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Iraq arrests 12 over church siege

Our Lady of Salvation church in central Baghdad (file photo)More than 50 people died after militants took over the church

Twelve suspected militants have been arrested in connection with a deadly church siege in Baghdad last month, Iraq’s interior minister says.

Jawad Bolani said the arrests were made in raids over recent days and described them as a blow to al-Qaeda.

More than 50 people were killed when militants took over the Our Lady of Salvation church on 31 October.

The gunmen seized the Catholic church during Sunday Mass, demanding the release of al-Qaeda prisoners.

It ended only when security forces stormed the church, after an hours-long stand-off. About 60 people were injured.

The suspects are said to include Huthaifa al-Batawi, the Baghdad chief of the Islamic State of Iraq, a Sunni militant umbrella group to which al-Qaeda in Iraq belongs, according to AFP news agency.

The group has said it carried out the attack.

Police captured the group in raids in the upscale west Baghdad neighbourhood of Mansur and on Palestine street, in the capital’s east.

An intelligence official responsible for monitoring al-Qaeda in Iraq told AP that security forces acted on a tip to make the first arrest, and then managed to track down the whole group.

He believes that more people were arrested in the raids, putting the number at 17.

Although churches in Iraq have faced a number of attacks in recent years, the incident was the first which involved a prolonged hostage situation.

Christians – many from ancient denominations – have been leaving Iraq in droves since the US-led invasion in 2003, and about 600,000 remain.

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Reclaim ‘big society’ – Miliband

Ed MilibandEd Miliband is launching a major Labour policy review
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Ed Miliband will launch a major review of Labour Party policy by telling his MPs the party has “lost its way”.

Signalling a break with New Labour’s focus on economic growth, the Labour leader will say voters were feeling “squeezed” even before the recession.

He will add they felt Labour lost touch with their aspirations and stopped offering a “route to a better life”.

The two-year review aims to give the party a fresh platform to fight the next election.

It will be headed by Cabinet Office Minister Liam Byrne and will draw on expertise from outside the party in an echo of a similar exercise carried out by David Cameron when he was elected leader of the Conservative Party in 2005.

Key issues that need to be resolved at an early stage include where the party stands on tax – with Mr Miliband still apparently at odds with shadow chancellor Alan Johnson over whether the 50p top tax rate should be permanent and what form a graduate tax should take.

The policy review is being launched on Saturday at a special meeting of Labour’s National Policy Forum, in Gillingham, Kent.

“We need to move beyond New Labour”

Ed Miliband Labour leaderMiliband squeezed middle ‘muddle’

In his strongest criticism yet of the Blair-Brown era, Mr Miliband will say: “Over the last 13 years we saw a tremendous expansion in opportunity. But people’s ability to take advantage of those opportunities did not keep pace.

“And so, even before the financial crisis, people came to feel squeezed – by an economy that demanded more and more of them, by public services which didn’t keep pace with their rising expectations, by the pressures on family and community life outside of their control.”

And he will add: “The hard truth is that New Labour which set out to help people have a better life lost its way and people felt that we were no longer offering them a route to a better life.

“And it is our job now to learn the lessons of that defeat so we go into the next election with a new solution for the future that provides better answers to the questions people ask of us – how will we help them find security?

“How will we help them achieve their hopes and dreams.

“We need better answers to those questions. Because more of the same from us will not close the gap between what people want out of life and what they can achieve at the moment.

“That is why we need to move beyond New Labour.”

Mr Miliband has given few hints about the shape of the policy platform which may emerge from the review, beyond saying that he backs social mobility and fairness.

But his focus on the “squeezed middle” has been ridiculed by the Conservatives, who have claimed he does not know who they are.

They claim the Labour leader used six different definitions of the phrase in an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Today programme on Friday.

These ranged from “people who are working hard” to “those not on six-figure salaries, who are in the middle of the income distribution”.

Tory chairman Baroness Warsi said it is no wonder that Labour’s policies are a “blank sheet of paper,” adding: “The only thing he knows for sure is that he is a socialist and will stick up for the trade unions.”

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Boy ‘stowaway’ search called-off

Map showing location of Falmouth
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Coastguards have called off the search for a teenager who jumped into the sea from a ship anchored a mile out from Falmouth, Cornwall.

It is believed the teenager and a friend, both 17 and from Cameroon, stowed away on the Thueland without food for two weeks.

One boy was rescued on Friday evening and is being treated in hospital for malnutrition and dehydration.

Falmouth Coastguard Mark Thomas said they must have been “very desperate”.

He said: “They were quite well hidden but also quite exposed.

“They stowed away there apparently with no food or water for two weeks while the vessel came up from Cameroon.

“It must have been horrendous. They must have been very, very desperate.”

Coastguards said the French-speaking teenagers had been found hiding in the ship’s rudder trunk for two weeks with no access to the main ship.

Search teams were called to look for the missing boy on Friday evening after a harbour boat picked up the first teenager who told police his friend had jumped into the water before him and got into difficulties.

A search was launched involving coastguard teams, a helicopter and lifeboats, but the second boy has not yet been found.

Coastguards said that the rescued teenager was taken to the Royal Cornwall Hospital in Truro for treatment.

Once he is well enough he will be handed over to the UK Border Agency, police said.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Fresh snow falling across the UK

Car struggles to climb the hill on Penrhiwfer Road, Tonyrefail, Wales Drives across the UK are warned to be careful on their commutes
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Severe weather warnings remain in place across much of the UK, with Scotland and north-east England predicted to have the heaviest snowfalls.

BBC meteorologist Darren Brett said snow had fallen in north-east England down to East Anglia, with coastal Hampshire and Dorset also at risk.

Warnings are also in place for icy roads in Northern Ireland and Wales.

Some weekend sporting events have been cancelled as forecasters say the early cold spell could last for two weeks.

The UK has seen the earliest widespread snowfall for 17 years.

Mr Brett said a band of snow was moving west across Scotland and that the north-west of England could be affected overnight.

The latest Met Office severe weather warnings for Scotland are for Orkney and Shetland, the Highlands and Grampian, Central, Tayside, Fife, south-west Scotland, Lothian and Borders.

Heavy snow has been predicted for south-west England.

Snow and ice warnings have been added for eastern areas of England – the North East, Yorkshire and Humber, East Midlands, Norfolk and Suffolk.

There is also a warning of widespread icy roads for London and parts of south-east England until at least 1100 GMT Saturday.

Mr Brett said there could be 10-15cm of fresh snow by 0900 GMT on Saturday in some parts of the north of England.

He added that coastal areas were also affected

“It’s the sea temperatures that are higher than the land temperatures that are helping to trigger this instability and trigger those showers – which is why we are seeing a lot of them near the coast.”

He said there was likely to be some fog in east Wales and West Midlands, but not Northern Ireland.

He said: “It is very treacherous on Saturday morning. We will see some sunshine though for the south-west of Scotland, north-west England, Midlands and across Wales and Northern Ireland.

Woman pulls child on sled in AberdeenThe snowfall is expected to continue over the weekend

“It’s a little bit of a quieter day but a cold one with temperatures struggling to get to 2C.”

Heavy snowfall and ice caused disruption across the UK on Thursday and Friday.

On the M4 in south Wales there were reports of a 26-mile tailback in the Friday evening rush hour westbound from the Severn Bridge toll booths to Miskin, while more than 160 schools had earlier been closed or partially closed in Scotland.

Schools in Northumberland, Tyne and Wear, East and North Yorkshire, and Wales were also affected.

The AA said it had been a “very busy day” with 1,220 call-outs every hour with Wales and the North East of England being the worst for breakdowns.

The coldest recorded temperature on Friday was in Carterhouse in the Scottish Borders, at -7.8C. Benson in Oxfordshire recorded -7.6C, Newcastle dropped to -4.3C, while the temperature at Kew Gardens in London sank to -3.8C.

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UK forecast for 27/11/2010

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Saturday’s horse racing meeting at Newcastle has been cancelled, with Gosforth Park under 18cm of snow. The meeting at Towcester, Northamptonshire, has also been called off, while events at Carlisle and Leicester on Sunday are in doubt.

The weekend’s FA Cup second round matches could also be at risk.

But Rugby Union bosses insist that England’s match against South Africa at Twickenham on Saturday will go ahead.

Animal charity the RSPCA urged dog owners to keep pets safe by avoiding iced-over lakes or ponds.

The unusual weather is being caused by high pressure over Greenland and low pressure in the Baltics, forcing cold winds from the north-east across Europe.

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This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Newspaper review

Papers

It was a week full of student protests against higher tuition fees, but the papers show the issue is far from over.

The Guardian says the Metropolitan Police is facing growing criticism over its handling of Wednesday’s demonstration in London’s Trafalgar Square.

The paper says video footage has emerged which disputes Scotland Yard’s denial that officers on horseback charged into a crowd of protesters.

In the Daily Telegraph, the paper’s Peter Oborne says the students’ cause is “genuine”.

He calls the students “the new radicals”, and argues the students had been stripped of what had previously been regarded as a right – free university education.

According to the Daily Telegraph, former prime minister Sir John Major believes the Tories and Lib Dems should prolong their “temporary alliance”.

He said wanted to see it continue beyond the next general election.

Labour leader Ed Miliband’s pledge to target “a squeezed middle” without explaining what this is has inspired the Times to create a game to find out.

Readers can answer questions to find out if they’re A) a middle earner; B) squeezed middle; or C) confused.

The Daily Mail warns of government panic as website Wikileaks prepares to publish revelations about the UK’s “special relationship” with the US.

The Independent’s Jerome Taylor says cables between an embassy and its government are the diplomatic equivalent of “dirty linen” and will make uncomfortable reading.

Meanwhile, all of the papers comment on the death of the man the Sun calls “the turkey king” – Bernard Matthews.

The tycoon created the onetime school lunch staple – the turkey twizzler.

The winter weather also dominates the pages, with the Daily Mirror warning the freezing temperatures will last between 10 and 15 days.

But an editorial in the Times asks that we think of snow not as a “burden”, but as a thing of beauty, which we should enjoy.

The Daily Express prints a picture taken at Loch Ness asking if it is proof there is a “monster” in the lake.

Richard Preston is convinced the four “humps” he saw belonged to Nessie.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

US Christmas tree ‘bomb’ thwarted

Map of Oregon, US
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A teenager has been arrested in the US state of Oregon after allegedly plotting to carry out a car bomb attack at a Christmas tree lighting ceremony.

Somali-born Mohamed Osman Mohamud, 19, was arrested after reportedly making a telephone call he thought would set off the bomb in the centre of Portland.

However, the bomb was a fake supplied by agents in a sting operation.

Mr Mohamud is a naturalised US citizen who had allegedly been in contact with an associate in north-west Pakistan.

Mr Mohamud, who lives in the town of Corvallis, had driven a van to the ceremony and was arrested at around 1740 local time on Friday (0040 GMT Saturday), about 20 minutes before the tree lighting was to occur.

Court documents said the case began in August 2009 with e-mail exchanges between Mr Mohamud and his alleged associate in Pakistan’s North-West Frontier Province.

Special FBI agent Arthur Balizan said: “The threat was very real. Our investigation shows that Mohamud was absolutely committed to carrying out an attack on a very grand scale. I want to reassure the people of this community that, at every turn, we denied him the ability to actually carry out the attack.”

The Oregonian newspaper quoted Oregon US Attorney Dwight Holton as saying: “This defendant’s chilling determination is a stark reminder that there are people – even here in Oregon – who are determined to kill Americans.”

He said there was “no reason to believe there is any continuing threat arising from this case”.

An undercover agent had posed as an associate of the Pakistan contact and met Mr Mohamud to discuss the plan, the court papers said.

The agent informed Mr Mohamud there would be “a lot of children” at the ceremony but Mr Mohamud allegedly said he was looking for a “huge mass that will be attacked in their own element with their families celebrating the holidays”.

Mr Mohamud allegedly told the FBI agent that he had been thinking of carrying out a jihad, or holy war, against infidels since the age of 15.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Blair defends faith in Hitchens debate

Graphic showing religion poll results

Former UK prime minister Tony Blair is to take on columnist Christopher Hitchens in a televised public debate for and against religion.

Mr Blair, a Catholic convert, will argue that faith is a force for good.

Mr Hitchens, terminally ill with cancer, is expected to argue it is the world’s “main source of hatred”, as he did in his 2007 book God is not Great.

A 23-country poll paid for by the debate’s Canadian organisers suggests the world is evenly split on the issue.

Some 48% of the 18,192 people questioned by Ipsos took the view that “religion provides the common values and ethical foundations that diverse societies need to the thrive in the 21st Century”.

Fractionally more – 52% – supported the view that “religious beliefs promote intolerance, exacerbate ethnic divisions, and impede social progress in developing and developed nations alike”.

Blair v Hitchens on the BBCBBC World Service radio will air the Blair-Hitchens debate on 4 December, followed by Radio 4 on 11 DecemberIt can be viewed on BBC World News and the News Channel on 1 January 2011

Rich countries were less likely to see religion as a force for good than poor countries – the main exception being the United States, where 65% said it had a positive impact.

Ahead of the debate, which will take place in front of a sell-out audience of 2,700 people in Toronto’s Roy Thomson Hall, Tony Blair said: “The good that people of faith all over the world do every day, motivated by their religion, cannot be underestimated and should never be ignored.”

Tony Blair

Tony Blair

Fifty-seven-year-old former Labour prime ministerBrought up in a Christian family, he says he became a practising Christian while studying at Oxford UniversityConverted to Catholicism in 2007Launched Tony Blair Faith Foundation in 2008

It could, and should, be a force for progress, he said.

Christopher Hitchens – who has described Christianity, Judaism and Islam as the “real axis of evil” – has continued his outspoken attacks on religion in interviews as he is treated for cancer of the oesophagus.

He is scathing about those who suggest his illness might lead him to retract his atheism.

In a BBC Newsnight interview to be broadcast on 29 November, he says he is not afraid of death, but regrets the fact that it will cause distress to friends and family.

In comments released by the debate’s organisers he said it was “bizarre” that Mr Blair, a Catholic since 2007, had converted “at one of the most conservative times for the Catholic Church, under one of the most conservative popes”.

Christopher Hitchens

Christopher Hitchens in 2004

Sixty-one-year-old journalist, author and criticWent to Christian boarding schools but refused to take part in communal prayersSays his “bohemian and rackety” lifestyle may have caused his cancer of the oesophagusRegarded as a leader of the “New Atheism”

Both men have recently published autobiographies.

Tickets for the debate – the sixth in a semi-annual series of Munk Debates – sold out within hours of going on sale.

The event will also be available to watch online, on a pay-per-view basis, on the Munk Debates website.

The Ipsos poll, conducted in September, found that Europe was the region most doubtful about the benefits of religion, with just 19% in Sweden agreeing that it was a force for good.

At the other end of the scale, in Saudi Arabia and Indonesia, it was seen as a positive force by more than 90% of those questioned.

Within North America there was a pronounced divide. In Canada only 36% agreed with the positive view of religion whereas 64% saw it as a negative force – figures almost exactly the reverse of those in the US.

Graphic showing religion poll results

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Second homes ‘forcing locals out’

Homes in Stratford-upon-AvonStratford-upon-Avon saw one of the highest increases in registered second homes

Families are being forced out of their local areas as more buyers seek second homes in rural locations, the National Housing Federation has warned.

The federation said the demand for holiday homes in some English countryside districts was pricing locals out of the market.

It said new research showed Uttlesford in Essex saw the biggest jump in second homes between 2004 and 2009.

North Kesteven in Lincolnshire had the second biggest increase.

In Uttlesford, the number of registered second homes rose from 10 in 2004 to 214 in 2009.

North Kesteven saw a more subdued rise, with the number of second homes increasing from 128 in 2004 to 242 in 2009.

Aylesbury Vale in Buckinghamshire took the third place on the list with an increase from 217 holiday homes to 410 during the same period.

Other regions in the list’s top 10 include Rushcliffe in Nottinghamshire, North Lincolnshire, north-east Derbyshire, Stratford-upon-Avon in Warwickshire, South Kesteven in Lincolnshire, Braintree in Essex and North Somerset.

The federation, which represents 1,200 housing authorities in England, said buyers were no longer just interested in the traditional second home hotspots of Cornwall, Devon and north Norfolk.

In a statement, its chief executive David Orr said: “Some areas of the English countryside have seen a huge rise in the number of properties being bought as holiday homes, which has pushed up prices beyond the level most local people can afford.

“If families and young people are priced out of their local villages it can have a hugely damaging impact on community life, with village shops, schools and pubs closing in alarming numbers as a result.”

The research also suggested that the cost of an average home had risen in the last decade – from £175,278 in 2000 to £303,923 in 2009.

It also suggested there had been a rise in prices in the same period in North Kesteven – from £74,748 to £159,603.

The other areas are also suggested to have more than doubled in price in that time.

The organisation called for local authorities in such areas to create action plans which would tackle the situation.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.