LONDON: Police officers across London will wear video cameras when responding to emergency calls as part of a year-long pilot project launched yesterday. A total of 500 cameras will routinely collect evidence from public order and domestic abuse incidents in 10 of London’s 32 boroughs, as well as potentially contentious “stop and searches”, Scotland Yard said. The force has been testing body-worn cameras for several years but was given new impetus following the police shooting of suspected gang member Mark Duggan in 2011, which sparked days of rioting in the capital and cities across England. An inquest jury in January found the killing was lawful but the coroner noted the “stark problem” posed by contradictions between the notes from officers at the scene and mobile phone video evidence taken by witnesses. Scotland Yard Commissioner Hogan-Howe said at the time that armed police would in future wear video cameras to ensure a more accurate record was made of their actions. The police chief said that the cameras, being trialled by unarmed officers, could also deter people from becoming violent towards police and speed up justice by providing a compelling reason for criminals to plead guilty.
German panel votes to question Snowden
BERLIN: A German parliamentary panel voted yesterday to question fugitive US intelligence leaker Edward Snowden on spying but was divided on whether to speak to him in person or via video link. The committee aims to assess the extent of spying by the US National Security Agency and its partners on German citizens and politicians, and whether German intelligence aided its activities. Russia-based Snowden has spoken via video link to other bodies, including the Council of Europe. The eight-member German panel voted unanimously to invite Snowden as a witness, some time before June 3, said a member of the far-left Linke party, Martina Renner. She said that only her party and the left-leaning and ecologist Greens had voted to ask Snowden to come to Germany, adding that the Linke party would push for this demand in court if necessary.
Ex-minister close to Berlusconi arrested
ROME: Italian police arrested a scandal-hit former minister with close ties to ex-premier Silvio Berlusconi yesterday, accusing him of attempting to aid and abet a fugitive businessman convicted of mafia ties. Claudio Scajola, who held top posts including serving as interior and industry minister under successive Berlusconi governments, has long been dogged by scandals. In 2002 he resigned as interior minister after being caught in a wire-tap vilifying Marco Biagi, a government consultant on labour law who had been assassinated by the extreme-left Red Brigades shortly after Scajola had taken away his police escort. The 66-year-old is now accused of attempting to protect Amedeo Matacena, a Calabrian businessman who fled Italy for Dubai in 2013 after being sentenced to five years in prison for links to the ‘Ndrangheta mafia network. Matacena is still in Dubai and fighting extradition. Agencies
