Author: xaurav

7/7 inquests to probe MI5’s role

Aftermath of 7 July bomb attacks

Families of victims of the 7/7 suicide bomb attacks in London will learn later whether M15 officers will be called to give inquest evidence.

Lady Justice Hallett, who is acting as coroner, will announce the scope of the inquests, due to start in October.

Relatives want the inquests to examine whether the attacks in July 2005 could have been prevented.

The inquests have been delayed by court cases linked to the attacks in which 52 innocent people were killed.

Surveillance operation

With the fifth anniversary of the 7/7 bombings approaching, the bereaved have had a prolonged wait for the inquests.

Friends of the bombers were tried and acquitted of any involvement in the blasts.

Two of the bombers had cropped up in a surveillance operation more than a year before the attacks.

BBC home affairs correspondent June Kelly says this is why the families want the role of the police and MI5 to be examined as part of the inquests.

The families want the inquests to ask why the security service did not investigate the bombers’ ringleader Mohammed Sidique Khan further.

MI5 has said this evidence would give al-Qaeda an "invaluable weapon" and should not be disclosed.

Survivors decision

Lady Justice Hallett will rule on this and a number of other issues in a hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.

The judge has been asked to decide whether the deaths of the 52 innocent victims of the blasts should be considered at the same time as those of the four suicide bombers.

Relatives of those who were killed are opposed to this, saying it would cause too much distress.

And she will rule on whether 7/7 survivors should be designated as interested persons, therefore having a voice at the hearings.

The suicide bombings took place in central London on Tube trains at Aldgate, Edgware Road and between King’s Cross and Russell Square, and on a bus at Tavistock Square.

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

Woman gives birth to sextuplets

A baby

A woman has given birth to sextuplets at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford.

The four girls and two boys, ranging in weight from 1lb 5oz (0.6kg) to 1lb 15oz (0.9kg), were born 14 weeks early to Vicky and Andy Lamb, both aged 31.

Mrs Lamb, of Oxford, who had fertility treatment, is said to be recovering well following the birth on 14 May. The babies are in intensive care.

Doctors said the next few days would be "critical" for the sextuplets.

Publicist Max Clifford, who is representing the family, said Mrs Lamb became pregnant after taking the same fertility drug she used before the birth of her first child, Gracie, now aged five.

"They are just incredibly grateful for the John Radcliffe Hospital, the doctors and the nurses," he said.

Talking about when the couple might be able to take their babies home, Mr Clifford said: "It is a long way off.

"They are fighting for their lives, they are still critical."

The hospital said sextuplets were born once in every 4.5 million pregnancies.

Last year a woman gave birth to six babies at the Royal Jubilee Maternity Hospital in Belfast.

Staff ‘privileged’

Before that the last surviving sextuplets in the UK were born in 1993, according to the Multiple Births Foundation charity.

The John Radcliffe Hospital said: "Staff… feel privileged to play their part in such an unusual birth.

"A large team of doctors and nurses were present at the delivery or involved with the immediate management of the babies.

"There were several weeks of planning the delivery prior to the birth."

Consultant neonatologist Dr Kenny McCormick said: "Babies that are born this early need a lot of specialist care.

"They are receiving round-the-clock intensive care and specialist nursing at the moment and their condition is constantly monitored."

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

UK family shot dead in Pakistan

Map of Pakistan

Three Britons – all members of the same family – have been shot dead in Pakistan, according to local police.

The father, mother and 22-year-old daughter were killed while visiting a cemetery in the east of the country.

It is thought the family are from Nelson in Lancashire. They were shot by four gunmen, all understood to be related to them.

The Foreign Office says the British High Commission in Islamabad is urgently looking into the reports.

BBC Islamabad correspondent Aleem Maqbool says two of the gunmen have been arrested, but the other two are still at large.

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

Child deaths mother due in court

Lianne Smith and her daughter Rebecca

The mother of two British children found dead in a hotel in north-east Spain is expected to appear in a Spanish court later.

Lianne Smith, 43, was arrested on suspicion of murdering daughter Rebecca, five, and son Daniel, 11 months, in Lloret de Mar, Costa Brava.

Post-mortem examinations established the children were asphyxiated.

Mrs Smith’s husband Martin, 45, has appeared in court in Cumbria charged with unrelated child sex offences.

Remember the children

Mrs Smith has been questioned by Spanish police in the nearby town of Blanes following the discovery of the children’s bodies.

Police have 72 hours from the time of arrest before they must present their case to a magistrate who will decide whether to bring any charges.

About 100 holidaymakers and locals gathered outside the resort’s town hall to remember the children on Thursday morning.

Map of Spain showing Lloret de Mar

Cumbria County Council confirmed Ms Smith had worked in its children’s department, responsible for out-of-school activities but not working with children.

Rebecca was referred by police to its social care team following inquiries into Mr Smith, 45, who was remanded at Carlisle Magistrates’ Court on Wednesday until 7 June.

Child protection procedures were put in place before the allegations were passed to social services in Staffordshire, where Mrs Smith and her daughter moved to in October 2007. They were reported missing two months later.

Cumbria Police has now voluntarily referred itself, and Staffordshire Police, to the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) about the family’s case.

The IPCC said it was assessing the details and would decide whether it needed to conduct an investigation.

Four-star hotel

Mr Smith, the father of both children, was extradited from Spain over 13 charges of sexual offences against a girl aged between seven and 18, and for failing to answer police bail.

He was told on Tuesday his children had been found dead at the Hotel Miramar in the resort. He had been arrested in Barcelona on 7 May.

He was charged with six counts of gross indecency with or towards a girl aged under 16 between 1995 and 2001, six counts of rape of a girl aged under 16 between 2001 and 2005, and one count of attempted rape of a girl under the age of 16 between 1997 and 2001.

Spanish police found the children’s bodies shortly before 1400 local time on Tuesday in a room at the four-star hotel.

The year the family went missing, Mr Smith had appeared on the television programme Most Haunted as a guest psychic investigating alleged paranormal occurrences at Brougham Hall near Penrith.

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