Minority Students UK

As their protest runs into a fourth day, some are said to be fainting or injured. But the Home Office denies wrongdoing

An immigration removal centre was reported to be in a state of chaos yesterday, as at least 50 women entered the fourth day of a hunger strike in protest against their detention and conditions, with ­several reportedly fainting in corridors and almost 20 locked outdoors wearing few clothes.

Yarl's Wood detention centre in Bedfordshire, which houses 405 women and children, was in lockdown, leaving women in communal spaces without food, water or toilet facilities.

Several women who tried to escape through a window were then locked outside, according to one detainee, including one whose finger was almost severed as she escaped but who had not received medical treatment.

"We have been on hunger strike since Friday protesting about the length of time we have spent in detention here," said Aisha, who has been in Yarl's Wood for three months. "We have been locked in the hallway all day – five ladies have fainted because they have not eaten since Friday. No one has come to give them any medical attention.

"I had an asthma attack, but no one would come to give me my inhaler. I'm very weak. But we will stay on hunger strike for as long as it takes."

Campaigners condemned the response of the authorities at the centre, accusing them of using a "kettling" technique to trap the women.

"The women are currently trapped in an airless hallway," said Cristel Amiss, of Black Women's Rape Action Project. "Women should be allowed back into their rooms immediately; there should be an immediate investigation."

The Home Office confirmed the disturbance, saying that 40 women were involved, and insisted the measures were temporary until the women could be reintegrated into the centre.

"The wellbeing of detainees is of ­paramount concern, which is why healthcare staff are at the scene to monitor developments," said David Wood, strategic director at the UK Border Agency. "The detainees will be integrated back into the centre at the earliest opportunity."

The hunger strike is the latest in a series of protests at the facility, which has attracted controversy for detaining women for long periods.

Campaigners say many of the women being detained are also victims of abuse and rape and should not be held while awaiting deportation decisions.

"Over 70% of women in Yarl's Wood are rape survivors, many are sick and vulnerable," said Amiss.

"Why are they being punished for raising serious injustices?"

The Home Office denied its practices in detaining immigrants were unfair.

"All detainees are treated with dignity and respect, with access to legal advice and health care facilities," said Wood.

• Immigration and asylum
• Protest

• Democrats fear Republicans will win seat held since 1974
• President's poll ratings fall further amid health care impasse

The Democratic party faces another election test after the death yesterday of John Murtha, a congressman dubbed by his colleagues the "king of pork".

Murtha, aged 77, had been in the House of Representatives since being elected to his Pennsylvania district in 1974.

The fear in the party is that Republicans will notch up another victory when a special election is held, probably May.

The Democrats have been panicking since losing Ted Kennedy's Massachusetts Senate seat to the Republicans last month.

Murtha's nickname referred to so-called pork barrel politics – bringing government spending to bear in a representative's own district.

His death came on a day that saw Barack Obama's poll ratings fall further. A Marist poll found that only 44% of voters surveyed approved of his job performance, down 2% on December. More alarming for Democratic strategists, 57% of independents disapprove of his performance.

Murtha's death will have a neglible impact on the arithmetic of the House, where the Democrats have an overwhelming majority, unlike in the Senate. But another defeat in the spring would add to the sense of panic among Democrats in the run-up to the Congressional mid-term elections in November.

Murtha's office said he had died in hospital after complications following gallbladder surgery. He had been in hospital for several months.

His election in 1974 marked him out as the first of those to have served in Vietnam to make it into Congress.

He was popular on the left as one of the first senior Democrats in 2005 to turn against the Iraq war. But he was also one of the leading exponents of 'pork-barrel' politics, a practice that has long been reviled outside Washington and is one of the reasons for the present levels of disenchantment.

Murtha, as chairman of the House defence appropriations sub-committee, added 'earmarks', special spending projects to help his district, to defence bills, hence the King of Pork.

Scandal hovered over him throughout much of his career.

Murtha faced a tough race for re-election in 2008 after sabotaging his own campaign by referring to some of voters in Pennsylvania as "racist".

One of the reasons for the turnaround in Democratic fortunes is opposition to Barack Obama's health reform plan.

The president will make a fresh push this month to get his troubled health reform package through Congress by meeting both Democrats and Republicans, hoping to find common ground.

The half-day discussion at Blair House, opposite the White House, will be broadcast live on television to counter public criticism that too many deals in Washington are made behind closed doors.

Obama announced the meeting during a CBS television interview on Sunday evening. "I want to consult closely with our Republican colleagues … to ask them to put their ideas on the table. I want to come back and have a large meeting, Republicans and Democrats, to go through systematically all the best ideas that are out there and move it forward," he said.

The Republican leader in the House of Representatives, John Boehner, welcomed the move as "a real, bipartisan conversation", but added: "The problem with the Democrats' healthcare bills is not that the American people don't understand them; the American people do understand them and they don't like them."

The Republican leader in the Senate, Mitch McConnell, welcomed the meeting, but suggested he was unlikely to compromise, calling for the Democrats' bill to be shelved.

The move buys the Democrats a few more weeks while they debate among themselves whether to push forward with the bill or abandon it. The version of the bill passed by the Senate on Christmas Eve would extend health care to 30 million more Americans.

• United States
• Democrats
• Barack Obama
• US politics
• Obama administration

Conrad Murray freed on $75,000 bail after pleading not guilty to involuntary manslaughter

Michael Jackson's doctor, Conrad Murray, was charged with involuntary manslaughter in Los Angeles yesterday in relation to the singer's death last year from a cocktail of drugs.

Murray, aged 57, pleaded not guilty just hours after being charged, and was released on bail of $75,000 (£48,000), and is due to reappear before the court on 5 April. The charge carries a jail term of four years.

The doctor has been under investigation almost since the singer's body was found at his home in Los Angeles in June last year.

Some Jackson fans shouted "murderer" as Murray entered the courthouse.

The doctor was appointed by Jackson appointed the doctor in May on a promise of $150,000 a month to help the singer through a series of comeback shows in London. Murray prescribed drugs to help the singer sleep, but insists there was nothing illegal in this.

The single charge against him claims he administered the powerful general anaesthetic propofol and two other sedatives "without due caution and circumspection" and "did unlawfully, and without malice, kill Michael Joseph Jackson".

Murray flew from his home in Houston to Los Angeles last week for negotiations between prosecutors and his lawyers on his surrender.

A coroner's report in August said Jackson had died from a cocktail of drugs, including propofol, which Murray has admitted administering. Propofol is often used as an anaesthetic in surgery, but was used on Jackson to help him sleep. The doctor administered the drug on the morning Jackson died, and then left the room. On his return, the singer had died.

The case will centre in the main on the use of propofol to help Jackson sleep, but also how long Murray stayed by his side immediately afterwards, while the drug took effect. Murray said he had left Jackson for two minutes to go to the bathroom.

Legal specialists said it could be a complicated and protracted case, with medical experts called by both sides to discuss the ethics of administering propofol.

Jackson's parents, Kathryn and Joe, were in court yesterday, along with his siblings LaToya, Jermaine, Tito, Jackie and Randy. Brian Oxman, Joe Jackson's lawyer, said some family members were disappointed that the doctor was charged only with involuntary manslaughter.

The Los Angeles district attorney's office said the deputy district attorney, David Walgreen, who is handling the attempt to extradite Roman Polanski in a child-sex case, will try the case. The district attorney's office credited the Los Angeles police and coroner's office for building the case against Murray. "Both agencies worked diligently and exhaustively to collect the evidence leading to the filing of the case," a statement said.

Bottles of propofol were in Murray's medicine bag and on the bedside table of Jackson's home.

Murray was employed by Jackson as he prepared for a series of 50 concerts aimed at reviving his career. The singer's career had been in steady decline after a series of allegations of child molestation that led to his arrest in 2003.

Jackson left an estate worth hundreds of millions and his death saw a new burst in sales of the star's music. A documentary film, Michael Jackson's This Is It, compiled from footage from rehearsals, earned nearly $260m.

• Michael Jackson
• United States

On Safer Internet Day, the UK's Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre is promoting a cartoon to help children stay safe online, and making information and advice available via Microsoft's Internet Explorer 8

It's the EU's annual Safer Internet Day today and CEOP, the Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre, is using it to raise awareness among children and parents. In particular, it's promoting a new animated film, Lee and Kim's Adventures, which aims to help children aged from 5-7 to understand "the concepts of personal information and trust" and thus stay safer online. Research published last year by Ofcom suggested that 80% of this age group use the net.

CEOP has also worked with Microsoft to add features to the Internet Explorer 8 browser, mainly by installing a Web Slice, though it's also possible to add search suggestions and Favorites (bookmarks). A Web Slice adds a button to the Favorites bar and shows a panel of content that can be updated from the site. In this case, the ClickCEOP button provides links that children can click for help with cyberbullying, harmful content and other problems, or ask for age-appropriate advice.

Users who don't have IE8 can download the CEOP version. Where children use a different browser, parents can add a link to https://www.ceop.police.uk/reportabuse/
This web page provides the same information.

CEOP is also running a Protect programme, where volunteers from O2, Visa Europe and Microsoft are "joining forces with CEOP to deliver online safety into hundreds of schools".

Jim Gamble, chief executive of the CEOP Centre and lead for the Association of Chief Police Officers (ACPO) on protecting children on the internet, said:

"This is about behaviour, not technology. But it is also about delivering contemporary, dynamic advice that is sympathetic to the needs of the children and young people we reach and helps the parent or carer to play their role in a way that is positive, supportive and understanding. CEOP's materials do that. We have updated them to cover new issues such as 'sexting' and new forms of bullying and we have listened to teachers to deliver new cartoons for very young children."

Children's Secretary Ed Balls said: "The internet is a fantastic tool for young people and can open their eyes to tremendous opportunities. But it's important that parents and children understand the risks involved with using the internet, as with any area of life."

Cynthia Crossley, director of Microsoft Online in UK, said: "This is about making kids more savvy. You want to raise your children to make smarter decisions about what they do online."

Although Safer Internet Day is promoted by the EU, these are UK-only initiatives.

• Microsoft
• Internet
• Child protection

Claim of separation 'false as well as intrusive', say lawyers, as Pitt and Jolie begin action in London high court

As Hollywood's most famous power ­couple, Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie are used to every aspect of their life together being dissected in the world's media, whether it's rumours over yet another adoption, the meaning of a new tattoo, or their feelings about the other's exes.

But when the News of the World ran a front page story last month declaring the couple were splitting up after six years and as many children, and dividing their £205m joint fortune, the pair decided enough was enough, and wrote to the paper to demand an apology for these "false and intrusive allegations".

The tabloid refused to retract the story, or apologise, according to Pitt and Jolie's lawyers, and so yesterday the actors decided to sue. The couple "unequivocally" say that the story was false, and appear to be suing not for just for libel, but also for "misuse of private information", or privacy.

The action comes two years after the News of the World lost its privacy battle with Max Mosley when a high court judge ruled the F1 boss had a right to keep private his adventures with five dominatrices.

Pitt and Jolie began their legal action in the high court in London against News Group Newspapers, the News International subsidiary which publishes the News of the World. News Group is owned by Rupert Murdoch – as is 20th Century Fox, which made Mr and Mrs Smith, the film that gave the setting for Pitt and Jolie's blossoming love affair six years ago.

Keith Schilling of Schillings, their London lawyers, said yesterday the allegations had been reproduced in other newspapers. "The News of the World has failed to meet our clients' reasonable demands for a retraction of and apology for these false and intrusive allegations, which have now been widely republished by mainstream news outlets. We have advised them to bring proceedings, which they have now done."

Schillings said the News of the World article contravened the Press Complaints Commission code of conduct, which states that a significant inaccuracy, misleading statement or distortion "once recognised must be corrected, promptly and with due prominence, and – where appropriate – an apology published".

The law firm added that publication amounted to a serious misuse of private information; it was not required to disclose whether the information was true or false. "However in this case we can confirm unequivocally, and upon instructions, that the allegations published by the News of the World are false as well as intrusive," the firm said.

The News of the World alleged on 24 January that the couple visited a lawyer to begin thrashing out a separation deal and that, last month, they signed a deal to divide their wealth. The article also claimed their children would live with Jolie but Pitt would have visitation rights; the separation would occur imminently.

Pitt and Jolie have three adopted children – Maddox, eight, Pax, six, and Zahara, five – as well as Shiloh, three, and 17-month-old twins Knox and Vivienne.

Schillings also said some media reports falsely identified a woman called Sorrell Trope as the couple's lawyer. Trope gave a statement to Schillings saying: "I have had no contact from .... Angelina Jolie and/or Brad Pitt. I have never met your ... ­clients or had any involvement with either of them. The foregoing is true with respect to all other members of this firm".

The News of the World's story went round the world but was rubbished by news outlets such as TMZ.com, which broke news of Michael Jackson's death, and US celebrity magazine People.

Pitt and Jolie have never married. Pitt divorced Jennifer Aniston, in 2005 after five years of marriage. Jolie has been married twice, to actors Jonny Lee Miller and Billy Bob Thornton; both marriages ended in divorce.

A spokeswoman for the News of the World declined to comment.

In his action against the paper in 2008, Mosley was awarded £60,000 damages, after the judge, Mr Justice Eady, ruled: "The law now affords protection to information in respect of which there is a reasonable expectation of privacy, even in circumstances where there is no pre-existing relationship giving rise of itself to an enforceable duty of confidence."

In 2008, the Daily Star had to apologise for a story headlined: "It's Sven Giggle Eriksson. Laughing boss still a hit with the ladies." The story said the former England manager "put on an irresistible charm show" as women queued to meet him. "Sven got so carried away with one ... that his hand appeared to stray towards her bum." Unfortunately, the lady in question was Lina, Eriksson's daughter.

Also in 2008, Le Monde published a front-page apology to President Nicolas Sarkozy after a mix-up over the first names of his third wife and his second. "An unfortunate slip" had caused the French daily to report on antics of one Cecilia Bruni-Sarkozy: "We were of course referring to the wife of the head of state, Carla Bruni-Sarkozy," explained the correction.

In 1988 the Sun ran a front-page apology under the headline SORRY ELTON, after it printed two false stories about the singer – one about him having sex with rent boys, and another accusing him of removing the voice boxes of his guard dogs because their barking kept him awake. Elton John was also awarded £1m in damages after suing in the high court.

The Sunday Mirror in 2003 claimed Victoria, below, and David Beckham had split up. The apology confirmed "that Victoria did not tell David to leave Spain, or that their marriage was over. David did not refuse to back down, and far from being in ruins, their marriage is very strong and they are as much in love as ever. They have not discussed a trial separation and there has been no row about the children's schooling."

In the Daily Mirror had to fall on its sword when showbiz reporter Fiona Cummins wrote, together with a photo, that Sienna Miller was seen drunkenly rolling on the floor at a children's charity ball. The paper acknowledged she had not been drunk and the photo was of her playing on the floor with a seriously ill six-year-old child

• News of the World
• Brad Pitt
• Angelina Jolie
• Law
• Newspapers & magazines
• Celebrity