Iraqi detainee's beaten and abused by British soldiers

LONDON:

British soldiers forced an Iraqi detainee to wear an orange jump suit and told him that he was to be executed at the US-run Guantanamo Bay camp, according to allegations in a report today.

The 23-year-old man alleges he was beaten and sexually abused by female and male soldiers and flown to a British detention centre in southern Iraq which he believed was the "war on terror" camp in Cuba, the Independent said.

The man's case is among allegations being investigated by Britain's Ministry of Defence that soldiers tortured Iraqi civilians, according to the newspaper.

The ministry said on Friday it has launched "formal investigations" into allegations of abuse, but they must be allowed to be carried out "without judgements being made prematurely".

The Independent said 33 cases of alleged abuse had been reported, including claims of rape, the use of torture techniques and physical assault.

The man was a security guard employed to patrol streets of the southern Iraqi town of Amara, when in 2006 he claimed he was arrested by four soldiers.

He alleged he was beaten and taken to a British base in southern Iraq, where he suffered more abuse, including told to remove his clothes before a female soldier pulled his penis with force, while soldiers laughed and took photos.

"I was (later) given a dark orange prisoners outfit to wear... (which) is worn by those who will be executed. I started screaming," the man alleges in his statement.

Olympics 2012 may be the bigest risk of the decade-British Security Minister Alan West

LONDON:

London faces the largest security challenge since World War II when it hosts the 2012 Olympics, British security minister Alan West said on Friday.

West told a London conference that the British capital will almost certainly be at a higher risk of a terrorist attack as an estimated 15,000 athletes, 14,000 coaches and officials and 20,000 media workers arrive for the games.

He said the country's threat level will likely rise to severe, the second-highest rating on a five-point scale, meaning an attack is considered highly likely.

"We are not complacent. We do not underestimate the scale of the Olympics challenge," West told the Royal United Services Institute think tank.

West, a former head of Britain's navy and defense intelligence staff, said the event would be "possibly the greatest security challenge the UK has faced since the Second World War."

Since 2001, Britain has invested heavily in anti-terrorism measures, increasing the size of domestic spy agency MI5 and raising the country's security budget to 3.5 billion pounds ($6 billion).

The minister said a 600 million pound ($1billion) fund has been set aside specifically for Olympic security.

West said work since the July 2005 transit network attacks in London, which killed 52 passengers and four suicide bombers, had "made the nation safer, but we are not safe, the threat is still there."

The London bombings came the day after the British capital was awarded the 2012 Olympics.

West said plans to secure the Olympics would reflect changing tactics used by terrorists.

He pointed to the use of boats to launch attacks last November which killed 166 people in Mumbai, India, and methods deployed in Lahore, Pakistan, in March in a gun assault on the Sri Lankan national cricket team.

Britain has installed barriers to defend against car bombs at most sports stadiums, transport hubs and shopping malls, and provided new guidelines on protecting crowded spaces. During the Olympics, police speed boats will patrol the River Thames.

West said that, despite the likely threats, he is confident in plans to secure the London games. If medals were awarded for security planning, Britain ``would be on top of the podium wearing a gold,'' he said.

PM Brown pledged to curb the entry of doctors and other professionals

LONDON:

Prime Minister Gordon Brown pledged to curb the entry of doctors and other professionals from outside Europe into the UK in a new crackdown on immigration, a move likely to adversely impact thousands of Indians.

Signalling a major shift in the Labour government's immigration policy, the Prime Minister vowed to "stem rising tide of migration". He said his government plans to restrict the points based system for determining which migrants can work in Britain.

"One of the reasons that immigration will fall is the tightening of the new points system and it will continue to tighten over the next few months," Brown told the Daily Mail in an interview ahead of a major speech on immigration today.

Even as insisting that immigration had been a source of "economic, social and cultural strength" for Britain, Brown said the points-based system, introduced last year to control the entry of non-EU citizens to the UK by grading incomers on the skills they can offer the country, would be further toughened up.

In a major policy change, Brown is expected to announce that the door is being closed to non-EU hospital consultants, civil engineers, aircraft engineers and ship's officers, the report said.

"I know people worry about whether immigration undermines their wages and the job prospects of their children and they also worry about whether they will get a decent home for their families," he underlined.