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It has been a bad week for Colonel Gaddafi – with more Nato bombardments, rumours of defections, and a call from the International Criminal Court for his arrest.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Jean and Scott Adam were shot to death, along with two passengers Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay Three Somali men have pleaded guilty in US federal court to piracy charges for their role in a hijacking that ended in the deaths of four American sailors.
They face life sentences, but could receive lighter terms and eventually be deported to Somalia.
Two of them also pleaded guilty to hostage taking at the Virginia court.
The men are among 15 who have been charged for their roles in the February hijacking of the Quest. The yacht’s owners and two guests were shot dead.
The group of pirates were negotiating with the US military to release the Americans – Scott and Jean Adam, and Bob Riggle and Phyllis Macay – when a rocket-propelled grenade was fired from the yacht at the guided-missile destroyer USS Sterett.
Gunfire then broke out inside the yacht, and US special forces were sent to investigate. The pirates killed their hostages before the troops boarded, the US military said.
The troops shot dead two pirates as they boarded and another two were found dead when they arrived, it added.
At least three of the accused killed the hostages without provocation, prosecutors allege.
Mohamud Salad Ali, Mohamud Hirs Issa Ali and Ali Abdi Mohamed, who pleaded guilty on Friday, stated in their plea agreements that they played no direct role in the killings.
Several others charged in the case have plea hearings next week.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
By Robert Pigott
Individual church charities carry out work worth millions of dollars every year
Join Wilson Goode’s prison-mentoring scheme and you could make millions for the American government.
It costs $35,000 (£23,000) year to keep each prisoner behind bars in Philadelphia, where Dr Goode’s Amachi charity is based.
He is an ordained minister with over 50 years’ service at the First Baptist Church of Paschall in south-west Philadelphia.
The cycle of crime is so destructive that the city spends more on its prisons than it does on its schools.
But Dr Goode’s volunteers can make deep inroads into this ruinous cost – by mentoring the children of prisoners.
“I’m here on behalf of your children”, he tells inmates at a prison in north Philadelphia, “because if we do nothing, 70% of them will end up in jail themselves.”
It is not hard to see how every hour spent with a vulnerable child in Philadelphia translates into significant savings for the state.
But only now have social scientists examined the enormous potential of voluntary groups to contribute to providing services.
A study by the University of Pennsylvania, and an independent research group Partners for Sacred Places, has for the first time placed a cash value on Big Society activities.
Dr Goode tells the inmates he is there to prevent their children ending up in jail The report, published on Saturday, shows the amounts are enormous.
Researchers carried out a long and intensive investigation of the activities of 11 churches and a synagogue in Philadelphia, and calculated a total contribution to the local economy of £50m every year.
There are another 1,000 churches like them in Philadelphia alone, and 300,000 in urban areas across the country.
Marcus Teague’s family demonstrates the cost of doing too little.
He has 10 children of his own with five different women, and has been in and out of jail for the last two decades.
One of his sons followed him into crime and was shot dead last September. Now the youngest has been sent to jail, and Marcus Teague is keen for his grandchildren to be mentored.
“My son is starting at the same age as I did,” he says.
“And my son that was killed… he was following the blueprint that I gave. I don’t want his child to grow up the same way as my child did,” he adds.
At a high school in a hard-pressed neighbourhood of Philadelphia, mentors win the trust of vulnerable children over games of Scrabble.
One of them, Kezia Lawrence, seems old for her 11 years.
She says children have “a 50-50 chance” of surviving the dangers in their environment.
She lists them dispassionately: “Fighting, shooting, killing, drugs, stuff like that….and you know it’s really hard for people to go in the right direction when there are a whole lot of bad influences.”
The University of Pennsylvania study looks at what congregations do with unprecedented detail, carrying out exhaustive interviews with clergy and lay members, and inspecting financial records.
Philadelphia has been badly hit by recession, unemployment, crime and drug abuse The approach revealed social “goods” which are usually overlooked – such as preventing divorce or suicide, or turning a person back from addiction.
Mary Ellen and Michael Desmond are members of one of the churches in the study, St Luke’s Episcopal.
They say their marriage would not have survived were it not for the church, and believe that, once parted, they would have been a direct burden on the state.
“If we were to become separated into two households,” says Mary Ellen, “in that economic situation, we would have to seek out government help.”
Existing research has already put a figure on the economic value of a marriage saved – $18,000 (£12,000).
Averting a suicide is considered to be worth $19,600 (£13,000).
But the researchers have broken new ground by putting a figure on what seem to be even more intangible benefits of voluntary activity.
For example, they valued “teaching pro-social values” to a young child at $375 (£250).
Marcus Teague, a mentor, has been in and out of jail for the last two decades Congregations nurture small businesses, and run kindergartens, soup kitchens, sheltered accommodation and youth groups.
Tuomi Forrest, Vice President of Partners for Sacred Places, insists the research shows that in planning for urban renewal – or a Big Society – religious congregations are cannot be overlooked.
“Funding streams leave them out at the moment, but this study suggests a whole realignment in funding strategies”, he says.
“It showed us how little we knew about how congregations impact voluntary activities. Religious organisations need to be taken much more seriously as economic players.”
UK churches are also likely to play a critical role if services once the preserve of government are transferred to volunteers.
However, church leaders in Britain have expressed concern that a Big Society might lead to cuts in government spending that hurt the poorest most.
Ram Cnaan, a Professor of Social Policy at the University of Pennsylvania and co-author of the report, agrees that “this magnificent story is not a substitute for public resources”.
“In the US, whatever commitment we had to the poor, we have weakened it during the last twenty years”, he says. “The government caught up to the activities of congregations and said ‘ah-ha, we can let them do it and we can save our money’.”
“They said ‘here’s a willing partner, and one you can contract with and it will cost us less’. It’s admirable, but not desirable.”
St Luke’s Episcopal Church is cited as a good example in the report In the basement of St Mary’s Episcopal Church, Bike Works is teaching children who might otherwise be on the streets how to build and maintain bikes.
The group aims to broaden their horizons, teach them teamwork and raise their expectations.
So scarce have government services become that the organisation is often side-tracked into providing emergency care – such as finding children food, or somewhere to sleep.
“So many kids are falling through the gaps, and it’s the responsibility of society to help them”, insists Bike Works’ Director, Kitty Heite.
“We aren’t social services, and we could do so much more with Bike Works, with the fun thing, if we weren’t having to do that.
“Making the voluntary sector responsible for the glue in people’s lives is a little scary.”
For each of the 600 children who go out later that day to ride in Philadelphia’s Fairmont Park, hundreds more are not being reached.
Philadelphia’s volunteers question whether a bigger society can be built on smaller spending.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Landbanking victim William McNaught paid more than £100 000 for almost worthless strips of land. The strategies used by a landbanking brokerage to sell strips of land to unwary investors have been outlined to the BBC by a former employee.
The man worked for the Property Partnership, which sold virtually worthless plots across the UK.
Many were persuaded to pay tens of thousands of pounds for land that is unlikely ever to be built on.
The firm, believed to be ultimately controlled by Kent businessman Scott Assemakis, is now in liquidation.
Pressure selling
William McNaught, from Yorkshire, was contacted by the Property Partnership three years ago, and persuaded to pay £101,000 in order to buy eight strips of land in different locations around the UK.
He said he was taken in by the high returns that were promised.
“They were so convincing. The broker told me the investment would achieve a profit of 100-130% in a period of 12 to 18 months,” he said.
“The broker told me the investment would achieve a profit of 100-130%”
William McNaught, Land investor
Radio 4’s Money Box has investigated a strip of land Mr McNaught bought from the Property Partnership near Towcester in Northamptonshire for £10,000 in September 2009. A local estate agent now values the land at just £75.
Recruitment tactics
“Gareth”, whose name has been changed, worked for the firm for three months in 2007, after being recruited while he was working as a salesman in Spain. He told Money Box brokers were tempted with huge rewards.
“You are told that if you just stick with the company for 12 months they guarantee you will be a millionaire. It was very easy for me to go with them,” he said.
Gareth sold plots of land to eight clients, charging them £10,000 for each. He said the brokers were given scripts to persuade people to part with their cash.
“The scripts were pretty much 100% lies”
“Gareth” Landbanking broker
“We were told to lie. The scripts were pretty much 100% lies. The top brokers were given free will to go off the script and all manner of promises were made there,” he said.
“As long as that cheque came in, then the management were not bothered.”
Big returns
Gareth said they were told to offer the prospect of fantastic profits to their clients.
“We were saying that to make 100% on top of your investment should be the very least that we are looking at,” he said.
Gareth and other credible sources Money Box has spoken to say the Property Partnership was run by Scott Assemakis.
“It was well known, told from other managers, told from other brokers, it was just common knowledge,” said Gareth.
“Guilt was heavily upon my shoulders. I knew I had to get out”
“Gareth” Landbanking broker
After three months Gareth left the firm as he was unhappy about how the firm was treating its clients and warned the police about its activities.
“Guilt was heavily upon my shoulders. I knew I had to get out,” he said.
Shareholders in the Property Partnership have been keen to hide their identity. The shares for the parent company – known as Ultraclass – are held anonymously by a third party. Only a court order or demand from the police or the regulator can reveal who the real owner is.
Money Box investigated the Property Partnership in March. The firm was put into liquidation in April.
The documents held at Companies House concerning the liquidation confirm that Mr Assemakis had a major interest in the firm: they show him as the individual owed most money by the Property Partnership, over £53,000.
Similar operations
Money Box understands Mr Assemakis has also sold land through another company called Burnhill Land Investments Limited, and is involved with a third company which has just been launched to do the same thing, called Complete Building Systems Limited.
The similarities between the Complete Buildings Systems Limited website and the websites for the Property Partnership and Burnhill Land Investments Limited are striking.
Money Box invited Mr Assemakis to comment but he did not respond to the programme’s requests.
The Financial Services Authority (FSA) said it had closed down five land investment schemes in the past year, in which £42m had been invested. However it can only act if it is able to prove that a firm is effectively running a collective investment scheme in which it promises to liaise with potential developers on behalf of clients.
“We have got 20 firms under enquiry”
Jonathan Phelan Head of unauthorised business at the FSA
Jonathan Phelan, head of unauthorised business at the FSA, told Money Box in March that his organisation was doing its best to clamp down on the problem.
“Where you have a collective investment scheme, we can get involved. We would estimate it to be around a £200m problem. We have got 20 firms under inquiry,” he said.
He urged anyone who believed they had been a victim to come forward.
“Please, do come to us because there are a dozen, a hundred, a thousand people who are going to come after you and lose similar amounts of money. We really need you to tell us,” he said.
BBC Radio 4’s Money Box is broadcast on Saturdays at 1200 GMT, and repeated on Sundays at 2100 BST.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Northern Sudanese forces say 22 soldiers were injured in an ambush in Abyei by southern troops. A bridge linking Sudan’s disputed Abyei border region to the south of the country was nearly hit in an aerial bombardment, the UN has said.
It came as local officials reported hearing artillery fire north of the town of Abyei, and a day after a UN peacekeeping convoy came under attack.
The peacekeepers were escorting northern troops out of Abyei.
Observers warn the escalating situation in the oil-producing Abyei region risks igniting a new north-south civil war.
South Sudan is due to become independent in July, but disagreement remains over Abyei, which is claimed by both.
The BBC’s James Copnall in Khartoum says the precise details of Friday’s fighting are not yet clear.
The timing of these two days of trouble is curious. A deal had been signed to improve security, and the UN Security Council plans to visit on Monday.
There are several possible scenarios. The worst, but perhaps least likely, is that this is the start of a new north-south civil war. Another is that localised fighting will carve out a new reality on the ground in Abyei – but not drag in the north and the south.
It could also simply be another bit of macabre jostling for position, with the Security Council on its way and north-south talks continuing in Ethiopia.
But Thursday’s direct clash between northern and southern troops does push the region closer to its nightmare scenario. Abyei will be under intense scrutiny in the next few days.
Abyei’s chief administrator, Deng Arop Kuol, told the BBC that artillery fire and possible aerial bombardments could be heard north of the town of Abyei.
The UN said it was investigating the reports, also made by senior paramount chief of the Dinka Ngok, an indigenous southern ethnic group.
The UN confirmed that the bridge linking Abyei to the south had come under attack either from missiles or bombs launched from an aircraft, without giving further details.
The incidents indicate the situation in Abyei has degenerated seriously, our reporter says.
On Thursday, the northern army claimed it had lost 22 soldiers after an alleged ambush on the UN convoy by southern troops.
South Sudanese forces accept the clash occurred but said they had been returning northern fire.
The UN described the incident as “a criminal attack”.
UN officials were unable to confirm Thursday’s death toll or the identity of the attackers, but said the incident took place in an area under the control of southern police.
The violence comes ahead of a planned UN Security Council visit to the area on Monday. The timing of these two days of trouble is curious. A deal had been signed to improve security, and the UN Security Council plans to visit on Monday.
There are several possible scenarios. The worst, but perhaps least likely, is that this is the start of a new north-south civil war. Another is that localised fighting will carve out a new reality on the ground in Abyei – but not drag in the north and the south.
It could also simply be another bit of macabre jostling for position, with the Security Council on its way and north-south talks continuing in Ethiopia.
But Thursday’s direct clash between northern and southern troops does push the region closer to its nightmare scenario. Abyei will be under intense scrutiny in the next few days.
Our correspondent says that although there have been a series of battles around Abyei, direct clashes between northern and southern armed forces have been rare.
Most fighting in the area has been between the Dinka Ngok and the Misseriya, northern nomads who spend part of every year there seeking pastures for their cattle.
Both groups have accused the other side of receiving help from uniformed officials.
In January, the residents of South Sudan voted in a referendum to secede from the north.
A draft version of South Sudan’s interim constitution explicitly claims Abyei is in the south.
President Omar al-Bashir has threatened not to recognise the new state if it tries to claim Abyei.
The Abyei region was meant to have its own referendum on whether to join the north or the south in January, but agreement could not be reached on whether the Misseriya could vote.
The great divide across Sudan is visible even from space, as this Nasa satellite image shows. The northern states are a blanket of desert, broken only by the fertile Nile corridor. Southern Sudan is covered by green swathes of grassland, swamps and tropical forest.
Sudan’s arid northern regions are home mainly to Arabic-speaking Muslims. But in Southern Sudan there is no dominant culture. The Dinkas and the Nuers are the largest of more than 200 ethnic groups, each with its own traditional beliefs and languages.
The health inequalities in Sudan are illustrated by infant mortality rates. In Southern Sudan, one in 10 children die before their first birthday. Whereas in the more developed northern states, such as Gezira and White Nile, half of those children would be expected to survive.
The gulf in water resources between north and south is stark. In Khartoum, River Nile, and Gezira states, two-thirds of people have access to piped drinking water and pit latrines. In the south, boreholes and unprotected wells are the main drinking sources. More than 80% of southerners have no toilet facilities whatsoever.
Throughout Sudan, access to primary school education is strongly linked to household earnings. In the poorest parts of the south, less than 1% of children finish primary school. Whereas in the wealthier north, up to 50% of children complete primary level education.
Conflict and poverty are the main causes of food insecurity in Sudan. The residents of war-affected Darfur and Southern Sudan are still greatly dependent on food aid. Far more than in northern states, which tend to be wealthier, more urbanised and less reliant on agriculture.
Sudan exports billions of dollars of oil per year. Southern states produce more than 80% of it, but receive only 50% of the revenue, exacerbating tensions with the north. The oil-rich border region of Abyei is to hold a separate vote on whether to join the north or the south.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Israeli prime minister and the US president were at odds over the future of a Palestinian state.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Many hundreds of moon rocks were brought back from the Apollo missions An American woman is being questioned in California for allegedly trying to sell a moon rock for $1.7m (£1.05m).
The woman, whose identity has not been revealed, was held in a sting operation when she showed the rock to a Nasa investigator in Lake Elsinore.
Moon rocks are considered national treasure in the United States and their sale is illegal.
The rock was recovered but Nasa investigators have not yet determined whether it is genuine.
The sting operation had been planned for several months and took place at a restaurant.
Gail Robinson, Nasa’s deputy inspector general, told the Los Angeles Times: “It’s possible this is a moon rock, but it has to be tested first.”
It quoted Ms Robinson as saying the woman was in custody but had not been formally arrested.
Many hundreds of kilograms of rock were collected from Nasa missions to the Moon, mainly during the Apollo 15, 16 and 17 missions.
Hundreds were handed out as gifts to foreign nations and US states, and scores of those remain unaccounted for.
Two interns stole a small amount of moon rock from the Johnson Space Center in Houston, Texas, in 2002.
There have also been a number of cases of attempts to sell fake moon rocks.
And in 2009, a supposed moon rock from the first manned lunar landing, Apollo 11, given to the Dutch national museum in Amsterdam, proved to be nothing more than petrified wood.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb is believed to be behind a string of attacks and abductions Algeria is to host an international summit to discuss ways of tackling crime and Islamist militancy in the Sahara desert region.
The moves comes after ministers from Mali, Niger, Mauritania and Algeria met in the Malian capital Bamako.
Mali has called for up to 75,000 troops to be trained for a joint task force to fight al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb.
The al-Qaeda branch has been blamed for several high profile kidnappings and attacks in the region in recent years.
Al-Qaeda in the Islamist Maghreb is most active in Algeria, but loose border controls and disagreements between the countries mean it has spread right across the Sahara Desert to Mali and Niger.
The area is vast, sparsely populated and barely controlled by the region’s security forces.
The BBC’s Martin Vogel in Bamako said the Mali meeting was an attempt by the Sahara Sahel states to develop a unified approach to their shared problem of Islamist militancy and of drug smuggling.
They agreed to ask Algeria to invite Western nations, principally the US and EU states, to a conference to discuss the issues.
“The challenges we face requires more focused planning and effective co-ordination,” said Algeria’s delegate Abdel Kader Messahel.
“It falls on us to evaluate dangerous developments and the new dimensions the terrorist threat is taking.”
Mr Messahel told the BBC the talks would help the states reinforce their capacities, and share logistics and information.
“Everyone has their strategy – the EU has their strategy, their road map, the US has their road map and other partners have theirs,” he said.
“What’s important for this meeting, which will be held in Algiers, is that we all have the same agenda.”
But our correspondent says Mr Messahel was clearly not planning to invite Western nations to conduct their own military operations against Islamists in the region, something Algeria has long been opposed to.
It also remains to be seen how Western government will react to the proposals and whether they will attend the meeting, our correspondent adds.
Mali’s delegate, Foreign Minister Soumeylou Boubeye Maiga, said it was vital the four countries work together, the AFP news agency reports.
He called on them to train and mobilise between 25,000 and 75,000 troops “in the fight against terrorism and transnational crime”.
The United States has provided military training to Sahara states since 2002.
A spokesman for the State Department told the BBC it would continue to help fight trans-national crime, as well as al-Qaeda.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
The Queen is the first British monarch to visit the Republic of Ireland since its independence The Queen will travel to Tipperary and Cork, where she will visit a popular market, on the final day of her state visit to the Republic of Ireland.
The monarch will first visit buildings at Ireland’s most popular tourist site, the Rock of Cashel in Tipperary.
The Queen’s final destination will be the English Market in Cork.
During her visit, the Queen has touched on the “troubled past” between Britain and Ireland and given “sincere thoughts and deep sympathy” to the Irish people.
However, in the words of Irish agriculture minister Simon Coveney, the Queen’s trip has now entered a “more relaxing” phase.
On Thursday she was shown around the Irish National Stud horsebreeding centre in Kildare, west of Dublin, and later attended a show by fashion designers and Irish performers.
She will begin Friday as a tourist, albeit not an ordinary one as the security which has kept her at a distance travels with her from Dublin to County Tipperary.
There she will visit the medieval buildings at the Rock of Cashel.
According to legend, the rock was created when the devil spat out a piece of mountain he had bitten off during a battle with St Patrick.
“Bizarre convoy fact. Our coaches and outriders were followed by a small open truck with spare tyres on board”
Peter Hunt Royal correspondent, BBC NewsFollow Peter Hunt’s coverage of royal visit Ireland correspondent Mark Simpson on Twitter
The English Market was given its name in the 1840s by the Protestant upper classes who frequented it to distinguish from another market which was used more by the city’s Irish Catholic inhabitants.
BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt, who is following the Queen’s visit, says the monarch will then leave Ireland, “secure in the knowledge she has played a significant and striking role in the latest improvement to Anglo-Irish relations”.
At the Irish National Stud, the Queen unveiled a statue marking her visit, met jockeys and others involved in racing, and was shown stud horses.
She then went to a variety show at Dublin’s National Convention Centre, hosted by the British Embassy.
The Queen’s historic four-day visit is the first to the Republic of Ireland by a reigning British monarch.
The Queen and Prince Philip’s signatures on the visitors’ book at the official residence of the Irish president
Wreath-laying at the Garden of Remembrance, the Queen (left) with President Mary McAleese (right)
Trinity College 
The Queen inspects the Book of Kells at Trinity College
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The Queen signs the visitors’ book at Government Buildings, while meeting the Irish prime minister, on right
Irish veterans meet the Queen and the Irish president at the Irish War Memorial Gardens
The Queen is offered a pint at the Guinness Storehouse
The Queen and Prince Philip receive a hurley stick, at Croke Park stadium
The Queen wore a diamond harp brooch for her speech at Dublin Castle
The Queen views the stallions at the Irish National Stud
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Up to 100 whales are in the sea loch Marine animal experts are trying to prevent a mass stranding by up to 100 pilot whales in South Uist in the Western Isles.
The whales were spotted in Loch Carnan on Thursday afternoon and some were said to have had cuts to their heads.
It is thought the injuries may have been caused by attempts to strand themselves on the rocky foreshore of the sea loch.
Rescuers said inflatable pontoons for refloating whales were on the way.
Members of the British Divers Marine Life Rescue (BDMLR) fear the whales could die in a massive beaching – which could be Scotland’s largest stranding.
BDMLR Scottish organiser Alasdair Jack said: “Rather than try to stop them coming ashore, we would let them come ashore and then try to deal with situation when it arose.
“We have got several sets of pontoons with us, which is our whale refloatation equipment, and we have got more on the way.
“We have currently got 12 sets congregating on the Uists, which is basically every set in the UK.”
In October a pod of pilot whales were in danger in the same sea loch.
Days later 33 whales, thought to be the same group, were discovered dead on a beach in County Donegal.
Pilot whales can grow up to about 20ft (6.1m) and are among the most common marine mammals.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Jude Law’s civil action against the News of the World in January will be one of five test cases A senior News of the World (NoW) executive has been implicated in the phone hacking scandal, actor Jude Law’s barrister has told the High Court.
The star is taking civil action against the newspaper and Hugh Tomlinson QC said documents seen by the legal team disclosed the name.
BBC home affairs correspondent June Kelly said it was a “bombshell moment”.
Lawyers for the newspaper contested the claim, which came as Mr Justice Vos set details for five test cases in January.
It emerged Jude Law and Labour MP Chris Bryant will be among the five people used as test cases in civil action against the NoW.
The other three are interior designer Kelly Hoppen, who is actress Sienna Miller’s stepmother, football pundit Andy Gray, and sport agent Sky Andrew.
Mr Justice Vos said the cases would allow him to decide the damages that were properly payable, and resolve other cases without the need for further hearings.
Mr Tomlinson told the court the hacking of Jude Law’s phone was “tantamount to harassment”.
A week ago Ms Miller was set to accept £100,000 in damages from the NoW, after the paper admitted liability over hacking her phone.
It was due to make a full disclosure in private to her legal team to show the extent of all wrongdoing.
Lawyers for Ms Miller said there had been a full admission of liability and that she had been vindicated.
The News of the World said it was “pleased we have managed to bring this case to a satisfactory conclusion”.
Four alleged victims have already reached out-of-court settlements with the newspaper, including celebrity publicist Max Clifford, who received a reported £1m.
The scandal dates back to 2006, when the paper’s former royal editor Clive Goodman and private investigator Glenn Mulcaire were jailed for hacking into the mobile phone voicemails of royal aides.
Since then, a series of inquiries and legal cases have been exploring just how widespread the practice was, with implications for the police, celebrities and politicians.
More and more celebrities and public figures have alleged their phones have been hacked and some have launched legal actions against the paper or the police for allegedly failing to investigate.
The News of the World’s owner, News International, which is owned by Rupert Murdoch, has offered to co-operate fully with a Metropolitan Police inquiry.
The News of the World’s chief reporter Neville Thurlbeck, 50, and former news editor Ian Edmondson, 42, were arrested last month on suspicion of having unlawfully intercepted voicemail messages. They were released on bail until September.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Alexander Lebedev, the Russian banking tycoon with UK media interests, rallies to a coalition launched by Vladimir Putin.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Lee Anthony Bradley must serve a minimum of six years before he can be considered for parole A man who ploughed into a crowd of revellers outside a bar in Rochdale has been jailed indefinitely.
Lee Anthony Bradley, 26, drove along the pavement next to the Dali bar in a stolen Saab 93 in the early hours of 17 October, after being thrown out.
He knocked down bystanders “like skittles”, police have said. Fourteen people were taken to hospital.
Bradley, of no fixed abode, pleaded guilty to a string of offences at an earlier hearing at Bolton Crown Court.
He admitted attempting to cause grievous bodily harm with intent, two counts of section 20 assault, 10 other assaults, aggravated taking of a motor vehicle without consent and dangerous driving.
He also asked the judge to take into consideration eight other offences.
Bradley, who was convicted of manslaughter when he was 16, was told by Judge William Morris that he was danger to the public and must be jailed until it is safe to release him.
He was also banned from driving for life.
The court heard it was a “miracle” no-one was killed.
Bradley, who handed himself in to police on 2 November 2010, was given an indeterminate sentence and told that he must serve a minimum of six years before he can apply for parole.
Passing sentence, Judge Morris said: “You were deliberately using this motor vehicle as a weapon, a fearsome weapon.
“So many were injured by what you did, it is a truly exceptional feature of this case.
“As for their injuries, any one of them could have been so much worse, one or more of them could so easily have been killed.”
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Two Rwandan exiles in London were warned last week by UK police that they faced the threat of assassination by a Rwandan government hitman.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.
Premier League chief executive Richard Scudamore rejects claims that they would be happy to see Blackpool out of the competition.
This article is from the BBC News website. © British Broadcasting Corporation, The BBC is not responsible for the content of external internet sites.