The pre-dawn raid caught Swedish police by surprise.

TEN men accused of stealing nearly ¡ê3.1 million in a commando-style raid of a Swedish cash depot pleaded innocent yesterday as prosecutors opened their trial with surveillance video of the brazen helicopter heist. The footage of the 23 September, 2009 robbery showed three black-clad bandits leaping from the chopper and breaking into the G4S cash facility in Stockholm from the roof. They used explosives, ladders and a power cutter to access the cash as panickedADVERTISEMENT staff, all unarmed, fled.

The money has not been found.Five of those on trial yesterday were charged with aggravated robbery and five with complicity. The defendants include the alleged helicopter pilot and one of the three men prosecutors say broke into the building. The others are accused of helping prepare the heist or obstructing the police response.All ten denied the charges in a packed Stockholm court room. Nine of them are Swedish citizens while one is Syrian.

They are between 23- and 38-years-old.The pre-dawn raid caught Swedish police by surprise, even though they had received tips about the plans from counterparts in Serbia.Police were unable to launch their own helicopters to pursue the bandits, as apparent bombs - that later turned out to be fake - were placed at their helipad.A surveillance video showed depot employees hiding in a safe room, covering their ears or hugging each other as explosions rocked the building.

They then escaped, shortly before the bandits made it into the room were the cash was being stored."They heard the explosions and many feared for their lives," said Max Fredriksson, a lawyer representing staff seeking damages from the suspects.The robbers filled up bags with money and loaded them onto the chopper.

Police, who had been waiting for a SWAT team, watched the aircraft take off from the street below.The trial continues.MPUMinCharsCutOff:210 PageLength:1676MPUPositionFromStart:250 MPUPositionRange:1000hasVideoOrImage:False---> coach outlet.coach outlet onlinecoach outlet.coach outlet online

Some Burnt Forest residents.

NAOMI Kamau, her three children and another woman faced a group of screaming armed men wielding machetes within minutes of President Mwai Kibaki being declared winner of a disputed 2007 election. The Kamaus, ethnic Kikuyus, fled their Nyakinyua farm deep in the fertile Rift Valley, hounded by Kalenjin youths angry over what they felt was rigging of the vote by Mr Kibaki.Tribal tensions fanned by politicians during elections have turned BuADVERTISEMENTrnt Forest some 200 miles northwest of the capital Nairobi into a litmus test of violence in Kenya's polls, and tomorrow's referendum on a new constitution is no exception.

Some Burnt Forest residents, mostly Kikuyus, spoke of rising tribal tensions and some, like Kamau, have abandoned their farms and others have sent their wives and children to safe havens."We fled our farm because we are afraid of more killings," 33-year-old Naomi Kamau said at a camp some 100 miles south of her farm where families who fled the violence have found shelter. "We have been receiving veiled threats. ISRAEL has announced it will take part in a UN investigation into the deadly Israeli raid on a Gaza-bound flotilla last spring.

The move allowed UN head Ban Ki-moon to formally announce yesterday the creation of an investigation panel into the incident in which nine Turkish activists died after being shot by Israeli commandos boarding their ship."I sincerely hope this wilADVERTISEMENTl contribute to the peace process as well as improvement of relationship between Israel and Turkey,"

Mr Ban said. The four-member panel will be chaired by former New Zealand prime minister Geoffrey Palmer and co-chaired by Colombian president Alvaro Uribe and include a Turkish and an Israeli representative.The flotilla had been trying to breach Israel's three-year blockade of the Gaza Strip.

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Israel has nothing to hide.

Both sides claim they were acting in self-defence during the confrontation."Israel has nothing to hide. It is in Israel's national interest to ensure the factual truth about the entire flotilla incident will be brought to light and that is precisely the principle we are promoting," prime minister Benjamin Netanyahu said.Israel plans to send an official to participate in the panel's deliberations and will furnish reports from its own internal inquiry, according to the statement.

The deal was reached after what Mr Ban described as two months of "intensive consultation with the leaders of Israel and Turkey," including Israeli Defence Minister Ehud Barak, and last-minute talks over the weekend.The UN chief said the panel will start work on 10 August and submit its first progress report by mid-September.Mr Ban expressed hope that the panel would meet the UN Security Council's call on June 1 for a "prompt, impartial, credible and transparent investigation conforming to international standards".

The decision marks a departure for Israel, which has frequently viewed the United Nations with suspicion and accused many UN bodies of being biased against the Jewish state.Israel refused to cooperate with an earlier investigation into last year's war in the Gaza Strip conducted by the UN Human Rights Council, which it accuses of disproportionately focusing on Israel. That probe concluded Israel and Gaza's militant Hamas rulers committed war crimes.

The statement from Mr Netanyahu's office said Israel relayed its consent "after political contacts in the past few weeks with the objective of ensuring the panel and its written mandate will be balanced and fair."There was no immediate reaction from Turkey, which withdrew its ambassador and scaled back relations with Israel following the flotilla incident. Turkey has said it would not repair relations until Israel agreed to an international investigation.

Israel imposed its blockade of the Gaza Strip after Hamas militants seized power there three years ago.MPUMinCharsCutOff:210 PageLength:2718MPUPositionFromStart:250 MPUPositionRange:1000hasVideoOrImage:False--->www.coachoutletusale.net.Coach outlet online.www.outletcoaches20ll.com