10 Held in Germany Over Suspected Islamist Attack Plan

Islamic Salafist group planned to use car & guns

to kill as many Germans as possible

File photo © Reuters / Michael Dalder

German prosecutors say 10 people have been detained on suspicion of plotting an Islamist attack using a car and guns, with the aim of killing as many “infidels” as possible.

The arrests were made following an “anti-terror” raid in the central Frankfurt Rhine-Main region on Friday, according to Welt, who cite the state criminal police office and the prosecutor’s office in Frankfurt.

A 21-year-old and two 31-year-old brothers are noted as the “main suspects” in the group and are believed to be associated with the local Islamist Salafist community. All are accused of plotting an “Islamist terrorist-motivated attack” to kill as many “infidels” as possible.

Several of the suspects are German citizens, according to the prosecutor’s office, but no other nationalities were specified.

2nd generation Muslims living in Europe tend to be more devout and more radical than their parents, especially if they are attending a Salafist mosque. Salafism should be illegal in every sane country in the world.

The plan was already well established when police foiled the attack, according to German authorities. The group, aged between 20 and 42, were reportedly in contact with various arms dealers and had already leased a large vehicle as part of their operation.

About 200 officers were involved in the raid of several apartments on Friday morning, in which more than €20,000 in cash, multiple knives, a small quantity of drugs and large number of documents were also seized.

Frankfurt Rhine-Main, GDR

Church of England Decries Home Office for Denying Asylum Over ‘Violence’ in Christianity

The Religion of Peace - or, the Prince of Peace?

A Christian speaker holds a copy of the Bible at Speakers' Corner in Hyde Park, London

© REUTERS/Stefan Wermuth

The UK Home Office has refused asylum to an Iranian convert, saying that Christianity is not as ‘peaceful’ as he claims. It even cited Bible verses to support its position. Now the Church of England is stepping in.

The letter from the Home Office now making the rounds on social media uses out of context Bible verses from books like Revelations to disprove the Iranian national's claim in his 2016 asylum request that he abandoned Islam and converted based on the peaceful nature of Christianity.

The letter describes the Bible as being “filled with imagery of revenge, destruction, death and violence,” and therefore “inconsistent” with the asylum-seeker’s claim that Christianity is peaceful “as opposed to Islam.”

Nathan Stevens, the asylum-seeker’s caseworker, tweeted an image of the rejection letter, stating he was “genuinely shocked” to read such “unbelievably offensive diatribe.”

He is not the only one who found the letter distasteful. The Church of England has even gotten involved, stating its “extreme concern” over the “profound misunderstanding” of biblical texts.

To use extracts from the Book of Revelation to argue that Christianity is a violent religion is like arguing that a government report on the impact of climate change is advocating drought and flooding.

The Church also said that the religious literacy of Home Office staff needs to be improved considering how critical religion is to the asylum process.

The Home Office has responded to the widespread outcry, promising to investigate while noting the letter “is not in accordance with our policy approach to claims based on religious persecution.”

So, can Home Office provide examples of Christian violence from the recent past? I can provide examples of hundreds of Muslim acts of violence, extreme violence, just in the past month. Home Office should also know that converting from Islam to Christianity, or any other religion, leaves you condemned to death by Mohammed, in the Quran. And such conversions have resulted in the murder of ex-Muslims quite recently. I've never heard of the murder of a Christian who converted to Islam.

Even though Sajid Javid is technically a Muslim, I have great respect for him, and I don't believe this is his doing. I hope I don't have to adjust my feelings for the Home Secretary.

Below is an extraordinary testimony from a former Imam who converted to Christ based entirely on the Quran. His reasoning is impeccable. The reaction of his family is hardly believable and begins a little past 8 minutes in. It's an amazing video, please watch.

Brazilian Ex-President Temer Arrested in Anti- Corruption Probe

Corruption is Everywhere

Definitely in Brazilian Politics

Brazil’s former president Michel Temer has been arrested as part of a sweeping anti-corruption probe, media reports say. Temer took the office in 2016 after the impeachment of Dilma Rousseff – also on allegations of corruption.

Temer was detained at his house in Sao Paulo on Thursday morning and then transferred to federal police headquarters in Rio de Janeiro by the police task force, Brazilian news portal Globo reports. 

An arrest warrant has also allegedly been issued against the former energy minister Moreira Franco as well as Eliseu Padilha, who served as a civil aeronautics minister under ex-president Rousseff and later worked as a minister of labor and the chief of staff of the presidency under Temer, according to Globo.

The arrest is related to charges over alleged graft involving the construction of the Angra 3 nuclear plant, Reuters reported, citing the Brazilian Federal Prosecutor’s Office.

Meanwhile, Brazilian media reports that the ex-president faces investigation on ten separate cases. At least some of inquiries into his affairs are part of the ongoing large-scale criminal investigation known as Operation Car Wash in Brazil.

Initially launched as a money laundering probe, it was expanded to cover allegations of corruption at the state-controlled oil company Petrobras. Former presidents Luiz Lula da Silva and Dilma Rousseff were also indicted under it.

The ex-president’s lawyer confirmed his arrest. Temer came to power following Rousseff’s impeachment back in 2018 and stayed in office until December 31, 2018.

Brazil’s former leader was accused of corruption during his presidency in 2017 but the charges were blocked by the lower house of the Brazilian parliament at that time. Temer himself repeatedly denied any wrongdoing.

Bad Week for Billionaires as Some of World's Richest Tangle With the Law

Corruption is Everywhere

Certainly Among the World's Richest People

Jonathon Gatehouse · CBC News 

Premchai Karnasuta arrives at court to hear the verdict against him and three other suspects at Thong Pha Phum Provincial Court in Kanchanaburi province on Tuesday in a case involving poaching at a wildlife sanctuary. The case has fuelled outrage in a country fed up with impunity and corruption. (Lillian Suwanrumpha/AFP/Getty Images)

It's rarely a bad time to be a billionaire.

In 2018, the world's richest people saw their collective fortunes grow by 12 per cent, or $2.5 billion US a day.

That's part of a long-term trend that has seen the planet's über-wealthy — the top one per cent — take home the equivalent of 27 cents of every dollar of global income growth over the past four decades, while the Earth's poorest 50 per cent got a 12-cent share.

In even starker terms, in 2016 the top 61 billionaires  had as much wealth as half of the world's population, some 3.8 billion people. And as the concentration of money rose in 2017, the number fell to 43, and then last year to just the top 26.

Yet all that wealth and power doesn't necessarily put them beyond the reach of the law.

Nirav Modi, an Indian diamond merchant worth $1.8 billion US, is currently sitting in a British jail cell after his arrest yesterday on charges of bank fraud regarding a $2 billion loan with Punjab state's National Bank.

Luxury jeweler Nirav Modi, left, and actress Naomi Watts attend a dinner to celebrate the opening of the first Nirav Modi boutique in the U.S. on Sept. 8, 2015, in New York. (Diane Bondareff/Associated Press)

The 48-year-old had fled India last June as police probed allegedly fraudulent letters of guarantee, but was spotted out and about in London's toney neighbourhoods by a newspaper reporter, then turned in by a sharp-eyed bank clerk.

Authorities in India have seized a number of properties and 11 luxury vehicles belonging to Modi, including a Porsche and a Rolls Royce, and are in the process of auctioning off a collection of 173 paintings.

He had offered to post a guarantee of $880,000 Cdn pending his extradition hearing, but the British court rejected his request for bail, with the judge noting dryly that she believed he "may have the means of escape."

Just across the Channel in France, two foreign billionaires are now facing prosecution.

Suleyman Kerimov, ranked as the world's 257th richest person with a fortune of $6.4 billion, has been indicted for tax fraud over the "suspicious" purchase of five lavish villas in the south of France.

Billionaire Suleyman Kerimov, a powerful Russian oil and metals magnate, watches a soccer match at Al Nasr Stadium in Dubai on Jan. 16, 2012. (Sergei Rasulov/AFP/Getty Images)

He had previously been on trial for money laundering in connection with the purchases, but the charges were dropped last summer. (Kerimov is also among the close to two dozen oligarchs facing U.S. sanctions over Russia's presumed interference in the 2016 presidential election.)

Now he is free on a 20-million euro ($30.26 million Cdn) bail.

The reopening of his case comes just a day after French authorities disclosed that they have arrested Belhassen Trabelsi, a Tunisian billionaire who fled Canada in 2016 to escape deportation to his homeland over accusations of corruption.

Belhassen Trabelsi sits outside the Canadian Immigration and Refugee Board offices in Montreal on May 7, 2013. The elusive Tunisian billionaire disappeared from Canada as he was set to be deported to his homeland in 2016, but has resurfaced and is under arrest in France. (Ryan Remiorz/Canadian Press)

The 56-year-old, who is the brother-in-law of former Tunisian president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali, amassed a vast fortune, including hotels, banks, media companies and a major construction firm over his relative's 23 years of rule.

His wife and four children were granted asylum in Canada, and are believed to be living in Montreal.

Meanwhile, a Thai billionaire has been sentenced to 16 months in jail on poaching charges. Premchai Karnasuta, who owns one of the country's main construction firms, was arrested by rangers in a national park in February 2018, and found to be in possession of the carcasses of several protected animals including a Kalij pheasant, a barking deer and an endangered black leopard.

Thai billionaire construction tycoon Premchai Karnasuta leaves The Thong Pha Phum Provincial Court in Kanchanaburi, Thailand, on Tuesday after being sentenced to 16 months in prison for possessing the carcass of an endangered Kajij pheasant and other rare animals. (Associated Press)

His driver and his cook, who were also arrested in the jungle, received lesser sentences.

Premchai is currently free on $17,000 Cdn bail pending an appeal.

And in the United States, Robert Kraft, the owner of the Superbowl champion New England Patriots, today rejected a plea deal that would have seen charges of receiving paid sexual acts in a Florida massage parlour dropped in exchange for a small fine and an admission of guilt.

Robert Kraft, CEO of the New England Patriots, attends the Super Bowl LIII Pregame at Mercedes-Benz Stadium on Feb. 3 in Atlanta, Georgia. (Kevin Winter/Getty Images)

The 77-year-old Kraft is the world's 244th richest person, according to Forbes magazine, with an estimated net worth of $6.6 billion US.

It's not clear if Florida prosecutors have offered the same deal to John Childs, another Boston billionaire and major Republican donor, caught up in a related prostitution sting.

Forbes' latest billionaire ranking, released earlier this month,  lists 2,153 people with a net worth of at least $1 billion US.

‘Un-Islamic’: Pakistani Student Stabs Professor to Death for Planning Co-ed Party With Women Dancing

This is not terrorism; it is not radical Islam;

this is Islam when it is in the majority - Pakistan

A teacher at a reputable college in Pakistan’s Punjab province was stabbed to death by a student for organizing a co-ed party. Reports say the attacker believed the inclusion of females at the event was vulgar and blasphemous.

Prof. Hameed

Students were gathering in order to plan a “farewell party” when their classmate sprang on English language professor Khalid Hameed and began to stab him in the stomach. While the others rushed to their teacher’s assistance and tackled their classmate to the ground, Hameed’s wounds were already too severe, and he died en route to the hospital. Tragically, he was scheduled to retire in just four months.

“My father then fell down and I rushed to him; the student held his knife and started shouting ‘I have killed him, I had told him that a gender mix reception is against Islam’,” Hameed’s son Waleed Khan, who had dropped his father off at the office and witnessed the attack, told AFP. In a cruel twist, he revealed his father wasn’t even involved in organizing the event.

Khateeb, the assassin

A note has been making the rounds on social media which was allegedly written by a group of students enraged over the decision to include women in the get-together. Local channel Samaa TV says that male and female students were supposed to take part in a folk dance, and the group fumed that it was “promoting vulgarity,” claiming that “Islam doesn’t allow it.”

While police were still checking if the attacker was a member of any extremist group, they said he considered the dance to be “un-Islamic.”

“Apparently, the accused has no link to any religious group but we are investigating about his past and the reasons behind his mindset,” said local police representative Farhan Hussain. The student is currently in police custody, and will be charged with murder.

The attack took place at Sadiq Egerton College in Bahawalpur, a school where women outnumber men two-to-one, a rarity in the conservative Pakistani education system. Several women on Twitter saw the murder as an expression of the country’s deep-rooted discriminatory attitude.

Gee, ya think?

Meanwhile, the victim’s son said he believes the attack occurred as a result of “brainwashing.” He also lashed out at the government for seemingly allowing radical views to flourish.

“I demand justice,” Waleed told media. “I am feeling threatened. We have not been given security.”

The majority of Pakistanis are Sunni Muslim. Globally, the majority of Muslims are Sunni.

Bayer Stock Sinks 12% After Court Rules Weed Killer It Bought from Monsanto Caused Cancer

Why Bayer, primarily a pharmaceutical company, bought Monsanto, an agrochemical company known for making Roundup and Agent Orange, is beyond my imagination. Agent Orange produced dreadful famine in Viet Nam and many horrible diseases in the people and in the soldiers who encountered it. 

Bayer's website makes this astonishing claim:

We exist to help people thrive - Advancing health and nutrition is what we do best and care about most.

© Global Look Press / Sven Hoppe

Bayer shares plunged more than 12 percent after a second US jury ruled that glyphosate-based Roundup weed killer causes cancer. It was a huge blow to the German pharmaceutical giant which bought US agrochemical firm Monsanto.

The stock drop during Wednesday morning trading on the Frankfurt exchange wiped out almost $8 billion from Bayer's market value.

The unanimous decision by a jury in San Francisco federal court followed another ruling made in August in California. Back then, the biotechnology corporation was ordered to pay $289 million in compensatory and punitive damages over the case of a school groundskeeper, Dewayne Johnson, whose cancer was allegedly caused due to years of using glyphosate-based Roundup.

The latest verdict was not a finding of Bayer’s liability for the cancer of plaintiff Edwin Hardeman. The trial is expected to proceed to the next phase, beginning on Wednesday, with the jury to determine the liability and damages in the case.

Bayer, which specializes in producing pharmaceuticals, consumer healthcare products, agricultural chemicals and biotechnology products, inherited the legal battles with its $63 billion acquisition of Monsanto, the US' leading producer of genetically engineered crops. Bayer may potentially face thousands of similar lawsuits in the US alone.

However, the German company has denied claims that glyphosate or Roundup causes cancer and said it was disappointed with the jury’s decision.

“We are confident the evidence in phase two will show that Monsanto’s conduct has been appropriate and the company should not be liable for Mr. Hardeman’s cancer,” Bayer said in a statement.

Good luck with that! I think you paid a fortune for a big liability.

Another Study Links Pot Use to Increased Psychosis Development

Smoking pot daily raises psychosis risk,

study finds

Researchers analyzed data from a dozen sites across

Europe and Brazil from 2010 to 2015

The Associated Press 

Experts say the new study's findings have implications for jurisdictions legalizing marijuana

Smoking high-potency marijuana every day could increase the chances of developing psychosis by nearly five times, according to the biggest-ever study to examine the impact of pot on psychotic disorder rates.

The research adds to previous studies that have found links between marijuana and mental health problems, but still does not definitively pinpoint marijuana as the cause.

Psychotic disorders — in which people lose touch with reality — are typically triggered by factors including genetics and the environment. But experts say the new study's findings have implications for jurisdictions legalizing marijuana, warning they should consider the potential impact on their mental health services.

"If we think there's something particular about (high-potency) cannabis, then making that harder to get a hold of, could be a useful harm-reduction measure," said Suzanne Gage, of the University of Liverpool, who was not connected to the new study.

Researchers at King's College London and elsewhere analyzed data from a dozen sites across Europe and Brazil from 2010 to 2015. About 900 people who were diagnosed with a first episode of the disorder at a mental health clinic, including those with delusions and hallucinations, were compared with more than 1,200 healthy patients. After surveying the patients about their use of cannabis and other drugs, researchers found daily marijuana use was more common among patients with a first episode of psychosis compared with the healthy, control group.

Regular pot users 3X danger

Strong pot users 5X danger

Teens with heavy use of pot 8X danger

The scientists estimated that people who smoked marijuana on a daily basis were three times more likely to be diagnosed with psychosis compared with people who never used the drug. For those who used high-potency marijuana daily, the risk jumped to nearly five times. The paper was published online Tuesday by the journal Lancet. It was paid for by funders including Britain's Medical Research Council, the Sao Paulo Research Foundation and the Wellcome Trust.

"If you decide to use high-potency marijuana, you should bear in mind: Psychosis is a potential risk," said Dr. Marta Di Forti, of King's College London and the study's lead author. She said it was unknown how frequently people could smoke lower-potency marijuana without raising their likelihood of psychosis, but that less than weekly use appeared to pose no risk.

Di Forti and colleagues estimated that in Amsterdam, about half of new psychosis cases were associated with smoking high-potency pot.

Gage noted that it was possible that people with a family history of psychosis or other risk factors might be more susceptible to developing problems like psychosis or schizophrenia if they used cannabis.

"That could be the thing that tips the scale for some people," she said. "Cannabis for them could be an extra risk factor, but it definitely doesn't have to be involved. If you use cannabis, it doesn't mean you are definitely going to develop psychosis."

No age groups in study!

It just means you are playing Russian Roulette with your sanity and your future, especially if you are a teenager. This study, unfortunately, doesn't break down the risks to various age groups, but other studies show a dramatic increase in the risk of Schizophrenia developing in teens who use pot. At least one expert says there is a one in six probability of young teens developing full-blown Schizophrenia from using pot.

"If you smoke a lot of marijuana when you are young

or in your teens, your chance of having psychosis later

on in life is about eight times higher than other people,"

Dr. Bill MacEwan, assistant director of UBC's dept. of psychiatry