Lawyer acting for Hind Ahmas says full-face veil pair will appeal to France’s supreme court after fines by Meaux court A judge in Meaux has fined two French women for wearing the niqab – the first sanction since France banned Islamic full-face veils in April. Hind Ahmas , a 32-year-old single mother from a Paris suburb, and another 36-year-old woman who did not want to be named, were handed fines of €120 and €80 (£105 and £70) respectively. The judge is expected to hand out a full ruling on Thursday explaining his decision. The fines mark the first time a French court has pronounced on the niqab ban, the controversial law backed by Nicolas Sarkozy that bans women wearing full-face veils from all public places, including walking down the street, taking a bus, going to court or collecting children from school. More than 90 women have been stopped by police but until now, no one had been punished by a court for wearing a face-veil. The two women were stopped in the street on 5 May near the town hall in Meaux, east of Paris, where the mayor is Jean-François Copé – an architect of the ban and head of Sarkozy’s ruling rightwing UMP party. The date was Copé’s birthday and the women had arrived at the town hall wearing full-face coverings and carrying a birthday cake for him made of almonds. Their action was intended as a play on the word “almond” in French – amande, which is close to the word “fine” – amende. The women said they wanted to expose the absurdity of a law that discriminated against Muslims and made a mockery of the justice system. They were supported by the group Don’t Touch my Constitution, which has led protests at the ban. Gilles Devers, a lawyer for the women, said the pair would immediately appeal to France’s supreme court and to the European court of human rights if necessary. Devers argued the French niqab ban contravened European human rights legislation on personal liberties and freedom of religion. Ahmas was not allowed into court during the initial court hearing in June because she was wearing a niqab and refused to remove it at the request of a police officer, offering instead to lift it for an identity check. French burqa and niqab ban France Islam Women Angelique Chrisafis guardian.co.uk
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Scotland Yard gains hours of unbroadcast material of August riots after serving court orders The BBC, ITN and Sky News have handed hundreds of hours of unbroadcast footage of the August riots to police after being served with court orders by Scotland Yard. The broadcasters were forced to hand over raw footage of the riots after the Metropolitan police obtained a production order earlier this month under the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. The Daily Telegraph is also understood to have disclosed material to the police after being served with a production order. Scotland Yard has put sustained pressure on all media groups to reveal video and picture evidence of the riots since the disorder across England seven weeks ago. “It is very very rare that we are served with a court order to hand over footage like this,” said a senior insider at one of the broadcasters. “We don’t hand over material willy-nilly because it compromises the security of our journalists on the streets. Clearly we don’t want them being seen as an evidence-gathering arm of the police.” The major news broadcasters are in the process of handing over hundreds of hours of footage to the police. The BBC, ITN and Sky News were issued with a wide-ranging order that forced the disclosure of “any broadcast or unbroadcast video or still pictures of the recent unrest in London”. Police are understood to have temporarily halted attempts to obtain footage from newspapers, except the Daily Telegraph, which is understood to have complied with a court order in early September. “Police requests for BBC untransmitted material are dealt through our legal department, regardless of the subject matter,” said a spokeswoman for the BBC. “We require requests for untransmitted material to be made through the courts. A production order requiring footage of the riots was served on the BBC and a court agreed that the material should be supplied.” In deciding whether to grant a production order, judges are supposed to weigh the interest of the police in obtaining evidence with the public interest in a free press. An ITN spokesman said: “ITN’s policy is that we do not release unbroadcast material to police. On some occasions when the police apply to a judge for a court order to force the release of such material, we have challenged the police’s application.” Hundreds of police officers are working through about 40,000 hours of CCTV footage in stations across the country. In London, Met officers are believed to be studying more than 20,000 hours of video at 30 viewing facilities. A spokeswoman for the Metropolitan police said: “The police are identifying people through pictures, CCTV and through the media to ensure that people are brought to justice. We would ask the media to work with the police to ensure that happens.” Sky News had not returned a request for comment at the time of publication. • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email editor@mediaguardian.co.uk or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly “for publication”. • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook . TV news BBC ITN Television industry Daily Telegraph Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers UK riots Police Josh Halliday guardian.co.uk
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German MPs threaten to boycott Benedict XVI’s speech in parliament at start of four-day visit The pope has arrived in Berlin for his first state visit to his native Germany amid the now customary protests against his leadership of the Catholic church. Benedict XVI – born Joseph Ratzinger in Marktl, Bavaria, 84 years ago – was given the red carpet treatment at Berlin’s Tegel airport, where he was met by German chancellor Angela Merkel and president Christian Wulff at the start of his four-day visit. He will give a speech in parliament later, which around 100 MPs have vowed to boycott over what they consider a violation of Germany’s separation of church and state. Another 10,000 protesters are expected to demonstrate outside. The pope plans meetings with leaders of Germany’s Jewish and Muslim communities, three masses, an ecumenical service with Lutheran church members and possibly meetings with victims abused by priests. The Vatican’s views on contraception, the role of women, homosexuality and its handling of the sexual abuse scandal that rocked Germany last year are seen by many in Germany as outdated and out-of-touch. On the plane from Rome, the pope told reporters that he thought demonstrations were acceptable as long as they remained civil. They are “normal in a free society and in the secularised world,” he said. He said he believed there needs to be an examination of why people have been leaving the church recently, and the part that the abuse scandals played in the phenomenon. “I can understand that some people have been scandalised by the crimes that have been revealed in recent times,” he said. More than 250,000 people are registered to attend his masses, including about 70,000 who plan to be at the open-air service on Thursday night in Berlin’s Olympic Stadium. Bild, Germany’s biggest tabloid, has shown its support for the pope by hanging an enormous poster on the side of its high-rise headquarters in Berlin’s Kreuzberg district. “Wir sind Papst” is the slogan, meaning “We are pope”, the headline the newspaper chose for its front page the day after Joseph Ratzinger was chosen to succeed John Paul II in April 2005. The pontiff is expected to draw bigger crowds when he travels to Germany’s more Catholic south. Of the 3.4 million people who live in largely atheist Berlin, 660 000 are protestants, 210 000 are Muslim and just 90 000 are classed as “other Christians”. Pope Benedict XVI Germany Catholicism Religion Christianity Europe Helen Pidd guardian.co.uk
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• Stockpile of mustard gas found in southern desert • Rebels say they have now taken most of Sebha • Gaddafi loyalists still holding out in Sirte Libyan rebel forces claim to have discovered banned chemical weapons stockpiles in southern desert areas captured from diehard Gaddafi regime loyalists in the last few days. Spokesmen for the National Transitional Council (NTC) said a depot had been found in the Jufra area, 435 miles (700km) south of Tripoli, part of an offensive against regime strongholds in the remote south of the country. The rebels also say they have now taken most of Sebha, the largest town in the area whose tribes were long seen as loyal to Gaddafi and is an important staging post for travel to Niger, where some former regime figures have fled. Libyan officials have confirmed that a senior intelligence officer was captured there two days ago. It had been thought that Gaddafi himself might have been hiding in Sebha along with his fugitive second son, Saif al-Islam, but NTC fighters found no trace of them. CNN reported from Sebha that Gaddafi’s Gaddadfa tribe in the town is ready to surrender its weapons and wants to negotiate an agreement with the NTC. Correspondent Ben Wedeman also described walking through Gaddafi’s palace in the town. Libya was supposed to have destroyed its entire stockpile of chemical weapons in early 2004 as part of a British-engineered rapprochement with the west. It also abandoned a rudimentary nuclear programme. But the international watchdog, the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons, had stated it believed that Libya had kept 9.5 tonnes of mustard gas at a secret location: it is that which appears to have now been captured and secured. In 2010 Libya destroyed nearly 15 tonnes of sulphur mustard, representing about half of its stockpile. It received an extension to eliminate the rest by 15 May. Twice-yearly inspections have found no evidence of Libya reviving the chemical weapons programme. The recent rebel advances in the south have not been matched by parallel progress on two other fronts. Loyalists are still holding out in Gaddafi’s birthplace of Sirte on the Mediterranean coast, though there are signs a new offensive may be looming there. The capture of Sirte would clear the way for an unbroken link between Tripoli and Benghazi, where the Libyan uprising began in February. Little progress has been seen in Bani Walid, 100 miles south of Tripoli, with chaotic scenes amongst poorly disorganised and often squabbling rebels and worries about inflaming tribal tensions if there is large-scale bloodshed. The persistence of these significant pockets of Gaddafi resistance are delaying plans by the NTC to declare the whole country liberated – a necessary step before the start of ambitious reforms to create a free and democratic Libya. Libya Middle East Arab and Middle East unrest Africa Saif al-Islam Gaddafi Muammar Gaddafi Ian Black guardian.co.uk
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Health secretary says he has been contacted by 22 trusts struggling to cope with growing burden of private finance contracts The rising costs of paying for hospitals under private finance initiative schemes is bringing NHS trusts to the “brink of financial collapse” and putting patient care at risk, the health secretary has warned. Andrew Lansley said he had been contacted by 22 trusts that are struggling to cope with the growing burden of the PFI contracts, a policy of the former Labour government under which private capital is used to build hospitals and the NHS is left with an annual fee or “mortgage”. Between them, the trusts run more than 60 hospitals. Speaking on BBC Radio 4′s Today programme , Lansley said: “We’re not going to let hospitals collapse financially. “But if we were simply to carry on as the Labour party did in government, we would be seeing hundreds of millions of pounds every year being taken from what could provide improving services for patients in order to pay for PFI projects that roll forward for decades.” He added that patient care could be jeopardised in the areas covered by the 22 trusts, saying: “We’re looking at a risk to services in their areas.” Buckinghamshire, Oxford Radcliffe, North Bristol and Portsmouth are understood to be among the trusts in difficulty. The Department of Health has said there are £12.6bn of PFI contracts in the NHS, with some trusts paying off the scheme until 2050. Annual bills are forecast to rise by 75% to more than £2.5bn in the next 18 years after the recession took its toll on the repayments. In comments to the Telegraph , Lansley said: “Like the economy, Labour has brought some parts of the NHS to the brink of financial collapse. Tough solutions may be needed for these problems, but we’ll help the NHS overcome them.” The Department of Health has said the government is making an independent assessment of PFI schemes. Proposals designed to ease the burden on struggling trusts could include the renegotiation of PFI contracts. David Stout, the deputy chief executive of the NHS Confederation , which represents health service commissioners and providers, said that there had been “few realistic alternatives” to PFI projects in the NHS at the time of their introduction under Labour. But he warned that the economic climate had changed and that, as PFI payments ate further into resources, there was “a real danger that we will be paying for hospitals that are not being fully used”. “PFI contracts are long term deals lasting up to 25 years but, in order to respond to the current unprecedented financial challenge, we will need to close some services or parts of hospitals in order to invest in more efficient services elsewhere that are better for patients,” Stout said. “With resources locked into PFI contracts, we will find it harder to make these vital changes.” John Appleby, the chief economist on health policy for charity the King’s Fund , told the BBC he was not persuaded by the argument that PFI had brought NHS trusts to the verge of collapse. “The reason that individual hospitals get into financial difficulties are often complex, and it’s not usually one single reason,” he said. “I have to say that, if PFI is seen to be the key problem, it doesn’t auger that well for the future when … the plan is under the new government’s reforms [that] the NHS will be doing deals with the private sector. “[These deals are] not just to build hospitals but to supply health care services, a much more complicated system and a much more complicated exercise.” While admitting that PFI had proved more expensive, Appleby added that some hospitals with the schemes had remained “perfectly healthy financially”. But Lansley insisted the government needed to act in order to tackle “Labour’s legacy of poor value for money”, which he said included the £12.7bn national programme for IT, which is being scrapped after years of delays. He said: “The truth is that we have inherited in the NHS … an enormous legacy of debt – not just PFI debt, but often hospitals that are carrying substantial debts.” Private finance initiative Health policy Andrew Lansley Liberal-Conservative coalition Labour NHS Health Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk
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At least 16 dead or missing and transport system in chaos as floods and landslides strike central Japan Typhoon Roke has moved north across Japan, leaving at least 16 people dead or missing. Concerns had been raised that the powerful typhoon could threaten safety at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, which was sent into meltdown by an earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, but officials said the plant was unaffected. Hiroki Kawamata, a spokesman for the plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power (Tepco), said there had been no further leaks of radioactive water or material into the environment. “We are seeing no problems so far,” he said. The typhoon had reached the country’s northern island of Hokkaido by Thursday morning after weakening overnight, but there were no immediate reports of damage. The storm was generating winds of up to 78mph. It reached the city of Hamamatsu, about 125 miles (200km) west of Tokyo, on Wednesday before cutting a path to the north-east and through Tokyo. Up to 42cm of rain fell in some areas, triggering landslides and flooding. Police and local media reported 16 people dead or missing, most swept away by rivers swollen by rains in southern and central regions. One person died in a landslide in the northern Iwate prefecture, and two people were swept away in Sendai in the north-east. Hundreds of tsunami survivors in government shelters in the Miyagi prefecture town of Onagawa were forced to evacuate because of flooding risks. Strong winds brought down power lines in many areas and officials said more than 200,000 households in central Japan were without electricity on Wednesday. In Tokyo, rush hour trains were suspended and thousands of commuters were stuck at stations across the city. Long queues formed for buses and taxis. “The hotels in the vicinity are all booked up so I’m waiting for the bullet train to restart,” Hiromu Harada, a 60-year-old businessman, said at Tokyo station. The Kyodo news agency reported that 5,000 people had stayed inside Shinkansen bullet trains at Tokyo and Shizuoka stations overnight. The storm had triggered landslides in parts of Miyagi prefecture that had been affected by the March earthquake and tsunami. The local government requested help from the army, and dozens of schools were closed. An earthquake struck on Wednesday just south of Fukushima, in Ibaraki prefecture. Officials said it posed no danger to the Fukushima Daiichi plant and that it did not cause damage or injuries. Heavy rains sparked floods and caused road damage in Nagoya and other cities, the Aichi prefectural government said. More than 200 domestic flights were cancelled. Japan Natural disasters and extreme weather Flooding guardian.co.uk
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US Federal Reserve strategy to calm financial markets causes investor fright as markets from London to Asia plunge The US Federal Reserve’s Operation Twist failed to bring calm to financial markets, which tumbled on Thursday as investors took fright at the US central bank’s gloomy warning about the economic outlook. The FTSE 100 index in London plunged 174 points in early trading, a 3.3% drop, with not a single riser in sight. In Asia, markets also suffered heavy losses, with the Nikkei closing down 2.1%, Hong Kong’s Hang Seng tumbling 4.3% and Jakarta’s stock market losing over 7%. Brent crude oil lost nearly $2 to $108.59 a barrel. The sell-off came after the Fed unveiled a new $400bn bond-buying plan on Wednesday to ward off a double-dip recession, as it emerged that the Bank of England was also getting ready to pump more money into the British economy. The Fed’s open markets committee said the economic outlook had deteriorated sharply, noting there were “significant downside risks” to its economic forecasts and indicating that a full recovery was years away. “Recent indicators point to continuing weakness in overall labour market conditions, and the unemployment rate remains elevated.” This drove the Dow Jones down 2.5% on Wednesday while the Standard & Poor’s 500 index lost 3%. Ben Potter of IG Markets in Melbourne, Australia, said he expected “a session of heavy selling as the world reacts to the Fed’s downbeat outlook for the US economy”. News that Chinese factory output had shrunk for a third month in September as flagging overseas demand put the brakes on new orders also weighed on markets. “It is another blow after the Fed’s language about downside risks on the economy really hurt sentiment,” David Thurtell of Citigroup in Singapore told Reuters. Double twist “Operation Twist”, named after a similar measure launched in the 1960s under President Kennedy, will see the Fed buying $400bn (£258bn) of long-term Treasury bonds by June 2012 and selling shorter-term debts. The measure is aimed at driving down long-term interest rates across the economy, in an attempt to reduce the cost of borrowing for indebted homeowners and struggling firms. In another effort to help the ailing US housing market , the Fed chairman, Ben Bernanke, said as the mortgage-backed securities it owns matured, it would reinvest the proceeds in buying new mortgage bonds. Economists called the measures a “double twist”. Gary Jenkins, head of fixed income at Evolution Securities, said: “Twist and doubt? You have to hand it to the Fed. They have gone all retro on us and persuaded the market to call their latest attempt at intervention ‘Operation Twist’ rather than ‘QE 3′. The latter might imply that the first two attempts didn’t quite work out as hoped so far better to change the name …” He added: “The basic idea is of course to stimulate economic growth by persuading investors into risk assets … the one thing that is clear is that Mr Bernanke is prepared to use all the weapons in his armoury in order to try and ensure that the US does not enter a long period of low growth, so Operation Twist may not be the last intervention unless it works. And of course the UK is about to follow suit.” Global economy Stock markets US economy Economics US economic growth and recession Interest rates US Interest rates Global recession Recession Quantitative easing FTSE Nikkei Dow Jones United States Japan China Australia Bank of England Julia Kollewe guardian.co.uk
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Detectives at Stepping Hill hospital are investigating deaths of three patients who were given saline contaminated with insulin Police investigating the contamination of saline at Stepping Hill Hospital believe four more people were poisoned. Following the release of nurse Rebecca Leighton, Greater Manchester police said they were looking at around 40 potential victims who may have been harmed by the contaminated solution. It is understood they now believe that seven within that pool were poisoned – including Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and Alfred Derek Weaver, 83. Fifteen of those potential victims have been eliminated from the inquiry, while the cases of 20 others are still being assessed. Sources confirmed that a “Cracker”-style criminal profiler was brought in by police to help identify the mystery poisoner. The forensic clinical psychologist, who has assisted various police forces in several recent high-profile murder cases, was called in at the beginning of the major inquiry into who sabotaged saline at the Stockport hospital. He is not currently part of the investigation but initially aided detectives in drawing up the likely background of the saboteur. A police source said: “He was brought in at the early stages of the investigation and helped draw up a profile of the perpetrator. “He is currently not helping with our inquiries.” The source did not disclose how useful that information was or whether it played any role in the detention of Miss Leighton. Miss Leighton has spoken of her horror at being dubbed an “angel of death” and “killer nurse” by newspapers. She said she was “passionate” about her job and wanted to return to a “normal life” after charges that she tampered with saline solution with intent to endanger life were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) earlier this month. The 27-year-old spent more than six weeks in custody but was freed on 2 September after proceedings against her were discontinued due to insufficient evidence. Last week she was cleared to return to work by the Nursing and Midwifery Council – subject to conditions, despite hearing claims that she had admitted to the theft of opiate-based drugs. But she remains suspended on full pay by Stepping Hill while inquiries continue into allegations that she stole medication. A spokeswoman for Stepping Hill said: “The internal review of Rebecca’s case has begun and will proceed in the normal way. “These investigations can take some time to complete. We cannot be more definitive in terms of timings at this stage.” Detectives are continuing to look at the suspicious deaths of patients Arden, Lancaster and Weaver. All three were unlawfully administered insulin but it has not yet been established whether that was a significant contributing factor to their deaths, police say. The alarm was first raised by hospital staff on 12 July when a higher than normal number of patients were reported to have “unexplained” low blood sugar levels amid fears that saline solution had been contaminated with insulin. Heightened security measures remain in place at Stepping Hill and will continue for the foreseeable future. No one is allowed to administer intravenous drips alone and all keys to medicine cabinets have to be signed for. Manchester NHS Health Nursing guardian.co.uk
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Detectives at Stepping Hill hospital are investigating deaths of three patients who were given saline contaminated with insulin Police investigating the contamination of saline at Stepping Hill Hospital believe four more people were poisoned. Following the release of nurse Rebecca Leighton, Greater Manchester police said they were looking at around 40 potential victims who may have been harmed by the contaminated solution. It is understood they now believe that seven within that pool were poisoned – including Tracey Arden, 44, Arnold Lancaster, 71, and Alfred Derek Weaver, 83. Fifteen of those potential victims have been eliminated from the inquiry, while the cases of 20 others are still being assessed. Sources confirmed that a “Cracker”-style criminal profiler was brought in by police to help identify the mystery poisoner. The forensic clinical psychologist, who has assisted various police forces in several recent high-profile murder cases, was called in at the beginning of the major inquiry into who sabotaged saline at the Stockport hospital. He is not currently part of the investigation but initially aided detectives in drawing up the likely background of the saboteur. A police source said: “He was brought in at the early stages of the investigation and helped draw up a profile of the perpetrator. “He is currently not helping with our inquiries.” The source did not disclose how useful that information was or whether it played any role in the detention of Miss Leighton. Miss Leighton has spoken of her horror at being dubbed an “angel of death” and “killer nurse” by newspapers. She said she was “passionate” about her job and wanted to return to a “normal life” after charges that she tampered with saline solution with intent to endanger life were dropped by the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) earlier this month. The 27-year-old spent more than six weeks in custody but was freed on 2 September after proceedings against her were discontinued due to insufficient evidence. Last week she was cleared to return to work by the Nursing and Midwifery Council – subject to conditions, despite hearing claims that she had admitted to the theft of opiate-based drugs. But she remains suspended on full pay by Stepping Hill while inquiries continue into allegations that she stole medication. A spokeswoman for Stepping Hill said: “The internal review of Rebecca’s case has begun and will proceed in the normal way. “These investigations can take some time to complete. We cannot be more definitive in terms of timings at this stage.” Detectives are continuing to look at the suspicious deaths of patients Arden, Lancaster and Weaver. All three were unlawfully administered insulin but it has not yet been established whether that was a significant contributing factor to their deaths, police say. The alarm was first raised by hospital staff on 12 July when a higher than normal number of patients were reported to have “unexplained” low blood sugar levels amid fears that saline solution had been contaminated with insulin. Heightened security measures remain in place at Stepping Hill and will continue for the foreseeable future. No one is allowed to administer intravenous drips alone and all keys to medicine cabinets have to be signed for. Manchester NHS Health Nursing guardian.co.uk
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Ministry of Defence says it is in contact with lawyers of victims’ relatives and is preparing to make amends where required The British government is to pay compensation to families of those killed or wounded on Bloody Sunday, the Ministry of Defence announced on Thursday. More than a year after David Cameron apologised to the victims and described the 1972 Derry shootings as “unjustified and unjustifiable”, the Ministry of Defence has said it is in contact with the lawyers of victims’ relatives and is preparing to make amends where required. “We acknowledge the pain felt by these families for nearly 40 years, and that members of the armed forces acted wrongly. For that, the government is deeply sorry,” said an MoD spokesman. “We are in contact with the families’ solicitors and where there is a legal liability to pay compensation we will do so.” Thirteen unarmed civilians died in the Bloody Sunday shootings, when paratroopers opened fire during a civil rights protest in the Bogside area of Derry in January 1972. A 14th man died of his wounds several months later. An initial inquiry absolved the soldiers and the government of much of the blame, and in 1974 the MoD made a series of mostly small payments without accepting any responsibility. But last year’s Saville inquiry , which was 12 years in the making, came to the unequivocal conclusion that the killings had been unjustified. “We found no instances where it appeared to us that soldiers either were or might have been justified in firing,” it said. “Despite the contrary evidence given by soldiers, we have concluded that none of them fired in response to attacks or threatened attacks by nail or petrol bombers. No one threw or threatened to throw a nail or petrol bomb at the soldiers on Bloody Sunday.” According to the BBC, the move to pay compensation comes after lawyers for most of the families wrote to the prime minister asking what steps he would take to “fully compensate” them for “the loss of their loved ones, the wounding of others, and the shameful allegations which besmirched their good name for many years.” It is not yet clear who exactly will be compensated, and by how much, as many of those directly affected by the shootings have since died, and it is not known whether more distant relatives will make claims. Bloody Sunday Northern Ireland Ministry of Defence Military Ireland Lizzy Davies guardian.co.uk
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