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Dick Cheney faces bribery scandal charges in Nigeria

Nigeria's anti-corruption agency is to charge former US Vice-President Dick Cheney over a bribery scandal that involves a former subsidiary of energy firm Halliburton.

Mr Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive before becoming vice-president to George W Bush

The case centres on engineering firm KBR, which admitted bribing officials.

A lawyer for Mr Cheney said allegations he was involved in the scandal were "entirely baseless".

Mr Cheney was Halliburton's chief executive before becoming vice-president to George W Bush in 2001.

A spokesman for the anti-corruption agency, Femi Babafemi, said the charges were likely to be brought against Mr Cheney next week.

Mr Babafemi said the charges were "not unconnected to his role as the chief executive of Halliburton".

KBR last year pleaded guilty to paying $180m (£115m) in bribes to Nigerian officials prior to 2007, when it was a subsidiary of Halliburton. The firm agreed to pay $579m (£372m) in fines related to the case in the US.

But Nigeria, along with France and Switzerland, has conducted its own investigations into the case.

Mr Cheney's lawyer, Terence O'Donnell, said US investigators had "found no suggestion of any impropriety by Dick Cheney in his role of CEO of Halliburton".

"Any suggestion of misconduct on his part, made now, years later, is entirely baseless," Mr O'Donnell said.

Office raid

The bribes concerned the construction of a liquefied natural gas (LNG) plant in southern Nigeria.

KBR and Halliburton have now split, and Halliburton says it is not connected with the case against KBR.

Halliburton denies involvement in the allegations.

It has complained that a raid on its office last week by Economic and Financial Crimes Commission officials was "an affront against justice".

Ten people were detained for questioning and later released.

A prosecutor quoted by the Agence France-Presse news agency said those charged would include former and current leaders of Halliburton and officials from firms in a consortium involved in the LNG plant.

Nigeria is a member of the oil cartel Opec and is one of the world's biggest oil exporters.

Related stories Nigeria oil sabotage 'increasing' 15 AUGUST 2010, AFRICA Are Africa's commodities an economic blessing? 22 JULY 2010, BUSINESS Nigeria country profile 30 NOVEMBER 2010, COUNTRY PROFILES Oil firms questioned in Nigeria 30 NOVEMBER 2010, AFRICA The day oil was discovered in Nigeria 17 MARCH 2009, AFRICA Halliburton profits defy BP spill 19 JULY 2010, BUSINESS Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

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A man is found guilty of murdering his wife, who had her hand severed by a machete after she began divorce

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Husband guilty of Geeta Aulakh murder

Geeta Aulakh died in November 2009 after being attacked in west London

A man has been found guilty of murdering his wife after she began divorce proceedings.

Mother-of-two Geeta Aulakh, 28, had her hand severed with a machete during the attack in Greenford, west London, in 2009.

Harpreet Aulakh, 32, of Greenford, ordered the murder.

Sher Singh, 19, of Southall, west London, and Jaswant Dhillon, 30, of Ilford, east London, were also found guilty of murder at the Old Bailey.

Savage and determined

Aftab Jafferjee QC, prosecuting, said behind the "savage and determined" attack was Aulakh's "chilling" reaction to his wife's desire to leave him.

"Geeta Aulakh was in the process of divorcing him and that would not be tolerated," he said.

"No one else in the world could possibly have wished this utterly innocent and hard-working woman and mother any harm."

Aulakh, described by Mr Jafferjee as "smug and utterly unrepentant", claimed in court his wife was his "first love" and he did not kill her.

Captured on CCTV

But the court was told Aulakh had ordered the murder after his wife plucked up the courage to ask for a divorce following years of abuse and harassment by him.

He was wrongly convinced that she was having an affair with another man.

He had thought he was in the clear because he made sure he was captured on CCTV in a pub at the time of the murder.

In more CCTV footage shown to the court, Aulakh could be seen buying the machete in a store just days before the murder.

Jurors are still considering the case of Harpreet Singh, 20, of Slough, Berkshire, and were sent home to continue deliberations on Friday.

Mr Singh denies murder. Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

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Arsenic-loving bacteria may help in hunt for alien life

By Jason Palmer

The bacteria slowly incorporated arsenic into their innermost workings

The first organism able to substitute one of the six chemical elements crucial to life has been found.

The bacterium, found in a California lake, uses the usually poisonous element arsenic in place of phosphorus.

The find, described in Science, gives weight to the long-standing idea that life on other planets may have a radically different chemical makeup.

It also has implications for the way life arose on Earth - and how many times it may have done so.

The "extremophile" bacteria were found in a briny lake in eastern California in the US.

While bacteria have been found in inhospitable environments and can consume what other life finds poisonous, this bacterial strain has actually taken arsenic on board in its cellular machinery.

Until now, the idea has been that life on Earth must be composed of at least the six elements carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen, sulphur and phosphorus - no example had ever been found that violates this golden rule of biochemistry.

The bacteria were found as part of a hunt for life forms radically different from those we know.

"At the moment we have no idea if life is just a freak, bizarre accident which is confined to Earth or whether it is a natural part of a fundamentally biofriendly universe in which life pops up wherever there are Earth-like conditions," explained Paul Davies, the Arizona State University and Nasa Astrobiology Institute researcher who co-authored the research.

"Although it is fashionable to support the latter view, we have zero evidence in favour of it," he told BBC News.

"If that is the case then life should've started many times on Earth - so perhaps there's a 'shadow biosphere' all around us and we've overlooked it because it doesn't look terribly remarkable."

As unexpected

Proof of that idea could come in the form of organisms on Earth that break the "golden rules" of biochemistry - in effect, finding life that evolved separately from our own lineage.

Study lead author Felisa Wolfe-Simon and her colleagues Professor Davies and Ariel Anbar of Arizona State University initially suggested in a paper an alternative scheme to life as we know it.

Their idea was that there might be life in which the normally poisonous element arsenic (in particular as chemical groups known as arsenates) could work in place of phosphorus and phosphates.

Putting it to the test, the three authors teamed up with a number of collaborators and began to study the bacteria that live in Mono Lake in California, home to arsenic-rich waters.

The researchers began to grow the bacteria in a laboratory on a diet of increasing levels of arsenic, finding to their surprise that the microbes eventually fully took up the element, even incorporating it into the phosphate groups that cling to the bacteria's DNA.

Notably, the research found that the bacteria thrived best in a phosphorus environment.

That probably means that the bacteria, while a striking first for science, are not a sign of a "second genesis" of life on Earth, adapted specifically to work best with arsenic in place of phosphorus.

'Weird branch'

However, Professor Davies said, the fact that an organism that breaks such a perceived cardinal rule of life makes it is a promising step forward.

"This is just a weird branch on the known tree of life," said Professor Davies. "We're interested ultimately in finding a different tree of life... that will be the thing that will have massive implications in the search for life in the Universe.

"The take-home message is: who knows what else is there? We've only scratched the surface of the microbial realm."

John Elliott, a Leeds Metropolitan University researcher who is a veteran of the UK's search for extraterestrial life, called the find a "major discovery".

The bacteria were found in the salty Mono Lake

"It starts to show life can survive outside the traditional truths and universals that we thought you have to use... this is knocking one brick out of that wall," he said.

"The general consensus is that this really could still be an evolutionary adapatation rather than a second genesis. But it's early days, within about the first year of this project; it's certainly one to think on and keep looking for that second genesis, because you've almost immediately found an example of something that's new."

Simon Conway Morris of the University of Cambridge agreed that, whatever its implications for extraterrestrial life, the find was significant for what we understand about life on Earth.

"The bacteria is effectively painted by the investigators into an 'arsenic corner', so what it certainly shows is the astonishing and perhaps under-appreciated versatility of life," he told BBC News.

"It opens some really exciting prospects as to both un-appreciated metabolic versatility... and prompting the questions as to the possible element inventory of remote Earth-like planets".

Related stories Alien life 'may exist among us' 16 FEBRUARY 2009, SCI/TECH Arsenic-munching bacteria found 14 AUGUST 2008, SCI/TECH Aliens 'may be thinking machines' 22 AUGUST 2010, SCIENCE & ENVIRONMENT Microbes 'to tackle mine waste' 06 APRIL 2005, WALES Rock bugs resist polar extremes 22 SEPTEMBER 2004, SCI/TECH Extreme bugs found in slag dump 19 NOVEMBER 2003, SCI/TECH Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

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A man who murdered his girlfriend's 15-month-old son after months of filming himself abusing the little boy has been jailed for life.

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Mobile phone abuse man Darren Newton murdered baby boy

A man who murdered his girlfriend's 15-month-old son after months of filming himself abusing the little boy has been jailed for life.

Newton slapped Charlie 13 times on the head and filmed him screaming

Darren Newton, of Earby in Lancashire, had denied killing Charlie Hunt but admitted 12 counts of cruelty. The baby died of head injuries in November 2009.

The prosecution at Manchester Crown Court said Newton, 32, took videos on his phone for "pleasure".

He must serve a minimum term of 24 years before applying for parole.

The jury took 40 minutes to find the factory worker guilty of murder and one count of child cruelty. They cleared him of another charge of child cruelty.

Newton named the video clips "crying, no toys in pen, ahhhh", "squeezing toe in cot", "two minutes of pain" and "shivering no water".

The latter was taken on a November night when Charlie was naked in an empty bath.

'Futile death'

In one graphic clip, titled "Happy slap", which was filmed two weeks before Charlie died, Newton was seen to slap the child 13 times on the head as he screamed and cried.

Jailing him, Justice Stephen Irwin ordered that the video clips be preserved so the parole board could watch them before he is eventually considered for release.

He told him: "It was spiteful and cruel behaviour. It was also inexplicable to any normal way of thinking.

Why did he kill my baby? Parents speak about their turmoil

"It was a series of repeated acts of cruelty for no obvious motive other than the wish to be cruel.

"Anyone who watches the video clips of some of what you did - and I'm convinced you recorded only some of what you did - will genuinely struggle to understand why you came to do this.

"Eventually you killed him. It was a futile and wasteful death of an innocent toddler."

The boy's parents described Newton as "evil" and a "monster".

On 19 November last year, he finished his shift at a local factory and went to look after Charlie.

Three hours later the little boy was dead after a final assault from Newton.

This time he did not capture the attack on film, but doctors at Airedale Hospital, West Yorkshire, noticed bruises on his right eyelid, right cheek and right big toe.

A post-mortem examination found the repeated slaps to Charlie's head had caused extensive bleeding to his retina and brain, swelling to the brain and deep bruising to the top of the head.

There was also an area of "dead" brain tissue.

Charlie's mother had split with the boy's father and met Newton in early 2009, after moving in next door to him in Earby where he lived with his parents.

She thought Newton, who has no previous convictions, was a quiet, caring and loving man, good with Charlie though "protective" over his mobile phone.

Replaying the clips

Newton began to abuse Charlie in June last year, gradually hitting him harder and harder, until his death six months later.

He was arrested for murder, his phone was seized and examined by detectives who found the clips.

The court heard how the defendant enjoyed keeping and replaying the clips to himself.

Outside court, Det Ch Insp Andy Murphy said: "This was a truly horrific and devastating crime committed by a man who has shown little or no remorse for his actions or even offered any sort of explanation for what he has done.

"Darren Newton is clearly a violent and controlling man.

"Charlie's family have been left distraught by their loss and our thoughts remain with them at this difficult time."

Related stories 'If I'd known, I'd have killed him' 02 DECEMBER 2010, LANCASHIRE Jury shown baby attack phone clip 17 NOVEMBER 2010, LANCASHIRE Partner denies murdering baby boy 06 JULY 2010, LANCASHIRE Man charged with murdering baby 16 DECEMBER 2009, LANCASHIRE Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

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Israel forest fire kills dozens near Haifa

Continue reading the main story Related stories In pictures: Deadly fire in Israel

Firefighters battled the blaze through the night

About 40 people have died in what is thought to be Israel's largest ever forest fire, police have said.

Many of the victims were prison guards travelling on a bus which was caught in the inferno in the Carmel Mountains near the northern city of Haifa.

Thousands of people, including prison inmates, have been evacuated from the area.

Scores more have been injured, the ambulance service said. The cause of the blaze was not immediately known.

Israel's Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who has visited the affected area, said it was an "unprecedented disaster".

The BBC's Jon Donnison in the region says the Israel's emergency services have not had to handle an operation on sunch a scale since the war in Lebanon in 2006.

'Horrific scene'

The Israeli prison service said the bus was carrying guards to help with the evacuation of nearby Damon Prison, which was threatened by the blaze.

More than 13,000 people have had to leave their homes to escape the flames

The men had been raced to the area from central Israel to assist in the rescue, prison service spokesman Yaron Zamir said.

A fire brigade spokesman told the Jerusalem Post that the flames had travelled 1,500m (4,920ft) in less than three minutes.

"The bus had no chance. They tried to escape but were burned alive. It was a horrific scene," the spokesman told the newspaper.

He called it a "difficult, sad and incomprehensible day."

A senior police chief from Haifa who was also in the area was reported to have been critically injured.

There were no reported injuries among prison inmates.

"We are harnessing all the forces of the state to deal with this disaster and rescue those who are injured and to stop the fire," Mr Netanyahu said.

He said protecting life was now the priority.

"We don't want any more injuries, any more dead. We suffered a hard blow and we don't want any more dead, not even one."

In a rare request for foreign assistance, Mr Netanyahu called on Italy, Cyprus and Russia to help in tackling the fire.

Greece, which faced its own disastrous wildfires in 2007, has sent a team of experts, while US President Barack Obama has also offered assistance.

The UK has dispatched a Royal Air Force helicopter based in Cyprus with firefighting equipment.

A second helicopter can be deployed almost immediately as needed, said a spokeswoman for the British embassy to Israel.

The fire in the northern Carmel region broke out about midday (1000 GMT), and hundreds of firefighters were battling the flames on the ground and from the air amid heavy winds.

Emergency crews from across the country tried to reach the scene, weaving through heavy rush-hour traffic as night fell.

"We're on a road that takes you down Carmel Mountain and everything is burning on both sides," a paramedic supervisor from the ambulance service, Erez Geller, told the BBC.

"It's dark now and this makes it very complicated with the fire. It's a catastrophe because we have so many fatalities.

"We have had several fires in the last 10 to 12 years but nothing like this," Mr Geller said.

Major roads in the area have been closed and parts of Haifa, Israel's third largest city, have been evacuated.

At a ceremony marking the Jewish festival of Hanukkah, Israeli President Shimon Peres praised the firefighters tackling the flames, saying they exemplified "personal and superior bravery"

"We pray for their safety. We pray for the cessation of the fire," he said.

Some 13,000 people have been evacuated from the area.

Israeli media said it was the biggest forest fire in the country's history, with 7,000 acres (2,800 hectares) of land destroyed by Thursday evening.

Israel is currently suffering a period of drought with no significant rain since the spring.

Are you in the area? Have you been affected by the forest fire? Send us your eyewitness accounts using the form below

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Prisoners could make own toilet paper under Iowa plan

Prisoners in the US state of Iowa could soon be making their own toilet paper, in what officials describe as a bid to save taxpayers money.

The move could save the Iowa state prison system up to $100,000 (£64,292) a year

Under a plan, state prisons would buy one-tonne rolls of paper from a mill, then process it into single rolls.

Prison official Al Reiter told the Des Moines Register the toilet paper was "not nice and fluffy", but acceptable.

Iowa prisoners already make and sell everything from furniture and clothing to carved wooden toys.

'High-consumption item'

The plan could save up to $100,000 (£64,292) a year, officials told the Des Moines Register.

The director of Iowa Prison Industries, the prisoner work arm of the Iowa correction system, said the state legislature would need to approve the idea when it convenes next month.

"Our challenge is to seek out new things that we can do, and, well, toilet tissue is a high-consumption item," Roger Baysden said.

Mr Reiter, an associate warden at Anamosa Prison, said: "If you looked at this stuff and compared it to the toilet paper that you buy in the store, you would say, 'Boy, this doesn't look very good.'

"It's not nice and fluffy, but the state is saying that this is an acceptable roll of toilet paper."

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Climate Change: Global Warming: Severe weather warning of more snow and sleet for Wales

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Severe weather warning of more snow and sleet for Wales

Snowy conditions can tempt inexperienced walkers to the hills

A severe weather warning has been issued of outbreaks of sleet and snow across much of south Wales.

The Met Office said counties from Carmarthenshire to Monmouthshire can expect worsening weather conditions to spread from the west.

Powys and the south Wales valleys down to Neath Port Talbot can also expect to be hit as temperatures drop, bringing up to 10cm (4in) of snow over hills.

Temperatures again plunged overnight, with -12C (10F) recorded in Powys.

The sleet and snow warning runs from 1400 GMT on Friday to noon on Saturday.

The Met Office has also given a more widespread warning about icy roads from Denbighshire, Flintshire, Gwynedd, and Anglesey in the north to Newport in the south, as well as Pembrokeshire and Ceredigion.

Anglesey has seen the worst of the snow in Wales on Friday

It said: "Widespread icy stretches and snow accumulations on untreated surfaces will lead to dangerous driving conditions.

"The public are advised to take extra care and refer to Traffic Wales for further advice on road conditions."

About two dozens schools, mostly on Anglesey, closed on Friday due to the weather.

The Royal Mail said there had been disruption to services in some "deep rural" areas of Wales.

Cardiff Airport is operating normally, but the 0835 GMT flight to Anglesey was diverted to Hawarden, Flintshire.

The 0835 GMT flight to Newcastle was cancelled.

Dyfed-Powys Police has advised motorists to slow down and take extra caution on the Pont Abraham roundabout, particularly when travelling towards the exit heading towards Swansea.

Lowest temperature

The area has been repeatedly gritted but conditions are still difficult, according to Traffic Wales.

The M4 exit slip road at junction 32, the Coryton interchange, on the A470 northbound also had hazardous driving conditions, it said.

Meanwhile, a Santa run in Cardiff and a 10km run in Torfaen on Sunday have been called off.

More than 1,000 people were registered on the British Heart Foundation (BHF) Cymru Santa jog in Bute Park. It may be rescheduled for January.

The organisers of the Torfaen 10km said they have "reluctantly postponed the event due to health and safety concerns and the poor weather forecast for the weekend".

BBC Wales weather forecaster Behnaz Akhgar said: "As we go into the afternoon, outbreaks of sleet and snow will spread to all parts, and is most likely to fall as rain near the coast."

The lowest temperature in Wales overnight was -12C at Llanwrtyd in Powys.

The lowest temperature recorded in December in Wales is -22.7C (-9F) at Corwen in Denbighshire on 13 December, 1981.

BBC Wales has the latest online weather updates.

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Aid worker Linda Norgrove was killed by US grenade

Soldier who threw grenade "feared for his life"

Aid worker Linda Norgrove was killed by a grenade thrown by a US special forces soldier sent to rescue her, a joint US-UK investigation has found.

Ms Norgrove, 36, from Lewis, Scotland, was taken hostage in Afghanistan in September. She died on 8 October.

It had been thought she was killed by her captors.

Foreign Secretary William Hague said US soldiers had been disciplined for not informing commanders immediately that the grenade was a suspected cause.

He revealed the results of the probe in a statement to the House of Commons.

An investigation team of 10 staff spent almost three weeks in Afghanistan interviewing all involved in the rescue attempt.

They also had access to video footage, reports and post-mortem examination results which showed Ms Norgrove died of "penetrative fragmentation injuries" to her head and chest.

Mr Hague said: "After the investigation it is clear that these injuries were caused by the grenade."

He said US special forces had not immediately notified officers further up the chain of command about the grenade.

Mr Hague said this was in breach of military law and a number of soldiers had been disciplined.

Before making his statement, Mr Hague met with the Scottish aid worker's parents John and Lorna Norgrove.

In a statement, the family said: "We are grateful to have been briefed in detail by the UK and US military officers who led the inquiry into Linda's kidnapping and subsequent failed rescue attempt.

"We would like some time to digest this and the contents of the report before we make any further comment.

"We will issue a statement early next week and would ask the media to respect our privacy in the meantime."

US Central Command said Ms Norgrove's death was a terrible tragedy and those who kidnapped her were ultimately responsible for her death.

Commander Gen James Mattis added: "Ms Norgrove was a remarkably valiant young woman whose courage and compassion were well known to the Afghans she was there to help.

"Her dedication to humanitarian service - and the support of her family - have been an inspiration to us all."

Mr Hague said that with the agreement of the prime minister he had agreed to a rescue bid because of fears that Ms Norgrove's life was in "grave danger".

He said an incredibly difficult operation was launched by highly experienced personnel in extreme mountain terrain at night.

After being dropped off by two helicopters, one of two teams moved along a narrow ledge and came under attack.

Mr Hague said it was believed Ms Norgrove was being held in buildings higher up a mountain.

Gully grenade

He said: "A grenade was thrown by a member of the rescue team who feared for his own life and those of his team towards a gully from where some of the insurgents had emerged.

Linda Norgrove's funeral was held on Lewis in the Western Isles

"When the grenade was thrown no member of the team had seen, or heard, Linda Norgrove."

Following the operation Ms Norgrove's body was found in the gully.

She had been working for American-based aid organisation Development Alternatives Inc (DAI).

Louis Susman, the US ambassador in the UK said: "Our thoughts and prayers are with the family and friends of Linda Norgrove as we continue to mourn her tragic death.

"Her life of service to others was an inspiration to us all.

"Her work with Development Alternatives, Inc., an American company working for the U.S. Agency for International Development, was the latest example from a long career around the world devoted to improving the lives of those less fortunate.

"We admire the strength and devotion of Linda's parents, who have established a foundation in her memory to ensure that the communities and initiatives that she gave her life to support will not be forgotten.

"The Norgrove family is an inspiration to us all as we remember and mourn this extraordinary woman."

Ms Norgrove was kidnapped in the Dewagal valley in the Kunar province on 26 September while looking into the development of agricultural projects in the east of Afghanistan.

Her funeral was held on Lewis in the Western Isles.

An inquest into her death was opened and adjourned by Wiltshire coroner David Ridley in Salisbury in October.

Related stories Kidnap fears of Norgrove parents 29 OCTOBER 2010, HIGHLANDS & ISLANDS Aid woman made 'best use of life' 26 OCTOBER 2010, SCOTLAND Upper body wounds killed Norgrove 22 OCTOBER 2010, SCOTLAND Read more at www.bbc.co.uk

 

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