The Russian government has not commented officially
Russia has expelled the Israeli military attache to Moscow after accusing him of espionage, the Israeli military has confirmed.
Col Vadim Leiderman was questioned 10 days ago, given 48 hours to leave and is back in Israel after claiming diplomatic immunity.
The Russian government has not commented officially.
However, the Israeli army said it had investigated the claims and believed them unfounded.
Israeli media said Col Leiderman was taken from a cafe or restaurant and accused by Russian intelligence of passing sensitive information to Israel.
A joint statement by Israel’s defence ministry and the military spokesman’s office said: “The [Israel Defence Forces] military attache and ministry of defence representative in Russia, an IDF colonel, was detained for investigation last week by Russian authorities, on suspicion of spying.
“Security authorities in Israel completed a thorough investigation and concluded that these claims were unfounded.”
Israel’s Haaretz daily said there had been a gagging order on reporting the matter until Wednesday evening.
Israel has expressed concern recently at Russia’s nuclear co-operation with Iran and arms sales to Syria, Agence France-Presse news agency reports.
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Leicester centre Manu Tuilagi will miss the Premiership final against Saracens after receiving a five-week ban for punching Northampton winger Chris Ashton.
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An Austrian resident has chosen to have his dysfunctional hand cut off so that it can be replaced with a bionic limb.
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Despite lower UK unemployment figures, there is still a big divide between the prospects of people from differing backgrounds.
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Manu Brabo (L) and Clare Morgana Gillis speak with Moussa Ibrahim (R) in Tripoli
The Libyan government says it has freed four foreign journalists detained for illegally entering the country.
Two American reporters and a Spanish photographer have been freed. There was some confusion about the identity of the fourth journalist and the fate of a South African photographer is unclear.
Government spokesman Moussa Ibrahim said those freed could stay and report in the country, Reuters said.
The Libyan government has been fighting an uprising since February.
The Americans freed are James Foley of GlobalPost and freelancer Clare Morgana Gillis. The Spaniard is Manu Brabo.
All three were detained on 4 April.
The fourth person released was named by news agencies as Briton Nigel Chandler. No-one of that name has been reported missing, although a British journalist called Nigel Taylor was reported missing in March.
Ms Gillis, who writes for the Atlantic and USA Today, told the Associated Press news agency the four were at Tripoli’s Rixos Hotel and were fine.
She said a judge had given them a suspended one-year sentence.
Mr Ibrahim said the four were welcome to stay but would be escorted to the Tunisian border if they wanted to leave.
The fate of South African photographer, Anton Hammerl, also held on 4 April, is still unclear.
Nato is currently carrying out air strikes across Libya under a UN mandate to protect civilians from the forces of Col Muammar Gaddafi, who is trying to crush the three-month-old uprising.
Nato attacks have recently concentrated on what the alliance says are military and logistics hubs in Tripoli.
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John Cooper denies killing Peter and Gwenda Dixon [both left] and Richard and Helen Thomas in the 1980s
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The jury in the trial of a man accused of two double murders was told to use “common sense” when reaching a verdict.
Prosecuting barrister Gerard Elias QC told Swansea Crown Court that John Cooper “had told lies in his last trial…we say he’s lied to you”.
Mr Cooper, 66, is accused of shooting Richard and Helen Thomas in 1985, and Peter and Gwenda Dixon in 1989.
He denies four counts of murder and separate charges of rape, sexual assault and attempted robbery.
In his closing speech to the jury, Mr Elias appealed to the jury to “use their collective common sense.”
When considering arguments put forward by the defence, about possible contamination of forensic evidence, he asked the jury to consider “where the evidence was” in relation to this proposition.
“Why did he want to distance himself? Is it because he had something to hide?”
Gerard Elias QC Prosecuting barrister
Mr Elias told the jury that John Cooper had attempted to distance himself from Scoveston Park, Little Haven and the Mount Estate.
“Why did he want to distance himself?” asked Mr Elias.
“Is it because he had something to hide? Perhaps even for him, the horror of those places is very real.”
Mr Cooper, 66, denies killing Mr Thomas and his sister Helen and Peter and Gwenda Dixon in Pembrokeshire in the 1980s.
The Thomases were shot at their house at Scoveston Park near Milford Haven on 22 December 1985.
Mr Elias said that the jury had to assess whether or not the evidence against John Cooper was as a result of “astonishing coincidences.”
He referred to glove BB109, found in the field opposite the defendant’s house, and linked by fibre evidence to the Dixons murders.
“How does it get to the field so close to the defendant’s home? Coincidence?”
“Was it a sad fact that a balaclava the defendant says was stolen from him was used in the Sardis robbery? He didn’t remember that in 1998. He told the last jury it wasn’t his.”
Mr Cooper has previously told the court that the balaclava may have been stolen from his boat.
And defence barrister Mark Evans QC has argued that other evidence, such as that taken from the Dixons’ murder scene in 1989, could have contaminated the evidence taken from Mr Cooper’s home nine years later.
Mr Elias reminded the jury that the defendant was convicted of “a series of serious offences which began in April 1983 through until November 1996… they had a similar pattern…targeting isolated properties backing onto fields.”
Mr Elias will complete his closing speech tomorrow, and the defence will begin their closing submissions at 1100 BST. The case continues.
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Stephen Lawrence was killed while waiting for a bus in south-east London
Two men are to stand trial over the murder of Stephen Lawrence.
Gary Dobson, 35, and David Norris, 34, are accused of killing the black teenager at a bus stop in Eltham, south-east London, on 22 April, 1993.
Nobody has been convicted of the crime, but a small team of Scotland Yard detectives has continued to investigate the 18-year-old’s death.
Mr Dobson stood trial in 1996 over the murder – which he denied – and he was acquitted.
Mr Dobson and Mr Norris were arrested last September over the murder and are in custody. The allegations could not previously be reported for legal reasons.
Their trial is due to take place in November at the Old Bailey and their next court appearance is due for 1 July.
A statement from the Crown Prosecution Service said that both men had been charged with Mr Lawrence’s murder on 8 September 2010.
“The Metropolitan Police Service and the Crown Prosecution Service have worked tirelessly with forensic scientists to review the evidence in this case,” it said.
“A full forensic review was commenced in June 2006. New scientific evidence was found and on that basis the prosecution applied for a retrial.
“Our thoughts at this stage go to Stephen’s family, who have never given up their quest to see justice for Stephen.”
The BBC’s Daniel Boettcher, at the Court of Appeal, said that Mr Dobson’s trial could not have previously taken place under the double jeopardy rule, which prevented a suspect being tried a second time for a crime.
“Up to a new piece of legislation in 2003 it was not possible to face a fresh trial on the same allegations,” our correspondent said.
“That so-called double jeopardy rule was changed. The new law was actually introduced in 2005. But there is this level that has to be reached, that judges have to be convinced that there is new and compelling evidence to allow that fresh trial.”
Mr Boettcher added that the judges had issued a statement, which said: “After conducting a detailed examination of a large body of evidence, we’ve come to the conclusion there is sufficient, reliable and substantial evidence to justify the quashing of the acquittal and to order a new trial.
“This decision means, and we emphasise, that it means no more than that, the question whether Dobson had any criminal involvement in Stephen Lawrence’s death must be considered afresh by a new jury, which will examine the evidence and decide whether the allegation against him is proved. The presumption of innocence continues to apply.”
Mr Lawrence’s father, Neville, said he was “relieved and delighted at the court’s decision”.
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Mr Cameron and Mr Kenny met in Downing Street in April
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David Cameron will hold talks with Irish Prime Minister Enda Kenny later in Dublin.
After the meeting, the PM will attend a state dinner with the Queen and Duke of Edinburgh, who are in the Republic of Ireland for a four-day visit.
Mr Kenny has told the Irish parliament he will speak to Mr Cameron about the release of government files on the 1974 Dublin and Monaghan bombings.
Victims’ relatives believe there was British state collusion in the attacks.
Mr Cameron met the Taoiseach in Downing Street in April, but this will be the pair’s first meeting on Irish soil since Mr Kenny came to office in March.
In London, the pair discussed the recent upsurge in dissident republican violence, but the Irish PM insisted the possibility of amending the terms of the UK’s financial bail-out for his country did not come up.
Following talks on Wednesday afternoon, Mr Cameron and Mr Kenny will attend an evening banquet at Dublin Castle hosted by Irish President Mary McAleese.
Both Mrs McAleese and the Queen are expected to make speeches.
No group claimed responsibility for the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in which 33 people died, but loyalist paramilitaries were blamed.
However, the Justice for the Forgotten campaign, which represents survivors, believes secret British files could reveal evidence that actions by security forces and police amounted to collusion.
The group wrote an open letter to the Queen, coinciding with her visit, in which it appealed through her to Mr Cameron, asking him to commit to “a genuinely significant gesture of reconciliation” by opening them up.
“Without this move, deeply troublesome questions remain unanswered,” the letter said.
The Queen’s visit is the first by a monarch to the Republic of Ireland since the country gained independence.
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Japanese astronomers claim to have found free-floating planets orbiting no detectable star
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Japanese astronomers claim to have found free-floating “planets” which do not seem to orbit a star.
Writing in Nature, they say they have found 10 Jupiter-sized objects which they could not connect to any solar system. They also believe such objects could be as common as stars are throughout the Milky Way.
The objects revealed themselves by bending the light of more distant stars, an effect called “gravitational microlensing”.
Objects of large enough mass can bend light, as Albert Einstein predicted. If a large object passes in front of a more distant background star, it may act as a lens, bending and distorting the light of that star so that it may appear to brighten significantly.
The researchers examined data collected from microlensing surveys of what is called the Galactic Bulge, the central area of our own Milky Way.
They detected evidence of 10 Jupiter-sized objects with no parent star found within 10 Astronomical Units (AU). One AU is equivalent to the distance between our Earth and Sun. Further analysis led them to the conclusion that most of these objects did not have parent stars.
Based on the number of such bodies in the area surveyed, the astronomers then extrapolated that such objects could be extremely common.
They calculated that they could be almost twice as common as “main-sequence stars” – such as our own Sun – which are still burning through their hydrogen fuel stock.
Co-author Takahiro Sumi, an associate professor at Osaka University in Japan, said these free-floating planets were “very common, as common as a regular star”.
The “rogue” planets act as lenses, bending the light from distant stars
“The existence of free-floating planets like this is expected from planetary formation theory. What is surprising is how common they seem to be.”
According to astronomical convention, planets orbit a star or stellar remnant, so if these objects do not have a host star, then they are not technically planets, even if they may have formed in the same way as what we call planets.
Indeed, the researchers hypothesise these objects were formed in a planetary disc, like the planets in our own Solar System, before gravitational forces ejected them from these systems.
Professor Joachim Wambsganss of the University of Heidelberg in Germany, who reviewed the study for Nature, said this was the “most plausible theory”. However, he added there was a minority view that planets could form the same way that stars do, but fail to reach the critical point of thermonuclear ignition.
He too agreed the most “shocking” element of the data was the projected frequency of such objects.
Dr Martin Dominik of the University of St Andrews in Scotland agreed, and said he would be “a bit cautious” about the results.
“There is this theory that planets formed around a star and due to the gravitational effects between planets, one of them gets ejected from the system, so people have predicted that there are planets out there that are no longer bound to stars,” he said.
“But they don’t predict this number of them.”
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How Justice Secretary’ day unfolded after rape remarks
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The curfew had been imposed amid increased unrest since President Ben Ali was ousted in January
Authorities in Tunisia have lifted an overnight curfew imposed on the capital, Tunis, 10 days ago.
Tunisia’s interior ministry said the curfew had been lifted following an improvement in the security situation.
The curfew was introduced after four days of protests calling for the resignation of the government.
Meanwhile, three people, including a military officer, were killed in clashes west of the capital, reports say.
Tunisian TV cited an interior ministry report as saying that special army and police units had engaged three “armed terrorists” in a gun battle in Rouhia, some 200km (125 miles) west of Tunis.
Two of the gunmen were killed while the third managed to escape, the statement said. As well as the fatally wounded officer, two soldiers “survived with bullet wounds”, it added.
Correspondents say Tunis’s curfew – which had run every evening until 0500 (0600 GMT) – had hit businesses in the capital.
The interior ministry said it was no longer necessary as stability had improved thanks to 10 days of arrests and overnight raids.
Some 1,400 people have been detained and 300 charged with dangerous crimes since 7 May, Reuters news agency reported.
The Tunisian police used tear gas and batons to disperse hundreds of anti-government demonstrators in Tunis earlier this month.
The authorities said allies of ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali were fomenting unrest.
Some of the recent protests were organised by supporters of former Interior Minister Farhat Rajhi, who has become a vocal figure in the pro-democracy movement.
The movement is angered by the slowness of democratic reform, and continued poor working conditions, in a country where the unemployment level stands at around 14%.
Mr Ben Ali stepped down amid January protests against his authoritarian rule and the country’s poor living standards.
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Police in eastern China have pulled over a dilapidated bus due to safety concerns.
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The Queen had a brief walkabout at Trinity College on her first day
The Queen is to visit sports stadium Croke Park in Dublin, where 14 spectators were killed by British forces more than 90 years ago.
On her second day in the Republic of Ireland, she will also attend a service honouring Ireland’s war dead.
Later at a banquet at Dublin Castle, she will make her only public speech.
She is likely to acknowledge past difficulties, but is unlikely to apologise for past behaviour, BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt said.
Wednesday will start with a trip to tourist attraction the Guinness Storehouse, but later the Queen will move on to Croke Park in inner city north Dublin, the home of gaelic sports.
The spectators were killed by British forces during the War of Independence in November 1920.
BBC royal correspondent Peter Hunt described it as “the once unimaginable becoming the norm” when the Queen will walk on hallowed nationalist turf at Croke Park.
An aspect of history which has been troubling for the Queen’s hosts will be touched on when she attends a ceremony to honour the nearly 50,000 Irish soldiers who died in World War I.
For decades, when the focus of admiration was on the rebels who fought and died in the 1916 Easter Rising, the soldiers’ contribution went unrecognised.
In the evening at Dublin Castle, which used to be the seat of British rule, the monarch will deliver a speech in the same room where Queen Victoria once dined.
Her first day went smoothly, although there were some protests.
A wreath was laid at the Republic of Ireland’s Garden of Remembrance with President Mary McAleese beside her.
The garden, in Dublin, is dedicated to people who fought for Irish independence from Britain.
The visit is one of the country’s biggest security operations, with much of the centre of Dublin cordoned off on Tuesday, leaving many streets empty.
Early in the day it emerged that a pipe bomb found on a bus bound for Dublin on Monday had been made safe by the Irish army.
As the Queen laid the wreath, riot police officers jostled with demonstrators at two separate protests on streets several hundred yards from the garden.
The sounds of protesters could be heard during the laying of the wreath and black balloons were released by some demonstrators.
Up to 200 supporters of the Eirigi socialist republican party later retreated to stage a rally nearby.
The Queen’s itinerary
Tuesday 17 May: Visit to the official residence of the Irish president, Mary McAleese and tree planting ceremony. Wreath laying ceremony at the Garden of Remembrance and visit to Trinity College to view the Book of Kells.
Wednesday 18 May: Tour of the Guinness Storehouse; visit the Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, at Government Buildings, wreath laying ceremony at the Irish War Memorial Garden; Croke Park stadium to meet Gaelic Athletic Association; state dinner at Dublin Castle.
Thursday 19 May: Visit to National Stud at Kildare.
Friday 20 May: Tour of St. Patrick’s Rock, Cashel and the English Market and Tyndall Institute, Cork.
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