Shadow immigration minister Damian Green promised that a Conservative Government would make police forces stop storing innocent people’s DNA, politics.co.uk reports.
Green’s own DNA was deleted from the Metropolitan police’s records as he was an “exceptional case”, he claimed, after he was arrested last year on suspicion of assisting a Government leaker.
Over one million people continue to have their DNA records stored on the databases of police forces, however.
The Tories’ research into the database has shown …

In the past year, 138 journalists died in the course of their work – 113 were murdered or killed in other violence and the remaining 24 died in work-related accidents.
The most recent journalist to be killed was Canadian Michelle Lang, who died in a roadside bomb blast in Afghanistan on Tuesday.
A report by the International Federation of Journalists identifies the Philippines, Mexico and Somalia as the most dangerous countries for journalists to work in. Last …

Iceland’s Parliament approved plan today to repay £3.4 billion lost by savers in Britain and the Netherlands when the country’s banking system collapsed – £2.3 billion to Britain and £1.3 billion to Netherlands, the Daily Mail reports.
The money will reimburse the British and Dutch governments which stepped in to compensate depositors with Icesave after its parent bank Landsbanki failed last year.
The bank’s collapse left more than 320,000 savers out of pocket.
Iceland must settle the claims …

I wish everyone a very successful, and a very happy new year of 2010. May the last year of the decade be a lot better than the previous one.
2009 was a tough year for everyone. Some say it was the toughest year in last 70 years. The global economic crisis affected most of the people, in some places less, in some more. Britain suffered a great deal, more than any other developed nation, mainly because of all the wrong decisions made in the last 12 years, and the only hope is that the General Election in 2010 will provide the chance for better decisions by better leaders.

Popular student website in Australia features high school students’ forum posts saying “Kill all Jews” and “I hope Iran nukes them big time”, and one of posts discusses locations of synagogues in Sydney and provides instructions on how to make Molotov cocktail, Ynet reports.
Pictures of the Israeli flag going up in flames alongside pictures of swastikas were posted on the website called “Bored of Studies”. Alongside the pictures were statements like “let’s make …

Conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh was taken to a hospital after suffering chest pains and was resting comfortably yesterday, Fox News reports.
“Rush was admitted to and is resting comfortably in a Honolulu hospital today after suffering chest pains,” a statement from his radio programme said. “Rush appreciates your prayers and well wishes and will keep you updated via rushlimbaugh.com and on his radio program.”
Limbaugh’s three-hour weekday show is heard on some 600 radio stations …

Lithuania is to shut down the country’s one and only nuclear power station in Visaginas today, the closure of the Soviet-era plant was a condition of Lithuania’s membership of the European Union.
One hour before midnight, staff at the Ignalina plant will flick the switches, shutting down the only nuclear reactor in the Baltic states, the BBC reports.
The move will mean an increase in power prices for Lithuanians and more reliance on Russia for energy supplies.
The …

Former US commander in Iraq, General David Petraeus is absolutely certain that British kidnap victim Peter Moore was held secretly in Iran for part of his 31-month kidnap ordeal, The Times reports.
General Petraeus’s claim that the British IT consultant was held captive in Iran is likely to intensify the bitter diplomatic relationship between London and Tehran.
Moore was set free yesterday after the United States handed over an Iraqi insurgent suspected of planning the deaths of …

Four people were murdered today in a shopping mall in Espoo, near Finnish capital Helsinki, police also found the body of a suspect and another murder victim in a private flat, newspaper Helsingin Sanomat reports.
It’s suspected that Ibrahim Shkupolli murdered four young people in a Prisma shopping mall in Espoo, all of the victims – three men and one woman – were Prisma’s staff. Police hunting the suspect later found a fifth victim – suspect’s former girlfriend and also a former Prisma employee…

Terrorist group Taliban claimed responsibility for two separate bomb attacks in Afghanistan today that killed eight American CIA employees, five Canadians and an Afghan in a surge of violence in the war-battered country.
The explosion at the Forward Operating Base Chapman base in Khost province on yesterday killed eight American civilians and one Afghan, the worst loss of life for the US in the country since October, Fox News reports.
Separately, four Canadian soldiers and a journalist …

The leader of Iran’s opposition, Mir Hossein Mousavi, has fled Tehran, The Times reports.
Mousavi, defeated in hotly disputed elections in June, left the Iranian capital on a day marked by pro-government rallies at which crowds chanted “Death to Mousavi”. Another of the leaders, Mahdi Karroubi, are also said to have fled.
The news comes three days after Mousavi’s nephew Ali was killed during a protest against the regime in which at least eight lost their lives.

The President of Turkmenistan Gurbanguly Berdymukhammedov prohibited the residents of the country to celebrate New Year in the entertainment places, the ban became the consequence of recent accident in the Russian night club, where 150 were killed, Ferghana.ru reports.
Since 20th December, the restaurants and cafes all over Turkmenistan stopped accepting New Year celebration order. The ban is effective through 3rd January and moreover, the visitors are prohibited to consume alcohol.
On the other hand, the prohibition …

Former US Vice President Dick Cheney said today that President Barack Obama’s reaction to the botched terrorist attack on Christmas Day is proof that he “is trying to pretend we are not at war”, CNN reports.
Cheney hit Obama for what he described as the president’s “low-key” response to the events last week and criticised the administration’s broader approach to national security.
“He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer …

Two climbers were killed today in a massive avalanche on Britain’s highest mountain, Ben Nevis.
They were found by rescue teams searching Ben Nevis after tonnes of snow swept down the mountainside, the Independent reports.
Police said the avalanche in the Coire na Ciste area was several hundred metres in length. It was one of three to take place on Scottish mountains within a matter of hours and followed a warning from avalanche experts.

French constitutional court declared today that President Nicolas Sarkozy’s flagship carbon tax that was to be introduced on Friday, breaches the principle of equality in taxation.
The Constitutional Council said that Sarkozy’s scheme had so many exemptions that it “runs counter to the goal of fighting climate change and breaches the principle of equality in taxation”, The Times reports.
According to Sarkozy, the carbon tax had “one objective – to force you to change your behaviour toward fossil fuels. …

Peter Moore, a Briton kidnapped with four others in Iraq in 2007, has been released, after Baghdad secured an agreement for his freedom with the kidnappers, the Daily Telegraph reports.
British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said that Iraq’s Government played the lead role in Moore’s release and that Britain made no “substantive concessions” to the kidnappers. Miliband was also forced to appeal for the return of the body of the fourth of four bodyguards who were …