Father defends terror-arrest son
The father of one of five men arrested under the Terrorism Act protested his son's innocence as officers continued to search eight properties.
Police swooped on five homes in Birmingham, taking five men aged 29 to 36 into custody.
The men were arrested on suspicion of being involved in the commission, preparation or instigation of an act of terrorism, West Midlands Police said.
A police spokeswoman said the arrests took place in the Sparkhill, Ward End, Hodge Hill, Bordesley Green and Aston areas of Birmingham.
Speaking outside his home in Sparkhill, Sobat Khan, 66, told how he awoke to find six police officers arresting his son, 29-year-old Mohammed Shabir.
The father-of-four said: "My son is not bad, he is a good boy.
"They (the police) knocked on the front door and came in, two lady police officers and four men. They arrested my son and told me I had to get out so they could search. They are still searching but they haven't taken anything from the house.
"I don't know when I can go back in. I was shocked. I had been asleep. My son didn't say anything, he just went with them. He is not bad, he has never been bad. All his life, I have had no trouble from him. He just goes to work, that is all. I said to the police, 'you think I make bombs in my house? You look'."
Mr Khan said his son had a wife and an eight-year-old son who also live with him at the terraced home in Benton Road. He said his son, who works in a steel factory in West Bromwich, came to Birmingham from Pakistan as a six-month-old baby and had not left the country since.
A police spokeswoman said: "This action comes as a result of a long and complex investigation by the West Midlands Counter Terrorism Unit. It is not related to any immediate plot or threat to public safety and police are not currently seeking anyone else in relation to these arrests. The families of the men are being supported by specially trained officers and key community leaders in the relevant areas have been contacted."
-Ananova
Iraqi Cabinet says US security pact needs changes
BAGHDAD – Iraq's Cabinet decided Tuesday to ask the U.S. for changes to the draft agreement that would keep American troops here three more years, as key Shiite lawmakers warned the deal stands little chance of approval as it stands.
The decision, reached in a closed-door meeting that lasted nearly six hours, raised doubt that the agreement can be ratified before a new American president is elected next month.
Parliament must approve the draft before the current U.N. mandate expires on Dec. 31 or no legal basis will exist for the U.S.-led military mission.
Such an outcome would force hard decisions in Baghdad and Washington on the future of the unpopular war.
Critics maintain the draft falls short of Iraqi demands for full control of their own country after nearly six years of U.S. occupation. Supporters insist Iraq still needs U.S. military and political support as it builds its security forces and governmental institutions.
Opposition, however, is divided, with different parties objecting to different parts of the agreement, which could make it difficult to win broad support for the entire document before the year end deadline.
Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and his ministers reviewed details of the draft, hammered out in months of tortuous negotiations, and concluded that changes were needed "to raise the agreement to a nationally acceptable level," government spokesman Ali al-Dabbagh said in a statement.
Cabinet members will prepare a list of proposed changes to present to the Americans, al-Dabbagh said without giving a timeframe.
Government officials said al-Maliki wanted the proposed changes submitted Wednesday so the full Cabinet could consider them Sunday. The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not supposed to release the information.
The officials said the ministers of planning, defense and interior — which rely heavily on U.S. support — agreed to accept the draft without any changes. Others in the 37-member Cabinet raised various objections to the draft.
There was no immediate comment from the U.S. Embassy and no indication whether the U.S. would agree to further changes. Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari said last Saturday that it would be difficult to reopen the negotiations.
In Washington, State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said the Bush administration was waiting for a formal statement from the Iraqis before commenting.
Al-Maliki wants his coalition Cabinet of Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds to sign off on the draft before he sends it to parliament.
The prime minister, who is a Shiite, fears he could end up politically isolated if he pushes forward with the controversial agreement without solid political backing.
The agreement calls for U.S. troops to leave Iraqi cities by the end of June and withdraw from the country by Dec. 31, 2011, unless the government asks them to stay. It would also provide limited Iraqi jurisdiction over U.S. soldiers and contractors accused of major, premeditated crimes committed off post and off duty.
But much of the resistance has come from al-Maliki's fellow Shiites, who profited the most from the 2003 U.S. invasion that toppled Saddam Hussein's Sunni-dominated regime.
On Sunday, al-Maliki's ruling Shiite alliance expressed reservations about the agreement and called for unspecified changes to the draft. Officials said some alliance members wanted to remove the government's authority to ask the Americans to stay beyond the withdrawal dates.
Al-Maliki's main partner in the alliance, the Supreme Islamic Iraqi Council, maintains close ties to Iran, which strongly opposes the deal. The Supreme Council also works closely with the U.S., placing members in a difficult position between two hostile foreign powers.
Aides say al-Maliki wants an agreement but is also anxious for the 275-member parliament to approve it by a strong majority.
The 30 lawmakers loyal to anti-American Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr are expected to vote against the deal. With solid opposition from the Sadrists, the prime minister needs strong backing from the Supreme Council, which also holds 30 seats, as well as his own Dawa Party, with 25 lawmakers.
So far, only the Kurdish parties, which control 54 seats, have expressed unequivocal support for the draft. Other parties either oppose the agreement or want to show their constituents that they accepted the deal only after resisting U.S. demands as long as possible.
Jalaleddin al-Saghir, an influential Supreme Council lawmaker, said the agreement stands no chance of parliamentary approval without changes. Another Supreme Council lawmaker, Humam Hmoudi, told reporters that amendments were necessary because of "national sensitivities."
"What they (Americans) gave with their right hand they took away with the left," said Hmoudi, chairman of the parliament's foreign affairs committee. "They brought new conditions and limits such as in the article about leaving the cities. They agreed to leave by next June but added that this will be connected to the security situation on the ground."
The main Sunni party has also refused to take a position, possibly because major Shiite parties haven't done so either. Many Sunnis prefer the Americans to stay as a protection against the Shiite-led government.
But Sunni politicians are deeply sensitive to being tagged as American puppets, recalling that Sunni tribes that supported Britain in the 1920 revolution are still shamed as traitors.
Sunni spokesman Salim Abdullah told Alhurra television that his group was concerned that a clause providing for U.S. help against "outlawed groups and remnants of the former regime" could be used against "innocent individuals" who served in the Saddam government.
U.S. and Iraqi officials believe Iraq's security forces still need American support to guarantee the security gains of the past year. Sunni and Shiite extremists have been battered but not defeated.
If the agreement fails to win approval, the two governments could ask the U.N. Security Council to extend the mandate. But the Iraqis don't like that option because they want to be freed from all U.N. restrictions, some of which have been in place since the 1990 Iraqi invasion of Kuwait.
Another could be to move U.S. troops into giant bases around the country and suspend all security operations pending a full withdrawal or another agreement.
Source- Yahoo.
Man seriously hurt in Tallaght shooting
A man has been seriously injured in a shooting in Tallaght in Dublin.
The 27-year-old received a single shotgun blast to the head and was taken to hospital.
It is believed two shots were fired at an apartment at Russell Rise off Fortunestown Way at 6.30am this morning.
Neighbours report hearing the shots, and gardaí say a lone gunman was responsible.
The scene of the shooting has been sealed off for technical examination.
Local gardaí are carrying out door to door inquiries.
rte.ie
Brown admits 'recession now likely'
Gordon Brown finally admitted that Britain is likely to suffer a recession - hours after a similar warning from the Bank of England sent the value of the pound plunging to a five-year low.
The Prime Minister's first use of the "r-word" came as share prices also fell dramatically again and the date for a US-hosted world summit to discuss the crisis was set for November 15.
"Having taken action on the banking system, we must now take action on the global financial recession which is likely to cause recession in America, France, Italy, Germany, Japan and - because no country can insulate itself from it - Britain too," Mr Brown said at Prime Minister's questions.
Official statistics due this Friday are expected to show Britain suffering the first of the two consecutive quarters of negative growth which technically constitute a recession.
But, following Bank of England Governor Mervyn King's recession warning on Tuesday night, the Prime Minister was forced to concede myriad expert predictions were almost certainly correct.
The grim official analyses - the first official confirmation of what has been widely predicted by experts for weeks - sparked an immediate drop in the value of the pound.
It fell as low as 1.616 US dollars - the lowest since September 2003.
London's blue chip FTSE share index fell 4.5% to close at 4040.9, with the Cac 40 in France and Germany's Dax both finishing more than 5% lower and the Dow Jones Industrial Average on Wall Street plunging nearly 300 points in the first few hours of trading.
Commodities were worst hit in London with concerns that demand would plummet amid a recession sending mining companies lower. Banks were also sharply down in the sell-off. There were also predictions that interest rates would be slashed again as soon as next month as the Bank of England attempts to stave off a deep recession.
Pressure for deep cuts is likely to mount further on Friday when official figures are expected to confirm a shrinking UK economy for the first time since 1992.
-Ananova
PM calls for donations row probe
Gordon Brown stepped up the pressure on George Osborne by demanding a formal probe into claims he solicited an illegal £50,000 donation from a Russian oligarch.
The Prime Minister waded into the row by insisting the allegations were "a very serious matter indeed", adding: "I hope that it is investigated by the authorities."
The intervention came after the bitter spat between the shadow chancellor and his accuser Nathaniel Rothschild escalated further, with the banking heir producing a witness to back up his claims.
Mr Rothschild - a friend of Mr Osborne's from Oxford - is understood to be furious the Tories have challenged the truth of his account of conversations that took place over the summer at his Corfu villa and nearby on the luxury yacht of billionaire Oleg Deripaska.
For his part, Mr Osborne has flatly denied either he or Conservative party fundraiser Andrew Feldman raised the prospect of a donation from Mr Deripaska at the social gatherings.
Former Labour minister Denis MacShane issued a list of questions for Mr Osborne to answer, including whether Mr Deripaska or the Tories had finally decided it would not be appropriate to "channel" a donation through one of the oligarch's British companies, Leyland Daf.
Mr MacShane warned he was ready to take the matter to the Electoral Commission or Parliamentary Standards Commissioner, John Lyon unless there were satisfactory replies.
But the Tories accused him and Mr Brown of making a "desperate attempt" to keep the story in the headlines. They also insisted that the person who should provide more information was new Business Secretary Lord Mandelson - who was present at many of the Corfu social events with Mr Osborne.
"All the questions raised in Denis MacShane's letter are dealt with in yesterday's statement from George Osborne and Andrew Feldman," a spokesman said.
"The person who hasn't answered any questions is Peter Mandelson, who should immediately set out a detailed account of his numerous dealings with Mr Deripaska."
-Ananova
Al Fayed denies sex assault claim
Mohamed al Fayed vehemently denied an allegation of sexually assaulting a teenage girl after he was interviewed by police under caution.
The Harrods owner voluntarily went to a west London police station to answer questions about the alleged incident in May.
His spokeswoman, Katharine Witty, said he was "confident" his name would be cleared. Mr al Fayed was not forced to attend the police interview, which lasted less than half an hour.
It is understood the allegation relates to a complaint by a 15-year-old girl that the multi-millionaire businessman sexually assaulted her at Harrods. The teenager told police Mr al Fayed kissed her after she met him at the exclusive Knightsbridge store while shopping with her mother, the Mail on Sunday reported earlier this year.
In a statement outside Harrods, Ms Witty said: "We confirm that Mohamed al Fayed today voluntarily attended an interview with police to categorically refute an allegation widely reported in the media.
"He did not attend under compulsion and the meeting lasted for less than half an hour. From the outset, details of this allegation have appeared in the media which they attributed to a police source.
"And indeed despite assurances that today's interview would be kept confidential, he is concerned that it was reported within one hour of its conclusion. Mr al Fayed vehemently denies this allegation and is confident that his name will be cleared."
Scotland Yard refused to confirm that the Harrods owner had been questioned.
A Metropolitan Police spokeswoman said: "A man attended a west London police station by prior arrangement and was questioned under caution this morning.
"The man was questioned in relation to an allegation of sexual assault on a girl under 16 at a business premises in central London. The allegation was received in May 2008."
-Ananova
