Mexico’s epidemic of violence first erupted in 2006, according to most accounts. But an ex-Muslim from India, who serves as a Christian pastor along the Texas-Mexican border, believes the problem began much earlier, with human sacrifice, witches, and the adoration of death in ancient Aztec days.

Bombay-born Mujahid Hussein, 41, who found Jesus aboard a cruise ship in the Caribbean 17 years ago, is now known as David Elijah. He was ordained by Kings Revival Church International of Dubai, United Arab Emirates, the largest and fastest growing congregation in the Middle East.

“There are few places in America more evil, or more steeped in witchcraft and demonic influences, along with false prophets, divination and corruption, than the border region of northern Mexico and the Rio Grande Valley of south Texas,” Elijah told The Christian Post.

He pastors a church, leads an evangelistic healing and deliverance ministry, and hosts a weekly broadcast, “Avivamiento Del Rey,” on Radio Vida, a local Christian station in McAllen, Texas, just across the border from Reynosa, Mexico. The weekly program is heard in Spanish and English in Mexico, Latin America, the Caribbean, Texas and the western U.S., on a variety of AM frequencies.

“The worship of Santa Muerte (Holy Death, or Saint Death) is widespread, especially among the drug cartels, but it’s also rapidly growing among the general population in Mexico and in Hispanic communities in the U.S.,” he said.

Human blood is sometimes offered to gain the favor of this idol, which is depicted in illustrations and statues as a skeleton wearing a hooded robe, holding a scythe or globe. Some link Santa Muerte to the Aztec goddess of the dead, Mictecacihuatl.

“Beheadings, like the ones we see the cartels doing, were part of ancient Aztec human-sacrifice rituals. The adoration of death and the use of witchcraft have been practiced in Mexico for longer than anyone knows, and are regaining popularity,” he said.

While the violence in Mexico fills headlines, problems in the border area of south Texas seldom make the news but are just as serious, he said, especially in the spiritual realm. The population of the Rio Grande Valley is at least 90 percent Hispanic, and thousands of Mexicans from Mexico are flooding into the region, fleeing the violence in their homeland.

“A large majority of the Valley’s population is Catholic, but the Catholicism here is mixed up with ancient pagan rites, witchcraft, false religions like Santeria, Voodoo, Palo Mayombe, and other demonic cults, and the worship of false saints like ‘Saint’ Death and Jesus Malverde,” Elijah said.

“Basically, it all adds up to Satan worship, which feeds the violence and every other problem, like poverty, drought, hunger, chronic ill health, lack of jobs, and hopelessness,” he said.

While the main focus of his ministry is evangelism, he said there’s so much demonic activity it has to be dealt with in order to reach the lost.

“Intercessory prayer, prayer walks, extended worship, planting churches, setting up a school to train evangelists and pastors, these are just some of the things we’re doing, in addition to deliverance. I grew up in India where I learned at a young age about demons and demonization. I saw what it did to people. It’s real. When evil spirits invade a person’s life, that person needs deliverance. Jesus set the example by casting out demons,” Elijah said.

He shook his head and smiled. “Just about every Baptist who visits India becomes a Pentecostal.”

Then he grew serious.

“From the syncretism here along the border, from the mixture of Catholicism, witchcraft and idolatry, come blasphemies that always arise whenever something is exalted above God. Worshiping anyone, anything, or any idol instead of the Lord God Almighty brings escalating violence, mutilations, bombings, murders and slaughters for the sake of money, power and pride.

“Mexico is now the greatest exporter of cocaine, more than Columbia. In 2004, the mayor of Matamoros (directly across the border from Brownsville, Texas) officially recognized Santa Muerte as a saint. When the local seat of authority is recognizing a demonic cult as legitimate, all hell breaks loose. There are several Satanist churches operating openly in Matamoros that used to have to hide their existence. The local population supports them. Also in 2004, videos of al- Qaida beheadings went viral on the Internet, and now that old Aztec human-sacrifice ritual is being carried out all across Mexico.”

Elijah said the unclean spirits controlling the cartels have slithered into many levels of Mexican society and have also invaded the church on both sides of the border.

“When anyone begins dabbling in the occult and witchcraft, it brings spiritual defilement by attracting unclean spirits. You can’t be messing around with the devil and say you’re a Christian. Here in the Valley, the spirit of divination is taking over pulpits through false prophets and false prophetesses who are prophesying over people, laying on hands, causing all sorts of problems.

“The lack of discernment in the body of Christ is huge. People are impressed by what seem to be spiritual gifts, but they don’t realize there’s a ‘familiar spirit’ that counterfeits the Holy Spirit. They haven’t been taught that all signs and wonders aren’t from God. They don’t understand that even apparent healings can be deceptions in these end times when the Bible says wickedness will abound.”

In addition to the almost 50,000 estimated to have died in Mexico’s drug violence, another 10,000 have disappeared without a trace. Many of these, Elijah is convinced, are the victims of Satanic rituals that require human sacrifice.

“There’s lots of really gruesome stuff going on.”

Many of the murders and mutilations are so horrific and unwarranted, he said, there’s no reasonable explanation other than to conclude they’re inspired by the devil himself.

“There’s even a counterfeit Lord’s Supper where instead of bread and wine, human flesh and blood are used.”

Elijah said such abominations aren’t taking place only in Mexico.

“Come visit McAllen, Texas, sometime and take a look at the witchcraft shops operating on Main Street. They must have plenty of customers and be making good money to be able to afford the rent on such prime locations.

“On both sides of the border, so many people go to church on Sunday, then on Monday they go to a witch to get healed. They call them curanderas, faith healers. They don’t find any power in the church, so they go to someone who does have power. The only problem is, it’s Satanic power, and they get worse – they get demonized.”

That’s where Elijah’s deliverance meetings come in. They’re set up like prayer meetings, beginning with what Elijah calls “extravagant worship,” whereby the gathered believers sing praises to Jesus with great fervor for much longer than during a typical church worship session. He says it takes time to enter the presence of God, and many churches never get there because they seldom spend enough time worshiping.

Following praise and worship, those who feel they need deliverance are instructed to ask the Holy Spirit to reveal to them their unconfessed sins, and then repent. They are prayed for, and the unclean spirits troubling them are identified by name and commanded to depart in the name of Jesus Christ.

“And usually, they do,” Elijah said.

An observer for The Christian Post was present at a deliverance session involving a man from Mexico who’d heard Elijah’s program on the radio and had called in, asking for help. The man was invited to Elijah’s house church where, according to the man, a demon was cast out of him.

This is how he explained his experience, speaking in rapid, excited Spanish, while a woman translated.

“When the pastor commanded the evil spirit to come out, I felt like there was a kitten inside my stomach that was being pulled out of me by its tail. It was stabbing its claws deep into my stomach and holding on with all its strength because it didn’t want to leave.

“It hurt me very bad, but finally it went out, and I felt like heavy chains had been lifted off me. I haven’t felt this good in a really long time.”

Elijah said this sort of experience occurs regularly at his deliverance meetings.

He said demons often seem to “nest” in the stomach, and usually when they’re expelled, the person they’re cast out from will spit up a foul, dark liquid that doesn’t look or smell like ordinary vomit.

He said he’d seen much demonic activity in India, and knew it was real. He said most people in America don’t believe in demons because they’ve never encountered them, or aren’t able to recognize demonic influence for what it really is.

At least 37 people have been killed in South Sudan during a shoot-out at a peace meeting aimed at ending recent violence, officials said.

Officials from three states and the UN had met for talks in the remote town of Mayendit in Unity state in an effort to reduce inter-ethnic tensions.

The talks were called after a series of clashes, including one in which 74 people were killed earlier this week.

Thousands of people have been displaced in the violence.

According to the UN, the fighting took place when four trucks of gunmen arrived at the meeting after a row broke out, and began to shoot indiscriminately.

The gunmen included policemen from different units, soldiers, bodyguards and armed wildlife officials, according to AFP news agency.

Many others were wounded in the confrontation, including a UN staff member.

Correspondents say the lack of security in South Sudan, which became independent last July, is one of its greatest challenges.

Hundreds of people have also been killed in a series of tit-for-tat cattle raids in Jonglei state in recent weeks.

A petulant, angry, and defiant Attorney General Eric Holder refused yesterday to take any responsibility for the growing scandal surrounding Operation Fast and Furious, the ill-conceived and incompetently managed program in which federal agents allowed thousands of guns to be purchased in the United States by known suppliers to Mexican drug cartels. The hope was to be able to use the weapons to link drug bosses to particular crimes, making it easier to prosecute them. But federal officials lost track of more than 1,400 of the weapons, two of which were used in the slaying of U.S. Border Patrol Agent Brian Terry just before Christmas in December 2010.

In testimony last year before the House Oversight and Government Operations Committee chaired by Rep. Darrell Issa of California, Holder said he first learned about Fast and Furious only after media reports began appearing about the congressional investigation started in the wake of Terry’s slaying. He subsequently recanted that statement and acknowledged being told about the program by aides a few months before the media reports. He has since strenuously denied intentionally misleading Congress about when he first learned of Fast and Furious, and has accused congressional Republicans of using the program to concoct a partisan witch hunt.

But at yesterday’s hearing, Issa and Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, who has also been probing the Fast and Furious program, released a detailed report about their investigation, saying new documents they obtained demonstrate Holder’s department “had much greater knowledge of, and involvement in, Fast and Furious than it has previously acknowledged.” Despite the widespread knowledge within the department, however, the report said “senior Department officials showed a serious lack of inquisitiveness when it came to discovering details about Operation Fast and Furious. They knew as early as April 2010 that ATF’s Phoenix Field Division … had previously used this same tactic of gunwalking. Still, these officials failed to ascertain the true scope of the program. Later, when whistleblowers came forward with information and supporting documents, these same officials provided false information to Congress and refused to get to the bottom of the matter.”

Holder’s attitude before the committee yesterday could only be described as contemptuous. At one point, Rep. Raul Labrador read a dozen quotes from Holder over a period of more than a decade in which he had claimed his staff did not inform him about assorted matters. The attorney general disdainfully replied, “maybe this is the way you do things in Idaho or wherever you are from.” Labrador was born in Puerto Rico and represents an Idaho congressional district.

Rather than the country bumpkin Holder appears to consider him, Labrador is a lawyer and the former managing partner of a law firm. More important, he is an elected member of Congress tasked by the Constitution to ask whatever questions he deems appropriate in in a congressional oversight hearing probing executive branch law enforcement activities. As much as he clearly chafes under such oversight, Holder should be relieved of his duties.

At least five people have been killed and more than a dozen injured in an attack on a police station in western Colombia.

The violence in Villa Rica comes a day after 11 people were killed in an explosion in Tumaco, in the south.

Police blamed that attack on the left-wing rebel group, the Farc.

The rebels have been stepping up their offensive against the security forces since their leader was killed in a military operation in November.

Police officials said the commander of the police station, three civilians and one child died when explosive devices went off outside the police station in Villa Rica, in Cauca province.

Targeted attacks

Eighteen police officers were in the station at the time of the explosion.

Preliminary investigations indicate gas cylinders laden with explosives were used in the attack.

On Wednesday, 11 people were killed and 79 injured when an explosive device went off outside a police station in the Pacific port city of Tumaco.

The explosion happened as the police commander for the region, Gen Jorge Nieto Rojas, and his senior staff were meeting at the station to devise a new strategy to fight drug trafficking in the area.

Gen Nieto Rojas was not hurt.

Three hundred extra police have been sent to Tumaco to improve security and help track down those behind the attack.

Minister of Defence Juan Carlos Pinzon has offered 1,200 million-peso reward ($670,000; £425,000) for information leading to the capture of alias Rambo, the Farc rebel suspected of the attack.

Mayor of Tumaco Victor Gallo has imposed a nighttime curfew and schools stayed closed on Thursday.

Tumaco is one of Colombia’s most lawless cities, where drug trafficking gangs and leftist rebels fight for control of the lucrative Pacific coast drug smuggling routes.

Demonstrators angered by the deaths of 74 people after a football match in the city of Port Said on Wednesday have clashed with police outside the Egyptian interior ministry in Cairo.

Hundreds have been injured, state-owned Egyptian TV reported.

Earlier, the Egyptian prime minister announced the sackings of senior officials in Port Said and at the Egyptian football association.

Funerals of some of the victims took place in Port Said.

Wednesday’s riot began when fans invaded the pitch after a football match involving top Cairo club al-Ahly and the Port Said side al-Masry.

Slogans and stones

In Cairo, people gathered in the streets around Tahrir Square, the focal point of last year’s protests which led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

Demonstrators, many of them al-Ahly supporters known as Ultras, used metal barriers and vehicles to close the square.

Thousands then marched to the interior ministry, some 500m (547 yards) away. Some chanted slogans against Egypt’s military rulers, while others threw stones.

Police responded with tear gas, causing hundreds to run away.

Motorcycles ferried the injured from the scene as ambulances were unable to get through.

Channel 1 of Egyptian TV, which is state-owned, said 382 people had been injured, of whom 266 were taken to hospital, while the remainder were treated on site.

TV pictures from Cairo showed crowds outside the barricades which surround the interior ministry.

Earlier on Thursday, parliament met in emergency session, beginning with a minute’s silence.

Prime Minister Kamal al-Ganzouri told MPs the head of Egypt’s football association had been sacked and the board dissolved, with its members referred to prosecutors for questioning.

Port Said’s director of security and the head of investigations were suspended and are now in custody, Mr Ganzouri said.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne, in Cairo, says there is a mood of extreme bitterness. Many supporters believe police were incompetent, or actively provoked the unrest.

Police in Egypt have been keeping a much lower profile since last year’s popular protests.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood – which has emerged as Egypt’s biggest party in recent elections – blamed ex-President Mubarak’s supporters for the violence.

As well as the tragedy for the individual and their families, suicides on the Tube can create hours of chaos and disruption for millions of other passengers.

So to try to get the transport network up and running as soon as possible bodies are often moved to a secure room within the station until they can be taken away by an undertaker.

The shocking revelation was made by London Underground staff on a new documentary about the Tube.

Speaking on the condition of anonymity, several workers expressed their disgust at the practice.

One male member of the Tube’s Emergency Response Unit said leaving bodies in cupboards was very disrespectful.

He told Channel 4’s Confessions from the Underground: “As far as I understand it, London Ambulance services have limited resources and a few years back they stopped taking anybody who’s deceased into their ambulances back to hospitals.

“Sometimes there’s a delay, it might be half an hour, maybe even two hours and then we’re left with a body on the platform and disturbingly for us we have to find a place to put a body. “Unfortunately, we had to use, at Stratford, a bin store outside in the car park, you know the big, massive, industrial bins. Putting someone’s body in there, not in the bin, in with the bins, it’s not really respectful.

“However, do I keep the station shut until the coroner and his guys gets there and inconvenience the rest of London?”

Another female worker said many staff found it deeply distressing to know that bodies had been hidden from the public in cupboards.

She explained: “I know that we’ve got a store cupboard that we put the bodies in and there is one station supervisor who will not go in that cupboard at all.”

Another worker added: “We’ve even heard of situations where cleaners come down to get a mop or a bucket or whatever and there’s some poor unfortunate person’s body in there.”

A spokesman for London Underground explained workers were offered support and counselling should they need it.

The spokesman said: “Following agreed procedures, a body may be moved to a secure room within the station to await collection by undertakers. We believe our staff do a fantastic job in responding to such difficult circumstances and they are offered counselling support, if necessary.”

Crowds are gathering in Cairo as tension rises after riots in the city of Port Said on Wednesday which left at least 74 people dead.

Angry fans blocked Tahrir Square. Others are marching in protest at the handling of the riots by police.

Three days of national mourning were declared over the riot, in which fans invaded the pitch after a football match involving top Cairo club al-Ahly.

The cabinet and parliament are meeting, and Port Said’s governor has resigned.

Egypt’s public prosecutor has ordered the questioning of 52 people arrested after the riots, as well as the Port Said governor and the city’s security chief, who was sacked earlier.

Parliament opened with a minute’s silence. Speaker Mohamed Saad al-Katatni said the riots were the “work of the devil” and that Egypt’s revolution was “in danger”.

Funerals were expected to be held after noon (10:00 GMT) prayers in Port Said.

All Egyptian premier-league matches have been postponed indefinitely, and reports say the leadership of the country’s football federation has been sacked.

The Confederation of African Football said a minute’s silence would be held at the quarter-final matches of the African Cup of Nations at the weekend.

World football body Fifa said it was “in mourning” and had asked Egypt for a full report on the incidents.

‘Rage in their eyes’

Demonstrators, many of them al-Ahly supporters known as Ultras, used metal barriers and vehicles to close Tahrir Square, the scene of huge protests last year which led to the overthrow of President Hosni Mubarak.

Others are marching from the club’s headquarters towards the interior ministry.

The BBC’s Jon Leyne in Cairo says there is a mood of extreme bitterness. Many supporters believe police were incompetent, or had actively provoked the unrest.

“People are really angry, you could see the rage in their eyes,” al-Ahly supporter Mohammed Abdel Hamid told the BBC.

Our correspondent says Egyptian fans are notoriously violent, particularly the Ultras.

They have been heavily implicated in confronting the police during recent political protests, he adds, and there is speculation that the security forces may have had an interest in taking them on.

Police in Egypt have been keeping a much lower profile since last year’s popular protests.

On Wednesday night hundreds gathered at Cairo’s main railway station to receive the injured and the first bodies arriving from Port Said, with some chanting slogans against military rule.

“They were beating us from inside and outside, with fireworks, stones, metal bars, and some had knives,” one fan told a private TV station.

Army units were deployed in Port Said and joined police patrols around morgues and hospitals, but most streets had no police presence.

The army has set up checkpoints at entrances to the city.

Field Marshal Hussein Tantawi, the head of Egypt’s ruling army council, went to an airbase near Cairo to meet al-Ahly players who were flown back from Port Said on a military aircraft.

“This will not bring Egypt down… These incidents happen anywhere in the world. We will not let those behind it go,” he said, according to the Associated Press news agency.

Police overwhelmed

Our correspondent says it appears some fans had taken knives into the stadium, and the lack of the usual level of security in the stadium might have contributed to the clashes.

Wednesday’s violence broke out at the end of the match, which Port Said club al-Masry won 3-1.

Witnesses said the atmosphere had been tense throughout the match – since an al-Ahly fan raised a banner insulting supporters of the home team.

As the match ended, people flooded onto the pitch attacking al-Ahly players and fans.

A small group of riot police tried to protect the players, but were overwhelmed.

Part of the stadium was set on fire.

Officials say most of the deaths were caused by concussions, deep cuts to the heads and suffocation from the stampede.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Brotherhood – which has emerged as Egypt’s biggest party in recent elections – blamed supporters of ousted President Hosni Mubarak for the violence.

In Cairo, another match was halted by the referee after news of the Port Said violence.

It prompted fans to set parts of the stadium on fire, though no casualties were reported and the fire was quickly extinguished.

An attorney who presented evidence to a Georgia judge last week on Barack Obama’s eligibility for the state’s 2012 presidential ballot believes she now has a right to demand to see his original Hawaii documents.

Obama last April released what he said was a copy of his original Hawaii birth documentation, but a number of imaging, document and computer experts contend it is a fraud.

The original birth documentation could undermine Obama’s claim to be a “natural-born citizen,” as the Constitution requires. Many of his critics, however, say the birth documentation doesn’t matter, because Obama’s father never was a U.S. citizen. The Founders likely understood “natural-born citizen” to mean the offspring of two U.S. citizens.

Now California attorney Orly Taitz, who has brought a number of major legal challenges to Obama’s eligibility in various courts up to the U.S. Supreme Court, has told WND that when Obama and his lawyer wrote a letter to Georgia Secretary of State Brian Kemp last week refusing to attend the hearing on Obama’s eligibility status, they included a copy of the image that the White House released last April.

They also sent a copy to the court of Judge Michael Malihi, the hearing officer, whose ruling is expected to be made available in the next few days.

That act, Taitz explained, effectively gave the court a copy of the White House documentation, and under ordinary rules of evidence the opposing side is supposed to have access to the original to verify the authenticity of the purported copy.

“They submitted a copy and said this is a copy of the original birth certificate. Now the other party has a right to examine the original,” she said.

Her next step was to ask Malihi for a letter to the courts in Hawaii seeking a subpoena for the records. When the judge responded that the issue probably was outside his jurisdiction as an administrative law judge, she received permission to take her request to the Fulton County Superior Court.

An email Taitz posted online showed the court in Georgia carried permission from Malihi to “feel free to petition the Superior Court, if you so choose.”

The birth-certificate issue has plagued Obama since before the 2008 election. When concerns arose about his eligibility, his campaign posted online an image of an abbreviated birth record called a “Certification of Live Birth.”

At the time, his campaign stated that it was the only document available from the state of Hawaii documenting births, even though other people were able to obtain a long-form document.

It was when the first hardcover edition of Where’s the Birth Certificate?” by Jerome Corsi was about to be released that Obama dispatched one of his private attorneys to Hawaii to fetch another document image, this time a long-form “Certificate of Live Birth.”

Many experts then concluded it likely was a computer-generated document and not a copy of an original 1961 document.

Taitz told WND that her request to the Superior Court will be to ask the Hawaii court system to issue a subpoena for the original documentation so she can examine it and compare it to the White House representation.

“I have a green light to proceed,” she said.

They also sent a copy to the court of Judge Michael Malihi, the hearing officer, whose ruling is expected to be made available in the next few days.

That act, Taitz explained, effectively gave the court a copy of the White House documentation, and under ordinary rules of evidence the opposing side is supposed to have access to the original to verify the authenticity of the purported copy.

“They submitted a copy and said this is a copy of the original birth certificate. Now the other party has a right to examine the original,” she said.

Her next step was to ask Malihi for a letter to the courts in Hawaii seeking a subpoena for the records. When the judge responded that the issue probably was outside his jurisdiction as an administrative law judge, she received permission to take her request to the Fulton County Superior Court.

An email Taitz posted online showed the court in Georgia carried permission from Malihi to “feel free to petition the Superior Court, if you so choose.”

The birth-certificate issue has plagued Obama since before the 2008 election. When concerns arose about his eligibility, his campaign posted online an image of an abbreviated birth record called a “Certification of Live Birth.”

At the time, his campaign stated that it was the only document available from the state of Hawaii documenting births, even though other people were able to obtain a long-form document.

It was when the first hardcover edition of Where’s the Birth Certificate?” by Jerome Corsi was about to be released that Obama dispatched one of his private attorneys to Hawaii to fetch another document image, this time a long-form “Certificate of Live Birth.”

Many experts then concluded it likely was a computer-generated document and not a copy of an original 1961 document.

Taitz told WND that her request to the Superior Court will be to ask the Hawaii court system to issue a subpoena for the original documentation so she can examine it and compare it to the White House representation.

“I have a green light to proceed,” she said.

She explained that the image was sent to Kemp and the judge at the time the attorney for Obama, Michael Jablonski, told Kemp he should simply cancel the hearing, because the president would not participate.

Jablonski told Kemp that “serious problems” had developed in the hearings “pending before the Office of State Administration Hearings.”

He said, “At issue in these hearings are challenges that allege that President Obama is not eligible to hold or run for re-election to his office, on the now wholly discredited theory that he does not meet the citizenship requirements.”

Jablonski said the judge – who previously rejected Obama’s demand to quash a subpoena for him to appear and bring with him his birth records documenting his status as a “natural-born citizen” – has “exercised no control” over the proceeding.

“It threatens to degenerate into a pure forum for political posturing to the detriment of the reputation of the state and your office. Rather than bring this matter to a rapid conclusion, the ALJ has insisted on agreeing to a day of hearings, and on the full participation of the president in his capacity as a candidate,” Jablonski wrote.

In a response posted online, Kemp told Jablonski the case referral and hearing was “in keeping with Georgia law.”

“As you are aware, OSAH Rule 616-1-2-.17 cited in your letter only applies to parties to a hearing. As the referring agency, the Secretary of State’s Office is not a party to the candidate challenge hearings scheduled for tomorrow. To the extent a request to withdraw the case referral is procedurally available, I do not believe such a request would be judicious given the hearing is set for tomorrow morning.”

He continued, “I expect the administrative law judge to report his findings to me after his full consideration of the evidence and law. Upon receipt of the report, I will fully and fairly review the entire record and initial decision of the administrative law judge.”

He also had a warning about the costs of not showing up for a court hearing.

“Anything you and your client place in the record in response to the challenge will be beneficial to my review of the initial decision; however, if you and your client choose to suspend your participation in the OSAH proceedings, please understand that you do so at your own peril.”

But Jablonski said, “We will, of course, suspend further participation in these proceedings, including the hearing scheduled for January 26.”

The hearing was held on concerns raised by citizens of Georgia under a state law that allows voters to challenge the eligibility of candidates on the state’s ballot. It is the states that run elections in the U.S., and national elections are just a compilation of the results of the 50 state elections.

The state law requires “every candidate for federal” office who is certified by the state executive committees of a political party or who files a notice of candidacy “shall meet the constitutional and statutory qualifications for holding the office being sought.”

State law also grants the secretary of state and any “elector who is eligible to vote for a candidate” in the state the authority to raise a challenge to a candidate’s qualifications, the judge determined.

Citizens raising concerns include David Farrar, Leah Lax, Thomas Malaren and Laurie Roth, represented by Taitz; David Weldon represented by attorney Van R. Irion of Liberty Legal Foundation;and Carl Swensson and Kevin Richard Powell, represented by J. Mark Hatfield. Cody Judy is raising a challenge because he also wants to be on the ballot.

Top constitutional expert Herb Titus contends that a “natural-born citizen” is born of parents who are citizens. That argument also is supported by a 19th-century U.S. Supreme Court decision, Minor vs. Happersett in 1875. The case includes one of very few references in the nation’s archives that addresses the definition of “natural-born citizen.”

That case states: “The Constitution does not in words say who shall be natural-born citizens. Resort must be had elsewhere to ascertain that. At common law, with the nomenclature of which the framers of the Constitution were familiar, it was never doubted that all children born in a country of parents who were its citizens became themselves, upon their birth, citizens also. These were natives or natural-born citizens, as distinguished from aliens or foreigners.”

An extensive analysis of the issue was conducted by Titus, who has taught constitutional law, common law and other subjects for 30 years at five different American Bar Association-approved law schools. He also was the founding dean of the College of Law at Regent University, a trial attorney and special assistant U.S. attorney in the Department of Justice.

“‘Natural born citizen’ in relation to the office of president, and whether someone is eligible, was in the Constitution from the very beginning,” he said. “Another way of putting it; there is a law of the nature of citizenship. If you are a natural born citizen, you are a citizen according to the law of nature, not according to any positive statement in a Constitution or in a statute, but because of the very nature of your birth and the very nature of nations.”

If you “go back and look at what the law of nature would be or would require … that’s precisely what a natural born citizen is …. is one who is born to a father and mother each of whom is a citizen of the U.S. or whatever other country,” he said.

“Now what we’ve learned from the Hawaii birth certificate is that Mr. Obama’s father was not a citizen of the United States. His mother was, but he doesn’t qualify as a natural born citizen for the office of president.”

Four men inspired by al-Qaeda have admitted planning to detonate a bomb at the London Stock Exchange.

Mohammed Chowdhury, Shah Rahman, Gurukanth Desai and Abdul Miah pleaded guilty to engaging in conduct in preparation for acts of terrorism.

The men, from London and Cardiff, were arrested in December 2010 and were set to stand trial at Woolwich Crown Court.

Five other men have pleaded guilty to other terrorism offences and all nine will be sentenced next week.

The men, who are all British nationals, had been inspired by the preachings of the recently-killed radical extremist Anwar Al-Awlaki.

It emerged that those who admitted planning to target the London Stock Exchange wanted to send five mail bombs to various targets during the run up to Christmas 2010 and discussed launching a “Mumbai-style” atrocity.

A hand-written target list discovered at the home of one of the men listed the names and addresses of London Mayor Boris Johnson, two rabbis, the US embassy and the Stock Exchange.

The conspiracy was stopped by undercover anti-terror police before firm dates could be set for attacks.

The terrorists met because of their membership of various radical groups and stayed in touch over the internet, through mobile phones and at specially arranged meetings.

They gathered in parks in a bid to make surveillance difficult.

The court heard that Chowdhury, 21, and his London accomplice Rahman, 28, were followed by undercover detectives on 28 November 2010, observing Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, the London Eye and the Palace of Westminster.

Chowdhury, of Stanliff House, Tower Hamlets and Rahman, of St Bernard’s Road, Newham, admitted preparing for acts of terrorism by planning to plant an improvised explosive device in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.

A jury had been sworn in to hear the trial before the defendants changed their pleas to guilty.

Addressing the jurors as they were discharged, Andrew Edis QC, for the prosecution, said that the four involved in the Stock Exchange plot had not intended to maim and kill.

“Their intention was to cause terror and economic harm and disruption. But their chosen method meant there was a risk people would be maimed or killed,” he said.

The men admitted the offences after a special hearing which allows a defendant to hear from the judge what sentence they may receive if they plead guilty on the eve of a trial.

Chowdhury was told by judge Mr Justice Wilkie indicated that he would receive 18-and-a-half years and Rahman was told he would receive a maximum of 17 years.

Brothers Gurukanth Desai, 30, of Albert Street, Cardiff, and Abdul Miah, 25, of Ninian Park Road, Cardiff, also admitted the same count, namely preparing for acts of terrorism by planning to plant an improvised explosive device in the toilets of the London Stock Exchange.

Meanwhile, Omar Latif, 28, of Neville Street, Cardiff, admitted attending meetings with the intention of assisting others to prepare or commit acts of terrorism.

Four of the nine-man group are from Stoke-on-Trent, Staffordshire.

The quartet talked about leaving homemade bombs in the toilets of their city’s pubs and discussed travelling abroad for terror training.

Three of the Stoke contingent admitted a lesser, specific charge – engaging in conduct for the preparation of terrorism between 1 November and 21 December 2010 – namely travelling to and attending operational meetings, fundraising for terrorist training, preparing to travel abroad and assisting others in travelling abroad.

Usman Khan, 20, of Persia Walk, Mohammed Shahjahan 27, of Burmarsh Walk and Nazam Hussain, 26, of Grove Street, all Stoke, admitted attending operational meetings in Roath Park, Cardiff on 7 November and in a Newport country park on 12 December.

The fourth Stoke defendant, Mohibur Rahman, 27, of North Road, admitted possessing two editions of al-Qaeda magazine Inspire for terrorist purposes.

Protect the public

Following the guilty pleas, DAC Stuart Osborne, from West Midlands Police’s counter terrorism team, said: “We welcome the guilty pleas entered by all nine defendants today, following what was the largest counter terrorism operation of 2010.

“The investigation was coordinated by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit, working in close partnership with the national CT network, Staffordshire, South Wales and Metropolitan Police, the Security Service and Crown Prosecution Service.

“Our priority is, and always will be, the protection of the public.”

Bob Quick, the country’s most senior anti-terrorism police officer until 2009, said it was an important case, with serious acts being planned.

“It serves to remind us that there are still people out there in the country that are prepared to contemplate, conspire and even perpetrate serious acts of terrorism.”

The Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile, the government’s former independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said the case showed the value of the new law that made preparing for terrorism a criminal offence.

But he added he was disappointed the control orders had been abandoned for “the wrong political reasons”.

“They should have remained in place until at least after the Olympic Games. I hope we will not rue the abandonment of control orders particularly with the tool of re-locating people who are suspected of being terrorists away from their normal home environment,” he said.

The Taliban in Afghanistan are being directly assisted by Pakistani security services, according to a secret Nato report seen by the BBC.

The leaked report, derived from thousands of interrogations, claims the Taliban remain defiant and have wide support among the Afghan people.

It alleges that Pakistan knows the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

A BBC correspondent says the report is painful reading for international forces and the Afghan government.

Pakistan has strenuously denied any links with the Taliban on previous occasions.

The BBC’s Quentin Sommerville in Kabul says the report – on the state of the Taliban – fully exposes for the first time the relationship between the Pakistani intelligence service (ISI) and the Taliban.

The report is based on material from 27,000 interrogations with more than 4,000 captured Taliban, al-Qaeda and other foreign fighters and civilians.

It notes: “Pakistan’s manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabatedly”. It says that Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders.

The report states: “As this document is derived directly from insurgents it should be considered informational and not necessarily analytical.”

Despite Nato’s strategy to secure the country with Afghan forces, the secret document details widespread collaboration between the insurgents and Afghan police and military.

Lt Col Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for Nato’s International Security Assistance Force (Isaf) in Afghanistan, said the document was “a classified internal document that is not meant to be released to the public”.

“It is a matter of policy that documents that are classified are not discussed under any circumstances,” he said.

The report also depicts the depth of continuing support among the Afghan population for the Taliban, our correspondent says.

It paints a picture of al-Qaeda’s influence diminishing but the Taliban’s influence increasing, he adds.

Taliban influence

In a damning conclusion, the document says that in the last year there has been unprecedented interest, even from members of the Afghan government, in joining the Taliban cause.

It adds: “Afghan civilians frequently prefer Taliban governance over the Afghan government, usually as a result of government corruption.”

The report has evidence that the Taliban are purposely hastening Nato’s withdrawal by deliberately reducing their attacks in some areas and then initiating a comprehensive hearts-and-minds campaign.

It says that in areas where Isaf has withdrawn, Taliban influence has increased, often with little or no resistance from government security forces. And in many cases, with the active help of the Afghan police and army.

When foreign soldiers leave, Afghan security forces are expected to take control.

However according to the report, rifles, pistols and heavy weapons have been sold by Afghan security forces in bazaars in Pakistan.