CIA Director Petraeus Quits Over Affair

CIA Director David Petraeus has resigned over an extramarital affair - which officials say was uncovered by an FBI investigation.

According to his letter of resignation, General Petraeus asked President Barack Obama on Thursday to allow him to resign, and on Friday the president accepted.

The general admitted he had shown "extremely poor judgement" in having an affair.

"Such behaviour is unacceptable, both as a husband and as the leader of an organisation such as ours," he wrote.

He had only been sworn in as director of the Central Intelligence Agency on September 6, last year.

Prior to that, he was a four-star general with 37 years' service in the US Army.

His last assignments in the army were as commander of Isaf, the International Security Assistance Force, and commander of US forces in Afghanistan and in Iraq.

The resignation took Washington's intelligence and political communities by surprise, coming as a sudden end to the public career of the best-known general in recent years.

Neither Gen Petraeus nor the CIA explained why he felt he had to step down over the affair, and whether his liaison presented a purely personal problem or raised security issues in his sensitive work as spy chief.

The affair came to light as the FBI was investigating whether a computer used by the general had been compromised, the New York Times and other US media reported, citing government officials.

General Petraeus with his wife Holly

In a statement released after the resignation was announced, Mr Obama hailed the "extraordinary service" of Gen Petraeus.

"David Petraeus has provided extraordinary service to the United States for decades," Mr Obama said.

"By any measure, he was one of the outstanding general officers of his generation."

The president said the CIA's Deputy Director Michael Morell would serve as acting director.

"I am completely confident that the CIA will continue to thrive and carry out its essential mission," Mr Obama said.

Gen Petraeus has been married for 37 years to Holly, who he met when he was a cadet at the US Military Academy at West Point.

Although the president made no direct mention of Gen Petraeus' reason for resigning, he offered his thoughts and prayers to the general and his wife.

He said Mrs Petraeus has "done so much to help military families through her own work. I wish them the very best at this difficult time".

The CIA has come under fire in recent weeks in the wake of the September 11 attack on the US Consulate in Benghazi, Libya, that killed US ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.

Critics have questioned how much the intelligence agency knew about the likelihood and nature of the attack.

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Turkey Helicopter Crash: 17 Troops Killed

Seventeen Turkish soldiers have died after their helicopter crashed in southeastern Turkey in bad weather, an official has said.

The Sikorsky aircraft came down on Herekol mountain, in the Pervari district of Siirt province, according to Siirt governor Ahmet Aydin.

The victims were members of gendarmerie special forces and there were no survivors on board, he said.

Authorities are investigating the cause of the crash which reportedly happened in thick fog.

The helicopter was transporting troops to Pervari, where the Turkish army has been involved in operations against Kurdish rebels for three days, security sources told AFP.

The military has been on Herekol mountain in an attempt to flush out militants from outlawed separatist group the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) who have hideouts there.

Since the summer, there has been an upsurge in PKK attacks in southeast Turkey, particularly in the Hakkari region.

Turkish jets and helicopters have pounded PKK positions along the border with Iraq and Iran for three days, killing 42 militants, Hakkari's governor said.

Last month, a Sikorsky crashed in southeastern Diyarbakir province after it hit power lines, killing one soldier and wounding seven.

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Babies To Be Vaccinated Against Stomach Bug

Babies are to be vaccinated against a highly infectious bug that is one of the most common causes of diarrhoea in children.

From September 2013, infants aged between two and four months will be immunised against rotavirus, which causes diarrhoea, vomiting, abdominal pain, fever and dehydration.

At present, almost every child will have had the viral infection by the age of five. It is the most common cause of gastroenteritis in young children and babies.

The Department of Health said the move will mean thousands of young children will be spared hospital stays and hundreds of thousands of GP visits.

At present, the virus causes 140,000 diarrhoea cases a year in under-fives across the UK, and leads to around 14,000 hospital stays.

Vaccination experts believe the immunisation programme will halve the number of vomiting and diarrhoea cases caused by rotavirus and there could be 70% fewer hospital stays as a result.

Children will receive the vaccine, to be given orally as two separate doses of liquid drops, as part of their routine vaccination programme.

Professor David Salisbury, director of immunisation at the DoH, said: "Rotavirus spreads very easily.

"Many people think of diarrhoea as something that all children get and that you have to put up with. But there is a way to protect children from this.

"I'd encourage all parents of young children to accept this vaccine when the programme begins next year."

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Syria: 'Casualties After Two Large Blasts'

Two large explosions have struck the Syrian city of Deraa, causing multiple casualties, according to the state-run news agency.

The blasts were reportedly followed by clashes between regime forces and rebels fighting to topple President Bashar Assad.

Activists said dozens of members of the Syrian security forces were killed when two cars loaded with explosives drove into a military camp.

In what could have been a double suicide attack, the first car was driven into the camp and exploded, followed by the second vehicle, the UK-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights said.

Deraa was the birthplace of the Syrian uprising against Mr Assad

The blast from the second vehicle caused the casualties, it added.

Deraa, in the south of the country, was the birthplace of the Syrian uprising against Mr Assad, which erupted in March 2011.

The conflict began largely with peaceful protests against his rule but turned bloody after rebels took up arms in response to the regime's crackdown.

Activists say more than 36,000 people have died in Syria during the 19-month-long uprising.

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Massacre: Boy Testifies At Soldier's Hearing

A boy who survived a massacre that killed 16 people has given evidence against the US soldier accused of carrying out the shooting in Afghanistan.

The teenager, called Sadiquallah and believed to be 13 or 14-years-old, testified by video link from Kandahar during a hearing at a military base outside Seattle for Staff Sergeant Robert Bales.                 

Bales, 39, is accused of killing 16 civilians, including nine children, on March 11 in an attack on two villages near his base at Camp Belambay. He could face the death penalty if convicted.

Speaking through an interpreter, the boy said a neighbour woke him up when she screamed that an American had "killed our men".

He said he and another boy ran to hide in a storage room and ducked behind a curtain, where a bullet grazed his head.

The other child was hit in the thigh and also survived.

"I was hiding behind the curtains. A bullet hit me," he said.

Earlier, a relative of some of the victims said he found their bodies piled together and burned.

Khamal Adin told the hearing, at Joint Base Lewis-McChord, that on the morning after the killings he arrived at a compound belonging to his cousin, Mohammed Wazir.

He found Wazir's mother lying dead in a doorway, a gunshot to her head.

Further inside, Mr Adin said he found the bodies of six of his cousin's seven children, the man's wife, and other relatives. The fire that burned the bodies was out, but Mr Adin said he could smell smoke.

"Everybody was shot on the head ... I didn't pay attention to the rest of the wounds," he said.

The evidence is part of a preliminary hearing to help determine whether Bales, a father of two from Lake Tapps, Washington, should face a court martial. He is charged with 16 counts of premeditated murder and six counts of attempted murder.

Prosecutors say Bales carried out his attack in two parts, attacking one village before returning to the base and then departing again to raid another.

It is alleged that in between his attacks, he woke a fellow soldier, reported what he had done, but the soldier did not believe what he said and went back to sleep.

Bales has not entered a plea and is not expected to testify. Bales' lawyers say he has post-traumatic stress disorder and suffered a head injury during a prior deployment to Iraq.

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BBC Boss 'Was Unaware' Of Child Abuse Slur

Lord McAlpine: Full Statement

Updated: 10:45am UK, Friday 09 November 2012

Tory peer Lord McAlpine today described reports linking him to the North Wales child abuse allegations as "wholly false and seriously defamatory". Here is his full statement.

"Over the last several days it has become apparent to me that a number of ill-or uninformed commentators have been using blogs and other internet media outlets to accuse me of being the senior Conservative Party figure from the days of Margaret Thatcher's leadership who is guilty of sexually abusing young residents of a children's home in Wrexham, North Wales in the 1970's and 1980's.

"It has additionally become apparent to me that a number of broadcasters and newspapers have, without expressly naming me, also been alleging that a senior Conservative Party figure from that time was guilty of or suspected of being guilty of the sexual abuse of residents of this children's home.

"It is obvious that there must be a substantial number of people who saw that I had been identified in the internet publications as this guilty man and who subsequently saw or heard the broadcasts or read the newspapers in question and reasonably inferred that the allegation of guilt in those broadcasts and newspapers attached to me.

"Even though these allegations made of me by implication in the broadcast and print media, and made directly about me on the internet, are wholly false and seriously defamatory I can no longer expect the broadcast and print media to maintain their policy of defaming me only by innuendo.

"There is a media frenzy and I have to expect that an editor will soon come under pressure to risk naming me. My name and the allegations are for all practical purposes linked and in the public domain and I cannot rewind the clock.

"I therefore have decided that in order to mitigate, if only to some small extent, the damage to my reputation I must publicly tackle these slurs and set the record straight. In doing so I am by no means giving up my right to sue those who have defamed me in the recent past or who may do so in the future and I expressly reserve my rights to take all such steps as I and my solicitors consider necessary to protect my interests.

"On Tuesday, 6 November the Home Secretary, the Rt Hon Theresa May MP, made a statement in the House of Commons about the historic allegations of child abuse in the North Wales police force area.

"She explained that in 1991, North Wales Police conducted an investigation into allegations that, throughout the 1970s and 1980s, children in homes that were managed and supervised by Clwyd County Council were sexually and physically abused.

"The result of the police investigation was eight prosecutions and seven convictions of former care workers. Despite the investigation and convictions, it was widely believed, she said, that the abuse was in fact on a far greater scale, but a report produced by Clwyd Council's own inquiry was never published, because so much of its content was considered by lawyers to be defamatory.

"In 1996, the Rt Hon William Hague MP, the then Secretary of State for Wales, invited Sir Ronald Waterhouse to lead an inquiry into the abuse of children in care in the Gwynedd and Clwyd Council areas. Mrs May told the House of Commons that the Waterhouse inquiry sat for 203 days and heard evidence from more than 650 people.

"Statements made to the inquiry named more than 80 people as child abusers, many of whom were care workers or teachers. In 2000, the inquiry's report 'Lost in Care' made 72 recommendations for changes to the way in which children in care were protected by councils, social services and the police.

"Following the report's publications, 140 compensation claims were settled on behalf of the victims.

"Mrs May further said that the report found no evidence of a paedophile ring beyond the care system, which was the basis of the rumours that followed the original police investigation and, indeed, one of the allegations made in the past week.

"Last Friday, a victim of sexual abuse at one of the homes named in the report - Mr Steve Messham - alleged that the inquiry did not look at abuse outside care homes, and he renewed allegations against the police and several individuals.

"I am, as is now well known to readers of the internet and to journalists working for the print and broadcast media, one of the individuals implicated by Mr Messham.

"I have every sympathy for Mr Messham and for the many other young people who were sexually abused when they were residents of the children's home in Wrexham.

"Any abuse of children is abhorrent but the sexual abuse to which these vulnerable children were subjected in the 1970's and 1980's is particularly abhorrent.

"They had every right to expect to be protected and cared for by those who were responsible for them and it is abundantly clear that they were horribly violated. I have absolutely no sympathy for the adults who committed these crimes.

"Those who have been convicted were deservedly punished and those who have not yet been brought to justice should be as soon as possible.

"The facts are, however, that I have been to Wrexham only once. I visited the local Constituency Conservative Association in my capacity as Deputy Chairman.

"I was accompanied on this trip, at all times, by Stuart Newman, a Central Office Agent. We visited Mary Bell, a distant relative of mine and close friend of Stuart Newman.

"We did not stay the night in Wrexham. I have never been to the children's home in Wrexham, nor have I ever visited any children's home, reform school or any other institution of a similar nature.

"I have never stayed in a hotel in or near Wrexham, I did not own a Rolls Royce, have never had a 'Gold card' or 'Harrods card' and never wear after-shave, all of which have been alleged.

"I did not sexually abuse Mr Messham or any other residents of the children's home in Wrexham. Stuart Newman is now dead but my solicitors are endeavouring to locate a senior secretary who worked at Central Office at the time to see if she can remember the precise date I visited that Association.

"I fully support the decision (announced by the Home Secretary in the House of Commons on Tuesday) of the Chief Constable of North Wales, Mr Mark Polin, to invite Mr Keith Bristow, the Director General of the National Crime Agency, to assess the allegations recently received, to review the historic police investigations and to investigate any fresh allegations reported to the police into the alleged historic abuse in north Wales care homes.

"Although I live in Italy and have done so for many years and although I am in poor health, I am entirely willing to meet Mr Polin and Mr Bristow in London as soon as can be arranged so that they can eliminate me from their inquiries and so that any unwarranted suspicion can be removed from me.

"I wish to make it clear that I do not suggest that Mr Messham is malicious in making the allegations of sexual abuse about me. He is referring to a terrible period of his life in the 1970's or 1980's and what happened to him will have affected him ever since. If he does think I am the man who abused him all those years ago I can only suggest that he is mistaken and that he has identified the wrong person.

"I conclude by reminding those who have defamed me or who intend to do so that in making this statement I am by no means giving up my right to seek redress at law and repeat that I expressly reserve my rights to take all such steps as I and my solicitors consider necessary to protect my interests."

McAlpine of West Green

8 November 2012

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Teen Used 'Old Man' Disguise In Armed Robbery

A schoolboy who used sophisticated prosthetics to disguise himself as a pensioner while carrying out a violent armed robbery has been jailed.

Miles Alura - and the teenage robber in his disguise

Brandishing two handguns and dressed up as an old man, 16-year-old Miles Alura and his two teenaged accomplices were caught following a raid on a Kent jewellers

The trio used handcuffs and a dog lead to tie up terrified staff, before making off with £50,000 worth of jewellery. But an onlooker called the police and all three boys were arrested.

Alura was found in a nearby garden having dumped the gang's haul - and removed his facial prosthetics, make-up and hair piece.

The decommissioned guns found on Alura, pictured (inset) in his disguise

Following their capture, detectives from the Met's Flying Squad linked the July 3 robbery to an earlier raid on June 7 at a jewellers in Mayfair, central London.

Alura had committed that robbery along with one of the two boys - who cannot be named - and while wearing false waist-length dreadlocks.

They jumped over the counter and threatened the staff, intimating they had a gun. Workers were tied up and they escaped with jewellery worth £100,000.

Fingerprints belonging to both boys was found on paperwork - including school history coursework, and a drawing of the plan of the store - left at the scene.

Alura was sentenced at Kingston Crown Court to a total of five years in prison. His accomplice in the Mayfair robbery, 'Boy A', also 16, of Stoke Newington, was jailed for three years.

A picture from Miles Alura's Facebook page

Fifteen-year-old 'Boy B', of Holloway, received a 12-month detention and training order. Reporting restrictions were lifted for Alura, but not for the other two boys.

Detective Constable Vicky Bailey, from the Met's Flying Squad, said: "These were violent armed robberies during which innocent members of staff were terrorised and genuinely feared for their lives.

"It is even more shocking to know that this level of violence was inflicted by three schoolboys who went to extraordinary lengths to research, plan and getaway with these offences demonstrated by Alura's sophisticated disguise."

All three defendants had earlier pleaded guilty at Kingston Crown Court to conspiracy to rob relating to the Kent robbery.

Alura and 'Boy B' had pleaded guilty to possession of an imitation firearm regarding that raid. Alura and 'Boy A' had also pleaded guilty to the Mayfair robbery.

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Body In Shallow Grave May Be Murder Victim

Police have found a body in the search for a man whose disappearance seven years ago resulted in his girlfriend's ex-husband being jailed for murder.

David Guilfoyle, 37, vanished in May 2005 after striking up a relationship with Debbie Fitzpatrick in Accrington, Lancashire.

Ms Fitzpatrick's ex-husband, guillotine operator Shane Fitzpatrick, was jailed for life after a jury convicted him of killing Mr Guilfoyle in a jealous rage.

Police said the body was discovered on Friday during a search of Admiral's Wood, near Bolton-By-Bowland in Lancashire.

It is believed Shane Fitzpatrick, 42, previously of Hapton, recently confessed his guilt to detectives and told them where he hid the body.

The remains were found in a shallow grave.

A police spokesman said: "We can confirm that officers searching an area of Admiral's Wood near Bolton-By-Bowland have found a body.

"The searches were carried out after new information was passed to police about the possible whereabouts of the body of David Guilfoyle."

He added: "Whilst it is too early at this stage to confirm whether the body is that of David Guilfoyle, we have specialist officers supporting David's family and they are aware of this development and are being kept fully informed."

Mr Guilfoyle was murdered at his home in Royds Avenue, Accrington, and, despite the absence of his body, police found a trail of blood proving he was attacked there.

Shane Fitzpatrick was convicted of murder in July 2006 and jailed for life with a minimum 20-year term.

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China To Step Up Space Ambitions In 2013

China is stepping up its ambitious space exploration programme with another manned space mission early next summer, according to its official news agency Xinhua.

The Shenzhou-10, with three crew members, is aiming for a primary launch window in June according to Niu Hongguang, deputy commander-in-chief of the manned space programme.

Mr Niu, speaking on the sidelines of China's 18th Communist Party Congress in Beijing, said officials had identified a back-up launch window for July or August.

He also revealed that one of the three astronauts would probably be a woman.

Shenzhou-9 astronauts, from left, Liu Wang, Jing Haipeng and Liu Yang

China sent its first female astronaut, Liu Yang, into space earlier this year on the Shenzhou-9 in the country's first manual space docking mission.

The docking procedure was a major milestone in the country's ambitious space programme that has a goal of building a space station by 2020.

China has said it is working towards landing a man on the moon, but has not specified a time-frame.

The last time a man landed on the moon was during the United States' 1972 Apollo 17 mission.

Beijing has said it will also attempt to land an exploratory craft on the moon for the first time in the second half of next year and transmit back a survey of the lunar surface.

China sees its space programme as a symbol of its rising global stature, growing technical expertise, and the Communist Party's success in turning around the fortunes of the once poverty-stricken nation.

The country sent its first man into space in 2003. It completed a space walk in 2008 and an unmanned docking between a module and rocket last year.

The US is not expected to test a new rocket to take people into space until 2017, and Russia has said manned missions are no longer a priority.

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Sir Mick's Ex-Lover To Auction Off His Letters

A series of "passionate and articulate" letters sent by Mick Jagger to his secret lover in the summer of 1969 are to be auctioned next month.

The letters, said to paint a picture of Jagger as a "poetic and self-aware" 25-year-old, were written to American-born singer Marsha Hunt while the Rolling Stones frontman was in Australia.

Hunt, who provided the inspiration for the Stones' 1971 hit Brown Sugar, has given Sotheby's the commission to sell 10 letters, which go under the hammer in London on December 12.

Predicted to realise between £70,000 and £100,000, the collection - which also includes song lyrics and a Rolling Stones playlist - will be the centrepiece of an English literature and history sale.

Gabriel Heaton, Sotheby's books specialist, said: "These beautifully-written and lyrical letters from the heart of the cultural and social revolution of 1969 frame a vivid moment in cultural history.

"Here we see Mick Jagger not as the global superstar he has become, but as a poetic and self-aware 25-year-old with wide-ranging intellectual and artistic interests."

Written from a film set in the Australian Outback just after the Rolling Stones' landmark Hyde Park concert, the documents provide an insight into the cultural events of the time, including the first moon landing.

Jagger as he was then

Dr Heaton added: "They provide a rare glimpse of Jagger that is very different from his public persona: passionate but self-contained, lyrical but with a strong sense of irony."

The letters were penned by Jagger for his lover while he was filming the movie Ned Kelly - he was also involved with Marianne Faithfull at the time and their relationship was a closely-guarded secret.

In a statement released by Sotheby's, Hunt said of the well-preserved letters: "They're addressed to me. I was 23, American-born, Berkeley-educated and London-based.

"Despite his high profile and my own ... our delicate love affair remains as much part of his secret history as his concerns over the death of Brian Jones and the suicide attempt of his girlfriend, Marianne Faithfull."

In an interview with The Guardian, Hunt, the mother of Jagger's first child, said she needed to raise funds to repair her house in France.

Now aged 66, the singer told the newspaper she hoped the buyer would recognise that they have a piece of history.

"The letters speak for Mick at an incredible juncture of our lives," she said.

"Someone, I hope, will buy those letters as our generation is dying and with us will go the reality of who we were and what life was."

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