? EMERGENCY SERVICES. Britain stages terror attack drill. Hundreds of volunteers pretended to be victims of a nerve gas attack in England yesterday as Britain tested the readiness of its emergency services for a terrorist attack. The simulation, which police said was the biggest of its kind ever staged in the UK, involved more than 2,000 fire, ambulance and police officers along with army and Red Cross volunteers who played the role of contaminated casualties.

? ON THE WEB. Militants post tape of American?s beheading. A video tape of the beheading of US aviation engineer Paul Johnson by al Qaeda militants in Saudi Arabia a month ago appeared on the Internet on Saturday. The tape shows what appears to be the motionless body of Johnson being decapitated and his severed head held up for the camera. The nearly two-minute tape, posted on the Web site of al Qaeda?s cell in Saudi Arabia, begins with shots of destroyed houses in what appears to be Iraq interspersed with images of US-made Apache helicopters, which Johnson trained the Saudi air force to use. The US embassy in Saudi Arabia said on Thursday a search for Johnson?s body was drawing to a close after US experts sent to the kingdom failed to find his remains. Johnson, 49 and employed by US helicopter gunship maker Lockheed Martin was beheaded on June 18 by supporters of al Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden after the deadline to free Islamist prisoners expired.

? JAPAN. Accused US deserter arrived yesterday. An ex-US soldier accused of deserting to North Korea 39 years ago arrived in Japan yesterday with his wife and two North Korea-born daughters, after flying from Indonesia to face an uncertain fate. The United States has said it will request custody of Charles Robert Jenkins, a 64-year-old former US army sergeant, over the desertion charges but, in what may be a tacit agreement to avoid a row with key ally Japan, could delay doing so while he is undergoing medical treatment.