Pakistani Christian Appealing Blasphemy Sentence Found Dead in Prison Cell

“A Christian man serving a life sentence for blasphemy has been found dead in his prison cell.

Qamar David had been awaiting appeal against his 2010 conviction but was found dead today in his cell in Karachi’s main prison.

Prison authorities have attributed David’s death to a heart attack but this has been called into question by church leaders and human rights activists who are calling for an independent autopsy.

Andrew Johnston, Advocacy Director of Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), said: ‘Given the threats known to be faced by blasphemy prisoners, it is imperative that the true cause of his death be investigated properly and independently.’

David had been in prison since being accused of committing blaspheming against the Prophet Muhammad in 2002.

News of his death has sparked particular concern, coming just two weeks after the assassination of Pakistan’s Minorities Minister Shahbaz Bhatti, an outspoken critic of the blasphemy laws.”  Read more.

Europe Must Stand Up to Islamism

But, but, but we need to be politically correct, we musn’t offend people that want to destroy our way of life and kill us!

“In the past few months, German Chancellor Angela Merkel, French President Nicolas Sarkozy, and British Prime Minister David Cameron have all firmly rejected the disaster that is multiculturalism. Europe is finally waking up to the threat posed by decades of policies which preached tolerance, yet bred the exact opposite: an intolerance by many immigrants, particularly Islamists, for the values of their new homelands.

A quick look at my own country, Norway, reveals how far radical Islamism has advanced. One year ago, about 3,000 men, many of them in long coats, ankle-high baggy pants and full beards gathered in Oslo’s University Square to condemn Western civilization and explicitly threaten a new 9/11 on Norwegian soil. Not insignificantly, they demonstrated on the very spot where the Nazi thug Vidkun Quisling and his odious followers held anti-Jewish rallies in the 1930s.

Meanwhile, Oslo University College has witnessed the birth of IslamNet, which over the past year has ballooned into Norway’s largest Muslim student organization and which, far from disguising its goal of a sharia-run Norway, broadcasts it loudly and proudly. Islamism also reared its head last year in the Paris of the North, the city of Troms, where a Muslim congregation planned to build a gigantic Saudi-funded mosque. It later emerged that a key figure in this construction project had gone to the Philippines for terrorist training.”  Read more.

Official: Japan’s Nuclear Situation Nearing Severity of Chernobyl

“(CNN) — The explosion Tuesday at Japan’s Fukushima Daiichi nuclear plant has elevated the situation there to a ‘serious accident’ on a level just below Chernobyl, a French nuclear official said, referring to an international scale that rates the severity of such incidents.

The International Nuclear and Radiological Event Scale — or INES — goes from Level 1, which indicates very little danger to the general population, to Level 7, a ‘major accident’ in which there’s been a large release of radioactive material and there will be widespread health and environmental effects.

‘It’s clear we are at Level 6, that’s to say we’re at a level in between what happened at Three Mile Island and Chernobyl,’ Andre-Claude Lacoste, president of France’s nuclear safety authority, told reporters Tuesday.”  Read more.

Think Tank: Fukushima Nuke Plant Situation Has ‘Worsened Considerably’

“The situation at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant in northeastern Japan ‘has worsened considerably,’ the Institute for Science and International Security said in a statement released Tuesday.

Referring to fresh explosions that occurred earlier in the day at the site and problems in a pool storing spent nuclear fuel rods, the Washington-based think tank said, ‘This accident can no longer be viewed as a level 4 on the International Nuclear and Radiological Events scale that ranks events from 1 to 7.’

Noting that a level 4 incident involves ‘only local radiological consequences,’ it said the ongoing crisis is ‘now closer to a level 6, and it may unfortunately reach a level 7’ — a worst case scenario with extensive health and environmental consequences.

‘The international community should increase assistance to Japan to both contain the emergency at the reactors and to address the wider contamination. We need to find a solution together,’ it said.”  Source.

Fire Erupts Again at Japanese Nuclear Plant

“The operator of Japan’s stricken Fukushima Dai-Ichi nuclear power plant says a fire has broken out again at its No. 4 reactor unit.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. spokesman Hajimi Motujuku says the blaze erupted early Wednesday in the outer housing of the reactor’s containment vessel. Fire fighters are trying to put out the flames. Japan’s nuclear safety agency also confirmed the fire, whose cause was not immediately known.

On Tuesday, a fire broke out in the reactor’s fuel storage pond – an area where used nuclear fuel is kept cool – causing radioactivity to be released into the atmosphere.”  Read more.

The Tiny Parasite That’s Decimating Bee Populations

“The mysterious disappearances of honey bees began in the fall of 2006 in Florida and spread. Beekeepers found their colonies suddenly empty, except for the queen and a few workers, with no traces of dead bees. In the years since it was named, colony collapse disorder (CCD) has continued to devastate the insects crucial to pollinating crops in North America.

Jerry Bromenshenk, a research professor at the University of Montana, and colleagues have linked vanishing colonies in North America with a virus-fungal tag team. The virus is insect iridescent virus, named for the effect it creates in infected tissues, and the fungi is Nosema ceranae, a microsporidian. In a study published in October 2010 in the journal PLoS ONE, the team described finding this combo in bees from failing colonies, and by testing both pathogens in bees, they found that together, they were more lethal than if they infected bees separately.” Read more.

IDF Seizes Freighter of Iranian Weapons Headed to Gaza

“The IDF seized a freighter ship with dozens of tons of weaponry from Iran headed for Hamas in the Gaza Strip on Tuesday.

The ship, known as Victoria, was flying a Liberian flag, and was seized by the navy in the Mediterranean Sea, 200 miles off of Israel’s coast.

The Victoria was boarded by commandos from the Israeli Navy’s Flotilla 13, also known as the Shayetet, arrived in the Ashdod port on Tuesday evening.

An initial inspection of the cargo revealed the ship was carrying weapons. The exact amount is to be determined.

The crew, questioned by the Navy Commando, was not aware that the cargo contained weaponry.” Read more.

Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood Doesn’t Want a Female or Non-Muslim President

‘Freedom and Justice’.  But only if you’re not a Christian, or a woman …

By Paul Marshall – “The respected Egyptian newpaper Al Masry Al Youm is reporting that, despite prevarications and previous hints to the contrary, a senior figure in the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood says that its new political party will maintain the position that neither a woman nor a Christian can be president of Egypt.

It reports that Saad al-Husseini, a member of the Brotherhood’s Guidance Bureau, its highest executive body, stated that while the ‘Freedom and Justice’ party’s new platform must still be approved by the Guidance Office and its Shura Council, it will adhere to the Ikhwan’s position on the presidency, which has been that a woman cannot hold final power over a man, nor a non-Muslim over a Muslim. Husseini added the confusing caveat that this ‘does not mean we impose this opinion on the people, who have inherent jurisdiction in this regard.’ This seems to mean that Egyptians may vote to have such a president, but that if the Brotherhood itself has the votes, it will not allow it.

The same paper also reports that the Brotherhood wants only small changes to the constitution and is pushing for a ‘yes’ vote in the March 19 referendum on proposed constitutional amendments, ones that still preserve a strong presidency. It is also describing the revolution begun on January 25 as an ‘Islamic revolution,’ saying: ‘The revolution’s slogans, such as ‘freedom,’ ‘social justice’ and ‘equality’ — all of these can be found in Islamic Law.'” Source – National Review Online.

Radiation Levels Soar, Panicked Residents Start to Flee Tokyo After Latest Nuclear Plant Blast

• Radiation leaking directly into the air from stricken Fukushima nuclear plant
• Power station has now suffered three reactor explosions and one fire
• Radiation levels up to ten times higher than normal in Tokyo
• Experts warn of cancer risk
• Stock markets in chaos as Nikkei plummets 10.5% in one day

Terrified residents began to flee Tokyo today as a nuclear power plant destroyed by the tsunami threatened to send a cloud of radioactive dust across Japan.

The Fukushima Dai-ichi plant suffered a third reactor explosion overnight and another reactor on the site caught fire.

Radiation levels are soaring across the country this afternoon as radioactive material is spewed directly into the atmosphere – while emergency crews fight to avoid a catastrophic meltdown.

Levels of radiation were 10 times normal in the capital today and continue to climb, as experts warned that Japanese could face an increased cancer risk even if the situation does not deteriorate.

The situation is worse for 140,000 people who live within an 18-mile exclusion zone around the plant. They were today ordered to stay indoors or be exposed to a dangerous level of radiation.  Read more.

Spent Nuke Fuel Pool May Be Boiling, Further Radiation Leak Feared

“A nuclear crisis at the quake-hit Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant deepened Tuesday as fresh explosions occurred at the site and its operator said water in a pool storing spent nuclear fuel rods may be boiling, an ominous sign for the release of high-level radioactive materials from the fuel.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. said the water level in the pool storing the spent fuel rods at its Fukushima No. 1 nuclear plant’s No. 4 reactor may have dropped, exposing the rods.

The firm said it has not yet confirmed the current water level or water temperature in the pool and will try to pour water into the facility from Wednesday through holes that were created following an explosion earlier Tuesday in the walls of the building that houses the reactor.

Unless the spent fuel rods are cooled down, they could be damaged and emit radioactive substances. The government’s Nuclear and Industrial Safety Agency urged TEPCO to inject water into the pool soon to prevent heating of the fuel rods.

TEPCO said Tuesday night that its workers were unable to remain in the central control room at the Fukushima No. 1 plant due to high radiation levels and retreated to a remote site to monitor data on the reactors.”  Read more.