Hundreds of Taliban use tunnel to bolt Kandahar jail in security ‘disaster’

YAHOONEWS… KANDAHAR, Afghanistan – Hundreds of Taliban fighters bolted from prison in a daring escape overnight Sunday, prompting a huge hunt for the fugitives and exposing glaring security gaps in efforts to contain the insurgency.

Kandahar Gov. Tooryalai Wesa said Monday that a total of 475 political prisoners had escaped, “including one criminal.”

The insurgents had worked for months digging the tunnel they used to get out, Wesa said.

The tunnel was started in a house located to the north-east of the Sarpoza prison in the city’s Sarfooza area and continued to the entrance of the prison’s political block about 300 metres away.

“Some of the escaped prisoners have been recaptured by the security forces,” Wesa said.

“Huge operations have been launched inside and on the outskirts of Kandahar city for the rest of them.”

A spokesman for the Taliban, Qarii Yousaf Ahmadi, claimed that 541 insurgents escaped overnight after tunnelling underground to avoid security checkpoints. Continue Reading →

Harper promotes religious freedom

I suppose we will all just have to wait and see if this policy is implemented. If it is then there would be no more Canadian tax dollars going to countries who persecute others because of faith. And if it is not implemented there may now be legal grounds to suspend some foreign aid due to this statement from Harper.

Still, I won’t hold my breath for either scenario.

Toronto Sun… MISSISSAUGA, ONT. – While he may not be going to church Easter Sunday because he’s “on the road,” Conservative Leader Stephen Harper kicked off the final leg of the election campaign promoting his party’s promise to create an Office of Religious Freedom.

Later, Harper is travelling to B.C. where the party hopes to quell the rising NDP surge there.

At Saturday’s event here, Harper told an ethnically diverse crowd of about 650 people at a Coptic Christian centre that a re-elected Conservative government would make defending religious freedoms a “priority” for Canadian foreign policy.

The new Office of Religious Freedom, which would be part of Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade, would cost about $5 million a year.

“We do need to do more for this cause. We owe it to all who look to us as an example of freedom and refuge, and it is a cause worthy of us as Canadians,” Harper said. “This office will monitor these rights around the world, and will promote religious freedom as a key objective of Canadian foreign policy.”

In a statement, he added the new office, “will signal to religious minorities everywhere that they have a friend in Canada.” Continue Reading →

The black headmistress who saw lynch mob in a parent’s poster and called police

This is one of those stories you tell and then say, “I’m not kidding. It really happened”.

Only in Britain could a womans fear and insult brought on by an imagined racist attack, that caused the same woman to experience horrific flashbacks to a scene in a movie she once saw, be given so much time and support from the powers that be. If it were not for the list of officials, cost , time and another persons job and reputation this could almost be laughed off.

If God ever gives this planet an enema, the tube will have go in England.

 Mail Online… For a poster advertising a primary school parents’ meeting, it is certainly unusual.

Using models, it depicts scientist Charles Darwin surrounded by an angry mob wielding flaming torches and makeshift weapons.

According to the school governor who created it, City executive David Moyle, it is a satirical joke about pushy middle-class parents demanding higher standards.

Yet when black headmistress Shirley Patterson saw it, she believed it represented her surrounded by white parents.
Frightened: Headmistress Shirley Patterson called in the police after she saw the posterFrightened: Headmistress Shirley Patterson called in the police after she saw the poster

She reportedly compared it to a scene from Mississippi Burning, a film about  the Ku Klux Klan’s racist lynchings,  saying it left her ‘fearing for her and her family’s safety’.

She called the police, claiming harassment. Then a council inquiry spent weeks determining the race of the Charles Darwin figure. Now Mr Moyle has been suspended from the governing body  of Goodrich primary school in fashionable East Dulwich, south-east London, and  is considering withdrawing his two  younger children.

Although the police realised Darwin was white, and said no crime had been committed, Southwark council insisted it had ‘appropriately’ investigated the ‘deeply disturbing’ poster.

The Labour authority refused to reveal details of its inquiry – which involved half a dozen officers at a time when 500 jobs are set to be cut.

And it will not discuss how a model of  a white, bearded, Victorian scientist  could be confused with a black 21st century headmistress. Continue Reading →

UK IS ‘CLOSED TO WAR REFUGEES’

Daily Express… BRITAIN will not open its borders to migrants fleeing the turmoil in North Africa, the Home Secretary has insisted.

Theresa May told her EU counterparts that the UK was not prepared to take on any “burden sharing”.

Ms May issued her warning at a meeting of Europe’s Home Affairs ministers in response to calls for help from Italy.

She did however offer “practical assistance” to Italy on its own shores.

A Home Office spokesman said: “We were quite robust in stating that we are not planning to open our borders to those coming to Europe from North Africa. We do not agree with ‘burden sharing’ which is what Italy wants.”

More than 25,000, mainly Tunisians, have arrived in Italy since the unrest there and thousands of Libyans, Egyptians and other Africans are expected to make the crossing as border controls in war-torn Libya fail.

The tiny Sicilian island of Lampedusa is swamped by thousands of migrants arriving by the boatload every day. Continue Reading →

Man who burned Qur’an gets pain and suffering fees

Toronto Star… NEWARK, N.J. — The New Jersey Transit employee fired for publicly burning pages of the Qur’an on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks last year is getting his job back.

A settlement obtained by The Star-Ledger Newark shows Derek Fenton will receive $25,000 for pain and suffering when he resumes his $86,110-a-year job.

He’ll also receive back pay equal to $331.20 for every day since his firing on Sept. 13, 2010.

The state will also pay $25,000 in legal fees to the American Civil Liberties Union, which filed a lawsuit claiming Fenton’s right to free expression was violated.

The 40-year-old was not working when he set fire to three pages of the Qur’an in September in Lower Manhattan to protest a planned Islamic centre near ground zero.

Hallelujah! An Easter victory as Christian electrician wins battle to display cross in his van

 So how exactly is this a victory? The man in question retains the rights he has always had and that he is afforded under law but those who tried to punish him for his beliefs and to trample on his freedoms receive no punishment or official sanction.

So Mr. Atkinson, who once claimed he would not be silenced, has now done a secret backroom deal with the culprits and returned smiling and silenced.

Hows that victory tasting now Britain?

Mail Online… Christian electrician Colin Atkinson has won his fight to display a cross in his van following a nationwide outcry.

The dramatic climbdown by Wakefield District Housing came after senior church figures were joined by Hindu, Muslim and Sikh leaders in condemning his employers.

Former Archbishop of Canterbury Lord Carey had described the 64-year-old grandfather’s plight as ‘scandalous’ and Housing and Planning Minister Grant Shapps said WDH’s action was ‘wrong’.

Last night Lord Carey said: ‘I’m so glad. All that was needed was a little bit of compassion and understanding. Where there is a bit of common sense we can find a resolution.’

WDH caved in and agreed to let Mr Atkinson display his cross in an effort to end the embarrassing row.

The U-turn came at a ‘confidential and unminuted’ meeting between Mr Atkinson, his Unite union rep Terry Cuncliffe, WHD executive director of people Gillian Pickersgill and a senior manager at the organisation’s headquarters in Castleford, West Yorkshire, on Wednesday.

During the hour-long meeting WDH managers put a series of proposals to Mr Atkinson – all of which would allow him publicly to display the cross.

Mr Atkinson has agreed with managers not to reveal the details of the compromise agreement. But he had maintained all along his right to display the cross publicly was ‘non-negotiable’. Continue Reading →

‘My life is in danger’: Fears of Pakistani woman gang-raped on orders of village elders as 13 out of 14 men are cleared

When the [yet to be written] news story appears detailing this womans grisly murder at least we can count on our [and their] politicians to “strongly condemn” and “ask/promise that those involved be brought to justice”.

Of course the idea that anyone from a Western government would propose replacing the promised foreign aid cheque with a letter of condemnation is insane.

MailOnline… A Pakistani victim of a village council-sanctioned gang rape, who became a symbol of the country’s oppressed women, says her life is in danger after the Supreme Court acquitted 13 men accused of the crime.

The ruling leaves just one of the initial 14 suspects in prison.

Mukhtaran Mai was attacked on the orders of a village council in Punjab province nine years ago as a punishment because her brother – who was 12 at the time – was judged to have offended the honour of a powerful clan by allegedly having an affair with one of its women.

Mai, aged 30, was an illiterate villager at the time but the seamstress defied taboos and shot to global fame by speaking out about her ordeal and taking her attackers to court.

Mai had accused 14 men of being involved in raping her in a stable and in 2002, a court sentenced six of them to death while acquitting the others citing a lack of evidence.

But in an appeal, the Lahore High Court not only upheld the eight acquittals but also overturned five of the six convictions. The death penalty for the sixth man, Abdul Khaliq, was commuted to life in prison.    

Mai appealed to the Supreme Court in 2005 but a three-judge bench rejected her appeal on Thursday, said Gohar Ali Shah, a lawyer for Mai. Continue Reading →

Labour wanted mass immigration to make UK more multicultural, says former adviser

The Telegraph… Labour threw open Britain’s borders to mass immigration to help socially engineer a “truly multicultural” country, a former Government adviser has revealed.

The huge increases in migrants over the last decade were partly due to a politically motivated attempt by ministers to radically change the country and “rub the Right’s nose in diversity”, according to Andrew Neather, a former adviser to Tony Blair, Jack Straw and David Blunkett.

He said Labour’s relaxation of controls was a deliberate plan to “open up the UK to mass migration” but that ministers were nervous and reluctant to discuss such a move publicly for fear it would alienate its “core working class vote”.

As a result, the public argument for immigration concentrated instead on the economic benefits and need for more migrants.

Critics said the revelations showed a “conspiracy” within Government to impose mass immigration for “cynical” political reasons.

Mr Neather was a speech writer who worked in Downing Street for Tony Blair and in the Home Office for Jack Straw and David Blunkett, in the early 2000s.

Writing in the Evening Standard, he revealed the “major shift” in immigration policy came after the publication of a policy paper from the Performance and Innovation Unit, a Downing Street think tank based in the Cabinet Office, in 2001.

He wrote a major speech for Barbara Roche, the then immigration minister, in 2000, which was largely based on drafts of the report.

He said the final published version of the report promoted the labour market case for immigration but unpublished versions contained additional reasons, he said.

He wrote: “Earlier drafts I saw also included a driving political purpose: that mass immigration was the way that the Government was going to make the UK truly multicultural.

“I remember coming away from some discussions with the clear sense that the policy was intended – even if this wasn’t its main purpose – to rub the Right’s nose in diversity and render their arguments out of date.” Continue Reading →

Rich should be FORCED to help the poor, says Archbishop of Canterbury

For all those people cheering the words of Dr Williams. Ask yourselves if you would be so supportive had he suggested that all those unemployed and on benefits should be forced to work in hospitals, deliver meals to the old and indigent and sweep and weed the public streets and parks.

 Mail Online… The rich and powerful should be required by law to spend some time every year helping the poor and needy, says the Archbishop of Canterbury.

Rowan Williams said today a return to the medieval tradition when monarchs ritually washed the feet of the poor would serve to remind politicians and bankers what should be the purpose of their wealth and power.

Speaking on BBC Radio 4 Today programme’s Thought For The Day slot, he said the Bible made clear it was the duty of the powerful to ensure ordinary people were ‘treasured and looked after’ – especially those without the resources to look after themselves.

‘What about having a new law that made all Cabinet members and leaders of political parties, editors of national papers and the hundred most successful financiers in the UK spend a couple of hours every year serving dinners in a primary school on a council estate, or cleaning bathrooms in a residential home?’ he suggested.

Alternatively, he said, they could walk the town streets at night as street pastors ‘ready to pick up and absorb something of the chaos and human mess you will find there, especially among young people’.Because the duty to serve would be compulsory, those involved would not be able to claim credit for doing it, he added.

Dr Williams acknowledged that it might just be ‘a nice fantasy to mull over during the holiday weekend’, but insisted that it could bring genuine benefits.

‘It might do two things: reminding our leaders of what the needs really are at grassroots level so that those needs can never again just be remote statistics, and reminding the rest of us what politics and government are really for,’ he said.

‘I thought there would be a bit of pain, then I would be in Heaven’: Maimed Pakistani boy, 14, tells of failed suicide bomb bid

Seconds after losing his arm and being shot,  Islamist realizes the error of his ways

Mail Online…A Pakistani teenager has told how he was brainwashed by the Taliban into becoming a suicide bomber because he believed he would go to paradise.

Umar Fidai, 14, and another schoolboy were behind the attack on a Pakistani shrine earlier this month in which scores were killed and many others injured.

Fidai survived because his bomb vest failed to detonate properly, although he has lost an arm and could yet lose his life because of his injuries.

Now in custody, he admits he made a terrible mistake and begs forgiveness for his deadly mission – for which his family have now disowned him.

He told the BBC he trained with the Taliban for five months, learning how to shoot, use a grenade and ultimately to be a suicide bomber.

He was told he would go Afghanistan to kill ‘non-believers’ but in fact the pair were taken to another part of Pakistan and ordered to blow up the shrine.

Umar told the BBC: ‘The plan was that Ismail would blow himself up near the shrine, then I would wait and blow myself up near the ambulances when they came.’

He said he had no doubts at all about killing himself: ‘All I was thinking was that I had to detonate myself near as many people as possible.

‘When I decided it was the right time, it was a moment of happiness for me. I thought that there would be a little bit of pain, but then I would be in Heaven.’

Even when the jacket failed, Umar continued to try and bring about more carnage – reaching for a grenade in his pocket.

‘We had been taught that if the belt does not go off, we should kill ourselves with the grenade.

‘There were three policemen standing close by, and I thought if I killed them too, I would still make it to Heaven.’

As he attempted to pull out the pin, he was shot in the arm by police. He says when doctors and officers then tried to help him, he realised he had made a dreadful mistake. 

Umar was persuaded to train with the Taliban by dogged recruiters who waited for likely young boys as they went to school.

The children were told studying was pointless and that killing ‘infidels’ would be a route to paradise.

‘The Taliban prayed all the time and read the Koran, so I thought they were good people. My heart told me to go and train with them,’ he said.

He admits he now ‘did a very bad thing’ and has realised suicide bombing is un-Islamic. The boy has not heard from his family since the blast.

He is still seriously ill and is worried the Taliban might come to kill him because he failed to complete his mission.

 

Lord Cleese of Fawlty Towers: Why John Cleese declined a peerage

John Cleese, the actor and comedian, has revealed that he turned down the opportunity to take a seat in the House of Lords.

The Telegraph… The star of Monty Python and Fawlty Towers was offered a peerage by Paddy Ashdown, the former Liberal Democrat leader, but refused the honour because he could not face spending the winter in England.

Lord Ashdown offered Cleese the chance to take the party whip and sit in the House of Lords as a working peer for the Liberal Democrats shortly before he stepped down as party leader in 1999.

But Cleese, a generous donor to the Liberal Democrats who previously campaigned for proportional representation on behalf of the party and has appeared in several party political broadcasts, declined, because remaining in England during the winter months to fulfil his role as a working peer was “too much of a price to pay”.

In an interview with The Sunday Telegraph on the eve of his first ever UK live tour, Cleese, who divides his time between the UK and California, said: “I turned down a peerage actually.

“Paddy was going to offer me one when he ceased to be leader of the Lib Dems, for political services – not because I was such a wonderful human being, and because I’d helped them [Lib Dems] a lot.

“But I realised this involved being in England in the winter and I thought that was too much of a price to pay.”

He also said that he previously turned down a CBE in 1996 “because I think they are silly”.

Cleese, 71, will embark on a two-month live tour, An Evening with the Legendary John Cleese, next month. Continue Reading →

Indonesia: Most of Jakarta police force to protect churches from terror during Easter

Yet there are no plans to provide this kind of security around mosques during Eid. This is blatant Islamophobia at it’s worst.

(AKI/Jakarta Post) – Jakarta Police plans to deploy at least 20,000 officers to safeguard the Indonesian capital over the Easter holiday period, which begins this Friday.

Jakarta Police operational bureau head Sr. Comr. Sujarno said around two-thirds of the police force would be involved in the operation.

“We will deploy officers to churches and other vital objects,” Sujarno said.

Sujarno added that the deployment would be based on jurisdictions, because officers had better knowledge about their respective areas of operation.

“Every subdistrict police office will be responsible for the security of each subdistrict,” he said.

Until now, the police had found no indications of terrorism, Sujarno said, but urged residents to remain alert. Jakarta Police operational bureau head Sr. Comr. Sujarno said around two-thirds of the police force would be involved in the operation.

“We will deploy officers to churches and other vital objects,” Sujarno said.

Sujarno added that the deployment would be based on jurisdictions, because officers had better knowledge about their respective areas of operation.

“Every subdistrict police office will be responsible for the security of each subdistrict,” he said.

Until now, the police had found no indications of terrorism, Sujarno said, but urged residents to remain alert.

Banished for his Christian beliefs: Now electrician who had a cross in his van is thrown out of depot

Mail Online… The electrician making a stand over his Christian beliefs was yesterday thrown out of his workplace of 15 years for displaying a cross to mark Easter.

Colin Atkinson was told he had ‘violated’ his contract by revealing he had been disciplined for having the symbol on the dashboard of his company van.

Senior managers told the 64-year-old grandfather he could no longer work at the depot because he had ‘upset his workmates’. He has been moved to another depot but fears he will be sacked in days.

Despite Wakefield District Housing’s ‘anti-Christian’ rules, Mr Atkinson’s boss, Denis Doody, is allowed to display a poster of communist revolutionary Che Guevara in his office.

It is believed Mr Doody is one of the ‘upset’ colleagues.

Yesterday morning senior WDH managers were waiting for Mr Atkinson – who retires in ten months – at the company’s depot in Castleford, West Yorkshire, to deliver the news.

Mr Atkinson told the Daily Mail: ‘I expect to be sacked within days. They have already found against me for failing to carry out a “reasonable management request” by refusing to get rid of the cross. Continue Reading →

Sun News launches, shows controversial cartoon of Prophet Muhammad

Channel 15 on Rogers. Channel 213 on Bell in Toronto and #66 Rogers in Ottawa

Yahoo News… TORONTO – The Sun News Network launched Monday by showing cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad that prompted a storm of protest across the Muslim world after they were published in a Danish newspaper in 2005.

The caricatures were displayed on the fledgling network’s very first show, “The Source with Ezra Levant.”

Levant discussed his decision to publish the cartoons back in 2006 when he was editor of the Alberta-based political magazine The Western Standard. A graphic of the magazine spread appeared onscreen during his Monday show that clearly showed the 12 controversial caricatures of Muhammad.

“What’s the big deal? We just showed it. Nothing bad happened,” said Levant. Continue Reading →