Simon Cowell congratulates The Voice over ratings win

Simon Cowell is one of the judges on the Britain's Got Talent show

Simon Cowell has congratulated the BBC after The Voice was watched by more viewers than Britain's Got Talent over the weekend.

The music and media mogul praised BBC1 controller Danny Cohen and The Voice via Twitter.

He wrote: "A slightly irritated congrats to Danny and the BBC."

An average of 9.5 million viewers watched The Voice, compared with 9.1 million for BGT, according to statistics from the two broadcasters.

The BBC's singing competition also had a bigger share of the audience - 41.1% - when it aired between 1900 BST and 2020 BST. ITV's talent show had a 37.3% share when it was broadcast between 2000 BST and 2115 BST.

Mr Cowell also made a light-hearted reference to Pudsey the dancing dog who appeared on Saturday night's Britain's Got Talent show, saying the The Voice "didn't have a dancing dog".

He added: "I thought our team made a fantastic show last night and congrats to them as well. Loving the show this year."

ITV said Saturday's broadcast of Britain's Got Talent was watched by a peak audience of 11.9 million - 11.3 million excluding ITV's +1 channel - representing a 47% share of viewing.

The Voice's peak was lower at 10.7 million. But the BBC said it had won "by a massive margin" in the 20-minute crossover after 2000 BST when the two shows went head-to-head.

The Voice averaged 10 million during this period, against 6.2 million for Britain's Got Talent, the BBC said.

Abu Hamza US extradition backed by European Court

The European Court of Human Rights has backed the extradition of Abu Hamza and four other terror suspects from the UK to the US.

The Strasbourg court held there would be no violation of human rights for those facing life and solitary confinement in a "supermax" prison.

Judges said they would consider further the case of another suspect because of mental health issues.

Prime Minister David Cameron said he was "very pleased" with the news.

"It's quite right that we have a proper legal process, although sometimes you can be frustrated by how long things take," he added.

The court's decision is one of its most important since 9/11 because it approves of human rights in US maximum security prisons, making it easier for the UK to send suspects to its closest ally.

There could still hypothetically be an appeal against the court's ruling in its final Grand Chamber - but in practice, very few cases are re-examined in that final forum.

The men have three months to try to persuade the Grand Chamber to reopen the entire case and examine it. If the men fail to launch an appeal, they will be extradited to the United States.

The family of one of the men, Babar Ahmad, who has been held for a record of nearly eight years without trial, said he would fight on against extradition.

Last week, he appealed in a BBC interview to be charged and tried in the UK because his alleged crimes were committed here.


Babar Ahmad: Unconvicted and held for almost eight years without trial - a British record
Home Secretary Theresa May welcomed the ruling, and said she would work to ensure that the suspects were handed over to the US authorities "as quickly as possible".

The US Justice Department also said it was "pleased" about the decision on the five.

"We look forward to the court's decision becoming final and to the extradition of these defendants to stand trial in the United States," it said in a statement.

In the case of the sixth suspect, Haroon Aswat, it said officials would "consult" with the UK's Home Office about the additional submission requested.

The European Court said there would be no breach of human rights if the men were to be held in solitary confinement at ADX Florence, a Federal Supermax jail in Colorado, used for people convicted of terrorism offences.

Continue reading the main story
The Florence 'Supermax' jail

ADX Supermax Florence, Colorado, is also known as the Alcatraz of the Rockies.

It is reportedly equipped with 1,400 remote-controlled steel doors, motion detectors, pressure pads and gun towers.

Solitary confinement is a regular way of life in supermax regimes, with prisoners locked up for at least 23 hours each day.

Supporters say supermaxes are the most appropriate way to house the worst of the worst in the prison population.

Critics say they are an affront to human rights and tantamount to torture.

Abu Hamza is unlikely to be held at that jail because of his disabilities. The court also held that the life sentences each man faces would not breach human rights.

But in Mr Aswat's case, judges said they could not yet give the go-ahead to extradition because they needed to see more submissions on his schizophrenia and how that would be treated were he sent to the US.

The court said that the range of activities and services at ADX Florence was better than that at many European prisons.

It said: "Having fully considered all the evidence from both parties, including specifically prepared statements by officials at ADX Florence as well as letters provided by the US Department of Justice, the court held that conditions at ADX would not amount to ill-treatment.

"As concerned ADX's restrictive conditions and lack of human contact, the court found that, if the applicants were convicted as charged, the US authorities would be justified in considering them a significant security risk and in imposing strict limitations on their ability to communicate with the outside world.


Home Secretary Theresa May: "It was not right to prosecute in the UK"
"The court finds that there are adequate opportunities for interaction between inmates. While inmates are in their cells talking to other inmates is possible, admittedly only through the ventilation system.

"Save for cases involving the death penalty, it has even more rarely found that there would be a violation of Article 3 (that no-one shall be subjected to torture or to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment) if an applicant were to be removed to a state which had a long history of respect of democracy, human rights and the rule of law."

Abu Hamza is charged with offences relating to hostage taking in Yemen and an alleged plot to set-up a terrorism training camp in the United States. Haroon Aswat is also accused in connection to the training camp.

Babar Ahmad and Talha Ahsan are accused of supporting terrorism through a website operated in London.

The final two men, Adel Abdul Bary and Khaled al-Fawwaz, allegedly played a part in organising the 1998 US Embassy bombings in East Africa.

The law firm representing Babar Ahmad and others in the case - Birnberg Peirce and Partners - said the court had made its decision "in large part on the basis of disputed statistics provided by the UK government to which the applicants were not permitted to respond".

It also stressed that the judgement did not address the "burning issue" of "why in all logic, fairness, and practical common sense are not British citizens (whose UK actions are forming the basis of prosecution in the US, and where all of the evidence on which they are being tried was accumulated in its entirety in the UK by UK police and shipped lock stock and barrel to US prosecutors), being tried in their own country?"

In an unrelated case earlier this year, the European Court blocked the deportation from the UK of a different radical cleric, Abu Qatada, to Jordan, saying he faced an unfair trial.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper welcomed the ruling against Abu Hamza, but added: "The government now needs to focus on dealing with Abu Qatada, who could have less than a month left of his strict bail conditions, and where the government's own decision to water down counter-terror powers could mean he is allowed to move around London."

Actor Vinnie Jones CPR heart advert cleared by watchdog

An advert showing actor Vinnie Jones carrying out CPR has been cleared by a watchdog of complaints he performed the resuscitation technique incorrectly.

The British Heart Foundation (BHF) TV and internet campaign showed the former footballer using "hands-only" CPR.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) said 20 people complained the advert could lead to unsafe behaviour.

But it said the advert had been prepared with the help of the UK's Resuscitation Council.

And it was in line with European Resuscitation Council guidelines, the watchdog added.

Cardiac arrest
In the advertising campaign, Jones says: "There are times in life when being tough comes in handy. Say some geezer collapses in front of you. What do you do? We need a volunteer that ain't breathing."

An apparently unconscious man is slid across the floor to him.

Jones continues: "First off you call 999. Then no kissing. You only kiss your missus on the lips."

He is then shown carrying out "hard and fast" chest compressions to the beat of the Bee Gees' song Stayin' Alive.

The ASA said people complained the ad was harmful because they believed it showed incorrect CPR methods.

The BHF said the campaign aimed to increase bystander intervention in instances of cardiac arrest.

The heart charity said it knew of 15 cases of people applying what they had learned from the advert with a positive outcome.

'Untrained individuals'
It added that fewer than 10% of people suffering a cardiac arrest out of a hospital survived - a survival rate which it described as "appalling".

The BHF said that while chest compressions could occasionally injure a casualty, a broken rib or bruising was a small price to pay.

The ASA said: "We noted the ad aimed to teach untrained individuals how they could help in situations where CPR was required, noting the on-screen text and voice-over at the end of the ad that stated: 'Hands-only CPR. It's not as hard as it looks'.

"We considered that that made clear the ad was teaching hands-only CPR, and did not believe that trained individuals would consider the messages of the 40-second ad to override their own CPR training.

"Because the ad showed correct techniques for hands-only CPR, we concluded the ad was not harmful and did not encourage unsafe behaviour."

Hours spent driving children about, AA survey suggests

A third of parents spend between 10 and 49 hours a month per child ferrying their children about by car, a survey suggests.

The AA Driving School poll of more than 6,000 parents found a minority (2%) spent at least 50 hours a month.

The motoring organisation said this was equivalent to many people's annual leave of 25 days a year.

Mark Peacock, head of AA Driving School, said: "Mum and dad's taxi is still very much in operation."

Spending on hobbies
He added: "Besides taking up a lot of time, parents' driving habits can influence the drivers their children will become later in life so it's important they set a good example on these journeys.

"Hopefully many of those hours spent driving the children to their activities will be repaid when they are old enough to drive themselves and keen to get behind the wheel - even if it's just popping to the supermarket to help their mum out."

AA Driving School said that families with more than one child could spend much longer driving their children around.

The AA/Populus research also found that just under a fifth (19%) of parents said they spend at least £1,200 a year per child on hobbies and activities, including the transport costs of getting them there.

Parents in London appeared to fork out the most, with one in 20 spending more than £200 per child every month on such activities.

AA Driving School said that was equal to parents spending £43,200 for each offspring through their childhood up to the age of 18.

Alex Salmond bamboozled the public with panda advert

Alex Salmond's Scottish Government has been rapped by the advertising watchdog for claiming the Edinburgh Zoo pandas as a "gift" that demonstrates the close relationship between Scotland and China.

The arrival of the bears was in fact part of a "commercial arrangement" between the zoo and the Communist authorities, according to a ruling from the Advertising Standards Authority, which banned future claims that the animals were provided without payment.

In press adverts, Mr Salmond's SNP administration boasted that China's "gifting" of Tian Tian and Yan Guang showed that Scotland had developed an especially close relationship with the world's fastest-growing country.

However after investigating the funding of the pandas, the ASA ruled that ordinary people would deem them to have been acquired as a result of a commercial agreement. In exchange for the pandas – the first to arrive in the UK for 17 years – Edinburgh Zoo's owner, the Royal Zoological Society of Scotland, is paying China £640,000 annually for 10 years to fund panda conservation.

The ASA banned Mr Salmond's government from repeating the claim.

Edinburgh Zoo, which was experiencing falling visitor numbers, is hoping the pandas will revive its financial fortunes. But they have not come cheap: their enclosures have also cost £250,000 and the animals' food, including imported bamboo, costs £70,000 a year.

In December, Mr Salmond, Scotland's First Minister, travelled to China for a trade mission timed to coincide with the pandas' arrival in Edinburgh onboard a FedEx Panda Express jet. To mark the public relations coup, the Scottish Government placed newspaper adverts featuring a picture of Tian Tian. The ad said: "Now, in a symbolic gesture of friendship between the countries, and following five years of political and diplomatic talks, the Chinese are gifting two giant pandas to live in Scotland, under the custodianship of Edinburgh Zoo."

The charities Animal Concern and Scotland for Animals claimed that was misleading because they understood the bears had been leased to the zoo by China at substantial cost.

The Scottish Government said it had not paid any money to China and quoted the Chinese ambassador, His Excellency Mr Liu Xiaoming, as saying: "This historical agreement is a gift to the people of the UK from China."

The ASA said: "We considered that consumers would interpret the terms 'gift' and 'gifting' to mean that the pandas were given without payment."

Titanic descendants mark tragedy with Southampton ceremony

Descendants of those who perished on the Titanic today threw flowers on the dockside where she left port on the 100th anniversary of the doomed liner setting sail.

The tribute was the last act in a special ceremony held at berth 44 at Southampton docks from where the White Star ship departed on April 10 1912.

During the ceremony, a minute's silence was held for more than 1,500 passengers and crew who died when the ship sank after hitting an iceberg on her maiden voyage to New York.

A recording of the Titanic's whistle was also played across the docks at noon - the exact moment the liner left her mooring - and around 650 relations of the dead paid tribute.

Southampton bore the brunt of the death toll with 549 - more than a third of the total - from the city dying in the disaster on April 15 1912.

Civic dignitaries also paid their respects in the ceremony hosted by television personality Fred Dinenage, whose great uncle James Richard Dinenage - a first class steward - died on the Titanic aged 47.

The service ended with the hymn Nearer My God To Thee, which was said to have been played by the ship's musicians as Titanic sank.

The ceremony, which also told the story of the sinking, is the start of a week of events in several countries marking the 100th anniversary of the tragedy.

They culminate in a service above the wreck site onboard the MS Balmoral with 1,309 passengers who have paid up to £6,000 to sail to the site of the sinking.

Titanic's departure was re-enacted by the tug tender Calshot, which was built in the same era to manoeuvre the world's greatest ocean liners, as it sailed from berth 43/44 followed by a flotilla of craft.

Vanessa Beecham, from Southampton, paid tribute to her great uncle Edward Biggs, a fireman aboard who died aged 21.

"I enjoyed the ceremony which was tasteful and moving," she said.

"It was a worry during the anniversary that the families would be forgotten in all the razzmatazz like the cruise that left a few days ago, but this was lovely."

Mrs Beecham also had another relative, William Harder, 39, a window cleaner on the Titanic, who survived in lifeboat 14 and had never been to sea before.

"He died in the 1960s and he never spoke about it," she added.

PA

'Cuddle drug' may be the new Viagra

It is the chemical that has been described by women as a "cuddle drug". Now scientists have discovered that its effect on men is more rampant and long-lasting than just the desire for a quick hug.

Oxytocin, a hormone traditionally used to induce labour, is as sexually arousing to men as Viagra, according to new research.

Studies conducted in the US found that a married man who sniffed a nasal spray containing oxytocin twice daily became more affectionate to friends and colleagues and recorded a marked improvement in his sexual performance.

According to the actual breakdown of results, the man's libido went from "weak to strong", while arousal went from "difficult to easy". Ego certainly wasn't hurt either: sexual performance, according to feedback from his wife, was classed as "very satisfying".

Scientists at the University of California believe the findings provide strong support for the idea that oxytocin improves sexual performance and, unlike Viagra, remains a chemical glue within the brain to cement relationships between people. Just how it works is not clear, but some studies have suggested that oxytocin levels rise naturally during arousal. The hormone is also thought to interact with the dopamine system, which is involved in the rewarding aspects of sexual activity.

Dr Mike Wyllie said: "Given the number of erectile-dysfunction patients who don't respond to drugs like Viagra, there is a great medical need for a new class of drug; this case study suggests there is a basis for optimism that this is achievable. Assuming positive clinical trials, a drug based on this approach could achieve blockbuster potential."

Oxytocin is produced mainly in the hypothalamus region in the brain, and has been most widely studied in women. It's released during labour to dilate the cervix and boost contractions, and also triggers the release of milk in the breasts. More recently it has been shown to have wider effects on behaviour, including boosting trust, co-operation and bonding, and it has been investigated for a number of conditions including anxiety and autism.

The new study, "Dramatic Improvement in Sexual Function Induced by Intranasal Oxytocin", was reported in The Journal of Sexual Medicine.

Oxytocin's power was first recognised in 1979 when virgin female rats whose brains were injected with the hormone began to display maternal behaviour. Since then, several hundred research studies have been carried out, shedding light on the hormone's role in the early stages of sexual passion and in the process of mother-child bonding after birth.

Ten adverts that shocked the world

Advertising is a world in which the normal is beautified, cracks are airbrushed over and real-life is portrayed with rose tinted glasses. And all with the intention of getting the consumers to buy into such ideals.

It is all the more uncomfortable therefore when advertisers seek to shock rather than tantalise, although the effect can be incredible as we have seen today, following the controversy sparked by a French anti-smoking group's poster campaign (right).

We've picked nine other controversial advertising campaigns to test how the shock factor compares.

Holly Willoughby speaks of This Morning 'breast dress' nightmare

Holly Willoughby said her famously revealing Dancing On Ice dress had come back to haunt her as she prepared to make her debut on This Morning today.

The presenter caused a sensation by wearing a white gown with a plunging neckline on the celebrity ice-skating show last year.

The 28-year-old said the outfit had been the cause of anxious dreams as she geared up replace Fern Britton on the flagship daytime show.

"I dreamt the first item on the show today was a dress comparison, where I had to bring in the dress from Dancing On Ice and wear it again," she said.

"It was a 'before and after' breastfeeding comparison, so everybody was just staring at this area (pointing to her chest), saying 'They're not like that any more now she's had Harry', and I was thinking 'I don't want this job any more'."

As the cameras rolled on the ITV show, co-presenter Phillip Schofield - who hosted Dancing On Ice alongside Willoughby - jokingly pretended to walk off the set.

She said the night before the show had been like Christmas Eve: "that horrible but brilliant excitement where you can't sleep".







Britton announced in March she was leaving This Morning after 10 years on the famous sofa, saying she wanted to work on other projects and spend more time in her garden.



Her last show came on her 52nd birthday in July, when former presenters and guests appeared to bid her farewell.



Former co-host John Leslie played a special version of the song My Way in a video message to a tearful Britton, who later told viewers she was feeling "the worse for wear" during a cocktail-making feature.



Britton rejected rumours that she quit the show after falling out with Schofield because he was being paid more than her.



For months, speculation over who would replace her was rife, with names including Myleene Klass, Melanie Sykes and Kate Garraway all mentioned.

Wife of Chinese politician Bo Xilai 'killed British businessman' Neil Heywood

China's most sensational political purge of recent years took a dramatic new twist yesterday after police accused the wife of an ousted Communist leader, Bo Xilai, of murdering a British businessman.

Neil Heywood, an associate of Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai, died in November in Chongqing, supposedly of alcohol poisoning, with his body immediately cremated without an autopsy.

Rumours began to circulate soon after Mr Bo, the populist party boss in Chongqing, was cast into the political wilderness by the party on 15 March.

"According to reinvestigation results, the existing evidence indicated that Heywood died of homicide, of which Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun, an orderly at Bo's home, are highly suspected," the official Xinhua news agency reported. Bogu Kailai is the formulation to describe Ms Gu's married name.

"Bogu Kailai and Zhang Xiaojun have been transferred to judicial authorities on the suspected crime of intentional homicide," the news agency said.

The report said Mr Bo, Ms Gu and their son – whom Mr Heywood mentored – were on good terms with Mr Heywood, but "they had conflict over economic interests, which had been intensified". The rumours started almost immediately after his death, but British authorities had appeared to accept the official version.

Mr Heywood's 74-year-old mother, Ann, said at her home in south London that she had been told by Foreign Office officials that he had died of a heart attack that could have been brought on by heavy drinking.

That changed after American diplomats passed on to their British counterparts a Chinese police forensic file on Mr Heywood's death which showed that it may have been due to poisoning. It had been passed to them by Wang Lijun, a senior security official, who was seeking asylum at the US consulate in Chengdu. He also named Mr Bo's wife, Gu Kailai as the prime suspect.

Whitehall officials said they immediately asked the Chinese authorities to investigate the death, but this does not explain why the issue of Mr Heywood's death had not been raised with Beijing, despite his friends pointing out that he was only a moderate drinker.

The officials deny that Mr Heywood, who has been referred to in the US media as a "former MI6 officer", was involved in collecting intelligence on behalf of Her Majesty's Government. They refused to comment on reports that William Hague has asked to be kept informed of developments, adding if this was indeed the case, then it was just an example of the Foreign Secretary's concern over the suspicious death of a Briton abroad.

The inferences that the Old Harrovian Mr Heywood may have been involved in spying came from work he had undertaken for Hakluyt & Company, a corporate intelligence firm that has a number of former MI6 officers on its books.

Founded 17 years ago by former SAS and MI6 officer, Christopher James, and Christopher Wilkins, a businessman who had served in the Welsh Guards, its London headquarters is in Brook Street, Mayfair, and its offices are in New York and Singapore.

Yesterday's Xinhua report also said: "China is a socialist country ruled by law, and the sanctity and authority of law shall not be tramped."

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CIA wins fight to keep MPs in dark on rendition

American intelligence agencies including the CIA and the FBI have won a court ruling allowing them to withhold evidence from British MPs about suspected UK involvement in "extraordinary rendition" – the secret arrests and alleged torture of terror suspects.

A judge in Washington DC granted permission for key US intelligence bodies, including the highly sensitive National Security Agency, to exploit a loophole in US freedom of information legislation which bars the release of documentation to any body representing a foreign government.

Downing Street underlined the gravity of the torture claims yesterday when it urged police to interview former Labour ministers as part of an investigation into the alleged rendition and torture of a Libyan critic of Muammar Gaddafi. Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary at the time and is expected to be interviewed by detectives, denies any complicity in rendition – as have his successors at the Foreign Office. Whitehall officials have made clear that the intelligence services believe their operations "were in line with ministerially authorised government policy".

The CIA's court victory over British MPs came after the All-Party Parliamentary Group on Extraordinary Rendition – which comprises about 50 backbench MPs and peers – submitted a slew of information requests to US intelligence agencies as part of its investigations into the extent of British complicity in rendition and torture. The US agencies were trying to avoid official embarrassment on both sides of the Atlantic by using a narrow legal exemption to prevent the disclosure of critical papers, said Tony Lloyd, a Labour MP and the vice-chairman of the group. He called the judgment "disappointing".

The Americans' success in resisting the MPs' inquiries will fuel the controversy over the cover-up of the role said to have been played by British intelligence operatives in spiriting away fugitives and suspects with ministerial approval to secret jails and authoritarian regimes, in particular to Muammar Gaddafi's Libya.

Files discovered by The Independent last summer in the abandoned Tripoli offices of Gaddafi's intelligence chief showed a close working relationship with Britain. Claims also emerged this week that British agents initiated the extraordinary rendition of a Libyan couple, Fatima Bouchar and Abdelhakim Belhaj, to Tripoli, where they were imprisoned and, in the case of Mr Belhaj, allegedly tortured. A letter from Sir Mark Allen, then head of counter-terrorism at MI6, to Moussa Koussa, the head of Libyan intelligence, said: "The intelligence about Abu'Abd Allah [a nom de guerre for Mr Belhaj] was British."

MPs investigating the rendition scandal, led by Tory backbencher Andrew Tyrie, requested information in 2008 from America's spy agencies on 43 separate topics. These "focused on various aspects of the US and the UK's involvement in extraordinary rendition, secret detention, coercive interrogation of suspected terrorists and the sources of information about alleged terrorist plots", according to court documents.

The requests, drafted by Mr Tyrie's office, included details on the "identity, location and treatment" of detainees. Later, MPs also cited a statement from David Miliband when he was Foreign Secretary, in which he admitted that two rendition flights landed in 2002 on the island of Diego Garcia, the British territory in the Indian Ocean leased as an airbase to the Americans.

Initially, the FBI responded by providing some documents but then, along with bodies including the Department of Homeland Security and the Department of Defence, refused any disclosure and cited a get-out clause in the US freedom of information law which exempts intelligence agencies from disclosing documents to any "non-domestic government entity" or its representatives.

More than two years after MPs submitted their case, a US judge sided with the intelligence agencies and said British parliamentarians were indeed representatives of a foreign government – despite the MPs arguing that they were independent legislators and not members of the executive or Government.

Mr Lloyd told The Independent: "It suggests this material is not really something that affects national security or intelligence, but is being withheld to prevent the embarrassment of officials."

Torture politics: No 10 accuses Labour

Downing Street yesterday urged police to interview former Labour ministers in the investigation into the 2004 rendition and torture of a Libyan critic of Muammar Gaddafi.

Abdelhakim Belhaj is suing the UK Government, security forces, and Sir Mark Allen, a former director at MI6. Jack Straw, who was Foreign Secretary, has denied any complicity in rendition – a denial repeated by later Foreign Office ministers, including David Miliband. The Prime Minister's official spokesman said yesterday police should pursue every angle, including what previous ministers knew about the alleged rendition, and when they learned it.

Asked if police should interview former ministers, he replied: "They need to follow the evidence wherever it takes them."

Asked if ministers should consent to be questioned, he said: "The police should follow the evidence wherever it takes them and they should be allowed to do that."

Nigel Morris

France: Sarkozy's spies helped Gaddafi kill dissidents

Nicolas Sarkozy authorised a purge of Libyans living in France who opposed Colonel Gaddafi, it has emerged.

Previously unpublished documents show that French secret agents regularly spied on dissidents, and passed on information which led to them being captured and killed.

This all took place while the French President was still calling Gaddafi the "Brother Leader" and treating him as an honoured guest in Paris.

The damning revelations are contained in 5,600 pages of notes uncovered in archives in Sabah, in the south of Libya.

Jomode Elie Getty, a Libyan living in France, said he found a report dated 13 June 2007 that proved a surveillance operation had been organised against him and other dissidents by France's secret service.

Another intelligence report, filed just before Gaddafi arrived on a state visit to France a few months later, read that it was necessary to "listen to contacts, to identify them and track them down" and to "prevent anti-Libyan acts". The operation was co-ordinated by loyal Gaddafi lieutenant Bashir Saleh who, intriguingly, was "rescued" by the French during the rebellion and is now under 24-hour protection in Paris.

Mr Getty's claims appear to be supported by documents from Libya published by the French investigative website Mediapart. He said numerous anti-Gaddafi protesters were arrested and killed following the 2007 surveillance, which was, "like something carried out by the Stasi", the notorious Communist security organisation in the old East Germany. He said he now intended to take Sarkozy to court, along with his Interior Minister Claude Guéant, accusing them of illegal surveillance.

As France's head of state, Mr Sarkozy cannot be prosecuted while in office.

The Élysée Palace would not comment on yesterday's revelations.

Nabila Ramdani

Tsunami alert withdrawn after mass panic

Two massive earthquakes triggered back-to-back tsunami warnings for Indonesia , sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground in cars and on the backs of motorcycles.

No deadly waves or serious damage resulted, and the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled its tsunami watch for the Indian Ocean hours after a few hours.

Women and children cried in Aceh, where memories are still raw of a 2004 tsunami that killed 170,000 people in the province alone. Others screamed "God is great" as they poured from their homes or searched frantically for separated family members.

Patients were wheeled out of hospitals, some still lying in their beds with drips attached to their arms. And at least one hotel guest was slightly injured when he jumped out of his window.

The US Geological Survey said the first 8.6-magnitude quake was a shallow 22 kilometers (14 miles), hitting in the sea 270 miles (435 kilometers) from Aceh's provincial capital.

An alert that followed from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii advised countries all along the rim of the Indian Ocean, from Australia and India to as far off as Africa, that a seismically charged wave could head their way.

Two deadly tsunamis in the last decade — the most recent off Japan just one year ago — have left the world much better prepared.

Sirens sounded along coastlines and warnings spread like wildfire by mobile phone text messaging. Though often chaotic, evacuations began immediately with streets clogged with traffic, especially in Aceh.

The only wave to hit, though, was less than 30 inches (80 centimeters) high, rolling to Indonesia's emptied coastline.

Just as the region was sighing relief, an 8.2-magnitude aftershock followed.

"We just issued another tsunami warning," Prih Harjadi, from Indonesia's geophysics agency, told TVOne in a live interview.

He told his countrymen to stay clear of western coasts.

Residents in Aceh could hardly believe it.

"What did we do to deserve this?" cried Aisyah Husaini, 47, who lost both her parents and a son in the 2004 tsunami. "What sins have we committed?"

"I'm so scared, I don't want to lose my family again," she said, clinging to her two children in a mosque in Banda Aceh, where hundreds of people sheltered.

Again, though, the threat quickly passed.

Experts said Wednesday's quakes did not have the potential to create massive tsunamis because the friction and shaking occurred horizontally, not vertically. The earth's tectonic plates slid against each other, creating more of a vibration in the water.

In contrast, mega-thrust quakes cause the seabed to rise or drop vertically, displacing massive amounts of water and sending towering waves racing across the ocean at jetliner speeds.

Roger Musson, seismologist at the British geological survey who has studied Sumatra's fault lines, said initially he'd been "fearing the worst."

"But as soon as I discovered what type of earthquake it was ... I felt a lot better."

The tremors were felt in neighboring Malaysia, where high-rise buildings shook, and Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

Those countries, Sri Lanka and the Maldives evacuated buildings and beaches and readied relief efforts in case of disaster.

The World Meteorological Organization said communication systems set up after the 2004 tsunami appeared to have worked well.

"Our records indicate that all the national meteorological services in the countries at risk by this tsunami have received the warnings in under five minutes," said Maryam Golnaraghi, the head of WMO's disaster risk reduction program.

The alert was sent out by US National Weather Service, which operates a tsunami warning station in Hawaii, she said.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

The giant 9.1-magnitude quake and tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed 230,000 people in about a dozen nations.

AP

Who are you calling tax dodgers? Philanthropists enraged by slur

Government plans to limit tax relief on charitable donations have provoked fury


The acrimony between the Government and charity leaders intensified last night after David Cameron and George Osborne claimed philanthropists were giving money to good causes as a way of dodging tax.

The charge brought angry protests from multimillionaire supporters of charities, arts organisations and medical researchers. One accused the Government of a "disgusting" slur.

The Chancellor's decision to limit, from next April, the amount of tax relief wealthy donors can claim on philanthropic gifts – a move that critics claim will cost charities millions of pounds a year – has provoked outrage.

A former Philanthropist of the Year, Richard Ross, whose parents founded the Rosetrees Trust funding medical research, joined the attack on Mr Osborne's "perverse" scheme.

Mr Ross, an accountant who has given away £33m in recent years, told The Independent: "You want to encourage people to be more philanthropic, not limit them. [This decision] can only harm the country. They are using a sledgehammer to crack a nut. They are penalising everybody."

He added: "There are not enough wealthy people giving to charity and this is giving out completely the wrong message. It is saying if you give away too much we are going to penalise you."

Mr Ross said many wealthy people had made their fortunes through hard work and by being "very clever" but had a "psychological barrier" when it came to giving their money away, and the Government's approach "is making the barrier higher".

Dame Stephanie Shirley, who has given tens of millions to charity, said: "To look at philanthropists as if they were just tax avoiders is really rather disgusting."

She told BBC Radio 4 that donors are now privately warning charities of their "intention to put on hold plans to give five, six- or even seven-figure sums".

"That's quite significant for charities at a time when things are quite difficult for them," she said. Dame Stephanie, who was appointed the UK ambassador for philanthropy by the previous government, said: "If tax relief were to go, I would give the same amount, but that isn't true of most philanthropists."

Luke Johnson, who oversaw the rapid expansion of Pizza Express, and Sir Vernon Ellis, the chairman of English National Opera, have also denounced the proposal. Charities have launched a campaign for a rethink by the Chancellor and have been encouraged by signs of tacit support from Jeremy Hunt, the Culture Secretary, and Vince Cable, the Business Secretary.

Organisations as diverse as Unicef, Marie Curie Care, Universities UK, the National Theatre, the YMCA and ActionAid have joined the protests.

Both the Prime Minister and the Chancellor stood by the plans yesterday. The Treasury said charitable giving was open to abuse through organisations set up by donors overseas, although it was not able to provide examples. Mr Cameron's spokesman added: "In certain instances [donors] may be giving money to charities and those charities don't in all cases do a great deal of charitable work."

Whitehall sources later admitted that the donors who gave to charity to avoid tax were a "very small minority", but insisted the plans to limit tax relief were essential to ensure all sections of society paid their fair share.

The Government's new line of attack brought a scathing response from John Low, the chief executive of the Charities Aid Foundation: "This is not a ploy to save tax. Philanthropists who make large donations give away far, far more than they could ever claim in tax relief. That money goes to fund projects for the public good, such as medical research and help for the most vulnerable in society.

Mr Low said: "We should recognise and celebrate today's philanthropists, not brand them as wealthy tax dodgers."

Dan Corry, head of the New Philanthropy Capital think-tank, said: "There is an issue about how people use the tax system to [evade] paying tax. Where it comes to giving to charities, the whole point is to give a tax advantage because we would rather they gave money to charity than used it to buy a new yacht."

Charity champs: Leading donors

Click here or on "View Gallery" to see the leading donors in pictures

1. JK Rowling Has given £10m to research at Edinburgh University into multiple sclerosis, which claimed her mother's life.

2. Anurag Dikshit Massive wealth from developing software for playing poker online. Used £172m from selling shares to set up charitable foundation for educational and social projects.

3. Leonard Blavatnik Penniless at the age of 21, is now the sixth wealthiest man in Britain with estimated fortune of more than £3bn. Is giving £75m to Oxford University for a school of government.

4. David Harding A hedge fund financier who studied physics at Cambridge. Thirty years later, he is giving £20m to the university's Cavendish Laboratory.

5. Sir Elton John Consistently donates millions of pounds to humanitarian causes and work on HIV prevention.

6. Olivia Harrison The widow of George Harrison is jointly, with their son Dhani, supporting educational and humanitarian work in Bangladesh.

7. Richard Ross His parents founded the Rosetrees Trust, which funds medical research, on their golden wedding anniversary. In recent years, Mr Ross, named the Philanthropist of the Year last year, has given it more than £30m to charity.

8. Gordon Roddick In recent years the husband of the late Anita Roddick, the founder of the Body Shop chain, has given £2m to causes as diverse as theatres in Sussex and human rights in Africa.

9. Michael Hintze A major Tory donor, he also has also given £2m to the National Gallery in London and £1m to build a foundation in the Vatican's gardens.

10. Lord Fink A hedge fund millionaire gives a third of his income to good causes, including children's charities and HIV prevention work.

Tsunami alert withdrawn after mass panic

Two massive earthquakes triggered back-to-back tsunami warnings for Indonesia , sending panicked residents fleeing to high ground in cars and on the backs of motorcycles.

No deadly waves or serious damage resulted, and the US Pacific Tsunami Warning Center cancelled its tsunami watch for the Indian Ocean hours after a few hours.

Women and children cried in Aceh, where memories are still raw of a 2004 tsunami that killed 170,000 people in the province alone. Others screamed "God is great" as they poured from their homes or searched frantically for separated family members.

Patients were wheeled out of hospitals, some still lying in their beds with drips attached to their arms. And at least one hotel guest was slightly injured when he jumped out of his window.

The US Geological Survey said the first 8.6-magnitude quake was a shallow 22 kilometers (14 miles), hitting in the sea 270 miles (435 kilometers) from Aceh's provincial capital.

An alert that followed from the Pacific Tsunami Warning Center in Hawaii advised countries all along the rim of the Indian Ocean, from Australia and India to as far off as Africa, that a seismically charged wave could head their way.

Two deadly tsunamis in the last decade — the most recent off Japan just one year ago — have left the world much better prepared.

Sirens sounded along coastlines and warnings spread like wildfire by mobile phone text messaging. Though often chaotic, evacuations began immediately with streets clogged with traffic, especially in Aceh.

The only wave to hit, though, was less than 30 inches (80 centimeters) high, rolling to Indonesia's emptied coastline.

Just as the region was sighing relief, an 8.2-magnitude aftershock followed.

"We just issued another tsunami warning," Prih Harjadi, from Indonesia's geophysics agency, told TVOne in a live interview.

He told his countrymen to stay clear of western coasts.

Residents in Aceh could hardly believe it.

"What did we do to deserve this?" cried Aisyah Husaini, 47, who lost both her parents and a son in the 2004 tsunami. "What sins have we committed?"

"I'm so scared, I don't want to lose my family again," she said, clinging to her two children in a mosque in Banda Aceh, where hundreds of people sheltered.

Again, though, the threat quickly passed.

Experts said Wednesday's quakes did not have the potential to create massive tsunamis because the friction and shaking occurred horizontally, not vertically. The earth's tectonic plates slid against each other, creating more of a vibration in the water.

In contrast, mega-thrust quakes cause the seabed to rise or drop vertically, displacing massive amounts of water and sending towering waves racing across the ocean at jetliner speeds.

Roger Musson, seismologist at the British geological survey who has studied Sumatra's fault lines, said initially he'd been "fearing the worst."

"But as soon as I discovered what type of earthquake it was ... I felt a lot better."

The tremors were felt in neighboring Malaysia, where high-rise buildings shook, and Thailand, India and Bangladesh.

Those countries, Sri Lanka and the Maldives evacuated buildings and beaches and readied relief efforts in case of disaster.

The World Meteorological Organization said communication systems set up after the 2004 tsunami appeared to have worked well.

"Our records indicate that all the national meteorological services in the countries at risk by this tsunami have received the warnings in under five minutes," said Maryam Golnaraghi, the head of WMO's disaster risk reduction program.

The alert was sent out by US National Weather Service, which operates a tsunami warning station in Hawaii, she said.

Indonesia straddles a series of fault lines that makes the vast island nation prone to volcanic and seismic activity.

The giant 9.1-magnitude quake and tsunami on Dec. 26, 2004, killed 230,000 people in about a dozen nations.

AP