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A vendor's claim that soap for sale in his Montreal trinket shop is made from the corpses of Second World War victims is under investigation by Montreal police after the B'nai Brith League for Human Rights lodged a complaint under a Criminal Code ban on violating human remains. A CBC radio reporter first disclosed that a shop on St. Laurent Boulevard was selling a bar of soap allegedly made from the fat of Holocaust victims. The light brown bar had a swastika and was on display with a card that said it was from Poland, from approximately 1940, according to...

SNIPPET: "Judge calls Molotov cocktail attack racist, hateful act of terrorism" ARTICLE SNIPPET: "A Montreal man accused of firebombing a Jewish school was sentenced to four years in prison for what a judge described as a terrorist act. Azim Ibragimov, 25, pleaded guilty earlier this year to firebombing the Skver-Toldos Orthodox Jewish Boys School in Outremont in 2006, and attempting to attack the Snowdon YM-YWHA the following year. He also pleaded guilty to uttering threats in the form of letters that claimed the crimes were committed in the name of Islamic Jihad, a militant group that vows to destroy Israel...

NEW YORK -- The chairman of a Canadian shipping company was charged with attempting to aid terrorists by sending night-vision goggles and other equipment to the Hezbollah, U.S. officials said Tuesday. Naji Antoine Abi Khalil, 39, of Montreal, who holds dual citizenship in Lebanon and Canada, was charged Monday night and ordered detained by a federal magistrate judge in Manhattan, federal prosecutors said. Prosecutors identified Khalil as chairman and general manager of New Line Services, an import-export company based in Montreal. The night-vision goggles probe grew out of Khalil's dealings with a government confidential witness while he was the subject...

Date: January 8, 2010 ISCC affiliated Imams Issue Important Fatwa Attack on Canada and the United States is Attack on Muslims Over 10 million Muslims Live in North America Calgary) Twenty Imams affiliated with the Islamic Supreme Council of Canada have issued a Fatwa today declaring the attacks on Canada and the United States by any extremist will be the attack on 10 million Muslims living in North America. This is the first Fatwa by the Muslim clergy declaring attacks on Canada and the United States as attack on Muslims. Following is the text of the Fatwa. FATWA (religious edict)...

September 7, 2009 Mass murder at 30,000 feet: Islamic extremists guilty of airline bomb plot Philippe Naughton Three British Muslims were found guilty today of conspiracy to murder thousands of passengers and crew in an unprecedented airline bomb plot that could have proved as deadly as the 9/11 attacks. After a retrial at Woolwich Crown Court, jurors found the ringleader, Abdulla Ahmed, and two other men, Assad Sarwar and Tanvir Hussain, guilty of plotting to use liquid bombs to blow up airliners en route from Heathrow to the United States. Another defendant, Umar Islam, was found guilty of a more...

MONTREAL – Three members of the Montreal family in which three sisters and their aunt were found dead in their car that that plunged into Kingston's Rideau Canal late last month were arrested today. As well, Kingston police have announced a press conference for 2 p.m. tomorrow where the police chief will be outlining all of the details of a major change in focus of the investigation. Up to now, the police were considering the deaths to be "suspicious." The three suspects were apprehended this morning while heading to the Pierre Elliott Trudeau International Airport, possibly to flee the country,...

Firefighters are still investigating the cause of a fire that forced clients of a swingers club in Montreal to flee in various states of undress Friday morning. The fire broke out at about 6:30 a.m. ET in the basement of Auberge 1082, located on Rosemont Boulevard near Christophe Colombe Avenue. "They have the sauna in the basement and rooms on the second floor," said Gilles Ducharme, the Montreal fire department's chief of operations. "It's an adult club. And we had 10 person[s] inside at that moment, three employees and seven customers." Five of those clients were trapped in rooms on...

The principal of a private Catholic high school testified Monday that it is unreasonable to expect the school to teach Quebec's new ethics and religious culture program without allowing teachers to talk about how the content relates to their religious faith.

BROSSARD, Quebec -- Montreal coach Bob Gainey appealed to Canadiens fans to stop booing the U.S. national anthem. Gainey, also the team's general manager, said fans who booed during "The Star-Spangled Banner" before Game 3 of their playoff series with the Boston Bruins should find other ways to voice support for their team. "I feel like there's a confusion there with our fans," Gainey said Tuesday. "They feel like booing the anthem is supporting our team, in that the anthem represents the Boston team. "And I think if they could separate those two things, then we could respect the anthem...

Listened to the Boston Bruins at Montreal Canadiens game tonight on WBZ radio; as Rene Rancourt (I believe) started to sing the Star Spangled Banner, a huge chorus of boos could be heard during the song. At the start of Oh Canada there was a cheer, but no disrespect. I know of the long rivalry between the two teams. But how rude to boo the U.S. national anthem--why, you'd think the folks up North wouldn't do that anymore--since we have The One in office. Heck, I can't see us booing Oh Canada during a Bruins-Canadiens game at TD BankNorth Garden,...

------- snip The province of Quebec lacks a medical helicopter system, common in the United States and other parts of Canada, to airlift stricken patients to major trauma centers. Montreal's top head trauma doctor said Friday that may have played a role in Richardson's death. "It's impossible for me to comment specifically about her case, but what I could say is ... driving to Mont Tremblant from the city (Montreal) is a 2 1/2-hour trip, and the closest trauma center is in the city. Our system isn't set up for traumas and doesn't match what's available in other Canadian cities,...

February 13, 2009 SNIPPET: "He was a small-time hoodlum with a big chip on his shoulders, a man who spoke of Jihad, researched bomb-making techniques and looked at a nuclear plant, the Montreal Stock Exchange and a military base as possible terrorism targets. In the end, Omar Bulphred, a 23-year-old native of Algeria, and an accomplice settled for firebombing two Jewish institutions before getting arrested after police heard them talk about abducting a gay man at random to rob him and cut his throat. The troubling story of the two Montreal terrorist wannabes can be told following Mr. Bulphred's guilty...

TORONTO and MONTREAL — A young Montrealer has been sentenced to seven years in prison on Thursday for firebombing two Montreal Jewish institutions. Under evidence that couldn't be reported until their guilty plea, investigators say Omar Bulphred and an accomplice were arrested after police heard them on wiretaps talking about abducting a gay man at random to rob him and cut his throat. Mr. Bulphred, 23, was born in Algeria. He pleaded guilty to three counts of arson and two of uttering threats Thursday morning at the Montreal provincial courthouse. After 15 minutes' deliberation, the judge sentenced Mr. Bulphred to...

MONTREAL -- Police say there’s a link between the seizure of explosives several hundred kilometres northeast of Quebec City and the evacuation of several homes in Montreal today. A school was also locked down as police carried out a search warrant in a nearby apartment building. Provincial police spokesman Claude Ross says three people were arrested and one ton of explosives was found in a van in Mont Joli, about 350 kilometres east of Quebec City. He says the vehicle was intercepted by police outside a doughnut shop, adding that the explosives were stolen from a local contractor.

Hundreds of riot police chased a group of roving youths early Monday after a night of rioting and vandalism in a North Montreal neighbourhood set off by the fatal police shooting of an 18-year-old man over the weekend. The park is in a predominantly Haitian neighbourhood where tensions between police and young people run high, according to residents. "The police are always creeping around here, hassling people," one unidentified youth told CBC News as he stood in front of a looted butcher shop. The violence began after a Sunday afternoon protest at Henri Bourassa Park, the site of Saturday's police...

Pentagon Makes Fighting Extremism Top Priority Seven years after the Sept. 11 attacks, the Pentagon on Thursday officially named "the long war" against global extremism as its top priority and pledged to avert any conventional military threat from China or Russia through dialogue. The Defense Department, in a new national defense strategy, also emphasized the need to subordinate military operations to "soft power" initiatives to undermine Islamist militancy by promoting economic, political and social development in vulnerable corners of the world. Defense Secretary Robert Gates said he hoped the change would help establish permanent institutional support for counterinsurgency skills...

AUSTIN — Deirdre Delisi once aspired to be a diplomat, and Gov. Rick Perry may have finally granted her wish. As head of the Texas Transportation Commission, Perry's former chief of staff will test her diplomatic skills in an emotion-filled arena in which a state senator has already called her a "political hack." In an early sign of her peacemaking potential, the 35-year-old Delisi scheduled one of her first meetings as chair with that senator, Transportation and Homeland Security Committee Chairman John Carona, R-Dallas. "I was left with the impression that she genuinely wants a new and fresh start for...

Afghanistan to Ask NATO for Bigger Army Afghan officials will go to the NATO summit in Romania Thursday with a request: pay to increase our national Army by 40 percent. A bigger Army, Afghan officials argue, will allow the US and other coalition members to scale back in the coming years. This appeal comes amid pleas from the US and Canada for other NATO members to commit more to the Afghanistan mission, which many analysts say has floundered over the past year for lack of resources and a coherent strategy. France is expected to contribute another 1,000 forces and...

In 2006, former premier Lucien Bouchard and several business leaders blamed the not-in-my-backyard syndrome - NIMBY - for much of the Montreal metropolitan area's "immobilisme." The criticism followed the cancellation of two projects that had stirred public protests - a casino near Pointe St. Charles and the Suroît power plant. Despite the scolding, citizens remain unrepentant and as pesky as ever. Protests against noisy aircraft over the West Island, for example, are giving headaches to airport officials trying to accommodate increasing numbers of flights. Protests on the North Shore are also causing problems for the expansion of a smelly regional...

Attacks on nuclear power stations, oil and gas terminals, Canary Wharf and Heathrow’s control tower were being considered by leaders of the plot to blow up seven transatlantic airliners in mid-flight, a court was told yesterday. Documents found on computer memory sticks at the home of an alleged terrorist ringleader contained a list of targets across Britain – including the gas pipeline between Britain and Belgium. The man, Assad Sarwar, was said to be in contact with terrorist leaders overseas and visited Pakistan a month before his arrest as preparations for the airline attacks were being finalised. Peter Wright, QC,...