Bahrain F1 security stepped up as practice runs begin

Authorities in Bahrain have tightened security ahead of practice sessions for Sunday's Formula 1 Grand Prix.

Anti-government protesters have promised "three days of rage" to coincide with the event.

Correspondents say there is palpable unease about the fate of the race amid escalating unrest and violence.

On Wednesday night, Force India team members were forced to flee as petrol bombs were thrown near their car on their way back from the track.

The four mechanics in a 4x4 were caught in the middle of an incident as police clashed with protesters. Two members of the team have since asked to return home.

Formula 1's governing body, the FIA, only decided to go ahead with this weekend's race at the last minute.

'Down F1'

Bahrain has seen protests against the ruling Sunni al-Khalifa clan for more than a year. Last year's F1 was cancelled after 35 people, including five police, were killed in demonstrations.

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There has been pressure from activists outside and inside Bahrain for the lucrative event to be called off this year as well.

"Formula One in Bahrain has been taken as PR for the ruling elite, the repressive dictators who are ruling the country," said human rights activist Nabeel Rajab at a news conference.

Earlier in the week, Bahraini security forces fired stun grenades at protesters outside a cultural exhibition in Manama.

"A number of rioters and vandals had been arrested for taking part in illegal rallies and gatherings, blocking roads and endangering people's lives by attacking them with petrol bombs, iron rods and stones," the Information Affairs Authority said in a statement, citing Maj-Gen Tariq Al Hassan.

A local journalist said the demonstrators in Old Manama were shouting "Down, down, F1" and demanding the release of Abdulhadi al-Khawaja, an activist who has been on hunger strike in prison for more than two months.

Mr Khawaja is now said to be refusing everything except water.

Another protest has been called for 16:00 local time (14:00 GMT) outside the Bahrain International Circuit. Correspondents say riot police will have to show restraint with the international media so close at hand.

The BBC's Rupert Wingfield-Hayes in Manama says the protesters are determined to use the race to draw attention to their campaign, while the government is determined to stop them.

Bahrain's ruling royal family are being pressured to improve human rights and make reforms by the majority Shia population, who accuse the minority ruling Sunnis of discrimination.

Bo Xilai's wife suspected over 'murder' of Briton

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The wife of a disgraced Chinese politician once tipped as a future leader has been detained over the suspected murder of a British national.

Gu Kailai has been "transferred to the judicial authorities" as part of an investigation into the death of Neil Heywood, state news agency Xinhua said.

Her husband Bo Xilai, former Chongqing party chief, has been stripped of key posts in the ruling Communist Party.

He had been one of China's most popular politicians.

The news that his wife is now a suspect in a murder investigation only intensifies the rumours swirling around him.

Mr Bo, 62, suffered a spectacular fall from grace last month when he was sacked as party chief in Chongqing.

This came after his police chief Wang Lijun spent a day holed up in the US consulate in Chengdu.

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It was rumoured that Mr Wang had been attempting to defect.

The suggestion was that he had been demoted by an angry Mr Bo after the officer had alerted him to the fact that the mayor's family was the subject of a police investigation linked to Mr Heywood's death in November.

While in the consulate Mr Wang alleged that Gu Kailai had been involved in murdering 41-year-old Mr Heywood in Chongqing, Xinhua reported.

Police said after Mr Heywood's death that he had died from excessive drinking and his body was cremated. However, his friends said he did not drink that much.

The new allegations led to a second investigation. Xinhua says this showed that Gu Kailai and her son were in "conflict" with Mr Heywood over "economic issues", and these had intensified despite them being friends.

'Good friend'

Mr Bo has been dismissed from the Communist Party's hugely powerful 25-member Politburo, and the 300-member Central Committee due to suspected "serious discipline violations", Xinhua reported on Tuesday.

The exact nature of Mr Heywood's role and his relations with the family are unclear and have been the subject of much speculation inside and outside China.

"According to reinvestigation results, the existing evidence indicated that Heywood died of homicide, of which [Gu Kailai] and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo's home, are highly suspected," the news agency reported.

News of the reinvestigation was welcomed by UK Foreign Secretary William Hague, who had recently called on the Chinese authorities to look again at Mr Heywood's death.

"The Chinese are doing as we asked them to do and we now look forward to seeing those investigations take place and in due course hearing the outcome of those investigations," he said.

Mr Bo, who made his name taking on corruption in Chongqing, had been expected to be elected to the Politburo's standing committee later this year - as the party prepares for a once-in-a-decade change of leadership.

'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."