Four addresses searched of five men alleged to have been filming near nuclear site in Cumbria Counter-terrorism officers have begun questioning five men from east London alleged to have been filming near the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria. Meanwhile, police in London staged the first of a series of raids on addresses linked to those detained. The Metropolitan police said four houses in east London had been searched. The five were arrested under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which says a “constable may arrest without a warrant a person whom he reasonably suspects to be a terrorist”. The investigation is at an early stage. Some past arrests by UK counter-terrorism officials have led to people being released without charge. The arrests have attracted considerable interest because they came hours after the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden. The police say they are not “at this stage” connecting the arrests to the killing of the al-Qaida leader by US special forces, however. The men were detained at 4.32pm on Monday after a vehicle was stopped and checked by officers from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), which polices the facility in west Cumbria. The five, all in their 20s and from London, were held in police custody overnight in Carlisle before being taken to Manchester in the morning, a spokesman for Cumbria police said. This morning, the investigation was taken over by the north-west counter-terrorism unit. One of the officers involved in the arrests believed the men were thought to have been filming near the nuclear plant. The police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the arrested men, though they are believed to be from a Muslim background . Greater Manchester police said the investigation was in its early stages and no further information would be released immediately. They were unaware of any connection to the death of Osama bin Laden in the US operation in Pakistan. Cumbria police said a road closure affected the area for “a short period of time”. A spokeswoman for Sellafield confirmed that the five men had been arrested close to the site, saying: “It is a security issue and our security people are having discussions.” She said the plant had not been evacuated but the investigation had the potential to affect traffic. The sprawling coastal site is heavily protected by both private security guards and officers from the CNC, some of whom are armed. Sellafield is responsible for decommissioning and reprocessing nuclear waste and manufacturing fuel, on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The site has been operating since the 1940s, when it was used as a Royal Ordnance factory supporting the second world war effort. The site is also home to the world’s first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall, which operated from 1956 to 2003. Today the site comprises redundant buildings associated with early defence work, and operating facilities associated with the Magnox reprocessing programme, the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp), the Sellafield Mox plant and a range of waste treatment plants. UK security and terrorism Nuclear power Energy Vikram Dodd Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Four addresses searched of five men alleged to have been filming near nuclear site in Cumbria Counter-terrorism officers have begun questioning five men from east London alleged to have been filming near the Sellafield nuclear site in Cumbria. Meanwhile, police in London staged the first of a series of raids on addresses linked to those detained. The Metropolitan police said four houses in east London had been searched. The five were arrested under section 41 of the Terrorism Act 2000, which says a “constable may arrest without a warrant a person whom he reasonably suspects to be a terrorist”. The investigation is at an early stage. Some past arrests by UK counter-terrorism officials have led to people being released without charge. The arrests have attracted considerable interest because they came hours after the announcement of the death of Osama bin Laden. The police say they are not “at this stage” connecting the arrests to the killing of the al-Qaida leader by US special forces, however. The men were detained at 4.32pm on Monday after a vehicle was stopped and checked by officers from the Civil Nuclear Constabulary (CNC), which polices the facility in west Cumbria. The five, all in their 20s and from London, were held in police custody overnight in Carlisle before being taken to Manchester in the morning, a spokesman for Cumbria police said. This morning, the investigation was taken over by the north-west counter-terrorism unit. One of the officers involved in the arrests believed the men were thought to have been filming near the nuclear plant. The police have not confirmed the ethnicity of the arrested men, though they are believed to be from a Muslim background . Greater Manchester police said the investigation was in its early stages and no further information would be released immediately. They were unaware of any connection to the death of Osama bin Laden in the US operation in Pakistan. Cumbria police said a road closure affected the area for “a short period of time”. A spokeswoman for Sellafield confirmed that the five men had been arrested close to the site, saying: “It is a security issue and our security people are having discussions.” She said the plant had not been evacuated but the investigation had the potential to affect traffic. The sprawling coastal site is heavily protected by both private security guards and officers from the CNC, some of whom are armed. Sellafield is responsible for decommissioning and reprocessing nuclear waste and manufacturing fuel, on behalf of the Nuclear Decommissioning Authority. The site has been operating since the 1940s, when it was used as a Royal Ordnance factory supporting the second world war effort. The site is also home to the world’s first commercial nuclear power station, Calder Hall, which operated from 1956 to 2003. Today the site comprises redundant buildings associated with early defence work, and operating facilities associated with the Magnox reprocessing programme, the Thermal Oxide Reprocessing Plant (Thorp), the Sellafield Mox plant and a range of waste treatment plants. UK security and terrorism Nuclear power Energy Vikram Dodd Helen Carter guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Pope John Paul II was beatified the same day special forces took out Osama bin Laden and the president of Peru thinks it’s no coincidence. Alan Garcia says the killing of bin Laden is the second miracle that the late pope needs to qualify for sainthood, CNN reports. The pontiff,…
Continue reading …Wikileaks founder Julian Assange has singled out Facebook as an “appalling spying machine” in an interview with Russia Today . Assange warned in an earlier speech at Cambridge University that information gathered on the Web could be used by governments to spy on its citizens. But this time he called “Facebook…
Continue reading …People who undergo liposuction are playing Whac-A-Mole with body fat instead of achieving permanent reductions, new research suggests. Researchers found that after patients had fat deposits removed from one part of their body, the fat reappeared within a year in a different part of their body, the New York Times…
Continue reading …
Hollywood studios feel impact of rapid shift to online film and TV viewing DVD sales plunged 20% in the US in the first quarter of 2011, with Hollywood studios blaming the timing of Easter and a glut of blockbuster releases in the same period last year for the $500m (£303m) year-on-year revenue slump. The sale of DVDs and Blu-ray discs fell from $2.58bn to just more than $2bn in the first three months of the year, according to a report by industry body the Digital Entertainment Group. The DEG study also found rentals of DVDs through outlets such as Blockbuster plunged 36% year on year to $440m. However, consumer spending on streaming and subscription services such as Netflix rose 33% to $695m. The increase is from a relatively low base and the growth in digital revenues failed to cover a 10% fall in US home entertainment spending in the first quarter to $4.18bn. DEG’s latest figures highlight how the Hollywood studios are feeling the impact of the rapid shift to digital consumption of film and TV content. The movie industry is struggling with the same issues faced by the music sector a decade ago, with digital revenues not yet enough to compensate for the decline in sales of traditional physical products. “The industry has proven resilient, with modest gains posted in a number of key areas,” the report said. The report pointed out that there were four “tentpole” cinema releases in the first quarter last year, which accounted for $1bn in revenues, for which there was “no such equivalent” in the first three months of 2011. “The second quarter is off to a strong start, with sell-through [sales of DVDs and Blu-ray discs] up 20% in the first few weeks alone,” the report said. Overall an “impressive array of blockbuster theatrical releases” later this year will “help to round out 2011, with consumer spend flat, or slightly up, and transactions up by the end of the year”. • 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 . Digital media Media business Film industry Television industry Online TV Internet Mark Sweney guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …After 7 years and four elections, Stephen Harper has led the Conservative Party to a majority government in Canada, according to preliminary results. The prime minister, who has led minority governments since 2006, won a majority of seats in Parliament and a broader mandate for his party after an election…
Continue reading …
Cabinet row sees energy secretary asking prime minister if he will disown no campaign literature that criticises Nick Clegg The row about David Cameron’s endorsement of no campaign tactics in the referendum on the future of the voting system reached cabinet on Tuesday when Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, demanded to know if Cameron would disown the tactics. He demanded to know whether Cameron endorsed some of the claims being made by the no campaign, saying he believed some of its campaign literature smeared the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg. Huhne has already accused Cameron in public of trashing Clegg’s leadership by allowing the no campaign to send out leaflets accusing Clegg of breaking promises and sell-outs. Huhne directly raised the issue at the start of cabinet under parliamentary business with Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne. Both men replied that they were only responsible for the no campaign being run by the Conservative party. One source discounted claims that the chancellor countered that the issue was not appropriate for cabinet. They said the issue did not last that long. Tory sources were accused of leaking the row. Some cabinet sources then claimed Huhne had not been supported by his Liberal Democrat colleagues in cabinet, but one senior Liberal Democrat said he merely said in private to their faces what he has been saying in the papers. It is known that Huhne does have the support of many senior Liberal Democrats, although there is a division over the extent to which the yes campaign should be doing anything to divert from the positive case for AV. The anger boiling over for weeks has intensified by the way in which Cameron has continually disowned responsibility for the no campaign propaganda even though 80% of its declared donors are also Conservative party backers. Cameron said he was directly responsible only for the official Conservative party no campaign, but he stood by the no campaign’s claims that AV would make it “very likely” that electronic counting machines would have to be purchased. Huhne told the Guardian over the bank holiday weekend that some of the literature trashing Clegg is incredibly short-sighted since it undermines Clegg for making compromises sought by Cameron to put him into power, and to address the issue of Britain’s debt. The conflict turns on the fact that the no campaign attacks the concept of coalitions, even though Cameron is leading one. Asked to condemn posters suggesting babies’ and soldiers’ lives would be put at risk if AV was introduced, Cameron said: “I choose to support my own campaign, which has not made that argument but the fact is if you move to a new voting system it will cost money.” Cameron has yet to condemn the posters in public. One Liberal Democrat cabinet minister said: “This smacks of all the old tactics of the nasty party. It is juvenile and will end up damaging the more than us. It has all the hallmarks of George Osborne”. In a Guardian interview Clegg insisted he was not angry about the literature, but said he would not accept that he had broken promises. Clegg told the BBC that “perhaps naively” he had expected the referendum campaign not to feature politicians so prominently, and he and Cameron could take a more “standoffish” stance. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said he did not accept that the AV result was a “foregone conclusion” – amid opinion polls suggestions that the yes campaign is heading for defeat. The yes campaign is desperately trying to stoke an anti-Cameron mood to counter the anti-Clegg mood being fired by the no campaign. Miliband also defended his decision to refuse to share a yes campaign platform with Clegg due to his perceived unpopularity with voters: “There’s a reason the no campaign want to make Nick Clegg the poster child for their campaign,” he said. AV referendum Alternative vote Liberal-Conservative coalition Chris Huhne David Cameron Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …Cabinet row sees energy secretary asking prime minister if he will disown no campaign literature that criticises Nick Clegg The row about David Cameron’s endorsement of no campaign tactics in the referendum on the future of the voting system reached cabinet on Tuesday when Chris Huhne, the energy secretary, demanded to know if Cameron would disown the tactics. He demanded to know whether Cameron endorsed some of the claims being made by the no campaign, saying he believed some of its campaign literature smeared the deputy prime minister, Nick Clegg. Huhne has already accused Cameron in public of trashing Clegg’s leadership by allowing the no campaign to send out leaflets accusing Clegg of breaking promises and sell-outs. Huhne directly raised the issue at the start of cabinet under parliamentary business with Cameron and the chancellor, George Osborne. Both men replied that they were only responsible for the no campaign being run by the Conservative party. One source discounted claims that the chancellor countered that the issue was not appropriate for cabinet. They said the issue did not last that long. Tory sources were accused of leaking the row. Some cabinet sources then claimed Huhne had not been supported by his Liberal Democrat colleagues in cabinet, but one senior Liberal Democrat said he merely said in private to their faces what he has been saying in the papers. It is known that Huhne does have the support of many senior Liberal Democrats, although there is a division over the extent to which the yes campaign should be doing anything to divert from the positive case for AV. The anger boiling over for weeks has intensified by the way in which Cameron has continually disowned responsibility for the no campaign propaganda even though 80% of its declared donors are also Conservative party backers. Cameron said he was directly responsible only for the official Conservative party no campaign, but he stood by the no campaign’s claims that AV would make it “very likely” that electronic counting machines would have to be purchased. Huhne told the Guardian over the bank holiday weekend that some of the literature trashing Clegg is incredibly short-sighted since it undermines Clegg for making compromises sought by Cameron to put him into power, and to address the issue of Britain’s debt. The conflict turns on the fact that the no campaign attacks the concept of coalitions, even though Cameron is leading one. Asked to condemn posters suggesting babies’ and soldiers’ lives would be put at risk if AV was introduced, Cameron said: “I choose to support my own campaign, which has not made that argument but the fact is if you move to a new voting system it will cost money.” Cameron has yet to condemn the posters in public. One Liberal Democrat cabinet minister said: “This smacks of all the old tactics of the nasty party. It is juvenile and will end up damaging the more than us. It has all the hallmarks of George Osborne”. In a Guardian interview Clegg insisted he was not angry about the literature, but said he would not accept that he had broken promises. Clegg told the BBC that “perhaps naively” he had expected the referendum campaign not to feature politicians so prominently, and he and Cameron could take a more “standoffish” stance. The Labour leader, Ed Miliband, said he did not accept that the AV result was a “foregone conclusion” – amid opinion polls suggestions that the yes campaign is heading for defeat. The yes campaign is desperately trying to stoke an anti-Cameron mood to counter the anti-Clegg mood being fired by the no campaign. Miliband also defended his decision to refuse to share a yes campaign platform with Clegg due to his perceived unpopularity with voters: “There’s a reason the no campaign want to make Nick Clegg the poster child for their campaign,” he said. AV referendum Alternative vote Liberal-Conservative coalition Chris Huhne David Cameron Patrick Wintour guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …
• Newspaper seller ‘unlawfully killed’ at G20 protests • Jury took just over three hours to reach verdict • Family breaks down in tears at news • Read our news story on the Tomlinson verdict • Follow live updates and reaction here 3.55pm: Ian Tomlinson’s family will be giving a statement in about 25 minutes. I’ll post an update with the details here. 3.53pm: We’ve just published my news story on the verdict , which recaps the evidence from the hearing and explains how jurors were given two divergent explanations of Tomlinson’s death. The first pathologist to conduct a postmortem examination on the body, Dr Freddy Patel, said he died of a heart attack as a result of coronary heart disease. He was contradicted by three other pathologists who examined Tomlinson’s body, all of whom found he died of internal bleeding in the abdomen. Starmer said last July that complications with medical evidence led him to believe prosecutors were unlikely to prove a cause of death. His decision was supported by the attorney general, Dominic Grieve. Both will now have to consider how a jury of seven men and four women concluded Tomlinson died as a result of being pushed by Harwood. 3.47pm: A quick word on the importance of “unlawful killing” as a verdict. To reach an unlawful killing conclusion, the jury were required to have been satisfied to a higher burden of proof than the other possible verdicts, which could have been reached “on the balance of probabilities”. But to reach the unlawful killing verdict, the jury had to be convinced “beyond reasonable doubt”, the same threshold used in criminal trials. 3.45pm: For legal reasons, the jury was not permitted to name “the police officer”, but we know that he was PC Simon Harwood, a member of the Metropolitan Police’s Territorial Support Group. The director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, who decided in July last year not to prosecute Harwood for manslaughter, will now be under intense pressure to reverse that decision. An official Crown Prosecution Service review of the decision not to prosecute Harwood is now under way. 3.42pm: The court was caught unaware by the jury’s quick decision. They returned to the room and answered four short questions, known as the inquisition. What was the name of the deceased? Ian Tomlinson. What was the cause of his death? Injury or disease? Abdominal haemorrhage due to blunt force trauma to the abdomen in association with cirrhosis of the liver. If the person died of injury, what were the circumstances? Mr Tomlinson was on his way home from work on the 1st of April 2009 during the G20 demonstration. He was fatally injured at around 19.20pm on Royal Exchange Buildings … This was the result of a baton strike from behind and a push by the officer which caused Ian Tomlinson to fall heavily. The jury said both the baton strike and the push were “unreasonable”. “As a result, Mr Tomlinson suffered internal bleeding which led to his collapse within a few minutes and his subsequent death.” The jury decided that at the time of the strike and push Tomlinson was was walking away from the officer and “posed no threat”. What is the jury’s conclusion as to the death? Unlawful killing. 3.37pm: Ian Tomlinson’s family could be heard shouting “yes” at the verdict. His wife, Julia, six of their children are present at the hearing and have broken down, crying. 3.34pm: The jury has concluded Ian Tomlinson was unlawfully killed by a police officer at the G20 protests. 3.32pm: The jury has taken just three hours and fifteen minutes to reach their verdict. 3.30pm: Welcome back to the Ian Tomlinson inquest blog. The verdict is now imminent. For five weeks eleven men and women have heard detailed evidence about Tomlinson’s death at the G20 protests on April 1, 2009. They heard how he was struck with a baton and pushed to the ground by Metropolitan police officer Simon Harwood at 7.20pm. Tomlinson collapsed just under three minutes later. They retired to deliberate their findings at 11.15am. They are about to come back and deliver their verdict. Police Metropolitan police Protest London G20 Ian Tomlinson Paul Lewis guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …