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WASHINGTON - Three Mexican police chiefs have requested political asylum in the U.S. as violence escalates in the Mexican drug wars and spills across the U.S. border, a top Homeland Security official told The Associated Press. In the past few months, the police officials have shown up at the U.S. border, fearing for their lives, according to Jayson Ahern, the deputy commissioner of Customs and Border Protection. "They're basically abandoned by their police officers or police departments in many cases," Ahern told AP. Ahern said the Mexican officials — whom he didn't name — are being interviewed and their cases...

CLEVELAND (AP) — Even by tough, urban-crime standards it was a grisly attack: Up to 15 people chased a man, then kicked and beat him to death on the street. Before police arrived, one attacker urinated on the victim's head. When the crime-hardened neighborhood awoke later that morning, two people reported a man lying on the pavement, his clothes being dragged off by his assailants. "You got a male being assaulted by 15 other guys. He's laying on the street," one 911 caller said. The April 27 attack on Charles Gooden Jr. happened in the most murder-ridden neighborhood in one...

HARARE (AFP) - The UN warned on Tuesday that post-election violence in Zimbabwe was rising to near crisis levels ahead of a planned presidential run-off, with opposition supporters bearing the brunt of attacks. As opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai prepared to return home to contest the election against President Robert Mugabe, his hopes the ballot would be held later this month in a peaceful atmosphere appeared to be wishful thinking. With Tsvangirai's Movement for Democratic Change claiming 32 of its supporters have been killed since voting on March 29, the United Nations resident representative in Zimbabwe said most of the violence...

BOYS who don't play videogames at all are at greater risk of getting into trouble than those who play violent games occasionally, according to two Harvard psychologists. The pair also said there was also no evidence to suggest violent games turn young people into criminals or violent people, despite some media reports. "If you look at the violent crime in the US over the past 20 years among teenagers it's gone down, and gone down significantly, and if you look at videogame play, it's gone up," said Dr Lawrence Kutner and Dr Cheryl Olsen of Harvard Medical School in a...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration accused Iran and Syria on Friday of fueling ongoing violence in Lebanon by inciting members of the radical Shiite Hezbollah movement to take up arms against the country's western-backed government. As Hezbollah militants seized control of large parts of Beirut, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice denounced the show-of-force, which she said was being supported by Iranian and Syrian elements, and reaffirmed the firm support of the United States for Prime Minister Fuad Saniora's shaky coalition. "Backed by Syria and Iran, Hezbollah and its allies are killing and injuring innocent citizens and undermining the legitimate authority...

BEIRUT (AFP) — A strike over wage demands degenerated into violence in the Lebanese capital on Wednesday as anti-government protesters clashed with ruling coalition supporters, sparking fears of civil unrest. Militants loyal to the Hezbollah-led opposition blocked several roads with blazing tyres and dumped dirt along the main road leading to Beirut international airport. Gunfire, meanwhile, erupted in several neighbourhoods of the capital as armed supporters of the Western-backed ruling bloc and the opposition, backed by Syria and Iran, faced off. A security official told AFP that about 10 people, including two soldiers, were slightly injured. Anti-riot police and the...

PITTSBURGH -- The mayor of Braddock, John Fetterman, is on a mission to end violence in his town. Fetterman has a unique way to remember every victim who’s died; the dates of their death are tattooed on his arms. “On my right arm is a much more somber set. It's the souls we've lost in our community since I've been mayor through violent means," explained Fetterman. “There are certainly saints and sinners on that list and we need to keep it as short as it already is," he said. Fetterman is from York, Pa., and has lived all over. But...

"...I find this behavior more on the left than the right and it can be scientifically quantified. When given an intellectually superior argument to Socialism, Surrender, Race and class division, there tends to be a response from the underbelly of the left that is simply Thuggish, Orwellian and Disturbing. There are very few in this group that can give an intelligent rebuttal to any of my videos. Some resort to personal attacks, name calling and mocking of my style, when none of them make videos themselves and others just make threats of physical violence. There are dozens on the left...

Anthony Cataldo of Oakland first raised concerns about aggressive bullying at his son's elementary school last year after Zachary lost four teeth on the playground - but he said he received only a verbal assurance that things would change. Cataldo said he complained again when some boys at school kicked 7-year-old Zachary in the stomach three months ago but got no response. Now - two days after an older student slammed Zachary against a tree, fracturing his skull and sending the first-grader to intensive care - Cataldo is hiring a lawyer, and school officials are paying attention.

MEXICO CITY — The U.S. State Department reissued a travel advisory for Mexico on Monday, warning Americans of increased drug-related violence and kidnappings, particularly in the embattled border region. "Recent Mexican army and police force conflicts with heavily-armed narcotics cartels have escalated to levels equivalent to military small-unit combat and have included use of machine guns and fragmentation grenades," the alert reads. It says Ciudad Juarez, Chihuahua and Tijuana are particularly dangerous. U.S. officials justified the need to update the previous alert, issued in October 2007, to include details on the ratcheting up of the drug war over the past...

WASHINGTON, April 10, 2008 – Sharply decreased violence in Iraq has set the stage for the departure of the remaining surge forces by the end of July, Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates testified before the Senate Armed Services Committee here today. Violence in Iraq “has declined dramatically since this time last year,” Gates told committee members. “In addition to the drop in U.S. casualties, we have seen a dramatic and encouraging decline in the loss of Iraqi civilians.” Gates and Navy Adm. Mike Mullen, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, were on Capitol Hill to update legislators on...

It's important for Muslims to keep reminding us that there is absolutely, positively no relationship between Islam and violence. Otherwise it's easy to forget. The latest excuse for Islamic bonhomie is the documentary "Fitna" by Geert Wilders. In the 15-minute film, showing on YouTube and other Internet sites, the Dutch MP says that far from getting Islam wrong, terrorists understand their religion only too well. "Fitna" (Arabic for "upheaval" or "ordeal") has verses from the Koran -- which Wilders calls a "fascist book" -- artfully interspersed with scenes of carnage from 9/11 and the March, 2004 Madrid train bombing, as...

Now, what is the difference between the two? How does one determine whether a law is just or unjust? A just law is a man-made code that squares with the moral law or the law of God. An unjust law is a code that is out of harmony with the moral law. To put it in the terms of St. Thomas Aquinas: An unjust law is a human law that is not rooted in eternal law and natural law. Any law that uplifts human personality is just. Any law that degrades human personality is unjust. All segregation statutes are unjust...

News spread quickly that anti-Islamofascism activist Dr. Wafa Sultan has gone into hiding, along with her family. They are in hiding because of her participation in a recent debate on Al-Jazeera in which she challenged Egyptian Islamist Talat Rheim over Dutch cartoons of Mohammed and the ideology of Islam in general. For her truthful criticisms of Islam Dr. Sultan earned a fatwa, a “religiously” decried death sentence, from an Islamic scholar. That she criticizes Islam is enough justification in the eyes of the radical Islamist to kill her. That she is a woman infuses into the fatwa an unbridled viciousness...

WAYCROSS, Ga. -- As many as nine third-grade students got together and plotted to harm their teacher, even going so far as to bring handcuffs and a knife to school, Waycross police said. School officials at Center Elementary School, which is located on Dorothy Street in Waycross, said they never imagined that some of the 8- and 9-year-olds boys and girls at the school would think of bringing physical harm to a teacher. "A plan had been developed amongst several of our third-grade students to allegedly do harm to their teacher," said Theresa Martin, of Ware County Schools. Martin said...

A 17-minute documentary on the Quran, juxtaposing images of Islam's holy book with terror attacks and bombings by Muslim extremists, was taken down from a British video-sharing website, LiveLeak,com, after the organization reported "serious" threats to its staff members. The documentary had been posted against the wishes of the government of the Netherlands by Geert Wilders, a Dutch MP and leader of the Freedom Party. His video is called "Fitna," an Arabic word meaning strife. It appeared on the political party's website first, but soon disappeared because of "technical difficulties," reported the London Times. Then it appeared on LiveLeak.com, only...

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PRISTINA, Kosovo - The United Nations accused Serbian officials Tuesday of complicity in the violence in northern Kosovo that left a U.N. policeman from Ukraine dead and dozens of people hurt. Larry Rossin, the deputy U.N. administrator for Kosovo, told reporters in Pristina that "it is clear to us that the violence ... was orchestrated." At the very least, Rossin said, Serbia's government failed to use its influence to prevent ethnic Serbs in Kosovo from launching the attacks, which left more than 60 U.N. and NATO forces and 70 Kosovo Serb protesters wounded. The U.N. pulled out of the Serb-dominated...

NAIROBI, Kenya — Kenya's president and the top opposition leader have joined to appeal for US$400 million for an emergency humanitarian and reconstruction program. The call came on the day a global human rights watchdog accused politicians and police of helping orchestrate postelection violence in Kenya. President Mwai Kibaki and opposition leader Raila Odinga presented representatives of 40 embassies - including Kenya's major creditors Canada, China, the European Union, Japan, Russia and the United States - with an outline of the emergency program Monday. "We want to restore peace; we want to resettle as well as reintegrate the displaced to...

A 14-year-old student threatened to bring an Uzi to Chesapeake Science Point Charter School last week and kill everybody in the school, an employee said. Employees’ complaints have ranged from being repeatedly hit by apples, balls and chairs, to hearing students talk of raping and killing each other, to being threatened with being urinated on.

WASHINGTON, March 10, 2008 – A month into his third tour in Iraq, the commander of Multinational Force West said today he’s amazed by vast improvements across Anbar province, with a sharp drop in violence and continued progress among Iraqi security forces. “It’s stunning to me how low (violence levels) are,” Marine Maj. Gen. John F. Kelly told Pentagon reporters from a videoconference center in Baghdad. “When I left here three years ago, you could not go into the cities -- Fallujah, Ramadi, places like that -- without a rifle company of Marines, and it was a gunfight going in...

BAGHDAD — After almost five years of war, many young people in Iraq, exhausted by constant firsthand exposure to the violence of religious extremism, say they have grown disillusioned with religious leaders and skeptical of the faith that they preach. In two months of interviews with 40 young people in five Iraqi cities, a pattern of disenchantment emerged, in which young Iraqis, both poor and middle class, blamed clerics for the violence and the restrictions that have narrowed their lives. “I hate Islam and all the clerics because they limit our freedom every day and their instruction became heavy over...

Our friend Robert Spencer reports that the Dutch public broadcaster KRO has given up on its planned production to show that the Bible contains just as much potential for violence as the Koran. NIS News states that the reason that KRO put this project in turnaround is that the producers couldn’t make the case: In his short film Fitna, intended to be shown in March, Wilders wants to show gruesome events said to be inspired by the Koran. KRO, nota bene itself a Catholic broadcaster, wanted to show that such a film could also be made about the Bible.The film...

84-year-old man fatally bashes 87-year-old hospital roommate TAKAOKA, Toyama -- An 84-year-old man is being questioned over the suspicious death of his bedridden 87-year-old hospital roommate, who was found with his face brutally smashed in over the weekend, police said. Investigators believe the man attacked his roommate, Sadanobu Sawada, killing him. The 84-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was found holding the bloodstained rail from his bed, which he had removed, police said. Hospital officials said the man suffers from senile dementia and manic depression but did not have a history of violence, nor had there appeared to...

The well-dressed girl gangs of Paris ready to stab rivals in disputes over boys Adam Sage in Chelles When police learnt that rival gangs were planning a showdown in Chelles, east of Paris, they prepared for the sort of violence that has become routine in France's troubled suburbs. But even the most hardened officers were stunned as they arrived at the scene. The participants in what has become known as the battle of Chelles bus station were all girls aged between 14 and 17. “They were fighting like the toughest of boys,” a policewoman who saw the confrontation this month...

SYDNEY - Women and children are beaten by their menfolk in homes across Australia. Mostly the spur to domestic violence is alcohol but sometimes cultural mores are at work that allow men to excuse their behaviour. “They view wives and daughters as an extension of their honour and when they deviate from what they would view as accepted ... they see it as an undermining of their own status,” said Sydney psychiatrist Tanveer Ahmed. He was talking about violence in Muslim homes and commenting specifically on a call from the Muslim Women’s National Network Australia (MWNNA) to tackle those in...

Just as the New England Patriots were looking to cap off a perfect season, Boston Patriots wide receiver Randy Moss was hit with a claim of "serious injury." The allegation made by Rachelle Washington over an alleged altercation on January 6, 2008. Washington is an old paramour of Moss's who was unemployed and behind in her rent payments. Reports suggest that Washington had a soft-tissue injury to her finger, but how it occurred remains a mystery. Hospital X-rays were negative. A temporary restraining order was quickly entered against Moss. According to Moss' agent, attorney David K. McGill demanded a $500,000...

The recent and controversial call by Dr. Rowan Williams, Archbishop of Canterbury, primate of the Church of England and spiritual leader of 80 million Anglicans, for incorporation of Sharia law into British law will not be the last utterance in favor of Islamic law. Nor should it be. The addition of Sharia law to "the law of the land", in this case British law, complements, rather than undermines, existing legal frameworks. The Archbishop was right. It is time for Britain to integrate aspects of Islamic law.... The Archbishop's assertion was forward thinking, recognizing that increasingly diverse Britain will be better...

I was recently invited by Jarret Brachman, professor and head of research at West Point's Center of Combating Terrorism, to give a talk to his students in the department. Below is a transcription of the talk itself, which was given on November 13, 2007. In the days to come I will detail the response of students and teachers, the questions that came up, my impressions of West Point and of the students I met there, as well as talks with other members of the department. All in all, it was a great experience. Professor Brachman is an expert on Al...

VILLIERS-LE-BEL, France - More than 1,000 police, some wearing black hoods, raided housing projects outside Paris in a massive sweep Monday, kicking open doors and detaining 33 people in a search for rioters who led an outburst of violence last year, a prosecutor said. Critics called the early morning operation, captured on television cameras, a "security spectacle" aimed at bolstering President Nicolas Sarkozy before municipal elections next month. Sarkozy recently vowed to better police the neglected neighborhoods, populated largely by families of immigrant background, that exploded in nationwide riots in 2005.... Hours-to-house searches followed the raids for several hours, the...

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Zacarias Moussaoui's guilty plea and life prison term for conspiring in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks should be overturned because his case was riddled with errors that deprived him of his constitutional rights, his attorneys said in court papers unsealed yesterday. In their opening brief before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit, the attorneys said Moussaoui could not choose his own counsel at trial or learn much of the evidence against him because it was secret. "Moussaoui faced the choice between pleading guilty and facing a fundamentally unfair trial in a death-penalty case. This was an...

ONE OF Denmark's biggest newspapers republished the controversial drawing of Muslim prophet Mohammed less than a day after a plot to kill the cartoonist was foiled. The cartoon depicting the prophet with a bomb under his turban has appeared on the homepage of the Jyllands-Posten newspaper – as well as being published three times on a page featuring the story of the plot to kill Kurt Westergaard. Yesterday, three men accused of conspiring to kill Westergaard were arrested by Danish authorities. Westergaard produced one of a series of drawings of Mohammed published by the newspaper in 2005, sparking outrage around...

Former terrorists Walid Shoebat, Kamal Saleem and Zak Anani addressed cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs, during their annual political forum. They shared their experiences as terrorists and helped cadets understand the Islamic fundamentalist mind set. During the event a Jordanian college student, identified as Omar Khalifa of Metro International, approached Kamal Saleem and spoke to him in Arabic, "you are an enemy of Islam and you must die." The incident was reported to Military Police, who investigated Khalifa's threat. "The men receive threats of this nature all of time and we take each one very...

LONDON - The Home Office agreed on Thursday to extradite radical Muslim cleric Abu Hamza al-Masri to the United States, where he faces terrorism charges linked to the setting up of an al Qaeda camp. The Home Office decision follows a court ruling on November 15, 2007, when a judge ruled there was nothing to prevent Egyptian-born Hamza, 49, being sent to the United States to face justice. That decision required Home Office ratification. "I can confirm that today the home secretary signed an order for Abu Hamza's extradition to the United States," a Home Office spokesman said. "This was...

Egypt's foreign minister has warned that Palestinians from Gaza attempting to breach the border into Egypt will have their "legs broken"...The undiplomatic language from veteran diplomat Ahmed Aboul Gheit comes as Egypt faces demands from Israel and the United States to gain control of the border..."Anyone who violates Egypt's borders will get his legs broken," said the usually mild-mannered Mr. Aboul Gheit, in an interview... He met yesterday with U.S. Assistant Secretary of State David Welch to discuss the crisis, which started Jan. 23 when thousands of Gazans broke through a security wall into Egypt's Sinai Peninsula and embarked on...

A female teacher has been shot inside an elementary school, according to WSAZ, an NBC affiliate, in Huntington, W. Va. Unconfirmed reports say that the gunman is still inside the school.

WASHINGTON -- The Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) is demanding that the Air Force Academy alter a panel of speakers slated for a terrorist symposium this week, saying it's an unbalanced presentation dominated by anti-Muslim speakers. But recently, and for at least the third time, federal prosecutors have called out CAIR as part of a covert Muslim Brotherhood effort in the United States. First, CAIR was named an unindicted co-conspirator in the Hamas-support trial of the Holy Land Foundation for Relief and Development (HLF). CAIR was listed among "entities who are and/or were members of the US Muslim Brotherhood's Palestine...

Last week, a reporter of the Kuwait News Agency accused Sen. John McCain and former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee of “linking Islam with terrorism as a tool to scare up support among US voters, an election style experts describe as ‘shameful.” ... Shameful style? Yes, if measured by Islamic standards and not those of American politics and free speech. Last Monday it was reported that the British government has drawn up a new handbook for government officials that forbids them to use phrases like “Islamist extremism” or “jihadi-fundamentalist” -- instead, police and others must refer to “violent extremism” and “criminal...

LONGMONT — A 14-year-old Silver Creek High School student stabbed another student seven times Thursday morning at the school, according to police and school officials. olice arrested 14-year-old Jackson Crutcher of Louisville on suspicion of attempted first-degree murder, attempted first-degree assault and second-degree assault, according to reports. The 14-year-old girl was taken to Longmont United Hospital to be treated for six stab wounds to her back and one to her left arm, all of which were minor... Reports immediately after the attack indicated that students and staff subdued Crutcher, but Earhart said the police investigation came up with a different...

Dec.1, two dozen heavily armed police raided a Jewish community center in Caracas where hundreds were celebrating a wedding. The police, the Venezuelan equivalent of the FBI, claimed to be seeking weapons and evidence of "subversive activity." They found no weapons. As for subversive activity, well, in a proto-authoritarian state like Venezuela, subversion is a very elastic concept. The mildest skepticism about Hugo Chavez's regime might easily qualify. This bit of harassment theater was only the latest in a series of worrying moves by the Chavez government against its Jewish citizens. The same community center had been raided in 2004,...

Kenya violence prompts US to review its aid By Mike Pflanz in Naivasha and David Blair, Diplomatic Editor Last Updated: 3:53am GMT 31/01/2008 Kenya's tribal bloodshed amounts to "ethnic cleansing" and America is reviewing the £135 million aid it gives to the country, a senior US official has said. Authorities have pledged to restore calm. Some reports suggest that police have been given 'shoot-to-kill' orders Speaking in neighbouring Ethiopia, Jendayi Frazer, the assistant secretary of state for Africa, said that members of President Mwai Kibaki's Kikuyu tribe were being forced from their homes. "The aim originally was not to kill,...

AN “overwhelming majority” of Europeans believe immigration from Islamic countries is a threat to their traditional way of life, a survey revealed...The poll, carried out across 21 countries, found “widespread anti-immigration sentiment”, but warned Europe’s Muslim population will treble in the next 17 years. It reported “a severe deficit of trust is found between the Western and Muslim communities”, with most people wanting less interaction with the Muslim world. Last night an MP warned it showed that political leaders in Britain who preach the benefits of unlimited immigration were dangerously out of touch with the public. The study, whose authors...

NAIROBI, Kenya — Ethnically driven violence intensified in Kenya on Sunday, and police officials said at least 19 people, including 11 children, were burned to death in a house by a mob. Even the Kenyan military, deployed for the first time to stop antagonists from attacking one another, has been unable to halt the wave of revenge killings. More than 100 people have been killed in the past four days, many of them shot with arrows, burned or hacked with machetes. It is some of the worst fighting since a disputed election in December ignited long-simmering tensions that have so...

Death toll nears 800 as post-election violence spirals out of control in Kenya · 19 killed in tourist town as gangs go on rampage · Crisis deepens despite intervention of Annan Xan Rice in Nairobi Monday January 28, 2008 The Guardian (UK) Ethnic clashes were spreading across Kenya's Rift valley last night with at least 19 people burned in their homes or hacked to death in the popular tourist town of Naivasha, 65 miles from Nairobi. The month-long violence, in which nearly 800 people have died, was sparked by the disputed re-election of President Mwai Kibaki, has now changed into...

Migdia Chinea, a Cuban-American screenwriter and actress who has writing credits for the TV series "The Incredible Hulk" and "Superboy," recently documented how she was attacked and injured by students while she served as a substitute teacher in the Los Angeles Unified School District. Now she's reporting that the students who attacked her, body-slammed her to the floor in front of witnesses who documented the attack, and left her with a concussion and possibly long-term injuries were the easy ones to deal with; the system that is supposed to provide care for injuries on the job is a harder opponent...

The sports culture surrounding football and wrestling may be fueling aggressive and violent behavior not only among teen male players but also among their male friends and peers on and off the field, according to a Penn State study. "Sports such as football, basketball, and baseball provide players with a certain status in society," said Derek Kreager, assistant professor of sociology in the Crime, Law, and Justice program. "But football and wrestling are associated with violent behavior because both sports involve some physical domination of the opponent, which is rewarded by the fans, coaches and other players." Using a national...

KUNAR PROVINCE, Afghanistan , Jan. 23, 2008 – The sound of water dripping through the roof was a constant reminder of the weather outside Forward Operating Base Able Main. Army 1st Lt. Kareem F. Hernandez, a N.Y. resident and 2nd Platoon leader in Company A, 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment (Airborne), talks on the radio while village elders and an Afghan National Police officer walk down a mountain during a patrol to Omar, in Kunar province, Afghanistan, Jan. 11, 2008. Photo by Sgt. Brandon Aird, USA  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. Two paratroopers, covered from the waist up...

Violence spikes in Mexico By MARK STEVENSON, Associated Press Writer Fri Jan 18, 7:01 PM ET Rosalba Padilla thought the first shots were nothing but construction in her quiet, upper-class Tijuana neighborhood. It wasn't until she looked out her window and saw a sea of police that she realized the noise was gunfire. Down the street, at the Preschool of Happiness, director Gloria Rico activated the school's alarm, prompting police to rush into the building, their guns drawn. Rico said the children were terrified by the chaos. "Some were crying, one vomited and another wet his pants," she said Friday,...

New research on mice shows the brain processes aggressive behavior as it does other rewards. Mice sought violence, in fact, picking fights for no apparent reason other than the rewarding feeling. The mouse brain is thought to be analogous to the human brain in this study, which could shed light on our fascination with brutal sports as well as our own penchant for the classic bar brawl. In fact, the researcher say, humans seem to crave violence just like they do sex, food or drugs. Love to fight Scientists have known that mice and other animals are drawn to fights....