Immigrants who refuse to honour British values are unwelcome, Gordon Brown said today as he pledged to do more to meet the concerns of the “mainstream majority”.
Mr Brown said he agreed that it was unfair if newcomers took advantage of Britain’s freedoms without making a fair contribution in return.
But his attempt to meet voter concerns over immigration was undermined when he was criticised by the chairman of the national statistics watchdog for exaggerating the fall in migrant numbers.
Sir Michael Scholar said that the Prime Minister had used details in his weekend podcast that were “not comparable” when claiming a recent big fall in net inward migration.
Mr Brown conceded the point today, but stuck to his theme, saying that migrant numbers had fallen by tens of thousands in the past two years.
He defended Labour’s recent record on immigration as he sought to draw the sting from a potentially inflammatory campaign issue.
Immigration is cited as the No 1 concern by many voters, more important even than the economy, and — especially with the BNP threatening an electoral challenge in some seats — Labour strategists know that they cannot ignore it.
In a speech in East London, Mr Brown called on all parties to treat immigration sensitively during the election and to unite against extremists.
Without mentioning the BNP by name, he urged solidarity against “those who want to end immigration simply because they just don’t like migrants”.
But he used the speech to say that people had a right to talk about the issue, and to sympathise with the concerns of those who may be attracted to the BNP’s message.
He cited the worries of care workers, builders, cleaners, janitors and shop workers — the “hard-pressed, hard-working majority” — and sought to address them.
“I know people think it’s unfair when it feels as though some can take advantage of the freedoms and opportunities we offer in Britain without making a fair contribution or playing by the rules. So do I.”
He added: “To those migrants who think they can get away without making a contribution, without respecting our way of life, without honouring the values that make Britain what it is, I have only one message — you’re not welcome.”
He said that Labour’s points system, which allows immigrants from non-EU countries to fill highly skilled jobs, or semi-skilled jobs that have been advertised in job centres for four weeks, had helped to bring down net inward migration.
Despite his calls for “something of a consensus” among the main parties — “none of us agree with those who would bring down the shutters around Britain entirely” — Mr Brown sought to draw a dividing line with the Conservatives.
His warning against those who “scaremonger with unsubstantiated claims about rising net inward imgration today” appeared to be aimed at the Tories. Within minutes of his speech, Chris Grayling, the Shadow Home Secretary, said that net migration had risen threefold since Labour came to power.
Mr Brown said that the Tory plan to cap non-EU migration at an as yet unspecified level was arbitrary and unworkable. It would be bad for business, he said, if employers wanted to hire someone urgently with a special skill, only to find that that year’s quota had already been filled.
“The debate isn’t about who will open all the floodgates and who will shut all doors. Neither of these are responsible options. It’s actually about the flexibility to access the skilled workers we need when we need them, and to exclude the rest,” he said.
“These are the concerns of the mainstream majority and people have a right to talk about what these issues mean for them.”
The Tories claimed credit for the intervention of Sir Michael after they lodged complaints about Mr Brown’s podcast.
In it, Mr Brown said that net inward migration had fallen from 237,000 in 2007 to 163,000 in 2008 and 147,000 last year.
Sir Michael said that the 237,000 figure was incorrect, and should have been 233,000. More seriously, he said Mr Brown had compared different sets of data.
Mr Brown responded in today’s speech by separating the two. By one measure, long-term international migration, the net figure fell from 233,000 to 163,000 between 2007-08.
According to provisional figures from the international passenger survey, the number fell from 170,000 to 147,000 in the two years to June 2009. The survey does not include incoming asylum seekers and migrants who arrive on short-term visas but stay longer.
David Cameron said he was glad that Mr Brown was addressing the issue and promised a calm, rational and sensible campaign debate.
But he said addressing the issue should be linked to welfare reform.
He said: “We need proper control of immigration. I would like to see net migration come down to the level of the 1980s and 1990s.
“But we should be explaining to people that there is a link to our failure to reform welfare with the high levels of immigration into Britain.”
Source:The Times
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Wednesday, March 31, 2010
German bishop accused of beating orphaned girls
One of the Pope's closest conservative allies in Germany, Bishop Walter Mixa, has been accused of brutally beating and flogging children in his care.
The Bishop of Augsburg, 68, denies the claims by five former pupils at a Catholic-run orphanage and care facility. But they will be a source of deep embarrassment and concern in the Vatican: Bishop Mixa is part of a conservative axis in Pope Benedict XVI's native Bavaria that has always backed the pontiff in his most controversial decisions, from criticising the violence of Islam in Regensburg cathedral, to rehabilitating the Holocaust-sceptic Bishop Richard Williamson.
Although there are no accusations of sexual abuse at the home – where the bishop was a visiting priest in the 1970s and 1980s – it is clear that Mr Mixa is in trouble.
"Once he took a wooden cooking spoon and beat me until it broke," sais Markus Tagwerk, now 41, who was in the Catholic home between 1972 and 1982.
"Then he used his hand. He would shout, 'Take this punishment, child of God!' and 'I'll soon drive Satan out of you!'". The beatings were regular and always brutal.
"At least fifty times Mr Mixa pulled down my trousers and beat me on the bottom with a stick, five or six whacks each time," Mr Tagwerk added.
The name Markus Tagwerk is a pseudonym, because the man making the allegations is a teacher.
But others have decided to give their real names and all five accusers have officially notarised their statements.
"It was a terrible blow for me when I saw that Pope Benedict had promoted Mixa to be the Bishop of Augsburg," Hildegard Sedlmair, 48, said.
"He used to rip me out of bed and beat me on the upper arm with a clenched fist."
She and another former pupil, Monika Bernhard, 47, allege that the then priest, backed up by nuns, introduced a "climate of fear".
The blows were always administered in places where the bruising could be hidden – high up on the arm or on the bottom.
One of the victims, a man who is now 44, reports being flogged with a carpet beater, 35 strokes each time.
Angelika Knopf, the pseudonym of a sales assistant in Augsburg, said she was struck as a young teenager ten times with the future bishop's balled fist. "After every punch I fell on to the bed. Mr Mixa demanded that I stand up immediately and would throw another punch," she said.
The orphanage, in the village of Schrobenhausen, has been under different management since 1999 and no complaints have been made public since Mr Mixa moved on and started to rise in the church hierarchy.
It is a measure of the bishop's standing that he has relatively free licence to make outspoken comments about society in and out of the pulpit.
He has railed against the German Government for making "birth machines" out of women. Its plans to expand the crèche network and allow women to return to work smacked, he said, of East German communist practises.
He compared abortion to the Holocaust – a particularly shocking statement when made by a senior cleric in Germany. He also accused Israel of racism in its treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
His view of the latest child abuse scandal sweeping the church was characteristically pugnacious. "The sexual revolution of the 1960s is at least partly to blame for this," he said.
A long-standing member of the child care charity, SOS-Kinderdorf, has come forward to say that at least two of the bishop's accusers relayed their stories to the charity many years ago – long before the current global flood of abuse reports.
"We did not take action then because open criticism can sometimes boomerang against the accusers," a spokeswoman said.
"These are absurd and defamatory statements, " a spokeswoman for the Bishopric of Augsburg said.
The bishop has let it be known that he is considering legal action to defend his reputation.
Source:The Times
The Bishop of Augsburg, 68, denies the claims by five former pupils at a Catholic-run orphanage and care facility. But they will be a source of deep embarrassment and concern in the Vatican: Bishop Mixa is part of a conservative axis in Pope Benedict XVI's native Bavaria that has always backed the pontiff in his most controversial decisions, from criticising the violence of Islam in Regensburg cathedral, to rehabilitating the Holocaust-sceptic Bishop Richard Williamson.
Although there are no accusations of sexual abuse at the home – where the bishop was a visiting priest in the 1970s and 1980s – it is clear that Mr Mixa is in trouble.
"Once he took a wooden cooking spoon and beat me until it broke," sais Markus Tagwerk, now 41, who was in the Catholic home between 1972 and 1982.
"Then he used his hand. He would shout, 'Take this punishment, child of God!' and 'I'll soon drive Satan out of you!'". The beatings were regular and always brutal.
"At least fifty times Mr Mixa pulled down my trousers and beat me on the bottom with a stick, five or six whacks each time," Mr Tagwerk added.
The name Markus Tagwerk is a pseudonym, because the man making the allegations is a teacher.
But others have decided to give their real names and all five accusers have officially notarised their statements.
"It was a terrible blow for me when I saw that Pope Benedict had promoted Mixa to be the Bishop of Augsburg," Hildegard Sedlmair, 48, said.
"He used to rip me out of bed and beat me on the upper arm with a clenched fist."
She and another former pupil, Monika Bernhard, 47, allege that the then priest, backed up by nuns, introduced a "climate of fear".
The blows were always administered in places where the bruising could be hidden – high up on the arm or on the bottom.
One of the victims, a man who is now 44, reports being flogged with a carpet beater, 35 strokes each time.
Angelika Knopf, the pseudonym of a sales assistant in Augsburg, said she was struck as a young teenager ten times with the future bishop's balled fist. "After every punch I fell on to the bed. Mr Mixa demanded that I stand up immediately and would throw another punch," she said.
The orphanage, in the village of Schrobenhausen, has been under different management since 1999 and no complaints have been made public since Mr Mixa moved on and started to rise in the church hierarchy.
It is a measure of the bishop's standing that he has relatively free licence to make outspoken comments about society in and out of the pulpit.
He has railed against the German Government for making "birth machines" out of women. Its plans to expand the crèche network and allow women to return to work smacked, he said, of East German communist practises.
He compared abortion to the Holocaust – a particularly shocking statement when made by a senior cleric in Germany. He also accused Israel of racism in its treatment of Palestinians in the Occupied Territories.
His view of the latest child abuse scandal sweeping the church was characteristically pugnacious. "The sexual revolution of the 1960s is at least partly to blame for this," he said.
A long-standing member of the child care charity, SOS-Kinderdorf, has come forward to say that at least two of the bishop's accusers relayed their stories to the charity many years ago – long before the current global flood of abuse reports.
"We did not take action then because open criticism can sometimes boomerang against the accusers," a spokeswoman said.
"These are absurd and defamatory statements, " a spokeswoman for the Bishopric of Augsburg said.
The bishop has let it be known that he is considering legal action to defend his reputation.
Source:The Times
Georgia accused over Moscow Metro bombing
The head of Russia’s Security Council accused Georgia today of backing terrorism in the North Caucasus and said that it could be involved in the Moscow Metro bombing.
As Moscow held the first funerals for victims of the attack, Nikolai Patrushev alleged that members of Georgia’s special services had links with terrorist groups in the region and said that investigators would look for evidence of their involvement in the double suicide-bombing that killed 39 people on the Metro.
Mr Patrushev, the former director of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, singled out Georgia and its pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili after being asked in an interview about possible foreign involvement in the terror attack.
“All theories have to be checked. For example, there is Georgia and the leader of that state, Saakashvili, whose behaviour is unpredictable,” Mr Patrushev told the Kommersant newspaper.
“He has already unleashed war once. It is possible that he may unleash it again. We have had information that individual members of Georgian special forces support contacts with terrorist organisations in the Russian North Caucasus. We must check this also in relation to the acts of terror in Moscow.”
Mr Patrushev headed the FSB for nine years until President Medvedev appointed him Secretary of the Security Council in May 2008, three months before the war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Mr Medvedev later recognised South Ossetia and Georgia’s other separatist region of Abkhazia as independent states, a move that outraged Mr Saakashvili.
Russia has stationed thousands of troops in both territories, which border the North Caucasus, although most of the world continues to recognise them as part of Georgia.
The Security Council is chaired formally by the President and includes Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister, as well as the defence and foreign ministers and the heads of Russia’s various security agencies. Mr Medvedev broke off all contact with Mr Saakashvili after the war and regularly accuses him of being a criminal.
Mr Patrushev’s claim that Georgian officers may be encouraging terrorism in Russia will inflame relations further. The director of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, has blamed the Moscow attack on terrorists from the North Caucasus, although no group has claimed responsibility.
The accusation came as two new suicide bomb attacks killed 12 people, including nine policemen, and wounded 23 in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan today.
The local police chief, Vitaly Vedernikov, was among the victims in the town of Kizlyar, close to Dagestan’s border with Chechnya, where Islamist militants have waged a long guerrilla war against Russian forces.
Rashid Nurgaliyev, the Interior Minister, said that one suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car as police tried to stop the vehicle, killing two officers. In remarks broadcast on Russian television, he said: “Traffic police followed the car and almost caught up – at that time the blast hit.”
A second suicide bomber wearing a police uniform struck 20 minutes later after approaching police and local residents who had gathered at the scene of the first blast. A school and police station were damaged in the explosion.
Mr Nurgaliyev suggested that government buildings could have been the target of the attack because the explosions took place 300 metres from the offices of the local Interior Ministry and the FSB. Muslim Dagestan has been plagued by violence for years, though much of it involves rival clans rather than Islamist separatists.
Mr Medvedev recently appointed a presidential envoy to oversee the North Caucasus, saying that separatists had spread “like a cancerous tumour” throughout the region.
Source:The Times
As Moscow held the first funerals for victims of the attack, Nikolai Patrushev alleged that members of Georgia’s special services had links with terrorist groups in the region and said that investigators would look for evidence of their involvement in the double suicide-bombing that killed 39 people on the Metro.
Mr Patrushev, the former director of the Federal Security Service, the successor to the Soviet-era KGB, singled out Georgia and its pro-Western President Mikheil Saakashvili after being asked in an interview about possible foreign involvement in the terror attack.
“All theories have to be checked. For example, there is Georgia and the leader of that state, Saakashvili, whose behaviour is unpredictable,” Mr Patrushev told the Kommersant newspaper.
“He has already unleashed war once. It is possible that he may unleash it again. We have had information that individual members of Georgian special forces support contacts with terrorist organisations in the Russian North Caucasus. We must check this also in relation to the acts of terror in Moscow.”
Mr Patrushev headed the FSB for nine years until President Medvedev appointed him Secretary of the Security Council in May 2008, three months before the war between Russia and Georgia over the breakaway region of South Ossetia.
Mr Medvedev later recognised South Ossetia and Georgia’s other separatist region of Abkhazia as independent states, a move that outraged Mr Saakashvili.
Russia has stationed thousands of troops in both territories, which border the North Caucasus, although most of the world continues to recognise them as part of Georgia.
The Security Council is chaired formally by the President and includes Vladimir Putin, Prime Minister, as well as the defence and foreign ministers and the heads of Russia’s various security agencies. Mr Medvedev broke off all contact with Mr Saakashvili after the war and regularly accuses him of being a criminal.
Mr Patrushev’s claim that Georgian officers may be encouraging terrorism in Russia will inflame relations further. The director of the FSB, Alexander Bortnikov, has blamed the Moscow attack on terrorists from the North Caucasus, although no group has claimed responsibility.
The accusation came as two new suicide bomb attacks killed 12 people, including nine policemen, and wounded 23 in the North Caucasus republic of Dagestan today.
The local police chief, Vitaly Vedernikov, was among the victims in the town of Kizlyar, close to Dagestan’s border with Chechnya, where Islamist militants have waged a long guerrilla war against Russian forces.
Rashid Nurgaliyev, the Interior Minister, said that one suicide bomber detonated explosives in his car as police tried to stop the vehicle, killing two officers. In remarks broadcast on Russian television, he said: “Traffic police followed the car and almost caught up – at that time the blast hit.”
A second suicide bomber wearing a police uniform struck 20 minutes later after approaching police and local residents who had gathered at the scene of the first blast. A school and police station were damaged in the explosion.
Mr Nurgaliyev suggested that government buildings could have been the target of the attack because the explosions took place 300 metres from the offices of the local Interior Ministry and the FSB. Muslim Dagestan has been plagued by violence for years, though much of it involves rival clans rather than Islamist separatists.
Mr Medvedev recently appointed a presidential envoy to oversee the North Caucasus, saying that separatists had spread “like a cancerous tumour” throughout the region.
Source:The Times
Girl dies in school coach crash on end-of-term trip to Alton Towers
A teenage girl has died and 44 people were treated in hospital today after a school bus crashed in southwest Scotland in "absolutely atrocious" conditions as it set off on an end-of-term trip to Alton Towers.
Natasha Jade Paton was among 39 pupils and five teachers from Lanark Grammar School, who had travelled just 12 miles when their driver lost control of the coach on a sharp bend at around 5.50am. The bus crashed through a bridge parapet and fell 10ft, partially submerging itself in a river next to the A73.
Ambulances and a rescue helicopter struggled to reach the scene, close to the village of Wiston in South Lanarkshire. They found that some of the passengers, mainly sixth form pupils aged 16 and 17, had managed to get out of the coach and scramble up the embankment, and were sitting in the back of an HGV lorry whose driver had stopped to help. Other passengers were still trapped in the coach which was partly full of icy water, and had to be helped out through a smashed sunroof.
Natasha, who was 17, and lived at Cleghorn in Lanarkshire, was found to be missing when the emergency services conducted a head count.
"Following that we carried out a complete search of the area and in doing so unfortunately found the girl who subsequently lost her life," said Jim Doyle, of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue.
"She had been thrown out and swept underneath, but the bus is not lying totally flat... there is a gap underneath so she was located under that." He added that she had apparently been thrown out of a sunroof. Her death was reported shortly before noon.
The dead girl was named this afternoon by Strathclyde Police, as friends left messages of grief and condolence on Facebook.
Vegas Barbie posted: "Rip Natasha youl never be forgoton..cant believe it il always remember the good times we had together..like the time we drew all over our faces with eyeliner al never forget you.. youl be sadly missed my thoughts are with your family."
Three other people were badly hurt, including the driver who suffered cuts and a broken leg and was carried out of the vehicle on a stretcher, and were taken to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow and Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire. By lunchtime 25 people had been treated and discharged from local hospitals, and further 16 people were still being treated at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie and Hairmyres at East Kilbride.
Superintendant Iain Murray of Strathclyde Police said officers were investigating the reason for the accident, but that the weather was partly to blame.
"Given the conditions it must have had a major part to play in it," he said.
Parents of pupils on the stricken coach were asked to assemble at the school, rather than attempt to reach the scene of the crash, which was sealed off by police. Other pupils were sent home for the day.
Mark Attwood, a local resident who was woken by the sound of the crash, described how an adult came to his door asking for help. “They said a couple of schoolchildren needed heating up. They were obviously shocked and upset and I am as well. It happened so close to my house and my own children use that route. I’m very shaken up.”
Questions were this afternoon being asked about why the school had decided to go ahead with the 250 mile road trip from Scotland to Staffordshire, given the hazardous conditions.
The Met Office had put out its highest level of alert, an Emergency Flash weather warning, for the South Lanarkshire area at 3.37pm yesterday afternoon, warning of danger to life and risk to infrastructure due to extreme weather conditions blocking roads and bringing down power lines.
Its warning stated: "Over upland parts of eastern Lanarkshire 25cm of snow could accumulate with deep drifts. Some roads liable to be impassable and some interruptions to power supplies are possible.
"The public are advised to take extra care and refer to Traffic Scotland for further advice on road conditions."
Met Office staff appeared regularly on television and radio bulletins in Scotland yesterday to warn of the bad weather.
A spokeswoman for the Met Office said that the first warnings of weather hazards for yesterday and today were put out as early as last Friday. "I would like to hope that (the school) would have been aware," said the spokeswoman.
Susan Thornton told BBC Scotland that she had stopped her son Adam from going on the school trip because of the weather.
"I just said the roads were too treacherous, that they shouldn't make the journey, " she said.
"He said to me he woke up at four anyway because he was desperate to go. He wanted to be with his friends and have a nice time but he said at four he knew he couldn't go."
Alan Purdie, the owner of the Lanarkshire-based company Photoflash which ran the coach, said: “It is a tragedy. We are all deeply concerned for the parents (of the dead girl) this morning. The company is distraught.”
Mr Purdie admitted that the conditions had been treacherous. He told Radio Clyde: “The main roads had snow on them but were not that bad. But there was black ice under the snow on that road. We cannot say any more.”
Carla Ballone, a spokeswoman for the Alton Towers theme park, said that there was no need for the school to have pressed on with the trip through atrocious weather for fear of losing its money on the bookings. "If a refund wasn't available I'm sure that we would have arranged some complimentary tickets on another day," said Ms Ballone.
South Lanarkshire Council, which handles press inquiries on the school's behalf, justifed the excursion, which it said was an annual trip to Alton Towers "as a welcome break for sixth-year students from their exam preparation before the Easter holidays".
Larry Forde, the council's director of education, said: “The headteacher Mark Sherry and everyone connected with the school wish to express their sympathies to all those involved.
“At this moment, our major focus is on the young people, their families and staff within the school. Social work and psychological services have joined staff at the school offering support. Throughout the day, Mr Sherry and colleagues within the school have been working to keep the families of those involved informed.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of one of our senior students at Lanark Grammar who died this morning, and all who were injured.”
Andrew Howard, the AA's head of road safety, declined to criticise the school, saying that it was a very difficult judgment call to decide whether to call off a trip, notifying all the parents who would then have to make alternative arrangements.
"I expect those who criticise the school for running this trip would have criticised the school for closing down for bad weather," said Mr Howard. "It's always easy to criticise after the event."
Supt Murray praised truck drivers at the scene who had stopped to give assistance, and local people who had opened Wiston village hall to give shelter and warmth to the crash survivors. He also said that the winding country road where the coach crashed was the most direct route from the school in Lanark to the southbound M74 motorway.
It was not clear whether the council had gritted the road, but even if it had it might have made little difference, as the grit would not have been effective until a number of vehicles had driven over it, grinding the snow and grit together to create a more stable driving surface, he said.
Gordon Brown said in a speech in London that his thoughts were with the family and friends of crash victims. Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, concurred, adding that the crash was "almost certainly weather-related".
Jim Hood, the Labour MP for Lanark and Hamilton East, said: “This is a terrible and shocking accident and my thoughts and prayers are with the staff and pupils involved, and their families."
The tragedy, four days after the start of British Summer Time, came as blizzards, gale force winds and torrential rain felled power lines and caused transport chaos across northern Britain.
Hours earlier in Northern Ireland, police, mountain rescue and coastguards had to be drafted in to rescue around 300 people, including children on a school bus, from more than 100 vehicles which became stranded when 4ft-high snowdrifts blocked both ends of the mountainous Glenshane Pass, a main route between Belfast and Londonderry.
Source:The Times
Natasha Jade Paton was among 39 pupils and five teachers from Lanark Grammar School, who had travelled just 12 miles when their driver lost control of the coach on a sharp bend at around 5.50am. The bus crashed through a bridge parapet and fell 10ft, partially submerging itself in a river next to the A73.
Ambulances and a rescue helicopter struggled to reach the scene, close to the village of Wiston in South Lanarkshire. They found that some of the passengers, mainly sixth form pupils aged 16 and 17, had managed to get out of the coach and scramble up the embankment, and were sitting in the back of an HGV lorry whose driver had stopped to help. Other passengers were still trapped in the coach which was partly full of icy water, and had to be helped out through a smashed sunroof.
Natasha, who was 17, and lived at Cleghorn in Lanarkshire, was found to be missing when the emergency services conducted a head count.
"Following that we carried out a complete search of the area and in doing so unfortunately found the girl who subsequently lost her life," said Jim Doyle, of Strathclyde Fire and Rescue.
"She had been thrown out and swept underneath, but the bus is not lying totally flat... there is a gap underneath so she was located under that." He added that she had apparently been thrown out of a sunroof. Her death was reported shortly before noon.
The dead girl was named this afternoon by Strathclyde Police, as friends left messages of grief and condolence on Facebook.
Vegas Barbie posted: "Rip Natasha youl never be forgoton..cant believe it il always remember the good times we had together..like the time we drew all over our faces with eyeliner al never forget you.. youl be sadly missed my thoughts are with your family."
Three other people were badly hurt, including the driver who suffered cuts and a broken leg and was carried out of the vehicle on a stretcher, and were taken to the Southern General Hospital in Glasgow and Wishaw General Hospital in Lanarkshire. By lunchtime 25 people had been treated and discharged from local hospitals, and further 16 people were still being treated at Monklands Hospital in Airdrie and Hairmyres at East Kilbride.
Superintendant Iain Murray of Strathclyde Police said officers were investigating the reason for the accident, but that the weather was partly to blame.
"Given the conditions it must have had a major part to play in it," he said.
Parents of pupils on the stricken coach were asked to assemble at the school, rather than attempt to reach the scene of the crash, which was sealed off by police. Other pupils were sent home for the day.
Mark Attwood, a local resident who was woken by the sound of the crash, described how an adult came to his door asking for help. “They said a couple of schoolchildren needed heating up. They were obviously shocked and upset and I am as well. It happened so close to my house and my own children use that route. I’m very shaken up.”
Questions were this afternoon being asked about why the school had decided to go ahead with the 250 mile road trip from Scotland to Staffordshire, given the hazardous conditions.
The Met Office had put out its highest level of alert, an Emergency Flash weather warning, for the South Lanarkshire area at 3.37pm yesterday afternoon, warning of danger to life and risk to infrastructure due to extreme weather conditions blocking roads and bringing down power lines.
Its warning stated: "Over upland parts of eastern Lanarkshire 25cm of snow could accumulate with deep drifts. Some roads liable to be impassable and some interruptions to power supplies are possible.
"The public are advised to take extra care and refer to Traffic Scotland for further advice on road conditions."
Met Office staff appeared regularly on television and radio bulletins in Scotland yesterday to warn of the bad weather.
A spokeswoman for the Met Office said that the first warnings of weather hazards for yesterday and today were put out as early as last Friday. "I would like to hope that (the school) would have been aware," said the spokeswoman.
Susan Thornton told BBC Scotland that she had stopped her son Adam from going on the school trip because of the weather.
"I just said the roads were too treacherous, that they shouldn't make the journey, " she said.
"He said to me he woke up at four anyway because he was desperate to go. He wanted to be with his friends and have a nice time but he said at four he knew he couldn't go."
Alan Purdie, the owner of the Lanarkshire-based company Photoflash which ran the coach, said: “It is a tragedy. We are all deeply concerned for the parents (of the dead girl) this morning. The company is distraught.”
Mr Purdie admitted that the conditions had been treacherous. He told Radio Clyde: “The main roads had snow on them but were not that bad. But there was black ice under the snow on that road. We cannot say any more.”
Carla Ballone, a spokeswoman for the Alton Towers theme park, said that there was no need for the school to have pressed on with the trip through atrocious weather for fear of losing its money on the bookings. "If a refund wasn't available I'm sure that we would have arranged some complimentary tickets on another day," said Ms Ballone.
South Lanarkshire Council, which handles press inquiries on the school's behalf, justifed the excursion, which it said was an annual trip to Alton Towers "as a welcome break for sixth-year students from their exam preparation before the Easter holidays".
Larry Forde, the council's director of education, said: “The headteacher Mark Sherry and everyone connected with the school wish to express their sympathies to all those involved.
“At this moment, our major focus is on the young people, their families and staff within the school. Social work and psychological services have joined staff at the school offering support. Throughout the day, Mr Sherry and colleagues within the school have been working to keep the families of those involved informed.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with the family of one of our senior students at Lanark Grammar who died this morning, and all who were injured.”
Andrew Howard, the AA's head of road safety, declined to criticise the school, saying that it was a very difficult judgment call to decide whether to call off a trip, notifying all the parents who would then have to make alternative arrangements.
"I expect those who criticise the school for running this trip would have criticised the school for closing down for bad weather," said Mr Howard. "It's always easy to criticise after the event."
Supt Murray praised truck drivers at the scene who had stopped to give assistance, and local people who had opened Wiston village hall to give shelter and warmth to the crash survivors. He also said that the winding country road where the coach crashed was the most direct route from the school in Lanark to the southbound M74 motorway.
It was not clear whether the council had gritted the road, but even if it had it might have made little difference, as the grit would not have been effective until a number of vehicles had driven over it, grinding the snow and grit together to create a more stable driving surface, he said.
Gordon Brown said in a speech in London that his thoughts were with the family and friends of crash victims. Alex Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, concurred, adding that the crash was "almost certainly weather-related".
Jim Hood, the Labour MP for Lanark and Hamilton East, said: “This is a terrible and shocking accident and my thoughts and prayers are with the staff and pupils involved, and their families."
The tragedy, four days after the start of British Summer Time, came as blizzards, gale force winds and torrential rain felled power lines and caused transport chaos across northern Britain.
Hours earlier in Northern Ireland, police, mountain rescue and coastguards had to be drafted in to rescue around 300 people, including children on a school bus, from more than 100 vehicles which became stranded when 4ft-high snowdrifts blocked both ends of the mountainous Glenshane Pass, a main route between Belfast and Londonderry.
Source:The Times
Thursday, March 18, 2010
North Korean official Pak Nam-ki executed for disastrous currency reform
North Korea has executed a ruling party official blamed for the botched currency reform last November which led to runaway inflation and threatened new food shortages, in what is an attempt to contain civil unrest.
Pak Nam-ki, the 77-year-old head of planning and finance, was executed by firing squad in Pyongyang last week according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Mr Pak, who had been purged in January, was executed for "deliberately ruining the national economy" as a "son of a big landowner," Yonhap reported.
However many both in the regime and in the wider population apparently believe that Mr Pak was made a scapegoat for the crisis, which threatened the smooth succession of power from the country's leader Kim Jong Il to his youngest son Kim Jonh Un"The mood in the leadership has made Pak Nam-ki a scapegoat," an unnamed source was quoted as saying.
In November, the regime announced a drastic revaluation of the currency - the won - in an apparent effort to curb the burgeoning free-market economy.
All North Koreans were required to swap old notes with new ones at an exchange rate of one to 100, knocking two zeros off their value.
Because of a cap of 100,000 won per family — about £500 at the official exchange rate — anyone with significant holdings of cash had their savings wiped out.
The ensuing food shortages and inflation led to a rare public admission from Mr Kim that his father's Utopian vision of a thriving economy had not materialised. “My heart bleeds for our people who are still eating corn," he said.
Since the revaluation, shops and markets in North Korea have remained closed and all cash transactions have been frozen.
According to the Seoul based DailyNK website, it was alleged that Mr Pak had submitted a report claiming that revaluation would "improve the people’s lives and secure the national budget."
Sources told the website that his promise that people's lives would be bettered had persuaded Mr Kim to revalue the won, until soaring prices proved Mr Pak wrong.
Mr Pak was publicly denounced as a traitor at a Party convention in late January, and arrested on the spot.
In the capital, Pyongyang, yesterday only the few shops and restaurants permitted to trade in foreign currencies — patronised by the privileged elite and the city’s small foreign population — were open for business.
All other enterprises and services based on cash, including markets, long-distance bus services, barbers’ shops, saunas and bath houses, were suspended until the revaluation of the won is completed next week.
In the 1990s, North Korea publicly executed a top agricultural official following widespread starvation
Source:The Times
Pak Nam-ki, the 77-year-old head of planning and finance, was executed by firing squad in Pyongyang last week according to South Korea's Yonhap news agency.
Mr Pak, who had been purged in January, was executed for "deliberately ruining the national economy" as a "son of a big landowner," Yonhap reported.
However many both in the regime and in the wider population apparently believe that Mr Pak was made a scapegoat for the crisis, which threatened the smooth succession of power from the country's leader Kim Jong Il to his youngest son Kim Jonh Un"The mood in the leadership has made Pak Nam-ki a scapegoat," an unnamed source was quoted as saying.
In November, the regime announced a drastic revaluation of the currency - the won - in an apparent effort to curb the burgeoning free-market economy.
All North Koreans were required to swap old notes with new ones at an exchange rate of one to 100, knocking two zeros off their value.
Because of a cap of 100,000 won per family — about £500 at the official exchange rate — anyone with significant holdings of cash had their savings wiped out.
The ensuing food shortages and inflation led to a rare public admission from Mr Kim that his father's Utopian vision of a thriving economy had not materialised. “My heart bleeds for our people who are still eating corn," he said.
Since the revaluation, shops and markets in North Korea have remained closed and all cash transactions have been frozen.
According to the Seoul based DailyNK website, it was alleged that Mr Pak had submitted a report claiming that revaluation would "improve the people’s lives and secure the national budget."
Sources told the website that his promise that people's lives would be bettered had persuaded Mr Kim to revalue the won, until soaring prices proved Mr Pak wrong.
Mr Pak was publicly denounced as a traitor at a Party convention in late January, and arrested on the spot.
In the capital, Pyongyang, yesterday only the few shops and restaurants permitted to trade in foreign currencies — patronised by the privileged elite and the city’s small foreign population — were open for business.
All other enterprises and services based on cash, including markets, long-distance bus services, barbers’ shops, saunas and bath houses, were suspended until the revaluation of the won is completed next week.
In the 1990s, North Korea publicly executed a top agricultural official following widespread starvation
Source:The Times
Recep Tayyip Erdogan threatens to expel 100,000 illegal Armenians
Turkey’s Prime Minister has raised the stakes in an international row over the mass killing of Armenians in Ottoman Turkey by threatening to expel 100,000 Armenians living in the country.
Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that action could be taken if foreign parliaments continued to increase the pressure by recognising the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.
“In my country there are 170,000 Armenians; 70,000 of them are citizens. We tolerate 100,000 more. So, what am I going to do tomorrow? If necessary I will tell the 100,000: okay, time to go back to your country. Why? They are not my citizens. I am not obliged to keep them in my country,” he said, during a visit to London this week.
He also warned the Armenian diaspora that its campaign to have the genocide recognised by foreign parliaments would jeopardise improved ties between Turkey and Armenia.Mr Erdogan was to have travelled on to Sweden but he cancelled the visit at the last moment and recalled Turkey’s Ambassador to Stockholm. The protest moves were taken after Sweden’s Parliament voted to join the list of nearly 20 countries that accuses Ottoman Turks of genocide over the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the First World War.
Ankara also recalled its ambassador to Washington this month after a US Foreign Affairs Committee passed a genocide resolution . Armenia condemned Mr Erdogan’s comments, saying that it revived memories of the original killings — many of which happened during mass deportations of Armenians accused of supporting the invading Russian army.
“These kinds of statements do not help to improve relations between our two states. When the Turkish Prime Minister allows himself to make such statements it brings up memories of the events of 1915,” Tigran Sarkisian, the Armenian Prime Minister, said.
Turkey rejects the accusations. Ankara insists that hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Muslim Turks died during civil strife in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Although Mr Erdogan made his remarks in London, the matter was not raised during his meeting with Gordon Brown. Britain has kept out of the row, calling only on the two countries to work to normalise their relationship. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday: “Terrible suffering was inflicted on Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century. But the main concern of this Government is not what we call such horrific events but ensuring that the lessons are learnt, and relationships are re-built to ensure a peaceful and secure future for everyone living the region.”
Pressure on Ankaras is, however, mounting. Other countries are expected to pass genocide resolutions before the centenary of the killings in 2015. Many members of the European Union, which Turkey wishes to join, including France, Germany and Italy, already recognise the events as genocide. Even in Britain, which Mr Erdogan’s aides say is “too smart” to get involved, Parliament is expected to debate a genocide Bill next month.
The number of illegal Armenians in Turkey is a matter of debate, with a study conducted last year claiming that the figure could be as low as 10,000. Around half slipped into Turkey in 1988 in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit Armenia. Others are exiles from Armenia’s ailing post-Soviet economy.
Turkish politicians have in the past threatened to throw out these Armenians in retaliation for international recognition of the genocide but this is the first time that the threat has come from the country’s leader.
His outburst probably had more to do with domestic political pressure than foreign policy. Having defied domestic opinion to champion a policy of reconciliation with Armenia Mr Erdogan finds himself accused at home of enfeebling Turkey on the international stage.Elections are due by July 2011 and Mr Erdogan is fighting a rear-guard action against nationalist parties on the left and the right.
Source:The Times
Recep Tayyip Erdogan warned that action could be taken if foreign parliaments continued to increase the pressure by recognising the massacre of Armenians by Ottoman Turks a century ago as genocide.
“In my country there are 170,000 Armenians; 70,000 of them are citizens. We tolerate 100,000 more. So, what am I going to do tomorrow? If necessary I will tell the 100,000: okay, time to go back to your country. Why? They are not my citizens. I am not obliged to keep them in my country,” he said, during a visit to London this week.
He also warned the Armenian diaspora that its campaign to have the genocide recognised by foreign parliaments would jeopardise improved ties between Turkey and Armenia.Mr Erdogan was to have travelled on to Sweden but he cancelled the visit at the last moment and recalled Turkey’s Ambassador to Stockholm. The protest moves were taken after Sweden’s Parliament voted to join the list of nearly 20 countries that accuses Ottoman Turks of genocide over the killing of up to 1.5 million Armenians during the First World War.
Ankara also recalled its ambassador to Washington this month after a US Foreign Affairs Committee passed a genocide resolution . Armenia condemned Mr Erdogan’s comments, saying that it revived memories of the original killings — many of which happened during mass deportations of Armenians accused of supporting the invading Russian army.
“These kinds of statements do not help to improve relations between our two states. When the Turkish Prime Minister allows himself to make such statements it brings up memories of the events of 1915,” Tigran Sarkisian, the Armenian Prime Minister, said.
Turkey rejects the accusations. Ankara insists that hundreds of thousands of Armenians and Muslim Turks died during civil strife in the final days of the Ottoman Empire.
Although Mr Erdogan made his remarks in London, the matter was not raised during his meeting with Gordon Brown. Britain has kept out of the row, calling only on the two countries to work to normalise their relationship. The Foreign and Commonwealth Office said yesterday: “Terrible suffering was inflicted on Armenians living in the Ottoman Empire in the early 20th Century. But the main concern of this Government is not what we call such horrific events but ensuring that the lessons are learnt, and relationships are re-built to ensure a peaceful and secure future for everyone living the region.”
Pressure on Ankaras is, however, mounting. Other countries are expected to pass genocide resolutions before the centenary of the killings in 2015. Many members of the European Union, which Turkey wishes to join, including France, Germany and Italy, already recognise the events as genocide. Even in Britain, which Mr Erdogan’s aides say is “too smart” to get involved, Parliament is expected to debate a genocide Bill next month.
The number of illegal Armenians in Turkey is a matter of debate, with a study conducted last year claiming that the figure could be as low as 10,000. Around half slipped into Turkey in 1988 in the aftermath of the devastating earthquake that hit Armenia. Others are exiles from Armenia’s ailing post-Soviet economy.
Turkish politicians have in the past threatened to throw out these Armenians in retaliation for international recognition of the genocide but this is the first time that the threat has come from the country’s leader.
His outburst probably had more to do with domestic political pressure than foreign policy. Having defied domestic opinion to champion a policy of reconciliation with Armenia Mr Erdogan finds himself accused at home of enfeebling Turkey on the international stage.Elections are due by July 2011 and Mr Erdogan is fighting a rear-guard action against nationalist parties on the left and the right.
Source:The Times
Saturday, March 13, 2010
Rickshaw suicide bombing raises fear of more violence
A suicide bomber driving a rickshaw killed more than a dozen people in Pakistan this morning.
The blast at a security checkpoint in Mingora, the main city in the troubled Swat Valley, is the country’s second attack in less than 24 hours.
On Friday suicide bombers killed 55 people in near simultaneous attacks in Lahore.
Islamic insurgents are believed to be behind both attacks, raising fears of an offensive by the militants after a period of relative calm in the regionThis morning’s bombing injured 52 and killed at least 13, according to officials.
The attacker, driving a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, hit a roadblock manned by soldiers and police in Saidu Sharif, the administrative capital of Swat.
It is believed his target was the town’s court house but he had detonated the explosives early after being stopped at the checkpoint.
The blast blew out windows and destroyed several vehicles nearby.
One witness told Reuters he saw “five people including some women, who burned to death” in the street.
Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, a top military official for the region, claimed two soldiers and two policemen were also killed in the blast.
He said: “Such acts cannot demoralize us. I want to assure the people of Swat that we will continue fighting till the last Taliban are eliminated.”
Until last year Swat Valley was a Taliban stronghold however the Pakistan military seized back control after peace talks with their leaders collapsed.
The government operation was seen as fairly effective, forcing many insurgents into hiding.
The attacks slowed early this year and in recent months they have been farther apart and largely confined to the remote regions near Afghanistan.
However the Taliban threatened to deploy thousands of suicide bombers in retaliation for the army offensive and there are now fears this weekend’s blasts may signal a fresh wave of violence.
Source:The Times
The blast at a security checkpoint in Mingora, the main city in the troubled Swat Valley, is the country’s second attack in less than 24 hours.
On Friday suicide bombers killed 55 people in near simultaneous attacks in Lahore.
Islamic insurgents are believed to be behind both attacks, raising fears of an offensive by the militants after a period of relative calm in the regionThis morning’s bombing injured 52 and killed at least 13, according to officials.
The attacker, driving a three-wheeled motorized rickshaw, hit a roadblock manned by soldiers and police in Saidu Sharif, the administrative capital of Swat.
It is believed his target was the town’s court house but he had detonated the explosives early after being stopped at the checkpoint.
The blast blew out windows and destroyed several vehicles nearby.
One witness told Reuters he saw “five people including some women, who burned to death” in the street.
Maj. Gen. Ashfaq Nadeem, a top military official for the region, claimed two soldiers and two policemen were also killed in the blast.
He said: “Such acts cannot demoralize us. I want to assure the people of Swat that we will continue fighting till the last Taliban are eliminated.”
Until last year Swat Valley was a Taliban stronghold however the Pakistan military seized back control after peace talks with their leaders collapsed.
The government operation was seen as fairly effective, forcing many insurgents into hiding.
The attacks slowed early this year and in recent months they have been farther apart and largely confined to the remote regions near Afghanistan.
However the Taliban threatened to deploy thousands of suicide bombers in retaliation for the army offensive and there are now fears this weekend’s blasts may signal a fresh wave of violence.
Source:The Times
Karzai in U-turn over elections panel
The Afghan president has backed down and agreed to include two foreigners on the elections’ watchdog panel, after concerns were raised over corruption.
Hamid Karzai has reversed a decree which allowed him to appoint all five members of the Electoral Complaints Commission.
Afghanistan’s ECC was responsible for stripping a third of Karzai’s votes over allegations of fraud in last year’s election.
However last month he gave his government and supreme court sole power to appoint its membersThe move was criticised as a bid to control the body ahead of this autumn’s parliamentary elections.
On Saturday, Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said the president is now willing to accept some foreigners on the election watchdog body because the country is in a “transitional phase” to democracy.
He said: “The Afghan government has shown its readiness to accept two non-Afghans on the Electoral Complaints Commission and this has been announced to the United Nations,”
The monitoring body, which is separate from the elections commission that administers the polls, would still be controlled by Afghans, said Omar.
It is not yet clear whether Karzai or the UN would appoint the foreign commission members.
The watchdog previously had three UN appointed experts on its panel.
After last year’s presidential vote, the ECC ruled there had been widespread ballot stuffing forcing Karzai into a potential runoff.
However he was later declared the victor when his remaining challenger Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race.
Tackling the widespread political corruption in Afghanistan is seen as one of key issues for securing the withdrawal of UK and US troops and handing back full control of the country.
The head of the advocacy group Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan, Jandad Spinghar, said the nationalities of the monitoring commission matter less than how independently the watchdog works in the next elections.
Springhar said “It’s good news ... but there are still concerns.”
“If there is no legal guarantee for the independence of the ECC, there will be problems.”
Source:The Times
Hamid Karzai has reversed a decree which allowed him to appoint all five members of the Electoral Complaints Commission.
Afghanistan’s ECC was responsible for stripping a third of Karzai’s votes over allegations of fraud in last year’s election.
However last month he gave his government and supreme court sole power to appoint its membersThe move was criticised as a bid to control the body ahead of this autumn’s parliamentary elections.
On Saturday, Karzai spokesman Waheed Omar said the president is now willing to accept some foreigners on the election watchdog body because the country is in a “transitional phase” to democracy.
He said: “The Afghan government has shown its readiness to accept two non-Afghans on the Electoral Complaints Commission and this has been announced to the United Nations,”
The monitoring body, which is separate from the elections commission that administers the polls, would still be controlled by Afghans, said Omar.
It is not yet clear whether Karzai or the UN would appoint the foreign commission members.
The watchdog previously had three UN appointed experts on its panel.
After last year’s presidential vote, the ECC ruled there had been widespread ballot stuffing forcing Karzai into a potential runoff.
However he was later declared the victor when his remaining challenger Abdullah Abdullah, dropped out of the race.
Tackling the widespread political corruption in Afghanistan is seen as one of key issues for securing the withdrawal of UK and US troops and handing back full control of the country.
The head of the advocacy group Free and Fair Elections Foundation of Afghanistan, Jandad Spinghar, said the nationalities of the monitoring commission matter less than how independently the watchdog works in the next elections.
Springhar said “It’s good news ... but there are still concerns.”
“If there is no legal guarantee for the independence of the ECC, there will be problems.”
Source:The Times
Wednesday, March 10, 2010
Jihad Jane: American blonde accused of terror plot
A blonde American woman who went under the online alias "Jihad Jane" has been accused of plotting to murder a Swedish cartoonist for drawing a picture of the Prophet Muhammad with the body of a dog, it emerged today.
Colleen LaRose, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Pennsylvania, was said by prosecutors to have used the internet to make contact with jihadists overseas and was persuaded to use the fact that she was a white American to get through security surrounding the artist, Lars Vilks.
A US Justice Department official said last night that the case "shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance".
Ms LaRose was arrested in Philadelphia in October last year, but her indictment remained sealed until after the arrest in Ireland yesterday of seven people - three women and four men - involved in a suspected plot to murder Mr VilksThe cartoonist has been holed up in a rural hideout since his cartoon appeared in a Swedish newspaper in 2007, a year when the publication of similar cartoons in Denmark sparked violent protests across the Islamic world.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the Prophet - even favourable - for fear that it could lead to idolatry, and al-Qaeda put a bounty of $100,000 on Mr Vilks's head.
Three Swedish papers reprinted his image today in a gesture of solidarity. One, Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial that "Vilks doesn’t stand alone in this conflict. A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes."
A federal indictment charges that Ms LaRose, who also called herself Fatima Rose, agreed to kill Mr Vilks on orders from the unnamed terror contacts and went to Europe to carry out the killing.
It also alleged that Ms LaRose, who has blond hair and blue-green eyes, indicated in her online conversations that she thought her appearance would help her move freely in Sweden to carry out the attack.
The indictment says that Ms LaRose posted a YouTube video as JihadJane in June 2008 saying she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" Muslims.
Within months, she was in contact with jihadists in Europe and Asia and agreed to marry a South Asian man to get him into Europe.
In March last year the same man told her via e-mail to go to Sweden, find Mr Vilks "and kill him".
According to the indictment, Mr LaRose replied: "i will make this my goal till i achieve it or die trying."
Ms LaRose is said to have used the name JihadJane to create a MySpace page on which she described herself as a woman who had "reverted to Islam".
"I live in Pennsylvania, originally from Texas. I have recently (a couple months) reverted to Islam and I can safely say that of all the things I have ever done in my lifetime, becoming Muslim is what I am the proudest of," she wrote.
Elsewhere, the user lists her heroes as "Skeikh OBL", an apparent reference to Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and "The brothers in... Jihad".
The indictment and material released by SITE, a US group that monitors extremists, suggest that Ms LaRose had an active online presence, despite being repeatedly banned from websites including YouTube and despite her fears that she was under surveillance.
Michael Levy, a US Justice Department attorney, said that the case "demonstrates that terrorists are looking for Americans to join them in their cause, and it shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance".
David Kris, an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said that the government would have to remain vigilant.
"Today’s indictment, which alleges that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face," he said.
Source:The Times
Colleen LaRose, a 46-year-old Muslim convert from Pennsylvania, was said by prosecutors to have used the internet to make contact with jihadists overseas and was persuaded to use the fact that she was a white American to get through security surrounding the artist, Lars Vilks.
A US Justice Department official said last night that the case "shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance".
Ms LaRose was arrested in Philadelphia in October last year, but her indictment remained sealed until after the arrest in Ireland yesterday of seven people - three women and four men - involved in a suspected plot to murder Mr VilksThe cartoonist has been holed up in a rural hideout since his cartoon appeared in a Swedish newspaper in 2007, a year when the publication of similar cartoons in Denmark sparked violent protests across the Islamic world.
Islamic law generally opposes any depiction of the Prophet - even favourable - for fear that it could lead to idolatry, and al-Qaeda put a bounty of $100,000 on Mr Vilks's head.
Three Swedish papers reprinted his image today in a gesture of solidarity. One, Dagens Nyheter said in an editorial that "Vilks doesn’t stand alone in this conflict. A threat against him is, in the long term, also a threat against all Swedes."
A federal indictment charges that Ms LaRose, who also called herself Fatima Rose, agreed to kill Mr Vilks on orders from the unnamed terror contacts and went to Europe to carry out the killing.
It also alleged that Ms LaRose, who has blond hair and blue-green eyes, indicated in her online conversations that she thought her appearance would help her move freely in Sweden to carry out the attack.
The indictment says that Ms LaRose posted a YouTube video as JihadJane in June 2008 saying she was "desperate to do something somehow to help" Muslims.
Within months, she was in contact with jihadists in Europe and Asia and agreed to marry a South Asian man to get him into Europe.
In March last year the same man told her via e-mail to go to Sweden, find Mr Vilks "and kill him".
According to the indictment, Mr LaRose replied: "i will make this my goal till i achieve it or die trying."
Ms LaRose is said to have used the name JihadJane to create a MySpace page on which she described herself as a woman who had "reverted to Islam".
"I live in Pennsylvania, originally from Texas. I have recently (a couple months) reverted to Islam and I can safely say that of all the things I have ever done in my lifetime, becoming Muslim is what I am the proudest of," she wrote.
Elsewhere, the user lists her heroes as "Skeikh OBL", an apparent reference to Al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, and "The brothers in... Jihad".
The indictment and material released by SITE, a US group that monitors extremists, suggest that Ms LaRose had an active online presence, despite being repeatedly banned from websites including YouTube and despite her fears that she was under surveillance.
Michael Levy, a US Justice Department attorney, said that the case "demonstrates that terrorists are looking for Americans to join them in their cause, and it shatters any lingering thought that we can spot a terrorist based on appearance".
David Kris, an assistant attorney general at the Justice Department’s National Security Division, said that the government would have to remain vigilant.
"Today’s indictment, which alleges that a woman from suburban America agreed to carry out murder overseas and to provide material support to terrorists, underscores the evolving nature of the threat we face," he said.
Source:The Times
Hundreds held in pre-emptive Tibet crackdown
Hundreds of Tibetans were rounded up in Lhasa today and armed paramilitaries patrolled the streets even as Tibetan exiles marked the anniversary of an abortive 1959 uprising against Chinese rule.
The authorities are anxious to avoid a repeat of anti-Chinese attacks two years ago that left about 20 people dead when Tibetans rampaged through the streets of the Himalayan city setting fire to shops, offices and banks.
March 10 is regarded by Tibetans as the anniversary of the start of the failed uprising that resulted in the Dalai Lama’s flight to India.
The Tibetan spiritual leader has now spent half a century in exile and addressed his followers in Dharamasala today, blasting Chinese authorities for trying to "annihilate Buddhism" in TibetThe armed police patrols that have become routine in the Tibetan heart of Lhasa since anti-Beijing unrest that spilled over into violence in March 14, 2008, have been expanded to include cavalcades of trucks packed with paramilitaries.
One convoy comprised 14 trucks, each containing 14 helmeted men armed with semi-automatic rifles as well as two officers and a driver. The trucks drove slowly through the streets of the city in a show of force clearly intended to intimidate any Tibetans planning to mark the anniversary with renewed protests against Chinese rule.
Patrols of special police – the Chinese equivalent of Swat teams – also roamed the streets. Their distinctive black trucks and armoured vehicles then proceeded towards the Drepung monastery on the edge of the city where the unrest began on March 10, 2008 with a peaceful march by monks towards the city.
In the narrow alleys around the Jokhang temple, the holiest site in Tibetan Buddhism, in central Lhasa, additional police patrols were checking the identity cards of all Tibetans. Members of the ethnic Han Chinese majority were not stopped for identity checks.
Residents said that as many as 500 people were believed to have been detained in the crackdown. That number could not be confirmed and officials declined to comment.
Tibetans were being required to show three documents: their identity card, a temporary residence permit and a letter of introduction allowing them to be in Lhasa. Those lacking the proper paperwork were either detained or sent back to their homes outside Lhasa.
State-run Lhasa Television was running details on an evening show of a new "strike hard" campaign ostensibly directed against drugs, criminals and those lacking the proper papers permitting them to visit Lhasa.
In government offices, and even in schools, everyone is under orders to attend work and to bring their identity card and work permit. Higher-ranking officials are required to remain on duty round the clock.
Tibet was closed to foreign visitors from yesterday and there is a moratorium on the issue of the travel permits that are required by all non-Chinese wanting to visit the area.
Notices have been issued to hotels and families throughout the city banning them from allowing lamas from Tibet’s many monasteries to stay the night.
The riot in 2008 followed several days of small-scale demonstrations by monks who either made their way to the Jokhang temple to shout slogans demanding Tibetan independence or who gathered in their monasteries to demand the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.
Throughout the day, the patrol vehicles blared out Cultural Revolution-era songs from loudspeakers. One ran: "The Communist Party came and suffering bitterness turned to sweetness, liberated serfs happily sing a song of freedom."
Some Tibetans joked this week about the division of the city into ethnic Han-inhabited districts and a Tibetan section. The old Tibetan part of the city has been dubbed "Baghdad" while the Han Chinese area has been nicknamed "the concession" – after the sectors in cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin where "foreign concessions" were allowed under the rule of colonial powers such as Britain, France and Germany.
The Dalai Lama issued a statement to commemorate the March 10, 1959 uprising. He said: "I pay homage to those heroic Tibetan men and women, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet, and pray for an early end to the sufferings of those still oppressed in Tibet.
"Despite the great hardships Tibetans have faced for many decades, they have been able to keep up their courage and determination, preserve their compassionate culture and maintain their unique identity. It is inspiring that today a new generation of Tibetans continues to keep Tibet's just cause alive. I salute the courage of those Tibetans still enduring fear and oppression."
In remarks certain to spark Chinese fury, the exiled Buddhist monk also voiced his support for minority Muslim Uighurs of western Xinjiang who rose up in a violent anti-Chinese riot last year.
Referring to Xinjiang as "East Turkestan" – the name given to it by pro-independence exiles, he said: "I would like to express my solidarity and stand firmly with them."
Source:The Times
The authorities are anxious to avoid a repeat of anti-Chinese attacks two years ago that left about 20 people dead when Tibetans rampaged through the streets of the Himalayan city setting fire to shops, offices and banks.
March 10 is regarded by Tibetans as the anniversary of the start of the failed uprising that resulted in the Dalai Lama’s flight to India.
The Tibetan spiritual leader has now spent half a century in exile and addressed his followers in Dharamasala today, blasting Chinese authorities for trying to "annihilate Buddhism" in TibetThe armed police patrols that have become routine in the Tibetan heart of Lhasa since anti-Beijing unrest that spilled over into violence in March 14, 2008, have been expanded to include cavalcades of trucks packed with paramilitaries.
One convoy comprised 14 trucks, each containing 14 helmeted men armed with semi-automatic rifles as well as two officers and a driver. The trucks drove slowly through the streets of the city in a show of force clearly intended to intimidate any Tibetans planning to mark the anniversary with renewed protests against Chinese rule.
Patrols of special police – the Chinese equivalent of Swat teams – also roamed the streets. Their distinctive black trucks and armoured vehicles then proceeded towards the Drepung monastery on the edge of the city where the unrest began on March 10, 2008 with a peaceful march by monks towards the city.
In the narrow alleys around the Jokhang temple, the holiest site in Tibetan Buddhism, in central Lhasa, additional police patrols were checking the identity cards of all Tibetans. Members of the ethnic Han Chinese majority were not stopped for identity checks.
Residents said that as many as 500 people were believed to have been detained in the crackdown. That number could not be confirmed and officials declined to comment.
Tibetans were being required to show three documents: their identity card, a temporary residence permit and a letter of introduction allowing them to be in Lhasa. Those lacking the proper paperwork were either detained or sent back to their homes outside Lhasa.
State-run Lhasa Television was running details on an evening show of a new "strike hard" campaign ostensibly directed against drugs, criminals and those lacking the proper papers permitting them to visit Lhasa.
In government offices, and even in schools, everyone is under orders to attend work and to bring their identity card and work permit. Higher-ranking officials are required to remain on duty round the clock.
Tibet was closed to foreign visitors from yesterday and there is a moratorium on the issue of the travel permits that are required by all non-Chinese wanting to visit the area.
Notices have been issued to hotels and families throughout the city banning them from allowing lamas from Tibet’s many monasteries to stay the night.
The riot in 2008 followed several days of small-scale demonstrations by monks who either made their way to the Jokhang temple to shout slogans demanding Tibetan independence or who gathered in their monasteries to demand the return of the exiled Dalai Lama.
Throughout the day, the patrol vehicles blared out Cultural Revolution-era songs from loudspeakers. One ran: "The Communist Party came and suffering bitterness turned to sweetness, liberated serfs happily sing a song of freedom."
Some Tibetans joked this week about the division of the city into ethnic Han-inhabited districts and a Tibetan section. The old Tibetan part of the city has been dubbed "Baghdad" while the Han Chinese area has been nicknamed "the concession" – after the sectors in cities such as Shanghai and Tianjin where "foreign concessions" were allowed under the rule of colonial powers such as Britain, France and Germany.
The Dalai Lama issued a statement to commemorate the March 10, 1959 uprising. He said: "I pay homage to those heroic Tibetan men and women, who sacrificed their lives for the cause of Tibet, and pray for an early end to the sufferings of those still oppressed in Tibet.
"Despite the great hardships Tibetans have faced for many decades, they have been able to keep up their courage and determination, preserve their compassionate culture and maintain their unique identity. It is inspiring that today a new generation of Tibetans continues to keep Tibet's just cause alive. I salute the courage of those Tibetans still enduring fear and oppression."
In remarks certain to spark Chinese fury, the exiled Buddhist monk also voiced his support for minority Muslim Uighurs of western Xinjiang who rose up in a violent anti-Chinese riot last year.
Referring to Xinjiang as "East Turkestan" – the name given to it by pro-independence exiles, he said: "I would like to express my solidarity and stand firmly with them."
Source:The Times
British Fritzl escaped for 30 years despite seven incest accusations
A father who repeatedly raped his two daughters and fathered nine babies with them during a 35-year orgy of physical and sexual abuse escaped detection due to a litany of failings by care professionals, a report revealed today.
Professor Pat Cantrill, author of the independent report, said that action should have been taken to rescue the women at least a decade earlier once a “substantial picture” of the abuses had been drawn up.
She said a culture of “having a quiet word” had contributed to the failure to intervene, despite seven allegations of incest from members of the family.
Public sector agencies in Sheffield and Lincolnshire today issued an unreserved apology to the women, now adults, for failing to protect them from their fatherChris Cook, independent chair of Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board, said: “We are genuinely sorry. We should have protected you.”
Agencies involved with the family failed to take action against the father even though he was accused of incest on seven separate occasions, with a further 12 reported incidents of violence.
The 57-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect his children, received 25 life sentences after his daughters finally told social workers of their lifelong ordeal in 2008.
An independent review of the case, published today, disclosed that more than 100 care professionals from 28 agencies were involved with the family in Sheffield and Lincolnshire over a 35-year period from 1973 to 2008.
The report found that professionals were suspicious that the man was fathering his daughters’ children and there were seven family allegations reported to professionals about incest or sexual abuse.
On 23 separate occasions from 1998 to 2005 the girls were specifically asked about the paternity of their children by various people, it said.
The report said: “Between 1990 and 1996 either Adult M or Adult N was pregnant every year or on some occasions twice a year. On four occasions they were pregnant at the same time.”
No action was taken because professionals felt that there was nothing they could do. It was not until the family returned to Sheffield and the police were given a statement in 2008 that the man was arrestedThe family was on the child protection register from 1978 to 1988 when they moved to Lincolnshire, due to medical reports of non-accidental injuries and poor school attendance, although the report said there was no indication that any agency was aware of factors to suggest the girls were being sexually abused.
Mrs Cantrill said: “By 1997 there was a substantial picture in place which should have reflected in action being taken to help these women.”
During the 35 years, the white British family moved home 67 times as the father, who controlled his wife and children through "violence, intimidation, bullying and emotional control", sought to evade detection.
In total, 16 child protection conferences or strategy meetings were held to discuss concerns about the family, but none led to the children being removed from their fatherThe executive summary of the serious case review reveals that between 1988 and 2002 the two daughters were pregnant 16 times, on four occasions at the same time. Nine babies or pregnancies were lost due to genetic disorders and of the seven surviving children two have severe physical disabilities.
Though suspicions grew that the babies' grandfather was also their father, professionals "considered... there was nothing they could do".
One of the report's main findings is that police, care and medical professionals "failed to listen and consider the situation from the child's perspective". It states: "Too often professionals took the word of parents at face value without considering the effects on the child."
The Safeguarding Children Boards from both counties, which were responsible for the family over the period of abuse, insisted that changes had already been made to better protect families from abuse.
Sue Fiennes, independent chair of Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board, said: “We want to apologise to the family at the heart of this case. It will be clear that we failed this family.
“This report will not make comfortable reading for any of the organisations concerned with the family.
“We are all committed to working relentlessly to do all we can to minimise the risk of this happening again, and indeed we have taken action. Lessons are being learned by the agencies involved.”
In November, Sheffield Crown Court heard that the man’s campaign of terror and abuse started when the women were aged between eight and 10. If they refused their father’s advances, they were badly beaten.
Both daughters were raped repeatedly during their ordeal, which started in 1981. At the start they were attacked every day, while for long periods they would be raped two or three times a week.
If they refused, they would be punched, kicked and sometimes held to the flames of a gas fire, burning their eyes and arms.
The court heard the defendant, who called himself the “gaffer” when at the family’s home, took pleasure in fathering children by his daughters and would continue to rape them despite problems with their pregnancies.
He would even rape them while they were pregnant and they would have to take it in turns to babysit their children while the other was forced to have sex with him.
At the time, Judge Alan Goldsack QC told the court that questions would inevitably be asked as to what professionals had “been doing for the last 20 years”.
Source:The Times
Professor Pat Cantrill, author of the independent report, said that action should have been taken to rescue the women at least a decade earlier once a “substantial picture” of the abuses had been drawn up.
She said a culture of “having a quiet word” had contributed to the failure to intervene, despite seven allegations of incest from members of the family.
Public sector agencies in Sheffield and Lincolnshire today issued an unreserved apology to the women, now adults, for failing to protect them from their fatherChris Cook, independent chair of Lincolnshire Safeguarding Children Board, said: “We are genuinely sorry. We should have protected you.”
Agencies involved with the family failed to take action against the father even though he was accused of incest on seven separate occasions, with a further 12 reported incidents of violence.
The 57-year-old man, who cannot be named to protect his children, received 25 life sentences after his daughters finally told social workers of their lifelong ordeal in 2008.
An independent review of the case, published today, disclosed that more than 100 care professionals from 28 agencies were involved with the family in Sheffield and Lincolnshire over a 35-year period from 1973 to 2008.
The report found that professionals were suspicious that the man was fathering his daughters’ children and there were seven family allegations reported to professionals about incest or sexual abuse.
On 23 separate occasions from 1998 to 2005 the girls were specifically asked about the paternity of their children by various people, it said.
The report said: “Between 1990 and 1996 either Adult M or Adult N was pregnant every year or on some occasions twice a year. On four occasions they were pregnant at the same time.”
No action was taken because professionals felt that there was nothing they could do. It was not until the family returned to Sheffield and the police were given a statement in 2008 that the man was arrestedThe family was on the child protection register from 1978 to 1988 when they moved to Lincolnshire, due to medical reports of non-accidental injuries and poor school attendance, although the report said there was no indication that any agency was aware of factors to suggest the girls were being sexually abused.
Mrs Cantrill said: “By 1997 there was a substantial picture in place which should have reflected in action being taken to help these women.”
During the 35 years, the white British family moved home 67 times as the father, who controlled his wife and children through "violence, intimidation, bullying and emotional control", sought to evade detection.
In total, 16 child protection conferences or strategy meetings were held to discuss concerns about the family, but none led to the children being removed from their fatherThe executive summary of the serious case review reveals that between 1988 and 2002 the two daughters were pregnant 16 times, on four occasions at the same time. Nine babies or pregnancies were lost due to genetic disorders and of the seven surviving children two have severe physical disabilities.
Though suspicions grew that the babies' grandfather was also their father, professionals "considered... there was nothing they could do".
One of the report's main findings is that police, care and medical professionals "failed to listen and consider the situation from the child's perspective". It states: "Too often professionals took the word of parents at face value without considering the effects on the child."
The Safeguarding Children Boards from both counties, which were responsible for the family over the period of abuse, insisted that changes had already been made to better protect families from abuse.
Sue Fiennes, independent chair of Sheffield Safeguarding Children Board, said: “We want to apologise to the family at the heart of this case. It will be clear that we failed this family.
“This report will not make comfortable reading for any of the organisations concerned with the family.
“We are all committed to working relentlessly to do all we can to minimise the risk of this happening again, and indeed we have taken action. Lessons are being learned by the agencies involved.”
In November, Sheffield Crown Court heard that the man’s campaign of terror and abuse started when the women were aged between eight and 10. If they refused their father’s advances, they were badly beaten.
Both daughters were raped repeatedly during their ordeal, which started in 1981. At the start they were attacked every day, while for long periods they would be raped two or three times a week.
If they refused, they would be punched, kicked and sometimes held to the flames of a gas fire, burning their eyes and arms.
The court heard the defendant, who called himself the “gaffer” when at the family’s home, took pleasure in fathering children by his daughters and would continue to rape them despite problems with their pregnancies.
He would even rape them while they were pregnant and they would have to take it in turns to babysit their children while the other was forced to have sex with him.
At the time, Judge Alan Goldsack QC told the court that questions would inevitably be asked as to what professionals had “been doing for the last 20 years”.
Source:The Times
Wednesday, March 3, 2010
Michael Foot, former Labour leader, dies aged 96
The Labour veteran Michael Foot was praised as perhaps the finest parliamentarian of his generation today after news of his death this morning at the age of 96.
The socialist with the unruly shock of white hair beat the rightwinger Dennis Healey in a bitter fight for Labour's soul in 1980, arguing that he was best placed to unite the party as leader.
Less than three years later, after presenting a 700-page manifesto dubbed "the longest suicide note in history", he led Labour to its worst election defeat – only just managing to beat the SDP-Liberal alliance in the popular vote.
Mr Foot, who had been ill for some time, died shortly before 7am morning at his home in Hampstead, north London.
His death was confirmed on the floor of the House of Commons by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary. "I am sure that this news will be received with great sadness not only in my own party but across the country as a whole," Mr Straw said. "He was held in very great affection in all sections of the House and across the country."
The tributes poured in from across the political divide.
Gordon Brown praised Mr Foot as "a man of deep principle and passionate idealism". "He was an indomitable figure who always stood up for his beliefs and whether people agreed with him or not they admired his character and his steadfastness," he said.
John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, flashed up his tribute on Twitter: "A great man has died. He was the heart of our movement."
Baroness Thatcher, who faced Mr Foot in many fiery clashes across the Commons despatch box, said in a statement released by her office that she was "very sorry" to hear of his death. "He was a great parliamentarian and a man of high principles," she said.
Also paying tribute was Mr Foot's successor at the helm of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, who lost successive elections to Mrs Thatcher and John Major but laid the groundwork for Labour's later success.
Mr Kinnock said: "He knew - as I knew, which is why I counselled him against doing it - that he was letting himself into purgatory in becoming leader of the Labour Party in its darkest, grimmest hour.
"But if he hadn’t done it, I don’t think Labour would have survived as a political force, simply because of the way in which factionalists and self-indulgent people were ripping the party to pieces. It was Michael’s courage and utter commitment to the cause of the party which enabled the party to continue in recognisable existence and to fight and win another day."
Source:The Times
The socialist with the unruly shock of white hair beat the rightwinger Dennis Healey in a bitter fight for Labour's soul in 1980, arguing that he was best placed to unite the party as leader.
Less than three years later, after presenting a 700-page manifesto dubbed "the longest suicide note in history", he led Labour to its worst election defeat – only just managing to beat the SDP-Liberal alliance in the popular vote.
Mr Foot, who had been ill for some time, died shortly before 7am morning at his home in Hampstead, north London.
His death was confirmed on the floor of the House of Commons by Jack Straw, the Justice Secretary. "I am sure that this news will be received with great sadness not only in my own party but across the country as a whole," Mr Straw said. "He was held in very great affection in all sections of the House and across the country."
The tributes poured in from across the political divide.
Gordon Brown praised Mr Foot as "a man of deep principle and passionate idealism". "He was an indomitable figure who always stood up for his beliefs and whether people agreed with him or not they admired his character and his steadfastness," he said.
John Prescott, the former deputy prime minister, flashed up his tribute on Twitter: "A great man has died. He was the heart of our movement."
Baroness Thatcher, who faced Mr Foot in many fiery clashes across the Commons despatch box, said in a statement released by her office that she was "very sorry" to hear of his death. "He was a great parliamentarian and a man of high principles," she said.
Also paying tribute was Mr Foot's successor at the helm of the Labour Party, Neil Kinnock, who lost successive elections to Mrs Thatcher and John Major but laid the groundwork for Labour's later success.
Mr Kinnock said: "He knew - as I knew, which is why I counselled him against doing it - that he was letting himself into purgatory in becoming leader of the Labour Party in its darkest, grimmest hour.
"But if he hadn’t done it, I don’t think Labour would have survived as a political force, simply because of the way in which factionalists and self-indulgent people were ripping the party to pieces. It was Michael’s courage and utter commitment to the cause of the party which enabled the party to continue in recognisable existence and to fight and win another day."
Source:The Times
Iranian 'spies' held in Italian arms trafficking operation
Italian police have arrested five Italians and two suspected Iranian secret agents on suspicion of illegally trafficking arms and explosives to Iran through Eastern Europe in breach of an international embargo. Reports said two further alleged Iranian agents were on the run and were being sought by police.
Police in Milan said the operation had been conducted with the help of British, Swiss and Romanian authorities. They said in a statement that they had intercepted optical-precision equipment, scuba-diving jackets and oxygen tanks bound for Iran as well as tracer bullets, incendiary bombs and other "explosive materials".
The investigation , dubbed Operation Sniper, was led Armando Spataro, the Milan prosecutor who also investigated the 2003 kidnapping and "extraordinary rendition " of Abu Omar, a Muslim cleric suspected of abetting terrorism, by CIA agents in Milan. Last November an Italian judge convicted 22 CIA agents and an American military official in absentia of the kidnapping. They are appealing.
Police said Operation Sniper had begun in June 2009. One of the Italians arrested was a lawyer from Turin who also ran an "import export business", Mr Spataro told a news conference. He said the other arrested Italians were from Monza, Brescia and Cadeo in the province of Piacenza, and Switzerland.
The arrests come as the Western powers push for tougher United Nations sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme following a report by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month that Iran had enriched uranium to 19.8 percent, 0.2 percentage points below the threshold needed to start the chain reaction seen in a nuclear bomb.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, incurred the warth of Tehran last month by comparing President Ahmadinejad to Hitler during a visis to Israel and calling for tougher trade sanctions. State-controlled Iranian radio and television accused Mr Berlusconi of being "a servant of Israel".
Mr Spataro said that the tapping of phones had played a "crucial role" in the Iranian arms smuggling investigation. Mr Berlusconi, who currently faces two trials for alleged bribery and tax fraud and has been repeatedly investigated for alleged corruption, is pushing through Parliament a bill which would restrict the use of phone tapping in criminal investigations.
Police said some of the equipment seized in the operation was military and some was "dual use". The Italian news agency ANSA said the "optical equipment" had been seized at Heathrow airport. The two Iranians arrested were named as Nejad Hamid Masoumi, 51, accredited as a journalist in Italy, who was arrested at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, and Ali Damirchiloo, 55, who was arrested in Turin.
Mr Masoumi is accredited for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (RTV), member of the Foreign Press Association in Rome since 1993.
Source:The Times
Police in Milan said the operation had been conducted with the help of British, Swiss and Romanian authorities. They said in a statement that they had intercepted optical-precision equipment, scuba-diving jackets and oxygen tanks bound for Iran as well as tracer bullets, incendiary bombs and other "explosive materials".
The investigation , dubbed Operation Sniper, was led Armando Spataro, the Milan prosecutor who also investigated the 2003 kidnapping and "extraordinary rendition " of Abu Omar, a Muslim cleric suspected of abetting terrorism, by CIA agents in Milan. Last November an Italian judge convicted 22 CIA agents and an American military official in absentia of the kidnapping. They are appealing.
Police said Operation Sniper had begun in June 2009. One of the Italians arrested was a lawyer from Turin who also ran an "import export business", Mr Spataro told a news conference. He said the other arrested Italians were from Monza, Brescia and Cadeo in the province of Piacenza, and Switzerland.
The arrests come as the Western powers push for tougher United Nations sanctions against Tehran over its nuclear programme following a report by the UN International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) last month that Iran had enriched uranium to 19.8 percent, 0.2 percentage points below the threshold needed to start the chain reaction seen in a nuclear bomb.
Silvio Berlusconi, the Italian Prime Minister, incurred the warth of Tehran last month by comparing President Ahmadinejad to Hitler during a visis to Israel and calling for tougher trade sanctions. State-controlled Iranian radio and television accused Mr Berlusconi of being "a servant of Israel".
Mr Spataro said that the tapping of phones had played a "crucial role" in the Iranian arms smuggling investigation. Mr Berlusconi, who currently faces two trials for alleged bribery and tax fraud and has been repeatedly investigated for alleged corruption, is pushing through Parliament a bill which would restrict the use of phone tapping in criminal investigations.
Police said some of the equipment seized in the operation was military and some was "dual use". The Italian news agency ANSA said the "optical equipment" had been seized at Heathrow airport. The two Iranians arrested were named as Nejad Hamid Masoumi, 51, accredited as a journalist in Italy, who was arrested at the Foreign Press Club in Rome, and Ali Damirchiloo, 55, who was arrested in Turin.
Mr Masoumi is accredited for Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (RTV), member of the Foreign Press Association in Rome since 1993.
Source:The Times
Jack Straw refused to say today why one of the killers of James Bulger has been sent back to jail.
As pressure grew for more information in the case of Jon Venables, the Justice Secretary insisted that it was in the public interest to withhold details of the breach of the terms of his release that prompted the recall.
His stance came as speculation grew on the issue and amid growing calls from those close to the case for greater transparency.
Venables, now 27, was 10 when he and Robert Thompson abducted the two-year-old from a shopping centre in Bootle and battered him to death on a railway line in 1993.
The pair were controversially freed with new names, birth certificates and national insurance numbers in 2001, at the age of 18, having spent their jail sentences in separate secure units without setting foot in a young offender institution or an adult jail.
After his release Venables is reported to have been allowed to join the Army. Unconfirmed reports suggested that he was now a born-again Christian, had settled down and had plans to marry. Thompson is said to be living with a gay partner, after attending art school.
Both must stay in regular touch with senior probation officers who are sworn to secrecy about their conduct.
Venables was recalled to prison last week after breaching the terms of his release from prison, the Ministry of Justice confirmed yesterday.
Mr Straw said: "I have no interest in gratuitously or unnecessarily withholding information, but there are good reasons to withhold it at the moment and that is in the public interest.
"So I fully understand the frustration that people feel, but the reassurance for the Bulger family and the public is that this system has worked. He was not at liberty, he was on life licence subject to recall, and he has been recalled."
Detective Albert Kirby, who headed the Bulger investigation, said there “must have been a build-up of incidents” for the action to have been taken and called for the Government to release precise details of why Venables was recalled.
He told Sky News: “I think the statement that came out last night actually raises more questions than it answers. They wouldn’t – using football parlance – have given him a red card and go to prison for one infringement.
“It would help to clarify and put this to rest once and for all if the public did have some indication of what it is he has done. Not where he is, or details like that, but the reason why his probation has been revoked and he is back inside.
“It’s going to be asking the questions why is he there and did the authorities fail in making the assessments of his suitability to come back into society?”
James Bulger's mother said Jon Venables was “where he belongs” in her first reaction to news of his return to custody.
Family members said that Mrs Fergus had not been told how Venables had breached his parole.
Among the conditions placed on Venables and Thompson when they were released were a ban on contacting each other or any member of the Bulger family and a prohibition on returning to Merseyside without written consent from their probation officers.
They were told that they could be sent to an adult prison if their behaviour deteriorated or they started using drugs and that if they were convicted of another crime they could face a life sentence.
Speculation is rife about why Venables has been recalled. Michael Wolkind QC, a barrister in criminal law, said that the Ministry of Justice would not lightly have returned Venables to custody, running the risk that his cover would be blown in prison.
"To go to all the trouble of building him a new identity and a new life, there must be a significant chance it was serious," said Mr Wolkind.
Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, backed the public’s right to know the facts of the case but said more details would be released.
He added: “I believe the public do have a right to know and I believe they will know all the facts in due course."
Venables will appear before a hearing of the Parole Board to consider the reason for recall. This is expected to happen within 28 days of his recall last week.
The hearing, before a three-person panel including a judge, will rule whether he should stay in prison or be released.
The outcome of such hearings is not usually made public.
But a spokesman for the Parole Board said it was likely the result would be released because of the high-profile nature of the case.
James Bulger's battered body was found by children playing on a railway line 200 yards from Walton Lane police station, Liverpool, and more than two miles from the Strand shopping centre where he was led away by his killers.
Both murderers were given compulsory life sentences for the murder and remain on licence for the rest of their lives.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Venables has been involved in several violent incidents, including in December 2007 when he was allegedly stabbed after he accused another man of chatting up his girlfriend.
Laurence Lee, Venables’s solicitor at the time of the crime, said he was shocked. He said: “If I were a betting man and someone said to me, ‘One of the two killers of Jamie Bulger had been arrested and returned to prison’, I would have put a lot of money on it not being Jon because he was by unanimous agreement the lesser evil.”
FROM BOYHOOD TO JAIL
Feb 13, 1993 James Bulger, 2, goes missing while out with his mother in a shopping precinct in Liverpool
Feb 14 His body is found next to a railway line
Feb 20 Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10, are charged with his murder
Nov 24 Venables and Thompson are sentenced to eight years in prison after trial at Preston Crown Court. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, increases the sentence to ten years but an attempt by Michael Howard, then Home Secretary, to extend it by a further five years is vetoed
March 1999 European Commission on Human Rights decides that the boys were denied a fair trial
Jan 8, 2001 Venables and Thompson are granted lifelong anonymity
June 22, 2001 The Parole Board agrees to release the 18-year-olds on lifelong licences. Their identities are changed
April 2007 It is revealed that the Government has spent £13,000 preventing overseas magazines from revealing the killers’ new identities
March 16, 2008 18 red balloons are released at Kirkdale Cemetery to mark what would have been James Bulger’s 18th birthday
March 2, 2010 Department of Justice says that Venables is back in prison after breaching terms of his release
Source:The Times
As pressure grew for more information in the case of Jon Venables, the Justice Secretary insisted that it was in the public interest to withhold details of the breach of the terms of his release that prompted the recall.
His stance came as speculation grew on the issue and amid growing calls from those close to the case for greater transparency.
Venables, now 27, was 10 when he and Robert Thompson abducted the two-year-old from a shopping centre in Bootle and battered him to death on a railway line in 1993.
The pair were controversially freed with new names, birth certificates and national insurance numbers in 2001, at the age of 18, having spent their jail sentences in separate secure units without setting foot in a young offender institution or an adult jail.
After his release Venables is reported to have been allowed to join the Army. Unconfirmed reports suggested that he was now a born-again Christian, had settled down and had plans to marry. Thompson is said to be living with a gay partner, after attending art school.
Both must stay in regular touch with senior probation officers who are sworn to secrecy about their conduct.
Venables was recalled to prison last week after breaching the terms of his release from prison, the Ministry of Justice confirmed yesterday.
Mr Straw said: "I have no interest in gratuitously or unnecessarily withholding information, but there are good reasons to withhold it at the moment and that is in the public interest.
"So I fully understand the frustration that people feel, but the reassurance for the Bulger family and the public is that this system has worked. He was not at liberty, he was on life licence subject to recall, and he has been recalled."
Detective Albert Kirby, who headed the Bulger investigation, said there “must have been a build-up of incidents” for the action to have been taken and called for the Government to release precise details of why Venables was recalled.
He told Sky News: “I think the statement that came out last night actually raises more questions than it answers. They wouldn’t – using football parlance – have given him a red card and go to prison for one infringement.
“It would help to clarify and put this to rest once and for all if the public did have some indication of what it is he has done. Not where he is, or details like that, but the reason why his probation has been revoked and he is back inside.
“It’s going to be asking the questions why is he there and did the authorities fail in making the assessments of his suitability to come back into society?”
James Bulger's mother said Jon Venables was “where he belongs” in her first reaction to news of his return to custody.
Family members said that Mrs Fergus had not been told how Venables had breached his parole.
Among the conditions placed on Venables and Thompson when they were released were a ban on contacting each other or any member of the Bulger family and a prohibition on returning to Merseyside without written consent from their probation officers.
They were told that they could be sent to an adult prison if their behaviour deteriorated or they started using drugs and that if they were convicted of another crime they could face a life sentence.
Speculation is rife about why Venables has been recalled. Michael Wolkind QC, a barrister in criminal law, said that the Ministry of Justice would not lightly have returned Venables to custody, running the risk that his cover would be blown in prison.
"To go to all the trouble of building him a new identity and a new life, there must be a significant chance it was serious," said Mr Wolkind.
Alan Johnson, the Home Secretary, backed the public’s right to know the facts of the case but said more details would be released.
He added: “I believe the public do have a right to know and I believe they will know all the facts in due course."
Venables will appear before a hearing of the Parole Board to consider the reason for recall. This is expected to happen within 28 days of his recall last week.
The hearing, before a three-person panel including a judge, will rule whether he should stay in prison or be released.
The outcome of such hearings is not usually made public.
But a spokesman for the Parole Board said it was likely the result would be released because of the high-profile nature of the case.
James Bulger's battered body was found by children playing on a railway line 200 yards from Walton Lane police station, Liverpool, and more than two miles from the Strand shopping centre where he was led away by his killers.
Both murderers were given compulsory life sentences for the murder and remain on licence for the rest of their lives.
Unconfirmed reports suggest that Venables has been involved in several violent incidents, including in December 2007 when he was allegedly stabbed after he accused another man of chatting up his girlfriend.
Laurence Lee, Venables’s solicitor at the time of the crime, said he was shocked. He said: “If I were a betting man and someone said to me, ‘One of the two killers of Jamie Bulger had been arrested and returned to prison’, I would have put a lot of money on it not being Jon because he was by unanimous agreement the lesser evil.”
FROM BOYHOOD TO JAIL
Feb 13, 1993 James Bulger, 2, goes missing while out with his mother in a shopping precinct in Liverpool
Feb 14 His body is found next to a railway line
Feb 20 Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, both 10, are charged with his murder
Nov 24 Venables and Thompson are sentenced to eight years in prison after trial at Preston Crown Court. The Lord Chief Justice, Lord Taylor of Gosforth, increases the sentence to ten years but an attempt by Michael Howard, then Home Secretary, to extend it by a further five years is vetoed
March 1999 European Commission on Human Rights decides that the boys were denied a fair trial
Jan 8, 2001 Venables and Thompson are granted lifelong anonymity
June 22, 2001 The Parole Board agrees to release the 18-year-olds on lifelong licences. Their identities are changed
April 2007 It is revealed that the Government has spent £13,000 preventing overseas magazines from revealing the killers’ new identities
March 16, 2008 18 red balloons are released at Kirkdale Cemetery to mark what would have been James Bulger’s 18th birthday
March 2, 2010 Department of Justice says that Venables is back in prison after breaching terms of his release
Source:The Times
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