Despite some reports that the Libyan terrorist Abdel Baset Ali al-Megrahi had died, his Scottish lawyer and also his family insisted that the Lockerbie bomber is still alive and well.
Sky News reported this afternoon that there are reports that al-Megrahi has died. However, his Scottish lawyer Tony Kelly told Reuters that this report is “absolutely untrue”.
Also the terrorist’s family have denied that he had died and insisted that he is doing fine.
Al-Megrahi’s brother Abdul Hakim al-Megrahi told …

Conservative leader David Cameron said today that Prime Minister Gordon Brown lacks the “courage and leadership” to intervene in the postal dispute to prevent two days of planned strikes, the BBC reports.
Since plans to part-privatise Royal Mail had been shelved “union militancy has got worse”, Cameron said.
Brown claimed that had nothing to do with the dispute and urged unions and managers to agree a deal. He did admit that the strike would be “counter-productive” for the …

Iranian negotiators expressed support for a deal that would delay Tehran’s ability to make nuclear weapons by sending most of its existing enriched uranium to Russia for processing, Jerusalem Post reports.
International Atomic Energy Agency chief Mohamed ElBaradei said that representatives of Iran and its three interlocutors – the US, Russia and France – had accepted the draft for forwarding to their capitals. ElBaradei added he hoped for approval from all four countries by Friday.
Ali Asghar …

Poland’s Prime Minister Donald Tusk said today after meeting with the US Vice President Joe Biden that his country is ready to participate in the revamped plan for a US missile defence shield in Europe, the Washington Post reports.
US President Barack Obama removed a major irritant in relations with Russia last month by scrapping plans to place interceptor missiles in Poland and a radar in the Czech Republic – deployments Moscow treated as a threat. …

Six Lidl employees were taken hostage in an armed robbery on supermarket north of Paris today, AFP reports. The hostages were released unharmed and three suspects detained.
Dozens of police deployed around the Lidl discount store in an industrial zone in Sevran north of Paris after it was attacked at around 8:00 am (0700 BST) and six of the staff taken hostage. Three women were released mid-morning as police teams negotiated with one of the hostage-takers, who …

Newly-crowned Formula One champion Jenson Button revealed that he paid for the majority of his flights between races this season, the Daily Telegraph reports.
“I paid for pretty much all my travel this season,” Button said. “It’s true I was flying on budget airlines this year and paid for pretty much all my own but it wasn’t a big deal. We all give up certain things when times get tough.”
“And, to be fair, when you get …

Six people were killed after a cargo plane crashed on take-off from Sharjah airport in United Arab Emirates, gulfnews.com reports.
The Sudanese registered plane, believed to be a Boeing 707, veered sharply to the right after take-off and flipped before crashing. The name of the airline has yet to be confirmed.
Khaled al-Qassimi, director of civil aviation at Sharjah airport, said that rescue personnel haven’t so far found any of the crew. Eyewitnesses reported seeing the plane “flip and …

European Space Agency are seeking six volunteers who would spend almost 1.5 years together in a small confined space – the agency are planning a simulation of 520-day round-trip to Mars, including a 30-day-stay on the “Martian surface”.
The lab, where the simulation takes place, is in Moscow. The six “lucky ones” will live and work in a sealed facility, where the psychological and medical aspects of a long-duration space mission are investigated. The participants will …

The pound sterling increased sharply after minutes from the Bank of England’s lastest interest rate meeting seemed to rule out the need to print more money, the Daily Telegraph reports.
The pound rose more than one per cent against the dollar to $1.6563 and the euro fell more than 1.2% to 90.08p.
All nine Monetary Policy Committee members voted unanimously to leave the size of their asset purchase programme unchanged at £175bn, according to the minutes for …

Germany’s highest court threw out a request to block the trial of alleged Nazi death camp guard John Demjanjuk and there is now nothing standing in the way of what could be the last Nazi war crimes trial in Germany, Deutsche Welle reports.
The Federal Constitutional Court said today that they had rejected complaints from Demjanjuk’s lawyer, Ulrich Busch, against plans to open the trial in Munich at the end of November and to keep the …

Toyota will not reach a deal with Ferrari’s Kimi Räikkönen for next season unless he drops his pay demands, F1-live.com reports.
Toyota have made Räikkönen an offer, the team’s President John Howett said. However, Räikkönen “gave us back a figure that is much too high”, he added. ”He says he has two options, so we are going to wait.”
It is believed that Räikkönen will receive about 25 million euro from Ferrari for agreeing to end his 2010 …

Immigration will account for two thirds of population growth in the UK over the next quarter of a century, the Daily Mail reports.
Around 180,000 immigrants will arrive in this country every year, the Office of National Statistics (ONS) said. The surge in immigration will mean that the population of the UK will increase by 10 million to hit 70 million by 2029 – the fastest rise in at least a century.
Every year 425,000 more people will …

Israel’s Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu today celebrates his 60th birthday and he’ll take some time off from his busy schedule to celebrate the occasion with his wife Sara and their two sons, Yair and Avner.
In his first term as prime minister, Netanyahu was the youngest premier in the history of the State of Israel. Today, he will mark his 60th birthday at the Israeli Presidential Conference in Jerusalem, in a celebration initiated by President Shimon …

Apple have made significant upgrades to their iMac computers and several other products, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The announcement of the new wares came yesterday, which is perhaps not coincidental – as Microsoft are launching their new operating system Windows 7 tomorrow.
The new iMac comes in two models — one with a 27-inch screen (starting at $1,699) and the other with a 21.5-inch screen (starting at $1,199). Both screens are LED-backlit.
Both models come standard with …

Afghanistan’s President Hamid Karzai’s chief political rival Abdullah Abdullah agreed to take part in the 7th November run-off election, the AP reports.
Abdullah said he telephoned Karzai to thank him for agreeing to the second-round ballot. ”We are completely ready for the second round,” Abdullah said, calling on Afghan officials to organize a “free, fair and credible election” with enough security encourage people to turn out and vote.
Karzai himself agreed to the run-off yesterday when he accepted …

NHS hospitals have begun vaccinating frontline healthcare workers and their patients who fall into at risk categories against swine flu, but the upcoming nationwide postal strike threatens to undermine the vaccination programme.
The vaccination programme will be rolled out over the next few weeks with GP surgeries receiving deliveries from next Monday, ITN reports. Around two million health and social care workers will be offered the treatment.
The scheme will then be rolled out to include at risk …