Gloucester Stabbing: Three People Arrested

Three people have been arrested after a man was stabbed to death close to where a carnival procession passed just hours earlier.

Officers were called to Park End Road in Gloucester shortly before 8pm last night following reports that a man had been stabbed.

The road borders Gloucester Park, where the town had held its annual family carnival and fete celebrations, including a procession.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Police said two men and a woman have since been arrested on suspicion of murder.

A cordon remains in place at the scene.

Detective Inspector Jon Thompson said: "I would like to reassure people living in the area or visiting Gloucester that this type of incident is extremely rare.

"The investigation is ongoing and three people are currently in custody.

"However, we would still like to speak to anyone who was in or around Gloucester Park at the time and who might have seen what happened."

Anyone with information is urged to contact Gloucestershire Police on 101 or speak to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

00.35 | 0 komentar | Read More

Michael Cope Charged With Linzi Ashton Murder

Michael Cope has been charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend in Manchester.

The 28-year-old is due to appear at Manchester and Salford Magistrates' Court on Monday, when he will also face accusations of assault and rape.

He is alleged to have killed 25-year-old Linzi Ashton, who was found dead at her home in Winton on June 29.

A post mortem concluded Miss Ashton died as a result of pressure to the neck and multiple injuries.

In a statement issued shortly after Miss Ashton's death, her family said: "She was the most beautiful, generous, caring person anyone could ever wish to meet. She would never harm anyone and was always there for her children and family."

00.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Adoption Parties' Help Form New Families

By David Crabtree, Sky News Correspondent

Organisers say a pilot "adoption party" project for prospective parents to meet children in need of new families is proving a huge success.

According to the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), at one recent activity day event in Kent 34 out of 54 children found possible links to new foster parents.

The events are designed for people who are already well advanced in the adoption process.

They get to meet children at play while the youngsters enjoy face, painting, climbing and other activities.

The children's foster parents or social workers attend the event to support them.

It is part of a scheme to help speed up the process and find adoptive parents for those children who may be more difficult to place.

More than 6,000 children are going through the adoption process with only 1,800 prospective parents approved and waiting for a child.

One couple adopted sisters aged five and six, after attending an adoption party in the Midlands. Their identities have to be protected.

The 'adoption parties' include a range of activities

Their new mother Kirsty said: "We saw them playing, it was lovely. We just had the feeling that we could be parents to these children.

"It is like they have always been part of our family. It is still fairly early days, but it is like they have always been with us."

A number of events have been held around the country and more are planned.

Of the 170 children who have  attended the first four events, families have been identified for 29 of them, a success rate of 17%.

Bridgett Betts, the Adoption Activity Day programme manager, said: "There have always been more children waiting for adoptive families, than we have adoptive families to parent them.

"And these children are often older children, children with disabilities or sibling groups and BAAF wanted to look at the idea of using adoption parties which have been very popular in the United States."

Sir Martin Narey, the Government's adviser on social care, believes activity days may help with the "scandal" of black children waiting longer for foster parents than white children.

He said: "What they do is bring together potential adopters and potential children and they recognise the fact that there is some chemistry involved in these relationships.

"Children and parents can meet each other and you see if there is something there that might make an adoption successful.

"Their record of getting children adopted who might not otherwise get adopted, is very very good and the success in the adoptions lasting forever is good."

He and BAAF say adoption parties will become more common and bring forward more adopters for a growing number of children who need a home.

00.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Theresa May 'Shocked' By Diabetes Diagnosis

Is Theresa May's Revelation A Ploy?

Updated: 1:27pm UK, Sunday 28 July 2013

By Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent

Did Theresa May decide to reveal that she has Type 1 diabetes and needs daily injections because she knew a committee of MPs was due to reveal a deep malaise in migration statistics?

Was the timing of her candid interview about her illness and her weight loss an attempt to deflect attention from the harsh criticism of the immigration figures by the Public Administration Select Committee of MPs?

Or is that a conspiracy theory too far? No doubt the Home Secretary would say so quite emphatically.

Mrs May has always attracted a lot of jealousy from male colleagues as she has risen to near the top in the Conservative Party.

Many resented her "nasty party" jibe when she was party chairman and there were plenty willing her to fail when David Cameron appointed her Home Secretary in 2010.

I recall senior frontbenchers joking at a Tory conference a few years back: "Theresa May, or maybe not. She used to be indecisive, but now she's not so sure."

But since 2010 she has proved to be a steely, unflappable, safe pair of hands at the notoriously perilous Home Office and those Tory MPs who used to mock her are silent now.

Since her adept handling of the Abu Qatada debacle ended successfully with his deportation three weeks ago, she has reinforced her position as a front-runner to become the next Tory leader.

And the latest whispering about her among colleagues was that her weight loss in recent months was a deliberate makeover as part of a leadership bid.

Not so, she has declared in the Mail On Sunday, though she confirms she has lost almost two stone.

She was diagnosed last November and at the moment she needs two injections a day, either in the stomach or the thigh, which can't be any fun.

Leadership bid?

"This was not some Machiavellian plan because there is no leadership bid," she insists.

Not yet, certainly. But one day, I predict, assuming her health is robust enough to allow her to "get on with it", as she puts it.

There will be sympathy for her, even from her detractors and political opponents.

Her disclosure proves that politicians are human, like the rest of us, and not as indestructible as they would sometimes have us believe.

So why didn't she reveal the illness earlier?

I suspect she wanted to get the Abu Qatada mess sorted out first.

Better to reveal her illness when her political stock is high, which it certainly is now - and which makes the immigration statistics fiasco even more frustrating and embarrassing for the Home Secretary.

As Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Public Administration Committee, rightly says: "Most people would be utterly astonished to learn that there is no attempt to count people as they enter or leave the UK."

I was struck by the comment of Westminster City Council leader Philippa Roe, who gave evidence to the committee and said: "Disney World has better technology to keep track of its visitors than we as a country do."

Labour claims the select committee's report casts into doubt the Home Secretary's claims to have cut net migration.

She would dispute that - as she would the suggestion that the timing of her announcement about her illness had anything to do with the inevitable row over migration figures.

00.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Arrest Made' After Twitter Rape Threats

A feminist who received a barrage of abuse on Twitter after heading a campaign for a woman to appear on British banknotes has said police have made an arrest.

Caroline Criado-Perez received hostile posts, including threats to rape and kill her, nearly every minute in the 48 hours after she attended the Bank of England's unveiling of the new £10 note, with Jane Austen's image on, on Wednesday.

On Sunday, she said she had been informed that an arrest had been made.

On her Twitter page she wrote: "Just heard from police that an arrest has been made. That's all I have at present."

The abuse started after Ms Criado-Perez fronted the £10 note campaign

Ms Criado-Perez earlier called on the social networking site and police to take action over the abuse.

She told Sky News: "It was really really disturbing to find that something as small as asking for one woman on a banknote could result in such a barrage of threats of sexual violence.

"It's just not acceptable and more than that it's actually a crime and Twitter needs to take it seriously and the police need to take it seriously."

Twitter is under increasing pressure to take a tougher stance

Her comments come as an online petition in support of her, calling on Twitter to introduce a button to allow speedy reporting of abuse, has attracted more than 25,000 signatures.

She has also received support from MPs and celebrities.

Ms Criado-Perez added: "This is something that happens specifically to women and it's to make them shut up because there is a certain type of man who doesn't like women speaking and they don't like women speaking back to them.

"I wasn't going to give them what they wanted so I decided to start being very very public about the abuse I was receiving even though it was really unpleasant and obviously it's invited more abuse to a certain extent, but it's also invited so much support which has been absolutely incredible."

A spokesperson for Twitter said: "The ability to report individual tweets for abuse is currently available on Twitter for iPhone and we plan to bring this functionality to other platforms, including Android and the web.

"We don't comment on individual accounts. However, we have rules which people agree to abide by when they sign up to Twitter.

"We will suspend accounts that, once reported to us, are found to be in breach of our rules.

"We encourage users to report an account for violation of the Twitter rules by using one of our report forms: https://support.twitter.com/forms."

The Metropolitan Police is conducting inquiries into the matter after receiving an allegation of abuse.

Labour's shadow home secretary and shadow minister for women Yvette Cooper has written to the head of Twitter in the UK urging stronger action over the matter, saying she is "deeply concerned by the handling of serious and violent threats of abuse and rape".

Jane Austen will appear on the front of £10 notes from 2017

The letter says: " ... Despite the scale and seriousness of these threats, the official response from Twitter continues to be extremely weak - simply directing Caroline away from Twitter towards the police, and, belatedly, directing users to abuse reporting forms on Twitter.

" ... I urge you to go further and ensure that Twitter carries out a full review of all its policies on abusive behaviour, threats and crimes, including more help for Twitter users who experience abuse, a clear complaints process and clear action from Twitter to tackle this kind of persecution."

Comedians Chris Addison and Dara O'Briain are among the celebrities to back Ms Criado-Perez with messages on Twitter.

Addison wrote: "In case you missed it, here's the link to petition to add a 'Report Abuse' button to Twitter … Least we can do, right?"

And O'Briain posted: "If the ladies leave Twitter because of all the dumb, rapey 14-year-old boys, then I'm outta here people. Like most grown-up men too, I'd say"

MPs including Stella Creasy and Diane Abbott also voiced their support via the microblogging site.

Ms Criado-Perez, a freelance journalist who co-founded The Women's Room, an online database of female experts, organised a campaign which included a petition signed by more than 35,500 people after the Bank of England decided to replace Elizabeth Fry with Winston Churchill on new £5 notes.

The move would have meant there were no women apart from the Queen on sterling banknotes.

Her campaign was a success, with an announcement by the Bank last week that Pride And Prejudice author Austen will replace Charles Darwin on the new £10 note when it is introduced 2017.

00.34 | 0 komentar | Read More

Gloucester Stabbing: Three People Arrested

Three people have been arrested after a man was stabbed to death close to where a carnival procession passed just hours earlier.

Officers were called to Park End Road in Gloucester shortly before 8pm last night following reports that a man had been stabbed.

The road borders Gloucester Park, where the town had held its annual family carnival and fete celebrations, including a procession.

A spokesman for Gloucestershire Police said two men and a woman have since been arrested on suspicion of murder.

A cordon remains in place at the scene.

Detective Inspector Jon Thompson said: "I would like to reassure people living in the area or visiting Gloucester that this type of incident is extremely rare.

"The investigation is ongoing and three people are currently in custody.

"However, we would still like to speak to anyone who was in or around Gloucester Park at the time and who might have seen what happened."

Anyone with information is urged to contact Gloucestershire Police on 101 or speak to Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

'Adoption Parties' Help Form New Families

By David Crabtree, Sky News Correspondent

Organisers say a pilot "adoption party" project for prospective parents to meet children in need of new families is proving a huge success.

According to the British Association for Adoption and Fostering (BAAF), at one recent activity day event in Kent 34 out of 54 children found possible links to new foster parents.

The events are designed for people who are already well advanced in the adoption process.

They get to meet children at play while the youngsters enjoy face, painting, climbing and other activities.

The children's foster parents or social workers attend the event to support them.

It is part of a scheme to help speed up the process and find adoptive parents for those children who may be more difficult to place.

More than 6,000 children are going through the adoption process with only 1,800 prospective parents approved and waiting for a child.

One couple adopted sisters aged five and six, after attending an adoption party in the Midlands. Their identities have to be protected.

The 'adoption parties' include a range of activities

Their new mother Kirsty said: "We saw them playing, it was lovely. We just had the feeling that we could be parents to these children.

"It is like they have always been part of our family. It is still fairly early days, but it is like they have always been with us."

A number of events have been held around the country and more are planned.

Of the 170 children who have  attended the first four events, families have been identified for 29 of them, a success rate of 17%.

Bridgett Betts, the Adoption Activity Day programme manager, said: "There have always been more children waiting for adoptive families, than we have adoptive families to parent them.

"And these children are often older children, children with disabilities or sibling groups and BAAF wanted to look at the idea of using adoption parties which have been very popular in the United States."

Sir Martin Narey, the Government's adviser on social care, believes activity days may help with the "scandal" of black children waiting longer for foster parents than white children.

He said: "What they do is bring together potential adopters and potential children and they recognise the fact that there is some chemistry involved in these relationships.

"Children and parents can meet each other and you see if there is something there that might make an adoption successful.

"Their record of getting children adopted who might not otherwise get adopted, is very very good and the success in the adoptions lasting forever is good."

He and BAAF say adoption parties will become more common and bring forward more adopters for a growing number of children who need a home.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Theresa May 'Shocked' By Diabetes Diagnosis

Is Theresa May's Revelation A Ploy?

Updated: 1:27pm UK, Sunday 28 July 2013

By Jon Craig, Chief Political Correspondent

Did Theresa May decide to reveal that she has Type 1 diabetes and needs daily injections because she knew a committee of MPs was due to reveal a deep malaise in migration statistics?

Was the timing of her candid interview about her illness and her weight loss an attempt to deflect attention from the harsh criticism of the immigration figures by the Public Administration Select Committee of MPs?

Or is that a conspiracy theory too far? No doubt the Home Secretary would say so quite emphatically.

Mrs May has always attracted a lot of jealousy from male colleagues as she has risen to near the top in the Conservative Party.

Many resented her "nasty party" jibe when she was party chairman and there were plenty willing her to fail when David Cameron appointed her Home Secretary in 2010.

I recall senior frontbenchers joking at a Tory conference a few years back: "Theresa May, or maybe not. She used to be indecisive, but now she's not so sure."

But since 2010 she has proved to be a steely, unflappable, safe pair of hands at the notoriously perilous Home Office and those Tory MPs who used to mock her are silent now.

Since her adept handling of the Abu Qatada debacle ended successfully with his deportation three weeks ago, she has reinforced her position as a front-runner to become the next Tory leader.

And the latest whispering about her among colleagues was that her weight loss in recent months was a deliberate makeover as part of a leadership bid.

Not so, she has declared in the Mail On Sunday, though she confirms she has lost almost two stone.

She was diagnosed last November and at the moment she needs two injections a day, either in the stomach or the thigh, which can't be any fun.

Leadership bid?

"This was not some Machiavellian plan because there is no leadership bid," she insists.

Not yet, certainly. But one day, I predict, assuming her health is robust enough to allow her to "get on with it", as she puts it.

There will be sympathy for her, even from her detractors and political opponents.

Her disclosure proves that politicians are human, like the rest of us, and not as indestructible as they would sometimes have us believe.

So why didn't she reveal the illness earlier?

I suspect she wanted to get the Abu Qatada mess sorted out first.

Better to reveal her illness when her political stock is high, which it certainly is now - and which makes the immigration statistics fiasco even more frustrating and embarrassing for the Home Secretary.

As Bernard Jenkin, chairman of the Public Administration Committee, rightly says: "Most people would be utterly astonished to learn that there is no attempt to count people as they enter or leave the UK."

I was struck by the comment of Westminster City Council leader Philippa Roe, who gave evidence to the committee and said: "Disney World has better technology to keep track of its visitors than we as a country do."

Labour claims the select committee's report casts into doubt the Home Secretary's claims to have cut net migration.

She would dispute that - as she would the suggestion that the timing of her announcement about her illness had anything to do with the inevitable row over migration figures.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Twitter 'Must Take Rape Threats Seriously'

A feminist who received a barrage of abuse on Twitter after heading a campaign for a woman to appear on British banknotes has called on the social networking site and police to take action.

Caroline Criado-Perez received hostile posts, including threats to rape and kill her, nearly every minute in the 48 hours after she attended the Bank of England's unveiling of the new £10 note, with Jane Austen's image on, on Wednesday.

Ms Criado-Perez told Sky News: "It was really really disturbing to find that something as small as asking for one woman on a banknote could result in such a barrage of threats of sexual violence.

" … It's just not acceptable and more than that it's actually a crime and Twitter needs to take it seriously and the police need to take it seriously."

Her comments come as an online petition in support of her, calling on Twitter to introduce a button to allow speedy reporting of abuse, has attracted more than 25,000 signatures.

The abuse started after Ms Criado-Perez fronted the £10 note campaign

She has also received support from MPs and celebrities.

Ms Criado-Perez added: "This is something that happens specifically to women and it's to make them shut up because there is a certain type of man who doesn't like women speaking and they don't like women speaking back to them.

"I wasn't going to give them what they wanted so I decided to start being very very public about the abuse I was receiving even though it was really unpleasant and obviously it's invited more abuse to a certain extent, but it's also invited so much support which has been absolutely incredible."

A spokesperson for Twitter said: "The ability to report individual tweets for abuse is currently available on Twitter for iPhone and we plan to bring this functionality to other platforms, including Android and the web.

Twitter is under increasing pressure to take a tougher stance

"We don't comment on individual accounts. However, we have rules which people agree to abide by when they sign up to Twitter.

"We will suspend accounts that, once reported to us, are found to be in breach of our rules.

"We encourage users to report an account for violation of the Twitter rules by using one of our report forms: https://support.twitter.com/forms."

The Metropolitan Police is conducting inquiries into the matter after receiving an allegation of abuse but no arrests have yet been made.

Labour's shadow home secretary and shadow minister for women Yvette Cooper has written to the head of Twitter in the UK urging stronger action over the matter, saying she is "deeply concerned by the handling of serious and violent threats of abuse and rape".

The letter says: " ... Despite the scale and seriousness of these threats, the official response from Twitter continues to be extremely weak - simply directing Caroline away from Twitter towards the police, and, belatedly, directing users to abuse reporting forms on Twitter.

" ... I urge you to go further and ensure that Twitter carries out a full review of all its policies on abusive behaviour, threats and crimes, including more help for Twitter users who experience abuse, a clear complaints process and clear action from Twitter to tackle this kind of persecution."

Comedians Chris Addison and Dara O'Briain are among the celebrities to back Ms Criado-Perez with messages on Twitter.

Jane Austen will appear on the front of £10 notes from 2017

Addison wrote: "In case you missed it, here's the link to petition to add a 'Report Abuse' button to Twitter … Least we can do, right?"

And O'Briain posted: "If the ladies leave twitter because of all the dumb, rapey 14 year old boys, then I'm outta here people. Like most grown-up men too, I'd say"

MPs including Stella Creasy and Diane Abbott also voiced their support via the microblogging site.

Ms Criado-Perez, a freelance journalist who co-founded The Women's Room, an online database of female experts, organised a campaign which included a petition signed by more than 35,500 people after the Bank of England decided to replace Elizabeth Fry with Winston Churchill on new £5 notes.

The move would have meant there were no women apart from the Queen on sterling banknotes.

Her campaign was a success, with an announcement by the Bank last week that Pride And Prejudice author Austen will replace Charles Darwin on the new £10 note when it is introduced 2017.

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More

Michael Cope Charged With Linzi Ashton Murder

Michael Cope has been charged with the murder of his ex-girlfriend in Manchester.

The 28-year-old is due to appear at Manchester and Salford magistrates' court on Monday, when he will also face accusations of assault and rape.

He is alleged to have killed 25-year-old Linzi Ashton, who was found dead at her home in Winton on June 29.

A post mortem concluded Ms Ashton died as a result of pressure to the neck and multiple injuries.

In a statement issued shortly after Ms Ashton's death, her family said: "She was the most beautiful, generous, caring person anyone could ever wish to meet. She would never harm anyone and was always there for her children and family."

22.11 | 0 komentar | Read More