Krugman Thinks China will CRASH

you were waiting for me to post something by the ass hat Krugman... well he wrote something interesting. not sure I agree with him (obviously he is like usual threatened by Capitalism, but this time that market is not in the West). Krugman is predicting that China will fall. I'm starting to believe that China is not something America should fear... if anything if China falls then we are in a lot of trouble. Same goes for Europe. The fact is that loans to poor people (even if they are blackmarket loans) are a really bad idea. The real solutions to America's problems are energy related. China depends on us to buy their goods. They need us to survive.

(NYTIMES) Consider the following picture: Recent growth has relied on a huge construction boom fueled by surging real estate prices, and exhibiting all the classic signs of a bubble. There was rapid growth in credit — with much of that growth taking place not through traditional banking but rather through unregulated “shadow banking” neither subject to government supervision nor backed by government guarantees. Now the bubble is bursting — and there are real reasons to fear financial and economic crisis.

Am I describing Japan at the end of the 1980s? Or am I describing America in 2007? I could be. But right now I’m talking about China, which is emerging as another danger spot in a world economy that really, really doesn’t need this right now.
I’ve been reluctant to weigh in on the Chinese situation, in part because it’s so hard to know what’s really happening. All economic statistics are best seen as a peculiarly boring form of science fiction, but China’s numbers are more fictional than most. I’d turn to real China experts for guidance, but no two experts seem to be telling the same story.
Still, even the official data are troubling — and recent news is sufficiently dramatic to ring alarm bells.
The most striking thing about the Chinese economy over the past decade was the way household consumption, although rising, lagged behind overall growth. At this point consumer spending is only about 35 percent of G.D.P., about half the level in the United States.
So who’s buying the goods and services China produces? Part of the answer is, well, we are: as the consumer share of the economy declined, China increasingly relied on trade surpluses to keep manufacturing afloat. But the bigger story from China’s point of view is investment spending, which has soared to almost half of G.D.P.
The obvious question is, with consumer demand relatively weak, what motivated all that investment? And the answer, to an important extent, is that it depended on an ever-inflating real estate bubble. Real estate investment has roughly doubled as a share of G.D.P. since 2000, accounting directly for more than half of the overall rise in investment. And surely much of the rest of the increase was from firms expanding to sell to the burgeoning construction industry.
Do we actually know that real estate was a bubble? It exhibited all the signs: not just rising prices, but also the kind of speculative fever all too familiar from our own experiences just a few years back — think coastal Florida.
And there was another parallel with U.S. experience: as credit boomed, much of it came not from banks but from an unsupervised, unprotected shadow banking system. There were huge differences in detail: shadow banking American style tended to involve prestigious Wall Street firms and complex financial instruments, while the Chinese version tends to run through underground banks and even pawnshops. Yet the consequences were similar: in China as in America a few years ago, the financial system may be much more vulnerable than data on conventional banking reveal.
Now the bubble is visibly bursting. How much damage will it do to the Chinese economy — and the world?
Some commentators say not to worry, that China has strong, smart leaders who will do whatever is necessary to cope with a downturn. Implied though not often stated is the thought that China can do what it takes because it doesn’t have to worry about democratic niceties.
To me, however, these sound like famous last words. After all, I remember very well getting similar assurances about Japan in the 1980s, where the brilliant bureaucrats at the Ministry of Finance supposedly had everything under control. And later, there were assurances that America would never, ever, repeat the mistakes that led to Japan’s lost decade — when we are, in reality, doing even worse than Japan did.
For what it’s worth, statements about economic policy from Chinese officials don’t strike me as being especially clear-headed. In particular, the way China has been lashing out at foreigners — among other things, imposing a punitive tariff on imports of U.S.-made autos that will do nothing to help its economy but will help poison trade relations — does not sound like a mature government that knows what it’s doing.
And anecdotal evidence suggests that while China’s government may not be constrained by rule of law, it is constrained by pervasive corruption, which means that what actually happens at the local level may bear little resemblance to what is ordered in Beijing.
I hope that I’m being needlessly alarmist here. But it’s impossible not to be worried: China’s story just sounds too much like the crack-ups we’ve already seen elsewhere. And a world economy already suffering from the mess in Europe really, really doesn’t need a new epicenter of crisis.

Tunisia's President Calls Jews to Return

(israelnationalnews.com)  ( h/t @TheJewess ) Tunisia’s newly elected president on Monday called the country’s Jewish population to return, The Associated Press reported.

During a meeting with the country’s Grand Rabbi Haim Bittan, President Moncef Marzouki said that Tunisia’s Jews are full citizens and those who had left the country were welcome to return.
Today, Tunisia has a Jewish population of 1,500 but in the 1960s there were 100,000 Jews in the country. Most left following the 1967 Six Day War.
Most Tunisian Jews now live on the resort island of Djerba, near the country’s border with Libya.
Marzouki’s remarks come in response to a call by Cabinet Minster and Vice Prime Minister Silvan Shalom for Tunisian Jews to move to Israel.
Shalom, who is of Tunisian origin and who made an official visit to the country in 2005, recently said that Jews in Tunisia should "settle in Israel as soon as possible.”
Shalom’s call was rejected by Muslim leaders in Tunisia. The Islamist Ennahda party, which recently won the country’s first post-Arab Spring election, said that “Tunisia remains, today and tomorrow, a democratic state that respects its citizens and looks after them regardless of their religion…. Members of the Jewish community in Tunisia are citizens enjoying all their rights and duties.”
The Islamic party said Shalom’s remarks were “irresponsible” and “irrational,” and it criticized the timing of his comments.

The Arab Spring just doesn't sound like a nice invite for those outside of the Islamic faith. Maybe in ten years or maybe never.

WMAL Exclusive: Cuba Actress Calls Sean Penn 'Communist A**hole,' He Cal...

(Patriot Update) Today I went to the airport to pick up my mom and guess who was on the same plane with her? Sean Penn… I almost died when I saw him, I was hesitant to go talk to him because he was on the other side of the carousel, but… God did want for this to happen.

Many suitcases did not arrive, my mom’s and Sean’s were nowhere to be found, so a lot of people went to the AA baggage claim desk along with about 50 more people. My mom was on a wheelchair and she entered first, we were on the right side of the desk, and Sean was on the left, so…. I could not take it anymore so I walked towards him, at first he did not recognize me (I had big glasses on) and smiled, but then he says “Oh, it’s you” and I told him, calmly, that I wanted to talk to him peacefully, but he was angry and told me that I have said a lot of things on the press and TV against him.

I told him that it was the truth, that how can he defend someone like Chavez? He then mentioned things my brother has been accused of (which are not true) and I just said, (and all of this was very loud with everybody listening…) YOU ARE A COMMUNIST! How can you like and defend Chavez and Ahmadinejad!?


He said he has never defended Ahmadinejad, and then he called me a PIG, and I answered and you are a Communist ass*%&$! You come from a communist background, your father was one and you were raised like a communist. He tells me that I have no idea who his father was or their background, I said, “Oh yes I do” (his father was blacklisted in Hollywood years ago and could not work because his political stance), I continue, and I stated to him, “how comfortable it is living the way you do being a communist…”


He responds, “you are harassing me.” I replied: “No, you are the one who called me a PIG, I just said you are a communist ass$%&*…. anyway, I walked away from him, towards my mom and from the other side of the counter, he yells something at me, which I don’t remember ’cause I was soooo angry!


And I shouted back to him, very loud, “AND YOU ARE A COMMUNIST ASS$%&*!… That was the end of it, he passed by me to leave and did not look at me or say another word. Maybe ’cause of my mom. So, what do you all think? I want everybody to know about this incident! Too bad my boyfriend was not with me and it was not filmed… well, now I feel great! And who knows? More to come…

via eye-on-the-world.blogspot.com

Dan Lungren questions Paul Stockton - Assistant Defense Secretary for Homeland Defense: Are we at war with violent Islamist extremism?

Watch the verbal acrobatics. Let's go to the videotape.

(Carl) On Wednesday, Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.) and Sen. Joseph Lieberman (I-Conn.) opened a hearing to examine the emerging threat to the military from homegrown terrorists within the U.S. and named the armed services as the "most sought-after" target for radical Islamist extremist groups. Rep. Dan Lungren (R.-Calif.) asked Paul Stockton, assistant defense secretary for homeland defense, whether "we are at war with violent Islamist extremism." Denial ain't just a river in Egypt.

The Nour Party - Egyptian Wahhabis Exploiting the 'Salafi' Mask

(Nour Party chairman tries to ease fears | Al-Masry Al-Youm: Today's News from Egypt - Emad Abdel Ghafour, the party’s chairman Photographed by Noha El-Hennawy)

(hudson-ny.org) The extreme Islamist "Nour Party" ["Party of the Light"], with 25% of the ballots, produced the biggest surprise of the first round of Egypt's parliamentary voting at the end of November. Its advance overshadowed, in media attention, the widely-anticipated 40% received by the Muslim Brotherhood. The Nour Party had formed a coalition, the "Democratic Alliance for Egypt," with the Brotherhood but withdrew from it in September. The Brotherhood and the Nour Party are now in bitter competition.

Commentaries, although reflecting shock in the Arab and international media on the Nour Party's rise, were predictable. The media have accommodated the Nour Party by referring to it under the party's preferred ideological banner as "Salafis," or by describing its supporters as "religious conservatives." The truth is different. The Nour Party embodies Wahhabism, the fanatical interpretation of Islam that is the sole official religious doctrine in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. The media have tiptoed around the authentic character of the Nour Party, with leading sources noting only that the Nour Party's program is derived from or influenced by Saudi Wahhabism. But the Nour Party reproduces Wahhabism – the ideology that inspired Osama Bin Laden – in its entirety.
The term "Salafi" refers to a Muslim who emulates the first three generations of Muhammad's companions and successors. Traditional Muslims and conscientious historians recognize the falsity of the Wahhabis masquerading as "Salafis." For moderate Muslims, comparing oneself to the pioneering figures in Islamic history is offensively arrogant. In addition, a "Salafi" reform movement existed in the 19^th century, but unlike the Wahhabi "Salafis," the 19^th century "Salafis," such as Muhammad Abduh (1849-1905), an Egyptian scholar and writer, were not violent and did not preach against the West.
The 19^th century "Salafis" sought to modernize Islam and adapt it to Western modes of thought. They also condemned spiritual Sufism, as do today's Wahhabi "Salafis." But unlike the recent Wahhabi "Salafis," the 19^th century group did not demand the right to expel Muslims from the global Islamic community over doctrinal differences, and then kill them as "apostates" – as the Wahhabi "Salafis" have been doing in Saudi Arabia, Algeria, Egypt, and Iraq, among other countries. The 19^th century "Salafi" reformers appealed to Muslims to imitate the personal integrity and dedication of the early Muslims, but did not seek to reinforce abuse of women, hatred of non-Muslims, or limitations on free thought. They, in fact, prized freedom of inquiry as an Islamic value.
Wahhabis know that Muslims hate and fear them for their terrorist acts and repressive practices in Saudi Arabia. Few Egyptians admire or to desire to live under a Saudi-Wahhabi system. That is why, with the complicity of Western media, the Egyptian Wahhabis have adopted the term "Salafi". But they should not be allowed to pretend that they are conservative imitators of the early Muslim generations when instead their views are radical.
There is no mistaking the Wahhabi foundation of the Nour Party's politics. Its male leaders and candidates affect the untrimmed beard cultivated by Wahhabis, in an alleged imitation of Muhammad. They claim to have a single real candidate: Muhammad. In an obvious mimicry of past Saudi-Wahhabi restrictions on women, the Nour Party relegated women candidates (whom Egyptian law required be included) to the bottom of their list to prevent any from being elected. The Nour Party's leader, Yasser Borhami, denounced participation by women in parliament as "corruption."
Nour Party representatives in Egypt have said they would reinstitute payment by all non-Muslims of the jizya tax, an obsolete Islamic practice that exists in no other Muslim country. Borhami has also called Egypt's Coptic Christian minority, who make up 10% of the population, "unbelievers." One prominent, if unsuccessful, Nour Party aspirant to office, Abdel Moneim Al-Shahat, referred to the writings of Egypt's Nobel Prize winning author, Naguib Mahfouz, as the "literature of prostitution." Al-Shahat, who appears frequently on television talk shows, appealed for the Pharaonic statues that are a part of Egypt's pre-Islamic cultural legacy to be covered with wax because they had, in the past, been worshipped as idols – the same attitude that impelled the Taliban to destroy the Bamiyan statues of Buddha in Afghanistan.
In addition to flattering the Nour Party by referring to it as "Salafi" or "conservative," the media have further softened the image of the Egyptian Wahhabis by labelling them "Puritan." This they are, but while "Puritan" has lost its edge as an item in Western religious history, Islamic Puritanism represents an exaggerated attempt to return to the world as it existed in Muhammad's time. Representatives of the Nour Party are vague when they discuss some of their most basic objectives, which include Shariah ["The Path:" Islamic religious law] as common law; gender segregation of unmarried or unrelated people; enforced full-body covering for women; promotion of "Islamic banking" as a leading economic institution, and a ban on alcohol among non-Muslims.
Except for Saudi Arabia, which supports a non-traditional, arbitrary form of Shariah as public law, and enclaves in Africa, Pakistan, and Indonesia, every Muslim country in the world has adopted Western canons of common law, and left the interpretation of Shariah as applicable exclusively to religious matters. Article 2 of the Egyptian Constitution now states that the "principal source of legislation by the state is Islamic jurisprudence (sharia)." This left space for the retention of non-religious law, since Islamic jurisprudence recognizes the validity of non-Islamic common law. A Shariah-state experiment in Sudan failed after the South Sudanese rejected it, and led to the division of the country. The current ruler of Sudan, Omar al-Bashir, has threatened to adopt something like Egypt's law, likewise defining Shariah as a "principal source" of legislation, although his government has not yet done so. The Nour Party would subject Egypt to an experiment in applying religious jurisprudence as the only, rather than the "principal," basis for law.
Whether family or inheritance law should follow universal standards, or Shariah guidelines that discriminate against women, is widely argued in the Muslim countries. Morocco, for example, in 2004 adopted a family code that: makes women equal heirs to property; bars marriage of women against their will; allows wives to prohibit their husbands from engaging in polygamy, and to divorce their husbands if they take a second wife; places divorce under secular, rather than religious authority, and makes domestic violence by men a basis for divorce by women. The recent electoral success of a Muslim Brotherhood local branch, the Justice and Development Party, may affect the status of this law, but it is unlikely given that the law is supported by the king, Mohammed VI.
From early in Islamic history, Muslim scholars have argued that Shariah was legitimate only in dealing with matters of religion, and that Islamic law could draw on existing, pre-Islamic law and custom. In addition, Muhammad called on Muslims who migrate to non-Muslim lands to accept the laws and customs of the countries to which they move. This pattern – Shariah as appropriate only to aspects of faith – dominated the Islamic world for almost a millennium, ever since the Mongols, who conquered Baghdad in 1258 CE, accepted Islam but refused to abandon their Mongol customary law. The same pattern was seen in the Ottoman Empire, which preserved its Turkish customary law. If the radicals of the Nour Party were to have their way, however, the basic law of Egypt, which is borrowed from French law, would be abolished.
Even Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah has eased the influence of extreme Wahhabis in the judiciary of his country. The Saudi monarch has reduced the financing of the infamous morals patrols or mutawiyin – often wrongly called the "morals police," but in reality a body of militia and volunteers. He also opened up opportunities for women to participate in professional and public life, although they are still not allowed to drive a car, travel, open a bank account, or see a doctor without the permission of a male relative or guardian. In reality, in rural areas, driving by women is common but overlooked.
The unmentioned factor in the emergence of the Nour Party has to do with its financing: Who provided funds for the organization of a new and expanding political party in Egypt? Before the election, Nour Party representatives discounted concerns by their Egyptian opponents that they were backed by Arabian Gulf states, which for decades had paid for Wahhabi "Salafi" mosques and networks of Islamic charities in Egypt. Kuwait and Qatar have been mentioned as backers of the Nour Party, but solid evidence is scarce. This is not surprising, as the Wahhabi "Salafis" are not known for transparency in their financing; to discover the source of Nour's backing still requires investigation. While the Saudis have been mentioned as a possible backer of the Nour Party, there is not yet any evidence to support that theory. The disconcerting gains of the Nour Party suggest that it has nevertheless benefitted from large financial donations, which might come from outside the country, or from political support from inside the existing Egyptian institutions, rather than because of a pure religious fervour animating a large pool of volunteers.
From a different perspective, on December 9, Time magazine quoted an Egyptian as saying, "I think the deal has already been made between the Islamists and SCAF [the Supreme Council of the Armed Forces, the Egyptian military that ousted Hosni Mubarak], and SCAF wants them in power," said Shadi al-Ghazaly Harb, a liberal young politician whose Awareness Party fared poorly. "I think SCAF wants to scare everyone with the Islamists — the Muslim Brotherhood and the Salafis — so that they will push an ex-military figure forward as the next presidential candidate. That will be the true end of the revolution."
One aspect of the appeal of the Egyptian Wahhabi "Salafi" movement – observed before, in the history of both the Muslim Brotherhood and radical Islamist groups in South Asia – was noted in the London Financial Times of December 9 by Borzou Daragahi: "Nour's educated and professional supporters and leaders tend to hail from modest backgrounds – recent arrivals to the middle class, perhaps bitter that their education or newfound wealth did not bring them the status that comes with lineage and connections."
Wahhabi "Salafi" Islam often reflects frustrated upward mobility and rising expectations, rather than desperation and poverty. The overeducated and underemployed in Egypt and elsewhere have no plan they think can resolve their problems, so they withdraw into an irrational fantasy of Muslim life in the past. This view is not conservative, but radical; it is dangerous for Egypt, for Islam, and for the world.

a few pictures of Socialism from the past #OWS

sometimes pictures speak better then words

NYT publishes "facts" too good to check (CAMERA)

(EOZ) Here's CAMERA showing yet again how lazy and credulous New York Times reporters are:

Leave it to the New York Times to simply take the word of any Palestinian who tells a tale of woe that puts Israel in a bad light; apparently such stories are simply too good to check. This time the occasion was the release of 550 Palestinian prisoners held by Israel, the second group of prisoners released as part of the deal freeing the abducted Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit.

Ethan Bronner’s report, Israel Frees Palestinians in 2nd Stage of Exchange, named only one of the Palestinian prisoners being released, Izzedine Abu Sneineh, who, readers are told, was arrested three years ago at the age of 15 for “throwing stones and hanging Palestinian flags from telephone poles.” Here is the full passage about the young miscreant:

Sarah Abu Sneineh came with her family to greet her grandson Izzedine Abu Sneineh, who was arrested three years ago at age 15 for throwing stones and hanging Palestinian flags from telephone poles.

“He was just a schoolkid when he was arrested,” she said as she waited for him outside the tomb of Yasir Arafat. “We want him to go back to school. Only education is the way forward.”

Now, as should be obvious to Bronner and his editors, if Israel really imprisoned Palestinian children merely for putting up flags or throwing stones, there would be tens of thousands of Palestinian children in Israeli jails, instead of less than two hundred. Whatever young Abu Sneineh did, it had to involve something much more serious than what Bronner reported.

In fact, it is not hard to find out what he did – the Israeli Prison Service on Dec. 14 published a full list of all the prisoners about to be released. The english press release on the IPS website states that:

The Ministry of Justice will operate an information center as of today and until the date of execution of the agreement, where information regarding prisoners on the list can be obtained ...

and also has a link to the prisoner list in English. Helpfully, the press release also includes the telephone numbers of the information center: 02-6466801/3/4. So all an enterprising reporter had to do was call one of those numbers to discover what the Palestinian teenager had been convicted of.

Now, the list in English includes the name, dates of birth and arrest, the length of the sentence and prisoner ID, but not the crime; the list in Hebrew is more complete and includes the crime also. (IMRA has all these links.)

So what do we learn from these lists? Az al-Din Shhada Akram Abu Snina, prisoner ID 855043360, was convicted and sentenced for “Weapons training; attempted murder” and possession of “weapons / ammo / explosives.”

So not throwing stones and hanging flags – attempted murder and possession of weapons, including ammunition and explosives.

Why did Bronner apparently just accept what he was told by Abu Sneineh’s grandmother? Why did he not bother to look up the lists on the IPS website, or to just make a phone call to find out exactly what Abu Sneineh’s crimes really were?

And why did the ludicrous claim that Israel imprisons children for years just for throwing stones and hanging flags ring true to Bronner? (Of course, throwing stones is one thing, seriously wounding someone by throwing stones is another matter entirely, and could well lead to a prison term.)

Whatever the answer to these questions, one thing is certain – the New York Times owes its readers a forthright correction that sets the record straight regarding the real nature of what Abu Sneineh did to earn himself a prison sentence.

And as bad as Bronner is here, rest assured that wire service reporters are even worse.

Even the BBC - regarded by the world as the gold standard in accurate reporting - did exactly the same thing during the last prisoner release.

They have a meme that has gotten stuck in their collective heads by years of Palestinian Arab lies. In this case, the meme is of a corrupt Jewish state wantonly arresting and imprisoning minors for years minor offenses.

Since that is what they truly believe, they do not bother to be skeptical when they are told this is what happened by people who are known to lie - like relatives of the prisoners.

Good reporters are trained to be skeptical. But when they have a re-existing bias, they will not show skepticism towards "facts" that fit that bias.

You can also be sure that the bias extends up the editorial food chain. Obviously no editor asked Bronner to do what any journalist out of school is trained to do - to verify the facts with the other side.

and here is a little extra hint to the NYTimes. if you don't speak or read Hebrew you can use Google translate!!!!! hey look... I just did it

עזאלדין אבו סנינה שחאדה אכרם
אימונים בנשק ; נסיון לרצח - פ.איבה ;
נשק/תחמושת/חומרי-נפץ

229 855 043 360 Azaldin Akram Abu Sneineh Shehadeh 20/08/2008 19/08/2013 05-00-0000 weapons training; attempted murder - P. Hostility; weapons / ammo / materials - explosives 

John Bolton: The best hour you will spend today

	Carl (Hat Tip: The Right Scoop) Here's an hour-long video with former US Ambassador to the United Nations John Bolton, who discusses at length his views on Israel and Iran, the UN and much more. The interview takes place in the Stephen Wise Synagogue in Los Angeles, and the interviewer is Rabbi David Woznica. Let's go to the videotape.

Egypt’s Islamic Extremists Claim Landslide Win

Israel news photo: Muslim Brotherhood

(israelnationalnews) Egypt’s two largest Islamic extremist parties claim they won nearly 70 percent of the votes in the second round of legislative elections. The Islamic parties won approximately 65 of the votes in the first round of elections last month.,

The complex elections call on eligible Egyptians to vote for party lists that will make up two-thirds of the parliament, while individual candidates run for the other third.
The Muslim Brotherhood, running under the euphemistic name Freedom and Justice, said it won 39 percent of the votes in the contest between parties. The Salafist Islam party, named Al-Nur, said it won more than 39 percent of the ballots.
There were no declared winners in the vote for individual candidates, who face a run-off on Wednesday.
The Muslim Brotherhood formerly was ordered off-limits to American officials before the fall of Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak earlier this year. Realizing that anti-American and anti-Israel party would likely be the dominant force in Egypt, the Obama administration decided to “engage” the Muslim Brotherhood, and the president even spoke optimistically about it.
However, the strong showing by the Salafists is another in a long line of “surprises” to the American government, which promoted Palestinian Authority legislative elections five years ago and ended up with the Hamas terrorist organization as the ruling party. Hamas was created by the Muslim Brotherhood.
Iran is thrilled with election results.
Mahmoud Ghazlan, a spokesman for the Muslim Brotherhood, told Iran’s semi-official Fars News Agency, "Cairo will never allow a continuation of the Gaza blockade,” referring to Israel’s maritime embargo on Hamas-controlled Gaza to prevent more terrorists and weapons from reaching Gaza.
“Ghazlan blasted the former Egyptian regime's silence over Israel's crimes against the innocent people of the Gaza Strip, and said the new regime in Cairo will certainly pick up a new approach towards Palestine and the Palestinian issue,” the Iranian news agency reported.

Thanks Liberals and Progressives! You Obama people are swell!

Egypt's Islamist Parties Claim Victory #israelnationalnews

(the current administration has a stake in referring to the Muslim Brotherhood as "moderate" and "largely secular,")

(h/t @TheJewess) (israelnationalnews.com)

Egypt’s two leading Islamist parties said on Sunday their parties have secured about three-quarters of votes cast in the second round of a parliamentary election, Reuters reported.
A source from the Muslim Brotherhood’s Freedom and Justice Party (FJP) told Reuters the party was on track to win about 40 percent of votes for party lists, based on results from most districts.
Meanwhile, a spokesman for the ultra-conservative Salafi al-Nour Party told the news agency its list received about 35 percent of votes.
The second round of the voting in Egypt was held last Thursday in Giza, Luxor, Aswan and Ismaila.
In last month’s first poll, the Muslim Brotherhood claimed victory, winning about 40 percent of the ballots.
The once-outlawed Islamists’ Freedom and Justice party had won 34 seats in runoff elections, while Al Nour garnered another five seats, according to the group’s website.
While an official breakdown of results for the list vote has yet to be announced, Reuters noted that both parties' predictions after the first round were broadly accurate.
The FJP source was quoted as having said the 40 percent estimate was based on counting completed in 11 of the 15 second-round constituencies where seats will be allocated by party lists.
The Muslim Brotherhood distanced itself from Al Nour after the first round, saying it is “a moderate and fair party.”
Al Nour advocates for a strict interpretation of Sharia, where the sexes are segregated and women must be veiled and are barred from driving.
Meanwhile on Sunday, Egyptians entered a third day of deadly clashes between protesters and government forces on a street close to Cairo's Tahrir Square.
At least 10 people have been killed and more than 440 people have been injured so far, according to Egyptian Health Ministry figures cited by the Associated Press, as protesters continue to demand the military hand over power to a civilian authority.
The clashes began late Thursday after military police stormed a sit-in camp that the protesters have held outside the Cabinet building for the past three weeks.

whoopy!

Palestinian children die as a result of PA boycott against Israel

(missingpeace.eu)(h/t LoveOfTheLand)

The Palestinian Center for Human Rights reported on December 4th that two Palestinian children, members of the same family, died recently as the result of a political decision by the Palestinian Ministry of Health.
On November 2nd The ministry issued a decision decreasing the transfer of seriously ill patients to Israel, citing the high cost of treatment in Israeli hospitals.
The measure has nothing to with finances however, but was the result of the long standing PA policy of boycotting Israel. (MORE)