Top 10: UK police focus on “hate crimes” while knifepoint rapes increase

1. UK: Huge Rise in Knifepoint Rapes, Fatal Stabbings While Police Focus on “Hate Crime”

Crime figures released this week revealed that fatal stabbings in England and Wales are at the highest level since 2010-2011, while rapes at knifepoint rose by 23 per cent in the past year.

Data from the Office for National Statistics (ONS) recorded 413 rapes involving a knife in the year to March, up from 334 the previous year, while in 2010-2011 the number stood at 258.

The statistics show fatal knife attacks also rose last year and revealed that while the number of female victims was the lowest in a decade, at 51, the number of males murdered in deadly knife attacks was the highest since 2009, standing at 164. [...]

Lancashire Police, along with the forces of Greater Manchester, Cheshire, and North Wales on Monday launched a new regional Hate Crime Awareness Week in which officers across the North West of England are holding events urging people to report so-called hate crimes.

Related: Tweet thread launched by Surrey UK Police on FGM mocked by public

2. Germany: Islamic State Flag, Drugs Found at Residences of €140,000 Fake Identity Benefit Fraud Migrants

An Islamic State flag and drugs were found at several residences after German police cracked down on a ring of young migrants who had used fake identities to defraud German taxpayers.

Police raided the residences of 43 families this week on suspicion that they had participated in a scheme to defraud the government using fake identities. They estimate that around 78 suspects, all under 25 years old, were able to steal 141,000 euros in a coordinated and elaborate scheme, Bild reports.

Investigators found that the suspects had coordinated their scheme through the encrypted messaging app WhatsApp and had used shisha bars to recruit new migrants into the fraud.

The migrants were able to send applications to the government which stated they were entitled to retroactive benefits by using fake application or employment termination letters from various companies, some of which had been insolvent for years.

 

3. Islamic State “Beatles” pair from UK “should face trial”

The families of some of the victims of an Islamic State group that beheaded hostages have said two captured fighters should face trial.

British fighters Alexanda Kotey and El Shafee Elsheikh were captured by Syrian Kurdish forces.

Bethany Haines - whose father David, a British aid worker, was beheaded by the cell - said she hoped they die a “slow, painful death”.

Kotey and Elsheikh were two of four UK IS members known as “the Beatles”.

“They should be locked up and throw away the key,” Ms Haines said.

Should there be a trial, she said she would attend and “look them in the eye and let them know I am who I am and they have certainly destroyed a big part of my life. Hopefully there will be some justice.”

 

4. ANTIFA show up in numbers across Italy to battle with police in opposition to Northern League

5. “Islamic State-inspired”: Woman charged over stabbing in Melbourne

A 24-year-old Bangladeshi woman will appear in court, charged over an "Islamic State-inspired attack" following a stabbing incident at Mill Park, in Melbourne's north on Friday.

Police were called to a home in Callistemon Rise about 4:20pm on Friday where they found a 56-year-old man who had been stabbed in the neck while he was asleep. [...]

Police allege the woman is a Bangladeshi national who travelled to Melbourne on February 1 on a student visa.

She was renting a room at the man's home while she was studying.[...]

“We will allege this was a stand-alone, Islamic State-inspired attack, designed to cause harm to our community” acting Deputy Commissioner McCartney said.

Since September 2014, when the national terrorism threat level was raised, police have charged 85 people, including this woman, following 36 counter-terrorism operations around Australia.

 

6. Saudi graduate of Al Qeada terror-training camp, arrested in Oklahoma

On February 6, The New York Times published a chilling report on the arrest in Oklahoma of a foreign national who had attended an al Qaeda training camp.

The defendant in this case is Naif Abdulaziz M. Alfallaj, a 34-year-old citizen of Saudi Arabia who has been residing in the U.S. since 2011. Allegedly he attended a terror training camp in Afghanistan in 2000 when four of the 9/11 hijacker/terrorists also attended training sessions at that very same camp.

 

7. Twin bombings in mosque in Benghazi

Two people were killed and at least 75 were injured when a twin-bombing struck a mosque in the Majouri district of Benghazi on Friday.

8. Violent Somali Rapist Told Teen Victim She Can’t Be a Virgin “Because She’s White”

A Somali national has been jailed after he held a sharp piece of wood to a teenage girl’s throat as he raped her.

Ahmed Abdoule said the girl could not be a virgin “because she was white”, and told her “my country would love you” following the attack, was given an 11-year sentence at Hull Crown Court the Hull Daily Mail reports.

Reports have not indicated how long Abdoule will actually spend in prison and the court has not responded to a request for information, but if the sentence follows the standard formula he will likely be released after roughly 5 years.

 

9. Women in Iran continue to protest against forced hijab despite dozens of arrests

Women in #Iran continue to protest against forced #hijab despite dozens of arrests.#IranProtests #براندازم #FreeIran #خسته‌ام_از_جمهوری_اسلامی pic.twitter.com/K62RbNuCBG

— Armin Navabi (@ArminNavabi) February 10, 2018

10. ITALY: “I want to solve problems… recent governments’ immigration policies have multiplied these problems”

Matteo Salvini, leader of the Lega Nord, speaks on immigration and Islam in Italy. Matteo is expected to become the next prime minister, after elections on March 4, 2018.