A deacon from the Greek Orthodox Church and a Swiss national have been arrested for trafficking human bones and trying to pass them off as relics, according to Greek police. telegraph.co.uk Police in the northern city of Thessaloniki arrested 43-year-old Swiss Stephan Meyer, an electrician from Zurich, after airport security found 197 human bones and three skulls in the man’s luggage as he tried to board a flight from Thessaloniki to Germany. Mayer was due to pass the bones onto a representative from the Russian Orthodox Church in Germany, pretending that the bones were from the skeletons of Orthodox saints. … Continue reading Greek Orthodox Mullah arrrested for ‘trafficking human bones’

Life on Earth-like planets in other solar systems would be unlikely to resemble any living organisms we recognise, scientists say. TELEGRAPH.CO.UK Many such worlds are likely to have roller-coaster conditions which switch rapidly between habitable and uninhabitable. As their orbits alter shape, surface water could appear and boil away in as little as 1,000 years, research suggests. Related Articles Methane process makes life on Mars difficult Barack Obama’s address to Congress speech in full Give scientists the freedom to be wrong Building block of life found in comet trail Stunning view of impact crater on Mars Nasa ‘short of money … Continue reading Inhabitable planets likely to have extreme climates, say Boffins

A fisherman in China was surprised after catching this striking creature, which looks like a cross between a turtle and a dinosaur. TELEGRAPH.CO.UK The species is only native to North America and was probably someone’s pet before being dumped in the lake, the local fishing department said. Photo: REX FEATURES The man discovered the alligator snapping turtle, which is not native to the country, in Weishan Lake, in southern China’s Anhui province. The species is only native to North America and was probably someone’s pet before being dumped in the lake, the local fishing department said. Related Articles Iceland: Fly-fishing … Continue reading Rare ‘alligator snapping turtle’ caught in Chinese lake

Police blunder allows killers of British family in Pakistan to go free Police investigating the murder of three members of a British family in Pakistan allowed two of the alleged killers to escape by releasing them so they could mourn for their dead brother, relatives of the victims have claimed. Rob Crilly, in Islamabad telegraph.co.uk Tania Yousaf who was gunned down along with mother Pervaze and father Mohammed in Pakistan. Photo: PA Officers had arrested the two men, suspected of killing Mohammed Yousaf, 51, his wife Pervez, 49, and his daughter Tania, 22, from Nelson, Lancashire, on Friday but agreed … Continue reading Killers of British family in Pakistan to go free

Afghan farmers at war’s epicentre play both sides dawn.com Arghandab produces half the 100,000 tonnes of pomegranates grown in Afghanistan each year, but is better known for the harvest of IEDs, or improvised explosive devices. – AFP Photo Business US builds new partnerships with Pakistan PAK-US STRATEGIC TIES US builds new partnerships with Pakistan ARGHANDAB, Afghanistan: Lush pomegranate orchards provide perfect cover for the Taliban, who have turned what should be the fruit basket of Afghanistan into one of the hottest spots of the long insurgency. In the past year the crude bombs that are the Taliban’s battlefield talisman have … Continue reading

By Stephan Salisbury Alioune Niass, the Sengalese Muslim vendor who first spotted the now infamous smoking SUV in Times Square and alerted police, is no hero. If it were not for the Times of London, we would not even know of his pivotal role in the story. No mainstream American newspaper bothered to mention or profile Niass, who peddles framed photographs of celebs and the Manhattan skyline. None of the big television stations interviewed him. As far as the readers of the New York Times are concerned – not to mention the New York Post and the Daily News – … Continue reading Muslim-beating in the ‘righteous’ US

By Spengler More than the Koran’s sanction of wife-beating, the legal grounds on which the Koran sanctions it reveals an impassable gulf between Islamic and Western law. The sovereign grants inalienable rights to every individual in Western society, of which protection from violence is foremost. Every individual stands in direct relation to the state, which wields a monopoly of violence. Islam’s legal system is radically different: the father is a “governor” or “administrator” of the family, that is, a little sovereign within his domestic realm, with the right to employ violence to control his wife and children. That is the … Continue reading Wife-beating, sharia, and Western law

EU demands for austerity will stir uncomfortable memories of Greece’s former imperial glory Hywel Williams guardian.co.uk What shall we do about the Greeks? This is not the first time the question has been asked by European leaders keen on the continent’s integration and finding the Hellenes a bit of a problem in that regard. It’s all rather embarrassing – especially since the democratic innovations of fifth century BC Athens are meant to supply the European Union with a satisfyingly antique pedigree. Pride in that remote history sustained the Greeks during the long centuries of Turkish occupation after Constantinople fell in … Continue reading Not quite Byzantium

<!– –> // <![CDATA[// // <![CDATA[// VIEW: The real culprits –Yasser Latif Hamdani As the second most populous Muslim nation state after Indonesia, our dilemma is no different from the confessional states of Europe that over time became the staunchest defenders of civil liberties and secularism Rakesh Mani was kind enough to mention my article ‘Faisal Shahzad’s radicalisation’, (Daily Times, May 10, 2010) in his article ‘The University of God’ (Daily Times, May 20, 2010). While I agree with most of his observations about Islamic organisations on American university campuses, I must raise a note of dissent in so far … Continue reading The real culprits

COMMNT: Prophets and prohibitions –Reem Wasay This decision has painted the Muslim voice as a stereotypically redundant rant and has rendered it powerless to actually change what Facebook has allowed This just in: the PTA has blocked all links to the Merriam Webster online dictionary. Turns out English is also being restricted lest it enables us the godless ability to actually be able to read the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, which states: “Everyone has the right to freedom of opinion and expression; this right includes freedom to hold opinions without interference and to seek, receive and impart information and … Continue reading Prophets and prohibitions