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Archive for April, 2012

Fukushima: Many Experts Believe That Dangerously High Levels of Nuclear Fallout and Radiation Are Still Blanketing the West Coast of America

04/10/2012 Leave a comment

By Alexander Higgins – “While the mainstream media long ago moved on from covering the nuclear disaster in Japan, a number of independent journalists and scientists have been warning that the disaster is far from over.

In fact, many experts are suggesting that dangerously high levels of nuclear fallout and radiation are still blanketing the western coast of the United States.

One year later and the problems just keep getting worse…

An independent reporter, EnviroReproter out of Los Angeles CA., has conducted over 1,500 tests in the Los Angeles area since the disaster occurred.

In his latest set of readings, he tested a sampling of rain water that was composed primarily of sea mist. The levels of radiation that he detected were over five times the normal background radiation levels in Santa Monica CA.

Arnold Gundersen, a former nuclear power industry executive, is claiming that the Fukushima nuclear disaster is 10 times worse than the 1986 Chernobyl meltdown in the former Soviet Union.

He says that Chernobyl was a single reactor running at only 7 percent when it ruptured, while Fukushima had three reactors operating at 100 percent capacity. Fukushima also had seven other nuclear reactors with spent fuel pools that were damaged.

In an interview he gave to ChinaDaily.com, Gunderson warned that nuclear fallout was making its way into the food supply of the world.

“Large cesium deposits (are also being found) on the bottom of the river bed that gets picked up by weeds and seaweed in the ocean that then gets eaten by other fish and mollusks and work their way up the food chain,””

Read more.

Now they tell us: Radioactive Iodine from Fukushima Found in California Kelp – “Kelp off Southern California was contaminated with short-lived radioisotopes a month after Japan’s Fukushima accident, a sign that the spilled radiation reached the state’s urban coastline, according to a new scientific study. Scientists from California State University, Long Beach tested giant kelp collected in the ocean off Orange County and other locations after the March, 2011 accident, and detected radioactive iodine, which was released from the damaged nuclear reactor. The largest concentration was about 250-fold higher than levels found in kelp before the accident.” Read more.

Fukushima Has Potential to Destroy the World And Our Civilization – “Experts are now coming forward with their opinions on the real implications of the Fukushima disaster. More and more scientists continue to report that Fukushima has the potential to make Chernobyl look like a drop of water compared to a massive lake. For starters, experts are admitting that the nuclear fallout is already near or above Chernobyl levels. Then there is the acknowledgement that the levels of cesium at the plant is 85 time more than that contained at Chernobyl. On top of that, there is the major problem of the plutonium Mox fuel. Now, a former UN Adviser, has come forward to warn that Fukushima has the potential to ‘destroy the world, the environment, and our civilization.'” Read more.

Categories: Man-Made Disasters

Deaths of Millions of Bats in North America Linked to Killer European Fungus

04/10/2012 Leave a comment

By Margaret Munro – “The death of millions of bats in Canada and the United States has been traced to an ‘invasive’ pathogen from Europe, which may have been carried into North America on someone’s shoes.

An international experiment, run on bats that hibernated in a bio-safety lab in Saskatchewan, has provided the strongest evidence yet that the bat killer is a fungus from Europe.

‘And it’s a reasonable hypothesis that it came in on someone’s shoes,’ says biologist Craig Willis, at the University of Winnipeg, who led the study published Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.

More than 90 per cent of bats have been wiped out in colonies in eastern Canada and the U.S. as a result of white nose syndrome, which is caused by the fungus.

‘It’s very bad news,’ Willis says of the syndrome that was first seen in North America in 2006 in a New York cave popular with tourists. The quickly spreading fungus has decimated colonies in the eastern U.S. as well as Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec and Ontario.” Read more.

Flashback: ‘Startling’: Up to 6.7 Million Bats Now Dead of ‘White-Nose’ Fungus in Canada and the United States – “U.S. scientists are estimating that between 5.7 million and 6.7 million bats in Canada and the United States have succumbed to white-nose syndrome, a fungus spreading in eastern North America. The mortality figures were released Tuesday by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. ‘White-nose syndrome has spread quickly through bat populations in eastern North America, and has caused significant mortality in many colonies,’ said Dr. Jeremy Coleman, co-ordinator of the U.S white-nose syndrome program. ‘Many bats were lost before we were able to establish pre-white-nose syndrome population estimates.’” Read more.

Fist-Fight Ready: Iran Defiant as US Navy Deploys 2nd Aircraft Carrier to the Persian Gulf

04/10/2012 Leave a comment

“DUBAI, United Arab Emirates (AP) — The U.S. Navy said Monday it has deployed a second aircraft carrier to the Persian Gulf region amid rising tensions with Iran over its disputed nuclear program.

The deployment of the nuclear-powered USS Enterprise along with the Abraham Lincoln carrier strike group marks one of the few times the Navy has had two aircraft carriers operating in waters near the Persian Gulf, said Cmdr. Amy Derrick-Frost of the Bahrain-based 5th Fleet.

The two carriers will support the American military operations in Afghanistan and anti-piracy efforts off Somalia’s coast and in the Gulf of Aden, she said.

The warships also patrol the Gulf’s strategic oil routes that Iran has threatened to shut down in retaliation for economic sanctions slapped on the Islamic Republic because of its nuclear program, which the West suspects aims to develop nuclear weapons.” Read more.

Ahmadinejad: Iran Can Withstand Oil Embargo ‘For Years’ – “Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said Iran has enough funds to withstand a total embargo on its oil sales for several years, Iranian media reported on Tuesday. ‘[Western powers] want to impose sanctions on our oil and we must say to them that we have that much saved that even if we didn’t sell oil for two to three years, the country would manage easily,’ Ahmadinejad said during a visit to Hormuzgan province. On Monday, the U.S. said that time is not infinite for nuclear talks between Iran and the West – five days before a planned round of talks was set to begin.” Read more.

Ahmadinejad: Iran Will Punch the West in the Mouth – “… Ahmadinejad also accused Western countries of being solely interested in plunder, Fars reported. ‘Whoever wishes to abuse Iran’s rights, the young … will punch them in the mouth to the extent that they won’t be able to find their way home,’ he said. The United States and its allies hope sanctions on Iran’s energy and financial sectors will force Tehran to abandon what they believe to be a push for nuclear weapons… Iran insists its nuclear program is exclusively for peaceful purposes. However, in early March, the head of the IAEA said there were indications that Iran was engaged in the development of nuclear weapons.” Read more.

Turkey: Muslims Attack Church Pastor in Istanbul, Threaten to Kill Him If He Refuses to Accept Islam

04/09/2012 3 comments

“Four people rushed to the Protestant Grace Church in Bahçelievler, Istanbul and physically abused pastor Semir Sertek (58), after forcing him to cite the Islamic testimony of faith.

Sertek had depicted the attack which took place on the night of the Orthodox Easter, April 7th, to Radikal daily as follows:

‘Someone knocked forcefully on the door of the church. They were aggravated. When we opened the door, they forced their way in, mocking us. I was troubled. I asked them to come back at the next day but they kept insulting. ‘This is a Muslim neighborhood, there’s no place for a church’ they said. They threatened to kill me if I refuse to accept Islam. One of them cited the Islamic testimony of faith and asked me to recite it. He kicked me on my chest and then they ran. I fell of the stairs.’ (EKN/EÜ)” Source – Bianet.

Flashback: Turkey: From Churches to Mosques, See What Happens When a Secular State is Taken Over by Islamists – “A story in today’s International Herald Tribune (read here on the New York Times website) provides an interesting insight into exactly what happens when a secular state is taken over by Islamists. The piece concerned the Hagia Sophia of Iznik, an ancient church that brought 40,000 tourists to the town south of Istanbul much to the delight of the locals. Iznik was once known as Nicaea, and it was there the first Ecumenical Council of the Christian Church met at the Hagia Sophia in the year 325. But the Islamist government of Turkey has put a damper on the prosperity of those who profited from the museum by formally converting the building into a mosque.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey, Key US Ally, Added to List of Worst Religious Freedom Offenders – “Yes, you’ve read that right. The country that has become ‘a useful model for new Arab regimes’ has now been added to the list of worst religious freedom offenders in the world. Alongside Egypt who now vows to one day kill all Jews, this is a nation that the Obama Administration is now actively arming, a nation that now makes verbal attacks against Israel ‘a central feature’ of its political discourse. Welcome to the ‘new’ face of ‘moderate Islam’ …” Read more.

Allah’s Law Has Spoken: Kuwaiti Parliament Unanimously Approves Death Penalty for Those Who Insult Allah, Mohammed or His Wives

04/09/2012 Leave a comment

Revelation 13:15, “And he had power to give life unto the image of the beast, that the image of the beast should both speak, and cause that as many as would not worship the image of the beast should be killed.”

“KUWAIT CITY, April 8: MP Adel Al-Damkhi proposed to the government Sunday to establish ‘a center to treat negative phenomena alien to Kuwaiti society.’

The Islamist MP explained the proposal arrives ‘in light of the occasional spread of negative phenomena alien to our Kuwaiti society.’

The center should also aim ‘to promote noble values amongst Kuwaiti youth, who are the future of the country; to fight what affects the moral values of the society; and to encourage the youth to be involved in fields that serve the nation,’ he added …

Al-Dallal added the legal committee also unanimously approved amendments to the Penal Code pertaining to blasphemy. The amendments stipulate the death penalty for those who publicly insult God Almighty (Divine Entity) or Prophet Mohammed (PBUH) or his wives. He said the committee discussed the matter with representatives from the Awqaf Ministry and fatwa experts and the bill will be on the agenda of the next session.” Read more.

Flashback: Kuwait: Islamists Experience Overwhelming Gains in Parliamentary Elections, Women and Liberals See Dismal Losses – “Kuwait has become the fourth Arab country in as many months to see overwhelming gains for Islamists and dismal losses for liberals in parliamentary elections. It also saw a new exclusion of women from the 50-seat parliament after none of the 23 women candidates, including the four incumbents, could secure enough votes to win even though women made up around 54% of the voting bloc. Overall change to the parliament composition over the latest one, which was dissolved in December following bitter clashes with the government, was about 54 per cent as 27 new lawmakers made their way to the green seats. The Islamists have now 22 seats from the Salafist and Muslim Brotherhood movements as well as independent MPs.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Report: There Are Hundreds, Perhaps Thousands, Of ‘Iranian and Hezbollah Terrorists’ Inside the United States

04/09/2012 Leave a comment

By Yitzhak Benhorin, Reuters – “WASHINGTON – A recent report by the House of Representatives Committee on Homeland Security states that there are hundreds, perhaps even thousands, people he described as ‘Iranian and Hezbollah terrorists’ in the United States.

An alarming part of the officials’ assessments focuses on the apparent surveillance missions that Iranian diplomats and possible Hezbollah operatives have been seen conducting at sensitive targets such as New York City’s subways and bridges, and at nuclear power plants and tunnels elsewhere in the United States in the past 10 years.

At the same time, US officials caution that Hezbollah, a Shiite militia based in Lebanon, has largely avoided attacking US targets since it carried out mass-casualty bombings in the 1980s against the US Embassy and Marine barracks in Beirut. One reason may be that it does not want to endanger its lucrative North American fund-raising operations.

The renewed focus on Hezbollah – which US counter-terrorism officials regard as the most potent and disciplined of Islamic militant groups, even more so than al-Qaeda – comes amid a growing confrontation over Iran’s nuclear program.

An Israeli or US strike on Iran’s nuclear sites could prompt Hezbollah to change strategy, moving from surveillance and fund-raising in North America to launching retaliatory attacks on either country, several US officials said.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran-Sponsored Terrorists Plan US Attack ‘Worse Than The World Trade Center’ From Latin American Countries – “Middle Eastern terrorists have infiltrated Latin American countries—especially Mexico—to plan an attack against the United States, according to an alarming exposé broadcast this week by the world’s largest Spanish news network. The Univision documentary, ‘La Amenaza Irani,’ (Iranian Threat), uses undercover, never-before-seen video footage to illustrate how Iran’s growing political, economic and military ties to Latin America threaten U.S. security. The videos were part of a seven-month investigation in which college-aged Mexicans infiltrated diplomatic circles in Mexico to obtain recordings that prove diplomats from Iran, Venezuela and Cuba planned a cybernetic attack against the White House, FBI, Pentagon and U.S. nuclear plants.” Read more.

What the Quran Says About the Apostates of Islam? ‘Just Kill Them’

04/09/2012 Leave a comment

By M. A. Khan – “In Sharia Law, one who openly leaves Islam is given three days to repent and re-embrace Islam. If he/she doesn’t, he/she must be killed.

The fact that punishment for decisively leaving Islam is death by beheading has been a settled and traditionally practised matter from the beginning of Islam to the present time. But in the face of Western influence and criticisms, some apologists of Islam in the 19th century started raising doubts about the ‘death punishment’ for apostasy in Islam. About this, Abul Ala Maududi, the greatest and most influential 20th-century Islamic scholar, says:

To everyone acquainted with Islamic law it is no secret that according to Islam the punishment for a Muslim who turns to kufr (infidelity, blasphemy) is execution. Doubt about this matter first arose among Muslims during the final portion of the nineteenth century as a result of speculation. Otherwise, for the full twelve centuries prior to that time the total Muslim community remained unanimous about it. The whole of our religious literature clearly testifies that ambiguity about the matter of the apostate’s execution never existed among Muslims. The expositions of the Prophet, the Rightly-Guided Caliphs (Khulafa’-i Rashidun), the great Companions (Sahaba) of the Prophet, their Followers (Tabi’un), the leaders among the mujtahids and, following them, the doctors of the shari’ah of every century are available on record. All these collectively will assure you that from the time of the Prophet to the present day one injunction only has been continuously and uninterruptedly operative, and that no room whatever remains to suggest that perhaps the punishment of the apostate is not execution.[i]

Maududi wanted to kill the doubts about Islam’s command of ‘death punishment’ for Muslim apostates for once and for all, but didn’t succeed. In the face of mountainous odds, Islamic apologists – who are permitted by Islam to lie and deceive, i.e. to exercise Taqiyya, for the good of Islam – would not let the matter settle. A few of today’s small-time Islamic apologists – opposing the 1400-year-old Islamic tradition, all schools of Islamic jurisprudence, and opinions of the stalwart scholars of Islam in all of its history – have taken up the Islamic dispensation of lying and deceiving to deny the undeniable: Punishment for apostasy in Islam is death!” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

One Step Forward: Jews Beginning To Reclaim Jesus As One Of Their Own, ‘I’m Jealous Of Christians’

04/09/2012 5 comments

Romans 11:11, 25-26, “I say then, have they stumbled that they should fall? Certainly not! But through their fall, to provoke them to jealousy, salvation [has come] to the Gentiles… For I do not desire, brethren, that you should be ignorant of this mystery, lest you should be wise in your own opinion, that blindness in part has happened to Israel until the fullness of the Gentiles has come in. And so all Israel will be saved, as it is written: ‘The Deliverer will come out of Zion, And He will turn away ungodliness from Jacob'”

It is a good thing, perhaps prophetic, to begin seeing the Jewish people taking one step forward to at least examine the person and teachings of Yeshua. The fullness of the Gentiles is at hand. My question now is this: Is the Second Coming of Messiah the catalyst that brings about their belief in Yeshua, or will their belief in Yeshua be the catalyst that brings about the Second Coming of Messiah? …

By Richard Allen Greene, CNN – “The relationship between Jews and Jesus has traditionally been a complicated one, to say the least.

As his followers’ message swept the ancient world, Jews who did not accept Jesus as the Messiah found themselves in the uncomfortable, and sometimes dangerous, position of being blamed for his death.

Mainstream Christian theology’s position held that Judaism had been supplanted, the Jewish covenant with the divine no longer valid, because of the incarnation of God as Jesus and his sacrifice on the cross.

Jews, for their part, tended largely to ignore Jesus.

That’s changing now.

In the past year, a spate of Jewish authors, from the popular to the rabbinic to the scholarly, have wrestled with what Jews should think about Jesus.

And overwhelmingly, they are coming up with positive answers, urging their fellow Jews to learn about Jesus, understand him and claim him as one of their own.

‘Jesus is a Jew. He spent his life talking to other Jews,’ said Amy-Jill Levine, co-editor of the recently released ‘Jewish Annotated New Testament.’

‘In reading the New Testament, I am often inspired, I am intrigued. I actually find myself becoming a better Jew because I become better informed about my own history,’ she said.

Rabbi Shmuley Boteach, a media personality who recently launched a bid for a U.S. House seat, argues in his own new book, ‘Kosher Jesus,’ that ‘Jews have much to learn from Jesus – and from Christianity as a whole – without accepting Jesus’ divinity. There are many reasons for accepting Jesus as a man of great wisdom, beautiful ethical teachings, and profound Jewish patriotism.’

And Benyamin Cohen, an Orthodox Jew who spent a recent year going to church, admitted that he’s jealous that Christians have Jesus.

‘He’s a tangible icon that everybody can latch on to. Judaism doesn’t have a superhero like that,’ said Cohen, the author of the 2009 book ‘My Jesus Year.’

‘I’m not advocating for Moses dolls,’ he said, but he argued that ‘it’s hard to believe in a God you can’t see. I’m jealous of Christians in that regard, that they have this physical manifestation of the divine that they can pray to.'” Read more.

Categories: Anything Else, Good News

Egypt: At Least 9,000 Livestock Now Dead, 100,000 Infected with Foot-And-Mouth, All of North Africa and the Middle East Now Threatened

04/08/2012 3 comments

By Ben Gittleson – “Al Shawaye Al Malaq, Egypt // Freshly covered graves mask the carcasses of cattle felled by the foot-and-mouth disease outbreak spreading across Egypt, but farmers’ frustration in the Nile Delta over the financial devastation is out in the open.

Al Shawaye Al Malaq is one of the worst hit villages in Egypt, with almost 5,000 livestock dead. Ahmed Ibrahim Ghayes lost all 20 of his calves and one adult cow; his remaining 59 cattle have all been infected.

With most of his cows either dead or unable to produce milk at capacity, Mr Ghayes’s milk output has dropped 80 per cent. The outbreak has frozen the cattle trade, he said, making it difficult for him to pay off loans.

‘No one is buying or selling cattle because everyone’s afraid,’ he said.

Nearly 100,000 animals across Egypt have been infected, of which more than 9,000 have died, said the head of Egypt’s central quarantine service earlier this week.

The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) has warned the outbreak could threaten the whole of North Africa and the Middle East.” Read more.

Maldives: Large Numbers of Dead Fish Washing Ashore on Resorts and Inhabited Islands in Noonu and Haa Atolls

04/08/2012 1 comment

“Large numbers of dead fish have been washing ashore on resorts and inhabited islands in the upper north of the Maldives in Noonu and Haa Atolls, reports the Ministry of Fisheries and Agriculture. The dead fish are overwhelmingly red-tooth trigger fish (odonus niger, locally known as vaalan rondu), but include several other species of reef fishes including Acanthurids (surgeon fish) and Serranids. The Marine Research Centre (MRC) is currently investigating the incident. MRC Director General Shiham Adam said a series of similar incidents were reported from June-December in 2007. Tests showed the increased presence of the bacteria Staphylococcus in the spleen of fish samples, but the investigation was inconclusive. ‘We sent samples sent to the US and it seemed be related to a bacterial infection in the gills that causes them to suffocate,’ Shiham explained. ‘A lot of people say it is global warming and environmental change. [Fish kill incidents] are not something that normally happens, so we are worried about it,’ he said.

Minute changes in the environment during critical periods of a species’ life-cycle could trigger such events, Shiham explained.” Read more.

Categories: Mass Animal Deaths

Georgia: 2012 Sees Unusually High Number of Sea Turtle Deaths So Far, Researcher Hopes Warm Ocean Waters to Blame

04/08/2012 Leave a comment

By Mary Landers, Savannah Now – “An unusually high number of sea turtle strandings along the Georgia coast is being blamed in part on unseasonably warm ocean water temperatures.

In the first 12 weeks of this year, 25 dead sea turtles have been reported to the Georgia Department of Natural Resources. A typical year sees fewer than 10 in the same period, said Mark Dodd a DNR biologist and sea turtle coordinator for the state.

Three species of turtles are represented in the strandings: Kemp’s Ridley, loggerhead and green turtles. Each is endangered or threatened under the federal Endangered Species Act.

‘To some extent the elevated rate is due in part to the warm water temperatures,’ said Dodd, a longtime turtle researcher.

Warm water draws the turtles inshore and into estuaries to feed. It’s here that they’re more likely to be struck by a boat.

It may be that the peak of strandings, usually in April, came early this year.

‘I hope so,’ Dodd said.” Read more.

Categories: Mass Animal Deaths

India: Experts Clueless After ‘Alarming Number’ of Marine Deaths Off Konkan Coast

04/08/2012 Leave a comment

By Aakriti Vasudeva, The Indian Express – “The alarming number of marine deaths off the Konkan coast in the past few days, with two whales and several turtles found beached in separate incidents, could be natural or fishing-related, said experts.

A 35-foot whale identified as a Baleen whale was found beached at Priyadarshini Park at Napean Sea Road on Saturday. A similar whale was found dead at Uran on Thursday. Both were found in a highly decomposed state. There were unconfirmed reports of a third whale being beached off the Raigad coast on Monday. Meanwhile, many turtle deaths were reported over the last few days from the Raigad coast with 11 turtles found dead on the Shrivardhan coast on Saturday.

‘We have got queries from Mantralay and Fisheries department and have been trying to find out the cause of the whale deaths for the past two days, but have been unable to do so. We are studying the migrational routes of the whales along the Indian coast and gathering information on it,’ said Dr Vinay Deshmukh, principal scientist, Central Marine Fisheries Research Institute…

In case of the turtle deaths, the Roha forest department said about 24 dead turtles were found in a badly decomposed state from the Murud and Shrivardhan coast in the last month. 11 turtles were found dead at Shrivardhan on Sunday. ‘The vet we consulted said the turtles died of natural causes, but investigations are on ,’ said Deputy Conservator of Forests (Roha) Sarfaraz Khan.” Read more.

Categories: Mass Animal Deaths