Campaigners say the homes were destroyed by the Israeli army as retribution for a Palestinian militant attack, in contravention of the laws of war protecting civilian property. Israel says destruction of Palestinian houses is among the necessary measures it takes to protect its citizens.

The Met initially refused to get involved, citing massive pressures on counter-terrorism teams in the wake of the London bombings.

But the legal representatives successfully applied to a judge for an arrest warrant for a private prosecution.

Decisions log

A decisions log prepared for the Independent Police Complaints Commission, which has investigated the incident, shows officers decided to detain the general at Heathrow’s immigration control.

Officials tipped off the general and he and his wife refused to leave the El Al flight for the two hours it sat at the London airport’s terminal.

The documents now show Det Supt John MacBrayne, a senior counter-terrorism officer who was responsible for the operation, could not get confirmation that his team had the right to board the plane.

El Al, Israel’s national airline, had refused permission.

In his log, he wrote: “Another consideration [was] that El Al flights carried armed air marshals, which raised issues around public safety.

“There was also no intelligence as to whether Mr Almog would have been travelling with personal security as befitted his status, armed or otherwise.”

The officer concluded there were real risks to the police and public and also had concerns about the “international impact of a potentially armed police operation at an airport”.

Apology to Israel

When Maj Gen Almog arrived back in Israel, the planned arrest caused a minor diplomatic storm, with Israeli foreign minister Silvan Shalom describing the incident as an “outrage”.

In turn, the then UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw apologised to his counterpart for any embarrassment caused.

Hickman and Rose, lawyers for the Palestinians, demanded an inquiry.

A spokesman for the Independent Police Complaints Commission said its review had not identified the source who leaked details of the planned arrest.

It also concluded police had not broken rules by failing to board the aircraft to execute the warrant.

John O’ Connor, a former head of Scotland Yard’s flying squad, told BBC One’s Breakfast programme: “All they needed to do was to stop the plane from taking off and negotiate through the Foreign Office.”

He said he felt the arrest had been “written off”, putting “British justice is in the dock.”

Egypt’s Interior Ministry had no immediate comment on the case.

‘Ignorance and injustice’

Two of the men were arrested in October after a scuffle in central Cairo and when one said he was HIV-positive they were taken to the police branch which deals with issues of public morality.

Both men claim they were beaten for refusing to sign statements written by the police.

Scott Long, director of the US-based group’s Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, and Transgender Rights Programme, said the arrests “embody both ignorance and injustice”.

“These cases show Egyptian police acting on the dangerous belief that HIV is not a condition to be treated but a crime to be punished,” he said.

‘Habitual debauchery’ convictions

Four further arrests were made in November when police raided the flat of one of those being held, which had been placed under surveillance.

Those four men were sentenced to one year in jail in January having been convicted of “habitual debauchery”, which Human Rights Watch says is a euphemism used to penalise consensual homosexual acts.

Their lawyers claimed the prosecution had produced no evidence against the defendants, who pleaded not guilty.

While not explicitly referred to in Egypt’s legal code, homosexuality can be punished under several different laws covering obscenity, prostitution and debauchery.

Egypt has come under repeated criticism by both human rights groups and the international community for its treatment of homosexual people.

It is a story that could have been told by any one of thousands of Kenya’s displaced children.

Nicholas Makutsa from the Red Cross is one of those tasked with tracing missing parents and children.

“They’ve talked about seeing their parents being killed – they’ve seen people being shot, houses being burnt, even people being burnt alive. It’s been a traumatising experience for them.”

Reunited

And even here, violence is not far away. As we speak, there comes a sound from beyond the gates that causes the children to stiffen with fear – gunshots from a neighbouring slum.

It may be police, or a shoot-out between gangs. But after what these children have witnessed in recent weeks, it is enough to send them scurrying for cover.

Since they arrived here only a handful of children have been reunited with their parents. Today, as they shelter in a classroom from the shooting outside, another one is about to get good news.

Mary became separated from Rosalind in the panic. For the past fortnight each has thought the other to be dead.

There are no words between mother and daughter when they are reunited – only silent tears. Rosalind takes her daughter’s hand, walks out of the gate and back into a Kenya that has become a fearful place.

They have no home, no money and only a promise of future peace from their feuding politicians.

“As she climbed through the window, the attackers were on the other side – they grabbed her baby and threw it back in. The child died in the inferno,” our correspondent told BBC News 24.

The smell of smoke still hung in the air more than 24 hours after the attack, in which 30 people were burnt to death while trying to shelter from the violence that broke out over the disputed results of last week’s election.

Near the entrance lay the charred mattresses which the attackers had doused with paraffin and set alight – before barring the door.

“You get a sense of how much panic there must have been,” our correspondent says.

“Every so often you see an item – a shoe or a cooking pot – that give some indication that people were living here.”

Some of the clothing was child-sized. At least half of those who died were children.

Returning

Some people have been returning to the church to retrieve their possessions. People have gone into Eldoret town or other churches where they feel they may still be safe.

Patrick Nongyeza, head of the Red Cross team at the site, says the country has been numbed by recent events.

“In Kenya we have never seen this, especially in a church compound,” he said.

“This is the first time we experience something of this nature, of that magnitude.”

Several hundred people, mainly from President Mwai Kibaki’s Kikuyu ethnic group, are thought to have been sheltering in the church.

George Karanja told the Associated Press he had helped pull 10 people from the flames, but was not able to save his 11-year-old nephew.

“He was screaming, ‘Uncle, uncle!’… He died,” said Mr Karanja.

A mob angry about election results which the opposition claims were rigged doused the Kenya Assemblies of God church near Eldoret with petrol before setting it on fire, survivors and police told the news agency AFP.

“The mattresses that people were sleeping on caught fire. There was a stampede, and people fell on one another,” said Mr Karanja, 37.

‘Vigilante gangs’

Eldoret has a history of inter-ethnic conflict and has seen some of the worst violence since the victory of incumbent President Mwai Kibaki was announced on Sunday, in the poll which international observers said was flawed.

“We’ve been unable to sleep soundly the last few nights. I am at an uncle’s house about 10 minutes from town. The nights are marked by gunfire, smoke, screaming,” 22-year-old Chemu Mungo told the BBC.

“Last night, we had about 20 women and children, most of the Kalenjin tribes, take refuge in my uncle’s house because where they lived houses were being burnt and they felt unsafe.”

An estimated 250 people have died in the violence that erupted following the controversial re-election of President Kibaki, according to police and journalists across the country.

Unusually, he blogs under his real name.

Freedom and Islam

At the top of his Arabic blog is the slogan: “Searching for freedom, dignity, justice, equality, public participation and the other lost Islamic values.”

As those words suggest, Farhan is no secularist. For him, there is no contradiction between freedom and Islam.

His blog (

Reformists

But it looks as if his detention results from his open support for a group of reformists who were arrested last year and are being held without charge or trial.

The authorities have linked them to terrorism, but their supporters are convinced they are being punished for their political activity.

In the past bloggers have sometimes been warned off and occasionally shut down.

One outspoken woman, who blogged under the name Saudi Eve, found her site blocked after she wrote freely about sex and religion.

New battleground

Cyberspace has become the new battleground in which liberals and conservatives confront one another.

Young Saudis chafe at the many restrictions they face in a country under the sway of an austere form of Islam.

They use their blogs to attack the religious police – or just gossip about fashion, travel and relationships.

Religious conservatives see themselves as the defenders of moral purity – but also pursue a variety of political agendas.

When one blogger encounters official disapproval, others rush to his (or her) defence.

This has been the case after Fouad al-Farhan was arrested on 10 December.

The news first appeared on the internet. It took the authorities more than two weeks to acknowledge he was being held.

An energetic campaign is under way online, in English and Arabic, to press for his release.

Are you in Saudi Arabia? Do you follow blogs from Saudi Arabia? Send us your views on this story.

The US Congress recently voted to restrict some military aid to Pakistan. It did so to put pressure on President Pervez Musharraf to restore democratic rights.

The New York Times quoted unnamed officials in the US administration and military as saying that there were too few controls over the money.

Officials were quoted saying that the US had paid several millions of dollars to meet inflated Pakistani reimbursement claims for fuel, ammunition and other costs.

“I personally believe there is exaggeration and inflation,” the newspaper quoted a senior American military official who has reviewed the programme as saying.

“Then, I point back to the United States and say we didn’t have to give them money this way.”

The $5bn was provided through a programme which reimburses Pakistan for conducting military operations to fight terrorism.

Pakistani officials have blamed the US for refusing to sell the country advance helicopters, reconnaissance aircraft, radios and night-vision equipment that it needs.

“There have been many aspects of equipment that we are keen on getting,” Maj Gen Arshad told the newspaper in a separate interview.

“There have been many delays which have hampered this war against extremists.”

Born in 1953 in the province of Sindh and educated at Harvard and Oxford, Ms Bhutto gained credibility from her father’s high profile, even though she was a reluctant convert to politics.

She was twice prime minister of Pakistan, from 1988 to 1990, and from 1993 to 1996.

Stubbornness

On both occasions she was dismissed from office by the president for alleged corruption.

The dismissals typified her volatile political career, which was characterised by numerous peaks and troughs. At the height of her popularity – shortly after her first election – she was one of the most high-profile women leaders in the world.

Young and glamorous, she successfully portrayed herself as a refreshing contrast to the overwhelmingly male-dominated political establishment.

But after her second fall from power, her name came to be seen by some as synonymous with corruption and bad governance.

She returned to Pakistan in 1986, attracting huge crowds to political rallies.

After Gen Zia died in an explosion on board his aircraft in 1988, she became one of the first democratically elected female prime ministers in an Islamic country.

Corruption charges

During both her stints in power, the role of Ms Bhutto’s husband, Asif Zardari, proved highly controversial.

He played a prominent role in both her administrations, and has been accused by various Pakistani governments of stealing millions of dollars from state coffers – charges he denies, as did Ms Bhutto herself.

Many commentators argued that the downfall of Ms Bhutto’s government was accelerated by the alleged greed of her husband.

None of about 18 corruption and criminal cases against Mr Zardari has been proved in court after 10 years. But he served at least eight years in jail.

He was freed on bail in 2004, amid accusations that the charges against him were weak and going nowhere.

Ms Bhutto also steadfastly denied all the corruption charges against her, which she said were politically motivated.

She faced corruption charges in at least five cases, all without a conviction, until amnestied in October 2007.

She appealed against a conviction in the Swiss courts for money-laundering.

During her years outside Pakistan, Ms Bhutto lived with her three children in Dubai, where she was joined by her husband after he was freed in 2004.

She was a regular visitor to Western capitals, delivering lectures at universities and think-tanks and meeting government officials.

Army mistrust

Ms Bhutto returned to Pakistan on 18 October 2007 after President Musharraf signed into law an ordinance granting her and others an amnesty from corruption charges.

Observers said the military regime saw her as a natural ally in its efforts to isolate religious forces and their surrogate militants.

She declined a government offer to let her party head the national government after the 2002 elections, in which the party received the largest number of votes.

In the months before her death, she had emerged again as a strong contender for power.

Some in Pakistan believe her secret talks with the military regime amounted to betrayal of democratic forces as these talks shored up President Musharraf’s grip on the country.

Others said such talks indicated that the military might at long last be getting over its decades-old mistrust of Ms Bhutto and her party, and interpreted it as a good omen for democracy.

Western powers saw in her a popular leader with liberal leanings who could bring much needed legitimacy to Mr Musharraf’s role in the “war against terror”.

Unhappy family

Benazir Bhutto was the last remaining bearer of her late father’s political legacy.

Her brother, Murtaza – who was once expected to play the role of party leader – fled to the then-communist Afghanistan after his father’s fall.

From there, and various Middle Eastern capitals, he mounted a campaign against Pakistan’s military government with a militant group called al-Zulfikar.

He won elections from exile in 1993 and became a provincial legislator, returning home soon afterwards, only to be shot dead under mysterious circumstances in 1996.

Benazir’s other brother, Shahnawaz – also politically active but in less violent ways than Murtaza – was found dead in his French Riviera apartment in 1985.