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

'Honey trap' girl convicted of Shakilus Townsend murder

A schoolgirl who acted as a “honey trap” to lure a besotted teenage boy to his death at the hands of a street gang was today convicted of murder.




Samantha Joseph, 16, led Shakilus Townsend, also 16, to a quiet cul-de-sac in south London where he was set upon by gang of teenagers who beat him with baseball bats.


He was then stabbed six times by Danny McLean, Joseph's ex-boyfriend whom she was attempting to win back.


Today after a six-week trial at the Old Bailey, Joseph, McLean, 18, and five others were found guilty of murder. They will all receive life sentences.


As the verdicts were announced Shakilus's mother Nicola Dyer 34, burst into tears. Outside court she said: “This tragedy has absolutely devastated my family. The effect it has had on his siblings has been heartbreaking.


"Although I'm sure this pain will remain with us forever, it's of some comfort today that justice has been done and those responsible will have to pay the consequences for taking my son's life."

Shakilus was killed in July last year after becoming involved in a love triangle with Joseph and McLean. McLean had split up with his younger girlfriend when he learned she had cheated on him with Shakilus, but later decided to exact revenge on his love rival.


The girl, who was only 15 at the time, was said to be prepared to do anything to win back McLean and had told friends she was only with Shakilus because he showered her with gifts.


CCTV footage from the day of the murder shows Shakilus meeting Joseph, who was wearing a see-through floral dress. She told him that she wanted to introduce him to her cousin. In reality she was luring him into a trap. While on the bus she kept in constant contact with McLean via mobile phone.


As the pair arrived at the cul-de-sac in Thornton Heath, south London, Joseph laughed as the gang members attacked Shakilus, punching and kicking him to the ground before McLean plunged his blade into Shakilus's stomach.


As Shakilus lay dying he cried out for his mother and said: “I don't want to die”. Joseph turned and walked away with McLean.


He was wearing a bright orange bandana – a colour which signals he is a member of the “Shine My Nine” gang. On the first day of the trial Joseph wore a bright orange t-shirt in court.


During the trial she admitted agreeing to lead Shakilus to the ambush, but said she believed he would only be beaten up and not killed.


Ms Dyer, giving evidence, said that she had never met Joseph but that Shakilus had shown her pictures of the girl on his mobile phone. She added: “He said he was really in love with this girl, that she was to be his future wife and that she was going to have his kids - he was really smitten with her. I can't understand how she could have callously set him up and lured him to his death."


Detective Inspector Barney Ratcliffe said Joseph had "very calculatingly brought Shakilus to the scene, knowing that he was going to get beaten up. Ever since, she has been very cold and callous about the whole incident, with no signs of emotion.”

He added: “She made various phone calls during that journey bringing Shakilus to the scene, updating the gang through McLean as to where they were going to go and what was going to happen.

"She was an integral part of of what was going to happen - if she hadn't been involved it wouldn't have happened.”

Brothers Tyrell Ellis, 19, and Don-Carlos Ellis, 18, from Thornton Heath, were also convicted of murder, together with Andrew Johnson-Haynes, a 19-year-old former public schoolboy from Croydon who played rugby for London Irish.

Two other youths, Andre Thompson and Michael Akinfenwa, both 17, were found guilty of the charge as well. The defendants were remanded to be sentenced on a date to be fixed.