| More than 1 in 20 badgers took more than five minutes to die after being shot by government contracted marksmen. After the badger cull also failed to meet its target number of kills, can the policy proceed? With your help, Karl Mathiesen investigates |
 Broadcaster pleads not guilty to 20 counts of rape and indecent assault relating to two girls, and will stand trial in May The veteran broadcaster Stuart Hall has pleaded not guilty to raping two young girls. Hall, 84, is accused of committing a string of historic sexual offences. He will go on trial at Preston crown court on 6 May. Hall, of Wilmslow, Cheshire, is alleged to have committed seven counts of rape against one complainant in Manchester between 1976 and 1978, five of them while she was aged under 16. Hall is also accused of two counts of indecent assault against the same complainant within the same period. In addition, he is charged with eight counts of rape against a second alleged victim between 1976 and 1981, at various locations in Greater Manchester and Cheshire, in one instance when the complainant was aged under 13. Hall is also accused of three counts of indecent assault against the same alleged victim. Answering to his full name of James Stuart Hall, the defendant entered not guilty pleas to each of the 20 counts. He answered the clerk firmly with each plea as he stood in the dock with his hands clasped in front of him. The former It's A Knockout presenter was a familiar face and voice in British broadcasting for half a century, and his eccentric and erudite football match summaries made him a cult figure on BBC Radio 5 Live. The trial is expected to last seven days. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
| Andrew Sparrow's rolling coverage of the Ukip spring conference in Torquay, including Nigel Farage's speech |
| Andrew Sparrow's rolling coverage of the Ukip spring conference in Torquay, including Nigel Farage's speech |
| Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence party, speaks to Ukip's spring conference |
| Nigel Farage, leader of the UK Independence party, speaks to Ukip's spring conference |
 Lady Lawrence says BBC needs to do more than scheme to hire 20 people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds The mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has called on the media industry to do more to reflect Britain's black and Asian population, saying change had to happen "at the top". Lady Lawrence, who on Friday called for a public inquiry into the use of undercover police, welcomed a BBC initiative to increase the diversity of its workforce but said more needed to be done. She said a corporation scheme, in association with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, to take on 20 people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds to learn broadcasting and production skills, was a "great idea" but added: "I think it should have happened a long time ago." "If you truly want to reflect society you have to put things in place to make it happen," Lawrence told an audience at a New Broadcasting House event organised by the BBC and the Royal Television Society on Friday. "They majority of people do have qualifications, they do have everything they need and yet there is still a barrier. If you look at the top level, who is at the top? That needs to change. Once you see all these changes, you will begin to see people want to come here. "If you see nobody reflecting you, you feel there is no point in trying, they won't accept me." Lawrence pointed out that all the camera operators at Friday's event in the BBC's Radio Theatre were white, which she said was reflected across UK TV. In the whole of the UK media industry, an estimated 5.4% of people are from BAME backgrounds. "If you look around, all the camera people are white," said Lawrence. "You think about the TV, how many people watch TV. You need to see that reflected and you don't. Across the media, whether it be journalists or within the TV, you just don't have that, and that really needs to change. "I know there are a couple of actors here, and sometimes actors have to go abroad to get those big [roles]." Her comments follow a call by actor and comedian Lenny Henry for broadcasters to take immediate action to reverse the number of black and Asian people in the creative industries. His proposals, dubbed the "Henry plan", were outlined in a summit called by culture minister Ed Vaizey last month. Henry is due to return to the topic when he gives the annual Bafta TV lecture next month. The BBC director general, Tony Hall, has indicated that he intends to make the diversity of BBC employment, both on-screen and behind it, a priority of his tenure. Lawrence said the media had initially not been interested in the murder of her son and compared it with the media's treatment of a white teenager in London around the same time, in 1993. "I would always say Stephen was black and no one was interested in his murder," she said. "Not long after a young boy was killed in Camden, that was all over the papers, either from the prime minister to whoever, recognising what happened to that young man. "That never happened around Stephen and many other young blacks murdered at that time." • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
 Serial killer laughs in dock as judge describes her as 'cruel, calculating, malicious and manipulative' Joanna Dennehy has been given a whole-life prison sentence for killing three men and attempting to murder two more. She laughed in the dock as the judge said she was "a cruel, calculating, malicious and manipulative serial killer". Dennehy admitted murdering warehouse worker Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, her landlord and boss Kevin Lee, 48, and her housemate John Chapman, 56, in and around Peterborough over a 10-day period. She also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of two strangers, John Rogers and Robin Bereza, and preventing the lawful and decent burial of her victims. Her accomplices Gary Stretch and Leslie Layton, who were convicted this month of offences related to her killing spree, are due to be sentenced later. Stretch, 47, was found guilty of the attempted murder of Bereza, while Layton, 36, was convicted of preventing the lawful burial of two murder victims. Prosecutors said the men "revelled in bringing suffering and misery upon their victims and showed no remorse for their atrocious acts". During the trial of her accomplices, Dennehy, from Peterborough, was compared to a character in a Shakespearean tragedy in which an evil deed triggered a series of other violent crimes. She enjoyed the notoriety of being Britain's most wanted person, and while on the run she compared herself and Stretch to the US robbers Bonnie and Clyde. A long-term user of drugs and alcohol who sometimes turned to prostitution to fund her habit, she drifted around East Anglia, served time in prison and received some treatment for mental health problems. She has been diagnosed as suffering from paraphilia sadomasochism, a condition in which sexual excitement is derived from pain and humiliation. Prosecutors said she "cast a spell" over her accomplices and some of her victims as she killed "for fun". After the Peterborough killings, Dennehy and Stretch drove 140 miles across the country to Hereford where she randomly selected and repeatedly stabbed Bereza and Rogers while they were walking dogs in the street. Both survived despite suffering critical injuries. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
 Lady Lawrence says BBC needs to do more than scheme to hire 20 people from black, Asian and minority ethnic backgrounds The mother of murdered teenager Stephen Lawrence has called on the media industry to do more to reflect Britain's black and Asian population, saying change had to happen "at the top". Lady Lawrence, who on Friday called for a public inquiry into the use of undercover police, welcomed a BBC initiative to increase the diversity of its workforce but said more needed to be done. She said a corporation scheme, in association with the Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust, to take on 20 people from black, Asian and minority ethnic (BAME) backgrounds to learn broadcasting and production skills, was a "great idea" but added: "I think it should have happened a long time ago." "If you truly want to reflect society you have to put things in place to make it happen," Lawrence told an audience at a New Broadcasting House event organised by the BBC and the Royal Television Society on Friday. "They majority of people do have qualifications, they do have everything they need and yet there is still a barrier. If you look at the top level, who is at the top? That needs to change. Once you see all these changes, you will begin to see people want to come here. "If you see nobody reflecting you, you feel there is no point in trying, they won't accept me." Lawrence pointed out that all the camera operators at Friday's event in the BBC's Radio Theatre were white, which she said was reflected across UK TV. In the whole of the UK media industry, an estimated 5.4% of people are from BAME backgrounds. "If you look around, all the camera people are white," said Lawrence. "You think about the TV, how many people watch TV. You need to see that reflected and you don't. Across the media, whether it be journalists or within the TV, you just don't have that, and that really needs to change. "I know there are a couple of actors here, and sometimes actors have to go abroad to get those big [roles]." Her comments follow a call by actor and comedian Lenny Henry for broadcasters to take immediate action to reverse the number of black and Asian people in the creative industries. His proposals, dubbed the "Henry plan", were outlined in a summit called by culture minister Ed Vaizey last month. Henry is due to return to the topic when he gives the annual Bafta TV lecture next month. The BBC director general, Tony Hall, has indicated that he intends to make the diversity of BBC employment, both on-screen and behind it, a priority of his tenure. Lawrence said the media had initially not been interested in the murder of her son and compared it with the media's treatment of a white teenager in London around the same time, in 1993. "I would always say Stephen was black and no one was interested in his murder," she said. "Not long after a young boy was killed in Camden, that was all over the papers, either from the prime minister to whoever, recognising what happened to that young man. "That never happened around Stephen and many other young blacks murdered at that time." • To contact the MediaGuardian news desk email media@theguardian.com or phone 020 3353 3857. For all other inquiries please call the main Guardian switchboard on 020 3353 2000. If you are writing a comment for publication, please mark clearly "for publication". • To get the latest media news to your desktop or mobile, follow MediaGuardian on Twitter and Facebook. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
| More than 1 in 20 badgers took more than five minutes to die after being shot by government contracted marksmen. After the badger cull also failed to meet its target number of kills, can the policy proceed? With your help, Karl Mathiesen investigates |
 Serial killer laughs in dock as judge describes her as 'cruel, calculating, malicious and manipulative' Joanna Dennehy has been given a whole-life prison sentence for killing three men and attempting to murder two more. She laughed in the dock as the judge said she was "a cruel, calculating, malicious and manipulative serial killer". Dennehy admitted murdering warehouse worker Lukasz Slaboszewski, 31, her landlord and boss Kevin Lee, 48, and her housemate John Chapman, 56, in and around Peterborough over a 10-day period. She also pleaded guilty to the attempted murders of two strangers, John Rogers and Robin Bereza, and preventing the lawful and decent burial of her victims. Her accomplices Gary Stretch and Leslie Layton, who were convicted this month of offences related to her killing spree, are due to be sentenced later. Stretch, 47, was found guilty of the attempted murder of Bereza, while Layton, 36, was convicted of preventing the lawful burial of two murder victims. Prosecutors said the men "revelled in bringing suffering and misery upon their victims and showed no remorse for their atrocious acts". During the trial of her accomplices, Dennehy, from Peterborough, was compared to a character in a Shakespearean tragedy in which an evil deed triggered a series of other violent crimes. She enjoyed the notoriety of being Britain's most wanted person, and while on the run she compared herself and Stretch to the US robbers Bonnie and Clyde. A long-term user of drugs and alcohol who sometimes turned to prostitution to fund her habit, she drifted around East Anglia, served time in prison and received some treatment for mental health problems. She has been diagnosed as suffering from paraphilia sadomasochism, a condition in which sexual excitement is derived from pain and humiliation. Prosecutors said she "cast a spell" over her accomplices and some of her victims as she killed "for fun". After the Peterborough killings, Dennehy and Stretch drove 140 miles across the country to Hereford where she randomly selected and repeatedly stabbed Bereza and Rogers while they were walking dogs in the street. Both survived despite suffering critical injuries. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
 Regulators trying to close string of suspected boiler rooms and FCA says victims of share fraud lose average of £20,000 In The Wolf of Wall Street, sharp-suited Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo diCaprio, makes calls from a scruffy strip mall in Long Island. "Good morning, Jordan Belfort with Investors' Center in New York City. The reason I'm calling is that an extremely exciting investment opportunity crossed my desk today. Typically our firm recommends no more than five stocks per year: this is one of them. Aerotyne International is a cutting-edge tech firm out of the Midwest, awaiting imminent patent approval on a new generation of radar equipment…" In reality, Aerotyne is a worthless, dilapidated garage in Dubuque, Iowa. But Belfort hooks the investor with "research" that indicates the 6c-a-share stock could rise to a dollar, "or go much, much higher – your profit on a mere $3,000 investment would be upwards of 50,000… That's right, you could pay off your mortgage." The investor – the "schmucks" in the film – falls for the spiel, parting with $4,000. The dialogue in the "Investors' Center" may be fictional, but as police raided 14 addresses across Spain, seizing, among other items, an Aston Martin and a Ferrari, the reality is not far off. The term boiler room was first coined in the US to describe how political parties hired rooms at election times to speed-dial prospective voters, but later became a byword for the cheap offices where brokers would sit in close proximity, serially calling "sucker lists" of potential share buyers, selling worthless stock from a pre-prepared script. In Europe, Spain's "Costa del Crime" has become the home of boiler room operations, usually manned by British citizens, with sophisticated websites (often cloned from authorised firms) to persuade investors the proposition is real. Like Stratton Oakmont in The Wolf of Wall Street, blue-chip names are used to convince buyers of their legitimacy. A company calling itself First Capital Wealth, which had its assets frozen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in November, is just the latest in a string of suspected boiler rooms that regulators have attempted to close in recent years. It purported to be operating from a skyscraper in the City of London, selling "innovative real estate options focusing on emerging markets". High-pressure sales staff in boiler rooms typically alight on whatever investment fad is popular at the time – from carbon credits to rare earths to land that is about to gain planning permission (but never does). Victims of share fraud lose an average of £20,000 to these scams, with as much as £200m being lost in the UK each year, says the FCA. Even seasoned investors have been caught out, with the biggest individual loss recorded by the police being £6m. It says the scam firms often have few assets and victims are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Among the most disturbing tactics used by boiler rooms is what's dubbed recovery room fraud. The callers phone victims of share scams, posing as the police or a regulatory body, and promise to recover their money – for a fee, of course. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
 Regulators trying to close string of suspected boiler rooms and FCA says victims of share fraud lose average of £20,000 In The Wolf of Wall Street, sharp-suited Jordan Belfort, played by Leonardo diCaprio, makes calls from a scruffy strip mall in Long Island. "Good morning, Jordan Belfort with Investors' Center in New York City. The reason I'm calling is that an extremely exciting investment opportunity crossed my desk today. Typically our firm recommends no more than five stocks per year: this is one of them. Aerotyne International is a cutting-edge tech firm out of the Midwest, awaiting imminent patent approval on a new generation of radar equipment…" In reality, Aerotyne is a worthless, dilapidated garage in Dubuque, Iowa. But Belfort hooks the investor with "research" that indicates the 6c-a-share stock could rise to a dollar, "or go much, much higher – your profit on a mere $3,000 investment would be upwards of 50,000… That's right, you could pay off your mortgage." The investor – the "schmucks" in the film – falls for the spiel, parting with $4,000. The dialogue in the "Investors' Center" may be fictional, but as police raided 14 addresses across Spain, seizing, among other items, an Aston Martin and a Ferrari, the reality is not far off. The term boiler room was first coined in the US to describe how political parties hired rooms at election times to speed-dial prospective voters, but later became a byword for the cheap offices where brokers would sit in close proximity, serially calling "sucker lists" of potential share buyers, selling worthless stock from a pre-prepared script. In Europe, Spain's "Costa del Crime" has become the home of boiler room operations, usually manned by British citizens, with sophisticated websites (often cloned from authorised firms) to persuade investors the proposition is real. Like Stratton Oakmont in The Wolf of Wall Street, blue-chip names are used to convince buyers of their legitimacy. A company calling itself First Capital Wealth, which had its assets frozen by the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in November, is just the latest in a string of suspected boiler rooms that regulators have attempted to close in recent years. It purported to be operating from a skyscraper in the City of London, selling "innovative real estate options focusing on emerging markets". High-pressure sales staff in boiler rooms typically alight on whatever investment fad is popular at the time – from carbon credits to rare earths to land that is about to gain planning permission (but never does). Victims of share fraud lose an average of £20,000 to these scams, with as much as £200m being lost in the UK each year, says the FCA. Even seasoned investors have been caught out, with the biggest individual loss recorded by the police being £6m. It says the scam firms often have few assets and victims are not covered by the Financial Services Compensation Scheme. Among the most disturbing tactics used by boiler rooms is what's dubbed recovery room fraud. The callers phone victims of share scams, posing as the police or a regulatory body, and promise to recover their money – for a fee, of course. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
 Former Sun editor tells phone-hacking trial she hesitated over high cost of story, which was later published by Daily Telegraph Rebekah Brooks has declared her "embarrassment" at not paying a public official for the MPs' expenses story when she was editor of the Sun at the Old Bailey hacking trial. She has also admitted sanctioning payment for a story about Saddam Hussein threatening to swamp Britain with anthrax poison in 1998, refusing requests by M15 and M16 not to run the story. During her sixth day in the witness box at the phone-hacking trial on Friday, Brooks told the jury that her failure to buy the disk with unredacted details of MPs' expense claims was one of the greatest mistakes of her career. "In terms of errors of judgment, it's probably quite high on my list," she told the court, telling jurors how her procrastination had led to her being scooped by the Daily Telegraph in May 2009 when she was editor of the Sun, shortly before being promoted to News International chief executive. "My news team came to me to say they had heard the unredacted information to do with the MPs' expenses fraud could be available but it was going to cost quite a lot of money. "It was something I had to consider carefully," she said. "I thought about for too long ... I drove my news team crazy with my indecision." She added: "I remember when the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], they did not go to prosecute because of the high level of public interest, it was quite embarrassing that we didn't get it [the story]." Brooks also told the jury on Thursday that there were half a dozen occasions that she could recall where she signed off on payments to public officials. On Friday the court heard of one example when, in 1998, someone who was "clearly" a public official phoned the Sun to say the "secret service were covering up a plot by Saddam Hussein to bring in anthrax to this country". Brooks told how in trying to corroborate the story, the security services were alerted to the Sun's investigation and she was summoned to Downing Street. "I remember representatives from MI5, MI6, GCHQ, Downing Street and lawyers who may have been representing some of the parties," she said. "First of all by its very nature, it [the meeting] confirmed what the public official was telling us was true." Brooks, who was deputy editor of the Sun at the time, was in charge of the paper as the editor was away, the told the court. She was asked not to proceed with the story but decided it was in the public interest and went ahead splashing with story "Saddam anthrax in our duty frees". The source was identified after an internal inquiry as a chief petty officer and he was subsequently prosecuted. Brooks was being questioned by her defence counsel, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, in relation to a charge that she conspired to cause misconduct in public office by sanctioning payments of £38,000 to public officials between 2004 and 2012. The payments have been linked to one source, Bettina Jordan-Barber, a Ministry of Defence official, and did not relate to the Westminster MPs story or the Hussein story, which was published in 1998. Brooks denies knowing Jordan-Barber or that she was a public official, but introduced examples in her career where she would have considered paying public officials as a way of explaining to the jury that if she had known the MoD official was the source, she would have to consider the public interest test for publication. She was charged after police found 11 emails from a Sun reporter requesting her approval for payment for stories from Jordan-Barber, who he described as his "number one military contact" or his "ace military contact". On several occasions, Brooks told jurors, she was not in the office when stories based on information provided by Jordan-Barber were published. On one occasion Brooks was in Russia or Italy, where News Corp had a lot of business interests. On another occasion, her diary showed the story in question appeared after the News International summer party on 17 June 2009. "Charlie and I had got married the week before and we could not go on honeymoon because of the board meeting in town that week," Brooks said. The day after the News International party, she received an email from a Sun reporter requesting her authorisation for payments to his "top military contact". "Great do last night by the way, met lots of people," he wrote before requesting approval for £4,000 payment for a story. The jury was also shown an email discussing the "cover-up" of the killing of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes in the wake of the 7/7 bombings in 2005. One email showed that the Sun's police source believed that the former home secretary Charles Clarke was the source of a leak to the News of the World about the cover-up of the killing at Stockwell tube station. The jury saw an email from a Sun reporter telling her his source had said: "Dick says the leak on Stockwell cover-up came from Charles Clarke." He explained that he had requested £500 "for info on an exclusive we had last week about Kate Moss drug dealer being quizzed". He also needed the "money to smooth along" another story. "I'm not sure it's wise putting this kind of thing down on email where this is a permanent record," he added. Brooks was asked by Laidlaw what this could have meant. She replied that it could have be read as meaning that the reporter "did not want to put information about his sources on email" or, she said, "if you want to see something more sinister in it you could have read he did not want this payment to be discussed on email". She added: "It could be he should not be putting the name of the source of the Stockwell cover-up on an email." Brooks told jurors that the reporter was "very senior" and that the tone of the last line in the email was "a bit chippy". She said: "It could have been that he did not want to be questioned on the cash for one of his many sources." Brooks also told the jury on Friday that she could not take her honeymoon in 2009 because of a News Corp board meeting in London that she was required to attend. The jury was sent home at lunchtime on Friday after they were told by the judge that Brooks had found her six days in the witness box "tiring". The trial continues. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
 Former Sun editor tells phone-hacking trial she hesitated over high cost of story, which was later published by Daily Telegraph Rebekah Brooks has declared her "embarrassment" at not paying a public official for the MPs' expenses story when she was editor of the Sun at the Old Bailey hacking trial. She has also admitted sanctioning payment for a story about Saddam Hussein threatening to swamp Britain with anthrax poison in 1998, refusing requests by M15 and M16 not to run the story. During her sixth day in the witness box at the phone-hacking trial on Friday, Brooks told the jury that her failure to buy the disk with unredacted details of MPs' expense claims was one of the greatest mistakes of her career. "In terms of errors of judgment, it's probably quite high on my list," she told the court, telling jurors how her procrastination had led to her being scooped by the Daily Telegraph in May 2009 when she was editor of the Sun, shortly before being promoted to News International chief executive. "My news team came to me to say they had heard the unredacted information to do with the MPs' expenses fraud could be available but it was going to cost quite a lot of money. "It was something I had to consider carefully," she said. "I thought about for too long ... I drove my news team crazy with my indecision." She added: "I remember when the CPS [Crown Prosecution Service], they did not go to prosecute because of the high level of public interest, it was quite embarrassing that we didn't get it [the story]." Brooks also told the jury on Thursday that there were half a dozen occasions that she could recall where she signed off on payments to public officials. On Friday the court heard of one example when, in 1998, someone who was "clearly" a public official phoned the Sun to say the "secret service were covering up a plot by Saddam Hussein to bring in anthrax to this country". Brooks told how in trying to corroborate the story, the security services were alerted to the Sun's investigation and she was summoned to Downing Street. "I remember representatives from MI5, MI6, GCHQ, Downing Street and lawyers who may have been representing some of the parties," she said. "First of all by its very nature, it [the meeting] confirmed what the public official was telling us was true." Brooks, who was deputy editor of the Sun at the time, was in charge of the paper as the editor was away, the told the court. She was asked not to proceed with the story but decided it was in the public interest and went ahead splashing with story "Saddam anthrax in our duty frees". The source was identified after an internal inquiry as a chief petty officer and he was subsequently prosecuted. Brooks was being questioned by her defence counsel, Jonathan Laidlaw QC, in relation to a charge that she conspired to cause misconduct in public office by sanctioning payments of £38,000 to public officials between 2004 and 2012. The payments have been linked to one source, Bettina Jordan-Barber, a Ministry of Defence official, and did not relate to the Westminster MPs story or the Hussein story, which was published in 1998. Brooks denies knowing Jordan-Barber or that she was a public official, but introduced examples in her career where she would have considered paying public officials as a way of explaining to the jury that if she had known the MoD official was the source, she would have to consider the public interest test for publication. She was charged after police found 11 emails from a Sun reporter requesting her approval for payment for stories from Jordan-Barber, who he described as his "number one military contact" or his "ace military contact". On several occasions, Brooks told jurors, she was not in the office when stories based on information provided by Jordan-Barber were published. On one occasion Brooks was in Russia or Italy, where News Corp had a lot of business interests. On another occasion, her diary showed the story in question appeared after the News International summer party on 17 June 2009. "Charlie and I had got married the week before and we could not go on honeymoon because of the board meeting in town that week," Brooks said. The day after the News International party, she received an email from a Sun reporter requesting her authorisation for payments to his "top military contact". "Great do last night by the way, met lots of people," he wrote before requesting approval for £4,000 payment for a story. The jury was also shown an email discussing the "cover-up" of the killing of Brazilian electrician Jean Charles de Menezes in the wake of the 7/7 bombings in 2005. One email showed that the Sun's police source believed that the former home secretary Charles Clarke was the source of a leak to the News of the World about the cover-up of the killing at Stockwell tube station. The jury saw an email from a Sun reporter telling her his source had said: "Dick says the leak on Stockwell cover-up came from Charles Clarke." He explained that he had requested £500 "for info on an exclusive we had last week about Kate Moss drug dealer being quizzed". He also needed the "money to smooth along" another story. "I'm not sure it's wise putting this kind of thing down on email where this is a permanent record," he added. Brooks was asked by Laidlaw what this could have meant. She replied that it could have be read as meaning that the reporter "did not want to put information about his sources on email" or, she said, "if you want to see something more sinister in it you could have read he did not want this payment to be discussed on email". She added: "It could be he should not be putting the name of the source of the Stockwell cover-up on an email." Brooks told jurors that the reporter was "very senior" and that the tone of the last line in the email was "a bit chippy". She said: "It could have been that he did not want to be questioned on the cash for one of his many sources." Brooks also told the jury on Friday that she could not take her honeymoon in 2009 because of a News Corp board meeting in London that she was required to attend. The jury was sent home at lunchtime on Friday after they were told by the judge that Brooks had found her six days in the witness box "tiring". The trial continues. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
 New evidence suggests it would have been impossible to stampede mammoths to their deaths at site in Jersey Heaps of mammoth and woolly rhino bones found piled up at the foot of a cliff were thought to be the grim results of Neanderthals driving the beasts over the edge. The piles of bones are a major feature at La Cotte de St Brelade on Jersey, one of the most spectacular Neanderthal sites in Europe. But the claim that they mark the remains of mass slaughter has been all but ruled out by a fresh investigation. Researchers have found that the plateau that ends at the cliff edge was so rocky and uneven that mammoths and other weighty beasts would never have ventured up there. Even if the creatures had clambered so high, the Neanderthals would have had to chase them down a steep dip and back up the other side long before the animals reached the cliff edge and plunged to their doom. "I can't imagine a way in which Neanderthals would have been able to force mammoths down this slope and then up again before they even got to the edge of the headland," said Beccy Scott, an archaeologist at the British Museum. "And they're unlikely to have got up there in the first place." Hundreds of thousands of stone tools and bone fragments have been uncovered at the Jersey site where Neanderthals lived on and off for around 200,000 years. The site was apparently abandoned from time to time when the climate cooled, forcing the Neanderthals back to warmer territory. Scott and her colleagues drew on a survey of the seabed that stretches away from the cliff to reconstruct the landscape when the Neanderthals lived there. The land, now submerged under higher sea levels, was cut with granite ravines, gullies and dead-end valleys – a terrain perfect for stalking and ambushing prey. "The site would have been an ideal vantage point for Neanderthal hunters. They could have looked out over the open plain and watched mammoths, woolly rhinos and horses moving around. They could see what was going on, and move out and ambush their prey," said Scott. Details of the study are published in the journal Antiquity. The researchers have an alternative explanation for the bone heaps. Neanderthals living there may have brought the bones there after hunts, or from scavenged carcasses, and used them for food, heating and even building shelters. Older sediments at the site are rich with burnt bone and charcoal, suggesting the bones were used as fuel. The heaps of bones were preserved when Neanderthals last abandoned the site, and a fine dust of silt blew over and preserved the remains. Archaeologists have investigated the site at La Cotte de St Brelade since the mid-19th century. More artefacts have been unearthed here than at all the other Neanderthal sites in the British Isles put together. The exposed coastal site, one of the last resting places of the Neanderthals, was battered by fierce storms in February, raising fears that ancient remains at the site had been destroyed. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
 New evidence suggests it would have been impossible to stampede mammoths to their deaths at site in Jersey Heaps of mammoth and woolly rhino bones found piled up at the foot of a cliff were thought to be the grim results of Neanderthals driving the beasts over the edge. The piles of bones are a major feature at La Cotte de St Brelade on Jersey, one of the most spectacular Neanderthal sites in Europe. But the claim that they mark the remains of mass slaughter has been all but ruled out by a fresh investigation. Researchers have found that the plateau that ends at the cliff edge was so rocky and uneven that mammoths and other weighty beasts would never have ventured up there. Even if the creatures had clambered so high, the Neanderthals would have had to chase them down a steep dip and back up the other side long before the animals reached the cliff edge and plunged to their doom. "I can't imagine a way in which Neanderthals would have been able to force mammoths down this slope and then up again before they even got to the edge of the headland," said Beccy Scott, an archaeologist at the British Museum. "And they're unlikely to have got up there in the first place." Hundreds of thousands of stone tools and bone fragments have been uncovered at the Jersey site where Neanderthals lived on and off for around 200,000 years. The site was apparently abandoned from time to time when the climate cooled, forcing the Neanderthals back to warmer territory. Scott and her colleagues drew on a survey of the seabed that stretches away from the cliff to reconstruct the landscape when the Neanderthals lived there. The land, now submerged under higher sea levels, was cut with granite ravines, gullies and dead-end valleys – a terrain perfect for stalking and ambushing prey. "The site would have been an ideal vantage point for Neanderthal hunters. They could have looked out over the open plain and watched mammoths, woolly rhinos and horses moving around. They could see what was going on, and move out and ambush their prey," said Scott. Details of the study are published in the journal Antiquity. The researchers have an alternative explanation for the bone heaps. Neanderthals living there may have brought the bones there after hunts, or from scavenged carcasses, and used them for food, heating and even building shelters. Older sediments at the site are rich with burnt bone and charcoal, suggesting the bones were used as fuel. The heaps of bones were preserved when Neanderthals last abandoned the site, and a fine dust of silt blew over and preserved the remains. Archaeologists have investigated the site at La Cotte de St Brelade since the mid-19th century. More artefacts have been unearthed here than at all the other Neanderthal sites in the British Isles put together. The exposed coastal site, one of the last resting places of the Neanderthals, was battered by fierce storms in February, raising fears that ancient remains at the site had been destroyed. theguardian.com © 2014 Guardian News and Media Limited or its affiliated companies. All rights reserved. | Use of this content is subject to our Terms & Conditions | More Feeds |
