ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS

Two British Muslims from Blackburn were convicted this afternoon for 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.

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'.

Shiraz Maher

News reaches me from an impeccable source that Lutfur Ali, assistant chief executive of Tower Hamlets council, has just resigned.

ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS 

Over at Harry's Place, David T has reported that he has received libel threats from one of the trustees of the Viva Palestina charity. Kevin Ovendon has instructed Farooq Bajwa Solicitors to act on his behalf in an attempt to claim £50,000 damages based on a comment David T made on a Socialist Unity Blog. That's right, a comment on a blog.

ALEXANDER MELEAGROU-HITCHENS 

The newspapers are reporting today on the case of Colleen LaRose (aka 'Jihad Jane'), who was arrested in October last year in connection with a plot to murder Swedish cartoonist Lars Vilks for drawing a picture of Mohammed with a dog's body.  Reports suggest that the seven arrests in Ireland on Tuesday were also in connection with this plot.