Written By Unknown on Senin, 13 April 2015 | 18.25
Britain is set to enjoy the hottest weather of the year so far this week - with expected highs of up to 26C making it hotter than parts of Spain.
The highs are likely to be 10C above average for the time of year.
And the good news is set to keep coming for sun seekers.
The Met Office has confirmed that hotter-than-average temperatures are more than twice as likely than below-average conditions until June.
The unusual highs come after snow was recorded in parts of the Pennines on Sunday.
Sky weather presenter Isobel lang said: "We will be wearing shorts and sunscreen this week, with temperatures set to reach around 23C on Tuesday across the South East and perhaps 25C or 26C on Wednesday.
"The warm and strong sunshine will mainly affect England and Wales, with the Midlands, East Anglia and southern England recording the highest temperatures.
"However a front will continue to affect the North West, bringing persistent rain and cooler conditions to much of Scotland and at times Northern Ireland and Cumbria."
Wednesday is likely to be the warmest day of the year so far for much of Britain, with the mercury reaching up to 26C in London and the South East - higher than Alicante (22C) and Madrid (18C).
The same front affecting the North will bring some showers and cooler temperatures to the South later in the week, with drier, warmer weather replacing the gloom elsewhere.
Lang said: "The outlook is for plenty more fine weather although the South may see some patchy rain for a time over the weekend.
"Into next week, high pressure should bring more warmth and sunshine but it may not last all week long with signs of more unsettled conditions spreading in from the West."
A chess grandmaster has been thrown out of an international tournament after he made repeated trips to the toilet to allegedly check tactics on a mobile phone he had hidden inside a cubicle.
Gaioz Nigalidze, the current Georgian champion, was expelled from the Dubai Open for using his smartphone in a match against Armenian grandmaster Tigran L Petrosian.
He faces a ban of up to 15 years.
British former world title contender Nigel Short said Nigalidze "should be stripped of his GM (grandmaster) title and banned immediately".
He called for the World Chess Federation (FIDE) to tighten up rules, and questioned on Twitter whether it should introduce "mandatory two-year bans for computer cheats".
Two-time national champion Nigalidze was exposed when Petrosian grew suspicious about his frequent trips to the lavatory during Saturday's sixth-round match.
Official checks Nigalidze's phone against his moves. Pic: Dubai Chess Club
Tournament officials found Nigalidze had hidden a mobile phone in a cubicle, covered in toilet paper.
The Dubai Chess and Culture Club announced its decision to expel Nigalidze on Sunday morning.
It issued a statement on its Facebook page, along with a picture of Nigalidze's phone and an official game sheet of moves.
"When confronted, Nigalidze denied he owned the device," it said.
"But officials opened the smartphone and found it was logged into a social networking site under Nigalidze's account. They also found his game being analysed in one of the chess applications."
Petrosian told the Daily Telegraph: "Nigalidze would promptly reply to my moves and then literally run to the toilet.
"I noticed that he would always visit the same toilet partition, which was strange, since two other partitions weren't occupied.
"I informed the chief arbiter about my growing suspicions and asked him to keep an eye on Gaioz.
"After my opponent left the very toilet partition yet another time, the arbiters entered it.
"What they found was the mobile phone with headphones; the device was hidden behind the pan and covered with toilet paper."
When questioned about the offence, Nigalidze said: "Not everything is true in what Petrosian said."
It is not the first time a player has been caught cheating at a chess tournament.
In July 2013, Bulgarian player Borislav Ivanov was suspended for four months after officials found most of his moves matched those of the top computer chess programmes.
In 2008, at the Dubai Open, an Iranian player was banned after he was found receiving help via text messages.
Computers became powerful enough to outwit the world's top chess players nearly 20 years ago.
In 1997, Garry Kasparov became the first reigning world chess champion to be beaten by a computer under tournament conditions.
Ed Miliband has attempted to convince voters he can be trusted with the economy pledging to cut the deficit year on year and saying: "I am ready" to lead the country.
The Labour leader promised to get the Budget back into surplus "as soon as possible" and said that every thing listed in the party's manifesto could be paid for.
The manifesto, launched by Mr Miliband on the set of Coronation Street and titled Britain Can Be Better, promised to "secure the family finances of the working people of Britain".
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:: All You Need To Know About Party Manifestos
Video:Labour Manifesto Speech Highlights
Mr Miliband said the manifesto was not a "shopping list of proposals" as he sought to persuade a sceptical public he could be trusted with the nation's finances by introducing a "triple lock" of responsibility.
He said a Labour Government would: cut the deficit every year, that every measure contained in the manifesto was fully funded and Labour would meet fiscal rules with the national debt falling.
Mr Miliband attempted to capitalise on the Conservatives' refusal to spell out how they would find the extra £8bn of funding for the NHS and said David Cameron's party had proposed £20bn of unfunded commitments.
He said: "Nothing is more dangerous to our NHS than pretending you'll be able to protect it without being able to say where the money's coming from. You can't fund the NHS with an IOU and the Conservative Party need to learn that."
But Mr Miliband made some eye-catching pledges in the 84-page Labour Party Manifesto 2015 including:
:: Wrap around childcare - primary schools forced to provide care from 8am-6pm
:: £2.5bn Time to Care fund for NHS off back of mansion tax and tobacco firm levy
:: Increase income tax for those earning more than £150,000
:: No increase in income tax, VAT, National Insurance for others
:: Scrap winter fuel allowance for pensioners with an income of more than £42,000 a year
:: Freeze energy prices
:: Tighten tax avoidance rules to yield £7.5bn a year
:: Cut tuition fees to £6,000
Video:Labour's Manifesto Pledge On Tax
:: More powers for the Welsh and Scottish Parliament
:: Extend the vote to 16-year-olds
Mr Miliband said: "The reason we can make these commitments is because we will make sure those with the broadest shoulders bear the greatest burden.
"So we'll reverse David Cameron's tax cut for millionaires to help pay down the deficit, we'll crack down on hedge funds who avoid paying their fair share, we'll stop HMRC operating double standards and we'll do something that no government has done for over 200 years, we'll say enough is enough to the people who live here, work here, send their kids to school here but don't want to pay taxes here and we will abolish the non-dom rule."
Polls show that voters trust Labour less with the economy than the Conservatives and Mr Miliband has struggled to play down forgetting to mention the deficit in his conference speech.
Labour says it will have the current Budget in surplus by the end of the next parliament, however, the Conservatives and the Liberal Democrats have said they will do so by 2017/18.
The Institute for Fiscal Studies has said that Labour's plans would leave the deficit at £30bn - it currently stands at £90bn - by 2020.
In an answer to recent criticism that Labour is against big business and wealth-creators, Mr Miliband said Labour was "pro business but not pro business as usual".
He said Labour would champion small and medium sized businesses with a cut in business rates to help them create the jobs, wealth and profits of the future.
And he pledged to keep Britain in the European Union - admitting it did need change but stressing Labour would work to stay within it.
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Mr Miliband also said he would champion the little man against the giant energy firms and painted himself as the man who would stand up for the little people against the powerful interests.
Mr Miliband was speaking inside the building used in the long-running soap as Weatherfield Police Station.
Sky's Political Correspondent Sophy Ridge said the decision to use the set could be seen as a metaphor for "hard-working, or ordinary, families" or could even be a knowing nod to the idea of a "political soap opera".
Written By Unknown on Minggu, 12 April 2015 | 18.25
A British boy who died in a skiing accident while on a family holiday in the French Alps was skiing alone at his own request, according to reports.
The seven-year-old, who has been named in reports as Carwyn Scott-Howell from Brecon in Mid Wales, fell around 160ft from a cliff to his death in the alpine resort of Flaine on Friday.
He had been skiing with his mother, brother and sister but is understood to have asked to ski the day's final descent on his own.
His family became worried after he failed to reach the bottom of the slopes, prompting a search which ended when his body was discovered around three-and-a-half hours later.
The ski resort of Flaine, in France. Pic: Dan Kamminga
The circumstances around the incident are still being investigated by the authorities, with some reports suggesting the boy was instead somehow separated from his family.
There have been reports that the boy was not skiing on his own, and had instead gotten lost from the group he was with.
Michel Ollagnon, an officer with the Bonneville mountain rescue service, said the boy's body was spotted off his expected course by rescuers in a helicopter on Friday evening.
Police chief Patrick Poirot, the head of the mountain rescue division in the nearby town of Annecy, was quoted in the Daily Mirror saying: "Specialists are at the scene to try and determine exactly what happened and understand every element that led to this tragedy.
The alpine resort of Flaine, in France
"Hypothetically we think that, after losing his parents, the little boy didn't know where to go and skied in the wrong direction.
"He's just seven-years-old.
"He left the marked ski slope and probably skied to the top of a cliff.
"He then stopped, removed his skis, walked a little way and then fell.
"He fell 50 metres."
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said they were aware of the death and are providing consular assistance.
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Video:IS Bombs Ancient City
Islamic State militants have continued their spree of destroying ancient cities and treasures across Iraq, this time targeting Nimrud.
The video posted online appears to show the terror group's fighters smashing artefacts in the ancient Assyrian city before blowing up the site.
Militants can be seen ripping large barrels filled with powder in a room where the walls are lined with gypsum slabs, beautifully carved with representations of Assyrian figures.
Nimrud was home to some of the world's most important treasures
Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and contains one of the most famous archaeological sites in the history of a country often described as the cradle of civilisation.
It was such a special city, in fact, that it was on Unesco's tentative list of world heritage sites.
1/9
Gallery: Images Of The 3,000-Year-Old Assyrian Site
The 3,000-year-old site on the banks of the Tigris river was once the capital of the world's most powerful empire, the Assyrians. European archeologists first excavated the site in the 1840s
Statues, sections of palaces and gold items were unearthed at the site. Some of its best-known monuments include these winged bulls with human faces, known as lamassus
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Many of its artefacts were on display in the Baghdad Museum, but disappeared during the Gulf War in the 1990s. It was presumed they had been looted
]]>
However, after the 2003 Iraq invasion by allied forces, the items were found safe. They had been locked away in a secret vault in the city, submerged in sewage water
]]>
The collection includes hundreds of gold and gem-studded jewellery items
]]>
The explosion sends a huge mushroom into the sky and turns yet another important part of the region's history to dust.
The fighters hack away at statues with sledgehammers and carve them up with angle grinders, claiming that God had "honoured" them by "removing and destroying everything that was held to be equal to him and worshipped without him".
In the jihadists' view, statues, idols and shrines amount to recognising objects of worships other than God and must be destroyed.
A militant speaking at the end of the destruction said: "Whenever we are able in a piece of land to remove the signs of idolatry and spread monotheism, we will do it."
Video:April: Artefacts Destroyed in Hatra
The attacks, which follow similar destruction by IS in Iraq and Syria earlier this year and last year, will be widely criticised.
Abdulamir Hamdani, an archaeologist from Stony Brook University in New York, said of Nimrud: "It's really a very important site in the history of Mesopotamia.
"Many of Assyria's greatest artistic treasures came from this site."
Nimrud is the later Arab name given to a settlement which was originally called Kalhu and was first described in 1820, being plundered by Western explorers and officials over decades.
Video:February: Mosul Artefacts Destroyed
It was also looted and damaged during the 2003 US invasion.
Most of Nimrud's most valuable artefacts were moved long ago to museums in Mosul, Baghdad, Paris, London and elsewhere but giant "lamassu" statues - winged bulls with human heads - and reliefs were still on site.
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Conservatives Promise To Cut Inheritance Tax
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IS Turns Ancient City Of Nimrud Into Dust
We use cookies to give you the best experience. If you do nothing we'll assume that it's ok.
Video:IS Bombs Ancient City
Islamic State militants have continued their spree of destroying ancient cities and treasures across Iraq, this time targeting Nimrud.
The video posted online appears to show the terror group's fighters smashing artefacts in the ancient Assyrian city before blowing up the site.
Militants can be seen ripping large barrels filled with powder in a room where the walls are lined with gypsum slabs, beautifully carved with representations of Assyrian figures.
Nimrud was home to some of the world's most important treasures
Nimrud was founded in the 13th century BC and contains one of the most famous archaeological sites in the history of a country often described as the cradle of civilisation.
It was such a special city, in fact, that it was on Unesco's tentative list of world heritage sites.
1/9
Gallery: Images Of The 3,000-Year-Old Assyrian Site
The 3,000-year-old site on the banks of the Tigris river was once the capital of the world's most powerful empire, the Assyrians. European archeologists first excavated the site in the 1840s
Statues, sections of palaces and gold items were unearthed at the site. Some of its best-known monuments include these winged bulls with human faces, known as lamassus
]]>
Many of its artefacts were on display in the Baghdad Museum, but disappeared during the Gulf War in the 1990s. It was presumed they had been looted
]]>
However, after the 2003 Iraq invasion by allied forces, the items were found safe. They had been locked away in a secret vault in the city, submerged in sewage water
]]>
The collection includes hundreds of gold and gem-studded jewellery items
]]>
The explosion sends a huge mushroom into the sky and turns yet another important part of the region's history to dust.
The fighters hack away at statues with sledgehammers and carve them up with angle grinders, claiming that God had "honoured" them by "removing and destroying everything that was held to be equal to him and worshipped without him".
In the jihadists' view, statues, idols and shrines amount to recognising objects of worships other than God and must be destroyed.
A militant speaking at the end of the destruction said: "Whenever we are able in a piece of land to remove the signs of idolatry and spread monotheism, we will do it."
Video:April: Artefacts Destroyed in Hatra
The attacks, which follow similar destruction by IS in Iraq and Syria earlier this year and last year, will be widely criticised.
Abdulamir Hamdani, an archaeologist from Stony Brook University in New York, said of Nimrud: "It's really a very important site in the history of Mesopotamia.
"Many of Assyria's greatest artistic treasures came from this site."
Nimrud is the later Arab name given to a settlement which was originally called Kalhu and was first described in 1820, being plundered by Western explorers and officials over decades.
Video:February: Mosul Artefacts Destroyed
It was also looted and damaged during the 2003 US invasion.
Most of Nimrud's most valuable artefacts were moved long ago to museums in Mosul, Baghdad, Paris, London and elsewhere but giant "lamassu" statues - winged bulls with human heads - and reliefs were still on site.
Recommended by Outbrain Recommended by Outbrain
Top Stories
Conservatives Promise To Cut Inheritance Tax
Breaking News: LIVE UPDATES: General Election 2015
The Conservatives have said they will take family homes out of inheritance tax by introducing a new allowance which effectively increases the threshold for tax to £1m.
David Cameron said that if his party wins the 7 May election, parents will be offered a new £175,000 allowance to enable them to pass property on to children tax-free after they die.
For properties worth more than £2m, the allowance will be gradually tapered away so that those worth more than £2.35m do not benefit.
Full coverage:General Election 2015
Inheritance tax is currently payable at a rate of 40% on the value of an estate above the £325,000 threshold - or £650,000 if a couple takes advantage of the existing allowance.
Video:PM Outlines Tax Position
It is thought around 22,000 families will benefit from the move by 2020 and Mr Cameron said the costs would be paid for by a £1bn raid on pension tax relief for people earning more than £150,000.
Mr Cameron said: "We will take the family home out of inheritance tax.
"That home that you have worked and saved for belongs to you and your family.
"You should be able to pass it on to your children. And with the Conservatives, the taxman will not get his hands on it."
The Conservatives promised a £1m inheritance tax threshold in the 2010 election, but were blocked by Liberal Democrats from implementing it when in coalition.
Video:Miliband Wants To End Non-Doms
Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper told Sky's Murnaghan programme it is the "wrong priority" and "won't affect 90% of estates".
She said: "They are talking about a £140,000 tax cut for properties that are worth around £2m at a time when you've got families still losing their homes because of the bedroom tax, at a time when pensioners and families have had to pay more VAT."
Meanwhile, Labour has revealed its plans to crackdown on tax-dodgers if it wins the election, hoping to cut avoidance and evasion by at least £7.5bn a year by the middle of the next Parliament.
Shadow chancellor Ed Balls said it would take a Labour government to "call time" on the Tories' "lax approach", adding that Labour would set targets for HMRC to reduce tax avoidance by at least £7.5bn a year.
He said: "We will close the loopholes the Tories won't act on, increase transparency, toughen up penalties and abolish the non-dom rules.
Video:Lib Dems Will 'Spread Burden'
"And our first Budget will make sure that, following an immediate review of HMRC, it has all the powers and resources it needs to come down hard on tax avoidance and evasion."
Conservative Treasury minister David Gauke said: "Ed Miliband and Ed Balls turned a blind eye to aggressive tax avoiding and evading for 13 years when they were in charge - they were the tax avoiders' friends."
The Lib Dems have also set out their tax plans, promising "light at the end of the tunnel" with moves to eliminate Britain's deficit by 2017/18.
Nick Clegg said his plan has "a heart as well as a brain", trying to drive home his claim that his party will cut less than the Conservatives and borrow less than Labour.
Spelling out plans for a consolidation totaling £27bn by 2017/18, made up of £12bn in additional tax, £12bn in public spending reductions and £3bn in welfare cuts, Mr Clegg challenged the other parties to spell out in similar detail how they would balance the nation's books.
Video:The Faisal Files: Day 13
He said: "We are going to spread the burden of finishing the job of fixing the economy fairly across society.
"Yes that means more cuts, but it also means asking the wealthiest to pay their fare share too."
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Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 11 April 2015 | 18.25
David Cameron has pledged to protect the NHS by meeting its funding needs "in full" and Labour is to announce plans to provide an extra 3,000 midwives to guarantee one-to-one maternity care.
While the countdown to the too close-to-call general election continues, the main parties are trying to win over crucial undecided voters for whom the NHS is a key issue.
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The Prime Minister has promised to fund the five-year reform plan put forward by NHS chief executive Simon Stevens by pumping at least an extra £8bn a year into the health service by 2020.
This will mean that over-75s will be guaranteed same-day access to GPs, patients will be able to see doctors out of regular office hours and the NHS will provide a full range of services seven days a week, according to Mr Cameron.
Video:A&E Waiting Times On The Rise
Mr Stevens predicted in a report in October that, if health spending rose only at the rate of inflation, growing demand for care would leave the NHS in England with a £30bn funding gap by 2020.
He said around £22bn of that could be met through "efficiencies", but the remainder would have to come from government funds.
Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt told Sky News: "This is a very big moment for the NHS. By the end of the next parliament, we'll have a million more over-70s, and we want to make sure that every one of them is treated with dignity and respect.
"We will need more doctors, more nurses and more healthcare assistants. For people who have worked hard all their lives, we want to make sure they have the security of knowing the NHS is going to be there when they need it.
"Because we will deliver a strong economy, we are able to make this very important financial commitment today."
Up to now only the Liberal Democrats had committed to finding the extra money.
Video:Row Over Tory Record On GPs
Mr Cameron said his track record showed he could be trusted to protect the NHS, with annual spending up £7.3bn in real terms but he did not say where the extra funding needed would come from.
Speaking about his severely disabled son Ivan, who died in 2009, Mr Cameron added: "As someone who's been supported by the NHS at the most difficult time in my life, I'm utterly committed to ensuring it is there for everyone when they need it too.
"That's why I'm backing the NHS's own plan with the cash required to ensure it can continue to deliver an amazing service to patients and their families in the future."
But a Labour Party spokesman said: "The Tories are briefing the same story they've done five times before. There is still no firm commitment, still no idea where the money coming from - and they still can't be trusted on NHS."
And a Lib Dem spokesman said: "The Conservative ideological obsession with cutting the size of the state means they cannot afford this unfunded spending commitment.
"The Liberal Democrats are the only party who has committed to giving the NHS the £8bn it needs and have set out how we will pay for it.
Video:Tories Try To 'Pull Wool Over Eyes'
"Tory spending plans will not help the NHS but rather destroy vital public service and decimate basic entitlements."
Labour will publish a mini-manifesto later including a new right to a dedicated midwife before and after childbirth.
Joining Mr Cameron in seeking to highlight his own personal experience of the NHS, Labour leader Ed Miliband told of the "brilliant care" he and wife Justine received when their sons Samuel and Daniel were born.
Evoking the popular 1950s-set TV programme, he said: "Call The Midwife shouldn't just be a TV programme from the past but part of our NHS future too.
"We need to ensure the NHS can offer every woman the personalised one-to-one care we expect from a modern and thriving health service.
"Our fully-funded plan will provide the extra staff including midwives needed to give them the time to care. Because it is time to care for our NHS."
Video:Miliband Makes NHS His Battleground
Commenting on the Tory pledge, Ukip leader Nigel Farage said: "Mr Cameron's spending plans are unfunded, but he'll know this already.
"He knows he needs to make these promises, because he's planning for an immigration bombshell in to this country over the next five years, and under his plans, our NHS will become an international health service."
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CCTV footage reportedly showing the men behind the Hatton Garden jewel heist has emerged, after it was revealed the police initially failed to go to the scene despite being alerted by an alarm.
The 17-minute video purportedly shows at least six men arriving at the Hatton Garden Safe Deposit company's building in London's jewellery quarter on Good Friday.
The Daily Mirror, which obtained the footage, reported that the group made two separate visits before leaving in a white van on Easter Sunday with the contents of 72 safety deposit boxes in wheelie bins and bags.
Scotland Yard has declined to comment on the pictures.
It comes as the Metropolitan Police continues to investigate why a call from a security firm about the alarm was graded in a way that meant officers did not consider it worthy of a response.
Video:Given Grade Which Meant No Action
It was not until Tuesday morning that the raid - one of Britain's biggest - was discovered.
The police could face compensation claims running into the millions because officers failed to respond to the alarm, it has also been claimed.
An industry source told the Daily Telegraph insurers could take civil action to recoup losses if they have to pay out to customers.
The Daily Mirror footage is from a camera that centres on a doorway, with an adjacent intercom, at the bottom of a set of stairs that leads to the street.
A number of men appear wearing high-visibility jackets, builder's hats, gloves and dust masks and carrying orange tool boxes and holdalls.
Video:Ex-Detective On Jewel Heist
Others in the group are dressed in blue overalls and gloves.
Three men with their faces covered are seen taking wheelie bins in and out of the building.
A white van is seen pulling up shortly before 7am on Sunday, the newspaper reported, and once the bins and bags are loaded into it, the group get in and drive away.
Police have insisted it is too early to say if the handling of the call about the alert would have had an impact on the outcome.
But the revelations have led to anger from potential victims, who spoke of their shock that the police "just weren't there".
Video:Jewel Heist Drilling Explained
Michael Miller, from Knightsbridge, who may have lost £50,000 in uninsured jewellery, said: "I am just so shocked and disappointed to hear the police didn't answer that alarm.
"I mean before, we thought maybe the police didn't even know about that but now we know that they knew something was wrong.
"This completely changes things, the knowledge that something could have been done.
"The police pride themselves on being somewhere in a couple of minutes, but on this occasion they just weren't there."
A store owner near the scene, who did not wish to be named, said: "It's just shocking that someone didn't answer that call that came in when the alarm went off.
Video:Raid: How Thieves Gained Entry
"You think what on earth isn't a high priority call if it's isn't a safe deposit alarm going off in there.
"I know they're investigating, but really what is the good of that when the damage is done?"
A seven-year-old British boy has died in a skiing accident in the French Alps, according to reports.
The child, who had been on a family holiday in the resort of Flaine in France's Haute Savoie region, went over a cliff after straying off piste, emergency services told news agency AFP.
He is believed to have taken a wrong turn on Friday after asking his mother if he could make the last descent of the day on his own, AFP reports.
An emergency services spokesman said: "He hit a rocky outcrop, then fell 50 to 100 metres (160ft to 320ft)."
The child had earlier been skiing in a family group.
His desperate mother raised the alarm at 7pm on Friday after the boy did not turn up as expected.
The child's body was found by a rescue helicopter, about two hours after the fall, according to reports in French media.
A Foreign Office spokeswoman said: "We can confirm the death of a British national in Flaine, France, on April 10.
"We are providing consular assistance to the family at this difficult time."
Written By Unknown on Jumat, 10 April 2015 | 18.25
A drug dealer who murdered Leighann Duffy in front of a young child has been jailed for a minimum of 26 years and six months.
Lloyd Byfield, 48, pursued a relationship with the 26-year-old before arming himself with a claw hammer and a knife and smashing his way into her flat in Walthamstow, London, last September.
After pleading guilty to murder at the Old Bailey, he was sentenced to life with a minimum term of 26-and-a-half years by Judge Nicholas Cooke - who told him he may never be released.
He told Byfield he must have had a "heart of stone" to have killed Ms Duffy in front of a young girl who was herself attacked when she tried to intervene.
Judge Cooke also expressed his "unhappiness" at the failure of authorities to deport Byfield to his home country of Jamaica after he attacked another woman with a chisel and was jailed for 30 weeks for burglary in 2005.
He said the murder could have been prevented if he had been sent back then.