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Police to use terror laws on Heathrow climate protesters
Armed police will use anti-terrorism powers to 'deal robustly' with climate change protesters at Heathrow next week, as confrontations threaten to bring major delays to the already overstretched airport. Up to 1,800 extra officers will be drafted in to prevent an estimated 1,500 people disrupting the airport over the period of the camp for climate change, which is due to begin on Tuesday. The police have been told to use stop and search powers against the protesters, who have pledged to take direct action on August 18 and 19 but not to endanger life.

Canada plans Arctic military base
Canada has said it is to build a new military facility in the Arctic and renovate another in a move to assert sovereignty over the contested region. Stephen Harper, the Canadian prime minister, announced the plans on Friday, a week after Russia sent a submarine to symbolically staked a claim on the North Pole. Harper said the new facilities would 'tell the world that Canada has a real, growing, long-term presence in the Arctic'.

Cheney urging strikes on Iran
President Bush charged Thursday that Iran continues to arm and train insurgents who are killing U.S. soldiers in Iraq, and he threatened action if that continues. At a news conference Thursday, Bush said Iran had been warned of unspecified consequences if it continued its alleged support for anti-American forces in Iraq. U.S. Ambassador to Iraq Ryan Crocker had conveyed the warning in meetings with his Iranian counterpart in Baghdad, the president said. Bush wasn't specific, and a State Department official refused to elaborate on the warning.

NY hikes security on dirty bomb Internet chatter
New York police stepped up security throughout Manhattan and at bridges and tunnels on Friday in response to an Internet report - which authorities said they could not verify -- that al Qaeda might be plotting to detonate a dirty bomb in the city. New York City police said in a statement the threat against the city was an 'unverified radiological threat,' stressed the increased security was precautionary and said the city's alert status for an attack was unchanged at 'orange.'

BAE results reflect profit from U.S. wars
Despite the fact that much of its current prosperity is based on a) decades of bribing Middle-Eastern despots b) decades of bribing everyone else c) spying on and intimidating the anti-arms trade movement and d) the War on/of Terror, BAE systems is growing fast. The company is now the largest foreign contractor for the Pentagon, which accounts for roughly half of the world’s arms spending. There is a Justice Department investigation of BAE’s Saudi dealings in the works, but this may just be a stick with which to beat the new Brown government in the UK.

John Edwards refuses to say 9/11 was carried out by forces outside US
When asked by Barbara Walters on the night of September 11, 2001 if the 9/11 attacks were carried out by forces within the U.S., 2008 presidential candidate and then senate intelligence committee member John Edwards becomes evasive and refuses to answer the question, after having spoken to CIA director George Tenet earlier that day. see video

Edwards attacks Giuliani over Sept 11 comment
Republican presidential candidate Rudy Giuliani came under attack on Friday from Democratic rival John Edwards for saying he spent as much time if not more at the site of New York's destroyed World Trade Center than rescue workers. The clash highlighted the continued importance of the September 11 attacks to U.S. presidential politics as Giuliani tries to use his record as former New York City mayor to help him get into the White House.

Sub-prime lending slump sends markets into freefall
Stock markets plunged around the globe as central bankers fought for a second day to head off a complete shutdown in the credit markets that could cripple economic activity. The US Federal Reserve provided emergency funding for the banking system and said it stood ready to do more, but its chairman, Ben Bernanke, faced criticism that he has acted too slowly to stem losses on Wall Street. The Fed injected $38bn into the financial system yesterday, a day after an even bigger move by the European Central Bank. The ECB also acted again, adding a further €61bn in extra liquidity to the €95bn it released on Thursday.

Crisis spreads from US lenders to UK hedge funds
Ben Bernanke was cast yesterday in the role of firefighter, called to the scene to tackle wildfires that are springing up all over the financial system. All sorts of companies are feeling the heat, not just at the source of the blaze - the market for home loans to low-income Americans, where Countrywide Financial is one of the biggest lenders - but also elsewhere, as the fires spot and jump to other countries and other financial industries. Man Group, the hedge fund manager whose shares continued their meltdown in London yesterday, has barely any exposure to the US sub-prime market, but it too is being licked by the flames.

Declassified documents reveal Canada knew about Arar's torture
The documents previously classified by the federal government have exposed troubling information about what the Canadian Security Intelligence Service knew, and when it knew it. In October 2002, CSIS officials knew that the United States might have sent Mr. Arar to a country where he could be questioned in a “firm” manner. One of the declassified statements reveal how far this goes, right up to the top. On October 10, 2002, Mr. Hooper, CSIS second in command in Ottawa, stated in a memorandum: “I think the U.S. would like to get Arar to Jordan where they can have their way with him.” Mr. Arar’s whereabouts were unknown at the time.

US marine in Iraq murder freed
A US Marine, sentenced to eight years in military prison for killing an Iraqi civilian last year, has been released after being granted clemency. A statement released by the US Marines from Camp Pendleton in southern California said Robert Pennington was released on Friday after meeting with Lieutenant General James Mattis, the base's commander. Pennington was sentenced in February in a plea deal that included demotion from the rank of lance corporal to private and a dishonourable discharge.

Briton on US death row for 20 years has conviction overturned
A British man who has been on death row in the United States for two decades has had his murder conviction overturned by a federal court for the second time in two years. The appeal was one of the last chances open to Kenny Richey, 43, who was sentenced to death in January 1987 after being found guilty of deliberately starting a fire in which Cynthia Collins, two, died. Yesterday's development was the latest in a series of twists and turns in Mr Richey's case which have delivered him from death row to the brink of freedom and back again.

Saudi police beat us up, say British Shia pilgrims
A group of British and American Muslims on pilgrimage to Mecca say they were illegally detained and brutally beaten by Saudi religious police. The men, who suffered physical mistreatment as well as verbal abuse during their incarceration, claim they were arrested because they are Shia and Westerners. The Foreign Office is expected to raise the matter with the Saudi government although the authorities in the country say they have already started an investigation.

Guantánamo man's family release 'torture' dossier
A British resident held by the US as an alleged terrorist has claimed his captors repeatedly tortured him, subjecting him to beatings, sexual abuse and threats of execution. Omar Deghayes, 37, is one of five British residents who the United Kingdom government last week asked the US to release from Guantanámo Bay, after years of refusing to help them because they were not UK citizens. Yesterday the family of Mr Deghayes decided to release a detailed dossier of alleged torture which the former law student dictated to a lawyer who visited him in the Cuban internment camp.

Ministers want more British football players
As the eagerly anticipated Premier League football season kicks off today, clubs are coming under pressure from ministers to increase the number of home-grown players, amid fears that the English national side is suffering from the dominance of foreigners in domestic teams. James Purnell, the Culture Secretary and an Arsenal supporter, has indicated that he wants clubs to devote more money, time and effort to nurturing talented young British footballers, rather than filling their squads with overseas stars. Mr Purnell has privately conveyed to the football authorities his dismay at the way some clubs are failing to encourage domestic talent as they spend huge television revenues.

Reuters image of Russian sub claiming North Pole was from film 'Titanic'
Footage purporting to show Russian explorers claiming the seafloor beneath the North Pole was in fact a scene from the 1997 film, Titanic. The Russians symbolically planted their flag below the surface nine days ago. A number of media outlets around the world accompanied their coverage with the pictures, from the film starring Kate Winslett and Leonardo DiCaprio. In fact the footage showed two Finnish-made Mir submersibles, filmed for sequences showing the search for the wreckage of the Titanic in James Cameron's blockbuster about the 1912 disaster.

China tells living Buddhas to obtain permission before they reincarnate
Tibet’s living Buddhas have been banned from reincarnation without permission from China’s atheist leaders. The ban is included in new rules intended to assert Beijing’s authority over Tibet’s restive and deeply Buddhist people. “The so-called reincarnated living Buddha without government approval is illegal and invalid,” according to the order, which comes into effect on September 1. The 14-part regulation issued by the State Administration for Religious Affairs is aimed at limiting the influence of Tibet’s exiled god-king, the Dalai Lama, and at preventing the re-incarnation of the 72-year-old monk without approval from Beijing.