International Law

Detention centres attacked as figures reveal self-harm by asylum-seekers

Posted on April 19, 2008
Detention centres attacked as figures reveal self-harm by asylum-seekers"The true cost of using detention centres to lock up failed asylum-seekers has been exposed by statistics showing the extent of self-harm among those held.Figures show that in the last four months of 2007, 42 people needed medical attention for self-harm in Britain's 10 centres...

Doherty put in isolation 'for his own protection'

Posted on April 19, 2008
Doherty put in isolation 'for his own protection'"It seemed that nothing could get worse for the jailed rock star Pete Doherty: first he lost his supermodel girlfriend Kate Moss, then he was locked up in Wormwood Scrubs for breaching bail conditions, and soon it was alleged he was taking heroin behind bars...

Almost 3,000 children now held in custody

Posted on April 19, 2008
Almost 3,000 children now held in custody"A drive to cut the number of children behind bars in England and Wales ? the highest in western Europe ? has failed.The Youth Justice Board (YJB) has missed its target to reduce by 10 per cent the number of youngsters in custody between 2005 and 2008, it will announce later this month...

Inmates win ?cold turkey? payout

Posted on April 19, 2008
Inmates win ?cold turkey? payout"Taxpayers have footed a £1 million compensation bill after almost 200 drug-addicted prisoners sued the Government, claiming that denying them a heroin substitute breached their human rights.The prisoners claimed that their rights were infringed when they were deprived of methadone and had to go ?cold turkey?".

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If there is no genuine terrorist threat let's invent one...

Posted on April 18, 2008
If there is no genuine terrorist threat let's invent one...There is a danger of over reaction in calling speeches and heckling acts of terrorism.Similarly, why disturb residents to carry out a controlled explosion at 2am?

'Pc lied about car chase to avoid speed fine'

Posted on April 18, 2008
'Pc lied about car chase to avoid speed fine'"A police firearms specialist faces jail after inventing a bogus car chase in an attempt to avoid a speed camera offence.Richard Holding switched on the blue lights of his police Range Rover when he realised he was going too fast through a speed trap...

Police capture escaped rapist

Posted on April 18, 2008
Police capture escaped rapist"Armed officers have arrested a rapist who escaped from a secure hospital in London two months ago.Terrence O'Keefe, 39, was detained by police in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, on Thursday morning.O'Keefe, who is serving a life sentence for rape and is a secure patient at Lambeth Hospital, fled while being treated at King's College Hospital".

Ex-royal butler on rape charges

Posted on April 17, 2008
Ex-royal butler on rape charges"A former royal butler has been remanded in custody after appearing in court accused of nine counts of raping boys".

Former Tory MP arrested over assault

Posted on April 17, 2008
Former Tory MP arrested over assault"Former Welsh office minister Rod Richards has been arrested following an alleged assault on a Conservative party worker".

When a blind eye leads to death

Posted on April 17, 2008
When a blind eye leads to death"The deadly beating of a man in a California jail is a tragic consequence of a criminal justice system that sanctions violence".

Six charged over Rhys Jones murder

Posted on April 17, 2008
Six charged over Rhys Jones murder"A 17-year-old youth was charged last night with the murder of Rhys Jones, the 11-year-old boy who was shot dead in a pub car park in Liverpool last August.The youth was one of six people to be charged with offences in connection with the death of the schoolboy, who was shot through the neck and died in his mother?s arms"...

OFT names 112 building firms in bid-rigging scandal

Posted on April 17, 2008
OFT names 112 building firms in bid-rigging scandal"The Office of Fair Trading has today formally accused 112 construction firms in England of participating in "bid rigging", in its biggest investigation of cartel activity to date.Some of the biggest names in construction in the UK ? including Balfour Beatty, Carillion, Connaught, Interserve and Kier ? have been accused of ripping off the public sector to the tune of hundreds of millions of pounds...

US Supreme Court rejects lethal injection challenge

Posted on April 17, 2008
US Supreme Court rejects lethal injection challenge"A challenge to the most common form of lethal injection used in executions in the United States was rejected by the Supreme Court yesterday. The death chamber at the Southern Ohio Corrections FacilityStates began using the three-druglethal injection method in 1978In a 7-2 vote, it threw out a claim by two inmates in Kentucky that a three-drug cocktail currently used amounted to unconstitutional "cruel and unusual punishment"...

Burglar jailed over ear-print wins appeal

Posted on April 17, 2008
Burglar jailed over ear-print wins appeal"A burglar who was convicted on the evidence of an ear-print left on a window had his conviction quashed by the Court of Appeal on Wednesday.Mark Kempster was said to have been listening for sounds from a pensioner's house before breaking in eight years ago...

Tories call second-chance scheme for young offenders a 'soft touch'

Posted on April 16, 2008
Tories call second-chance scheme for young offenders a 'soft touch'"The extension of a scheme giving young offenders a second chance to avoid prison, revealed by The Herald yesterday, has been decried by Tories as a "soft touch".The extension of the "structured deferred sentence" scheme to Glasgow and Tayside follows a successful trial in five areas...

Prison dismisses poor drug record

Posted on April 16, 2008
Prison dismisses poor drug record"A prison governor claims statistics which imply his jail has a poor drugs record do not reflect the true picture.Recent government figures show over the last five years that one in ten of the total prison drug finds in England and Wales were in Forest Bank in Salford".

Justice Secretary Jack Straw loses right to block release for prisoners

Posted on April 16, 2008
Justice Secretary Jack Straw loses right to block release for prisoners"The Justice Secretary lost his last power to block the release of dangerous prisoners from jail yesterday when the Court of Appeal ruled that it was a breach of human rights.Three judges ended the 40-year power of ministers to reject recommendations from the Parole Board for the release of prisoners".

Record online libel damages awarded

Posted on April 15, 2008
Record online libel damages awarded"A social housing firm and its owner have been awarded the UK's highest internet libel damages at the high court after an anonymous news and discussion site agreed to pay £100,000 compensation following a campaign of defamation and harassment".

Warning over jail radicalisation

Posted on April 15, 2008
Warning over jail radicalisation"Officers are "insufficiently trained" to combat radicalisation at a major jail housing prisoners on terrorism offences, says the prisons watchdog".

McCanns: Childkillers spin doctor criticises the police

Posted on April 15, 2008
McCanns: Childkillers spin doctor criticises the policeClarence Mitchell the spin doctor employed by the McCanns to try and convince the world of their innocence in the death and disappearance of Madeleine, has been criticised by the Portuguese police for being an interfering busybody...

Whine about wine

Posted on April 15, 2008
Whine about wineI fail to see how the example of this one teenager being a binge drinker, produces this conclusion "It shows how binge drinking has a fatal grip on Britain". Even allowing for other people binge drinking it does not mean that the rest of society is in danger of becoming alcoholics.

Posh nosh

Posted on April 15, 2008
Posh noshThe Royal Family are no strangers to eating rich food. But, it is posh nosh of another kind which is interesting some people at the moment. Because it is being alleged that Viscount Linley gave one of his male servants a nosh. Whilst this may or may not be food for thought, it is absurd that the court refers to Viscount Linley as "Witness A" and the BBC refers to Viscount Linley as "the unidentified royal"...

HULL EX-POLICE CHIEF 'TO ADMIT CHILD PORN OFFENCES'

Posted on April 15, 2008
HULL EX-POLICE CHIEF 'TO ADMIT CHILD PORN OFFENCES'A former Humberside Police chief is set to admit possessing child pornography.Ex-humberside Police Chief Superintendent Alec Edward Alexander, is charged with seven counts of possessing indecent photographs of children...

Nick Clegg exposed as a secret Tory

Posted on April 15, 2008
Nick Clegg exposed as a secret ToryCould it be that the reason Nick Clegg recently talked about his secret sexual past was to hide the skeleton in his closet that at Cambridge he was a member of the Cambridge University Conservative Association?More on the story here and here...

The grass is greener on the other side of the Humber Bridge

Posted on April 14, 2008
The grass is greener on the other side of the Humber Bridge"Cannabis with a street value of about £4m has been found growing in offices at a business centre near Scunthorpe".

Man leaves £180k violin on train

Posted on April 14, 2008
Man leaves £180k violin on train"A £10,000 reward is being offered for the return of a valuable 17th Century violin which was left on a train".Is this an insurance fiddle?In any event, this quote caught my attention: "It was just one of those terrible moments when I realised, as the train was steaming off, that I had left it on the train"...

MPs 'will buy' 42-day detention

Posted on April 14, 2008
MPs 'will buy' 42-day detention"A Home Office minister says he believes plans to extend detention of terror suspects will get through Parliament - saying he thinks MPs "will buy it".Tony McNulty told the BBC that concerns about the plans to extend the limit on holding suspects without charge from 28 to 42 days were "reasonable"...

Self-harm 'on the rise' in jails

Posted on April 14, 2008
Self-harm 'on the rise' in jails"Rates of self-harming in prisons are increasing, a charity has warned.The Howard League for Penal Reform said there were 22,459 self-harm incidents in jails in England and Wales last year, up from 16,393 in 2003.It found the 37% rise in four years outstripped the rate of increase in the prison population by four times...

'Betrayed' Iraqi staff in test case over UK's refusal to offer asylum

Posted on April 14, 2008
'Betrayed' Iraqi staff in test case over UK's refusal to offer asylum"Iraqi interpreters, clerical staff and labourers who face death threats and persecution after risking their lives working for British forces are challenging the Government's refusal to grant them sanctuary in the UK...

Numbers Game

Posted on April 14, 2008
Numbers GameIt beggars belief that the Zimbabwe Election Commission has ordered a recount of the votes for the presidential election held more than 2 weeks ago before all the votes have been counted or the result announced.Those ballot boxes opened and the votes counted showed that Robert Mugabe lost the election...

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