Teenager dies after being ‘tied up and thrown into swamp in honour killing because her “Western behaviour” shamed the family – before father fled to Syria’

A teenager died after she was tied up and thrown into a swamp to drown in an honour killing because her Western behaviour shamed her family, according to prosecutors in the Netherlands.

Ryan Al Najjar’s brothers have now been put on trial for her murder, while her father, who is accused of ordering the killing, fled the country to return to Syria.

Mohamed, 23, and Muhanad Al Najjar, 25, are charged with taking part in the horrific crime against their 18-year-old sister, whose body was found gagged with her hands bound behind her back, ankles taped together, and submerged in a swamp six days after she vanished from the family home in Joure.

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Derek Finkle: Toronto’s South Riverdale injection site was infested with drug dealers

Dr. Ahmed Bayoumi, a prominent harm reduction researcher known as the godfather of Toronto’s injection sites, provided testimony in a court hearing early this year that asserted there is “no evidence” that such sites “lead to increased drug selling.”

Bayoumi’s testimony was contained in an affidavit he provided as an expert witness in litigation initiated by an injection site in Toronto’s Kensington neighbourhood that argued a new Ontario law prohibiting such sites within 200 meters of schools and daycares violates the Charter rights of drug users.

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Galleons, gold and greed: the quest to claim an $18bn shipwreck

The San José was no ordinary galleon. When the Spanish ship was sunk by the British off the coast of Colombia in 1708, it was carrying one of the richest cargos ever assembled in the Americas.

Its loss set in motion a three-century hunt for the “holy grail” of shipwrecks.

It returned to global attention this week after the Colombian government announced it had retrieved the first artefacts from a vessel experts say could be worth $18 billion (£13.6 billion).
Gold coins, porcelain cups and a cannon were brought to the surface: tantalising hints of what may still lie on the sea bed.

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Failing to Expel Chinese Spies Tells China, US That Canada Is ‘Open Territory’ for Chinese Infiltration: Scholar

When Canada does not expel Chinese spies operating within the country, it signals to China and the United States that Canada is “open territory” for Chinese infiltration, says Charles Burton, a China scholar and senior fellow of the Sinopsis think tank.

“We’re not expelling people that I believe CSIS knows are espionage agents,” Burton told MPs as he testified before the House of Commons procedure and house affairs committee on Nov. 27.

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Trump hands Putin Ukraine’s occupied territories

The United States is poised to recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories to secure a deal to end the war.

The Telegraph understands that Donald Trump has sent his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the direct offer to Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The plan to recognise territory, which breaks US diplomatic convention, is likely to go ahead despite concerns among Ukraine’s European allies.

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Quebec to ban public prayer in sweeping new secularism law

Quebec says it will intensify its crackdown on public displays of religion in a sweeping new law that critics say pushes Canadian provinces into private spaces and disproportionately affects Muslims.

Bill 9, introduced by the governing Coalition Avenir Québec on Thursday, bans prayer in public institutions, including in colleges and universities. It also bans communal prayer on public roads and in parks, with the threat of fines of C$1,125 for groups in contravention of the prohibition. Short public events with prior approval are exempt.

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Saudi terror suspect who killed 6 and wounded hundreds at German Christmas market rants at witnesses and victims during historic trial

Taleb al-Abdulmohsen ranted at witnesses on Thursday, causing great consternation amongst victims at his historic trial after days of confusing and outrageous outbursts.

Yesterday, victims and witnesses began speaking about their ordeal at the bloody Christmas market in Magdeburg. Al-Abdulmohsen, the Saudi national who worked as a doctor in Germany for years, is accused of driving his vehicle in a zig-zag pattern through the market to kill as many people as possible.

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Reuters Tries to ‘Fact-Check’ Away the Appalling Scourge of Afghan Sex Attacks

It has been less than a week since Afghan national Ahmad Mulakhil admitted raping a 12 year-old girl in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. The crime was first propelled into the news cycle over the summer amidst allegations that officials in the police and local council were deliberately concealing the nationality of the alleged offenders (his co-defendant, Mohammad Kabir, also an Afghan national, has pleaded not guilty to attempting to take a child, aiding and abetting rape of a child under 13 and intentional strangulation of the girl). The grim case is a high-profile example of the link between migration and sex crimes – and the way many of our institutions try to downplay this obvious reality.

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B.C. Seeks to Seize Realtor’s Mercedes Over Alleged Sex Crime Against Girl in Provincial Care

VANCOUVER — In an extraordinary civil forfeiture action, the B.C. government is seeking to permanently seize a late-model Mercedes from a prominent Vancouver real estate agent, alleging the luxury sedan was used as an instrument in a predatory sex crime — including luring and assaulting a vulnerable 15-year-old girl living in a provincial care home — according to court filings.

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Afghan Refugees Killed 55 People, Wounded 92 in U.S.

Biden cargo

The latest brutal act of Afghan refugee terrorism claimed the lives of two brave members of the National Guard in D.C.. Since their arrival in the United States, Afghan ‘refugees’ have been involved in violent attacks, in assorted crimes, and in sexual assaults on women and girls.

The attack by Rahmanullah Lakanwal took place a mere week after another Afghan, Abdullah Haji Zada, was sentenced to 15 years in prison in the Election Day plot.

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Terry Newman: Actually, the backlash against the Canadian Museum for Human Rights’ ‘Nakba’ exhibit is justified

A controversial exhibit, Palestine Uprooted: Nakba Past and Present, is coming to the Canadian Museum of Human Rights in June, and at least one Globe and Mail columnists thinks concerned Jews are overreacting — except they aren’t.

In a recent op-ed, Globe columnist Marsha Lederman openly mocked the concerns of several Jewish organizations, which argued that the exhibit “will lack balanced scholarly research and will ignore key issues of the historical and current geopolitical reality,” or become “tool, or dupe, of only one side of the story,” thereby erasing “Jewish voices.”

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