ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS

Two British Muslims from Blackburn were convicted this afternoon on terrorism offences, including preparation for acts of terrorism. Part of the evidence used against them was videos they made of themselves rolling around in rotten leaves in Blackburn's Corporation Park.

SHIRAZ MAHER

The Foreign and Commonwealth Office, along with the Security Service and Secret Intelligence Service, has come under intense scrutiny in recent months over allegations that they colluded in the torture of terrorist suspects.

I remember running various posts on my JDCMB site asking why Fauré is like a bus? Because there's nothing for ages, then a whopping great rush arrives en masse. The same is true tonight: the TV schedules aren't noted for their focus on mildly famous French composers of the 19th-20th centuries, but all of a sudden a meaty, in-depth half-hour of BBC4's Sacred Music programme, fronted by Simon Russell Beale, is devoted to Gabriel Fauré, especially his Requiem. The music is performed by The Sixteen with Harry Christophers and various Fauré biographers are interviewed, including muggins.

Here's something which might interest Standpoint readers. On Wednesday 7th April, the New Culture Forum will be hosting a talk with Martin Amis. The conversation will centre around the themes of the sexual revolution and feminism which are dealt with in his latest novel, The Pregnant Widow. The talk begins at 7pm and will be at the Royal Society of Arts, 8 John Adam Street, London WC2N 6EZ (nearest tubes are Charing X and Embankment).

If you'd like to join us, could you RSVP to prwhittle@btinternet.com . It should be an interesting evening, and the novel will also be on sale. 

My column in today's Law Society Gazette summarises a paper I delivered in New York last week about the British experience of "lawfare" — the use of law as a weapon of war. 

SHIRAZ MAHER

The East London Mosque (ELM) continues pushing the line that it only hosted the al-Qaeda linked preacher Anwar al-Awlaki at its mosque on one occasion and that ‘there was no credible evidence at the time of the event that al-Awlaki might be an extremist'.