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Life in Prison for British Preacher Anjem Choudary

Radical British preacher Anjem Choudary (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Radical British preacher Anjem Choudary (Asharq Al-Awsat)
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Life in Prison for British Preacher Anjem Choudary

Radical British preacher Anjem Choudary (Asharq Al-Awsat)
Radical British preacher Anjem Choudary (Asharq Al-Awsat)

A court in London sentenced on Tuesday radical British preacher Anjem Choudary to life in prison for directing a banned terrorist group.
Choudary, 57, whose followers have been linked to numerous plots around the world, was convicted last week of directing al-Muhajiroun group, or ALM, and encouraging others to support the proscribed group.
The group was banned as a terrorist organization more than a decade ago.
On Tuesday, Judge Mark Wall imposed a life sentence on Choudary with a minimum term of 28 years before he can be eligible for parole.
Once Britain's most high-profile preacher, Choudary drew attention for praising the men responsible for the Sept. 11, 2001 attacks on the United States and saying he wanted to convert Buckingham Palace into a mosque.
He was previously imprisoned in Britain in 2016 for encouraging support for ISIS, before being released in 2018 after serving half of his five-and-a-half-year sentence.
Choudary's lawyer Paul Hynes argued that ALM was “little more than a husk of an organization” and that almost all terrorist acts linked to the group had already taken place.
But Wall said ALM was “a radical organization intent on spreading sharia law to as much of the world as possible, using violent means where necessary.”
Choudary stood trial alongside Canadian citizen Khaled Hussein, 29, who was arrested on the same day as Choudary in 2023 when he arrived on a flight at Heathrow Airport.
Hussein was found guilty of membership of a proscribed organization and sentenced to five years in prison.
Born in the UK in 1967 to parents of Pakistani descent, Choudary turned to religion after meeting Syrian-born preacher Omar Bakri Muhammad, who is currently imprisoned in Lebanon.
Choudary was Bakri's right-hand man. He stepped in to lead ALM after Bakri Muhammad, the group’s founder, was imprisoned in Lebanon between 2014 and March 2023.
Choudary considers Britain a Muslim country and should be the seat of the caliphate.
Rebecca Weiner, NYPD deputy commissioner in charge of intelligence and counterterrorism, described Choudary as a “shameless, prolific radicalizer.” She called the case historic.
During his trial, the radical British preacher said the ITS does not exist and that al-Muhajiroun organization was dismantled in 2004.

 

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World

Nurse Who Saved Baby from Pakistan Hospital Fire Wishes She Could Have Saved the Rest

Nurse Razia Noreen, who risked her life to save a newborn during a fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, speaks during an interview in Islamabad, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP)
Nurse Razia Noreen, who risked her life to save a newborn during a fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, speaks during an interview in Islamabad, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP)
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Nurse Who Saved Baby from Pakistan Hospital Fire Wishes She Could Have Saved the Rest

Nurse Razia Noreen, who risked her life to save a newborn during a fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, speaks during an interview in Islamabad, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP)
Nurse Razia Noreen, who risked her life to save a newborn during a fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, speaks during an interview in Islamabad, Tuesday, Sept. 1, 2026. (AP)

Razia Noreen and her colleagues had just checked on the 15 newborns in their care at the hospital nursery in Islamabad and were preparing injections for some of them in an adjacent room when she saw something unusual: flames.

The nurse dropped the syringe and ran into the nursery. She lifted a baby into her arms, and pressed the child against her chest to shield it from the spreading fire at the Pakistan Institute of Medical Sciences, where the nursery was already filling with thick smoke.

Eight seconds later — as was captured on dramatic security camera footage — she emerged and handed the newborn to a doctor in a nearby room. Without thinking, she then turned back toward the flames, but it was too late.

“I wanted to save the others,” Noreen told The Associated Press at the hospital staff hostel where she lives. “I did not lose hope,” she said.

But the nursery was rapidly becoming impossible to enter. Noreen and another nurse dropped to the floor, where the smoke was thinner, and tried to crawl through the doorway.

In her first interview with international media — after briefly speaking to local media at the weekend — Noreen described how she could see nothing ahead of her. The smoke choked her, and she began coughing so violently that she struggled to breathe.

Still, she tried to move forward until the flames forced her back.

Within minutes, she learned that the other 14 newborns were dead. She collapsed to the floor in shock, she said.

The baby she carried out was the sole survivor.

A national hero

A 51-second clip of security camera footage from the Aug. 26 fire showed Noreen running into the nursery and emerging with the newborn in her arms. A government inquiry said she was inside the room for just eight seconds and that the conditions in the nursery “deteriorated catastrophically within approximately two minutes.”

Those eight seconds have led many Pakistanis to hail Noreen as a national hero.

The government has announced that she will receive the Sitara-i-Khidmat, or Star of Service, one of Pakistan’s most prestigious civil awards, along with a financial reward.

Hospital and district officials initially said an exploding air-conditioning unit caused the fire, and later the hospital said a blast involving a nebulizer sparked the blaze.

A government inquiry identified serious failures in fire safety and emergency response at the major government hospital. Eight officials have been suspended and disciplinary proceedings initiated against them.

Nurse says it was her 'duty'

Noreen does not describe what she did as an act of heroism. She speaks of it as the instinctive response of a nurse and a mother.

“Can any mother watch a child burning in a fire?” she asked. “No,” she answered. “Mothers do not do favors for their children. It is their duty.”

Her rescue has been celebrated across Pakistan, but Noreen remains consumed by the babies she could not reach.

She said she has barely slept since the fire. When she approaches the nursery, memories of the flames and the children overwhelm her. At times, she said, she feels as if she can still hear their cries and collapses to the ground.

“The deaths of those children have traumatized me,” she said. “It may take me years to recover.”

Noreen said she was still physically ill from the ordeal. She told AP she had a fever of 103 Fahrenheit (39.4 Celsius) but agreed to the interview because she wanted to explain what happened. “Those babies do not let me sleep,” she said.

She said nurses become like mothers when newborns are brought into their care and separated from their own mothers. They feed the babies, administer their medication, and watch over them.

She said she just acted as a mom

Noreen said it took her only a moment to decide to enter the burning nursery. “I quickly decided that I would do my job,” she said. “The mothers had entrusted their babies to us.” “I acted as a mother,” she added. “I did not care about my life.”

Noreen said she was grateful to the Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and the Pakistani people for honoring her.

“But I did not do anything for a reward or money,” she said.

Noreen said that when she entered the burning nursery, she did not know whether she would come out alive. “I had only one mission: This is the time to save lives,” she said. “My aim was to save all the children. I did not think about my own safety for even a second.”

Then her voice broke again. She had a message for the mothers whose 14 newborns died in the fire.

“Please forgive me for not being able to save your babies,” Noreen said through tears.

World

Defense Spending Shows Determination to Protect Taiwan, President Says

M60A3 tanks fire during a live-fire drill as part of the Han Kuang military exercise in Penghu, Taiwan, August 10, 2026. (Reuters)
M60A3 tanks fire during a live-fire drill as part of the Han Kuang military exercise in Penghu, Taiwan, August 10, 2026. (Reuters)
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Defense Spending Shows Determination to Protect Taiwan, President Says

M60A3 tanks fire during a live-fire drill as part of the Han Kuang military exercise in Penghu, Taiwan, August 10, 2026. (Reuters)
M60A3 tanks fire during a live-fire drill as part of the Han Kuang military exercise in Penghu, Taiwan, August 10, 2026. (Reuters)

Taiwan's plan ‌for defense spending next year to exceed T$1 trillion ($31.47 billion) for the first time shows the international community the island's determination to strengthen its defenses, President Lai Ching-te said on Wednesday.

Beijing, which views democratically governed Taiwan as its own territory, has ramped up military and political pressure over the past few years to assert its claims, which ‌Taipei strongly rejects.

Speaking ‌to military officers on Taiwan's ‌Armed ⁠Forces Day, Lai said ⁠better preparations brought greater security.

"Only by continuously enhancing defense capabilities and deterrent power can national security and regional peace be better ensured," he said.

Next year's proposed defense budget "demonstrates to the international community Taiwan's determination ⁠to strengthen its self-defense capabilities," Lai ‌added.

The government will ‌continue to implement defense self-reliance, develop the military industrial ‌sector, artificial intelligence, and unmanned vehicles, and "enhance Taiwan's ‌overall capability to respond to future challenges," he said.

Speaking in Beijing at around the same time as Lai, a spokesperson for China's Taiwan ‌Affairs Office said Lai and his administration "recklessly incite cross-strait confrontation and antagonism while ⁠lavishly ⁠squandering the people's hard-earned money."

Lai's attempts to "resist reunification through force" are "nothing but a case of overestimating their own strength, which will only bring profound disaster to the people of Taiwan," spokesperson Zhang Han told a regular press briefing.

China's determination to defend national sovereignty and territorial integrity is unwavering, she added.

Lai says only Taiwan's people can decide their future.

World

Pakistan Says It Remains Engaged with US, Iran on Talks to End Conflict

Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, September 2, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, September 2, 2026. (Reuters)
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Pakistan Says It Remains Engaged with US, Iran on Talks to End Conflict

Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, September 2, 2026. (Reuters)
Vessels near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from Musandam, Oman, September 2, 2026. (Reuters)

Pakistan is engaged with the US and Iran on talks to end their conflict ‌and ‌is positive that ‌the ⁠countries "will return to ⁠the table for dialogue", Foreign Ministry spokesperson Tahir ⁠Andrabi said at ‌a ‌regular media briefing ‌on Wednesday.

Pakistan's ‌Chief of Defense Forces Asim Munir's ‌visit to Tehran last month created "considerable ⁠momentum" ⁠on the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, he said.

Iran struck US interests around the Middle East on Wednesday, vowing "severe" consequences for renewed American attacks on the country.

The latest fighting over the Strait of Hormuz once again expanded to US military bases in the region and drew Gulf countries deeper into the six-month conflict.

US President Donald Trump had warned earlier of "much harder and higher" attacks if Iran retaliated to the US strikes which Iranian state media said had killed 11 people in the country's south and southwest.

The latest round of conflict began when Washington hit Iranian targets on Sunday, the first known strikes in several weeks, after which Tehran's forces targeted US troops in Jordan, and projectiles struck two oil tankers in unclaimed attacks.

More US strikes came on Tuesday, with Iranian state television reporting explosions in the country's south along the Hormuz strait and on an island in the Gulf, and that US forces hit an airport in the southern province of Kerman.

After six months of war, the foes remain at an impasse, with Iran keeping the Strait of Hormuz closed and the United States persisting with a counter-blockade of Iranian ports.

The Middle East war began in late February with US-Israeli attacks on Iran that killed its supreme leader Ali Khamenei.

A fragile ceasefire between the United States and Iran collapsed after attacks on commercial ships in the Hormuz strait, through which one-fifth of world oil supplies flowed before the war.