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*I apologize for not posting the news over the past two days; my only excuse was/is that I was a bit "Under the weather".

Old Archer was kind enough to call me yesterday; and told me about China's latest ploy (with respects to the oil rich Mid East). A subject which I was (still am) unaware of. But it (that information) made me again aware. That no one person can cover all the threats facing us!

Alas, there are not enough hours in the day/night for me to scann it all....

Dutch







JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel says it is considering ways to allow Google Street View to photograph Israeli cities, despite concerns the popular service could be used to plot terror attacks.

An official statement says a team of Israeli Cabinet ministers instructed experts Monday to work with Google to find a safe way to implement the feature "as soon as possible."
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Jerusalem – Iran is projecting the long arm of its military by sending naval vessels to the Suez Canal in attempt to cross through to the Mediterranean for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution.

In an action deemed ''grave'' by an Israel already uneasy over the ouster of Egypt's Hosni Mubarak, two Iranian ships are set to traverse the canal Monday en route to Syria – an Iranian ally and Israeli enemy.

The step ratchets up tensions between the rival regional powers at a time of unprecedented turmoil in the area following revolutions in Tunisia and Egypt and mass protests in Yemen, Bahrain, and Libya. And while Israeli security specialists disagree on the severity of threat the ships pose to Israel, they agree that the move is part of Iran's efforts to project its clout at a time when the regional balance of power appears to be shifting its way.
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TEHRAN (AFP)
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei blasted "cancerous" Israel Monday, a day after its premier Benjamin Netanyahu denounced the planned passage of Iranian warships through the Suez Canal.

"The fake Zionist government is a cancerous tumor and the cause of different diseases and political, economic calamity in the region," the commander-in-chief of Iran told officials while marking the anniversary of the birth of the Prophet Mohammed which in the Shiite calendar fell on Monday.

"The arrogance (Iran's standard term of abuse for the United States) is doing its best to preserve this warmongering tumor, but today the hatred of regional nations towards this cancerous tumor is more evident," state television quoted him as saying.

Khamenei's remarks come as two Iranian warships are set to pass through the Suez Canal -- first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution -- which has raised concerns in arch-foe Israel.
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More than 1,000 Hizbullah terrorist army fighters have joined a huge Iranian police deployment to crush wide-scale protests that have at left at least two people dead and hundreds injured or arrested.
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Jittery Chinese authorities wary of any domestic dissent staged a show of force Sunday to squelch a mysterious online call for a "Jasmine Revolution," with only a handful of people joining protests apparently modeled on the pro-democracy demonstrations sweeping the Middle East.

Authorities detained activists, increased the number of police on the streets, disconnected some cell phone text messaging services and censored Internet postings about the call to stage protests in Beijing, Shanghai and 11 other major cities.

Police took at least three people away in Beijing, one of whom tried to place white jasmine flowers on a planter while hundreds of people milled about the protest gathering spot, outside a McDonald's on the capital's busiest shopping street. In Shanghai, police led away three people near the planned protest spot after they scuffled in an apparent bid to grab the attention of passers-by.

Many activists said they didn't know who was behind the campaign and weren't sure what to make of the call to protest, which first circulated Saturday on the U.S.-based Chinese-language news website Boxun.com.
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Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.c ... z1EbXogihH



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BEIJING, China – China left little question on Sunday about how it would react to the sort of protests that have swept through the Mideast and North Africa: It sent out vast forces of police that far outnumbered the small smatterings of protesters in Beijing and Shanghai.

On Saturday, Chinese micro-blogging sites and Twitter users began spreading a call for demonstrations at 2 p.m. on Sunday, organizing China’s own "Jasmine Revolution" on the heels of a wave of mass unrest that has felled the presidents of Egypt and Tunisia.

But China’s rulers, nearly 22 years since quashing the massive Tiananmen movement, are well-practiced in police control of messages, crowds and unwanted displays of discontent. Although the country sees tens of thousands of organic protests each year – over everything from pollution to illegal land seizures – rarely does one grow large or out-of-hand.

Several dozen people gathered in front of a McDonald’s at central Beijing Wangfujing shopping district (just down the street from Tiananmen Square) on Sunday just after 2 p.m., apparently ready to protest. They were easily and quickly outnumbered by hundreds of uniformed and plainclothes police surrounding and patrolling the district. Throngs of confused shoppers, seeing TV crews and foreign journalists, craned in for a better look at the scene.
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Police urge people to leave as they gather in front of a cinema that was a planned protest site in Shanghai.

'Irresponsible' Rakta charitraLearning Point Illumina at MDIDesi Food Galaxy

A day after China used force to squelch a mysterious online call for a "Jasmine Revolution", a media report here today claimed that Beijing's response to the call for protests inspired by pro-democracy demonstrations in the Middle East highlighted the country's "nervousness".



"The outsize government response highlighted China's nervousness at a time of spreading unrest in the Middle East aimed at overthrowing authoritarian governments," the New York Times reported.



The newspaper reported the words "Jasmine Revolution," borrowed from the successful Tunisian revolt, were blocked on sites similar to Twitter and on internet search engines.
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BEIJING (Reuters) - China's domestic security chief said the government must find new ways to defuse unrest, underscoring Beijing's anxiety about control even after police squashed weekend calls for gatherings inspired by Middle East uprisings.


A man is arrested by police after internet social networks called to join a "Jasmine Revolution" protest in downtown Shanghai February 20, 2011. (REUTERS/Carlos Barria)

Zhou Yongkang, the ruling Communist Party's top law-and-order official, told cadres they had to "adapt to new trends and imperatives in economic and social development", official newspapers reported on Monday.

"Strive to defuse conflicts and disputes while they are still embryonic," he told an official meeting on Sunday, the China Police Daily and other papers reported.

Over the weekend, Chinese police and censors showed the Communist Party has little to fear from protesters hoping to emulate the unrest that has swept the Middle East, unseating Egypt's long-time president, Hosni Mubarak, and now threatening Libyan strongman Muammar Gaddafi.

Police dispersed dozens of people who gathered in central Beijing and Shanghai on Sunday after calls spread on overseas Chinese websites urging "Jasmine Revolution" gatherings. The police and foreign reporters outnumbered aspiring participants and curious passers-by caught up in the crowd.
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(CBS/AP) ACAPULCO, Mexico - A spate of attacks on taxis in the Mexican resort city of Acapulco has left 12 taxi drivers or passengers dead, police said Sunday, just hours before the Mexican Open tennis tournament is scheduled to start.


Acapulco has been the scene of bloody drug cartel turf wars, and taxi drivers have often been targeted for extortion or recruited by the gangs to act as lookouts or transport drugs.


The organizers of the largest tennis tournament in Latin America said in a statement Sunday that the Mexican government has assured them that appropriate security measures have been taken for the event that starts Monday.


Police in Guerrero state, where Acapulco is located, said that four suspects had been detained in relation with some of the attacks. The suspects had guns, a grenade and a machete that police say may have been used to decapitate some of the victims.


The attacks began Friday, when five taxi drivers were found dead in or near their vehicles.


The slaughter continued Saturday, when a driver was found bound and shot to death near his taxi, and two others were found dead of bullet wounds inside their vehicles. One of the drivers had been beheaded.
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EL PASO, Texas -- Police in drug violence-plagued Ciudad Juarez, Mexico, say more than 50 people have been killed in a three-day span.

The El Paso Times reported Monday that the 53 victims, between Thursday and Saturday, included a police officer, a municipal patrolman and a state investigator.

A shootout Thursday in Juarez, across the border from El Paso, left a police officer and two alleged hit men dead. Chihuahua police identified the slain officer as Ricardo Torillo Sandoval
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An astonishing 40 people (at least) were murdered in drug-related killings in the Mexican city of Ciudad Juarez over the weekend, according to the office of the state attorney general.

Among the victims were a number of police officers and a state police investigator. Police also discovered a decapitated human head on the street.

Juarez, just over the border from El Paso, Texas, recorded more than 3,000 murders in 2010, making it Mexico's deadliest city.

Since 2007, an estimated 6,400 have been killed in the city to drug violence (in a city of less than 1.5-million).

A spokesman for the state attorney general office stated that the bulk of the weekend murders occurred on Friday (20) and Saturday (19).
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Read more: http://www.ibtimes.com/articles/114552/ ... z1Ebd9mDAP



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Israel National News is reporting a 5.9 quake at the mouth of the Suez this morning. 48 hrs before the Iranian Warships are due to pass...Things are starting to rock and roll :0

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The UN tribunal investigating the assassination of Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri has ruled that acts of terrorism can be prosecuted under international law. The decision will have far-reaching legal implications...

Genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity can already be prosecuted in an international court. Now terrorism is set to be added to the list of crimes which can be prosecuted under international law, thanks to a groundbreaking new court ruling.
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BEIRUT (AP) — U.S. Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman say Washington is watching to see whether Lebanon's future government will respect the findings of a U.N. tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The tribunal is widely expected to accuse Hezbollah members of involvement in the 2005 killing. The Shiite militant group and its allies walked out of the previous government after then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri — the slain man's son — refused to denounce the tribunal.
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BEIRUT (AP) - U.S. Senators John McCain and Joseph Lieberman say Washington is watching to see whether Lebanon's future government will respect the findings of a U.N. tribunal investigating the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafik Hariri.

The tribunal is widely expected to accuse Hezbollah members of involvement in the 2005 killing. The Shiite militant group and its allies walked out of the previous government after then-Prime Minister Saad Hariri- the slain man's son- refused to denounce the tribunal.
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