Militants have attacked a Pakistani air base in Karachi, the country’s largest city, police say.
Explosions and gunshots were heard as the attackers fought with troops at the Mehran naval aviation base. There are reports of casualties.
Eyewitnesses say black smoke is billowing from the base.
Militants in Pakistan have vowed to avenge the killing of Osama Bin Laden by US special forces on 2 May, and have carried out several attacks since then.
“It’s a terrorist attack. More than 10 terrorists are inside,” provincial home ministry official Sharfuddin Memon told AFP news agency.
“One of the four aircraft inside the premises has been damaged,” he added.
Send your pictures and videos to [email protected] or text them to 61124 (UK) or +44 7725 100 100 (International). If you have a large file you can upload here.
Read the terms and conditions
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The new committee will be made up of members of the Commons and the Lords
Related Stories
A joint committee of Parliament will be set up to consider whether there should be a change in the law relating to privacy injunctions.
Attorney General Dominic Grieve told the Commons the committee would report back in the autumn on how current arrangements can be improved.
He spoke after the High Court refused to lift a gagging order protecting the identity of a footballer.
David Cameron said earlier that the existing situation was “unsustainable”.
The prime minister said the law should be reviewed to “catch up with how people consume media today” and it was unfair that newspapers could not name individuals whose identity being widely circulated on the internet.
Mr Grieve was answering an urgent question from Conservative MP John Whittingdale on the issue of injunctions in the Commons.
Mr Whittingdale said the use of social media such as Twitter to breach injunctions was in danger of making “the law look an ass”.
He told Mr Grieve: “You would virtually have to be living in an igloo not to know the identity of at least one Premier League footballer who has obtained an injunction.”
The attorney general said the government took the need to balance privacy and freedom of expression very seriously.
“Today the prime minister is writing to my right honourable friend recommending that a joint committee be established to consider how current arrangements can be improved,” he said.
“If we believe in the rule of law it is our duty as parliamentarians to uphold those principles”
Dominic Grieve Attorney General
“Such a committee will be able to use representation of both Houses and the considerable expertise that select committees have to examine whether the current arrangements are working and to consider whether we might make any changes that would make things work better.”
During the debate that followed, John Hemming MP named the footballer at the centre of the High Court case as Ryan Giggs.
In recent weeks, several politicians have used Parliamentary privilege – which protects them from prosecution for anything they say in the Commons or Lords – to breach injunctions.
On Friday, the Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge appeared to criticise them when he asked whether it was “a good idea” for politicians to be “flouting a court order” just because they disagreed with it.
Several MPs also raised concerns about the use of privilege during Monday’s debate.
In reply, the attorney general said: “It’s right to emphasise that just as any change in the law is for Parliament, the interpretation of the law is the responsibility placed on the judiciary.
“Legal mechanisms exist to remedy individual decision which may be mistake, but if we believe in the rule of law it is our duty as parliamentarians to uphold those principles.”
Mr Grieve said the protection granted by Parliamentary privilege was “a privilege that must not be abused” and it would be “improper” for parliamentarians to use it to deliberately flout the law.
On Sunday it was reported that the attorney general was being asked to consider prosecuting a journalist who allegedly broke a privacy order on Twitter relating to another footballer.
Asked about this, Mr Grieve said he had “received no referral whatsoever in relation to an civil contempt of court”.
Mr Hemming also named the journalist in question in the Commons.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Jack Wilshere and Andy Carroll are left out of England’s Under-21 squad for the European Championship finals in Denmark this summer.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Rachel Harvey
Some prisoners have been freed but rights groups say sentence reductions are ‘a sick joke’
A UN envoy has said the treatment of ethnic minorities and political prisoners is undermining Burma’s stated intention to become more democratic.
The United Nations Special Rapporteur on Human Rights in Burma, Tomas Ojea Quintana, said abuses were widespread and continuing in border areas.
However, he also said there were some positive signs emerging from the new government and parliament in Burma.
He was speaking in Thailand after being denied permission to visit Burma.
Mr Quintana outlined a familiar litany of abuses suffered by Burma’s ethnic minorities living in border areas.
Land confiscation, forced labour, extrajudicial killings and sexual violence were, he said widespread, continuing and essentially unaddressed by the authorities.
Systematic militarisation was a contributory factor.
Mr Quintana also referred to the recent early release of some prisoners in Burma. With so many political detainees still in jail, the move was, he said, insufficient.
“This decision of the government was also a disappointment because it did not provide the strong signal of commitment to national reconciliation,” Mr Quintana said.
Long-term political prisonersZargana, Burma’s most famous comedian, is serving a 35-year sentence for criticising the government’s slow response to Cyclone NargisU Gambira, a 30-year-old monk who helped lead the August-September 2007 protests, is serving a 63-year sentenceMin Ko Naing, a former student leader, is serving a 65-year sentenceNay Phone Latt, a 30-year-old blogger on the 2007 protests, was sentenced to 12 years in prisonSu Su Nway, a female labour rights activist, is serving an eight-and-a-half-year sentence after raising a banner criticising Burma’s government at the hotel of a visiting UN special envoy
“National reconciliation requires the full participation of all key stakeholders, including prisoners of conscience, some of whom are ethnic minority leaders.”
Mr Quintana is advocating a formal Commission of Inquiry as a possible way to bring about reconciliation.
Several Western governments have offered support for such an idea, though none has yet appeared willing to take the lead.
On a more positive note, Mr Quintana said representatives in the new Burmese parliament had been able to raise some human rights issues, and the new president had suggested some interesting ideas.
But, he said, we will have to watch closely to see how this is translated into action.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Rosemary Nelson had represented several high-profile clients from her office in Lurgan
A public inquiry has found that state agencies did not directly collude with loyalists who murdered Lurgan solicitor Rosemary Nelson in 1999.
Secretary of State Owen Paterson told the House of Commons that there were failings in the measures taken to protect the lawyer.
He said that the government was “profoundly sorry” for these failures.
Mrs Nelson’s family said the report showed that the response to threats to her was “inadequate and inefficient”.
‘Vindicated’
Her husband, Paul, said that the inquiry had vindicated his wife’s belief that elements of the Royal Ulster Constabulary were unable to identify her as a professional lawyer and distinguish her from the alleged crimes and causes of her clients.
Mrs Nelson represented several high profile clients including prominent republican Colin Duffy and the Garvaghy Road Residents Association.
Loyalist paramilitary group, the Red Hand Defenders, claimed responsibility for killing her in a booby-trap bomb attack near her home.
For several years after the attack, Mrs Nelson’s family campaigned for an inquiry, amid allegations that members of the security forces had threatened her prior to her death.
The inquiry report detailed how RUC members had “legitimised her (Mrs Nelson) as a target” by publicly abusing and assaulting her in Portadown two years before her death.
Analysis
The Secretary of State emphasised there was no finding of direct collusion by the Army, RUC or state forces that facilitated the death of Rosemary Nelson.
But in the report we also see lots of references about the fact that there was a corporate failure to take the threats against her seriously enough – essentially saying those threats were not properly investigated.
There are some very critical remarks about the police. For example, that CID officers harboured resentment against Mrs Nelson and were prepared to voice that in the most unacceptable way.
The government and police will be relieved at one level at the finding that there was no direct collusion.
However there are enough grounds for concern because the report points to a very negative view of Rosemary Nelson which it says may have contributed to making her a target in the eyes of loyalists.
It added that officers within Special Branch and at RUC headquarters regarded Mrs Nelson as an active supporter of the IRA.
‘Irritated’
It also said that “in assessing whether or not Rosemary Nelson’s life was at risk, RUC Special Branch failed to take into account all the intelligence and the open information available to them”.
The inquiry said that it could not rule out the possibility that rogue members of the security forces had been involved in the bomb attack.
On then RUC chief constable Ronnie Flanagan, who gave evidence to the inquiry, the report said that there was no evidence that he had expressed direct hostility towards Mrs Nelson.
It added that he “undoubtedly felt irritated” by the organisations campaigning on her behalf.
The inquiry has not made any recommendations despite having the power to do so.
Shadow Northern Ireland Secretary Shaun Woodward told the Commons that the report was “disturbing” and had raised serious issues about the police and Northern Ireland Office.
“This makes uncomfortable reading for both agencies,” Mr Woodward said.
“Her death was not inevitable, the reduction in risk to her was not reasonable and there were failings in efforts to reduce the threat.”
‘Inadequate and inefficient’
Mrs Nelson’s brother, Eunan Magee, told a press conference that Mr Paterson had “seen fit to gloss over” the findings and urged people to read the whole report.
Eunan Magee: ”The overriding emotion is one of great sadness that Rosemary is no longer with us”
“The inescapable fact is that Rosemary’s life was threatened and the response from the authorities was wholly inadequate and inefficient,” he added.
The inquiry was conducted by a panel of three: retired judge Sir Michael Morland, former chairman of the Board of Customs and Excise, Dame Valerie Strachan, and Sir Anthony Burden, former Chief Constable of South Wales police.
They were asked to determine “whether any wrongful act or omission by or within the Royal Ulster Constabulary, Northern Ireland Office or Army or any other state agency facilitated her death or obstructed the investigation of it”.
They were also asked to consider whether whether any such act or omission was intentional or negligent, whether the investigation was carried out with due diligence and to make recommendations.
In September 1998, six months before she was killed, Mrs Nelson travelled to Washington and outlined her concerns while giving evidence to a US government committee hearing on international human rights.
In her testimony, she said she had begun to experience difficulties with the RUC while representing “clients detained for politically motivated offences”.
Others also expressed concern, and called on the RUC and the government to take steps to protect her.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
.jpg)
