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Chris Lane: police believe race was not a factor in his death
China: Bo Xilai ridicules corruption allegations from former mayor
Ask a grown-up: does my cat Oscar know he's a cat?
Yosemite wildfire: state of emergency declared for San Francisco
Kevin Rudd halts election campaigning for briefing on Syria crisis
Syria: Chuck Hagel suggests US is marshalling military forces
San Diego mayor Bob Filner agrees to resign
Five Mexico City mass grave bodies identified
Shetland helicopter crash: four people feared dead
From the archive, 24 August 1990: Two Germanys set October 3 for unification
British soldier honoured by Denmark
Surveillance and the state: this way the debate goes on | Editorial
Kevin Rudd pitches for the small business vote
Greens leader Christine Milne calls for inquiry into treatment of refugees
Gary Barker on the Syrian conflict – cartoon
The best news pictures of the day
Iraq violence leaves at least 36 dead
UK government given Tuesday deadline over David Miranda data
Tourists to India hiring bodyguards for protection
Wolodja, the two-year-old polar bear, cools off at Tierpark Berlin – in pictures
Masai Mara: 'Today it's lodges, lodges, lodges' - audio slideshow
The Masai Mara: 'It will not be long before it's gone'
Helicopter ditches into sea west of Shetland
Nick Clegg queries whether police acted lawfully over David Miranda
US imam sentenced to 25 years for funding Pakistani Taliban

Chris Lane: police believe race was not a factor in his death

Posted: 24 Aug 2013 12:58 AM PDT

Not enough evidence to show motive for the killing of 22-year-old Australian, police in Oklahoma say

Chris Lane was not shot in the back and left to die on the side of a road in Oklahoma because he was white or the victim of a gang initiation, the lead prosecutor and police chief investigating the Australian's murder believes.

Inflammatory, race-based comments on Twitter by the youngest accused, 15-year-old James "Bug" Edwards, before last week's drive-by murder in the city of Duncan led to speculation Lane, 22, from Melbourne, was targeted because of his race.

In one Twitter post Edwards wrote: "90% of white ppl are nasty. #HATE THEM".

In another post Edwards, a champion junior wrestler who hoped to represent the US at the Olympics, claimed to have knocked five white people out after July's controversial acquittal in Florida of neighbourhood watch co-ordinator George Zimmerman for the second-degree murder of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin.

"Ayeee I knocced out 5 woods since Zimmerman court!:)," Edwards posted, using the derogatory word "woods" to describe whites.

Stephens County district attorney Jason Hicks said there was not enough evidence collected so far in the investigation to indicate Lane's killing was motivated by race.

"At this point, the evidence does not support the theory that Christopher Lane was targeted based upon his race or nationality," Hicks said in a statement.

"The evidence is insufficient to establish that race was the primary motive in the murder of Christopher Lane."

Edwards and 16-year-old Chancey Luna have been charged with first-degree murder and face the prospect of life sentences without parole while 17-year-old Michael Jones, the alleged driver of the drive-by vehicle, has been charged with being an accessory to murder and faces a potential 45-year sentence.

Hicks noted Luna's mother and Jones were both white.

Duncan police chief Danny Ford has also hosed down speculation the three boys were members of a gang and the targeting of Lane as he jogged along a road was part of a gang initiation.

Ford believes it is possible the boys were "wannabe gangsters".

"It's the idea that, 'I'm a gangster, you need to respect me, you need to give me attention, you need to be afraid of me'," Ford told the Duncan Banner newspaper.

"The problem is when you market yourself, someone eventually begins to say, 'Well, OK, if you're really going to market yourself that way then demonstrate to us', and they feel like if it got to that situation they had to demonstrate to maintain the status they were trying to get."

Ford said one of the boys had confessed that Lane, 22, was shot for "the fun of it" and because they were "bored".

Duncan residents, who have been rocked by the murder, held a service on Friday evening at a school to honour Lane.

More than half the 3763 students at Duncan's public schools stayed away from classes on Wednesday after local police received "anonymous threats" involving Duncan High School, while a local gun shop reported a surge in residents buying hand guns to protect themselves.

An online memorial fund set up by one of Lane's US baseball team-mates has raised a staggering $155,000 ($A173,000) in just three days.

It was hoped the fund would raise $US15,000 to help pay for funeral expenses and take Lane's body back to Melbourne. But the outpouring of support from people around the world will allow Lane's parents to set up a foundation to make donations to organisations Lane was passionate about.

China: Bo Xilai ridicules corruption allegations from former mayor

Posted: 24 Aug 2013 12:32 AM PDT

Court transcripts reveal grandiose lifestyle of Bo's family and bizarre dispute over meat his son brought back from Africa

Fallen politician Bo Xilai has dismissed testimony accusing him of embezzlement, as China's biggest political trial in 30 years entered its third day on Saturday.

Prosecutors accused Bo of embezzling 5m yuan (about £530,000) of public funds in August 2000 because his family was short of money.

Wang Zhenggang, a former land official in the north-eastern city Dalian, where Bo was mayor in the 1990s, testified that Bo asked him to help channel the funds to a law firm in Beijing owned by Bo's wife, Gu Kailai.

Bo cross-examined Wang, dismissing his testimony as irrational, according to court transcripts released online. He said his family's economic situation was stable at the time – Gu owned five law firms and his son was studying abroad on a scholarship.

Bo ridiculed Wang's assertion that he had asked Gu to accept the money in a phone call made in front of Bo.

"It is not even what the most stupid corruption offender would do," he said. "Corrupt offenders with even the lowest IQ would ask who else in Dalian was aware of the money."

He added: "When people speak with me I first request they switch off their phone. I'm still a rather cautious person."

Bo, 64, is standing trial in Jinan, the capital of coastal Shandong province, on charges of bribery, embezzlement and abuse of power. Bo, once considered a contender for some of China's most powerful political posts, has surprised observers by flatly denying many of the trial's central charges.

Gu is serving a suspended death sentence in prison for the murder of the British businessman Neil Heywood – the root of her husband's downfall.

On Friday, the court released transcripts providing unprecedented insight into the Bo family's inner workings and business transactions. Testimony by Bo's wife, his former second-in-command Wang Lijun, and Patrick Devillers, a French architect with ties to the family, revealed lives of extreme entitlement, material excess and graft.

According to Gu, many of the family's leisure activities were bankrolled by Xu Ming, a Dalian-based business tycoon whose holdings range from sports teams to petrochemical plants. Bo is accused of taking 20.7m yuan in bribes from Xu between 2000 and 2012.

Gu's written testimony described Xu as a de facto travel agent for herself and her son, 25-year-old Bo Guagua, currently a student at Columbia Law School in New York. Xu bankrolled Guagua's trips between China and the UK, where he was attending school at the time, as well as trips to Cuba, Argentina, Venice, Paris, and Germany, where Guagua attended the 2006 World Cup.

In August 2011, Xu spent more than £65,000 on a trip to Mount Kilimanjaro by Guagua and six of his friends, according to Gu's testimony. When Guagua returned from Africa, he brought his parents gifts including "a piece of meat from a very exotic animal", she said. Guagua claimed it should be eaten raw; Bo wanted it steamed. The family ultimately steamed the meat, which kept for a month, Gu said.

The transcripts revealed the series of events that led to Gu's murder of Heywood, most of which revolved around a £2m villa in Cannes, France, which Gu bought in the early 2000s.

Gu first acquired the property under Devillers' name, with the intention of renting it out; she eventually shifted the property's ownership to Heywood, a trusted family friend. But as the property began to lose money, Gu removed Heywood from the deed, making the businessman furious.

Heywood threatened to expose the family's assets unless Gu paid him £1.4m. Gu was terrified that Heywood might harm her son over the fallout and that the exposure would damage her husband's career.

In August, 2011, she killed the businessman by poisoning him in a Chongqing hotel room.

Bo received much less airtime in Friday's proceedings than on the first day of the trial, leading some analysts to believe court authorities may have either reined in the charismatic former politician or withheld information from their transcripts.

"[Court] propaganda departments are usually conservative, and given Bo's performance [on Thursday], they may have adjusted their strategies to make sure his political star effect wouldn't ferment," said Wu Qiang, a political scientist at Tsinghua University.

Jonathan Kaiman

Ask a grown-up: does my cat Oscar know he's a cat?

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 11:00 PM PDT

Professor of cognitive science Douglas Hofstadter replies to six-year-old Henry

It's a pretty safe bet a mosquito doesn't know it's a mosquito. It just does mosquito-like things, never asking itself what it is. As for a cat, that's trickier. They certainly react to other cats in a strong way – sometimes hissing, sometimes miaowing, now friendly, now not so friendly.

In that sense, cats know they have a strong connection with certain other animals (which we call cats), but they probably don't think to themselves, "Wow, I'm one of those!" or, "Hey look, I'm just like that!" It's more like, "Want to play with that one!" or, "Want to scare that one away!" But perhaps in a cat there is a dim awareness of belonging to a certain cat-egory.

Do you know you're a mammal? Perhaps. Do you know you're a European? Perhaps a bit. Do you know you're an osseocarnisanguineoviscericartilaginonervomedullary creature? Probably not, even though you are. I suspect it's like that for your cat.

• If you're 10 or under and have a question that needs answering, email ask.a.grownup@theguardian.com and we'll find an expert to look into it for you.

Guardian readers

Yosemite wildfire: state of emergency declared for San Francisco

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 10:29 PM PDT

California governor Jerry Brown cites threats to electricity and water supplies as firefighters consider asking for military help

A wildfire raging at the edge of Yosemite national park is threatening power lines that provide electricity to San Francisco, prompting California governor Jerry Brown to declare a state of emergency.

The fire has damaged the electrical infrastructure serving the city, and forced the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission to shut down power lines, the governor said in his declaration.

There were no reports of blackouts in the city, which is about 200 miles west of the park.

The wildfire swept further into Yosemite national park on Friday, remaining largely unchecked as it threatened one of the country's major tourist destinations.

The so-called Rim Fire, which started last week in the Stanislaus national forest, had blackened 11,000 acres (4,450 hectares) at the north-eastern corner of Yosemite as of Friday afternoon after exploding in size overnight, park spokeswoman Kari Cobb said.

The blaze burning in the western Sierra Nevada mountains is now the fastest-moving of 50 large wildfires raging across the drought-parched US west that have strained resources and prompted fire managers to open talks with Pentagon commanders and Canadian officials about possible reinforcements.

The blaze, which has now charred a total of 165 square miles of forest land, mostly outside Yosemite, was about four miles west of Hetch Hetchy reservoir and some 20 miles from Yosemite Valley, the park's main tourist centre, Cobb said.

The reservoir provides water to 2.6 million customers in the San Francisco area. Should the blaze affect the reservoir, the city's water supply could be affected, Brown said in his declaration.

The fire has destroyed four homes and 12 outbuildings and was only 2% contained as of Friday.

Highway 120, one of four access routes to the park, was temporarily closed. The fire was also threatening 4,500 homes, up from 2,500 on Thursday.

In Idaho, crews increasingly had the upper hand over a massive blaze near the ski resort town of Sun Valley, as a storm system predicted to bring lightning and high winds brought rain instead.

The so-called Beaver Creek fire, now 67% contained, at its peak forced out occupants of 2,250 houses in upscale neighborhoods outside Sun Valley and destroyed one home and seven other buildings.

The 2013 fire season has already drained US Forest Service fire suppression and emergency funds, causing the agency to redirect $600 million meant for other projects such as campground and trail maintenance and thinning of trees to reduce wildfire risks, said agency spokesman Mike Ferris.

The service has spent some $967 million to protect lives and properties amid a season in which fires in Idaho, Utah, Colorado and California have threatened homes and communities that border forest and wild lands where fire is more dangerous and costly to fight, Ferris said.

With hotshots and other elite fire crews stretched thin, US fire managers will decide in coming days whether to seek US military or international aid to check the roughly 50 large fires burning in the west.

Kevin Rudd halts election campaigning for briefing on Syria crisis

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 07:42 PM PDT

Prime minister returns to Canberra as overnight comments from Barack Obama on chemical weapons claims raise stakes

The civil war in Syria has caused a momentary halt to Australia's federal election campaign, with Prime Minister Kevin Rudd returning to Canberra for a briefing on the unfolding crisis.

Rudd flew back to the nation's capital on Saturday to speak with national security officials, and to work with officials on Australia's response to claims Syrian forces had used chemical weapons on civilians.

The opposition leader, Tony Abbott, said it was is entirely appropriate that Rudd returned from Sydney, where he had been campaigning.

In line with caretaker government conventions, Abbott will be given equal national security briefings.

Rudd told reporters he was calling a brief halt to his campaign to consider the matter in all its detail.

"And I'm not about to make any rushed or rash judgements about what the country should do next," Rudd said.

"We take our alliance obligations seriously, we take our caretaker convention's obligations seriously.

"But my first responsibility as the prime minister of the country is to make sure these matters are being attended to thoroughly and carefully."

US President Barack Obama has said allegations of chemical weapons use were a "grave concern".

Rudd said he had noted carefully what Obama said "as this recent event is one which he and the government of the United States is viewing with great concern".

"The Australian government views this development with equal concern," he said.

Rudd spoke on the phone to UN secretary-general Ban Ki-moon about actions in the UN security council.

He has also discussed the issue with the US ambassador to Australia, Jeff Bleich.

Campaigning in Adelaide, Abbott said it was entirely appropriate for Rudd to be briefed.

"Obviously terrible things are happening in that country," he said.

"It's very important that United Nations inspectors be allowed in to get to the bottom of exactly what has happened.

"I hope the international community is able to do what it can to try to ensure that the bloodshed ceases and ordinary human rights are once more respected."

He dismissed suggestions that he too should be rushing back to Canberra for security briefings, rather than continuing his campaign.

"I'm looking forward to receiving briefings, but I think it's quite possible for briefings to be had while I'm on the road," he said.

"I don't for a second underplay the seriousness of this situation, and I entirely support the prime minister receiving briefings."

Abbott and his deputy, Julie Bishop, will be briefed on Sunday by the head of the department of foreign affairs and trade, Peter Varghese, in Brisbane.

Syria: Chuck Hagel suggests US is marshalling military forces

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 07:16 PM PDT

US defence secretary says his department is providing Barack Obama with 'options for all contingencies'

The US defence secretary, Chuck Hagel, strongly suggested on Friday the United States was positioning naval forces and assets in anticipation of any decision by President Barack Obama to order military action against Syria after apparent chemical weapons use.

Hagel's comments to reporters traveling with him to Malaysia came after a defence official said the Navy would expand its presence in the Mediterranean with a fourth cruise-missile armed warship because of the escalating civil war in Syria.

Hagel said Obama had asked the defence department for options on Syria, where an apparent poison gas attack has mounted pressure on the United States to intervene.

"The defence department has responsibility to provide the president with options for all contingencies," he said. "And that requires positioning our forces, positioning our assets, to be able to carry out different options – whatever options the president might choose."

Asked whether it was fair to report that the United States had moved assets, Hagel said: "I don't think I said that. I said that we're always having to prepare – as we give the president options – prepare our assets and where they are and the capability of those assets to carry out the contingencies we give the president."

The defence official, who was not authorised to speak publicly, said the USS Mahan had finished its deployment and was due to head back to its home base in Norfolk, Virginia, but the commander of the US Sixth Fleet has decided to keep the ship in the region.

The official stressed the Navy had received no orders to prepare for any military operations in connection with Syria.

Senior US officials are considering choices ranging from increased diplomatic pressure to the use of force, including possible air strikes on Syrian President Bashar al-Assad's forces, administration sources said.

Hagel said he believed the international community was moving swiftly in getting the facts about what took place. But he cautioned that if Assad's forces did indeed use chemical weapons against its own people, that "there may be another attack coming". That added urgency to any decisions by the international community, he said.

"So a very quick assessment of what happened, and whatever appropriate response should be made, that needs to happen within that time frame of responsible action," said Hagel, who declined to specify a time frame.

The Syrian government denies being responsible for the attack and has in the past accused rebels of using chemical weapons, an allegation that Western officials have dismissed.

Asked about the possibility of unilateral action, Hagel said the US would never give up its sovereign right to act, but Syria was an international issue.

"The international community, I believe, should and will act in concert on these kinds of issues," he said. "If the intelligence and the facts bear out, which it appears to be what happened, use of chemical weapons, then that isn't just a United States issue. This is an international community issue."

San Diego mayor Bob Filner agrees to resign

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 05:15 PM PDT

The 70-year-old Democrat agrees to step down as mayor and apologises to accusers but denies ever sexually harassing them

Bob Filner has bowed to protest and agreed to resign as mayor of San Diego after at least 17 women accused him of making unwanted sexual advances.

The Democrat apologised to his accusers and to voters at a city council meeting on Friday which approved a mediation deal over the terms of his departure, ending a six-week saga that made headlines across the US.

"The city should not have to go through this, my own personal failures were responsible, and I apologise to the city," he said. The 70-year-old former congressman also struck a defiant tone, saying he was the victim of a "lynch mob".

The council voted 7-0 to approve a deal that is expected to see the city pay some of Filner's legal costs and potential damages in a sexual harassment lawsuit. He had threatened to stay on and drag out the political stalemate if the council did not agree to the deal.

He will officially step down on August 30, pre-empting a recall effort that had gathered thousands of signatures. Filner started moving out of his City Hall office earlier this week.

"To all the women that I've offended, I had no intention to be offensive, to violate any physical or emotional space," he said. "I was trying to establish personal relationships, but the combination of awkwardness and hubris led to behaviour that I think many found offensive."

He also said sorry to his former fiancee, Bronwyn Ingram, who cancelled their wedding, saying the twice divorced politician could not control his impulses towards women. "I love you very much. You came to love San Diego as much as I did and you did memorable things in the short time that you were first lady," he said. "I personally apologise for the hurt I have caused you."

Elected last November, Filner was San Diego's first Democrat mayor in two decades. The scandal over his brief stint in office could doom his party's hopes of keeping the post in a special election within 90 days. City council president Todd Gloria will be acting mayor until then.

Isolated and besieged, there was little doubt the former congressman would go. The issue was whether the city would help pay his costs in the sexual harassment lawsuit filed by his former director of communications, Irene McCormack Jackson.

She was the first to go public last month, alleging that Filner asked her to work without underwear, demanded kisses and whispered in her ear while dragging her in a headlock.

"He is not fit to be the mayor of our great city," McCormack said. "He is not fit to hold any public office."

At least 16 other women swiftly followed, including city officials, a university dean and army and navy veterans. Allegations ranged from inappropriate language to groping, manhandling and bullying.

McCormack's attorney, Gloria Allred, said on Thursday that the city should not contribute to his legal defence. "There should be no payoff for Mayor Filner," she said.

The latest allegation came earlier this week from Dianne York, who said Filner placed his hand on her buttocks while she posed for a photo with him after a meeting at his office about three months ago. She said she reported it to the San Diego County sheriff's department.

As the accusations mounted, Filner admitted disrespecting and at times intimidating women and took two weeks off for behavioural therapy. "Words alone are not enough," he said. "I must take responsibility for my conduct by taking action so that such conduct does not ever happen again."

It was too little, too late, however, to stem a grassroots revolt.

Even before the sexual misconduct allegations, he had made enemies, and energised supporters, with a combative, bruising style that championed liberal causes such as labour, climate change and undocumented workers.

Rory Carroll

Five Mexico City mass grave bodies identified

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 04:52 PM PDT

Authorities say five of the bodies found in grave are of some of the people kidnapped three months ago from bar

Mexican authorities said on Friday they have identified five bodies pulled from a mass grave as some of the 12 people kidnapped three months ago from a Mexico City bar.

Assistant attorney general Renato Sales told reporters that 13 badly decomposed bodies have been pulled from a mass grave covered with cement, lime and asbestos discovered on Thursday on a rural ranch east of Mexico City.

Officials said the remains are at federal labs, where experts are using DNA tests, and they expect to have all of them identified soon.

The young bar-goers vanished from the Heaven club at midday on 26 May, just a block from the leafy Paseo de Reforma, the capital's equivalent of the Champs-Elysees.

The bizarre disappearance resonated across the city of 9 million people because many had come to believe it was an oasis from the rampant drug violence that had led to discovery of mass graves elsewhere in the country.

Authorities set up a perimeter more than a mile from the excavation site on a hilly ranch known as La Negra, where federal police and attorney general's trucks and large white vans were seen working the operation. The private property next to Rancho La Mesa Ecological Park is walled and surrounded by oak and pine trees.

The federal attorney general's office said agents had received information about possible illegal weapons on the property and obtained a search warrant. When they started looking around, they discovered the grave.

"They found a home that looked like a safe house," Murillo Karam told reporters Thursday. "We were operating under the belief it was a weapons case."

Prosecutors have said the abductions from the Heaven bar were linked to a dispute between street gangs that control local drug sales in the capital's nightclubs and bars. They say the gangs are based in Mexico City's dangerous Tepito neighbourhood, where most of the missing lived. The families insist the missing young people were not involved in drug trafficking.

Surveillance cameras showed several cars pulling up to the bar at midday and taking the victims away. A witness who escaped told authorities that a bar manager had ordered the music turned off, told patrons that authorities were about to raid the establishment and ordered those inside to leave.

Those detained in the Heaven case include club owner Ernesto Espinosa Lobo, known as "the wolf", who has been charged with kidnapping, as well as another bar owner, a driver and a security guard. A fifth person, Jose de Jesus Carmona, 32, is under arrest pending charges and another is a fugitive.

In another element of the case that is reminiscent of cartel warfare, one of the owners of the Heaven bar, Dax Rodriguez Ledezma, fled authorities only to turn up dead, his body dumped and burned in a rural area with that of his girlfriend and another friend.

Shetland helicopter crash: four people feared dead

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 04:04 PM PDT

Three bodies have been recovered, with one person still unaccounted for, after helicopter ditched near Shetland

The bodies of three people missing after a helicopter ditched in the sea off Shetland have been recovered, Police Scotland have said, and a fourth person remains unaccounted for.

The Super Puma L2 aircraft went down at 6.20pm last night, about two miles west of Sumburgh airport as it was returning to Shetland from the Borgsten Dolphin platform in the North Sea.

An RNLI spokesman said two of the bodies were recovered by an RNLI lifeboat crew from Lerwick.

"The lifeboat crew transported the bodies to Sumburgh and we are liaising with other authorities as things develop, " he said. "Obviously this is the news that everyone, included our lifeboat volunteers, dreaded – our thoughts and prayers are with the families and loved ones of those concerned.

A police spokeswoman confirmed that 14 of the 18 people on board the helicopter were taken to safety during the immediate rescue response on Friday night. The coastguard had earlier believed the figure was 15.

Jim Nicholson, RNLI rescue co-ordinator, said he understood two of the bodies were recovered in the area where the helicopter crashed.

"The bodies came to the surface close to the helicopter wreckage," he said.
"The helicopter was in a pretty inaccessible place but the lifeboat crew were able to get to them using an inflatable craft.

"It's fortunate there were not more casualties in a helicopter crash of this kind.

"There appears to have been a catastrophic loss of power which meant the helicopter suddenly dropped into the sea without any opportunity to make a controlled landing."

The rescue team then spent hours securing the helicopter and moving it to a more accessible location where it is waiting to be loaded on to a vessel.

"The helicopter is being held in position but no one has been able to board it yet," Nicholson said.

"Once the helicopter has been loaded on to the vessel it can be searched. It may be that a body is recovered on the helicopter."

The search operation, involving the coastguard, police, RAF and RNLI, was extended overnight to hunt for missing people in the darkness.

The helicopter, flown by two crew members, was carrying 16 passengers from an oil rig to the island when it ditched.

One of the men rescued, Sam Smith, described how the helicopter suddenly lost power and there was "no time to brace", it has been reported.

His mother, Amanda Smith, told Sky News: "He said [the helicopter] seemed to lose power and there was no time to brace – they just dropped into the sea.

"He was by the window so he was able to escape that way as it rolled over.

"He said he had come off better than a lot of people, were his words. It doesn't seem real."

The coastguard said the helicopter's life rafts were found empty and some wreckage had started to wash up at the southern end of Sumburgh.

The helicopter's operator, CHC, said it was flying for oil company Total and that the aircraft lost communication as it approached the airport on the southern tip of Shetland's main island.

The Department of Transport deployed a team from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch (AAIB), which is charged with investigating civil aircraft accidents, after details of the incident came through.

On Friday two lifeboats from Lerwick and Aith joined helicopters from the coastguard and RAF Lossiemouth in the search operation, which also involved a diverted ferry and a freight ship.

Poor visibility from misty weather conditions, coupled with strong tides and the location of the helicopter near cliffs made the rescue operation hazardous.

A rescue helicopter brought nine people back to Lerwick, the capital of the Shetland islands, where one person was taken away on a stretcher while the rest walked off.

"The people that were involved are in varying stages of injury; no one has walked away from this without a scratch," a coastguard spokeswoman said.

The police declared a major incident after the crash and the airport was closed to allow the emergency services to deal with the aftermath.

All of those who were rescued were taken to Gilbert Bain hospital in Lerwick.

The crash was described as a "very serious matter" by the RMT union, which represents maritime transport workers.

Jake Molloy, the Aberdeen-based regional organiser, said there had been concern among members after a number of incidents involving another model of helicopter that had been involved in two North Sea ditchings.

"We need to wait to determine what forced the aircraft down. Quite clearly it's the last thing we need at this point in time," Molloy said.

"I would understand completely if people did not want to get aboard these aircraft. In my opinion these aircraft should not be flying until we establish the circumstances to this very serious incident."

Jim Nicholson, the RNLI's rescue co-ordinator, said the helicopter was in an "inaccessible" position on Friday night and the weather was poor in deteriorating light.

"There was a fresh wind, not overly strong, visibility is not particularly good and it was misty in the area, but I doubt if that would have had any impact on causing whatever happened to the helicopter," Nicholson said.

The Scottish secretary of the Unite union, Pat Rafferty, said the crash illustrated the "precarious nature of the transportation of workers to and from offshore platforms".

The Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland offered her prayers to those involved. "Our thoughts and prayers are with all those involved in the Super Puma helicopter crash off Shetland and especially those waiting news of their loved ones," the Right Reverend Lorna Hood said.

CHC set up a helpline for concerned relatives following the crash and the company's incident management team had been put into action.

The helicopter involved in the ditching was the L2 variant of the Eurocopter AS332 Super Puma. CHC have 36 of the aircraft in its fleet.

Last year, two helicopters ditched in the North Sea six months apart. All passengers and crew were rescued in both incidents, which were found to be caused by gearbox problems.

Area has long history of aviation accidents

The worst North Sea crash was in 1986 when 45 people died in a Chinook helicopter accident.

The twin-rotor aircraft, whose three crewmen were ferrying 44 oil workers from Shell platforms in the Brent fields, crashed into the North Sea only two miles and one minute's flying time from Sumburgh airport, Shetland.

In April 2009, two crew and 14 passengers on board a Super Puma helicopter died after a "catastrophic failure" of the gearbox caused it to fall into the sea 11 miles off the coast of Peterhead.

That flight had been operated by the Bond company. Just six weeks earlier, a Bond Super Puma with 18 people on board ditched in the North Sea as it approached a production platform owned by BP. Everyone survived.

In May 2012, 14 people were rescued after a Super Puma EC 225 ditched off the coast of Aberdeen and 19 people were rescued after the same model of helicopter, operated by CHC, the company involved in Friday night's incident, experienced difficulties off the coast of Shetland in October 2012.

In 1990, six men died when a Sikorsky helicopter struck the Brent Spar oil storage platform in the North Sea.

In 1992, 11 men were killed when a helicopter crashed during a 200-metre flight, taking workers from Shell's Cormorant Alpha rig to an accommodation barge nearby.

Six people on board survived the crash. One was found a mile from the crash site.

In 1995, after their helicopter was hit by a bolt of lightning, 18 men had to endure huge waves and gales before being rescued. They had been travelling from Aberdeen to the Brae Field, 150 miles off the Scottish coast.

Back in 1988, a Sikorsky S-61N ditched into the sea en route from a drilling rig 70 miles off north-east Scotland. Rescue teams managed to save all 13 passengers and crew on board. Press Association

Shane Hickey

From the archive, 24 August 1990: Two Germanys set October 3 for unification

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 04:04 PM PDT

The historic decision to abandon East Germany's separate existence, thereby changing the face of Europe, was taken early yesterday

The two Germanys yesterday set October 3 as the definitive date for the unification of their countries amid warnings that it would take years to rebuild the shattered East German economy and demand considerable sacrifices from West Germans. The historic decision to abandon the country's separate existence, thereby changing the face of Europe, was taken early yesterday by the necessary two-thirds majority of deputies in the East German parliament after weeks of wrangles. It was greeted with a mixture of relief and joy by politicians from all parties in West Germany as the end of months of uncertainty, giving a new impetus for private investment in East Germany and providing stability for its 16 million citizens.

The compromise, reached after rows over other dates, was approved by 294 MPs in favour, with 62 against and 7 abstaining. The Social Democrats, who left the government earlier this week, backed it, as did their colleagues in the Federal Republic. But the SPD could still bring about East Germany's simple annexation by bringing down the treaty in either house of the federal parliament because of continuing divisions over the costs of unity, abortion rights, and the return of property. East Germany will become merely the twelfth Land, or regional state, in the Federal Republic, with government power residing only in Bonn, where the lower house, the Bundestag, will be expanded by 144 deputies to 663.

Yesterday's events began in earnest the campaign for the first all-German democratic elections in nearly 60 years, due on December 2 under a single electoral system now approved by both parliaments. Chancellor Kohl, greeting the Volkskammer's decision as "a day of joy for all Germans," tried to raise Germans' sights over the disputes on election dates by declaring that the process of unification was unprecedented in the history of post-war Europe. It was taking place without war, bloody revolution or force and in full agreement with Germany's friends and neighbours in West and East. But, while he insisted that a united country could meet the challenge of rebuilding the East German economy, Dr Kohl warned that it would take months and years to do so and would require enormous commitments.

Oskar Lafontaine, the SPD challenger to become all-German chancellor, paid tribute to Dr Kohl's success in getting the Soviet Union to accept German membership of Nato. But he also accused the government of hiding the true costs of unity and told West Germans they would have to foot the bill.

These archive extracts, compiled by the Guardian's research and information department, appear online daily at gu.com/fromthearchive

David Gow

British soldier honoured by Denmark

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 04:01 PM PDT

Explosives expert Andy Peat receives award from Crown Prince Frederik for risking his life to try to save an injured Danish comrade in Afghanistan

A British soldier who risked his life to try to save an injured Danish comrade in Afghanistan has been honoured by Denmark for his "extraordinary" courage.

Explosives expert Andy Peat, of 33 EOD [explosive ordnance disposal] Regiment, Royal Logistic Corps, is the first soldier outside the Danish military to receive the Anders Lassen Foundation Award from Crown Prince Frederik.

Warrant Officer Class One Peat, from Edinburgh, was supporting a Danish patrol in January when the group was hit by an improvised explosive device (IED).

They were moving into a compound used for manufacturing IEDs in the Upper Gereshk Valley, Helmand Province, when one of the bombs exploded on the roof, severely injuring Oversergeant René Brink Jakobsen.

As he went to his aid, Peat noticed another IED lying underneath the Danish soldier and worked skillfully to disarm the device by locating and cutting its wires.

While colleagues struggled to stretcher the Dane off the 14ft (4m) roof, Peat lay across the path of another IED, using himself and his body armour as a shield to protect the rescuers.

Brink Jakobsen later died of his wounds, leaving behind a wife and three children.

Peat is credited with saving the lives of several other Danish soldiers and members of the Afghan police that day.

The Anders Lassen Foundation was established in memory of a highly decorated soldier who was awarded three Military Crosses and posthumously awarded the Victoria Cross for his exploits in the second world war. Each year the foundation chooses a single recipient for its honour and cash award, and this year selected Peat for his "extraordinary courage and determined actions".

At a ceremony on Tuesday at the Royal Danish Army Academy in Copenhagen, he received the award and donated the 25,000 krone (£2,900) to Brink Jakobsen's widow, Camilla, and children, Sara, Maja and Thor.

He said of the honour: "I was slightly taken aback when I had the phone call to say I'd been awarded it – it's slightly surreal. Meeting the crown prince has been a great experience."

The serviceman paid tribute to his own wife following the ceremony and said of his attempt to save Brink Jakobsen that "all the guys would have done the same thing".

He said of the ceremony: "To bring my wife and daughter along has been fantastic. My wife deserves the rewards as she has to stay up at home at night worrying all the time.

"I'd probably say wives and girlfriends have the worst jobs because they always think we're doing stuff when sometimes we're just sitting around drinking coffee.

"To be honest, it's just about doing your job and thinking about what you've got in front of you and trying your best to get out of that predicament as quickly as possible."

Mrs Brink Jakobsen said: "I was quite overwhelmed that he wanted to give the money to our family.

Lieutenant Colonel Claus Wannen, head of the Danish Special Forces, said: "Warrant Officer One Andy Peat made an extraordinary contribution. On that tragic day he proved his worth and it's most likely he saved a number of lives that evening.

"It wasn't until the day after that I heard the full story that WO1 Peat's name was mentioned with regards to selfless service.

"He's just as I imagined he would be - a relaxed, nice person, pretty much like one of my own guys.

"It does not strike me as a surprise that he was the one making a difference on the roof that night."

WO1 Peat, along with the Danish colleagues he served with in Afghanistan, laid a wreath for WO1 Brink Jakobsen in a public area where other fallen Danish soldiers are remembered.

Surveillance and the state: this way the debate goes on | Editorial

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 03:58 PM PDT

Thanks to Edward Snowden, the world now has a debate about the dramatic change in the contract between state and citizen

"Spies spy! Who knew?" Thus the world-weary shrug from too many people who ought to know better over the revelations deriving from the material leaked by Edward Snowden about what goes on inside the west's major intelligence agencies in 2013. We have all read our Le Carré, they sigh. We spy on them, they spy on us. Except in fiction, it must remain a secret world. The secrecy has to remain near-absolute because our national security depends on it. The best way for the state to ensure such secrecy is to have an armoury of criminal and civil laws − backed by punitive sanctions − to deter any leakages.

This used to work. But the nature of spying has changed: this much we have learned from Mr Snowden. What was once highly targeted has now become virtually universal. The evident ambition is to put entire populations under some form of surveillance. The faceless intelligence masters may say they are still searching for needles, but first they want the entire haystack. And thus countless millions of entirely innocent (in every sense) citizens are potentially being monitored. Their phone calls, web searches, texts and emails are routinely intercepted, collected, stored and subjected to analysis.

Did the governments involved ever stop to think about the notion of consent? Did any engineer, spy chief, minister, congressman or president ever wonder whether such a dramatic change in the contract between state and citizen required some form of debate?

Secrecy and openness

Thanks to Mr Snowden they have now got a debate − one that is rippling around the world. President Barack Obama says he welcomes that debate. That much is encouraging, even if it seems unlikely to be true because it is not going to be a comfortable debate for any government − nor for those in intelligence, nor for anyone running a major technology or telecommunications company. The world was simpler when the law could be used to prevent any meaningful and informed discussion of what was involved. The laws crafted before and during the first world war (the Espionage Act in the US, the Official Secrets Act in the UK) saw to that.

Secrecy and openness must collide. Governments and spies will place the greater emphasis on security: that is inevitable. Individuals who treasure free speech, an unfettered press, the capacity for dissent, or an individual's rights to privacy or protection against the state, will have equal, or greater, concerns.

It is obvious that virtually anyone with a digital life − any user of Google or Verizon or BT or Facebook or Skype − is entitled to know quite how much privacy they can reasonably expect. This is the coming debate.

Who will hold the debate, and how is it to be informed? To date, there has been a vigorous discussion on these matters in the US and European legislatures and media. In the UK, the number of MPs or peers who have said anything at all is tiny. Much legal oversight of intelligence matters happens in closed courts. Parliamentary oversight is a similarly shadowy affair. In the UK, Sir Malcolm Rifkind, who is supposed to be a kind of regulator, too often sounds like a cheerleader. In the US, the same can alas be said of Senator Dianne Feinstein, who heads the Senate intelligence committee.

Responsible reporting

What role does a free press have in assisting and informing this debate? In late May, Mr Snowden gave this newspaper a volume of documents from his role as one of 850,000 intelligence employees cleared to read and analyse top-secret material. It is difficult to imagine any editor in the free world who would have destroyed this material unread, or handed it back, unanalysed, to the spy agencies or the government. The Guardian did what we hope any news organisation would do − patiently analysed and responsibly reported on some of the material we have read in order to inform the necessary public debate.

Some time after our first disclosures we were contacted by the cabinet secretary, who said he spoke on behalf of the prime minister. He acknowledged that we had behaved responsibly, expressed concerns about the security of the material we held and requested the return or destruction of the documents. We explained that complying with the request would destroy our ability to report. At this stage there was no threat of law, but nevertheless we took the precaution of sharing some of the material with news organisations in America, where we consider there to be more robust protections for serious journalism of public importance.

Some weeks later the tone of these and other discussions changed. There was, by mid-July, an explicit threat that the government would, after all, seek to stop the Guardian's work and prevent publication of further material by legal means. To have resisted such action would have involved handing over ultimate control of the material to a judge and could have meant that no stories could have been published for many months, if at all. The first amendment of the American constitution guarantees its press protections of which British editors can only dream. For more than 40 years − since the publication of the so-called Pentagon papers in 1971 − it has been accepted that the state will not succeed in trying to obtain prior restraint of the press. So we will in future report this story from New York. We have shared some material with, and will collaborate with, the New York Times.

It is, we believe, inconceivable that the US government would try to obtain, or the US court grant, an injunction against publication by the NYT. The US attorney general has recently given an assurance that he will not prosecute any journalist "for doing his or her job". So the debate about the mass collection of data on populations, the links between the state, the intelligence services and large corporations, and the uses and limits of oversight can continue.

Meanwhile in the UK, the police − with the apparent knowledge of the government − misused a law designed to combat terrorism to detain a member of the Guardian's team for nine hours and to confiscate his material. The former lord chancellor, Lord Falconer, has confirmed that there was no intention that the 2000 Terrorism Act should be used against people like David Miranda, the partner of the Guardian columnist Glenn Greenwald. "The state may wish that journalists would not publish sensitive material," he wrote in these columns last week, "but it is up to journalists, not the state, to decide where to draw the line."

Civil liberties and security

These are words that should be heeded by the British government official who told us that the Guardian had "had our debate" and that there was no "need" to write any more. It is not the role of politicians or civil servants to determine the limits of public discussion. Nor should the debate be circumscribed by attempting to criminalise the act of journalism − without which, in this instance, there could be no debate.

Citizens of free countries are entitled to protect their privacy against the state. The state has a duty to protect free speech as well as security. Fundamental rights, as we say, collide. Journalists have a duty to inform and facilitate a debate and to help test the consent of people about the nature of any trade-offs between civil liberties and security. A democratic government should seek to protect and nourish that debate, not threaten it or stamp it out.

Editorial

Kevin Rudd pitches for the small business vote

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 03:53 PM PDT

Pledges to appoint adviser to represent sector in workplace relations system and to take steps to cut burden of paperwork

Kevin Rudd is making a concerted pitch for the small business vote – giving the sector a bigger say in industrial relations policy as well as taking steps to reduce its burden of paperwork.

Rudd's latest pitch to the nation's 3m small businesses is a promise to appoint a special small business adviser to represent the interests of the sector in the workplace relations system and to help individual small businesses navigate it. He is also promising $200,000 to the Council of Small Business Organisations.

The promises comes on top of his pledge that small businesses would only have to lodge their GST paperwork once a year rather than quarterly and that the government would set up a "clearing house" to help pay and process paid parental leave as well as superannuation payments on behalf of time-poor small business owners.

Rudd is expected to make more promises to woo the sector after the Coalition launched a small business policy earlier in the campaign.

The Coalition promised to shift the burden of paperwork for superannuation schemes to the tax office. It is also promising to elevate the small business minister into Cabinet.

But the Coalition said it would not match Labor's commitment to require only one annual lodgment of the business activity statement on the GST, saying most small businesses did it with an automated system so the paperwork burden was "modest".

Rudd said the move would allow businesses "to be able to spend more time in their business, less time acting as the compliance agent for the Australian government".

Lenore Taylor

Greens leader Christine Milne calls for inquiry into treatment of refugees

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 03:50 PM PDT

Party taps into 'outpouring of disgust and anger towards the atrocious, cruel policies of Labor and the Coalition'

The Greens have committed to a Senate inquiry into Australia's "cruel" treatment of refugees and clean air legislation as part of their election platform.

The Greens leader, Christine Milne, will also use her policy launch to warn voters against giving the opposition leader, Tony Abbott, total control of both houses of Parliament, in a clear indication the Greens believe the Coalition is likely to win the 7 September election.

Treatment of asylum seekers is the centrepiece of the strategy, following the announcement of the Papua New Guinea policy which stops any "boat people" from ever settling in Australia.

"Refugees have long been our nation's chief political football, but this election the race to the bottom has hit new lows," Milne said.

"I haven't seen such an outpouring of shock, disgust and anger towards the atrocious, cruel policies of Labor and the Coalition since the Tampa crisis.

"People expected this kind of behaviour from John Howard's protege Tony Abbott, but Labor has joined him in tit-for-tat one upmanship. Across the country our candidates have had countless people tell them this time they can't vote for either of the old parties."

As part of their election platform, the Greens are calling for an inquiry conducted through the Senate to "rigorously scrutinise the legal financial and moral implications of the cruelty done in the name of Australia to refugees".

The inquiry, which would require the support of a major party, would focus on the long-term health effects on asylum seekers held in detention. It would also investigate whether Labor and the Coalition's policies contravened international obligations such as the UN convention on refugees and the international migration convention.

"Refugees from all over the world have made our nation richer – wave after wave from Europe after World War II, Vietnam, Somalia, Sudan we have welcomed and in turn they have given back to us many times over," Milne said.

"Kevin Rudd and Tony Abbott are aiding and abetting each other in ways to treat innocent, vulnerable people in the most unimaginably cruel way – cruelty in pursuit of power shames us all, drags down our international standing as we break international law. It demeans us as a people but I know Australians are better than this."

The launch comes at a time when Greens have been battling on many fronts over preference deals. Having lost Liberal preferences after a "captain's call" by Abbott, they also suffered at the hands of the WikiLeaks party. WikiLeaks said it had been an "administrative error", though the high-profile Victorian candidate Leslie Cannold quit over the move.

The Greens were also embroiled in a fight with Labor over its preference deals. The party has been attacked by the Victorian Labor party for "ratting" on the deal in how-to-vote cards. This time, the Greens claimed an "administrative error".

At the launch on Saturday the Greens will also introduce legislation for a clean air act to develop national standards and regulations for air quality, focusing on coalmines and coal-fired power stations.

The legislation, which would need to garner support of at least one major party, would drive the installation of an air quality monitoring network.

All coal trains passing through population centres would need to be covered and the legislation would impose regulations on emissions for new sales of non-road petrol engines, such as lawn mowers and boats.

Milne made a clear reference to breakdowns in relations with the major parties, including Abbott's decision to remove Liberal preferences from the Greens and Labor's split with the Greens last year, breaking the agreement forged at the beginning of the hung parliament in 2010.

"There's no doubt we are the underdog, the David to their Goliath," Milne said.

"The Greens rely on volunteers and people power – not deep pockets. We are outmatched a hundred times to one by the spending power of the old parties.

"But still, in this campaign – and in the year leading up to it – both old parties have spent almost as much time attacking us as they have attacking each other."

Gabrielle Chan

Gary Barker on the Syrian conflict – cartoon

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 03:23 PM PDT

Britain has said it believes forces loyal to Syrian president Bashar al-Assad were responsible for a chemical weapons attacks in the suburbs of Damascus

Gary Barker

The best news pictures of the day

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 03:14 PM PDT

The Guardian's award-winning picture team rounds up the most eye-catching images

Mee-Lai Stone

Iraq violence leaves at least 36 dead

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 03:05 PM PDT

Suicide bomber kills at least 26 in park in northern Baghdad as sectarian tensions continue

A suicide bomber attacked a park in northern Baghdad crowded by cafe and restaurant-goers on Friday night, the bloodiest attack in a day of violence that killed at least 36 people across the country, authorities said.

Attacks have been on the rise in Iraq since a deadly security crackdown in April on a Sunni protest camp. More than 3,000 people have been killed in violence during the past few months, raising fears Iraq could see a new round of widespread sectarian bloodshed similar to that which brought the country to the edge of civil war in 2006 and 2007.

The suicide bomber struck a park in the Qahira neighbourhood of Baghdad late on Friday, an area popular with locals, police said. The bomber detonated his explosives in a crowd of people, killing at least 26 people and wounding 55.

Violence has stepped up in strikes on so-called soft targets in Iraq like civilians at coffee shops or those shopping along busy commercial streets.

There was no claim of responsibility for Friday's suicide bombing. Sunni extremists such as al-Qaida's Iraq arm that seek to undermine the Shia-led government are frequently blamed for attacks targeting civilians.

Later in the night, gunmen in Baghdad's northern Azamiyah neighbourhood killed four men walking down a street, an army officer and a medical official said. The motive behind the shooting wasn't immediately clear.

Elsewhere in the country, police said gunmen broke into a house of a Shia merchant at dawn on Friday in the northern town of Dujail, killing him, his wife and elderly mother. Authorities said the motive behind that attack wasn't immediately unclear.

Dujail, about 50 miles north of Baghdad, is a Shia Muslim town surrounded by Sunni areas.

Meanwhile, two police officers said bombs exploded near Sunni mosques in two neighbourhoods in Baghdad as worshippers were leaving after Friday's sermon, killing three people and wounding 18.

UK government given Tuesday deadline over David Miranda data

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 02:43 PM PDT

Judges ask government to provide detailed evidence about why it wants right to trawl data seized using terror laws

The high court has given the government until Tuesday night to provide detailed evidence about why it wants the right to trawl and share data seized using terror laws from the partner of a Guardian journalist.

Lord Justice Beatson and Judge Kenneth Parker said in a judgment outlining their decision to allow the police to continue accessing material taken from David Miranda that the ruling was made because while they could not judge the strength of the government's claims about the national security risks the material would pose if disclosed, they did have "serious assertions by responsible persons".

Miranda's partner, Glenn Greenwald, has exposed mass digital surveillance by US and UK spy agencies based on material leaked by Edward Snowden, the former US intelligence contractor. Miranda was travelling from Berlin back to his home in Rio de Janeiro when he was detained at Heathrow last Sunday.

Lawyers for the government and Metropolitan police have so far claimed the data seized from Miranda included "highly sensitive material" and "tens of thousands of highly classified UK intelligence documents, the unauthorised disclosure of which would threaten national security, including putting lives at risk". But detail has been limited.

The judges said the lack of further evidence from the authorities was understandable given the rapidly moving case, but it had been "a difficulty". They said the protection of journalistic sources and the protection of national security were competing interests, but "the public interest in the investigation, detection and prosecution of those who are reasonably suspected to be terrorists" justified their decision to allow police to retain the material.

On Thursday, the judges had ruled that the police could retain Miranda's data until next Friday, but added that they are only allowed to examine the data in the context of the protection of national security or for investigating if Miranda himself was involved in terrorism. The judges also said that the data could not be used in the context of a criminal investigation.

It also emerged on Thursday that the Met launched a criminal investigation on Thursday, shortly before Miranda's application for restrictions on the use of the data was first heard in court.

Early on Friday police indicated to Miranda's lawyers that they were prepared to hand back items seized from him last weekend. These were to include DVDs, two watches and a laptop. But on Friday night the police indicated they would not be releasing the items yet.

A letter from the Treasury Solicitor to the court claiming a threat to national security from any unauthorised disclosure of the data said: "It is not possible in this letter to give more of the particulars of this assertion. But we make it on instructions and after having taken advice from the relevant person.".

A full hearing is due to take place next Friday, which will establish how the government is able to use the data in the longer term.

The detailed judgment also gave further clues about what the UK authorities may be doing with the data. Government lawyers have told the court that under the Counter-Terrorism Act 2008 "once material has been lawfully obtained pursuant to schedule 7, it may be disclosed to intelligence services who may then use it for their statutory purposes".

Liberty, the civil liberties and human rights group, has applied to formally intervene in the planned judicial review this autumn into the legality of Miranda's detention and the seizure of his computer hardware. In a letter sent to the court, it said it was "a matter of grave concern that the power has now been directly targeted at the close family member of a prominent journalist in a manner that would appear to be a direct attempt to interfere with press freedom".

Joel Simon, executive director of the New York-based Committee for the Protection of Journalists this week wrote to David Cameron complaining Miranda's detention was "not in keeping with the UK's historic commitment to press freedom".

Thorbjorn Jagland, secretary general of the Council of Europe, has written to the home secretary Theresa May about the detention of Miranda and the destruction of Guardian computers at the request of the UK authorities.

He said that if confirmed, "these measures … may have a potentially chilling effect on journalists' freedom of expression as guaranteed by article 10 of the European convention on human rights". He asked May to "comment on the compatibility of the measures taken with the UK's obligations under the convention".

Robert Booth

Tourists to India hiring bodyguards for protection

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 02:31 PM PDT

Western visitors and local business people join the super-rich in acquiring greater security after a series of violent attacks

A growing number of Indians and tourists visiting the country are hiring bodyguards for protection after a series of violent attacks. Security agencies say business is booming as western visitors and local business people join celebrities and the super-rich in acquiring greater security.

"We get a lot of calls for personal security officers, often at 2 or 3am, from western business executives or people from west Asia," said Anubhav Khiwani, co-owner of Denetim Services, a newly established company in Delhi. "Once or twice a month a single woman or a holidaying family will also ask for a bodyguard."

Until now these bodyguards were mainly seen accompanying international celebrities. Last year three of Oprah Winfrey's escorts made news when they were picked up by police near Delhi for attacking photographers.

"The gang-rape of a physiotherapist in Delhi last December impacted the psyche of people across the world. A friend from Brazil, for instance, had to cancel her trip to India as her mother wouldn't let her go. So now we see two kinds of tourists, especially among women − those who feel that such things happen everywhere and don't worry about it, and those who are scared and want to avoid trouble," said Khiwani.

Shaleni Nigam, a 44-year-old Canadian tax accountant, used to feel safe travelling alone in India, but plans to hire a bodyguard for her next visit.

"What's worrying is that attacks on women seem to be taking place in routine situations − in a bus, in a hotel room, near a village," she said. "I know such attacks occur in other countries too, but it's a different world in India today than it was in the 1990s. A foreign visitor wasn't targeted in the same way."

Maseeh Rahman

Wolodja, the two-year-old polar bear, cools off at Tierpark Berlin – in pictures

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 02:29 PM PDT

Watch the polar bear – who was born in a Moscow zoo and only arrived in Berlin earlier this month – as he dives into the water

Masai Mara: 'Today it's lodges, lodges, lodges' - audio slideshow

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 02:00 PM PDT

Jackson Looseiya, a guide in the Masai Mara for 26 years and presenter on the BBC's Big Cat Diaries, discusses the impact of tourism on the national reserve. Photographs by Guillaume Bonn

Karin Andreasson

Jessica Hatcher

The Masai Mara: 'It will not be long before it's gone'

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 02:00 PM PDT

As lodges and shanty towns proliferate in Kenya's Masai Mara, drastic and urgent steps are needed to save this beautiful game reserve from becoming an environmental disaster

Our vehicle comes to an abrupt stop. "There, now watch," says Josphat, my exacting young Masai guide. We cut the engine and the silence is acute. Josphat points out a cheetah's head in an ocean of golden grass. One minibus has already pulled up on another sandy track a few hundred metres away and four heads are craning out of the roof. We sit and watch for the cheetah. All of a sudden white minibuses crest the horizon in droves. We are in a stampede. Eight of them surround us. Within five minutes we have counted 30, the drivers communicating via radio to make sure their clients tick off "the big five". A cheetah will never kill like this; its prey will have been alerted. And if it has killed, the vehicles will make it blind to a subsequent hyena attack. But this cheetah is now nowhere to be seen. Undeterred, the minibus drivers start ploughing into the long grass. Eventually they give up. I ask if this happens often. Every day, Josphat says.

Josphat is a member of the Kenya Professional Safari Guides Association, which means he knows the Latin names and mating rituals of every animal in his domain. He is 27, small, intelligent and deeply serious about his work. He is accustomed to tracking animals and avoiding humans, but he is also proving adept at the inverse, showing me the "real" Masai Mara. One of the greatest natural spectacles on earth is under way. More than a million hungry wildebeest are on their way from Tanzania to Kenya's Mara National Reserve to raze tons of sweet red-oat grass. Primordial gnus are the stars of the show, but in supporting roles are a few hundred thousand zebras and half a million Thomson's gazelles; then there are the resident crocodiles, lions, hyenas, leopards and cheetahs.

Their show is in danger of being upstaged. Every year, thousands upon thousands of tourists descend on the Masai Mara to witness the migration. The resident human population is increasing; lodges are proliferating. Rampant corruption means money is not filtering down to the Masai population, who are increasingly turning to charcoal and arable farming to make ends meet. In short, mankind is in danger of squandering one of the most important habitats left in the world.

"It will not be long before it is gone, unless some drastic and urgent steps are taken now," says Joseph Ogutu, a scientist who has studied changes in the area's fauna for 24 years. The Masai Mara represents the northern quarter of the Serengeti ecosystem that stretches down into Tanzania. The wild animals that remain here require vast and various dispersal areas to survive drought, predators and human pressure. These safe havens are disappearing. Lodges surrounding the park have erected kilometres of electric fencing; lions have been known to use them to trap their prey. Shanty towns are developing fast, and some may soon be on the national grid. There are too many cows for not enough land, and wheat fields are advancing (wheat has become a swearword among conservationists). Human waste is being buried or dumped. The environment is displaying symptoms of its mismanagement. Algae are emerging in rivers upstream, a consequence of fertiliser use. The Mara river, where wildebeest cross from Tanzania, dried up completely in 2009, says Dickson Kaelo, a respected Masai guide. He recalls seeing scores of minibuses queueing to watch wildebeest splash through the water. But there was "just dust". Inside the treasured reserve, monkeys play with crisps packets. Even the predators' behaviour is changing. Malaika is a cheetah who will sit on the roof of your car; Josphat is disgusted by the guides who encourage her, to secure a good tip.

Kenya's economy is heavily reliant on tourism and the core area, the Mara National Reserve, generates an estimated £13m each year. The place projects a timelessness that speaks to notions of man's origins and the beginnings of time. But it also epitomises a modern conflict over land and resources playing out across Africa today.

Landowner Kaitet Ole Naingisa sips hot chocolate in a central Nairobi cafe. He has travelled to the capital to present his case to the commissioner of lands. He pulls his title deed from a brown A4 envelope. Naingisa's family had a plot close to the National Reserve in Siana where they had lived for more than 20 years, and where his 10 children are being schooled. Siana was one of many "group ranches", areas of communal land around the reserve, which have been subdivided among members in recent decades. It was this subdivision, locals say, that opened the door for the land-grabbing that is now epic in scale. When the land registry finally issued Naingisa with his title deeds last year, he got "this", he says, brandishing the embossed title deed to plot 366, far from his home, on unproductive land. The deed states his name as the land's original owner, but another name is semi-legible beneath it. There is a hole in the paper where someone has tried to rub it out. This is not his original land; the authorities have fiddled it, he says.

In battling for their rights, the Masai are seen as greedy by many conservationists, but most are not, an exasperated Josphat says: they just want their rightful share. The Masai occupied most of western Kenya at the turn of the 20th century, but disease, massive evictions by British colonialists and civil war reduced them to only 0.5% of the population. Centuries of survival in harsh lands gave them a strong sense of mutualism, but a culture of cronyism now pits the Masai against one another. The uneducated minority are represented, and exploited, by an educated few. There are countless lawsuits languishing in the courts and a number of unsolved, politically motivated murders. Paramilitary police have carried out forced evictions by night. People are bitter, and trust has eroded. Somali émigrés run thriving businesses in the Mara, because the Masai trust them more than Kenyan tribes.

Until last year, the Mara National Reserve, 371,000 acres of government-owned land, was administered by two different county councils. Now it is united under a new governor. "We call him the Big Fish," a young herdsman says.

One half of the administration had outsourced its management to a conservation group, one that received praise for its environmental work but faced allegations of corruption. Samuel Tunai, the "Big Fish", was on its board of directors. He holds a stake in more than 2,000 acres of prime land that were once part of the reserve but then given to the community to use. The land now boasts three luxury camps. There had also been allegations of corruption on the other side of the administration, and management was said to be worse. But now, under Kenya's new constitution, Tunai, as governor, is in charge of both administrations. He has rejected claims that his involvement in the Mara represents a conflict of interest. The Guardian's attempts to contact him proved unsuccessful.

Three decades ago, the Masai community gave president Daniel Arap Moi a parcel of land on the northern escarpment, a gesture that belonged to a more honourable era when "grabber" didn't feature in the local vernacular. Moi built a spectacular lodge with the only tarmac landing strip in the Mara. Today his presidential pied-à-terre, Ol Kurruk, has fallen into ruin. The buildings have either collapsed or been gutted by fire. Huge herds of giraffe and zebra have moved in. As we pick through the demolished rooms, small antelope, lizards and monkeys skitter away. Communities living on the escarpment fear Tunai plans to turn it into yet another luxury lodge.

"Today it's lodges, lodges, lodges. Everybody wants a lodge," Josphat says in despair. Some of those inside the reserve secure leases by greasing palms; others pay wardens for illegal permits, or start up as temporary camps and never leave. Outside the reserve it's easier. The first Chinese lodge is under construction on the south-eastern edge of the reserve. Its flat-pack cabins travelled 5,000 miles from China to be constructed on cleared forest. The minister for tourism said recently that of 108 tourist operations in the Mara area, only 29% were legal. Jake Grieves-Cook, a former chairman of the Kenya Tourist Board who owns a number of camps, estimates there are 7,000 tourist beds in the Mara ecosystem. If this is true, then in the past 10 years, despite a four-year moratorium on development, the number has almost trebled.

Fifty years after the process of dividing community lands began, it became evident that these traditional pastoral lands would turn into housing estates and farms if something didn't hold them together. A number of "conservancies" sprang up. These are privately managed reserves, funded directly by tourism, that lease land from communities to be set aside for wildlife. They increase the size of the protected area by 50%. Supporters argue that they will be enough to save the Mara; others say they are a sticking plaster and can support it for only so long.

Josphat and I venture out to Richard Branson's much-discussed new camp, which lies on its own conservancy away from the politics of the National Reserve. We eye the "tents" agog. They could feature in Star Wars, with four-metre pegs supporting futuristic domes. But their aspect is all natural. As we stand next to the infinity pool, a hyena obligingly comes to drink at the stream below. When almost 300 landowners of the surrounding Motorogi community were offered 3,500 shillings (£27) per hectare per year, they were delighted; the land was so overgrazed it looked worthless. Fast-forward five years and "you wouldn't recognise it", says Tarn Breedveld, Branson's handsome young manager. The story is the same across the conservancies: overgrazed land has recovered with only a few years of good management, and animals have come back in great numbers. For tourists, the conservancies give a flavour of what the Masai Mara was.

We drive between two conservancies with Grieves-Cook, an early pioneer of the community-owned model. Night falls and we become hopelessly lost. We drive through herds of buffalo and stop for hippopotamuses to cross the road. When we eventually arrive in camp we are greeted with a hero's welcome. The tented camps Grieves-Cook operates don't have menus or cash-bars. Seven hundred acres is budgeted per tent, and a game drive isn't a treasure hunt. Driving through Olare Orok conservancy, we sit in silence with a pride of lions for an hour as the sun goes down. Cubs tumble around like Andrex puppies and bloated females finish off a wildebeest as the lone male has a lie-down.

Go on safari, meaning "journey" in Swahili, with someone like Grieves-Cook and such mishaps and surprises will be the moments you remember best. In the early days, trailblazers took guests on a journey in every sense of the word. In the 1950s, the late Sydney Downey once burst every one of his tyres. His glamorous guests were made to stuff them with grass and bump along. Another time, Downey forgot all the food apart from a wheel of cheese. His guests gave him a silver plaque to commemorate "the great cheese safari". When Downey discovered someone was going to build a permanent structure in his beloved Mara he was "horrified", his daughter Margaret recalls. Keekorok Lodge opened in 1962 on Downey's favourite camping site. It is a 200-bed behemoth with tarmac roads and a swimming pool. At 4pm sharp, white minibuses charge out, taking guests on prosaic "game drives".

Animal habitat is disappearing. On the banks of the Talek river, overlooking the National Reserve, you can get a room for only 300 shillings (£2.30) per night. Talek is an urban island in an expanse of protected land and the largest trading centre in the Mara. Filling stations open early, televisions blare out from restaurants and bars, and the sex workers open their doors at night. The abattoir does a roaring trade but its owner is nervous – he's waiting for the first lion to steal a carcass. There is no public waste management system in Talek and the roads in the town aren't really roads but rising layers of human detritus where there's a tacit agreement not to build.

North of Talek on the Narok road, an enterprising woman has set up an impromptu charcoal stall beneath the Mara North Conservancy sign. A 150-year-old acacia tree lies slain on its side, prey to the charcoal trade. Once you take out these trees, the land can go over to wheat. Wildlife pays around 3,000 shillings per hectare per year, but wheat farming pays 8,000-10,000. Masai society is increasingly monetised, steered by electronic communications, motorised transport and imported food. These people and many more are trying to make a living, and although the National Reserve makes millions, they're getting little from it. Without incentive to protect it, they are destroying it. A Japanese businessman has offered the council 42bn shillings (£235m) to relocate people on the edge of the reserve to 20km away, a consultant for the council says, which would mean more forced evictions and an uncomfortable new chapter in the battle for the Mara's billions.

Jackson Looseyia, a veteran guide of 26 years and presenter of the BBC's Big Cat Diaries, is between safaris. I have come to meet him in a private house owned by a wealthy Briton. Looseyia wears rubber sandals made from old tyres, a red-checked shuka, red dress and beaded belt. "I don't normally eat like this," he says, feigning embarrassment at the elegant meal laid on. I believe him. However much time he has spent around westerners, Looseyia is Masai to the core. What concerns him most about the future of the Mara is the rocketing value of land. Africa is rising, the media proclaim, but it is doing so unequally. Wealthy investors in the former Masai rangelands 30km south of Nairobi have driven land up to 12m shillings (£93,000) per acre. Both the Masai, who "suffered big time", Looseyia says, and the wildlife are gone. "It's a threat to conservation, it's a threat to the community. We are bordering the famous Masai Mara National Reserve. That in itself is gold. It could easily go," he says.

As well as the Serengeti wildebeest that convene every year in the National Reserve, around 300,000 wildebeest from Kenya's Loita plains used to arrive concurrently and mingle with their Tanzanian counterparts – the "northern migration". Calvin Cottar, whose family have been in the Mara for almost 100 years, has seen the Loita migration reduce by 90% to 30,000 animals in the past three decades. Wildlife populations crashed by up to 70% in that time, according to a Journal of Zoology study, while cows grazing illegally inside the reserve were up by 1,100%.

The Masai don't want to see their pastures become sweeping wheat fields. But wildlife on land comes with a risk to personal safety, loss of grazing, disease and death of livestock – and this should be compensated. Money from wildlife should go directly to the people affected, Looseyia says. Otherwise it will be lost, like America's 65 million wild bison: not one walks freely today. While the focus is on the spike in elephant and rhino poaching, Looseyia says lions and hyenas are disappearing at an alarming rate. "This is a home to these species. We have come to invade and as invaders we need to understand when to back off." People say lions sleep for many, many hours, Looseyia muses. "What I know is that when lions do not want to see you around, the easiest thing is to close their eyes. Yes, they sleep. But not as we think they sleep."

Looseyia likens expats in the Mara to the key that will turn on the engine, with their experience and funding. But the agent of change, the engine, can only be Kenyan. Looseyia's 20-year-old daughter is at university. "In an ideal Masai world she'd have three children by now." Women like her, he says, are the leaders of tomorrow.

That night, Josphat maintains a soft but lyrical commentary as we drive through the National Reserve for the last time, away from the setting sun. "That's a topi on a termite mound – see its dark legs?" he says. "That's a fish eagle." Then something catches my eye, a multitudinous and multicoloured herd. "What are those?" I ask. "Those," Josphat pauses, "are cows." Next to a ranger's post, 200 cows are inside the protected reserve at peak tourist time. If the council cannot enforce their rules, what hope is there for preserving half a million acres of ecosystem for generations to come?

• Watch an audio slideshow of Guillaume Bonn's photographs, narrated by Jackson Looseyia, at theguardian.com/weekend

Helicopter ditches into sea west of Shetland

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 01:49 PM PDT

Three people unaccounted for and 15 recovered from sea after incident two miles west of Sumburgh airport

Three people remain unaccounted for and 15 have been rescued after a helicopter ditched in the sea off Shetland.

Lifeboats from Aith and Lerwick have been sent to the scene of the reported crash, two miles west of Sumburgh airport on Shetland.

A coastguard rescue helicopter that was sent to the scene returned to Lerwick with nine passengers, according to the BBC. Eight people walked off the aircraft and one person was carried off on a stretcher.

A coastguard spokesman said they received a distress call at about 7pm. The helicopter's life rafts were found empty and some wreckage from the aircraft has started to wash up at the southern end of Sumburgh.

"There were 18 people on board and 15 have been recovered, there is still an ongoing search and rescue mission for the three missing people," a spokeswoman said. The 15 people were taken to Gilbert Bain hospital in Lerwick.

"The people that were involved are in varying stages of injury, no one has walked away from this without a scratch."

The helicopter was on approach to Sumburgh Airport when it went down. The airport has been closed so that emergency services can deal with the incident.

The Super Puma helicopter was operated by helicopter services company CHC and was taking people to and from oil and gas platforms in the North Sea.

"We can confirm that an L2 aircraft has landed in the water, approximately two miles west of Sumburgh," a statement from the company said.

"The aircraft was on approach to Sumburgh Airport at approximately 6.20pm when contact was lost with air traffic control.

"We can confirm there were 16 passengers on board, and two crew."

Investigators from the Air Accidents Investigation Branch were travelling to the scene this evening.

A spokesman for the Department for Transport said: "The AAIB is aware of the incident and has deployed a team".

A Northlink ferry which was travelling between Shetland and Aberdeen has been diverted to the scene.

Last year, two helicopters ditched in the North Sea only six months apart. All passengers and crew were rescued in both incidents, which were found to be caused by gearbox problems.

In October, 17 passengers and two crew were rescued from life rafts by a passing vessel after the helicopter, which was carrying an oil crew from Aberdeen to a rig 86 miles north west of Shetland, was forced to ditch.

Previously, in May 2012 all 14 passengers and crew members on a Super Puma helicopter were rescued after it ditched about 30 miles off the coast of Aberdeen. The helicopter was on a scheduled flight from Aberdeen airport to a platform in the North Sea at the time.

Shane Hickey

Nick Clegg queries whether police acted lawfully over David Miranda

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 01:39 PM PDT

Deputy PM's challenge to home secretary Theresa May exposes coalition rift over detention of partner of Guardian journalist

A coalition rift over the treatment of David Miranda has been exposed after Nick Clegg raised questions about whether police acted lawfully in "forcibly detaining" the partner of a Guardian journalist.

In a direct challenge to Theresa May, the home secretary, who has endorsed the action by the Metropolitan police, the deputy prime minister said police needed to act proportionately as he indicated that the Liberal Democrats would press for restrictions to anti-terror laws.

In his first detailed response since the nine-hour detention of Miranda at Heathrow on Sunday, Clegg, writing in the Guardian, confirmed that he was not consulted in advance about the police action and said he will wait to see whether the anti-terror legislation watchdog rules on whether the police action was "legitimate".

The remarks will raise new questions about whether the Met acted lawfully in detaining the partner of Guardian journalist Glenn Greenwald under schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000. This says that police can only detain an individual at ports and airports to assess whether they have "been concerned in the commission, preparation or instigation of acts of terrorism".

Clegg contrasted the police action with the way in which the government negotiated with the Guardian to destroy hard drives containing NSA documents leaked by the whistleblower Edward Snowden.

Clegg wrote: "I was not consulted on the plans to detain David Miranda before it happened and I acknowledge the many concerns raised about the use of Schedule 7 of the Terrorism Act 2000 for these purposes.

"There is obviously a material difference between agreeing by mutual consent that files will be destroyed, and forcibly detaining someone.

"Terrorism powers should be used proportionately. That is why it is immensely important that the independent reviewer of terrorism powers, David Anderson QC, reports rapidly on whether this was a legitimate use of the Terrorism Act, and whether that legislation should be adjusted."

Anderson, who is to question Home Office officials who briefed May on the plan to detain Miranda during his short inquiry, called this week for changes to the Terrorism Act. May has ruled out any further changes beyond those proposed before the detention of Miranda.

Clegg wrote: "This autumn we will be taking a bill through parliament to implement these changes [announced before the detention of Miranda]. In my view, if David Anderson provides a clearly justified recommendation to restrict these powers even further, we should seek to do so in this bill."

In his article Clegg confirmed that in its negotiations with the government the Guardian made its own decisions about whether to publish information from the leaked NSA documents which could damage national security. "Along with the information the newspaper had published, they had information which put national security and lives at risk. It was right for us to want that information destroyed. They had decided not to publish this information: not a single sentence was censored from their newspaper as a result of the information being destroyed."

Clegg used his article to dismiss a claim by William Hague, in the wake of the first revelations in June from the leaked NSA documents, that law-abiding citizens have "nothing to fear" about monitoring by intelligence agencies. The deputy prime minister wrote: "Liberal Democrats believe government must tread the fine line between liberty and security very carefully, and are not easily persuaded by a government minister asserting: 'Just trust me.'"

He was also scathing about Yvette Cooper, the shadow home secretary, who had raised questions about the detention of Miranda.

He wrote: "People are right to ask questions about the detention of David Miranda for nine hours this week. But Yvette Cooper voted for powers to detain suspects for 90 days – 2,160 hours. Her outrage is almost comic."

Nicholas Watt

US imam sentenced to 25 years for funding Pakistani Taliban

Posted: 23 Aug 2013 01:03 PM PDT

Evidence showed elderly cleric Hafiz Khan arranged to send about $50,000 over a three-year period to Pakistan

An elderly Muslim cleric in South Florida has been sentenced to 25 years in federal prison for funneling tens of thousands of dollars to the Pakistani Taliban.

US District Judge Robert Scola imposed the sentence Friday on 78-year-old Hafiz Khan, who was convicted in March of four terror support-related charges. Federal prosecutors recommended a 15-year sentence and Khan faced a maximum of 60 years.

Trial evidence showed Khan arranged to send about $50,000 over a three-year period to Pakistan. Prosecutors argued the money helped finance violent attacks against both US and Pakistani targets. Khan told the judge Friday the money was for family, friends and a religious school he founded.

Khan was imam at a Miami mosque before his 2011 arrest.

Aneka Info