'Cufflink' terrorist Samata Ullah admits IS charges

Pic:Officers outside a property in Cardiff in September and Samata Ullah
Crime reporter(wp):

A man who used a James Bond-style USB cufflink to store extremist data has admitted five charges of terrorism.

Samata Ullah, 34, of Cardiff, pleaded guilty to being a member of so-called Islamic State, terrorist training, preparing terrorist acts and possessing articles for terrorist purposes.

He denied one charge of directing terrorism.

The Old Bailey court in London heard the Attorney General had decided to accept the pleas.

The remaining charge will lie on his file.

When he was arrested on 22 September, he had a USB cufflink with an operating system loaded onto it to conceal a hoard of extremist data, including a blog.

The court heard that between December 2015 and his arrest, Ullah had provided instructional videos on how to secure sensitive data and remain anonymous online with the use of encryption programmes.

He also admitted having a book entitled Guided Missiles Fundamentals AFM 52-31 and an electronic version of Advances in Missile Guidance, Control and Estimation for terrorist purposes.

Brian Altman QC, prosecuting, said a hi-tech report dealt with Ullah's desire to copy his blog onto a platform in a "format that meant it could not be closed down or deleted by the authorities".

Ullah, who has been diagnosed with autism, admitted the charges earlier in March but his pleas could not be reported until after the the prosecution had time to consider whether to go ahead with a trial on the remaining charge.

Judge Gerald Gordon lifted reporting restrictions and adjourned the case until 28 April.

He said the "issue of dangerousness" would have to be looked at before sentencing.

Speaking after the hearing, Metropolitan Police Counter Terrorism Commander Dean Haydon said: "Just because Ullah's activity was in the virtual world we never underestimated how dangerous his activity was.

"He sat in his bedroom in Wales and created online content with the sole intention of aiding people who wanted to actively support ISIS and avoid getting caught by the authorities.

"This is just the sort of information that may have helped people involved in planning devastating, low technical level, attacks on crowded places as we have seen in other cities across the world."

Murder probe after man found dead at block of flats in Hoxton

Crime reporter(wp/es):

A murder probe has been launched after a young man was found dead at flats in east London.

Metropolitan Police officers were called to Hoxton's Cranston Estate after the victim, in his 20s, was found unresponsive shortly after 12.30pm on Sunday.

He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Scotland Yard said a 28-year-old man had been arrested on suspicion of murder.

He is being held at an east London police station.

A Met Police spokesman added: “The victim’s next of kin have been informed. 

“Formal identification and a post-mortem examination will be scheduled in due course.

“Enquiries continue to establish the full circumstances of the events.”

It came amid a weekend of violence in London.

On Saturday night a one-year-old boy was killed in an attack in a Finsbury Park flat which also left his twin sister critically injured. The children were named locally as Gabriel and Maria.

A 33-year-old man, believed to be the twins' father, was later arrested.

In a separate incident an 18-year-old man died after being shot in the head in Barking.

Scotland Yard said detectives had arrested a 20-year-old man in connection with the shooting in St Ann’s just after 7pm on Sunday.

Brexit process to officially be triggered on March 29, Downing Street confirms

Political reporter(wp/es):

Theresa May will fire the starting gun for Brexit on Wednesday next week, Downing Street officially revealed today.

She will move Article 50 of the Lisbon Treaty and make a statement in the House of Commons on March 29, finally setting in train Britain’s formal departure from the European Union.

The historic start of the process, 44 years after the UK joined the EEC in 1973, will trigger a two-year countdown for negotiations over the exit terms and any interim trade deal. 

Brexit will take place by March 29 2019 at the latest, No 10 confirmed.

The UK’s permanent representative in Brussels, Sir Tim Barrow, this morning notified European Council president Donald Tusk that the Prime Minister has chosen Wednesday March 29 as the day to obey the instructions of the British people given in last June’s in-out referendum.

“We want negotiations to start promptly,” said the Prime Minister’s offcial spokesman this morning.

Asked if that would mean Brexit happening by March 29 2019, the PM’s spokesman said: “We have said we expect this to be a two-year process and we are confident that is what we will achieve.”

The starting move will be a hand-delivered letter from Mrs May to Mr Tusk, launching the exit procedures set out in the Lisbon Treaty. Mr Tusk said recently that EU leaders would respond within “more or less 48 hours” of the letter, starting possibly the most complicated series of negotiations in British history.

Brexit Secretary David Davis said: “Last June, the people of the UK made the historic decision to leave the EU. Next Wednesday, the Government will deliver on that decision and formally start the process by triggering Article 50.

“We are on the threshold of the most important negotiation for this country for a generation.

“The Government is clear in its aims: a deal that works for every nation and region of the UK and indeed for all of Europe – a new, positive partnership between the UK and our friends and allies in the European Union.”

Mrs May’s spokesman appeared to rule out an early general election at the same time as revealing the date of Brexit, saying: “There is not going to be one.”

The date means Mrs May will have met her conference pledge to trigger Brexit by the end of March by just two days.

Preparations are understood to be highly advanced, with the letter to Mrs Tusk already drafted and Britain’s opening demands in the Brexit negotiation prepared.

The Prime Minister was in Wales today on a pre-Brexit tour of the UK designed to show she is listening to the views of every region.

March 29 is anti-Brexit campaigner Sir John Major’s 74th birthday - and the wedding anniversary of fellow Remain campaigner and ex-PM Tony Blair.

London house prices hit record high

Staff reporter(wp/es):

Average asking prices in London have hit a record high of £650,000, with price growth driven by rising demand in the outer boroughs.

Buyers priced out of more central London locations because house price growth has vastly outpaced wage rises since the 2008 property crash have been increasingly searching for better value and more spacious homes on the capital's fringes.

Increased demand in these outer suburban boroughs has led to London house prices rising by an average of 1.4 per cent – or more than £8,500 – in the last month alone.

This growth has come despite the widely-reported market uncertainty since Brexit was announced in June last year, and the expectation that Article 50 will be triggered imminently.

London's "most affordable" boroughs
All 12 boroughs where average asking prices are below £500,000 – just over a third of local authorities – have seen annual price growth, according to the latest house price index from Rightmove.

Prices in Enfield in north London, where areas like Cockfosters and Palmers Green attract commuters looking for more spacious family homes, rose by 8.2 per cent annually, hitting £485,000. In the south eastern borough of Greenwich, prices hit £477,000, up 6.7 per cent year on year; and in Croydon, on the capital’s southern fringe, prices rose 6.1 per cent to £430,000.

The five boroughs with the highest monthly rises were also all in outer London – Ealing (6.3pc), Harrow (4.8pc), Kingston-upon Thames (3.9pc), Barnet (3.8pc) and Brent (3.7pc).

“Whilst people are now more likely to hold out for that second or third bedroom rather than get a smaller place and move again a few years down the line, they are prepared to stretch more to get that home they will “grow into, rather than grow out of” and move a bit further out in the process to find the extra space," says Jack Malnick, sales director of estate agent Chelsea Square in Cricklewood and West and South Hampstead.

“This of course drives up the volume of people looking in the areas we cover in Brent and Barnet which logically, when demand is higher, means a rise in prices.”

Prime central London
Meanwhile some of the most expensive boroughs continue to be hit with falling prices. Kensington & Chelsea, formerly the most expensive borough in London, saw house prices drop by 19.4 per cent, pushing the average asking price below £2 million for the first time in nearly two years.

As a result, Westminster is now home to the highest average house price in London.

“Outer London continues to out-perform inner London in the price-rise stakes, and it is this trend of buyers looking further afield for value that is pushing up demand and therefore prices in many outer boroughs," says Rightmove director Miles Shipside.

“This has helped to push the overall average price of newly-marketed property in Greater London to a record high. With nine months having elapsed since the referendum and stronger demand returning to the market, there are signs that prices are becoming more resilient.”