MFS - The Other News

                        Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan today: 5.1 , Panama 5.4 ! More info here.

• Japan - Nuclear disaster - Situation Update No. 141 - .Source .

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

• House GOP Passes ‘Cut, Cap and Balance’ Plan; Trims Spending by $6 Trillion.(BigGovernment).From the Associated Press:Defying a veto threat, the Republican-controlled House voted Tuesday night to slice federal spending by $6 trillion and require a constitutional balanced budget amendment to be sent to the states in exchange for averting a threatened Aug. 2 government default.The 234-190 vote marked the power of deeply conservative first-term Republicans, and it stood in contrast to rising support at the White House and in the Senate for a late stab at bipartisanship to solve the nation’s looming debt crisis.President Barack Obama and a startling number of Republican senators lauded a deficit-reduction plan put forward earlier in the day that would include $1 trillion in what sponsors delicately called “additional revenue” and some critics swiftly labeled as higher taxes.The president said he hoped congressional leaders would “start talking turkey” on a deal to reduce deficits and raise the $14.3 trillion debt limit as soon as Wednesday, using the plan by the so-called Senate Gang of Six as a roadmap.Wall Street cheered the news of possible compromise as well. The Dow Jones industrials average soared 202 points, the biggest one-day leap this year.Treasury officials say that without an increase in U.S. borrowing authority by Aug. 2, the government will not be able to pay all its bills, and default could result with severe consequences for the economy.But a few hours after Obama spoke at the White House, supporters of the newly passed House measure breathed defiance.“Let me be clear. This is the compromise. This is the best plan out there,” said Rep. Jim Jordan, R-Ohio, head of a conservative group inside the House known as the Republican Study Committee.The legislation, dubbed “Cut, Cap and Balance” by supporters, would make an estimated $111 billion in immediate reductions and ensure that overall spending declined in the future in relation to the overall size of the economyIt also would require both houses of Congress to approve a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution and send it to the states for ratification.Read the full story here.

• Congressman King Sets Third Hearing on Radical Islam.(Vinienco).The third in a polarizing series of hearings on Islamic terrorism will address the threat posed by Al Qaeda’s affiliate in Somalia, Rep. Pete King (R-L.I.) announced Tuesday.King, who reclaimed the chairmanship of the House Homeland Security Committee in January, made headlines in March with a hearing focused solely on the threat posed by Islamic radicalization within the U.S. Last month, the committee examined the threat posed by convicts converted in prison to twisted interpretations of Islam. Part three is scheduled for next Wednesday, July 27.Fundamentalist Islamic group Al-Shabaab has expanded since 2009 to control most of the southern half of Somalia, fighting the coalition of pro-union forces that control the northeastern portion of the country at the Horn of Africa.Since 2007 the civil war has attracted at least 21 radicalized men from Minnesota’s Somali-American community to emigrate and fight with Al-Shabaab. Most are now back home and on trial for supporting the group, which the U.S. designated a terrorist organization in 2008.“This coordinated and ongoing recruitment and radicalization of young Muslim men in the U.S. is a serious and growing threat to our homeland security and simply cannot be ignored,” King said in a statement announcing the hearing.Terror experts fear the convergence of Al-Shabaab and Al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, which is based directly across the Gulf of Aden in another lawless country ravaged by civil war: Yemen. The hearing will also examine that phenomenon, King said.AQAP, which counts among its ranks American cleric Anwar Al-Awlaki and Saudi bombmaker Khalid Al-Asiri, was behind the 2009 Christmas Day plot against a Detroit-bound airliner and last October’s “printer plot,” in which terrorists sought to blow up air freight shipments over the U.S.Read the full story here.

• Man's call for Obama assassination is free speech, not crime, court rules.(LATimes).A La Mesa man who posted racial epithets and a call to "shoot" Barack Obama on an Internet chat site was engaging in constitutionally protected free speech, a federal appeals court ruled Tuesday in overturning his criminal conviction.Walter Bagdasarian was found guilty two years ago of making threats against a major presidential candidate in comments he posted on a Yahoo.com financial website after 1 a.m. on Oct. 22, 2008, as Obama's impending victory in the race for the White House was becoming apparent. Bagdasarian told investigators he was drunk at the time.A divided panel of the U.S. 9th Circuit Court of Appeals overturned that conviction Tuesday, saying Bagdasarian's comments were "particularly repugnant" because they endorsed violence but that a reasonable person wouldn't have taken them as a genuine threat.The observation that Obama "will have a 50 cal in the head soon" and a call to "shoot the [racist slur]" weren't violations of the law under which Bagdasarian was convicted because the statute doesn't criminalize "predictions or exhortations to others to injure or kill the president," said the majority opinion written by Judge Stephen Reinhardt.Read the full story here.More here.

• UN looking to destroy the Jews.(YourJewishNews).The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) adopted a decision calling on Israel to immediately cease all archaeological works in the Old City of Jerusalem. In particular, UNESCO, one of the UN’s most prominent and influential agencies, attacked the renovation of the Mughrabi Bridge that links the Western Wall plaza and Temple Mount. The decision, initiated and promoted by Arab states, was adopted by consensus of the Western members of the commission. Indeed, the vote is the latest anti-Jewish initiative launched by the UN office meant to promote culture, education and science around the world. In fact, UNESCO’s robber barons are sanctifying the current global campaign aimed liquidating the legitimacy of the Israeli regime. In 2009, UNESCO designated Jerusalem as “capital of Arab culture,” working with Palestinian Authority officials and key Arab figures to protest against what they described as “the Israeli occupation of Holy Jerusalem.” Other cities granted the title over the years were Algiers, Damascus, Cairo, Tunis, Amman, Beirut and Khartoum. The Arabs find it difficult to convincingly portray Israel as usurper of the land as long as the world believes there is a huge connection between the people of the Bible and the land of the Bible. UNESCO is denying this connection by depicting Jewish history in the Middle East as no more than an insignificant, brief sojourn by arrogant colonizers. UNESCO appears to deny that the Jewish people has laid its roots in Israel more than 4,000 years ago, or that 1,000 years before Christ, King David made Jerusalem the Jewish city par excellence, never entirely abandoned even in times of deadly persecution. The City of David in Jerusalem, a major target of UNESCO’s anti-Jewish fury, is now the hottest open archaeological site in the world, with biblical artifacts, ancient burial spots and royal seals. There, UNESCO is using archeology to bash Israel and treats Israeli archeologists as nationalistic martinets.In recent years, UNESCO increased its collaboration with ISESCO, the cultural body of the Organization of the Islamic Conference. According to ISESCO’s propaganda, the Biblical story and the Jewish temples are only fiction, Jewish monuments are Islamic treasures stolen by the Zionists, and Israeli archeological works are criminal acts against Muslims. UNESCO’s ideology portrays the Jews as no more than invading colonizers, while the Muslims who invaded the country and ravaged it in the Seventh Century are, by some inexplicable leap, the descendants of the so called "indigenous Canaanites." In 2010, UNESCO decided that Rachel’s Tomb and Hebron’s Cave of the Patriarchs are “Muslim mosques.” Western countries didn't raise any protest. UNESCO never mentioned that in addition to the famous Tomb of the biblical Patriarchs, Hebron contains also the tomb of the first judge (Otniel Ben Kenaz), the tomb of generals and confidants to Saul and David and the tombs of Ruth and Jesse, David’s great-grandmother and father. There is also no word by UNESCO about the fact that Rachel’s tomb is unanimously revered as the burial site of one of the Bible’s great women, the wife of Jacob, the Jewish blessed mother.In 2001, UNESCO promoted the “Cairo Declaration Document for Jerusalem Antiquities Preservation,” which falsely accused Israel of destroying Islamic antiquities on the Temple Mount and in Jerusalem’s Old City in an attempt to divert attention from Palestinian crimes against archeology and history. When the United Nations celebrated its 50th anniversary, UNESCO refused to mention the Shoah in its World War II resolution, intentionally ignoring Israel’s request to include a reference to the destruction of European Jewry. On a final note, a recent UNESCO report on science, Jewish physician and theologian Maimonides is classified as a Muslim named “Moussa ben Maimoun.” So the Rambam - for Rabbi Moshe Ben Maimon – has been forced to “convert” to Islam by the UN’s revisionist historians. During the Middle Ages, the French Inquisition confiscated and burned Maimonides's books. From the elegant Parisian boulevards, UNESCO’s inquisitors are now following the same dreadful solution of rendering history and the Holy Land Judenrein”Hmmmm.......The 'Vichy Regime' is alive and kicking.Read the full story here.

• Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) blasted Obama last week for his “stupid Social Security tax holiday,” (TheHill).Liberal Democrats are stepping up their attacks on President Obama for his plan to extend a payroll-tax break by a year.Rep. Peter DeFazio (D-Ore.) blasted Obama last week for his “stupid Social Security tax holiday,” arguing that the money would be better used on more stimulative spending.He and other liberal lawmakers fear the extended tax holiday might make a permanent cut more likely, thus slashing Social Security’s primary funding stream and threatening future benefits.“It’s a unique tax break,” DeFazio said Friday. “You don’t just give away money, you have to borrow money to give away money, to restore the Social Security trust fund. If you’re going to borrow $110 billion, spend it on infrastructure [and] put 4 million people to work instead of pissing away 25 bucks a week, which is what we’re doing now.”With unemployment hovering above 9 percent — and with Obama facing a tough reelection campaign — the White House is hoping that an extension of the payroll-tax holiday will help jumpstart the sluggish recovery. The provision is being viewed as perhaps the only stimulative measure capable of passing as part of a larger package to increase the nation’s $14.3 trillion debt limit. Republicans who supported the payroll-tax break in December are balking at extending it. House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.), for instance, said it would be an economic “sugar high” without any long-term benefit.“People notice their change in income, but they don’t necessarily know why,” Pollack said. “It’s horrible politics — because you want to take credit for [putting] more money in people’s paychecks — but pretty decent policy.”Both Pollack and Baker hammered the notion of extending the payroll-tax break to employers, arguing that it would do little to encourage businesses already flush with cash to hire new workers.“They’re already sitting on tons of money,” Baker said. “Why, if you gave them more, would they hire people? “You’re just throwing money away.”Hmmmm........Welcome to the land of the Wizard of  O?Read the full story here.

• Thousands of tax dollars funded a study on penis size in the gay community.(DailyMail).As the country plunges further into debt and with the small task of securing a multi-trillion dollar deal still on the cards, it has emerged that thousands of tax dollars were wasted on a study examining the correlation between a gay man's penis size and his sex life. The study was among several backed by the National Institutes of Health who granted almost $900,000 in one year on this and other studies.The institute has come under scrutiny from a group claiming the agency is wasting valuable tax dollars at a time when the country is trying to control its debt.The Traditional Values Coalition drew attention to the report as part of a six-month investigation into NIH grants for examples of 'institutional waste'.It has not been ascertained how much of the $900,000 grant went to he 2009 report, called The Association Between Penis Size and Sexual Health Among Men Who Have Sex with Men, but the coalition release stated that at least $9.4 million went to a ten-year study that included the penis-size research.According to Fox, the grant was administered by NIH's National Institute on Drug Abuse, and went first to a group called Public Health Solutions and a researcher with the National Development and Research Institutes before going to individual researchers. It compiled data from a survey of more than one thousand gay and bisexual men at events in New York city held for the gay community.Those who participated were given a free movie voucher.Jeffrey Parsons, a professor with Hunter College, said: 'The data were not collected using taxpayer funds. NIH funds were not used to measure anyone's penis size.'He said that the report referenced a much broader 'post-doctoral training programme' of which the penis-study funding was a 'small' part.He said: 'To suggest that $9.4 million dollars was spent to study penis sizes is factually inaccurate and simply designed to create news.'Hmmmmm......In 2012 the seize of the amount of money blown on useless studies will matter.Read the full story here.

• Google Sounds Alarm on Malware Problem.(WSJ).Google said late Tuesday that it will use its search engine to respond to an outbreak of malicious software, or malware, that the company recently uncovered.Writing on Google’s blog, Damian Menscher, a security engineer, said the company discovered “unusual search traffic while performing routine maintenance on one of our data centers.” After collaborating with security engineers at several companies that were sending the data traffic, he said, Google concluded that the computers associated with the traffic were previously infected with a particular strain of malware.A Google spokesman said the company believes more than a million computers were affected by the malware strain. The malware appears to have been downloaded by people who were fooled by online scams that offered them anti-virus protection but were really malware in disguise.The malware causes infected computers to send traffic to Google through a small number of intermediary servers called “proxies,” Menscher wrote. Google plans to notify users whose traffic is coming through these proxies to help them update their antivirus software and remove the infections, he said.Starting Tuesday, Menscher said, some people will see a prominent notification stating that “your computer appears to be infected” at the top of their Google Web-search results. The notification includes a link to help people “learn how to fix this” by running a system scan of their computer, updating their antivirus software and remove the infections, he wrote.Google’s move against the malware outbreak comes on the heels of incidents such as its public warning that China-based hackers were targeting the Gmail accounts of prominent U.S. officials and human-rights activists, fooling them into giving up their usernames and passwords.Hmmmmm.......What's the next step .......Google preventing you to surf the web when infected?Read the full story here.

• Iran claims to have shot down U.S. drone 'spying on nuclear facility for the CIA'.(DailyMail).A U.S. drone has been shot down while flying over a nuclear facility in Iran, according to Iranian media reports. Ali Aqazadeh Dafsari, a member of the parliament's National Security and Foreign Policy Commission, told Iran's Fars news agency the unmanned spy plane was flying near the Fordo nuclear enrichment plant in Qom province when it was brought down by Revolutionary Guard soldiers.He did not say when the alleged incident took place.Mr Dafsari claimed the drone was trying to gather information about the nuclear facility for the CIA.The agency also said Iranian military officials had claimed to have shot down 'several enemy drones' in January.'We have experienced similar incidents many times in the past and there have even been drones belonging to the occupying Zionist regime (Israel), the U.S. and Britain which have been shot down in the Persian Gulf during the past seven years,' a senior military officials said at the time.Iran is locked in a dispute with the U.S. and its allies over Tehran's disputed nuclear programme, which the West believes aims to develop nuclear weapons.Iran denies the accusations, saying its nuclear programme will generate electricity and produce isotopes to treat medical patients.A long-held secret, the Fordo site is built next to a military complex to protect it in case of attack.Iran only acknowledged its existence after Western intelligence agencies identified it in September 2009. The facility is reportedly 295ft underneath a mountain.The country has said it is planning to install advanced centrifuges at Fordo to speed up its nuclear activities.Nuclear experts said by increasing enrichment level and its stock of nearly 20 per cent low-enriched uranium, Iran could reach a 'break out' capability that would allow it to make enough weapons-grade uranium for a nuclear weapon.Hmmmm........Real 'peacefull' country.Read the full story here.

• Prominent Belgian Jewish figure resigned from Brussels University Board to denounce anti-Semitic incidents.(EJP).Jacques Brotchi, internationally renowned neurosurgeon and a member of the Belgian Senate: “I asked if the university of free-examination has not become the university of free anti-Semitism.A prominent figure of the Jewish community of Belgium has resigned from the Board of Free University of Brussels (ULB) after denouncing several grave anti-Semitic incidents within the institution.Jacques Brotchi, an internationally renowned neurosurgeon and honorary professor at the ULB, told EJP: “I resigned from the Board of the University Foundation which collects funds for research because I deeply deplored the absence of a strong and appropriate reaction from the university authorities to a succession of anti-Semitic incidents.”In his letter of resignation addressed to the ULB Rector, he wrote: “I don’t feel at home anymore at ULB.” He added, “I asked if the university of free-examination has not become the university of free anti-Semitism.”The Belgian Senate voted last week a resolution tabled by the Socialists urging the Belgian government to recognize a Palestinian state. Jacques Brotchi and two other Senators from the MR (Liberal) party abstained. “We abstained because the resolution doesn’t condemn the political objective of Hamas which is to destroy the state of Israel”, Brotchi explained.The incidents, which have been repeatedly denounced by the Union of Jewish Students of Belgium (UEJB), included the staging of an Israeli military checkpoint on the university campus, the invitation of anti-Semitic French comic Dieudonne to a conference and the absence of reaction to the comments he made, a Nazi-style student feast and the publication of an article in the magazine of Solvay, the economics and management school, in which the author used anti-Semitic stereotypes and prejudices comparable to those of the Protocols of Elders of Zion.As one student put it, “the situation at the university has become particularly difficult for Jews.”The Union of Jewish Students urged the academic authorities to take measures against the “deteriorating climate” on the campus.Brotchi, who is also a member of the Belgian Senate for the Liberal party, has met the university authorities to explain his decision but he didn’t had the impression they understood the gravity of the situation.“I explained them that I know Jewish families who prefer to send their children study at UCL, the Catholic university,” he told EJP.In an interview published last month by the Belgian weekly Le Vif-L’Express, the Rector, Didier Viviers, flatly denied that his university has become anti-Semitic “because of several regrettable incidents”, and spoke of a ”smear campaign.”According to Brotchi the situation at Brussels University is not isolated. ”It is comparable to what is happening in other universities in Europe and elsewhere with the academic boycott of Israel campaigns where anti-Zionism takes the form of anti-Semitism.” “But this is no reason to stay without reaction,” he added.Read the full story here.

• Egyptology Gains As 'Pharao' Zahi Hawass is Fired.(TundraTabloids).Egypt’s antiquities minister, whose trademark Indiana Jones hat made him one the country’s best known figures around the world, was fired Sunday after months of pressure from critics who attacked his credibility and accused him of having been too close to the regime of ousted President Hosni Mubarak. Zahi Hawass, long chided as publicity loving and short on scientific knowledge, lost his job along with about a dozen other ministers in a Cabinet reshuffle meant to ease pressure from protesters seeking to purge remnants of Mubarak’s regime.“He was the Mubarak of antiquities,” said Nora Shalaby, an activist and archaeologist. “He acted as if he owned Egypt’s antiquities, and not that they belonged to the people of Egypt.” Despite the criticism, he was credited with helping boost interest in archaeology in Egypt and tourism, a pillar of the country’s economy. But after Mubarak’s ouster on Feb. 11 in a popular uprising, pressure began to build for him to step down.Hmmmm.......Remember the dynamited Afghan Buddha statues? Read the full story here.

• Iranian Ayatollah Ahmad Janati:"Bahrain should be conquered by Islam and Muslims".(AlArabiya).The secretary general of the Gulf Cooperation Council on Monday delivered a protest note to Iran’s ambassador to Saudi Arabia over an Iranian cleric’s remarks on Bahrain, a GCC statement said.Abdullatif Zayani gave Ambassador Mohammed Rasuli a note of “official protest from the Gulf Cooperation Council, totally rejecting the provocative and false claims in the Friday sermon of... Ayatollah Ahmed Janati against the kingdom of Bahrain,” the statement said.The note also termed Janati’s remarks “blatant and unacceptable interference” in Bahrain's internal affairs, and called on Iranian officials and the government to “stop issuing false and inflammatory statements” about Bahrain, saying this could harm “good, neighborly relations.”Ayatollah Ahmad Janati said during a Friday sermon on July 8 in Tehran that “the number of the prisoners is increasing day by day. The academics and physicians are fired... what does Bahrain want?”“Their motto is each person a vote. Why should they be killed? The reconciliation meeting is a misdirection ploy. These plans bear no fruit,” he said of a national dialogue in Bahrain.The Shiite Muslim majority in the tiny Gulf kingdom is ruled by the Sunni Muslim Al-Khalifa dynasty. The Islamic republic is mostly Shiite.“Bahrain should be conquered by Islam and Muslims, and a day should come when Bahrain is ruled by Islam,” Mr. Janati said.Read the full story here.

• France says Qaddafi could stay in Libya if quits politics.(AlArabiya).Libya’s Muammar Qaddafi could remain in Libya if he quits politics, the French foreign ministry said on Wednesday, under a ceasefire deal to end the conflict with the Paris-backed rebels. “One of the possibilities being considered is that he stay in Libya but on the clear condition that he steps aside from Libyan political life,” the minister, Alain Juppé, told LCI television.“That is what we are waiting for before we start the political process for a ceasefire,” Mr. Juppé said.Two members of Libya’s rebel Transitional National Council were due to meet French President Nicolas Sarkozy in Paris on Wednesday. France was the first country to publicly recognize the council and first to launch air strikes against Qaddafi’s military machine when now NATO-led operations began in March.Meanwhile, Russia on Wednesday was to host Mr. Qaddafi’s foreign minister in Moscow as it presses ahead with mediation efforts to end the conflict between his regime and rebel forces.Foreign Minister Abdelati Al Obeidi will be the highest-ranking Qaddafi official to visit Moscow since the conflict with the rebels erupted and is expected to hold talks with his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov.His visit was revealed in a statement by a Russian foreign ministry official to state news agencies a day earlier but formal details of the meetings have yet to be announced.Along with the African Union, Moscow has positioned itself as a potential mediator in the crisis and President Dmitry Medvedev’s envoy has held talks in both Tripoli and the rebel stronghold of Benghazi.“We will continue to search for a compromise,” Mr. Medvedev said on Tuesday while on a visit to Germany. “In my opinion it is reachable.”Mr. Medvedev has strongly backed Western calls for Mr. Qaddafi to quit but Russia has also denied speculation it could be ready to offer the Libyan leader sanctuary.Meanwhile, the pro-Qaddafi Libyan ambassador to Moscow rejected the idea that Wednesday’s meetings could be aimed at finding a formula for Mr. Qaddafi to quit power.“The political future of our country is an internal matter of Libya,” Amir Al Garib told the Moskovskie Novosti newspaper in an interview. “Not one foreign state has the right to interfere in our affairs.”“I assure you that the leader of the Libyan revolution Muammar Qaddafi has no intention of leaving the state and will not discuss any proposals about this.”He said that the main aim of Mr. Obeidi’s visit to Moscow was “finding peace.”Read the full story here.

• Enough weapons 'to start and win a small war' go missing from Italian navy yard.(DailyMail).A massive arsenal of weapons seized by the Italian navy following a tip off from British secret agents has mysteriously ‘gone missing’, it emerged today.The haul, which was described by one military expert as ‘enough to start and win a small war,’ included 400 missiles, 30,000 AK47’s, 5,000 Katuscha rockets, 11,000 anti-tank rockets and 32million rounds.All of the Russian-made weapons had been seized in 1994 by the Italian navy acting on intelligence from British intelligence who had been tracking the vessel they were on following undercover work by a spy.The Italian navy intercepted the freighter Jadran Express as it sailed off the coast of Italy towards the Balkans which was then the scene of bitter fighting as the former Yugoslavia fell apart.Prosecutors opened a criminal investigation and eight people were put on trial in Turin accused of arms trafficking but they were eventually cleared – among them was Russian oligarch Alexander Zhukov whose daughter Dasha is the partner of Chelsea supremo Roman Abramovich.Following the trial an order was signed for the weapons to be destroyed but it has now emerged that they were shipped to a secret naval bunker on the Italian island of Sardinia, which was formerly used by the American navy.Two months ago the weapons were shipped to the Italian mainland on commercial passenger ferries – a massive risk – with the final destination rumoured to be Libyan rebels.Today prosecutors in Sardinia, as well as local MPs, investigating the final destination were told that no information was available as the prime minister Silvio Berlusconi’s office had slapped a ‘state secret order’ on the weapons.During the original trial in Turin, the court heard how the Maltese registered freighter had been intercepted off the Italian coast and escorted into the port of Taranto.In a tale worthy of any James Bond movie, the trial was told that a secret agent had planted a tracking device on the ship and its movements were being monitored via satellite by British intelligence.Today a spokesman for Sardinia-based prosecutor Riccardo Rossi said: ‘All attempts to get any information from the Ministry of Defence in Rome have proved fruitless as we have been told the episode is covered by State Secret.‘All we want to know is where the weapons are now, were they removed safely and was there any risk to the passengers and crew of the ferry when they were shipped.’Three Sardinian MPs Gian Piero Scanu, Giulio Calvisi and Elio Lanutti have also tabled questions asking the whereabouts of the weapons but have been given no answer.A spokesman at the Ministry of Defence in Rome said: ‘Sorry, we cannot talk about that - there is an embargo of secrecy from the Prime Minister's office which forbids any information.’One Italian military expert who asked not to be named said: ‘With that amount of weaponry you could start and win a small war. It is very odd that they were kept despite an order for them to be destroyed.‘The fact that an order of secrecy has been placed on the whole affair is also very intriguing - you have to wonder if the government has spirited these weapons out of the country.’Read the full story here.

• Syria warns US, French ambassadors not to leave capital.(Emirates24/7).Syria warned the American and French ambassadors Wednesday not to travel outside the capital without permission, two weeks after they angered the regime by visiting a city that has become the center of the country's four-month-old uprising.If the US and French envoys disobey the order, Syria will ban all diplomats from leaving Damascus, Foreign Minister Walid Al Moallem said during a lecture at Damascus University."We did not evict the two ambassadors because we want the relations to develop in the future and in order for their governments to review their stances toward Syria," Al Moallem said."If these acts are repeated, we will impose a ban preventing (diplomats) from going more than 25 kilometers (15 miles) outside Damascus," he said.Syria has come under withering international criticism and sanctions for its crackdown on dissent, which activists say has killed some 1,600 people, most of them unarmed protesters.The regime has banned nearly all foreign media and restricted media coverage, making it nearly impossible to independently verify events on the ground.Read the full story here.

• German Conservatives Welcome Erdogan's EU Threats.(Spiegel).The ongoing dispute over divided Cyprus may escalate problems between Turkey and the European Union after Turkish Prime Minister Erdogan threatened to freeze EU relations when the Greek Cypriots take on the rotating presidency in 2012. The move only serves to further disqualify Turkey's plans to join the EU, German conservatives say.Greek southern Cyprus, a European Union member since 2004, is set to assume the EU's rotating presidency in July 2012. But if the Greek Cypriots don't agree to a deal ending the three-decade division from the Turkish northern part of the island, Turkey will refuse to recognize their EU leadership, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said Tuesday."Nobody should expect us to consider the administration of Southern Cyprus as an interlocutor," Erdogan said during a press conference after meeting with Dervis Eroglu, the president of northern Cyprus. "We will never consider them as (an) interlocutor and sit at (the) table with them."But Turkey's threats may seem hollow when it comes to the process of joining the EU. Negotiations have been stalled for some time, with no real movement in more than a year. The country formally began talks to join the EU in 2005, but key members have major reservations about accepting the Muslim-majority nation. Germany is among the countries skeptical of Turkey's EU qualifications, and conservatives in the southern state of Bavaria were quick to accept Turkey's threat, saying it showed the country was not ready for membership anyway. "Those who refuse to hold talks with a member state are snubbing the entire EU," said Stefan Müller, a senior member of the conservative Christian Social Union (CSU), the Bavarian sister party to Angela Merkel's Christian Democratic Union. Erdogan has proven that "he doesn't shy away from attempts at blackmail in the interest of political power," Müller told the daily Rheinische Post. He said that fact further disqualifies Turkey's plans to join the bloc."They can never be an equal partner in the EU," he said. Hmmmmm.........Compare Erdogan and Ahmadinejad who's the most power hungry of both?Read the full story here.

• Hamas in Gaza: Militants prepare for ‘armed uprising’.(JustJournalism).Egyptian broadsheet documents preparations by Gaza Islamic factions for third intifada, as Hamas and other groups reportedly increase training and weapons smuggling. The Egyptian daily Al Masry Al Youm has reported on preparations by various Islamic militant groups in Gaza, including Hamas, for a third intifida against Israel. According to the in-depth article, these preparations include increased training, mass importing of weapons, and the construction of a network of tunnels throughout the Palestinian territory.‘Special from Gaza: Factions vow imminent armed uprising’ by Sandor Jaszberenyi, is based on first-hand accounts from a variety of sources, including Hamas spokesman Fawzi Barhum. Barhum admits that the Fatah-Hamas unity process has been suspended until after the Palestinian bid for UN recognition of statehood in September, at which point he envisions a ‘political vacuum’ that will lead to a third intifada:‘“They [Fatah] realized the bilateral talks led them to nowhere. This is why they will try a unilateral move with the UN,” says Barhum. “We have agreed to delay the real reconciliation and the forming of the transitional government until the general assembly is over. The US will veto our request for sure. This will generate a vacuum in our political options. The chances for a third intifada are high, ” he adds.’According to another source, Hamas and other militant groups have been preparing for this intifada since the reconciliation was agreed in May. Stating that the ‘majority of significantly armed factions in the Gaza Strip, like the Naser Salahadin Brigades and Islamic Jihad, agree with Barhum’s assessment’, Jaszberenyi quotes a journalist affiliated with UNRWA, the UN body responsible for refugees in Gaza:“In spite of all the efforts of Israel, Hamas and its allies managed to get weapons through smuggling,” says Walla Karaja, a journalist working for the UNRWA. “Since the reconciliation, the military trainings have increased in the Strip, and, we heard, that huge quantities of weapons arrived from the outside.”’The suggestion that Hamas have recently bolstered their weapons smuggling is endorsed by a Palestinian operator of several commercial smuggling tunnels. Quoted under the pseudonym Omar, he notes the increased activity in Hamas-controlled tunnels:“But one thing is for sure…Hamas reintroduced the taxing of cigarettes and other luxury products from Egypt, because they badly need money. There is a huge movement in their tunnels at [night time] as well.”Militants who have been training abroad have also been returning to Gaza in anticipation of a conflict. ‘Abu Seiar’, the alias of a leader of the Nasser Salahadin Brigades, describes how he recently returned from Syria – where his military training included the use of anti-tank weaponry – in order to assist in the construction of a network of strategic tunnels throughout the area:‘“I was called home because I’m an expert in building non-commercial tunnels,” says Abu Seiar, whose job now is to strengthen the existing tunnels and attach new strategic exits. “Others have returned from Lebanon and Iran. Everyone knows that something is going to happen.”’If a third intifada does break-out, it is likely that militants will once again deliberately target Israeli civilians. Khaled al-Batch, from Islamic Jihad, states that everyone in Israel is a target:‘“There are only valid targets over there,” he says, in response to a question about the possibility of attacks on Israeli civilians.’In May, Osama Hamdan, head of Hamas’ international relations department, stated that ‘armed confrontation’ would remain ‘the backbone of the resistance’. Earlier that month, Ismail Haniyeh, de-facto prime minister of Gaza, argued that ‘the Zionist project in Palestine must end’, while a Hamas cleric claimed that:‘In just a few years, all the Zionists and the settlers will realize that their arrival in Palestine was for the purpose of the great massacre, by means of which Allah wants to relieve humanity of their evil.Hmmmm......The Obama administration their 'peacepartners'.Read the full story here.

• Marine Le Pen: "France must reach out to the Wallonia".(Fdesouche).Press Release Marine Le Pen, President of the National Front :The political crisis in Belgium is getting worse, not find a solution and cast Walloons and Flemings in a terrible uncertainty. No one welcomes this situation in France and everyone shares the concern of the Belgians.On the eve of National Day of Belgium, it is nevertheless the responsibility of France and the French to reach out to the Walloons. If Belgium were to burst, if Flanders took his independence assumption more credible, the French Republic would be honored to welcome in its midst Wallonia. Historical and brotherly ties between our two peoples are too strong for that France abandoned Wallonia. It is obvious that these important decisions for the future of our peoples can not be taken only after consultation by referendum of the French and Walloons.Poll : Do you agree with the proposal of Marine Le Pen to annex Wallonia (post referendum) in case Belgium burst? Preliminary results of the poll shows a 60% in favor.Hmmmm.....And the Flemish "Separately or Going with The Netherlands?Read the full story here.(GoogleTranslate).

• Turkish female footballer offered newscasting role in Germany.(HurriyetDaily).Filiz Koç, a female Turkish football player who appeared twice for the national team, has been offered a position hosting a sports show on Germany's Sky television channel, daily Milliyet reported on its website Monday.Carsten Schmidt from Sky television said they believed Koç had great potential and that they wanted to train her as a sports newscaster.Koç previously appeared in the TV drama "Tatort" in Germany, where she played the character of Fadime Gülüç, a Turkish football player who is then murdered.Koç was born in Ankara in 1986 but grew up in Hannover, Germany. She followed in her father Savaş Koç's footsteps, also a professional football player, and played at Mellendorf TV, which climbed to German football league's second division.Read the full story here.

• Al-Qaida magazine 'Inspire' 6 Features Guides for Weapons Training and Explosives Manufacturing.(Memri).The "Open Source Jihad" section of the sixth issue of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula's (AQAP) English-language magazine, Inspire, released July 19, 2011, offered illustrated guides in weapons use and bomb making.The "Open Source Jihad" section included two parts: the final installment in the "Training with the AK" series and an illustrated guide for preparing acetone peroxide, a primary high explosive. In the latest installment of the "Training with the AK" series, writer Abu Saleh provides illustrations and explanations on various shooting positions. In conclusion, he expresses hope that the series has been helpful to the mujahideen and writes that the next installment of the Open Source Jihad will cover handguns.Hmmmm.....Brought to you by the 'misunderstanders of Islam'?Read the full story here.

• Beam me back Scotty! William Shatner has his Google+ account deleted for 'violating standards'.(DailyMail).William Shatner is no doubt setting his phaser to stun after having his Google+ account deleted for 'violating standards.'The veteran actor had boldly gone where few are yet to venture (i.e. away from Facebook) only to find himself banned from the search engine's burgeoning social network. 'My Google+ account was flagged for violating standards,' Shatner told his 646,327 followers on Twitter this morning. 'Saying hello to everyone apparently is against the rules maybe I should say goodbye?'Google+ is still in beta phase so glitches should be expected. But TechCrunch for one has suggested the ban could have been down to users reporting Shatner's profile as - whisper it - a fake.Of course the fact that Google+ has very strict rules when it comes to user profiles could also be a factor.Rather than allowing people to register an account under a pseudonym, the network insists all profiles must use the name the person goes by in daily life.Either Google realised who they were dealing with or the glitch was quickly resolved because Shatner was back on Plus in time for lunch.'I am back plusers,' he posted on his account.'I still do not know what happened but I will refrain from saying hello again for a while just in case. My best, Bill.'Read the full story here.

• Era of concessions over in Cyprus, PM Erdoğan says.(TodaysZaman).Turkey is no longer prepared to accept the concessions it has agreed to in order to help with the reunification of Cyprus in line with a UN plan back in 2004 and the Turkish side will accept nothing short of recognition of a two-state solution on the island, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan has said.Erdoğan, speaking to a group of Turkish Cypriot journalists ahead of a Tuesday trip to the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus (KKTC), said 2012 was a final deadline for a settlement on the island. “We will see if this is resolved by 2012 or not. If it is not, we will have to find solutions ourselves,” Erdoğan was quoted as saying by the Anatolia news agency on Tuesday. The news conference took place on Monday.Turkey backed the UN plan, named after former UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan, to reunite the island. The plan, however, failed because it was rejected by Greek Cypriots. The Turkish Cypriots, on the other hand, approved the plan in a simultaneous referendum.Erdoğan said the Greek Cypriot side was still expecting the Turkish side to agree to even broader concessions than the ones in the Annan plan, but made it clear that the circumstances have changed. “The Annan plan conditions have changed. We will be coming to [the negotiating] table differently. They [the Greek Cypriots] are still thinking of what more they get can get besides [concessions stipulated in] the Annan plan. Well, excuse us, but the time [of concessions] has passed,” said Erdoğan.The prime minister said Turkey no longer agrees to the return of Güzelyurt (Morphou) and Karpas (Karpaz) to the Greek Cypriots, as envisioned in the Annan plan. “Güzelyurt entirely belongs to Turkish Cyprus. As for Karpaz, the slightest change in its status is unacceptable,” Erdoğan told Turkish Cypriot journalists, although he said the Greek Cypriots would be welcome to visit holy areas in Karpaz.Responding to the question on Maraş (Varosha), which has been fenced off since the Turkish military intervention in the island in 1974, Erdoğan also signaled that there would be no change in the Turkish position as long as the Greek Cypriots maintain “bad faith.” Varosha has been closed to anyone except the Turkish military and UN personnel, deployed on the island on a peace-keeping mission. The Annan plan had provided for the return of Varosha to Greek Cypriot control.Erdoğan dismissed once again withdrawing troops from the island. “We had agreed to withdraw troops under the Annan plan. They [the Greek Cypriots] did not accept it. So, they lost [their chance].”“We speak clearly and firmly. A bi-zonal structure of two states with equal status must be accepted. Whether or not to accept it is up to them,” said Erdoğan.The prime minister also appealed to Turkish Cypriot families to help increase the Turkish Cypriot population of the island. The daily Milliyet, whose reporter in the KKTC was among the group of journalists that met with Erdoğan, reported that the prime minister asked journalists about how many children they had. When a female journalist revealed that she had been married for seven years but had no child, Erdoğan said: “You don't have babies and you also oppose us sending people [from Turkey to the KKTC]. If you don't want us to send people, you need to have babies.”Erdoğan, who has repeatedly called on Turkish families to have at least three children, argued that Turkish Cypriot families must have at least four children.Hmmmmm......."If we can't remove them, than we will breed them out"?Sounds like Erdogan wants the whole of Cyprus.Read the full story here.

• Pro-Christian bill at US Congress mobilizes Turks in Washington.(TodaysZaman).The prospects of adopting a recently introduced bill which blames the Ottoman Empire for “intentional destruction” of its Christian population and which calls on the Republic of Turkey to “safeguard its Christian heritage and to return confiscated church properties” have mobilized both Turkish officials and the Turkish community living in the US capital.Members of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs are set to amend the State Department authorization bill with language similar to that of H.Res.306 -- the “Return of Churches” resolution spearheaded by Rep. Ed Royce (R-CA) and Howard Berman (D-CA), both members of the Committee on Foreign Affairs.In order to be adopted, the amendments need to be approved by both the House of Representatives and the Senate. Observers say even if the House approves the bill, the amendment concerning Turkey is likely to be rejected by the Senate. Still, with both Ankara and Turkish-Americans not wanting to take any chances, an intense lobbying campaign against the bill has been set in motion.Turkish, Azerbaijani and other Turkic-American groups have been holding talks with members of the Congress, while the Turkish Embassy in Washington has mobilized its official lobbyists to lobby against the bill.A number of Armenian and Greek-American groups have, however, been lending strong support to the bill.The resolution, which has been included in the State Department authorization bill, urges the Turkish government to “allow the rightful church and lay owners of Christian church properties, without hindrance or restriction, to organize and administer prayer services, religious education, clerical training, appointments, and succession, religious community gatherings, social services, including ministry to the needs of the poor and infirm, and other religious activities; return to their rightful owners all Christian churches and other places of worship, monasteries, schools, hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other religious properties, including movable properties, such as artwork, manuscripts, vestments, vessels, and other artifacts; and allow the rightful Christian church and lay owners of Christian church properties, without hindrance or restriction, to preserve, reconstruct, and repair, as they see fit, all Christian churches and other places of worship, monasteries, schools, hospitals, monuments, relics, holy sites, and other religious properties within Turkey.”Hmmmmm........."Interfaith dialog in it's 'natural habitat'?Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different.Captured on film: Is this Alaska's own Loch Ness monster?(DailyMail).A large creature, 20 to 30ft long with humps on its back, moves menacingly through the waters of an Alaskan bay.Filmed by a local fisherman in 2009, the unidentified creature has, of course, already drawn comparisons to Scotland's infamous Loch Ness Monster.Scientists, however, believe that the Alaskan creature could be a Cadborosaurus - a type of sea serpent that got its name from Cadboro Bay in British Columbia and is said to roam the North Pacific.The video is being aired tonight, Tuesday, on Hillstranded, a new Discovery Channel special.Paul LeBlond, former head of the Department of Earth and Ocean Sciences at the University of British Columbia, told Discovery News: 'I am quite impressed with the video.'Although it was shot under rainy circumstances in a bouncy ship, it's very genuine.'The Cadborosaurus willsi, meaning 'reptile' or 'lizard' from Cadboro Bay, is an alleged sea serpent from the North Pacific thought to have a long neck, a horse-like head, large eyes, and back bumps that stick out of the water. Sightings have been reported for years. In 1937, a supposed body of the animal was found in the stomach of a whale captured by the Naden Harbour whaling station in the Queen Charlotte Islands, a British Columbia archipelago.Samples of the animal were brought to the Provincial Museum in Victoria, where curator Francis Kermode concluded they belonged to a fetal baleen whale. The animal's remains, however, later disappeared. James Wakelun, a worker at the whaling station, last year said that he saw the creature's body and 'it wasn't an unborn whale.' Like other cryptids, animals whose existence is suggested but not yet recognised by scientific consensus, the Cadborosaurus has existed only in grainy photographs and eyewitness accounts.The 2009 video, therefore, 'adds to its authentication,' said Mr LeBlond, co-author of the book Cadborosaurus: Survivor From The Deep.John Kirk, president of the British Columbia Scientific Cryptozoology Club, agrees, describing the video as being 'important.' He said: 'The fishermen simply don't know what they have got in terms of the creatures in this video.' Some scientists have arged down the years that the Cadborosaurus is actually a frill shark or a large eel.LeBlond argues that it cannot be a fish because of the way Cadborosaurus moves. He said: 'It must be a mammal or a reptile, since it oscillates up and down in a vertical plain, which eliminates sideways-oscillating fish.'Andy Hillstrand, star of the Deadliest Catch television show, believes he may have seen a Cadborosaurus while filming Hillstranded.'We saw a big, long white thing moving in the water. We chased it for about 20 minutes.'Spray came out of its head. It was definitely not a shark.'A giant eel may be possible, but eels don't have humps that all move in unison. I've never seen anything like it before.' He speculates that whales, following salmon, might be pushing the animals closer to shores and in the view of humans.While Mr Hillstrand is acutely aware of the controversy and skepticism over such sightings, he believes the fishermen who have reported seeing the animal 'are not a bunch of fruitcakes. These are people who are familiar with the local marine life.'Read and see the full story here.

Obama Endorses Feinstein's Bill To Repeal The Defense Of Marriage Act

MFS - The Other News

                   Afternoon  Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - March 30. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And  here (BBC).

• Sirya live blog - March 30  here.(Al -Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan between 4.6 and 5.4 today. More info here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 66. Source

• HT:PaulLangley.Plutonium at Fukushima is leaked fuel, not “fallout”.Quote : Discovery of plutonium on nuke plant grounds suggests fuel rods badly damaged

The discovery of plutonium on the premises of the troubled Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant suggests that overheating nuclear reactors are more badly damaged than previously thought, experts say.Plutonium in low quantities has been detected in soil samples from around the Fukushima No. 1 Nuclear Power Plant. Experts believe the plutonium came from at least one of the reactors there.“Considering the ratio of radioisotopes, it undoubtedly came from nuclear fuel,” said Kazuya Idemitsu, professor of nuclear fuel engineering at Kyushu University.There are several different kinds of plutonium with varying atomic weights. In the samples from around the nuclear plant, there was about 100 times more plutonium-238 than any other isotope. Furthermore, the plutonium-238 found in the Fukushima samples differs from that in the fallout from nuclear tests conducted overseas.Normally, the nuclear fuel including the plutonium is prevented from melting and being emitted into the environment by a protective sheath. However, if a reactor overheats and the sheath sustains damage in the process of reacting to water, the fuel can become exposed, setting the stage for radioactive gases such as iodine to leak out. Even at this point, though, the plutonium itself is not released.“I think plutonium was detected because the fuel was exposed, broke into pieces and leaked into the environment, perhaps when the hydrogen explosion occurred,” said Kunio Azuma, a former member of the Nuclear Safety Commission, referring to the hydrogen explosions that blew apart the buildings housing the No. 1, 3 and 4 reactors.The fuel pellets in the fuel rods can withstand higher temperatures than the sheath. However, sudden cooling — such as seawater being poured over the rods — will fracture the pellets inside. The fact that technetium and cerium — found in the pellets under normal conditions — were detected around the nuclear plant and in stagnant water in one reactor building supports the view that the plutonium came from scattered nuclear fuel.Professor Idemitsu believes that there is a high possibility that the plutonium turned into fine powder and seeped out together with cooling water, rather than being scattered into the air. The level of radiation in the stagnant water in the No. 2 reactor in particular is about 1,000 times higher that that of the No. 1 and 3 reactors.“As compared to the No. 1 and 3 reactors that exploded outwards, I think the inward explosion at the No. 2 reactor had more destructive power. Because the quantities of the radioactive substances are rather large, there is a possibility that some percentage of the fuel rods was broken,” Idemitsu said.The plutonium found in the soil samples is 1-trillionth of 1 gram per kilogram. It is such a small quantity that it requires sophisticated analysis to detect it.“We don’t need to worry about its effect on our health at this stage. But the fact that highly radioactive water leaked down to the foundation of the reactor building is shocking,” Idemitsu said.“In view of the quantity of the contaminated water, the quantities of radioactive substances are rather great. It will take years to deal with this problem,” said Azuma.end quote. A bit more informative than the IAEA. Read the full story here.

• HT:PaulLangley.TEPCO TO SCRAP 4 REACTORS, COMPENSATION TO BE CRIPPLING.TOKYO (Kyodo) — Tokyo Electric Power Co. said Wednesday that it will scrap the four crippled reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant as the country struggles to bring the nuclear crisis under control weeks after a powerful earthquake and tsunami.The utility said that while the cost of compensation in connection with the nuclear disaster will be daunting and will undermine it financially, the company will try hard to remain afloat and avoid nationalization.“We have no choice but to scrap reactors 1 to 4 if we look at their conditions objectively,” said Tsunehisa Katsumata, the company’s chairman, at a news conference.Since losing cooling functions following the deadly natural disaster on March 11, four of the six reactors at the nuclear power plant northeast of Tokyo have leaked radioactive materials into the air and sea.“We apologize for causing the public anxiety, worry and trouble due to the explosions at reactor buildings and the release of radioactive materials,” Katsumata said at the news conference at the company’s head office.The failure of the cooling system was foreseen as major design flaw of the design in 1971. See previous posts.GE and the AEC refused to see it as possiblity. Such a concept was seen as a “once in a thousand years” event according to industry propaganda at the time. Cooling systems, critical because reactors are impossible properly heat control, due to “decay heat”, must keep running no matter what. As the industry has always known. The reactors are 40 yeats old. The concept of the reactor park, a concentrated layout of multiple reactors, is a GE from the era, is aimed at budget operating costs at the expensive of greater hazards such as multiple reactor failure. The ability to remedy each failed reactor is diminished due to the combined radiological hazards from multiple units compared to one. The industry would consider that the Fukushima facility total failure to be , I guess, a 1 in 4,000 year event. The reactor park is 40 years old. The BBC raised the issue of farmers and fishermen in areas adjacent to the power plant worrying about their ability to sell produce tainted with radioactivity. The BBC chose to focus on the “fear of radiation” being a barrier to the economic viability of farmers and fishermen. However, in a free market, the consumer has the right to choose uncontaminated food. Nuclear industry might come up with a Radiation Hormesis fish fillet, I wouldn’t buy it though. The “fear of radiation” will probably be blamed on consumers. The polluters of fission products might argue that the pollution is harmless and compensation to agriculture minimised.Hmmmm.....Reminds me of the Uha fish soup from Chernobyl,very tasty!!Read the full story here.

• HT:TIME.Has Fukushima's Reactor No. 1 Gone Critical?On March 23, Dr. Ferenc Dalnoki-Veress, a Research Scientist at the Monterey Institute of International Studies saw a report by Kyodo news agency that caught his eye. It reported that Tokyo Electric Power Company (TEPCO) had observed a neutron beam about 1.5 km away from the plant. Bursts of neutrons in large quantities can only come from fission so Dalnoki-Veress, a physicist, was faced with an alarming possibility: had portions of one of Fukushima's reactors gone critical?To nuclear workers, there are few events more fearful than a criticality accident. In such a scenario, the fissile material in a reactor core--be it enriched uranium or plutonium--undergoes a spontaneous chain reaction, releasing a flash of aurora-blue light and a surge of neutron radiation that is highly dangerous to humans. Criticality occurs so rapidly--within a few fractions of a second--and so unpredictably that it can suddenly kill workers without warning. There have been 60 criticality incidents worldwide since 1945. The most recent occurred in Japan in 1999, at an experimental reactor in Tokai, when a beam of neutrons killed two workers, hospitalized dozens of emergency workers and nearby residents, and forced hundreds of thousands to remain indoors for 24 hours.Dalnoki-Veress did not see any further reference to a neutron release. But two days after the Kyodo agency report, on March 25, TEPCO made public measurements of different isotopes contributing to the extremely high measured radioactivity in the seawater used to cool reactor No 1. Again, a piece of the data jumped out at Dalnoki-Veress: the high prevalence of the chlorine-38 (CI-38) isotope. CI-38 has a half-life of 37 minutes, so would decay so rapidly as to be of little long-term safety concern. But it's very presence troubled Dalnoki-Veress. Chlorine-37 (CI-37) is part of natural chlorine that is present in seawater in the form of ordinary table salt. In order to form CI-38, however, neutrons must interact with CI-37. Dalnoki-Verress did some calculations and came to the conclusion that the only possible way this neutron interaction could have occurred was the presence of transient criticalities in pockets of melted fuel in the reactor core.Hmmmm......don't you love the way the Chernobyl script is followed?Read the full story here.

• Obama authorizes secret support for Libya rebels.President Barack Obama has signed a secret order authorizing covert US government support for rebel forces seeking to oust Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi, government officials told Reuters on Wednesday.Obama signed the order, known as a presidential "finding", within the last two or three weeks, according to four US government sources familiar with the matter. Such findings are a principal form of presidential directive used to authorize secret operations by the Central Intelligence Agency. The CIA and the White House declined immediate comment. (Reuters)Hmmmm.....Was this before lightning the fire and go hiding in Rio?What's the codename for the operation "Tsunami of change"?Read the full story here.More here.

• "Genius" Obama Calls to Reduce Oil Imports Over 10 Years.WASHINGTON -- Facing pressure to curb rising gas prices, President Obama is calling for the U.S. to reduce its oil imports by one-third over the next decade, a lofty goal likely to run into significant obstacles.Senior administration officials say Obama will seek to reduce the U.S. dependence on foreign oil by boosting domestic energy production, offering incentives to increase the use of biofuels and natural gas, and making cars and trucks more fuel-efficient. Obama is expected to outline these steps during a speech on the nation's energy security Wednesday at Georgetown University.In a speech Tuesday in New York City, Obama pointed to rising gasoline prices to underscore the need for a comprehensive energy plan."We've still got a lot of work to do on energy," the president told an audience of donors at The Studio Museum in Harlem. "The last time gas prices were this high was 2008 when I was running."Obama contrasted his approach to an energy slogan popular among Republicans."The other side kept talking about `drill, baby, drill.' That was the slogan," he said. "What we were talking about was breaking the pattern of being shocked by high prices" and then lulled into inaction.Republicans put the blame for the increased costs on Obama's policies, pointing to the slow pace of issuing permits for new offshore oil wells in the wake of last summer's massive Gulf of Mexico spill and an Obama-imposed moratorium on new deep-water exploration. GOP leaders have also assailed the president for saying last week in Latin America that he wanted the U.S. to be a "major customer" for the huge oil reserves Brazil recently discovered off its coast."Here we've got the administration looking for just about any excuse it can find to lock up our own energy sources here at home, even as it's applauding another country's efforts to grow its own economy and create jobs by tapping into its own energy sources," Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said Tuesday.Obama will also call Wednesday for increased use of biofuels and the construction of four new advanced biofuel plants in the U.S. However, advanced biofuels -- fuels made from non-food sources such as wood chips, switch grass or plant waste -- are still in their infancy and cannot yet be made in amounts similar to corn ethanol. Congress has directed more money to research and development of those fuels in recent years as some critics of corn ethanol have linked the diversion of corn for fuel to rising food prices.Hmmmm......Reduce oil imports,raise price of oil and food ,abolish domestic oil drilling...destroy the American economy.....2012: Mission successful!Read the full story here.

• HT:Aina.Hating Infidels 24/7.By Alan Caruba.The Holocaust of the last century is remembered for the mass murder of Europe's Jewish population, an estimated six million who perished. In total, an estimated eleven to seventeen million Europeans, Jews and Christians, died in the Nazi concentration and death camps or were murdered outright in their homelands.Records were lost or didn't list religion, but the lesser known story of the Holocaust was the death of millions of Christians, three million of whom were Poles, predominantly Catholics, killed by the Nazis for being Poles. They have a special place in Jewish history because many Poles, risking immediate execution if caught, were among the "righteous Gentiles" who were rescuers of Jews.I cite this because there is a new Holocaust abroad in the world and it is directed at Christians, particularly in the Middle East and throughout Africa, wherever Islam is the dominant religion. Nor is this is a new phenomenon; Christians were widely persecuted under the Ottomans (Turks) when their empire encompassed much of the Middle East.It is clearly manifesting itself again and to far too little notice.Let it be said, too, that Islam is an equal opportunity enemy of all other faiths as was seen in the 2008 attack in Mumbai, India, that included India's tiny Bene Israel Jewish community. The conflict between Islam and India's Hindus goes back centuries and resulted in the creation of Pakistan as a separate Muslim state when India gained its independence.Why has there been so little consistent coverage of the on-going attack on Christians? This is especially curious insofar as it is estimated that there are more than two billion Christians worldwide, about a third of the global population. Perhaps it has something to do with the fact that they are the victims, not the perpetrators of this horror.Today thousands of Iraqi Christians are fleeing to the comparative safety of the Kurdish area and other countries. Indeed, many Americans are unaware that much of the U.S. Arab population is, in fact, Christian, not Muslim.In America, the denigration of Christianity it is less visible and is not by definition persecution. A majority Christian nation, America has been experiencing a rise in efforts to diminish the acknowledgement of Christianity's role in the nation's history and by efforts to limit Christian symbols, prayers, and even the celebration of Christmas in public institutions and places.Slowly, American, European and Christians worldwide are beginning to realize that they are locked in a religious war. It is a war that Christianity must engage. The silence of church leaders is no longer an option. It is a war between the 7th century and the 21st century.It is a misnomer to call it a "war on terror." Terror is a tactic, but this is a war against Islam because Islam has been at war with all other faiths since its inception.In New York City, when Muslims seek to build a mosque within steps of Ground Zero, they are simply exalting the atrocity of 9/11. It begs the question why its confessed perpetrator, Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, has not, ten years later, been brought to trial.Hmmmmm........"I will stand with my Muslim brothers"?Read the full story here.

• HT:BloggerBase.Defamation of Islam: Snatching Defeat from the Jaws of Victory.While USCIRF, Human Rights First and Christian news media dance around their bonfires emitting victory whoops, those with more common sense analyze the resolution and wait for the backfire. I bring you tidings of the first backfire from International Islamic News agency . [Emphasis added.]Informed sources in the OIC General Secretariat in Jeddah stated clarified that the Islamic Group, represented in the OIC, in international fora did not back down from its position, pointing out that the Western countries, which lost all rounds of voting on the previous resolution on anti-defamation of religions, has made a major concession by accepting the new version of the resolution which aims to the same goals of promoting tolerance, non-discrimination and violence based on religion, which is exactly what the OIC is seeking in order to provide a decent living for Muslim communities in the West.The OIC did not back down, it was Western Civilization that lost the previous votes and made a major concession. The new resolution maintains the same goals as its predecessors.Return to http://www.eyeontheun.org/assets/attachments/documents/Draft_Resolution_Defamation_Religions.pdf, which passed in the HRC last year and study ¶14, 15 & 16. Exactly what are they demanding? For those lacking the patience & diligence to do the research, here is my blog post detailing it: Defamation of Religions UNHRC March 25 ’10. The tactical objective of the series of resolutions is national & international legislation criminalizing all questioning and criticism of Islam. The sources pointed out that the West’s acceptance of the new resolution reflects an implied admission of a problem already exist within their communities.That is a clear restatement of the obvious; there was no need to say it.Our Secretary of State and an NGO are behind the new tactic. Meet the new resolution, same as the old resolution. Guess what they will introduce to the General Assembly in September. While we are beset with an implacable existential foe, the best we can muster are Morons & traitors. Western Civilization is in great peril.Hmmmm.....As i said before when i first heard the"Good News"Why do i get this awfull gut feeling?Read the full story here.

• EXCLUSIVE: Should Kagan Recuse from Health Cases? Internal DOJ Emails Raise Questions.“Absolutely right on. Let’s crush them,” wrote Principal Deputy Solicitor General Neal Katyal. “I’ll speak to Elena and designate someone.”The Elena here is then-Solicitor General Elena Kagan--now a justice on the U.S. Supreme Court.Katyal was writing at 10:57 a.m. on Friday, Jan. 8, 2010. Two weeks before that, on Christmas Eve, the U.S. Senate had passed the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, the unprecedented bill promoted by President Barack Obama that mandated that individual Americans must buy health insurance. Already—as reported in a Dec. 30, 2009 New York Times article--Florida Attorney General Bill McCollum was examining the possibility of a lawsuit to challenge the bill if it became law and, as the Times put it, there were “nearly a dozen other states who have also threatened to sue over the mandate.”On March 8, the administration filed a motion asking the U.S. Court of Appeals of the 11th Circuit to expedite the administration's appeal of the ruling of a U.S. district judge in Florida who also ruled that the health-care law is unconstitutional. Katyal signed this document, too.It remains an open question whether Justice Kagan will recuse herself from these cases, or sit in judgement of them, when they reach the Supreme Court.Katyal has now served as acting solicitor general for ten months--since Kagan's nomination. But on Jan. 24, President Obama passed him over for the full-time job, nominating instead Deputy White House Counsel Donald Verrilli, Jr.Hmmmm......Dictatorship or Democracy?Read the full story here.

• HT:AmericanThinker.President Obama: 'Mosques Destroyed'.The President finally addressed the nation and the world nearly two weeks after initiating military action against Libyan dictator Muammar Gaddafi. Boiling down his speech, he claimed a moral imperative to intervene with force because Gaddafi had killed innocent civilians and destroyed mosques in his struggle to hang on to power. "Mosques destroyed," the president said, supported his argument for air strikes. Churches are being destroyed daily in the Muslim world, but the U.S. does not intervene. Take Iraq, for example. We have sacrificed thousands of our soldiers' lives and billions in treasure in an effort to bring freedom to this war-torn country. But the Christians there are daily being murdered and their churches bombed. As a senator, Barack Obama had no interest in preventing Saddam Hussein from filling mass graves. He vocally opposed our going into Iraq. That was then.In Pakistan, the only Christian cabinet member was assassinated and a Muslim governor who sought to protect a Christian woman from death was also gunned down, reputedly by his own security guard. Christians in Pakistan face escalating persecution. Their churches are attacked and anyone who converts from Islam to Christianity is killed. Yet, we support Pakistan as a partner in the global war on terror. Whether Pakistan supports us is another question. Why have we been fighting in neighboring Afghanistan for ten years against the plotters of 9/11? It's widely believed that Osama bin Laden is somewhere in the wild border regions between the two countries, quite possibly on the Pakistan side. Could Pakistan be playing a double game?President Obama is unmoved by the plight of Christians in the Sudan. There, a twenty-year civil war has been going on with an Islamist government in Khartoum starving some five million Christians and followers of traditional African religion. This cruel oppression has led the South Sudanese to vote overwhelmingly to break away.Human Rights lawyer Bill Saunders of Americans United for Life was in the Sudan at Christmas several years ago. He and his fellow worshipers took refuge in the woods as aircraft from the Khartoum Islamist regime came overhead to bomb their church. That was on Christmas day. (Don't we often hear how U.S. military initiatives must be delayed for Ramadan? It seems those holiday truces only work one way.)No one suggested then or later that the United States should deploy military force in the Sudan to stop this ethnic cleansing of Christians, even though some mosques were also destroyed.Hmmmmm......."I say my prayers every day"Don't use the name of the Lord in vain.Read the full story here.

• Federal Immigration Office Puts Hold on Rejections of Same-Sex Couple Applications.The Obama administration has put on hold immigration cases involving married gay couples following the decision to drop its defense of the federal law banning same-sex marriage. The move means a foreign national married to a U.S. citizen of the same sex would not automatically be denied immigration benefits. One immigration lawyer said the decision could also give those facing deportation a reprieve. "They would not be deportable and they would be eligible for work authorization," said Christopher Nugent, a longtime immigration attorney who also works on immigration matters with the American Bar Association. U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services insists the move is only temporary and that nothing is changing.The Defense of Marriage Act defines marriage on a federal level as between a man and a woman. The Obama administration, though, threw that policy's legal heft into question when it announced in February the Justice Department would no longer defend it in court. The administration outlined a peculiar position, saying that while the president views the law as unconstitutional the administration would continue to enforce it and assist others who want to defend it. That decision prompted USCIS to seek additional guidance and put relevant cases on hold. Nugent said he anticipates the administration will end up keeping those cases on hold while the Defense of Marriage Act is litigated in the courts.Bentley, though, said the administration is not waiting for the court battle to conclude. That battle is ongoing. Though the Justice Department will no longer defend the law, House Speaker John Boehner announced earlier this month he would convene a legal advisory group to argue on behalf of DOMA after several challenges work their way through the court system from gay couples claiming the law violates the U.S. Constitution.Hmmmmm.....Shredding the Constitution one line at the time?Read the full story here.

• Jeffrey: Obama's 'Empty Words': Our Constitution.President Barack Obama shares at least one thing in common with one of the lesser Founding Fathers. He and Pierce Butler, a South Carolina delegate at the Constitutional Convention, both flip-flopped on their interpretation of the Constitution's war power.The difference between Obama's flip-flop and Butler's is that Butler's was defensible. In fact, it can now help contemporary Americans understand exactly where the Framers intended the war power to reside.

Obama, by contrast, unambiguously took the correct constitutional position when he was running for president -- almost 220 years after the Constitution was ratified -- then turned around and took an indefensible position two years into office as commander in chief.

Obama's convenient change in position now justifies his own actions that exceed the constitutional limits on presidential power.In his Monday speech explaining his unilateral decision to intervene in Libya's civil war, President Obama said nothing about our Constitution and cited no actual or imminent threat to the United States that he was trying to repel or defend our people against. Had he not acted, Obama said, "The writ of the United Nations Security Council would have been shown to be little more than empty words, crippling that institution's future credibility to uphold global peace and security."And with that, Obama reduced our Constitution to empty words.Hmmmm.....welcome to Dictatorship and the Fourth Reich?Next on the agenda :"Lets destroy Israel,and put them all in a Giant Ghetto"?Read the full story here.

• Allies disagree over American & French idea of arming Libyan rebels.Disagreement over arming the rebels battling Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi emerged Wednesday with at least three of the countries enforcing the no-fly zone over the North African nation opposing the idea.Russia also criticized the proposal amid dissent within NATO over the conduct of the whole Libyan operation. Both France and the United States have raised the possibility of arming the rebels, though critics have said such a move would go beyond the terms of United Nations Security Council Resolution 1973, which provides for the protection of civilians.But NATO Secretary-General Anders Fogh Rasmussen told CNN that the mission’s aim is to shield civilians, not arm the rebellion. “The U.N. mandate authorizes the enforcement of an arms embargo,” Rasmussen told the U.S. news network on Monday. “We are not in Libya to arm people, but to protect people.”Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said Moscow believed that foreign powers did not have the right to arm Libyan rebels under the mandate approved by the U.N. Security Council “and here, we completely agree with the NATO secretary-general.”Norway, which has provided six F-16s to enforce the no-fly zone over Libya, also ruled out arming the rebels, with Defense Minister Grete Faremo saying on a visit to the aircrew in Crete that such a move was “not on the agenda.”Belgium voiced its opposition Wednesday, warning that the move could alienate Arab nations. Belgian Foreign Minister Steven Vanackere, whose country has also deployed fighter jets as part of the NATO-led campaign, said providing weapons to the insurgents would be “a step too far.”Chinese President Hu Jintao meanwhile told visiting Sarkozy on Wednesday that coalition military strikes on Libya could violate the “intention” of the U.N. resolution if civilians suffer. The tough talk from Hu came during a meeting at the start of Sarkozy’s mini-tour of Asia, which will include a G-20 meeting on global monetary reform and a stop in disaster-struck Japan.Hmmmmm......Sounds like Obama's "Odyssey dawn" has started, Odyssey:“a long series of wanderings or adventures”and dawn is “the beginning or rise of anything”,Lord have mercy on us.Read the full story here.

• Illinois Discrimination Case Raises Questions About Religion and the Workplace.Is it a case of legitimate discrimination? Or a Justice Department out of control? Those are two of the questions surrounding the case of Safoorah Khan, a 29-year-old math teacher and devout Muslim who, until December of 2007, taught at the MacArthur Middle School in Berkeley, Ill.In mid-August of that year, Khan notified her employer that she wanted three weeks of unpaid leave in December to attend the Hajj, the Muslim pilgrimage to Mecca.It happened to fall that year just prior to her students' final exams and the school district said no, leading Khan to resign. She took her case to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, which ruled in her favor and referred the case to the Department of Justice.Last December, DOJ filed suit against the Berkeley, Ill., School Board in federal court in Chicago, claiming it violated Title Seven of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. The act prohibits an employer from discriminating on the basis of race, color, sex, national origin or religion.Assistant Attorney General for Civil Rights Thomas Perez said in a recent interview that Khan's request to attend the Hajj was a "profoundly personal request by a person of faith."But former Bush-era DOJ Civil Rights Division lawyer Hans von Spakovsky disagrees."The Justice Department is using its power and law to push frankly extreme cultural and other views that the ordinary American person does not agree with," Spakovsky said.There is legal and federal regulatory precedence to support Khan's case. Federal rules require an employer to provide reasonable accommodations for the religious practices of employees unless doing so would result in "undue hardship" on the conduct of its business.In 1977, the Supreme Court ruled in TWA v. Hardison that it is an "undue hardship" if the employer has to bear more than a "de minimus cost" [minimal cost] in order to provide the accommodation.Given Khan's contention that she asked for an unpaid leave - not a paid leave - her employer incurred no cost and thus no "undue hardship."But a key question is whether the court can factor into the definition of "undue hardship" the effect of her prolonged absence on students, and on staffing issues at MacArthur Middle School.But in a broader context, the case raises uncomfortable questions. When do special accommodations for religious and cultural minorities become paralyzing exceptions? Does three weeks off for Hajj open the doors for Christians to spend three weeks at a retreat? Or Wiccans at a festival? Atheists at a convention?In recent weeks, the prime minister of England, the president of France and the chancellor of Germany all made remarkable statements to the effect that multiculturalism has been a failure in their respective countries. Each offered a stunning admission that Muslims had not assimilated into the larger Western culture.In those cases, attempts at cultural accommodation proved to be cultural Balkanization. Some wonder if it's beginning to happen in the United States.Hmmmm.....No where there is written that the participation in the Hajj pelgrimage must happen during your work&Career time once you are retired you still can fulfill this religious obligation!So the whole discussion is futile!Read the full story here.

• HT:RollCall.Obama regime Opposes Boehner’s School Voucher Bill.The Obama administration announced its strong opposition Tuesday to a pet project of Speaker John Boehner’s.The bill, which would expand a school voucher program for elementary and high school students in the District of Columbia, is likely to be the only measure that the Ohio Republican will introduce this year.The voucher program “has not yielded improved student achievement by its scholarship recipients compared to other students in D.C.,” a statement of administration policy released Tuesday said.“The Administration opposes the creation or expansion of private school voucher programs that are authorized by this bill,” according to the statement. “The Federal Government should focus its attention and available resources on improving the quality of public schools for all students. Private school vouchers are not an effective way to improve student achievement.”The school voucher bill is also being pushed by Sen. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.). It would increase scholarships to $8,000 for elementary school students and $12,000 for high schoolers, and it is slated for House floor action Wednesday.Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Hamas Officials Meet In Cairo With Egyptian FM, Arab League Sec-Gen.Hamas officials Mahmoud Al-Zahhar and Khalil Al-Haya met in Cairo with Egyptian Foreign Minister Nabil Al-Arabi to discuss the new Egyptian government's attitude to the Palestinian matter and to the intra-Palestinian reconciliation. Also discussed was the possibility of launching a new round of talks between Fatah, Hamas, and all the Palestinian factions, next month in Cairo. At the end of the meeting, Al-Arabi met with Fatah Central Committee member Nasser Al-Qidwa and talked with him about the Palestinian situation. After meeting with Al-Arabi and Al-Qidwa, Arab League Secretary-General Amr Moussa called for taking advantage of the new wind blowing through the Arab world to swiftly establish a Palestinian reconciliation, and expressed the League's willingness to host the reconciliation talks. Al-Zahhar noted that Hamas wants a comprehensive reconciliation, not only the establishment of a unity government, and said that upon his return to Gaza he would discuss such a reconciliation with Fatah officials there.Hmmmmm.......Genius Obama "Israel may benefit from the changes in the Arab world"......Sarcasme?Read the full story here.

• HT:Memri.Iraq - Gunmen Carry Out Grisly Attack On Provincial Government.Gunmen wearing explosive belts under military uniforms took hostages at Salahuddin provincial government headquarters in Saddam Hussein's hometown of Tikrit, killing 15 of them execution-style before blowing themselves up in a fiery end to an hours-long siege. In all, 63 people were killed and another 100 wounded, and the attackers set fire to the bodies of three slain councilmen. A joint U.S.-Iraqi military unit was able to take control of the building. Iraqi officials were quick to blame Al-Qaeda in Iraq for the slaughter, noting that executions and suicide bombers are hallmarks of the terrorist group. A senior intelligence official in Baghdad likened the attack to Al-Qaeda's hostage raid last fall on a Catholic church in Baghdad that left 68 dead and stunned the nation.Source .

• 6,000 illegal immigrants assault tiny Italian island.'You deserve Nobel Peace Prize': Berlusconi pays homage to locals on tiny Italian island overrun with 6,000 illegal immigrants fleeing Tunisia and Libya during visit.Showman Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi today visited an island overwhelmed with illegal immigrants and told locals: 'I am going to nominate you for the Nobel Peace prize.'Berlusconi, 74, known for his skill at working the crowd, then said the throng of 6,000 illegal immigrants - 1,000 more than locals - would all be moved off the rocky outcrop 'within 60 hours'.During his visit to Lampedusa - which is just 100 miles from Tunisia, he told locals he would have a reason to solve the situation as he had even 'bought a house here'.Billionaire Berlusconi added: 'With your hospitality and politeness that you have shown during this crisis I am going to nominate you for the Nobel Peace prize.'During the last few weeks, more than 15,000 people, many of them from north Africa, have swamped the island, bringing the holiday paradise to its knees with food and water fast running out.It was the first time that an Italian prime minister had ever visited the Mediterranean island of Lampedusa and there were cheers as he said: 'The operation to remove the illegal immigrants is already underway. 'The embarkation of illegal immigrants has already begun at the port and within 60 hours at the most Lampedusa will once again belong to the Lampedusans.'Six ships have been chartered to take the illegal immigrants to various centres on the mainland but Italians fear that will just increase the problem as many of those already transferred have escaped.He added: 'We have discussed this plan with the Tunisians and we have bought the fishing boats so they cannot set sail anymore,' although it was not immediately clear how he had done this.The security situation has so far been calm, but some believe that could change.'What I saw in Lampedusa is really desperate,' Raffaele Lombardo, the governor of the region of Sicily who visited the island on Sunday, claimed on Canale 5 television yesterday.'The Tunisians have occupied the island and they are starting to go into people's houses and threaten them.'Hmmmm......"Change"?Read the full story here.

• HT:TeadAndPolitics.Pakistani bishops want Shabaz Bhatti be named a martyr.The bishops of Pakistan appealed to Pope Benedict to officially recognize Shahbaz Bhatti, a Catholic official in the country who was recently assassinated, as a martyr.The Catholic Bishops Conference of Pakistan, which met from March 20 – 25 in Multan, unanimously decided to make a formal request to the Vatican to name Bhatti as a “martyr and patron of religious freedom.”The 42-year old Bhatti – a leading voice for religious freedom and peace in Pakistan – served as federal minister for religious minorities. He was shot to death by three masked men on March 2 as he left his mother’s home in Islamabad by car.Al-Qaida and the Punjab-based Pakistani Taliban Movement claimed responsibility for Bhatti’s killing, according to the AP.“Pray for me and for my life,” Bhatti told Fides ahead of his murder. “I am a man who has burnt his bridges. I cannot and will not go back on this commitment. I will fight fanaticism and fight in defense of Christians to the death.”The War on Christianity has his first martyr in Pakistan?Read the full story here.

• HT:TundraTabloids.Muslim politician causes stir in france by suggesting Muslims wear a five pointed star.“A lay Muslim politician caused a stir this week by suggesting Muslims wear a five-pointed green star to protest against what he called persecution recalling that of wartime Jews forced by the Nazis to wear a yellow Star of David.”“This fascist climate evokes the sombre history of the Occupation in France, which sent thousands of Jews by train to the death camps,” he said in a statement on Tuesday.Richard Prasquier, head of the Jewish umbrella group CRIF, called the green star idea “totally grotesque.”Hmmmmm.....Hmmmm……for Muslims to wear the five pointed star would be raping once again history ,if you look back it has always been the Jewish people who were forced to wear the “sign” .Mostly enforced by the MUSLIMS!Before proposing something so stupid he should consult the history books.

717.Possible date of the Pact of Umar which stipulates that Christians (and by implication also Jews) living in Muslim lands are required to wear distinctive clothing. Although most historians question the historicity of the pact, the use of distinguishing marks is consistent with documentary and archaeological evidence from 7th and 8th century Iraq and Syria. The pact itself is thought to be an invention of later jurists seeking justification for certain cultural practices that had developed over time.

850. A decree of the Abbassid Caliph Al-Mutawakkil, reported by the 10th century historian Muhammad ibn Jarir al-Tabari, requires Christian and Jewish subjects to wear honey-coloured hoods and belts of a particular type. Distinguishing marks are also prescribed for their slaves.

1005. Fatimid Caliph Al-Hakim, orders Jewish and Christian residents to wear bells on their garments and a “golden calf” (made of wood) around the neck when bathing with Muslims.

1058. Start of less tolerant policy towards Christians and Jews by the Seljuk authorities in the Abbasid empire. Existing laws imposing distinctive dress are enforced. Non-Muslims in Baghdad are forced to wear signs on their dress.Jews (identifiable by rouelle) being burned at stake. From medieval manuscript.

1085. Non-Muslims are required to wear distinctive signs on their turbans.

1091. Abbasid Caliph Al-Muqtadi decrees that the “non-believers” had to wear yellow headgear and girdles of various colors, and a sign of lead around their necks to show they had to pay the poll-tax. Women had to wear shoes of different colors, such as one red and the other black.

1121. A letter from Baghdad describes decrees regulating Jewish clothes: “two yellow badges, one on the headgear and one on the neck. Furthermore, each Jew must hang round his neck a piece of lead with the word dhimmi on it. He also has to wear a belt round his waist. The women have to wear one red and one black shoe and have a small bell on their necks or shoes.”

1215. Fourth Lateran Council headed by Pope Innocent III declares: “Jews and Saracens of both sexes in every Christian province and at all times shall be marked off in the eyes of the public from other peoples through the character of their dress.”

1219. Pope Honorius III issues a dispensation to the Jews of Castile. Spanish Jews normally wore turbans in any case, which presumably met the requirement to be distinctive.

1222. Archbishop of Canterbury Stephen Langton orders English Jews to wear white band, two fingers broad and four long.

1227. Synod of Narbonne rules: “That Jews may be distinguished from others, we decree and emphatically command that in the center of the breast (of their garments) they shall wear an oval badge, the measure of one finger in width and one half a palm in height.”

1228. James I orders Jews of Aragon to wear the badge.

1265. The Siete Partidas, a legal code enacted in Castile by Alfonso X but not implemented until many years later, includes a requirement for Jews to wear distinguishing marks.

1267. In a special session, the Vienna city council forces Jews to wear Pileum cornutum (a cone-shaped head dress, common in medieval illustrations of Jews); the badge does not seem to have been worn in Austria.

1269, June 19. France. (Saint) Louis IX of France orders all Jews found in public without a badge (French: rouelle or roue, Latin: rota) to be fined ten livres of silver. The enforcement of wearing the badge is repeated by local councils, with varying degrees of fines, at Arles 1234 and 1260, Béziers 1246, Albi 1254, Nîmes 1284 and 1365, Avignon 1326 and 1337, Rodez 1336, and Vanves 1368.

1274. The Statute of Jewry in England, enacted by King Edward I, enforces the regulations. “Each Jew, after he is seven years old, shall wear a distinguishing mark on his outer garment, that is to say, in the form of two Tables joined, of yellow felt of the length of six inches and of the breadth of three inches.”

1315–1326. Emir Ismael Abu-I-Walid forces the Jews of Granada to wear the yellow badge.

1321. Henry II of Castile forces the Jews to wear the yellow badge.

1415, May 11. Bull of the Avignon Pope Benedict XIII orders the Jews to wear a yellow and red badge, the men on their breast, the women on their forehead.

1434. Emperor Sigismund reintroduces the badge at Augsburg.

1528. The Council of Ten of Venice allows the newly-arrived famous physician and professor Jacob Mantino ben Samuel to wear the regular black doctors’ cap instead of Jewish yellow hat for several months (subsequently made permanent), upon the recommendation of the French and English ambassadors, the papal legate, and other dignitaries numbered among his patients.

1555. Pope Paul IV decrees, in his Cum nimis absurdum, that the Jews should wear yellow hats.Etc.etc..etc…Read the full story here.

• BP spill's impact could be much worse than expected.VANCOUVER — The death toll from the Gulf of Mexico oil spill goes far beyond the animal corpses washing ashore, says a report that warns that whale and dolphin deaths may be 50 times higher than believed.The report, by an international team of marine mammal specialists, estimates that for every corpse that washes ashore another 50 may never be found."When people present the raw carcass counts without any caveats, without any qualifiers, they are implying we have a 100 per cent carcass recovery rate when we don't have anything like that," says Rob Williams of the University of B.C. He is lead author of the report to be released Wednesday as the one-year anniversary of the Deepwater Horizon disaster approaches.He and his colleagues take issue with recent reports that point to a carcass count of just over 100 whales, dolphins and porpoises as evidence of the modest environmental impact of the spill."The true death toll could be 50 times the number of carcasses recovered," they report in the journal Conservation Letters.An explosion ripped through BP's Deepwater Horizon drill rig last April, and the damaged well gushed oil onto the sea floor for months as crews scrambled to plug the well and clean up and disperse the oil.Their analysis found that, historically, only two per cent of carcasses have been recovered after they die in the region. They caution in their paper that the recovery rate after the Gulf spill could have been above the historical two per cent because there was such a concerted search for carcasses.But applying that two per cent recovery rate to the Deepwater Horizon disaster, and assuming all deaths recorded were caused by the oil, they suggest the spill's toll on whales, dolphins and porpoises "would translate to 5,050 carcasses." They also break it down by species and say, for example, that "it is plausible" 29 sperm whales, an endangered species, died because of the Gulf spill.The scientists ran their calculations late last year when the official carcass count for the marine mammals along the northern coast of the Gulf of Mexico stood at 101. Dozens of young and stillborn baby dolphins have washed ashore since then, and necropsies are underway to find out if the oil spill is responsible.Bottlenose dolphins appear to have been hit hardest by the spill, and the biologists say "the potential is high for the spill to have caused catastrophic impacts on small, localized populations of bottlenose dolphins in the Gulf."They call for more study to assess impacts on marine mammals, pointing to the profound and lingering effects of the Exxon Valdez spill.In the first year after the 1989 Exxon Valdez spill one group of "transient" killer whales experienced a 41 per cent loss and there has been "no reproduction" in the group since the spill, they say."Although the cause of the apparent sterility is unknown, the lesson serves as an important reminder that immediate death is not the only factor that can lead to long-term loss of population viability," the scientists say.Read the full story here.

• Medvedev Follows Lethal Attack on Islamic Separatists With Warning.MOSCOW — A day after an unusual air attack on what officials here said was a militant base in Russia’s North Caucasus region, President Dmitri A. Medvedev warned separatist fighters in the mostly Muslim region to surrender or “be destroyed.” Speaking on the anniversary of suicide attacks on the Moscow subway that killed 40 people, Mr. Medvedev noted with regret that the Islamist militant groups almost always responsible for such lethal suicide attacks were still active, and he ordered his security services to finish them off. “We need to do this and bring this work to an end,” he said. Russia has been battling Islamist separatists in the North Caucasus for nearly two decades, but violence in the region occurs almost daily, and attacks in Moscow and elsewhere are not uncommon. Mr. Medvedev said Monday’s assault on the suspected terrorist base delivered “sufficiently impressive results.”The operation, carried out in a wooded area of Ingushetia near the border with Chechnya, was remarkable in its scale and firepower. At least 17 suspected militants were killed when Russia’s air force bombarded the area, officials said. It was unclear whether fighter jets or helicopters were used. Three members of Russia’s security services were also killed.Several Russian news agencies, citing anonymous law enforcement officials, said that Doku Umarov, the self-proclaimed militant leader who has claimed responsibility for a string of attacks, might be among the dead. But there was no official confirmation.The Investigative Committee also released new details on Tuesday about two brothers arrested recently and charged with accompanying the suicide bomber in the Domodedovo attack. Officials announced the arrest of the brothers, Islam and Ilez Yandiyev, on Monday. When detained, they had in their possession a suicide belt and two bombs, the agency said in a statement on its Web site.“The presence of the explosive devices,” the agency said, “leads to the conclusion that they were preparing a terrorist attack.”Hmmmm.....At least he calls them by their correct name!Read the full story here.

• Original Pigford Claimant Calls It One of the ‘Biggest Conspiracies Against the U.S. Treasury Ever’.It’s back to business on our investigation of the Pigford story – the ongoing fraud that needs your help and attention to make it stop. The mainstream – with a few exceptions like John Stossel – are ignoring the story of the one of the biggest frauds in U.S. history because it doesn’t fit their narrative. The good guys are the real farmers who faced discrimination at the hands of the UsDA and the people, mostly conservative at this point, trying to bring their story to light. The bad guys are the trial lawyers, politicians, race hustlers and those inside the USDA who profit by lying to the public about how the Pigford settlement is a ‘victory’ for black farmers.In this video, we introduce you to Lucious Abrams, a Georgia farmer who was one of the seven original claimants. Abrams has spent years working for justice only to be betrayed by people like the Congressional Black Caucus. Now Lucious is speaking out and speaking truth to the power structure that doesn’t speak for him.When a group like Color of Change wants to silence investigation into Pigford, it’s farmers like Lucious Abrams they are silencing.When liberals on sites like DailyKos try to bully Rep. Steve King and Rep. Michele Bachmann with charges of racism, it’s really farmers like Lucious Abrams they are bullying.When supposed advocates for black farmers like John Boyd ignore the plight of real black farmers and keep the Pigford fraud going, it’s famers like Lucious Abrams they ignore.Hmmmm......Something smells big time and it aint the manure used by the honest farmers.Read the full story here.

• Disgrace: Obama Regime Will Seek Another Term on Rabidly Anti-Israel UN Human Rights Council.The Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it will seek a new term on the United Nations Human Rights Council despite concerns that the panel remains a hotbed of anti-Israel sentiment and a forum for repressive nations to deflect attention from abuses they may have committed.The State Department said the U.S. intends to run in 2012 for another three-year term on the oft-criticized council. Officials said the U.S. believes its presence on the panel for the past two years has helped steer it in the right direction and that it can continue to do so.The department said that the U.S. has helped mobilize the council to take on crises in countries such as Iran, Guinea, Ivory Coast, Kyrgyzstan and Libya — which was a member until earlier this month, when it was suspended over its violent crackdown on anti-government protesters. The officials said U.S. membership had also been key to the council taking on issues that include women’s rights, discrimination based on sexual orientation and restrictions on freedom of expression and assembly.“Taken collectively, the actions taken by the 16th Human Rights Council represent a significant positive change in the council’s trajectory,” State Department spokesman Mark Tonier said in a statement announcing the decision.The U.S. had shunned the council and its predecessor, the U.N. Commission on Human Rights, during President George W. Bush’s administration because its membership included rights abusers that Washington said focused unfairly on Israel and ignored atrocities throughout Asia, Africa and the Middle East. But when President Barack Obama came into office in 2009, his administration sought to re-engage the council, arguing the U.S. could do more good as a member than as an outside critic.Obama and his foreign policy team were roundly criticized for running for, and winning, a seat on the 47-nation, Geneva-based council, particularly after it considered the so-called “Goldstone Report,” which called equally on Israel and the Palestinian militant group Hamas to probe and prosecute any war crimes stemming from the 2009 Gaza conflict or face scrutiny by the International Criminal Court. The U.S. and Israel fought to keep the report from being referred to other U.N. bodies.Hmmmm......"The Peacemaker" going in for the final kill of Israel!Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Chino, California: Ahmadiyya Muslim Community | We Reject the Bloody Messiah.I am very thankful to reader / responder Mr. James G. McAlpin for his article entitled “To each his own” whereby he cited some articles written by me and another member of my congregation, Mr. Ghaffar. His statement in his final paragraph of the article: “This group loves the rest of us so much they kill us if we don’t convert to Islam. I would rather be loved less and allowed to live and practice my own religion” was unfortunately due to a misunderstanding which I hereby clarify.

The statement made by our Founder of the Ahmadiyya Muslim Community was that “mainstream” Muslims believe that Jesus would descend to earth near the Minaret of Damascus, killing all infidels. If Mr. McAlpin revisits the article from where he extracted the notion that we believe in a cruel Messiah, and carefully read it once more, he would realize that our message is that Ahmadi Muslims do not believe as other Muslims in a “bloody” Messiah, who would descend from the Heavens, chopping heads off the infidels. Instead we believe that he has taught us to follow pristine Islam which espouses “Love for all; hatred for none” -- the motto of our Community.

We believe in the peaceful Messiah, Mirza Ghulam of Qadian (1835-1908), who was born east of Damascus in the village of Qadian, India and who claimed to be the Messiah referred to in the Holy Quran and Traditions fulfilling the prophecy of the return of Christ, in spirit.

Therefore we declare that:

1. We believe in the peaceful and not the bloody Messiah.
2. Because of this particular belief, mainly, we are not considered Muslims by mainstream Muslims.
3. Mirza Ghulam Ahmad, the Promised Messiah who wrote more than 80 books, rejected the belief that someone will come from heaven and kill all infidels. This is not the style of a God-sent person.

We are not comprised of nor partake in any hate campaigns (like the campaign to get rid of Ahmadi Muslims in Indonesia by killing them as was reported by Mr. Ghaffar in the article to which you referred). Our members are continually killed or maimed and forced to denounce their beliefs, often at gun point by extremist sects, mainly in Indonesia, Bangladesh and Pakistan (among several other countries where Ahmadi Muslims are persecuted mercilessly). We believe in Jihad of the pen and not the sword.Our current spiritual Head Mirza Masroor Ahmad continues to exhort peaceful teachings so mush so that when on May 28th 2010, eighty six of our members were mercilessly slaughtered and over 100 injured in Lahore Pakistan by extremist Muslims, he wisely asked the members to remain resolute and occupy themselves in prayers and worship, rather than taking revenge of any sort, for the carnage which befell our members.I would like to commend Mr McAlpine for at least reading our published articles and encourage and invite him to visit our Mosque and have a face to face dialogue with me, in effort to clear up any doubts about who we are. We are well known by all public officials in and around Inland Empire and even in Congress where, recently, 28 Congressmen have signed a petition to the Indonesian Government, that they must desist from attacking the Ahmadi Muslims and to let them worship peacefully, which in fact, is our God given rights.Hmmmm......Unfortunally for Islam there can be only one.Read the full story here.

• Polish Israelis slam halt of Holocaust restitution plans.Polish Prime Minister freezes work on law to compensate Jews for WWII-era properties due to current economic crisis.An association of Israelis of Polish descent has slammed Warsaw's decision to suspend plans to offer compensation for property seized during the Nazi and communist eras.The association head, Lili Haber, says the decision is unacceptable and an insult to Holocaust survivors.Poland says only about 15 percent of the property once belonged to Jews. The issue is straining relations between Jewish groups and Poland, which was home to 3.5 million Jews before Word War II.Read the full story here.

• EDITORIAL: Team Obama, world police.Human rights used as an excuse to violate sovereignty.President Obama’s Monday night speech on the “kinetic military activity” in Libya revealed that he has fully accepted the faddish “responsibility to protect” (R2P) rationale for military intervention abroad. Unfortunately, this action is not just a direct attack on Libya’s state sovereignty, but also on America’s.R2P - sounding a bit like a droid from Star Wars - is a school of thought that developed in response to the propensity of some regimes to commit crimes against their own people and the reticence of the international community to take decisive action. “Responsibility to protect,” however, lacks the firm legal basis that would justify armed intervention in the internal affairs of another state without a declaration of war. This is specifically forbidden by Article 2, Section 7 of the United Nations Charter and by the December 1981 U.N. “Declaration on the Inadmissibility of Intervention and Interference in the Internal Affairs of States.”O Force propaganda aside, the reason the U.N. Charter and subsequent declarations insisted on the sanctity of national sovereignty was specifically to prevent the U.N. from becoming a world police force. The U.N. was founded as a multilateral organization pledged to take action only when war crossed state boundaries. Internal affairs were left to each country individually. The armed humanitarians of the R2P school believe human-rights concerns outweigh state sovereignty, and force can - indeed must - be used to set things straight. When done under the umbrella of the U.N., inconvenient matters like congressional authorization may also be dispensed with.Hmmmm.......Democracy or "The Fourth Reich"?Read the full story here.

• Assad decries 'conspiracy' in Syria.In first address to nation since wave of anti-government protests broke out, Bashar Assad blames 'conspirators' trying to destroy country, says Israel 'has been inciting for weeks against Syria'.Syrian President Bashar Assad blamed a wave of protests on "conspirators" who are trying to destroy the country as well as "enemies with an Israeli agenda", giving his first address to the nation Wednesday since the demonstrations erupted nearly two weeks ago."Our enemies work every day in an organized and public fashion to hurt Syria," Assad said. "Our enemies' aim was to divide Syria as a country and force an Israeli agenda onto it, and they will continue to try and try again."As he entered Parliament for the speech, legislators chanted "God, Syria and Bashar only!" and "Our souls, our blood we sacrifice for you Bashar."The speech is seen as a crucial test for his leadership and one that may determine Syria's future.Assad said a minority of people had tried to "spark chaos" in the southern city of Deraa, centre of recent protests, but that they would be thwarted by the majority.He added that security forces were given "clear instructions" not to harm citizens during the protests.Human rights groups say more than 60 people have been killed since March 18 in a crackdown on the protests.Assad also is expected to announce constitutional amendments and sweeping reforms, including an end to nearly 50 years of widely despised state of emergency laws that give the regime a free hand to arrest people without charges. On Tuesday, Assad fired his Cabinet in another move designed to pacify the anti-government protesters.Hmmmm......when in doubt or in trouble....."Blame the Jooooooos"?Read the full story here.