Indonesia’s top religious body has declared a premium coffee made from civet cat droppings fit for Muslims to drink.
The proclamation has brought relief to farmers who can now continue exporting Kopi Luwak, the world’s most expensive coffee.
The civet cats are found throughout Indonesia.
In parts of Sri Lanka, civets are considered a nuisance since they howl throughout the night and litter the attics and rooftops of common households.
But their excretions provide the mainstay of income for many Indonesian farmers and peasants.
The civets eat coffee berries which they defecate in clumps for harvesters to collect. The fecal material is dried in the sun and packaged for consumers.
In the United States, the price of a pound of Kopi Luwak varies from $600 to $1,400 per pound.
PARIS – France’s former top counterterrorism judge says in an interview that the Turkish Islamic charity that organized the ill-fated relief flotilla for Gaza had “clear, long-standing ties to terrorism and jihad.”
Jean-Louis Bruguiere has told The Associated Press that the Istanbul-based Foundation for Human Rights and Freedoms and Humanitarian Relief, known by its Turkish acronym IHH, had a role in the thwarted plot to bomb Los Angeles International Airport in 1999.
Bruguiere who now heads a EU program to track terror financing said Wednesday that IHH leaders “were basically helping al-Qaida when (Osama) bin Laden started to want to target U.S. soil.”
Three Israeli naval craft left a Haifa naval base just after 9 pm and approached the “Freedom Flotilla” after dark on Sunday, according to the Twitter page of Free Gaza, one organization participating in the flotilla.
Two hours later, Israel Radio broadcast a recording of one of the missile boats warning the flotilla, which is carrying humanitarian aid and pro-Palestinian activists, not to approach Gaza.
“If you ignore this order and enter the blockaded area, the Israeli navy will be forced to take all the necessary measures in order to enforce this blockade,” the radio message continued.
One tweet at about 11 pm said, “We didn’t expect them now,” adding that the participants thought Israeli forces would arrive Monday morning.
This is a help message,” said one post from the flotilla on the Free Gaza website. “We have been contacted by the Israelis but are still fine, don’t worry.”
“The signals are going up and down,” the website said. “Israel is doing its best to block the satellite.”
The six-ship convoy carrying aid for Palestinians set sail for Gaza in defiance of an Israeli-led blockade of the impoverished territory and warnings that it would be intercepted. The ships, led by a Turkish vessel with 600 people on board, departed from international waters off Cyprus on Sunday afternoon.
Sources in Gaza said some vessels have lost contact with one another, adding that Israeli Navy vessels have begun to call on the boats to identify themselves.
The IDF said naval forces radioed the ships, but were ignored. The army said if the vessels continue to ignore their instructions, forces will begin the process of seizing them.
“If all goes well and there are no problems or interruptions of any kind it should reach Gaza around 2 pm local time tomorrow (Monday),” said Mary Hughes-Thompson, a spokeswoman for the Free Gaza Movement, one of the organizers of the convoy.
Israel has already said it will prevent the convoy from reaching the Hamas-run Gaza Strip, a sliver of territory which Israel has blockaded for three years to prevent weapons and other materials it fears could be used for military purposes from reaching the enclave’s Islamist rulers.
Hamas has been preparing to receive the convoy at the small harbor in Gaza City. But Israeli marine commandos have held drills to practice boarding and searching the ships.
A Shiite Muslim with ties to Hezbollah became Miss USA last night at the Planet Hollywood Resort and Casino in Las Vegas.
Rima Fakih of Dearborn, Michigan beat out 50 other women to capture the crown, despite nearly stumbling over her evening gown and falling into the audience.
The Miss USA pageant started in 1952 as a local bathing suit competition in Long Beach, California.
The pageant is now owned by Donald Trump.
Miss Fakih was born in the Hezbollah stronghold of Srifa in southern Lebanon.
She and her family migrated to Michigan in 2003.
In addition to being the first Muslim woman to wear the crown, Miss Fakih is also the first immigrant to serve as Miss USA. No mention of this fact was made by Mr. Trump or the other pageant officials.
According to noted journalist Debbie Schlussel, Miss Fakih’s relatives in Lebanon remain top Hezbollah officials. Hezbollah was the first Islamic group to adopt tactical suicide bombings, assassinations, and kidnappings as standard techniques in waging asymmetrical warfare.
In 1995, Hezbollah united with al Qaeda at a terrorist conference in Tehran, Iran.
That same year, Imad Mugniyah, the leader of Hezbollah, became instrumental in establishing al Qaeda cells in South America.
Twenty years ago, Hezbollah hijacked TWA Flight 847 and trampled Navy diver Robert Stethem to death for being an American.
The new Miss USA made no mention of Islam or Hezbollah in accepting the crown.
Here we have a fellow leaving for work. While he is away, someone enters his apartment.
The reason we have this intrusion captured on video, is because the resident suspected his apartment was being invaded on a regular basis…for over one year. After installing a surveillance system, it was only a matter of days before an intruder was caught on video.
In 1997, an Israeli woman named Tatiana Soskin drew this caricature of Mohammed as a pig authoring the Koran and tried to display it in public in the city of Hebron. She was arrested, tried and sentenced to jail.
About 3,000 people protested in Oslo on Friday over the printing of a caricature of the Prophet Mohammad as a pig by a Norwegian newspaper.
Demonstrators held up signs reading “We are Muslims, not terrorists” and “Stop denigrating Muslims.
The Dagbladet tabloid printed on Feb. 3 a cartoon drawing of Prophet Mohammed portrayed as a pig, his feet on the Koran.
The drawing was to illustrate an article about the Facebook page of the Norwegian police security service (PST) that contains a link to the cartoon, judged offensive by many Muslims.
The link was posted on the Facebook page by a user but removed, along with other comments deemed offensive, as soon as the police service became aware of it.
Norwegian media reported that Dagbladet had been manipulated by a man named Arfan Bhatti, whom police say is known to have shot at an Oslo synagogue in 2006.
Bhatti allegedly informed Dagbladet of the link on PST’s Facebook page and then called for a protest when the newspaper ran the story with the illustration in question.
