Future of control orders revealed

Armed police officer at Houses of ParliamentControl orders were introduced under the former Labour government in 2005
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The coalition is planning to replace control orders with a new package of restrictions to keep terror suspects under surveillance, the BBC’s James Landale and Laura Kuenssberg have learned.

One working title for the new curbs are “surveillance orders”.

They would restrict suspects’ movements but end overnight curfews.

The future of the controversial anti-terror measure has been a cause of tension between Tories and Lib Dems.

Introduced under the former Labour government in 2005, control orders allow ministers to place a terrorism suspect under close supervision that some say is similar to house arrest.

Opponents say this infringes civil liberties, but supporters argue it is necessary to protect the public. The Lib Dem manifesto pledged to get rid of the “house arrest” element.

Ministers have been locked in talks over what should replace control orders after Prime Minister David Cameron said they had not been a success.

The BBC understands the new orders would give the security services the power to:

Ban suspects from travelling to locations such as open parks and thick walled buildings where surveillance is hardAllow suspects to use mobile phones and the internet but only if the numbers and details are given to the security servicesBan suspects travelling abroadBan suspects meeting certain named individuals, but limited to people who are themselves under surveillance or suspected of involvement in terrorism

Under the planned new orders, the security services would lose the power to impose overnight curfews, force suspects to phone into a monitoring company every time they enter or leave their homes and lift the ban on them using mobile phones and the internet.

They would also lose the power to force suspects to live in a particular location, known as “relocation orders” or limit the visitors to their homes.

However, one detail that appears to remain unresolved is over the future of tagging.

This will no longer be used to enforce a curfew by informing the authorities whether or not a suspect is at their home.

But some in government are pushing for the security services still to have the power to tag suspects simply so they can keep tabs on them by knowing if they are no longer sleeping regularly at one particular address.

The BBC has also learned that the government is drawing up tough new anti-terror laws that could be rushed through Parliament after a major terrorist incident – in case the new surveillance orders proved inadequate in the face of increased threat levels.

Whitehall sources said the draft legislation would – if enacted – give the police and the security services effectively the same powers they have now under existing control orders.

The so-called Terrorism Prevention Orders would be put before Parliament if the heads of the three intelligence agencies and the home secretary agreed there was a national emergency.

Downing Street said the Cabinet gave its “broad agreement” to the changes that will be made to control orders during a meeting on Tuesday.

It follows weeks of heated negotiations between the coalition partners over the proposals.

Speaking earlier this month, David Cameron said control orders “haven’t been a success” but there needed to be a “proper replacement”.

The terrorism review has still to be examined by the independent reviewer, Lord Macdonald, and so it is unlikely to be published for a couple of weeks.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Clinton reacts to Arizona attack

Dr Michael Lemole, left and Dr Peter RheeDr Lemole, left, said Ms Giffords’s reactions showed “a purposeful level of consciousness”

The US congresswoman shot in a gun attack in Arizona is still in a critical condition in hospital but showing good signs, her doctor says.

Dr Michael Lemole said Gabrielle Giffords’s condition did not change overnight but that was “a good thing”.

A Mass for the six dead and Ms Giffords and more than a dozen others wounded in Saturday’s attack was planned for Tuesday in Tuscon, Arizona.

Jared Loughner, 22, is charged with the attack. He waived bail on Monday.

On Tuesday morning, Dr Lemole told NBC Ms Giffords’s brain was “working at a higher level” and she was responsive to commands.

Meanwhile, the White House has announced that President Barack Obama will attend memorial service on Wednesday evening at a basketball arena in Arizona.

He will address the crowd, and the service will include a Native American blessing, a moment of silence and a poetry reading.

And as the debate over personal security for US Congressmen – who typically have little or none – heated up in Washington DC, the US Senate sergeant-at-arms told US television he opposed lawmakers arming themselves against potential threats.

“I don’t think introducing more guns into the situation is going to be helpful,” Terrance Gainer said.

But he acknowledged that there had been 49 threats against US Senators over the past year, an increase on previous years.

The man suspected in Saturday’s attack, Mr Loughner, made his first court appearance on Monday in Phoenix.

He was charged with five federal crimes – the attempted assassination of a member of Congress, the first degree murder of two federal employees and the attempted murder of two federal employees – and may face additional state charges.

Mr Loughner walked into the courtroom in Phoenix, Arizona’s capital city, wearing handcuffs and in a prison uniform, with a cut on the right side of his head.

He was remanded to custody pending trial after US Magistrate Judge Lawrence Anderson ruled he was a danger.

Judge Anderson scheduled a preliminary court appearance for 24 January.

Mr Loughner is represented by Judy Clarke, a prominent defence attorney who represented an infamous parcel bomber and the man convicted of setting a bomb at the 1996 Olympic games in Atlanta. He did not contest the detention order.

The attack occurred on Saturday during an open-invitation meeting at a Safeway grocery store in Tucson, Arizona, which Ms Giffords had arranged for constituents.

Ms Giffords, 40, was shot from close range by the gunman, who then began shooting into the crowd. Among the dead were a nine-year-old girl and a federal judge.

It is unclear whether the US justice department will seek the death penalty against Mr Loughner, should he be convicted.

Ms Clarke is known as a staunch opponent of capital punishment who successfully evaded the death penalty for Ted Kaczynski, the so-called Unabomber parcel bomber, and Eric Robert Rudolph, a militant anti-abortion activist convicted in the Olympics bombing and bomb attacks on abortion clinics.

Photograph of Congresswoman Gabrielle Glifford

A total of 19 people were shot.

Flags across the US were flown at half mast on Monday, and Mr Obama said the nation was “grieving and shocked”.

Bill Badger

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Lawmakers paid tribute to Ms Giffords and other victims of the mass shooting on the steps of the Capitol building, and in Tucson, small groups gathered in public spaces, in offices and in shops and stopped in silence for a minute.

Meanwhile, Democratic Senator Frank Lautenberg, a gun control advocate from the state of New Jersey, announced plans on Monday to introduce legislation that would ban high-capacity ammunition clips, like the one used in Saturday’s attack.

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.

Body of soldier ‘brother’ returns

Private Joseva VatubuaPrivate Vatubua’s family attended a private service at RAF Lyneham

The body of the first member of the British armed forces to be killed in Afghanistan in 2011 has been repatriated to the UK.

Private Joseva Saqanagonedau Vatubua, 24, died on 1 January in an explosion in Helmand’s Nahr-e Saraj district.

His friends said it was like “losing a brother” as they joined his family in Wootton Bassett, Wiltshire.

Pte Vatubua was serving with the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders 5th Battalion, based in Canterbury, Kent.

The body of Pte Vatubua, who was originally from Fiji, was flown to RAF Lyneham in Wiltshire where a private service was held for his family.

As the cortege passed through nearby Wootton Bassett a bell tolled as his widow, Claudette, placed a single rose on top of the hearse.

Local people and members of the Royal British Legion also paid their respects.

Lance Corporal Niko Bolatagane, of The 3rd Battalion The Yorkshire Regiment, said: “He was a very good soldier, very good at his job.

“Everyone felt it [when he died], everyone knows each other, it’s like a brother, it’s like losing a brother.

“This was the first death this year, it’s so sad.”

Pte Vatubua's coffinFriends and family of watch as Pte Vatubua’s coffin is driven through Wootton Bassett

Pte Vatubua had intended to renew his marriage vows and his widow wept silently as she watched the hearse pull away.

In a statement released after his death, Pte Vatubua’s family said: “We can’t put into words how proud we are of Joseva.

“He loved his job and he loved being in the family of The Royal Regiment of Scotland.”

Pte Vatubua was deployed to Afghanistan in October last year and was part of an operation targeting known enemy firing positions north of the village of Saidabad Kalayk when he was killed.

Pte Vatubua, who attended Laucala Bay Secondary School in Fiji, joined the British Army in 2007 and was deployed to Afghanistan in October last year.

He was a member of the Battalion’s Fijian Choir and sang in Canterbury Cathedral, where a memorial service will be held later this week.

He was also a keen rugby player and belonged to Canterbury Rugby Club.

Soldiers bearing a coffin

Pte Joseva Vatubua’s colleagues described him as fearless in battle, loyal and much-loved

This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.