Natalie Christopher found dead less than a mile from hotel two days after she disappeared
Rescuers searching for a British scientist who disappeared on the Aegean island of Ikaria have found her body at the bottom of a ravine.
Natalie Christopher, 35, was found less than a mile from the hotel where she was on holiday with her partner.
Continue reading...More than 500 flights cancelled or delayed by IT glitch affecting London airports
British Airways was facing passenger anger on Wednesday as more than 500 flights were cancelled or delayed as a result of a systems failure.
In the latest in a series of operational problems to hit the airline, and the travel plans of tens of thousands with holiday and business plans, London’s Heathrow, Gatwick and City were the airports most affected by the computer failure. BA refused to reveal the number of flights affected but according to Flightstats.com, which tracks arrivals and departures, by 5.30pm the airline had cancelled 140 flights and a further 370 had been delayed.
Continue reading...HMS Forth deployed to accompany the Vasily Bykov navy patrol ship through UK waters
A Royal Navy patrol ship has been deployed to shadow a Russian ship through the Channel.
Portsmouth-based HMS Forth had just returned to UK waters from her first foreign port visit when it was scrambled to monitor the Russian patrol ship Vasily Bykov.
A Navy spokesman said: “Forth had departed Gibraltar on 31 July, before heading north at speed and conducting heavy weather trials before a quick logistics stop in Devonport.
“She then sailed and positioned herself ready to meet the Vasily Bykov as the vessel sailed from the North Sea having taken part in Russia’s Navy Days celebration in St Petersburg.”
HMS Forth’s executive officer Lt Samuel Fields said: “It has been a particularly busy time for HMS Forth as we generate for deployed operations and continue to test our ship’s capabilities.
“I am proud of the ship’s company for rising to this additional challenge.”
The Vasily Bykov was previously shadowed by HMS Forth through the UK’s area of interest last month.
Frigate HMS Westminster was also deployed during the weekend to shadow the Chinese warship Xian up the Channel.
Convicted drugs supplier David James Jackson left Queensland armed with crossbow
A British fugitive who made it across the Torres Strait on a jetski trying to flee a drugs supply charge in Australia has been sentenced for the audacious escape attempt.
Armed with a crossbow and supplies for the 90-mile journey, David James Jackson, 57, took off from the tip of Queensland and made it to Papua New Guinean waters.
Continue reading...Counter-terror chief raises ‘deep concerns’ as key crime-fighting tools will be lost
The UK’s safety and security would suffer from a no-deal Brexit and no amount of planning and preparation can erase the risk, Britain’s head of counter-terrorism has said.
The Scotland Yard assistant commissioner, Neil Basu, said key crime-fighting tools would be lost and their replacements would not be as good.
Continue reading...Dr Natalie Christopher, 34, thought to have disappeared after going for morning run
Greek authorities have broadened the search for a British scientist believed to have disappeared after she went for an early morning run on the Aegean island of Ikaria.
More than 24 hours after Dr Natalie Christopher was first reported missing, the quest to locate the 34-year-old intensified as officials in Athens dispatched a helicopter equipped with infrared cameras to join the search operation.
Continue reading...Ireland warns on relations as Boris Johnson’s government seems intent on no-deal departure
Michael Gove has accused the European Union of intransigence over Brexit talks, calling it “wrong and sad”, as divisions between the UK and Brussels became further entrenched with the government seemingly intent on a no-deal departure.
Gove, who is in charge of no-deal preparations, reiterated Boris Johnson’s position that the only route to progress would be the EU starting again with withdrawal negotiations, something Brussels has repeatedly and consistently ruled out.
Continue reading...UK police have updated family of 29-year-old Joel Eldridge about the development
Portuguese police investigating the disappearance of a man from East Sussex have discovered a body.
Joel Eldridge, 29, from Bexhill, was living in Macieira, near Serta in Portugal, when his family last heard from him in mid-July last year.
Continue reading...With novels including Beloved and The Bluest Eye, the acclaimed author who dramatised the African American experience with fierce passion for five decades, has died aged 88
Exclusive: Neil Basu calls for sociologists and criminologists to help tackle terrorism in UK
Britain’s most senior counter-terrorism officer has said the police and security services are no longer enough to win the fight against violent extremism, and the UK must instead improve community cohesion, social mobility and education.
In his first major interview since taking up his post last year, the Metropolitan police assistant commissioner Neil Basu told the Guardian that up to 80% of those who wanted to attack the UK were British-born or raised, which strongly indicated domestic social issues were among the root causes.
Continue reading...David Baker says attempts to get explanation about airport questioning have failed
A university professor has hit out at the Home Office after being stopped around 100 times in seven years at airports despite having no criminal record.
Professor David Baker, a specialist in neuro-immunology at London’s Queen Mary University, who has carried out pioneering work into treatments for conditions like multiple sclerosis, travels frequently for his work was once stopped three times in a single week by Border Force officials at airports.
Continue reading...Nearly 200 people evacuated and three taken to hospital after landing in Valencia
Nearly 200 people had to be evacuated from a British Airways flight after smoke poured into the cabin minutes before it was due to land in Valencia.
Three people were taken to hospital after the incident on Monday, and each was later discharged.
Continue reading...Helicopter and sniffer dogs join search for British teen who disappeared from bedroom at resort on weekend
Police in Malaysia have deployed a helicopter and sniffer dogs in an expanded search for a 15-year-old British girl who disappeared from her bedroom at a nature resort over the weekend.
The district police chief, Mohamad Nor Marzukee Besar, said the operation to find Nora Quoirin, involving more than 150 people, resumed on Tuesday morning, with a helicopter, sniffer dogs and villagers helping in an expanded search through the dense jungle. An earlier mission ending at 3am on Tuesday found no further clues.
Continue reading...Boy, 17, arrested on Sunday after six-year-old critically injured by viewing platform fall
A 17-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder after a six-year-old boy was allegedly thrown from the viewing platform at Tate Modern in central London.
The teenager was arrested on Sunday afternoon by police responding to reports that a boy had been thrown from the 10th floor of the London art gallery’s Blavatnik extension.
Continue reading...The government’s primary responsibility is to protect its citizens from harm (Ministers accused of dereliction of duty over youth crime ‘emergency’, 31 July). It is clear that government cuts to police, youth work and education have contributed to the upsurge in knife crime. It is also clear that it is still failing to meet its responsibility at every level, from offering help with parenting skills, to providing adequate well-funded schooling, to making sure that children who are excluded from regular classes do not just wander the streets, to providing employment for all 16- to 24-year-olds who need it, to correcting the inequality that pervades British society.
Maybe it is time that parents whose children have suffered from knife attacks should bring a class action legal case against government ministers for failing to discharge its responsibilities.
Dr Richard Lawson
Churchill, Somerset
No-deal Brexit is British PM’s ‘central scenario’, chief Brussels envoy reportedly says
Boris Johnson has no intention of renegotiating the withdrawal agreement and a no-deal Brexit is his “central scenario”, European diplomats have been told, amid hardening evidence in Westminster that the government is expecting to crash out of the EU.
Brussels diplomats briefed after a meeting between the prime minister’s chief envoy and senior EU figures in Brussels said that Britain’s refusal to compromise was understood to have been clear to those attending.
Continue reading...No other European countries have signed up to US-led mission to ‘uphold international navigation’
Britain is to join a mission with the US to protect oil tankers in the Gulf from seizure by Iran, but London has said no other European countries have so far been persuaded to sign up.
The UK will supply two Royal Navy ships in the Gulf alongside two US warships while British ministers urge other countries to join in as the operation is finalised.
Continue reading...Police contradict charity helping family of London schoolgirl found to be missing on holiday
Malaysian police have denied that the disappearance of a 15-year-old London schoolgirl is being treated as a possible abduction, contradicting a statement from a charity supporting her family.
Nora Quoirin, who has special needs, is the daughter of an Irish-French couple who have lived in London for about 20 years. She went missing while on holiday with her family at the Dusun resort in a nature reserve near Seremban, 40 miles south of the capital, Kuala Lumpur. The resort is adjacent to the 4,000-acre (1,600-hectare) Berembun forest reserve.
Continue reading...Supporters of the far-right activist and anti-fascist counter-protesters were arrested for offences including assault
Twenty-four people have been arrested following a demonstration in support of the jailed Tommy Robinson and a counterprotest led by the anti-racist group Stand Up to Racism.
Robinson, real name Stephen Yaxley-Lennon, was sentenced to nine months in prison last month after he was found to have been in contempt of court.
Continue reading...Jonathan Ashworth rebuts claim there is no time for an election to stop 31 October exit
Downing Street would be wrong to think it is too late for MPs to stop a no-deal Brexit, Labour has said.
The shadow health secretary, Jonathan Ashworth, said on Sunday he did not accept a claim, attributed to Dominic Cummings, Boris Johnson’s key adviser, that even if MPs were to pass a vote of no confidence in the prime minister in the autumn, the electoral timetable means any general election would not take place in time to stop the UK from leaving the EU on 31 October.
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