GCHQ Spies 'Tap Fibre Optic Cables For Data'

British spies have secretly accessed fibre-optic cables carrying huge numbers of emails, Facebook messages and other communications, according to The Guardian.

Documents given to the newspaper by US whistleblower Edward Snowden suggest eavesdropping agency GCHQ can analyse data from the network of cables that carry global phone calls and internet traffic under an operation codenamed Tempora.

The newspaper said data had been shared with the organisation's US counterpart, the National Security Agency.

GCHQ, in Cheltenham, refuses to comment on intelligence matters but insisted it was "scrupulous" in complying with the law.

It is the latest in a string of leaks from Mr Snowden, who has told The Guardian he wants to expose "the largest programme of suspicionless surveillance in human history".

The newspaper said there were two principal components to the agency's surveillance programme, called Mastering the Internet and Global Telecoms Exploitation.

The paper claimed Operation Tempora had been running for 18 months.

GCHQ and the NSA can access communications including recordings of phone calls and a user's entire internet history, the documents suggest - and their scans apparently entirely innocent people as well as specific suspects.

Edward Snowden has been charged with espionage

Mr Snowden, who fled the US for Hong Kong after deciding to reveal the NSA's secrets, told the paper: "It's not just a US problem. The UK has a huge dog in this fight," he said.

"They (GCHQ) are worse than the US."

The Guardian reported that GCHQ lawyers told US counterparts there was a "light oversight regime" in Britain compared with America.

The newspaper said the documents revealed that by last year GCHQ was handling 600 million "telephone events" each day, had tapped more than 200 fibre-optic cables and was able to process data from at least 46 of them at a time.

The intelligence gathered is understood to have led to a number of high-profile arrests and convictions, including a terror cell in the Midlands. It is also claimed to have led to the arrest of London-based individuals planning attacks prior to last year's Olympic Games.

A source close to the intelligence agencies told Sky News' Political Correspondent Sophy Ridge that GCHQ scanned data for possible indications of a threat to national security, and that most of the information is not looked at in detail.

The work is legal and subject to ministerial scrutiny, the source said.

Ridge said: "At the same time this is of course going to reignite the big debate over the balance between protecting national security and making sure that people's personal details aren't compromised."

Privacy campaign group Big Brother Watch's director Nick Pickes said: "If GCHQ have been intercepting huge numbers of innocent people's communications as part of a massive sweeping exercise, then I struggle to see how that squares with a process that requires a warrant for each individual intercept. This question must be urgently addressed in Parliament."

A GCHQ spokeswoman said: "Our intelligence agencies continue to adhere to a rigorous legal compliance regime."

US authorities have filed espionage charges against Mr Snowden, a former CIA technician who formerly worked for the NSA, and have asked Hong Kong to detain him.

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Edward Snowden 'Charged With Espionage'

Edward Snowden, the whistleblower who revealed secret government spying programmes, has been charged by US authorities.

A provisional arrest warrant has been issued and Hong Kong authorities have been asked to detain him.

US federal prosecutors have filed a sealed criminal complaint, with government sources saying that Mr Snowden is charged with espionage, theft and conversion of government property.

The former CIA technician, who has worked for America's National Security Agency (NSA), leaked details of American telephone and internet surveillance programmes.

He revealed the existence of a surveillance system called Prism that was set up by the NSA to track the use of the internet directly from ISP servers.

The NSA and FBI have said that the secret programme provided "critical leads" in preventing "dozens of terrorist events" - although some terror experts dispute the claims.

President Obama has also said the programmes were carried out with "systems of checks and balances" and overseen by the courts and the US Congress.

Protests in support of Mr Snowden have taken place in Hong Kong

The Prism revelations sparked outcry in the UK when The Guardian reported that the GCHQ eavesdropping agency had been accessing information about British citizens through Prism.

Mr Snowden fled to Hong Kong on May 20 after copying the last set of documents he intended to disclose at the NSA's office in Hawaii.

Sky News Asia correspondent Mark Stone said the move marks the official start of government attempts to bring him back to the US.

"We are yet to hear from the Hong Kong police and authorities on whether or not they will act on the request by the Americans to arrest Edward Snowden.

"It's my understanding that they know exactly where he is. The Americans haven't yet asked for his extradition, they have simply asked the authorities to arrest him."

There are reports a private plane is on standby to take Mr Snowden from Hong Kong to Iceland, where he hopes to get asylum.

The latest documents from Mr Snowden claim to show that British spies have secretly accessed fibre-optic cables carrying emails, Facebook messages and other communications.

The NSA programme helped to prevent terror attacks, say US spy chiefs

The Guardian reports that GCHQ can analyse data from the network of cables that carry global phone calls and internet traffic under an operation codenamed Tempora.

It claims that communications between innocent people are being processed, as well as those from people marked out as security threats.

"It's not just a US problem," Mr Snowden told The Guardian.

"The UK has a huge dog in this fight. They (GCHQ) are worse than the US."

The newspaper said data had been shared with the organisation's US counterpart, the National Security Agency. It claims that Tempora has been running for 18 months.

A source told Sky News' political correspondent Sophy Ridge that GCHQ scanned data for possible indications of a threat to national security, and that most of the information is not looked at in detail.

The work is legal and subject to ministerial scrutiny, the source said.

Mr Snowden worked for the NSA as an employee of various outside contractors, including Dell and Booz Allen Hamilton.

"I can't in good conscience allow the US government to destroy privacy, internet freedom and basic liberties for people around the world with this massive surveillance machine they're secretly building," Mr Snowden previously told The Guardian.

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Baby Deaths Cover-Up: Ex-CQC Boss Named

The former boss of the Care Quality Commission is among those allegedly involved in a cover-up of the health regulator's failure to investigate a spate of baby deaths.

Ex-CQC chief executive Cynthia Bower was present during a discussion about deleting an internal review which criticised the CQC's inspections of University Hospitals of Morcambe Bay NHS Foundation Trust, where a number of mothers and babies had died.

Ms Bower has insisted she "gave no instruction to delete" the report and "would have countermanded" such an instruction.

But she said that as the watchdog's boss at the time: "The buck stops with me."

Ms Bower's then deputy Jill Finney and media manager Anna Jefferson were also present when the issue of deleting the report was discussed, a CQC spokesman said after the regulator backtracked on a decision to hide the names of those involved.

Louise Dineley, the author of the review, told independent investigators that Ms Finney had ordered the deletion and Ms Bower and Ms Jefferson had "verbally agreed".

Ms Finney said allegations that she was involved in a cover-up were untrue. She said she had provided a copy of the internal review to the independent Grant Thornton review team "at the outset".

Her current employer, internet firm Nominet, has sacked her as chief commercial officer because of "increasing public scrutiny" over her former role.

Ms Jefferson, who is still employed by the CQC, said she was "devastated" to be implicated in the scandal. "I would never have conspired to cover up anything," she said.

Concerns were raised after Josh Titcombe died at Furness General Hospital

Their names had initially been redacted from the report, published on Wednesday, following legal advice to the CQC.

However, the regulator's current head, David Behan, said a decision was then made to identify them "in the public interest".

There had been mounting pressure for those involved to be identified and he said it was wrong to have withheld the names.

He told Sky News: "A decision which reviewed the involvement of the organisation ... should have been made in an open and transparent way.

"We failed some people who had trust in our judgement. I think it's absolutely essential that we begin to restore public and political confidence in the CQC."

The independent report suggested that CQC bosses were so concerned about protecting the watchdog's reputation that they ordered the internal review to be deleted because it showed their original inspection was flawed.

Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt said he was "very pleased" the individuals had now been named.

He said: "It's a sign that the NHS is changing.

"There has been a history of cover-ups for many years but there has to be accountability within the NHS for people's actions when something goes wrong.

"It's to the credit of the new management of the CQC that they got an independent report and did not run away from this problem."

Concerns were first raised about the trust in 2008, but in 2010 the CQC gave the trust, which serves 365,000 people in south Cumbria and north Lancashire, a clean bill of health.

Joshua Titcombe died in 2008 aged just nine days old in Furness General Hospital after staff failed to spot and treat an infection.

His father has previously described news of the cover-up as "shocking".

Ms Bower has resigned from her current post as non-executive trustee of the Skills for Health body after being implicated in the scandal.

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Brazil Protesters To March In 80 Cities

Tens of thousands of demonstrators have taken to the streets again on a new day of mass nationwide protests over poor public services, government corruption and the cost of hosting the World Cup.

Riot police have been battling protesters in at least five cities, with some of the most intense clashes happening in Rio de Janeiro.

In the capital Brasilia, demonstrators have come under fire from rubber bullets and clouds of tear gas.

Police have struggled to keep hundreds of protesters from invading the Foreign Ministry, according to reports.

Other government buildings have been attacked around the capital's central esplanade where police have tear gas and rubber bullets in attempts to scatter the crowds.

Clashes have also been reported in the Amazon jungle city of Belem, in Porto Alegre in the south, in the university town Campinas north of Sao Paulo and in the northeastern Brazilian city of Salvador.

The largest protest is taking place in Rio de Janeiro where an estimated 800,000 people have gathered.

A man confronts riot police in Rio on the day of nationwide protests

They are marching around four kilometres (2.5 miles) through the commercial centre of the city to the town hall which is less than one kilometre from the Maracana football stadium where Spain and Tahiti are to due play in a Confederations Cup match.

Police said they would not allow protesters to interrupt the game.

Public offices and schools have closed in Rio, while soldiers from Brazil's elite National Force are preparing to guard public buildings and stadiums.

The demonstrations have gone ahead despite leaders in Brazil's two biggest cities reversing an increase in bus fares that ignited the protests two weeks ago.

Rio de Janeiro Mayor Eduardo Paes said it was proof the government was "listening to the voices of the man on the street".

Sao Paulo Mayor Fernando Haddad said it "will represent a big sacrifice and we will have to reduce investments in other areas".

He did not give details on where other cuts would occur.

However, the purpose of the demonstrations have moved well beyond outrage over the fare hikes into anger over lack of investment in public services.

This is held in stark contrast with the $13.3bn (£8.6bn) being spent on stadiums for next year's World Cup and the $12bn (£7.75bn) set aside for the Rio Olympics in 2016.

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Chancellor Unveils Plan For State-Owned Banks

George Osborne has unveiled Government plans for the future of state-owned banks during his annual speech on the state of the UK economy.

During his the speech at Mansion House in London, the Chancellor said the Treasury was considering steps to return Lloyds bank to the private sector and that it could offer shares to the public.

But he added that the sale of the Government's stake in the Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) remained "some way off".

Mr Osborne said he has ordered an urgent review into the possibility of breaking up RBS into a "good bank" and a "bad bank" to separate out toxic assets and risky loans from parts of the business which support the economy.

The review will particularly focus on assets in Ulster Bank and UK commercial real estate, and will not involve any further injection of taxpayer money into RBS.

The first sale of Lloyds shares is likely to go to institutional investors, but Mr Osborne said a retail offering to the general public is being considered for later - raising the possibility of a "Tell Sid" style privatisation of the kind seen in the 1980s.

In upbeat comments about the state of the UK economy, he said Britain had "left intensive care" and was now moving "from rescue to recovery".

He added: "Nothing better signals Britain's move from rescue to recovery than the fact that we can start to plan for our exit from Government share ownership to private ownership."

RBS could be broken up to separate toxic assets

The Government bought 39% of Lloyds shares and 81% of RBS in a multi-million pound bailout at the height of the financial crisis in 2008 and speculation has been mounting that the Treasury wants to begin the process of selling its stake before the 2015 general election.

Prime Minister David Cameron recently raised the prospect of selling RBS shares at a loss.

Mr Osborne today said that Lloyds was now in a "good position" with growing investor interest and shares trading at "around the price where selling would reduce the national debt".

The Government believes a sale price of 61.2p would allow it to recoup the £20bn it ploughed into the bank. Shares today closed down 0.42p at 61.76p.

Mr Osborne said: "I can announce that we are actively considering options for share sales in Lloyds.

"Of course, we will only proceed if we get value for the taxpayer. And we have no pre-fixed timescale or method of disposal.

"For the first block of Government shares, an institutional placement is likely to be the most effective way of managing risk and getting value.

There was some good news for Bank of England governor Sir Mervyn King

"So five years on from the financial crisis, we can now take the first steps to returning Lloyds to the private sector where it belongs.

"And for later sales of shares, we will consider a retail offering to the general public."

But he said RBS remained "weighed down by too many poor assets" and insisted there would be no sell-off at a loss.

Responding to the speech, shadow chancellor Ed Balls said: "We have always argued that the future of RBS and Lloyds should be driven by the best interests of the British taxpayer and the wider economy, not a political timetable.

"George Osborne has now been forced to back down from the foolhardy idea of a pre-election firesale of RBS.

"The Government's review of the future shape of RBS is welcome but it must look at all the options, including the case for splitting retail and investment banking at RBS, so that there is no return to business as usual."

Mr Osborne's speech came as Downing Street confirmed Sir Mervyn King will be made a peer upon his retirement as Governor of the Bank of England.

Prime Minister David Cameron nominated him for a life peerage for his significant contribution to public service.

In his final Mansion House speech Sir Mervyn said more money must be pumped into the economy to underpin the UK's "modest" recovery.

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Poor Children Are Being 'Failed By Schools'

By Clare Fallon, Sky Reporter

Disadvantaged children are being failed by the education system, according to the chief inspector of schools.

Ofsted's Sir Michael Wilshaw will make a major speech saying more needs to be done to help what he calls "unseen children" from poorer backgrounds.

He says the problem has shifted from deprived inner cities - with improvements needed in seaside resorts, rural areas and more affluent places.

In a promotional video produced by the school watchdog, Ofsted, Sir Michael said: "There is nothing predictable or predetermined about poverty leading to failure."

Sir Michael Wilshaw says some schools are "coasting"

He uses the example of a school in Brixton - once branded the worst in Britain - to demonstrate how children in poor areas can achieve academically.

Before taking up his role with Ofsted, the school inspector was headteacher at Mossbourne Academy in London and transformed it into one of the country's best performing state schools.

The new headteacher, Peter Hughes, told Sky News: "It makes me very sad that children aren't receiving a fair deal."

Talking about the example his school can set for other areas he said: "Hackney was a no-go area.

"Since Mossbourne's been here, we've shown Hackney what can be achieved. And so that's having a ripple affect."

Among the recommendations being made by Sir Michael is the introduction of National Service Teachers.

They would be directly employed by the Government and sent into failing schools.

He claims the gap between rich and poor is shrinking but that some schools are coasting and letting down children from the poorest backgrounds.

"Many of the disadvantaged children performing least well in school can be found in leafy suburbs, market towns or seaside resorts.

"Often they are spread thinly, as an "invisible minority" across areas that are relatively affluent."

But some unions are worried the focus should be upon tackling poverty and that blaming teaching standards misses the real problem.

Mary Bousted, from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers, told Sky News: "Schools can only do so much to rescue children's life chances.

"We need an integrated, joined-up approach to poverty which will help these children."

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Bankers Should Face Jail Terms, Report Warns

A new criminal offence punishing bankers for "reckless misconduct" while running their institutions is the centrepiece of proposals unveiled by a group of MPs and peers aimed at reforming the industry.

The Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards (PCBS), which was set up after last summer's Libor-manipulation scandal led to Barclays being fined £290m, said in its final report that all areas of British banking required urgent change.

Citing "a profound loss of trust born of profound lapses in banking standards", the commission said a string of measures were needed to repair the industry's reputation.

In its 553-page report called Changing Banking For Good, the PCBS argued that individual accountability among senior bankers was lamentable, that industry pay schemes required a radical overhaul, and that executives should face a new sanctions regime that would dish out appropriate penalties, replacing a system that "looked good but achieved little".

It also said, as expected, that the Treasury's strategy for managing its 82% stake in Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) was not working adequately and that options, including analysis of a break-up of the bank, should be conducted in the coming months.

The commission's hard-hitting recommendations underline the scale of public anger that so few British bank executives have faced punishment over the crisis that led to hundreds of billions of pounds of public money being put at risk to rescue them.

Only a small handful of senior bankers have been sanctioned by regulators for their roles prior to the bailouts of 2007 and 2008, while relatively few have been hit in the pocket despite mis-selling scandals such as the one involving payment protection insurance.

Andrew Tyrie, the Conservative MP who chaired the commission, said that senior bankers had hidden "behind an accountability firewall" but warned that governments and regulators had also been culpable for the decline in standards.

Among the concrete measures recommended by the PCBS are:

:: The introduction of a new criminal offence for reckless misconduct that would carry a custodial sentence.

:: Bankers' pay should be deferred for up to 10 years and should be more closely aligned to the safety and soundness of a firm.

:: Regulators should gain powers to cancel the pay and pensions of executives at banks which require taxpayer support.

:: UK Financial Investments, the body responsible for managing taxpayers' stakes in Lloyds and RBS, should be scrapped.

:: New senior persons and licencing regimes to ensure that regulators can take tougher action against bankers whose actions damage their employer's reputation or finances.

:: Reforms aimed at bolstering competition in retail banking, including, as Sky News revealed this month, a review of the costs and benefits of full current account portability.

Parts of the banking industry, whose main lobbying group the British Bankers' Association refused to respond on camera to the report, are expected to argue that some of the proposed reforms would undermine the City's international competitiveness.

Measures to defer pay for up to a decade would go further than any other major banking centre, but the PCBS argued that it was essential to do so if the industry's culture was to be genuinely reformed.

"The scale of remuneration in banking, the way it has been set and the form in which it has been paid have all incentivised misconduct and excessive risk taking. The rewards for fleeting, often illusory, success have been huge, while the penalties for failure have been much smaller, or non-existent," it said.

"Many bankers were on to a one-way bet. Unlike unlimited liability partnerships, they had little or no skin in the game."

The Government is expected to consult on the PCBS recommendations that would require legislative change.

In a statement, the Treasury welcomed the commission's report, saying there were "many recommendations in it which will help the government's plan to create a stronger and safer banking system".

"The Government publicly welcomes the commission's recommendations on increased personal responsibility especially at a senior level, increased professional judgement by regulators and better functioning markets.

"We will now get on with a swift response and will report before the summer recess."

In his annual Mansion House speech on Wednesday night, George Osborne is likely to back the commission's call for a review of the options for the Government's stake in RBS, according to Treasury aides.

Vince Cable, the Business Secretary, also welcomed the report, backing calls for banks to relinquish ownership of the payments system and for a new approvals regime for bank staff.

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Jill Meagher Killer Sentenced To Life In Prison

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

A man has been jailed for life for the murder of Irishwoman Jill Meagher in Melbourne, Australia.

Adrian Ernest Bayley, who had pleaded guilty to raping and murdering the 29-year-old on September 22 last year, was told he will not be able to apply for parole for at least 35 years.

The 41-year-old was sentenced to life imprisonment for the killing, plus 15 years for the rape.

Jill Meagher's husband Tom at court in Melbourne

Victorian Supreme Court Justice Geoffrey Nettle told Bayley: "The nature and gravity of your offending and its antecedence ensure that nothing but life imprisonment will suffice.

"It was a savage violent rape of the worst kind.

"Your killing of the deceased ranks among the worst kind conceivable.

"I am satisfied beyond reasonable doubt you pose a risk to the sexual safety of the community."

Justice Nettle said Bayley would not have received a minimum term if he had not pleaded guilty.

Jill Meagher on her wedding day

Mrs Meagher was attacked as she walked back to her flat after having drinks with colleagues from the Australian Broadcasting Corporation.

Bayley dragged her into a Melbourne alleyway, before raping and murdering her.

The serial sex offender was on parole at the time after serving eight years in prison for raping five women previously.

In a victim impact statement read to the Supreme Court of Victoria last week, Tom Meagher said he was constantly haunted by visions of what happened to his wife.

He said his "love, my best friend and my entire world" had been taken away and replaced with a life of fear, insomnia and anger.

"I think of the waste of a brilliant mind and a beautiful soul. I am half a person because of this crime," he said.

Mrs Meagher, who is originally from Drogheda, moved to Australia with her husband three years ago.

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Saatchi Cautioned For Assault Of Nigella Lawson

Advertising guru Charles Saatchi has been cautioned by police for assaulting his wife Nigella Lawson at a restaurant.

The 70-year-old voluntarily attended a central London police station and accepted the caution after photographs emerged showing his hand around Lawson's neck.

The pair were pictured having an argument on the terrace of a restaurant on June 9.

Lawson, 53, the daughter of former chancellor Lord Lawson, was reportedly seen weeping following the episode outside Scott's in Mayfair, central London.

Speaking to the London Evening Standard on Monday, Saatchi said: "About a week ago, we were sitting outside a restaurant having an intense debate about the children, and I held Nigella's neck repeatedly while attempting to emphasise my point.

"There was no grip, it was a playful tiff.

"The pictures are horrific but give a far more drastic and violent impression of what took place. Nigella's tears were because we both hate arguing, not because she had been hurt.

"We had made up by the time we were home. The paparazzi were congregated outside our house after the story broke yesterday morning, so I told Nigella to take the kids off till the dust settled."

Lawson's spokesperson has said that there won't be any comment on Saatchi's explanation but did confirm that she "isn't at the family home."

Police confirmed that they had not received a complaint of assault from Lawson or anyone else.

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Child Porn: Web Giants Summoned For Talks

By Sophy Ridge, Political Correspondent

Leading internet companies have been summoned to a Westminster meeting in a bid to crack down on child abuse online.

Firms including Google, Microsoft and Facebook will attend a summit called by Culture Secretary Maria Miller on Tuesday.

They will be expected to come up with ways to stop access to child abuse images and report back with an action plan.

The meeting comes after two child killers were found to have viewed child pornography online.

Mark Bridger, convicted of murdering five-year-old April Jones, and Stuart Hazell, who murdered Tia Sharp, 12, both accessed abusive images.

In the 12 days since the summit was announced, web giants have already taken some action.

Mark Bridger accessed child pornography online before killing April Jones

TalkTalk and BT have announced that customers trying to view inappropriate material will be confronted by a pop-up warning.

And Google has pledged millions of pounds to organisations who try and tackle child abuse online, such as the Internet Watch Foundation who maintain a blacklist of images.

Culture Secretary, Maria Miller said:  "Child abuse images are horrific and widespread public concern has made it clear that the industry must take action. Enough is enough.

"In recent days we have seen these companies rush to do more because of the pressure of an impending summit. Imagine how much more can be done if they seriously turn their minds to tackling the issue. Pressure will be unrelenting."

It is unclear exactly what concrete action – if any – the government will demand from the meeting.

Companies providing internet services in Britain have already rejected a call from the Prime Minister's adviser to impose parental filters for adult content as a default setting when viewing content online.

The Internet Service Providers Association said it remained opposed to default filtering because it "can be circumvented and lead to over- or under-blocking" of offensive web pages.

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