Saudi Arabia: Pakistani beheaded for heroin trafficking

 

A Pakistani man convicted of trafficking in heroin was beheaded Monday in eastern Saudi Arabia, according to the official Saudi Press Agency. Annunci Google Sustainability Degrees Ph.D. and M.S. programs. Education for a Sustainable World! www.rit.edu/gis/ Costa Rica Solar Affordable Grid Tied Solar Systems Solar Costs Less Than Utility! www.poderco.com Salman Khan Taj Mohamma was executed in the city of Dammam, bringing to five the number of people put to death in Saudi Arabia since the beginning of the year. Saudi Arabia came under fire in October when the United Nations called on the Kingdom to better respect international standards that provide safeguards to ensure protection of the rights of those facing the death penalty. The UN said it was "deeply distressed" after eight Bangladeshi migrant workers found guilty of a 2007 murder were beheaded in public in the capital, Riyadh. Saudi Arabia, China, Iran, the United States and Yemen are the countries that executive the highest numbers of people, according to human rights group Amnesty International. Iraq may enter the fray with dozens of recent executions.

Afghanistan to press Pakistan for access to Taliban

 

Afghanistan will press Pakistan for access to Taliban leaders during a one-day visit to Kabul by Pakistan’s foreign minister, with Afghan officials hoping to ease cross-border strains and lay the ground for peace negotiations with the insurgents. Hina Rabbani Khar will visit Kabul on Feb 1 to discuss reconciliation and nascent plans for peace talks ahead of a meeting between representatives of the Afghan government and the Taliban in Saudi Arabia. Khar’s trip will mark the first high-level meetings between officials from the countries in months. Pakistan is seen as critical to US efforts to stabilize Afghanistan before foreign combat troops leave in 2014. “We hope it will mark a new phase in the relationship between both countries,” Afghan Foreign Ministry spokesman Janan Mosazai said yesterday. Senior Afghan security sources told Reuters that Afghan officials would use Khar’s visit to press for access to Mullah Abdul Ghani Baradar, a co-founder of the Taliban captured in Pakistan in 2010, as well as other members of a Taliban council known as the Quetta Shura, after the Pakistani city of Quetta where the leaders are said to be based. Afghan officials want direct access to senior Taliban members and advisers because they are the main decision makers for the insurgency and will be crucial to winning support for the fledgling peace process. Pakistan has consistently denied giving sanctuary to insurgents and denies the existence of any Quetta Shura. Baradar, a close associate of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden before the Sept. 11 attacks in the United States, had been ranked second to Taliban leader Mullah Muhammad Omar. He was captured in Pakistan’s biggest city of Karachi by Pakistani and US intelligence agents in February 2010. “When the Pakistan delegation visits here, we will be asking for direct access to the Quetta Shura, or access to Mullah Baradar, who has been in Pakistan custody, as a gesture of good faith,” said a senior Afghan security source. “We want sincere cooperation from Pakistan in regards to peace talks,” said the source, who declined to be identified. Ties between the neighbours were severely damaged after the assassination in Kabul last September of Afghanistan’s main peace negotiator, Burhanuddin Rabbani, by an insurgent messenger carrying a bomb concealed in his turban.

Recession causes 2,000 heart attack deaths

 

Since 2002 the number of people dying from heart attacks in England has dropped by half, the study conducted by Oxford University found. But within that, regional data revealed there was a 'blip' in London that corresponded to the financial crash in 2008 and continued through 2009. Heart attack deaths have dropped due to better prevention of heart attacks in the first place with fewer people smoking and improvements in diet through lower consumption of saturated fat. The treatment of people who do suffer a heart attack has also improved leading to fewer deaths with faster ambulance response times, new procedures to clear blocked arteries and wider use of drugs such as statins and aspirin. The research published in the British Medical Journal showed around 80,000 lives have been saved between 2002 and 2008 as deaths from heart attacks declined.

A Lone Wolf's golden farewell

 

A WAILING mother speaks to her dead son. ''Stand up and say hello to your guests,'' she urges him, apparently unwilling to accept he is dead. But he is the man in the coffin - the $42,000 gold-plated coffin, paid for in cash by his bikie mates. This was the funeral yesterday for the Lone Wolf member Neal Todorovski, who was shot in the head on January 4 during a shoot-out in Sans Souci, southern Sydney, the first death from a succession of gun attacks across Sydney. Mr Todorovski, 37, had been armed with a gun that day. And the congregation at St Nikola Macedonian Orthodox Church in Cabramatta, south-western Sydney, yesterday included many men associated with outlaw bike gangs. But police fear innocent bystanders will be the next victims of the spike in shootings. They worry more deaths will follow as disputes spiral into tit-for-tat shootings, some related, some not. A senior Lone Wolf told The Sun-Herald the Todorovski shooting was not a turf war but over ''something petty and silly''. He said: ''I'm not sure what's wrong with the world. To die like this over nothing is just stupid.'' Many bikies at the Todorovski service were visibly distraught, weeping, hugging each other. They included Finks and Comanchero members. A Lone Wolf said an arrest in Perth over the shooting followed the police interception of a telephone conversation. Detective Wayne Hayes, acting commander of the gang squad, said the Lone Wolf gang had eight chapters in NSW with about 96 members. The Todorovski killing ''had nothing indicating expansion'' into new territory, he said. Strike Force Lobbe - one of four strike forces investigating the Sydney shootings - identified a Maroubra man, 25-year-old Tarek Abdallah, as the suspect in the Todorovski shooting. Mr Abdallah faced a Perth court on Friday and is expected to be extradited to NSW this week. Mr Todorovski had been armed with a pistol when he left his flat with two friends, Matthew Edward Lewis, 23, and John Haper Leger, 32, to meet Mr Abdallah in front of his four-wheel-drive. In court police alleged a scuffle broke out and Mr Abdallah managed to pull a handgun from his car and shoot Mr Todorovski in the head. They allege Mr Lewis and Mr Leger refused to co-operate and arrested the pair for concealing an indictable offence and possessing a prohibited weapon.

Michael Brown: From £1.6m villa to prison yard, downfall of the Lib Dem fraudster

 

The knock at the door did not unduly disturb the man relaxing on the terrace of the £1.6 million villa overlooking the Caribbean. Even when his wife opened it to discover members of the Dominican Republic’s armed police outside, Darren Patrick Nally was unfazed. He was sure his secret was safe: he was not Nally, a man who said he was an Irish singer and had already been detained in prison on charges of failing to pay his debts. In fact he was Michael Brown, a 45-year-old British fraudster whose web of lies and deceit had made him millions – £2.4 million of which he had donated to the Liberal Democrats for their 2005 election campaign, becoming their biggest single donor. As he was arrested for unpaid rent at a former apartment, Brown was nonchalant. At the police station he told the local assistant prosecutor, Elizabeth Rijo, that he would pay the debt and be back home in time for dinner.

Gangland war playing out on south western Sydney streets

 

The O'Farrell Government is refusing to crackdown on the gangland war playing out on south western Sydney streets – after 48 drive by shootings in just nine months, Shadow Police Minister, Nathan Rees said today. "The O'Farrell Government is sitting on its hands when it comes to drive by shootings and allowing bikie gangs to run riot in Sydney streets," Mr Rees said. "Last night's latest shooting saw a bullet narrowly miss a baby's cot. It is only a matter of time before an innocent bystander is killed. "Instead of taking action to fight the drive by shootings plaguing our suburbs, the O'Farrell Government has refused to introduce laws to outlaw bikie gangs involved in organised crime and failed to properly resource our police. "Instead of replacing the tough gang laws introduced following the bikie murder at Sydney Airport in 2009 and overturned by the High Court, the O'Farrell Government has sat on its hands and done nothing. "This inaction has left police without special powers to prohibit bikie gangs involved in criminal activity and stamp down on these drive by shootings." Mr Rees said the O'Farrell Government's decision to leave south west Sydney police stations understaffed showed they weren't taking the shootings seriously. "One third of these shootings occurred when the O'Farrell Government left 11 out of 15* central and south west Sydney Local Area Commands at below authorised strength late last year," Mr Rees said. "It defies belief the O'Farrell Government would leave south west Sydney police understaffed and under resourced when officers are being forced to battle a new drive by shooting almost every night. "Even the head of the Bureau of Crime Statistics and Research, Don Weatherburn says the recent spate of drive by shootings is the worst he has seen in a decade. "Sydney families should not have to turn on the news each morning, only for another drive by shooting to be flashed all over their screens. "The former Labor Government left NSW with all 17 major crime categories either falling or stable and the largest and best resourced police force in the country. "Drive by shootings have already risen by 20 per cent under the O'Farrell Government and are clearly out of control. We should not have to accept crime rates going backwards."

Man held after two bodies found

 

A man is in police custody after officers found the bodies of a woman and a young girl. The 36-year-old was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder after West Yorkshire Police discovered the bodies of the woman, aged 31, and the girl, aged eight, in a house on Kirkby Avenue, Garforth, Leeds. Officers also found a four-year-old girl with minor injuries, a force spokesman said. She was treated at Leeds General Infirmary and later discharged. A force spokeswoman said: "Police were called around 4pm (on Saturday) afternoon to reports of an assault near the Fairburnings Nature Reserve near Castleford. "Officers attended and following initial inquiries a house search was subsequently conducted at an address in Kirkby Avenue in Garforth in Leeds and a 31-year-old woman and an eight-year-old girl were found deceased in the property. "A four-year-old girl was also found with minor injuries. "She was taken to Leeds General Infirmary and later discharged. "A 36-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of murder and attempted murder." The spokeswoman said the man remains in custody as the investigation continues.

Man arrested in connection with Avtar and Carole Kolar Birmingham murders

 

Mr Kolar, 62, and his 58-year-old wife were discovered at their home on Wednesday morning by their son Jason, who works as a policeman. The couple, from the Handsworth Wood area in the north-west of England's second city, suffered multiple blows to their heads with a blunt instrument. A 24-year-old man has now been detained for questioning in relation to the attack, which has been described as 'atrocious'. He was taken from a house in Birmingham and is being dealt with at a station in the West Midlands. Mr and Mrs Kolar's son had visited their home after they failed to answer a call he made to them, prompting him to become concerned about their welfare. Jason is one of four children belonging to the late couple and they also had eight grandchildren, born during their 40 years of married life, most of which was spent in Birmingham. Det Supt Richard Baker, speaking after the murders were uncovered, said the police are not ruling out the possibility of the incident being a revenge attack against the couple's son, in relation to his work.