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Archive for May, 2012

Georgia: More Fish Found Dead In Ogeechee River Just One Year After Largest Fish Kill In State History

05/25/2012 Leave a comment

By Meredith Ley, WSAV – “STATESBORO, GA — Just one year after the largest fish kill in Georgia history, more fish have been found dead along the Ogeechee River banks–prompting a swimming and fishing advisory in Bulloch and Effingham counties.

Nearly forty thousand fish died in the Ogeechee River last year. A textiles company — King America Finishing — was found to be at least partly to blame.

Here is the breakdown:

King America was fined one million dollars for illegal dumping of several chemicals not allowed in its permit.

Those include formaldehyde and ammonia.

The dumping had been going on for five years.

Just after our story aired this Monday on news three at six a viewer called and said he had seen more dead fish at 301 landing.

The Ogeechee Riverkeeper spent most of yesterday searching the river, and found more.

Then Thursday, the DNR was out at Oliver Bridge near Statesboro collecting even more dead fish.

So far at least four species of fish, plus some crawfish, are dying. They say this raises concern because, whatever is causing it, it’s affecting many different kinds of life in the river.

DNR says there are a few things that could be causing this.

First, water levels are even lower than they were this time last year.

Combine that with warmer water temperatures and the lack of rain — and it makes the perfect breeding ground for bacteria.

The Environmental Protection Division determined that the fish last year died of Columnaris, a bacterial disease caused by environmental stressors…

Regular testing by King America Finishing and the company’s contractor shows the river meets water quality standards, and there are no areas of concern.” Read more.

‘A Very Serious Situation’: Oyster Growers Seeing Massive Die-Offs In Chesapeake Bay, Nearly 100% Mortality Rate In Areas

05/25/2012 Leave a comment

Associated Press – “ANNAPOLIS, Md. — As oyster growers prepare to harvest their maturing spat in the coming weeks, things are not looking good.

An unusually rainy fall lowered salinity levels in Pasadena creeks and rivers, apparently causing massive die-offs among young oysters planted as part of the state’s efforts to reinvigorate the oyster population of the Chesapeake Bay. In some areas all the spat planted were wiped out.

‘It’s a very serious situation,’ said Chris Judy, manager of the Marylanders Grow Oysters program. ‘We don’t want to see our oysters die. In in the four-year history of the program, this is the first time we’ve had such an event, so it was very unusual.’

Spat, larva that settles and begins to develop a shell, need water with a certain salinity — typically at least four parts-per-thousand. Heavy rains in late August and September made the water too fresh for many spat to survive.

Under the program, the Department of Natural Resources in September gave participants spat and cages to hang from their piers, in which larval oysters were supposed to grow. The plan was to recover the oysters next month and place them on reefs, where they would filter local waterways.

But things didn’t go as planned.

Growers in Rock Creek experienced what appears to be a nearly 100 percent mortality rate, coordinator Chris Wallis said. All of the oysters in Stoney Creek died, said Mario Ricci, the program coordinator for that area.

In the Magothy River, growers are seeing 90 percent mortality rates or worse, volunteer coordinator Carl Treff said. Exact numbers for Bodkin Creek aren’t available yet, but cages have produced very few spat.

Mortality rates for the program typically range between 30 percent and 40 percent.” Read more.

Categories: Mass Animal Deaths

Egypt ‘On The Verge Of A New Era’ As Islamists Claim Lead In Vote

05/25/2012 2 comments

Times of Israel – “CAIRO (AP) — The Muslim Brotherhood made an early show of confidence as vote counting began in Egypt’s landmark presidential election on Thursday, saying its exit polls showed its candidate in the lead in the race to succeed ousted leader Hosni Mubarak.

Exit polls by several Arab television stations also suggested the Brotherhood’s Mohammed Morsi was ahead of the pack of 13 candidates. The reliability of the various exit surveys was not known, and a few hours after the end of two days of votes, only a tiny percentage of the ballots had been counted.

But the swiftness of the Brotherhood’s claim showed its eagerness to plant its flag and establish in the public eye that Morsi had at least won entry into a second round vote. There are five prominent candidates, but none is expected to win outright in the first round. A run-off between the two leading contenders would be held June 16-17.

The first truly competitive presidential election in Egypt’s history turned into a heated battle between Islamist candidates and secular figures rooted in Mubarak’s old regime. The most polarizing figures in the race were Morsi and former air force commander and former prime minister Ahmed Shafiq, a veteran of Mubarak’s rule.

The Brotherhood is hoping for a presidential victory to seal its political domination of Egypt, which would be a dramatic turnaround from the decades it was repressed under Mubarak. It already holds nearly half of parliament, the largest bloc there, after victories in elections late last year.” Read more.

Egyptian Islamists Threaten Insurgency Should Secularists Win Egyptian Presidential Election – “On May 19, Islamic Jihad Organization member Shaykh Usamah Qasim took to the pages of Al-Misri al-Yawm to warn that Islamists would not tolerate a victory by any of the non-Islamist candidates. According to a translation provided by the Open Source Center: ‘… The victory of former prime minister Ahmad Shafiq or former Arab League chief Amr Musa in the coming presidential elections would lead some Islamic and non-Islamic groups to respond with ‘armed action.’ ‘Thus, the fate of any of them who reaches the presidency will be like that of former President Anwar al-Sadat, who was assassinated …'” Read more.

Egyptian Cleric Declares Jerusalem Will Be Liberated By Muslim Brotherhood Candidate, Will Become The Capital Of The Islamic Caliphate – “We can see how the dream of the Islamic Caliphate is being realized, Allah willing, by Dr. Muhammad Mursi, and his brothers, and his supporters, and his political party. We can see how the great dream, shared by us all – that of the United States of the Arabs… the United States of the Arabs will be restored, Allah willing … by this man and his supporters. The capital of the Caliphate – the capital of the United States of the Arabs – will be Jerusalem …” Read more.

Yemen: Muslim Man Stabs Jew To Death In Sanaa For ‘Witchcraft’

05/25/2012 Leave a comment

I’m sure the fact that he was Jewish had nothing to do with it …

EJP – “SANAA (AFP)—A leading member of Yemen’s dwindling Jewish community, who was stabbed in Sanaa on Tuesday by a Muslim accusing him of witchcraft, has died in hospital, the community’s rabbi told AFP.

‘Harun Zindani has died from his wounds,’ said Yahya Yussef Mousa, calling

on the authorities to protect his co-religionists.

The cleric said Zindani was stabbed in the head and back by a vendor of the local narcotic known as qat, who attacked him from behind shouting: ‘You Jew, you have hurt my business with your sorcery.’

The assailant, Abed Ahmed al-Harbi, was restrained after the attack by passers-by and other shopkeepers, who held and eventually handed him over to the police.

The son of the victim, Yahya Zendani, told AFP the attacker was unknown to his father and had no quarrel with him.

Mousa appealed to Yemen’s President Abdrabuh Mansur Hadi and authorities to protect the country’s tiny Jewish community.

‘We are a weak people who have nothing against anyone, and I ask the authorities to apply Sharia (Islamic law which imposes the death penalty for murder) against this aggressor without trial,’ he said.

Two years ago, Yemeni Muslim Abdel Aziz Yahia al-Abdi was sentenced to death for the 2008 murder of Masha Yaish Nahari, a Jewish father of nine.

He said at his trial that he had acted after giving Jews the ‘choice to convert to Islam, leave Yemen or die.’

Abdi escaped from jail in April 2011 along with 20 other inmates and has never been recaptured.” Read more.

Categories: Radical Islam

Tunisia: Thousands Of Islamists: ‘Obama, We Are All Osama … Let America Hear Us, We Are Coming!’

05/24/2012 Leave a comment

Ansar Al-Sharia Demonstrators: “Obama, Obama, we are all Osama! Obama, Obama, we are all Osama! … ”

Speaker: “Some Tunisians and some Muslims are afraid of the jihadists. We must ask: How come? Because the enemies have distorted the enemies of the jihadists, presenting them as the enemies of the Muslims. We say: No! Every Muslim is a jihadist …”

Ansar Al-Sharia Demonstrators: “Allahu Akbar! Allahu Akbar!”

Speaks: “… We are all jihadists, supporting Jerusalem and elevating the word of Allah … Let us all cry ‘Allah Akbar’ together, so that Obama the ape can hear us … Let America hear us! … We are coming, we are coming! … Hear us, Obama!”

Lying Wonders: Iran Promotes ‘Discovery’ Of The ‘Gospel Of Barnabas’, Claims It Will Cause ‘Worldwide’ Collapse of Christianity

05/24/2012 8 comments

Islam’s Messiah “al Mahdi” isn’t the only thing that remains hidden today.  Yet again, the “prophets of Persia” have concealed Truth by touting the false and poorly written “Gospel of Barnabas” in an effort to promote Islam. Unsurprisingly, while Iran claims the book “predicts” the coming of the “prophet” Mohammed, it neglects to disclose the fact that, among other things, written in Aramaic on the front cover is an inscription revealing that “this book is written on the hands of the monks of the high monastery in Nineveh, in the 1,500th year of our Lord.” Spelling errors, Qur’an contradictions and historical inaccuracies aside, if predicting the coming of Islam’s prophet nearly 900 years after the fact can somehow be twisted in an effort to advance the cause of Islam, then anything can.

Christian” archaeology undermines the Qur’an. “Jewish” archaeology undermines the Qur’an. Even “Islamic” archaeology undermines the Qur’an. But when it comes to an ideology whose foundations are grounded in lies and deception, the only facts that need apply are those that can be distorted to undermine the Truth …

By Reza Kahlili – “Iran’s Basij Press is claiming that a version of the Gospel of Barnabas, found in 2000, will prove that Islam is the final and righteous religion and the revelation will cause the collapse worldwide of Christianity.

Turkey confiscated a leather-bound text, written on animal hide, in an anti-smuggling operation in 2000. Turkish authorities believe the text could be an authentic version of the Gospel of Barnabas, one of Jesus’ apostles and an associate of the apostle Paul.

This version of the Barnabas Gospel was written in the 5th or 6th century and it predicted the coming of the Prophet Mohammad and the religion of Islam, the Basij Press claims.

The Christian world, it says, denies the existence of such a gospel.

However, religious scholars have said another version of the Barnabas Gospel, discovered a century ago, was written less than 500 years ago, which would post-date Mohammad.

In Chapter 41 of the Barnabas Gospel, Basij claims, is this statement: ‘God has hidden himself as Archangel Michael ran them (Adam and Eve) out of heaven, (and) when Adam turned, he noticed that at top of the gateway to heaven, it was written ‘La elah ela Allah, Mohamad rasool Allah,’’ meaning Allah is the only God and Mohammad his prophet.

The Turkish army has taken possession of the Barnabas Gospel because the ‘Zionists’ and the governments of the West are trying to suppress its contents, Basij Press claims.

According to the Barnabas Gospel in Turkey’s hands, Basij Press says, Jesus was never crucified and that not only is He not the son of God, but that He himself predicted the coming of the Prophet Mohammad. The book even predicts the coming of the last Islamic messiah, the report says. Read more…

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‘Massive Wave Of Deaths’ Strike Saiga Antelope Population In Northern Kazakhstan

05/24/2012 Leave a comment

RIANOSTOVI – “A new massive wave of deaths among the extremely endangered saiga antelope has been registered in northern Kazakhstan, the Agriculture Ministry’s press service said on Thursday.

The ministry said earlier that 540 saiga carcasses had been found in the Kostanai region of Kazakhstan.

‘Aviation monitoring today … discovered a new concentration of saiga deaths with the approximate number of dead animals reaching beyond 400,’ the ministry said.

Last year, at least 12,000 saiga died in western Kazakhstan, presumably from pasteurellosis infection and from overeating. In November 2010, Kazakhstan introduced a ban on saiga hunting.

The latest statistics put the number of saiga in Kazakhstan at 85,500. The country spends $800,000 annually to prevent the animals’ deaths.

Saiga were virtually exterminated in the 1920s but then increased their numbers in the Soviet Asian republics in the 1950s. The animals mostly became endangered because of hunting and the high demand for their horns in Chinese medicine.

Apart from Kazakhstan, saiga live in the Russian Kalmykia region and in Mongolia.” Source – Ria.ru.

Categories: Mass Animal Deaths

‘Unbelievable’: Up To 100,000 Dead Fish Washing Ashore Baltimore Waterfront In Massive Die-Off

05/24/2012 15 comments

By Timothy B. Wheeler, The Baltimore Sun – “Something’s rotten on the Baltimore area waterfront. Fish are washing ashore by the thousands in a mass die-off that officials say appears to be caused by a weather-driven worsening of the pollution that chronically plagues the Chesapeake Bay.

State investigators expanded their probe Wednesday into what they believe are algae-related fish kills in Marley, Furnace and Curtis creeks in Glen Burnie, raising the estimated death toll there tenfold, while finding a new batch of finny carcasses in a Dundalk creek.

Jay Apperson, spokesman for the Maryland Department of the Environment, said the agency’s fish-kill investigators estimated anywhere from 60,000 to 100,000 fish of several species dead in the three creeks in northern Anne Arundel County. Only a day before, Apperson had said investigators figured there were about 6,000 dead.

‘You could smell it through the neighborhood,’ said Rob Rogers, 45, who took a break from work at the Point Pleasant Beach Tavern to describe what he called ‘unbelievable’ conditions on the creeks. Rogers said boaters reported dead fish floating in the water so thick they couldn’t avoid hitting them.

The state investigators also found about 300 dead fish in Bullneck Creek in eastern Baltimore County, Apperson said, where residents on Tuesday had reported seeing fish and crabs thrashing on the water’s surface in apparent distress. The investigators measured little oxygen in the creek’s deepest water for fish to breathe.

The die-offs are a drastic byproduct of algae blooms that have discolored water in much of the upper bay for over a month now, officials said.

‘We’ve been having lots of algae blooms in Middle River, in Baltimore harbor, even down on the Severn River,’ said Thomas Parham, tidewater ecosystem assessment chief for the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. ‘This is earlier than normal,’ he added, and while algae blooms are a common phenomenon on the bay in spring and summer, they normally are ‘not at this level.'” Read more.

Tip of the hat to Jack Smith for the link …

Categories: Mass Animal Deaths

MSNBC’s Submission: Don’t Expose Muslim Atrocities, It’ll Make Islam Look Bad

05/23/2012 Leave a comment

To understand how truly ridiculous such a mindset is, simply go back to 1944 and change out “Muslim” and “Islam” for “Nazi” and “Germany” …

By Colin Flaherty, WND – “MSNBC’s new golden girl was in a pickle: If someone sees a black person committing rape or domestic violence, should he report it if it makes black people look bad?

Or if Muslims see wife-beating, genital mutilation and childhood sexual abuse, should they just keep it to themselves, because saying something gives ammunition to the ‘Islamophobes’?

The questions appear to be simple. But they posed a challenge for the host of the new ‘Melissa Harris-Perry’ show when guest Mona Eltahawy talked about her Foreign Policy magazine cover story about abuse of women by men in the Muslim world.

Eltahawy speaks from experience: She had her arms broken in a demonstration in Egypt and was tortured and raped in an Egyptian jail cell.

So she seemed surprised to find Harris-Perry questioning her right to draw attention to ‘traditions’ such as involuntary female circumcision, wife-beating and childhood sexual abuse.

‘I start with a little bit of trepidation in this conversation,’ the host said, ‘in part because I know some of the critiques of this. The very idea that Western press, those that are not from these nations, who are not Muslim ourselves, who are not part of these traditions can look at your article and say ‘ahhh, look at how horrible those men, or those societies, or that religion is.’

‘And that is part of the reason why, for example, we have an under-reporting of rape and domestic violence in African American communities,’ Harris-Perry continued. ‘Because we know the violence enacted on black men by police, so we often don’t call. Right?’

Then the MSNBC host brought in Harvard professor Leila Ahmed, who questioned whether Eltahawy should have written the article at all. Not because it was false, but because it made Muslims look bad.” Read more.

Turkey: 40% Of Turks Do Not Want To Live Next To Christians, 58% Do Not Want A Jewish Neighbour

05/23/2012 1 comment

I hereby introduce to you the so-called “useful model for new Arab regimes 

Times.am – “Today [the] head of the Armenian science department of ‘Noravanq’ educational foundation, expert on Turkey Alistakes Simavoryan and expert of the same foundation Vahram Hovyan met journalists and referred to the topic of religious intolerance against Christians in Turkey.

According to A. Simavoryan now 120,000 Christians live in Turkey now and 59,000 of them are Armenians. There are also sects in Turkey, for example, [Jehovah’s Witnesses] and Mormons. There are Armenians among them as well.

As the expert noted Turks are afraid that their country may become a Christian state, but according to him [this] is not possible. According to the speaker Turkey will lead anti-Christian politics in coming 30-40 years as well and it will be especially directed to the Armenian Community.

‘The social inquiries in Turkey show that 40% of the population does not want to live with [a] Christian neighbor. And 58% of [the population] does not want to live with [a Jewish] neighbor’, Simavoryan noted.

Expert also noted that [the] Armenian community is on the eve of vanishing in Turkey as a result of [Christian intolerance]. According to him [the] media is very active in this issue. ‘Every action by the Christian Church is presented as [a] negative action. Even the churches are presented as terrorist organizations’.

Expert of the ‘Noravanq’ foundation Vahram Hovyan announced … that the attacks and pressure against Christians are held both by the government and by the Turk extremists.” Source – Times.am.

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.

Yemen Food Crisis Reaching ‘Catastrophic Proportions’

05/23/2012 Leave a comment

By Sam Jones, The Guardian – “Yemen is facing a food crisis of ‘catastrophic proportions’, with almost half the population going hungry and a third of children in some areas severely malnourished, aid agencies have warned.

A coalition of seven humanitarian organisations – Care International, International Medical Corps, Islamic Relief, Mercy Corps, Merlin, Oxfam and Save the Children – is urging the international community to step up aid before Yemen slides further into poverty and political instability.

The Middle Eastern country’s already precarious state was highlighted on Monday when a suicide bomber attacked a military parade, killing more than 90 people and wounding at least 220. The bombing, one of the deadliest in recent years, was a setback in Yemen’s battle against al-Qaida-affiliated Islamists and has heightened concerns over a country in the frontline of the US global war on militants.

The aid agencies – which point out that the UN’s humanitarian appeal has received only 43% of the funding it needs – are urging delegates at Wednesday’s international Friends of Yemen conference to do more to tackle the food crisis.

The agencies say hunger in Yemen has doubled since 2009 and was exacerbated by last year’s political upheaval, which saw the dictator Ali Abdullah Saleh ousted from power after 33 years and replaced by President Abd-Rabbu Mansour Hadi.

Penny Lawrence, Oxfam’s international director, said that although donors were concentrating on politics and security, they had to focus on more basic and pressing issues. ‘Yemeni families are at the brink and have exhausted their ways of coping with the crisis,’ she said.” Read more.

Ahmadinejad: ‘Islam Forbids Atomic Weapons’ (Wink, Wink)

05/23/2012 6 comments

The Qur’an calls the god of Islam, among other things, “the best of deceivers”. Surely, Islamic radicals like the Iranian President and the Ayatollahs could never mimic such an example …

"Yes, We Can!"

“Yes, We Can!”

By Al Arabiya with AFP – “Islam forbids atomic weapons and other arms of mass destruction, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad insisted on Wednesday ahead of his country’s nuclear talks with world powers in Baghdad, as Israel urged world powers not to waver in key talks with Iran.

‘Based on Islamic teachings and the clear fatwa (edict) of the supreme leader, the production and use of weapons of mass destruction is haram (forbidden) and have no place in the Islamic Republic of Iran’s defense doctrine,’ he said.

Ahmadinejad’s message was read out at a conference in the western city of Borujerd to commemorate Iranian victims of chemical weapons during a 1980-1988 war against Iraq, the official news agency IRNA reported.

World powers were to hold crunch talks in the Iraqi capital on Wednesday with Iran to try to persuade Tehran to suspend sensitive nuclear work.

Ahmadinejad’s mention of a fatwa against nuclear weapons by Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, referred to an edict which officials say he laid down in either 2004 or 2005.

Though no published fatwa exists, Iranian scholars point out that declarations by prominent ayatollahs can later take on the weight of a fatwa.

Khamenei has spoken out against nuclear weapons on several occasions, most recently on Feb. 22 when he said that possessing an atomic bomb “constitutes a major sin.”” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Nuclear Weapons Will Prepare Us For The Emergence Of Islamic Messiah – “New evidence indicates Iran’s supreme leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, wants nuclear weapons and he created a religious-based ruse to deceive the world into joining new talks. The leader intends to use those talks to buy more time to harden his weapons program, prevent an attack, and persuade world powers to lift sanctions… President Khamenei explained ‘This [possessing nuclear weapons] was the only way to secure the very essence of the Islamic revolution from the schemes of its enemies … and to prepare it for the emergence of Imam Mehdi [messiah],’ who would bring the world under Islamic rule.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Spiritual Leaders Declare Use Of Nuclear Weapons As Lawful Under Sharia – “‘The spiritual leaders of the ultra-conservatives [in Iran] have accepted the use of nuclear weapons as lawful in the eyes of shari’a. Mohsen Gharavian, a disciple of [Ayatollah] Mesbah Yazdi [who is Iranian President Ahmadinejad’s spiritual mentor], has spoken for the first time of using nuclear weapons as a counter-measure. He stated that ‘in terms of shari’a, it all depends on the goal.’… [T]he IraNews news agency published recent remarks by Mohsen Gharavian regarding the nuclear issue. Gharavian is a lecturer at the religious schools of Qom, and is a disciple of [Ayatollah] Mesbah Yazdi. In his recent remarks, he said for the first time that the use of nuclear weapons may not constitute a problem according to shari’a. He further said that ‘when the entire world is armed with nuclear weapons, it is permissible to use these weapons as a counter-[measure]. According to shari’a, too, only the goal is important…’” Read more.