Friday, January 10, 2014

Met chief praises Duggan family

Met Chief Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe praises Mark Duggan family 'dignity'

Carole Duggan and Mark Duggan Mark Duggan's aunt Carole says the family will fight the decision of lawful killing 'through the courts'

The Metropolitan Police Commissioner has praised the "very dignified way" Mark Duggan's family has responded to the inquest conclusion.

On Wednesday, a jury concluded Mr Duggan was lawfully killed when he was shot dead by police in August 2011, sparking riots in many English cities.

Mark Duggan's aunt Carole Duggan said the family will fight the jury's decision "through the courts".

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe said: "They deserve our praise".

Mr Duggan's death in Tottenham, north London, sparked widespread disorder.

The killing of the 29-year-old was followed by protests that descended into looting and rioting in the capital and spread to other cities in England.

'No violent protests'

Earlier Carole Duggan said: "No demonstrations, no more violence, we will have to fight this and go through the struggle peacefully to get justice."

Sir Bernard responded: "I praise the family in at least one respect.

"At a time of all the emotion... they thought to say to people we want to follow the legal process and we do not want violent protests.

"That's a really hard thing I think for anybody to say when you're angry about losing someone you love," he added.

Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe says the Metropolitan Police needs to "look and feel like the people of London"

"So I think they deserve our praise for having the maturity to be able to say that and I think other people should listen to that really carefully because that's a really important thing."

After the inquest concluded, Ms Duggan took to the steps of the Royal Courts of Justice and shouted: "No justice, no peace."

She explained the slogan was about the continued fight to discover what happened to her nephew.

"We will want answers. So it is like the struggle will go on, peacefully," she said.

Ms Duggan has confirmed there are no plans at present for the family to discuss the case with police officials.

She has called for the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) to review the case.

'Reduce stop and search'

The IPCC said it was "working closely with the Duggan family solicitor to arrange an urgent family meeting" and it was hoped this would take place "in the early part of next week".

Sir Bernard said meetings with political and community leaders on Thursday had shown him the "tremendous determination there is to strengthen relationships with the Met".

"The leaders I met are committed to work hard with us to ensure that their community is not disrupted now as it was in 2011," he said.

He added the force wanted "more black Londoners amongst our neighbourhood police officers" and had "more to do to further reduce the use of stop and search".

Prime Minster David Cameron welcomed Carole Duggan's message of restraint, but stressed the outcome of the inquest had to be respected.

He said: "I very much respect Mark Duggan's aunt for saying 'pursue the case in the courts and not the street'."

Meanwhile it has emerged the names of the ten jurors who delivered the verdict are to remain confidential.

The seven women and three men, who come from the north London boroughs of Barnet, Brent, Enfield, Harrow and Haringey, have been offered counselling which is routine in cases deemed to be of a sensitive nature.

During a brief hearing at the Royal Courts of Justice on Thursday, lawyers for the family did not say whether they would challenge the conclusion.

Under the law, Mr Duggan's family have three months to bring a judicial review at the High Court, although his aunt said the four-month inquest had left them devastated.

Mark Duggan's family plans to hold a candlelit vigil for him this weekend.

The Reverend Nims Obunge, a pastor in Tottenham who knows the family, said: "It is a vigil in remembrance and respecting the life or the death of Mark Duggan.

"His family, his children, will be there and we don't expect anybody to come... to create unrest or anarchy."


West Brom name Mel as head coach

9 January 2014 Last updated at 20:50

West Brom appoint Pepe Mel as their new head coach

West Brom have appointed former Real Betis manager Pepe Mel as their new head coach on an 18-month deal.

The Baggies have been looking for a new manager since sacking Steve Clarke on 14 December.

Spaniard Mel, 50, held talks with West Brom in December but was ruled out after it became clear he wanted to bring his own backroom staff.

After three years in charge of Betis, Mel was replaced by Juan Carlos Garrido at the start of December.

Mel is set to work with Baggies assistant head coach Keith Downing, who has been caretaker manager for the last five matches, and goalkeeper coach Dean Kiely.

Downing will remain in charge for Saturday's game at Southampton, where Mel will watch from the stands.

Mel will take the team for the first time for the home game against Everton on 20 January.

West Brom, who face Aston Villa, Liverpool and Crystal Palace after the games against Southampton and Everton, are 14th in the Premier League, four points above the relegation zone.

Sporting and technical director Richard Garlick said: "I'm delighted to welcome Pepe to the club.

"His appointment concludes an extensive recruitment process during which we have cast the net far and wide to identify the most suitable candidate to take the Club forward.

"Pepe was a strong contender from the outset due to his impressive achievements and has emerged as our number one candidate.

"He is a forward-thinking coach whose teams are renowned for playing an attractive and positive style of football."

Former Betis striker Mel was appointed manager of the club in 2010 and guided them back into La Liga as Segunda Division champions 12 months later.

Betis finished seventh in La Liga last season but Mel was sacked after a run of eight domestic games without a win, with just two victories in all competitions before the start of December.

Mel has also had spells at eight other clubs, including Tenerife, Alaves and Rayo Vallecano, in his 14-year coaching career.

Clarke was sacked following four straight defeats and after guiding West Brom to just seven wins in 34 Premier League games in 2013.


Time running out for GB biathletes

9 January 2014 Last updated at 10:29

Sochi 2014: Biathletes face giving up the Games for army life

Join the Army, they said. Compete at the Olympics, they said.

Now, the show is nearly over.

No sport at the Games can match biathlon for military firepower: soldiers the world over competing in a cross-country skiing contest punctuated by rounds on a rifle range. Armed forces treat places on the start line as a source of pride.

The British Army has been no exception, but now money for the GB squad has run dry. Without a fresh injection of £50,000 per year, the game is up.

After Sochi 2014, if no team is left, the soldiers skiing for Britain must prepare for life back in the regiment.

"The thought of not being able to continue in the sport is devastating to me," says Amanda Lightfoot, expected to be named as Britain's only female biathlete for the Sochi Games.

"But we're out here now to do this job and have the best season ever. It means more than anything to go out, this season, with a bang."

The reason so many soldiers compete for GB is that the Army actively supports biathlon. Its members are encouraged to aim for the top if they are good enough - and Britain will send one male and one female biathlete to Sochi 2014.

"I got involved in biathlon within 18 months of me being in the military," says Lee Jackson, the lone British biathlete to compete at Vancouver 2010.

"Slowly I was pushed towards being an elite athlete from within the military, towards this fantastic opportunity I could have to represent Great Britain at the World Championships and the Olympics."

Moreover, the Army uses biathlon as an advert, a message to potential recruits that this is not just about going to war - this lifestyle lets you play sport, and could even be your route to the Olympic Games.

"Winter sports contribute directly to military output and fighting spirit, are an essential part of decompression from operations and remain an important element of the moral component," said Martyn Allen, secretary of the Army's own winter sports association, in an email to BBC Sport.

"Some 100 Army athletes have competed in the Olympic Winter Games since the War, including 38 biathletes. Sport has always been an integral part of Army life, training and general well-being, and the Army has always supported its elite athletes in all summer and winter sports."

Now, the current crop of biathletes may need that support more than ever.

By virtue of their Army salaries - a funding luxury few other British winter hopes receive, though costs like equipment and ammunition make biathlon an expensive sport - the squad are all tied to regiments. They are expected to blend back into Army life if their team collapses.

Yet some of these soldiers have spent more than a decade as high-performance international athletes, often sacrificing their rank as a result. Viewed from the vista of a mountainous Swedish shooting range, regimental life is hard for some to contemplate.

Continue reading the main story

There are worse things in life. I've still got employment when I finish with the sport

Lee Jackson GB biathlete

"It's going to be particularly difficult to adapt back to being a soldier full-time," confesses 26-year-old Lightfoot, a member of the Adjutant General's Corps.

"It's not going to be impossible - the Army are going to go out of their way to try to help us - but it's going to be difficult not to get up and train every day. My body is so used to it.

"To go back to military duties... I'm a clerk, and the thought of sitting behind a desk and doing people's pay is terrifying, actually."

On-camera at their Swedish training camp, brave faces are displayed. The athletes all signed up for Army lives in the first place and know that to complain of what lies ahead will strike the wrong note. In many respects, they are lucky.

But in communal meals that evening, the atmosphere ahead of an uncertain future is grim. Lives have been invested in biathlon like any other job, and those lives may drastically change.

Jackson has been doing this long enough that his friends are biathletes and his family - a partner and child who live in Italy - came about through the sport. He knows the Army will not be posting him to Italy any time soon, but he cannot let that affect his Olympic preparations.

"After Sochi we'll start thinking about what will I do, is there still a future in the sport, and is there still a future for me?" Jackson says.

"It's been nigh-on 12 years since I've been back at work, doing 'real' work. So yeah, it would be a very harsh change, I think.

"But the Army have been very supportive over the years I've done biathlon. If I need to go back, show that gratitude and do my day job, as such, I guess I'll have to.

"There are worse things in life. I've still got employment when I finish with the sport, and financial security. I'm not sure how many people in life actually do a job that they really enjoy. Sometimes it's a means to an end."

If the squad does fold, there is one twist: Scott Dixon, a teenager with a six-time Olympian for a father, is the lone civilian member of the British squad.

The money, the team-mates, the coaching and all other resources would disappear, but self-funded Dixon is determined to become a one-man British biathlon band if he must.

"It's very sad," says the 19-year-old. "When we were originally told of the situation - that the chances are everyone [else] is going back to work - it was a very emotional moment. It had a huge impact.

"It made me realise that the likelihood of any kind of team competing at events next year is going to be very slim.

"But it's definitely not impossible. I intend to be here next year, that's for sure."

There will be a programme looking at GB's preparations for Sochi 2014 on BBC Radio 5 live from 20:30 GMT on Thursday, 9 January.


West Brom appoint Mel as head coach

9 January 2014 Last updated at 20:24

West Brom appoint Pepe Mel as their new head coach

West Brom have appointed former Real Betis manager Pepe Mel as their new head coach on an 18-month deal.

The Baggies have been looking for a new manager since sacking Steve Clarke on 14 December.

Mel, 50, held talks with West Brom in December but was ruled out after it became clear he wanted to bring his own backroom staff.

After three years in charge of Betis, Mel was replaced by Juan Carlos Garrido at the start of December.

More to follow.


American imprisoned in UAE released

Americans imprisoned in UAE for 'spoof video' released

Shezanne Cassim Shezanne Cassim was sentenced to one year in jail stemming from his participation in a documentary video (file photo)

An American who was sentenced to prison in the United Arab Emirates for making a spoof video about Dubai youth culture is returning to the US.

Shezanne Cassim, 29, was said to be en route to his home state of Minnesota.

Cassim and seven others were convicted in December of defaming the UAE image abroad under a 2012 cybercrimes law.

Arrested in April and later sentenced to one year in prison, Cassim was reportedly given credit for time served and good behaviour.

Cassim, a US citizen who moved to Dubai for work in 2006, participated in a 19-minute video, entitled Satwa Combat School, which was posted on YouTube in October 2012.

'Fictional' events

It opens with the explanatory text: "The following events are fictional and no offence was intended to the people of Satwa or UAE."

Set in the Satwa district of Dubai, the video is a mock documentary about a fictional establishment in which students are taught to throw sandals as a form of weapon, and seek aid through social media when in need of back-up.

Cassim, another American man, two Indians, two UAE citizens, a British citizen and a Canadian were later convicted of crimes stemming from the video.

The defendants were reportedly accused of violating Article 28, which calls for imprisonment for anyone who uses information technology "with the intent of inciting to actions, or publishing or disseminating any information, news, caricatures, or other images liable to endanger state security and its higher interests or infringe on the public order", according to local media reports.

Cassim subsequently became the public face of the defendants after his family publicised his incarceration.

"You can imagine the torture they've been under for nine months, not knowing if they were going to see him, when they were going to see him," Susan Burns, the family's attorney, told the Associated Press news agency.

"Now, they are ecstatic to be able to actually see him," she concluded.


VIDEO: South Sudan's tribal divisions

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South Sudan crisis: Civilians shelter in UN compound

9 January 2014 Last updated at 20:06 GMT

South Sudan civilians have been sheltering in a UN compound in the key rebel-held city of Bentiu as government forces approach.

At least 1,000 people have been killed and 200,000 have fled their homes because of the fighting.

The BBC's Alastair Leithead reports.


VIDEO: DiCaprio on his Wall Street wolf

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Leonardo DiCaprio on his Wall Street wolf

9 January 2014 Last updated at 19:50 GMT

Leonardo DiCaprio has described his latest collaboration with director Martin Scorsese, The Wolf Of Wall Street, as "very dear to my heart".

"This and The Aviator took eight years to get off the ground," he told BBC news at the UK premiere of the movie. "I'm just really thankful that we got the opportunity to do them."

The actor plays real-life swindling stockbroker Jordan Belfort in the film, a role which has already earned the actor a Bafta and Golden Globe nomination.

He talked to the BBC's Lizo Mzimba.