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The US defence department says it is repositioning some of its forces around Libya as Western nations consider options for possible intervention against Muammar Gaddafi’s regime.
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Four suicide bombers killed 52 and injured more than 700 people on London’s public transport Ambulance controllers trying to respond to the 7/7 attacks worked in chaos amid a series of shortcomings, the inquests into the attacks have heard.
Only one woman logged all the emergency calls and vital information was written on scraps of paper, it was revealed.
Hugo Keith QC, counsel to the inquest, said the 7/7 London Ambulance Service logger said: “I am not a trained typist, I use two fingers and a thumb.”
Four suicide bombers killed 52 people on London’s transport network in 2005.
The bombers targeted Tube trains at Aldgate, Edgware Road and Russell Square, and a bus in Tavistock Square on 7 July.
A number of failings were referred to in the inquests at the Royal Courts of Justice in London.
The hearings were told that the employee in charge of updating the control room whiteboard could only reach halfway up it.
And Jason Killens, London Ambulance Service’s deputy director of operations, said two of the people designated “crucial roles” at the start of the incident were not trained in the procedures for the so-called Gold Command – in overall control of the emergency.
He said staff transferring from their normal control room positions to the Gold disaster control room caused a delay because they had not logged off properly.
That meant they were then unable to log on to the new system as calls from the four terror sites built up, causing a backlog.
The hearings were told of the confusion in the control room at Waterloo through a debriefing document that was read out.
Serious delays
The paper said: “At the beginning of the incident, it was organised chaos.
“There were communications issues throughout,” it said, adding that radio channels were blocked and no feedback was coming in from ambulance bosses on the ground.
The inquests heard that there was so much information coming in that control room staff were unable to prioritise it effectively.
Mr Killens said a group of employees were sent to Bow to set up a “fallback” control room, although it was not used.
He said managers had hugely improved their control room practices since the 7 July attacks: “It’s an entirely new system.”
Mismanagement, along with failed radio and mobile phone networks, also meant there were serious delays in dispatching paramedics to bomb sites.
There was a delay of almost one hour in getting ambulances to the site of the bus blast in Tavistock Square where 13 people were killed.
And there was a half hour delay in dispatching paramedics to Russell Square, where 26 people died.
Mr Keith QC said an emergency planning manager had warned LAS about the reliability of mobile phones in March 2005.
In his message he had said: “We have experienced unacceptable delays which could have compromised operations.”
He added: “It has been luck rather than judgement that we have got away with it – a situation neither of us will be happy with.”
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David Cameron: “Our message to Colonel Gaddafi is simple – go now”
Britain is working with its allies on a plan to establish a military no-fly zone over Libya, says David Cameron.
The prime minister said the threat of “further appalling steps” being taken by Col Muammar Gaddafi to oppress his own people was behind the talks.
He said he did not rule out “the use of military assets” in Libya and said the “murderous regime” must end.
Fewer than 150 British citizens are thought to remain in Libya and only a “very small proportion” want to leave.
The government would continue to do “all we can” to get them out, he said.
Libya has been embroiled in turmoil as protesters demand Colonel Gaddafi – the Middle East’s longest serving ruler – steps down.
The UN estimates that about 100,000 people have fled anti-government unrest over the past week and thousands may have been killed or injured in a violent crackdown by the regime.
In a statement to MPs after returning from a tour of the Middle East, Mr Cameron said the government was “taking every possible step to isolate the Gaddafi regime”.
The UK has frozen Col Gaddafi’s British-held assets and those of his family, and withdrawn their diplomatic immunity and an export ban has been imposed on Libyan banknotes, which are printed in Britain.
Mr Cameron said that Britain had secured a European Union agreement on freezing the assets of a “wider group of individuals” connected to Col Gaddafi and banning them from entering the EU. A wider arms embargo was also being imposed against Libya.
The PM told MPs there would be “further isolation of the regime by expelling it from international organisations” and further use of asset freezes and travel bans to encourage those “on the fringes of the regime, that now is the time to desert it”.
“ I do think it’s one thing we need to look at, look at it urgently and plan for, in case we find, as we may well do, that Col Gaddafi is taking further appalling steps to oppress his people”
David CameronUK rescue plane’s ‘narrow escape’
He added: “And we do not in any way rule out the use of military assets, we must not tolerate this regime using military force against its own people.
“In that context I have asked the Ministry of Defence and the Chief of the Defence Staff to work with our allies on plans for a military no-fly zone.”
The Labour MP Ann Clwyd told him that a no-fly zone could “save thousands of lives if he’s [Col Gaddafi] going to bomb his own people from the air”.
Mr Cameron said they would comply with international law but planning for a no-fly zone had to start now because no-one knew what Col Gaddafi would do to his own people and one might have to be put in place “very quickly”.
But he added that trying to secure a no-fly zone over a country as large as Libya was “not without its difficulties”: “We would be trying to cover a vast area, it would take a serious amount of military assets to achieve it.”
But he added: “I do think it’s one thing we need to look at, look at it urgently and plan for, in case we find, as we may well do, that Col Gaddafi is taking further appalling steps to oppress his people and that is why the conversations are taking place today.”
The Ministry of Defence said that the plans were still at an early stage and the initial focus would be on which countries would back it and what military assets they could then be deploy to enforce it.
The BBC’s Jonathan Beale said it was not yet clear what contribution Britain might make but one source had suggested RAF Typhoon fighter jets could be stationed at a UK base in Cyprus, although the source made clear no decisions had yet been taken.
Mr Cameron also said the UK was acting to prevent a “humanitarian crisis” and would be flying in tents and blankets on Tuesday, and had dispatched technical teams to help migrant workers get home.
But Labour leader Ed Miliband urged him to apologise for the government’s handling of the crisis last week – when a rescue effort for Britains in Libya was delayed – saying they had been let down by “chaos and incompetence”.
However, he welcomed the comments that Britain’s defence chiefs had been asked to work with Britain’s allies on plans for a military no-fly zone and he welcomed the increasing international isolation placed on the regime.
Meanwhile, Foreign Secretary William Hague has called for an immediate end to violence against anti-government demonstrators in Libya and warned Col Gaddafi’s supporters that there will be a “day of reckoning” for anyone involved in human rights abuses.
Addressing a meeting of the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva, he said: “This is a warning to anyone contemplating the abuse of human rights in Libya or any other country: Stay your hand. There will be a day of reckoning and the reach of international justice can be long.
“We must now maintain the momentum we have attained to ensure that there can be no impunity for crimes committed in Libya and to help bring about an immediate end to the violence.”
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Markets are beginning to fret that King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia may be the next to face protests Oil prices have risen 2% on fears unrest in the Middle East might spread, including to top producer Saudi Arabia.
Brent crude reached $114.50 in early trading, before receding, while US light, sweet crude hit $99.50.
Libyan oil output is down an estimated 75% due to the revolt, but Saudi Arabia has promised to meet the shortfall.
However, on Sunday, the Saudi stock market fell 5% after 119 academics, activists and businessmen wrote an open letter to the king demanding reform.
The Tadawul all-share index has fallen a cumulative 10% in the last two weeks to its lowest level in six months, prompting some Saudi investors to call on the government to intervene to steady the market, or even to close it.
The news comes as the Egyptian stock exchange is set to reopen on Tuesday after a month-long closure due to the popular uprising there, although protestors continued to gather outside the stock exchange building intent of forcing another delay.
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By 0830 GMT, Brent crude was up $1.42 at 113.56, while US light, sweet crude was $1.12 higher at $99.03.
The letter to the Saudi king complained about the prevalence of corruption and nepotism and a widening gap between state and society.
Meanwhile a Facebook site calling for a “day of rage” in Saudi Arabia on 11 March has seen its number of subscribers increase from 400 to 12,000 in recent days.
Analysts fear the kingdom may face the same volatile generational schism that has affected Egypt and elsewhere.
Two-thirds of the Saudi population is aged under 30.
Youth unemployment is about three times the national average and there is an 18-year waiting list for government-provided housing.
The threat of protests has already wrung concessions from the 87-year-old King Abdullah, who only recently returned from three months of medical treatment in the US.
He has offered permanent work contracts to an estimated 50,000 state workers, and spent $36bn (£22.3bn; 26.1bn euros) of the country’s $440bn in currency reserves on social initiatives, including a 15% pay rise for public sector employees.
Saudi Arabia plays a critical role in global oil supplies.
Not only is it the world’s biggest producer, with the world’s largest reserves by far, but the country is also a key “swing producer” within the Organisation of Petroleum Exporting Countries (Opec), retaining most of the world’s spare production capacity.
The kingdom accounts for the bulk of Opec’s additional 4.7 million barrels-per-day available, compared with Libya’s exports estimated at 1.5 million.
Meanwhile violence flared on Sunday for the first time in non-Opec Oman – which produces about 865,000 barrels-per-day – as police cracked down on pro-democracy demonstrations there.
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Karim was arrested in Newcastle in February 2010 A British Airways computer expert has been found guilty of terror charges.
Rajib Karim, 31, from Newcastle, used his job to access information for radical cleric Anwar al-Awlaki, Woolwich Crown Court heard.
Karim had denied four charges, including plotting to blow up a plane and sharing information of use to hate groups.
But after four days of deliberations, the jury found him guilty of all four charges.
Karim was committed to an “extreme jihadist cause” and determined to become a martyr, jurors were told.
The Bangladeshi national, who moved with his wife and son to Newcastle in 2006, had already admitted being involved in the production of a terrorist group’s video.
Karim, a privately-educated IT expert from Dhaka, became a supporter of the extremist organisation Jammat-ul Mujahideen Bangladesh (JMB) after being influenced by his younger brother, Tehzeeb, the court heard.
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Police said there had been a disturbance before the fire at the Pilton flat A man has been arrested in connection with the suspicious death of a 45-year-old man found in a fire in Edinburgh.
The body was found at a first-floor flat in Pilton Drive North just before 0230 GMT on Sunday.
Police said they believed there was a disturbance at the property before the fire broke out.
Lothian and Borders Police confirmed a man had been arrested but said he had not been charged. No further details were released.
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Discovery arrived at the International Space Station on Saturday Shuttle Discovery astronauts are making the first of two spacewalks this week to carry out maintenance tasks on the exterior of the International Space Station (ISS).
Steve Bowen and Alvin Drew will spend more than six hours outside the orbiting platform, preparing it for the installation of a new store room.
Discovery arrived at the ISS on Saturday.
It is the ship’s final mission into space before being retired to a museum.
Bowen is making a small piece of history, himself. He was called up late for the mission following a bicycle injury to the assigned lead spacewalker Tim Kopra.
It means Bowen is on consecutive shuttle trips having flown on Atlantis in May last year – the first time that has ever happened.
“There’s a lot of things I don’t know that I’m trying to catch up,” Bowen said on Sunday. “But these guys have been training together for so long, they know this mission so well they’ve been able to pick up the slack that I kind of brought on board. They’ve got me covered pretty well.”
A key task for the Discovery crew on this flight is to fit a Italian-built logistics module known as Leonardo permanently to the space station.
The module, which has been used down the years as a packing box for supplies in the orbiter’s payload bay, would normally return to Earth with every shuttle mission, but for Discovery’s flight it is being left on station to provide extra storage space.
The attachment, to the Unity connecting node, requires Bowen and Drew to move some cabling. In their spacewalk, the pair will also replace a fault pump needed to push ammonia coolant around the platform.
Leonardo will be lifted into place on Tuesday this week; a follow-up spacewalk will then take place on Wednesday.
Discovery is due back on Earth on Monday, 7 March. The orbiter is expected eventually to go to the Smithsonian Institution’s Air and Space Museum.
Steven Lindsey, Shuttle Commander, said it was a real privilege to be on the shuttle’s final flight
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Jordan Evans died at the scene, the court was told A mother was in a rush to get her 12-year-old son to school when she caused his death by careless driving, Mold Crown Court has heard.
Karen Evans, 36, of Mancot, Flintshire, allegedly left it too late to turn off the A55 to get fuel, when she lost control of her car at Northop Hall.
Her son Jordan, who was late for school, was declared dead at the scene.
Mrs Evans denies causing death by careless driving, blaming a mechanical fault. The trial continues.
The court heard how Jordan, who had autism, had deliberately missed the school bus on 29 April 2010, and his mother decided to drive him to school in Flint.
The prosecution claim she was running low on fuel in her Vauxhall Corsa and made a last-minute decision – while overtaking another vehicle – to turn into a slip-road leading to services.
She drove from the outside lane, across the front of a car she had just overtaken, but then lost control, the court heard.
Somersault
The car somersaulted on an embankment and ended up back on its wheels.
Jordan, a rear seat passenger, suffered a severe blunt force head injury.
Ms Evans’ two daughters, aged three and 18, were also in the car.
She denies causing Jordan’s death by careless driving, blaming the incident on a mechanical fault.
She told police the steering developed a shudder and she tried to slow down and turn safely into the slip road.
Prosecutor Oliver King said a police vehicle examiner found a loose nut on the steering wheel.
He said the steering wheel could move backwards and forwards, but that would not have affected the steering of the vehicle to the right or left.
The prosecution claim Ms Evans grossly over-reacted to the movement of the steering wheel, or had left it too late to exit the dual carriageway to refuel.
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As well as Primark, ABF owns brands such as Ovaltine, Ryvita and Twinings Retailer Primark has revealed a “noticeable” slowing of demand in the UK since the start of 2011.
In a trading update, owner Associated British Foods said Primark performed well before Christmas despite the bad weather.
But January’s rise in VAT and soaring cotton prices had helped contribute to the slowdown since then.
ABF shares fell nearly 6%, despite the firm saying that Primark stores in the rest of Europe were doing well.
In early afternoon trade their shares were down by 61 pence, or 5.99%, at 965.50p.
“The UK consumer is feeling a squeeze because of inflation and the VAT rise, and simply has less to spend,” ABF’s finance director John Bason said.
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“Even for people who don’t feel they will lose their jobs, they will feel they are being squeezed. It won’t just be Primark, but we’ll see it for a number of retailers,” he told reporters.
ABF, which also owns brands such as Ovaltine, Ryvita and Twinings, is due to post its interim profit figures in April.
The company said that revenues at Primark would still be about 11% ahead of last year. Growth in stores in continential Europe had been “very encouraging”, the company said.
ABF added that all of its businesses would still show that they were “delivering good revenue growth”.
Primark operates 214 stores mostly in the UK, although it also trades in the Republic of Ireland, Spain, Germany, Portugal, the Netherlands and Belgium.
But a slowdown at Primark’s British stores may have implications for the wider retail sector.
“With more gloomy news from Primark today on High Street trading, we remain cautious in the short term about the general retail sector,” said Nick Bubb, analyst at Arden Partners.
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HSBC survived the financial crisis without receiving direct government support HSBC, Europe’s biggest bank, has reported pre-tax profits of $19bn (£11.8bn) for 2010, more than double the $7.1bn figure for 2009.
Losses from bad debts fell to $14bn in 2010, from $26bn in 2009.
However, analysts said the results had fallen short of expectations, sending shares down 4.5%.
HSBC also said that chief executive Stuart Gulliver was paid £6.2m last year, including a £5.2m bonus, down from a total package of £9.8m in 2009.
He will take all of his 2010 bonus in the form of restricted shares which will only be released to him over time.
“It is a lot of money,” said BBC business editor Robert Peston. “And it will upset those who see most banks as part of the economic problem, rather than part of the solution.”
However, he added that HSBC was one of the world’s very biggest businesses, with a market value greater than the combined value of Barclays, Lloyds and RBS.
Equity target
Mr Gulliver, recently appointed as HSBC chief executive, said the bank had made “a good start to the year”.
It said it had been profitable in every customer group and region for first time since 2006, but some analysts said there was some cause for concern.
“The underlying pre-tax profit is significantly disappointing,” said Cormac Leech, an analyst at investment banking firm Canaccord.
Richard Hunter, an analyst at Hargreaves Lansdown Stockbrokers, pointed out that as well as announcing a lower proposed return on equity, HSBC saw “further pressure on margins, particularly in its important Asian region”.
“Some will see HSBC 2010 profits rebound as a sign that better times for most banks will follow”
“Given that these high hopes have been somewhat dashed again, it remains to be seen whether the current market view of the shares as a buy remains intact,” Mr Hunter added.
Economic recovery
HSBC also cut its return on equity target, a measure of profitability, citing tougher capital requirements.
New finance director Iain Mackay said the reduced target reflected tougher banking regulations as well as the economic environment.
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“We’ve targeted 12% to 15% through the cycle for return on equity, principally taking into consideration what we view as a somewhat unstable and uneven economic recovery over the coming years as well as much higher capital requirements,” said Mr Mackay.
HSBC is headquartered in London but sees Asia as an increasingly important market.
“As a globally-connected bank with a growing presence across the world’s faster-growing regions, HSBC also benefited from higher trade volumes and strong momentum in emerging economies, especially in Asia,” said Mr Gulliver.
Unlike rival banks Lloyds and RBS, HSBC survived the financial crisis without receiving direct government support.
Meanwhile, figures published by the UK’s Financial Ombudsman revealed it received 8,238 new complaints from customers of HSBC in the second half of 2010 – the fourth highest of any financial business.
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Somali pirates usually target cargo vessels for the ransoms often paid out by shipping firms Three Danish children and their parents have been snatched by pirates who hijacked their sailing boat in the Indian Ocean, Danish officials say.
Denmark’s foreign ministry said the children were aged between 12 and 16, and that two Danish crew members were also captured during the attack.
Pirates seized the boat on 24 February and were said to be heading to Somalia.
Piracy is a highly lucrative trade in Somalia, where gangs can often demand millions of dollars in ransoms.
As of last week, the EU’s anti-piracy naval force said pirates were holding a total of 31 vessels, and 688 hostages.
Many of the vessels they target are cargo ships sailing near the Gulf of Aden – one of the world’s busiest shipping lanes.
The foreign ministry told the AP news agency that the ship sent a distress signal on Thursday: “It has now been confirmed that the sailboat was hijacked by pirates.”
The Danes are be the second group of non-commercial sailors seized by pirates in recent weeks.
A group of Americans was seized earlier in February, and four of them were killed as the US Navy tried to rescue them.
US forces say the pirates shot them.
Analysts say the piracy industry is becoming increasingly lucrative – Somali gangs recently hijacked a tanker with $200m (£136m) worth of crude oil on board.
International naval forces patrolling the area are becoming more willing to send in commando teams to free hostages.
But the pirates also appear to be responding with increasing violence – two Philippine sailors were murdered last month by pirates angered at an attempted rescue.
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Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti has denied there is a disciplinary problem at the club after Ashley Cole accidentally shot a work placement student.
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Chelsea manager Carlo Ancelotti says there is not a disciplinary problem at the club after Ashley Cole accidentally shot a work placement student.
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John Carter was discovered in the lift at a block of flats in Salamander Court A man who died after being found unconscious in a lift in an block of flats has been named by police.
John Carter was discovered in the lift at Salamander Court in the Leith area of Edinburgh at 0330 GMT on Sunday.
The 44-year-old, from Cables Wynd House in Edinburgh, was taken to the Royal Infirmary of Edinburgh but later died.
A post-mortem examination has taken place but police said the results were “inconclusive” and further inquiries into Mr Carter’s death were ongoing.
Det Insp Sara Buchanan, of Lothian and Borders Police, said: “We are continuing to appeal for witnesses who were in the area of Salamander Court in the early hours of Sunday morning, who may have seen or heard anything suspicious.
“Similarly, anyone with any other information that can assist our inquiries should also get in touch.”
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Google says 0.08% of Gmail users were affected by the problem Thousands of Gmail users have been left with empty inboxes after their accounts were accidentally wiped clean.
As well as missing e-mails, many reported that their contacts had also disappeared.
Google, which operates Gmail, said that a small percentage of its users had been affected.
Some accounts have already been restored, suggesting the data was not permanently deleted.
In a statement, Google said: “This is affecting less than .08% of our Gmail user base, and we’ve already fixed the problem for some individuals.”
The company said that engineers were working to restore service.
Google does not release official figures for the number of Gmail accounts, however it is believed to be between 150 million and 200 million.
That would mean that around 150,000 users were affected by the problem.
Gmail outages on this scale are rare, according to Alex Chitu, whose blog Google Operating System, charts the company’s cloud computing initiatives.
He told BBC News that although service was being restored, many users were angry about the way the outage had been handled.
“Today’s issue shows that Gmail is far from perfect and Google should do a better job at communicating with users.
“When you can’t access your message and your Google account is disabled, it’s nice to know why,” he said.
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