Afternoon Posting.
- Live broadcast info from Japan directly ! Here.
- Libya Live Blog - April 20. Here .(Al-Jazeera).
- Syria Live Blog - April 20. Here (Al-Jazeera).
- Updated !Earthquakes in the last 24 hours in the world low seismic activity in Japan today between 4.5 and 4.7! More info here.
- Japan - Latest official Situation Update No. 92.Source : Here .
- Japan : For the most accurate info on the nuclear disaster go to : Paul Langley's Nuclear History Blog
- Obama Skips Tornado Destruction, Heads West to Raise Money.(WhitehouseDossier).President Obama is opting not to visit the tornado-ravaged areas of the South, choosing instead to embark today on a three day tour out West where he will try to boost his political standing by talking up his approach to the deficit and raise millions for himself and fellow Democrats.The tornadoes, part of a storm that rampaged though six states Saturday, resulted in one of the worst disasters of any kind in the United States since the Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Scores were left injured or homeless while 45 people were killed – about four times as many as died in the Gulf oil rig explosion and the subsequent oil spill last year. In North Carolina alone, there were nearly two-dozen storm-related deaths Saturday, with 130 homes destroyed and an estimated 700 more damaged.Not only is Obama staying away from the region, he has said almost nothing publicly about the tragedy beyond an interview with a North Carolina TV station and a very brief mention at a White House prayer breakfast. The president has failed to make the kind of national, attention-getting public statement presidents offer during crises to comfort victims by expressing the condolences of the nation and to seek charitable aid.Sunday, he went golfing. On Monday, he did sign a disaster declaration for North Carolina, which will free up federal assistance to the state.Vice President Biden has also failed to show up. He’s cooling his heels today at home in Wilmington, Delaware. The disaster did not even merit a visit from Secretary of Interior Ken Salazar who – without any apparent irony – was in Boston Tuesday announcing a new wind energy project.Meanwhile, the South is bracing for more, as forecasters say severe storms and tornadoes could hit the region again today.Obama’s failure to publicly attend to the fallout from the tornadoes comes on the one-year anniversary of the rig explosion that caused the Gulf oil spill. Obama was roundly criticized then for failing to respond sufficiently to the crisis.Hmmm....It's pretty obvious by now that the President's 'Christian' side is pretty much blind and deaf to the suffering of the American people!Read the full story here.
- Pal Pres Abbas "We are counting on the words of US Pres Obama who said his vision is to see a Palestinian state this coming September".(Ynet).Mahmoud Abbas says he has confidence in US president's vision ahead of meeting with Nicolas Sarkozy, while Israeli state officials believe Europe won't endorse recognition of Palestinian state in UN.The Palestinians are signaling they are still planning to go ahead with efforts to declare an independent state with the backing of the United Nations. Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said during a visit in Tunisia that the Palestinian Authority is ready to establish a state. "We are counting on the words of US President Barack Obama who said his vision is to see a Palestinian state this coming September according to a deadline set by the Quartet." Abbas added that 130 countries have already recognized a Palestinian state on 1967 borders and that this number could well reach 140 or 150. He stated that Western European countries have also accepted the fact that a Palestinian state will be established sooner or later, despite not having recognized it yet.Meanwhile, Israeli state officials sounded surprisingly optimistic on Tuesday. Deputy Foreign Minister Daniel Ayalon said: "The Palestinian threat for a unilateral move in the UN is an idle threat. I believe the Europeans will not vote in favor of this in the end."Another state official noted, "Abu Mazen (Abbas) is going around the world trying to raise support but not everyone in the PA believe it's the right move for the Palestinians right now. They all understand that a vote will not change reality on the ground. The Europeans are not likely to vote for the Palestinians."Should the resolution address clear borders and the right of return – they won't get the Europeans' support. "Hmmmm......But, but.....Hussein promised.Read the full story here.
- Obama and Facebook getting a little too friendly?(HotAir).Today, Barack Obama will hold a Facebook townhall meeting as his re-election campaign kicks into gear. Obama made good use of social media in his 2008 campaign, and thanks to the popularity of his candidacy, social media sites like Facebook benefited from the exposure. But after two years in office, the luster has worn off of Hope and Change, and the Politico wonders if Facebook might be damaging its brand by hitching its wagon to Obama’s fading star.If you have a critical question for Obama, don’t expect it to get through today, even if you do leave the question at the White House entry form. Instead, Tim Pawlenty wants to take those questions himself on his website, where he will presumably answer those questions that fall outside the “how come America doesn’t appreciate your awesome awesomeness, Mr. President?”Hmmmm.....Lots of "Dead Souls" to be created to get your opinion over to the public?Reich Minister of propaganda Goebbels would have loved this.Read the full story here.
- Related - Facebook Woos Washington.(DailyBeast).President Obama hosts a town-hall at Facebook headquarters today, a sign of the social media giant’s growing political power and its oddly symbiotic relationship with the president: he needs Facebook for reelection, the company needs him to stay in Congress’ good graces.One of the smartest things Zuckerberg ever did was to bring aboard Sheryl Sandberg, the company’s chief operating officer, who will play co-host during the Obama town-hall meeting. Sandberg came to Facebook from Google, but before that she was a power player in D.C., serving as chief of staff under Larry Summers during his tenure as secretary of the Treasury. She’s now a member of the recently formed President’s Council for Jobs and Competitiveness.After Sandberg joined Facebook, she brought along a fellow Google exec, Elliot Schrage, who before coming to Silicon Valley worked at the Council on Foreign Relations. Schrage, a lawyer by training, serves as Facebook’s head of global communications and public affairs.Chris Hughes, a Facebook co-founder, ran Obama’s 2008 social-networking operation via a website called My.BarackObama.com. More recently, Facebook has been rumored to be wooing Robert Gibbs, Obama’s former White House press secretary, to come aboard in a senior communications role. Last year Facebook poached Marne Levine, a White House economic adviser, to help run its global public policy efforts.All this cross-pollination prompted Politico on Tuesday to question whether Obama and Facebook are getting too cozy.Thing is, when it comes to dealing with the government, Facebook needs to get as cozy as it can. This company is gathering more personal information about more people than any other company ever, even more than Google. Suddenly it is dawning on everyone, including members of Congress, just how much power Facebook is amassing.Facebook has already landed in hot water with lawmakers for changing its privacy policies in ways that some found creepy and opportunistic. In April 2010, Facebook caused an uproar by introducing new rules that pushed users to share more information about themselves.When users and privacy advocates howled, Facebook’s spinmeisters claimed, laughably, that the new policy was meant to help members, not hurt them, and that the site simply hadn’t done a good enough job of explaining this fact.When that didn’t wash, Facebook did what it had done in previous skirmishes—it agreed to dial back the changes, a little bit, while leaving much of the encroachment in place.As the Electronic Frontier Foundation points out, the new legislation contains a “Facebook loophole,” allowing Facebook to continue tracking users as they move around the Internet, even when they’re not logged in to Facebook.Now comes President Obama, sitting down for a friendly chat with Mark Zuckerberg and Sheryl Sandberg. Obama needs Facebook to help him get re-\elected. Facebook needs Obama to keep them out of trouble with Congress and countless government agencies. No wonder they’re on each other’s friends list.Hmmmm.....Do you want "Big Brother' watching your evey move on the Internet?I for one don't fancy it and therefor i'm not a member of the 'Check me out book"!Read the full story here.
- Related? - ACTION ALERT: Facebook Censors MASSIVE "Jews" Page on Passover!(JIDF). We have good friends who admin a massive, 245,000+ strong "JEWS" page (http://www.facebook.com/thejews) on Facebook. The "Jews" page shares a lot of our work, and a lot of other great, pro-Israel and Jewish information with their fans. Facebook appears to be in the process of censoring that page. It's either that, or an unfortunate glitch, but considering:
•Facebook's history of censoring pro-Israel, Jewish material (see here, here and here)
•Facebook's threats of censoring other content produced by people they arbitrarily "just don't like" (see here)
•The fact that they allow thousands of anti-Israel, Holocaust denial, and other antisemitic and Islamic terrorist pages (see here, here, here, here and many other pages on our site)
•The fact that they submitted to Islam by censoring the "Everybody Draw Mohammed Day" groups.
we don't think this is a coincidence. We feel this might also be politically motivated, especially considering one of Randi Zuckerberg's (sister of the founder of Facebook) recent Tweets:
Dress rehearsal for President Obama's Facebook Town Hall tomorrow! It's getting close!Hmmmm......Facebook proving his allegiance to 'dear leader'?Read the full story here.
- Al-Azhar Sheikh Working for Release of 'Omar 'Abd Al-Rahman a.k.a. 'The Blind Sheikh' .(Memri).The sheikh of Al-Azhar, Dr. Muhammad Al-Tayeb, said that intense efforts are being made to arrange the release of Sheikh 'Omar 'Abd Al-Rahman, known as the Blind Sheikh, a member of the Al-Jama'a Al-Islamiyya organization who has been imprisoned in the US since 1996 for involvement in the 1993 bombing at the World Trade Center. Al-Tayeb said that the coming days will see a breakthrough in this matter. Tomorrow (April 21) a demonstration is to be held in front of the US embassy in Cairo in demand for the sheikh's release.Hmmmm.....Is Holders Department of injustice planning to release him?Read the full story here.
- Internet censorship on the rise in Turkey, report says.(HurriyetDaily)Internet freedom in Turkey has deteriorated due to the government’s limiting of access to certain information, including political content, a report by the Washington-based advocacy group Freedom House has said.Online freedom has been hampered by the continuous blocking of certain applications, particularly file-sharing sites such as YouTube, Last.fm and Metacafe, whose users have filed cases with the European Court of Human Rights over the last two years, according to the report, Freedom on the Net 2011.The report, prepared for the United Nations Democracy Fund, showed that access to YouTube alone was blocked approximately 20 times between March 2007 and November 2010. It added that lack of transparency in blocking decisions makes it difficult for site owners or users to appeal.Censorship has increased along with Internet access and speed, and around 5,000 websites have been banned since 2001, according to the survey, daily Hürriyet reported Wednesday.Turkey ranks 10th among the countries with “partially free” Internet usage, Hürriyet wrote. The Freedom House ranking gives higher numerical scores to countries with more censorship. Turkey’s score went up to 45 from 42 last year, showing an increase in restrictions on Internet freedom.The sites MySpace and Dailymotion; blog-hosting sites such as WordPress and Blogger; Google groups; and the photo-sharing website Slide are among those that are regularly blocked, the report said.Additionally, the procedures taken by the courts or the Telecommunications Directorate, or TİB, to block websites are not transparent, making it difficult for those seeking to appeal the rulings, the report said. Site owners often have trouble determining why their sites have been blocked and which court issued the order, as the reasoning behind court decisions is not provided in blocking notices.Estonia was considered the most free among the countries surveyed, followed by the United States, Germany, Australia, England, Italy, South Africa and Brazil. The countries of Kenya, Mexico, South Korea, Georgia, Nigeria, India, Malaysia and Jordan are all ahead of Turkey.Turkey had around 26.4 million Internet users in 2009, with 35 percent of them considered active users.Hmmmmm......they better prepare for a lot more restrictions after erdogan wins the upcoming elections.Read the full story here.
- "Life and death in Iran's prisons".Another Prisoner Dies in Iran Due to Lack of Medical Care.Hassan Nahid, a political prisoner who was held in ward 350 of Evin prison died two weeks ago in the hospital due to lack of medical attention and treatment for his cancer, according to the Committee in Defense of Political Prisoners.Hassan Nahid was sentenced to three years in prison on the charges of espionage and disclosing classified documents. Since he was unable to afford the €63,000 fine, he was jailed for an additional three years.In 2006, Hassan Nahid had signed a statement that condemned the suspicious death of Akbar Mohammadi, a member of the central council for the United Student Front who died in prison after a hunger strike and the lack of attention by prison officials. Consequently, Hassan Nahid was denied access to medical services outside the prison, even though he suffered from cancer. He was permitted to only use the medical services offered in the prison clinic. Additionally, he was subjected to continuous harassment and humiliation.Hassan Zarezadeh Ardeshir, the spokesperson for the Committee in Defense of Political Prisoners said, “The death of Hassan Nahid is suspicious. He was under pressure in prison. Despite suffering from a serious illness and a critical health condition, judicial and security authorities prevented him from seeking treatment outside the prison until it was too late. He died after being transferred to the hospital.”Hassan Zarezadeh Ardeshir insists that the death of Hassan Nahid has to be investigated. He also recalled that Mohsen Dokmehchi, the prisoner of conscience held in Rajai Shahr ‘Gohardasht’ prison died on March 30th, also due to the refusal of prison officials to transfer him to a hospital and provide him with much needed medical attention. Mohsen Dokmechi died in Tehran’s Modares hospital after suffering for months from cancer.Many other political prisoners such as Akbar Mohammadi, Amir Saran, Omid Mir-Sayafi, and Alborz Ghassemi-Shall have died under suspicious circumstances in Iranian prisons. Their deaths must be investigated by an independent delegation.The Committee in Defense of Political Prisoners has asked Islamic Republic officials to provide the public and the media with the necessary information regarding Hassan Nahid’s death.Hassan Zarehzadeh Ardeshir points out that, according to international laws and regulations, the Islamic Republic of Iran is responsible for protecting the lives of the prisoners and must be held accountable in this regard. We urge international bodies to take serious action with respect to suspicious deaths in the Islamic Republic’s prisons.Hmmm.....Perhaps the UN can give Iran another seat for human rights?Read the full story here.
- Genie blamed for fall of three girls at wedding.(Emirates247).Three girls fell down from a wedding platform in a packed hall in Saudi Arabia, scaring off guests and prompting relatives to replace songs with verses of the holy Quran to expel what they believe were jinn (genies).The bridegroom instantly shouted for the band to stop the music and turned on Quran verses when his sister who was sitting near him fell off the platform.A few minutes later, his sister in law fell off and was later followed with his cousin, to the shock of the guests who fled the wedding.“Songs were replaced with Quran verses and all guests left the wedding immediately as it was believed that the girls’ fall was caused by jinn,” Kabar newspaper said in a report from the western Red Sea port of Jeddah.Hmmmm.......43 % proof 'Gin'nie in a bottle?Read the full story here.
- UK: Islamists Plan to Burn Effigies of Royals William & Kate Along Wedding Procession Route.(DailyMail).Police anticipate violent clashes between Right-wing English Defence League and Muslim hardliners .Officers consider 'pre-emptive strikes' against troublemakers.Muslim fanatics plan to hijack the Royal Wedding by burning effigies of Prince William and Kate Middleton.Extremists belonging to the group Muslims Against Crusades were behind the poppy-burning outrage on November 11 last year.According to police, they have now vowed to turn the wedding celebrations into a 'nightmare'. They plan a 'forceful demonstration' with thousands of protesters set to burn the Union Flag, images of the Crown, and effigies of the bridal couple.Police are anticipating violent clashes as the Right-wing English Defence League have given notice that they intend to protest against the Muslim hardliners.Scotland Yard chiefs are also preparing for trouble from anarchist yobs.Sixty troublemakers charged with public order offences at past demonstrations have already been banned from the City of Westminster on the day as part of their bail conditions.Officers are considering a series of ‘pre-emptive strikes’, which could see anarchists being hauled from their beds and arrested on the morning of the wedding.Muslim Against Crusades, according to police, have vowed to turn the wedding celebrations into a 'nightmare'.Hmmmm.....I wonder how Henry VIII would have dealt with this?Read the full story here.
- Got an iPhone or 3G iPad? Apple is recording your moves! A section titled "Who has access to this data?" was added.(O.Reilly).A hidden file in iOS 4 is regularly recording the position of devices.The presence of this data on your iPhone, your iPad, and your backups has security and privacy implications. We've contacted Apple's Product Security team, but we haven't heard back.What makes this issue worse is that the file is unencrypted and unprotected, and it's on any machine you've synched with your iOS device. It can also be easily accessed on the device itself if it falls into the wrong hands. Anybody with access to this file knows where you've been over the last year, since iOS 4 was released.Hmmmm.....Big Brother anyone.Read the full story here.
- ACLU: Michigan cops stealing drivers' phone data,yes that photo also.(CNet).The Michigan State Police have started using handheld machines called "extraction devices" to download personal information from motorists they pull over, even if they're not suspected of any crime. Naturally, the ACLU has a problem with this. The devices, sold by a company called Cellebrite, can download text messages, photos, video, and even GPS data from most brands of cell phones. The handheld machines have various interfaces to work with different models and can even bypass security passwords and access some information. The problem as the ACLU sees it, is that accessing a citizen's private phone information when there's no probable cause creates a violation of the Constitution's 4th Amendment, which protects us against unreasonable searches and seizures. To that end, it's petitioning the MSP to turn over information about its use of the devices under the Freedom of Information Act. The MSP said it's happy to comply, that is, if the ACLU provides them with a processing fee in excess of $500,000. That's more than $100,000 for each of the five devices the MSP says it has in use.The ACLU, for its part, says that the fee is odious, and that a public policing agency has a duty to its citizens to be open. "This should be something that they are handing over freely, and that they should be more than happy to share with the public--the routines and the guidelines that they follow," Mark Fancher, an attorney for the ACLU, told Detroit's WDIV. As of yet there's no suit, but one is likely if the MSP sticks to its proverbial guns and refuses to hand over information about how it's using the cell phone snooping devices, without being first paid off. If litigation does come, the outcome may set a precedent that would have far-reaching effects, and might make a device that most of us carry a pocket battleground in the war of digital privacy.Hmmmm.....Democracy or Dictatorship?The choice is yours in 2012.Read the full story here.
- 'I thought there would be a bit of pain, then I would be in Heaven': Maimed Pakistani boy, 14, tells of failed suicide bomb bid.(DailyMail).A Pakistani teenager has told how he was brainwashed by the Taliban into becoming a suicide bomber because he believed he would go to paradise.Umar Fidai, 14, and another schoolboy were behind the attack on a Pakistani shrine earlier this month in which scores were killed and many others injured.Fidai survived because his bomb vest failed to detonate properly, although he has lost an arm and could yet lose his life because of his injuries. Now in custody, he admits he made a terrible mistake and begs forgiveness for his deadly mission - for which his family have now disowned him.He told the BBC he trained with the Taliban for five months, learning how to shoot, use a grenade and ultimately to be a suicide bomber.He was told he would go Afghanistan to kill 'non-believers' but in fact the pair were taken to another part of Pakistan and ordered to blow up the shrine. Umar told the BBC: 'The plan was that Ismail would blow himself up near the shrine, then I would wait and blow myself up near the ambulances when they came.'He said he had no doubts at all about killing himself: 'All I was thinking was that I had to detonate myself near as many people as possible.'When I decided it was the right time, it was a moment of happiness for me. I thought that there would be a little bit of pain, but then I would be in Heaven.Even when the jacket failed, Umar continued to try and bring about more carnage - reaching for a grenade in his pocket.'We had been taught that if the belt does not go off, we should kill ourselves with the grenade.'There were three policemen standing close by, and I thought if I killed them too, I would still make it to Heaven.'As he attempted to pull out the pin, he was shot in the arm by police. He says when doctors and officers then tried to help him, he realised he had made a dreadful mistake.The children were told studying was pointless and that killing 'infidels' would be a route to paradise. 'The Taliban prayed all the time and read the Koran, so I thought they were good people. My heart told me to go and train with them,' he said. He admits he now 'did a very bad thing' and has realised suicide bombing is un-Islamic. The boy has not heard from his family since the blast.He is still seriously ill and is worried the Taliban might come to kill him because he failed to complete his mission.Hmmm......The religion of peace.Read the full story here.
- Hug lands man in jail, girl escapes. (Emirates247). A Saudi man who had apparently known the risks of hugging his girl friend in a public place could not help it and went ahead with it. Moments after the hug, the Gulf Kingdom’s Islamic police were on him.The girl managed to run away when she saw several members of the Commission for the Promotion of Virtue and Prevention of Vice rushing towards her. Her boy friend was not equally lucky.“They arrested him for committing an obscene act in public but the girl managed to flee….they also found obscene pictures in his mobile phone,” Kabar Arabic language daily said in a report from the eastern town of Dhahran.Hmmmm.....Sharia is the same as The Constitution?...Anyone?Read the full story here.
