Europe 'funding al-Qaeda' as governments condemned for hypocrisy over ransom payments

British passport 'is death sentence' to kidnapped victims as UK and US refuse to pay ransoms to al-Qaeda, despite European governments handing over more than $125 million

                                 Vincent Delory, one of the two French hostages killed after being kidnapped in Niger

The sight of the French state jet sitting on a desert tarmac as the foreign minister greets a relieved newly released hostage is a familiar one but comes at a price in the form of a multi-million euro ransom payments that has filled al-Qaeda's coffers.

Despite a landmark G8 agreement banning ransoms for kidnaps, European governments are pouring money into terrorist groups in return for the release of their citizens.
A new survey suggests al-Qaeda linked groups from Mali in West Africa to Syria have garnered $66 million (£39 million) in the last year from hostages, a lucrative revenue stream that has fuelled its rise.
All told the group has taken in $125 million since 2009.

Islamic State jihadists issue 30-minute killing spree on video

Video depicting the slaughter of hundreds by Isis jihadists released as a warning to its enemies that they face a horrific death

 Islamic State now controls large swathes of northern and eastern Syria, the Iraq-Syria border and parts of northern and western Iraq

Al-Qaeda linked terrorists that control swathes of Iraq and Syria have circulated a video compilation of hundreds of graphic executions to mark the Muslim religious festival of Eid.
Accompanied by an explicit threat to Iraqi soldiers , the group formerly known as the Islamic State of Iraq and al-Sham (Isis), showed dozens of young men men cowering in the shadow of gunmen before being brutally slaughtered.

A group of soldiers are led to a desert pit that will soon become a mass grave.
Others are seen standing on a small river jetty before shuffling forward where they are shot in the head and fall into the water. The executions take place in Saddam Hussein's hometown Tikrit.

Women should not laugh out loud in public, Turkey's deputy prime minister says

Women should not talk about unnecessary topics on their mobiles, Turkey's Deputy PM Bulent Arınc says in an Eid al-Fitr speech

    Women should not laugh out loud in public, according to Bulent Arınc, the Turkish deputy prime minister

Women should not laugh out loud in public or speak of trivial matters on the phone, according to Turkish deputy prime minister, Bulent Arınc.Mr Arınc urged men and women to remember the importance of chastity during an Eid al-Fitr meeting on Monday and to have an acute awareness of shame.

He attacked television programmes aimed at young people which encouraged them to become "sex addicts" to an audience which included a majority of men.There is a moral regression happening within the country, he said, and called on citizens to rediscover the Koran, the holy book of Islam.

“Chastity is so important. It is not only a name. It is an ornament for both women and men. [She] will have chasteness. Man will have it, too. He will not be a womanizer. He will be bound to his wife. He will love his children.

Could deadly Ebola virus reach Britain?

As the deadly virus claims its first victim in Nigeria, Africa's most populous country which has close links with the UK, experts warn British doctors to look for the signs

 The World Health Organisation says Ebola is one of the most virulent viral diseases known to humankind, causing death in 50 to 90 percent of all clinically ill cases

Ebola has killed 672 people in Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone since it was first diagnosed in February and more than 1,000 others have been infected by the virus. On Friday, a Liberian man who had travelled to the Nigerian capital Lagos died for the disease, heightening concerns international air travel could speed up its spread.

The Government’s Public Health England on Monday sent letters to British doctors telling them to watch for anyone with strange illnesses who have recently travelled in West Africa.

Cambridge University’s Dr Peter Walsh, a lecturer in archaeology and anthropology and Ebola expert, said: “It’s possible someone infected will fly to Heathrow having infected other people sitting next to them or by using the toilet.

Ebola outbreak: Search continues for those who may have come into contact with victim

Medical professionals seek individuals who may have come into contact with Patrick Sawyer when he travelled by plane before his death

      Ebola victim Patrick Sawyer and his wife 

Medical professionals are trying to trace an unknown number of passengers and flight attendants who may have come into contact with an American citizen who died of Ebola.

No new cases have been recorded, but fears mount about the spread of the disease after fellow passengers from the two flights he took travelled on to other cities in Nigeria.Patrick Sawyer, a consultant to the Liberian finance ministry, flew between Liberia and Nigeria while he was contagious last week.He died five days after arriving in Lagos, where he had been quarantined.

Since the outbreak of the disease in February, 670 people in Guinea, Sierra Leone and Liberia have died from Ebola.
Nigerian authorities have so far identified 59 people who came into contact with Sawyer, and 20 of them have been tested for Ebola.Authorities are relying on “contact tracing” whereby medical professionals monitor anyone who came into contact with Mr Sawyer, as well as anyone they may have subsequently had contact with.