Somali pirates 'seize British couple's yacht'

Paul and Rachel Chandler disappeared while sailing near waters known to have been scene of pirate hijackings

Rescuers were today searching for a British couple feared to have been kidnapped by pirates off the east coast of Africa.

Paul and Rachel Chandler, who were sailing from the Seychelles to Tanzania, have not been heard from since last Friday, when the emergency beacon on their yacht, the Lynn Rival, was activated.

The British Maritime and Coastguard Agency confirmed the beacon had been activated at 11pm on 23 October.

Officials said the Seychelles authorities were carrying out a search and rescue operation in the area where the boat was last known to have been. It is understood pirate activity was reported in that region earlier that day.

Reuters reported that the yacht had been seized by pirates and quoted one kidnapper, called Hassan, as saying: "The British couple are in our hands now. We captured them as they were touring in the Indian Ocean." He said the captives were healthy and ransom demands would follow.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the reports were being investigated and that they were in touch with relatives of the Chandlers, who are from Tunbridge Wells, in Kent.

She added that it was possible that the yacht had simply strayed out of contact and said there was no indication, other than media reports, of pirate involvement.

A British coastguard spokesman said: "They had left the Seychelles on 22 October and were going on a 150 nautical mile passage south-west to the Amirante Islands, en route to Tanzania.

"It would appear from the activation of the emergency position indicating radio beacon (EPIRB) that something has happened.

"We were aware that the EPIRB had gone off, talked to the Seychelles, asked if they were aware of it ... they were, and have been searching by air and sea."

A spokesman for the Seychelles coastguard said they "don't have any information" about the couple.

"We did have a distress signal from them on 23 October," he added. "There have been reports that they were hijacked by pirates, but no one can prove that. We don't know what has happened and cannot speculate.

"Our ship is in the area, and we are still keeping a look out. We don't know whether they were continuing with their route. They don't have a satellite phone, so we cannot get hold of them."

The route would have taken the Chandlers, aged 58 and 55, near Somali waters notorious for pirate attacks on ships and smaller boats.

The last message on the couple's travel blog was posted on Friday morning and read: "Please ring Sarah." It is thought the message refers to Rachel's sister.

Earlier, the Chandlers - who have been sailing around the world for several years after selling up in the UK - wrote of "the Somali pirate problem" that had delayed other voyages to Tanzania.

Enthusiasts on a yachting forum questioned the wisdom of sailing in the area. One post said: "I hope the people in question are well. However, I do wonder why anyone would sail through these areas. The dangers are very well known and very well reported."

There have been a series of pirate attacks off Somalia in the last few years, with vessels from supertankers to cruise ships being targeted.

Towards the end of last year, the situation became so bad that Maersk, the world's largest shipping company, announced that its oil tankers would be rerouted via the Cape of Good Hope.

Call for student loans chief to resign

Loans company 'bungled' process, leaving 100,000 students without funds, and then tried to pass blame onto students for improperly filling out forms, says NUS

The National Union of Students today called for the head of the Student Loans Company to resign or be sacked after the publication of official figures revealing that more than 100,000 students are still awaiting their full loan payments a month into term.

Wes Streeting, the president of the NUS accused the loan company's chief executive Ralph Seymour-Jackson of "bungling" the process then attempting to partly blame the problem on students for improperly filling out their forms. The student finance system has been hit by delays this year after a record rise in applications for loans in the recession and the transfer of the administration systems from local authorities to the SLC.

Today's figures from the SLC - ordered by the government - revealed that 31,000 applications are still being processed, 39,000 are awaiting further information from the students and another 39,000 have been given only an interim payment and are awaiting the rest of their loan cheque.

It suggests that a far larger number of students have withdrawn or failed to complete their application this year, sparking concerns that some students have chosen to drop-out or defer their place when their loans were delayed in the tough financial climate.

Overall 985,000 applications were made for loans this year compared with 903,000 last year. Some 805,000 have been fully processed and the rest are either unprocessed, partly processed or the students withdrew. In total 109,000 students are still awaiting their money ? though around a third have failed to provide the right information.

Wes Streeting, president of the National Union of Students, said: "You've got the appalling situation which has left hundreds of thousands affected by this crisis, tens of thousands without their support, a miserable start to term and on top of that one of the most shameful spin operations from a public body I have ever seen. They have failed to communicate with the public, made broken promise after broken promise. In that context how anyone can expect us to have confidence is beyond me. It's time for Ralph Seymour-Jackson to do honourable thing and resign ? or for ministers to step in and sack him.

"There's a growing consensus that enough is enough. It's not just the bungling of the process, but the fact that the SLC has been economical with the truth and have attempted to put the blame on students for applying late. We have absolutely no confidence in Ralph Seymour-Jones."

Today's figures show that the SLC is still awaiting information for 39,000 applications ? the same figures as last year despite the fact that there were 82,000 more applications this year. Streeting said this dispelled claims by Seymour-Jackson that students had made their job harder by failing to submit the right information on time. The SLC has issued "unreserved" apologies to students throughout the situation.

Universities have stepped in to help students by providing hardship loans to see them through the start of term but Streeting said that many were now running out of free cash to provide to those still awaiting their cheques.

Fight or lose EU job, Blair warned

Brown assigns senior officials to help secure top Europe role for former PM

Gordon Brown has asked two of his most senior civil servants to lobby discreetly within Europe for Tony Blair to become its new president amid warnings from allies in government that the former prime minister will lose his chance unless he launches a dynamic campaign.

John Cunliffe, the prime minister's most senior Europe adviser, and Kim Darroch, Britain's EU ambassador, are taking soundings at senior levels. David Miliband, meanwhile, has also intensified Britain's campaign for Blair to become the first president of the European council.

The move comes as senior Whitehall sources are warning that the post will slip away unless Blair becomes involved. "Tony is in considerable difficulty unless he actively engages," said one senior figure familiar with the workings of Whitehall and the EU.

"Tony's candidacy is not in the happiest of places. We need our embassies across the EU campaigning for Tony but they can't do that without a lead from him."

There are concerns that Blair's timidity will mean that he will lose out when EU leaders start to hold informal discussion on candidates for the post at their summit in Brussels this week. Tentative talks will be held amid signs that the Czech Republic will ratify the Lisbon treaty, which establishes the new post.

Brown has shown his support for Blair by asking Cunliffe and Darroch to lobby on his behalf. Cunliffe has been "very supportive", according to allies of Blair. Darroch, who is familiar to Blair from his time as his EU adviser, is talking to key figures across the EU. "Kim is talking to everyone," one ally of the former prime minister said.

Blair, however, is reluctant to campaign openly because he fears experiencing the same fate as Guy Verhofstadt, the former prime minister of Belgium, who was humiliated when Blair vetoed him for the post of president of the European commission in 2004. "Tony will not put himself into a position where he is humiliated like Guy Verhofstadt," one friend said.

There is irritation that the former prime minister is not repaying Brown's favour by indicating his interest in the post, which would see him chair European summits and represent the EU on the world stage.

It is expected EU leaders may appoint the new president at an emergency summit next month if Vaclav Klaus, the president of the Czech Republic, ratifies the Lisbon treaty in the next few weeks.

"There is a real problem as nobody is credibly arguing Tony's case in public with force," a Whitehall source said. Jonathan Powell, Blair's former chief of staff, has been taking soundings across the EU. But the Whitehall source said: "Jonathan ain't enough."

Miliband, who said at the weekend that the EU needed a president who would stop the traffic in world capitals, stepped up his campaigning for Blair at the traditional pre-summit meeting of EU foreign ministers tonight . "Unless Europe gets its act together, policy-makers in Washington, Delhi, Rio de Janeiro, Moscow and Beijing and elsewhere are going to conclude that Europe is not ready to be the partner they want," the foreign secretary said.

Miliband defended Blair's decision to remain silent. "I think he, like me, is waiting to see what kind of person Europe wants, because the choice is not primarily his, the choice is for Europe," he told Radio 4's The World at One. "Does it want someone who is just going to tick off the items on the agenda? Or does it want someone who is going to be a persuasive advocate, a coalition-builder, a strategic leader of Europe's relationships around the world?"

But senior ministers familiar with the workings of the EU are growing exasperated with Blair. "There is a feeling we are now reaching a crucial stage," a Whitehall source said. "Tony needs to launch a dynamic campaign to secure this position."

Police challenged over protest files

Chief constables will be forced to justify the legality of recording thousands of law-abiding protesters on secret nationwide databases, the government's privacy watchdog announced today.

Christopher Graham, the information commissioner, said he had "genuine concerns about the ever increasing amount" of personal data held by police.

Graham's move came after the Guardian revealed how police have developed a covert apparatus to monitor people they consider are, or could be, "domestic extremists", a term which has no legal basis.

Photographs and personal details of thousands of activists who attend demonstrations, rallies and political meetings are being stored on the databases. Surveillance officers are given so-called "spotter cards" to identify individuals who may "instigate offences or disorder" at demonstrations.

Alan Johnson, the home secretary, was today forced to defend the police for labelling protesters "domestic extremists". He said: "I haven't issued any guidance [to police] on the definition of that phrase. The police know what they are doing, they know how to tackle these demonstrations, they do it very effectively."

There were "far fewer" cases of animal rights extremism than in previous years, he said. "That's just one form of domestic extremism. If the police want to use that as a term, I certainly wouldn't fall to the floor clutching my box of Kleenex.

David Howarth, the Liberal Democrat justice spokesman, said that "an alphabet soup of agencies appears to have decided to put everyone in this country who protests about anything on a list of suspects".

"This is an example of mission creep, they have gone beyond their original intention of dealing with violent animal extremists"

Three units given the task of monitoring "domestic extremists" are run by the Association of Chief Police Officers (Acpo), including the National Public Order Intelligence Unit (NPOIU), which operates as a giant database of political activists.

David Smith, the deputy information commissioner, said: "We will raise this issue with Acpo and seek further information from them about the personal information the police are collecting.

"We do have genuine concerns about the ever increasing amounts of information that law enforcement bodies are retaining. Organisations must only collect people's personal information for a proper purpose. We will need to talk to Acpo to understand why they consider it is necessary to hold lawful protesters' details in this way, before considering whether this meets the terms of the Data Protection Act."

He also urged demonstrators who suspected they might be on a database to challenge the police. "Individuals have the right to request information that is held about them and can challenge organisations about whether, and for how long, the data should be retained."

One activist, Linda Catt, who has been told that footage of her protesting at last year's Labour party conference is being held on the NPOIU database, said she would lodge a complaint with the information commissioner about why her details are being held. Catt also discovered her vehicle was being tracked by a network of automatic number plate reading cameras at the roadside.

The development comes amid growing concern that police forces are accumulating detailed information about peaceful protesters without proper justification. The NPOIU database can access information collected and stored by individual police forces.

However, there is evidence that police forces supplying the data are not holding the information lawfully. In May, the court of appeal found against the Metropolitan police in a landmark ruling over the retention of photographs on a database run by its public order unit, CO11.

The court found the force had been unlawfully holding images of Andrew Wood, an anti-arms trade campaigner who was photographed leaving a public meeting. One judge said there were unresolved civil liberties questions about the way images were taken and retained in "the modern surveillance society".

The C011 database, which initially contained 2,500 images, has been reduced to around 1,500 images after an internal audit found that 40% of the those being held were not compliant with the ruling.

Speaking to the Guardian, the Met's assistant commissioner, Chris Allison, who is in overall charge of C011, admitted today that the Met had been forced to review its IT systems.

"The judgment made plain, and clarified for the police service, the circumstances under which we could retain images. It set down a clear set of standards for us, and as an organisation it is important that we live by those standards. Then we looked at what we could and couldn't do in light of that database."

He stressed the public order database was not ? unlike another Met IT system used to log the movements of protesters named Crimint ? accessed by rank and file officers. "The C011 database is just there to enable a few people within the public order branch intelligence squad to have access. This isn't routine access across the organisation."

A spokesman for the Acpo domestic extremism units said people on the database "should not be worried".

"There are lots of reasons why people might be on the database," he said. "Not everyone on there is a criminal and not everyone on there is a domestic extremist but we have got to build up a picture of what is happening. Those people may be able to help us in the future. It's an intelligence database, not an evidence database."

"Protesting is not a criminal offence but there is occasionally a line that is crossed when people commit offences."

Police forces around the country feed information about protesters into the NPOIU central database in London. Most of it comes from special branch and officers who record what people do and say at protests.

In an interview with the Guardian, Anton Setchell, the National co-ordinator of the Acpo units, gave a hypothetical example: "At such and such a time, I was on duty in whatever high street, there was this event taking place, and in amongst it I saw a man who I've known for the last three years called... He was wearing a blue shirt and at 3.05pm he stood on a podium and got a megaphone and gave a 20-minute address to the crowd."

Tougher rules on credit card lending

Proposals would force borrowers to pay back more of their debt earlier and stop issuers raising credit limit without consent

Credit card firms could be banned from increasing borrowers' credit limits and the interest rates they pay in moves which the government today said would put consumers "back in the driving seat".

Under the proposals, which had been heavily trailed in the run-up to today's consultation paper, card providers could also be forced to increase the minimum monthly repayment they demand. As revealed in Sunday's Observer, the government is considering raising this to at least 5% of the outstanding balance.

At the moment, minimum monthly payments are typically set at a level covering that month's interest charges. So, for example, someone with an outstanding credit card balance of £1,856 with an interest rate of 17.6% would pay £4,620 in total interest charges over 38 years and 10 months at a typical minimum repayment of 2% of the outstanding balance.

If the minimum payment was increased to 5% the cardholder would incur £748 in total interest charges over eight years and 10 months.

Between 2002 and 2008 the number of people who only made the minimum payment on their credit card increased by a third, while at the same time many card companies were cutting their minimum repayments.

However, the consultation paper acknowledged that raising repayments to a flat 5% may not be the answer, and suggested an alternative may be to set a monthly minimum repayment which meant the debt was repaid in a set period of time, for example three years.

The review of credit and store card practices comes a year after discussions with the industry which the government believes have resulted in some, but not enough, improvements.

The proposal to ban card issuers from increasing a borrower's credit limit without their consent follows recent research from uSwitch showing that over the past year this has happened to an estimated 5.7 million consumers.

The government said it was concerned that consumers did not have enough control over how much they could borrow, and wanted them to decide for themselves "the amount of credit they can responsibly access".

It also wants to consult on a proposal to end the practice of "adverse order of payments". Adverse order means that by paying off your cheapest debt first, credit card companies let more expensive ones last longer, thus earning extra interest. Nearly all card issuers, with the exception of Nationwide and Saga, use this tactic.

Complex and confusing terms and conditions

The consumer affairs minister, Kevin Brennan, said card companies had to "get their act together and do more for consumers". "My opinion is clear, the current relationship between card companies and consumers cannot go unchallenged. We need to put the customer back in the driving seat.

"It is not acceptable for card companies to impose complex and confusing terms and conditions that can leave people baffled, or to increase interest rates without a proper explanation. Consumers have a real responsibility to manage their finances properly, but they also have a right to clear information to enable them to do that.

"Consumers should not feel each month as if they have been exploited or disadvantaged."

Brennan called on consumers to respond to the proposals, as well as industry figures.

Nationwide's product and marketing director, Chris Rhodes, said he was delighted that order of payments had been included in the review.

"We think all UK credit card providers should allocate payments in a positive way. The US has already recognised that the practice of paying the cheapest debt first is unfair to customers and is forcing lenders to be more consumer friendly," he said.

Today's proposals were also widely welcomed by consumer groups. Teresa Perchard, director of public policy at debt advice charity Citizens Advice, said credit and store cards accounted for 300,000 new inquiries from debt-laden consumers over the past year.

"In particular we see far too many people on low incomes who have drifted into very high levels of borrowing as a result of unsolicited increased access to credit. A lot has been said about responsible lending and borrowing over the last few years, but it has yet to be achieved."

She added: "Together these measures could result in a significant long-term culture change where increases in credit limits are customer driven and people are no longer sleep walking into debt."

The consumer group Which? also welcomed the news. Personal finance campaigner, Phil Jones, said: "For too long card companies have been allowed to apply the tricks of their trade to the detriment of millions of consumers.

"We think it is simply wrong to entice people into spending more than they can afford and then to squeeze as much money out of them as possible. The sooner these practices are stamped out the better."

? Consumers who want to take part in the consultation can find out how to do so on the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills website

Ferocious honey-lovers? Think again

Bearwalker of the Northwoods reveals how US wildlife biologist Lynn Rogers' extraordinary relationship with wild black bears has enabled him to explode numerous myths about the animals - and discover surprising new behaviour

The wildlife biologist Lynn Rogers had logged thousands of hours studying North America's black bears. He had shot them with tranquilisers before fitting them with ear tags or radio collars. He had drawn their blood and mapped their DNA. And he had tracked their movements with pins on maps.

But none of that had allowed him to really know the creatures. When he did get close to a bear in the wild the animal was usually terrified, caught in a live trap in the woods.

Rogers eventually realised he couldn't hope to know bears unless he won their trust. And so he abandoned scientific detachment and took the daring and controversial step of forming relationships with his study animals, using food to gain acceptance among an extended bear family inMinnesota.

Gaining the trust of the bears has given him a close-up insight into their behaviour and social organisation as well as allowing Rogers to explode myths about them. Contrary to popular belief, for example, he contends that the bears are not violent and do not like honey.

"Those are the accepted ways of studying bears. You catch a bear, you take a lot of measurements," Rogers said. "It's interesting information but it doesn't give you the detail that a person really wants to know about bears ? what they are really like, how they live."

The extraordinary relationship between Rogers and his research subjects is revealed in a BBC film, Bearwalker of the Northwoods, which airs on Wednesday night.

The film-makers have shot the first footage of bears mating and they got close enough to record wild bear cubs purring while suckling.

The film opens with Rogers ? a lean, white-haired man who is now 70 ? hiking through the woods of north-eastern Minnesota about to commit what most North Americans grow up believing is one of the cardinal sins of outdoor life: drawing within a paw-swipe of a mother bear and her cubs.

Rogers approaches the mother bear den slowly and deliberately. "It's me, bear, it's me," he calls out.

The adult female he calls Juliet, swats a few times at the opening of the mud and wood den. Rogers is unfazed. "She is not a mean bear. She is just a nervous bear, but she will calm down," he tells the camera. And within a few moments, it looks as if Juliet is so relaxed she is about to nod off to sleep.So far as biologist-bear relations go, Juliet is close family. Her sister, June, is Rogers's most prized research subject, the source of much of his knowledge about bears. It is clear that June occupies a far bigger place in Rogers's heart than any of her assorted relatives and offspring.

"June in her eight years has become ever more trusting. You can see how she is not wary of me at all. She is completely trusting," said Rogers.

In the years Rogers has tramped through the Northwoods he has abandoned just about everything he knew, or thought he knew, about bears. They do not like honey. They are not even that crazy about berries or nuts ? provided, of course, there is a nice rich stash of ant larvae in the vicinity.

And they are not ferocious. Rogers is adamant about that. He said he has never heard a bear roar or even growl, and that in all of his years of close proximity to the animals he has never been seriously hurt even though in his early years he displayed what he calls "bad bear manners".

The bears he knows are timid creatures. Defensive postures, such as swatting their large paws on the ground, are mistaken for aggression by many people.

"In my 42 years of working closely with bears and testing every no-no, I have not found a way of getting a bear to attack. The more I push them the more they try to get away. They might want to nip and slap, but it is not an attack, it is just a way of fending me off so they can find a way to escape."

It's humans who are the more dangerous animal, he said. "If you look at the statistics, one black bear out of a million kills somebody. With grizzly bears it's one in 50,000. Among humans it's one person out of 18,000 kills somebody. So you could see why I would feel a lot less comfortable in the city than in the woods next to a bear."

Rogers's methods have made him controversial with fellow bear researchers and he does not have a significant publishing record in academic journals. Tim Ginnett, an associate professor of wildlife who has been working at the University of Wisconson-Steven's Point black bear research project for the last nine years, said that feeding the animals runs the risk of changing the very behaviour you want to study. "We want to understand how they behave and operate in a natural ecosystem. And feeding them - to my way of thinking - kind of disrupts that so it's not an approach we use," he said.

Rogers is no sentimentalist. Even after devoting 40 years of his life to the back bear of Minnesota he is under no delusion that his interest is reciprocated. Even June does not really like him, he said.

"June she has no feelings for me. If she had feelings i think she would want to seek out company like a dog does its master," he said. "But she doesn't think of me in those terms. I'm just the guy that brings her a treat once in a while and that she can ignore and not pay any attention to and that is what makes her so valuable to science."

? Bearwalker of the Northwoods is on BBC Two at 8pm on Wednesday 28 October

Madoff inquiry stalls after pool death

? Coroner rules Jeffry Picower died of natural causes
? Victims' representative says he will pursue the estate

The fight to compensate victims of Bernard Madoff's $65bn (£40bn) Ponzi scheme has been thrown into uncertainty following the death of the biggest beneficiary of the fraud.

Jeffry Picower was found at the bottom of his swimming pool on Sunday. A Florida coroner ruled last night that the billionaire philanthropist died of natural causes following a heart attack, ending any suspicions of foul play.

The 67-year old Picower was worth around $1bn, making him one of the 400 richest people in America, and had invested with Madoff for more than 30 years.

Irving Picard, who represents some of Madoff's victims, said he would continue his fight to recover funds from the Picower estate. Picard hopes to claw back more than $7bn which he claims was withdrawn by Picower from Madoff Securities over three decades.

Some ex-Madoff investors fear Picower's sudden demise will further complicate their struggle for compensation.

"I do feel badly a man died," Ronnie Sue Ambrosino, who lost her life savings to Madoff, told the Palm Beach Post. "But it's another clue we'll never have. Madoff pleaded guilty and didn't go to trial. And now Picower dies. It's a little ironic that we're never going to find out the truth."

But John Coffee, law professor at Columbia University, has suggested Picower's family may be keen to agree a settlement with Picard as they face the prospect of paying estate and inheritance taxes.

Investigators have questioned how the former accountant was able to benefit from Madoff's fraud when thousands of other investors suffered huge losses. The alleged profits dwarf the $200m that Picard hopes to recover from the Madoff family.

Picard claimed recently that Picower's accounts were riddled with "blatant and obvious fraud". In response, Picower insisted he was a victim of the Ponzi scheme, and only discovered "the ugly truth" when Madoff was arrested last December.

A spokesman for Picower's family said the billionaire had been in "poor health", and suffered from Parkinson's disease and "heart-related medical issues". His wife Barbara, who discovered her husband in the pool of their Palm Beach mansion, is also being investigated by Picard.

In June, Madoff was jailed for 150 years for defrauding thousands of people. Some were wealthy acquaintances he met in New York and Palm Beach, but many others were smaller investors whose money ended up with Madoff via feeder funds. The disgraced businessman has insisted that he was solely responsible for the fraud.

AA Gill shot baboon in Tanzania

? Restaurant critic says he felt urge to be a primate killer
? Animal campaigners attack 'indefensible' action

Animal welfare groups voiced outrage today after the restaurant critic AA Gill said he shot a baboon on safari "to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone".

In a Sunday Times column, Gill recounted in detail how he shot the creature from 250 yards while hunting in "a truck full of guns and other blokes" in Tanzania. He said he felt the urge to be "a recreational primate killer" before shooting the animal through the lung.

"This is morally completely indefensible," said Steve Taylor, a spokesman for the League Against Cruel Sports. "If he wants to know what it like to shoot a human, he should take aim at his own leg. When man interacts with animals he owes a duty of care. If you are killing to eat, that is a different matter. This is killing for fun".

Gill wrote: "I took him just below the armpit. He slumped and slid sideways. I'm told they can be tricky to shoot: they run up trees, hang on for grim life. They die hard, baboons. But not this one. A soft-nosed .357 blew his lungs out."

Claire Bass, wildlife manager at the World Society for the Protection of Animals: "It's hard to say what's sadder ? the unnecessary death of a healthy baboon or that he has so little regard for the life of another creature. The vast majority of visitors to the Serengeti have a fantastic time shooting with cameras, not guns. We condemn the killing and the crude portrayal of it as 'entertainment' in Gill's column."

Guy Norton, who studies the behaviour of baboons in Makumi National Park in Tanzania, said baboons are "sentient and feeling animals" and display similar characteristics to humans with strong parental bonds and sociable group behaviour.

"I can understand the repulsion people are feeling because it is hard to see why he would do this in the first place," said Norton. "I can understand it if there was a purpose, but what Gill is talking about is not responsible hunting."

He added that the animal described by Gill sounded like an olive baboon, which is not endangered.

Gill admitted he had no good reason for killing the animal. "I know perfectly well there is absolutely no excuse for this," he wrote. "There is no mitigation. Baboon isn't good to eat, unless you're a leopard. The feeble argument of culling and control is much the same as for foxes: a veil for naughty fun. I wanted to get a sense of what it might be like to kill someone, a stranger. You see it in all those films: guns and bodies, barely a close-up of reflection or doubt. What does it really feel like to shoot someone, or someone's close relative?"

Baboons are seen as a threat by some people in Tanzania because they raid crops, and farmers who need to control their populations can apply for licences to kill them in some areas. They have been classed as vermin in the country and often live on the edges of farming areas.

Jackson fans to boycott film premiere

This Is It, the documentary showing rehearsal footage from Michael Jackson's planned concert tour at the O2, will screen simultaneously round the world tonight, regardless of concerns over its verisimilitude

Michael Jackson fans have launched a campaign suggesting forthcoming documentary This Is It airbrushes the declining health of the singer in his final days.

A website, This Is Not It, suggests Jackson was so frail that on the night before he died 20 fans who regularly followed him around penned a letter to the star urging him to take more care of himself.

The fans blame AEG, the promoter of the singer's abandoned London tour, This Is It studio Sony and Jackson's own entourage for exploiting him for their own financial gain. They are planning to protest with leaflets and flyers at the simultaneous global premieres taking place around the world later today and tomorrow.

This Is It, directed by High School Musical's Kenny Ortega, shows Jackson rehearsing at the Staples Centre in LA in advance of this summer's planned dates at London's 02 arena. The singer died following a heart attack on June 25 before the tour began.

Talin Shajanian, from Los Angeles, who had been following Jackson since 2003, often waiting with others outside the venues where he was rehearsing, told the BBC the singer was "unusually thin" the last time she saw him.

"A couple of weeks before he passed, we saw him change drastically," she said. "He shared this with us, the pressure that he felt, the concerns that he had.

"He specifically said he was only one person and only had a certain amount of energy to give, that so much was expected of him for these shows. We were expecting him to bulk up, to put on weight for the concerts like he had in the past, and that wasn't happening."

Fans on the This Is Not It website have expressed their scepticism about the project:

"The true state of Michael Jackson's failing health was being hidden from you by those who are making a profit from the screening of the This is It movie.

"In the weeks leading up to Michael Jackson's death, while this footage was being shot, people around him knew that he looked like he might have died. Those who stood to make a profit chose to ignore it. Friends and fans who had no financial interest, chose to address it and attempted to help him.

"AEG, the promoters for This Is It, ignored the signs, ignored the pleas, and in fact, actively covered up the truth. What you will see on that screen is part of that cover up."

Ortega recently said of Jackson: "Was he slight? Yes. Was he frail? At times. But we had a very strong and excited, happy and determined Michael. He wanted to do this more than anything he's ever wanted to do ? That's the truth. It really is."

The film has met with advance praise from Jackson's friend, the film star Elizabeth Taylor, who called This Is It as "most brilliant piece of filmmaking I have ever seen" following a private screening.

She added, in a lengthy series of Tweets: "It cements forever Michael's genius in every aspect of creativity. He cradles each note, coaxes the music to depths beyond reality. I wept from pure joy at his God given gift. I truly believe this film should be nominated in every category conceivable."

An autopsy earlier this month found that the 50-year-old star was "fairly healthy" before his death, a coroner having ruled in August that Jackson was killed by the drug Propofol and the sedative Lorazepam.

A statement from Sony Pictures, which is releasing the film, said: "Michael Jackson's This Is It is a celebration of Michael and his music and the film will demonstrate to fans around the world that he was an artist like no other who was passionately creating a one-of-a-kind concert experience.

"We believe his fans will be grateful for the rare opportunity to see Michael's creativity in action as he prepared and rehearsed for his upcoming London concerts."

Steep rise in Down's syndrome cases

Number of Down's pregnancies rise as women have children later but rise in terminations means fewer born with condition

The number of Down's syndrome diagnoses has risen steeply over the past two decades as women have postponed having families and become pregnant at a later age, but fewer babies with the condition are being born as most opt for terminations, research shows.

In 1989/90, there were 1,075 diagnoses of Down's syndrome in England and Wales, including children born with the condition as well as cases detected in the womb through screening tests.

But by 2007/08, diagnoses had risen by 71% to 1,843, according to a paper published today online by the British Medical Journal. Maternal age is a major known risk factor for Down's syndrome, which is why in the past women were screened from the age of 37. Now, testing is offered to all.

The researchers, from Queen Mary, University of London, say they can be confident of the figures because all cases are notified to the National Down Syndrome Cytogenetic Register (NDSCR), which was set up in January 1989.

Two significant changes occurred over that time, say the researchers ? better diagnostic tests became available and the age at which women got pregnant rose. Although more cases of Down's syndrome have been detected, fewer children with the condition have been born. The numbers have dropped by 1%, from 752 in 1989/90 to 743 in 2007/8. Around 92% of women who were screened and got a Down's syndrome diagnosis decided to have a termination.

Without terminations, the rise in the age of women becoming pregnant would have led to a rise of 48% in the numbers of births of children with Down's syndrome, the paper says.

It is striking, the authors say, that only 70% of women with a Down's syndrome baby were screened. This suggests, they say, that even with better tests, "a considerable proportion of women may still decide not to be screened". Research is needed to find out why, they say. The fear that testing may lead to miscarriage could be laid to rest by non-invasive tests in the future.

Parents who choose not to terminate tend to be older than in the past, says the study, which has implications for planning the care of the children. "Moreover, such care will need to be extended as life expectancy is probably rising faster in individuals with Down's syndrome than in others," the paper says. "These concerns might be mitigated somewhat by the much improved educational attainment and social acceptance of people with Down's syndrome."

Maternal age is a known risk factor for Down's syndrome, which is why in the past women were screened from the age of 37. Now, testing is offered to all.

The researchers say they can be confident of the figures because all cases are notified to the National Down syndrome cytogenetic register (NDSCR), which was set up in January 1989.

Two significant changes occurred over the time covered by the study, say the researchers: better diagnostic tests became available and the age at which women got pregnant rose.

Although more cases of Down's syndrome have been detected, fewer children with the condition have been born. The numbers have dropped by 1%, from 752 in 1989/90 to 743 in 2007/8. Around 92% of women who were screened and got a Down's syndrome diagnosis decided to have a termination.

Union and Royal Mail to restart strike talks

Union could take legal action to stop use of 30,000 temporary workers to clear backlog caused by industrial action

The Communications Workers Union and Royal Mail management will recommence talks at the TUC today, as the parties strive to reach an agreement ahead of Thursday's planned second round of strikes.

The CWU said yesterday's discussions had been "useful" but that neither party would be making any further comment.

But a spokeswoman said it expected to make a decision today on whether to take legal action to stop Royal Mail using 30,000 temporary workers drafted in to help with deliveries.

The CWU has accused Royal Mail of breaking the law but it insists the move is not illegal because the agency staff will be dealing solely with the backlog caused by the strike.

"We are expecting a decision later today on whether we will be going ahead with a legal challenge," the CWU said.

Royal Mail said yesterday that the volume of delayed mail caused by last week's industrial action was expected to have fallen to 5m items by last night.

On Friday, it said that 30m letters had been delayed. The CWU claimed the figure was over 100m on Saturday. Up to

120,000 CWU members will walk out in three 24-hour strikes from Thursday if no deal can be reached. The dispute centres on pay, modernisation and flexible working.

The TUC general secretary, Brendan Barber, said last night: "We have had useful discussions today and the talks are being adjourned to allow further work to be done overnight on some of the issues involved."

Guantánamo torture case may be heard in secret

? Seven claimants go to high court to fight legal move
? Disclosure would harm intelligence links, says FO

The government wants allegations that it was complicit in the torture by the US of Britons held as terrorism suspects to be heard in secret.

In documents seen by the Guardian, lawyers for the government argue it must be allowed to present evidence to the high court with the public excluded, otherwise Britain's relations with other countries and its national security could be damaged. The government also wants its evidence kept secret from defence lawyers.

Lawyers for seven men who are now all back in the UK after the US released them without charge will tomorrow go to the high court in London to fight the government's attempt, which they say is designed to cover the embarrassment of ministers and the security services.

The attempt to have unprecedented secret hearings comes as part of a case brought by four British residents and three UK citizens who were held in Guantánamo Bay. They are suing and allege the government and the security services were complicit in their rendition, unlawful detention and torture.

In documents presented as part of its case, the government has admitted:

? One Briton, Martin Mubanga, was repeatedly interviewed by security service officers while "restrained with plastic leg cuffs";

? That the British security services provided questions to be put to the detainees by others during interrogation sessions. The detainees maintain the questioning followed ill-treatment.

The case is being brought against the domestic security service, MI5, the foreign intelligence service, MI6, the home and foreign offices and the attorney general.

The seven men bringing the lawsuit include Binyam Mohamed, who says he was tortured with the knowledge of the British security and intelligence agencies. In a separate but parallel case, the high court is locked in a fierce row with David Miliband, the foreign secretary, over his refusal to disclose CIA information.

Earlier this month, two senior judges dismissed the foreign secretary's claims that disclosing evidence of unlawful treatment would harm national security and threaten the UK's vital intelligence-sharing arrangements with the US. Miliband is appealing against the ruling.

In the high court, lawyers acting for the seven will urge Mr Justice Silber to reject MI5 and MI6 arguments that they should be able to rely on secret "closed evidence" to make their case.

The government filed a witness statement from the Treasury solicitor David Mackie outlining its defence. In it he explains the damage ministers and their lawyers believe could be caused if information held by the security services is publicly released. Mackie says in his witness statement that informants and the agencies methods would be jeopardised: "Disclosure of the information ? would be likely to assist those whose purpose is to injure the security of the UK and whose actions in the past have shown that they are willing to kill innocent civilians."

Mackie then details the damage the government believes could be caused if material held by the Foreign Office is disclosed: "The disclosure of some of the information held by the FCO could prejudice the United Kingdom's bilateral relationships. The effective conduct of international relations depends on maintaining trust and confidence between governments."

In its defence to Mubanga's claim, the government admits that the security services provide questions to be put by others during interrogation.

Government lawyers, in documents seen by the Guardian, said: "The security service interviewed a number of these detainees and provided questions to be put to detainees who were being interviewed by others. The security service undertook this role because, as the UK agency with the most experience of running intelligence-led counter-terrorist investigations in the UK, it was best placed to understand and utilise the information received about threats against the UK, or involving British nationals. At times these interviews were facilitated by SIS officers and on occasions SIS officers conducted interviews themselves."

The documents show British intelligence officers interrogated Mubanga in Guantánamo at least five times while he was held in leg cuffs: "It is admitted that during all security service interviews at Guantánamo Bay, Mr Mubanga was restrained with plastic leg cuffs."

The government denies, saying "it would have been obvious", that Mubanga "was malnourished or in great distress", as his lawyers suggest, and says that while in US detention he received welfare visits from the Foreign Office.

Louise Christian, a lawyer who represents Mubanga, said: "We believe the government is not trying to protect national security but trying to protect itself from embarrassment and from being sued for complicity in torture."

Sapna Malik, a solicitor acting for Mohamed said: "That the government is seeking to introduce such unconstitutional and unfair measures by the back door only serves to further raise suspicions about what they are trying to hide."

Gareth Peirce, who is acting for five of the seven claimants, including Moazzam Begg, who alleges he was repeatedly tortured by the US, said: "The claimants' response to the defendants' application for the introduction of closed procedures is one of principle ? an absolute and resounding 'No, not in our courts'."