Chavez taunts US in ambassador row

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Venezuela's president Hugo Chavez dared the US government to expel his ambassador from Washington

President Hugo Chavez dared the US government to expel his ambassador from Washington in response to Venezuela's rejection of the White House's choice for ambassador in Caracas.

Mr Chavez reiterated that he will not allow the US diplomat Larry Palmer to be ambassador, and said: "If the government is going to expel our ambassador there, let them do it!"

He added: "If they're going to cut diplomatic relations, let them do it!"

The US State Department has said it stands behind its nomination of Mr Palmer, who is awaiting Senate confirmation.

Mr Palmer angered Mr Chavez by suggesting during the confirmation process that morale is low in Venezuela's military and that he is concerned Colombian rebels are finding refuge in Venezuela.

State Department spokesman PJ Crowley said last week that Venezuela's decision not to accept Mr Palmer - after initially giving its approval - will have consequences on relations with Venezuela, and that the US government will evaluate what to do.

The State Department has also been strongly critical of decree powers granted to Mr Chavez by his congressional allies this month, a manoeuvre Mr Crowley described as one more way for the leftist president to "justify autocratic powers".

"Now the US government is threatening us that they're going to take reprisals. Well, let them do whatever they want, but that man will not come," Mr Chavez said in a televised speech.

There was no immediate reaction from the US Embassy in Caracas, which has been without an ambassador since Patrick Duddy finished his assignment and left in July.

Probe after man shot dead by police

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Police officers on Cockley Hill Lane, Kirkheaton, Huddersfield

An investigation is under way after a 42-year-old man was shot dead by police during a seven-hour armed siege at his village home.

Alistair Bell was gunned down by police marksmen in the West Yorkshire village of Kirkheaton, near Huddersfield, after shooting one Pc and opening fire on his West Yorkshire Police colleagues.

The incident unfolded when uniformed police arrived at the loner's home in Cockley Hill Lane at about 10pm on Monday to arrest him on suspicious of making threats.

Police said he shot one unarmed male officer on the doorstep who was taken to hospital with minor injuries.

Bell then moved back into the end-terrace house and continued to fire throughout the night as police negotiators tried to coax him out.

Nearby residents said the incident ended at 5.30am when they heard one shot followed a moment later by three louder shots in quick succession.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) is investigating the incident and probing the actions of West Yorkshire Police.

Eyewitness Mark Blezzard, 30, who lives opposite Bell, said he heard around eight or nine shots during the night-long stand-off. He said: "Loads of police turned up - some carrying machine guns. They lit the house up like a Christmas tree and the armed police were behind hedges."

West Yorkshire Police said they tried to resolve the situation peacefully although shots were "continually" fired at officers.

Officers initially attended the address to arrest Bell on suspicion of making threats towards another man at a nearby property earlier in the day, a spokesman added.

Radical Catholic priests press for assembly

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

A group of radical priests is pressing for a historic first national assembly of the Irish Catholic Church in response to the clerical child abuse crisis.

"The time may well be right for some form of assembly or synod of the Irish church," the Association of Catholic Priests said.

The association also ann-ounced it hoped to have an early meeting with the hierarchy to begin the process of organising an assembly or synod, inclusive of all sections of opinion in the church, including lay people.

They agreed the examination of the structures of the church must include dialogue in relation to sexuality, clerical celibacy and the exclusion of women.

Family escapes house as bomb explodes in Limerick

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

A widow and her four sons escaped with their lives after a pipe bomb exploded in their home.

It is believed that yesterday's horrific attack in Rathkeale, Co Limerick, is part of a vicious campaign by a gang attempting to extort lucrative sums of cash from members of the Travelling community.

Tensions have increased in the west Limerick town following several violent incidents in recent days.

The latest attack happened in the Ballywilliam area of Rathkeale yesterday morning at a detached two-storey home.

Mary Ann Hegarty (57) and her four adult sons -- who had returned home for Christmas -- were asleep upstairs when their front door was forced open and a pipe bomb thrown inside at around 4am.

The device exploded causing extensive damage to the hallway and downstairs section of the house. No one was injured in the incident.

Another pipe bomb was found by gardai outside the home and made safe by the Army bomb disposal team.

It is suspected that the incident is linked to a gun attack in the town on Christmas Day and an arson attack on a vehicle last week.

Gardai believe a gang headed up by a criminal who also resides in west Limerick is attempting to extort cash from settled Travellers in the area.

Murder probe as the police confirm Joanna Yeates was strangled

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

The family of Joanna Yeates visit Longwood Lane, where her body was found

Joanna Yeates, whose snow-covered body was found by dog walkers on Christmas Day, was strangled, police have said.

Somerset police are now officially treating the death as a murder investigation following the results of a post-mortem examination.

Detective Chief Inspector Phil Jones of Avon and Somerset Police said Joanna, who disappeared on December 17, had died as a result of compression of the neck.

He appealed for any information about her murder, adding: “Somebody out there does know what happened to Joanna.”

Speaking at a Press conference he said police believed her body had been at the spot where she was found for several days.

“What we have to do next is to try and find out why she was killed and who was responsible,” he added.

The 25-year-old landscape architect had been missing for eight days when her clothed body was discovered on Longwood Lane, close to Bristol and Clifton Golf Club, in Failand, North Somerset, about three miles from her home.

The frozen condition of her corpse meant pathologists could not immediately examine it — leaving detectives and family members with an agonising wait to find out her cause of death.

Miss Yeates, from Clifton, Bristol, was last seen alive on December 17 when CCTV showed her in a Tesco store on her way home to her flat in Canynge Road.

Miss Yeates's body was formally identified by parents David (63) and Theresa (58), who made an emotional visit to the site where she was discovered on Monday.

The distraught pair, who were joined by some family members that included their son Chris and their daughter's boyfriend Greg Reardon (27), laid a bouquet of yellow roses with a picture of their daughter on her graduation at the scene.

DCI Jones said Mr Reardon was being treated as a witness not a suspect.

Forensic investigators have been examining the site since the tragic discovery in an attempt to find clues about her suspicious death.

Detectives are also examining CCTV footage from Clifton suspension bridge in Bristol, which is on the main route from Miss Yeates's house to where she was found.

Miss Yeates, who worked at BDP with Mr Reardon, was making her way home from the Ram pub in Park Street at about 8pm after a night out with colleagues.

On her way home she rang her best friend Rebecca Scott to arrange to meet on Christmas Eve.

Miss Yeates lived with her boyfriend, who reported her missing on Sunday night after returning home from a weekend away in Sheffield visiting family.

Job woes ‘sparking rise in mental health issues among Northern Ireland youth’

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

Young people in Northern Ireland are suffering from increased mental health problems, including panic attacks, self-harm and depression as unemployment rises.

A report for the Prince’s Trust has found that almost half of unemployed people between the ages of 16-25 here had experienced mental health issues triggered by joblesseness.

More than a fifth of young people in Northern Ireland admitted to self-harming, one in three suffered from insomnia and a fifth of those interviewed said they had panic attacks.

The Macquarie Youth Index, which interviewed 2,170 people across the UK, found that 15% of youths here feel depressed ‘all’ or ‘most’ of the time, while 63% of those working said their job was an important part of their identity.

Claire Conway from Omagh suffered from depression when she became unemployed in 2002 at the age of 22.

“I was in the depths of despair and depression. It’s very isolating not to have work. You have no reason to get up in the morning and you feel like you have no purpose in life,” she said.

Claire eventually sought help and was prescribed anti-depressants. She went on to open her own dog grooming business in 2007 and was named this year’s Prince's Trust Young Ambassador of the Year. But she said it was a long and difficult journey.

“You block yourself off from friends, especially the people who are working,” she said.

“It is very desperate. I can see it looking back now but when you are in that position it is very difficult to see any hope, but you just have to push yourself to get out there.”

This was the third annual report to be published by the Prince’s Trust and it recorded the most significant decline in young people’s emotional health.

Ian Jeffers, director of the trust in Northern Ireland, said: “Unemployment presents a very real and frightening mental health problem for young people in Northern Ireland — and the longer they are out of work, the greater the risk.”

Julie White, global head of the Macquarie Group Foundation, said that although the statistics were worrying, help was available to young people who find themselves without a job.

“The index is a meaningful way to track and measure young people’s issues. The research shows how Prince’s Trust schemes which help young people into work can directly address unemployed people’s emotional health,” she said.

Queen 'to visit Irish Republic in 2011'

Wednesday, 29 December 2010

A visit by Queen Elizabeth to the Republic is on the cards for next year before the end of President Mary Acleese's term in office.

Irish Foreign Affairs Minister Micheal Martin said that he still expected developments on the visit by Queen Elizabeth II in 2011 but it would not happen in the lifetime of the present Government.

"I think the way has been cleared for a visit, that is how I would look at it, and I would expect something to happen in 2011," he said.

President McAleese is understood to be keen for a state visit by Queen Elizabeth to happen before the end of her term.

The Irish government is expecting further progress next year on the preparations for the controversial visit by the queen.

The President has discussed the status of the proposed visit with Taoiseach Brian Cowen on a number of occasions this year.

President McAleese's second seven-year term in Aras an Uachtarain will end next year when a new President is elected towards the end of 2011.

Mr Cowen has given President McAleese updates on the proposed visit over the course of recent meetings.

The Taoiseach indicated earlier this year that the queen would probably make a state visit to Ireland before the end of 2011. Mr Cowen said the process of arranging such a visit had begun between the Government and Downing Street.

Mr Martin said he believed the queen should come as British-Irish relationships had transformed in the last 20 years through the Northern Ireland peace process.

"To me the natural, I think, end point of all of that would be the queen coming to Ireland as a formal head of state meeting our head of state.

"Our head of state has received heads of state from all over the world and at this juncture, in this era, it seems odd to me that the head of state of our nearest neighbour hasn't been here yet," Mr Martin said.

Mr Martin admitted that the royal visit would not happen before the Republic's General Election.

"That timeline will not accord with an electoral timeline."