What are Chinese troops doing on Zimbabwe's streets?

Mystery surrounds alleged sightings of a troop of 20 armed Chinese soldiers, said to be patrolling the streets of Mutare, the eastern border town, shoulder-to-shoulder with Zimbabwean security forces this week.
The Chinese, witnesses say, patrol in full uniform, and carry pistols, and their sudden appearance has terrified some local residents. The unit formed part of a heavy security deployment in the city centre, used to crush the MDC's nationwide strike designed to force the release of the election results. More...

Britons kidnapped in Iraq are ‘held by Iran’

Five British hostages who were kidnapped in Iraq almost a year ago are being held inside Iran by Revolutionary Guards, according to two separate sources in the Middle East and London.
The hostages were handed over to the Revolutionary Guards by their Iraqi kidnappers last November, the sources believe. One of the sources said they were being held in the western Iranian city of Hamadan.
If confirmed, the involvement of Revolutionary Guards would be seen as evidence that senior figures in the Iranian government had backed the decision to hold them in the country. More...

Iran demands Russian nuclear shipment

Iran demanded Sunday that Azerbaijan deliver a Russian shipment of nuclear equipment blocked at its border with Iran for the past three weeks.
Azerbaijan has said it was seeking more information about the shipment due to fears that it might violate any of the three sets of U.N. Security Council sanctions imposed on Iran over its failure to halt uranium enrichment.
On Monday, Russian state-run company Atomstroiexport said that one or two trucks carrying the equipment for Iran were stopped two weeks ago at the town of Astara, on the Azerbaijani-Iranian border.
Company spokeswoman Irina Yesipova said officials were holding talks with both Azerbaijan and Iran about the incident. She said the shipment contained "heat-isolating equipment" essential to the plant's operation but that the holdup was not likely to delay the startup of the plant.
Iran is paying Russia more than $1 billion to build the light-water reactor at Bushehr. More...

Iraq mass graves yield 100 bodies

Iraqi security forces have found more than 100 bodies in two mass graves, military officials said on Sunday. Most of the bodies had their hands bound and gunshot wounds in the head. Some were decomposed, according to the military source, who declined to be named. More...

Global Incident Map

A global display of terrorism and other suspicious events.

Closest aide of Hamas hard-line Khaled Meshaal dies in suspicious "accident"

DEBKAfile’s counter-terror sources report that Hisham Faiz Abu Libda, Khaled Meshaal’s chef de bureau, was killed in Damascus by a hit-and-run car. Syrian authorities have ordered a blackout on the incident. His was the second mysterious death of a high-profile terrorist in the Syrian capital in recent weeks after Hizballah’s military chief Imad Mughniyeh was blown up in a high-security district on Feb. 13.
Abu Labda’s dies the day after the Syria’s North Korean nuclear reactor and its destruction by Israeli raiders were exposed in Washington, will serve as a warning to Damascus. It is Bashar Assad’s second reminder that his undercover agencies are seriously penetrated.
Abu Libda organized Meshaal’s contacts with Hamas operations chiefs in Gaza and other places and his regular meetings with Syrian and Iranian officials.

Commander of legendary ship Exodus dies at age 90

'Hamas trying to make bomber drones'

The Jerusalem Post - Hamas is trying to assemble bomb-carrying drones, Al-Aharam reported Saturday. The Egyptian newspaper said that the revelation was made by Egyptian security forces during their interrogation of a Muslim Brotherhood terror cell.
The interrogators reportedly discovered that the operatives were working with Hamas on the project.
Al-Aharam said the security forces learned that as result of the cooperation between the two terror groups, know-how and equipment were acquired to assemble the unmanned planes and were transferred to the Gaza Strip.

Sinai, Egypt, 8 am.

Via Andrew Sullivan

Al-Qaeda No. 2 says Iran propagated 9/11 theory

Osama bin Laden's chief deputy on Tuesday denied a theory that Israel carried out the Sept. 11 attacks and blamed Iran and Shiite Hezbollah for spreading the idea to discredit the Sunni al-Qaeda's strike against the U.S.
The comments in a recording posted on an Islamic website reflected the increasing criticism by al-Qaeda's No. 2 leader Ayman al-Zawahri against Iran. Al-Zawahri has accused Iran in recent messages of seeking to extend its power in the Middle East, particularly in Iraq and through its Hezbollah allies in Lebanon. More...

North Korea ‘helped’ Syria build N-plant

German Charity Helps Turkish Women Escape Forced Marriages

The German charity Hatun and Can, set up in memory of "honor killing" victim Hatun Sürücü, helps Turkish women who are in danger of becoming victims of violence. Two women who fled forced marriages tell their stories.Aylin (not her real name) had just turned 15 when her parents decided she should get married. She had finished her secondary school education and was studying nursing at a vocational school. Of course, she was still living with her parents, in a small town in the German state of Hesse.A potential husband was soon found, M. from Frankfurt. He had studied business administration and was 13 years older than Aylin. “My parents met him at a relative’s wedding,” she recalls. More...

Christian Assyrians Face Extinction in Northern Iraq

Thousands of Christians fleeing persecution in other parts of Iraq have returned since 2004 to ancestral lands in the Nineveh Plain, just north and east of Mosul.
While they have escaped the Islamic militias who slaughtered family members and burned down their houses and churches in Baghdad and Mosul, now they face a new battle. Today's enemies are poverty, joblessness, and despair.
Jamal Dinha, mayor of Bartella, a large Christian village east of Mosul, painted a dire picture of the life these persecuted Christians now face in this Kurdish-controlled safe haven.
"The situation in our region is critical. Our young people are unemployed. We have IDPs [internally-displaced people] from everywhere. Our infrastructure is bad. Our cultural and scientific institutions don't exist. We have no electricity, bad water, broken streets."
The despair is driving many families to emigrate a second time to Syria and Jordan. More...

N. Koreans Taped At Syrian Reactor

A video taken inside a secret Syrian facility last summer convinced the Israeli government and the Bush administration that North Korea was helping to construct a reactor similar to one that produces plutonium for North Korea's nuclear arsenal, according to senior U.S. officials who said it would be shared with lawmakers today.
The officials said the video of the remote site, code-named Al Kibar by the Syrians, shows North Koreans inside. It played a pivotal role in Israel's decision to bomb the facility late at night last Sept. 6, a move that was publicly denounced by Damascus but not by Washington.
Sources familiar with the video say it also shows that the Syrian reactor core's design is the same as that of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon, including a virtually identical configuration and number of holes for fuel rods. More...

Pakistan: Peace Deal Between Islamabad, Pro-Taliban Militants Rankles U.S.

Rferl - Pakistan's new government is close to signing a peace accord with pro-Taliban militants as part of a softer counterterrorism policy from Islamabad that deemphasizes military strikes and calls for U.S. forces to show more restraint in the area.
Britain has expressed reservations about the strategy, and Washington has said it wants Pakistani forces to continue fighting insurgents in the tribal regions near the border with Afghanistan.
Under the proposed deal, pro-Taliban militants would order their fighters to stop using violence and stop sheltering or giving support to foreign Al-Qaeda fighters. In return, Pakistani government troops would be gradually withdrawn from the region.
The orders to the militants were reportedly issued in pamphlets on April 23 by Baitullah Mehsud, the head of the country's umbrella militant group Tehrik-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP). The pamphlets say militants who violate Mehsud's directives "will be publicly punished."

The new Muhammed cartoons

Via Israel Matzav

The Democrats' Jimmy Carter Problem

Michelle Malkin - So much for Jimmy Carter's triumphal peace mission in the Middle East. Like everything else he has done on foreign policy, the world's biggest tool for jihad propaganda created yet another bloody mess. Quick review:

After proclaiming that Hamas terrorists were willing to accept Israel as a "neighbor next door," Carter's Hamas hug buddies flipped him the bird. They gladly accepted the diplomatic legitimacy Carter's visit conferred upon them, while clinging bitterly to their insistence on the destruction of the Jewish state. More...

Russian jet shoots Georgian drone

UN Forces Backed Down From Hizbullah Gun Bust

Hizbullah terrorists scared off UNIFIL armed forces last month after the armed international soldiers found a truck carrying arms and ammunition for the group.
According to Haaretz, which quotes an unnamed "source in Jerusalem," the UNIFIL troops were on patrol and pulled the truck over. When they approached the vehicle, armed Hizbullah terrorists exited and threatened them at gunpoint. The UNIFIL troops returned to their cars and went back to their base.
The March 31 incident, which undercuts confidence in the ability of international troops to prevent the activities of the terrorist group in the region, was kept secret at the time. It was mentioned in a semi-yearly report submitted to the UN Security Council by Secretary General Ban Ki-moon. More...

Sunni Wahabi Insurgent Dressing like a woman

Via The Jawa Report

Seven Ancient Tehran Synagogues Razed; Neighbors Protest

In the once-Jewish neighborhood of Oudlajan in Tehran, seven ancient synagogues have been razed to the ground in recent weeks to make way for residential skyscrapers and other urban renovation. The municipality denies it is behind the destruction of the synagogues, several of which had previously been declared national cultural Aside from the synagogues, developers also destroyed two historical mosques in the neighborhood.heritage sites by the Iranian government.
"These buildings, which were part of our cultural, artistic and architectural heritage were burnt to the ground," said Ahmad Mohit Tabatabaii, the director of the International Council of Museums' (ICOM) office in Tehran. More...

Zawahiri criticises Hamas position

In a new internet message urging support for Muslim fighters in Iraq and elsewhere, Ayman al-Zawahiri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, has criticised Hamas for reportedly being ready for peace with Israel subject to a Palestinian referendum.
"As for peace agreements with Israel, they [Hamas] spoke of putting it to a referendum despite considering it a breach of the Sharia [Islamic law]," he said in a message posted on Tuesday on the World Wide Web.
"How can they put a matter that violates Sharia to a referendum?" More...

Muslims say Mecca not Greenwich should be the source of the world´s time

Muslim "scholars" have decided there is yet another way to implement their Global Caliphate. Insisting that "Mecca is the center of the world's land" they want to change the reference point for world time from Greenwich, England to... where else but Mecca. They have even invented the Mecca watch. Muslims balk at what they feel is the Western world inflicting Greenwich upon them. In fact these inbred thinking "scholars" even want to discard Western maps. More here and here.

Muslim seeds sprouting in Minnesota

FBI organizes defense against cyber-attacks

The FBI quietly established last summer a task force involving U.S. intelligence and other agencies to identify and respond to cyberthreats against the United States.
Called the National Cyber Investigative Joint Task Force, the group has "several dozen" personnel working together at an undisclosed location in the Washington area, said Shawn Henry, the FBI's deputy assistant director of its cyberdivision.
The FBI's justification for next year's budget, in which it has requested an additional 70 agents and more than 100 support personnel for its cyberdivision, says the task force "seeks to address cyber-intrusions presenting a national security threat."
The idea, Mr. Henry said, is for the partner agencies to "share information and make sure we're not overlapping in our response." More...

Hamas explodes U.S. vehicles in massive attack

Hamas used two seized U.S. military vehicles to carry out a large-scale attack this weekend against a major Israeli border crossing, Hamas leaders told WND.
The vehicles were captured when Hamas last June took complete control of the Gaza Strip, overtaking all U.S.-backed security compounds in the territory associated with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas' Fatah party. The U.S. provided Fatah with weapons, vehicles and large sums of financial and military aid.
Yesterday's border attack, the largest terror op in 3 years, was to 'execute mass killings and abductions'. More...

Spanish fishing boat with 26 crew hijacked off Somalia

Pirates armed with grenade launchers have hijacked a Spanish fishing trawler and its crew of 26 off the coast of Somalia.
The Playa de Bakio was attacked 250 miles from the shoreline yesterday, and is headed back to Somalia. A Spanish navy frigate has been diverted to the scene of the hijacking.
The attack comes just a week after a luxury French yacht with 30 crew on board was released by Somali pirates following payment of a £1m ransom. French special forces troops later chased the pirates as they fled inland, arresting six men and recovering £100,000 in cash. More...

Democratic candidates gain support abroad: Obama in Afghanistan, Hillary in Somalia

Kabul, 18 April (AKI) - (by Syed Saleem Shahzad) - US presidential candidate Barack Obama has generated broad support in Afghanistan, while Somalis would prefer to work with his Democratic rival Senator Hillary Clinton.
These are the findings of a survey conducted by the international think-tank, The Senlis Council, in Afghanistan and Somalia in March and April. According to the think-tank, the results of this year's US presidential elections are "critical to both countries," as they are both "strongly affected by US policy". When asked which of the presidential candidates they would back, 69 percent of those questioned in Afghanistan favoured Obama, while 26 percent were in favour of Clinton. In Somalia, 47 percent of civilians surveyed supported Clinton, while 44 percent backed Obama.

Wahabi Saudi exposed

Police Find IED and Iraqi Cash in Stolen Car in New Mexico

Gateway Pundit - The FBI is now involved in the theft of a car after it was found in Los Lunas with an explosive device and Iraqi currency inside FBI agents say that they have ruled out terrorism The car was reported stolen last week. After the theft, the car’s owner was fueling his motorcycle when he spotted his stolen car. “While he was refueling his motorcycle, low and behold, the vehicle that he had reported stolen that belongs to him happened to pull into the gas station area also,” said Los Lunas Police Captain Charles Nuanes. The car’s owner pulled the keys out of the ignition of his stolen car and the people in the car fled. When police arrived, they found the explosive device and less than $1,000 worth of Iraqi cash.

Iran should defend Islamic world: top cleric

A high-ranking Iranian cleric on Friday said the country should grow into a military super power to defend all Muslims, following an army parade at a time of mounting tension with the West.
"In a not so distant future, we should reach a point to have the most powerful military equipment in the world so that no one even think about invading our borders." Ayatollah Ahmad Jannati said in his Friday prayer sermon carried live on state radio.
"And not only that of the Islamic republic, but also the borders of Islam ... We must defend oppressed Muslims everywhere so that the enemies do not dare to attack Afghanistan, Palestine and Iraq."
On Thursday's annual Army Day celebration in Tehran, dozens of fighter jets and other aircraft flew over the parade ground in a bid to show the power of the air force. Also on display was Iran's Shahab-3 missile, whose range includes Israel and even the fringes of Europe. More...

Trashy WTC Security

It's a good thing Osama wasn't walking through SoHo yesterday morning.
Two sets of confidential blueprints for the planned Freedom Tower, which is set to rise at Ground Zero, were carelessly dumped in a city garbage can on the corner of West Houston and Sullivan streets, The Post has learned.
Experts said the detailed, floor-by-floor schematics contain enough detail for terrorists to plot a devastating attack.
"Secure Document - Confidential," warns the title page on each of the two copies of the 150-page schematic that a homeless, recovering drug addict discovered in the public trash can. More...

Al Mishkat Institute (New Jersey): Promo Video

Iraq offers Europe increased gas and oil supplies this year

The Jerusalem Post - EU officials say Iraq has offered to increase its supply of natural gas to the 27-nation bloc over the next three years.
The European Commission says the offer was made during talks Wednesday between Iraqi Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani and EU Energy Commissioner Andris Piebalgs. The EU head office said Iraq "made a political gesture of goodwill" promising to export at least 5 billion cubic meters of gas to the European market.
The Commission says Iraq has also said it would increase its oil production to reach 3 million barrels per day by the end of this year.

Hostage Negotiator Murdered in Mali

A mediator involved in negotiations to free two Austrian tourists kidnapped by an al-Qaeda affiliate in Tunisia is believed to have been killed.According to an Algerian source quoted in the Arab daily, al-Sharq al-Awsat, the Tuareg mediator was murdered in a region on the border of Mali and Algeria.His death has reportedly brought a stalemate in negotiations between Austrian authorities and representatives of Abdel Hamid Abu Zayd, local head of the Al-Qaeda Organisation in the Islamic Maghreb.

The Austrian couple was abducted in Tunisia Feb. 22, and have been moved from Tunisia to Algeria to a remote area of Mali, which is well-known as an Al-Qaeda stronghold.

Prayers for the family of the murdered negotiator, and continued prayers for the safety and rescue of Andrea and Wolfgang.

Via Not Ready for my Burqua

MEMRI: Saudi Cleric Extols the Breasts and Thighs of the Black-Eyed Virgins of Paradise

Following are excerpts of a video clip featuring Saudi cleric Omar Al-Sweilem, which was posted on the Internet. The video quality is low in the original.

Omar Al-Sweilem: "Harith Ibn Al-Muhasibi told us what would happen when we meet the black-eyed virgin with her black hair and white face - praised be He who created night and day."
What hair! What a chest! What a mouth! What cheeks! What a figure! What breasts! What thighs! What legs! What whiteness! What softness! Without any creams - no Nivea, no Vaseline. No nothing!"
"He said that faces would be soft that day. Even your own face will be soft without any powder or makeup. You yourself will be soft, so how soft will a black-eyed virgin be, when she comes to you so tall and with her beautiful face, her black hair and white face - praised be He who created night and day. Just feel her palm, Sheikh!...

Via Solomonia

'May Allah curse Berlusconi' urges Qaeda linked site

Dubai, 15 April (AKI) - A jihadist message posted to an al-Qaeda linked website urges Allah to "curse" Italy's prime minister-elect, billionaire media tycoon Silvio Berlusconi, and also Pope Benedict XVI. "May Allah curse and unleash his wrath on him [Berlusconi], and the evil Pope," read the message, which recently appeared on one of the main jihadist websites, the al-Qaeda linked Al-Hesbah. The message was signed by 'al-Wahabi'. "Urgent news" read a banner headline on Al-Hesbah. "Berlusconi wins the Italian general election and becomes premier for the third time. "The message is signed by 'Qannas al-Jazira' - meaning 'Sniper from the Arabian Peninsula' in Arabic. A third message posted by 'Fursan al-Fajr' reads: "Several days ago, Berlusconi said that if he won [the elections] he would visit Israel."

Two Women, Two Cultures

The path of righteousness in Islam grows narrower every day:
A debate is rising over “honor murder” following a case that belatedly revealed that a young Saudi Arabian woman was killed by her father for chatting on the Internet social network site, Facebook.British daily Telegraph quoted Monday’s Middle East news sites including al-Arabiya as saying, “Social networking sites, like Facebook, are causing social strife in the Islamic nation and the incident is an example.” More...

Iraqi Author 'Aref 'Alwan: The Jews Have an Historic Right to Palestine

'Alwan called on the Arab world to acknowledge the Jews' right to Palestine, because justice demanded it and also because doing so would end the violence and the killing of Arabs, as well as intra-Arab strife. He added that such a move would also open up new avenues for the Arab world that would be more consistent with the values and needs of modern society.
'Alwan writes that the Arab League is to blame for the refusal to recognize the 1947 U.N. partition plan, for starting a war to prevent its implementation, and for the results of that war, which the Arabs call the Nakba (disaster). He points an accusing finger at the Arab regimes, the Arab League, and the educated circles in the Arab world, saying that they had all used the term "nakba" to direct popular consciousness toward a cultural tradition that neither accepts the other side nor recognizes its rights - thereby promoting bigotry, violence and extremism. He also claims that there have been attempts to rewrite Palestinian history, in order to deny any connection between it and the Jewish people. More...

Amid new Iranian threat, Israel connects to America’s Ballistic Missile Early Warning System

DEBKAfile - Israel requested the hook-up to the BMEWS for early warning to defend itself against Iranian missile attack. Tuesday, April 15, Iran’s deputy C-in-C Mohammad Reza Ashtiani threatened to eliminate Israel from “the scene of the universe” if it launches a military attack on the Islamic state.
DEBKAfile’s military sources report the system operates from three global centers – the US Thule Air Base in Greenland, where the 12th Space Warning Squadron is located; the Clear Air Force Station in Alaska and the British RAF long-range radar station at Fylingdales, Yorkshire, in England.
This is the third time Israel has been connected to the BMEWS. The first was in 1991 before the first Gulf War and the second in 2003 before the US invasion of Iraq. Then, Israel feared Iraqi missile attack, which indeed materialized in 1991. Now, US military sources interpret the request as signifying Israel’s sense of the need to prepare for an Iranian missile attack in the not-too-distant future.

Obama Bin Laden

Obama's Greenbacks from Code Pink

Ben Johnson - If the media were competent, the name Jodie Evans would be as well-known as Jeremiah Wright.
According to Ralph Nader’s Public Citizen, Evans has bundled “at least $50,000” in donations for Barack Obama’s 2008 campaign. “Bundling” is a process in which people turn over a large number of “individual” political contributions as a group, in the hope of exerting greater influence if their candidate is elected. According to Human Events reporter Catherine Moy, “Evans and her son, a student who lives at her Southern California address, each also gave the maximum individual allowable donation of $2,300 to Obama’s campaign.”
And who is Jodie Evans? A former political appointee of Jerry Brown during his tenure as governor of California and his presidential campaigns, Evans briefly made headlines in 2003 by arranging for women to claim Arnold Schwarzenegger groped them. However, she has kept lower company for the last few years. Her official biography states “her life has been consumed with Codepink: Women for Peace since September of 2002.”
In fact, Evans is a co-founder of the antiwar radical group Code Pink with Medea Benjamin. As I reported at the time, Evans and Code Pink delivered $600,000 in cash and supplies to “the other side” in Fallujah in December 2004. Rep. Henry Waxman, D-CA, signed the letter to get them to that city, a recent battlefield and stronghold for terrorists killing American soldiers. More...

Police chief in detention in Iran after being caught nude with 6 women

The Jerusalem Post - Teheran's police chief, who was in charge of fighting vice, has been taken to jail and his case is currently under investigation, a spokesman for Iran's judiciary said Tuesday.
But the spokesman, Ali Reza Jamshidi, refused to elaborate further about the case which has caught wide public attention in Iran, saying it is now in the "legal stage." Local media have reported that the police chief, Gen. Reza Zarei, was taken to jail after he was caught last month with six nude women by a police raid on an underground local brothel.

Kurdish rebels in Iraq threaten to attack Iran

A Kurdish rebel group based in northern Iraq threatened on Sunday to launch bomb attacks inside Iran if Tehran fails to halt anti-Kurdish policies in the Islamic country.
Pejak (Party of Free Life of Kurdistan) warned it has the ability to "carry out bombings against Iranian forces" inside Iran.
Ronahi Ahmed, a member of Pejak's political bureau, told AFP from the group's hideout in Qandil mountain in northern Iraq that the rebels were ready for a long fight with Tehran.
Ahmed said the group had recently attacked Iranian forces across the border.
"Last month our people were able to infiltrate Mahkook town in northwest Iran. They killed dozens of Iranian soldiers. In another incident in Iran's Miryuwan town our guerrillas killed six soldiers," she said. More...

Private Israeli Company sells U.S. Agencies Intelligence

Jailed terrorists are using the internet to contact supporters

Terror suspects held at one of Britain's most secure jails are secretly accessing the internet to contact their supporters. The discovery raises fears that some of the UK's most dangerous terrorists could be plotting new attacks from inside prison.
The serious security breach was revealed last week after The Mail on Sunday was alerted to messages on a "private" website linked to militant Islamic movement Al-Muhajiroun. The threatening emails were apparently sent from inside Belmarsh high-security prison in South-East London. It is thought inmates are sending the illicit messages using smuggled mobile phones, many of which now allow access to the internet. The internet messages are linked to Mizanur Rahman, a 25-year-old website designer jailed last year for inciting murder after calling for British troops to be brought back from Iraq in body bags. More than 900 emails in his name appear on the Sawtul Islam website, including comments attacking homosexuals and Jews.
Non-Muslims are prohibited from accessing the forum section of the site, which is open only to people 'vouched for' by other members, who include Anjem Choudary, an acolyte of Al-Muhajiroun leader Omar Bakri Mohammed. More...

Key to the Kaaba

Key to the Kaaba sells for record $18 million

Pakistan's Musharraf pushes for China oil pipeline

Beijing has stood close to Musharraf, who came to power as a general in a coup in 1999, even as he has become increasingly vulnerable since the defeat of allies in February 18 polls.
The two countries have explored proposals to use Pakistan as a pipeline corridor, bringing oil and gas from the Middle East to China.
Musharraf told students and academics in Beijing that he had raised the idea, which has been mooted for several years, during talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and Premier Wen Jiabao.
He said a proposed gas pipeline between Iran and India through Pakistan could be expanded to include China. More...

Deadly blast in Iran caused by munitions

An explosion in a southern Iranian mosque that killed 10 people and wounded 160 after evening prayers Saturday night was caused by negligent handling of live munitions, not a bomb as first suspected, Iranian media reported.
The blast and subsequent fire occurred about 6 p.m. Saturday in the men's section of a mosque in the city of Shiraz, Iran's Fars news agency reported.
Fars initially reported the explosion was caused by a home-made bomb.
Provincial Police Commander Ali Moaeyri later told Fars it "was not sabotage."
"Some live munitions may have been left behind at that location which could have been the cause of the explosion," Moaeyri said.
The police commander said the munitions were apparently left behind after a "Sacred Defense" exhibition was held at the mosque, which also serves as a cultural center.
Local militia groups -- known as Basij -- often use the mosques for meeting places. More...

US Evangelicals March Through Jerusalem

American televangelist John Hagee led several hundred flag-waving followers across Jerusalem, a colorful display of the growing alliance between Christian evangelicals and Israel. More...

American tax dollars at work - for the 'Palestinians'

Israel Matzav - Boker Tov Boulder does a comprehensive review of many of the programs that are benefiting the 'Palestinian Authority' at American taxpayer expense.

Women Sport in Iran

3,000 French troops in Afghanistan

French troops operating in Afghanistan will number about 3,000, Foreign Minister Bernard Kouchner said on Friday.
Kouchner is due to meet President Hamid Karzai and officials including his counterpart, Afghan Foreign Minister Rangeen Dadfar Spanta on Saturday. He will also hold meetings with non-governmental organizations and visit a hospital in Kabul. He will then go to Kandahar, in the south of the country, with Canadian Foreign Minister Maxime Bernier, despite Canada's disappointed at France's decision to send reinforcements to the east rather than help it fight the Taliban in the south. More...

IDF soldiers told to be careful what they post on Facebook

The Jerusalem Post - Defense officials say they've identified an unlikely new threat to national security- Facebook.
A new list of rules aims to prevent soldiers and Defense Ministry employees from revealing classified information on social networking sites. The officials say some soldiers have uploaded pictures of themselves with classified equipment and inadvertently revealed sensitive information.

Minnesota Madrassa: Taxpayers Paying for a Muslim School

Flagrantly violating the constitutional ban on state promotion of religion, the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TIZA, herds children into bathrooms to perform ritual Islamic cleansing before leading them into the school gym to pray to Allah each day. In three visits to the K-8 school, the Minnesota Department of Education never noticed a problem, even though the tax-funded school is located at a mosque. And the ACLU didn't bother until a Minneapolis columnist exposed the madrassa earlier this week.
"It appears the school may be impermissibly blurring the line between providing a secular education and endorsing and promoting religion and religious activities," said Charles Samuelson, who heads the group's Minnesota office.
Blurring the line? It has erased it...

Irán: Young Lady punches the undercover policewoman

Via Sugiero

Carinthia (Austria) bans mosque, minaret construction

Carinthia’s provincial government recently passed a law effectively banning the construction of mosques or minarets. The controversial legislation, passed with the votes of the Conservative People’s party and the right-wing Alliance for Austria’s Future was a sign against the “advancement of Islam,” Provincial Governor Joerg Haider was quoted as saying. The legislation links the construction of mosques with rules concerning the overall look and harmony of towns and villages, thereby aiming at preventing their construction. More...

Why China is the REAL master of the universe

The hunger for raw materials is making China lose its shyness and venture out into the world. Like Germany and Russia, China has traditionally been a land empire, focusing its expansionist energies on countries it had borders with, and it eschewed the world-conquering exploits of Europe's sea-faring maritime nations.
Europeans have, for half a millennium, been unchallenged as the global colonisers, but last month the respected Economist magazine dubbed the Chinese "The New Colonists".
While the Congo in central Africa was once over-run by Belgians, it is now the Chinese that can be found wondering around its mining belts. In Lubumbashi, the capital of the Congo's copper-rich region Katanga, the Economist reported "a sudden Chinese invasion". Troubled Angola recently shunned Western financial aid because of the amount of Chinese money pouring into it, in return for commodities.
From Kazakhstan to Indonesia to Latin America, Chinese firms are gobbling up oil, gas, coal and metals. More...

China: Officials Say Uyghur Group Involved In Olympic Terror Plot

8-year-old girl asks for divorce in court

Yemen Times - An eight-year-old girl decided last week to go the Sana’a West Court to prosecute her father, who forced her to marry a 30-year-old man.
Nojoud Muhammed Nasser arrived at court by herself, looking for a judge to handle her case against her father, Muhammed Nasser, who forced her to marry. The child also asked for a divorce, accusing her husband of sexual and domestic abuse. According to Yemeni law, Nojoud cannot prosecute, as she is underage. However, court judge Muhammed Al-Qathi heard her complaint and subsequently ordered the arrests of both her father and husband.
“My father beat me and told me that I must marry this man, and if I did not, I would be raped and no law and no sheikh in this country would help me. I refused but I couldn’t stop the marriage,” Nojoud Nasser told the Yemen Times. “I asked and begged my mother, father, and aunt to help me to get divorced. They answered, ‘We can do nothing. If you want you can go to court by yourself.’ So this is what I have done.”

Via Sugiero

Iran´s secret long-range missile site

Israel Matzav - The Times of London has released photographs of a 'secret' long-range missile site southeast of Tehran from which Iran is said to be capable of firing missiles having a range of 6000 kilometers. That would be more than enough to reach Europe.

The imagery has pinpointed the facility from where the Iranians launched their Kavoshgar 1 “research rocket” on February 4, claiming that it was in connection with their space programme.
Analysis of the photographs taken by the Digital Globe QuickBird satellite four days after the launch has revealed a number of intriguing features that indicate to experts that it is the same site where Iran is focusing its efforts on developing a ballistic missile with a range of about 6,000km (4,000 miles).

Saddam transfered WMDs to Syria

An upcoming joint US-Israel report on the September 6 IAF strike on a Syrian facility will claim that former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein transferred weapons of mass destruction to the country, Channel 2 stated Monday. And you know the mainstream press.

Via The Jawa Report

Barack Obama launches Hebrew blog in Israel

The Jerusalem Post - Obama aide Eric Lynn says on the site that the US senator hopes through the blog to strengthen ties with the Israeli public.
The blog that opened Friday includes Obama's speech to a pro-Israel lobby in March. Lynn says at the bottom of the blog that Obama is committed to Israel's security.
Yediot Aharonot reported Friday that Obama's campaign insisted that the blog be opened before the Democratic primary April 22 in Pennsylvania. The state has a large Jewish population.

Russia army vows steps if Georgia and Ukraine join NATO

Reuters - "Russia will take steps aimed at ensuring its interests along its borders," the agencies quoted General Yuri Baluyevsky as saying. "These will not only be military steps, but also steps of a different nature," he said, without giving details.
Russia is opposed to NATO plans to grant membership to ex-Soviet Ukraine and Georgia, saying such a move would pose a direct threat to its security and endanger the fragile balance of forces in Europe.

The 30 hostages held on a tourist yacht by pirates off the coast of Somalia have been released.

UPDATE: Somali pirates 'killed in French rocket attack'

Iran offers nukes technology to all Muslim states

Al Arabiya - Iranian judiciary chief Ayatollah Mahmoud Hashemi Shahroudi told leaders of the Gulf Arab state of Qatar on Wednesday that his country was willing to put its controversial nuclear expertise at the service of all Muslim states. "Iran is determined to make the best use of this technology not only for Iran but also for all Muslim states," Shahroudi told a news conference in the Qatari capital Doha.
His comments came after talks with Qatari Emir Sheikh Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, whose country hosts the headquarters of U.S. Central Command which runs military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and across the Middle East and the Horn of Africa.
Washington has been pushing for a new set of U.N. sanctions against Tehran over its insistence on mastering the nuclear fuel cycle for its self, despite misgivings from other veto-wielding permanent members of the Security Council, notably Moscow.

Western Wall Too 'Controversial' For Bush Visit

Arutz Sheva - Bush will be visiting Israel as part of Israel’s 60th Independence Day celebrations. His visit will be 60 hours long. In addition to addressing the Knesset, Bush is reportedly searching for a symbolic location to visit, with Prime Minister Ehud Olmert as his tour guide.
Haaretz reported that Bush’s aids were leaning toward the Masada fortress. The site was where Jews held out against the Roman army, but were eventually beaten and committed suicide rather than face the humiliation and torture of captivity. Haaretz mentioned the Cave of the Patriarchs in Hevron, the Golan Heights and the Western Wall, explicitly, as places deemed too controversial for Bush to visit.

Iraqi Olympian has to ‘dodge sniper bullets’ in order to train

Obama calls for talks with Iran over Iraq

Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama on Tuesday called for a "diplomatic surge" including talks with US foe Iran, to help stabilize the situation in Iraq.
The Illinois Senator battling Hillary Clinton for his party's nomination called for more pressure on the Iraqi government to embrace political reconciliation and a regional "diplomatic surge that includes Iran."
"We should be talking to them as well," Obama told the top US General in Iraq David Petraeus and US ambassador to Baghdad Ryan Crocker.
"I do not believe we are going to be able to stabilize the situation without that" said Obama, adding that a plan for US troop withdrawals was needed to force Iraqi factions to work together. More...

2 Year Old Girl Answering Questions About Islam

Ga. soldier's widow wants his sperm

A soldier's widow has succeeded in having sperm taken from his body and frozen four days after he was slain in Iraq, though medical experts said it's highly unlikely she would be able to bear his child.
Sgt. Dayne Darren Dhanoolal, 26, died March 31 when an explosive detonated near his vehicle in Baghdad. He had talked often with his wife Kynesha about having children, according to court papers filed by her lawyer.
On Friday, a federal judge in Columbus, Ga., granted her request for a temporary restraining order preventing the military from embalming the body until samples of Dhanoolal's sperm were extracted. The samples were taken later that day and are in the custody of a medical representative for the widow, who is hoping to be inseminated even though fertility experts said the procedure almost certainly would not work with her late husband's sperm.

Elite French counter-terror team on standby to rescue yacht seized by Somali pirates

DEBKAfile’s shipping correspondent reveals that the pirates who seized the French Le Ponant luxury yacht Friday in international waters off Somalia and took its 32-man crew hostage, headed south Monday, April 7. They are moored on the Indian Ocean shore of the semi-autonomous Somali province of Puntland, near the village of Garacad. The French government has made contact with the pirates and reports that the hostages are safe and well.
A unit of the elite counter-terror French GIGN unit has meanwhile arrived in Djibouti to stand by if called on for for action to release the yacht and hostages. Tuesday, President Nicolas Sarkozy will meet the families of the captive crew to update them on the situation.
The GIGN is one of the most effective anti-terror forces in the world, trained especially in hostage rescue. It numbers only 90 highly-trained, crack fighting men, organized in teams of 15.
Puntland communications minister Abdirahman Mohamed Bangah appealed to the French government not to pay ransom, else piracy would continue to plague Somali shores, but rather to use force to rescue the hostages and free the vessel.

A Spy's Motivation: Ideology, Not Money Motivates Americans to Spy Against the U.S.

Prior to 1990, just a fifth of Americans spying for others were ideologically motivated.
The March report, obtained by the Federation of American Scientists' Secrecy in Government project, compares trends among the 173 Americans known to have spied against the U.S. since 1947, of which 37 began their spying since 1990.
Only five of those 37 spies are known to have received payment for their work. Of the 11 spies identified since 2000, none was paid — although five had hoped to be. But almost half of those spying against the U.S. since 1990 demonstrated an allegiance to a foreign country or cause.
Increasingly, that cause is wrapped up in the war on terror. More...

Iranian group starts production of film on Bible to counter Fitna

TEHRAN (FNA), via Jihad Watch - The NGO's documentary called 'Beyond Fitna' deals with incitement of violence in the Bible. Muslims believe that the book deemed holy by Christians today is a distorted version of the original Bible.
'Beyond Fitna' focuses on the orders given to worldwide Christians in the (distorted version of) Bible for stoking violence, committing genocide, attacking others, beheading and burning women and children who have been taken into captivity. More...

Al Asad Air Base, Iraq - Sandstorm

Fatah and Hamas reach framework accord in three weeks of secret talks

DEBKA - The two parties endeavored to keep their channel under cover after Abbas promised President George W. Bush on the first visit he paid the Palestinian Authority on Jan. 10 - and assured Vice President Dick Cheney on March 23 - that he would not hold talks with Hamas. The channel is run by close confidants of the Fatah and Hamas leaders, but during the Arab League Summit on March 29 and 30, Abbas and Meshaal met face to face to confirm the points of agreement achieved thus far.
Both US secretary of state Condoleezza Rice and Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert are well aware of Abbas underhand track but are keeping it dark to avoid embarrassment, because Bush has branded Hamas a terrorist movement, and Olmert is committed to breaking off peace talks with the PA chairman if he starts a dialogue with Hamas.

Egypt police and protesters clash, strike foiled

Al-Arabiya - Egyptian police clashed with protesters in the Nile Delta city of Mahalla on Sunday, firing tear gas and arresting at least 150 after plans for a strike at the city's textile factory were scrapped under pressure from security forces. Angry residents demanding an end to price hikes and soaring inflation set two schools ablaze and burnt tires along the city's railway.

Christian Cemetery in Nablus Vandalized

The Memri Blog - Some graves in a Christian cemetery in Nablus have been vandalized by unknown persons. The church is considering repairing the wall around the cemetery in order to prevent further vandalism.
Source: Al-Ayyam, PA, April 3, 2008

Iraqi Citizens Rally In Support of al-Maliki & Military

Gateway Pundit - Some 1000 protesters took to the streets of Kut supporting the recent military operations of Maliki in Basra. After the huge win over the Shiite militias in Basra and Sadr City this week, Iraqis rallied in support of their democratically elected leader and military.

Obama and Intifada

Redstate - Obama is being linked to the radical group International Solidarity Movement (ISM), as reported in the Canada Free Press on Tuesday. Ali Abunimah, Vice President of the Arab American Action Network in Chicago and co-founder of the Electronic Intifada, a website of the ISM, posted an article on Monday in which he outlines why he believes Obama is really very in tune with the Reverend's views on Israel. He even quotes Obama's remarks to a group of Jewish leaders in Cleveland to comfort his fellow anti-Semites that "Obama implicitly admitted that Wright's views were rooted in opposition to Israel's deep ties to apartheid South Africa, and thus entirely reasonable."
"Obama's association with the ISM through his church and lobbying in Chicago goes even deeper than just his past links to Al Awda and Ali Abunimah. His pastor, Jeremiah Wright, and the Trinity Union Church of Christ in Chicago, are both equally involved with the ISM."
The ISM is a movement comprised of Neo-nazis, anarchists, Arab militants, communists, and other radical elements originally set up to support the PLO in efforts toward the ultimate destruction of Israel.

Friday Night Fights

Via Michelle Malkin

Tiananmen Trump targets Iran

World Net Daily - MI6, Britain's intelligence agency, has established that China, in an increasingly desperate attempt to diffuse its growing problems over the Olympic Games, has betrayed one of its closest allies, Iran, according to Joseph Farah's G2 Bulletin.
The Beijing regime has provided the International Atomic Energy Agency, IAEA, the United Nations watchdog into nuclear proliferation, with "a wealth of documentation" it had given to Iran on how to manufacture nuclear armed bombs.
It is the second time the Beijing regime has betrayed an ally for its own ends. In January 1991, on the eve of the first Gulf War, Chinese diplomats secretly met with senior officers in the first Bush Administration in Washington. On the Washington conference table that cold January day 16 years ago was a very simple offer. In return for Beijing's support at the United Nations for war against Iraq – which until then it had rejected – the United States would make no public objection to China's "final solution" for all their student demonstrators on Tiananmen Square.
Beijing had decided the students would stand trial the day after the deadline against Iraq expired. In return for U.S. compliance, President Bush would have China's support for the war.

Trailer for "Where in the world is Osama Bin Laden"

Via Infidels Are Cool

German Police Officers Secretly Trained Libyan Forces

Der Spiegel - Disciplinary proceedings have been instigated against all eight officers, who went to Libya in their free time without the knowledge of their superiors.
the officers have already been transferred from elite SWAT-style units to normal police duties.
According to the media reports, former officers of the elite anti-terrorism GSG-9 police force had founded a private security company and hired police officers from the German equivalent of SWAT units on a freelance basis. The special police forces officers reportedly went to Libya in 2006 and trained security forces on behalf of the private security company. The officers were paid up to €15,000 for their efforts.

Terror gang plotted to blow up transatlantic planes

Blasphemers, Unite!

Michael J. Totten - Egypt's Grand Imam Mohammed Sayyed Tantawi threatened “severe” consequences if the Dutch government doesn’t ban Parliamentarian Geert Wilders’ anti-Islamic film Fitna. It makes no difference to Tantawi and other perpetually outraged Islamists that the Netherlands is a sovereign country with its own laws. Ever since Iran’s Ayatollah Khomeini condemned Salman Rushdie to death for writing the supposedly offensive Satanic Verses – and sent death squads after him and his publishers around the world – radical Islamists have seen it as their right and duty to enforce their own unilateral anti-blasphemy laws on the human race. More...

Islamic Support For Obama Coming Into The Open In California

Anti-Mullah, via AINA - We heard rumors of the Islamic Republic of Iran also passing the word to their American agents and clerics to support Obama but had nothing tangible till now.
The photo above was taken during the last week of March, 2008 by an AntiMullah person who happened to see this woman and was delighted to have a camera on hand.
Don't be misled by there only being one person. Mosques have been told to get the message across effectively rather than to hold demonstrations, since there was no protest involved where numbers rather than a "bilingual" sign become important.
Note the "bilingual" aspect uses English lettering for Persian (not Arabic) words to reach a broader audience than writing it in Farsi (Persian) fonts.

Heart of israeli soldier gives life to arab

ANSAmed - Protagonists in the story are a 19-year-old soldier, Yaniv Pozoarik, from the town of Holon, and a 25-year-old Arab with Israeli passport, Salim Louai, resident of the town of Ibillin, in Upper Galilee. On the night of March 25 corporal Yaniv was injured by mistake by a fellow soldier while he was in the military base. He was taken to the hospital in Haifa where doctors told his family he was brain-dead. ''It only took us a minute to decide to donate his organs because we were certain that he, who had always been so generous, would have been proud of our choice,'' the father, Yafim, said. The screening for patients awaiting transplantation started while the doctors were still in the operating room. This is how the death of corporal Yaniv became crossed, due to complicated genetic reasons, with the life of Salim. The young Salim Louai, a Palestinian Arab with Israeli passport, lived attached to an artificial heart for five months. ''We knew that transplantation was the only hope for survival,'' his brother, Tahar, said. The operation, which took six hours, took place at the specialised centre of 'Chaim Sheba' near Tel Aviv.
''I do not care who has received my son's heart but I am sure that that heart will make him a better person,'' the father of the soldier said.

North Korea sells rocket launchers to Myanmar

TOKYO (Reuters) - North Korea has been selling multiple rocket launchers to military-ruled Myanmar since the two countries restored ties last year in violation of U.N. sanctions, Japan's NHK public broadcaster reported.
Quoting unspecified diplomatic sources, NHK said in a report late on Wednesday that the launchers were the same type as those deployed near the demilitarized zone separating the Korean peninsula.
Diplomatic relations between North Korea and Myanmar were cut off following the 1983 "Rangoon" bombing in which Pyongyang agents killed 17 South Korean officials, but were restored in April, 2007.

Darfur: US Wants 3,600 New Troops

Time -- Ambassador Richard Williamson, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, told Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon in the letter that additional troops are the best hope of increasing security in the Sudanese region.
A joint African Union-United Nations peacekeeping force took over in January from a beleaguered AU force to try to stem the violence. But it only has about 9,000 troops and police on the ground, out of a total of 26,000 that have been authorized.

Iraqi TV: The Earth is flat or round?

Qaida No. 2 to Answer Web Questions Soon

Breitbart -- Al-Qaida No. 2 Ayman al-Zawahri will soon answer the hundreds of questions submitted by journalists, militants and others about the terrorist network's future.
A banner bearing the logo of the Al-Qaida's media arm, al-Sahab, appeared on Web sites linked to the organization that have carried its messages in the past.
"Soon the surprise," read the flashing banner, which showed a picture of the Egyptian-born militant dressed in white wearing a turban. "Soon by the grace of God, the open interview with Sheik Ayman Zawahri, first episode."
More than 900 entries—many with multiple questions—were posted on the main Islamist Web site until the cutoff date of Jan. 16. After the deadline, the questions disappeared from that site.
The questioners appeared uncertain whether al-Qaida's central leadership directly controls the multiple, small militant groups around the Mideast that work in its name, or whether those groups operate on their own.
Some asked if al-Qaida have a long-term strategy, while others wanted advice about conducting holy war.

Iran intercepting Israeli communications through Syria

The Jerusalem Post -- Iran has set up sophisticated listening stations in Syria in recent months to intercept Israeli military communications, Israeli security officials say.
Top brass won't be allowed to bring their mobile phones into rooms where classified information is being discussed, the officials said. And generals will be assigned special areas on bases to conduct private conversations. That way, listening stations won't be able to hear sensitive conversations that might be going on in the background while generals talk on their cellular phones, they explained.

Pakistan: Couple stoned to death for adultery

AKI -- According to the Pakistani daily, Dawn, this is the first incident of stoning carried out in the Federally Administered Tribal Areas on the border of Afghanistan.In the past, couples found guilty of adultery by militants or tribesmen were executed by firing squads.The woman, identified as Shano, had allegedly eloped with Daulat Khan Malikdeenkhel on 15 March.Quoting Dr. Asad, a spokesman for the militants, Dawn said that Shano was a married woman living in Peshawar’s Deen Bahar colony.He said a complaint had been received from her family that she had been abducted by Daulat Khan. But later it was reported that she had ran away with him.He said that some members of the Taliban captured them when they were returning from Karachi.

Hamas TV puppet "kills" President Bush

Brandishing "the sword of Islam", a Palestinian boy stabbed U.S. President George W. Bush to death in a new puppet show for children aired by Hamas-owned television in the Gaza Strip.

Iran: New defense umbrella for Sudan

DEBKA -- After Russia, China and Libya froze arms sales to Sudan over the horrors of Darfur, Tehran stepped in last month with a string of military pacts signed on March 8 by Iran’s defense minister Gen. Mostafa Mohammad Majjar and his Sudanese counterpart, Gen. Abdul Rahim Mohammad Hussein.
For Sudan, they open up a new source of weapons and the promise of defense systems for its strategic sites, including the controversial White Nile dams, which are creating a new refugee crisis.
Iran has gained a foothold on the Suez and Red Sea coasts, access to Chadian uranium and a hook-up with anti-American terror groups in northern and central Africa.

UN aid workers kidnapped in Somalia

A Giant Mosque in Europe

The Brussels Journal -- The Regional Council of Alsace (France), consisting mainly of UMP members, voted in favor of a 420,000 euro subsidy for the construction of the Grand Mosque of Strasbourg. The UMP is President Sarkozy’s party.
The Concordat is a special agreement decreed by Bonaparte dating from 1801 that grants public status to religion, and that permits priests to be paid by the State. In 1801, Alsace was part of France. However, when in 1905 the law separating Church and State went into effect in France, Alsace was part of Germany. After WWI Alsace again became French but never renounced the Concordat.

Members of a Russian doomsday cult emerged from the remote underground bunker where they had been holed up for six months awaiting the end of the world.