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Islam4UK, an Islamist group that was intending to march through a British town known for honouring fallen troops, is to be banned by the government today under counterterrorism laws. "I have [...] laid an order which will proscribe Al-Muhajiroun, Islam4UK, and a number of the other names the organisation goes by," said the home secretary, Alan Johnson. Johnson said that the group had tried to escape the ban by changing its name, and said that the move was needed in order to "tackle terrorism." But Islam4UK leader Anjem Choudary said that the

On Tuesday, United States television personality Conan O'Brien announced in a statement that he will no longer serve as the host for NBC's The Tonight Show if the network's attempt to move his program to the post-midnight time slot comes to fruition. This move, NBC has said, would be done to accommodate the return of the previous Tonight Show host, Jay Leno, back to late-night from his current prime-time slot. In a long statement to the media, O'Brien states that NBC has given him a "scant" seven months to establish himself as host of The To

An international court in Strasbourg issued a ruling yesterday that powers allowing UK police to stop and search anyone without reason are in breach of European law. The European Court of Human Rights deemed powers contained in the Terrorism Act 2000 denied the human right of privacy. Under the European Convention of Human Rights people in the UK are granted the right to privacy, although their government felt that the threat of terrorism meant that the breach of this was justifiable and allowable under exemptions in the Convention. Previously

Teodoro García Simental, alleged to be a major kingpin in Mexico, has been arrested by Federal Police in southern Baja California. "No shots were fired. It was a very fast operation. The investigation has been going on for a long time," an unnamed police officer told Reuters. Simental was handcuffed and swiftly flown to Mexico City. The United States Drug Enforcement Administration spokesperson Michael Sanders said the DEA assisted in the arrest. "He is one the most notorious drug lords and was on a list of the Top 24 drug traffickers in all

The U.S.-based multibillion dollar online search engine, Google Incorporated, has announced Tuesday in a public statement on its official blog that the company has been the victim of a "highly sophisticated" and "targeted attack" against their corporate infrastructure that they allege "originated from China." The author of said statement, David Drummond, Google's Senior Vice President of Corporate Development and Chief Legal Officer, noted that Google was not the only multinational corporation targeted. "As part of our investigation we have

Members of the Indian national hockey team have returned to the official training camp in Delhi. The players started to strike on Sunday over wages. Authorities for Indian hockey settled the despute, while in a separate incident Sahara, the sponsor for the team paid US$220,000(₨10m, €151k) to the players. The players had been accused of blackmail. Suresh Kalmadi, an Indian sports official commented on the incident saying that “We have sorted out the problem”. He said they will return to the training camp on Thursday. The Chief Minister of U

A massive earthquake, registering 7.0 on the moment magnitude scale, struck Haiti yesterday, destroying many buildings, disrupting communications, and burying an unknown number of people underneath rubble. Thousands of people are feared to have been killed by the tremors, which were felt as far away as Venezuela. Witnesses say bodies were lining the streets of the capital, Port-au-Prince, after the quake struck on Tuesday afternoon, sending a cloud of dust from falling buildings into the sky. The quake was centered about sixteen kilometers fro

Yemeni local al-Qaida leader Abdullah Mehdar has been killed in a raid of his home in the Shabwah province. Four more men were arrested at the alleged al-Houta-area cell commander's house while several more escaped. Shabwah Governor Ali Hassan al-Ahmadi told journalists that security forces had entered the Mehdar house and killed him on site. Abdullah Mehdar was added to Yemen's "List of the most wanted" by the Yemeni Interior Ministry earlier today. Military annalists say that other commanders of Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula may be hidi

India successfully test fired the Astra, meaning "weapon" in Sanskrit, air-to-air missile from a specially-made launcher at about 9:45 am. The launch occured at launch pad number two of the Integrated Test Range complex in Chandipur, 230 kilometres (143 miles) north-east of Bhubaneshwar, Orissa. The single-stage, solid fuel Astra missile, developed by the Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO), is a high-end tactical missile comparable to the contemporary BVR (Beyond Visual Range) missiles and is capable of engaging and destroyin

In a statement released today, former American baseball star Mark McGwire admitted to the use of performance-enhancing drugs during his career, including the 1998 season, when he broke Roger Maris's single season record for home runs, hitting 70 of them. McGwire admitted to the use of drugs in the late 1980s and during most of the 1990s. There had been wide speculation about McGwire's use of performance-enhancing drugs, as he came from an era of baseball that has been dubbed the "steroid era" because of the high use of performance enhancing dru

According to a report by the New York Times that has now been confirmed by Fox News, former United States governor of Alaska and 2008 Republican vice-presidential nominee Sarah Palin has signed a multi-year deal to work as a news contributor for American television station Fox News. The deal is effective immediately, and Palin will reportedly contribute regularly to all Fox stations. The monetary terms to the deal have not yet been disclosed, but the agreement is rumored to be for three years. "Governor Palin has captivated everyone on both si

A former vice president of the Bartlett Park District in Illinois, United States was sentenced to 30 months of probation and 200 hours of community service for possession of child pornography. Charles Rowe, a 61-year-old commissioner of the park district since 2001, was also fined US$1,000 and must register as a sex offender for the rest of his life. The investigation against Mr. Rowe began in September 2007 when PayPal tipped law enforcement authorities of the illegal purchase. On July 22, 2008, Bartlett police officers and federal agents fr