Wednesday, July 11, 2012
Russian Navy warships will be sent to to defend Russian merchant shipping in the event of a blockade due to situation in Syria
Russian Navy warships will be sent to to defend Russian merchant shipping in the event of a blockade due to situation in Syria.(RN).Russian Navy warships will be sent to defend Russian merchant shipping in the event of a blockade due to the situation in Syria, the deputy head of Russia's military technical cooperation agency said at the Farnborough air show in Britain on Wednesday. "The fleet will be sent on task to guarantee the safety of our ships, to prevent anyone interfering with them in the event of a blockade. I remind you, there are no limits," Vyacheslav Dzirkaln said, when asked about the navy's actions in the event of a blockade. The Defense Ministry said on Tuesday a Russian naval task force was on its way to carry out naval exercises in the Atlantic, Mediterranean and Black Seas. The task force comprises warships from Russia’s Northern, Baltic and Black Sea Fleets, a ministry official told RIA Novosti. The Russian cargo ship Alaed, which was carrying a cargo of renovated Mil Mi-25 helicopter gunships to Syria, was forced to stop on June 18 and return to Russia after its insurance cover was withdrawn by a British insurer. Dzirkaln said Russia has not embargoed its existing arms contracts with Syria and will fulfill existing contracts for air defense systems and helicopters, in clarification of a statement made on Monday which indicated no new arms deliveries would be made by Moscow to Damascus. Syrian opposition expressed concern on Wednesday over the departure of Russian warships to the Mediterranean as the presence of the Russian Navy near the Syrian coast could encourage the Assad regime to use even more violence against protesters. “We have discussed this problem with Russia,” senior member of Istanbul-based opposition Syrian National Council (SNC) Burham Ghalioun told a news conference at RIA Novosti. “We are concerned with the fact that these maneuvers coincide with the escalation of the situation [in Syria].”Read the full story here.
Millions of Field Mice Overrun Farms in Central Germany, while rain destroys crops in the Uk.
Millions of Field Mice Overrun Farms in Central Germany, while rain destroys crops in the Uk.(Spiegel).Millions of field mice are overrunning the central German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt, much to the concern of local farmers. The rodents are devastating food crops, cutting yields by up to 50 percent. Getting birds of prey to hunt the critters didn't help, and now farmers want to be allowed to use a banned rat poison.Under normal circumstances, you might think the 12-centimeter (5-inch) long field mouse looks innocent, or even cute. But farmers in the central German states of Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt wouldn't agree at the moment. The furry rodents are currently wreaking havoc in the states, which are suffering the worst field mouse plague in over 30 years. Farmers in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt are complaining that millions of field mice are devastating their food crops, including corn, barley and winter wheat. "They are eating everything," said Matthias Krieg, who manages an agricultural firm near the town of Zeitz in Saxony-Anhalt. "Not even the sugar beets are safe." Farmers estimate that they may have to write off an average of 10 percent of their crops as a result of mouse damage, and up to 50 percent in extreme cases. Farmers already noticed an increase in the field mouse population in 2011 and began to take counter measures. According to Reinhard Kopp, a spokesman for the Thuringian Farmers' Association, agriculturalists set up hundreds of perches in their fields to lure birds of prey to kill the mice. But the operation was only moderately successful. "The birds got so fat from eating all the mice that they almost couldn't fly any more," Kopp said. "But they still couldn't keep up." Farmers in Thuringia and Saxony-Anhalt say that other measures used to control pests -- such as placing poisoned bait at the entrances to their underground nests -- will not be sufficient either: The crops are now too tall to allow farmers to locate the nests. Not everyone is unhappy about the mouse plague, however. Birdwatchers are enjoying the increased sightings of rare owls hunting the rodents. "Normally the owl population in this region is next to nothing," said ornithologist Ubbo Mammen. "This is absolutely anomalous."Hmmmm.......Mother Nature.........Like all women.....you just can't win the fight.Read the full story here.
Bavarian Police Call Off Nighttime Search for Elusive Crocodile.
Bavarian Police Call Off Nighttime Search for Elusive Crocodile.(Spiegel).Police in southern Germany staged an impressive overnight search on Tuesday in hopes of finding a crocodile on the loose, but their efforts were in vain. A storm forced officers to call their search to a halt, and they now plan to rely on wilderness cameras to catch the wily reptile. "Due to heavy rain and thunderstorms, the effort was ended after some 90 minutes for safety reasons," a spokesman for the Bavarian city of Schwandorf, Lothar Mulzer, told news agency DPA early on Wednesday morning. Though some 70 police, fire fighters and aid workers took to the Klausensee lake with searchlights in six rowboats, they found no trace of the croc, which has apparently been spotted twice on the water this month. With quiet rowing and halogen lights, they had tried to catch the shy reptile in action. "We hope to see a reflection in the eyes of the nocturnal animal," the fire department's operation leader Christian Schwendner said during the operation. On Saturday evening, a man walking along the lake called police after spotting an animal about 1-meter (3-feet) long near the shore. After that, a 44-year-old woman reported that she too had encountered a similar creature, colliding with it while swimming on the lake on July 1, and sustaining a 7-centimeter (2.75-inch) scratch. Swimming at the popular lake was subsequently banned while authorities looked for the animal. "The witnesses are credible. We're taking it seriously," Schwandorf Mayor Helmut Hey told DPA after taking part in the nighttime search. Authorities now plan to install wildlife cameras to capture the elusive creature, which could turn out not to be a crocodile at all. "Beavers are native to many lakes here," said city spokesman Mulzer. "They can also reach a similar size and have claws too." If no trace of a crocodile is found by this weekend, the swimming ban will be lifted, he added. This is the third crocodile in the area in the last seven years, police said.Read the full story here.
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei: Iran Vaccinated against Sanctions
Supreme Leader Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei: Iran Vaccinated against Sanctions.(Fars).Supreme Leader of the Islamic Revolution Ayatollah Seyed Ali Khamenei played down the western ballyhoo about the impacts of the recent embargos on Iranian economy, and said long years of western pressures have vaccinated Iranians against sanctions. Addressing a group of Muslim women here in Tehran on Wednesday, Ayatollah Khamenei pointed to the West's non-stop plots against Iran all throughout the last 33 years after the victory of the Islamic Revolution, and stressed despite all animosities and such hostile moves, enemies of Islam and Iran have failed in their conspiracies. "These days, the westerners are making hues and cries about sanctions but they do not understand that they themselves have vaccinated the Iranian nation against any sanction with the embargos (that they have imposed) in the last 30 years," the Leader underscored.
"In the last three decades, the Iranian nation has stood against all plots and sanctions… and made progress in a way that today we are 100 times stronger than 30 years ago," the Leader underscored. Iran has made huge achievements in various fields of science and technology, from nuclear knowledge to stem cells and Nano technology, in the last two decades despite western sanctions and pressures. Despite the rules enshrined in the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) entitling every member state, including Iran, to the right of uranium enrichment, Tehran is now under four rounds of UN Security Council sanctions for turning down West's calls to give up its right of uranium enrichment. Tehran has dismissed the West's demand as politically tainted and illogical, stressing that sanctions and pressures merely consolidate Iranians' national resolve to continue the path.Read the full story here.
"Sanctions That Benefit" - Japan insurers expand cover to boost Iran oil shipping capacity.
"Sanctions That Benefit" - Japan insurers expand cover to boost Iran oil shipping capacity.(TI).Japanese insurers are expanding their maritime coverage to allow more domestic tankers to transport Iranian crude, as Tokyo looks to keep oil flowing despite tough Western sanctions, industry sources told Reuters on Wednesday. Japan, Iran's third biggest oil buyer, is expected to resume imports of the OPEC member's crude in August after halting shipments this month as buyers held back to avoid any risk of running afoul of European Union sanctions, which took effect last week. The EU oil embargo has stopped European insurers, who dominate the maritime sector, from offering cover on Iranian crude. Industry watchers say the EU step has proved to be the hardest hitting measure in the West's arsenal of sanctions aimed at Iran. Tokyo has slashed its purchases of Iranian crude to comply with Western sanctions, but wants to avoid more drastic reductions that could drive up energy import costs and hurt the world's third-largest economy. To maintain Japan's oil trade with Iran, the Asian country's insurers have increased their cargo and hull cover for tankers carrying Iranian crude to 39 billion yen ($491 million), up 30 percent from an initial plan unveiled in April, industry sources, who declined to be identified due to the sensitivity of the matter, said. That will allow two supertankers, instead of one, to transport Iranian oil through the Middle East Gulf at one time and boost the country's shipping capacity from Tehran to more than 200,000 barrels per day. Japanese insurers are limited in the amount they can provide in cargo and hull insurance, which protects ships and their contents against physical damage, because they can no longer share the risk with the Western-dominated reinsurance market. The expansion in hull and cargo insurance follows Tokyo's unprecedented move last month to provide up to $7.6 billion in cover against pollution and personal injury claims, also known as protection and indemnity (P&I) insurance, for shipments.Japan's Iranian crude imports fell by a third in the first five months of this year to an average of around 246,000 bpd despite an increase in Japan's overall demand, data from the country's Ministry of Economy, Trade and Industry shows. Tehran's top two oil buyers, China and India, have been forced to rely on Iranian tankers to deliver Iran's crude as their governments have not followed Tokyo. South Korea, the last of Iran's top four customers, has stopped importing from Tehran altogether.Hmmmm.....for India, China , Japan and Turkey these sanctions brought nothing but profit while the Europe on the other hand is suffering the full blow........Thank you Mr. president.Read the full story here.
Video - Jordanian Cleric Riyadh al-Bustanji: I Brought My Daughter to Gaza to Learn Jihad and Martyrdom-Seeking.
Jordanian Cleric Riyadh al-Bustanji: I Brought My Daughter to Gaza to Learn Jihad and Martyrdom-Seeking.
Following are excerpts from an interview with, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV on June 22, 2012.
Riyadh al-Bustanji: What motivates me to visit here time and again is the fact that on the first day that I entered Gaza I was met by a child of Gaza. The Islamic world in its entirety was yearning to see the children of Gaza, to embrace them, and to kiss them.When I was met by this child, who I am sure was younger than ten years old…
Anchor: Was this on your first visit?
Riyadh al-Bustanji: Yes. This visit took place a few months after the war, after much suffering.
When I met this child, I embraced him, kissed him, blessed him, and said to him: "I pray to Allah that He will make you know the Koran by heart." He looked at me, and said: "I already know the entire Koran by heart. Pray to Allah that I may meet Him as a martyr on the land of Jerusalem."
No matter what I have done in the service of Islam, I am dwarfed by that child. This is no child – this is one of the giants of our times. I was dwarfed by that child. Although not yet ten years of age, he knows the Koran by heart, and he wishes to meet Allah as a martyr on the land of Jerusalem.
Today, when we entered the home of our leader and Emir, Ismail Haniya – may Allah preserve him – I said to his wife: "Tell the women of Gaza that I have brought my daughter to Gaza, so that she can learn from the women of Gaza how to bring up her children on Jihad, martyrdom-seeking, and the love of Palestine, Allah willing.Source: Memri.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram claims responsibility for killing 58 Christians.
Nigeria’s Boko Haram claims responsibility for killing 58 Christians.(BM).LAGOS: Nigeria’s Islamist militant group Boko Haram on Tuesday claimed responsibility for attacks on Christians over the weekend that killed at least 58 people, including two lawmakers, in the center of the country. The latest attack by the Boko Haram comes as security forces in the country continue to scramble to find means to end the bloodshed, which has left hundreds of people dead in recent years as sectarian violence and attacks by the militant group continue. Christians “will not know peace again” if they do not accept Islam, said a statement from the Boko Haram sect obtained by The Associated Press. “(Boko Haram) wants to inform the world of its delight over the success of the attacks we launched on Barkin Ladi and Riyom in Plateau state on Christians and security operatives, including members of the National Assembly,” the statement said. According to local reports and the AP, “hundreds of assailants armed with guns and machetes stormed a dozen Christian villages on Saturday,” the army said. “Some attackers wore police uniforms and bullet-proof vests,” said Capt. Mustapha Saliu, a spokesman for a special unit of police and soldiers deployed to halt long-running violence in the area. A Boko Haram spokesman confirmed to Bikyamasr.com that the statement issued was theirs, adding that “we will continue our campaign until all Christians are gone from our Islamic lands.”Hmmmm........"Anyone still Waiting for the "Christian U.S. President to speak up against the War on Christianity"?Read the full story here.
Yemen suicide bombing kills 22 inside Sana’a police academy.
Yemen suicide bombing kills 22 inside Sana’a police academy.(AA).A suicide bomber killed at least 22 people, mostly cadets, inside a police academy in Sana’a on Wednesday in an attack that bore the hallmarks of al-Qaeda, police investigators said. The investigators said dozens of people leaving the academy at the end of the day’s training sessions, were injured in the attack also. “The suicide bomber blew himself up at the police academy in Sana’a and killed at least 22 people and wounded dozens,” an official told AFP, speaking on condition of anonymity. Medics at the scene said dozens more were wounded in the explosion at the entrance to the police academy, according to Reuters. In May, a suicide bomber in army uniform struck at the heart of Yemen's military establishment, killing more than 90 people during a rehearsal for an army parade in the capital Sana’a. The attack was claimed by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), which U.S. officials have described as the most dangerous franchise of the global militant network. Islamist militants linked to al-Qaeda have vowed to carry their fight across Yemen after a U.S.-backed military offensive in May drove them out of strongholds they took last year during protests against former President Ali Abdullah Saleh’s rule.Read the full story here.
Taliban Commander “It would take some kind of divine intervention for the Taliban to win this war,”
Taliban Commander “It would take some kind of divine intervention for the Taliban to win this war,”.(AA).One of the most senior Taliban commanders has admitted that it is unlikely the insurgents can win the war in Afghanistan, according to an interview published by Britain’s New Statesman magazine. The identity of the Taliban leader is not revealed but the interview was conducted by Taliban expert and author Michael Semple, who was a U.N. envoy to Afghanistan and is now with the Carr Centre for Human Rights Policy at Harvard. “It would take some kind of divine intervention for the Taliban to win this war,” the commander, who is referred to only as Mawlvi (mullah) tells Semple, according to excerpts of the interview on the magazine’s website. “The Taliban capturing Kabul is a very distant prospect.” The Islamists were in power in Afghanistan from 1996 until they were ousted by a U.S.-led invasion in 2001 for harboring al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and have since waged an increasingly bloody insurgency. “At least 70 percent of the Taliban are angry at al-Qaeda,” Mawlvi is quoted as saying. “Our people consider al-Qaeda to be a plague that was sent down to us by the heavens. “To tell the truth, I was relieved at the death of Osama. Through his policies, he destroyed Afghanistan.” The Taliban insurgents now face the growing forces of the Western-backed government of President Hamid Karzai, supported by some 130,000 U.S.-led NATO troops, who are due to withdraw by the end of 2014. “It is in the nature of war that both sides dream of victory. But the balance of power in the Afghan conflict is obvious,” says Mawlvi, who is described as one of the most senior surviving Taliban commanders and a confidant of the movement’s leadership. “Any Taliban leader expecting to be able to capture Kabul is making a grave mistake. Nevertheless, the leadership also knows that it cannot afford to acknowledge this weakness. “To do so would undermine the morale of Taliban personnel. The leadership knows the truth ─ that they cannot prevail over the power they confront.” The views presented in the interview contrast strongly with the Taliban’s belligerent public statements, but Mawlvi said that “for the moment, as long as (supreme leader) Mullah Omar is alive, the Taliban will be prepared to follow him in this fight”.Hmmmm.......If they know they're fighting a lost cause, Why in Gods name would you release them from GITMO?Read the full story here.
Iranian Judiciary Chief Asks (Warns) Turkey to Discern Friends from Foes.
Iranian Judiciary Chief Asks (Warns) Turkey to Discern Friends from Foes.(Fars)."The Muslim countries' elites, specially those of a great country like Turkey, should remember which countries tore the Ottoman Empire apart while now claim to sympathize with Turkey through snare and tricks," Shahroudi said during the meeting in Tehran on Wednesday. During the meeting, Yardim underlined that Turkey attaches much importance to the views of Iranian officials and consultations with Tehran, and expressed the hope that due to their rich Islamic cultures, the three Muslim countries of Iran, Turkey and Egypt can play an influential role in the region and the Muslim world. Earlier this year, a prominent Egyptian politician also called for the establishment of a regional coalition among Iran, Egypt and Turkey. "If I win the race, I will take an initiative to form a coalition with Iran and Turkey in a bid to serve Islam and Arab states," Hamdin Sabahi, a former candidate in Egypt's presidential election, told FNA in Cairo in April. "The coalition will then expand to a Union of Arab and Islamic countries," al-Sabahi added. He said that severance of Tehran-Cairo ties was harmful to Egypt and merely served the interests of Israel and the US.Read the full story here.
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