MidnightWatcher – Prophecy in Motion

I normally don’t care to share these type of rumors, but given the fact that North Korea is the biggest non-Muslim persecutor of Christians, it’s worth a mention.  I’ll update the post once confirmed if this is fact or (likely) faked …

Update: It’s fake …

The Chinese micro-blogging service Weibo has exploded with rumors that new North Korean leader Kim Jong-Un was assassinated today at the North Korean embassy in Beijing. Twitter death rumors are totally cross-cultural.

Here’s one version of the rumor, cleaned up from the crappy Google translation:

According to reliable sources, North Korean leader [Kim Jong-Un was killed] in Beijing in February 10 2012, at 2 o’clock and 45 minutes. Unknown persons broke into his residence shot and were subsequently shot and killed by the bodyguard.

Official Internet Rule: Any (Chinese) Twitter post that begins with ‘according to reliable source’ is almost certainly fake. But this hasn’t stopped Chinese netizens from speculating that the killing was a military coup, and posting blurry pictures purporting to show an unusual number of vehicles parked at the North Korean embassy. ChinaSMACK staff writer Joe Xu suggests reports of large number of cars at the embassy may have sparked the rumor. ‘Rumors like this pop up every other week,’ he writes on Twitter.

We will only know Kim Jong-Un’s fate for sure when a new picture of him looking at things emerges.” Read more.

“A photograph that went viral on Facebook this week, showing what was claimed to be an Israel Defense Forces soldier pointing a weapon at a young Palestinian girl, prompted anger and cries for clarification across the social network.

The photo, uploaded by a Facebook user named Wesley Muahammad, shows a uniform-clad soldier, his face out of frame, pressing a boot to the stomach of a helpless girl lying on the floor while pointing an AK-47 rifle at her face.

Soon after the picture began circling the social network, Facebook users began refuting its authenticity. Many posted the photograph again, explaining that the caption claiming the soldier was Israeli had to be false because his uniform was not that of the IDF’s, nor does the Israeli army regularly use AK-47s.

‘Don’t believe everything you see on the Internet,’ wrote blogger Omar Dakhane, who uploaded a wider framed version of the image, showing a crowd surrounding the soldier and the girl. ‘This picture was taken in Bahrain 2009 during a street theater.’

Other refuters said the photograph was taken during a riot in Syria.

The wider framed shot also shows that the soldier has a home-made Israeli flag patch pinned to his jacket, and the crowd of bystanders watching the scene without any moving toward the soldier or the girl.

The photograph was taken down on Wednesday, although by the time any action was taken, it had already become an internet sensation.” Source – Haaretz.

“Two Saudi brothers who were scared out of their home and moved to another house because of repeated mystery fires were shocked to find that fires had not stopped at the old house. A week after they settled down in the new house, a big blaze erupted and damaged a large part of it.

The two were then convinced that Jinn (ghosts) were behind the blazes and their theory was supported by the police and a Moslem scholar who said he himself witnessed the fire at the house in the southern town of Bisha.

But that was not the opinion of the Saudi civil defence, who believe all the fires were an act of arson.

Quoted by the Saudi Arabic language daily Okaz, the two brothers, Fahd and Bandar Al Gamdi, said they were forced to move to another house nearly three km away from the old house because of persistent fires.

‘But fires did not stop at the old house and they then spread to the new house, forcing my brother to move to another house,’ Fahd said.

Sheikh Mohammed Al Omari, a well known scholar in that town, said he was called by the two brothers to read Koran and ‘evict the jinn out of the house.’

‘As I started to read in one room, a fire erupted but was put out by the civil defence units who were there at that time,’ he said.

‘I then moved to another room and started reading Koran when a fire flared…fire erupted in every room I moved to and then I felt the Jinn movements…I was not scared and kept reading Koran.’

The paper quoted police spokesman Major Abdullah Al Shaathan as saying investigation showed there was no act of arson as no one could sneak into that house, adding that forensic experts found no electric or building faults.

‘These fires are abnormal or in other words are supernatural…we are still working on the final report which includes statements by neighbours.'” Read more.

Maybe if they hadn’t taken a Chevy to the airport things would have turned out differently …

By Patrick Werr and Tom Perry – “(Reuters) – Six Americans working for publicly funded U.S. organizations promoting democracy in Egypt have been barred from leaving the country, provoking angry demands in Washington that Cairo’s new military rulers stop “endangering American lives”.

Among those hit by travel bans – one of those targeted called it ‘de facto detention’ – is a son of U.S. Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, as well as other foreign staffers of the International Republican Institute and National Democratic Institute, officials at the two organizations said on Thursday.

The United States said Egypt should reverse them: ‘We are urging the government of Egypt to lift these restrictions immediately and allow these folks to come home as soon as possible,’ State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said.

A month after police raided the Cairo offices of the IRI, NDI and eight other non-governmental organizations, it raises the stakes for Washington, which had already indicated it may review the $1.3 billion it gives the Egyptian military each year if the probe into alleged breaches of local regulations went on.

Some see it as a poor omen for Egypt’s fledgling democracy following last year’s overthrow of Hosni Mubarak.

John McCain, the leading Republican senator who chairs the IRI, voiced ‘alarm and outrage’ at a ‘new and disturbing turn’ which included a travel ban on Sam LaHood, the group’s Egypt director and son of President Barack Obama’s transport chief.

The younger LaHood said he was stopped at Cairo airport on Saturday and prevented from boarding a flight out.

McCain, in a statement referring to Egypt’s ruling military council, said: ‘I call on the Egyptian government and the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces to cease the harassment and unwarranted investigations of American NGOs operating in Egypt.’

‘This crisis has escalated to the point that it now endangers the lives of American citizens and could set back the long-standing partnership between the United States and Egypt.'” Read more.

Makes a lot of sense. If you’ve got that lobotomy thing going on …

By Hezki Ezra and Chana Ya’ar -“MK Michael Ben Ari is still being refused a visa to enter the United States – but the lawmaker says Hamas terrorists are allowed to visit.

In an interview with Arutz Sheva’s Hebrew news service, Ben Ari said Wednesday that he is ”still waiting’ for a visa to visit the U.S.’ Ben Ari noted that even after thousands of people were killed in the September 11, 2001 multi-site Al Qaeda terrorist attack on America, ‘The United States allows terrorists to enter its territory.’

The lawmaker contended that ‘It shows something about the country, that what may happen to the next set of Twin Towers is not so important to them.’

The MK said he also asked U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro about the problem with the visa, but that Shapiro replied such things were ‘not his responsibility.’

Shapiro also told the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Wednesday that he ‘can’t speculate’ on whether President Barack Obama might consider commuting the sentence of imprisoned spy Jonathan Pollard to time served. MK Meir Sheetrit also asked the ambassador why MK Michael Ben Ari was unable to obtain a visa to enter the U.S., noting that Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejaad and Hamas terrorists have been able to do so.” Source – INN.

Flashback: Muslim Brotherhood Gaining Foothold in U.S. Government? – “They were the first modern terrorists and the forerunner of al Qaeda. But these days, the Muslim Brotherhood is becoming mainstream not only in Egypt, but in Washington, D.C. While the final chapter of the so-called Arab Spring has yet to be written, it appears that radical Islamic forces could emerge as the big winners. None more so than the Muslim Brotherhood. In Egypt, Tunisia, Libya, Syria and Jordan, the Brotherhood has used unrest to increase its influence. The group is also making inroads closer to home, according to one expert. ‘Their goal is primarily deception, manipulation and intelligence gathering,’ former FBI Special Agent John Guandolo said. Guandolo said Brotherhood operatives have infiltrated the halls of power in Washington, D.C.” Read more.