New Zealand’s ‘Miss Universe’ winner may lose title over lack of citizenship

(yahoo) New Zealand's Miss Universe winner Avianca Bohm (Facebook)The winner of 2012's New Zealand's "Miss Universe" contest may have her title stripped just days after earning the right to represent her adopted country in the international beauty pageant.

The New Zealand Herald reports that 22-year-old Avianca Bohn is not actually a citizen of the country. In fact, Bohn was born in South Africa and immigrated to New Zealand when she was 16.
Bohn is lobbying for her citizenship to be fast-tracked, allowing her to still compete in the competition this December.
In a somewhat ironic twist, Donald Trump, who has generated headlines and criticism by repeatedly questioning the citizenship of President Barack Obama, hosts the Miss Universe pageant.
"Everyone's got contacts, and it's one of the first things that we're going to do and sort out," she told the paper. "It's just the paperwork. I mean New Zealand is such a multicultural country. It's not an issue to me at all, I'm not even worried about that."

if those be the rules she can be Miss Universe in my bedroom. Obama can't though

Norway goes secular, removes Lutheran Church as state religion... but we all know why the real reason is

..and you can bet their attempt to secularize the state will be used to go after a Jewish refuge from such places as Norway. Complete Hypocrisy. I smell these bigots a mile away. Typical of locations of Leftism to hold others accountable for a policy that you had yesterday. You can expect Norway to merge close with Islam as it holds it's noses at states that have religion. The real freedom would come from a diversity of options, but you know Norway has no intent to actually liberate it's people.

Fabrizio Bensch/Reuters files

“No more state religion for you!”
However, Norway's King Harald and Queen Sonja are still required to belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

(National Post) OSLO – Norway, which is one of few developed countries to still have a state religion, passed a final hurdle Thursday to separate the Protestant Lutheran Church from the state, parliament said.

The move, which requires changes to Norway’s constitution, was approved by parliament a second time Thursday, in what was a formality after lawmakers voted through with overwhelming support on Monday, with 161 votes in favour and just three opposing votes.
When parliamentarians were asked to confirm that result on Thursday, “no one was opposed,” parliament spokesman Torodd Noreng told AFP, pointing out that this meant the initial vote was confirmed and parliament would begin making the necessary changes to the constitution.
The change will officially come into effect on June 15, Noreng said.

AFP/Getty Images files

Everyone in Norway seems to be happy with the new arrangement.

“The Evangelical Lutheran religion will no longer be the state’s official religion,” parliament wrote in a statement, pointing out that the church would receive public financing “on par with other religious and belief-based societies.”
It stressed though that “the Norwegian Church will continue to have a special basis in the constitution and the state will be built upon ‘our Christian and humanistic heritage’.”
The Norwegian Church, which supported the change, counts nearly four million of Norway’s 4.7 million inhabitants as members.
In practice, the change will give the Church the authority to name its own bishops and deans, without having to bow to the government’s final say on such issues, as the situation stands today.
The current requirement for at least half of all government ministers to be members of the Church will also be scrapped, and even the minister of church affairs will no longer need to belong to the church.
The royal family will however still be required to belong to the Evangelical Lutheran Church.

5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion.

(other)5 Million Farmers Sue Monsanto for $7.7 Billion.(By Anthony Gucciardi) Launching a lawsuit against the very company that is responsible for a farmer suicide every 30 minutes, 5 million farmers are now suing Monsanto for as much as 6.2 billion euros (around 7.7 billion US dollars). The reason? As with many other cases, such as the ones that led certain farming regions to be known as the ‘suicide belt’, Monsanto has been reportedly taxing the farmers to financial shambles with ridiculous royalty charges. The farmers state that Monsanto has been unfairly gathering exorbitant profits each year on a global scale from “renewal” seed harvests, which are crops planted using seed from the previous year’s harvest.
The practice of using renewal seeds dates back to ancient times, but Monsanto seeks to collect massive royalties and put an end to the practice. Why? Because Monsanto owns the very patent to the genetically modified seed, and is charging the farmers not only for the original crops, but the later harvests as well. Eventually, the royalties compound and many farmers begin to struggle with even keeping their farm afloat. It is for this reason that India slammed Monsanto with groundbreaking ‘biopiracy’ charges in an effort to stop Monsanto from ‘patenting life’.
Jane Berwanger, a lawyer for the farmers who went on record regarding the case, told the Associated Press:
“Monsanto gets paid when it sell the seeds. The law gives producers the right to multiply the seeds they buy and nowhere in the world is there a requirement to pay (again). Producers are in effect paying a private tax on production.”
The findings echo what thousands of farmers have experienced in particularly poor nations, where many of the farmers are unable to stand up to Monsanto. Back in 2008, the Daily Mail covered what is known as the ‘GM Genocide’, which is responsible for taking the lives of over 17,683 Indian farmers in 2009 alone. After finding that their harvests were failing and they began to enter economic turmoil, the farmers began ending their own lives — oftentimes drinking the very same insecticide that Monsanto provided them with.
As the information continues to surface on Monsanto’s crimes, further lawsuits will begin to take effect. After it was ousted in January that Monsanto was running illegal ‘slave-like’ working rings, more individuals became aware of just how seriously Monsanto seems to disregard their workers — so why would they care for the health of their consumers? In April, another group of farmers sued Monsanto for ‘knowingly poisoning’ workers and causing ‘devastating birth defects’.
Will endless lawsuits from millions of seriously affected individuals will be the end of Monsanto?Read the full story here.

awful

Russia Has World’s Largest Nuke Arsenal

Missiles

(Reuters)

(Israel National News)Russia, which is helping Iran develop nuclear power, has more nuclear warheads than any country in the world, according to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute’s annual report released Monday.

Worldwide, there are an estimated 19,000 nuclear warheads held by eight countries. The list of countries includes Israel, which the Institute estimates has 80 nuclear warheads. Israel officially has a policy of “nuclear ambiguity” but is assumed by most everyone to have manufactured nuclear warheads. Previous estimates have been around 200.
The United States has the second largest nuclear arsenal, with 8,000 nuclear warheads. Both superpowers possess more than 90 percent of the worlds nuclear weapons, France is estimated to possess 300, followed by China with 240, Britain with 225, and India and Pakistan with around 100 each.
The United States and Russia each have reduced their number of warheads by approximately 6 and 10 percent respectively.(MORE)

good fact to know

Secret Mission Accomplished: America’s Mysterious Space Plane To Land After A Year In Orbit

Secret Mission Accomplished: America’s Mysterious Space Plane To Land After A Year In Orbit

Excerpted from The Guardian: The U.S Air Force’s highly secret unmanned space plane will land in June – ending a year-long mission in orbit.
The experimental Boeing X37-B has been circling Earth at 17,000 miles per hour and was due to land in California in December. It is now expected to land in mid to late June.
At launch, the space plane was accompanied by staff in biohazard suits, leading to speculation that there were radioactive components on board.

The men and women of Team Vandenberg are ready to execute safe landing operations anytime and at a moment’s notice,’ said Colonel Nina Armagno of the U.S. Air Force’s Space Wing.
The plane resembles a mini space shuttle and is the second to fly in space.
It was meant to land in March, but the mission of the X-37B orbital test vehicle was extended – for unknown reasons.
The first one landed last December at Vandenberg Air Force Base in California after more than seven months in orbit.
The 29-foot, solar-powered craft had an original mission of 270 days.
The Air Force said the second mission was to further test the technology but the ultimate purpose has largely remained a mystery.
The vehicle’s systems program director, Lieutenant-colonel Tom McIntyre, told the Los Angeles Times in December: ‘We initially planned for a nine-month mission. Keeping the X-37 in orbit will provide us with additional experimentation opportunities and allow us to extract the maximum value out of the mission.’
Keep reading…

via patdollard.com

Palestinians honor dead terrorists—Stephen M. Flatow

Dalal Mughrabi,

(NYPost) As a “goodwill gesture,” Israel last week returned the remains of 91 Palestinian suicide bombers and other terrorists. The Palestinian Authority responded by holding a “national rally” to glorify the “martyrs” and will bury them with “full military honors.”
I know, I know — sounds like the same old news from the Middle East: Israelis making one-sided concessions, Palestinians heaping praise on murderers. For most, it’s probably getting a little boring.
Not for our family. For us, it’s personal.
On April 9, 1995, a Palestinian suicide bomber attacked an Israeli bus, murdering eight passengers — including my daughter Alisa, a 20-year-old Brandeis University student visiting Israel.

AP

Dalal Mughrabi,

The killer’s body is one of those that the Palestinian Authority just got back, with “full military honors” to come.
But this is more than salt in the wounds of the Flatow family. How the Palestinians treat terrorists is the ultimate measure of their intentions toward Israel.
If the Palestinians have truly given up violence and the goal of destroying Israel, they should be treating terrorists as every civilized society does: by repudiating them, disarming them, imprisoning them and teaching their schoolchildren that terrorists are evil.
Instead, Palestinian leaders do just the opposite. The Palestinian Authority sends a special stipend to Palestinian terrorists in Israeli prisons; families of dead terrorists get financial benefits. Streets, summer camps and sporting events are named in honor of these killers of innocents.
And Palestinian schoolchildren are taught that terrorists are heroes. Then-Sen. Hilary Clinton called such instruction “child abuse”; she was right: They’re raising a whole generation to worship violence and death.
The week that Vice President Joe Biden visited the Palestinian Authority in 2009, the Palestinian Authority named a public square in its capital, Ramallah, after notorious terrorist Dalal Mughrabi. She was a leader of a terror group that hijacked an Israeli bus and murdered 37 passengers, including an American.
That slap in America’s face earned the Palestinian Authority just a few mild words of disapproval from the Obama administration. America’s generous financial aid to the Palestinian Authority kept on flowing.
Which brings us to the latest slap. Issa Qaraqi, the PA minister of prisoners’ affairs, announced that the rally to celebrate the return of the “91 martyrs” would be held in Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’ presidential compound in Ramallah, with the families of the 91 mass murderers as honored guests.
Among them will be the family of the bomber who murdered Alisa.
After that glorification of murder, the remains will be sent to their individual hometowns, for more rallies as each killer is buried with a military funeral.
Qaraqi also declared Thursday a national “day of celebration.”
President Obama has never been shy about speaking his mind when he has been upset at some Israeli policy decision. He has made sure that Israel hears his message — publicly.
Well, perhaps it’s time that the Palestinians get a message from him, too.
Maybe the president should make it clear the United States considers these Palestinian celebrations of death to be offensive, immoral and an obstacle to peace.
Do it, but not for Alisa’s memory, Mr. President.
Do it because it’s right thing, because now is the time to say: Enough.
Stephen M. Flatow lives in New Jersey.

Don't count on Obama. Those Palestinians were his first presidential handshake

US terminates funding for Pakistani Sesame Street amid reports of corruption

(Washington Post) KABUL, Afghanistan — The U.S. has terminated funding for a $20 million project to develop a Pakistani version of Sesame Street, the U.S. Embassy said Tuesday. The decision came as a Pakistani newspaper reported allegations of corruption by the local puppet theater working on the initiative.
The organization in question is the Rafi Peer Theater Workshop, a group in the city of Lahore that jointly developed the show with Sesame Workshop, the creator of the American series.
...The Pakistan Today newspaper reported Tuesday that the cause was “severe” financial irregularities at Rafi Peer, citing unnamed sources close to the project. Officials at Rafi Peer allegedly used the U.S. money to pay off old debts and awarded lucrative contracts to relatives, the sources claimed.
Faizaan Peerzada, the chief operating officer of Rafi Peer and one of several family members who run the organization, denied the corruption allegations. He said the U.S. ended its participation after providing $10 million because of the lack of additional available funds.
“Rafi Peer is proud of its association with the project and of the quality of children’s educational television programming created within Pakistan as a result,” the group said in a statement sent to The Associated Press.
If the corruption allegations prove true, it would be an embarrassment for the multibillion-dollar U.S. aid program in Pakistan, which some analysts have criticized for lacking focus and not achieving results.