Child-Rape Trial Halted After Judge 'Fell Asleep'

The trial of a man accused of raping a child was halted because a judge fell asleep, it has been claimed.

An investigation has been launched into the allegations that Recorder Philip Cattan nodded off as a young alleged victim gave evidence via video-link.

The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office confirmed it is looking at what happened at the trial of John Quigley at Manchester Crown Court.

After the allegation was made, the judge stopped the trial and it will now be relisted.

A spokesman for the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said: "The Judicial Conduct Investigations Office is aware of the allegation that Recorder Philip Cattan fell asleep during a trial at Manchester Crown Court.

"The matter is being considered in accordance with the Judicial Conduct (Judicial and other office holders) Rules 2013."

In a statement, the Crown Prosecution Service said: "The jury has been discharged in the trial of R v John Quigley at Manchester Crown Court following an issue that arose at court during the cross examination of the first complainant in the case.

"The trial will be relisted as soon as possible. The complainants and other witnesses have been kept informed."

Sky News North of England Correspondent Nick Martin said the incident was pointed out by barristers in court working on the trial, which had cost around £10,000 by the time it was halted.

Quigley, 49, of Avon Road, Burnage, Manchester, denies a number of sex offences including raping a child under 13.

Philip Cattan is a practising barrister in the Manchester area as well as a recorder, which is a part-time judge. He belongs to the St Johns Buildings Chambers in the city.

When Judge Gabriel Hutton was found to have nodded off during a rape trial at Gloucester Crown Court in 2002, causing it to be abandoned, he was disciplined.

Mr Cattan will not be commenting, the Judicial Conduct Investigations Office said.

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US Evacuates Libya Embassy Amid Militia Strife

The United States has evacuated its embassy in Libya and warned all Americans in the country to "depart immediately", as fighting between militias in the capital Tripoli intensifies.

The mission staff were driven safely overland to neighbouring Tunisia, escorted by the US military. 

State Department spokeswoman Marie Harf said in a statement: "Securing our facilities and ensuring the safety of our personnel are top department priorities, and we did not make this decision lightly. 

"Security has to come first. Regrettably, we had to take this step because the location of our embassy is in very close proximity to intense fighting and ongoing violence between armed Libyan factions."

Smoke in Tripoli after heavy fighting between rival militias on Friday

American personnel at the Libyan embassy, which was already operating with limited staffing, left the capital at around dawn on Saturday, said Ms Harf. 

Speaking during a visit to Paris, Secretary of State John Kerry said they had decided to temporarily suspend diplomatic operations in Tripoli because "freewheeling militia violence" posed a "real risk" to its personnel.

US officials are taking no chances after the deadly 2012 attack on its mission in the eastern city of Benghazi, when Ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans died.

Tripoli has been engulfed for weeks in bloodshed between militias

The State Department has also issued a travel warning against travel to Libya, urging all Americans already in the country to get out.

The advisory also cautioned that the country is awash with military-grade arms, including "antiaircraft weapons that may be used against civilian aviation".

Tripoli has been engulfed for weeks in bloodshed between militias that has killed and wounded dozens, with fighting especially intense around the city's airport.

An aircraft damaged by shelling at Tripoli International Airport last week

The last time the US suspended operations at its Tripoli embassy was in February 2011, during the revolution that toppled Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi. The mission reopened a few months later.

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F16 Jets Escort Plane After Passenger 'Threat'

A plane bound for Panama City was escorted by two US fighter jets back to Toronto, Canada, after a passenger allegedly threatened to blow up the jet.

The aircraft, carrying 189 people, turned around over West Virginia about 45 minutes into the flight as the F16s were dispatched.

Once Sunwing Airlines flight 772, with 183 passengers and six crew on board, landed at Toronto Pearson International Airport, armed police went on to the airliner and removed the suspect.

Officers have charged Canadian man Ali Shahi,  25, with uttering threats and endangering the safety of an aircraft.

Witness Sharon Ramsay said it was a frightening scene on board the plane.

Armed police at the scene

She said: "The pilot came on and said there was a threat and they had to take it seriously and turn around and we're heading back to Toronto, so that's what happened.

"We came back and waited on the tarmac for about an hour and then the task force came in, they stormed in. It was extremely scary.

"They came in the front and back of the plane and they yelled hands up, heads down, hands up, heads down and it was just awful."

Fellow passenger Manjo Chopra said he thought the altercation began over a purchase.

"I think it was about buying something, he didn't have the right card and that's what triggered it," Mr Chopra said.

North American Aerospace Defence Command (Norad) said the two fighter jets from Ohio flew with the plane out of US airspace as a "precaution".

Sunwing Airlines said an "agitated passenger directly threatened the aircraft" but did not elaborate on the threat.

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Female Navy Commander Faces Affair Claims

The first woman commander of a major Royal Navy battleship has left her vessel while an investigation is carried out into claims she had an affair with a shipmate.

Commander Sarah West, 42, had been in charge on board HMS Portland, a Type 23 frigate, since May 2012.

Her second-in-command is now running the vessel while the inquiry takes place, but Cdr West is still officially the Commanding Officer.

The Armed Forces' Code of Social Conduct governs personal relationships within the military and the investigation will look at whether it was breached.

Any Armed Forces member found to have fallen short of its high standards could face a formal warning, reassignment and even termination of service.

Cdr West commands HMS Portland

A Royal Navy spokesman said: "We are aware of an allegation of a breach of the code of social conduct on board HMS Portland, which we are treating seriously.

"Anyone who is found to fall short of the Royal Navy's high standards can expect to face appropriate action. It would be inappropriate to comment further."

Cdr West became the first female commander of a frontline warship in the 500-year history of the service.

Cdr West was the first female commander of a major Royal Navy warship

She told the Daily Mirror newspaper earlier this year that work commitments made it difficult to have a relationship.

She said: "I'm really proud to be the first woman but I'm not reinventing the wheel. Lots of women in the services have challenging roles.

"It's just that I happen to be newsworthy at the moment. There are drawbacks though.

"Years at sea probably explains why I'm single. But every person in the military makes sacrifices."

When Cdr West was made a Commanding Officer she described it as the greatest achievement of her career.

She said: "Taking command of HMS Portland is definitely the highlight of my 16 years in the Royal Navy so far.

"It is a challenge that I am fully trained for and ready to undertake.

"I am very proud to be taking command of a Type 23 frigate, which is an extremely flexible warship, and I'm looking forward to taking HMS Portland on operations with a professional and focused team."

Cdr West has left the ship while the inquiry takes place

HMS Portland, which has a crew of 185, has been on a seven-month deployment around the coasts of Europe, Africa, and South and North America.

The ship's most recently known position, according to a marine positioning website, was the port of San Juan, in Puerto Rico, on July 19.

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MH17: Victim's Parents Visit Crash Scene

The parents of one of the victims of the Malaysia Airlines plane disaster in eastern Ukraine have travelled from Australia to the crash site to honour their daughter.

Fatima Dyczynski, 25, was among 298 people on board flight MH17 when it came down on July 17 while travelling from Amsterdam to Kuala Lumpur.

She had been making her way to Australia to see her parents.

Jerzy Dyczynski and Angela Rudhart-Dyczynski crossed territory held by pro-Russian rebels to reach the area where the wreckage came down in fields outside the village of Hrabove.

The couple appeared emotional at the crash scene

The couple, appearing emotional, walked among the debris and scorched earth and laid a large bouquet of flowers.

Mr Dyczynski, who wore a white T-shirt with a portrait of Fatima, said: "We are for peace. She (Fatima) was for peace, she is for peace and she will be forever for peace."

His wife said: "We have promised our daughter we will come here. We should have come here the minute it happened."

She added: "She was full of life," adding her daughter, an aerospace engineering student, used to want to be a pilot.

They last spoke to their daughter shortly before she boarded the doomed flight, where there were no survivors.

A section of the plane's fuselage

The couple, from Perth, had arrived on a minibus at the rebel-held zone, ignoring their government's safety warnings.

Some 28 Australians were killed in the tragedy, which has been blamed on separatists shooting down the airliner, mistaking it for a Ukrainian plane. The rebels denied they were responsible.

Investigators are still trying to get full access to the site as Dutch and Australian police head to the area to try to secure it.

Human remains are still at the scene more than a week after the aircraft came down, says Australia's Prime Minister.

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Bodies 'Still Remain' At MH17 Crash Site

Human remains are still at the site of the Malaysia Airlines crash in eastern Ukraine more than a week after the aircraft came down, says Australia's Prime Minister.

Tony Abbott is sending 190 police officers along with a small number of its defence forces to try to help secure the area which is currently controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

The Australians will join 40 plain-clothes military police from the Netherlands who are set to begin escorting forensic experts to the vast crash site.

Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak will travel to the Netherlands on Wednesday to discuss the downed jet with his Dutch counterpart where they will discuss how to get investigators full access to the area.

A section of the plane's fuselage

Some 227 bodies out of a total of 298 people killed in the flight MH17 disaster have been handed over to Dutch authorities, but many more remains lie under the sweltering heat at the scene.

"Plainly there are unrecovered body remains in the area. And it's the presence of unrecovered remains that makes it more important than ever that an international team be dispatched to the site," said Mr Abbott, stressing it was a humanitarian mission.

"Every day the site remains unsecured, there is more interference and the remains are subject to the ravages of the European summer, animals, disturbance."

Two cargo planes have flown 38 more coffins carrying victims out of Ukraine to Holland where they will be taken to a forensic centre for identification and investigation.

Debris is spread over a large area

The White House has said Russian President Vladimir Putin was "culpable" in the downing of MH17.

In his strongest comments yet since the plane was shot down, White House spokesman Josh Earnest linked the crash to Russia, which the US has criticised for providing arms to Ukrainian separatists.

Mr Earnest also confirmed reports that Russian troops are firing heavy artillery on Ukrainian military across the border, describing it as an escalation of the conflict.

A plane carrying Dutch military police leaves for Ukraine

The US has previously accused Russia of providing arms to Ukrainian pro-Russian separatists.

Russia, however, has called the latest US accusations of Moscow's involvement in the Ukrainian conflict a baseless "smear campaign".

Meanwhile, European Union ambassadors have reached a preliminary deal on stepped-up sanctions against Russia, targeting its defence and technology sectors and its access to European capital.

Hearses take victims' bodies to a forensic centre in Holland

EU spokeswoman Maja Kocijancic said EU member states must decide whether the measures need to be approved by a summit meeting of the trade bloc's 28 member countries to go into effect.

The ambassadors also ordered asset freezes and travel bans against more Russians and pro-Russian Ukrainians accused of undermining Ukraine.

The US has accused Russia of arming Ukrainian separatists

Alexander Bortnikov, head of the FSB, and Mikhail Fradkov, head of the foreign intelligence service, were among 15 Russians and Ukrainians, and 18 companies and other organisations named in the latest sanctions list published in the EU's Official Journal.

The Russian foreign ministry said the additional sanctions would hamper co-operation over international and regional security issues.

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Burglar Killed By Homeowner Was Not Pregnant

A burglar who pleaded that she was pregnant moments before a homeowner fatally shot her was not a mother-to-be, a post-mortem examination has confirmed.

In a case that has generated national headlines, Andrea Miller was gunned down by 80-year-old householder Tom Greer on Tuesday night in Long Beach, California. 

The 28-year-old and an accomplice had just ransacked the retiree's property and punched him to the floor, breaking his collar bone, said police.

Mr Greer - who pulled out a revolver while the robbers were distracted - chased the pair from his home.

He caught up with Miller in an alley behind the property where she begged him not to shoot because she said she was expecting a baby.

Mr Greer says the same couple robbed him twice previously

Mr Greer told local media he shot her twice in the back anyway.

She was pronounced dead at the scene. He has not been arrested.

Prosecutors, who received the police case file on Friday, must now determine if Mr Greer went too far in pursuing the suspects and firing on the woman outside his home.

California homeowners are legally allowed to defend themselves if they are in imminent danger of serious bodily injury or death.

Miller's alleged accomplice, 26-year-old Gus Adams, is in custody.

Police are recommending he be charged with burglary and murder because of his alleged involvement in a felony that led to death.

Mr Greer told NBC that the same couple had robbed him twice previously.

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Riot Under Way At Nottinghamshire Prison

A riot has broken out at HMP Ranby in Nottinghamshire after up to 120 prisoners refused to return to their cells.

The Prison Officers' Association (POA) said the "serious incident" began about 12.30pm and is continuing.

A spokesman for the Prison Service said no staff or prisoners have been injured during the riot.

Negotiators were sent to the jail after prisoners lit a fire and took control of a section of the prison after lunch.

Glyn Travis, assistant secretary of the POA, said: "There is a serious incident at HMP Ranby.

"At around 12.30pm, 120 prisoners refused to return to their cells. They have taken control of a unit.

"We have got national resources at the prison trying to establish a surrender plan. We know 60 prisoners have been actively involved."

A report released on Thursday described HMP Ranby as unsafe, adding that there were high levels of violence at the prison.

The report followed an 11-day inspection by HM Inspectorate of Prisons. 

It found that two prisoners died from "self-inflicted" deaths last year, with another two died in a similar way last March.

Conditions at the prison were also described as dirty and nearly half the prison's population said they felt unsafe.

The report found a growing number of self-harm incidents at the category C training prison, and the availability of legal highs was also found to have increased.

Chief Inspector of Prisons Nick Hardwick said the report showed a prison "in crisis".

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'Truly Tragic': Tributes To Plane Crash Briton

A British man who was among 116 people killed in a plane crash in Mali has been described as a "genuine lovely man".

David Morgan, reportedly from Liverpool, died when Air Algerie flight AH5017 came down in the remote Gossi region, close to the border with Burkina Faso on Thursday.

The UN peacekeeping mission in Mali said its experts have found the plane's second black box as investigators try to establish what happened to the jet. French soldiers secured the other black box on Friday.

Terrorism has not been ruled out as a cause, but officials have said the crash was most likely due to bad weather.

Flight AH5017 had been heading to Algiers when it crashed in Mali

The MD-83 aircraft, owned by Spanish company Swiftair and leased by Algeria's flagship carrier, disappeared from radar less than an hour after it took off from Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, heading to Algiers, Algeria. There were no survivors.

PE teacher Andy Vasily posted on Twitter that Mr Morgan, who was the only Briton on the airliner, had previously worked at Nanjing International School in eastern China.

He wrote: "RIP Dave Morgan. Truly tragic. Prayers to his family and other victims."

Hywel Jones tweeted: "RIP, David Morgan, 'MASHER'......A genuine lovely man."

Hanri de Swardt, a fellow teacher, from South Africa, wrote on Facebook: "Rest in peace Captain Dave Masher Morgan. Thanks for all the support and help in Lusaka. You will always be in my thoughts. God bless."

The jet came down in a remote area

Annabelle Mambwe, a teacher at Luanda International School, in Angola, wrote: "Just lost a teacher colleague in the Algiers disaster. Dave Morgan!! He was Denise's Maths teacher...such an easy-go-fella! These planes falling from the sky are getting to me!"

David Cameron said he was "deeply saddened" by the death of the British national, adding: "Thoughts very much with friends and family."

Some 54 of the passengers on board the flight were French, many who were due to head on to Europe after arriving in the Algerian capital.

A family of 10, including four children, from the Rhone-Alpes region of France, were among the dead.

The first photos have emerged of the crash site. Debris from the plane could be seen scattered over an area of desert south of Gao.

Burnt-out wreckage and parts of the fuselage could be made out against the charred sand.

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Truce Extended As Gaza Death Toll Tops 1,000

Israel and Hamas have agreed to prolong a "humanitarian" truce in Gaza until midnight (10pm UK time) as the Palestinian death toll reached 1,000.

The four-hour extension comes as world leaders continue their attempt to thrash out a wider ceasefire in Paris. 

However, Israel claims rockets were fired from Gaza as night fell.

The truce held for the original 12 hours, though parts of Gaza came under heavy fire minutes before the break started at 8am (6am UK time).

Gaza came under heavy bombardment prior to the truce

Israeli shells reportedly killed 18 members of a Palestinian family who had been trapped in their house in Khuzaa village for two days.

Doctors in Gaza said 132 bodies have been pulled from rubble since the ceasefire started, taking the number of Palestinians killed in 19 days of violence to more than 1,000.

Three Israeli soldiers were also killed in combat prior to the ceasefire, meaning 40 military personnel have died since their operation began on July 8. A total of three civilians have been killed by rocket fire into Israel.

A Palestinian woman stands outside destroyed homes in Shejaia, Gaza

Israel is reportedly continuing its search of Hamas tunnels during the truce - though the break has allowed Gazans to stock up on supplies.

Hamas sources told Sky News the group was willing to join Israel in prolonging the 12-hour ceasefire.

Israeli cabinet minister Yuval Steinitz said a further extension would be discussed by the security cabinet on Saturday night.

US Secretary of State John Kerry remains "confident progress can be made" on a seven-day truce that would "bring people together to create a more durable plan".

John Kerry and his counterparts are in Paris for talks

However, on Friday evening Israel's defence minister told troops: "You need to be ready for the possibility that very soon we will instruct the military to significantly broaden the ground operation in Gaza."

Mr Kerry is in Paris for talks with British Foreign Secretary Philip Hammond and other counterparts from Europe, Turkey and Qatar.

Earlier, Mr Kerry told a news conference in Cairo a "fundamental framework" for peace was in place and that it would "ultimately succeed".

"The world is watching tragic moment after tragic moment unfold and is wondering when everybody is going to come to their senses," said Mr Kerry.

A map showing the areas of conflict and violence

An unnamed source from the Israeli government said they were seeking modifications as the truce proposal "leans too much towards Hamas demands".

In London, anti-war protesters marched from the Israeli embassy to the Houses of Parliament.

Similar protests took place in France and Germany.

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