Greenpeace Goal: Have Events Shifted Focus?

When Greenpeace activists attempted to board an offshore oil platform they wanted to highlight what they see as the potential ecological disaster of Arctic Ocean oil drilling, but it was the hardline stance of the Russian authorities that got them noticed.

As members of the so-called Arctic 30 were being released on bail from detention in St Petersburg, the environment movement said the protest has significantly raised the profile of group and the issues they campaign on.

As well as reporting a huge increase in membership inquiries and donations, Greenpeace says more than two million people have now signed a petition calling for the activists to be freed - its fastest-ever growing petition.

The organisation's UK executive director John Sauven admits that putting the protesters behind bars gave the cause far more impetus than the initial protest itself.

The protesters were arrested after Russian authorities seized their boat

"We didn't actually aim to get the Arctic 30 into the nick and I think all of them would have preferred their freedom rather than to spend two months in prison," he told Sky News.

"But there is no doubt about it raised people's awareness about what is happening the Arctic that threats from the oil industry that want to drill in the Arctic is such that people globally are much more aware and I think this is quite important."

But Nina Gold, the partner of Frank Hewetson - one of the protesters bailed by the Russian courts - told Sky News that the use of direct action has to be carefully considered.

Activist Frank Hewetson is one of the Britons who have been bailed

"I believe he is working for a good cause and is trying to do what he thinks is right and I do think that direct action protest can help but you have to consider the consequences quite carefully," she said.

"My campaign is to ensure that Frank and the other 29 people are released, and actually get home - that's the campaign I'm interested in at the moment."

Greenpeace hailed Thursday as a "historic", when the rights of the Arctic 30 had been upheld by an international court of law.

Activists Mr Hewetson, Iain Rogers, Alexandra Harris and Anthony Perrett, and journalist Kieron Bryan were the first of six Britons to be freed on bail. Three Russian nationals were freed on Monday.

The sixth Briton, Philip Ball, has been granted bail, but has yet to be freed.

Journalist Kieron Bryon enjoys daylight again as he is released on bail

Speaking after his release, Mr Bryan told Sky News it felt "very, very good" to be free.

"It's good to be outside and see the sky for the first time for a while," he said.

"To everyone who's supported me and the rest of the group: Keep fighting, we're not free yet, this is first step. It's a glimmer of justice, but it's not finished."

He said being imprisoned had been "tough" and that he was looking forward to "a long shower", "never doing another Sudoku puzzle again" and "an improved diet".

Mr Rogers told Sky News: "It's lovely (to be out). It's been pretty traumatic, but it's good for the campaign.

"I think Gazprom have given us the ideal opportunity and I want to thank them from the bottom of my heart for publicising our campaign to stop drilling in the Arctic so much."

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Grieve Warns Of 'Ethnic Corruption' In UK

Politicians need to "wake up" to the problem of corruption in ethnic minority communities, the Government's senior law officer has warned.

Attorney General Dominic Grieve said he was referring "mainly to the Pakistani community" in his comments.

In an interview with the Daily Telegraph, the Tory MP pointed out that it could also be found in the "white Anglo-Saxon" community but he said it was a growing problem "because we have minority communities in this country which come from backgrounds where corruption is endemic".

"It is something as politicians we have to wake up to," he added.

The MP for Beaconsfield said: "I can see many of them have come because of the opportunities that they get. But they also come from societies where they have been brought up to believe you can only get certain things through a favour culture.

"One of the things you have to make absolutely clear is that that is not the case and it's not acceptable."

Baroness Warsi said electoral fraud also affects the Asian community

Asked if he was referring to the Pakistani community in his remarks, Mr Grieve told the newspaper: "Yes, it's mainly the Pakistani community, not the Indian community. I wouldn't draw it down to one. I'd be wary of saying it's just a Pakistani problem."

Mr Grieve highlighted electoral fraud as an area of concern, echoing comments made in 2010 by senior Tory Baroness Warsi.

Lady Warsi told the New Statesman magazine there were "at least three seats where we lost, where we didn't gain the seat, based on electoral fraud" and said the problems were "predominantly within the Asian community".

Mr Grieve also said that the UK's infrastructure could be put under strain if significant numbers of Bulgarians and Romanians come to the UK when controls expire in January.

He acknowledged that "the volume of immigrants may pose serious infrastructure issues".

Later in a statement, Mr Grieve said: "I am very clear that integration between ethnic communities in the UK has worked well and has delivered great benefits for all of us.

Mr Grieve said he was 'disappointed' with the Telegraph's front page story

"This is a point I clearly made in my interview with the Telegraph, and I'm disappointed that this has not been reflected in their front page story.

"The point I was making is that, as a law officer, it's my duty to ensure the rule of law is upheld, and one of the issues that I feel requires close attention is any potential for a rise in corruption to undermine civil society.

"I believe this is an issue which needs to be addressed calmly and rationally.

"I am absolutely clear that this problem is not attributable to any one community, as I know very well from my many years promoting community cohesion."

Sky News political reporter Darren McCaffrey said Mr Grieve's comments are likely "to prove controversial".

"We have to remember he is an elected politician and he is also the Government's top lawyer, he is someone that we don't usually hear from a lot and this is why his intervention is unusual," he added.

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Toddler Murder: Teenager Charged Over Death

A man will appear in court today charged with the murder of a two-year-old girl.

Dean Harris, 19, of Yaxley in Cambridgeshire, will appear before Peterborough Magistrates' Court.

The toddler, who has been named as Amina Agboola, died on Thursday after being taken to Peterborough City Hospital with serious injuries.

A 28-year-old woman, believed to be the girl's mother, was also arrested and has been released on police bail.

Harris is understood to be the mother's partner.

The couple were arrested after taking the girl to hospital themselves.

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Women Were 'Kept As Slaves For Over 30 Years'

Two people have been released on bail as part of an investigation into slavery and domestic servitude at a house in London sparked by a report on Sky News.

The inquiry was launched after one of three alleged victims told a charity she had been held against her will for more than 30 years in a house in Lambeth, south London.

She contacted the Freedom Charity after seeing its founder Aneeta Prem in a report last summer about forced marriages.

Scotland Yard said the charity, which advises and supports victims of forced marriages or honour-based violence, got in touch and helped with sensitive negotiations, which revealed the location of the house and led to the rescue of the three women.

Police said two people detained in connection with the investigation - a 67-year-old man and a 67-year-old woman - have been bailed until a date in January, pending further inquiries. 

Police believe the youngest of the alleged victims may have spent her entire life as a domestic slave.

Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland from the Metropolitan Police's human trafficking unit told a news conference at Scotland Yard that the force had "never seen anything of this magnitude".

Home Secretary Theresa May is "shocked by this appalling case," her department said in a statement.

Officers said the two suspects, who are not British, were arrested at 7.30am on Thursday and taken to a south London police station for questioning.

Detective Inspector Kevin Hyland said the victims were 'highly traumatised'

One of the three alleged victims is a 69-year-old Malaysian woman, the other a 57-year-old Irish woman and the third a 30-year-old Briton.

All three, described by police as "highly traumatised", were taken to a place of safety where they remain.

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said police do not believe the women were sexually assaulted, but they may have been physically and mentally abused.

Ms Prem told Sky News it was the Irish woman who phoned the Freedom Charity after watching her on television.

"I think all of them saw me on the news and made a decision because of the name of the charity and because they had seen me on TV - that gave them the courage to make that phone call," she said.

"I can't go in to too many details but they managed to get to a phone and make a call to us.

"We started to talk to them in depth when we could. It had to be pre-arranged when they were able to make calls to us and it had to be done very secretly because they felt they were in massive danger.

"It was planned that they would be able to walk out of the property. The police were on standby."

The three women were rescued from an address in Lambeth, south London

Police said the British and Irish women left the house and met police at an agreed location on October 25. They helped police find the address, where the third woman was rescued on the same day. 

DI Hyland said the suspects were not immediately arrested as officers had to "establish the facts" from "extremely traumatised" victims.

He said it appeared the three alleged victims had been given "limited freedom" during the three decades they claim to have been held as slaves.

He said he was unable to confirm any relationship between the suspects and the three women who were freed.

"I don't know any relationships between the women in respect of the suspects," he said.

"Clearly, because of the nationalities of the women that have been held victims, it's very unlikely they are related in any way."

He added: "We applaud the actions of Freedom Charity and are working in partnership to support these victims who appear to have been held for over 30 years."

A Home Office spokesman said: "The Home Secretary is shocked by this appalling case and while the police need to get to the bottom of exactly what happened here, she's made clear her determination to tackle the scourge of modern slavery."

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Greenpeace Activist Anthony Perrett Released

Anthony Perrett, one of the British Greenpeace activists arrested by Russian authorities during a protest, has been released from detention in St Petersburg.

He is the first of six Britons to be freed on bail - three Russian nationals were freed on Monday.

Thirty people, including the six Britons aboard the Greenpeace ship Arctic Sunrise, were detained after the protest in September.

They were protesting against drilling in the Arctic.

They were initially charged with piracy but are now accused of hooliganism, which carries a shorter maximum jail term of seven years.

Greenpeace on Thursday unveiled giant portraits of those arrested - the "Arctic 30" - outside the London offices of oil giant Shell.

The protest group said it was drawing attention to Shell and its Russian partner Gazprom's planned joint venture to drill for oil in the Arctic.

John Sauven, executive director of Greenpeace UK, said: "Shell and Gazprom are not equipped to drill in the Arctic without causing catastrophic damage to the unique ecosystem.

"But what makes their Arctic plans so blindly stupid is that they're only able to drill there because of the huge loss of Arctic sea ice from climate change."

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Ex Co-op Bank Chairman Paul Flowers Arrested

Former Co-op bank chairman Paul Flowers has been arrested in connection with a drugs supply investigation, police have said.

West Yorkshire Police said officers detained the 63-year-old in the Merseyside area on Thursday night and he is being questioned at a police station in West Yorkshire.

Mr Flowers, a Methodist minister, was suspended by both the church and the Labour party following claims that he bought and used illegal drugs including crystal meth, crack cocaine and ketamine.

He has also been engulfed in allegations about gay sex, questions over his expenses claims at a drug charity and drink-driving.

Police outside Mr Flowers' house in Bradford

It also emerged he had resigned as a Labour councillor after adult material was discovered on his computer.

His arrest comes as the Co-op is seeking to recover £31,000 paid to him since he quit his £132,000-a-year post in June.

In a statement, it said: "When Paul Flowers relinquished his responsibilities in June, it was agreed, as per his contractual obligations, that his fees for the rest of his period of office would be paid.

"Following recent revelations, the board stopped all payments with immediate effect and no further payments will be made."

The Co-op is in trouble after a series of bad deals

Mr Flowers, who led the Co-op Bank for three years, has been accused of incompetence after the bank found a £1.5bn black hole in its finances.

This followed the purchase of Britannia Building Society in 2009 and abortive attempts to take on hundreds of Lloyds Bank branches.

The bank now faces a rescue which will see 50 branches close and investors including US hedge funds take control of 70% of the business.

Mr Flowers being quizzed by MPs about his time at the bank

Tory MP David Davis has said George Osborne and the Treasury had "serious questions to answer" about the oversight of the bank.

"There are really serious questions to answer about what they were all doing," David Davis told the Financial Times.

Issues over the bank's operations were raised by a rival at the time of the aborted takeover bid of Lloyds branches.

"These problems were apparent to a rival and would have been - with a bit of work - to anyone else," Mr Davis said.

Labour has come under fire over its dealings with the Co-op

Labour - which accuses Prime Minister David Cameron of seeking to "smear" the party over its relationship with the Co-op - seized on the comments in a bid to move the spotlight on to the Conservatives.

Leader Ed Miliband insists the party acted with the "utmost integrity" in its dealings with Mr Flowers and suspended him when the allegations about his private life emerged.

Shadow chancellor Ed Balls, who received a £50,000 donation to his office from the Co-operative Group, said he had "nothing to hide".

He told Sky News political editor Adam Boulton that he had never had a phone call or a meeting with Mr Flowers and stressed that the donation came from the Co-op Group and not the Co-op Bank.

Mr Cameron has announced an inquiry into the bank's ailing finances and the decision to appoint Mr Flowers - with details expected to be announced within days.

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Britain's Cancer Survival Rates 'Unacceptable'

Around 10,000 lives a year could be saved if the UK matched cancer survival rates in the rest of Europe, a study has found.

Britain's cancer survival rates are lagging behind the rest of Europe and other major economies, with just Poland and Ireland faring worse in some strains of the disease.

The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development report compares key health records from its 34 member countries as well as the so-called BRIC countries and other nations where possible.

It found that women with breast cancer were more likely to reach the five-year survival point in almost all countries other than Britain, with only the Czech Republic, Poland and Ireland trailing behind.

According to the research only the Czech Republic, Poland and Denmark had worse rates for surviving bowel cancer than Britain while cervical cancer rates were worse in only Ireland and Poland.

Cancer specialist Karol Sikora told The Daily Telegraph: "This is a really sad indictment of the priority we give to cancer - our place in the league tables is tragic.

"If we just met the average of the rest of the European league tables we could save 10,000 lives a year.

"In Britain there are lots of delays in the system; we need to speed up the whole process."

Macmillan Cancer Support chief executive Ciaran Devane told the newspaper: "It is simply unacceptable that cancer survival rates in the UK continue to lag behind those in the rest of Europe, and these latest figures are very disappointing.

"Clearly, more needs to be done to encourage better screening attendance and early diagnosis."

The UK also had higher rates of infant death than most other countries, the Health At A Glance 2013 study found.

It recorded 4.3 deaths out of every 1,000 births compared with the OECD average of 4.1.

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Daniel Radcliffe Warns Social Media Celebrities

By Richard Suchet, Arts and Entertainment Correspondent

Celebrities who tell fans what they are doing "moment to moment" on social media sites cannot expect to have a private life, according to Daniel Radcliffe.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, the Harry Potter star said he tries to avoid the limelight.

"There's certain things you can do to make it a lot easier on yourself," the 24-year-old said. 

"If you don't, for instance, go to premieres that aren't for a film you're in, or don't just turn up at other events and stuff like that, then that's going to help to not fuel the interest.

"Also, I don't have Twitter and I don't have Facebook, and I think that makes things a lot easier because if you go on Twitter and tell everybody what you're doing moment to moment and then claim you want a private life, then no one is going to take that request seriously."

Radcliffe says he has a 'chip on his shoulder'

Speaking ahead of the launch of the second series of A Young Doctor's Notebook on Sky Arts 1 (Thursday, 9pm), he said that when he was younger he resented the attention that his success as a young actor had brought, but that he has no regrets.

"When I was 18 or 19 there was definitely a level of frustration around ... I did have to think where I went more than a lot of my friends and you do get a little frustrated around that age, but ultimately it's childish, petulant - oh I want that too.

"People always say to me 'Do you feel like you missed out on a childhood? Do you feel like you had your childhood taken away?' And I'm like 'No, ridiculous... kids who are abused have their childhoods taken away from them'."

However, he admitted he now has a "chip on his shoulder" that people might think he was fortunate to win the Harry Potter role and now feels he needs to prove himself again.

Radcliffe stars with Mad Men actor John Hamm in A Young Doctor's Notebook

"It's as much to myself, as to anyone else. People always say 'oh he's got a chip on his shoulder' like it's a bad thing. I think it's a perfectly good thing if you let it motivate you.

"When you fall into a position when you're 11 years old, you do tend to think that, you know, everyone, you were lucky to get there. And I was lucky to get there. And I think there's a sense that you just fell into it and that you rode the wave and carried on.

"And that's not what I'm about. I don't know how many people think like that - there may be none, there may be millions, but it doesn't matter. It fires you up."

Radcliffe, who stars in the show with Mad Men actor Jon Hamm, also reveals that despite being worth an estimated £50m, his biggest indulgence is books.

"The only time I will spend a wad of cash in one go - and this is going to sound so nerdy - is in bookshops. I've gone out of bookshops with a pile of 15 to 20 books before. It's excessive.

"I have this thing in bookshops where if I see this thing that there's a good chance I may never ever see again or sounds interesting then I have to get it.

"So that's a way of bleeding your money. The only slightly lavish thing that I do sometimes is that I might take all my friends out for a night out. And that's, like, once a year. I'm refreshingly boring."

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British Greenpeace Activist In Court

A British Greenpeace activist detained after the Russian oil rig protest in the Arctic is appearing in court in St Petersburg.

It comes after Alex Harris from Devon, Anthony Perrett from Newport, South Wales and London journalist Kieron Bryan were granted bail on Wednesday.

They and two other Britons were among the 30 people detained by Russian security forces two months ago following the protest.

Twelve other members of the group have also been granted bail, with Brazilian Ana Paula Maciels, 31, the first to be released from custody.

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Cyclist Tweet Is My Biggest Regret - Driver

By Rachel Younger, East of England Correspondent

A driver who tweeted about knocking a cyclist off his bike has said sending the message is the "biggest regret" of her life.

Emma Way, who was convicted of failing to stop after a crash and failing to report an accident but cleared of driving without due care and attention, clipped cyclist Toby Hockley on a country road in Norfolk last May.

She was fined £337 and given seven penalty points on her licence when she appeared at Norfolk Magistrates' Court.

The case came to the public's attention when the 22-year-old posted a tweet which read: "Definitely knocked a cyclist off his bike earlier. I have right of way. He doesn't even pay road tax!"

She ended her message with the hashtag #bloodycyclists.

Way, who has since left Twitter, sent this message hours after the crash

Mr Hockley told the court he was riding with a friend through Rockland All Saints, near Thetford, and had slowed down to about 18mph for a bend when a car came around the the corner "on my side of the road".

He said he ended up in a hedge, bruised, scratched and stung by nettles, after the car's wing mirror clipped his right arm.

He told the court there had been "quite a loud crunch" but admitted he had not come off his bike.

Jason Sexton, who was riding with Mr Hockley, told the court he had been riding just in front of his friend and had shouted to warn him about the approaching car before pulling into a lay-by.

He told the court he had also shouted at the driver, adding that his friend had been "as far across (on the road) as he could be to avoid traffic".

The crash happened in the village of Rockland All Saints, Norfolk

Way, a former trainee accountant from Watton, Norfolk, admitted her wing mirror had clipped Mr Hockley's bike with a "donk" but claimed he had been on the wrong side of the road, leaving her with nowhere to go.

She said she felt the collision had been his fault, telling the court: "I saw he had slightly wobbled. I hadn't hurt him. He was fine. I just carried on."

Asked whether she had thought any damage or injury had been caused, she replied: "No. I would definitely have stopped."

Way, who lost her job over the tweet, said she had been annoyed by the cyclist and sent the message on the "spur of the moment".

Asked by the defence to rate the stupidity of the post on a scale of one to 10, she replied: "I'd score it at 11."

"It was ridiculous and stupid and I apologise to all cyclists," she added. "It is the biggest regret of my life so far."

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