Don't Mention The War...

The front page of The Times Online this morning leads with the oil blaze outside London.

The top five 'Other Top Stories' have absolutely nothing in common. /sarc

Sydney erupts in second night of riots

The Sydney suburbs have erupted in a second night of racially-charged violence which has exposed ugly tensions beneath Australia's good-humoured exterior.

Local media reported a "terrifying escalation" in the conflict, as 70 car loads of Lebanese youths arrived in the predominantly white suburb of Cronulla - the flashpoint for yesterday's running battles - intent on revenge.

Father jailed for 'honour killing' of daughter's lover

A father who bullied his two teenage sons into killing their sister's boyfriend was today jailed for at least 20 years. The lengthy sentences handed to Ali, a 41-year-old Bangladeshi waiter, and his two sons are designed to send a clear message to the Muslim community that such killings - there is now at least one a month in Britain - will not be tolerated. Ali ordered his two young British-born sons to kill Arash Ghorbani-Zarin, a 19-year-old Iranian Muslim studying electrical engineering at Oxford Brookes University, after his daughter Manna Begum, 20, fell pregnant.

Britain 'has not been asked over CIA flights'

Jack Straw said today that the Government had not received a single request from the Bush Administration to transport terrorist suspects through British airsports or airspace during its global campaign against terrorism.

Kidnappers remain silent as deadline on hostages passes

FAMILY and friends of the British hostage Norman Kember joined churchgoers yesterday to pray for his release as the deadline set for his killing passed with silence from the kidnappers. John Reid, the Defence Secretary, said the fate of Mr Kember, 74, was still unknown after his captors set a Saturday deadline for Iraqi prisoners to be freed and troops removed from Iraq.

Paris police hold 22 in anti-terror blitz

More than 22 people have been arrested in Paris in an operation to dismantle a suspected network of homegrown Islamist militants.

Anyone would think there's a war on.

-- Nick