The St Cuthbert gospel, Europe's oldest intact book, will remain in Britain after a record-breaking fundraising campaign by the British Library, it said Tuesday.

Half of the £9 million ($14.2 million, 10.8 million euros) required to purchase the 7th Century copy of the Gospel of St John came from The National Heritage Memorial Fund with charitable foundations, trusts and the public making up the rest.

A Briton convicted of involvement in an al-Qaida airline shoebombing attempt is to give evidence in the U.S. trial of a man accused of plotting to bomb New York's subway, prosecutors said Monday.

Britain's Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said Saajid Muhammad Badat -- who was jailed for 13 years in 2005 -- had entered into an agreement to testify in a New York Court against Adis Medunjanin in a trial starting Monday.

The U.N. Security Council will vote Saturday on a Western-drafted resolution allowing a ceasefire observer mission in Syria even though Russia's support is in doubt.

The United States called for the vote after a second day of wrangling with Russia over security guarantees for the first 30 unarmed military monitors who U.N.-Arab League envoy Kofi Annan wants in Syria early next week.

Talks between Iran and six world powers in Istanbul on Tehran's nuclear program, the first in 15 months, began Saturday in a "positive atmosphere," a European Union spokesman said.

"There is a positive atmosphere. ... There is a desire for substantive progress," Michael Mann, spokesman for EU foreign policy chief Catherine Ashton, told reporters.

Western nations and Russia on Friday put forward rival U.N. Security Council resolutions on sending ceasefire observers to Syria as they wrangled over conditions for the mission.

The dispute after two days of tough negotiations means no vote is likely until Saturday on any final resolution which would allow an advance party of 30 unarmed military observers to go to Syria next week.

British Prime Minister David Cameron on Friday held talks with Myanmar's reformist regime and opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi as he became the first Western leader to visit the country in decades.

The landmark trip comes as world powers consider ending economic sanctions against the former pariah state following recent elections which gave Nobel Peace Prize winner Suu Kyi her first-ever seat in parliament.

British Prime Minister David Cameron urged Russia and China on Thursday to join the international community and help "tighten the noose" on the Syrian regime over its deadly crackdown on protests.

A U.N.-backed ceasefire to end 13 months of bloodshed in Syria appeared to be holding after coming into force at daybreak, but doubts remained about the compliance of President Bashar Assad's government with the peace plan.

Prime Minister Najib Miqati said Wednesday that British Foreign Secretary William Hague announced his backing for the policies adopted by the Lebanese government to achieve stability in the country.

In remarks to As Safir newspaper, Miqati described his meeting with Hague in London on Tuesday as “very positive,” and said the Foreign Secretary stressed “support for the Lebanese government’s approach which led to internal stability at a stage that is witnessing a lot of shakeups in the region.”

Al-Qaida on Tuesday threatened to attack Britain if it decides to extradite to Jordan the radical Islamist Abu Qatada, once believed to be an aide to Osama bin Laden.

In a statement signed by al-Qaida's general command and published on jihadist forums, the terror network said Abu Qatada's extradition would "open the gates of evil" onto "Britain and its citizens everywhere."

Britain can extradite jailed radical Muslim preacher Abu Hamza and five other alleged terrorists to the United States, the European Court of Human Rights ruled Tuesday.

The court found "there would be no violation of Article 3 (prohibition of inhuman and degrading treatment) of the European Convention on Human Rights" if the six were extradited, but allowed a three-month stay for an appeal.