World News joined 0009

[DUKE NUKEM]

that is some scary stuff

[DUKE NUKEM]

when is this war going to be over

[DUKE NUKEM]

what is this world coming to

[Black Widow]

THE childminder of tortured Baby P revealed yesterday that she repeatedly warned Social Services about his pitiful condition — but they failed to act.

Gazing at the tragic 17-month-old’s teddy — by grim irony bearing the words “I love you” — Ann Walker said: “He was dying. I told them about his state. I said things were not right. But nothing was done.”

The tot’s death in Haringey, North London, from horrific abuse could have been avoided, Ann insisted.

She said: “If someone had taken action we would not be mourning the loss of a baby’s life. The warning signs were all there.”

Baby P died with 50 injuries including a broken back after eight months of agony.

Ann looked after him in his final five weeks of life. She was told it was to “give the mum a break”.

She was ordered to report any injuries she found to social worker Maria Ward. Ms Ward told Ann she would visit Baby P.

But Ann claimed she made just one brief visit.

She went on: “It was upsetting. Four or five times I phoned about bruises, marks, nappy rash and dried blood in his ear.

“He always smelt of vomit, his clothes were dirty. His fingers were black and nails were broken. Once he pulled off one of his fingernails.

“He had a large scab on his head that would weep blood. When I took him out of the highchair, I had to wash the blood off it. He was in a terrible state.

“I asked how all this happened. Maria said, ‘We’ve been told he’s accident prone’.”

Devastated Ann, 42, of Tottenham, North London, also claimed her reports were fed to Baby P’s mother.

She said: “Every time Maria had an explanation that she must have got from the mother.”

The Old Bailey heard Baby P’s 32-year-old sadist stepdad tortured the mite as his 27-year-old mum and paedophile lodger Jason Owen, 36, stood by.

All three await sentence.

PM Gordon Brown has ordered a probe into Haringey’s Social Services.

Today it was also revealed a social worker told the Government of failing child protection procedures in Haringey six months before the tragic death of Baby P.


The Sun

[JohnCenaFan28]

Thanks for the read.

[JohnCenaFan28]

The jobs carnage sweeping British industry has continued with a fresh wave of cuts ending a week in which unions believe up to 20,000 posts may have been lost.

Unite said changes at Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks would impact on 350 jobs, van-maker LDV announced plans to axe more than 90 production jobs, and the Royal Bank of Scotland is understood to be planning to cut 3,000 jobs from its global banking and markets workforce.

The announcements ended a grim week on the employment front, with a raft of UK companies including BT, JCB, truckmaker Leyland, Virgin Media, Yell and GlaxoSmithKline all shedding labour.

More job losses are predicted, with increasingly dire predictions about the jobless total. Business groups and analysts are constantly revising their expectations up, with some now believing unemployment will go over three million.

The Royal Bank of Scotland, which is in line for a £20 billion taxpayer handout to help shore up its finances, is understood to be cutting posts from its global banking and markets workforce over the coming weeks. A spokeswoman for RBS declined to comment in detail about the job cuts, but she said: "We constantly review our operating model to make sure that it is appropriate to the market condition, and take action accordingly."

Unite said its members at Clydesdale and Yorkshire banks felt "let down" by the move by owners the National Australia Group (NAG). The union said some of the jobs were being outsourced, although it had been assured there would be no compulsory redundancies.

National officer Mary Alexander said: "Outsourcing is a bitter pill to swallow. The industry is engulfed in crisis and staff across the financial services are worried about their jobs. NAG have committed to avoiding compulsory redundancies but our members feel very let down."

The banks said they had agreed a strategic alliance with AXA Life which would handle their 2.3 million retail customers from next year. The 129-strong team of financial planners based in Clydesdale and Yorkshire Banks' 342 retail branches would transfer to AXA.

Birmingham-based LDV, which makes about 10,000 vehicles a year, said it intended to shed 95 full-time manufacturing posts due to falling demand for its vans, particularly in Russia and eastern Europe. A company spokesman said the cuts at its Washwood Heath plant, which employs about 1,000 workers, were being made as a direct consequence of a world-wide drop in sales of its Maxus model.

TUC general secretary Brendan Barber said: "This has been the week when the credit crunch started to bite the real economy with job losses and redundancies coming thick and fast every day. The Government now needs to be as bold in tackling unemployment as it has been in preventing a financial meltdown."

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Gordon Brown has pledged that he would do "everything in my power" to prevent a repeat of the Baby P tragedy.

The Prime Minister spoke as it emerged that ministers were warned about Haringey Council's child protection services six months before the little boy's harrowing death.

Speaking on a trip to New York, Mr Brown said: "I am determined to do everything in my power to make sure that this does not happen again. Every family needs to know that their children are safe at night."

He acknowledged there had been correspondence with ministers but refused to be drawn on the details.

Haringey has apologised for not doing more to protect 17-month-old Baby P who died in a blood-spattered cot having suffered more than 50 injuries. Social workers failed to raise the alarm despite 60 visits over an eight-month period, in which time he suffered more than 50 injuries.

Attention is now likely to turn to the Government after it was revealed the council's performance was flagged up by whistleblower Nevres Kemal in February last year - six months before Baby P's death in August.

Downing Street has insisted the correct procedures were followed concerning the whistleblower's claims. "There is an appropriate body for complaints regarding social care," a spokesman said. "It is right that complaints should be directed to the Commission for Social Care Inspection to take appropriate action."

Later, Baby P's natural father has spoken for the first time of his devastation. The father, who cannot be named for legal reasons, condemned the three people convicted of involvement in his son's death.

He said in a statement: "Those who systematically tortured P and killed him kept it a secret, not just from me but from all the people who visited the house up until P's death. Even after he died, they lied to cover up their abuse."

Meanwhile, the three people convicted of involvement in killing Baby P were warned that they faced "substantial" terms in prison. Old Bailey Judge Stephen Kramer told the mother, her boyfriend and 36-year-old Jason Owen that they should not be fooled into thinking otherwise because he had ordered pre-sentence reports. The 27-year-old woman and 32-year-old man from Haringey, north London, and Owen, from Bromley, south east London, were remanded in custody on Tuesday and will be sentenced on December 15.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Loyalist killer Michael Stone has been found guilty of attempting to murder Sinn Fein leaders Gerry Adams and Martin McGuinness in an armed attack on the Northern Ireland Parliament.

The 53-year-old former UDA member was convicted at Belfast Crown Court of the incident at Stormont in November 2006 when he stormed the building, while the Assembly was in session, armed with explosives and other weapons.

Stone, who gained notoriety in 1988 when he killed three mourners at an IRA funeral in West Belfast, claimed his actions at Stormont were all part of an elaborate performance art display. Delivering his judgment in the non-jury trial, Mr Justice Deeney rejected this claim as being "wholly undeserved of belief".

TV cameras in situ to cover political developments in the stalling Northern Ireland peace process captured the moment Stone burst through the revolving doors and was hauled to the ground by two security guards - both of whom were later honoured for their bravery.

The judge said defence evidence that Stone had been taking part in some sort of a "comic parody" was "hopelessly unconvincing" and "self-contradictory". "I am satisfied that Mr Stone went to Stormont to try and murder the two Sinn Fein leaders on November 24 2006," he said.

After the verdict was read out, Stone, dressed in trademark denim jacket and jeans, shouted from the dock: "It is another concession to the Shinners (Sinn Fein)."

As well as the two attempted murder charges, he was convicted on seven other counts, including possession of nail bombs, three knives, a garrotte and an axe, as well as causing criminal damage to the Stormont building.

But Crown prosecutors dismissed these theories as nonsense, accusing Stone of dreaming them up after the event in a bid to explain away murderous intentions. The judge concurred with that assessment and said the defence had failed to put any doubt in his mind that Stone had set out to kill the senior republicans.

The event happened four months before the historic power-sharing deal between Sinn Fein and the Democratic Unionists on the day Ian Paisley and Martin McGuinness were due to be nominated as Northern Ireland's new First and Deputy First Ministers.

The trial, which was interrupted in June when Stone sacked some of his legal team, ended in late September with Mr Deeney taking the last six weeks to reach the judgment. Stone, who was released from prison on licence under the terms of the 1998 Good Friday Peace Agreement, will be sentenced next month.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

The Lockerbie bomber has failed in his bid to be freed on bail.

Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed Al Megrahi applied for interim release from jail pending the outcome of an appeal against conviction.

But judges at the Court of Criminal Appeal rejected the application from his defence team.

It emerged last month that the 56-year-old former Libyan intelligence agent had been diagnosed with prostate cancer and the disease had spread to other parts of his body.

Al Megrahi is serving a life sentence with a minimum term of 27 years for the bombing of Pan Am flight 103 in 1988 which led to the deaths of 270 people.

British relatives' spokesman Dr Jim Swire, whose daughter Flora was killed, said it was difficult to see the justification for the decision to refuse bail.

"It has never been a goal of our group to seek revenge," said a statement read out on Dr Swire's behalf. "And the refusal of a return to his family for a dying man whose verdict is not even yet secure looks uncomfortably like either an aspect of revenge - or perhaps timidity."

Al Megrahi, who was not in court, was taken from his prison cell in HMP Greenock under tight security to undergo tests at Inverclyde Royal Hospital in Greenock in September.

In a statement read by his solicitor, Tony Kelly, outside court, Al Megrahi said: "I am very distressed that the court has refused me bail pending the hearing of my appeal and the chance to spend my remaining time with my family. I wish to reiterate that I had nothing whatsoever to do with the Lockerbie bombing and that the fight for justice will continue regardless of whether I am alive to witness my name being cleared."

Al Megrahi was convicted of the Lockerbie bombing in 2001. He lost an appeal in 2002, but was given a fresh chance to clear his name in June last year when the Scottish Criminal Cases Review Commission (SCCRC) referred his case back to appeal judges for a second time. His appeal is due to be heard next year.

-Nova

[JohnCenaFan28]

Up to 1,350 illegal workers have slipped through another loophole in vetting for sensitive security jobs, the Tories claimed.

The Security Industry Authority (SIA) was accused of "incompetence" after it emerged licences were revoked when it discovered the immigrants' right to work in the UK had lapsed.

Thousands of three-year licences have been issued to applicants, even though their right to work was due to expire earlier.

There are fears that could mean businesses were misled over the status of employees, allowing them to hold on to jobs by showing valid licences.

Shadow home secretary Dominic Grieve said the news was more evidence of "systematic incompetence" by the SIA, and he demanded answers from Home Secretary Jacqui Smith.

"Barely a year after they were hauled over the coals for granting 7,000 illegal immigrants security clearance - and trying to cover it up - we now learn that, as a result of loopholes, the Government has granted over 1,000 more licences to individuals whose immigration status is about to expire," he said.

"When was the minister planning on telling us about this latest debacle? The former head of the SIA resigned over vetting failures last week. At what point will this Home Secretary start to take some responsibility for her department? This episode is yet another illustration of how this Government cannot discharge its first duty - to protect the public."

The SIA's systems were overhauled last year after it was disclosed that applicants' right to work was not being checked, with some illegal immigrants working in Whitehall departments and even guarding the Prime Minister's car. But last week the authority's chief executive, Mike Wilson, was forced to quit after confirming his own staff had not been properly vetted. The National Audit Office also condemned the body for going £17 million over budget.

Officials acted to deal with the new "loophole" last month. Letters were sent out to 2,000 individuals who no longer appeared to be allowed to work legally, according to an SIA spokeswoman. "We recently identified (in partnership with the UK Border Agency) some 2,000 licences that are currently in force, where the right to work may have expired," she said.

"We started appropriate procedures in relation to those individuals. Those who failed to respond with evidence of a continuing right to work (some 1,350) have had their licences revoked and those details appear on the public Register of Licence Holders."

-Nova