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British spying chief Alex Allan, the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee, has regained consciousness having been in a coma for 10 days. Mr Allan's committee collates information from MI5, MI6 and GCHQ and briefs the prime minister, ministers and officials on intelligence assessments on issues such as security, defence and foreign affairs.

The head of the Government's top spy committee is in a coma in hospital after falling mysteriously ill, it emerged today. Alex Allan, who chairs the Joint Intelligence Committee, was found collapsed at home on Monday and his condition is said to be critical. Scotland Yard denied speculation that he may have been the victim of an assassination attempt aimed at the heart of Britain's intelligence community. -snip- Mr Allan, who is responsible for assessing material produced by the UK's three main spy agencies, is one of Whitehall's most senior civil servants. As a close adviser of the Prime Minister...

<p>Foes of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad tried to kill the hard-line leader with X-ray radiation during his recent visit to Italy, Iran’s former ambassador to Rome told Russian news service RIA Novosti on Monday.</p> <p>Ex-ambassador Abolfazi Zohrevand said the rising concentration of high-intensity radiation at Ahmadinejad’s temporary residence in Rome earlier this month led to the claims.</p>

Intelligence Minister Gholam-Hossein Mohseni Ejeii on Sunday said his ministry was informed of a U.S. plot to kidnap President Mahmud Ahmadinejad during his trip to Iraq in March. “The Intelligence Ministry was unaware of the plan to kidnap the president before he traveled to Iraq. We were informed of the plot when the president was staying in Iraq and finally… by taking some security measures, the U.S. plan was aborted,” Ejeii told reporters. Earlier this month, Ahmadinejad said the enemies had planned to kidnap and kill him in Iraq but the plot was foiled after the Iranian delegation changed their...

Iran's Ahmadinejad charges US with assassination plot Jun 19, 2008 Tehran - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Thursday charged the United States with an assassination plot against him, Fars news agency reported. 'According to reliable information, as I rejected to reside in the green zone during my trip to Iraq, the Americans had planned to kidnap and kill this humble servant of the nation,' Ahmadinejad told clergy circles in a meeting in the religious city of Qom in central Iran. 'The plot was neutralized due to a last-minute change of our schedule,' Ahmadinejad added, without however elaborating how Iran gained...

The fortunes of Hollywood actor Tom Cruise have suffered a blow with the news that his next big film has been postponed until 2009. The release of Valkyrie, which tells the story of the 1944 assassination plot against Hitler, was first postponed from this summer to the autumn and is now not expected to appear until next year. “We were originally expecting the film to be released in June,” said a senior executive at one of Britain’s leading cinema chains. “I know there have been all sorts of problems with this production and we will not be screening it at...

ANKARA, Turkey - The Turkish gunman who shot and wounded Pope John Paul II is applying for Polish citizenship because he wants to live in the country of the late pontiff, whom he called his "spiritual brother." But the Polish Foreign Ministry said the chances of Mehmet Ali Agca getting citizenship are "minimal" since he hasn't provided any "good service" to John Paul's mostly Catholic homeland. Agca also wants to be transferred to a prison in Poland to serve the remainder of his sentence on a different conviction, lawyer Haci Ali Ozhan told The Associated Press. "He has chosen Poland...

‘Karzai killing plot hatched in Pakistan’ Thursday, May 01, 2008 KABUL: The plot to kill President Hamid Karzai over the weekend was hatched in lawless tribal areas of neighbouring Pakistan, the Afghan intelligence chief said on Wednesday. Intelligence chief Amrullah Saleh said there was no evidence that Pakistan's government or its intelligence agencies were involved in the assassination attempt on Sunday. "We have no evidence whether ... the operation has had any mercy or go ahead from the government of Pakistan and (its) special agencies," Saleh told reporters in Kabul. "There (is) very, very strong evidence suggesting that Pakistan's soil...

Afghan President Hamid Karzai escaped unharmed Sunday after militants attacked a high-profile military parade with rockets and gunfire, killing three people including an MP and wounding a dozen. The extremist Taliban movement claimed responsibility for the daring attack, denying however that it was an assassination attempt on Karzai. Bullets struck into the back of a stage where the president and Afghan leaders, including the most senior international representatives here, were seated to review the country's most important annual military parade. There were also several large explosions, with one -- likely from a rocket-propelled grenade -- landing just in front of...

<p>SONNY Bono, former husband and singing partner of superstar Cher, was clubbed to death by hitmen on the orders of drug and weapons dealers, an ex-FBI agent claims.</p> <p>Ted Gunderson, now a private investigator, has told the US Globe tabloid that Bono, who served as mayor of Palm Springs for four years, did not die after hitting a tree on a Nevada ski slope in January 1998 as everyone believed.</p>

Russian secret services have foiled an attack on President Vladimir Putin close to Red Square, it has been claimed. A man with a sniper rifle and Kalashnikov assault gun was found and detained in a rented apartment overlooking Moscow's St Basil's Cathedral, on March 2, the day of the Presidential election in Russia. Mr Putin and his president-elect, Dmitry Medvedev, appeared under the cathedral for a late-night pop concert once early results indicated that Mr Medvedev would win a landslide. The popular Tvoi Den newspaper, which broke the story, claimed that both men could have been killed from the flat...

The blast last week is believed to have been a failed attempt to kill a top police official. Drug traffickers are suspected. MEXICO CITY -- Authorities on Tuesday accused drug traffickers of attempting to kill a top Mexico City police official last week by blowing up his car, a botched assassination that left the bomber dead. The unfolding mystery of the attack, which also left a suspected accomplice severely wounded, has fascinated Mexicans for days. Investigators have used surveillance video and forensic anthropology to reconstruct the plot. "The investigation is very advanced; we know the target was a high official...

Århus - Police in Denmark have arrested four people suspected of planning an attack on one of the creators of the controversial Muhammad cartoons. The arrests were made in Århus. The intended victim was the 73-year-old cartoonist Kurt Westergaard. He had drawn an image of the Prophet Muhammad with a bomb lodged in his turban. The publication of the 12 Muhammad cartoons in the Danish newspaper Jyllands Posten two years ago led to angry demonstrations in many Islamic countries; some 150 people were killed.

East Timor President Jose Ramos-Horta has been wounded in a pre-dawn attack on his home that killed a guard, says army spokesman Major Domingos da Camara said. It was unclear what condition Ramos-Horta - a Nobel Peace laureate - was in following Monday morning's attack, he said. However Reuters reported he had been wounded in the stomach, quoting a military spokesman. House guards shot back, killing attacking rebel soldier Alfredo Reinado, who was wanted on murder charges for a flare up of violence in 2006, da Camara said. Two cars passed Ramos-Horta's house on the outskirts of the capital, Dili,...

Osama bin Laden's 16-year-old son led a suicide bomb squad sent to kill Pakistan opposition leader Benazir Bhutto, according to her own claims. Before she was assassinated in December the former prime minister claimed she had been warned that four such death teams would try to kill her. And the naming of bin Laden's teenage son, Hamza, could now strengthen claims that he is being groomed as a future leader of the al Qaeda terror group. In 2001, he appeared in a joint Taliban and al Qaeda video of a militant attack on a Pakistan army camp in South Waziristan,...

A short-lived "honeymoon" between Fatah and Hamas ended abruptly Saturday when the Islamist movement accused Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas's office of being behind an attempt to assassinate Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas (right) and Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh. Photo: AP [file] The charges came just as Fatah and Hamas appeared to be close to launching negotiations over solving their dispute. Relations between the two parties warmed up after Abbas phoned Hamas leader Mahmoud Zahar last week to offer his condolences over the death of his son, Husam, in an IDF operation in Gaza...

LONDON: A plot by al-Qa'ida operatives to kill the Queen during a state visit to Uganda less than two months ago was foiled by security services. The terrorists had planned to hide inside two broadcast vans owned by the Ugandan Broadcasting Corporation and then set off bombs during the Queen's visit to Kampala last November. London's Sunday Express reported the vans were seized after a tip-off from intelligence agents. As a result, the broadcaster was unable to transmit live pictures of key summit events, including the Queen's historic address to the Ugandan parliament on November 22. The Queen, Prince Philip,...

A European country has recently conveyed to the Hamas authorities in Gaza Strip that Israel is planning to assassinate senior leaders of this Palestinian movement. An Arabic-language newspaper published in London reported on Sunday that the Israeli cabinet had approved plans to assassinate the former Premier Ismail Haniyeh, Hamas politburo chief Khaled Mashaal and former foreign minister, Dr. Mahmoud al-Zahar. Al Hayat newspaper added the implementation of the plan will start after American President George W. Bush finishes his regional visit later this week. According to the daily, Hamas is taking the threat seriously. Sources told the newspapers following the...

Boy scout saves leader of the Maldives By KRISHAN FRANCIS, Associated Press Writer The president of the Maldives was saved from assassination Tuesday when a boy scout grabbed the knife of an attacker who had jumped out of a crowd greeting the leader, an official said. President Maumoon Abdul Gayoom was not hurt, but his shirt was ripped when the attacker tried to stab him before the boy and security guards intervened during the event on the small island of Horafushi, said government spokesman Mohammad Shareef. "This fellow in the crowd with a knife in his hand attempted to stab...

In the last few days there were multiple threads on terrorist forums calling for the assassination of President Bush during his coming visit to the Middle East. They are calling for suicide bombers and others to act and kill the President. Most probably those are all empty threats but the terrorist rhetoric on these forums is very dangerous and may be some terrorist who wants to prove himself for his brethren on these terrorists forums may try to commit violent act including the attempt to assassinate President Bush. The danger of these terrorist forums is so great and there must...