Here are today's starred stories, organised by topic:
Creeping Dhimmitude
A police community support officer ordered two Christian preachers to stop handing out gospel leaflets in a predominantly Muslim area of Birmingham
The evangelists say they were threatened with arrest for committing a "hate crime" and were told they risked being beaten up if they returned. The incident will fuel fears that "no-go areas" for Christians are emerging in British towns and cities, as the Rt Rev Michael Nazir-Ali, the Bishop of Rochester, claimed in The Sunday Telegraph this year.
Intolerance / Hate Culture
Elder of Ziyon, IsraelMatzav, Israel National News, Yourish
The Algerian government has arranged for 14 Iraqi children to receive surgery in Algeria so that they would not have to go to Israel as previously planned. The children’s mothers expressed relief, with one saying the “nightmare” of seeking help in Israel had been removed.
The children were going to receive medical care with help from the Israeli group Save a Child’s Heart, which provides free heart surgery in Israel to children in need from several countries around the world. Members of the Christian group Brothers Together (Shevet Achim), which works with Save a Child’s Heart and has offices in Iraq, expressed concern that Algerian doctors may not be adequately prepared to deal with some of the children’s complicated medical conditions.
Kuwaiti MPs stage walk out in protest of bareheaded female Cabinet members
Iran and Hezbollah
Smooth Stone, Soundbites, Solomonia, Israel Matzav, YNet, Yourish
Because We Value Life and They Value Death... Israel Receives Body Parts in Exchange for Spy.
Israel made a 'gesture' to Hezbollah today by 'deporting' convicted Hezbollah spy Nassim Nisr to Lebanon after six years in an Israeli jail.
In return (or maybe not in return) Hezbollah returned 'body parts' of Israeli soldiers that it had been holding since the Second Lebanon War in the summer of 2006.
As far as that wider exchange goes, Israelis overwhelmingly support trading the murderer Kuntar for Goldwasser and Regev - but only if Goldwasser and Regev are alive. If they are not alive, most Israelis oppose the trade. So far, Hezbollah has refused to say which it is.
5 points summing up Iranian tactics in the Middle East...
Principle No. 1: Always seek “control without responsibility.” In Lebanon, Gaza and Iraq, Iran & Friends have veto power over the politics, without being held fully responsible for the electricity. America’s allies, by contrast, tend to have “responsibility without control.”
Principle No. 5: Cast yourself as the “resistance” to Israel and America, so any opposition to you is equal to support for Israel and America and so no matter how badly you are defeated the mere fact that you “resisted” means you didn’t really lose.
Deputy Foreign Minister for Arab and African Affairs Mohammad-Reza Baqeri in a meeting with his Japanese counterpart on Saturday agreed to expand mutual cooperation.
History
The tomb of the Prophet Ezekiel in Kifl, south of Baghdad, used to be a pilgrimage site for Jews. It is one of few traces that remain of a once-vibrant Jewish community in Iraq. A pogrom in 1941 and other traumas led to a sharp decline in the Jewish population.
Weapons Manufacturing / Smuggling
Egyptian police disclosed today that they discovered a massive weapons cache inside a mountain in the Sinai desert.
They can figure out how to smuggle anti-aircraft missiles and hand grenades into Gaza, but not sugar and flour. Some 'blockade.'
"There's no doubt that the appearance of these weapons represents a very significant change," said Yoram Schweitzer, director of the Program on Terrorism and Low Intensity Conflict at the Institute for Counter-Terrorism at the Interdisciplinary Center in Herzliya.
"Air force helicopters fly low over Gaza, and if they are downed the significance of that would be enormous. The air force has to make preparations, and take these weapons into account," Schweitzer said.
Ten members of a family from the Abu Sha'ban clan were injured, including 4 women and 3 children, when an explosive device detonated inside their house.
