his term runs out.There are also rumors that Ahmadinejad wants to give an upcoming report on the economy and subsidies live on state television next week, but is being told he can only do it on tape, fueling speculation he may be censored. Also, the Mehr News agency reported Wednesday that a cabinet meeting three days ago was presided over by Vice President Mohammad-Reza Rahimi rather than the president. And Ali Banaei, a member of parliament from the religious city of Qom, has announced that Ahmadinejad’s tour of the city this week had been cancelled. Ahmadinejad’s absence at the presidential palace this week has thrown even the usually compliant supporters of the president into speculation frenzy. Qom cleric Ahmad Najmi, previously a diehard Ahmadinejad fan and head of the Rasa News Agency, had been silent about the president’s recent absence from the scene. But his angry online commentary alleges the president’s actions aim to “weaken the Supreme Leader and strike key revolutionary organs.” And IRNA news agency’s release of only part of a statement by the supreme leader broke with the rule of publishing the leader’s remarks only in entirety. Many blamed Ahmadinejad for that oversight, according to former Iranian diplomat Mehrdad Khonsari.Khonsari says Ahmadinejad, by boycotting work and as such trying to force certain concessions, is playing a futile game of “chicken.” The dispute has proved a source of much amusement and glee to opposition cyber-activists. One has suggested that a president who has always hungered for the international limelight can only be coerced “out of his room with a special UN summit” invite -- a clear reference to Ahmadinejad's penchant for grandstanding when he visits New York City.Ahmadinejad’s big sulk may have to do with his fear of what will happen next, as, according to Sazegara, members of parliament are preparing a mechanism to impeach the president. Clerics close to Ahmadinejad have tried to convince him to find a way to compromise with Khamenei. Websites close to the president have warned that if he is removed, things could get very messy – even violent. “If Ahmadinejad is removed, the Supreme Leader will have two problems on his hands. His first, most powerful enemy could become the people of Iran. The leader tortured and repressed people to keep the president in power. His second problem will be the hardcore inside of the organization, like the Revolutionary Guard and the Ministry of Intelligence, those who presided over the repression and torture.” If Ahmadinejad loses, Sazegara believes, Iranian Foreign Policy will continue unchanged, because, in the end, it is the Supreme Leader, who as his title indicates, has the last say. Cliff Kupchan of the Eurasia Group does not believe this all spells the end of Ahmadinejad. “This is the most intense and public clash yet between the two. It’s over control of the Intelligence Ministry, Ahmadinejad’s growing power, and momemtum behind competing factions in the run up to next year’s Parliamentary elections. But the core fact remains that Khamenei and Ahmadinejad are dependent on each other, they jointly anchor this regime’s hard-line policies. It’s very unlikely that the ambitious and combatative Ahmadinejad will quit or be impeached.” The airing of Iran’s dirty laundry prompted the Supreme Leader to warn, “If there are disputes, we mustn’t frown in front of the people, and give ammunition to foreign media.” Hmmmm...."Impeach the President",lets hope it's contagious.Read the full story here.

• Iranian armed forces chief: The Gulf is ‘Persian’ and ‘has belonged to Iran forever’.(Al-Arabia).A top Iranian military officer on Saturday denounced what he called an “Arab dictatorial front” and claimed that the “Persian Gulf has belonged to Iran forever,” media reports said.“The Arab dictatorial regimes in the Persian Gulf are unable to contain the popular uprisings,” Major General Hassan Firouzabadi, the chief of staff of Iran’s armed forces, was widely quoted as saying by Iranian media on Saturday.“Instead of trying and failing to open an unworkable front against Iran, these dictators should relinquish power, end their savage crimes and let the people determine their own future,” General Firouzabadi said.He also denounced “plots” by the Gulf Arab monarchies to “carve out an identity for themselves by rejecting the identity of others,” referring to Iran.“The Persian Gulf has always, is and shall always belong to Iran,” he said.General Firouzabadi, speaking on the annual “National Day of the Persian Gulf,” also condemned the regional Arab monarchies for refusing to call the waterway between Iran and its Arab neighbors by its “historical name.”“With the arrival of the British and later the Americans in the region, plots were hatched to try and change the name with fake identities... to distort the history and identity of the Persian Gulf,” General Firouzabadi said.Iran says it gives “moral support” to Bahrainis but is not involved in the protests there.Bahrain and Kuwait have in turn expelled Iranian diplomats, accusing them of espionage.On Monday, the state-owned Bahrain News Agency reported that Hujatullah Rahmani, the second secretary at the Iranian Embassy in Manama, was declared a persona non grata and ordered out of Bahrain within 72 hours.Iran has in the past claimed Bahrain as part of its territory, and it controls three islands in the southern Gulf that are also claimed by the United Arab Emirates.Last week, Bahrain’s foreign minister said the Saudi-led force would stay indefinitely to counter perceived threats from Iran.Hmmmm....."It's mine...All mine!Read the full story here.

• IHH Netherlands was designated by the Dutch Foreign Ministry Wednesday as a terrorist organization.(Investigativeproject).All assets of the organization have been frozen and transactions with IHH Netherlands are prohibited.IHH is a Turkish-based organization that has extensive ties to Hamas, and was behind the flotilla that triggered last year's deadly confrontation with Israeli commandos in the Mediterranean Sea. Germany banned the Frankfurt-based IHH group last July for funneling money to Hamas. The Turkish IHH organization denied having any ties with the Frankfurt organization; however, German media reports suggested cooperation between the two groups.IHH Netherlands was founded in 1993 in Amsterdam during the Bosnian war. Its connections to the Turkish IHH remain unclear; IHH in Turkey denies having any links with organizations in Europe that utilize its same name and logo.IHH Netherlands is not planning to take part in the upcoming flotilla to Gaza, or Freedom Flotilla II, of which the Turkish IHH is one of the leading organizers.The United States is considering a designation of the Turkish IHH (Insan Haklari Ve Hurriyetleri Vakfi). "I believe we're looking at the IHH, but it's a long process to designate something – an organization a Foreign Terrorist Organization and there's nothing to announce on that," State Department spokesman Marc C. Toner said last July. In a letter to members of Congress the next month, State's Office of Legislative Affairs said "U.S. government agencies are taking a close look at IHH" for designation by the Treasury Department because "serious questions of support to terrorist organizations have been raised."Israel banned the Turkish IHH in 2008 because it is a member of the Union of Good, and added it to its terror watch list last June. The Union of the Good was designated by the U.S. Treasury Department as a Specially Designated Global Terrorist in 2008 for its financial support to Hamas. "In addition to providing cover for Hamas financial transfers, some of the funds transferred by the Union of Good have compensated Hamas terrorists by providing payments to the families of suicide bombers," according to the Treasury press release.IHH head Bulent Yildirim told an audience in Turkey earlier this month, "The Mediterranean does not belong to Israel... Just because we have had shahids [martyrs], we are not fearful... We will not step back... Let all know this: Until the blockade on Gaza is lifted... and until our march to al-Aqsa is completed, this sea intifada and land intifada will continue!Hmmmmm....Don't even think that the Obama regime will act against their Turkish buddies.Read the full story here.

• Egyptian official: Mubarak may face execution.(Ynet). Cairo Justice Ministry officials say deposed president could face death penalty or life imprisonment if convicted of corruption, complicity to murder.Former Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak could face execution or life imprisonment if he is convicted of the charges of corruption, complicity to murder, and embezzlement of public funds, Cairo's al-Ahram weekly reported.Mubarak, who has been hospitalized due to his failing health, has been remanded for an additional 15 days this week.Egypt's Justice Minister Mohammed al-Gindi told the publication that Mubarak could face the death penalty if he was found guilty of ordering the shooting of demonstrators during the uprisings that brought him down. Mubarak's sons and wife are also under investigation. Mubarak has vehemently denied ever giving orders to open fire on protesters.Read the full story here.

• New Saudi Law Tells Media, ‘Shut Up’.(CrossroadArabia).Royal Decrees amend Press Law with violations and penalties.RIYADH: A number of Royal Decrees were issued Friday containing amendments to the Press and Publications Law of Nov. 2000, addressing violations in the content of published materials, the authorities tasked with investigating and ruling on offenses, and the penalties they incur.

The first of the five amendments concerns Article 9 of the law, with the text now reading:

“All officials in printed materials will heed to objective and constructive criticism in the public interest based on facts and correct testimonies, and are barred from publishing in any form whatsoever the following:

1. – Anything that violates Islamic Shariah rulings or laws in force.
2. – Anything calling for breaches of the security of the country or its public law, or anything that serves foreign interests in conflict with national interests.
3. – Anything affecting the reputation or dignity of, or slandering or personally insulting, the Grand Mufti of the Kingdom or members of the Board of Senior Ulema, or dignitaries of the state or any of its employees, or any person of ordinary standing or any legal person.
4. – Inciting and propagating division between citizens.
5. – Promoting or inciting to crime.
6. – Anything damaging to the country’s public affairs.
7. – Details of investigations or trials without obtaining permission from the legally authorized authority.”The second amendment made in the Royal Decrees concerns Article 36, which now reads:

“The Ministry may – according to need – remove any publication without compensation, if it is found to contain anything barred from publication by Article 9 of the law.”Hmmmm.......Welcome to A.D. 620?Read the full story here.

• Warning ! Viewer Discretion Advised, Very violant , graphic images :Muslims Burn Homosexuals Alive in Cruel Execution. Source :Walid Shoebat.

• And now for something completely different.Amazing "New Face On Mars Discovered".(BeforeitisNews). Sent to us from Matteo Ianneo in Italy. Bravo .Sure looks like a face to me .The coordinates, Latitude 33°12'29.82"N, Longitude 12°55'51.21"W, are confirmed and are found in the Google map of Mars below.Forty-six year old Ianneo says he is passionate about the riddles of Mars. He is from from the Puglia Region and the town of Cerignola.Ianneo says he discovered the new face on Mars by examining pictures sent back to Earth from an ESA probe orbiting the Red Planet and worked into Google's map of Mars. He presents the photos below. He is unsure if the photos are optical illusions or a real sculptured face but feels the images will never-the-less cause a sensation around the world. Here's a link to Google Earth download www.google.com/earth/index.html which also contains Google's map of Mars, if you wish to confirm the images for yourself. Read and see the full story here.