1. 12 camels disqualified from Saudi beauty contest in “Botox” row

Twelve animals disqualified from country’s annual show after receiving injections to improve their pout. Twelve camels have been disqualified from Saudi Arabia’s annual camel beauty contest after receiving botulinum toxin injections to make their pouts look more alluring. Saudi authorities have raised the profile of the King Abdulaziz camel festival by relocating it from the desert to the outskirts of the capital, Riyadh. This year’s event has been been mired in scandal after the lure of $31.8m (£22.6m) in prize money tempted some owners to cheat. The key attributes in camel beauty are considered to be delicate ears and fulsome snouts. But there are strict rules against the use of drugs in the lips, or shaved or clipped body parts. This year, a dozen camels were banned after a vet was caught performing plastic surgery on them. Camels were also given Botox-type injections at his clinic, according to Saudi media.

2. Police Shoot Knife-Wielding Afghan Migrant at Belgian Railway Station, Deny Terror Links

Belgian police shot an Afghan migrant at Ghent station Tuesday night after the man approached officers, threatening to attack them, and ignored orders to drop a knife. Two shots were fired by the officers after the man failed to respond to orders to drop the knife, one of which struck the would-be assailant, causing him to drop his weapon. The 28-year-old man, who was described as being of Afghan origin and as wearing “a white turban” was handcuffed and taken to hospital, and was in critical condition, although that has now improved. The station and surrounding streets were evacuated by police as a precaution after the attack.

3. Finnish presidential candidate wants Swedes to not wear headcloth in Iran

Finnish presidential candidate suggests in debates that perhaps the Swedish government could show proper values of equality between the sexes by not wearing a head scarf in Iran.



4. Afghan Failed Asylum Seeker on Trial for Murder of Christian Convert

The trial has begun for an Afghan failed asylum seeker accused of killing an Afghan Christian convert woman in front of her children. The 30-year-old Afghan is said to have known the 38-year-old victim as they had lived in the same asylum home in Germany. The prosecution has alleged that the asylum seeker was upset with the woman’s conversion to Christianity and her offer to help him convert angered him so much that he stabbed her to death, Bayerische Rundfunk reports.

5. Canada: New docs reveal CSIS foreign fighter concerns

The terrorism threat in Canada posed by jihadists is ever-changing, hard to pin down and requires continual monitoring, according to the upper brass at the Canadian Security Intelligence Service. “The Service has never before faced a terrorist threat of the scope, scale and complexity of Sunni Islamist-inspired terrorism,” reads an unclassified committee briefing note prepared for an unidentified individual in October 2016. The document not only reveals troubling news about the severity of the threat in Canada, but appears to conflict with the tone of public statements previously made by both Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Public Safety Minister Ralph Goodale.

6. Indonesian school de-radicalizes children of terrorists and Islamic extremists



7. Women's safety pants with rape alarm introduced in Germany



8. Charges follow undercover footage by campaign group Animal Aid of halal slaughtering at Bowood Abattoir, Thirsk

TWO slaughtermen from Bradford are due back in court in March after admitting causing unnecessary suffering to sheep as they were being put to death. Kabeer Hussain, 44, of Brantwood Road, Bradford, and Kazeem Hussain, 53, of Haworth Road, Bradford, along with a third slaughterman and the abattoir boss had originally denied the charges – after a three-year battle to bring the case to court. A four-day trial had been due to start on Monday at Northallerton Magistrates’ Court but the men changed their pleas to guilty to some of the charges relating to offences committed between December 1 and 9 in 2014. Undercover footage of the halal slaughtering at Bowood Abattoir, near Thirsk, by campaign group Animal Aid in December 2014 caused uproar, sparking protests outside the premises, condemnation from the Muslim Council of Britain and calls to the Government for CCTV to be installed in slaughterhouses across the country.

Related: Article on health effects of Halal slaughter by French Veterinarian from 2011

9. Swedish police begin patrolling middle-class suburb on horseback after surge in gangs carrying out street robberies of children

Swedish police have called in officers on horseback to tackle a series of robberies of children by criminal gangs in a Stockholm suburb. Around ten children aged eight to 15 have been mugged by what has been described as gangs of teenagers in Nacka, south-east of Stockholm, in recent weeks. The masked attackers have been threatening their victims with knives and forced them to hand over everything from mobile phones to cash and their jackets. [...] The number of robberies in Nacka where the victim has been under 18, have increased from eight in 2013 to 38 in 2017, Expressen reports. In Stockholm as a whole, the same crime has increased by 60 per cent between 2013 and 2017.

10. Suicide bomber, gunmen attack Save the Children [Charity] office in Afghanistan