UK News:
Over night, there was a severe disturbance at
Yarl's Wood, a detention centre for
immigrants whose applications to enter the UK have been refused. Several fires were started, apparently deliberately, in one wing of the centre, which cost
£100 000 000 to build. At the time of writing, the fires were said to be under control. Several inmates of the centre managed to escape the compound during the distrubance, which is thought to have been premeditated. Numbers of casualties from the fires are not yet known. It is thought that the inmates of the centre had been unhappy about healthcare provisions made for them at the centre, which are said to be deeply inadequate. Reports also indicate that the practice of handcuffing inmates when taking them for external medical treatment had provoked resentment at the centre, which is near
Bedford.
Today saw the
funeral of
Princess Margaret, fifty years to the day after the funeral of her father,
George VI. The Princess's funeral at
St George's Chapel,
Windsor, was attended by family and close friends, after which her body was cremated at
Slough, and her ashes placed in the royal vault at Windsor. She was the first senior member of the
British Royal Family to be
cremated, a step taken to fulfil her wish to be buried in the vault along with her father. Queen Elizabeth the
Queen Mother attended the funeral, despite having injured herself in a fall two days previously.
Jo Moore, a '
spin doctor' working for controversial Transport minister
Stephen Byers, faced calls for her resignation after it was alleged that she proposed releasing damning statistics about the state of
Britain's railways during Princess Margaret's funeral. Ms Moore faced similar calls last year when it was revealed that during the collapse of the
World Trade Center twin towers, she had sent an e-mail to a colleage announcing that she considered it a 'good day to bury bad news'. The latest accusation was not substantiated to the same extent as the previous one, but the facts were rapidly becoming lost under a pile of claims and counter-claims from different arms of the
civil service. It was announced toward the end of the day that Ms Moore and a colleague had resigned.
The
Labour Party has held the southern
Wales constituency of
Ogmore with a reduced majority, following a by-election prompted by the death of the previous
MP,
Sir Ray Powell. Labour has held the seat since
1918.
Results in full:
Captain Beany - New Millennium Bean Party 122
Guto Bebb - Conservative 1 377
Reverend David Braid - Independent 100
Leslie Edwards - Official Monster Raving Loony Party 187
Bleddyn Hancock - Plaid Cymru 3 827
Chris Herriot - Socialist Labour 1 152
Jeff Hurford - Welsh Socialist Alliance 205
Huw Irranca-Davies - Labour 9 548
Jonathan Spink - Green Party 250
Veronica Watkins - Liberal Democrat 1 608
Labour majority: 5 721
Conservative lead over Socialist Labour: 225
Afghanistan News:
Civil Aviation Minister
Abdul Rahman died of injuried sustained when he was set upon by a group of about 1 000 pilgrims at
Kabul Airport. The group, who were departing for the
Hajj, had been delayed for two days, and had heard a rumour that Mr Rahman had cancelled another flight to
Saudi Arabia. Nobody was arrested after the incident, and it remains unclear why Mr Rahman was at the airport.
Hamid Karzai subsequently claimed that the majority of the pilgrims had nothing to do with the minister's death, and blamed factions within his own government form arranging the assassination.
UK
Foreign Secretary Jack Straw arrived in Kabul today for talks with acting President
Hamid Karzai and Foreign Minister
Abdullah Abdullah. They are expected to discuss the expansion of
ISAF, the
International Security Assistance Force, to cover areas further from Kabul. He will also visit British troops stationed with ISAF, and is likely to agree the transfer of ISAF command to
Turkey.
Kabul United played the ISAF
XI in a
soccer match in Kabul Olympic Stadium today. The stadium, known in recent years for the brutal
Taliban executions carried out there, was symbolically rededicated to its rightful use. In recent years, it has not been unusual to see corpses hanging from the goalposts during a match. However, as the match was supposed to be getting under way, thousands of locals who had not purchased tickets attempted to storm the ground, and had to be repulsed by local police and international peacekeepers. A crowd of 25 000 turned out to watch the match, but Jack Straw, who had been planning to attend, stayed away after the murder of minister Abdul Rahman. Both sides had had training from British professional footballers, and the ball had been signed by players from
Liverpool and
Manchester United. A minute's silence was observed before the match in memory of Mr Rahman.
Final score: ISAF XI 3 Kabul United 1