Israel last night accused Syria of being behind the suicide bomb which killed four Israelis outside a Tel Aviv nightclub on Friday night.

The Israeli defence minister, Shaul Mofaz, also pointed the finger at Islamic Jihad, the militant group which is based in Syria, and announced that plans to hand over security responsibilities in the West Bank to the Palestinians would be frozen.

A statement said: "The defence minister ruled that Israel sees Syria and the Islamic Jihad movement are those standing behind the murderous attack in Tel Aviv."

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[Finally, some justice. Taking POWs is one thing; hoisting them up on forklifts, giving the thumbs-up as people are abused etc... is another matter.]

Three British soldiers who abused Iraqi civilians have been jailed and dismissed from the Army in disgrace by a military tribunal in Germany.

L/Cpl Mark Cooley, 25, was jailed for two years, Cpl Daniel Kenyon, 33, received an 18 month sentence and L/Cpl Darren Larkin, 30, 140 days.

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Lebanon’s Justice Minister Adnan Addoum said on Friday that authorities were hunting for 12 Australian men wanted over the assassination of former Lebanese Prime Minister Rafiq al-Hariri.

Addum said that all the suspects hold the Australian passport and that six of them left Beirut for Australia hours after Monday’s deadly blast, adding that police found traces of explosives on aircraft seats.

Hariri was killed in a huge explosion in Beirut which also claimed the lives of additional 16 people.

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The young British Muslims inspired to support violence by Taliban veterans are central to the terror threat facing Britain, according to the security services. The terror within, has made the Home Secretary justify his proposal for draconian laws for detentions without trial.

MI5 and anti-terrorist police admit they are finding it hard to identify the minority who have become radicalised and are willing to use violence. The foreigners here who were a threat were easy to identify and many were arrested in operations since the last two years.

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The Kenyan government organised an assassination attempt in London against a senior Scotland Yard detective, according to evidence presented to a Kenyan parliamentary inquiry

John Troon handed over police documents describing how a Kenyan agent was despatched to kill him in 1991. The alleged plot was easily foiled: airport police found the would-be assassin's gun and ammunition and promptly arrested him. The detective was, in any case, out of the country at the time.

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A new radio telescope array has been developed by the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence (SETI) Institute and the University of California at Berkeley that will shed some cosmic noise, and give scientists a better view of one million stars scattered throughout the universe.

Named after the principle initial donor of the project, Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen, the Allen Telescope Array (ATA) consists of 350 20-foot antennas and will allow SETI scientists and radio astronomers to study stars 24 hours a day across multiple channels.

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This is the text of the Prevention of Terrorism Bill, as introduced in the House of Commons on 22nd February 2005.

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Nice pay, good benefits, interesting work.

Senior Purchasing Executives/Managers
Cheltenham
Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ)

£37,000 - £47,000 (Executives)
£27,000 - £36,000 (Managers)

Truly fascinating key roles for senior purchasing professionals, offering professional freedom, excellent benefits and unique career potential

As one of the UK’s three intelligence services (along with MI5 and MI6), GCHQ monitors and collects information which is used to counter conflict and threats posed by terrorism, drugs, serious crime and the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction. Our customers include central government and the military, as well as law enforcement and other agencies, both in the UK and overseas. In a dangerous world, the quality of our intelligence is key. So too is the way we organise and deliver solutions -– no easy task in a deadline driven business where situations are never predictable, and where urgency is a constant. To meet the fast-evolving demands and deliver a truly exceptional service, we’re currently undergoing an extensive modernisation programme. With a wide-ranging purchasing remit, our "acquisition service" has a pivotal role to play in this process, and we’re looking for enterprising and change-orientated professionals to drive improvements in this mission critical work.

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Paris Hilton's cellphone has been hacked by some group, and the numbers and e-mails of a lot of famous people are now available on the Internet.

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If American forces are unaccustomed to pursuing adversaries through the caves of Afghanistan or the streets of Baghdad, they will have even more trouble tracking Al-Qaeda online, because Internet technology favours the fugitive criminal and the migrant threat, and because terrorists know how to turn the new digital divide to their advantage.

In this evasive game they have at their disposal a most unusual accomplice: unwitting Americans with personal computers and Internet connections.

It emerged last year that Fortress ITX, a Clifton, New Jersey, Internet company, inadvertently hosted an Arabic-language Web site that urged attacks on America and Israel and supplied instructional pamphlets on kidnapping and urban guerrilla warfare. The emergence of this "virtual terrorism" should not be surprising, nor should the fact that Fortress ITX was unaware of it.

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In a startling accusation, nuclear whistleblower Mordechai Vanunu has alleged that Jerusalem was behind the assassination of US President John F. Kennedy, who was exerting pressure on the then Israeli head of state to shed light on the Dimona nuclear plant.

In defiance of a ban on talking to the media and meeting with foreigners, Vanunu is said to have made the accusation in an interview to London-based Al-Hayat newspaper.

As per the interview published in newspaper's Arabic supplement Al-Wassat yesterday, Vanunu said according to "near-certain indications", Kennedy was assassinated due to "pressure he exerted on then head of government, David Ben-Gurion, to shed light on Dimona's nuclear reactor."

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IF President Bush has been wearing the LifeVest defibrillator -- a possible source of the "Bush bulge" in the debates (since it can't be miniaturized like a receiver or bug) -- he likely is uploading his ECG to a physician on a weekly basis via this link.

This is a secure Web-based data storage and retrieval system known as WCDNET (Wearable Cardioverter Defibrillator NET) which allows physicians to access patient data stored in the Patient Database using a Web browser and Internet connection. Only authorized users registered by LIFECOR and a password and can access WCDNET.

In addition, the data transferred over the Internet is encrypted. An authorized physician or operator can view and print ECG events and generate reports related to patient wear time compliance and overall WCD 2000 monitoring performance.

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ASIO has cracked a spy ring in Canberra after tailing an Israeli diplomat who was suspected of being an agent of Mossad, Israel's espionage service.

Amir Lati, the second secretary at the Israeli Embassy, was secretly expelled from Australia last month.

He is known to have seduced a senior Defence Department official who is believed to have had access to classified documents.

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According to a report in the Arabic news daily Al Hayat, the Israeli spy agency Mossad in cooperation with American forces in Iraq, have installed radars in the island of Um al-Rassas near the city of Basra.

The aim of the operations is to monitor military and security operations in Iran.

Quoting unnamed sources, the paper states that the radars are equipped with sophisticated systems and technology, capable of monitoring operations by the army deep inside Iranian territory.

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[Quote follows]

I have little doubt that one of my former Nixon White House colleagues is history's best-known anonymous source -- Deep Throat. But I'll be damned if I can figure out exactly which one.

We'll all know one day very soon, however. Bob Woodward, a reporter on the team that covered the Watergate story, has advised his executive editor at the Washington Post that Throat is ill. And Ben Bradlee, former executive editor of the Post and one of the few people to whom Woodward confided his source's identity, has publicly acknowledged that he has written Throat's obituary.

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