'Pork found' in Halal prison food

1 February 2013 Last updated at 20:32 ET

The Ministry of Justice is to suspend a firm supplying meat to prisons after tests found that it may have provided pies and pasties described as Halal - but with traces of pork DNA.

The Food Standards Agency (FSA) said the "local authority" involved was investigating, while the MoJ said the products have been withdrawn.

Justice minister Jeremy Wright said the incident was "absolutely unacceptable".

Under Islamic law, Muslims are strictly forbidden to eat pork.

In a statement, Mr Wright said the Prison Service was investigating the incident "as a matter of urgency".

He added: "This is an absolutely unacceptable situation and one which we regret greatly.

"Clearly this must be distressing for those affected and they can be reassured we are doing everything we can to resolve the situation."

'Immediate steps'

The MoJ said it commissioned tests after the "recent high profile incidents" in which beefburgers sold by some supermarket chains were found to contain horsemeat.

It said the results of the tests, undertaken by an independent agency, became known on Thursday.

A spokesman said: "All prisons have been informed about this very regrettable incident and we reported this issue to the Food Standards Agency immediately.

"We are taking immediate steps to suspend the contract with the relevant sub-contractor."

A spokeswoman for the FSA said it was "informed" that a number of meat pies and pasties supplied to UK prisons - labelled and served as Halal - could have contained traces of pork DNA.

She said: "The local authority is investigating how this contamination came about and whether these products have been distributed further across the UK."

She added that the supplier and the local authority were based in the same area, but declined to say where.

Under Islamic law, the eating of pork is strictly prohibited for Muslims, as is the consumption of meat which has not been slaughtered in the correct way.

Halal meat is defined as meat slaughtered by hand and blessed by the person doing the killing, however some Muslims believe a mechanised form is also now acceptable.

Food and farming minister David Heath said people "have a right to expect that the food they are eating is correctly described".

He insisted: "I have made it clear that I want an urgent meeting with major retailers and suppliers first thing next week to get to the bottom of this completely unacceptable situation."

Editor of the Muslim News, Ahmed Versi, said the development was disturbing.

"This is very serious because no Muslim would ever eat pork meat - anything to do with pork - and it must be very distressing for those in prison who have been given this meat to realise they may have been eating food which was contaminated with pig."

Juliet Lyon, director of the Prison Reform Trust charity, said: "This lapse will have offended and distressed high numbers of Muslim prisoners and their families so apologising, suspending the supplier and investigating the incident are the right steps for the Ministry of Justice to take."

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Councils request job-creation role

1 February 2013 Last updated at 21:57 ET

Attempts to cut youth unemployment in England are being hampered by excessive bureaucracy and central government control, council leaders have said.

The Local Government Association (LGA) said a "new local approach" would reduce youth unemployment by a fifth.

In a report, the LGA said the present system was "overly complicated".

But a spokesman for the Department for Work and Pensions said there were "encouraging signs" that youth unemployment was on a downward trend.

According to the LGA's research, there are currently 33 different national schemes, covering 13 different age boundaries, costing £15bn a year.

More than 94,000 people completed hair and beauty courses last year, even though there were only 18,000 new jobs in the sector, it added.

By contrast, in construction, around 123,000 people were trained for around 275,000 advertised jobs.

The LGA's David Simmonds said: "Youth unemployment is a worrying trend for us all, particularly long-term youth unemployment which has doubled since 2008 and continues to grow.

'Big challenge'

"All the evidence in this report points to the success that local organisations, such as councils, businesses and education providers, can achieve when working together to ensure young people are given the very best chances to get into work or training, but this is being hampered by successive centrally-driven government approaches.

"This has long been a major frustration for councils, who know their young people in their area and have a responsibility to look after their welfare.

"Councils are in a unique position and can play a pivotal role in identifying young people that are likely to slip into periods of long-term unemployment. But we need to be given the powers to prevent this happening and help equip future jobseekers with the skills, confidence and real-life experience they need to find work in their area."

The LGA concluded that councils should be the main commissioners of employment programmes for young people.

The Department for Work and Pensions spokesman said: "Youth unemployment has been a big challenge for a decade but we've seen encouraging signs recently with the number of long-term unemployed young people falling last month.

"Through Jobcentre Plus we're already working locally with businesses and councils to help young people into work so unemployment continues to fall, and our Youth Contract will help nearly 500,000 young people over the next three years.

"And this autumn we will launch a new Traineeship programme which help those who do not have the right experience or qualifications to get an apprenticeship or find a job."

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Timbuktu hails French president

2 February 2013 Last updated at 05:58 ET

France's president is visiting Mali, three weeks after French-led troops launched an offensive to oust Islamist rebels from the country's north.

Francois Hollande was welcomed by dignitaries and residents in Timbuktu, six days after the city was recaptured.

He is expected to thank the French soldiers and stress the need for an African force to replace them swiftly.

Meanwhile, the UN has warned of the risk of reprisal attacks against Tuareg and Arab communities in northern Mali.

The UN special adviser on the prevention of genocide, Adama Dieng, said there had been serious allegations of human rights violations committed by the Malian army, including summary executions and disappearances.

Continue reading the main story

"Start Quote

We must tell [President Hollande] that he has cut down the tree but still has to tear up its roots"

End Quote Fanta Diarra Toure Timbuktu resident

There had also been reports of incidents of mob lynching and looting of properties belonging to Arab and Tuareg communities, which had been accused of supporting armed Islamist groups, Mr Dieng added.

"I call on the Malian army to discharge its responsibility to protect all populations, irrespective of their race or ethnicity," he said.

The allegations came as heavily-armoured columns of French and Malian troops continued their advance in northern Mali.

They are attempting to secure the north-eastern city of Kidal, the militants' last stronghold, having captured the airport on Wednesday.

'International force'

Mr Hollande flew into the central town of Sevare on Saturday morning, accompanied by his ministers of defence, foreign affairs and development. Mali's interim President, Dioncounda Traore, met them at the airport.

Continue reading the main story

Mali crisis timeline

• October 2011: Ethnic Tuaregs launch new rebellion after returning with weapons from Libya, where they had fought for Gaddafi
• March 2012: Military officers depose President Amadou Toumani Toure over handling of rebellion
• April 2012: Tuareg and Islamist fighters seize control of northern Mali, declare independence
• June 2012: Islamist groups capture Timbuktu, Kidal and Gao from Tuaregs, start to destroy Muslim shrines that offend their puritan views
• September 2012: Islamist rebels seize town of Douentza, crossing into central Mali and threatening government-held south
• January 2013: Islamist fighters capture central town of Konna, raising fears they could march on capital. President Dioncounda Traore asks France for help. French intervention begins.

They then flew to Timbuktu's airport before being driven to the 700-year-old mud mosque of Djingareyber and the Ahmed Baba Institute, where fleeing militants set fire to about 2,000 priceless manuscripts.

Thousands of locals gathered in the city's main square to welcome Mr Hollande. Many changed "Vive la France" and praised the president for ordering the military intervention in France's former colony.

"The women of Timbuktu will thank Francois Hollande forever," 53-year-old Fanta Diarra Toure told the AFP news agency.

"We must tell him that he has cut down the tree but still has to tear up its roots," she added, referring to the Islamist militants.

Speaking on Friday before he flew to Mali, Mr Hollande said he wanted "to express to our soldiers all our support, encouragement and pride".

"I'm also going to ensure that African forces come and join us as quickly as possible and to tell them we need them for this international force," he added.

He said he wanted Mali's transitional government to restore democracy soon and begin a political dialogue with opposition groups in the north.

The BBC's Andrew Harding in Timbuktu says Timbuktu is still half empty, but the sense of relief among those who endured months of brutal occupation is overwhelming.

However, this is not quite a "mission accomplished" moment for Mr Hollande, because the Islamist militants remain a threat, our correspondent adds.

US Defence Secretary Leon Panetta said on Friday that the French-led forces had recaptured the major population centres "must faster" than he had expected, but warned that they now had to ensure long-term security.

"They have made tremendous progress, I give them a lot of credit," he told the AFP news agency.

"But the challenge now is to make sure that you can maintain that security and that you are not overstretched and that, ultimately, as you begin to pull back, that the other African nations are prepared to move in and fill the gap of providing security."

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Twitter is latest hacking victim

2 February 2013 Last updated at 07:11 ET

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The BBC's technology correspondent Rory Cellan-Jones is one of those affected

A quarter of a million Twitter users have had their accounts hacked in the latest of a string of high-profile internet security breaches.

Twitter's information security director Bob Lord said about 250,000 users' passwords had been stolen, as well as usernames, emails and other data.

Affected users have had passwords invalidated and have been sent emails informing them.

Mr Lord said the attack "was not the work of amateurs".

He said it appeared similar to recent attacks on the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal.

The US newspapers reported that their computer systems had been breached by China-based hackers.

'Not isolated'

Mr Lord said in a blog post Twitter had discovered unauthorised attempts to access data held by the website, including one attack that was identified and stopped moments after it was detected.

Continue reading the main story

Philip Hampsheir Business reporter

---

The biggest worry for most of Twitter's 200 million active users is not this attack per se, but the additional new "phishing" scams the attack has already inspired.

Since Twitter users now know to be on the lookout for emails asking them to change their passwords, criminals are sending out very similar messages.

If users click on the links in those they risk - once again - having their account hacked.

Don't click on links in emails asking you to change your password.

Go directly to the web site, log in normally, and change it using the instructions without clicking on email links.

"This attack was not the work of amateurs, and we do not believe it was an isolated incident," he wrote.

Mr Lord did not say who had carried out the attack, but added: "The attackers were extremely sophisticated, and we believe other companies and organisations have also been recently similarly attacked."

"For that reason we felt that it was important to publicise this attack while we still gather information, and we are helping government and federal law enforcement in their effort to find and prosecute these attackers to make the internet safer for all users."

Internet security specialist Graham Cluley warned Twitter's announcement that emails would be sent to users may prompt a spate of spam emails "phishing" for sensitive information.

He says people should be cautious about opening emails which appear to be from Twitter.

"You have to be careful if you get hold of one of these emails because, of course, it could equally be a phishing attack - it could be someone pretending to be Twitter.

"So, log into the Twitter site as normal and try and log in to your account and, if there's a problem, that's when you actually have to try and reset your password."

Another expert in online security, Professor Alan Woodward from the University of Surrey, warned users to be wary of messages sent them by the hackers via Twitter itself.

"They can then send what's called direct messages," he said. "They can put malicious links in those."

"It really looks like it's coming from someone you know and you might respond to it, you'd go to the site and all of a sudden you find that actually you've got some malware on your machine which is then stealing your bank details or whatever."

On Thursday the New York Times linked the attack to a story it published alleging relatives of former Premier Wen Jiabao controlled assets worth billions of dollars.

China's foreign ministry dismissed the New York Times' accusations as "groundless" and "totally irresponsible".

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No married tax break in Budget

2 February 2013 Last updated at 06:33 ET

The government will not introduce a tax break for married couples in next month's Budget, it has emerged.

There had been speculation David Cameron would bring in the measure to appease Tory backbenchers who are opposed to gay marriage.

However legislation is expected to be introduced before 2015 to allow couples to transfer part of their personal tax allowance to their partner.

The Commons will vote next week on the government's plans for gay marriage.

The Marriage (Same Sex Couples) Bill would enable same-sex couples to get married in both civil and religious ceremonies, where a religious institution had formally consented, in England and Wales.

It would also allow couples who have previously entered into civil partnerships to convert their relationship into a marriage.

BBC political correspondent Vicki Young said the tax news had to be seen in the context of the highly contentious vote on gay marriage, with dozens of Tory MPs opposed to it.

The two issues are linked in their minds because they say it is about Mr Cameron's priorities, putting gay marriage ahead of married tax breaks.

Some of them say it will increase anger and consternation on the backbenches, our correspondent added.

'Serious unrest'

The tax measure is in the coalition agreement but Liberal Democrat MPs would be allowed to abstain.

It is expected that one stay-at-home member of a married couple or civil partnership would be able to move £750 of their tax-free personal allowance to their working partner, reducing their tax bill. This would be worth about £150 a year to basic-rate taxpayers.

Continue reading the main story

Introducing an allowance that lets families share some of their personal allowance would help tackle poverty and reduce the perverse disincentives created by our dysfunctional tax code"

End Quote Matthew Sinclair TaxPayers' Alliance

A senior government source said: "It won't be in the Budget but it will be in this parliament. This Budget obviously, with all that has happened in recent weeks and months, will be very much focused on growth in the economy".

According to the Times, the issue of gay marriage is causing Conservative members to leave the party in significant numbers.

The newspaper claimed that as many as 100 members had revoked their affiliation in some constituencies.

Tory MP David Burrowes is quoted as saying: "There's serious unrest in the grassroots. You cannot avoid the fact that the troops are unhappy. People are drifting away."

'Definition of marriage'

He told the BBC that had the government introduced the tax breaks, it may have "softened the blow" of plans to legalise same-sex marriage, but that it would not have been a "clinch for any deal".

He also said it was an "issue of finance" as to why tax breaks for married couples were not being introduced in the forthcoming Budget, but said it was not "a case of if, it's a case of when" they would eventually come in.

"It is something that should be a priority, not just because it's a commitment in our manifesto and a coalition agreement, but also because it's where we can particularly support the poorest of families by ensuring there is a tax allowance for married couples with children."

He also said: "Civil partnerships, quite rightly, give legal rights for same-sex couples. That doesn't mean we should change the definition of marriage, which is between a man and a woman."

Matthew Sinclair, chief executive of the TaxPayers' Alliance, said the UK's "complicated tax system makes it harder for people to start a family" and can discriminate against married couples.

"Introducing an allowance that lets families share some of their personal allowance would help tackle poverty and reduce the perverse disincentives created by our dysfunctional tax code."

Conservative MPs will get a free vote on whether to introduce same-sex marriage. Labour and the Lib Dems have backed the idea.

The bill will allow religious organisations to offer same-sex marriages but Equalities Minister Maria Miller has said no religious organisation "will ever be forced to conduct marriages for same-sex couples".

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Search for Mexico blast survivors

1 February 2013 Last updated at 06:05 ET

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The BBC's Will Grant said the blast happened "at the worst possible moment"

Rescuers have been working overnight to find survivors trapped after a deadly blast at the Mexico City headquarters of the state oil company, Pemex.

Some 500 rescuers helped by dogs are searching the building for a number of people thought to be trapped by a blast that killed 25 people and injured 100.

Relatives of employees have gathered in search of information - some trying to reach loved ones via mobile phone.

The cause of the blast is under investigation, Pemex says.

'Full weight of the law'

Continue reading the main story

At the scene

Will Grant BBC News, Mexico City

---

The Pemex building in the north of Mexico City is surrounded by large numbers of federal police and paramedics. Sniffer dogs are being used to look for people trapped under the rubble.

Mexico City is used to earthquakes, and the emergency services seem well prepared for this type of disaster.

The skyscraper withstood the blast too, with most of the damage confined to the ground and first floors. But night has set in now in the Mexican capital, further complicating the search.

Some family members of missing workers are gathered outside the Pemex building for news of their loved ones, while others have travelled directly to the hospitals.

The authorities and paramedic teams are releasing information at regular intervals but the exact cause of the blast may still take some time to be confirmed. This is now by far the worst explosion in Mexico City for almost 30 years.

Thursday afternoon's explosion in the lower floors of a building adjoining the 54-storey Pemex skyscraper happened as shifts were changing, making the area particularly crowded.

Debris from the blast spread out on to the street in front of the building.

Red Cross ambulances and helicopters were shuttling the injured to hospital, while firefighters and soldiers dug through chunks of concrete with a crane to reach trapped survivors.

One distraught relative, Ana Vargas Palacio, told Associated Press she had spoken to her husband, who works in the building, two hours before the blast.

"I called his phone many times, but a young man answered and told me he found the phone in the debris," Ms Vargas said.

Police cordoned off the streets around the building, which is located in a busy commercial area of Mexico City.

Rescuer German Vazquez Garcia told AP there was "a lot of risk" involved in the search.

President Enrique Pena Nieto and Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera, who visited the scene of the blast, said Pemex rescue and security teams were working alongside city authorities to help the injured.

Continue reading the main story

Pemex

• Pemex was created in 1938 when the oil industry was nationalised
• Employs some 150,000 people and accounts for around 37% of Mexico's government income
• Pemexgate - when money from Pemex's union was diverted to the presidential campaign of the ruling party, the PRI - resulted in the party being fined around $90m (£60m) in 2003
• Pemex is responsible for the largest peacetime oil spill in history in the Gulf of Mexico after an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979

Mr Pena Nieto said: "We have no conclusive report on the reason [for the blast]. We will work to get to the bottom of the investigation to find out, first, what happened, and if there are people responsible in this case, that we apply the full weight of the law against them."

The BBC's Will Grant, at the scene, says this is the biggest explosion to hit Mexico City for 30 years.

Pemex says its operations will continue to run normally - and commercial and financial obligations will continue to be met - despite the blast.

The company has experienced a number of fatal accidents in recent years.

Last September, 30 people died in an explosion at a Pemex gas plant in northern Mexico, thought to have been caused by a build-up of gas.

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Police watchdog 'under-equipped'

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:04 ET

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Dame Anne Owers: 'We have to look at the resources we need to be available to provide confidence to the public'

The police watchdog for England and Wales is overwhelmed, woefully under-equipped and failing to get to the truth of allegations, MPs have said.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission needs more resources and powers, the Home Affairs Select Committee report said.

IPCC chairwoman Dame Anne Owers welcomed the report, saying the body was struggling to meet expectations.

One in four officers faced complaints between 2011 and 2012.

About 30,000 officers had faced complaints, which were mostly trivial and dealt with at a local level, committee chairman Keith Vaz, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"What we would like to see is the IPCC concentrate on the really serious issues. When they have dealt with serious corruption cases, 45% of the corruption cases they have investigated have ended up with the Crown Prosecution Service," he said.

The report comes as the IPCC prepares for its biggest investigation, into the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

'Not yet capable'

In a scathing report, MPs said the IPCC was overloaded with appeals. Serious police corruption cases were being under-investigated while resources went on less serious complaints.

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Keith Vaz MP: "What the public have said to us is that they've not had justice"

"Police officers are warranted with powers that can strip people of their liberty, their money and even their lives and it is vital that the public have confidence that those powers are not abused," said the MPs.

"We conclude that the Independent Police Complaints Commission is not yet capable of delivering the kind of powerful, objective scrutiny that is needed to inspire that confidence."

MPs said the IPCC had too many former officers among its investigators and delegated too many complaints to the forces to investigate themselves, only to overturn the conclusions in a third of appeals.

The body also lacked specialists capable of analysing crime scenes in the critical hours after an incident involving the police, they said.

"Compared with the might of the 43 police forces in England and Wales, the IPCC is woefully under-equipped and hamstrung in achieving its original objectives," said the MPs, adding that it was smaller than Scotland Yard's own internal investigations team.

'Plebgate'

The MPs say the government should provide ring-fenced funding for investigations affecting police integrity.

They also said the IPCC should be investigating the Downing Street "plebgate" affair involving police and then-Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell.

Continue reading the main story

IPCC

• Established in 2004 after its predecessor criticised in the Stephen Lawrence inquiry
• Aims to increase public confidence in the police complaints system
• Police forces deal with the vast majority of complaints and IPCC investigates the most serious
• Considers appeals from people who are not satisfied with force response to a complaint
• Also investigates the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency

Dame Anne said the fact the Metropolitan Police had assigned 30 of its officers to that investigation - the equivalent of a third of her whole investigative capacity - illustrated "the choices we have to make every day".

The report said the IPCC needed to be able able to interview officers under caution.

And private firms - like G4S, Capita, Mitie and Serco - involved in delivering services that would once have fallen solely to the police should fall under the IPCC's watch.

The IPCC is preparing to investigate allegations that police officers were involved in a cover-up of failings following the 96 deaths at the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy.

Parliament has passed legislation to give the body more powers for the massive inquiry and ministers are guaranteeing funding for extra investigators currently being recruited.

Dame Anne said told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think there's quite a lot of validation in the report, but what the committee says, and what we have been saying ourselves, we can't do enough independent investigations, we can't exercise sufficiently rigorous oversight about the way that police deal with complaints.

"We cannot do the job the public expect us to be able to do and if we are to do that job then we need to be properly resourced to do it and given the proper powers to do it."

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Chief Constable Michael Cunningham: "It's in the interest of the police service that the IPCC is properly resourced"

Chief Constable Michael Cunningham, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the police service was keen to work with the IPCC to improve its response to police complaints, in particular to achieve speedier outcomes.

But he said developing the role of the IPCC must also not mean the police service outsourced its own responsibility to manage complaints.

"Serious allegations of misconduct must be rigorously investigated, in many other less serious cases the police service itself is the body best placed to identify and put right mistakes, learn necessary lessons and rebuild public trust," he said.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Improving police professionalism and integrity are at the cornerstone of the sweeping reforms we are making to the police force, and the IPCC has a key role to play.

"We are already working to ensure the organisation has the powers and resources it needs to manage the challenges it is currently facing and we will shortly announce a package of new measures designed to further improve the public's trust in the police."

Recorded allegations against police personnel, 2011-12
Police force	Recorded allegations	Allegations per 1,000 personnel
A complaint case may have one or more allegations attached. For example, a person may allege that a police officer pushed them and was rude to them. This would be recorded as two separate allegations forming one complaint case. Source: IPCC.
Avon and Somerset	1,446	243
Bedfordshire	435	181
British Transport Police	767	171
Cambridgeshire	828	305
Cheshire	719	174
City of London	200	149
Cleveland	854	378
Cumbria	282	128
Derbyshire	1,061	284
Devon and Cornwall	1,648	258
Dorset	644	219
Durham	498	198
Dyfed Powys Police	649	309
Essex	1,563	236
Gloucestershire	570	244
Greater Manchester	2,041	156
Gwent	578	222
Hampshire	1,647	249
Hertfordshire	743	175
Humberside	905	216
Kent	1,103	162
Lancashire	1,471	240
Leicestershire	780	203
Lincolnshire	766	316
Merseyside	1,860	253
Metropolitan	12,255	220
Norfolk	740	234
North Wales	514	184
North Yorkshire	908	318
Northamptonshire	492	176
Northumbria	1,416	209
Nottinghamshire	804	181
South Wales	1,041	194
South Yorkshire	786	138
Staffordshire	618	153
Suffolk	474	179
Surrey	1,150	253
Sussex	1,028	180
Thames Valley	1,850	216
Warwickshire	469	233
West Mercia	964	217
West Midlands	2,808	220
West Yorkshire	1,662	166
Wiltshire	614	250
Total	54,651	213

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Bungling hitmen murdered student

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:06 ET

Two bungling hitmen have been found guilty of stabbing to death an innocent student in front of his parents after calling at the wrong address.

Aamir Siddiqi, 17, was attacked at his Cardiff home by Jason Richards, 38, and Ben Hope, 39, in April 2010.

The jury returned their verdict on the second day of deliberations at Swansea Crown Court.

The court heard that the murderers had been instructed to kill a different man who lived on a neighbouring street.

Hope and Richards both denied murdering Aamir and two separate counts of the attempted murder of his parents, and were convicted unanimously of all charges.

Aamir had run down the stairs to answer the door expecting to see his imam who was due to give him a Koran lesson.

High on heroin

Instead, he opened the front door in Ninian Road, Roath, to two masked killers high on heroin.

Hope and Richards wielded daggers over their heads and howled as they set upon the helpless A-level student.

Aamir's father likened the attackers' howling to the sort of noise made in martial arts when an attacker wants to terrify the victim.

The teenager desperately tried to run back into the house, but they chased him and repeatedly lashing out.

The execution of the bungled contract killing was described by the prosecution as an act of "staggering incompetence".

Aamir's elderly parents frantically tried to help their only son. His mother, Parveen, leapt on the back of one of the attackers as he pursued Aamir in the dining room of their home.

His father, 68-year-old father Sheikh Iqbal Ahmad, tried to pin the other against a wall using his head. Both were stabbed in the process.

Saturated in blood

Mr Ahmad later recalled the terror which had unfolded that Sunday and said he could not say how many times they had stabbed Aamir.

He told the police it all happened in seconds and Aamir "didn't say a single word". Police arrived at the scene, tried to save Aamir and administered CPR.

Sergeant Kee Wong told the trial the scene he found was the worst he had come across during his career.

Aamir's T-shirt was saturated in blood and he counted several wounds on the teenager's body.

Det Sgt Stuart Wales also told the court it was "the most distressing incident" he had ever had to attend in 17 years of service.

"I saw the face of Aamir's mum, she looked absolutely traumatised," he said. "It is still an image quite clear in my mind."

Fellow officer Teresa Sullivan recalled her as "inconsolable". "She just kept shouting 'My son, my son, she wanted to see him,'" she said.

Appalling end

It was an appalling end to what had begun as a "normal lazy Sunday morning", in the words of one of Aamir's sisters, Miriam, who had gone out to get him a takeaway.

The awful truth was that Aamir's killers were guilty of "staggering incompetence" in carrying out a contract killing on the wrong victim, in the wrong house.

Richards and Hope had been paid by a businessman, angry over a collapsed property deal, to kill a father-of-four who lived in a neighbouring street.

But they went instead to a similar looking redbrick, end-of-row house just around the corner in Ninian Road in the leafy suburb of Roath Park.

The prosecution called it a colossal, fatal mistake for Aamir.

After the murder, a huge manhunt began.

Stolen car

The killers' stolen Volvo car used in the crime was later found abandoned.

Traces of Aamir's blood were found in the car's footwell, as were Hope's fingerprints and Richards' DNA.

After the brutal killing the men were paid £1,000 cash, before it was revealed they had murdered the wrong person.

Hope bought a pair of trainers and a laptop computer with the money he was paid.

Detectives pieced together the movements of both men before and after the killing by using the city's CCTV network and mobile phone evidence was also gathered.

Both men were arrested within days and immediately blamed each other for the killing.

Hope told police he would not "take the rap" for something he did not do and drug addict Richards denied the killing.

Aamir's hopes of reading law at Cardiff University and then possibly pursuing a career in either the police or civil service ended in the most brutal fashion.

His parents have three daughters and Aamir was their only son - a boy they called a gift and a blessing who was born after 17 years of marriage.

"This scene I will live with all of my life," Mrs Ahmad later told police.

Mr Ahmad said life had "lost its purpose", after Aamir, his youngest child's murder. His wife said: "Nothing is valuable now."

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Explosion at US embassy in Turkey

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:07 ET

A blast outside the US embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, has killed at least one person, with reports that it was a suicide bomber.

Dozens of ambulances and fire engines rushed to the scene after the explosion, in an area which is home to diplomatic missions.

According to Turkish broadcaster NTV, the explosion caused no damage inside the embassy itself.

There were no reports of any group saying it had carried out the attack.

The AP news agency quoted police as saying two people had been killed in a suicide attack and NTV said two security guards at the entrance had died.

A number of illegal groups ranging from Kurdish separatists to leftist and Islamist militants have launched attacks in recent years in Turkey, which is a member of Nato.

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Detective jailed for NoW leak offer

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:08 ET

The first person to be prosecuted as part of the investigation into payments by journalists to officials has been sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Det Ch Insp April Casburn, 53, from Essex, was convicted last month of misconduct in public office.

She had called the News of the World, offering to sell information to the paper, after the inquiry into hacking by the tabloid reopened in 2010.

The sentencing judge called it "a corrupt attempt to make money".

The Metropolitan Police said it was "a great disappointment that a detective chief inspector in the counter terrorism command should have abused her position in this way".

Casburn had said she contacted the paper out of public interest, but Mr Justice Fulford said her offence could not be described as whistle-blowing.

She spoke to journalist Tim Wood about the fresh investigation into phone hacking and claimed she did so because she was concerned about counter-terror resources being wasted on the phone-hacking inquiry, which her colleagues saw as "a bit of a jolly".

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April Casburn goes to prison as the first person convicted as part of Operation Elveden.

During mitigation, her barrister argued that the exceptional nature of her offence - one 'mad telephone call' - should not lead to a precedent-setting sentence which would affect any future convictions relating to corrupt relationships between police and journalists.

But Mr Justice Fulford made clear she had no excuse for her actions - it was a straightforward and troubling case of corruption.

This was the key factor. He assessed that her actions had damaged the public's trust in the police and potentially damaged the integrity of a new investigation. There was, in his view, no defence of whistle-blowing - of speaking out in the public interest. And that's why he concluded that the public interest would be in jailing the disgraced detective.

The detective denied asking for money, but Mr Wood had made a note that she "wanted to sell inside information".

The newspaper did not print a story after the call and no money changed hands.

The judge, in his sentencing remarks, said Mr Wood was "a reliable, honest and disinterested witness" who had "absolutely no reason to lie".

"If the News of the World had accepted her offer, it's clear, in my view, that Ms Casburn would have taken the money and, as a result, she posed a significant threat to the integrity of this important police investigation," he said.

He told her it was "a corrupt attempt to make money out of sensitive and potentially very damaging information".

Mr Justice Fulford went on: "Activity of this kind is deeply damaging to the administration of criminal justice in this country. It corrodes the public's faith in the police force, it can lead to the acquittal or the failure by the authorities to prosecute individuals who have committed offences whether they are serious or otherwise."

Casburn is in the process of adopting a child, and the judge said had that not been the case she would have been sentenced to three years.

The judge said he was particularly concerned about the child, and admitted that her absence while she is in prison could be damaging.

However, he said that, had she not been arrested, the detective would have returned to work by now, and therefore the child would be cared for by others anyway.

The Sunday tabloid was closed down in 2011 amid outrage over its hacking into voicemails.

'Unhappy at work'

The offence happened in September 2010 when Casburn, from Hatfield Peverel, was managing the national terrorist financial investigation unit.

Ahead of sentencing, Casburn's defence team told the judge her only offence was "being very unhappy at work and making a mad telephone call" to the News of the World.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "We hope that the 15-month prison sentence handed down to this officer sends a strong message that the leaking of confidential information for personal gain is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

It said she had "betrayed the service and let down her colleagues", adding that there was "no place for corrupt officers or staff" in its police force.

Her arrest was one of 59 that have been made as part of the ongoing Operation Elveden investigation.

Operation Elveden is running alongside the Operation Weeting inquiry into phone hacking, and Operation Tuleta into allegations that computers were hacked to obtain private information.

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