But he added: “We are not being asked to approve physician assisted suicide in carefully defined circumstances with carefully defined safeguards.”We are being asked to allow a family member to help a loved one die, in circumstances of which we know nothing, in a way of which we know nothing, and with no continuing scrutiny by any outside person.”Even if we had good reason to think that the blanket ban on assisting suicide were no longer thought necessary in the democratic society of England and Wales, we would have no reason to think that to allow assisted suicide in such circumstances would be generally acceptable. But there is no reason to suppose that we have yet reached that point. All the indications are that democratic opinion in this country is not ready for change.”The court refused leave to appeal to the House of Lords though Mrs Pretty’s husband said they would apply directly for a hearing before the Law Lords.Mrs Pretty, a mother-of-two from Luton, Bedfordshire, who was diagnosed with the untreatable disease in 1999, faces imminent death from weakening breathing muscles. Though she retains her intellect, she has to be fed through a tube and has no decipherable speech.In August this year the DPP, David Calvert-Smith, expressed his “deepest sympathy” but said he could not give an undertaking not to prosecute a criminal offence “no matter how exceptional the circumstances”. Mrs Pretty had asked the judges to make an order requiring the DPP to give the undertaking or declare that his decision was incompatible with the European Convention on Human Rights.Lord Justice Tuckey said: “Whatever the strength of the human rights arguments advanced, they could not properly be used to compel the DPP to act in this way.”He added: “This case concerns the conflict between two of the fundamental rights possessed by all human beings: the right to life and the right to decide what will and will not be done with one’s own body.”The provisions of the Human Rights Convention, he said, were aimed at the protection and dignity of life “because of its fundamental value, not only to the individual but also to the community as a whole”.Dr Michael Howitt-Wilson, of Alert, which opposes euthanasia, said: “For the court to give a decision the other way would have made the whole sanctity of life look ridiculous. I think it is a victory for common sense.” But a spokesman for the civil rights group Liberty, said: “Society isn’t served by denying Diane’s wish to die with dignity rather than endure a more protracted end.”. Up to 24 terror suspects are being investigated by Scotland Yard in connection with the 11 September attacks.

Up to 24 terror suspects are being investigated by Scotland Yard in connection with the 11 September attacks.
Anti-terrorist officers are also following up more than 200 other lines of inquiry linked to the terror networks behind the American atrocities.The investigations are being run on behalf of America’s Federal Bureau of Investigation, which has passed on the details of suspects and bank accounts to the British police.Scotland Yard also disclosed yesterday that of the suspects already investigated, three people in Britain allegedly had “strong links” to the suicide hijackings and the support network of Osama bin Laden.Commenting on the new suspects, Detective Chief Superintendent John Bunn, second in command of the anti-terrorist branch, said: “Names that have come forward from the FBI go into a couple of dozen.”He stressed that the 24, all of whom are believed to be living or staying in Britain, were not necessarily suspects in the 11 September attacks and many had weak links with the terrorists. They are thought to include British citizens who were sitting next to some of the hijackers, possibly during flights to America in the months before the terrorist attacks.Det Chief Supt Bunn said the 24 names were “all being looked at and are the subject of investigations” and that Scotland Yard would be tracing and assessing them all.He said that the three names with “very strong links” with terror attacks included the Algerian pilot Lotfi Raissi, who is awaiting extradition to the United States and is alleged to have trained some of the suicide hijackers.Habib Zacarias Moussaoui, who lived in Brixton, south London, is alleged to have been the “20th hijacker” and is already in custody in America.A third man who was arrested in Birmingham and released is still being investigated.Since 11 September there have been more than 2,000 calls to Scotland Yard’s special anti-terrorist hotline. The Yard is also beefing up its secret, alternative control centre in case its headquarters in London is destroyed by terrorists.Sir John Stevens, the Commissioner, said the need to do so had been impressed on him by his recent visit to New York. The American police’s command centre, which was based in the one of the World Trade Centre towers, was destroyed.Sir John said: “There is a need for us to look at our evacuation planning and we are doing that in relation to some of the tall buildings in London.”Meanwhile, an investigation into a Muslim cleric who appears on a Treasury list of terrorist suspects has allegedly revealed a £180,000 bank balance despite years of benefit claims he has made in Britain.Sheikh Abu Qatada, who was last week listed by the Treasury among a group of people suspected of “committing or providing material support for acts of terrorism”, had his assets frozen and is the subject of a Department of Social Security investigation.Mr Qatada, 40, had been claiming benefits ever since he came to Britain and settled in Acton, west London, in 1993, when he was granted political asylum. The Palestinian-born cleric is a convicted criminal in Jordan where, in his absence, he was found guilty and sentenced to life imprisonment in 1998 for his alleged involvement in a series of explosions..

Suspected anthrax hoaxers who have posted packages containing harmless white powder are being investigated by anti-terrorist officers. Suspected anthrax hoaxers who have posted packages containing harmless white powder are being investigated by anti-terrorist officers.
Scotland Yard disclosed yesterday that a number of false alarms involving suspect packages were deliberate. A package addressed to Tony Blair, which caused disruption to Birmingham’s postal service on Wednesday, was found to be a hoax.Scientific examination of the package found its contents of white powder to be harmless but the incident forced 600 workers to be evacuated from the city’s main sorting office in Aston shortly after 7pm. Staff were alerted to the problem after white powder was spotted leaking from the package. Fifteen people taken to hospital as a precautionary measure.Police believe an envelope containing a harmless white powder sent to the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday was also a deliberate hoax.

The discovery resulted in part of the exchange being sealed off and 13 people being put through decontamination procedures and issued with antibiotics.David Blunkett, the Home Secretary, warned on Wednesday that he wanted to increase the maximum penalty for anthrax hoaxers wasting police time from six months’ to seven years’ imprisonment. He said: “The actions of hoaxers are causing distress and perpetuating fear in communities around the country … Hoaxes cause considerable upset and disruption as well as wasting the valuable time of police and emergency services.Britain continued to be hit by a series of anthrax scares yesterday including a passenger ferry that was evacuated after crew members found white powder on board. Dozens of passengers were taken off the P&O ferry SL Aquitaine when it docked at Calais during the early hours.

The alarm was raised after a small quantity of white powder was found in a passenger lounge.A P&O spokeswoman said: “A steward found the substance, which he suspected was baby milk. The ship’s captain told French police and the fire brigade about the find and it was decided to take action.”Six newspaper reporters were placed in isolation after a suspect package was delivered to the North West Evening Mail in Barrow, Cumbria, at 9am yesterday. The newspaper’s offices have been closed while emergency services investigate.Firefighters, wearing germ-proof suits, decontaminated the interior of a book club in Swindon, Wiltshire, after workers discovered white powder hidden inside a book.. In October 1917 – a year in which hundreds of thousands of men died pointlessly in the cause of one flag or another – a woman was shot by a military firing squad in the forest of Vincennes, east of Paris She was a dancer, not a soldier. She came from a country that was not engaged in the Great War (a war that would not, as promised, end all wars). By contrast to most of the other faceless victims of 1917, her life and death have acquired with the passing years an aura of romanticism, a mystique, partly based on embellishments and inventions (including her own).