Iran: The Spread of the Gospel Among Iranian Youth and Families Sparks Islamic Authorities to Increase Suppression of Christianity

“Despite the pressures and threats on one hand and the ban of printing and selling the gospels on the other hand, Christianity is increasingly spreading among the youth and families in Iran. The word of God is making its way into many Iranian homes.

Iranian Christian News Agency ‘Mohabatnews’ reports, that according to the article 13 of the Islamic Republic of Iran’s constitution, ‘Iranian Christians, Jews and Zoroastrian minorities are the only recognized religious minorities, who, within the limits of the law, are free to perform their religious rites and ceremonies, and to act according to their own canon in matters of personal affairs and religious education.’ Article 14 also states that ‘the government of the Islamic Republic of Iran and Muslim citizens are obligated to behave honorably towards non-Muslims and to interact with them with justice and good ethics and that they should honor their human rights.’

But it’s not like that in the real world. The freedom and good ethics described in books is replaced by threats, imprisonments, beatings and hangings for these minorities, especially Christians. The government does not tolerate these minorities nor does it give them the right to live without fear.

According to the news published by Mohabatnews on 14 March 2011, the office of Contraband Search and Seizure along with the Revolutionary Guards discovered two boxes, each containing 300 New Testaments in a routine border inspection of a bus, and after removing them from the bus, burned them.

The rapid growth of the Christian faith in Iran seems to have caused significant concern and even fear in the hearts of the leadership of the Islamic regime which has sparked increased suppression of Christians especially in the last year. After the Supreme Leader Ali Khameniei’s speech regarding the need to oppose and silence the home-based churches, a brutal and inhumane crackdown along with numerous arrests of Christians inside Iran has been witnessed. It is shameful to see the authorities show complete disregard for the sacred Scriptures of more than two billion Christians around the world, while burning those scriptures with disrespect.” Read more.

Flashback: Iran: Evangelical Christians are ‘corrupt and deviant, like the Taliban’ – “While we were busily preparing the second round of turkey, stuffed to satisfaction with seasonal excess, the homes of more than 70 Christians in Iran were invaded. In the early hours of 26th December, armed, plain-clothed, ‘special’ security officers forcefully entered the homes of Christians while they slept, and proceeded to abuse them verbally and physically. They were handcuffed and taken for interrogation. Among those arrested were five married couples. One couple was separated from their two-year old child. Another couple was forced to leave their baby still at the breast. A number of single young women were also among those taken.” Read more.

Japan Cities Face Growing Radioactive Ash, Troubles Ahead

By Kiyoshi Takenaka – (Reuters) – “In the Japanese city of Ohtawara, more than 100 km (62 miles) southwest of the crippled Fukushima nuclear plant, 400 tones of radioactive ash have piled up at a garbage incineration plant, which will run out of protected storage space in two weeks.

Further south, the city of Kashiwa has been forced to temporarily shut a high-tech incinerator because its advanced technology that minimizes the amount of ash produced has the side-effect of boosting the concentration of radiation.

Ohtawara and Kashiwa are just two of a growing number of municipalities across northern Japan that face similar problems after the Fukushima Daiichi atomic power plant, devastated by a huge March quake and tsunami, began spewing radiation into the atmosphere in the world’s worst nuclear accident in 25 years.

Although the government aims to bring the Fukushima crisis under control by December, researchers say that problems arising from the radiation, scattered over mountains, rivers and residential areas, are set to persist for years.” Read more.

Fukushima Government to Push Fukushima Rice in Restaurants and Schools – “Now that the rice from all districts and cities in Fukushima Prefecture are declared ‘safe’ (i.e. below the provisional safety limit of 500 becquerels/kg of radioactive cesium), the Fukushima prefectural government is gearing up for the PR campaign it plans to mount to promote Fukushima rice in restaurants and school lunches and to consumers in the Tokyo metropolitan area… The NHK article has an accompanying news clip, where you get to see how the ‘testing’ was done at the Fukushima prefectural government. A government worker is waving a scintillation meter over a plastic bag that contains a small amount of brown rice. He spends about 2 seconds at most for each bag. If you recall, waving a scintillation meter over the meat cow was how they were testing the meat for radiation at first. We know how that ended up.” Read more.

Radioactive roadside mud in Tokyo measured at 3.60 uSv/hr – “On 16 Oct., 2011, I measured radiation in MIZUMOTO PARK, in Katsushika ward, Tokyo, Japan. The monitoring place is only 15 km from the center of Tokyo, 220 km from Fukushima Daiichi Nuclear power plant. The monitor indicates 0.29 or 0.30 micro Sievert per hour in air at chest hight, 3.60 micro Sievert per hour at ground level, on roadside mud. Measuring instrument is made of Ukraine, ECOTEST MKS-05.” Source.

Ontario: Hundreds of Loons, Mallards, Grebes, Seagulls and Canada Geese Die in Georgian Bay, ‘Something is Occurring at the Bottom of the Lake’

By Kristen Smith – “COLLINGWOOD – The Ministry of Natural Resources is trying to figure out why fish and birds have been dying in south Georgian Bay.

The ministry started receive sporadic reports beginning in late August, but cases have increased in frequency and distribution in recent weeks.

The fish die-off includes channel fish, freshwater drum, carp, lake whitefish, and one largemouth drum. Wasaga Beach Provincial Park staff have disposed of about 120 dead sturgeon.

Ontario Ministry of Natural Resources spokesperson John Cooper says fresh samples have been sent to the University of Guelph to test for fish and bird diseases, including the Type E botulism toxin, which Cooper says is quite likely the cause.

‘It’s a naturally occurring event,’ said Cooper, adding little is known about the ecology of the bacteria which produces the botulism toxin.

‘Something is occurring at the bottom of the lake,’ said Cooper.

Georgian Triangle Anglers’ Association President Rick Baldry says its members have seen a number of fish, including sturgeon, floating on the water’s surface.

Baldry immediately suggested the cause could be Type E botulism, which is what the ministry says is typically the cause of these sort of die-offs.

He says even though there are plenty of fish and there is little concern it will affect anglers or the fishing industry, it matters: ‘Anything that upsets or disturbs the ecosystem matters.’

The bacterium naturally occurs as harmless spores in lake bottom sediment. Under certain conditions – rich nutrient source, lack of oxygen, and optimum temperature – the bacterium begins producing the toxin. It then enters the food chain, primarily affecting birds and fish.

More than 300 dead birds have also been reported to the ministry, including loons, mallards, grebes, gulls, and Canada geese.

Cooper says sturgeon, and other fish which swim and feed along the bottom, are most prone to contamination.

He also says dead sturgeon are most obvious because of their size and they float to the top when they are dead – other fish may be dying off unnoticed because some fish fall to the bottom.

Cooper says this many fish dying is not good, adding the numbers were much smaller last year.” Read more.

New England: Whales, Tuna and Even ‘Massive Amount of Birds’ Are Being Found Dead Along Shoreline As Mystery Continues to Surround Numerous Seal Deaths

By Charles McMahon – “Why are harbor seals dying in droves along the New England shoreline?

A definitive answer is not yet known, but theories ranging from algae blooms to Armageddon have begun to surface since the young seals began washing ashore in early September.

Other theories floated from community members over the last few weeks include questions of whether toxins from jelly fish stings, radiation from an unreported release of cooling water from the Seabrook nuclear power plant, or last year’s oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico could be to blame.

So far investigators from the New England Aquarium and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Association have ruled out only a handful of potential reasons for the spike in seal deaths.

The investigation, which began only weeks ago after numerous dead seals were found on various Seacoast beaches, has revealed approximately 94 seal carcasses have washed ashore since Sept. 1.

Mendy Garron, regional marine mammal stranding coordinator for NOAA, said the seals have been found on beaches from southern Maine to the North Shore of Massachusetts. Other animal species, such as whales and a bluefin tuna, have also washed ashore, said Garron, but not at the frequency of the young harbor seals.

Much like everyone else looking into the seal deaths, Garron said she’s not sure what the cause is just yet…

Inga Sidor, a senior veterinarian pathologist at the New Hampshire Veterinarian Diagnostic Lab and assistant clinical professor at UNH’s Department of Molecular, Cellular and Biomedical Sciences, said she has been following the event over the past few weeks. Sidor said the fact that not only seals, but whales, tuna and even birds, are being found dead along the shoreline is troublesome. ‘When you start to have more than one specific group that is affected, that is when the bell starts to go off,’ she said.

Sidor said she is primarily involved due to the massive amount of birds — namely seagulls — being found on beaches.

Having examined birds found this past week in Rye, Sidor said she is looking into the stomach contents of the dead birds and is conducting a toxin analysis similar to the tests being done on seals and whales. The birds examined had fish in their stomachs, which Sidor said means they were eating before they died.” Read more.

Dead German Satellite Will Fall to Earth This Week

By Denise Chow – “A defunct German satellite is expected to plunge to Earth this week, but exactly when and where the satellite will fall remains a mystery.

The massive German Roentgen Satellite, or ROSAT, is expected to plummet to Earth on Saturday or Sunday (Oct. 22 or 23), though German space officials have also offered a wider re-entry window of between Oct. 21 and Oct. 25. This latest falling satellite comes about a month after a dead NASA climate satellite, called the Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), plunged into the Pacific Ocean in late September.

The 2.4-ton X-ray space observatory is expected to break up as it travels through Earth’s atmosphere, but some large pieces will likely make it through the intense heat of re-entry. According to German aerospace officials, approximately 1.6 tons of satellite debris, consisting primarily of up to 30 large glass and ceramic fragments, could survive the journey through the atmosphere and reach the Earth’s surface.

‘We don’t expect big parts to re-enter, except the mirror and the glass and ceramic parts,’ Jan Woerner, head of the executive board of the Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt (DLR), Germany’s space agency, told SPACE.com. ‘Usually during re-entry, you have rather clear burning of all the elements, but glass and ceramics may survive and may come down in bigger pieces.’

There is a 1-in-2.000 chance a piece of ROSAT could strike someone on Earth, DLR officials have said. That’s a slightly higher risk than the 1-in-3,200 chance of a debris hit NASA gave for the UARS satellite fall.” Read more.

Cognitive Dissonance? Obama to Position Himself as Leader of ‘Occupy Wall Street’ Movement While Anti-Semitism and Communist Sympathies Taint Protests

By Yitzhak Benhorin – “Several anti-Semitic incidents have been reported during ‘Occupy Wall Street’ demonstrations in New York as Jews were blamed for the turmoil in America’s financial markets. In addition, anti-Israel signs were raised against ‘Israel’s occupation of Gaza’.

The ‘Emergency Committee for Israel’ has published a hard-to-watch clip in which Jews are attacked and blamed for the financial crisis and assistance to Israel. The committee is a neo-conservative body headed by William Kristol, the Jewish editor of the Weekly Standard, which aims to convince Jews to vote for a Republican presidential candidate.

It should be noted that the video is political in nature and seeks to tie President Obama and House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi to the protesters, urging them to ‘stand up to the mob’.

The White House, on its part, is trying to take advantage of the demonstrations against Wall Street while the anti-Obama camp is attempting to tie the protesters to the far Left and Israel’s enemies.

In the clip, a young demonstrator is seen arguing with an older Jewish man wearing a yarmulke. At one point, the young man says, ‘I work, earn seven dollars an hour. You have the money. You don’t speak English? You are from Israel? Go back to Israel.'” Read more.

Obama plans to hijack Occupy Wall Street – “President Obama and his team have decided to turn public anger at Wall Street into a central tenet of their reelection strategy. The move comes as the Occupy Wall Street protests gain momentum across the country and as polls show deep public distrust of the nation’s major financial institutions. And it sets up what strategists see as a potent line of attack against Republican front-runner Mitt Romney, a former investment executive whom Obama aides plan to portray as a wealthy Wall Street sympathizer.” Read more.

Obama: Martin Luther King Jr. would have backed ‘Occupy’ protests – “Drawing parallels between civil rights legend Martin Luther King Jr. and his own leadership challenges, President Obama on Sunday dedicated a memorial to King on the Mall by saying King would have sympathized with activists demanding social justice from Wall Street. ‘At this moment, when our politics appear so sharply polarized and faith in our institutions so greatly diminished, we need more than ever to take heed of Dr. King’s teachings,’ said Mr. Obama, who praised King’s belief in the ‘creative tension of nonviolent protests.'” Read more.

Communist Party U.S.A. Spokesman Gets Overwhelming Applause from Occupy Chicago – “Last night during the tent city construction at Occupy Chicago on Michigan Ave, John Bachtell, a spokesperson from the national board of the Communist Party U.S.A., addressed the angry mob of nearly 3000. He claimed to ‘bring greetings and support’ from the party, to the occupy movement. Bachtell received a very warm welcome and overwhelming applause form the ‘occupiers.’ ‘We will be with this movement… til we make all the changes that we know we have to make… This movement is part and parcel in the great tradition in this country of people powered democracy… This is the next big step of the democratic revolution in our country.’ – Bachtell said.” Read more.

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