He owns a villa in Herzliya Pituah, an exclusive suburb of Tel Aviv in Israel. He has acted as a fundraiser for Ehud Barak, the Israeli Prime Minister, and maintains a close relationship with him. His son Daniel worked for the Israeli Justice Minister Yossi Beilin, to whom Levy contributed campaign funds. Lord Levy tonight launched an extraordinary attack on the Metropolitan police, accusing Scotland Yard of provoking a "media circus" with an "unnecessary, disproportionate and ... theatrical" arrest in the "cash-for-honours" saga.

The message was scrawled in chalk on a brick wall in a slum outside Bandra station, just 50 metres from where the first bomb went off in a packed commuter train on Tuesday. "We condemn the ones who did a terrorist bomb here," it said in English. "The culprits should be hanged to death." It was a message from the wrong side of the tracks. As the death toll from the Mumbai bombings was confirmed at more than 200 yesterday, suspicions about who was responsible centred on Islamic militants.

Leading UN agencies are issuing increasingly dramatic warnings about the humanitarian situation in Gaza, where Israeli forces continue their search for a captured soldier, Gilad Shalit. There have also been numerous expressions of international public dismay. But effective inter-governmental action to end the crisis is so far lacking, due largely to deadlock within the UN security council.

There have been numerous reports and details from ex-detainees of allegations of abuse and torture at the hands of the US military and interrogators. Tarek Dergoul, who spent significant time with two of the deceased, provides the first in depth insight into their time in Guantanamo.

"Cartoons", "Islamophobia", "Oppression", "9/11", "90 Days", "Fundamentalists", "Islamic Militants", "Violence", "7/7", "Ban on Hijab" "Terrorism Act 2000", Discrimination"," Guantanamo Bay"

Are these words to define the next generation of Muslims in the UK and worldwide?

Health Secretary Patricia Hewitt has apologised to people with learning disabilities abused whilst in the care of Cornwall Partnership NHS Trust. She was responding to a report last week that raised serious concerns about treatment of people in some care homes. The apology came as one family at the centre of the allegations was told there would be a new inquiry into what happened to their son, Ryan Blakey.

A few months ago, Abir Al-Janabi was just another 14-year-old Iraqi girl in a small town called Al-Mahmudiyah, south of Baghdad. Both of her parents are from the Al-Janabi tribe, one of the biggest tribes with Sunni and Shia branches. Omar Al-Janabi, a neighbor and relative, was informed by Abir's mother that the young girl was being harassed by U.S. soldiers stationed in a nearby checkpoint.

At least 163 people were killed yesterday in a series of co-ordinated bomb blasts on Mumbai's suburban train network. Six of the eight bombs went off inside packed commuter trains in the middle of rush hour, injuring more than 300 people, many of them severely. Witnesses spoke of seeing severed limbs and body parts littering the tracks. Other passengers rushed to help the wounded, wrapping them in whatever scraps of cloth they could find, fashioning makeshift stretchers, and carrying them out of the wreckage. At one hospital where the wounded were treated, a witness said the floors were covered in blood.

Welcome to the world of $ 70/barrel oil. That's if there is no crisis in the Persian Gulf over Iran's nuclear ambitions. If there is, then get ready for $ 140 a barrel. Oil briefly breached the $ 70 barrier eight months ago, but this time it is going up for good. Exactly one year ago the investment bank Goldman Sachs put out a paper suggesting that the "new range" within which oil prices will fluctuate is $ 50-$ 105 per barrel.

It has been over a week and our Foreign Office has not condemned Israel's continued attack on Gaza or raised the issue of this act of collective punishment being against international law. Margaret Beckett, British Foreign Minister has refused to make any comments thus in her silence she is effectively supporting the acts of the Israeli government. Our politicians must be held to account!

Tory leader David Cameron at the ‘Conservative Friends of Israel’ annual lunch was asked what his view on anti-Semitism was and what the government should do to combat this. He replied “I have proposed actions to help the Muslim community police extremist activity in mosques and elsewhere which serves no-ones interests. Government, individuals and all community leaders have shared responsibility to tackle prejudice which, if challenged, can lead to hatred and violence”. His answer does not relate to the question.

Our challenge, as members of the American Muslim community, is to shift from a reactionary approach, in which we respond to crises as they come, to proactive Islamic work. The recent cartoon controversy underlined the necessity of a positive stance; awaiting the next media offensive is not a valid mode of operation. Among American Muslim youth, there are immense resources, energy, and potential to creatively and proactively move forward. Perhaps we are only waiting for someone to show us how to do it.

On July 7, 2005, four British suicide bombers killed 52 people — and themselves. The attacks came nearly four years after New York's 9/11, and soon became known in Britain as 7/7. The bombers and their victims were passengers on London underground trains and a double-decker bus. I heard the bus blow up near my Russell Square apartment. The physical impact of the bombs was devastating. The cultural impact still reverberates through Britain and especially in the Muslim community.

Babar Ahmad’s appeal against extradition to the United States will begin on Tuesday 11th July 2006. If he loses this appeal he could be on the plane to America to face gross Human Rights abuses within WEEKS. Join the demo to tell the Government and the world that enough is enough. British citizens will no longer tolerate second-class treatment. Bring out the evidence in Britain and give Babar a fair trial here, or release him immediately

There is a real holocaust taking place in the Gaza Strip these days. Mothers and their children are exterminated by artillery bombardment and air-to-ground missiles, civilians are bombed from land, air and sea, homes are leveled to the ground, universities are attacked by F-16 warplanes, boarding schools are hit with hell-fire missiles, power stations and bridges are destroyed and farms and orchards and groves are wantonly bulldozed, turning a previously verdant terrain into wasteland.

Crimes against humanity occur not only in Gaza, but also in the West Bank. On 7 July 2006 at 11:00 GMT, Palestine Center for Human Rights,Gaza reported 24 Palestinians killed by Israeli Occupation Forces in the Gaza Strip and 2 killed in the West Bank, 115 others injured. IOF entered a mourning house in Jenin where Zakaria Zubeidi, a popular resistance leader, was. Zubeidi's mother, Samira, donated the top floor of her house for Arna Mer Khamis's theater.

Guantánamo Bay, a result of the Bush Administration’s ‘War on Terror’ has been the cause of much injustice and heartache for families around the globe. The base set up four years ago has become notorious for the inhumane treatment of detainees. The recent tragic death of the three young men whilst detained has caused further controversy and calls for the illegal base to be closed down.

Britain fell silent at noon for two minutes to mark the first anniversary of the London bombings that claimed 52 lives and injured hundreds. The silence is one of the events taking place to commemorate the 7 July suicide attacks on the capital. Flowers were laid at the sites where bombs went off on three Tube trains and a bus at the times of the blasts.

The Palestinian government has urged security forces to fight Israeli troops in Gaza after the most violent day since Israel withdrew from the territory last year. Saeed Seyam, the interior minister, declared a state of emergency on Thursday, according to a spokesman after fighting killed 17 Palestinians and one Israeli soldier.