Ten people were arrested around the royal wedding route

Ten people were arrested around the royal wedding route on Friday morning as Scotland Yard commissioner Paul Stephenson said his force was prepared for all eventualities.The arrests took place in and just outside the exclusion zone around Westminster Abbey and Buckingham Palace.Scotland Yard said two people were arrested for being drunk and disorderly, one for assault, one for possessing an offensive weapon, two for breach of the peace, two for theft.The biggest security operation in the Metropolitan police's recent history has seen the deployment of 5,000 officers, including a 1,000-strong rapid response team to react to any criminality, direct...

Read More

US land borders tighten, drug smugglers fly

The visiting British pilots were training near a naval air station one night this month when their helicopter came within about 150 feet of an ultralight plane flying without lights. The ultralight darted away toward Mexico without a trace.The near-disaster over the Southern California desert was an example of drug smugglers using low-flying aircraft that look like motorized hang gliders to circumvent new fences along the U.S. border with Mexico. The planes, which began appearing in Arizona three years ago, are now turning up in remote parts of California and New Mexico.And in a new twist, the planes rarely touch the ground. Pilots simply pull...

Read More

Less than 24 hours before the royal wedding, and outside the Goring Hotel - the last place Kate Middleton will sleep as a single woman - onlookers and the press pushed

Give a girl a break.Less than 24 hours before the royal wedding, and outside the Goring Hotel - the last place Kate Middleton will sleep as a single woman - onlookers and the press pushed Thursday against metal barriers and strained their eyes.Anticipation showed as a car pulled up, and a woman hidden under a funky hat rushed inside.Everyone settled back, as it appeared not to be the bride of the century.Give or take a pupil, more than 2-billion...

Read More

Watching the nuptials of Prince William and Kate Middleton across the pond? You'll be up early.

If you're cooking your scones right now to prepare for your viewing party, here's a handy printout if you live on either coast. Add an hour to PST if you live in Mountain Time, and subtract an hour from EST if you live in Central Time. We can't please everyone, you know.Between 3:15 am and 4:45 am EST, 12:15 am and 1:45 am PST:  The general congregation will arrive at the Great North Door of Westminster Abbey.From 3:50 am EST, 12:50 am PST:  Governors-General and Prime Ministers of Realm Countries,the Diplomatic Corps, and other distinguished guests arrive at the Abbey. Victoria Beckham is among the wedding's high-profile guests, but...

Read More

Paris Mayor Bertrand Delanoe has urged an end to the "shocking" arrest of dozens of mainly Tunisian migrants in France as detentions continue.

Sixty suspected illegal migrants were rounded up in the French capital on Wednesday and 15 have been detained in the southern city of Marseille.Hundreds of young Tunisian men are sleeping rough in parks around Paris.Most reached France via Italy, where thousands have arrived by boat this year amid unrest in the Arab world.French President Nicolas Sarkozy and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi have called for a revision of the Schengen treaty, which allows people to move between many European countries without border checks.France is seen as a likely destination for migrants from Tunisia because many of them speak the French language.The...

Read More

Plan to buy old U-boats sparks signs of conflict

Signs of conflict have emerged over the navy's 7.7-billion-baht plan to procure second-hand German submarines as a top aide to the defence minister has insisted the procurement plan has yet to be approved."The Defence Council didn't approve the submarine purchase, only acknowledged it," Noppadon Inthapanya, secretary to Defence Minister Prawit Wongsuwon, said yesterday.On Monday, navy commander Kamthorn Phumhiran spent almost two hours outlining the plan to buy six second-hand U-206 A submarines worth 7.7 billion baht to the Defence Council.Council spokesman Col Thanatip Sawangsaeng said at that time council members, who include the defence permanent...

Read More

U.S. fears overdue 'megathrust' earthquake will trigger tsunami and decimate unprepared cities on north-west coast

The north-west coast of the U.S. could be devastated by a huge movement of undersea plates known as a ‘megathrust’ earthquake, scientists say.A review of the dangers posed by the Juan de Fuca plate released in the wake of the Japanese quake has raised fears that the Pacific seaboard could be similarly ravaged.The horrifying possibilities have been brought to light by data researched by the Active Tectonics and Seafloor Mapping Laboratory at Oregon State University.And the results are shown in a documentary, Megaquake: The Hour That Shook Japan, which is set to go out on the Discovery Channel in the UK this weekend.&nb...

Read More

A man acting as a "human cannonball" has been killed in an accident at a stunt show in Kent.

Police said a safety net gave way during the stunt at the Kent County Showground at Detling.The man, 23, had been taken to Maidstone Hospital by air ambulance with multiple head and back injuries.The accident happened at about 1530 BST in a performance by Scott May's Daredevil Stunt Show. A second show due to start at 1930 BST was cancelled.A statement on the Scott May website states: "With our apologies, due to unforeseen circumstances all shows have been cancelled until further notice."Insp Tony Ball of Kent Police said the safety net gave way during the stunt in front of crowds at the show.He said Kent Police were investigating, the Health...

Read More

Parakeets living wild in Britain could be culled because they pose a threat to native wildlife and are damaging food crops.

The green, yellow and grey birds are originally from South America but are living wild in the south of England after being released from captivity in the 90s. But conservationists have called on the animals to be rehomed rather than shot.Only 100 to 150 of the 30cm tall bird live in the UK, mainly in the Home Counties, but the decision has been taken to exterminate them.A spokesman for the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs said: 'Control work is being carried out as part of a Defra initiative to counter the potential threat monk parakeets pose to critical national infrastructure, crops and native British wildlife.'This invasive...

Read More

British citizens are being urged to leave Syria unless they have a "pressing need to remain" there, following weeks of unrest.

The Foreign Office "strongly advises" Britons to leave because of the "rapid deterioration" in law and order.It says the British Embassy may not be able to provide normal consular assistance if the situation worsens.At least 100 people have died in the last two days of protests against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad.'Better way'The Foreign Office advised British nationals to leave the country while commercial airlines were still flying.Earlier this week, the UK advised Britons to consider leaving Syria but has now stepped up the warning. It also advises against all travel to the country.The Foreign Office is urging Britons in Syria to...

Read More

Indonesia on 'highest alert' through Easter

Indonesia is on high alert for the holiest period on the Christian calendar after police found a bomb near a church in a Jakarta suburb.The device was found in in a gas pipeline about 100 meters from the Christ Cathedral, a Catholic church in Tangerang, just outside the capital, authorities said."Starting tonight until the day after Easter, the military and the police will be on the highest alert at all places," Coordinating Minster for Security Joko Suyanto told reporters.Indonesia is a predominantly Muslim nation but other religious minorities, such as Christians and Hindus, are also there, and the government has been vigilant over the threat...

Read More

British woman dies after she was dropped into frigid Norwegian Sea in cruise ship rescue

73-year-old British woman who was accidentally dropped into the Norwegian Sea as rescue workers took her off a cruise ship late last month has died at a hospital in England.Janet Richardson fell ill while on a Scandinavian cruise and was being transferred to a rescue boat on March 29 when coast guard officers let her stretcher drop into the sea.The woman spent four minutes treading water. The sea was just a few degrees above freezing at the time.North Cumbria University Hospitals in England said in a statement Saturday that Richardson died Thursday after spending a week in intensive care.Officials said Richardson began suffering from internal...

Read More

Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) accusing Algeria of supporting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi by sending mercenaries.

Algerian Minister of Foreign Affairs has made Friday on the radio the "clearest denials" to the charges of the Libyan National Transitional Council (NTC) accusing Algeria of supporting Colonel Muammar Gaddafi by sending mercenaries.   "We made the clearest denied to these charges which we consider tactics, based on agendas that have nothing to do with the Libyan case," said the minister on the radio.   These charges are significantly older than the crisis in Libya, it is very clear," said Medelci without elaborating.   The Algerian press has said in recent weeks that the charges of the NTC are actually...

Read More

Nearly 300 gipsies have been evacuated out of a remote Hungarian village where a three-day, far-Right “training camp” has been set up.

The gipsies, fled Gyongyospata, 50 miles from Budapest, after members of Vendro, a paramilitary group arrived .The Hungarian Red Cross said it was the first time it had evacuated Hungarian civilians threatened by paramilitary activity since the Second World War. The far-Right Jobbik party won 17 per cent of the vote in a general election in the country last year.Some 277 women and children were moved out in a convoy of busses Janos Farkos, deputy leader of the Hungarian Roma Rights Organisation, said that the village’s Roma population had felt “terrorised” by the presence of the far-right activists.“The children had to be sent away this weekend...

Read More

Thailand and Cambodia exchanged gunfire along their border on Friday

Thailand and Cambodia exchanged gunfire along their border on Friday, with each side blaming the other for firing the first salvo. Thailand said three of its soldiers were killed, while Cambodia spoke of unspecified casualties on its side. Bangkok said many Thai soldiers were also injured in the “unprovoked firing”.The new flare-up was widely seen as a fresh reminder of the long-simmering tensions between the two countries over their competing claims to a piece of territory near the Preah Vihear temple. The International Court of Justice had awarded the Hindu temple to Cambodia in 1962.The current round of tensions is often traced to the fact...

Read More

Police in France have discovered a car belonging to a man suspected of killing his wife and four children.

Five bodies have been found buried at the family home in the western city of Nantes but the car was discovered miles away along the Riviera.The family went missing earlier this month. Parents Xavier and Agnes Dupont de Ligonnes had said the family was moving to Australia.Autopsies on the bodies, found under a patio, were to take place on Friday.Nantes prosecutor Xavier Ronsin said late on Thursday that the five had probably died of gunshot wounds.Police said the car had been found in a hotel car park in the town of Roquebrune-sur-Argens, in southeastern France, after bank withdrawals showed Mr Dupont was in the area.'Rambling messages'Police...

Read More

PENSIONER Janet Richardson struggles to stay afloat after plunging into the icy North Sea during a bungled rescue from a cruise ship.

The gran, 73, spent four minutes trying to stay afloat in sub-zero water as she was being evacuated from the Ocean Countess after a trip to see the Northern Lights.Janet, from Cumbria, had fallen seriously ill with internal bleeding and was being transferred by Norwegian authorities when the two ships moved apart.She was eventually hauled back on to the lifeboat and taken to Bodo, north of the Arctic Circle, where she stopped breathing and needed mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. She was airlifted to Cumberland Hospital in Carlisle and last night was in intensive care.Husband George, 78, said: “When they tried to move her on to the lifeboat the ship...

Read More

Tim Hetherington, who had dual UK and US nationality, is said to have died in a mortar attack.

British photographer has been killed while covering the conflict in the besieged Libyan city of Misrata.Liverpool-born Mr Hetherington, 41, co-directed the Oscar-nominated documentary Restrepo, about US troops in Afghanistan.He worked for Vanity Fair magazine, which said he was "widely respected by his peers for his bravery and camaraderie".In a recent entry on Twitter, Mr Hetherington described "indiscriminate shelling" by pro-Gaddafi forces.Two...

Read More

France will to trim the number of legal migrants by 10 percent per year

France will to trim the number of legal migrants by 10 percent per year to 180,000 in part to cope with flows of illegal migrants from the southern Mediterranean neighbors, Interior Minister Claude Gueant said on Monday."My target is to reduce (legal migrants) by 20,000 from 200, 000 to 180,000 as the first step," Claude Gueant told the private television channel TF1. Twenty-four percent of non-European foreigners who are in France are unemployed, which is almost twice the national unemployment rate, the minister added.Gueant said the integration process has failed and France needs to "fight against illegal migration and to regulate legal...

Read More

Twelve banks worldwide sued for manipulating Libor

European asset manager has sued one dozen U.S., European and Japanese banks, accusing them of conspiring to manipulate Libor, a benchmark used to set interest rates on hundreds of trillions of dollars of securities.Vienna-based FTC Capital GmbH and two funds it operates in Luxembourg and Gibraltar accused the banks of conspiring to artificially depress Libor, and limit trade in Libor-based derivatives from 2006 to 2009.The defendant banks include Bank of America Corp, Barclays Plc, Citigroup Inc, Credit Suisse Group AG, Deutsche Bank AG, HSBC Holdings Plc, JPMorgan Chase & Co, Lloyds Banking Group Plc, Norinchukin Bank, Royal Bank of Scotland...

Read More

Two British holidaymakers shot dead in a run-down Florida housing estate were ambushed and chased by masked attackers before being killed

Two British holidaymakers shot dead in a run-down Florida housing estate were ambushed and chased by masked attackers before being killed, locals have claimed.James Cooper and James Kouzaris were murdered in Newton, Sarasota, in a place police have described as a "no-go" area.Police sources said they were exploring whether the friends were lured to the estate where their bodies were found, saying both were running away when they were shot.The bullet-ridden bodies of the two men were found 50ft apart in a narrow street in the estate, which has links to gangs and drug-dealing. Yesterday, it emerged the 16-year-old arrested on suspicion of their...

Read More

Irish Tourist drowns scuba diving in Whitsundays

A young tourist has drowned while scuba diving in the Whitsunday Islands off the north Queensland coast.The 23-year-old woman from Ireland was scuba diving with a group of people off Langford Island when she failed to resurface about 4.15pm yesterday.Members of her dive group found her body on the ocean floor and pulled her to the surface. They performed CPR but she could not be revived.&nb...

Read More

flood of North African immigrants is widening divisions among some of Europe's most powerful nations and adding to strains on the long-held dream of a united Europe.

bitter dispute over a flood of North African immigrants is widening divisions among some of Europe's most powerful nations and adding to strains on the long-held dream of a united Europe. Since January an estimated 26,000 Tunisians have fled unrest in their country for the shores of Italy, where officials say the burden of caring for these immigrants should be shared by the 27-nation European Union. The Italians have taken the unusual step of issuing...

Read More

The race between the pirates and the world is being won by the pirates,

The world is losing the battle against piracy, the Somali transitional government's foreign minister warned Monday in Dubai, as he and other officials emphasised that the solution to piracy lies on land. "The race between the pirates and the world is being won by the pirates," Mohammed Abdulahi Omar Asharq told a counter-piracy conference in Dubai. "Consequently the status quo view that manages acts of piracy is no longer a viable strategy. It is...

Read More

Mexico's Tamaulipas police chief sacked after killings

Mexican state of Tamaulipas has dismissed its head of security following the discovery of 145 bodies in mass graves earlier this month. Former army Gen Ubaldo Ayala Tinoco has been replaced by another former soldier, Capt Rafael Lomeli Martinez. The state governor said the new chief would improve coordination with the army and federal police in the fight against drugs gangs. The killings have been blamed on the Zetas drug cartel. More than 20...

Read More

France on Sunday prevented all trains carrying illegal immigrants entering its borders from Italy.

In dramatic scenes in Menton, in south east France, border guards including riot police halted hundreds of mainly North African men who have crossed from Libya and Tunisia.The trains, on which they travelled and which also contained political activists calling for better rights for immigrants, were attempting to cross from the nearby Italian border station of Ventimiglia."Our orders are to cancel all services from Italy," said a spokesman for the French national train operator SNCF.He said the trains had been stopped on the orders of the Alpes-Maritimes Prefecture "until further notice".The Italian Foreign Minister, Franco Frattini, directed...

Read More

Sharjah ship owner has warned Somali pirates that reneging on a deal to free seven of its crew will cause others to question the point of paying ransom demands.

Sharjah ship owner has warned Somali pirates that reneging on a deal to free seven of its crew will cause others to question the point of paying ransom demands. The pirates captured the MV Asphalt Venture and its 15 crew, all Indians, more than six months ago and anchored the ship off the Somali town of Harardhere. After a ransom payment the pirates say was worth $3.6 million (Dh13.2m), eight of the crew and the ship were released at the weekend,...

Read More

Cuba's highest-profile dissidents marched defying President Raul Castro's warning, issued hours earlier, that foes of the communist regime were not welcome on Cuban streets.

"Our fight has been and will continue to be achieving freedom for political prisoners," said Laura Pollan yesterday, leader of the Ladies in White group of political prisoners' kin, as the group took to Havana streets. The dissidents, who have been honoured with the European Parliament's Sakharov prize, march most on Sundays in Havana, dressed in white and carrying flowers, to draw attention to their relatives' plight. But this Sunday was different:...

Read More

"machine-gun fire",James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, both from England, were found dead by police in Sarasota

James Cooper, 25, and James Kouzaris, 24, both from England, were found dead by police in Sarasota, in the early hours of Saturday morning. A 16-year-old boy has been arrested and charged with both murders. Police said he was known to them and had previously been arrested. The pair were on holiday with one of the men's extended family, according to British consular officials and a city police spokesman. They were staying 12 miles away on the island city of Longboat Key. The men were found outside a government-assisted housing block in the north of the city, which is on the west coast of the state. Police received a 911 call at about 3am on Saturday....

Read More

Sea piracy worldwide hit a record high of 142 attacks in the first quarter this year as Somali pirates become more violent and aggressive, a global maritime watchdog said

Sea piracy worldwide hit a record high of 142 attacks in the first quarter this year as Somali pirates become more violent and aggressive, a global maritime watchdog said Thursday. Nearly 70 percent or 97 of the attacks occurred off the coast of Somalia, up sharply from 35 in the same period last year, the International Maritime Bureau's piracy reporting center in Kuala Lumpur said in a statement. Attackers seized 18 vessels worldwide, including...

Read More

North Korea arrested a U.S. citizen for a “crime” against the country

North Korea arrested a U.S. citizen for a “crime” against the country in November and is preparing to indict him after he admitted the alleged charges, state media reported.Jun Young Su was allowed “necessary humanitarian conveniences” including visits by Swedish diplomats, who represent U.S. interests in North Korea, the state-run Korean Central News Agency reported. The news agency didn’t provide details of the alleged offense.North Korea’s confirmation of the arrest comes before a visit by former U.S. president Jimmy Carter, who traveled to the country in August last year to win the release another American. A U.S. State Department spokesman,...

Read More

Sovereign Bank, an affiliate of Spain's Grupo Santander, is one of 14 financial institutions in the United States being sanctioned for misconduct and negligence in mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure practices

Sovereign Bank, an affiliate of Spain's Grupo Santander, is one of 14 financial institutions in the United States being sanctioned for misconduct and negligence in mortgage loan servicing and foreclosure practices, several U.S. government agencies said.The investigation was conducted by the Federal Reserve, Office of Comptroller of the Currency (OCC), FDIC and the Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS).The latter entity ordered Sovereign, Aurora, EverBank and OneWest Bank to take corrective actions in servicing and foreclosure processes and each must submit plans acceptable to the Federal Reserve. So far, no penalties have been announced against...

Read More

MOROCCO REITERATES CEUTA / MELILLA CLAIM

Morocco has restated its claim over the sovereignty of Ceuta and Melilla. The move comes as Morocco seeks to create a new constitutional model for the state. Omar Azziman, Morocco’s ambassador to Madrid, said that the recovery of the territories is a permanent objective for Morocco, language that echoes that which is often used by Spain in relation to its Gibraltar cla...

Read More

Dixons Retail today announced its decision to quit Spain at a cost of £30 million after 10 unhappy years on the Iberian Peninsula.

The group runs 34 PC City shops and a website in Spain which concentrate solely on the computing market. It employs just over 1360 people in the country. Dixons declined to say how much money it had lost in Spain over the last decade, but in its trading updates for the last three years it has been warning how tough conditions had become there. It said the closure is expected to take place by the end of this summer, but predicted that doing...

Read More

Casablanca court released from jail Thursday three activists for the independence of Western Sahara detained for more than two years and on trial for undermining Morocco's internal security.

Ali Salem Tamek, Ibrahim Dahhane and Ahmed Naciri were released just before they were to announce a hunger strike, their lawyer Mohamed Sadqo said. Their trial has been postponed several times since they were arrested in October 2009 at Casablanca airport on their return from Algeria's western town of Tindouf, a base for the Western Sahara independence movement, the Polisario Front. "We submitted the request for provisional liberty a long time...

Read More

British Journalist Arrested in Hacking Case

Police officials said on Thursday that they had arrested a third journalist in connection with an expanding case of phone-hacking by reporters at the British tabloid The News of the World. The Metropolitan Police issued a statement announcing the arrest of a man early Thursday morning “on suspicion of unlawfully intercepting mobile phone voice-mail messages,” but did not identify the suspect, who remained in custody for questioning. A person with knowledge of the investigation, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the investigation, said the suspect was James Weatherup, an assistant editor at The News of the...

Read More

Sophie Taylor and Calum Murray died in the shooting incident

teenage trainee gamekeeper accidentally shot his girlfriend and then turned the gun on himself, BBC Scotland understands.The pair - Sophie Taylor, 16, and 18-year-old Calum Murray - died at a cottage just off the A939 road near Tomintoul on Tuesday.Sophie's family said they had been left "completely shocked" by the death of their "beautiful" daughter.A Grampian Police investigation is continuing into the double shooting.It is understood Sophie and a friend were cooking dinner for Mr Murray and another friend when the tragedy happened.It is believed Mr Murray was cleaning a shotgun - which was legally-registered - when it went off and killed Sophie.Family...

Read More

Briton 'beaten to death' in a Dubai police cell after being arrested for swearing

A British tourist was beaten to death by officers in a Dubai police station after being arrested for swearing, it was claimed yesterday. Lee Bradley Brown, 39, was on holiday at a £1,000-a-night hotel in the Arab state when he was thrown into a filthy cell. Police sources say he was ‘badly beaten up’ by a group of police officers, leaving him unconscious on the floor. Inmates told how they watched officers bundle him into a body-bag and drag him...

Read More