Royal Navy issuing redundancy notices.

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HMS Cumberland was involved in the rescue of British citizens from Libya in February

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• MoD cuts risky, ex-Army head says
• Fox defends armed forces job cuts

More than 1,000 Royal Navy staff will learn they are being made redundant later as part of a first round of military job cuts.

Of about 1,020 job losses, a third are compulsory. Some 810 sailors applied for redundancy and 670 were accepted.

The navy is cutting numbers by 5,000 to 30,000 by 2015, as part of 22,000 armed forces cuts designed to help save £5bn.

Defence Secretary Liam Fox said the MoD had to share the blame for the cuts having "helped create the problem".

Earlier this month about 920 soldiers and 930 RAF personnel were told they were being made redundant, in the first tranche of cuts announced in last year's Strategic Defence and Security Review.

The next round of redundancies is due in March. The Ministry of Defence is also shedding 25,000 civilian staff over the next four years.

Speaking to the Guardian newspaper, Dr Fox reflected on the actions of military chiefs under previous government, saying: "I think the MoD consistently dug a hole for itself that it eventually found that it could not climb out of.

"It is irritating to hear some of those who helped create the problem criticising us when we try to bring in a solution."

A "complete breakdown of trust" between the military and the government over ballooning costs reached its zenith towards the end of Gordon Brown's premiership, the defence secretary said.

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US condemns attack on envoy in Syria

Assad supporters assaulted Ford's convoy in July after he visited the flashpoint city of Hama [YouTube] Hillary Clinton, the US Secretary of State, has condemned an attack on US ambassador Robert Ford, after his convoy was pelted with eggs and tomatoes by supporters of the Syrian president as he and his colleagues met an opposition figure in Damascus. "We condemn this unwarranted attack in the strongest possible term. Ambassador Ford and his aides were conducting normal embassy business and this attempt to intimidate our diplomats through violence is wholly unjustified," Clinton said on Thursday. Jay Carney, the White House spokesman, said the mob was violent and seriously damaged embassy vehicles, but that Ford was unharmed. "This is clearly part of a campaign to intimidate dipilomats who are bearing witness to brutality of the Assad regime," Carney said. He added that the US would not recall Ford and urged the senate to "show its support and confirm [Ford] so he can continue his work." Al Jazeera's Rosiland Jordan reporting from Washington DC said that with a media blackout in Syria, the US government believes it is necessary for their staff to remain in the country. "It is incumbent upon Robert Ford, the ambassador, and his staff to remain in Damascus, to move around the country, to see what is happening between the government and those who are opposed to the government of Bashar al-Assad," Jordan said. Read more....

Villagers capture world's largest crocodile

It weighs one ton and is believed responsible for eating at least one fisherman, but this monster crocodile has finally been caught by 100 very cautious men.

Measuring 21ft from snout to tail, the massive creature is the largest crocodile captured alive in recent years.

The beast was caught, after a three-week hunt, in a creek in the Philippines by villagers who had lived in fear of it for more than 20 years.

Its nearest rival in the monster stakes is Cassius, an Australian salt-water crocodile which measures a 'mere' 18ft - and which is still on the loose in the Northern Territory.

Scroll down to see a video of the captured beast

Giant catch: Mayor Cox Elorde of Bunawan township, Agusan del Sur Province, pretends to measure a huge crocodile which was captured by residents and crocodile farm staff along a creek in Bunawan

The Philippine crocodile's domain was a river system in Agusan, a poverty-stricken region 500 miles south east of Manila, but while it was a constant threat to villagers no one was brave enough to try to capture it.

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034007/Worlds-largest-crocodile-captured-Philippines-villagers.html#ixzz1XHutyGvg

Price haul: Residents use their hands to measure the 21ft salt-water crocodile

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034007/Worlds-largest-crocodile-captured-Philippines-villagers.html#ixzz1XHvIcErp

Long tail: Dozens of local residents gather around the animal, which is believed to have killed a fisherman

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034007/Worlds-largest-crocodile-captured-Philippines-villagers.html#ixzz1XHvOeW3N

Posing: One of the heavily armed captors touches the beast for the camera

Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2034007/Worlds-largest-crocodile-captured-Philippines-villagers.html#ixzz1XHvVhaku

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iamtsPypgXQ&feature=player_embedded

New York escapes worst as Irene passes

Tropical Storm Irene has weakened in its path up the northeastern US coast, after lashing New York with heavy rains and powerful winds - but sparing the city the worst of its wrath. The powerful storm system knocked out electricity lines and flooded parts of the city's deserted streets before being downgraded from a hurricane on Sunday. But it left behind a stunned east coast, killing at least 18 people, leaving millions without power and destroying buildings in North Carolina and Virginia. Air, rail and bus transport along the 1,200km stretch from Boston to North Carolina will on Monday offer only limited services in the aftermath of the storm. US President Barack Obama, who cut his holiday short to co-ordinate efforts to deal with the storm, said the "impact of Irene will be felt for some time". Obama gave special praise to the government officials and emergency services who were dealing with the storm, saying "your response to Irene shows how government should be responsive to people's need". Obama was briefed on the storm's track, its impact and response efforts during an evening conference call with senior officials including Joe Biden, the vice-president, Janet Napolitano, the homeland security secretary, and Steven Chu, the energy secretary. As waves continued to pound the Connecticut shore east of America's biggest city, Michael Bloomberg, the mayor of New York, lifted an evacuation order for residents in low-lying areas of the city. New York's normally bustling streets had emptied out overnight and public transport had come to a halt after Bloomberg ordered the first mandatory evacuation ever in the city. But on Sunday he said "all in all we are in pretty good shape", adding that, while it would be a "tough commute" on Monday, there had been no long-term damage to the city's subway system. Napolitano, meanwhile, confirmed on Sunday that the "worst of the storm had passed" adding that the precautions taken had "dramatically decreased" the threat to lives along the eastern US. Continue reading...

Pentagon hit by huge cyber theft

Critics say Pentagon cyber strategy does not have enough bite to counter breaches in defence networks A top Pentagon official has admitted that a massive amount of data related to new defence technologies were stolen earlier this year. "It was 24,000 files, which is a lot, but I don't think it's the largest we've seen," William Lynn, the US deputy defence secretary, said on Thursday. Lynn revealed the theft as he unveiled a new Pentagon cybersecurity strategy that designates cyberspace as an "operational domain" like sea, air and land where US forces will practice, train and prepare to defend against attacks. He said the theft occurred in March and targeted files at a defence contractor developing weapons systems and defence equipment. However, he declined to specify the country behind the attack, what company was hit or what the files contained. The hacking was a dramatic illustration of the rising difficulties the Pentagon faces in protecting military and defence-related networks critical to US security. Critics say the new strategy doesn't have enough bite to counter those types of breaches, much less the ones that could potentially cripple a nation. Defence department employees operate more than 15,000 computer networks and 7 million computers at hundreds of installations around the world. The department's networks are probed millions of times a day and penetrations have compromised huge amounts of data. Lynn said a recent estimate pegged economic losses from theft of intellectual property and information from government and commercial computers at over $1tn. With millions of hackers on the prowl each day to breech defence networks, it has to be seen whether Washington has the political will to take more aggressive measures to protect its most sensitive secrets.

Source: Al Jazeera and agencies

Sri Lanka Catholics seek Saudi clemency

	Secretary General of Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL), Bishop Norbert Andradi

Catholic leaders in Sri Lanka joined hands with other Sri Lankans and human rights groups calling Saudi authorities to pardon and free Sri Lankan housemaid Rizana Nafeek, who is on death row in a Saudi jail.

Secretary General of Catholic Bishops' Conference of Sri Lanka (CBCSL), Bishop Norbert Andradi told a media briefing on Thursday that it is the belief of all Sri Lankans.

Rizana Nafeek has been charged with the death of a four month old infant in her care in June 2007.

Compelling factors

Bishop Andradi said that the CBCSL is aware of the background under which Rizana Nafeek had been compelled to go to Saudi Arabia as a house amid.

"We understand that she was neither capable, nor had the knowledge of looking after an infant because Rizana herself is a young girl", he said.

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Deadly triple blasts hit Mumbai

At least 21 dead and scores wounded after Indian city is targeted in what the home minister said was a terrorist attack.

Three bombs have rocked crowded areas of Mumbai during the evening rush hour, killing at least 21 people in the biggest such attack on India's financial capital since the 2008 assaults blamed on a Pakistan-based group. At least 141 people were wounded in Wednesday’s blast, officials said. "The blast occurred at about 6.45 pm (13:15 GMT) within minutes of each other. Therefore, we infer that this was a coordinated attack by terrorists," Palaniappan Chidambaram, the federal home minister said. There was no immediate claim of responsibility for the blasts and Indian officials refused to speculate on who might be behind them. At least one car and a motorbike were used in the attacks in which improvised explosive devices were believed to have been used, officials said.

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