Activists from Welcome to Palestine campaign expected to land in Tel Aviv after blocking of aid flotilla Israel was bracing itself on Thursday for an expected attempt by hundreds of pro-Palestinian activists to fly into the country, as the latest flotilla of ships intended for Gaza appeared to have been largely stalled. Israeli media reported that hundreds of extra police would be deployed at Ben Gurion airport in Tel Aviv to try to halt the influx of protesters, who are part of the Welcome to Palestine campaign. Most are expected to arrive on an estimated 50 scheduled flights from across Europe, beginning at 1am on Friday. The campaign has denied that those participating intend to try to reach Gaza or provoke deliberate disruption at Ben Guirion airport. “As stated … we invite international guests including families to visit us in Palestine,” Welcome to Palestine said in a statement on Thursday. “We hope and expect the Israeli authorities to allow them safe passage in compliance with international law and normal diplomatic relations. “We also reject the Israeli government threat of mass deportation of peace activists and the attempt to justify this unjustifiable action with rumours that have been spread.” Israel’s prime minister, Binyamin Netanyahu, has taken a personal interest in the “flytilla” threat, visiting airport officials before a trip to Romania and insisting that “every country has the right to prevent entry of disrupters and provocateurs at its borders”. Israel’s public security minister, Yitzhak Aharonovitch, had already denounced those planning to participate as “hooligans and radicals”. “The same hooligans who tried to break the law and disrupt the peace will not be allowed into Israel and will return to their home countries,” he said this week. “I want to make it clear that as a sovereign, democratic country, we will not allow public propaganda, incitement and illegal demonstrations to occur, not at the airport and not in any other place.” In expectation of what has also been called the “fly in” Israel’s transport authorities have demanded foreign airlines present lists of passengers two days in advance of departure for scrutiny. Israel expects at least 600 activists to attempt to enter, half of them from France. They have said they intend to spend a week visiting Palestinian families. Michael Rabb, a US pro-Palestinian activist, told Israel Army Radio he expected at least 500 activists to arrive at Ben Gurion airport and “announce openly and honestly that we’re flying into Palestine to visit our friends”. Announced earlier this week by Welcome to Palestine, the campaign said that those taking part would include citizens of Britain, Belgium, Italy, France, Germany and the US. The “fly in” is the latest chapter in the continuing game of cat and mouse between Israel and pro-Palestinian protesters who have increasingly used tactics designed to challenge Israel and invite a response which would embarrass it in front of the world. Ben Gurion airport has long had a reputation for its stringent screening of arriving foreign passengers and questioning of departing non-Israeli nationals, including questions about where they have travelled and whether they have met Palestinians. According to the Haaretz newspaper, in this case Israeli officials have warned that if a plane arrives with a suspect on board, that person will be detained at Ben Gurion and be put on a plane back to his home country before he reaches passport control. Israeli authorities are also making arrangements for planes suspected of carrying larger numbers of activists to be diverted to an outer runway at the airport so passengers can be questioned. According to the paper, police being deployed for the operation were told during a briefing that “when you enter the airport, it will be as if you are entering the set of Big Brother” – and warned they should not be be goaded into using force and then being filmed by activists. The concern has been prompted by the international outrage that followed the release of footage of the Israeli commando raid on the Gaza aid flotilla ship the MV Marmara, a raid that resulted in the deaths of nine activists on board. Gaza flotilla Israel Middle East Gaza Palestinian territories Protest Peter Beaumont guardian.co.uk
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Priceless 12-century manuscript, which contains Europe’s first travel guide, went missing from a safe in Spanish cathedral A priceless 12th-century illustrated manuscript containing what has been described as Europe’s first travel guide has been stolen from the cathedral at Santiago de Compostela in northern Spain. The Codex Calixtinus, which was kept in a safe at the cathedral’s archives, is thought to have been stolen by professional thieves on Sunday afternoon. Archivists did not notice its disappearance, however, until Tuesday, when the cathedral’s dean was told it was missing. The local Correo Gallego newspaper reported that distraught cathedral staff spent hours searching for the manuscript before contacting police late that night. “Although security systems have been improved considerably it is true to say that they are not of the kind one might find in a bank or a well-protected jewellers,” the newspaper reported. Only five security cameras were used to watch the archive area, according to the newspaper, and none were pointing directly at the safe where the priceless manuscript was stored. Police reportedly believe that a black market dealer in antique manuscripts may have commissioned the robbery. The codex was rarely removed from its safe, with researchers wishing to study it generally being handed a copy kept at the same archive. The 225 parchment pages include a guide to the pilgrimage routes to Santiago, apparently written by a French friar, Aimeric Picaud. They also tell the story of how St James the Apostle’s body was supposedly transported from Judea on a raft without oars or sails, which swiftly crossed the Mediterranean and travelled north through the Atlantic before grounding in north-western Spain. From there it was supposedly dragged inland by two oxen, and the body was buried in a forest. It was only eight centuries later, however, that locals began to claim the tomb of St James could be found there. Pilgrims eventually began to travel to the site, and an 11th-century pope declared that on certain years pilgrims could obtain plenary indulgence for their sins and so avoid purgatory. The manuscript, apparently commissioned by Pope Calixtus II, helped popularise a pilgrimage that still attracts tens of thousands of people every year. The author claimed pilgrims travelled from as far away as Scotland, Ireland, Wales, Jerusalem and Asia seeking “mortification of the body, increase of virtue, forgiveness of sins … and the protection of the Heavens”. His guidebook also included warnings against eating some local fish which would cause you to “die soon afterwards or fall ill”. Spain Catholicism Santiago de Compostela Europe Religion Christianity Giles Tremlett guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …When Andrew Castle’s wife told him she wanted a divorce, he asked her to come and talk about it in the garage—where he had built her a special electric chair. The 61-year-old British man hit his wife in the head with a rubber club, intending to knock her unconscious…
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• Roy Huiskes’s Twitpic of the collapsed stadium • In pictures: The scenes at FC Twente today One person has died and a further 10 people are being treated in hospital after the roof of FC Twente’s De Grolsch Veste stadium collapsed. Three people were treated at the scene, said Peter den Oudsten, the mayor of the Dutch city of Enschede where the stadium is located. Den Oudsten said sniffer dogs and cameras were being used to check if anybody else was still trapped under the tangle of girders and red roof panels the colour of FC Twente’s shirts behind the goal at the southern end of the stadium. The roof is reported to have collapsed after two support beams buckled, although the reason why this happened is not yet known. The work was being carried out as part of the club’s development of their stadium to a 32,000-seat arena. The capacity was just 13,500 when the Enschede side moved to the venue in 1998. The stadium is situated on the outskirts of Enschede in the east of the Netherlands, close to the German border. FC Twente, who finished second in the Eredivisie last season and won the Dutch Cup, were until 2010 managed by the former England manager, Steve McClaren. The club’s chairman Joop Munsterman is thought to have left the team’s pre-season training camp in Zeeland and is returning to Enschede, while the coach, Co Adriaanse, has cancelled all press activity until further notice. FC Twente posted a statement on their official website which read: “During the renovation work at the Grolsch Veste the roof of the building collapsed. Our thoughts are with everyone involved.” FC Twente European football Netherlands James Callow guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …• Roy Huiskes’s Twitpic of the collapsed stadium • In pictures: The scenes at FC Twente today One person has died and a further 10 people are being treated in hospital after the roof of FC Twente’s De Grolsch Veste stadium collapsed. Three people were treated at the scene, said Peter den Oudsten, the mayor of the Dutch city of Enschede where the stadium is located. Den Oudsten said sniffer dogs and cameras were being used to check if anybody else was still trapped under the tangle of girders and red roof panels the colour of FC Twente’s shirts behind the goal at the southern end of the stadium. The roof is reported to have collapsed after two support beams buckled, although the reason why this happened is not yet known. The work was being carried out as part of the club’s development of their stadium to a 32,000-seat arena. The capacity was just 13,500 when the Enschede side moved to the venue in 1998. The stadium is situated on the outskirts of Enschede in the east of the Netherlands, close to the German border. FC Twente, who finished second in the Eredivisie last season and won the Dutch Cup, were until 2010 managed by the former England manager, Steve McClaren. The club’s chairman Joop Munsterman is thought to have left the team’s pre-season training camp in Zeeland and is returning to Enschede, while the coach, Co Adriaanse, has cancelled all press activity until further notice. FC Twente posted a statement on their official website which read: “During the renovation work at the Grolsch Veste the roof of the building collapsed. Our thoughts are with everyone involved.” FC Twente European football Netherlands James Callow guardian.co.uk
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Judges uphold ruling holding Michael McKevitt and fellow Real IRA member responsible for 1998 atrocity The Real IRA’s founder, Michael McKevitt, has lost his appeal against a historic civil case ruling that held him responsible for the Omagh bomb atrocity in 1998. The court of appeal in Northern Ireland upheld the 2009 ruling against McKevitt and fellow Real IRA figure Liam Campbell on Thursday. But in a mixed day for the Omagh victims’ families, the judge in the Belfast court directed a civil retrial of the claims against Colm Murphy, and Seamus Daly’s appeal has been allowed. The court will hear arguments for a retrial. In 2009, a judge found the men liable for the single biggest massacre of the Ulster Troubles, awarding £1.6m damages to some of the families’ victims. That decision opened the way for the victims of other terrorist atrocities in Ireland and overseas to consider taking civil legal action against armed groups responsible for their injuries or relatives’ deaths. Twenty-nine people and a pair of unborn twins were killed when the Real IRA car bomb exploded in the County Tyrone town in August 1998. Lawyers for the families had also appealed against the compensation awarded. They said it should have been more because of the scale of the outrage. The 12 relatives who took the 2009 case were told by the court that the £1.6m figure awarded to them would not be increased. No one has ever been convicted in a criminal court of causing the deaths of the Omagh victims. The only man to face criminal charges over the Omagh killings, Sean Hoey from Jonesborough in south Armagh, was acquitted in 2007. None of the men being sued has the capacity to make any kind of large-scale payment. From the start the families made clear the civil action was a vehicle for putting as much information as possible into the public domain about the bombing and the men they claim were involved. In his 2009 ruling, Mr Justice Morgan also found the dissident republican organisation the Real IRA liable for the bomb. He said it was clear that the bombers’ primary objective was to ensure that the bomb exploded without detection, and the safety of those members of the public in Omagh town centre was at best a secondary consideration. He said he was “satisfied that those involved in the planning, preparation, planting and detonation of the bomb recognised the likelihood of serious injury or death from its detonation but decided to take that risk”. McKevitt founded the Real IRA in November 1997 following a split within the Provisional IRA (PIRA) over the terms of Sinn Féin’s entry into party talks that led to the Good Friday agreement in 1998. He was at one time the PIRA’s quarter-master general – effectively the man in charge of their secret arsenal of weapons. McKevitt is also the brother-in-law of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. His wife, Bernadette, Sands’s sister, has denounced the Sinn Féin peace strategy and claimed it was a betrayal of what her brother died for in the Maze prison in 1981. Real IRA Omagh bombing Northern Ireland UK security and terrorism IRA Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
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Judges uphold ruling holding Michael McKevitt and fellow Real IRA member responsible for 1998 atrocity The Real IRA’s founder, Michael McKevitt, has lost his appeal against a historic civil case ruling that held him responsible for the Omagh bomb atrocity in 1998. The court of appeal in Northern Ireland upheld the 2009 ruling against McKevitt and fellow Real IRA figure Liam Campbell on Thursday. But in a mixed day for the Omagh victims’ families, the judge in the Belfast court directed a civil retrial of the claims against Colm Murphy, and Seamus Daly’s appeal has been allowed. The court will hear arguments for a retrial. In 2009, a judge found the men liable for the single biggest massacre of the Ulster Troubles, awarding £1.6m damages to some of the families’ victims. That decision opened the way for the victims of other terrorist atrocities in Ireland and overseas to consider taking civil legal action against armed groups responsible for their injuries or relatives’ deaths. Twenty-nine people and a pair of unborn twins were killed when the Real IRA car bomb exploded in the County Tyrone town in August 1998. Lawyers for the families had also appealed against the compensation awarded. They said it should have been more because of the scale of the outrage. The 12 relatives who took the 2009 case were told by the court that the £1.6m figure awarded to them would not be increased. No one has ever been convicted in a criminal court of causing the deaths of the Omagh victims. The only man to face criminal charges over the Omagh killings, Sean Hoey from Jonesborough in south Armagh, was acquitted in 2007. None of the men being sued has the capacity to make any kind of large-scale payment. From the start the families made clear the civil action was a vehicle for putting as much information as possible into the public domain about the bombing and the men they claim were involved. In his 2009 ruling, Mr Justice Morgan also found the dissident republican organisation the Real IRA liable for the bomb. He said it was clear that the bombers’ primary objective was to ensure that the bomb exploded without detection, and the safety of those members of the public in Omagh town centre was at best a secondary consideration. He said he was “satisfied that those involved in the planning, preparation, planting and detonation of the bomb recognised the likelihood of serious injury or death from its detonation but decided to take that risk”. McKevitt founded the Real IRA in November 1997 following a split within the Provisional IRA (PIRA) over the terms of Sinn Féin’s entry into party talks that led to the Good Friday agreement in 1998. He was at one time the PIRA’s quarter-master general – effectively the man in charge of their secret arsenal of weapons. McKevitt is also the brother-in-law of the IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands. His wife, Bernadette, Sands’s sister, has denounced the Sinn Féin peace strategy and claimed it was a betrayal of what her brother died for in the Maze prison in 1981. Real IRA Omagh bombing Northern Ireland UK security and terrorism IRA Henry McDonald guardian.co.uk
Continue reading …What happens when one of the world’s most popular couples meets one of the most celebrity-ravenous press crews on the globe? Trouble, probably. But determined to avoid a repeat of the Princess Diana paparazzi tragedy, Los Angeles police are already cracking down to protect visiting Prince William and his Kate…
Continue reading …The families of British service members killed in Iraq and Afghanistan can likely be added to the ever-expanding list of people whose phones were hacked by the News of the World , according to the Telegraph . Personal details of the families of Britain’s war dead have been found in the files…
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Humberto Leal due to die despite protests from lawyers, Mexican ambassador and the White House The planned execution on Thursday of a Mexican national in Texas has prompted a flurry of appeals on his behalf, including a rare plea from the White House, because of what it could mean for other foreigners arrested in the US and Americans detained in other countries. Humberto Leal, 38, is awaiting a ruling by the US supreme court on whether to block his lethal injection in Huntsville. He was sentenced to die for the 1994 rape and murder of 16-year-old Adria Sauceda. Leal’s lawyers contend that Texas authorities did not tell him after his arrest that he could seek legal assistance from the Mexican government under an international treaty, and that such assistance would have aided his defence. Leal moved to the US as a toddler. Leal’s lawyers have support from the White House, the Mexican government and other diplomats who believe the execution should be delayed so his case can be thoroughly reviewed. “There can be little doubt that if the government of Mexico had been allowed access to Mr Leal in a timely manner, he would not now be facing execution for a capital murder he did not commit,” Leal’s lawyers told the Texas board of pardons and paroles in a clemency request that was rejected on Tuesday. “Unfortunately, Mexico’s assistance came too late to affect the result of Mr Leal’s capital murder prosecution.” Barack Obama’s administration took the unusual step of intervening in a state murder case when it asked the supreme court last week to delay Leal’s execution for up to six months. The US solicitor general told the court that Congress needed time to consider legislation that would allow federal courts to review cases of condemned foreign nationals. The legislation, backed by the US state department and the UN, would bring the US into compliance with provisions in the Vienna convention on consular relations regarding the arrest of foreign nationals. Lower courts have already rejected the pleas, agreeing with the Texas attorney general’s office that the legislation does not apply because it has not been signed into law. At least two similar measures have already failed in Congress. “Leal’s argument is nothing but a transparent attempt to evade his impending punishment,” Stephen Hoffman, an assistant attorney general for the state of Texas, told the supreme court. Arturo Sarukhan, Mexico’s ambassador to the US, has written to congressional members and Texas officials calling attention to the case and urged the governor of Texas, Rick Perry, to stop the execution. Perry had the authority to issue a 30-day reprieve but made no decision while the courts remained involved. Prosecutors said that on the night Sauceda was killed, she was drunk and high on cocaine at an outdoor party in San Antonio and was assaulted by several males. Leal said he knew her parents and would take her home. Witnesses said Leal drove off with Sauceda around 5 am. Her body was found later that morning. Her head had been battered with a chunk of asphalt and there was evidence that she had been bitten, strangled and raped. Leal, a mechanic, was identified as the last person seen with her. He was questioned and arrested. A witness testified that Leal’s brother appeared at the party, agitated that Leal had arrived home bloody and saying he had killed a girl. Leal admitted being intoxicated and doing wrong but said he was not responsible for what prosecutors alleged. The question of protection for foreign nationals under the international treaty is not new. President George W Bush in 2005 agreed with an international court of justice ruling that Leal and 50 other Mexican-born inmates nationwide should be entitled to new hearings in US courts to determine if their consular rights were violated at the time of their arrests. The supreme court later overruled Bush. In 2008, José Medellín, who had been sentenced to death for participating in the rape and murder of two Houston teenage girls, raised a Vienna convention claim similar to the one pending for Leal. It failed and he was executed. Capital punishment Texas United States Mexico guardian.co.uk
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