Unusual Seismic Activity in Caribbean, Says Expert

11/15/2011 Leave a comment

“Port-au-Prince, Nov 15 (Prensa Latina) Seven quakes have rocked Caribbean islands as of Saturday and another tremor occurred in Haiti this Monday, arising concern among experts about a likely seismic reactivation in the area.

‘For some days we have observed an unusual activity that seems to be linked to the subduction of the Caribbean tectonic plate,’ Saint Lucian seismologist Bruce Kleever told Prensa Latina.

Seven tremors were felt in the British overseas territories in East Caribbean over the weekend, according to the Disaster Management Department of the Virgin Islands.

‘The seisms were of 3.5-4.6 magnitude and could also be felt in Puerto Rico. We’re following closely the situation in the area,’ said Kleever.

A 4.3-magnitude quake rocked southern Haiti early morning today, one year, ten months and two days after the worst seism in the history of this country occurred.

No damages or fatalities have been reported so far, but the people panicked as they relived the nightmare.

According to the expert, the tremor might indicate an area of seismic activity also in the northern Caribbean plate.

For years, the specialists have feared the likelihood of powerful quakes and ensuing tsunamis in the Caribbean because of the existence in the area of important focuses of danger of tectonic movement. One of them is located near Dominica, considered the point with the largest number of potentially active volcanoes in the world.” Read more.

Categories: Earthquakes

Algeria: 900 Mosques and Prayer Halls Closed Because They Were Being Used by Islamic Terrorists

11/15/2011 Leave a comment

Well, I hope Eric Holder and Barack Obama don’t catch wind of this. It might offend Muslims if they don’t do something about it, and I’m concerned that after the US breaks off diplomatic ties with Algeria the Obama Administration may then be persuaded to point US marines in a new direction, as long as Mecca isn’t down wind …

“Algiers (AKI) – The Algerian government last week closed around 900 mosques and prayer halls throughout the country because it says they were used for meetings by suspected Islamic terrorists, Algerian newspaper El-Khabar reported on Monday.

Authorities say they Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) was particularly active in the places of worship where meetings among militants took place in secret, the report said.

The prayer halls were opened illegally, El-Khabar said, ignoring laws requiring approval by the Ministry of Religious Affairs before they can be opened.

AQIM grew out of the Salafist Group for Call and Combat, and has its roots in an Islamist militia involved in the civil war in the 1990s that cost between 150,000 and 200,000 lives.

In recent years it has expanded its activities to include Mali, Niger and Mauritania and is considered by experts to be the most active Al-Qaeda offshoot.” Source – AKI.

Categories: Radical Islam

Kenya Asks Israel: Help Us Fight Al Qaeda

11/15/2011 Leave a comment

By Tzvi Ben Gedalyahu – “Kenya’s prime minister, visiting Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu and President Shimon Peres, asked Israel to help his country get rid of Al Qaeda terrorists.

Kenya’s soldiers have crossed into Somalia to hunt down al-Shabab terrorists, linked with Al Qaeda, in Somalia.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga asked Preisdent Peres Monday to help his security forces in light of Israel’s reputation for knowing how to combat terror. Foreign news agencies noted that Kenya’s request could provoke al-Shabab terrorists, who already have threatened to stage attacks in the capital of Kenya.

The African country, which has a high presence of Israeli businessmen and private security personnel, has accused al Shabab terrorists of being behind several kidnappings in Kenya.

Prime Minister Raila Odinga met with Prime Minister Netanyahu Monday morning ‘in a continuation of the deepening of Israel’s relations with African countries,’ government spokesmen said.

Netanyahu met with the president of Uganda on Sunday and with the South Sudanese president in the United Nations two months ago.” Source – Arutz Sheva.

 

Outlook Grim for Stranded Russian Mars Moon Probe, May Crash to Earth As Early As November 26th

11/14/2011 Leave a comment

“MOSCOW – Russia’s failed Mars probe could come crashing down to Earth in January unless scientists can find a way to blast it out of low-Earth orbit, the head of the Roscosmos space agency said Monday.

The unmanned Phobos-Grunt spacecraft blasted off toward the Red Planet last Wednesday where it was hoped to bring back rock and soil samples from the moon Phobos.

But its engines failed to put in the correct course, and the craft only managed to reach an orbit about 125 miles from Earth. Scientists were still trying to regain communication with spacecraft.

“We estimate that the Phobos-Grunt will fly until January, and to make it perform its mission, we still have time until the beginning of December,” Roscosmos general director Vladimir Popovkin was quoted as saying by the Ria Novosti news agency.

Popovkin said there was little chance that the probe would hit a populated area when it crashed down.

‘There are 7.5 metric tons of fuel in the aluminum tanks on board. We have no doubts that they will explode [and destroy the probe] upon re-entry,’ Popovkin said. ‘It is highly unlikely that its parts would reach Earth.'” Source – Fox News.

Phobos-Grunt: a legal analysis of potential liability and options for mitigation – “For the third time in as many months the potential exists for a large space object to fall out of orbit and impact the surface of the Earth. Unlike the prior two incidents where the space objects involved were derelict research satellites, the space object in question is a probe launched by the Russian Federation on November 9, 2011, destined to travel to Mars… A preliminary date for reentry is November 26, according to one report, but Russian officials report it could stay in orbit for up to sixty days. Obviously, as the decay of the spacecraft’s orbit progresses, these timelines will change.” Read more.

Categories: Cosmic Craziness

Source: Hundreds of North Korean Nuclear and Missile Experts Working in More Than 10 Locations Across Iran

11/14/2011 Leave a comment

By Kim Kwang-tae – “SEOUL, Nov. 13 (Yonhap) — Hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile experts have been collaborating with their Iranian counterparts in more than 10 locations across the Islamic state, a diplomatic source said Sunday.

The revelation lends credence to long-held suspicions that North Korea was helping Iran with a secret nuclear and missile program.

It also represents a new security challenge to the international community as it seeks to curb the nuclear ambitions of Pyongyang and Tehran, and thwart trading of nuclear and missile technology.

North Korea has long been suspected of being behind nuclear and missile proliferation in Iran, Syria, Myanmar and Pakistan.

‘Hundreds of North Korean nuclear and missile engineers and scientists have been working at more than 10 sites (in Iran), including Natanz and Qom,’ the source said, citing human intelligence he declined to identify for security reasons.

The source would not allow the specific number of North Koreans to be published, citing the sensitivity of the intelligence, and would not give further details on the extent of the collaboration. The source spoke on condition of anonymity because of the delicate nature of the issue.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran, North Korea to Discuss ‘Expansion of Cooperation’ in Talks – “A top Iranian official is scheduled to make an official visit to North Korea, the Islamic Republic announced on Tuesday, in order to discuss ‘expansion of cooperation’ with Pyongyang. The trip underlines the close ties between the two nations. Israel and the West suspect Iran is trying to use its nuclear program to develop atomic weapons, and that North Korea had been aiding Iran by providing Iran with advanced missiles capable of targeting European capitals. An announcement released on the Iranian parliament’s website on Tuesday indicated that parliamentary speaker, Ali Larijani, will arrive in Pyongyang for a three-day visit beginning Sunday.” Read more.

Israel: The Full Extent of Iran’s Nuclear Program Not Reflected in Recent UN Report, Says Iran Closer to Atom Bomb Than Thought

11/13/2011 2 comments

“(Reuters) – Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Sunday the full extent of Iran’s nuclear program was not reflected in a recent U.N. report, which said that Tehran appeared to have worked on designing an atomic bomb.

‘Iran is closer to getting an (atomic) bomb than is thought,’ Netanyahu said in remarks to cabinet ministers, quoted by an official from his office.

‘Only things that could be proven were written (in the U.N. report), but in reality there are many other things that we see,’ Netanyahu said, according to the official.

The Israeli leader did not specify what additional information he had about Iran’s nuclear program during his cabinet’s discussion on the report by the U.N.’s International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) released last week.

At the start of meeting, Netanyahu made a broadcast repeating his call for the world ‘to stop Iran’s race to arm itself with a nuclear weapon before it is too late.'” Read more.

‘No more point’ in concessions, says Iran’s foreign minister – “Iranian Foreign Minister Ali Akbar Salehi has said he sees no more room for compromise in the battle over Iran’s contested nuclear programme, in an interview published Sunday. ‘I think there’s no more point in making additional concessions,’ he told the German news weekly Der Spiegel. ‘The nuclear question is just a pretext to weaken us by all means,’ he added. Salehi rejected an International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) report released Tuesday citing ‘credible’ evidence that Iran had worked towards nuclear weapons…” Read more.

Top Iran official: Tehran should reconsider cooperation with UN nuclear agency – “The Iranian parliament called on the government Sunday to revise its cooperation with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) in the wake of a damning report on the Islamic Republic’s nuclear program, state television IRIB reported. Speaker of Parliament Ali Larijani said that after the latest IAEA report, there was an urgent need to revise cooperation with the UN nuclear watchdog. He was referring to IAEA report released Tuesday, which stated that Iran had carried out tests ‘relevant to the development of a nuclear explosive device.’… ‘The parliament deems necessary to review [Iran’s] cooperation with the agency, because it showed with its new approach that cooperation and non-cooperation makes no difference in its decision — which are unprofessional anyway,’ he told reporters, according to local media.” Read more.

Some Impressive Activity is Underway on the Sun, ‘There’s Never Been a Better Time to Own a Solar Telescope Than Now’

11/13/2011 3 comments

“There haven’t been any strong solar flares in days. Nevertheless, some impressive activity is underway on the sun. For one thing, an enormous wall of plasma is towering over the sun’s southeastern horizon. Stephen Ramsden of Atlanta, Georgia, took this picture on Nov. 11th:

‘Solar forums all over the world are buzzing with Sun-stronomers proclaiming this to be the biggest prominence that many of them had ever witnessed,’ he says.

Remarkably, though, this is not the biggest thing. A dark filament of magnetism is snaking more than halfway around the entire sun: SDO image. From end to end, it stretches more than a million km or about three times the distance between Earth and the Moon. If the filament becomes unstable, as solar filaments are prone to do, it could collapse and hit the stellar surface below, triggering a Hyder flare. No one can say if the eruption of such a sprawling structure would be Earth directed.

‘I cant help but wonder what could possibly come next since we are still over a year away from the forecasted Solar Maximum,’ adds Ramsden. ‘There’s never been a better time to own a solar telescope than now!'” Source – SpaceWeather.com.

Categories: Cosmic Craziness

Radical Islam in the Heart of Europe – Wahhabis Unsheath Terror in Campaign to Impose Sharia Law

11/13/2011 1 comment

By Jeffrey T. Kuhner-The Washington Times – “Is Bosnia-Herzegovina doomed? The small Balkan nation is being subverted by powerful internal forces that threaten its existence. The West must wake up before the former Yugoslav republic descends once again into sectarian bloodshed.

Last month, an Islamic terrorist from neighboring Serbia, Mevlid Jasarevic, opened fire on the U.S. embassy in Bosnia’s capital, Sarajevo. The 23-year-old jihadist was armed with hand grenades and an automatic weapon. Fortunately, no one was killed. Mr. Jasarevic was protesting American policy toward the Muslim world. He was arrested and is awaiting trial.

Police also raided a northern Bosnian village, Gornja Maoca, which is a hotbed of Wahhabist activity and a place Mr. Jasarevic often visited. The terrorist attack shocked both Sarajevo’s political establishment and the U.S. State Department. It shouldn’t have. In Bosnia, radical Islam has been growing for years. In fact, America and the West have deliberately turned a blind eye to its dangerous rise.

From 1992 to 1995, Bosnia was ravaged by a war pitting Muslims (known as Bosniaks), Serbs and Croats against each other. Contrary to conventional wisdom, the conflict was not – and never was – a civil war driven by “ancient ethnic hatreds.” Instead, the country was a victim of outside aggression. Serbia’s late strongman, Slobodan Milosevic, waged a genocidal campaign to annex large chunks of Croatia first and then Bosnia in order to erect a Greater Serbian Empire. More than 200,000 were murdered and nearly 2 million ethnically cleansed. To counter Serbia’s expansionist ambitions, Islamic countries sought to help the besieged Bosniaks. In particular, Saudi Arabia and Iran offered extensive financial and military assistance. Thousands of foreign Mujahedeen guerrillas entered the country to battle rampaging Serb forces. The 1995 Dayton Peace Agreement ended the fighting. It also partitioned Bosnia along religious lines, creating two quasi-national entities – the Muslim-Croat Federation and the Bosnian Serb Republic.

Yet, after the war, many jihadists did not leave.” Read more.

Death Seekers: Islamists in Gaza Promise Nothing but Bombs, Spears & Swords, ‘We Are a People That Moves Closer to Allah Through Blood, Body Parts, and Martyrs’

11/13/2011 5 comments

Meh, I’m sure that if you talk nicely to them they’ll change their minds and make peace …

Revelation 6:8a, “And I looked, and behold a pale horse: and his name that sat on him was Death, and Hell followed with him. And power was given unto them over the fourth part of the earth …”

Khodhr Habib: “We in the Islamic Jihad movement would like to convey several messages. The first message is to our enemies, to the entity that has been implanted in our midst, in our hearts, in the apple of our eye – Palestine. We say to them: Palestine in its entirety belongs to us. We will not forsake even a grain of its pure soil. Palestine is like a verse in the Book of Allah. Palestine is a part of our faith. We will not forsake or give to you a single grain of its pure soil. We will give you nothing but the sword. We will give you nothing but bombs. We will give you nothing but spears and swords, which will slit your throats …”

Islamic Militants in Gaza: Allah’s Teachings Are the Fire with Which ‘We Harvest the Skulls of the Jews’, ‘We Move Closer to Allah through Blood, Body Parts, and Martyrs’ – “Praise be to you, our Lord. You have made our killing of the Jews an act of worship, through which we come closer to you… Allah’s prayers upon you, our beloved Prophet [Muhammad]. You have made your teachings into constitutions for us – the light with which we dissipate the darkness of the occupation, and the fire with which we harvest the skulls of the Jews… Yes, our beloved brothers, even though the entire world moves closer to Allah through fasting, through hunger, and through tears, we are a people that moves closer to Allah through blood, through body parts, and through martyrs… Oh sons of Palestine, oh sons of the Gaza Strip, oh mujahideen – wage Jihad, wreak destruction, blow up and harvest the heads of the Zionists. Words are useless by now. The lie of peace is gone. Only weapons are of any use – the path of [recently killed] Yousuf and Ali, the path of martyrdom and Jihad. Only our wounds talk on our behalf. We speak nothing but the language of struggle, of Jihad, or rockets, of bombs, of cannons and of martyrdom-seekers. This is the language in which we talk and negotiate with the Zionist enemy… We say to the Zionists: Like a bad seed, we shall uproot you from our land, so that it can blossom in the light of the everlasting sun of our Jihad, and of our invincible religion. Jerusalem is not yours – get out of it! Haifa is not yours – get out of it! Tel Aviv is not yours – get out of it! Oh Zionists, get out before we expel you. these are the words of the mujahideen.” Watch video.

Flashback: Hezbollah Cartoon Teaches Children to Throw Stones at Israelis and to Seek Death as Martyrs to Gain Paradise – “The enemies harm everyone, therefore the young ones are now crying ‘Allah Akbar!’ [Background shows the Dome of the Rock, a holy Islamic shrine in Jerusalem] You are [our people’s] purpose and concern, let your stone pour out blood. Your land is your honor and your mother, and worldly things only come after it. My book has turned into a stone. With it, I repel the treacherous. It is small like [the boy] but its effect is great. Purify yourself, pray and set out. With your blood the soil will be perfumed. Engrave your name on [Heaven’s] doors.” Read more.

‘It’s Just the Beginning’: The Unprecedented Persecution of Christians

11/13/2011 Leave a comment

By Shayne Looper – “‘It’s just the beginning.’ That’s what one of the attackers said while bombing a church in eastern Kenya last week. Two people were killed and three others injured in the attack, which authorities believe was carried out by the al-Qaida-linked militant group al-Shabab.

This month at least 65 people were killed in the city of Damaturu in northeastern Nigeria, when Islamist insurgents bombed churches, mosques and police stations. The Boko Haram militant sect claimed responsibility.

In October, government soldiers opened fire on a church in Bhamo District in Kachin state in Burma, just as the congregation was preparing for Sunday services. No one was injured in the gunfire, but the soldiers burned the property and detained five church leaders.

In Somalia, a 17-year-old Christian was beheaded this past September by Islamist extremists. The boy’s parents, who hold a Bible study in their home, had left for work and he was getting ready to go to school…

Persecution of Christians did not end in the fourth century with Constantine. In fact, it has been estimated that more Christians were killed in the twentieth century than in the previous nineteen centuries combined. And the 21st century, as these recent occurrences suggest, has not gotten off to a very promising start, either.

Recognizing that Christians were suffering unprecedented persecution worldwide, the World Evangelical Fellowship launched the first International Day of Prayer in 1996. Each year on the second Sunday in November, millions of Christians around the world join together to pray for fellow-believers who are being persecuted.

These Christians take seriously the biblical injunction to: ‘Remember those in prison as if you were their fellow prisoners, and those who are mistreated as if you yourselves were suffering.’ (Hebrews 13:3).

Besides prayer, people can help the persecuted by writing letters to government officials, appealing for the release of specific prisoners. In some cases it is possible to write directly to persecuted believers who are in prison. Check out www.prisoneralert.com for more information.” Read more.

Turkey: Erdogan Converts Church That Housed the Council of Nicea Into a Mosque

11/13/2011 Leave a comment

“Istanbul – The specter of Aghia Sophia continues to plague the Islamic world of Tayyip Erdogan’s Turkey. Not the most famous symbol of the church of Constantinople, but another church, Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (now Izmit), which predates the Constantinople church, having been built in the fourth century. It passed into history in 787 AD, when it was the last church to host a united Christendom drawn to discuss the iconoclastic question, in a truly ecumenical synod, before the fatal schism of 1024.

This Christian church, the Aghia Sophia in Nicaea (Izmit), was transformed into a mosque in 1331 by Orhan Gazi who led the Ottomans and which was later made a museum in 1920, has returned once again to being a mosque.

All that was needed was a directive from the Directorate General for Religious Affairs led by Mehmet Gormez, appointed by Erdogan instead of Ali Bardakoglu, the man behind the visit of Pope Benedict XVI to Turkey, since retired. The move has elicited several considerations in Turkey and abroad in a period in which much importance and emphasis is placed on religious freedom. It is also noted that this decision by the Directorate for Religious Affairs, made in accordance with the Directorate General of Religious Foundations, to which the church of Aghia Sophia in Izmit belongs, is in complete contrast with the decisions of the Ministry of Culture in Ankara, which granted permission for religious celebrations in Christian monuments that have since been transformed into museums.” Read more.

Flashback: Turkey: One of the world’s earliest Christian cultures totters on the edge of extinction – “Syriac-speaking Christians in this area have persisted through more than a dozen centuries of Muslim, Ottoman, and now Turkish rule. They languish between the secularizing government of the Republic of Turkey and an Islamic culture that views them as heathen outsiders… In short, the government would be pleased to see the Christian communities quietly disappear altogether. Christians have been caught in the middle of a war between the government and the Kurds. Now it matters little to the government that the Hezbollah as well as the Kurds are harassing them. Christians abroad, meanwhile, know little of their life-and-death struggle.” Read more.

Categories: Anything Else

US: Democratic Senate May Force Shutdown of Religious Freedom Watchdog

11/13/2011 Leave a comment

Politically correct incompetence abounds, yet very little of this is mentioned in the dhimmedia.   I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Obama Administration is somehow involved with the likely demise of the USCIRF.  It is, after all, an independent monitor which sheds light on the persecution of Christians around the globe, particularly in the Islamic world.  But to the Islamist’s leftist enablers, the truth doesn’t set anyone free.  It just offends Muslims …

By Patrick Goodenough – “(CNSNews.com) – For more than a decade, an independent, statutory monitor has been advising the U.S. executive and legislative branches on international religious freedom, drawing attention to the persecution of people of faith under Muslim, communist and autocratic regimes from Riyadh to Rangoon. But by this time next week, it may have to close its doors.

The U.S. Commission on International Religious Freedom (USCIRF) will shut down unless the U.S. Senate approves a reauthorization bill before then, or unless funding is included in a new continuing resolution (CR) to fund the federal government through the end of the year.

Last September the House of Representatives passed by an overwhelming vote a bill extending the USCIRF’s life for another two years. The bill was referred to the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, where it has been held up – by Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), according to published reports.

Durbin’s office has not responded to inquiries and requests for comment.

If the Senate does not pass the bill before the current temporary authorization expires next Friday, and the commission is not covered in a new CR, it will cease to operate.” Read more.

Obama’s War on Christianity Continues, ‘It Now Seems Obama’s Contempt For This Nation is Personal and Isn’t Even Something He Bothers to Mask’ – “Usually around Christmas time we can count on a variety of stories where bizarre leftist worshipping of political correctness imposes itself on civilization with obsessive efforts to eradicate the word ‘Christmas’ itself, and public displays of faith… It’s one thing for the usual liberal Gestapos or the odd atheist to pull that craven cart through society, but now even more disturbingly it appears President Barack Obama himself isn’t even remotely trying to hide his contempt for Christianity and its importance to our great nation. Just a few days ago, Obama and the White House went out of its way to issue a special proclamation for Eid al-Adha, the Muslim ‘festival of sacrifice.’ … All of that is well and good, but what struck me about this special message was the reminder that this very same president deliberately ignored Easter this year, the most holy of Christian holidays, by snubbing Christians here and around the world.” Read more.

Obama’s Christian Problem – White House Overlooks Christian Persecution While Pandering to Islam – “The Obama administration has been obsessed with Muslim outreach and recently tried to mend fences with the Jewish community. Given the state of the world, however, the White House ought to be focused on helping the world’s oppressed Christians. The United States has been wary to intervene in matters affecting Christians in the Middle East for fear of validating terrorist narratives that the West is engaged in a new crusade against Islam. The result of this passive policy has been to allow Islamic extremists increasingly to dominate the debate, often with tragic consequences.” Read more.

Critics: Eric Holder’s willful ignorance about the religious roots of Islamic terrorism is endangering Americans – “Attorney General Eric Holder is stereotyping Muslims in America, and his willful ignorance about the religious roots of Islamic terrorism endangers Americans and marginalizes Muslim reformers, say experts on Islamist terror groups. That assessment was prompted by Holder’s announcement during a Tuesday congressional hearing that American Muslims ‘have the same desires that we all have.’ His declaration came during an answer about the training manuals used by some FBI trainers, which have drawn furious criticism from Islamist lobby groups. Those manuals, Holder said, contain training lessons that ‘can really undermine, really undermine, the really substantial outreach efforts that we have made and really have a negative impact on our ability to communicate effectively, as we have in the past, with this community.’” Read more.