Free Republic

Mumbai: At least 15 people have been injured in gunfights between two groups in at least three places in Mumbai on Thursday night. Details are sketchy but it is believed that two gangs fired at each other at outside CST Railway Terminus, Hotel Oberoi and the popular Café Leopold restaurant in Mumbai. The first shooting took place near the CST police station

A BBC Radio presenter has been sacked following a 'racist' call to a taxi firm, in which she requested a 'non-Asian' driver. Sam Mason told the operator that 'a guy with a turban would freak her daughter out'   insisting they send an English driver instead.The ex-glamour girl, 40, called the firm to order a taxi for her 14-year-old daughter off-air, while presenting her BBC Bristol radio show.After the operator branded her request 'racist', Mason insisted, claiming it wasn't the first time she had made the request.She said: 'A guy with a turban is going to freak her out. She's...

Almost a year after two teenage girls were found dead — allegedly executed by their father — in the back seat of a taxicab in Texas, the FBI is saying for the first time that the case may have been an "honor killing." Sarah Said, 17, and her sister Amina, 18, were killed on New Year's Day, but for nine months authorities deflected questions about whether their father — the prime suspect and the subject of a nationwide manhunt — may have targeted them because of a perceived slight upon his honor. UNLAWFUL FLIGHT TO AVOID PROSECUTION - CAPITAL MURDER-...

INFILTRATED FBI FLIPS ON HONOR KILLING , BOWS TO ISLAM ATLAS CALLS FBI FBI CAVES TO CAIR. Will those sweet, dear brutalized girls ever get justice? They died in vain.. The West failed them in life and the West has failed them in death I reported a pig flying moment, in shock, when I joyfully posted here: PIG FLYING MOMENT: FBI "HONORS" AMINA AND SARAH SAID Well color me happy, the FBI is finally calling it an honor killing. Get a frickin clue, it only took, what? 10 months? Now catch and execute to the terrorist son of a bitch...

Muslim vote is powerful, group told Examples are cited in Dearborn BY ZACHARY GORCHOW FREE PRESS STAFF WRITER December 24, 2006 Muslims played a critical role in some key elections this year. But elected officials won't take them seriously if they don't continue to organize and turn out Muslim voters, two politically active Muslims said Saturday at a convention in Dearborn. If there are efforts to register Muslims to vote, educate them about the candidates and get them to the polls to vote for one candidate, politicians will court their support, Jameel Johnson, an aide to U.S. Rep. Gregory Meeks,...

How The West Was Won The rapid and unexpected decline of the Sunni insurgency in Iraq was officially recognized this week, when Maj. Gen. John Kelly, commanding the Marine Expeditionary Force, turned operational control of Anbar Province over to the Iraqi army and police. Anbar, a vast expanse of desert the size of North Carolina, had been the stronghold of the Sunni insurgency. For years, foreign fighters loyal to al-Qaida had sneaked across Iraq's northwestern border with Syria, into Anbar and down a "rat line" of safe houses in Haditha, Ramadi and Hit. From Fallujah, the arch terrorist Zarqawi...

BANGOR, Maine - The city’s taxicab drivers and owners didn’t have to do much convincing to get local officials to entertain their request for a pay raise. Like everyone else who depends on fuel, members of Bangor’s taxi industry say they are being driven to their knees by skyrocketing gasoline prices, which currently are close to $4 a gallon. For relief, they have turned to the City Council, which regulates how much they can charge.

NEW YORK (CBS) ― New York City taxi cab drivers say soaring gas prices are threatening to drive them out of business, causing many to demand a $1 gas surcharge to be mandated. Some drivers are saying their cooking pots are empty and their incomes are falling as gas prices continue to rise. They want a surcharge immediately, and additional increases if pump prices continue to go up. "Why is it that taxi drivers are always treated as second-class citizens?" asked Bhairavi Desai, the Executive Director Taxi Workers Alliance. "Is it because the majority of drivers are people of color?...

US military finds sailor in slain taxi driver's case: report Weekend March 22, 2008 The US military Saturday took into custody a deserter in Japan wanted for questioning over the killing of a taxi driver, a report said.The US military, which has been looking for the sailor since early this month, informed Japan early Saturday that he was found in the military hub of Yokosuka near Tokyo, Kyodo News said, quoting police sources. The report said the sailor's credit card was found Wednesday in a parked taxi in which the 61-year-old driver was stabbed to death with a kitchen...

A blind Vancouver man who was shunned by a taxi driver who didn't want a guide dog in his cab has reached a $2,500 settlement with North Shore Taxi. Bruce Gilmour, 49, had called a cab from a West Vancouver coffee shop after a day of skiing in November 2006. But North Shore Taxi driver Behzad Saidy, a Muslim, refused to transport Gilmour and his golden retriever Arden, saying his religion prevents him from associating with dogs. Gilmour, who has been blind for 30 years, filed a human rights complaint, alleging discrimination. "I'm tired of defending my dignity," he said...

A search warrant filed in Hennepin County connects a shooting investigation to a possible terror plot. According to court documents, four Somali teenage males were riding in a cab on June 24 the same night a man was shot in the chest around 9:00 p.m. Video surveillance at the Glendale Housing Projects captured the cab fleeing near the scene of the shooting. Police were able to identify the taxicab and located the vehicle at the Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport four days later. Inside the cab, police found a handwritten note describing acts of terrorism and bombings. Police questioned an 18-year-old relative...

With the arrest of a Philadelphia taxi cab driver in the Fort Dix terror plot, authorities are paying closer attention to Muslim cabbies, many of whom are militant believers, WND has learned. Mohamad Ibrahim Shnewer, a U.S. citizen born in Jordan, was charged earlier this week with conspiring to kill at least 100 soldiers on U.S. soil. The FBI says the 22-year-old drove a cab in Philadelphia. "My intent is to hit a heavy concentration of soldiers," said Shnewer, the alleged mastermind of the terror plot. Muslims account for the majority of cab drivers in many major U.S. cities –...

The Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC) holds a public hearing today on whether to penalize cabbies who refuse to transport fares on religious grounds. Some Muslim cabbies at the Twin Cities Airport are refusing to carry travelers who have alcohol with them or who have service dogs.

Taxi Cab Drivers Gone Wild! Cab Drivers in the Islamic State of Minnesota are refusing to carry customers who have alcohol and Blind people with seeing eye dogs. In the home of country western music last month, a cab driver took it upon himself try and eliminate two infidels from the planet by using his taxi as a weapon of mass destruction. Ibrahim Sheikh Ahmed, a cab driver in Nashville, Tennessee is on trial for Attempted Murder for using his taxi cab to run over his two passengers that he decided he didn’t like because of what appears to be...

All you frequent (and not so frequent) flyers into Minneapolis-St Paul Airport no longer have to worry about getting a cab if you're carrying a closed package of liquor or guided by a seeing eye dog. But why should they have had problems? Because Moslem taxi drivers, claiming these items violated their religion, refused to transport them. After a loud, public protest campaign the Minneapolis Airport Commission established guidelines, fining drivers who refused potential customers. Now they're seeking public -- that's you! -- input for stricter penalties. A public hearing will begin at 2 p.m. on Tuesday, February 27, 2007,...

By Greg Strange By now you’ve probably heard about the Muslim cab wars in Minneapolis. If not, here’s a quick synopsis. Seventy-five percent of the cab drivers servicing the Minneapolis International Airport are Somali Muslims and most of them have been refusing service to infidel passengers who engage in behaviors that aren’t up to snuff when it comes to Islam. For instance, let’s say you’re an average godless and contemptible infidel who just bought a bottle of Cabernet Sauvignon at the duty-free shop and then you try to hail a cab with that devil’s concoction in your possession. You’re committing...

Muslim Taxi Showdown In Twin Cities The showdown between Muslim taxi-drivers and their passengers gets more out-of-state attention this morning from the New York Sun's Youssef Ibrahim. The refusal of a large number of Islamic cabbies to transport passengers with alcohol in their luggage or service dogs for the blind and handicapped, and the local fatwa on which they rely for their position, has led to a showdown with the Metropolitan Airport Commission: At a meeting Wednesday of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC), airport staff members asked the commission to give the go-ahead for public hearings on a tougher policy...

Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport wants to crack down on Muslim taxi drivers who refuse to carry alcohol or service dogs in their cabs. At a meeting Wednesday of the Metropolitan Airports Commission, airport staff asked the commission to give the go-ahead for public hearings on a tougher policy that would suspend the licenses of drivers who refuse service for any reason other than safety concerns. Drivers who refuse to accept passengers transporting alcohol or service dogs would have their airport licenses suspended 30 days for the first offense and two years for the second offense, according to a revised taxi...

Muslim cabbies refusing the blind and drinkers MUSLIM taxi drivers are refusing to carry blind passengers with their guide dogs or anyone carrying alcohol. (snip) And there have been several complaints that drivers refuse to allow passengers to carry sealed bottles of alcohol. (snip) One Muslim driver, Imran, said yesterday the guide dog issue was difficult for him. "I don't refuse to take people, but it's hard for me because my religion tells me I should not go near dogs," he said. Drivers who refused to carry blind people with their dogs attended remedial classes at Guide Dogs Victoria, Mr...

I would be raising hell if this happened to me. can't post link but not surprisingly the airport officials are folding.

reckless cabby with only a month's experience was "flirting" with one of his pretty passengers and trying to impress her moments before his speeding taxi spun out of control - leading to the horrific crash that killed her friend, one of the girls' seething fathers told The Post yesterday. "People like this should not be behind the wheel of a car," said John Sallustio, whose two daughters were seriously hurt in the nightmare smash-up on the West Side Highway early Sunday morning. "They have to be taken off the road. "In fact, people like this should not be in regular...

/9/2006 - DAYTON, Ohio (AFPN) -- The first aircraft to return Vietnam prisoners of war to the United States arrived at the National Museum of the United States Air Force at 9:30 a.m. May 6. The C-141 "Hanoi Taxi" was the first aircraft to arrive in Hanoi in February 1973 to pick up POWs returning to the United States. The "Hanoi Taxi" was one of several aircraft involved in repatriating more than 500 American POWs held by the North Vietnamese. The Hanoi Taxi -- the last C-141 Starlifter still serving in the Air Force -- made two of its final...

/4/2006 - WRIGHT-PATTERSON AIR FORCE BASE, Ohio (AFPN) -- More than 120 former prisoners from the Vietnam War and their families will help the Air Force Reserve Command's 445th Airlift Wing retire the Air Force's last C-141 Starlifter, the "Hanoi Taxi," during festivities May 5 to 6. The aircraft was the first one to arrive in Hanoi, Vietnam, in February 1973 to pick up POWs returning to the United States. The "Hanoi Taxi" was one of several aircraft involved in repatriating more than 500 American POWs held by the North Vietnamese. POWs will participate on two flights at 10 a.m....

Thanks (I think) to Ace of Spades for pointing out a 1973 video of William Shatner singing Harry Chapin's "Taxi" on the Dinah Shore show.  If that's not enough for you, have a gander at multiple William Shatners singing Elton John's "Rocketman."If you're really brave, watch Shatner rap something about Julius Caesar.For an encore, see this music video set to a excerpt of Shatner singing "Lucy in the sky with Diamonds."Don't ever say that I don't bring you guys true entertainment.

December 21, 2005 -- A cabby belted an Upper East Side woman in the face last night after she argued that she was overcharged on an eight-block ride, police said ......... Lillian Gauna, 34, said she hailed the cab at 88th Street and Third Avenue at around 8:30 p.m. and asked the driver to take her to 81st Street and Second Avenue. The driver, Muhammed Lone, 29, insisted she pay an extra $5 on top of the $10 "single zone" flat fare that the new strike rules call for, she said. When she refused, Lone allegedly leaped out of his...

Martin, 27, a futures trader, was killed early Sunday when he was thrown from a taxicab that made an improper left turn and was hit by a speeding sport-utility vehicle, which then fled the scene, Chicago police said.

RIGA - The United States has issued a warning to U.S. travellers that racist attacks are occurring in Latvia, reported Diena, the country’s leading daily. The U.S. Department of State warns that American citizens residing in Latvia or preparing to travel to the country should be careful, as racially motivated assaults have occurred in Riga, Diena reported. “This is an unpleasant issue -- a negative fact about Latvia,” said Ojars Kalnins, director of the Latvian Institute. Meanwhile, Latvia’s Foreign Ministry noted that racism has gone from being a domestic policy concern to one of foreign policy. Therefore, the ministry will...

/begin my translationN. Korea: No.1 Debtor Country to Sweden Chang Yong-hoonYonhap News, Seoul -- N. Korea's debt to Sweden amounts to 2.167 billion Krona (USD: 295 million dollars), making it the top debtor nation to Sweden.On June 11th, KOTRA(note: a trade promotion outfit of S. Korean government) quoted the report of Swedish Credit Guarantee Agency, named 'Foreign Debt Situations,' N. Korean debts are due to their importing of  passenger cars from Volvo and construction & mining equipment from Atlas Copco in 1970's.N. Korea ordered 600 Volvo passenger cars in 1973 and imported them the next year. At one time, N. Korea was the largest...

WEEHAWKEN, N.J. - A pregnant woman traveling home in a taxi went into labor and gave birth Thursday while her cab was stuck in traffic at a tunnel toll booth. Ibrahim went into labor as the taxi approached the Lincoln Tunnel during the morning rush hour to take her and her husband back to New York City after a visit with friends in New Jersey. Police and transportation authority agents assisted in the birth, and the mother and newborn were taken to a hospital in nearby Hoboken.

RUSSIAN POLITOLOGISTS CALL ON EU AND NATO TO SUSPEND LATVIA'S MEMBERSHIP MOSCOW, March 16 (RIA Novosti) - Russian politologists calls on the European Union and NATO to suspend Latvia's membership in these organizations until the Latvian authorities take measures to limit the growing political influence of Nazi supporters. "Actions by the Latvian authorities in favour of rehabilitation of Nazism have become more intensive with the accession of Latvia to the EU and NATO", reads the joint statement by chairman of the National Civil Council for International Affairs Sergei Markov and chairman of its presidium and the Independent Organization Civil Society...

Notorious Taxis Take Mayor for a Ride Fri Jan 14, 8:36 AM ET Oddly Enough - Reuters PRAGUE (Reuters) - Prague Mayor Pavel Bem got a close-up look at how the city's notorious taxi drivers operate this week when he went undercover for a ride and was overcharged by some 500 percent. Bem, at the request of the daily Mlada Fronta Dnes, wore a disguise and pretended to be a foreigner when he hailed a taxi from Old Town Square to take him to Prague Castle, a route commonly traveled by the city's tourist masses. Upon arrival Bem could not...

 US warns of 'new terror threat'  The US has warned its citizens in Nordic and Baltic states of the threat of imminent attacks. In a statement posted on the Finnish embassy website, the state department warns citizens to be vigilant, especially when using public transport. A statement on the Latvian embassy website warns citizens to avoid crowded areas and transport hubs from Monday. They do not provide further details or say whether the threat is linked to Tuesday's US presidential elections. 'Threat information' "The US Department of State wishes to alert US citizens, either resident in or travelling through the...

Taking a taxi in Athens is taxing DAVE BARRY ATHENS -- Without question, this city's most exciting mode of transportation -- and I include, in this category, skydiving without a parachute -- is to take a taxi. The thing is, Greek taxis are cheap. You can go a looonnnnng way, kilometer after kilometer, and the fare will be only a few euros centigrade. That's the good news. The bad news is, to make any money, the taxi drivers must cover a lot of distance, so they go very, very fast. Q: How fast do they go? A: Their taxis frequently...

The party of the people wants to rip off Boston cabdrivers. BY Sunday, 12:01 a.m. EDT With John Kerry's fund-raising going so well, you'd think the Democratic National Committee wouldn't need to hustle Boston cabbies for a cheap ride--or illegal campaign contributions. But that's pretty much the effect of the DNC's misguided plan to provide subsidized cab rides for delegates at their Boston convention. At issue are the taxi vouchers the DNC wants to give to delegates arriving at Boston's Logan Airport. Under the DNC's proposal, taxi drivers would be required to accept the vouchers, worth $12 per passenger, in...

As Boston police hackney officials and Democratic National Convention hosts prepare to meet cabbies tomorrow to work out a discount voucher plan, one irate driver is exploring a Federal Election Commission complaint. Cab driver Bill Ford, an independent driver who says he's voted for more Democrats than Republicans, objects to what he considers a forced donation to the Democratic Party. The plan now being discussed would require cabbies working the airport to accept discount vouchers and multiple riders. Estimates on the value of the vouchers have been placed at $10 or more, but cabbies said compared to their regular multiple-rider...

BOSTON (AP) Boston taxi drivers are angry over a city proposal that they accept vouchers from delegates to the Democratic National Convention instead of using their meters for rides to and from Logan International Airport. The city first offered vouchers worth $8, then raised the amount to $10, taxi drivers said. ''If you take one person to town, it's usually about $30, and I'm going to take one person for $10?'' said 45-year-old Jean Abrahm, a cabbie for 16 years. ''And I have to pay the toll, too? With gas now up, this is just a rip-off.'' The vouchers, combined...

Taxi drivers don't have lots of stories; they just have better ones. Taking a cab from the Minneapolis airport to the Marquette Hotel downtown on Nicollet Avenue, I asked the driver if he knew the story about the Minneapolis cabbie who deliberately ran down his passenger after the passenger robbed him. "Yeah, I remember him. Quite a guy. But I got a better taxi story than his, if you're interested?" he said. "If it's better than that story, I want to hear it." "This happened several years ago to a buddy of mine - well, maybe more of a 'fellow...

Translation from Hebrew to English by me:Policeman from the Judea and Samaria region were shocked yesterday when they stopped on the Schem-Ramallah road a Palestinian Taxi, and from within it exited no less then 27(!) children. The driver, a Ramallah resident, was not confused and told the policeman that he thought "there wasn't police on Saturday." The drivers license of the offending driver was taken away on the spot and he had to give a refundable fee of 1,500 shekles, to make sure he will come to court. The 27 kids were driven to their homes in 3 mini-vans that...

Every experienced journalist knows that there are two sources of information about obscure and distant countries: the taxi-drivers who take him from the airport to the country’s one luxury hotel, and the journalists who are already sitting at the bar of that hotel. Of the two sources, the taxi-drivers are incomparably the more reliable, intelligent and well informed. Taxi-drivers have a profound knowledge of human nature: besides the opportunity inherent in their job for meeting every class and condition of human being, a keen interest in human nature is a matter of survival for them, and necessity is the mother...

A man died when he apparently shot himself accidentally after the robbery of a taxi driver in Brampton early yesterday. Randy Robinson, 19, of Brampton, died in hospital shortly after a Kwik Cab taxi driver was robbed at gunpoint, at about 1:10 a.m. on Adam St. near Bovaird Blvd. and Conestoga Rd.Peel police believe Robinson and another man robbed the cabbie and then fled the scene, but the handgun accidentally went off when the dead man tried to put the weapon into his pants.The other, unidentified, man is believed to have picked up the gun before leaving the scene, police...

Outraged activist leads calls for censure A Halifax-area taxi driver who announced on a radio phone-in show that he won't allow gays in his cab should have his licence suspended, says a local activist. "He just can't do that," Ian Crowe said Thursday. "He can't refuse to provide service based on sexual orientation." The taxi driver, who told the show that he's been driving for 20 years, called in recently when the program was taking calls about a gay pride float in a Christmas parade. "It can be cold, freezing rain, and I'm not going to pick them up," the...

Security forces are not talking - the police have clamped a gag order on the investigation - but it is feared that taxi-driver Eliyahu Gur-El has fallen victim to a terrorist attack. His abandoned taxi was found on Friday in the Arab neighborhood of Beit Hanina in northern Jerusalem, and police have been searching for him ever since. He was heard from only briefly yesterday when he called and said, "I'm fine," before the telephone went dead. Police are looking into reports that an Arabic-accented voice said on the phone, "We won't hurt him." On Friday afternoon, Gur-El, who lives...

An Israeli taxi driver has been missing since Friday and authorities now believe that he may have been kidnapped by Palestinian terrorists. Eliahu Gorel, 61, from Ramat Gan, transported passengers from Tel Aviv to East Jerusalem on Friday afternoon. His cab was later found abandoned, with the engine running, in the village of Beit Hanina, north of Jerusalem. Israeli Police from the Jerusalem and West Bank districts have been searching the area, backed by helicopters, trackers, and dogs in an effort to locate Gorel.

OMED: Reports began to seep out late in April. There was a new and strange Portland-Iraqi connection. Not the business of the famous (and well watched) local mosque, but something truly bizarre. We ran across it on the famous internet forum, Free Republic, some text of which follows. Iraq Workers Are Promised 1000 Pct. Raise Posted on 04/23/2003 9:12 AM PDT by areafiftyone BAGHDAD, Iraq -Baghdad's self-proclaimed rulers said Wednesday they will use Iraqigovernment funds to pay all state employees their salaries this month - with a 1,000-percentraise - and took credit for advances in getting power, water and hospitals...

BEIJING (AP) _ The urgent radio message went out over the Beijing airwaves: "Taxi drivers who had a middle-aged male passenger dressed in a long green military-style coat should contact transportation authorities immediately." The reason for the urgency: The customer had the SARS virus and officials were fearful that the contaminated cars could spread the deadly bug around the huge city that's already struggling to contain an outbreak. A 24-hour manhunt ensued for two drivers who picked up the man who was later hospitalized, the official Xinhua News Agency reported Tuesday, the latest sign of how jittery officials have become...

It's a radio station that caters to tourists, but for the next four weeks it is helping Muslims across southern Ontario celebrate Ramadan and those of other faiths to learn about the ninth month of the Islamic lunar calendar. Daily during Ramadan, CJRN AM 710 in Niagara Falls is broadcasting a half-hour program of prayers and religious readings, just as it has done for the past five years. Before that, the program aired on other stations for nine years. The program begins broadcasting exactly a half-hour before sunset and ends with a call to prayer that signals the end of...

<p>SACRAMENTO - When Maria Contreras-Sweet wants a ride to the airport, she rings up the California Highway Patrol. When she is invited to talk to grocers in Palm Springs, the CHP drives her. When she needs to get from her Los Angeles area home to a breakfast in Orange County, the Highway Patrol comes to her door.</p>