Full coverage from the final day of evidence at the inquest into the death of Ian Tomlinson at the 2009 G20 protests in London 10.29am: The professor has explained “ventricular fibrillation”, where the heart wobbles. This is what leads to the arrhythmic heart attack that Dr Patel said he believed was the cause of Tomlinson’s death. Channer said it is possible to have so-called “pulseless electrical activity” – the reading present in Tomlinson’s ECG readings – after ventricular fibrillation of the heart. But he said there is a major caveat: The electrical activity that you see there [after ventricular fibrillation], although regular, is very different from the regular activity we saw in this case. 10.21am: Channer is the expert who produced the report on the electro cardio gram (ECG) readings taken from a defibrillator that was attached to Tomlinson by paramedics. The conclusions of his report have already been explained, to some degree, to the jury . 10.15am: Professor Channer, a consultant cardiologist, has taken the stand. He is being questioned by Alison Hewitt , the counsel for the inquest. 10.06am: The jury is coming in – we are about to begin. 9.52am: The inquest into Ian Tomlinson’s death is nearly over. This will be the last day of evidence. Next week, the judge will sum up the case and, the week after, the jury will retire to consider its verdict. I’ve posted a full schedule here . The inquest has been broadly split into two sections. The first part examined Tomlinson’s last minutes alive at the G20 protests in London, and it is likely that the jury will have to decide whether PC Simon Harwood acted lawfully when he shoved the newspaper seller to the ground on 1 April 2009. Harwood offered a defence of his actions over three days of evidence – you can catch up on it here , here and here . This video footage, first obtained by the Guardian, has proved crucial in enabling the jury to decide whether the action Harwood took against Tomlinson was proportionate and reasonable. The second and most recent part has considered the medical cause of Tomlinson’s death. The first pathologist to conduct a postmortem, Dr Freddy Patel , has maintained that the 47-year-old died of an arrhythmic heart attack. The jury has been told that Patel has twice been suspended by the General Medical Council for botched post mortems and dishonesty. All the medical experts who have given evidence have to some degree contested Dr Patel’s findings, including the cardiac pathologist Dr Mary Sheppard , the consultant surgeon Professor Robin Williams , the liver specialist Dr Graeme Alexander and the heart specialist Professor Kevin Channer , who we may hear more from today. The second pathologist to examine the body, Dr Nat Cary , is convinced Tomlinson died of internal bleeding into the abdomen. So too is Dr Kenneth Shorrock , the third pathologist who, as we heard on Friday , was instructed by the Met but concluded that Tomlinson died of injuries “consistent” with an attack by one of its officers. Today, the jury will be told of the findings of Dr Ben Swift , the pathologist instructed by PC Harwood. He, too, found that Tomlinson died of internal bleeding. Ian Tomlinson Police G20 Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
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• Official figures show chancellor George Osborne is making headway with his deficit reduction plan • Retail sector sees surprise revival, aided by strong food sales The government received a boost today when public borrowing for the last financial year came in nearly £5bn lower than expected and retail sales in March showed a surprise rise. Excluding the impact of bank bailouts, the government borrowed £18.6bn in March, bringing the total for the financial year to £141.1bn, according to figures from the Office for National Statistics. This was less than the £145.9bn forecast by the Office for Budget Responsibility, the tax and spending watchdog. George Osborne’s fiscal squeeze – which includes £81bn of spending cuts and hundreds of thousands of job losses – is expected to kick in fully from this month so the City will be watching closely how fast the public finances improve over coming months. “If the UK economy can keep growing and fiscal austerity continues at its planned pace, then there is a very good chance that the government can achieve its aim of a zero structural deficit [that part of the deficit not explained by cyclical fluctuations] within the current parliament,” said ING economist James Knightley. He said: “After last week’s good trade and employment numbers, it perhaps offers hope that the underlying picture of activity isn’t as bad as many analysts believe and that the scaling back of market interest rate hike expectations is overdone.” However, Daiwa Capital Markets economist Hetal Mehta was less impressed, describing the £5bn ‘windfall’ as “very small beer in the grand scheme of things.” She said there was a significant risk of the government overshooting this year’s borrowing projections. “And the government still faces a formidable task if it is to eliminate the deficit within four years.” Osborne will have been cheered by news that Britain’s shoppers staged a surprise revival in March, with retail sales increasing by 0.2%, after dropping by 0.9% in February. The official figures contrasted with the much gloomier picture revealed in surveys of the retail sector, and boosted hopes that the first quarter GDP figure, to be released next Wednesday, will be stronger than some analysts had feared. The ONS said strong food sales helped contribute to the increase in spending in March, which pushed the annual rate of retail sales growth to 1.3%. Garden centres and sports shops also performed strongly, as people took advantage of the dry weather. Government borrowing Economics Budget deficit Tax and spending George Osborne Retail industry Julia Kollewe Heather Stewart guardian.co.uk
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UN agency says 11,000 have fled from western mountain region in a crisis so far overshadowed by siege of Misrata Thousands of people are fleeing heavy fighting in Libya’s western mountains region, close to the Tunisian border, as government forces seek to crush a rebellion that has been largely overshadowed by the siege of Misrata. According to the UN agency for refugees, UNHCR, around 11,000 refugees from the area have crossed the border into Tunisia in the past 10 days, mainly from the city of Nalut. “They are fleeing because of shelling and intensified fighting between government and opposition forces,” Firas Kayal of the UNHCR told the Guardian by phone from the Tunisian border. “The whole western mountains region has been under siege for two months now.” Kayal said 6,000 people, including many women and children, fled the sparsely-populated area in two days last weekend when bombardment of the area stepped up. “The main reason for departure is safety and security.” The Libyan government said there were pockets of resistance in the region, but most of the area was under its control. Those leaving for Tunisia were either the families of rebel fighters or being forced by them to depart, a spokesman said. According to news agencies which spoke to rebel fighters in the area, the towns of Nalut, Yifran, Qalaa and Zintan have seen heavy fighting in the past few days. Grad rockets, tank shells and anti-aircraft guns have been fired on Yifran, home to around 25,000, and medics were forced to abandon the hospital, said a rebel named as Belgassem. Rebels were defending the centre of Qalaa against a government offensive, he added. In Nalut, four rebels were killed in attempts to repel government forces, according to a rebel named as Ayman. A rebel spokesman called Abdelrahman told Reuters that fighters had attacked pro-Gaddafi forces on a hill west of Zintan, capturing a truck mounted with an artillery battery as well as light weapons and ammunition. There had been no Nato air strikes in the area of Zintan since last Friday, he said. The Tunisian defence ministry said that four rockets had hit territory a few hundred metres on its side of the border earlier this week. No one had been injured. The region is dominated by Berbers, a minority group in Libya who have suffered repression and discrimination by the Gaddafi regime for years. When uprisings began across Libya in mid-February, locals joined in, raising rebel flags. Forces loyal to Gaddafi moved swiftly to crush uprisings in towns and cities in the western, largely loyalist side of the country, but the western mountain region has continued to hold out. Refugees were reporting shortages in the area, said Kayal, but most were driven to leave by fear. “They say they are afraid of government shelling and have heard stories about killing and rapes.” In many cases, women were persuading men to flee, he said. “They’re all families – women and children. They are driving in their cars, loaded with mattresses and blankets, to Tunisia. Some say there has been shelling and Grad rockets in their area. Others say they have heard government forces are approaching so they decided to leave.” Fanush, 20, who fled Nalut three days ago with six members of her family, told the Guardian they had left because “we are so afraid from the bombing and his [Gaddafi's] army”. She had left behind two brothers who were fighting against government forces. “We are really suffering. All we want is freedom for Libya.” The people of Yifran had come under fire from rockets and tank shells, said Sefao, 33, who drove his uncle and their family out two weeks ago. “We fled because we cannot face heavy weapons. They have arrested a lot of people. The situation is very bad. There are tanks inside Yifran. They are killing everywhere.” Only three towns were in the hands of Gaddafi forces, he said. “Everywhere else is still liberated.” Refugees have reported shortages of food, water, electricity, fuel, medical supplies and cash in the western mountains. The UNHCR has set up a camp on a football field close to the border and many Tunisians are hosting refugees in their homes, said Kayal. “Hundreds of Tunisian families have opened their doors and put up signs in the road welcoming their Libyan brothers.” A local hotel was providing free accommodation and other families were crowded into community centres. Moussa Ibrahim, the Libyan government spokesman, said rebels were forcing families to cross into Tunisia to create the appearance of a humanitarian crisis. “We had intelligence showing they were planning this. We consider the people who crossed the border to be hostages [of the rebels]. We believe they have been taken against their will. It’s to the advantage of the rebels to have people suffering.” The number of rebels in the western mountains numbered only a few hundred, he said, but their strength was the terrain. “They exist in the [mountain] caves, not in the urban areas. They shoot from the mountains at our army and civilians. That’s why it’s difficult to completely eradicate them. It’s a very difficult [area] to cleanse.” Libya Refugees Arab and Middle East unrest Middle East Harriet Sherwood guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Many new peers cannot do their job properly if they are turned into ermine-clad battery hens Posh club declares itself closed to new members shock! In other circumstances, it would be right to ask why peers are backing a report that says the House of Lords is full. Are their Lordships struggling to find space in the tearoom or short of sunny spots to sip G&Ts on the terrace? But this report, from UCL’s Constitution Unit and an all-party array of peers and MPs, makes a serious point. It is a pity that it was dismissed, instantly, by Downing Street yesterday morning. Caught in a sort of half-life before promised reform, the Lords was packed by the last government and is being packed again, only partly in the interests of political balance. In the last year 117 peers have been created, including 39 Labour ones, taking the House to a complement of 792 members. If its membership was proportional to the last general election result, as the government wants, 269 more peers would be needed and the Lords would have 1,061 members. This is absurd. Not only is it expensive – many new peers have been vigorous in their take-up of daily expenses – but they cannot do their job properly if they are turned into ermine-clad battery hens. The report also criticises the way peers are appointed: there is too much patronage and too many former MPs, eased into the upper house after an inglorious Commons career. The answer is not just a smaller chamber – the US Senate manages with 100 members – but also democratic reform. In the meantime, “house full” signs should be hung on the door. Lords reform House of Lords Constitutional reform guardian.co.uk
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Economic output will suffer initially due to earthquake and tsunami but will pick up once rebuilding gains pace, report says Japan’s economy will slow significantly this year after the devastating earthquake and tsunami on 11 March, with the government needing to cut spending to rebuild the country’s battered north-east coast and ensure faster growth next year, the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) said on Thursday. GDP will expand 0.8% this year, down sharply from the 1.7% growth previously forecast. But as reconstruction spending gains pace, the economy will expand 2.3% in 2012, faster than previous estimates for 1.3% growth, the OECD said. Japan still required fiscal discipline and needed to raise sales tax from 5 to 20%, it warned. “The immediate impact of the disaster is likely to be large, extending beyond the areas devastated by the earthquake and tsunami. The experience of past disasters in Japan and other developed countries suggests that the negative short-term impact on economic output will be followed by a rebound as reconstruction spending picks up,” the report said. Japan is facing its worst crisis since the second world war. The magnitude 9 earthquake and a tsunami towering more than 10 metres left nearly 28,000 dead or missing and triggered radiation leaks at a nuclear power plant. The government estimates the material damage alone could top $300bn (£181bn), making it by far the world’s costliest natural disaster. Shortages of electricity and parts suggests long disruptions that could harm factories in other countries. Japan’s output could recover by the third quarter of this year, but private consumption could remain subdued due to weak consumer sentiment, the OECD said. The government is likely to submit to parliament a ¥4tn yen (£29.3bn) extra budget to remove debris and build temporary housing. It will avoid issuing new debt but politicians concede bond issuance is needed for future spending. Deflation will prevent the economy from expanding quickly enough to close the gap between supply and demand before the end of 2012, the report said. Global economy Japan Japan disaster guardian.co.uk
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Prime minister appears to make a play for return to presidency as he also promises to boost flagging birthrate by 30% Vladimir Putin has promised to spend £32.5bn on increasing life expectancy and boosting Russia’s flagging birthrate by up to 30% in the next four years. The prime minister made the pledge in a bold address to parliament on Wednesday in which he appeared to make a play for his return to the presidency. During his two-and-a-half-hour annual speech to the state duma, Putin boasted of the country’s economic recovery and promised rapid military expansion while announcing many populist measures aimed at elderly and provincial voters. Russia will hold parliamentary elections in December and a presidential poll next spring, so the address was watched closely for signs that Putin wants to recover the job he held from 2000 to 2008. Analysts noticed the prime minister made little mention of President Dmitry Medvedev, the close political ally whom Putin endorsed as his successor, but who has recently hinted he may not be keen to give way to his mentor. Instead, Putin employed his traditional statist rhetoric to promote a strong, confident Russia, able to see off its enemies but unfettered by democratic change. “This country requires decades of steady, uninterrupted development,” he said. “Without sharp changes in course or ill-thought through experiments based so often in either unjustified liberalism, or on the other hand, social demagogy.” Putin said 1.5 trillion roubles (£32.5bn) had been allocated to “demographic projects” which would increase the birthrate (as measured in 2006) by 25-30% by 2015, and boost average life expectancy from the current 69 years to 71 in the same period. Preliminary results of a nationwide census taken last year showed that since the last figures were taken in 2002 Russia’s population has fallen by 2.2 million to just under 143 million as a result of low fertility and a high mortality rate among men. It was unclear exactly what “projects” Putin had in mind to stimulate the birthrate but Russia makes cash payments to mothers when their children are born and other more imaginative measures have been used. In September 2007, the city of Ulyanovsk organised a day of conception, when workers were encouraged to go home and have sex. Prizes including a 4×4 car were given to those who gave birth on 12 June, Russia Day, the following year. Putin indicated that fertility was already on the rise. “The main thing is to keep up the tempo,” he said. Modernisation of healthcare would lead to greater longevity, he added. Vladimir Putin Dmitry Medvedev Russia Childbirth Tom Parfitt guardian.co.uk
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Marine Conservation Society urges public not to use toilet as a bin, after cotton buds and condoms make return to coastline The amount of bathroom rubbish spread over Britain’s shoreline has risen by an average of 40% in the past year, a survey has found. Cotton buds, condoms, sanitary towels and tampon applicators were among the items recovered at the Marine Conservation Society’s Beachwatch Big Weekend last September. Overall there was a 6% increase in average litter levels on Britain’s beaches compared with a similar survey in 2010. Marine Conservation Society beachwatch officer, Lauren Davis, urged people to stop using their toilet as a “wet bin”. She said: “[Bathroom rubbish] is being flushed away with an ‘out of sight, out of mind’ perception. But sewerage networks and waste water treatment works are not designed to remove these sort of items and, unfortunately, more and more are ending up in our rivers and beaches.” Almost 5,000 volunteers cleaned 376 beaches across the UK for the Big Weekend, covering a total of 167km. Over 330,000 items of litter were collected; 7% of it was bathroom waste, which included almost 16,000 cotton buds. Only the north-west of the UK and Northern Ireland saw a decrease in the amount of bathroom rubbish found on beaches compared with the previous year. The largest increases were in the north-east, where levels tripled, and Wales, where they doubled. UK water companies backed the Marine Conservation Society’s push for people to stop flushing rubbish. Edmund Bramley, Yorkshire Water’s environmental regulation manager, said: “We support the Marine Conservation Society’s call for people to dispose of bathroom waste responsibly, by placing it in the bin, rather than flushing it down the toilet. By flushing things like baby wipes, cotton buds or nappies down toilets, people can end up causing damage both to their homes and the environment.” Hugo Tagholm, director of the clean water campaign Surfers Against Sewage, said: “We of course see this first-hand on lots of beaches around the UK, and it’s unfortunately no huge surprise to us. It’s worrying to see the continuing trend of increasing litter on our coastline, and it’s something we’re actively tackling with our nationwide supporter and membership base.” Pollution Waste Coastlines Marine life Ben Bryant guardian.co.uk
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Federal Aviation Administration takes steps to reassure public after a series of embarrassing incidents The US Federal Aviation Administration has fired two air traffic controllers for sleeping on the job and ordered a higher level of supervision over aircraft carrying the first lady or vice-president after a series of embarrassing incidents. The new air traffic rules and the firings come as the FAA struggles to reassure the public that air travel is safe. The agency has been shaken by five cases of controllers falling asleep on the job , a controller caught watching a DVD movie at his post and an aborted landing this week of a plane carrying Michelle Obama and vice-president Joe Biden’s wife, Jill . The controllers fired on Wednesday were assigned to radar facilities in Miami and Knoxville, Tennessee. They had been found sleeping during overnight shifts, according to the FAA. Under the new air traffic rules, flights carrying Michelle Obama or the vice-president will be handled by an air traffic supervisor rather than a controller, the agency said. The new rules apply to approaches and departures handled by a regional air traffic facility in Warrenton, Virginia, and takeoffs and landings at Andrews air force base in Maryland, where the presidential fleet is based. Flights with the president on board are already required to be handled by a supervisor. The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) said it has opened an investigation into the aborted landing of Michelle Obama’s plane. The FAA moved swiftly in the case of the Miami controller, who the agency said was found sleeping at about 5am on Saturday at a regional radar facility that handles high-altitude air traffic for portions of Florida, the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea. A preliminary review of air traffic tapes indicated he did not miss any calls from aircraft and there was no impact on flight operations. The Knoxville incident occurred on 19 February at a radar facility at McGhee Tyson airport. Officials said the controller made himself a makeshift bed and deliberately slept for about five hours despite attempts by a co-worker to wake him. The aborted landing involving Michelle Obama’s plane occurred on Monday at Andrews air force base just outside Washington. While aborted landings are not unusual, and the first lady was apparently not in serious danger, the episode became another embarrassment for the FAA. The incident occurred at about 5pm, when a Boeing 737 belonging to the Air National Guard, one of several guard planes used by the White House, came within about three miles of a massive C-17 cargo plane as the planes were approaching Andrews to land, according to the FAA and a base spokeswoman. The FAA requires a minimum separation of five miles between two planes when the plane in the lead is as large as the 200-tonne military cargo jet, in order to avoid dangerous wake turbulence that can severely affect the trailing aircraft. Andrews’ civilian air traffic controllers initially ordered the first lady’s plane to conduct a series of turns to bring it farther from the military jet. When controllers realised there still might not be enough time for the cargo plane to clear the Andrews runway before her plane landed, they directed the pilot to circle the airport. This “go-around” is considered a type of aborted landing. The required separation between the two planes “was compromised,” the NTSB said in a statement. The White House continued to refer questions about the incident to the FAA, although press secretary Jay Carney told reporters travelling aboard Air Force One with the president to California that he understood there was “no imminent danger for the first lady or Dr Biden or anyone else on the plane”. Carney said he had not spoken with the president about the incident. The FAA is also investigating the incident as a possible error by controllers at the Warrenton regional facility. United States Air transport Michelle Obama guardian.co.uk
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British tourists James Cooper and James Kouzaris were shot as they tried to escape gunman, says eyewitness Two British holidaymakers killed in a Sarasota street tried in vain to run away after they were shot, according to a new eyewitness. James Cooper, 25, was shot three times in the chest, ran from a driveway, ducked under a clothes line and tripped on tree roots before sitting down on a patch of grass where he died, the witness said. Cooper’s friend, James Kouzaris, 24, was shot in the head and ran across the street in the opposite direction before collapsing and dying in front of a pickup truck, according to the report published in the Sarasota Herald-Tribune newspaper. The graphic account of their final moments would seem to support growing speculation that the two Britons, who were on a three-week holiday in Florida with Cooper’s parents, were victims of a robbery. Their bodies were found at 3am on Saturday, about 15 metres apart on Carver Court, a street in the Newtown neighbourhood of the city where the anonymous eyewitness lives. Cooper, of Warwick, and Kouzaris, from Northampton, are known to have been drinking in a downtown Sarasota bar less than two hours before they were shot, but Sarasota detectives admit they have little idea how or why they went to Newtown, a violent neighbourhood a couple of miles away, notorious for gang activity. Police have not corroborated the account, and the Herald-Tribune article states that the witness, who has been interviewed by investigators, saw only the aftermath of the shooting, not the shots being fired. But his testimony could yet be crucial in the case against 16-year-old Shawn Tyson, a Newtown resident who was arrested 24 hours after the double shooting, and who will face trial as an adult on two counts of first-degree homicide. “I haven’t slept since it happened because I feel I was the last person to see these guys alive,” the witness said, recalling that he heard five shots. “I thought it was a 9mm or .38 calibre.” The newspaper said the witness asked for his identity to be withheld because he feared retribution. It has also emerged that nine CCTV cameras that were due to have been working by the end of last year around The Courts public housing complex, where the killings took place, were never installed. Detectives say it has denied them a crucial opportunity to see who was in the area in the early hours of the morning. “Even if it’s not the suspect, even if it’s not the victims, that may give you people we need to talk who are potential witnesses to the crime,” said Captain Paul Sutton of the Sarasota police department. Police on Wednesday released the recording of a frantic emergency call made by a woman who saw one of the bodies lying in the street. “We seen a white dude laying, he’s … blood everywhere, he’s just laid out,” she is heard telling a 911 operator in the call received at 2.56am on Saturday. “I don’t know if he’s dead or not.” Cooper’s parents, Stanley and Sandra, paid tribute to their son in their first comments since returning from the Florida holiday to their home in Warwick. “As his parents, our lives have been shattered, but through us and his friends and family he will live on. God bless you, son, heaven has another angel, but this world is a colder and poorer place without you in it. He was gentle, kind, compassionate, clever and an athlete, but beyond all his achievements he was full of love.” Florida United States Crime Gun crime Richard Luscombe guardian.co.uk
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