Newsbriefs

GAY BAR BANS HETEROSEXUALS

A Melbourne gay bar has been granted an exception from the
Equal Opportunity Act in a landmark ruling which will allow
security to refuse entry to heterosexuals. The owners of
Collingwood’s Peel Hotel, which came under fire in April;
for promoting a gay Anzac Day party, successfully argued to the
State Planning Tribunal that banning heterosexuals from the club
would prevent "sexually based insults and violence." The
Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal granted the
controversial powers to the club. VCAT Deputy President Cate
McKenzie claimed that allowing straight men and women into the
club would defeat the purpose of the venue. "Sometimes
heterosexual groups and lesbian groups insult and deride and are
even physically violent towards the gay male patrons," McKenzie
said. This exemption seeks to give gay men a space in which they
may, without inhibition, meet, socialise and express physical
attraction to each other in a non-threatening atmosphere. A
spokesman for the Victoria Gay and Lesbian Lobby said that gay
men at the Peel had been made to feel like "zoo animals."

Ninemsn staff,
Herald Sun

AUSSIE MUSLIMS UNITE AGAINST ISRAEL

Australia’s Sunni Muslims have pushed aside ideological
differences with their Shia counterparts to form a united front
against Israel and declare their support for the Iranian-backed
terrorist network Hezbollah. The unity among the two Muslim
sects, which have been at war with each other for centuries,
comes as the nation’s Jewish community accuses top Shia
spiritual leader Kamal Mousselmani of creating hatred towards
Jews by calling Israel a "terrorist" state and expressing his
allegiance to Hezbollah militants.

The Howard Government yesterday also accused Sheik Mousselmani
of sending the wrong message to his followers through his adverse
views on Israel. Sunni Muslim leader and community spokesman
Keysar Trad yesterday said his sect largely championed Sheik
Mousselmani’s support for Hezbollah (Party of God), which
was revealed by The Weekend Australian.

"Sunnis outside of Lebanon, yes, they still have a great deal
of respect for Hezbollah," he said. But Mr Trad, who does not
believe the Lebanesebased Hezbollah is a terrorist group, said
Sunni Muslims in Lebanon were less inclined to back the terrorist
organisation because of political differences with the
Shi’ites.

"I don’t believe that Hezbollah is a terrorist
organisation," he said. "I agree with (Mousselmani) that the
state of Israel has … consistently engaged in acts of
terror which have brought a great deal of pain to the poor
Palestinian population and the Lebanese population."

MISSING OIL?

On May 12th, 2007, the prestigious New York Times reported
that billions of dollars worth of oil are missing from Iraq and
totally unaccounted for. Up to 300,000 barrels per day have been
disappearing for the past four years. This is a total of over
four hundred million barrels of oil. The value of this oil is
over fifteen million dollars per day! Where is this oil
going?

New York Times,
May 12, 2007,
by James Glanz

2ND COMING, MUSLIM STYLE

Official Iranian radio has completed broadcasting a lengthy
series on the imminent appearance of a messianic figure who will
defeat Islam’s enemies and impose Islamic Shiite rule over
the entire world – even speculating on specific dates the
so-called ‘Mahdi’ will be revealed.

After the coming of the 12th Imam, or Mahdi, ‘liberal
democratic civilization’ will be found only in
‘history museums,’ explained the program. This
messianic figure will be a direct descendant of Muhammad,
according to the broadcasts. The Mahdi will appear suddenly,
according to the report, in Mecca. Though no one can know the
day, Shiites believe, the report actually suggests possibilities
in the Muslim calendar. The Mahdi will lead a cataclysmic battle
against a descendant of Muhammad’s archenemy, Abu Sofyan,
culminating in the cities of Kufa and Najaf. His enemy, though,
is destroyed later in Jerusalem. "Another beautiful moment of the
Savior’s appearance is the coming down of Prophet Jesus
from heaven," says the report. "Hazrat Mahdi receives him
courteously and asks him to lead the prayers. But Jesus says you
are more qualified for this than me. We read in the book Tazkarat
ol-Olia, ‘the Mahdi will come with Jesus, son of Mary
accompanying him." This indicates that these two great men
complement each other. Imam Mahdi will be the leader while
Prophet Jesus will act as his lieutenant in the struggle against
oppression and establishment of justice in the world.

WORLD’S FASTEST SUPERCOMPUTER

The world’s fastest super-computer has been launched by
computer giant IBM. Blue Gene/P is three times more potent than
the current fastest machine, Blue Gene/L, also built by IBM. The
latest number cruncher is capable of operating at so called
"petaflop" speeds - the equivalent of 1,000 trillion calculations
per second.

Approximately 100,000 times more powerful than a PC, the first
machine has been bought by the US government. It will be
installed at the Department of Energy’s (DOE) Argonne
National Laboratory in Illinois later this year. Two further
machines are planned for US laboratories and a fourth has been
bought by the UK Science and Technology Facilities Council for
its Daresbury Laboratory Cheshire. The ultra powerful machines
will be used for complex simulations to study everything from
particle physics to nanotechnology.