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Taliban imposter: Nato chiefs paid 'commander' a fortune for his secrets... but in reality he was just a shopkeeper

It sounds like the plot from a spy novel or James Bond film.

But Nato chiefs in Afghanistan have been severely embarrassed by a shopkeeper who fooled them into thinking he was a ­Taliban commander during secret peace negotiations.

Astonishingly, the ruse went on for two months, during which time the ‘contact’ was paid a substantial sum of money.

Read more @ Daily Mail

Children safer in Kabul than in Glasgow, says Nato spokesman

Nato's leading civilian representative in Afghanistan, Mark Sedwill, makes comments in CBBC Newswround interview

Children in Kabul are safer than those in London and Glasgow despite the danger of unexploded bombs in the Afghan capital, according to Nato's leading civilian representative there.

Mark Sedwill said Kabul was also safer for children than New York.

Read more @ The Guardian

Sharia lessons for pupils, six: Minister's concern after BBC investigates 40 'weekend schools'

Children in Britain are being taught brutal Sharia law punishments, including how
to hack off a criminal’s hand or foot.

So-called ‘weekend schools’ for Muslim pupils as young as six also teach that the penalty for gay sex is execution and that ‘Zionists’ are plotting to take over the world for the Jews.

Read more: Daily Mail

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Now there's a hero we can believe in.

Like many 26-year-olds, Jono Lancaster has a job he loves, a beautiful girlfriend and takes pride in his appearance.

But unlike most young men, Jono has Treacher Collins syndrome, a genetic disorder that affected the way his facial bones developed while he was in his mother's womb.

The condition, which is thought to affect up to one in 10,000 babies in the UK, means he has no cheekbones - so his eyes droop downwards - and he has problems with his hearing, so has a bone-anchored hearing aid.

Read more @ BBC News

Antimatter atoms have been trapped for the first time, scientists say.

Researchers at Cern, home of the Large Hadron Collider, have held 38 antihydrogen atoms in place, each for a fraction of a second.

Antihydrogen has been produced before but it was instantly destroyed when it encountered normal matter.

The team, reporting in Nature, says the ability to study such antimatter atoms will allow previously impossible tests of fundamental tenets of physics.

The current "standard model" of physics holds that each particle - protons, electrons, neutrons and a zoo of more exotic particles - has its mirror image antiparticle.

Even in Luton, the Holy City of Mecca looms large.

In the town's Central Mosque, Muslims turn to face in the direction of Mecca, kneel and touch their faces to the floor in prayer.

Dominating the wall in front of them are two large photographs, showing teeming crowds of pilgrims swirling in a broad river of people around the al-Haram mosque at the spot where their religion was founded.

An estimated 100,000 British Muslims are already in Mecca for the Hajj, the annual pilgrimage that Muslims are called upon to make once in their lifetimes.

But many more have been left behind, excluded from what they regard as a sacred duty by an extraordinary increase in prices.

Jahangir Akhtar is one of them.

Quite a big cut it seems to me:

Greater Manchester Police to cut a quarter of posts

Greater Manchester Police will lose a quarter of its staff, including front-line officers, as it faces a £134m budget cut in the next four years.

Read more @ BBC News