| Yemen attack underlines growing al-Qaeda influence Tuesday's terrorist attack on Fionna Gibb, United Kingdom's deputy ambassador to Yemen has underlined the country's emergence as a hub for the global jihadist movement, Praveen Swami writes. telegraph.co.uk |
Girl injured in six-flight fall A girl is seriously wounded after falling down six flights of stairs at an east London school. bbc.co.uk |
Tribunal to rule on Abu Hamza's British citizenship A decision on whether Abu Hamza will keep his British passport will hinge on whether he has lost his Egyptian citizenship, a tribunal has heard. telegraph.co.uk |
7/7 inquest: Aldgate train's driver asked for phones after radio failed Timothy Batkin tells inquest he asked passengers to check mobile phones for signal so that he could contact control roomThe driver of the Circle line train bombed near Aldgate station on 7 July 2005 had to ask passengers whether they had any mobile phone signal to call for help after he found his radio was not working, it emerged today.Timothy Batkin told the inquests into the 52 people killed by suicide bombers that after hearing "a sound like a loud thud" followed by the screams of some of his passengers, he attempted to reach the London Underground line controller on his train radio, only to find it dead."At this stage I had the driver's door between the cab and the passengers' saloon open. I remember asking the passengers that were right behind the driver's cab whether anyone had a mobile phone signal on their phone."He had already pinched together two copper wires along the side of the tunnel to short circuit the power to the track, he told the inquests, but needed confirmation that the current was off as some passengers had already left the train and were making their way up the tunnel.Upon finding that he had signal on his own phone, he used it to call his supervisor at Edgware Road station and ask her to announce a "code red", bringing all nearby trains to an immediate stop.In a statement, the supervisor, Ayo Puddicombe, said that moments before receiving Batkin's call she had been alerted by a colleague to an explosion near Edgware Road, which would prove to be another of the four suicide bombs.After evacuating the first carriage through his cab, Batkin said, he walked past the bombed second carriage and to the rear of the train to evacuate passengers through the cab door at the very back.Asked by Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquests, why he had not paused at the bombed second carriage to attend to the wounded rather than evacuating the uninjured from the train, he said: "It just seemed to me to be the best thing that I could do."Seven people died in the Aldgate bombing. The inquests heard from Thelma Stober, who had been standing close to the bomber and was blown on to the tracks by the force of the explosion.As director of law for the London Development Agency, she had been heavily involved in the capital's bid to host the 2012 Olympics, which had been won the day before. As a result, she said, she had cancelled a day off and decided to come to work.She recalled a flash and a loud buzzing, and the sensation of "circling around for what seemed a very long time". When she came to she was lying on the tracks, bleeding profusely from both lower legs, which were trapped under a piece of metal. "There was a hand on my head, and I lifted the hand and it fell," she said."I thought that people had died. My brain went into gear, and I thought that in disasters it's reasonable for people to look after those who are alive before they look after the dead. I thought of my son, who was seven years old, and funnily enough I thought I wanted to continue my work on the Olympics. So I tried to see if I could get up so that people could see I was alive."I put my hand up, saying 'Help me, help me. I don't want to die.'" Her right leg was later amputated as a result of her injuries.Fighting back tears, she said: "What I did not do was to look around and see if I could help the man who was lying there. He was lying there not moving. I assumed he was dead. But I could have held his hand and I didn't."7 July London attacksLondonEsther Addleyguardian.co.uk © Guardian News & Media Limited 2010 | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds guardian.co.uk |
All firms told to offer pensions All UK firms will have to have a company pension scheme or enrol staff into the new National Employment Savings Trust by 2016. bbc.co.uk |