Scuffles outside the presidential palace in Cairo. Photograph: Mahmoud Khaled/AFP/Getty Images
Egyptian protesters demonstrating against Mohamed Morsi's
assumption of sweeping powers have clashed with the president's
supporters in Cairo, as Morsi's deputy predicted a imminent breakthrough
in resolving the crisis over the country's draft constitution.
The US secretary of state, Hillary Clinton, expressed concern about the unrest, urging urgent dialogue between the sides.
Witnesses
said Muslim Brotherhood supporters stormed a sit-in by about 300
opponents of Morsi outside the presidential palace, beating participants
and destroying tents. Rocks were thrown and people fought with sticks.
The
Nobel laureate Mohamed ElBaradei, who helped form the National
Salvation Front coalition to co-ordinate opposition to the president's
declaration, accused Morsi's supporters of a "vicious attack" on peaceful protesters, who he said were afforded no protection by police.
He said that the president should protect protesters to preserve "what remains of his legitimacy".
It was ElBaradei's Constitution party that had announced the sit-in
outside the palace, and another mass rally is planned for Friday. The
Brotherhood's political arm, the Freedom of Justice party, had called on
its Facebook page for a counter-protest in response to the sit-in.
It was the second successive day of clashes outside the palace. On Tuesday security forces fired teargas to disperse protesters.
The
vice-president, Mahmoud Mekky, said a referendum on the draft
constitution would go ahead on 15 December, despite opponents claiming
Morsi was attempting to rush the document through.
"I am
completely confident that if not in the coming hours, in the next few
days we will reach a breakthrough in the crisis and consensus," he said.
He denied the president's office was a party to any street violence.
Clinton
said the unrest showed that dialogue between the two sides was
"urgently needed". She called for a constitutional process that was
"open, transparent and fair and does not unduly favour one group over
any other".
A wounded protester
outside the presidential palace in Cairo after a clash between
supporters and opponents of President Morsi. Photograph: Mostafa
Elshemy/AP
Egypt has been rocked by further clashes between supporters of the Muslim Brotherhood-led government of Mohamed Morsi and opposition activists.
Four
people were reported to have been killed and more than 300 people
injured in Cairo during the violence which centred on the district
around the presidential palace. The interior ministry said at least 32
people had been arrested and three police vehicles destroyed.
In
the city of Ismailia, east of Cairo, protesters set alight the
headquarters of Morsi's Freedom and Justice party which is dominated by
the Brotherhood.
Mohamed ElBaradei, a leading opposition advocate
of reform, accused Morsi's supporters of a "vicious and deliberate"
attack against peaceful demonstrators.
"We hold President Morsi and his government completely responsible for the violence that is happening in Egypt today," he said.
"A
regime that is not able to protect its people and is siding with his
own sect, [and] thugs is a regime that lost its legitimacy and is
leading Egypt into violence and bloodshed."
The opposition
National Salvation Front, which ElBaradei is part of, is demanding Morsi
rescind decrees giving him near unrestricted powers and shelve a
disputed draft constitution that his Muslim Brotherhood allies passed
last week.
The opposition says dialogue on Egypt's future can only
begin once the decree has been rescinded. The decrees grant Morsi
judicial immunity in all decisions and extended this legal protection to
the constitutional assembly and the upper house of parliament, the
shura council. Morsi has always insisted that it is a temporary measure
that will automatically rescind when a constitution is passed.
The
clashes in Cairo began after the vice-president, Mahmoud Mekki, spoke
to the press to say that there would be no backing down by Morsi. But in
a conciliatory gesture he added that amendments to disputed articles in
the draft constitution could be agreed with the opposition.
A
written agreement could then be submitted to the next parliament, to be
elected after a referendum on the constitution on 15 December, he said.
Shortly
after, the president's supporters moved against the opposition
activists camped outside the presidential palace and the clashes, which
lasted late into the night began. Witnesses said the two sides threw
petrol bombs and stones at each other.
Mina Nader, an anti-Morsi
protester, said: "The Brotherhood must be dragged in the streets like
dogs, there is no salvation without blood after what they have done.
Morsi must fall." Other protesters were heard chanting: "The people want
the fall of the regime." Morsi's supporters shouted back: "Defending
Morsi is defending Islam."
Earlier in the day three members of
Morsi's advisory team resigned over the crisis. Seif Abdel Fattah, Ayman
al-Sayyad and Amr al-Leithy all tendered their resignations, bringing
to six the number of presidential staff who have quit in the wake of a
decree that has triggered countrywide violence.
The previously
announced resignations included a Christian and a woman. They were part
of a presidential staff assembled by Morsi in an effort to build an
inclusive administration. State institutions, with the partial exception
of the judiciary, have mostly fallen in behind Morsi.
The army,
the muscle behind all previous Egyptian presidents in the republic's
six-decade history, has gone back to barracks, having apparently lost
its appetite to intervene in politics.
The US, worried about the
stability of a state that has a peace deal with Israel and to which it
gives $1.3bn in military aid each year, called for dialogue. The US
secretary of state, Hillary Clinton said dialogue was urgently needed on
the new constitution, which should "respect the rights of all
citizens". Clinton and Morsi worked together last month to broker a
truce between Israel and Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
William Hague,
the foreign secretary, called for restraint on all sides. He said
Egypt's authorities had to make progress on the transition in an
"inclusive manner" and urged dialogue. "We call on the Egyptian
authorities to make progress on transition in an inclusive manner, which
allows for a constructive exchange of views.
"We urge all parties to resolve their differences through a process of dialogue which allows all voices to be heard.
A Egyptian woman prays
in front of members of the security forces as they lay out barbed wire
along streets leading to the presidential palace. Photograph: AFP/Getty
Egyptian security forces have clashed with opponents of Mohamed Morsi outside the presidential palace in Cairo to protest against his assumption of new powers.
The
march came amid rising anger over decrees Morsi has passed that give
him sweeping powers. Opponents say the drafting of a new constitution
has been rushed and is a move towards dictatorial rule. Morsi has called
for a referendum on the draft constitution on 15 December.
Marchers
chanted that "the people want the downfall of the regime", and held
placards bearing slogans of "no to the constitution".
One witness
said he had seen Morsi's convoy leave the palace from a side gate during
the clashes. He said: "I was part of the Abbasiya march. When the
fighting started, a lot of teargas was fired and we were pushed back.
The babrbed wire barricade was opened, a convoy of cars left the palace,
and then we were allowed to come closer. After that, we entered the
street."
The near-daily protests represent Egypt's worst political crisis since Hosni Mubarak, was ousted, nearly two years ago. Since then, the country has been divided into two, with Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood alongside ultraconservative Salafi Islamists on one side, and youth groups and more liberal organisations on the other.
Security
forces cordoned the palace off with barbed wire, at which most
protesters stopped to chant slogans against Morsi and the Muslim
Brotherhood.
On a cordoned-off side street, security forces clashed with a section of the protesters and fired teargas to disperse them.
The
security forces then abruptly withdrew, leaving an empty police truck
that protesters climbed up on to as people filled the street. Members of
the forces that were left behind were escorted away before they could
be set upon.
Other protesters milled about in the gardens surrounding the gates of the presidential palace.
A
few hundred protesters also gathered near Morsi's house, in a suburb
east of Cairo, chanting slogans against his decree and against the
Muslim Brotherhood, from which he emerged to win the presidential
election in June.
As the crisis from Morsi's decree and the
subsequent furore over the referendum continues, further schisms were
apparent within the judiciary when the judges of the state council
refused to supervise the referendum. Their announcement came a day after
the judiciary's highest body, the state judicial council, announced
that Egypt's judges would do so.
'Catalonia: a new
European state' was the slogan for the march. But statehood remains a
long way off, the EU warns. Photograph: Lluis Gene/AFP/Getty Images
Barcelona was a sea of red and yellow Catalan flags as more than
1.5 million people brought the city to a standstill on Tuesday at a
mass rally called to demand independence for the Spanish region.
The
planned route was already filled with demonstrators before the march
began, in what marked a watershed for the hitherto marginal independence
movement.
At least one train and more than 1,000 coaches had been chartered to bring supporters to the march.
Long-standing resentment about what Catalans see as their unfairly high contribution to central government has been inflamed by Spain's economic woes. Polls published on Tuesday show support for independence running at 46.4%, twice as high as in 2008, when the financial crisis began.
The
upsurge in support for secession has caught Catalonia's nationalist CiU
government on the hop. CiU, which has governed Catalonia for 25 of the
33 years since democracy was restored, has never aspired to
independence, preferring to wring more autonomy out of minority
governments in Madrid.
Artur Mas, the Catalan president, initially
said he had no intention of joining the march but later said he would
attend in a personal capacity. Carme Forcadell, a spokeswoman for the
group behind the march, said: "Anyone who attends should understand that
they will be considered pro-independence."
Catalan calls for independence have increased sharply since the
financial crisis exploded in 2008, hitting Spain particularly hard
Speaking on television on the eve of the rally, Mariano Rajoy, the
Spanish prime minister, dismissed the march, saying: "This isn't a
moment for big gestures like this. What we need to do is create jobs."
Carles
Brugueras, a documentary film-maker said he was not a nationalist but
favoured independence from a strictly economic perspective. "For a long
time, Catalonia has been generating a lot of resources for Spain but the
fiscal balance has been very unfair," he said.
Laura Nuñez, a law
student and also a new convert to independence, said she believed it
would boost the Catalan economy. "We're economically the most powerful
part of Spain, because of industry and tourism, and we contribute more
than other Spanish regions," she said. "We shouldn't be subject to this
internal discrimination."
The slogan for the march was "Catalonia: a new European state". But a European Union
spokesman in Brussels pointed out that, were Catalonia to secede from
Spain, it would have to leave the EU and could rejoin only if it met the
economic criteria and if other member states voted unanimously in
favour of its membership.
Whether Catalonia would be viable as an
independent state is an open question. Much of Catalonia's wealth comes
from tourism, but there are major industries in the region, as well as a
significant multinational presence. Whether these firms would want to
remain in a small state that was not part of Spain is unclear.
If
the region continues to pursue independence, boycotts could follow,
analysts warn. There was a damaging cava boycott in 2005, when Catalonia
refused to back Madrid's bid for the 2012 Olympics.
The economist
Xavier Cuadras warned: "A large-scale boycott could cause a 40% drop in
exports of consumer goods to Spain, and a sustained boycott could cost
Catalonia 4% of its GDP." Spain accounts for 54% of the region's
exports.
In sport, Catalans make much of the fact that half the
victorious Spanish football team are Catalans. But it is doubtful
whether many of those players would play for a small country that was
unlikely to win anything at an international level. The same goes for
the mighty Barcelona football club: if Catalonia were independent, it
would be reduced to playing in a semi-professional league.
And not
all Catalans are pro-independence. Some 40% of Catalans are Spanish
immigrants – or the children of those immigrants – who fled poverty in
rural Spain after the civil war and retain strong family and emotional
ties with Spain. Then there are a further 1 million people (14% of the
population) who are from other EU states, Latin America, Morocco,
Pakistan and China. Very few of these, were they given the chance to
vote, would back independence.
There is considerable antipathy in
Spain towards the Catalans, who are widely perceived as rich, spoilt,
constantly complaining and forever playing the victim. Catalans are,
understandably, hurt by this. "The rise in the pro-independence movement
is directly related to the Spanish state's inability to include
Catalonia," said Miquel Berga, professor of English literature at the
Universitat Pompeu Fabra. "It seems to me that only a profound change in
constitutional arrangements can address the prevailing sense of
dissatisfaction."
Joan Fumaz, a chef, said: "If we were
independent, we wouldn't have to go on justifying ourselves. I'm
Catalan. It would be nice not to have to explain that to people all the
time."
Footage from CCTV cameras, broadcasters, protesters and bystanders
retraces the movements of PC Simon Harwood and Ian Tomlinson on 1 April
2009 Link to this video
A policeman has been acquitted of killing Ian Tomlinson during G20 protests in London by striking the 47-year-old bystander with a baton and pushing him to the ground as he walked away from police lines.
The
jury at Southwark crown court on Thursday cleared PC Simon Harwood, 45,
a member of the Metropolitan police's elite public order unit, the
Territorial Support Group, of manslaughter following one of the most
high-profile cases of alleged police misconduct in recent years.
Harwood
told the court that while in retrospect he "got it wrong" in seeing
Tomlinson as a potentially threatening obstruction as police cleared a
pedestrian passageway in the City on the evening of 1 April 2009, his
actions were justifiable within the context of the widespread disorder
of that day.
Speaking outside the court, the Tomlinson family said: "It's not the end, we are not giving up for justice for Ian." They said they would now pursue a civil case.
The
jury's verdict, after four days of deliberations, brings about
something of a legal contradiction: 14 months ago another jury, at the
inquest into Tomlinson's death, ruled that he was unlawfully killed by Harwood. The inquest ruling was made on the same standard of proof as a criminal trial, that is, beyond reasonable doubt.
Neither
jury heard details of Harwood's prior disciplinary record, which can
only be reported now. This includes how he quit the Met on health
grounds in 2001 shortly before a planned disciplinary hearing into
claims he illegally tried to arrest a driver after a road rage incident
while off duty, altering his notes to retrospectively justify the
actions. Harwood was nonetheless able to join another force, Surrey,
before returning to serve with the Met in 2005.
He allegedly punched, throttled, kneed or threatened other suspects while in uniform in other alleged incidents.
PC Simon Harwood leaves court
The verdict will come as a huge disappointment to Tomlinson's
family, following a saga that began when the father of four, who was
stepfather to his wife's five other children, collapsed as he tried to
make his way home through police lines. It followed a day of protests
connected to the meeting in London of leaders from the G20 group of
nations. He died shortly afterwards.
Tomlinson had been an
alcoholic for some years and was living in a homeless hostel. It was
initially presumed he died from natural causes, a conclusion supported
by an initial postmortem examination, which gave the cause as heart
failure.
But six days later the Guardian published video footage,
shot by an American in London on business, which showed a policeman in
riot gear striking Tomlinson on the leg with a baton before shoving him
violently to the pavement, minutes before his final collapse.
Three
pathologists involved in two further postmortem examinations said
Tomlinson instead died from internal bleeding associated with his liver
and consistent with being pushed to the ground. While the officer was
soon identified as Harwood, prosecutors initially decided against
charging him, changing their mind only after the inquest verdict.
The
trial hinged on two key questions: firstly, whether Harwood's actions
amounted to a criminal assault; then, whether they directly led to
Tomlinson's death.
The first issue was simple, the prosecution argued: Harwood carried out "a gratuitous act of aggression", Mark Dennis QC told the jury.
Harwood had recklessly abandoned the police van he was designated to
drive to arrest a man seen writing graffiti on another vehicle.
Humiliated when the man wriggled free, he opted to join a line of other
officers clearing a pedestrian passageway by the Royal Exchange complex.
But in his evidence Harwood said
he had been separated from his van by a threatening crowd before
following orders to clear the passage. He insisted his actions towards
Tomlinson were correct at the time, a version of events supported by two
other officers at the scene called as defence witnesses.
The issue of cause of death saw the testimony of the first pathologist, Dr Freddy Patel,
who reasserted his belief that Tomlinson died from heart failure,
placed against that of Dr Nat Cary, who told the court that even a
relatively small amount of internal bleeding would have caused death.
The jury was not told that Patel has twice been suspended by medical authorities for mistakes in other postmortem examinations and is no longer on the Home Office's register of approved pathologists.
No police officer has been convicted for manslaughter for a crime committed while on duty since 1986.
Vince Cable said the public 'can’t
understand why people are thrown into jail for petty theft and these
guys just walk away'. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Vince Cable has called for a criminal investigation into the conduct of the Barclays bankers responsible for rigging key interest rates.
The
business secretary said the public would not understand why people
were jailed for petty theft while bankers were getting off, "having
perpetrated what looks like conspiracy".
And he said he agreed
with Lord Blair, the former Metropolitan police commissioner, who said
there appeared to be evidence that Barclays employees were engaged in
conspiracy to defraud.
In an interview with Sky's Dermot Murnaghan, Blair said: "There have to be police inquiries into this.
"Anybody,
the youngest detective, would say this is conspiracy to defraud. It can
mean nothing else. And therefore someone has to launch a criminal
inquiry into this behaviour."
Speaking on the same programme,
Cable said "his instincts" were to agree with Blair, and that members
of the public would expect a criminal investigation too.
"They
just can't understand why people are thrown into jail for petty theft
and these guys just walk away having perpetrated what looks like
conspiracy," Cable said.
Barclays has been fined £290m in the UK
and the US for its "serious, widespread" role in manipulating two City
interest rates used to determine the cost of borrowing. Investigations
into other banks are continuing.
In a statement to the Commons on
Thursday, the chancellor, George Osborne, played down the prospects of
any of those involved facing criminal prosecution because rigging Libor
[the London interbank offered rate] is not a criminal offence under the
City's regulatory regime.
As well as expressing his personal
support for a criminal investigation, Cable said he had been told that
the Serious Fraud Office was having "a fresh look" at the evidence
produced by the Financial Services Authority (FSA) investigation into
Barclays.
He also said there was "an awful lot of cleaning up still be be done" in the City.
In
a separate interview on Sunday, on the BBC's The Andrew Marr Show, Lord
Turner, the chairman of the FSA, said regulation needed to be
tightened "considerably" in this field.
"If you go back over 20
years, we started with, in these sort of areas, a very light-touch,
self-regulatory approach. And slowly over the last 15 years or so we
have toughened our approach," Turner said.
"The 1997 act was a
toughening. Further steps were made a few years ago to give us the
ability to bring criminal charges in particular areas of market abuse.
But they did not cover the Libor market.
"I think we now have to
look further and see whether we should strengthen these powers
considerably on top of what we have now got at the moment."
Osborne
told MPs last week the government would consider creating new criminal
sanctions "for the directors of failed banks where there is proven
criminal negligence".
Turner said he also understood the
government would accept an FSA proposal saying that in future, if a bank
fails, there should be a presumption against the directors being
allowed to carry on working in the industry again.
President Saleh recently returned from
Saudi Arabia, where he was being treated following an assassination
attempt. Photograph: EPA
Twelve people were shot dead and dozens wounded on Saturday when
security forces and plain-clothed government loyalists launched a
coordinated attack opening fire on a mass rally in the Yemeni capital of
Sana'a, calling for President Ali Abdullah Saleh's resignation.
The
crackdown has dampened hopes for a negotiated political solution to the
nine-month uprising and heightened fears that the impoverished country
may be heading towards civil war.
In an effort to pile further
pressure on their autocratic ruler, who recently returned from Saudi
Arabia after receiving treatment for injuries sustained in an
assassination attempt, protesters launched an escalation campaign,
calling for a mass demonstration on Saturday.
At midday, a crowd of 100,000 men, women and children stormed out of the tented protest
encampment, dubbed Change Square, and into the city. As they marched
deeper into the dusty streets of Sana'a, a volley of bullets fired by
snipers stationed in nearby buildings rained down on the crowd. As the
shooting intensified, young men appeared on battered motorbikes and
began ferrying the wounded away from the fighting.
A few blocks
away, soldiers could be seen distributing steel batons to mobs of
plain-clothed government loyalists who closed in and began hurling rocks
at the demonstrators.
But the violence seemed only to embolden
the protesters, who pressed on and marched into the heart of the city.
Young men ripped open their shirts, bearing their chests at the security
forces, as the crowd roared: "Oh Ali Saleh, the courts are waiting for
you."
Blood trickled down the walls of a nearby
mosque-turned-field-hospital in Change Square where a group of doctors
and medical students struggled to find the floor-space, let alone the
medical supplies, for the dozens of wounded being brought in. Mohammed
Al-Qubati, a doctor working in a field hospital, told the Observer that
people were dying because of a "shortage of medical supplies".
In
the corner of the mosque, three brothers wept over the corpse of their
father before kissing his forehead and closing his eyelids. "What did he
do to deserve this brutality?" one of them shouted. "He was marching
peacefully and they shot him in the chest."
As the afternoon wore
on clashes erupted between the republican guard – an elite force head by
Saleh's son and heir-apparent Ahmed – and a division of renegade
soldiers who have sided with the protesters. Black smoke billowed from
the office of Al-Saeeda, one of Yemen's few independent television stations, as the two sides hurled mortars at each others' bases in the north of the capital.
The
Ministry of Defence issued a statement on its website on Saturday
evening saying the Interior Ministry denied the allegation that 10
people were killed today.
Amongst those wounded on Saturday was an Al-Jazeera
Arabic cameraman who was shot in the kneecap. Three cameramen have been
shot dead in the past month, prompting fears that the regime may be
deliberately targeting them.
Saturday's crackdown comes just days
before an expected vote by the UN Security council on a new resolution
calling for Saleh's immediate resignation in return for immunity from
prosecution.
Saleh, who returned to Sana'a on Friday, was
airlifted to Saudi Arabia in June for emergency treatment, after a
booby-trap explosion ripped through the mosque in his presidential
compound. His prolonged stay in Riyadh gave false hopes to some that he
might step down and allow a peaceful transition of power.
Protesters
are hoping to see decisive action from the security council. Many in
the anti-Saleh camp accuse both Riyadh and Washington of supporting
Saleh, who had once been their ally against al-Qaida's
Yemen-based wing. They accuse the west of adopting double standards by
supporting the pro-democracy uprising in Libya but not in Yemen.
"We
ask the west and our neighbours in the Gulf to withdraw their support
for Saleh and his sons in order to stop this blood from spilling," said
Dr Tariq Noman, a surgeon who has given up his job in a private hospital
to treat the wounded.
Meanwhile, the Yemeni government has urged
the UN Security Council to avoid a resolution targeting the embattled
president, calling on it instead to back a political solution to the
country's crisis.
"The government of Yemen that follows closely
the discussions over the situation in Yemen at the Security Council,
stresses that the solution for the crisis does not come through issuing
resolutions," said an unnamed government official, quoted overnight on
Wednesday by Saba state news agency.
Former Ukrainian prime minister Yulia
Tymoshenko and her daughter Yevhenia Carr, left, listen to the verdict
at Tymoshenko's trial. Photograph: Sergey Dolzhenko/EPA
Nearly every day for the past 10 weeks, Yevhenia Carr has packed
a bag for her visit to Kiev's Lukyanivska prison, filling it with fresh
fruit and packaged food, newspapers and magazines. Inside, she visits Ukraine's most famous political prisoner – her mother, Yulia Tymoshenko.
Tymoshenko
has called the cold walls of the 150-year-old prison home since 5
August, when she was detained for disrupting the court in the middle of
her trial on charges of abusing her power while signing a gas deal with
Russia as prime minister in 2009.
Last week, she was found guilty and handed a seven-year sentence, and ordered to pay £120m in damages.
"It's
simply a trial of revenge, a trial to show other opponents 'don't come
out, don't raise your head, don't try to fight with us'," Carr said by
telephone from Kiev, her voice tired and strained.
Carr, 31, sat
dutifully by Tymoshenko's side as the judge read his sentence last week,
exchanging whispers and leaning her head on her mother's shoulder as it
became clear that, despite intense international pressure, the fiery
opposition leader would be put away.
At first, there was hope – President Viktor Yanukovych,
keenly aware that a guilty verdict would damage his desire for closer
ties with the EU, hinted at changes in the criminal code that would set
Tymoshenko free.
Then, two days after the verdict was handed down,
prosecutors opened a second criminal case against Tymoshenko on
accusations of embezzling £250m while president of United Energy Systems
of Ukraine, a gas trading company, in 1997.
"We were shocked," said Carr, who lives in the Ukrainian capital with her British rock singer husband, Sean Carr.
"It just shows they're moving along with their plan of the destruction of political opponents."
Tymoshenko
and her supporters insist Yanukovych orchestrated the campaign against
her to rid Ukraine of one of its most popular politicians, and his chief
political rival. Yanukovych has denied the allegation.
Tymoshenko
remains inside Lukyanivska, which functions mainly as a pre-trial
detention centre. She shares a 15 sq m space with two other women, both
awaiting charges on economic crimes.
There is a small window,
covered with three sets of bars. There is no hot water and the thick
walls of the 19th-century prison keep its interior cold and damp.
Tymoshenko spends her days reading.
"Now she will have more work to do, reading the documents for the new criminal case," said Carr.
Visits are limited to close family members and lawyers, with all other visitor requests denied.
"She used to go for walks in the courtyard, but she cannot move that much now because of the pain," said Carr.
Tymoshenko's
family said the stress of the trial, coupled with poor conditions
inside the jail, had exacerbated the 50-year-old's health issues – a bad
back and stomach problems.
"One week after she was arrested she
started to have symptoms – bruises, haematomas on her skin. We still
don't know what it is," said Carr.
Prison officials have denied Tymoshenko's request to receive a visit from her doctor.
Despite all that, Tymoshenko takes care to keep up her appearance, including what is arguably the world's most famous plait.
"She looks good,she's trying, she does her hair," said Carr. "She doesn't want to upset us, to show her state of mind."
Tymoshenko's
immaculate appearance in the Kiev courtroom last week was only marred
by a couple of inches of root growth, a testament to the time she has
spent imprisoned.
Tymoshenko appears acutely aware of the
political capital she is acquiring. Long a divisive figure, among her
supporters she has managed to cast off the reputation of being Ukraine's
Gas Princess, a title bestowed upon her in the 1990s when she profited
handsomely from the country's chaotic post-Soviet economy.
"She
remains strong," said Carr. "She's ready to go on and fight through
this. It shows she's a real leader, that she's not going to go for any
compromise, for any negotiations with this regime."
Some have compared her plight to that of jailed oil tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky,
who has managed to reshape himself from reviled oligarch to Russian
voice of conscience thanks to two politicised trials and a lengthy jail
sentence.
There is still speculation that Tymoshenko could be
released. Some observers had believed Yanukovych would attempt to reach
some sort of compromise before 20 October, when he is due to fly to
Brussels to finalise the details of a free trade agreement that has been
touted as a key step in Ukraine's long search to solidify relations
with the EU.
The EU has warned Ukraine that it sees the trial as politically motivated and warned relations will have to be reconsidered.
"The president and his team are aimed at removing their political opponents no matter what," said Carr.
"They
don't listen to any messages from the world – they're aimed at
destroying their main political opponent. And it seems they're not going
to stop at anything."
Carr recalls her mother's brief arrest in
February 2001, on charges of document forgery and tax evasion dating to
the mid-1990s. The charges were quickly dropped.
"Ten years ago, she was jailed for exactly the same reason," she said. "It's the same scenario, the same actors.
"I want my mother back home and I don't want her to be part of this political fight all the time.
"Sometimes it comes to a point when I just want her out of it, we just want her to have a normal life.
"But if you remove politics from her life, she would not be able to live. It makes her happy."
Occupy London protest: on the steps of St Paul's cathedral. Source: guardian.co.uk Link to this video
Protests inspired by the Occupy Wall Street movement in New York and the "Indignants" in Spain have spread to cities around the world.
Tens
of thousands went on the march in New York, London, Frankfurt, Madrid,
Rome, Sydney and Hong Kong as organisers aimed to "initiate global
change" against capitalism and austerity measures.
There were
extraordinary scenes in New York where at least 10,000 protesters took
their message from the outpost of Zuccotti Park into the heart of the
city, thronging into Times Square.
Only 36 hours earlier, police
were preparing to evict the protest from Zuccotti Park. On Saturday they
escorted thousands of marchers all day as they made their way uptown
through Manhattan, and looked on as they held a rally at a New York
landmark.
Occupy Wall Street protesters take part in a demonstration at Times Square in New York. Photograph: Eduardo Munoz/Reuters
Dave Bonan, who was at Occupy Wall Street on the first day of the
protest a month ago, said it was "a little surreal" that the protest had
spread. "I didn't expect it to last more than 15 minutes," he said.
"The fact it lasted more than a day inspired people all over the world
to capitalise – no pun intended – on our success."
In Madrid, tens
of thousands of people take a part in a demonstration in Puerta del Sol
square in Madrid, home of the "Indignants" movement, which has been
building through the summer as Spain's economy faltered.
Tens of thousands of people take a part in a demonstration in Puerta
del Sol square in Madrid on Saturday, part of the global movement
against corporate greed. Photograph: Arturo Rodriguez/AP
In London, dusk fell on more than 2,000 protesters assembled in front
of St Paul's Cathedral in London, earlier addressed by the WikiLeaks
founder Julian Assange.
There
was civil unrest in Rome, where police turned teargas and water cannon
on the crowds. Smoke hung over Rome as a small group broke away from the
main demonstration and smashed windows, set cars on fire and assaulted
television news crews. Others burned Italian and EU flags. "People of
Europe: Rise Up!" read one banner in Rome. Fights broke out and bottles
were thrown between demonstrators as some tried to stop the violence.
In
Germany, about 4,000 people marched through the streets of Berlin, with
banners calling for an end to capitalism. Some scuffled with police as
they tried to get near parliamentary buildings. In Frankfurt,
continental Europe's financial capital, some 5,000 people protested in
front of the European Central Bank.
In the Bosnian city of
Sarajevo, marchers carried pictures of Che Guevara and old communist
flags that read "Death to capitalism, freedom to the people".
Another
500 people gathered at a peaceful rally in Stockholm, holding up red
flags and banners that read "We are the 99%" – a reference to the
richest 1% of the world's population who control its assets while
billions live in poverty.
"There are those who say the system is
broke. It's not," trade union activist Bilbo Goransson shouted into a
megaphone. "That's how it was built. It is there to make rich people
richer."
Asian nations, where the fallout from the banking crisis
has been less severe, saw less well attended protests – 100 turned out
in the Philippines.
A group of 100 prominent authors including
Salman Rushdie, Neil Gaiman and Pulitzer prize-winning novelists
Jennifer Egan and Michael Cunningham signed an online petition declaring
their support for "Occupy Wall Street and the Occupy movement around the world".
Police
in London made seven arrests and contained the crowd near St Paul's.
Assange made a dramatic appearance, bursting through the police lines
just after 2.30pm, accompanied by scores of supporters.
To
clapping and some booing, he climbed the cathedral steps to condemn
"greed" and "corruption". In particular he attacked the City of London,
accusing its financiers of money laundering and tax avoidance. "The
banking system in London is the recipient of corrupt money," he said,
adding that WikiLeaks would launch a campaign against financial
institutions.
Assange is on bail as he fights extradition to
Sweden, where he is wanted for questioning over claims of rape and
sexual molestation made by two women.
Police in New York said they
made 70 arrests. These were mostly at two flashpoints: 42 were detained
near Times Square when attempts to disperse a crowd led to confusion;
24 Citibank customers who attempted to close their accounts in protest
were led away for trespass after they opposed an order by the branch
manager for them to leave.
Barbara Quist, 67, was pushed around by
police in Times Square. Quist, who used to work in the pharmaceutical
industry but described herself as unemployed, said the treatment would
not put her off further action. "I'm just another person that's just
been run over by capitalism and greed."
Ethan McGarry, 18, who had
travelled to New York from Boston for the day, said it was "fantastic"
how the occupy movement had spread. "People identify with us, then hey
will find reasons in their own community for action."
Lauren
Zygmont had travelled from the Occupy Denver protest to New York a week
ago ago. "Borders don't matter at all," she said. "Were all human
beings, were all in this together. This is a global movement."
A Libyan revolutionary fighter patrols in downtown Sirte, Libya on Friday 14 October 2011. Photograph: Manu Brabo/AP
When war came to the Libyan coastal city of Sirte, Muammar Gaddafi's birthplace, Fajla Sidi Bey made the sort of choice that poor people have to make in a conflict.
Fajla,
a Malian driver who worked at the Ibn Sana hospital when the besieging
government forces announced their intention to take Sirte in September,
was owed 3,736 Libyan dinars, a small fortune. So while others fled he
stayed in the city with his five children, aged between four months and
nine years old, and his wife and a cousin.
His home was in
District 2, at the heart of the last remaining pocket of pro-Gaddafi
loyalist fighters, still being pounded yesterday by artillery and
anti-aircraft guns. Until Friday that is, when Fajla and his family
slipped out.
I found them sitting by a wall near the field
hospital outside the city, uncertain what to do or where to go. "I left
the hospital on 15 September, the day the fighting started," he
explained. "I haven't been back since. I came to Libya
13 years ago to earn money. For 10 of those, I worked as a tailor. For
the last three years, I worked in the hospital." He showed his pass from
Ibn Sana. It described him as a driver and a tailor.
"The only
time I went out of my house was to search for food for my children. I
had a car from the hospital. After a while, they would not let me get
food from the shops. All the shops were closed. They said: 'Bring your
family to the security building.' Outside was a place where you could
buy food.
"We were in my house with another Malian family of three
and hid in the basement. Most days I slept and hid in my house. I did
not know what was happening outside.
'We were lucky. Nothing
happened to our house. All the other houses around ours were hit by
shells and missiles. Most of the houses were empty. They fired during
the day, but not after seven at night. Then it was quieter.
"There
was water, but we had no electricity. I was not frightened for myself
but for my children and my family. Every day we talked about escaping.
My life was in the hands of God.
"Then three days ago the other
family went and did not return. So on Friday, before seven in the
morning, I went out of the house and walked 100 metres. No one fired at
me, so I went back for the family and we walked out with the clothes
that we were wearing. Then some government fighters picked us up and
took us here.
"I would have left Libya in February," he added sadly. "But I needed the money."
Details
of conditions for civilians and pro-Gaddafi troops in the last pocket
held by Gaddafi fighters in Sirte's District 2, a coastal strip no wider
than 700 metres and often narrower, and perhaps a kilometre and a half
in length, are difficult to come by.
The pocket centred on this
neigbourhood is defined by a handful of landmarks. At its western end
lies Sirte's television station, with its pair of ruined satellite
dishes. It runs east through houses and expansive villas to an open area
of sand skirted by the grey hulks of unfinished buildings before
reaching the "high rises" – long feared by the government fighters'
commanders.
The high rises are really not so high, a cluster of
two dozen buildings in a district backing on to the sea, apartments and
shops and offices, an area of diminished sovereignty that runs out just
short of a tall aerial.
It is difficult to know how many civilians
have been trapped, although Médecins Sans Frontières suggested on
Friday that as many as 10,000 are still suffering what Fajla and his
family went through. In places it has been flooded thigh-deep with a
rank mixture of water and sewage that has settled in the dips below a
low, narrow ridge that runs just above the coastal road.
The
discovery of four groups of bodies numbering between 30 and 42, shot
with their hands tied, has hinted darkly at executions in the area
controlled by Gaddafi forces. At first it was believed they were
captured government fighters. Now it appears they were civilians of
Sirte.
"They are not from the katiba [government
militias]," said Dr Mohammed Abdel Rauf, whom I met near the pocket's
southern front line. "The fighters came to see if the dead were among
their missing and did not recognise the bodies. They had been divided
into groups. There was a group who were dark-skinned and another group
with lighter skin. Some had green army jackets. They were aged between
18 and 35-40, although I did not look at their faces.
"There was a
cousin of one of the men who I chatted with." Rauf relayed the story of
the cousin's dead relative, how the Gaddafi troops took him when they
couldn't find his father and told the man's mother she could have her
son if the father surrendered himself. When he did not surrender, they
killed the son. He supplied his own theory for the other dead. "I think
they were all citizens of Sirte who refused to fight."
Then there
are snatches to be pieced together. First, there are clues to the strong
loyalties of those still inside. In a recently captured house a child's
homework project is found, a large sheet of yellow paper covered with
pictures of Gaddafi fighters routing the "rats of the revolution". A
government fighter saw the picture and flew into a rage, grabbing the
sheet and tearing it into pieces.
And in house after house there
are snapshots or stylised pictures of Gaddafi and his family. Inside one
of the government ambulances I found a group of doctors leafing through
a pile of photographs an inch thick that somebody had collected:
Gaddafi in close-up, Gaddafi sitting in a group, Gaddafi greeting
friends – all signs of a cult of personality that permeated much of
Sirte. Explaining, perhaps, its bitter and intransigent resistance even
to the very end.
Then there are clues to the morale of those
inside the pocket. Fighters who have captured those left inside,
fighting to the end, say it is every man for himself within the pocket.
That it is chaos.
Certainly soldiers captured in the last few days
look haunted and terrified, bruised and crying from beatings they have
received. Others have been thin and emaciated.
What is certain is
the damage that has been wrought on District 2 by the relentless fire
levelled at it over the past three days. On Dubai Street, where the road
curves round into a narrow canyon of three-storey and four-storey
buildings, flooded at road level, the government fighters' southern
advance has been held up, and it is possible to glimpse the damage from a
front line sectored by machine-gun fire.
Shells have blasted
through walls and windows. Where walls have not been scorched, they have
been smashed through by anti-aircraft guns fired from pick-up trucks or
punctured by .50-calibre rounds.
Every few minutes on Friday
another shell would hit the rooftops, some only a few hundred metres
distant, sending up clouds of white smoke and concrete dust that merged
with the grey smoke of fires. "We think there are 200 to 300 of them
left, according to our intelligence," said Abdul Salem Rishi, one of the
commanders of the eastern forces from Benghazi who have been assaulting
the pocket from close to Sirte's coastal road. "We listen to their
radios, but for the last two days we have heard nothing."
It is a
silence that prefigures the end of the resistance in District 2, in
Sirte itself and of its last pocket of followers of Abu Muammar, which
might happen in a day or in 10 days, but cannot be avoided.
Occupy London activists on their second
day of protest after spending the night outside St Paul's Cathedral.
Photograph: Olivia Harris/Reuters
Anti-capitalism protesters were continuing to demonstrate near
the London Stock Exchange as part of the worldwide movement spawned by Occupy Wall Street.
Up
to 100 tents were pitched at a makeshift camp at the foot of the steps
of St Paul's Cathedral, though of the thousands of protesters who
descended on the area on Saturday, only around 400 remained on Sunday
morning.
Attempts to occupy the Stock Exchange in nearby Paternoster Square have been thwarted by police barricades.
As
the Sunday morning bells pealed, awaking a good many campers from their
slumbers, those attending services at St Paul's seemed happy to pick
their way through the sleeping bags and tents in their path.
The
atmosphere appeared relaxed and police made no attempt to move the
protesters on, though they instructed them not to block the cathedral
steps.
Scotland Yard has said it would be "illegal and
disrespectful" to camp in front of the cathedral, but a spokesman said
they were not moving anyone on "at this time".
Ben Doran, 21, a
music student, said a clergyman had come out onto the cathedral steps to
express his support for the protesters. "He said there was no issue and
that people were treating the site respectfully and he was happy for it
to carry on."
Some of those who slept out on Saturday night were
intending to leave today – back to homes, jobs or college courses – but
said they planned to return next weekend.
The Occupy Wall Street
movement seems to have attracted many first-time protesters, including
Ollie Taylor, 23, from Aldershot. "This is the first protest I've ever
been to, but I feel really, really strongly about this issue," he said.
"I really think this is going to snowball."
Taylor said he would
return to his full-time job as a photography studio assistant on Monday.
"I have to work to pay off my student debt. It was £20,000. Now it's
about £4,000, and I've been working to the bone to pay it off," he said.
"But I will be back next weekend."
Sean, 33, an electrical
engineering graduate, said: "I have never been involved in this sort of
action before. This is civil disobedience. It's not a protest."
Police appeared relaxed. They kept a visible but low presence, and many officers chatted and mingled with the protesters.
"It's
really, really relaxed. You can't emphasis how great the police are
being. Some of them seem to be showing genuine interest," said Taylor.
A
spokesman for the protesters said the demonstration was to "challenge
the bankers and the financial institutions which recklessly gambled with
the economy. This occupation and 20 other occupations all around the UK
have been directly inspired by what's happening all across America and
especially Wall Street," he said.
A field kitchen providing basics
donated by wellwishers had been set up at the side of the cathedral. A
media support centre, powered by a generator, streamed activities at the
camp live on to the internet.
Some worshippers at the cathedral
expressed their support. "The general atmosphere within the church this
morning has been quite supportive," said Diane Richards, 36, a mental
health support worker. "The protesters have kept it well organised, they
are trying to keep a very peaceful demonstration."
Five arrests were made on Saturday, three for assault on police and two for public order offences.
A Palestinian prisoner looks out of a
jail truck as he awaits release as part of the first stage of prisoner
exchange. Photograph: Jack Guez/AFP/Getty Images
Sunday 16 October
The Israeli prison service has released the names of 477 prisoners (pdf) – 450 men and 27 women – to be released in the first phase of the deal to free Gilad Shalit, the Israeli soldier who has been held in the Gaza Strip by Hamas for five years.
Shimon Peres, Israel's president, has issued formal pardons as required.
The
prisoners have been informed and will undergo medical checks before
being transferred to Ketziot prison (men) in south Israel and Hasharon
prison (women) in central Israel.
The families of Israeli victims
of militant attacks have until Monday evening to lodge objections to the
release of individual prisoners in the high court of justice. Tuesday 18 October
If
all goes according to plan, Hamas will release Shalit into the custody
of the Red Cross and Egyptian intelligence officials at the same time as
27 women prisoners are freed.
Once Shalit is confirmed to be
alive and in mediators' hands, the release of the remaining 450
prisoners will begin. Some will be released to their homes in Gaza, the
West Bank and east Jerusalem; some will be deported to Gaza; some will
be deported abroad.
Shalit will be taken by ambulance from Gaza
into Egypt, and from there by military vehicle back into Israel. He will
be examined at an army base by medics and psychiatrists and will speak
to his family by phone.
He will then be flown by helicopter to the
Tel Nof military base in central Israel. There he will meet his family,
Israeli chief of staff Lieutenant General Benny Gantz and prime
minister Binyamin Netanyahu.
If his health permits, Shalit and his family will then be flown by military helicopter to their home in Mitzpe Hila in Galilee. Next two months
Israel
is obliged under the terms of the deal to free a further 550 prisoners
of its choosing within two months of Shalit's release.
The Mr Men Google doodles celebrate the 76th birthday of creator Roger Hargreaves.
The 76th birthday of Roger Hargreaves, the English author and illustrator who delighted generations of children with his Mr Men books, has been celebrated by the unveiling of no less than 16 Google doodles.
Ranging from Mr Forgetful to Little Miss Tiny, the doodle image changes each time the page is reloaded.
More than 100m books based on Hargreaves's characters have been sold worldwide in 28 countries, while five more were completed by his son Adam, but even greater world domination may yet be on the way in the form of a big screen adaptation.
Twentieth Century Fox's animation department is working on the project although it is unclear whether the Little Miss characters will feature.
Hargreaves's stories have been adapted into four animated television series, most recently airing in the UK on Channel 5 in 2008 and 2009. A total of 46 Mr Men and 33 Little Miss characters were created.
The first of the Mr Men characters is said have been created when Adam Hargreaves asked his father what a tickle looked like.
Hargreaves drew a figure with a round orange body and long, rubbery arms. Mr Tickle had been born.
Adam, who has said that the simplicity of the characters was the key to their success, took over the running of the Mr Men empire after his father died of a stroke in 1988 at the age of 53.
Hosni Mubarak was brought to hospital on Tuesday night after reportedly suffering a heart attack during questioning. Photograph: DENNIS BRACK/POOL/EPA
Egypt's former president, Hosni Mubarak, has been detained as authorities in the country investigate allegations of corruption and abuse of his authority.
Mubarak's two sons, Gamal and Alaa, have also been detained after being questioned over corruption claims into the early hours of Wednesday morning.
A statement from the prosecutor general's office announcing Mubarak's detention said the ongoing investigation was into allegations of corruption, the squandering of public funds, and the abuse of authority for personal gain.
"The prosecutor general orders the detention of former president Hosni Mubarak and his sons Gamal and Alaa for 15 days pending investigation after the prosecutor general presented them with the current state of its ongoing investigations," it said.
Egypt's interim government issued subpoenas to Mubarak and his sons over the weekend, compelling them to testify in court over claims that they illicitly acquired wealth and abused their power during the former president's reign.
The announcement of their detention came just hours after Mubarak was hospitalised with heart problems in Sharm el-Sheikh. He has been in internal exile in the Red Sea resort since Egypt's mass uprising earlier this year.
In a sign his health may not be in immediate danger, justice minister Mohammed el-Guindi said questioning of the former president continued in hospital.
While the ex-president was in hospital – where he is expected to remain for the period of his detention – his sons were taken for questioning to a local court by prosecutors from Cairo.
Gamal Mubarak, his younger son, was a top official in the ruling party and was widely seen as being groomed to succeed his father before 18 days of popular protests brought down the regime on 11 February.
An angry crowd of 2,000 people gathered outside and demanded the two be arrested.
Then, in the early hours of the morning, the head of provincial security in the South Sinai told the crowd that Gamal and his businessman brother Alaa would be detained.
"Brothers, whatever you wanted, you have got … 15 days," said Major General Mohammed el-Khatib, as the crowd erupted in cheers.
As a police van with drawn curtains took away the two brothers, the crowd pelted it with water bottles, stones and their shoes, a sign of disrespect in the Arab world.
About 800 people are estimated to have been killed during the protests as police opened fire and cracked down on the crowds. Authorities are now investigating government officials for their role in ordering the violence.
Gamal is also believed to be the architect of Egypt's privatisation program and economic liberalisation, which has brought in billions in foreign investment but has also widened the gap between rich and poor.
Many of his close associates were billionaires and held top positions in the ruling party and the government.
A video image of Ian Tomlinson about to be pushed by a police officer at the G20 summit in London. He died shortly afterwards. Photograph: Sarah Lee for the Guardian
He said there was a variety of types of footage: street CCTV, images recorded by a helicopter, "handheld footage" shot by bystanders on camcorders, cameras and mobile phones, and footage obtained by news organisations.
Investigators employed a company to trawl the internet for footage uploaded to YouTube and other websites. They found more than 5,000 instances of images put on the internet.
They include Tomlinson's widow, Julia, and his son, Paul King. We could hear from both shortly.
Thanks for all the messages over lunch. To clarify one of the points raised by readers: the compilation video footage, which you can now view below, is not comprehensive. It was a snapshot of Tomlinson's last moments, from when he left Monument tube station, where he sold newspapers, to his arrival on Royal Exchange Buildings, where he encountered Harwood, and finished with him being carried away on a stretcher by police.
The first pathologist to examine the body, Dr [Freddy] Patel, concluded that Mr Tomlinson's death was consistent with natural causes, in the sense that he had coronary artery disease and could have died at any time.
The second and third pathologists, Dr [Nat] Cary and Dr [Kenneth] Shorrock came to different conclusions. They concluded that the immediate cause of the death was bleeding into the abdomen.
Dr Cary concluded that internal bleeding appeared to have arisen as a result of some blunt force trauma to the abdomen, such as from Ian Tomlinson being pushed and falling, with his right arm being trapped under the body, impacting on his liver and causing it to bleed.
It is likely to be a controversial area in the inquest. There is likely to be controversy about the finding by Dr Patel in the first postmortem about the presence of fluid in the abdomen, and the extent it contained blood.
... or you can now watch it here
18.55pm. Tomlinson leaves Monument tube station, where he had been selling the Evening Standard newspaper. CCTV captures him walking north up King William Street, where he encounters a police cordon that he cannot pass.
19.09pm. Turned away from the cordon, Tomlinson tries to make his way down adjacent Lombard Street. Riot police in Nato helmets are shown pushing Tomlinson away. Various cameras, including street CCTV and those in shop windows, capture him walking along in his distinctive grey Millwall football T-shirt.
19.17pm. Still trying to find a way through police cordons set up around the Bank of England, Tomlinson arrives in Change Alley. The footage shows uniformed officers waving him away. He turns back and makes his way toward Cornhill.
19.18pm. Tomlinson arrives in Cornhill, and makes his way along Royal Exchange Buildings, a pedestrianised area. CCTV footage from inside a Mont Blanc gift shop shows Tomlinson standing near some bicycles as a line of riot officers, some of whom are dog handlers, moves him away. The coroner said they had been ordered to clear the area.
19.19pm. Video shows Harwood approach Tomlinson from behind, strike his left thigh with a baton and push him to the ground. Tomlinson is propelled forward and hits the pavement. "[Harwood] appears to push Mr Tomlinson in the back and Mr Tomlinson falls over. There may be no dispute about that," Thornton said. "PC Harwood accepted later that he did those things, and gave his reasons for doing them." A bystander is shown helping Tomlinson to his feet, before he begins making his way down Cornhill.
19.22pm. Tomlinson collapses about 100 metres down the road, outside a Starbucks cafe. In some of the most distressing footage, he is shown lying motionless on his back. A medical student, Lucy Apps, attempts to help Tomlinson. After a few minutes, riot officers arrive and push Apps and other bystanders out of the way.
19.27pm. Police helicopter footage shows police medics gathered around Tomlinson, as crackling radio messages indicated police realise there is a serious casualty. The medics do not appear to immediately give CPR and there is no immediate evidence that his treatment is interfered with by protesters, who have gathered nearby.
19.30pm. The same helicopter captures the officers placing Tomlinson on a stretcher and carrying him back toward Cornhill. They are last seen taking him behind a heavy line of riot police into what is described over a police radio as a "sterile area".
But the compilation included footage weaved together from still photographs, CCTV images, footage shot by bystanders and helicopter footage, and the disturbing images of the aftermath of his collapse on Cornhill is new.
We're trying to get a CD of the footage uploaded to this blog as soon as possible, but in the meantime I'll give you a summary of what was shown.
1. The background of Ian Tomlinson. 2. The policing context relevant to the G20 protests. 3. The training of and instructions provided to Harwood. 4. Harwood's movements, and other relevant events, including a dog bite to Tomlinson's leg and a possible push by another officer. 5. Tomlinson's encounter with Harwood. 6. Tomlinson's collapse and the assistance given to him. 7. The medical evidence.
• Warned the jury to avoid researching the abundance of material about his death available on the internet, as well as press reports from the inquest.
• Told the jury to ignore the fact that the director of public prosecutions (DPP) chose not to bring criminal proceedings against the officer. "That was not a final decision, but a provisional decision," he said. "He may review that decision after the inquest."
• Stated that the inquest would consider some broader issues, but would not be as wide-reaching as a public inquiry. "Nobody is on trial. No organisation is on trial. You as the jury will not decide any question of civil or criminal liability."
• Gave a summary of Tomlinson's last 30 minutes alive. He explained how he left Monument tube station, where he had been selling the Evening Standard newspaper, shortly before 7pm. He made his way north, encountering several police cordons, before his encounter with PC Simon Harwood at Royal Exchange buildings.
The jury was also told that Tomlinson suffered from alcoholism and had been drinking that day. The jury members were then shown a compilation of video footage, which has not been seen before. Later, the jury will visit the location in the City of London where Tomlinson died.
Judge Peter Thornton QC, a senior judge sitting as assistant deputy coroner, is overseeing proceedings, which in fact began yesterday with legal argument that we are unable to report.
A jury of seven men and five women were sworn in at 2.15pm, after what Thornton conceded was an "unusually protracted process" due to the limited number of suitable candidates in London's Square Mile. They were sent home while the legal debates continued.
Over the next five to six weeks the jury will determine Tomlinson's cause of death, deciding specifically whether he was unlawfully killed by police. I'll be live-blogging, tweeting, and writing reports. You can email me in confidence at paul.lewis@guardian.co.uk or message me on Twitter.
Tomlinson's family, most of whom are in the hearing today, have been waiting almost exactly two years since the day of his death to get to this point. It has been a long road, so here is a brief recap of how we got here.
Tomlinson died on 1 April 2009, the day of the G20 protests in London. He was not a protester, but was trying to pick a route home through the City of London. Many of the streets around the Bank of England had been cordoned off by police detaining activists in "kettles", and Tomlinson found himself caught up in the crowds.
He was struck by a police officer around 7.30pm on Cornhill. Police initially claimed he died of natural causes and there was no investigation by the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC). That changed six days later, when the Guardian released video footage showing Tomlinson being struck from behind then pushed in the back by a member of the Met's Territorial Support Group (TSG). Tomlinson, who had his back to the officer and his hands in his pockets, fell to the ground and was unable to break his fall. He collapsed and died shortly afterwards.
In July last year, the director of public prosecutions, Keir Starmer, announced there would be no charges laid against the officer who struck Tomlinson.
