Refugee News

The murder of former Russian spy Alexander Litvinenko was a “blatant and unacceptable” breach of international law, even though the probable involvement of Vladimir Putin’s government came as no surprise, Theresa May has said.

The British home secretary made her comments as she set out a limited number of new measures in response to Thursday’s findings of the inquiry into the 2006 death in London of the Russian former spy from radioactive poisoning. The measures included the Treasury’s freezing of the assets of two men named as being responsible for the murder.

A spokesman for Putin, the Russian president, took the report to be an example of “subtle British humour”. Dmitry Peskov, calling the inquiry a “quasi-investigation”, ridiculed the report’s use of “probably”. In his report, the inquiry chair, Sir Robert Owen, found “that the FSB operation to kill Mr Litvinenko was probably approved by [Nikolai] Patrushev [head of the security service in 2006] and also by President Putin”.

“This kind of term is unacceptable in our legal system and in the legal systems of other countries, and cannot be taken as a verdict,” Peskov said.

May told MPs in the Commons that she would also be asking Interpol to issue European arrest warrants for Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitry Kovtun, but she proposed no wider action against the Russian state.

“This was an act of murder that took place in the streets of London and it was state-sponsored,” May said. “The conclusion that the Russian state was probably involved in the murder of Litvinenko is deeply disturbing. 

“It goes without saying that this was a blatant and unacceptable breach of the most fundamental tenets of international law and of civilised behaviour. But we have to accept this does not come as a surprise. The inquiry confirms the assessment of successive governments that this was a state-sponsored act. This assessment has informed the government’s approach to date.”

May said Britain had taken a number of measures in 2007 after the killing, but there was a wider national security interest in retaining a guarded engagement with Russia, including in working with Russia to bring about a peace settlement in Syria.

In response to MPs’ criticism of the lack of specific measures imposed on Putin, she pointed out that it was impossible for Britain to seek to impose a travel ban on a head of state, and said Britain had no illusions about the state of Russia.She faced backbench calls for wider action against the presence of Russian “dirty money” in London, or in British overseas territories, including the Bahamas.

In other measures, she said the government was going to summon the Russian ambassador to the Foreign Office, and ask the director of public prosecutions what could be done to bring the perpetrators to justice, or impose criminal asset freezes. The Russians have already refused to accede to UK extradition requests, but May said she would demand a response.

A statement from the Russian embassy said ambassador Alexander Yakovenko had used his summoning to the Foreign Office as an opportunity to declare the case a “gross provocation” which “cannot help hurting our bilateral relationship”.

The embassy had complained about the secrecy of parts of the inquiry, and said it was impossible to accept conclusions that were not “tested in an open court of law”, the statement added. It also said the length of time the investigation and inquiry took made it appear “a whitewash for British special services’ institutional incompetence”.

The home secretary said she was writing to UK intelligence agency partners and Nato, emphasising the role of the Russian security service in the Litvinenko case. But she did not propose an end to all relations between Russian and UK intelligence agencies.

Under pressure from MPs, May said she would meet the Litvinenko family to discuss their request for imposing sanctions on a wider set of a Russian agents. 

The shadow home secretary, Andy Burnham, called for the expulsion of Russian intelligence agents and a review of whether the UK should press for Russia to be prevented from staging the 2018 World Cup.

He said the government’s response did not “go anywhere near enough in answering the seriousness of the findings” and “could send a dangerous signal to Russia that our response is too weak”. He said the report was “one of the most shocking and disturbing reports ever presented to parliament”.

David Davis, who was shadow home secretary at the time of the murder, said the report meant that in a civil UK court Putin would be found guilty of complicity in murder. He said: “We need to go after the financial assets of Putin in the Bahamas and in Cyprus. Eventually you get to a point when with a dictator you have to draw a line as we did in the 30s.”

The mayor of London, Boris Johnson, said: “We can’t ignore ... state-sponsored murder on the streets of London, [this] needs a strong diplomatic response.”

The SNP’s Peter Grant said: “The report I think leads to only one possible conclusion – we now have to regard the Russian government, the Russian state, as an organisation actively involved in the commission, funding, supporting and directing acts of terrorism against UK citizens within the United Kingdom.”

Chris Bryant, the shadow leader of the house, said he “fully understood why Britain wants to engage with Russia – it is a key player in Syria and Iran. But the one thing we know about the murderous kleptomaniac regime in Russia is that it walks all over the weak. Putin has no respect for those that let him do what he wants.

“In March 2012 the government declared unanimously it wanted to introduce the Magnitsky Act ensuring no one involved in the murder of [Sergei] Magnitsky, or the corruption that he unveiled, should be able to enter this country. 

“The US has such an act. Is it not time we made absolutely clear that Russian murderers are not welcome in this country and the likes of Andrei Lugovoi and Dmitiri Kovtun can only enter the country if they are prepared to stand trial?”

May repeatedly said the Magnitsky Act would not help bring the agents to justice in the UK, and that she already had the powers to impose travel bans.

Source

Evidence of a Secret Colony on Mars has sparked the interest of UFO Researchers around the world. Recent whistle-blower revelations from President Eisenhower's great granddaughter and others give renewed credence to the evidence that planet Mars is being prepared as a SURVIVAL COLONY in the face of imminent catastrophic events that may decimate the population of planet Earth. This film presence the best evidence available that there is indeed Life on Mars.

Visit us on Twitter or visit us online: http://www.UFOTV.com

©2014 UFOTV®, a UFO Video, Inc. Company. All rights reserved.

source

Image copyright

AP

“I think there is a good case for it,” he told BBC Radio 4’s Today programme.

The prime minister did not deny reports he had asked Justice Secretary Michael Gove to look into it.

Mr Cameron, who is renegotiating Britain’s EU membership ahead of an in-out vote before 2018, said he was “very suspicious” of Brussels.

The prime minister has said he wants the UK to stay in a reformed European Union, but he has not ruled out campaigning to leave if he cannot secure the changes he wants.

If a deal is agreed with other European leaders at a key EU summit in February, a vote on Britain’s membership of the bloc could potentially be held as early as June.

‘Automatically very suspicious’

It has been reported that the UK government will amend domestic law to make clear that Parliament is sovereign and that Britain’s courts are not bound by the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights – a legally binding charter which set out a range of civil, political and social rights enjoyed by the bloc’s citizens.

Mr Cameron said Parliament’s sovereignty was “already asserted” in the Referendum Act – the legislation paving the way for the in-out vote – which prevents “significant” powers being passed to Brussels without UK voters being consulted in a referendum.

But he added: “If it’s necessary to do that again, in more detail, to make it even clearer to people that our Parliament is sovereign… I think there’s a good case for it and so we’ll look very carefully at it.”

---

EU referendum: Key questions

Explained: What David Cameron wants from the EU negotiations

Guide: All you need to know about the referendum

Analysis: Latest from the BBC’s Europe editor Katya Adler

More: BBC News EU referendum special report

---

Mr Cameron refused to be drawn on whether Mr Gove, the justice secretary, had been tasked with looking at introducing a new law, saying instead that “the whole government is working together on these plans”.

He added: “If you’re a Conservative you don’t like big government and so you’re automatically very suspicious of Brussels. I am very suspicious of Brussels.”

“I would never belong to a European Union if I felt in some way that that was bad for British institutions, for British democracy.”

Asked if such a deal would be acceptable to Eurosceptic Conservatives, such as Boris Johnson, Mr Cameron said he was sure everyone would assess the outcome of his renegotiations, which, he said, were designed to boost competitiveness, exempt the UK from “ever-closer union” and deal with immigration pressures.

Both actors won Golden Globe Awards and are considered front-runners for the Academy Awards, too.

Mad Max: Fury Road was the most nominated film of the evening with 13 nominations from the Broadcast Film Critics’ Association. While it lost out for the top prize, it did win eight awards, including best director for George Miller, best action movie, and best action movie actor and actress for Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.

The financial crisis dramedy The Big Short, meanwhile, won for best comedy and best comedic actor for star Christian Bale, who kissed both his wife and director Adam McKay on his way up to the stage to accept his award.


Both were up for best picture Oscar heavyweights like Spotlight, The Revenant and The Martian, as well as Star Wars: The Force Awakens, which was added after initial nominees were announced and went home empty handed on Sunday.

Star Wars director J.J. Abrams was in attendance to present the Genius Award to Industrial Light & Magic, which Chief Creative Officer John Knoll accepted.

Diversity a hot topic

But it was Spotlight’s night in the end. The film also picked up best acting ensemble, winning out over films like Straight Outta Compton and The Hateful Eight.

It was the only award that N.W.A biopic Straight Outta Compton was up for at the show, but the film was on everyone’s minds on the blue carpet and in the early moments of the evening after it received only one Academy Award nomination for screenwriting just days earlier.

“They got snubbed, but there are lots of other great films that got snubbed as well,” said Neil Brown Jr. before the show began. Brown Jr. played DJ Yella in the film, which has picked up its share of Guild nominations this season.

“Just everybody talking about it is enough of an Oscar for us,” he added.

The lack of diversity this awards season came into focus on Thursday when there were once again no actors of color among the Academy Awards nominees. On Saturday, Jada Pinkett Smith even posited on Twitter that perhaps people of color should refrain from participating in the Oscars altogether.


“We are rarely recognized for our artistic accomplishments,” Smith wrote.

Black-ish star Anthony Anderson joked early on about the lack of diversity at the Oscars.

“A lot of actors who win the Critics’ Choice go on to win the Academy Award,” said Anderson when presenting an early award with co-star Tracee Ellis Ross. “For you, Tracy, that means only half of you gets to go to the awards.”

While Anderson was joking about Ross’s mixed race background, the Critics’ Choice Awards winners do often reflect who will go on to win the Oscar, making the ceremony an interesting barometer for the season as everyone gears up for the Guild Awards and, eventually, the Oscars on Feb. 28.

Stallone ‘remembers’ collaborators

Sylvester Stallone followed his Golden Globes coup by winning best supporting actor for his reprising his role as Rocky Balboa in Creed.


“Before I get into any more trouble I want to say thank you to my director Ryan Coogler. He is a genius. He really made it all happen,” Stallone said. “He also called co-star Michael B. Jordan a great talent.”

At the Golden Globe Awards, Stallone forgot to thank his co-star and director during the televised portion of the evening and was harshly criticized for the oversight. He has since apologized for the mistake.

Alicia Vikander won best supporting actress for The Danish Girl and also accepted the best sci-fi film award for Ex Machina.

The Critics’ Choice Awards do get stars to turn out in droves, like Matt Damon, who did not end up winning anything. This year some of the big winners of the evening failed to come out, though, like Brie Larson, who is shooting Kong: Skull Island in Hawaii, and Leonardo DiCaprio, who is promoting The Revenant in Europe.

DiCaprio accepted his award via a pre-taped speech.

Movies, TV get same billing

This is the first year the Critics’ Choice Awards has combined movies and television nominees into one ceremony, similar to the Golden Globes.

Big television winners in the acting categories include Jeffrey Tambor for Transparent, Idris Elba for Luther, and Rachel Bloom for Crazy Ex-Girlfriend.

Fargo won for best limited series and earned Kirsten Dunst a best actress and Jean Smart best supporting actress in a limited series award, as well.


Aziz Ansari’s Master of None won for best comedy series, while Mr. Robot picked up the best dramatic series award, as well as best actor for Rami Malek and best supporting actor for Christian Slater.

Host T.J. Miller, who stars on the HBO show Silicon Valley hosted the show, which straddles a delicate line of irreverence and sincerity. It’s not quite the Golden Globes, but it’s not of the Academy’s calibre just yet.

“Celebrities, don’t worry. I’m not going to Ricky Gervais this thing,” Miller said at the beginning of the show.

Trainwreck director Judd Apatow wasn’t afraid to let his true feelings shine through, though. When presenting the previously announced MVP award to Trainwreck star and writer Amy Schumer, he joked that the only way to get her there was to make up an award just for her.

“Somebody already told us we lost best comedy to Carol,” Apatow laughed.

Trainwreck did lose best comedy in the end — not to Carol, but to The Big Short.

Schumer, however, did win for best actress in a comedy.