The mother of a chronically ill baby has defended her court battle with the child's father to have his life support machine turned off.

The boy, known only as RB, has congenital myasthenic syndrome, a rare neuromuscular condition which severely limits limb movement and the ability to breathe independently. He has been in hospital since birth.

Doctors want to take the one-year-old off a ventilator which helps him to breathe, but the boy's father, who is separated from the mother, opposes the plan.

The hospital trust which provides his care has taken the case to the High Court.

If the trust wins, it would be the first time a British court has ruled against the wishes of a parent whose child does not suffer from brain damage.

In a statement, the mother's lawyer, Anthony Fairweather said: "RB's mother has sat by her son's bedside every day since he was born.

"Every day she has seen the pain he experiences just to survive.

"In deciding to support this application she has listened and consulted with some of the best doctors in the world. Their view has been unanimous.

"In her mind the intolerable suffering experienced by her son must outweigh her own personal grief should she lose her child."

But lawyers for the father argue the baby's brain is unaffected by the condition and that he can see, hear, feel and recognise his parents.

They will submit video footage which they say shows Baby RB playing with toys, enjoying listening to music and interacting with his parents.

The father argues that a tracheostomy, where a hole is made in the neck to allow air to reach his lungs, would allow his son to leave hospital and be cared for at home.

Christopher Cuddihee, a solicitor acting for the father, told The Sunday Telegraph: "This is a tragic case.

"The father feels very strongly that Baby RB has a quality of life that demands the trust should continue to provide life-sustaining treatment.

"The father clearly adores his son and hopes to demonstrate to the court that the trust's application should be rejected."

Neither of the parents nor the NHS trust can be identified for legal reasons.

http://news.sky.com/skynews/Home/UK-News/High-Court-Hears-Mums-Plea-For…

Barrie Osborne, part of the Oscar-winning team behind the Lord of the Rings films, says the new production 'will educate people about the true meaning of Islam'

Producer Barrie Osborne cast Keanu Reeves as the messiah in The Matrix and helped defeat the dark lord Sauron in his record-breaking Lord of the Rings trilogy. Now the Oscar-winning American film-maker is set to embark on his most perilous quest to date: making a big-screen biopic of the prophet Muhammad (saw).

Budgeted at around $150m (£91.5m), the film will chart Muhammad (saw)'s life and examine his teachings. Osborne told Reuters that he envisages it as "an international epic production aimed at bridging cultures. The film will educate people about the true meaning of Islam".

Osborne's production will reportedly feature English-speaking Muslim actors. It is backed by the Qatar-based production company Alnoor Holdings, who have installed the Muslim scholar Sheikh Yusuf Al-Qaradawi to oversee all aspects of the shoot. In accordance with Islamic law, the prophet will not actually be depicted on screen.

Read more @ The Guardian

A year old news, but I was not aware of it...

Controversial biopic of Muhammad set for remake

The Message, Moustapha Akkad's Gadafy-backed 1976 film of the life of the prophet that sparked the Hanafi Muslim Siege, is to get a Hollywood remake

It was one of the most controversial films of the 70s: an English-language biopic of the prophet Muhammad ﷺ that was bankrolled by Gadafy and went on to trigger a fatal siege ahead of its US premiere. Now The Message could be set for a grand return to the fray courtesy of a 21st-century Hollywood remake.

Producer Oscar Zoghbi, who worked on the original, today announced that the new version – entitled The Messenger of Peace – was currently being scripted by Ramzi Thomas and would film in locations around the holy cities of Mecca and Medina. "We have only the utmost respect for [the original film] but technology in cinema has advanced since the 1970s," Zoghbi said in a statement. "This latest project will employ modern film techniques in its renewal of the first film's core messages."

"In the 21st century there is a real need for a film that emotionally engages audiences on the journey that led to the birth of Islam," added Ramzi Thomas.

Directed in 1976 by the late Moustapha Akkad, The Message starred Anthony Quinn as an Arab follower of Muhammad ﷺ and was funded by the Libyan leader Muammar Gadafy. In accordance with Muslim conventions forbidding any visual depiction of the prophet, Muhammad ﷺ is never seen or heard in the film. Instead, Akkad opted to signify his presence with light organ music and occasionally framed the film from the prophet's point of view as he observed the actions of his followers. Two versions of the picture were shot – one in Arabic and the other in English.

Read more @ The Guardian

A Major hunt has been launched by police after a Herefordshire teenage girl, Sarah Dunn, disappeared shortly after becoming obsessed with Islam.

Fears are held for the safety of the 14 year-old who was last seen in Bridgnorth, Herts, on September 28 after an argument with her parents over her decision to study the Koran.

Sarah purchased a Muslim prayer mat and was coverting to Islam shortly before she disappeared, police said.

Friends and family fear Sarah, who had recently been involved with a large group of Asian friends, may have been brainwashed by hardline Muslims.

The Telegraph

Two hapless robbers in America, Matthew McNelly and Joey Miller, have been arrested with the “worst disguises ever” after trying to hide their faces with permanent marker pen

McNelly, 23, and Miller, 20 were arrested by armed police in Carroll, Iowa, last Friday after witnesses reported seeing two men trying to break into an apartment with fake beards and "masks" scrawled on their faces.

Police responding to a call about the attempted burglary later pulled over a car matching the alleged suspects' vehicle.

When they stopped their 1994 Buick Roadmaster, bewildered police discovered the drunk hapless pair – nicknamed “dumb and dumber” – complete with makeshift disguises.

Police issued-mugshots of the pair show the black ink scribbles on their faces, in what some commentators described as “the worst disguise ever”.

"We're very skilled investigators and the black faces gave them right away,” local police chief Jeff Cayler told CNN.

The Telegraph

And it seems to be a "love marriage":

Hundreds of people have attended a wedding in central Somalia between a man who says he is 112 years old, and his teenage wife.

Ahmed Muhamed Dore - who already has 13 children by five wives - said he would like to have more with his new wife, Safia Abdulleh, who is 17 years old.

"Today God helped me realise my dream," Mr Dore said, after the wedding in the region of Galguduud.

The bride's family said she was "happy with her new husband".

Mr Dore said he and his bride - who is young enough to be his great-great-grand-daughter - were from the same village in Somalia and that he had waited for her to grow up to propose.

"I didn't force her, but used my experience to convince her of my love; and then we agreed to marry," the groom said.

Read more @ BBC News

I think someone forgot to tell them that killing innocents, women and children is haraam.

Blasts rock Pakistan university

Two suicide bombers have killed at least four people at a university in the Pakistani capital Islamabad.

At least 18 people were wounded in the twin blasts at the International Islamic University.

The attack is the first since the Pakistani army began its offensive against militants in South Waziristan, in the country's north-west.

In a telephone call to the BBC, a senior Taliban commander has claimed his movement was behind the bombings.

Qari Hussain, the man reportedly responsible for training Pakistani Taliban suicide bombers, said his organisation now considered all of Pakistan to now be a war zone.

Read more @ BBC News

so... faasiqs at a minimum then, but we all knew that. except for the deniers. Why are people - especially on this forum - willing to bury their heads in the sand and deny their munkar ways.

The death of language?

An estimated 7,000 languages are being spoken around the world. But that number is expected to shrink rapidly in the coming decades. What is lost when a language dies?

In 1992 a prominent US linguist stunned the academic world by predicting that by the year 2100, 90% of the world's languages would have ceased to exist.

"Most people are not at all interested in the death of languages," he says. "If we are not cautious about the way English is progressing it may eventually kill most other languages."

What is lost?



As globalisation sweeps around the world, it is perhaps natural that small communities come out of their isolation and seek interaction with the wider world. The number of languages may be an unhappy casualty, but why fight the tide?

"What we lose is essentially an enormous cultural heritage, the way of expressing the relationship with nature, with the world, between themselves in the framework of their families, their kin people," says Mr Hagege.

"Its also the way they express their humour, their love, their life. It is a testimony of human communities which is extremely precious, because it expresses what other communities than ours in the modern industrialized world are able to express."

For linguists like Claude Hagege, languages are not simply a collection of words. They are a living, breathing organisms holding the connections and associations that define a culture. When a language becomes extinct, the culture in which it lived is lost too.

Do you think the world's languages should be preserved?

The Death of Language?

Whether it happens at a wedding, funeral, a soppy movie or even the death of a pet dog, modern men cry at least six times a year, according to a new study.

The German Society of Ophthalmology has proven wrong the old adage that real men do not cry, with the more sensitive new age bloke letting the waterworks rip up to 17 times a year.

On average women cry between 30 and 64 times a year.

They do so for longer periods and in a more dramatic fashion than men, with full-blown weeping happening in 65 percent of all cases among women, according to the study, which collated different scientific studies on the phenomenon.

Men on average will get teary for about two minutes, while women can weep for up to six minutes at a time.

Women cry when they feel insecure, when they are confronted by situations that are difficult to resolve or when they remember past events.

Men, meanwhile, tend to cry from empathy or when a relationship fails.

From 9 News

A six-year-old boy thought to have been carried away by a helium balloon in Colorado was in fact hiding in a box in an attic at home, an official has said.

Larimer county sheriff Jim Alderden told reporters that apparently Falcon Heene had "been there the whole time".

Police had been searching for the boy after his brother said he had taken off with the balloon.

The drama was played out on TV, with US networks devoting their airtime to live footage of the balloon over Colorado.

The balloon landed in fields and was surrounded by rescue vehicles after a two-hour flight.

Read more and watch video @ BBC News