Janin Sujud dengar al-Quran

Bismillah: Untuk ibu-ibu mengandong, Perbuatan anda mendengarkan Al-Qur'an bagi janin dalam kandungan anda adalah terpuji. Bahkan pihak Hospital yang memperdengarkan Radio Al-Qur'an setiap masa di wad hendak bersalin dan selepas bersalin juga adalah amalan yang terpuji. Mudah-mudahan Allah membalas jasa anda yang terpuji itu. Amin.

Astronaut Ready To Fly To Mars?

After a year of occasionally public wrangling with Congress, the Obama Administration on Wednesday unveiled its plan for a new NASA rocket intended to fly astronauts and cargo to Mars and other destinations in deep space.

The core of the so-called Space Launch System (SLS) is an enhanced space shuttle fuel tank, which holds liquid hydrogen and liquid oxygen for the ship’s engines. Initially, it also will use shuttle-derived solid fuel booster rockets developed under the now-canceled Constellation moon program.

WATCH VIDEO: Find out what it is like to be launch director at NASA.

NASA says the decision to use shuttle technology was based on analysis that showed it would cost less and provide more flexibility for planned upgrades. Initially the new launcher would be able to carry between 70 and 100 metric tons to orbit (about three times as much as the now-retired space shuttles). For missions to Mars, the rocket would be upgraded to carry about 130 metric tons.

SEE ALSO: NASA Lacks Budget for Next Generation Rockets

In all, the United States plans to spend $18 billion on the project through 2017, including $10 billion for the rocket, $6 billion for the Orion capsule to carry crews and $2 billion to upgrade the Kennedy Space Center launch site to accommodate the new booster.

Image: Artist's concept of Space Launch System. Credit: NASA

Palestinian Statehood

Turkey's Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan speaks in Cairo on September 13, 2011.

Turkey has called for the Palestinian flag to finally be raised at the UN, saying that international recognition of Palestine is now an obligation rather than an option.

"We must work hand in hand with our Palestinian brothers. The Palestinian cause is the cause of human dignity. It's time to raise the Palestinian flag at the United Nations. Let's raise the Palestinian flag and let that flag be the symbol of peace and justice in the Middle East," said Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan in a Tuesday address to the Arab League in Cairo, according to a report by The Guardian .

The prime minister used the much-anticipated speech to the Arab League to build opposition against the Israeli regime, vowing that Turkey would stand by those that struggle for their political rights in the Arab world.

Before the year's end "we will see Palestine in a very different situation," he emphasized.

Erdogan went on to insist that Israeli government's mentality is a barrier to peace in the Middle East.

Defying Israeli threats and US opposition, the Palestinian Authority (PA) is preparing to make a statehood bid at the UN General Assembly’s annual meeting. The Palestinian delegation is due to arrive in New York on September 19 and will submit an application for an official membership to the world body in the following days.

"Freedom and democracy and human rights must be a united slogan for the future of our people," Erdogan stated.

Palestinian Authority chief Mahmoud Abbas, who is also in Egypt, has said that he will be pressing ahead with Palestine's bid for full recognition at the UN Security Council, despite persisting US threats to veto the legitimate effort.

PA says that more than 130 countries would recognize the state of Palestine, which is more than the two-thirds majority required in the 193-member UN General Assembly.

Israel Attack Bedouin

There are more than 45 Arab villages in the Negev Desert which are not recognised by Israel.

The Israeli Cabinet has approved a plan to relocate more than 30,000 of the Negev Desert's Palestinian Bedouin from their land. The move has been described by the Bedouin's representatives as "a declaration of war on the Bedouin in the Negev". The plan approved at Sunday's Cabinet meeting is based on recommendations by a team from the Prime Minister's office led by Ehud Prawer, a retired Israeli judge. Prawer recommends the relocation of tens of thousands of Palestinian Bedouin from their Negev villages which have not been recognised by Israel since it was established in 1948. According to the plan, the Bedouin will be compensated with alternative land in the Bedouin communities of Rahat, Kseifa and Hura; all three communities already suffer from difficult living conditions and limited infrastructure.

According to sources inside Israel ("1948-Occupied Palestine"), there are more than 45 Arab villages in the Negev Desert which are not recognised by Israel. They are home to more than 80,000 Palestinian Bedouin, hundreds of whom protested outside the Prime Minister's Office in a demonstration organised by the High Follow-Up Committee for Arab Citizens of Israel. Protesters included a number of leading figures, representatives of political parties and political and popular factions, as well as Arab Knesset members.
MK Talab Al-Sanei, who took part in the protest said, "This is a clear Israeli plan which leads us to war." Calling the plan "another Nakba (Catastrophe)"against the people of the Negev, Al-Sanei added, "We will never allow this. We have to unite and stand together against such racist plans."

New Disastours Break Old Record

ROCHESTER, N.Y. -- The phrases "New York State" and "tropical storms" do not appear in the same news story very often. Two such storms, named Irene and Lee, have changed that as Upstate New York reels from a one - two punch. The region has received massive rains from first the remnants of Hurricane Irene, and then in less than a week, more heavy rain from the leftovers of Tropical Storm Lee. 

While the damage from Irene was widespread in New York City, Long Island, the Mohawk and Hudson River valleys and the Catskills, the rainfall from Lee was more localized. And, in some places even heavier than that from Irene. The Susquehanna River, the two branches of the Delaware River and the streams that feed both received the bulk of the rainfall from the second storm. 

The Susquehanna River runs south to the New York / Pennsylvania border from the Catskill Mountains. It then runs along the border to the west before turning south into Pennsylvania. 

At Unadilla, near the headwaters of the Susquehanna, the river crested at 16.34 feet on Thursday night. That is five feet above flood stage. It is not expected to fall below flood stage until Sunday. 

The river crested at a record 25.71 feet at 4 pm on Thursday at the gauge in Binghamton. At noon Friday the Susquehanna remains seven feet above flood stage though down four feet from the crest. The city recorded 7.5 inches of rain on September 7 and an additional 1.5 inches on September 8. That nine inches of rain fell on top of the 3.7 inches of rain that Binghamton received from Hurricane Irene August 27-29. 

At Vestal, a short distance downstream, another flood crest record was set. Just after noon on Thursday, the Susquehanna River flood crest reached 35.26 feet, over eighteen inches higher than the previous record. The river in Vestal is not expected to fall below flood level until very early September 12. 

The Owego river gauge ceased reporting at 6 am on Thursday. At that time the river was six feet higher than the previous record, at 37.98 feet. 

The Susquehanna River leaves New York near the community of Waverly. The Waverly river gauge is just across the border in Pennsylvania. At noon Friday, the river remains two feet higher than the previous record and is not predicted to fall below flood levels in the next several days. The new flood crest record was set at 10:30 am on September 8, but the river was within inches of this crest for eighteen hours on that Thursday. 

Flood warnings continue for most of the counties in Upstate New York south and east of Syracuse. The counties surrounding the cities of Utica, Oneonta and Binghamton are included. In the Hudson Valley, the warnings include those counties around Saratoga Springs, Albany and Poughkeepsie.

Israel Embassy Attacked

CAIRO — Egypt put its police force on a state of alert after a night of violence during which angry protesters broke into the Israeli Embassy in Cairo, tearing down a cement barrier around the building and dumping documents out of the windows.

 

An elderly man runs past flaming vehicles outside the building housing the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. A group of about 30 protesters broke into the embassy Friday and dumped hundreds of documents out of the windows after a day of demonstrations outside the building in which crowds swinging sledge hammers and using their bare hands tore apart the embassy's security wall. (AP Photo) 
 

 

A protester holds the Egyptian national flag as a fire rages outside the building housing the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Egypt, Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. Hundreds of Egyptian protesters, some swinging hammers and others using their bare hands, tore down parts of a graffiti-covered security wall outside the Israeli embassy in Cairo on Friday. Thousands elsewhere protested for the first time in a month against the country's military rulers. (AP Photo) 
 

 

Some hundreds of Egyptian activists demolish a concrete wall built around a building housing the Israeli embassy in Cairo, Egypt, to protect it against demonstrators, as they raise their national Friday, Sept. 9, 2011. (AP Photo/Amr Nabil)

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The rampage further worsened already deteriorating ties between Israel and post-Hosni Mubarak Egypt. The Israeli ambassador and his family had rushed to the airport and left the country.
The state MENA news agency says 448 people were injured in overnight clashes between thousands of protesters and police, who fired tear gas to disperse the crowd. Forty-six policemen were also hurt and 17 protesters were arrested.
Egypt's state TV says the interior ministry on Saturday ordered all officers back on duty and canceled vacations.
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September 10, 2011 02:17 AM EDT
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