Category: news

Seven insurgents are killed in an attack on the Nato air base at Bagram in Afghanistan, and five Nato troops are wounded.

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Kingspan Renewables announces a £47m expansion of its operation in Portadown, County Armagh.

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South Korea’s foreign minister says it is “obvious” that North Korea sank a South Korean naval ship in March.

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Shares in Europe and Asia fall after Germany introduces a ban on short-selling of some financial products – spooking markets.

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A Somali man pleads guilty in a New York court to seizing a US ship and kidnapping its captain last year.

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Gunfire is heard in Bangkok, as army units break through protesters’ barricades, with at least two reported killed.

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The British Library is to make 40m newspaper pages from its archive free and searchable online to the public.

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All newborn babies with suspected jaundice should undergo blood tests, the health watchdog recommends.

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A scientist based at the UK’s Royal Botanic Gardens in Kew prevents the world’s smallest waterlily back from going extinct.

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Many new fathers have post-natal depression, yet most cases remain undetected and untreated, say researchers.

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Manchester United boss Sir Alex Ferguson has said he may not add any more players to his squad this summer.

Ferguson has already signed Mexico’s Javier Hernandez from Guadalajara and defender Chris Smalling from Fulham.

But a host of more signings were expected, particularly after chief executive David Gill indicated funds are available to his manager.

"There may be one signing but it’s not easy in the present climate. The market is very difficult," said Ferguson.

Speaking alongside Gill at a press conference in New York to promote United’s four-game North American tour this summer, Ferguson added: "The structure of our squad is good in terms of ages, the balance, the numbers and there’s a lot of good young players.

"Sometimes you have to trust in the development of the last few years and I’m going to stick with that, or most of it."

Gill added: "The Premier League is bringing in squad limits next year of 25 but there will be unlimited under-21s and other rules and we’ll be taking all that into consideration."

Ferguson revealed he would not be replacing goalkeeper Ben Foster, instead promoting England Under-21 international Ben Amos to the first-team squad alongside Edwin Van der Sar and Tomasz Kuszczak.

Foster is close to completing a £6m move to Birmingham, having missed out on England’s squad for the World Cup in South Africa.

"When we decided to let Ben (Foster) go, we were in the process of letting a good young goalkeeper, Ben Amos, go out on loan," Ferguson said.

"He’s in the England Under-21 team but we can only accommodate three goalkeepers. So when the situation with Ben’s future at Manchester United came into it and we agreed to let him go, we stopped Ben Amos from going on loan.

"He will now be our third goalkeeper, he’s very talented and has a good future ahead of him."

Supporters’ groups opposed to the Glazer family’s ownership of Manchester United have argued that Ferguson’s transfer dealings are being limited by the level of debt carried by the club.

But Gill said: "We’re very confident the business model we have in place will ensure the club can continue to compete at the top of football for many years to come."

"Our season ticket sales, renewals, for this upcoming season are on track with previous years. Our executive ticket renewals are on track," he said.

"The owners have been true to their word since they took over the club in 2005. They’ve brought commercial expertise and commercial benefit to us in a numbers of areas, and we’ve seen our revenues grow significantly."

The club’s summer tour will begin with a training camp in Chicago followed by friendlies against Celtic in Toronto on 16 July, the Philadelphia Union in Philadelphia on 21 July, the Kansas City Wizards in Kansas four days later, and the MLS All-Stars in Houston on 28 July.

Ferguson will give his World Cup players leave of absence from the tour, which will move on to Mexico and a game against Guadalajara, which was agreed as part of the deal to sign 21-year-old forward Hernandez.

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The man accused of trying to detonate a car bomb in New York’s Times Square has appeared in court, for the first time since his arrest on 3 May.

Pakistani-born US citizen Faisal Shahzad, 30, did not enter a plea on the five charges he faces.

A court appearance normally occurrs within a couple of days of a US arrest but officials say Mr Shahzad waived his rights while he was co-operating.

Mr Shahzad was arrested at JFK airport in New York as he tried to flee the US.

US officials have said Mr Shahzad has provided investigators with valuable intelligence since his arrest, and have said the Pakistani Taliban was behind the attack.

‘Training in Pakistan’

Last week investigators arrested three men after searches in four states, with Attorney General Eric Holder saying the arrests were linked to Mr Shahzad’s alleged bombing attempt.

The men are being held on immigration charges.

Mr Shahzad lived in Connecticut, and had recently returned from an extended trip to Pakistan.

US authorities say Mr Shahzad told investigators he had received training in bomb making in Waziristan, a tribal region of north-west Pakistan.

On 1 May, police discovered an SUV in Times Square loaded with fertiliser, fireworks, gasoline, propane and alarm clocks.

Investigators traced the vehicle back to Mr Shahzad, officials say, and he was arrested about 53 hours later.

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The major world powers have agreed on a proposal for new sanctions against Iran, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has said.

A draft resolution will be circulated at the UN Security Council for ratification, she told the US Senate.

The announcement came a day after Iran made a deal with Turkey that would see nuclear material exchanged for enriched uranium in Turkey.

The deal was similar to one proposed by the West and its allies last year.

News of Iran’s deal with Turkey was coolly received by the US and its allies.

Mrs Clinton said on Tuesday that a number of unanswered questions remained about the deal.

Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan called on the world to support it but said that if Iran did not ship out the uranium within one month, as agreed, then it would be on its own.

‘Pressure on Iran’

"We have reached agreement on a strong draft with the co-operation of Russia and China," Mrs Clinton told the US Senate foreign relations committee after talks between the five permanent Security Council members – the US, UK, Russia, China and France – and Germany.

"We plan to circulate the draft resolution to the entire Security Council today," Mrs Clinton added.

The US and its Western allies believe Iran is trying to build a nuclear weapon, but Iran denies this.

Mrs Clinton said she had spent Tuesday morning on the phone with her Russian counterpart, Sergei Lavrov, "finalising the resolution".

Details were not immediately released but the sanctions are expected to broaden economic penalties on Iranian officials and institutions, the Associated Press news agency reports.

Russia and China have previously resisted calls for a new round of sanctions.

Talking about the Turkish deal, Mrs Clinton accused Tehran of trying to deflect pressure from the major powers.

"We don’t believe it was any accident that Iran agreed to this declaration as we were preparing to move forward in New York," she said.

"The fact that we had Russia on board, we had China on board and that we were moving early this week, namely today, to share the text of that resolution, put pressure on Iran which they were trying to somehow dissipate."

owever, Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi said he was

encouraged by the fuel swap. His reaction suggested that world

powers discussing possible new U.N. sanctions against Iran may

part ways on how much weight to give Iran’s offer.

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The search firm seeks to allay privacy fears after it revealed that it had been harvesting data from private wi-fi networks.

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The coalition government is to create a commission to review the Human Rights Act following a successful bid by two terror suspects to avoid deportation.

Abid Naseer and Ahmad Faraz Khan, both 23, had argued that they would face torture or death in Pakistan.

The Act is a source of a policy divide between the Conservatives and Lib Dems.

The Lib Dems are opposed to attempts to dilute it, while the Tories had proposed replacing it with a "British Bill of Rights".

Attack

The Human Rights Act 1988 incorporated fundamental rights enshrined in the European Convention of Human Rights into UK law.

These included the right to life, the right to family, freedom from torture and the right to a fair trial.

The two men were among 10 Pakistanis arrested last April as part of a massive counter-terrorism operation in Liverpool and Manchester.

The security services believed the men were planning to attack within days of their arrest, but neither was charged.

However, the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) said it believed Mr Naseer was an al-Qaeda operative.

The Home Secretary, Theresa May, said she would not be appealing against the ruling handed down by Siac but she was disappointed.

She said: "As the court agreed, they are a security risk to the UK. We are now taking all possible measures to ensure they do not engage in terrorist activity."

Altogether five men – who had been tracked by MI5 before the raids last year – were appealing against deportation.

Much of the detail in the case was presented to Siac – a court which deals with such cases – in secret during the past three weeks.

Abdul Wahab Khan, 27, and Tariq Ur Rehman, 38, who were also arrested at the time, lost their deportation appeals.

They had already returned to Pakistan.

Mr Justice Mitting said they were committed Islamists who knew of Mr Naseer’s plan.

Mr Ur Rehman denied this and told the BBC: "I have no link with al-Qaeda; I am not an Islamic extremist. I am a normal Muslim – I go to the mosque and pray."

Student Shoaib Khan, however, won his appeal, with the court saying there was no evidence of wrongdoing against him.

His lawyer Amjad Malik told the BBC that his 31-year-old client, who is also currently in Pakistan, wanted to return to the UK to resume his studies.

Al-Qaeda operative

In his judgement, the judge said Mr Naseer was sending e-mails to a contact in Pakistan – and that the recipient was an "al-Qaeda operative".

The e-mails were said to be at the heart of the plot and culminated in a message sent to Pakistan in April 2009 in which Mr Naseer said he had set a date to marry, something MI5 said was code for an attack date.

"We are satisfied that Naseer was an al-Qaeda operative who posed and still poses a serious threat to the national security of the United Kingdom," the judgement said.

It added: "Subject to the issue of safety on return, it is conducive to the public good that he should be deported."

The judge said Ahmad Faraz Khan had become a "knowing party" to the plan because he had "undergone a radical change in view" between leaving home and studying in the UK.

But in both cases, Mr Justice Mitting said it was impossible to return the men to Pakistan.

"There is a long and well-documented history of disappearances, illegal detention and of the torture and ill-treatment of those detained, usually to produce information, a confession or compliance," said the judgement.

Control order

Following the court’s decision, the government’s independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, the Liberal Democrat peer Lord Carlile, said he hoped it would look at ways of ensuring people would be treated properly if they were returned to their native countries.

The BBC’s home affairs editor, Mark Easton, also said it was likely that a control order would be used to restrict the movement and activities of the two men and to keep them under constant watch, although ministers would be unable to confirm this.

However, he said this was also an issue of contention between the two parties.

The Lib Dems have described the orders as "an affront to British justice" while the Conservatives have said a review is needed.

In all, 11 men were detained after police raided a series of locations across Liverpool, Manchester and Lancashire in April 2009.

Ten of them were from Pakistan, who were all either close friends or loosely known to each other.

At the time officials feared an imminent attack.

But no explosives were found and all of the men were released without charge after two weeks.

They were immediately detained again under immigration laws after the then home secretary sought their deportation, saying they were still a threat to national security.

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