"Merry Christmas" Iranian style, Christians in Iran arrested on Christmas Day.

"Merry Christmas" Iranian style, Christians in Iran arrested on Christmas Day.(Mojahedin).

The suppressive mullah’s regime Basij patrols -- plain cloths militants equipped with pistols and walky-talkies -- attacked a home church in Roodehen on Christmas day arresting 9 members of this small Christian community.

These 9 individuals have been identified as: Mehdi Kian, Ali Sadraddin (Brother Stephen), Mohammad Kazemi, Azin Faroudi, Mohammad Hossein Moridian, Maryam Narimani, Alireza Nasiri, Brother Matin, and one more person who has not been named. They all have been transferred to an unknown location.

Experts debate lack of religious freedom in 'Neo-Ottoman' Turkey.

Experts debate lack of religious freedom in 'Neo-Ottoman' Turkey.(TZ).

Even though Turkey has taken some steps regarding religious freedoms for Muslim and non-Muslim minority groups, there are still areas of concern, like the lack of special legal status for religious communities and the state's control over religion.

“Turkey is a signatory of the European Convention on Human Rights, which entails religious rights. And all European countries have addressed this problem -- legal personalities -- not Turkey. It is hard to explain why Turkey does not address this issue,” said Gerald Knaus, chairman of the European Stability Initiative (ESI), at the Round-Table Conference on Freedom of Religion in Turkey and the EU Member States, held in İstanbul from Feb. 5-6, 2014.

Knaus referred to a 2010 report by the Venice Commission on the legal status of religious communities in Turkey and the right of the Orthodox Patriarchate of İstanbul to use the adjective “ecumenical.”

In the report, the Council of Europe's Venice Commission said the recognition of the legal personality of religious minority institutions and communities established in Turkey is a major issue.

A member of Turkey's Greek community said at the conference that the current Turkish government's approach to the issue has been friendly, yet there is an attitude of superiority.

“The Greek patriarchate has no legal personality. In regards to the properties confiscated from the minority foundations, yes, they are given back -- although there are some problems -- but they are given back without an apology, and this giving back is done as if the government is granting a gift.”

Cengiz Aktar, senior scholar of the İstanbul Policy Center, agreed.“This is Prime Minister [Recep] Tayyip Erdoğan's style; he kind of donates or grants rights to people; but his decisions are not backed by legal and institutional guarantees. He tells people that ‘I'm in charge of your safety and security.' This is a bit like in the Ottoman Empire,” he said.

According to historian and writer Herkül Millas, though the Justice and Development Party's approach is more friendly than the Kemalists hard-line approach, it is not modern.

“This is a move from a Kemalist to an Islamist approach; it is not modern. It is a romantic movement related to the Ottoman era. It does not provide liberties to individuals but groups, as it was in the ‘millet' system for people,” he said.

Another problem the participants discussed is the state's control of religion in Turkey, where the Religious Affairs Directorate (Diyanet), Turkey's top Islamic authority, only serves the needs of the country's Sunni Muslim community.

“We need to have a modern understanding of citizenship and secularism,” Millas said. “Minorities are human beings. They want their citizenship rights; they do not want to be treated like subjects. Being treated like subjects is humiliating.“

Samim Akgönül, a professor from the University of Strasbourg, said that Turkey's policy of minorities is one of domination.

“It's time to go beyond the identity of religiousness and move to individuality of groups without identifying them with religion. Identity works against individuality and that is how it was in the Ottoman period. However, the right concepts should be based on free individuals, practicing or not.”The conference's participants have debated obstacles confronting reforms in Turkey; perspectives on religious freedom; and the state and Muslim affiliations in Turkey in the 21st century.

Video - Mr Khan's Christmas Message - BBC Comedy.

Paul Ryan: Obama Threatens ‘Judeo-Christian Values’.

Paul Ryan: Obama Threatens ‘Judeo-Christian Values’.(Reuters).In a telephone call with evangelical voters Sunday night, U.S. Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan told potential voters that President Barack Obama’s path for the United States compromises Judeo-Christian values.
The comment came during the final sprint for the U.S. election on Tuesday. Speaking to the Faith and Freedom Coalition, a leading group of Christian conservatives, Ryan attacked Obama’s vision in stark terms. In the campaign’s last week, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney and Ryan, his running mate, have argued that if elected, they would end partisan divisiveness and work with Democrats to find solutions in Washington.
“It’s a dangerous path,” Ryan said of Obama’s plan for the United States. “It’s a path that grows government, restricts freedom and liberty, and compromises those values, those Judeo-Christian, Western civilization values that made us such a great and exceptional nation in the first place.” Routinely on the stump, Ryan says that the president’s policies, particularly his 2010 healthcare restructuring, also known as “Obamacare,” curb religious freedom. “He was talking about issues like religious liberty and ‘Obamacare’ - topics he has mentioned frequently during the campaign,” said Romney campaign spokesman Michael Steel.Read the full story here.

OIC : "West’s free speech stand bars blasphemy ban."

OIC : "West’s free speech stand bars blasphemy ban."(AA).Western opposition has made it impossible for Muslim states to obtain a ban on blasphemy, including anti-Islamic videos and cartoons that have touched off deadly riots, the Islamic world’s top diplomat said.

Ekmeleddin Ihsanoglu, secretary general of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), said his 57-nation body would not try again for United Nations support to ban insults to religion, but appealed for states to apply hate-speech laws concerning Islam. 

“We could not convince them,” said the Turkish head of the 57-member organization which had tried from 1998 until 2011 to get a United Nations-backed ban on blasphemy. “The European countries don’t vote with us, the United States doesn’t vote with us.” Western countries see the publication of such images and materials as a matter of free speech.
The posting of an amateurish U.S.-made video portraying the Prophet Mohammad as a foolish womanizer and the publication of caricatures of him in France last month led to violent protests and renewed calls from the Muslim world for a global law against blasphemy. The protests claimed some two dozen lives. Ihsanoglu told a conference in Istanbul at the weekend that the OIC had failed to win a ban at the United Nations and would not revive its long diplomatic campaign for one. Asked about recent media reports that the OIC wanted to resume the campaign for a blasphemy ban, he said: “I never said this and I know this will never happen.”
The OIC respects freedom of expression but sees anti-Islam videos and cartoons as an abuse of this freedom that Western countries should sanction through their own blasphemy or hate crime laws, he said. Ihsanoglu’s statement clarified the OIC stand at a time when Muslim religious leaders have stepped up demands for an international blasphemy law and politicians have accused Western states of spreading anti-Muslim hatred under the protection of their free-speech laws.
Ihsanoglu said Western states had a “strange understanding” of free speech if it could be abused to hurt and insult others. Responding at the United Nations last month to the Muslim protests against the U.S.-made video “Innocence of Muslims” parodying Prophet Mohammad, President Barack Obama condemned the film but staunchly defended free speech. “The strongest weapon against hateful speech is not repression, it is more speech -- the voices of tolerance that rally against bigotry and blasphemy,” he said.

Explaining his decision not to pursue a world ban, Ihsanoglu said the 1966 International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and a non-binding 2011 U.N. General Assembly resolution against religious intolerance provided a sufficient basis for U.N. member states to take legal action. “We have enough law and we need to implement these laws,” he said. 

Muslim politicians have stepped up their denunciations of Western free speech policies following the video and cartoons lampooning Prophet Mohammad. Muslims consider any criticism of him as highly offensive and beyond free speech protection. “We cannot accept insults to Islam under the guise of freedom of thought,” Turkish Prime Minister Tayyip Erdogan told the Istanbul conference. “We Muslims want the same respect shown to Jewish culture, which we support,”
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said. But while editorialists and religious leaders have renewed calls for a worldwide blasphemy ban, few national leaders have actually ended their rhetorical reactions with that demand. One who did at the United Nations last month was President Asif Ali Zardari of Pakistan, whose own national blasphemy law has come under increasing criticism at home and abroad as open to widespread abuse against minority Christians. Ihsanoglu, speaking at the conference on a panel with Pakistani opposition leader Imran Khan, encouraged countries with blasphemy laws to apply against insults to Islam, and then quickly added: “"not particularly the one in Pakistan.”Hmmmm........Erdogan: "We Muslims want the same respect shown to Jewish culture, which we support,".....one quote to save for posterity.Read the full story here.

Vatican says religious liberty under attack in America.

Vatican says religious liberty under attack in America.(RA).The Vatican is alarmed at what it sees as the erosion of religious freedom in the United States, warning of a threat of “unprecedented gravity” to the Catholic Church’s “liberty and public moral witness.” Vatican Secretary of State Tarcisio Bertone conveyed a message from Pope Benedict XVI in a letter to the Knights of Columbus’s annual convention in Anaheim, Calif., suggesting a concerted effort is being made to “redefine and restrict the exercise of the right to religious freedom.” The Pope has long been an admirer of the First Amendment and the balance that the American system has struck between church and state until recently, hence his particular concern. The letter warns that a brand of secularism is taking hold in America that seeks to exclude the Catholic Church from participating in the debate about issues affecting the future of the nation. It concludes urging the Knight of Columbus and other Catholic laity to counter the spread of militant secularism in American culture.Read the full story here.

Here's one for the 'International Religious Freedom Report' - Riyadh deports 35 Ethiopian Christians for praying.

Here's one for the 'International Religious Freedom Report' - Riyadh deports 35 Ethiopian Christians for praying.(JPost).By Benjamin Weinthal.Saudi Arabia deported 35 Ethiopian Christians last week after incarcerating them for over seven months for praying in advance of the Christmas season in December 2011, according to Christian media outlets and NGOs. International Christian Concern wrote on its website that “Saudi Arabia deported the last of the 35 Ethiopian Christians who were detained for holding an all-night prayer vigil. Saudi security officials assaulted, harassed and pressured the Christians to convert to Islam during their incarceration.” “We have arrived home safe. We believe that we are released as the result of the pressure exerted by ICC and others,” one of the Ethiopians told ICC.

 “The Saudi officials don’t tolerate any other religions other than Islam. They consider non-Muslims as unbelievers. They are full of hatred towards non-Muslims.” 

On December 15, Saudi authorities raided a private religious function in Jeddah, a city on the Red Sea coast in western Saudi Arabia, and arrested 35 Ethiopian Christian workers. According to human rights groups and the US government’s Commission on International Religious Freedom, the 29 women and six men faced beatings and sexual assault. The commission noted that “some of the men detained have alleged that they were physically abused during interrogations and the female detainees reportedly were subjected to intrusive and humiliating body cavity searches.
While no formal charges have been made, the detainees reportedly were charged with ‘illicit mingling’ with the opposite sex. Saudi authorities informed sponsors of some of the detainees that their employees were being held because of illegal religious activities. The detainees also reportedly face imminent deportation.” Since 2004, the US State Department has described Saudi Arabia as a “country of particular concern” for its repression of religious freedom. The imprisonment of the 35 Ethiopians garnered scarce media attention. The ICC spearheaded a campaign in Washington to force the Saudis to release them.
 “This incident underscores the troubling reality that there is no religious freedom in Saudi Arabia. The fact is that in Saudi Arabia a person is not free to practice their faith even in the privacy of their own home. While Saudi Arabia strictly bans all public displays of faith that are not Islamic, storming into a private home and imprisoning immigrants exposes the real nature of religious freedom in the kingdom – it doesn’t exist unless you’re a Muslim who practices a government-approved Islamic faith,” Jordan Sekulow, executive director of the Washington- based American Center for Law and Justice, wrote to The Jerusalem Post by email on Saturday. Sekulow, whose organization works to promote religious freedom abroad, added, “Also disturbing is the all-too-common tactic used by governments to alter charges placed against Christians. Such a move does nothing to conceal the fact that these Christians are being persecuted for their faith. No matter how the government attempts to position their persecution, the fact is clear – Christians are labeled criminals because of their faith. Saudi Arabia is one of a number of nations that fails to protect the rights of religious minorities – including Christians and Jews. “While efforts to protect religious freedom in Saudi Arabia are woefully inadequate, it is our hope that that incidents like this one will call attention to this growing problem in Saudi Arabia and other countries.” In an email to the Post on Saturday, Ben Cohen, a New York-based journalist who has written extensively on persecution of Christians, wrote, “The history of relations between the Saudis and the West is a shabby history of collusion with religious intolerance.

 “In March this year, the grand mufti of Saudi Arabia, Abdul-Aziz ibn Abdullah Al ash-Sheikh, declared that it was necessary to ‘destroy all the churches in the region.’” 

Cohen, who co-wrote an article in The Wall Street Journal last week on Iran’s persecution of Christians, added, “This week, you have Secretary of State Hillary Clinton saying, ‘Religious freedom is a cherished constitutional value, a strategic national interest, and a foreign policy priority.’ These are fundamentally contradictory messages, and I don’t see that the Saudi monarchy and clerics are remotely sensitive to our standpoint – and they won’t be until we start exercising real diplomatic and economic pressure.” The Saudi government assured the international community in 2006 that it would guarantee religious freedom in the kingdom where only Islam is permitted to be practiced. The Saudi government advocates a radical form of Sunni Islam that is frequently embraced by terrorists. On ICC’s website, the organization’s Jonathan Racho said, “Saudi Arabian officials clearly demonstrated their utter disregard for religious freedom by arresting, mistreating and deporting the Christians for holding a prayer meeting. The Saudis deceive the international community by pretending to promote tolerance among followers of different religious beliefs; however, in reality they don’t tolerate any other religion besides Wahhabi Islam. The international community must pressure Saudi Arabia to respect religious freedom.” Hmmmm......Obama:"“We will hold sacred the beliefs held sacred by others.”Read the full story here.

"Thou Shalt Not Mandate" - 43 Catholic institutions file suits over HHS mandate.

"Thou Shalt Not Mandate" - 43 Catholic institutions file suits over HHS mandate.(HotAir).Today’s Roman Catholic calendar lists May 21st as the feast day of St. Christopher Magallanes, a martyr killed for celebrating Mass during the Cristero War in Mexico. Perhaps Catholics today may want to recall St. Thomas More — the patron saint of lawyers, who was executed for refusing to agree to a mandate that gave Henry VIII the prerogative of defining religious expression in England. Dozens of Catholic institutions filed lawsuits today against the Department of Health and Human Services over its mandate and its narrow definition of religious practice:

Catholic archdioceses and institutions filed suit in federal district courts across the country Monday against the so-called contraception mandate, claiming their “fundamental rights hang in the balance.”
The plaintiffs include a host of schools and organizations, including the University of Notre Dame and the Archdiocese of New York. The lawsuits, though related, were filed individually.
The schools are objecting to the requirement from the federal health care overhaul that employers provide access to contraceptive care. The Obama administration several months back softened its position on the mandate, but some religious organizations complained the administration did not go far enough to ensure the rule would not compel them to violate their religious beliefs.

The University of Notre Dame hosted a speech by President Barack Obama in 2009, but today insists that Obama and his administration are attacking religious freedom in their complaint:

This lawsuit is about one of America’s most cherished freedoms: the freedom to practice one’s religion without government interference. It is not about whether people have a right to abortion-inducing drugs, sterilization, and contraception. Those services are, and will continue to be, freely available in the United States, and nothing prevents the Government itself from making them more widely available. But the right to such services does not authorize the Government to force the University of Notre Dame (“Notre Dame”) to violate its own conscience by making it provide, pay for, and/or facilitate those services to others, contrary to itssincerely held religious beliefs. …
If the Government can force religious institutions to violate their beliefs in such a manner, there is no apparent limit to the Government’s power. Such an oppression of religious freedom violates Notre Dame’s clearly established constitutional and statutory rights.The First Amendment also prohibits the Government from becoming excessively entangled in religious affairs and from interfering with a religious institution’s internal decisions concerning the organization’s religious structure, ministers, or doctrine. The U.S. Government Mandate tramples all of these rights.

LifeNews has a statement from Notre Dame’s president, Fr. John Jenkins, who extended the invitation to Obama in the first place:

Let me say very clearly what this lawsuit is not about: it is not about preventing women from having access to contraception, nor even about preventing the Government from providing such services. Many of our faculty, staff and students — both Catholic and non-Catholic — have made conscientious decisions to use contraceptives. As we assert the right to follow our conscience, we respect their right to follow theirs. And we believe that, if the Government wishes to provide such services, means are available that do not compel religious organizations to serve as its agents. We do not seek to impose our religious beliefs on others; we simply ask that the Government not impose its values on the University when those values conflict with our religious teachings. We have engaged in conversations to find a resolution that respects the consciences of all and we will continue to do so.
This filing is about the freedom of a religious organization to live its mission, and its significance goes well beyond any debate about contraceptives. For if we concede that the Government can decide which religious organizations are sufficiently religious to be awarded the freedom to follow the principles that define their mission, then we have begun to walk down a path that ultimately leads to the undermining of those institutions. For if one Presidential Administration can override our religious purpose and use religious organizations to advance policies that undercut our values, then surely another Administration will do the same for another very different set of policies, each time invoking some concept of popular will or the public good, with the result these religious organizations become mere tools for the exercise of government power, morally subservient to the state, and not free from its infringements. If that happens, it will be the end of genuinely religious organizations in all but name.

 Read the full story here.More here: Cardinal Dolan Applauds Church Agencies As They Challenge HHS For Violating Religious Freedom

Cardinal Dolan: Obama Admin Lectured Bishops on Catholic Teaching.

Cardinal Dolan: Obama Admin Lectured Bishops on Catholic Teaching.(LN).Cardinal Timothy Dolan, the president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic bishops, has released a public letter today detailing a stunning conversation he and other bishops had with top White House officials about the controversial Obama mandate.
In the letter, Cardinal Dolan relates a shocking meeting in which top Obama Administration asked to meet with the bishops to “work out the wrinkles” of the mandate. After accepting the invitation and arriving at the White House, the bishops asked whether any ability to broaden the very narrow religious exemptions in the mandate were off the table.“The invited us to ‘work out the wrinkles.’ We have accepted that invitation,” he wrote.
“Unfortunately, this seems to be stalled: the White House Press Secretary, for instance, informed the nation that the mandates are a fait accompli (and, embarrassingly for him, commented that we bishops have always opposed Health Care anyway, a charge that is scurrilous and insulting, not to mention flat out wrong.”)
Dolan writes: “At a recent meeting between staff of the bishops’ conference and the White House staff, our staff members asked directly whether the broader concerns of religious freedom—that is, revisiting the straight-jacketing mandates, or broadening the maligned exemption—are all off the table. They were informed that they are. So much for “working out the wrinkles.” Instead, they advised the bishops’ conference that we should listen to the “enlightened” voices of accommodation, such as the recent, hardly surprising yet terribly unfortunate editorial in America.”
He said, “The White House seems to think we bishops simply do not know or understand Catholic teaching and so, taking a cue from its own definition of religious freedom, now has nominated its own handpicked official Catholic teachers
“We have made it clear in no uncertain terms to the government that we are not at peace with its invasive attempt to curtail the religious freedom we cherish as Catholics and Americans,” the archbishop of New York wrote in a public letter to the Catholic bishops last Friday. “We did not ask for this fight, but we will not run from it.”
Dolan said, “The White House already notified Congress that the dreaded mandates are now published in the Federal Registry ‘without change.’ He added that “The Secretary of HHS is widely quoted as saying, ‘Religious insurance companies don’t really design the plans they sell based on their own religious tenets.’ That doesn’t bode well for their getting a truly acceptable “accommodation.”
He added that “Congress might provide more hope, since thoughtful elected officials have proposed legislation to protect what should be so obvious: religious freedom. Meanwhile, in our recent debate in the senate, our opponents sought to obscure what is really a religious freedom issue by maintaining that abortion inducing drugs and the like are a ‘woman’s health issue.’ We will not let this deception stand. Our commitment to seeking legislative remedies remains strong. And it is about remedies to the assault on religious freedom. Period.”
“Perhaps the courts offer the most light,” he said about the many lawsuits that have been filed against the mandate.Cardinal Dolan added that “we know so very well that religious freedom is our heritage, our legacy and our firm belief, both as loyal Catholics and Americans. There have been many threats to religious freedom over the decades and years, but these often came from without. This one sadly comes from within. As our ancestors did with previous threats, we will tirelessly defend the timeless and enduring truth of religious freedom.”Read the full story here.

MFS -The Other News - What the main papers don't say.

  Morning Posting.

• Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world seismic activity situation Indonesia 5.7 - 5.5 ; Solomon Islands 5.2 !More info here.

• Andrew Breitbart At CPAC, “I Have Videos” of Obama From His College Day.(TT).Andrew Breitbart took the podium at CPAC Friday afternoon, introduced to the stage with Rage Against The Machine’s Guerilla Radio, and revealed to the audience he had “videos” of Barack Obama from his college days. “I have videos, this election we’re going to vet him,” Breitbart disclosed to raucous applause. “We are going to vet him from his college days to show you why racial division and class warfare are central to what hope and change was sold in 2008.”Read the full story here.

• Voices of Opposition Speak Out Against Obama’s Contraception Mandate ‘Accommodation’.(Heritage).That’s the near-unanimous response to President Obama’s supposed “accommodation” offered to those who objected to Obamacare’s mandate that religious institutions pay for contraceptive products and services—including abortion-inducing drugs.That mandate — which tramples heavily on religious liberties — drew tremendous fire across the board, from Christians and Jews alike, drowning the President in a political maelstrom of his own design. And though today the President sought to calm that storm with a “compromise,” the voices of opposition are as strong as ever because, quite simply, it doesn’t remedy the moral and religious liberty objections to this mandate, and as a practical matter, it simply doesn’t work.Here’s a roundup of the reactions:Former Vatican Ambassador Mary Ann Glendon, Princeton Prof. Robert George, Notre Dame Law Prof. Carter Snead, Catholic University of America President John Garvey, and EPPC Fellow Yuval Levin wrote: This so-called “accommodation” changes nothing of moral substance and fails to remove the assault on religious liberty and the rights of conscience which gave rise to the controversy. It is certainly no compromise. The reason for the original bipartisan uproar was the administration’s insistence that religious employers, be they institutions or individuals, provide insurance that covered services they regard as gravely immoral and unjust. Under the new rule, the government still coerces religious institutions and individuals to purchase insurance policies that include the very same services…It is morally obtuse for the administration to suggest (as it does) that this is a meaningful accommodation of religious liberty because the insurance company will be the one to inform the employee that she is entitled to the embryo-destroying “five day after pill” pursuant to the insurance contract purchased by the religious employer. It does not matter who explains the terms of the policy purchased by the religiously affiliated or observant employer. What matters is what services the policy covers.The Beckett Fund for Religious Liberty noted: It’s not like President Obama has seen the light and is now committed to protecting conscience; he’s trying to, as the New York Times puts it, “shore up support among wavering Democrats, who have also expressed doubt about the rule, along with more liberal religious organizations and charities, who oppose the rule but not as vehemently as the Catholic leadership.”Pro-Life Caucus Chairman Chris Smith weighed in:The so-called new policy is the discredited old policy, dressed up to look like something else. It remains a serious violation of religious freedom. Only the most naïve or gullible would accept this as a change in policy.The newest iteration of Obama’s coercion rule utterly fails because it still forces religious employers and employees who have moral objections to paying for abortion inducing drugs, sterilization and contraception to pay for these things, because it is still the employers who buy the coverage for their employees.Republican Study Committee Chairman Jim Jordan said: This ObamaCare rule still tramples on Americans’ First Amendment right to freedom of religion. It’s a fig leaf, not a compromise. Whether they are affiliated with a church or not, employers will still be forced to pay an insurance company for coverage that includes abortion-inducing drugs.This is not just a problem for church-affiliated hospitals and charities. Under these rules, a small business owner with religious objections to abortion-inducing drugs and contraception must either violate his religious beliefs or violate the law.”And the Alliance Defense Fund wrote:The Obama administration’s rule change doesn’t change anything. Employees will still pay for this coverage. Through this sleight of hand, the administration is forcing indirectly what it can’t do directly. It is still forcing people of faith to subsidize practices and treatments that violate their values, their morals, and their religious beliefs. What’s next? Will the administration force Jewish schools to serve pork because it’s ‘good’ for Jewish students? When you take religious liberty from a few, you take religious liberty from all.The responses go on and on, but perhaps words laid down before the President even made his announcement sum it up best. Archbishop Donald Wuerl, Chuck Colson, and Meir Soloveichik joined forces in the Wall Street Journal this morning to warn of the common peril posed by Obamacare’s mandate for their faith communities: Stories involving a Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew typically end with a punch line. We wish that were the case here, but what brings us together is no laughing matter: the threat now posed by government policy to that basic human freedom, religious liberty.…[U]nder no circumstances should people of faith violate their consciences and discard their most cherished religious beliefs in order to comply with a gravely unjust law.”.Hmmmm......An individual who breaks a law that conscience tells him is unjust, and who willingly accepts the penalty of imprisonment in order to arouse the conscience of the community over its injustice, is in reality expressing the highest respect for the law. ~ Martin Luther King, Jr. Read the full story here.

• Egypt bans British woman from leaving country over NGO row.(BM).CAIRO: Egyptian authorities barred a British woman from leaving Egypt on Friday, saying her name was on a list of foreigners working for NGOs in Egypt currently under investigation over receiving foreign funds and “interference in internal political affairs.”The British trainer at the National Democratic Institute (NDI) was stopped from the London-bound plane, however, she was not arrested, bit notified she is barred from traveling pending investigations.The Egyptian authorities barred another 6 Americans from traveling over the past two weeks for the same reason.Tensions have risen between the US, Europe and Egypt after an Egyptian investigation referred 43 NGO workers including 19 Americans and 27 others (European and Egyptian) to trial on charges of “illegally receiving foreign funds for political motives.”The 48-year-old woman is currently under investigation for the same case, and her travel ban was ordered by the Attorney General Abdel Maguid Mahmoud.On Saturday, the state-owned MENA news agency reported that the British Foreign Secretary announced that it is providing assistance to the British woman, which was charged of using illegal funds to stir unrest in Egypt.Read the full story here.

• Obama Gets Hit with Another Religious Freedom Lawsuit.(Heritage).The Becket Fund for Religious Liberty has already filed two lawsuits challenging the Obamacare regulation that requires many religious employers to provide health insurance coverage for sterilization, contraception, and what many people believe are abortion-inducing drugs.Those lawsuits are on behalf of Belmont Abbey College (a Benedictine Catholic college in North Carolina) and Colorado Christian University (a nondenominational Christian university in Colorado).This morning, the Becket Fund sued the Obama Administration again, this time on behalf of Eternal Word Television Network (EWTN), the Catholic television network that was started nearly 30 years ago by a cloistered nun named Mother Angelica in her monastery garage.According to its press release, the network objects to paying for—and refuses to pay for—“contraceptive services and for drugs that destroy human life”:“The federal government cannot force people to violate their religion like this,” said Mark Rienzi, Senior Counsel at the Becket Fund and a constitutional law professor at the Catholic University of America. “Mother Angelica founded EWTN to spread the teachings of the Catholic Church—not to betray them.”EWTN claims it is “the largest religious media network in the world” and transmits programming “24 hours a day to more than 148 million homes in 144 countries and territories.” If EWTN wasn’t already covering the Obama Administration’s “unprecedented” assault on religious freedom before, it seems likely that viewers will be provided ample coverage in the days to come.The Heritage Foundation has repeatedly criticized the Obamacare contraception mandate as a violation of religious freedom. Heritage has also pointed out that the Obama Administration’s actions, though entirely counter to the freedom of religion, “should not be surprising given the nature of the President’s health care law.” Religious freedom goes hand in hand with limited government and with freedom more generally. With intrusions of freedom as broad as those made by the Obamacare legislation, burdens on freedom of religious and moral conscience are likely to follow. Indeed, they have.Read the full story here.

• Southern Baptist leader: Christians should go to jail rather than comply with the Obama administration’s mandate.(BB).(LifeSiteNews.com) — One of the most influential evangelical leaders in the United States says Christians should go to jail rather than comply with the Obama administration’s mandate to provide all contraception, including abortion-inducing drugs, in their health care plans.Dr. Richard Land, president of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC), told LifeSiteNews.com "we will not comply" with the Dept. of Health and Human Services’ mandate requiring religious institutions to cover abortifacient products such as Plan B, Ella, and the IUD."We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just like Dr. King wrote his from the Birmingham jail," Dr. Land said.Dr. Land wrote an op-ed on Tuesday with Barrett Duke, vice president for public policy and research at ERLC, calling his fellow Southern Baptists and evangelical Christians throughout America to oppose any infringement on the First Amendment. "The Obama administration has declared war on religion and freedom of conscience," they wrote. "We consider this callous requirement by the Obama administration to be a clear violation of our nation's commitment to liberty of conscience and a flagrant violation of our constitutional protection to freedom of religion."Dr. Land told LifeSiteNews he hopes Baptist ministers will "preach from the pulpit just how serious and dangerous this initiative by the Obama administration is," and "encourage their parishioners to contact their congressmen and their senators and the president and let them know how deeply unhappy they are with this decision, and they want…legislation guaranteeing that it won’t happen again.""It is now in the providence of God," Dr. Land said. "Our responsibility is to stand and say, ‘We will not comply with this. We want the law changed, or else we’re going to write our letters from the Nashville jail, just like Dr. King wrote his from the Birmingham jail.’ We will not comply."Dr. Land, who earned a Doctorate of Philosophy from Oxford University, has been named by Time magazine as one of .The Twenty-five Most Influential Evangelicals in America."President Obama’s recess appointment of Chai Feldblum to the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission (EEOC) provided an insight to the president’s views, Dr. Land said. Feldblum has said whenever religious rights come into conflict with sexual rights, that sexual rights must prevail. .That’s exactly what’s happening in the Health and Human Services contraceptive and abortifacient directive,. he said. .They are saying that a woman’s right to have free contraceptive services and free abortifacients trumps the deeply held religious convictions of Catholics and Baptists and others. That’s a war on religion.Read the full story here.

• Obama’s Big Non-Concession on Birth Control.(TWHD).By Keith koffler.As far as I can tell, and I admit it’s an early read, the administration’s “compromise” on its policy of forcing Catholic Institutions to provide free birth control is meaningless. Because while it may disconnect the institution’s money from the requirement, it does not disconnect the institution from it.Here’s what Obama did in his announcement today at the White House.The original Obama administration regulation said that Catholic institutions, like Catholic hospitals and others similar concerns, must provide health insurance for their employees that covers birth control for free. Today, Obama said that the Catholic institutions no longer have to pay the insurance plans that provide this coverage, but that the insurers the instituions are using will be forced to reach out separately to employees and offer it the birth control coverage directly to them.The employees could then effectively contract directly with the insurer to get the contraceptives for free.Here’s the problem. It’s all still part of the package being offered by the institution. Catholic groups are offering a plan that gives employees a chance to get free birth control coverage. They get it as a result of their insurance from their Catholic employer. They don’t get it if they work for an employer who does not provide insurance.Let me put it this way. Say the Obama administration originally mandated that you must invite a drug dealer into your home and required that you must pay him to provide your family with free heroin. But then say he changed the mandate and said, okay, you still have to invite the drug dealer into your home, but instead of you paying him, your individual family members can freely choose to have him give them free heroin.You see? You’re still being forced to have a drug dealer in your home handing out heroin.Obama is not providing a concession. He’s providing a fig leaf. The Catholic Bishops will never take it, nor should they.Hmmm.....When Pres. Obama says, "Everyone plays by the same set of rules," it means they conform to his rules. Read the full story here.

• US Disarmament Expert, 'The Risk that Nuclear Weapons Will Be Used Is Growing'.(Spiegel).Anxieties are mounting as nuclear weapons make their way into unstable regions. In a SPIEGEL ONLINE interview, US disarmament expert Richard Burt discusses the growing risk of their use, why allowing Iran to get the bomb could trigger a Sunni-Shiite arms race and how an attack could make citizens demand a police state.Read the full story here.

• Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad: Iran to Unveil New Achievements in Nuclear Technology Soon.(FNA).TEHRAN - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad announced on Saturday that the country plans to unveil a series of big new achievements in nuclear technology in coming days."The world will witness inauguration of a number of big achievements in the field of nuclear (technology) in coming days," Ahmadinejad said, addressing millions of enthusiastic demonstrators in Tehran who had flocked to the streets to celebrate the 33rd anniversary of the victory of the Islamic Revolution in Iran. He also underlined that the country's progress and advancement in the field of nuclear technology was achieved despite the pressures of the world arrogant powers, and added all needs of the Iranian nation to the nuclear technology will be met by Iran's talented scientists in the near future. Tehran stresses that the country has always pursued a civilian path to provide power to the growing number of Iranian population, whose fossil fuel would eventually run dry. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under three rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's illegitimate calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment.A crowd of an estimated 30,000 people in central Tehran cheered Ahmadinejad’s words. Many held aloft placards declaring “Death to America” and “Death to Israel.In pointed messages aimed at those two arch-foes, Iranian officials planted a full-scale model of a captured U.S. spy drone in front of the president’s stage, and hosted on the stage the Hamas prime minister of Gaza.Prominent MP Gholam Reza Mesbahi Moghaddam has lashed out at the President's supporters, saying that he believes in a "deviant current" which aspires to win 180 seats, almost two-thirds of the Majlis. He also warned Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, "I hope the President attend the interrogation session in parliament if not serious actions will be taken."
  Hojatoleslam Sayyed Hamid Rohani, went farther, accusing those around the President of pursuing an "Anjoman Hujjatieh” ideology to increase corruption, accelerating the return of Shi'a's 12th Imam, equated in their eyes to Ahmadinejad: "They want to make a kingdom for themselves and negotiate with enemies behind the scene. They claim they are standing for justice but in reality they have gathered around themselves the thieves of nation money. They are trying to negotiate and a start relationship with the Great Satan through promotion of American Islam in the name of Iranian Islam or Iranian school." Read the full story here.

• Turks torpedo Israel Navy participation in NATO op.(JPost).Turkey has torpedoed an Israeli plan to contribute an Israel Navy missile ship to a NATO mission in the Mediterranean Sea, in what would have been the first time Israel actively participated in one of the Western military alliance’s operations.Diplomatic and defense officials told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday that Turkey had decided to prevent Israeli participation in the long-term operation – called Active Endeavor – following the Israel Navy raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla in 2010 in which nine Turkish nationals were killed.Diplomatic officials said that ever since its success, Turkey had been seeking to scuttle greater Israeli participation in the alliance.NATO launched Operation Active Endeavor in the wake of 9/11 and has succeeded in bringing together a number of countries to patrol the Mediterranean and share information concerning terrorism and suspicious ships.In 2008, Israel sent a navy officer to sit at the operation’s headquarters in Naples and in late 2009, Defense Minister Ehud Barak submitted an official request to NATO to contribute a missile ship to the mission. In 2010, Israel and NATO signed an agreement that was supposed to pave the way for the ship’s participation.“Israel’s navy anyhow patrols the Mediterranean and since we were interested in upgrading our ties with NATO, it made sense to offer to actively participate in the operation,” a senior government official said. “The Turks, though, torpedoed the move and refused to allow one of our ships to join.”While Israel has participated in numerous NATO activities over the past decade, it has never sent troops or navy ships to play an operational role in the military alliance’s operations.While Turkey succeeded in thwarting the navy’s participation in Active Endeavor, it has, however, failed to prevent Israel from upgrading its ties with NATO. Defense officials said this week that the sides were on the verge of signing a new cooperation agreement that would lead to a significant upgrade in relations.As a member of the Mediterranean Dialogue, which was created in 1994 to foster ties with Middle Eastern countries, Israel is frequently invited to participate in NATO workshops and exercises.The senior government official said, though, that the new agreement would enable Israel to participate in top NATO forums even though it is not a full-fledged member of the alliance.Israel is also considering a request by NATO to open an office at its headquarters in Brussels. Defense officials said that the offer was still open and that it was being “positively considered” by the government.Hmmm....NATO should kick out Turkey and replace them with Israel at least they can count on them, unlike Turkey who lately objects to most actions demanded by NATO or the U.S.They refuse actions against Iran but would drag NATO in a war with Syria.Read the full story here.

• Syrian Armored Forces Move Nearer to Israel.(VOC).According to reports from the Free Syria Army, the Syrian military has moved forces stationed in the southern part of the Syrian Golan Heights closer to Israel.The Syrian military did not come close to the border with Israel. However, armored forces that were stationed along the Syria-Jordan border, which were recently reinforced, were moved and are now closer to Israel, according to the report.The Free Syria Army is the largest opposition group in Syria and is partly made up of defectors from the official Syrian Army.Israel has been concerned that Syrian strongman Bashar al-Assad, whose regime is on the verge of collapse, may try to defuse the uprising against him by starting a conflict with Israel.A Lebanese newspaper, The People’s Army, claimed Thursday in its news website that the IDF has been making an extra effort in the past few days to place landmines all along its border with Syria.Hundreds of Israeli soldiers are reportedly working at lining the border with mines. Israel had already placed mines along some stretches of the border with Syria after the Nakba Day events last year, in which hundreds of Syrians broke into Israel virtually unimpeded. The action had been orchestrated by the Syrian government, later reports showed.Hmmmm......30 Th of March the day of assault on Israel.Read the full story here.

• Hamas will never acknowledge Israel, says Haniyeh.(BM).Tehran (dpa) – Hamas would never acknowledge the Israeli state, said Ismail Haniyeh, the leader of the Palestinian movement in Gaza, on Friday in Tehran.“They (West) want from us to stop resistance and acknowledge Israel but I herewith announce that this will never happen,” Haniyeh said though an interpreter at a ceremony marking the 33rd anniversary of the 1979 Iranian revolution.“Our message and the message of all those who lost their blood in the Palestinian lands is that all occupied lands will eventually be liberated from Israeli occupation,” Haniyeh said.He thanked Iran for its constant support for Palestinian resistance groups and called on maintaining unity in the Islamic world.Haniyeh arrived in Tehran on Friday and is to meet President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.Iran, which does not recognize the state of Israel, is a supporter of Hamas but has constantly denied providing any financial and military aid to the movement.Read the full story here.

• Top Pentagon general meets with Egypt’s army rulers; strike fails to attract protesters.(AlArabiya).Egypt’s state news agency says the Pentagon’s top general is visiting the country for security talks with the country’s military rulers, amid tensions between the two allies over charges filed against 16 American civil society workers accused of fomenting unrest.MENA reported Saturday that Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Martin Dempsey has met with Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi and several members of the country’s ruling military council, including his Egyptian counterpart Lt. Gen. Sami Anan.The report says that they discussed “the depth of the strategic relationship between Washington and Cairo.”A Pentagon official had said prior to Dempsey’s visit to Cairo that the nonprofit dispute would be raised in the meeting and that he would talk with Egypt’s leaders about “choices and consequences.”On Friday, Egypt’s military rulers warned in statement that the country faces conspiracies that seek to topple the state and spread chaos.“Never will we bow to threats, nor succumb to pressures, nor accept ultimatums,” it said.Hmmmm.......As i said yesterday:"Come to think of it....How about the U.S. sale of 125 - M1A1 Abrams tanks to Egypt?".Read the full story here.

• I am not Anonymous!(AM).CIA website hacked by "Anonymous".The website of the Central Intelligence Agency was unresponsive on Friday after the hacker group Anonymous claimed to have knocked it offline."CIA Tango down," a member of Anonymous said on @YourAnonNews, a Twitter feed used by the group. "Tango down" is an expression used by the US Special Forces when they have eliminated an enemy.Attempts to access the CIA website at cia.gov were unsuccessful.A CIA spokesman had no immediate comment.Anonymous last month briefly knocked the websites of the US Justice Department and the Federal Bureau of Investigation offline.Those attacks were in retaliation for the US shutdown of file-sharing site Megaupload.There was no immediate explanation from Anonymous for the targeting of the CIA site.Most Anonymous cyberattacks are distributed denial of service attacks in which a large number of computers are commanded to simultaneously visit a website, overwhelming its servers.Read the full story here.

• UK - Muslim fanatics who called for execution of gays and wanted to set up a 'medieval state' under Sharia law in Derby are jailed for up to two years.(DM).Three Muslim extremists who handed out leaflets calling for homosexuals to be hanged, stoned and burned to death have been jailed.The group handed out the material in the street as well as posting it through letterboxes in a hate-filled campaign calling for the execution of gay people who they claimed were at the root of society’s problems.Ihjaz Ali, Kabir Ahmed and Razwan Javed are the first to be prosecuted under new laws against inciting hatred on the grounds of sexual orientation. Ali was jailed for two years and Ahmed and Javed for 15 months each.Sentencing the men today, Judge John Burgess, Recorder of Derby, told them: 'You have been convicted of intending to stir up hatred.'It follows that your intention was to do great harm in a peaceful community.'He went on: 'Much has been said during the course of this trial about freedom of expression, and the freedom to preach strongly held beliefs; beliefs, which may have some foundation in scripture.'Freedom of speech is a cornerstone of democracy and a basic ingredient of any free society. Parliament clearly had this very much in mind when this legislation was passed.'Last month the trio were found guilty at Derby Crown Court. Residents had told of how the three fundamentalists wanted to transform their small area of Derby into a 'medieval state' under Sharia law.Anyone who dared to question their extreme agenda was branded an 'M15 agent' or a 'sell-out,' they said.It emerged that:

1. Muslim fanatic and hate preacher Anjem Choudary was secretly invited by the group's ringleader, Ihjaz Ali, for a series of meetings in Derby;
2. The group had links with the extremist organisation Al-Muhajiroun, which is banned under UK anti-terror laws;
3. Moderate Muslim leaders who spoke out against the group's activities were targeted in a hate campaign in which their faces were printed on 'wanted' posters;
4.  Police had to be called during local elections because the group's supporters were standing guard at polling stations, ordering Muslims not to vote.One gay resident summed up the atmosphere in the area.‘It used to be lovely round here,’ he said. ‘Now, because of these people, you don’t feel safe. I don’t have any problems with Muslims. But these lot need to realise we live in England, not some Islamic state.’Read and see (Video) the full story here.

• Iran Using Gold and Oil to Surpass U.S. Sanctions.(BigPeace).Since U.S. sanctions have dramatically cut the Islamic Republic’s ability to obtain financing via the dollar and euro, Tehran is aiming to use gold to deal in the world market. The republic is seeking to evade sanctions imposed by the United States, which were implemented earlier this year as a deterrent to continue building its nuclear program.According to a Thursday Reuters report, Iran has also used yen to buy large volumes of wheat and has already purchased a minimum of 200,000 tons of wheat on the soft market, mostly from Australia.According to a Christian Science Monitor Report:  Iran, which is still in the market to buy additional wheat supplies, is also considering barter deals to feed its 74 million people weeks before a presidential election, they said.Grain ships are stuck outside Iranian ports and exports of staples to Iran such as maize, sugar, palm oil and rice are being hindered as collecting payment from buyers gets harder.“Grain deals are being paid for in gold bullion and barter deals involving oil are being offered,” one trader said. “Some of the major trading houses are involved,” he added.Traders said details of how barter deals work were still unclear as the problem had developed so quickly.Iranian buyers have in the past side-stepped sanctions by booking business through third countries, especially Dubai in the United Arab Emirates, traders said. But this option had been suddenly closed as the UAE was not allowing sanction-breaking finance, they said.“As the shipments of grain are so large, barter or gold payments are the quickest option,” another trader said.Friday morning the Associated Press reported that despite US pressure to comply with American sanctions, the Indian Prime Minister, Manmohan Singh was insisting that diplomacy was the best way to deal with Iran.Hmmm.......Notice how not a single paper points out Turkey's role in this.Read the full story here.

• Russians Rally for Kuril Islands.(RN).More than 4,000 people rallied in Russia’s Far East on Saturday in support of the country’s claim to the disputed Kuril islands in the Pacific Ocean, police said.Demonstrators in the port town of Yuzhno-Sakhalinsk called for Russia to take a tougher stance in the decades-long dispute with Japan over the four islands, which were occupied by Soviet troops at the end of World War II.  The dispute has stopped the two countries from signing a peace treaty.On Tuesday, Japanese Prime Minister Yoshihiko Noda said Japan was determined to “move ahead with negotiations.”He was speaking during a protest rally was held in Tokyo to demand the return of the islands, known as the Northern Territories in Japan.  Russian President Dmitry Medvedev sparked a diplomatic row with Tokyo in November 2010 by making the first ever visit by a Russian leader to the islands.He later said Russia would increase its military presence there. Japan’s then prime minister Naoto Kan called Medvedev’s visit an “inexcusable rudeness.”Read the full story here.

• Iranian Navy Receives 2 Light Submarines.(RN).The Iranian Navy has commissioned two Ghadir class diesel-electric submarines to boost Iran’s naval capability, official IRNA news agency reported.IRNA cited Navy Commander Rear Admiral Habibollah Sayyari as saying that the submarines were built and equipped by domestic manufacturers.The 120-ton Ghadir class submarines are highly maneuverable and best suited for missions in shallow waters. They are equipped with at least two torpedo tubes and feature elements of "stealth" technology.With the addition of two new subs, the number of Ghadir vessels in the Iranian Navy has reached 16. The first submarine of this class was commissioned in 2007.Ghadir class subs have been reportedly designed by Iran on the basis of North Korean Yono class vessels.In addition to Ghadirs, the Iranian Navy has three Soviet-built Kilo class submarines and a domestically-built Nahang sub.Read the full story here.

Bishop: Catholics Will Be Instructed How To Vote

MFS - The Other News

                         Afternoon Posting.

• Four IDF soldiers injured from gunfire along Gaza border.Terrorist cell ambushes paratrooper patrol.Four soldiers were injured by gunfire along the border fence of the central Gaza Strip Friday evening.According to preliminary reports, a cell of terrorists was situated along the fence near Kibbutz Nirim and opened fire on IDF soldiers from the Paratroopers Brigade with automatic weapons and mortars.Palestinian sources reported that the firefight lasted 20 minutes and that tank shells were fired, according to AFP. There was no word of Palestinian casualties.The cell apparently waited in ambush for an IDF patrol and opened fire when the patrol passed by. An officer in the Southern Command told Channel 10: "We are still learning the details of the event. The soldiers were transferred to the trauma center at Soroka Hospital [in Beersheba] where their condition will be determined."The officer continued, "From initial details, it seems that we are dealing with a planned ambush by a terrorist cell that intended to observe IDF forces operating in the area where the incident occurred." He added that additional forces were quickly called to the location.Palestinian news agency Ma'an reported that IAF helicopters fired missiles into the Strip in response to the incident, which the IDF spokesperson declined to confirm or deny.Responding to reports of suspicions that some of the soldiers were injured by friendly fire from another unit operating in the area, the IDF spokesperson said that the possibility is being investigated along with several other scenarios. The spokesman noted that an investigation has not yet been carried out.Read the full story here.

• Package Addressed to Napolitano Ignites at D.C. Postal Facility Day After Maryland Scare.WASHINGTON -- A package addressed to Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano ignited at a Washington postal facility Friday, a day after fiery packages sent to Maryland's governor and transportation secretary burned the fingers of workers who opened them.It was unclear if the package had the right address, but a law enforcement official confirmed to Fox News that Napolitano's name was on it and it appears to be related to the packages that ignited Thursday in Maryland.FBI Spokeswoman Lindsay Godwin said initial information indicated the parcel that ignited in northeast Washington about 2:45 p.m. was similar to the two packages opened in Maryland on Thursday. The Washington postal facility was evacuated and no injuries were reported.The Maryland packages contained a note railing against highway signs urging motorists to report suspicious activity, investigators revealed.The message read: "Report suspicious activity! Total Bull----! You have created a self fulfilling prophecy."The packages, addressed to Gov. Martin O'Malley and to Transportation Secretary Beverley Swaim-Staley, have been taken to the FBI lab in Quantico, Va., for forensic analysis.They were opened within a 15-minute period Thursday at state government buildings 20 miles apart.The workers who opened the packages singed their fingers, but there were no significant injuries.Soon after, mailrooms across Maryland were cleared and two other suspicious packages uncovered, though they turned out to be a toner cartridge and laptop batteries.Explosive material wasn't found in either package that ignited and authorities aren't sure if any other dangerous packages are out there, but mailroom employees were back at work Friday. They had pictures of the packages and were advised to be vigilant about anything suspicious.
  Hmmmm....Did i not mention yesterday in my posting about the exploding packages that this will probably result in more TSA scanners?Well the link to Napolitano is there.Read the full story here.

• Updated : IDF soldier killed in Gaza clash.IDF soldier killed, four others wounded during exchanges of fire with terrorists approaching border fence; mortar shells also launched by Palestinians. Wounded soldiers evacuated to Beersheba hospital.An IDF soldier was killed Friday evening during exchanges of fire with terrorists along the Gaza border, near Kibbiutz Nirim.Another soldier sustained moderate wounds in the incident, while three others were lightly wounded.According to initial reports, Palestinian terrorists approached the security fence separating Israel form the Hamas-ruled territory and opened fire on the Israeli troops using automatic weapons. News agencies reported that Palestinians also launched mortar shells in the soldiers' direction.The IDF is trying to determine whether some of the soldiers, who belong to the Paratroopers Brigade, were injured from friendly fire. Eyewitnesses said another IDF force may have opened fire and hit the paratroopers.A few weeks ago a paratrooper sustained severe injuries when an IDF tank accidently opened fired at him with a machinegun near the Gaza border fence. The tank was alerted to the scene following a report of an attempt to infiltrate Israel. The wounded soldiers were evacuated to Beersheba's Soroka Medical Center.Read the full story here.

• Obama mouthpiece Robert Gibbs was forced out by new henchman William Daley.I wondered yesterday whether Robert Gibbs jumped or was pushed and noted that President Barack Obama’s words indicated that it was “not an entirely voluntary departure”.It’s being reported by John King on CNN right now that Gibbs wanted to be a presidential counsellor – something he’s been putting about for quite a while – but William Daley, the new chief of staff, nixed this because he believed that too many cooks would spoil the presidential broth. So that’s why Gibbs is out.Additionally, King reports that Valerie Jarrett, whose sole qualification to being a senior counsellor seems to be that she’s a long-time Chicago buddy of Barack and Michelle Obama, will have her wings clipped. Daley, not Jarrett, will be the person speaking to the business community.So the next question is: with Gibbs and David Axelrod gone, how much longer will Valerie Jarrett last?Read the full story here.

• Egypt Threatens NYC/Bloomberg Removal of Cleopatra's Needle.Since 1881, the obelisk known as Cleopatra's Needle has stood in New York's Central Park, but a letter from the secretary general of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities indicates that this may change if the monument is not taken better care of. Recently, Zahi Hawass, the aforementioned secretary general and archaeologist, wrote to the Central Park Conservancy and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg to inform them that if steps are not taken to protect the obelisk, it would be removed."I am glad that this monument has become such an integral part of New York City, but I am dismayed at the lack of care and attention that it has been given," Hawass wrote. "Recent photographs that I have received show the severe damage that has been done to the obelisk, particularly to the hieroglyphic text, which in places has been completely worn away. I have a duty to protect all Egyptian monuments whether they are inside or outside of Egypt. If the Central Park Conservancy and the City of New York cannot properly care for this obelisk, I will take the necessary steps to bring this precious artifact home and save it from ruin."The obelisk was originally one of a pair - the other currently resides in London - built around 1500 B.C. to honor Pharaoh Thutmose III. They were placed in the ancient city Heliopolis in Egypt, where they sat for a little over 1,500 years until 18 A.D., when they were taken by the Romans and placed at the entrance of the Ceasarium in Alexandria, according to TravellersinEgypt.com, a website that compiles information from people who have traveled in Egypt.In 1869, to commemorate the opening of the Suez Canal, the Khedive of Egypt, Ismail Pasha, gave the United States the obelisk that now sits in Central Park. The gift was an attempt to cultivate trade relations between the two countries, according to the Central Park Conservancy. Hawass finished his letter, which is posted on his blog, by writing "I strongly urge you to focus your efforts on saving this obelisk and preserving it for future generations. I am confident that you can find the resources in New York City to conserve this monument properly and pay this treasure the respect that it deserves. I eagerly await your prompt reply." A statement from Jonathan Kuhn, director of Art and Antiquities for the NYC Department of Parks & Recreation states: "We have been working in recent years with the Metropolitan Museum and the Central Park Conservancy to further analyze the condition of the obelisk and monitor its condition. There is no evidence at this point of any significant ongoing erosion."Hmmmm.....Obama and Bloomberg probably nodding in agreement to Zahi Hawass his letter.Read the full story here.HT:AstuteBloggers.

• HT:CreepingSharia.Oooooooh Canada !OTTAWA — There is one law for all Canadians, and no religious group should expect special treatment when it comes to enforcement of the law, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said Thursday.The remarks were made in response to reports that RCMP officers had apologized for arresting Muslims on terrorism-related charges during the Islamic holy month of Ramadan.On Aug. 25, the RCMP and Ottawa Police arrested two Ottawa men — Hiva Muhammad Alizadeh, Misbahuddin Ahmed — on terrorism-related charges. A third man, Khurram Syed Sher, was arrested elsewhere.The next day, Aug. 26, the RCMP and city police staged a special, hour-long meeting with members of Ottawa’s Muslim community with the ostensible purpose of ensuring them that their community was not regarded with undue suspicion despite the arrests. However, at least one officer was heard apologizing during meeting for the arrests having occurred during Ramadan, which ran last year from Aug. 12 to Sept. 9.Asked Thursday about the apology, Harper said: “In fairness this is an operational matter for the RCMP and I wouldn’t pretend to know all the details and aspects of the story. But the general approach that this government would expect to see (from law enforcement agencies) is that the law, our important laws, are enforced every day of the year.”Prominent members of the Muslim Canadian Congress applauded the prime minister’s remarks, saying it is about time that senior government officials emphasized the unitary nature of Canadian law, and that religious sentiment cannot be allowed to interfere with the law.“He (Harper) is right,” said Salma Siddiqui, vice president of the Congress. “We have one law in Canada and it applies to everybody. We need to stop all this political correctness.”“The notion that in Ramadan you can’t arrest people is so foolish,” Tarek Fatah, a founding member of the Congress, told a Calgary radio station.Hmmmmm......Harper ....Canada's John Wayne?Read the full story here.

• Mysterious Bird Deaths Mapped on Google.The story out of Arkansas late last week that 5,000 blackbirds had fallen out of the sky over Beebe, a small town in the northwest part of the state, had people scratching their heads. What caused the mysterious deaths? Google's custom mapping features were put to use yesterday afternoon to build a map that highlights dozens of similar incidents that have taken place around the world this month. Most of the mass bird deaths have happened over the United States, but reports are also coming out of Sweden, the Philippines, Italy and many other countries.The map provides a quick read on what places have been affected, but it could also help to solve the conundrum. One reader left comments suggesting that the map could be superimposed over a current global oil exploration map to test the hypothesis that the deaths could have been caused by ground penetrating tomography.View -- and interact with -- the map here.Hmmmm....Something poisonous traveling along the Jet stream?Read the full story here.

• Magnetic North Pole Shifts, Forces Runway Closures at Florida Airport.The planet's northern magnetic pole is drifting slowly but steadily towards Russia -- and it's throwing off planes in Florida.Tampa International Airport was forced to readjust its runways Thursday to account for the movement of the Earth's magnetic fields, information that pilots rely upon to navigate planes. Thanks to the fluctuations in the force, the airport has closed its primary runway until Jan. 13 to change taxiway signs to account for the shift, the Federal Aviation Administration said.The poles are generated by movements within the Earth's inner and outer cores, though the exact process isn't exactly understood. They're also constantly in flux, moving a few degrees every year, but the changes are almost never of such a magnitude that runways require adjusting, said Paul Takemoto, a spokesman for the FAA.The magnetic fields vary from place to place. Adjustments are needed now at airports in Tampa, but they aren't immediately required at all airports across the country.So just how often is something like this necessary? "It happens so infrequently that they wouldn't venture a guess," Takemoto told FoxNews.com. "In fact, you're the first journalist to ever ask me about it.""You want to be absolutely precise in your compass heading," he pointed out. "To make sure the precision is there that we need, you have to make these changes." Kathleen Bergen, another spokeswoman for the FAA, explained that runway designations and charting rely upon geomagnetic information. "Aviation is charted using latitude and longitude and the magnetic poles," she told FoxNews.com.The shift is likely a normal oscillation of the Earth's magnetic field, Stoner said, and not the beginning of a flip-flop of the north and south magnetic poles, a phenomenon that last occurred 780,000 years ago. Such reversals have taken place 400 times in the last 330 million years, according to magnetic clues sealed in rocks around the world. Each reversal takes a thousand years or more to complete. "People like to think something special is happening in their lifetimes, but despite the dramatic changes, I don't see any evidence of it," Stoner said. "It's probably just a normal wandering of the pole." Hmmmm....What and who else is affected by the Pole Shift?Read the full story here.

• HT:EmergingCorruption.Rep. Blackburn Introduces Bill to Preempt FCC Internet Takeover.Representative Marsha Blackburn (R, TN) has introduced a bill to preempt the December power grab by the Federal Communications Commission’s Chairman Julius Genachowski and she has made the bill bipartisan with the support of Democrat Dan Boren (Oklahoma).Blackburn is reporting that 60 members support her bill to halt the FCCs efforts to take control of the Internet without legislative action.Blackburn’s bill would place all rules governing the Internet in the purview of Congress and would take the issue out of the hands of the FCC.“The FCC’s Christmas week Internet-grab points out how important it is that we pass this bill quickly,” Blackburn said in a statement to the media.This issue is just one more example of Obama’s tendency to use regulation to get around the legislative process, to get around the courts, and to get around the voters and to instill his left-wing agenda by regulatory fiat.Blackburn should be supported in her efforts to thwart Obama’s cynical power grab.Hmmmm....What his "Czars' don't "Fix" he will do executive powers?Read the full story here.

• Sobbing Coptic Christians mark grim Christmas Day in wake of suicide bomb attack on church.Egyptian Christians, many sobbing and garbed in black, attended Christmas Eve masses despite security fears after a New Year's suicide bombing which killed 21 worshippers at an Alexandria church.Al-Qaida in Iraq had threatened Christians in Iraq and Egypt in the weeks leading up to the holidays. Militant websites had even posted names and addresses of churches in Egypt to target, raising fears of a follow-up attack on celebrations of the Orthodox Christmas, which Egypt's Coptic Christian minority marks on Friday.A heavy police detail was assigned to guard Christmas Eve services across the country today.Vehicles were blocked from parking near churches. Police and church staff checked IDs, which denote religion - as well as people's wrists, where many Egyptian Christians bear the tattoo of a cross.A line of riot police stood at each end of the street at Saints Church in Alexandria, the target of Saturday's attack. Security officers with walkie-talkies fanned out across the streets surrounding the cathedral in the capital, Cairo, and metal detectors were set up at the entrances.Despite the fears, turnout was heavy for a service Christians said they were determined to attend. Muslims also joined some services as a show of solidarity.State TV gave heavy coverage to the Christmas Eve Mass to promote a sense of unity. President Hosni Mubarak's two sons and several Egyptian government ministers attended the services, as did some foreign diplomats.As in past years, state TV broadcast live Pope Shenouda III leading prayers and delivering his sermon at Cairo's Coptic Cathedral. The 87-year-old head of the Coptic Church recited the prayers, his voice sounding tired and cracking.He offered condolences 'to our sons in Alexandria and in several other countries for the martyrdom of innocent people.''I echo President Mubarak's remark that the blood of our sons is not cheap,' the pope said.At Saints Church, blood stains on the wall were a grim reminder of last weekend's sectarian violence. A stream of black-clad worshippers flowed in as Mass began.'It's worse than before,' said Marina Sammy, a young woman at the Saints Church whose family owns a store in Alexandria.'The events haven't improved attitudes at all. We've been attacked and insulted and our store windows were broken. There's no security at all.'Hmmmm....How many hours until the next attack?Read the full story here.

• HT:CrossRoadsArabia.Divorced women in Kingdom struggle to find social acceptance.JEDDAH: To be a divorcee in Saudi society is like having a scarlet letter burned on the chest. Many women who happen to leave marriages are forced into a life of shame; for some this is so much that they remain perpetually hidden behind closed doors.One thing that is for sure is that society fails to give these women a chance to breathe; they are spoken about and made to feel awkward wherever they go. “Nobody educated me about the next step after getting married and I blame my parents for that,” said Nadia Al-Otaiby, a 38-year-old divorcee. “I asked for a divorce only one month after I got married because I found out that the man I married was impossible to live with. There were also some other reasons which I prefer keeping to myself,” she said.“Imagine what people said about me when I got divorced just 30 days after getting married. Now I’m forced to walk shamefully whenever I leave the house as if I did something wrong,” she added.Every woman dreams to have a wedding day in which she is the center of attention among hundreds of women. However, when she gets divorced she turns into the center of attention of not just those who were invited to her wedding but the entire society.Read the full story here.

• Disgraced ex-senator John Edwards 'asked mistress to marry him three weeks after his wife died of cancer'.John Edwards asked his mistress to marry him just three weeks after his wife lost her fight against breast cancer, it was claimed today.The disgraced ex-senator also introduced his three children to Rielle Hunter as well as the child he fathered with her, according to a report in the National Enquirer. Ms Hunter is said to have wept with joy during the meeting and told her lover's grieving children 'Call Me Mommy'.Elizabeth Edwards, who was battling cancer, immediately ended their marriage after her husband admitted to fathering a child. Friends said she would have been devastated by her children being taken to meet Hunter. 'This is the absolute last thing in the world [Elizabeth] wanted,' the tabloid quoted a source as saying. 'Rielle is the woman she once labelled 'pathetic' and 'a homewrecker' . . . She did not want John to introduce their kids to his love child - let alone Rielle.She cut her estranged husband out - instead leaving everything to her three children.The couple's eldest daughter, lawyer Cate, was named as the executor of the will, which Mrs Edwards signed on December 1 - just six days before she lost her battle to breast cancer.Read the full story here.

• Youth worker 'stabbed rival in the eye with machete while leading double life as gang boss'.A youth worker who lived a double life as a ruthless gang leader was jailed indefinitely today for blinding a man by hacking a machete through his eyeball.Saifour Rahman, 23, appeared to be a pillar of the community, giving up his free time to volunteer at an outreach project for youngsters.But beneath this veneer of respectability, Rahman headed an east London gang known as the Timber Wharf Boys and went by the street name of 'Jackal'.As the head of a mob of 20 armed with baseball bats and sticks, machete-wielding Rahman meted out a wicked attack on Razaull Ahmed, 22, on the Isle of Dogs.Mr Ahmed, who had been smoking a cigarette after a fast food meal, lost his left eye and was permanently disfigured after the act of 'shocking savagery'.Horrified witnesses had earlier watched the gang as they 'tooled up' in preparation for the unprovoked assault.Rahman denied the attack but he was convicted by a jury after a three week trial in November at Snaresbrook Crown Court.Read the full story here.

• HT:NewsRealBlog.ObamaCare Exceeds the Limits of Congressional Authority. Judge Miffed.One of the first orders of business for the 112th Congress is for the new House to fulfill its campaign promise to pass a repeal of ObamaCare. This will be a vain effort, however, as repeal will likely die in the Senate. But even if repeal were to get through the Senate, President Obama would surely veto a repeal of ObamaCare.The better way for ObamaCare to be struck down is not by repeal, but by appeal: appeal to the courts. A Supreme Court decision on the constitutionality of ObamaCare would set huge precedents having far-reaching ramifications. The end of the first major skirmish in the legal war came December 13 with U.S. District Judge Henry Hudson’s decision in Virginia v. Sebelius. For ObamaCare, Friday the 13th came on a Monday.Created by the states, the federal government is a government of enumerated powers. The 10th Amendment makes this clear. But the Constitution does not specifically grant to the feds the power to do much of what they do. The feds therefore must find that power somewhere in the Constitution. So they invoke the Commerce Clause or the General Welfare Clause or something to justify what they do. But there must be limits to what the feds can do; otherwise America degenerates into just another totalitarian state. Where those limits are was the question before Judge Hudson, who ruled that the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision (Section 1501) of ObamaCare — better known as the “individual mandate” — is unconstitutional. Page 37 of Hudson’s decision:Congress lacked power under the Commerce Clause … to compel an individual to involuntarily engage in a private commercial transaction, as contemplated by the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision. … The unchecked expansion of congressional power to the limits suggested by the Minimum Essential Coverage Provision would invite unbridled exercise of federal police powers.Hmmmm......No to tyranny !Read the full story here.

• Head Of Mossad ReNamed As Dr Dolittle.As my colleague Dominic Waghorn reports Saudi police have arrested a vulture suspected of spying for Israel.After searching the vulture the authorities say they found a GPS system and an identification tag bearing the words 'Tel Aviv University' and 'R65'.Agent R65, as the bird has not yet been called is still being held. The conditions R65 is being held in are unknown. However it is thought he is singing like a bird.No doubt most sensible people in the Saudi government do not believe R65 is part of the Mossad, but a lot of people in the region will because there is long, amusing, and yet sad history of media reports giving credence to stories in which animals are part of a Zionist plot.Last year, in Egypt, the regional governor of Sinai suggested that a shark which had attacked tourists may have sent there by the Israeli secret service. 'It is not out of the question. But it needs time to confirm," said Mohamed Abdel Fadil Shousha.The Iranians once caught 14 Mossad squirrels inside the Islamic Republic. All were wearing listening devices and cameras. In 2008 they arrested two spy pigeons near a nuclear site. These birds were suspected of spying for either Mossad or MI6. Etemad Melli newspaper quoted a government source - "Early this month, a black pigeon was caught bearing a blue-coated metal ring, with invisible strings," At the time a diplomatic source told me "It must be a shattering blow to our intel boys that that the 'invisible string' has been discovered, after all it's the first thing Britain has invented since the Hovercraft"Another added "It's clear there has been some sort of coo in Tehran", while a third told me, "I don't think this story has legs, but it does have wings"Also in 2008 the Palestinian newspaper WAFA printed a report claiming that jews had trained rats to distinguish between arabs and jews and released them into the Old City of Jerusalem. A year later the Israelis had trained wild boars to destroy Palestinian crops, antelope were patrolling the Lebanese border, and llamas were being trained but turned out to be too unruly and suspected of having pro Hizbollah sympathies.But squirrels wearing cameras? Sharks? Invisible strings, anti arab rats? And now Mossad vultures so stupid they forgot to take off their Tel Aviv ankle bracelets... to believe that, you have to believe that the Head of Mossad is not Tamir Pardo but in fact is...Dr Ben Dolittle.
  Hmmmm....Contra intelligence is now seeking desperatly to catch one of the Speaking Mossad parrots hoping to question him thoroughly.Read the full animal planet story here.

• U.S. Woman Said Detained In Iran 'Did Not Use Armenian Territory'. Armenian authorities have insisted that a U.S. woman reportedly detained in neighboring Iran on suspicion of espionage did not travel to Iran from Armenia.Iran's state run "Iran" newspaper reported this week that the 55-year-old woman -- identified as Hall Talayan -- was detained as she attempted to cross the Armenian-Iranian border. The newspaper claimed an espionage device was found in her teeth and she had no Iranian visa.Iran's state-run television said subsequently that she did actually not manage to enter Iran via the border with Armenia. The station quoted a "well-informed" source as saying that she "tried to enter the country illegally, but she was prevented from doing so." It said the woman is in Armenia. Armenia's National Security Service (NSS), which runs all Armenian border crossings, denied this, however. "A person with that identity did not enter Armenia and could have therefore not left Armenia," NSS spokesman Artsvin Baghramian said in a written statement.The U.S. State Department has cited "conflicting reports" and said it was seeking more information through the U.S. Embassy in Armenia and Swiss officials, who represent U.S. interests in Iran.Iranian authorities have not publicly reacted to the report.Hmmm......Perhaps a Zionist group of squirrels sneaked her over the border?Read the full story here.

• Pakistan: Incitement | Man who offered reward for killing Taseer arrested.MULTAN: Khangarh police on Tuesday arrested a man who had announced a Rs20 million prize for whoever would kill Governor Salmaan Taseer. Sardar Ebaad Dogar had made the announcement at a rally organised last Friday against proposals to amend or reform the blasphemy laws.Talking to The Express Tribune after the rally, Dogar had said that he felt no embarrassment in making the announcement.He had said he would raise the reward to Rs30 million if someone from Khangarh would kill Taseer.Dogar had served as Khangarh’s district nazim on a Pakistan Muslim League-Q ticket. He was accused of association with banned organisation Sipah-i-Sahaba Pakistan before joining the PML-Q.The police have shifted him to unidentified location and started interrogation.
  Hmmmm.....Can they arrest the Clerics who called for the killing of the Blasphemer?Read the full story here.

• HT:RossRightAngle.Islamist Minister of of Religious Affairs Suryadharma Ali – ‘Religious Freedom Doesn’t Apply to Ahmadiyah Dissenters.’.But meanwhile, RRA’s ‘old friend’ Suryadharma Ali, Minister for Religious Affairs, has stirred up another row by honouring, among others, West Nusa Tenggara Governor Zainul Majdi, the man who has been hounding Ahmadiyah.As the Jakarta Globe reported 6th January, ‘critics have lashed out at the Ministry of Religious Affairs for recently handing out awards to Muslim leaders, saying it unduly favored Islam over other faiths.The ministry on Monday presented awards to six governors and 10 district heads and mayors for “explicitly including Islamic education in regional bylaws.” Recipients included the governors of Bangka-Belitung, Jakarta, Yogyakarta, East Java, West Nusa Tenggara and South Sulawesi…..Ismail Hasani, a senior researcher at the Setara Institute for Democracy and Peace, said the ministry “showed favoritism” by handing out the awards.“It’s supposed to be the Religious Affairs Ministry, not the Islamic Affairs Ministry,” Ismail said on Tuesday. “I fear that the objectivity of the country’s public officials has been compromised,” he added. “They no longer work for all groups in society, but rather they see things based on the dichotomy of majority and minority….Zainul is an Islamic cleric whose grandfather founded Nahdlatul Wathan, the biggest Islamic organization in the province,” Ismail said. “Now he has ambitions to build the country’s biggest Islamic center there, for which he’s already had two schools bulldozed. Not to mention he’s already quarantined the Ahmadiyah.”Hmmm.....Obama "Indonesia is an example of religious tolerance".Read the full story here.

• HT:What'sUpWithThat.And now for something completely different! Are huge northeast snow storms due to global warming?That’s the theory; how about some data to show that a warmer climate should lead to less snow, not more. The data are easy to find and interpret. More than a century of winter snow totals and average winter temperatures (December-January-February) are posted on the NWS Philadelphia web site. Seasonal snow totals in Philadelphia are dominated by the occurrence (or non-occurrence) of large snow events (i.e., the snowiest winters have two or three major storms, and the least snowy winters had none). Here’s some charts and correlations.Read the full story here.