BRITISH spies accused of helping in the rendition and torture of two Libyan rebels will be investigated by police, officials said.

British spies are expected to find out whether they will face charges today over their alleged complicity in the torture of terror suspects.

Australian police are investigating the suspected sabotage of the entertainment system on a Qantas Airways airliner during the ongoing bitter labour dispute between the airline and the aircraft maintenance union, officials said today.

Australia’s air safety authority cleared Qantas Airways to resume flying today, after it grounded its entire fleet amid a bitter union dispute.

The British Government will make payments to former detainees held at Guantanamo Bay to settle High Court actions and help pave the way for an inquiry into allegations of British complicity in torture, the Justice Secretary said today.

Families of Omagh bomb victims hit out at the British government today for censoring an official probe that examined whether vital intelligence was withheld from detectives hunting the Omagh bombers.

A new investigation must be set up to examine whether British authorities withheld vital intelligence from detectives hunting the Omagh bombers, a parliamentary report said today.

The British government insulted MPs trying to scrutinise a key Omagh bomb report when it denied full access, an influential House of Commons committee said today.

Two policemen refused to give evidence to a high-level probe into Omagh bomb intelligence in the North, it was revealed today.

CLAIMS that intelligence agents tracked the Omagh bombers on the day of the attack but failed to alert police were rejected in an official report yesterday.

A review into claims that the British secret service was monitoring dissident republicans as they drove the Omagh bomb to its target has dismissed reports that the explosion could have been prevented.

The UK Prime Minister was challenged today by victims’ families to publish a report of a review of intelligence material surrounding the Omagh bombing.

A British government inquiry into intelligence files linked to the Omagh bomb should be accelerated so it can be used in court, grieving relatives said tonight.

British prime minister Gordon Brown today announced a review of intelligence material from the Omagh bombing after claims in a TV documentary that the bombers’ phones were being tapped.

Qantas Airways chief executive Geoff Dixon said today that his airline is “probably the safest” in the world after Australia’s aviation agency launched a review of its safety standards.

AUSTRALIAN civil aviation officials yesterday announced an unprecedented special review of Qantas after three mid-air dramas in the space of two weeks threatened to tarnish its safety record.

The pilot of a Manila-bound Qantas jetliner made an emergency landing at Sydney Airport when fluid began leaking from the plane, Australian authorities said.

A QANTAS jet was forced to make an emergency landing at Adelaide airport yesterday after a door opened during a flight to Melbourne.

Australian airline Qantas moved to inspect oxygen cylinders on its entire fleet today as investigators focused on a missing tank as the suspected cause of a mid-air blast that tore a hole in a jumbo jet carrying more than 350 people.

Australian investigators were exploring the possibility today that an oxygen cylinder could have exploded mid-flight on the Qantas jumbo jet from London that was forced to plunge 20,000 feet and make an emergency landing in the Philippines.

Australian investigators today began examining a stricken Qantas jumbo jet that made a emergency landing in the Philippines with a giant hole in its fuselage.

Australia is to restrict sales of high-powered laser pointers after a series of unsolved attacks temporarily blinded airline pilots as they prepared to land.

An Australian state may ban hand-held laser pointers after six planes arriving into Sydney were forced to alter their flight paths, officials said today.

Marts: A strong export trade for quality weanlings is boosting the market which has got off to a record breaking start as the annual Weanling Shows and Sales get under way at the marts.

By Peter Gibson