(North) Korean News: "Pyongyang in Ecstasy of Joy at Asian Games News"

A little "deep care" from the "supreme leader" works wonders:

Sportspersons of the DPRK are registering admirable successes at the ongoing 17th Asian Games. They won eight gold medals as of Sept. 27.

Their achievements have lashed the citizens in Pyongyang and other parts of the country into a great jubilee.

Jong Su Chol, a department chief of Korea University of Physical Education, told KCNA that the world public is struck with admiration at the progress of the DPRK's sports, which is rapidly developing under the deep care of supreme leader Kim Jong Un.

Expecting more gold medals to be taken at the Asian Games, Tong Tae San, a general officer of the Korean People's Army, said:

"We, servicepersons mobilized in the construction of Wisong Scientists Street, are all delighted at the happy news of our players at the Asian Games.

The looks of our sportspersons raising the DPRK flag with playing of national anthem at the games encourage us to work greater feats in the street construction."

Hwang Tong Chol, an official of the Kumgang Guidance Bureau, said:

"What arouse my wife's greater interest are our sportswomen's results at the games. She got mad with joy at the news that DPRK women's football team beat its Vietnamese rival 5:0 in its first match. When our sportswomen bagged four gold medals, she declared that women are better than men.

I, too, wanted to dance for joy at the news that Jong Hak Jin and Kim Ji Song took gold medals in the wake of weightlifters Om Yun Chol and Kim Un Guk, who set world records. And I'd love to extend thanks to those sportspersons for having added brilliance to the honor of the country and given vigor and pleasure to my family."

Ri Kuk Il, a student of Kim Chaek University of Technology, said that the main topic of conversation among university students at present is news of the Asian Games, about DPRK men's and women's football teams which respectively advanced into quarterfinals and semifinals in particular.

Think they can stand all that joy? I guess they're used to it.

Fars News: "BBC Fails to Steal Iran's Official Archives"

You may have noticed that I don't have a great deal of time for Judeopundit these days. However, it is worth noting that my archives now document a large number of choice examples of conspiracist rantings from the Iranian Press. One example is a Fars News article from 2011 explaining that "Basically, BBC is not a media, rather it is an organization in disguise which has a Baha'i-Zionist nature with political-intelligence missions." That still has a nice insane ring to it, doesn't it? Further, it provides some background to this current offering from Fars: "BBC Fails to Steal Iran's Official Archives":

The Iranian Intelligence Ministry foiled an attempt by the BBC's Persian Service to steal Iran's artistic, historical and cultural documents.

"The BBC tried to steal historical documents from Iran's center of archived documents through its agents in the country, but the attempt was foiled due to the vigilance of the intelligence ministry," the ministry's public relations department announced on Sunday.

The Intelligence Ministry further added that it will release further details in future.

I hope the nefarious BBC doesn't try to steal my archives.

Rosh Hashanah

What is this Rosh Hashanah business anyway?

The festival of Rosh Hashanah --the name means "Head of the Year" --is observed for two days beginning on Tishrei 1, the first day of the Jewish year. It is the anniversary of the creation of Adam and Eve, the first man and woman, and their first actions toward the realization of mankind's role in G-d's world.

Rosh Hashanah thus emphasizes the special relationship between G-d and humanity: our dependence upon G-d as our creator and sustainer, and G-d's dependence upon us as the ones who make His presence known and felt in His world. Each year on Rosh Hashanah, "all inhabitants of the world pass before G-d like a flock of sheep," and it is decreed in the heavenly court, "who shall live, and who shall die... who shall be impoverished, and who shall be enriched; who shall fall and who shall rise." But this is also the day we proclaim G-d King of the Universe. The Kabbalists teach that the continued existence of the universe is dependant upon the renewal of the divine desire for a world when we accept G-d's kingship each year on Rosh Hashanah.

The central observance of Rosh Hashanah is the sounding of the shofar, the ram's horn, which represents the trumpet blast of a people's coronation of their king. The cry of the shofar is also a call to repentance; for Rosh Hashanah is also the anniversary of man's first sin and his repentance thereof, and serves as the first of the "Ten Days of Repentance" which culminate in Yom Kippur, the Day of Atonement. Another significance of the shofar is to recall the Binding of Isaac which also occurred on Rosh Hashanah, in which a ram took Isaac's place as an offering to G-d; we evoke Abraham's readiness to sacrifice his son and plead that the merit of his deed should stand by us as we pray for a year of life, health and prosperity. Altogether, the shofar is sounded 100 times in the course of the Rosh Hashanah service.

Additional Rosh Hashanah observances include: a) Eating a piece of apple dipped in honey to symbolize our desire for a sweet year, and other special foods symbolic of the new year's blessings. b) Blessing one another with the words Leshanah tovah tikateiv veteichateim, "May you be inscribed and sealed for a good year." c) Tashlich, a special prayer said near a body of water (an ocean, river, pond, etc.) in evocation of the verse, "And You shall cast their sins into the depths of the sea." And as with every major Jewish holiday after candlelighting and prayers we recite Kiddush and make a blessing on the Challah.

May you be sealed and inscribed for a good and sweet year.

Nobody realized "violence and extremism" are problems until Iran pointed it out. If only everyone would listen to Iran . . .

The title of this little IRNA gem is "President: World seeing Iran's warnings on extremism to come true." Savor the sentence beginning "We introduced":

Iranian President Hassan Rouhani underlined that Iran had warned against the emergence of extremism in the world.

'We introduced violence and extremism as important problems of the world,' President Rouhani said upon his arrival in New York's John F Kennedy Airport on Monday evening.

'Now everyone sees that what havoc the extremists are creating in the world and I hope we talk about this issue and the ways for confronting it this year,' he added.

He expressed the hope that his visit to New York will be useful, and said, 'The purpose of this visit is clarifying Iran's stances and making them heard to the people of the world.' [...]

"Basij Commander: ISIL Taking Orders from White House" (Fars News)

From our potential ally against ISIL:

Commander of Iran's Basij (volunteer) force Brigadier General Mohammad Reza Naqdi said the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant (ISIL) is under the command of the White House and has been created to implement the US plots in the region.

"The command center of the ISIL is in the White House; the US itself has created this cancerous tumor and deflected stream in the region, and its plan to fight the ISIL is also the continuation of the same evil plot that it has pursued so far," Naqdi said, addressing a ceremony in the Central province of Yazd on Sunday.

He elaborated on the US goals of creating the ISIL, and said the first goal is displaying a fake face of Islam, which has been attained by the ISIL's inhuman and savage crimes in the region and releasing their images and footages in the world media; the second goal is sowing discord among the Shiites and Sunnis; the third and most important goal of the US is preventing the spread of the Islamic Revolution in the world and its recruitment of anti-arrogance forces.

Naqdi described another goal of Washington as preparing the ground for the US military intervention and deployment of its forces in the Middle-East.

Naqdi had also earlier lashed out at the US and Israel for sponsoring the ISIL.

"The criminal US created, equipped and armed the ISIL terrorist group with the help of the wicked Britain and the child-killing Zionist regime as well the petrodollars of oil-rich countries and they ordered it (ISIL) to carry out crimes and large-scale massacre of Shiites and Sunnis and disrupt their tranquility on the pretext of a sectarian Sunni war on Shiites," General Naqdi said, addressing a gathering of thousands of Basijis in Lorestan province on Wednesday.

He noted that the western countries wanted to introduce a tainted image of Islam to the world by displaying horrible crimes and savage wickedness against children, women and innocent people with extreme brutality and savagery in a bid to harness the huge waves of Islamism and tendency for Islam in the world, specially the western countries.

General Naqdi reiterated that the arrogant powers had created the ISIL and every now and then they attacked the terrorists to portray that they were fighting terrorism while the American, British and Israeli military advisors were supporting them in the battlefield.

"The outcome of the actions of this terrorist current in Syria was unprecedented as it caused people's high turnout in that country's presidential election, which set as yet another example of the inefficiency of weapons and the victory of the resistance movement against the global arrogance," he added.

"Palestinians hail solidarity of Castro, Chavez and Maduro" (AVN-Venezuela)

It' a wonderful day in the axis-hood:

Hundreds of Palestinians hoisted Tuesday photos of Cuban leader Fidel Castro and Venezuela's Hugo Chavez and Nicolas Maduro during a march in Gaza to express gratitude for Latin American solidarity.

Chanting slogans in support of Latin America and to repudiate the slaughter perpetrated by the Israeli army which left over 2,000 dead, mostly civilians, including children, women and elderly, and over 10,000 injured, protesters spent the march called by the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP), reported Prensa Latina.

Besides posters with pictures of the leader of the Bolivarian Revolution, Hugo Chavez, who broke relations with Israel following a military assault on Gaza, and current Venezuelan president Nicolas Maduro, PFLP members and supporters also raised photos of Ghassan Ben Jeddou.

Ben Jeddou is the president of the Pan-Arab Al-Mayadeen media corporation, whom they thanked for the realistic way in which his network covered the bombings carried out by Zionist forces and the strong resistance of the Palestinian people, added the press release.

During the popular mobilization there were also posters with the image of Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah, general secretary of the Lebanese Shiite resistance movement Hezbollah (Party of God), whose support for the Palestinian counterpart organizations was fundamental.

Also, Gazans walked the streets of the coastal enclave amid the ruins of houses and buildings bombarded by the Zionist army with flags of Palestine, Iran and Syria, the only two Middle Eastern nations that maintain consistent support for the Palestinian cause.

Angry Arab denounces Meshal as having "the visage of a liar" and then wonders if Meshal's denial of hating Jews will be reported

You can't make this up:

Now that the war on Gaza is over although the siege and occupation of Gaza by Israel is not over, we can resume the discussion of Hamas and its lousy opportunistic leader, Khalid Mish`al. His statement yesterday was almost word-for-word dictated by his sponsors in Qatar. This is a man who has no political integrity and who offered his movement back in 2011 to the highest bidder, as was reported in Al-Quds Al-Arabi. His list of "thanks" yesterday was a lesson in political opportunism--he even thanked Kuwait and Oman for their stances on Palestine. This man is the Yasser Arafat of the Qatari government and his path will emulate that failed path of Arafat. If Hamas were to develop into a resistance movement in the full meaning of the world, this man has to be ousted. He is one of the worst Palestinian leaders in the history of the movement and has the visage of a liar when he speaks. However, he made a clear statement to Jews in the world yesterday stressing that his movement was not in any way hostile to Jews and Judaism. Was that reported in the US press, I wonder? Will that ever be reported in the US press, I wonder? I just woke up and I have not seen US papers.