Walthamstow: Teens Charged With Rape Of Girl

Two teenagers have been charged with the rape of a 12-year-old girl in east London.

The 17-year-olds, who cannot be named for legal reasons, were questioned over the attack in Walthamstow.

They are due to appear at Thames Magistrates' Court in Bow, east London, today.

Police said the young girl was approached by three men and dragged to a secluded garage area at the end of Hibbert Road at around 12.15am on July 27.

They said she was "pinned down" and "brutally" attacked by two of the men before managing to raise the alarm by calling a friend from her mobile phone.

Detective Inspector Simon Ellershaw, of the Metropolitan Police, described the assault as "a very nasty attack on a vulnerable girl".

Anyone with information is asked to call the Sexual Offences, Exploitation and Child Abuse Command on 020 8217 7408 or Crimestoppers anonymously on 0800 555 111.

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Lads Mags: Tesco To Restrict Sales To Over 18s

Supermarket giant Tesco says it will sell lads mags only to those aged 18 or over.

The chain also said it had struck a "modesty deal" regarding the front covers of magazines such as Zoo, Nuts and Front and that Bizarre will be supplied in a bag.

The supermarket is bringing in a raft of measures across its 3,000 stores in the UK in response to customer concerns about the racy images.

A Tesco spokesman said: "We have had in depth conversations with our customers about this issue and we're putting new measures in place based on what they have told us they want.

"We've listened carefully to the concerns raised by the campaign groups but our priority is to make sure we meet our customers' needs and expectations.

"To do that we have secured agreement from the publishers of Zoo, Nuts and Front that their magazine covers will be more modest from now on and the publishers of Bizarre will now supply the magazine in a bag.

"We are restricting the sale of these magazines to people over the age of 18 to reassure parents who do not want their children to be able to purchase these titles.

"And we will ensure these titles are always placed on the back tier of the magazine shelves so that the cover is obscured with only the title visible."

Feminist campaign group Lose The Lads' Mags has been part of a driving force in a campaign maintaining it is unacceptable to treat women like sex objects.

It has been targeting high street supermarkets and newsagents which stock the magazines, declaring that it is "a national scandal" they are putting them up for sale.

The group states: "Lads mags aren't just a bit of harmless fun. By portraying women as dehumanised sex objects they fuel attitudes that underpin discrimination and violence against women.

"Displaying lads' mags in everyday spaces like supermarkets sends the deeply harmful message that treating women like sex objects is normal and acceptable."

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Car Parking 'Cash Cow' Plan For Homeowners

Householders should be free to turn their driveway into a car park to boost their income and help provide cheaper parking spaces, Communities Secretary Eric Pickles says.

The Cabinet minister has promised to clamp down on a "back-door parking tax" that forces residents to seek planning permission to charge commuters to park on their property.

New government guidance will allow homeowners to rent out their drives for a single car without making a planning application.

It comes after some town halls demanded that households apply for "change of use" planning permission costing £385, with the threat of a £20,000 fine if they did not, Mr Pickles said.

Householders could earn more than £200 each month renting out their parking space, according to moneysavingexpert.com.

Mr Pickles said: "Councils should be welcoming common sense ways that help hard-working people park easier and cheaply and for families to make some spare cash.

"Councils shouldn't be interfering in an honest activity that causes no harm to others, unless there are serious concerns.

Eric Pickles wants new guidelines for renting out driveways

"Parking charges and fines are not a cash cow for town halls. This Government is standing up against the town hall parking bullies and over-zealous parking enforcement."

Several internet companies have been set up to help households rent out their spare or unused dedicated off-street parking space near town centres, train stations and sports grounds.

Mr Pickles said residents would be allowed to rent a single parking space without planning permission, provided there was no public nuisance to neighbours, or other substantive concerns.

Householders wishing to change their garden into a car park or for other commercial uses would still require planning permission, he added.

It emerged this week that some councils were racking up huge surpluses from their parking-charge activities, according to figures from the RAC Foundation.

In 2011/12, English councils had a total current account surplus of £565m from their on-street and off-street parking operations.

This is a £54m increase on the £511m surplus in 2010/11, said the foundation.

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Snowden Leak: GCHQ 'Paid £100m' By US

The US government has paid at least £100m to the UK spy agency GCHQ over the last three years, according to documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.

The payments were made to secure access to Britain's intelligence gathering programmes, according to the documents viewed by The Guardian newspaper.

The revelations have emerged after Snowden was granted a year's asylum in Russia following more than a month inside an airport terminal.

The fugitive left Moscow airport in a taxi, although his intended destination was not clear. The US said it was "extremely disappointed" by Russia's decision.

The payments to GCHQ are set out in the latest cache of leaked documents which make clear that the Americans expect a return on the investment.

"GCHQ must pull its weight and be seen to pull its weight," a GCHQ strategy briefing, reported in The Guardian, insisted.

Snowden's supporters say he has a right to freedom of speech

The funding highlights the close relationship between GCHQ and America's National Security Agency (NSA) and raises fears about Washington's hold over the British agency.

In another document from 2010, GCHQ acknowledges that the US had "raised a number of issues with regards to meeting NSA's minimum expectations".

It said GCHQ "still remains short of the full NSA ask". Ministers have denied that GCHQ does the NSA's "dirty work".

Snowden, a former NSA contractor who is wanted by the US on espionage charges, has in the past warned about the relationship between the two agencies.

He said the organisations have been jointly responsible for developing techniques that allow the mass harvesting and analysis of internet traffic.

White House spokesman Jay Carney says the US is 'disappointed' by Russia

The Guardian also reports on indications that GCHQ is pouring money into efforts to gather personal information from mobile phones and apps.

According to one document, GCHQ wants to be able to "exploit any phone, anywhere, any time".

The details of the NSA payments are set out in GCHQ's annual "investment portfolios".

Payments include £17.2m for the agency's Mastering the Internet project, which gathers and stores vast amounts of "raw" information ready for analysis.

Asked about the payments, a Cabinet Office spokesman told The Guardian: "In a 60-year alliance it is entirely unsurprising that there are joint projects in which resources and expertise are pooled, but the benefits flow in both directions."

A senior security source in Whitehall added: "The fact is there is a close intelligence relationship between the UK and US and a number of other countries including Australia and Canada."

Snowden's asylum in Russia was met by anger from the US.

"We are extremely disappointed that the Russian government would take this step despite our very clear and lawful requests in public and private that Mr Snowden be expelled and returned to the United States," White House press secretary Jay Carney said.

Mr Carney said Moscow's decision undermined US-Russian law enforcement cooperation that had improved since two ethnic Chechens were blamed for the Boston Marathon bombings.

American officials will make contact with their Russian counterparts, Mr Carney said, but he refused to explain any diplomatic repercussions for Moscow.

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Coventry: Men Charged With Sex Abuse Of Girls

A group of men accused of exploiting teenage girls have been charged with offences including rape, sexual assault and trafficking.

Ten men were charged on August 1 following an investigation into allegations of abuse of five "vulnerable" girls aged between 16 and 18 in Coventry.

Gulfraz Banaris, 20 and his 25-year-old brother Ifaraz from Wood End and Izthkhab Banaris, 24, from Eld Road, Coventry, are charged with conspiracy to traffic girls across the city for the purposes of sexual exploitation.

Gulfraz and Izthkhab Banaris are also both accused of a rape.

All three appeared before Coventry magistrates on August 1 and were remanded to appear at Coventry Crown Court on November 7.

Isa Iqbal, 21, and his 20-year-old brother Ismail, both of no fixed address and cousins of the Banaris brothers, also face trafficking charges and have been remanded until November.

Ricardo Hinkson, 23, from Telfer Road in Radford, Amir Mahmood, 27, a sign writer from Blackwell Road, Foleshill and milkman Tasveer Hussain, 30, from Canal Road in Foleshill are due to appear at Coventry Magistrates Court charged with conspiracy to traffic within the UK for the purposes of sexual exploitation. 

Mechanic Saleem Hussain, 30, from Beake Avenue, Coventry, and Khezer Hussain, 25, from Bordesley Green East, Stechford, are due before magistrates to face charges of sexual assault and rape.

West Midlands Police said the five alleged victims remain safeguarded and continue to be supported by specially trained officers from the force's Public Protection Unit (PPU) along with agencies including Coventry City Council Children's Services.

Coventry PPU Chief Inspector Sue Holder, said: "Protecting young people from harm is a priority for West Midlands Police and the force takes reports of sexual and physical abuse extremely seriously."

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Race Row Over Police Immigration Spot Checks

The Home Office has been accused of targeting non-whites and using "heavy-handed" tactics in a new immigration crackdown to tackle people working illegally in the UK.

Spot checks on people's immigration status are being carried out at London train and tube stations by UK Border Agency staff.

Witnesses claim the checks appear to be only targeting members of ethnic minority communities.

Sky reporter James Banks said: "It is not just those who have been stopped who think these tactics are out of order, with some witnesses arguing the checks were prompted by race, not intelligence."

Phil O'Shea, who witnessed one of the operations earlier this week in north London, told the Kilburn Times: "I thought the behaviour of the immigration officers was heavy-handed and frightening.

"They appeared to be stopping and questioning every non-white person, many of whom were clearly ordinary Kensal Green residents going to work.

"When I queried what was going on I was threatened with arrest for obstruction and was told to 'crack on'."

Another onlooker told Sky News: "I think that when we are targeted like this - whatever you look like - I think it is absolutely terrible, and I think you are basing that on prejudice."

Border Agency officers detain two people in Brentwood, north London

Immigration enforcement officers have also arrested 139 suspected immigration offenders in a series of intelligence-led raids at locations including London, Durham, Manchester, Wales and Somerset - and details of the raids posted online by the Home Office.

Updates on the campaign and heavily pixelated images of some of the arrests of suspects have been tweeted by the Home Office with the hashtag #immigrationoffenders - with the tweets linked to pages on the Government website providing more detailed information on the crackdown.

Those who have no right to be in the UK face being thrown out.

The move is the latest attempt by the Government to crack down on those illegally in the country, following a controversial "go home or face arrest" advertising van campaign.

Immigration Minister Mark Harper said: "We are sending a clear message to employers who choose to use illegal labour - we will find you and you will pay a heavy penalty.

"We will not allow the growth of a shadow economy for illegal migrants."

Spot checks are a joint operation between UKBA and British Transport Police

But concerns have been raised about recent anti-immigration operations in London, and Barry Gardiner, the Labour MP for Brent North, has written to Home Secretary Theresa May demanding an investigation into the spot checks which he said violated "fundamental freedoms".

"We do not yet live in a society where the police or any other officers of the law are entitled to detain people without reasonable justification and demand their papers," Mr Gardiner wrote.

"The actions of your department would however appear to be hastening us in that direction."

Shadow immigration minister Chris Bryant said: "Intelligence-led operations to remove illegal immigrants are to be welcomed. Racial profiling is not."

Writing in The Independent, Dave Garratt, the chief executive of charity Refugee Action, warned that the operations could "incite racial tensions".

"Over the last few weeks we've seen some very visible signs of the Government's 'hostile environment' crusade. There have been vans out on the streets with threatening slogans and, reportedly, non-white people being visibly stopped and searched," he wrote.

The raids at various locations across the UK have been intelligence-led

"The Home Office is responsible for community cohesion. Yet we are increasingly seeing what appears to be hostility towards non-white immigration, which will do nothing but incite racial tensions and divisions within otherwise rich and diverse communities."

A Home Office spokesman defended the tactics: "We make no apology for enforcing our immigration laws and our officers carry out hundreds of operations like this every year around London.

"Where we find people who are in the UK illegally, we will remove them."

The department said it was looking into whether the stop checks outside London stations - a joint operation between British Transport Police and UKBA - were intelligence-led or random.

And it rejected claims that its tweets with the hashtag #immigrationoffenders may have prejudiced cases, because the suspects have not been identified.

It was unable to state how many of those arrested will face deportation, with some cases taking 72 hours to resolve and others much longer, it said.

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British Gas To Offer Free Power On Saturdays

British Gas owner Centrica is considering offering free power to customers on Saturdays to encourage energy use when overall demand is low.

As part of a shake-up in the way energy is used and paid for, free energy tariffs could be offered to those who have a 'smart meter' installed in their homes.

British Gas has fitted over a million of the devices, which detect how much power is used on each day, in UK properties so far.

The offer would apply to homes and not businesses and to electricity use, not gas.

The proposals mirror tariffs already available to US customers of Direct Energy, the sister company of British Gas in North America.

One million Centrica customers already have smart meters

A Centrica spokesman told Sky News: "In Texas, we had a product called 'free power Saturdays'. A fairly simple idea, free power on a Saturday.

"The thinking behind it is for customers to concentrate energy use when demand is low, to reduce demand in the week.

"We are looking to do that over here, we've been thinking about it for a while. A small trial is running at the moment."

He said the scheme would only work for homes that have a smart meter, which would allow Centrica to know when electricity is being used, including whether it is being used on a Saturday.

"This is in the very early stages. It could be in place by mid next year, hypothetically," he added.

The move comes amid political pressure to lower bills

The move is likely to be seen as a reaction to political pressure on the UK's 'Big Six' energy suppliers to cut bills and ensure customers are getting the best deals as Britons struggle to cope with the rising cost of living. 

Sam Laidlaw, chief executive of Centrica, told the Financial Times: "We need to get more smart meters in the UK, and if it (free power days) does come to the UK it will be at least six months."

The announcement came just hours after British Gas announced profits for its residential energy business in the six months to the end of June grew by 3.2% to £356m.

The company has insisted that it did not cash in on the bitterly cold start to the year, despite gas consumption rising by 13%. It defended the rise in profits, saying they were curtailed by "significantly higher environmental and commodity costs".

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Council Parking Tickets Raking In Millions

Some councils are making huge surpluses from parking operations, according to the RAC Foundation.

During 2011/12 the combined amount of cash left over after money was spent on parking services, filling potholes, funding park and ride schemes, street lights and road improvements was £412m.

This is a £54m increase in the surplus left over in 2010/11, said the foundation.

The authority with the biggest surplus, before spending on road infrastructure was taken into account, was Westminster Council with £41.6m in 2011/12.

Councils say the cash is for road improvements such as filling potholes

Second, with a surplus of £28.1m was Kensington and Chelsea with the north London council of Camden in third place with £25m.

Only Brighton and Hove and Cornwall councils broke into a top 10 dominated by London authorities.

The surplus figures come just days after a judge declared that Barnet Council in north London had acted illegally in setting parking charges to raise revenue.

RAC Foundation director Professor Stephen Glaister said: "For many local authorities, parking charges are a nice little earner, especially in London.

"Not all authorities make big sums. Several run a current account deficit and indeed of those with surpluses, many will see the money vanish when capital expenditure is taken into account.

"But the bottom line is that hundreds of millions of pounds are being contributed annually to council coffers through parking charges."

Eric Pickles: 'this profit shows we need to rein-in unfair parking rules'

Peter Box, chairman of the Local Government Association's economy and transport board, said: "Parking revenue is spent on paying for parking services.

"Any money left over goes towards transport services like filling potholes, concessionary travel, park and rides, street lights and road improvement projects.

"As the RAC Foundation report makes clear, many councils have to subsidise parking services as the cost is not covered by charges.

"Parking charges and fines help councils keep traffic flowing and pedestrians and motorists safe. They also help keep the roads clear for emergency services and business deliveries, and ensure people can park near their homes or local shops."

Local Government Secretary Eric Pickles said: "This profit shows why we need to review and rein in unfair town hall parking rules.

"Councils aren't listening, and local shops and hard-working families are suffering as a result. The law is clear that parking is not a tax or cash cow for town hall officers."

Councillor Daniel Astaire, Westminster City Council cabinet member for business, said: "Parking is about traffic management, tackling congestion and trying to implement positive benefits for businesses and high streets.

"If we stay in this Jurassic Age of pure rhetoric about cash cows and money making, innovation will be stifled and we cannot engage with motorists properly in order to find the best solutions that will benefit everyone."

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Drink-Drive Deaths: 25% Increase In 2012

A total of 290 people were killed in drink-drive accidents last year - a quarter up on the previous 12 months.

More follows...

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Judges To Rule On Assisted Suicide Appeal

Leading judges are to rule on the latest round of a right-to-die legal battle started by locked-in syndrome sufferer Tony Nicklinson.

Mr Nicklinson, 58, died at home in Melksham, Wiltshire, a week after he lost a High Court bid to end his life with a doctor's help.

Mr Nicklinson after hearing he had lost a bid for help to end his life

The father-of-two, who was paralysed by a stroke in 2005, refused food and contracted pneumonia after he was "devastated" by the decision.

But his widow Jane vowed to continue the battle in the courts, which she said was "part of Tony's legacy".

Her challenge against the High Court's ruling was heard at the Court of Appeal in May alongside those brought by two severely disabled men.

She had argued that people too sick or disabled to end their "unbearable" lives without help are currently being condemned to "suffer in silence or make desperate attempts to kill themselves".

One of the other cases is that of paralysed road accident victim Paul Lamb, 57, who is immobile except for limited movement in his right hand and has been in significant pain since the tragedy in 1990.

The third case is that of another locked-in syndrome sufferer whose case was rejected at the High Court on the same day as Mr Nicklinson's.

The father of two was paralysed after suffering a stroke in 2005

The man, who cannot be identified for legal reasons and is referred to as 'Martin', suffered a massive stroke in August 2008.

He is unable to speak and virtually unable to move, describing his life as "undignified, distressing and intolerable" - and wants to be allowed a "dignified suicide".

In Mr Lamb's case, he wants a doctor to help him die in a dignified way - preferably by a lethal injection - with his family around him in his own home.

Appellant Paul Lamb, who has been immobile and in pain since 1990

The former builder and father of two says he feels worn out and fed up of going through the motions of life rather than living it.

Giving their ruling last year, the three High Court judges unanimously agreed it would be wrong for the court to depart from the long-established legal position that "voluntary euthanasia is murder, however understandable the motives may be".

Appeal Court judges Lord Chief Justice Lord Judge, Master of the Rolls Lord Dyson and Lord Justice Elias will reveal whether they have overturned the High Court ruling later.

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