UK intervention in Afghanistan have any value?

Troops lower the flag at Camp Bastion on October 26, ending combat operations in the country after 13 years

As the union jack came down at Camp Bastion in Helmand Province on the UK's 13-year involvement in Afghanistan, there was an unusual amount of introspection in Britain itself.

Was there any real cause for pride? Or had the death of 453 British service personnel been in vain? Had there, indeed, been any value whatever in the British intervention?
The great majority of the ordinary Afghans I have spoken to about this over the years have no doubt about it: the British had helped to shore up this country and make it more stable and prosperous.
'Now,' said a man I came across in the north of Kabul, 'the future is very good, with elections and everything. Before there was nothing like this place here, this road.'
He pointed to the new buildings which had sprung up all round us, and to the well-surfaced road which hadn't even existed before.
These things are the product of investment, of know-how, of confidence in the future: all things that the British and Americans have brought to Afghanistan.
It's hard to find anyone here in Kabul who really thinks the Taliban will return to power in Afghanistan now the foreign troops are on their way out.
Stable Afghanistan, the 16th-poorest country on Earth and the third most corrupt, has plenty of problems. But stability has brought education to millions of children in schools and colleges all over the country.
Young girls are becoming as well educated as boys: a lasting change in the social life of Afghanistan, and something which the Taliban have been entirely unable to stop.
It's true that the Taliban have not been defeated, and that was obviously the main purpose of the UK and US military presence here.
Yet they have not been victorious either, and they have not been able to capture and hold any important town or city.
Nowadays, there are other extreme Islamic movements which we can compare the Taliban with, and it's clear that Afghanistan is quite lucky compared with Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, and other countries threatened by Islamic State or its imitators.
The Taliban is a loose confederation of groups, some of whom are willing to consider negotiating with the government. And their methods are usually much less savage than, say Islamic State or Boko Haram.
The Afghanistan which UK troops are leaving behind isn't altogether safe from insurgency or instability; but compared with the condition it was in back in 2001, it is a great deal more stable.
If it gets better government than the corruption and warlordism of the last few years, it could even turn into a success story one day. And part of the credit for that will belong to the British involvement here.

Internet inventor Tim Berners-Lee: 'Staggering how people are hateful on the web'

The founder of the internet Sir Tim Berners-Lee finds it "staggering" how many people feel compelled to make hateful comments on the web.

As well as enabling the good side of humanity the internet is also used to express the dark side, the developer said to the BBC  yesterday.
He said: "It's staggering to me how people who clearly must have been brought up like anybody else will suddenly become very polarised in their opinions and suddenly become very hateful.
"This ability is that people in the human race can polarise and demonise each other."
The Justice Secretary, Chris Grayling, said that trolls, those who harass or threaten online, could face up to two years in prison under new legislation.
Sir Tim, who helped create the world wide web in 1989, said the possible solution could be web-based tools built to "help us keep people on the path of collaborating rather than fighting."
Brenda Leyland, who was found dead in a hotel room this month, was accused of being one of a dozen online users who "trolled" the parents of Madeleine McCann, who went missing after she was left alone for the evening by her family in a Praia da Luz holiday apartment in 2007.
When asked why she was virtually attacking Kate and Gerry McCann before she died earlier this month, Ms Leyland is reported to have answered: "I’m entitled to do that."
Brenda Leyland, right, was accused of trolling Kate and Gerry McCann Peter Nunn from Bristol, 33, was jailed for 18 weeks last month for sending abusive messages on Twitter to Labour MP Stella Creasy.
Last week TV host Judy Finnegan made off-the-cuff remarks that footballer and convicted rapist Ched Evans had "served his time" for a crime that wasn't "violent" like a street attack rape.
This resulted in rape threats being sent to her daughter Chloe Madeley from those incensed by her comments, although she has apologised for her choice of words.
Chloe had said that being able to send malicious messages should not be considered freedom of speech, but that it should be viewed as “online terrorism” and her TV host father Richard warned the trolls that they could expect a visit from the police.
The victim raped by Evans was named by trolls on Twitter 6,000 times despite being granted lifelong anonymity by the courts and up to 10 people have admitted to the charges.
The penalty for sending menacing, obscene or offensive communications is currently set at six months in prison, a level five fine up to £5,000, or both.
Mr Grayling had said: “No one would permit such venom in person, so there should be no place for it on social media. That is why we are determined to quadruple the current six-month sentence.”
In 2011 the CPS brought more than 2,000 prosecutions under Section 127 of the Communications Act 2003.

Global Ebola cases pass 10,000 as Mali becomes latest nation to record a death

A health worker checks the temperature of a baby entering Mali from Guinea. Photograph: Joe Penney/Reuters

The global number of cases in the Ebola outbreak has exceeded 10,000, with 4,922 deaths, according to the latest estimates by the World Health Organisation released on Saturday. Three countries with shared borders – Sierra Leone, Liberia and Guinea – account for all but 10 of the fatalities, with only 27 cases occurring outside the west African epicentre.
The UN agency said the number of cases was now 10,141 but that the true figure was much higher, as many families were keeping relatives at home rather than taking them to treatment centres and are burying their dead without official clearance. It said many of the centres were overcrowded.
The latest report showed a rise of 400 cases in the last three days in Sierra Leone and Guinea but no change in the number of cases and deaths in the worst- affected country, Liberia.
It comes as an analysis of Ebola figures by development consultants the African Governance Initiative (AGI) suggest that even with current efforts to build more hospital facilities in the affected nations, there will be no medical personnel to staff them and there will be a shortage of more than 6,000 hospital beds in Guinea and Sierra Leone by December if the WHO’s worst-case scenario figure of 10,000 new cases a week by the end of the year is reached.
AGI chief executive Nick Thompson said: “The international community badly misjudged the impact of the Ebola epidemic in its first few months and is compounding that error by failing to act quickly enough now.” He called for other countries to join Cuba, the US and Britain in sending health workers to the region.
On Saturday Barack Obama used his weekly radio address to stress it would be “science not fear” that would tackle Ebola as New Yorkers followed the fate of Craig Spencer, the Médecins sans Frontières doctor who was confirmed as suffering from Ebola six days after he returned from working in Guinea. He had been riding the subways and eating in restaurants before developing an Ebola fever, causing panic and anxiety among Americans.
Late on Friday, New York governor Andrew Cuomo said the risk was grave and ordered an automatic 21-day quarantine for anyone returning from the Ebola-affected regions. He criticised the doctor for not following such a procedure voluntarily.
But New York’s health commissioner, Dr Mary Bassett, who was said to be furious with the governor, told reporters Spencer had handled himself “really well” and reported to authorities as soon as he had symptoms – the only time when a patient is contagious and can spread the virus through their body fluids.
The New York Daily News claimed that an unusually high number of hospital workers have reported in sick since Spencer’s arrival. Despite an all-clear from health officials, the Brooklyn bowling alley Gutters, which Spencer visited hours before he began to feel unwell, was still closed. One couple, expecting an evening of experimental punk music at the club, said they were disappointed.
Nurse Kaci Hickox, the first person in New Jersey placed under the 21-day quarantine after she landed at Newark airport on Friday, issued a stinging criticism of her treatment on Saturday after she tested negative for the virus. Hickox, who had been working with Ebola patients in Sierra Leone, described how she was held in isolation for seven hours and given only a granola bar to eat. She told the Dallas Morning News she was scared for healthcare workers who declare they have been fighting Ebola in west Africa. “I am scared that, like me, they will arrive and see a frenzy of disorganisation, fear and, most frightening, quarantine.”
Meanwhile, it has been announced that a million doses of an Ebola vaccine will be produced by the end of 2015. The WHO said that “several hundred thousand” will be produced in the first half of the year.
In Australia on Saturday the head of the country’s medical association, the AMA, called on the government to help in Africa. The AMA president, Professor Brian Owler, said that while Britain was sending 750 people to help in Sierra Leone and the US has dispatched more than 3,000 to Liberia, Australia was dragging its feet. “While the government continues to roll out the tired old excuses about why we can’t respond, unfortunately people are going to continue to die,” he said.
On Friday, Mali became the latest country to record a death, that of a two-year-old girl. She had travelled with her grandmother hundreds of miles by bus from Guinea via Mali’s capital to the western town of Kayes, where she was diagnosed on Thursday. The WHO said it was treating the situation in Mali as an emergency because the toddler had travelled for 1,000km on buses while showing symptoms of the disease, meaning that she was contagious.
Health workers are scrambling to trace hundreds of potential contacts to prevent the virus taking hold in Mali, which had put in place health checkpoints on its borders with Guinea. More than 40 people known to have come into contact with her have been quarantined.
Nigeria has recorded eight deaths and there has been one in the US. Senegal and Nigeria have successfully contained outbreaks and been declared free of the disease. This weekend, Ivory Coast was on alert after Guinean authorities informed them that a Guinean health worker had slipped surveillance and headed for the border after a patient had contracted Ebola.
Raymonde Goudou Coffie, Ivory Coast’s health minister, said the authorities did not know if the medic had Ebola but he had to be traced.

Canadians flock to Parliament Hill, site of attack on soldier

 

(Reuters) - Canadians returned to the reopened grounds of their parliament building on Saturday, three days after a homegrown radical rushed in armed with a rifle after killing a soldier in the second domestic attack in a week on the country's military.
The grounds of the hilltop gothic building, whose clock tower is a centerpiece of Ottawa's skyline, attracted scores of visitors, many still stunned by Wednesday's attack, which took place as Prime Minister Stephen Harper was meeting with lawmakers.
The attacks on Monday and Wednesday were the work of Canadian citizens, reportedly recent converts to Islam, who appear to have operated independently, police said.
The first victim, 53-year-old Warrant Officer Patrice Vincent, died when a man ran him over with a car in Quebec, while the second, 24-year-old Corporal Nathan Cirillo, was gunned down while standing a ceremonial watch at a monument to Canada's war dead near Parliament Hill.
Police presence was light at the grounds, which had been closed to the public since Wednesday. The parliament building itself remained closed, but House Speaker Andrew Scheer said it would reopen for tours and visits on Monday.
"The very fact of us being here on this spot means they did not win," said 41-year-old Toronto teacher Franco Ferrari.
He said he had brought his son and his sons friends to Ottawa on Thursday night.
"I wanted them to see this," Ferrari said. "I wanted to show them that we will not be bullied."
The attackers, 32-year-old gunman Michael Zehaf-Bibeau, described as troubled and drug-addicted, and 25-year-old Martin Rouleau, who drove over two soldiers, one of whom survived, both developed their radical views in Canada, police said.
Both men were shot and killed by security officers.
The attacks came as Canada deployed additional planes to the Middle East to take part in a campaign of air strikes against Islamic State militants in Iraq.
Canadian officials vowed on Friday to toughen laws against terrorism, but critics warned against moves that would curtail civil liberties in a country that prides itself on its openness.
The attacks appeared to provoke vandalism at a mosque in Cold Lake, Alberta, more than 3,000 kilometers (1860 miles) west of Ottawa. Windows on a mosque were found smashed on Friday, with the words "Go home" spray-painted on the building.
Liberal Party leader Justin Trudeau on Saturday condemned the incident.
"The vandals who carried out these acts are criminals and cowards," Trudeau said, "and their actions run counter to basic Canadian values."
A crowd of several dozen people assembled in downtown Montreal on Saturday for an impromptu memorial to Cirillo and Vincent, leaving flowers and signing memorial books that had been left in tribute to the slain soldiers.
"What happened this week with the murder of those two military is a turning point in our history," said Louise Beaudry, the 65-year-owner of a translation agency, who attended the Montreal event. "We need to revise the way the security is organized for everybody in the country ... We need to be realistic."
(Writing by Scott Malone; Editing by Jeffrey Hodgson and Lisa Von Ahn) 

Johann Lamont resignation: Salmond blames Miliband for Labour 'meltdown'

Ms Lamont quit her role saying colleagues at Westminster had made her position 'untenable'

Ed Miliband is to blame for Johann Lamont quitting as leader of the Scottish Labour Party, Alex Salmond has claimed.

Scotland's First Minister said "Labour's meltdown in Scotland has been created by Labour in London."
Ms Lamont resigned on Friday with a stinging attack on her colleagues at Westminster who she said had made her position "untenable".
Scottish Labour said it would set out plans to elect a new leader soon.
In her resignation letter, Ms Lamont said she was standing down to enable the party to have a "real discussion" about its future.
She said senior members of the party had "questioned" her place and she was taking herself "out of the equation" so it could decide the best way forward.
In an earlier interview with the Daily Record, Ms Lamont had accused the UK party of treating Scotland like a "branch office" and branded some of her Westminster colleagues as "dinosaurs".
Mr Salmond, who announced after the No vote in the Scottish independence referendum that he will stand down next month, has called on the UK Labour leader to respond to Ms Lamont's claims.

Mr Salmond said Mr Miliband was responsible for the meltdown of Labour in Scotland

He said: "We have the extraordinary situation that an outgoing leader has admitted that Scottish Labour is just a 'branch office' controlled by London - in other words the Scottish Labour Party is a fiction.
"The person responsible for that, and for making Johann Lamont's position 'untenable', as she herself put it, is Ed Miliband.
"Mr Miliband should be answering questions about why Labour in Scotland is run as an extension of his Westminster office, and why he has effectively forced the resignation of a Labour leader in Scotland."
He added: "He should be making a statement about his responsibility for the meltdown of Labour in Scotland."
Leadership contenders Responding to Ms Lamont's resignation, Mr Miliband said she had "led the Scottish Labour Party with determination" and deserved "significant credit" for the successful "No" vote in the Scottish referendum campaign in September.
He added: "She campaigned the length and breadth of Scotland making the case for social justice within the United Kingdom."
The timetable for choosing a new leader will be set out soon.
In the meantime, deputy leader Anas Sarwar is in charge and an MSP will be chosen to stand in for Ms Lamont at Holyrood.
Mr Sarwar is among those already being linked to the leadership role. Former prime minister Gordon Brown and fellow MP Jim Murphy have also been suggested as contenders for the job.

Now ISIS threatens to kill British jihadis who want to return home: At least 30 Britons planning to flee Syria after young Muslim from Portsmouth is killed fighting for terror group

British jihadi fighters who want to come home from Syria and Iraq are being given death threats by senior ISIS members, it has emerged.

A source with contacts among Syrian rebel groups claimed that he knew of more than 30 Britons who had become linked to the terrorists but now wanted to return to the UK.

Former Guantanamo Bay detainee Moazzam Begg said that any jihadis who wanted to quit the terror group 'could be subject to disciplinary measures which could include threats of death or death'. 

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Mehdi Hassan, 19, (pictured) who attended a private Catholic school in Hampshire, travelled to Syria to fight for ISIS with four others from Portsmouth in October last year. He died in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani

Speaking to the Observer, Begg explained that many of the Britons who wanted to return had originally travelled to join rebels fighting the Syrian regime of President Bashar al-Assad and had only later become linked with ISIS.

But now the terror group refuses to allow their British members to leave.

He added that a number of Britons in Syria were currently 'stuck between a rock and a hard place'.

The revelation comes after it emerged that a former Portsmouth schoolboy who died while fighting for ISIS tried to escape Syria but was captured only minutes away from meeting his mother across the Turkish border.

The family of Mehdi Hassan, 19, who attended a private Catholic school in Hampshire, confirmed today that he died in the Syrian Kurdish town of Kobani after a picture of his body emerged on Twitter.

Hassan, who also used the alias Abu Dujana, had expressed plans to return to Britain over the last few months but had been scared about the repercussions and the threat of prosecution on terror charges, his family said. 

Hassan became one of the youngest people to join the group of British jihadists in Syria after travelling to the Middle East in October last year.

But following phone contact with his mother, who he discovered had travelled to Turkey to establish his whereabouts, Hassan attempted to escape from the extremist group he had once been a part of.

His attempt to flee occurred when he was recuperating in the ISIS stronghold of Raqqa following treatment for a wound he sustained in battle.

Sensing his opportunity, Hassan attempted to escape without a passport, trying to reach the Turkish border town of Urfa.

He was so close to escaping, he phoned his mum and told her he could even see Urfa.

But he was caught just eight minutes away from the border and was imprisoned by ISIS for four days.

Without a passport, Hassan did not try to escape again, returning to fight for the jihadists before he was killed in Kobani.

Although it's unclear exactly why Hassan did not have his passport, ISIS is known to encourage its recruits to burn their passports upon swearing allegiance to the caliphate.

The act is considered a test of loyalty and a symbol of their fighters' desire to sever all ties to their home nation.

His family confirmed his death this morning and issued a statement to ITV which said: 'We can confirm that this is indeed Mehdi Hassan. We request that the family be left to grieve.

'Mehdi was a loving boy with a good heart wishing to help Syrians.

'In recent months he had expressed the intention to return home but was worried about the repercussions.

'This is a tragedy and a lesson.'

Hassan, 19, attended St John's College, a Catholic school in Portsmouth, which charges £10,000 a year for day pupils. He travelled to Syria in October 2013

Hassan had been planning to study international politics at Surrey University in September last year but travelled to Syria to fight with four other young men prior to the start of his course.

He previously attended St John's College, a Catholic school in Portsmouth, which charges £10,000 a year for day pupils and more than double for boarders.

He was active on Twitter, using his alias Abu Dujana, and regularly posted messages from Syria.

His last post, sent just days before his death, said: 'Between 20-40 us strikes daily in ayn al arab. Alhamdulillah they are spending $10's of billions...against themselves.' (sic) 

He reportedly used to call his family in Britain 'once every couple of months,' keeping them updated on conditions in Syria.

He initially told his family that he was going to stay in Syria for just three weeks before he extended his stay for a further three months. He phoned his mother and told her to withdraw his place from Surrey University, declaring he would be staying in Syria.

His death comes just days after it was confirmed another member of the jihadist group he travelled to Syria with had also been killed while fighting.

Mamunur Roshid, 24, who joined Hassan, Ifthekar Jaman, 23, Primark worker Muhammad Hamidur Rahman, 25, and Assad Uzzaman, 25, in pretending to go on holiday to Turkey before crossing into Syria, died earlier this week.

CCTV showed the gang-of-five breezing through London's Gatwick Airport and looking like tourists setting off on a fortnight's holiday to Turkey.

In reality, the smiling Britons captured on CCTV were heading to Syria to fight their so-called 'holy war'. 

The fanatics, who called themselves the Britani Brigade Bangladeshi Bad Boys, were all from Portsmouth, and had been seduced by glamorous tales of martyrdom to join Islamic State (ISIS) in establishing a Muslim caliphate in the Middle East.

Hassan, Roshid, Rahman and Jaman have all since died while fighting in Syria.

The Foreign Office said today it had not yet received any reports about Mr Hassan's death but was 'aware of reports about the death of a British national in Syria'.

A spokesman added: 'The UK has advised for some time against all travel to Syria, where all UK consular services are suspended. 

'As we do not have any representation in Syria, it is extremely difficult to get any confirmation of deaths or injuries and our options for supporting British nationals there are extremely limited.'

Abdul Jalil, chairman of the Portsmouth Jami Mosque which Hassan attended, told the BBC: 'It has been confirmed with the family that he has died. Right now they are very upset.

'I am saddened and again shocked for the community about this news.' 

Hassan was one of five friends from Portsmouth who pretended to go on holiday to Turkey but instead went to fight for Islamic State in Syria. The group were caught on CCTV at London's Gatwick Airport last year (pictured)

In his last tweet, posted on October 17 under his alias 'Abu Dujana', Hassan told of 20-40 daily U.S. airstrikes

CCTV: Portsmouth jihadists boarding flight to Turkey

Speaking after Roshid's death on Tuesday, Mr Jalil said: 'We are very worried about this. The imam will speak about this at the mosque on Friday, telling people not to go to Syria.

'We are doing everything we can, we are speaking with the council, the crime prevention team. We are handing out leaflets about what is happening there.'

A total of ten young extremists from Portsmouth are believed to have left the south coast city for Syria and ISIS. 

Earlier this week, Metropolitan Police Commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe warned that at least five Britons were joining ISIS every week.

He said: 'We know that over 500 British nationals travelled to join the conflict. Many have returned and many will wish to do so in the coming months and perhaps in future years.

'We still have an average of five people joining them a week. Five a week doesn't sound much but when you realise there are 50 weeks in a year, 250 more would be 50 per cent more than we think have gone already.

'Those numbers are a minimum. Those are the ones that we believe have gone. There may be many more who set out to travel to another country and meandered over to Syria and Iraq in a way that is not always possible to spot when you have failed states and leaky borders.'

Earlier this month, four people were arrested for terrorism offences after the former home of Jaman, the ringleader of the Portsmouth group of five of which Hassan belonged, was raided.

Jaman's mother and father, Enu Miah, 57, and Hena Choudhury, 48, were arrested and bailed, and his two brothers Tuhim, 26, and Mustakim, 23, were also arrested along with sister Tamannah Shaharin, 29. 

Hassan attended St John's College, a Catholic school in Portsmouth, which charges £10,000 a year for pupils

The British jihadists who fled for Syria regularly attended the Jami Mosque in Portsmouth (pictured)

THE OTHER JIHADISTS WHO LEFT PORTSMOUTH TO FIGHT FOR ISIS IN SYRIA

Abu Abdullah Al Brittani

The 32-year-old, right, is one of ten Britons from Portsmouth to travel Syria to fight for ISIS.

The British jihadist who says he is fighting for ISIS has attempted to lure a child away from his parents with chilling online travel advice on how to reach the Middle East.

A man calling himself Abu Abdullah Al Brittani gave detailed information on how Iraq-bound Westerners can exchange currencies to an Ask.Fm user who described himself as 'underage', said he had never travelled alone before, and expressed concern about his mother and father finding out.

The post outlines ISIS' openness to luring Western fighters of all ages to their cause - including an estimated 500 Britons, many of whom end up being used as little more than 'cannon fodder' to protect better trained local jihadists.

Abu Abdullah was behind an Ask.Fm travel guide for would-be jihadists that formed part of an attempt to recruit young Britons to Iraq and Syria.

One user asked him: 'I havent any traveling and i'm underage but what do you mean with no worries about money. honestly I don't know how to change money into tukish or syrian money. How does it work? I can't ask my parents or they will now [sic]'.

Despite the poster admitting he is a child and exhibiting clear naivety, Abu Abdullah responded: 'If u have $ or £ then u fine, any other currency exchange it to $ or £ before u get here and [God willing] u will be fine [sic].'

Another message described the 'welcome pack' new ISIS recruits receive when they complete theIr induction process.

'After training u get a ak47 and magazines (4) a vest pack, grenade [sic]' he posted on Ask.Fm.

Another message contained detailed marriage advice for potential recruits.

Muhammad Hamidur Rahman

A former supervisor at Primark who wanted to join the world's most feared terrorist group, only to be killed in Syria.

Muhammad Hamidur Rahman, 25, from Portsmouth, was shot dead in a gun fight in July, a day before the Muslim festival if Eid, his family said.

His father, Abdul Hannan, 52, an Indian restaurant worker, said the family received a text message from a friend of Rahman in Syria who informed them that their son was dead.

Rahman became the second British jihadist from Portsmouth to die in Syria. The first was his friend Iftekhar Jaman, 23, who died in December.

Rahman's father, Mr Hannan, said that Jaman went to Syria first at the beginning of last year, and then took his son there by contacting him through social media.

He said that Rahman did not tell any member of his family that he was going to Syria, but suddenly disappeared from Portsmouth. Days later, they received a call from him saying he was in Syria.

Mr Hannan said: 'He asked us to pray for him, and said he wanted to become a shaheed (martyr) for the sake of Allah.'

Mashudur Choudhury

He became the first Briton to be found guilty of travelling to Syria to fight in the civil war.

Police said the conviction of Mashudur Choudhury, 31, right, was likely to pave the way for others returning from the fighting to be prosecuted.

The father of two went to fight with Al Qaeda to escape the shame of lying to his family about suffering from cancer.

Choudhury, from Portsmouth, borrowed £35,000 from his family, claiming it was for medical treatment.

But he blew it on foreign holidays, a luxury car and prostitutes.

Desperate to atone for his actions and 'make something of himself' he resolved to become a martyr fighting the brutal regime of Bashar Assad.

But he is believed to have failed the selection process to join a hardline group of Syrian rebels and was thrown out of their training camp in disgrace.

He was arrested by British anti-terror police on his return to Gatwick in October last year.

After a 12-day trial at Kingston Crown Court, West London, Choudhury was found guilty of engaging in conduct in preparation for terrorist acts.

Ifthekar Jaman

Hampshire-born Ifthekar Jaman, 23 (pictured as a child) died last year in a battlefield clash in Syria

The young Briton boasted of fighting '5-star jihad' in Syria but was killed.

Ifthekar Jaman, 23, died last year in a battlefield clash 2,000 miles from his Hampshire home last December.

He was one of an estimated 350 British men to have taken up arms with Al Qaeda-linked groups in Syria – where they are known as British Kataa'ib, meaning British Brigade.

Speaking a month ago, Jaman declared he was ready to die as a martyr, vowing: 'I don't plan to come back. Life is for the hereafter... it's an eternal paradise so the sacrifice is small.'

He also urged fellow Britons to join him, using his Twitter account to glory in his hate-filled missions.

He described fighting in Syria as '5-star jihad' because of its 'relaxing' nature.

Photographs showed Jaman – a supporter of fanatical British cleric Anjem Choudary – apparently manning armed checkpoints in the Middle Eastern war zone just before his death. 

نئی دہلی میں مسلم کش فسادات،ہندوؤں نے بازارجلادیا،کرفیو نافذ

 

نئی دہلی: بھارتی دارالحکومت دہلی کے مشرقی علاقے ترلوک پوری میں مسلم کش فسادات کے بعد پولیس نے علاقے میں کرفیو نافذ کرتے ہوئے شرپسندوں کو دیکھتے ہی گولی مارنے کا حکم دیدیا۔
جمعرات کو دیوالی کے موقع پر شروع ہونے والے فسادات کے بعد صورتحال ابھی تک کشیدہ ہے، ہفتے کے روز حکام کے مطابق5افراد فائرنگ سے زخمی ہوئے تاہم انھیں پولیس نے گولیاں نہیں ماریں، ہنگامہ آرائی میں ملوث مزید23افراد کو گرفتار کر لیاگیا جس کے بعد گرفتاریوں کی کل تعداد33ہوگئی ہے، فسادات اس وقت شروع ہوئے جب ہندوؤں نے دیوی کا بت مسجد کے بالکل سامنے رکھ دیا، مسلمانوں نے اسے ہٹانے کا مطالبہ کیا ۔
جس کے بعد ہندوؤں نے ان پر ہلہ بول دیا اور شدید پتھراؤ کیا، مسلمانوں نے الزام عائد کیا کہ کشیدگی کا ذمے دار بی جے پی کا سابق ایم ایل اے سنیل کمار ہے جس نے کہا کہ وہ یہاں مندر بنائے گا، گزشتہ روز بھی سیکڑوں غیرمقامی انتہاپسند ہندو مسلم علاقے کے سامنے جمع ہوگئے اور شدید پتھراؤ کیا، نصف درجن سے زائد دکانیں نذرآتش کردیں اور بازار لوٹ لیا جبکہ پولیس خاموش تماشائی بنی رہی۔
 

Russia to help fight Islamists in the Middle East

PARIS — The United States and Russia will share intelligence on Islamic State militants in Syria and Iraq and work together to combat the threat of terrorism that hangs over the region, U.S. Secretary of State John F. Kerry said Tuesday after meeting with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov.

After three hours of talks in Paris, Kerry said Russia has agreed to “explore” whether to provide more weapons to Iraqi security forces fighting Islamist extremists, as well as to train and advise them.
The two top diplomats also discussed how to keep Iran’s nuclear program from being converted to military use.

Malala, Salam, Faiz and Dr Khan

In Pakistan, with Malala Yousafzai winning the Nobel Peace Prize, it is proven once again that those subscribing to conservative social and political views reject new facts if they challenge their preconceived notions. They claim to have rooted their cultural orthodoxy and a myopic worldview they choose to subscribe to into the tenets of our faith. That is a refuge. An attempt not to take on the challenges posed by the modern world and to shy away from competing in the realms of arts and sciences, economics and sociology, philosophy and technology.

Even in the realms of modern theology, after invoking religious symbolism in every possible conversation or discourse, they offer nothing of substance to the modern Muslim world. It is an attempt which is proving not only futile but also inflicting incredible damage on the lives and livelihoods, intellectual health and economic interests of our people. This position causes incredible disservice to both our faith and our country. It affects our future by confusing our youth and our students.

When Malala is being celebrated across the world as a champion of girl education in hostile environments across the world, across people holding divergent political opinions – from right, left and centre – and across national and ethnic divides around the globe, we as a nation stand with a fragmented and confused narrative. I wrote a short poem when Malala was shot but was fortunate enough to survive. When many of us were rejoicing her success on receiving the news of her winning and sharing the coveted prize with an Indian girl rights activist, I reposted it on the internet. There were loads of other celebratory posts. People were sharing, cross-posting, commenting on her success and seeing her not as an individual but a symbol of unarmed struggle of the weak, the dispossessed and the disempowered.

At the same time, hate messages came pouring in – vitriolic to the hilt. Not only Malala was castigated and dismissed for being an agent of the west, those celebrating her success were called names, excommunicated from the folds of believers and termed traitors. The rage and spite was such that I requested those who disagree with me to unfriend me and block me, to use modern internet expressions, from their social media. I wouldn’t want to cause my friends and acquaintances, or even those who hold an adversarial political opinion, such anger, frustration and mental suffering.

But I have a few questions to pose for those spitting venom against Malala to mull over, whether they agree or disagree with the submissions made above.

1. Interestingly, most of you Pakistanis living here or in diaspora who hate Malala, are huge fans of Pakistan Army. When Malala was shot, you said it was a big fat lie. She was not shot. It was a conspiracy against Pakistan harboured by western agencies. Did you ever think why a Pak Army helicopter was sent to her rescue and brought her from Swat to Rawalpindi? Why was she first treated in a military hospital before being sent off to the UK for the complicated surgical treatment she needed? Just recently the army announced apprehending Malala’s attackers. No one from the anti-Malala camp cared to comment, let alone challenge the army. Is that reflective of confusion or gross hypocrisy?

2. Why have the Pakistanis like you disowned, dismissed and despised, if not hate, everyone who has brought laurels to Pakistan in shape of international recognition, fame and respectability? Leave alone international recognition, even those who have demonstrated commitment to contributing to our physical, intellectual and emotional development were shabbily treated. Jog your memory ladies and gentlemen. I give you just three examples from before Malala winning the prize.

Dr Abdus Salam was and is until now the only Pakistani scientist who won the Nobel Prize. Due to the religious beliefs he was born into, even after being acclaimed as one the greatest scientists of the world, he was not invited to speak to most universities in Pakistan. The reason cited was that his speech on his subject may cause turmoil in the ranks of students and faculty because he does not share the same faith as the majority does. His epitaph also had to be rewritten. The man who wore a sherwani, shalwar kurta and a pag while receiving the prize among suit-clad men, died unhappy because of the way he was treated by the people he thought were his own.

Faiz Ahmed Faiz, the arch poet whose poetry after his death is even read, sung and enjoyed by the next generations of those who hated him, was awarded the Lenin Prize. He was made to spend four years in prison and eight years in exile. He was called a communist who professed atheistic ideas. His books were removed from some government libraries.

Dr Akhtar Hameed Khan, a recipient of Ramon Magsaysay Award and seen as the father of people-centred community development in Pakistan and now Bangladesh and considered one of the visionaries and pioneers in his subject across the world, had to fight trumped-up blasphemy charges when he was more than eighty years old.

He was termed profane and misguided. Malala comes after them, much after them. She has met the same fate at your hands. You have kept the tradition of bigotry and intolerance alive. Think, my friends!

3. Why do you see people making worthwhile contribution to art, sciences, public service as villains and those providing entertainment by participating in spectator sports as heroes? Mind you, I am not just talking about Imran Khan as some of you might reckon. It is also about the Shahid Afridis and Kamran Akmals of this world. People contributing to a sport that is played in a dozen out of two hundred countries are the real heroes and those contributing to universal knowledge have to be castigated, criticised and rejected?

4. Coming to my fellow country women and men in our diaspora in the west who think Malala is working against the interests of Pakistan and Islam, may I ask them why they have not chosen to seek citizenship in a Muslim-majority country ever? Those who go abroad to study, why do they seldom consider going to a Muslim country for higher studies or specialised professional education? Their cousins here who are left behind queue up in hundreds if not thousands, outside western embassies – North American, European or Australian – to get a visa. So many of them would blatantly lie to get through and then leave no stone unturned to get the citizenship. Who gives all of you the moral authority to issue certificates of patriotism and right beliefs to those serving Pakistan?

5. It is an obligation for Muslim women and men to become literate and numerate and seek education. It is obligatory for us to learn from any possible sources of information, knowledge and wisdom. What have we done to that end as a state, society and individuals? How many world class scientists, philosophers, artists, writers, social scientists, historians, anthropologists, economists, sociologists, etc. have we produced? What contribution have we made as Muslims or as Pakistanis in the last 66 years to collective human knowledge, wisdom and technology?

I reiterate in this space once again that the power supply, computer and keyboard I am using to write this, the software for typing this up, the internet connection which will help me send this piece to my editor sitting a thousand miles away in a fraction of a second, all are someone else’s inventions. My people have not discovered or invented a fraction of what was discovered and invented over the last few centuries.

Please think and try to answer these questions. I rest my case.

'Terror plotter had Blair address'

A British man accused of plotting a terror attack may have targeted former prime minister Tony Blair and his wife Cherie, jurors in the partly-secret terror trial were told.

Erol Incedal, 26, from London, may also have been looking at a "Mumbai-style" atrocity with the use of Kalashnikov rifles, according to coded messages found on his computer, the Old Bailey heard.

But the alleged plot was scuppered after police stopped Incedal's car for a motoring offence and planted a bugging device which picked up snippets of chatter about "bin Laden, fatwa, Syria and jihad".

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Erol Incedal at the Old Bailey accused of preparing acts of terrorism

Incedal, formerly known in the case as AB, denies charges of preparing acts of terrorism and possessing a document entitled Bomb Making on a memory card.

Jurors were told his co-defendant, Mounir Rarmoul-Bouhadjar, also 26, from London, who was known as CD, has pleaded guilty to possessing a terrorist document.

Opening the case against Incedal, prosecutor Richard Whittam QC said: "You will hear that he was actively engaged with another or others who were abroad.

"The prosecution case is that such engagement was for an act, or acts of terrorism either against a limited number of individuals of significance or a more wide-ranging and indiscriminate attack such as the one in Mumbai in 2008."

When police first stopped Incedal's black Mercedes on September 30 2013, they found an Acer laptop computer, a notebook and a Versace glasses case which contained a scrap of paper with the Blairs's address written on it.

And in the notebook was written: "Oh you who believe. Fight those of the infidel who are near to you. Why do you not fight in Allah's cause for those oppressed men, women and children who cry out Lord, rescue us from this town."

Mr Whittam said: "Count 1 does not suggest that Erol Incedal had settled on a specific target or a particular methodology but in the context of the case as a whole and the evidence that I am going to come to, you may think that this address does have some significance."

During the search, police planted a bugging device in the car which picked up conversations that give a "flavour" of what was going on in the following weeks, Mr Whittam said.

In one, Incedal complains about the police and talks about going to a "Plan B" after being stopped.

He says: "I hate white people so much. I might have to destroy everything and do something else. These pigs, I just feel like running them over. They are pigs. Kaffar call them pigs."

In another chat, he says: "I made a big mistake. Some very important stuff was in the car. If they find it, we're f*****".

Jihadist music was played in the car to the words "slaughter, looking at the enemy, looking at the bodies. In this operation they kill approximately 100 kaffar...", the court heard.

There was also talk of renting an "illegal house" because "you cannot carry rucksacks - it's too dangerous," the court heard.

Armed police swooped on the car on October 13 last year as Incedal was driving and co-defendant Rarmoul-Bouhadjar in the passenger seat, Mr Whittam said.

Incedal was arrested on suspicion of being a terrorist and told to hand over the pin numbers for his two mobiles.

He gave his address as Unity Court in south east London but failed to mention that he also lived at another London address in Sussex Gardens.

Mr Whittam told the court that Incedal's phone contained various images of a synagogue and YouTube page in support of the Islamic State in Iraq.

The iPhone had internet searches in English and Arabic for the Islamic State in Iraq and had the black flag of Islam as a screensaver.

And inside the protective case of the iPhone was a micro SD card containing a bomb making document, the court heard.

During the search of the Sussex Gardens address near Paddington, police recovered the laptop which had been in the car during the first police stop.

On it, they found Skype messages and emails. In one, there was a reference to "K 1122aaa shhh" and "mo88m ssbayy style" taken to refer to "the use of Kalashnikov for an attack like they used in Mumbai in 2008", the court heard.

In the search of the Unity Place home, police found hand-written notes on A4 pads with reference to "security", "use law as cover", "finances" and "secure communications".

Some pages appeared to refer to a "Plan A" check list - one-month surveillance, rent flat nearby, uniform, and training, the court heard.

After lunch, the trial continued in secret with a small group of journalists allowed to attend but not to report on the proceedings. The trial is expected to go on for four to six weeks.

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Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/wires/pa/article-2792200/Terror-plotter-Blair-address.html#ixzz3G7z4LH5q