BANNED INDIAN GROUP'S LEADER HELD
DATE: 27.03.08
Updated: 17:02

Police in the Indian state of Madhya Pradesh have arrested the leader of the banned militant group Students' Islamic Movement of India.

Police have confirmed that Safdar Nagori, general secretary of the organisation, was arrested in the city of Indore .

Ten other Simi activists have also been arrested.

India says the organisation has links with Islamic militant groups. Simi was outlawed in 2001 and several of its senior members arrested.

The government has blamed Simi for blasts in Mumbai in 2003 in which at least 50 people were killed.

ACTIVISTS PROTEST AT OPENING OF TERMINAL FIVE
DATE: 27.03.08
Updated: 16:07

Protesters at Heathrow have just staged a silent flash-mob protest, to show their opposition to the new Terminal Five, which opened today.

Over 500 people wore bright red T-shirts saying ‘Stop Airport Expansion' revealed their T Shirts at the same, at exactly 11 0'clock.

The aim was to publicise protesters' beliefs the expansion of Heathrow

Airport will damage the Environment and affect the health of residents living under the flight path.

Patrick Gillett, from campaign group Plane Stupid, says the protesters are from many different backgrounds.

A man who called himself "Osama bin London" is to be sentenced for terrorism offences.

Mohammed Hamid, from Hackney in London, faces jail for providing training and encouraging his followers to commit murder.

The fifty-year-old was a key figure in the lives of the failed 21st July London bombers in 2005.

Changes to immigration law which could force thousands of highly skilled migrants out of Britain, many of whom are from the Indian subcontinent, are being challenged in court.

The Highly Skilled Migrants Forum has launched a judicial review, arguing the new age-based criteria which came into force last week are illegal and discriminatory.

Many of the people who entered Britain under the scheme now fail to meet the new criteria, and may be forced to go home.

Four people have been charged in connection with the murder of a father-of-five.

Mohammed Shafiq, 50, died after he tried to stop a fight in a Burnley park on Tuesday.

A man, 20, and a youth, 16, are accused of killing him. Two other men have been charged by Lancashire Police with violent disorder.

Indian Prime Minister Manmohan Singh yesterday expressed the hope that Pakistan’s new leadership would work with him in putting the past behind for continuing peace and collective prosperity between two countries.

Dr Singh told parliament he saw a “ray of hope” from the new leaders of Pakistan’s main political parties.

He spoke of “close and cooperative relations” and a “framework for enduring peace”, and hoped the newly-elected leaders in Pakistan can quickly move forward with them on this.

The government of Bangladesh says it is working to curb the activities of an Islamic organisation one day after the US designated it as a terrorist group.

Harkat-ul-Jihad-al-Islami (Huji) has been categorised as a "specially designated global terrorist" by an executive order in Washington.

India has also accused the extremist group of carrying out cross-border attacks and blasts.

Dhaka banned the group in October 2005 and its leader is currently in prison.

Sikhs have been denied a meeting with the Pope in the US next month because they refuse to remove part of their ceremonial dress - a small dagger.

The leader of the Roman Catholic church is heading an interfaith meeting on April 17th, in an effort to extend peace.

While Sikh representatives had been invited to attend, authorities were concerned about the security risk to Pope Benedict.

The secret service will not allow the Sikhs to go near the Pope while they carry a dagger worn as part of their traditional garb.

A Tamil member of the Sri Lankan Parliament has been killed in an explosion in the north of the country.

The MP, K Sivanesan, and his driver died when a roadside bomb blew up near their car. Tamil rebels have blamed government forces for the death.

They say that the army planted the bomb, but it has denied the allegation.

Mr Sivanesan was the third MP from the rebel-backed Tamil National Alliance to be killed since clashes between the government and the rebels restarted more than two years ago.

A bid by four men serving life for planning the failed July 21 London bombings to challenge their convictions has no merit, a court has heard.

Muktar Said Ibrahim, Yassin Omar, Ramzi Mohammed, and Hussain Osman believe their convictions for conspiring to murder are unsafe.

Court of Appeal judges reserved their ruling to a date which is yet to be set.

A husband who was told by phone that his wife had been stabbed asked if the call was "a prank", a jury has heard.

Special constable 29 year old Nisha Patel-Nasri, died outside her home in Wembley, north-west London, in May 2006.

Her husband 34 year old Fadi Nasri, is accused of arranging the killing. He and three other London men deny murder.

A teenager has been charged with the murder of a sixteen-year-old who was hit with a brick.

Iyke Nmezu died from a fractured skull after he was attacked in Ponder's End in north London last month.

Eighteen-year-old Liam Palmer, from Thaxted in Essex, will appear in court later. Police are continuing to question two other people.

Police have named a man who was killed in a double shooting outside a bar in east London.

32 year old Syed Mehdi, who was living in Ilford, died at the scene and a second man remains in a stable condition in hospital.

Officers believe the suspect approached the victims on foot and fired at them before fleeing the scene.

A statue of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi may be put up in Leicester city centre.

The Samanvaya Parivar charity, which is based in the city, has submitted a planning application for the statue to be put up near Orchardson Avenue.

Ross Willmott, leader of the city council, said Leicester was a multicultural city with many Indians living in the city and therefore the authority did not object to the idea.

A decision on the proposal is expected in the spring. Gandhi was assassinated by a Hindu fanatic in 1948. Today he is widely revered as the nation's moral conscience.

A ground breaking blood test will now enable young women to catch breast cancer earlier and improve their chances of recovery.

South Asian women tend to develop breast cancer at a young age.

Although breast cancer is low amongst this group, there are increasing numbers of younger women being diagnosed.

Police have been granted permission to seize £60,000 which was recovered from a drug dealer's house.

Karan Raichura, 21, was given a 27 month prison sentence in February for dealing cannabis, money laundering, and possession of a CS gas canister.

Harrow Magistrates Court granted an application by police to reclaim the money in a hearing yesterday.

A Middlesex martial arts expert has narrowly avoided prison after she headbutted her ex-lover in a High Court confrontation last year.

Samantha Price from Northolt, who teaches karate and self restraint, admitted causing Nolan Dee actual bodily harm, at Southwark Crown Court.

Ms. Price was handed a 9 month suspended prison sentence.

A Metropolitan Police instructor has been found guilty of sexually assaulting a trainee in a lift.

PC Simon McKenzie groped the 23 year old woman, who cannot be named, after a party at the force's training college in Hendon.

The married father-of-two from Leighton Buzzard will be sentenced at Harrow Crown Court in April.

YOUNG ASIAN GIRLS MISSING DUE TO FORCED MARRIAGES
DATE: 06.03.08
Updated: 20:28

More than 30 Asian girls are missing from schools in Bradford despite efforts to track them down.

Authorities suspect 33 children from the city have been "taken abroad to participate in forced marriages", Labour MP Keith Vaz has said.

Children's Minister Kevin Brennan, told MPs that Bradford City Council had lost track of 205 youngsters aged under 16 from its school rolls in 2007.

Forced marriages are different to Asian traditions of arranged marriages which are freely-agreed matches, facilitated by families.

Citizens of India and other non-European Union countries will be issued compulsory identity cards later this year as part of the British government's plans to improve security and prevent identity fraud.

Home Secretary Jacqui Smith has said today that non-EU nations will be the first to be required to have the identity cards.

Britain will also introduce biometric passports from 2012, where people can use either the cards or the biometric passports to prove their identities.

26-year-old man was shot in the head and critically hurt outside a nightclub in north-west London.

Police confirm that the victim was attacked near the Jet Set club in Harlesden, at about 0500 yesterday morning.

Scotland Yard said the man and a friend had become involved in an argument with another man close to the club.

The pair walked away but were followed by the man, who produced a gun and fired. The second man, aged 22, was struck over the head and slightly hurt.

MUSLIM MAN UK 'S RICHEST CRIME LORD
DATE: 02.03.08
Updated: 12.12

A Muslim man from east London built up a 100 million pound drug empire to become one of the richest crime lords in Britain .

Asnat Akram an ex-dentist shipped cocaine worth 6 and a half million pounds into UK every month.

British-born, 36 year old Mr Akram, kept his illegal earnings in offshore accounts form Pakistan to Dubai.

MIGRANTS ARE GIVEN TRANSLATORS TO HELP GET UK PASSPORTS
DATE: 02.03.08
Updated: 12.15

Immigrants are being given taxpayer funded translators to help them secure a British passport.

Recent reports have stirred up critics who say that it makes a mockery of the Government's promise, that any foreigner wanting citizenship must be able to speak English.

The government is reported to have spent in excess of £106,000 in the last six months, on translators and interpreters for foreign nationals.

An outstanding unbeaten 117 by Sachin Tendulkar - sealed a six-wicket win for India in the first final of the CB Series in Sydney .

Requiring 240 for victory, India were helped along by a superb 123-run fourth-wicket stand between Tendulkar and Rohit Sharma, who made a composed 66.

India will play Australia in the second game of the finals on Tuesday in Brisbane.