Police had chance to prevent attacks

Britain’s intelligence agencies missed chances to thwart last year’s transit attacks by failing to follow up leads on two of the men who became the country’s first suicide bombers, major reports said Thursday.

The government blamed a lack of funds, a too-slow buildup of intelligence staff in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States, and spies’ failure to anticipate that British citizens would contemplate suicide attacks on their homeland.

But the reports found “no culpable failures” by agencies, including the MI5 and MI6 intelligence services, saying the bombings of three London subways and a double-decker bus July 7 came without warning.

Britain’s Home Office said in one of the reports that there is “as yet no firm evidence” of al-Qaida’s role, if any, in organizing the attacks, which killed 52 commuters and the four bombers.

However, suspected ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan and accomplice Shezad Tanweer traveled to Pakistan and it is “likely that they had some contact with al-Qaida figures,” said a second report, by a panel of nine British lawmakers.

Beijing

Deal will restart N. Korea food aid

After a government-imposed shutdown of four months, the World Food Program announced Thursday that it will resume food aid to hungry North Koreans but on a sharply reduced scale.

Anthony Banbury, the U.N. agency’s regional director for Asia, said he signed an accord with the government in Pyongyang that will allow 10 staff members to operate a $102 million feeding program, helping 1.9 million of the neediest North Koreans over the next two years.

The accord, reached Wednesday after prolonged negotiations, ended months of uncertainty since the government of Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, announced in August that it no longer wanted food aid, only development aid. Under that policy, the World Food Program was forced to halt work in North Korea in December.

Caracas, Venezuela

Congress’ report urges oil takeovers

Venezuela’s congress, dominated by supporters of President Hugo Chavez, released a report Thursday recommending the state assume majority control of key heavy oil projects run by companies like Chevron Corp. and Exxon Mobil Corp. in its oil-rich Orinoco River basin.

Such a move, which Chavez has yet to publicly endorse, would bring all active oil-producing operations run by foreign companies in Venezuela effectively under state control.

The development comes as Venezuela and Bolivia both advance a series of nationalist measures to increase state control over their oil and gas sectors. The moves, aimed at extracting a greater share of profits at a time of soaring oil prices, have rattled investors, strained some diplomatic ties and become a major issue at a summit of Latin American and European leaders this week.