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'Fakir' arrested for killing infant CHENNAI (India) - POLICE in southern India said on Monday they had arrested a self-styled Muslim 'fakir' for the gruesome murder of an infant boy in a ritual he believed would lend him supernatural powers. Abdul Gafoor, a mystic who claimed he could perform magical feats, had confessed to kidnapping the 18-month-old in the southern city of Madurai and then beheading him, police inspector Chidambaram Murugesan told AFP. 'During questioning, he said he had a dream and heard a voice saying he would get extraordinary healing powers if he sacrificed a male child,' Mr Murugesan...

Philippines: Islamist militants blamed for beheadings Manila, 12 June (AKI) - Islamist militants from the separatist Abu Sayyaf group have beheaded three civilians in the southern Philippines, the military officials said on Saturday. The three men were gathering wood near Maluso on the island of Basilan on Friday when they were abducted and executed by militants, Brigadier-General Eugene Clemen, a local marine commander, said. "We received reports this morning the three lumberjacks had been beheaded," Clemen said. The execution came less than two weeks after the group led Puruji Indama killed three people abducted in the nearby Sumisip town. Troops...

Taleban hang 7-year-old boy to punish family Jerome Starkey, Kandahar A seven-year-old boy was executed by the Taleban in a brutal act of retribution this week, after his grandfather dared to resist the insurgency’s iron rule. Afghan officials said the boy was accused of spying for US and Nato forces and hanged from a tree in southern Afghanistan. Daoud Ahmadi, the spokesman for Helmand’s provincial governor, said the murder came just days after the boy’s grandfather, Abdul Woodod Alokozai, spoke out against militants in their hometown. “I know his father and I know his grandfather,” Mr Ahmadi said. “His grandfather...

Saudi Arabia- Maid slapped for being good looking (MENAFN - Arab News) A Filipino community coordinator in Taif has delivered to the Philippines Consulate in Jeddah a 30-year-old housemaid who fled her sponsor after the woman slapped her. The sponsor claims the motive for the physical abuse was because the maid is "quite good looking." "It was the first time that she was slapped in the face during the three years that she had been working for the family," he told Arab News on Saturday, pointing out that the maid (who is not being identified by name due to the...

Extramarital sex leads to earthquakes: Iran cleric Saturday, April 17, 2010 Tehran, Apr 17: An Iranian cleric has proclaimed that inappropriately dress women leading to extramarital affairs are the resons behind the devastating earthquakes that frequently rattle the country. Speaking to worshipped at the Friday prayers here on Apr 16, senior cleric Ayatollah Kazem Sedighi said, "Many women who dress inappropriately ... cause youths to go astray, taint their chastity and incite extramarital sex in society, which increases earthquakes." "Calamities are the result of people's deeds...We have no way but conform to Islam to ward off dangers," the teligious leader...

Teenage girl buried alive in Turkey for talking to boys A 16-year-old girl has been buried alive by her relatives in Turkey as punishment for talking to boys, police have said. Medine Memi was found in a sitting position with her hands tied, in a two-metre hole dug under a chicken pen outside her home in Kahta, in the south-eastern province of Adiyaman. Her father and grandfather have since been arrested and are due to face trial over her death. Her mother was also charged but has since been released. Police made the discovery in December after a tip-off from...

Kidnapper testifies victim was 'cooked' in Mexico Associated Press McALLEN — A man who pleaded guilty to committing a series of kidnappings on behalf of the Mexican Gulf cartel's enforcers has testified at the trial of a co-defendant that the body of a Texas victim was "cooked" on a ranch in Mexico. Gerardo Zamora Espinoza testified Wednesday that Daniel Ramirez Jr. was kidnapped from the convenience store where he worked in 2008 because a high-ranking member of the cartel's enforcement arm was trying to expand his power in the area. Espinoza said he was told by his nephew who allegedly...

By Scott Smith Record Staff Writer January 09, 2010 12:00 AM STOCKTON - Two gay men who could face a death sentence on charges they murdered a Tracy woman last year were mistakenly kept in a cell together despite a judge's order barring their contact, authorities said Friday. Robert and Jorge Morgan - who are legal domestic partners and consider themselves married to each other - stand accused of murdering Cynthia Ramos, 58, on Aug. 6 in her trailer at Green Oaks Mobile Home Park. A forensic pathologist who performed Ramos' autopsy said she was "killed over and over and...

Dear Friends, Tonight I cast a historic vote to overhaul America’s failing healthcare system to improve the healthcare of all Americans. This bill prohibits exclusions based on preexisting conditions and ensures American families will no longer be one illness or job loss away from bankruptcy. It also protects America’s senior citizens by fixing the donut hole sooner and allowing more drug price-negotiation to ensure seniors are getting the best prices for their medications. For the first time in our nation’s history, we will say that every American deserves access to affordable quality healthcare. I also believe that controlling escalating healthcare...

Washington - -- President Obama and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi were poised to win a stupendous - but still incomplete - victory Saturday, predicting House passage of the biggest expansion of health care coverage since Medicare's creation in 1964, in the face of unanimous Republican opposition. As a matter of policy and politics, the 10-year, $1.05 trillion legislation is among the most complex and difficult Congress has ever considered. Enactment would prove the signal achievement of Pelosi's speakership. Success or failure will define Obama's presidency. In the hours before the vote, Obama traveled to Capitol Hill to urge fellow Democrats...

House Democrats have cleared an impasse over abortion that has been holding up a vote on sweeping health care legislation. A vote is expected on Saturday - after President Barack Obama makes a late morning trip to the Capitol to make one final pitch for the legislation. According to Rep. Bart Stupak of Michigan, he and other abortion opponents will be given a chance to insert tougher abortion restrictions into the legislation during debate on the House floor. The leadership hopes that no matter how that vote turns out, Democrats will then unite to give the health care bill a...

Yet another Democrat tax cheat, this time Charles Rangel, is reeling under an investigation from the IRS. Amazingly, Rangel has suddenly "found" nearly a million dollars in assets that somehow escaped his attention when he originally filed his tax return. Of course, like virtually every left-wing crook, from Timothy Geithner, to Barney Frank, to Sandy Berger, there will almost certainly be zero accountability for Mr. Rangel. Meanwhile, any Republican who is even accused of anything, no matter how blatantly erroneous, is railroaded out of office with non-stop

One day after the Herald reported some surprised Bay State inmates - including murderers and rapists - were cashing in $250 stimulus checks, federal officials revealed the same behind-bars bonus was mailed to nearly 4,000 cons nationwide. A federal watchdog is now probing how the cons were cut the checks. The same cash also may have been sent to fugitive felons, people kicked out of the country and even individuals now deceased. It’s all part of the massive American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 - and what is becoming an accounting nightmare for red-faced feds. “President Obama’s $787 billion...

FALLUJA, Iraq (CNN) -- Like many young boys, Khidir loves playing with toy cars and wants to be a policeman like his father when he grows up. But it was his father's very job that caused the tiny child to suffer the unimaginable.

Gang kicked dog in air and threatened to do same to owner Lisa Kenyon March 20, 2009 A DOG was viciously attacked by a gang of youths while walking through Milnshaw Park, Accrington, with its owner. William Townsley, 66, was walking his 14-year-old partially-blind Cairn terrier Snoopy through the park at around 1pm on Monday. As he was passing the children’s play area, William said a group of around 18 Asian youths racially abused him, shouting obscenities before kicking the defenceless dog in the face and ribs. William, of Devonshire Street, Accrington, said: "I could hear them shouting racial obscenities...

Bangladesh women, children bear scars of acid attacks by Julie Clothier Julie Clothier Sun Mar 8, 4:30 am ET DHAKA (AFP) – At first glance, Bably Akter looks like any other nine-year-old Bangladeshi girl, dressed in a brightly coloured pink and turquoise skirt and top trimmed with silver sequins. A matching headband conceals her left ear, badly deformed and the only obvious sign she is the victim of an acid attack, a practice rampant in the impoverished country, used mainly in domestic disputes and against women and children. As her mother, Parul, recounts the story of how Bably's father put...

Frustrated Senate Democratic leaders dispensed with calls for bipartisanship on the stimulus package Thursday, with Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid saying that he won't let anyone "hold the president of the United States hostage." President Barack Obama had once hoped to have the package pass with substantial Republican support. But Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said that's now a “distant memory." "So far," he said, bipartisanship "isn't working." But in an interview with Politico, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said that the Democrats - not the Republicans - have made a mockery of bipartisanship. “Senators are in a panic – this bill...

Guatemalan girl describes alleged enforced prostitution She testifies in federal court how a group of immigrants duped her into coming to the U.S., forced her to sell herself and kept her captive. By Scott Glover January 9, 2009 When Sandra agreed to make the perilous trek from her native Guatemala to the United States in 2006, she said, she was lured by the prospect of a job as a housekeeper that would enable her to send money to her impoverished family back home. Her father had a hernia that prevented him from working, and money was so tight that she...

Taliban carries out selective killings in Swat By: PTI Date: 2009-01-03 Holding sway over the restive Swat valley, Taliban have begun selective killings, targetting dancers, politicians and paramilitary personnel. Six persons were killed by the Taliban yesterday in troubled northwestern Swat valley, where violence by militants has claimed hundreds of lives since last year. The mutilated bodies of two Frontier Constabulary personnel were found by the roadside near Mingora, the main town of Swat district yesterday, media reports said today. The throats of both men were slit. They had been kidnapped earlier from a police post. A note found near...

NEW YORK TIMES: "About that Mortgage, Senator . . ." It turns out that the chieftain of Countrywide -- which is smack in the middle of the mortgage mess -- extended privileged borrowing status to two Senators, Chris Dodd, Democrat of Connecticut, and Kent Conrad, Democrat of North Dakota. Both Senators deny any ethical violations.   The disclosure of the V.I.P. arrangments by the political website Politico.com left constituents angry and suspicious -- particularly because the revelations came just as Congress was rousing itself to do something about the mortgage foreclosure crisis.   It would be nice to think that...