kenneth_keillor

07 Feb 12

The unraveling of Barry Soetoro, a/k/a Barack Hussein Obama II
It has been only after Donald Trump began to ask the same questions others have been asking for the last three years that the matter appears to have morphed from a fringe topic into legitimacy.  

Palestinians urge int'l community to join Global March to Jerusalem
'The recent Arab uprisings throughout the Middle East and North Africa have proven that the Arab people are no longer willing to tolerate oppression and tyranny. They send a strong message to Western hegemonic powers and their oppressive regional allies that a new wave of nonviolent civil resistance will ultimately prevail over injustice and occupation.'  

Pope 'exorcised two men in the Vatican', claims new book
Pope Benedict unwittingly performed an exorcism of two men possessed by the Devil in the very heart of the Vatican, according to the Catholic Church's best-known exorcist, Father Gabriele Amorth.  

South Korea to rehabilitate coal-powered plant in Turkey
South Korea is willing to undertake the construction of the nuclear power plant which is planned to be built in Turkey's northern province of Sinop. We can begin talks for the nuclear power plant within this month, said South Korea's Knowledge Economy Minister Hong Sukwoo, who signed an agreement between Turkey and South Korea on the rehabilitation of a coal-powered plant in Turkey, together with Turkish Energy & Natural Resources Minister Taner Yildiz.  

Greece cuts 15,000 public sector jobs
GREECE has agreed to lay off 15,000 public sector workers by the end of 2012, a government minister said overnight, as international pressure mounts on Athens to agree on austerity measures needed to secure major new debt agreements. The cuts will come either by abolishing or downsizing a number of public sector bodies, Administrative Reform Minister Dimitris Reppas said in a statement.  

Catholic outcry over Obama administration's birth control decision could be factor in presidential race
“There can be no doubt that religious liberty in our country is in jeopardy,” Monsignor W. Ronald Jameson warned on Saturday from inside Washington’s historic Cathedral of St. Matthew. “This is the time to speak up. This is the time for all voices to be heard.”  

U.S. House Republicans try again to move Keystone pipeline
Republicans in the U.S. House of Representatives will try to force quick approval of the Canada-to-Texas Keystone XL oil pipeline using a highway funding bill, but the plan's author said on Monday there may be more than one avenue for advancing the project. President Barack Obama's administration blocked TransCanada's $7 billion project last month.  

Shipping Costs Have Plunged So Hard, Companies Are Now PAYING Customers To Use Their Boats
In particular, the report cites Glencore International Plc, which shipped grains to Europe using a ship operated by Global Maritime Investments Ltd according to Bloomberg. Global Maritime Investments not only offered the trip for free but actually paid $2,000 per day in fuel costs  

Benjamin Netanyahu condemns Palestinian unity plan
Mahmoud Abbas, presidnet of the Palestinian Authority, has agreed to lead a transitional national government that would include the militant faction that runs Gaza until elections are held, possibly later this year. But the breakthrough provoked a strong reaction from Israel, which deplores Hamas as a terrorist group. Mr Netanyahu told his Likud party ministers that if Mr Abbas implements the agreement, "he chooses to abandon the path of peace and join himself to Hamas".  

U.S. closes embassy in Damascus as Obama vows to increase pressure on Syria
The United States closed its embassy in Damascus on Monday and President Barack Obama vowed to ratchet up pressure on Syrian leader Bashar Assad to step down, even as world powers remained divided over how to end the crisis. ...Nuland, State Department spokeswoman, said in a statement. "We, along with several other diplomatic missions, conveyed our security concerns to the Syrian government but the regime failed to respond adequately.  

Egyptians cancel meetings with U.S. lawmakers after aid warnings
An Egyptian military delegation abruptly cancelled its meetings with U.S. lawmakers to return to Cairo on Monday after warnings from both Congress and the White House that Egypt's crackdown on non-governmental groups could threaten its $1.3 billion in annual U.S. military aid. A spokesman for the Egyptian Embassy confirmed that the delegation had cancelled its meetings this week with U.S. lawmakers, but gave no reason.  

Catholic League Poised To Go To War With Obama Over Mandatory Birth Control Payments
Catholic leaders upped the ante Monday, threatening to challenge the Obama administration over a provision of the new health care law that would require all employers, including religious institutions, to pay for birth control. As CBS 2’s Marcia Kramer reports, it could affect the presidential elections.  

Syria crisis: Russia's Sergei Lavrov meets Assad
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov is in Syria for talks with President Bashar al-Assad amid a renewed government assault on rebel forces. Mr Lavrov was greeted by pro-Assad crowds as he arrived in Damascus. The visit comes after Russia and China vetoed a Western-backed UN resolution criticising the crackdown in Syria. Turkey has said it will start a new international initiative on Syria.  

Teams search for Philippine earthquake survivors
Rescue efforts are continuing after Monday's powerful earthquake in the central Philippines that left dozens of people dead or missing. Army teams were carrying out search operations, said Ver Neil Balaba, operations officer at the regional Office of Civil Defence, and police had been deployed to prevent looting. ''The most urgent needs now are water, tents and food,'' he said.  

Obama tightens US sanctions on Iran
US President Barack Obama has placed stricter sanctions on Iran's government, including its central bank. In an executive order, Mr Obama said he was freezing all Iranian government assets held or traded in the US. On Sunday, Mr Obama said the US and Israel were "in lockstep" in their policy towards Iran.  

EU to keep paying new Hamas-linked government
The EU has said it will keep on giving money to the Palestinian authorities despite their new deal with Hamas, an EU-designated terrorist group. Foreign relations spokesman Michael Mann said on Monday (6 February) that it's business as usual after the Palestinian Liberation Organisation (PLO) and Hamas in Qatar earlier the same day agreed to form a unity government.  

Tehran 'ready to impose oil ban' on Europeans
Iran's parliament said on Tuesday it was ready to impose a ban on oil exports to some European states, the country's English-language Press TV reported. "In retaliation to the Zionist (Israel)-backed measure of the European countries to ban Iran oil, we are ready to impose a ban on oil exports to some European countries," lawmaker Mohammad Javad Karimi-Qoddusi said.  

Turkey plans new int'l Syria initiative after UN 'fiasco'
Turkey is preparing a new initiative with those countries who oppose the Syrian government, Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan said on Tuesday, describing China's and Russia's veto of a UN resolution on Syria a "fiasco." "We are going to start a new initiative with those countries that stand by the people, not the Syrian government. We are preparing this," Erdogan told a meeting of his ruling AK Party in Ankara, giving no further details on the initiative.  

06 Feb 12

Self-Guided Bullet Hits Target a Mile Away
Sandia researchers have invented a dart-like, self-guided bullet for small-caliber, smooth-bore firearms that could hit laser-designated targets at distances of more than a mile (about 2,000 meters). The four-inch-long bullet has actuators that steer tiny fins that guide it to its target.  

U.S. Calls for International Syria Coalition
U.S. officials were quoted by AP as having said an alliance would work to further squeeze the Assad regime by stepping up sanctions against it, bringing disparate Syrian opposition groups inside and outside the country together, providing humanitarian relief for embattled Syrian communities and working to prevent an escalation of violence by monitoring arms sales.  

Fatah, Hamas agree: Abbas will interim Palestinian PM
Rival Palestinian factions Fatah and Hamas agreed at a meeting in Qatar on Monday to form a unified Palestinian government for the West Bank and Gaza headed by Palestinian Authority President and Fatah chief Mahmoud Abbas.  

Krauthammer: Leak indicates Israeli attack on Iran ‘certain’
“I think it’s fairly certain the Israelis are going to attack or you would not have had this leak, deliberately coming this week from secretary of Defense through David Ignatius of The [Washington] Post saying that he thinks there is a high likelihood Israel is going to attack, and then he went ahead and specified when. He said three months, April, May or June. And you don’t say that unless there is obviously indications from the Israelis that they are going to do this even if they get and they are getting a signal from the United States not to do it.”  

Semeru volcano (East Java, Indonesia): alert level raised to 3 due to an increase of activity
its alert level was raised to 3 (out of 4, "watch") on 3 February 2012, after it had been on level 2 since 16 July 2009. Only small to moderate eruptions had been occurring over most of the past year. Between 29 December and 15 January, 8 explosions were counted which produced ash clouds up to 600 m high. One explosion threw incandescent bombs to a distance of 300 m from the Jonggring Seloko crater.  

Magnitude 6.7 - NEGROS - CEBU REGION, PHILIPPINES
At least 43 people killed, 40 missing and 100 injured, many buildings damaged or destroyed.  

Magnitude 5 Earthquake Strikes Near Iran’s Bushehr Nuke Plant
The earthquake struck at 9:40 a.m. local time (06:10 GMT) on Sunday some 70 km (45 miles) southwest of Bushehr, with its epicenter registered at a depth of 10 km.  

New Birth ceremony with Torah disrespectful, Jewish leaders say
"He's a king. God has blessed him," said Rabbi Ralph Messer before covering Long in a scroll "[that] may still have the dust of Auschwitz and Birkenau." Messer referred to the Nazi extermination camps in Poland where millions of Jews were murdered during the Holocaust. A Torah's use in a ceremony ordaining Long as "a king" is offensive to many Jews, said Bill Nigut, Southeast Regional Director of the Anti-Defamation League.  

'Eshel will prepare perfect attack plan'
Referring to the possibility that Eshel would be the one overseeing an IAF military strike on Iranian nuclear facilities, the officer said: "He'll know how to prepare the forces in the most meticulous and perfect manner, and lay out all the possible scenarios and chances of success."  

Britain in deep freeze
Britain is under the spell of snow, ice and freezing temperatures and the prevailing condition may last through February. On Tuesday, people in parts of Britain woke up to lying snow of up to five inches while the coldest temperature of -8.6C was recorded overnight in north Yorkshire, the Daily Telegraph reported.  

Alarming number of US kids abused, hospitalised
An "alarming" 4,500-plus children subjected to abuse in the US ended up in hospitals and 300 of them died of injuries in a single year, a study reveals. Researchers from the Yale School of Medicine, led by John M. Leventhal, professor of paediatrics, used the 2006 Kids' Inpatient Database (KID) to estimate the incidence of hospitalizations due to serious physical abuse among children younger than 18 years.  

Netanyahu to travel to US in March
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu will visit the United States early next month to address the annual convention of the pro-Israel lobby AIPAC in Washington, his bureau announced on Sunday. The Prime Minister's bureau did not give further detail on whether Netanyahu will meet American officials during his visit.