UFO Info Week-End

Lord Woolf stepped down from hosting a fund-raising dinner for Amnesty on 26 January after being told he may be on the

Lord Woolf stepped down from hosting a fund-raising dinner for Amnesty on 26 January, after being told he may be on the panel.His name had been on a letter sent to law firms asking for donations for a building for Amnesty. However, its publication is likely to be delayed until next month, because of the resignation of Peter Mandelson, the former Trade and Industry Secretary, who was helping to draw it up.. LORD WOOLF, Master of the Rolls, will not be sitting on the rehearing of the Pinochet case after objections from the former Chilean dictator’s lawyers, The Independent can reveal. In an unprecedented and highly controversial move, the House of Lords has effectively given General Augusto Pinochet’s lawyers the power of vetting the new panel of judges who will hear the case from next Monday.
Lord Woolf is the second most senior jurist in England and Wales after the Lord Chief Justice, and would have been the most liberal of the seven judges who will rule whether General Pinochet has immunity from prosecution on charges of human rights abuse.A decision by the previous panel that General Pinochet does not have immunity from prosecution was overturned by fellow law lords because of the failure by Lord Hoffmann to declare his links with Amnesty International, the human rights group that had lobbied for the former dictator to be charged.Subsequently the Lord Chancellor, Lord Irvine of Lairg, wrote to Lord Browne-Wilkinson, the senior law lord, asking for the Lords to be more vigilant about not giving the appearance of bias.The judicial office of the House of Lords had written to General Pinochet’s solicitors, Kingsley Napley, mentioning Lord Woolf as a candidate for the new hearing. “Over time, it will allow the UK economic and interest rate cycle to move closer to that of the single currency area.”The fact that UK interest rates, at 6 per cent, are double those in the euro area is explained as a legacy of past volatility in the British economy.The Maastricht Treaty requires sterling to rejoin the exchange rate mechanism, from which it was forced out in 1992, although a period of stability would probably be acceptable to other EU members.Mr Brown told the Commission he was due to present a National Changeover Plan outlining the steps necessary for Britain to join the euro “early in the New Year”. “The Government is confident that the new arrangements provide the best platform to deliver greater stability in the sterling-euro exchange rate,” it said. The traditional differences between the British economy and those of its EU partners “are becoming less distinct over time”, it added.The Government’s policies “should improve the flexibility of the economy…

helping to ensure that the UK could maximise the benefits of the single currency”.The Chancellor told the Commission that “to ensure that membership is a genuine option, both public and private sectors are beginning to prepare for the single currency”.The document emphasised the importance of a stable exchange rate for the pound. We think that is rubbish.”Mr Brown’s document said the Government was pursuing a strategy “for achieving the stability and convergence” required for Britain to join. “If the business community pushes hard, then the momentum may become unstoppable,” one senior minister said.John Redwood, the shadow industry secretary, said: “This document is part of the softening up process, designed to create the impression that joining the euro is inevitable. If an election were held in 2001, Britain could join by January 2002, when euro notes and coins start circulating.However, cabinet sources said there was “an outside chance” of a referendum before the election after the euro’s successful launch last week. GORDON BROWN has spelt out to the European Commission his plans to bring the British economy into line with the rest of Europe as a prelude to joining the single currency.

In an unpublished report, which has been submitted quietly to the Commission and obtained by The Independent, the Chancellor details the measures the Government is taking to prepare the UK for entry.
Ministers said last night that Mr Brown’s “convergence programme” was aimed at allowing Tony Blair to call a referendum on joining the euro shortly after the next general election if Labour retains power. A spokesman for Mr Hickey’s family declined to comment last night .`Name Chechens’, page 4. Tory foreign affairs spokeswoman Cheryl Gillan said: “Tony Lloyd spoke about the advice to the company being unambiguous It is clear that it was not unambiguous. The use of the words `formal advice’ implies the FO was saying `don’t go, but since you are there tell us what you can’.”A Granger spokesman insisted that while it passed on “background” information to aid efforts to secure the release of Mr James and Ms Carr, the men had not been acting as spies.

The men were killed in December, apparently afterbeing forced to confess to spying. Their captors decapitated them and left their heads on a roadside 40 miles outside of Grozny.Last night a political row was brewing as opposition MPs demanded a full explanation. It refused to comment on whether any information obtained by the Foreign Office would be passed to the intelligence services. The four engineers, three Britons, Rudolf Petschi, Darren Hickey and Peter Kennedy, and a New Zealander, Stanley Shaw, were kidnapped in Grozny in October last year. They also “finally” sought information on Jon James and Camilla Carr, two British kidnapped charity workers, eventually released in September after being held hostage for 14 months.The Foreign Office last night defended its actions and said it had only been trying to secure the release of the two charity workers. In a Commons statement last December, Foreign Office minister Tony Lloyd said the advice to the employers, Granger Telecom and British Telecom, had been “unambiguous and clear”.
However, in a letter written to Granger two months earlier, a Foreign Office official wrote: “As one of the very small number of British companies involved in Chechnya and having first-hand knowledge of Grozny [the capital] we would welcome your views on the potential for investment in Chechnya.” It also requested information on contacts and Chechens they considered influential. Despite publicly claiming it had strongly advised the men’s employers not to send staff to Chechnya, correspondence obtained by The Independent shows officials were keen to use the company to supply information on investment opportunities and politics.

If Ashworth and other special hospitals continue to be structured and run as they currently are, we envisage the problems will return.”. THE FOUR engineers murdered in Chechnya had been asked by the Foreign Office to report back with sensitive information about “movers and shakers” in the rebellious breakaway republic. A confectionery and soft drinks stall for patients saw turnover in 1996 soar from pounds 50 a month to pounds 14,000.Members of the inquiry team were clearly disappointed with Mr Dobson’s refusal to close Ashworth. They have recommended that patients with personality disorders are treated in smaller separate units away from other mentally ill people and have advocated wide-scale reform of what they called a “rotten” system.Asked how he felt about Mr Dobson’s decision, Mr Fallon would only say: “Frankly, we disagree … This is a disgraceful situation in what was supposed to be a hospital, and a high-security hospital at that,” said the report.Yesterday the Government secured a court order to protect the girl’s anonymity Mr Dobson told MPs: “I have checked She seems to be doing pretty well.