British ministers are refusing to cooperate with the US criminal investigation into allegations of corruption against BAE, Britain’s biggest arms company, the Guardian can disclose.
More than two months after an official request for mutual legal assistance (MLA) was received from Washington, the home secretary, Jacqui Smith, has not yet allowed it to be acted upon. The US investigators believe the British are being obstructive.
– The Guardian
A schoolboy brandishes an AK-47 assault rifle on a suburban railway platform at teatime.
In pictures captured on closed circuit television, he loads the Kalashnikov, lifts it to his shoulder and aims it at a terrified construction worker.
But even though the workman’s boss immediately dialled 999, a dispute between Greater Manchester Police and their colleagues in the British Transport Police left the boys free to travel to a nearby station and escape.
– The Daily Mail
The government is poised to use the Parliament Act 1949 to force through a law allowing the most complex fraud cases to be tried without a jury.
Ministers are expected to reintroduce a bill providing for fraud trials to be tried by a judge alone after three previous attempts to legislate failed, and to invoke the Parliament Act, if necessary, to get it on the statute book.
–The Guardian
Criminals responsible for almost five million crimes reported to the police last year escaped any punishment by the courts, it has emerged.
Home Office research revealed that – of 5.4 million crimes logged by officers – only one in eight ended with a criminal charge or summons being made.
– The Daily Mail
