The dangers of war reporting

The extreme dangers of war reporting have been highlighted by two incidents in the battle for Tripoli - the reports by Sky's Alex Crawford from a rebel convoy entering the capital, and the plight of other journalists trapped in the Rixos Hotel. Jon Williams, the BBC's foreign editor, has defended the corporation's coverage, after it was beaten into the Libyan capital at the weekend by Sky News, reports the Guardian.

On Radio 4's Media Show, he said war reporting was a combination of "luck and judgment". The paper says: "Williams applauded Crawford but said the BBC News team had made a judgment that it was not safe to travel with the convoy, while another of its reporters, Matthew Price, was holed up in the Rixos Hotel."

Dozens of foreign journalists who had been held by Gaddafi's armed supporters at a hotel in Tripoli have been released, says BBC News. They had spent six days trapped inside the Rixos hotel near some of the heaviest fighting with dwindling supplies of food and water. The BBC's Matthew Price reports on what life was like inside.

Home Secretary Theresa May will meet senior police officers and executives from the major social networks later to discuss this month's riots in England, reports BBC News. Representatives from Twitter, Facebook and Blackberry are expected to attend the meeting, which will look at how to stop people plotting violence online. The prime minister has said police may need extra powers to curb their use.

Writing in the Guardian, the BBC's director-general Mark Thompson says James Murdoch was wrong about the BBC in his 2009 McTaggart Lecture at the Edinburgh Television Festival. The Guardian says Mr Thompson "went on the offensive against James Murdoch and other critics of the public broadcaster, effectively accusing News Corporation of lapses of integrity and warning that the collapse of the BSkyB takeover was not an excuse to start a debate about the scale and scope of the BBC."

Apple founder Steve Jobs has resigned as chief executive of the technology giant and will be replaced by its chief operating officer Tim Cook, reports BBC News. Mr Jobs, who underwent a liver transplant following pancreatic cancer, said he could no longer meet his chief executive's duties and expectations.

The situation in Libya and the search for Col Gaddafi after his compound in Tripoli was captured remains top of the agenda for most of Thursday's newspapers, as reported in the BBC papers review.

 

Read More

Qaddafi Urges Residents to Fight Rebels

Libyan leader, Muammar Qaddafi on Tuesday made repeated pleas to the residents of the capital, Tripoli, to fight the rebels, who managed to take over the Bab Al Aziziya compound and rid it of Qaddafi forces.

Qaddafi’s whereabouts are still unknown but he spoke on Syrian based TV channel, Al Rai, and at one point, the sound of chickens could be heard in the background.

"All the tribes in Tripoli, out of Tripoli, the young, the old, women, men and armed committees must attack Tripoli and comb the areas and eradicate the traitors and rats. They (rebels) will slaughter you and desecrate your bodies," he said.

Meanwhile, government spokesperson Moussa Ibrahim, in telephone interview on a pro-Qaddafi channel, insisted that the majority of the capital remained under government control and that Qaddafi loyalists had pushed rebels out over the last 24 hours.

"Tripoli at this moment is in a much better state than yesterday. Yesterday the attack was vicious, and the bombing vicious but today we were able to repel a number of attacks in the day. I say to you in detail and transparency, around 80 percent of Tripoli is under our full control, if I am wrong then maybe 75 percent, the people of Tripoli have noticed in the past few hours that the fighting has subsided," Ibrahim said.

Qaddafi’s eldest son, Mohammed, managed to escape from Sunday’s house arrest while his other son, Seif Al Islam appeared in public amongst supporters, refuting earlier news of his capture by rebel forces.

Meanwhile, The National Transitional Council plans to move their Benghazi headquarters to Tripoli soon in order to plan a new democratic government after 42 years of Qaddafi’s rule.

 

Read More

Foreign journalists who covered the Libyan conflict from Gaddafi's side were trapped inside their hotel for a third day today

Foreign journalists who covered the Libyan conflict from Gaddafi's side were trapped inside their hotel for a third day today as gunmen still loyal to the regime kept them prisoner.

With electricity and water cut off and no staff, the 30 or so journalists, including an AFP reporter, were grouped on the first floor of the Hotel Rixos, wearing helmets and flak jackets and listening to the sounds of gunfire outside.

As the capital erupted in celebratory gunshots after rebels stormed and captured Gaddafi's heavily fortified compound, their guards denied that Tripoli was falling into the hands of the insurgents.

As stray bullets struck the hotel, the correspondents hung banners on the outside, reading "Television, press, don't shoot."

From time to time their captors came by to take some of the dwindling food supplies or check up on them, giving the impression that they were being held hostage.

One young man armed with a Kalashnikov came up to the first floor but was persuaded not to stay.

"If you want a fight, go downstairs," one correspondent told him

Read More

The barra bravas: the violent Argentinian gangs controlling football

Like many of those living in Villa Fiorito, one of Argentina's most dangerous slums, Jose Mendez takes his shots at glory when he can – like the day five years ago when he slung the shirt of a rival football club over his shoulder and paraded through the streets of his neighbourhood like a returning warrior. Cigarette clamped between his teeth and basketball shirt hanging off his skinny frame, Mendez recounts the fight he waged to win his trophy: the crowded streets after a big match; the other fan putting up a struggle; Mendez, pumped up on chemicals and cheap beer, knocking him down into the street, smashing his face and kicking him until he could get the shirt off his back. "I took the shirt," he says. I put it over my shoulder and walked through the barrio with everyone watching." He struts up and down the dirt path outside his family home, replaying his victory march. "After that I was in, they knew how much I loved the club. I was one of them."

As with many poor men across Argentina, football has shaped Mendez's life and his identity. He says football is the one glorious thing in his life, a chink of colour in the monotony of poverty, crime and unemployment that surrounds him and his young family. But recently his devotion has led Mendez down a different path. Since his glory march through the streets of Fiorito, Mendez has become a barra brava, a self-proclaimed soldier for his club and part of a well-organised and violent network of fans that now wields almost unfettered power over the multi-million-pound business of football in Argentina.

In practically every major club side – which includes some of the world's most famous teams – the power of the fans is out of control. Using mob violence and intimidation, Argentina's barras bravas cream hundreds of thousands of pounds from the game every year through illegal rackets, money laundering and narcotics, underpinned by police and state corruption, and supported by the clubs and players themselves.

The only way to understand how Argentina's fans have grown so powerful is to witness them at first-hand. La Bombonera, Boca Juniors's famous stadium, squats in the heart of the working-class La Boca neighbourhood in the south of Buenos Aires. When I go to a match, the whole structure shakes underfoot as trumpets blare and thousands of fans jump and dance in a shower of ticker tape.

Next to me, amid the riot of noise and furious anticipation, a man wearing a Boca shirt is silently praying, face raised to the sky. As the players enter the stadium to an animal roar, he bellows his love for his team into the night. "Boca! Boca! Boca!" he screams, tears running down his face as he reaches his arms out to the tiny figures below. "I love you, I love you."

Down by the pitch in the "popular" stands, La Doce (The Twelfth Player) – Boca Junior's hardcore fan base – are a tight mass of thrashing bodies, twirling their blue and yellow shirts around their heads, dancing, singing and banging drums. As the match starts they surge towards the fence separating the fans from the pitch, bodies slamming against the chain-link, screaming their team on to victory.

Throughout the match La Doce lead the chants; the players on the pitch feed off their adulation and when the crowd grows restless at the sluggish pace, it is to La Doce that they look for support. Yet while La Doce may have the rightful reputation as the world's most passionate fans in a country that has spawned some of the world's greatest players and most exciting club football, they have also evolved into one of the most feared and infamous groups of barra brava in the country.

The more lucrative the club becomes, the bigger the piece of the pie the fans claim. It's estimated the most powerful barras pull in thousands every month through ticket and parking rackets, and by controlling the lion's share of club merchandise and refreshments inside the stadiums. And it doesn't stop there. Gustavo Grabia, an Argentinian journalist who has spent years investigating football corruption, claims the biggest barras also receive up to 30% of transfer fees when a player leaves and up to 20% of some players' paychecks.


For ordinary men such as Mendez, the message of the barras bravas is that everybody can benefit, as long as they don't mind getting their hands dirty. "For me it was like a dream, to go to the match every week, to be someone," he explains. "At the games we're welcomed like heroes. You don't need to go through security, you don't need to answer any questions." He stops and raises his hands in a victory salute. "In there we're like the kings of the stadium!"

He agreed to speak to me on condition I change his name. If the bosses find out he's speaking to a journalist, there'll be hell to pay, he says, cocking his fingers into the shape of a gun and blowing an imaginary bullet into his head. "These people, the bosses who run the barras bravas, they don't care who you are, if you cross them, they will hunt you down and come after you and your family."

Football in Argentina has always been bloody, but in the past decade things have escalated. An estimated 190 people have now died in football-related incidents in Argentina, 14 in the past 18 months. In 2002, after a particularly bloody season saw five people killed and countless others left with gunshot and knife wounds, the Argentinian government declared violence in football a national emergency.

In recent years, the violence has shifted away from the terraces into the streets of the capital as rival barras fight for control in a blaze of fire fights, drive-by shootings and mafia-style executions. Despite the violence, Mendez still believes he is taking part in something glorious. "What else do we have to be proud of if it isn't our team or the club shirt on our backs?" he asks. He gestures angrily around his house, at the crumbling walls, the damp mattresses where his six children sleep, the curling football posters and flickering light bulbs. He takes me outside and points to two teenagers sitting under a faded mural of Villa Fiorito's most famous son – Diego Maradona. For a few pesos, locals take tourists to see the pitch where he honed his skills, now nothing more than a patch of cracked, weed-clogged concrete, or to look at the rubbish-strewn front yard of the Maradona family house.

The two boys lean back against the cracked paint and smoke paco, a cheap, toxic mix of cocaine base paste. The drug has become endemic in Argentina's poorest barrios, claiming countless young lives every year. "Those two boys, they used to play football with my sons," says Mendez. He points to one of them; what was once a leg is now a stump wrapped in dirty bandages. "That kid, he was so high on that stuff he lay on the railway tracks and was hit by a train. In a year they'll both be dead."

For Mendez, Maradona is proof of the transformational power of football. Here, he says, nobody but the footballers leave the villa. "Maradona grew up in these streets," says Mendez. "I remember him playing football and everybody knew he was a genius. He was given a gift and he got his whole family out. Carlos Tevez, he was the same. He came from nothing and now he's a superstar."

Despite his best efforts, Mendez hasn't made a particularly good barra soldier. He's hung around on the fringes of the organisation, but never made any real money. Now that he's promised his wife he'll quit the booze and drugs, he has neither the constitution for violence nor the head for business.

A few days later he takes me to meet someone who does. We travel across town to an abandoned railway siding to meet Pepe Diaz (not his real name) a father of three. According to Mendez, Diaz can tell me everything there is to know about the inner mechanics of Argentina's new football mafia. When we arrive Diaz is working. On his belt a mobile phone buzzes relentlessly. "It's going to be a big one," he says, rubbing his hands. "Big game, big money."

Unlike Mendez, Diaz has shown a remarkable aptitude for business and has moved quickly up the ranks. Throughout our conversation he exudes a sense of ownership over his team, which has grown from the poor streets in the south of Buenos Aires to become one of the best known in the world. For Diaz the barras bravas are doing nothing more than taking what is rightfully theirs. "Here in Argentina we are football, it belongs to us," says Diaz. "The players, the clubs, they owe everything to us. Why should we sit back while the suits get rich? We are just taking our cut."

Like Mendez, Diaz was born and raised in Argentina's slums. Now he's raising his young family there, too. During the week he feeds them by working as a cartonero, dragging a cart past the tango halls and steak restaurants of downtown Buenos Aires, picking up discarded cardboard for recycling. "I walk around the city every night and people look straight through me like I don't exist. As a poor man, I'm invisible. At the weekends it's different. People see us. People see me."

Diaz is proud of how efficiently his barra is running the business of football. "In England you think your fans, los hooligans, were powerful but they were nothing compared to us. All you did there was drink and fight. We drink, we fight and we also do business. We're not just monkeys singing for the clubs in the stadiums and then killing each other in the streets. They could learn a thing or two from us."

Squatting on the ground with a bottle of beer in one hand, Diaz draws circles in the dirt to map out the regimented hierarchy of the barra brava. At the top are the bosses – the half-dozen ruthless men who rule through fear. Each is estimated to make up to 100,000 pesos (£70,000) a year in a country where 30% of the population live below the poverty line. Down at the bottom are the ordinary neighbourhood men and football fanatics who are given free beer, amphetamines and dope and then dispatched to the matches to sing for their side and do the bidding of the bosses in the streets. In the middle are men like Diaz who are increasingly making the barras bravas a criminal force to be reckoned with. "I had to show my loyalty to the club, so at first it was just the fighting, showing you're willing to do what it takes," he says. "Then when they trust you, you can start to get involved with the money. Then you're really part of it."

Like most barra soldiers, Diaz started by roaming the streets around the stadiums charging fans 40-60 pesos (£8-10) to park their cars near the stadium. He proved a natural at persuading people to part with their cash and estimates he made about 2,000 pesos (£300) in commission per game. "First you start off doing the parking, then you move on to flogging tickets outside the game," he explains, alleging that during the matches he runs guns and drugs, mostly speed and marijuana, through the stands. "Inside the stadium is where a lot of the real action happens, because in there we're basically untouchable. We can do whatever we want. It's our territory."


If Diaz is telling the truth, it seems unlikely that any of this could happen without the complicity and collusion of the clubs, the players and the police, a situation that has been the subject of much speculation and report both inside and outside Argentina. In the 1950s the barras started out as groups of dedicated fans who were given shirts and free tickets by club officials who needed to secure votes by season-ticket holders to get elected to club boards. Once they had their foot in the door, the fans' demands increased and their willingness to resort to disruptive violence saw their grip on the clubs tighten. The problem for those trying to break the power of the fans is that too many people are benefiting from their rise to dominance.

Carlos de los Santos is from Argentina's new Security Unit for Live Sporting Events, which the government set up to deal with mounting violence in the game. He looks weary when I ask him why there has been so little progress. "Corruption is endemic in Argentina and it is what has allowed the barras to get so powerful," he says. "The problem is that everybody is taking a cut. It won't help just throwing the barras bosses in jail, we've tried that. To break the barras you have to sever their political connections and root out those police complicit in their activities, and this is going to be hard. In fact in the current climate I don't see how it's going to be done."

In the absence of any decisive action from the authorities, it's come down to those who have been most touched by the violence to fight back. Argentina's frontline in the war against the barras bravas comes in the unlikely form of Liliana Suárez de García, a softly spoken woman in her late 60s. On her lapel is a badge bearing the face of her son, Daniel, killed outside a game in Uruguay during the Copa America in 1995. For years after his death she fought for those responsible to be brought to justice, until she realised there were dozens of other families also losing sons. Now, as president of her own organisation, Familiares de las Victimas de la Violencia en el Futbol Argentino (Families of the Victims of Violence in Argentinian Football), she has emerged as one of the only voices calling for action.

"Every day I wake crying for my child," she says, wiping her eyes. "His death was so tragic, but nobody helped me, there has been no justice because those who killed him have the protection of the police and of the state. It has to stop because at the moment those who are profiteering are getting away with murder."

When I ask Diaz about the tangled web of vested interests underpinning the barra's control over the game, he looks blank. "They use us, we use them, it's the way it's done," he says, with a shrug. "Police get paid, politicians get paid, and everyone wins. When they need muscle they have it, when we want money or access to players then we get it. If the clubs don't think a player is doing his job properly or not paying out we'll have a word or his girlfriend or wife might be threatened with kidnap."

"You physically attack the players?" I ask.

"Only if they need a talking to," says Diaz. "Just to let them know who's boss."

But life as a barra brava comes at a cost; as profits soar, the barras are turning on each other. Last year rival gangs within La Doce turned part of downtown Buenos Aires into a war zone, wounding several terrified bystanders.

Diaz now sleeps with a gun beside his bed. "Of course the dangers get greater as you get more powerful, but that's the risk," he says. "I think about quitting, but then as soon as I get on the bus at the weekend and the booze and the drugs are flowing and the drums are banging and you're singing for your club, it's the best feeling in the world."

Mendez has a different story. Recently life within the barras has become too much and he wants to get out. "It's one thing when it's just parking rackets and ticket sales, but now it's too heavy," he says. Last year he and his family were caught in the middle of a violent battle for control of the drug trade in Villa Fiorito, with the traffickers on one side and the barra brava of another club on the other. "My baby son was outside and they were running up the street firing at each other. I threw myself on top of him and we could hear the bullets as they went over our heads. When you're with the barra you're somebody. Without them, I'm just another poor guy who can't feed his family. But at least I'll be alive."

 

Read More

Belfast family targeted by kidnappers have been left deeply traumatised.

Police investigating the terrifying tiger kidnapping where the partner and son of a security van driver were taken from their home have refused to rule out dissident republican involvement.

Two masked and armed men forced their way into the south Belfast home in the Teeling Grove area of Dunmurry on Wednesday at around 6pm.

His partner and 16-year-old son were abducted in a white Transit van and taken to Castleblayney, Co Monaghan, and held hostage overnight.

The next day the man handed over a “substantial” sum of money, believed to be £200,000, to the kidnappers.

More than 24 hours later the woman and teenager were found alive locked in a shed in Co Monaghan.

The kidnappers then set the van, used to transport them, on fire. The blaze was spotted by someone who contacted the gardai and the victims were found at around 8pm on Thursday.

Both gardai and the PSNI have now launched a joint operation.

Police said they have not ruled out dissident involvement and that “all lines of investigation will be pursued”.

Detective Chief Inspector Justyn Galloway said they believed more than two men were involved in the kidnapping.

“My early assessment is that this has been a well-planned and organised kidnapping and robbery and we are dealing with a criminal gang,” he said.

“Certainly, more than two persons were involved in this,” he said. “I have no doubt that a number of persons are involved in the planning and execution of this incident.”

Police want to trace two vehicles used by the gang, a white van spotted at Teeling Grove on Wednesday, registration: HEZ 6069.

They also want anyone who saw a brown/beige hatchback in the area of Muckamore Industrial Estate at around 5.20pm the following day to get in touch.

Mr Galloway said although the family were not injured, they were left traumatised.

“The family are deeply traumatised, you are dealing with a 16-year-old boy and two adults who had the terrifying ordeal of being removed and kept at a location overnight,” he said.

“It was clearly a traumatic incident that they went through.”

He added: “They were left in no doubt that if they did not co-operate and comply with the instructions that there lives would be in danger.”

The incident has led to cross-party condemnation.

Alliance MLA Trevor Lunn described it as an “extremely traumatic and horrific ordeal” for the family.

“They are callous thugs who are offering nothing to our society,” he said.

SDLP councillor for the area Brian Heading said: “It is disgusting that a man out trying to earn an honest living for his family has, along with his partner and son, been targeted and made to suffer in this way.”

Sinn Féin’s Jennifer McCann said the criminal gang involved in the attack need to be apprehended immediately.

“This type of criminal activity has no place in society and I would ask anyone with any information to pass it on to the PSNI,” she said.

Background

Tiger kidnappings — when gangs seize families of bank officials or keyholders of businesses as collateral until the victim has met their demands — are a familiar tactic used by paramilitaries and criminal gangs in Northern Ireland.

The incident in Teeling Grove, Dunmurry is the fourth such kidnapping to take place in Northern Ireland in 2011.

Called a tiger kidnapping because of the predatory stalking that precedes the crime, it often requires considerable inside information about the target.

One of the most high-profile cases was in 2004, when Northern Bank employees were forced to help a gang take more than £26m from the bank's central Belfast vault. In 2006 the PSNI reported a sharp rise within a year for tiger kidnappings with 11 cases occurring in 12 months.

In December 2008 a masked five-man gang armed with guns took over the home of a Marks and Spencer employee at Hannahstown on the outskirts of west Belfast.

Normal day that turned into a nightmare

What began as a normal day for a family of three in Dunmurry ended in a horrific and frightening 24 hours.

The traumatic ordeal of the victims’ — a father, his partner and his 16-year-old son — began just shortly after 6pm when they had just sat down to eat.

Two armed and masked men burst into their house in the Teeling Grove area of Lagmore.

The nightmare for the family would not end until 8pm the following day.

The armed men stayed no more than one hour at the house, issuing clear and concise instructions to the victim.

He had to go to work as normal to money courier firm Brinks-Mat the next day, then meet the gang at a specific location and hand over a ransom — thought to be £200,000.

If the instructions were not followed it was made clear the three victims’ lives would be in danger.

The criminals were aware of the hundreds of thousands of pounds he would have access to during his daily job.

The company collects and delivers large sums of cash to banks and other financial institutions in Northern Ireland.

After the instructions were given they abducted the man’s partner and son, forcing them into a white transit van outside.

Placing pillow cases over their heads, the frightened woman and teenager were driven away.

The next day, following the instructions, he attended work as ‘normal’ on Thursday.

At around 5.20pm he made his way to the meeting point in Raceview Industrial Estate in Muckamore, Co Antrim.

He handed over the ransom to the men who were in a brown/beige hatchback car.

His partner and son, meanwhile, had been taken from Belfast to Mullyash, near Castleblayney, in the back of a van.

It is not clear where they stayed overnight but they were fed by their captors.

The nightmare finally came to an end after Gardai, responding to a call that a vehicle was on fire found them.

It is believed they were found in a nearby shed.

The Gardai contacted the PSNI who launched an investigation into the incident.

PSNI Investigating officer, Detective Chief Inspector Justyn Galloway, said the family are now being extensively interviewed by officers in a bid to help track down the kidnappers.

Mr Galloway said while the family were not hurt, the incident had left them traumatised.

“The victims were in their own house and then faced with masked men holding guns, terrifying by any account,” he said

Read More

The phone-hacking scandal took a new twist on Friday as police said they had arrested a detective suspected of leaking information about the investigation into the News of the World.

Police separately said a 14th person, reportedly a former journalist at the now defunct tabloid owned by Rupert Murdoch, was arrested in connection with the original probe into the illegal hacking of mobile phone voicemails.
The Metropolitan Police Service (MPS) said in a statement that anti-corruption officers had arrested a 51-year-old officer working on Operation Weeting, the force's phone-hacking investigation.
Sky News television said he was accused of leaking information to The Guardian, the newspaper which has long been investigating the hacking at the News of the World.
"Officers from the MPS Directorate of Professional Standards Anti Corruption Unit have arrested a serving MPS officer from Operation Weeting on suspicion of misconduct in a public office relating to unauthorised disclosure of information as a result of a proactive operation," it said.
"The male detective constable, aged 51 years, was arrested at work yesterday afternoon. He has been bailed to return on 29 September 2011 pending further inquiries," it said.
The officer has been suspended as of Friday, the statement added.
Deputy Assistant Commissioner Sue Akers, the officer in charge of Operation Weeting, said the development was "hugely disappointing".
"I made it very clear when I took on this investigation the need for operational and information security. It is hugely disappointing that this may not have been adhered to," she said.
The owner of The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, said it "noted" the detective's arrest.
A spokeswoman added: "Journalists would no doubt be concerned if conversations between off-the-record sources and reporters came routinely to be regarded as criminal activity.
"In common with all news organisations we have no comment to make on the sources of our journalism."
In a separate statement, police said they had arrested a 35-year-old man by appointment on Friday at a London police station. He was bailed to return in October.
Britain's Press Association news agency named him as Dan Evans, a former News of the World feature writer previously sued by the stepmother of actress Sienna Miller over hacking.
James Desborough, the former US editor of the News of the World, was questioned by police over phone hacking on Thursday before being released on bail until October.
Police began investigating phone hacking in 2006, a probe which resulted in the jailing of private detective Glenn Mulcaire and the News of the World's royal editor Clive Goodman the following year.
Despite a steady stream of new claims, police did not reopen the probe until January this year.
A string of high-profile figures have been arrested, including former News of the World editors Rebekah Brooks and Andy Coulson, who also worked as Prime Minister David Cameron's communications chief.
The scandal has already caused the closure of the News of the World after 168 years and the resignation of the Metropolitan Police's two top officers.

Read More

James Desborough is fourth NOTW journalist recruited from 'The People' to be arrested, following Neil Wallis, Ian Edmondson and James Weatherup

The US editor of the News of the World, who provided the paper with a string of showbusiness scoops on both sides of the Atlantic, yesterday became the 13th person to be arrested by police investigating phone hacking at the now defunct Sunday tabloid.

James Desborough, who became the newspaper's Los Angeles-based correspondent in 2009 after winning an award as Britain's best showbusiness reporter, flew back from America to be arrested by appointment at a south London police station by officers from Scotland Yard's Operation Weeting on suspicion of conspiracy to intercept voicemails.


The 38-year-old is the first NOTW journalist working in America to be detained as part of the phone hacking scandal – prompting an excited reaction in the US – although it is understood that his arrest relates to his work for the paper while still working in Britain. He joined the NOTW as a showbusiness reporter in 2005 from its rival Sunday tabloid, The People.

In a statement, Scotland Yard said: "Officers from Operation Weeting have arrested a man on suspicion of conspiring to unlawfully intercept voicemails. He was arrested by appointment at a London police station and remains in custody."

Mr Desborough is the fourth journalist recruited from rival Sunday red-top The People to the NOTW under the editorship of former Downing Street communications chief Andy Coulson to have been arrested by officers from Weeting.

Neil Wallis, who joined the NOTW as deputy editor in 2003 from the Trinity Mirror-owned People, was arrested last month on suspicion of conspiracy to hack phone messages.

His former assistant editor at The People, Ian Edmondson, became one of the first journalists to be arrested by Weeting when he was detained in April following his dismissal from the NOTW four months earlier. James Weatherup, an assistant editor at the NOTW who was also arrested by Weeting officers in April, had worked alongside Mr Desborough, Mr Edmondson and Mr Wallis at The People.

Mr Desborough was considered to be one of the paper's best-performing journalists in the high-pressure world of Sunday tabloids, regularly beating rivals to showbusiness stories and notably scoring successes in his coverage of the break up of the marriage of Sir Paul McCartney and Heather Mills.

He was named showbusiness reporter of the year in the 2009 British Press Awards and was appointed the paper's US editor shortly afterwards. He was presented his award by Jon Snow, the Channel 4 News presenter.

Living in Hollywood and deploying the tactics of Britain's famously battle-hardened tabloid entertainment correspondents, Mr Desborough won plaudits for his work. His revelations about the investigation into the death of Michael Jackson included one story with the headline "Jacko had cocaine in his pants".

His arrest is the latest link between the phone hacking scandal and America. The Murdoch-owned Wall Street Journal reported this week that American authorities have widened their inquiry into News Corp to establish whether there are grounds for investigating corporate wrongdoing at the media giant's US subsidiaries.

But the paper said a separate inquiry by the FBI into claims that NOTW journalists tried to instruct a private investigator to hack the phones of victims of the 9/11 attacks had so far failed to find any "hard evidence" to substantiate the allegations.

'No celebrity with secrets can sleep easy'

When James Desborough was named Britain's best showbusiness journalist in 2009, the judging panel was in no doubt about its reasons for giving him the award. Its citation praised him for "uncompromising scoops which mean no celebrity with secrets can sleep easy".

After working for more than a decade in the PR-infested world of entertainment reporting, the News of the World hack had indeed secured a number of exclusives that would have been valuable to his editors. They included the revelation that Fern Britton, who claimed to have lost a large amount of weight by dieting and exercise, had in fact undergone gastric band surgery. Mr Desborough also broke the news that Peaches Geldof, daughter of Bob Geldof, was obtaining a divorce after a Las Vegas wedding.

But the reporter has not had an unblemished record. The NOTW paid an undisclosed sum to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt last year after it published a story written by Mr Desborough wrongly stating that the couple had split up. The journalist has insisted that his stories are not the result of cosy deals with publicists. After receiving his British Press Award in 2009, he said: "A lot of deals are done these days between PRs and papers... These stories were all old-fashioned journalism where we said: 'We know this to be true; would you like to comment?

 

Read More

Maltese ship heading for Tripoli under fire

A Maltese ship heading for Tripoli to pick up refugees came under fire and could not dock in the port, Polish foreign ministry officials were quoted as saying on Sunday by Polish state news agency PAP.

"The ship is waiting for a better moment to enter the port because during its first attempt it came under fire," Paulina Kapuscinska, a spokeswoman from the ministry, told PAP.

The ministry was not immediately available to confirm the report.

Poland has evacuated most of its citizens from Libya and moved its ambassador from Tripoli to rebel-held Benghazi, but some 250 people from mixed Polish-Libyan families have stayed behind, the ministry official added.

One family had hoped to leave on the Maltese ship, the MV Triva 1.

Heavy fighting in Libya's capital broke out late on Saturday between rebels and remnants of Muammar Gaddafi's forces as the rebel forces try to capture the capital Tripoli.

 

Read More

I'll bring our girls home says former partner of Turkey murder victim as local waiter confesses to crime

THE former partner of a woman stabbed to death with her best friend in Turkey has left Ireland to bring home their bodies.
Marion Graham and Kathy Dinsmore, both 53, from Newry, Co Down, are believed to have been murdered by teenage waiter Recep Cepis, who had been dating Marion's 15-year-old daughter Shannon.
Raymond McGuinness, Shannon's father, flew to Turkey yesterday to comfort his daughter.
He will also bring home Marion and Kathy's bodies.
Raymond admitted he had never been fully in favour of the relationship since the teens began going out last summer.
He added: "There was always something that was not quite right."
Marion and Kathy's bloodsoaked bodies were found in woods 75 miles north of Kusadasi. They had been stabbed and their throats cut.
Turkish sources say the killings were sparked after Marion refused to allow 17-year-old Cepis to marry Shannon.
Cepis, known to the family as Alex, has confessed to the killings after initially claiming the women had been kidnapped.
The teenager has been quizzed by a prosecutor and remains in custody. His father and a taxi driver were also arrested, but have since been released.
Marion and Kathy spent their summers in Turkey and Cepis began dating Shannon last year.
He is thought to have driven his victims out of Kusadasi on Thursday after Shannon went on a boat trip.
He had told Marion and Kathy he was taking them on a shopping trip. The alarm was raised when he arrived for work "in a distressed state" and claimed the women had been kidnapped.
He claimed he had tried to fight off kidnappers who had bundled Marion and Kathy into a van.
Raymond said: "He told Shannon he had tried to stop the kidnappers and had suffered a cut on his hand."
It is understood Cepis had been involved in a separate row with Shannon's mother last week.
He has already appeared at a preliminary court hearing but is yet to be formally charged.
Turkish police have yet to decide whether he will be tried as an adult or juvenile.
Marion's sister Monica Higgins said yesterday the family were "absolutely devastated" by the tragedy.
She added: "We've just found out. My mother's in the car crying her eyes out.
"We're trying to work with the Irish Department of Foreign Affairs to find out what exactly happened."
Shannon was comforted through the day by a Kusadasibased Irish hotelier at a police station in Izmir. An Irish Embassy official has also been sent from Ankara to support her.
Tragic Kathy, whose mother died just four weeks ago, worked for Newry and Mourne District Council. She worked in a local cab firm up until last Christmas.
The two women had been regular visitors to Kusadasi for years, staying in an apartment owned by Raymond.

 

Read More

A British adventurer has been killed by a starving polar bear which attacked an expedition organised by the British Schools Exploring Society.

Four other people were injured by the animal, which the group then shot dead, at the Von Postbreen glacier on the island of Spitsbergen, part of the Svalbard archipelago.

The party of around 80 were on a five-week expedition in the Arctic run by the BSES, a youth development charity.

The group alerted the authorities by satellite phone at 7.30am on Friday and the injured were airlifted by helicopter to hospital 25 miles away in Longyearbyen, the island's capital.

The four, including the two leaders of the trip, were named as Michael Reid, Andrew Ruck, Patrick Flinders and Scott Smith. They are due to be flown to University hospital in Tromso on the Norwegian mainland on Friday afternoon.

The BSES, which is based in Kensington, west London, has so far not released the name of the dead person.

A spokeswoman said: "There were about 80 people all told in the expedition. The young people are all between 16 and 23."

Liv Asta Odegaard, a spokeswoman for the governor of Svalbard, said: "We got a call via satellite phone from a British group of campers that there had been a polar bear attack and that one person was dead and that others were injured and they needed assistance.

"There are no roads in the area of the Von Postbreen glacier where the incident happened so we scrambled a helicopter."

The hospital said the boys had "moderate to serious skin injuries".

The BSES tour had been organised to introduce youngsters aged between 16 and 20 to "remote, wild environments to develop their confidence".

One expedition member, Marcus Wright, posted on a website last week: "I think we must have all dreamed of polar bears because the next day we were eagerly waiting for the ice floes to break up so we could move on to base camp.

"There was a P.bear sighting across the fjord about a mile away. We encountered another P.bear floating on the ice. This time we were lucky enough to borrow a kind Norwegian guide's telescope to see it properly.

"After that experience I can say for sure that everyone dreamed of P.bears that night."

The Arctic adventure expedition 2011 began on July 23 and was scheduled to run until August 28.

Students were told they would "venture into the untouched beauty and wilderness of Svalbard".

A blog charting the trip said the group would camp by the southern edge of the glacier, 400 miles to the north of Norway.

It read: "Once settled at base camp, you and your fire will move onto your fieldwork objectives – to enable this will be a healthy dose of adventure including glacial travel, snow shoeing, ice climbing and mountaineering dependent on your research plans.

"Once back at base camp there may be opportunity to walk back to Longyearbyen over 4 days with much lighter packs carrying essential supplies only, this carries on the BSES tradition of 'the long march'.

"This period will allow for personal reflection of your achievements and enjoyment of the green tundra after the snow and ice of the last weeks."

Earlier this year the Svalbard governor issued a warning about polar bears after several were seen close to Longyearbyen.

People who spotted the animals were asked to telephone a special number. The governor also reminded the public that seeking out and disturb polar bears violates local regulations and was punishable by a fine or jail.

Liv Rose Flygel, 55, an artist and airport worker who lives near the hospital, said: "It's not been the first time.

"Last summer a man was attacked by a polar bear and there have also been attacks on a man from Austria and a girl. Only the man in the attack last summer survived.

"The problem is when the ice goes the bears lose their way and cannot catch food. People don't really know how dangerous they are; one came down to the sea recently and people were running down to take pictures."

Sandra Swresser, a restaurant manager at Kroa bar in Svalbard, said: "It's very sad. We have had attacks before, it happened a year ago when a Norwegian man was attacked. As it was early in the morning I can only suppose the bear attacked them because it was looking for food."

A local source said: "This was a horrific attack. They are saying the bear was extremely hungry."

Dwindling sea ice in recent years has led to polar bears, which usually hunt seals, looking inland for food, including from the eggs of barnacle geese on the island.

Prince Harry visited Spitsbergen in March as part of a charity hike to raise money for British veterans with The Walking with the Wounded Team.

A spokesman for the British Foreign and Commonwealth Office said: "Our embassy in Oslo is urgently looking into reports of an incident in northern Norway."

Read More

More Journalists Killed in Mexico’s Drug War than in Afghanistan

For journalists covering the war on drugs beat in Mexico, a sojourn in war-torn Afghanistan might be a real treat:

A tally kept by the Committee to Protect Journalists shows attacks on reporters have intensified since President Felipe Calderon launched an army-led crackdown against drug gangs at the end of 2006. More than 40,000 people across Latin America’s second-biggest economy have died in the conflict.

At least Mexican 42 journalists have been murdered over the past five years, according to the CPJ, making it more deadly than Afghanistan.

Mexico’s human rights commission puts the number at 50.

Notably, for all this death and violence, the supply of drugs coming up from Mexico remains strong. Meanwhile, the Mexican press is intimidated – and not just by the cartels:

As they hunker down to work, reporters face an increasingly impossible task.

They often receive threats to hush up the capture of drug suspects because it makes the cartels look weak.

At the same time, gangs regularly alert the media to spectacular killings carried out by their hitmen. They often leave messages for their rivals on the bodies of their victims and then pressure local journalists to transmit those threats.

There is virtually no local news coverage of the violence in Tamaulipas, even when rival cartels go at each other in fierce street battles.

Reporters say the intimidation from soldiers is escalating and in some areas is as bad as, or even worse than, the pressure from gang leaders.

"With no search warrant and in a car with its plates blacked out, soldiers arrived at my office … and tried to take cameras and everything," said a journalist from Nuevo Laredo, just over the Rio Grande from Texas in Tamaulipas.

The War on Drugs is failing. In America it has led to mass incarceration and violence. In Mexico it has led to the deaths of tens of thousands of Mexican citizens. Nobody is winning and nobody will, and the flow of drugs will never stop. So long as there is a demand for drugs, the black market will find a way to supply it.

 

Read More