Caroline Davies | May 11

The Observer -
It tastes sweet, like a cross between lamb and duck. And it's selling as fast as butchers can get it

It's low in fat, low in food miles and completely free range. In fact, some claim that Sciurus carolinensis - the grey squirrel - is about as ethical a dish as it is possible to serve on a dinner plate.

The grey squirrel, the American cousin of Britain's endangered red variety, is flying off the shelves faster than hunters can shoot them, with game butchers struggling to keep up with demand. 'We put it on the shelf and it sells. It can be a dozen squirrels a day - and they all go,' said David Simpson, the director of Kingsley Village shopping centre in Fraddon, Cornwall, whose game counter began selling grey squirrel meat two months ago.

May 8

Independent - Home Secretary Jacqui Smith vowed today to "turn the tables" on troublemakers, urging police to crack down on individuals who ignore warnings over their anti-social behaviour.

Building on a scheme piloted in Essex, officers will be told to give those who persistently make their neighbours' lives hell "a taste of their own medicine" by subjecting them to repeated visits, checks and warnings.

And their details could be shared with other Government agencies, so they can be targeted for checks on whether they have paid their road tax, car insurance, TV licence and council tax.

Ms Smith also said that parents have a greater role to play in controlling young people.

She told GMTV today: "Parents have to take more responsibility. If we get to the stage where we have to give someone an ASBO, we should consider putting alongside that a parenting order so that the parents take responsibility for the young person's actions."

David Leigh & Rob Evans | May 7

The Guardian - · Claims 'cast doubt' over company, says report
· Lord Woolf sets out 'road map' to bolster standards

It was last updated at 00:09 on May 07 2008. BAE Systems, the arms giant accused of making corrupt payments worldwide to win lucrative contracts, has admitted it acted unethically in the past.

The admissions were made by BAE executives to Lord Woolf, the former lord chief justice, who was hired by the company to review its conduct. BAE promised to improve its behaviour when seeking to win future contracts.

Britain's biggest defence company had been forced to hire Woolf last summer after it suffered bad publicity over corruption allegations. There had been an outcry after Tony Blair's government halted a Serious Fraud Office investigation into allegations of huge bribes in a Saudi arms deal. That deal is being investigated by the US Department of Justice and is the subject of a House of Lords appeal.

BAE is also being investigated by the Serious Fraud Office over claims it paid bribes to secure contracts in a number of other countries, including Tanzania and the Czech Republic.

Owen Bowcott | May 6

The Guardian - Use of CCTV images for court evidence has so far been very poor, according to Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville, the officer in charge of the Metropolitan police unit.

Massive investment in CCTV cameras to prevent crime in the UK has failed to have a significant impact, despite billions of pounds spent on the new technology, a senior police officer piloting a new database has warned. Only 3% of street robberies in London were solved using CCTV images, despite the fact that Britain has more security cameras than any other country in Europe.

The warning comes from the head of the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office (Viido) at New Scotland Yard as the force launches a series of initiatives to try to boost conviction rates using CCTV evidence. ...

   Link to this audio - Owen Bowcott on why CCTV is catching few criminals

Deborah Summers, Patrick Wintour & Andrew Sparrow | London | May 2

The Guardian - Gordon Brown today acknowledged a "bad night" for Labour after the party's national share of the vote plummeted to 24% - its lowest level since the 1960s – in his first electoral test as prime minister.

With about two thirds of the results declared, the Conservatives had 44% of the national share of the vote – enough to give David Cameron a landslide majority if it were replicated in a general election.

Ian Cobain | Rawalpindi, Pakistan | April 29

The Guardian - British agents alleged to have questioned men at Pakistani interrogation centre after they had been brutally mistreated

Officers of the Security Service, MI5, are being accused of "outsourcing" the torture of British citizens to a notorious Pakistani intelligence agency in an attempt to obtain information about terrorist plots and to secure convictions against al-Qaida suspects.

A number of British terrorism suspects who have been arrested in Pakistan at the request of UK authorities say their interrogation by Security Service officers, shortly after brutal torture at the hands of agents of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence agency (ISI), has convinced them that MI5 colluded in the mistreatment.

Richard Osley & Brian Brady | UK | April 27

Independent - Britain's motorists faced rationing at petrol stations yesterday, as major suppliers tried to stop them hoarding fuel. Concern over supplies as the Grangemouth refinery in Scotland closed down led to fuel queues on forecourts across Scotland, the north of England and parts of Wales.

April 26

AFP - A North Sea pipeline which supplies around 40 percent of Britain's oil and gas as well as international markets will shut down within hours because of a strike, operator BP said Saturday.

The Forties pipeline in Grangemouth, west of Edinburgh, Scotland, is being closed as a knock-on effect of industrial action by 1,200 workers at a neighbouring oil refinery in a row over pensions.

The pipeline cannot function without electricity and steam generated by the refinery, which has already closed ahead of the strike Sunday and Monday.

BP executives are currently holding meetings to decide when the pipeline should be shut down.

Mark Townsend | April 20

The Observer - Customs probe reveals sanctions-busting sales of arms, missile technology and nuclear components

Investigators have identified a number of British arms dealers trading with Tehran, triggering alarm among government officials who fear Iran's nuclear programme may be receiving significant support from UK sources.

The probe by customs officers suggests that at least seven Britons have been defying sanctions by supplying the Iranian air force, its elite Revolutionary Guard Corps, and even the country's controversial nuclear ambitions.

Officials say they are perturbed by the number of British dealers who appear to be trading with Tehran, despite a third round of restrictions being recently imposed by the United Nations on exporting arms and components to Iran. However, investigators argue that it is the generous riches being offered by Iran, not any shared ideology, that is seducing the dealers.

Meg Carter | April 18

Independent -

It all started with a failed attempt to secure a plot on a local allotment. "After four years, I was still only 22nd on the waiting list," says Sebastian Mayfield, co-founder of Food Up Front. "So I began looking for an alternative closer to home. And then it dawned on me while lying in the bath one day, why don't we make better use of the space we already have?"

Mayfield's Eureka moment led him to petition a small group of locals living in the streets neighbouring his home in Balham, south London, to join him growing vegetables in front gardens or on their window sills, balconies and roofs. The idea was simple: by pooling resources and sharing expertise, participants could eat local by growing their own.

Twelve months on and Food Up Front is now signing up people for year two. It has a network of more than 30 street rep co-ordinators, and has attracted the interest of would-be urban farmers from neighbouring boroughs and beyond.

For a contribution of just £20 towards running costs, each will receive a starter pack including growing containers, locally-produced organic compost, a selection of seeds and a basic planting and harvesting guide.

Jerome Taylor | Britain | April 17

Independent - The price of farmland is rising at its fastest rate for more than 30 years as wealthy city dwellers and overseas buyers seek a slice of idyllic rural England and jittery investors rush to move their money out of stocks and shares because of the global credit crunch.

In contrast to falling residential and commercial property values, the average price of farmland rose by more than 10 per cent in the first quarter of 2008, according to a study of agricultural property sales which will be published this month. Arable land, in particular, has become so profitable that its average price has soared from £4,000 an acre in January last year to £5,500 an acre today.

Cahal Milmo | UK | April 15

IHT - From today, all petrol and diesel sold on forecourts must contain at least 2.5 per cent biofuel. The Government insists its flagship environmental policy will make Britain's 33 million vehicles greener. But a formidable coalition of campaigners is warning that, far from helping to reverse climate change, the UK's biofuel revolution will speed up global warming and the loss of vital habitat worldwide.

Amid growing evidence that massive investment in biofuels by developed countries is helping to cause a food crisis for the world's poor, the ecological cost of the push to produce billions of litres of petrol and diesel from plant sources will be highlighted today with protests across the country and growing political pressure to impose guarantees that the new technology reduces carbon emissions.

Graham Wynne, chief executive of the RSPB, said: "The volume of biofuel that can be genuinely described as sustainable is at present very small indeed and is nowhere near enough to warrant the 2.5 per cent obligation. The impacts of biofuel production on forests and wetlands are already being seen worldwide. It is a tragedy that customers' money is going to be spent on driving this destruction."

Geoffrey Lean | April 13

Independent - Documents that government fought for three years to keep secret reveal warnings of devastation to wildlife

Britain agreed to bankroll controversial drilling for oil and gas, despite a warning from its own officials of the "potentially devastating effects" on a critically endangered species of whale. The decision to flout their own experts' advice is revealed in deeply embarrassing documents the Government fought for three years to keep secret.

The documents – finally released last week under the Freedom of Information Act after a High Court ruling – warn that the drilling, off Sakhalin Island in the far east of Russia, could cause the extinction of one of the world's most vulnerable populations of the marine mammals.

Nevertheless, the Government's powerful export credits and guarantees department (ECGD), which provides support to the exports industry, agreed to help back the $20bn (£10bn) project by Sakhalin Energy Investment Company, in which Shell has a major share.

Protesters arrive by bus to join an anti-Scientology demonstration outside the Church of Scientology in London. Photograph: Luke MacGregor/Reuters

Observer - They came, they shouted, they handed out cake. And then they played Rick Astley's Eighties hit 'Never Gonna Give You Up'. More than 300 members of the secret internet-based organisation Anonymous, which campaigns against the Church of Scientology, protested outside the latter's headquarters in the City of London yesterday.

The maverick, at times surreal, protest saw the group's members, who wore masks like the one worn by the main character in the cult film V for Vendetta, hold up placards attacking the controversial sect, whose supporters include Tom Cruise and John Travolta.

Anonymous alleges the church is a profit-obsessed organisation that practises a policy of 'disconnection' by seeking to prevent its members from communicating with friends and family. The claims are denied.

Belfast/London | April 10

M&C - As politicians hailed the fruits of the Northern Ireland Peace Accord signed 10 years ago Thursday, builders in Belfast were busy adding another layer of brick and barbed wire to the many 'peace walls' that continue to divide Protestant and Catholic neighbourhoods in the city.

Statistics show that, 10 years on, two-thirds of Northern Ireland's 1.7 million people still live in areas defined by their religious allegiance, while separate bus stops remain in place to guarantee a trouble-free trip for children to their respective faith schools.

In Northern Ireland, two-thirds of young people say they have 'never had a meaningful conversation with the other side,' according to BBC research, as education remains strictly divided along faith lines.

Some observers believe that, while no-one wishes to see a return to violence in Northern Ireland, it could take only a 'tiny spark' to re-ignite hostilities.

'Somehow it doesn't feel like a place with a sense of shared destiny. Even 10 years on, you couldn't really call it peace. Truce might be a better word,' commentator Matthew Engel wrote in the Financial Times.

April 10

Independent - The Serious Fraud Office's decision to drop its investigation into alleged bribery and corruption involving arms deals between BAE Systems and Saudi Arabia was overturned by the High Court today.

The ruling was an extraordinary victory for anti-bribery pressure group Corner House Research and the Campaign Against Arms Trade (CAAT).

The Serious Fraud Office (SFO) investigation arose out of BAE's £43 billion Al-Yamamah arms deal with Saudi Arabia in 1985, which provided Tornado and Hawk jets plus other military equipment. background

London | April 9

AFP - Archaeologists conducting a major excavation at England's Stonehenge said they had made a key breakthrough that may help explain why the site was built, the BBC said Wednesday.

According to the broadcaster, which is funding the dig as part of a special programme to be broadcast in the autumn, the team of archaeologists has reached a series of sockets that once held bluestones, smaller stones, most of which are now missing, that made up Stonehenge's original structure.

The bluestones were transported from hills in Wales, some 250 kilometres (155 miles) away, and the researchers think they were brought to the iconic site on Salisbury Plain in Wiltshire, west England, because ancient people believed they had healing properties.

Michael McCarthy | April 7

Independent - Anti-submarine sonar may have killed a group of whales found dead in the Hebrides in one of Britain's most unusual strandings, scientists believe.

Five Cuvier's beaked whales, a species rarely seen in British waters, were discovered on beaches in the Western Isles on succeeding days in February. Another animal from a related species was discovered at the same time.

Experts consider such a multiple stranding to be highly abnormal. They calculate, from the state of the carcasses inspected that the whales died in the same incident out in the Atlantic to the south and west of Britain, and then drifted towards the Scottish coast over two or three weeks.

The main suspect in the case is sonar, as it is known that beaked whales are highly sensitive to the powerful sound waves used by all the world's navies to locate underwater objects such as submarines.

Groups of beaked whales have been killed, with sonar suspected as the direct cause, several times in recent years; well-documented incidents include anti-submarine exercises in Greece in 1996, the Bahamas in 2000 and the Canary Islands in 2002. In 2003, an American judge banned the US Navy from testing a new sonar after a court case brought by environmentalists to protect marine life.

BBC - Princess Diana was unlawfully killed due to the actions of driver Henri Paul and the paparazzi, an inquest jury has found.

The jury reached the same verdict for her companion Dodi Al Fayed.

The inquest investigating the 1997 Paris crash that killed her and Dodi lasted six months.

The jury had to decide if the deaths had been an accident, unlawful killing by negligence, or unexplained. They could not find they had been murdered.

Duncan Campbell | April 7

The Guardian - It is nearly 40 years since the Chagos islanders were evicted by the British government from their Indian Ocean home, but the legal battle aimed at giving them the right to return is still continuing.

This week, in the House of Lords, a resettlement plan for the islanders will be symbolically presented to the Chagossians' leader in exile in the hope of speeding a conclusion to the bitterly fought dispute.

The residents of the archipelago were removed in 1971 to make way for a military base in Diego Garcia. They were dispatched to Mauritius and the Seychelles, where many have since died in poverty. They received limited compensation in 1982 in return for signing away their rights to return and in 2002 they were granted British citizenship.

David Keys | April 1

Independent - It is half a century since the inside of the mysterious circle was last excavated. Now a fresh dig has begun, aimed at solving a mystery which continues to baffle archaeologists

The last time any excavation was allowed inside its ancient sarsen stone pillars was in 1964 but now the first archaeological excavations at Stonehenge in almost half a century are attempting to solve, once and for all, the mystery of how and why the stone circle was built.

The enigma of Stonehenge, famed for its orientation in relation to the rising and setting sun, has puzzled and divided experts for decades. Some say the ancient stones were built as a temple used to worship ancient earth deities. Others say it was a prehistoric astronomical observatory; others claim it was a sacred burial site for people of high birth. Arthurian legend even has it that the stones were put there by the magician Merlin.

The two-week project will try to establish the precise dating of the "Double Bluestone Circle", the first stone structure to have been erected at the site thousands of years ago. A research team will hand-dig a trench, eventually measuring 3.5m wide and 1.5m deep, in a previously excavated area on the south-eastern quadrant of the Double Bluestone Circle, with the hope of retrieving fragments of the original bluestone pillars to be carbon-dated.

Jeremy Laurance | March 26 | England | The Guardian

Is a bunch of cells just that: a bunch of cells, as scientists would have it, or is it, as the Catholic Church insists, a human being with a soul?

It is the dispute that lies at the heart of the controversy over the Embryo Bill and it is as fundamental a difference of opinion as it is possible to imagine.

Gordon Brown performed a political climbdown yesterday and promised Labour MPs a free vote on the most emotive measures in the Bill, in effect throwing open the debate to the entire country. It is a piece of legislation that challenges our deepest notion of what it is to be human and what it is right to sanction in the interests of scientific progress.

At its heart lie three issues on which Mr Brown has now granted MPs a free vote, although Labour MPs will be required to back the Bill as a whole when it is voted on in principle at the third and final reading.

The specific issues are: allowing research into possibilities such as making sperm from bone marrow that might mean women could become "fathers"; allowing the creation of "saviour siblings" (babies created with the correct tissue match to treat a sick brother or sister); and the creation of so-called hybrid animal/human embryos to aid stem cell research.

Jeremy Laurance | London | March 27

Independent - The doctor who triggered an international health scare over the safety of the measles, mumps and rubella (MMR) vaccine will take the stand at the General Medical Council today in an attempt to save his professional reputation.

Ten years after Andrew Wakefield's paper linking the MMR vaccine with bowel disease and autism appeared in The Lancet, he will defend the research, which is said to have done more damage than anything published in a scientific journal in living memory. Scores of parents who are convinced that the vaccine caused autism in their children will demonstrate in support of Dr Wakefield outside the GMC's headquarters in London, where the case is being heard, as they did when the hearing opened last July. They claim he is the victim of a witch-hunt by the Government and the pharmaceutical industry, who have conspired to cover up the harm the MMR jab has caused.

Week of March 23

Independent - "Problem anger" is ignored in the UK yet is endemic in society, according to a report published today.

Despite widespread concern about family breakdown and mental health problems, not enough is being done to intervene at an early stage, it said.

The study was produced by the Mental Health Foundation (MHF), which defines problem anger as that which is "held on" to for too long or which produces inappropriate aggression.

An accompanying survey of 1,974 people found 64 per cent believe people are getting angrier in general.

About a third (32 per cent) said they had a close friend or family member who has trouble controlling their anger while 28 per cent worried about how angry they sometimes felt.

The Boiling Point report said prolonged and intense anger is linked to illnesses like heart disease and cancer, and can cause depression, self-harm and substance misuse.

March 18

BBC -

Legendary British science fiction writer Sir Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka at the age of 90.

He came to fame when his story, 2001: A Space Odyssey, was made into a film by film director Stanley Kubrick in 1968.

Once called "the first dweller in the electronic cottage", his vision captured the popular imagination.

Sir Arthur, who was born in Minehead, Somerset, and was a radar specialist for the RAF in World War II, had his 90th birthday in December.