1. SKY NEWS: Headteacher Warns of “Rotherham-style” Scandal in Thanet, Kent

An executive headteacher for five Kent schools believes a “Rotherham-style” abuse scandal could be in the offing in Thanet. Paul Luxmoore, executive headteacher of the Coastal Academies Trust, says he will resist taking young people in care from outside Thanet’s home county, because the practice of dumping children and teenagers on what is already a deprived area is exacerbating a growing gang problem and creating the circumstances for youngsters to fall prey to groomers. “London boroughs don’t have nearly enough foster carers in their area, so children are sent to places like Thanet, which is a poor area with high unemployment and so has far more foster carers,” he told Sky News.



2. Over 100 migrants face off in deadly food fight in Calais, France



Police and migrants clash in Calais

3. Woman raped at gunpoint by men in “twisted tag team” in front of her dad

Police said Aquib Ahmed and a 16-year-old boy, who cannot be named for legal reasons, operated as a “twisted tag team” as they subjected the woman, who is in her 20s, to “a disgusting, heartless attack”. The pair broke into a house in the Fir Vale area of Sheffield in March last year looking for drugs and threatening the man and his daughter inside, South Yorkshire Police said. But they realised they had targeted the wrong house as the occupants had no criminal or drugs connections. The pair returned three days later when they subjected the young woman to “a disgusting, heartless attack”. Detective Constable David Devey said: “They returned to the house, purely for their own sexual gratification, where they threatened the man and his daughter at gunpoint before they each raped the young woman repeatedly.”





4. “She left as a bride and returned to us dead”: Parents tell of devastating loss as fiance who slit their daughter's throat “because she wasn't a virgin” three months after she arrived from Albania is jailed for 10 years

The parents of a woman have told of their anguish after her fiance nearly decapitated her because he did not believe she was a virgin. Arben Rexha, 32, almost decapitated 25-year-old Elidona Demiraj in a frenzied attack at their home in Islington, north London, on 31 January 2016. Ms Demiraj, who lived at home with Rexha had only come to the UK from Albania three months before her death after they were married in Albania. She was found by police with 27 lacerations in a crime scene described by Judge Richard Marks QC as one of “absolute devastation”. In a statement read to the court, Mrs Demiraj's parents said: “We saw her off as a bride and she returned to us dead. We are distraught by our daughter’s death at his hands.”

5. Canada: M-103 Heritage Committee report promises government action against “Islamophobia”

The Canadian government’s Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage has completed its draft report on “anti-Islamophobia” Motion M-103, and is ready to “take action.” Motion M-103, introduced by Liberal MP Iqra Khalid just over a year ago, recognized “the need to quell the increasing public climate of hate and fear… condemn Islamophobia and all forms of systemic racism and religious discrimination and take note of House of Commons’ petition e-411 and the issues raised by it…and request that the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage undertake a study.” After the passing of M-103 in Parliament, the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage proceeded with its study, conducting nearly a year of hearings from selected groups and members of the public, both for and against the motion. The cost of this extensive year-long Heritage Committee project was footed by taxpayers. The actual purpose and methodology of the study were vague.

6. Oxford professor of Islamic studies Tariq Ramadan charged in France with rape

The prominent Muslim scholar and Oxford professor of Islamic studies Tariq Ramadan has been charged with rape, following claims by two women that he assaulted them in French hotel rooms. Ramadan, who was arrested by French police on Wednesday, was charged on Friday with connected charges of rape and rape of a vulnerable person in 2009 and 2012. After two days of questioning by investigators, the 55-year-old professor was brought before three magistrates, in a move which suggests he is facing an extensive investigation, judicial sources said. The decision to charge Ramadan was welcomed by the lawyer representing Henda Ayari, 41, the first of the women to accuse him. Jonas Haddad said: “If there are other victims in France or elsewhere, they now know that the justice system will respond to what has happened to them.”

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7. African migrants injured in Italian drive-by shootings: police

ROME (Reuters) - An Italian man opened fire on African migrants in the central city of Macerata on Saturday, injuring several people, police said, in an attack that appeared to be racially motivated. The shootings happened just days after a Nigerian migrant was arrested in connection with the death of an 18-year-old Italian woman, whose dismembered body was discovered hidden in two suitcases near Macerata. The incident looks certain to jolt campaigning for a March 4 national election, with a centre-right alliance that leads in the polls promoting a fiercely anti-migrant programme.

More on this at The Independent.

8. “Worse than Afrin”: Erdogan’s aide threatens to “break legs” of Greek ministers over disputed isles

Greek officials who set foot on contested islands in the Aegean Sea will face Turkey’s wrath that will be “worse than that in Afrin,” a Turkish presidential advisor has asserted. Athens swiftly denounced his rant. “We will break the arms and legs of the [Greek] Prime Minister [Alexis Tsipras] or of any minister, who dares to step onto Imia in the Aegean,” Yigit Bulut, a senior advisor to Turkish President Recep Erdogan told TRT Thursday. Bulut was referring to a pair of uninhabited isles in the eastern part of the Aegean Sea that have long been the subject of a bitter territorial dispute between Turkey and Greece.

The EU has also expressed concern over Turkey’s deteriorating rule of law.

9. Philippines: Muslim rebels seek autonomous region as antidote to violent extremism

THE largest Moro rebel group in the southern Philippine island of Mindanao has called on legislators to approve the law creating a new Bangsamoro region to prevent violent Islamic extremism from rearing its ugly head again. Al Haj Murad Ebrahim, chairperson of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF), appealed to Congress to approve the Bangsamoro Basic Law (BBL), which would create a new autonomous area in the Mindanao region, as four senators visited the guerillas’ main camp in Maguindanao province last week as part of the public consultation for the proposed measure. “We’re hoping the BBL will be passed this time around, otherwise we will be facing a difficult path,” Ebrahim said, noting that failed peace agreements in the past led to escalation of violence or the rise of Islamic extremist groups.

10. Egyptian Army Bulldozes 12 Terrorists’ Hideouts, Disrupts 12 Explosive Charges in Sinai

The Egyptian Army captured a huge number of suspects supporting takfiri members in Sinai. Official spokesman of the armed forces Colonel Tamer al-Rifai stated that 12 hideouts were bulldozed and 12 explosive charges were discovered in addition to four vehicles containing huge quantity of spare parts, motorbikes and materials used in making explosive charges. In a statement, Rifai said that eight suspects were captured for supporting takfiri members. He affirmed that the Third Field Army continues efforts to eradicate takfiri elements in central Sinai. Ansar Bait al-Maqdis is strongly active in Sinai, knowing that this group pledged allegiance to ISIS in November 2014 calling itself ISIS in Egypt. This coincides with a time when Egypt's state security prosecution ordered a 15-day extension of the imprisonment of six suspects of plotting to execute terrorist operations against security men and to join a terrorist group.

Takfiri is an islamic term, for a Muslim who accuses another Muslim of apostasy, a death penalty offence in Islam.