Relatives of Briton Akmal Shaikh today said the UK government’s failure to prevent his execution in China showed Britain’s “powerlessness in the world”.

CHINA brushed aside international appeals yesterday and executed a British drug smuggler who relatives say was mentally unstable and unwittingly lured into crime.

The execution of British citizen Akmal Shaikh by China sparked a diplomatic war of words between London and Beijing today.

China remained defiant today in the face of condemnation from the UK Government and human rights campaigners over the execution of a Briton said by his supporters be suffering from mental illness.

A BRITON who was due to be executed in China this morning was only told of his fate yesterday, his supporters said.

A British man sentenced to death in China for drug smuggling received a fair trial, officials said today.

Five police officers were killed when unidentified gunmen stormed a police station in the southern Pakistani city of Karachi today, authorities said.

FBI agents hunting the source of the anthrax letters that have killed four people have searched two houses, including one owned by a city health commissioner .