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The Feral Sex: The terrifying rise of violent girl gangsBy PAUL BRACCHI - More by this author » Last updated at 23:48pm on 16th May 2008  The girl emerged from her house with a mobile phone glued to her ear and a cigarette hanging out of her mouth.  Her friends take the mickey out of her, we learn from her sister's MySpace internet page, because she is never out of "a chav T-shirt and tracksuit bottoms" - and she didn't disappoint yesterday. Even so, it doesn't pay to get on the wrong side of this 14-year-old, who plays for...

The letter shows that the US has resisted the idea of loans, preferring to give developing countries grants. "We understand that grants would be the US preferred approach," the British ministers say. Both their departments are understood to have argued strongly that the money should be in direct grant form on principle, but were overruled by the Treasury. Last night several countries joined environment and development groups to condemn the loans. "We need urgently to prepare for climate change, but we are not in a position to pay back loans," said a spokesman for the Bangladesh high commission in London....

Pictured: Lancaster bomber in dramatic flypast to mark 65th anniversary of Dambusters raidLast updated at 18:49pm on 16th May 2008  It is one of the most stirring images of the Second World War - a Lancaster bomber coming in terrifyingly low over a huge dam.  Today, the last surviving pilot of the epic Dambusters operation was present to witness a spectacular re-enactment as one of the bombers flew again above the Derwent Valley dam in Derbyshire to mark the 65th anniversary of the raid. Scroll down for more...Bombs away: The world's only flying Lancaster makes a low pass over...

Obese people are contributing to the world food crisis and climate change, experts say. The London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine calculated the obese consume 18% more calories than average. They are also responsible for using more fuel, which has an environmental impact and drives up food prices as transport and agriculture both use oil. The result is that the poor struggle to afford food and greenhouse gas emissions rise, the Lancet reported. It comes as the World Health Organization predicts the obese population will double by 2015 to 700m. In the UK, nearly a quarter of adults are...

There may be no cuts in interest rates until 2010, the Bank of England has indicated. However, inflation is predicted to rise far above previous forecasts and stay well above the Government's target of two per cent for up to two years. Mervyn King, the Bank governor, said price increases would cause "a squeeze on real take-home pay, which will slow consumer spending and output growth, perhaps sharply". Saying that "the nice decade is behind us", he added that it was "quite possible we may get the odd quarter or two of negative growth". Presenting the UK quarterly forecasts, the...

Synagogue walls daubed with anti-Jewish graffitiBenedict Moore-Bridger and Robert Mendick 15.05.08   Message of hate: a council worker cleaning anti-Israel graffiti off a wall in Stamford Hill   London's Jewish community has been targeted by a wave of anti-Semitic graffiti. Residents were today warned to look out for suspicious activity following the racist attack in north-east London. Vandals sprayed shops, pavements and walls outside four synagogues in Clapton Common and Stamford Hill on Tuesday night. Worshippers were yesterday confronted with slogans such as "Jihad to Israel" and "Jihad to Tel Aviv". Hackney council is removing the graffiti, which consisted...

The French are... well, what are they? Twenty-three miles away, our nearest neighbours and oldest enemies. No other nation stirs such conflicting emotions in the British breast. Two anniversaries will underline this over the coming week. On Friday, it’s a year since Nicolas Sarkozy officially became president. Granted, this didn’t make much impact in Britain - until his wife made an official visit to our country a few weeks ago. Mr Sarkozy came too, but only to carry Carla’s bags. This was to ensure that she’d brought some clothes.

Tesco is refusing to sell alcohol to parents shopping with their children under rules designed to tackle underage drinking. The supermarket has told cashiers not to supply alcohol if they suspect an adult is buying the drink for an underage youth. Staff have been told to “err on the side of caution” when interpreting the policy, leading to cases of parents out shopping with their children being told to put alcohol back on the shelves. Tesco says it believes parents will support the policy and it would rather apologise where it has misjudged the situation than sell to underage drinkers....

'Shameless' parents not teaching skills By James Kirkup Political Correspondent Last Updated: 4:04AM BST 14/05/2008 A generation of young Britons are growing up in "shameless" families where parents lack the basic skills to raise their children, the Conservatives will warn today. Chris Grayling, the shadow work and pensions secretary, will claim that in some parts of the country there is no culture of parents instilling discipline and respect in their offspring. He will tell a London think tank that multiple generations of teenage parents mean that some of today's children have no exposure to elder relatives with traditional experience of...

"Britain's Queen Elizabeth II, front right, wearing a head scarf, listens as an Imam reads verses from the quran during her visit to the Ottoman era Green mosque in Bursa, western Turkey, Wednesday, May 14, 2008. Britain's Queen Elizabeth II began her first visit to Turkey in 37 years on Tuesday, praising the predominantly Muslim country's role as a bridge.""Britain's Queen Elizabeth II is helped on with her shoes as she exits the Green Mosque in Bursa, Turkey."

Cherie Blair's memoirs: Why don't we watch a movie? A Brit from the Left, a Texan from the Right, but we all got on - and nobody can tell me George Bush doesn't have a sense of humour Cherie Blair Ifirst met George Bush at Camp David ... shortly after he took over as President. From our visits to Washington we had got to know Al Gore, the Democratic candidate, and his wife Tipper, reasonably well, so I think it's fair to say that our hearts sank when the result was finally ratified. Bush was, after all, a Republican. In...

Underage drinkers who attempt to buy alcohol may be thwarted by the technology that police use to identify suspected criminals. A supermarket chain is introducing face recognition cameras to prevent staff mistakenly selling cigarettes and alcohol to under-18s. Face recognition: Will be used to stop underage drinkers buying alcohol The biometric technology is being piloted by Budgens at one of its London branches. If successful, it could be rolled out across the country to create a database of youngsters who try to buy alcohol. The system alerts a cashier if it 'recognises' someone who has previously been unable to prove...

Britain has been in charge of four provinces in southern Iraq since Saddam Hussein's downfall. While the divisional command will continue to operate under British leadership at Basra airbase, the orders of the US units will be to "get out front" and resume patrols and combat missions. US hopes of making the whole of Iraq secure before its eventual withdrawal have been raised by what commanders see as a potential southern version of the Sahwa, or tribal awakening, which turned locals against al-Qa'eda. Troops have been shifted from Anbar province to the Tallil airbase, Nasiriya, to assume responsibility from 550...

Prison bosses have been instructed to let pagan inmates keep twigs in their cells...to use as wands. Officers have been told to allow prisoners to collect and decorate the twigs which they need for their rituals. It is the latest in a series of rulings to protect convicts' rights and ensure equality among different faiths. Followers of other faiths are allowed items such as a prayer mat to allow them to worship. The policy regarding pagans was announced by Justice Reform Minister Maria Eagle in a parliamentary answer. She said: "Prison service policy is to enable prisoners of different faith...

An extraordinary on-line archive, The Proceedings of the Old Bailey, now makes available (and searchable) the records of London's main criminal court from 1674 through 1913. There's a staggering amount of material to play around in. Keyword "Romish" produced 102 records, including the following account of the 1674 condemnation of a Catholic priest. At this Sessions of Oier and Terminer for the City of London, and County of Middlesex, holden at Justice-Hall in the Old-Bayly, begun the Ninth, and continued till the 12th of this Instant December, 1674. Several Bills being found by the Grand Jury, or Inquest. Amongst many...

KEN Livingstone’s defeat at the hands of Boris Johnson in the elections for the Mayor of Greater London, last week, was the end of an era. It was a development bigger than the city of London or UK with ominous implications for Muslim communities across Europe. Yet few of us in the Muslim media, across the world, so easily carried away with the nonsense of Geert Wilders, paused to reflect on the enormity of what happened. Some events help to understand ourselves. Living all those years in London I never felt it was part of my identity. Yet suffering the...

A SECOND priest has been beaten up in his own churchyard in the space of just eight weeks in London’s East End — this time over an argument about a football. The Rector of St Matthew’s in Bethnal Green, The Rev Kevin Scully, was attacked on Tuesday afternoon by three drunken youths who had returned to take their revenge for a row three days before. He had taken their ball last Saturday after he saw them using a cross on the church as a basketball hoop. He has been taunted with religious and racist abuse in the past, but believes...

Leo McKinstry says the current craze for genealogy reflects an unhealthy combination of snobbery and inverse snobbery, and is a poor replacement for national history When I visited the National Archives at Kew last week the place was full of them, scurrying about with their plastic wallets in hand, a look of eager concentration on their faces. It was impossible to escape their busy presence as they whispered noisily to relatives or whooped over the discovery of some new piece of information. These were the followers of one of Britain’s fastest-growing craze, the mania for researching family history. Studying bloodlines...

Foreign criminals work at airports unchecked By Christopher Hope and David Millward Last Updated: 2:55AM BST 08/05/2008 |   Thousands of foreigners are being allowed to work in high security parts of Britain's airports without passing proper criminal record checks, it was disclosed last night. PA Despite warnings that terrorists would try to recruit people working "airside" in terminals – with direct access to aircraft and baggage – no attempt has been made to check whether foreign workers have committed any offences abroad. The vetting process checks only for crimes committed in Britain. Foreign workers – arriving from inside or...

A COUNCILLOR today called for more control over advertising posters in "culturally sensitive" areas of Birmingham. Coun Talib Hussain made his plea after a billboard on the corner of Sydenham Road and Golden Hillock Road, in predominantly Muslim Sparkbrook, was defaced. The hoarding, close to mosques in Anderton Road and Golden Hillock Road and visible to parents and children walking to Montgomery Primary School, promotes Matalan's new swimwear range and features three scantily-clad models. The models have been covered in thick white paint to conceal bare flesh. Coun Talib Hussain (Ind, Sparkbrook) criticised the vandalism but said it was a...

Celebs: Brown Accused Of SmoozingDavid Cameron has used Prime Minister's Questions to accuse Gordon Brown of preferring celebrities and style over substance. Mr Brown retorted that Labour was the party of action and the Conservatives had nothing to offer.

One in three employees admits they have been to work with a hangover and more than one in 10 has been drunk at their desk, a study suggests. Staff said they made mistakes, struggled to concentrate and had to go home early as a result of drinking. Four out of five employers say alcohol is the biggest threat to the well-being of their staff, according to a survey for Norwich Union Healthcare. Alcohol Concern said bosses needed to be aware of symptoms of alcohol abuse. One thousand people and 250 businesses were interviewed about drinking habits for the survey. Of...

Election fraud driven by immigrants practising "village politics" of the Indian sub-continent could be a crucial factor in deciding the future control of Birmingham City Council, a major report warns today. Family loyalties, the dominance of men and the existence of the "biraderi" clan system among British Asians provides perfect conditions for widespread rigging of postal votes and other electoral malpractice in Britain’s major cities, according to the Joseph Rowntree Reform Trust. In a 94-page report called Purity of Elections in the UK – Causes for Concern, the trust argues that the UK’s election system is close to breaking point...

Police ordered to stop treating criminal damage as a crime to improve performance figuresBy ANDREW LEVY - More by this author » Last updated at 18:01pm on 5th May 2008 Figure tweaking: a leaked memo reveals a Norfolk police force is pressuring officers not to classify incidents of smashed car windows as criminal damage if nothing is stolen Police officers are being told not to record criminal damage as crime.  Rank-and-file bobbies have been told that incidents such as car vandalism should not be classed as an offence when there is 'no idea how it happened'. The revelation has left...

LONDON (AFP) - Never mind the radiation: British contingency planners worried there would be a dramatic shortage of tea in the aftermath of a nuclear attack, recently declassified documents showed Monday.

120 soldiers of the Royal Malay Regiment have become the first all-Islamic Company to provide a British monarch's ceremonial guard. Report by Shell Daruwala. RMR soldiers during Changing of the Guards The Royal Malay Regiment soldiers with Members of the Welsh Guards during the Changing of the Guard at Buckingham Palace on Friday 2 May 2008 [Picture: Sergeant Mick Howard RLC] At Buckingham Palace today, Friday 2 May 2008, red jackets and black bearskins were replaced by pristine white tunics, brocade 'sampins' and gold-banded 'songkoks', when the Malay Regiment changed guards with 1st Battalion Welsh Guards.

In less than a week the major political parties of the Right in Britain and Italy scored unprecedented electoral victories by winning mayoral races in Rome and then in London. Since the end of the Second World War, the Right had never controlled those two offices. To grasp what this means, consider that "Londonistan" is the title of an excellent book by Melanie Phillips which warns of the descent of that great city into a radical Moslem polity. The citizens of Londonistan have chosen an iconoclastic Conservative Party leader, Boris Johnson, who has campaigned on the need to reduce crime...

LONDON -- Britain's Labour Party suffered its worst local election defeat on record and lost control of London on Friday, forcing Prime Minister Gordon Brown to rethink his strategy to avoid losing the next national poll. Conservative Boris Johnson, a journalist-turned-lawmaker prone to gaffes, wrested the prized post of London mayor from Labour's maverick Ken Livingstone, who has run the sprawling metropolis of some 7.5 million people since 2000. The election results were a major blow to Brown, who enjoyed a brief honeymoon with voters after he took over from Tony Blair, but has since been beset by economic turmoil,...

Peter Phillips and Autumn Kelly London, May 2, 2008 / 02:16 am (CNA).- A woman engaged to a member of the British royal family has renounced her Catholic faith to maintain her fiancée’s position in the line of succession.The Times Online reports that Autumn Kelly, 31, was received into the Church of England.  She is to be married to Peter Phillips, Queen Elizabeth II’s eldest grandson, on May 17.British monarchs and their heirs are barred from becoming or marrying Catholics according to the 1701 Act of Settlement.  Phillips, who is currently eleventh in line to the throne, would have...

I'd like to say so myself. It's time we realize we're actually in a war together and that all of us who do NOT participate at the front line have a special kind of obligation towards the brave men and women who ARE. I'm 38 years old and one thing I've learned from being alive this long is that a group of people who stand united, devoted to something of eternal value are, virtually, indestructable as such. Apart from being somewhat "old", I'm of Swedish stock (- like food a lot, but I'm not a Swedish chef in fact:D -)...

aring, the first of the Royal Navy's Type 45 Destroyers, has successfully tracked a Typhoon aircraft from Manchester to the west coast of Scotland as part of the second stage of her sea trials. During the five week trial the 7,350 tonne vessel has completed all power and propulsion testing, as well as a series of tests in open water off the west coast of Scotland which included extensive Long Range Radar and navigation systems trials, medium calibre gun blast trials and weapon alignment tests. Combat System trials have seen good performance across a wide range of equipment and numerous...

The government's attempts to placate Muslims will cause long-term damage to communities, a charity said yesterday. The warning came from Yasmin Alibhai-Brown, chair and co-founder of the British Muslims for Secular Democracy, a new organisation claiming to represent the "silent majority who feel no conflict between their faith and democracy". Speaking before the launch, attended by Baroness Kishwer Faulkner and former Islamist Ed Husain, the journalist said the government was pandering to Muslims by granting too many concessions, fuelling their separation from the rest of society. "The government has found a way of placating Muslims in a way that will...

Boris Johnson is the new Mayor of London, his rivals conceded tonight. The Tory MP scored a stunning election victory to end Ken Livingstone's eight-year reign and round off a disastrous 24 hours for the Labour Party. After a nailbiting count, Mr Johnson was so far ahead on first-preference votes he could not be caught by Mr Livingstone, even after second preferences were taken into account. Labour officials conceded privately that the Conservative was too far ahead. At 5pm, Mr Livingstone's campaign chief Tessa Jowell said: "The reports I'm getting suggest Boris Johnson is ahead. "If Ken has not won,...

Boris Johnson poised to become London Mayor as Tories seal local election success By Robert Winnett Last updated: 6:27 PM BST 02/05/2008 Boris Johnson is preparing to be unveiled as the new mayor of London later today following Labour’s collapse across Britain in the local elections. Senior Conservative sources said they would be “gobsmacked” if Mr Johnson did not win the mayoral contest and even Downing Street aides appear to have conceded that Ken Livingstone has lost. Confidence of a Tory win was boosted after one bookmaker announced it was paying out on a Boris Johnson victory hours before the...

Conservative leader David Cameron has hailed the local election results as a "big moment" for the party. Mr Cameron said the results marked a positive vote for his party, not just a protest against the government. He said that a Boris Johnson win in the London mayor race - now widely tipped - would be "enormously important". The Conservatives have made over 190 gains in council seats with Labour likely to be pushed into third place by the Liberal Democrats. Speaking to reporters outside his London home, Mr Cameron said: "I think this is a very big moment for the...

Gordon Brown says it has been a "bad and disappointing" election for Labour, as the party suffers its worst council results in at least 40 years. BBC research suggests Labour won 24% of votes cast in England and Wales, behind the Tories on 44% and Lib Dems on 25%. So far Labour has lost 310 councillors and key councils like Reading. Tory gains include Bury and North Tyneside. Mr Brown insists his party will learn lessons. David Cameron called it a "big moment" for the Conservative Party. Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg said his party had "regained momentum" by gaining...

The Labor Party was headed for a third-place finish in local elections in Britain in early results Friday morning. The big winner was the Conservative Party, The Telegraph reported. The party's campaign headquarters said it expected to top its goal of picking up 200 seats on local councils. The big loser was Prime Minister Gordon Brown, the newspaper said. The local elections were his first big test with voters since he succeeded Prime Minister Tony Blair last year. "Gordon Brown has had his 'Life on Mars' moment," a Conservative spokesman said. "He went to sleep in 2008 and today he's...

Stunning finds on archaeological dig 1:00pm Thursday 1st May 2008By Paul FergusonOne of the bodies discovered on the site – a 35-year-old woman, who had curvature of the spine. A ROMAN cemetery containing items of national importance has been uncovered in Herefordshire. One of the biggest historical finds in the Marches has been made at Stretton Grandison. A complete wooden coffin – only the third to be found in the UK – was one of the items uncovered by Leominster-based Border Archaeology (BA). A kiln, various urns and a working brooch were also unearthed, along with the remains of up...

The Ministry of Defence's 'private' police force is using wide-ranging powers to stop and search thousands of tourists and other suspects, it can be revealed. Armed street patrols, who are not required to identify themselves as MoD officers, are questioning people queuing for boat trips on the Thames or having their photograph taken in front of Big Ben. Officers - who are routinely armed with sub-machine guns - say they are targeting those who match "certain profiles or behaviours" to deter terrorist attacks. Their uniforms make them virtually indistinguishable from other police forces, but unlike regular officers, who are overseen...

A murder trial jury have heard how a long running dispute at a mosque in Milton Keynes led to an 18-year-old man being "clubbed senseless". Atiq Rehman was attacked with a snooker cue, causing severe head injuries, and died two days later on 17 May 2007. Luton Crown Court heard Bilal Zaman, 21, and Usman Ali, 20, of Cambridge Street, Wolverton, pleaded guilty to murder and are awaiting sentence. Ghur Rehman, 26 and Haroon Awan, 22 also of Cambridge Street, deny murder. Prosecutor Ben Gumpert said the prosecution did not suggest that Ghur Rehamn and Mr Awan they were main...

Father confronted by axe-wielding burglars - but police are too busy to turn up for THREE hoursBy DAVID WILKES - More by this author » Last updated at 00:49am on 29th April 2008  Cowering upstairs with his partner and their two children as a gang of burglars wielding an axe emptied his living room, Mathew Sims wasted no time in calling 999.  But instead of the immediate response he expected, the police told him: "We're too busy to help." Within minutes, the burglars drove off with a haul of stolen property. Scroll down for more... Terrified: Matthew Sims, Sarah Barham...

Mayoral Elections   .....    Campaigning: Ken Livingstone on the trail at Northolt mosque in Ealing over the weekend Pro-Ken Muslim group claims Boris 'would scrap the Koran' Andrew Gilligan 28.04.08 Ken Livingstone supporters are claiming that Boris Johnson would ban the Koran in adverts in the capital's Bengali-language press. The claim is one of a number of last-minute tactics - condemned by Mr Johnson today as "poison" and "desperate" - being used by Mr Livingstone's backers to sway crucial votes. The "dirty tricks" were uncovered in a Standard investigation which also found that: • Bengali-language leaflets are being handed...

A controversial British deal to supply Eurofighter jets to Saudi Arabia may have hit an obstacle. It appears that the Eurofighter - long touted as proof that the UK and its continental partners can make serious combat kit without American help - actually contains significant amounts of US technology, and that Washington may not permit the Saudi sale. The revelations come in an article in today's Financial Times. It appears that the British government's application to export American tech on 72 Eurofighters to the desert princes is the subject of some debate both among Capitol Hill politicos and at the...

UK is Europe's top terror centre, arrests show Last Updated: 10:55pm BST 26/04/2008 Britain has become the main focus of Islamist terror in Europe, according to official figures. More Muslim extremists were detained in Britain last year on terror-related charges than in the rest of Europe added together. The number of arrests rose steeply and involved "young, radicalised British citizens", sparking fears that the threat of an attack is growing. The report by Europol, the European police force, said that terrorist plots linked to groups in Pakistan had been "almost exclusively focused on the UK". It comes following the disclosure...

It cost £14,000 to create, but clearly no-one at the smart London design outfit that came up with the new logo for HM Treasury thought to turn it on its side.

Justin Webb, BBC's North America editor, reports to UK listeners and readers on the "paradox" that America is less violent (and feels much safer) than Britain, where private hand gun ownership is banned.

When Nouri al-Maliki launched his surprise attack against the main Shia militia in Basra, the operation appeared to be a disastrous miscalculation pitting inexperienced Iraqi soldiers against well-armed and battle-hardened street-fighters of the Mahdi Army. Scores of soldiers defected from their ranks. Iraqi armoured vehicles were ambushed and destroyed by jubilant militiamen. An American general and several hundred US paratroopers had to race down to Iraq’s southern capital to rescue the operation with British forces offering air cover and logistical help. The Iraqi Prime Minister, accused like his predecessor of indecision and a failure to tackle the pressing security problems...

The Army wife whose husband and three sons are ALL fighting in IraqLast updated at 18:01pm on 24th April 2008It is the astonishing story of one family's determination to serve Queen and country. And while most families would say having a single son serve in Iraq would be enough, one mother faces the heartache of watching three of her boys deployed to the war-torn nation. Not only that, Wendy Mackness also has to wave off husband Danny who is poised to depart on his tour of duty. Scroll down for more ...I'll miss you: Major Danny Mackness with his...

Families are having to spend almost £800 more on their annual grocery bills as the highest rate of food inflation for a generation drives up supermarket prices, research suggested yesterday. The cost of a basket of 24 basic items such as tea bags, milk, cornflakes and pasta sauce at the three biggest stores has risen by 15 per cent over the past year.   Compare prices of 24 grocery items A kilo of Tesco garden peas has increased from £1.10 to £1.79; a dozen medium free-range eggs from Sainsbury's has climbed from £1.75 to £2.58; and a bag of fusilli...

Prison life is so comfortable and the drugs are so cheap that prisoners don't want to escape, says prison officers chiefLast updated at 17:59pm on 24th April 2008  Prisoners are ignoring chances to escape because they would rather stay in their cushy jails where drugs are cheaper than on the outside, a prison chief officers has said.  Lags at Britain's 'toughest' prisons are treated to breakfast in bed, have Sky TV in every cell and are given cash bonuses for good behaviour. At one prison in Yorkshire, drug dealers and hookers regularly break IN to ply their trade by...