Minister admits Islamic extremists who believe in jihad and sharia law have infiltrated the Labour Party

Concern: Minister Jim Fitzpatrick said the Islamic Forum of Europe was acting like a party within Labour

Unpopular: Artist impression of the hijab-inspired arch Tower Hamlets council has proposed be built at either end of Brick Lane

 

 

 Extremist group: The IFE supports jihad - such as acts carried out by Humam Khalil Abu Mulal al-Balawi (pictured) who killed seven CIA operatives

The Labour Party has been inflitrated by Islamic fundamentalists, a Government Minister admitted today.

Members of the Islamic Forum of Europe (IFE) which believes in Britain should develop sharia law have placed sympathisers in elected office and local branches of parties, an investigation revealed.

The covert campaign is part of an attempt at 'mass mobilisation' of voters by the group, which believes in jihad.

Jim Fitzpatrick, the Environment Minister, told the Sunday Telegraph the IFE had become a secret party within Labour.

He said: 'They are acting almost as an entryist organisation, placing people within the political parties, recruiting members to those political parties, trying to get individuals selected and elected so they can exercise political influence and power, whether it’s at local government level or national level.'

'They are completely at odds with Labour’s programme, with our support for secularism.'

Mr Fitzpatrick, the MP for Poplar and Canning Town, said the IFE had infiltrated and 'corrupted' his party in east London in the same way that the far-Left Militant Tendency did in the 1980s.

Leaked Labour lists show a 110 per cent rise in party membership in one constituency in two years.

A six-month investigation into the IFE and its political activities revealed it had 'consolidated' its influence at the London borough council of Tower Hamlets, which has a budget estimated at£1bn.

Other recordings by undercover reporters include leaders of the group saying they opposed democracy and supported sharia law.

The investigation revealed the group had received £10m in taxpayer cash from government funds designed to 'prevent violent extremism'.

It also uncovered evidence that moderate Muslims were being targeted by group leaders who resent their 'un-Islamic' behaviour.

Lutfur Rahman, leader of Labour-run Tower Hamlets Council, obtained his post with the group's help.

Referring to IFE activists, he said: 'There are various people across Tower Hamlets who get excited, who get involved.'
He would not comment on concerns about infiltration, saying they were 'party matters'.

He said: 'If you look at our flagship policies, like investing £20 million to tackle overcrowding, you can see that we are working for everyone.'

The IFE said it did not seek to influence the council and had not lobbied for Mr Rahman.

'If anything, existing members of the Labour Party have joined the IFE, rather than the other way round,' it said.

The group insisted it was not a fundamentalist or extremist organisation and did not support violence.

Labour today promised to investigate the allegations and said the local party in Tower Hamlets was already in 'special measures'.

This means the selection of candidates has been taken over by the regional party in London.
'The London Regional Labour Party has placed Tower Hamlets Labour Party in special measures following complaints of membership abuse and its administration, including the selection of council candidates, has been taken out of the hands of the local party,' the party said in a statement.

'This is now run by the London Regional Labour Party and we will investigate any further evidence which is raised by this programme.

'The Labour Party will take firm action and do whatever is necessary to ensure that everyone who joins the party does so as an individual and supports Labour's aims and values.'

Tower Hamlets Council recently courted controversy by proposing to build 'hijab'-shaped arches at either end of London's Brick Lane as part of a cultural tour.

Residents said the £1.85m scheme was culturally-insensitive and a waste of money.

Photographer captures amazing images of lions after submerging himself in watering hole for three months

Wildlife photographer Greg du Toit was so determined to capture the perfect image of wild lions drinking he sat submerged in their watering hole for three months.

The defiant photographer had endured a year of failed attempts at getting the right picture after building hides and digging trenches near the animals' drinking spot.

In a final desperate effort, the 32-year-old decided to take the plunge and climb into the murky pool with his camera and ended up contracting several tropical diseases.
He began a long-term waiting game where he sat semi-submerged for 270 hours to get the big cats on film.

But as these never-before-seen pictures show, his hard work - three hours per day for seven days a week in the water - was definitely worth the wait.

It came at a huge price for the photographer who was diagnosed with Bilharzia and contracted several parasites which he soaked up through the dirty water in the drinking hole.
Mr du Toit was also diagnosed with deadly malaria twice after contracting it through mosquitoes breeding in the pool.

Green and feeling sick from his ordeal, the South African visited doctors who were shocked at seeing the worst test results they had ever recorded.

'The doctors panicked when they noticed that my red blood platelet count was sky high,' Mr du Toit said.

'The first real symptom was blood in my urine, which is when I went for blood tests. The blood test confirmed that I had Bilharzia.

'It's caused by a type of flatworm which had spent part of its life in water snails and the other part in my liver. It left me weak and in bed for weeks.'

He added: 'The high red blood platelet count signalled that I was carrying a lot of parasites. This included numerous species of internal worm parasites and a particularly nasty external worm parasite known as Hook Worm.

'This worm was actually visible under the skin of my foot and would move at night. It became a game to find the worm in my foot each morning.'

After a long stint sick in bed recovering, Mr du Toit was finally given the all clear following courses of powerful antibiotics, pesticides and by spraying liquid nitrogen on the parasites visible under his skin.
The photographer, who was living in south Kenya's Great Rift Valley, was then able to enjoy the fruits of his labour.

His stunning images captured at the watering hole in the Nguruman Hills in Kenya, three miles from the closest Masai village, give a rare and powerful insight into the lives of lions.

And during his several weeks spent with only his head-and-shoulders above water, Greg also managed to capture several other African species making their visits to the beauty spot for a refreshing drink.

One spectacular picture, taken from Greg's unique 'frog's eye view', shows two lionesses lapping gracefully at the 20 sq metre pool's edge.

Another shows a whole pride of lions joining in the watery action as they cool off only metres from watchful Greg who was just 'one leap away' from the colossal predators.

'There were times when I was shaking with so much with fear I had to stop what I was doing and breathe to get myself calm.

'I had to get the camera steady so I could get the pictures I had waited so long for,' he said.

'The lions knew there was something in the water but we think they only recognise humans when they are upright on legs so they took little notice of me and my camera.'

Mr du Toit also captured zebras, warthogs, baboons and much of Africa's huge variety of birdlife in his stunning images.

He added: 'It was worth it 100 per cent and I would do it all again, worms and all.'

The photographs will feature in the March issue of the BBC Wildlife Magazine.




Determined: Mr du Toit, 32, decided to climb into the pool after several failed attempts to capture lions at the pool. His efforts saw him contract Bilharzia, malaria twice and several parasites - and land a spot in the March edition of BBC Wildlife magazine

Unique: A family of warthogs cool off at the pool in the Nguruman Hills, Kenya, as Mr du Toit looks on

Pride: These lions were only a leap away from Mr du Toit and were aware that there was something in the pool

Determined: Greg du Toit's persistence paid of as he captured this image of two lionesses venturing to the pool in search of a drink of water

Showered in flower petals and wild colours, it's the Indian festival of Lathmar Holi

From the lavish scenes of Bollywood to the rich spectrum of their cuisine, no other country in the world celebrates colours like India.

So it's no surprise that spring is being greeted with a festival celebrating just that - colour.

The Lathmar Holi was being celebrated in villages across India today, as thousands of men and women showered themselves in brilliantly coloured powders and millions of flower petals.

The legend behind the festival claims that it is closely associated with Lord Krishna and his principle consort and childhood friend, Radha. Men in traditional dress take on the role of gops (friends of Krishna), while women play gopis (friends of Radha).

The men throw the coloured powders and flowers on the women, who fight back by pretending to beat them with bamboo.

It is claimed that the Hindu deity Krishna, who was dark in colour, was jealous of the fair-coloured Radha. He pestered his foster mother Yasodha about it so much that, fed up, she told him he could change Radha's skin by sprinkling her with colours.
Krishna and his shepherd friends visited Radha and her cowherd girls on this day and teased her by throwing colours at her. She and the girls responded by chasing them away with the sticks, or lathis.

The bamboo sticks are said to be an expression of Radha's love - she and the cowherd girls are angry that Krishna and his friends do not live with them all the time.

The Lathmar Holi celebration at Barsana in Mathura is the most famous.


Rain of colours: Men in the village close their eyes as more colour is showered down on them

Rain of colours: Men in the village close their eyes as more colour is showered down on them.Spring colours: Men daubed in coloured powder celebrate the Lathmar Holi, also known as the festival of colours, at Nandgaon village near the northern Indian city of Mathura yesterday

Brilliant: The festival is part of a welcoming of spring.




The men don't seem to mind their clothes being covered in the colours



Hindu women with the bamboo sticks, or lathis, they will use to pretend to beat the men with



Celebration: A man in Nandgaon covered in paint. The festival is held all over India




Love: A woman with a bamboo stick, or lathi, pretends to beat a man, who is protecting himself with a shield. Legend has it that Radha beat Krishna out of anger that he was not living with her

Get books about India.

Troops in Afghanistan face defeat at home-Top general says Afghanistan army in morale crisis

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Troops move towards Taliban positions during a battle in Marjah in Helmand province

THE head of the army has warned that British troops are facing a crisis of deteriorating morale on the home front that risks undermining the war in Afghanistan.

In a confidential draft memo prepared for ministers, General Sir David Richards, chief of the general staff (CGS), said that recent cuts to the defence budget are having a “cumulative and corrosive effect on our soldiers and their families”.

Cuts to housing, shortages of training equipment and even the cancellation of sports events between soldiers’ tours of duty were making them and their families feel “undervalued”, the army chief wrote.

The leaked memo will be seized on by the Tories as opening a new front in the tussle between army chiefs and ministers over the politically sensitive issue of defence cuts.

It echoes the row last year when Richards’s predecessor, General Sir Richard Dannatt, stepped down after speaking out about equipment shortages as well as poor pay and conditions. It later emerged that government figures had tried to smear him over his expenses.

A senior military commander emphasised yesterday that it was not Richards’s intention to criticise ministers: “He’s not whingeing. He’s simply trying to flag up what he believes is a vital issue that needs their urgent attention.”

In the memo to the defence board, which comprises ministers and service chiefs, Richards shifts the focus of criticism from the war effort in Afghanistan to the treatment of troops on their return home.

While there had been “significant progress” on the front line, Richards said, the treatment of soldiers when they returned for 24 months between tours is so poor that it is threatening to undermine the war effort.

Marked “restricted”, the memo reports a summary of an internal “poll” of 5,000 soldiers and their families at units in Britain, Germany and Cyprus over the past four months.

The survey was discussed at the executive committee of the army board this month. Its results appear to be so alarming that Richards decided to alert ministers to its key findings.

“My greatest concern ... is the deteriorating experience of soldiers and their families ... between tours which, the [survey] team reports, is disaffecting attitudes, damaging morale and risks undermining our ability to sustain the campaign . . .” he wrote.

“We need our soldiers to be ready, mentally and physically, to endure repeated tours in Afghanistan, in a harsh environment, with the real prospect of significant casualties each time.

“To maintain the necessary morale and cohesion, they must see tangible signs between tours that they and their families are valued.”

Last July the army was forced to make savings of £43m to help the Ministry of Defenc keep within budget. In October a further £54m cut was announced so resources could be focused on the war in Afghanistan. About £14m of those cuts meant delays to upgrades to living quarters for more than 4,000 troops.

The memo says: “The team reports the cumulative and corrosive effect that [such cuts] are having on our soldiers and their families.

“As CGS, I register an early concern about the impact on morale, the potentially severe downstream impact on retention and our ability to sustain the campaign in the longer term.”

An army spokesman said: “The report notes that soldiers feel increasingly well supported and resourced on operations and praises medical care in-theatre and in the UK.


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“It also relays concerns about the effect of financial pressure on activity in between operational tours and provides early warning of the resulting impact on morale. Resources are tight at the moment and Afghanistan is the main effort.”

Dubai: Hamas operative drugged, suffocated

 

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh was found dead in a hotel room in Dubai

Dubai police says forensic tests show a Hamas commander was drugged and then suffocated in his hotel room.

Police officials say tests showed a substantial amount of a fast-acting muscle relaxant called succinylcholine was found in Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's bloodstream.

The analysis was part of tests conducted after al-Mabhouh was killed Jan. 19. Dubai authorities have blamed a hit squad organized by Israel's Mossad secret service.

The drug is sometimes used to administer a breathing tube or anesthesia.

Dubai police on Sunday also said a third Palestinian suspect is in custody. At least 26 other suspects are wanted after being accused of traveling on fake European and Australian passports.

THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below.

JERUSALEM (AP) — An Israeli Cabinet minister says the assassination of a Hamas operative in Dubai last month shows any member of the militant Islamic group can be targeted.

Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer told Army Radio on Sunday that he had no idea who killed Mahmoud al-Mabhouh. But he said the slaying shows Hamas that "none of their people are untouchable."

Ben-Eliezer, a former defense minister, said the killing would deter other Islamic militant groups.

Al-Mabhouh was killed by assassins in a posh Dubai hotel last month. Israel says al-Mabhouh was involved in smuggling weapons into the Gaza Strip. He was also wanted by Israel for the 1989 killing of two Israeli soldiers.

Israel hasn't confirmed or denied involvement. But its Mossad spy agency has widely been suspected.

A Hamas commander who was killed in his Dubai hotel room was drugged and then suffocated, according to results of forensic tests released by police.

Mahmoud al-Mabhouh's killers used a quick-acting muscle relaxant to help make the death seem "natural", a senior Dubai police officer said.

Israel's secret service has been widely blamed for the killing.

However Israel has said there is no evidence it was behind the death on 20 January.

It has accused Mabhouh of smuggling arms into Gaza and killing two Israeli soldiers.


'Rapid onset'

"The killers used the drug succinylcholine to sedate Mabhouh before they suffocated him," Maj Gen Khamis Mattar al-Mazeina, deputy commander of Dubai's police, said.

"The assassins used this method so that it would seem that his death was natural," AFP news agency quoted him as saying.

The agency said succinylcholine is favoured by anaesthetists and emergency doctors because of its rapid onset.

Some previous reports on Mabhouh's death have suggested he was electrocuted and suffocated.

Passport row

Dubai has identified 26 suspects in the murder and said they used British, Irish, French and Australian passports.

The use of the European and Australian passports in the assassination has sparked a diplomatic row between those countries and Israel.

The countries say the passports used by the murder suspects were forged.

British police officers are in Israel to investigate the use of fake British passports by some of the suspects.

Israeli officials have refused to either confirm or deny their country's involvement in the killing but have hailed it.

Trade Minister Binyamin Ben-Eliezer said on Sunday he did not know who had carried it out, but it showed Hamas that "none of their people are untouchable".





Pictures of Mahmoud al-Mabhouh, a former Hamas commander, are seen in front of al-Wasim mosque at al-Yarmouk camp, near Damascus

Japan downgrades tsunami warning to 'normal'

Houses were flooded by seawater in Kesennuma


Most coastal areas suffered only minor damage


Workers attempt to salvage stock at a flooded fish market in Kesennuma, northern Japan



Japan this morning downgraded a major tsunami warning that led to a mass evacuation of more than half a million people along its eastern seaboard and brought large parts of the country to a standstill.

The decision by the Japan Meteorological Agency to downgrade the warning followed the cancellation by the US-based Pacific Tsunami Warning Centre of an alert that affected countries across the Pacific region.

Warnings of a “normal” tsunami remain in place for Japan, however, with authorities cautioning that it will be some hours before an all clear can be given. Tens of thousands are expected to remain in shelters overnight.

Japanese public television, which cancelled normal schedules today, quoted one of the country’s most senior seismology experts, Yoshinobu Tsuji, as warning that tsunami waves were starting to arrive.

“Carelessness is the devil’s workshop,” Yukio Hatoyama, the Prime Minister, said as he urged people not to return to their homes too soon.

The Pacific and Japanese alerts were issued after yesterday’s massive 8.8 magnitude earthquake in Chile and prompted a day of fear across the region as tsunami waves spread across the ocean.

As the afternoon wore on, however, even exposed islands such as Hawaii and New Zealand were spared anything more than slight damage along their coasts.

The warning of a major tsunami – which implies waves more than 3 metres high – was the first that Japan has issued for more than 15 years and sent more than 570,000 people in a rush to higher ground and to shelters. Many of those were constructed in the aftermath of the 1960 Chilean earthquake, which sent a tsunami crashing into Japan that claimed more than 100 lives. Other countries in the Pacific, including the Philippines and Russia, also ordered evacuations from coastal areas.

Towns and villages in the northeastern prefectures of Japan, especially Aomori, spent the day in lockdown mode as vast iron defences were deployed across shopping streets. Fishing fleets put to sea as part of an emergency drill.

In the event, the giant waves that were expected to crash on to Japanese shores landed with heights of, at most, 4ft (1.2 metres) – potentially harmful, but easily contained by sea defences.

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