FIX BAYONETS (Terrorist Alert)

Taliban will take over from US and Nato in Afghanistan – leaked US report

2012-02-01T11:54:00.001Z

secret US military report says the Taliban, backed by Pakistan, are preparing to retake control of Afghanistan after Nato-led forces withdraw from the country. The report, The State of the Taliban 2012, is the latest of a series drawn up by aUS special operations taskforce on the basis of interrogations with 4,000 suspected Taliban and al-Qaida detainees. Its conclusions, that the Taliban's strength and morale are largely intact despite the Nato military surge, and that significant numbers of Afghan government soldiers are defecting to them, are in stark contrast to Nato's far more bullish official line, that the insurgent movement has been severely damaged and demoralised. The report, leaked to the BBC and The Times, also portrays the Taliban as being under the thumb of Pakistan's powerful security agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), but resenting that control. The BBC quotes the report as saying: "Pakistan's manipulation of the Taliban senior leadership continues unabated," and says Pakistan is aware of the locations of senior Taliban leaders, some of whom live close to the ISI's headquarters, in Rawalpindi. The report also quotes a senior al-Qaida detainee as saying: "Pakistan knows everything. They control everything. I can't [expletive] on a tree in Kunar without them watching."He added: "The Taliban are not Islam. The Taliban are Islamabad." A Pakistani government official rejected the report's findings, telling Reuters: "This is frivolous, to put it mildly. We are committed to non-interference in Afghanistan." Lieutenant Colonel Jimmie Cummings, a spokesman for the Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (Isaf), confirmed the document's existence but denied that it was a strategic study of operations. "The classified document in question is a compilation of Taliban detainee opinions," he said. "It's not an analysis, nor is it meant to be considered an analysis." The report is the latest of a series aimed at providing an assessment of the insurgency on the basis of detainee interrogations, mostly at the Nato base at Bagram. The first, the State of the Taliban 2009, was drawn up by US academics attached to a special forces unit called Task Force 373, charged with hunting down Taliban commanders. That report was influential in convincing the British government at the time that a peace deal could be done with the Taliban. Sherard Cowper-Coles, the former UK special envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan, said of the document at the time: "It paints a picture of the Taliban believing that they are winning in the long war, in the long game, though they suffer tactical reverses. "It shows that many of them are fed up with fighting; that some of them have suffered very painful losses. And it shows their real objection is to foreigners in their land, whether those foreigners come from Kansas or Karachi or Cairo. They are fighting as nationalists, and it does show that a deal could be done – but it doesn't show that a deal will be done."

Terrorists admit plot to bomb London Stock Exchange and US Embassy

2012-02-01T11:52:00.001Z

Two of the men conducted a surveillance trip around central London and also talked about launching a Mumbai-style attack on Parliament. A “target list” was found at the home of the ring-leader which listed the names and addresses of Boris Johnson, the Mayor of London, as well as two Rabbis and the American Embassy. It had on it the letters ‘LXC’ for London Stock Exchange. Torn pieces of paper showed a sketch of what is believed to be a car bomb. Three other men met with the plotters and planned to travel abroad to get more training before returning to launch further attacks. Another two men pleaded guilty to associated charges. The men, from London, Stoke and Cardiff, were inspired by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsular (AQAP) and used their English-language magazine Inspire as a guide.

Afghanistan: The Taliban's Momentum Seems Not Broken

2012-01-31T12:28:00.001Z

The hundreds of bullets, mortar shells and rockets that slammed into the boulders behind which they were taking cover peppered the men of 1st Platoon with high-velocity rock shards and jagged bits of shrapnel. Just below Outpost (OP) Shal, a newly constructed mountaintop aerie in Afghanistan's violent Kunar province on the Pakistani border, insurgent fighters were moaning and screaming from wounds suffered over eight days of heavy fighting. That scene, just three months ago, of the outnumbered American platoon fighting to maintain its foothold offered a sobering contrast to President Barack Obama's statement, in last week's State of the Union address: "The Taliban's momentum has been broken." Like the battle scene witnessed by TIME, the recent National Intelligence Estimate on Afghanistan reportedly also casts doubt on the confidence expressed by President Obama on the state of the Taliban's war effort. The top-secret assessment "takes a dim view of possible futures in Afghanistan," Reuters was told last week by a U.S. official speaking on condition of anonymity. The report, which represents the consensus view of 16 U.S. intelligence agencies, warns that the Taliban has not given up on its aim of retaking full control of Afghanistan and concludes that the gains made by the troop surge ordered by President Obama two years ago may be unsustainable, according to McClatchy Newspapers.

France’s fast exit raises concerns in Afghanistan

2012-01-31T12:26:00.001Z

France’s call for a speedier NATO exit from Afghanistan reflects the depth of war fatigue in the West and raises fears that other countries in the US-led coalition will succumb to rising political pressure and pull their troops home early. French president Nicolas Sarkozy’s decision to fast-track its withdrawal - just days after an Afghan soldier gunned down four French troops - is the latest crack in a coalition strained by economic troubles in Europe and the United States, the Afghan government’s sluggish battle against corruption, on-again off-again cooperation from neighboring Pakistan, and a bloodied but dogged Taliban. The international coalition is rushing against the clock to meet President Hamid Karzai’s goal of having the Afghan police and army in charge of the nation’s security by the end of 2014. France’s break with that timetable, which was agreed to by NATO members, now raises the question: Can the coalition stay together until then? Resetting the date to end the coalition’s combat mission could strengthen arguments for President Obama to accelerate US troop withdrawals beyond the 33,000 he is sending home by the end of this year, and it could reopen a debate over whether setting a withdrawal deadline allows the Taliban to seize more territory once foreign forces are gone. It is unclear whether Sarkozy’s call for all foreign forces to hand security over to the Afghan forces in 2013 will have any traction when it is presented next week at a NATO defense ministers’ meeting in Brussels. If other nations see France’s move as a green light to speed up their withdrawals, it will complicate the current strategy for a coordinated pullout. In a gentle rebuke to France, Prime Minister David Cameron of Britain said in London yesterday that withdrawals should be dependent on security conditions on the ground. Britain has said it is keeping to plans to withdraw its 9,500 troops from Afghanistan by the end of 2014. “The rate at which we can reduce our troops will depend on the transition to Afghan control in the different parts of Afghanistan, and that should be the same for all of the members of NATO,’’ Cameron said after meeting with Karzai. Other nations facing extreme economic problems, such as Italy and Spain, are not planning early withdrawals. “We are a responsible country. We are a big country that honors its commitments that it agrees to make,’’ said Italy’s defense minister, Giampaolo Di Paola. Italy signed a pact this week aimed at supporting Afghanistan after foreign forces withdraw in 2014. Germany also said it agrees with the goal to hand over security responsibility by the end of 2014 and withdraw combat troops. Sarkozy said France will speed up its withdrawal and pull 1,000 - up from 600 - out this year and bring all combat forces home at the end of 2013. Sarkozy also said France would hand over authority in Kapisa Province, where the French troops were killed this month, by the end of March. France, which now has about 3,600 soldiers in the coalition force, joins the United States, Britain, Germany, and Italy in the top five largest troop-contributing nations. Talk of an accelerated exit alarmed many Afghans, especially those who have cast their lot with the US-backed government but have little confidence in their country’s own security forces. Some said France was reneging on its promises. Afghan lawmaker Tahira Mujadedi, who represents Kapisa, said Afghan forces there are not ready to go it alone in fighting the Taliban insurgency, which is especially strong in several of the province’s districts. She warned that if NATO forces pull back from Kapisa, it could destabilize nearby Kabul. Foreign forces should consider staying even longer than 2014, she said. “When military forces are present in a war zone, anything can happen,’’ said Mujadedi, who expressed sadness about the French troops who were killed. But she added: “They are not here for a holiday.’’

Pakistani Military Academy, Near Bin Laden Hide-Out, Is Hit By Rockets

2012-01-27T16:06:00.001Z

Unidentified assailants rained rockets on Pakistan’s elite military academy on Friday morning, in an unusual burst of violence near the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed in May. Connect With Us on Twitter Follow @nytimesworld for international breaking news and headlines. Twitter List: Reporters and Editors Enlarge This Image Adnan Qureshi/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Pakistani security officials searched a hilltop area overlooking Abbottabad on Friday. Nine rockets were fired from a hilltop overlooking Abbottabad, a garrison town 35 miles north of Islamabad, said Khalid Khan Umarzai, the commissioner of Abbottabad division. Three rockets hit the wall of the Pakistan Military Academy, Pakistan’s equivalent of West Point. “Some exploded, some did not,” Mr. Umarzai said. “There was no loss of life.” No group claimed responsibility, and the military said it had dispatched investigators. “I don’t know who could be involved because I don’t remember any previous incident like this” close to the academy, said Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas, an army spokesman. Abbottabad gained global attention last May as the scene of the dramatic Navy Seal raid that killed Osama bin Laden, and plunged American relations with Pakistan into turmoil. The town is the birthplace of Aslam Awan, a Pakistani national killed in an American drone strike in North Waziristan on Jan. 10. American officials described Mr. Awan, who studied in Britain, as a senior external operations planner for Al Qaeda. Additionally, Umar Patek, an Indonesian militant accused of involvement in the 2002 Bali bombings that killed 202 people, was arrested in Abbottabad by Pakistani authorities in January 2011. The United States government had offered a $1 million reward for Mr. Patek’s capture. But the town had otherwise escaped the militant bloodshed that has plagued Pakistan in recent years. It has suffered no suicide bombings and few shootings. As well as being home to thousands of soldiers, Abbottabad is located between the turbulent border regions and the disputed territory of Kashmir, which has been a source of conflict between Pakistan and India for more than six decades. Since the 1990s Pakistani intelligence has quietly run training camps in the hills above Abbottabad for Islamist militants fighting in Indian-occupied Kashmir. The camps’ current status is unclear. Abbottabad is also close to the Swat Valley, where Pakistani soldiers conducted a major anti-Taliban operation in 2009. Swat-based militants could be behind Friday’s attack, a senior security source said. But the rocket attack also led to speculation about a possible link to Bin Laden. The missiles were fired from a position near a mosque just a half-mile from Bin Laden’s compound, said Mr. Umarzai, the division commissioner. Pakistan’s military has struggled to explain how the world’s most wanted man lived for months, perhaps years, in the shadow of its most prestigious academy. A government commission set up to investigate the circumstances around the American raid is to present its findings by the end of this month.

Suicide bomber kills 32 in funeral procession after detonating taxi packed with explosives

2012-01-27T16:02:00.001Z

At least 32 people have died in a suicide car bomb attack near a funeral procession in Baghdad. The bomber detonated a taxi packed with explosives in the mainly Shi'ite Zafaraniyah area in the south of the city. Half of the victims were policemen guarding the march, in the latest brazen attack since the U.S. troop withdrawal from Iraq. Police officials said the blast occurred where mourners had gathered for the funeral of a person killed the day before. They said 65 people were wounded, including 16 policemen. More than 320 people have been killed in attacks in Iraq since the start of the year alone and nearly 800 more wounded - more than double last year's figure for violent deaths in January.

Syria violence kills 37, U.N. Security Council to meet

2012-01-27T16:00:00.001Z

Security forces killed 37 people in Syria on Friday, activists and residents said, as people in Homs mourned 14 members of a family they said were slain by militiamen in one of the worst sectarian attacks in a revolt against President Bashar al-Assad. The U.N. Security Council was to meet later in the day to discuss Syria before a possible vote next week on a new Western-Arab draft resolution aimed at halting 10 months of bloodshed. Russia, which joined China in vetoing a previous Western draft resolution in October and which has since promoted its own draft, said the Western-Arab version was unacceptable and vowed to block any text calling for Assad's resignation. There was no let-up in violence on Friday, when anti-Assad protests again erupted after weekly Muslim prayers. Tank and mortar fire killed 15 people in Hama, a resident said, on the fourth day of an army assault on rebellious districts of the city, where Assad's father crushed an armed Islamist uprising in 1982, killing many thousands. The opposition Syrian Observatory for Human Rights reported 22 people killed elsewhere in Syria, including 12 when security forces fired on a funeral march in the southern town of Nowa, five in the normally peaceful city of Aleppo, and four in Homs. Machinegun fire wounded five people in the Qusour district of Homs, one activist there said, adding that the city was calmer than it was at the height of Thursday's violence, when 16 people were also killed by mortar fire from security forces. The state news agency SANA said "terrorists" killed a security man in Homs on Friday and a bomb killed a child and wounded several civilians and security personnel in the Damascus district of Midan. SANA also said a bomb wounded three civilians and three security men in the northeastern town of Albukamal and that a suicide bomber had wounded two security men at a checkpoint in the northwestern province of Idlib. Arab League observers headed for the Damascus suburb of Douma, where government troops battled rebel fighters the previous day as the struggle to topple Assad rumbled close to the Syrian capital. TRANSITION PLAN The Arab League has demanded that the Syrian leader step down as part of a transition to democracy, a call rejected by Damascus. The government says it is fighting foreign-backed armed "terrorists" who have killed 2,000 soldiers and police. "Any decision about a future political settlement in Syria must be made during the political process without ... preliminary conditions," Interfax news agency quoted Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Gennady Gatilov as saying. He stopped short of saying Moscow would veto a Western-Arab draft if the call for Assad to hand over power was not removed. The text calls for a "political transition," but not for United Nations sanctions against Assad's government, which Moscow, an old ally and arms supplier of Syria, opposes. Russia and Iran are among Syria's few remaining allies. In another sign of Assad's isolation, Hamas leader Khaled Meshaal has effectively abandoned his headquarters in Damascus, diplomatic and intelligence sources said. "He's not going back to Syria," a regional intelligence source said of Meshaal, who has long been based in the Syrian capital. He heads the Palestinian Islamist group which rules Gaza and is an armed offshoot of the Muslim Brotherhood. Analysts say Meshaal was embarrassed by Assad's crackdown, in which more than 5,000 people have been killed, many of them Sunni Muslim sympathisers of the Muslim Brotherhood. Homs, a mostly Sunni city with minority Alawite enclaves, has become a battleground since protests against Assad began in March, inspired by pro-democracy revolts elsewhere in the Arab world. Armed rebels have joined the fray in recent months. GRISLY FOOTAGE Residents and activists said militiamen from Assad's Alawite sect had shot or hacked to death 14 members of the Sunni Bahader family in Homs's Karm al-Zaitoun district on Thursday, including eight children, aged eight months to nine years old. YouTube video footage taken by activists, which could not be verified, showed the bodies of five children with wounds to the head and neck, three women and a man in a house. There was no comment from Syrian authorities, which enforce tight restrictions on independent media. At least 384 children have been killed since the uprising began in March and a similar number have been jailed, the U.N. Children's Fund (UNICEF) said on Friday. The British-based Observatory said 43 civilians were killed on Thursday, including 33 in Homs, of whom nine were children. Hamza, an activist in Homs, said the militiamen who attacked the Sunni family were avenging deaths inflicted on their ranks by army defectors loosely grouped in the rebel Free Syrian Army. Tit-for-tat sectarian killings began in Homs four months ago. Assad's Alawite sect, an offshoot of Shi'ite Islam, has dominated the political and security apparatus in Syria, a mostly Sunni nation of 23 million, for five decades. "The Assads are the dirtiest of families," shouted crowds in Deir Balba, on the edge of Homs, according to a YouTube clip that showed people waving pre-Baath party Syrian flags. In the city's Bab Amro district, demonstrators carried the body of a youth who had been shot in the head. "Bashar, your mother will bury you," they chanted, YouTube footage showed. It was not possible to verify the footage, which anti-Assad campaigners had posted on the Internet. The opposition Local Coordination Committees said security forces had fired on an anti-Assad protest by refugees from the Israeli-occupied Golan Heights who live in Thiabieh near Damascus. It said several protesters were wounded. Activists in the Damascus suburb of Irbin said 15,000 people had turned out to demonstrate against Assad. Several thousand also gathered in the rain in the ancient, eastern desert town of Palmyra, clapping to anti-Assad anthems. "Bashar, God is greater (than you)!" they sang.

Britain, US and France send warships through Strait of Hormuz

2012-01-26T17:57:00.001Z

This deployment defied explicit Iranian threats to close the waterway. It coincided with an escalation in the West's confrontation with Iran over the country's nuclear ambitions. European Union foreign ministers are today expected to announce an embargo on Iranian oil exports, amounting to the most significant package of sanctions yet agreed. They are also likely to impose a partial freeze on assets held by the Iranian Central Bank in the EU. Tehran has threatened to block the Strait of Hormuz in retaliation. Tankers carrying 17 million barrels of oil pass through this waterway every day, accounting for 35 per cent of the world's seaborne crude shipments. At its narrowest point, located between Iran and Oman, the Strait is only 21 miles wide. Last month, Admiral Habibollah Sayyari, commander of the Iranian navy, claimed that closing the Strait would be "easy," adding: "As Iranians say, it will be easier than drinking a glass of water." But USS Abraham Lincoln, a nuclear-powered carrier capable of embarking 90 aircraft, passed through this channel and entered the Gulf without incident yesterday. HMS Argyll, a Type 23 frigate from the Royal Navy, was one of the escort vessels making up the carrier battle-group. A guided missile cruiser and two destroyers from the US Navy completed the flotilla, along with one warship from the French navy.

Body of Iraq hostage Alan McMenemy handed over to Baghdad embassy

2012-01-20T22:46:00.001Z

The body of a Briton, who was taken hostage in Iraq in 2007 and later killed, has been handed over to the British embassy in Baghdad. Alan McMenemy, a security guard from Glasgow, was kidnapped by Asaib al-Haq (Leagues of Righteousness) in Baghdad along with colleagues Jason Creswell, Jason Swindlehurst and Alan MacLachlan and an IT consultant, Peter Moore, on 29 May 2007. Creswell, Swindlehurst and MacLachlan were killed and their bodies recovered in 2009. Moore was released in December 2009. An inquest in 2011 heard that Creswell, Swindlehurst and MacLachlan, who were working as Moore's bodyguards, were subjected to mock executions, regularly beaten and kept chained and blindfolded for long periods before they were shot dead by their captors. The prime minister, David Cameron, said: "It is with great sadness that I can confirm that the British embassy in Baghdad received a body today that has been identified as Alan McMenemy, who was kidnapped in Baghdad in 2007, along with four other men." "My thoughts are with Alan's family and friends at this time. They have waited so long for his return and I hope that this will allow them to find some peace after an ordeal that no family should ever have to suffer. "At this time, we should also take time to remember the families of Margaret Hassan and Ken Bigley, who are still waiting for the return of their loved ones." A statement from Rosaleen McMenemy, Alan's wife, said: "Our families have suffered terrible uncertainty and distress over the past four years and eight months. We have worried about Alan every single minute of each waking day. We now know that we will shortly have Alan home again. This will allow us to properly grieve for him and we will draw some comfort from the fact that we have him home at last. "I would like to thank my wider family, all our friends, colleagues, the many organisations and others too numerous to name who have stood with us over this most difficult of times. Without their support, we would not have made it through these dark days. "I would respectfully ask that we as a family are allowed the space and time to grieve in our own way, and if at all possible to attempt to return to some form of normal life."

US Marines identify 'urination' troops

2012-01-12T21:01:00.001Z

At least two of four US Marines shown in a video appearing to urinate on Taliban corpses have been identified, a Marine Corps official has told the BBC. The video, which was posted online, purports to show four US Marines standing over the bodies of several Taliban fighters, at least one of whom is covered in blood. The Marines have begun a criminal investigation and an internal inquiry. US officials and Afghan officials have condemned the video as "deplorable". The origin of the video is not known, but it was originally posted to YouTube. The BBC's Steve Kingstone says the official would not confirm the Marines' whereabouts, but news reports suggested the unit involved was based at Camp Lejeune, North Carolina - a major military base. A US Marines spokesman, Lt Col Joseph Plenzler, told the AFP news agency that "we cannot release the name of the unit at this time since the incident is being investigated."

'No Libyan response' on Gaddafi son as deadline nears

2012-01-11T16:59:00.001Z

A deadline has nearly elapsed for Libya to give the International Criminal Court information about the health and status of Saif al-Islam Gaddafi. The former Libyan leader's son was captured in southern Libya in November. The ICC, based in The Hague, has indicted him for crimes against humanity but Libya's new leaders say they want him to stand trial in Libya. The ICC could refer Libya to the UN Security Council if it does not respond to its request on Tuesday. Continue reading the main story Saif al-Islam: ICC charges Indirect co-perpetrator of murder and persecution as crimes against humanity Between 15 February and 28 February, Gaddafi security forces carried out systematic attacks against civilians Saif al-Islam "assumed essential tasks" to make sure plan worked ICC warrant In pictures: Saif's rise and fall Profile: Saif al-Islam How Saif al-Islam was captured Gaddafi son 'has not seen lawyer' The ICC has accepted that Saif al-Islam will be tried in Libya but wants assurances that the country's justice system can produce a fair trial. In a visit to Libya in November, the chief prosecutor of the ICC, Luis Moreno-Ocampo said: "The standard of the ICC is that it has to be a judicial process that is not organised to shield the suspect… and I respect that it's important for the cases to be tried in Libya… and I am not competing for the case." Saif al-Islam, Colonel Gaddafi's most prominent son, is being held in the western town of Zintan. He was arrested while trying to flee the country. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi told a representative of Human Rights Watch last month that he was being treated well, but had not seen a lawyer or the detailed charges against him. Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch told the BBC that he had the impression from their meeting that Saif al-Islam "doesn't fully understand that he is no longer one of the most powerful people in the country". The BBC's Gabriel Gatehouse, who is in Tripoli, says the case of the former leader's son charged with war crimes is becoming an unlikely cause for human rights campaigners.

Polish military prosecutor who attempted suicide had £200,000 bounty on his head

2012-01-11T16:58:00.001Z

In an interview with the Polish Press Agency the day after he shot himself in the head only to survive, Col Mikolaj Przybyl said his life had been threatened and that he was a marked man. The officer also claimed his flat had been broken into, the tires on his car tampered with in an apparent assassination attempt, and that his dog had been killed as part of an intimidation campaign. He added his suicide attempt had been "influenced" by his investigation into the high-level corruption. "My act was influenced by the cases I am investigating: one of them is the most serious involving financial issues in the Polish military," said the colonel. Col. Przybyl had tried to commit suicide after breaking a press conference in the western city of Poznan to "air the room". After journalists had left his office he put a pistol in his mouth and pulled the trigger. A television camera left rolling recorded the sound of the gun being cocked, a shot and that of a body hitting the floor.

Iran car explosion kills nuclear scientist in Tehran

2012-01-11T16:48:00.001Z

BBC's Mohsen Asgari: "It seems a motor cyclist pasted a bomb to his car which he was in with two other passengers Continue reading the main story Iran nuclear crisis Undeclared pursuit? Q&A: Nuclear issue Key nuclear sites Sanctions' impact Watch A university lecturer and nuclear scientist has been killed in a car explosion in north Tehran. Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan, an academic who also worked at the Natanz uranium enrichment facility, and the driver of the car were killed in the attack. The blast happened after a motorcyclist stuck an apparent bomb to the car. Several Iranian nuclear scientists have been assassinated in recent years, with Iran blaming Israel and the US. Both countries deny the accusations. Continue reading the main story Analysis Frank Gardner BBC security correspondent The assassination on Wednesday of another Iranian nuclear scientist may now prompt Iran to try to respond in kind. The murder in Tehran of Mostafa Ahmadi-Roshan comes on top of a sophisticated cyber sabotage programme and two mysterious explosions at Iranian military bases, one of which in November killed the general known as 'the godfather' of Iran's ballistic missile programme. No-one is claiming responsibility for these attacks but Iran blames its longstanding enemy, Israel, and occasionally the US. Whoever is behind them, Iran is clearly being subjected to an undeclared campaign to slow down its nuclear programme. Frank Gardner's analysis in full Iran's Vice-President Mohammad Reza Rahimi told state television that the attack against Mr Ahmadi-Roshan would not stop "progress" in the country's nuclear programme. He called the killing "evidence of [foreign] government-sponsored terrorism". Local sources said Wednesday's blast took place at a faculty of Iran's Allameh Tabatai university. Two others were reportedly also injured in the blast, which took place near Gol Nabi Street, in the north of the capital

Hunted down: Saif al-Islam Gaddafi looks dejected and withdrawn following his capture

2011-11-20T10:43:00.001Z

Looking haggard and fearful, Saif Al Islam Gaddafi cowers in terror after his capture by Libyan fighters yesterday.

His old swagger gone, the British-educated son of Colonel Gaddafi was clearly terrified that he might encounter the same fate as his father, who was killed a month ago.

Saif could yet face the death penalty for his crimes, but Libyan officials promised he would, at least, receive a fair trial. That trial could prove highly embarrassing for influential British figures – including Prince Andrew and Tony Blair – if Saif reveals details of the close links he enjoyed with them.

The 39-year-old former playboy and womaniser was captured trying to flee across the border into Niger. A mob of angry protesters tried to storm the plane but were beaten back by soldiers under orders to keep their prisoner alive so he could face justice.

Only three weeks ago Saif had vowed to avenge his father’s death, declaring defiantly: ‘I am alive and free and willing to fight to the end.’

But last night he was facing the likelihood of trial in his own country – or extradition to the International Criminal Court in The Hague on charges of crimes against humanity.

Thousands of Libyans celebrated in the streets after hearing that the fugitive, who remained loyal to his father’s murderous regime to the end, had been captured without a struggle.

The dictator’s heir was intercepted near the oil town of Obari as he tried to reach the frontier in a 4x4 vehicle, accompanied by three bodyguards.

Desert fighters acting on a tip-off fired into the air and ground to bring the car to a halt.
As they checked the identity of those inside, Saif told them his name was Abdelsalam – which means ‘servant of peace’ – but he was immediately recognised and taken away by the fighters.

private jets waved through customs and immigration checks

2011-11-15T12:22:00.001Z

Home Secretary Theresa May (Pic:PA)

THERESA May was fighting for her job last night after damning new documents fuelled the scandal of lax security at our borders.

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Leaked emails showed that thousands of private jet passengers were allowed into the UK without going through immigration or customs.

They also revealed the Home Secretary relaxed checks at airports on at least 2,500 occasions this summer.

And the Mirror can reveal passport applications are being secretly subjected to a controversial new “postcode lottery” trial scheme.

The High Risk Applications scheme is based on fraud statistics. Staff were given a list of postcodes to check against every new passport application or renewal. Applicants in areas deemed to be higher risk face several weeks additional delay in getting their passports.

In London, the only areas which get virtually no checks are postcodes that begin with WC and EC – the most central and prosperous areas. Meanwhile applications from women aged 50 and over are often waved through.

A source said: “It’s a classic Tory policy, and it discriminates against those they deem to be living in ‘poor’ areas.

“The whole thing smacks of elitism and snobbery. A lot of people are very unhappy with the process.”

These revelations come on the day ousted Border Agency official Brodie Clark gives evidence to MPs on how he was pushed out by Mrs May.

Borders boss Brodie Clark

Labour yesterday released the leaked emails showing UK Border Agency staff were told NOT to check passengers arriving in the UK by private jets – at the instruction of the Home Office.

From March 2, 2011, anyone on a private charter did not have to show their passports and could avoid customs. Figures show there are between 80,000 to 90,000 private flights each year, carrying two to three passengers.

The emails show an unnamed official at Durham Tees Valley Airport warned the UK Border Agency that the policy was putting the UK’s security at risk.

He said that staff “continue to feel uneasy about an instruction that is at odds with national policy and is creating an unnecessary gap in border security which, if exploited by the unscrupulous, could bring the Agency into disrepute”.

He also warned there was no way of checking if the number of people arriving in the country was the same as they had been advised.

His manager at the UK Border Agency’s Border Force said the “no checks policy” was part of a “new national strategy”.

In a further blow to Mrs May, other leaked documents showed how Britain’s borders were abandoned on hundreds of occasions over summer.

The Home Secretary ordered a pilot scheme, which ran from July to October this year, under which Border Agency staff could relax checks on passengers. It meant people arriving from the European Economic Area did not have the biometric chip in their passport checked, while children under 18 could be waved through.

These “level 2 checks” were used on at least 2,600 occasions. The relaxed regime was used to speed up queues at immigration control.

According to an email from a Border Agency Border Force official, the checks were relaxed 100 times in the first week of the trial and more than 260 times in the sixth week.

We revealed last week that officials warned Mrs May the easing of border checks could lead to a rise in child trafficking.

Mrs May admits to bringing in the pilot scheme without informing MPs. But she claims that Mr Clark went further by extending it to include passengers from outside Europe.

Mr Clark, who resigned last week, denies he acted without ministerial authority. His testimony to the Commons select committee could prove very damaging to Mrs May.

Shadow Home Secretary Yvette Cooper said last night: “This is startling new information about the scale of the borders fiasco.

“Ten days on there are even more questions than answers about what on earth was going on at our borders.

“Last week the Home Secretary told us no one had been waived through without checks. But these documents show passengers on private flights weren’t even seen.

"Last week the Home Office wouldn’t admit to having figures about how often checks were downgraded. Now we know those figures exist and that checks were downgraded 260 times in one week alone.

“The Home Secretary needs to show she is capable of sorting this fiasco out rather than making it worse.”

Last night, the Home Office refused to comment on the trial.

The UKBA said: “It is not true that we don’t carry out passport and warnings checks on private flight passengers and will deploy officers to airfields where we have concerns.”

Boy, 17, shot in back in Poplar, east London

2011-10-30T14:30:00.001Z

teenager has been shot in the back in east London. The 17-year-old boy was wounded in East India Dock Road, Poplar, in the early hours of the morning. A Scotland Yard spokesman said: "A 17-year-old male had a gunshot wound to the back and is in hospital in a serious condition." The attack happened just before 01:00 GMT, police said. Any witnesses to the shooting should call the Metropolitan Police.

Armed guards are to be deployed on British civilian ships for the first time to protect them from pirates,

2011-10-30T11:45:00.001Z

Armed guards are to be deployed on British civilian ships for the first time to protect them from pirates, David Cameron announced today.

A legal ban on weapon-toting protection staff will be relaxed so that firms can apply for a licence to have them on board in danger zones.

The Prime Minister said radical action was required because the increasing ability of sea-borne Somali criminals to hijack and ransom ships had become 'a complete stain on our world'.

He unveiled the measure after talks at a Commonwealth summit in Australia with leaders of countries in the Horn of Africa over the escalating problem faced in waters off their shores.

Under the plans, the Home Secretary will be given the power to license vessels to carry armed security, including automatic weapons, currently prohibited under firearms laws.

Officials said around 200 ships were expected to be in line to take up the offer, which would only apply for voyages through particular waters in the affected region.

It is expected to be used by commercial firms, rather than private sailors such as hostage victims Paul and Rachel Chandler.

Pirates: There are around 50 ships currently being held hostage

Asked if he was comfortable with giving private security operatives the right to 'shoot to kill' if necessary, Mr Cameron told BBC1's Andrew Marr Show: 'We have to make choices.

'Frankly the extent of the hijack and ransom of ships round the Horn of Africa is a complete stain on our world.

'The fact that a bunch of pirates in Somalia are managing to hold to ransom the rest of the world and our trading system is a complete insult and the rest of the world needs to come together with much more vigour.

TOP Gear presenter Jeremy Clarkson tried to stop his ex-wife from claiming they had sex after he remarried.

2011-10-27T00:10:00.001+01:00

Jeremy Clarkson took out the gagging order against his ex-wife last year. It's not known why he applied to lift it. Picture: Cameron Richardson Source: Supplied

Clarkson, who has made a name for himself as a man refuses to be silenced, denies the allegation but took out a gagging order against Alexandra Hall last year.

The claim can now be revealed because he asked for the order to be lifted.

It is unclear why he decided to withdraw the order, which banned any reporting of "sexual or other intimate acts or dealings" between Clarkson and Ms Hall.

Ms Hall married Clarkson in 1989 but their marriage lasted only a year.

She claims she had relationship with him after they split and Clarkson was married to his current wife, Frances.

Clarkson's marriage came under fire from the tabloids earlier this year over claims he had cheated on his wife with a member of the Top Gear production team while in Australia.

He denied the reports and said his 18-year marriage was strong.

The couple have three children.

Real IRA terrorist has been jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of buying weapons and explosives which he wanted to use to “kill Brits.

2011-10-26T23:44:00.001+01:00

Michael Campbell (Pic: PA)

A Real IRA terrorist has been jailed for 12 years after being found guilty of buying weapons and explosives which he wanted to use to “kill Brits.”

Irishman Michael Campbell - brother of Omagh bomber Liam - was snared in a six year MI5 sting across three countries with agents pretending to be arms dealers.

Yesterday he was finally jailed by a Lithuania court after spending three years awaiting trial and having been snared by an amazing MI5 undercover operation.

Campbell, 39, was secretly filmed in a field in Lithuania pointing a high-power Barret sniper rifle which he later bragged he would use to kill British people.

Michael Campbell testing weapons in the Lithuanian countryside (Pic: PA)

Using secret filming Campbell was caught on camera inspecting the weapons stash in a lock-up garage (Pic: PA)

Campbell's shopping list for weapons (Pic:PA)

He was also recorded on video in a garage buying weapons and explosives from an undercover Lithiuanian agent he nicknamed “Rambo.”

But the hero of the MI5 plot was a cigarette smuggler - turned MI5 agent who went deep undercover using the cover name Robert Jardine.

Using his connections Robert Jardine coolly penetrated deep into the Real IRA network knowing he could have been killed if his cover was blown.

At one stage in his dealings with dark-haired Campbell and other terror suspects - who cannot be named for legal reasons - he was bundled into a padded van containing a shovel.

Sources have told The Daily Mirror he feared he had been rumbled and was being driven to his death - but it was just a Real IRA tactic to unnerve him.

Judge Arunas Kisielus of the Vilnius Regional Court sentenced Michael Campbell to 12 years in prison for weapons offenses and supporting a terrorist group.

Covert footage showed Campbell paid £5,200 for explosives, grenade launchers, detonators, AK-47s and an assassin’s rifle to Lithuanian agents posing as arms dealers.

He says on tape: “You imagine, with a six-hour timer, we could be over to London and back,” Campbell says in an audio clip after mulling over a price list for explosives and detonators. “Just tick, tick, tick, tick ... gone.

In court Campbell had pleaded not guilty.

The Real IRA’s worst crime to date was the 1998 Omagh bombing which killed 29 and for which Liam Campbell -Michael’s brother - was found liable in a civil trial.

MI5’s Operation Uncritical ruined a bid by the Real IRA to get guns and explosives to mount a deadly terror campaign on the British mainland.

Yesterday a senior security official said: “The conviction of Michael Campbell is the result of a successful joint operation between the Security Service and the Lithuanian authorities.

“Working closely together, along with a selfless and brave agent, they have put behind bars a senior member of the Real IRA whose intention was to kill innocent members of the public in Northern Ireland and in Britain.”

Courageously Jardine - who now lives in a secret location - for years risked his life to provide his MI5 handlers with intelligence about the Real IRA.

The agent, who was referred to in court as “Robert Jardine”, was a legitimate businessman based in southern England dealing in “imports and exports.”

But he also had an illicit sideline in smuggling cigarettes from Eastern Europe - and it was that which caught the eye of the security service and led him into a world of terrorist intrigue.

The Real IRA (RIRA) was using the contraband cigarettes to fund its terrorist activities and in late 2002 Jardine was recruited as an agent by MI5.

Two years later RIRA asked Jardine whether his contacts in Eastern Europe could help them get weapons. And - carefully directed by MI5 - he laid a trail of deception which drew in the terrorists.

The court heard that in January 2005 he handed over a price list to a contact.

The following July Jardine and the contact crossed the border into Lithuania where Jardine introduced her to “Tomas”.

In fact Tomas was working for the Lithuanian security service, the VSD - the first in a cast of “role-players” deployed to convince the RIRA that the offer of weapons was real.

The RIRA gave Jardine the first of two hand-written shopping lists of weapons they wanted to buy - including sniper rifles, rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) launchers, hand grenades, detonators and Semtex plastic explosives.

Then, in late 2006, another RIRA man, moved to revive the arrangement. Jardine responded by saying he would provide the introductions but the republicans would have to cut their own deal. The “sting” was back on.

Then Michael Campbell entered the story.

On August 29 2007, Michael Campbell and another associate travelled to a lodge in the Lithuanian countryside belonging to the supposed arms dealer.

There they were given their first chance to test guns and explosives.

Next day they were introduced to a second dealer - whom the two Irishmen quickly nicknamed “Rambo” - who was to provide them with the actual weapons they wanted.

Like Tomas, however, Rambo was in reality working for the VSD.

Campbell and his colleague agreed to pay a deposit on explosives, detonators and timers.

Afterwards an excited Campbell was secretly recorded telling his associate: “Look at it this way, for one of them and one of them you have a bomb - for f****** a hundred quid.

“F*** me. You imagine us getting over to England if you’d ten of them and ten clocks in a holdall. You imagine, with a six-hour timer we could be over to London and back.

“Just tick, tick, tick - gone. Leave it anywhere.”

That October, Campbell met Rambo again in Marbella in southern Spain.

This time the RIRA man said he wanted a first instalment of weapons - including two rocket propelled grenades as well as the explosives - against the deposit.

On January 21 2008, Campbell went to Lithuania to inspect his purchase and finalise the arrangements.

That evening the couple dined with Rambo who the following day took Campbell to a lock-up garage where the weapons were stashed.

A hidden camera secretly filmed as Campbell examines one of the detonators and asks whether they would be “good for booby traps”.

“They would be good for under a car, wouldn’t they?” he says. “Anchored to the wheel and then the car goes round - bang.”

Campbell was also filmed paying a further deposit for a powerful Barrett sniper rifle - the type of weapon used to kill Lance Bombardier Stephen Restorick, the last British soldier to die at the hands of the IRA in 1997.

When Rambo demands what it would be used for - saying he was not prepared to sell it just “to shoot roe deer or wild boar” - Campbell tells him: “No, no, we will be shooting from across borders. The border. You know, from one side to the other.”

Asked who the target would be, Campbell replies simply “Brits”.

full brutality of former Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi's regime has been revealed in chilling video footage of prison torture sessions.

2011-10-24T11:44:00.001+01:00

The full brutality of former Libyan tyrant Muammar Gaddafi's regime has been revealed in chilling video footage of prison torture sessions.

And the fallen dictatorship's former foreign minister, Musa Kusa - who was released by the British authorities six months ago after he defected to the UK in March - is facing fresh allegations that he was directly involved in the beating of political prisoners.

The footage - obtained by the BBC's Panorama programme - was reportedly shot at the notorious Abu Salim prison in Tripoli. It shows crouching inmates, blindfolded and wearing blue uniforms, being repeatedly whipped and kicked by interrogators.

Brutal: A still from footage of a prisoner being whipped inside the Abu Salim prison during Gaddafi's rule

Last month the remains of more than 1,200 prisoners were found in a mass grave outside the prison's walls.

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The Panorama team tracked down Kusa to a luxury resort in Qatar during its investigation into his role in alleged war crimes. He declined to be interviewed for the programme.

Kusa was head of Gaddafi's intelligence agency from 1994 and a senior intelligence agent when PanAm flight 103 was blown up over Lockerbie.

Inhumane: An inmate is kicked in the head by one official as a prison guard looks on

Back in the spotlight: Torture suspect Musa Kusa defected to Britain in April but moved to Qatar just weeks later

The Boeing 747 jumbo jet was en route from London to New York when it exploded over the Dumfriesshire town, killing 243 passengers, 16 crew and 11 residents.

There have also been calls for Kusa to be quizzed in relation to the murder of PC Yvonne Fletcher, who was shot during a protest outside London's Libyan Embassy in 1984.

Kusa made a high-profile defection to Britain in March and was interviewed by police and Scottish prosecutors investigating the Lockerbie attack.

But within weeks he was allowed to leave the UK following an EU decision to lift sanctions against him, meaning he no longer faces travel restrictions or an asset freeze.

No comment: Panorama reporter Paul Kenyon is blocked by a bodyguard while attempting to question Kusa

The Foreign Office said Kusa was a 'private individual' who had been interviewed voluntarily.

But the ruling was condemned by one Tory MP who said Britain had become 'a transit lounge for alleged war criminals'.

And Britain is now under fresh pressure to interview Kusa in relation to the allegations.

Dr Jim Swire, whose 23-year-old daughter Flora died in the Lockerbie bombing, said that if anyone could offer any insight into the 'huge questions still unanswered' on Libya's role in Lockerbie, it would be Mr Kusa.

High profile: Kusa was less reluctant about speaking to the press following his defection to London earlier this year

He said: 'When I met Musa Kusa in Libya in 1991 it was clear to me he was the guy who was central to the Gaddafi administration.

'He could tell us just as much as Gaddafi about Lockerbie as he was at the core of the regime.

'He was a very, very key figure and we need answers as to why he was allowed to fly back. Any probing over his crimes should be done by the International Criminal Court.'

Pamela Dix, who lost her 35-year-old brother Peter in the atrocity, said she was 'incensed' after Mr Kusa was allowed to leave Britain in the first place.

She said: 'We cannot turn a politically pragmatic blind eye.

'I do not know what Musa Kusa knows or does not know about Lockerbie but he needs to come back to answer those questions.

'I condemn the attitude of the UK Government in the strongest possible terms. A political hands-off attitude is inappropriate.'

Hells Angel biker rammed intentionally, dragged a mile by East Bay Paratransit bus in San Leandro

2011-10-24T00:24:00.001+01:00

A paratransit bus driver intentionally rammed a Hells Angels biker on Interstate 580, and then dragged him about a mile, killing him, a CHP spokesman said. The biker, who has not been identified, was traveling eastbound on I-580 in San Leandro near Grand Avenue with a small group of Hells Angels members before 4 p.m. when an altercation began, said CHP Sgt. Trent Cross. After being hit, the motorcyclist and his bike were dragged for about a mile, said San Leandro police Lt. Greg Lemmon. Eventually, the biker was released from under the East Bay Paratransit bus, but the driver kept dragging the motorcycle, which was wedged underneath the front grill, until the vehicle stopped on the shoulder just east of the 150th Avenue onramp. The Hells Angels biker was flown to Eden Medical Center in Castro Valley, where he was pronounced dead, Lemmon said. The bus driver has been arrested, Lemmon said. Police are interviewing four witnesses who saw the incident. "The preliminary information they are providing was that it wasn't an accident, it was an intentional ramming," Lemmon said. All eastbound lanes were closed from Grand Avenue to 150th Avenue so police could conduct a homicide investigation over a large swath of freeway, Cross said. The lanes were expected to remain closed until 10 or 11 p.m., he said, and there were significant traffic delays in the area. An East Bay Paratransit manager referred calls to First Transit, a Advertisement contract agency that operates the bus. The First Transit representative did not return calls. No passengers were on board the bus during the collision, said San Leandro police Sgt. Doug Calcagno. The paratransit bus provides door-to-door service for people unable to ride regular public transit because of disabilities. It has been a tragic autumn for the Hells Angels motorcycle club. San Jose chapter President Jeffrey "Jethro" Pettigrew was killed outside a Nevada casino last month. At his packed funeral Oct. 15, Steve Tausan, a 52-year-old Hells Angels enforcer and friend of Pettigrew's, was shot dead.

Stockton search for Hells Angels slaying suspect comes up empty

2011-10-24T00:18:00.001+01:00

A man suspected of fatally shooting a member of the Hells Angels at a recent funeral in San Jose was not holed up in a Stockton home Saturday as police had believed. Steve Ruiz, 38, of San Jose is being sought for allegedly shooting and killing fellow Hells Angels member Steve Tausan, 52, after the two fought Oct. 15 at a funeral for a slain motorcycle club member, according to police. Police had received information that Ruiz had been hiding out at the three-bedroom home on the 3700 block of McDougald Boulevard in Stockton, said San Jose police Sgt Jason Dwyer. Investigators asked Stockton police and the San Joaquin County sheriff's office to serve a search warrant for the home, but both agencies were unavailable, Dwyer said. As a result, San Jose police drove tactical vehicles to the scene. Neighbors said they had seen San Jose police at the scene, calling out to someone in the home to surrender. But after storming the home and firing tear gas at about 8 p.m. Saturday, police came up empty-handed and left. The occupants of the home "are new to the area or they're new to the house" after moving in several months ago, said Noelia Trelles, whose sister-in-law lives next door. "I think we live in a pretty crazy world, but it's still crazy that it's happening in the neighborhood," Trelles said. Ruiz and Tausan were among thousands of Hells Angels members who attended a funeral for Jeffrey Pettigrew, president of the San Jose chapter of the motorcycle club, at the Oak Hill Funeral Home and Memorial Park on Curtner Avenue. After the shooting, Ruiz, 38, of San Jose disappeared and one or more people tampered with the crime scene, washing away bloodstains and removing evidence of the shooting, police said. Police found Ruiz's motorcycle at the funeral, Lt. Alan Cavallo said. Ruiz has not come to claim it. Authorities initially speculated that it was possible Ruiz had been killed and possibly buried along with Pettigrew. Investigators obtained a search warrant to dig up Pettigrew's grave, but Ruiz's remains were not found, Cavallo said. But now investigators say they have proof that Ruiz is alive and "actively evading law enforcement," Dwyer said. Ruiz is believed to have two black eyes "and other facial injuries consistent with being in a fight," Dwyer said. Police said Ruiz is in the company of Christel Renee Trujillo, 42, also known as Christel Renee Ferguson, and that her life "is now in danger." The two are possibly traveling in a gold or pewter Chevrolet Suburban. No year of the vehicle or license plate number was available. Ruiz has family and associates in Arizona and New York and may try to contact them, Dwyer said. Police said Pettigrew was shot and killed Sept. 23 by Ernesto Manuel Gonzalez, an alleged member of the rival Vagos motorcycle gang, at John Ascuaga's Nugget casino in Sparks, Nev. Gonzalez, 53, of San Jose was arrested by a UCSF police officer in San Francisco six days later. Tausan and the manager of the Pink Poodle, a strip club west of San Jose, were tried for murder in 1999 in the beating death of a club customer two years earlier. They were acquitted on grounds of self-defense.

The slain Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi secretly spirited out of Libya and invested overseas more than $200 billion

2011-10-22T07:37:00.001+01:00

The slain Libyan leader Moamer Kadhafi secretly spirited out of Libya and invested overseas more than $200 billion -- double the amount that Western governments previously had suspected, The Los Angeles Times reported late Friday. Citing unnamed senior Libyan officials, the newspaper said US administration officials were stunned last spring when they found $37 billion in Libyan regime accounts and investments in the United States. They quickly froze the assets before Kadhafi or his aides could move them, the report said. Governments in France, Italy, England and Germany seized control of another $30 billion or so. Earlier, investigators estimated that Kadhafi had stashed perhaps another $30 billion elsewhere in the world, for a total of about $100 billion, the paper noted. But subsequent investigations by US, European and Libyan authorities determined that Kadhafi secretly sent tens of billions more abroad over the years and made sometimes lucrative investments in nearly every major country, including much of the Middle East and Southeast Asia, The Times said. Most of the money was under the name of government institutions such as the Central Bank of Libya, the Libyan Investment Authority, the Libyan Foreign Bank, the Libyan National Oil Corporation and the Libya African Investment Portfolio, the paper pointed out. But investigators said Kadhafi and his family members could access any of the money if they chose to, the report said. The new $200 billion figure is about double the prewar annual economic output of Libya, The Times noted. Kadhafi, who lorded over the oil-rich North African nation for 42 years, met a violent end on Thursday after a NATO air attack hit a convoy, in which he was trying to escape from his hometown of Sirte. He survived the air strike but was apparently captured and killed after a shootout between his supporters and new regime fighters.

Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit has been moved from the Gaza Strip to Egyp

2011-10-18T08:16:00.001+01:00

Israeli soldier Gilad Schalit has been moved from the Gaza Strip to Egypt, Palestinian officials in Gaza said. The move begins an elaborate prisoner swap deal in which hundreds of Palestinian inmates are to be freed in return for the captured tank crewman. The officials said buses of Palestinian prisoners are now moving from Israel into Egypt en route to Gaza. Israel's Army Radio station, citing anonymous Israeli officials, confirmed the report. In all, Israel is slated to release 1,027 prisoners for Schalit, now 25, who had been held in Gaza since he was captured more than five years ago by Palestinian militants in a cross-border raid. Before dawn, convoys of white vans and trucks transported hundreds of Palestinian prisoners to the locations in the West Bank and on the Israel-Egypt border where they were to be freed. In Gaza, the Red Cross confirmed that the prisoners slated for release had arrived at the nearby border crossing. The exchange, negotiated through Egyptian mediators because Israel and Hamas will not talk directly to each other, is going ahead despite criticism and court appeals in Israel against the release of the prisoners. Nearly 300 of them were serving lengthy sentences for involvement in deadly attacks. The exchange involves a delicate series of staged releases, each one triggering the next. The Red Cross and Egyptian officials are involved in facilitating the movement of prisoners. A Gaza militant leader said the Palestinians were waiting until all 477 prisoners were moved into Palestinian territory before turning Schalit over to the Egyptians. In the meantime, he said armed men would remain with him in Egypt. When Tuesday's exchange is complete, 477 Palestinians held in Israeli jails, including 27 women, will have been released, several of them after decades behind bars. The other 550 are set to be released in two months. Schalit will be brought to an Israeli military base along the Egypt border, where he will be issued a new military uniform and given another medical examination, according to the Israeli military. Schalit will then be flown by helicopter to an air force base in central Israel, where he will meet his parents, as well as Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, the defence minister and military chief of staff.

Anti-Gaddafi Forces Push Into Ousted Dictator's Home Town

2011-10-12T09:29:00.001+01:00

Anti-Gaddafi forces will today attack part of Colonel Gaddafi's home town where loyalists remain holed up - amid signs the battle is nearly over. Sky's Alex Rossi, reporting from the front line, said fighters loyal to the National Transitional Council (NTC) have advanced deep into the city taking the university, conference centre, hospital and main police station. They claim supporters of Col Gaddafi remain in just one area, known as district 2, in the northwest of the city. Rossi said: "The fall of Sirte is inevitable - most likely today. "The big question is who is inside this city and why have they put up such a resistance. "It is believed senior members of the Gaddafi regime have been here and were resisting so much because they know what fate awaits them." One of Gaddafi's sons is reportedly hiding in Sirte The head of the NTC has arrived in Sirte, as the fighting continues. Sky's security editor Sam Kiley said the rebels have reached a crucial point in the battle for Sirte: "I think the rebels now have decided they have to go for it. "If this drags on for much longer they simply won't have the manpower or the resources to be able to sustain a siege of the Gaddafi forces for very much longer." Anti-Gaddafi forces have reportedly raised their flag on top of the Libyan city's convention centre. One of the commanders in Sirte said he had reports that one of Colonel Muammar Gaddafi's sons and several senior officials from the regime were hiding in villas in the city.

This is the buff soldier who exchanged numbers with Cheryl Cole.

2011-09-23T20:47:00.001+01:00

Andy Baker plans to meet up with the former X Factor judge after the pair met during her morale-boosting trip to Afghanistan.

The pair were introduced at an award presentation at Camp Bastion and met again a barracks dinner.

New man? Soldier Andy Baker caught Cheryl Cole's eye during her moral-boosting trip to Afghanistan and he hopes to take her out for dinner

They posed for several photos together and once Cheryl returned home, she said she planned to give her 'gorgeous soldier' a call.

Buff: It's easy to see what attracted the singer to Andy, known as Bagsy to his friends

Andy, 25, who is known as Bagsy to his peers, plans to meet up with her once he returns home.

His brother-in-law Graham Peck told the Daily Mirror yesterday: 'Andy would love to take Cheryl out for dinner when he’s back in the UK.

'He thought she was absolutely lovely, and really gorgeous – I think all the guys did.

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“Andy contacted me through Facebook, raving about Cheryl and even made a photo of them his profile picture.

'They met up a couple of times during her trip and hit it off.'

But the Girls Aloud star may have to wait until next month as Andy has no mobile phone service until October 1.

Graham added: 'When Bagsy read that Cheryl was planning on ringing her mystery soldier, he panicked because he’s not allowed to have his phone on for another nine days – it’s military rules.

'He wants her to know that he’ll be in touch the moment he lands, and wants her to wait for him. Andy’s a great guy and keeps himself fit in the gym.'

Popstar to soldier: Cheryl was seen wearing army fatigues with her surname embroided on the pocket of her shirt

Andy, of Colchester, Essex, sports an enviable six-pack and has a tattoo sprawling from his left wrist and across his chest.

He serves with the tough 3 Commando Brigade, the Royal Navy’s amphibious infantry and has been in the Marines for four years.

Andy is currently based in the Marines’ Logistics branch and earns about £29,000 a year, compared with Cheryl's ex husband Ashley Cole's £90,000 a week.

He is also apparently a keen footballer.

One of the troops: Cheryl with a group of servicemen during her visit to Afghanistan

After her trip, Cheryl said: 'Not only are the soldiers incredibly brave, a few were incredibly cute. There was a bit of banter with a couple of the lads and yes, a few flirted I think.

'I came back with a phone number from one lad, although I think his talking to me was a dare.

'I think I am going to call him this week and let’s see what happens. I’m sure he’s not expecting us to, but that’s why it’ll be funny.'

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas makes UN statehood bid

2011-09-23T20:21:00.001+01:00

Palestinian leader Mahmoud Abbas has submitted his bid to the UN for recognition of a Palestinian state. To rapturous applause in the General Assembly, he urged the Security Council to back a state with pre-1967 borders. He said the Palestinians had entered negotiations with Israel with sincere intentions, but blamed the building of Jewish settlements for their failure. Israeli PM Benjamin Netanyahu said he was reaching out to Palestinians and blamed them for refusing to negotiate. "I continue to hope that President Abbas will be my partner in peace," he said in his speech in New York. "Let's meet here today in the United Nations. Who's there to stop us?" Mr Netanyahu added that the core of the conflict was not settlements but the refusal of the Palestinians to recognise Israel as a Jewish state. Hours after receiving it, UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon transmitted the Palestinian request to the Security Council. Israel and the US say a Palestinian state can only be achieved through talks with Israel - not through UN resolutions. 'Come to peace' President Barack Obama told Mr Abbas on Thursday that the US would use its UN Security Council veto to block the move. Continue reading the main story Analysis Jeremy Bowen BBC Middle East editor, New York Some delegations here at the UN in New York gave Palestinian Authority leader Mahmoud Abbas a standing ovation - they were clapping and even whistling in support. That is significant because if it comes to a vote in the Security Council - and if the Americans veto it - Palestinians have a Plan B. That Plan B is to go to the General Assembly - where there are no vetoes - and get enhanced status, not full membership but something better than they have now. The Palestinians say they want to negotiate but not in the way they have negotiated before - there has to be clear parameters and a timetable. The Palestinian point is that since 18 years of negotiation has not worked, let's try something new. "I call upon the distinguished members of the Security Council to vote in favour of our full membership," he told the General Assembly, in what was for him an unusually impassioned speech. He added that he hoped for swift backing. Many delegates gave him a standing ovation. "I also appeal to the states that have not yet recognised the State of Palestine to do so." "The time has come for my courageous and proud people, after decades of displacement and colonial occupation and ceaseless suffering, to live like other peoples of the earth, free in a sovereign and independent homeland," he said. He urged Israel to "come to peace". And he said the building of Jewish settlements was "the primary cause for the failure of the peace process". A spokesman for the Islamist movement Hamas, which controls the Gaza Strip, criticised the speech. Salah Bardawil said Mr Abbas had deviated from the aspirations of the Palestinian people by accepting the 1967 borders, which he said left 80% of Palestinian land inside Israel. 'Future and destiny' Meanwhile in the West Bank, crowds roared their approval as Mr Abbas demanded UN acceptance of a Palestinian state within pre-1967 borders. Continue reading the main story Middle East viewpoints Analyst Yezid Sayigh argues that US and Israeli policies have forced the Palestinians to resort to requesting full UN membership. Israeli commentator Yossi Klein Halevi argues that the Palestinians need to convince the Israelis that any state would not be a threat. "With our souls, with our blood, we will defend Palestine," they said. Mr Abbas had called for peaceful marches in support of his initiative, but some clashes were reported: One Palestinian was shot dead by Israeli troops during clashes in the village of Qusra, south of Nablus, Palestinian sources say At the Qalandiya checkpoint, Israeli troops fired tear gas on stone-throwing Palestinian youths In the village of Nabi Saleh, protesters burned Israeli flags and pictures of President Obama The process began with Mr Abbas presenting a written request for a State of Palestine to be admitted as a full UN member state to the UN secretary general. The BBC's Kim Ghattas at the UN says that until the last minute Western diplomats tried and failed to stop the Palestinians making the request. Even now, efforts are under way to restart direct talks between the Israelis and Palestinians in an attempt to defuse tensions, our correspondent says. The Security Council will examine it and vote on the request. In order to pass, it would need the backing of nine out of 15 council members, with no vetoes from the permanent members. A Security Council vote could take weeks to come about and the US may not even need to exercise its veto - Washington and Israel have been lobbying council members to either vote against the Palestinian plan or abstain. Continue reading the main story Palestinian UN membership bid Palestinians currently have permanent observer entity status at the UN They are represented by the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO) Officials now want an upgrade so a state of Palestine has full member status at the UN They seek recognition on 1967 borders - in the West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and Gaza Enhanced observer member status could be an interim option Q&A: Palestinians' UN statehood plans Why Obama has turned towards Israel French President Nicolas Sarkozy has urged a compromise, suggesting the General Assembly give the Palestinians enhanced status as a non-member state to allow a clear timeline for talks - a month to start negotiations, six months to deal with borders and security and a year to finalise a "definitive agreement". A vote on enhanced status - enjoyed by others such as the Vatican - would not require a Security Council recommendation but a simple majority in the General Assembly, where no veto is possible. Currently the Palestinians have observer status at the UN. The "Quartet" of US, European, Russian and UN mediators has been working on reaching a framework agreement to restart talks, based on Mr Obama's vision of borders fashioned from Israel's pre-1967 boundary, with agreed land swaps.

Muammar Gaddafi has fled Sabha

2011-09-22T15:29:00.001+01:00

The National Transitional Council are investigating an unconfirmed report that Muammar Gaddafi has fled from Sabha, NTC spokesman reports. NTC spokesman also states that Libyan government forces now control most of Sabha with small pockets of resistance from pro-Gaddafi snipers.

Bloody Sunday family rejects payout

2011-09-22T10:53:00.001+01:00

Relatives of one of the Bloody Sunday victims have firmly rejected any offer of Government compensation. Sisters Linda and Kate Nash, whose teenage brother William was among 14 men who died after paratroopers opened fire on civil rights protesters in Londonderry in January 1972, said: "I find it repulsive." The Ministry of Defence has confirmed that moves are under way to compensate the families following representation from solicitors acting on behalf of some of the relatives. The Nash sisters said they would not take money for personal financial gain: "Not under any circumstances will I ever accept money for the loss of my brother. "I find it repulsive, taking anything from the MoD. If the MoD wants to set up bursaries they can, but not in my brother's name," Ms Nash said. Prime Minister David Cameron has already apologised to victims and said the shootings were wrong. An MOD spokesman said: "We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly. For that, the Government is deeply sorry. We are in contact with the families' solicitors and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation, we will do so." Lord Saville drew up a landmark report last year which criticised the Army over the killings. His panel ruled that the Army fired first and without provocation. It found that all 14 who died and the others who were injured almost four decades ago were unarmed and completely innocent. The MoD's move followed a letter sent to the Prime Minister by solicitors for the families, asking what he was going to do about Bloody Sunday. He described the killings as unjustified and unjustifiable. Defining who would be eligible for compensation could be complicated as many immediate family members are already dead. Relatives received a small payment worth a few hundred pounds from the MOD, without admitting liability, shortly after the event.

Pakistan bus attack kills dozens

2011-09-20T17:44:00.001+01:00

25 Shia Muslim pilgrims have been killed after gunmen opened fire on a bus in western Pakistan, officials said. The pilgrims were going through Mastung district in Baluchistan province, en route to the Iranian border, when the attack occurred, said a senior district official, Saeed Umrani. Two motorcycles blocked the path of the bus and three gunmen stormed the vehicle, opening fire on the roughly 40 pilgrims inside, said a local tribal police officer, Dadullah Baluch, after interviewing survivors and eyewitnesses. At least 25 people were killed and more than a dozen injured in the attack on Tuesday, he added. The dead and wounded were being taken to a hospital in Quetta, about 35 miles to the north, he said. Pakistan is a majority Sunni Muslim state. Although most Sunnis and Shias live there relatively peacefully, extremists on both sides often target each other's leaders and activists. The Sunni-Shia schism over the true heir to the prophet Muhammad dates back to the seventh century.

Taliban turban bomber kills Afghan ex-president

2011-09-20T17:42:00.001+01:00

A Taliban suicide bomber with concealed explosives in a turban on Tuesday assassinated former Afghan president Burhanuddin Rabbani, who was leading government peace efforts, police said. The bomber struck during a meeting at the Kabul home of Rabbani, who was last year appointed chief of the Afghan High Peace Council that President Hamid Karzai tasked with negotiating with the Taliban. His death is the most high-profile political assassination since the 2001 US-led invasion ousted the Taliban from power and comes just two months after Karzai's brother Ahmed Wali Karzai was also killed. The attackers arrived at Rabbani's house with Mohammad Massom Stanikzai, Rabbani's deputy, for a meeting before the turban bomber detonated his explosives, according to one source amid conflicting reports of the incident. A member of the High Peace Council, Fazel Karim Aymaq, said the men had come with "special messages" from the Taliban and were "very trusted." Kabul criminal investigations chief Mohammad Zaher said two men "negotiating with Rabbani on behalf of the Taliban" arrived at his house, one with explosives hidden in his turban. "He approached Rabbani and detonated his explosives. Rabbani was martyred and four others including Massom Stanikzai (his deputy) were injured." The bomber struck close to the US embassy, making it the the second attack within a week in Kabul's supposedly secure diplomatic zone. The killing prompted Afghan President Hamid Karzai to cut short his visit to the United States, his spokesman said, adding he was still expected to meet US President Barack Obama as scheduled before leaving. An AFP reporter saw an ambulance at the scene and said police had blocked off surrounding roads. The reporter also heard guards at the house shouting for an ambulance for Rabbani's deputy. Two of the former president's political allies, who did not want to be named and speaking before police confirmed Rabbani's death, wept as they told AFP he had been killed. "Yes, he is dead," said one of the two sources by telephone. The Taliban were not immediately reachable for comment, but the insurgency led by its militia has hit Kabul increasingly hard in recent months. The Pakistani government swiftly condemned the assassination, describing Rabbani as a "friend" with whom Islamabad was working closely on peace efforts. "The people of Pakistan stand by their Afghan brothers and sisters in this moment of grief," a joint statement released by President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said, just days after the United States accused the Pakistani government of having ties to Taliban faction the Haqqani network. Among the most high-profile attacks was last week's 20-hour siege of the US embassy and the NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) headquarters which left 14 people dead. Rabbani was president of Afghanistan from 1992 until the Taliban took power in 1996 and headed a country wracked by civil war. Karzai's brainchild, the High Peace Council was intended to open a dialogue with insurgents who have been trying to bring down his government since the US-led invasion overthrew their regime. The 68-member council, hand-picked by the president, was inaugurated on October 7, 2010, amid mounting reports of secret peace talks with Taliban leaders and key insurgent groups. Delivering his acceptance speech, Rabbani said he was "confident" that peace was possible, according to a statement from the palace. "I hope we are able to take major steps in bringing peace and fulfil our duties with tireless effort and help from God," he was quoted as saying. According to Human Rights Watch, Rabbani is among prominent Afghans implicated in war crimes during the brutal fighting that killed or displaced hundreds of thousands of Afghans in the early 1990s.

Six held in major anti-terror probe

2011-09-19T19:04:00.001+01:00

Six men have been arrested in connection with one of the most significant intelligence-led counter-terrorism operations this year. The men were detained at or near their homes in Birmingham on suspicion of the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism in the UK following a joint investigation by both police and MI5. It is understood the investigation relates to suspected Islamist extremism, but it is not thought that an attack or threat was imminent. A seventh person, a 22-year-old woman, was arrested on suspicion of failing to disclose information contrary to the Terrorism Act 2000, police said. West Midlands Police said the "large-scale operation" had been running for some time and had been subject to regular review, adding that the action was necessary "in order to ensure public safety".

Pirates kill Brit David Tebbutt and kidnap wife

2011-09-12T07:31:00.001+01:00

BRITISH tourist has been killed and his wife kidnapped after suspected Somali pirates stormed their villa at an exclusive Kenyan resort. They were attacked by at least five men as they lay in bed in their beachside villa at 2am yesterday. David Tebbutt, 58, is believed to have been shot trying to protect wife Judith, 56, from the raiders. They bundled her into a speedboat and vanished. The couple, from Bishop's Stortford, Herts, had been at the Kiwayu Safari Village just a few hours and were the only guests. The secluded resort is 18 miles from the border with war-ravaged Somalia, notorious for its pirates. Police spokesman Eric Kiraithe said a massive search involving military boats, helicopters and ground forces had begun at dawn. He added: "We are hoping that we will be able to at least find the lady. "We believe it is a kidnap but we are yet to receive any communication from the alleged kidnappers." Pirates tend not to raid on land — and it is rare for them to harm any victims because they want to ransom them. That has led to speculation that the attack could be the work of local Islamic fanatics who wanted to make their mark on the 9/11 anniversary. But police commissioner Mathew Iteere said: "So far we are treating it as a bandit attack. We've not received any hint pointing at a terror group.

Saadi Gaddafi, third son of the former Libyan leader, has fled the country into neighbouring Niger,

2011-09-12T07:18:00.001+01:00

Saadi Gaddafi in Sydney in 2005 Photo: REUTERS

His flight reduces the retinue of close family members sticking by Col Gaddafi to just two sons, Saif al-Islam and Mutassim, and his closest aide and brother-in-law, Abdullah Senussi.

Marou Amadou, the Niger justice minister, confirmed he had crossed the two countries’ Saharan border in a convoy of vehicles and been intercepted by local troops.

He said the convoy was continuing to the northern town of Agadez and from there to the capital Niamey, where a number of Touareg tribal leaders formerly loyal to Col Gaddafi have also sought refuge in recent weeks.

His flight will be a further blow to the confidence of those troops remaining loyal to the old regime. Earlier in the day, rebels made advances on the two remaining loyalist hold-outs in northern Libya after a string of Nato bombing raids.

Saadi was one of the more westernised of Col Gaddafi’s family, though no less capricious that the rest. A former footballer, he played twice for Italian Serie A teams, though he was banned for failing a drugs test.

'Credible' terror threat for 9/11

2011-09-09T09:31:00.001+01:00

The threat is unconfirmed but reportedly involves Washington DC and New York, where people are preparing to mark the 10 year anniversary of 9/11, the worst ever terrorist attack on US soil in which nearly 3,000 people died. New York's Mayor Michael Bloomberg said the new threat was uncorroborated, but he asked citizens to report suspicious activity and said that security would be increased at bridges, tunnels and on public transport. He added: "For the record, I plan to take the subway tomorrow morning." 9/11 anniversary The anniversary of 9/11 will be marked by a ceremony at Ground Zero, attended by President Barack Obama as well as former president George W Bush. The White House said President Obama had been briefed on the threat against the United States. It noted that the US government had "enhanced its security posture" ahead of the anniversary. White House spokesman Jay Carney added: "We're hyper-vigilant to this specific report that's just coming in."

Soldiers may face Mousa prosecution

2011-09-08T23:03:00.001+01:00

British soldiers could face a fresh prosecution over the brutal death of an Iraqi civilian after a scathing report condemned the "shameful" abuse of prisoners in UK custody. A landmark public inquiry concluded that father-of-two Baha Mousa, 26, died after an "appalling episode of serious gratuitous violence" meted out by members of 1st Battalion the Queen's Lancashire Regiment (1QLR). Inquiry chairman Sir William Gage said a number of British officers who could have stopped the abuse, including 1QLR's former commanding officer Colonel Jorge Mendonca, bore a "heavy responsibility" for the "grave and shameful events". He also strongly criticised the "corporate failure" by the Ministry of Defence that led to "conditioning" techniques banned by the UK in 1972, including hooding and making prisoners stand in painful stress positions, being used by soldiers in Iraq. The £13 million public inquiry, which has published its 1,400-page final report, condemned the "lack of moral courage to report abuse" within Preston-based 1QLR. It named 19 soldiers who assaulted Mr Mousa and nine Iraqis detained with him, and found that many others, including several officers, must have known what was happening. The damning report said the violence could not be described as a "one-off" because of evidence that 1QLR troops abused and mistreated Iraqi civilians on other occasions. Lawyers for Mr Mousa's family called for the soldiers responsible for his death to face charges in the light of the findings. Seven members of 1QLR, including Col Mendonca, faced allegations relating to the mistreatment of the detainees at a high-profile court martial in 2006-07. The trial ended with them all cleared, apart from Corporal Donald Payne, who became the first member of the British armed forces convicted of a war crime when he pleaded guilty to inhumanely treating civilians. Payne was acquitted of manslaughter. The legal team for Mr Mousa's relatives and the other detainees believe that evidence in the inquiry's report could form the basis for a new prosecution. Sapna Malik, from law firm Leigh Day and Co, said: "In light of the cogent and serious findings by Sir William Gage, we now expect that the military and civilian prosecuting authorities of this country will act to ensure that justice is done." The Crown Prosecution Service said the inquiry's report had not been referred to it. The Service Prosecuting Authority, which brings military prosecutions, was not available for comment.

'Terrorist' Attack Hits New Delhi

2011-09-07T23:04:00.001+01:00

Indian authorities say a terrorist attack outside the Indian high court in New Delhi killed at least 11 people and injured 66 others. Police believe the explosive was placed inside a briefcase near a main gate to the high court in New Delhi. The blast is being described as a "medium-intensity bomb." Injured were rapidly transported to area hospitals and police cordoned off the area to begin an investigation. Speaking from Bangladesh, Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh was quick to label the explosion an act of terror. "This is a cowardly act of a terrorist nature... All the people of India have to stand united so that the scourge of terrorism is crushed," he said. Indian Home Minister P. Chidambaram visited the bomb site and says top national investigation teams are examining evidence. "At this stage, it is not possible to identify the group that caused the bomb blast," he said. There have been no claims of responsibility. Chidambaram reminded lawmakers that New Delhi is a target of terrorist groups, especially when parliament is in session. "We shall never be intimidated by terrorist groups," he said. "We are determined to track down the perpetrators of this horrific crime and bring them to justice." In New Delhi, there have been 15 bombings since 1997. For many, Wednesday's explosion also called up fresh memories of July's serial bombing in the southern Indian commerce capital, Mumbai, which killed 20 people.

20 people, including a senior army officer, were killed on Wednesday when two blasts were detonated by separate suicide bombers in southwest Pakistan

2011-09-07T18:52:00.001+01:00

At least 20 people, including a senior army officer, were killed on Wednesday when two blasts were detonated by separate suicide bombers in southwest Pakistan, police officials said.

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Reuters

A police officer assisted an injured man at the site of a double suicide bombing in Quetta, Pakistan, on Wednesday.

The attackers targeted the Frontier Corps, a paramilitary force commanded by army officers, stationed in Quetta. At least 30 people were injured in the explosions.

There was no immediate claim of responsibility but suspicion immediately fell on Al Qaeda and Taliban militants . On Monday, Pakistani officials announced the arrest of a senior Al Qaeda leader, Younis al-Mauritani from Quetta. The operation was conducted by Inter-Services Intelligence, the country’s intelligence organization, and the Frontier Corps, according to an army spokesman.

The attack Wednesday morning in Quetta took place in a high-security neighborhood where several government offices and residences of high-ranking government officials are located.

The attackers targeted the house of Brig. Farrukh Shehzad, the deputy inspector general of the Frontier Corps. One bomber detonated his vehicle outside the house of the officer, a witness told AAJ TV, a private television news channel.

Soon after the first attack, another attacker entered the house on foot and started firing before detonating his explosives. Brigadier Shehzad was wounded and his wife was killed, according to initial local news reports. A colonel, Khalid Masood, was also killed in the attack.

Local television networks broadcast images of charred vehicles as ambulances ferried the wounded to nearby hospitals. The house of the wounded brigadier was badly damaged.

Quetta, the capital of Baluchistan Province, which borders Afghanistan and Iran, has a history of sectarian and nationalist violence. Al Qaeda leaders and Taliban militants are also thought to have found a safe haven in the city and the province

Heavy gunfire in central, north Syria; 11 killed

2011-09-07T18:50:00.001+01:00

Syrian security forces unleashed a barrage of gunfire on Wednesday, killing at least 11 people and leaving thousands cowering in their homes as President Bashar Assad's troops kept up the government's assault on a 6-month-old uprising, activists and witnesses said. Nine of the dead were in Homs, a hotbed of opposition to Assad's autocratic regime. Two others were shot dead during raids in Sarameen, in northern Syria. For days, security forces have been pursuing activists and anti-government protesters in Homs, part of a ferocious crackdown on the most serious challenge to the 40-year Assad dynasty. The UN says more than 2,200 people have died in nearly six months of protests. "All through the night, there was shooting. The gunfire didn't stop," a resident of the city said by phone on Wednesday. "I can't tell exactly what is going on because it's dangerous to go out." Omar Idilbi, a spokesman for the Local Coordination Committees, an activist network, said security forces simultaneously stormed several districts in the old part of the city, including the Bab Dreib, Bab Houd and the Bayada neighborhoods. Nine people were confirmed dead in ongoing shooting in those areas, the LCC said. The London-based Observatory for Human Rights, which has a network of activists across the country, said 10 were killed. Homs, Syria's third-largest city, has seen some of the largest anti-regime protests in Syria over the past months, despite repeated crackdowns. On Tuesday, security forces opened fire from a checkpoint in Rastan, just north of Homs, killing two people, including a 15-year-old boy, activists said. They said five unidentified corpses, including that of a woman, also were found dumped around the city centre.

US deplores 'cowardly' India bombing

2011-09-07T18:46:00.001+01:00

The United States on Wednesday condemned the "cowardly" bombing outside a courthouse in New Delhi, and praised the courage of the Indian people "in the face of horrific violence." "The United States condemns in the strongest terms this morning's deadly bombing outside the New Delhi High Court, and extends its deepest condolences to those affected by these cowardly attacks," US State Department spokeswoman Victoria Nuland said in a statement. "The people of India have once again demonstrated remarkable resiliency and courage in the face of horrific violence," Nuland said. Nuland said the United States "stands ready to offer any and all assistance to Indian authorities," and that Washington was monitoring the situation to ensure "the safety and security" of US citizens in India. "Terrorism is a scourge that affects us all and the United States stands with India in confronting this global challenge," she added. Wednesday's powerful bomb, hidden in a briefcase, ripped through a busy crowd outside the court, killing at least 11 people and wounding dozens more. It was the first major attack on Indian soil since triple blasts in Mumbai on July 13 killed 26 people.

NIGER'S FOREIGN MINISTER CLAIMS GADDAFI WAS NOT ON CONVOY

2011-09-06T14:52:00.001+01:00

Neither Gaddafi nor any of his sons were on the convoy that arrived in Niger from Libya. The statement was made by Niger Foreign Minister, Mohammed Bazoum, on the microphones of Al Arabiya.& 13; The news was leaked by sources of the National Transational Council, according to which the 200-250 vehicle convoy that crossed the Fezzan desert to reach the ciy of Agadez, escorted by local security forces, carried an enormous load of gold and cash as well as several members of Gaddafi's family. "None of this is true", Bazoum said, cutting short, "it isn't Gaddafi and nor do I think that the convoy was as large as reported". In his opinion, the convoy carried former officials of Gaddafi's regime, although of intermediate ranking: this therefore also appears to deny the presence on the convoy of Mansour Daw, the chief of the Colonel's security forces. & 13; Also France, the former colonial power of the sub-Saharan Country, denied rumors concerning Gaddafi: "We have no information enabling us to think that Colonel Gaddafi is on that convoy", reiterated a spokesperson of the Elysee

talkSPORt to be broadcast to British troops stationed overseas

2011-09-05T23:09:00.001+01:00

talkSPORT commentary on the Rugby World Cup 2011 is to be broadcast to British soldiers serving overseas, the British Forces Broadcasting Service has announced. Coverage commences on September 9 and will enable troops stationed in more than 20 countries; including Afghanistan, Gibraltar and the Falkland Islands, to keep up to date with all the games as they are played. England legend Brian Moore, aka The Pit Bull, will be heading up talkSPORT's coverage for the tournament alongside David Campese. He said: “The Rugby World Cup is a massive event and is sure to be a fantastic spectacle – I’m really pleased to be supporting our brave troops abroad.” BFBS Controller Nicky Ness said: “I am delighted that the BFBS and talkSPORT partnership now extends to Rugby World Cup coverage. This tournament is really important to the armed forces community for whom sport is crucial part of life. The fact that our troops will be able to listen on the front line and in far flung corners of the world will make a real difference to morale.

Midlands burn as children as young as NINE join copycat riots

2011-08-10T11:25:00.001+01:00

Midlands burn as children as young as NINE join copycat riots... but London's streets are 'under control'
Three men killed in Birmingham as hit-and-run prompts triple murder investigation
Serious disorder in Manchester, but also unrest in Wolverhampton, West Bromwich and Salford
Violence in Nottingham, Liverpool, Leicester, too
Gloucester also struck by violence as firefighters tackle blaze at derelict art college
Police investigating reports that shots have been fired at police officer in Birmingham
Fire damages recycling facility in Tottenham
A Nottingham police station is fire-bombed by gang of between 30 and 40 men
16,000 officers on London's streets keep the capital calm
109 arrests in West Midlands, 110 in Manchester and Salford and 50 across Merseyside. 19 are arrested in Bristol
768 people arrested in London since Saturday and 167 charged. 81 are arrested overnight
21-year-old man arrested following Reeves furniture store fire in Croydon
Liam Gallagher's Manchester boutique smashed and ransacked

Osama killers dead in Afghan crash

2011-08-07T14:59:00.001+01:00

As the US mourned the death of its 30 soldiers, including Navy SEALs from the broader unit that killed Osama bin Laden, in a chopper crash in Afghanistan, a probe has been launched to determine the exact cause of the incident that led to the biggest single loss for American troops in the decade-long war.

"No words describe the sorrow we feel in the wake of this tragic loss" of 38 lives -- 30 US troops, seven Afghan commandos and an interpreter, General John R Allen, International Security Assistant Force Commander (ISAF), said in a statement from Kabul.

Following the crash on Saturday, the Afghan Taliban claimed that its militants shot down the helicopter in Wardak province of Afghanistan, according to SITE intelligence.

Among those killed in the deadliest attack on the foreign troops were 25 US special operations forces troops, including 22 Navy SEALS from the same group which was involved in the covert US military operation to kill al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden in May this year. But none of the SEAL members, who died on Saturday, were personally involved in the Osama operation.

Besides, five more US soldiers, seven Afghan troops and an interpreter died in the crash of the helicopter during an anti-Taliban operation. "All of those killed in this operation were true heroes who had already given so much in the defence of freedom," Allen said.

An investigation is underway to determine the exact cause of the crash, the ISAF statement said. "This tragic incident, once again reminds us of the tremendous sacrifices the brave soldiers of our two countries are making every day alongside each other to bring peace and security to our nations and to make the world a safer place for all of us," Afghan Ambassador to the US, Eklil Hakimi, said.

Thirty-one members of the American special forces have been killed in Afghanistan

2011-08-06T19:20:00.001+01:00

Thirty-one members of the American special forces have been killed in Afghanistan in the deadliest incident of the 10-year war when the Taliban shot down a US helicopter.

The majority of the dead were from Navy Seal Team 6, the unit that killed Osama bin Laden in a night-time raid deep into Pakistan. Seven members of the Afghan National Army were also killed when rebels destroyed the massive double-rotor Chinook transport helicopter with a surface-to-air missile.

The Taliban claimed they had downed the helicopter with rocket fire while it was taking part in a raid on a house where insurgents were gathered in the province of Wardak. It said wreckage was strewn at the scene.

Nato confirmed the crash and added that there "was enemy activity in the area". But it said it was still investigating the cause and conducting a recovery operation. It did not release details or casualty figures.

In a statement of condolence to Barack Obama, Hamid Karzai, the Afghan president, expressed his "deep sorrow and sadness".

The previous most deadly day for US personnel in Afghanistan was in June 2005, when 16 Seals were killed after a Taliban rocket hit a Chinook in the eastern province of Kunar.

At a time of collapsing public support for the Afghan war in the US, where the conflict is increasingly seen as too expensive and possibly unwinnable, the death of so many soldiers is likely to increase pressure on Obama to speed up the withdrawal of US forces. In a statement, Obama said the deaths were "a reminder of the extraordinary sacrifices made by the men and women of our military and their families, including all who have served in Afghanistan".

Local officials in Wardak, a province on the western doorstep of the Afghan capital, said the helicopter was shot down at 3am on Saturday in Sayedabad district.

The mission was only one of many night raids against Taliban commanders carried out in Afghanistan by international special forces.

One of Nato's intelligence "fusion cells", where information from informants and mobile phone intercepts is pored over by hundreds of analysts, would have been responsible for pinpointing the target of the mission – a senior local Taliban commander called Sheen Marouf. Marouf was believed to be with his men in a compound in Joi Zareen, a town in the Tangi Valley, where there is a strong Taliban presence.

In an email to journalists, Zabiullah Mujahid, a self-proclaimed spokesmen for the Taliban in Afghanistan, said the Taliban fighters fought back from the moment the helicopters arrived.

Roshanak Wardak, a former member of the Afghan parliament and director of the district hospital, said the helicopter had just taken off after completing a mission in which up to eight insurgents were killed and was attempting to leave the area when another Taliban group fired at it.

"This whole area is on the side of the Taliban, so as the helicopter was leaving a group nearby opened fire," she said.

In a sign of how entrenched the insurgency is in the area, Wardak said one of the Taliban killed was the son of her driver. She said helicopters had continued to buzz round the area throughout the day conducting recovery operations.

"The US helicopter was shot down by the Taliban as it was taking off," provincial spokesman Shahidullah Shahid confirmed.

"It was hit by a rocket fired by the insurgents."

The Taliban said a rocket-propelled grenade was used to bring down the helicopter. That a lucky shot from such a relatively inaccurate weapon was the cause of the disaster will reassure Nato officials. They have long fretted that insurgents might get hold of the sophisticated surface-to-air missile systems that largely deprived the Red Army of its air advantage during the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in the 1980s.

Although there have been reports of such weapons systems being smuggled into Afghanistan from Iran, the insurgency has had relatively little success in attacking aircraft, given the huge amount of helicopter traffic in a country with very few roads.

The incident also marks a dramatic change of fortune for US special forces whose daring midnight helicopter assaults received worldwide publicity in May when members of Seal Team 6 staged a successful raid on Bin Laden's hideout deep in Pakistan.

Last year it was revealed that the US covered up a reported surface-to-air missile strike that shot down a Chinook helicopter over Helmand in 2007.

In the past two years night raids have become a key weapon in the fight against the Taliban, with up to six operations carried out every night. The extraordinary pace of operations has been credited with weakening the insurgency in some areas, forcing the Taliban to replace killed or captured commanders with younger and less experienced men.

Night raids have frequently enraged public opinion, however, and President Karzai has repeatedly called for them to be scrapped.

However, Nato officials say that it is far preferable to conduct such operations at night, because this greatly reduces the risk of all-out battles that could create even greater public anger.

They claim that 80% of operations lead to the target being successfully arrested without a shot being fired.

Breivik: 'I Killed Them But Didn't Break Law

2011-07-24T13:28:00.001+01:00

Police said 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik was also adamant that he acted alone.
His confession came as police launched an operation in connection with Friday's massacre and raided a property in the east of Oslo, arresting six people.
Officers from the police's counter-terrorism force, known as Delta, swooped on the address and accessed two chemical containers but found no explosives.
The detainees were later released with police saying they had no link to the attacks.
The operation took place as news broke one of the people injured in the shooting on Utoya island died in hospital, taking the death toll from both attacks to 93.

Breivik wears a uniform that says "Multiculti Traitor Hunting Permit"
Addressing the media earlier, acting police chief Sveinung Sponheim spoke about the suspect and how he had "admitted to the facts of both the bombing and the shooting, although he's not admitting criminal guilt".
"He says that he was alone but the police must verify everything that he said," the police chief said. "Some of the witness statements from the island (shootings) have made us unsure of whether there was one or more shooters."
Police said they had no other suspects following Friday's tragedy, which started when Breivik allegedly set off a car bomb at government headquarters in Oslo, killing at least seven people and injuring 30 more.
NORWAY UNITES TO MOURN ITS MURDERED GENERATION

Then, 90 minutes later, he opened fire on hundreds of teenagers assembled for the Labour Party's annual youth camp on the island of Utoya, shooting dead at least 85 people and seriously wounding a further 67. One of the wounded later died in hospital.
Breivik's lawyer Geir Lippestad told Norway's NRK television channel that the suspect was motivated by a desire to bring about a revolution in Norway.
"He wanted a change in society and, from his perspective, he needed to force through a revolution," he said.
"He wished to attack society and the structure of society. He explained that it was cruel but that he had to go through with these acts."

The victims' bodies lay on the shoreline of Utoya island
As Mr Breivik was charged with terrorism and prepares to be arraigned on Monday, a 1,500-page document detailing plans for an attack, which is believed to be written by the suspect, was discovered on the internet.
It describes his mindset and preparations in the 95 days before the attack and claims he has been planning the acts since 2009.
At least 92 people were killed and a further 97 wounded in his shooting spree on Utoya island and bomb blast in central Oslo.

The Oslo blast damaged the PM's offices and finance and oil ministry buildings
Police say four or five people are still missing after the youth camp massacre and they fear the final death toll could reach 98.
The gunman's document reveals his dislike for what he sees as a growing influence of muslims in Europe.
It reads: "Wednesday May 4 - Day 3: Finished creating the metal skeletons for the blast devices and completing other practical issues relating to gear and equipment.
SKY'S TIM MARSHALL ON THE GUNMAN'S DOCUMENT

"Saturday June 11 - Day 41: I prayed for the first time in a very long time today. I explained to God that unless he wanted the Marxist-Islamic alliance and certain Islamic Takeover of Europe...he must ensure that the warriors fighting for the preservation of European Christendom prevail.
"Friday July 22 - Day 82: Initiate blasting sequences at pre-determined sites... have enough material for 20 blasts... I believe this will be my last entry. It is now Friday July 22nd 12.51pm."
He says that being arrested was part of his plan - he wants notoriety.

The gunman walks past his victims on shoreline. Pic: Marius Arnesen/NRK.
Breivik described himself on his Facebook page as "conservative", "Christian", and interested in hunting and computer games like World of Warcraft and Modern Warfare 2, reports said.
He also said he was the director of Breivik Geofarm, an organic farm that may have given him access to chemicals used in the production of explosives.
A photograph was also posted showing him posed with a machine gun and dressed in a uniform with a badge saying "Marxis Hunter - Multiculti Traitor Hunting Permit" on it.

Utoya Island is about 20 miles from Oslo
A sole message on his Twitter account, dated July 17, was based on a quote from British philosopher John Stuart Mill, reading: "One person with a belief is equal to a force of 100,000 who have only interests."
His father, who is a pensioner living in France, has told Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang, he is shocked at his son's actions.
But he added that he had not been in contact with his son since 1995 and found out about his suspected involvement in the Norway killings on the internet.
"I was reading the online newspapers and suddenly I saw his name and picture," he said. "It was a shock to learn about it. I have not recovered yet."
Police have charged Breivik under Norway's terror law. He will be arraigned tomorrow when a court decides whether police can continue to hold him as the investigation continues.

The shooting on Utoya island took place shortly after a bomb exploded in Oslo
Officers are understood to have searched a flat in west Oslo where he lived as well as his farmhouse on the outskirts of the city.
Following his arrest it was revealed Mr Breivik had bought six tonnes of fertiliser from an agricultural outlet in May, which he is understood to have used to make explosives.
His purchase was not flagged by authorities because he made it through his farming business.

Emergency service workers are rushed off their feet treating the wounded
Police spokesman Roger Andersen described the suspect as a "Christian fundamentalist", adding that his political opinions leaned "to the right".
The head of the populist right-wing Progress Party (FrP) confirmed Breivik had been a party member between 1999 and 2006 and for several years a leader in its youth movement.
He stopped paying his subscription before ending his membership, according to the party.
"Those who knew the suspect when he was a member of the party say that he seemed like a modest person that seldom engaged himself in the political discussions," Siv Jensen said in a statement on the FrP website.

People were seen swimming away from the island in an attempt to escape
Members of the Norwegian royal family, politicians and the public packed the pews at Oslo's cathedral for a memorial service to remember the victims on Sunday morning.
The crowd spilled into the plaza outside where flowers and candles were strewn over the streets as tributes to the fallen.
Norway's prime minister Jens Stoltenberg fought to hold back tears as he told the mourners at the mass the scale of the attacks was yet to emerge.
He said the names and photographs of those who died would soon be released and "the scale of the evil will then emerge".
Meanwhile, British police are on standby to help detectives investigating the attacks.
Home Secretary Theresa May said she had spoken to Norwegian justice minister Knut Storberget and offered him any assistance needed.

Who is the suspect in Norway's attacks

2011-07-23T13:53:00.001+01:00

Norway struggles to come to terms with its greatest loss of life in decades, all eyes are on the man charged in the explosion in central Oslo and the deadly shooting rampage at a youth camp.
While police have not officially named him, Norwegian television and newspaper reports have identified the suspect as 32-year-old Anders Behring Breivik, of Norwegian origin.
A picture is emerging, gleaned from official sources and social media, of a right-wing Christian fundamentalist who may have had an issue with Norway's multi-cultural society.
Norwegian and international news outlets have run photographs of a blond man with blue-green eyes and chiseled features, dressed in a preppy style.
A victim who was shot during the attack at the youth camp on Utoya island told CNN Saturday that he had seen pictures of Breivik taken from what is believed to be his Facebook page and shown on NRK and TV2. The victim said he recognized the man from the news reports as the gunman.
Campers shot at Utoya Island Boater describes rescuing survivors Utoya survivor: 'I'm glad I'm alive' Norway in shock Norwegian FM on attacks

Breivik is a member of the Oslo Pistol Club and has three weapons registered in his name, according to leading Norwegian newspaper VG, citing Norway's official weapons register. They are a Glock pistol, a rifle and a shotgun, VG reported.
A post in Breivik's name on an online forum, Document.no, from December 2009, talks about non-Muslim teenagers being "in an especially precarious situation with regards to being harassed by Islamic youth."
"I know of many hundred occasions where non-Muslims have been robbed, beaten up and harassed by Islamic gangs," the post reads. "I had a best friend between the ages of 12-17 who was a Pakistani, so I was one of the many protected, cool 'potatoes' that had protection. But this also made me see the hypocrisy up close and personal and made me nauseous."
A Twitter account attributed to Breivik by Norwegian newspaper Aftenposten has only one message, dated July 17. "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who has only interests," it says, adapting a quote from 19th-century British philosopher John Stuart Mill.
Police have not ruled out the possibility that other people may have helped the suspect, but say at present they are not pursuing any other arrests.
"The official questioning is starting now," Roger Andresen, a police official, told reporters during a news conference Saturday.
The suspect was cooperating with police, making it clear he wanted to explain himself, Andresen said.
Two addresses connected to the suspect are being searched, police said. One of them is believed to be an apartment in Oslo and the other a farm in Hedmark.
NRK reports that Breivik is registered as having run a company which produced "vegetables, melons, roots and tubers" -- an industry which allows access to large amounts of fertilizer, the broadcaster notes, which can be used for explosives.
NRK also reports that Breivik does not have a military background and was exempt from Norway's mandatory military service. He has not had any special military training, it adds on its website.
More details on the man are sure to emerge in the coming hours and days. But what many Norwegians find hard to comprehend is that the chief suspect in the massacre appears to be one of their own.
Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg stressed that whoever was behind the attacks must be dealt with properly.
"It is very important that those who are responsible -- one or several persons -- are sentenced according to Norwegian law, in the Norwegian system of justice," he said.
"Norway is a small country but it is a proud country. We are all very close, especially in times like this."

Anders Behring Breivik, the 32-year-old suspect in Friday's attacks in Norway, held right-wing views, say police.

2011-07-23T09:23:00.001+01:00

Police chief Sveinung Sponheim said his internet postings "suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views".

"But whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen," he told Norwegian broadcaster NRK.

Little is currently known about him apart from what has appeared on social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter - and these entries appear to have been set up just days ago.

On the Facebook page attributed to him, he describes himself as a Christian and a conservative. The Facebook page is no longer available but it also listed interests such as body-building and freemasonry.

The gunman was described by witnesses who saw him on Utoeya island as tall and blond - and dressed in a police uniform. The image of him posted on Facebook depict a blond, blue-eyed man.

The Norwegian newspaper Verdens Gang quoted a friend as saying that the suspect turned to right-wing extremism when in his late 20s. The paper also said that he participated in online forums expressing strong nationalistic views.

Bomb ingredient
Mr Breivik is thought to have studied at the Oslo Commerce School and his work is listed as Breivik Geofarm, a company Norwegian media is describing as a farming sole proprietorship.

The company was set up to cultivate vegetables, melons, roots and tubers, Norway's TV2 says, and speculation in local media is rife that through such a link he may have had access to fertiliser, an ingredient used in bomb-making.

A Twitter account attributed to the suspect has also emerged but it only has one post, which is a quote from philosopher John Stuart Mill: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."

As with his Facebook page, the tweet was posted on 17 July.

It reveals very little about the man except an interest in libertarianism and a clear belief in the power of the individual.

It was complete chaos. I could hear screams and see corpses

2011-07-22T20:56:00.001+01:00

Jon Magnus, the chief foreign correspondent of Oslo's VG newspaper, was sitting at his desk finishing a comment article when the bomb's blast wave blew him off his chair.

"It was 3.26 in the afternoon," he said. "Suddenly the whole building was shaking. It was like it was dancing. There was glass flying through the newsroom. "I was on the far side of the building from where the prime minister's office is. The entire glass front of our building was blown out."

Located a few hundred metres from the little square at Einar Gerhardsen Place which separates the building housing the ministry of health and the offices of the prime minister of Norway, Jens Stoltenberg, the explosion struck the side of the glass-fronted newspaper offices closest to the cluster of government buildings.

The blast shattered what had been a quiet afternoon in Oslo's holiday season, when most people in the capital were preparing to leave for the weekend.

It came months after Norway's state security services warned of the increased risk of jihad-inspired terrorism in Norway, a country that has had almost no modern experience of mass terror. It is not confirmed that the attacks are jihadist.

"Even though I was on the far side of our newsroom from where the explosion occurred," said Magnus, "the air pressure was so enormous it knocked me off my chair. At first I thought the explosion was inside our offices. I thought the bomb had exploded in our newsroom."

The bomb had not exploded in VG but several hundred metres away, the explosion so intense, added Magnus, that when he ventured outside in its immediate aftermath he could see walls had been ripped away and government buildings were burning.

"When I reached the blown-out windows closest to the explosion I could see the prime minister's office on fire. I could see we were right in the middle of the explosion. When I ran out of the building it was complete chaos. I could hear people screaming and see people covered in blood and what looked like corpses, lifeless people with their faces covered. I counted four or five.

"Before we left our own offices we had a pair of binoculars and we could see in the health department what seemed to be bodies hanging out of the windows. We could see into some of the floors and could see people also inside, what appeared to be bodies.

"We have a cafeteria in our basement. The tables in there were all covered in blood."

What precisely had happened Magnus and his fellow colleagues tried to piece together in the immediate aftermath, as some of the first people on the scene.

"There were two badly damaged cars close to the prime minister's office," said Magnus. "One of them had its wheels in the air. Eyewitnesses told us they had seen a black car with four people in it speeding away from the site of the blast but whether that means they were involved and escaping can't be confirmed.

"The damage was enormous," he added. "There was a 10-storey building with all the bricks ripped off. Hundreds, maybe thousands of windows smashed for 10 blocks away from where the explosion happened. Seven hundred yards maybe. I could see floors on the ministry of health burning heavily and the two bottom floors of the prime minister's office – where there is a glass foyer – just blown through so you could see the other side. It was literally hanging on its beams."

Another witness, Kjersti Vedun, said: "People ran in panic … I counted at least 10 injured people."

Ole Tommy Pedersen was standing at a bus stop 100 metres from the government high-rise when the explosion occurred. "I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later," he told the Associated Press.

Photographs showed several bloody figures lying on the ground close to Stoltenberg's office. Others showed survivors walking through the ruins of Oslo's government district, past walls of shattered windows, frames sucked in by the vacuum caused by the huge blast.

The sense of a country suddenly under siege was redoubled within a few hours as reports began to emerge of an attack by a gunman, reportedly dressed as a policeman, on a youth camp being attended by members of Stoltenberg's party outside Oslo, raising fears that the Mumbai-style attack warned of for so long by intelligence services in Europe, had been mounted where it was least expected – in Norway, perhaps chosen as a soft target.

It was a secondary attack that seemed to confirm it was Stoltenberg himself – who had been working at home – and his party who were the intended victims.

VG broke the news that a gunman had opened fire at Utøya and anti-terror units were being dispatched to the scene. Stoltenberg underlined the sense of sudden crisis and panic in Norway, informing his countrymen on television that because of the threat he could not tell them where he was.

"This is very serious," Stoltenberg told Norwegian TV2 television in a phone call. "Even though we have prepared for this type of situation."

Speaking again after the shooting at the island youth camp where he had been due to speak on Saturday, Stoltenberg added: "There is a critical situation at Utøya."

Labour spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl told WAP that some 700 people, mostly teenagers between 14 and 18, were assembled for the camp. "This is a terror attack. It is the most violent event to strike Norway since world war two," said a shocked Geir Bekkevold, an opposition parliamentarian for the Christian Peoples party.

The crisis in Oslo may not be over.

2011-07-22T17:33:00.001+01:00

With Oslo police confirming that "one or more" bombs caused an explosion at the government headquarters Friday afternoon, there are reports that the offices of the broadcaster TV2 have been sealed off because of a suspicious package.

Norwegian State Secretary Kristian Amundsen told BBC that there are people trapped in the buildings hit by the blast. He declined to elaborate, saying: "I can't go into details."

The Friday afternoon blast killed at least two people, while shattering windows and covering the streets in paper and debris. Police say at least 15 others were injured.

Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was not among the injured. A senior adviser said Stoltenberg was not in the building but was instead working at home.

Most of the windows in the 20-floor high-rise building were blown out. The bottom floor appeared to be gutted.

Nearby buildings were also damaged and evacuated. Some of the buildings housed Norway's leading newspapers and NTB. The website of the NRK network showed images of a blackened car lying on its side amid the debris.

No one has yet claimed responsibility for the bombing.

The bombing was unusual for Norway, which has rarely been a target for terror groups. That said, last week, terror charges were filed against an Iraqi-born cleric who allegedly threatened Norwegian politicians with death if he is deported.

The indictment alleged that Mullah Krekar -- the founder of the Kurdish Islamist group Ansar al-Islam -- made various threats in interviews with news media, including the U.S. network NBC.

Norway ordered Krekar deported in 2005 after declaring him a national security threat. The decision was suspended amid worries he would face execution or torture in Iraq.

At a news conference in June 2010, Krekar said that if he were deported to Iraq and killed, Norwegian officials would meet the same fate. He singled out former asylum policy minister Erna Solberg.

At least two people have been killed in a massive explosion in Oslo which has shattered the windows of the Norwegian Prime Minister's offices and forced the evacuation of nearby buildings.

2011-07-22T17:31:00.001+01:00

Police in Norway say the blast - which happened just after 2.30pm today GMT - was caused by a bomb.

There are now reports of an attack on a children's summer camp in Utoya Island, 500 miles north of Oslo. Early reports indicate the camp is a meeting of the youth group of the Labour party - the biggest part in the governing coalition.

Police are also saying this afternoon the office of broadcaster TV2 has been sealed off because of a suspicious package.

The wreckage of a car lies outside government buildings in the centre of Oslo. Police have confirmed the blast was caused by a bomb

The tangled wreckage of a car was seen outside one Government building leading to suggestions it could be have been a car bomb. Officers are investigating whether it was a fertiliser nitrate device.

The Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was not in the city at the time and is unharmed, it has been reported.

Norwegian broadcasters have confirmed one death just before 4pm however early pictures show at least two dead bodies.

At least fifteen people have been injured from flying glass.

The Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg was not in the city at the time and is unharmed, it has been reported

Victims receive treatment outside government buildings in the centre of Oslo as survivors trudge through the wreckage

Debris: Police and rescue workers tend to a wounded person caught up in the blast

A man lies injured in the road amid wreckage from the blast as emergency service personnel rush to help him

Rescue officials tend to a wounded man lying in the street moments after the blast

The blast blew out most windows on the 17-storey building housing Stoltenberg's office, as well as nearby ministries including the oil ministry, which was on fire.
Heavy debris littered the streets and a tall plume of brown smoke blew over the city centre. Witnesses also reported seeing a young man with a bleeding leg being helped away from the area.

All roads into the city centre have been closed, and security officials evacuated people from the area, fearing another blast, local journalists are reporting.

Fortunately, it was a public holiday and the offices were less busy than a normal weekday.

Debris covers the area outside a building in the centre of Oslo with hundreds of windows shattered

A Reuters correspondent counted at least eight injured people. Norwegian news agency NTB said that Stoltenberg was safe in the blast, which happened around 3:30pm.

'It exploded - it must have been a bomb. People ran in panic and ran. I counted at least 10 injured people,' said Kjersti Vedun, who was leaving the area.

An NRK journalist, Ingunn Andersen, said the headquarters of tabloid newspaper VG had also been damaged, according to AP.

'I see that some windows of the VG building and the government headquarters have been broken. Some people covered with blood are lying in the street,' she said.

'It's complete chaos here. The windows are blown out in all the buildings close by.'

Eyewitness Craig Barnes was behind the Government building that was struck.

He told Sky News: 'I'm still shocked, I can't believe it. I've got no words, I'm shaken up. Quite a few people are injured. It has shocked everyone and its a major holiday here. Everyone leaves here for two weeks from today.'

Passersby rush to help a a victim of the blast lying injured in the street

NATO member Norway has sometimes in the past been threatened by leaders of al Qaeda for its involvement in Afghanistan. It has also taken part the NATO bombing of Libya, where Muammar Gaddafi has threatened to strike back in Europe.

However, political violence is virtually unknown in the country.

David Lea, Western Europe analyst, at Control Risks said: 'It's very difficult to tell what has happened. There certainly aren't any domestic Norwegian terrorist groups although there have been some al Qaeda-linked arrests from time to time.

'They are in Afghanistan and were involved in Libya, but it's far too soon to draw any conclusions.'

Norway has about 400 troops currently serving in Afghanistan

The Old Bailey bomber and former IRA hunger striker Marian Price has been charged in connection with the murders of two British soldiers

2011-07-22T15:45:00.001+01:00

The Old Bailey bomber and former IRA hunger striker Marian Price has been charged in connection with the murders of two British soldiers who were shot hours before they were due to leave Northern Ireland for Afghanistan.

Price has been charged with providing property for the purposes of terrorism. It is understood that she is alleged to have provided a mobile phone to the gang responsible for the killings.

Price, 57, who is in custody following the revocation of her release on licence, had been expected to appear before Belfast magistrates court for a preliminary inquiry on Friday. She was not produced after it emerged that her defence team wanted to cross-examine three witnesses, including two senior detectives. A date for the day-long committal hearing is expected to be fixed next month.

Peter Corrigan, Price's lawyer, said she was first questioned 18 months ago about allegations of supplying a phone. He said a legal bid would be made to have the case against her thrown out as an abuse of process.

The charge relates to the murders of Sappers Patrick Azimkar and Mark Quinsey at Massereene barracks in Antrim in March 2009.The two soldiers were shot outside their base as they collected a pizza delivery. They were about to take a flight to Afghanistan and were already wearing desert fatigues.

Two men, including the prominent Lurgan republican Colin Duffy, are due to stand trial accused of their murders later this year.

Price, who is also known by her married name Marian McGlinchy, was jailed along with her sister Dolours and the current Sinn Fein minister Gerry Kelly for their roles in the IRA bombing of the Old Bailey in 1973. The Price sisters went on a hunger strike, during which they were force fed, in a campaign to be transferred to an Irish prison.

Her early release licence was revoked after she appeared beside a masked member of the Real IRA at a republican commemoration in Derry at Easter.

large explosion has hit near government headquarters in the Norwegian capital Oslo.

2011-07-22T15:44:00.001+01:00

The blast is thought to have caused damage to the offices of Norwegian Prime Minister Jens Stoltenberg and a number of other official buildings.

Initial reports suggested Mr Stoltenberg was unharmed.

At least eight people were injured in the city centre explosion, local media reports. No-one has said they were behind the attack.

Television footage from the scene showed rubble and glass from shattered windows in the streets - smoke was around some buildings. The wreckage of at least one car was in street.

All roads into the city centre have been closed, said the NRK newspaper.

Oistein Mjarum, head of communications for the Norwegian Red Cross, said his offices were close to the blast.

"There was a massive explosion which could be heard over the capital Oslo."

Mr Mjarum said there were fires burning in the 17-storey prime minister's building.

Eyewitness Ole Tommy Pedersen said he was standing at a bus stop about 100m away from the blast.

"I saw three or four injured people being carried out of the building a few minutes later," Mr Pedersen told AP.

He said there was a cloud of smoke billowing from the lower floors.

An NRK journalist, Ingunn Andersen, said the headquarters of tabloid newspaper VG had also been damaged.

"I see that some windows of the VG building and the government headquarters have been broken. Some people covered with blood are lying in the street," Associated Press news agency quoted him as saying.

"It's complete chaos here. The windows are blown out in all the buildings close by."

TWO Brits captured in Afghanistan as they prepared to launch a terror attack are a married couple, it was revealed last night.

2011-07-22T10:39:00.001+01:00

The Taliban jihadists were seized by SBS commandos after being tracked from the UK by MI5 and MI6 spies.

Agents think the pair were plotting to attack a UK military base or embassy.

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It is believed the Pakistan-born couple – who have British passports – were arrested at gunpoint in the city of Herat close to the border with Iran.

The renegade pair, who were captured in a hotel, are now being interrogated by UK intelligence experts at a US airbase in Kandahar near Helmand Province where roughly 9,500 British troops are serving. They could be turned over to Aghan authorities.

Officials say the couple met al-Qaeda agents and may hold a gold mine of information about the group.

Army chiefs want to find out how the pair were radicalised in Britain and who gave them contacts for Pakistan where they also travelled.

The Mirror has learnt that as many as 15 more British Taliban are at large in Afghanistan.

All the suspects are being tracked to stop them committing terror attacks in the UK. Last night a senior security source said: “British jihadists have been travelling to Afghanistan since 9/11 and most of them have been carefully watched.

“But when they got to Helmand, which is as lawless as it gets, they’d disappear and pop up again months later in Pakistan on their way out.

“The real problem arises when they are exposed to al-Qaeda which wants them to travel back to the UK, re-infiltrate society and launch terror attacks against British people.”

The Foreign Office yesterday confirmed two Britons had been detained in Afghanistan and could be held for some time.

massive explosion has ripped through a military base in southern Cyprus with at least eight people reported dead, according to the official news agency.

2011-07-11T07:59:00.001+01:00

A massive explosion has ripped through a military base in southern Cyprus with at least eight people reported dead, according to the official news agency.

Information was scant from the scene of the blast at the Evangelos Florakis navy base.

"There are a number of dead which we cannot confirm yet," a spokesperson for the ministry of defence said.

It was unclear what triggered the explosion, which news reports said took place in a munitions dump.

The military base had munitions in storage which Cyprus had confiscated from the Monchegorsk, a vessel sailing from Iran to Syria in 2009.

The intensity of the blast caused extensive damage to a neighbouring community, and in a holiday resort 3km from the site windows and doors of beachside restaurants were blown out.

"The place looks like it was hit by a massive bomb," a Reuters witness said.

Two soldiers on foot patrol in Afghanistan were killed by a single shot from an insurgent "sharpshooter", an inquest has heard.

2011-07-09T13:35:00.001+01:00

Ptes Conrad Lewis, 22, and and Lewis Hendry 20, were patrolling an area in Helmand Province on 9 February.

A bullet hit Pte Hendry in the head and then hit Pte Lewis in the neck, 10 seconds after a first shot was fired, the inquest was told.

The coroner recorded a verdict of unlawful killing.

Pte Lewis, of 4th Battalion The Parachute Regiment was born in Bournemouth but lived in Warwickshire.

Pte Hendry, from Norfolk, was a member of the 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment.

The inquest, in Trowbridge, Wiltshire, heard the soldiers were taking part in a joint foot patrol with the Afghan National Army.

They were trying to find enemy firing points and reassure the population of a small village.

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Both had been hit by the same bullet”

Coroner David Ridley
The day before, another patrol had been engaged by accurate small arms fire in the same area.

Their patrol left Checkpoint Qudrat, in the northern part of Nad-e Ali, during the morning knowing insurgents were aware of their patrol.

'Dangerous place'
Sgt Maj Christopher Smith of 3rd Battalion The Parachute Regiment led the patrol and told the inquest it was one of the most dangerous places to go out in.

"The main threat, known to everyone, was a sharpshooter. In this instance there was more than one," he said.

"Conrad was the point man, he was a very important part of the patrol, he was the eyes and ears up front.

"Lewis was one of two behind him."

The patrol was in a single-file formation, the inquest heard, with Pte Hendry and Pte Lewis at the front.

They became aware of Afghan men running around in one of the areas, known as Compound 31, although none was seen with weapons.

"A single round was shot from Compound 31. It was quite accurate," Sgt Maj Smith said.

'Opened fire'
The shot passed through the legs of one of the other patrol members and the patrol opened fire.

A second shot, 10 seconds after the first, hit Pte Hendry in the head and then hit Pte Lewis in the neck.

Sgt Maj Smith said the men had been kneeling down behind a wall when the shot hit them.

A statement from soldier A, a member of the special forces support group, was read by the coroner David Ridley.

"He was up front with Conrad and Lewis. They shouted for a target indication following the first shot.

"They did not appear to know where the compound was, they were shoulder to shoulder on bent knee and had a map out.

"He recalls a single shot, he'd just shouted where Compound 31 was, that's when they both fell to the right, on top of him."

The pair were treated by a member of the Royal Army Medical Corps who attended to Pte Lewis first, and said his initial assessment was that he was dead.

'Condition deteriorated'
Soldier A dealt with Pte Hendry, who was conscious so the medic went to help.

Pte Hendry was initially conscious but his condition deteriorated during a flight to Kandahar, where there was a specialist neurosurgeon, the inquest heard.

Both men were then flown to Camp Bastion where they were pronounced dead.

A post-mortem examination found they had both died from a gunshot wound and would not have been expected to survive their injuries, the inquest was told.

Recording his verdict Mr Ridley said both men were seen to fall to the ground.

"Both had been hit by the same bullet.

"Lewis first sustained a gunshot wound to the head, the bullet then striking Conrad next to him in the neck.

"Both sustained an injury incompatible with life."

Pte Hendry, born in Norwich, died three days before his 21st birthday.

A statement from his commanding officer, Capt Ollie Mikulskis, described him as "confident, steadfast, fit and fearless."

"Lewis was the epitome of why this brotherhood of paratroopers is so strong, the epitome of all that is best about the Parachute Regiment," he said.

Sgt Maj Richard Hames, of 3 Para, said Pte Lewis, born in Bournemouth, was a paratrooper first and a civilian second.

"Despite the rigours of and harsh routine of daily contacts and long patrols through the day and night he never faltered in his commitment to his fellow Airborne brothers," he said.

Scots soldier found executed after being snatched by Taliban in Afghanistan

2011-07-05T08:11:00.001+01:00

scots soldier was found executed last night after being kidnapped by the Taliban in Afghanistan.
Sources said the squaddie - the first soldier snatched by the Taliban since the conflict began - was killed after he went for an early-morning swim.
The soldier from the Royal Regiment of Scotland disappeared from his base after finishing sentry duty - hours before PM David Cameron flew in to visit troops.
A massive search, involving UK and US special forces, was launched for him amid fears he'd been kidnapped.
But the soldier's body was later found two kilometres from his base in Helmand province.
He had been executed with a gunshot wound to the head.
Last night, Taliban leaders boasted that they had killed him following a firefight with western forces.
Spokesman Qari Mohammad Yousuf said: "The soldier was captured yesterday evening during a firefight.
"When the fighting got more intense, we couldn't keep him so we had to kill him."
But officials from Isaf - the Nato-led mission in Afghanistan - said last night that there was no record of fighting in the area.
There were fears that the Taliban had snatched the soldier - from 4th Battalion The Highlanders - after being tipped off that Cameron was making a secret visit to the country yesterday.
There were also claims that he may have been betrayed and handed over to the Taliban by the Afghan soldiers.
Sources said the soldier disappeared shortly after he had finished sentry duty at Checkpoint Salaang in the Nahr-e Saraj district.
General Sayed Malook, the top Afghan commander in Helmand, said he was told the soldier and two Afghan troops went to a village for a swim.
He said: "A British soldier, along with two Afghan National Army soldiers, left their base in Nahr-e Saraj district and went to Kopak village to swim.
"When our two soldiers came out of the water, they couldn't see him."
After the body was found last night, task force spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Tim Purbrick said: "He had gunshot wounds. The circumstances are currently under investigation.
"It would not be appropriate to comment further at this time.

British soldier has gone missing in Afghanistan amid claims he has been captured by the Taliban.

2011-07-04T14:08:00.001+01:00

The Ministry of Defence said the soldier was reported missing in the early hours of this morning after he disappeared from his base in central Helmand Province.
The soldier's next of kin have been informed and a major search is under way to find him.
A spokesman for the Taliban claimed that the militant group had captured the soldier on Sunday, and even claimed that they had executed him, in the Babaji area of southern Helmand.
"The soldier was captured yesterday evening during a firefight. When the fighting got more intense we couldn't keep him so we had to kill him," Qari Mohammad Yousuf told Reuters.
The Nato-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) and the MoD declined to comment on the Taliban claims.

Afghan police officials in southern Helmand said a British soldier had been kidnapped in the Gereshk area of Nahri Sarraj district.
An MoD spokesman said: "The Ministry of Defence can confirm that a British serviceman is missing in Afghanistan. An extensive operation to locate him is under way.
"The individual was based in Central Helmand and was reported missing in the early hours of this morning.
"His next of kin have been informed and they will be updated as the operation continues."
It is understood that the search for the missing serviceman is being carried out both on the ground and from the air.
The Taliban claimed to the BBC that they captured and killed a foreign soldier in the area after a firefight.
This could not be verified, and the Taliban often make exaggerated claims for propaganda purposes.
He had left the base alone in the early hours of Monday morning, a move which is described as "highly unusual".
Will Calladine, a spokesman for the British embassy in Kabul, said: "Obviously this is a sensitive issue. Our primary concern is for the person's safety."
Most of the troops in that area of Afghanistan are American and British, however, soldiers from other countries also operate in the region.
In June 2009 insurgents captured American soldier Sergeant Bowe Bergdahl in south-eastern Afghanistan and have released videos showing him in captivity dressed in both Afghan clothing and in military uniform.
It is believed that the 25-year-old Army sergeant from Hailey, Idaho, is being held in Pakistan.

Say you're gay, terrorist's manual tells recruits

2011-07-04T10:42:00.001+01:00

A newly released training manual for terrorists advises potential attackers to pretend to be gay in an attempt to avoid women who may be spies.

As reported by the Sunday Mirror, the book, called Class Notes From The Security and Intelligence Course, is aimed at UK-based Islamic extremists and urges potential terrorists to be wary of women following a recruitment drive for female spies at British intelligence agency MI5.

The handbook says: “Many hotels – especially in busy UK cities – have women hanging around the lobby areas in order to attract men.

“A young beautiful woman may come and talk to you. The first thing you do to protect yourself from such a situation is to make dua (prayers) to Allah for steadfastness.

“The second thing is to find an excuse to get away from her that is realistic and sensible, such as you having a girlfriend for the past few years and you are loyal to her or you are homosexual.”

The guide, which is written in English, was reportedly uncovered by the newspaper in an investigation into a protected Jihadist website in the UK. The manual was produced by the Taliban in Afghanistan, according to the Sunday Mirror.

The introduction states: “Our aim is to publish an English version of a training course to provide basic principles of security for working brothers in Europe,” the newspaper reports.

Four Pakistanis including two children were wounded on Monday when a mortar shell fired from Afghanistan struck a village near the border,

2011-07-04T10:40:00.001+01:00

Four Pakistanis including two children were wounded on Monday when a mortar shell fired from Afghanistan struck a village near the border, security officials said.
It was the latest incident in a series of alleged cross-border attacks that have raised tensions between the two countries as officials confirmed exploratory peace contacts between Afghanistan, the United States and the Taliban.
The officials said the shell hit Bangedar village in the Ghulam Khan district of North Waziristan.
“The fire came from an Afghan border post in Khost province (in eastern Afghanistan) early this morning,” said local government official Mohammed Khan.
“One injured person is in a critical condition,” said doctor Mubarak Khan at the main hospital in Miranshah, adding that two children aged eight and 13 were among those wounded.
In Kabul, around 200 Afghans protested on Saturday against Pakistani rocket attacks that officials say have killed dozens of people.
Last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai demanded an end to the attacks when he met army chief General Ashfaq Kayani, in the Afghan capital.
Pakistan said only that its security forces may have fired a few accidental rounds into Afghanistan while pursuing militants across the porous 2,400 kilometre border.
There are Taliban strongholds on both sides of the border, but Afghan and US officials want Pakistan to do more to eradicate militant sanctuaries in its semi-autonomous tribal belt used to launch attacks in Afghanistan.

Police brief villagers on how to spot terrorists armed with rocket launchers

2011-07-04T10:37:00.001+01:00

Residents have spoken of their shock after being told that their villages have been identified as potential “high-risk launch sites” for extremists wanting to fire rockets at planes taking off and landing at Heathrow.
Officers from the Metropolitan Police’s specialist aviation security team have been touring village halls with a surface-to-air rocket launcher and video footage of a missile hitting a plane in Iraq. Similar briefings have been held near other airports around the country.
Police have invested tens of thousands of pounds in software to identify potential missile launch sites in recent years and have shown residents maps with red and orange dots pinpointing the most likely location for terrorist attacks.
James Nicholls, an Effingham resident who was invited to a briefing at Ockham village hall last month, said: “It was extraordinary, I couldn’t believe it.
“We were asked to look for people burying things in the ground, we were shown all the components of this heat-seeking shoulder-launched missile. They told us they had been as far as Windsor and Sunningdale surveying and looking at potential sites.”

SENIOR commander in the al-Qa'ida-linked Haqqani network wanted over this week's deadly attack on a leading hotel in the Afghan capital has been killed in an air strike

2011-06-30T08:55:00.001+01:00

SENIOR commander in the al-Qa'ida-linked Haqqani network wanted over this week's deadly attack on a leading hotel in the Afghan capital has been killed in an air strike, NATO says.

The International Security Assistance Force identified Ismail Jan as deputy to the senior Haqqani commander inside Afghanistan and said he was killed in the eastern province of Paktya yesterday.

It was not possible to confirm Jan's death or position independently and ISAF provided no immediate details on how they knew he had been killed.

It said security forces tracked his location based on intelligence reports from Afghan government officials, citizens and “disenfranchised insurgents” before calling in the air strike.

The US-led force accused Jan of providing material support for Tuesday's attack on the Intercontinental in Kabul, frequented by Westerners and Afghan government officials.

Heavily armed militants stormed the hilltop hotel late on Tuesday, sparking a ferocious battle involving Afghan commandos and a NATO helicopter gunship that left at least 21 dead, including the nine attackers.

The Taliban claimed responsibility for the attack, but NATO said it was carried out in conjunction with the Haqqani network, blamed for a string of high-profile attacks in Kabul and considered the most potent enemy in the east.

A judge, a Spaniard - reportedly a pilot for a Turkish airline - police and hotel staff were among those killed in the attack, which has renewed questions about security as US forces prepare to start withdrawing this year.

NATO said Jan was killed with “several” other Haqqani fighters the day after the attack in Paktya, which borders Pakistan's semi-autonomous district of North Waziristan, where the Haqqani leadership is based.

NATO said Jan had also led 25 to 35 fighters in attacks on troops in the Khost-Gardez area along the border after moving from Pakistan into Afghanistan in late 2010, one of the deadliest fighting grounds in the decade-long war.

The military said “initial reports” indicated that no civilians were hurt in yesterday's air strike, although air attacks have brought the US-led military into sharp opposition with the Afghan government over civilian casualties.

US President Barack Obama announced last week that he would be withdrawing 33,000 troops from Afghanistan by the end of summer 2012 and Washington has voiced hope about reaching a peace deal to end a decade of fighting.

The Haqqanis, estimated to have 3,000 to 4,000 fighters, has been blamed for some of the most spectacular attacks of the insurgency, including an al-Qa'ida double agent suicide attack that killed seven CIA operatives in 2009.

It was founded by the now-ageing Jalaluddin Haqqani, a warlord who made his name during the 1980s jihad against the Soviets in Afghanistan, when he received funding from Pakistan and the CIA.

He allegedly helped Osama bin Laden elude American capture after the US invasion of Afghanistan following the 9/11 attacks, but his ruthless son Sirajuddin now effectively runs the network.

The Haqqanis are seen as operationally independent from the Taliban but part of a broad coalition of groups operating under its aegis.

British police arrested Sheikh Raed Salah, the head of the Islamic movement in the occupied Palestinian territories during a visit to London.

2011-06-29T09:12:00.001+01:00

Salah was scheduled to visit a conference entitled '' Palestine Day", which is held by the Palestinian Forum on July 2nd in London.

Adnan Humaidan, a Palestinian media official, stated to Aljazeera channel from London that Sheikh Raed Salah delivered a lecture two days ago in London, and he was scheduled to deliver another key one on Wednesday in the British Parliament.

However, it seemed that some parties supporting Israel worked to prevent Salah to lecture in the British parliament and got succeeded.

Humaidan denounced the way in which Sheikh Salah got arrested, whereas British police detained him in a non-human brutal way. the police stormed his room at midnight , handcuffed him violently and took him to prison

Eight suicide bombers attacked Kabul's Hotel Inter-Continental in a brazen, carefully orchestrated operation that began Tuesday night

2011-06-29T08:43:00.001+01:00

Eight suicide bombers attacked Kabul's Hotel Inter-Continental in a brazen, carefully orchestrated operation that began Tuesday night and continued into Wednesday, ending with their deaths and those of 10 others, officials said.
Two police officers are among the dead, according to the Interior Ministry.
"As a result of Afghan National Police, Afghan National Army and Coalition force's fast reaction and by air support of the NATO forces, eight suicide bombers were killed," the ministry said in a statement.
Mohammad Zahir, chief of criminal investigations for Kabul police, said Wednesday morning that casualty figures could rise.
"We are still searching the hotel; the death number may increase," Zahir said. Twelve people were injured, he added.
Interior Minister Bismullah Khan said "the situation is secure."
A spokesman for the Taliban, Zabiullah Mujahid, said in an e-mail that the suicide attackers entered the hotel after killing security guards at the entrance.
NATO puts end to Kabul hotel siege Kabul hotel guest describes attack Gunmen, suicide bombers attack hotel Witness: NATO troops at Kabul hotel
"One of the suicide attackers told us on the phone that they are in the lobby and chasing guests into their rooms by smashing the doors of the rooms," Mujahid told CNN in an e-mail he sent as the incident was unfolding.
The top of the hotel was ablaze, but flames were gone within a few hours. Smoke continued to rise from the building Wednesday morning.
By dawn, security forces were allowing reporters to approach the hotel, and some guests were seen departing.
Saiz Ahmed, a U.S. citizen in Kabul for a Ph.D. project, was among them. "I'm sure none of us thought we were going to make it," he said after having stayed on the floor of his darkened bedroom for more than five hours listening to gunfire and occasional bomb blasts. "I wrote my little will -- just in case."
The Taliban penetrated the hotel's typically heavy security in the attack, and one of them detonated an explosion on the second floor, said Erin Cunningham, a journalist for The Daily in Kabul.
Rocket-propelled grenades were launched from the roof of the hotel toward the first vice president's house. A few moments later, the hotel was rocked by three explosions, one of which knocked her off her feet, Cunningham said. U.S. forces were on the scene, she added.

War crimes court issues Gaddafi arrest warrant

2011-06-27T14:27:00.001+01:00

The Gaddafi war crimes charges include torturing and killing civilians and opponents. Arrest warrants issued by the international criminal court cover both Muammar Gaddafi, pictured, and his son Saif al-Islam. Photograph: Xinhua/Getty Images/Xinhua
The international criminal court has issued an arrest warrant for Muammar Gaddafi over crimes against humanity committed against opponents of his regime.

The court, based in The Hague, also issued warrants for Gaddafi's son Saif al-Islam and the Libyan intelligence chief, Abdullah al-Senussi — at the request of the ICC's chief prosecutor.

Gaddafi, in power since 1969, is only the world's second serving head of state to be issued with an arrest warrant. A warrant for the arrest of Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, was issued in March 2009 over alleged crimes in Darfur.

Arrests were necessary to prevent a cover-up and more crimes, said the ICC presiding judge, Sanji Mmasenono Monageng.

The investigation launched by the court's chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, follows a referral on 26 February by the UN security council. Resolution 1970 was supported by all members of the council, including Russia and China, which are unhappy with the Nato bombing campaign.

The ICC has been attacked by some for pursuing legal avenues at the expense of a possible political solution. Critics argue that Gaddafi and his closest associates will have no incentive to relinquish power or go into voluntary exile if they know they are certain to end up in the dock in The Hague.

In Britain, which is playing a leading role in Nato's military campaign, some officials have said privately that the ICC case could be left "on the back burner" in the hope this would encourage Gaddafi to seek sanctuary in a friendly African country.

The Libyan leader has rejected any suggestion that he will stand down or leave the country. Saif al-Islam Gaddafi, who is well connected in the UK, has also vowed to "live or die" in Libya.

The Benghazi-based Libyan rebels have strongly supported the ICC case and submitted evidence to the prosecutor.

Monageng told the court there were "reasonable grounds to believe" the regime had killed or injured and arrested hundreds of civilians and that Muammar Gaddafi exercised full control over the security forces. His son was described as his father's "unspoken successor" and the most influential person in his inner circle, with the powers of a de facto prime minister.

In his submission to the court last month Moreno-Ocampo said Gaddafi had a personal hand in planning and implementing "a policy of widespread and systematic attacks against civilians and demonstrators and dissidents in particular".

"Gaddafi's plan expressly included the use of lethal force against demonstrators and dissidents.

"Methods used to torture alleged dissidents have included tying electric wires around victims' genitals and shocking them with electricity and whipping victims with an electric wire after tying them upside down with a rope connected to a stick."

The Libyan leader ordered snipers to shoot at civilians leaving mosques after evening prayers. His forces carried out a systematic campaign of arrest and detention of alleged dissidents.

The judges of the ICC's pre-trial chamber could have declined the prosecutor's request or asked for further information before issuing the warrants.

The foreign secretary, William Hague, said he welcomed the ICC's decision. "The warrants further demonstrate why Gaddafi has lost all legitimacy and why he should go immediately. His forces continue to attack Libyans without mercy and this must stop."

The ICC was established in 2002 as a permanent court to try those accused of war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide if the accused's own country cannot or will not do so.

Husband and wife team carry out suicide bombing in Pakistan

2011-06-27T01:16:00.001+01:00

Pakistani militants have used women bombers in the past but this is believed to be the first time a couple has launched an attack together.
The pair, armed with assault rifles and hand grenades, raided a police station and took a dozen policemen hostage for several hours in Kolachi, a town near the region of South Waziristan, a major al-Qaeda and Taliban sanctuary on the Afghan border.
The attack will be a further embarrassment for Pakistan's security establishment which has suffered one humiliation after another since Osama bin Laden was shot dead by US special forces last month.
The couple shot dead five policemen and blew themselves up after being attacked by commandos, killing seven more policemen who died of their wounds overnight, police said.
Ehsanullah Ehsan, a Pakistani Taliban spokesman, said the assault was carried out in retaliation for bin Laden's killing and government attacks against militants.

Four dead, dozens hurt in attacks on Iraqi police

2011-06-22T13:40:00.001+01:00

Militants attacked Iraqi police with guns and explosives and lobbed a mortar round at a security headquarters Wednesday, killing four people and wounding dozens in the latest assault on security forces.

Insurgents deployed roadside bombs, a car bomb and a hand grenade as they launched at least eight attacks on police in the Iraqi capital, Baghdad, and northern Mosul, an al Qaeda stronghold, where three people were killed.

Militants are testing Iraq's army, police and fragile governing coalition as U.S. troops prepare to withdraw by a year-end deadline, more than eight years after the invasion that ousted Sunni dictator Saddam Hussein.

"I think political instability is the main reason why violence has escalated recently," said Abdul Rahim al-Shimmari, head of the Nineveh provincial council's security committee.

"Some political parties own armed militias and huge funding and they use the worsening security situation as a pretext to create the legitimacy for keeping U.S. forces in Iraq."

Violence has fallen sharply in recent years after the sectarian slaughter of 2006-07 but a tenacious Sunni Islamist insurgency linked to al Qaeda and rival Shi'ite militias still carry out scores of bombings and other attacks every month.

Iraqi government officials and security forces are under attack as the remaining American troops, about 47,000, prepare to leave the OPEC oil producer by the end of December.

Wednesday's spate of attacks killed at least one policeman and three civilians, and more than a dozen police were among 32 people wounded.

The mortar shell fired at the Nineveh security center, a headquarters used by the army and police, missed the target and hit a house, killing one person and wounding another in southern Mosul, 390 km (240 miles) north of Baghdad, police said.

Attackers threw a grenade at a police patrol in Mosul, wounding four people, and killed an officer at a security checkpoint, while a roadside bomb near a patrol killed a bystander and wounded two people, including a policeman.

In the capital, a local police chief and five officers were wounded when two roadside bombs struck their convoy in the western Amiriya district, an interior ministry source said.

In the western Ghazaliya district, a parked car bomb exploded near a police patrol, the source said, killing a bystander and wounding nine people, including three police.

Bombs targeting police wounded three officers and five civilians in the Zayouna and Jadiriya areas, the source said.

A senior Iraqi security official who asked not to be named said the recent escalation of attacks was expected.

"I think our security forces are still unfit to have complete control of the security situation," the official said. "More combat training and more expertise are needed."

Near Iraq's southern oil hub, Basra, a U.S. military convoy was struck by a bomb blast, police said. A U.S. military official said no one was hurt.

Sixty Qaeda prisoners escape from Yemen jail

2011-06-22T13:34:00.001+01:00

More than 60 Al-Qaeda prisoners escaped from a south Yemen jail on Wednesday after they clashed with guards, killing one and wounding two others, security and medical officials told AFP.
The prisoners fled the central jail in al-Mukalla, capital of the Hadramawt province, into the nearby mountains after they overpowered the guards and seized some of their arms, a security official said.
The official, speaking on condition of anonymity, had initially said that the prisoners fled after heavily-armed Al-Qaeda fighters raided the prison to free them.
The jail is believed to house more than 100 Al-Qaeda militants, 58 of whom have been tried in court and have received jail sentences, the official said.
Spokesman for the civil society organisations in Hadramawt, Nasser Bakazzuz, however accused authorities of assisting the Al-Qaeda prisoners to escape.
"The regime is living its last days and wants to create chaos in Hadramawt province ... there was no attack by Al-Qaeda on the jail to free prisoners," Bakazzuz said.
Another security official told AFP that of the 62 prisoners who escaped, two were rearrested.
A medic at Iben Seena hospital in the city said a security force member was killed and two others wounded, while an Al-Qaeda militant arrived at the hospital in critical condition.
Yemen's army has been fighting heavy gunbattles with Al-Qaeda militants in several parts of the Arab nation that has also been witnessing a massive uprising against the 32-year-old rule of President Ali Abdullah Saleh.
Battles are also raging between Yemen's army and suspected Al-Qaeda militants for control of the southern city of Zinjibar.
At least 100 soldiers have been killed since the violence in Zinjibar erupted more than three weeks ago, and 260 have been wounded, according to a military official.
Alleged Al-Qaeda militants, who have named themselves Ansar al-Sharia (Supporters of Islamic Sharia law), have been controlling most of Zinjibar, the capital of Abyan province, since late May.
Fighting between government forces and suspected Al-Qaeda fighters in southern Yemen have displaced 45,000 people, the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs said Tuesday.
"OCHA is concerned about this conflict situation in southern Yemen in Abyan province," Elisabeth Byrs, an OCHA spokeswoman, told reporters here. "We are concerned about the resulting displacement of people."
She said humanitarian agencies estimate that roughly 10,000 people have been displaced in Lahj province, 15,000 in Aden province and more than 15,000 around Abyan.

US says 'we will kill Zawahiri just like bin Laden'

2011-06-16T23:28:00.001+01:00

US officials painted the 59-year-old long-time number two as an "armchair general" with no combat experience, saying he not only lacked charisma and leadership skills but was also a divisive figure who could fracture al-Qaeda.
Top US military officer Admiral Mike Mullen told Zawahiri to expect the same treatment meted out to bin Laden, who was killed by US commandos in the dead of night in a May 2 raid on his hideout in Pakistan.
"As we did both seek to capture and kill – and succeed in killing – bin Laden, we certainly will do the same thing with Zawahiri," said Mullen, who is chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
US Defense Secretary Robert Gates, giving his valedictory press briefing at the Pentagon, could barely disguise his scorn, but warned that the announcement should serve as a reminder of the continuing al-Qaeda threat.
"First of all I think we should be mindful that this announcement by al-Qaeda reminds us that despite having suffered a huge loss ... al-Qaeda seeks to perpetuate itself, seeks to find replacements for those who have been killed, and remains committed to the agenda that bin Laden put before them."

Lieutenant Wales of the Army Air Corps could be heading back to Afghanistan before the end of next year.

2011-06-16T23:26:00.001+01:00

Prince Harry - as he is better known of course - had his last trip cut short in 2008 when news he was there leaked out.

This time, assuming he completes his helicopter pilot's training, he could be flying apache gunships there before the end of next year.

Radical cleric Bashir to serve 15 years

2011-06-16T23:19:00.001+01:00

An Indonesian court has sentenced radical Muslim cleric Abu Bakar Bashir to 15 years in prison for planning and funding a terrorist training camp where dozens of militants plotted attacks.

The ruling on Thursday marked the culmination of a decade of efforts by Indonesian authorities to link Mr Bashir, 72, to terrorist activities that cost hundreds of lives.

He had previously been acquitted of working with al-Qaeda in the 2002 Bali bombing, which killed 202 people, mostly western tourists, and a 2003 suicide bombing at the Marriott Hotel in Jakarta. Bashir’s defence lawyer said his client would appeal the decision.

The conviction is a significant victory for moderate Islam in Indonesia, a nation of 240m with the single largest population of Muslims in the world, where a tradition of religious tolerance has come under threat by a radical fringe of hardliners.

The International Crisis Group said Mr Bashir had through his teaching at Indonesian schools helped establish an “Ivy League” for recruits for regional terror network Jemaah Islamiyah. It labelled him the “elder statesman of Indonesia’s radical movement”.

The presiding judge said prosecutors had proven Mr Bashir “willingly planned and encouraged people to use violence and threats to create terror and fear”. He was acquitted of more serious charges of possession of firearms and explosives.

Ana Lestari, a 43-year-old Bashir supporter wept when she heard the verdict outside the courthouse. “Our teacher has nothing to do with any terrorism act. As a real Muslim one should be ready for jihad, both in heart and deeds.”

Hundreds of militants, including leaders of Jemaah Islamiyah, have been detained or killed in recent years, dealing a virtual death blow to the organisation. The risk of terrorist attacks is believed to have diminished, but recruitment for violent jihad continues among emerging radical groups seeking to create an Islamic state.

In delivering the ruling, Judge Herri Swantoro and the other justices took several hours to read the verdict, which was broadcast live to the nation. Thousands of security personnel, including counter terrorism forces and snipers, were deployed outside the court. Foreigners were warned by their governments to stay away from the proceedings.

Several hundred supporters of Mr Bashir chanted “Allah Akbar”, or “God is great”. Mr Bashir looked relaxed, sitting alone in a flowing white robe and cap in front of the tribunal.

In comments before the verdict, Mr Bashir, who has denied an active role in terrorist activity, denounced the case as an anti-Islamic, western conspiracy.

“My trial is not a regular trial. It is a battle against Islam. It is a battle between defenders of Islam and defenders of evil”, he said.

During months of hearings, prosecutors sought to prove seven charges relating to the funding and recruiting of members of an Aceh-based terror cell, carrying a maximum life sentence. The group, calling itself al-Qaeda of Aceh, was allegedly planning Mumbai-style gun attacks on foreigners and the assassination of Indonesian president Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono.

Mr Bashir has been arrested three times, most recently in August of 2010 by the counterterrorism unit. Jamah Ansharut Tauhid, an organisation with ties to known militants, issued a statement saying, “the verdict against Bashir is not the end of fight to uphold Islamic law. JAT and all the united Muslim communities will keep on fighting consistently to uphold sharia in this country”.

Indonesia suffered a series of deadly attacks between 2002 and 2009, but it has been two years since the last bombing, when suicide attackers blew themselves up at the Ritz Carlton and Marriott hotels in downtown Jakarta, killing seven people.

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head of the Royal Navy has been given a dressing down by David Cameron after he raised doubts about the armed forces’ ability to sustain a lengthy campaign in Libya.

2011-06-16T09:40:00.001+01:00

Adm Sir Mark Stanhope was summoned to Downing Street after he said the government would face ‘challenging decisions’ on force levels if the mission lasted more than six months.
The first sea lord now ‘agreed we can sustain’ the intervention, the prime minister told MPs yesterday.
It was vital Britain sent a consistent message that ‘time is on our side’, Mr Cameron added.
A Whitehall source confirmed that Adm Stanhope was called in on Tuesday to explain his remarks.
‘I think you can assume there was no coffee or biscuits,’ added the insider.
During yesterday’s prime minister’s questions, Mr Cameron said: ‘I had a meeting with the first sea lord and he agreed we can sustain this mission as long as we need to.’
He said action in support of Libyan rebels was ‘the right thing’ and added: ‘We have got Nato, we have got the United Nations, we have got the Arab League, we have right on our side.
‘The pressure is building militarily, diplomatically and politically and time is running out for [Libyan leader Muammar] Gaddafi.’
On Tuesday night, Nato warplanes struck targets in the Libyan capital, Tripoli, while aircraft dropped leaflets warning Gaddafi’s forces to abandon their posts near the rebel-held city of Misrata.

Bolton man Asim Kauser in court over terror charge

2011-06-16T09:38:00.001+01:00

25-year-old man is due to appear in court later charged with four offences under the Terrorism Act.

Asim Kauser has been charged with possession of records of information of a kind likely to be useful to a person committing or preparing an act of terrorism.

Mr Kauser was arrested at his Bolton home on 6 June in an operation by the North West Counter-Terrorism Unit.

He will appear at London's City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

The offences are alleged to have taken place between January 2009 and June 2011, a Greater Manchester Police spokesman said.

Sas veterans are in Misrata,

2011-06-01T10:58:00.001+01:00

where they train Lybian rebels on behalf of security agencies and provide information for the Nato air raids. The British paper states that former Sas, without weapons and with the assistance of Nato soldiers are in Misrata, with the approval of France, Great Britain and the other Nato countries. Their task is to gather information about position and movements of Gaddafi troops and send them to Nato Headquarters in Naples. According to The Guardian, French and British pilots use the information in their air raids

Leaked US cables portray worries that Jamaica could become incubator for Islamic extremism

2011-05-28T17:02:00.001+01:00

U.S. diplomats have expressed concern that an Islamic cleric convicted of whipping up racial hatred among Muslim converts in Britain might do the same thing in his homeland of Jamaica, according to a leaked cable from the island's U.S. Embassy.
The dispatch, dated February 2010, warns that that Jamaica could be fertile ground for jihadists because of its underground drug economy, marginalized youth, insufficient security and gang networks in U.S. and British prisons, along with thousands of American tourists.
It says Sheikh Abdullah el-Faisal, who was deported back to Jamaica in January 2010, could be a potential catalyst, and it noted that several Jamaican-born men have been involved in terrorism over the last decade.
Another memo says an associate of el-Faisal was suspected of involvement in a previously unreported terror plot in Montego Bay, a tourist centre near where el-Faisal now lives. A second associate was allegedly suspected of threats against a cruise ship in nearby Ocho Rios. No details of the alleged schemes were provided in the cables and both U.S. and Jamaican officials declined to comment on them.
U.S. diplomats and law enforcement officials have expressed concern in the past that Middle Eastern terror groups might forge alliances with drug traffickers or take advantage of general lawlessness in parts of Latin America and the Caribbean.
The January 2010 return of "extremist Jamaican-born cleric Sheikh el-Faisal raises serious concerns regarding the propensity for Islamist extremism in the Caribbean at the hands of Jamaican born nationals," said the secret cable, apparently from Isiah L. Parnell, the deputy chief of mission for the U.S. Embassy in Kingston.
"Given the right motivation, it is conceivable that Jamaica's disaffected youth could be swayed towards organized crime of a different nature through the teachings of radical Islam," said the dispatch dated February 25, 2010.
The cable is one of the quarter million confidential American diplomatic dispatches first obtained by anti-secrecy group WikiLeaks and separately obtained by The Associated Press.
There is no hard evidence that Jamaica has a burgeoning problem with extremism, though some of the embassy dispatches list suspected associates of el-Faisal, several labeled as radical Muslims and believed to be involved in drug and human trafficking. One is a 31-year-old Jamaican suspected of involvement in a Montego Bay bomb plot and another man suspected of threats against a cruise ship.
Other Jamaicans involved in terrorism include Germaine Lindsay, one of the four men behind the 2005 suicide bomb attacks on London's subways, and Lee Boyd Malvo, who was convicted in the deadly sniper attacks that terrorized the Washington, D.C., area in 2002.
Jamaican police say they are monitoring el-Faisal but note that he has no criminal record in the country.
"To the extent that he was living abroad and was convicted of offences, we do have concerns. But he is a Jamaican and we had to take him back," said Deputy Police Chief Glenmore Hinds.
One of the leaked U.S. cables said Jamaica's Ministry of National Security has established a special unit to collect information on Islamic extremism, but it voiced concern about whether the unit would be able to "react rapidly to actionable intelligence and to effectively prosecute an anti-terrorism case in the courts."
El-Faisal, who is known as "al-Jamaikee," or "the Jamaican" in Islamist circles, has been living in a rural town outside the northern city of Montego Bay, not far from where he grew up. He has several children.
He declined through a spokesman repeated requests for an interview with the AP.
Mustafa Muhammad, president of the Islamic Council, said el-Faisal's angry rhetoric and conspiracy theories may attract some young and disenfranchised people, but he doubted it would have much traction among Jamaica's roughly 5,000 Muslims.
"Faisal has always been very eloquent and the moment he speaks he captures your attention," Muhammad said in the library of a whitewashed concrete mosque in Kingston. "That is why it's so sad, so very sad, about what he has come to believe."
Jamaica's Islamic Council has banned el-Faisal from preaching in the country's mosques because he of his past. He now preaches in informal prayer sessions and conferences.
"He told me that he didn't think he had ever done anything wrong," Muhammad said. "That's a concern to me."
Born Trevor Forrest in 1963, he was raised in the rolling hills of northern Jamaica. His parents belonged to the Salvation Army, the Christian evangelical group. He converted to Islam after being introduced to the faith by a school teacher at about 16, Muhammad said.
Shortly after his conversion, el-Faisal's global migrations began. In the early 1980s, he travelled to Trinidad for a Saudi-Arabian-sponsored course in Islamic and Arabic studies. He then went to Guyana for similar studies, according to terrorism researchers.
El-Faisal, now a compactly built 47-year-old man with receding hair, was deported to Jamaica for the second time last year after being arrested in Kenya, where he reportedly encouraged young men to join an extremist Islamic group in Somalia.
Before that, he preached in a London mosque attended by convicted terrorists and was imprisoned in Britain for nearly four and a half years for inciting murder and stirring racial hatred with sermons titled "No peace with the Jews" and "Them versus Us." In one recorded sermon, he told followers that "the way forward is the bullet." On another, he said jihadists should use "chemical weapons to exterminate the unbelievers."
"Faisal's popularity remains strong with online jihadist supporters, particularly American jihadist groups. His sermons are widely published across the Internet," said Jarret Brachman, a former CIA analyst who is now an independent terrorism researcher.
Some experts in militant Islam said his isolation in Jamaica may create a mystique that could draw alienated people into his circle.
"There is a danger that Abdullah Faisal will radicalize individuals in Jamaica, just as he has previously done in the U.K. and elsewhere. He is a powerful, charismatic speaker who is easily capable of presenting Islamist extremism as a rational choice," said James Brandon of the Quilliam Foundation, a British anti-extremism think-tank .

American officials have met with a senior aide to the fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar,

2011-05-28T15:51:00.001+01:00

American officials have met with a senior aide to the fugitive Taliban leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar, at least three times in recent months in the first direct exploratory peace talks, officials in the region said.
Enlarge This Image

Tayeb Agha, an aide to the Taliban leader, has met with Americans in exploratory peace talks.

Pakistan sent its most senior bureaucrat in the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, Salman Bashir, to the latest round of trilateral talks in Kabul on Tuesday.
The meetings have been facilitated by Germany and Qatar, but American officials have been present each time, meeting with Tayeb Agha, who is a close personal assistant to Mullah Omar, the officials said. The C.I.A. and the State Department have been involved in the meetings, one official said.

The meetings were first reported by The Washington Post last week and the German magazine Der Spiegel this week. A senior Afghan official and Western officials working in the region confirmed the reports on the condition of anonymity because they were not permitted to talk to the news media about the issue.

Begun well before the killing of Osama bin Laden on May 2, the meetings represent a clear shift in the attitude of the Obama administration toward peace talks with the Taliban, first signaled by a speech in February by Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Western officials said. In that speech Mrs. Clinton said that previous requirements for starting talks could instead be considered “desired outcomes,” opening the way to exploratory meetings without preconditions.

The presence of Mr. Agha, a longtime personal assistant of the reclusive Taliban leader, is a sign that the Taliban are serious despite their public opposition to peace talks, the officials said. Through spokesmen and in e-mailed statements, the Taliban have always rejected peace talks until foreign forces leave Afghanistan. But privately, through intermediaries, they have insisted on direct meetings with United States officials, which would give them official recognition of their movement.

Mr. Agha speaks English and Arabic, and he has been easily identified, avoiding the false start that occurred last year when an impostor posed as a Taliban commander, Mullah Akhtar Muhammad Mansour, in meetings with Afghans and NATO officials. Mr. Agha is reported to have attended a dinner hosted by the king of Saudi Arabia several years ago, which was seen as the first American-sanctioned overture toward the Taliban.

Yet the senior Afghan official cautioned that the meetings might not represent much because Mr. Agha was known to be no longer particularly close to Mullah Omar. Mr. Agha was a much trusted personal assistant, answering phone calls and making appointments for Mullah Omar, for most of the Taliban’s time in power, from 1994 to 2001. Now in his late 30s, Mr. Agha is thought to have lived in Quetta, Pakistan, since the fall of the Taliban in 2001, and to have remained in touch with the Taliban leader. Yet his authority to speak for the insurgents remains unclear.

Mullah Omar’s ability to control the increasingly radicalized insurgent commanders and groups allied with the Taliban also remains in question. He is still the spiritual leader of the Taliban movement, and he certainly retains strong command over Taliban forces in southern Afghanistan, which represent the bulk of the insurgency. Yet the increasingly radical Pakistani Taliban groups that send insurgents to Afghanistan and the Haqqani family, which runs its own fief in Pakistan’s tribal areas, have disregarded Mullah Omar’s orders in the past despite swearing allegiance to him.

The meetings have been conducted without the participation of Pakistan, which has long called for negotiations with the Taliban as a way to end the war on its western border and which has insisted that it also be included. Pakistan’s chief of army staff, Gen. Ashfaq Parvez Kayani, even offered President Hamid Karzai of Afghanistan his help in bringing Taliban insurgent leaders, who are widely known to use Pakistan’s tribal area as a sanctuary, to the negotiating table.

Yet Pakistan is regarded with suspicion by Kabul, and increasingly by Washington and other NATO capitals, because of its longtime support for the Taliban, and those working on contacts with the Taliban have sought to draw them away from Pakistan’s controlling influence. One issue under discussion is the opening of a representative office for the Taliban in a third country, possibly Turkey or Qatar.

“You cannot do reconciliation without Pakistan, but also they can be a spoiler,” said one European diplomat in the region. The diplomat spoke on the condition of anonymity, in keeping with diplomatic protocol.

The Obama administration is instead conducting parallel but separate dialogues: one between the United States, Afghanistan and the Taliban; and a second between the United States, Afghanistan and Pakistan. Pakistan appears to be satisfied with this track so far and sent its most senior bureaucrat in the Pakistani Foreign Ministry, Salman Bashir, to the latest round of trilateral talks in Kabul on Tuesday.

Mr. Bashir, whose brother, Adm. Noman Bashir, is commander of the Pakistani Navy, is known to work closely with the Pakistani military establishment, which has increasingly assumed control of foreign policy from the civilian government in recent months.

In Kabul, Mr. Bashir strongly endorsed the efforts of Mr. Karzai and the people of Afghanistan to promote peace. “There is increasing recognition that the way forward is to promote reconciliation, peace and stability,” he told journalists.

Pakistan has delayed carrying out a trade transit agreement, which was pushed through by the United States’ special envoy to the region, Richard C. Holbrooke, last year before his death, but the two countries have now agreed to put the treaty into operation by June 12, according to a statement by the American diplomat at the meeting, E. Anthony Wayne.

Germany, which has troops in northern Afghanistan, has led the process with the Taliban and hosted some meetings, while Qatar has hosted another, according to the officials.

A spokesman at the German Foreign Ministry in Berlin could not confirm that any meetings occurred, but officials interviewed said a number had taken place, moderated by Germany’s special envoy to Afghanistan and Pakistan, Michael Steiner. Mr. Steiner had worked with Mr. Holbrooke on the Dayton Accords to end the war in Bosnia and was asked by the American diplomat to lead the 50-member contact group for Afghanistan.

European countries with troops in Afghanistan have been keen for some years to start a process of negotiation with the Taliban as part of an exit strategy, but the process barely moved until the Obama administration shifted gears on reconciliation in the past few months, one Western official said.

Thanks to the policy blunders of the dictators and Generals of Pakistan, terrorism has grown to gigantic proportions in Pakistan in the last three decades.

2011-05-26T08:40:00.001+01:00

Now Pakistani leaders can be seen crying, “Pakistan itself is the biggest victim of terrorism.” As a consequence of wrong decision making and policy failures, today Pakistan needs world support to combat terrorism. Killing of Osama bin Laden by the US commandoes near the Pakistani capital has left Pak leaders speechless. Pakistani people and the ruling elite are nowadays faced with varying kinds of doubts. People are shocked by the failure of Pakistani army, security and intelligence system at a time when the US forces entered Pakistan, killed Osama and fled away with his body. The people of Pakistan are treating it as a violation of their sovereignty.

Although public posturing of Pak rulers is same as that of the people, they are incapable of doing anything more than that. Washington is not only calling “Operation Geronimo” legitimate, it has also indicated that such an operation could be repeated in its national interest.

Moreover, on the very next day of killing Laden, the US carried out yet another drone attack in Pakistani airspace. Albeit to show to the people of Pakistan, this time Pak army fired back on an American helicopter for “violating” its airspace. In retaliatory fire that followed, many Pakistan soldiers got injured. Amidst the rising tensions in the aftermath of Laden’s killing, American senator John Kerry recently visited Pakistan. He clearly told Pakistan that America has no regrets for Operation Geronimo. Pakistani establishment should ponder over the reasons for why it is faced with such harsh realities today.

Amidst this chaos and anarchy in Pakistan, when Prime Minister Gilani seeks the world support to fight terrorism, the question becomes imperative- What kind of support Pakistan expects from the world? Does it need only arms and money to “fight terror”, which has proved to be counterproductive? When the US has to substantiate the presence of the most dreadful terrorist in its backyard through a unilateral action, Pakistan finds it “violation of sovereignty.” Therefore, it is in the best interest of Pakistan as well as the international community that Pakistan prepares a ‘Charter’ clearly depicting the kind of “support” it seeks from the world.

Members of the Parachute Regiment and other military personnel are to lose a £5-a-day danger payment as defence chiefs seek to cut costs.

2011-05-26T08:39:00.001+01:00

The Army is to reduce the numbers of soldiers fully trained to parachute - meaning many will no longer qualify for the additional payment.

It could mean a pay cut of up to 10% for the lowest-paid private and officers told the Daily Telegraph it would seriously affect morale.

The newspaper said as many as 4,000 could be affected, including those returning from tours of Afghanistan.

But the Ministry of Defence said no decision had been taken on the extent of the change and that no one would see their pay drop for at least a year after any change.

A source said it was right at a time of public spending restrictions that "people who will never be asked to jump out of the back of a plane" may lose the payment.

Those affected would include quartermasters and cooks, who traditionally had been fully trained as part of 16 Air Assault Brigade.

"In light of the SDSR (strategic defence and security review) it is likely that the majority of Parachute Regiment soldiers will remain fully trained to parachute but the parachute requirement for 16 Air Assault Brigade as a whole will be reduced," the source said.

"Soldiers who remain fully trained to parachute will continue to receive specialist pay. Personnel will be informed as soon as these plans have been finalised."

It is understood final decisions will not be taken for a least several weeks and the payments would continue for at least 12 months.

"This is going to really strike at morale," the Telegraph quoted a senior officer as saying.

"These blokes have just got back from putting their lives on the line for their country and now their government is forcing a 10% pay cut on them.

"It's so outrageous that people just laugh."

TWO drunk RAF fighter pilots were scraped from the gutter at 6am — hours before they were due to fly a bombing mission in Libya, The Sun can reveal.

2011-05-25T21:03:00.001+01:00

The Top Gun flight lieutenants — from RAF Coningsby in Lincs — were spotted by an Italian military police patrol in the main Piazza Plebisicito in the historic Italian town of Gioia del Colle.

One was spread-eagled on the floor while the other was barely able to stand.
The paralytic pair were taken back to the nearby airbase and sent home in disgrace for being unfit to take control of their £75million Typhoon Eurofighters against Mad Dog Colonel Gadaffi's forces.

A spokesman for the Italian 'redcaps' said: "They were both the worse for wear after having been on a tour of the bars of Gioia. One was staggering around the piazza while the other was collapsed on the ground.

"They had not caused any problems in the town but had certainly had a lot to drink as the officers involved could not get any sense from them at all. They alerted an RAF liaison officer and they came to pick them

Two RAF Typhoon pilots due to fly missions over Libya were sent back to the UK for "inappropriate behaviour",

2011-05-25T10:32:00.001+01:00

Two RAF Typhoon pilots due to fly missions over Libya were sent back to the UK for "inappropriate behaviour", it has emerged.

The men, based at Gioia del Colle in Italy, returned to RAF Coningsby in Lincolnshire at the end of March.

The disciplinary action followed a night's drinking, but the MoD was unable to confirm whether the pilots were declared unfit to fly.

A spokesperson said two personnel had been "returned from detachment".

The incident at the Gioia del Colle base, where the RAF's Typhoon and Tornado fighter jets are based, is understood to have led to a temporary alcohol ban for other RAF personnel serving in the Mediterranean.

In a statement, the MoD said: "Two RAF personnel have been returned from detachment in Gioia del Colle following inappropriate behaviour; this has not affected the RAF's ability to sustain its current commitments.

"Individuals who are found to have fallen below the high standards of conduct demanded by the RAF can face appropriate internal action."

Gioia del Colle in southern Italy is the forward operating base for the RAF during the Libya campaign.

Twelve of the UK's Tornado jets and 10 Typhoon fighters - used to carry out bombing missions and patrol the no-fly zone - are stationed there.

The deployment of Apache attack helicopters to Libya would represent a "serious escalation" of the conflict, the shadow defence secretary, Jim Murphy, has warned.

2011-05-24T17:01:00.001+01:00

In the first major breach in the bipartisan approach to the bombing campaign, Murphy attacked the government for keeping the public and parliament "in the dark" about the possible deployment of the helicopters.

Other MPs warned of "mission creep" and said the development showed the Nato operation was now seeking to overthrow the Muammar Gaddafi regime rather than simply protect Libyan civilians.

Nick Harvey, the Liberal Democrat armed forces minister, was summoned to parliament to answer questions after the Guardian reported that Britain and France were to deploy the helicopters against Libya in an attempt to break the stalemate.

Liam Fox, the defence secretary, is on an official visit to Washington.

Harvey told MPs Britain had not decided whether to deploy the helicopters. But a Ministry of Defence source said: "The chances are it is going to happen."

Murphy rounded on the government after Gérard Longuet, the French defence minister, said France would deploy 12 helicopters. Le Figaro quoted Longuet as saying Britain would make a similar commitment and that the UK's thinking was "the sooner the better".

The shadow defence secretary said: "The British people will desperately be concerned that French ministers seem to know about the deployment of British military equipment [sooner] than the British parliament.

"Parliament hasn't written the government a blank cheque on Libya. Ministers should never keep the British public in the dark on major deployments.

"This is a serious moment. It would be a serious escalation if such a commitment were to be made. Parliament should not, and should never be, kept in the dark."

Harvey insisted no decision had been made. "For the avoidance of all doubt, no such decision has been taken by the UK," he said.

"It is an option we are considering. No decision has been taken, and there is absolutely no sense in which it is true to say that we have kept parliament in the dark about a decision we have taken."

The armed forces minister said deploying the helicopters would not mark an escalation in the conflict, adding: "I do not accept that, if we were to take a decision at some point to use attack helicopters, that that would be an escalation of what we are doing in Libya.

"The targets would remain the same. It would simply be a tactical shift in what assets we use to try and hit those targets."

But Harvey said deploying Apache helicopters would have major advantages. "The principal advantage it would give us over what we are doing at the moment would be the ability to strike moving targets with greater precision than we are able to, using the air assets we are currently deploying," he said.

Others MPs said the Nato mission was now designed to overthrow Gaddafi. David Winnick, the Labour MP for Walsall North, said: "Despite denials, UN security council resolution 1973 is in fact being used for regime change. Regime change is totally outside international law."

John Barron, the Conservative MP for Basildon and Billericay, said: "Whether or not we deploy Apache helicopters, the fact that a key Nato ally has [done so] represents a significant escalation in this conflict and reinforces the point that regime change has been the aim of our intervention."

Dennis Skinner, the Labour MP for Bolsover, said: "Hasn't this intervention been subject to mission creep ever since it began? The statements that have been made in this house have indicated that – a little bit of help here, special forces there, further intervention.

"Now the French, who initiated this intervention in the first place because of an election in France next year ... there is no surprise to me that they are now telling the British government what the next phase is."

Chris Bryant, Labour's former Europe minister, warned of a stalemate. He said: "The trouble is that, if the government's aim is not regime change, then it is basically stalemate. How long is that stalemate going to go on?"

Bernard Jenkin, the former Tory shadow defence secretary, issued a similar warning, saying: "We either have to break the stalemate or broker a peace."

Other MPs were supportive. Nicholas Soames, a former Tory defence minister, said: "The deployment, were it to happen, of the Apache would be entirely appropriate given, particularly, the change in tactics of the Gaddafi forces. [There is] the requirement to have a highly effective machine that is able to deal with the hard-to-find targets."

The former Lib Dem leader Sir Menzies Campbell said: "Were Apache helicopters to be deployed – which, after all, carry missiles – what would the difference in principle be between that and the use of fast jets carrying missiles?"

The Government has approved armed police patrols of railway and London Underground stations to counter the threat of a terrorist attack.

2011-05-24T16:58:00.001+01:00

The decision to arm officers has not come from a specific threat
Transport Secretary Philip Hammond announced the British Transport Police (BTP) will have its owned armed capability. Until now officers have not carried weapons.
He said armed patrols would be "deployed as appropriate in response to the terrorism threat level at any given time".
Armed police from other forces sometimes patrol stations and trains.
In a Commons statement, Mr Hammond said the training BTP officers in the use of arms would "equip them with a capability already available to other forces".
But he stressed it would not be a daily occurrence to see armed officers at stations as they would be deployed "according to operational need".
Mr Hammond confirmed the timing of the announcement was "not as a result of any specific threat: it is a sensible and pragmatic approach to ensuring that our police forces have the right resources to be able to respond as and when needed to protect the public".
BTP Chief Constable Andy Trotter said: "I welcome the decision for BTP to have armed officers at mainline stations during times of heightened threat of terrorist attack.
"BTP officers have an excellent working knowledge of the railway which will enable them to respond quickly to any incidents."

US drone strike 'kills seven' in Pakistan

2011-05-23T17:37:00.001+01:00

A US drone strike on Monday destroyed a vehicle in Pakistan's Taliban and Al-Qaeda-linked stronghold of North Waziristan on the Afghan border, killing seven militants, officials said.
The attack took place on the outskirts of Mir Ali, some 30 kilometres (20 miles) east of Miranshah, the main town of the district where US officials want Pakistan to launch an offensive against networks fighting in Afghanistan.
"A US drone fired two missiles which hit a vehicle. At least seven militants have been killed," one security official in Peshawar told AFP.
Another intelligence official in Miranshah said two drones fired four missiles, hitting a van and killing at least seven militants.
"I do not know whether there was a high-value target. We received reports that those killed in the van were all foreigners," he said.
Monday's attack was the eighth to be reported in Pakistan's tribal areas near the Afghan border since US commandos killed Saudi-born terror mastermind Osama bin Laden in a secret raid in the Pakistani city of Abbottabad on May 2.
The drone strikes are hugely unpopular among the general public, who are deeply opposed to the government's alliance with Washington, and inflame anti-US feeling, which has heightened further after the bin Laden raid.
Missile attacks doubled in the area last year, with more than 100 drone strikes killing over 670 people in 2010, compared with 45 strikes that killed 420 in 2009, according to an AFP tally.
Most have been concentrated in North Waziristan, the most notorious Afghan Taliban and Al-Qaeda bastion in Pakistan, where the United States wants the Pakistan military to launch a ground offensive as soon as possible.
Pakistan says its troops are too overstretched to mount such an assault and that any campaign will be of its own time and choosing.
The United States does not confirm drone attacks, but its military and the CIA in Afghanistan are the only forces that deploy them in the region.
The Pakistani parliament has called for an end to US drone strikes and said there must be no repeat of the operation that killed bin Laden, despite the fact that President Barack Obama has reserved the right to act again.
The raid also rocked Pakistan's seemingly powerful security establishment, with its intelligence services and military widely accused of incompetence or complicity over the presence of bin Laden close to a military academy.

fighting ships of the Libyan navy have been sunk or severely damaged by RAF jets in a strike

2011-05-20T21:18:00.001+01:00

fighting ships of the Libyan navy have been sunk or severely damaged by RAF jets in a strike that Nato said has crippled the ability of Muammar Gaddafi's forces to lay mines.

The ships were hit during a raid on Thursday night on Tripoli and Al Khums. One warship remained afloat but listing at its mooring between two merchant tankers. Fire and smoke were visible from miles away.

Of the rest of the fleet, docked out of view in the main port in Tripoli, one vessel was sunk and three severely damaged. All four were raid boats with fast manoeuvrability. At least three appeared to have surface-to-air missile launchers.

Another Libyan naval vessel was hit in the port of Al Khums, east of the capital. The RAF said the fleet had been hit to prevent it laying mines or threatening Nato warships enforcing UN-backed restrictions off Libya.

None of the ships had been seen putting to sea in daylight during the past three weeks.

At least four non-attack vessels, including coastguard cutters, remained unharmed nearby.

Ships had only started to arrive in Tripoli in recent days, after three months of sanctions against oil and many household supplies, and port officials said supplies were likely to be halted again following the attacks. "Last night's attacks have changed our expectations of shipping movements," said a spokesman for Tripoli ports.

"This will be a big disruption to civilian shipping," it will intensify the sanctions and make our experiences worse. It will return us to square one and stop all movement of goods"

Debris from the damaged warships had hit buildings and scattered over hundreds of metres. Nato has in recent days taken its battle to the heart of the capital, striking what it claims to be command and control targets.

However, it is coming under increasing criticism that its actions extend beyond the UN mandate to protect civilians.

The Libyan government says the navy had not put to sea since Nato started attacking government forces and installations two months ago.

Taliban suicide bomber rammed his motorbike into an armoured vehicle taking American officials to the US consulate

2011-05-20T21:17:00.001+01:00

Taliban suicide bomber rammed his motorbike into an armoured vehicle taking American officials to the US consulate in northwest Pakistan on Friday, in a strike the militants said was in revenge for killing Osama bin Laden. Two Americans suffered minor injuries, but one Pakistani passer-by was kill ed and at least 10 others were wounded in the attack in Peshawar, officials said.
The strike was the first on Westerners since the May 2 raid by American commandos on bin Laden's hideout.

The Pakistani Taliban, an al Qaeda-allied group behind scores of attacks in recent years, claimed responsibility.

Taliban spokesman Ahsanullah Ahsan, said in a phone call from an undisclosed location, "We had warned that we will avenge the martyrdom of Osama."

The Americans were travelling in two cars from their homes to the heavily protected consulate building when the bomber on a motorbike struck one of the vehicles.

Osama bin Laden's personal files revealed a brazen idea to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea last summer

2011-05-20T21:16:00.001+01:00

Osama bin Laden's personal files revealed a brazen idea to hijack oil tankers and blow them up at sea last summer, creating explosions he hoped would rattle the world's economy and send oil prices skyrocketing, the U.S. said Friday.

The newly disclosed plot showed that while bin Laden was always scheming for the next big strike that would kill thousands of Americans, he also believed a relatively simpler attack on the oil industry could create a worldwide panic that would hurt Westerners every time they gassed up their cars.

U.S. officials said the tanker idea, included in documents found in the compound where bin Laden was killed nearly three weeks ago, was little more than an al-Qaida fantasy. But the FBI and Department of Homeland Security issued a confidential warning to police and the energy industry Friday. The alert, obtained by The Associated Press, said that al-Qaida had sought information on the size and construction of oil tankers, had decided that spring and summer provided the best weather to approach the ships, had determined that blowing them up would be easiest from the inside and believed an explosion would create an "extreme economic crisis."

"We are not aware of indications of any specific or imminent terrorist attack plotting against the oil and natural gas sector overseas or in the United States," Homeland Security spokesman Matthew Chandler said in a statement Friday. "However, in 2010 there was continuing interest by members of al-Qaida in targeting oil tankers and commercial oil infrastructure at sea."

With about half the world's oil supply moving on the water, industry and security experts have warned for years that such an attack would be a jolt to global markets. That's particularly true if terrorists carried it out in one of the narrow waterways that serve as shipping chokepoints.

"You start blowing up oil tankers at sea and you're going to start closing down shipping lanes," said Don Borelli, senior vice president of the Sufan Group security firm and a former FBI counterterrorism agent in New York. "It's going to cause this huge ripple through the economy."

Still, even if al-Qaida were able to blow up one of the supertankers that move oil around the globe, it would barely dent the world's oil supply, said Jim Ritterbusch, president of Ritterbusch and Associates, who has been trading oil contracts since the futures market opened on the Nymex in 1983. A tanker holds about 2 million barrels, or enough to supply world demand for about a half hour.

The terrorist threat to oil infrastructure is nothing new. Members of a British terror cell that hoped to hijack trans-Atlantic airplanes in 2006 had also made plans to attack oil and gas targets in Britain. And al-Qaida's franchise in Yemen has attacked pipelines.

Friday's alert was significant mostly because it linked the scheme directly to bin Laden, meaning the idea probably has circulated among al-Qaida's most senior leaders.

The government encouraged companies to continue random screening, to warn employees about possible threats and to establish procedures for reporting suspicious activity. But there was no immediate effect on oil markets, and both shippers and security officials said it was business as usual on the water.

The entire U.S. intelligence community is busy pursuing leads from files recovered from Osama bin Laden's Abbottobad, Pakistan, compound

2011-05-19T17:43:00.001+01:00

The entire U.S. intelligence community is busy pursuing leads from files recovered from Osama bin Laden's Abbottobad, Pakistan, compound to determine whether bin Laden's plots had gone beyond the discussion and planning phase to concrete threats, government sources told ABC News.

Sources familiar with bin Laden's handwritten journal and computer files told ABC News that names of suspected al Qaeda operatives had been found in the files, and that an intense effort was under way to find the individuals attached to those names.

A special Media Exploitation Task Force "working 24/7" in shifts has been set up on the grounds of CIA headquarters to exploit the bin Laden files.

U.S. intelligence has been trying to determine if the names in the files are real or aliases, and has called on Great Britain and Canada to to help it nail the identifications.

"The names that they are finding are extremely important," former FBI Agent Brad Garret said in an interview with ABC News. "I believe that they're under a lot of pressure to resolve and identify these people as quickly as possible."

Travel records are being combed to see if any of these people have entered the U.S. already, and names are being added to terrorist watch lists in case any operatives try to come here.

Some officials have expressed shock that bin Laden kept so much sensitive material with him in what has been described as the most significant terrorism trove ever discovered.

Analysts pouring over the bin Laden files have found a number of references that signal he was pushing the terror network to ready an attack on U.S soil on or before the 10th anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. Some analysts worry that such a plot could already be in motion, even though they have found no evidence of it.

But al Qaeda plots are often months in the making. The 9/11 plot, which bin Laden and Khalid Sheik Mohammed dubbed "The Planes Operation," took more than two years to conceive and execute.

The bin laden files indicate that he and al Qaeda discussed not only attacks against commuter trains but plots against airplanes and airports, buildings, vehicle bombs and hits like the one in Mumbai in which terrorists used guns and small explosives to execute victims in cold blood, sources familiar with the documents told ABC News.

Now intelligence officials are studying the files to figure out if bin Laden's writings reflect simply his aspirations or plans to be put in motion.

Dead body of Saudi diplomat flown to Saudi Arabia

2011-05-16T21:10:00.001+01:00

The dead body of an official of the Saudi Consulate in Karachi, Hassan-Al-Kahatani was flown to Saudi Arabia on Monday night. Saudi Arabia ambassador in Pakistan, Abdul Aziz Bin Ibrahim Alghadir, who was in Saudi Arabia on holidays flew into Karachi and took the dead body of the Consulate official to his country.
Talking to APP, the Saudi envoy said that under the instructions of Saudi leadership he has been sent to Karachi to take the dead body of the diplomat and his family to Saudi Arabia.
The Saudi envoy while condemning the murder of the diplomat expressed deep grief and sorrow over the tragic incident.
The diplomat’s car was ambushed by unidentified gunmen riding on motorcycles on Khayaban-e-Shahbaz road in Karachi on Monday.

Dublin will become a vehicle-free zone to prevent terrorist car bombs

2011-05-16T10:18:00.001+01:00

Starting today, a parking ban will be enforced in more than 50 streets in the centre of the capital, which will also be closed to traffic before the Queen arrives on Tuesday.
More than 8,000 policemen and 2,000 soldiers will flood Dublin in what will be by far the biggest security operation Ireland has ever seen.
Republican terrorists have already pledged to do everything they can to “disrupt” the four-day state visit, describing the Queen a “war criminal” last month during a commemoration of the 1916 Easter Rising.
Earlier this week a suspected Real IRA leader was one of three men arrested in Dublin as part of an operation to ensure that known troublemakers are kept off the streets during the visit.
Ireland’s Defence Forces are on such a high state of alert that an air defence “umbrella” of missiles and guns will be in place to protect the Baldonnel military air base where the royal flight will land, while armoured vehicles will be deployed in Dublin.

Deceased terrorist Osama bin Laden and his henchmen were probably addicted to pornography, if the huge cache of pornographic movies unearthed in his hideout is anything to go by.

2011-05-14T09:46:00.001+01:00

According to the U.S. officials, Navy SEALS who seized bin Laden's laptop, thumb drives and documents (both printed and handwritten), also came across a huge trove of pornographic videos stashed in a wooden box in his bedroom. Reuters, to whom the U.S. officials spoke on condition of anonymity, did not mention whether the sleaze collection was commercial or home made.

Osama bin Laden hated Barack Obama, wanted to assassinate him during 2012 presidential elections
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Al-Qaeda
The officials said they were not sure whether the smut collection belonged to bin Laden and whether he even viewed them. They pointed out, however, that discovery of pornographic materials and their confiscation during raids on Islamic militants are not uncommon.

What makes discovery of pornographic videos in bin Laden's compound interesting is that the Al Qaeda founder-leader always positioned himself as the leader of a religious war against Western culture. Interestingly, however, pornography doesn't seem to be in the list of Western sins that he was up against.

Interestingly, it was earlier reported that Avena syrup - a botanical product often used as "natural Viagra" - was found in his hideout. bin Laden has five wives and has fathered twenty children.

Currently, U.S. officials are interrogating bin Laden's wives, who potentially could provide details about life at bin Laden's compound and describe who came and went.

One question perhaps they'll be asking is how porn made it to the secluded compound, which had no mail service, phones or Internet connectivity. Through one of his courier boys, perhaps?

David Cameron has demanded British troops are withdrawn from Afghanistan.

2011-05-12T12:23:00.000+01:00

But his words have sparked a row with military leaders who believe soldiers are still needed in the country.

In a bid to bring the ten-year mission to an end, the Prime Minister has told the Army that soldiers should be brought back from the war zone within weeks.

But his plan - in response to the news of Osama Bin Laden's death - has been fiercely opposed within Whitehall, it was reported today.

Defence chiefs have drawn up plans to remove 450 troops from Britain's total of 10,000 in a compromise deal with Downing Street, but none are thought to be combat soldiers.

Those in charge fear the counter-insurgency mission against the Taliban would be harmed by early troop withdrawals.

A Whitehall source told The Daily Telegraph: 'There is a very active conversation going on. On one side there is the military concern about force density and continuing the mission, and on the other side the PM's political imperative for some sort of announcement on draw-down.'

The combat mission is due to end completely in 2014, but the death of Osama Bin Laden had speeded up the need for withdrawal in the Prime Minister's eyes, it is claimed.

A total of 364 British troops have died in Afghanistan since 2001.

All British troops will leave Afghanistan by 2014

Mr Cameron's intervention came as the head of the Royal Navy warned the service would struggle to build up a force of fighter jets to equip its planned new aircraft carrier.

Admiral Sir Mark Stanhope, the First Sea Lord, told MPs he wished he could revisit the Government's decision to axe HMS Ark Royal and its Harrier jets, leaving the UK without a carrier for the rest of the decade.

Admiral Stanhope has warned the decision to scrap the Ark Royal may limit the Navy's capability

Giving evidence to the Commons Defence Committee, he said that if the Navy still had a carrier it would be deployed on the current international operations in Libya.

'If we had a carrier it would be there,' he said.

The committee also heard from the head of the Army, General Sir Peter Wall, and the head of the RAF, Air Chief Marshal Sir Stephen Dalton, who both said their services were 'running hot' as a result of conducting simultaneous operations in Libya and Afghanistan.

Admiral Stanhope said the decision in the Strategic Defence and Security Review to scrap Ark Royal before the new carrier joins the fleet in 2020 could limit Britain's ability to provide air support for UK forces around the world.

Although the Government is committed to building the two carriers ordered by the former Labour government - a cancellation was too expensive - only one will actually enter service, with the second due to be mothballed or sold.

However Admiral Stanhope told the committee that could still leave the UK without a carrier capability for around three out of every eight years due to the need for periodic refits.

'I am very clear that if you want a capability that is available to this nation continuously, you can't do that with one carrier,' he said.

Abu Bakar Bashir has escaped the death penalty in relation to the discovery of a terrorist cell and paramilitary training camp after Indonesian prosecutors dropped two key charges against the radical Muslim cleric.

2011-05-09T12:56:00.001+01:00

Abu Bakar Bashir has escaped the death penalty in relation to the discovery of a terrorist cell and paramilitary training camp after Indonesian prosecutors dropped two key charges against the radical Muslim cleric.

But the 72-year-old, who many suspect of being behind the deadly 2002 Bali bombings, could still spend the rest of his life behind bars if found guilty of raising funds for the camp, discovered last year in a mountainous jungle area in the Indonesian province of Aceh.

In delivering their sentence request in the South Jakarta District Court on Monday, prosecutors conceded they had failed to prove the primary charge of trafficking in explosives and weapons for use in a terrorist act.

They also failed to prove a secondary charge of using violence or threats of violence to cause terror.

Both charges, which carry a maximum penalty of death, were, therefore, dropped.

However, they maintained there was enough evidence, collected from a number of Bashir's former allies, to prove he was involved in raising funds for the camp and the cell known as Takjim al-Qaeda Serambi Mekah (al-Qaeda of the Veranda of Mecca).

It's believed the group was planning to carry out attacks with suicide squads targeting Westerners, political leaders and police in Indonesia.

While the remaining charge also carries the death penalty, prosecutors instead opted for a life sentence, citing the defendant's age.

They said Bashir, as a religious leader, was supposed to provide an example for his followers.

"But the defendant has led his followers to commit actions that are against the law of Indonesia," prosecutors said, adding that he had shown no remorse for his actions.

Prosecutors said the evidence presented during the trial, including testimony from former key allies, showed Bashir was clearly at the centre of money-raising efforts.

One of the key witnesses in the trial, Luthfi Haidaroh, also known as Ubaid, had previously told the court that he acted as a middle man between Bashir and members of the cell, including the deceased terrorist known as Dulmatin.

Dulmatin, killed in a police raid last year, was involved in making the bombs for the 2002 Bali attacks which killed 202 people, including 88 Australians.

Bashir served almost 26 months in prison for conspiracy over the 2002 Bali bombings, but was later acquitted on appeal.

In February, Ubaid was sentenced to 10 years in prison for raising funds for firearms and supplies for the terrorist cell, while others who gave evidence against Bashir have also been convicted and sentenced.

It is their evidence which prosecutors believe should also ensure Bashir, who will turn 73 in August, spends the rest of his life in jail.

As he was being led from the court, Bashir said the charges brought against him were the act of "friends of the devil", referring to the prosecutors.

"Such insolence. These people should be called terrorists. May Allah immediately send them a disaster," he said.

"What's most important is that I defend Islam."

As the sentence request was read out, about 100 Bashir supporters outside the court shouted: "God is great, God is great".

They continued to rally as Bashir was being driven away in a police convoy, which included armoured vehicles.

The case is due to return to court on May 25, when the defence will respond to the prosecution's sentence request.

Earlier, before appearing in court, Bashir had hailed former al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden, killed last week in a raid by US special forces in Pakistan, as a great warrior.

"For Osama, by Allah's will he now lives in heaven and he receives great honour for he is a great warrior," Bashir said from his jail cell.

"He has made a great sacrifice," adding that he was the bin Laden of Indonesia.

"The government wants to make me a terrorist icon like Osama," he said.

The U.S. military used a drone to strike Thursday at an al-Qaeda target in Yemen, the first such U.S. attack using unmanned aircraft in that country since 2002, according to U.S. and Yemeni officials.

2011-05-08T16:19:00.001+01:00

Two al-Qaeda operatives were killed in the attack in the remote, mountainous Yemeni governorate of Shabwa early Thursday, a Yemeni security official said.

Drones operated by the U.S. Joint Special Operations Command were redeployed in Yemen last year as part of a secret U.S. effort to reinvigorate the hunt for al-Qaeda operatives in the country.

Previous strikes in Yemen over the past 18 months involved cruise missiles fired from naval craft off Yemen’s coast.

Thursday’s attack was “the first drone strike,” a U.S. official said. The aircraft have patrolled portions of Yemen for much of the past year, the official said, but had not launched any missiles because of a lack of sufficient targeting information.

U.S. officials said the strike was not related to intelligence gathered since Sunday’s raid on Osama bin Laden’s compound in Pakistan.

U.S. officials have previously said that the CIA and U.S. military have struggled to gather meaningful intelligence on al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, as the Yemen-based offshoot is known. The group has taken advantage of Yemen’s rugged terrain, as well as ties to its prominent tribes, to go deep underground after a series of high-profile strikes by the United States in late 2009 and early 2010.

The redeployment of the drones coincided with a significant expansion of the CIA’s presence in the country, but U.S. officials have said it could take years to build up informant networks and acquire actionable intelligence on the whereabouts of Anwar al-Aulaqi and other al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula figures.

The information about the strike came from Col. Hamid Saleh, security director of the Mayfaa district in the Shabwa governorate. He said the men were killed when a missile struck their car.

A Yemeni government spokesman, although not confirming that the missile was fired by a U.S. drone, identified the dead men as brothers Musaed Mubarak Aldaghery and Abdullah Mubarak Aldaghery.

The two men were active in al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula, officials said. Even before the killing this week of Osama bin Laden, U.S. government officials had warned that the al-Qaeda branch in Yemen had emerged as a more active and dangerous foe than the core group of al-Qaeda led by its central command in Afghanistan and Pakistan.

“Security authorities were tracking them down for some time,” the Yemeni spokesman said of the Aldaghery brothers. “They are known operational al-Qaeda fighters.”

Yemen has been racked for months with anti-government demonstrations calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh to relinquish power. U.S. officials have said the political upheaval was interfering with efforts by the United States and Yemen to cooperate on counterterrorism operations.

Christopher Boucek, a Yemen expert at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said Saleh has become more concerned with his political survival than fighting al-Qaeda.

“From the start, the Saleh government has been repositioning counterterrorism assets to protect the regime,” he said. “And the longer this political drama goes on in Yemen, the worse things get on the ground . . . so the Americans will step in if they have to.”

Among those killed in the previous drone strike in 2002 was a U.S. citizen suspected of ties to al-Qaeda. The CIA halted its drone campaign in Yemen after that incident.

Recent attacks in central Marib have caused widespread power outages and fuel shortages in the capital, Sanaa, further fueling anti-government sentiment and unrest. In the past week, power stations in Marib have been attacked seven times.

“We demand that [the Yemeni government] give us the truth about these drone strikes. Otherwise, disastrous things will happen to either Americans or Yemenis,” Ibrahim al-Shabawi, the brother of a tribal leader slain in an earlier U.S. attack, said in a recent interview.

Boone is a special correspondent. Miller reported from Washington. Staff writer Craig Whitlock in Washington contributed to this report.

Britain has offered the US government SAS anti-terrorist units to help hunt down senior al-Qaeda commanders in an attempt to capitalise on information seized in the compound where Osama bin Laden was killed

2011-05-08T08:09:00.001+01:00

The Prime Minister, David Cameron, has told the White House that he intends to stand shoulder to shoulder with President Obama as the United States steps up its global hunt for leading jihadists.
It is understood that the Prime Minister has given his approval for the elite British troops to be used beyond Afghanistan in order to "decapitate" the al-Qaeda leadership.
Britain already has counter-terrorist teams located in the North West Frontier Province in Pakistan and in Yemen, where they are responsible for training indigenous troops in counter-insurgency, counter-IED and counter-intelligence techniques.
Defence sources have said that the hunt for leading jihadists, such as Ayman al-Zawahri, al-Qaeda's second-in-command, and Mullah Omar, the former Taliban leader, will continue in the Afghanistan-Pakistan border region.
But it is understood that the US and British special forces could also be deployed to conduct strike operations in Yemen.

The Pentagon has released home videos of Osama Bin Laden, seized at the secret compound in Pakistan

2011-05-07T18:13:00.001+01:00

The Pentagon has released home videos of Osama Bin Laden, seized at the secret compound in Pakistan where he was shot dead by US special forces last week.

The tapes show him watching himself on television, and preparing a video message addressed to the US.

At a news briefing in Washington, the Pentagon also released a propaganda video recorded by Bin Laden.

In total, five videos were seized during last week's US commando raid.

In the first video, filmed in October or November 2010, Bin Laden is shown wearing a white skullcap and white robes as he speaks to the camera in the style of previous video addresses by the al-Qaeda leader.

There is no audio on the film, but Pentagon officials said it was a message to the United States.

Three other clips appear to be a rehearsal for the video message, says the BBC's Jonny Dymond in Washington.

It is the first such film to emerge since al-Qaeda released a video address from Bin Laden in 2007, says our correspondent.

In another of the videos, Bin Laden is shown watching a programme about himself on Arabic language television.

illegal sale of Zam Zam Water in London.

2011-05-07T09:14:00.001+01:00

A report of an exposé by a BBC local news programme together with some background information into the illegal sale of Zam Zam Water in London.
Reporters from BBC Television’s London News programme have uncovered a bizarre scandal that is a serious threat to the health of Moslems in the capital, and possibly nationwide or worse, the sale of “holy water” contaminated with arsenic.
The Well of Zamzam is located within the Al-Masjid al-Ḥarām, the largest mosque in the world, which is itself located in Mecca, the holiest city in Islam. The Mosque attracts visitors from all over, especially during the Hajj, many of whom drink from the Well.
In the Saudi capital, Zam Zam Water (or Zamzam Water) is distributed free to pilgrims, who are permitted to take home small bottles, but the Saudis, ever conscious of their role as the guardians of the holiest sites in Islam, have banned its commercial export. That hasn’t stopped a trade growing up in it, or in what appears to be Zam Zam Water, but this is at best an attempt to take the faithful for a ride, and at worse could seriously endanger their health, because rather than having the miraculous qualities attributed to the real thing, the Zam Zam Water the BBC found being peddled under the counter in London is high in arsenic, and other substances that make it unsuitable for human consumption.
After an investigation lasting several weeks, the BBC found a warehouse selling fake Zam Zam Water in large containers; it is clear from the undercover video recording that the people selling it know they shouldn’t be.
One unscrupulous dealer told the reporter that when Customs seized some of his imports they told him it contained arsenic. When asked: “Do you know what arsenic is?” he replied “Yeah, it’s very dangerous”, but he said the claim was false. Which begs the question: how does he know?
The BBC sent some of their purchases for what they called a comprehensive analysis, and were told by the Association of Public Analysts the water contained “excessively high nitrate levels – problematic for small babies; potentially harmful bacteria...and...arsenic”.
Unsurprisingly, this is not a new problem; two years ago trading standards officers in Lancashire found alleged Zam Zam Water being sold within their jurisdiction, complete with arsenic at almost three times the legal limit, and two years before that, the Food Standards Agency issued a similar warning, this time relating to the same product being peddled in Central London. But the BBC may have opened a real can of worms , not by forwarding evidence of the illegal trade to the authorities, but by asking a pilgrim to bring back a bottle of the real thing from Mecca. According to reporter Guy Lynn, the sample was indistinguishable from the presumably fake product on sale in the East End of London. This is in complete contradiction to what might be called the official Islamic line, that the water today has the same special properties attributed to it by Islamic tradition. Whatever action British public health agencies take, this is a story that looks likely to run and run.

Pakistan arrests 40 people

2011-05-06T16:55:00.001+01:00

Pakistan arrested 40 people suspected of having links to Usama bin Laden in the town of Abbottabad where the al Qaeda leader was killed, FOX News Channel reported Friday, citing a report by the Open Source Center, a US government-sponsored monitoring site.

The arrests came after a search operation launched Thursday by Pakistani intelligence agencies and police in Abbottabad, the report said, adding that official sources called it the "second phase" of the operation that killed Bin Laden.

Bin Laden was shot dead by a team, US Navy SEALs in a compound in Abbottabad, a military town 40 miles from the capital Islamabad, President Barack Obama announced Sunday. Al Qaeda confirmed his death Friday.