Eleven more NHS hospitals at centre of safety scandal

? Failures lead to thousands of deaths
? Government orders new investigation

The true scandal of NHS hospitals failing to comply with basic safety standards is revealed in today's Observer. Research that ranks every general hospital in England against a range of safety measures has named 12 NHS hospital trusts judged to be "significantly underperforming".

This is despite the fact that last month the Care Quality Commission, the health service regulator, judged overall care at eight of the trusts to be good or excellent. Today's study by Dr Foster, an NHS partner organisation that collates and analyses healthcare data, also highlights 27 trusts with unusually high death rates. Almost 5,000 more patients in their care died in the past year than was expected.

Revelations of such widespread safety failings will send shockwaves through the NHS, already reeling from scandals at two trusts last week. Poor nursing care, filthy wards and hundreds of unnecessary deaths were exposed at Basildon and Thurrock University NHS Hospitals Foundation Trust, and the chair of the NHS trust in Colchester was fired.

Now the new data proves that key safety failings are occurring in 11 more hospital trusts across England. They include Scarborough and North East Yorkshire Healthcare Trust, South London Healthcare Trust, Weston Area Health Trust, Hereford Hospitals Trust, Lewisham Hospital Trust and University Hospitals Coventry and Warwickshire Trust. Eighteen were found to have death rates the same or higher than at Colchester. Ministers want to know why seven in particular have had persistently high death rates over five years.

The Department of Health yesterday ordered the CQC to investigate if any other trusts needed urgent attention. The CQC said it was "monitoring closely a number of other trusts", but had no evidence there was another case in England where it would take action of the kind taken at Basildon.

John Black, president of the Royal College of Surgeons, last night told the Observer that patient safety had been neglected by hospitals too busy meeting NHS-imposed financial targets: "Too many hospitals are too concerned with meeting financial targets at the expense of clinical standards, and we are seeing patients suffering as a consequence."

Today's research exposes systemic failures in large parts of the NHS during the last financial year and finds:

? 39% of trusts failing to investigate unexpected deaths or cases of serious harm on their wards.

? At least 209 incidents in which "foreign objects", such as swabs and drill-bits, were left inside patients after surgery.

? At least 82 cases in which medical staff operated on the wrong part of the patient's body.

It finds that 5,024 people died after being admitted for "low-risk" conditions such as asthma or appendicitis, of whom 848 were under 65. A proportion of those deaths will be linked to safety errors.

The Conservatives reacted by promising a complete overhaul of the regulation system, which rated Basildon "good" only weeks ago. Andrew Lansley, the shadow health secretary, said: "Labour's failed health inspection regime is more interested in targets than patients." He also questioned the timing of the Basildon announcement. Officials knew of the hospital's failings weeks ago but decided to publicise them last Thursday, just days before the Dr Foster research was due to be published in the Observer.

The study paints a picture of large variations in the hospital standardised mortality ratio, a measure used by Dr Foster. The measure, which was used last week by Monitor, the regulator for NHS foundation trusts, looks at the likelihood of individual patients dying, given their underlying condition, age and economic background, then compares that to the actual number of deaths.

Cynthia Bower, the CQC's chief executive, said improvements had been made, but added: "The NHS cannot stand still on safety. It must be able to look the public in the eye and say safety is top priority for the leadership of every NHS trust in the country ? no ifs and no buts."

Some trusts in the bottom 12 question Dr Foster's methodology, the first time the researchers have created a patient safety indicator, which ranks hospitals across a range of factors. The board at University Hospital of South Manchester said it reacted with "shock and disbelief" at its inclusion in the bottom 12. A spokeswoman for St Helens and Knowsley NHS Trust said: "The trust has a consistently good patient safety and quality of care performance record, which is reflected in the second consecutive 'double excellent' rating awarded by the Care Quality Commission... The Dr Foster figures do not include the patient safety data that was provided by the trust."

Roger Taylor, from Dr Foster, responded: "We have used the most credible available data to assess patient safety. CQC ratings are not designed to just assess patient safety and instead use broader indicators, including measures of effectiveness and patient experience. The hospital guide is focused on patient safety, and mortality ratios are used alongside other indicators."

Griffin to represent EU at summit

BNP leader who believes climate change activists are 'cranks' will be member of European parliament's delegation

Nick Griffin, the leader of the British National party, is to represent the European parliament at the UN climate change conference in Copenhagen, which opens next week.

Last night politicians and scientists reacted furiously to news that the far-right politician and climate change denier should be attending the summit on behalf of the EU.

Griffin, who was elected to the European parliament in June, confirmed last night that he would attend as the representative of the parliament's environmental committee. World leaders, including Barack Obama and Gordon Brown, are hoping to forge a new global agreement to curtail greenhouse gas emissions.

Without such a deal, scientists warn that world temperatures will increase by more than 2C by the end of the century, triggering ice cap melting, sea-level rises, widespread flooding, the spread of deserts and devastating storms.

In a speech in the parliament last week, Griffin denounced those who warn of the consequences of climate change as "cranks". He said they had reached "an Orwellian consensus" that was "based not on scientific agreement, but on bullying, censorship and fraudulent statistics".

"The anti-western intellectual cranks of the left suffered a collective breakdown when communism collapsed. Climate change is their new theology? But the heretics will have a voice in Copenhagen and the truth will out. Climate change is being used to impose an anti-human utopia as deadly as anything conceived by Stalin or Mao."

Griffin will be one of 15 representatives chosen to speak on behalf of the EU in Copenhagen. The shadow climate change secretary, Greg Clark, condemned the move last night. "It is utterly ridiculous that someone who doesn't even believe in climate change should be seeking to represent Europe in Copenhagen. The BNP does not command the support of the people of Britain, let alone of the rest of Europe," he said.

A spokesman for the Department of Energy and Climate Change said: "Membership of the European parliament's delegation to Copenhagen is a matter for the European parliament. Its delegates do not represent the UK government or its views. Nick Griffin will not be part of the UK delegation."

Tim Yeo, chairman of the Commons environmental audit committee, said the decision to choose Griffin showed the "bizarre way" the parliament operated. He added: "If the future prosperity of the human race, in the face of climate change, depends on the contributions of people like Nick Griffin, there is little hope for any of us."

Professor Alan Thorpe, chief executive of the Natural Environment Research Council, said Griffin's claim that thousands of scientists dispute the existence of man-made global warming was simply not true. "The intergovernmental panel on climate change draws on the views of most of the world's leading climate scientists and they have been quite clear that the evidence shows, with a high degree of certainty, that human activities are now having a substantial effect on the climate. It is simply not the case that there is a substantial number who do not accept a link."

Bob Ward, of Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, said: "Griffin denies the overwhelming scientific evidence on climate change. This appears to be driven by a dogmatic strand of right-wing ideology that opposes any form of environmental regulation, usually hidden behind the dishonest claim that climate change is a left-wing conspiracy."

Chris Huhne, the Liberal Democrats' home affairs spokesman and a former MEP, said the European parliament always divided up positions on such delegations according to the parliament's political balance. "Griffin was bound to get something at some stage. It is just a shame they didn't send him to Iceland instead."

Critics say Griffin addresses environmental issues when he believes he can use them to advance anti-immigration policies. His party claims that it would improve Britain's transport infrastructure and reduce carbon dioxide levels by reducing the number of immigrants in Britain using roads, cars, trains and buses.

Gerry Gable, publisher of the anti-fascist magazine Searchlight, said Griffin once tried to win over environmentalists in the 1980s. "His core beliefs ? that the white race is being threatened by an invading minority ? are the so-called principles that have run through his nasty career."

PM urged to lift Iraq inquiry secrecy

Fears most explosive documents related to beginning of war will not be aired at Chilcot hearing

Gordon Brown is facing demands to change the rules of the Iraq inquiry this weekend amid fears that the most explosive documents explaining why Britain went to war will not be made public.

As the inquiry enters its second week, the prime minister is under pressure to make key evidence relating to secret government discussions public, including minutes showing how the then attorney general, Lord Goldsmith, changed his mind about the legality of the war.

The demands are made in a letter to Brown from the Liberal Democrat leader, Nick Clegg, who insists that unless the lid is lifted on secrecy, the Chilcot inquiry will fail to satisfy the public's demands for honesty.

Last night the Mail on Sunday claimed Goldsmith wrote to Blair in July 2002, eight months before the war, telling him that deposing Saddam Hussein was a blatant breach of international law. The intention was to make Blair call off the invasion but he ignored the advice, the newspaper says, and banned Goldsmith from attending cabinet meetings. The letter has been handed to the inquiry and both men are expected to be questioned about it in the new year.

The row between Clegg and Brown has escalated the day before Sir David Manning, Tony Blair's former foreign policy adviser, gives evidence to the inquiry about a meeting between George Bush and Blair in January 2003 when they are alleged to have agreed to go to war regardless of whether weapons of mass destruction had been found.

Clegg writes: "The full truth cannot be known unless the presently undisclosed legal advice given to the government by the former attorney general Lord Goldsmith in the lead-up to the war is made public, as well as emails and other communications surrounding his summons to Downing Street on 13 March 2003 which preceded his rewriting of his earlier opinion on the legality of the war." He also demands that Brown allow publication of papers relating to the meeting between Blair and Bush at which Manning was present.

It follows a week when critics of the war, including relatives of the 179 servicemen and women who have died in Iraq, have expressed their anger at the power of civil servants to block vital documents. "Protocols" ? measures used to control the release of information ? give civil servants and witnesses nine separate grounds on which to block publication of damaging details.

Clegg writes that such powers are draconian for a government that has pledged to allow the truth about Iraq to emerge. "The restrictions on information released by the inquiry are greater than those which apply under current freedom of information rules," he writes.

"Unless you provide Chilcot with the freedom you claimed he has across the floor of the Commons this week, public trust in the final outcome of this review will be deeply damaged."

According to reports, a five-page secret document known as the Manning memo records the White House meeting on 31 January 2003. It allegedly shows that Bush and Blair made a secret deal to carry out an invasion regardless of whether weapons of mass destruction were discovered by UN inspectors. It appears to contradict statements Blair later made to parliament that Iraq would be given a final chance to disarm.

The memo also apparently discloses that Bush floated the idea of letting a spy plane in UN colours fly low over Iraq to provoke Saddam into having it shot down, providing a pretext for invasion.

Under current rules, the inquiry could be prevented from disclosing the Manning memo could be blocked from the inquiry. Other papers can be blocked if they contain commercially sensitive information, which might make it possible for Mr Brown to stopblock the release of papers relating to the procurement of equipment for the armed forces before the war.

That process is widely believed to have cost the lives of British troops who were left without vital kit such as body armour, because the contracts were concluded too late. The revelation comes after a week in which senior civil servants have given damning evidence to the inquiry which appeared to show that Tony Blair misled the public about the Iraq war.

US 'missed chance to get Bin Laden'

Report says the failure to attack Bin Laden when he was holed up in Tora Bora in late 2001 has had far-reaching consequences

Osama bin Laden was unquestionably within reach of US troops in the mountains of Tora Bora when military leaders made the costly decision not to pursue him with massive force, a Senate report says.

The report asserts that the failure to kill or capture Bin Laden when he was at his most vulnerable, in December 2001, has had lasting consequences beyond the fate of one man. The al-Qaida leader's escape laid the foundation for today's reinvigorated Afghan insurgency and inflamed the internal strife now endangering Pakistan, it says.

Staff of the Senate foreign relations committee's Democratic majority prepared the report [pdf] at the request of the chairman, John Kerry, as Barack Obama prepares to increase US troop numbers in Afghanistan.

Kerry, the 2004 Democratic presidential candidate, has long argued that the Bush administration missed a chance to attack the al-Qaida leader and his deputies when they were holed up in the mountainous area of eastern Afghanistan three months after the September 11 attacks.

Although limited to a review of military operations eight years old, the report could be read as a cautionary note for those resisting an increased troop presence there now. More pointedly, it seeks to affix a measure of blame for the state of the war today on military leaders under George Bush, specifically Donald Rumsfeld, as defence secretary, and his senior military commander, Tommy Franks.

"Removing the al-Qaida leader from the battlefield eight years ago would not have eliminated the worldwide extremist threat," the report says. "But the decisions that opened the door for his escape to Pakistan allowed Bin Laden to emerge as a potent symbolic figure who continues to attract a steady flow of money and inspire fanatics worldwide. The failure to finish the job represents a lost opportunity that forever altered the course of the conflict in Afghanistan and the future of international terrorism."

The report states categorically that Bin Laden was hiding in Tora Bora when the US had the means to mount a rapid assault with at least several thousand troops. It says a review of existing literature, unclassified government records and interviews with central participants "removes any lingering doubts and makes it clear that Osama bin Laden was within our grasp".

On or about 16 December 2001, Bin Laden and bodyguards "walked unmolested out of Tora Bora and disappeared into Pakistan's unregulated tribal area", where he is still believed to be based, the report says.

Instead of a massive attack, fewer than 100 US commandos, working with Afghan militias, tried to capitalise on airstrikes and track down their prey. "The vast array of American military power, from sniper teams to the most mobile divisions of the Marine Corps and the army, was kept on the sidelines," the report said.

At the time, Rumsfeld expressed concern that a large US troop presence might fuel a backlash, and he and some others said the evidence was not conclusive about Bin Laden's location.

Russia blames terrorists for crash

Top government officials among the dead, as Moscow blames homemade bomb that could signal renewed campaign by Chechen rebels

Russia was tonight coming to terms with its most deadly terrorist attack in years after investigators confirmed that a powerful improvised bomb caused Friday's devastating train crash in which at least 26 people, including several top government officials, were killed.

The head of Russia's FSB counter-terrorism agency, Alexander Bortnikov, said the bomb, hidden on the railway line between Moscow and St Petersburg, contained the equivalent of 7kg (15.4lb) of TNT. Officers had found "elements of an explosive device", he said.

Today two huge cranes lifted up wreckage at the crash site as workers searched for the missing. Officials said 18 people were still unaccounted for. Nearly 100 people injured in the crash were being treated in hospitals. Russia's president, Dmitry Medvedev, called for calm amid speculation the explosion could be the start of a new campaign by Chechen extremists. "We need there to be no chaos, because the situation is tense as it is," he told Russian TV.

The luxury Nevsky Express was carrying 682 passengers and 29 crew from Moscow to Russia's second city St Petersburg. It was derailed at 9.34pm on Friday, close to the village of Uglovka, 250 miles north west of Moscow.

Yesterday witnesses described how they heard a "tremendous crash" as the train derailed. "At exactly 9.30pm, 15 minutes after we had passed Bologoye [in the Tver region], we heard an almighty slap," survivor Boris Gruzd told radio station Ekho Moskvy. "It seemed to me as if we had lost a wheel or smashed through some kind of obstacle. I didn't hear any explosion."

Gruzd said the train driver braked severely. The passengers then spent 30 minutes unaware that the last three wagons of the 14-carriage train had flown off the rails. "The first wagon was 1.5-2kms away from the rest of the train. The second had completely flipped over. The third had come off the rails, but was near the main part of the train and was still standing vertically. As far as I know nobody from this wagon was seriously hurt."

Passenger Igor Pechnikov described being in the second of the three derailed cars. "A trembling began, and the carriage jolted violently to the left. I flew through half of the carriage," he said.

Gruzd said that the passengers immediately began collecting warm clothes and mattresses to help the injured. But he said it was extremely difficult to reach people trapped in the mangled carriages ? with rescuers peering into the gloom and using flashlights.

So far investigators have not said who they believe planted the homemade bomb. In the days before the crash villagers reported seeing a suspicious individual. "As far as theories go ? our main version is that this was an explosion of an unknown device, by unknown individuals. Put simply, it was an act of terror," Vladimir Yakunin, Russia's railways minister, said yesterday.

Yakunin said the incident was "analogous" to another derailment on the same line three years ago, also involving the Nevsky Express, in which 19 people were injured. Russian prosecutors blamed that derailment on Chechen rebels, who have been fighting an on-off war against the Russian state for two decades.

According to Ekho Moskvy, a radical neo-Nazi group opposed to migrants from the former Soviet republics of central Asia has claimed responsibility for Friday's crash, which paralysed train travel yesterday and delayed 27,000 passengers. Other nationalist groups later denied the report.

There seems little doubt that the Kremlin will point the finger of blame at Islamist insurgents currently waging a guerrilla campaign across the north Caucasus. Rebel fighters have carried out numerous attacks in recent months, including suicide bombings, in their apparent attempt to establish an Islamic caliphate.

Russian prosecutors said they believed Pavel Kosolapov, an ex-solider and former associate of the late Chechen rebel leader Shamil Basayev, masterminded the previous derailment. Kosolapov is currently on the run. Prosecutors have arrested two residents of Ingushetia and charged them with helping carry out the 2006 attack.

Yesterday, investigators said they had discovered a 3ft crater beneath the rails where the bomb had gone off. Reuters, however, said that its reporters at the scene had been unable to find it. Earlier, Russian news agencies had quoted transport officials as saying the cause may have been an electrical fault. Russia has a poor record of serious accidents caused by Soviet-era infrastructure.

Among the named dead so far were several senior Kremlin bureaucrats, including Boris Yevstratikov, the head of Russia's Federal Reserve Agency, and Lyudmila Mukhina, a deputy head in the Federal Fishing Agency. A former St Petersburg senator, Sergei Tarasov, also died.

Everton v Liverpool ? live!

Press refresh for all the latest updates, or turn on the automatic updates to save yourself clicking. Email your derby day thoughts and predictions to sean.ingle@guardian.co.uk

22 min The game remains bitty and gritty, but Everton are still looking dangerous when they go forward. Another throw-in routine causes chaos in the Liverpool defence but, after Reina fumbles, Johnson is sharp enough to clear.

20 min Everton are continuing to press here. "Classic derby goal that," chuckles Patrick Smith. "Who says the Liverpool need Torres to be on song?" A look at the league table suggests otherwise, Patrick.

18 min What a chance for Bilyaletinidov! From an Everton throw parallel to the penalty area, Felliani flicks on, then Jo, then - I think - Mascherano - before the ball drops to Bilyaletinidov eight yards out ... but he prods his shot wide.

16 min Gerrard, who has started well, finds a little space but his Tommy Toepunt shot from the edge of the area is straight at Howard.

14 min Liverpool fans are jubilant, Everton's silent. History is certainly against David Moyes' side: since the second World War Everton have only come from 1-0 down once to beat Liverpool.

GOAL! Everton 0-1 Liverpool (Yobo OG 11) From out of nowhere, Mascherano chances his arm from 30 yards. The shot is going wide, but Yobo sticks out an ankle and the ensuing deflection takes the ball past Howard and into the bottom corner. Everton will consider themselves hugely unlucky there.

9 min ... that said, Bilyaletdinov nearly had a chance then but he was a little slow reacting to a flick-on. It's early days but Everton are edging this at the moment.

8 min There's still very little quality on offer - not surprising when the game is being played at 1000mph ...

6 min That said, N'gog had a slither of a chance there. He expertly carressed Johnson's cross from the right, and - for the briefest moment - had a chance to shot for goal but instead scooped it into Howard's hands.

4 min It's all crash, bang, wallop at the moment: a bit like watching hyperactive kids on the dodgems.

3 min Cahill tap-dances on Mascherano's left foot, a good second after the Liverpool midfielder has released the ball. Referee Alan Wiley has a word but there's no yellow card.

2 min Everton immediately win a free-kick in a decent position but Bilyaletdinov's cross is headed clear. "I'm thinking the scene is set for a boring 0-0 until Aquilani comes on in the 85th minute to score a game winning scissor kick," reckons Tim Cowley. "From 25 yards." Let's hope the game is better than that ...

1 min Pienaar jabs it to Jo and we're off! "Whoever wins this game will be kicking the other while they're down, suggesting the rather entertaining image of two drunk men lying on the floor kicking each other," suggests Chris Murray.

Latest odds: Everton 10-3, Liverpool 11-10, draw 9-4. Speaking of betting, this from Todd Overde: "Re: 'it's no surprise that Liverpool are strong favourites to win today'. Are you joking? On current form, Liverpool would struggle to make strong favourites against Lands End United, let alone their main rivals away." True, but Everton's record of one win in 10 games is even worse than Liverpool's record of two wins in 11.

An email: This in from Michelle Davies. "Do Liverpool and Everton fans still go to the Merseyside derby together, before sitting down and enjoying a friendly Bovril together - or was that always a media myth?" Well?

Teams As expected, Liverpool are without Fernando Torres while three of their potential game changers - Aquilani, Riera and Benayoun - all start on the bench. It looks like Everton will play 4-2-3-1 with Fellanini, Bilyaletidinov and Cahill supporting Jo.

Everton: Howard, Hibbert, Yobo, Distin, Baines, Pienaar, Heitinga, Fellaini, Bilyaletdinov, Cahill, Jo. Subs: Nash, Saha, Gosling, Yakubu, Neill, Coleman, Baxter.

Liverpool: Reina, Johnson, Carragher, Agger, Insua, Mascherano, Lucas, Kuyt, Gerrard, Aurelio, Ngog. Subs: Cavalieri, Aquilani, Riera, Benayoun, Kyrgiakos, El Zhar, Skrtel.

Referee: Alan Wiley (Staffordshire)

Preamble Good afternoon everyone. Traditionally, derbies are tight, edgy affairs - with few goals, a strong smattering of draws and more unexpected surprises than dinnertime at the Blumenthals. Not so Everton v Liverpool matches at Goodison Park. In the Premier League era, there have only been four draws in 17 matches at Goodison, with the teams scoring a healthy 41 goals between them. Liverpool have achieved the double over their local twice in the last four years - and it's no surprise that they are strong favourites to win today.

Swiss vote set to back minarets ban

Projections based on voting returns suggest Swiss have backed campaign to ban construction of minarets

Projections based on ballot results suggest Swiss voters have backed a campaign to ban the construction of minarets, local television reported.

The projections from state-owned DRS indicate Swiss support for the ban swung massively in recent days, from 37% in pre-vote polls to 59% in today's referendum.

Claude Longchamp, head of the respected gfs.bern polling institute, said the proposed ban was forecast to receive approval from more than half the country's 26 cantons, meaning it will become a constitutional amendment. The projections were based on actual voting returns.

Rightwing parties led by the nationalist Swiss People's party, the country's largest, have labelled minarets symbols of militant Islam.

A Geneva mosque was vandalised on Thursday when a pot of pink paint was thrown at the entrance. Earlier this month a vehicle with a loudspeaker drove through the area imitating a muezzin's call to prayer, and vandals damaged a mosaic when they threw cobblestones at the building.

Business leaders say a ban on minarets, the distinctive spires attached to mosques, would be disastrous for the Swiss economy because it could offend wealthy Muslims who bank in Switzerland, buy the country's luxury goods and visit its resorts.

The vote taps into anxieties about Muslims that have been rippling through Europe, ranging from French fears over women in burkas to Dutch alarm over the murder by a Muslim fanatic of the filmmaker Theo van Gogh, who made a documentary that criticised Islam.

Human rights defenders have objected to posters backing the proposed ban, which show minarets rising like missiles from the Swiss flag next to a fully veiled woman.

Minarets are typically built next to mosques for religious leaders to call the faithful to prayer. The four minarets already attached to mosques in Switzerland will remain even if the referendum passes.

Muslims make up about 6% of Switzerland's 7.5 million population, many of them refugees from the Yugoslav wars of the 1990s. Fewer than 13% practise their religion, the government says.

Ukip leader in Costa Rica bribe row

Insurance firm PWS, founded by Lord Pearson of Rannoch, caught up in case that could lead to charges in UK

The insurance business that made the fortune of the new leader of the UK Independence party (Ukip) is embroiled in an international bribery scandal that could lead to criminal charges in the UK, according to documents obtained by the Observer.

A detailed indictment served in Costa Rica this month alleges that a subsidiary of PWS, the insurance brokers which Lord Pearson of Rannoch founded and chaired, grossly overcharged the small central American state for its insurance premiums.

The Serious Fraud Office is investigating, and has arrested a number of PWS executives for questioning.

But the company itself will face no penalty if the prosecution succeeds; it has been disposed of to another insurance broker since the scandal broke, and the rump of PWS which holds the liability for any fine or penalty is in liquidation and without funds.

PWS is alleged to have paid bribes of more than $700,000 (£426,000) into a bank account linked to the then Costa Rican president, Angel Rodríguez, and provided a $1.6m slush fund for workers of the state insurance company.

Friends of Malcolm Pearson, the Thatcherite peer elected on Friday as the leader of the anti-European and anti-Cameron Ukip, said he knew "absolutely nothing about the alleged payments".

The indictment alleges that Pearson himself, as company chairman, was warned of the existence of the slush fund by a new Costa Rican regime which was probing corruption allegations as long ago as September 2005. The friends said he had never received the letter from the Costa Rican authorities. It had been diverted from his attention by others in the firm he chaired. One said: "He was contacted by the British ambassador in May 2006, which was the first he knew of it."

According to his friends, the City law firm Freshfields was subsequently called in, and the chief executive of PWS, Julian Messent, resigned, following the visit to Pearson of a delegation from the Costa Rican authorities.

Minutes of the Pearson meeting published in Costa Rica say that, during those negotiations, he offered to co-operate with the central American prosecutors, if no action was taken against the PWS company. He suggested PWS might return any money if the claims were substantiated.

Following complaints of inaction, however, the SFO was called in in 2007. It made arrests, and obtained banking information, which was sent to Costa Rica in August. Pearson said he had been interviewed by police and expected to be a witness if any UK charges were brought.

He added: "It is very regrettable that something like this should happen. But in 1997 when this started, it was regarded as perfectly normal. Under that regime, all the other insurance brokers were doing exactly the same thing."

Julian Messent said he was unable to comment as the inquiry was still in progress. Pearson, an old Etonian, was made Lord Pearson of Rannoch, where he has a Scottish estate, by Margaret Thatcher in the 1980s. He and two others working in his father's insurance business founded PWS when he was 22.

Woods faces questions over car crash

Florida state troopers to interview golfer over accident in which he drove into a tree in the early hours of the morning

Tiger Woods is expected to talk with police for the first time today, following his early morning car crash on Friday.

Officers travelled to Woods' Florida home yesterday, but were reportedly told to return today by his agent.

Meanwhile, a neighbour's 911 call, reporting the crash, could be made public, as ABC News released pictures of Woods's damaged Cadillac following the collision.

The world's number one golfer was reportedly injured outside his home after he crashed into a tree at low speed in the exclusive neighbourhood of Windermere, in the suburbs of Orlando, Florida.

Police attending the scene said they found a dazed and bleeding Woods being tended to by his wife, Elin Nordegren Woods. Nordegren told police she had smashed a window in the car with a golf club to drag her husband out of the locked vehicle. Woods was taken to hospital, but quickly released, and is apparently in good health.

Police tried to talk to Woods, 33, on Friday night, but officers were told by his wife that he was sleeping. They were denied the opportunity again yesterday by Woods' agent.

Sergeant Kim Montes said: "Florida highway patrol has received information that Tiger Woods and his wife were not available to be interviewed by state troopers, as we had previously scheduled. This announcement came from his agent. Troopers were asked to return tomorrow."

Montes told the New York Daily News that Woods is not required to speak with troopers, but must produce his licence, insurance and registration because the crash is being investigated as a car accident.

A statement on Tiger Woods' website said simply that he was in a minor car accident outside his home and is in "good condition". But it seems the longer Woods refuses to talk to police, the more internet rumours are fuelled.

Mystery over the crash intensified over the weekend, with gossip website TMZ posting a series of stories suggesting the world number one golfer was attacked by Nordegren.

TMZ claimed the couple had been arguing over Woods's alleged relationship with New York hostess Rachel Uchitel. The website claimed Woods was confronted by his wife over the reports before the argument grew heated. According to TMZ's source, the golfer fled in his car with his wife chasing behind.

The website also claims that Nordegren has changed the story she initially gave to police, but says it cannot be more specific.

Woods is well known for his fiercely guarded private life, and rarely speaks to the media, having reportedly been displeased with an interview he gave to GQ in 1997.

But it is unlikely interest surrounding the incident will subside soon. '#TigerWoodsWife' and 'Tiger Woods' are trending topics on Twitter, and speculation is likely to continue following Woods's expected meeting with police later today.

Ashcroft promotion threatens rift

Tories warned by former colony's prime minister not to give deputy chairman a government post

David Cameron was warned yesterday that Britain's relations with a key Central American ally would be damaged if Lord Ashcroft was given a government post.

In a stinging attack, Dean Barrow, the Belizean prime minister, depicted the billionaire Tory deputy chairman as a "relentless foe" and declared that a "state of war" existed with the peer.

Barrow told the Tory leader to bear in mind that Britain had a military training base in his country when he decided whether to promote Ashcroft after the election. The peer has extensive business interests in Belize where his father served as a diplomat.

Barrow said: "It's not for me to presume to advise Mr Cameron. All I can do is to say I would hope that a practical problem would be managed in such a way as not to damage relations between Belize and the UK. We wouldn't want to see institutional reels of collaboration and communication damaged."

Ashcroft, who adopted Belize as his home after his father served as a diplomat in the former British colony, has been involved in a bitter legal dispute with the government since Barrow came to power last year.

The prime minister this year nationalised Telemedia, a local media giant, after a row over an agreement reached between the company and the previous Belizean government. Ashcroft, who had relinquished control of Telemedia, advised it in its legal dispute. He has said that his advice was sought by Telemedia to try to resolve the litigation into which the company was plunged. It resulted in an "accommodation agreement" with the government that was upheld in the London courts.

Declaring that the wrangle had created a "state of war" between his government and Ashcroft, Barrow accused the peer of subjugating his country. "To insist on the imposition or the maintenance of an agreement that was quite clearly illegal amounted to a kind of effort to subjugate the nation to his will," he said.

"There is still this great thicket of litigation that's going on. He is obviously not going to go gently into that good night. He is a relentless foe and he's got all the money in the world and he's got all the lawyers at his command and everything we do he challenges."

The prime minister, who knows Ashcroft well because he accepted donations from the peer in the 2003 election in Belize, described him as a genial, but formidable, man. "Lord Ashcroft can be the most amiable fellow. Quick with a joke, sharp wit and he's obviously a brilliant man. But I think one always knows that if he is crossed he will get very, very, very angry in an instant and that he will be relentless as an enemy, that's never far from the surface."

Barrow said he was familiar with the power of Ashcroft's millions, which helped unseat his United Democratic party in a 1998 election. "We have felt the sting of his opposition and his determination to spend money to get an opponent defeated," Barrow said of the man bankrolling the Tory campaign in marginal constituencies in Britain.

The two foes have met during their dispute, and anger had been displayed on both sides, he said. "As things deteriorated [we] did meet on a couple of occasions to see how we could solve the problems and his anger was very much on display. But so was mine. So there was no real harm done. [It is] the kind of anger that would see him move relentlessly in this case to tie up the government and the nation in court."

Ashcroft says the attacks on him by Barrow are "entirely party political". The peer's spokesman has said that Ashcroft sold his interest in Telemedia seven or eight years ago.

The peer, ennobled on the advice of William Hague and who accompanied the shadow foreign secretary on a recent visit to Washington, is a controversial figure in the Tory party. Labour believes his donations give Tory candidates in marginal seats an unfair advantage.

Labour and the Liberal Democrats have tried to attack Ashcroft over his tax affairs. The Tories say they are satisfied with Ashcroft's undertaking, when he was appointed a peer, that he would pay British taxes.

Ex-army chief to run for Sri Lankan presidency

General Sarath Fonseka accuses incumbent of being a dictator for failing to return country to normality after civil war

Sri Lanka's former army chief announced today he will run for president as head of a coalition of opposition parties.

General Sarath Fonseka's forces swept through the jungles of northern Sri Lanka and crushed the Tamil Tiger rebels in May. He resigned two weeks ago, accusing the government of sidelining him after the end of the long-running civil war.

In his first news conference as a politician, Fonseka accused the president, Mahinda Rajapaksa, of being a dictator for failing to return the country to normality at the end of the war. He alleged that the government was curtailing media freedom and dragging its feet on resettling war refugees ? echoing complaints from international rights groups.

"We have done away with the terrorists. But now you can't leave the country in the hands of a tin-pot dictator," he said.

Questions have been raised about Fonseka's conduct during the war. This month, US officials tried to question him over alleged human rights abuses by his forces. A state department report said military attacks on civilians and hospitals could amount to war crimes.

Fonseka said he had never covered up any illegal activity in the army during the war. He pledged to abolish the powerful executive presidency and return power to parliament in six months, and to take measures to curb corruption and restore democracy.

Fifteen opposition parties ? all with little hope of defeating Rajapaksa on their own ? have said they would support Fonseka in the election, scheduled for 26 January.

Rajapaksa, who still has two years left in his six-year term, called the early elections to take advantage of his popularity after the military ended the civil war. In a series of recent local elections, Rajapaksa's coalition has won control of all eight provincial assemblies.

Burmese trio sentenced for Briton's murder

Two men sentenced to 25 years in prison and youth detained until age of 24 for murder of Malcolm Robertson in March

Two Burmese fishermen have each been sentenced to 25 years in prison for murdering a British yachtsman off the coast of Thailand.

Malcolm Robertson, 64, was bludgeoned and thrown overboard off the Andaman coast after the men boarded his vessel in March. His wife, Linda, feared for her life as the attackers kept her tied up for 10 hours before they fled.

Thai fishermen found the body of Robertson, a businessman from Hastings, East Sussex, 10 nautical miles north of Satun's Lipeh island a week later.

The Foreign Office confirmed that two adult Burmese nationals had been sentenced at Satun provincial court on Thursday. A spokesman said: "Both men had pleaded guilty to the charges and as a result the sentences were reduced by half to 25 years, eight months imprisonment."

A 17-year-old boy also convicted of the murder is to be held in custody until he reaches the age of 24, the spokesman said.

The Robertsons' four grown-up children, two each from previous marriages, flew to Thailand to support Mrs Robertson after the killing. The family had to endure several false reports of Mr Robertson's body being found before official confirmation came through.

According to reports from Thailand, the three Burmese offenders ? named as Eksian Warapon, 19, an 18-year-old known as Aow, and the 17-year-old, known as Ko ? had been stranded on an island after jumping from a Thai fishing ship.

After finding the island had little food and water, they killed Mr Robertson when they boarded his anchored 44ft yacht, named Mr Bean after the chain of coffee shops he ran. The trio were arrested on a raft about half a mile from the couple's vessel.

Mrs Robertson escaped with minor injuries but detailed her ordeal during 10 hours of testimony in Satun, describing how the attackers tied her hands and feet and how she heard her husband tell them: "Get off my boat." In interviews, she said the attackers behaved like they were having a picnic after killing her husband as they ate food, laughed and joked.

She also spoke of the kindness shown by the youngest of the offenders, who stroked her feet and repeatedly said sorry to her.

Mr Robertson was semi-retired and had passed the running of his chain of coffee shops in East Sussex to his children. He was fulfilling a lifelong dream of spending winter months sailing around warmer climes with his wife. The couple, both qualified yacht masters who had sailed round the world, had been married for 25 years and had seven grandchildren between them.