UN condemns 'war crimes' in Gaza

There is evidence that both Israeli and Palestinian forces committed war crimes in the recent Gaza conflict, the official UN report says.
The report criticises Israel for using "disproportionate force" and "collective punishment" during the three-week attack ending January 2009.
It also condemned Palestinian rocket attacks, which sparked the offensive.
Palestinians and human rights groups say more than 1,400 Gazans were killed, but Israel puts the figure at 1,166.
Israel, which had refused to co-operate with the UN fact-finding team, said the report was "clearly one-sided".
It reiterated that it was "committed to acting fully in accordance with international law and to examining any allegations of wrongdoing by its forces".
'Collective punishment'
The investigation, led by South African judge Richard Goldstone, found evidence "indicating serious violations of international human rights and humanitarian law were committed by Israel during the Gaza conflict", a UN statement said.
Israel also "committed actions amounting to war crimes, and possibly crimes against humanity".
The report accuses Israel of imposing "a blockade which amounted to collective punishment" in the lead-up to the conflict.
It "concludes that the Israeli military operation was directed at the people of Gaza as a whole, in furtherance of an overall and continuing policy aimed at punishing the Gaza population, and in a deliberate policy of disproportionate force aimed at the civilian population," said the UN statement.
The report found there was also evidence that Palestinian armed groups committed war crimes and possibly crimes against humanity in their repeated rockets and mortars attacks on Israel.
Israel launched the assault on Gaza in an attempt to stop the rocket fire from the enclave.
The 574-page document recommends that authorities in both Israel and Gaza be required to investigate the allegations and report to the UN Security Council within six months.
The full report - which is based on 188 interviews, more than 10,000 pages of documentation and 1,200 photographs - will be presented to the UN Human Rights Council at the end of this month.

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मिचेल JACKSON

Jackson's death certificate has been formally changed to reflect the Los Angeles coroner's ruling that his death was a होमिसिदे. Jackson's cause of death, previously marked "deferred", has now been changed to "injection by another".
Investigators have concluded that a cocktail of prescription drugs, particularly the anaesthetic Propofol, led to the singer's death on 25 June. Jackson's personal doctor, Conrad Murray, has been questioned by police, but not named as a formal suspect and no charges have been laid. Murray denies any wrongdoing.
In another decision yesterday, a judge ruled that Michael Jackson's estate may go ahead with the "extraordinary" expenses planned for the singer's funeral and interment. Superior court judge Mitchell Beckloff released the funds to estate administrators despite reservations that they might not have enough cash for the lavish funeral.
Jackson will be interred at the Grand Mausoleum at Glendale Forest Lawn Memorial Park, north of Los Angeles. Few details of tonight's funeral have been released, although estate attorney Jeryll Cohen said they are purchasing 12 burial spaces. It is not clear whether these are for other family members.
Cohen said the estate had more than enough money for the funeral. "The expenses are extraordinary," he admitted, "however Michael Jackson was extraordinary."

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Wikileaks architect Julian Assange awaits bond hearing

Julian Assange's advocate says he is assured of accepting bond for the architect of the whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.

The 39-year-old Australian was accepted bond beforehand this anniversary on action he provides guarantees of ВЈ240,000.

But he has remained in Wandsworth bastille afterwards prosecutors appealed adjoin giving him bail.

Mr Assange is angry displacement to Sweden area he faces sex allegations involving two women, which he denies.

Some letters appropriate it was Swedish prosecutors who objected to the acceding of bond but Sweden's Director of Prosecution, Marianne Ny, said: "The accommodation was appealed by the British prosecutor. Sweden has no assessment on this and will not arbitrate with a case handled by the British authorities."

His advocate Mark Stephens said: "We are hopeful, but of advance it is a amount absolutely for the judge.

"He will apprehend aggregate again and it is a amount for his accommodation and his accommodation alone."

He accepted the bond money - bare in banknote - was acceptable to be accessible in time for the hearing.

"Julian's supporters accept appear through for him so we attending like we're on target, but we can't accord authoritativeness until the banks accept opened," he told the BBC

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Bianca Jagger fears Wikileaks case is 'politicised'

Human rights apostle Bianca Jagger said she was actual admiring with a court's accommodation to absolution Wikileaks architect Julian Assange on bail.

Jagger was one of several high-profile personalities to appear the audition and said she was there in her accommodation as a animal rights campaigner.

Shortly afore Swedish prosecutors appear they would address the bail, she told reporters that such activity would accomplish her accept "this was a added austere politicised affair".

Mr Assange was accepted bond by a British cloister on action he provides a aegis of ВЈ200,000 to the court, with a added ВЈ40,000 affirmed in two sureties of ВЈ20,000 each.

However, the Swedish prosecutors accommodation to address the bond request, agency he have to abide in aegis until the appeals action can yield place

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Christine Assinge:'announcements'

The architect of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been accepted bond in London on altitude including banknote guarantees of ВЈ240,000.
But he will abide in bastille awaiting an address adjoin the bond accommodation lodged by Swedish prosecutors.
His mother Christine Assange has announced out about her son's analysis and said she was in no agnosticism that he was getting 'sacrificed for added agendas'

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Wikileaks: Assange supporters assemblage at London court

While the architect of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, sat in a London courtroom, dozens of his supporters stood alfresco in a appearance of solidarity.

Taking over the pavement adverse the court, protesters acclimated a aggregate of chants and placards to altercate that efforts to abandon Mr Assange to Sweden over animal advance accuse were, in reality, a agilely buried advance on abandon of information.

Nearly 100 supporters abounding the air alfresco the cloister with chants of "free Julian now" and "don't shoot the messenger".

Many captivated placards address Mr Assange's letters such as "justice for Julian", "extradition = rendition" and "show trial", a byword acclimated by his lawyer, Mark Stephens, to call the administration he acquainted the acknowledged affairs were taking.

Andrew Robertson, 40, an IT artisan from east London, appeared to sum up the prevailing affection of those who had braved arctic altitude to appearance their abutment if he said "the affair of abandon of advice is beneath threat".

"The action for abandon of accent is a marathon, not a sprint. It's a animal admiration to wish to allege up; it's been fought for over time and fought for in the future," he said.

The protesters were visibly outnumbered by the array of journalists, photographers, and cameramen from about the apple who jostled for position alfresco City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

Continue account the capital story

“Start Quote

We are continuing up for the abandon to apperceive what our government is doing”

End Quote Lindsey German Stop the War

Campaigner Peter Tatchell, whose accent prompted activation acclaim and loud cheers, rallied supporters by arguing that it was all-important to avert Wikileaks because the website performed a "public service" by absolution advice that was "in the accessible interest".

"It's about giving us the advice that should be accustomed to us as a right. If we had able autonomous governments we wouldn't accept to get this advice from Wikileaks," he said.

Similar sentiments were bidding by Lindsey German, civic convener of the Stop the War campaign, who said: "We are continuing up for the abandon to apperceive what our government is doing. We can't assurance what our governments are doing. They aria to us over Afghanistan, they aria to us over Iraq and they abide to lie to us.

"We're traveling to argue his extradition. We accept this is a bent act by our government to stop humans alive what they deserve to know."

Mr Assange is accused of accepting caught sex with a woman, articular alone as Miss A, if she insisted he use a condom.

He is aswell accused of accepting caught sex with addition woman, Miss W, while she was asleep.

Peter Tatchell and placards Peter Tatchell was a part of those who showed their abutment alfresco the court

But the Wikileaks architect claims the accuse adjoin him are politically motivated and advised to discredit him.

Referring to these allegations in his speech, Mr Tatchell said: "None of us apperceive the accuracy about the sex allegations adjoin Julian Assange but we do apperceive that he is getting victimised."

But a bystander, whose face betrayed a faculty of curiosity, did not allotment the faculty of abuse bidding by Mr Assange's supporters.

Gretta Mattoon, 71, had paused for a moment during her cafeteria breach to watch the media scrum, back the protesters were visibly outnumbered by the media assembly from about the apple who jostled for position alfresco City of Westminster Magistrates' Court.

The ambassador from Kensal Rise, in arctic London, said she had "mixed" animosity about Wikileaks.

"I'm animated to apperceive some things, but added things aren't a acceptable abstraction to absolution - for example, the revelations about China.

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Wikileaks architect Assange bailed, but absolution delayed

The architect of whistle-blowing website Wikileaks, Julian Assange, has been accepted bond in London on altitude including banknote guarantees of ВЈ240,000.

But he will accept in bastille awaiting an abode adjoin the bond accommodation lodged by Swedish prosecutors.

Mr Assange is angry displacement to Sweden, area he is accused of sexually assaulting two women beforehand this year.

He denies the charges, which he says are politically motivated and advised to discredit him.

His advocate Mark Stephens said the case was axis into a "show trial".

A ample army including demonstrators, reporters and a amount of Mr Assange's high-profile supporters aggregate alfresco City of Westminster Magistrates' Cloister for the bond audition on Tuesday.

Journalists central the cloister were accustomed permission by the adjudicator to abode on affairs reside via micro-blogging website Twitter.

Mr Assange was accepted bond on action he provides a aegis of ВЈ200,000 to the court, with a added ВЈ40,000 affirmed in two sureties of ВЈ20,000 each.

Mr Stephens said about bisected the bond money had been aloft and he was assured they would accept all the banknote afore the abode hearing.

Mr Assange have to aswell abandonment his passport, obey a alarm at an abode in Suffolk, abrasion an cyberbanking tag and abode to a bounded badge base every evening.

Mr Stephens said the High Cloister would apprehend the claiming to the bond accommodation aural the next 48 hours.

Speaking alfresco court, he said: "The Swedes will not accept by the umpire's decision. They wish to put Mr Assange through yet added trouble, added expense, added hurdles.

"They acutely will not additional any amount but to accumulate Mr Assange in jail."

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A continued account of key accessories about the apple that the US describes as basic to its civic aegis has been appear by Wikileaks.
In February 2009 the State Department asked all US missions away to account all installations whose accident could alarmingly affect US civic security.
The account includes pipelines, advice and carriage hubs.
Several UK sites are listed, including cable locations, digital sites and BAE Systems plants.
BBC adept contributor Jonathan Marcus says this is apparently the a lot of arguable certificate yet from the Wikileaks organisation.
The analogue of US civic aegis appear by the cable is ample and all embracing, he says.
There are accessible pieces of cardinal basement like communications hubs, gas pipelines and so on. However, added accessories on the account include:
* Cobalt abundance in Congo
* Anti-snake acidity branch in Australia
* Insulin bulb in Denmark

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Wikileaks: Julian Assange v Sweden's ample animal laws

Julian Assange, the architect of Wikileaks, is angry adjoin displacement from Britain to Sweden area he faces allegations of abduction and coercing women into accepting sex - accusations which his defenders say are allotment of a cabal to blackout him. Stephen Evans letters from Stockholm on how Swedish law may prove difficult for the Wikileaks founder.

Everybody you allocution to in Sweden complex in the Julian Assange activity asserts - generally with some affliction - that: "There Is No Conspiracy."

The Swedish authorities are not acting at the bidding of the CIA or the American admiral in Stockholm if they accomplish activity difficult for the architect of Wikileaks.

Tough laws

The advocate for the two women who accept accused Mr Assange of coercing them sexually told the BBC it was not allotment of some wider, all-around plot.

"Absolutely not," said Claes Borgstrom. "I represent two women who accept accomplished something that abounding bags of women both in Sweden and in added countries accept experienced."

Sweden has one of the toughest laws on animal abomination in the apple - attorneys sometimes antic that men charge accounting permission first.

As Mr Borgstrom put it: "It is not all-important to accept a lot of violence. That is what humans usually think, but in convenance if you force anyone to accept sex with you adjoin their accord you don't accept to use abundant abandon at all. Or you can yield advantage of a difficult bearings for the woman in question."

He says Mr Assange knows that this case is artlessly a amount of what happened with the two women rather than a bigger conspiracy.

"I'm actual abundant analytical of Julian Assange himself because he knows that that is not the case. He should say it has annihilation to do with his assurance with Wikileaks," said Mr Borgstrom.

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Pro-Wikileaks activists carelessness Amazon cyber attack

Coldblood', a affiliate of the accumulation Anonymous, tells Jane Wakefield why he angle its attacks on Visa and Mastercard as defence of Wikileaks.
Continue annual the capital story
Pro-Wikileak activists accept alone affairs to accompany down the website of online banker Amazon, and switched aback to targeting PayPal.
The accumulation Anonymous had apprenticed to advance the website at 1600 GMT, but accept back afflicted their plans, adage they did not accept the "forces".
The website was targeted because it withdrew casework from whistle-blowing website Wikileaks.
In the Netherlands a jailbait has been arrested over the attacks.
The 16-year-old was arrested by a high-tech abomination assemblage in The Hague afterwards allegedly acceptance to captivation in the targeting of the websites of two acclaim agenda companies, MasterCard and Visa.
A apparatus enabling computers to accompany the co-ordinated attacks adjoin websites perceived to be "anti-Wikileaks" is now appear to accept been downloaded added than 31,000 times.
However, aegis experts warned humans to abstain abutting the autonomous botnet.
A Twitter bulletin issued by the accumulation said Amazon was too big to advance auspiciously for now.
"We cannot advance Amazon, currently. The antecedent agenda was to do so, but we don't accept abundant forces," apprehend one bulletin on Twitter.
The activists instead instructed followers to advance PayPal, which has abeyant the WikiLeaks account, which the organisation had acclimated to aggregate donations.
A PayPal agent told Reuters account bureau the aggregation had detected an advance on the site.

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Going underground at the Wikileaks assumption centre

Inside the former nuclear bunker where Wikileaks keeps its servers

To enter the old nuclear bunker in Stockholm where the Wikileaks secrets are stored is like passing into another surreal world, half way between planet Earth and cyberspace.

The entrance on the street is non-descript. It is just a door in a face of rock. Steam billows from pipes alongside into the bitterly cold Swedish air.
If you press the bell and get invited in, glass doors open and you walk into a James Bond world of soft lighting. There is the high security of doors which only open when the door behind you has closed, and which need special passes for every few steps of the journey into the inner cavern.
But there is also falling water in fountains and pot plants, because people work here, watching monitors from a control room. One of the carpets has the surface of the moon on it to give an added surreal effect.
And then there are the computer servers in a cave, with bare rock walls underneath the wooden houses of Stockholm. In the inner cavern are rows and rows of computer storage cases.
And on one of them are the files of Wikileaks, only a fraction of which have so far been made public to the immense embarrassment of politicians who once said something indiscreet to an American diplomat, never dreaming the words would bite back in public.

A James Bond world of soft lighting

The data centre is owned by a company called Bahnhof, and its founder, Jon Karlung, gave the BBC a tour. Mr Karlung took over the remnant from the Cold War in 2007 and had to dynamite out a further 4,000 cubic metres of rock to make it big enough.
It is ultra-secure and needs submarine turbines - just inside the entrance - to generate enough power to maintain a moderate temperature even in the vicious Swedish winter.

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Anonymous Wikileaks supporters explain web attacks

A accumulation of pro-Wikileaks activists who accommodating a alternation of web attacks accept explained their actions.
The Anonymous accumulation said they were not hackers but "average internet citizens" who acquainted motivated to act because of perceived injustices adjoin Wikileaks.
The accumulation said it had no absorption in burglary acclaim agenda data or advancing analytical infrastructure.
The data were acquaint online by one of the abounding factions claiming to backpack out the attacks.
"Anonymous is not a group, but rather an internet gathering," it said in a account appear on 10 December.
It said the advancing attacks were a "symbolic action" targeted at accumulated website that had aloof casework from Wikileaks.
"We do not wish to abduct your claimed advice or acclaim agenda numbers. We aswell do not seek to advance analytical basement of companies such as Mastercard, Visa, PayPal or Amazon," it read.
The account comes as added abstracts accept appear to ablaze suggesting the accumulation may be alteration its tactics.

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Wikileaks: Pope's about-face action damaged relations

The Pope's allurement to Anglicans to catechumen to Roman Catholicism pushed relations amid the churches to their everyman point in 150 years, Britain's agent to the Vatican warned.
Francis Campbell aswell feared a backfire adjoin UK Catholics afterwards the action to those against to women bishops.
His fears are abundant in the latest US admiral cables appear by Wikileaks.
The comments were fabricated afterwards Archbishop of Canterbury Dr Rowan Williams met Vatican admiral endure year.
A cable from US agent Miguel Diaz, appear in the Guardian newspaper, said Mr Campbell believed Pope Benedict XVI had put the Archbishop in an "impossible position" with his about-face invitation.
It said: "The Vatican accommodation seems to accept been aimed primarily at Anglicans in the US and Australia, with little anticipation accustomed to how it would affect the centre of Anglicanism, England, or the Archbishop of Canterbury.
"Benedict XVI, Campbell said, had put Williams in an absurd situation. If Williams reacted added forcefully, he would abort decades of plan on all-comprehensive dialogue; by not reacting added harshly, he has absent abutment a part of affronted Anglicans."
The cable appear that Mr Campbell acquainted "Anglican-Vatican relations were adverse their affliction crisis in 150 years as a aftereffect of the Pope's decision" and it had confused the ambition of the Catholic-Anglican all-comprehensive chat "from accurate accord to simple co-operation".

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Hans Blix: 'Iraq .....

Hans Blix: 'Iraq weapons inspectors were not given enough time'

It was "very hard" for Iraq to declare weapons programmes that did not exist, former United Nations chief weapons inspector Hans Blix said today.

Dr Blix said UN Security Council resolution 1441, passed four months before the March 2003 invasion, gave Saddam Hussein the "chance for a new start".

He told the Iraq Inquiry he privately believed Saddam had kept weapons of mass destruction, but criticised the short time his Unmovic inspection team was given to search for them.

Dr Blix said he was in favour of resolution 1441, passed on November 8 2002, which declared Iraq in "material breach" of its obligations to disarm and paved the way for the return of weapons inspectors.

"The declaration, I felt, might give Iraq a chance for a new start," he said.

"If they had weapons, which I thought might well be the case, they had an opportunity. Now here it is, they could put the blame on some general or other."

Inquiry panel member Sir Roderic Lyne asked him: "Did you feel that it gave Iraq a realistic possibility of meeting the requirements of the resolution?"

Dr Blix replied: "Yes, except that it was very hard for them to declare any weapons when they didn't have any."

The former weapons inspector said he believed another resolution explicitly authorising military action was needed before attacks could be launched on Iraq.

"To me it was clear that a second resolution was required," he said.

Resolution 1441 said the weapons inspectors should give an update to the UN Security Council within 60 days.

Dr Blix questioned how this worked in practice, particularly in the light of the coalition's initial plans to invade Iraq from the north through Turkey.

He said: "I am a little puzzled, I must say, at how they calculated because the impression was that the invasion would take place through Turkey and that it would occur even in the beginning of January.

"That would have given (a) very very short time to the inspection.

"As it turned out we only had three-and-a-half months, but had they gone into Turkey it would have been even shorter."

He said he told then-prime minister Tony Blair in autumn 2002 of his belief that Saddam had maintained his WMD programmes.

"I, like most people at the time, felt that Iraq retains weapons of mass destruction," he said.

"I did not say so publicly. I said it perhaps to Mr Blair in September 2002 privately, but not publicly."

Dr Blix also spoke of his disquiet at the US national security strategy published in September 2002, which set out the Bush administration's belief in its right to launch pre-emptive attacks.

He said: "The US in 2002, that time you refer to, threw it overboard. I think they were high on military at the time. They said, 'we can do it'."

The former weapons inspector compared attempts to deal with Iraq's supposed WMD in 2002-03 with current efforts to stop Tehran's ambitions to become a nuclear power.

"We have economic pressure against Iran. I do not think that is illegal. I think the use of force against Iran today would be illegal," he said.

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Mercury prize nominations

Dizzee Rascal heads up Mercury prize nominations

Some of this year's Mercury nominees describe what it feels like to be nominated.

Dizzee Rascal leads the nominations for this year's Mercury Prize, seven years after winning the trophy for his debut album Boy In Da Corner.

Paul Weller is also in the running alongside The XX, former nominee Laura Marling, indie band Wild Beasts and folk-rock quartet Mumford and Sons.

They are joined by Corinne Bailey Rae, Biffy Clyro, Foals, Villagers, I Am Kloot and the Kit Downes Trio.

The winner of the £20,000 prize will be announced on 7 September.

Mercury Prize 2010

• Mercury Prize nominees
• Mercury Prize on the BBC
• Speech Debelle takes the title
• In Pictures: Awards ceremony

Previous winners have included Speech Debelle, Elbow, Klaxons and Arctic Monkeys.

The prize is open to UK and Irish acts who have released albums over the past year.

The XX are 5/2 favourites to win, according to Ladbrokes.

Ladbrokes spokesman, Nick Weinberg, said: "The XX look like winners in waiting. They seem to tick the right boxes and there's a growing momentum behind them."

One of the tracks from the three-piece's debut album was used by the BBC during the general election coverage.

Villagers are the 25/1 outsiders.

Jazz trio

It is the third nomination for Dizzee Rascal, who won the Mercury prize with his debut album Boy In Da Corner in 2003.

His latest nomination is for Tongue N' Cheek - he was also in the running in 2007 for Maths + English.

Weller received his first nomination in 1994 for the album Wild Wood. This time around his album Wake Up The Nation has been recognised.

Marling is nominated for a second time for her latest album I Speak Because I Can, having been shortlisted in 2008 for her debut Alas, I Cannot Swim

Bailey Rae's album The Sea deals with the sudden death of her husband two years ago.

The xx perform their song Intro on Newsnight

Its opening lines, dedicated to her late husband Jason Rae, are: "He's a real live-wire, he's the best of his kind, wait till you see those eyes".

"Making the record has meant a lot to me," she said at the nominations ceremony. "I'm really pleased."

The Kit Downes Trio are an acoustic jazz outfit who are on the list for their album Golden.

Oxford band Foals and Wild Beasts are both nominated for their second albums.

Ayrshire band Biffy Clyro are recognised for their latest offering Only Revolutions.

"That's a particularly wonderful way to start a Tuesday. What a lovely surprise!," the band posted on Twitter.

Villagers' debut album Becoming A Jackal is also included, along with Sigh No More by Mumford and Sons' - the London-based band were formed three years ago.

Manchester's I Am Kloot, who have been together for more than 10 years, are nominated for their fifth album Sky At Night. It was produced by Elbow's Guy Garvey and Craig Potter.

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British parliament....says....????

British parliament protest camp removed

LONDON — Bailiffs cleared away a sprawling protest camp in front of the British parliament in a pre-dawn raid on Tuesday, although evicted demonstrators vowed to re-appear elsewhere in London.

Officials descended at 1:00 am (0000 GMT) on Parliament Square, in the heart of the city, to drag away a few dozen protesters and remove the ramshackle collection of tents, banners and straw bales used as toilets.

The protesters had been camped on the grassy square since May 1 to protest against the war in Afghanistan and a range of other issues, but a court ruled last week that their "Democracy Village" could not remain.

It took about 60 bailiffs four hours to remove the protesters after a few tied themselves to scaffolding.

Some of the protesters complained they had been roughly treated.

Activist Howard Rees, 30, said the eviction was "pretty unpleasant" and claimed the bailiffs were "pretty brutal".

"They were putting the boot into people while they were on the floor," he told AFP.

But London's Metropolitan Police said no arrests were made.

A fence was thrown up around the square, while cleaners got to work on the mess left behind by the demonstrators.

Parliament Square contains the statues of Winston Churchill, Nelson Mandela and Abraham Lincoln.

It sits amid UNESCO World Heritage Sites, including the iconic Palace of Westminster parliament building, and the historic Westminster Abbey.

But London authorities said it had been turned into a squalid, nauseating eyesore by the protesters, who were stopping the general public from enjoying the square.

The activists on Friday lost an appeal against eviction in a battle with London Mayor Boris Johnson.

By the morning rush hour, at least a dozen demonstrators remained at the site.

"People from 'Democracy Village' are going to carry on with this protest. We're not going away," said Pete Phoenix, a 36-year-old protester with blond dreadlocks and sunglasses.

"Lots of areas around the city are going to be taken over in the next few days and weeks.

"Our spirit is stronger after this eviction," he told AFP, saying the camp had "raised awareness around the world" about Britain's involvement in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Workers at the square said it would be re-turfed due to the damage caused to the grass by protesters.

The High Court in London granted eviction orders last month sought by Johnson, but their enforcement was delayed pending the outcome of the appeal.

In the appeal ruling Friday, judge David Neuberger said that although the land was owned by the Crown, the mayor of London had power to act over the square.

"We are relieved this dreadful blight of Parliament Square has finally come to an end, and look forward to it being restored to its previous condition so all Londoners can visit and enjoy it," Westminster City Council leader Colin Barrow said on Tuesday.

He said authorities "must find a way to help prevent it being hijacked by vociferous minorities whose primary intent seems to turn this World Heritage Site into a squalid campsite."

A hand-written list of items removed from the square and seen by AFP included 20 tents, 20 to 30 sleeping bags, quilts and pillows, flags, a music system, a beer barrel and, curiously, a sail boat.

The eviction does not affect veteran protester Brian Haw, who has been camped on the roadside opposite parliament since 2001.

Haw has not been glad of the company, calling the "Democracy Village" protesters "deliberately unreasonable, even depraved and outrageous".

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New film

Pinch me

Spying while asleep is the theme of an epic new commercial thriller

Space invader

“INCEPTION”, Christopher Nolan’s follow-up to his 2008 film, “The Dark Knight”, combines big-money action with the uncompromising smarts of his modestly budgeted brain-twister from eight years earlier, “Memento”. That film provoked intense internet debates about its puzzling story, which was told backwards from the point of view of a man with no short-term memory. “Inception” is bound to inspire a whole new level of chatter about Mr Nolan’s deceptive world of dreams.

“Extraction” is the futuristic speciality of which Dom Cobb (played by Leonardo DiCaprio) is a master—stealing secrets from captains of industry by invading their dreams. At the start of the film he is cracking open a safe in the dreamworld that he and his assistant, Arthur, (Joseph Gordon-Levitt) have built to ensnare a tycoon (Ken Watanabe), whose subconscious mind will supply the safe’s contents. We start learning the rules of Cobb’s game on the fly during this breathless introduction, where reality recedes ever further with each new twist in the heist scenario.

Cobb’s next assignment is “inception”: planting an idea (“the hardest virus to kill”) in the subconscious of Robert Fischer junior (Cillian Murphy), the heir to a considerable business empire. While Cobb maps Fischer’s unresolved issues with his father, which are the key to the operation, he assembles his dream team: a master of disguise (Tom Hardy), a chemist (Dileep Rao) whose potions permit several subjects to dream the same dream, and Ariadne (Ellen Page), a gifted architecture student whose job is building the dreamworld where Fischer will be infected with the big idea.

While she learns the ropes, Ariadne takes over as the audience’s guide, a role she also plays for Cobb, who can’t go home to America because of a secret involving his wife, Mal (Marion Cotillard). As a result, Ariadne is obliged to unearth Cobb’s past during the fantastic voyage in Fischer’s inner depths: an hour-long action sequence that takes place on several different levels of reality. Nolan’s strange wizardry has given rise to a psychic Rube Goldberg contraption that plays like a rousing “Star Wars” episode for smart people of all ages. Could be the start of something new.

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Lord Taylor charged over expenses on relative's house

Lord Taylor of Warwick has become the sixth parliamentarian to face charges over his expenses after allegations he claimed £11,000 on home owned by a distant relative.

Lord Taylor has been charged over his expenses Photo: PA

The Crown Prosecution Service announced that the Conservative peer had been charged with six counts of false accounting, and would appear before a Westminster magistrates’ court next month.

It follows disclosures in December that he had allegedly registered a house in Oxford belonging to the partner of his step brother’s son, without his knowledge or consent.

By declaring the property owned by Tristram Wyatt, a university academic who lives with Lord Taylor’s step-nephew Robert Taylor, as his primary residence, the peer was allegedly able to claim second home expenses on a house he owned in Ealing, west London.

When questions were first raised about Lord Taylor’s use of the House of Lords second home allowance last summer, he issued a statement disclosing that his main home was a property in which his late mother Enid had lived.

However, it emerged that this house, in Solihull in the west Midlands, had been sold in 2001, shortly before Mrs Taylor’s death, while the peer’s second home claims had continued until 2007.

It was later alleged that Lord Taylor had in fact registered a home owned by Mr Wyatt, a prominent zoologist, which he shared with Mr Taylor, a photographer, as his principle residence for the purposes of his expenses.

A 57-year-old barrister and former Conservative special adviser, Lord Taylor is the second Tory peer to charged with fraud over his parliamentary expenses, after Lord Hanningfield was accused of false accounting in February.

One current MP, Eric Illsley, and three former Labour MPs, Elliot Morley, David Chaytor and Jim Devine, are also awaiting trial. All five have had their party’s whip removed.

A Conservative spokesman said that Lord Taylor had voluntarily resigned from the party.

In a statement, Keir Starmer, the Director of Public Prosecutions, said that Lord Taylor was accused of dishonestly claiming more than £11,000 in overnight subsistence and mileage claims.

He added: "Having thoroughly reviewed the … evidence we have received from the Metropolitan Police in relation to parliamentary expenses, we concluded that there is sufficient evidence and it is in the public interest to bring criminal charges against Lord Taylor.

"In total the charges allege a sum in excess of £11,000 was dishonestly claimed over this period."

Lord Taylor became first black Conservative MP when he was made a peer in 1996, four years after losing the safe seat of Cheltenham for the Tories after suffering racist abuse from his own supporters.

Parliamentary records show that Lord Taylor made “overnight subsistence” claims totalling £73,000 between 2001 and 2007 by allegedly stating that his main home was outside London.

At the time, peers were able to claim up to £174 a night by stating that they needed reimbursement for the cost of a hotel or upkeep of a second home while staying away from their primary residence outside of the capital in order to attend Parliament.

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No woman felt safe from the Yorkshire Ripper

By Victoria King

Sutcliffe is being held in Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital

The High Court has ruled that one of Britain's most notorious murderers, the Yorkshire Ripper, will never be released. BBC News looks back at his crimes.

Peter Sutcliffe earned his nickname - and his dark place in the history books - not just for the sheer number of women he killed, but also because of who they were and how he killed them.

The Yorkshire Ripper hit his victims over the head with a hammer and then mutilated their bodies with a knife and a screwdriver.

He picked on women of all ages and from all backgrounds - prostitute, student and bank clerk.

During the five years it took police to catch him, no woman in his hunting ground of Yorkshire and Greater Manchester felt safe.

Day or night, they were scared to walk alone - hardly surprising when the formal advice from police was: "Do not go out at night unless absolutely necessary and only if accompanied by a man you know."

The climate of fear meant men weren't to be trusted, and police resorted to using undercover female officers as prostitutes in an attempt to smoke the Ripper out.

Female students, angry at the impact this man had on their lives and freedoms, organised candlelight protests to reclaim the night.

A whole region was paralysed, and despite thousands of men being interviewed - including Sutcliffe himself - the killer was still not identified.

Messages from God

Sutcliffe's first known victim was Wilma McCann, who was murdered while working as a prostitute in the Chapeltown district of Leeds.

In the years to come, the area became one of his regular haunts - he would cruise its streets looking for vulnerable prey.

He would later claim he had received messages from God telling him to kill prostitutes.

Wilma McCann was the Ripper's first known victim in 1975

Two more murders followed in Leeds in 1976 and early 1977 before Sutcliffe moved on to his home town of Bradford, killing prostitute Patricia Atkinson in her flat. Two more women were to die in the city in the years to come.

Not every victim was a sex worker though. When 16-year-old shop assistant Jayne MacDonald was killed in June 1977, the public impact was enormous - the danger had spread from red light district to ordinary High Street.

That fear increased again in 1979 with the murders of bank clerk Josephine Whitaker and student Barbara Leach.

Some survived his attacks, but were left traumatised for life.

Theresa Sykes fell victim in November 1980 when she was just 16 and was left with permanent brain damage. Before the High Court's decision to keep him behind bars for good, she told the BBC: "It's never going to end with me so why it should end for him?

"He has absolutely spoilt my life. Why should he get out and have a life. I haven't really had one."

In an age before computerisation, police floundered under enormous mounds of paperwork and hundreds of possible leads.

The pressure on them mounted by the day - the public and the media demanded to know why they couldn't catch him. No-one felt that criticism more keenly than Assistant Chief Constable George Oldfield, who was leading the investigation.

Sutcliffe was arrested on several occasions - but was released to kill again because his accent did not match that heard on a tape sent to police and believed to be from the killer.

Alcoholic John Humble was identified as hoaxer Wearside Jack in 2005

Unfortunately, that voice belonged to a hoaxer - a man who became known as Wearside Jack - who led police up a number of blind alleys and greatly disrupted the investigation.

He was finally identified in 2005 as alcoholic John Humble, from Sunderland, and subsequently jailed. If it wasn't for his actions, police said, several women's lives could have been saved.

Quiet married man

Eventually, like so many notorious criminals from murderers to mafia bosses, it was a minor offence that led to Sutcliffe's capture.

In January 1981, a routine police check on his car found it to have false number plates. The two officers on the scene were suspicious about his explanation and he was arrested.

A few days later in police custody, this quiet married man who worked as a lorry driver admitted being the Ripper.

He was convicted at the Old Bailey in 1981 and given 20 life terms for the murder of 13 women and the attempted murder of seven others.

He began his jail term in Parkhurst prison, but was later diagnosed with schizophrenia and transferred to Broadmoor high-security psychiatric hospital.

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Guardian Daily: What NHS reforms will mean for patients

Guardian experts give their reaction to Andrew Lansley's radical healthcare white paper, in a special edition of our daily audio show with Jon Dennis

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The health secretary, Andrew Lansley, this week announced radical reforms of the health service. Andy Burnham, his opposite number, says it's the end of the NHS as we know it.

Under plans contained in his white paper, 150 primary care trusts would be abolished, with £80bn from their budgets given to GPs, who would be responsible for commissioning healthcare.

Dr Anna Dixon, director of policy at the King's Fund health thinktank, says patients are unlikely to consider data on the quality of local healthcare provision before deciding which surgery to use. And she says strict spending restraints on the NHS mean that the proposals are unlikely to be implemented.

Patrick Butler from SocietyGuardian.co.uk says the plans will lead to an explosion of private healthcare provision.

The Observer's health correspondent, Denis Campbell, says Lansley's proposals are a recipe for "semi-organised anarchy". The Department of Health wouldn't be in control of bodies providing healthcare in the NHS's name.

But health minister Simon Burns insists the reforms will free health providers to deliver an improved service to patients. He explains how provider competition will work.

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