Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak pleads guilty to manslaughter but denies murder The neighbour of landscape architect Joanna Yeates has admitted killing her. Yeates’s parents, David and Theresa, were at the Old Bailey in London as the Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak pleaded guilty to her manslaughter, but denied murder. The charge states that Tabak “unlawfully killed” the 25-year-old between 16 and 19 December. But the 33-year-old pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder and was remanded in custody to face trial at Bristol crown court on 4 October. Yeates, who lived in Clifton, Bristol, disappeared on 17 December after going for Christmas drinks with colleagues. Her frozen body was found dumped on a verge in a lane in Failand, north Somerset, on Christmas Day. Tabak appeared in court via a videolink from Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire. He spoke to confirm his name and to say he was content for proceedings to continue in English without an interpreter before entering his pleas. During the hearing he sat at a desk, occasionally using a piece of paper to make notes and sipping from a drink. His trial is expected to last four weeks. Joanna Yeates Crime guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak pleads guilty to manslaughter but denies murder The neighbour of landscape architect Joanna Yeates has admitted killing her. Yeates’s parents, David and Theresa, were at the Old Bailey in London as the Dutch engineer Vincent Tabak pleaded guilty to her manslaughter, but denied murder. The charge states that Tabak “unlawfully killed” the 25-year-old between 16 and 19 December. But the 33-year-old pleaded not guilty to a charge of murder and was remanded in custody to face trial at Bristol crown court on 4 October. Yeates, who lived in Clifton, Bristol, disappeared on 17 December after going for Christmas drinks with colleagues. Her frozen body was found dumped on a verge in a lane in Failand, north Somerset, on Christmas Day. Tabak appeared in court via a videolink from Long Lartin prison in Worcestershire. He spoke to confirm his name and to say he was content for proceedings to continue in English without an interpreter before entering his pleas. During the hearing he sat at a desk, occasionally using a piece of paper to make notes and sipping from a drink. His trial is expected to last four weeks. Joanna Yeates Crime guardian.co.uk
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BMA leader believes health secretary may be sacked if NHS bill is watered down Andrew Lansley may not survive as health secretary once the government’s “pause” over its controversial NHS shakeup ends, the leader of Britain’s doctors has said. Dr Hamish Meldrum, chairman of council at the British Medical Association, told the Guardian he believed Lansley may have to step down if the health and social care bill underwent major changes. “I deal in policies not personalities, but I agree that it might be difficult for him to stay on if we see the significant changes to the reforms that we [the BMA] are asking for. But that’s not a decision that’s mine to make – it’s for the prime minister,” Meldrum said. “But yes, it’s true that his credibility would be badly damaged if the bill was watered down because he [Lansley] is so personally associated with the reforms.” The BMA leader’s intervention articulates a growing feeling both at Westminster and in NHS circles that Lansley could lose his job because of the difficulty created for the coalition by the deep unpopularity of his radical restructuring plans for the NHS in England. David Cameron has publicly backed the health secretary and insisted that the ongoing “listening exercise” on the legislation will lead to many more people understanding and accepting the plans. But the prime minister is frustrated that Lansley has made the NHS once again a problem issue for the Conservatives, so soon after they had neutralised it. Health policy experts believe that David Laws, the Liberal Democrat who resigned as chief secretary to the Treasury over his MP’s expenses soon after the coalition was formed last May, may return to cabinet as Lansley’s replacement. It has also been speculated that Philip Hammond, the transport secretary, or Stephen Dorrell, health secretary from 1995-1997 in John Major’s administration and current chair of the Commons health select committee, could take over. Friends admit that Lansley’s failure to win hearts and minds for his planned reorganisation has left him exposed. “Andrew’s intelligent and thoughtful and, as David Cameron says, no one knows more about the NHS than him,” said one. “But he has become too bogged down in the detail of the reorganisation and shown himself to be more of a thinker than a politician, and his lack of engagement over his plans with either health professionals or the public has left him somewhat isolated.” One health expert who is taken seriously in Downing Street said: “The question is: is he too toxic? I can’t believe he will stay on. To me it’s only a matter of time before he is replaced. Andrew Lansley means well and he knows a lot and he wants the best for the health service, but it hasn’t worked”. Lansley is widely seen to have failed to “do the politics” before unveiling his NHS masterplan. “Much of what’s in the health bill could command quite wide support, but he didn’t warm people up or get the key stakeholders on board,” said a pro-reform NHS policy specialist. “In such difficult times for the NHS you need a health secretary who can schmooze, do deals and get people on-board and that’s absolutely not Andrew Lansley.” Some of those working closely with Lansley on the “listening exercise” say that, despite criticism of his plans from an unprecedented array of bodies and individuals, and the Liberal Democrats, he still does not believe that they need major changes. Allies, though, say that he is “sufficiently flexible to respond to good ideas”, is putting considerable energy into engaging with stakeholders during the two-month pause and will clarify and improve his plans while maintaining their key principles, such as handing control of commissioning healthcare for patients from primary care trusts to GPs. One in three GPs plans to quit the NHS in the next five years and some blame the health reforms, according to a snapshot poll of 576 doctors for the magazine Pulse. • Join the debate on the future of the NHS on the NHS reforms blog NHS Health policy Andrew Lansley Health Doctors Public services policy Public sector cuts Public finance David Cameron Conservatives Rowenna Davis Denis Campbell guardian.co.uk
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Ventilation equipment being connected to try to absorb radiation in Japanese power plant damaged by earthquake and tsunami Workers at the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant have entered one of the damaged reactor buildings for the first time since it was hit by an explosion days after a devastating earthquake, Japan’s nuclear safety agency said. The plant’s operator, Tokyo Electric Power Company (Tepco), said workers were connecting ventilation equipment in Unit 1 to try to absorb radiation from the air inside the building. The work is expected to take about four or five days. Radiation levels inside the reactor must be lowered before a cooling system can be installed. The previous cooling system was damaged by the 11 March quake and subsequent tsunami that left more than 25,000 people dead or missing along Japan’s north-east coast. Workers have not been able to enter the reactor buildings at the plant, about 140 miles north-east of Tokyo, since the first days after the tsunami. Hydrogen explosions in four of the buildings at the six-reactor complex in the first few days destroyed some of their roofs and walls and scattered radioactive debris. In mid-April, a robot recorded radioactivity levels of about 50 millisieverts an hour inside Unit 1′s reactor building – a level too high for workers to safely enter. The decision to send in the workers on Thursday was made after robots collected fresh data last Friday that showed radiation levels had fallen in some areas of the reactor, said Taisuke Tomikawa, a spokesman for Tepco. Two workers entered the building at around 11.30am (3.30am BST). Due to the high radioactivity, teams were expected to go into the building on rotation for short periods, Tomikawa said. “This is an effort to improve the environment inside the reactor building,” he said. Since the crisis Japanese authorities more than doubled the legal limit of radiation exposure for nuclear workers to 250 millisieverts a year. Workers in the US nuclear industry are allowed an upper limit of 50 millisieverts per year. Doctors say radiation sickness sets in at 1,000 millisieverts and leads to nausea and vomiting. Radiation leaking from the Fukushima plant has forced 80,000 people living within a 12-mile (20km) radius to leave their homes. Many are living in gymnasiums and community centres. Japan disaster Nuclear power Japan Energy guardian.co.uk
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Lloyds had make a pre-tax profit of £1.1bn in the same three months a year ago Bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group has sunk to a first quarter loss after taking a larger than expected provision of £3.2bn to cover the costs of misselling payment protection insurance. New chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio has also upped the impairment charge for bad loans by £500m more than expected, blaming the situation in Ireland where the bank was a major lender following its rescue of HBOS during the 2008 banking crisis. It is expecting another 10% fall in commercial property prices in Ireland. The £3.2bn provision for PPI forced the bank to report a pre-tax loss of £3.4bn barely three months after the former boss Eric Daniels had heralded the return to a first full-year profit for the bailed-out bank since the crisis. The bank had make a pre-tax profit of £1.1bn in the same three months a year ago and insisted that its performance was “satisfactory” on what it calls a combined business basis, which strips out the costs associated with the integration. On this measure profits were £284m. The PPI provision follows the high court judgement on 20 April which upheld a ruling by the Financial Services Authority that banks should compensate customers retrospectively for PPI. Signalling a new approach to PPI, where banks have stalled on compensation, Horta Osorio said on Thursday: “It is appropropriate to take a provision now and move on.” The £3.4bn of losses also included integration costs of £333m. The bank reiterated its surprise at the independent banking commission’s decision to suggest more branches should be sold off in addition to 600 branches demanded by the EU in return for almost £20bn of taxpayer aid. For the whole of 2010 the bank took a £13.1bn hit from bad debt provisions – some £5.7bn related to problems in Ireland and Australia inherited from the controversial HBOS deal. Lloyds Banking Group Banking António Horta-Osório Payment protection insurance Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Lloyds had make a pre-tax profit of £1.1bn in the same three months a year ago Bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group has sunk to a first quarter loss after taking a larger than expected provision of £3.2bn to cover the costs of misselling payment protection insurance. New chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio has also upped the impairment charge for bad loans by £500m more than expected, blaming the situation in Ireland where the bank was a major lender following its rescue of HBOS during the 2008 banking crisis. It is expecting another 10% fall in commercial property prices in Ireland. The £3.2bn provision for PPI forced the bank to report a pre-tax loss of £3.4bn barely three months after the former boss Eric Daniels had heralded the return to a first full-year profit for the bailed-out bank since the crisis. The bank had make a pre-tax profit of £1.1bn in the same three months a year ago and insisted that its performance was “satisfactory” on what it calls a combined business basis, which strips out the costs associated with the integration. On this measure profits were £284m. The PPI provision follows the high court judgement on 20 April which upheld a ruling by the Financial Services Authority that banks should compensate customers retrospectively for PPI. Signalling a new approach to PPI, where banks have stalled on compensation, Horta Osorio said on Thursday: “It is appropropriate to take a provision now and move on.” The £3.4bn of losses also included integration costs of £333m. The bank reiterated its surprise at the independent banking commission’s decision to suggest more branches should be sold off in addition to 600 branches demanded by the EU in return for almost £20bn of taxpayer aid. For the whole of 2010 the bank took a £13.1bn hit from bad debt provisions – some £5.7bn related to problems in Ireland and Australia inherited from the controversial HBOS deal. Lloyds Banking Group Banking António Horta-Osório Payment protection insurance Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Lloyds had make a pre-tax profit of £1.1bn in the same three months a year ago Bailed-out Lloyds Banking Group has sunk to a first quarter loss after taking a larger than expected provision of £3.2bn to cover the costs of misselling payment protection insurance. New chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio has also upped the impairment charge for bad loans by £500m more than expected, blaming the situation in Ireland where the bank was a major lender following its rescue of HBOS during the 2008 banking crisis. It is expecting another 10% fall in commercial property prices in Ireland. The £3.2bn provision for PPI forced the bank to report a pre-tax loss of £3.4bn barely three months after the former boss Eric Daniels had heralded the return to a first full-year profit for the bailed-out bank since the crisis. The bank had make a pre-tax profit of £1.1bn in the same three months a year ago and insisted that its performance was “satisfactory” on what it calls a combined business basis, which strips out the costs associated with the integration. On this measure profits were £284m. The PPI provision follows the high court judgement on 20 April which upheld a ruling by the Financial Services Authority that banks should compensate customers retrospectively for PPI. Signalling a new approach to PPI, where banks have stalled on compensation, Horta Osorio said on Thursday: “It is appropropriate to take a provision now and move on.” The £3.4bn of losses also included integration costs of £333m. The bank reiterated its surprise at the independent banking commission’s decision to suggest more branches should be sold off in addition to 600 branches demanded by the EU in return for almost £20bn of taxpayer aid. For the whole of 2010 the bank took a £13.1bn hit from bad debt provisions – some £5.7bn related to problems in Ireland and Australia inherited from the controversial HBOS deal. Lloyds Banking Group Banking António Horta-Osório Payment protection insurance Jill Treanor guardian.co.uk
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Update for iPhone and iPad cuts amount of cached data that is stored to just a week Apple has released a software update for its iPhone and iPad which prevents it keeping a detailed record of the owner’s movements, and does not synchronise the details to the owner’s computer. The company had been criticised for the fact – discovered by two British researchers and revealed by the Guardian on 20 April – that the devices could effectively be used to trace where users had been , and that the file stored on the phone or tablet could be accessed by anyone who got hold of their computer. The data had been stored for up to a year. Steve Jobs, Apple’s chief executive, responded to a concerned user on 25 April that “we don’t track anyone”. It also emerged that Android phones keep a similar cache of data, though only if the user gives permission. Apple users give similar permission, though it is buried in the 15,000-word agreement to use the iTunes store. Apple said in a statement on 27 April that the file was in fact a record of mobile cell towers and Wi-Fi networks that the phone had “seen” in order to help it calculate its location more rapidly and accurately than if it were using the GPS satellite location system. Some of the towers, it said, could be up to a hundred miles away from the iPhone or iPad that recorded them. The update cuts the amount of cached data that is stored to just a week, and does not synchronise it to the owner’s computer if the phone or tablet is connected to it. That means that if someone gets at the computer they will find no details. In addition, the cached data is wiped if the user disables the location services setting on the iPhone or iPad. The data is not encrypted on the device, which means that it could be collected by law enforcement or thieves. But Apple says it will encrypt the data in another forthcoming update to the software that runs the devices. On 27 April, Apple said “users are confused, partly because the creators of this new technology (including Apple) have not provided enough education about these issues [of data storage for determining location] to date.” The update applies to the iPhone 4, iPhone 3GS, iPad 2, iPad, and the 3rd and 4th iterations of the iPod Touch. However the iPhone 3G will not receive the update. Apple has not said what will happen for those users. Apple Computing Data protection iPhone iPad Charles Arthur guardian.co.uk
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Frontier controls proposed in passport-free Schengen zone for emergencies after demands from France and Italy France and Italy appeared to have won the right to reintroduce border controls in emergency situations, after the European commission called for new rules to govern EU frontiers. Countries in Europe’s passport-free Schengen zone will be able to temporarily impose controls at their frontiers in the event of a sudden influx of migrants, according to proposals unveiled by the commission on Wednesday, after a surge in migrant numbers from north Africa across the Mediterranean. “To safeguard the stability of the Schengen area, it may also be necessary to foresee the temporary reintroduction of limited internal border controls under very exceptional circumstances,” the EU home affairs commissioner, Cecilia Malmstrom, told reporters. The EU would also look to create a border patrol, intensify surveillance of Europe’s frontiers and re-establish pacts with north African governments to control the flow of immigrants across the Mediterranean. The commission announced the migration strategy after demands last week from France and Italy for a review of the Schengen agreement, which covers 25 European countries. The government in Rome says Italy is being swamped with refugees from north Africa and is demanding other European countries take in some of those arriving on its shores. Under the proposals, which will be discussed by EU home affairs ministers on 12 May, the commission itself would assess whether there was an emergency situation. Were a state within the Schengen zone to fail in its “obligation to patrol its part of the external border”, the mechanism would permit a limited re-introduction of border controls to isolate that state. Such moves would be “very limited” and done under “strict rules”, Malmstrom said. A number of northern states have called the commissioner to express their alarm at calls by France and Italy for a watering down of free movement within the EU. Malmstrom, a liberal on immigration issues, warned against the attempted exploitation of the situation by anti-immigrant groups. “We do not need to give in to short-term approaches to border control and populist and simplistic solutions,” she said. The European Council on Refugees and Exiles, a network of NGOs, said it was less concerned about proposed changes inside the Schengen zone than the beefing up of the EU’s external border and agreements with north African countries to restrict the flow of migrants, known as “mobility partnerships”. “This in effect is a return to the sort of pact Italy made with Libya before the Arab spring,” said the council’s secretary general, Bjarte Vandvik. In recent years, southern EU governments had signed a series of agreements with north African regimes under which the states would prevent migrants, particularly from sub-Saharan Africa, from arriving in European waters. Such accords were in tatters after the uprisings in the region. Vandvik added that the influx of migrants – an estimated 25,000, according to the commission in Brussels – has been blown out of proportion. “People see black people in boats landing on a small island in Italy and it seems unmanageable, but this year has seen a 20-year low in the number of asylum seekers,” Vandvik said. “The largest number of migrants that have fled the fighting in Libya in fact headed to Tunisia. “But Tunisia is keeping its borders open, has welcomed some 300,000 people and tried to treat them in the best manner. It is Tunisia that needs help handling its refugees, not Italy.” He compared the situation to the Balkan crisis in the 1990s, when western European states took in half a million refugees, with 350,000 in Germany alone. “The EU is being hypocritical at best and racist at worst. How can Europe say they applaud the new democracy coming to north Africa and then, when people flee, we turn our backs to them?” European Union Europe France Italy Arab and Middle East unrest Leigh Phillips guardian.co.uk
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Gruesome photos taken in the aftermath of the US raid on Bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout show bodies of al-Qaida militants Gruesome photos taken in the immediate aftermath of the US raid on Osama bin Laden’s Pakistani hideout have emerged showing the blood-soaked bodies of three unidentified al-Qaida militants. Reuters released the pictures as the Obama administration announced it would not be publishing a picture of Bin Laden’s body. The disturbing images, the release of which has not been sanctioned by the White House, give a sense of the extreme violence employed by US Navy Seals as they stormed through the compound in the early hours of Monday. Two of the men lie in pools of congealed blood; a third lies prone with his arms flung over his head. Around are scattered hints of life before the Americans struck: computer cables, bedding, a tin mug and a plastic gun. The photos may also explain why the White House is refusing to release a similar image of Bin Laden: if it is nearly as graphic, it could provide an incendiary rallying point to America’s Islamist enemies. Security in New York and Washington, as well as at US bases and embassies round the world, have been stepped up in case of al-Qaida retaliation over the killing. The pictures emerged as the Obama administration insisted the killing of Bin Laden was legal and not an execution, while human rights groups and international lawyers pressed the White House for more details of the mission. Eric Holder, the US attorney-general, said the killing was justified and that had Bin Laden attempted to surrender, the US forces would have taken him alive. Meanwhile a senior Pakistani intelligence official told the Guardian that members of the Bin Laden family were being held in custody in Pakistan, including his Yemeni-born wife, Amal Ahmed al-Sadah, and his 12-year-old daughter, who allegedly claimed her father had been shot in cold-blood in front of her. The official did not confirm a report by al-Arabiya news that the daughter is claiming her father had been held first and then shot. George Little, a CIA spokesman, denied Bin Laden had been held by US forces before being shot. “There is no indication that Bin Laden was somehow captured and later killed inside the compound. It would be wrong to suggest otherwise.” Questions about the legality of the killing have grown after the White House backtracked on Tuesday on its initial account of the mission, admitting that Bin Laden had not been armed. The White House spokesman, Jay Carney, refused to provide further details about the shooting in Abbottabad. The Obama administration has been forced on the defensive after offering conflicting accounts of what happened. Asked on Wednesday whether the team that killed Obama had come under fire, Carney said the White House had gone to the limit in providing details and that any more would risk future operations. “I am not going to get into operational details,” he said. Carney, asked about the legality of the killing, read from a statement, saying it was consistent with the laws of war and that if Bin Laden had surrendered, he would have been taken alive. Holder, giving evidence to the Senate armed services committee, said it had not been a kill mission but “a kill or capture” mission. “If he had surrendered, attempted to surrender, I think we should obviously have accepted that, but there was no indication that he wanted to do that and therefore his killing was appropriate,” Holder said. The attorney-general said Bin Laden had no intention of being captured. “Let me make something very clear, the operation in which Osama bin Laden was killed was lawful. He was the head of al-Qaida, an organisation that had conducted the attacks of September 11. He admitted his involvement,” Holder said. Andrea Prasow, a Washington-based spokeswoman for Human Rights Watch, said: “Our position is that we do not have enough information to determine whether the killing of Bin Laden was lawful. We hope the US government will provide a more detailed accounting of what happened so we can understand if it was in fact lawful under either international humanitarian law – the so-called law of war – or under human rights law.” Philippe Sands, a University College London professor currently writing a book on the making of modern international law, said much would depend on the exact circumstances of Bin Laden’s death. “If no one else was around, if they had him in a room unarmed and the building was covered, then it looks pretty bad,” Sands said. He added that the US would have an additional layer of defence under international law. The “doctrine of necessity” excuses wrongdoing if the actions taken can be demonstrated to be the only way to protect an essential interest, like the lives of large number of citizens. Benjamin Ferencz, an American lawyer who was a US prosecutor at the Nuremburg trials and who lives in New York state, asked whether the killing was justifiable self-defence or premeditated illegal assassination. He would have preferred he had been captured and put on trial. Ferencz, 92, said : “The picture I get is that a bunch of highly trained, heavily armed soldiers find an old guy in pyjamas and shot him in the chest and head and that borders, without access to more facts, on murder.” He added: “Even [the head of the Luftwaffe Hermann] Göring had a right to trial.” The rules of engagement for the Seal team made it unlikely that Bin Laden would have had much chance to surrender. The counterterrorism adviser at the White House, John Brennan, in an interview with Fox, said he could only have surrendered if the team believed he did not pose a threat and were confident he did not have a bomb under his clothes. The Pakistani authorities may get confirmation or a conflicting account from the members of Bin Laden’s family and others from the compound it has in custody. Pakistani intelligence said it would not allow the US to interrogate them. “That would occur only if there was written assent from their country of origin. We are yet to receive any request to my knowledge but given the [critical] statements coming out of Washington and the fact that this [the raid] was not an operation we were involved in, we would not accept,” the Pakistani intelligence official said. Osama bin Laden al-Qaida Global terrorism Pakistan United States Ewen MacAskill Declan Walsh Julian Borger guardian.co.uk
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