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ReutersQuote:
The personal details of up to British 600,000 people were lost when a Royal Navy officer's laptop was stolen in the latest embarrassment to hit Prime Minister Gordon Brown.
The Defense Ministry said the laptop, containing personal information about people who had joined the Navy, Marines and Air Force and from people keen to join, was stolen from the officer in the central English city of Birmingham.
The timing could not be worse for Brown, currently on a trade visit to China and India. He is seeking to put behind him several government blunders that have seen his popularity plummet in opinion polls.
In November, details on 25 million child benefit claimants were lost by the Revenue and Customs department and a week later information on three million learner drivers went missing.
Last month, it also was revealed that medical records had disappeared at some health trusts.
In the latest case, entries on the stolen computer included family and passport details which could be used by fraudsters bent on identity theft.
Police said the theft was being "thoroughly and professionally investigated" by their officers in conjunction with the Ministry of Defence.
The theft took place on January 9 but was not revealed until nine days later because of the possible impact that might have on the investigation, the Ministry of Defence said.
Media reports of the security gaffe prompted them to change their mind.
In a statement, it said: "The stolen laptop contained personal information relating to some 600,000 people who have either expressed an interest in, or have joined, the Royal Navy, Royal Marines and the Royal Air Force.
The information held is not the same for every individual. In some cases, for casual inquiries, the record is no more than a name."
But it did concede that "for those who progressed as far as submitting an application to join the Forces, extensive personal data may be held, including passport details, National Insurance numbers, drivers' licence details, family details, doctors' addresses and National Health Service numbers."
Revealing such a wide array of information could have devastating consequences for anyone trying to defend themselves from identify theft.
Banks holding personal accounts that could have been affected by the security breach have been "flagged for scrutiny against unauthorised access."
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MAN OF PEACE: George Clooney is the latest celebrity to take on a role with the Untied Nations
Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon has named US actor George Clooney, who has campaigned for refugees in Darfur, as a UN "messenger of peace" to promote the world body's peacekeeping efforts.
Clooney is the ninth UN messenger - people chosen from the fields of art, music, literature and sports who have agreed to help focus attention on the United Nations' work.
UN spokeswoman Michele Montas said Clooney would have a special emphasis on peacekeeping. She said he had been "recognised for focusing public attention on crucial international political and social issues."
Clooney, who is currently in Sudan, will receive his designation on January 31 at UN headquarters.
With fellow actors Don Cheadle and Brad Pitt, Clooney, 46, has used his celebrity status to raise money for refugees through their Not On Our Watch charity and draw attention to the crisis in Darfur in western Sudan.
The United Nations is trying to deploy a peacekeeping force in Darfur, where international experts say some 200,000 people have been killed and more than 2 million driven from their homes in fighting between Sudan's government and Darfur rebels.
Clooney has starred in a number of films with political themes and won an Oscar in 2005 for his role in Syriana.
Last month, he and Cheadle were honoured by Nobel peace laureates in Rome for their efforts in Darfur.
The other UN messengers of peace are actor Michael Douglas, musicians Daniel Barenboim, Midori Goto and Yo-Yo Ma, authors Paulo Coelho and Elie Wiesel, naturalist Jane Goodall and Olympic equestrian Princess Haya of Jordan.
The programme was started by Ban's predecessor, Kofi Annan, in 1998.
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BBCQuote:
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Cars were still driving along Gaza City's darkened streets
The only power plant in the Hamas-run Gaza Strip has shut down because of a lack of fuel, Palestinian officials say, blaming Israeli restrictions.
Gaza City was plunged into darkness after the plant's turbines stopped.
Israel's closure of border crossings amid continued rocket fire from Gaza has brought the delivery of almost all supplies, including fuel, to a halt.
But Israel, which provides 60% of Gaza's power, says the territory still has sufficient fuel stocks.
The UN says Gaza's 1.5m inhabitants face serious hardship.
Reports from Gaza say people are trying to stock up on candles and batteries, as well as basic foodstuffs.
One grocer in Gaza City, Sami Mousa, told the Associated Press the shopping fever would be worse except that "people don't have the money to buy".
'Running out'
"We have just shut down the entire power plant," Derar Abu Sissi, a senior official at the Gaza plant, said on Sunday night.
"At least 800,000 people are now in darkness. The catastrophe will affect hospitals, medical clinics, water wells, houses, factories, all aspects of life."Quote:
GAZA'S ELECTRICITY SOURCES
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Gaza uses 200 megawatts of electricity annually
Israel supplies 60% of this, and Egypt 8%
The remaining 32% is produced by Gaza's power station
Israel supplies the fuel oil for the Gaza power station
Several thousand residents staged a candle-lit march through Gaza City after the blackout.
The Palestinian Energy Authority (PEA) had begun shutting the plant's turbines early in the morning.
The plant's director, Rafik Maliha, said earlier that the regular fuel delivery from Israel had not arrived because the fuel terminal, Nahal Oz, was closed and the facility had almost no reserves.
The closure comes amid the peak winter demand for electricity.
Christopher Gunness, spokesman for the UN relief agency UNWRA, predicted the closure of the power station would "have a significant impact on the daily lives of hundreds of thousands of people in Gaza".
Most Gazans are reliant on fuel imports and humanitarian supplies.
One pharmacist in Gaza, Maher Abu Halawa, told the BBC he was quickly running out of supplies.
"All this affects patients, especially the diabetes patients whose medicine has completely run out," he said.
"Medications needed for cancer patients have also run out completely... We have also run out of children's medications, particularly vaccines."
'No shortage'
Shlomo Dror, a spokesman for Israel's defence ministry, insisted the power station had enough fuel to continue functioning.
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Israel says border closures will stop if the rocket attacks end
"If they shut it down, it's not because of a fuel shortage, but because they want to create the impression of a crisis," he said.
He described the closure of the power station as "not comfortable but not a humanitarian crisis".
Israel, which shut the borders on Thursday, has reduced the flow of petrol used in cars and diesel to the strip but says fuel oil and cooking gas are not affected.
Israeli foreign ministry spokesman Arye Mekel said the border closures were intended to apply pressure to the Palestinian authorities to stop militants in Gaza firing rockets at Israel.
"If they stop the rockets today, everything would go back to normal," he said.
More than 200 rockets and mortars have hit Israel from Gaza since an Israeli operation against militants on Tuesday which left 18 Palestinians dead, the military says.
Israeli ministers meeting on Sunday decided to maintain the border closure for the time being, an unnamed source told AFP news agency.
Hamas said its attacks on Israel would not cease because of the sanctions.
"We will not raise the white flag and we will not surrender," spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri told the London-based independent Quds Press web news agency.
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Louis de Cazenave became a railwayman after the war
One of the last two surviving French World War I veterans has died aged 110.
Louis de Cazenave, who fought in the Battle of the Somme in 1916, died in his sleep at his home in Brioude, central France, his son, Louis, said.
Mr de Cazenave's death means the last French WWI veteran is now Lazare Ponticelli, also aged 110.
President Nicolas Sarkozy sent the "nation's condolences" to Mr de Cazenave's family and paid tribute to all those who were killed in the war.
Peaceful end
Mr de Cazenave, born on 16 October 1897 signed up in 1916 and served with a number of different infantry and artillery regiments, including the fifth Senegalese battalion.
After the end of the war he returned to civilian life and became a railwayman. He married and had three sons before retiring at the age of 41.Quote:
This generation has only one remaining representative today
President Nicolas Sarkozy
"He died as he wanted to, at home," his son said. "He had stopped speaking yesterday, he had a peaceful death. He didn't suffer at all."
Mr de Cazenave will be buried on Tuesday in a simple ceremony in Brioude.
Mr Sarkozy said his death was an occasion "for all of us to think of the 1.4m French who sacrificed their lives during this conflict, for the 4.5m wounded, for the 8.5m mobilised".
"This generation has only one remaining representative today," he said in a statement.
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Electricity has been restored to parts of Zimbabwe after a major blackout on Saturday night, reports say.
The blackout affected the capital, Harare, as well as the city of Bulawayo, and smaller towns including Mutare, Victoria Falls and Kariba.
Mains water pressure dropped, mobile phone connections were erratic and newspapers were not published.
Zimbabwe, which is in the midst of an economic crisis, has been experiencing power supply problems for some time.
Power is being restored gradually, although some parts of Harare are still said to be without electricity. The supply there has been irregular at best, for some months.
This apparent failure of the national grid is just the latest in a series of problems facing the Zimbabwean authorities.
Zimbabwe imports much of its electricity from neighbouring countries, but as the economic crisis has worsened, there's been a shortage of foreign currency with which to pay for supplies.
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Mr Walters says Mr Chavez is complicit in the drugs trade
A top US anti-drugs official has accused Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez of being a "major facilitator" of the trade in cocaine.
The official, John Walters, said Venezuela had become "a haven" for shipments of cocaine manufactured in neighbouring Colombia.
Venezuela rejects the charges, saying it is the victim of traffickers.
But Mr Walters, speaking on a visit to Colombia, said failure to deal with the problem amounted to complicity.
Mr Walters, director of the US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP), was meeting Colombian President Alvaro Uribe.
US officials say about one third of Colombia's output of 600 tonnes of cocaine a year now passes through Venezuela, most of it going to America and Europe.
'Colluding'
Mr Walters said Mr Chavez had failed to root out corrupt officials or to deny Venezuelan ports and airfields to smugglers.
Such failure, he said, came from more than neglect.
"It goes beyond 'I can't do it' to 'I won't do it'. And 'I won't do it' means that 'I am colluding'," Mr Walters said.
"I think it is about time to face up to the fact that President Chavez is becoming a major facilitator of the transit of cocaine to Europe and other parts of this hemisphere."
Mr Walters' declaration served two purposes, says the BBC's Jeremy McDermott in Colombia.
The first is to support Colombia's President Uribe, a key regional ally.
Colombia's relations with Venezuela have all but disintegrated amid fears that Mr Chavez may start actively supporting Marxist guerrillas who are trying to overthrow the Colombian state.
The second is to berate Mr Chavez publicly for not co-operating with Washington's region-wide drug strategy.
Relations between Venezuela and the US are now so poor that US drug enforcement agents can hardly operate in the country, our correspondent says
BBC
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HERO MOURNED: Children stood alongside adventurers, backpackers and lunching businessmen at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell where Sir Edmund Hillary lay in state in the leadup to today's funeral.
After a slow and dignified march, the casket containing the body of Sir Edmund Hillary is now at the altar of St Mary's Church. His state funeral takes place later today.
The casket had been lying in state in the adjourning Holy Trinity Anglican Cathedral where thousands of people over the last 24 hours have paid their respects.
Just after 8.30am the Cathedral was closed ahead of the moving of the casket.
The ice axe and carved walking stick as well as Sir Edmund's medals and honours were paraded out.
Then eight senior military non-commissioned officers - four from the Navy, two from the Army and two from the Air Force - lifted the casket onto their shoulders. A navy drummer beat out a slow step on his muffled drum as they carried the casket out of the cathedral, around the side and into the much smaller St Mary's.
The kauri-panelled church gleamed in the weak early morning sun.
Yesterday's heavy rain has given way to a cloudy, solemn day.
Among those watching was writer Jan Morris who had been with Sir Edmund on Everest and broke the news to the world of success in 1953.
She said that at one point she wondered if Sir Ed would succumb to the lure of celebrity.
"But he was stronger than that; he was too basically good."
Thousands of people paid their respects yesterday and overnight.
They wore jandals, homespun jerseys, Bananas in Pyjamas raincoats and pinstripe suits, as Kiwis young and old queued patiently in the rain and muggy weather to celebrate a life lived in pursuit of adventure.
Children stood alongside adventurers, backpackers and lunching businessmen at Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell where Sir Edmund Hillary lay in state in the leadup to today's funeral.
While today family members, friends, foreign dignitaries and politicians take centre-stage, yesterday was for the people.
Palmerston North teacher Margaret Whyte arrived at 9am and was the first person in the public queue, braving the relentless rain and wind. As a teacher of five-year-olds, she said she knew the inspirational effect his story had on youngsters. "He was just a wonderful person."
Retired Welsh couple Daniel and Jacky O'Connell popped across the road from their bed and breakfast to pay their respects.
Mr O'Connell said he remembered sitting in a cinema to watch the Queen's coronation and hearing that Sir Ed had conquered Everest. "I always thought he was British - they made such a thing of it."
Hillary family friend Tom Scott said he watched for several hours yesterday as the public filed into the church and "found myself getting incredibly tearful".
Mourners had watched the hearse carrying Sir Ed's casket arrive at the cathedral at 10am yesterday, welcomed by local iwi Ngati Whatua.
It was then carried into the cavernous nave of the cathedral by eight New Zealand Defence Force staff marching in perfect unison. A single drummer tapped out a slow beat as hundreds looked on in silence.
In opening the state funeral for Sir Ed, the Very Rev Ross Bay thanked Lady Hillary and family for "allowing us and the nation to share him with you".
Nepalese friends, from the land where Sir Ed found fame 55 years ago, filed in behind the family, fingertips touching, heads bowed. Wreaths were laid by Governor-General Anand Satyanand, on behalf of the Queen, whose coronation coincided with Sir Ed's ascent of Everest in 1953, Prime Minister Helen Clark and leaders of other political parties.
As dignitaries filed out of the nave, family members gathered around the coffin, seeing the medals laid out at Sir Ed's feet, the ice axe that forged his path to the tip of Everest, a tukutuku ceremonial cane on the coffin near where khata - Nepalese blessing scarves - had been placed, and candles under a portrait of Sir Ed.
Miss Clark was visibly grieving the loss of a man she had grown up hearing about. "We lost our greatest hero, simple as that."