UK waters left unprotected by Navy warships in October - BBC News

1 November 2011 Last updated at 13:54 ET

The UK was not protected by any warships during October, the Ministry of Defence (MoD) has confirmed.

The Royal Navy's cutbacks and presence in Libya meant UK waters were without the minimum coverage of a frigate or destroyer as Fleet Ready Escort (FRE).

The last FRE ship, which can react to incidents such as terrorism, was Devon-based HMS Portland on 3 October.

The MoD said although no warship was on FRE duty one could have been allocated within 24 hours.

The FRE is a warship which is ready to react to an emergency, such as a terrorist attack, in UK waters or abroad.

Frigate cuts

But the MoD said cuts to its fleet in the Strategic Defence and Strategy Review (SDSR), which reduced the number of its frigates from 24 to 19, and its commitments to the Nato mission in Libya, had left it unable to fill the role for a month.

A Royal Navy spokesman said: "Due to the successful deployment of Royal Navy units to the Libya campaign, it has been necessary to reprofile the commitments of some ships.

"Should a FRE activation be required, a Royal Navy ship would be allocated."

HMS Portland left the role of FRE on 3 October to take part in the Joint Warrior Nato exercise off Scotland.

The spokesman said that although no ship had been specifically tasked, one of the vessels taking part in the exercise could have responded within 24 hours.

The next FRE will be formally notified on 7 November but if one was required prior to that it would be nominated immediately, the spokesman added.

Nokia Trials Free Wi-Fi in London - Wired News

A London bus. The last thing you'll see if you cross the street distracted by free Wi-Fi. Photo Charlie Sorrel

If you live in London, and own a portable device with Wi-Fi, then today is your lucky day. Nokia has just launched a trial service offering free Wi-Fi in Central London. Better yet — if it works, then the Finnish company will turn it into a full (and still free) service.

The trial will be concentrated around Oxford Street in the West End, but also has hotspots in Victoria, Marylebone and Westminster. Users won't need to sign up or sign in. It'll be just like joining the Wi-Fi network that your neighbor foolishly left open.

The 20 Megabit pipes will be limited to 1Mbit per user, to stop the tubes from getting clogged, and if the trial is successful, Nokia plans to add 1,000 hotspots around London.

Of course, the awesomeness of this scheme is offset somewhat by the fact that you have to get near Oxford Circus to use it. Then again, it's most likely to be useful to tourists who want to avoid expensive roaming charges. In this case, the situation could be ideal.

Free wi-fi in central London promotion launched [BBC via The Verge]

See Also:

• AT&T Tests Free Wi-Fi in Times Square
• McDonald's: Would You Like Free Wi-Fi for Your Zune?
• Open Source Wi-Fi Service Claims Ten Million Hotspots In Network …

Chinese Dissident Artist Gets $2.4M 'Tax Bill,' Posts it to Google Plus - The Atlantic

By Max Fisher

Nov 1 2011, 11:53 AM ET Comment

Why does the Chinese government appear to be so worried about one artist?

Reuters

You've got to love Ai Weiwei. The artist, dissident, and social media provocateur just refuses to stop tweaking the Chinese Communist Party. After posting tens of thousands of tweets deriding the Chinese leadership's less-than-savory practices, police hauled him away for 81 days of particularly brutal jail time. As part of his release in June, he promised to make no public statements for a full year.

Two months later, Ai was back at it. Now the Chinese government appears to be trying a new approach. Authorities sent Ai a bill for "back taxes and fines" adding up to 15 million Yuan, or about $2.4 million. The bill demands payment within 15 days. The artist, never one to lose his sense of humor, posted the bill to Google Plus. Then he started talking to reporters about it.

"If it's a tax problem, I'll pay. But if it's not, I won't pay," he told Reuters. "This whole matter is ridiculous."

Technically, the bill is for a company called Beijing Fake Cultural Development Ltd., which is owned by Ai's wife and distributes his work. But the tax bill names Ai specifically, calling him the "actual controller."

"They made up this new title," Ai said. "Of course, I know this matter is targeted at me." One Chinese human rights observers told Reuters the bill -- between its high price tag and suspiciously short deadline -- may be a pretext to once again arresting Ai.

In another fun, Chinese-style twist, the charges were discussed in a trial hearing in July -- which Ai was barred from attending.

The apparently dogged pursuit of this artist -- who appears to be far more influential outside of China than in it -- is another sign of the Chinese Communist Party's tightening crackdown on dissent. It's difficult to see how one man with a penchant for sculpture and social media could pose a threat to the government of the world's largest country anywhere near as severe as their response. Maybe China's leaders are scared, with so many autocracies toppling, about the future and want to take every possible precaution. Maybe they're angry at Ai personally. Or maybe it's just habit.

More at The Atlantic

London protesters get legal reprieve - Sydney Morning Herald

AFP

London's St Paul's Cathedral and city authorities have suspended legal action against anti-capitalist protesters camped outside the historic landmark.

The management of St Paul's said it unanimously agreed to suspend its current legal action against the demonstrators who have turned the churchyard into a sprawling campsite and triggered turmoil in the cathedral hierarchy.

The head of St Paul's quit on Monday after facing criticism for attempts to move on the protesters, who are inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in the United States.

"The resignation of the dean, the Right Reverend Graeme Knowles, has given the opportunity to reassess the situation," the cathedral said in a statement.

It said its decision would "demonstrate that St Paul's intends to engage directly and constructively with the protesters ... without the threat of forcible eviction hanging over both the camp and the church."

The Occupy London Stock Exchange (OLSX) group pitched up in the churchyard two weeks ago. Around 200 multi-coloured tents are spread out by the entrance and the north side of Christopher Wren's masterpiece.

The City of London Corporation local authority was expected to hand a letter to the protesters on Tuesday asking them to remove their tents.

However, Stuart Fraser, the corporation's policy chairman, said it decided to press "pause" on its legal action after St Paul's changed its stance on the matter.

"We've pressed the 'pause' button overnight on legal action affecting the highways, in order to support the cathedral as an important national institution and give time for reflection," Fraser said in a statement.

"We're hoping to use a pause, probably of days not weeks, to work out a measured solution," he added.

The dispute over the protesters has plunged the Anglican church into crisis as it wrings its hands over how to handle the demonstrators while maintaining its principles.

Knowles became the third churchman to quit over the issue in the space of a week, saying his position had become "untenable".

An OLSX spokesman said the protesters were relaxed about any moves to clear the camp.

"We're committed to dialogue and open public debate," 27-year-old freelance writer Ian Chamberlain told AFP.

"We are determined to stay as long as we're useful. Tactics to do so may involve a legal challenge.

"More than nine out of 10 agree with us. The odd one is irritated by our presence here, but the vast majority enjoy our presence here.

"We've got support from a wide cross section of society, including some church leaders.

"We'll stay as long as we can, as long as it's worthwhile is being here."

Overnight Monday, around 50 of the protesters, dressed as zombie bankers, marched into the city to mark Halloween.

They danced to Michael Jackson's 1984 hit Thriller, stopping traffic outside the Bank of England. Police moved them on but they resurrected the dance outside the Royal Bank of Scotland's offices.

Some protesters said they would relish the prospect of legal action.

"A court case would probably highlight the plight even more," said Flo, 35, who declined to give her last name.

"We haven't got anything to lose, it's not like we've got jobs to go to, so going to court is giving us something to do," she said.

'No closure' for Jo Yeates family - BBC News

1 November 2011 Last updated at 13:41 ET

The father of landscape architect Jo Yeates has said the conviction of her murderer has not brought closure for his family.

David Yeates, from Ampfield, Hampshire, said his family were continuing to find it difficult to come to terms with the loss of his "bubbly" daughter.

He told BBC South: "People talk about the trial as being closure. It's not the closure of anything.

"It's just the end of the administrative part of Jo's death."

In an interview with BBC South home affairs correspondent Alex Forsyth, he added: "Our lives carry on and we still have to deal with the fact that Jo is no longer around."

On Friday Vincent Tabak, 33, was jailed at Bristol Crown Court for a minimum of 20 years for strangling Miss Yeates.

Mr Yeates said Christmas was a particularly difficult time for his family, not just because his daughter's body was discovered in Bristol on Christmas day.

He said: "She loved Christmas - that was the best time of the year.

"She enjoyed the whole razzmatazz to do with Christmas and that's why Christmas - her being a fan of Christmas Day - was so poignant.

'Terrific daughter'

"When she was living here, me and her used to go off and buy the Christmas tree and she used to help decorate it.

"In my mind she was a terrific daughter, but all fathers would say that.

"We looked forward to that time when she would find a partner and settle down and create a family and we felt she was in the process of doing that. She was happy."

Mr Yeates added: "The trial was more stressful and intense than we ever imagined it to be and we thought we'd restore ourselves to roughly where we were before the trial but because of some of the things that came out of the trial - it knocked us back a bit.

"When Tabak's sexual bits came out and the potential impact - it was quite a shock - it was something we didn't expect.

"The other thing was, the number of injuries on Jo, although none of them were individually serious, it indicated an extended significant struggle that she had with Tabak before she was eventually murdered and that was a tremendous shock to us."

Mr Yeates said his family had been "overwhelmed" by the response from people following his daughter's disappearance.

He said his family had received hundreds of cards and letters from members of the public.

Miss Yeates's former employers in Bristol and Ampfield have both planned gardens of remembrance.

He said: "I never realised that Jo had such an impact on other people and that really gives me an enormous amount of pride.

"It's just a shame that she died when she was 25 and it would have been interesting to see what she might have become or what she might have achieved if she lived another 25 years.

'We're here for life': Dale Farm gypsies set up camp in Newcastle car park - Daily Mail

By Jessica Satherley

Last updated at 3:24 PM on 1st November 2011

Gypsies evicted from notorious Dale Farm have set up camp in Newcastle.

The travellers have declared that they will stay there "for life" after descending on a car park just outside of the city centre.

Dozens of families, with caravans, transit vans and pets in tow started to arrive near to the Sage Great Park, in Gosforth, Newcastle on Saturday - and they are now refusing to budge.

One traveller, who was holding a baby but did not give his name, spoke in a thick Irish accent about the deadlock.

Temporary home: Travellers who say they have been evicted from the Dale Farm estate in Essex, have set up camp in Newcastle (pictured)

He said: "We were kicked out of Dale Farm. You probably saw it on the television. We have nowhere to go.

"It is a life on the road now."

His partner, a woman, added: "We are here for life now."

Others added they need a place to "call home" and somewhere for their children to "get an education".

Last week, hundreds of travellers took over Team Valley Trading Estate, in Gateshead.

They brought with them around 30 caravans, cars, vans and gas cylinders after hundreds were evicted from Dale Farm at Crays Hill, Essex, after a showdown with Basildon Council.

Moving on: The move to Newcastle came after the travellers left Dale Farm, near Basildon in Essex last month (pictured after the eviction)

The site is part owned by travellers, but over the years a rogue camp began to grow on part of the Green Belt land without planning permission.

Last month, Basildon Council secured an eviction order and, despite protests which erupted in violence making national headlines, and the site was eventually cleared.

Now, the North is feeling the repercussions.

One worker for software firm Sage, which is based just a stone's throw away from the car park where dozens more families have set up this week, said: "There have been a lot of discussions about it in the office.

"Absolutely everyone is talking about it in fact. We have heard they've come here from Dale Farm but they can't stay.

"It's a car park. A lot of people will get very angry very quickly."

Eviction: A group of traveller girls follow a caravan as it is driven from Dale Farm during the eviction in Essex

The company did not pass comment but confirmed that it did not own the car park.

A spokeswoman said the firm was liaising with Northumbria Police.

Mother-of-two Elizabeth Elders, a learning support worker, lives at Brunton Lane, which overlooks the flurry of caravans that have suddenly appeared.

She said: "We have travellers that come back here every year at around the same time.

"The travellers usually stay for about three or four days, but I wouldn't be very happy if they were there for a long stretch.

"It has been reported to the police that they are there. My husband called and we were told it is being dealt with."

A spokeswoman for Northumbria Police said: "Police were informed by partners that notice has been served at a site in North Park in Newcastle."

Newcastle City Council said, however, the land is private and the authority expects the matter will be dealt with the Great Park Consortium.

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'Just not cricket': Pakistani cricket players found guilty of match fixing - Christian Science Monitor

It's supposed to be the game of gentlemen, a game of valor and civility where cheating is so taboo that it sparked the British idiom, "It's not cricket," as in "It's not acceptable."

Skip to next paragraph

However a court verdict in London today rocked the game of cricket, revealing a corrupt underside involving two of the sport's biggest names playing for one of its most controversial national sides, Pakistan.

The country has long been dogged by corruption allegations, accusations over its abrasive playing style, and administrative chaos, but the conviction of former captain Salman Butt and bowler Mohammad Asif for a betting scam has brought Pakistan's reputation to a new low.

IN PICTURES: India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup fans

It centered around an international match – a test – last summer between Pakistan and England at the game's iconic home of Lord's Cricket Ground in north London.

The now defunct News of the World newspaper caught a British sports agent on camera bragging about how he could fix games by bribing players. In true tabloid style, they even pictured the man in front of £150,000 (about $239,000) in cash counting out an alleged bribe in a classic sting operation.

The agent promised the newspaper he would get two bowlers – one of whom was Mr. Asif – to deliver three no balls at certain times of the five-day test in August last year. The balls were duly bowled at the specific times with one bowler over-stepping the permitted line so far that it elicited a disparaging remark from a commentator when it was replayed on television.

The probability of someone predicting this by chance was estimated by a cricket statistician as 1.5 million to one.

The plan was part of a spot-fixing scam where gamblers bet on otherwise irrelevant details of a match such as the first injury, throw-in or, in this case, no-ball and how many. Such bets are widely practiced on the sub-continent where illegal bookmakers are thought to be heavily involved in influencing games.

Despite strenuously denying charges of match-fixing, Mr. Butt and Asif were today found guilty of conspiracy to cheat and conspiracy to accept corrupt payments. Another bowler, Mohammad Amir had previously admitted to the same charges.

While the case is not the first instance of cheating in cricket, it is by far the most serious, with all three cricketers facing prison and unlimited fines.

IN PICTURES: India-Pakistan Cricket World Cup fans

Hugh Chevallier of the annual reference book Wisden Cricketers' Almanack called it a sad day for cricket. He said, "Allegations of corruption in Pakistan cricket has been an open sore for quite a while now. This is a good opportunity for the PCB [Pakistani Cricket Board] to deal with this issue and stand four-square with other boards against corruption and illegal betting."

He added: "Up until recently Pakistani players have been poorly paid so they're more susceptible to bribes, but that is changing. Bookmaking is also illegal in Pakistan, so it's all underground."

Played mostly in the former colonies of the British empire, cricket has become more commercial in recent years with India leading the charge with a hugely wealthy domestic cricket league featuring some of the game's biggest names. With the introduction of TV replays, colored clothing, and shortened games however, cricket is slowly losing its sedate and gentlemanly reputation.

Former England fast bowler turned journalist Angus Fraser said some good could come from the court case. He told the BBC, "It shows young cricketers that there is a consequence to their behaviour. In the past players have been banned and then they have come back.

"The International Cricket Council has got to support the players, see these signs and help them out of predicaments, but also see [that] if players do commit these offences they are punished severely."

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