David Cameron to rush out law for EU vote

 David Cameron will propose laws tomorrow to guarantee that the public is assured an in-out referendum on Britain’s membership of the European Union before the end of 2017.

Mr Cameron will spend much of this week in the US

 The Conservatives will take the highly unusual step of publishing “draft legislation” which would write into law the pledge made by the Prime Minister earlier this year.

The draft Bill will be published amid growing pressure from Tory MPs and ministers for a referendum to be guaranteed in law.

The development, which emerged in Washington tonight, came after Barack Obama effectively backed Mr Cameron’s attempts to renegotiate Britain’s relationship with the EU before ordering a referendum.

The president called for Mr Cameron to be given time to “fix” the EU, as he warned that Britain would lose influence if it ever left the single market.

The endorsement was hailed as a coup by Downing Street, 48 hours before a parliamentary vote called by Conservative MPs who are demanding that the referendum pledge is written into law.  

Venezuela MPs in punch-up over disputed election

Several legislators were left bloodied and bruised, with both opposition and pro-government lawmakers accusing each other of starting the fight.
A measure was earlier passed denying MPs the right to speak until they recognised Nicolas Maduro as president.
Official results show he narrowly beat opposition candidate Henrique Capriles, who has demanded a full recount.
The National Electoral Council (CNE) - which has rejected Mr Capriles' demand - on Monday said Mr Maduro had won by 1.49 percentage points, or fewer than 225,000 votes.
This came after the council had amended the final result, taking into account votes cast abroad.
In all, 99.79% of the votes have now been counted.
Earlier figures had shown a victory of 1.8 percentage points for Mr Maduro, who stood in the poll as the chosen successor of the late President Hugo Chavez. 
'Being silenced'

Julio Borges appeared on TV with facial bruises after the clashes

On Tuesday, the opposition said a number of its lawmakers were attacked and hurt in the parliament - the National Assembly.
One of the MPs, Julio Borges, later appeared on a local TV station with facial bruises.
"They can beat us, jail us, kill us, but we will not sell out our principles," Mr Borges was quoted as saying.
"These blows give us more strength."
The opposition said it was being "silenced" by National Assembly President Diosdado Cabello.
"I am going to ask you: Mr Deputy, do you recognise Nicolas Maduro?" Mr Cabello asked one of them. "If you say no, you don't get to speak in the assembly."
Pro-government representatives blamed the opposition for starting the clashes.
"Today again I had to defend [Hugo Chavez's] legacy," lawmaker Odalis Monzon was quoted as saying by Reuters.


Mr Capriles has demanded a vote-by-vote recount, but the CNE said it would be legally impossible to carry out.
It has, however, agreed to carry out a partial audit, which is expected to take until June. During the audit, 56% of the votes cast will be examined.
The CNE says the remaining 44% had been checked immediately after the election.
On Monday, Mr Capriles said Mr Maduro had "illegitimately stolen the presidency",
He has until 6 May to lodge his request with the Supreme Court contesting the election result.
Mr Capriles said he had "no doubt that this will end up before an international body".
Both Mr Capriles and Mr Maduro have urged their supporters to turn out for separate demonstrations on 1 May, sparking fears the two camps could clash.
Mr Maduro on Monday said he had changed the route of his march because he "did not want problems".
But the opposition says it continues to be targeted by the government, citing the arrest on Saturday of retired Gen Antonio Rivero as proof.
The opposition politician has been charged with criminal instigation and criminal association, after prosecutors blamed him for outbreaks of post-election violence.
Relatives of Gen Rivero says he is on a hunger strike in protest. 

Greeks stage 24-hour anti-austerity general strike

The 24-hour action is expected to severely disrupt public services, including transport and hospitals.
The organisers are demanding an end to spending cuts and tax rises.
The government says the measures are badly needed to lead Greece out of a deep financial crisis and six straight years of recession.
The cabinet of Prime Minister Antonis Samaras says the policies are part of continuing moves to ensure more bailout money from international creditors.
Cautious optimism The 24-hour strike officially began at midnight on Tuesday to mark labour day. May 1 is technically not a public holiday in Greece this year, as that has been moved to next Tuesday - after Orthodox Easter.
The BBC's Mark Lowen in Athens says public transport will be disrupted, ferries halted and hospitals will work on skeleton staff.
But he says it remains to be seen how big Tuesday's rallies will be, as there have been far fewer strikes and protests this year, and there is a feeling the civil unrest is beginning to die down.
Nevertheless, demonstrations are planned across the country, with police on alert for a repeat of past violence.
The two largest unions - GSEE and ADEDY - have said that the action will focus on demands to end austerity.

 

 May Day rallies are being held across the globe - including here in Tokyo

They say that government measures have led to the country's record unemployment rate of 27%, including almost 60% among young people.
Mr Samaras has defended his policies, insisting that this year of recession will be the country's last.
Our correspondent says that more than 20 general strikes have failed to halt the cuts, and the government feels emboldened by the cautious optimism of its international creditors.
Nearly 3bn euros (£2.5bn; $4bn) of bailout money were approved this week, with another 6bn euros set to come on 13 May.
Since 2010, the European Union and the IMF have promised more than 200bn euros in lending for Greece. Talk of exit from the eurozone has receded.
However, our correspondent says the optimism has not reached the streets, where the mood remains dire given the record unemployment levels.
Other May Day action has been taking place across in the world:

• Protesters demanding the execution of factory bosses over the deaths of hundreds in a recent building collapse in Bangladesh marched in their thousands in the capital, Dhaka
• Rallies have been called in more than 80 cities in Spain
• Thousands of Filipinos marched in Manila demanding the government protect jobs and improve worker contracts
• Cambodian workers rallied in Phnom Penh, calling for higher wages
• Some 55,000 marched in Indonesia's capital, Jakarta, protesting at low wages and outsourcing
• Trade unions held demonstrations in Tokyo, with calls for more youth employment one of the main focuses

Cuban opposition group Ladies in White collect prize

Several Ladies in White made the trip to Brussels to collect the award

Members of the Cuban opposition group Ladies in White have collected the Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought in Brussels.

They were awarded the prize by the European Parliament in 2005, but Cuba barred them from leaving the communist-run island to collect it.
The abolition of exit permits by the Cuban government in January made it possible for the women to travel.
They were given the prize for their campaign to free 75 jailed dissidents.
The Sakharov Prize for Freedom of Thought is awarded annually by the European Parliament to individuals or organisations who have dedicated their lives to the defence of human rights and freedom. It is named after the late Soviet dissident Andrei Sakharov.
In 2012, it went to Iranian activists Jafar Panahi and Nasrin Sotoudeh.
As she accepted the award on behalf of the group, Lady in White Laura Labrada said they had never lost faith that one day they would be able to collect the prize.
"We are mothers, wives, daughters and sisters of Cubans who find themselves in prison in Cuba for exercising the most sacred human right: to live according to one's own conscience," she said.
Ms Labrada collected the prize on behalf of her mother, co-founder of the Ladies in White Laura Pollan, who died in 2011

She was joined by other Ladies in White at the ceremony.

"You are the symbol of resistance against the Cuban government, and thousands of Cubans support you inside and outside the country," said the president of the European Parliament, Martin Schulz.
But in Havana, the Cuban Deputy Foreign Minister, Abelardo Moreno, suggested that other Cubans were more worthy of the award.
"I ask myself, would it not be worth giving prizes to the work of Cuban doctors in Haiti, for example?" he said.


'No change'
The Ladies in White was founded by the wives, sisters and friends of 75 jailed Cuban activists, who were rounded up and sentenced to long prison terms in 2003 as part of a crackdown on the opposition movement.
Dressed in white, the women march in silence in the Cuban capital, Havana, every Sunday, defying Cuba's ban on organised opposition and street demonstrations.
They are routinely detained and their protests broken up, but they say their protests have yielded results. All 75 prisoners they campaigned for have been released.
The Ladies continue their protest, now demanding that the convictions of the 75 be officially overturned.

Before travelling to Brussels to collect the prize, Ms Labrada told the BBC's Sarah Rainsford in Havana that they still suffered harassment at the hands of the Cuban police.
"The arrests continue. It's true the time in detention is less, but we're still repressed, still detained - and in big numbers. Just for thinking differently... This has not changed," she said.
The Cuban authorities say that the group is in the pay of the United States and forms part of Washington's "decades-old effort to undermine Cuba's socialist revolution".

Lloyds' branch sale to Co-op falls through.

   Lloyds' branch sale to Co-op falls through.

The planned sale of 632 UK bank branches by Lloyds Banking Group to the Co-op group has fallen through.


The Co-op blamed the continued economic downturn and tougher regulatory environment imposed on banks.
Lloyds said it will now seek to sell the branches as a stand-alone bank through a stock market listing.
It had been hoped that the Co-op's purchase of the branches would create a bigger competitor to the main high street banks.
Lloyds' chief executive Antonio Horta-Osorio said: "We are disappointed that the Co-operative Group is unable to complete this transaction."

The sales of the branches, known as Project Verde, was demanded by European regulators as the price for being bailed out by the UK government during the financial crisis.
The Lloyds statement said: "The Co-operative Group's board has decided that they can no longer proceed with a purchase of the Verde business given their view of the impact of the current economic environment, the worsened outlook for economic growth and the increasing regulatory requirements on the financial services sector in general."


During the summer the branches will be branded as TSB Bank, and the group will operate as a separate business within Lloyds ahead of a sale.
The Co-op's chief executive, Peter Marks, said: "After detailed and thorough consideration of all aspects of the Verde transaction, we have decided, at this time, that it is not in the best interests of our members to proceed with the transaction.

"Against the backdrop of the current economic environment, the worsened outlook for economic growth and the increasing regulatory requirements on the financial services sector in general, the Verde transaction would not currently deliver a suitable return for our members within a reasonable timeframe and with an acceptable level of risk."

The BBC's business editor, Robert Peston, said the Co-op's decision was a blow for the Treasury, which has been backing attempts to create powerful competitors to the UK's big high street banks. He said that the Co-op will now review the future of its banking business.


Challenger banks Lloyds, which is 39%-owned by the government, had a deadline of November 2013 to complete the sale in order to meet European Commission competition rules. But there have been reports over the past few months that the Co-op was going cool on the acquisition.
A flotation is unlikely to be possible until the second half of 2014, which would mean the UK government and Lloyds asking Brussels to extend its end-2013 deadline for the sale.
Co-op agreed in 2012 to buy the branches.
This involved the potential transfer of 4.6 million customers, including 3.5 million in England and Wales and the remainder in Scotland.


Customers in England and Wales had already received letters telling them of the move and giving them the option to stay with Lloyds. This information is still relevant, as customers of the branches being sold will still become customers of the new TSB Bank.
The aborted takeover would have created Britain's seventh-biggest bank with about 5% of personal current accounts and mortgage market and about 10% of the branch network.
A Treasury spokesman described the Co-op's move as "a commercial matter." However, he stressed that government remained committed to encouraging so-called "Challenger" banks to increase competition on the high street.

Peace Envoys From Taliban at Loose Ends in Qatar

DOHA, Qatar — When a handful of Taliban emissaries flew into Qatar on an American plane in 2010, the Obama administration hoped they would help negotiate a peace deal that could stabilize Afghanistan and allow the United States a graceful exit.

Three years after that secret arrival, the Taliban officials remain idle and their political office here remains unused.

“They are just living here enjoying the air-conditioning, driving luxury cars, eating and making babies,” one Afghan diplomat in Qatar said. “It’s all they can do; they have no work to do.”

They are unlikely to see a negotiating table anytime soon either, with the new fighting season in Afghanistan off to a particularly violent start and with the latest push to restart talks all but abandoned. Once again, the Taliban’s attention is on the battlefield, and on what may be gained or lost there as the American military begins its withdrawal from the war.

The Taliban presence here — eight or more relatively high-ranking officials with their families, Afghan officials say — is occasionally reconfirmed in a sighting on the streets or, in the case of the Afghan diplomat, when the Taliban men come to the sleepy Afghan Embassy here to register the birth of another child.

Early insurgent negotiations with American officials had a faltering start, initially over a proposed prisoner exchange, in which five Taliban figures being held at Guantánamo Bay, Cuba, would be released in exchange for the freedom of the lone American soldier being held prisoner by the Taliban, Sgt. Bowe Bergdahl. But American officials say that their talks have ended and that there have been no further discussions with the Taliban since early 2012.

Recently, Western diplomats in Kabul, Afghanistan’s capital, expressed hope that the discussions might resume amid intense diplomatic activity by many countries to push peace talks, this time led by Afghanistan. That hope now appears to have fizzled once again, and diplomats’ expectations of some movement by the end of March from the Taliban side have come to naught. President Hamid Karzai met here with the Qatari emir, Sheik Hamad bin Khalifa al-Thani, on March 31 in what Afghan officials billed as discussions about opening the office, but no developments were announced after the meeting.

“There is a limit to how long we can wait,” said another Western diplomat familiar with the peace efforts. “If at some point they don’t issue statements, it’s not open-ended. There are ways we can pressure the Taliban in Qatar.”

Officially, the Qataris have never explicitly admitted that the Taliban are even present here, and the government-controlled press never mentions it, although they have acknowledged that they are willing to host an official office for peace talks.

Qatari officials did not respond to requests for comment about the Taliban presence.

“With the Taliban, the Qataris have a hot potato,” said an Afghan journalist working here, who spoke on the condition of anonymity for fear of being expelled. “How do you handle hosting suicide bombers? They can’t acknowledge them until that sort of activity stops.”

The Taliban representatives here are not lightweights. The most prominent among them is Tayeb Agha, the chief of staff to the Taliban’s leader, Mullah Muhammad Omar. Others include Sher Mohammad Abbas Stanikzai, the former Taliban health minister, and Qari din Mohammed Hanafi, their former minister of planning. The delegation includes veteran diplomats like Mualavi Shahabadin Delawar, the former Taliban ambassador to Saudi Arabia; Sohail Shaheen, a former ambassador to Pakistan; and Hafiz Aziz Rahman, the representative to the United Nations for the Taliban government when it ruled Afghanistan.

Just why the effort to open a Taliban office has faltered is a matter of dispute. The Americans say the Taliban have simply decided to continue fighting, worried by pressure from their own hard-liners and concerned that entering peace talks would sap their will on the battlefield. “No one wants to be the last one to die before peace talks start,” as one diplomat put it.

The Taliban say the Americans reneged on their confidence-building pledge to free the Guantánamo five, which would have been politically difficult for President Obama, given bipartisan opposition in Congress to such releases. Instead, the Americans insisted that talks would have to include the Afghan government first. The Taliban has rejected that condition, deriding the government of President Hamid Karzai as a puppet regime and saying it would talk to the Afghan government only after reaching a settlement with the Americans.

Still, neither Western diplomats nor the Taliban have given up on the idea of talks in Qatar. “There are Taliban all over the place talking about peace, but the U.S. government’s view is that the most promising is the Doha track,” one diplomat said.

Wahid Muzhda, a former official in the Taliban’s Foreign Ministry who now lives in Kabul but maintains contacts with the insurgents, said that “some of the Taliban still believe it’s worth having the office there, but its prospects do look dim.”

Both Taliban and American officials publicly agree on one thing: that they are no longer talking to each another, officially or unofficially.

That, however, is a development that the Afghan government has refused to believe. President Karzai has openly accused the Americans of doing so. “We think they are secretly talking,” the Afghan diplomat in Qatar said. “America is the best friend of Afghanistan, and between friends we should tell each other what we’re doing.”

The Afghans have not tried to block the Qatari initiative. “It suits everybody,” said the Afghan journalist working in Doha. “The Americans want their soldier back, the Taliban want a vacation, the Pakistanis want the Taliban to look independent of them, and the Afghans want distance between the Pakistanis and the Taliban.”

While in Qatar, the Taliban have scrupulously avoided all public appearances, refusing interviews and issuing no statements — which the Qataris have made a condition of their presence.

An Afghan diplomat was at a shopping mall in Doha recently and heard a child call out in Pashto, the language used by most Taliban.

The diplomat turned and saw Hanif din Mohammad, a Taliban representative from northern Badakhshan Province. Introducing himself as an embassy official, the diplomat then said, “So, are you from the other side?” Blushing, the Talib turned and walked away, children in tow.        

Austria: Ex-priest charged in 15 child abuse cases

VIENNA (AP) — Austrian authorities have charged a defrocked priest with sexually abusing 15 children as head of a Catholic boarding school.
They say Alfons August Mandorfer is also accused of torturing and neglecting young boys under his care between 1973 and 1993, when he was director of the school run by a monastery in the Upper Austrian town of Kremsmuenster.
But spokesman Andreas Pechatschek of the regional public prosecutor's office says most of the charges against the 79-year old are based on suspicion of "numerous crimes of a sexual nature."
Mandorfer was dismissed as a priest after several former pupils accused him several years ago of abuse.
Hundreds of alleged sexual victims of Catholic clergy in Austria have come forward in recent years as part of pedophilia accusations rocking the church internationally.

Executions And Death Penalty Figures Revealed

Executions are becoming less acceptable, Amnesty says, but China still puts thousands of convicts to death.

Death sentences are "becoming a thing of the past", according to campaigners, despite at least 682 confirmed executions across the globe last year.

That is just two more executions - including beheadings, hangings and firing squads - than in 2011, according to Amnesty International.
A total of 21 countries were confirmed as having carried out executions in 2012, the same number as in 2011. Amnesty said this was significantly down from levels a decade ago, when 28 countries carried out executions in 2003.
The number of deaths sentences imposed fell from 1,923 in 63 countries in 2011 to 1,722 in 58 countries over the next 12 months.
Amnesty International secretary general Salil Shetty said there was a "worldwide trend against using the death penalty".
"In many parts of the world, executions are becoming a thing of the past," he said.
"Only one in 10 countries in the world carries out executions.
"Their leaders should ask themselves why they are still applying a cruel and inhumane punishment that the rest of the world is leaving behind."
The five countries that carried out the most executions last year were China, Iran, Iraq, Saudi Arabia and USA, Amnesty said.
But the figures for the total number of death sentences do not include China, which is believed to perform thousands every year, because reliable data is not available.
Some human rights activist claim up to 8,000 people are put to death by the state in China every year.
The US executed 43 people in 2012, the same figure as in the previous year. A total of 77 new death sentences were imposed, the second lowest since the Supreme Court revised capital punishment laws in 1976, Amnesty said.
The latest death sentence was carried out in Texas as the report was published, with Rickey Lewis being put to death by lethal injection for the murder of a man and the rape of his wife during a break-in.
Amnesty expressed concern at a resumption of executions in several countries - India, Japan, Pakistan and Gambia - that had not used the death penalty for some time.
And the organisation flagged an escalation in the number of executions in Iraq in 2012, with the figure up to at least 129, which included 34 executions carried out in a single day.
The 'Deaths Sentences and Executions in 2012' report was released just days after Briton Lindsay Sandiford lost her appeal against her death sentence in Bali for smuggling £1.6m worth of cocaine.

Afghanistan peace deal with Taliban needed, say MPs

The start of an Afghan-led peace deal with the Taliban is needed to secure the future of Afghanistan after British troops leave, a group of MPs has said.

The Defence Select Committee warned that failure to do so could lead to civil war in Afghanistan.
The UK had a responsibility to use its influence to "make Afghanistan work" after 2014, the MPs added.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said the UK would help Afghans to reach "a sustainable political settlement".
The MPs' report focused on the planned withdrawal of UK combat troops at the end of 2014 and the transfer of responsibilities to the Afghan National Security Forces (ANSF).
The committee said it wanted to see:

• Open and free elections
• An appropriately trained and equipped ANSF with continuing financial support
• A strong judicial system that protects human rights
• Continued development aid
• Effective measures to tackle corruption and the drug trade

'Starkly opposing' The committee highlighted significant gaps in the capabilities of the ANSF in areas such as helicopters and close air support and medical care.
Committee chairman James Arbuthnot, said: "We have received starkly opposing predictions for Afghanistan's outlook, post 2014.

“Start Quote

The fact that Afghan security forces are now leading on more than 80% of all security operations across the country shows we are well on the way”

Defence Secretary Philip Hammond

"The fact is that the UK has limited influence. Indeed, it is for the Afghan people themselves to determine their own future.

"However, the UK and its international partners must show the Afghan people that they will abide by their obligations to continue to support them in their efforts."
The MPs said they had received "very little" information about the involvement of the Ministry of Defence and the UK Foreign Office in Afghanistan beyond 2014.


Viable State
There are currently 9,000 British service personnel in Afghanistan, reducing to 5,200 by the end of 2013.
The committee called on the government to provide detailed plans and costs for withdrawal to ensure the protection of military personnel.
Defence Secretary Philip Hammond said: "I welcome the publication of this report which shares our vision of an Afghanistan that can maintain its own security and never again be a safe haven for international terrorism.
"The fact that Afghan security forces are now leading on more than 80% of all security operations across the country shows we are well on the way to achieving that aim."
He added: "The UK is dedicated to helping the Afghan government make progress towards a sustainable political settlement and a stable regional environment, and to help the Afghan people build a viable Afghan state.
"We will continue to support governance and development in Afghanistan through the next decade, with £178m per year of development aid agreed until 2017, to ensure that the progress made will not be lost."

The fact that Afghan security forces are now leading on more than 80% of all security operations across the country shows we are well on the way”

                                                                        ......Defence Secretary Philip Hammond

Why did daddy kill that girl? Backpacker murder suspect's wife tells of children's disbelief

Sarah Groves, 24, was stabbed 40 times in Kashmir on Saturday morning

Dutch national Richard de Wit has confessed to the brutal murder

Wife of de Wit says he had become 'increasingly paranoid and irrational'

De Wit abandoned wife and two children to go travelling six months ago.    

    

                                                                                                                                              

The wife of the Dutch tourist accused of murdering a British backpacker in India yesterday told how her children had asked her: ‘Why has daddy killed that woman?’
Thai bride Uma Rupanya said her husband of ten years, Richard de Wit, had become increasingly paranoid and psychotic before abandoning the family six months ago to go travelling.
The first she learned of her husband’s alleged crime was when Dutch officers arrived to tell her that de Wit, 43, had confessed to the murder of former public schoolgirl Sarah Groves, 24, on a houseboat.
Miss Groves, a fitness instructor from Guernsey, was stabbed 45 times in a frenzied 15-minute knife attack at Lake Dal, near Kashmir’s capital Srinagar.
Yesterday Miss Rupanya, who is blind in one eye and suffers from multiple sclerosis, said she does not know what to say to her two daughters, aged 12 and ten.
‘I want to protect them but don’t know how,’ she said.
Jobless de Wit, said to be 7ft tall, fled the murder scene in a stolen rowing boat, which capsized before he swam to shore.
He was arrested by police, dripping wet, with £2,000 stuffed in his underwear and wearing no shoes, 50 miles away.
According to Indian police, he later said he murdered Miss Groves after being taken over by the devil.
Yesterday, Miss Rupanya, 31, said she was in a state of shock and felt immense sorrow for Miss Groves’s family. She told the Daily Mail: ‘My husband left us in November. He was seeing a psychiatrist but had become increasingly irrational and paranoid.

 

More...

• 'We begged her not to go': Tears of Sarah's father as he reveals he pleaded with her to stay away from Indian houseboat where she was stabbed to death
• 'The devil took over my body'... says the 7ft Dutchman accused of stabbing to death 'wonderful' British tourist, 24, on Indian houseboat
• British backpacker fought desperately for her life as 'Dutch killer' knifed her 45 times, doctors reveal

‘He believed the Government was out to get him, that spies were following him, that the house was bugged.
‘He had stopped taking his anti-psychotic medication also.
'He said he had to leave for his and our safety. I was very worried about him but never expected something like this to happen.
‘It’s just so awful. He was a good father to our children, he was never violent towards me and he did not take drugs, although I have heard that he started to smoke cannabis after he left us.

‘I feel angry as he left me with a few thousands euros to live on, he knew I couldn’t work or provide for the children myself because of my disability. 

'I just have to try to be strong and be a good mother the best I can but it is a very dark time for us.

‘My children are very angry too. They ask me “why has daddy killed that woman?” I don’t know what to say. I want to protect them but don’t know how.’

De Wit, a former councillor for an extreme right-wing party in his home town of Ridderkerk, met his wife while on holiday in Thailand 13 years ago when he went into her brother’s clothes shop where she worked as a sales assistant.

They had their two daughters before marrying in November 2002.  At the time, Miss Rupanya was seriously ill after giving birth to their second child so the ceremony took place from her hospital bed in Rotterdam’s Erasmus Hospital.

Speaking from the tiny apartment they shared together in the town of Capelle aan den Ijssel, she said: ‘Richard never worked. He stayed at home and played on the computer. 

'At the weekend he would take our children to the museum.
‘After he left us, he would phone and email to see how we were. But I felt very let down.
‘The last time I spoke to him was two days before the murder. He seemed OK and said he was enjoying India. I still can’t believe this has happened.’
De Wit, who has two children from a previous relationship, posted a rambling video online shortly before he left for India detailing his delusional fears that the Dutch authorities were after him and were trying to frame him for a fictitious bomb plot.
He remains in custody in India.

Margaret Thatcher funeral set for next week

The funeral of Baroness Thatcher will take place on Wednesday, 17 April, Downing Street has announced.

The 87-year-old former prime minister died on Monday, after suffering a series of strokes.
The funeral ceremony, with full military honours, will take place at London's St Paul's Cathedral, following a procession from Westminster.
The Queen, accompanied by the Duke of Edinburgh, will attend the service, Buckingham Palace said.
Lady Thatcher will not have a state funeral but will be accorded the same status as Princess Diana and the Queen Mother.
Meeting A ceremonial funeral is one rung down from a state funeral - normally reserved for monarchs - and requires the consent of the Queen.
A Downing Street spokesman said the details had been agreed at a "co-ordination meeting" between the Thatcher family and Buckingham Palace on Tuesday morning.

In other developments:

• The Premier League and the Football League say they will not be asking clubs to hold a one-minute silence at forthcoming fixtures
• UK and international leaders continue to pay tribute
• Several police are injured and arrests are made as violence breaks out at events "celebrating" Lady Thatcher's death
• Former Prime Minister Tony Blair says such parties are "in poor taste"
• Northern Ireland Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness urges people to "resist celebrating the death of Margaret Thatcher"

Lady Thatcher, a Conservative, was the UK's first female prime minister. She was in office from 1979 to 1990, winning three successive general elections.
She died "peacefully" after suffering a stroke while staying at the Ritz hotel in central London. Lady Thatcher had been staying at the hotel since being discharged from hospital at the end of last year.
An undertaker's van carrying a silver casket left the hotel early on Tuesday morning for an undisclosed location.

Parliament will be recalled from its Easter recess this Wednesday to enable MPs and peers to pay tributes.

But Labour MP John Mann said: "I do not know why we are wasting taxpayers' money on an additional session.
"It is perfectly valid that, when a prime minister dies, MPs can pay tribute, but this could be perfectly properly done on Monday."
However, a large number of Labour MPs are expected to pay tribute to Lady Thatcher, a senior party source said.
Respect MP George Galloway said he would not attend, as genuine debate was "not allowed". He called the event a "state-organised eulogy".
Prime Minister David Cameron has described Lady Thatcher as a "great Briton" and international leaders, including US President Barack Obama and German Chancellor Angela Merkel have praised her global role.
But small gatherings happened on Monday night in various parts of the UK, notably in Glasgow, Bristol and London, with those taking part saying they were celebrating her death.
Seven officers were injured in Bristol, where violent broke out and bins were set alight. One person was arrested on suspicion of violent disorder.
The Metropolitan Police reported low-level disturbances in Brixton, south-east London, including missiles being thrown at police. Two women were arrested on suspicion of burglary after being found inside a shop.
Labour leader Ed Miliband "categorically condemns any celebration of Lady Thatcher's death", a senior party source said.
They added: "As he made clear yesterday she was a huge figure in British politics and on the world stage.
"While the Labour Party disagrees with much of what she did, we can respect her personal achievements."
Lady Thatcher was born Margaret Roberts, the daughter of a shopkeeper and Conservative councillor in Grantham, Lincolnshire, in 1925. She became an MP in 1959.
Having been education secretary, she successfully challenged former Prime Minister Edward Heath for her party's leadership in 1975 and won general elections in 1979, 1983 and 1987.
Lady Thatcher resigned as prime minister in 1990 and had been in poor health for several years prior to her death.

Deadly quake in south-west Iran's Bushehr province

 

A 6.3 magnitude earthquake has killed at least 37 people and injured 850 in south-west Iran, officials say.

Rescue teams have been sent to the affected area, but darkness is hampering rescue operations.
The quake struck 90km (60 miles) south of the country's only nuclear power station in Bushehr, the US Geological Survey (USGS) says.
However, the nuclear plant has not been affected and is working normally, officials have said.
The quake was felt across the Gulf in Dubai, Abu Dhabi and Bahrain.
Some 10,000 people are thought to live in the affected area in more than 50 villages, two of which have reportedly been completely levelled.
Bushehr's governor says 700 houses have been damaged and 200 families affected.
The governor's office has sent generators to the area so rescue operation can continue overnight, the BBC's Mohsen Asgari in Tehran reports.
Seismologists said the quake struck at 16:22 (11:52 GMT) at a depth of 10km (6.2 miles) near the town of Kaki, south of Bushehr - a Gulf port city that is home to Iran's first and only nuclear power plant.
Iran's seismological centre in Bushehr province, linked to Tehran University, registered the quake at a magnitude of 6.1.

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It was a very strange sensation, rather like being on a rocking boat”

Phil Stevens Office worker in Abu Dhabi

Tens of aftershocks - the strongest measuring a magnitude of 5.4 - struck within an hour, sending many people into the streets for safety.

State media reported that phone lines had been brought down by the quake and its aftershocks.
The earthquake shook buildings across the Gulf.
"Our entire building started to wobble from side to side for around 30 seconds or so," Phil Stevens, working on the 10th floor of a building in Abu Dhabi, told the BBC.
"It was a very strange sensation, rather like being on a rocking boat. We evacuated our office and quickly learned of the earthquake in Iran."

Fault line
The governor of Bushehr, Fereydoun Hassanvand, told Iranian state TV that the nuclear plant was not damaged.
An official with the Russian firm Atomstroyexport told Russian media that the quake "in no way affected the normal situation at the reactor".
"Personnel continue to work in the normal regime and radiation levels are fully within the norm," the official was quoted by Russian state news agency Ria as saying.
Iran's nuclear programme has roused concern among major powers that Tehran wants to build nuclear weapons - a charge Iran strongly denies.
Iran straddles a major geological fault line, making it prone to seismic activity. In 2003, an earthquake in the city of Bam left more than 25,000 people dead.