All Afghan detainees likely tortured: diplomat

All detainees transferred by Canadians to Afghan prisons were likely tortured by Afghan officials and many of the prisoners were innocent, says a former senior diplomat with Canada's mission in Afghanistan.

Appearing before a House of Commons committee Wednesday, Richard Colvin blasted the detainees policies of Canada and compared them with the policies of the British and the Netherlands.

The detainees were captured by Canadian soldiers then handed over to the Afghan intelligence service, called the NDS.

Colvin said Canada was taking six times as many detainees as British troops and 20 times as many as the Dutch.

He said unlike the British and Dutch, Canada did not monitor their conditions; took days, weeks or months to notify the Red Cross; kept poor records; and to prevent scrutiny, the Canadian Forces leadership concealed this behind "walls of secrecy."

"As I learned more about our detainee practices, I came to a conclusion they were contrary to Canada's values, contrary to Canada's interests, contrary to Canada's official policies and also contrary to international law. That is, they were un-Canadian, counterproductive and probably illegal.

"According to our information, the likelihood is that all the Afghans we handed over were tortured. For interrogators in Kandahar, it was a standard operating procedure," Colvin said.

He said the most common forms of torture were beatings, whipping with power cables, the use of electricity, knives, open flames and rape.

Colvin worked in Kandahar for the Department of Foreign Affairs in 2006. He later moved to Kabul, where he was second-in-command at the Canadian Embassy. In both jobs, Colvin visited detainees transferred by Canadian soldiers to Afghan prisons. He wrote reports about those visits and sent them to Ottawa.

Colvin told the committee that the detainees were not "high-value targets" such as IED bomb makers, al-Qaeda terrorists or Taliban commanders.

"According to a very authoritative source, many of the Afghans we detained had no connection to insurgency whatsoever," he said. "From an intelligence point of view, they had little or no value."

Colvin said some may have been foot soldiers or day fighters but many were just local people at the wrong place at the wrong time.

"In other words, we detained and handed over for severe torture a lot of innocent people."

Colvin said they began informing the Canadian Forces and Foreign Affairs officials about the detainee situation in 2006 with verbal and written reports.

He said the warnings were at first mostly ignored, but by April 2007, they were receiving written messages from government officials that in the future not to put things on paper, but instead use the telephone.

Colvin mentioned David Mulroney, a deputy minister who is now the ambassador to China, as one of the officials who didn't want to hear the allegations.

Colvin said when a new ambassador arrived in May, the paper trail on detainees was reduced and reports on detainees were at times "censored" with crucial information removed.

He said all of these steps were "extremely irregular."

At the time, the government denied there were any credible allegations of torture.

But Tories questioned the validity of Colvin's sources, saying the information he received concerning the allegations were from second-hand and third-hand reports.

Colvin's testimony "seemed dramatic, but under questioning it was revealed to be filmsy, inconsistent, unreliable," Laurie Hawn, parliamentary secretary to Defence Minister Peter MacKay told CBC News. "[He] did not come across as credible."

While he didn't doubt Colvin's sincerity, "every time something has happened in that mission, we have taken action," Hawn said. "And that's evidenced by the improvements in the prison, the training we've done, money we've invested, the visits we've had organized with the various authorities there."

Colvin also said he only spoke to four detainees himself and he had no way to guarantee those prisoners had in fact been captured by Canadian troops.

He also admitted he never raised the allegations with ministers who travelled through Kandahar.

Police arrest man over 100 sex attacks on elderly

LONDON — Police on Sunday arrested a 52-year-old man in connection with more than 100 sex attacks on elderly women and men dating back to the 1990s, a spokesman said.

A police task force has long been hunting one of Britain's most wanted serial rapists, dubbed the "night stalker," over the attacks and burglaries on the elderly in their homes across southeast London.

Police did not reveal details of the man seized, nor whether he would be charged over the attacks, but detectives investigating the case reportedly described the arrest as "significant."

"We can confirm a 52-year-old man was arrested in the early hours of this morning in a pre-planned operation," a Scotland Yard spokesman said.

"He is currently in custody at a London police station."

During their investigation dating back to the 1990s, police have said they were hunting a criminal with a distinctive pattern of behaviour.

The unknown attacker often disabled telephone lines and fuse boxes before breaking into the homes of vulnerable people. Light bulbs have also been removed and curtains drawn.

Often wearing a mask, the attacker woke people by shining a torch in their faces. Police have said he sometimes spent up to four hours with his victims, some of whom, aged between 68 and 93, have been raped and sexually assaulted.

Police launched Operation Minstead in the late 1990s to track down the attacker thought behind over 108 offences.

A 40,000 pound reward was also offered for information about his identity.

Earlier this month, police revealed more than 2,054 DNA samples had been obtained from suspects as part of their inquiry at a cost of 102,700 pounds.

The attacks and burglaries have taken place in clusters in south and southeast London, including Dulwich, Orpington, Norwood, Downham, Lee, West Wickham and Bickley.

Lawmaker: Hasan had communications with Pakistan

FORT HOOD, Texas — The Army psychiatrist charged with killing 13 people in a shooting spree at Fort Hood made or accepted wire transfers with Pakistan, a country wracked by Muslim extremist violence, a Republican congressman said Friday.

Texas Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking GOP member of the House Homeland Security Intelligence Subcommittee, said people outside the intelligence community with direct knowledge of the transfers also told him Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan also had communications with Pakistan.

"He may have friends or relatives or whatever and this could be totally (innocent)," McCaul said in a telephone interview. "But if he is wiring money to Pakistan, that could be terrorist financing. If he was receiving money from Pakistan, that is more significant."

McCaul said he does not know the direction of the transfers and communications, only that they passed between Hasan and Pakistan. He said the lack of additional information is why Congress should launch an investigation.

Hasan, 39, was charged Thursday with 13 counts of premeditated murder in a military court, and Army investigators have said he is the only suspect in the case and could face additional charges. His attorney, John Galligan, has said prosecutors have not yet told him whether they plan to seek the death penalty.

A pair of civilian police officers responding to last week's attack, in which 43 people were also injured, including 34 with gunshot wounds, shot Hasan four times. Recovering in the intensive care unit at San Antonio's Brooke Army Medical Center, Hasan has told his attorney he has no feeling in his legs and extreme pain in his hands.

Galligan said doctors have told Hasan he may be permanently paralyzed from the waist down. He called his client's medical condition "extremely serious" and said Hasan didn't flinch when Galligan touched his leg during a meeting Thursday, when one of Hasan's relatives was able to see him for the first time since he was hospitalized.

Hospital spokesman Dewey Mitchell said he could not confirm whether Hasan was paralyzed, since Hasan has directed hospital officials not to release any information about his condition or injuries.

The question of how Hasan spent his Army salary stems from the apparently frugal lifestyle he lived both in the small city of Killeen, Texas, outside of Fort Hood, and in the Washington, D.C., suburbs when stationed at Walter Reed Army Medical Center. In Texas, he lived in a rundown apartment that cost $350 a month and drove a 2006 Honda.

As an Army major with more than 12 years of service, Hasan earns just over $92,000 a year in basic pay and housing and food allowances, according to pay tables from the Defense Finance and Accounting Service. Hasan's gross monthly salary is $6,325.50 a month, or $75,906 annually. He also gets $1,128 a month for a housing allowance and $223 a month for meals, which adds up to another $16,212 a year.

Military psychiatrists may also receive as much as $20,000 a year in incentive pay, according to the tables. But to get the bonus, they must meet certain requirements, such as agreeing to remain on active duty for at least one year after accepting the award. Hasan's Army records are sealed due to the ongoing investigation, and it isn't clear if he was eligible for the bonus or agreed to the conditions.

President Barack Obama has ordered a review of all intelligence related to Hasan and whether the information was properly shared and acted upon within government agencies. Several members of Congress, particularly Michigan Rep. Peter Hoekstra, the top Republican on the House Intelligence Committee, have also called for a full examination of what agencies knew about Hasan's contacts with a radical Muslim cleric in Yemen and others of concern to the U.S.

Hoekstra confirmed this week that government officials knew about 10 to 20 e-mails between Hasan and the radical imam, beginning in December 2008.

A joint terrorism task force overseen by the FBI learned late last year of Hasan's repeated contact with the cleric, who encouraged Muslims to kill U.S. troops in Iraq. The FBI said the task force did not refer early information about Hasan to superiors because it concluded he wasn't linked to terrorism.

Gamboa reportered from Washington. Associated Press writer Richard Lardner in Washington contributed to this report.

Washington sniper executed by lethal injection

WASHINGTON — The Washington sniper has been executed for a 2002 reign of terror that claimed 10 lives and left the US capital paralyzed in fear for three long weeks.

John Muhammad staggered into the death chamber with the aid of prison guards and offered no last-minute explanation for his random killings before being executed by lethal injection.

"I did not hear him utter a word," said prison spokesman Larry Traylor, confirming the execution and that Muhammad had refused to speak when asked for a final statement.

Muhammad, 48, was pronounced dead at 9:11 pm (0211 am Wednesday), five minutes after authorities at Greensville correctional center began administering a lethal cocktail of drugs as family members of the victims looked on.

"It is another life gone. This one was deservedly so," said Steven Moore, whose sister Linda was one of 10 people shot dead by Muhammad and his accomplice Lee Boyd Malvo.

Moore was dismissive of a statement from the family of Muhammad that talked about the executed man's son losing a father.

"Linda left children behind, too. She has a daughter, Katie, a son Thomas.... They are not going to see their mom. I don't have any sympathy for his family or for his children."

Earlier Virginia Governor Tim Kaine turned down a last-minute plea for clemency, ending any hopes Muhammad might have held of escaping his fate.

That decision came only a few hours after the US Supreme Court quashed a last-ditch appeal from the sniper's lawyers, who argued that he was mentally ill and should not be executed.

Muhammad's lawyer Jonathan Sheldon expressed his disappointment before the execution that the Supreme Court had quashed the appeal motion so quickly.

"We didn't have time to prepare sufficiently and the court, as three justices wrote, they did not have sufficient time to consider it. We consider it's just inappropriate to be rushing to execution," Sheldon told AFP.

Defense lawyers say Muhammad was not properly represented at his March 2004 trial, when his legal team did not contest his request to defend himself, and have suggested the veteran of the 1991 Gulf War suffered from Gulf War Syndrome.

Muhammad's son was among family members that visited Greensville to see him one final time.

"I don't know what he really wanted to ask, but I know he had a lot of questions he wanted to ask his dad," said Muhammad's ex-wife Carol Williams.

"It was very important for him to get in to see him. Because this is the last time," she told CNN.

Muhammad and Malvo, who was 17 at the time of the shootings and escaped the death penalty, killed one person in Washington, three in Virginia and six in the neighboring state of Maryland.

The motive remains unclear although Muhammad's second ex-wife alleges he intended to shoot her as one of his victims and reclaim custody of their three children.

Police found several notes at the scenes of the attacks. Two said "Call me God," another said, "Your children are not safe anywhere at any time" and asked for 10 million dollars to put an end to the killings.

During his October 2-22 shooting spree, Muhammad, a skilled marksman, picked off victims with a high-powered sniper rifle and scope seemingly at will.

The random killings terrified an area still living in dread of a repeat of the September 11 attacks and deadly anthrax mailings a year earlier.

People would squat down by their cars as they pumped gas, run from their vehicles into work, or just stay home.

Muhammad killed each of his victims with a single bullet fired from a distance, and was apprehended after an exhaustive manhunt by federal and local police.

He was sentenced to death in 2004 following his trial for one of the fatal shootings, that of Dean Meyers, who was killed while pumping gas at a suburban Virginia filling station.

Dracula By Bram Stoker, Emily Hutchinson

B.C. RCMP search for man wanted for two sexual assaults and suspected of others

VANCOUVER, B.C. — Mounties in two B.C. communities are searching for a 35-year-old sexual assault suspect wanted in connection with at least two attacks on women.

RCMP say Canada-wide warrants have been issued for Shaun Funk, following an incident in Squamish, B.C., on Aug. 28 and another in Ladysmith, B.C., one month later.

In the Squamish attack, police say a 39-year-old woman was assaulted in that Howe Sound community, then driven to Burnaby and assaulted again.

The Ladysmith incident occurred Sept. 26, when a woman in her 50's was sexually assaulted by a man who broke into her Vancouver Island home.

Investigators say Funk is considered a suspect in other offences on Vancouver Island and they urge anyone who sees him to call 911 immediately.

Funk is slim, five-foot-eight to five-foot-10 inches tall, with brown hair and eyes, tribal art tattoos on his upper right arm and a mole on the right side of his chin.

Foot that washed ashore identified

The B.C. coroner has used DNA to identify a foot that washed up on shore on the Fraser River last month as belonging to a dead man from the Vancouver area.

RCMP say the foot belonged to a man reported missing in January 2008.

They say foul play is not suspected due to the circumstances of his death, and the man's identity is being withheld at the family's request.

The foot washed up on the river shore in Richmond on Oct. 27, the seventh mystery foot to come ashore in B.C. over the past two years.

One other foot has been identified as belonging to a man thought to have committed suicide. The other feet include a female pair, a male pair, and a man's right foot.

Police say all of the feet separated from the bodies naturally in the water, and foul play is not suspected in any of the cases, although there has been no explanation how the unidentified bodies ended up in the ocean.

New type of supernova found

Astronomers examining data from a supernova first observed in 2002 have determined that it represents a new class of rapidly exploding star.

The explosion may have resulted from a binary star system where helium flowed from one white dwarf star to another, building up a layer of gas that detonated in a thermonuclear explosion.

The supernova, dubbed SM 2002bj, was three to four times faster than a standard supernova, disappearing in about 20 days, compared to three to four months for a typical supernova.

"This is the fastest evolving supernova we have ever seen," said Dovi Poznanski, an astronomer with University of California, Berkeley, and Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory. "Its brightness just dropped like a rock."

The spectrum of the explosion had a strong signature for helium and none for hydrogen. It also suggested the possible presence of vanadium, an element never before seen in a supernova.

All of these qualities led the researchers to conclude that this type of supernova had never been seen before. Their work was published online this week in Science Express.

"This supernova is qualitatively different from the complete disruption of a white dwarf, known as a Type Ia supernova, or the collapse of an iron core and rebound of the surrounding material, so-called 'core-collapse supernovae,'" or Type II supernova, said co-author Alex Filippenko of UC Berkeley.

This type of explosion was first predicted two years ago by theoretical physicists at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Because this new type of supernova is similar to a Type Ia but is about one-tenth as bright and lasts about one-tenth as long, a Harvard physicist jokingly called it a Type ".Ia" (point one A), and the name has since stuck.

When the supernova was first observed in 2002, it was erroneously classified as a standard Type II supernova and filed away. Poznanski found the spectrum of SM 2002bj while looking through data on Type II supernovae.

Alberta man pleads guilty to posing as cop in kidnap sex attack of teen girl

RED DEER, Alta. — A central Alberta man has pleaded guilty to sexually assaulting a teenage girl he kidnapped while impersonating a police officer.

Gerard Baumgarte, 57, was visibly upset Tuesday as he pleaded to six charges, including assault with a weapon, in Red Deer court.

Baumgarte was arrested last February after a 16-year-old girl was found crying in a shopping mall two days after she was abducted during a trip to a neighbourhood convenience store.

The girl from Penhold was forced into a car with flashing blue and red lights by a man dressed as a police officer.

Her disappearance sparked a police manhunt and prompted friends, family and strangers to hold candlelight vigils in the community.

There was no immediate word on when Baumgarte is to be sentenced, but the charges he pleaded guilty to carry a maximum penalty of life in jail.

Police: 4 more bodies found at Ohio rapist's home

CLEVELAND — Remains of four more people were unearthed from the backyard of a rapist's home Tuesday, raising to 10 the number of bodies found in and near the house, as police also searched boarded-up homes in the neighborhood where residents complained for years of a stench that one even said "smelled like a dead body."

Anthony Sowell, 50, a registered sex offender who lives in the home, was charged Tuesday with five counts of aggravated murder.

"It appears that this man had an insatiable appetite that he had to fill," police Chief Michael McGrath said.

He said the four bodies were found buried in the backyard of the home and a skull was found in a bucket in the basement.

Authorities do not know whether the skull belongs to an 11th victim, said police spokesman Lt. Thomas Stacho.

The search was to continue through the night and into Wednesday, with fire department crews planning to search in the walls and ceiling of the home, McGrath said.

Police discovered the first six bodies Thursday and Friday after a woman reported being raped at Sowell's home. Investigators said they found one body in a shallow grave in the backyard. The rest were inside the house — one in the basement, two in the third-floor living room and two in an upstairs crawl space.

The Cuyahoga County coroner is attempting to identify those women through DNA and dental records. All six were black, and five were strangled.

Sowell was also charged Tuesday with rape, felonious assault and kidnapping related to the woman's complaint.

He is to be arraigned Wednesday, Stacho said.

The bodies could have been there anywhere from weeks to months to years, said Powell Caesar, a spokesman for the coroner.

"What kind of man was this?" wondered Regina Woodland, who lives about two blocks away.

"He couldn't have been human."

Detectives used cadaver dogs and digging equipment to scour the home and backyard Tuesday, looking for evidence to connect Sowell to the bodies, Stacho said.

Police turned up nothing in an initial search of a quarter-mile swath of abandoned homes near Sowell's residence, which sits in a crowded inner-city neighborhood of mostly older houses.

Investigators have brought lights and heavy equipment to the home and are putting a tent around the yard, WKYC-TV reported.

They plan to scour another quarter-mile area Wednesday, McGrath said. He said Sowell did not have a car would have had to take a city bus to travel.

A crowd of about 100 people milled about and chatted near the home Tuesday evening. A short while later, about 50 people joined hands and put their arms around each other in the middle of the street and prayed aloud.

One of those in the crowd, Antoinnette Dudley, 29, lives a few houses away. She said she could smell a terrible odor like something was dead all summer. She said she saw Sowell only a few times, mainly drinking beer while he sat on his porch.

"I didn't think he was that sick," she said.

Sowell is a registered sex offender and required to check in regularly at the sheriff's office. Officers didn't have the right to enter his house, but they would stop by to make sure he was there. Their most recent visit was Sept. 22, just hours before the woman reported being raped.

For the past few years, Sowell's neighbors thought the foul smell enveloping their street corner had been coming from a brick building where workers churned out sausage and head cheese.

It got so bad that the owners of Ray's Sausage replaced their sewer line and grease traps.

City Councilman Zack Reed, whose mother lives a block from the area, said he called the city health department on more than one occasion.

"What happened from there, we don't know," he said. "It was no secret that there was a foul odor. We don't want to point fingers, but clearly something could have been done differently."

Reed said he and other community leaders want an investigation into whether police and health inspectors missed signs that could have tipped them off to the bodies.

Reed said he can't imagine how police officers and sheriff's deputies could have missed the smell. His office records show that he called the health department in 2007 after a resident told him about an odor that "smelled like a dead body," he said.