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Police baffled by horrific end of Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez Students were bound, gagged and stabbed more than 200 times but the motive for attack is a mystery Adam Fresco, Fran Yeoman and Marcus Leroux As two talented biochemistry students and close friends, Laurent Bonomo and Gabriel Ferez had come to London to develop their skills as specialists in infectious disease and environmental engineering. Instead the two became the victims of an attack that, even by the standards of a city battling against the blight of knife crime, is among the most horrific in living memory. The bodies of...

25 March 2008 [Press Release] Death toll rise to 79, over 1200 arrests and more than 100 disappear in Tibet The Tibetan Centre for Human Rights and Democracy (TCHRD) has been closely monitoring the situation inside Tibet particularly since 10 March 2008 when the first peaceful protest led by Tibetan Buddhist monks broke up in Lhasa on the 49th anniversary of Tibetan Uprising Day. For the past more than two weeks, the exact figures on the number of arrest, death, injury or disappeared from the violent crackdowns during protests in various parts of Tibet is difficult to ascertain due to...

March 19, 2008 China brands Dalai Lama a monster and forces students to denounce him (Arko Datta/Reuters) "The Dalai Lama is a wolf wrapped in a habit, a monster with human face and the hearf of an animal," said the Chinese leader of Tibet Jane Macartney in Beijing The hardline leader of Tibet has branded the Dalai Lama a “monster” as it emerged that Tibetan students in Beijing have been ordered to effectively renounce any allegiance to their god-king. Zhang Qingli, the Communist Party Secretary in Tibet, said that the struggle to crush the unrest in the deeply Buddhist Himalayan...

TEHRAN — Iran hanged seven men convicted of murder and drug smuggling in different cities, newspapers reported Thursday, bringing the number of publicly disclosed executions in the first two weeks of this year to 23. The daily Iran reported that two men, identified only by their first names as Mojtaba and Mohammad-Hossein, were hanged for murder Wednesday in the southern city of Jahorm. Three others, convicted of drug trafficking were hanged in eastern city of Birjand on Wedneasday, the daily Jomhouri Islami reported. The daily added that two others convicted of murder were hanged in the northern city of Tonekabon...

WASHINGTON, Dec. 21, 2007 – Ongoing Multinational Force Iraq operations against terrorists are focused in the country’s northern provinces, where al Qaeda activity is heavy, a U.S. military official said from Baghdad. Al Qaeda has gravitated north because they’ve been pushed out of Anbar province, in the west, and improved security has constrained their operations in Baghdad and areas south, Air Force Col. Donald Bacon, chief of strategy and plans for Multinational Force Iraq’s Strategic Communications Division, said in a conference call with online journalists and “bloggers” Dec. 19. Operation Iron Reaper, which began the last week of November, is...

Re: 'Anti Chavez protests' Maria Conchita Alonso has elaborated today [11/02/07] on Foxnews' Neal Cavuto http://www.foxnews.com/yourworld/index.html, the mass torture of prisoners, the brutality and oppression by the Chavez regime in Venezuela _______ The Big Story' [MARIA CONCHITA ALONSO, FORMER MISS VENEZUELA on the Anti Chavez riots]http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,307418,00.htmlChaos in Caracas! Actress Maria Conchita Alonso Reacts to Protests in Venezuelahttp://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,277680,00.html _______ Related [on an earlier date]: Luckily there is a star who's got the eggs to stand up to Venezuela's Communist-in-chief: Cuban-born actress Maria Conchita Alonso, who grew up in Venezuela, said Penn's visit lends support to a "totalitarian" leader who wants increasing...

Disabled woman viciously beaten by husband By Wendy Barlow A MAN who subjected his disabled wife to a violent beating which left their bedroom blood splattered has been jailed for two-and-a-half years. Burnley Crown Court heard how Adam Stephenson, 37, had repeatedly punched and kicked victim Samantha Smith on two occasions within four days but claimed to still love her. Miss Smith escaped and went to hospital after the second beating and it was only because medics alerted police the violence came to light. Stephenson, of Cronkshaw Street, Burnley, said to have converted to Islam in a bid to beat...

Expect more Mugabe brutality, says US envoy By Peta Thornycroft, Zimbabwe Correspondent Last Updated: 12:45am BST 07/04/2007 A child eats what may be his only meal of the day President Robert Mugabe has entered a new phase of brutality since African leaders and his own party failed to take a stand against his violent rule, America's ambassador to Harare has told The Daily Telegraph. Christopher Dell gave warning that more oppression could be expected. "The situation has changed in some respects now that the mask is off and we see the beast for what it really is. As they feel...

WHERE WAS THE OUTRAGE THEN? "Saddam Hussein was responsible for massive human rights violations, but that can't justify giving him the death penalty, which is a cruel and inhuman punishment," said Richard Dicker, director of Human Rights Watch's International Justice Program, after the former dictator was hanged early Saturday for the deaths of 148 townspeople. What's wrong with this statement? For starters, "massive human rights violations" is the understatement of the year. Is that what we now call genocide, cold-blooded murder of men, women and children? Do we consider Adolf Hitler to have committed "human rights violations," or do we...

The Russians do not want to let go of a grudge. They have apparently started a de facto pogrom against Georgians within their borders after the arrest of four alleged spies in Tbilisi this week. The release of the suspects has apparently done nothing to slake the Russian thirst for revenge: Georgians living in Russia felt the Kremlin's wrath yesterday as it retaliated against its neighbour following the spying row between the two countries last week. Police raided Georgian restaurants and other businesses in Moscow, apparently looking for minor legal violations in order to force their closure or criminalise their...

Police unions and three unnamed Baton Rouge Police Department officers have asked to joined a legal fight to keep police from having to release internal affairs records from an investigation into allegations of brutality and excessive force after Hurricane Katrina. State District Judge Kay Bates on Monday had not ruled on the intervention request filed by the Baton Rouge Union of Police, the Louisiana Union of Police Associations and the International Union of Police Associations. An intervention is a request to become a party in a lawsuit. The unions and officers claim that “unfettered access to internal affairs investigative files...

It's now open & 'official', Islamists call Christians 'animals' ISLAMOFASCISM! http://www.dailybulletin.com/ci_3959579 2 US soldiers bodies found mutilated and tortured http://www.cnn.com/2006/WORLD/meast/06/20/soldiers.missing/index.html [Islamic website connected to Al Qaeda said:] "We announce the good news to our Islamic nation that we executed God's will and slaughtered the two crusader animals we had in captivity," said the claim, reportedly from the Mujahedeen Shura Council, a group linked to al Qaeda.

NEWS Tribal man shot by parks cop dies Tuesday, April 11, 2006 By CAROLYN SALAZAR STAFF WRITERS Emil Mann, shot by New Jersey State Park Police on April 1 during a confrontation with Ramapough Mountain Indians, died Monday afternoon. He was 45. His death, nine days after the shooting, could further damage the already fra-gile relationship between law enforcement authorities and the Ramapoughs, who have said the officers were harassing them. His death could also elevate any criminal charges against park police Officer Chad Walder to murder. Walder shot Mann twice during a scuffle over ATV use in an isolated...

'Only a fraction of Teheran's brutality has come to light' By Kim Willsher in Auvers-sur-Oise (Filed: 19/03/2006) She is the female figurehead of what she hopes will become a new Iranian revolution. Now, after almost 25 years in exile, the world is beginning to beat a path to her door. Maryam Rajavi wants those who visit her near Paris to know what sort of regime Iran's mullahs are running. As the leader of the largest exiled Iranian opposition group, she talks angrily of the 15-year-old boy flogged to death for eating during Ramadan, and the girl of 13 buried up...

N.Korean Gulag Musical Premieres N.K. Prison Camp Musical Falls Foul of Seoul Officialdom A controversial musical set in a North Korean gulag has at last been staged, overcoming pressure from powerful circles to bin the production for fear of offending Pyongyang. Wednesday night saw the opening of “Yoduk Story” at the Seoul KyoYuk Munhwa Hoekwan auditorium. It has been a difficult road for producer Chung Seong-san, himself a North Korean defector, that saw him reportedly exposed to death threats and official pressure. “Yoduk Story” centers on Kang Yeon-hwa, the daughter of a party official and a promising dancer. When...

Why are Jewish groups suppressing news of Israeli government brutality? By Buddy Macy February 10, 2006 This evening, I received the E-ALERT from the Jewish United Fund/Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, dated 2/9/06. Included in that edition of the online publication are articles about a highly offensive, anti-Semitic speech, Iran and its nuclear activities, the reaction to the Danish cartoons, Palestinian terrorists, the Church of England's partial divestiture from Israel, and more. What was not included in that publication, was news about the Knesset's vote to establish a commission of inquiry into alleged police brutality at Amona. Nor was there...

French troops suffocated Ivorian Some 10,000 French and UN peacekeepers are in Ivory Coast French troops in Ivory Coast killed an Ivorian man by suffocation in May while he was in their custody, the French Defence Ministry has said. The French forces commander at the time was informed of what had happened, but did not report it to his superiors. Gen Henri Poncet was suspended last month in connection with the death. France's 4,000-strong peacekeeping mission, supported by UN troops, is enforcing a fragile truce between the Ivorian government and northern rebels. The prisoner, Firmin Mahe, "was killed by suffocation...

/begin my translationThe First-ever Video Showing N. Korean Interrogation of a Refugee, including beatings by soldiers filmed at an N. Korean guard platoon on Aug. 17(, 2005) [2005-09-26 11:28] The first-ever publicized scene of an interrogation of a N. Korean refugee by soldiers inside their guard office A video, which contains the scenes of interrogation by N. Korean soldiers in which they beat a N. Korean refugee inside a N. Korean military facility, is made public. Free North Korea Broadcasting(http://www.freenk.com/ ) made public 14 photos which show N. Korean soldiers were interrogating and beating a N. Korean woman who escaped (to China), hid there for 8 years and attempted...

To: Western political leaders Gay teenagers executed in Iran This week two gay teenagers were executed in Iran. Their only 'crime' was their sexual orientation. After more than a year of imprisonment, where they had already been punished with 226 lashes, both guys were hanged publicly on July 19th 2005. Mahmoud Asgari (16) and Ayaz Marhoni (18) are the next victims in Iran in long series of execution upon basis of homosexual behaviour. These barbarian and medieval events have to stop immediately. Gay & Lesbian organisations, Human Rights organisations, Nobel Peace laureate Shirin Ebadi, and even the Oposition in Iran...

SACRAMENTO (AP) - Civil rights leaders Friday called for monthly psychological evaluations for police officers statewide and standardized collection of racial profiling data in a report aimed at curbing police brutality. The report, released by the California National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, comes out of a March hearing with community leaders and civil rights groups following the death of 13-year-old Devin Brown. Brown was shot by police after allegedly crashing a stolen car into a police car in South Los Angeles. California NAACP president Alice Huffman said abuse of power among California police was widespread and persistent....

Kurds in Iran's western city of Mahabad are rioting against the Iranian government after the torture and brutal death of activist, Shovaneh Ghaderi, at the hands of the police. Shovaneh was a member of the Revolutionary Union of Kurdistan. His crime evidently was to call for autonomy in Kurdistan. Reports are that Shovaneh was shot by police and tied to a car. He was dragged by the car to the police station, suffering severe lacerations. At the police station, he was allegedly tortured until he died. Shovaneh was 25-years old at the time of his murder. The police brutality came...

I was surprised last week to learn how easily some Westerners believe terrorism can be explained. The realization unfolded as I looked into the sad face of a student at Oxford University. After giving a speech about Islam, I met this young magazine editor to talk about Islam's lost tradition of critical thinking and reasoned debate. But we never got to that topic. Instead, we got stuck on the July 7 bombings in London and what might have compelled four young, British-raised, observant Muslim men to blow themselves up while taking innocent others with them. She emphasized their "relative economic...

"I want to go to trial on Monday; I've been locked up for nearly eight years," declared Charles Thomas Sell. "The federal court has no evidence, they have no witnesses. I want my trial one week from today. I am not incompetent in any way, shape or form." His statements rang true to bystanders attending his hearing on Nov. 22 in the federal courthouse in St. Louis. Whatever happened to the right of an accused to have a speedy trial? Once a successful dentist in St. Louis County who treated many indigent patients, Sell was accused of Medicaid fraud in...

Davou Bulle, his wife, and their 10 children each climbed into the van, exhausted from another full day of work on their family's farm. He started to pull away but was soon jarred to attention by the sound of gunshots hitting the tires. They were being ambushed because of his faith! The Muslim attackers soon aimed their weapons at the driver, in hopes to first kill the Christian "infidel" then kill his entire family. In an attempt to protect his father son Gyan lunged at the bullets to shield him but the bullets found their way to their intended target,...

If last week’s Daily Telegraph article by Samantha Grice is anything to go by, this summer’s must-read is not a piece of pulp fiction one can happily devour on a sun-drenched beach. Rather, it’s a disturbing true-life portrait of a vain and superstitious psychopath—a book that will likely leave you chilled and upset, rather than amused or titillated. But by all accounts, it is a must-read just the same. For two decades, Iraqi Dr. Ala Bashir served (through no choice of his own, he says) as plastic surgeon to then-dictator Saddam Hussein and his family. During that time, Dr. Bashir...

When a doctor examined Zahra Kazemi, he found, according to his medical report, "Bruises from forehead to ear," "Skull fracture," "Two broken fingers," "Broken and missing fingernails," "Severe abdominal bruising" and "Evidence of very brutal rape." Iranian security agents had arrested Kazemi in June 2003. Her crime: photographing a demonstration outside Tehran's Evin prison. One year later, Atefeh Rajabi, 16, was sentenced to death and hanged. Her crime: an "act incompatible with chastity." Last month a cleric in the security forces gunned down a 20-year-old man in a train station because he had verbally teased two young women. These cases...

January 13, 1945 MINNEAPOLIS (Routers) The Roosevelt administration reeled today from new revelations of atrocities at German and Italian POW camps in America's heartland, where prisoners have been worked to exhaustion, and many have died. The international community has expressed shock at news of the harsh treatment of the Axis prisoners, eliminating any pretense at moral underpinnings for our war efforts in the Pacific and western Europe. Produce Farms of Death For many, the lachrymose terror begins when the prisoners first arrive, as they are housed in an onion-drying shed on the Odegard Farm in Isanti County. Many deaths have...

The Pentagon has acknowledged five instances in which guards or interrogators at the detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, handled the Koran in such a way as to cause offense to some who believe it is the revealed word of Allah. Three are said to have been three deliberate and two unintentional. Amnesty International has put the United States high on the list of countries it says are guilty of prisoner and human rights abuses because of the way suspected terrorists are treated. The chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, General Richard Myers, rebutted the notion of inappropriate treatment...

Straw at odds with US over brutality of terror war ally By Alec Russell, in Washington and Nick Allen, in Moscow (Filed: 16/05/2005) One of America's main allies in the fight against terrorism was accused yesterday of slaughtering women and children "like rabbits", placing the Bush administration in a quandary over its support for President Islam Karimov, the strong man of Central Asia. Witnesses said that women and children were among the demonstrators shot by soldiers in Uzbekistan, a former Soviet republic which has become crucial for America's attempt to keep control in neighbouring Afghanistan. Jack Straw, the Foreign Secretary,...

CAIRO, May 15, 2005 (IslamOnline.net) – Pakistani activists and journalists have condemned police brutality against women who defied a ban on running in a mixed road race through eastern Lahore city Saturday, May 14. The government’s action has exposed the truth about its claims of being liberal, Asma Jahangir, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP) chairperson, told the Daily Times on Sunday, May 15. The mixed rally was propagated by HRCP and the Joint Action Committee for Peoples Rights, the organizers, as an event to raise awareness of violence against women and promote “enlightened moderation”. When the run took off,...

I receive an English comic book several times a week via e-mail called: “The Party for Islamic Renewal.” In one of their latest issues, British Muslims are wailing about how badly Muslims are treated around the world. The Muslims of England must unite to protest the horrible, evil, cruel, and completely unjust persecution and oppression of Muslims. Muslims complain that in France, the locals don’t like the Muslim girls to wear their hijabs. This is an outrage. I understand that in Egypt a woman is encouraged to wear the hijab. In fact, I believe it’s mandatory, especially if she is...

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They Will Say They Did Not Know by OneFreeKorea a/k/a WonsanGhetto (comment added by TigerLikesRooster: German civilians under U.S. military escort are forced to see a wagon loaded with corpses in Buchenwald. Photo credit: National Archives, courtesy of USHMM Photo Archives )As it did in 2004, the Korean government will abstain from this year's U.N. Resolution condemning the deplorable state of human rights in North Korea. South Korea failed to vote on a similar resolution in 2003. This year’s resolution will express concern about abuses such as concentration camps for political prisoners. Among the resolution’s points which are apparently unworthy...

[Excerpts:]You would think that a party at a police officer's house, full of off-duty police officers, would be among the safest places to have fun. Frank Jude, 26, doesn't think so. The Milwaukee-area man had been invited by another guest to such a party on Oct. 24, 2004. He left cuffed and savagely beaten. "It looked like a bomb had went off in Frank's face," said Kirsten Antonissen, who accompanied him to the party. Jude's pants were also cut off his body. He says he was kicked repeatedly in the groin, his fingers were yanked back and a pen was...

“The Passion of the Christ”--Directed by Mel Gibson “I did not come to bring peace, but a sword.” – Jesus of Nazareth It is one of the chief ironies of history that the person who taught us to turn the other cheek and to return good for evil has been one of the most divisive characters we have ever seen. That he remains so to this day is clearly shown by many of the reactions to Mel Gibson’s controversial portrait of his suffering and death, “The Passion of the Christ,” recently released on DVD. Apart from the polarizing impact of...

"Jump the Shark" is a semi-known phrase meaning "lose all credibility" or "it's all downhill from here." The phrase comes from www.jumptheshark.com - which catalogs and debates the (paraphrase) "defining moment when you know you're favorite TV Show has reached its peak and its all downhill from here." The phrase "jump the shark" comes from a Happy Days episode - late in the series - where Fonzie went on a vacation with the Cunninghams. In that episode of the sitcom, Fonzie jumped over a jaws-like shark while waterskiing on the ocean. Fans generally thought this moment was so absurd, that...

New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) has long been rumored as desperately seeking the democratic nomination for president in 2008. And while many political observers fully expect the power hungry former First Lady to hit the campaign trail within only a few months of being re-elected as a US Senator in 2006, US News & World report claims to have a confirmation of sorts. From USNews.Com's Washington Whispers: Hillary's in… You don't have to take it from us about Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton 's desire to run for president. Her brothers, Hugh and Tony Rodham, say it's true. Friends...

Family spurns daughter aged 14 for having sex James McDonald and Dearbhail McDonald   THE parents of a 14-year-old Muslim girl, forced to leave the family home for having sex with a 35-year-old man, have told gardai they are disowning their child. The girl, who is currently in care of the Eastern Regional Health Authority (ERHA), was thrown out of her West Dublin home after she admitted to having sex with the man, whom she met through a mobile phone text-and-date service.     The teenager’s devout parents were so upset that they ordered her to leave home, even...

The death of Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat has brought forth all the shopworn bromides about the critical opportunity now ahead, to finally forge a lasting peace and a two state solution for Israel and the Palestinians. Arafat’s death has not changed any of the underlying dynamics that continue to prevent such a peace or a two state solution from emerging. The first of these critical dynamics is that Palestinian society is now more accurately described as a chaotic, violent state of nature (in the Hobbesein sense), than as a political entity ready for the next step to peace and statehood.

Muhammad spoke the language of violence and understood that language. He did not attack his victims because they had done something wrong. He attacked them because he calculated that he could win and he only attacked those who were weaker. He took them by surprise, when they were unarmed, attending to their daily business. Nonetheless he fabricated pretexts and excuses for his attacks. For example when he attacked the Bani Qaynuqa, the excuse was that one of them insulted a Muslim woman. When he massacred the Bani Quraiza, the excuse was that they had conspired with the Meccans even thought...

One of the gravest mistakes we, as Americans, can make is to forget how it felt on the morning of September 11, 2001 to witness the catastrophic and barbaric acts of murder and destruction that unfolded before our eyes on television. Sadly, three years after the worst attack in our nation’s history, I think we may already have. To me, it is a disservice of the highest order to those innocent souls savagely slaughtered on that terrible morning, as well as an injustice to a nation at war while her bravest men and women continue to serve in harm’s way,...

The message of terrorism is itself a weapon. We must work to defuse it. Did you buy a paper? I asked my daughter. No, she said with a grimace and shudder. "I couldn't face it, I didn't want to read about it." The "it", of course, was Beslan, and hundreds of children like my daughter's children, like your children, lying in that charnel-house of a gym. The first day of school, the crisp new uniforms, the songs and clasped hands, then terrible fear and death. A universal nightmare seemingly beyond scripting or imagining. But now that we have seen it...

The bloody siege of a Russian school by Chechen rebels brought widespread condemnation and soul-searching in the Islamic world yesterday. Arab newspapers and television broadcasts were full of dramatic photographs of the children killed and injured in the siege by Islamic rebels demanding Chechen independence from Russia. Commentators and clerics put a harsh spotlight on those who kill and maim in Islam's name. "What is the guilt of those children? Why should they be responsible for your conflict with the government?" Egypt's top Muslim cleric, Grand Sheik Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, asked during a sermon in Banha, 30 miles north of...

Hillary: we will not be deterred Friday June 18, 2004 (New York-AP) -- At a Democratic fund-raiser in Trenton, New Jersey, the crowd groaned this afternoon when New York Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton told them of Paul Johnson Junior's murder in Saudi Arabia. After expressing condolences to his family, Clinton said Johnson's senseless murder is an example that should strengthen the nation's fight against terrorism. ``This is what we are fighting against,'' Clinton said. ``Rest assured, we will not be deterred.'' Johnson's family is in seclusion at a house in Galloway Township, New Jersey, where they have been holding a...

June 16, 2004 -- THE video only lasts four minutes or so — grue some scenes of torture from the days when Saddam Hussein's thugs ruled Abu Ghraib prison. I couldn't bear to watch, so I walked out until it was over. Some who stayed wished they hadn't. They told of savage scenes of decapitation, fingers chopped off one by one, tongues hacked out with a razor blade — all while victims shriek in pain and the thugs chant Saddam's praises. Saddam's henchmen took the videos as newsreels to document their deeds in honor of their leader. But these awful...

Tanya Smith is sporting a broken left arm, and she says a South Bend police officer is to blame. Police Chief Thomas Fautz said he has been reading reports of the incident, and so far he hasn't found any evidence of wrongdoing on the part of the officers involved. He said he cannot provide many details about the incident since it is an open investigation, and police policy keeps him from talking about it. He did confirm that the officer injured the woman. Smith, a 25-year-old Elkhart resident, said she and a friend, Felicia Bradley, had gone to Benchwarmers early...

SAN DIEGO -- University of California, San Diego administrators made a last-minute decision today to cancel campus showings of the videotaped beheading of American civilian Nicholas Berg in Iraq. Ariel Mor, a 20-year-old UCSD political science sophomore, planned the event as "pro-American," saying he hoped it would increase support for U.S. troops deployed in the Middle East nation, according to news reports. Mor intended to show the eight-minute video repeatedly between noon and 3:30 p.m. on two 25-inch television sets on the La Jolla campus's central Library Walk. University officials decided the video did not violate student policy, after considering...

PORTLAND - The radio station KNRK at 94.7 FM is issuing an apology to its listeners after talk show hosts Marconi, Tiny and sidekick Nickie J. laughed at and ridiculed the beheading of American Nick Berg. The three were fired Thursday afternoon, after airing the audio recording of Berg's murder repeatedly on Wednesday and laughing at the incident. "Disgusting… I'm speechless," said one woman. KNRK and Entercom, the company that owns the station, apparently agreed, playing an apology over the airwaves for their listeners: The actions of the KNRK News Morning Show were insensitive, inappropriate and repulsive. On behalf of...

<p>May 13, 2004 -- Even the killers of Hezbollah were outraged by the beheading of Nicholas Berg.</p> <p>"Hezbollah condemns this horrible act that has done very great harm to Islam and Muslims by this group that claims affiliation to the religion of mercy, compassion and humane principles," the Shiite terrorist group said from Lebanon.</p>