'Attack on Leon Panetta's plane' at Camp Bastion

An Afghan worker made a deliberate attempt on the life of Leon Panetta as he landed in Helmand after he broke through defences and drove a vehicle towards the American defence secretary’s aircraft, defence sources have disclosed.

Leon Panetta, right, arrives at Camp Bastion

A British serviceman was also injured in the incident when the local employee at Camp Bastion deliberately drove the stolen vehicle into a group of soldiers undergoing training near the airfield.

The Afghan managed to get through the heavy security cordon surrounding the airfield in the middle of the base and onto the runway where the politician was arriving.

He managed to break through the perimeter surrounded by armed security and large concrete block guards.

The truck, possibly a pick-up, caught fire and crashed into a ditch on the runway close to where Mr Panetta’s jet had just landed or was coming into land.

Initial military reports indicate there were no explosive devices inside the vehicle at Camp Bastion. The car was heading towards a welcoming committee for Mr Panetta when it burst into flames and the alleged perpetrator was arrested.

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Security teams dashed across the runway and took the Afghan into custody. It is understood that he was suffering from severe burns. It is not known if he had gunshot injuries or if the gunfire set his vehicle alight and made it crash.

While the Defence Secretary’s visit to Afghanistan was not publicly announced it is understood that it had become known to people in Bastion that he was arriving.

“It appears to be a serious attempt on the aircraft carrying the US Defence Secretary as he was coming in to land,” a defence source said.

“There is a very strong suspicion that he knew Panetta was on the plane

“Although there was no publicity, people on the base knew it was coming.

“This guy just drove through blockade and did not stop.”

A spokesman for the International Security Assistant Force in Kabul said: “ISAF is aware of a stolen vehicle incident today at Camp Bastion, which resulted in the injury of one coalition service member. The alleged perpetrator was apprehended by base security personnel. We are currently investigating to determine more facts.

“This incident took place this afternoon around the same time US Secretary of Defence Leon Panetta was arriving in Afghanistan. At no point was the Secretary or anyone on the aircraft in any danger from this incident.”

Nicolas Sarkozy appeals to far-Right saying 'too many immigrants' in France

Nicolas Sarkozy pinned his dwindling hopes of re-election on Tuesday night on wooing the far-Right electorate, saying there are "too many immigrants in France" and that their integration is increasingly failing.

Nicolas Sarkozy (R) waits beside France's First Lady Carla Bruni-Sarkozy before taking part in the TV broadcast show "Des paroles et des actes'' 

With support for the incumbent conservative ebbing and the victory of Socialist candidate François Hollande looking surer by the day, Mr Sarkozy made a series of proposals aimed at wooing back National Front sympathisers who voted for him en masse in 2007 but have since become disillusioned.

"Our system of integration is working more and more badly, because we have too many foreigners on our territory and we can no longer manage to find them accommodation, a job, a school," Mr Sarkozy said.

The president has clearly veered Right since formally announcing his re-election campaign two weeks ago, and FN candidate Marine Le Pen has accused him of liberally borrowing from her manifesto.

In an almost two-and-a-half hour television grilling, a combative Mr Sarkozy insisted that while immigration could remain "a boon" for France in many areas, it would have to toughen residency qualifications for newcomers.

"Over the five year term I think that to restart the process of integration in good conditions, we must divide by two the number of people that we welcome, that's to say to pass from 180,000 per year to 100,000," he said.

He also unveiled plans to limit some welfare benefits currently available to immigrant workers to those who have enjoyed residency for ten years and have worked for five of those.

Mr Sarkozy had already sparked controversy ahead of last night's programme by calling for all kosher and halal products to be labelled to inform consumers whether food is prepared in accordance with Islamic and Jewish law.

The proposal followed Miss Le Pen's claims that kosher and halal meat is being sold in French supermarkets with no notification to customers.

Mr Sarkozy believes securing the far-Right vote is the only way to gain sufficient momentum to finish ahead of Mr Hollande in round one of elections on April 22 and in a second round run-off on May 6.

But the food labelling proposals have been sharply criticised by leading representatives of France's Jewish and Muslim communities and split his own Right-wing UMP party.

Alain Juppé, the foreign minister, criticised the debate as a "false problem" while François Fillon, the prime minister fuelled controversy by urging Muslims and Jews to abandon the notion of halal and kosher foods outright, saying they were outdated.

Mr Sarkozy's push Right came as a fresh poll suggested Mr Hollande had widened his lead in round one to 30 per cent support, up two percentage points, while Mr Sarkozy gained one point to 28 per cent.

But Mr Hollande enjoys a wide lead over Mr Sarkozy in round two, the CSA poll found, beating him by 54 per cent to 46 per cent, unchanged from the previous month.

Another poll found that 74 per cent of French people said their mind was made up concerning Mr Sarkozy.

Miss Le Pen, head of the far-Right National Front, fell back two percentage points to 15 per cent support in the first round, while leftist Front de Gauche candidate Jean-Luc Melenchon gained 1 point to 10 per cent.

The poll found that a large majority of French voters were disappointed by a campaign, complaining of too much mud-slinging and not enough emphasis on policy.

Last night, Mr Sarkozy once again laid into his Socialist rival, saying he was surprised he was their candidate as he had "never led anything" and "doesn't know how to say no".

Mr Sarkozy's popularity rose slightly after his official campaign launch in which he promised to be the president of the people against elites, countering claims he has spent five years being the "president of the rich".

But Mr Hollande gained ground with a surprise pledge to introduce a 75 per cent income tax rate for those earning more than €1 million (£830,000) a year – a move 61 per cent of the French back, one poll found.

With voters' mind increasingly made up, Le Parisien newspaper wrote: "The result of the election is a foregone conclusion". Libération, the left-wing daily, said that the French had "solidly and profoundly fallen out of love with the outgoing President".

All eyes are now on a huge rally in Villepinte near Paris on Sunday before up to 60,000 supporters – which his camp hopes will set him back on course.

The black market thugs hired by regime to stop Chinese protesters

As some 10,000 protestors attempt to reach Beijing this week to bring their cases to the attention of the Chinese government, a vast industry has sprung up to try to stop them.

Security guards patrol prior to a press conference by Li Zhaoxing, a spokesman for China's national parliament

On a snowy morning in Beijing, over 1,000 plain-clothed thugs, all with similar cropped haircuts and dark windbreakers, are gathered outside one of the city's vast government compounds.

This is the State Petitions Office, the last port of call for China's most desperate or foolhardy protestors. Anyone brave enough to come here, however, has to run the gauntlet of intimidating "black security officers" outside.

As the Daily Telegraph watched, one woman on her way to the office to submit her complaint was bundled screaming, in full sight of the police, into the back of a minivan and driven off. The number plate read: Jiangsu G-2627-A.

Silencing protest is now a huge business in China, and this week is one of the busiest in the calendar. Today (MON), China will open its annual parliamentary meetings, the National People's Congress (NPC)

and the Chinese People's Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC).

Together, the "Two Meetings" as they are colloquially known, will draw 5,000 or so politicians and delegates from every corner of the country to rubber-stamp legislation and network with each other.

However, the event, which resembles a party political convention, is a magnet for protestors, especially this year, which is illuminated by the once-in-a-decade unveiling of a new generation of leaders in the Autumn.

Some of protestors coming the capital believe in the benevolence and wisdom of Beijing's officials. Others want to embarrass their local politicians on their trip to the capital. Almost none of them, according to lawyers, will ever have their cases resolved.

But since 2005, the promotion prospects of local officials have been tied to how many petitioners complain on their watch. So an industry has evolved to try to stop any problems from reaching the ears of Beijing.

Thousands of "black" security guards have arrived in Beijing from the provinces to intercept petitioners outside the capital's hot spots: Tiananmen Square, the United States Embassy, the State Petitions Office and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP).

They work together with the police, and with officials inside the government, to try to erase any dissent. At the State Petitions Office, it is possible to pay to delete the records of petitions from the computer system, according to several sources.

"Because these records affect a local leader's promotion, there is a chain of interest. It costs 3,000 yuan (£300) to 5,000 yuan to remove each petitioner's complaint," said one investigative Chinese journalist, who asked not to be named because of the sensitivity of the subject.

The Daily Telegraph secretly recorded three of these plain-clothed security men just a few paces from the door of the UNDP office on Liangmahu South street. All three were heavy-set and had recently arrived from the North East of China to drag back any protestors.

"Petitioning is useless. I have no sympathy for these people. If they do not listen to us, we just beat them," said one man, named Mr Yu.

Another, named Mr Xu, said the police at Maizidian station called him to let him know when they detain protestors from his province. "I pay them 500 yuan or 1000 yuan as a telephone fee," he said. "In Sanlitun district we have to pay 2000 yuan or 3000 yuan to get each petitioner released to us," he added.

One man outside the UN worked for a state-owned chemical company, he said. The bosses at his firm are also judged on whether people complain about their activities. "Our company sent 30 people here," he said. "We have at least three or four people in each hot spot."

Behind the South East corner of Tiananmen Square, petitioners foolish enough to protest in Beijing's most sensitive and heavily policed spot are held in a holding pen at the local police station, just around the corner from Maison Boulud, one of the capital's finest foreign restaurants.

In the evening, a succession of vehicles arrive to drag them back to their own province. Those who are not collected are sent to Jiujingzhuang, a holding warehouse in the south of the city.

From there, local officials can collect the beleaguered petitioners, paying as much as 7,000 yuan to 9,000 yuan per head for the privilege, according to Wang Xuezhen, a 30-year-old activist who went to collect her father-in-law from the pen last year.

"I have been held in Jiujingzhuang four or five times," said Li Huijiang, a 51-year-old petitioner from Henan on his 15th annual trip to Beijing. "Each province has its own room in the warehouse, and they come to collect us from there. The treatment there is good: I was given a steamed bun and some pickles to eat. But then they took me to a â black' hotel, a room in Lizeqiao where I was held for five to six days."

China now spends as much on internal security as it does on the People's Liberation Army, and the costs of maintaining the undercover agents during the NPC are staggering. For each petitioner, three to four people are needed to watch them around the clock, with each requiring, on top of their wages, a budget for food, transport and lodging.

A rough, and conservative calculation, would add up to around 20 million yuan per day.

Syrian civilians abandoned to their fate as government troops finally capture key rebel stronghold in Homs

oops finally capture key rebel stronghold in Homs

The bloodiest episode in Syria's civil war comes to a climax as government forces capture rebel stronghold in the city of Homs.

Rebel free Syrian Army members secure an area during an anti-regime protest

The fall of Baba Amr district after a 26-day bombardment raised fears of reprisals against the civilian population as troops of the 4th division commanded by President Bashar al-Assad's younger brother, Maher, are believed to have seized the area.

There were reports last night that Syrian troops were going house to house and rounding up boys as young as 12 in a sweep aimed at every male of fighting age. In a late diplomatic development, Russia and China, Syria's key allies in the United Nations, signalled the limits of their support for Mr Assad. They approved a Security Council statement that urged the regime to allow Baroness Amos, the UN's humanitarian affairs chief, to visit Syria and seek free access for aid agencies. The two powers vetoed a draft resolution last month that would have urged Mr Assad to step down.

Britain meanwhile deepened the regime's isolation by withdrawing its ambassador, Simon Collis, and all other British diplomats from Damascus for security reasons. The work of the British embassy has now been "suspended", although diplomatic ties have not formally been severed and the Syrian embassy will continue to function in London.

The rebel Free Syrian Army sought to put a positive gloss on the retreat of its Farouq and Khalid bin Walid battalions from Homs. "There has been a tactical withdrawal," Riad al-Assad, the group's commander, told Al Jazeera television. "The Free Army has left Baba Amr because of the brutal acts of the regime against civilians."

One fighter, however, conceded that the rebels had effectively been beaten. "We were running out of ammunition and we were completely outnumbered," he said, speaking on condition of anonymity. "But we will return to fight again soon. Assad will see that he can defeat us but he cannot conquer us."

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Opposition activists feared a campaign of retribution against the 4,000 civilians thought to be inside Baba Amr. Tens of thousands living in districts nearby were also thought to be vulnerable.

The area has had no electricity and little food or medicine since the offensive began and freezing weather has worsened conditions. Some of the rare video footage to emerge from the area, where communication links were all but severed, showed residents crouching on a road as they tried to collect falling snow in buckets to serve as drinking water.

A daily ceasefire lasting two hours is needed to allow the delivery of humanitarian supplies to areas torn by fighting, according to the International Committee of the Red Cross. Yesterday, an ICRC spokesman said the organisation had received "positive indicators from the Syrian authorities" that this demand would be accepted.

The United States said it would be a "good step forward" if the Assad regime allowed aid into the besieged neighborhood, but voiced scepticism.

"Virtually the entire international community has been clamoring for humanitarian access for a long, long time, and particularly into Homs," said state department spokesmen Victoria Nuland.

Any such move could come too late for the residents of Baba Amr. Most of the 7,000 pro-regime forces that marched into the largely Sunni district were members of Mr Assad's Alawite minority, a sect of Shia Islam. They have already been accused of atrocities against the Sunni majority, from whose ranks the opposition is largely drawn.

French journalist Edith Bouvier arrived in Lebanon along with French photographer William Daniels, Nicolas Sarkozy announced. They had been trapped in Baba Amr since the same attack that killed Marie Colvin and Remi Ochlik, on February 22. Miss Bouvier's leg was broken in the incident.

While Mr Assad may believe he has turned the tide of the uprising, it is not the first time the rebels have been forced to flee Baba Amr. They last withdrew after being defeated in November, but were able to return as government forces were deployed to counter unrest elsewhere in the country. Previous experience suggests that, although Mr Assad retains the upper hand thanks to the loyalty of the Alawite-dominated officer ranks, he does not have enough reliable soldiers to defeat the rebels completely.

Even so, the insurgents were thought to have suffered heavier losses than before during the latest offensive in Homs. There were fears that infighting and the lack of a proper command structure were hampering the FSA's ability to challenge the government.

Russia foils 'Chechen plot' to assassinate Vladimir Putin

Russian and Ukrainian security services have foiled a plot to blow up Vladimir Putin shortly after this Sunday's presidential election in Russia, it emerged on Monday.

Russia's and Ukraine's secret services have arrested two men over an alleged plot to assassinate Prime Minister Vladimir Putin: 

State television in Russia said that special forces had seized two conspirators in Odessa, southern Ukraine, after an explosion in an apartment in January.

The Chechen alleged ringleader, Adam Osmayev, 31, has reportedly confessed to planning the assassination on the orders of Doku Umarov, the emir of the Islamist insurgency against Moscow's rule in the North Caucasus region.

Channel One showed Osmayev in detention saying: "The ultimate aim was to travel to Moscow and try to assassinate Premier Putin." The plan was exposed after the explosion in Odessa on January 4, which was initially thought to be a domestic gas explosion. However, it transpired to be an accident during the preparation of an explosive device.

One of the men, Ruslan Madayev, 26, died in the blast but Ukrainian special forces seized a second, Ilya Pyanzin, 28, two days later. Osmayev, who was shown with blotches of green antiseptic covering wounds on his face, was captured separately later. The men had a laptop with several videos of Mr Putin's cortege travelling through Moscow on it.

Osmayev – who had reportedly been on a federal arrest warrant since 2007 – said they planned to use a tank mine to kill Mr Putin rather than a suicide bomber, although Madayev had been prepared to become a martyr.

Mr Putin did not comment on Monday morning but his spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, confirmed the murder plot was real.

There is likely to be speculation that news of the plot – apparently exposed several weeks ago – was deliberately released by Kremlin-controlled media just before the presidential vote, in order to bolster one of Mr Putin's favourite electoral tactics: suggesting that foreign-backed wreckers are trying to destabilise the motherland.

Channel One made a point of mentioning that Osmayev lived for several years in London, which is also home to Akhmed Zakayev, the Chechen rebel envoy whom Moscow has tried unsuccessfully to extradite.

An FSB (Russian Federal Security Service) operative showed videos of Mr Putin's cortege found on Osmayev's computer. "These were in order to understand where the bodyguards sit and how many cars are escorting, from different angles and streets," he explained.

Madayev and Pyanzin, a Kazakh citizen, were said to have flown to Ukraine from the United Arab Emirates via Turkey "with precise instructions from representatives of Doku Umarov."

Afghans halt convoy of boys 'headed for suicide training camps'

Afghan police said they rescued a convoy of 41 children, some aged as young as six, from being smuggled over the border to Pakistan and trained as suicide bombers.

The children were being sent to be trained to attack Afghan and international forces 

The children were stopped in a convoy of cars driven by four Afghan men in the mountainous eastern province of Kunar, police and interior ministry officials said.

They said their parents had been fooled into believing they were sending their children to religious schools across the border, but were instead being sent to be trained to attack Afghan and international forces.

“They were bringing these children in the name of education, but they were not being sent to schools,” a police official in the province said, “They were being sent to be suicide bombers”.

The children were to be taken to a madrassah at Shamshato, close to Peshawar, which officials said was a recruiting ground for militants belonging to Hizb-i-Islami, one of Afghanistan’s main insurgent factions.

However the children, when shown to local reporters, insisted they had no links with insurgents and were being sent only to receive free schooling and escape their poverty-stricken villages.

Several they were from the violent Pech and Korengal valleys and had lost their fathers in clashes between American troops and insurgents, or in Nato airstrikes.

They told reporters that with their fathers gone, their families could not afford to look after them so they were being sent to private madrassahs where they would receive free food and clothes.

Afghan intelligence officials have blamed insurgents including the Taliban for launching a wave of child suicide bombers against targets in the country in the past few years.

Young boys are chosen because they are gullible and less likely to be frisked at checkpoints which would stop a grown man.

“Children are not searched. A policeman will never search a child,” explained one senior Afghan intelligence official.

Afghanistan blames hundreds of privately-funded madrassahs in Pakistan’s border regions for brainwashing boys with extremist propaganda against their government and its Western allies and then persuading them to wage jihad or become suicide bombers.

Poor pashtun families often send their sons to madrassahs to receive a free education and to escape the conflict in the Afghanistan. Wealthy donors allow the schools to offer free tuition, food and sometimes a stipend to study.

Seddiq Seddiqi, spokesman for the interior ministry, said: “It was obvious what was happening with these boys. They were being taken across the border, without any paperwork or documentation, to Pakistan where there are lots of these madrassahs.

“They train these children and then they send them back to carry out attacks.”

The four men accompanying the children, Fazl Maula, Syed Habib, Samiullah and Amir Gul, were all arrested, while the boys were sent back to their families, he said.

The senior intelligence official estimated there were almost 2,000 privately-run madrassahs in the border regions.

“Now most of these madrassahs are training camps,” he said.

“Pakistan’s government is trying to help us, but they don’t have access to many of these areas.”

Dominique Strauss-Kahn freed from custody over alleged prostitution ring

Former IMF chief Dominique Strauss-Kahn has been freed from French police custody after two days of questioning about an alleged prostitution ring but faces a further grilling next month.

Dominique Strauss-Khan's wife has decamped to Morocco, and demonstrators and the media follow his every move 

The French politician also heard that the first court hearing in a US civil case, brought by the New York hotel maid who alleges that he sexually assaulted her, will take place on March 15.

DSK, as he is known in France, will thus face legal proceedings on both sides of the Atlantic next month.

A French judicial source said Mr Strauss-Kahn, once considered a front-runner to become the next president of France, would be summoned to appear before investigating magistrates in Lille on March 28 on charges linked to prostitution and corruption.

The 62-year-old former Socialist minister was released after being detained for about 32 hours for questioning on the charges of "abetting aggravated pimping by an organised gang" and "misuse of company funds".

He was swiftly whisked away in a car under a police motorcycle escort from the police station in the northern city of Lille, where dozens of journalists had gathered.

During his interrogation, Strauss-Kahn told investigators he did not suspect women he met at orgies were prostitutes, as they were introduced to him by senior police officers, a source close to the probe said.

"He explained himself fully about all the events he was questioned on," Strauss-Kahn's lawyer Frederique Baulieu said, but she declined to comment on his future summons.

He was also to be quizzed by France's police internal affairs department, the IGPN, which is conducting a separate inquiry into a senior officer, Commissioner Jean-Christophe Lagarde, who has been charged with pimping.

Under French law, aggravated organised pimping carries a prison term of up to 20 years and profiting from embezzlement five years and a fine.

Investigating magistrates want to know whether he was aware that women who entertained him at parties in restaurants, hotels and swingers' clubs in Paris and Washington were paid prostitutes.

They will also ask whether Strauss-Kahn knew the escorts were paid with funds allegedly fraudulently obtained from a public works company by his hosts.

Paying a prostitute is not illegal in France, but profiting from vice or embezzling company funds to pay for sex can lead to charges.

Lawyer Henri Leclerc has said his client may not have known he was with prostitutes as "in these parties, you're not necessarily dressed. I defy you to tell the difference between a nude prostitute and a nude woman of quality."

The former managing director of the International Monetary Fund acknowledges having an uninhibited sex life, but rejects any role in pimping or corruption and has indicated he will deny any criminal wrongdoing.

New York prosecutors abandoned a sex assault case against Strauss-Kahn last year, but his accuser, an immigrant hotel maid, lodged a civil suit.

The US hearing next month will air arguments on pretrial motions and is not the start of the trial itself.

The Bronx Supreme Court announced the new stage in the saga with a brief statement saying "oral argument on the motions in the Diallo v Strauss-Kahn case pending in Bronx Supreme Court will be held on March 15."

Nafissatou Diallo says Strauss-Kahn attempted to rape her in his Manhattan Sofitel hotel room where she had gone to clean on May 14 last year. Strauss-Kahn was arrested later that day but insisted he was being framed and prosecutors later dropped charges, saying the maid had credibility problems.

The civil suit seeks unspecified damages from Strauss-Kahn, who is married to a wealthy French journalist.

Friends of Strauss-Kahn have claimed a conspiracy to bring him down, removing what had been seen as a viable challenge to French President Nicolas Sarkozy.

Two businessmen, Fabrice Paszkowski, a medical equipment tycoon with ties to Strauss-Kahn's Socialist Party, and David Roquet, former director of a local subsidiary of building giant BTP Eiffage, have already been charged in the French prostitution case.

The pair are alleged to have links to a network of French and Belgian prostitutes centred on the Carlton Hotel in Lille, a well-known meeting place of the local business and political elite in a city run by the Socialist Party.

In all, eight people are facing trial in connection with the "Carlton affair", including three executives from the luxury hotel itself, a leading lawyer and the police chief, Lagarde.

The last of the sex parties is said to have taken place during a trip by a group from Lille to Washington between May 11 and 13 last year.

One day later, on May 14, Strauss-Kahn was arrested in New York.

Strauss-Kahn has also been accused by 32-year-old French writer Tristane Banon of attempting to rape her in 2003. Prosecutors decided there was prima facie evidence of a sexual assault, but ruled that the statute of limitations had passed.