Six jailed for supporting terror

Six men convicted of supporting terrorism through speeches at a London mosque have been handed jail terms.

Among them is Muslim preacher Abu Izzadeen, who was sentenced to four-and-a-half years in prison.

The speeches, on 9 November 2004, came as US and British forces fought fierce battles in Falluja, Iraq.

The sentencing was delayed after one of the guilty men, who had jumped bail for 10 days, turned himself in.

Shah Jalal Hussain, 25, surrendered at Kingston Crown Court after he went missing when the jury began deliberations on 8 April, prompting the court to issue a warrant for his arrest.

He was convicted of terrorist fundraising and breaking his bail conditions and jailed for two years and three months.

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Looks like terrorism can be found even in one of the most precautious country on earth.

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Pair 'tried to blackmail royal'

Two men tried to blackmail a member of the Royal Family with a sound recording containing claims he had performed a gay sex act, a court has heard.

The Old Bailey was told that Ian Strachan and Sean McGuigan demanded £50,000 from the unidentified Royal Family member, called Witness A.

The recordings featured a man who had been employed by the royal.

Mr Strachan, 31, of Fulham, and Mr McGuigan, 41, of Battersea, both London, deny blackmail charges.

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I wonder how Parliament will handle this.

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Male rapist prowled city streets

A security guard has been convicted of raping two men and indecently assaulting two others in Glasgow.
Hissein Atie prowled the city's streets looking for men to attack, the High Court in Glasgow heard.
The 30-year-old, who was caught by DNA evidence, committed the offences between January and June last year. Sentence was deferred for reports and Atie, who arrived in the UK from Chad in 2000, was placed on the sex offenders' register.

Judge Ian Peebles QC said he would consider deporting Atie to the Central African country. At the time of the last attack, he had been granted bail for police assault and alleged indecency. He was also being sought by the Home Office, who wanted to remove him from the country after his asylum application failed.

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This story shows how the law system in the U. K. works so well , and that the United Kingdom does not mess around with Rape.

BA managers leave after T5 fiasco

British Airways has said that two of its senior executives will leave the company after the opening of its Terminal 5 was dogged by problems.
BA said Gareth Kirkwood, director of operations, and David Noyes, director of customer services, would be leaving

The company said it would now look to appoint one person to cover both roles. The opening of Terminal 5 was beset by a catalogue of problems, with staff not able to get into work, thousands of bags mislaid, and flights cancelled.

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When mistakes are made at British Airways , you will have to compensate with your job.

Diana inquiry costs exceed £12m

The cost of the investigation into the death of Princess Diana has topped £12.5m, new figures show.

The coroner's inquest reached £4.5m, with a further £8m spent on the Metropolitan Police investigation.

The inquest into the deaths of Diana and Dodi Al Fayed, who died in a 1997 Paris car crash, lasted more than three months and heard from 250 witnesses.

The jury returned verdicts of unlawful killing. A BBC poll found 78% of people thought the inquest a waste of money.

Further insanity

Does Great Britain have no better use of their money? I mean yes, Princess Diana died, but does it mean that £12.5m needs to be spent just so everyone can be sure that she wasn't murdered? Come on people...

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Assessment Complete

Human rights 'apply to UK troops'

Human rights laws can be applied to British troops on active service, a High Court judge has ruled.

The landmark judgement came in a test case relating to the death of Scottish soldier Pte Jason Smith in Iraq.

Mr Justice Collins said sending soldiers into action without proper kit could breach human rights. Ministers are appealing against the ruling.

The court also ruled families of those killed in conflict should get legal aid and access to military documents.

The judgement came during a request for military inquest guidelines in the case of Pte Smith, 32, from Hawick, in the Scottish Borders, who died of heatstroke in Iraq in 2003.

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Why weren't soldiers being granted their human rights before now? If an individual is willing to give their life for the protection of his or her country, then the least the country can do is compensate them or compensate the family of lost soldier.

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Gordon Brown , Missile fraud

Gordon Brown is coming under pressure to reopen the Serious Fraud Office inquiry into the multi-billion pound arms deal between BAE and Saudi Arabia. Liberal Democrat leader Nick

Clegg said the investigation, which was suspended in 2006, must be allowed to continue.

The High Court ruled that the SFO acted unlawfully by dropping the corruption inquiry into the £43bn deal. BAE was accused of illegal payments to Saudi officials, but the defence company maintains it acted lawfully. The High Court said the decision to halt the inquiry represented an "abject surrender" to pressure from a foreign government.

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Gordon Brown seems to be running pretty thin in the U.K. This over an arms investigation.

Politcal Cartoon

Political Cartoons Circa 1775 , Ponder at your own risk.

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Gordon Brown's Olympic visit

Let's start on 18 January in Beijing. Gordon Brown is in China for an official visit.
He is invited to a question and answer session at the Renmin University of China.
The Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao is with him.

A student asks Mr Brown whether or not he will come to the Olympics.
The prime minister says he will "definitely come to the Olympics, if invited."
Wen Jiabao immediately extends the invitation: "On behalf of the Chinese Government, I would like to extend the invitation again to Prime Minister Brown and Mrs Brown to China for the Olympic Games."

So there we go - Gordon Brown is going to the Olympics.
The question then becomes this: Which bit of the Olympics is he going to?

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Later in the article it was confirmed that no part of the games would be boycotted by the British.

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PM not attending Olympics opening

Prime Minister Gordon Brown will not attend the opening ceremony of the Beijing Olympics, Downing Street says.

However, he will be at the closing ceremony when the Olympic baton will be passed to London.

A spokeswoman said Mr Brown had never planned to attend the ceremony and was not boycotting the Games.

Liberal Democrat leader Nick Clegg said Mr Brown "seems to do the right thing late in the day when he is forced to do so because of public opinion".

Mr Clegg, speaking to Channel Four News, branded the move a "last-minute U-turn".

The Olympics minister Tessa Jowell will represent the UK at the opening in Beijing in August.

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This could potentially harm the U.K.'s foreign relations around the world.

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Terrorism convict released early

A man convicted of a terrorism offence has been released 17 days early under the scheme to reduce jail overcrowding, the government has confirmed.

Yassin Nassari left Wakefield Prison on 11 February 2008, after being jailed last summer for three and a half years.

He was arrested in May 2006 at Luton Airport carrying what police said were blueprints for a rocket in his luggage.

The Ministry of Justice said Nassari had met the release criteria because he was not guilty of serious violence.

Under the terms of the government's early release scheme, prisoners are eligible to leave prison 18 days earlier than normally expected, if they had been jailed for less than four years and not committed a serious violent offence.

Nassari, 28, from Ealing in west London, was convicted in July 2007 of having articles of use to terrorists.

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I do not understand how a potential terroristic threat cannot be considered a serious offense. Although he did not commit any violent acts, he was still in the process of conspiracy.

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Watchdog admits failure over Rock

The UK financial watchdog, the Financial Services Authority (FSA), has admitted that it failed to regulate Northern Rock adequately.

The FSA said there had been "a lack of adequate oversight and review" by the agency of the troubled bank.

It said too few regulators were assigned to monitor Northern Rock, which ran into trouble in August.

The FSA said it would be overhauling its procedures as a result of the weaknesses identified.

Newcastle-based Northern Rock was nationalised in February after the credit crisis forced it to seek a Bank of England lifeline to fund its mortgage loan book.

Last week it said it would cut about 2,000 jobs by 2011 and reduce its residential mortgage lending by half under plans to turn around its fortunes.

Northern Rock must also pay back Bank of England loans worth about £25bn.

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It appears that the few regulations that Parliament set on Northern Rock Bank have failed. This may cause Parliament to reform their policies on foreign companies.

UK will fight turbulence - Brown

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has promised that the UK and other EU countries will "lead the way" in fighting "global financial turbulence".

He told MPs that an EU summit at the weekend had agreed "co-ordinated action at a European and global level".

Tory leader David Cameron said the UK was suffering from not "putting money aside in the good years".

It came as an ICM poll suggested the Tories had a 13-point lead over Labour and were trusted more on the economy.

Markets have recorded heavy losses in reaction to the emergency bailout of US investment bank Bear Stearns.

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The U.K. to the rescue!

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Burrell 'removed ring from Diana'

Former royal butler Paul Burrell claimed he had removed an engagement ring from Princess Diana's body, his former bodyguard has told her inquest.

Michael Faux said Mr Burrell had told him he had taken the ring, with blood on it, from her body, in Paris after her fatal car crash in August 1997.

Mr Faux also said he had seen Mr Burrell burning documents, some with Buckingham Palace letterheads.

Mr Burrell denied he had ever spoken of such a ring or burnt important papers.

BBC News royal correspondent Nicholas Witchell said the ring discussed in Monday's evidence could not be the one described throughout the inquest as an engagement ring bought by Dodi Al Fayed, as that ring was on public display at Harrods department store.

The ring Mr Burrell referred to "could only have been a friendship ring, a Bulgari friendship ring," he said.

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And Burnell's back.

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Darling bumps car and beer tax up

Big increases in duty on alcohol and high-polluting cars have been announced by Chancellor Alistair Darling.

In his first Budget he put 4p on a pint of beer, 14p on a bottle of wine and 55p on a bottle of spirits. Duty on a packet of cigarettes is up 11p.

He announced a one-off £950 tax on the most polluting new cars but put a 2p rise in fuel duty back six months.

Mr Darling, who insisted the UK could "weather economic storms", also increased winter fuel payments.

But Conservative leader David Cameron dismissed his Budget statement as a "a dire list of reviews and reannouncements".

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Pubs are unhappy.

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U.K. All Wet

Fourteen flood warnings are in place across England as a powerful storm moves across the UK, causing widespread travel disruption and power cuts.

On Monday, gale force winds and heavy rain affected roads, rail and air travel, while almost 12,000 homes are without power.

More bad weather is expected in the early hours of Tuesday.

The Environment Agency say the Bristol Channel, Severn Estuary and the Somerset coast are most at risk.

High tides along the south west, southern and west coasts will peak by midnight GMT.

A spokeswoman for the Environment Agency said: "The situation has now improved along parts of the south west and southern coasts."

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This storm is one of the strongest the U.K. has seen in the past several years. The picture really explains it all.

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Trivia Question Results

The answer to last week's trivia question was Bo Diddley. Congratulations to those of you who answered correctly! Kritesh is currently leading by 9 points.

Assessment Complete

Trivia Question

Kritesh is ahead by 9 points now. Next week the question will be worth 10 points and only the first answer will be accepted.