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# Start at 33 after limit rises by 7 years # Iraq casualties deterring applicants The Army has raised the maximum age of new recruits from 26 to 33 to encourage more people to join a service that is increasingly overstretched. The new age limit means that soldiers serving a normal 22-year engagement could retire as late as 55. The Ministry of Defence has admitted that the operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, and the fallout from bullying allegations at Deepcut training barracks, have contributed to recruitment problems. Revelations this week about the dire condition of some army housing have also...

LONDON: Saudi Arabia has given Britain 10 days to stop an investigation into allegations of corruption by members of the kingdom’s royal family or it will cancel its multi-billion pound deal for British fighter jets, The Daily Telegraph reported on Friday. Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper said that Britain had been informed through diplomatic channels that unless the inquiry by the Serious Fraud Office (SFO) is closed, Saudi Arabia will cancel the 10 billion-pound deal for 72 Eurofighter jets, manufactured by British defence group BAE Systems. The SFO has been running a three-year investigation into claims that BAE established a...

LONDON: Britain needs to use more recycled effluent as drinking water if it is to deal with a long-term shortage crisis, a report said today. The Institution of Civil Engineers (ICE) said using treated sewage was one radical suggestion that needed to be pursued if the country was deal with the growing problem. Sponsored Links Get ready for the big one It also called for a rise in spending on infrastructure along with price rises of up to 20 per cent to fund the replacement of old, leaky pipes, particularly in London. Many UK water companies were forced to impose...

Investigators probing the plot to blow up several aircraft from Britain to US suspected involvement four Islamic militant groups including Pakistan-based Lashkar-e-Tayiba and Sunni extremist outfit Lashkar-e-Jhangvi. The probe revealed that funds provided by a UK-based Islamic charity for earthquake relief in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir has apparently been used to target planes, a media report in Islamabad said on Saturday. "The links of the arrested suspect could not be confirmed, but the sources said intelligence agencies had put four Islamic organisations on the watch list and they included two UK-based outfits Al Mahajroon and Hizbul Tehrir, and two Pakistani organisations Lashkar-e-Tayiba...

thought gang was going to shoot my dad dead A GIRL of 11 woke in terror as a masked gang gunned down her dad and threatened to shoot her as they stormed their Sheffield home. Little CJ Roberts was asleep in the living room when the mob "knee-capped" 39-year-old Christopher with a silenced pistol after spraying him with CS gas. They then robbed the family - who were hours away from flying abroad on holiday - of cash, mobile phones and sentimental jewellery. Speaking exclusively to The Star brave CJ, who attends Wybourn School, said: "I was screaming. I thought...

ST war reporter cornered with paras in fierce Taliban ambush “HAVE you ever used a pistol?” yelled Sergeant-Major Mick Bolton amid the Kalashnikov fire and bursts from a machinegun as we ran across a baked-mud field and dived for cover. “If it comes down to it, everyone’s going to have to fight.” Round after round fizzed past our ears, sending up clouds of dust. My heart was thudding crazily against my flak jacket, my breath coming in short, rasping pants. The whoosh of a rocket-propelled grenade (RPG) close enough to lift the hairs on the back of my neck was...

BERLIN (Reuters) - The European Union and Washington are split over an EU proposal to offer Iran a generous package of incentives including nuclear reactors and security pledges if it stops enriching uranium, diplomats said on Saturday. The EU draft offer of a package of incentives in exchange for a suspension of enrichment has caused a split in the West's previously united position on Iran since Washington has serious reservations about the European plan, EU diplomats said. The plan will be discussed in London on Wednesday by senior officials from the "EU3," the United States, Russia and China, an EU...

LONDON • Britain’s highest ranking police officer admitted yesterday it was “almost impossible” for the police and security services to monitor all the estimated hundreds of terror suspects in the country. Metropolitan Police Commissioner Ian Blair said it would be a mammoth task to monitor all potential threats, adding the police needed at least ten people to put just one suspect under surveillance. “There are hundreds of people out there involved in thinking about and financing terror and that is a situation that has changed dramatically over the last seven, eight years,” Blair told LBC Radio. “The idea that the...

HUGO CHÁVEZ, the President of Venezuela and one of Tony Blair’s most vocal critics abroad, arrives in London this weekend on a whirlwind visit during which he will be fêted by Ken Livingstone, Labour MPs and the TUC but will avoid contact with the Prime Minister and his Government. The diplomatic snub will be delivered at the end of a three-nation tour of Europe by the soldier turned politician who denounced Mr Blair as “the main ally of Hitler” for his support of President Bush. Officials at the Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday that Señor Chávez was on a...

IRAN has formed battalions of suicide bombers to strike at British and American targets if the nation’s nuclear sites are attacked. According to Iranian officials, 40,000 trained suicide bombers are ready for action. The main force, named the Special Unit of Martyr Seekers in the Revolutionary Guards, was first seen last month when members marched in a military parade, dressed in olive-green uniforms with explosive packs around their waists and detonators held high. Dr Hassan Abbasi, head of the Centre for Doctrinal Strategic Studies in the Revolutionary Guards, said in a speech that 29 western targets had been identified: “We...

Reports that military officers will meet government officials on Monday to discuss possible military action against Iran have been denied. A Ministry of Defence spokesman said there was no truth whatsoever in the claims, made in the Sunday Telegraph. He said: "No such meeting between defence, foreign office and other officials is taking place." But BBC Defence Correspondent Paul Wood said US plans for a possible strike are thought to be at an advanced stage. There is well sourced and persistent speculation that American covert activities aimed at Iran are already underway Paul Wood He pointed out that many defence...

DUBAI: Britain has told the United States that it will not take part in any armed action against Iran’s nuclear sites, according to diplomatic sources in London. Already facing huge public criticism for his participation in the Iraq war, Prime Minister Tony Blair is seeking to distance himself from America’s belligerent rhetoric towards Iran. Blair knows he would probably not survive the political storm if Britain joined in an attack on Iran. The concern in Whitehall, however, is that the Bush administration, egged on by Israel and its powerful friends in the United States, risks developing an unstoppable momentum towards...

Closely watched by two police forces, the quiet farmer who calmly looks after the IRA's millions By David McKittrick 07 October 2005 Thomas "Slab" Murphy, the IRA leader suspected of having millions of pounds invested in property in Manchester, has for most of his republican career led a charmed life. He has never been convicted of any offence, despite the fact that for more than two decades every Northern Ireland secretary, every chief constable and every general has spent long hours pondering how to put him behind bars. In his home area of South Armagh and further afield, everyone knows...

THOUSANDS of police marksmen were on London's streets and rooftops last night after warnings another team of suicide bombers would stage a third attack on the British capital. The new group is believed to be made up of British Muslims who were understood to be close to staging an attack on the Underground network last week. According to security sources, the men are thought to be of Pakistani origin but born and brought up in Britain. They have links with the Leeds-based terrorist cell that staged the July 7 attacks, which claimed 52 lives. Even with the transport system so...

Terror in London Bombers may be British born Robert Winnett, Whitehall Correspondent Read the document: Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4 LORD STEVENS, the former Metropolitan police chief who retired earlier this year, said last night that the London bombings were almost certainly masterminded by British-born terrorists. He said last week’s bombers would not fit the stereotype of a fanatic from a village in Afghanistan or Algeria. “They will be apparently ordinary British citizens; young men conservatively and cleanly dressed and probably with some higher education. Highly computer literate, they will have used the internet to research explosives....

LONDON: Suspected arsonists set a mosque in northwest England on fire Saturday, police said. A man living in a flat above the Shahjalal Mosque, which is part of an Islamic centre in Birkenhead, was treated for smoke inhalation but there were no other injuries, police said. The mosque door was burnt and there was some smoke damage inside, Merseyside police said. afp

UK police evacuates thousands from Birmingham after threat * 142 arrested in Rome security sweep * 20 more bodies might be trapped in London LONDON: British police said on Saturday they were evacuating thousands of people from the centre of Britain’s second largest city, Birmingham, after receiving a threat warning. “West Midlands police ... are now closing down the Broad Street entertainment zone and asking people to leave Birmingham town centre and go home,” said a police spokesman. Police initially restricted road traffic into the city center, but then ordered an evacuation after receiving further intelligence, a police spokeswoman said...

THE Dutch “nee” has all but killed off hopes of keeping the constitution alive, but Tony Blair will avoid any immediate pronouncements on its future to avoid being blamed for its demise. The treaty’s supporters must now not only find a way to reverse the votes in two EU founding countries, but dissuade other member states from abandoning the ratification process and counter a domino effect of “no” votes in those states that do proceed with referendums. The Poles and Czechs both showed signs of wobbling on their referendum plans yesterday, while polls show support for the constitution plummeting even...

<p>The operation at an Army depot is beginning slowly and will take seven years to destroy the GB, VX and mustard gas and the rockets that carry them, said Army spokesman Mike Abrams.</p> <p>The burn had been scheduled to begin Wednesday, but the Army agreed to delay until Friday's hearing on the request by the Chemical Weapons Working Group -- opponents of the burn -- for a temporary restraining order.</p>

2 charged with accidentally shooting woman with machine gun Two Polson-area boys are charged with felonies after they accidentally shot a woman with a machine gun Tuesday. Lake County Undersheriff Mike Sargent said the boys, ages 13 and 16, were target practicing on Bisson Lane, south of Polson, when a shot went astray and struck a woman in the leg. She was in a field with her husband on a tractor, he said. "They were out there, throwing rounds down," Sargent said. The woman was taken to St. Joseph's Hospital where she underwent surgery and is recovering, Sargent said. Deputies...