Saudi Arabia ready to tolerate low oil prices to $ 10 a barrel for sake of market share.

Saudi Arabia ready to tolerate low oil prices to $ 10 a barrel for sake of market share. (Taz).

Saudi Arabia is ready to tolerate the low oil prices to preserve its market share and displace the US from the market, Talgat Mamyrayymov, the former head of the Real politik analytical service, independent political analyst from Kazakhstan, told Trend.

He said that oil prices are falling for objective reasons.

"First, Iran will soon enter the market,” he said. “Second, Saudi Arabia said that it is ready to tolerate a price of $10 per barrel. Saudi Arabia seeks to find its niche on the market and press the US shale oil suppliers."

He said that oil prices continue falling and can reach up to $10-15 per barrel, adding that big oil players intend to leave the oil business and count on alternative energy sources.

"Thus, the games on the stock markets will not be in favor of the oil market because the major Western capital is beginning to leave it," he said.

According to the forecasts of the US Energy Information Administration (EIA), the average price of North Sea Brent oil will reach $40 per barrel in 2016 and $50 per barrel - in 2017. The EIA forecasts the average price on the US WTI oil at $38.54 per barrel in 2016 and $47 per barrel - in 2017. Hmmm......What will happen to those countries selling low quality crude Oil?

OPEC waiting for US oil companies’ bankruptcy, then cut production and raise prices.

OPEC waiting for US oil companies’ bankruptcy, then cut production and raise prices. (Taz).

OPEC will cut crude production and export in order to raise oil prices, after the US companies extracting hydrocarbons go bankrupt due to the current low energy prices, said Alexander Razuvayev, economist and director of the analytical department at Russian company Alpari.

Alpari is one of the leading companies offering forex trading in Russia.

"The price war will end sooner or later,” he told Trend Jan. 11. “We can expect positive changes this year. As a result of falling oil prices, budgets are running out, shale companies go bankrupt. Those, who survive the crisis, will take the new position on the market at comfortable prices."

He said that none of the largest oil producers will be able to work at current low prices for a long time.

Razuvayev believes that the current conflict between Saudi Arabia and Iran is unlikely to impact the world oil prices.

“There won’t be a massive clash between the parties,” Razuvayev said. “Iran has just been released from the sanctions. Saudi Arabia is weaker than Iran militarily. The sides do not need a war." Read the full story here.

Related:   Shale Producer Gets $1.4 billion Wall St. Help in Re-Arming for OPEC War

Oil prices will rise in case of Riyadh-Tehran conflict turns into a military confrontation.

Oil prices could rise in case of Saudi Arabia-Iran hot conflict. (Taz).

Supplies continue to exceed demands on the world hydrocarbon market, Valentyn Zemlyansky, the director of energy programs at the Center of World Economy and International Relations of Ukraine’s National Academy of Sciences, told Trend Jan. 6.

“The oil price growth is not expected in the short term,” he said.

The expert said that the oil price can increase on the world market if Saudi Arabia-Iran conflict deteriorates.

He did not rule out the possibility that Riyadh-Tehran conflict can turn into a military confrontation.

"The world economy is in a serious crisis,” he said. “This is the first sign of a possible big conflict."

Iran produces 2.8 million barrels of oil per day and exports 1.1 million barrels of this volume per day.
Saudi Arabia produces more than 10 million barrels of oil daily and exports more than seven million barrels per day.

Relations between Saudi Arabia and Iran soured after execution of Nimr al-Nimr, a prominent Shia cleric, by the Kingdom along with other 46 people, which was followed by a strong protest from Iran.

Iranian Kharg Terminal is getting ready to receive big tankers, once the sanctions on Iran are lifted.
Right now nine tankers can simultaneously berth at Kharg Terminal, which is able to receive giant tankers with 360 barrels capacity, Qolamhossein Gerami, an official with Iran’s Oil Terminals Company said.

Referring to Kharg as the biggest oil terminal in Iran, he said the terminal is currently responsible for letting through 94 percent of Iran’s exported oil, Mehr news agency reported January 6.

Oil is pumped through five pipelines to the terminal and stored in reservoirs as big as one million barrels, he explained.

He said the terminal is able to store 28 million barrels of oil, both light and heavy.

At the eastern terminal, with a T pier, six tankers can birth at the same time and receive 67,500 barrels of oil per hour, the official further said.

The pier’s waterline is 21 meters and can serve tankers with capacities of 275 thousand metric tons, he noted.
According to the official, the western front can receive three tankers at a time and transfer 360 thousand barrels of oil in one hour.


The pier’s waterline is about 30 meters and is therefore able to serve the biggest tankers there is, he stated.

Any coordination within OPEC is highly unlikely amid the tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia, Sam Barden, the director of Wimpole International, an energy market development company believes.

“OPEC has no future what so ever. It does not fit the notion of a modern economy, and given current tensions between Iran and Saudi Arabia the likely hope of any coordination is zero,” Barden told Trend.


Over the past few days, the relations between Iran and Saudi Arabia deteriorated following the kingdom’s execution of a prominent Shia cleric Nimr al-Nimr on Jan. 2.

And then there's this:

First of all, the prices may increase in reaction for the potential threat of failures in supply of raw materials via the Strait of Hormuz, which is of strategic importance to the world market, through which one-third of the world’s maritime oil supplies pass. The northern coast of the strait belongs to Iran, the southern – to the United Arab Emirates, which have lowered the rank of its embassy in Tehran as a result of the recent conflict.

For temporary diversification and security of oil supplies to the world market, Iran can potentially start transportation through Azerbaijan, which has an extensive network of oil pipelines. Technically, Iran can deliver its oil to Baku via the Caspian Sea or railway with a view to its subsequent export via the Baku-Tbilisi-Ceyhan (BTC) pipeline with access to the Mediterranean Sea. However, the economy of such deliveries should be seriously studied, especially against the background of low global oil prices.

Thus, on one hand, a mess in the OPEC may lead to uncontrolled oil supplies to the global market, which would reduce oil prices to historic lows, 

on the other hand - the deliberate blocking or, at least, a threat of restrictions in the Strait of Hormuz with the further development of the conflict may cause an increase in oil futures prices.

Related:

On average, the “all-in,” breakeven cost for U.S. hydraulic shale is $65 per barrel, according to a study by Rystad Energy and Morgan Stanley Commodity Research.

Global redistribution of oil market coming.

Global redistribution of oil market coming. (Taz). By Vagif Sharifov.

OPEC’s dumping oil prices, Saudi Arabia’s desire to constantly expand its market share, and expectations of coming of Iranian oil after removal of sanctions on Tehran, have forced the US to urgently take the historic decision to start exporting its own oil.

Experts have already reacted negatively to this news, saying that oil prices will fall significantly, at least, due to a psychological factor. However, the US itself doesn’t think so – the Department of Energy believes that by 2025 the price of Brent oil will reach $90.23 per barrel or only $0.18 per barrel less than if the export ban had been kept.

Greatest difficulties will be faced by the business in the domestic US market, where a limited supply of WTI will increase its value at oil refineries, leading to higher prices for gasoline, and dragging consumer price inflation in the economy. On the other hand, it will be easy for China, as it will be selling its consumer goods in the US for higher prices, while their prime costs being kept due to lack of a significant impact from WTI on the Brent oil price.

Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia - the main market player physically pressing the prices - is trying by all means to “pour” oil even to places where others have previously worked.

This, in turn, causes a conflict of interests with Russia, which, because of different prime costs, can’t afford such level of dumping in Europe, as Saudi Arabia does.

Apparently, this “overdumping” game will soon be joined by the US. By the way, the estimates presented by the US Department of Energy look at least strange against the backdrop of the fact that Iran expects the lifting of sanctions in Q1, 2016 in order to begin oil exports.

There is no doubt that Iran would offer its oil cheaper than the market price, pursuing the following objectives:

- to gain market share in the world as fast as possible;

- to fill its budget with money coming from oil exports as quickly as possible to use them for restoration of domestic market infrastructure, including the construction of new oil and gas pipelines.

The whole situation will lead to an unplanned meeting of OPEC in the first six months of 2016, where the countries will blame each other of deliberate glutting the market. But the decision will not be taken to cut the production because there will be the US oil on the market.

Any reduction in any direction will immediately lead to a decrease in a market share, despite the break-even point of the state budgets of Iran, Algeria, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and the UAE is rather less compared to the current oil price. Libya will be in the worst situation. Its state budget may be deficit-free only at the price of $207 per barrel.

The global redistribution of the oil market between Saudi Arabia and the US is obvious. OPEC ceased to be a locomotive. It became a purely commercial company making a profit regardless of anything. Many specialists believe that there is no need for the cartel any more.

Alberta’s Finance Minister once said that we need such a position when we would not listen to OPEC to decide how many schools we should build. If OPEC wanted, it could increase the prices, forgetting about the market share. It is always possible to restore as it was in 1973, when the cartel cut its production so that the price has risen from $3 to $12 per barrel.

Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi Confirms Iran's Quest for OPEC 'secretary general' Top Post.

Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi Confirms Iran's Quest for OPEC 'secretary general' Top Post.(Fars).Tehran - Iran plans to introduce a candidate for the position of the secretary general at the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), Iranian Oil Minister Rostam Qassemi confirmed on Saturday.Speaking at a meeting with his Pakistani counterpart Asim Hussain, Qassemi stated that electing the new secretary general of the organization is on agenda in the coming session of the organization. Iran is going to introduce a candidate for the post, he announced. Qasemi stressed that Iran will definitely stress fixing the present production level of OPEC member states in the coming session of the organization. Iran's OPEC Governor Mohammad Ali Khatibi told Dow Jones on Friday that the country is preparing to field a candidate for the position. A candidate from Iran will bring the number of countries competing for the role to four. Iraq, Saudi Arabia and Ecuador have already nominated potential successors to current OPEC Secretary General Abdullah al-Badri whose term ends at the end of 2012. OPEC will discuss the issue at its next meeting on June 14 in Vienna. Iran, OPEC's second largest crude exporter, currently holds the presidency of the cartel, a position it is holding for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution.Read the full story here.

Iran refuses to sell oil to Greece.

Iran refuse to sell oil to Greece.(HD).Iran has refused to give Greece a shipment of 500,000 barrels of crude oil in a retaliatory measure against European Union sanctions on the Islamic state's lifeblood, oil, the semi-official Fars news agency reported on Sunday. "Oil tankers that had come to transfer 500,000 barrels of Iranian oil to a refinery in Greece had to go back empty-handed after Iran refused to give the shipment," Fars reported, without giving a source. Oil Ministry officials were not available to comment.
Greece would be particularly affected by oil sanctions as other exporters have refused to deal with Greek traders.
According to official reports, previous suppliers of crude oil, Russia, Azerbaijan and Kazakhstan, have stopped trading with Greece due to precautionary measures in case Greece is unable to pay, even though thus far no payments have been reneged on. But, Iran has extended credit to Greece, which few other oil exporters are willing to do.
The European Union in January decided to stop importing crude from Iran from July 1 over its disputed nuclear programme, which the West says is aimed at building bombs. Iran denies this. Iran stopped selling crude to British and French companies last week after Iran's oil minister said on Feb. 4 that the Islamic state would cut its oil exports to "some" European countries. The European Commission has said that the bloc would not be short of oil if Iran stopped crude exports, as they have enough in stock to meet their needs for around 120 days. Fars said the tankers were "destined to the Greek refiner Hellenic."Traders told Reuters on February 24 that Swiss-based Totsa, the trading arm of French oil major Total, and trading house Mercuria were in separate negotiations with Greek refiner Hellenic Petroleum to help it replace Iranian crude. Read the full story here. More here.

Iran says it will close Strait of Hormuz if crude exports blocked, what are the odds they pull it off?

                                                           IRGC naval bases

Tehran’s leadership has decided to order a blockade of the strategic Strait of Hormuz if the country’s oil exports are blocked, a senior Revolutionary Guard Commander said as reported by Iranian press.
The strategic decision was made by Iran's top authorities, Ali Ashraf Nouri said, as cited by the Iranian Khorasan daily."The supreme authorities … have insisted that if enemies block the export of our oil, we won't allow a drop of oil to pass through the Strait of Hormuz. This is the strategy of the Islamic Republic in countering such threats," Nouri said.Until now, there had been no official confirmation of Iran’s military having direct orders to block the Strait. However, Tehran has been threatening to block the strategic waterway – one of the world's most important oil routes – if the West slapped more sanctions on its oil exports or risked hostile military act of any kind.Meanwhile, Iran is planning a new round of “massive” naval drills codenamed The Great Prophet, which will be carried out by the country’s elite Revolutionary Guard with its own air, naval and ground forces, separate from those of the regular military.On Thursday, the Iranian Revolutionary Guard's naval commander, Admiral Ali Fadavi, said the next round of war games would be "different” from previous ones.

                                                             Iranian Bladerunners 51

Iran recently held a 10-day naval exercise near the Strait of Hormuz, demonstrating its military prowess and ability to take full control of the waters if necessary.
Meanwhile the EU may delay its embargo on Iranian crude oil imports, a measure aimed at complementing the US sanctions. EU members most dependent on oil imports are seeking to push back the embargo and have called for “grace periods” on existing contracts. But diplomats from different countries differed on the exact length of these grace periods. Diplomats from Greece, which is most dependent on Iranian oil imports, have called for a delay of 12 months, while the UK, France and the Netherlands want a maximum of 3 months. EU foreign ministers are set to meet in Brussels on January 30 to decide on how the embargo will be imposed. Iran is the second-largest oil producer after Saudi Arabia, among the 12 countries in OPEC, making around 3.5 million barrels a day. EU countries buy around 500,000 barrels per day, the largest share of Iran’s total 2.6 million barrel a day oil export.During an interview on CBS’s Face the Nation on Sunday, US Defense Secretary Leon Panetta said the United States would not tolerate the blocking of the Strait of Hormuz. Martin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, added that the US would take action to reopen the Strait in the event Iran does block it. “They've invested in capabilities that could, in fact, for a period of time block the Strait of Hormuz. We've invested in capabilities to ensure that if that happens, we can defeat that,” Dempsey said. Panetta also said he did not believe Iran was developing a nuclear weapon but indicated that Iran’s nuclear capabilities are what concern the US and its allies.
Panetta and Dempsey stressed the need to continue putting diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran but also said that the US did not intend to “take any option off the table.” Asked about what the United States would do if Israel were to take out Iran’s nuclear capability on its own, Leon Panetta said the main goal would be to protect US forces in the region.Read the full story here, more The Consequences of a Strike on Iran: The IRGC Navy  here.

Related - From yesterday's post the following story:

The Geo-Politics of the Strait of Hormuz: Could the U.S. Navy be defeated by Iran in the Persian Gulf?(GR).by Mahdi Darius Nazemroaya.U.S. naval strength, which includes the U.S. Navy and the U.S. Coast Guard, has primacy over all the other navies and maritime forces in the world. Its deep sea or oceanic capabilities are unparalleled and unmatched by any other naval power. Primacy does not mean invincibility. U.S. naval forces in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf are nonetheless vulnerable.Despite its might and shear strength, geography literally works against U.S. naval power in the Strait of Hormuz and the Persian Gulf. The relative narrowness of the Persian Gulf makes it like a channel, at least in a strategic and military context. Figuratively speaking, the aircraft carriers and warships of the U.S. are confined to narrow waters or are closed in within the coastal waters of the Persian Gulf. This is where the Iranian military’s advanced missile capabilities come into play. The Iranian missile and torpedo arsenal would make short work of U.S. naval assets in the waters of the Persian Gulf where U.S. vessels are constricted. This is why the U.S. has been busily erecting a missile shield system in the Persian Gulf amongst the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) countries in the last few years.Even the small Iranian patrol boats in the Persian Gulf, which appear pitiable and insignificant against a U.S. aircraft carrier or destroyer, threaten U.S. warships. Looks can be deceiving; these Iranian patrol boats can easily launch a barrage of missiles that could significantly damage and effectively sink large U.S. warships. Iranian small patrol boats are also hardly detectable and hard to target.Iranian forces could also attack U.S. naval capabilities merely by launching missile attacks from the Iranian mainland on the northern shores of the Persian Gulf. Even in 2008 the Washington Institute for Near East Policy acknowledged the threat from Iran’s mobile coastal missile batteries, anti-ship missiles, and missile-armed small ships. Other Iranian naval assets like aerial drones, hovercraft, mines, diver teams, and mini-submarines could also be used in asymmetrical naval warfare against the U.S. Fifth Fleet. Even the Pentagon’s own war simulations have shown that a war in the Persian Gulf with Iran would spell disaster for the United States and its military. One key example is the Millennium Challenge 2002 (MC02) war game in the Persian Gulf, which was conducted from July 24, 2002 to August 15, 2002 and took almost two years to prepare. This mammoth drill was amongst the largest and most expensive war games ever held by the Pentagon. Millennium Challenge 2002 was held shortly after the Pentagon had decided that it would continue the momentum of the war in Afghanistan by targeting Iraq, Somalia, Sudan, Libya, Lebanon, Syria, and finishing off with the big prize of Iran in a broad military campaign to ensure U.S. primacy in the new millennium.After Millennium Challenge 2002 was finished, the war game was "officially" presented as a simulation of a war against Iraq under the rule of President Saddam Hussein, but in actuality these war games pertained to Iran. The U.S. had already made assessments for the upcoming Anglo-American invasion of Iraq. Moreover, Iraq had no naval capabilities that would merit such large-scale use of the U.S. Navy.Millennium Challenge 2002 was conducted to simulate a war with Iran, which was codenamed “Red” and referred to an unknown Middle Eastern rogue enemy state in the Persian Gulf. Other than Iran, no other country could meet the perimeters and characteristics of “Red” and its military forces, from the patrol boats to the motorcycle units. The war simulation took place because Washington was planning on attacking Iran soon after invading Iraq in 2003.The scenario in the 2002 war game started with the U.S., codenamed “Blue,” giving Iran a one-day ultimatum to surrender in the year 2007. The war game’s date of 2007 would chronologically correspond to U.S. plans to attack Iran after the Israeli attack on Lebanon in 2006, which was to extend, according to military plans, into a broader war against Syria. too. The war against Lebanon, however, did not go as planned and the U.S. and Israel realized that if Hezbollah could challenge them in Lebanon then an expanded war with Syria and Iran would be a disaster.In Millennium Challenge 2002’s war scenario, Iran would react to U.S. aggression by launching a massive barrage of missiles that would overwhelm the U.S. and destroy sixteen U.S. naval vessels – an aircraft carrier, ten cruisers, and five amphibious ships. It is estimated that if this had happened in real war theater context, more than 20,000 U.S. servicemen would have been killed in the first day following the attack. Next, Iran would send its small patrol boats – the ones that look insignificant in comparison to the U.S.S. John C. Stennis and other large U.S. warships – to overwhelm the remainder of the Pentagon’s naval forces in the Persian Gulf, which would result in the damaging and sinking of most of the U.S. Fifth Fleet and the defeat of the United States. After the U.S. defeat, the war games were started over again, but “Red” (Iran had to operate under the assumption of handicaps and shortcomings, so that U.S. forces would be allowed to emerge victorious from the drill. This outcome of the war games obviated the fact that the U.S. would have been overwhelmed in the context of a real conventional war with Iran in the Persian Gulf.Hence, the formidable naval power of Washington is handicapped both by geography as well Iranian military capabilities when it comes to fighting in the Persian Gulf or even in much of the Gulf of Oman. Without open waters, like in the Indian Ocean or the Pacific Ocean, the U.S. will have to fight under significantly reduced response times and, more importantly, will not be able to fight from a stand-off (militarily safe) distance. Thus, entire tool boxes of U.S. naval defensive systems, which were designed for combat in open waters using stand-off ranges, are rendered unpractical in the Persian Gulf.Hmmmm.......Whoever sold Iran Bladerunner 51, the British-built speedboat hailed among the fastest in the world was a moron.Since 2002's war game Iran has been modernising and expanding it's weapons arsenal.Read the full story here.

Sun's Ezra Levant delivers more on Saudi intimidation of Canadian TV stations.

MFS - The Other News

                       Morning  Posting.

• Syria Live Blog - June 11. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

• Libya Live Blog - June 11. Here (Al-Jazeera). 

• Yemen Live Blog - June 11. Here. (Al-Jazeera).

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

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 129.Source : Here .

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

• Europe - Latest official Situation Update on E-Coli epidemic 49- Source.

• Obama Dictates to Israel: Jerusalem is Not Your Capital.(TrevorLoudon).Obama Signs Document That Tells Israel Jerusalem Is Not Your Capital

MEMORANDUM FOR THE SECRETARY OF STATE

SUBJECT: Suspension of Limitations Under the Jerusalem Embassy ActObama signed this on June 3, 2011

– Pursuant to the authority vested in me as President by the Constitution and the laws of the United States, including section 7(a) of the Jerusalem Embassy Act of 1995 (Public Law 104-45) (the “Act”), I hereby determine that it is necessary, in order to protect the national security interests of the United States, to suspend for a period of 6 months the limitations set forth in sections 3(b) and 7(b) of the Act.You are hereby authorized and directed to transmit this determination to the Congress, accompanied by a report in accordance with section 7(a) of the Act, and to publish the determination in the Federal Register.

 This suspension shall take effect after transmission of this determination and report to the Congress.Hmmmm.......Obama signed this on June 3, 2011.Read the full story here.

• Syrian troops lay siege to northern town.(Al-Jazeera).Tanks and troops seal Jisr al-Shughur, raising fears of imminent assault to avenge killing of 120 security personnel.Video - Crops and livestock destroyed.Syrian tanks and troops have sealed the restive northern town of Jisr al-Shughur with activists saying they expect an all-out government assault soon.President Bashar al-Assad sent heavy armour, including tanks and thousands of troops, to the region to crush a nearly three-month uprising against his family's 40-year rule.Saturday's military operation close to the Turkish border is in response to what the government claims were attacks by "armed groups" that killed more than 120 officers and security personnel last week. Syrian state television said troops had arrested several leaders of the alleged armed groups in Jisr al-Shughur.The troops backed by dozens of tanks have been operating in the area for several days, securing towns and villages on their way to the northern Syrian town.Jamil Sadeq, a resident of the town, accused the troops of intermittently opening fire."The army entered with tanks and used heavy weapons on the villagers. They then fled into the mountains," he told Al Jazeera."A second village was also attacked. The regime is attempting to regroup a military brigade there. Elsewhere in nearby villages there are shootings every half hour."To the east, the army stormed villages on the way to Ziyaara with tanks and reached there in the early morning. Residents fled ... either to the north or towards Turkey where the main [refugee] camp is."About 4,000 Syrians have fled into neighbouring Turkey to escape the unrest in Jisr al-Shughur and other towns, according to the UN and Turkish officials.Lebanon, Syria's neighbour to the west, has already absorbed about 5,000 refugees, though the UN says it is a "fluid population" and some of the refugees have already returned home.A UN spokesperson said that Ban Ki-moon had been trying to call the Syrian president all week but was told that he was "not available."Robert Ford, the US ambassador in the Syrian capital, Damascus, has also seen his requests for meetings with Syrian government officials repeatedly denied.Hmmmmm.......The 'reformer' Assad.Read and see the full story here.

• Report: Al-Qaeda's Africa chief killed.(Ynet).Kenya police says Fazul Abdullah Muhammad killed Wednesday in Somali capital of Mogadishu. Muhammad linked to Mombasa attack in 2002. The presumed head of Al-Qaeda in east Africa, Comoros-born Fazul Abdullah Muhammad, was killed Wednesday in Mogadishu, Kenya's police chief said on Saturday, confirming a report from Somali Islamist Shebab rebels."We have received that communication from authorities in Somalia. We have been told that there were two terrorists who were killed in Somalia on Wednesday last week," Kenyan Police Commissioner Mathew Iteere told AFP on Saturday.A US official later confirmed the report, saying his country has "strong grounds" to believe that Muhammad was dead, AFP reported.Iteere said the identity of one of the two had "been given as Fazul Muhammad ... That is what we have been told by our counterparts in Somalia," Iteere said."One of the men that was killed near Mogadishu was Fazul Abdullah, may Allah bless his soul. He is not dead as thousands like him are still in the fight against the enemy of Allah," a senior Al Shebab commander had earlier told AFP on condition of anonymity.In 1998, Muhammad was linked to terror attacks on US embassies in Kenya and Tanzania, in which 224 people died.He was also among the masterminds of the November 2002 attack on a hotel and airliner in Mombasa, India that killed 15 people, including Israelis.The United States had placed a $5 million bounty on Muhammad's head.Read the full story here.

• Police Investigate Weiner's Messages to Teenage Girl in Delaware.(Fox).NEW CASTLE, Del. -- Police here are investigating direct online communications between New York Rep. Anthony Weiner and a 17-year-old girl and are looking for any other young women who may be involved, though the nature of the communications wasn't immediately clear.The police probe comes as Weiner, who is married, fends off calls from both sides of the aisle in Congress for him to quit after he admitted to lying about his inappropriate online and phone communications with a half dozen women.Two officers from the New Castle County Police Department arrived at the high school junior's home around 4:30 p.m. Friday and asked to speak with the girl's mother about the daughter's contact with Weiner, the disgraced Democrat. Another officer appeared at the home a short time later. A FoxNews.com reporter was at the home when the police arrived.The girl, whose name is being withheld because she is a minor, told FoxNews.com, "I'm doing OK."The police left the home after about 30 minutes, followed by the daughter and mother, who left in a separate car. It was not clear if the mother and daughter were going to continue the conversation with police at another location.Sources close the student said the girl followed Weiner on Twitter after seeing him speak during a school trip to Washington on April 1. Weiner, after signing on to follow the girl's Twitter feed, direct-messaged the girl on April 13, the sources said, though it is not clear what other communication the two may have had between or after those dates. Weiner no longer follows the girl on Twitter.Read the full story here.

• IRS Revokes Non-Profit Status of Over 275,000 Organizations.(FedRaw).Local chapters of several high-profile organizations ranging from the National Organization for Women to AARP to AFSCME and SEIU have lost their non-profit status for failing to meet basic Internal Revenue Service reporting requirements.A review of local chapters incorporated in Washington, D.C., under the umbrella of their national offices, indicated that the IRS revoked the non-profit statuses of organizations like: AFSCME, 11 chapters; National Organization for Women, 28 chapters; AARP, 101 chapters; American Society for Public Administration, 111 chapters; and, B’nai B’rith, 150 chapters. For local chapters of national organizations that incorporated in their home state, the number of non-profit statuses revoked include: SEIU, 29 chapters; National Organization for Women, 80 chapters; B’nai B’rith, 85 chapters; American Federation of Teachers, 152 chapters; and, AFSCME, 497 chapters.The failure to meet minimum reporting requirements includes filing a basic annual report with the IRS, known as a “Form 990.” Revoked organizations may be required to file federal income tax returns and pay any applicable income taxes. Furthermore, donations made to these organizations are no longer tax-deductible.Nationwide, over 275,000 non-profits had their non-profit status revoked last month after an Internal Revenue Service review. The IRS will update the “auto-revoked” list on a monthly basis.read the full story here.

• Boy pushing ice cream cart detonates bomb as string of suicide attacks kills 21 people across Afghanistan.(DailyMail).A string of suicide bombings across Afghanistan, including one by a young boy pushing an ice cream cart, has killed at least 21 people today - many of them children.The worst attack took place in the Khakrez district of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, where a roadside bomb killed all 16 people travelling in a minibus, including eight children.Provincial police chief Abdul Raziq said the bomb was planted by the Taliban and was intended to kill NATO or Afghan forces.In the eastern province of Khost, a suicide bomber blew himself up outside the local police headquarters in the Shai Kali area, killing three policemen and a child.Among the four killed in the blast was police chief, Mohammad Zahir Kahn. It was unclear whether Mr Kahn was specifically targeted.Health director Hedayatullah Hamidi said 25 people were also wounded in the attack.A second suicide bomber, this one pushing an ice cream cart, killed one child and wounded three more in the central province of Ghazni.Eyewitness Asadullah said: 'The suicide attacker was a young boy with a thin beard and moustache wearing a scarf.'He was pushing an ice cream cart. I was just standing 20 metres from him and then he exploded.'It comes as the UN released an interim report on civilian deaths that shows that 368 people were killed in May and 593 were wounded, making last month the deadliest for Afghan civilians since 2007.The UN said insurgents are responsible for 82 per cent of those civilian deaths, while 12 per cent were attributed to the international alliance and Afghan forces.Home-made bombs, such as the roadside device that struck the minibus in Kandahar, were the leading cause of death, according to the report.NATO airstrikes, a frequent cause of tension between the Afghan government and the alliance, were responsible for 3 per cent of civilian deaths in May.The UN, which is preparing a mid-year civilian casualty report for 2011, said it decided to release interim numbers because of the high rate of killings last month.A bomb killed two policemen and wounded nine others who were investigating an earlier explosion last night at a satellite television network office in Mehterlam city, in the eastern province of Laghman.The Taliban announced its spring offensive several weeks ago and has been stepping up its attacks around the country.Read the full story here.

• Oil falls 2.8 percent on expected Saudi extra production.(TodaysZaman). Saudi Arabia is still the boss when it comes to oil.Prices sank 2.8 percent Friday afternoon on reports that the world's biggest oil exporter will increase production 13 percent from May levels to 10 million barrels per day. The move, reported by a Saudi Arabian newspaper, comes just days after OPEC snubbed its request to raise production quotas. Analysts see it as a bold step by the Saudis to reassert their dominance over the cartel. "They're reminding everyone who the sheriff is in town," independent analyst Jim Ritterbusch said. Benchmark West Texas Intermediate crude for July delivery lost $2.85 at $99.10 per barrel in afternoon trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. If Saudi Arabia makes good on the new production level, it will pump into the market another 1.14 million barrels per day above May levels. That will come close to covering a shortfall in global oil supply expected in the third quarter. OPEC says world demand will exceed supply by 1.45 million barrels per day in the third quarter. The US Energy Information Administration puts the shortfall at 1.81 million barrels per day. Saudi oil ministers had called for higher production from OPEC members. But its attempt to boost quotas was rejected by Iran and several other countries. Friday's report in al-Hayat newspaper gave investors a glimpse at how the Saudis will respond. "They're going to unilaterally decide for themselves when to supply the market," analyst Andrew Lipow said.J.P. Morgan analyst Lawrence Eagles noted the 10-million barrel increase would raise production by 500,000 barrels per day from current levels. The increased production is expected to cool off a 26 percent price rise in oil and a 27 percent increase in gasoline this year. Average gasoline pump prices in the US have been sliding since May and are expected to drop as low as $3.50 per gallon (92 cents a liter) this month. Hmmmmm.......Something tells me Iran won't like this move at all.Read the full story here.

• Ghosts of Soviet repression return as Putin's personal guards put in order for secret police-style leather coats.(DailyMail).Their image invokes a deep trepidation in many Russians, who recall accounts of neighbours vanishing after Stalin's henchmen came knocking.But now the long black leather coats which were part of the dress code for Soviet secret police appear to be making a comeback. The security forces who guard president Dmitry Medvedev and prime minister Vladimir Putin are holding a state tender for 60 such coats and 60 shorter jackets.The website for state tenders showed the Federal Guards Service order is worth 3 million rubles ($108,000). The tender closes June 15.Stalin's secret police, named NKVD after its Russian acronym, was primarily responsible for carrying out the dictator's repression and purges of the 1930s. Its officers executed hundreds of thousands of people and ran forced labour camps - known as gulags - in the chilly north of Siberia.Bringing the coats back into official use would fit into a wider push by Russian authorities to reintroduce imagery associated with Stalin.In recent years, old Soviet national anthem lyrics praising Stalin were restored to a rotunda in a Moscow subway station. His portrait has also been put on public buses in St. Petersburg and the Urals city of Yekaterinburg.Rights activists have voiced concern that he is being quietly rehabilitated as memories of his reign of terror fade.The Kremlin couldn't immediately be reached for comment on the purchase.Hmmmm.......At least it's not Ivan the terrible his "Oprichniki".Read the full story here.

• Helicopter gunships fire at Syria protest.(Al-Jazeera).Activists say at least 23 people have been killed, most of them after the army shelled town in northern Idlib province.A Syrian opposition figure told the AP news agency by telephone that tanks shelled had Maarat al-Numan on Friday, after thousands of protesters overwhelmed security officers and torched the courthouse and police station.Syria's state-run television appeared to confirm at least part of the report, saying gunmen had opened fire on security headquarters in the town, in Idlib province, causing casualties among security officials.Witnesses said helicopter gunships fired machineguns to disperse a large pro-democracy protest in the town, in the first reported use of air power to quell protests in Syria's uprising.The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said no killings were reported in the assault by the helicopters."At least five helicopters flew over Maarat al-Numaan and began firing their machineguns to disperse the tens of thousands who marched in the protest," a witnesses giving his name as Nawaf told Reuters by telephone."People hid in fields, under bridges and in their houses, but the firing continued on the mostly empty streets for hours".Maarat al-Numan is located near the Turkish border, 40km from Jisr al-Shughur, where state television earlier said the army had begun operations.Reports in the last days of an imminent military operation in the town have prompted an exodus of refugees to nearby Turkey.She said "a lot of citizens" had asked the army to intervene and that there was "a state of absolute terror" in the area.More than 2,800 Syrians have fled into the neighbouring country to escape the unrest in Jisr al-Shughur and other towns, according to the UN and Turkish officials.Most refugees are being housed at a camp in Yayladagi, a town about 10km from the border and 25km from Jisr al-Shughur.Dozens of white tents have been set up in the camp, and ambulances have been carrying wounded people to hospitals in Antakya, the capital of Turkey's southern Hatay province.The Turkish government has largely barred journalists from interacting with the refugees. Police guard the entrance to the camp, and local officials have been instructed not to talk to the media.Turkish officials say they are preparing for the possibility of more refugees in the coming days.Hmmmmm......Freedom of the press in Erdogan's Turkey is still at the same level as in Saddat's Syria.Read the full story here.

• "The War On Christianity".Pakistan - acquittal for 70 Muslim extremists on trial for the Gojra massacre.(AsiaNews).In August 2009, ten people died, eight burnt alive. Four churches were destroyed. Threats against Christian witnesses force them to flee to avoid further violence. Lahore  – Pakistan’s fundamentalists are rejoicing following the acquittal verdict. The country’s Christian minority is “under shock” because, this time as well, the massacre of innocent victims done in the name of the infamous blasphemy law will go unpunished. The justice system also shows its powerlessness vis-à-vis extremists who can carry out heinous crimes with total impunity, whilst the government remains silent. Meanwhile, a Muslim religious leader publicly says that Christians “deserve” to be murdered. A Pakistani anti-terrorism court acquitted 70 people who, in various roles, were involved in the Gojra massacre of August 2009 .The anti-Christian violence broke out following blasphemy allegations. During a wedding, a group of Christians supposedly burnt pages of the Qur‘an, a pretext used to strike at the religious minority.During the attack by hundreds of extremists (brought in by bus and trucks), ten people died, eight burnt alive. Four churches and various homes were also set on fire.Following the Gojra attack, instead of arresting the culprits, police, twisting the facts, took into custody a number of Christians for attacking the “other group”. The unjustly jailed Christians were eventually released but after several months.According to the court, the acquittal last Tuesday was due to the absence of Christian witnesses in the courtroom and the lack of evidence against the accused.Sources close to the Catholic Church in Lahore, on condition of anonymity, said, “Christian witnesses were under constant threats meant to force them to withdraw their accusations”.Two of the 70 people acquitted were released the day before the sentence. The other 68 had already been released on bail some time ago. The main complainant, Phanias Masih, had to flee Pakistan last year along with his family, fearing more violence.Fr Yaqoob Yousaf, vicar at Gojra’s Sacred Heart parish, told AsiaNews that “Masih and a couple of other key witnesses fled before February” when community leaders “reached a compromise to have the case withdrawn”.Fr Habib Xavier, from the Diocese of Lahore, the verdict is “shocking”, similar to the Shanti Nagar affair in 1998 when a Muslim mob burnt 25,000 houses. At the time, the accused were also released on bail. “Today, we see the people who burn homes and kill the innocent go free. It was supposed to be fair trial,” he said. “Will minorities ever get justice?”However, to understand the madness and power of the extremists, it is sufficient to listen to the words of Maulana Kashmiri, a Muslim leader in Punjab.“There are no witnesses because they [the Christians] know that they are wrong. We got justice. Even though none of us did it, Christians still deserve it [death], because they are blasphemers.”Hmmmm....."The Religion of Peace".Read the full story here.

• UK - Afghan Muslim converts to Christianity,subsequently gets attacked by Muslim armed with wooden plank.(ThisisNothingham).A MAN has been locked up for attacking another man in the street with a plank of wood.Nottingham Crown Court heard that Sher Ahmadzai, 20, hit his victim with a metre-long plank, causing him to fall over during the attack in Radford.Another man then started punching and kicking the fallen man in the face.The victim escaped without serious injury but was left with a sore jaw and leg pain.The court heard Ahmadzai knew his victim and both were members of the Afghan community.The man was of Muslim faith but converted to Christianity after claiming asylum here."This did not sit well with the defendant," said prosecutor Paul Stimson."That culminated in the assault in October last year in Hartley Road."When police questioned Ahmadzai, of Magdala Road, Mapperley, he said there had been a feud but would not elaborate.He did not admit any cultural or religious motivation, the court heard.He admitted assault causing actual harm and a separate offence of arson.The court heard that Ahmadzai set fire to a partner's garden fence twice in an hour in the same month.Fire crews attended the woman's home and put out the first blaze but within an hour Ahmadzai had gone back and started the fire again. This time, the blaze was more serious and spread to a neighbouring fence but was eventually brought under control.CCTV captured Ahmadzai buying petrol at the Total petrol station in Sherwood Rise at 8pm and 9pm.Judge Michael Stokes QC gave him 12 months for the assault and nine months concurrently for the arson.The new offences meant he was in breach of a suspended prison sentence for two offences of assault causing actual bodily harm.Hmmmm.....The religion of Peace.Read the full story here.

• 14-year-old took her life because of group rape.(TundraTabloids).A 14-year-old girl in Trondheim took her own life after being assaulted and raped by three teenage boys. Only four weeks after she reported the rape at Kristiansten fortress, ninth grader could not bear to live any longer.The girl’s mother believes the group rape is the direct cause of why her daughter chose to take her life two weeks ago:

- This shows how brutal consequences of such a serious crime can get, “said her mother through her daughter’s counsel, Sigrun Dybvad.

Her mother has consented to the Adresseavisen’s mentioning the tragic incident, and she has provided information to the case. The incident has shaken many in Trondheim. Address newspaper has in recent days received emails and phone calls from desperate and upset parents. Over 1300 people have joined in a memorial group for 14-year-old online community Facebook. Tuesday this week met with 245 people up to say goodbye when she was buried in the Lutheran Free Church.Police in Trondheim is worried after five unsolved assault rapes or attempted on the same page 1 April. In three of the five cases , several perpetrators, all of which are described as African or Middle Eastern men. Police believe that the rapes have been planned in advance.The evening before 1 May facilitate the ninth grader for her friends when she was stopped by a young man of foreign origin. According to 14-year-old’s explanation, he tried to stay around and kiss her. When she responded that she would meet a friend, he said he knew this friend. This thought ninth grader, and went with the man. Shortly after the assault began:Ninth graders noticed that two other teenage boys came walking, and thought at first that they came to help. Instead, they have helped to keep her down. The girl told that she tried to shout for help, but that there was so much noise that no one heard her.While peers attached very close, and while both the police and about 50 night owls patrolling the area, the 14-year-old testified that two of the perpetrators managed to rape her, before she got loose from the third. Then she ran from the scene, and away in the direction Nonnegata. There, she met a couple who should have immediately understood that something had happened and helped her home.The girl has described the perpetrators as teenage boys in 16-17-age of foreign origin.Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                        Afternoon Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - April 25. Here .(Al-Jazeera).

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

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world low seismic activity in Japan  today between 4.5 and 5.0! More info here.

• Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 98..
  Source : Here .

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

• Obama regime Fails to Release Easter Proclamation.President Obama failed to release a statement or a proclamation recognizing the national observance of Easter Sunday, Christianity's most sacred holiday.By comparison, the White House has released statements recognizing the observance of major Muslim holidays and released statements in 2010 on Ramadan, Eid-ul-Fitr, Hajj, and Eid-ul-Adha.The White House also failed to release a statement marking Good Friday. However, they did release an eight-paragraph statement heralding Earth Day. Likewise, the president's weekend address mentioned neither Good Friday or Easter.In 2010, Obama was criticized for releasing an all-inclusive Easter greeting. He reached out to Jews, Muslims, Hindus, and people of no faith at all in a statement about a holiday that is uniquely Christian."All of us are striving to make a way in this world; to build a purposeful and fulfilling life in the fleeting time we have here," Obama said in his 2010 "Easter" message. "A dignified life. A healthy life. A life, true to its potential. And a life that serves other." "These are aspirations that stretch back through the ages – aspirations at the heart of Judaism, at the heart of Christianity, at the heart of all the world’s great religions," the president added.When the White House released statements about Muslim holidays, no attempts were made to include Christianity or to mention a spirit of inclusivity. For example, in his 2010 statement on Hajj and Eid-ul-Adha, Obama made no references to Christianity or any other religion.By contrast, former President Bush traditionally included Scripture passages in his Easter messages and made a point to explain what Easter is about. Like Obama, though, he did not release statements marking Good Friday.Hmmmm......Show his certificate of baptism, give proof that he's a Christian.Someone who omits the word God several times and doesn't recognise Good Friday or Easter how Anti -Christ(inanity) can we be?Read the full 'blasphemy' story here.

• Good Friday in Rome: Muslims Illegally Pray at "Altar to the homeland".(AtlasShrugs).Imagine if Christians tried this in Mecca. What is so utterly galling is how much respect they demand for their belligerence, contempt and violence. Islamic supremacism.Maxime Lépante made today a new video that shows how Muslims illegally prayed on the ground in the center of Rome, this past Friday, April 22nd 2011.Video description : Déclaration de guerre - Prières musulmanes en plein Rome (22 avril 2011)Those illegal Muslim prayers took place on the Piazza Venezia, in front of the national monument dedicated to Vittorio-Emanuele II, and, more precisely, in front of the "Altar to the homeland" .Therefore, those prayers were a declaration of war to the Italian homeland.Moreover, this Friday, April 22nd, was the Good Friday : therefore, those prayers were a declaration of war to all the Christians too.Hmmmmm.....I'm Still wondering why Barack Hussein Obama said nothing on Good Friday and Easter?Read the full story here.

• President Obama Chose To Worship On Easter At A Church That Hosted A Palestinian Hate-Israel Conference. (NewsRealBlog).The Shiloh Baptist Church hosted an anti-Israel hate fest in 2009 at the same time as an associate minister of the church, Adam Russell Taylor, was serving as an Obama administration White House Fellow in the Office of Cabinet Affairs, Public Engagement and Intergovernmental Affairs.Why did Shiloh Baptist Church’s associate minister Taylor win one of only fifteen coveted fellowship positions at the White House? Perhaps because he just happened to be the Senior Political Director of the far Left ministry Sojourners run by Obama’s spiritual advisor Jim Wallis when he was tapped by the Obama White House for the prestigious fellowship. Perhaps Taylor’s appointment was also payback for the kind things he had to say about Obama’s controversial Chicago pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright, during the height of the bruhaha over Obama’s twenty year association with Wright’s Trinity Church.Taylor said that while he did not agree with every single word Wright had ever uttered, I still vehemently defend the prophetic tradition that Rev. Wright has advanced over the course of 36 years of ministry.In October of 2009, while Taylor was serving in the Shiloh Baptist Church and as an intern in the Obama administration, the church hosted a hate Israel conference sponsored by a radicalized Palestinian Christian liberation theology group that called the establishment of Israel “The Catastrophe” (Nakba) and has openly questioned Israel’s right to exist.The group is known as Friends of Sabeel, which has spewed anti-Israel propaganda in both the United States and Europe since its founding in 1989. It has chapters in the United States and runs conferences in churches such as Shiloh Baptist Church to support the work of the Jerusalem-based Sabeel Ecumenical Liberation Theology Center. Among other things, they have helped spearhead the divestment campaign against Israel in churches receptive to the anti-Israel, Palestinian victimhood message.It’s too bad that Ateek was not present at this year’s Easter service at Shiloh, attended by President Obama. Ateek would have then been able to repeat a past Easter season sermon of his: In this season of Lent, it seems to many of us that Jesus is on the cross again with thousands of crucified Palestinians around him. It only takes people of insight to see the hundreds of thousands of crosses throughout the land, Palestinian men, women, and children being crucified. Palestine has become one huge [G]olgotha. The Israeli government crucifixion system is operating daily. Palestine has become the place of the skull.To sum up, President Obama chose to worship this Easter at a church where his Jeremiah Wright-admiring White House intern, whom had just previously served as Senior Political Director for Obama’s spiritual advisor’s left-wing organization Sojourners, is an associate minister.Given the Obama administration’s close association with Shiloh Baptist Church’s associate minister, there was no way Obama could have been unaware that the same church hosting him and the first family this Easter had hosted a pro-Palestinian conference less than two years ago to delegitimize Israel.Hmmmm.....Hates the Jews and the true Christians?Read the full story here.

• 'Nuclear hellstorm' if bin Laden caught: 9/11 mastermind.(Emirates247).The mastermind of the 9/11 attacks warned that Al-Qaeda has hidden a nuclear bomb in Europe that will unleash a "nuclear hellstorm" if Osama bin Laden is captured, leaked files revealed on Monday.Khalid Sheikh Mohammed told Guantanamo Bay interrogators the terror group would detonate the device if the Al-Qaeda chief was captured or killed, acording to the classified files released by the WikiLeaks website.Sheikh Mohammed, the self-professed mastermind of the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States, has been held at Guantanamo since 2006 and is to be tried in a military court at the US naval base on Cuba over the attacks.His nuclear threat was revealed in Britain's Daily Telegraph newspaper, one of several media outlets which have published the classified assessments of detainees at Guantanamo.Sheikh Mohammed, captured in 2003 in Pakistan, also claims to have personally beheaded US journalist Daniel Pearl in 2002 with his "blessed right hand" and to have helped in the 1993 World Trade Center bombing that killed six people.Read the full story here.

• Energy in America: EPA Rules Force Shell to Abandon Oil Drilling Plans.(Fox).Shell Oil Company has announced it must scrap efforts to drill for oil this summer in the Arctic Ocean off the northern coast of Alaska. The decision comes following a ruling by the EPA’s Environmental Appeals Board to withhold critical air permits. The move has angered some in Congress and triggered a flurry of legislation aimed at stripping the EPA of its oil drilling oversight.Shell has spent five years and nearly $4 billion dollars on plans to explore for oil in the Beaufort and Chukchi Seas. The leases alone cost $2.2 billion. Shell Vice President Pete Slaiby says obtaining similar air permits for a drilling operation in the Gulf of Mexico would take about 45 days. He’s especially frustrated over the appeal board’s suggestion that the Arctic drill would somehow be hazardous for the people who live in the area. “We think the issues were really not major,” Slaiby said, “and clearly not impactful for the communities we work in.”The closest village to where Shell proposed to drill is Kaktovik, Alaska. It is one of the most remote places in the United States. According to the latest census, the population is 245 and nearly all of the residents are Alaska natives. The village, which is 1 square mile, sits right along the shores of the Beaufort Sea, 70 miles away from the proposed off-shore drill site.The EPA’s appeals board ruled that Shell had not taken into consideration emissions from an ice-breaking vessel when calculating overall greenhouse gas emissions from the project. Environmental groups were thrilled by the ruling.At stake is an estimated 27 billion barrels of oil. That’s how much the U. S. Geological Survey believes is in the U.S. portion of the Arctic Ocean. For perspective, that represents two and a half times more oil than has flowed down the Trans Alaska pipeline throughout its 30-year history. That pipeline is getting dangerously low on oil. At 660,000 barrels a day, it’s carrying only one-third its capacity.Production on the North Slope of Alaska is declining at a rate of about 7 percent a year. If the volume gets much lower, pipeline officials say they will have to shut it down. Alaska officials are blasting the Environmental Protection Agency. “It’s driving investment and production overseas,” said Alaska’s DNR Commissioner Dan Sullivan. “That doesn’t help the United States in any way, shape or form.”The EPA did not return repeated calls and e-mails. The Environmental Appeals Board has four members: Edward Reich, Charles Sheehan, Kathie Stein and Anna Wolgast. All are registered Democrats and Kathie Stein was an activist attorney for the Environmental Defense Fund. Members are appointed by the EPA administrator. Alaska’s Republican senator thinks it’s time to make some changes.“EPA has demonstrated that they’re not competent to handle the process,” said Sen. Lisa Murkowski. “So if they’re not competent to handle it, they need to get out of the way.”Murkowski supported budget amendments that would have stripped the EPA of its oversight role in Arctic offshore drilling. The Interior Department issues air permits to oil companies working in the Gulf of Mexico.Hmmmm.....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?You will obey and drive those electric cars!Read the full story here.

• Canada: Harper proposes new Office of Religious Freedom to promote religious freedom around the world.N-QW Votes 2011: Today, Prime Minister Stephen Harper announced that a re-elected Conservative Government will create an Office of Religious Freedom to ensure that defending persecuted religious minorities is a priority of Canada’s foreign policy.Speaking to a packed room and an enthusiastic and diverse crowd, Prime Minister Harper praised the courage of Canadians who have come here fleeing religious persecution, many of whom experienced violence and torture just to be able to profess their faith openly.Prime Minister Harper remarked that “Canada is fortunate to have men and women of such courage as you. The spirit that you have shown in standing up for freedom in your own lives should inspire all Canadians.”Harper said that Canadians are fortunate to live in a society where freedom of conscience does not carry the threat of persecution or violence. But he added that “while we are thankful to live in a country that spares us such tests, we must not let our comfort be an excuse to shirk our commitment to the cause of freedom. That is why I am pleased to announce that a re-elected Conservative government will create a special Office of Religious Freedom.”Harper explained that the new Office of Religious Freedom, located within the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, would monitor religious freedom around the world, promote religious freedom as a key objective of Canadian foreign policy and advance policies and programs that support religious freedom around the world.The Prime Minister invoked the memory of Shahbaz Bhatti, Pakistan’s late Minister of Minorities, who visited Mr. Harper in Ottawa shortly before he was gunned down for his outspoken defence of religious freedom.Calling him a champion of freedom and an inspirational figure, the Prime Minister told the crowd that Minister Bhatti had “asked us in Canada to shine a light on the persecution of religious minorities in Pakistan and around the world.”The Prime Minister said that the new Office of Religious Freedom will do just that: “it will call attention to the religiously persecuted and condemn their persecutors. It will signal to religious minorities everywhere that they have a friend in Canada.”Hmmmm......Harper the man who stoud up against the UN, when it comes to them bashing Israel!I salute you Mr Prime Mimister.Read the full story here.

• Pakistan: Slain Pakistani Governor's Daughter Pledges To Continue His Work.(RFL).The daughter of murdered Punjab governor Salman Taseer says she is determined to continue his campaign for changes to Pakistan's blasphemy law. Taseer was shot dead on January 4 by one of his security guards who objected to the governor's opposition to the blasphemy law.His daughter, Shehrbano Taseer, has herself spoken out against the controversial legislation, which critics say is often misused to persecute religious minorities or to settle personal scores.Shehrbano Taseer, a reporter for "Newsweek Pakistan," told RFE/RL in an exclusive interview on April 22 that the death of her father will not deter or intimidate her from continuing to speak up.At the same time, she agreed that "there is an increase in radicalization in Pakistan. It's dangerous because we do not know the enemy any more -- he could be anywhere."Taseer attributed that radical mindset to Saudi-sponsored madrasahs, which "spew venom and hatred left, right, and center."She said her father talked "all the time" about the problems faced by religious minorities in Pakistan such as the Ahmadis, who are regarded by orthodox Muslims as heretical.Taseer's father had called for revoking the clause of the law designating the minority non-Muslims.She recalled that he "was the only politician who visited the Ahmadis when they were attacked in May 2010, and the Christians in the [2009] Gojra attacks as well."Taseer said she does not think her father could or should have taken even more stringent security precautions than he did. "We live in a democracy and there is free speech," she noted.Asked whether her family is satisfied with the ongoing investigation into her father's killing, she said "we are confident" that Malik Mumtaz Hussein Qadri, the guard accused of the killing, "will be punished for what he did."At the same time, she said it is "sickening" for her "to watch the lawyers garland Qadri, because these men are supposed to be the vanguards of justice in Pakistan, and it makes one wonder just how independent our judiciary really is."Qadri was showered with rose petals by lawyers and other sympathizers when he appeared in court in January.Read the full story here.

• Mubarak to go to Tora Prison Hospital.Prosecutor General Abdul Magid Mahmoud has called on the Interior Ministry to supervise over the Tora Prison Hospital ward that is to receive the ousted Mubarak after doctors alleged he was fit enough to move.He and his two sons Alaa and Gamal were ordered into custody for 15 days on April 13 while being investigated for corruption allegations and instigating shooting of protesters during the weeks of demonstrations against his rule.On hearing the news Mubarak suffered heart problems and was hospitalized.No date has been announced for his transfer however security measures are under way to receive the deposed president who stepped down on February 11 following mass demonstrations calling for reform.Meanwhile Mubarak will be transferred from Sharm el Sheik Hospital to a Military hospital in Cairo.Read the full story here.

• Why Investors Are Buying Silver As If There Is No Tomorrow.(TheAmericanDream).The price of silver has been absolutely exploding lately. It has reached heights not seen since the Hunt Brothers attempted to corner the silver market over three decades ago. But this time there are no Hunt Brothers to blame for the stunning rise in the price of silver. So exactly why are investors buying silver as if there is no tomorrow right now? Well, the truth is that there are a lot of reasons. Investors have been flocking to precious metals such as gold and silver as the value of paper currencies has declined. The euro is incredibly weak right now and the U.S. dollar appears to be on the verge of a major collapse. In fact, the entire financial system is highly unstable right now. In such an environment, investors seek some place safe to park their money, and right now gold and silver are seen as safe harbors. But gold and silver have not been going up in price at the same pace. So why is silver outperforming gold so significantly?The price of silver has increased by more than 150% over the past 12 months. But the price of gold has only gone up about 30%.

If you invested $100 in the S&P 500 ten years ago it would be worth about $107.48 today.

If you invested $100 in gold ten years ago it would be worth about $569 today.

If you invested $100 in silver ten years ago it would be worth about $1037 today.

Clearly something is going on with silver.Read the full story here.

• Saudi Commission for Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice Expanding recommended.RIYADH: The Shoura Council recommended Sunday that the Commission for Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice (Haia) should open more offices to cater to the needs of an increasing population.Sunday's session of the council, presided over by Chairman Abdullah Al-Asheikh, also unanimously decided to recommend the capital of the Saudi Fund For Industrial Development (SFID) be increased to SR30 billion with an allocation of SR10 billion from the Ministry of Finance. Shoura Council Secretary-General Muhammad Al-Ghamdi told reporters on Sunday that the committee on Islamic affairs and judiciary’s decision to recommend more Haia offices was based on the commission’s annual report for the fiscal year 1428/1429 AH.The council felt the Haia should have a large headquarters with adequate staff to serve people living in all parts of the Kingdom.Such a complex would not only streamline the activities of the Haia but also improve its image in terms of services provided, members said.The council added that Haia members should be selected from people who complete their higher studies in relevant fields.Hmmmm......Welcome to 'virtueland'?Read the full story here.

• A Saudi woman expelled from her college for having a lesbian relationship .(CrossroadsArabia).The antipathy Saudi society feels toward gay men is pretty well known and documented. Now, reports Arab News, the discomfort is extending toward gay women. This story about the expulsion of a Saudi woman from King Abdulaziz University because of her relationship with her dorm supervisor. Fairly typically, new media and outsider values are blamed for the growth of this ‘deviancy’. I’m sure that packing thousands of women into single-sex facilities, inside the strictures of a sexually repressed society had nothing to do with it.JEDDAH: A Saudi woman expelled from her college for having a lesbian relationship with her hostel supervisor has urged authorities to review the decision and allow her to continue her education.Speaking on a radio program recently, the girl who introduced herself as Sarah from Turaif who was in the final year of her course, said it was the hostel supervisor who started the relationship.“Unfortunately, the investigating committee did not take any action against the supervisor, who sent more than 1,000 love texts to my mobile in addition to written letters,” she told the program.She admitted the relationship to the investigating committee while swearing by the Qur’an, but the supervisor denied it.“They rusticated me while I was in the final year of my studies. It is a harsh punishment. They should have imposed a softer punishment so that I could continue my studies,” Sarah said.He said expelling the girl created a new problem instead of resolving the issue. He said action should also be taken against the supervisor by college authorities on the basis of the girl’s statement. He said lesbian relationships are quite common among girls in recent years because of the influence of satellite channels and the Internet.“When we observed a few cases in our university we dealt with them by providing necessary counseling. We also hold a number of lectures and other programs to protect girls from having such deviant relationships,” he said.A number of psychologists told Arab News that lesbian relationships happen in schools and universities for many reasons, including a sexual identity crisis suffered by some girls. Some of them were victims of sexual abuse during their childhood and most of them do not want treatment to change their lesbian attitudes, they added.Hmmmm......"Deviant relationships"....."Victims of sexual abuse"?Read the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                     Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• Libya Live Blog - March 24. Here .(Al-Jazeera)And here (BBC). Latest here.

HT: The Big Picture - Libya: UN air strikes aid rebels - 33 pictures here.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world lots of seismic activity in Japan between 5.1 and 5.6 today. More info here.

• Updated : The wind directions over Japan. Here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 58.On 24.03.2011 at 04:17 GMT+2.

• The Fukushima nuclear power plant was rocked with new tremors on Wednesday, leading to more tension for engineers who have been working nonstop since the 9.0 magnitude earthquake and tsunami hit the country on March 11, causing the plant’s reactors to lose essential cooling mechanisms. Workers have diffused the situation somewhat in recent days by pumping seawater into the reactors, preventing what was close to becoming a serious nuclear disaster. The new quakes hitting the plant reached magnitudes of 6.0, but officials immediately downplayed fears of additional damage at Fukushima. Even though black smoke was seen coming out of the plant’s third reactor, the government claims the situation is not serious. Workers at the plant have restored power to essential lighting that will allow engineers to assess damaged equipment in the hopes of getting the plant's cooling systems back online. Once the cooling systems are functioning, workers can stop pumping seawater into the plant. The reactors will not be usable to generate nuclear energy and electricity because of the application of seawater, but damage to spent-fuel tanks and the reactors themselves need to be assessed and repaired to control radiation. Restoring essential systems could take days, warned international organizations. The seawater, while averting a nuclear disaster, could have caused corrosion and salt build-up that may slow down the process of getting the systems back online quickly.

Situation Update No. 57.On 23.03.2011 at 15:04 GMT+2.

WORK at the No. 2 reactor at Japan's stricken Fukushima nuclear plant was halted today after radiation levels of 500 millisieverts were detected. The work suspension came after two workers at the plant were injured while toiling on power restoration. External power was reconnected to all six reactors at troubled Fukushima earlier today, bringing Japanese engineers one step closer to restarting the facility's desperately needed cooling systems. However the continued leakage of radiation was proving a problem at the scene and much further beyond, with fears about continuing contamination of food and water. To put the 500 millisieverts detected at No. 2 reactor into perspective, background radiation levels of around 1.5 millisieverts every year are normal and poses no harm, according to the Australian Cancer Council. Nuclear workers are allowed exposures up to 20 millisieverts annually. "At 100 millisieverts exposure, there will be one additional cancer detected years later for each 100 people exposed," the Cancer Council said in a statement on its website, adding that the cancer risk due to radiation leaks at Fukushima was "minimal." Despite reassurances from authorities, concerns about the potential fallout from the nuclear crisis following the March 11 earthquake and tsunami continued.Source .

• Japan nuclear crisis: Fukushima Fifty pictures from inside nuclear power plant. Here.

• Speaker Boehner Letter to President Obama on Military Action in Libya   Here.

• High-Profile Conservative Group Files Lawsuit Against Obama Administration Over Health Care Waivers.On the first anniversary of President Obama's health care reform act being signed into law, the Washington based GOP super think tank known as Crossroads GPS plans to file a federal lawsuit Wednesday in D.C. District Court against the Department of Health and Human Services.Fox News has learned the group is seeking documents to better understand how HHS makes decisions to grant waivers to the new health care law.At issue is the Obama administration's criteria for granting 1,040 of the temporary health care reform waivers to businesses, labor groups and a handful of states.HHS data suggest more than 2.6 million people, or 2 percent of people with private insurance, will not be required to enter the new federal system.Crossroads GPS submitted a Freedom of Information Act request to HHS on Jan. 7, 2011.HHS acknowledged receipt that day but despite repeated attempts to get a reply, Crossroads says there has been no action taken even though there is a 20-day statutory limit for federal agencies to respond. The group wants to find out who makes the waiver decisions, and with what input and guidance.Utah Republican Sen. Orrin Hatch and others have complained about the lack of transparency in the waiver process."The Obamacare waiver program has all the same flaws as the underlying law: unfettered government power, federal bureaucrats picking winners and losers and the appearance, if not the reality, of favoritism to political cronies," said Crossroads President Steve Law. "Until President Obama is willing to grant the entire country a waiver from Obamacare, his administration needs to come clean on how they decide who wins and losers in the waiver lottery."A recent study by The Associated Press says the Obama administration has refused to release any materials in more than one out of three FOIA requests and when it did respond, the average wait times got longer not shorter. Only one out of five "urgent" FOIA requests, according to the AP, received replies in a timely fashion. That too is lower than the previous year.There were 544,360 FOIA requests last year, up nearly 41,000 from the previous year but the government actually responded to nearly 12,400 fewer requests than the year before.Hmmmm......Dictatorship or democracy?Read the full story here.

• Police targeted in Pakistan suicide attack.At least five people are killed and dozens injured in an attack on a police station in the northwest of the country. A suicide car bomber has killed at least five people in northwest Pakistan.Thursday's attack, which targeted a police station in Doaba town of Hangu district, left dozens wounded.Rashid Khan, a senior police official, said the dead included an officer and four passers-by.Hangu is part of the Khyber Pakhtunkhawa province and lies near the troubled tribal regions along the Afghan border where al-Qaeda, Taliban fighters and local rebels have flourished.No group claimed responsibility for the attack, but Taliban fighters have regularly carried out attacks in northwest Pakistan in recent years.Fighters linked to al-Qaeda and the Taliban have waged a campaign of bomb and suicide attacks across Pakistan, mainly in the northwest, after the military launched major operations against their strongholds near the Afghan border in 2008.Read the full story here.

• Lawmakers, Executives Slam Obama for Boosting Brazil's Offshore Drilling.Republican lawmakers and oil industry executives are slamming President Obama for offering to help Brazil expand offshore drilling while U.S. production struggles to get back on its feet in the wake of the BP spill. The president, on the first leg of his trip to Latin America, said in Brazil over the weekend that his administration wants to assist the Brazilian government "with technology and support" in developing its oil reserves -- a black gold mine he said could hold twice as much oil as U.S. deposits. "And when you're ready to start selling, we want to be one of your best customers," Obama said. That message struck some at home as bizarre and misguided, considering the administration has stressed the need to wean the United States off foreign oil and move toward alternative fuels."We have abundant energy resources off Louisiana's coast, but this administration has virtually shut down our offshore industry and instead is using Americans' tax dollars to support drilling off the coast of Brazil," Sen. David Vitter, R-La., said in a statement. "It's ridiculous to ignore our own resources and continue going hat-in-hand to countries like Saudi Arabia and Brazil to beg them to produce more oil." Fresh off a three-country visit to the region, Obama is trying to improve relations with the powerhouses of Latin America. Gulf Oil CEO Joe Petrowski agreed it's better to encourage production in more reliable Brazil than in the "inherently unstable" Middle East. Still, he called Obama's announcement "puzzling," even "humorous." "More oil that is not concentrated in the Mideast is good for the world and good for America. It would be a lot better if we had the drilling here," Petrowski told Fox News. "And it seems a double standard and it seems somewhat hypocritical to a country that desperately needs jobs ... that we're encouraging other countries to create the jobs that we need." Republicans say the United States needs to develop all resources available, but emphasize domestic drilling and exploration. House Natural Resources Committee Chairman Doc Hastings, R-Wash., complained that, with his comments in Brazil, Obama is pushing to deepen U.S. dependence on foreign oil. "He appears to believe the answer is to shift our foreign energy dependence from one part of the world to another," he said. Democrats in oil-rich states have also chimed in. "President Obama didn't have to go all the way to Brazil to find a 'new, safe and stable' source of oil. Energy opportunities are right here in Alaska," said Sen. Mark Begich, D-Alaska.But Shane Guidry, CEO of rig towing company Harvey Gulf International Marine, said that, at a time of economic stress, the U.S. government should concentrate its energy investment inside the United States rather than Brazil. "If you're going to do something for one country, why not do it for yours?" he told Fox News.Hmmmm.....If he wanted to destroy America would he do anything different?Read the full story here.

• British Embassy officials withdrawn from Yemen 'with immediate effect'.Embassy officials in Yemen are being withdrawn from the country with 'immediate effect', the Foreign Office said.The department said only a 'small core' of staff will remain in the country, and it urged other British nationals to leave.A spokesman last night said: 'In light of the rapid deterioration in the security situation in Yemen and the high risk of increased tension in Sana'a and likely protests on Friday 25 March which might result in violent clashes, part of the British Embassy team in Sana'a is being temporarily withdrawn, leaving a small core staff in place.'This will take immediate effect.'The move comes as people have taken to the streets to protest against the regime.Tensions intensified yesterday as the country's parliament granted President Ali Abdullah Saleh's request for sweeping emergency laws that include new powers of arrest, detention and censorship to quash the popular uprising demanding his removal.It escalated the friction between Mr Saleh and a movement that now includes top military commanders, religious leaders and protesting youth.Rival factions of the military have deployed tanks in the capital, Sana'a. In the most brutal show of force against anti-government demonstrators, security forces shot dead more than 40 protesters on Friday.Hmmmmm......Read the full story here.

• Turkey puts F-35 order on hold over US refusal to share technology.Turkey has announced that it is putting the planned purchase of 100 F-35 fighter jets from the US on hold because the Pentagon refuses to share the source code used in the software designed for the aircraft as well as the codes that might be used externally to activate the planes. Defense Minister Vecdi Gönül said on Tuesday, following a meeting of the Defense Industry Implementation Committee (SSİK), that the negotiations over the F-35 procurement tender had not yielded “satisfactory results.” He said, “We will evaluate the order in the next meeting, in light of the progress made in the talks by then.” He said much ground had been covered in the talks in terms of technology sharing, but this was not enough for Turkey to accept the jets. He said the costs of the project had also increased but that the Turkish side had failed to secure the source code and the remote flight codes for the planes for which it will be paying $16 billion. Without the source code, Turkish engineers wouldn't be able to make any changes to the software that operates the jets. The external flight codes are equally important, if not more, as they can be used externally to navigate the jets.Hmmmmm......Erdogan"Now we build our own warplanes"?Read the full story here.

• HT:TheDailyCaller.Uncle Sam shelling out big bucks for government jobs, GOP says time to cut.If you’re one of the millions of Americans still looking for a job, the federal government is hiring, and (especially for the unemployed) the pay is excellent. While private sector job growth creeps along at a snail’s pace, the roster of available federal jobs is booming.The Assistant Secretary for Indian Affairs needs someone to run the Facebook page for the Dept. of the Interior and they’ll pay up to $115,000 a year. Over at the Dept. of Defense, they’ll drop nearly 50k a year for a new mail room clerk, plus the glorious benefits that comes with government work.In Washington, D.C., there are more than 1,000 openings this month alone. These include a “student internship” program at the Federal Housing Finance Agency that pays the equivalent of $48,304 a year; a $155,000-a-year gig at the Peace Corps to ensure the agency is complying with Equal Opportunity Employment standards; and a similar job at the Dept. of Transportation that promises nearly $180,000 a year.Lots of good, high-paying jobs available right now. Sounds great, right?Well, not everyone thinks so.Republican policymakers looking for more ways to slash government spending think Uncle Sam is being mighty too loose when it comes to how he doles out the cash to his employees, and if the GOP has its way, the $115,000 taxpayer-funded Twitter gurus at the Dept. of the Interior could become a thing of the past.The House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, which held a subcommittee hearing earlier this month to address federal pay rates, is gearing up for even more action, with plans to release a study comparing public worker salaries to similar jobs in the private sector. According to Committee Chair Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the goal is to show the rest of the country just how good federal workers really have it.“It’s abundantly clear that many federal employees are being paid significantly more than their counterparts outside government service,” committee spokesman Ali Ahmad told The Daily Caller. “The committee is working to more fully expose the compensation divide by developing comparisons that don’t just look at salary but also the expensive benefits and job security federal employees have that is rarely found in the private sector.”Issa’s committee wouldn’t be the first to compare federal pay with the private industry. An investigative report from USA Today last year found that “in more than eight out of 10 occupations” federal employees “earn higher average salaries than private-sector workers” and that doesn’t include the government’s generous package of benefits.President Obama in November proposed a two-year pay freeze for nearly two million federal workers, but that would still allow them to collect bonuses and receive automatic pay raises when they move up the ladder on the General Schedule system.Taking the effort even further, Issa has inserted language into the House continuing resolution bill that would stop any pay raises for the rest of the year. The parties are currently negotiating exactly what will be left in the final bill when it reaches the president’s desk, but in this era of budget cuts, it could become increasingly difficult for federal agencies to justify six-figure salaries for Facebook posts.Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• HT:NewsRealBlog.Mother Jones Attacks Franklin Graham for Exposing Muslim Brotherhood in Obama Administration.By Lisa Graas.Christian evangelist and humanitarian Franklin Graham has come under attack from the socialist Mother Jones magazine for expressing concern about the Obama Administration’s ties to the Muslim Brotherhood. With overwhelming proof that Muslim Brotherhood front groups and Islamapologists in the White House are having an impact on America’s foreign and domestic security policy, Mother Jones opts to turn a blind eye, going after Graham for promoting a so-called “conspiracy theory“. At the White House, Graham is out, Islam is in…and Mother Jones is in need of a reality check.In an interview with Newsmax, Graham expressed grave concern for the well-being of Christians around the world who live in Muslim-majority countries, the very same concern shared by the Vatican.The Vatican formed a special committee late last year to address the flight of Christians and the rise of militant Islam in the Middle East. In his New Year’s message, Pope Benedict XVI said Christians suffer more than any other religious group because of their faith. Asked if President Barack Obama was doing enough to protect Christians at home and abroad, Graham says, “No. If anything it’s the opposite.”Graham specifically pointed out President Obama’s failure to speak for Christians in Egypt and other countries while the Muslim Brotherhood has been promoted as a legitimate partner in “democracy“. The Obama Administration stands clearly on the opposite side of the worldwide Christian community in regard to the Islamist vs. Christian struggle in Pakistan and the Arab world. As Christians face a horrific turning point in history marked by “near genocide” as one Iraqi archbishop put it, President Obama has opened his arms to the Muslim Brotherhood. But Franklin Graham? He’s a problem for Mother Jones.Criticizing a minister for saying that a religion that is diametrically opposed to his own is “evil” seems to classify as a new twist on Commandment # 3 of leftist reporting on Islam: Thou Shalt Keep Holy the Name of Islam.Yes, there’s a new Obama-Muslim conspiracy theory on the right: The evangelical son of one of America’s most famous evangelists says that President Barack Obama has allowed the Muslim Brotherhood to become part of the US government and influence administration decisions.Hmmmm....'They don't trust me because of my middle name'among a million other things....yes.Read the full story here.

• Google, Yahoo, Skype targeted in attack linked to Iran.A malicious attacker that appears to be the Iranian government managed to obtain supposedly secure digital certificates that can be used to impersonate Google, Yahoo, Skype, and other major Web sites, the security company affected by the breach said today. Comodo, a Jersey City, N.J.-based firm that issues digital certificates, said the nine certificates were fraudulently obtained, including one for Microsoft's Live.com, have already been revoked. A fraudulent certificate allows someone to impersonate the secure versions of those Web sites--the ones that are used when encrypted connections are enabled--in some circumstances. The Internet Protocol addresses used in the attack are in Tehran, Iran, said Comodo, which believes that because of the focus and speed of the attack, it was "state-driven." Spoofing those Web sites would allow the Iranian government to use what's known as a man-in-the-middle attack to impersonate the legitimate sites and grab passwords, read e-mail messages, and monitor any other activities its citizens performed, even if the connections were protected with SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) encryption. The attacker tested the certificate for "login.yahoo.com," but because it had been revoked, most browsers attempting to communicate with the site would see that it was not a trusted site, Comodo Chief Executive Melih Abdulhayoglu told CNET.The Iranian IP address was linked to the compromise of the European registration authority affiliated with Comodo on March 15, according to another Comodo blog post written by Vice President Philip Hallam-Baker. Several IP addresses were used, but mainly IP addresses were from Iran, a separate incident report says. If Comodo is right about the attack originating from Iran's government, it wouldn't be the first government to have done something like this. Late last year, the Tunisian government undertook an ambitious scheme to steal an entire country's worth of Gmail, Yahoo, and Facebook passwords. It used malicious JavaScript code to siphon off unencrypted log-in credentials, which allowed government to infiltrate or delete protest-related discussions.Many major browser makers already have revoked the fraudulent SSL certificates. Mozilla said last night that "we have updated Firefox 4.0, 3.6, and 3.5 to recognize these certificates and block them automatically." Google Chrome has been updated, and Microsoft said in a security advisory that it was contacted by Comodo on March 16 and "an update is available for all supported versions of Windows to help address this issue." Read the full story here.

• HT:IsraelMatzav.What the US should do in Libya.If I were President of the United States.... No, I'm not President of the United States, and the current President won't do anything - particularly in Libya - without asking permission from the 'international community,' but if I were President of the United States, I would do send Special Forces to Libya to do two things. The second is actually more important than the first.Read the full story here.

• Dubai police foil bid to ship 16,000 guns from Turkey to Yemen.Shipment was heading to Saada, said Dubai Police chief.Dubai police have foiled a bid to smuggle 16,000 guns from Turkey to Yemen's northern province of Saada, a rebels' stronghold, Dubai Police chief Lt Gen Dahi Khalfan Tamim said Thursday.The guns were seized from a warehouse in Dubai."Dubai police has foiled a major attempt to smuggle arms from Turkey to Yemen," said Tamim, adding that "the shipment consititutes 16,000 guns" and "six Arabs residing in the United Arab Emirates have been arrested"."The shipment was heading to Saada, we can't say to which side, but definitely not to the government," Tamim told reporters.Hmmmm.......Turkey.......Iran.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Iranians Chant ‘Death To the Dictator’ During Persian New Year Celebration.On the Persian New Year, March 21, Iranians gathered at the tomb of Hafez, Iran’s national poet. The crowd quickly started chanting “Death to the Dictator” and denounced Iranian Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei.Read and see the full story here.

• And now for something completely different!60-year hunt for Russian Czars' missing Amber Room may be over after discovery in Germany.The hunt for the missing Amber Room of the Czars has taken a new twist with treasure hunters in a small town in east Germany about to break into a bunker they believe may hold one of the lost wonders of the modern world.The priceless room which once belonged the the King of Prussia Peter the Great was looted by Nazis during WWII and the original wallas have been missing ever since.But now Matthias Gluba, a civil engineer and hobby historian, has triggered the new frenzy after researching wartime records of the town of Auerswalde near Chemnitz.Auerswalde was the place where Hitler built the two biggest guns in history - Dora and Gustav - both mighty railway mounted monsters capable of hurling shells weighing tons.As he probed into the history of the cannons he discovered plans for secret underground workings.Gunter Richter, now 80, is an Auerswalde resident who told Glube that, as a child, he remembered in the Muna Forest outside the town a massive shelter built for munitions works employees that he went into as a boy.The shelter was 'massive,' he recalled, 'big enough for trucks to turn around in.' It vanished off of maps after the war but last week he and Gluba managed to find a ventilation shaft that leads down into a subterranean structure they believe is the old shelter.'If this shipment from Koenigsberg that was guarded by the S.S. was unloaded here, then we owe it to history to open it up and look in there,' he said. Planning permission for an excavation is due to be granted next month.The researchers are expected to enter the bunker in the coming days. It is unclear who will claim ownership of the vast treasure if it is discovered, with many experts putting the value of the room at at least £150m.Read the full story here ,more on the Amber room here.