Video - Holes near bottom of containment vessel at Fukushima plant — “Gushing out” of Reactor No. 1 — Similar damage suspected at Units 2 and 3.

Holes near bottom of containment vessel at Fukushima plant — “Gushing out” of Reactor No. 1 — Similar damage suspected at Units 2 and 3.(EneNews).

NHK WORLD, Nov. 13, 2013: A robot at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has for the first time identified exactly where highly radioactive water is leaking from a reactor [...] the lower part of the No.1 reactor’s containment vessel. [...] A camera on the robot captured images of water leaking from 2 holes in the containment vessel [...] TEPCO engineers [...] say one of the leaks looks as if tap water is gushing out. Radiation levels in the area were extremely high at 0.9 to 1.8 sieverts an hour. Engineers suspect that damage to containment vessels at the No. 2 and 3 reactors is also causing similar leaks [...]

Jiji Press, Nov. 14, 2013: [...] “Part of the containment vessel is damaged, and water leaking from there is likely to be flowing down into the ground via the pipe,” a TEPCO official said. [...] Water used to cool molten fuel debris is believed to be leaking from the three reactor containers, with highly radioactive water accumulated in the basements. The newly found incident is the first apparent identification of a containment vessel-basement flow [...]

Related:

Alaska Island Shows Impacts From Fukushima – ‘Significant Cesium Isotope Signature’ Detected – Scientists Anticipate More Marine Life To Be Impacted As Ocean Plume Arrives

NASA project NAIRAS to predict radiation exposure for airline flights.

NASA project NAIRAS to predict radiation exposure for airline flights.HT: Yahoo.

Related:

Red Alert: Shocking Plane Radiation On Flight From Chile To The U.S.

Video - BBC News - Fukushima radioactive water leak an 'emergency', A Must See!

Video - China Syndrome At Fukushima: Corium Hits Groundwater.

Related: - You Won’t BELIEVE What’s Going On at Fukushima Right Now

Video - US importing food from Japan that’s considered unfit to eat there?

The difference between Japan and the United States is kind of startling. In Japan, at this point the permissible level of radioactivity in food is 100 becquerels per kilogram [...] In the United States the permissible level is 1,200. So Japan’s limits are 12 times stronger than ours, which means that we could very certainly be importing food from Japan that’s considered unfit to eat there.HT: InvestmentwatchBlog.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.

• The official English twitter account of Prime Minister’s Office of Japan. Most of the information provided here will be translation of @ Kantei_Saigai.

• Updated !15 Earthquakes in the last 14 hours in North-America ,lots of seismic activity globally today! More info here.

• Updated : The wind directions over Japan. Here.

• Radioactive iodine detected in Tokyo tap water.Trace amounts of radioactive iodine were discovered in tap water in Tokyo in the wake of the disaster at the crippled nuclear plant Fukushima, Japanese media said on Saturday.Radiation above the national safety level was also found in the water supply infive other prefectures, said an official from Japan's science ministry, which is monitoring radiation levels.Source.

• Google reacts to Japanese tsunami with a Person Finder tool. Here.

• Latest official Situation Update No. 45. On 19.03.2011 at 10:07 GMT+2.

The following is the known status as of Saturday morning of each of the six reactors at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant and the four reactors at the Fukushima Daini plant, both in Fukushima Prefecture, which were crippled by the magnitude 9.0 earthquake and ensuing tsunami on March 11.

Fukushima Daiichi plant

- Reactor No. 1 (Operation suspended after quake) Partial melting of core, cooling failure, vapor vented, building housing containment of reactor damaged by hydrogen explosion, roof blown off, seawater being pumped in.

- Reactor No. 2 (Operation suspended after quake) Damage to reactor containment structure feared, cooling failure, seawater being pumped in, fuel rods fully exposed temporarily, vapor vented, building housing containment of reactor damaged by blast at adjacent reactor No. 3, blast sound heard near suppression chamber of containment vessel.

- Reactor No. 3 (Operation suspended after quake) Partial melting of core feared, cooling failure, vapor vented, seawater being pumped in, building housing containment of reactor badly damaged by hydrogen explosion, seawater dumped over spent-fuel storage pool by helicopter Thursday, water sprayed at it from ground three days in a row through Saturday.

- Reactor No. 4 (Under maintenance when quake struck) Renewed nuclear chain reaction feared at spent-fuel storage pool, fire at building housing containment of reactor Tuesday and Wednesday, only frame remains of reactor building roof, temperature in the pool reached 84 C on Monday.

- Reactor No. 5 (Under maintenance when quake struck) Cooling resumed Saturday in spent-fuel storage pools.

- Reactor No. 6 (Under maintenance when quake struck) Emergency power generator restored Saturday, some fuel rods left in reactor cores.

Fukushima Daini plant

- Reactors No. 1, 2, 3, 4 (Operation suspended after quake) Cold shutdown, not emergency status anymore. Source .

• Japan finds abnormal radiation in milk, spinach.Nuclear nightmare may have only just begun.Japan has detected abnormal levels of radioactivity in milk and spinach in areas near a stricken nuclear plant, but the foods pose no immediate threat to humans, government spokesman Yukio Edano said Saturday.The contaminated milk was found in Fukushima prefecture, where the quake-damaged atomic power station is located, while the tainted spinach was discovered in neighbouring Ibaraki prefecture, Edano told reporters."Radiation exceeding the limit under Japanese law was detected," he said.The spokesman said the health ministry has ordered authorities in both prefectures to investigate where the products came from, how they were distributed and -- depending on their findings -- suspend sales.He urged consumers to remain calm, noting that even if a consumer were to drink the contaminated milk for a year, the radiation level would be the equivalent of one CT scan. AFP.Japanese authorities earlier this week issued a recommendation that people leaving the area near a tsunami-crippled nuclear power plant should ingest iodine, the U.N. nuclear watchdog said on Saturday. Taken as pills or syrup, stable iodine can be used to help protect against thyroid cancer in the case of radioactive exposure in a nuclear accident. The International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said radiation at the damaged Fukushima Daiichi plant had stabilised at "significantly higher" levels than normal, but these were still in a range allowing on site recovery measures. At the site on Saturday, engineers attached a power cable to the outside of the facility in a desperate attempt to get water pumps going that would cool down overheated fuel rods and prevent the deadly spread of radiation.Hmmmm.....Reminds me so much of Chernobyl.Read the full story here.

• Low radioactivity seen heading toward N. America.Low concentrations of radioactive particles are heading eastwards from Japan’s disaster-hit nuclear power plant and are expected to reach North America in days, a Swedish official said on Thursday. Lars-Erik De Geer, research director at the Swedish Defense Research Institute, a government agency, was citing data from a network of international monitoring stations established to detect signs of any nuclear weapons tests. Stressing that the levels were not dangerous for people, he predicted the particles would continue across the Atlantic and eventually also reach Europe. ”It is not something you see normally,” he said by phone from Stockholm. But, “it is not high from any danger point of view.” He said he was convinced it would eventually be detected over the whole northern hemisphere. ”It is only a question of very, very low activities so it is nothing for people to worry about,” De Geer said.”In the past when they had nuclear weapons tests in China ... then there were similar clouds all the time without anybody caring about it at all,” he said. Before he spoke, the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission advised any Americans living near Japan’s crippled Fukushima nuclear plant to move at least 50 miles (80 kilometers) away but it played down the risks of contamination to the United States.“All the available information continues to indicate Hawaii, Alaska, the US Territories and the US West Coast are not expected to experience any harmful levels of radioactivity,” it said in a statement on Wednesday.Read the full story here.

• HT:AmnonAndJonathan.Potassium iodide is Poison ?Popping potassium iodide already? Really bad idea. Poison control centers hear early reports of sickness from preventive pills.By JoNel Aleccia Health writer.As demand spikes for potassium iodide in the wake of Japan’s nuclear crisis, U.S. poison control centers are starting to receive reports of illness in people who’ve ingested the drug aimed at protecting against radiation sickness.At least seven people have reported reactions to the drug, often called by its chemical name, KI, including two who said they were suffering from serious symptoms including vomiting, racing heart and dizziness or vertigo.That’s according to Jessica Wehrman, a spokeswoman for the American Association of Poison Control Centers, which tracks reports from 57 poison control centers nationwide.Radiation has not been detected in the U.S., but some worried Americans are already hoarding the pills — and apparently taking them already — as a precaution. Wehrman said poison control centers have received nearly 130 queries about protection against radiation exposure and the crisis in Japan.A text message poll of 98 physicians in California, Oregon and Washington, conducted by Truth On Call for msnbc.com, found that 18 percent of doctors had fielded questions from patients this week about the health impacts of radiation exposure, and two were asked for potassium iodide.Panic could spark a “mini-epidemic” of potassium iodide ingestion and overdoses, predicted Dr. Leonard Wartofsky, spokesman for the Endocrine Society and a thyroid expert.Hmmmm.....do not use these pills unless the gov warns for a potential threat of radioactive iodine.Read the full story here.

• HT:SultanKnish.The Muslim Terrorist War against Israeli Families.The brutal murders of the Fogel family, including the partial decapitation of a 3 month old baby, the stabbing a 3 year old twice in the heart, and the murder of both their parents, along with an 11 year old brother who was staying up late reading in bed, have shocked the world. But the Muslim terrorist tactic of massacring families is not a new one. It has been a signature move of the PLO in its various phases, especially the Al Aqsa Martyrs Brigade.Many of us would like to think that men who murder children are an aberration even in a terrorist movement. That perhaps the terrorists who murdered the Fogel family did not deliberately target children. It would be nice to think that we live in a world where such acts are an aberration rather than a tactic. Sadly that isn't so. We live next door to evil. And it is vital that we see that and not look away.Almost 10 years ago to the date, Mahmoud Mahmed Mahmoud Amrou set up a sniper rifle and took aim at a mother and father walking with a stroller. In the stroller was their baby daughter. She was 10 months old. Mahmoud had three targets in front of him. The parents were the easiest targets. Instead Mahmoud took aim and shot a 10 month old little girl in the head. Consider the head of an adult and a child. Which is easier to hit from a distance? Her parents were young. Her father capable of military service. Her mother could still have more children. Even from the tactical standpoint of a terrorist, they were better targets. But Shalhevet Pass, the 10 month old baby girl was the one he shot in the head. Her father suffered leg injuries because the bullets were aimed at the level of the stroller.Mahmoud Amrou was no random serial killer. He was a member of the Tanzim militia, a terrorist arm of the Palestinian Authority which crosses over extensively with the Al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade. He confessed that the attack had been ordered by Tanzim and Al-Aqsa commander Marwan Zaloum. The terrorist atrocities of these Fatah terrorist groups were backed at the highest level of the Palestinian Authority. And when Palestinian Authority leader Abbas was campaigning in 2002 in Hebron, he called out, "Mercy on the souls of all the martyrs. Mercy on the soul of Marwan Zaloum."Hmmmm....“Violence does not build up the kingdom of God, the kingdom of humanity. On the contrary, it is a favorite instrument of the Antichrist, however idealistic its religious motivation may be,” Pope Benedict XVI.Read the full story here.

• HT:BarenakedIslam. FBI CHIEF confirms agency’s ban on outreach to CAIR because of ties to terrorist groups.Kind of thought this was a fait accompli after several CAIR members were jailed or deported, while others were named unindicted co-conspirators in the Holy Land terror financing federal case in 2008? So, why is CAIR still allowed to operate as a phony Muslim ‘civil rights’ terrorist front group in this country?WND -In stunning testimony on Capitol Hill, the head of the FBI explained his agency has cut off ties to the most influential Muslim organization in America due to concern sover its leaders’ association with terrorism.Since the Justice Department linked the Washington-based (CAIR) Council on American-Islamic Relations to a 2008 terror-finance case, the FBI has refused to work directly with the group’s national office or any of its 30-plus chapters across the country.Wednesday’s hearing held by the House Judiciary Committee marked the first time FBI Director Robert Mueller has narrowed down the cause of concern to CAIR’s “national leadership.”“We have no formal relationship with CAIR because of concerns with regard to the national leadership,” Mueller testified. CAIR’s current executive director is Nihad Awad.Hmmmm......."Don't talk to the FBI"?Read the full story here.

• HT:TranslatingJihad.Yusuf al-Qaradawi: "The Islamic Shari'ah Governs All of the Actions" of Muslims.Shaykh Yusuf al-Qaradawi, the spiritual leader of the Muslim Brotherhood, explains in his book "Al-Din wal-Siyasa" (Religion and Politics) that religion and politics in Islam are inseparable: "The Islam which was initiated by Allah did not set aside any of the facets of life without committing itself to its legislation and guidance for it--by its nature--is comprehensive in all aspects of life: material and spiritual, individual and society."Al-Qaradawi begins this section of his book by citing the efforts of "the Islamic reformers [to] blend politics with religion." Among these reformers are such notables as Ibn 'Abd-al-Wahhab, Hassan al-Banna, and al-Mawdudi. He explains that all of them strove to put into practice the comprehensiveness of Islam, for three reasons: first, the comprehensiveness of the doctrine of Islam; second, Islam rejects the partitioning of its rulings; and third, life is an indivisible and inseparable unit, and so is man.I plan to write about this in greater detail at a later date, but I think one important thing to take from this is that Islam, being a complete and comprehensive religiopolitical system as al-Qaradawi explains below, leaves no room for Western systems of law. Islam is not like Christianity which can separate between what is God's and what is Caesar's. In Islam, everything belongs to Allah, even and perhaps especially political power and the right to legislate. Thus the problem is not just that Islam is incompatible with Western liberal democracy, but in essence it chokes it out, leaving no room for it. This obviously does not bode well for those hoping for any type of democratic reform in the Middle East (at least one which respects the human rights and equality of all its citizens), especially considering a recent poll shows that a huge majority of Egyptians want more Islam, not less, in politics.Hmmmm......How about this for the Sharia education classes in the USA?Read the full story here.

• With stroke of a pen, Obama gives terrorists an edge.Under the guise of "reaffirming America's commitment to humane treatment of detainees," the Obama administration announced last week a revolution in the rules governing how the United States protects itself from al-Qaeda and other terrorists. Although the president has thrown a meaty bone to a determined segment of his political base — which opposed a full force, military response to the Sept. 11 attacks — with a stroke of his pen he has also made the American people less safe.From now on, according to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton, the U.S. will comply with part of a treaty known as Protocol I Additional to the Geneva Conventions "out of a sense of legal obligation." These are code words, which mean that the U.S. acknowledges this particular provision, Article 75, which extends "fundamental guarantees" to any detainee, as a binding form of international law — even though the Senate has never consented to its formal ratification. Today, the Geneva Conventions include four treaties: governing the treatment of wounded soldiers on land, those wounded or shipwrecked at sea, prisoners of war and civilians in occupied territory. These agreements date to 1949 and have been ratified by more than 190 countries, including the United States.The U.S. flatly rejected this effort, embodied in Protocol I. President Reagan said this agreement was "fundamentally and irreconcilably flawed" for the very reason that it gave rights traditionally reserved to the armed forces of states who obey the basic rules of war to guerrillas and terrorists, who do not. Indeed, groups such as al-Qaeda seek military advantage by rejecting rules they expect the U.S. and other civilized states to follow.Protocol I is, in fact, a grab bag. Some of its provisions do restate customary international law — such as longstanding prohibitions on deliberately attacking civilians — but many do not. Article 75 contains both. To determine which is which, it must be measured section-by-section, often line-by-line and word-by-word, against other sources of international law and practice.By accepting an important part of this treaty as a legally binding form of international law, President Obama has done an end run around the Senate and eliminated much of the flexibility the U.S. has to deny captured al-Qaeda and Taliban fighters the rights enjoyed by regular, lawful soldiers.If the United States must now effectively treat its terrorist enemies like honorable POWs as a matter of law, and not merely as a policy decision, this should be accomplished through the Constitution's treaty ratification process. Then the Senate and the American people can have a full and fair debate on the matter. The president might well have firmed up his political support as we move toward the 2012 elections, but he has done so at the cost of U.S. national security interests.Hmmmmm........"They don't trust me because of my middle name"among a million other things.....YES!Read the full story here.

• Obama arrives in Brazil, begins Latin America tour.BRASILIA, Brazil - U.S. President Barack Obama landed in Brazil's highland capital of Brasilia on Saturday for the start of a three-country, five-day tour of Latin America to promote greater economic ties and improved regional security.The trip comes despite urgent issues back in the United States, including the possibility of U.S. military action against the regime of Libya's Moammar Gadhafi.Obama singled out the economic benefits of the trip, noting the rapid growth of Brazil and Chile, the second country on his itinerary. In his Saturday radio and internet address Obama noted that the United States exports more than three times as much to Latin America as to China.Brazil stands out for its strategic and economic importance to the United States. As the world's seventh-largest economy, it is a member of an exclusive club of influential developing nations along with Russia, India and China, collectively known in economic circles as the BRIC nations. Obama is looking to reset the U.S. relationship with Brazil, an emerging economic power that even without being hostile has annoyed Washington with its independent ways."What is clear is that in an increasingly global economy, our partnership with these nations is only going to become more vital," Obama said in his weekly radio address Saturday.After Brazil, Obama travels to Chile, which has established itself as one of the wealthier nations in South America. His third and final stop is in El Salvador.Hmmmmm.....Flashback....Obama Underwrites Offshore Drilling Too bad it's not in U.S. waters but in .......BRAZIL,redistribution of wealth anyone?Read the full story here.

• Helen Thomas: Jews in total control of US.Helen Thomas: Jews in total control of US.Veteran US reporter lashes out at Israel again in Playboy interview, says Jewish lobbies control power in America – from White House and Congress to Hollywood and financial markets.Veteran US reporter Helen Thomas lashed out at Israel in an interview published Friday, standing by fiery comments which forced her to quit as doyenne of the White House press corps last year. Speaking to Playboy, she denied she was anti-Semitic but railed against Jewish lobbies she said controlled power in America, from the White House and Congress to Hollywood and financial markets."I'm not anti-Jewish; I'm anti-Zionist. I am anti-Israel taking what doesn't belong to it. If you have a home and you're kicked out of that home, you don't come and kick someone else out."Jewish lobbies had power across the board in the US, she added. "Everybody is in the pocket of the Israeli lobbies, which are funded by wealthy supporters, including those from Hollywood."Same thing with the financial markets. There's total control ... It's real power when you own the White House, when you own these other places in terms of your political persuasion. Of course they have power," she added."I'm not retired! I was fired. In fact, I'll die with my boots on," she said in the interview, which was conducted in Washington where she took Playboy contributing editor David Hochman to her favorite Palestinian restaurant, the magazine said.Hmmmmm......With Spring the bad weeds start appearing again!Read the full story here.

• HT:JihadWatch.Florida circuit court judge allows case to proceed under Islamic law.What was that Hamas-linked CAIR and other Islamic supremacist groups were saying about how it was utterly fanciful that Sharia would ever be used to judge cases in American courts?Hmmmm......Wat happened to "We don't Want To Take Over Your Country"?Read the full story here ,more here.

• Palestinian militants fire rockets into Israel.Dozens of mortars shells hit south.Hamas military wing claims responsibility for more than 50 mortar shells fired at western Negev communities. Two people lightly hurt; building sustains heavy damage. IDF bombs Gaza targets in response; injuries reported.More than 50 mortar shells were fired at the western Negev from the Gaza Strip in several barrages Saturday morning. The mortars exploded in open areas within the Sdot Negev and Eshkol regional council.Two people were lightly injured by shrapnel in one of the kibbutzim and were evacuated to the Soroka Medical Center in Beersheba. A building sustained heavy damage. Eshkol officials said dozens of mortar shells exploded within the regional councils. Local residents were ordered to enter shelters. Loud blasts were reported in the area. The Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades claimed responsibility for the mortar fire, saying it acted in response to IDF strikes in the past week. The group issued a statement saying that the mortars were directed at Israeli military targets.The Israel Defense Forces responded to the attack by firing artillery at suspicious targets in the southern Gaza Strip. Israel Air Force helicopters bombed targets in Dir al-Balah and Khan Younis.Hmmmm.....I'm sure the Obama admninistration will find a way to blame the Joooos for this one also.Read the full story here.

• Germany - Penalties for Forced Marriage : Berlin Passes New Integration Measures.Those who force women and girls into marriage can now face up to five years in German prison, under a new integration measure passed by the German parliament on Thursday.The German parliament approved a law on Thursday which calls for up to five years in prison for anyone forcing a girl or woman into marriage. The new law would also give non-German citizens who are forced by their husbands or families to leave the country after their marriage a legal right to return to Germany.The parliament in Berlin also addressed several other issues related to the integration of foreigners in the society. In a move to prevent marriages of convenience, foreigners wedded to German citizens will now have to be married three years before a divorce in order to get their own independent residence permit. Prior law required them to be married two years.Foreigners may now only get an unlimited residence permit when they have successfully completed an integration course, which includes language instruction and a proficiency exam. And young foreigners, between the ages of 15 and 21, who have lived in the country and attended school for six years, and who fall into the category of immigrants who are "tolerated" by the government until it reviews their status, will soon have the right to their own independent residence permit, provided that they are "well-integrated."The new interior minister, Hans-Peter Friedrich -- a member of Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservative coalition -- who took over during a reshuffling of the cabinet following the resignation of Defense Minister Karl Theodor zu Guttenberg, said that German society is not prepared to accept forced marriages, and called on foreigners to take more responsibility for their own integration. "Those who live here must speak German," he said.Shortly after taking office, Friedrich made headlines when he said: "That Islam is part of Germany is a fact that cannot be proved by history." The statement contradicted German President Christian Wulff, who said on the anniversary of German unification in October that "Islam is a part of Germany."Hmmmm......."Change' and it aint the Obama kind of change.Read the full story here.

• HT:TranslatingJihad.The Muslim Brotherhood Glorifies and Encourages Female Jihadists.Writing for the European Council of Fatwa and Research, a Muslim Brotherhood-linked organization headed by Yusuf al-Qaradawi, Dr. 'Ali Muhiy al-Din al-Qarah Daghi in his 2006 treatise "Al-mar'a wal-musharika al-siyasia wal-dimuqratia" (Women and Political and Democratic Participation) lists six political rights that women may enjoy under Islam (see pp. 45-47). Most of these are your basic run-of-the-mill stuff: the right to vote, to run for office (except for head of state), participate in political demonstrations, participate in the police and security forces (with some conditions), and participate in forming unions. But what really stood out to me was that the shaykh also listed as one of these rights, the right to participate not only in defensive jihad, but in offensive jihad as well :(Scholars) unanimously agree on (the right of women) to participate in defensive jihad, i.e. when there’s an infidel occupation of a Muslim country. This includes killing and so forth, and everything which enables it. (Women may) also participate in offensive jihad, commensurate with their disposition.Wait a second, what does he mean by "killing and so forth"? I thought jihad was an inner spiritual struggle?! Must be some sort of Islamophobe.So it appears that, contrary to popular belief, women actually enjoy many rights in Islam. Among these is the right to participate in jihad (including offensive jihad) and kill Jews and polytheists. This is all according to the 'moderate' Muslim Brotherhood, or at least this is what they feel comfortable saying in Arabic.Hmmmm.......You have heard that it was said, 'An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.' But I tell you, do not resist an evil person. If someone strikes you on the right cheek, turn to him the other also. (Matt. 5:38-39) .Read the full story here.

• HT:Persian2English."Life And Death in Iran's Prisons".Hundreds dead or injured in Ghezel Hesar prison clashes, phones cut off.According to the HRANA group, at least 150 prisoners are dead or injured after bloody clashes erupted in Karaj’s Ghezel Hesar prison on the night of March 15th. Thousands of prisoners from units 2 and 3 launched a protest after hearing the news of plans to execute ten inmates.During the protest approximately 3,000 prisoners attempted to break the doors of their cells while chanting, “Executions must stop.” Security forces attacked the prison cells, resulting in bloody clashes and the transfer of some prisoners from their cells. Reports indicate that prison guards used live ammunitions to control the protesters. Consequently, nearly eighty prisoners were seriously injured or killed, but the number of those shot is at 150 or higher. A handful of officers along with the deputy warden of the prison, Mr. Safakhil suffered leg injuries during the clashes. The prisoners who protested are either serving a heavy sentence or facing imminent execution.The Committee for the Defense of Political Prisoners reported on March 16th that some people attacked the prison from the outside in an attempt to free some of the detainees. According to these reports, some prisoners escaped. The news of the escapes has not been confirmed by other sources.The latest news indicates that Ghezel Hesar prison is under lock down after riot police forces entered the grounds. On March 19th, the RAHANA group reported that phone privileges have been cut off for prisoners until further notice. Yesterday morning, some prisoners were able to make brief phone calls to their families, but by noon, all communication was cut off.The Iranian regime’s Fars News Agency reported that after destructing the prison facilities, breaking windows, and attacking the guards, protesters attempted to escape the prison. The report did not mention the use of live ammunitions against the protesters, but did confirm the death of a few inmates as a result of “inflected injuries and smoke inhalation.”On March 16th, the Reuters news agency reported 14 deaths and 33 injuries, citing Iran’s State TV as the source.Hmmmm......No word from the defender of the oppressed to busy on the beach in Rio i guess?Read the full story here.

• UN Secretary General’s Report Shows Need for Special Human Rights Monitor in Iran.The release of a report by the UN Secretary- General, Ban Ki-moon, on the human rights situation in Iran should encourage the UN Human Rights Council to establish a special monitoring and reporting mechanism, the International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran said today.“The message of this report is clear, it is time for the Human Rights Council to deal with the dramatically deteriorating situation in Iran by establishing a monitoring mechanism during its current session,” stated Aaron Rhodes, a spokesperson for the Campaign.The 14 March 2011 “Interim Report of the Secretary- General on the Situation of Human Rights in Iran,” which was mandated by General Assembly Resolution 65/226, documents Iran’s grave and deteriorating human rights situation.The report notes: “The Secretary-General underscores the valuable contribution special procedures mandates can make to monitoring and reporting on the human rights situation in Iran, as well as facilitating technical assistance in relevant areas.”The International Campaign for Human Rights in Iran appealed to all members of the Human Rights Council to follow the Secretary- General’s evaluation and implement a special mechanism, which will allow the United Nations to gather more information on an ongoing basis and be in a better position to assist the Iranian people, as well as, to press the government to cooperate to improve their human rights.The report focused on the failure of Iranian authorities to cooperate with UN special mechanisms. No thematic Special Rapporteur has been allowed to visit the country since 2005, despite a “standing invitation” by Iran. What is more, the report noted a “low rate of reply” to urgent communications by Special Rapporteurs about massive numbers of reports of major human rights violations in Iran they have received.The Secretary General’s report also documented widespread torture, amputations and floggings; the lack of due process in Iran’s courts; the persecution of human rights defenders and political opposition figures; laws permitting juvenile executions; and legal discrimination against women, concluding that major legal reforms would be needed to bring Iran into compliance with its human rights treaty obligations.Since August 2010, the Campaign has documented mass, secret executions, mainly of alleged drug-traffickers, which have driven the execution rate to record highs. Iran executed at least 542 persons in 2010, as compared to 94 in 2005 when Mahmoud Ahmadinejad assumed power. Around 150 have been executed already in 2011, or one approximately every eight hours.“Failure to act on Iran now would be a repudiation of the entire United Nations human rights system and threaten a positive trend in the Middle East,” Rhodes said. “Council members have an opportunity to rise above regional politics and to show the Council can effectively promote human rights.”Hmmmm.....Let me think ...perhaps the UN could give Iran a couple of more seats in the Human rights commission thus making the problem 'dissapear'?Read the full hypocrite story here.

• HT:Memri:Video : Former Lebanese Minister and Hizbullah Ally Wiam Wahhab Compares Women Wearing the Niqab to Garbage Bags.Read and see the full story here.

MFS - The Other News

                          Morning Posting.

• Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.
• Updated !Aftershocks between 4.8 and 5.9 epicenters of four of them near nuclear plants more info here.

• Updated : The wind direction will change this might blow radiactive contamination towards the Philippines on friday. Here.

• Latest Situation Update No. 36. On 16.03.2011 at 09:34 GMT+2
  
  Bushido the way of the warrior.Since the disaster struck in Japan, about 800 workers have been evacuated from the damaged nuclear complex in Fukushima. The radiation danger is that great. However, CBS News correspondent Jim Axelrod reports that a handful have stayed on the job, risking their lives, to try to save the lives of countless people they don't even know. Although communication with the workers inside the nuclear plant is nearly impossible, a CBS News consultant spoke to a Japanese official who made contact with one of the 50 inside the control center. The official said that his friend, one of the Fukushima 50, told him that he was not afraid to die, that that was his job. Cham Dallas, who led teams responding to the Chernobyl disaster, said that kind of response is not out of the normal for some workers in the nuclear energy sector. "(In) my experience of people in the action area of nuclear power is much like that," Dallas said. The 50 are working amid decreasing but still dangerously high levels of radiation. "The longer they stay the more dangerous it becomes for them," said expert Margaret Harding. "I think it is a testament to their guts for them to say, 'We'll stay and if that means we go, we go.'" If the contamination threat isn't contained in a few weeks, finding enough workers willing to face the risks could become a crucial challenge. Dallas said he expects that in that scenario, the Japanese energy authorities may have to find volunteers willing to undergo similar dangers, which will be hard to do, but not impossible. Keep in mind they'd be volunteering to head into a place so potentially dangerous, that anyone within 20 miles of it was just asked to evacuate.
  
  
  
  
  Situation Update No. 35 On 16.03.2011 at 03:51 GMT+2
  
  Fires broke out at the Fukushima Daiichi plant's No. 4 reactor in Japan on Tuesday, according to the Tokyo Electric Power Company. The first fire caused a leak of concentrated radioactive material, according to the Japanese prime minister, Naoto Kan. The first fire broke out at 9:40 a.m. local time on Tuesday, and was thought to have been put out, but another fire was discovered early on Wednesday, believed to have started because the earlier one had not been fully extinguished. In a televised statement, the prime minister told residents near the plant that "I sincerely ask all citizens within the 20 km distance from the reactor to leave this zone." He went on to say that "[t]he radiation level has risen substantially. The risk that radiation will leak from now on has risen." Kan warned residents to remain indoors and to shut windows and doors to avoid radiation poisoning. The French Embassy in Japan reports that the radiation will reach Tokyo in 10 hours, with current wind speeds.
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  Situation Update No. 34
  On 16.03.2011 at 03:29 GMT+2
  
  The operator of Japan's stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant says a fire has broken out again at its No. 4 reactor unit. Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Hajimi Motujuku says the blaze erupted early Wednesday in the outer housing of the reactor's containment vessel. Fire fighters are trying to put out the flames. Japan's nuclear safety agency also confirmed the fire, whose cause was not immediately known. On Tuesday, a fire broke out in the reactor's fuel storage pond – an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool – causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere. Reuters reported that two workers are missing inside the plant, and a Japanese official said that there was a crack in the roof of the No. 4 reactor. Officials are struggling to address the failure of safety systems at several of the plant's reactors after Friday's massive earthquake and tsunami.
  
  
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  Situation Update No. 33
  On 15.03.2011 at 15:25 GMT+2
  
  France's ASN nuclear safety authority said on Tuesday the nuclear accident at Tokyo Electric Power Co's Fukushima Daiichi plant could now be classed as level six out of an international scale of one to seven. On Monday, the ASN had rated the ongoing accident at the plant, located 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo, as a five or six. Level seven was used only once, for Chernobyl in Ukraine in 1986. The 1979 accident at the Three Mile Island nuclear power plant in the United States was rated a level five. "We are now in a situation that is different from yesterday's. It is very clear that we are at a level six, which is an intermediate level between what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl," ASN President Andre-Claude Lacoste told a news conference in Paris on Tuesday. "We are clearly in a catastrophe," Lacoste added, citing the deterioration of the containment structure at Daiichi 2 as one of the key elements supporting the ASN's more pessimistic assessment. Two reactors exploded on Tuesday at the Fukushima Daiichi plant after days of frantic efforts to cool them. Japan, which rated the accident a four on Saturday, is under global scrutiny over its handling of a nuclear crisis triggered by a huge earthquake and tsunami that crippled three reactors and raised fears of an uncontrolled radiation leak.
  
  Situation Update No. 32
  On 15.03.2011 at 15:24 GMT+2
  
  Japan's nuclear crisis is equivalent to number six on the INES scale of nuclear accidents from one to seven, Kyodo news agency quoted the French Nuclear Agency as saying. The 1986 Chernobyl disaster was a seven and Three Mile Island a five.

• Cooling Efforts to Resume at Japan Nuke Plant Following Radiation Spike.Radiation levels decreased at Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-ichi nuclear facility Wednesday evening, allowing workers to resume efforts to prevent reactors from melting down.The workers at the forefront of the fight had been regularly rotated in and out of the danger zone to minimize their radiation exposure from the nuclear power plant crippled by Friday’s 9.0-magnitude earthquake and subsequent tsunami.But a surge in radiation Wednesday afternoon forced workers to suspend their efforts and remain inside until the danger had passed.Later Wednesday, national broadcaster NHK showed military helicopters lifting off to survey radiation levels above the complex, preparing to dump water onto the most troubled reactors in a desperate effort to cool them down.But the broadcaster later reported that the helicopters were called back after a drop onto Fukushima’s Unit 2 reactor was deemed too dangerous.Chief Cabinet Secretary Yukio Edano had already warned that dropping water via helicopter might not work."It's not so simple that everything will be resolved by pouring in water. We are trying to avoid creating other problems," he said."We are actually supplying water from the ground, but supplying water from above involves pumping lots of water and that involves risk. We also have to consider the safety of the helicopters above," he said.Meanwhile, officials in Ibaraki prefecture, just south of Fukushima, said radiation levels were about 300 times normal levels by late morning. While those levels are unhealthy for prolonged periods, they are far from fatal.Days after Friday's twin disasters, millions of people were struggling along the coast with little food, water or heat, and already chilly temperatures dropped further as a cold front moved in. Up to 450,000 people are staying in temporary shelters, often sleeping on the floor of school gymnasiums.More than 11,000 people are officially listed as dead or missing, but most officials believe the final death toll will be well over 10,000 people.In the city of Fukushima, about 40 miles inland from the nuclear complex, hundreds of harried government workers, police officers and others struggled to stay on top of the situation in a makeshift command center.An entire floor of one of the prefecture's office buildings had been taken over by people tracking evacuations, power needs, death tolls and food supplies.In one room, uniformed soldiers evaluated radiation readings on maps posted across a wall. In another, senior officials were in meetings throughout the day, while nuclear power industry representatives held impromptu briefings before rows of media cameras.Wednesday's radiation spike was apparently the result of a release of pressure that had built up in the complex's Unit 2 reactor, officials said. Steam and pressure build up in the reactors as workers try to cool the fuel rods, leading to controlled pressure releases through vents -- as well as uncontrolled explosions.A U.S. nuclear expert said he feared the worst."It's more of a surrender," said David Lochbaum, a nuclear engineer who now heads the nuclear safety program for the Union of Concerned Scientists, an activist group. "It's not like you wait 10 days and the radiation goes away. In that 10 days things are going to get worse.""It's basically a sign that there's nothing left to do but throw in the towel," Lochbaum said.Edano said the government expects to ask the U.S. military for help, though he did not elaborate. He said the government is still considering whether to accept offers of help from other countries."We have received so [much] support from across the globe," Noriyuki Shikata, the Japanese prime minister’s spokesman, told Fox News' Bret Baier on Special Report. "U.S. forces in Japan have been actively been helping the Japanese people."Hmmmmm.......Which elements exactly are in the radioactive clouds?Where the detailed info for the public?Is it Iodine, strontium and caesium or a coctail of all of them?They have half-lives of 8 days, 29 years, and 30 years respectively.Last but not least "there were over 100 radioactive elements released into the atmosphere when Chernobyl’s fourth reactor exploded "Read the full story here.

• Facts on Iodine-131 (131I), also called radioiodine (though many other radioactive isotopes of this element are known), is an important radioisotope of iodine. Its uses are mostly medical and pharmaceutical. It also plays a role as a major radioactive hazard present in nuclear fission products, and was a significant contributor to the health effects from open-air atomic bomb testing in the 1950s, and from the Chernobyl disaster. This is because I-131 is a major uranium fission product, comprising nearly 3% of the total products of fission.131I decays with a half-life of 8.02 days with beta and gamma emissions. (Meaning that after 8 days it is only half as powerfull)This nuclide of iodine atom has 78 neutrons in nucleus, the stable nuclide 127I has 74 neutrons. On decaying, 131I transforms into 131Xe.Iodine in food is absorbed by the body and preferentially concentrated in the thyroid where it is needed for the functioning of that gland. When 131I is present in high levels in the environment from radioactive fallout, it can be absorbed through contaminated food, and will also accumulate in the thyroid. As it decays, it may cause damage to the thyroid. The primary risk from exposure to high levels of 131I is the chance occurrence of radiogenic thyroid cancer in later life. Other risks include the possibility of non-cancerous growths and thyroiditis.The risk of thyroid cancer in later life appears to diminish with increasing age at time of exposure. Most risk estimates are based on studies in which radiation exposures occurred in children or teenagers. When adults are exposed, it has been difficult for epidemiologists to detect a statistically significant difference in the rates of thyroid disease above that of a similar but otherwise unexposed group.The risk can be mitigated by taking iodine supplements, raising the total amount of iodine in the body and therefore reducing uptake and retention in tissues and lowering the relative proportion of radioactive iodine. Unfortunately, such supplements were not distributed to the population living nearest to the Chernobyl nuclear power plant after the disaster, though they were widely distributed to children in Poland.Within the USA, the highest 131I fallout doses occurred during the 1950s and early 1960s to children who consumed fresh sources of milk contaminated as the result of above ground testing of nuclear weapons. The National Cancer Institute provides additional information on the health effects from exposure to 131I in fallout, as well as individualized estimates, for those born before 1971, for each of the 3070 counties in the USA. The calculations are taken from data collected regarding fallout from the nuclear weapons tests conducted at the Nevada Test Site.A common treatment method for preventing iodine-131 exposure is by saturating the thyroid with regular, non-radioactive iodine-127. This prevents the thyroid from absorbing the radioactive iodine-131, thereby avoiding the damage caused by radiation to the body. This treatment method is most commonly accomplished by administering potassium iodide to those at risk.Source .

• Q&A - Radiation exposure and the effects on human health.A look at what could happen to people who are exposed to radiation in the Japanese nuclear crisis.As engineers have fought to avert a meltdown at the earthquake- and tsunami-crippled Fukushima No. 1 (Daiichi) power plant, nuclear authorities have reported that spikes of radiation have escaped from the facility at levels that can be dangerous to human health. Authorities have evacuated more than 170,000 people within 12 miles of the plant and have warned those within 20 miles to stay indoors and close off ventilation systems. They have also issued iodine tablets to those who have remained in the area and those at evacuation centers. At least 200 people have been exposed to radiation. Here's a look at the potential radiation exposures and effects on human health.Read the full story here.

• Workers briefly abandon Japan nuclear plant as crisis worsens.TOKYO (Reuters) – Workers were ordered to withdraw briefly from a stricken Japanese nuclear power plant on Wednesday after radiation levels surged, Kyodo news reported, a development that suggested the crisis was spiraling out of control.Just hours earlier another fire broke out at the earthquake-crippled plant, which has sent low levels of radiation wafting into Tokyo in the past 24 hours, triggering both fear in the capital and international alarm.France urged its nationals either to leave Japan or head to the south and asked Air France to provide planes for evacuation. In a statement, the French embassy in Tokyo said two planes were already on their way to the capital.Academics and nuclear experts said the solutions being proposed to quell radiation leaks at the Daiichi nuclear plant in Fukushima were last-ditch efforts to stem what could well be remembered as one of the world's worst industrial disasters."This is a slow-moving nightmare," said Dr Thomas Neff, a research affiliate at the Center for International Studies, which is part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.Workers were trying to build a road so fire trucks could reach the stricken reactor No. 4 which was on fire on Wednesday.Japanese officials said they were talking to the U.S. military about possible help at the plant, 240 km (150 miles) north of Tokyo.Concern had earlier been mounting that the skeleton crews dealing with the crisis might not be big enough, or were possibly exhausted after working for days since last Friday's massive earthquake damaged the facility. Authorities withdrew 750 workers on Tuesday, leaving only 50.All those remaining were pulled out for almost an hour because radiation levels were too high, but later allowed to return, officials said.The plight of hundreds of thousands left homeless by the quake and devastating tsunami that followed worsened overnight following a cold snap that brought snow to some of the worst-affected areas.While the official death toll stands at around 4,000, more than 7,000 are listed as missing and the figure is expected to rise.In the first hint of international frustration at the pace of updates from Japan, Yukiya Amano, director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency, said he wanted more timely and detailed information."We do not have all the details of the information so what we can do is limited," Amano told a news conference in Vienna. "I am trying to further improve the communication."Several experts said the Japanese authorities were underplaying the severity of the incident, particularly on a scale called INES used to rank nuclear incidents. The Japanese have so far rated the accident a four on a one-to-seven scale, but that rating was issued on Saturday and since then the situation has worsened dramatically.France's nuclear safety authority ASN said on Tuesday it should be classed as a level-six incident.Japanese Prime Minister Naoto Kan on Tuesday urged people within 30 km (18 miles) of the facility.Officials in Tokyo said radiation in the capital was 10 times normal at one point but not a threat to human health in the sprawling high-tech city of 13 million people. Levels dropped to minimal on Wednesday, but nerves were shaken by a 6.0 earthquake which shook buildings. But residents have nevertheless reacted to the crisis by staying indoors. Public transport and the streets are as deserted as they would be on a public holiday, and many shops and offices are closed. Winds over the plant will blow from the north along the Pacific coast early on Wednesday and then from the northwest toward the ocean during the day, the Japan Meteorological Agency said. Fears of transpacific nuclear fallout sent consumers scrambling for radiation antidotes in the U.S. Pacific Northwest and Canada. Authorities warned that people would expose themselves to other medical problems by needlessly taking potassium iodide in the hope of protection from cancer. The nuclear crisis and concerns about the economic impact from the quake and tsunami have hammered Japan's stock market. The Nikkei index was up nearly 4 percent after closing down 10.6 percent on Tuesday and 6.2 percent the day before. The fall wiped some $620 billion off the market.Authorities have spent days desperately trying to prevent the water which is designed to cool the radioactive cores of the reactors from evaporating, which would lead to overheating and the release of dangerous radioactive material into the atmosphere. Levels of 400 millisieverts per hour had been recorded near the No. 4 reactor, the government said. Exposure to over 100 millisieverts a year is a level which can lead to cancer, according to the World Nuclear Association. A Sony spokeswoman said only 120 out of the usual 6,000 staff were working at the main Tokyo building. There were "no petrol" signs dotting roads from Tokyo to Chiba as well as chained off gas stations, while the sole open petrol had a queue 100 meters long.The full extent of the destruction from Friday's earthquake and tsunami was becoming clear as rescuers combed through the region north of Tokyo where officials say at least 10,000 people were killed. Whole villages and towns have been wiped off the map by the wall of water, triggering an international humanitarian effort of epic proportions. There have been hundreds of aftershocks and more than two dozen were greater than magnitude 6, the size of the earthquake that severely damaged Christchurch, New Zealand, last month. About 850,000 households in the north were still without electricity in near-freezing weather, Tohuku Electric Power Co. said, and the government said at least 1.5 million households lack running water. Tens of thousands of people were missing. Hmmmm.....Japan is dealing with it's worst crisis in it's history and the American President go's to party in Rio ,isn't there a single American politician with true grit left in America to speak up?Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Will Japan’s Catastrophe Cause A US Financial Earthquake?Japan is still trying to figure out the extent of the massive human toll of the tragedy that has befallen that country. The toll will reach biblical proportions. But in a few weeks they will need to begin charting plans to rebuild. Japan’s financial house in not in great shape, so they will need to borrow capital, plenty of it. But how much will be available? There is also speculation in Japan that to finance the rebuilding, Tokyo will sell off a portion of its huge holdings of U.S. Treasuries to cover the cost.Guess what? There is almost $1.8 trillion in US Treasury debt maturing this year. Fully 50% of American debt comes due in the next three years. Governments such as China have already indicated that they are will interested in buying U.S. debt than in the past. And if Japan sells off a portion of its US debt? We need to be concerned about the human toll right now. But pretty soon we will need to confront the reality that the Japanese catastrophe and the American debt crisis may collide on international financial markets. It’s just another reason we ought to be ashamed of ourselves and get our fiscal house in order. Japan is going to need to borrow heavily because they just got hit by an earthquake and tsunami. What’s our excuse?Hmmmm.......Try Obama's 'Change' as an excuse?Read the full story here.

• A Major Earthquake in North America Imminent?NEIL CAVUTO, HOST: Boy oh, boy, just what Japan does not need. An imminent earthquake warning just issued for several regions of the country. On edge there, on edge here, because it really didn't start with Japan. Take a look at what experts are increasingly calling the so-called ring of fire that is encircling the entire Pacific Ocean. You remember Chile's massive earthquake about a year ago. Then we had that big one in New Zealand just last month. Then of course Japan.If this clockwise trend continues, my next guest says North America looks to be on tap next. Don't laugh. Geologist Jim Berkland is worried. When he worries, you should worry too. Jim accurately predicted, get this, the 1989 so-called World Series earthquake four days before it shook the San Francisco Bay Area. And Jim says this month is of particular concern. Why, Jim?Jim Berkland , geologist : The month of October, March, and April are the three most devastating earthquakes in terms of damage in the San Francisco Bay Area in history. And we are having on the 19th of this month not only the full moon, but within an hour the closest approach of the moon to the earth until the year 2016. The next day is the equinoctial tides. So you're bringing together three of the maximum tide raising forces. We know about the ocean tides. But there is also an Earth tide. And there is a tide in the ground water. All of these help to release sudden, built up strain, and cause earthquakes.

CAVUTO: But that would seem to imply that we could be looking at a very imminent event in the United States within the next week or two? Is that right?

BERKLAND: Yes. My -- what I call a seismic window, this top seismic window in years is developing between the 19th and 26th of this month. And this was 7.0 monster and it says geologist had warned about it. And a week earlier, the they were talking about the tides, not to worry about the really tides coming up. I think there is worry here too.

CAVUTO: So let me just understand. You're a genius. I'm not. I want to follow your fine brain on this.

BERKLAND: Not a genius.

CAVUTO: What you're saying is that there is certain order to this, even though it doesn't appear like order? For a lot of folks, it just seems like random events. But you're saying there is a process unfolding here? For California --

BERKLAND: Absolutely.

CAVUTO: California, Oregon or whatever, would that mean? What type of quake or disturbance or disruption would that be?

BERKLAND: Well, if it was, one in the northwest, in the Cascadia Trench, like we had in 1700, that would be a nine magnitude quake. I'm not predicting that. But I'm saying we just had a massive fish kill. Maybe a million fish died in Redondo Beach. They had a massive fish sweep in Mexico. We just had a bunch of whales come in close to San Diego.CAVUTO: What does that presage? When you have events like that, what does that generally mean? What's going on in the waters?

BERKLAND: Changes -- changes in the magnetic field that off then precede larger earthquakes. Most animals have the mineral magnetite in their bodies, including people. But it causes homing pigeons to enable them to get home. Just before big quakes, they often can't get home. There is the delay factor. So we look for those kinds of things.Just before the World Series quake there was very unusual beaching of rare whales in the Ocean Beach, in San Francisco. Just after that, a equally rare pigmy sperm whale washed up at Santa Cruz, within about five miles of the epicenter of the World Series quake. That kind of beaching had never occurred before nor since. So we're looking for strange fish coming into from deepwater to the shallow water, wild animals coming into cities.I used to just scoff at these kinds of things, because I was a mainstream geologist until I found out that earthquakes are fitting a pattern. The big earthquake in the Indian Ocean followed massive beachings of whales in Taiwan -- not Taiwan, but New Zealand and Australia and Tasmania. And then within couple of days, they had a 8.3 in south of New Zealand, and then came the 9.1 in the Indian Ocean, with the big tsunami, on the very day of the fool moon.

CAVUTO: Wow.

BERKLAND: The previous big quake and tsunami was in Alaska, which is a 9.2 magnitude event, on the day off the full moon, on the 27th of March.

CAVUTO: Jim, bottom line, we have a lot to watch. Believe me, you're track record compels us to watch it. Jim, thank you very much. I hope you're wrong, buddy. I really hope your wrong but your record --

BERKLAND: Especially at this time, world history, not good.Hmmmm.....Let's hope he's wrong but i'm inclined to say yes the 'supermoon' and the equinoctial tides will have an serious influence.Read the full story here.

• The tsunami that struck Japan was the third in a series of events that now put California at risk.There was a horrifically destructive Pacific earthquake in New Zealand on Feb. 22, and an even more violent magnitude-8.8 event in Chile almost exactly a year before. All three phenomena involved more or less the same family of circum-Pacific fault lines and plate boundaries—and though there is still no hard scientific evidence to explain why, there is little doubt now that earthquakes do tend to occur in clusters: a significant event on one side of a major tectonic plate is often—not invariably, but often enough to be noticeable—followed some weeks or months later by another on the plate’s far side. It is as though the earth becomes like a great brass bell, which when struck by an enormous hammer blow on one side sets to vibrating and ringing from all over. Now there have been catastrophic events at three corners of the Pacific Plate—one in the northwest, on Friday; one in the southwest, last month; one in the southeast, last year.That leaves just one corner unaffected—the northeast. And the fault line in the northeast of the Pacific Plate is the San Andreas Fault, underpinning the city of San Francisco.All of which makes the geological community very apprehensive. All know that the San Andreas Fault is due to rupture one day—it last did so in 1906, and strains have built beneath it to a barely tolerable level. To rupture again, with unimaginable consequences for the millions who live above it, some triggering event has to occur. Now three events have occurred that might all be regarded as triggering events. There are in consequence a lot of thoughtful people in the American West who are very nervous indeed—wondering, as they often must do, whether the consent that permits them to inhabit so pleasant a place might be about to be withdrawn, sooner than they have supposed.Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• Japan quake shifts Antarctic glacier.The major earthquake that hit Japan on Friday caused a massive ice stream in Antarctica to momentarily speed up.As the surface seismic waves generated by the quake travelled around the world, they appear to have given the Whillans ice stream in West Antarctica a nudge, causing it to slide by about half a metre.The movement was picked up by Jake Walter of the University of California, Santa Cruz, and his colleagues, who monitor the glacier remotely from California. They say the event is an "interesting insight", but are not suggesting it will destabilise the ice stream in any way.The Whillans ice stream drains ice from the West Antarctic Ice Sheet into the Ross Ice Shelf. Since 2007, Walter and colleagues have been using GPS field stations on the ice sheet to monitor its movements. They have shown that the ice stream speeds up twice a day in slip events which last about 30 minutes.The glacier normally creeps along at an average speed of about 1 metre per day. But during a slip event, it slides almost half a metre in one go. The sudden slips are related to the tides, and are strong enough to generate seismic waves that are recorded by stations at the South Pole and the Antarctic Dry Valleys.Now it looks like the magnitude 9.0 earthquake that shook Japan last Friday caused the glacier to slip in a similar way.When Walter and his colleagues were analysing GPS data from the ice stream on Monday, they noticed that one slip event had happened earlier than expected. Further analysis revealed that it happened exactly when surface seismic waves generated by the Japanese earthquake would have hit Antarctica.Read the full story here.

• Obama administration obeys Sharia law and pays Diyya bloodmoney to release Davis!Officials say an American CIA contractor detained on suspicion of murder has been released after families of the two Pakistanis he killed pardoned him in exchange for compensation.Raymond Allen Davis has been in jail since Jan. 27, seriously straining ties between Pakistan and the United States.Punjab Law Minister Rana Sanaullah says Davis was charged with murder on Wednesday but was then pardoned by the families of the victims in exchange for compensation payment.Chaudhry Mushtaq, superintendent at Kot Lakhpat jail, says Davis had left the jail in the company of U.S. consulate officials.U.S. officials were not available for comment.Hmmmm....No word as how much has been payed in this shocking precedent!No doubt many suits will follow now in Pakistan for civilans killed by US weapons!Read the full scandal story here.

• Iran denies sending arms ship.'Jerusalem occupation is regime of lies,' says chief of staff, who hopes Israel 'will sink into sea'.The Iranian army's chief of staff, General Atallah Salhi, denied on Wednesday Israel's claims that his country had sent the arms ship Victoria, intercepted by the IDF en route to Gaza with 50 tons of weaponry on board."The Jerusalem occupation regime is a regime of lies, production of lies, and dissemination of lies. We reject all of these mendacious reports," he told IRNA. The general also took the opportunity to express his hopes for Israel's future. "God willing, this regime will sink into the Mediterranean Sea like the regime of the pharaohs in Egypt," he said. "Israel is the only one harmed by the rise of Islam in the countries of the Middle East and North Africa." Officials believe the Victoria was sent by Tehran because of the sophisticated surface-to-sea missiles found on board together with Farsi-language manuals, which are attired with the emblem of Iran's Revolutionary Guards.In addition, a Nasr-1 cruise missile was found to have a serial number close to that with which Iranian Defense Minister Ahmad Vahidi was pictured in January 2010, when Iran began producing the missile originally made by China. Israeli officials believe Iran sent the Victoria in an attempt to take advantage of the upheaval in Egypt, hoping that it would be allowed to pass through to Gaza's terror organizations unchecked. Hmmmm.....If Israel sinks in the sea,would that mean that Gaza was swallowed first?Read the full story here.

• It might be economically impossible to pay for Obama's budget.A lot of people these days are writing or saying that we're not really broke. Underlying this argument is the notion that we can tax rich people some more. Nick Gillespie at Reason lays out some facts about this belief, and how it ties into Obama's budget : Obama is projecting an unsustainable level of revenue that still won't come close to matching outlays. Since 1950, total federal revenues have averaged 17.8 percent of GDP. There has been only one year when it exceeded 20 percent of GDP (and only two years when it reached 20 percent). Yet Obama says that's where we're headed.Obama's budget foresees the government taxing 20 % of GDP and spending 23 percent of GDP. That means if we spend as much as Obama wants, we would be increasing our debt every year, unless Washington could somehow get 23 percent of GDP through tax receipts. This might not be impossible, but history shows that no matter how much you tax the rich, 20 percent is a stretch and 23 percent is impossible without some major change to our tax system -- like adding a value-added tax (VAT).Hmmmm....."I will not raise taxes" and we all know what his promises are worth?Read the full story here.

• NRA Refuses to Meet With Obama: “Why Should We Sit Down With People Who’ve Spent a Lifetime Trying to Destroy the Second Amendment?”More than two months after the Tucson shootings, the administration is calling together both the gun lobby and gun safety groups to find common ground. But President Obama has no plans to take the lead in proposing further gun control legislation, aides say, and the nation’s major gun rights group is snubbing the invitation.On Tuesday, officials at the Justice Department will meet with gun control advocates in the first of what will be a series of meetings over the next two weeks with people on different sides of the issue, including law enforcement, retailers and manufacturers, to seek agreement on possible legislative or administrative actions.The effort follows Mr. Obama’s call, in a column on Sunday in a Tucson newspaper, to put aside “stale policy debates” and begin “a new discussion” on ways to better enforce and strengthen existing laws to keep mentally unstable, violent and criminal people from getting guns.But the National Rifle Association, for decades the most formidable force against proposals to limit gun sales or ownership, is refusing to join the discussion — possibly dooming it from the start, given the lobby’s clout with both parties in Congress. Administration officials had indicated they expected that the group would be represented at a meeting, perhaps on Friday.“Why should I or the N.R.A. go sit down with a group of people that have spent a lifetime trying to destroy the Second Amendment in the United States?” said Wayne LaPierre, the longtime chief executive of the National Rifle Association.He named Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, who has almost no role in gun-related policies, and Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr.“It shouldn’t be a dialogue about guns; it really should be a dialogue about dangerous people,” Mr. LaPierre said, adding that his group has supported proposals to prevent gun sales to the mentally ill, strengthen a national system of background checks and spur states to provide needed data.Hmmmm......All he wants is control 'We The People' ,it's not about the guns.Read the full story here.

• HT:PowerlineBlog.USA Inc. If the United States were a company, what financial shape would it be in? And what would it make sense to do to put the company on a sounder footing? These are the intriguing questions that a group of investment analysts from Kleiner Perkins, headed by Mary Meeker, set out to answer. The resulting report, which includes 460 Power Point slides, is here. It is titled "USA Inc."I asked a friend who is extremely knowledgeable about finance to evaluate the product and point out some highlights. Here is his response.Hmmm.....Behold the Obamination!Read and SEE the full story here.

• 9/11 Firefighter Helps Forge Final Battle to Stop New York City 'Ground Zero Mosque'.In a last-chance effort to stop the so-called "Ground Zero Mosque," opponents were in court Tuesday arguing the building where the mosque is to be built should be a historic landmark -- thus making it ineligible for new construction."Why did they insist on building this mosque on the graveyards of our friends?" asked New York City firefighter Tim Brown, a 9/11 survivor who was among those that brought the lawsuit to New York State Supreme Court, along with the American Center For Law and Justice. "I'd like it to be an historical landmark to teach America about what happened here," Brown told Fox News.The suit maintains the 152-year-old building should have been declared an official landmark by the New York City Landmarks Preservation Commission. It claims the project's developers colluded with the administration of New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to push the project through in a move of political correctness, and allow the construction of an Islamic center in the shadow of Ground Zero. Brown's lawyer, Jack Lester, charged there was "active participation" between the Bloomberg administration and project developers.That claim was refuted by city officials. "As our court papers demonstrate, Landmarks Commission's decision not to designate the building a landmark is irrefutably rational," according to a spokesman for the New York City Law Department.Supporters of the project, known as Park51, contend the opposition is the result of "pure bigotry," and said the decision not to grant the structure landmark status was appropriate."Imagine, instead of building a community center with a mosque in it, they were building a grocery store. Do you think Timothy Brown would be in this case?" asked attorney Adam Leitman Bailey. "We only have a case today because they don't want Muslim people building a few blocks away from Ground Zero."As for the building, "there is nothing about it that deserves architectural integrity," maintained Leitman Bailey.Leitman Bailey, meanwhile, argued Brown had no standing in the case. "Because his friends died on that day does not give him standing. He has no case. The building is not historic." He also said the building is "not in the Ground Zero area," but is two blocks away and an "eight-minute walk."But Brown remained unswayed, and called the mosque's supporters un-American. "It's disgusting. It angers me ... I think that their claim that they are sensitive bridge-builders is a lie."A decision in the case is expected in about a month.Hmmm......Anyone taking a bet that Bloomberg will also choose for the Turkish Muslim new yellow cabs?Read the full story here.

• You shall not kill!It was 2010, and Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan was speaking, as tempered as always, to a crowd as tempered as the prime minister could be.“These [people] even see babies in their cradles as a threat. They have killed babies in their mothers’ arms,” he boomed.“These people,” naturally, were the Israelis.Addressing Israel’s leaders from a public rally in Turkey, Mr. Erdoğan said in both Turkish and English: “You shall not kill.” Then he showed his linguistic capabilities and went on: “You still don’t get it? Then I shall speak to you in your own language: Lo tir’tsach!” He was referring to the sixth of the 10 commandments in the Old Testament.In various other speeches, Mr. Erdoğan claimed that his fits of anger toward the death of children were “indiscriminative” of race and religion. “Wherever, whenever,” he often said, “a child has been killed,” he would fiercely stand against the murderers. All the same, he has been mute since Saturday.In the early hours of Saturday, a Palestinian broke into a house in the settlement of Itamar and stabbed to death a couple and their three children, aged 3 months, 4 years and 10 years old. The slain bodies were discovered by the couple’s 12-year-old daughter who was not at home when the murder was committed.The “Imad Mughniyeh” cell, with alleged links to the al-Aqsa Martyrs’ Brigade, claimed responsibility for the attack. The terrorist group is named after the “phantom” terrorist Imad Mughniyeh who was killed in a car bomb attack in Damascus which Hezbollah blamed on Israeli agents. Mr. Mughniyeh, or the “Shia bin-Laden,” was one of the world’s most wanted men (wanted in 42 countries) while he was enjoying a safe haven in the Syrian capital prior to his assassination.Most predictably, we have not heard Mr. Erdoğan saying "You shall not kill" in Arabic, and we probably never will. That’s hardly surprising since we have never heard Mr. Erdoğan speaking “indiscriminately” in the past against the killing of children and defenseless people in Itamar, or elsewhere in Israel – for Saturday’s attack in Itamar was not the first of its kind. In May 2002, a Palestinian killed a 14-year-old boy and wounded another teenager in the same settlement. A month later, another Palestinian killed a woman and her three children. In July the same year another Palestinian stabbed and wounded a couple. And in August 2004, a Palestinian killed a resident of Itamar.The hypocrisy over the killing of innocent people is not coincidental in any way. Last month, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad hosted, in Tehran, a delegation from the disastrous Turkish flotilla Mavi Marmara, comprising the “Mavi Marmara mujahedeen, ghazis and families of the shahids.”The delegates participated in Iran's Revolution Day ceremonies, and the head of the Turkish delegation noted that: “We are here today with the longing and the determination to build a Middle East without Israel and America, and to refresh our pledge to continue on the path of the Mavi Marmara shahids.”On Feb. 12, the same Mavi Marmara activist reiterated “the promising words of the President of the Islamic Republic of Iran… that 'only a short time is left for the building of a Middle East without Israel or America in it, and we are praying for the quick arrival of that bright day, when all of us will meet in a free al-Quds [Jerusalem].’”With five “Jooos” having disappeared from earth after the Itamar attack, that bright day must be arriving sooner.I am still curious, however, about what rank the 3-month old Israeli “soldier” held. Captain? Lieutenant colonel? Certainly too young to be a general?Hmmmm.......Erdogan "Muslims don't commit genocide" and crows wear stiletto heels?Read the full story here. HT : Amnon and Jonathan.

• Israel Land Fund: Netanyahu is Already Dividing Jerusalem.The Israel Land Fund organization presented on Tuesday, during the Jerusalem Conference, a video which the organization says proves that the Netanyahu government has already begun to divide Jerusalem.“I came here on behalf of the Israel Land Fund in order to wake up the Jewish nation that loves Jerusalem and came to the Jerusalem Conference, and to make it well-known to the public that the Likud government, the present government of Israel, already divided Jerusalem,” said Israel Land Fund Chairman Aryeh King, during a conversation with Israel National News TV.“We have eight neighborhoods in Jerusalem that Jews are not allowed to enter,” he explained. “There are areas where the Palestinian Authority policemen are present every day and nobody kicks them out. It means there are areas that if you as a Jew want to enter, you need to be escorted by the IDF.”King noted that this “is illegal. It’s against the Jerusalem law and we came here to wake up the people who love Jerusalem and have them put some public pressure on the Likud party.”Hmmmm.......The Obama 'effect'?Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Pakistan: Blasphemy-convicted Christian's death 'not due to natural causes'.A Christian convicted of blasphemy in Pakistan has died in mysterious circumstances in a jail in the southern city of Karachi.Qamar David was serving a life sentence in Karachi's central jail for insulting the Koran and the Prophet Muhammad.Officials say he died of a heart attack but his family say that as a fit and healthy man, this is unlikely be true.Pakistan's penal code prescribes punishments up to death for blasphemy against Islam and the Prophet.The law has elicited strong criticism - although recently liberals are more nervous about speaking out against it.That appears to be especially the case since the murder of Minority Affairs Minister Shahbaz Bhatti - a Christian - earlier this month, an event preceded by the murder of another liberal, Punjab Governor Salman Taseer in January.David was convicted of making blasphemous comments against the Koran and the Prophet in a text message to a business rival.'Threats'"My client was in perfect condition the last time I met him," Qamar David's lawyer Pervez Chaudhry told the BBC."I have spoken to the family and we don't believe he died a natural death."He had been receiving threats against his life."I had submitted an application in this regard in court - my client had also mentioned that prison officials were involved."Mr Chaudhry's arguments have been backed up by the dead man's family."I visited him quite regularly and he had never complained of any illness," Shahid Sagar, David's cousin, told the BBC."He was certainly not in the kind of condition that would make him drop dead all of a sudden. I can't accept this report of him dying of a heart attack."But prison officials are adamant that David died of natural causes.Qamar David worked as a supplier of cosmetics to local shops in Karachi.He was a resident of Lahore - where his family now lives - but was kept in jail in Karachi, which is part of Sindh province.Mr Chaudhry said that David's wife is now on her way to Karachi and is expected to ask for a post mortem examination when she arrives on Wednesday.Hmmmm.....Read the full story here.

• HT:AhmadiyyaTimes.Pakistan assassinations highlight sway of radical clerics.PESHAWAR, Pakistan — Yousaf Qureshi made international headlines in December when he offered $6,000 to anyone who killed a Pakistani Christian woman convicted of blasphemy. This month, the cleric told worshipers packed into his 17th-century mosque here that extremists had done a “marvelous job” days before, by assassinating a cabinet minister who had defended the woman.Those statements might count as incitement to violence under Pakistani law. But no government or law enforcement officials have confronted him, Qureshi said on a recent morning.“I can announce that we are coming to the street with 4,000 armed students,” said Qureshi, a jolly man whose eyes are rimmed with black liner and who, as caretaker of a historic building, is on the provincial government payroll. “What can the government do?”In a recent meeting with foreign journalists, federal information minister Firdous Ashiq Awan blamed extremism on government coalition partners, provincial officials, stingy international donors and CIA drone strikes. But she appeared unable to cite government actions to counter the problem.“Why not tell your electorate that this is a very serious existential fight, and let’s go and fight it?” said Ali Dayan Hasan, the Pakistan representative for Human Rights Watch.Prime Minister Yousaf Raza Gillani said authorities would do their “utmost” to find and punish Bhatti’s killers. But in an ominous sign, police said no witnesses to the attack agreed to provide statements for the initial report.Radical clerics, meanwhile, continue to call publicly for the deaths of liberal politicians. A court declined to issue arrest warrants for two clerics who inspired Taseer’s killer. In interviews, police officials in Lahore and Islamabad said they monitor sermons, but imams are rarely punished.Abdul Qudoos, a spokesman for a group of 13,000 madrassas, said clerics continue to disdain the idea of government oversight of religious schools. “They have failed everywhere,” Qudoos said of the government. “Why should it be different with this?”That air of untouchability is echoed by Qureshi, the Peshawar imam, who also runs a 700-student madrassa that teaches only the Koran. Studying other topics, he said, would instill materialism in students.Qureshi said his reward offer for the killer of Asia Bibi, the Christian woman, still stands, and he boasted he could collect the money from worshipers in 15 minutes. He said he already has $1 million in a briefcase, ready for anyone who kills a Danish cartoonist who drew the prophet Muhammad.Qureshi said his rhetoric has occasionally led local officials to briefly bar him from sermonizing. But they always buckle when his congregation starts rumbling.“I have 10,000 followers. All are holy warriors,” he said. “They will come out to the streets without thinking, just in the name of Islam.”Hmmmmm.....These are the people the Obama administration works with.Read the full story here.

• Bahrain opposition: 5 dead in 'war of annihilation'.Soldiers, police drive out hundreds of anti-government protestors in Pearl Square using tear gas, armored vehicles.At least five protesters have been killed and hundreds wounded in a crackdown by Bahraini forces on Wednesday, the head of the Shiite Muslim opposition bloc in parliament said."This is a war of annihilation. This does not happen even in wars and this is not acceptable," Abdel Jalil Khalil, a senior politician in Bahrain's largest Shiite party Wefaq, said. Khalil told Reuters by telephone that, apart from clearing protesters from the Pearl roundabout, troops had fanned out across Bahrain, cutting off streets and arresting or firing at people who tried to cross.Khalil said that private homes and funeral parlors were receiving casualties as troops had surrounded several hospitals and called on qualified doctors to head to their nearest health centre to help treat casualties.Soldiers and riot police used tear gas and armored vehicles to drive out hundreds of anti-government protesters occupying a landmark square in the capital, a day after emergency rule was imposed in the violence-wracked Gulf kingdom. State TV broadcast video showing military vehicles in the square flying Bahrain's red-and-white flag as security officials moved through the wreckage of the encampment, set up at the base of a towering monument to the country's history as a pearl diving center. The video showed the ground littered with debris, including satellite dishes and charred tent poles.Read the full story here.More here.

• White House wants new copyright law crackdown.The White House today proposed sweeping revisions to U.S. copyright law, including making "illegal streaming" of audio or video a federal felony and allowing FBI agents to wiretap suspected infringers. In a 20-page white paper (PDF), the Obama administration called on the U.S. Congress to fix "deficiencies that could hinder enforcement" of intellectual property laws.The report was prepared by Victoria Espinel, the first Intellectual Property Enforcement Coordinator who received Senate confirmation in December 2009, and represents a broad tightening of many forms of intellectual property law including ones that deal with counterfeit pharmaceuticals and overseas royalties for copyright holders.Some of the highlights:

• The White House is concerned that "illegal streaming of content" may not be covered by criminal law, saying "questions have arisen about whether streaming constitutes the distribution of copyrighted works." To resolve that ambiguity, it wants a new law to "clarify that infringement by streaming, or by means of other similar new technology, is a felony in appropriate circumstances."

• Under federal law, wiretaps may only be conducted in investigations of serious crimes, a list that was expanded by the 2001 Patriot Act to include offenses such as material support of terrorism and use of weapons of mass destruction. The administration is proposing to add copyright and trademark infringement, arguing that move "would assist U.S. law enforcement agencies to effectively investigate those offenses."

• • Under the 1998 Digital Millennium Copyright Act, it's generally illegal to distribute hardware or software--such as the DVD-decoding software Handbrake available from a server in France--that can "circumvent" copy protection technology. The administration is proposing that if Homeland Security seizes circumvention devices, it be permitted to "inform rightholders," "provide samples of such devices," and assist "them in bringing civil actions."

The term "fair use" does not appear anywhere in the report. But it does mention Web sites like The Pirate Bay, which is hosted in Sweden, when warning that "foreign-based and foreign-controlled Web sites and Web services raise particular concerns for U.S. enforcement efforts."The usual copyright hawks, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, applauded the paper, which grew out of a so-called joint strategic plan that Vice President Biden and Espinel announced in June 2010. At the same time, Democratic politicians tend to be a bit more enthusiastic about the topic. Biden was a close Senate ally of copyright holders, and President Obama picked top copyright industry lawyers for Justice Department posts. Last year, Biden warned that "piracy is theft." No less than 78 percent of political contributions from Hollywood went to Democrats in 2008, which is broadly consistent with the trend for the last two decades, according to OpenSecrets.org.Hmmmm......It's also a great way to silence any Blogger from the opposition who streams a vid,welcome to the Obama policestate?Read the full story here.

• Mideast Turmoil: China Anxious Over Oil.On Thursday, Libyan authorities sent a Chinese oil tanker back to China without its intended cargo of 2 million barrels of oil, according to Reuters. The ship will go to Algeria instead, to purchase oil there.Events like this, arising out of the turmoil in the Mideast, are of great concern to China because of its enormous dependence on imported oil.China imports about 2.9 million barrels of oil a day from the Mideast, including 1.1 million barrels a day from Saudi Arabia alone, according to the Wall Street Journal (Access). So the turmoil in the Mideast, and especially in Saudi Arabia, represents something of an existential threat to the Chinese. China’s dependence on the Mideast is only going to increase, because China’s oil imports will increase.The increasing anxiety on the part of the Beijing government over its dependence on imported oil is undoubtedly a big part of the reason why China has become extremely aggressive in claiming sovereignty over large regions in the South China Sea and the East China Sea.

Last year, a confrontation was growing with China on one side, and with the US, Vietnam and other Asian countries on the other side. (See “24-Jul-10 News — US confronts China on South China Sea claims.”)China is very aggressively claiming that the entire South China Sea region, including the Paracel and Spratly Islands and some 200 other islands, is China’s sovereign terrority, and that they have the right to prohibit foreign ships from entering that region.

The islands themselves may be of little value, but the region is suspected of being rich in oil and gas. Thus, they’re claimed in whole or in part by China, Taiwan, Brunei, the Philippines, Vietnam and Malaysia.Now that confrontation is growing once again.On Tuesday of last week, the heads of state for Indonesia and the Philippines met in Jakarta to discuss cooperation on combating terrorism, but also to discuss forming a common front to counteract China’s claims to the Spratly and Paracel islands, according to the Asia Sentinel.Just as important as the oil and gas rights to the region is the issue of freedom of navigation across the South China Sea, one of the world’s busiest waterways. If China were allowed to assert sovereignty over the region, then the interests of all Asian nations, as well as those of the United States, would be harmed.China repeated its previously stated hard line on the issue. A Chinese Foreign Ministry official is quoted as saying that they’re willing to talk about it, but the bottom line is: “China holds indisputable sovereignty over the South China Sea islands and their adjacent waters.”China is not stopping with claims to the islands in the South China Sea. China also is in a simmering dispute with Japan over the issue of sovereignty over the Senkaku Islands (called the Diaoyu Islands by the Chinese) in the East China Sea. In 2005, the dispute became so bitter that military action was being threatened on both sides. (See “China and Japan head for military confrontation over disputed islands.”)Then a new confrontation developed last year, when the Japanese arrested a Chinese fishing trawler captain, but was forced by the Chinese to return him to China. (See “26-Sep-10 News — China turns the screws on a humiliated Japan.”)Last week, the conflict flared again, when Japanese jets confronted Chinese planes near the disputed islands. However, the Chinese planes didn’t enter Japanese air space, and so the Japanese decided not to lodge a complaint, according to the BBC.This conflict could end up involving the United States. The disputed islands are currently administered by the Japanese, and last year Secretary of State Hillary Clinton confirmed that America is committed to defending Japan, under a 1960 treaty, if China attacks the disputed islands.So the turmoil in the Mideast doesn’t just threaten the world with having to shiver in winter. It also threatens military confrontations between China and other Asian nations, as well as the United States.Hmmmm.....How do you like the 'Change' now?Read the full story,

• Bahrain Declares State of Emergency; Recalls Ambassador To Iran Because of ‘Interference’.Events continue to heat up in Bahrain. Saudi Arabia has sent forces to the island to help quell violent protests. Iran has now voiced its support for the protesters. Khaleej Times (United Arab Emirates) reports:“His Majesty King Hamad bin Isa Al Khalifa of Bahrain on Tuesday enforced the National Safety Act (emergency law) for three months in all parts of the Kingdom as two died in fresh violence and the country recalled its ambassador from Iran in protest against Tehran’s interference.The Act was declared in the wake of the major political unrest and sectarian tensions which Bahrain has been witnessing since February 14.In a Royal Decree, King Hamad assigned the Commander-in-Chief of the Bahrain Defence Force (BDF) to take all necessary measures in order to implement the Act. Beside the BDF, public security, National Guard and other forces will be deployed if their services are required, the decree said.A statement carried by the Bahrain News Agency attributed enforcement of the Act to the threats citizens and expatriates have been exposed to because of street violence that have not spared religious places and educational institutions.On the diplomatic front, Bahrain recalled its ambassador to Tehran after the Iranian government condemned the arrival of Gulf Arab forces in the archipelago and defended the “legitimate” demands of pro-democracy protesters. Hamad Al Hamer, Undersecretary of Foreign Affairs for Regional Affairs, told the Press on Tuesday that such a statement is interference in Bahrain’s internal affairs and should not come from a country with good relations. He said Bahrain strongly condemned the statement and highlighted that the GCC Peninsula Shield Forces came as part of strong ties among Gulf countries.A source at Salmaniya Hospital, which has been receiving most of the casualties, confirmed an earlier report that a Bahraini man was killed. It also said a Bangladeshi man had died in clashes in the town of Sitra.Meanwhile, the Ministry of Interior said that a “group of vandals” had opened fire with automatic weapons on police patrols in the region of Buri, south of Manama, adding that no injuries were reported. A security official said police had begun “reopening roads closed by the demonstrators” in the southern Shia regions. But “no decision has yet been taken regarding Pearl Square,” the epicentre of protests.Read the full story here.

• HT:BigPeace.Former Minister of Iran’s Revolutionary Guards: Kill the Americans!We must give a directive to the people of the various regions that they should, without hesitation, kill the first American who steps foot on their land.In an interview with the defense reporter from the Iranian regime-run Fars News Agency, Mohsen Rafiqdoost, the former minister of the Revolutionary Guards, discussed the Islamic uprisings in the Middle East and Iran’s corresponding role:When people gain awareness and rise up, they become victorious. It is this populist support, as well as the support offered by the Iranian government to these protests, that is enough; we do not need to directly meddle.Rafiqdoost, in reference to the 1979 Islamic Revolution in Iran, stated: Our revolution, in comparison to the movements that people in the region have undertaken, was much greater. Our people rose up against the fifth largest non-nuclear army in the world and won.He continued : We fought for a full year on the streets and then we found ourselves climbing up the tanks; but the Egyptians climbed the tanks too soon in their movement. I hope they do not get fooled and are not diverted from their path and mission….The fact that our people and our government support these protests emboldens the citizens of those countries and will make them victorious.Rafiqdoost added:We must publicize the issue of a possible U.S. military attack on Libya and announce that anytime the U.S. military’s presence is felt, it should be turned into their graveyard. We must give a directive to the people of the various regions that they should, without hesitation, kill the first American who steps foot on their land. I had openly said this during the imposed war (Iran-Iraq) as well, and it is for that reason that I cannot travel abroad.As a side note: Mohsen Rafiqdoost, as the minister of the Revolutionary Guards, was personally responsible for establishing ties with various terrorist groups around the world, as well as funding and arming them. Also, four years after the Marine barracks bombing in Beirut, Mohsen Rafiqdoost boasted that “both the TNT and the ideology, which in one blast sent to hell 400 officers, NCOs, and soldiers at the Marines headquarters, were provided by Iran.”Hmmmmm........Obama "Lets go to Rio"there's radiation heading towards the USA.Read the full story here.

• Egypt - Muslim Brotherhood Sticks to Ban on Christians and Women for Presidency.A leading figure in the Muslim Brotherhood (MB), Egypt's largest opposition group, said on Monday that the MB's new "Freedom and Justice Party" would continue to stick by its view that Christians and women are unsuitable for the presidency.Saad al-Husseini, a member of MB's Guidance Bureau, the highest executive authority within the group, said the new party program will be announced late March after it is approved by the MB's Guidance Office and Shura Council. Al-Husseini said that although they stick by this view, they "respect all opinions"."Our adherence to the jurisprudential opinion refusing the appointment of women or Christians as president does not mean we impose this opinion on the people, who have inherent jurisdiction in this regard," he said."I personally accept for Copts to be appointed in hundreds of positions, including sensitive leadership positions in the country in accordance with the criterion of efficiency and competence, regardless of their proportion in society."Meanwhile, MB spokesman Mohamed Morsi said the group is pushing for a civil state, without the tutelage of the clergy. Morsi said the group does not call for a religious state.During an interview on state-owned television on Sunday night, Morsi said, "The civil state sought by Islam and the MB would ensure equal rights for Copts."He pointed out that the new party will not discriminate in its membership between Muslims and Christians, or males and females, and that it will represent the politically focused side of the group, while the MB will continue to practice all of its social and preaching activities.Hmmmm....The people Obama pledges to give 1,57 billion Dollar in 2012!Read the full story here.

• And now for something completely different!Video: In the epic battle of Zionist Boobs vs. Snake: Boobs 1, Snake 0.It should have been an alluring photoshoot between two of nature's beautiful creatures as a model wrapped herself in a snake.But surgically enhanced Israeli model Orit Fox got more than she bargained for when the massive boa constrictor took objection to her over familiarity and reacted by biting into her breast.However, it was the snake who came off worse because, while Ms Fox need a tetanus shot in hospital, the reptile later died from silicone poisoning.That will teach snakes to bite a Zionist! Hmmmm......Makes you wonder if it kills a snake,can it be healthy in your body?Read the full story here. HT : TheJawaReport.