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Labour MSP Gordon Jackson has promised to give up legal work and concentrate fully on his role in the Scottish Parliament - and in his constituency. Mr Jackson provided a written guarantee after his local party warned him he could not do both jobs. The Glasgow Govan MSP's record was discussed at a meeting of Scottish Labour's executive on Saturday morning. Mr Jackson was warned by the party's ruling body that if he goes back on his promise, swift action will follow. The highly-paid QC anno ...

TOKYO, Japan (AP) -- A new top-of-the-line U.S. guided missile destroyer was deployed to Japan on Saturday, amid tensions over North Korea's missile tests. The USS Mustin sailed into the port of Yokosuka, home to the Navy's 7th Fleet, with a crew of 300 for permanent assignment to the region, 7th Fleet spokeswoman Hanako Tomizuka said. The Mustin, commissioned in 2003, is one of the most advanced in the fleet. Its deployment to Yokosuka was previously planned and not in response to North Ko ...

MADRID, Spain (CNN) -- Pope Benedict XVI arrived in Valencia, Spain on Saturday for a two-day visit in which his first event was a prayer ceremony at a metro station where an underground train accident last Monday killed 42 people. The accident, which authorities initially indicated was due to excessive speed of the subway train, cast a somber preamble to the much-anticipated papal visit, the fir ...

By Nidal al-Mughrabi GAZA (Reuters) - Palestinian Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh called for a halt to fighting on Saturday hours after Israel, whose forces have killed over 40 Palestinians in recent days, withdrew from most of the northern Gaza Strip. A statement from Haniyeh's office said: "To get out of the current crisis, it is necessary that all parties restore calm on the basis of mutually stopping all military operations." Haniyeh's statement called for restarting negotiations, which had ...

BERLIN, Germany (CNN) -- Germany's federal prosecutor's office announced Saturday it has arrested a German of Moroccan descent on charges that he recruited suicide bombers for Iraq and financially supported the al Qaeda terrorist network. German police arrested Redouane E.H., 36, on Thursday in the northern German city of Hamburg, according to a statement on the prosecutor's Web site. The suspect is from the nearby town of Kiel, where police searched several homes before his arrest. He was nab ...

By Sheikh Mushtaq SRINAGAR, India (Reuters) - A woman politician in Indian Kashmir survived a sixth attempt on her life on Saturday when suspected militants threw a grenade, but five of her supporters were killed and 45 wounded in the attack, police said. Sakina Itoo, 36, lawmaker and a leader of the National Conference party, was coming out of a shrine along with dozens of her supporters when the militants struck, a police spokesman said. "Itoo received splinter injuries but she is out of da ...

BERLIN (Reuters) - German authorities have detained a man they believe is an al Qaeda agent who recruited suicide bombers to carry out bombings in Iraq and carried messages for a planner of the September 11 attacks, prosecutors said on Saturday. The German Federal Prosecutors Office said in a statement police in Hamburg arrested the 36-year-old Moroccan-born German citizen, identified only as Red ...

The US has dismissed demands from North Korea to have sanctions against it lifted as a precondition for returning to the talks on its nuclear programme. US envoy Christopher Hill accused the North of trying to divert attention from its "reckless" missile tests. But he said he supported a Chinese plan for informal six-party discussions to try to re-engage the North Koreans. Mr Hill is on a tour of the region to co-ordinate a response to the missile tests held by North Korea on Wednesday.  ...

By Alastair Macdonald BAGHDAD (Reuters) - A U.S. military report passed to the commander in Iraq on Friday found Marine officers failed to respond properly to conflicting reports of the killings of up to 24 Iraqi civilians in Haditha last year, an official said. "The Marines will go through their day of pain," the military official said, on condition of anonymity, when asked about possible disciplinary action against the unit involved. A separate murder inquiry is looking at the conduct of th ...

By Tim Castle LONDON (Reuters) - The government's top legal adviser on Saturday refused to intervene in the planned extradition of three former bankers to face Enron-related fraud charges in the United States. Attorney-General Lord Goldsmith rejected a last-minute call from the Conservative Party for the three to be prosecuted in Britain. The former NatWest bankers, David Bermingham, Gary Mulgr ...