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A man walking his dog on a British Columbia beach this week made a grisly discovery: A foot in a shoe, along with part of a lower leg. Adding to the mystery is that it is the 13th foot to wash up on the Canadian province's coastline over the past decade. "Our early analysis suggests these are human remains and we will do further investigation and testing ... in the coming weeks," said Andy Watson, a spokesman for the BC Coroners Service, about the Thursday discovery. The remains included a tibia and fibula. The Coroners Service said all previous 12...

“When it was my turn, they took me blindfolded,” the thief said. “Suddenly I felt a pain in my right hand that was out of this world. My hand had just been chopped off.” This is Gao, once the seat of an empire, and then a glorified village, and now a city the size of Scranton under the boot of its Islamist conquerors. Gao has become a place where thieves have their hands cut off, where women are forced to wear the stifling Hijab in 113 degree heat or be lashed and where unmarried couples are stoned to death. Borders...

BAMAKO, Mali — Moctar Touré was strapped to a chair, blindfolded, his right hand bound tight to the armrest with a rubber tube. A doctor came and administered a shot. Then Mr. Touré’s own brother wielded a knife, the kind used to slaughter sheep, and methodically carried out the sentence. “I myself cut off my brother’s hand,” said Aliou Touré, a police chief in the Islamist-held north of this divided nation. “We had no choice but to practice the justice of God.” Such amputations are designed to shock — residents are often summoned to watch — and even as the...

BAMAKO - Tuareg rebels and Islamist militants have joined forces in northern Mali and say they will create an independent Islamist state. The groups took advantage of a military coup in Bamako to seize control of the territory in early April. Resistance is growing in the north to the efforts to introduce Islamic law. In the northern Malian town of Gao, court is in session. Commissioner Abdoulaye Maiga begins by reading from the Quran in the roadside courtyard outside the former police station. Once an area businessman, Maiga is a member of the militant Islamist sect Ansar Dine that residents...

Members of the House of Representatives are being told that no holiday greetings, including “Merry Christmas,” can be sent out in official mail. According to the Washington Examiner, members who submit official mailings for review by the congressional franking commission that reviews all congressional mail to determine if it can be "franked," or paid for with tax dollars, are being told that no holiday greetings, including "Merry Christmas," can be sent. "I called the commission to ask for clarification and was told no 'Merry Christmas.' Also told cannot say 'Happy New Year' but can say 'have a happy new year'...

Iran's ambassador to Spain has compared chopping off the hands of thieves to a "surgeon amputating a limb to prevent the spread of gangrene". In a defence of Iran's tough implementation of Islamic law, Seyed Davoud Salehi called for "the traditions, religion and economic development" of Iran to be taken into account by those monitoring human rights in the country. He also argued that the death penalty was necessary "to preserve the health of society as a whole". Mr Salehi said during a speech in Madrid that the highest court in Iran had decided to limit public executions to prevent...

WASHINGTON - A stubbed toe can lead to having your foot amputated? It can if you're a longtime diabetic. And it can happen fast. "Tuesday in the office, they're fine. Friday, they're in the emergency room with gangrene in a toe," says Dr. Peter Sheehan, diabetes chief at New York's Cabrini Medical Center. It's a little-known statistic: Foot problems — wounds that won't heal, infections, warping bones — are the most common reason diabetics are hospitalized. And many of the 80,000-plus amputations of toes, feet and lower legs that Americans diabetics undergo each year are preventable, say specialists who brought...

Earlier this week, on Tuesday July 26, 2005, a Dutch court sentenced Mohammed Bouyeri, the killer of Dutch film producer Theo Van Gogh, to life in prison. Following Bouyeri's confession of his gruesome killing of van Gogh, shocking details about the lives of Bouyeri and his friends began to emerge. They afford a telling glimpse into the secret world of Dutch Islamists who used fundamentalism as a veil to mask their sexual perversions. Bouyeri’s parents were first-generation immigrants. He completed secondary school in Amsterdam, then attended college for five years, but quit before receiving a degree. Shortly after the death of his mother, he turned to Islamic...

JEWELLER Nazaar Joudi cries as he remembers the Americans taking over Abu Ghraib prison. But the tears in his eyes are of gratitude, not humiliation. He knows that a handful of US soldiers have brought shame upon themselves and their nation for the way they treated Iraqi prisoners at the jail. But he also knows how much worse the prison was under Saddam Hussein’s regime.

<p>By now, some Americans may feel the need for respite from the images of Abu Ghraib and the five hooded barbarians standing behind Nick Berg. This week's column will try to provide some measure of respite.</p> <p>It is the story of Americans, in and out of the U.S. government, who moved mountains to help seven horribly maimed Iraqi men. It is not always pleasant reading, but there are rewards to staying with it, especially now.</p>

HOUSTON (AP) - This time the tears streaming down Laith Aqar's face weren't the result of fear and loss, but of hope and a sense of rebirth. In 1995, Aqar was one of a group of Iraqi men who had their right hands amputated by Saddam Hussein's government for alleged trading in foreign currency. Nearly 10 years later, Aqar sat in a Houston hospital bed Monday after doctors had operated on his right arm to prepare it for a technologically advanced prosthetic he will soon receive. "The first time was hard. We were crying because we knew we were going...

Evidence of Saddam Hussein's punishment squads has been discovered in Iraq's western desert, it was revealed yesterday. At a deserted training camp near Nasiriyah British intelligence officers found records of ear amputations meted out to anyone speaking out of turn. The detailed security punishment dossiers were discovered yesterday by 3 Regiment Army Air Corps. Hand-written books uncovered detailed the names and addresses of locals who had been overheard complaining about the regime. Captain "Mac" McGee, a member of the intelligence gathering team, said: "It had the names of anyone who didn't show enough support for Saddam. "It was a record...

Four convicted of armed robbery have their hands and legs amputated. CAIRO, Egypt (AP) _ Libyan authorities have amputated the right hands and left legs of four armed robbers in accordance with Islamic law, Libyan radio reported Thursday. The four men had been convicted of robbing a Chinese oil exploration company in the district of Muradah, 750 kilometers (470 miles) southeast of the Libyan capital of Tripoli, on April 30. They assaulted members of the company's personnel, fired shots to frighten them and stole"vehicles, telecommunications sets, food and fuel, the state radio said in a report monitored by the British...