Free Republic

AN illegal immigrant with an “abysmal” criminal record has won £40,000 compensation after he was locked up for nearly a year. It is the second time Moroccan Khalid Belfken, 27, got a huge payout after efforts to deport him failed. The drug addict snuck into Britain illegally in 2005. He has committed more than 40 crimes and been jailed four times, most recently for burglary. The Home Office tried to kick Belfken out six times but authorities in Morocco refused to take him back.

An archaic by-law banning Parisian women from wearing trousers has finally been repealed 214 years after it was originally introduced. The November 1799 decree stipulated that any woman wishing to wear men’s clothing in the French capital had to seek official permission from the city authorities. It was amended two times a century later, when women were given the freedom to don “pantalons” [trousers] if they were “holding the handlebars of a bicycle or the reins of a horse.” The decree was passed when the working class fashion of wearing long trousers (as opposed to the aristocratic knee-length “culottes”) became...

The video offers a rare glimpse of the type of punishment inflicted on women who break the country's strict morality code. The victim was punished under Sharia law for wearing trousers under her Islamic clothing. The footage shows her crawling on the ground, raising her arm to try to ward off the attacks and screaming as the whip strikes. The public punishment sparked protests among females against laws they said humiliated women. Dozens of them were arrested. The governor of Khartoum said there had been a mistake in the way the victim's punishment had been carried out. Sky's foreign affairs...

A German man mooning at railway staff in a departing train got his trousers caught in a carriage door and ended up being dragged half naked along the platform, out of the station and onto the tracks. The 22-year-old journalism student shoved his backside against the window of a low-slung double-decker train when staff forced him off in Lauenbrueck for travelling without a ticket, a spokesman for police in the northern city of Bremen said. "It's a miracle he wasn't badly hurt," the spokesman said on Monday. "This sort of thing can end up killing you." Instead, dangling by his...

Muhtaram Mufti Ebrahim Saheb D.B i would like you to analyse the Fatwa given by the Brelvi Ulama regarding folding the trousers above the ankles in salaah,they say that it is makrooh e tahreemi to fold the trousers above the ankles because of the hadeeth mentioned in the Fatwa.I would also like to know if the hadeeth which prohibits folding the clothes is saheeh and its reference.Jazakumullah The Fatwa which prohibits folding trousers above ankles given by Brelvi Ulama. Q: If the pant's hems are at ankles can they be folded before performing Namaz? A: If pant's bottoms are at...

LONDON (AFP) - Britain's Prince Harry was forced to drop his trousers during a military parade to prove he did not have his girlfriend's name tattooed on his royal rear, a British newspaper said. ADVERTISEMENT The 21-year-old son of Prince Charles, the Prince of Wales, is halfway through his British Army officer training course at the elite Sandhurst academy. The Sun, Britain's biggest-selling daily, said Harry, third in line to the throne, was ordered to bare his bum after rumours spread he had blonde Zimbawean-born girlfriend Chelsy Davy's name inked on. During a parade, a colour sergeant yelled: "Cadet Wales,...

Hat trick: how Bono finally got his stuff back Ray Managh BONO got his pants back yesterday — along with his Stetson hat, sweatshirt and earrings. A judge ordered the U2 singer’s former stylist, Lola Cashman, to give back the items within the next seven days. Circuit Court President, Mr Justice Matthew Deery, then told her also to hand over a special Christmas decoration, 88 Polaroid pictures and 117 other photographs of U2 members taken during their Joshua Tree world tour of the late 1980s. Judge Deery said Ms Cashman had joined the band as stylist during the 1987-88 tour...

Singaporean man caught smuggling pythons in pocket SINGAPORE (AFP) Apr 17, 2003 A Singapore man was arrested after attempting to smuggle three pythons, 15 iguanas and three marsupials into the city state, authorities said Thursday. The snakes were found in the pocket of the 23-year-old, along with a bag containing the iguanas and a plastic container holding the marsupials as he crossed the border from Malaysia in a taxi, authorities said in a statement. The wildlife is worth 4,350 Singapore dollars (2,443 US) and the AgriFood and Veterinary Authority said the Singaporean man is likely to be charged for...