Haitian President Rene Preval has said thousands of people are feared dead following a huge quake which has devastated the country’s capital.

The 7.0-magnitude quake, Haiti’s worst in two centuries, struck on Tuesday.

Hedi Annabi, the Tunisian head of the UN stabilisation mission in Haiti (Minustah), had died after the UN HQ building was destroyed.

The UN said it could not confirm the news but that Mr Annabi had been in the building at the time and was likely to be under the rubble, along with many others.

Armed police have boarded a plane at Heathrow airport after a verbal threat was made by three men

Armed anti-terror police boarded the 8pm Emirates flight and arrested the passengers, understood to be English, after a verbal threat was made to blow up the aircraft as it taxied along the runway in preparation for take-off.

Cameron McLean, a passenger on the Boeing 777 who was sitting several rows from one of those arrested, told Sky News: “Police just swarmed the guy and rushed him out. I think he was a white male. There was another one but I didn’t see him.” 

Gordon Brown, prime minister, has given the go-ahead for A full body scanners to be introduced at Britain’s airports.

BAA, who runs six of the UK’s airports say that they will place the machines in all of their airports  “as soon as it’s practical” starting with Heathrow airport.

Experts have questioned the scanners’ effectiveness at detecting the type of bomb allegedly used on Christmas Day in an attempted plane attack over Detroit.

But Mr Brown said it was essential to “go further” than the current technology allowed. 

A lot of people will have an issue with the scanners however they are put in for our own security.

Heavy snow is forecast across much of the UK during Tuesday, with several severe weather warnings in place.

The Met Office says northern Scotland, north east and central England and east Wales are all at risk, with up to 25cm (10in) possible on high ground.

Widespread icy roads are also likely across much of the northern UK and eastern Northern Ireland.

Transport services and power supplies are likely to face disruption, the Met Office added.

Akmal Shaikh, of London, was reportedly told by his family that he faced death at 10:30. It is not known if the sentence has been carried out.

The UK government has made a final appeal to China to halt the execution of a 53-year-old British man who is thought to be mentally ill. It has been told that he might be convicted of drug smuggling, but has denied any wrongdoing.

A protest has been held outside the Chinese Embassy in London, calling for clemency for Mr Shaikh.

Mr Lewis held last-ditch talks with the Chinese ambassador in London on Monday evening.

The minister said after the talks: “We hope that the relationship we have with China will count for something in the end.

“It’s entirely inappropriate that he be put to death. We’ve made 27 representations over the last two years… and even at this late stage I hope they will see that in a modern world it is not appropriate to put a man with mental illness to death. 

Akmal’s daughter Leilla says that he was approached by the chinese and pushed to become a singer, it was them who told him to take the bags over.

Audrey

An 18-month-old girl taken from a police station.

Audrey Kessie Nyanor’s mother, 36, was arrested on Thursday in Southwark, south-east London over alleged immigration offences.

A woman turned up at Walworth police station saying she was a friend of Audrey’s mother and was there to collect her.

However it later transpired she was not and a search was started. Audrey’s mother was later released on bail.

Audrey is of Ghanaian descent, and was last seen wearing pink trousers, a pink coat and a pink and white hat.

Police say the woman who took Audrey is also believed to be of Ghanaian heritage, medium build, with short black hair, and last seen wearing a bright red coat and dark knee-length boots.

Several places have been searched and six people have been arrested in connection with the investigation.

Desimag - News

It has been forecasted that heavy snowfall is expected in parts of the UK, with south-east England expected to be worst affected.

The Met Office has issued an early warning and said travel networks may be affected by snow on Friday.

Up to 20cm (8in) of snow could fall in some parts of Kent, Sussex, Surrey, London and East Anglia, with gale-force winds causing drifts, forecasters say.

Snow is also forecast in parts of central and northern England, Northern Ireland, Scotland and Wales.

There have already been intermittent snow showers leaving a light covering of snow across north-east England, parts of East Anglia and the Midlands.

Snow has also been falling in the Brecon area of mid Wales and in the Neath area of south Wales.

The snowfall is expected to become heavier into Thursday evening with bands of snow spreading across south-east England, East Anglia and the London area, where forecasters say 10cm of snow could fall by midnight. 

Geeta

Harpreet Aulakh, 31, was arrested by officers investigating the killing of mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh, 28.

Mr Aulakh has been charged with her murder. Last month Sher Singh, 18, of Southall, west London, was charged with murdering Mrs Aulakh.

Mrs Aulakh, 28, was found in Braund Avenue at about 1900 GMT on 16 November.

She died a few hours later in hospital from a severe head injury.

Police have arrested a total of 12 people in connection with the murder. 

Tony Blair

Tony Blair is facing strong criticism after he said he would have gone to war in Iraq even if he had known there were not any weapons of mass destruction.

The former prime minister said it was the “notion” of Saddam as a threat to the region which tilted him in favour of the invasion of Iraq in 2003? Is this for real?

He added that he would have used different arguments to justify the war.  So why did’nt he?

Tony Blair was asked whether he would still have gone on with plans to join the US-led invasion had he known at the time that there were no WMD. This was asked on a BBC  show earlier this week.

He said: “I would still have thought it right to remove him. I mean obviously you would have had to use and deploy different arguments, about the nature of the threat.”

He added: “I can’t really think we’d be better with him and his two sons still in charge, but it’s incredibly difficult.

“That’s why I sympathise with the people who were against [the war] for perfectly good reasons and are against it now, but for me, you know, in the end I had to take the decision.”

He added that there had been “12 years of United Nations to and fro on this subject” of Iraq’s weapons and that Saddam had “used chemical weapons on his own people”. 

Lady Gaga and The Queen

The Queen has been entertained by a host of stars at the first Royal Variety Performance to be held in Blackpool since 1955.

The town’s illuminations had lit the way as the royal party made its way to the Opera House in the Winter Gardens.

The charity event’s host, comedian Peter Kay, welcomed the Queen to “the entertainment capital of the world”.

The show’s performers included Lady Gaga, Bette Midler, Whoopi Goldberg and Britain’s Got Talent winners Diversity.

Kay told the audience that his grandmother was sitting near the Queen, and suggested the pair would be “swapping fudge by the interval”.

“She might be in her 80s but she still pulls her wheelie bin out every Tuesday night. I just wish my Nanna would,” he joked.

The trio of Lulu, Anastacia and Chaka Khan opened the show with a performance of Take That’s Relight My Fire.

Hollywood actress Goldberg introduced the cast from stage show Sister Act, who were followed by performers including 2008 X Factor winner Alexandra Burke and fellow singer Michael Buble.

Diversity, who had won the right to perform as champions of this year’s Britain’s Got Talent ITV show, wore red military jackets and performed their dance routine in front of a projected image.

Michael Roberts, 26, was detained after officers found him in Wrexham, north Wales, on Sunday morning.

He will be questioned over the death of 25-year-old Vicky Roberts, whose body was found on Thursday.

Her father had earlier contacted police after not hearing from her for a number of days.

Amir Khan

Amir Khan & Dmitriy Salati

Amir Khan says he is primed and ready ahead of his first WBA light-welterweight defence against Dmitriy Salita in Newcastle on Saturday.

Both fighters made the 10-stone limit at Friday’s weigh-in with Khan half a pound under, while Salita needed to strip naked before coming through it.

“I know it is going to be tough but I feel good and feel sharp,” said Khan.

“It’s a big chance for him but I saw fear in his eyes and he struggled to make the weight. He looks drained.”

Salita, naturally the bigger fighter, has fought most of his career at light-welterweight, while Khan is boxing at the 10-stone limit for only the third time in his career.

Amir Khan

RBS reportedly wants to pay a total of £1.5bn in bonuses to investment banking staff, and the board has threatened to quit if the government blocks the move.

The Treasury said it would intervene if it was in the interest of taxpayers.

Meanwhile, Barclays is planning on increasing the non-variable element of staff pay at Barclays Capital, its investment bank, the BBC’s business editor Robert Peston says.

Barclays maintains that by pushing up salaries, it is only doing what G20 governments have asked it to do, by shifting the weight of pay from the variable portion – ie bonuses – to fixed.

Afghanistan

President Barack Obama is to send 30,000 new US troops to Afghanistan, pre-released excerpts from his new strategy speech say.

President Obama will say the troops will be deployed “in the first part of 2010 – the fastest pace possible”.

Mr Obama is also spelling out key elements of an exit plan, including beginning to hand over to Afghan security forces by mid-2011.

The president will deliver his speech in the next two hours.

The surge will bring US troop strength in Afghanistan to more than 100,000.