Category: news

A Ugandan woman who says she is a lesbian has been granted an injunction by a High Court judge temporarily preventing her deportation.

Brenda Namiggade says she fears for her life if she is returned to Uganda where gay sex is against the law.

The Home Office earlier said a court had ruled she was “not homosexual” and therefore did not have a genuine claim.

Prominent gay rights campaigner David Kato was beaten to death near the Ugandan capital Kampala on Wednesday.

Lawyers for Ms Namiggade lodged papers at the High Court asking a judge to grant an injunction against her deportation, which was due to take place on Friday evening.

When the BBC spoke to Ms Namiggade by phone on Friday afternoon she was already being escorted to Heathrow airport.

Her lawyer, Abdulrahman Jafar, said he would argue that Ms Namiggade should be allowed to remain in the UK regardless of her sexuality.

“The press coverage about her activities certainly expose her to a real risk if she is to be returned to Uganda,” he said.

The Home Office confirmed the granting of the injuction and said Ms Namigadde would not have to be deported on Friday night.

Ms Namigadde, who was held at a detention centre just outside London, has told the BBC’s Network Africa programme she was “shaking” with fear at the prospect of returning to Uganda.

She said she fled to the UK in 2002 after being beaten and victimised because of her sexuality.

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, Antonio Guterres, has said people facing persecution for their sexual orientation in Uganda should be given refugee status in other countries.

Human rights campaigner Peter Tatchell has urged Home Secretary Theresa May to halt the removal of Ms Namigadde and allow her to make a fresh asylum appeal.

A UK Border Agency Spokesman said: “Ms Namigadde’s case has been carefully considered by both the UK Border Agency and the courts on three separate occasions and she has been found not to have a right to remain here.

“An immigration judge found on the evidence before them that Ms Namigadde was not homosexual.”

The Government was committed to stopping the removal of asylum seekers who had left their countries because of their sexual orientation, the spokesman added.

“However, when someone is found not to have a genuine claim we expect them to leave voluntarily.”

Mr Kato had sued a local newspaper which outed him as homosexual.

Uganda’s Rolling Stone newspaper published the photographs of several people it said were gay, including Mr Kato, with the headline “Hang them”.

It is unclear whether the killing of Mr Kato was linked to his campaigns.

Homosexual acts are illegal in Uganda, with punishments of 14 years in prison. An MP recently tried to increase the penalties to include the death sentence in some cases.

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

Former South African President Nelson Mandela is recovering at home after spending two nights in hospital with a respiratory infection.

Doctors say he responded well to treatment and his condition is stable.

The 92-year-old is still being monitored by medical staff at his home in Johannesburg.

Mr Mandela was a political prisoner for 27 years but emerged to become the country’s first black president and lead a process of reconciliation.

He contracted tuberculosis in 1988 while in jail on Robben Island and also had a respiratory infection eight years ago.

Officials say despite Mr Mandela’s condition in hospital, he joked with staff and visitors.

“His amazing positive attitude allows him to cope with the difficulties of old age with the greatest of grace,” said Dr Vejaynand Ramlakan, who leads the team of military doctors assigned to care for him.

South Africa’s liberation hero flew from Cape Town to Johannesburg on Wednesday for a check-up.

But concerns mounted and media speculation grew as he remained in hospital, and was visited by a string of high-profile figures, while little information was made available.

South Africa’s Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe admitted that communications over the health of the man affectionately known by his clan name “Madiba” could have been better.

“Madiba has received similar checkups in the past and it’s never raised the same public panic it has now”, Mr Motlanthe said, explaining why officials had not been prepared for the level of interest.

The BBC’s Pumza Fihlani in Johannesburg says the news that Mr Mandela had been discharged came as a relief to many.

Lerato Ledwaba, a 20-year-old university student, told the BBC: “As a young person in South Africa, Madiba means the world to me – he is my inspiration to strive for a better life for myself.”

“He is old but we are not ready to lose him. I don’t know if we’ll ever have another leader like him,” said another Johannesburg resident Karen van Rensburg, 50.

Mr Mandela retired from public life in 2004 and has made very few public appearances in recent years.

On Friday only a brief view of his head covered by a surgical cap was visible as he was wheeled into an ambulance.

The former president is also a hugely iconic figure beyond South Africa and officials said that his office had received more than 10,000 messages of support, including from US President Barack Obama.

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

This weekend over half a million people in the UK will take part in the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds’ big garden birdwatch, the largest survey of its kind in the world. Among them are inmates at 61 of the nation’s prisons.

The high perimeter fences, stone walls and heavy iron gates of rurally located Kirklevington Grange prison in Cleveland could make you think this is an unlikely place for birdwatching.

As you enter, it has all the sights and sounds you would expect of a prison – gates clanging, the low hum of chatting prisoners, brightly lit corridors and the loud shouts for roll call in the distance.

Aside from the physical and logistical barriers that come with prison life, many of the inmates here are from inner-city areas where birdwatching is not the most common of pastime.

Now, however, the rural setting of Kirklevington and the woodland area surrounding the prison are providing inmates with an opportunity to explore nature, an opportunity which many of them have never had before.

Two inmates who have become budding bird watchers while at Kirklevington are Danny and Adrian.

“Being able to work with nature and watching birds is a form of escapism from the prison walls,” says Danny.

“It’s a way to appreciate a form of life that we’ve not had a chance to before or never took the opportunity to get involved with.”

With their birdwatching charts in hand, Danny and Adrian give me an impromptu tutorial on the birds that can be found in the surrounding area.

“We walk around the entire estate of the prison trying to identify these birds,” explains Danny. “The built-up area of woodland over there might be good for spotting wood pigeons and the odd blue tit.”

Adrian points across the prison’s tidy allotments towards the towering metal fence surrounding the gardens.

“You get a lot of the little birds that tend to nest in all the little hedgerows by the side of the prison,” he says.

Birdwatching is not confined to rural-based prisons, however. As Gemma Butlin of the RSPB notes: “There’s a whole range of prisons taking part, including those in urban areas.”

Given the inherent freedom of birds and the distinct lack of freedom that prisoners face, this may not seem a likely partnership.

But Adrian and Danny join a list of prisoners throughout history and popular culture that have developed an affinity with bird life.

The Birdman of Alcatraz, loosely based on the story of a real prisoner who adopted injured birds and kept them in his cell, is just one prison-based film in which birds are featured.

Another is the popular Shawshank Redemption, where the elderly inmate Brooks keeps a crow for a companion and the character Red uses the image of an uncaged bird to describe the innocent Andy Dufresne’s escape from prison.

And it is not just in Hollywood where this link has been made. References to the feathered creatures have also permeated into the language of everyday prison life – “jailbirds” used as a term for inmates and “doing bird” as slang for time spent inside.

Back in Kirklevington, Adrian recognises that there is a strong link between birds and prison.

“They show you that life goes on outside of prison,” he says. “And that you can escape from your thoughts on the inside.”

Danny agrees. “From the confines of your cell, the only wildlife you can really see are birds. It’s something that prisoners throughout history have taken an interest in.”

As well as birdwatching, Kirklevington also runs a number of conservation schemes such as beekeeping and tree planting.

Some members of the public might think that such programmes are privileges that prisoners shouldn’t enjoy.

“The main thing for us is that prison shouldn’t be a soft option,” argues Sheena Maberly, Head of Learning and Skills at Kirklevington Prison.

“What we are trying to do here is rehabilitate people and help people find a way that works for them. I think a setting like this does help with that, rather than hinder.”

Danny and Adrian are confident they have benefited from these schemes and that it will help them develop skills they can use when they eventually leave prison.

“It’s therapeutic for us,” says Danny. “It serves as an alternative to crime and that sort of lifestyle and gives us a new way of looking at life.”

Richard Bashford, project manager at the RSPB, also believes that activities such as birdwatching have a range of positive impacts.

“We want to help people connect with nature as there are clear benefits in terms of health and wellbeing,” he says. “From a prisoner’s point of view, any added stimulus that nature can provide is a good thing.”

According to Kevin Baker, deputy governor at Kirklevington, the returns from these programmes go beyond just the prisoners themselves.

“A lot of our prisoners have young families,” he says.

“There would be nothing nicer, on release, for them to be with the youngsters in the local park and to be able to answer the question, ‘Daddy, what type of bird is that?'”

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

Eight groups are now at the final stages of approval to open free schools in England.

Four of the proposed schools are due to open in London and the others are planned for Suffolk, West Sussex, Norwich and Leicester.

Education Secretary Michael Gove is to make the announcement at a free schools conference in London.

He wants all new schools to be free schools or academies – state-funded but outside local council control.

There have been 249 proposals put forward by groups keen to set up a free school.

Most of those are in the early stages of approval.

Thirty-five have been given at least initial approval and have been developing their full business case and plan.

Until now, only one school was known to have reached what the government calls the “pre-opening stage” – meaning their business case has been approved.

That was the Stour Valley Community School in Suffolk, which was approved earlier this month. It grew out of a campaign by parents to save a school and the scheme is now being led by community leaders.

Now seven more plans have been added to the list. Some of these schools will be faith-based; some are proposed by existing academy sponsors and one is teacher-led.

They are:

ARK Conway, Hammersmith and FulhamDiscovery New School, West SussexEtz Chaim, BarnetThe Free School, NorwichI-Foundation, Leicester CitySt Luke’s Church of England Primary School, CamdenWoodpecker Hall, Enfield.

Many groups wanting to set up schools will be at the conference in London, meeting ministers as well as education experts from the United States who have been involved in setting up charter schools – which are similar to the new free schools.

They will get advice and take part in workshops on how to go about getting their plans off the ground.

Mike Feinberg, a co-founder of a chain of charter schools in the USA called Knowledge is Power (KIPP), is among the speakers.

A teacher, he set up a school in Houston’s inner city.

“We wanted to give students in under-served communities an opportunity for success in life. There are now 99 schools across America, that give children from low-income families a better education, proving that demographics do not define destiny,” he said.

“I am excited that free schools will be opening up in England and offering the same possibilities.”

Penny Roberts is a former teacher and a parent who is one of those behind the plans for St. Luke’s Primary School in Camden, London. The plan is also backed by church authorities.

She said: “I’ve been through the process of applying for primary school places for my own children and I know the anguish that parents go through when there just are not enough primary school places, so for us it’s just a wonderful way to meet a community need”.

The government has not yet said how many free schools will open in the autumn, but some have begun their admissions processes.

Twenty-four schools were in the first group to gain initial approval from the government for their plans and it has been reported that about half of those might open in September.

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