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Two ringleaders of child abuse network jailed for life - BBC to cut more than 100 managers to make £20m executive savings

Two ringleaders of child abuse network jailed for life

Two men have been jailed for life for masterminding a child abuse conspiracy that included an "utterly appalling" attack on an infant boy and the assault of a three-month-old baby.

Neil Strachan, a convicted sex offender, was sentenced to life with a minimum of 16 years in prison while his co-accused James Rennie, once an influential youth worker, was jailed for life with a minimum of 13 years at the high court in Edinburgh today.

Both men were givens "lifelong restriction" orders, using powers introduced in 2006 for the most serious and violent sexual offenders, which will place them under risk assessment and management plans until they die.

Strachan and Rennie were ringleaders of Scotland's largest paedophile network, involving eight men who held 125,000 images and videos of child abuse. The ring was broken up in 2007 after a lengthy operation by Lothian and Borders police. Six other men have already r ... Read more »

Views: 1161 | Date: 29.10.2009

Brown backs Blair for EU presidency

Tony Blair is "an excellent candidate" to become Europe's first president, Gordon Brown said today, ahead of an EU summit that is likely to be the first to broach the divisive subject.

Speaking at a press conference in Brussels, Brown stressed that his predecessor as prime minister had yet formally to declare himself a candidate, and the terms of the president's role had still to be defined by EU leaders.

Nevertheless he said: "We, the British government, believe that Tony Blair would be an excellent candidate and an excellent person to hold the job of president of the [European] council."

The topic is not formally on the agenda of a meeting that will be dominated by wrangling over climate change funding and how to get the Czech president, Vaclav Klaus, to add the final signature to the reformist Lisbon treaty.

Senior diplomats predicted there would be intense private discussion on the fringes of the summit over the question of who would get the plum job of ... Read more »

Views: 1071 | Date: 29.10.2009

US economy emerges from recession

The United States economy, the world's largest, unofficially emerged from recession in the third quarter of the year, growing at a better-than-expected annualised pace of 3.5%.

The growth, spurred by rebounding consumer spending and investment in home-building, marked the first positive quarter since the second three months of last year. Economists had expected a figure of around 3.3% after a drop of 0.7% in the second quarter.

The return to growth means the US was in recession for four consecutive quarters, a better performance than Britain, which remains in recession after six quarters in a row of contraction.

However, in the US recessions are officially declared by the National Bureau of Economic Research. By its calculations, the US tipped into recession at the end of 2007 and it would probably require a lot more positive data before it declares the worst recession since the Great Depression of the 1930s to be over.

The US figured would translate to a qu ... Read more »

Views: 1072 | Date: 29.10.2009

Missing yachtsman: Somali pirates are holding us hostage

The British couple who went missing in the Indian Ocean last week have confirmed by phone that they are being held hostage by Somali pirates.

Paul Chandler, 59, said he and his 55-year-old wife, Rachel, were attacked last Friday as they sailed from the Seychelles to Tanzania. "I was off watch. I was asleep and men with guns came aboard," he told ITV News. "It was on Friday last week at 2.30am."

Chandler said he and his wife were being held on a container ship called the Kota Wajar, a Singapore-flagged vessel pirates captured that two weeks ago. Asking whether their captors had asked for a ransom, he said: "Not officially – they kept asking for money and took everything of value on the boat."

The call was made from the captain's cabin of the Kota Wajar. "We are hostages together with this ship," said Chandler, who added that they were about a mile off the coast of Somalia and the nearest town was Ubdu.

Confirmation of the couple's captivity came amid reports ... Read more »

Views: 1068 | Date: 29.10.2009

Norman Painting, voice of Phil Archer, dies aged 85

Norman Painting, who played Phil Archer on long-running Radio 4 drama The Archers for nearly 60 years, has died at the age of 85, the BBC said today.

Painting had played the character since the show was first broadcast in 1950, developing from a young farmer to a family patriarch, and is featured in the Guinness Book of Records as the longest-serving actor in a single soap opera.

He also wrote more than 1,000 scripts for the show between 1966 and penned a best-selling book on the programme, first published in 1975. His autobiography, Reluctant Archer, was published in 1982.

In recent years Painting's appearances on The Archers have been limited due to ill health. In 2000, the actor revealed he had been diagnosed with bladder cancer but said it would not stop him recording episodes.

"I see no reason this illness should prevent me from continuing doing what I love ," he said at the time.

Over the years Painting's pragmatic character has been involved in ... Read more »

Views: 1064 | Date: 29.10.2009

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