Britain's Environment Agency chief under fire

LONDON • As much of northern Britain braced itself for further flooding, the country's Environment Agency chief came under fire after it emerged he had spent the last two weeks in Barbados.

Mr Philip Dilley, 60, was set to meet flood victims yesterday shortly after returning to Britain, saying he had arrived "at the appropriate time". The agency and the government have been criticised after thousands were forced to leave their homes during an unusually wet December, with officials blamed for failing to build adequate flood defences.

The agency has also been accused of misleading the public after it said Mr Dilley was "at home with his family" during floods that hit a day after Christmas.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE

Turkey detains two suicide bomb suspects

ANKARA • Turkish police detained in Ankara two suspected suicide bombers linked to Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) militants who were plotting an attack on New Year's Eve in the capital, a Turkish official said yesterday. "They are suspected of being affiliated with the Islamic State and were planning an attack... in Ankara," the official, who did not want to be named, said.

Turkey is on high security alert after 103 people were killed on Oct 10 when two suicide bombers ripped through a crowd of peace activists in Ankara, the worst attack in modern Turkey's history.

That attack was blamed on ISIS militants, like two other deadly strikes in the country's Kurdish-dominated south-east earlier in the summer.

AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE