Britain was in a state of "heightened readiness" yesterday after plans for terrorist attacks in the US and Britain were found on a computer belonging to the man held responsible for the 1998 bombings of two US embassies in East Africa.
The Home Office said it did not regard the e-mails as constituting a specific threat, despite reports that US financial institutions in London had increased security precautions.
"We keep our threat level under constant review. If a specific threat arises we would review our levels accordingly," a spokeswoman said.
"If the public need to take specific action, we will issue advice and information immediately. We still say the threat remains real and serious," she added.
Press reports quoted unidentified sources in both Britain and the US saying that US banks could be targeted in Britain, but the BBC said the Home Office was seeking to calm fears regarding a possible attack.
E-mails about attacks on both countries were on a computer belonging to Ahmed Khalfan Ghailani, wanted for bombing US embassies in Nairobi and Dar es Salaam. He was seized by Pakistani officials eight days ago.
Pakistani Information Minister Sheikh Rashid Ahmed said: "We got a few e-mails from Ghailani's computer about attacks in the US and UK."
US Homeland Security Secretary Tom Ridge has issued a more specific warning, regarding a possible truck bomb directed at targets in New York, Washington or New Jersey.
The BBC's defense correspondent said the detailed planning for attacks on US buildings contrasted with "extremely vague" information on British targets.
KINGPIN: Marset allegedly laundered the proceeds of his drug enterprise by purchasing and sponsoring professional soccer teams and even put himself in the starting lineups Notorious Latin American narco trafficker Sebastian Marset, who eluded police for years, was handed over to US authorities after his arrest on Friday in Bolivia. Marset, a Uruguayan national who was on the US most-wanted list, was passed to agents of the US Drug Enforcement Administration at Santa Cruz airport in Bolivia, then put on a US airplane, Bolivian state television showed. “The arrest and deportation were carried out pursuant to a court order issued by the US justice system,” Bolivian Minister of Government Marco Antonio Oviedo told reporters. The alleged kingpin was arrested in an upscale neighborhood of Santa
ACTIONABLE ADVICE: The majority of chatbots tested provided guidance on weapons, tactics and target selections, with Perplexity and Meta AI deemed to be the least safe From school shootings to synagogue bombings, leading artificial intelligence (AI) chatbots helped researchers plot violent attacks, according to a study published on Wednesday that highlighted the technology’s potential for real-world harm. Researchers from the nonprofit watchdog Center for Countering Digital Hate and CNN posed as 13-year-old boys in the US and Ireland to test 10 chatbots, including ChatGPT, Google Gemini, Perplexity, Deepseek and Meta AI. Eight of the chatbots assisted the make-believe attackers in more than half the responses, providing advice on “locations to target” and “weapons to use” in an attack, the study said. The chatbots had become a “powerful accelerant for
SCANDAL: Other images discovered earlier show Andrew bent over a female and lying across the laps of a number of women, while Mandelson is pictured in his underpants A photograph of former British prince Andrew and veteran politician Peter Mandelson sitting in bathrobes alongside late sex offender Jeffrey Epstein was unearthed on Friday in previously published documents. The image is believed to be the first known photograph of the two men with Epstein. They are currently engulfed in scandal in the UK over their ties to their mutual friend. The undated photograph, first reported by ITV News, shows King Charles III’s disgraced brother and former British ambassador to the US sitting barefoot outside on a wooden deck. They appear to have mugs with a US flag on them
Since the war in the Middle East began nearly two weeks ago, the telephone at Ron Hubbard’s bomb shelter company in Texas has not stopped ringing. Foreign and US clients are rushing to buy his bunkers, seeking refuge in case of air raids, nuclear fallout or apocalypse. With the US and Israel pounding Iran, and Tehran retaliating with strikes across the region, Hubbard has seen demand for his product soar, mostly from Gulf nation customers in Bahrain, Qatar, Kuwait and the United Arab Emirates. “You can imagine how many people are thinking: ‘I wish I had a bomb shelter,’” Hubbard, 63, said in
RSS