Friday, December 27, 2013

Freed Greenpeace activists back home

27 December 2013 Last updated at 18:12 GMT

Freed Greenpeace Arctic detainees home from Russia

Anthony Perrett, Kieron Bryan, Alexandra Harris, Iain Rogers, Phil Ball

Anthony Perrett, Kieron Bryan, Alexandra Harris, Iain Rogers and Phil Ball (left to right) travelled back to the UK from St Petersburg

Five UK Greenpeace activists, held in Russia for 100 days, have been welcomed home by relieved family and friends.

Anthony Perrett, Alexandra Harris, Phil Ball, crewman Iain Rogers and videographer Kieron Bryan were granted an amnesty from charges over an Arctic oil drilling protest.

There were emotional family reunions at London's St Pancras rail station.

The five were among 30 people held on hooliganism charges and were released under a new Russian amnesty law.

They flew from St Petersburg to Paris, then travelled on to St Pancras on Eurostar.

'Complete overreaction'

Mr Perrett told reporters it was "good to be back" and he was looking forward to going for a walk in the woods, once back in Wales.

He said prison conditions in Murmansk had been difficult, describing being held in a cell for 23 hours a day and sharing a toilet without a cubicle with three others.

"It has been a strange few months but it is over now and it is good to be back," he said.

"We're very relieved to be home and speaking English, which has been sorely missed."

Kieron Bryan is greeted by his mother, Ann

Phil Ball is welcomed home with a hug

Alexandra Harris talking to reporters and camera crews

Alexandra Harris talks to the media

Asked whether it had been worth it, he said: "Well, look at the media that's here today. We're trying to spread the word to save the Arctic and I think we have done that job fairly well."

Ms Harris said the detention of the activists was "obscene, a complete over-reaction on the part of Russia".

"There was no physical violence towards me but it was torture - we spent two months in a Russian jail cell and 100 days detained for a crime we didn't commit," she added.

She said she thought Russia let them go to avoid global criticism in the run-up to the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

Once back at home in Devon, she said she was looking forward to spending time with her family and eating home-cooked food.

Mr Bryan, who was embraced by his parents at St Pancras, said he was glad to be back in the UK for the new year.

"The day before [the] amnesty I was still being told that we might be facing two years in prison so it's a heck of a change in nine days."

He said it was no coincidence that the activists had been released in the same week as female punk band Pussy Riot and former Russian tycoon and prominent Kremlin critic Mikhail Khodorkovsky.

"It's a big human rights issue and I hope Sochi coming up will allow the world's media to shine a light a little bit closer," he added.

Anthony Perrett: Greenpeace oil protest arrest was "worth it"

A sixth Briton, activist Frank Hewetson, has also been released and is travelling to another country.

Another activist, Canadian Alexandre Paul, was also expected to arrive in Montreal later on Friday.

Eight of the so-called Arctic 30 group arrested in September have now left Russia.

They were all held after Russian authorities boarded their ship, the Arctic Sunrise, during an anti-drilling demonstration against an offshore oil rig owned by the Russian company Gazprom.

The departures began on Thursday when Dima Litvinov, a Swedish-American, left Saint Petersburg on a train to Helsinki.

Grim surroundings

Earlier, Mr Perrett told Radio 4's Today programme he had been treated well in Russia despite grim surroundings.

"We weren't treated like prisoners of war. It had very much the razor wire and the barbed wire and the reinforcing bar which made up cages. It had the aesthetic of a concentration camp."

Mr Perrett, 32, of Newport, south Wales, added that he would be happy to return to Russia to carry out further protests, although Greenpeace currently had no plans for further action there," he said.

"I hope we've got the conversation started in Russia about the drilling in the Arctic and raised it with the Russian voters."

Greenpeace said all but the four Russian members of the Arctic 30 are expected to leave the country over the coming days.

Legal concerns

"All 30 have since had the case against them dropped after the Russian parliament approved an amnesty decree last week," the environmental campaign group said.

Kieron Bryan: "I know that I am going to be in the UK to start 2014 which is just such a wonderful feeling"

"The 30 benefited from the amnesty without admitting any guilt."

The release and return of the detainees was welcomed by the UK's Minister for Europe, David Lidington.

He said: "I am delighted that the British nationals have been allowed to return to their families and friends. This is a welcome step from the Russian government."

However he said there were still concerns over Russia's legal system.

"The British government continues to call on the Russian authorities to strengthen the rule of law, tackle corruption and promote independence of the judiciary."

NSA surveillance lawful, judge says

27 December 2013 Last updated at 17:46 GMT

NSA surveillance lawful, judge rules

The surveillance programme was leaked by former National Security Agency contractor, Edward Snowden

Spy leaks

A US federal judge has found that mass government surveillance of the phone network is legal, a week after another ruling said the opposite.

New York District Judge William Pauley said the snooping was a "counter-punch" against al-Qaeda.

He said the National Security Agency (NSA) programme might have prevented the 9/11 attacks.

Last week a federal judge in Washington DC said the surveillance was "likely unconstitutional" and "Orwellian".

But in Friday's decision, Judge Pauley, of the US District Court for the Southern District of New York, said "the balance of equities and the public interest tilt firmly in favour of the Government's position".

He dismissed a lawsuit brought by the American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU).

In the conclusion to his 53-page ruling, he writes: "The right to be free from searches and seizures is fundamental, but not absolute."

He also notes: "Every day, people voluntarily surrender personal and seemingly-private information to trans-national corporations, which exploit that data for profit.

"Few think twice about it, even though it is far more intrusive than bulk telephony metadata collection.

"There is no evidence that the Government has used any of the bulk telephony metadata it collected for any purpose other than investigating and disrupting terrorist attacks."

West Brom close in on new manager

West Brom close in on new manager to replace Steve Clarke

West Brom will hold talks with several managerial candidates on Friday as they close in on Steve Clarke's replacement.

Clarke was sacked as head coach on 14 December following a fourth straight Premier League loss.

Former Real Betis boss Pepe Mel is the frontrunner for the position but is not certain to get the job.

Paul Clement, who is currently assistant at Real Madrid, has been linked with the position, as has former Osasuna boss Jose Luis Mendilibar.

"We have identified suitable candidates to work within our existing structure," said the club's sporting and technical Director Richard Garlick.

"This is a confidential process and it is inevitable there will be speculation about whom may be under consideration.

"We are now progressing through the interview and short-listing stage. We plan to make an appointment at the earliest opportunity but our primary concern is recruiting the most suitable individual."

Ex-Liverpool defender Mauricio Pellegrino is another man who has been tipped to replace Clarke, as has Malky Mackay - who was sacked by Cardiff on Friday - but Mel is the bookmakers' favourite to take charge at The Hawthorns.

Mel, who started his playing career at Real Madrid, spent three years at Betis and he has also managed Rayo Vallecano, Tenerife and Getafe.

Continue reading the main story

"If you look at Southampton, they are doing well with a foreign manager"

Zoltan Gera

The Spaniard has never coached outside of his homeland, but Baggies midfielder Zoltan Gera sees no reason why that should be a problem.

Gera, who made his first start in a year in the 1-1 draw at Tottenham on Boxing Day after recovering from a knee injury, pointed to Southampton, who have thrived under Mauricio Pochettino.

The Argentine had no experience of the English game before he replaced Nigel Adkins in January, but has guided the Saints to ninth place in the Premier League. They were 15th when he took over.

"I don't know whether a foreign manager will come in, but you never know," said Gera.

"If you look at Southampton, they are doing well with a foreign manager. But I trust the club and I think they will make a good decision and get a good coach."

Meanwhile, Garlick confirmed caretaker-manager Keith Downing will continue to take charge of the team for Saturday's Premier League trip to West Ham.

Greenpeace protesters return home

27 December 2013 Last updated at 16:23 GMT

Greenpeace Arctic detainees return home from Russia

Anthony Perrett and his partner Zahara Ally land in Paris

Five British Greenpeace activists have arrived in the UK from Russia after being granted an amnesty from charges over an Arctic oil drilling protest.

Anthony Perrett, Alexandra Harris and Phil Ball travelled home with crew member Iain Rogers and videographer Kieron Bryan after 100 days in Russia.

There were emotional family reunions at London's St Pancras rail station.

The five were among 30 people held on hooliganism charges and were released under a new Russian amnesty law.

They flew from St Petersburg to Paris, then travelled on to St Pancras on Eurostar.

Another activist, Canadian Alexandre Paul, was also expected to arrive in Montreal later on Friday.

Seven of the so-called Arctic 30 group arrested in September during action at an offshore oil rig owned by the Russian company Gazprom have now left Russia.

The departures began on Thursday when Dima Litvinov, a Swedish-American, left Saint Petersburg on a train to Helsinki.

Grim surroundings

"It's been a very long 100 days. I'm quite eager to get back to Wales and sleep in my own bed and get back to work," Mr Perrett told Radio 4's Today programme before boarding a flight to Paris.

He said he had been treated well in Russia despite grim surroundings.

"We weren't treated like prisoners of war. It had very much the razor wire and the barbed wire and the reinforcing bar which made up cages. It had the aesthetic of a concentration camp."

Mr Perrett, 32, of Newport, south Wales, added that he would be happy to return to Russia to carry out further protests, although Greenpeace currently had no plans for further action there," he said.

"I hope we've got the conversation started in Russia about the drilling in the Arctic and raised it with the Russian voters.

"It was definitely worth it. Unless humanity starts acting as one people on this planet we're going to irrevocably change the climate and make it unliveable on this planet for everybody."

Mr Bryan said he too was relieved to be heading home.

"It is a shame that we missed Christmas, but I know that I'm going to be in the UK to start 2014, which is such a wonderful feeling," he said.

Greenpeace said all but the four Russian members of the Arctic 30 are expected to leave the country over the coming days.

Legal concerns

"All 30 have since had the case against them dropped after the Russian parliament approved an amnesty decree last week," the environmental campaign group said.

Kieron Bryan: "I know that I am going to be in the UK to start 2014 which is just such a wonderful feeling"

"The 30 benefited from the amnesty without admitting any guilt."

The release and return of the detainees was welcomed by the UK's Minister for Europe, David Lidington.

He said: "I am delighted that the British nationals have been allowed to return to their families and friends. This is a welcome step from the Russian government."

However he said there were still concerns over Russia's legal system.

"The British government continues to call on the Russian authorities to strengthen the rule of law, tackle corruption and promote independence of the judiciary."

'For the first time, the joke was on Australia'

Ashes 2013-14: England dominate Australia in Melbourne

Ah, so that's what it used to feel like.

After five weeks of toil and torment, England - and you may wish to adjust your set - finally, unequivocally, finished a day of this Ashes series in the dominant position.

Australia are nine men down. England are still 91 runs ahead. Not for many long winter nights have supporters back in the UK been able to emerge from their duvets with such a spring in their pyjamas.

What made it all the more surprising was that it came as such a sharp deviation from the usual script. In front of another monstrous crowd, England had lost their last four wickets for just 29 runs in under an hour.

Slog followed fearful fend followed hapless defence. Five-nil was not just a taunt but a logical prediction. Roll on the runs, roared the MCG. Bring out the clowns.

Except, for the first time all series, the joke was on Australia. All six of their top order got out to unnecessary shots. England, at last, found both penetration and parsimony.

This had been England's plan from the start, just as it was three years ago: starve aggressive batsman of airy shots, draw the error, seize the chances.

It failed so dramatically in the first three Tests this winter because Australia would not let it happen. In 2010-11 James Anderson took 24 wickets at an average of 26.04, Graeme Swann 15 at 39. In the three calamitous losses here this time, Anderson was clouted for 409, his meagre seven wickets costing 58 apiece; Swann was savaged so badly (560 runs conceded, each wicket at 80) that it ended his Test career.

Here, on a pitch where the ball just held up enough to draw catches in front of the wicket and punish those attacking on the up, all five at the forefront got it right.

Anderson had his best day all tour, taking 3-50 off 16. Stuart Broad's three wickets cost just 30 runs in his 16 overs.

Crucially, when those two strike bowlers went off, the back-up boys continued the blockade. Tim Bresnan's two wickets and 18 overs went for a mere 24 runs; Ben Stokes's 14 overs cost less than three apiece, and Monty Panesar's nine went for only 18.

Against batsmen breezily belligerent after the Ashes were won with such ease, it brought rewards. While David Warner and Shane Watson edged mighty swipes and Michael Clarke shouldered arms to Anderson, Steve Smith slashed wildly outside off stump to be caught at slip and George Bailey - poor, bemused George Bailey - nicked behind to the 19th runless delivery he faced.

If England's beleaguered support could smile as they have only with gallows humour on this disastrous tour so far, there will also be those for whom Friday's lonely success triggers a lament for what could have been.

Australia entirely deserve their ascendancy in these Ashes. They have scored seven centuries in the series and enjoyed six partnerships of 100 or more; England have just one of both. But there remains sufficient weakness in the top order for England to wonder what might have been.

To have Australia 122-6 in their first innings here was hardly out of character. At the Gabba they had Clarke's men in trouble at 132-6, in Adelaide on 174-4 and at the Waca on 143-5.

What they have been unable to do, to the eternal regret of even the barmiest in the travelling army, is match the ruthlessness of the opposition. The Aussie tail has not just wagged but thrashed; England's has been tucked between its legs while the front end howls.

In the first innings at Brisbane, the last five Australian wickets added 195 runs. In Adelaide they added 313, in Perth 242.

That England lost their last seven wickets here in Melbourne for just 82 was entirely in keeping with their contrasting lower-order ordeals. And the reason they did was the reason why it has been happening all series.

Mitchell Johnson's three wickets at the very start of this second day meant his spell with the second new ball yielded five for 14 in 42 balls.

It was his 10th five-wicket haul in Test cricket, five of which have come against England, three of them in this series alone.

More importantly, it underlined how destructive his dynamite bursts have been. If you combine his four key spells (three wickets for two runs and then three for five in Brisbane; six for 16 in Adelaide; 5-14 at the MCG) it means his 18 most important scalps have come at a remarkable two runs apiece.

It is why England celebrated the seventh and eighth wickets, and then at the death the ninth, with as much vigour as the big boys at the top.

For the first time they have not just opened the door but shouldered through it. If something is to be salvaged from the wreckage of this series, now is the time. This is the match.

What they must now do is start again with a lead of at least 70 and at least make parity with their first-innings score, despite the rampaging Johnson and the relentless Ryan Harris.

That would leave Australia to chase more than 300, on a pitch that punishes poor shots as much as it rewards application. They have the batsmen to do it; England have shown the discipline to deny them.

In many ways it is too little too late. One good day does not guarantee another, not against an attack that has bowled them out this series for 136, 172 and 179, not against a batting line-up containing the four top performers by series average.

But this is what it has come to: saving face, dodging the whitewash. When it has been all darkness and gloom, silver linings are all that are left.

Listen to Jonathan Agnew and Geoff Boycott's review of the day on the TMS podcast page.

Catch up with a two-minute summary of Test Match Special commentary with the Pint-Sized Ashes.

Check out the best photos from Melbourne on the BBC Sport Facebook page.

Indian woman 'raped by two gangs'

27 December 2013 Last updated at 14:58 GMT

Indian woman 'raped by two gangs on Christmas Eve'

Indian students shout slogans as they hold placards demanding stringent punishment to rapists during a protest in New Delhi, India, Tuesday, April, 23, 2013

Ever since the fatal gang rape of a student in Delhi last December, there have been public protests and an outcry against sexual violence

Rape scandal

Police in India say 10 men are in custody, after a 21-year-old woman was raped by two apparently unrelated groups of men on Christmas Eve.

She was visiting friends in Pondicherry when she was abducted by three men and raped by one of them, officials say.

She found her friends after that ordeal but they were all confronted by another group of men who singled her out and gang-raped her, according to police.

The last suspect was arrested on Friday and police say they have confessed.

The suspects have been remanded for 15 days, but they are yet to be formally charged in court. None of the suspects has publicly commented on the allegations made against them by the victim.

Pondicherry Senior Superintendent of Police Monika Bharadwaj told the BBC that this was a particularly bizarre and brutal sequence of events.

It comes just days before India marks the first anniversary of the death of the student whose gang-rape on a bus in Delhi sparked unprecedented public outrage, leading to changes in India's laws against sexual violence.

'Unrelated attacks'

The incident took place in Pondicherry's port city of Karaikel. When the woman was briefly left alone after her friends went into a house, she was abducted by three men.

"One among that group of three people sexually assaulted her," SSP Bharadwaj told BBC Tamil citing the victim's account of the sequence of events.

She managed to make contact with her friends who came to help her after that ordeal.

"When they were going back they were waylaid by a second group.. who again picked up the victim and she was taken to a secure place. There again she was sexually assaulted six times".

According to police, the attackers were not known to the victim and these appear to be unrelated attacks.

Two police officers have also been suspended for initially refusing to register the victim's complaint.

The woman was taken to hospital where she was treated for her injuries and is said to be in a stable condition.

S Sudan government 'agrees to truce'

27 December 2013 Last updated at 14:32 GMT

South Sudan government 'agrees to truce'

The government of South Sudan has agreed to an immediate end to fighting with rebels, East African leaders meeting in Nairobi say.

The leaders said they "welcomed the commitment by the government of the Republic of South Sudan to an immediate cessation of hostilities".

They called on rebel leader Riek Machar to "make similar commitments".

More than 1,000 people are said to have died in recent fighting in the world's newest state.