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Toronto Mayor Rob Ford denied that he smokes crack cocaine and said he is not an addict, breaking a week of silence over reports of a video purportedly showing him using the drug. Critics were not appeased, with one city councilor questioning whether the mayor told “the whole truth” and another calling on him to resign. The mayor of Canada’s largest city did not say whether he has ever used crack. He did not take questions from reporters at a news conference at City Hall, held after close allies released a letter urging him to address the reports of the...

The Toronto Star has seen the video in question. Much more to come on thestar.com

<p>BOSTON (CBS) — Clay Buchholz is off to a tremendous start for the Boston Red Sox this season, and his most recent impressive showing came at the expense of the Toronto Blue Jays. On Wednesday night, Buchholz silenced Jays bats, allowing just two hits and three walks over seven innings while striking out eight and keeping the Jays off the scoreboard.</p>

Two years ago today, SEAL Team Six sent Osama bin Laden on his way to Davy Jones’ Locker — but his Islamist terror machine is anything but sinking to the depths. It remains a vicious, global threat. Since Osama’s demise, the terror group’s strength has ebbed in some areas, but flowed strongly in others. Indeed, one current estimate concludes that al Qaeda affiliates and associates (i.e., groups, cells or operatives) are active in more than 30 countries (of some 190) on four continents. Including our continent. While we don’t yet know the whole story behind the Boston bombing, just last...

For seven minutes, five Dagestan rebels spoke into a video camera about killing infidels and how the “good deeds” they were doing would absolve them of “700 sins” committed during their lifetimes. Filmed by a Canadian jihadist fighter before he was killed by Russian security forces, the video offers a disturbing glimpse of the fanaticism of the rebels who may have inspired Boston Marathon bomber Tamerlan Tsarnaev. Tsarnaev does not appear in the footage, which was obtained by the National Post. But it was recorded and narrated by William Plotnikov, a Canadian whose alleged links to Tsarnaev are now under...

Radicalized Muslims do operate and recruit in Toronto and one Islamic leader warns we shouldn’t be surprised by news of more nefarious terror plots in the future. “There are a lot of people in our community that are a little rigid,” Muhammad Robert Heft, of the Paradise Forever Islamic Centre, said Wednesday. “Not thousands but hundreds.” Hundreds? In a week when one GTA resident, along with a Montrealer, have been charged by the RCMP in a terror plot to murder innocent people on a passenger train, it’s a troubling detail. But it’s not new for Heft, a Muslim convert who...

TORONTO — The Toronto imam who first brought forward concerns about one of the suspects in the alleged al-Qaeda-linked train plot wants to remain anonymous, his lawyer said Tuesday. Naseer Syed said the imam came to him more than a year ago about the suspect’s conduct. “It was enough of a concern and it passed a certain threshold than the imam felt comfortable with,” he said. The lawyer said he then notified the appropriate authorities. On Monday, the RCMP credited the imam’s tip with helping bring terrorism-related charges against Raed Jaser and Chiheb Esseghaier.

Canada to announce arrests after thwarting "major terrorist attack":CBCR Reuters – 19 mins ago TORONTO (Reuters) - Canadian police and intelligence agencies are to announce multiple arrests on Monday after an operation to thwart a "major terrorist attack," the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation said on Monday, citing unnamed "highly placed" sources.

Canadian authorities announced Monday they have broken up an Al Qaeda-linked terror plot to attack a passenger train as it crossed over a bridge in the Toronto area. The Royal Canadian Mounted Police said Monday that two suspects have been arrested on terrorism charges. Chiheb Esseghaier and Raed Jaser, who live in greater Montreal and Toronto -- were conspiring to carry out an Al Qaeda-supported attack against Via Rail, but posed no immediate threat to the public. "It was definitely in the planning stage but not imminent," RCMP chief superintendent Jennifer Strachan told reporters at a news conference. Read more:...

(CNSNews.com) – Although no group has claimed responsibility for Monday’s deadly bomb blasts at the Boston Marathon, a leading al-Qaeda ideologue last year recommended that jihadists in America include sporting events in their list of prospective terror targets.

A “foreign government” asked the FBI to look into one of the Boston Marathon bombing suspect’s “possibly extremist ties” in 2011, CBS News reported on Friday. The FBI complied and spoke with Tamerlan Tsarnaev, 26, to investigate any possible ties to extremism. The FBI determined Tsarnaev represented no threat, according to CBS News. Tamerlan, believed to be 26 when he was killed overnight in a shootout, dropped out after studying accounting at Bunker Hill Community College for just three semesters. He was an amateur boxer who had hoped to fight on the U.S. Olympic team, a man who said he...

When in Muslim countries, you must conform your behavior to Muslim sensibilities. When in non-Muslim countries, you must conform your behavior to Muslim sensibilities. "Toronto dad upset he's not allowed to watch daughter's swim class," by Jenny Yuen for the Toronto Sun, April 6 (thanks to all who sent this in): TORONTO - When a single dad signed his nine-year-old daughter up for female-only swim lessons, he didn’t realize he — as a man — was going to be banned from watching her practice. Chris (who didn’t want his last name published) was shocked when he had the blinds to...

Four women wanted in alleged sex assault of 19-year-old man in downtown Toronto Toronto police are looking for four female suspects who they say allegedly sexually assaulted a 19-year-old man. The incident happened during the early morning hours of Sunday, March 31, after the man met the four women at a nightclub near King Street and University Avenue. The man left the club with the women who offered to drive him home, according to a written statement from Toronto police. “The complainant was instead driven to a parking lot in the area of Queen Street West and Spadina Avenue where...

Afghan For Life and its more violent-sounding offshoot, Afghan Fighting Generation, emerged partly in Toronto’s Thorncliffe Park neighbourhood, a hub of Canada’s fast-growing Afghan population. Police and immigration enforcement officers have now launched deportation proceedings against several alleged members, including Mr. Fatah, a 28-year-old Russian-speaking Afghan from Thorncliffe Park. Since 2002, more than 23,000 Afghans have become permanent residents of Canada. Gang members began tagging Afghan neighbourhoods with Afghan For Life (AFL or A4L) and Afghan Fighting Generation (AFG) symbols a decade ago. ... The crackdown on Afghan gangs is Canada’s latest attempt to use immigration laws to tackle street...

One year after Toronto subway fare collector William Anderson was shot and badly wounded in a botched robbery at the downtown Dupont station, a $25,000 reward for information leading to the conviction of the masked gunman - or gunwoman - was renewed Tuesday, with a fresh appeal for tips. Now 53, Mr. Anderson remains off the job, still recovering from being shot in the neck and shoulder by his balaclava-clad assailant, who’s believed to have targeted that same station twice before. The description of that person, glimpsed on video, has been revised and the perpetrator may be male or female,...

Animal control came to collect a monkey from a Toronto Ikea store on Sunday, after the animal was spotted in the parking lot. An Ikea spokesperson told CBC News that the monkey was first spotted in the parking lot of the Ikea store located near Leslie Street and Highway 401.

TORONTO — A single junk-food meal rich in saturated fat is detrimental to the health of the arteries, researchers in Canada said. Dr. Anil Nigam and colleagues at the University of Montreal-affiliated EPIC Center of the Montreal Heart Institute compared the effects of a junk-food meal and a typical Mediterranean meal on the vascular endothelium, the inner lining of the blood vessels. Endothelial function is closely linked to the long-term risk of developing coronary artery disease.

In late September I went along to what was described as an “anti-blasphemy” rally in the middle of Toronto. It was in response to the notorious “Innocence of Muslims” movie trailer, which was shown on YouTube but watched by very few of the Muslim fanatics who murdered people, destroyed property, and generally fell into paroxysms of theocratic angst as a result. The demonstration took place opposite the US Consulate, and most of the manic yells consisted of condemnations of the United States and Israel, with one genius holding a large poster announcing, “Islam Condones Racism.” Actually it does, and...

TORONTO - The fur will be flying at an east-Toronto Mosque Friday afternoon, when a group of dog owners plan to walk their canines outside the building during prayer sessions. It was toward the end of August that two groups — the Canadian Hindu Advocacy and Canadians United Against Terror - set up a Facebook page inviting people to walk their dogs in front the Salahuddin mosque in Scarborough. Their call was a response to an incident in August that took place during an anti-Israel demonstration at Queen’s Park by an Islamic group where a Jewish man was arrested for...

Female G20 protestors sue Toronto police for $1.4MILLION after they were 'profiled for having hairy legs' A group of women is suing the Toronto police, saying they were profiled and arrested for having hairy legs during the G20 summit in 2010. The women are part of a $1.4 million lawsuit filed by seven friends, men and women, who were locked up during the protests against the gathering of world leaders. The lawyer for the friends, who had traveled to Toronto from their hometown to take part in the demonstrations, said police use of 'hairy legs' as a cause for detention...