Al-Qaeda's Al-Zawahiri says Osama Bin Laden was once a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.

Al-Qaeda's Al-Zawahiri says Osama Bin Laden was once a member of the Muslim Brotherhood.(AlArabia).[GoogleTranslate].

Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda leader, acknowledged that Osama bin Laden was a member of the Muslim Brotherhood, and that the organization is the one who sent him to Pakistan when the Soviet invasion took place in a specific task, which is connected to the support of the Islamic group that are out there, and was instructed regulation him not to enter Afghanistan, but Osama bucking orders.

This came in a new episode of "death industry" on screen "Arab", which revolves around the relationship that combines the Muslim Brotherhood extremist organizations is and movements of armed violence, ranging from incitements groups, such as Takfir wal Hijra in the seventies, and out to the Jihad organization Jemaah Islamiyah and even Al-Qaeda and Daash.

Shows al-Zawahri said in the recording released by al-Qaeda's Sahab It tells the secrets of a special meeting was in Peshawar and collect between Osama bin Laden and Mustafa famous guide Brotherhood. Hmmm......You know the same 'Muslim Brotherhood' guys that the Obama 'Admin' love so much.

Anti-Semite Ali Mazrui Honored by Alwaleed Bin Talal Center at Georgetown University.

Ali Mazrui - lecturer at Bin Laden funded ICPI in South Africa

Anti-Semite Ali Mazrui Honored by Alwaleed Bin Talal Center at Georgetown University.HT: CampusWatch.by Winfield Myers  •  May 3, 2013 at 7:09 pm.


On May 6, 2010, Ali Mazrui, director of the Institute of Global Cultural Studies at SUNY-Binghamton, made the following statement to an audience at Columbia University:

The population of Jews in the US is three percent ... but [their 'genius'] leads to their controlling so much power that even presidents are scared [of them]. Whether [President Barack] Obama will be able to escape the notion that three percent of the country is so powerful that the top gentile in the land cannot criticize Israel is not clear.

In spite of--or perhaps because of--this and other blatantly anti-Semitic statements recorded below, Mazrui has been awarded the "2012-13 Building Bridges Award" by the Alwaleed Bin Talal Center for Muslim-Christian Understanding at Georgetown University.

The Center's founding director, John Esposito, has long been among America's most vocal apologists for the radical Wahhabi branch of Islam. 

By honoring Ali Mazrui, the Center Esposito directs--founded with a $20 million gift from Saudi Prince Alwaleed Bin Talal--remains true to its origins.
ACMCU's website says the award, "recognizes individuals who have dedicated their life's work to fostering greater understanding between faith groups." Mazrui and the two other recipients are recognized, it states, because their "efforts to promote interfaith relations, peace-building and social justice have been extraordinary."
As illustrated by the quote above and those below (all taken from the same Columbia lecture), Mazrui is no bridge builder. He also claimed that:

Jews have been at their best when they were Europeanized...almost as if you needed a mixture of Jewishness and Europeanness [for Jewish genius].

Brendan Goldman, then an NYU senior who reported on Mazrui's lecture for Campus Watch, commented on how Mazrui

made the nuanced argument that since Karl Marx was ethnically Jewish, he clearly made 'the Chosen People [into] the proletariat.'

And:

He also claimed that Jews as a people are insular and racist. 'Arabs are far less race-conscious and ethnic-conscious than Jews are,' he said. 'Acceptance of race mixture was more developed in Arab culture than in Jewish culture.'

Goldman concluded his essay with this observation--now even more apt in light of Georgetown's decision to honor a man MEF president Daniel Pipes called, in light of his Columbia lecture, a "rank anti-Semite":

It was a surreal experience to bear witness to a professor of Mazrui's professional stature dispensing with the usual fig leaf of 'anti-Zionism' to espouse classic anti-Semitism. Academia ostensibly supports a world without prejudice, but professors like Mazrui now provide a legitimate façade for Jewish racial stereotypes. This is rank hypocrisy, and it's time we call it what it is.

By handing Mazrui an award for building bridges between faiths, Georgetown has strengthened that "legitimate façade for Jewish racial stereotypes."
Campus Watch calls upon John Esposito and Georgetown president John J. DeGioia to revoke the 2012-13 Building Bridges Award from Ali Mazrui, whose anti-Semitism and efforts to revive Jewish race science make him unworthy of the esteem of Georgetown University. As the quotes and observations above illustrate, Mazrui is anything but a bridge builder as the phrase is commonly understood.
The award is apt only if Esposito, DeGioia, and the Georgetown community intend to build bridges to anti-Semites worldwide.
Readers may contact Georgetown President John J. DeGioia and ACMCU Founding Director John Esposito to express their objection to honoring a man with Mazrui's record of anti-Semitism:
President John J. DeGioia
Office of the President
204 Healy Hall
37th & "O" Streets, NW
Washington, DC 20057-1789
Tel: (202) 687-4134
Fax: (202) 687-6660
ACMCU Founding Director John Esposito:
Phone: (202) 687-8375
Alt. Phone: (202) 687-6418
Fax: (202) 687-8376
Email: jle2@georgetown.eduAlt. Email: jfc83@georgetown.edu

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“You cannot end terrorism in the Muslim world, not any time soon, and possibly never,” Bartenev foreign policy analyst of the Moscow State University.

“You cannot end terrorism in the Muslim world, not any time soon, and possibly never,” Bartenev foreign policy analyst of the Moscow State University.(RN).Osama bin Laden’s death had little immediate impact on Russia’s own Islamist insurgency, which had occasional ties with al-Qaida, but a lot remains at stake for Moscow in Afghanistan, where a weakened al-Qaida is being sidelined by the Taliban, Russian foreign policy analysts said. “Russia stands a chance of filling the upcoming political vacuum in the country,” said Viktor Korgun, the head of Afghan studies department at the Moscow-based Institute of Oriental Studies.His death weakened al-Qaida, which bin Laden headed for quarter of a century, but could not possibly undo the group, which is a network of semi-independent local cells, said Vladimir Bartenev, a foreign policy analyst with the Moscow State University. American drone attacks on al-Qaida forces in Afghanistan played a bigger role in whittling the group down to its current core of some 1,500 fighters with a rotating cast of short-lived leaders than the hunt for bin Laden, Korgun said on Monday. But outside Afghanistan, the al-Qaida is still active while “transforming into a set of loosely affiliated groups focusing on local grievances, be that in Yemen, Maghreb or elsewhere,” Bartenev said. “And the al-Qaida guys in Yemen and Maghreb don’t care for bin Laden much, and didn’t for years,” he said.
Bin Laden’s death constituted the main foreign policy achievement for U.S. President Barack Obama, who faces an election in November, experts said. “It was more political than anything,” said Andrei Klimov, first deputy head of the international affairs committee at the Russian State Duma. Obama picked the anniversary of bin Laden’s death for a snap visit to Kabul, where he signed a deal on strategic partnership with Afghani President Hamid Karzai. The meeting indicated the White House was dubious about its allegedly ongoing talks with “moderate” Taliban and banking on the loyal Karzai, said Vladimir Sotnikov, a foreign affairs expert with the Institute of World Economy and International Relations in Moscow.“You cannot end terrorism in the Muslim world, not any time soon, and possibly never,” said Bartenev of the Moscow State University.
But a crucial victory for the West was stopping the export of terrorism to Europe and America, where no big terrorist attacks took place since the London bombings in 2005, said Korgun.
Local affairs, not anti-Western jihad touted by bin Laden, are now the prime item on the cards for terrorists, Bartenev said.However, this shift happened before bin Laden’s death, which was no more than a milestone in the anti-terrorism campaign, he said.Read the full story here.

Pat Condell : Justice for Osama

People flock to Bin Laden's Abbottabad compound

Brennan on Rationale Behind Sea Burial of Bin Laden

MFS - The Other News

                      Morning Posting.

• Libya Live Blog - May 02. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Syria Live Blog - May 02. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 101.
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• Japan  : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog

• Live blog: Osama bin Laden killed by US forces.(Al-Jazeera).1:57pm The death of bin Laden was greeted with near-silence on Monday from Gulf Arab states, including his birthplace Saudi Arabia.By mid-afternoon, the only official comment from the Arabian Peninsula came from Yemen, bin Laden's ancestral homeland, where an official speaking on condition of anonymity hoped the killing would "root out terrorism throughout the world".Saudi Arabia's official news agency merely noted that the United States and Pakistan had announced bin Laden had been killed in a US military operation in Pakistan but gave no clue to Riyadh's thinking.The foreign ministers of Bahrain, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates, attending a meeting of Gulf foreign ministers in the UAE capital Abu Dhabi, all declined to comment on bin Laden's death.

10:22am Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood said that US soldiers should be withdrawn from Afghanistan and Iraq after the killing of Osama bin Laden. Essam al-Erian, a member of the Muslim Brotherhood's governing body, told Reuters:With Bin Laden's death, one of the reasons for which violence has been practised in the world has been removed. It is time for Obama to pull out of Afghanistan and Iraq and end the occupation of U.S. and Western forces around the world that have for so long harmed Muslim countries.For continious updates click here.

• Reactions on the Death of Osama Bin Laden.(Al-Jazeera).Ismail Haniyeh - head of Hamas in the Gaza strip.We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs.We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood.

P. Chidambaram - Indian home minister

We take note with grave concern that part of the statement in which (US) President Obama said that the firefight in which Osama bin Laden was killed took place in Abbottabad 'deep inside Pakistan'.This fact underlines our concern that terrorists belonging to different organisations find sanctuary in Pakistan.Read more reactions here.

• The Greatest Story ever told?(DailyMail).Shootout, no surrender and carried away on foot after U.S. chopper broke down: Dramatic reconstruction of how hit squad finally took out Bin Laden.Almost ten years after the horror of 9/11, Osama bin Laden must have thought he was safe.He had moved from the remote, barren mountains on Afghanistan’s inhospitable border to a comfortable $1million mansion in one of Pakistan’s most picturesque and affluent cities.Abbottabad - named after James Abbott, the British major who founded the town in 1853 - has such a pleasant climate that it is a major hub for tourists visiting the region.And the former home of the Gurkhas is still a major military base so locals have no reason to feel threatened.Behind the walls of his sprawling compound about 60 miles north of the Pakistani capital of Islamabad, Bin Laden had every reason to believe he was way beyond the searching eyes of the Americans he had taunted for so long.

His family was with him and a parade of couriers would bring him everything he needed from the city outside of more than a million people.So confident was he that the huge three-storey house he was living in was eight times larger than most other homes in the area, hardly a low-profile hideaway for the most wanted man in the world.After several run-throughs and the diplomatic blessing of the Pakistani government, a small special forces team of U.S. Navy Seals landed in the compound grounds yesterday with the explicit instruction - get Osama bin Laden, dead or alive.The raid on the compound, which was just 100 yards from a Pakistani military academy, was launched at about 1.15am in the morning, according to witnesses. Four U.S. helicopters took off from the Ghazi air base in northwest Pakistan.

Bin Laden's guards opened fire from the roof and one of the helicopters crashed.During an operation that took just 40 minutes from start to finish, Bin Laden was shot in the head in a firefight as he tried to evade capture. Three of his men were also killed along with a woman they tried to use as a human shield. One of Bin Laden's eleven sons was said to be among the dead.By February, U.S. intelligence officials were confident that Bin Laden and his family were living there and by March, Mr Obama was convening top secret meeting with his senior security staff.The CIA believe that for many years before settling in Abbottabad, Bin Laden moved from village to village in Waziristan. He communicated only about once a month and never used a telephone.

When he reached a village with his bodyguards he would request a meeting with the local tribal leader and a substantial bribe would be paid.Bin Laden would then be the guest of the village, where under Pashtun custom, he must be protected.The main obstacle in finding him was that even if someone wanted to betray him and collect the $25 million reward - there was no one to turn to. The local police would know Bin Laden was there and if anyone tried to report his presence they would quite likely be killed.One local mullah from Waziristan agreed to send information about Bin Laden’s movements and his beheaded body was found several weeks later with a message that his was the fate of spies.Read the full story here.

• Usama Bin Laden Killed in Firefight With U.S. Special Ops Team in Pakistan.(FOX).Declaring “justice has been done,” President Obama announced late Sunday that Usama bin Laden was killed by U.S. forces in Pakistan, marking the end of the worldwide manhunt that began nearly a decade ago on Sept. 11, 2001.The president made the stunning announcement within hours of informing congressional leaders. He said bin Laden was killed Sunday, the culmination of years of intelligence gathering. The news drew a large crowd to the front of the White House, as well as in Times Square, as people chanted “USA. USA.”The president traced the death of bin Laden to a tip received last August. He said he was briefed at the time on the “possible lead,” and that after months of intelligence work it was determined bin Laden was hiding in a compound “deep” inside Pakistan. Obama said, after determining the intelligence was sound, he authorized the operation to bring him to justice last week.At 3:30 p.m. EST, a 40-man Navy Seals squadron raided a compound in Abbottabad, Pakistan, killing the Al Qaeda leader with a bullet to the head.Four Chinook and Blackhawk helicopters dropped 24 men on the compound. One helicopter suffered a "hard landing" inside the compound after an experiencing a mechanical failure and had to be destroyed on the site, according to one defense official.There was a large shootout. The residents at the compound resisted. The total raid took 40 minutes.No Americans were killed in the mission Sunday. Officials said three adult men other than bin Laden were killed – one was believed to be bin Laden’s son, the others couriers. Two women were also injured, the officials said.Obama said Americans must continue to be “vigilant.” But he said the death of the architect of the deadliest terror attack on U.S. soil should be welcomed around the world.“Bin Laden was not a Muslim leader. He was a mass murderer of Muslims,” Obama said. “So his demise should be welcomed by all who believe in peace and human dignity.”Sources said the vice president informed congressional leaders late Sunday night that the world’s most wanted man had been killed.Officials said bin Laden’s body, which was in U.S. custody, was given a sea burial.Hmmmm.......Great story,but any visual proof of this story would be very welcome.And Bin Laden was a Mass Murder of OTHER people not only Muslims!Great for ratings couldn't have come at a better time?Read the full story here.

• US officials do not want Mr. bin Laden’s burial place to become a terrorist shrine.(Al-Arabia).Jake Tapper of the same network quoted a senior administrator official as saying: “We are ensuring it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. It’s something we take seriously and therefore it’s being handled in an appropriate manner. ‬”Islamic law mandates a body be washed and buried as soon as possible, usually by the next prayer, in a simple white sheet. However, how Muslims will react to bin Laden’s burial at sea is not known, as there seems to be no provision for burials at sea.Read the full story here.

• Taliban threaten US, Pakistan over Osama.(TheNews).PESHAWAR: Pakistan's main Taliban faction on Monday threatened to attack Pakistan and the United States after the US confirmed that Osama bin Laden had been killed near the Pakistani capital."If he has been martyred, we will avenge his death and launch attacks against American and Pakistani governments and their security forces," spokesman Ehsanullah Ehsan said by telephone from an undisclosed location."These people are in fact the enemies of Islam," he added.The Taliban spokesman said the militia had not itself managed to confirm bin Laden's death, which was announced by US President Barack Obama."If he has become a martyr, it is a great victory for us because martyrdom is the aim of all of us." Read the full story here.

• 'The American people did not choose this fight': Obama's speech in full.Number of times the President used the word  "I" : 10 times.Number of times he mentioned the brave men who actually did the 'job' ...twice..Hmmm.... he was being humble i guess?Read the full text here.

• Senior ISI official confirms bin Laden killed.“Yes, I can confirm that,” one senior intelligence official told Reuters, but declined to give further details.(Dawn).Another security official in Peshawar confirmed it was a joint operation between CIA and Pakistani security forces.“It was carried out on a very precise info that some high-value target is there,” he said.A Pakistani military helicopter crashed near Abbottabad on Sunday night, killing one and wounding two, according to Pakistani media. It was unclear if the crash was related to bin Laden’s death, but witnesses reported gunshots and heavy firing before one of two low-flying helicopters crashed near the Pakistani Military Academy.The police blocked the road leading to Pakistan’s military academy, a Reuters photographer on the scene reported.“I have seen tail and two wings of the chopper,” a labourer told Reuters. The fact bin Laden was apparently living in relative luxury not far from Islamabad could pose awkward questions for Pakistan.“For some time there will be a lot of tension between Washington and Islamabad because Bin Laden seems to have been living here close to Islamabad,” said Imtiaz Gul, a security analyst.“If the ISI had known then somebody within the ISI must have leaked this information. Pakistan will have to do a lot of damage control because the Americans have been reporting he is in Pakistan. This is a serious blow to the credibility of Pakistan.But defence analyst and former general Talat Masood said the fact bin Laden was killed in a joint operation would limit the damage to Pakistan’s image. “There should be a sigh of relief because this will take some pressure off of Pakistan,” said defence analyst and former general Talat Masood. “Pakistan most probably has contributed to this, and Pakistan can take some credit for this – being such an iconic figure, it’s a great achievement.”Read the full story here.

• Jihadists: Bin Laden death will not mute Jihad call.(ArabNews).DUBAI: Members of Jihadist forums said they prayed the news of Osama Bin Laden’s death was not true, and hinted at retaliation if it was, in some of the first Islamist reaction to the Al-Qaeda leader’s death.“Oh God, please make this news not true...God curse you Obama,” said one message on an Arabic language forum. “Oh Americans ... it is still legal for us to cut your necks.”“Osama may be killed but his message of Jihad will never die. Brothers and sisters, wait and see, his death will be a blessing in disguise,” said a poster on another Islamist forum.Hmmmm......well it seems Islam is still at war with us Mr President?Read the full story here.

• Hamas And Palestine mourns bin Laden's death.Gaza government condemns US slaying of 'Arab holy warrior', ask 'God to offer him mercy with true believers, martyrs'. Hamas on Monday condemned the killing by US forces of Osama bin Laden and mourned him as an "Arab holy warrior" while Iran condemned "Zionist terror" and US sources said Saudi Arabia had refused to bury the arch-terrorist's body."We regard this as a continuation of the American policy based on oppression and the shedding of Muslim and Arab blood," Ismail Haniyeh, head of the Hamas administration in the Gaza Strip, told reporters. Though he noted doctrinal differences between bin Laden's al Qaeda and Hamas, Haniyeh said: "We condemn the assassination and the killing of an Arab holy warrior. We ask God to offer him mercy with the true believers and the martyrs."Iran responded to the killing by saying that the US and its allies had now "lost the excuse to continue their presence in the region with the aim of fighting terror".In a statement Iranian Foreign Ministry Spokesman Ramin Mehmanparast said, "This incident proves that there is no need for a huge war in order to deal with one person." He said Iran, which sees itself as a victim of terror, "condemns all acts of terrorism in the world, including the organized terror of the Zionist regime".Meanwhile the Pakistani Taliban threatened attacks against government leaders, including President Asif Ali Zardari, the Pakistan army and the United States. "Now Pakistani rulers, President Zardari and the army will be our first targets. America will be our second target," Ehsanullah Ehsan, a spokesman for Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), or Taliban Movement of Pakistan, told Reuters by telephone from an undisclosed location.US officials said Monday that bin Laden's country of birth, Saudi Arabia, had refused to accept the body of the arch-terrorist for burial so the country was forced to bury him at sea, CBS reported. Earlier sources in Washington reported that bin Laden's body had been transferred to Afghanistan and then buried at sea for fear that Islamist extremists would turn any gravesite into a holy place. Saudi Arabia refused to comment on the death of bin Laden, saying that it was "too early". Saudi public opinion is divided on the slaying, with some pleased that the organizers of a number of attacks in the country pleased but others, especially on Arab forums, calling him a hero. Saudi Arabia revoked his citizenship in 1994.Issam al-Aryan of Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood responded to bin Laden's death by calling on the US to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq. "With bin Laden's death one of the main reasons for violence in the world is gone," he said."It's time for Obama to withdraw from Afghanistan and Iraq and terminate the occupation of the US and Western forces throughout the world, which harms Muslim states deeply."Al-Aryan added that "the uprisings in the Middle East are proof that democracy has its place in the region and it does not require foreign occupation". He also predicted that various terror groups would retaliate for the killing.Hmmmm........How about Hamas and the 'New Palestine" Mr President?Read the full story here.

• Group of 6 senators hones plan to cut US deficits.(Breitbart).WASHINGTON (AP) - A bipartisan group of six senators is closing in on what could represent the best chance for tackling a deficit crisis that has forced the government to borrow more than 40 cents of every dollar it spends. Their plan, still a work in progress, would reduce borrowing by up to $4 trillion over the next decade by putting the two parties' sacred cows on the chopping block. Republicans would have to agree to higher taxes while Democrats would have to accept cuts in popular benefit programs such as Medicare, Medicaid and maybe even Social Security. There is urgency to their work.

Most Republicans and some Democrats in Congress have said they will not vote to increase the government's ability to borrow without some action addressing the nation's long-term debt. The government is expected to reach its borrowing limit of $14.3 trillion by mid-May. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner says steps are being taken to delay until July what would be an unprecedented default on the debt. Geithner and a growing number of business leaders say a U.S. default would plunge the U.S., and perhaps the world, into a second economic crisis. Despite opposition from top leaders in both parties, the Senate's Gang of Six is banking on support from many of the 64 senators who wrote President Barack Obama in March urging him to support a comprehensive deficit reduction effort. "There's a huge appetite for a starting point that's bipartisan," said Sen. Mark Warner, D-Va., one of the six senators, three from each party. "I think the conventional wisdom that says, `We can punt all of this until after the next presidential election.' I think there's a growing consensus we may not have that long."

The group includes four members of Obama's deficit commission, and its recommendations are expected to closely track the commission's plan for $3 in spending cuts for every $1 in tax revenue increases over the coming decade. Its other two Democrats are Sen. Dick Durbin of Illinois, the second-ranking Democratic leader, and Sen. Kent Conrad of North Dakota, the Budget Committee chairman. The Republicans are Sens. Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, Mike Crapo of Idaho and Saxby Chambliss of Georgia. The six have met in private for several months, even as House Republicans and Obama developed more partisan plans that have little chance of being enacted into law because of Washington's divided government.Obama has shied away from tackling Social Security's problems and top Democrats in Congress, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nevada and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi of California, have ruled out cuts in benefits, including changes that would only affect future retirees, such as raising the retirement age.

The plan by Obama's deficit commission, which the president did not endorse, would have nearly frozen the Pentagon's budget and cut spending at most domestic agencies. It called for gradually raising the retirement age for full Social Security benefits to 69 and curbing future cost-of-living increases. The full retirement age is currently 66, and is gradually increasing to 67 for people born in 1960 or later. Income tax rates would fall, paid for by scaling back dozens of popular tax breaks, including deductions for mortgage interest and charitable contributions. Premiums for employer provided health insurance, which are now tax exempt, would be taxed eventually.The Gang of Six supports changing the tax law, though senators have not decided whether they will offer a detailed plan or a series of targets for Congress to meet, with automatic spending cuts or tax increases if lawmakers fail, said a Senate aide familiar with the negotiations. Reid endorsed such a mechanism this past week. The senators are discussing similar spending targets for defense and domestic agency budgets, Medicare and Medicaid. "We want to make sure there's not an ability to punt," Warner said.Hmmmm....There's no plan to stop Obama's spending?Because the more he spend the more the US taxpayer is going to bleed!Read the full story here.

• Trump: I’ve Decided “In My Mind” to Run For President.(Bloomberg).New York real estate developer Donald Trump says he has decided “in my mind” to run for president, yet won’t make an official announcement before the season finale of his reality television show later this month.“In my mind, I have already decided,” Trump, 64, said in a telephone interview today. “I am going to announce. But I can’t do anything until the show ends.”Trump said he will focus on “making our country rich and respected,” by creating jobs, boosting the economy and stopping China and the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries from taking advantage of the U.S.“The OPEC nations will be acting much differently, and fuel prices will go down and the economy will become strong again,” Trump said. “They may like me or not like me, but nobody will be ripping us off.”Some recent polls have shown Trump at or near the top of a large field of potential Republican candidates. In an April 26 Rasmussen Reports poll, Trump led with support from 19 percent of 1,000 likely Republican primary voters nationwide. The poll’s margin of error was plus or minus three percentage points.Read the full story here.

• Imam's Call to Add Crescent Moon Symbol to Russian Emblem Met With Alarm.(Fox).Was it a call to bring the revolts and violence of the “Arab Spring” now sweeping the Middle East to Russia? That is the question that swirled throughout Moscow when a top imam called for the addition of the Islamic crescent moon symbol to the Russian emblem. The surprise call by Talgat Tadzhuddin during an interview with a leading Russian newspaper was met with alarm because the imam heads the Central Spiritual Association of Muslims of Russia, a major regional Islamic association. As quickly as the word of the proposal became public it ignited a wave of condemnation. “According to this logic,” Georgiy Vilinbakhov, head of Russia’s Heraldry Service argued, “we must change the name of Russia, put a green stripe on or flag and move the capital city from Moscow to somewhere on the border between Europe and Asia.” In his interview, Tadzhuddin said, “We are asking for one of the heads (of the Russian state emblem, a double-headed eagle) to be topped with a crescent moon and the other to be topped with a Russian Orthodox cross. All the crowns on the coat of arms -- two on the heads of eagles and one above the middle -- are topped by crosses. But Russia has 20 million Muslims. That is 18 percent of the population.” Tadzhuddin also said that he had presented a sketch of the proposed change to both Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and Prime Minister Vladimir Putin. The Kremlin has not commented on the issue.Hmmmm.....Do they really think Russia forgot Beslan?Read the full story here.

• New insights on the 'Palestine Papers' (also known as Palileaks).(IsraelMatzav).The attached is an interesting new study of the Palestine Papers. It shows conclusively that the 'Palestinians' never responded to Olmert's offer, and that they never agreed to surrender the "right of return" -- running counter to the spin that's been all over the media. It's an interesting document that's worth perusing. Read and see the full story here.

• Indonesia: Extremist group recruits students to target Christians and introduce shariah.Jakarta (AsiaNews) - An emerging Islamic terrorist group recruits followers among university students and, through brainwashing, prepares them for suicide bombings or bomb attacks against sensitive targets, including Christian churches. It has been confirmed by the Indonesian police that the former separatist movement "NII or Negara Islam Indonesia" - the Islamic state Indonesia - has now turned into an extremist group in the network of terror. It recently orchestrated an attack on a Protestant church that only by accident, did not result in a bloodbath.The acronym NII in the decades has become the symbol of the Muslim separatist struggle, which aims to impose Islamic law - Shariah - in Indonesia and introduce a full range of behaviors, lifestyles and patterns derived from the Arabic culture such as the beard, jilbab or the burqa. Today it has changed the face, becoming involved in the fundamentalist terror network, its leaders have adopted techniques like brainwashing to recruit young people in universities and train them to carry out attacks or bombings.Police spokesman Amar Boy Rafly reports that the NII terrorist group arose five years ago and promotes the recruitment in schools, propagating an extremist vision of Islam. Among the objectives of the recent attack on the Christ Church Cathedral - a modern, luxurious building - at Gading Serpong, in the city of Tangerang, Banten province, about 20 km west of Jakarta. The mastermind of the massacre is 31 year old Fernando Pepi, a former student of the Islamic State University (Uin) and originally from West Java. The police stopped him on April 27 last, with his wife and seven other members of the NII.The attackers wanted to place explosive charges in the property that is located not far from a state-owned pipeline. In recent days, a small charge exploded, but the real objective was a larger explosion capable of causing hundreds of casualties in the celebration of Easter. The material for the assassination plot was bought on the black market - at least 120 km of explosives - and, according to the terrorists, would have led to a massacre.President Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono has alerted the Indonesian civil society as a whole, noting that the terrorist group constitutes a real threat for the country. However, the majority of citizens are skeptical of the claims of the Head of State regarding extremist movements: empty words without any decisive action.Read the full story here.

• Iran sends 14th fleet of warships to Gulf of Aden.(Tehrantimes).TEHRAN - Iran has dispatched the 14th fleet of the its warships to the Gulf of Aden in order to protect vessels sailing in the area, Kamran Farhang of the Navy said on Sunday. The dispatching took place following the return of the previous fleet of warships to the country, Farhang stated. The 14th fleet includes a submarine and a destroyer, which will patrol the areas with the message of peace and friendship, he explained. The 13th fleet of Navy warships was dispatched to the Gulf of Aden and international waters in March in order to protect the trade vessels and oil tankers sailing in the region.Read the full story here.

• Castrate serial rapists, says Indian judge.(NDTV).New Delhi: Serial or child rapists should be castrated - this is what Additional Sessions Judge Kamini Lau recommended as she heard a case where a 15-year-old girl was allegedly raped by her stepfather for four years."The Indian legislatures are yet to take notice of this alarming situation and address the issue with all seriousness by exploring the possibility of alternative sentences of surgical castration or chemical castration, particularly in cases of minors, serial offenders and child molesters," she said.Now that the issue is back in the headlines, women's rights activists are divided."I think it's an option worth exploring...and this comes from a woman judge, who is obviously passionate and feels the case. I am not from the legal community am only a citizen so I can react as one and say, yes, we need some stern action," said Sadia Dehlvi, a women's rights activist and an author.The judge has sent a copy of the order to the ministry of law and also to the national commission for women for their opinion. Read the full story here.

• Israeli targeting pod leading bombings in Libya.(JPost).Technology developed by Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is assisting NATO launch accurate missile strikes against Gaddafi forces in Libya. While Israel is not actively participating in NATO military operations against Libya, technology developed by Israeli defense giant Rafael Advanced Defense Systems is assisting the Western military alliance in launching accurate missile strikes against the embattled Col. Muammar Gaddafi.The British and Swedish air forces have been using Rafael’s Litening targeting pod on their Typhoon and Grippen fighter jets, which is fitted under the fuselage of an aircraft, and provides air crews with precision strike capabilities.The Israel Air Force uses the Litening on its F-15 and F-16 fighter jets, and the pod has been credited with improving the force’s level of accuracy in recent years.Last October, government-owned RADS announced that it sold its 1,000th targeting pod. The pod is used by more than 20 countries, and is also manufactured in the US by Northrop Grumman.The pod integrates a high-resolution infrared sensor that displays images of a target for the pilot and navigator, as well as a CCD camera. The pod also comes equipped with a laser designator for precise delivery of laser-guided bombs.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Opec only likely to act if oil rally lasts.Opec will only hold an emergency meeting if oil climbs above $100 and stays there, although the group's Gulf members could informally add supply if needed, a delegate from a Gulf Opec member state said on Thursday. Brent crude this week hit a 27-month high of close to $99 a barrel, raising concern in consuming countries about the impact of higher fuel costs on the tenuous economic recovery."Opec will only have an extraordinary meeting if oil prices exceed $100 and stay there. We don't want the market to panic," the delegate told Reuters."And if the prices reach $100 and we see that there is a need of supply from our customers, Gulf countries will start producing above their quotas, but this has not happened yet."Most officials in the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec) maintain there is no need to change a production-restraining policy adopted in 2008, in the aftermath of economic crisis. Opec is not scheduled to hold another meeting until June.That stance was reiterated earlier on Thursday by Libya's top oil official, who said $100 oil would not harm the world economy and there was no need for OPEC to add more supplies."We think there is enough supply and there should not be any meeting at this point in time," Shokri Ghanem, chairman of Libya's National Oil Corporation, told Reuters by phone.Opec's core Gulf members -- Saudi Arabia, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates -- are the most able to pump extra oil in the 12-member group because they hold the bulk of the world's unused oil production capacity.The third delegate said Gulf states were producing within their agreed limits, adding it was too early to say whether Opec would decide on an output change when its next scheduled meeting took place in June.By contrast, the International Energy Agency, which represents 28 industrialised countries, has warned about the risks to economic recovery from rising oil prices.The IEA said in December that Opec might come under pressure to increase supplies in 2011.Hmmmmm.....Notice how nobody mentions the actual Chairman of the Opec Iran?Read the full story here.

• Wanted: 47 Al Qaeda commanders sought by Saudi Arabia - including the son-in-law of Osama Bin laden.A group of 47 Al Qaeda commanders have been identified by Saudi Arabia – and they include the son-in-law of Osama Bin Laden.All the men are believed to be living outside the country and were described as posing a ‘serious threat to the public’.Suspect Muhammad Salim Barikan, who was thought to have been killed in a drone attack by the U.S., married Bin Laden’s daughter Fatima in 1996.Hmmmm....Wanted Bin laden and his 47 Robbers?Read and see the full story here.

• Riots erupt around Tunisian capital. TUNIS, Tunisia — A protester was fatally shot and a journalist was hit in the leg by police gunfire Thursday as rioting youths clashed with authorities in Tunisia's capital, witnesses said. The second day of violence in the heart of Tunis sharply escalated a conflict between protesters angry over unemployment and repression and an authoritarian government that appears more and more willing to use force to put down its greatest challenge in at least a generation.At least 23 people, possibly dozens more, have now been killed.On Thursday, rioters hurled stones at trams and government buildings in Tunisia's capital. The smell of tear gas filled the air, and so many stones littered the streets that it was difficult to walk through the city, normally quiet and tightly controlled.In one clash near the state radio headquarters in central Tunis, police fired on protesters with bullets, two witnesses said. One protester was hit by a sniper on the balcony of a building overlooking the violence, said witness Hassene Ayadi, who lives in the surrounding La Fayette neighborhood.In the melee, an American journalist was wounded in the leg, according to another witness who spoke on condition of anonymity out of concerns for his security. The witness said police did not appear to be targeting the journalist, who was taken to the Charles Nicolles Hospital.The unprecedented violence has revealed deep anger against autocratic President Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, who has clamped down on civil liberties, jailed opponents and tightly controlled the media during 23 years of rule in the Mediterranean tourist haven.The government's death toll stands at 23, while opposition figures and witnesses say it is much higher.The International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, known by its French acronym FIDH, said Thursday it has tallied 66 dead in the unrest, including seven people who killed themselves.French and Swiss citizens visiting their native country were among those killed, the two European governments said.Hmmmm.....Tunesia ....Algeria...Who's next?Read the full story here.

• As antisemitism rises, more of Belgium’s Jews immigrate to Israel. Figures released by the Jewish Agency indicated an increase of 63 percent in the number of Belgian Jews who immigrated to Israel in 2010 when compared to the previous year: 250 compared to 152 in 2009. Key causes include increasingly open antisemitism in recent years, and the rise of violent attacks against members of the community, especially its highly-visible ultra-orthodox members.Belgium’s Jewish community numbers about 40,000 from the national population of 10.8 million (0.003). Roughly half are members of the Jewish community of Antwerp, famous for its involvement in making the city a leading global center of the diamond trade, but increasingly under threat in recent years.It should be mentioned that the Belgian organization The Centre for Equal Opportunities and Opposition to Racism issued in 2009 a report, indicating a surge in antisemitism in the country. Between 2004 and 2008, the Centre recorded some 60 antisemitic incidents each year. The same number of incidents was recorded in the first four months of 2009. About one third of the incidents are hate-mails. The Belgian organization attributed this surge to the growing tensions in the Middle East.Video:"I feel safer to talk to an Arab in Israel,then here in Brussels".Hmmm.....1939 revisited?Read and see the full story here.

• EU sends out £4.4m diaries to schools which list Muslim, Chinese and Hindu holidays... but miss out Christmas and Easter.The European Union has sent millions of diaries to schools which list the dates of Muslim, Hindu, Sikh, Jewish and Chinese festivals - but omit any mention of Christian celebrations.In an extraordinary move, three million 2011 notebooks were printed at a cost of £4.4million to the taxpayer. Around 350,000 of the diaries have already been shipped to schools in the UK alone. There is no record for Christmas, Easter or Lent - despite bureaucrats carefully listing the EU’s self-styled ‘Europe Day’ on May 9.The EU was forced to apologise in the wake of the blunder as religious groups expressed their disbelief.John Dalli, consumer commissioner said: 'We regret this' and apologised. While the apology is general, there has been a specific, grovelling apology sent to the French government and to the French Catholic Bishop Conferences which had complained directly to Brussels.European Catholic Commission spokeswoman Johanna Touzel described the mistakes 'just incredible.' 'Christmas and Easter are important feasts for hundreds of millions of Christians and Europeans.'If the Commission does not mark Christmas as a feast in its diaries then it should be working as normal on December 25,' she added.Hmmm....We first carried this story at MFS on the 19 th of December 2010.And it happens often that we carry a story first.Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelSeen.The Two-State Delusion VIII: The New Middle East Paradigm:Wavering U.S. Resolve?By Dr. Arnold M. Soloway, President Emeritus and Founder of the Center for Near East Policy Research* President Obama’s publicly stated opposition to a united Jerusalem logically concentrates attention on other positions and actions he has taken that ominously diminish the U.S.-Israel relationship: His eloquent Cairo apology to and effusive praise for the Muslim world, while implicitly criticizing Israel; his very deferential attitude in various encounters with Arab leaders, contrasted with the utter disdain and disrespect he publicly showed Israel’s Prime Minister, Netanyahu; his endorsement of a Ground Zero mosque; his repeated acerbic demands on Israel alone, while courting terrorists that Israel must contend with every day. President Obama also seems to ignore the grim prospect that the “Two-State Solution” would effectively advance the P.L.O.’s “Strategy of Stages” for the destruction of Israel.Although giving occasional rhetorical assurance that “the American-Israel bond is unbreakable”, judged by his actions, President Obama has shown little concern for the existential threat to Israel from a nuclear-powered Iran and how that would affect our own security interests. Rather, he has warned Israel against taking preventive defensive action to thwart Iran. But permitting Iran to go nuclear and pandering to terrorists and their state sponsors, while disavowing America’s exceptional commitment to protect and advance freedom in the world, is strategically and morally unacceptable.Taken together, these negative perceptions are troubling to all who are concerned about our own security and future as well as that of Israel. They lead to a most disturbing conclusion. Despite a long, mutually beneficial relationship, and the rhetorical assurances, Israel’s security and survival appear less important to President Obama than his ardent cultivation of Arab-Muslim favor.Hmmmm...."They don't trust me because of my middle name"?Read the full story here.

• Minnesota Wrestling Coach Put on Leave for Reportedly Insulting Obama, Challenging Him to a Fight.An Ultimate Fighting Championship fighter has been placed on administrative leave from his job at a Minnesota high school after he insulted President Obama’s intelligence and challenged the commander in chief to a fight.Jacob Volkmann told Fox News Radio that he is under investigation by White Bear Lake High School, where he has worked as a part-time assistant wrestling coach for three years.“They didn’t like how I was representing the school,” he said. “They said I was representing them bad because of what I said about the president and his policies.”Marisa Vette, the school district’s director of communications, confirmed to Fox News Radio that Volkmann is on paid leave. She refused to say if his comments about President Obama sparked the investigation.“We have an employee who is on leave and the district is investigating in accordance with the law,” Vette said. She declined to elaborate on the investigation or any complaints that were made against Volkmann.Volkmann’s comments came during a New Year’s Day interview after he had won a fight. A reporter asked who Volkmann would like to fight next and he replied, “Obama.”“He’s not too bright,” Volkmann told MMA Fighting. “Someone’s got to knock some sense into that idiot.”The comment prompted a visit by the U.S. Secret Service after they received several calls accusing the fighter of threatening the president. However, Volkmann said the comments were tongue-in-cheek.In a later interview, he backed off the “idiot comment,” telling The MMA Hour, “The only regret I have is calling him an idiot. I don’t think he’s an idiot, but I do think he’s making a lot of mistakes.”Volkmann was not arrested and he was not charged, but on Monday he was told to report to the school district’s human resources department. After a half-hour interview, he said he was put on paid administrative leave. Volkmann said several parents had called to complain that he was wearing a school shirt and a hat during one of his interviews.“It’s a little irritating to be honest,” he said. “I think it’s kind of ridiculous that the school is pretty much saying you can’t voice your opinion and if you do voice your opinion you definitely can’t voice it against the policies of the president.”Hmmmm.....Freedom of Speech....Transparancy.......USSR......Gulag?Read the full story here.

• Muslim Husband 'who hacked brother-in-law to pieces caught when bird dropped severed thumb from the sky'. A husband who hacked his brother-in-law to pieces was caught when a severed thumb 'fell from the sky' after being dropped by a bird, a court heard today.Mohammed Riaz, 33, allegedly kidnapped Mahmood Ahmad, 41, and tortured him to death in an attempt to track down his estranged ex-wife Nahid Ahmad.He enlisted the help of five accomplices to kidnap, imprison and murder father-of-two Mahmood with a mechanical butcher's saw, St Albans Crown Court heard.His remains have never been found and the gang was only arrested after a member of the public found Mahmood's severed left thumb in a car park.A prosecutor told the jury that CCTV footage captured the digit falling mysteriously from the sky and police believe it might have been dropped by a bird which had picked it up.Riaz, of no fixed abode, denies murder, conspiracy to kidnap, conspiracy to imprison and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.Sharif Mohammed, 37, Faisal Chowdhury, 18, Arnold Alexander Yousaf, 18, and Armizada Hussain, 37, all pleaded not guilty to murder and conspiracy to imprison.Chowdhury and Yousaf pleaded not guilty to the further charge of conspiracy to kidnap and Mohammed and Hussain denied conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.Riaz's sister Sabra Sultana, 36, from Ilford, pleaded not guilty to conspiracy to imprison and conspiracy to pervert the course of justice.In a bid to track down Nahid, Riaz allegedly hatched a plan to kidnap Mahmood and torture him into divulging details of her new address.The court heard that on March 7 neighbours witnessed Mahmood being bundled into a car by Chowdhury and Yousaf on the doorstep to his home.He was allegedly taken to Hussain's home in Manor Park, east London, where he lived with his girlfriend, Sabra Sultana, 36, who is also Riaz's sister.The jury heard that neighbours heard cries of 'leave me alone' and 'let me go' and a scream 'full of fear or terror' between 2am and 4am on March 7.Ahmad, who is survived by his wife Farah Manir, was never seen alive again.Hussain and Sultana are alleged to have cleaned the murder room at a later date and arranged for workers to remove furniture and bathroom units.However, the court heard that police later found traces of Ahmad's blood on the floor and on the wall in the bathroom.Hmmmm.....Ever heard the saying"The truth will be known,even if the crows have to tell"?Read the full story here.

• South Korea buries 1.4m pigs ALIVE in bid to eradicate foot and mouth disease.South Korea has buried 1.4million pigs alive after an outbreak of foot and mouth disease on the peninsula.The controversial measure has been brought in after 115 cases of the disease were confirmed, originating in the city of Andong.The country is also battling an outbreak of avian flu and recently raised its alert level to 'watch' after discovering the virus at poultry farms in four provinces.Slaughter houses have been asked to work on holidays to boost meat supply after the mass cull saw wholesale prices of beef, pork and chicken soared by 22 per cent in the last month.President Lee Myung-bak held an emergency cabinet meeting yesterday to discuss measures of containing the rapidly-spreading disease.South Korea has already vaccinated 1.2million livestock against foot and mouth since November in eight of its 16 provinces.It nows plans to expand the programme across the country, except for Jeju Island.A statement from the agriculture ministry said: 'Today's meeting reviewed current measures and decided to strengthen preemptive measures.'The government will import more vaccines to cover 11million livestock. Before the outbreak, South Korea only had 300,000 doses.Read the full story here.

• HT:CrossRoadsArabia.Population.Here’s a link to an absolutely fascinating graphic via Google. The chart shows life expectancies against fertility rate (how many children a woman will bear) from 1960 to 2008 for each country of the world. The size of the population is indicated by the size of the circle. Disturbing, because they are so visually apparent, are the countries in which life expectancies go zipping off to the left due to political and military turmoil.Saudi life expectancy grows continuously throughout the period, with the fertility rate starting to drop around 1964. Compare it to whatever country you like, but the change is very significant. Here’s another chart showing the statistics for the Arabian Peninsula as a whole. It makes it very clear that Yemen is the odd-man-out.You can spend hours playing around with this chart. I applaud whomever came up with it because the graphical presentation is utterly clear and the information it contains extremely important.Read and see the full story here.

• HT:MichelleMalkin.Michelle Malkin Video flashback: Yes, some college students do know how to act at a massacre memorial.Reader Joshua Jones, who lived through the Virginia Tech shooting rampage and attended the campus memorial where President Bush spoke, e-mails his response to the whooping and hollering during President Obama’s memorial tribute to the Tucson massacre victims at the University of Arizona tonight.I was a sophomore member of the Virginia Tech Corps of Cadets (VTCC). Several of my friends and the woman I love most dearly were supposed to be in Norris Hall. Thankfully none of them were due to being late, ill, or simply choosing to skip classes. I was sequestered in the Pamplin College of Business building during the attack.President Bush spoke for barely 10 minutes if that. He was solemn, dignified and respectful-although the microphone that broadcast into the rest of the coliseum was barely working and we could barely hear and understand him as a result-we got the point he made.President Obama’s disgusting attempt at what appears to be a political rally in the wake of a similar massacre is beyond reprehensible.Hmmmm......."Together we thrive" on the murder of innocent people?Read the full story here.

• Why the Left Bears Responsibility for the Arizona Shootings.Last week, mentally disturbed youth Jared Lee Loughner shot 20 people at a rally in Tucson, Ariz., including congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.). The left, led by Pima County Sheriff Clarence Dupnik, immediately capitalized on the bloody murders, stating without evidence that Loughner had been inspired by the "the anger, the hatred, the bigotry" of our current political climate.Over the course of the following days, Dupnik and his allies blamed talk radio, conservatives who spread "mistrust of government," Sarah Palin, Nevada senatorial candidate Sharron Angle and Rush Limbaugh.There is enough blame to go around for this shooting spree. Unfortunately for Dupnik and his allies, that blame lies almost exclusively with the left.More than that, we know that he is loony. According to Sheriff Dupnik himself, Loughner has been in trouble with the law repeatedly; he was arrested for possession of drug paraphernalia. And more tellingly, "there had been earlier contact between Loughner and law enforcement after he had made death threats." Dupnik's office knew that Loughner was expelled from the junior college for frightening behavior -- his classmates said he exhibited "kind of hysterical laughing, kind of creepy ... his hands and his parts of his body were shaking and trembling like he was under the influence of drugs or something like that." Some feared for their lives.Let's leave aside Loughner's ideology -- we cannot assume that his leftist leanings were either rational or thoroughgoing, since he was clearly mentally ill. Let's focus instead on the two institutions that are supposed to prevent incidents like this: law enforcement and the mental health establishment.Law enforcement falls under Sheriff Dupnik's domain. Dupnik still has not answered why his office ignored the threats, why they failed to investigate properly, and why Loughner was allowed to roam free and buy a firearm. Even at the most basic level, Dupnik has not explained why Tucson is so crime-ridden altogether.More importantly, Dupnik blew it on this case, in large part because he appears not to understand the nature of madness. Dupnik believes that true mental instability does not exist. Apparently, all acts of madness must be attributed to others' influence. Not coincidentally, this is the leftist view of mental illness -- the left feels that, as Simon and Garfunkel put it, "the words of the prophets are written on the subway walls" (it's no coincidence that another of Loughner's favorite books was "One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest," where all the inmates are the sane).The left has blamed society for Jared Loughner. Ironically, they're correct -- but it's the society created by the left that is responsible, not the vaguely and idiotically defined "violent rhetoric society" of which they complain. Soft thinking has consequences.Hmmmm.....Was Loughner left roaming free with the thought that one day we could "Use" him?Read the full story here.

• Jobless claims jump, wholesale food costs surge.U.S. jobless claims jumped to their highest level since October last week while food and energy costs lifted producer prices in December, pointing to headwinds for an economy that has shown fresh vigor.However, a surge in exports to their highest level in two years helped narrow the U.S. trade deficit in November, an encouraging sign for fourth-quarter economic growth.Despite a string of recent data that had signaled a pickup in the economy's momentum, the figures on Thursday showed the job market continues to struggle.The number of Americans filing for first-time unemployment benefits rose unexpectedly to 445,000 from 410,000 in the prior week, a Labor Department report showed. It was the biggest one-week jump in about six months and confounded analyst forecasts for a small drop to 405,000.The jobs data weighed on U.S. stocks, which were off slightly in late morning. Government debt prices were trading little changed as concerns about Europe's debt struggles helped support the market.Hmmmmm....."Together we thrive" towards the abyss?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Pakistani Lawmaker Marvi Menon Slams Anti-Hindu Violence in Pakistan, Says: 'This is the Biggest Failure of the So-Called Islamic Republic of Pakistan – That Its Minorities Don't Feel Safe On Their Own Soil'.The December 21, 2010 kidnapping of Lakki Chand Garji, one of the most revered Hindu spiritual leaders in Pakistan and an official of the Kala Mata temple in the Kalat district of Pakistan's Baluchistan province, led to strong protest by minority Hindus in the province. This kidnapping is just one in a series of such violent incidents against the Hindu minority in Pakistan. In recent years, a number of Hindus in Pakistan have been kidnapped for ransom or for forced conversion to Islam, especially in Sindh province. These incidents are generally ignored by the Pakistani authorities, because the Hindu minority lacks support among government officials as well as in the local society, which is predominantly Muslim.The kidnappings of Hindus have become frequent recently in the interior areas of Sindh; according to a report, members of the minority community are now migrating to urban centers and in many cases to India. A media report of mid-October 2010 noted: "Since the beginning of this year, at least eight children of this family have been kidnapped and released in return for a hefty ransom [in interior Sindh]."In March 2009, 35 Pakistani Hindus from the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATAs) of Pakistan went to India and asked for asylum. Jagdish Sharma, the Hindu community leader who accompanied them to India, said: "In Pakistan, we were living in extreme fear, due to the domination of a strong group of Taliban who are running a parallel government." Also in July 2009, a group of 100 Pakistani Hindus went to India and sought permission to live there.This migration to India is part of a pattern. In September 2009, an Indian website reported: "In the past four years, some 5,000 Hindus may have crossed over from Pakistan, never to return.""The Hindu Community Is Peaceful – So What Is Its Biggest Sin? It Is a Minority In a Land Where There Is No Rule Of Law".Hmmmm....A perfect example of interfaith dialog Islamic radicals style.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Pakistani Daily Reports – ‘Child Marriages: 10-Year-Old Girls Traded for Rs. 100,000 [$1,150 Roughly]’.On November 29, 2010, police officials in the Pakistani town of Sheikhupura raided a wedding hall and arrested the bridegroom and wedding guests as the marriage of a six-year-old girl, Uzma, was being solemnized. Bilal Zafar, a local police officer, confirmed the arrest of Maulvi Ghaus, the cleric who was solemnizing the marriage, as well as the 23-year-old bridegroom. Zafar stated, we received a tip-off about the marriage but it took us a while to find the place as the wedding was being conducted in secret."The incident drew an angry response from a newspaper reader, who wrote: "Surely this is a sign of pedophilia; how else does one justify a man in his 20s marrying a girl who is just six years-old? Why are we as a society so tolerant of such barbaric and medieval practices?" It seems that a large number of child marriages are taking place in Pakistan, especially in the rural areas of Sindh province, though only a few such cases are actually reported by the Pakistani media.In the Dadu district a local journalist was found dead last year after reporting on the marriage of a young girl. A newspaper reader argued recently that child marriages are taking place because government officials are not implementing the provisions of the Child Marriage Restraint Act [of] 1929, which dictates: (1) Punishment for a male adult above 18 years of age for marrying a female child under 16 years of age; (2) punishment for performing such a child marriage; and (3) punishment for negligently failing to prevent the performance of a child marriage."It might look like child's play but little girls dressed up in bridal gowns and jewellery are too often married off to men much older than them in a terrifying aspect of reality. Some parents may marry them off because they have no money or give their hands in marriage to settle disputes. Other motivating factors include family politics or inheritance battles [especially among the landed feudal class]."While the exact number of cases remains unknown, it can be regarded as a common phenomenon with roughly 58 percent taking place in rural and 27 percent in urban areas [of Pakistan]."Pakistan has the Muslim Family Law as well as the Child Marriage Restraint Act of 1929 on its statute books. Moreover, the country also became a signatory to the UN Convention on the Rights of Children in 1990, in which early marriage refers to the marriage of people less than 18 years of age. The government's adherence to the UN Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW), should also have served as a deterrent against child marriages. These promises and laws, however, remain on paper, with little or no implementation.Hmmm.....Obama "Islam is a great religion".Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Want your hen party to go with a bang? Meet the Midnight Rider - the world's biggest limo with room for 40 guests... and even pole dancing.Any hens or stags planning on hiring a limousine to celebrate their nuptials should feast their eyes on this souped up mega monster... complete with pole for would-be dancers.The Midnight Rider is officially the world's heaviest limo according to the 2011 Guinness Book of Records and could also be the biggest.At 70ft long, the 13ft high behemoth has 22 wheels and weighs a hefty 22.7 tons.Boasting room for 40 hard-partying revellers, the Midnight Rider has also popped the champagne cork for being the tallest as well as the largest limousine for hire.Owner Pamela Bartholomew Machado, from California, said: 'It's the world's grandest limousine, boasting 460sq ft of pure luxury, and is the only one of its kind.'It's more like a travelling nightclub, even though it's classified as a limo.'Those lucky enough to afford the £650-an-hour rental fees can expect to be served by a 'crew' of five.Hmmmm....Is it tax deductable?Read the full story here.