News from around the globe that the newspapers seldom print

Disclaimer and fair comment

While I agree with most of the material passed on I may not be in agreement with all. However there is much we can learn from some that we disagree with. Remember it was once thought that the earth was flat.

It is left to your judgment to determine what you agree with and what to act upon.

Four suicide bombers, at least three of them British (subjects), were responsible for the explosions that killed more than 50 people in London, senior security sources said last night.

The three were all thought to be of Pakistani ethnic origin and said by neighbours to have lived modest suburban lives in West Yorkshire.

One was the son of a fish and chip shop owner. Another was only 18 years old.

Three of the attackers were said to be from the Leeds area and were identified locally as British-born men.

The revelations realised the worst fears of police and the Muslim community. It confirmed the men as western Europe's first suicide bombers and the first Britons to attack their own countrymen with explosives since the ceasefire in Northern Ireland.

Early yesterday, police raided six addresses in West Yorkshire, discovered what is thought to be a bomb factory and arrested a man.

Neighbours identified the bomber reported missing by his family as Hasib Hussain, of Holbeck, Leeds. Police say he died on the bus.

Detectives were examining the possibility that he either panicked or changed his mind over the suicide mission and carried his bomb on to the bus. It might have gone off accidentally or he could have set it off, perhaps after being challenged by passengers.

The Liverpool Street bomber is believed to have been Shehzad Tanweer, 22, the son of Mohammed Mumtaz Tanweer, a fish and chip shop owner in Beeston, Leeds.

Friends said Shehzad Tanweer was a keen cricketer and "a good Muslim" and expressed disbelief that he could have been involved in England's worst terrorist attack.

The disclosure that the bombs were the work of domestic rather than foreign extremists came from Peter Clarke, the Metropolitan Police deputy assistant commissioner.

Sources said the police were almost certain that scientific evidence would confirm that all the men seen on CCTV at King's Cross died in the separate blasts.

The investigation is likely to raise tension in multiracial communities, especially in West Yorkshire. Calling for calm, Assistant Commissioner Andy Hayman, of Scotland Yard, said: "No one should be in any doubt the work last Thursday is that of extremists and criminals. So, no one should smear or
stigmatise any community with these acts."

Sir Ian said yesterday's operation, involving armed police and Army bomb disposal specialists, was intelligence-based and "directly connected" to last week's blasts.