The UK’s most senior counter-terrorism officer has said that Shamima Begum, who left the UK to join Islamic State as a 15-year-old, had “potentially criminalised” herself as her family considers court action to stop the government blocking her return to Britain. Government and counter-terrorism officials are still considering what to do after Begum, now 19, was discovered in a Syrian refugee camp after fleeing Isis’s last stronghold and said she wanted to return to Britain.

Neil Basu, assistant commissioner for counter-terrorism at Scotland Yard, told the Guardian the case should drive home the need to report those youngsters being radicalised, rather than let them ruin their lives after falling for terrorist propaganda.In 2015, Begum left with two school friends from their home in Bethnal Green to join Isis in Syria. She said this week that she did not regret her decision to go to Syria, but that she was nine months pregnant and wanted to come home to “live quietly with [her] child”.(theguardian)…[+]

Police in Canada have issued a rare rebuke to the public after a late-night emergency mobile phone alert about an abducted child prompted widespread complaints. At 11.36pm on Thursday night, police in Ontario issued an amber alert for Riya Rajkumar, 11, after police feared the girl’s father had kidnapped her.

Shortly after the alert was issued, police found her body, but they said that calls from the public helped them locate and arrest her father, Roopesh Rajkumar. A second alert was sent at 12.21am, saying Riya had been located.

But police say they received a barrage of angry calls, as Ontario residents complained that the alert was issued too late at night. “I can’t even begin to describe how disappointing and upsetting it is to read the comments, emails and calls to our communications bureau complaining about receiving an mber alert late at night,” tweeted Constable Akhil Mooken, a spokesperson for Peel regional police. “I appreciate that a lot of people were sleeping but the immediate need to locate the child outweighed the momentary inconvenience that some people encountered.”(theguardian)…[+]

TRINIDAD – Valen­tine’s Day turned out to be a scary ex­pe­ri­ence for an el­der­ly cou­ple when they woke up to find a four-feet Boa Constrictor in their bed­room ceil­ing Thursday.  Robin Nages­sar, 73, and his wife Sum­intra, 61, re­mained out­side their home for about four hours un­til the snake was cap­tured by se­nior Game War­den Steve Seep­er­sad.

Re­call­ing the scary en­counter, Nages­sar said he got up around 3 am be­cause his wife had to go out.  Nages­sar said he saw the snake around 6.30 am when he was about to ap­ply med­ica­tion in his eyes.  He said he did not at­tempt to cap­ture it be­cause he was too afraid.  His wife re­called, “I was wash­ing wares when my hus­band said to come and see some­thing. When I came clos­er I saw a big snake, watch­ing. I was fright­ened. I stayed out of the house un­til about 12 o’clock when they moved it. I was too fright­ened to go back in­side.”  She sus­pect­ed that the snake crawled out of the bush­es and in­to their house dur­ing the night.

Their daugh­ter, who lives near­by with her hus­band, called the Fire Ser­vice who then con­tact­ed the game war­den.  Seep­er­sad said he found the two-year-old red tail boa, in the ceil­ing be­tween the galvanize and rafter. He de­scribed the snake as a ba­by as it usu­al­ly grows to about 12 feet long. “It is def­i­nite­ly non-ven­omous. If it were to bite you, it would feel as if you got a bite from a dog,” Seep­er­sad said.

Seep­er­sad sus­pect that the snake sought refuge in the cou­ple’s home from the bush fires. He said the snake is pro­tect­ed and any­one who kills it could face a fine of $10,000. He not­ed that the fine was in­creased from $200 to $10,000 as of Jan­u­ary 1. (Trinidad Guardian)…[+]