Dorothy Parvaz, of North Vancouver, A journalist Still Missing in Syria - 3rd May 2011

A B.C. journalist working for the Al-Jazeera network is missing in Syria, the news organization says.

Dorothy Parvaz, of North Vancouver, has not been heard from since Friday, when she disembarked from a flight in Damascus, Syria, and did not check in at her hotel, the network reported Tuesday.

The country has been wracked by battles between authorities and pro-democracy protesters for several weeks.

Parvaz's family is desperate to hear from her.

"We don't know where she is, we don't know who has her," her sister, Sheila Parvaz told CBC News Tuesday. "We just want to know she's safe and we want her to come home."

Parvaz was born in Iran and is travelling on an Iranian passport, which prompted the foreign minister of Iran to ask for more information on Parvaz's fate.

"We demand … the government of Syria look into this case," Ali Akbar Salehi said in an Al-Jazeera report. Read More

U.S. teenager jailed in India for slitting Mother, Cynthia Iannarelli, 51 throat on holiday - because he was upset at parents' divorce - 4th May 2011

A teenager has been convicted of slitting his mother’s throat while they were on holiday in India after he became upset by his parents’ divorce, a court heard.

The 16-year-old boy, of South Fayette, Pennsylvania, killed his business consultant mother Cynthia Iannarelli, 51, while in Rajasthan last August, prosecutors said.

He has been sentenced to three years in an Indian juvenile detention centre after knifing her, wrapping her body in a sheet and leaving it on a sand dune.

The teenager, who cannot be named for legal reasons, was arrested after fleeing from the killing scene and trying to fly back to America.

The knife was never found but police say they recovered the boy’s clothes from the scene at the northern desert resort of Reggies Camel Camp in Osian.

Local reports said he had a heated argument with his mother as he wanted her to get back together with his father, but she was not convinced.

There were no eyewitnesses in the case, but 33 witnesses testified during a lengthy trial and the Juvenile Justice Board also found him guilty of destroying evidence.

The teenager has denied the charges, wrote a letter to the court pleading innocence and false implication, and will appeal against the verdict with his laywer R.D. Mehra. Read More

14 signs that the collapse of our modern world has already begun

A lot of people believe the world as we know it is going to end on December 23, 2012. Nonsense, I say. The far more honest answer is that the end of the world as we know it has already begun. And it doesn't mean the end of the world; it means the closing of one era and the birth of a new one. It is a transition between the ages. This particular transition, however, promises to be the most tumultuous and costly transition humankind has ever seen.

But don't wait around for December 2012 to look for the signs. Here are 14 signs that the world as we know it is unraveling right now. We are living through the end of one era and the birth of a new one. In the future, they'll look back and call this all one moment in history, but when you're living through it, it seems to move forward at almost a snail's pace. But make no mistake: We are living through the opening chapters of the end of the world as we know it, and on the other side of all this will emerge a new world that's very different from the one we know today.

#1 - Tornadoes, hurricanes, earthquakes and tsunamis - At first it seemed like a fluke; but now it's a pattern. The weather is becoming increasingly extreme. Over 120 tornadoes recently struck the U.S. Midwest. Texas is on fire and suffering through an extreme drought. And where there aren't fires and droughts, there are floods. This is only the beginning... watch for more freak weather over the next 18 months.

#2 - The silence of the bees - Colony Collapse Disorder continues to accelerate across North America. We already know it's being caused in part by chemical pesticides (and possibly worsened by GMOs), but the chemical industry is engaged in a full-on cover-up to deny this truth while the pollinators of our world suffer a devastating population collapse. (http://www.naturalnews.com/028218_p...)

#3 - The failure of nuclear science - The Fukushima catastrophe proves one thing: Scientists are dangerously arrogant in their planning of large-scale projects, and they fail to account for the awesome power of Mother Nature. Nuclear science promised us clean, green energy -- but now it has delivered a silent, invisible poison that's infecting our planet. (read more)

Osama Bin Laden Photo's - White House to delay the release of 'gruesome' Osama bin Laden death photos due to Muslim 'sensitivities' - 3rd May 2011

The White House has delayed the release of photographs showing Osama bin Laden's body.

White House officials are afraid that releasing the images, described as 'gruesome' and thought to show the dead al-Qaeda leader with a massive head wound, would offend 'sensitivities' in the Muslim world.

It had been previously thought President Barack Obama had decided to release at least one photo showing Osama Bin Laden shortly after he was killed by U.S. Navy SEALs.

The news came as a Taliban spokesman demanded to see photographic evidence of the assassination.

The White House says the photograph of a dead Osama bin Laden is 'gruesome' and that 'it could be inflammatory' if released.

White House press secretary Jay Carney said the White House is mulling whether to make the photo public, but he said officials are concerned about the 'sensitivity' of doing so.

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid said in a statement emailed to journalists: 'This news is only coming from one side, from Obama's office, and America has not shown any evidence or proof to support this claim.

'On the other side, our sources close to Osama bin Laden have not confirmed or denied the news.

'Until there is news from sources close to Osama bin Laden it will be too early to provide any reaction.' Read More

Abu Ahmad a Kuwaiti, the Courier who led U.S. to Osama bin Laden's Hideout - 3rd May 2011

A diplomatic source told CNN that the courier who was in close contact with Osama bin Laden and who eventually led the United States to him was a Kuwaiti named Abu Ahmad.

U.S. officials have said that when the identity of the courier -- who they have not named -- was established in 2007 the U.S. began a path to the house in Abbottabad, Pakistan, where the al Qaeda leader was living.

Analysis of assessments of detainees held at the U.S. Navy's detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, include several mentions of a man by the name of Abu Ahmad al Kuwaiti, who was reportedly close to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed -- also a Kuwaiti.

The information on the detainee assessments came from U.S. Defense Department documents published by WikiLeaks.

Since the operation that killed bin Laden, U.S. officials have described the courier they were tracking as a protege of Mohammed and another senior member of al Qaeda, Abu Faraj al Libi, a Libyan detainee who was named as al Qaeda's third most senior leader when he was captured in May 2005. Read More

Julian Assange blasts Facebook as 'the most appalling spying machine ever invented' - 3rd May 2011

An official WikiLeaks page has attracted 1.72million 'likes' on Facebook.

But that hasn't stopped 'Leaks leader Julian Assange blasting the social networking site as 'the most appalling spying machine ever invented.'

In an interview with Russia Today Assange said Facebook was one of the top tools for the U.S. Government to spy on its citizens.

'Here we have the world's most comprehensive database about people, their relationships, their names, their addresses, their locations, their communications with each other and their relatives, all sitting within the United States, all accessible to U.S. Intelligence,' he said.

'Facebook, Google, Yahoo, all these major U.S. organisations have built-in interfaces for U.S. intelligence.

'Everyone should understand that when they add their friends to Facebook they are doing free work for the United States intelligence agencies,' he added.

A spokesman for Facebook denied the company was doing anything they weren't legally obliged to do, in an email to the New York Daily News. Read More

New witness claims honeymoon murder suspect Shrien Dewani 'arranged bride's killing to find a way out of his marriage' - 3rd May 2011

British businessman Shrien Dewani arranged his wife's murder on honeymoon in South Africa after confessing he needed to 'find a way out' of his marriage, a court heard today.

The South African authorities are seeking to extradite Dewani over the killing of his Swedish bride Anni, who was shot dead in the back of a taxi in Cape Town in November.

An unnamed witness, who is prepared to give evidence if Dewani stands trial, claims the wealthy care home owner revealed to him his true feelings about his marriage more than six months earlier, the court heard.

Hugo Keith QC, representing the South African authorities, said: 'Dewani told [the witness] in April 2010 how he was engaged and had to get married.

'He said although she was a nice, lovely girl who he liked, he could not break out of the engagement because he would be disowned by his family. He went on to say to the witness he needed to find a way out of it.'

Dewani, 31, is accused of arranging for Anni, 28, to be killed in a staged car-jacking in the dangerous Gugulethu township.

He is also wanted for offences of kidnapping, robbery with aggravated circumstances, conspiracy to commit murder, and obstructing the administration of justice, Belmarsh Magistrates' Court in south-east London heard on the first day of his extradition hearing.

As Mr Keith opened his case, Dewani, dressed in a dark tracksuit top, sat slumped in the dock, mumbling to himself with his eyes half-closed. Read More

Osama Bin Laden was Unarmed when he was Shot in the Face in front of his 12 year old Daughter, it is claimed

Osama Bin Laden's 12-year-old daughter was present when U.S. forces shot and killed her father at a Pakistani compound, it has emerged.

New details about the deadly Special Forces raid in Abbottabad emerged as U.S. officials backtracked on a claim made earlier that a wife of Osama Bin Laden acted as a human shield in an unsuccessful bid to save the Al Qaeda leader's life.

The fresh reports also revealed that Bin Laden was unarmed when he was shot in the face.

Officials had first said that Bin Laden had stood behind a younger woman - identified in some sources as one of his wives - while firing at U.S. troops with an AK-47.

But as fresh details emerged that up to 19 other people had been living inside the house, it was today unclear which woman had been killed.

Officials from Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, today gave new details about the operation.

An ISI official told the BBC 17 or 18 people were inside the compound at the time of the attack.

One of those in the building was a daughter of Bin Laden's, thought to be 12, who saw her father fatally shot by U.S. forces, the official claimed.

Further details about the raid were revealed as U.S. officials corrected earlier remarks which suggested a wife of Bin Laden's had died after being used as a human shield.

Initially, counter-terrorism official John Brennan had said. 'There was family at that compound, and there was a female who was, in fact, in the line of fire that reportedly was used as a shield to shield Bin Laden from the incoming fire.'

However, a different White House official said that account had turned out not to be the case. The youngest of Bin Laden's five wives, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, 27, survived the raid but was wounded in the calf.

Mr Brennan has since told Fox News that, to his knowledge, Bin Laden's wife was injured rather than killed, adding it was unclear whether she and another female in the Abbottabad compound had been trying to attack U.S. personnel. Read More

Anxiang Du, a business associate of the Family stabbed to Death in Northampton is wanted for Questioning by the Police for their Murders -3rd May 2011

Detectives investigating the murder of a family of four found stabbed to death in Northampton have named a man they want to speak to in connection with the killings.

The suspect, 52-year-old Anxiang Du, is a business associate of the deceased family and of Chinese origin.

He was last seen at his herbal medicine shop in the Pallasades Shopping Centre, Birmingham, on April 29 wearing a white baseball cap, brown waist length coat and a blue woolen top.

Mr Du left what appears to be a suicide note at the shop saying goodbye to his family.

Detective Superintendent Glyn Timmins said: "Mr Du routinely wears a baseball cap as he has a bald patch at the back.

"We believe that he may have with him a rucksack which he wears across him. We would seek the public assistance in finding Mr Du so that we can question him."

Jifeng Ding (known as Jeff), his wife Helen, 47, and their two daughters Xing, 18, and Alice, 12, were found stabbed to death at the weekend at their home in Wootton, Northampton. Read More

'Osama is alive!' mock Pakistanis outside bin Laden home - 3rd May 2011

Dozens of Pakistani youths on Tuesday demonstrated outside the upmarket compound where Osama bin Laden was killed, mocking the United States and shouting, 'Osama is alive!'

Unconvinced by news that the Al-Qaeda kingpin had been living in their leafy city of Abbottabad, one protester dressed up as the world's 'most-wanted' man, who was killed in a helicopter raid by US commandos.

"Osama is alive, here comes Osama!" he exclaimed jokingly, donning a white turban and hiding his face with a cloth.

Some children as young as four or five joined the spontaneous rally, which was full of laughter and held alongside a heavy police contingent guarding the scene of the now world-famous operation to kill the terror mastermind.

Another in the group, wearing a black turban similar to that sported by the Taliban's supreme leader Mullah Omar, suggested that the raid had been a fake.

"Long live Osama, here come Mullar Omar and Osama!" he proclaimed.

Conspiracy theories, propped up by distrust of the United States, have spread quickly among residents in the quiet, relatively well-to-do garrison town after the news emerged of bin Laden's death on their doorstep.

"We are really surprised about how this is possible," said Mohammad Anwar, another teenager at the gathering. Source

US: Death Of Osama Was 'Shared Achievement' by the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan, a US - PAKISTAN'S PRESIDENT: We had No Part in the Operation

The death of Osama bin Laden was a "shared achievement" by the US, Pakistan and Afghanistan, a US official has said.

"All three countries had this commitment to an end to extremism," Marc Grossman, US special representative to Pakistan, told a news conference in Islamabad. "This effort is far from over."

He said the al Qaeda leader was an enemy of both the US and Pakistan, as thousands of Pakistani civilians and soldiers had died at the hands of terrorists.

Asked about various conspiracy theories surrounding bin Laden's death, he said: "You can have as many conspiracies as you wish. He's dead, it's good, we still have to fight extremism." Read More

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(Reuters) - Pakistan's president acknowledged for the first time on Tuesday that his security forces were left out of a U.S. operation to kill Osama bin Laden, but he did little to dispel questions over how the al Qaeda leader was able to live in comfort near Islamabad.

The revelation that bin Laden had holed up in a compound in the military garrison town of Abbottabad, possibly for years, prompted many U.S. lawmakers to demand a review of the billions of dollars in aid Washington gives to nuclear-armed Pakistan.

"He was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be, but now he is gone," Pakistan President Asif Ali Zardari wrote in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, without offering further defense against accusations his security services should have known where bin Laden was hiding.

"Although the events of Sunday were not a joint operation, a decade of cooperation and partnership between the United States and Pakistan led up to the elimination of Osama bin Laden as a continuing threat to the civilized world." Read More

Guantanamo torture was the key: Detainees led the CIA to Bin Laden's hideout - 3rd May 2011

Detainees at Guantanamo Bay provided the crucial breakthrough in hunting down Osama Bin Laden, American officials said last night.

Senior officials in the Obama administration said intelligence gained from interrogations at the U.S. base was directly responsible for helping security forces track down and kill Bin Laden.

The claim will fuel the international row about the Guantanamo camp – one of the most controversial legacies of the 9/11 attacks on the U.S. – and whether torture can ever be justified.

Hundreds of suspects rounded up in Afghanistan and Pakistan were subjected to techniques such as water-boarding, sleep deprivation, white noise and stress positions at the U.S. Naval base in Cuba.

Human rights groups claim the techniques amounted to torture, and that many of the detainees had no link to terrorism.

But U.S. officials said interrogations had produced crucial information about a trusted courier who provided support to Bin Laden after he fled Afghanistan.

A senior source said detainees had provided the courier’s nickname and indicated he could be living with Bin Laden – although it took years to track down his true identity and location.

The official said: ‘Detainees flagged for us individuals who may have been providing direct support to Bin Laden and his deputy after their escape from Afghanistan. One courier in particular had our constant attention.’

Documents released by the Wikileaks organisation appear to confirm that detainees provided information about a courier operating out of the Pakistani city of Abbottabad, where Bin Laden was eventually tracked down – although it is unclear whether the individual involved is the one who eventually led U.S. intelligence to the lair of the terrorist mastermind. Mike Blakemore, of the human rights group Amnesty International, last night said torture could not be justified in any circumstances. Read More

Five men arrested on suspicion of terror offences at Sellafield nuclear power station - 3rd May 2011

Five men from London are being held under the Terrorism Act after being arrested close to the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria, police said today.

The arrests came as the U.S. CIA and State Department warned there was 'enhanced potential' for violence against the country's citizens and assets.

Police departments were warned that the killing will likely inspire homegrown extremists in the U.S. to carry out revenge attacks.

The FBI cautioned that U.S. cities, airports, public transport and government buildings continued to be attractive targets for terrorists.

New York's Port Authority announced there would be a heightened police presence at the city's airports and bridges - and at Ground Zero. Read More

EU considers reinstating national border controls - 1st May 2011

Brussels said on Sunday that national passport controls might be reintroduced across Europe to allow the "temporary" re-erection of borders between 25 countries.

Responding to intense pressure from Italy and France to tighten the no-borders system known as the Schengen regime, José Manuel Barroso, the president of the European commission, said he was looking at ways of satisfying the two countries' concerns. Paris and Rome are alarmed at an influx of migrants fleeing revolutionary north Africa.

In a letter to French president Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian prime minister Silvio Berlusconi, Barroso said that the commission would unveil new proposals on Wednesday on immigration policy, common European asylum procedures, and reform of the Schengen system.

The commission's proposals are to go to a summit of EU leaders next month, with France and Italy leading the charge for a partial renationalisation of border controls, a trend the commission would like to resist but looks too weak to counter.

The Franco-Italian push to place greater restrictions on the Schengen regime, launched last week after a furious row between Paris and Rome over refugees from Tunisia, has already won support from a handful of other EU countries, including Germany.

The Schengen system, introduced in 1995 after being agreed a decade earlier, abolished frontier checks between 22 EU countries plus Norway, Iceland and Switzerland, and is viewed by many of the 400 million Europeans concerned as one of the more tangible benefits of the EU. Britain and Ireland are not part of the system, insisting on retaining their national border controls. Read More

Is Gaddafi plotting chemical assault against Libyan rebels? Troops seen wearing gas masks........But where are the Photo's? - 3rd May 2011

Fears that Colonel Gaddafi is planning to use chemical weapons against rebels grew yesterday when forces loyal to the Libyan tyrant were seen wearing gas masks.

After giving rebels in the besieged city of Misrata until midnight tonight to surrender or face the ‘fires from Hell’, Gaddafi’s troops were yesterday seen wearing the masks for the first time since the uprising against his rule began seven weeks ago.

The chilling development prompted rebel fighters in Misrata, which is surrounded on three sides by Gaddafi’s forces, to radio for immediate supplies of their own protective masks to be shipped from Benghazi, their stronghold in the East.

With more than 1,000 dead in Misrata after fierce pounding by Gaddafi’s forces, the prospect of a chemical attack has sent a new wave of fear and panic through the city, with civilians also desperately trying to find gas masks.

A doctor, who asked not to be named, said sources inside Gaddafi’s regime had warned him to flee with his family by yesterday – before the dictator takes revenge against the people of Misrata when the deadline expires.

The threat came as crowds of up to 2,000 people chanting Gaddafi’s name yesterday gathered in Tripoli for the funeral of his 29-year-old son and three grandchildren – allegedly killed in a Nato airstrike on Saturday.

Although the deaths remain unverified, what appeared to be Saif al-Arab’s coffin, covered in flowers and wrapped in the Libyan flag, was carried through the crowds to the grave at Hani cemetery in Tripoli. Gaddafi himself was not at the funeral, but Saif al-Islam, the most prominent of his sons, attended in dark tribal robes. Read More

Jeff Hall, 32, White supremacist leader 'shot dead at home by his young son' - 3rd May 2011

The young son of a white supremacist leader has been detained after his father was found shot dead at their home.

Jeff Hall, 32, a regional director for the National Socialist Movement, was killed in the early hours of Sunday morning by a 'known assailant' at his house in Riverside, California.

Police removed two handguns from the property and questioned one of his five children, believed to be a ten-year-old boy. They have not yet ruled out the possibility that the shooting was deliberate.

Mr Hall was a plumber and rising star in the neo-Nazi group based in Detroit, who ran for office at his local water board last November.

Neighbours said he flew a swastika from his home at a Halloween party last year and attendees wore Ku Klux Klan costumes.

A New York Times reporter attended a meeting of the local group at his home the night before he was killed, where Mr Hall called on members to join him for militia-style raids for illegal immigrants along the Mexico-Arizona border.

He said: 'This is a very active area right now. You guys get your Glocks cocked and get ready to rock. We’re going to the border. That’s how we do it.' Read More

2nd District Appellate Court in Elgin Evacuated Because of White Powder, Illinois - 2nd May 2011

Twenty-eight people were hospitalized Monday afternoon to be examined after possibly inhaling a suspicious substance inside the Second District Appellate Court building in downtown Elgin, authorities said.

Elgin spokeswoman Sue Olafson said a clerk in the courthouse at 55 Symphony Way opened an incoming envelope about 11:20 a.m. that turned out to be filled with a white powder and a "threatening letter." Court officials summoned firefighters, who were treating the case as a hazardous-materials incident.

As of 6 p.m., FBI officials were on the scene and planned to test the powdery substance, Olafson said. Initial tests by Elgin's HazMat team had ruled out anthrax, Ricin and botulism, she said, but the FBI requires 72 hours to complete the testing.

The courthouse will remain closed for those three days "as a precautionary measure," Olafson said in an email.

Earlier, Olafson said about 3:30 p.m. that 28 people who were inside the building when the powder was discovered were being decontaminated by a series of washes. They then would be dressed in clean clothes and taken by a fleet of ambulances from several area fire departments to hospitals to be checked out “just as a precaution,” she said.

None showed signs of illness, she said. Read More

How could they not have known he was there? Bin Laden hideout and Pakistan's Sandhurst only 800 yards apart - 3rd May 2011

Relations between Pakistan and the West were under intense strain last night amid widespread incredulity at Islamabad’s claim that it knew nothing of Osama Bin Laden’s whereabouts.

Politicians and experts said it beggared belief that no one in Pakistan’s notorious intelligence service had any idea the terrorist leader was living in a vast, custom-built compound only 800 yards from the country’s military academy.

Critics said the circumstantial evidence suggested that instead, Bin Laden was effectively being housed under Pakistani state control.

Satellite images show his hideout was a short walk from Pakistan’s equivalent of Sandhurst. The discovery will raise questions about Britain and America’s already difficult relationship with the country – which is becoming the single biggest recipient of British aid money.

Last month, on a visit to Pakistan, Mr Cameron announced £650million in assistance for Pakistani education as part of an effort to launch a ‘fresh start’ in Britain’s relationship with the country.

But any evidence that Pakistan was harbouring Bin Laden will lead to angry demands to cancel the aid. Read More

Obama watched Bin Laden die on live video as shoot-out beamed to White House - 3rd May 2011

President Obama was watching on a TV screen as a commando gunned down Osama Bin Laden. Via a video camera fixed to the helmet of a U.S. Navy Seal, the leader of the free world saw the terror chief shot in the left eye.

The Seal then carried out what is known in the military as a ‘double tap’ – shooting him again, probably in the chest, to make certain he was dead. The footage of the battle in Bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout – relayed to the White House by satellite – is said to show one of his wives acting as a human shield to protect him as he blasted away with an AK47 assault rifle.

She died, along with three other men, including one of Bin Laden’s sons. Within hours, the Al Qaeda leader’s body was buried at sea.

Despite President Obama claiming the master terrorist’s death made the world a ‘safer, better place’, the head of the Central Intelligence Agency declared that terrorists would ‘almost certainly’ respond.

The warning came on a day when:

■ Relations between Pakistan and the West were under intense strain amid disbelief that intelligence chiefs in Islamabad had no idea Bin Laden was living in a compound only 800 yards from the country’s leading military academy.

■ U.S. officials sought to justify the torture of detainees at Guantanamo Bay by claiming it provided the crucial breakthrough in hunting down Bin Laden.

■ It emerged that a terror operative captured in Pakistan in 2004 said Al Qaeda would detonate a nuclear bomb in the U.S. if Bin Laden were killed or captured.

David Cameron said Bin Laden’s death would be ‘welcomed right across our country’ Read More

Barbara Lee stabs group of deaf-mutes after mistaking sign language for gang signals

A group of deaf friends were stabbed at a bar in Florida after a woman mistook their sign language for gang signs.

Alfred Stewart, 31, was partying at the Ocean's Eleven Lounge in Hallendale Beach, Fla., with some friends who were also deaf on Saturday night when the group's signing caught the eye of gang-banger Barbara Lee.

The 45-year-old Lee though the group was throwing gang signs at her, and responded by flashing gang signs back at them, cops said.

The group motioned for her to leave them alone.

Eventually, Lee left the bar but returned with two members of her crew, 19-year-old Marco Ibanez and a 17-year-old who was not identified, cops said.

Ibanez allegedly pulled a knife and began stabbing Stewart and his friends.

Stewart and three of his friends were taken to a hospital and treated for stab wounds.

A bouncer at the bar who had a bottle smashed over his head in the melee was also taken to the hospital. None of the injuries were life-threatening, officials said.

Lee, Ibanez and the 17-year-old were arrested and charged with aggravated battery.

Stewart's mother, Brenda, said there was no way her son was making gang signs.

"Only sign language," she told WSVN television. "That's the only way all of them, they do sign language." (read more)