Hungarian PM Orban says EU-Turkey migrant deal an ‘illusion’.

Hungarian PM Orban says EU-Turkey migrant deal an ‘illusion’. (HD).

"We are begging Mr (Turkish President Recep Tayyip) Erdoğan submissively for security on our borders, in exchange for money and promises, because we can't protect them ourselves," Orban told Thursday's mass-selling German daily Bild.

"This is making Europe's future and security dependent on the goodwill of Turkey."

"Brussels is making promises to the Turks that we can't keep - or don't want to keep. The plan to take in hundreds of thousands of refugees from Turkey and distribute them across Europe is an illusion," he said.

If Hungary agreed to this, he said, "they would tie me up on the flagpole here in Budapest". Read the full story here.

On the Austrian-Slovenian border, Austria fingerprints migrants, then discards them.

On the Austrian-Slovenian border, Austria fingerprints migrants, then discards them. (AlAhram).

On the Austrian-Slovenia border, one of the last stops on the migrant route to Germany, a policeman explains that after his 12-hour shift taking new arrivals' fingerprints, most are lost minutes after they are taken.


"We are not allowed to save the fingerprints," the Austrian policeman, who wanted to remain anonymous, said as he sat in a tent at the Spielfeld border crossing. "We do what we're asked to do."

Austria, which saw 700,000 migrants crossing its borders last year, says it is not legally allowed to save and share with other European states more than 90 percent of the fingerprint data it takes of migrants fleeing war and poverty, a potential security problem at a major migrant hub.

It is only required to upload onto Europe's shared fingerprint database, Eurodac, the data of those who actually apply for asylum in the country, which is less than 10 percent of those crossing into Austria.

So Austria takes digital fingerprints of everyone entering the country, checks whether they have a criminal record, but does not save the data if they want to move on to Germany, which most do.

Roz, a 28-year old Syrian mother of two, is surprised to hear that her family's fingerprints are neither saved nor shared.


"They need to know who we are. If you record fingerprints of refugees, it guarantees security in this country," she said as she was shown by Austrian officials onto a bus that would take her to the German border, her chosen destination.

The situation highlights how European laws are far behind the challenges of the continent's latest crisis, one that has already seen hundreds of thousands of migrants and refugees, mainly from Syria, flooding into the continent seeking a new life.

"That is a major problem, we have no records on these people, there are so many moving around the bloc and we have no trace of them whatsoever," said one diplomat in Brussels, adding that some EU countries have tried to push for changes but they were blocked due to privacy protection concerns.

Berndt Koerner, deputy executive director of Europe's border agency Frontex, said he was confronted with an "anachronism" in the sharing of migrant data.


"We are currently confronted with the problem that we cannot access certain databases, which can be used nationally in border controls," Koerner told reporters this month.

Only states on the EU's external borders, such as Greece and Italy, must save and share all fingerprint data. Read the full story here.

German intelligence agency received over 100 tip-offs about Islamic State fighters among refugees.

German intelligence agency received over 100 tip-offs about ISIS fighters among refugees. (Albawaba).

Germany's domestic intelligence agency, BfV, has received over 100 tip-offs about Islamic State fighters among refugees seeking asylum in Germany, Reuters reported.

The German newspaper Berliner Zeitung cited the BfV chief, Hans-Georg Maassen, as mentioning the number of tips during a discussion with Interior Ministry politicians.

Maassen has also said that some of the tip-offs were dismissed as cases of defamation, Berliner Zeitung said.

Xenophobic attacks on migrants are on the rise, and critics have stepped up pressure on German Chancellor Angela Merkel to do more to curb numbers of migrants seeking asylum in Germany.

The BfV agency has not issued a statement and was not available for comment.

Tip off by alert teacher uncovers video of gang rape by migrants in Belgium.

Radicalization probe uncovers video of gang rape by migrants in Belgium. (RT).

Belgian police investigating a tip-off by an alert teacher of a technical school in Ostend about the possible radicalization of a 14-year-old male student have discovered a video implicating him and six others in the gang rape of an unconscious girl. Five of the suspects are Iraqi immigrants.

The video was shot on a phone camera and reportedly shows the assailants laughing, singing and dancing around their victim, who has passed out after drinking too much alcohol. The men pulled the girl’s pants down then groped and raped her, police told the Belgian media.

Police officials in Ostend, Belgium’s largest coastal city, discovered the evidence of the sex crime as they were investigating a 14-year-old student of the Ostend Technical Institute, who had been seen showing his friends a photo of himself wearing military garb and holding a sub-machine gun. The gang rape video was found on the boy’s phone.

Of the seven people arrested in connection with the gang rape, two are Belgium nationals and five are Iraqi immigrants. The oldest suspect is 25 years old.

The 17-year-old victim was identified and has been found. She said she had attended a party with her boyfriend and became unconscious after drinking too much alcohol. After waking up, she called a taxi and went home. She said she didn’t remember what had happen to her.

Several of the suspects showed little remorse for the incident, which happened in November, and didn’t even believe it was a crime at all, the police said.

“She has nothing to complain about. Women must obey men,” one of them reportedly told the police.

The attitude sparked outrage among Belgians.
“It is clear that some newcomers have problematic beliefs about relations between men and women,” commented Ostend Mayor Johan Vande Lanotte. “When they have served their sentences, they must leave the country.”

Theo Francken, Belgium's minister for asylum and immigration, made a similar statement: “Rapists won't be given asylum. They will be sent back to Iraq if they are found guilty.”

German police deploy water cannon to disperse PEGIDA protesters amid clashes in Cologne

German police deploy water cannon to disperse rapist PEGIDA protesters amid clashes in Cologne. (RT).

Police in the western German city of Cologne have broken up a protest by the "anti-Islamization" group PEGIDA. Water cannon were used to disperse demonstrators protesting after the New Year's Eve attacks on women.

Police on Saturday moved to disband the crowd of protesters after bottles and crackers were thrown at officers.

The North Rhine-Westphalian chapter of the anti-migration PEGIDA group and other far-right organizations called the demonstration in the wake of a series of sexual assaults and robberies targeting women in the inner city of Cologne on New Year's Eve.

“Merkel must go” was another popular rallying cry with the demonstrators. The far-right supporters are infuriated with German Chancellor Angela Merkel for her soft stance on refugees, and statements that the country could accept over a million asylum seekers.

Supporters of PEGIDA were met by a counter-demonstration from leftist groups and activists. The two rival factions were kept apart by a large police presence.

The anti-PEGIDA supporters chanted “Nazi pigs” and “Nazi’s out.” One slogan on a sign held by a demonstrator read: “There is nothing right about Nazi propaganda,” while another stated: “Fascism is not an opinion, it is a crime,” AFP reported.

Eyewitnesses said most of the offenders looked to be of North African or Arab origin. The incidents have fueled xenophobic sentiment in some quarters of German society, as the country struggles to cope with a huge influx of refugees and migrants, most of them coming from the Middle East and Africa.

Flashmob for women's rights.

Earlier in the day, several hundred women gathered in front of the cathedral in Cologne, situated near the central train station where the attacks mostly took place, to protest against violence to women (top photo).

They carried banners bearing slogans such as "No means no. That is our law. Keep off us," according to a reporter from AFP news agency.

The flashmob was called by women's groups on the Internet.

DPA news agency reported that some 1,000 people also demonstrated against both racism and sexism, with speakers warning against exploiting the New Year's Eve attacks to fuel xenophobic sentiment. Read the full story here.

Swiss artist Milo Moiré protest naked at #Cologne Dom: "We are not fair game . Even if we are naked'' #Germany pic.twitter.com/vArKuVCfGM

— MFS - The Other News (@MFS001) January 9, 2016

Belgian Secr of State for Asylum and Migration Franken wants to educate refugees: "A woman is treated here with respect"

Belgian Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Franken wants to educate refugees: "A woman is treated here with respect". (Hln)[GoogleTranslated].

Secretary of State for Asylum and Migration Theo Francken (N-VA) wants to give to all asylum applicants courses on how to deal with women. According to him there are "almost daily" fights between Iraqis and Afghans in the refugee shelters. A practice where he wants to put a stop to, and for which there should be tougher sanctions. "The heaviest sanction now, 30 days exclusion from the asylum center, does not make much impression on them."

The Deputy Minister also elaborated on the courses he wants to give to all applicants on how to deal with women. Some centers already started this, but the government wants to expand the system in the coming weeks, writes De Standaard this morning.

The courses should above all ensure that asylum seekers are taught respect for women. "It's about the fact that it is normal that men and women are absolutely equal, women go to work, they can vote, so that a woman is one who is treated with respect and is not a slut or whore. These debates we conducted 50, 60 years ago and we will not have these debates again, we won't give in a millimeter."

That these courses are necessary has for Francken been obvious, even before the events in Cologne last New Year's night. "We have an unprecedented influx of single young men between 16 and 35 years with them, the norms and value system is completely different, these courses are mainly aimed at men but also to women. Them we want to make clear... It is not a problem here that you are working and that your husband can help in the education of the children or in the household. It is a problem if your husband beats you. "Francken follow as the example of Norway, where migrants have long been given such courses. They get lessons on how to treat women. "We will copy the Norwegian model and introduce it the coming weeks and months, in all Belgian refugee centers,".

Sp.a Chairman John Crombez Francken thinks the idea to make all asylum seekers follow the courses "useful, to not it's enough." He is shocked by the sexual assaults committed against women on New Year's night in Cologne. "If this behavior appears we must be quick and react in the hardest possible way to be very clear that this can not possibly be accepted," says the Socialist Party chairman.

"In order to form a close community rules apply. These are for everybody. Equality between men and women is perhaps the most important achievement of Western democracy. It is absolute. The groups of men who have committed ​​these degrading acts, must therefore be identified, prosecuted and punished as severely as possible, "says Crombez to Belga. If it is about people who have fled here, then the appropriate response for the sp.a president is that in this case, they can not remain here.

Russian Activists Predict Surge In Gay Asylum Claims Amid 'Propaganda' Ban.

Russian Activists Predict Surge In Gay Asylum Claims Amid 'Propaganda' Ban.(RFE).By Richard Solash.In 2010, 26-year-old Artem Pavlov was followed by thugs as he left a cafe in his hometown of Ufa, Russia. The group had overheard him talking about being gay. He was thrown to the ground and beaten before his friends could call for help. When police arrived and learned that Pavlov was attacked because of his homosexuality, they told him that he was, in fact, lucky -- lucky that the policemen themselves had not been there to join in the beating. The details of the incident, pieced together through personal accounts in the absence of an official police report, were the foundation for Pavlov's request for asylum in the United States. The request was approved by a New York judge last year. "I was in danger physically and emotionally from other civilians and would be in danger from the government itself, which is the definition of persecution," Pavlov says.
"I would never be able to have a family. I would never be able to have kids. I would never be able to live openly. I want to live. I want to be happy." Russia has long been a dangerous place for gays and lesbians. However, rights advocates warn that conditions are quickly worsening with a newly approved law they say not only promotes, but institutionalizes, homophobia. While the coming months will tell how the law will be applied, activists and lawyers are already predicting that more LGBT (lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgendered) Russians will be pushed to seek asylum in the West. Those like Pavlov, who have already fled, foresee the same trend. "By the end of the year, probably, the number will surge. Now there is a law that can be interpreted by the powers that be to arrest you [and] to assault you -- just for living your life," Pavlov says. "Thanks to that, you can you apply for asylum like it was still Soviet Russia, when it was illegal to be gay. It's basically the same thing." In March, St. Petersburg instituted a ban on "homosexual propaganda." Individuals convicted of promoting homosexuality to minors could be fined up to 5,000 rubles ($172) and organizations could be fined up to 500,000 rubles ($17,200). The legislation also appears to equate homosexuality with pedophilia -- a long-standing stereotype -- by levying the same fines for pedophilic "propaganda."
The first arrests were made on April 5 of two gay-rights activists who were holding placards reading, "It's normal to be gay." Similar laws have been instituted in Russia's Arkhangelsk, Kostroma, and Ryazan regions. 
Olga Lenkova of the St. Petersburg-based Coming Out, the largest grassroots LGBT organization in Russia, says community members are concerned that the initial arrests are "just the beginning." She says the prospect of fleeing Russia is "now in the minds of many." The topic, which Lenkova says is appearing on Russian gay blogs and social media, now features in discussion groups organized by Coming Out. Gay and lesbian families with children, she adds, appear to be most seriously considering asylum. "They do not know whether they will be considered as promoting homosexuality to their own children, or to the friends of their children, or to the schoolmates of their children -- or just [in] being open as a family," Lenkova says.
"This is of special concern to the families where the children are adopted -- that the authorities that are supervising such families might decide that they are not safe for the children to grow up [with] and might take the children away." In 2010, 548 Russians were granted asylum in the United States, accounting for less than 3 percent of the total. The United States has allowed sexual-orientation-based asylum claims since 1994 but doesn't report the type of claims in its public statistics. Olga Bychok, a Soviet-born lawyer living in New York, is well-known among gay Russian asylum seekers who make it to the city. She says that since last year, when the St. Petersburg measures were first introduced, she has been contacted by two to three gay or lesbian Russians every week, up from the usual single inquiry a week. Not all requests are granted, but Bychok says the vast majority are. She expects her client list to increase and says she is already referencing the legislation in arguing her cases.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

   Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity Papua New Guinea 6.7 and 5.8 Russia ! More info here.

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

• Emails Expose the True Nature of the #Occupy Movement.(BigGovernment).By BrandonDarby.My history with many of the key organizers of the “Global Movement for Peace and Justice” has allowed me to see right through the Mainstream Media and Democratic Party’s attempts to promote and build the #Occupy Movement as a “grassroots effort” which “spontaneously” arose.I’ve known that the #Occupy Movement is nothing less than a current manifestation of an international revolutionary push in which I myself used to play a significant role. This “movement” holds at its core that America is the largest enemy to world peace and freedom. As many know, my views began to change in our movements’ efforts to help the residents of the devastated New Orleans 9th Ward. My experiences in leadership allowed me to meet and interact with many “relief” and “protest” groups from around the world. I ultimately came to the conclusion that many of these organizations and individuals were intent on destroying our country – I decided to expose them through working undercover with The FBI.This movement has once again reared its ugly head and done just what it always does – convincing moderate Democrats to inadvertently provide cover, both physically and in the media, for radical efforts to damage our system and our nation. As can be expected, I’m part of a citizen-led effort to expose them for what they are.The information we are releasing is a window into the core of what and who are behind the “Occupy Movement.” We will be going through this with a fine toothed comb and exposing each and every detail my experiences enables me to comprehend.In this you will see the notorious global organizer against capitalism, Lisa Fithian, discussing doors and exits to “targets.” Like a radical Mullah, she has historically developed plans and strategies to illegally enter and shut down buildings and meetings – and found young idealistic youths to get arrested and gain criminal records that stay with them for life. And like a radical Mullah, she never is the one to carry out her plans. Another email shows a key organizer and his aversion to working with “Jews.” As can be expected from the far Left, he refers to them as “Zionists.”We will continue to sift through this information and much more and alert the public to who and what is attempting to destroy our nation.We ask all concerned Americans to please sift through this data, just as the Washington Post asked concerned Americans to sift through Sarah Palin’s emails, so we might all better see what threats our nation faces.Hmmmm....... I bring reason to your ears, and, in language as plain as ABC, hold up truth to your eyes.” Thomas Paine, December 23, 1776.Read the full story here.
• 
  Related - The Email Archive of the #OccupyWallStreet Movement: Anarchists, Socialists, Unions, Democrats and Their Plans.(BigGovernment).At the end of this post, you will find links to download the #OccupyWallStreet email archive described earlier today by Andrew Breitbart. Send your thoughts, observations, and findings to feedback@breitbart.com, or post them in the comment section.]We are sharing the email archive because we believe the public needs to know the hidden agendas behind the Occupation–the socialist, anarchist, and other agendas that have not been reported in the mainstream media.

Email archive:

.pst format: primary and alternate

.csv format: primary and alternate

Full story @.HT:BigGovernment.

• The Panhandler and the President.(WSJ). By DavidMoore. Walking down New York's 55th Street near Park Avenue last Friday evening, our group of seven men in suits and ties was approached by a panhandler asking for money. "Here are a bunch of Wall Street guys," he said, straight out. "Give me some money." Although we were not all "Wall Street guys," all except one kept walking, ignoring the panhandler as we typically do, as instructed by "experts." Yet over the past 30 years of living in the city, I often have disregarded this advice, and so once more I gave instinctively. I pulled out a dollar, handed it to the man, smiled, and resumed walking. But next came a revelation. "A dollar?" the man shouted. "You Wall Street fat cats! This is what the problem is with this country. Take your damn dollar." With that, he threw it on the sidewalk.Apparently, street charity now has a minimum. Not only have I never had anyone refuse my donation under such circumstances, but recipients are generally quite appreciative regardless of the amount. Not this time. It was as if the class-warfare rhetoric of the left had surfaced on 55th Street, while I was just trying to show some goodwill and help a guy out. He didn't even ask for a little more, as sometimes happens. ("How about $5 for a meal? . . . $20 for a bus ticket?") He simply judged that my $1 gift was not sufficient and threw it on the ground. I had not given my "fair share."Like most people I know, I think President Obama's tax increases on the wealthy would make sense if we believed he was sincere about—and could be successful at—reforming Washington's overspending, out-of-control entitlements and regulation. Instead, his attacks on Wall Street bankers ("fat cats," a phrase Mr. Obama now owns and was eloquently repeated by the panhandler on Friday night), Las Vegas, oil companies, jet manufacturers and "millionaires and billionaires" are inflaming both sides and placating no one. They seriously undermine the chances for reasonable compromise. The president's incendiary message has now reached the streets. His complaints that rich people must "pay their fair share" have now goaded some of our society's most unfortunate, including one who felt compelled to refuse money because it was not enough. President Obama has become the "Great Divider" instead of the "Great Unifier" that we all hoped he would be.I do not recall another president in my lifetime whose negative drumbeat about large segments of the population has been so relentless. I do not recall another president (even those similarly frustrated by congressional gridlock and the stifling of their agendas) repeatedly targeting a specific economic class, complaining as loudly and using his bully pulpit so consistently for bashing those who disagree with him. Presidents, once elected, instantly become president of all the people. Hmmmm......Hear,Hear!Read the full story here.

• Arbabsiar Plot Still Makes No Sense.(Cato).By Justin Logan.I was as shocked as most other people to hear Tuesday the Department of Justice unveiling charges against Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year old Iranian-American apparently linked to Iran’s Quds Force. If the facts as described in the government’s complaint [.pdf] were part of a crime novel I were editing, I’d tell the author it was far too outlandish and to do some more research. Now we’re finding out that the administration itself had “expressed concern that the plot’s cartoonish quality would invite suspicions and conspiracy theories.”

And cartoonish it was. I had figured that maybe I was the only one who thought the government’s story was shot through with gaping holes, but now I read that basically the entire roster of non-neoconservative Iran watchers can’t make sense of the plot.For their part, reflexive hawks have taken the news in stride. James Jay Carafano explained that this is what happens when you act like Jimmy Carter, and the neocons’ Foundation for the Defense of Democracies has essentially taken over the WSJ op-ed page. (As one wag noted, the WSJ’s unsigned editorial invoked 9/11 in the first sentence.) But note the lack of critical thought in these pieces. Reuel Marc Gerecht uses the story as the latest hook for his “let’s bomb Iran” shtick, and another FDD/WSJ offering even says that “though details of the plot are still scarce,” “[t]o doubt the Iranian regime’s responsibility in the thwarted attack is to misunderstand its nature, or to somehow fall prey to the delusion that when an Iranian connection appears behind a terror plot, its perpetrators have gone rogue or are acting on behalf of some dark faction to undermine a nonexistent ‘moderate’ camp within the regime.” Well, maybe, but I like details.I think there’s a pretty strong case for revisiting our assumptions about Iran, provided somebody can fill in the aforementioned holes. I had a bit more of a critical piece in CNN International, asking a number of questions that I’d like to see answered before deciding anything. I’ll just share with you one question I asked:

the accused seem to have believed that the [Mexican drug cartel the] Zetas would blow up [Saudi Ambassador Adel] al-Jubeir (and potentially a hundred people nearby, explicitly including possible U.S. senators) having only been fronted $100,000 of the $1.5 million payoff, and holding Arbabsiar as collateral.

There’s little evidence that the Zetas are stupid enough to cause themselves the trouble that blowing up a Washington restaurant containing the Saudi Ambassador and a hundred others would inevitably cause — especially for a potential payday of only $100,000 and a dead Iranian operative. Why did Arbabsiar or the IRGC think that the Zetas would be willing to do this deal?To my mind, this is the biggest question out there, but I raise several others. For my provisional thoughts on the story, have a look at that piece.Hmmmm..............Read the full story here.

• Surprised?Some Palestinian prisoners to be released to Turkey.(TodaysZaman).Some of the Palestinians Israel agreed to set free in return for the long-expected release of Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit by Hamas will be released to Turkey and other third countries, according to media reports.Israel announced on Tuesday that Israel and the Palestinian group Hamas had signed a deal for the release of the captive Israeli soldier. Hamas will release Shalit, captured in 2006, in return for release by Israel of more than 1,000 Palestinians held in Israeli prisons, Hamas leader Khaled Mashaal said.Meshaal said Israel will release 1,027 prisoners in two stages. Within a week, 450 will be swapped for Shalit and the rest will be freed two months later. But not all of them are to be allowed to return to West Bank or Gaza, according to media reports. The Israeli-Hamas deal has limited the numbers allowed to return to the West Bank to 110. Only 203 will be released to Gaza and the rest to Turkey and Europe, Guardian reported.Turkish daily Radikal said about 40 people who are not allowed to return to West Bank will be sent to Turkey and other countries. Another report, published in daily Hürriyet, said Israel did not allow these people to be sent to Syria, Lebanon or Egypt.Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoğlu welcomed the deal and said on Wednesday that Turkey was involved in the process that led to the Hamas-Israel agreement, making “contributions at different levels and different phases” of the process.Davutoğlu, however, declined to elaborate on release of Palestinian prisoners to Turkey, saying these issues will be taken up during the “swap phase.”The foreign minister also said Turkey was informed by Hamas about the deal ahead of the agreement.Turkey’s role in efforts to work out an agreement on prisoner swap came despite a political crisis in its relations with Israel, sparked by a deadly takeover of a Turkish aid ship in May 2010 by Israeli commandos that resulted in deaths of eight Turks and a Turkish American.Israeli President Shimon Peres said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was involved in securing the deal and added that he was “pleasantly surprised” by Turkey's help in securing Shalit’s release."I was told that it was done by Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan," Peres said. "They put everything aside and favored the humanitarian side over politics.”Read the full story here.

• PAKISTAN - Pakistani Islamic extremists march in support of assassin Mumtaz Qadri killer of Governor Salman Taseer.(AsiaNews).Islamabad - The Islamic fundamentalist fringe, the association of lawyers in Rawalpindi, a famous judge of the court of Lahore and thousands of Pakistanis are on the streets: a large chunk of the country is challenging the judiciary and the government, guilty of condemning to death Mumtaz Qadri, the bodyguard and self-confessed murderer of the Punjab Governor Salman Taseer, who was killed on January 2 for defending the Christian Asia Bibi and asking for changes to the blasphemy laws. Speaking to AsiaNews Catholic leaders confirm the "mass reaction" of religious parties against the ruling and observe "with great sorrow" a nation that is "in danger of falling into chaos and anarchy."Sahibzada Fazle Karim, president of the Sunni Ittehad Council, has announced for 21 November next, a human chain under the slogan: "Bring down the government." According to the extremist leader, a long line of people will link Rawalpindi – home to the court that handed down the sentence against Qadri - and Karachi in southern Pakistan, demanding the resignation of the executive. "We will not let the government - said Sahibzada Fazle Karim – keep hostage the hero of Islam, who killed a blasphemous infidel." He then launches an appeal to all Muslims, to fight together against "the government, the Ahmadis and the West" accused of "conspiracy against Islam."In a surprise decision, the former head of the Lahore High Court has decided to take the legal defense of Qadri in the appeal process in Islamabad. " Qadri’s gesture is justified - says the judge – as one of a true Muslim." The members of the Association of lawyers of Rawalpindi have also given the government an ultimatum: if within five days Judge Syed Pervez Ali Shah - author of the sentence to death – is not transferred a lawyers strike will be launched nationwide. Meanwhile, the city attorney has suspended the enforceability of the death sentence, pending appeal.Meanwhile, among the Catholic leaders in Pakistan th e fear of a violent drift of the protest remains: for Msgr. Lawrence Saldanha, archbishop emeritus of Lahore, there was a "massive response" of Islamic religious parties, which so far, "the authorities have been able to control." For Mgr. Rufin Anthony, Bishop of Islamabad-Rawalpindi, the fact a respected judge decides to assume the defense of a criminal is not a "good sign" for the judicial system in Pakistan. Not only for the act of killing itself, clarifies the prelate, but for "the justification for killing anyone who does not share your opinion."The bishop of the capital, warns that the country may plunge into chaos and anarchy, becoming a place where "the killers are considered heroes." And note a contradiction: If Taseer's murder was justified, why is the Islamic Tehreek movement offering a sum of money "to wash the blood spilled with money."Hmmmm......Perhaps the Obama admin could give them a few Billion Dollar more?Read the full story here.

• Belgium: "No more cash for asylum seekers".(IslamInEurope).Via VRT: A commission of the Chamber of Representatives has decided to tighten up rules regarding the care and support that must be given to asylum seekers in Belgium. In future asylum seekers will only receive benefits in kind and no cash and from citizens of other EU countries it will become increasingly difficult to secure the 'living wage' benefit from local social services.In the new Belgian Government one single minister will be responsible for Asylum and Migration policy. Fresh legislation is currently going through parliament that will provide the new minister with a powerful instrument with which to limit the influx of asylum seekers in Belgium.In future asylum seekers will only be able to make one single application that offers them the possibility of receiving care and assistance. Only material support will be provided, no cash. When an asylum seeker has his application turned down he or she will only be able to remain in a reception centre for asylum seekers for one further month. After this month the failed asylum seeker will have to leave the country voluntarily or under duress. Asylum seekers who leave such centres without any valid reason will lose all rights to care and support.Hmmm.......I wonder what  Europe  will say about this?Read the full story here.

• 10 reasons to love 'Palestine' and why I am so proud to be a 'Palestinian'.(IsraelMatzav).By Guffaq Yussef.

1. There is no such thing as Mother's Day. No worry about cards, gifts and expensive meals. There is no honor in being a woman in our culture, so there is no reason to devote a day to her. We do, however, get to enjoy watching our fathers beat our mothers senseless for the slightest real or imagined infraction. Also, if Dad suspects that Mom spoke to a strange man in the street, he gets to kill her to preserve the family honor!

2. Weapons. Every child, from the time he can grasp an object, is trained to feel comfortable with a rifle or pistol in his hand. And every Palestinian has a weapon: a gun, a rocket launcher, a pound of C-4. What good are hands if they aren't used to kill?Read the full story here

• Libyan Weaponry Pours Into Gaza, Empowers Hamas.(BigPeace).During the debate over whether the Libyan intervention was a model for military action, Libyan weapons were being smuggled into Egypt’s black market and into Gaza. Keep in mind that an elaborate system of tunnels has been constructed between the Sinai and Gaza. It was reported recently that an estimated 20,000 surface-to-air missiles have vanished from known Libyan inventory.Many of the weapons in question are of the tactical kind. These weapons are not easily tracked and increases Hamas terrorists’ threats to Israeli security operations. Particularly important are the shoulder-fired anti-aircraft missiles; rocket-propelled anti-armor grenades, and mobile anti-aircraft guns. The Egyptian military can vouch that gun smuggling into Gaza is underway through recent seizures:

Helped by highly sophisticated contraband weapons smuggled out of Libya, Iran and Hizballah are getting the Palestinian Hamas equipped for another round of hostilities with Israel. debkafile’s military sources report that Sunday, Sept. 25, Egyptian security forces, acting on information from a Western intelligence source, homed in near Ismailia on a large half-empty buried cache of advanced SA-24 anti-air infrared missiles (a version of the US Stinger) stored there en route from Libya to Gaza.

The information came too late to block delivery; most of the crates were found empty of their contents of missiles and other military equipment which must already be on their way to Sinai or Gaza. Some of the empty containers were found to have contained Russian-made MDM-3 sea mines, of the type Muammar Qaddafi scattered around Libyan ports in May to keep NATO vessels at bay.
With the unrest in Cairo and Egypt’s military turned inward, once the guns make into the Sinai they are as good as gone. The desert region has been dubbed no man’s land and a black hole in terms of government administration. Israeli-Egyptian relations have gone cold since Mubarak’s ousting, and the lawlessness in the Sinai, along with the new source of weaponry, raises concerns over Israel’s course of action. The back channel contacts have also seemed to deteriorate. The Israeli ambassador was evacuated when the Israeli embassy was attacked by angry protesters and has not returned. The Egyptian military also seems to be following the lead of the political situation that has swept through Egypt.

Israel has been well aware of gun smuggling into Gaza in the past. Most notably, they have tracked an increase since being forced by the international community to withdraw from Gaza in 2005. Iran was the chief exporter by way of sea and air. Syria has been an accomplice, and now Israel must worry about Turkey joining. Obviously, since the guns must make several stops and take numerous routes, Israel was somewhat able to estimate the amount of guns and even take steps to prevent them from entering Gaza by way of the Red Sea or the Mediterranean. However, this closer route between Gaza and the Sinai gives Hamas nearly a seamless supply route for weaponry that could greatly challenge Israel’s security. With an added advantage against Israeli air power and armor, Hamas may find new hostilities are more suitable to their interests than in the past.Read the full story here.

• Ski season opens early in Colorado, and An October storm brought nearly a foot of snow to Mammoth,California.(WUWT).From the “Children just aren’t going to know what snow is…” department.

ESPN reports: This week, the first significant snowfall of the winter season hit ski areas around the country — dropping 10-plus inches of snow at higher elevations in Tahoe and Mammoth, nine inches on West Virginia’s Snowshoe Mountain, and causing winter storm warnings in the mountains in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado.

The ski season in Colorado officially began on Oct. 8.

It was announced not with the din of snow-making machines pasting a path of man-made snow between dirt and rocks, but the distant whoops of avalanche-control bombs.And accompanied by heaps of powder.On Oct. 8, 1,500 skiers and snowboarders converged on remote Wolf Creek Ski Area, four hours from Colorado Springs, Colo., for the most memorable ski season opening in recent memory.Every year, the Interstate 70-corridor ski areas Loveland and Arapahoe Basin compete to make enough snow for an 18-inch base on one or two ski runs to open first.But as both were firing up snow guns for the first time on Oct. 6, an autumn storm was dumping 3 feet of snow on Wolf Creek, in the San Juan Mountains of southern Colorado.After another 8 inches of snow fell the night of Oct. 7, cries of joy echoed through Wolf Creek’s pines all day.Skiers talked about the conditions in hushed tones.“This is a very rare treat,” said Charles Vogel, who drove 6 hours from the Western Slope. “I grew up in Colorado. I’ve been skiing since I was 4 years old, and I’ve never seen anything like this.”Hmmmm.......I’m sure somebody will find a way to blame global warming.Read the full story here.

• Geological Time Bomb: Red Alert Issued For El Hierro Volcanic Region in Canary Islands; Possible Tsunami Threat To U.S. East Coast.(SHTF).The IGN, Spain’s USGS equivalent, has issued a Red Alert warning for the El Hierro volcanic region in the Canary Islands amid thousands of earthquake swarms and volcanic activity which started in early August:  SPAIN’S Instituto Geográfico Nacional (IGN) confirmed on Tuesday that an underwater eruption has occurred five kilometres off the southern coastline of El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands.

A Red Alert has since been issued by local authorities for the town.
A notice posted on the Emergencia El Hierro website on Tuesday evening stated: “Phase pre-eruptive. It involves the initiation of a preventive evacuation. Make yourself available to the authorities.”
Source: The Olive Press (Spain)

For those not familiar with the volcano, it is situated off the northwest coast of Africa in the Canary Islands, an autonomous Spanish archipelago. While there is no danger to the United States from volcanic eruptions, it has been long theorized by researchers that a large enough eruption and earthquake may be capable of splitting a neighboring volcano, La Palma, in two, which would subsequently cause a land slide on a scale unprecedented in recorded human history. The result would be a massive Mega-Tsunami that would cross the Atlantic ocean, slamming into the Eastern cost of the United States, the Caribbean islands and parts of South America.

While Tsunamis on this scale are incredibly rare according to researchers, a landslide in 1958 in Latuya Bay, Alaska caused a Mega Tsunami (video) whose wave was higher than the Empire State Building and washed over trees and land some 1,700 feet high above sea level.The theorized landslide in the Canary Islands would involve rock masses that far exceed the Alaskan landslides, estimated to be 10,000 times as much mass, suggesting that the resulting Tsunami would easily exceed three thousand feet (30 times bigger than the the 2004 Indian ocean Tsunami) and travel at roughly 450 – 500 miles per hour. The wave would slam into the Eastern seaboard with extreme force threatening over 200 million people who live in states from Florida to Maine, the north eastern Canadian coast, the Caribbeans, Brazil and Venezuela.

Simon Day, of the College University of London, says the La Palma volcano, situated in the earthquake zone and less than 100 miles from Hierro, is a geological time bomb:

What we envisage is the whole of this coast line [approximately 1/6 the entire mass of the island] and the slope extending up, all the way to the crest of this volcano that is now in the clouds… will slide away in a single massive landslide into the ocean, pushing the water up in front of it to create the Tsunami wave.An previous earthquake (1949) in the Canaries caused the La Palma volcano to actually split nearly in half, prompting scientists to begin warning of the real possibility that massive earthquakes and volcanic activity could be devastating to residents of not only the Canary Islands, but North and South America, as well.Read the full story here, video simulation of the event here.More daily info Here.

• And now for something completely different.An early Celtic Stonehenge discovered in the Black Forest.(Archaeologydaily). A huge early Celtic calendar construction has been discovered in the royal tomb of Magdalenenberg, nearby Villingen Schwenningen in the Black Forest.This discovery was made by researchers at the Römisch-GermanischesPress Zentralmuseum at Mainz in Germany when they evaluated old excavation plans. The order of the burials around the central royal tomb fits exactly with the sky constellations of the Northern hemisphere.Whereas Stonehenge was orientated towards the sun, the more then 100 meter width burial mound of Magdalenenberg was focused towards the moon. The builders positioned long rows of wooden posts in the burial mound to be able to focus on the Lunar Standstills. These Lunar Standstills happen every 18,6 year and were the corner stones' of the Celtic calendar.The position of the burials at Magdeleneberg represents a constellation pattern which can be seen between Midwinter and Midsummer. With the help of special computer programs, Dr. Allard Mees, researcher at the Römisch-Germanischen Zentralmuseum, could reconstruct the position of the sky constellations in the early Celtic period and following from that those which were visible at Midsummer. This archaeo-astronomic research resulted in a date of Midsummer 618 BC, which makes it the earliest and most complete example of a Celtic calendar focused on the moon.Julius Caesar reported in his war commentaries about the moon based calendar of the Celtic culture. Following his conquest of Gaul and the destruction of the Gallic culture, these types of calendar were completely forgotten in Europe. With the Romans, a sun based calendar was adopted throughout Europe. The full dimensions of the lost Celtic calendar system have now come to light again in the monumental burial mound of Magdalenenberg.Read and see the full story here.