IPCC ’under-equipped and hamstrung’
THE police watchdog is “woefully under-equipped and hamstrung” and does not have the power or resources to get to the truth, a scathing report by an influential group of MPs said today.
The Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC), which is currently investigating the Hillsborough Disaster in the UK’s biggest ever inquiry into police misconduct, should be given a statutory power to require a force to implement its findings, the Home Affairs Select Committee said.
And more cases should be investigated independently by the IPCC instead of being referred back to the original police force on a “complaints roundabout”.
PM’s ‘historic’ moment on poverty
DAVID Cameron is in Liberia today for talks on international development targets and will have a “historic opportunity” to lift 350 million children out of extreme poverty, charities said.
On the third leg of his tour of Africa, the Prime Minister will co-chair a United Nations meeting on what happens after the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) expire in 2015.
However, backing ambitious targets could fuel anger among Tory backbenchers at plans to raise aid spending to 0.7% of UK GDP.
Falklands talks offer turned down
ARGENTINA’S foreign minister has turned down the offer of talks with William Hague over the future of the Falklands, after the Foreign Secretary insisted that islanders should also be present.
Representatives of the Falkland Islands government were flying to London this weekend to tell Hector Timerman that Buenos Aires should respect islanders’ rights and leave them in peace.
But Mr Timerman, who had initially asked for a one-to-one meeting with the Foreign Secretary, last night said he would not accept the offer of a meeting involving the Port Stanley government, which Argentina does not recognise as legitimate.
Scientists identify stroke gene
A stroke gene has been identified that could help scientists save lives and prevent disability.
People with a mutant form of the ABO gene that determines blood group are more likely to have certain types of stroke, researchers found.
The research highlights differences between various of types of stroke, paving the way to personalised therapies.
Seabird pollution incident probed
AN investigation is continuing today into how 100 birds were washed up covered in a mysterious sticky substance on a 200-mile stretch of coastline.
The Royal Society for the Protection of Birds (RSPB) were called to the south coast yesterday after the troubled guillemots, a member of the auk family, were discovered on Lyme Bay near Weymouth, Dorset.
The seabirds have been taken to West Hatch Animal Centre in Taunton, Somerset, but early attempts to clean them have been hampered by not knowing what the substance is, the RSPB’s Grahame Madge said.
