Students rescued from 'torture school'

Children rescued from 'torture cell'

PAKISTAN: Pakistani police have rescued 53 students, including children as young as seven, who had been chained in the basement of a madrassa raided by security forces in the port city of Karachi.

Former students including an eight-year-old say they were regularly beaten at the school, which was equipped with chains, hooks and a warren of basement rooms. The head of an education federation called it a "torture cell".

Police said 21 teenagers were among those found during the raid on the self-styled seminary in Pakistan's biggest city, used by the United States to ship supplies to troops fighting the Taliban in Afghanistan.

Two children aged seven and another aged about eight were among those rescued, said Naeem Akram, deputy inspector general of Karachi police.

Madrassas, which provide the poorest families with the only education they can afford, are not tightly regulated in Pakistan.

Police said the students were chained up because they were drug addicts whom the madrassa "wanted to rehabilitate", but many details remain unclear.

The three-storey building is in northern Karachi, isolated from the city's congested and densely populated areas, meaning there were no neighbours who could corroborate details of the police raid or the conditions inside.

The basement was a maze of rooms, according to an AFP photographer, while an AFP reporter saw chains and hooks.

Accounts given to AFP by students and relatives indicated that impoverished families believed the madrassa could offer treatment to drug addicts and a religious education to the youngest boys.

Azmat Ulla, a 17-year-old student, said his father sent him there because he suffered fits and could be violent.

"My father took me to several spiritual healers who said I was a victim of black magic," Azmat said. "Three months ago I was admitted here."

"My father pays 3,000 rupees ($34) per month to the madrassa as a fee to make me a normal person, but I still suffer from fits and despite that they kept me chained and beat me with sticks ruthlessly," he said.

Mohammad Ashraf said he had sent his eight-year-old son Mushtaq Ahmed to the madrassa believing he would receive a religious education.

"I didn't know the madrassa management would beat him so mercilessly. I will no longer keep my son in this madrassa," he said.

His son, Mushraq, said the teachers beat the students daily.

"I don't know why they kept young children with adults here," he said.

Police official Akram Khan said it was a "complex situation" and there would be "no clear picture until police collect all the evidence".

"Relatives of the elder boys and men say they had sent them for drug addiction rehabilitation, while younger children's relatives say they were sent for religious studies," he said.

Hanif Jullandhri, head of a federation of Pakistani madrassas, told Express Television that the premises was not registered.

"We strongly condemn this and urge the government to take the harshest possible action against its owners. The government should investigate how such torture cells are established and operated," he said.

At least 15,148 seminaries in Pakistan educate more than two million students - around five per cent of the 34 million children in formal education - according to official statistics.

But officials suspect thousands more go unregistered, providing sons of Pakistan's poverty-stricken majority with the only education they can afford.

 
Blind dating reaches new heights

US: If you are one of those apprehensive flyers who are always worried about what kind of co-passengers they will have to travel with, here's an innovative solution from an airline which will help flyers find seat mates with the help of social networking sites.

The new “meet and greet” service will be rolled out next year for passengers of the Netherlands carrier KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, USA Today reports .

Passengers’ Facebook and LinkedIn profiles will be connected to their check-in information, which will allow them to tap into their account and select their neighbour based on similar interests - or even their looks.

In another development, Malaysia Airlines is also planning to start a service on Facebook that will permit passengers to check which friends are taking the same flight.

Taxi driver fined for wearing jeans

AUSTRALIA: An Australian taxi driver was Wednesday ordered to pay Aus$1,415 (S$1,850) for wearing jeans to work despite insisting they were tailor-made and suitable for the job.

Shahram Forozandeh, 44, was prosecuted by the transport department for wearing the trousers contrary to industry standards when he was stopped during a routine inspection in January, the Adelaide Advertiser reported.

In South Australia state, taxi drivers must wear smart business-style shirts and trousers, with jeans and tracksuit bottoms banned.

Forozandeh protested that his outfit was "purely wool and tailor-made".

"I had no idea that it would be considered as not wearing a uniform as the material was pure wool," he said.

Magistrates slapped him with a Aus$265 fine plus Aus$1,150 in costs.

Private jet, shopping spree paid for by forged cheque

NEW YORK: Two friends have been charged with looting a law firm of $285,000 and spending the booty to party in New York.

The duo, who are in their mid-30s, stole a $19,500 cheque from the company where one of them were employed and managed to change the value to $285,000.

Both women then went ahead and hired a private plane and with a few friends flew to New York where they spurged the loot on a shopping spree. They bought valuables from premium retail outlets such as Tiffany & Co. and Montblanc, according to a news release from the Orange County District Attorney's Office.

The women also looted money from other sources and got their hands on cashiers checks in the amounts of $100,000 and $33,000. They invested some of their loot on a 11,000-square-foot house in Murrieta worth about $3.7 million.

The grand robbery was discovered by bank officials when the issuing bank rejected the cheque that the receiving bank had processed earlier.

Sharon Osbourne hires nanny for dogs

US: Sharon Osbourne employs a full-time nanny to look after her 12 dogs.

The 59-year-old star has a dozen pooches to keep her and rocker husband Ozzy Osbourne company now that their kids, Aimee, 28, Kelly, 27, and 26-year-old Jack, have left home, but she needs help to care for her canines.

She said: "I'm solo. It's why I adore my family so much. And animals. They're such company. I rescue them all.

"I'm their hotel. I even baby sit my friends' pets. And I have a full time nanny just to care for them. Bella, a five pound Pomeranian, is my favourite."

The nanny looks after the reality TV star's dogs when Sharon is hosting daytime chat show 'The Talk', and she doesn't like to hold back while fronting the programme - though she is not afraid to own up to her mistakes.

She told the New York Post newspaper: "Do things correctly or I turn into an axe murderer.

"I'm not quiet - but I'm 59, I've earned that right - and I have no compunction if situations get out of order.

"None of us is perfect. Sorry now and again, I must fix up something sometimes and apologise if I've gone too far. I'm no pushover, so I apologise graciously, which you need to do - especially at my age."

Sharon admitted she went too far when she criticised Scottish singing sensation Susan Boyle during a radio interview last year, where she described her as looking like she'd been struck with an "ugly stick".

She explained: "I did something wrong to Susan Boyle on a radio show. It was so cruel. She can't stand up and fight back.

"She's not outspoken. You don't do what's out of order to a weaker person so I apologised profusely."

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