British troops have taken a step closer to withdrawing from Iraq with the handover of one of its main airports.
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 …

ISLAMABAD (Reuters) – Pakistani investigators have unearthed substantive links between the gunmen who attacked Mumbai in November and a banned Pakistani Islamist militant group, the Wall Street Journal reported.
Ten gunmen killed 179 people in the attack on India’s financial hub that India has blamed on the Pakistan-based Islamist group Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) group.
The group was set up by Pakistani security agencies in the late 1980s to fight Indian rule in the disputed Kashmir region but was banned in 2002, after Pakistan had signed up to the U.S.-led campaign against terrorism.

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates: Hotels in Dubai are scrambling to rework New Year’s plans after the ritzy Mideast tourist spot’s ruler announced the cancellation of all celebrations late Tuesday due to the violence in Gaza.
The manager of the 4-star Arabian Courtyard says there will be no music or dancing to ring in the New Year, though the hotel’s restaurants and bars will stay open.

Waves of Israeli airstrikes hit Hamas security facilities in Gaza on Saturday in a crushing response to the group’s rocket fire, killing more than 200 — the highest one-day toll in an Israeli military operation against Palestinians in decades.
Israeli military officials said the airstrikes, which went on into the night, were the start of what could be days or even months of an effort to force Hamas to end its rocket barrages into southern Israel. The operation could ultimately include ground forces, a senior Israeli security official said.

Reporting from Islamabad, Pakistan, and New Delhi — A hoax caller claiming to be India’s foreign minister spoke to Pakistan’s president in a “threatening” manner during the final hours of the Mumbai attacks, prompting Pakistan to put its air force on its highest alert for nearly 24 hours, a Pakistani news report said today.
Meanwhile, authorities in India reported the first arrests since the end of the siege in Mumbai, which killed more than 170 people. Two men in the eastern city of Kolkata, formerly Calcutta, were detained by police and …

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EXPLOSIVES were yesterday found in Mumbai’s main train station, which police said were left over from last week’s attacks.
The bomb squad defused the two 8lb bombs, said Bapu Domre, the assistant commissioner of police, but it was not clear last night why they had not been found earlier.

The chief minister of the Indian state of Maharashtra has offered to resign after his deputy stepped down over the devastating attacks on the state capital Mumbai.
“I have offered to resign,” Vilasrao Deshmukh told reporters on Monday.
“If the responsibility of the attacks is on the chief minister, then I will go. The final decision is with the high command,” he said, referring to the leadership of the ruling Congress Party.

(CNN) — Indian officials said they believe “elements in Pakistan” are somehow involved in the attacks on Mumbai — a claim Islamabad disputes — but one official said it will be difficult to ascertain details before the situation is over.
“The preliminary investigation indicates that some elements in Pakistan are involved,” said Pranab Mukherjee, India’s foreign affairs minister.
“I can’t tell you the details since the investigation is going on,” he said. “Until the investigation is complete, it will be difficult to say where they came from and how they came.”

Indian commandos rooted through two smoldering luxury hotels in Mumbai this morning, searching for survivors, the dead and the last of the gunmen whose choreographed rampage of terror through this cosmopolitan city spawned a mystery about their identities and motive.
The brazen attacks that also targeted transportation centers, a hospital and a Jewish community center killed at least 125 people and wounded 325 others. Sporadic gunfire and occasional explosions continued to be heard in parts of Mumbai early today, and an unknown number of people remained missing.

Indian special forces fired grenades through the windows of a luxury Bombay hotel tonight against one or more Islamist gunmen determined to fight to the death.
Some 48 hours after launching co-ordinated attacks on the country’s commercial capital rumours persisted that at least one of the terrorists involved in Wednesday’s attacks was a Briton of Pakistani origin.
The Foreign Office said that Indian authorities had confirmed that was “no evidence that anyone, either of those shot or those in custody, was British”.