| Ambulance line hit by phone fault A technical fault affects 999 calls at two of the Scottish Ambulance Service's three call centres, it emerges. bbc.co.uk |
Aid worker Linda Norgrove may have been killed by US troops David Cameron reveals General David Petraeus has contacted him to say British hostage may not have died at hands of her captors as thoughtBritish aid worker Linda Norgrove may have been killed by a grenade thrown by US troops trying to rescue her from Taliban kidnappers in Afghanistan, David Cameron said today.The prime minister announced that a full UK-US investigation was now being launched into the circumstances surrounding Norgrove's death on Friday.Speaking at a press conference today, Cameron said that General David Petraeus, the commander of Nato forces in Afghanistan, had contacted his office this morning to say a review of the rescue operation had revealed she "may not have died at the hands of her captors" as originally thought.It had initially been reported that Norgrove died from a grenade explosion, but subsequent reports suggested her rebel captors detonated a bomb vest as American troops attempted to rescue her.Cameron said: "Linda's life was in grave danger from the moment she was taken ... He [Petraeus] and US forces did everything in their power to bring Linda home safely."He added: "In the end this is an issue of a very difficult judgment ... You can never be certain that an option like this will lead to the rescue of the hostage ... In the end you have to make a decision whether to go ahead or not." He said he felt like it had been the right decision based on what the UK and US knew at the time."You will understand that I cannot discuss the intelligence information that led us to decide that a rescue operation was the best choice."The Guardian understands that Cameron and William Hague, the foreign secretary, were advised by MI6 and SAS officers before agreeing to the plan to rescue Norgrove. Her family was unlikely to have been informed.It was agreed that US, rather than British, special forces, should be involved because the Americans knew the area better.Asked if he had considered using British special forces to rescue Norgrove, the prime minister said: "Of course I asked a huge number of questions." He says he followed the advice of Petraeus, who was on the ground, adding that it would have been strange to overrule the advice of US officials.Cameron said he was "deeply sorry" that the situation had "not worked out the way we all wanted it to".Cameron also thanked US forces for their "courage", and said statements made on Saturday as to how Norgrove died, which now appear to be incorrect, were made in good faith.Asked whether there was any suggestion US forces were reckless, the prime minister said: "We must get to the bottom of what happened; we only have sketchy information." Petraeus "deeply regrets what happened, as do I", Cameron said.US Central Command named a special operations officer, Major General Joseph Votel, to head the investigation. In a a statement, Central Command said the investigation team would work "in close co-operation with UK authorities".Originally from Sutherland in the Scottish Highlands, Norgrove was seized by militants in Kunar province on 26 September.Three Afghan nationals also taken by the insurgents were later released, but Norgrove continued to be held amid growing concern.A former United Nations employee, Norgrove was working for the firm Development Alternatives Inc at the time of her kidnap.Based in Jalalabad, she supervised reconstruction programmes in the eastern region of Afghanistan funded by the US government.Cameron said: "Linda's death is a tragedy for her family and those who worked alongside her in Afghanistan. She was a dedicated professional doing a job she loved in a country she loved."Cameron informed Norgrove's family of the "deeply distressing development" before making his announcement at a scheduled press conference that was delayed by almost an hour this morning.Speaking from the Isle of Lewis today, Norgrove's father, John Norgrove, said: "We are not saying anything to the press at the moment. We might issue a statement in another day or two, we're not certain, but now we are not saying anything." Asked whether that was the case in the light of Cameron's comments today, Norgrove said: "We are just saying that, end of story."Cameron said the decision to mount a rescue operation was made by Hague "after careful consideration" and had his full support as prime minister.Norgrove's life was in "grave danger" from the moment she was seized, and there were fears that she might be passed up the terrorist chain and put at greater peril if she was not rescued."I am clear that the best chance of saving Linda's life was to go ahead, recognising that any operation was fraught with risk for all those involved and success was by no means guaranteed," said Cameron."None of us can understand just how painful this must be for Linda's family," he said. "Also it is deeply regrettable, particularly for them, that the information published on Saturday is highly likely to have been incorrect."The statements were made in good faith and on the basis of the information that we received."I want to assure Mr and Mrs Norgrove that I will do everything I possibly can to establish the full facts and give them certainty about how their daughter died."Cameron said Petraeus had treated the hostage "as if she was a US citizen" and that "he and the US forces did everything in their power to bring Linda home safely"."The US forces placed their own lives in danger. General Petraeus has told me they are deeply dismayed at the outcome. I want to thank them for their courage," he said, adding: "We have to now have this investigation to find out what happened and if bad mistakes were made."In a statement to the MPs in the Commons this afternoon, Hague said a rescue operation was the "only realistic" prospect for her release and paid tribute to the US troops "who risked their lives to rescue a British subject".The shadow foreign secretary, Yvette Cooper, said "we condemn utterly the actions of the hostage-takers throughout these events", but added: "There are important questions that now do arise" about the nature of the authorisation Hague gave to the operation and his level of involvement.Hague said "we are still designing the form of the investigation" and deciding whether it would take place under the auspices of Isaf (Nato forces in Afghanistan) or the US military with UK involvement.Last year a British commando raid on a Taliban hideout rescued kidnapped New York Times reporter Stephen Farrell, who has British and Irish citizenship. But Farrell's Afghan translator Sultan Munadi and a woman and child were killed in the raid, raising questions about whether military force should have been used.Additional reporting by Ewen MacAskill in WashingtonLinda NorgroveAfghanistanMilitaryUnited StatesForeign policyDefence policyPaul OwenHaroon SiddiqueRichard Norton-TaylorEwen MacAskillguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Black people are 26 times more likely than whites to face stop and search Analysis of government data shows shocking discrepancy in stop and search figures for England and WalesBlack people are 26 times more likely than white people to be stopped and searched by police in England and Wales, the most glaring example of "racial profiling" researchers have seen, according to an international report.The analysis of government data has brought claims of discrimination from campaigners who say the findings corroborate concerns that black and Asian Britons are being unfairly targeted. The US civil rights activist Jesse Jackson, who arrives in London today to launch a campaign aimed at curbing what he says is stop-and-search discrimination, described the figures as "astonishing".The figures relate to stop-and-searches under Section 60 of the Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1994, which was introduced to deal with football hooligans and the threat of serious violence. It allows police to search anyone in a designated area without specific grounds for suspicion.Analysis by the London School of Economics and the Open Society Justice Initiative found that there are 41.6 Section 60 searches for every 1,000 black people, compared with 1.6 for every 1,000 white people – making black people 26.6 times more likely to be stopped and searched. Asians were 6.3 times more likely to be stopped than whites, according to the analysis of Ministry of Justice figures for 2008-09.The data reveal a marked escalation in relative searches of ethnic minorities in England and Wales. In the previous year blacks were 10.7 times more likely to be stopped than whites, and Asians 2.2 times more likely. Ben Bowling, professor of criminal justice at King's College London, said: "The police are making greater use of a power that was only ever meant to be used in exceptional circumstances and lacks effective safeguards. This leaves room for increased stereotyping which is likely to alienate those communities which are most affected".His concerns are exacerbated by new draft Home Office guidance which will allow police to stop and search on the basis of ethnic origin under Section 60, a development which critics say raises the prospect of a return to the contentious "sus" laws of the 1980s. Tomorrow a new campaign group called Stopwatch will ask the government to abandon the use of stop-and-search powers that do not require reasonable suspicion, such as Section 60 powers.Researchers at the Open Society Justice Initiative, part of the Open Society Foundation supported by billionaire financier George Soros, said the British figures provided the widest "race gap" in stop-and-search that they had found internationally. The previous highest use of stop-and-search powers against ethnic groups was on the Moscow Metro, where non-Slavs are 21.8 times more likely to be stopped by Russian police than Slavs. A study on the Paris Metro found passengers of Arab appearance were more than seven times more likely to be stopped. The practice has caused disquiet in New York where blacks and Hispanics are nine times more likely to be stopped than white New Yorkers.Dr Rebekah Delsol of the Open Society Justice Initiative said that even factoring in slight differences in methodology and data gathering, the international comparison revealed "staggeringly high" levels of what she claimed was racial profiling among British police using Section 60.Dr Michael Shiner, of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at LSE, said additional safeguards are necessary and the government should provide explicit guidance so that everyone is clear where action is needed. "What is interesting is the rapidness of the change," he said. "Year-on-year you would ordinarily not see much of a difference, but this is a staggering increase of disproportionality at a time when there is a massive increase in the use of Section 60."Shiner and Bowling said the use of the stop-and-search power would increase tension and damage confidence in the police. Use of Section 60 has risen more than 300% between 2005 and last year amid concerns among campaigners that it is being abused as a "catch-all" power in response to low-level disorder. In 1997/98 there were 7,970 stop-and-searches, increasing to 53,250 in 2007/08 and 149,955 in 2008/09. Between 2005/06 and 2008/09 the LSE found the number of Section 60 searches of black people rose by more than 650%.In July, home secretary Theresa May announced that police use of Section 44 counter-terrorism stop-and-search powers, which allowed officers to act without reasonable suspicion, was to be curtailed immediately following a decision from the European Court of Human Rights.However, campaigners say that Section 60 should also be repealed. Other stop-and-search powers, Section One of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act, require officers to have reasonable suspicion for a stop search. Under Section One, black people are seven times more likely to be stopped than white people.The figures coincide with plans to weaken the way stop-and-searches are recorded by police forces. Draft Home Office documents, seen by the Observer, reveal that future recording will be so heavily weakened that repeat stops of the same person will no longer be recorded. They also open the way for officers to search someone under Section 60 on the basis of ethnicity. Although Home Office guidance states care must be taken not to discriminate against ethnic minority groups, it says there are times when officers should "take account of an individual's ethnic origin in selecting persons and vehicles to be stopped".Delsol added: "The revisions still open the way for ethnic profiling and the stopping of large numbers of innocent people from ethnic minority backgrounds just because they happen to be in an area defined for a Section 60 search zone."A spokesman for the Home Office said that under their new proposals ethnicity could not be used as the sole basis for stopping anyone under Section 60, with the new guidance "intended to protect civil liberties".PoliceRace issuesMark Townsendguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
Dolphins 'walk' on water Dolphins in the wild are teaching themselves to "walk" with their tails along the surface of water, biologists have claimed. telegraph.co.uk |
HMS Astute stuck nuclear submarine finally makes its way home The super-stealth vessel that ran aground off Skye and had to be freed by a tug, is now making its way back to its base at FaslaneThe nuclear-powered submarine that ran aground off Skye on Friday was making its way back to base for further checks yesterday. HMS Astute became stuck during sea trials in a channel off the Scottish mainland. The vessel, the UK's most powerful attack submarine, was eventually freed by a tug. The Ministry of Defence said checks of the sub's rudder, which is thought to have become stuck on a shingle bank, were carried out in deeper water. Astute will now return to base at Faslane on the Clyde for further checks. The MoD, which is launching a separate inquiry into the incident, said the investigation would consider if any crew were negligent and the submarine's skipper, Commander Andy Coles, could find himself in front of a court martial.MilitaryScotlandguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |