The Observer

Glenn Mulcaire 'acted under instructions' over voicemails

2011-07-31T15:26:00.000-07:00

Glenn Mulcaire said he had not acted 'unilaterally' when he intercepted voicemails. Photograph: John Stillwell/PA

The private investigator at the centre of the News of the World phone-hacking scandal has denied suggestions he acted without orders from the newspaper.

In an attack on News International, Glenn Mulcaire said he was "effectively employed" by the tabloid publisher from 2002 as a private investigator and had not acted "unilaterally" when he intercepted voicemails. "As an employee he acted on the instructions of others," a statement issued by his lawyers said.

His comments came 24 hours after it emerged that Sara Payne, whose eight-year-old daughter, Sarah, was abducted and murdered in 2000, learned Mulcaire may have targeted her phone.

Hours after his statement, Sara Payne made her first public comments, saying she was "very distressed and upset" that details relating to her may have been found in Mulcaire's files.

"I can confirm reports that I was given a phone by the campaign team [for the NoW's Sarah's Law campaign] and that my voicemail was only activated after my first aneurysm," she said. This relates to a report on Thursday that she had not turned her voicemail on the phone until 2009, the year of her first aneurysm. She was given the phone by NoW in 2000.

In a statement that indicated she still appreciated her work on Sarah's Law with the NoW, she said: "Notwithstanding the bad apples involved here, my faith remains solidly behind all the good people who have supported me over the last 11 years. I will never lose my faith in them. My way would be to challenge the bad apples head-on, learn from the facts of the matter, and be a proactive part of stopping this from happening again."

Brooks said the allegations about Payne were "abhorrent", and that it was "unthinkable" "anyone on the newspaper knew Sara or the campaign team were targeted by Mulcaire".

The private investigator's statement challenges News International's central defence since Mulcaire and Clive Goodman, the paper's former royal editor, were jailed in 2007 for hacking into Prince William's phone. The company claimed that one "rogue reporter" was responsible.

Mulcaire's statement from his lawyers said: "There were also occasions when he [Mulcaire] understood his instructions were from those who genuinely wished to assist in solving crimes. Any suggestion that he acted in such matters unilaterally is untrue. In the light of the ongoing police investigation, he cannot say any more."

His statement focuses attention back on News International executives, who face another grilling by MPs on the Commons culture select committee.

James Murdoch is likely to be summoned to appear before MPs for a second time after Colin Myler, the NoW's former editor, and Tom Crone, the paper's former head of legal affairs, challenged his evidence to the select committee on 19 July.

Crone and Myler accused Murdoch of being "mistaken" when he told the committee that he had no knowledge of an email that implicated a member of the News of the World staff in Mulcaire's activities.

The pair said they had shown Murdoch the so-called "for Neville" email, which raised the possibility that the paper's former chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck knew about phone hacking at the time that the BSkyB chairman approved payments to victims of phone hacking. Murdoch said earlier this month that he did not have a "complete picture" when he approved the payments.

Committee chair John Whittingdale, who said he wanted to hear from the pair and James Murdoch in writing first, is expected to summon them next month. He would also be asking Myler and Crone to exlain why they now think the "for Neville" email is so significant after they played down its significance when they appeared before the committee in July 2009.

"Tom Crone and Colin Myler … told us they had discovered no evidence suggesting that anybody else beyond Clive Goodman had been involved," Whittingdale said. "We are now told, we understand from the statement they issued to the media, that they had drawn James Murdoch's attention to the significance of the 'for Neville' email. It appeared, when they came before us, that they did not regard that it was significant. But clearly they are now suggesting it is."

The committee is also writing to Jon Chapman, a former director of legal affairs at News International, who challenged Rupert Murdoch's claim to the culture committee that he had a copy of a report "for a number of years" which showed evidence of illegality.

Chapman said he was responsible for corporate and legal matters at News International and did not have responsibility for dealing with allegations about phone hacking.

Mulcaire was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to charges of phone interception and is currently appealing against a High Court order that would force him to give more information about hacking to his alleged victims. Glenn Mulcaire had claimed the privilege of self-incrimination but lost a High Court battle against comedian Steve Coogan and football pundit Andy Gray.

There is now a prospect that this appeal against the order arising from this case is abandoned after News International announced it was ceasing to cover Mulcaire's legal fees with "immediate effect".

Mulcaire's solictors wrote to News International earlier this week warning the publisher they were still legally liable to indemnify him against legal costs until the appeal case was resolved.

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Syrian tanks storm Hama

2011-07-31T14:43:00.000-07:00

Residents of Hama protest against President Bashar al-Assad after Friday prayers, less than 48 hours before government forces used tanks to storm the city. Photograph: Reuters

Syrian troops in tanks have stormed the flashpoint city of Hama, killing and wounding scores of people in a barrage of shelling and gunfire that left bodies scattered in the streets.

Residents shouted "God is great!" and threw firebombs and stones at the tanks as they pushed through the city before dawn on Sunday.

"It's a massacre, they want to break Hama before the month of Ramadan," an eyewitness who identified himself by his first name, Ahmed, told the Associated Press by telephone.

Hospitals were overwhelmed with casualties and were seeking blood donations, he said.

Activists have predicted that demonstrations will escalate during Ramadan, which starts on Monday, as protesters and government forces try to use the Muslim holy month to tip the balance of the uprising that began in March in their favour.

Ahmed, a Hama resident, said he saw up to 12 people shot dead in the streets in a district known as the Baath neighbourhood. Most had been shot in the chest and head, he said.

"Troops entered Hama at dawn today," another resident told AP by telephone. "We woke up to this news, they are firing from their machine guns randomly and there are many casualties."

A doctor, who preferred to remain anonymous, told Reuters that the city's Badr, al-Horani and Hikmeh hospitals had received 24 bodies.

There were scores of wounded people and a shortage of blood for transfusions, he said by telephone from the city, which has a population of around 700,000.

"Tanks are attacking from four directions. They are firing their heavy machine guns randomly and overrunning makeshift roadblocks erected by the inhabitants," the doctor said. Machine gun fire could be heard in background as he spoke.

"There are bodies uncollected in the streets," said another resident, adding that army snipers had positioned themselves on the roofs of the state-owned electricity company and the main prison.

Tank shells were falling at the rate of four a minute in and around northern Hama, residents said, and electricity and water supplies to the main neighbourhoods had been cut off - a tactic used regularly by the military when storming towns.

During Ramadan, Muslims throng mosques for special night prayers after breaking their daily dawn-to-dusk fast. The gatherings could trigger major protests throughout the predominantly Sunni country and activists say authorities are moving to try to ensure that does not happen.

An estimated 1,600 civilians have died in the crackdown on the largely peaceful protests against President Bashar al-Assad's regime since the uprising began. Most of the dead were killed in shootings by security forces at anti-government rallies.

Hama, about 130 miles (210 kilometres) north of Damascus, has become one of the hottest centres of the demonstrations. In early June, security forces shot dead 65 people there, and since then it has fallen out of government control, with protesters holding the streets and government forces ringing the city and conducting overnight raids.

The city has a history of dissent against the Assad dynasty. In 1982, Assad's late father, Hafez al-Assad, ordered his brother to quell a rebellion by Syrian members of the conservative Muslim Brotherhood movement. The city was sealed off before air strikes destroyed parts of the city. As many as 25,000 people, human rights groups say.

The real number may never be known. Then, as now, reporters were not allowed to reach the area.

The London-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said it had compiled the names of 13 dead from hospitals and residents in Hama, but the figure could not be independently confirmed. The Syria-based Local Coordination Committees said it had the names of four victims, but thatthere were more bodies still to be identified.

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'Eco-pirate' Paul Watson is in danger of losing his boat

2011-07-31T13:32:00.000-07:00

Terri Irwin, widow of the late crocodile hunter Steve Irwin, and Paul Watson aboard the Sea Shepherd flagship in Melbourne in 2007. Photograph: William West/AFP

"Eco-pirate" Paul Watson is losing a race against time to recover his flagship boat, the Steve Irwin, which has been impounded in Shetland.

The world's most radical conservationist, Watson is being sued for $1.4m (?850,000) by a Maltese fishing company, Fish and Fish, one of Europe's leading tuna processors. The law suit against Watson's Sea Shepherd Conservation Society was filed last year after activists aboard the Steve Irwin freed 800 bluefin tuna from a pen in the Mediterranean.

Watson has just 10 days to raise the bond required to release the boat, which was named after the late Australian conservationist. It has been impounded in the harbour at Lerwick ever since the company sued him for damages. By last night, the society had raised about $500,000, after a global Twitter campaign and appeals to celebrities who have helped Watson in the past.

A co-founder of Greenpeace, Watson was picking up volunteer crew and restocking the Steve Irwin in preparation for a trip to protest against whaling in the Faroe Islands when he was served with the writ. The tuna cage that had been intercepted 40 miles off the Libyan coast in June last year held an estimated 35 tons of fish.

After a fracas in which there was hand-to-hand fighting between the two crews, Sea Shepherd sent in divers to release the 800 tuna.

Joseph Caruana, the owner of Fish and Fish, declined to speak to the Observer, but has claimed in the Maltese press that two of his divers were injured in the encounter, an allegation strongly denied by Watson. "Sea Shepherd cannot continue behaving this way. My aim is for justice to be done. I wanted to show that we mean business and we will fight our cause," he said.

Malta has become a global capital of tuna fishing, exporting ?80m-worth of the fish, mainly to the Middle East and Japan. Ships surround the fish with nets and then tow them to cages, where they are fattened for export.

Catches are limited to two weeks a year and ship owners have been given strict quotas to meet by governments, but, with little policing, the industry has been able to openly flout the law in Libyan waters.

Greenpeace and WWF called last month for a suspension of the Mediterranean tuna fishing season, saying that stocks were at critically low levels. "Mediterranean bluefin tuna is on the slippery slope to collapse," said Dr Sergi Tudela, of WWF Mediterranean.

In a statement last week, Watson said that if Sea Shepherd could not raise the money, the Steve Irwin could be held indefinitely and possibly sold. "This would not only be a financial hardship, but it could threaten our ability to defend whales in the Southern Ocean Whale Sanctuary from the Japanese whaling fleet this December. Fish and Fish are claiming damages for bluefin tuna we believe were illegally caught after the season had closed," he said.

In a separate incident, the Namibian government has declared Sea Shepherd a "threat to national security" after it tried to film the annual slaughter of 90,000 Cape fur seals on the west African coast. It is a crime to document seal clubbing in Namibia.

"The group tried to document the seal slaughter, but was detected by Namibian special forces," said Watson. "It was a good plan, but Sea Shepherd is no match for the Namibian military." The group fled to South Africa, having had its rooms burgled and cameras destroyed.

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US debt crisis: talks to avoid default make 'significant progress'

2011-07-31T12:49:00.000-07:00

Negotiations to raise the US debt ceiling and avert the country's first ever default continued through the night on Saturday as Republicans and Democrats tried to reach a deal before markets open on Monday. Photograph: Alex Wong/Getty Images

The White House and Republican leaders in Congress have made significant progress toward a deal to raise the US debt ceiling and avert a potentially catastrophic default, according to officials familiar with the talks.

Under a plan negotiated late on Saturday night, the ceiling would be raised in two steps by about $2.4tn (?1.5tn) and spending would be cut by a slightly larger amount, the officials said. The first stage – to raise the ceiling by about $1tn – would take place immediately and the second later in the year.

Congress would be required to vote on a balanced budget amendment to the Constitution, but none of the debt limit increase would be contingent on its approval.

President Barack Obama is seeking legislation to raise the government's $14.3tn debt limit by enough to tide the US treasury over until after the 2012 elections. He has threatened to veto any proposals that might lead to a recurrence of the current crisis next year but has agreed to Republican demands that deficits be cut – without tax increases – in exchange for authorising additional US borrowing.

Without a compromise in place by Tuesday, administration officials say the treasury will run out of funds to pay the nation's bills.

The subsequent default, which would be the first in US history, could prove catastrophic for the US economy by causing interest rates to rise and financial markets to sink, and sending shockwaves around the world. With financial markets closed for the weekend, the parties to the negotiations had a little breathing space, but not much. Asian markets open for the new working week late Sunday afternoon Washington time.

"There is very little time," Obama said in his weekly radio and internet address on Saturday. He called for an end to political gamesmanship, saying: "The time for compromise on behalf of the American people is now."

One official commenting on the late night negotiations said the two sides had settled on general concepts, but that there were numerous details to be worked out – and no assurance of a final agreement.

"There are many elements to be finalised," Harry Reid, the Democratic majority leader in the Senate said. "There is still a distance to go."

Still, word of significant progress after weeks of stalemate offered the strongest indication yet that a default might be averted.

Mitch McConnell, the Republican leader in the Senate, said at a joint news conference with the House speaker John Boehner that he was confident a deal could be reached "in the very near future".

After a meeting at the White House with Obama and the House Democratic leader Nancy Pelosi, Reid initially disagreed with that optimistic assessment.

Past increases in the US debt ceiling have been routine, but Republicans, citing the giant US deficit, have demanded huge spending cuts as a condition for approving the increase this time.

After weeks of intense partisanship, there was renewed talk of compromise as both the House and Senate convened for extraordinary Saturday sessions.

McConnell and Boehner held their news conference shortly after the House of Representatives had rejected a Senate Democratic bill drafted by Reid to raise the government's debt limit by $2.4tn and cut spending by $2.2tn.

The House vote was 246-173, mostly along party lines and after a bitter debate. The vote was unusual in that Republicans lined up to kill Reid's legislation before it had even cleared the Senate. It was orchestrated as political payback because late on Friday Reid had engineered the demise of Republican proposals hours after it they were passed in the House.

Before the House vote, Republicans said Reid's proposals were full of gimmicks and would make unacceptable reductions in defence spending.

Pelosi said Boehner had chosen "to go to the dark side" when he changed his own legislation to satisfy the Tea Party movement and other critics, who insist taxes must not be raised to cut into federal deficits, even for the wealthiest US companies and individuals.

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Students given tips to stop gap year travel being 'a new colonialism'

2011-07-31T12:16:00.000-07:00

Volunteering in developing countries such as Nepal can help young people gain confidence and a sense of self-reliance. Photograph: Jonny Cochrane/Alamy

The multi-million pound gap-year industry is in danger of damaging Britain's reputation abroad and raising fears that the west is engaged in a new form of colonialism, according to a leading thinktank.

Young people planning a gap year should focus on what they can offer their hosts in order to discourage the view that volunteering is merely a new way of exercising power, says a new report by Demos.

Those who carefully select the projects in which they take part are likely to make the most of their time, while doing the most to dispel the belief that their trips are merely self-interested, says the report.

Nine out of 10 young people surveyed by YouGov for Demos said they had improved their self-confidence, self-reliance and sense of motivation following a stint of volunteering in a developing country.

However, the gap-year industry is a ?6bn business for western companies, costing volunteers between ?1,500 and ?4,500 for a mere two-month experience. One in five people who took a gap year said they believed their presence in the place they visited made no positive difference to the lives of those around them.

Jonathan Birdwell, author of the Demos report, said there was even evidence that an ill thought-out gap year could be bad for local communities and Britain's relations with other countries. "There is a risk of such programmes perpetuating negative stereotypes of western 'colonialism' and 'charity': a new way for the west to assert its power," he said.

Birdwell added that "projects that do not appear to have benefits or make a difference for communities abroad leave volunteers unmotivated and disillusioned".

One respondent to the survey's report said: "I felt that the local community could have done the work we were doing; there were lots of unemployed people there. I'd have preferred to work with local unemployed and helped them in some way to benefit their community."

The study comes in the wake of the government's launch of the International Citizen Service which, in the words of the prime minister, is designed to "give thousands of our young people, those who couldn't otherwise afford it, the chance to see the world and serve others".

The scheme is means tested, allowing those who come from families with a joint income of less than ?25,000 the chance of a gap year for free. The pilot of the scheme will involve 1,080 young people visiting 27 different countries.

The Demos report found that 64% of 3,000 parents surveyed want their children to take part in the ICS scheme. However, Demos's research indicated that there were key factors which make a gap year successful and the report recommends the ICS should incorporate them.

There should be post-placement support, which allows the young person to continue the work they started abroad once back home, it claims.

The report says there should be pre-departure training to ensure that young people are able to offer relevant skills. It says placements which are short are just as likely to have positive outcomes in personal development and civic participation as long-term ones. Young people who live with a host family are also more likely to report positive outcomes in "skills, identity and values".

The report found that the typical UK overseas volunteer tended to be young, affluent, white and female, although those with few qualifications and those from low-income backgrounds reported the most positive experiences.

Birdwell said he hoped the ICS would grow to help around 3,000 young people a year and that these would be the least well-off in society. He said: "The new International Citizen Service is an exciting opportunity for young British people to experience the world and gain invaluable experience and skills while helping to contribute to the UK's international development goals.

"However, the ICS is competing with an already crowded gap-year market. In order to be successful, it must ensure that activities benefit communities abroad and it must target recruitment to young people who couldn't afford commercial gap year programmes."

Harry went on an expedition with funding from the charity Raleigh International to Costa Rica and Nicaragua before starting at Manchester on a business studies course. "I wanted a gap year which gave me work experience, a chance to travel and the chance to give something back to a community. When I returned, I managed to get on to an internship with IBM. I could have just travelled to Australia like everyone else, but how often do you get to trek through rainforests, build a community centre for a remote village or reforest a national park?"

Amy spent eight weeks in Nakavika village, Fiji, in 2008 before studying English at Nottingham. "I learnt nothing. By and large, the villagers living there seemed really happy. Probably earlier projects would have been rewarding, when you helped to build their toilets and when they didn't have sports equipment and text books already. I felt the only impact I had was the money I paid. Realistically, my presence only positively impacted the children there, as we played with them a lot when we were meant to be 'building'!"

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Plane from New York crashes at Guyana airport

2011-07-31T10:49:00.000-07:00

A Caribbean Airlines jet carrying 140 passengers from New York crashed and broke in half on landing in Guyana, injuring several people but causing no deaths.

The Boeing 737-800 reportedly overshot the 7,400ft (2,200m) runway at Cheddi Jagan international airport in rainy weather, just missing a 200ft ravine that would have made fatalities more likely, according to the Guyanese president, Bharrat Jagdeo.

"We are very, very grateful that more people were not injured," he said as authorities closed the airport, leaving hundreds of passengers stranded and delaying dozens of flights.

Authorities struggled at first to remove passengers without adequate field lights and other emergency equipment. About 100 people received medical attention, with four treated for serious injuries, said Devant Maharaj, transportation minister in Trinidad, where Caribbean Airlines is based.

He said the company was sending a team to Guyana to help investigate the crash. No further details were available. Maharaj spoke at a press conference in Trinidad and took no questions, saying the investigation is ongoing.

Among the injured was Geeta Ramsingh, 41, of Philadelphia, who said passengers had just started to applaud the touchdown "when it turned to screams", she said, pointing to bruises on her knees. She said she hopped onto the wing and then onto the dirt road outside the runway fence.

"I am upset that no one came to rescue us in the dark, but a taxi driver appeared from nowhere and charged me $20 to take me to the terminal. I had to pay, but in times of emergencies, you don't charge people for a ride," she said, sitting on a chair in the arrival area surrounded by relatives. She was returning to her native country for only the second time in 30 years. The plane had left New York and made a stop in Trinidad before landing in Guyana.

Jagdeo said he has asked the US National Transportation Safety Board to help investigate the crash. He said crews were pushing to reopen the airport as soon as possible.

The crash of Flight BW523 is the worst in recent history in Guyana, and only one of the few serious incidents involving the Trinidad-based airline. It is the single largest carrier in the region, operating at least five daily flights.

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Somali refugees brave fighting in Mogadishu in hope of UN food aid

2011-07-31T09:57:00.000-07:00

Despite continued fighting in Mogadishu, thousands of refugees from Somali's drought-hit south are arriving in the capital. Above, refugees queue for food in a camp in the suburbs. Photograph: Mustafa Abdi/AFP/Getty Images

Hit by the worst drought in 60 years, tens of thousands of people are leaving the rural areas of central and southern Somalia for the war-ravaged capital, Mogadishu, where last week the UN's World Food Programme (WFP) started an airlift operation to deliver to 20 feeding centres.

Despite continuing fighting, with troops of the Transitional Federal Government (TFG) and African Union-led forces battling the Islamic militants of al-Shabaab, more and more people are coming into the city, hoping to find relief from a drought that is affecting 11 million in Somalia alone.

The WFP said it has been able to provide 85,000 meals a day in Mogadishu but with mortar shells frequently hitting civilian areas the TFG military offensive that started last week is likely to hamper the delivery of food.

The UN declared a famine in two southern regions of Somalia on 20 July, but Abdirahman Omar Osman, the Somali government's spokesman, said the emergency is even more serious. Every day about 3,000 people arrive in Ifo, Dagahaley and Hagadera, the three camps at Dadaab in Kenya, which now have more than 380,000 refugees, 100,000 of whom arrived this year.

Barack Obama has said the emergency in east Africa has not had the attention it deserved in the US. Speaking during a meeting with the presidents of Benin, Guinea, Ivory Coast and Niger on Friday, Obama asked Africa to play a bigger role in assisting the people affected by the drought.

The UN's Office for the Co-ordination of Humanitarian Affairs has predicted that famine will spread to all of southern Somalia, parts of which are controlled by al-Shabaab, which banned foreign aid in 2009.

After talks with relief organisations, al-Shabaab has allowed some food to be delivered in the past weeks but so far no regular supplies have reached the areas controlled by the Islamist militants, who are linked to al-Qaida.

Djibouti, eastern Ethiopia and northern Kenya have been badly hit as well. The scale of the crisis has even prompted long-time refugees in Dadaab to join the relief efforts. Mosques and Islamic associations in the camps are collecting food and clothes to give to the newcomers.

"We have also asked the population to give priority to the new refugees at the water points," says Mahmoud Jama Guled, who chairs a section of Ifo camp. He said that in his area one water tank is now serving more than 6,500 families.

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China rail crash families accept compensation as Beijing moves to silence furore

2011-07-31T09:16:00.000-07:00

China's premier Wen Jiabao places flowers as he mourns the victims who died during the high-speed train crash at Wenzhou, in Zhejiang province. Photograph: Str/AFP/Getty Images

Relatives bereaved by China's high-speed rail crash have accepted compensation after the government doubled its original offer, as authorities tried to silence the furore over the disaster. Ten families have agreed to the deal – 915,000 yuan (?87,000) per victim – the state news agency reported. The death toll is now 40, with another 190 injured.

Other relatives say the compensation is insufficient and that the ministry of railways, which has apologised for last weekend's disaster, should take more responsibility. "Our deceased relatives were in the prime of their lives; they have children and senior parents to support," said Chen Engfen. He said he would not accept less than ?141,000.

The crash, near Wenzhou in Zhejiang province, happened when one train ploughed into the back of another. Six coaches were derailed, with four plunging from a viaduct. Officials have blamed design flaws in signalling and are checking the equipment at 58 other stations.

The disaster, and the government's handling of it, unleashed an outpouring of anger. Many see the crash as epitomising the problems facing China in its headlong rush towards development, including the lack of transparency.

However, unusually aggressive reporting has come to an abrupt halt. "Some newspapers have been told not to run articles, or had prepared far harder coverage but at the last minute had the rug pulled out from under them," said David Bandurski of Hong Kong University's China Media Project.

China has seen a similar pattern in previous disasters, with censors shutting down discussion and relatives coming under pressure to sign compensation deals and stop raising questions about the incident.

Japan's Asahi Shimbun reported a relative as saying the family stopped protesting about the crash "because pressure was applied privately".

Chinese journalists have said that a television producer was disciplined after his programme asked searching questions about the crash. A note on Wang Qinglei's microblog said that "as long as a country has journalists who resist pressure… it still has a soul".

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Zara Phillips weds Mike Tindall but the royals keep it simple

2011-07-31T07:53:00.000-07:00

Zara Phillips and Mike Tindall after their wedding ceremony at Canongate Kirk. Photograph: Martin Rickett/PA

The bride, as ever, looked radiant in a beautiful little off-the-shoulder number and the groom looked simply delighted. Then a white stretch limo pulled up and disgorged the ushers and a gaggle of bridesmaids, all pink and giggly. A lone piper greeted them at the door of the MacDonald Hotel then guests who had been sipping beers and Bacardis at the cafes on Holyrood Road followed them.

It was the wedding day of local couple Paul and Sharon, and they didn't seem in the least fazed by the thousands heading in the other direction for the union of a royal and a rugby star in the Canongate.

The Edinburgh Evening News had predicted a crowd of only 2,000, but there looked to be at least double that gathered 10-deep in the Edinburgh sunshine and stretching most of the way up the Royal Mile.

Earlier, I had sought to secure one of the little commemorative union flags that most people in the crowd seemed to be sporting. For this was Edinburgh's Old Town – perhaps the only place in Scotland where you can wave the red, white and blue without making an exhibition of yourself.

In the days before the wedding of the Princess Royal's daughter, some had tried to induce outrage at the cost of the event to the public purse. They had chosen the wrong target, though. Anne is Scotland's favourite royal and seems cast in our image and likeness. She doesn't seem to brook any nonsense and you can imagine her helping the servants bring the coal in of a winter night. Besides, she's patron of the Scottish Rugby Union and attends all Scotland's matches in a tartan skirt.

Zara herself seems a fresh and sonsie young woman who has emulated her mother as a world-ranking equestrian. The occasion had a down-to-earth feel – even, dare I say it, couthie. Two of Mike Tindall's ushers were family members while three came from his rugby background. One was Peter Phillips, Zara's brother. The groom's brother, Ian, was also among their number. And there was also a little human touch becoming of Anne: as she watched the couple set off for Holyroodhouse she firmly linked arms with Tindall's elderly father, Phil.

The choice of the Canongate Kirk as the venue for the nuptials struck some as unusual and iconoclastic, but it wasn't really. This 17th-century chapel, one of the most handsome in the city and commissioned by James VII, is the parish church of the Palace of Holyroodhouse and of the Scottish parliament. Indeed, did the Queen not worship there just the other week? She was also welcomed to this church 59 years ago, not long before her coronation.

In the Canongate kirkyard, perhaps one of the most beautiful urban resting places in Scotland, lie the remains of David Rizzio who loved a queen once then paid for it with his life. There, too, are the bones of Robert Fergusson, a great Scottish poet who inspired Robert Burns, and the philosopher Adam Smith is interred just ahead of him. One of the best views in Edinburgh lies just beyond.

The spirit of another, whose remains do not lie in the Canongate, nevertheless haunts the Royal Mile.

Before his life of Samuel Johnson, James Boswell wrote his Edinburgh Journals based on his nocturnal adventures in this most historic of streets. This was 18th-century Scotland's Sunset Strip and housed many of the capital's shebeens and whorehouses.

Boswell, it seemed, visited every one. He would have chuckled at the procession of Daimlers ferrying the entire top tier of Britain's aristocracy to a church he once sashayed past while royally inebriated.

I digress. Across the road, Caroline and Lesley from Kirkcaldy were enjoying their day in the sunshine. Like many others in the throng, they would not regard themselves as great supporters of the royal family, but when the Queen whisked by with a wave, there were tears. "She's a lovely woman, I hope she enjoys her granddaughter's wedding," said one.

Thomas was there with three young children, his bronzed features belonging to someone who works outside for a living. Did he not resent the reputed ?500,000 cost of the occasion? "Not a bit of it," he said. "This is the Queen's parish and she does a lot for this country. I wouldnae begrudge her a penny."

It had just gone four o'clock when Zara and her new husband emerged from their nuptials. Everyone cheered. Soon she would arrive back at Holyroodhouse and be serenaded by the Royal Scots Association pipe band. As a sidenote, though, she will not take her husband's name and become Mrs Tindall. Zara Phillips it was, and still is.

"Who do you think made the dress?" asked Lesley. I told her it looked suspiciously to me like a Stewart Parvin number, having seen the couturier's triumphant 2010 show at London's White Gallery. She regarded me with renewed suspicion. "Are you havin' a laugh?"

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Rogue landlords flourish as would-be buyers forced to rent

2011-07-31T07:15:00.000-07:00

Slum landlords of the type that enjoyed a boom in the 1980s are again doing brisk business because of major changes sweeping the property market, say housing experts.

Millions of people are being priced out of buying a property as mortgage availability becomes scarce and they struggle to raise a deposit. Latest figures suggest mortgage lending is now a third of what it was at the height of the boom in 2007.

A dearth of social housing, which is under acute pressure as local authority budgets are cut, is also contributing to a lack of affordable accommodation. An increasing number of people have no option but to rent, creating intense competition in the private rental market.

There are now 3.4 million households living in the private rented sector in England, a 40% rise over the past five years and the biggest increase on record, according to new analysis by Shelter. The trend has alarmed the Chartered Institute of Environmental Health (CIEH) whose officers are charged with ensuring the nation's housing stock meets adequate standards.

"People who are in relatively secure jobs but can't afford to buy are moving into the rented sector," said Stephen Battersby, president of the CIEH. "People who have traditionally used the private sector will drop further down the ladder into the hands of the more exploitative, neglectful landlords, if not those who are downright criminal."

The government claims three quarters of private tenants report they are happy with their accommodation, but experts point out that this leaves some 800,000 who have concerns, many with the way they are treated by their landlords.

In the past year, Shelter says it has seen complaints about landlords increase by 23%. Almost nine out of 10 environmental health officers say they have encountered landlords harassing or illegally evicting tenants from their homes. And almost all environmental health officers say they have encountered landlords who persistently ignore their responsibilities, with half believing they do this to make as much money as possible

"A chronic shortage of social housing and more people priced out of the housing market means that renting is fast becoming the only option for thousands of people in this country," said Campbell Robb, the chief executive of Shelter. "Yet our figures show a worrying increase in the number of people seeking help regarding problems with their landlord. It would appear that rogue landlords could be cashing in on this growing market."

Housing charities warn there is very little policing of landlords and the condition of their properties. In 2009, the English Housing Survey identified 1.5m homes in the private rented sector as "non-decent". Of these, 970,000 failed the Decent Home Standard. This has led the CIEH to call for a national register of landlords. "It's a public health issue that affects us all," said Battersby. "The NHS is spending ?800m a year because of poor housing, factor in social costs and it's ?1.5bn."

Environmental health officers working for Local Housing Authorities (LHAs) are responsible for monitoring standards in private properties rented out to benefit claimants. But, according to new evidence obtained by the CIEH under the Freedom of Information Act, four fifths of LHAs have never carried out a prosecution of a landlord.

Cutbacks have prompted fears that this situation is unlikely to improve given the amount of time and manpower a prosecution involves. But experts fear the need to tackle the issue of rogue landlords in the private sector will become more urgent in the coming months. The localism bill currently before parliament allows local authorities to discharge their duties to homeless people by using private rented accommodation, rather than social housing, without the applicant's agreement. Changes to the amount of housing benefit paid to claimants will also have an impact.

"With cuts to housing benefit and changes to the homelessness safety net, we are concerned there will be an influx of people pushed to the bottom end of the private rented sector which will lead to an imbalance between supply and demand for properties," Robb said. "This could see some rogue landlords exploiting the lack of accommodation, with the most vulnerable tenants left with little choice of who to rent from."

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Nobel chairman warns Europe's leaders over 'inflaming far-right sentiment'

2011-07-31T06:40:00.000-07:00

David Cameron leaves the Norwegian embassy after signing the book of condolences for the victims of Norway attacks. Photograph: John Stillwell/AFP/Getty Images

Europe's leaders, including David Cameron, have been warned to adopt a more "cautious" approach when discussing multiculturalism. The Norwegian chairman of the Nobel peace prize committee has told them they risk inflaming far-right and anti-Muslim sentiment.

Thorbjorn Jagland, a former prime minister of his country, said leaders such as the British premier would be "playing with fire" if they continued to use rhetoric that could be exploited by extremists.

Four months ago in Munich, Cameron declared that state multiculturalism had failed in Britain, a view immediately praised by Nick Griffin, leader of the BNP, as "a further huge leap for our ideas into the political mainstream". Marine Le Pen, vice-president of the far-right National Front party in France, also endorsed Cameron's view of multiculturalism, claiming that it corroborated her own party's line.

Jagland's comments come in the wake of the Oslo bomb and the massacre on Utoya Island that left 77 people dead. The killer, Anders Behring Breivik, said he was inspired by the right-wing English Defence League. Breivik sent his manifesto, published online hours before the attacks, to about 250 British members of the BNP, the EDL and the Stop Islamisation of Europe group.

Jagland, who is also secretary general of the Council of Europe, told the Observer: "We have to be very careful how we are discussing these issues, what words are used.

"Political leaders have got to defend the fact that society has become more diverse. We have to defend the reality, otherwise we are going to get into a mess. I think political leaders have to send a clear message to embrace it and benefit from it.

"We should be very cautious now, we should not play with fire. Therefore I think the words we are using are very important because it can lead to much more."

Jagland has also urged leading politicians to change their terminology. He said the word "diversity" was better than multiculturalism because the latter had become defined in different ways by different groups. "We also need to stop using 'Islamic terrorism', which indicates that terrorism is about Islam. We should be saying that terrorism is terrorism and not linked to religion," said Jagland.

Over the years before his attacks, Breivik developed an ultra-radical stance that initially incorporated the forced repatriation of Muslims from Europe, but ultimately targeted Norway's centre-left government, which had encouraged multiculturalism. During his court appearance on terrorism charges, the 32-year-old said he had acted to prevent the "Muslim takeover" of Europe.

It hasemerged that during a 10-hour interrogation, Breivik told police that he also considered attacking other government and Labour party targets in Norway. Police attorney Paal-Fredrik Hjort Kraby revealed that Breivik had again asked interrogators how many people he had killed and "showed no emotion" when they told him.

As Norway struggles to come to terms with the killings, with the first of the dead being buried on Friday, the process of establishing whether Breivik is insane, as his lawyer has asserted, is due to begin. Psychiatrists said the process would involve months of observation, interviews and analysis, insisting that it is hard to fake mental illness. It has also emerged that more than 250 people were picked up by boats from the waters off Utoya Island as Breivik conducted his 90-minute shooting rampage. About 650 people were on the island, of whom at least 68 were killed, most of them teenagers.

During Cameron's Munich speech, which combined a passage on terrorism with one on integration, the prime minister talked extensively about "Islamist extremism" as being the source of terrorism.

Breivik saw David Miliband, Gordon Brown and Tony Blair as worthy of assassination because, according to his 1,500-page manifesto, they had a "friendly attitude" to immigrants.

Jagland says he has sympathy with Cameron's attempt to robustly promote a shared set of British values as an alternative to multiculturalism, if not with his delivery. "We are not searching for a society where we have only different cultures. We also need to have something that holds us together, to respect common values," he said.

Jagland, who last year gave the Nobel peace prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who was represented by an empty chair at the ceremony in Oslo, added that the immigration debate also needed to be less negative.

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Public sector workers need 'discipline and fear', says Oliver Letwin

2011-07-31T06:05:00.000-07:00

Oliver Letwin says he is determined to 'instil' fear among public sector workers to push productivity. Photograph: David Levene

Oliver Letwin, the coalition's policy minister, has revealed the government's determination to instil "fear" among those working in the public sector, who he claimed had failed for the past 20 years to improve their productivity.

Letwin, architect of the coalition's plans to reform public services, told a meeting at the offices of a leading consultancy firm that the public sector had atrophied over the past two decades.

In controversial comments angering teachers, nurses and doctors, he warned that it was only through "some real discipline and some fear" of job losses that excellence would be achieved in the public sector.

Letwin added that some of those running schools and hospitals would not survive the process and that it was an "inevitable and intended" consequence of government policy.

"You can't have room for innovation and the pressure for excellence without having some real discipline and some fear on the part of the providers that things may go wrong if they don't live up to the aims that society as a whole is demanding of them," he said.

"If you have diversity of provision and personal choice and power, some providers will be better and some worse. Inevitably, some will not, whether it's because they can't attract the patient or the pupil, for example, or because they can't get results and hence can't get paid. Some will not survive. It is an inevitable and intended consequence of what we are talking about."

Mark Serwotka, general secretary of the Public and Commercial Services Union (PCSU), reacted angrily to Letwin's comments, describing them as "nonsense".

He added: "Public sector workers are already working in fear – fear of cuts to their job, pension, living standards and of privatisation. Far from improving productivity, the cuts are creating chaos in vital public services."

Letwin was speaking at the launch of a liberal thinktank's report at the London headquarters of KPMG, one of the biggest recipients of government cash, which won the first contract for NHS commissioning following the decision to scrap primary care trusts and further open the health service to private companies.

Letwin's recent white paper on public sector reform had been dismissed as watered down earlier this month amid speculation that the Liberal Democrats had vetoed radical change. But Letwin said on Wednesday that he believed he was prosecuting "the most ambitious set of public service reforms that any government in modern Britain has undertaken", adding that productivity had improved across the economy except in the public sector in the past 20 years.

A spokesman for the Office for National Statistics (ONS) said he did not know where Letwin had sourced his figures. However, an ONS analysis that works back to 1997, shows that productivity in public services fell on average by 0.3% a year between 1997 and 2008 because the level of inputs, such as staff and equipment, increased faster than the output, such as operations performed and numbers of pupils taught.

Harriet Harman, Labour's deputy leader, said last night that she did not recognise Letwin's portrayal of the public sector. "Death rates in hospitals have been falling, satisfaction levels have been rising," she said. "What hasn't changed is the Tories' antipathy to public services. And the idea that the way to improve public services is to put fear into those who provide them is absolutely grotesque."

A Cabinet Office spokesperson said: "It is widely acknowledged that there is a problem with productivity in public services. The government's policy is to improve it and provide the best value for the taxpayer."

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England v India - live! | Rob Smyth and Rob Bagchi

2011-07-31T04:10:00.001-07:00

England's Stuart Broad acknowledges the applause of the crowd after his hat-trick against India at Trent Bridge. Photograph: Jon Super/AP"Good morning," says John Starbuck. "It's been announced that Trott will bat though no-one knows what position yet." Crikey, that is a surprise. No10 or 11?

Thought for the day This series is going to kick off very soon, isn't it?

Trottwatch He faced only two balls in practice this morning before going off for an injection. It seems very unlikely he will bat.

Preamble Morning. These days everyone wants to be FIRST! We're a culture obsessed with the first: first impression, first match of the season, first meal (Paulie Walnuts says breakfast is the most important meal of the day, and wise men don't argue with Paulie), first date, first injunction, first pint after eight hours kissing the feet of The Man. In some contexts, however, the second is far more important. For example, a monstrous slab of lunchtime meat at The Hawksmoor trumps Frosties anyday, although you can tell Paulie that. Similarly, the second set of a tennis match is surely the most significant, when the contest is almost completed at 2-0 or comes alive at 1-1.

That's the scenario we have at Trent Bridge today, where an excellent Test match will probably be decided, if not actually completed. Either England go 2-0 up or India level it at 1-1 with power, Sehwag and Zaheer to add. The English cricket lover in me is desperate for England to win; the Test cricket lover in me is equally desperate for India to win. Think about how empty 2005 would have been had Australia gone 2-0 up at Edgbaston, and not just because England were losing.

Six years ago we had the best of both worlds – an epic series and an England win. So this time we want India to win here, England to win by one wicket at Edgbaston and then by one run at The Oval, thus clinching the series 3-1 and going top of the Test Championship. Is that so much to ask?

All that said, I suppose we could live with England winning by 114 runs here after a staggering 121-ball 132 from Eoin Morgan.

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Bailout rescue: euphoria wanes as doubts emerge

2011-07-23T12:50:00.000-07:00

The German chancellor, Angela Merkel, said she was confident that the Bundestag would vote through the Greek rescue package. Photograph: John Macdougall/AFP/Getty Images

A rally on European stock markets evaporated on Friday night as investors began to voice concerns about whether the eurozone rescue plan for Greece would be enough to stem the currency bloc's debt crisis.

One leading investment strategist described the new deal as "less sticking plaster and more of a proper bandage", but warned the underlying problems in the Greek economy had not been addressed. Another said the voluntary 21% "haircut" agreed by the banks was less than a third of what was required.

The credit ratings agency Fitch added to worries over the deal after it declared Greece would be in temporary default as the result of the €109bn (?96bn) bailout. The move is likely to be matched by rival ratings agencies.

The FTSE 100 finished up just 35 points at 5935, adding to small gains on the main French and German exchanges following a volatile day that saw most shares sink before a moderate recovery. Markets had initially cheered the deal and pushed up US stock prices overnight.

British and German government bonds, considered a safe haven, ended higher as investors started to have doubts about the scheme, which involves offering Greece, Ireland and Portugal longer to pay off their loans and a cut in interest payments.

Greece was also offered a relatively small one-off reduction in the value of its outstanding loans that will reduce its debt-to-GDP ratio from the 160% it was expected to reach before 2015.

French prime minister Francois Fillon said the deal guaranteed there would be no default by member states in the 17-nation bloc. However, comments by German banking bosses that the deal would need to be examined added to the air of uncertainty.

Germany's BdB association of private banks said that while an agreement was "an important step," the industry needed more information on its involvement.

The Institute of International Finance, which led talks for private investors, said 90% of creditors will sign up. Deutsche Bank, HSBC, BNP Paribas, Allianz and Axa are among the firms ready to support it.

Holders of Greek debt who are not on the institute's list of supportive firms include Royal Bank of Scotland, Italy's Unicredit and the French Credit Agricole banking group.

The offer is voluntary, raising the possibility that some investors, such as hedge funds, will not participate and wait to be repaid at the full price.

Standard Life said the deal was a positive move but it would continue to shun European shares and sovereign bonds, leaving it underweight in both.

Richard Batty, the fund manager's global investment strategist, said the bailout package still failed to tackle the economic situation in Greece and other debt-laden countries: "This programme is less sticking plaster and more of a proper bandage but that still doesn't deal with the underlying issues. You have to make these ex-growth economies like Greece and Italy more productive and able to compete in global markets. Without higher productivity and growth it will prove difficult to pay down debts, even with the improved deal."

Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income research at Evolution, argued the compromise to limit private sector bank losses to 21% was not enough to save Greece from years of austerity: "We have long thought that the most likely outcome for Greek bondholders would be that they would take a small haircut first followed by a larger one at a later date.

"To give Greece a fighting chance they probably need a writedown close to 65%," he said.

Analysts also warned that the need to put the package to a vote in the parliaments of each eurozone member state meant the deal could yet be derailed.

"Some of the euphoria that was in the market as the result of [Thursday's] events has eased off a little bit," said Eric Wand, strategist at Lloyds Corporate Markets.

"Some of the measures that were announced have still got to be passed by national parliaments – particularly with regard to the EFSF [European Financial Stability Facility]. And there may be some concerns about the sustainability of the debt situation given the easing growth backdrop," Wand added.

Germany's Angela Merkel said she was confident the Bundestag would vote through the package after she secured private sector involvement against French fears it would trigger a mass withdrawal of private funds across the eurozone.

France's BNP Paribas is set to take the biggest hit of around €950m, as the largest holder of Greek government debt outside the country.

Fillon said France's debt would increase by €15bn by 2014 taking into account the cost of providing a guarantee. The increase in debt raises the risk that France may overshoot the government's debt targets, which foresee a peak at 87% of GDP in 2012.

Ireland said the reduction in interest rates and extension on much of its lending could save €1bn a year in costs. Prime minister Enda Kenny thanked UK chancellor of the exchequer George Osborne for matching the eurozone plan with a reduction to 3.5% on the interest payments of a separate loan Britain offered last year.

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Debt ceiling talks between Obama and Republicans collapse

2011-07-23T12:03:00.000-07:00

Debt ceiling talks between Barack Obama and John Boehner have broken down, throwing the US into economic uncertainty. Photograph: Manuel Balce Ceneta/AP

The US is on the brink of a major economic crisis after negotiations between Barack Obama and Republican Congressional leaders over the national debt dramatically broke down on Friday.

Obama, showing anger, passion and verbosity rare in public in his two-and-a-half years as president, called a press conference at the White House at short notice to express his frustration with the Republicans.

He told reporters there had been "a breakdown in trust" between the White House and the Republican leadership. In a snub to the president, the Republican leader in the House, John Boehner, failed to return calls from the White House throughout the day, with his office saying he was unavailable. Boehner finally called the president on Friday evening to inform him the Republicans were walking away from weeks of negotiation aimed at resolving the country's debt crisis.

The collapse in talks comes with 10 days left until the US, for the first time in its history, faces the prospect of defaulting. If it fails to raise its $14.3tn (?8.7tn) borrowing ceiling, there will be serious consequences for not only the US economy but other countries around the world.

The Republican withdrawal came just a day after Obama and Boehner had seemed close to an agreement on the broad outlines of a package to cut $3tn in federal spending over the next 10 years, and to raise some taxes. But Boehner was unable to sell it to diehard Republicans in the House, many of whom were elected last year with the support of the Tea party movement, which seeks deep cuts in spending but no tax rises.

In a letter published just minutes after Obama began to speak, Boehner said: "In the end, we couldn't connect. Not because of different personalities, but because of different visions for our country." He blamed Obama for failing to agree to deep cuts in social security and other welfare benefits and for demanding that taxes be raised. "For these reasons, I have decided to end discussions with the White House," Boehner said.

An exasperated Obama called Democratic and Republican Congressional leaders to meet at the White House at 11 o'clock on Saturday morning to offer alternative proposals for dealing with the looming deadline on the debt ceiling.

The president insisted that the debt ceiling had to be raised or Americans across the country would suffer. "We've got to get it done. It is not an option not to do it," he said. If there is no deal, he said, he could not guarantee that the 70 million cheques due to go out to social security recipients, veterans and others on 3 August, the day after the deadline, would be sent.

The US chamber of commerce expressed nervousness over the prospect of America's credit rating being downgraded.

Federal payments to state governments could also be hit. State governors are laying down emergency plans, with California, among others, looking for alternative sources of borrowing to tide it over. Banks and businesses are also working feverishly preparing for worst-case scenarios.

The crisis is the biggest test of wills yet between Obama and hardline Republicans endorsed by the Tea party movement. It dwarfs the stand-off earlier this year when the federal government faced shutdown.

According to the Treasury, America reached its borrowing limit of $14.3tn on 16 May but is able to keep servicing its debts until 2 August.

Mark Blyth, professor of politics at Brown University and author of the forthcoming book Austerity: The History of a Dangerous Idea, said no one knew what the impact of defaulting would be because the situation was unprecedented.

He said the US had a long-term, serious problem, given its enormous fiscal gap and dependence on China, which has been bailing the US out and which has twice expressed concern about the impact of the default crisis on its investments. The US economy "is like Wile E Coyote who runs off the cliff and it takes him a while to realise it. What has been keeping him up is Chinese blowing air up," Blyth said.

Obama, up for re-election in November next year, has seen a sharp decline in his popularity because of the sluggishness of the US recovery from recession, with unemployment frustratingly failing to budge from just over 9%.

In spite of the negative ratings on his handling of the economy, he is doing better on the deficit issue, according to polls, with many independents, the voters who usually decide elections, blaming the Republicans and preferring a mix of spending cuts and tax increases rather than spending cuts alone.

Credit ratings agencies such as Moody's and Standard & Poor's have put the US on notice that its triple-A rating could be downgraded, which would be a national humiliation.

A glimpse into what might happen was provided by Minnesota earlier this month, when the state had to close down, with disruption reaching even minor elements of daily life, from beer supplies to adoption papers.

Ross Baker, professor of politics at Rutgers University, compared the US economy, with its huge debt, to a patient who needs both first aid and long-term care.

"The Democrats are the first-aid squad with their concern over the lack of money to stimulate the economy and produce jobs. The Republicans are in charge of the long-term care facility with their preoccupation with multi-generational debt levels," Baker said.

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Terrorism suspect ordered to leave London

2011-07-23T11:23:00.000-07:00

A father on a control order has been ordered to live outside london over risks he might raise funds for terorrists. Photograph: Andy Rain/EPA

A terrorist suspect and father of five has been ordered to move to a city outside London because of the risk that he might participate in fundraising for Pakistani militant groups.

The 38-year-old, who can only be identified as "BM", is already the subject of a control order which restricts his movements under the 2005 Prevention of Terrorism Act. MI5's assessment, accepted by the home secretary, is that BM is "committed to terrorism – in particular terrorism in Pakistan" and wishes to travel there, the high court was told.

BM was described in court papers as a 38-year-old British national born in Sheffield with five young children who had been living in Ilford, east London.

A requirement of the control order being challenged was that he must relocate to "an address in a city outside London". BM's lawyers argued such a "drastic step" of removing him to another part of the country would cut him off from anything but occasional contact with his children and was not justified.

They had argued there must be other ways of reducing or eliminating the risk he posed. Mr Justice Calvert-Smith, sitting in London, however, rejected the appeal.

Relocating him would involve a "particularly serious" infringement of his right under Article 8 of the European Convention on Human Rights to a private and family life, the judge acknowledged. But that right was outweighed by the real risk that without such a restriction "the appellant would take part in the transfer of monies to those fighting against allied troops".

The existence of associates in London who would be able and willing to assist him in sending funds "has not been denied", said the judge. Relocating him to another city would make that more difficult.

The judge said there was evidence BM assisted his two brothers to go to Afghanistan to commit acts of terrorism in April 2009. The first control order was imposed on April 30 that year and he was banned from his east London home on 21 May. But a high court judge ruled the relocation decision was flawed and he returned to London.

MI5 then produced evidence that, from late 2009, BM was involved with sending significant sums of money to his brothers in Pakistan. In January 2010 he was again ordered out of the capital but became involved in criminal proceedings over alleged breaches of his control order. In April this year the court of appeal revoked the first control order and the proceedings were dropped. A second control order was imposed on 8 April.

Control orders are due to be replaced with less stringent terrorism prevention and investigation measures (TPIMS).

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Stranded pilot whales prompt Highlands rescue operation

2011-07-23T10:12:00.000-07:00

A group of pilot whales became stranded in a remote sea loch in Scotland, prompting a rescue mission. Photograph: Charlie Phillips/WDCS/PA

Fifteen pilot whales have died after a pod of 60 became stranded in a remote sea loch in the Highlands. The Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society, which has sent a team to the area near the Kyle of Durness, said there is a chance that the pod is the same one that became stranded in the Outer Hebrides in May, leaving two whales dead.

Rescuers trying to save the whales said they had perished when they were stranded at low tide. Around 35 members of the pod beached as the water in the sea loch receded.

Twenty of them were refloated to deeper water using inflatable pontoons as the water returned, but the remainder had died, the British Divers Marine Life Rescue charity said. Many of the whales had been stranded on their sides, on top of each other and upside down and were breathing in sand.

A further 20 are thought to be in deeper water and not in imminent danger.

Local residents said the whales may have followed sand eels or salmon into the remote bay near Cape Wrath and had become stranded as the tide receded.

One man from a local B&B, who asked not to be identified, said there were six boats in the loch apparently trying to guide the whales towards a narrow channel where they could be kept until the tide rose again. A small number of them had already beached, he said.

"When the tide is out, it goes right back. The Kyle totally dries. It's just a huge expanse of sand … It's happening right in front of us. Two or three of them have beached. It's dreadful."

Danny Groves of the Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society said the pod could be the same one involved in a stranding near South Uist in . In that incident, 60 of the mammals swam into a narrow and rocky sea loch on the island's coast prompting fears that dozens could be killed in a mass beaching. Two were found dead as the pod eventually left Loch Carnan, on the north-east corner of South Uist. A post-mortem examination carried out on one whale suggested it died of infection. Rescuers later said a second whale was found dead in the loch.

At the time, officials in Ireland were warned to watch out for a mass stranding on their shores. The previous year, 35 pilot whales that appeared to be in danger of beaching in Loch Carnan left South Uist intact but less than a week later, 33 of the pod were found dead on a deserted island off County Donegal.

"It could well be (the same pod)," said Groves. May: "That's the group mentality. The last time, back in May, we thought one or two may have been injured. They operate in a very social group. Rather than leave, the others would come in and follow the injured."

Groves said other possible reasons for stranding behaviour could be noise pollution from sonar or drilling. Until a whale died and a post-mortem was carried out, it was difficult to say what the cause might be, he added.

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Mass Syrian protest against Assad regime adds to death toll

2011-07-23T08:13:00.000-07:00

Syrian anti-regime protesters carry a picture of President Assad that reads, "Leave. We don't trust you. You will leave and we will stay because Syria is ours. Enough of injustice and killing," during a rally in Damascus. Photograph: AP

Hundreds of thousands of Syrians turned out for anti-regime demonstrations across the country on Friday with at least 11 people reported killed by security forces and tensions mounting in the runup to the Ramadan holiday.

Casualty figures – collated by two Syrian human rights groups – were down on previous weeks but the numbers of demonstrators appeared to be some of the largest yet seen in the four-month uprising.

In Aleppo, Syria's second city, unarmed military cadets were seen marching with civilian protesters and calling for the overthrow of the regime and the departure of President Bashar al-Assad.

Damascus was unusually quiet after large demonstrations closer to the city centre last week but protests were reported from Deir Ezzor in the east to Suweida in the south. All were called to express solidarity with the people of the central city of Homs – the focal point of recent unrest – where some 40 people have been killed in the last few days amid worries of rising sectarian tensions. Five of the latest casualties were killed there.

Amateur video footage posted on the internet showed many thousands gathering after prayers on a day dubbed "Friday of the descendants of Khalid", a reference to a disciple of the prophet Muhammad who unified the Arabian Peninsula in the seventh century and is buried in Homs.

Nearby Hama, scene of a notorious 1982 massacre during the rule of Assad's father Hafez, saw hundreds of thousands in central Assi Square. But there was no visible security presence in the city.

Large protests were also reported for the first time from Aleppo, where one of Friday's fatalities was killed. Syrian TV reported that a civilian had been killed by an "armed gang" – the regime's habitual term for almost all protests.

In Damascus there were signs of a more restrained approach, with security forces firing into the air or using tear gas to prevent trouble spreading.

Activists reported checkpoints and a heavy security presence in Rukn ad-Deen, a largely Kurdish neighbourhood in the north-east of the city and the far eastern area of Qaboun where a mass funeral was held on Thursday. But protests went ahead as usual in Midan, a conservative district close to the old walled city.

Live streaming and better-quality pictures have been emerging from Syria this week despite the government's attempts to curb social media and temporarily block access to email services and Twitter.

In Midan a video clip showed protesters clapping and shouting: "The people are free, Syria is free." Footage from Aleppo showed a man drenched in blood being carried away. And in largely Kurdish Qamishli on the border with Turkey, teargas was fired to break up a protest.

Expressions of solidarity with Homs – pinned down by troops and tanks on the streets – came at the end of a week when at least 40 people were killed there, some of them reportedly in sectarian clashes.

But reports of sectarian strife have been hotly contested by activists and some analysts. "The protest movement does appear to be predominantly peaceful and non-sectarian but as state control weakens … people with other grievances may be taking advantage," said a western diplomat in Damascus.

That may be the case in Homs' northern neighbourhoods where Alawites and Sunnis are segregated into adjacent neighbourhoods.

Reports of revenge killings and violence on the part of "Shabiha" thugs allied with the government are multiplying. Some sources said state media reports of the targeting of a military bus near Rastan, north of Homs, on Thursday, killing two, may have been a case of a revenge attack.

In Homs activists and residents reported a rise in defections, including eight military intelligence personnel who changed sides after a brutal crackdown.

Activists said that several tank crews this week defected and joined protesters in the eastern town of Albu Kamal bordering Iraq's tribal Sunni heartland.

Footage from Aleppo showing unarmed army cadets marching with civilians was a striking novelty but it was difficult to judge its scale or wider significance.

Syrian activists are warning protesters who imitate slogans from Egypt and Tunisia (where the army changed sides and helped overthrow both presidents) such as "the people and the army are one hand!" that they should not count on the military changing sides. "This is a very different situation here and we know that," said one Damascus activist.

Delegations from Brazil, India and Turkey were reported to be in the capital to meet Assad amid reports that he will soon deliver his fourth speech since the uprising began. It is understood he will offer to abrogate article eight of the Syrian constitution, which provides for a leading role for the ruling Ba'ath party.

Assad is also rumoured to be considering calling presidential elections – overseen by delegations from abroad – several months after a new political parties law is put into effect.

"This could be the only peaceful way out of the situation," said one analyst. "But I am not sure the street will accept it at this stage."

In other developments, protesters destroyed a statue of Hafez al-Assad in Hasaka, prompting security forces to open fire, al-Arabiya TV reported. Hundreds more marched in the southern town of Suweida while demonstrations took place in the north-western province of Idlib.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, 1,419 civilians and 352 members of the security forces have been killed since 15 March, while more than 1,300 people have been arrested.

Nour Ali is a pseudonym for a journalist in Damascus

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Norway attacks: live coverage

2011-07-23T06:28:00.001-07:00

Injured people lay on the ground at the site of an explosion near the government buildings in Norway's capital Oslo. Photograph: Holm Morten/AFP1.15pm: Breivik described himself as a "nationalist" and had posted many comments online criticising immigrants as well as Norwegian politicians whom he considered sympathised with them, Peter Beaumont writes.

Among those in the party surprised at Breivik's actions is Ove Vanebo, Progress Party youth leader, who told TV 2: "We are as surprised and sad like everyone else. No matter which party he has been a member of this is completely unacceptable. ... We did not think he was capable of something like that. He was apparently a quiet and modest man."
In other postings Breivik is clear of the nature of his notion of "idealism". He has described himself as a "nationalist" and written offensively of Somali immigrants with "full Norwegian passports" sitting at home on benefit and sending back money to the Islamist
Al-Shabab.
One target of Breivik's anger was former Norwegian prime minister, Gro Harlem Brundtland – a member of Norway's Labour Party – who had spoken to the youth camp on Utoya the day before the massacre.
What seems clear, however, from his online postings was that Breivik increasingly, perhaps, had a grandiose sense of himself. In one – attacking Brundtland – he predicted that Norwegians would soon no longer be "immune to inflated [political] rhetoric, while in a
solitary Twitter post a week before launching his attack, he paraphrased John Stuart Mill to write: "One person with belief is equal to the force of 100, 000 who have only interests."

1.09pm: My colleague Peter Beaumont has been examing what is known about Anders Behring Breivik, who has been arrested over yesterday's attacks.

One of the few who knew him, who have spoken so far, was an anonymous friend who told the Norwegian newspaper VG that Breivik had been a far right winger since at least his late twenties, when he had begun posting a series of controversial opinions on Facebook.
What has emerged so far paints a disturbing picture: a Christian fundamentalist with a deep hatred of multiculturalism in his country, of the left and of Muslims who had written disparagingly of prominent Norwegian politicians. A far of violent video games as well who some former neighbours have told Norwegian media had sometimes been seen in
"military-style" clothing.
In the pictures that have so far emerged of him Breivik appears well dressed, slender and clean-shaven, a picture of the young entrepreneur he wanted to be.
Breivik's businesses, however, were not much of a success, each one of them being dissolved after a short while after making a loss until he established his farm business in 2009 and moved out of Oslo.
But the man who listed Kafka and George Orwell's 1984 as his favourite books on Facebook, made little secret to the friends he had, or others on the Christian fundamentalist and far right websites that he frequented, of his racist views.
The darkest side of all was revealed not only in the killings but in how he undertook them, not least on the island teaming with several hundred teenagers, where wearing earplugs and a police uniform he calmly called over his victims to join him so he could begin his
executions.
A Freemason, reportedly a body builder and a hunter with two registered weapons – a Glock pistol and an automatic rifle - it has been Breivik's online profile that has, so far supplied the most public information.
Breivik was also a former "a youth member" of his country's conservative Progress Party – a party he criticised in one posting for embracing "multi-culturalism" and "political correctness" rather than taking an "idealistic stand". Despite that, those who knew him in the party then, described him as "calm and quiet", his extremism coming later.

12.54pm: The king, queen and crown prince of Norway, along with the with prime minister, are meeting relatives of the shooting victims at the Sundvollen hotel now, Neil Perry writes.

The Queen is hugging everyone and the King appears to be wiping away tears. In typical Norwegian style, it is all very unfussy and personal.

12.48pm: Frank Mersland, a journalist with FVN TV, says Anders Behring Breivik, who has been arrested over yesterday's attacks, has been linked to the anti-immigration Progress party.

He writes via email: "The suspect, Anders Behring Breivik, has been tagged as a former member of the right winged political party Frp (Progress party). It's the second largest political party in Norway and their main issues are lower taxes and a much stricter policy on immigration. The Frp-leader, Siv Jensen, verified his membership on Norwegian TV2 a little while ago."

12.44pm: Here's AP's report on the arrest of a man outside a hotel where Norway's prime minister was meeting families of Utoya shooting victims.

The man told reporters he was detained "because I have a knife."
The man, who appeared to be around 20 years old, was standing outside the hotel next to reporters when two officers apprehended him and led him to a police car.
The man told reporters he was a member of the Labor Party's youth wing and was carrying a knife "because I feel unsafe."

12.42pm: Around 19 victims of the Utoya shootings are having surgery for gunshot wounds, according to Norwegian media reports.

12.37pm: Journalist Liss Goril Anda says the attacks were "squarely aimed at the values Norwegians treasure most (...) openness, freedom of expression and feeling of safety."

You can read here comment on the BBC website here.

12.32pm: The second man was arrested outside the Sundvollen hotel, where prime minister Jens Stoltenberg is due to give a press conference about yesterday's attacks.

12.25pm: The Norwegian paper Dagbladet has more information about the man arrested in Sundvollen.

Neil Perry in Oslo has sent me this from the reports:

Police Inspector Einar Aas of Oslo police said that the police in Ringerike have arrested a man in Sundvollen.

The police threw themselves on him. He was then taken into a car and driven away.

When asked by reporters why he was armed, he said, "because there are so many weird people here. I do not trust anyone. "

Before the man was pushed into the police car, he stated that he was a member of the AUF (the Labour Party youth organisation), Dagbladet reporter Jonas Sverrison Rasch said.

The man was wearing shorts and t-shirt. He had dark hair. He smiled as he was led into the police car, according to TV2.

12.17pm: A second man has been arrested and taken into custody, according to Norwegian media reports.

It is reported that he had a knife on him.

Neil Perry in Oslo has sent through this update about the arrest:

"Police walked up to a young man stood in the street outside the hotel in Sundvollen where
the survivors have been taken and arrested him."

Here is an article (in Norwegian) about the arrest from the Norwegian Broadcasting Company, known as NRK.

12.11pm: Here's an edited version of PA's timeline of the attacks in Norway (times in BST).

Friday July 22:

1430: A loud explosion shatters windows and leads to evacuations of office buildings near the government headquarters in Oslo city centre. The buildings include the office of prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, who is soon confirmed to be safe, as he was working at home.

1545: There are reports that at least one person has been killed in the explosion.

1615: It is confirmed that the explosion was caused by a bomb.

1645: It is confirmed that there are injuries in addition to the death and some people are trapped at the bomb site.

1700: Police confirm two people are dead and 15 injured.

1745: Police say they are sending anti-terror police to a youth camp on an island outside Oslo after reports of a shooting there. The news site VG reports that a man dressed in a police uniform has opened fire at the camp at Utoya, and several people are injured.

1815: Norway Labour Party spokesman Per Gunnar Dahl says a man has been shooting at youths assembled for the party's annual youth camp at Utoya. Unconfirmed reports are that five people were hit. He says around 700 people, mostly teenagers aged 14 to 18, were assembled for the camp.

1835: It is reported that one person has been arrested after the youth camp shooting.

1850: Police say they suspect the two incidents in Norway are linked.

1900: It is confirmed that seven people died in the bomb blast.

1945: An eyewitness to the shootings says he saw more than 20 bodies.

2050: Police say the man arrested after the shooting is linked to the bombing in Oslo. It emerges that Stoltenberg had been due to speak at the summer camp on Saturday.

2055: Police say that nine or 10 people were killed in the shooting.

2150: Norway's justice minister says the gunman is Norwegian.

Saturday July 23:

0040: It emerges that bomb disposal teams are searching for unexploded devices on Utoya. A police source says there is at least one device at the camp which is being disarmed. The gunman is named in media reports as Norwegian Anders Behring Breivik, 32. The suspect is said to have acted alone, with no links to international terrorist organisations.

0250: At least 80 people were killed in the shooting, police say.

0450: Police say the suspect had right-wing and anti-Muslim views, but the motive for the attacks was unclear. They warn the death toll from the shootings could rise, and others are severely injured.

0850: The suspect posted on websites with Christian fundamentalist tendencies, police say. The man is co-operating with police and wants to explain himself, they add.
The death toll from the shooting stands at 84 and with the bombing it is 91.

12.05pm: AP has more dramatic eye-witness accounts of the shootings on Utoya:

A 15-year-old camper named Elise who was on Utoya said she heard gunshots, but then saw a police officer and thought she was safe. Then he started shooting people right before her eyes.
"I saw many dead people," said Elise. "He first shot people on the island. Afterward he started shooting people in the water."
Elise said she hid behind the same rock that the killer was standing on. "I could hear his breathing from the top of the rock," she said.
She said it was impossible to say how many minutes passed while she was waiting for him to stop.
At a hotel in the village of Sundvollen, where survivors of the shooting were taken, 21-year-old Dana Berzingi wore pants stained with blood. He said the fake police officer ordered people to come closer, then pulled weapons and ammunition from a bag and started shooting.
Several victims "had pretended they were dead to survive," Berzingi said. But after shooting the victims with one gun, the gunman shot them again in the head with a shotgun, he said.
"I lost several friends," said Berzingi, who used the cell phone of one of those friends to call police.

11.54am: Reuters has more about the suspect Anders Behring Breivik buying six tonnes (four tons) of fertiliser in May.

The suspect placed the order through his company, the supplier Felleskjopet said.

"These are goods that were delivered on May 4," Oddny Estenstad, a spokeswoman at agricultural supply chain Felleskjopet Agri, told Reuters, without giving the exact type of fertiliser purchased.
"It was 6 tonnes of fertiliser, which is a small, normal order for a standard agricultural producer."
"I do not know him or the company, except that it is a company that has contacted us in a normal manner and ordered fertiliser and had it delivered," she said.

11.46am: An link purported to show Anders Behring Breivik's Facebook page has been posted on Twitter.

We cannot verify the accuracy of this post.

11.41am: Felleskjopet, a farm supply chain, has said the suspect bought 6 tons of fertiliser on May 4, Reuters reports. This confirms earlier reports in the Norwegian media and on Twitter.

11.33am: Journalist Ketil B Stensrud has posted a comment from the Norwegian police regarding the reports of a second gunman>

He Tweeted: "We've just received the same information about a possible second shooter. We're working hard to determine if there is indeed a second shooter," the spokesman said to VG.

He has also posted a link to an article in the VG paper that mentions a second gunman.

11.27am: The Norwegian newspaper VG has interviewed witnesses of the Utoya shooting who believe there was a second gunman.

Norwegian journalist Ketil B Stensrud has Tweeted about the reports: "Utoya eye-witness: "I'm certain that I heard shooting from two different directions. Then I saw another man, about 180 cm tall."

11.17am: Here's the latest Guardian gallery of the Norway attacks.

11.03am: The Norwegian tabloid Dagbladet has posted footage from the rescue operation at Utoya on its website. Please be advised this footage does contain some graphic imagery.

10.55am: A survivor of the shooting on Utoya says their attacker shouted he would "kill everyone".

In a telephone interview with CNN, county registrar Adrian Pracon, from Skien, described how he and two others lay on the ground among the bodies and pretended to be dead.

I was perhaps seven feet away from him when he shouted that he would kill everyone, and everyone would die. He charged at me with a gun, but did not shoot. I could feel his breath. I could hear his shoes.

Pracon, who says he also saw the attacker chase his panic-stricken young victims, also described how he jumped into the water to escape from the carnage:

I had swallowed a lot of water, after I jumped in the water. I had no time to take off my clothes, and felt that I was heavy my clothes went down while I was swimming.

10.42am: Reuters has an interview with two people who came to the aid of shooting victims on the island of Utoya yesterday.

Lise Berit Aronsen and Ole Haugen, who were on holiday in Nes camp nearby, said they jumped into a boat when they heard about the shooting on the news.

The couple told the VG newspaper, they were met with shocking scenes. Aronsen said they were met by police and explained that they wanted to help. They went on to picked up four survivors from the water and 12 people who had sought safety in the caves and cliffs nearby.

We were told to find people in the water. The first thing we found were four children, two boys and two girls, who swam in the water. They shouted for help. They were powerless and could barely lift her arms.
There were people crying for help everywhere. We saw children who hid in caves and on cliffs. They dared not come out until we said that the person who shot was taken. Then they wept freely.
One of them we picked up had seen the person that shot. He stood on top of the cliffs, and fired those who were at or in the water.
One person had seen someone shot in the head, and we also saw several dead bodies in the water.
Because we had such a small boat, we could not take many with us at a time. We were there early, so it was frustrating, but fortunately there were several boats eventually.
It is absolutely unbelievable what has happened.

10.27am: Norwegian daily Verdens Gang has quoted a friend of the suspect Anders Behring Breivikis as saying he became a right-wing extremist in his late 20s.

The paper said he expressed strong nationalistic views in online debates and had been a strong opponent of the idea that people of different cultural backgrounds can live alongside each other.

Breivik's Facebook page appeared to have been blocked by late Friday, Reuters reports.

The news agency said it had listed interests including bodybuilding, conservative politics and freemasonry.

Norwegian media said Breivik had set up a Twitter account a few days ago.

There is only one post on it, dated July 17, saying: "One person with a belief is equal to the force of 100,000 who have only interests."

10.22am: The Queen has written to the King of Norway to express her shock and sadness at the attacks in his country, Buckingham Palace said today.

She said her and the Duke of Edinburgh's thoughts were with the Norwegian people.

Her message to King Harald read:

I am deeply saddened and shocked by the tragic loss of life of so many people on the island of Utoya and in Oslo.
Prince Philip joins me in extending our heartfelt sympathy to Your Majesty and the people of Norway. Our prayers and thoughts are with everyone who has been affected by the dreadful atrocity.

The Royal Norwegian Embassy in Belgrave Square, central London, was open today, its flag flying at half mast.

A spokesman said: "We're open for any Norwegians who might need someone to speak to or feel the need to be with someone."

But he said most Norwegians living in the UK are currently on holiday. The embassy has mainly been dealing with enquiries from Britons concerned about loved ones in Norway, he added.

Between 20,000 and 40,000 Norwegians are estimated to be either living or visiting the UK at any given time.

10.19am: The bombing of the government building in Oslo has already drawn comparison with Timothy McVeigh's attack on the Oklahoma City federal building 16 years ago.

The explosion at the Alfred P Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995 killed 168 people and injured more than 600.

The US Army veteran and security guard was 26 when he carried out the attack by detonating a lorry bomb outside the building. McVeigh was convicted on federal murder charges and executed in 2001.

10.13am: The twin attacks in Norway are the worst in Europe since the 2004 Madrid train bombings when 191 people were killed.

Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg said he knew many of the victims of the shooting on Utoya personally:

I know the young people and I know their parents. And what hurts more is that this place where I have been every summer since 1979, and where I have experienced joy, commitment and security, has been hit by brutal violence - a youth paradise has been transformed into a hell.
What happened at Utoya is a national tragedy. Not since World War Two has our country seen a greater crime.

10.10am: My colleague Peter Beaumont has more on the attacks, including reactions from survivors:

Survivors of the island attack, which took place barely two hours after a huge bomb was detonated close to the offices of Norway's prime minister, Jens Stoltenberg, described how the gunmen moved across the small, wooded Utoya holiday island on Friday firing at random as young people scattered in fear.
Teenagers at the lakeside camp organised by Stoltenberg's ruling Labour party fled screaming in panic, many leaping into the water or climbing trees to save themselves, when the attacker began spraying them with gunfire.
Witnesses and survivors of the island attack described scenes of horror and panic.
"I just saw people jumping into the water, about 50 people swimming towards the shore. People were crying, shaking, they were terrified,"
said Anita Lien, 42, who lives by Tyrifjord lake, a few hundred metres from Utoya.
"They were so young, between 14 and 19 years old."
Survivor Jorgen Benone said: "It was total chaos...I think several lost their lives as they tried to get over to the mainland.
"I saw people being shot. I tried to sit as quietly as possible. I was hiding behind some stones. I saw him once, just 20, 30 metres away from me. I thought 'I'm terrified for my life', I thought of all the people I love.
"I saw some boats but I wasn't sure if I could trust them. I didn't know who I could trust any more."
"We had all gathered in the main house to talk about what had happened in Oslo. Suddenly we heard shots. First we thought it was nonsense.
Then everyone started running," one survivor, a 16-year-old called Hana, told Norway's Aftenposten.
"I saw a policeman stand there with earplugs. He said 'I'd like to gather everyone'. Then he ran in and started shooting at people. We ran down towards the beach and began to swim."
Hana said the gunman fired at people in the water.

You can read the full story here.

10.05am: The Norwegian police have released more details about their response to the attacks.

Police official Johan Fredriksen said a SWAT team was put on standby after a bombing in Oslo.

He added that it took the team around 30 minutes to arrive at the island of Utoyo after the shooting began.

Police initially said about 10 were killed at the forested camp on the island but that death toll rose considerably overnight.

Police director Oystein Maeland said the death toll could rise even more. He said others were severely wounded, but police didn't know how many were hurt.

10.00am: deputy police chief Roger Andresen said police are still searching for victims of the shooting on Utoya.

"At Utoya, the water is still being searched for more victims," he told a press conference.

9.50am: Norway has not changed its threat level after attacks on the capital and Utoya, said justice minister Knut Storberget.

But he told a news conference the situation was under assessment: "The debate on the threat level is ongoing."

9.43am: At a press conference this morning, Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg said he had spent many summers on the island of Utoya, which was hosting a youth retreat for his party.

Utoya is "my childhood paradise that yesterday was transformed into Hell," he said.

9.49am: David Cameron has expressed outrage over the attacks in Norway, and pledged Britain's help in overcoming the "evil" behind them.

Meanwhile Britons in Norway have been urged to stay indoors in the wake of the attacks.

Foreign Office travel advice warned there was a high threat from terrorism and called on British nationals to take extra care, PA reports:

In a statement on its website, the Foreign Office said: "On the afternoon of 22 July there was an explosion in the centre of Oslo resulting in a number of casualties.
"This was followed by a further attack at a youth camp on Utoya Island, 40km west of Oslo.
"We recommend that British nationals stay indoors for the time being. British nationals are advised to exercise caution, monitor local media reporting and follow advice given by the emergency services."
The Foreign Office said that although it had reviewed it, its overall level of travel advice had not changed and there were no travel restrictions in place in Norway.
About 250,000 British tourists visit the country every year.

9.23am: Deputy police chief Roger Andresen has told reporters that a suspect was in custody and being questioned over both attacks.

AP reports that the suspect, named by Norwegian national broadcaster NRK as Anders Behring Breivikis, is co-operating with the investigators:

Though police did not release his name, and said police searched his Oslo apartment overnight. NRK and other Norwegian media posted pictures of the blond, blue-eyed Norwegian.
"He is clear on the point that he wants to explain himself," said Andresen.
National police chief Sveinung Sponheim told NRK that the suspected gunman's Internet postings "suggest that he has some political traits directed toward the right, and anti-Muslim views, but whether that was a motivation for the actual act remains to be seen."
Andersen said the suspect posted on websites with Christian fundamentalist tendencies.
A police official said the suspect appears to have acted alone in both attacks, and that "it seems like this is not linked to any international terrorist organisations at all." The official spoke on condition of anonymity because that information had not been officially released by Norway's police.
"It seems it's not Islamic-terror related," the official said. "This seems like a madman's work."

9.10am: This is David Batty bringing you the latest on the twin attacks in Norway yesterday in which at least 91 people have been confirmed killed.

• At least 84 people were shot dead by gunman at a youth summer camp on the island of Utoya, after an explosion at government buildings in Oslo killed at least seven. Many others have been injured.

• Police have charged Anders Behring Breivik, a 32-year-old Norwegian man, over both attacks. Oslo police say Breivik's website indicates he is a right-wing Christian fundamentalist.

• Norwegian prime minister Jens Stoltenberg, whose offices were among those badly hit by the Oslo bomb blast, said the attacks were "like a nightmare". He was due to have been on Utoya a few hours after the attacks began.

• Survivors of the Utoya shooting said the gunman shot his victims twice to make sure they were dead.

• Concerned relatives should call 004723132700.

The Guardian has a gallery of the attacks here.

You can follow me on Twitter at David_Batty.

View the original article here

Los 33: Chilean miners face up to a strange new world

2011-07-17T17:19:00.000-07:00

Mario Gomez, the oldest man to be trapped underground, celebrates as he becomes the ninth to exit the rescue capsule, on 13 October 2010 at the San Jose mine near Copiapo, Chile. Photograph: Hugo Infante/Getty Images

'They are not heroes. We are not heroes. We are all victims," murmurs Lilly Ramirez, the uncompromising partner of Mario Gomez. At 63, he was the oldest of "the 33" Chilean miners who were trapped half a mile under the Chilean desert on 5 August 2010, and whose rescue became a global event for a TV audience of an estimated 1 billion people.

Ever since they emerged 69 days later on the night of 12/13 October, I have been working on two BBC documentaries: about what happened while the men were down the mine – and what has happened to them and their families since. Now, as the first anniversary approaches, it is the tenacity and the suffering of the women – the wives and partners – that emerges. They and their men were certainly victims but I am not sure Lilly is right: there are certainly heroines – from Lilly herself to the many other women who have struggled ever since to keep their families together. For their men emerged famous, but changed.

For Lilly, the beginning of the story that August night comes straight from the nightmares of miners' families the world over. She was preparing dinner as usual for Mario, one of their four daughters, Romina, and their one-year-old granddaughter Camila when there was the proverbial "knock on the door". A manager from the mine was standing there. Lilly remembers the man saying there had been an accident at the pit but that they were bringing in the required machinery and the men should be free by morning. "I told him that he could not fool me. I told him that I knew the terrible state of that mine and that if there had been a collapse there was no way the men would be out by morning."

She dropped everything and forced the manager to drive her for an hour to the pithead – little more than a big hole in the rocky hillside and a couple of cabins. She was to stay there in the middle of the Atacama desert, among the driest places on earth, for the next 69 days, only returning home when Mario had been rescued. By then he had been through a traumatic near-death experience but had also become among the most famous people on the planet. Today, Lilly and Mario are still struggling to understand what happened to him and to them.

The San Jose mine produced the usual mix of copper, gold and other minerals that makes the rock under the desert in northern Chile among the most valuable in the world. Both Lilly and Mario knew it was more dangerous than most – more than 100 years old, the mine comprised huge tunnels that had been driven down over half a mile into the mountainside. Eight miners had died there since 2000 and it had been closed briefly after an accident in 2007. The owners, the San Esteban mining company, paid a premium of 20% for people to work there. Mario was earning just that little bit more before retiring, but he never imagined the possibility of a collapse like this. "I knew the mine had its problems, but I never imagined that the main tunnel would collapse," he says.

When Lilly arrived at the mine that first evening, she found the first rescue teams emerging, having found no way through to the trapped men. "It was chaos. No one knew what was going on." The mine administrators on the surface were not even sure quite how many people had been trapped. Lilly knew from Mario's stories of the day-to-day inefficiencies of the mine that it was badly run: "I trusted no one." As soon as she arrived, she sensed that rescue teams might pull out, insisting that no more could be done.

She felt that if the managers were constantly cutting corners on safety, they would hardly commit easily to the possible costs of a full-scale rescue and all that might involve. Apocryphal stories of how miners are simply left to die after an accident are commonplace across Latin America. So Lilly and the other relatives who had made it to the mine "picked up sticks and bars", confronted the police and blocked the road. "We knew that if they [the rescuers] left, then it would all be over. So we begged the rescue teams not to abandon us, but to help us put pressure on the managers who were there."

The regional police chief, who was at the mine that first night, confirms this was the critical moment. Without the families' intervention he believes the miners might well have been left entombed after the failure of the first attempt to find a way through the main tunnel.

In all the backslapping triumph of the final rescue, the story of those first uncertain days tends to be forgotten. Few remember how Lilly and the other women managed to transform a local tragedy into a national event and so save their men. There was little good news in those first days. The next day rescue teams emerged saying a boulder the size of the Empire State Building had collapsed inside the mountain, taking down eight levels of the mine. And the mountain was still moving. They also said there was no way down the main tunnel and that the specially designed escape shafts, supposed to work in such an eventuality, were either blocked or had collapsed.

Lilly was having none of such defeatism. She remembers: "The authorities up there tried to kick us out. They told us that the children would get sick, that they should be at school… That we had no business up at the mine… That we were getting in the way." By now, most of the Gomez family had turned up – as had many of the other relatives, camped out beside the mine, setting up what would later be known all over the world as Camp Hope.

Lilly's voice turns scornful at the patronising tone taken towards them by the very male world of mining. It is an environment where men know best, and women aren't allowed to enter a mine for fear of bringing bad luck.

Looking at the images of those first days, it is astonishing to see these desperate women exploit the power of the media, first on local TV. "We called on the president of Chile not to allow our men to be abandoned," remembers Lilly. "We appealed to him as a father, as a family man, saying how he should put himself in our shoes." The women's raw emotion found an audience.

They were lucky. The government had been heavily criticised for its handling of an earthquake and tsunami six months previously. The new business-driven president, Sebastian Pinera, was also perceived as aloof and indifferent to the common worker. Faced with these appeals, the mining minister, Laurence Golborne, was dispatched to the scene. Recalls Elvira "Katty" Valdivia, wife of one of the trapped men, Mario Sepulveda: "We realised more and more journalists were turning up… so if we were unhappy we almost ate the minister and went out and held a press conference. The press realised we were doing their work for them – holding the government to task." Certainly Golborne was responsible for the government taking over the rescue and saying that no expense would be spared in trying to find the trapped men. His transformation from villain – the minister responsible for the regulatory system that allowed the mine to function and that employed just three inspectors for 884 mines in the region – into smiling, smooth, English-speaking global TV star over the following 69 days was one of the minor miracles of the whole story.

The first 17 days were the worst for the families: the days and nights when no one knew if any of the miners were even alive. As one of those trapped underground says: "At least we knew we were alive but might die. For our families there was the torment of not knowing." Elvira talks of never sleeping and not knowing what to tell her children. She was never certain that she was not simply waiting to pick up the body of her husband.

For Lilly, the period remains a blur. "I barely slept or ate. It was like I was punishing myself. It is wrong if I eat and he's not eating." Days of optimism were followed by failure when probes broke or were driven off course by the rock. Lilly says she never doubted Mario was alive. She sensed him next to her. "I know that sounds mad but I felt him with me as I lay down. I felt his breath." She was sure that at least some of them were alive somewhere beneath the desert floor. But would the rescuers get to them in time?

Every day counted – and so every day the families, on a roller-coaster of hope and despair, kept the pressure on the rescuers via the national Chilean media for whom this had become a daily story. It is easy to forget that it only became a major international story after the miners had been discovered.

Researching our film 17 Days Buried Alive, it has become clear quite how inaccurate the company's maps were and how the drilling was a little "like looking for a needle in a haystack", a small bunker half a mile down through sheer rock. When, on day 14, the major probe found nothing, Lilly remembers a sense of panic. The authorities had prevented any attempts to explore for ways down via the main tunnel after further collapses on day three, but now the families had found freelance miners (so-called "pirquineros") who were willing to try to find a way through. The government stood firm, not wanting further accidents; the families, led by Lilly, appealed to the media, clearly losing trust in the experts. Fortunately they never had to force the issue.

The miracle, when it came on day 17, when the rescuers heard the probe being hit and so knew someone was alive, was that all 33 were alive and uninjured. You cannot find Lilly on camera during the scenes of jubilation that followed their discovery. As the beaming president read out the note that was attached by the miners to the drillhead ("We are fine in the refuge – the 33"), Lilly is nowhere to be seen. "I remember I stood up to scream out of euphoria… and I fainted. I was out for eight minutes… Then I didn't go out to celebrate, I went to the statue of the Virgin, I started to cry, telling her I knew she would not fail me."

That was the moment a national news story was turned into a global celebration as the international media descended on the mine. As the rescuers fashioned an escape hole and a capsule to bring the miners out, the appetite for rolling news became overwhelming. Everything was public. Mario Gomez proposed a church marriage to Lilly. Then there was Yonni Barrios, who had both mistress and wife turning up to claim their piece of his "fame". (Yonni has ended up with the mistress.) There was also the showman, Edison Pena, who did Elvis Presley impersonations and went running through the underground tunnels, and whose fame was ensured when the photos were published all over the world.

On the surface the pithead was turning into a small town of Winnebagos, satellite dishes and TV presenters. In the absence of any real story as the drills did their noisy business, the families became the stars. Their every move in Camp Hope was followed by hordes of cameras looking for an "exclusive" bit of emotion for the next report home to Tokyo, Moscow or London.

Elizabeth Segovia was due to give birth to her third child when the disaster struck. She remembers how when the media discovered this, all privacy was washed away. Sitting in her little one-room living space, her face creases with distaste: "They even walked into the house without asking." Then there was footage of her husband Ariel Ticona, still down the mine, telling her that his new friends, the other trapped miners, had decided that the baby would be called Esperanza, or "Hope".

Elizabeth suddenly found herself carrying a symbol. So with her husband still underground in September, she was filmed on the gurney on the way to deliver and asked: "How do you feel?" The same question was repeated when she was brought out clutching her publicly named baby, Esperanza. Their lives were no longer their own.

Days later their men emerged to a watching planet. The Chilean president was there with his wife, smiling broadly. Clearly, the ?12m price tag for the rescue was money well spent – almost a public relations coup for the skill and ingenuity of the Chilean mining industry. A disaster had been turned into a good news story and a triumph.

And the world did not simply move on. Invitations from all over came flooding in to the men, most of whom did not have a passport. Then there was talk of possible Hollywood deals. Was it Leonardo or Brad, Angelina or Penelope who would play Ariel and Elizabeth in the movie?

Now, a year on, talk of movie millions has receded. Lilly lives on a building site. Like many of the miners, Mario is using what money has come their way to extend their house by a room or two. When you turn up at their home among the one-storey breeze-block houses that make up most of the mining town of Copiapo it is a salutary reminder of quite how modest their lives were and are: most live with families of five or more in two-bedroom houses. For some the money has meant running water on tap for the first time.

Somewhat surreally, Lilly is perched in her kitchen next to a shiny red Kawasaki motorbike – the fulfilment of a promise by the manufacturers to all the miners. There are virtually no miles on the clock; 63-year-old Mario had never been on a motorbike before. He has apparently used it twice but never been out of second gear. On a shelf is the icon of the Virgin Mary that Lilly had with her at Camp Hope, along with all sorts of "33" memorabilia.

Lilly reflects on the past year with mixed feelings. She is of course deeply grateful that Mario and his fellow miners were extracted via the extraordinary rocket-like cage the experts designed. She is also touchingly conscious of the pain suffered by the widows of the New Zealand mining disaster, in November last year. Somehow the miracle at San Jose made the tragedy at Pike River seem all the more painful. At the same time, in her worst moments she wonders whether all her sacrifice last summer was worth it.

Life with Mario is not easy. Few of the men have returned unmarked to their former lives. It has been a hugely upsetting process. Understandably, the men have been the centre of attention. They were lauded and flown around the world. They were filmed in Los Angeles as the "CNN Heroes" or introduced as celebrities to 75,000 spectators at Old Trafford at the invitation of Bobby Charlton and a Chilean wine company. When recognised on the streets of New York or Tel Aviv, everyone wants smiles and photos, a touch "for luck" – a bit of them. When a group (who shall remain nameless) wanted to go to a lap dancing club in Manchester, the bouncers shook their hands and waved them in for free. The story of their rescue is like a ray of light in a dark and difficult world.

Back home, the men have received weekly therapy as part of a government insurance scheme that covers their incomes until they are able to go back to work. But their global travels have meant patchy attendance – and pretty quickly, the authorities were threatening to withdraw the therapy if they continued to go abroad and miss sessions. Meeting the miners, you sense that there has been no coherent strategy to help them find their way back to any sort of normality, no serious attempt to help them through their extraordinary experience. Ariel says he does not need any therapy; others complain that the meetings are pointless and lead nowhere. You sense they have not been told in any coherent way the long-term nature of the trauma they may have suffered and the type of treatment that may require. They were, after all, trapped underground for longer than any other recorded group of men. Certainly in many cases the therapy has combined with much shorter-term solutions: astonishing levels of medication – pills to let them sleep, pills to keep them calm when awake.

Some of the men find solace with one another. The bonds of friendship and solidarity they forged down the mine are now stronger than those with their own families. Others refuse to see one another at all – jealousy over who is appearing where, appearance money and fame have driven them apart. That is the men.

Their wives and partners have to live with them, desperately trying to work out how to cope with quiet lives blown apart. For them, of course, there has been no help on offer. Occasionally the invitations include the families: they all went to Disneyland. Elizabeth with baby Esperanza has been approached. She and Ariel took the baby to Germany for a brief but paid studio appearance: "Five minutes. Show the baby… No interesting questions." Elizabeth smiles, puzzled at all the effort to get them thousands of miles to Europe for so little return. Now she has sworn there will be no more trips.

A quiet, modest and thoughtful woman, Elizabeth still checks with her kids if there are any photographers hanging around outside their house. You can tell she hates it all. Returning to normal life has been made more difficult because, once the hero status wore off, local jealousy set in. Neighbours see the cameras and journalists coming back again and again. The trauma of what really happened last year to both Ariel and his wife are now distant memories – and those living nearby only see the glamour and the supposed rewards. It is as if the neighbours wish they too had been "lucky enough" to be trapped down the mine.

Elizabeth is clear: "They ask in order to know how you feel; but what we want is to forget all of this. At least for me, I'd rather forget everything. I want no more. I just want my husband back… I want the life we had before."

She describes how Ariel does not sleep properly. At New Year he simply disappeared to the south of the country at the last moment, leaving Elizabeth at home with their two young boys and a baby girl. There were no explanations. He returned a few days later, uncertain about why he had gone. Elizabeth smiles sadly and shakes her head when asked if she and Ariel have discussed what happened to him down the mine. "I don't want to disturb him more." They have a joint faith that holds them together and in February he fulfilled a promise he had made down the mine and they presented the baby to the Virgin Mary, patron saint of miners, during the annual week of celebrations in Copiapo.

A couple of the miners have grabbed their 15 minutes of fame and run with it. The Elvis Presley impersonator, Edison Pena, 34, has followed through on the showman image he built up down the mine. Though no more than an irregular jogger before the accident, the images of him "running the tunnels" have resulted in invitations and appearance fees to compete in both the New York and Tokyo marathons since coming out. He moved to the capital, Santiago, and has made appearances wherever possible. His lifelong passion for Elvis Presley resulted in what he called "his trip of a lifetime" to Graceland and performances of "Blue Suede Shoes" on Italian and German TV. Though uncertain of the exact words, his sheer bravura and showmanship make him a star turn.

His partner, Angelica, and her four-year-old child have had their life in Copiapo uprooted to try to keep up with him. She struggles to understand quite who she is now living with. She says: "The mine has given me another Edison. His nature and his principles were all left down there."

She attempts to manage his dates and to focus his activities – trying to turn the singing into a possible career in motivational speaking. They performed successfully together to business people at a packed conference in the O2 centre in London earlier in the year. Both are aware there is a small window of time to establish themselves – but the cost has been high.

It is a constant struggle as Edison veers between a rational understanding of what is going on and the darkness he clearly experienced down the mine. There is an underlying anger in him that occasionally explodes in shouting matches and drunken binges. He has frittered much of the money away partying with his brother. Even his mother wonders whether her son should not be hospitalised. Angelica is bitter: "If both God and the devil were down that mine, I think that probably the devil took him." This spring Angelica persuaded him to go into detox. She – as with the other women I have met – has not once had any offer of support or help from the authorities. No one thought that they might be victims, too.

Last autumn, the world enjoyed a good news story and moved on, vaguely expecting that these new celebrities were now made for life – the least they could expect for the experience they went through. Edison the runner has earned and spent a good deal of money. Mario Sepulveda and a couple of others are forging a living as motivational speakers for international corporations. But the majority are now back home, the government's income guarantees beginning to run out, and facing life again.

It is shocking to think that Ariel Ticona has gone back to the mines to earn a living – to the resigned horror of Elizabeth and their children. Many others are faced with the same reality. What next? How to survive? There is no huge fund set up to keep them in clover for the rest of their lives. Those who thought that international fame meant millions have been proved very wrong.

Of course, lawyers for the miners are taking both the owners of the mine and the government to court. Lilly Ramirez is resolutely clear that lessons must be learned. While she thanks God that Mario emerged alive, this is not a story about miracles. "This was bad management," she says. "If only the owners thought about the men who worked for them and not just earning a few more pennies, leaving people working in terrible conditions…" But as with corporate negligence cases the world over, judgments will be a matter of years, if they are lucky.

Meanwhile the families are left to cope with that underlying trauma. Down at the bottom of the mine for those 69 days last year these men faced themselves and their humanity in ways that we can barely imagine. Many promised themselves, and often God, that they would be totally different people if only they could emerge alive. They promised they would be better husbands and fathers, better people. No doubt they meant it. Stuck in the belly of the earth, they thought they understood the world and their lives in a different light.

Reality has proved so much more complex. And for the wives and partners who waited for them the past months have proved equally painful. From 2,000 feet down, Mario promised Lilly that they would get married. Two wedding dates have come and gone. The promise remains unfulfilled.

Interviews by Miguel Sofia and Alexander Houghton

Angus Macqueen's documentary 17 Days Buried Alive will be broadcast on BBC2 on 12 August at 9pm

5 August 2010: 33 miners trapped after a collapse at the San Jose gold and copper mine in the Atacama desert in northern Chile. It is not known whether any of them are alive.

6 August: Laurence Golborne, Chile's mining minister, cuts short a visit to Ecuador to lead the rescue mission.

7 August: A second collapse blocks access to the lower parts of the mine, making any chance of a rescue through the mine itself impossible.

10 August: The first probes are sent down through the rock in an attempt to reach the shelter where experts hoped they would find at least some of the 33 still alive.

22 August: 17 days after the accident, rescuers hear tapping noises on one of their probes – the first sign of life. When it is brought back to the surface, there is a note attached saying: "Estamos bien en el refugio los 33" – "We are fine in the refuge, the 33".

23 August: The international media descend on "Camp Hope" to hear President Pinera declare: "It will take months to get them out. It will take time, but it doesn't matter how long it takes to have a happy ending." Food and water are sent down to the miners.

27 August: The miners send a video up to the surface, which gives a guided tour of the shelter and shows them playing dominoes.

30 August: Drilling begins on the pilot hole for Plan A, the first of three rescue plans, aiming for the shelter housing the miners.

8 September: The miners watch a football match between Chile and Ukraine on a miniature projector that has been sent down to them.

14 September: Trapped miner Ariel Ticona's wife, Elizabeth, gives birth to baby girl. He sends a message asking for her to be called Esperanza – Spanish for "hope".

17 September: The pilot hole for Plan B, which is aiming for the workshop a few hundred metres from the shelter, is completed.

19 September: The process of widening the Plan B pilot hole begins to create a space big enough for a rescue capsule. The miners work in shifts to clear the debris.

24 September: The miners have now been trapped 50 days underground, longer than anyone else in history.

29 September: Mayor Brunilda Gonzalez announces the intention of 27 families of the trapped miners to sue the Chilean government for at least $27m.

9 October: The Plan B drill breaks through to the miners' workshop six weeks after drilling began.

12 October: Rescuers go down the escape shaft to begin evacuation of the miners using a special capsule designed by the Chilean navy.

13 October: 69 days after the accident the first miner, Florencio Avalos, emerges just after midnight to an estimated TV audience of 1.5 billion.

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Libyan rebels win official recognition as their forces close in on Brega

2011-07-17T15:50:00.000-07:00

Libyan rebels cheer with their weapons as their comrades drive towards the Brega front line. Photograph: Gianluigi Guercia/AFP

Libyan fighters said on Saturday they were close to surrounding the key government-held oil town of Brega, the day after the US and other nations in the Libya contact group officially recognised the rebel administration.

Radio reports said that after three days of heavy fighting, aided by substantial Nato bombing, rebel units had bypassed the town – cutting off the garrison from its supply lines. "Fighters are around the town," said Radio Misrata journalist Alseddiq Abuzaian. "They begin to go around, heading for Ras Lanuf [an oil terminal to the west]."

A rebel spokesman in Benghazi, Mohamed Zawi, said that fighters launched a probing attack into Brega itself on Friday night before withdrawing, but expected to resume this weekend.

Brega is a key oil terminal and has repeatedly changed hands during the civil war. Its capture would be an important psychological boost for the rebels after six weeks of stalemate.

Nato denied claims from Tripoli that it had launched a "land, air and sea" offensive at Brega in support of rebels, but the international alliance's own figures show a sharp escalation in bombing around the town.

On Friday, Nato jets – soon to be bolstered by four extra Tornados from the UK – destroyed 14 military vehicles at Brega, compared with 17 destroyed there during the previous six days.

The rebel push on Brega is one of the most ambitious of the war, with newly trained units launching a three-pronged attack. While a central advance is struggling to clear minefields near Brega, other units have enveloped government forces from the north and south. The rebel forces say 10 fighters have died and 170 were wounded. Tripoli has released no casualty figures of its own.

Further to the west, rebels in the Nafusa mountains say their efforts to advance on Tripoli are being hampered by a lack of weapons or Nato support.

They have made significant gains against Muammar Gaddafi's forces in recent weeks and now have Gharyan, a pivotal gateway to Tripoli, in their sights. But they are relying almost entirely on hardware captured from Gaddafi's fleeing troops, and their momentum stalled last week. This raised the prospect of a stalemate going into Ramadan in August.

Ibrahim Taher, a history teacher turned battalion commander in the rebel stronghold of Zintan, has just one rifle for every two fighters – most of whom are young university graduates.

"The biggest problem we have now is the lack of weapons, ammunition, communication equipment and vehicles," he said. "These 230 fighters have five radios between them. Over huge areas, it's hard to co-ordinate between people. and say 'advance' or 'retreat.'?"

Nato has carried out regular air strikes against Gaddafi's army in the Nafusa mountains, but Taher says more is needed. "Nato could turn this situation upside down in one day," he said. "It hits one tank a day and goes home. I don't know why it does that."

As on other rebel front lines to the east, this is an amateur and sometimes amateurish campaign, compensated by courage and will. The battalion has one anti-aircraft gun, seized from Gaddafi's men, which it aims horizontally to target heavy weapons and machinery.

After military training on Friday, young men cleaned the 14.5mm gun with pride on a pickup truck caked in mud for camouflage except for a sticker depicting the red, black and green rebel flag. It is operated by Muftah Fitoure, 33, previously a worker in a youth development programme run by Gaddafi's son Saif.

"The first time I used it, I was scared," he recalled. "My aim was some way off. But the second time was better. They [Gaddafi's troops] are still better than us at firing them."

Fitoure, married with a 15-month-old daughter, has lost two cousins and said he is willing to make the ultimate sacrifice. "I've heard too many horror stories. It's better to be killed than captured. I heard that in the Qawalish fight the Gaddafi forces cut out someone's heart and killed the others. I have six brothers. If I die trying to reach Tripoli, one of my brothers will reach it in my place."

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Barack Obama meets the Dalai Lama at the White House

2011-07-17T15:15:00.000-07:00

President Barack Obama has held a White House meeting with the Dalai Lama. Photograph: Jacquelyn Martin/AP

President Barack Obama held a White House meeting with the Dalai Lama, a fellow Nobel Peace Prize laureate, hours after China called on the US to rescind an invitation that could sour relations with Beijing.

The Tibetan spiritual leader has been in Washington for an 11-day Buddhist ritual. Thousands of expatriate Tibetans joined a 76th birthday celebration Wednesday for the Dalai Lama, who recently relinquished leadership of Tibet's government-in-exile.

The White House said that during the 45-minute private session in the Map Room, Obama "underscored the importance of the protection of human rights of Tibetans in China." In a statement issued after the meeting, the White House also said Obama reiterated his support for the preservation of Tibet's religious, cultural and linguistic traditions.

Obama restated US policy that it does not support Tibetan independence, a goal that the Dalai Lama said he also does not seek.

In a nod to the criticism from Beijing, Obama also stressed to the Dalai Lama that he considers a cooperative relationship between the United States and China to be important, according to the White House statement.

In remarks after the meeting forwarded by Kate Saunders from the International Campaign for Tibet, the Dalai Lama said of his visit with Obama: "Firstly we developed a very close sort of feeling for each other." He said Obama expressed his concern over basic human values, such as human rights and religious freedoms. "So naturally he shows genuine concern about suffering in Tibet and other places."

A Chinese crackdown led the Dalai Lama to flee into exile in India in 1959. China says he's welcome to return if he drops his separatist activities, accepts Tibet as an inalienable part of China and recognizes Taiwan as a province of China.

Hours before the Dalai Lama's arrival, the Chinese Foreign Ministry urged the White House to cancel the visit.

"We firmly oppose any foreign official to meet with the Dalai Lama in any form," Foreign Ministry spokesman Hong Lei said in a statement posted on the ministry's website.

"We request the US side to honour its serious commitment that recognizes Tibet as part of China and opposes Tibet independence," Hong said.

The White House kept the meeting low-key, closing it from news reporters and photographers. It chose the Map Room for the visit instead of the Oval Office, which is reserved for visiting heads of state.

The visit comes less than 10 days before US Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton is expected to visit the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen. Vice President Joseph Biden is also scheduled to visit China this summer, followed by a trip to Washington by his Chinese counterpart, Xi Jinping.

Obama had been criticized by pro-Tibetan activists for putting off an invitation during the Dalai Lama's stay in the capital. White House officials said the president's schedule had been occupied with debt-limit negotiations with congressional leaders.

Obama last met the Dalai Lama in February 2010.

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Rupert Murdoch's empire must be dismantled – Ed Miliband

2011-07-17T13:55:00.000-07:00

Ed Miliband has called for cross-party agreement on new media rules to curtail Rupert Murdoch's power. Photograph: Getty Images

Ed Miliband has demanded the breakup of Rupert Murdoch's UK media empire in a dramatic intervention in the row over phone hacking.

In an exclusive interview with the Observer, the Labour leader calls for cross-party agreement on new media ownership laws that would cut Murdoch's current market share, arguing that he has "too much power over British public life".

Miliband says that the abandonment by News International of its bid for BSkyB, the resignation of its chief executive, Rebekah Brooks, and the closure of the News of the World are insufficient to restore trust and reassure the public.

The Labour leader argues that current media ownership rules are outdated, describing them as "analogue rules for a digital age" that do not take into account the advent of mass digital and satellite broadcasting.

"I think that we've got to look at the situation whereby one person can own more than 20% of the newspaper market, the Sky platform and Sky News," Miliband said. "I think it's unhealthy because that amount of power in one person's hands has clearly led to abuses of power within his organisation. If you want to minimise the abuses of power then that kind of concentration of power is frankly quite dangerous."

The move takes Miliband's campaign against the abuse of media power to new heights after a fortnight in which he has reinvigorated his own leadership by leading the attack on the Murdoch empire. While he insisted that the recently announced inquiries should take their course, the Labour leader said he hoped the main parties could agree on a common approach.

His latest intervention, as a poll on Saturday night showed his personal rating up seven points on a month ago, comes ahead of what promises to be a dramatic appearance by Rupert Murdoch, his son James, the chief executive of News Corporation Europe and Asia, and Brooks before the Commons culture, media and sport committee.

Committee members preparing to grill the trio are to be given legal advice on the morning of the hearing on how far they can push the News Corp boss and his son for answers. The committee's chairman, the Tory MP John Whittingdale, has asked for details of their lines of questioning to avoid duplication.

News Corp is understood to be concerned that the committee will set a trap by asking questions the Murdochs are unable to answer due to the continuing criminal investigations and are taking advice on how to avoid yet another public relations disaster as the company attempts to rebuild its reputation.

Further pressure was piled on Murdoch after the Liberal Democrats wrote to the media regulator, Ofcom, urging it to launch an investigation that could see his holding company, News Corp, forced to sell its stake in satellite broadcaster BSkyB.

The Broadcasting Act places a duty on the regulator to consider "any relevant conduct of those who manage and control such a licence".

Although News Corp, whose News International subsidiary owned the News of the World, has only a minority 39% share in BSkyB, the Lib Dems argue the company is "strongly placed materially to influence the policy and strategic direction of BSkyB", suggesting the regulator is duty bound to investigate.

Simon Hughes, the Lib Dem party's deputy leader, Don Foster, its media spokesman, and Tim Farron, its president, are demanding that the watchdog's members "take measures now to satisfy yourself that the owners of the BSkyB licence continue to be 'fit and proper'", given "the manifest public concern about News International's activities, the close integration of News International with its parent company News Corporation, [and] News Corp's effective control of BSkyB".

The three dismissed claims that the regulator could not act while criminal investigations were current, saying there were "no legal reasons to stop Ofcom from conducting its work alongside that done by the police".

A spokeswoman for Ofcom said: "We received this letter early on Friday evening. We will be considering our response next week."

She added that the regulator was continuing to gather information, which it hoped would assist in the discharge of its duties. "We have already written to a number of relevant authorities and can confirm that follow-up meetings will now be taking place."

In his interview Miliband said that once a Sunday Sun was launched, possibly in August, this would add further to the Murdoch empire's penetration of the UK media market.

Meanwhile, the foreign secretary, William Hague, defended David Cameron's regular meetings with News International executives and his decision to invite Andy Coulson, his former director of communications who was arrested 10 days ago, to Chequers several weeks after Coulson's resignation over the phone-hacking scandal.

"In inviting Andy Coulson back, the prime minister has invited someone back to thank him for his work – he's worked for him for several years – that is a normal, human thing to do," Hague told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "I think it shows a positive side to his character."

He added: "Personally I'm not embarrassed by it in any way – but there is something wrong here in this country and it must be put right. It's been acknowledged by the prime minister and I think that's the right attitude to take."

Hague continued: "It's not surprising that in a democratic country there is some contact between leaders of the country, and indeed opposition leaders, and indeed I believe on that list of meetings there are also meetings with the executives of the Guardian and Trinity Mirror and whatever other news organisations."

Cameron has acknowledged that he met Coulson since his resignation, but "not recently and not frequently".

"When you work with someone for four years as I did, and you work closely, you do build a friendship and I became friends with him," the prime minister said.

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University tuition fee hike will hit 100,000 of this year's unlucky students

2011-07-17T12:39:00.000-07:00

Students at St Andrews University take their weekly Pier Walk. Photograph: public domain

More than 100,000 students will face a double disappointment when they fail to find a place at university this summer and are hit with the prospect of trebled tuition fees when they try again in 12 months' time.

Official figures reveal the size of the group who will fail to attain a university place in the last year before fees shoot up. It is made up of 75,000-85,000 who would have gone on to standard university courses and a further 10,000 to 20,000 nursing, midwifery and teacher training applicants.

It is about 10,000 people larger than it would have been because of the coalition's decision to renege on the Labour government's pledge to increase the total intake in 2011 as they did in 2010.

Usman Ali, the National Union of Students' vice-president for higher education, said the stakes were high for students. "For several years now we have seen the numbers of qualified and ambitious students applying to university outstripping the number of places available, forcing those young people to fight for jobs in an ever-shrinking youth job market," said Ali.

"The most determined choose to reapply the following year, but those who miss out this year will find themselves with fees trebled and government funding slashed simply because the government is not willing to expand investment in skills and education for young people when it is most needed.

"Those students will find themselves stuck between the rock of high youth unemployment, and the hard place of spiralling debt.

"Those who do enter university in 2012 will accrue more debt at university than any generation before, and once the implications of the white paper become clear, they could even find that their fees are higher than those who follow them."

According to the research from the House of Commons library, those most likely to miss out are mature, disabled or black students, or those with lower educational attainment.

Meanwhile, the Royal Society of Chemistry has raised concerns over the debts prospective scientists face. Using the Department of Business, Innovation and Skills' own figures, it claims a senior academic on a salary of ?75,000 would pay back three times the ?45,000 loan they would be expected to take in order to complete their studies.

However, Professor David Phillips, president of the society, said that the publishing by universities of employment prospects by degree would highlight how well the sciences fare against other subjects.

He said: "These consequences affect all students, whatever subject they study. However, students would do well to consider what the employment prospects are for any course they undertake.

"For some subjects these are bleak, but for the 'hard' sciences, and particularly chemistry, employment prospects are very good, so we urge schools to encourage science students into subjects like chemistry [and engineering and physics] where employment is not only highly likely, but fills a national need also."

A spokesperson for the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills said: "Going to university has always been a competitive process and not all who apply are accepted. Despite this, we do understand how frustrating it is for young people who wish to go to university and are unable to find a place.

"We are opening up other routes into a successful career. Our reforms will make part-time university study more accessible."

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Northern Ireland violence drives out immigrant families

2011-07-17T11:22:00.000-07:00

Nationalist youths clash with police in the Ardoyne area of Belfast on 12 July. Photograph: Cathal Mcnaughton/Reuters

Immigrant families from East Timor fled a Catholic area of Northern Ireland on Friday night when loyalist rioters tried to attack nationalist homes, a Sinn Fein councillor said today.

"Around 100 loyalists attacked police who prevented them attacking nationalist homes," said John O'Dowd, who is a member of the Northern Ireland Assembly.

The families from East Timor packed their bags and ran from their homes in Portadown, Co Armagh on Friday night, when the area was engulfed in violence, he said.

"They packed their bags, so distressed were they at the violence. Their neighbours tried to reassure them that they would be safe in their homes but they left," he told Reuters.

A significant number of families from East Timor have settled in the Northern Irish town, where they work in the food packing industry alongside many Poles and Portuguese.

For several hours, police were attacked by people armed with petrol bombs, bricks, bottles, fireworks and other missiles in the latest violence surrounding the high point of the loyalist marching season.

The police fired around 20 plastic bullets and arrested three people. They confirmed that loyalists provoked the violence when a planned peaceful protest was hijacked by a violent minority.

The Mayor of the local Craigavon council, Democratic Unionist Alan Carson, condemned the violence.

"This does not do anyone any good. People have a right to live peacefully and feel safe in their own homes. The violence we saw last night is something we assigned to the history books," he said.

In recent days, nearly 50 police have been wounded and dozens have been arrested during violence in both loyalist and republican areas surrounding the annual 12 July parades.

More than 500 parades were held on Tuesday across Northern Ireland, the high point of the Orange Order marching season celebrating the victory of Protestant King William of Orange over Catholic King James at the Battle of the Boyne in 1690. The majority passed off peacefully but they sparked outbreaks of street violence.

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