US: Drought Spreads Its Pain Across 14 States

By KIM SEVERSON and KIRK JOHNSON – “COLQUITT, Ga. — The heat and the drought are so bad in this southwest corner of Georgia that hogs can barely eat. Corn, a lucrative crop with a notorious thirst, is burning up in fields. Cotton plants are too weak to punch through soil so dry it might as well be pavement.

Farmers with the money and equipment to irrigate are running wells dry in the unseasonably early and particularly brutal national drought that some say could rival the Dust Bowl days.

‘It’s horrible so far,’ said Mike Newberry, a Georgia farmer who is trying grow cotton, corn and peanuts on a thousand acres. ‘There is no description for what we’ve been through since we started planting corn in March.’

The pain has spread across 14 states, from Florida, where severe water restrictions are in place, to Arizona, where ranchers could be forced to sell off entire herds of cattle because they simply can’t feed them.

In Texas, where the drought is the worst, virtually no part of the state has been untouched. City dwellers and ranchers have been tormented by excessive heat and high winds. As they have been in the southwest, wildfires are chewing through millions of acres.” Read more.

The Crescent or the Cross: ‘The Judeo-Christian Origins of Islam’ Part 1 – 6

Even Walid Shoebat, himself a former Muslim, has described Islam as a ‘Christian cult’.  The Judeo-Christian origins of Islam are undeniable.  This Beast, which has its roots within the ‘ekklesia’ of God, has subsequently positioned itself not only against the Christ of the Bible, but also in place of Christ and the true ‘ekklesia’ of YHWH.  It effectually stands itself up and positions itself as the true spiritual Temple of God, when in reality it is its antithesis.  And now some ‘churches’ are beginning to take this apostasy to a whole new level …

By Ibn Warraq Part 1 – “As Patricia Crone once put it, ‘new religions do not spring fully fledged from the heads of prophets, old civilizations are not conjured away.’ Islam did not somehow emerge fully developed, as the Islamic traditional accounts would have us believe, but slowly, over a long period of time, as the Arab conquerors came into contact with the far older cultures and civilizations, which pushed the Arabs to question and forge their own religious and cultural identity. Ever since the Nineteenth Century, when Western scholars, especially German, but also Italian, French, Hungarian, and British, began to examine Islam and the Koran in the same manner that they had begun examining the Old and New Testament, the debate has been as to determine whether it was Judaism or Christianity that contributed most to the creation of Islam. As Richard Bell, in his The Origin of Islam in Its Christian Environment [Edinburgh, 1925], expressed it, ‘That both Judaism and Christianity played a part in forming the doctrine of Islam and in preparing the spiritual soil of Arabia for its reception has long been recognised. How much influence is to be attributed to the one, and how much to the other, is difficult to decide. For much is common to both, and we have to remember that there were many forms of Christianity intermediate between the orthodox Church of the seventh century and the Judaism out of which it sprang, and it was in the East, on the confines of Arabia, that we know these Judaistic forms of Christianity to have longest maintained themselves. Some things in the Qur’an and in Islam which appear specially Jewish, may really have come through nominally Christian channels. But even with that allowance there is no doubt about the large influence exercised by Judaism.'” Read more.

Jihad Watch links: Part 1 here; part 2 here; part 3 here; part 4 here; part 5 here; part 6 here; part 7 here; part 8 here; part 9 here; part 10 here.

Magnitude 6.4 Earthquake Shakes the Philippines

Richter Magnitude 6.4 – NEGROS, PHILIPPINES
Tuesday, July 12, 2011 at 04:47:04 AM
9.504°N, 122.211°E
Depth:  20.1 km (12.5 miles)

“The USGS said the quake occurred at 0647 AEST, 125 kilometres west of Negros, at a depth of 19 kilometres, having initially measured the quake at a magnitude of 6.6.

The Philippines sits on the Pacific Ring of Fire — a belt around the Pacific Ocean dotted by active volcanoes and tectonic trenches, where frequent eruptions and earthquakes take place.

Citizens have been nervous about a potential killer quake following the devastating tremors that have hit Japan and New Zealand this year.

One fault line runs directly under Manila, and government seismologists have warned that the city is unprepared for a major quake.” Read more.

India: At Lease 50 Cows and Buffaloes Killed by Mysterious Disease in Senapati District, Manipur

“Imphal, July 11 (NNN): A mysterious animal disease which broke out less than two weeks ago in Senapati district in Manipur has reportedly claimed more than fifty cows and buffaloes, said a source.

The epidemic continues to claim the lives of about 6-7 animals in and around Makhan village in Tadubi block of Senapati district, a villager informed Newmai News Network today while adding that the symptoms of the mysterious animal disease include excessive urinating and saliva. Animals that show signs of infection and symptom do not live for more than three days, he added.

The villagers are aggrieved that despite complaints being made before Maram and Senapati vet departments no one from the departments has turned up quoting lack of medicine and equipment to handle such eventuality.

The villagers of the areas and its vicinity have appealed to concerned authorities and departments and other concern agencies, societies, companies and individuals who might be able to help in reversing the situation. The villagers also feared that the disease might be transferable onto human if not addressed forthwith.” Source.

Chile’s Puyehue Volcano Grounds More Flights in Uruguay and Argentina as Eruption Continues

“Clouds of ash spewing from Chile’s Puyehue volcano have grounded flights at airports in the capitals of Uruguay and Argentina, where a major football tournament is being held.

Scores of local and international flights were delayed or cancelled in and out of Buenos Aires, regional airport authority Aeropuertos Argentina 2000 said on its web page.

The Puyehue has been causing air travel mayhem since it rumbled back to life on June 4 for the first time in five decades, belching into the air a huge volume of dust and ash.

Flights across South America – including hubs in Montevideo, Chile’s capital city Santiago and southern Brazil – have been hard hit as ash clouds swept around the southern hemisphere to linger over Australia and New Zealand.

The flight disruptions on Friday wreaked havoc for football fans arriving in Argentina for the July 1-24 Copa America competition, which has been drawing thousands of supporters. The regional tournament is being played in several Argentine cities.” Read more.

Indonesia’s Mount Lokon Volcano Alert Raised To Highest Level After Weekend Eruptions, Hundreds to be Evacuated

“INDONESIA will evacuate hundreds of people living near Mount Lokon on Sulawesi island after raising the volcano’s alert status to the highest level.

‘We raised the volcano’s status to the highest red alert level last night,’ government volcanologist Kristianto told AFP.

‘There was a significant rise in volcanic activity since July 9. The volcano spewed ash 500m into the air over the weekend

Today we will be evacuating people living within a 3.5km radius around the volcano as a precautionary measure, in case of a bigger eruption which may be accompanied by deadly searing gas.’

Around 28,000 people live within the evacuation zone but only ‘hundreds’ will be moved today, those in the path of the ash, as officials continue to monitor volcanic activity, disaster management agency spokesman Sutopo Purwo Nugroho said.” Read more.

Scientists Alarmed by Discovery of a Completely New Antibiotic-Resistant Gonorrhea Strain

“A team of researchers announced Monday it has discovered a completely new strain of gonorrhea that is resistant to all currently available antibiotics.

The international research team has dubbed the superbug strain of Neisseria gonorrhoeae H041. They say the strain could transform gonorrhea from what was once an easily treatable sexually transmitted infection into a serious public health threat.

‘This is both an alarming and a predictable discovery’ said Swedish researcher Dr. Magnus Unemo of the Swedish Reference Laboratory for Pathogenic Neisseria in a statement.

He and his team announced the discovery Monday, at the International Society for Sexually Transmitted Disease Research conference in Quebec City.

The researchers say H041 is highly resistant to cephalosporin antibiotics — the only class of drugs that are still effective in killing off gonorrhea bacteria, analysis shows.

Unemo says the development of a fully resistant strain was predictable because gonorrhea has shown a remarkable ability to adapt.

‘Since antibiotics became the standard treatment for gonorrhea in the 1940s, this bacterium has shown a remarkable capacity to develop resistance mechanisms to all drugs introduced to control it,’ said Unemo.” Read more.

Canada Rejects Palestinian Statehood Bid at UN

Canada again reiterates its support of Israel.  Viva la Canada!

“Canada is rejecting a Palestinian effort to win recognition at the United Nations as an independent state.

The move is not surprising given that the Harper government has forcefully highlighted its loyalty to Israel and the United States. Both oppose the Palestinian initiative.

The Palestinian Authority, which controls most of the West Bank, launched a campaign last month that will see it pursue a vote on statehood at the United Nations General Assembly in September — an effort borne out of its frustration over a peace process that is stalled.

The top Palestinian diplomat in Canada says her official delegation will still push hard for the support of Ottawa.

‘On the conflict, we would like to see the Canadian government taking a neutral stand, supporting the creation of the state of Palestine, supporting the recognition of Palestine as a full member state in the UN in September,’ Linda Sobeh Ali, head of the Palestinian delegation, told The Canadian Press.

Sobeh Ali also said her delegation is pushing Canada to recognize Israel’s pre-1967 borders — something Prime Minister Stephen Harper forcefully opposed, and managed to block from being part of the final communique of G8 leaders at their recent May summit in France.” Read more.