Ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group Grey Wolves key suspect in Bangkok bombing.

Ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group Grey Wolves key suspect in Bangkok bombing.(Telegraph).

The arrest of a reported Turkish citizen with bomb-making material by Bangkok police has put the spotlight on the Grey Wolves, a pan-Turkic terror group with cause for enmity of Thais

The Grey Wolves, an ultra-nationalist Turkish terrorist group, have emerged as key suspects in the Bangkok shrine bombing after the arrest of a reported Turkish national in the Thai capital.

The extremist faction may have committed the worst terrorist atrocity in Bangkok’s history in retaliation for Thailand’s recent controversial deportation of more than 100 Uighurs, ethnic Turkic Muslims, to China.

No group has claimed responsibility for the bomb that that tore through worshippers at the Erawan shrine, killing six Thais and 14 ethnic Chinese Asian visitors.

But in the most significant breakthrough since the August 17 bombing, Thai police have arrested a man carrying a passport, possibly falsified, of Adem Karadag, a 28-year-old Turk.

His reported citizenship has focussed attention on a possible radical Turkish connection to the bombing.

As The Telegraph reported, Thai police have been investigating the possible role of Turkish visitors to the kingdom as they searched for a suspect matching the composite sketch drawn from surveillance video footage of a man who left a bulky back-pack at the bomb site a few minutes before the blast.

The Grey Wolves have figured as possible suspects because of pan-Turkish anger at Thailand’s deportation of 109 Uighurs to China. Read the full story here.

The ‘gray wolf’ threat to Erdogan and the AKP.

The ‘gray wolf’ threat to Erdogan and the AKP. (Almonitor).

During the first weeks of the Gezi protests in June 2013, Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan organized five major “Respect the National Will” rallies. I was watching one of them with a group of “ultranationalist” friends.

They belong to the Nationalist Movement Party, or MHP. Many of them had supported the Gezi protests. As we were watching Erdogan’s rally, all of a sudden Erdogan said, “I want to thank my brothers from the MHP.”

Cameras zoomed to a corner in the crowd, and MHP flags with three crescents on a red banner were raised. My friends ("gray wolves" as I joke with them; the term is used to symbolize militant Turkish ultranationalism) were in a state of shock to see MHP members in the crowd raise their flags and wave them for the cameras as Erdogan asked. In the next couple of weeks, we kept seeing MHP images, slogans and banners “supporting” Erdogan in the matter of the Gezi protests.

Intriguingly MHP Chairman Devlet Bahceli echoed the comments of several other CHP members by saying, “No MHP members were at Erdogan’s rallies; these were staged events by the AKP (Justice and Development Party)."

Erdogan’s reply to Bahceli was to say, “Would it be wrong if I called MHP members “my brothers”? Would it be wrong to call Saadet (Felicity) Party members my brothers?” (The Felicity Party is a small Islamist party that refused to be absorbed by the AKP).Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 25. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 23. Here (Al-Jazeera).

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity in Japan  today 4.7  ! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 119.On 26.05.2011 at 08:24 GMT+2
  
  Radioactive water appears to be leaking from a waste disposal building at Japan's Fukushima nuclear complex, operator Tokyo Electric Power said on Thursday, in a new setback to the battle to contain radiation from the crippled power plant. The disclosure by Tepco raises the stakes in a race to complete by next month a system to decontaminate a massive pool of radioactive water at the site that critics see as a growing risk to both the nearby Pacific and groundwater.Source : Here .

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

• There's a new "Player" in the Air,meet the Grimsvotn Volcano.By John Seach.(VolcanoLive)

64.42 N, 17.33 W - summit elevation 1725 m  - caldera

Read the full story here.Live webcam here and here.Google map location here.More info here.

• RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service Grimsvotn Volcano Info Situation Update No. 8  - On 25.05.2011 at 12:49 GMT+2
  
  Iceland's volcanic eruption has died down and is no longer spewing out ash, officials said on Wednesday and airlines began to get back to normal after cancelling about 1,000 flights in northern Europe. The explosion on Saturday of the Grimsvotn volcano caused much less chaos than an eruption last year at another Icelandic volcano thanks to new rules for airlines, but the incident showed problems remain with the regulations. Budget airline Ryanair was vocal in its criticism. "There are indications that it's ceasing really," said Hrafn Gudmundsson, a meteorologist at the Icelandic met office. He told Reuters that mainly steam was coming from the crater, with no ash plume detected since 0300 GMT. "I am cautiously optimistic the main ash-producing phase of this eruption has now ceased," Dr David Rothery of Britain's Open University Volcano Dynamics Group said in emailed comments. After the eruption, the most powerful by Grimsvotn since 1873 and stronger than Eyjafjallajokull that caused air traffic chaos last year, a massive plume of ash spread across northern Europe. Flights in Scotland and northern England were cancelled on Tuesday, while three German airports -- Bremen, Hamburg and Berlin -- closed on Wednesday. However, they were set gradually to reopen during the day.
  
  Dutch airline KLM resumed flights to affected destinations after a brief break. European air traffic agency Eurocontrol said 500 flights had been affected on Tuesday and a spokeswoman said Eurocontrol expected 700 flights to be cancelled over Germany. Eurocontrol said the ash could would drift to Poland, but a Polish air traffic control official said no traffic limitations were due. U.S. President Obama, who left Ireland early on Monday to travel to Britain to avoid being caught by the ash, is due to arrive in Poland later this week. The ash cloud from Grimsvotn belched as high as 20 km (12 miles) into the sky after the eruption, but it did not trigger the kind of travel chaos caused by Eyjafjallajokull when more than 10 million people were hit by a six-day European airspace shutdown. That cost airlines $1.7 billion. However, Grimsvotn's eruption did expose disarray among the authorities who decide on aviation safety as they try to apply new rules to avoid another mass closure of European airspace.
  
  New procedures put the onus on airlines to make judgments on whether it is safe to fly through ash, in coordination with the forecasting authorities, particularly the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre at the British Met Office, and civil aviation bodies. Highlighting problems, sources told Reuters that a British research plane designed to sample ash remained grounded for a second day in a wrangle over its deployment. Ryanair on Tuesday said it had safely sent two planes into what authorities had deemed high ash zones over Scotland, and criticised "bureaucratic incompetence". International Airlines Group Willie Walsh also said his company had flown a plane into an ash zone. "The simple answer is we found nothing," he told BBC radio. He called for the British authorities to use multiple sources of data when deciding on how to react to ash problems. "The potential for a patchwork of inconsistent state decisions on airspace management still exists," IATA Director General Giovanni Bisignani said in a statement, calling on Tuesday for more coordination. Grimsvotn is Iceland's most active volcano. Though the Open University's Rothery expressed optimism this eruption was over, he added: "However, it will be back - next week, next year, or more likely next decade."Source :Here .

• Man believed to be Ratko Mladic arrested.(Al-Jazeera).  A man believed to be fugitive Bosnian Serb war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic has been arrested, reports say.A man believed to be fugitive war crimes suspect Ratko Mladic has been arrested, an official from the Serbian interior ministry has said."He has some physical features of Mladic. We are analysing his DNA now," an unnamed official told the Reuters news agency.Local media said police are carrying out DNA tests on a man who identified himself as Milorad Komadic, who was arrested on Thursday.Serbia's war crimes prosecutor refused to confirm or deny the reports, but Boris Tadic, Serbia's president, will hold a press conference later on Thursday.However the European Union said it had every reason to believe that the man arrested could be Mladic.A family friend told Reuters the Bosnian Serb wartime general was being held by the Serbian intelligence agency (BIA).Mladic is wanted by the United Nations war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia for genocide during the 1992-95 Bosnian conflict.He was indicted in 1995 on genocide in the Srebrenica massacre of 8,000 Muslim men and boys, and the 43-month siege of Sarajevo, the Bosnian capital, in which around 10,000 people died.His arrest is seen a precondition of Serbia joining the European Union.Read the full story here.

• Update : Top Serbian War Crimes Suspect Caught.(NYTimes).PARIS — The president of Serbia announced at a news conference in Belgrade on Thursday that Ratko Mladic, the fugitive accused of masterminding the massacre at Srebrenica in 1995, had been captured. Read the full story here.

• US withdraws diplomats from Yemen amid clashes.(BBC).The US has ordered all its non-essential diplomats and family members of embassy staff to leave Yemen as fighting there escalates.Medical sources say 72 people have died in three days of clashes between tribal fighters and government troops.President Ali Abdullah Saleh has again said he will not step down, despite mounting protests.He has so far refused to sign a transition deal that would see him resign in favour of a unity government.The US has repeated its call for Mr Saleh to step down, urging all sides to accept a ceasefire."We continue to support the departure of President Saleh who has consistently agreed that he would be stepping down from power and then consistently reneged on those agreements," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton told reporters in Paris.Read the full story here.

• Tribal chief tells Saleh to go, as overnight blast leaves 28 dead.(Al-Arabia).Yemen’s opposition tribal chief Sadeq al-Ahmar blamed the country’s violence on President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s forces, saying they should stop the fight first, Al Arabiya TV reported on Thursday. Sheikh al-Ahmar said that he is open to negotiating on the Gulf Cooperation Council plan-brokered deal again but only on the condition that Mr. Saleh’s forces halt the fighting. A defiant Mr. Al-Ahmar disparaged both reports that his home in Sanaa was destroyed or the arrest warrants against him issued by the embattled president. He said that he was conducting the phone interview with Al Arabiya TV from his home and that no one can arrest him.The Yemeni president has ordered the arrest of the dissident tribal chief and his nine brothers, the defense ministry said on Thursday as deadly clashes raged between rebels and security forces."The president has ordered the arrest of Mr. Ahmar’s sons to bring them to justice for armed rebellion," Agence-France Presse reported the ministry's 26sep.net news website as saying in a text message.The tribal chieftain said that for peace to prevail in the embattled country, Mr. Saleh must go and “should leave the country barefoot” reported Al Arabiya. President Barack Obama earlier on Wednesday repeated his call for Mr. Saleh to step aside as pitched battles were fought between tribal groups and security forces in Sanaa.Tribesmen loyal to a powerful opposition chief have seized public buildings in Sanaa including state news agency Saba, sources said Wednesday, amid raging gun battles with security forces that have killed 44 people.The tribesmen have also occupied the national airline Yemenia building and have tried to storm the interior ministry headquarters, according to the witnesses and a high-ranking Yemen official.The latest fighting came despite an appeal late Tuesday by Mr. Saleh for supporters of Mr. Ahmar, who heads the powerful Hashid tribal federation, to “cease their aggression on security forces.”Read the full story here.

• Obama Is the Most Hostile Sitting U.S. President In the History of Israel.(Fox).By Anne Bayefsky.There is some logic in the fact that President Obama has fled the country while Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu addresses Congress. With Obama’s comments this past week on Israel, the president now appears to many as the most hostile sitting president in the history of the Jewish state.A key casualty of the assault Obama launched this past week on Israel and its Prime Minister, is the prospect of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations. When Palestinians move to declare statehood unilaterally in the fall with U.N. support, it will be President Obama himself who will have laid the groundwork.Two years ago President Obama prompted Palestinians to withdraw from negotiations after he attempted to dictate to Israel the terms of a deal on the settlements issue. Now that the president has similarly projected what the territorial outcome “should be,” Palestinians will abjure negotiations into the foreseeable future.The mere lip service that the president paid to negotiations was heard around the world, especially in Palestinian circles. “While the core issues of the conflict must be negotiated…” Obama began, followed by a series of “should be” pronouncements.President Obama's 1967 baseline comment was no accident; it was a deliberate provocation. As he unabashedly told the AIPAC audience: “I know that stating these principles -- on the issues of territory and security -- generated some controversy…I wasn’t surprised.”Mr. Obama has also sabotaged negotiations by refusing to assign responsibility for the current absence of negotiations where it belongs. As far as Obama is concerned, the fact that Hamas“is unwilling to recognize Israel’s right to exist” simply “raises questions.” The President even professed ignorance about the path of Hamas, despite the group’s Charter which calls for “Jihad” until Israel is “obliterated.” In the president’s words: “Palestinian leaders will not achieve peace or prosperity if Hamas insists on a path of terror and rejection.” If!Those pushing a U.N.-backed unilateral declaration of statehood or independence (UDI), in lieu of negotiations, will also have taken sustenance from the President’s remarks. He suggested such sentiments are eminently understandable: "There’s a reason why the Palestinians are pursuing their interests at the United Nations. They recognize that there is an impatience with the peace process, or the absence of one…And that impatience is growing.” President Obama neglected to mention that statehood would come a lot faster if Palestinians didn’t support leaders who are bent on genocide or refuse to talk.President Obama’s fawning remarks about Arab self-determination contrasted sharply with his treatment of Jewish self-determination. He taunted Israelis about not being able to protect themselves: “Technology will make it harder for Israel to defend itself.” “Delay will undermine Israel’s security…” He threatened Israelis with the specter of isolation and demanded they answer to every busybody in sight: “The international community is tired of an endless process…” “Going forward, millions of Arab citizens have to see that peace is possible for that peace to be sustained…[T]he march to isolate Israel internationally…will continue to gain momentum…and it’s already manifesting itself in capitals around the world.”Negotiations require mutual recognition of legitimacy and therefore offer the only path to ensuring a Palestinian commitment to coexistence with a Jewish state. By bullying Israel, a negotiated peace agreement between Arabs and Israelis is now all but impossible during Obama’s tenure. 2012 cannot come soon enough.Hmmmmm....Israel has nothing to fear...but Obama?Read the full story here.

• Walker signs photo ID measure, legal challenge possible.(JSOnline).Madison - Ending a decade-long quest by GOP officials, Gov. Scott Walker signed a bill Wednesday requiring voters to show photo identification at the polls. But the law costing more than $7 million in new spending and lost revenue could still face a legal challenge as opponents consider suing to overturn it. The law will require poll workers to start asking voters for photo IDs for the July 12 state Senate recall elections, but the voters will not be required to present them until next year's presidential primary."To me, something as important as a vote is important whether it's one case, one hundred cases or one hundred thousand cases. Making sure we have legislation that protects the integrity for an open, fair and honest election in every single case is important," said Walker. About 50 protesters shouted "Recall Walker!" outside his conference room during the signing. Wisconsin is now the 11th state to have approved requiring some form of photo ID at the polls. Democrats say the measure is costly and unnecessary and will do little to prevent voter fraud while disenfranchising thousands of minority, elderly and rural voters."We continue to confer with legal counsel about what potential legal challenges can be made against Gov. Walker's voter suppression bill," Scot Ross, executive director of the liberal group One Wisconsin Now, said in a statement Wednesday. The U.S. Supreme Court upheld Indiana's photo ID law in 2008, but opponents say Wisconsin's law could be vulnerable to a legal challenge because of differences between the states such as less access to state offices providing driver's licenses. Unlike voters in Indiana, people in Wisconsin casting absentee ballots would have to include a photocopy of their ID when they mail their ballots. Getting copies made will be an additional burden on elderly voters and others with limited mobility, critics said.Ross said one difference between Wisconsin and Indiana is the greater flexibility offered by Division of Motor Vehicles offices in Indiana, such as widely available weekend hours and full-time offices in every county. Wisconsin offices have largely no weekend hours and fewer full-time offices, making it more difficult for some to get to the existing offices to obtain a photo ID. Under the new law, people would be allowed to vote only after showing Wisconsin driver's licenses, state-issued ID cards, certain very limited student IDs, military IDs, passports, naturalization certificates or IDs issued by a tribe based in Wisconsin.Those living in retirement homes, nursing homes and institutions would be exempt from the law, as would victims of stalking and those who opposed having their photos taken for religious reasons. A voter who did not show a photo ID would be allowed to cast a provisional ballot that would be counted if the voter showed photo ID to an election clerk by the Friday after the election.Implementing the law will cost the state's coffers more than $7 million over the next two years, according to the nonpartisan Legislative Fiscal Bureau.Voters also would be required to sign poll books when they vote, which supporters say would make it easier to prove cases of voter fraud. The law also ends straight-party voting for everyone but military and overseas voters.In another change, people could vote from their polling place only if they had lived in that voting ward for at least 28 days before an election. Now, voters have to live in their wards for 10 days before an election.People would be able to vote by absentee ballot in clerks' offices for the two weeks before an election, down from the current 30 days before an election.Reid Magney, a spokesman for the Government Accountability Board, which administers state elections, said that voters will have to sign poll books and will be asked to show photo ID in the July 12 Senate recall elections. Voters who do not have an ID will be given a piece of paper explaining the new requirement.Voters will be required to have the IDs to vote in the 2012 Wisconsin presidential primaries.Hmmm... A baby step in the right direction.Read the full story here.

• TSA - No Profiling only Non -Muslims to be pat down?GOP lawmaker: I saw TSA pat down 'little old lady,' child, but not Arab man.(TheHill).The Transportation Security Administration is too worried about "political correctness," according to a Republican lawmaker.Rep. Paul Broun (R-Ga.), a member of the House Homeland Security Committee, said TSA is too politically correct when it chooses which passengers to search at airport security checkpoints. During a recent trip, Broun said he saw TSA pat down an elderly person and a child, but not a man he himself deemed suspicious. "I walked through … right behind me there was a grandmother — little old lady, and she was was patted down," Broun said on C-SPAN's "Washington Journal.""Right behind her was a little kid who was patted down. And then right behind him was a guy in Arabian dress who just walked right through. Why are we patting down grandma and kids?" Broun did not specify any other reasons the man looked suspicious other than his dress. Broun said in the interview that the TSA needs to focus "on those people who want to harm us."We have to identify those people — we do that through human intelligence, we do that by trying to get into the inner circle," he said. "Focus upon those individuals, not on the general public. Unfortunately, I think the Department of Homeland Security has been focusing on the general public and have been afraid of political correctness. "We've got to forget political correctness," Broun continued. "We've got to start focusing on those people who want to harm us as a nation." Hmmmm......No Profiling only non -Muslims to be padded down?Read the full story here.

• You Will Respect My Authoritah!(Noisyroom).So demandeth the DOJ and TSA in regards to Texas’ efforts to pass HB 1937, a bill that would have made invasive pat downs by TSA agents a felony. But never fear, Texas was forced to kill the bill because they did not have enough votes to pass it. And the Chicago-style thuggery and extortion goes on and on…But it wasn’t just the lack of votes at play here. Oh no… The DOJ threatened to stop all flights in and out of Texas if the bill proceeded apace. That is the real reason there weren’t enough votes. When you threaten to basically exile an entire state and stop their citizens from traveling, you gut the economics in that state. Most politicians at that point see money literally flying out the window along with votes that would reelect them. That’s the problem with the Texas legislature. There aren’t enough real Texans residing there. However, the ones handling this bill… well they are feisty true patriots who don’t give up in a political tussle. Barack Obama, Eric Holder and the DOJ goons should know that you don’t mess with Texas.So let’s see if we understand the constitutional atrocity that was just foisted on probably the bravest state in the union shall we? The DOJ just stomped all over Texas’ Tenth Amendment rights to quash their Fourth Amendment rights. If the government can do this (and they just did), what makes you think they haven’t just skirted the entire Constitution? Making it a founding document in name only while denying what they are doing all the while. This comes at a time when a whole slew of Fourth amendment violations are happening around the country from Indiana to Kentucky and in various other states. I don’t believe in coincidence – this is planned pure and simple. We see the government now violating all our rights on a daily basis and they are getting more and more heavy handed and brazen.Hmmmmm....Dictatorship or democracy.Read the full story here.

• By Peace They Will Deceive The World.(BigPeace).While the lovers and supporters of Israel both on the right and the left celebrate the diplomatic victory of Prime Minister Bibi Netanyahu over President Barack Obama, the prospects for Israel in regards to its security and standing in the world is very daunting with many threats that are obvious still remain evident, however there are even more serious threats that are not so obvious and are quickly coming to the surface.In order to understand the not so obvious we must know and understand the mindset and character of the Middle East. Our organization being made up of former Muslims from that very part of the world who understand far better the mindset, strategies, and tactics used by the Islamic world as well as the culture and religion of Arabs both Christian and Muslim.The Arab world has just witnessed a reinvigoration of the alliance of Israel and the people of the United States despite the hostility of the executive office in the White House. The key factor for peace in the Middle East from the Western perspective, especially the US, is the recognition of Israel as a “Jewish state living side by side in peace with Palestine.” The smart Muslim leaders who understand this, will play right into this ideal and will provide the “Hudna” which will recognize Israel as Jewish state. The evidence for such a policy is in full view if you know where to look and you understand the Islamic mindset.It is Turkey that is recognized by the Muslim Brotherhood and all fundamentalist Sunni Muslims as the head the Caliphate. It is prophesized in the Muslim holy books that the Ottoman Empire will come again and prior to the coming of the Mahdi. According to the Hadith, on the day of Judgement the Mahdi will lead all the Muslims to march on Jerusalem and destroy all the Jews. As the Muslim Brotherhood will dominate the Middle East over the next two years, they will look to Turkey to lead the Muslim world. If you study the Muslim Brotherhood ideals and its interpretation of Islam, they state this very clearly and repeat it over and over again in their rhetoric. The standard text for the day of Judgement: come o slave of Allah, the trees will cry out that there are Jews hiding behind them, so Muslims should come and kill them (the Jews).In 2002 The AKP party was the first Islamist political party to gain power since Turkey became a secular country in 1920, and they have held power continuously up to the present. This is significant in the rejuvenation of the Ottoman Empire and if one is paying attention, Turkey is increasing its influence and forming alliances both in the Sunni and Shia countries in the Middle East. The Islamist revolution in Turkey is not quite complete as the Islamist needs to wrestle control of the military, which is still secular, but once the Islamists complete the military take over, Israel as well as the West will be in mortal peril. Turkey poses a much larger potential threat than Iran with its massive army with only the USA and Russia being larger. Turkey has already changed its stance on Israel from friend to a cold peace with a strong political animus against Israel. We just need to look at the flotilla incident last year to understand this change.The USA government is well aware of this threat as was pointed out by the Wiki Leaks revelations of late last year. Wiki Leaks showed that the state department was frustrated over Turkey being Islamist, but publicly makes no issue of this problem.On May 21st the president of Turkey Abdullah Gul (name means slave of Allah the beast) was reported by Reuters to have urged Hamas to recognize Israel’s right to exist. As Turkey’s influence grows they will be in position to finalize and arrange a peace treaty between the Palestinians and Israel with Hamas recognizing Israel. However in order to understand the reality this will not bring peace but will be the famous Islamic “Hudna” which according to the Bible is the “covenant of death” mentioned in Isaiah 28 that will cause the war in order to attempt to destroy Israel in the end.The objective of the Muslim world will be to use peace in order to deceive Israel and the West. We have always seen in the past our desire for peace especially from the Jewish people. This treaty will be based on a full recognition of Israel and fool them into signing and agreeing to this false peace, which at best will last less than four years. The world will celebrate peace in our time once again, but in the end will bring about the greatest war this world will ever witness.Hmmmm......For the last 14 months i've been warning about Turkey and Obama's 'friendship' with them.Read the full story here.

• Turkish mayor advises women “Do not walk around, sit in your homes,” to avoid harassment.(HurriyetDaily).Women complaining about sexual harassment on the streets of the eastern province of Muş should deal with the problem by simply staying at home, the province’s mayor has said.“Do not walk around, sit in your homes,” 71-year-old Justice and Development Party, or AKP, Mayor Necmittin Dede recently told Muş representatives of the Women’s Center, or KAMER, when they told authorities that high employment in the city had resulted in men spilling out of the overcrowded teahouses in the area to verbally harass female passersby.KAMER representatives said they had enjoyed success in cooperating with local police on women’s issues, but added that public institutions, such as the one led by the mayor, remained indifferent to their cause.  “We have appealed to the authorities time and time again, yet they do not allow us into the schools to conduct training sessions about women. So we visit households instead. We conducted surveys in 700 households until now that show the rate of domestic violence stands around 70 percent,” said Necmiye Boz of KAMER.Muş municipality does maintain a women’s shelter in the area – although the building is prominently identified by a large sign, allowing potential attackers to find women seeking refuge in the building.A total of six Dishonor killings have been committed in the province over the past two months although some of the deaths have been passed off as suicides, according to Boz and another KAMER representative, Ayşegül Söylemez.In previous comments, Dede said, “If women were man enough, they would have become prophets.” Among state authorities, local police have led the way in trying to combat domestic violence, releasing preparing a report titled “Survey Report on Cases of Domestic Violence.” Law enforcement officers have also rented billboards to create awareness about the problems facing women. One such billboard features the portrait of a happy family, with text underneath saying, “Not everything is what it seems.”KAMER was officially founded in 1997 and continued to grow and strengthen itself in the following years. At the moment, the group is trying to expand its activities in 23 provinces of eastern and southeastern Anatolia to more districts, villages and remote areas.Hmmmm......Keep Turkey out of the European Union.Read the full story here.

• Israel links EU support for Palestinians to anti-Semitism.(EuObserver).- Israeli finance minister Yuval Steinitz has said that select EU countries' support for Palestine's plan to seek full UN membership is linked to ancient anti-Semitism.Speaking to EUobserver in Brussels on Tuesday (23 May) at an event to mark the 63rd anniversary of the creation of Israel, the minister said there is a tendency in Europe to blame the failure of the peace process on the Jewish side only."It's very easy to put all the blame in the world on the Jewish state. As Joschka Fischer, the former German foreign minister once put it in Israel, he said 'I cannot ignore the fact there is an old European tradition of 2,000 years to blame the Jews.' So maybe some of the animosity toward the state of Israel is a disguised [form of this], is coming from this tradition."Palestinian diplomats say around 10 European countries, including Greece, Ireland, France, Spain and Sweden, as well as non-EU member Norway, will back the UN bid, which is planned to take place in September. The initiative to create an independent Palestine outside the framework of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks comes amid a long-standing deadlock in the negotiations.The minister described the UN plan as a "challenge to Israel's very existance" because it would bypass deal-making on questions such as the right of return of hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees driven out by Israeli soldiers in the 1940s.The finance chief threatened to permanently block transfers of Palestinian tax income to the Palestinian authorities if they stick with the Hamas pact. He said Israel's confiscation of tax income this month is "temporary, a warning sign." He added: "If they will co-operate with this terrorist organisation ... we will have to reconsider whether we can co-operate with them, whether we can deliver money they might misuse to fund terrorist organisations or terrorist acts."The strong turnout for Steinitz on Tuesday masks the fact that EU-Israel relations are at a low point. Several EU countries are continuing to block a planned 'upgrade' in diplomatic contacts with Israel and EU foreign affairs chief Catherine Ashton has refused to join the US in condemning the Fatah-Hamas pact. Hmmmm....And this of course is music to Obama's ears.Read the full story here.

• Confirmed: Vladimir Ilyich Lenin Was Jewish.(Ynet).For the first time ever, ordinary Russians can now see documents that appear to confirm long-standing rumors that Vladimir Lenin had Jewish heritage.In a country long plagued by anti-Semitism, such heritage can be a significant taint, especially for the founder of the Soviet Union who is still revered by many elderly Russians.Among dozens of newly released documents on display at the State History Museum is a letter written by Lenin’s eldest sister, Anna Ulyanova, saying that their maternal grandfather was a Ukrainian Jew who converted to Christianity to escape the Pale of Settlement and gain access to higher education.“He came from a poor Jewish family and was, according to his baptismal certificate, the son of Moses Blank, a native of (the western Ukrainian city of) Zhitomir,” Ulyanova wrote in a 1932 letter to Josef Stalin, who succeeded Lenin after his death in 1924.“Vladimir Ilych had always thought of Jews highly,” she wrote. “I am very sorry that the fact of our origin – which I had suspected before – was not known during his lifetime.”Hmmmm.....On the other side many Jewish politicians have Russian roots ,it can only mean they are better statesmen?Read the full story here.

• How do you great a returning Israeli PM?You install a new Jewish neighborhood in east J'lem.(Ynet).Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu landed at Ben Gurion Airport Wednesday, after concluding his visit to the United States, during which he spoke before Congress. "There is strong American support for our principles and what we want," he told reporters at the airport.Meanwhile, Knesset Speaker Reuven Rivlin, Environmental Protection Minister Gilad Erdan and Jerusalem Mayor Nir Barkat attended an inauguration ceremony for a new 100-family neighborhood located in east Jerusalem's Ras al-Amud neighborhood. "We must support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu today in his position as was presented during his US visit, and forever we should say – that's enough, Jerusalem should stay untouched," Erdan said in a speech. "Israel without Jerusalem or Zionism without Zion are like a body without a soul. We, as the government of Israel, are committed to strengthening Jerusalem and keeping it whole and united, and continuing to build in all parts of the city."Dozens of Palestinian and left-wing activists held a protest against the ceremony, chanting "There's no holiness in an occupied city" and "Settler, soldier, officer – disengage from Palestine." Two of the protesters were arrested for attempting to block one of the ministers' cars from entering the neighborhood. One of the activists, Tzila Goldberg, managed to storm the event, calling the ministers in attendance "war criminals": "Everyone who takes part in the ceremony commits a war crime and violates international law," she yelled. "This is Palestinian territory."Orly Noy, spokeswoman for Ir Amim – a group which focuses on Jerusalem within the context of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict – told Ynet that "Jerusalem is the litmus test for Israel's intentions regarding the peace process. Tonight's dangerous provocation in Ras al-Amud sends a problematic message, hurts Israel and destabilizes the city."Mati Cohen, head of the Ateret Cohanim organization, which founded the neighborhood, told Ynet: "Jews bought land here 120 years ago and the Turks and English prevented them form building here. Thank God that we have been able to settle Jews here."Jerusalem Mayor Barkat said: "We are committed to developing Jerusalem for the good of all of its residents, Jews and Arabs alike… A month ago we inaugurated an Arab neighborhood and the media said nothing. To the world we say – we will continue to build and advance Jerusalem according to the law."A source in the Jewish settlement movement in east Jerusalem told Ynet on Wednesday evening that the new neighborhood was just the tip of the iceberg."East of the city there are Jewish-owned territories and properties in neighborhoods like Silwan, Shimon Hatzadik, Abu Dis, and in the Old City. Jewish settlement is an existing fact. Some projects are materializing now and some of them are delayed because of bureaucracy and legal matters, but the truth is that all of Jerusalem's neighborhoods are involved. You cannot divide Jerusalem. That's the reality."In light of Netanyahu's US trip, the source said he is not worried about the future of Jerusalem. "There is public and politic consensus about Jerusalem," he said. "I believe in Netanyahu's good intentions, but even if they try to force him to divide Jerusalem, he will not be able to do it because of the politic pressure." Earlier in the day Vice Premier Silvan Shalom toured Hebron, and said that he does not support retreating from the settlements, and neither does Likud."Hmmmm......Remember, there was no 'Palestine' in the days of Jesus ... the Romans still called it 'Judea' (Judah) ... just look at their maps and their coins ... The Roman rulers re-named it after Israel's ancient enemy the Philistines in order to try to break the Jews away from their relationship and bond to their Land of Israel.Read the full story here.

• The Grey Wolves a Turkish Nationalist Organisation Has Growing Influence in Germany.(StopTurkey).Translated by Cheradenine Zakalwe.This is my own translation of a German newspaper article that was published a few months ago.How the Far Right Grey Wolves Attract Young Turks. Essen.

The “Grey Wolves” are gaining ever more influence over Turkish youths in North-Rhine Westphalia (NRW), warn experts. Above all they attract frustrated young men. They disseminate their racist propaganda over the internet – and jeopardise integration. The Turkish nationalistic organisation, the Grey Wolves, has new premises in Bochum.The Dahlhausen district of Bochum is well-known as a social flashpoint. Many immigrants live here. Exactly the right terrain for the “Grey Wolves”. A few weeks ago the Turkish right-wing extremists moved their headquarters into a former pub. They visit families, make contacts in mosques and associations. In their recruitment, above all they target young men who are disenchanted with German society. The citizens of Bochum are worried. Some have turned to the city looking for help, but nothing can be done. Although the unwelcome neighbours are monitored by the Agency for the Protection of the Constitution, they have not been banned.

Employees of the Agency for the Protection of the Constitution count around 70 associations of the nationalist movement with more than 2000 members in NRW. There are Grey Wolf association centres in almost every large town. “Their influence on Turkish youth has significantly increased,” says the Bochum educationalist Kemal Bozay, who is familiar with the scene. Particularly in the third generation, the sense of having no prospects is something that is increasingly widespread. “The young people feel excluded from mainstream German society. They are looking for an identity, for a place where they will be acknowledged,” explains Bozay. “The organisation uses that.” Danger for Integration

The movement’s greeting symbolises a wolf’s head.The Grey Wolves, also called the Ülkücü movement, lure young people with a generous offering of leisure activities and a sense of community. And then, completely by the way, they will be indoctrinated in courses into the organisation’s racist Turkish cult. The whole thing works according to the principle: we are in here and they are out there. With fatal consequences: “The strengthening of an overblown sense of Turkish national consciousness gives grounds for concern, as this hampers integration of the young people into the living and social circumstances of Germany,” warn NRW’s agents for the protection of the constitution in their most recent report.

The SPD’s regional parliament member, Serdar Yüksel, also speaks of a danger for integration. “This is a huge problem that’s coming towards us. If we don’t counter it, we’ll drive young people in droves into the arms of the Turkish far-right.” The academic Bozay and the politician Yüksel are in agreement: the attack on immigrants by Thilo Sarrazin and the subsequent debate had given the Grey Wolves an additional boost.

Thought comparable to German Neo-Nazis

Even from the families there is mostly very little resistance. “The Turkish associations take children off the streets”, says Cem Sentürk from the Centre for Turkish Studies in Essen. Therefore the parents are completely happy when the young people spend their time in the association centre rather than somewhere else. Particularly as the Turkish right-wingers mostly seem polite and moderate. Major political events have become more rare, says Sentürk. Instead, they have taken up social engagement. That makes it more difficult for the authorities to keep tabs on them. The Grey Wolves have even officially renounced violence.

But the Mr Clean facade is a sham. Behind it hides an ideology that can be loosely compared with German neo-nazi thought: exaggerated nationalism, a leadership cult and the conviction that their own race is superior. There are similarities even in their perceived enemies: the German and Turkish far-right is united in its hatred of Jews and homosexuals. Even the dream of a great empire (reich) exists among the Grey Wolves: it is to be called “Turan” and stretch from Central Asia to the Balkans.

Hate-filled propaganda on the internet

On the internet the Turkish far-right shows its true face. In Videos, chats and blogs Kurds, Jews and other “enemies” are the targets of hate-filled and sometimes highly aggressive propaganda, as a study by the NRW Agency for the Protection of the Constitution shows. In particular, portals like Youtube and Facebook are used in a targeted way. On Facebook there are various group pages, which, however, can only be accessed on a member’s recommendation.

Symbols of the movement are the wolf figure and three white half-moons. The “Grey Wolf” is a figure from the pre-islamic origin myths of the Turkish tribe. The young people also place many of their own videos on the net. In these they present themselves “as ‘hard men’, who will defend Turkey, if necessary with their lives,” write the agents for the Protection of the Constitution. “The voice of the underground, I’m also called the Grey Wolf. (...) We are as strong as 1000 volts. You want to fight me? You have made a mistake! And for the six in maths I gave my teacher a slap. (...) If you insult my country I will give you a deathblow,” raps a rather fierce voice, while in the background images of Turkish soldiers, flags and other national symbols pass by.

“Problem underestimated”

The verdict of the NRW Agency for Protection of the Constitution: “From this it is clear that, not least through the internet, an Ülkücü youth culture has been created. This youth scene appears to be radicalising further.” Many young people also first come into contact with the ideology of the Grey Wolves via the internet, says Bozay. They then carry this body of thought into clubs and schools. In recent years, teachers had complained recurrently of serious confrontations with ideologically-indoctrinated young people.

But even the adult world is not immune from the Grey Wolves. Warnings are constantly being issued about radical Turks slipping into established German parties. In NRW the German-Turkish forum of the CDU [the mainstream right-wing party in Germany] and, in places, also the SPD [mainstream left-wing party in Germany] have been infiltrated by members of the Grey Wolves, says Yüksel. “They have also succeeded, to a significant extent, in infiltrating the integration councils.”Due to lack of knowledge, in many parts of German society, the problem is entirely underestimated, says Yüksel. Even in youth work and schools there are no plans to effectively counter the influence of the Grey Wolves, confirms Bozay. “If thousands of Turkish right-wing extremists meet up in the Essen Grugahalle, we’re not worried about it,” says Yüksel. “But if 100 NPD [German far-right party] members stage a march, we immediately organise a counter-demo.”Hmmmm......And you think radical Islam is a threat in Turkey?Think again! Read the full story here.

• Mugabe torturer who pulled out man's teeth with pliers is granted asylum in UK (and we'll also have to pick up the tab for him and his wife's HIV treatment)(DailyMail).A murdering asylum seeker who worked as a torturer for the Mugabe regime in Zimbabwe will not be deported - because of concerns for his safety if he returns home.Phillip Machemedze smashed a man's jaw with pliers before extracting his teeth, one of his many victims while working for Zimbabwe's notorious Central Intelligence organisation.The 47-year-old also gave electric shocks to a white farmer, whipped a woman before pouring salt in her wounds and took part in the 'slow' killing of one of Mugabe's political opponents, the Sun reported today.However, Machemedze 'grew tired' of his work as a torturer and apparently fearing Mugabe would turn against him, he fled to Britain 11 years ago.Despite only having a temporary visa, Machemedze has remained in the country ever since, receiving taxpayer-funded treatment for HIV.Thanks to the Human Rights Act, Machemedze and his wife Febbie, 40, who also has the disease, will continue to live and be treated in Britain at the taxpayers' expense.At an asylum appeal hearing in Newport, South Wales, Mr Justice David Archer said Machemedze was 'deeply involved in savage acts of extreme violence'.The tribunal also heard that some of the tortures 'were too gruesome to recount'.He added: 'Whatever crimes he has committed he cannot be returned to face the highly likely prospect of torture and execution without trial, the Sun reported.The appeal hearing was brought by the Home Office and followed a judgment earlier this month which allowed the pair to stay in Britain indefinitely but did not grant asylum.At the earlier hearing, Senior Immigration Judge Robert Martin said: 'It is true that Phillip Machemedze committed abhorrent acts and deserves no sympathy or favours. 'However, it is also true that we are bound by the European Convention on Human Rights and Articles 2 and 3 are absolute,' New Zimbabwe reported.Sir Andrew Green, of think tank Migrationwatch UK, said: 'This is an obscene distortion of the whole purpose of Human Rights legislation.  'Asylum claims of this kind can be rejected but not human rights claims. This has to be changed or we will become a honey pot for torturers from around the world.'Hmmmm.....Society gone nuts.Read the full story here.

• Islamic North Sudan busy with ethnic 'cleaning' in Abyei region.(Al-Arabia).South Sudan says no war but accuses north of moving allied tribe to populate Abyei.South Sudan’s President Salva Kiir on Thursday ruled out a return to war with former enemies in the north over the contested Abyei district, reported Agence-France Presse. "We will not go back to war, it will not happen," said Mr. Kiir, in his first public statement since the fighting began last week. "We are committed to peace."South Sudan on Thursday also accused the northern army of moving thousands of people from the allied Misseriya tribe into the disputed Abyei region, Reuters reported. On May 21, North Sudan took control of Abyei, forcing tens of thousands to flee over the border to South Sudan, sparking an international outcry.The northern army was moving "thousands" of members of the Arab Misseriya tribe, which is supported by Khartoum, into villages of the southern Dinka Ngok tribe in Abyei, southern Information Minister Barnaba Benjamin told reporters.Abyei's capture in the run-up to international recognition of southern independence in July has been condemned by the world powers as a threat to peace between north and south.Analysts have feared the conflict could tip the two sides back to civil war, which ended in 2005 after more than two decades of bloodshed.Abyei, a fertile border district claimed by both sides, was due to vote on its future in January alongside a referendum on independence for the south, which delivered a landslide for secession.But Abyei's plebiscite did not happen amid arguments on who was eligible to vote. On Saturday northern troops and tanks overran the contested area.Meanwhile, north Sudanese soldiers helped in the "organized looting" of the flashpoint border town of Abyei after they captured it last week, new photographs released on Thursday appeared to show, AFP reported. The US-based Enough Project, which obtained the photographs, said they "appear to show northern soldiers standing by as militia members load trucks full of looted food and other goods."The images, which were taken on Monday, two days after northern troops and tanks overran the contested district, "provide evidence of organized ransacking and razing in Abyei," the group said.Other photographs show thatch huts on fire, and gunmen in civilian clothes roaming the town, alongside what appears to be armed police officers.Another shows a gunman smiling and giving a thumbs-up to the camera, from a camouflaged pickup truck loaded with goods.Hmmmm....Islam the religion of peace.Read the full story here.

• "The War on Christianity".Provincial Official in Algeria Orders Churches to Close.Christians plan to attend services this weekend despite intimidation tactics.ISTANBUL, May 25 (CDN) — Seven Algerian churches face closure this week after the governor of their province sent them written notice that they were operating “illegally.” The notice on Sunday (May 22) from Police Chief Ben Salma, citing a May 8 decree from the Bejaia Province governor, also states that all churches “in all parts of the country” will be closed for lack of compliance with registration regulations, but Christian leaders dismissed this assertion as the provincial official does not have nationwide authority. “All buildings permanently designated for or in the process of being designated for the practice of religious worship other than Muslim will be permanently closed down in all parts of the country, as well as those not having received the conformity authorization from the National Commission,” Salma stated in the notice. On Sunday (May 22) the governor of Bejaia sent a statement to the president of the Protestant Church of Algeria (EPA) informing him that all churches in the province were illegal because they were unregistered. Registration is required under controversial Ordinance 06-03, but Christians report the government refuses to respond to or grant their applications for registration. The controversial law was introduced in 2006 to regulate non-Muslim worship. In 2008 the government applied measures in accordance with Ordinance 06-03 to limit the activities of non-Muslim groups, ordering the closure of 26 churches in the Kabylie region because they were not registered. No churches had been closed down since then. EPA members argue, however, that the law is impossible to implement as officials refuse to register their churches despite efforts to comply. They said the authorities apply the law when they want to harass churches. “It’s always the same thing,” Mustapha Krim, president of the EPA, told Compass. “They use this law when they want to pester us.” According to the governor’s statement, if the churches do not comply, authorities may use force. The leaders of the churches in Bejaia have decided to conduct church services this weekend as scheduled and “see what happens,” said Krim, who also expects police to show up. “For now, on Friday and Sunday there will be church meetings like always, but we expect that we may encounter the police,” he said. “They have the authority to intervene.”He and the leaders of the other Protestant churches of Bejaia will meet on Thursday (May 26) to discuss a plan in the event of a police presence and force. He said some of the Christians have expressed fear and have many questions. Asked if he thought this could mean the beginning of more closures of churches across Algeria, Krim said, “It is possible they are capable of doing things like this. We have no intention to close, and we have mobilized people to pray so that God can intervene.” Despite efforts to comply with the ordinance, no churches or Christian groups have received governmental approval to operate, and the government has not established administrative means to implement the ordinance, according to the U.S. Department of State’s 2010 Report on International Religious Freedom. Though no churches have closed since 2008, their status remains questionable and only valid through registration with the EPA. There are more than 99,000 Christians in Algeria, less than 0.3 percent of the total population of 35.4 million people, according to Operation World. Muslims make up more than 97 percent of the population.Hmmmm......."There can be only one"?Read the full story here.

• Obama regime 'peace partners' Honors Families of Arch-Terrorists Serving Life Sentences for the Murder of Hundreds.Read and see the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - May 25. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - May 23. Here (Al-Jazeera).

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 118.On 24.05.2011 at 13:30 GMT+2
  
  Seventy thousand people living beyond the 20-kilometre no-go zone around Fukushima should be evacuated because of radioactivity deposited by the crippled nuclear plant, a watchdog said. Updating its assessment of the March 11 disaster, France's Institute for Radiological Protection and Nuclear Safety (IRSN) highlighted an area northwest of the plant that lies beyond the 20-km (12 mile) zone whose inhabitants have already been evacuated. Radioactivity levels in this area range from several hundred becquerels per square metre to thousands or even several million bequerels per square metre, the IRSN report, issued late Monday, said. Around 70,000 people, including 9,500 children aged up to 14, live in the area, "the most contaminated territory outside the evacuation zone," the agency said. "These are people who are still to be evacuated, in addition to those who were evacuated during the emergency phase in March," Didier Champion, its environmnent director, told AFP.
  
  Staying in this area means the inhabitants would be exposed to radiation of more than 10 millisieverts (mSv)in the year following the disaster, according to the IRSN. This level is used in French safety guidelines for protecting civilian populations after a nuclear accident. In France, 10 mSv is three times the normal background radiation from natural sources. "Ten mSV is not a dangerous dose in and of itself, it's more a precautionary dose," said Champion, noting however that this figure that does not include any additional doses from contaminated food or water. The 10 mSV derives from a calculation of exposure to at least 600,000 becquerels per square metre, emitted by caesium 137 and 134, which are long-lasting radioactive elements. Of the 70,000 people in the zone identified in the IRSN report, more than 26,000 could be exposed to doses of more than 16mSv in the first year after the disaster. On May 15, Japan began to evacuate 4,000 residents of the village of Iidate-mura and 1,100 people in the town of Kawamata-cho, 30 kms from the plant. The two locations had consistently received high amounts of radioactive dust due to wind patterns. The IRSN report is based on data for radioactivity reported by the Japanese authorities and from US overflights of the zone. Source : Here .

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

• There's a new "Player" in the Air,meet the Grimsvotn Volcano.By John Seach.(VolcanoLive)

64.42 N, 17.33 W - summit elevation 1725 m  - caldera

Read the full story here.Live webcam here and here.Google map location here.More info here.

• RSOE Emergency and Disaster Information Service Grimsvotn Volcano Info Situation Update No. 7  -On 25.05.2011 at 02:56 GMT+2
  
  Airlines grounded about 500 flights after ash from an Icelandic volcano swept over the UK and towards northern Europe in a fresh travel nightmare for thousands of passengers. Barely a year after a similar eruption in Iceland forced the biggest closure of European airspace since World War II, ash-laden clouds caused flights in and out of Scotland, northern England and Northern Ireland to be cancelled. British Airways led the way in cancelling flights as the plume from the Grimsvotn volcano spread eastwards, followed by Dutch airline KLM, Ireland's Aer Lingus and budget airlines easyJet and Ryanair. "Approximately 500 flights were cancelled from the approximately 29,000 that would have been expected today across Europe,'' Brussels-based air traffic controllers Eurocontrol said. The ash cloud caused minor air traffic disruption in Norway and closed a small part of Denmark's airspace yesterday, and Eurocontrol warned there was a "strong possibility'' that it would spread to southwest Sweden today. "This would have some impact on flights. However, given the new procedures in place and the predicted movement of the ash cloud over the coming days, the actual impact on flights is expected to be relatively low,'' it said. Weather charts produced by the Volcanic Ash Advisory Centre run by Britain's Met Office predicted that a low cloud of ash would sweep across northern Europe overnight, taking in northern Germany, Poland and Scandinavia. Authorities say the ash can damage planes and stop engines, but Ryanair flew a plane through Scottish airspace and said it detected no ash on the aircraft. It accused British and Irish authorities of over-reacting but reluctantly cancelled its flights to and from Scotland - almost 70 in total.
  
  British Airways conducted its own "verification'' flight yesterday sending out an Airbus A320 from Manchester Airport to assess the risk over northern England and southern Scotland. The growing chaos threatens planning for events including the G8 summit and the football Champions League final between Barcelona and Manchester United, which takes place at London's Wembley Stadium this weekend. Barcelona said its squad would fly to London on Tuesday, two days earlier than planned, due to the "uncertainty'' caused by the volcano. European Union transport commissioner Siim Kallas played down fears that the situation could get as bad as in 2010, when thousands of travellers from around the world were left stranded. "We do not at this stage anticipate widespread airspace closure and prolonged disruption like we saw last year,'' Kallas told a news conference. Iceland's Meteorological Office said activity at the volcano had slowed, and an Icelandic crisis management official said the plume of ash has fallen from its peak altitude of 20 kilometres to two kilometres. The most high-profile victim of the chaos was US President Barack Obama, who was forced to leave Ireland for London a day ahead of schedule on Monday night to avoid being stranded there.
  
  When Iceland's Eyjafjoell volcano erupted last year, the ash plume arrived first in Britain before spreading across the rest of Europe. Many airlines were deeply unhappy at the time at being forced to halt their flights. Ryanair revealed Monday that last year's airspace shutdown cost it nearly 30 million euros ($40 million) and railed against the current closures. It said its one-hour verification flight in Scotland's airspace on Tuesday showed no visible volcanic ash cloud. "The absence of any volcanic ash in the atmosphere supports Ryanair's stated view that there is no safety threat to aircraft in this mythical 'red zone' which is another misguided invention by the UK Met Office and the CAA (Civil Aviation Authority),'' the Irish airline said. Fellow budget carrier bmi cancelled yesterday's flights from Edinburgh and Glasgow but anticipated "a normal flying programme'' today. British transport minister Philip Hammond said the ash plume was a natural phenomenon "but the UK is now much better prepared to deal with an ash eruption than last year.'' The CAA no longer issues blanket bans on flights; instead, it identifies areas of high-, medium- and low-density ash and asks airlines wishing to operate in high- or medium-density ash to request permission to fly.Source :Here .

• Berlin airports reopen as ash moves on.(TodaysZaman).A cloud of volcanic ash from Iceland that had forced airport closures in northern Germany blew further north and east on Wednesday afternoon, allowing air traffic to resume as experts said the eruption appeared be winding down.European air traffic controllers said they expected about 700 flights to be canceled on Wednesday, but Eurocontrol added that activity from Iceland's Grimsvotn volcano has declined sharply and that traffic in European airspace could return to normal Thursday."There were very few eruptions by the volcano over the last six to 12 hours so the volcano is in a reasonably calm state at the moment," said Brian Flynn, head of network operations for Eurocontrol. "Assuming that continues, we would expect that the European aviation would be able to return to almost a normal situation within the next 24 hours."Volcano experts in Iceland said the eruption appeared to be tapering off. Observers at the crater were reporting only steam, said Pall Einarsson, from the University of Iceland."The worst is over," said Icelandic Prime Minister Johanna Sigurdardottir in a statement, after touring the region around Grimsvotn on Tuesday.Read the full story here.

• I beg you pardon?Andrea Mitchell: Obama Not Bowing To Queen Because “It’s Not Proper For Americans”.(StoryBalloon).We would suggest the President and Mrs. Obama are not going to bow because that is considered not proper for Americans and that always causes a stir. – Andrea Mitchell.It wouldn’t be the first time Obama bowed to someone.Earlier in the show Mitchell actually asks Martin Bashir if the Obama’s are staying in a castle that’s a step up from the one the Reagan’s stayed in.Hmmmm......Sometimes,just sometimes you really wonder.Read and see the full story here.

• Obama compares the IRA to Hamas.(WeeklyStandard)Now the president is in Ireland praising the Good Friday Peace Agreement that ended decades of strife in Northern Ireland. He praised the ability of former adverseries to "reimagine their relationships," in a not-too-subtle hint to the Israelis and Palestinians that if Ireland’s feuding Catholics and Protestants can make peace, so can they.Peace in the Holy Land should be a key objective for every president. But it’s also a useful reminder that it may take more than imagination or territorial compromise. It also requires facing some hard truths and, in this respect, Northern Ireland is instructive.The Irish Republican Army is not Hamas. While it fought a brutal terrorist campaign against the British government, military and the British people, as well as Northern Ireland’s Protestants, IRA never sought the destruction of Britain nor the mass murder of Protestants. It was a deadly terrorist organization, but it was not genocidal in either action or ideology. Its terrorist attacks were designed not to maximize casualties but to maximize fear and, in many cases, it gave authorities prior warnings that an attack would occur.Hmmmm......Michael Collins must be rolling over in his grave.Read the full story here.

• El Presidente Obama to Visit Puerto Rico in June,can't let the Puertorican voters down do we?SAN JUAN, Puerto Rico (AP) — President Barack Obama has accepted an invitation to visit Puerto Rico next month, a trip that would make him the first sitting president to come to the U.S. territory in decades, the island’s governor said Tuesday.The president, who campaigned in Puerto Rico for the Democratic primary, will visit the island June 14, Gov. Luis Fortuno said, without disclosing details of his itinerary.“With his visit, the president makes good on the promise he made during the presidential primaries in 2008 that he would return to Puerto Rico as president,” Fortuno said in a statement.The governor’s office described the Obama trip as the “the first official presidential visit” since December 1961, when President John F. Kennedy stopped on the island to a formal welcome on his way to Venezuela. But that was not the last time a U.S. president set foot in the territory: President Gerald Ford hosted an economic summit in Puerto Rico in June 1976.Pedro Pierluisi, the island’s nonvoting representative in Congress, said he expects Obama will discuss a recent White House report on the options for changing Puerto Rico’s formal relationship to the U.S. mainland.Hmmmm.....We thank the taxpayers and the Foodstamp users for the trips we are about to receive?Read the full story here.

• The "Obama Curse "?Obama's Trips Overshadowed by Natural Disasters.(ABC).President Obama is in Europe this week to discuss economic and security issues, but his long-planned voyage has been overshadowed by the devastation in Joplin, Mo., where the single deadliest tornado in history has killed 117 people. This is not the first time one of Obama's international trips has been eclipsed by a disaster. Several of his previous voyages have been cursed by Mother Nature and other unforeseen circumstances. Last year, he shelved his trip to Indonesia and Australia because of the BP oil spill disaster. He had previously postponed that trip because of the health care vote. The president also couldn't fly to the funeral of Polish President Lech Kaczynski in April 2010 because of volcanic ash emitting from Iceland. He had to cut his November Indonesia trip short for the same reason. This week, an Icelandic ash cloud -- albeit from a different volcano -- forced the president and his staff to leave Ireland a day earlier than planned. While forces of nature are out of a president's control, the way an administration shapes the commander in chief's travels can have a significant impact on public perception.It's not just Mother Nature and other manmade disasters that have cast clouds on Obama's trips. International crisis also seems to follow the president whenever he leaves the United States. Hmmmm....Wherever he go's disaster follows?A walking,talking doomsday machine?Read the full story here.

• Is another European empire collapsing before our eyes?By WayneMadsen.The history of Europe is one of successive collapsed empires. Some, such as the Roman, Holy Roman, Ottoman, and Austro-Hungarian empires, simply overextended themselves and collapsed due to nationalist uprisings coupled with domestic political and economic inertia. Others, like the German Nazi, Soviet, Italian fascist, Napoleonic French, Spanish, and Portuguese empires collapsed as a result of their military aggression and incessant subterfuge from external forces.The European Union appears to be suffering from the same symptoms as those experienced by the first category of failed European empires: over-extension, a stagnant and bloated bureaucracy, and economic collapse. As Europe strives to become a more unified and federal union, there has been a backlash from across its member states, with a North-South divide and economic turmoil now threatening to bring down the whole house of cards.The rise of nationalist political parties in some of the EU’s heretofore staunchest pro-EU member nations and the collapse of some EU national economies due to predatory banking policies and America’s flooding of the global financial system with cheap dollars – a central bankers’ contrivance known as “quantitative easing” -- has created fault lines in Europe that not only threaten to bring down the euro and drive the European Central Bank into extinction but prompt some members to leave the EU altogether.Although there have always been degrees of Euro-skepticism throughout Europe since the coming into force of the Treaty of Maastricht in 1993, which transformed the European Economic Community into the European Union and created the euro, anti-EU feelings now run the full gamut from right to left. Anti-EU fervor has not only increased in the traditionally Euro-skeptic nations of Denmark, the United Kingdom, and France but has gained a strong foothold in the earliest supporters of European integration, including Ireland, the Netherlands, Finland, Greece, and most importantly, Germany…The United States has relied on the EU as a natural complement to the arcane NATO military alliance. The EU-US-NATO alliance, which helped craft virtual EU protectorates masquerading as independent states in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo in the remnants of Yugoslavia, will be keen to maintain the status quo in Europe. However, with the peoples of Europe hitting the streets in protest and the fumes from Molotov cocktails and tear gas heavy in the air of Athens, London, and soon, other capitals, the United States, a declining “paper tiger” empire, will have little influence to stymie the breakup of the EU. Like it or not, the United States will soon see the collapse of an abortive European super-state based in Brussels and the subsequent return of sovereignty to the nations of Europe…Read the full story here.

• Maritime Lawfare Victory: Lloyd’s Won’t Insure Gaza Flotilla.(IsraelNatnews).Leading insurance market Lloyd’s of London has stated it will not insure boats headed toward Gaza in another flotilla designed to assist the Hamas government there.The assurance was made in a letter to Attorney Nitzana Darshan-Leitner, who heads the Shurat HaDin organization, after the organization sent out letters to numerous insurance companies threatening to sue them if they insure the next Gaza flotilla.Shurat HaDin - Israel Law Center is a civil rights organization dedicated to combating terrorist organizations and the regimes that support them through lawsuits litigated in courtrooms around the world.The group has explained that “instead of sitting passively by and waiting for another international diplomatic crisis to play out into the Islamic extremists' hands,” it has embarked on a campaign to try and legally block the extremists from setting sail. The idea is succinctly expressed on the group's website:Every boat that travels from any country's seaports or marinas needs to have maritime insurance. Without insurance a ship is not permitted to set sail. Yet, the maritime insurance companies insuring the boats utilized by the Gaza Flotilla surely have no idea that the passenger boats that they are indemnifying are being used by the organizers to run the coastal blockade, violently challenge the IDF and smuggle weapons into Gaza. No legitimate insurance company nor its shareholders would reasonably agree to insure an expedition like that.As such, we have begun to send letters placing the maritime insurance companies on notice concerning the Gaza Flotilla and warning them that if they provide insurance (a necessary component in the effort to smuggle contraband to the terrorists) that they themselves will be legally liable for any future terrorist attacks perpetrated by Hamas. The letters are being sent to all the maritime insurance firms in Europe and Turkey.We are cautioning them that if they knowingly insure one of the Flotilla boats providing material resources to Hamas, they will also be indemnifying the Hamas rocket crews for all future Qassam missile attacks as the terror victims will surely sue them! We are hoping that when their legal departments review our letters and inform the corporation's officials of the potential massive liability being risked they will act to ensure that none of their ships are being utilized by the terrorists."The government and the IDF are extremely adept at adapting to new military threats and battlefield suprises," the group says. "They do not seem to be able to get a handle on the new way the delegitimization game is being played globally." For that reason, it has decided to act on its own -- and has scored a success.Hmmm.....Something tells me there will be some Iranian or Turkish firm willing to insure them. Read the full story here.

• German Integration Official Linked to Turkish Grey Wolves.(StopTurkey).Zülfiye Kaykın, a Turkish-born woman who serves as as State Secretary for Integration in the German state of North-Rhine Westphalia, has been accused of having links with the extremist Turkish nationalist organisation, the Grey Wolves.In April 2010 a requiem service for Alparslan Türkes was held at the Fatih mosque in Duisburg. At that time, Zülfiye Kaykın was the director of the DITIB social centre which was linked with the mosque. Witnesses claim to have seen Kaykın participate in the ceremony. Members of the mainstream Turkish community in the state, as well as the Alevi community, have called for the minister's resignation. Even a spokesman of the Turkish government is said to have criticised her. This may be related to intra-Turkish political rivalry. The MHP, the Turkish nationalist party, is the political arm of the Grey Wolves.The Grey Wolves are a fanatical Turkish nationalist organisation which once formed part of NATO's Gladio network. This consisted of "stay-behind" organisations which were supposed to mount guerilla-style resistance campaigns in the event that their countries were overrun by East bloc armies. Its members have been involved in numerous atrocities and incidents of violence over the years - for example, Mehmet Ali Ağca, the man who shot Pope John Paul II was a member of the Grey Wolves - and are said to have strong links to the Turkish "deep state", Islamic militias in places like Chechnya, Kosovo and Bosnia and Turkish organised crime.With a growing number of Turkish colonists in Europe, the Grey Wolves are now said to have a significant presence there, particularly in Germany.Hmmmm....Keep Turkey out of theEuropean Union. Read the full story here.

• US: Hezbollah has more missiles than most states.(Ynet).Outgoing Defense Secretary Gates warns against possibility group has chemical, biological arms .Hezbollah is armed with more missiles and rockets than most states, according to outgoing US Defense Secretary Robert Gates.In a speech to the American Enterprise Institute, Gates warned against the Shiite group's arming methods and the possibility that it owns chemical and biological weapons, CNN reported Wednesday. The US official made similar statements last year, but did not back them up with proof. "Hezbollah cruise missiles could threaten US ships with anti-ship missiles with a range of 65 miles," he added.Two months ago, an Israeli security official provided the Washington Post with a map detailing no less than 550 bunkers, 300 surveillance sites and 100 other facilities the Jewish state believes belong to Hezbollah terrorists in Lebanon.Most of the sites marked on the map, which appeared in the American newspaper on Wednesday, are located south of the Litani River. Ten arms caches are marked on another map featuring an aerial view of the Al Khiyam village in south Lebanon. The weapons storage facilities are located in close proximity to medical centers and schools. The daily quoted a senior Israeli commander as saying, “Our interest is to show the world that the Hezbollah organization has turned these villages into fighting zones.”Read the full story here.

• Haim Saban hints: No more donations to Obama.(Ynet).Billionaire funder of 2008 Democratic campaign disappointed by Obama's conduct towards Israel.Media mogul Haim Saban, who has donated millions to the Democratic Party – especially during its 2008 campaign, led by President Barack Obama – has hinted that he will not continue to donate in 2012.In an interview with CNBC Tuesday, Saban expressed his dissatisfaction with the public disagreements voiced by Obama and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. "The US and Israel need to address the points of difference between them in private and not in front of the cameras," he said, heaping criticism on both leaders. But his critique was mostly aimed at Obama. "I am perplexed as to why the president has been to Cairo, Saudi Arabia, and Turkey but has not stopped in Israel and spoken to the Israeli people," the billionaire said. "I believe the president can clarify to the Israeli people what his positions are on Israel and calm them down, because they are not calm right now." When asked whether he would donate to the Democratic Party in the same generous manner he had in the past, when he funded the construction of the party's new headquarters, Saban was evasive. "(Obama) doesn’t need any of my donations. If I am solicited I will donate and I can tell you that my staunch support in enlisting people to contribute to the (Democrats) hasn't weakened," he said. Read the full story here.

• Iran's Largest Lake Turning to Salt.(NYTimes).OROUMIEH LAKE, Iran (AP) — From a hillside, Kamal Saadat looked forlornly at hundreds of potential customers, knowing he could not take them for trips in his boat to enjoy a spring weekend on picturesque Oroumieh Lake, the third largest saltwater lake on earth. "Look, the boat is stuck... It cannot move anymore," said Saadat, gesturing to where it lay encased by solidifying salt and lamenting that he could not understand why the lake was fading away. The long popular lake, home to migrating flamingos, pelicans and gulls, has shrunken by 60 percent and could disappear entirely in just a few years, experts say — drained by drought, misguided irrigation policies, development and the damming of rivers that feed it. Until two years ago, Saadat supplemented his income from almond- and grape-growing by taking tourists on boat tours. But as the lake receded and its salinity rose, he found he had to stop the boat every 10 minutes to unfoul the propeller — and finally, he had to give up this second job that he'd used to support a five-member family. "The visitors were not enjoying such a boring trip," he said, noting they had to cross hundreds of meters of salty lakebed just to reach the boat from the wharf. Other boatmen, too, have parked their vessels by their houses, where they stand as sad reminders of the deep-water days. And the lake's ebbing affects an ever-widening circle. In April, authorities stopped activities at the nearby jetty in Golmankhaneh harbor, due to lack of water in the lake, now only two meters deep at its deepest. Jetties in Sharafkhaneh and Eslami harbors faced the same fate. Salman Zaker, a parliament member for Oroumieh warned last month that, "with the current trend, the risk of a salt tsunami is increasing." Warning that the lake would dry out within three to five years — an assessment agreed to by the local environment department director, Hasan Abbasnejad — Zaker said eight to 10 billion tons of salt would jeopardize life for millions of people. Masoud Pezeshkian, another lawmaker and representative for city of Tabriz in the eastern part of the lake said, "The lake has been drying but neither government nor local officials took any step, so far." How did this disaster develop, and what can be done now? Official reports blame the drying mainly on a decade-long drought, and peripherally on consumption of water of the feeding rivers for farming. They put 5 percent of the blame on construction of dams and 3 percent on other factors. Others disagree about the relative blame. The first alarm over the lake's shrinking came in late 1990s amid a nagging drought. Nonetheless, the government continued construction of 35 dams on the rivers which feed the lake; 10 more dams are on the drawing boards for the next few years. Hmmmm......Let's blame Europe for stealing our rain?Read the full story here.

• Bad Horoscope?Because it was "written in the stars"?(TheBrusselsJournal).Toilet paper sold in the Carrefour supermarkets was withdrawn from shops in Belgium. The toilet paper is decorated with zodiac signs. Two of those signs, Virgo and Capricorn, resemble the Arabic words for Allah and Muhammad.Read and see the full story here.

• International and local Rights group wants Saudi female driver freed.(TodaysZaman).International and local rights groups lashed out Tuesday at the arrest of a Saudi woman for defying the kingdom's female driving ban, while other Saudi women posted video clips online showing themselves behind the wheel.Having so far escaped the unrest sweeping the region, Saudi rulers have cracked down harder than usual on 32-year-old Manal al-Sherif after seeing her case become a rallying call for youths anxious for change. Al-Sherif was arrested Sunday after a video clip was posted online of her much-publicized drive last week - part of an effort to bring attention to the Facebook and Twitter campaigns she helped organize to encourage women across Saudi Arabia to participate in a collective protest against the driving ban. The Facebook page, called "Teach me how to drive so I can protect myself," was removed after more than 12,000 people indicated their support for its call for women drivers to take to the streets on June 17. The campaign's Twitter account also was deactivated. Human Rights Watch warned the arrest will hurt the country's image. "Arresting a woman who drove her family around in a car and then showed it online opens Saudi Arabia to condemnation - and, in fact, to mockery - around the world," said spokesman Christoph Wilcke. "The longer she stays in prison, the more the kingdom will have to answer for." A local rights group, the Association of Saudi Women's Rights, visited al-Sherif in the detention center in the eastern city of Dammam where she was ordered held for five days, and urged the Saudi government to "take a decisive stance and give women the right to drive their cars." "This is a natural right," the group said.Al-Sherif's arrest has prompted hundreds of activists to set up Facebook groups and campaigns calling for her release and an end to the driving ban. One group, called, "We are all Manal al-Sherif," had some 14,000 participants. About 800 Saudi people have signed a petition urging Saudi King Abdullah to release al-Sherif and to make a clear statement on women's right to drive. "We are fed up," Waleed Aboul Khair, a lawyer and rights activists said. "Be frank," he said, addressing the country's rulers. "For the first time in the history of the kingdom, we have hundreds of people calling for the king to be frank.""The society has moved. The society is not silent anymore," Aboul Khair said. There is no written Saudi law banning women from driving, only fatwas, or religious edicts, by senior clerics that are enforced by police. King Abdullah has promised reforms in the past and has taken some tentative steps to ease restrictions on women. But the Saudi monarchy relies on Wahhabi clerics to give religious legitimacy to its rule and is deeply reluctant to defy their entrenched power. The ruling establishment moved to blame outside forces. The Saudi daily Al-Watan, which is owned by a member of the ruling family, claimed that al-Sherif broke down in "an episode of crying" during interrogation and blamed the campaign on "women from outside the kingdom."Hmmmm......Female car dealers?Read the full story here.

• Seventeen lost Egyptian pyramids found by infra-red satellite images.(BBC).Seventeen lost pyramids are among the buildings identified in a new satellite survey of Egypt.More than 1,000 tombs and 3,000 ancient settlements were also revealed by looking at infra-red images which show up underground buildings.Initial excavations have already confirmed some of the findings, including two suspected pyramids.The work has been pioneered at the University of Alabama in Birmingham by US Egyptologist Dr Sarah Parcak.She says she was amazed at how much she and her team has found. "We were very intensely doing this research for over a year. I could see the data as it was emerging, but for me the "Aha!" moment was when I could step back and look at everything that we'd found and I couldn't believe we could locate so many sites all over Egypt. "To excavate a pyramid is the dream of every archaeologist," she said. The team analysed images from satellites orbiting 700km above the earth, equipped with cameras so powerful they can pin-point objects less than 1m in diameter on the earth's surface.Infra-red imaging was used to highlight different materials under the surface. Ancient Egyptians built their houses and structures out of mud brick, which is much denser than the soil that surrounds it, so the shapes of houses, temples and tombs can be seen."It just shows us how easy it is to underestimate both the size and scale of past human settlements," says Dr Parcak. And she believes there are more antiquities to be discovered:"These are just the sites [close to] the surface. There are many thousands of additional sites that the Nile has covered over with silt. This is just the beginning of this kind of work." Read the full story here.