Farrakhan Headed to Rockford

ROCKFORD (WIFR) -- Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan will speak at the Coronado theatre in Rockford Saturday. He was last here in September when he spoke at Kingdom Authority church and even donated money to the Brown family, who are in charge of the church. An aide to Farrakhan says the minister will talk about justice in the Forest city and the many problems the city and the entire country now faces.

"Unemployment, we look at the gang and youth violence, the problems that Rockford is experiencing, is not unique and isolated from what is happening throughout our whole nation and so Minister Farrakhan brings a message that is good for Rockford, good for America."

Farrakhan will speak at 6p.m. in the Coronado Theatre. Everyone is welcome to attend the free event.

Qaddafi apologizes for Arab involvement in slave trade

CAIRO: Libyan leader Moammar Gaddafi apologized for the slave trade on behalf of Arabs at the second Afro-Arab summit in Libya on Sunday. It may be the first time an Arab leader has admitted – much less apologized for – enslaving Africans.

While completely unprecedented, the statement falls in line with Qaddafi’s decade-long policy of aligning himself with African nations.

“I regret the behavior of the Arabs… They brought African children to North Africa, they made them slaves, they sold them like animals, and they took them as slaves and traded them in a shameful way. I regret and I am ashamed when we remember these practices. I apologize for this,” Qaddafi was quoted as saying.

A number of African leaders, including Sudanese President Omar al-Bashir and Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe, were in attendance at the summit which covered topics ranging from the Palestinian issue to Sudanese separation.

Gaddafi continued his statement by saying, “Today we are embarrassed and shocked by these outrageous practices of rich Arabs who had treated their fellow Africans with contempt and condescension.” Gaddafi’s statement was broad, leaving a time reference open for debate.

There is very little documentation about the African enslavement in the Arab world. Most documentation and research focuses on the trans-Atlantic slave trade, but until the turn of the 19th Century, Arab slave traders dealt in a lucrative business in African slaves from the Congo, Rwanda, and particularly East Africa. In the middle of the ninth century, a revolt of the Zanj, African slaves held in modern-day Iraq, lasted for nearly fifteen years.

The Arab slave trade was also excuse used by Europeans, including King Leopold II of Belgium, to move into Africa during the age of European colonization.

There is some documentation of Arab enslavement up until the mid-1900s. According to a report by the United Nations in 1957, as much as 20% of the population of Saudi Arabia consisted of slaves. The report listed the worth of a girl under 5 years of age to be between 200-400 British pounds on the Jeddah slave market, while a man under 40 averaged 150 British pounds.

It is plausible that Gaddafi’s statements referenced modern enslavement by Arabs, from the era of European colonization to the present day. “We should now recognize this issue, denounce it vigorously and place it in its true dimension,” Ghaddafi said in his statement.

In September, UK Channel 4 released a film version of the story of a Nubian woman named Mende Nazer. The film, titled “I Am Slave,” tells the true story of a girl who was abducted from the Nuba mountains and was eventually sold into domestic servitude with an Arab family in London.

In 2000, Nazer’s story made international news when she managed to escape. Although the numbers of people living in such circumstances are difficult to determine, an August article in the UK’s Telegraph estimated around 5,000 people are currently working as domestic slaves in the UK.

Either way, the Libyan leader’s statement is remarkable, even for a man who likes to make headlines.

Opposition hopes to stunt Venezuela's revolution

CARACAS (IPS/GIN) - The vigorous comeback of the opposition in Venezuela's newly elected parliament strengthens pluralism in this oil-rich country, although it may presage a new political crisis in the medium term, according to analysts.

With almost 99 percent of the ballots counted, the electoral branch announced that the governing United Socialist Party of Venezuela (PSUV) and its small ally, the Communist Party, won 98 of the 165 seats in parliament, compared to 63 for the opposition Democratic Unity Coalition.

Two seats were taken by Fatherland for All, a leftwing party that broke away from President Hugo Chávez earlier this year, and two further seats were still too close to call after Sept. 26 elections.

In terms of actual vote counts, however, 5.4 million ballots were cast for opposition politicians (48 percent of those counted so far) compared to 5.2 million (46.4 percent) for the PSUV and its ally. The Fatherland party got 330,260 votes and the rest went to small parties, mostly opposed to Mr. Chávez, or were blank or spoiled votes.

The authorities said voter turnout was 66.45 percent of the 17.6 million registered voters in this country of 28.8 million people.



Opposition Democratic Unity Coalition coordinator Ramón Aveledo said, “The Venezuelan people have spoken.” Combining all the votes not cast for the governing party, he added: “The opposition comprises 52 percent of the electorate, and the present parliament (which ends its term of office in January) no longer represents Venezuela: it should not, and morally and politically cannot, take legislative decisions.”

In reply, Aristóbulo Istúriz, a President Chavas party lawmaker-elect and head of the party's electoral campaign, said: “We are going to legislate right up to the very last day, so be prepared. We did not reach our target of two-thirds (of the seats) but we won a resounding victory.”

President Chávez wrote in his Twitter account that the elections were “another victory for the people,” and said “we must keep on strengthening the revolution.”

Political analyst Eduardo Semtei said Chávez would “keep his foot on the accelerator” and drive ahead with his initiatives for changing Venezuelan politics, economy and society, which will lead him into fresh conflicts with the opposition.

Sociologist and professor of political sciences Carlos Raúl Hernández told IPS “a political crisis is looming, possibly within the next few months, because the part of society that opposes Chávez's project will be emboldened by this electoral success, and will react when measures are taken against it.”

According to Mr. Hernández, “at the risk of falling into clichés, what has happened in Venezuela can be termed historic, because the country is bringing to a halt and wrecking—at the ballot box—the project to exhume and renew communist-style socialism, after its demise as a Western cultural phenomenon in the last century.”

For the consumption of the public and of international opinion, the opposition will try to maintain its campaign slogan, “we are the majority,” while the government and its allies will take their stand on legal formality and the control the president's followers exercise over nearly all the levers of political and economic power, nationally and regionally.

In parliament, the government will not have the two-thirds majority that Mr. Chávez had aimed for as his party's necessary electoral goal. A two-thirds majority is required to pass certain laws, as well as to reconfigure the political, economic, social and institutional architecture of the country.

A crisis may be brewing, driven by deteriorating social and economic indicators, which are already regarded as causing or contributing to the electoral decline of Mr. Chávez and his government, observers say. High inflation, long-term unemployment and under-employment, high crime rates, and lack of housing and of services like electricity are some of the problems they highlight

Bill Gates says vaccines can help reduce world population

(NATURAL NEWS)In a recent TED conference presentation, Microsoft billionaire Bill Gates, who has donated hundreds of millions of dollars to new vaccine efforts, speaks on the issue of CO2 emissions and its effects on climate change. He presents a formula for tracking CO2 emissions as follows: CO2 = P x S x E x C.

P = People
S = Services per person
E = Energy per service
C = CO2 per energy unit

Then he adds that in order to get CO2 to zero, "probably one of these numbers is going to have to get pretty close to zero."

Following that, Bill Gates begins to describe how the first number -- P (for People) -- might be reduced. He says:

"The world today has 6.8 billion people... that's headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."

Reducing the world population through vaccines
This statement by Bill Gates was not made with any hesitation, stuttering or other indication that it might have been a mistake. It appears to have been a deliberate, calculated part of a well developed and coherent presentation.

So what does it mean when Bill Gates says "if we do a really great job on new vaccines... we could lower [world population] by 10 or 15 percent?"

Clearly, this statement implies that vaccines are a method of population reduction. So is "health care," which all NaturalNews readers already know to be more of a "sick care" system that actually harms more people than it helps.

Perhaps that's the whole point of it. Given that vaccines technology help almost no one from a scientific point of view (http://www.naturalnews.com/029641_v...), it raises the question: For what purpose are vaccines being so heavily pushed in the first place?

Bill Gates seems to be saying that one of the primary purposes is to reduce the global population as a mechanism by which we can reduce CO2 emissions. Once again, watch the video yourself to hear him say it in his own words:
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=A...


How can vaccines actually be used to reduce world population?
Let's conduct a mental experiment on this issue. If vaccines are to be used to reduce world population, they obviously need to be accepted by the majority of the people. Otherwise the population reduction effort wouldn't be very effective.

And in order for them to be accepted by the majority of the people, they obviously can't just kill people outright. If everybody started dropping dead within 24 hours of receiving the flu shot, the danger of vaccines would become obvious rather quickly and the vaccines would be recalled.

Thus, if vaccines are to be used as an effective population reduction effort, there are really only three ways in which they might theoretically be "effective" from the point of view of those who wish to reduce world population:

#1) They might kill people slowly in a way that's unnoticeable, taking effect over perhaps 10 - 30 years by accelerating degenerative diseases.

#2) They might reduce fertility and therefore dramatically lower birth rates around the world, thereby reducing the world population over successive generations. This "soft kill" method might seem more acceptable to scientists who want to see the world population fall but don't quite have the stomach to outright kill people with conventional medicine. There is already evidence that vaccines may promote miscarriages (http://www.naturalnews.com/027512_v...).

#3) They might increase the death rate from a future pandemic. Theoretically, widespread vaccination efforts could be followed by a deliberate release of a highly virulent flu strain with a high fatality rate. This "bioweapon" approach could kill millions of people whose immune systems have been weakened by previous vaccine injections.

This is a known side effect of some vaccines, by the way. A study documenting this was published in PLoS. Read the story here: http://www.naturalnews.com/028538_s...

Here's the study title and citation: Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus?
Viboud C, Simonsen L (2010) Does Seasonal Influenza Vaccination Increase the Risk of Illness with the 2009 A/H1N1 Pandemic Virus? PLoS Med 7(4): e1000259. doi:10.1371/journal.pmed.1000259

The short answer is yes, seasonal flu vaccines do cause increased susceptibility to the H1N1 pandemic virus. In other words, seasonal flu vaccines could set up the population for a "hard kill" pandemic that could wipe out a significant portion of the global population (perhaps 10 to 15 percent, as Bill Gates suggested).

Conveniently, their deaths could be blamed on the pandemic, thereby diverting blame from those who were really responsible for the plot. As yet another beneficial side effect for the global population killers, the widespread deaths could be used as a fear tool to urge more people to get vaccinated yet again, and the entire cycle could be repeated until world population was brought down to whatever manageable level was desired... all in the name of health care!

The more people around the world are vaccinated before the release of the "hard kill" pandemic virus, the more powerful the effect of this approach.


The Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation
Perhaps not coincidentally, the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation has funneled hundreds of millions of dollars into vaccine programs targeting people all over the world. One such program is researching the development of "sweat-triggered vaccines" that could use specially-coated nano-materials to deliver vaccines to people without using injections.

More interestingly, his foundation has also invested millions in sterilization technologies that have been called a "temporary castration" solution. (http://www.naturalnews.com/028887_v...)

It seems that the actions of the Gates foundation are entirely consistent with the formula for CO2 reduction that Bill Gates eluded to in his TED conference speech: CO2 = P x S x E x C.

By reducing birth rates (through sterilization technologies) and increasing vaccine penetration throughout the world population (by using sweat-triggered nano-vaccines), his stated goal of reducing the world population by 10 to 15 percent could be reached within just a few years.


Who will be left alive? The smart people
The interesting thing about all this is that this campaign to reduce global population through vaccines will obviously not impact people who consciously avoid vaccines. And those people, by and large, tend to be the more intelligent, capable people who actually have an improved ability to move human civilization forward with thoughtful consideration.

I can only imagine that those people designing this vaccine-induced population control measure might be sitting around a table chuckling to themselves and saying, "It's only the stupid people that are going to be killed off anyway, so this is actually helping the future of humankind!" (Their words, not mine.)

In a weird world government kind of way, this effort might actually be based on some distorted vision of philanthropy where some of the most powerful people in the world quite literally believe the way to save humanity is to kill off as many of the gullible people as possible. Vaccines are, in effect, an "evil genius" kind of way to conduct an IQ test on the population at large: If you go get vaccinated every flu season, you're not too bright and probably don't engage the kind of strong mental faculties that humanity will no doubt need if it is to face a future where it is now all but obvious we are not alone in the universe.

If humanity is to save itself from its own destruction and compete as an uplifted species in our universe, killing off the least intelligent members of society (or making them infertile) may appear to the world controllers to be a perfectly reasonable approach. I disagree with that approach, but it may be precisely what they are thinking.

In any case, choosing to receive a seasonal flu shot is undoubtedly an admission that you have failed some sort of universal IQ test, whether or not this is the intention of world influencers such as Bill Gates. More importantly, it is also a betrayal of your own biology, because it indicates you don't believe in the ability of your own immune system to protect you even from mild infections.

Perhaps the world vaccine conspirators figure that if people are willing to betray themselves anyway, it's not much different for governments and institutions to betray them as well. In other words, if you don't even care enough about your own health to take care of your health, why should any government care about protecting your health, either?

As you ponder this, also consider something else: The U.S. is going broke due to sick-care costs which are rising dramatically under the new federal health care reform guidelines. Can you guess the fastest and easiest way to reduce those health care costs? If you guessed, "unleash a hard-kill pandemic that takes out a significant portion of the weak or sick people" then you guessed right. Sadly, killing off those most vulnerable to sickness could save the U.S. government literally billions of dollars in sick-care expenditures. Plus, it would save Social Security yet more billions by avoiding ongoing monthly payouts. (Again, I am completely against such an approach because I value human life, but I also know we live in a world where the people in charge have little or no respect for human life and will readily sacrifice human lives to achieve their aims.)

As far as Bill Gates goes, consider his statement in the context of what we've discussed here: "The world today has 6.8 billion people... that's headed up to about 9 billion. Now if we do a really great job on new vaccines, health care, reproductive health services, we could lower that by perhaps 10 or 15 percent."

It suddenly seems to make a lot of sense when you understand that reducing the population reduces CO2 emissions, and using more vaccines on more people increases the death rate of the population.

My advice? Try to avoid being among those 10 to 15 percent who get culled through global vaccine programs. You will not only save your life, you'll also pass the "universal IQ test" which determines whether you're smart enough to know that injecting your body with chemicals and viral fragments in order to stop "seasonal flu" is a foolish endeavor.

Be healthy and wise, and you'll survive the world depopulation effort that victimizes conventional thinkers who don't have the intelligence to question what they're being told to do by their own corrupt governments.

CLICK BELOW TO WATCH VIDEO OF BILL GATES
http://www.naturalnews.tv/v.asp?v=A155D113455FAC882A3290536575C723

Bishop Eddie Long proclaims his innocence

LITHONIA, Ga. — Bishop Eddie Long, the megachurch leader accused in a series of civil lawsuits of sexual misconduct with teenage boys, vowed from the pulpit to thousands of supportive congregants on Sunday that he would contest the accusations.

Bishop Long, senior pastor of the New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, did not directly proclaim his innocence or specifically address charges that he had lured four young church members, now in their 20s, into sexual activity. But, to fervent applause and scattered fist pumps from two sets of worshipers, he pledged to legally challenge the claims against him.

“I have never in my life portrayed myself as a perfect man, but I am not the man that’s being portrayed on the television,” Bishop Long, 57, said.

He said the case would be resolved “in the court of justice” and added: “Please understand, I think this is the only place I’ll find justice. This thing, I’m going to fight.”

Bishop Long, labeling the past week as probably the most difficult period of his life, likened himself to David facing Goliath.

“I’ve got five rocks, and I haven’t thrown one yet,” he said.

In a statement last week, Bishop Long said, “We continue to categorically deny each and every one of these ugly charges.”

Anticipating his remarks on the matter, churchgoers filled the 10,000-seat church to nearly overflowing for both morning services. Bishop Long was received warmly, with standing ovations and shouts of “We love you.”

One exception was a man who attended the second service and was escorted out, according to an Associated Press report, after he stood and yelled, “We want to know the truth, man!”

Bishop Long, wearing a beige suit and toting an iPad, tailored the day’s sermon to his personal travails. “Many are the afflictions of the righteous,” he said, quoting a biblical phrase from the Book of Psalms, “but the Lord delivers him out of all of them.”

“Unfortunately, my brothers and sisters, life is filled with painful situations that make the time of joy and happiness not as magnificent as we would like,” he said in a subdued tone.

“Some way and somehow, we will become better and walk through this painful situation.”

Bishop Long seemed overcome by emotion over the outpouring of allegiance at the early service. Before speaking, he tapped his heart several times and pointed appreciatively at the congregants.

The pastor, a father of four, was accompanied by his wife, Vanessa. He cited several ministers from other churches who came in support.

During his remarks, ushers handed out tissues to those in tears.

A church elder closed the early service by twice saying, “We stand by our pastor.”

New Birth says it has 25,000 members, many drawn by the message championed by Bishop Long that wealth and material prosperity are blessings from God that should be embraced. The church’s property fills 240 acres east of downtown Atlanta, and it was buzzing before sunup Sunday, with many attendees waiting at the still-locked church doors.

The church is stadiumlike, with a lower and upper deck, multicolored spotlights, six large video screens and loudspeakers that hang from the ceiling, spilling out gospel songs from a rousing 11-piece band. The service is recorded and sold within minutes after it is over on DVDs and compact discs.

A gift shop offers snacks, books, music and apparel bearing the New Birth logo.

Mr. Long’s accusers contend that he gained their trust by plying them with gifts, employing them and taking them on overseas trips on his private jet.

But other members of the church dismissed the accusations.

“I don’t believe the charges,” said Katrina Maben as she exited with her husband and two children. “I love my pastor.”

She expressed similar affection for New Birth.

“I’ve been going here for 10 years, and I’ve never felt God’s presence the way I feel it here,” Ms. Maben said. “My life has changed since I came here

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Mike Tyson to perform Umrah

By YOUSUF MUHAMMAD

MADINAH: Former boxing champion Mike Tyson, who embraced Islam while serving a prison sentence in the 1990s, is on his first visit to the Kingdom to perform Umrah. He arrived in the holy city of Madinah on Friday to perform prayers at the Prophet’s Mosque.

While in Madinah, Tyson met Dr. Muhammad Al-Oqala, president of the Islamic University, who briefed the world heavyweight champion on the services being rendered by the university to students from across the world.

From Madinah, Tyson will travel on to Makkah to perform Umrah, press reports said. He will also visit Jeddah, Abha and Riyadh as part of his Saudi tour. His visit to Saudi Arabia was arranged by the Canadian Dawa Association (CDA) as part of visits it organizes for new Muslim celebrities to the Islamic sites in the Kingdom. Shazad Mohammed, president of CDA, was present at Prince Muhammad International Airport in Madinah to receive Tyson.

Mohammed, an ambassador of peace with the United Nations, said Tyson would be in the Kingdom for one week, visiting the holy places as well as important landmarks in the country and meeting with Saudi people to get to know their culture and traditions.

Acting president consolidates power in Nigeria

In March, acting Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan dissolved his cabinet, further securing his tenuous hold on the country's top post amidst rising unrest in the Niger Delta and flaring religious tensions in the central region of the country.

On March 17, President Goodluck dismissed all of ailing President Umaru Yar'Adua's ministers, effectively allowing the acting president to appoint ministers of his choosing.

President Yar'Adua, who had been receiving medical treatment in Saudi Arabia for three months, returned to Nigeria on Feb. 24 amidst a heavy military presence at the airport, but hasn't been seen since.

“(Mr. Jonathan) did not give us any reason for the dissolution of the cabinet,” said Dora Akunyili, the information minister, in a short statement released March 17.

On Feb. 10, Nigeria's National Assembly voted to make Mr. Goodluck the acting president. Since then, Mr. Goodluck's aggressive power consolidation has furthered the hopes of many Nigerians that reform is imminent.

“(Mr. Jonathan's dissolution of the cabinet) is a signal for many that Goodluck Jonathan is perhaps about to put in place his own men, his own women, his own team,” said Al Jazeera's Nigeria correspondent, Yvonne Ndege, on March 18.

“It was felt by many Nigerians that the cabinet was basically packed to the rafters with Yar'Adua loyalists who weren't doing the job they were supposed to be doing, or rather doing a good enough job,” said Ms. Ndege.

Questions still remain over who will take on the post of vice president, as well as who will gain the support of the military. With elections due in less than one year, the clock is ticking for Goodluck Jonathan to present a viable path forward.

The military, which holds considerable sway in Nigerian politics, appears to be at odds about the current leadership crisis. John Campbell, who served as U.S. ambassador to Nigeria between 2004 and 2007, wrote in a recent op-ed in the Huffington Post that “the Nigerian military appears as splintered as the rest of the federal government.”

Mr. Campbell went on to surmise that some elements within the army are staying loyal to Yar'Adua, as neither President Jonathan nor the chief of defense staff—the most senior officer in the military—were notified about Yar'Adua's return.

A large number of military personnel greeted Yar'Adua's plane and escorted his ambulance to the presidential palace upon his return from Saudi Arabia.

It is not clear who wields power in the country at this point, or if Mr. Yar'Adua's absence becomes permanent, who will take over.

A new vice president must be approved by majority vote in both houses of the National Assembly and with the absence of a potential candidate who commands enough support in both houses, many are unsure of how to proceed.

The accession of President Jonathan—who is Christian—also threatens to derail an informal power-sharing arrangement, in effect since 1999, which rests upon a rotation of the presidency every two terms between the largely Muslim north and the mostly Christian south.

According to the New York-based Human Rights Watch, since 1999, approximately 13,500 people have died in religious violence that has persisted throughout Plateau State, a region located in the centre of the country, which separates the Muslim north from the Christian south.

Goodluck Jonathan is of the Ijaw, an ethnic group indigenous to the Delta region. Many hope he will take a more pro-active stance between multinational oil corporations, the Nigerian state and the people who live there.

Washington's interest in Nigeria has grown as its importance as a source of imported oil has increased in recent years.

Death Toll In Turkey Earthquake Rises To 57

OKCULAR, Turkey – Hundreds of earthquake survivors huddled in aid tents and around bonfires Monday in eastern Turkey, seeking relief from the winter cold after a strong temblor knocked down stone and mud-brick houses in five villages, killing 51 people.

The damage appeared worst in the Kurdish village of Okcular, which was almost razed. At least 15 of the village's 900 residents were killed, the Elazig governor's office said, and the air was thick with dust from crumpled homes and barns.

The pre-dawn earthquake caught many residents as they slept, shaking the area's poorly made buildings into piles of rubble. Panicked survivors fled into the narrow streets of this village perched on a hill in front of snow-covered mountains, with some people climbing out of windows to escape.

"I tried to get out of the door but it wouldn't open. I came out of the window and started helping my neighbors," Ali Riza Ferhat of Okcular told NTV television. "We removed six bodies."

The Kandilli seismology center said the 6.0-magnitude quake hit at 4:32 a.m. (0232 GMT, 9 p.m. EST Sunday) near the village of Basyurt in a remote, sparsely populated area of Elazig province. The region is 340 miles (550 kilometers) east of Ankara, the capital.

The U.S. Geological Survey listed the quake at 5.9 magnitude.

Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Kandilli Observatory's director, Mustafa Erdik, urged residents not to enter any damaged homes, warning they could topple from aftershocks that Erdik said could last for days.

More than 100 aftershocks measuring up to 5.5 magnitude shook the region on Monday alone.

In addition to the deaths, 34 people were being treated for injuries, Turkey's crisis center said.

Abdulkerim Sekerdag, 72, said he had just risen for early morning prayers when the quake hit.

"The jolt threw me onto the ground," he told The Associated Press. "When I got up I checked my animals and then I checked on my neighbors."

"Two of them were buried. We pulled them out," he said, adding that they were alive but injured.

Men used shovels and bare hands to dig two bodies out from under piles of dirt, rubble and concrete blocks, video footage showed. Both bodies were covered in blankets and carried away. One appeared to be a baby or young child.

Women in veils gathered near the rescue scenes, some crying.

"Everything has been knocked down, there is not a stone in place," said Yadin Apaydin, administrator for the village of Yukari Kanatli, where three died.

Fifteen people were killed in the nearby village of Yukari Demirci, Gov. Muammer Erol said, while four each were killed in the villages of Kayalik and Gocmezler and 10 others died after being taken to a hospital in the town of Kovancilar.

Most of the dead were immediately buried according to Muslim traditions. A few funerals had to be put off until Tuesday.

The temblor also knocked down barns, killing many farm animals. A half-dozen dead cows were seen partially buried near one collapsed home. One man, Haci Sekerdag, said he lost eight cows and calves — his main livelihood.

The Turkish Red Crescent set up tents and villagers laid plastic sheeting to shelter them from the cold and dirt. The government said it rushed ambulance helicopters, prefabricated homes and mobile kitchens into the stricken area.

Erdogan blamed the region's mud-brick buildings for the many deaths and said the government housing agency would build quake-proof homes in the area.

The quake was also felt in the neighboring provinces of Tunceli, Bingol and Diyarbakir, where residents fled to the streets in panic and stayed outdoors. Schools were closed for two days. In Tunceli province, the quake caused one school's walls to crack, the state-run Anatolia news agency reported.

A museum in Elazig displaying artifacts from the Iron-age Kingdom of Urartu was not affected by the quake, and nearby dams were also intact.

Earthquakes are frequent in Turkey, much of which lies on top of two main fault lines. In 1999, two powerful earthquakes struck the country's northwest, killing about 18,000 people. In 2003, a 6.4-magnitude earthquake killed 177 people in Bingol, including 84 children whose school dormitory collapsed.

Monday's quake in eastern Turkey followed deadly recent temblors in Haiti and Chile, but Bernard Doft, the seismologist for the Royal Netherlands Meteorological Institute in Utrecht, said there was no direct connection between the three.

"These events are too far apart to be of direct influence to each other," he said.

Richard Luckett, a seismologist from the British Geological Survey, said there has not been a spike in global seismic activity.

"If there was a big increase in the number of magnitude 6.0s in the past decade we would know it, because we would see it in the statistics," Luckett said. "We haven't seen an increase in 7.0s either."

He said scientists often see strong earthquakes but they don't get reported because the damage or death toll is minimal. According to USGS data, the world is hit by about 134 earthquakes a year in the 6.0- to 6.9-magnitude range — or about two a week.

"The point is that earthquakes are common and always have been," he said.

__

Uncovering the Thanksgiving Myth

As we approach that venerated time of year when Americans sit down to enjoy their ham and turkey, some time should be taken to reflect upon the impact European settlers had upon the original inhabitants of the “New World.” As Native Americans today barely number two million people inside the Unites States, questions must be asked about the effect of genocide from the first days of the Caucasian's presence in North America.

Adopted as an American myth by the 1800s, Thanksgiving has been introduced to the public and to the world as an example of goodwill between the “Indians” and White Europeans. Missing from the official narrative, however, is the voice and testimony of the many Native Americans whose suffering has been downplayed and ignored since the arrival of the first English colonists.

Thanksgiving, traditionally rooted in autumn harvest festivals, but identified as having its American origin on Plymouth Plantation in 1621, could not have taken place without the life-saving intervention of Native Americans there. Teaching the English colonists how to survive the harsh winters of the American Northeast, the actual facts regarding the true relationship between the European and the “Indian” has been lost to both time and historical interpretation.

For instance, it is a known fact that European adventurism into the Western Hemisphere came at a high price for the “New World's” indigenous populations. From Spanish and Portuguese conquests of the Caribbean, South America and portions of North America to the Anglo-Dutch exploits of the Atlantic seaboard, in what is now called the United States, long established civilizations were wiped out within the span of a few hundred years.

For example, on December 4, 1619, after claiming nearly 8,000 acres of Indian land about 20 miles north of Jamestown, Virginia, Captain John Woodleaf led a service of Thanksgiving in accordance with the Charter of the Berkeley Hundred which stated in part: “We ordaine (sic) that the day of our ships arrival at the place assigned for plantacon (sic) in the land of Virginia shall be yearly and perpetually keept (sic) holy as a day of thanksgiving to Almighty God.”

Perhaps viewed in the context of a divine right, the 38 persons staking claim to the land did so without consideration for those who already owned the land, laying the foundation to greater conflicts that would follow. While the European historical record in 1622 cites massacres led against the English by Indian tribes, these attacks were obviously fomented in retaliation to European encroachment upon yet more Indian land, where wanton attacks upon Indian villages led to homes being burned and crops being destroyed by Englishmen.

Setting the backdrop for yet more conflict, the interactions between the Indians and the English was actually that of Europeans coveting, and by force taking, the assets of North America's original people. A paradigm established through the slaughter and destruction of America's indigenous populations, the circumstances under which colonial expansion evolved, eventually becoming a doctrine of manifest destiny, revealed the violent nature of what would become American self-interests.

Today, the indigenous nations within the United States suffer from the highest infant mortality rates, the highest suicide rates, high alcohol and drug abuse rates and a continued erosion of tribal sovereignty that was originally guaranteed by treaties with the United States government. In addition to this, after family separations, generations of forced assimilation and a life relegated to reservations, the spirit of North America's original people has been subjected to trauma and abuse through acts of commission and omission.

By taking Indian land, forcefully removing its people and miseducating the American public to the country's true history, the uphill battle of America's native people for freedom, justice and equality remains an arduous one. As the Native American fights for his rights and stands for his beliefs, the European American should contemplate the impact of one of America's original sins.

This year, as the country observes Thanksgiving, time should be taken to reflect upon the heavy price the Original people have paid in the formation of this nation. If the holiday is to live up to its name, for the giving of thanks, then it is only proper to recognize that American people stand upon a legacy soaked in the blood, sweat and tears of those who were not originally counted as “true Americans.”

Whether Black, Brown or Red, the descendants of the Original people must be respected and remembered for the suffering they endured in the establishment of the United States of America. If no one else will reflect upon these facts during the Thanksgiving season, we should at least remember this for ourselves and never forget.

(Brother William P. Muhammad is an author and a graduate of The University of Texas at El Paso. Post comments at www.wisdomhouseonline.com.)

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan Speaks Live via Webcast: "The Time and What Must Be Done"

NATION OF ISLAM LIVE WEBCAST

The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's lecture series, "The Time and What Must Be Done" begins live via webcast on Sunday November 15, 2009 @ 10am CST

Please attend a Mosque or Study Group in your city or get an online front row seat at www.noi.org/webcast

** Pre-Order: The Time And What Must Be Done -Pt. 1**
Pt. 1 of The Honorable Minister Louis Farrakhan's Lecture Series
Mosque Maryam - Chicago, IL, November 15, 2009 Click here to Order CD/DVD media