“There is a genuine world concern, and hopefully a consensus will come from that,” Ann Taylor, British Minister for International Defense and Security, told Reuters in an interview on Sunday on the sidelines of a regional defense conference.

Britain joined the United States, Australia and East Asian defense ministers in condemning North Korea’s latest military moves at the Asia Security Conference in Singapore.

U.S. Defense Secretary Robert Gates warned on Saturday at the meeting that Washington would not accept a nuclear North Korea and said it would reach out to other regional powers to stop a growing threat that could trigger an arms race in Asia.

The U.S. and Japan have circulated a draft U.N. Security Council resolution condemning the test and calling for enforcement of sanctions imposed after Pyongyang’s first 2006 nuclear test, which included a widely ignored limited trade and arms embargo.

Taylor said the Chinese concern voiced at the forum made her hopeful the U.N. resolution would bring “some concerted action.” “It is that unity of action that I think is important here. Because if we only can get the unity of action, the regime in North Korea will understand the strength of feeling and will begin to take notice,” she said.

On Saturday, a top Chinese army official called on North Korea to move to denuclearization and asked all regional parties to stay calm. But he did not mention sanctions. China exports food and energy supplies to neighboring North Korea.

Fellow U.N. Security Council member Russia said last week it was too early to talk about possible penalties. This could mean a split in the Security Council, given that Gates on Saturday had called for sanctions that would bring “real pain” to the North.

Taylor said tougher financial sanctions were a possibility.

“That remains one of the options,” she said. “We’ve got to work these things out with colleagues and partners on the U.N. Security Council and consider what is the next step forward.”

MORE FOR AFGHANISTAN

Taylor also echoed Gates’ call for more troops and other aid from the rest of the world to build infrastructure in conflict-ridden Afghanistan. “We are operating in a difficult area in the south. We are making progress but we could do more with more help from other NATO countries, in terms of military forces, training police, helping establishing the rule of law,” Taylor said.

Gates said on Saturday he was looking to Europeans in particular to do more since previous NATO summits have identified Afghanistan as the alliance’s highest priority, but there was a gap between the rhetoric in NATO and the capabilities members were prepared to put forward.

The United States leads a coalition from more than 40 countries in Afghanistan and is adding another 20,000 troops to the 38,000 there, to counter gains by a resurgent Taliban.

Britain hopeful on U.N. action over North Korea

The remaining 4,000 or so British troops in the sector will leave by summer, a ministry spokesman told CNN.

The spokesman declined to be named in line with MoD policy.

“You won’t now see hundreds of troops coming out of Iraq every day, (but) this is the start of the end for British forces — a period that will take until the end of July,” the spokesman said.

The British headquarters staff of about 40 people is pulling out of Basra Tuesday, lowering the flag of their command, Multi-National Division Southeast in Basra, as military control of the region passes to the United States.

British troops begin Iraq withdrawal

The revelation comes after the British embassy in Baghdad received a tape of one of the hostages, the first such video in eight months. The tape was handed over to the Embassy by Iraqi security officials last week, and was purportedly filmed nine days ago. Embassy officials declined to reveal the identity of the hostage, while analysts try to determine whether the footage is indeed new.

However, the man is believed to be Peter Moore, a computer consultant, who was kidnapped along with his four security guards from an office near the finance ministry in Baghdad, where he had been working. Moore was shown in a video released in February 2008, and again in July, about 12 months after all five were taken from a small office, called the Computer Services Institute, in an area of east Baghdad known as Palestine Street.

The hostages are believed to have been taken by a Shia militia group. Several analysts familiar with the negotiations believe the kidnappers are loyal to Moqtada al-Sadr, the firebrand Shia leader, whose Iranian-backed militia, the Mehdi army, remains implacably opposed to the occupation.

Neither British nor Iraqi officials will comment about efforts to release the hostages, believed to centre on the kidnappers’ demands that a Sadr loyalist, Kais al-Khazili, be released from the custody of US forces in Iraq. Khazili was detained on suspicion that he organised an attack more than four years ago, which killed four US soldiers.

Sources believe the kidnappers have demanded Khazali’s release before the hostages are freed. They suggest Iraq and Britain have balked at the demand, insisting the hostages are released before any deal is done.

The US continues to hold Khazali at its desert detention centre, Camp Bucca, near the southern city of Basra. Camp Bucca is due to be scaled down by this year, with most prisoners – including those deemed to be hardcore Mehdi army or al-Qaida militants – likely to be transferred to the Iraqi prison system by the end of the year. American plans for Khazali are unknown, but are likely to feature heavily in negotiations about the hostages.

The five men were seized during the height of the insurgency in an operation described by one British official as “almost uniquely professional”. Up to 12 vehicles were involved and were seen to head in different directions from the kidnapping site. Some entered nearby Sadr City, parts of which remain a no-go zone for occupying forces.

Iraq’s national security adviser, Dr Mowaffak al-Rubaie, described the negotiations as “extremely sensitive”. The Foreign Office and the British army in Iraq have said that everything possible is being done to win their release.

British captives in Iraq alive, officials say, as video released

Foreign ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu said the man who disrupted a speech by the premier had exhibited “despicable behaviour”.

China’s reaction was far harsher than when two shoes were thrown at former US President George W Bush.

A 27-year-old man has been charged with committing a public order offence following the incident in the UK.

British apology

The shoe was thrown at Premier Wen while he was giving a speech at Cambridge University on the global economy.

It missed its intended target and barely disrupted the premier’s speech, but that has not prevented China from issuing an angry statement.

“The Chinese side has expressed its strong feelings against the occurrence of the incident,” spokeswoman Jiang Yu said in a statement.

She said the British government had already apologised for the protester’s “despicable behaviour”, an act that would not affect bilateral ties.

Chinese internet users were less diplomatic when expressing their anger.

“I think the guy was very stupid. He accused the premier of being a dictator. This to me has no logic,” said one, who appeared to have had a ticket to the event.

“Is this the quality of students at Cambridge, a university with 800 years of history?” asked another.

The Chinese government’s response stands in sharp contrast to the more humorous reaction to the incident involving George Bush in Iraq.

Mr Bush was on a farewell trip when a local journalist threw two shoes at the then US president. Throwing shoes is an insult in the Middle East.

When asked a question about the incident at a press conference, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao said state leaders should be respected.

But – to laughter – he added: “Next time I should watch out for not only [those] who are raising their hands, but also [those] who are untying their shoelaces.”

Sole-searching

The BBC asked spokeswoman Jiang Yu about the different responses. “Both our comments are proper,” she replied.

China’s media outlets also seem to think this incident, where a sports shoe was thrown, is less funny than the one Mr Bush had to deal with.

When that happened, witty headlines such as, “Shoe attack leads to sole-searching” appeared in the Chinese press.

But there was no humour in reports about Premier Wen’s speech, which was the top story for China’s main broadcaster, China Central Television.

The shoe-throwing incident received little comment – and was referred to simply as “a disturbance”. The shoe itself was not mentioned.

Mr Wen also had to brave pro-Tibet supporters on his three-day visit to the UK.

The man charged in connection with the incident is due to appear before Cambridge magistrates next week.

BBC NEWS | Asia-Pacific | Chinese anger at UK shoe-thrower

The letter, published in the Observer, warns the military action, far from improving security, will strengthen extremism and destabilise the region.

The signatories, who declare themselves “passionate supporters of Israel”, include several rabbis.

The first major rally in support of Israel in the UK will take place later.

Prominent rabbis, academics and political figures supported the open letter, including Rabbi Dr Tony Bayfield, head of the Movement for Reform Judaism; Sir Jeremy Beecham, former chairman of the Labour party; Professor Shalom Lappin of the University of London and Baroness Julia Neuberger.

Pro-Israeli rally

They write: “We look upon the increasing loss of life on both sides of the Gaza conflict with horror.

“We have no doubt that rocket attacks into southern Israel, by Hamas and other militant Palestinian groups, are war crimes against Israel.

“No sovereign state should, or would, tolerate continued attacks and the deliberate targeting of civilians.

“Israel had a right to respond and we support the Israeli government’s decision to make stopping the rocket attacks an urgent priority.

“However, we believe that now only negotiations can secure long-term security for Israel and the region.”

Earlier Jewish officials reacted angrily after a hoax e-mail claimed a rally planned to take place in London on Sunday had been cancelled.

The event at Trafalgar Square is expected to draw thousands of people – it will be the first major rally organised by the Jewish community in the UK over Israel’s offensive against Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip.

The e-mail purported to come from the UK’s Jewish communal leadership, the Board of Deputies (BoD).

A rally is also being held in Manchester.

’8,000 rockets’

BoD chief executive John Benjamin said despite support for Israel’s position, the events are primarily a call for peace.

He said: “Certainly I think the people who will be there will understand that Israel has felt it necessary to take action to stop the many thousands of rockets that have been launched from Gaza in the last several years.

“We’re not just talking about the last two weeks but over the course of years I think there have been something like 8,000 rockets.

“So, there is an understanding of that position but it’s not a rally that is either commending exactly what’s going on on day by day, or even, as British Jews and British Christians and others who are coming together, making a statement about the military action – it’s a call for peace.”

On Saturday thousands of pro-Palestinian demonstrators marched through London to call for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza.

The protest started peacefully but there were confrontations as police tried to move demonstrators away from the gates of the Israeli embassy.

Protests also took place in Edinburgh, Aberdeen, Belfast, Newcastle and Southampton.

In Gaza three Palestinians have been killed and dozens more injured by new Israeli tank fire and air strikes, according to medical sources.

Reports of the deaths came hours after Israel dropped leaflets warning Gazans to stay away from areas used by Hamas, saying its operation would escalate.

Some 820 Gazans and 13 Israelis have reportedly died in 14 days of fighting.

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Jews demand Israeli ceasefire

Mr Blair, now a Middle East envoy, said there was a “basis” for an immediate ceasefire if the supply of arms into Gaza from Egypt was halted.

But Mr Blair warned of a “more protracted campaign” if firm action was not taken and said the people of Gaza were living through “hell”.

Israeli forces have continued to widen their ground attacks in Gaza.

‘Clear action’

According to Palestinian medical officials, at least 110 people have died since the ground offensive began while Israel says it has killed 130 Hamas fighters.

About 560 Palestinians have been killed since Israel moved to end rocket attacks from Gaza 11 days ago, Palestinian officials say.

Mr Blair, who represents the UN, EU, US and Russia in the Middle East, said he believed discussions between Egypt and Hamas about halting the supply of arms and money to militants in Gaza were critical to securing a ceasefire.

There needed to be “clear, definitive” action to bring this about, Mr Blair said, adding that he thought all sides were willing to discuss this.

“I think there are circumstances where we can get an immediate ceasefire and that is what people want to see,” he told the BBC.

Israel has insisted circumstances are not right for a ceasefire while rocket attacks continue to strike Israel.

Mr Blair, who has met Israeli leaders and senior Palestinian officials in recent days, called on Hamas to work towards a ceasefire to end the “appalling suffering” in Gaza.

Principles

“If they truly do care about about people in Gaza, there is a possible way that would have an immediate cessation of hostilities and that is obviously what any responsible person should try and achieve.

“For anyone living in Gaza, it is hell. It is bound to be. You are have got a situation where you are in an effective war zone.”

Only a “credible” political solution towards a Palestinian state could bring peace to the region, Mr Blair said, stressing that “real change” in conditions for people in Gaza was necessary to achieve this.

Discussions between the international community and Hamas were feasible, he said, but only if there were “some common principles of agreement”, namely Hamas’ willingness to give up violence.

He urged the new US administration of President-elect Barack Obama to focus on the Middle East peace process, saying the issue was “absolutely central” to global security.

“If we want to resolve this, we can,” he said.

“We have to grip it and sort it. If we do that with requisite dedication energy and commitment, we can resolve it.”

BBC NEWS | UK | UK Politics | Gaza solution is possible – Blair

Basra International Airport had been used as a UK military base during the conflict but the Iraqis have now resumed full control.

It came as the UN mandate for US and UK troops – put into place after the invasion in March 2003 – expired.

Iraq will now take greater control of its own security, but US and UK forces will remain under a new deal.

The transfer of the airport at Basra, the country’s second biggest city, was one of Prime Minister Gordon Brown’s remaining key tasks in southern Iraq.

The transfer of control, marked with a handover ceremony in the airport’s VIP lounge, followed the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding by British military commanders and Iraqi transport officials in Baghdad.

Military and civilian aircraft will continue to operate side-by-side at the airport but Iraqi civilians are now in control.

Major General Andy Salmon, general officer commanding of British troops in Iraq, said: “The Iraqis have been operating their own airport in Basra with minimal involvement from the UK for several months,” he said.

“From today they will gain further autonomy, taking over the running of the air traffic control tower.

“It is clear Basra International Airport is now an international airport with good potential for future growth.”

In December, Mr Brown said British troops would leave Iraq by the end of July 2009.

Military operations are due to end by 31 May and the remaining 4,100 UK service personnel will leave within two months.

BBC NEWS | UK | UK troops hand back Basra Airport

Opposition parties believe Mr Brown may allow the long-delayed inquiry to begin next summer but that it will not report until after the next general election, which could be as late as June 2010. Mr Brown will make a statement on Iraq to Parliament today.

The Ministry of Defence (MoD) told The Independent that the cost of British operations in Iraq since the 2003 invasion has been £7.836bn – the equivalent of £3.7m a day.

Critics say that would be enough to fund 25,200 teachers for 10 years and to build 107 new hospitals. The final bill will increase before the pullout of the remaining 4,100 troops.

Some defence experts also say the Government’s figure understates the true cost of the Iraq operation. The MoD admits that it does not include payments to the families of the 178 servicemen killed or the cost of treating the injured. Some experts claim the official figure does not cover the wear and tear on military equipment, but the MoD insists that has been taken into account.

Day-to-day costs such as servicemen’s pay is met from the MoD’s £34bn annual budget. Extra operational costs, including top-up payments for troops, are met from a special reserve fund at the Treasury, to which the MoD submits a bill twice a year. MPs claim the Iraq budget has been shrouded in secrecy. Initially, the Government declined to give separate figures for the cost of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Some figures emerged only through freedom of information requests. MPs have demanded more openness, citing the greater scrutiny by the US Congress of America’s spending on Iraq, which dwarfs Britain’s and is estimated at £400bn by the end of last year.

Mr Brown, who visited Baghdad and Basra yesterday, announced that the British mission in Iraq would end no later than 31 May, and that the troops would come home within two months. Between 200 and 300 military advisers are expected to remain to help the Iraqi government.

The Prime Minister said: “We have made a huge contribution and, of course, given people an economic stake in the future of Iraq. We leave Iraq a better place. I am proud of the contribution British forces have made.”

Nick Clegg, the Liberal Democrat leader, said last night: “The Government is trying to end this war as they began it by trying to hide the true cost and deceiving the public. But Gordon Brown cannot be allowed to sidestep the massive part he played in signing the cheques for the biggest foreign policy disaster in half a century. There must be a fully independent public inquiry which must include the true financial cost of this catastrophic war and its aftermath.”

Peter Kilfoyle, a former Labour defence minister, said the true cost of the war in Iraq was being “camouflaged”. “Any figure cannot reflect the human cost of what was a colossal error of thinking, based on our slavish devotion to the special relationship with a fading US superpower,” he said.

He added that British forces were trying to maintain a role in the world they were no longer capable of, and which the public would not support if they were told the real financial cost.

Liam Fox, the shadow Defence Secretary, said: “Now that we know our troops are being withdrawn there is no excuse not to have the inquiry into the Iraq war that we have demanded. We need to learn the lessons from Iraq so that we do no repeat the mistakes in places such as Afghanistan.”

The Stop the War Coalition said: “The British people will continue paying for this war long after it is over. Injured and maimed soldiers will have to be cared for; reconstruction in Iraq will have to take place and Britain may be sued by Iraq for reparations for this illegal war.”

Mr Brown has promised that there will be an Iraq inquiry “when the time is right”, but has not said whether it would be held in public or who would head it. Downing Street said there had already been four investigations into aspects of the war. But critics say their remit was tightly drawn and there has been no over-arching inquiry.
Six years in Iraq

2003

21 March: 45,000 British troops enter southern Iraq alongside 250,000 American soldiers, who quickly topple Saddam Hussein’s regime.

24 March: British forces take Basra, Iraq’s second largest city, and consolidate control of Iraq’s three southern, Shia-dominated provinces.

9 April: Baghdad falls to US forces and President George Bush declares end of “major operations” on 1 May. British troop numbers reduced to 18,000.

13 December: Saddam captured near Tikrit.

2004

Jan–Feb: Low-level insurgencies intensify in Baghdad and Sunni western provinces. Basra and the south are relatively calm.

May: Revelations of abuse of PoW’s by British troops leads to escalating clashes between UK forces and militants loyal to Shia cleric Muqtada al-Sadr.

28 June: US hands sovereignty to interim Iraqi government.

2005

30 January: Iraq votes and power shifts towards Shias.

May: UK troop numbers fall to 8,500 and Tony Blair hints at possible withdrawal.

September: Tensions in Basra ignite as riots spread across the south following a series of anti-British protests.

2006

22 February: The Al-Askari Mosque in Samarra, left, one of Shia Islam’s most important sites, is blown up; tens of thousands of Iraqis are killed.

6 May: British Lynx helicopter is shot down, killing five, including the first British servicewoman to die in action in Iraq.

13 July: British and Australian forces hand Muthanna to the Iraqi authorities.

30 December: Saddam Hussein is hanged.

2007

January: President Bush orders a troop surge into Baghdad and western provinces.

March: Iraqi forces initiate a crackdown on Shia militants in the south. US criticise UK’s role.

September: Remaining 5,000 UK troops in the south withdraw to Basra

The Independent

Their decision to abandon the two dozen crew members still on board attracted some criticism, but their British employer insisted that the three former soldiers were heroes who had resisted a sustained attack by heavily-armed pirates with great courage and would have been killed if they had stayed any longer.

“They were unarmed. They had no other option…As far as I’m concerned they deserve a medal,” said Nick Davis, a former British army pilot who runs Anti-Piracy Maritime Security Solutions (APMSS) out of Poole, Dorset.

The attack happened early this morning as the Liberian-flagged tanker, the Biscaglia, was sailing through the Gulf of Aden from India to Rotterdam.

At 7.48am the captain sent out a distress call which was relayed to the Nivose, a French frigate that is part of the western naval task force protecting commercial shipping from Somalia’s ever-bolder pirates.

The Nivose would have taken two hours to reach the scene so it dispatched a helicopter, but by the time it arrived the six pirates had already seized the Biscaglia.

“There were three members of the crew on the roof (of the ship),” said Frederic Karakaya, the helicopter pilot. “They were hiding and signalled to us. They were spotted, and jumped into the water.

“We pretended we hadn’t seen them so we didn’t alert the pirates to their position. We dropped a coloured marker, then gave their position to a German Lynx (helicopter) which winched them aboard.”

The three guards, still wearing baseball caps and lifejackets, were deposited on the Nivose and later transferred to another French naval vessel, the Jean de Vienne. They were uninjured but have not yet been named.

At least 27 other crew members – 25 Indians and two Bangladeshis – were being held hostage on board the Biscaglia, which was reportedly heading for the semi-autonomous northern region of Puntland.

One western aid official closely involved with Somalia told The Times that after all the calls for commercial vessels to hire security guards it was “somewhat ironic that they jump overboard to save themselves”.

But Mr Davis staunchly defended his team. He said they had been attacked by six pirates in a high-speed skiff armed with AK47s and rocket-propelled grenades.

He claimed the three guards – two former marines and an ex-paratrooper – held them off for about 40 minutes, long enough for the crew to send out a distress call and seek safety below deck.

They fired water cannon at the pirates, and zig-zagged. They also used a long range accoustic device (LRAD) which fires laser-like beams of excruciatingly-painful sound at attackers. They beat off three or four attacks but the pirates then began firing RPGs at the LRAD’s operator.

Mr Davis said the pirates continued to shoot at the security guards after boarding, and that the three men had no choice but to abandon ship. The pirates then fired on them while they were in the water, and tried to run them down in the hijacked vessel.

“They did what they felt they had to do to save their lives and the lives of the crew,” said Mr Davis, 37.

The Biscaglia is the 97th vessel this year to be attacked in the waters off Somalia, where Islamist insurgents are battling a weak, western-backed government and all semblance of law and order has broken down. At least 15 ships, and more than 300 crew members, are being held for ransom.

APMSS provides three-man teams of former soldiers to protect commercial vessels, and in recent weeks the demand for its services has soared. It presently has teams on ten ships off Somalia – each costing £14,000 for three days – and only last week Mr Davis boasted that “there has never been a successful boarding with a security force on board a vessel.

As the Biscaglia was seized, Somali pirates released a Greek-owned cargo ship, the Centauri, that they captured on Setpember 18. The crew of 25 Filipinos was unharmed. It was unclear whether the owners paid a ransom.

The ships still being held include the Sirius Star, a giant tanker carrying two million barrels of oil which was seized on November 15. Its captors have warned of “disastrous consequences” if its Saudi owners do not pay a $25 million ransom by tomorrow.

Times Online

Although his death will take a few days to be confirmed officially, the strike by a Predator drone, armed with Hellfire missiles and precision-guided bombs, was the first time that the US had targeted a British suspect hiding in the lawless North Waziristan region of Pakistan.

Two senior MPs yesterday demanded to know whether the British Government had been given notice of the planned attack, which was a CIA operation controlled from a US military base in Nevada.

Patrick Mercer, Tory MP for Newark, said the attack had “ultimately led to the execution of a British subject”. He called for a clear statement from the Government to explain what was known about the planned attack. Andrew Dismore, Labour chairman of the parliamentary Human Rights Committee, wanted to know whether British intelligence services had been consulted by the Americans.

Senior British officials, however, made it clear that intelligence of such sensitivity was not automatically shared by the Americans, adding that Saturday’s strike was a strictly US operation.

The reported killing of Rauf and four other terrorist suspects, including an Egyptian called Abu Zubair alMasri, appears to have dealt a serious blow to al-Qaeda’s network operating from Pakistan’s tribal region.

Pakistani authorities confirmed that Rauf was the main target of Saturday’s attack on a suspected militant hideout in the border village of Ali Khel in North Waziristan. Information about Rauf’s death was based on intercepted communications between militants in the area. The bodies of the five people killed in the attack were removed by local militants who cordoned off the area, making investigation difficult.

Three Hellfire missiles were fired on a mud compound belonging to Khaliq Noor, a tribal elder in Ali Khel village. A few days ago a US Predator attack killed Abdullah Azzam al-Saudi, a senior al-Qaeda member. Six others died in the attack in northwestern Pakistan. Officials from Pakistan and Western government representatives said that eight of the twenty mostwanted men had been killed in the recent US missile raids, bolstering Washington’s claim that the strikes in northwestern Pakistan have crippled alQaeda’s capacity to launch another terrorist attack on the West.

US forces based in Afghanistan have carried out about 24 missile attacks in northwestern Pakistan since August, reflecting American impatience at Islamabad’s efforts to curb militants on its own soil.

British intelligence sources say the reluctance on the part of the Pakistani authorities to clamp down on Kashmiri militant organisations is still enabling al-Qaeda to recruit young British Muslims for attacks on the UK.

About 400,000 British Pakistanis are estimated to travel between the UK and Pakistan each year. A disproportionate number can trace their lineage back to Kashmir. For the small number seeking a gateway to alQaeda, Kashmiri militant organisations are the obvious first port of call.

Times Online