Lead story

Coulson charged over phone hacking

by Daphne Liddle

PRIME Minister David Cameron’s former director of communications, Alan Coulson has been charged, along with seven other people, with conspiring to hack into the phones of more than 600 people, including the schoolgirl murder victim Milly Dowler.

Read the full story here >> [ Coulson charged over phone hacking ]

Syrians move to crush rebels

by our Arab Affairs correspondent

SYRIAN troops are driving to Aleppo to drive out the Nato-backed rebels operating in the suburbs of the largest city in the country while others are mopping up the last pockets of resistance in Damascus following a week of fighting in the capital.

Read the full story here >> [ Syrians move to crush rebels ]



Editorial

British justice reverts to default position

DOREEN Lawrence, mother of racist murder victims Stephen Lawrence, last Monday carried the Olympic torch through Deptford. She said she was doing it for all victims of racism. Doreen and her family and supporters have notched up some historic successes against the institutional racism and general intransigence of the British legal system — the police force and the courts — including the conviction last year of two of the murderers of her son. But back in 1998, just after the McPherson Inquiry into the way the police handled her son’s murder investigation, which revealed to the public the appalling levels of racism within the police, she said: “I hope the lessons of this inquiry are taken seriously and we do not have to keep fighting the same battle over and over again down the years to come.”

Read the full story here >> [ British justice reverts to default position ]