Other News In Brief

Snipers To Patrol In Helicopters During Olympics

Military snipers are to be deployed in helicopters during the 2012 Olympics.

A team of seven snipers is being given "comprehensive on-the-ground and in-the-air training" as part of the all-encompassing security operation being undertaken by the police and the army.

"We put snipers into the helicopters … they won't all be flying at the same time. It is a standby capability and you operate one sniper in each aircraft. This is part of our layered response. The very final thing would be to shoot the pilot and we are conducting some comprehensive training on the ground and in the air so these snipers can do their job," said General Sir Nick Parker, who is in charge of co-ordinating the armed forces during the 2012 Games

BBC Staff Could Stroke During Diamond Jubilee

The BBC is facing the mounting threat of strike action during the Queen's diamond jubilee celebrations after broadcasting unions began balloting members over a pay dispute.

Bectu, Unite and the National Union of Journalists asked BBC union members on Monday to vote on industrial action to coincide with Buckingham Palace ceremony in June.

Union representatives earlier this month said "high-handed BBC managers" had made a "derisory" 1% annual pay offer.

MI6 Officer’s Death Remains Uncertain

MI6 officer Gareth Williams probably suffocated to death in a locked sports holdall or died from an unknown poison, his inquest heard.

Cause of death could not be ascertained because of the level of decomposition by the time his body was found, which meant certain poisons or volatile agents would not be detected, Dr Benjamin Swift, a consultant forensic pathologist, told the inquest. The "foremost contenders" were asphyxiation by suffocation or poisoning, he said.

(H)