Royal Mail Privatisation Plans To Be Unveiled

By Poppy Trowbridge, Business and Economics Correspondent

The Business Secretary will announce plans for one of the biggest UK privatisations in decades when he makes a statement on the future of the Royal Mail later.

Vince Cable will tell the House of Commons how the Government plans to sell off the 375-year-old postal operator.

It wants to sell stock in the company to market investors, which could see the company valued at around £2.5bn.

Moya Greene, chief executive of Royal Mail, has held talks with scores of potential investors in recent months in an attempt to persuade them to back the plans.

Many Royal Mail staff will be offered free shares in the company

She faces opposition from unions and many employees, who fear privatisation will lead to a shake-up of services and cuts.

Steve Butts, a Royal Mail staff member for the past 32 years, told Sky News: "I think privatisation will only bring a race to the bottom for employees.

"Any private investor would always want to make money and the way they are going to do that is to drive down our terms and conditions."

Mr Cable's announcement comes after Sky News revealed many of the Royal Mail's 150,000 staff will receive free shares worth as much as £300m as part of the privatisation.

The share sale would raise hundreds of millions of pounds that experts say could help modernise the mail system in Britain.

Robert Hammond, director of post and market analysis at Consumer Futures, told Sky News: "I would hope that a privatised Royal Mail would be looking to expand on their products and services, and to make those services ready for 21st century consumers."

Mr Cable is expected to deliver his statement after Prime Minister's Questions.

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

San Francisco Plane Crash: Crew Were Ejected

Survivors Tell Of Plane Horror

Updated: 12:53pm UK, Monday 08 July 2013

Survivors have spoken of the terrifying moment a pilot tried to abort a landing seconds before it crashed onto the runway in San Francisco.

Two Chinese teenagers died after the Asiana Airlines Boeing 777 struck the runway shortly after the jet reportedly hit a sea wall.

Benjamin Levy said: "The nose of the plane, as you know, goes up a little bit. And then full throttle starts hitting hard and then we felt that we were going up again, so that's why I said maybe the guy is about to pull one of those almost mislandings and go back up.

"But it didn't happen, we just crashed back. So as I say - if we flipped, none of us would be here to talk about it."

Xu Da, a product manager from China, was sitting with his wife and teenage son near the back of the plane.

He stood up and saw a gaping hole through the back of the plane where its galley was torn away along with the tail.

Xu and his family escaped through the opening. Once on the tarmac, they watched the plane catch fire, and firefighters hose it down.

In the chaotic moments after the landing, Wen Zhang grabbed her four-year-old son, who hit the seat in front of him and broke his leg.

Spotting a hole at the back of the jumbo jet where the bathroom had been, she carried her boy to safety.

"I had no time to be scared," she said.

Eugene Rah said: "The seat I was sitting in, it has one more strap coming across my chest here in addition to the one that goes around the waist because It was a sleeper seat. If I did not have that, I would have hit the ceiling: that's how hard the impact was."

Fred Hayes filmed the crash from around a mile away "I was watching it come in and I did notice that nose being up in the air. My initial reaction was that it was trying to abort the landing and go back up," he told CNN.

"There was big boom and then it pitched forward and bounced off its nose."

One of the flight attendants described the chaos as she and her colleagues began their evacuation of more than 300 people.

Sky's Asia correspondent Mark Stone said Lee Yoon Hae told South Korean media that she first went to the cockpit to see if the pilots were alive. She then made three announcements telling the 291 passengers to remain calm and prepare to evacuate.

There were four pilots on the plane: two in the cockpit and two more reserve pilots in the main cabin. One of the reserve pilots opened the front door with an axe and ordered the evacuation.

Stone said Mrs Lee, 40, explained how one of her colleagues had a leg trapped. She helped to release her leg and at the same time tried to calm the passengers, some of whom were panicking.

Mrs Lee said that many of the passengers were confused and disorientated.

She shouted to the Chinese passengers to evacuate immediately. Many of them tried to take their hand baggage with them, but she said she was forced to order them not to.

Mrs Lee said several fires broke out within the cabin and she was not aware that the tail of the plane had broken off because the ceiling between her and the rear of the aircraft had collapsed.

She helped one badly injured female passenger to the emergency slide and then returned back into the aircraft to help others and was one of the last to leave the aircraft.

Mrs Lee, who has already been given 14 awards for her work at Asiana Airlines, broke her coccyx in the accident, but was unaware of her injuries until she arrived at the hospital.

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Miliband Set To Reform Labour Ties To Unions

Ed Miliband is to end the system where individual trade unionists are automatically affiliated to the Labour Party

In the wake of the Falkirk ballot-rigging row, the Labour leader will use a speech later to set out what aides are calling the "biggest party reforms in a generation".

The changes are intended to strengthen the party's links with its individual members while diluting the influence of trade union bosses.

Labour sources insisted Mr Miliband had always intended to deliver party reform, although there was no attempt to deny the timing of the announcement was linked to events in Falkirk.

He will not set out a timetable for reform but instead is expected to announce the appointment of a "senior party figure" to work through the process of putting it into practice.

Labour sources said they did not believe that it would require a change in party rules, although they suggested they could "formalise" the new arrangements with a vote at party conference.

"We would like to work with the unions and local parties to bring it about. We want to do it in a co-operative way but there are other ways in which you can do it," one source said.

Under the proposals, the three million trade unionists currently affiliated to the party through the automatic payment of affiliation fees will in future decide as individuals whether they wish to do so.

In other measures, Mr Miliband will announce plans for Labour's next candidate for mayor of London to be picked through a system of US-style primaries - with the possibility they could be extended to the selection of parliamentary candidates where the local constituency party is weak.

There will also be spending caps in selection contests for Parliament and the European Parliament covering both would-be candidates and any organisation backing them.

Mr Miliband has been at loggerheads with the Unite union boss Len McLuskey

A new code of conduct will be drawn up for those seeking parliamentary selection, with the prospect of disqualification if they breach the rules.

Standard constituency agreements with the trade unions will be put in place to ensure no one involved in the selection process can be subjected to "undue local pressure".

In his address to the St Bride's Foundation in London, Mr Miliband will call for an end to "the politics of the machine" - typified by events in Falkirk where the Unite trade union is accused of trying to pack the constituency with its members to secure selection of its preferred parliamentary candidate.

"What we saw in Falkirk is part of the death-throes of old politics. It is a symbol of what is wrong with politics. I want to build a better Labour Party - and build a better politics for Britain," he is expected to say.

Officials acknowledged that ending automatic affiliation - which raises £8m a-year - would represent a financial "hit" for the party.

However, Mr Miliband will argue it will also provide the opportunity to get trade unionists to become active in the party, involving them directly in its campaigning.

"The problem is not that these ordinary working men and women dominate the Labour Party - the problem is that they are not members of local parties, they are not active in our campaigns," he is expected to say.

"Trade unions should have political funds for all kinds of campaigns and activities as they choose. But I do not want any individual to be paying money to the Labour Party in affiliation fees unless they have deliberately chosen to do so.

"So we need to set a new direction in our relationship with trade union members in which they choose to join Labour through the affiliation fee.

"I believe this idea has huge potential for our party and our politics. It could grow our membership from 200,000 to a far higher number, genuinely rooting us in the life of more people of our country."

Unite general secretary Len McCluskey indicated the union would oppose moves to end automatic affiliation.

Writing in The Guardian he said: "Switching to an 'opt-in' for the political levy wouldn't work - it would require Labour to unite with the Tories to change the law, would debilitate unions' ability to speak for our members and would further undermine unions' status as voluntary, and self-governing,organisations."

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

April Jones: Mark Bridger Attacked In Prison

Child killer Mark Bridger has been attacked by a fellow prisoner less than two months into his whole life sentence.

The 47-year-old, who was jailed in May for abducting and murdering schoolgirl April Jones, was slashed with a makeshift blade during the attack at HMP Wakefield in West Yorkshire.

He reportedly suffered facial injuries and was taken to a local hospital where he was given stitches.

A spokesman for Her Majesty's Prison Service confirmed that a prisoner was injured and taken to hospital during the attack, which is now being investigated by police.

Bridger kidnapped April before sexually abusing and murdering her and disposing of her body last October.

He was given a whole life sentence by judge Mr Justice Griffith Williams after a jury found him guilty following a month-long trial.

April had been playing with friends close to her home on the Bryn-y-Gog estate in Machynlleth, Wales, when Bridger enticed her into his car.

Following his arrest, detectives found numerous indecent images on his computer.

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Andy Murray: 'Wimbledon Win Is The Pinnacle'

Andy Murray Can Win More Slams

Updated: 12:16am UK, Monday 08 July 2013

By Chris Skudder, Sky News Sports Presenter

The wags didn't waste any time with a cheeky overhead backhand smash at the post-match media conference.

"Andy, how does it feel to be the first Brit to win Wimbledon in shorts?!" one journalist quipped.

It was a winning reference to the fact that the last time a man from Britain won the world's most coveted title, he was wearing long trousers, or "long flannel pants" as Fred Perry's daughter Penny told Sky News last night.

For a nation where the game was first thought up, 77 years is a ridiculously long wait.

Fred Perry's 1936 final opponent Gottfried Von Cramm went on to win the Iron Cross for Germany in the Second World War.

Murray wasn't even born when Perry was immortalised in a bronze statue at the All England Club in the mid-1980s, half a century after winning his first All England Club title in 1934.

Perry was widely regarded as one of the greats, winning eight of what we now call Grand Slam titles between 1933 and 1936, including three at Wimbledon and all three of the other Slams - the US, Australian and French Opens - in that short spell of domination.

So where does that place Murray? Without doubt he has some catching up to do on Perry, even though Fred played at a time when the competition was never as fierce as it is now.

Murray can count one Wimbledon and one US Open title alongside his five final defeats.

But he's only 26 and can probably look forward to four or five more years at the top.

It's probably fair to say he may never win the French on the slow red clay, a surface that most of the world's greatest ever hard and grass court players have never been able to master.

Sampras, for all his seven Wimbledons, never won the French Open, and even the greatest of them all, Roger Federer, with his seven Wimbledons, only managed to squeeze out one title at Roland Garros (though he had the misfortune to lose four finals there to the near-unbeatable clay court master Rafa Nadal).

There's every chance though that Murray will add to his tally of Grand Slams on the hard courts at the US Open, where he'll be defending champion in September; in Australia, where he's tasted defeat in three finals already and will be busting a gut to put that right next January; and at Wimbledon, where he'll already be favourite to repeat his victory next July.

Tennis, like all sports, goes in cycles. Federer and Nadal had their period of domination (and are still very capable of winning more Slams) but this now feels like Murray's time, slugging it out with Djokovic for the world's top spot and the major tournaments along the way.

Three of the last four Grand Slam finals have featured the two top ranked players in the world, and Murray has now taken two of those three.

A fit and firing again Juan Martin Del Potro will be a major player too in the coming few years and would be a good bet to add to his one Slam in the US four years ago.

How many Grand Slams can Murray go on to win? He'll never catch Federer with his incredible all-time high of 17, nor Nadal's 12. Djokovic has six, mostly down to an iron will to win, an extraordinary durability, like Nadal, and capacity for comebacks.

Murray has always had the talent and ability but has now added mental strength, doggedness and hunger for more. You wouldn't be surprised if he went on to win four or five more of the big titles.

They always say in sport you have to lose first to be able to learn to win. Like his game-changing coach Ivan Lendl, Murray lost his first four Grand Slam finals, which only served to perpetuate the legend of the choking Brits.

But once he'd felt able to manage the unfair expectation that gets heaped on any half decent British player wielding a racket, he got that first title out of the way in New York last September.

With the barriers down he's now broken through at the last bastion of expectation, Wimbledon HQ. Home at last.

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Thirty-Four Shot Dead' In Cairo

A spokesman for Egypt's Muslim Brotherhood claims 34 of its supporters have been killed when they were fired upon in Cairo.

Murad Ali said that shooting broke out in the early hours of this morning while the Islamists staged a sit-in outside the Republican Guard barracks where deposed president Mohamed Morsi is being held.

The claims have not been independently verified.

More follows...

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Boeing Plane Crash Lands In San Francisco

Two people have been killed and more than 150 others injured when a plane crash landed at San Francisco International Airport, according to the city fire department.

The Asiana Airlines flight, coming from Seoul, South Korea, was believed to be carrying 291 passengers and 16 crew members.

The San Francisco Fire Department, said 181 people have been taken to various hospitals - 49 of whom are in a serious condition.

Terrorism had been ruled out as a cause of the accident, the FBI confirmed.

The debris of the aircraft's tail is seen on the runway after the crash

Eyewitnesses reported seeing the plane's tail section break off during the crash. South Korea's transportation ministry said the tail of the plane hit the runway before it crashed.

A fire started when the plane landed and passengers were forced to use emergency inflatable slides to escape the aircraft, witnesses added.

Parts of the plane's tail and the landing gear were strewn across the runway. TV footage showed the top of the fuselage had been burned away and one engine appeared to have broken off.

A plume of smoke rose from the plane after the crash landing

David Eun, believed to be a passenger on the aircraft, posted on Twitter: "I just crash landed at SFO. Tail ripped off. Most everyone seems fine. I'm ok. Surreal."

He added: "Fire and rescue people all over the place. They're evacuating the injured."

Federal Aviation Administration spokeswoman Laura Brown said the Boeing 777 was supposed to land on runway 28 left at San Francisco International Airport.

She said the sequence of events was still unclear, but it appeared the plane landed and then crashed.

The wreckage is visible next to one of the runways at the airport

Sky News Correspondent Tom Parmenter said: "There were large plumes of smoke coming from this plane.

"The tail seems to be the initial problem on landing, and then the fire seems to have started once the plane was on the runway.

"People have been pictured walking away from the wreckage."

Flights have been diverted to other airports, including Los Angeles.

Debbie Hersman, chairman of the Transport Safety Board, said: "Teams are going to be focused on operations, human performance, survival factors, the airport, airport operations and they are going to be focussing on the aircraft - the systems, the structures and the power plants.

"It's still too early for us to tell (what happened).

A statement from San Francisco General Hospital said 10 patients from the crash - eight adults and two children - were in a critical condition.

Asiana is a South Korean airline, second in size to the national carrier Korean Air. 

It has recently tried to expand its presence in the United States, and joined the oneWorld alliance, anchored by American Airlines and British Airways.

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Abu Qatada Deported From UK To Jordan

Timeline: Qatada Legal Battle

Updated: 4:37am UK, Sunday 07 July 2013

Abu Qatada has challenged and ultimately thwarted every attempt by the Government to detain and deport him for many years.

Here is a timeline of the legal battle.

1993: Abu Qatada claims asylum when he arrives in Britain on a forged passport.

1994: Allowed to stay in Britain.

1995: Issues a "fatwa" justifying the killing of converts from Islam, their wives and children in Algeria.

1998: Applies for indefinite leave to remain in Britain.

1999: April - Convicted in his absence on terror charges in Jordan and sentenced to life imprisonment.

October - Speaks in London advocating the killing of Jews and praising attacks on Americans.

2001: February - Arrested by anti-terror police over involvement in a plot to bomb Strasbourg Christmas market. Officers find him with £170,000 in cash, including £805 in an envelope marked "For the mujahedin in Chechnya".

December - Becomes one of Britain's most wanted men after going on the run from his home in west London.

2002: Arrested by police in a council house in south London and detained in Belmarsh high-security jail.

2005: Freed on conditional bail and placed on a control order but arrested again in August under immigration rules as the Government seeks to deport him to Jordan.

2008: April: Court of Appeal rules deportation would breach his human rights because evidence used against him in Jordan might have been obtained through torture.

May - Granted bail by the immigration tribunal but told he must stay inside for 22 hours a day.

June - Released from Long Lartin jail in Worcestershire and moves into a four-bedroom house in west London.

November - He is rearrested after the Home Office tells an immigration hearing of fears he plans to abscond.

December - Qatada's bail is revoked by the Special Immigration Appeals Commission (Siac) after hearing secret evidence that the risk of him absconding has increased.

2009: Five Law Lords unanimously back the Government's policy of removing terror suspects from Britain on the basis of assurances from foreign governments and it is ruled he can be deported to Jordan to face a retrial on the terror charges.

He is awarded 2,800 euro (£2,500) compensation by the European Court of Human Rights after the judges rule that his detention without trial in the UK under anti-terrorism powers breached his human rights.

2012: January - European judges rule he can be sent to Jordan with diplomatic assurances but not while "there remains a real risk that evidence obtained by torture will be used against him".

February - He is released on strict bail conditions.

April - Rearrested as the Government prepares to deport him after Jordan gives assurances it will "bend over backwards" to ensure he receives a fair trial.

March - Qatada's legal team loses its bid to have the case heard by the Europe's human rights judges, clearing the way for deportation proceedings to continue.

May and August - Siac rejects Qatada's applications for bail.

October - Siac holds appeal hearing.

November - His appeal is granted and he is granted bail.

December - Qatada is moved to a larger residence in the greater London area.

2013:

March 9 - It emerges Qatada has been arrested for allegedly breaching his bail conditions. He is ordered to stay in custody and sent to Belmarsh.

March 21 - Police reveal the cleric is being investigated over extremist material.

March 27 - Home Secretary Theresa May loses her appeal over Siac's decision to allow Qatada to stay in the UK. The Home Office vows to appeal.

April 17 - The Home Office formally announces that it is seeking leave from the Court of Appeal to take the case to the Supreme Court.

April 22 - The Court of Appeal refuses permission to go to the Supreme Court, forcing the Home Office to appeal directly to the highest court in the land.

April 23 - Theresa May tells MPs she has signed a new treaty with Jordan that should pave the way to deportation, but warns it might take "many months".

May 10 - Qatada's barrister says he will go back to Jordan voluntarily if the treaty on the use of evidence obtained by torture, guaranteeing he will not be tortured, is ratified by the Jordanian parliament.

May 20 - Qatada is refused bail by the Special Immigrations Appeals Commission after "jihadist material" is found on a computer memory stick.

July 2 - The new treaty between Jordan and Britain is fully ratified, sparking claims Qatada could be on a plane within days.

July 3 - A Jordanian government official tells AFP the cleric is due back on Sunday.

July 7 - Flown from RAF Northolt to Jordan

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Snowden Offered Asylum In Two Countries

US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden has been told he could be welcomed in Nicaragua and Venezuela after applying to another six countries for asylum.

Speaking at a public event, Nicaraguan President Daniel Ortega said his government was willing to grant political asylum to the former NSA contractor "if circumstances permit it".

He added: "We are open, respectful of the right to asylum, and it is clear that if circumstances permit it, we would receive Snowden with pleasure and give him asylum here in Nicaragua.

"We have the sovereign right to help a person who felt remorse after finding out how the United States was using technology to spy on the whole world, and especially its European allies."

Mr Ortega said his government had received an asylum application at its embassy in Moscow.

Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro made the same promise during a speech marking the anniversary of Venezuela's independence.

He said: "As head of state, the government of the Bolivarian Republic of Venezuela decided to offer humanitarian asylum to the young American Edward Snowden so that he can live (without) ... persecution from the empire.

It was not immediately clear if there were any conditions to Venezuela's offer.         

Snowden is believed to be holed up at a Moscow airport looking for a country that will give him safe haven as the US wants to extradite him to face espionage charges.

The 30-year-old has previously asked 21 countries for asylum but most said he must be on their soil for his application to be accepted.

WikiLeaks revealed he had applied to more countries.

A tweet from the anti-secrecy website said: "Edward Snowden has applied to another six countries for asylum.

"They will not be named at this time due to attempted US interference."

The message appeared to be an allusion to the drama surrounding the flight of Bolivian President Evo Morales, whose plane was recently abruptly rerouted to Austria over suspicions Snowden was aboard.

Washington has revoked the passport of Snowden, who is seeking to evade US justice for leaking details about a vast US electronic surveillance programme to collect phone and Internet data.

He also revealed evidence of the spying activities of British eavesdropping agency GCHQ - including its scanning of vast amounts of emails and other internet traffic by tapping cable networks.

A bid by Snowden for Icelandic citizenship failed when the country's parliament voted not to debate it before the summer recess.

Russia has shown signs of growing impatience over Snowden's stay in the country.

Its deputy foreign minister said on Thursday that Snowden had not sought asylum in the country and needed to choose a place to go.

Moscow has made clear that the longer he stays, the greater the risk of the diplomatic standoff over his fate causing lasting damage to relations with Washington.

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More

Egypt Clashes Turn Deadly As Troops Open Fire

By Dominic Waghorn, Sky News Correspondent, in Cairo

At least 30 people in Egypt have died in fierce clashes between supporters and opponents of deposed president Mohamed Morsi.

Supporters of the former leader marched to the Cairo barracks of the Republican Guard chanting "down with military rule" after a Muslim Brotherhood rally at the city's Rabea al Adaweya mosque.

Shots were fired as protesters hung pictures of Mr Morsi on a barbed wire barrier around the military complex. At least three demonstrators were shot by the military.

Downtown Cairo witnessed the same street battles played out two-and-a-half years ago, this time with Morsi supporters fighting their enemies with rocks, clubs and fireworks. One person was killed in their clashes.

A pro-Morsi crowd crossed the Sixth Of October bridge heading towards Tahrir Square, provoking a fierce confrontation.

The Egyptian army said troops were responding only with blank rounds and tear gas.

An anti-Morsi protester with evidence of gun cartridges

However, anti-Morsi youths showed Sky News what their enemies had done to them, brandishing used shotgun cartridges and pellet wounds.

"They are terrorists and we should get rid of them," they said. "They're using automatic weapons and shotguns."

The atmosphere was febrile. Changing in a second. Turning from triumphant to panicked, as the crowd scattered thinking their attackers had returned.

"The Muslim Brotherhood is coming here beating us shooting us," said one man. "We're here, we're alone and we need someone to  help us."

Egyptian elite soldiers guard a military building in Cairo

As if to answer him, military armoured personnel carriers appeared from the gloom.

But this isn't a conflict against foreign invaders, it's between Egyptians.

The anti-Morsi crowd screamed curses against the ousted president venting their fury, and relief then turned against us, the Sky News crew, mistaking us for Americans.

A hurried explanation gave us time to escape.

There are now two armies of protesters on the streets of Cairo - enraged and out for vengeance, determined to prevail.

Violence also erupted in cities of southern Egypt, along the Suez Canal and in the Nile Delta, with officials reporting more than 200 people injured. Four were killed in the northern Sinai city of el Arish, where Islamists stormed a government building.

More than 200 people have been wounded nationwide, according to officials

State TV quoted the country's health ministry saying 30 people had died nationwide, including 12 people in clashes in Alexandria. Most of the fatalities were from gunshot wounds.

It came after the Muslim Brotherhood and its allies called for protesters to take to the streets on the Muslim day of prayer for what it described as a "Friday of Rage".

The leader of the Brotherhood called for followers to remain peaceful but he vowed to restore power to Mr Morsi, who was ousted in a military coup earlier this week, a year after being elected to office.

12.27 | 0 komentar | Read More