• Hit F5 for the latest or select the auto-refresh button below • Watch all the video highlights of this year’s race so far • Interactive: check out the stage four route and analysis • Email your thoughts to barry.glendenning@guardian.co.uk 1.37pm: Asked for his thoughts on today’s finish at the Mûr-de-Bretagne, Eurosport analyst and Irish cycling legend Sean Kelly declares that “it will be horrible today”. He says the slippery conditions coupled with every single rider’s determination to get up near the front as the peloton enters the town means the potential for carnage is high. He goes on to describe the three ramps that make up the wall, stressing that it’s vital that anyone with serious notions of doing well in this year’s Tour is near the front of the bunch when the peloton hits town. “There’s a lot of little small drags which are energy-sapping in the final stages,” he says. “When you see the wall stretching out in front of you it’s a very impressive sight. There’s no three-kilometre rule today so it’s vital that the main contenders get up the front. Philippe Gilbert is going to have go for this one on the steep section, so calculation is going to be very important.” 1.32pm: “Don’t know if you remember that last year there was a Google maps thingymajig that tracked the live progress of Cav and his team?” writes Kim H. “It occasionally had a strop and refused to display particular riders, but was quite a fun way of following Le Tour and understanding the terrain/distances etc. I haven’t seen any mention of anything similar this year and was wondering whether it has been abandoned?” I do remember the gizmo you speak of, Kim, but don’t know if they’re using it again this year. If they are, you’ll almost certainly find it here ; unfortunately I don’t have time to look for it at the moment. 1.27pm: According to the official Tour website, Jurgen van de Walle from the Omega Paharma-Lotto team has abandoned the race, leaving 197 riders in the race. 1.25pm: After 51km in driving rain, the five-man breakaway are 3min 06sec clear of the peloton, although that gap might close a bit shortly, as one of the escapees has just shooed away the motorcycle camera man in a manner that suggests he’d like some privacy because he needs to take a pee. 1:20pm: “Today’s intermediate sprint is massive for Cavendish,” writes Shriram Jambunathan. “Jose Joaquin Rojas can attempt to get some points at the end of the stage today as well while Farrar and Cavendish shouldn’t get anything. Rojas, if he sprints like yesterday needn’t even win a single stage to be challenging the top favourites for the Green Jersey. Great to see Rojas doing well, Movistar have unfortunately had a traumatic year. The climb resembles a flatter version Mur de Huy, so we should see Gilbert, Evans and Cunego do well. The final 800 metres are pretty flat (I think at 2%).” Weather report: Eurosport’s coverage of today’s stage has just begun, although they’re broadcasting the pre-stage niceties and have yet to cut to my podcasting chum James Richardson, who is once again anchoring their coverage. His chin was decidedly unshaven yesterday – I’m very concerned that he’s letting himself go during the Football Weekly off-season. But I digress … the weather – it’s a horrible day on the Tour, with rain sleeting downwhen the riders set off this morning, rendering the roads so greasy that several riders came a cropper in the neutral zone even before race director Christian Prudhomme had waved the white flag to declare the start of racing. All were able to remount and continue and less than 10km into the stage, Frenchman Jeremy Roy launched his second breakaway of this year’s Tour before the 10-kilometre mark, jumping off the front with Gorka Izagirre Insausti (Euskatel), Imanol Erviti (Movistar), Johnny Hoogerland (Vacansoleil) and Blel Kadri (AG2R). After 45km, they lead the pack by 3min 05sec. Erviti is the virtual race-leader on the road, having started the day less than three minutes down on yellow jersey wearer Thor Hushovd. An email: “Can we all be nice to one another today?” pleads David Moore. “The emails on yesterday’s pedal-by-pedal coverage got so unfriendly I felt like a domestique in the 2009 Astana team.” I must confess that I haven’t read yesterday’s report, so I don’t know what unpleasantness you’re alluding to, David. But rest assured that the spirit of this afternoon’s equivalent will be ultra-jovial … for a while at least. Standings Yellow jersey: Thor Hushovd (Team Garmin-Cervelo) Green jersey: Jose Joaquin Rojas (Movistar Team) Polka dot jersey: Philippe Gilbert (Omega Pharma-Lotto) White jersey: Geraint Thomas (Sky Procycling) Click this link to see the full overall standings Today’s stage favourite With Tyler Farrar having won yesterday’s stage for Uncle Sam on Independence Day, today’s uphill finish means stage one winner and Omega Pharma-Lotto rider Philippe Gilbert is the odds-on favourite to win his second stage of the Tour, which would be a very nice present for him today on his 29th birthday. According to the good people at Infostrada Sports , the last rider to celebrate his birthday with a stage win in Le Tour was Erik Zabel, on 7 July 1995. “Since the start of this Tour I’ve worn almost all the jerseys and tomorrow I’ll race with the polka-dot jersey,” said Gilbert yesterday. “It’s a rather beautiful collection. The stage to the Mûr-de-Bretagne is one that I’ve waited a long time for because I think it’s a great stage for me. I hope to win again. It’s likely to be different to the day to Mont des Alouettes because the situation has changed since then … Alberto Contador, for example, has lost some time and he could attempt to make up for that in stage four. He can be an ally for me and it’s possible that I could follow his wheel for a while.” Good afternoon everybody and welcome to our rolling report of Stage 4 of this year’s Tour, in which the riders will themselves roll the 172.5km from Lorient to Mur de Bretagne. According to the indispensable pocket race guide that accompanies the current issue of Cycling Weekly , we can “expect fireworks” on a stage that boasts a stiff uphill finish on the third-category Mur de Bretagne (Breton Wall). “Another uphill finish, but harder than day one,” writes our own William Fotheringham in the Guardian’s marvellous interactive guide to this year’s Tour . “The ‘Wall’ is brutal, one mile long and dead straight. The overall contenders will have to show their strength to ensure they don’t lose seconds that could prove vital in the long term. The fight to hit the climb at the front of the bunch will be hectic and dangerous and a crash or two is inevitable.” You can click on this link to read Will’s report on Stage Three , which was won by Garmin’s American sprinter Tyler Farrar on a day that ended badly for Mark Cavendish – the Manx Missile was stripped of the points he won in the intermediate sprint after clashing with his rival Thor Hushovd in the lead-out. “Just heard that Thor’s offered to take the punishment solely,” Cavendish tweeted yesterday afternoon. “What a true gentleman. I reckon it won’t change fuck-all though. But thank you.” Tour de France 2011 Tour de France Barry Glendenning guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Rebekah Brooks says it is ‘inconceivable’ she knew of Milly Dowler phone hacking
July 5, 2011 No Comment
News International chief executive determined to lead newspaper group despite calls for her to resign Rebekah Brooks has told employees it is “inconceivable” she knew that the News of the World hacked into Milly Dowler’s mobile phone . The News International chief executive said she was “sickened” by the events, but insisted she was “determined to lead the company” – despite calls for her to resign. Ed Miliband said Brooks should “consider her position” and has called for a public inquiry after the Guardian revealed the News of the World illegally accessed Dowler’s voicemail messages under Brooks’s editorship. David Cameron earlier described the hacking as a “truly dreadful act” and urged police to “pursue this in the most vigorous way”. Brooks, who was editing the paper at the time, emailed employees today to tell them: “It is inconceivable that I knew or worse, sanctioned these appalling allegations. I am aware of the speculation about my position. Therefore it is important you all know that as chief executive, I am determined to lead the company to ensure we do the right thing and resolve these serious issues.” Brooks said she has written to Milly Dowler’s parents on Tuesday morning “to assure them News International will vigorously pursue the truth and that they will be the first to be informed of the outcome of our investigation”. She added: “I am sickened that these events are alleged to have happened. Not just because I was editor of the News of the World at the time, but if the accusations are true, the devastating effect on Milly Dowler’s family is unforgivable”. Senior executives at News International discussed the Dowler revelations at a meeting with police this morning to talk about Scotland Yard’s ongoing investigation into phone hacking. News International said Rebekah Brooks was not present at the meeting. A senior source at the News of the World’s owner said it was a pre-arranged meeting with officers from Operation Weeting, the Met’s investigation into phone hacking that began at the start of the year. Brooks said in her email: “This morning, in our regular Operation Weeting meeting, we have offered the MPS our full co-operation to establish the veracity of these fresh allegations.” Miliband had earlier called for a public inquiry and said Brooks should “consider her conscience and consider her position”, as pressure mounts on the chief executive. Miliband said the latest revelations in the News of the World phone-hacking saga were a “stain” on news reporting in the country. He added that the hacking “represents one of the darkest days in British journalism”. Earlier Cameron, currently in Afghanistan, said of the Guardian’s revelation that the News of the World illegally targeted Milly Dowler and her family: “If they are true this is a truly dreadful act and a truly dreadful situation. What I’ve read in the papers is quite shocking, that someone could do this knowing that the police were trying to find this person and find out what happened. “There is a police investigation into hacking allegations … they should investigate this without any fear, without any favour, without any worry about where the evidence should lead them. “They should pursue this in the most vigorous way that they can in order to get to the truth of what happened. That is the absolute priority as a police investigation.” The home secretary, Theresa May, said news of the hacking was “truly shocking”, and said it “should be investigated with great vigour”. Keith Vaz told the BBC the home affairs select committee would ask May whether there is any evidence of hacking in the Soham murders or any other cases. The Metropolitan police commissioner, Sir Paul Stephenson, whose force is accused of not investigating phone hacking properly in the first place, said on Tuesday: “My heart goes out to the Dowler family.” He told BBC London: “I have to be very careful to say nothing that could prejudice our live investigation but if it is proved to be true, then irrespective of the legality or illegality of it, I’m not sure there is anyone who wouldn’t be appalled and repulsed by such behaviour.” Former deputy prime minister Lord Prescott said on Twitter that he would write to the culture secretary, Jeremy Hunt, demanding he block News Corp’s bid to take full control of pay-TV company BSkyB following the revelations about Dowler. However, John Whittingdale, the chairman of the culture, media and sport select committee, told BBC Radio 4′s Today programme that phone hacking at the News of the World should not taint the rest of Rupert Murdoch’s empire. “You cannot necessarily condemn the entire of News Corp just because of the actions of some individuals in another part of the organisation,” he said. “News International is a part of News Corp but it’s a different part. News Corp is a global enterprise and I don’t think one should condemn the entire organisation because something very clearly was going wrong in the News of the World.” Detectives from Operation Weeting are believed to have found evidence of the targeting of the Dowlers in a collection of 11,000 pages of notes kept by Glenn Mulcaire, the private investigator jailed for phone hacking on behalf of the News of the World. In the past four weeks, Met officers have approached Surrey police and taken formal statements from some of those involved in the original inquiry, who were concerned about how News of the World journalists intercepted – and deleted – the voicemail messages of Milly Dowler. The messages were deleted by journalists in the first few days after Milly’s disappearance to create space for more messages. As a result friends and relatives of Milly concluded wrongly she might still be alive. Police also feared evidence may have been destroyed. Milly Dowler Phone hacking News of the World Newspapers & magazines National newspapers Newspapers James Robinson Adam Gabbatt Sandra Laville Nick Davies Amelia Hill guardian.co.uk
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Car bomb and second device injure at least 50 others at civic building packed with staff in Taji near Baghdad Two explosions at a civic building in the Iraqi town of Taji has killed at least 27 people and wounded a further 50 others, officials said. A car bomb and another explosive detonated in a crowded car park of the building in Taji, about 12 miles north of Baghdad, security sources told Reuters. “It was a double explosion. The first was caused by a car bomb. We have no idea what the second was, whether a suicide bomber or a roadside bomb,” said Raad al-Tamimi, the head of the Taji municipality. “The place was crowded with people who were going to process official papers and with police and employees,” he said. The deputy health minister, Khamis al-Saad, said the blasts killed 27 people and wounded 50. An interior ministry source put the initial toll at 35 dead and 28 wounded. The bombings followed a series of attacks that targeted Iraqi security forces over the last two days, killing at least 10 police and soldiers and wounding 22 others. Iraq Middle East Global terrorism guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Oh, those annoying peasants: Montanans outraged by Exxon/Mobil’s tepid response to Yellowstone River oil spill
July 4, 2011 No Comment
Click here to view this media [From KTVQ-TV. ] That horrifying oil spill on the Yellowstone River in Montana is bad enough. But of course, Exxon/Mobil officials had to go and make it worse by minimizing the damage done to the river and making only the most tepid of cleanup responses : An oil spill in Montana’s Yellowstone River surged toward North Dakota on Sunday as outraged residents demanded more government oversight of Exxon Mobil’s cleanup. An estimated 750 to 1,000 barrels, or up to 42,000 gallons, spilled overnight Friday through a damaged pipeline in the riverbed, Exxon spokesman Alan Jeffers said. The break near Billings could be related to the river’s high water level, officials said. More than 100 people were working on the cleanup late Sunday, Jeffers said. But local officials said that, because of the raging floodwaters, only a handful of crews were laying absorbent pads and booms to trap oil along short stretches of the river between Billings and Laurel. In some areas, residents said, oil may be flowing underneath the booms and continuing downstream in the murky water. Jeffers said most of the oil was believed to be within 10 miles of the spill site, and Exxon crews were flying over the area late Sunday to assess how far it had spread. But Montana’s governor disputed the estimate. “Nobody can say definitively,” Gov. Brian Schweitzer said. “It’s too early. We need boats on the water,” not only flyovers. Boats were potentially unsafe because of the high water, however. Montanans don’t let just anyone mess around with their rivers. After all, this is A River Runs Through It country, and every summer the state’s blue-ribbon trout streams draw a steady stream of fly fishermen who spend lots of tourist dollars. It’s a big moneymaking industry — maybe bigger than oil in the state. As the story observes: Oil was reported as far as 100 miles away near the town of Hysham, Yellowstone County Commissioner Bill Kennedy said. Although the spill is downstream from Yellowstone National Park and the fertile Yellowstone fly-fishing grounds frequented by tourists, some officials worried about harm to the industry that draws 11 million annual tourists a year to a state with a population of 980,000. “We take our rivers very seriously here in Montana,” said Schweitzer, a soil scientist who planned to visit the spill site Tuesday. “We will not allow this catastrophe to affect the $400 million trout industry in Montana.” Of course, Exxon Mobil officials claimed there had been no sign of harmed wildlife so far : UPDATE 7 a.m.: Gov. Brian Schweitzer says statements from ExxonMobil officials that no injured wildlife had been found were premature. “For somebody to say at this early stage that there’s no damage to wildlife, that’s pretty silly,” Schweitzer told the Associated Press on Saturday. “The Yellowstone River is important to us. We’ve got to have a physical inspection of that river in small boats — and soon.” The Billings Gazette has published photos of soiled pelicans and turtles. The Environmental Protection Agency said it can’t confirm any damage to wildlife or fish kills, but investigators were checking and the federal agency expected to know more Monday. Here’s one of those photos : enlarge Credit: Billings Gazette The worst part is waiting to see what happens to the trout populations on the Yellowstone and its tributaries. This could get very ugly.
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Thousands pack streets of central Caracas to celebrate return of populist president following month abroad Venezuela’s showman president Hugo Chávez made a dramatic return home yesterday, addressing thousands of ecstatic supporters in Caracas with the battle-cry: “The return has begun”. Hordes of Chávez supporters had flocked onto the streets outside the city’s Miraflores Palace to welcome back their leader, following his surprise return from Cuba in the early hours of Monday. At just after 5.35pm local time a sea of red-clad supporters erupted in cheers and applause as Chávez stepped out onto the Palace’s “balcón del pueblo” or “people’s balcony” wearing a red beret and green army uniform. Hoisting his country’s red, blue and yellow flag into the air, Chávez launched into a rendition of the Venezuelan national anthem before shouting: “Viva Venezuela! Viva the Bolivarian Revolution! Viva the Venezuelan People… Viva life! Viva Chávez!” “We will win this battle for life, for the fatherland and for the revolution,” Chávez told thousands of flag-waving supporters, speaking just days after admitting he was being treated for cancer in Cuba. “We will overcome all of these difficulties,” he added from the iconic veranda, the setting for numerous key addresses since he came to power in 1999. Chávez’s sudden return, nearly one month after he left the country, came on the eve of Venezuela’s independence celebrations that kick off on Tuesday. Within hours of Chávez setting foot on Venezuelan soil, allies from his United Socialist Party (PSUV) were appearing on television urging supporters to gather outside the city’s Miraflores Palace. “We have so much to celebrate,” said Blanca Eekhout, the vice-president of Venezuela’s National Assembly. “Let’s celebrate independence and the happiness of having our president back.” Chávez was now “recovering and preparing for the battles ahead,” she added. Throughout Monday, state-controlled television churned out infomercials for the afternoon address, accompanied by a chirpy pop-rock soundtrack and the catch-line “pa’lante comandante” – “onwards, commander”. “Welcome back president,” bellowed the commercial’s voiceover. “The whole of Venezuela receives you with happiness.” Across town the refrain was repeated, as faithful Chavistas celebrated their president’s “resurrection”. “I feel great joy because Chávez is back in his country,” said Iris Teran, a 27-year-old secretary who was among the crowds. “We’ve come to show him our revolutionary support. We have all prayed so that he can continue in his Bolivarian revolution”. Nelson Leon, a 68-year-old headmaster, added his voice to the chorus. “My wife woke me up to tell me he was back, but I thought she was lying. I feel the same joy as all my compatriots to see our president back and in good health.” Rafael Leonides, 51, said he had prayed for Chávez’s return. “We were feeling orphaned.” Political analysts had harboured suspicions that Chávez might attempt a high-profile homecoming to coincide with Venezuela’s independence celebrations on Tuesday – although those chances appeared to have faded last Thursday following Chávez’s admission he had been diagnosed with an unspecified form of cancer. Javier Corrales, a Venezuela expert from Amherst College in Massachusetts, described Monday’s dramatic, pre-dawn return as “typical Chávez.” “He is a micro-manager par excellence, convinced of his own indispensability. Thus a premature return is less surprising from Chávez than a prolonged absence,” said Corrales. “Governance in Venezuela might not necessarily improve with an ailing president back in residence, but at least the internal confusion and posturing within his ruling party will ease, for now,” he added. With a 2012 presidential election looming on the horizon and domestic headaches growing, Chávez needs to recover, and fast. Corrales said Chávez faced “a tough scenario” back home, with an ongoing energy crisis and economic woes presenting a treacherous run-up to the election. “Until his health improves, Chávez’s best hope to prevail in the forthcoming elections may be to win enough sympathy votes,” Corrales said. Venezuela Hugo Chávez Cuba Tom Phillips guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Police in Colorado Springs are calling the Saturday beating of two gay soldiers a possible hate crime. The men, who wished not to be identified, told 7 News that they went to Albert Tacos restaurant after leaving a nightclub. “As soon as we walked in, there was a group of African American males that walked in,” one of the men said. “And they started a confrontation with us because of the fact that one of our go-gos was still in his outfit.” “We walked in and immediately one black male started making remarks like, faggot,” another of the men told KOAA . When they returned to the parking lot, they were beaten by a group of about five men. Two women are also wanted in connection to the beating. Both men were rushed to the hospital. One man’s jaw was shattered and had to be wired shut.
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Boost to both brands, but English-language search results will be censored to meet Chinese government’s demands Microsoft has signed a deal with Baidu, the biggest search engine in China, to provide English-language search results — but they will be censored to meet the Chinese government’s demands. The announcement of the deal is a boost to Microsoft, which has been struggling to boost the position of its Bing search engine against Google’s dominance in almost every country around the world. It will also be a boost for Baidu, which has ambitions internationally. Baidu has roughly 83% of the Chinese search market, but there are also up to 10m English searches per day, the company said. The Chinese market comprises roughly 470m users, despite only about 30% of the population having internet access. Bing — which filters out results in China relating to controversial subjects, such as political dissidents, Taiwan or pornography, to be able to operate in the country — has a negligible share of the market, while Google has nearly 20% counting visits to its offshore sites, making it the second-biggest in China. Yahoo has 6% and Microsoft’s Bing 4%, according to Net Applications. English-language searches to Baidu will be redirected through Bing. Kaiser Kuo, a spokesman for Baidu, said that Bing searches would not be censored any more “than they already do”. Google withdrew from the Chinese market in 2010 after alleging that government-inspired hackers had broken into the systems for its email and source codes to its wider network. Google’s founders, Larry Page and Sergey Brin, had been unhappy at the idea of submitting to China’s censorship for search results, and declared after the hacking incident that they would stop censoring them. That required them to withdraw from the country. Some analysts were sceptical over how much demand there would be for English search on Baidu. “It’s a good thing, but I see very minimal impact for Baidu. I don’t see a lot English keywords going through Baidu. It goes through Google,” said Wallace Cheung, a Hong Kong-based analyst at Credit Suisse. Search engine marketing company Greenlight said it saw the deal as positive for both sides, and could envisage the new partners dominating the Chinese search-advertising market. “Whilst it represents an opportunity for Bing to make more money from the Chinese market, Baidu gets what it needs to expand overseas when it is ready to do so,” said Greenlight Chief Operating Officer Andreas Pouros. “Microsoft has entered the Chinese market slowly and has made some friends, in a way that the Chinese government will have no issue with. This should leave Baidu and Bing to control the Chinese search ad market without too much difficulty.” Baidu made $1.2bn in online marketing revenues last year, up 78% from 2009. Microsoft’s total online advertising revenue in fiscal 2010, including a small contribution from Bing, was $1.9bn. However Bing loses almost as much money as it takes in. Microsoft may be satisfied with delivering censored results. It acknowledged as long as as 2006 that it filtered certain words, including “democracy” and “freedom” from the Chinese version of MSN. At the time Brad Smith, Microsoft’s general counsel, said that it was better to do business inside the country than to boycott it. “We certainly think it is better for us to be present around the world rather than not,” Smith said in 2006 . Search engines Microsoft Internet Computing Google Yahoo China Censorship Technology sector United States Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Click here to view this media Howard Kurtz and his panel on CNN’s Reliable Sources had high praise for Mark Halperin Sunday, but they did not endorse his use of an expletive to describe President Barack Obama. “Having seen the clip, I’m struck by the fact, if I’m Mark Halperin sitting there, I think the hosts are telling me to speak my mind,” The Weekly Standard ‘s Matthew Continetti told Kurtz. “I didn’t see any sarcasm in Mika or Joe… I’m on Mark Halperin’s side here. They were egging him on.” “Now the indictment is being expanded to saying Mark Halperin is the epitome superficial theater criticism and, you know, empty beltway conventional wisdom,” Kurtz noted. “Mark Halperin has earned his reputation as a serious journalist,” The Hill’s A.B. Stoddard insisted. “I worked with him at ABC News. He is tireless. He’s devoted and he’s also as a commentator, I always find him quite measured and cautious. So, it is a surprising episode but I don’t think there’s anything to criticize in Mark’s past.” “Halperin had been on this program a number of times,” Kurtz said. “He’s a substantive guy. The show that he was on, Morning Joe , three hours a day of guests sitting around talking about policy and politics may be the most substantive show on cable news so it seems to me this indictment that — yes, they do the theater of politics like everybody does, like we do here on CNN — but it seems to me that he is now the poster boy for superficiality strikes me as a bit unfair.”
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Light aircraft crashes in recreation ground killing pilot, 63, after clipping wings with another plane in West Sussex A pilot has died after his light aircraft collided in mid-air with another plane, plummeted into a recreation ground and burst into flames. The 63-year-old from the Adur area in West Sussex is thought to have tried to avoid houses and aim for an open space as his plane came down. The pilot was declared dead at the scene, police said. The second aircraft, a Diamond DA40, landed safely and the two people on board escaped shaken but unhurt from the crash close to Shoreham airport near Brighton. Witnesses spoke of the two aircraft clipping wings before one hurtled into Adur recreation ground, exploding on impact. None of the people in the recreation ground was hurt, which one onlooker described as a “miracle”. “I saw the tail fin of one of the aircraft floating down,” said Rob Piatt, who heard a bang while sitting in a nearby pub garden and turned to see the two planes parting in mid-air. “The poor pilot was weaving all over the place. Then the aircraft went out of sight and we were just waiting to hear the explosion. “There was no way he could have got out of it. He was going down at such a steep angle and pretty quickly. He did very well to get it to the recreation ground and not crash in the airfield itself. “It was very near a kids’ playground and it is an area that is popular with dog walkers.” Another witness, Nic Small, described watching the stricken plane fall from the sky. “A part of one of the planes, a flap or wing or tailplane, was separated and was rotating and coming to the ground,” he said. “I then realised that one of the planes was totally out of control and I watched it nosedive into the recreation ground about 200 metres away. “The other aircraft I saw flying away. It was very obvious that no one was going to make it out of the plane that crashed. “There was no opportunity for anyone to bale out and parachute. It all happened very, very quickly in about 10 to 20 seconds.” Emergency services were called to the scene just before 4.30pm and police and Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB) teams scoured the area for wreckage. Superintendent Neil Honnor from Sussex police said: “This is a very tragic incident. It would appear that the dead pilot tried to avoid local houses and managed to crash into the open recreation ground. “Our thoughts are with his family and friends at this time.” One of the planes involved in the collision belonged to Flying Time Aviation, which provides training for pilots and is based at Shoreham airport. In a statement, the company said: “We can confirm there has been an incident concerning one of our aircraft. “We are uncertain of the details at the present time and the incident is currently under investigation by the AAIB and Sussex police. “We have been training pilots since April 2006. We have never before had a serious incident during the history of our flight training organisation and safety is, and always has been, our main priority. “Both of the pilots operating our aircraft were uninjured during the incident.” Plane crashes Air transport guardian.co.uk
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Police seek three suspects, now on the run, as headteacher and friends pay tribute to ‘kind’ Yemurai Lovemore Kanyangarara, 16 In the warm sunshine on a busy high street in Welling, south-east London, bunches of bright flowers were piling up outside a shuttered shop. Girls clutched at each other in tears, while a group of young men stood in silence reading the tributes to their dead friend, the eighth teenager to die violently in London this year. It was at this spot on Friday during the late afternoon bustle that Yemurai Lovemore Kanyangarara, a 16-year-old with hopes of going to university, was stabbed in the neck in broad daylight as shoppers looked on, a brazen attack that left even police shocked. The blow severed an artery and killed him. After laying a bouquet of flowers with a card which stated “Gonna miss you a lot Yemz”, Shaquille Keith, 16, said his friend kept out of trouble. His face streaked with tears, he said: “You couldn’t not like him, he was so kind.” Asked why he thought Kanyangarara had been targeted, Keith articulated how disturbingly common deaths caused by knife crime have become, and the impact they are having on south London communities. “It was just one of those things,” he said. Police are hunting for three teenagers, who they said had gone on the run from their homes after the attack and were still fugitives on Monday. Detective Chief Inspector Mark Dunne urged them to think of Kanyangarara’s family, who fled violence in Zimbabwe when he was a toddler, and give themselves up. “We currently have three frightened teenage boys who we know have left home and are on the run from police, possibly hiding in the Greater London area. This cannot go on forever and sooner or later they will have to speak to me,” he said. “I am appealing for them to come forward now for the sake of Yemurai’s family who, needless to say, are absolutely devastated by his death.” The attack, described by Dunne as one of the worst killings he has investigated, happened on the busy high street at 5pm, moments after Kanyangarara had stepped off a bus with a friend. Police believe his neck was slashed, before three teenage boys ran from the scene. Barry Donn, co-owner of the nearby Loose Linen shop, described holding a towel to Kanyangarara’s neck to stem the blood flow. “I tried talking to him but he was not at all responsive. I asked what his name was, but his eyes were closed,” he said. “No one could have saved that boy, he was gone.” Police are believed to have identified the attackers. Friends said Kanyangarara, a keen footballer, had no links to local gangs. “He was always the calm one, he didn’t get into fights. He was just so talented, he didn’t deserve this,” said friend Natalie Miller, 16. “He wasn’t in a gang, he didn’t do anything wrong. They need to find the killer. It wasn’t his time.” Nigel Fisher, headteacher at St Columba’s Roman Catholic boys’ school in Bexleyheath, where Kanyangararaich had attended, said he had been planning to go on to university. “He had ability and he was going to use it,” he said. “His death is, in a true sense, completely tragic. What a waste of a wonderful life that lay ahead.” Knife crime Crime London Alexandra Topping guardian.co.uk
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