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UK service for Bali victims
LONDON, England -- Friends and relatives of British victims of the Bali bombings have gathered for a memorial service. Mourners filed into London's Southwark Cathedral on Wednesday to commemorate the lives of the 26 Britons who died. They were among at least 180 people killed in the blasts -- the majority of them Australian -- on October 12 last year. The Prince of Wales, UK Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Australian Prime Minister John Howard were among the mourners. Following the blasts, Straw revealed that Britain had received a "generic" warning about the terrorist threat to Bali and other Indonesian islands earlier in 2002. But he insisted it had had no "specific" information which could have prevented the bombing. He told the BBC: "There was a generic threat information which covered Bali as well as quite a number of other islands in Indonesia and that was reflected in the overall travel advice which we issued in August. "We had no specific warnings of an attack in Bali. We didn't have any warnings, the United States didn't, Australia didn't. " Wednesday's memorial service was taking place after Indonesian police revealed they had arrested a senior figure in the militant group blamed for the atrocity. Mukhlas, who is also known as Ali Gufron, was arrested on the island of Java and is said to be a key member of the Jemaah Islamiah organisation. Police investigating the attack claim Mukhlas has admitted taking part in the meetings where the bomb plots were hatched. Mukhlas's brother, Amrozi, has also been arrested and is said to have admitted owning the van used to bomb the Sari Club and to buying explosives. Mukhlas, Amrozi and another suspect, the alleged "mastermind" of the bombings, Imam Samudram, are all said to have attended an Islamic school in southern Malaysia either as students or teachers. The extremist cleric Abu Bakar Ba'asyir, who is alleged to lead Jemaah Islamiah, also taught there.
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