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Plans for 149 new flats have approved by Tower Hamlets

Council after a property de-veloper bought a £14mil-lion site in Bethnal Green.

Essential Living purchased two warehouses on the corner of Cambridge Heath Road and Three Colts Lane, and is planning to convert them into trendy flats.

The company hopes to design, build and manage

up to 5,000 private rental properties across the capital,

Chief executive Darryl Flay said: “Bethnal Green is a historic part of London and we are confident that its prime location and diverse array of amenities will ensure strong and growing demand for rented homes over the coming years.

“Inner London is severely lacking in quality housing that is affordable to working professionals who fall between

social housing and ownership. We look forward to working with Tower Hamlets Council and developing our long term

interest in the community.”The company is targeting

‘twenty-something hipsters’ who have been moving into

Bethnal Green in recent years. It hopes the area’s proximity to attractions such as Brick Lane, Spitalfields Market, and the Westfield Shopping Centre, will mean its popularity continues to grow.

Fewer Londoners are able to get onto the housing ladder as property prices continue to soar in the capital.In the past year alone, average prices have risen by more than six per cent to £375,795.

Rushanara Ali MP has called on the Prime Minister to take urgent

action against all forms of ex-tremism, including the threat posed by far-right extremist organisations such as the Eng-lish Defence League (EDL).

This follows an increase in the number of attacks against British Muslims in the wake of the recent murder of Drum-mer Lee Rigby in Woolwich.

During the Prime Minister’s statement on Woolwich to the House of Commons, Rushanara condemned the attack on Drum-mer Rigby and was clear that all of her constituents were united in their condemnation of the attack.

Rushanara told the House of Commons: “I join the Prime

Minister and the Leader of the Opposition in relaying on behalf of my constituents, a sizeable proportion of whom are from the British Muslim community, our deepest condolences to the family of Drummer Lee Rigby after his appalling murder.”

The Prime Minister thanked Rushanara for expressing “the strength of feeling in the com-munities that she represents”.

Rushanara also urged the Prime Minister to take action against all forms of extremism by ensuring the Government’s

newly established taskforce would examine the possibil-ity of proscribing, or outlawing, groups such as the EDL who pose a serious threat to public order and community relations.

She asked the Prime Minister: “As part of the Prevent strategy and the new Prevent programme, will the Prime Minister look at the impact of the rising level of attacks on Muslim communi-ties, including mosques, and the role of the English Defence League? Will the new taskforce look at proscribing such groups

if the evidence suggests that their violent intentions will re-inforce conflict in our country?”

The Prime Minister replied: “I can confirm that the taskforce will look at all forms of extrem-ism, and we should be looking at all the best ways of condemn-ing the hate-filled people who are part of the English Defence League. In terms of proscribing organisations, we have to follow the law and what the law itself sets out before taking action.”

Rushanara added: “People in Tower Hamlets are rightly con-cerned about religiously-moti-vated attacks by far-right extrem-ists. The Government must look very closely at the risk posed to public order by violent extrem-ist groups such as the EDL.”

6 June 2013

The World News Headlines

Rushanara Ali MP poses in the House of Commons the question of proscribing groups for violent extremists through the newly established taskforce

149 new flats to be built in Bethnal Green by private developer

Rushanara Ali MP corners PM over violent extremists

This Week$7m offered for ShekauThe United States is offering millions of dollars for the capture of people involved in terror groups in Africa. The highest sum is reserved for Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau: up to $7 million.

France says Syria used sarinFrance says it is certain that the nerve agent sarin has been used in Syria on several oc-casions following tests it has carried out on samples recov-ered from the country. “These tests show the presence of sarin in various samples in our possession,” Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said.

Turk deputy PM apologises As demonstrations in Turkey enter a fifth day, the country’s deputy prime minister has apol-ogised for “excessive violence” against protesters trying to save a park in Istanbul. It is unclear whether the remarks made by Bulent Arinc, who is standing in for Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan while he is out of the country, were towing an official government line.

Iran marks Khomeini death Iranians are marking 24 years since the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ruhol-lah Ayatollah Khomeini. The commemoration on Tuesday at his shrine in Tehran was attended by Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Presi-dent Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with other high-ranking officials and clerics.

US ‘invades’ JordanThe United States will send a Patriot missile battery and F-16 fighters to Jordan for a military drill and may keep the weapons there to counter the threat posed by Syria’s civil war, officials said. The anti-missile systems and jets were approved for deploy-ment to Jordan as part of a joint exercise with Jordanian forces, US Central Command said in a statement on Mon-day. “In order to enhance the defensive posture and capac-ity of Jordan, some of these assets may remain beyond the exercise at the request of the government of Jordan,” the statement said.

A London council has agreed to review a decision to move a

family of five with a disabled child to Liverpool after being threatened with legal action.

Law firm Miles and Partners’ client was to be moved permanently to a property in Liverpool on 15 May but a High Court judge on that day ordered Newham Council to house them temporarily while the local authority reviewed the case.

Solicitor Rajea Sultana said this is one case that the legal firm has been able to take on from the many calls it has received this year from people who wanted to prevent councils sending them outside London. She said most of the calls had come from Newham, but there had been others from Tower Hamlets and Camden.

In the recent case the firm had lodged a judicial review but this has been withdrawn as the council has agreed to review the case. It has until 2 July to do this.

Ms Sultana said: “We are arguing she [the mother] needs to stay in the borough because of the support she has [with her son]. The son does not adapt well to changes. He goes crazy if someone new assesses him.”

The firm argues the son has a behavioural impairment, focal onset epilepsy and suicidal tendencies, which are liable to be triggered when travelling by car. He currently receives a range of specialist help from support workers and psychologists in the local area known to him.

Ms Sultana is requesting the family be allowed to stay in the borough, or in a neighbouring borough.

Council rethinks decision to send family to Liverpool

‘People in Tower Hamlets are rightly concerned about religiously-motivated attacks by far-right extremists’

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News36

University tutors in east London are tapping into the enthusiasm

of students who are the first in their family to go to university.

They are running a new ‘life skills’ programme at London University’s Queen Mary Col-lege in Mile End to get the un-dergraduates together with teen-agers in their neighbourhoods.

The programme co-ordinat-ed by the National Children’s Bureau charity aims to encour-age them to help youngsters aged 14 to 17 to improve their confidence and opportunities.

The charity’s Sophie Wood

said: “It brings ‘first genera-tion’ students who are the first in their families to be in higher education into contact with youngsters to inspire them to

make positive choices in life.”The undergraduates benefit

by gaining first-hand experi-ence of how to develop a sus-tainable volunteering project.

As part of a vocal cam-paign by parents and Labour councillors,

the Mayor of Tower Ham-lets was urged at last week’s Cabinet meeting to amend the Council’s controversial pri-mary school admissions policy.

The policy has come un-der attack in recent weeks as it was revealed that pupils ap-plying for primary schools only streets away from their home have been rejected in favour of those living much further away from the school.

Some children were not granted places at any of their nearest schools. Particularly af-fected were students living in the vicinity of Chisenhale Primary School in Bow where parents have since been campaigning

against current admission rules.In a response to a recent Mem-

ber’s Enquiry on 20 May , La-bour Councillor Amy Whitelock was assured that “The Authority remains committed to analysing the outcomes from this year to see if it has had an adverse effect in specific areas. This will allow further modification to be made to the tie-break criterion, in order to make the system even fairer.”

However, the admissions policy to be presented by the Mayor on Wednesday states that “no changes are being pro-

posed for the over-subscription criteria for admission to commu-nity primary schools 2014/15.”

As the appeals process is still underway for parents chal-lenging decisions for 2013-14, there has clearly not yet been sufficient time to review and amend the policy to ensure it is treating families fairly.

Labour councillors are con-cerned that unless decisive ac-tion is taken now, more children will face a similar fate next year.

Labour’s Spokesperson for Children, Schools and

Families, Cllr Amy Whitelock, said: “What we need is for the Mayor to accept that this sys-tem hasn’t worked for many families and that some chil-dren have been unfairly denied a place at their local school.

“We are strongly urging the Mayor to undertake a review of the policy to ensure that this situation doesn’t occur again.

“This is also a symptom of a bigger problem that we have been warning about for over a year: the growing shortage of school places facing the bor-ough. Instead of prioritising land and resources on projects like a new town hall, the Mayor should be focused on increasing capacity in our schools, so all local children can go to an ex-cellent school near their home.”

Animals rights cam-paign group People for the Ethical Treat-

ment of Animals (PETA) is criticising Air India for chang-ing its mind about a ban on transporting animals to labo-ratories, where they are caged, cut into, poisoned and killed.

The group has protested out-side the Indian High Commission in London under the banner “Air India: Cruelty Shouldn’t Fly”.

“Air India’s repeated as-surances that it will refuse to transport animals to labora-tories apparently meant noth-ing – the airline has gone right back to shipping animals to

their deaths”, says PETA’s Kirsty Henderson. “Air India officials are every bit as guilty of the pain, suffering and death that these animals are subjected to as the experimenters who wield the poisons and scalpels.”

Many of the largest and most well-known carriers in the world, including Cathay Pacific, EVA Air, FedEx, Frontier Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue, Ko-rean Air, UPS, US Airways and Virgin Airlines, prohibit ship-ping animals to laboratories.

Jet Airways, India’s second-largest airline, also recently com-mitted to a ban on transporting an-imals slated for experimentation.

6 June 2013

Air India under pressure from PETA

Egypt jails NGO workers An Egyptian criminal court has sentenced 27 NGO workers in absentia to five years in prison on charges of illegal foreign funding. The case stems from raids that Egyptian authorities carried out in December 2011 on the offices of 10 nongovern-mental organisations.

119 killed in China factory An early morning fire at a poul-try processing plant in northeast China killed at least 119 people Monday, state-run Xinhua news agency said. Another 54 work-ers were injured. More than 300 workers were inside the plant in Jilin province when the fire broke out about 6 am.

Iran ‘recruits’ in Latin AmerAn Argentine special prosecu-tor’s accusation that Iran has established terrorist networks throughout Latin America has renewed debate over how big a threat that poses to the region and the US. Alberto Nisman said in a 500-page report released last week that Iran has been building the networks for nearly 30 years.

Troops killed in Afghanistan Ten schoolchildren and two sol-diers with NATO’s International Security Assistance Force were killed Monday in a bombing in Afghanistan, officials said. A police officer was also killed when a suicide bomber attacked a bazaar in Afghanistan’s east-ern Paktia province, the Afghan Interior Ministry said.

Iran decides to keep stoning Stoning remains the way Irani-ans – overwhelmingly women – are punished for committing adultery, Human Rights Watch said, which blasted a judicial council, made up of 12 religious jurists, for inserting a stoning provision into a draft law where it had been previously removed.

UN warns Syria over killings The United Nations chief warned Saturday that all sides will be held accountable for the killing of civilians in a besieged Syrian border city, where Presi-dent Bashar al-Assad’s forces and Hezbollah fighters have been battling rebels for control.

Mourinho returns to Chelsea Jose Mourinho has returned to manage Chelsea, saying the deci-sion to come back took just two minutes.

This Week

Maleka, interest in beauty

QMC is helping new students integrate into their local communities

Mayor urged to change policy on nearby schools admissions

‘We are strongly urging the Mayor to undertake a review of the policy to ensure that this situation doesn’t occur again’

Parents in Tower Hamlets are routinely faced with the tough choice of sending their children to faraway schools instead of one nearby

Queen Mary shows students ‘life skills’

A businesswoman who went from the cor-porate world to self-

employment visited Newham College to help inspire young people hoping to be suc-cessful in the same industry.

Students completing beau-ty, hair, make-up, business and other courses will learn from Maleka Dattu’s expe-rience of creating her own successful skincare brand.

Maleka launched Meru-maya Integrative Effective Skincare in October 2012 and her products were in select John Lewis stores and on-line from 12 January 2013.

She said: “I took an inter-est in all things beauty from a very young age. After 27 happy and successful years in corporate life, I decided to fulfil my dream and began the creation of Merumaya Inte-grative Effective Skincare.”

As an executive, she was part of the team that grew Cli-nique to the number one posi-tion in the UK. She was voted Cosmetic Executive Women’s Achiever of the Year in 2006 and was credited for devising the most successful skincare product launch in the UK for the French company, Lancôme.

Skincare lady inspires students

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News37

Hundreds of young people in Tower Ham-lets will be given

grants to help them with the cost of university, as part of an innovative scheme be-ing launched this week by the Mayor of Tower Hamlets.

The launch follows re-cent national praise for Tow-er Hamlets from Education Minister, Michael Gove and former Education Minis-ter, Baroness Estelle Morris.

Under the Mayor’s High-er Education Award, 400 students will receive pay-ments totalling £1,500 each.

The Mayor of Tower Hamlets, Lutfur Rahman, said: “I am delighted that we are the first local educa-tion authority in the country to be supporting our students in such an innovative way.

“We know that our young people are our future and need our support to realise their po-tential. Achieving a better edu-cation is better for the student, better for the student’s fam-ily and better for the borough.

“This is why we are com-mitting a total of £1.26 mil-lion to this scheme – it is an investment in the fu-ture of our borough.”

The awards scheme is being launched to help:l make higher education a more realistic prospect for youngl people from poorer fami-

lies in the borough;l reduce the number of local students who drop out ofl university before complet-ing their courses; andl encourage more school and college leavers from Tower Hamletsl to attend university.

At present, it is believed only one other council distrib-utes education grants, benefit-ting seven students each year –

so Tower Hamlets’ 400 grants is an unprecedented move by a local authority in the UK.

Councillor Oliur Rahman, Cabinet member for children, schools and families said: “Introduction of tuition fees have meant the cost of uni-versity is simply too daunting for many students in Tower Hamlets. This new scheme is aimed at helping more of our young people realise their full

potential. For local teenagers who thought university was a pipe dream, I hope this initia-tive will change their minds.”

The Mayor’s Higher Education Award is being launched as a result of the suc-cess of the Mayor’s Education Award – a scheme, now in its third year, launched follow-ing the coalition government’s abolition of education main-tenance allowance, in which school leavers are given grants to help them stay in education.

The new Award will be officially launched on July 1 and will help those students who start higher education courses in September 2013.

A cycling and walking route between Bethnal Green and Victoria

Park was opened last week.The path’s completion was

overseen by travel charity Sustrans, and aims to provide traffic-free access between at-tractions such as Roman Road Market, Victoria Park, and the V&A Museum of Childhood.

Sustrans’ north London area manager Bryn Lockwood said: “This new route is fantastic for residents and visitors to Bethnal Green, helping them walk and cycle more easily through the local parks and green spaces.

“It is vital that we continue to make the capital more acces-sible by creating more routes that provide people with the opportunity to walk and cycle everyday so we all have the op-portunity to be fit and healthy.”

The opening ceremony, held at the Ecology Pavil-ion in Mile End Park on Thursday, also gave enthu-siasts the chance to have their bikes fixed for free.

Mayor of Tower Ham-lets Lutfur Rahman pointed to £150,000 investment in cycling as evidence of his commitment to helping pro-mote the means of travel.

New research shows that criminals can beat lie detectors by suppress-

ing incriminating memories.Dr Zara Bergstrom, Lec-

turer in Cognitive Psychol-ogy at the University of Kent and principal investigator on the research, said: “Brain ac-tivity guilt detection tests are promoted as accurate and reliable measures for estab-lishing criminal culpability.

“Our research has shown that this assumption is not always justified. Using these types of tests to say that someone is in-nocent of a crime is not valid because it could just be the case

that the suspect has managed to hide their crime memories.”

Dr Michael Anderson, Sen-ior Scientist at the Medical Re-search Council Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit in Cam-bridge, commented: “Interest-ingly, not everyone was able to suppress their memories of the crime well enough to beat the system. Clearly, more re-search is needed to identify why some people were much more effective than others.”

The research was under-taken by psychologists at the universities of Kent, Magde-burg and Cambridge, and the Medical Research Council.

This Week

6 June 2013

Mayor gets on his bike as new route is opened

Effective liars ‘supress memories’

Mayor Lutfur Rahman to help youngsters into uni

‘Achieving a better education is better for the student, better for the student’s family and better for the borough’

Troops admit Afghan abuse Two British soldiers have ad-mitted abusing Afghan civilians at a court martial hearing in Germany. One soldier admitted indecent conduct towards a child, while the other admitted racially abusing a man.

Queen marks 60-year reignThe Queen has joined 2,000 guests for a service at West-minster Abbey to mark 60 years since her Coronation. Archbishop of Canterbury, the Most Rev Justin Welby said the event honoured “60 years of commitment”.

Central Europe flood alertCities in southern and eastern Germany are on high alert as heavy floodwaters swell rivers including the Elbe. In Halle, an appeal has gone out to residents to help reinforce flood defences while Dresden is preparing for water levels 5m higher than normal.

Athlete in court over killing South African athlete Oscar Pistorius has appeared in court for the first time since he was freed on bail over the killing of his girlfriend. Mr Pistorius shot Reeva Steenkamp through the bathroom door of his house in Pretoria on 14 February.

GCSEs may be called i-levels GCSEs could be rebranded as i-levels as a result of the reforms currently under way. The new GCSEs are moving away from the modular struc-ture to an exam at the end of two years. The exam watchdog Ofqual says there has been no decision on a new name.

Caan opposes parents’ helpParents should not help their children get into jobs, an ex-Dragons’ Den entrepreneur has said. James Caan, who is advising the government on social mobility, told the BBC job prospects should not depend on “who you know rather than what you can do”.

iPhones ‘easy to hack’ Apple iPhones can be taken over with “alarming” ease using a custom-built charger, security researchers warn.Using the bogus charger, a team from Georgia Institute of Technology managed to infect a phone with a virus in less than a minute.

Mayor Lutfur Rahman has consistently prioritised education of young people in Tower Hamlets

A new study suggests diet and regular fizzy drinks are just as bad for your

teeth as crack cocaine and meth.The study discovered that a

woman in her 30s who drank two litres of diet fizzy drinks daily for three to five years ex-perienced tooth decay remark-ably similar to that suffered by a 29-year-old methampheta-mine addict and a 51-year-old habitual crack cocaine user.

Methamphetamine, crack cocaine and fizzy drinks – both diet and regular – can cause similar dental problems, the most common of which is

dental erosion. Methampheta-mine and crack are known to severely affect the mouths of users, while frequent con-sumption of sugary drinks in-creases the risk of tooth decay.

Besides exposing teeth to damaging acid, these ille-gal drugs reduce the amount

of saliva in the mouth, pro-viding less opportunity for the acids to wash away.

Chief Executive of the British Dental Health Foundation, Dr Nigel Carter OBE, commented: “The key part of this research is the fact the damage was caused by frequent consumption of fizzy drinks. This is exactly the message the Foundation tries to make the public aware of.

“Cutting down on how of-ten you have sugary foods and drinks is one of our key mes-sages, and this research high-lights the possible damage not following this rule can cause.”

Fizzy drinks ‘bad as crack cocaine’

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Features

Ayatollah Khomeini, the man whose beliefs and actions shaped the modern nation of Iran, died 24 years ago, and the country’s people and their leaders are remembering him

Iranians are marking 24 years since the death of the founder of the Islamic Republic, Ruhollah Ayatollah Khomeini. The commemoration on Tuesday at his shrine in Tehran was

attended by Supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, along with other high-ranking officials and clerics.

Hassan Khomeini, the grandson of the late Ayatollah, was due to address the crowd later in the day. The commemoration comes 10 days before crucial presidential elections.

Khomeini is seen as the man who led the country’s Islamic revolution 34 years ago. After spending 15 years in exile, Khomeini returned to Tehran in 1979 to overthrow the US -backed Shah.

Al Jazeera’s Soraya Lennie said Ahmadinejad did not ad-dress the crowd in the commemoration, an event at which he had spoken in previous years. “It was a rather awkward encoun-ter for the president. He looked very uncomfortable as he sat there in Imam Khomeini’s shrine.”

She said that reflected the growing tension between the presidency and the country’s religious establishment. “He was seated next to the grandson of Khomeini, who is very influen-tial here. The two men had a famous falling out four years ago when Hassan Khomeini backed the reformist candidates in the presidential elections,” Lennie said.

In a televised speech to mark the anniversary, Khamenei urged presidential candidates not to make concessions to the West. His remarks followed statements by some of the eight candidates that they would focus on improving Iran’s relations with other countries. “Some, following this incorrect analy-sis – that we should make concession to the enemies to reduce their anger – have put their interests before the interests of the Iranian nation. This is wrong,’’ he said.

On Monday, the US announced new sanctions against Iran, directly targeting the rial currency for the first time and also the car-making sector, an important source of jobs and revenue. The measures, which could wreak more economic deprivation inside Iran, followed Tehran’s refusal to cede ground in stalled world power talks on its nuclear programme.

They were accompanied by new US warnings of a “painful” and “powerful” escalation of sanctions, as President Barack Obama seeks to convince the Islamic Republic that the price of uranium enrichment is too high.

A short history of Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini

Ruhollah Mostafavi Musavi Khomeini was an Iranian religious leader and politician, and leader of the 1979 Iranian Revolution which saw the overthrow of Moham-

mad Reza Pahlavi, the Shah of Iran. Following the revolution, Khomeini became the country’s Supreme Leader, a position created in the constitution as the highest ranking political and religious authority of the nation, which he held until his death.

Khomeini was a marja (“source of emulation”) in Twelver Shi’a Islam, author of more than forty books, but is primarily known for his political activities. He spent more than 15 years in exile for his opposition to the last Shah. In his writings and preachings he expanded the Shi’a Usuli theory of velayat-e faqih, the “guardianship of the jurisconsult (clerical author-ity)” to include theocratic political rule by the Islamic jurists. This principle (though not known to the wider public before the revolution) was installed in the new Iranian constitution after being put to a referendum.

He was named Man of the Year in 1979 by American newsmagazine TIME for his international influence and has been described as the “virtual face of Islam in Western popular culture”. He was known for his support of the hostage takers during the Iran hostage crisis and his fatwa calling for the death of British Indian novelist Salman Rushdie.

Khomeini has been criticised by many in Western countries and elsewhere for these acts and for human rights violations of Iranians; he has been accused of pursuing a mass campaign against political opponents as well as their families, close friends, and anyone who was accused of counterrevolution-ary and reactionary behavior (including Sunni Muslims and Baha’is), resulting in the imprisonment and death of thousands (many of whom had ties to groups such as the MKO) as well as in 1988, when he was said to have ordered the execution of thousands of political prisoners. Nevertheless he is also lauded as a “charismatic leader of immense popularity”, and a “cham-pion of Islamic revival” by Shia scholars.

Khomeini held the title of Grand Ayatollah and is officially known as Imam Khomeini inside Iran and by his support-ers internationally, and generally referred to as Ayatollah Khomeini by others.

Iranians remember Ayatollah Khomeini

‘Some, following this incorrect analysis – that we should make concession to the enemies to reduce their anger – have put their interests before the interests of the Iranian nation. This is wrong’

Former Bangladesh captain Mohammad Ashraful has apolo-

gised for his actions as an investigation into allega-tions of corruption in his country’s national Twenty20 competition takes place.

The 28-year-old has been suspended from playing for Bangladesh while an Interna-tional Cricket Council (ICC) report into the claims is final-ised. “I seek forgiveness from all of you for all the wrong-do-ings that I have committed,” said Ashraful. I am ashamed of what I have done.”

He added: “I have come clean to the ICC investigating team and co-operated with them completely.”

No details about the “wrong-doings” Ashraful has apologised for have been made public. Allegations about matches in this year’s Bangladesh Premier League follow claims of spot-fixing in the Indian Premier League.

The ICC’s Anti-Corruption and Security Unit (ACSU) was asked by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) to moni-tor the second edition of the BPL. The tournament was held in February and March this year and the ACSU has been investigating what are described as ‘suspicious’ games as well as individual behaviour.

BCB president Nazmul Hasan expects to receive the ICC’s report within a week. “We cannot take action against Ashraful before the report and evidence are final-ised, but since he has admitted to fixing we think he should not play any cricket for the time being,’’ said Hasan.

‘’The investigators have interviewed a lot of people in Bangladesh and elsewhere, they just have one more inter-view pending.”

Ashraful says sorry for corruption

Main: Rare picture of Ayatollah Khomeini looking into the camera; (top right) Salman Rushdie, writer of The Satanic Verses, who was on the receiving end of a fatwa from Khomeini; (circle) the ayatollah as a young man

Cricket hero Mohammad Ashraful

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A drugs gang has been jailed for over 17 years after admitting run-

ning an organised criminal network on the streets of Upton Park.

Four men and one woman were arrested in August fol-lowing a string of complaints from residents that the group was causing a nuisance.

Officers from Newham police’s Gangs and Firearms Unit discovered the gang was dealing Class A drugs and targeted them in an operation codenamed Slayton.

Kamber Azam, 35, of Crescent Road, Deepak Solanki, 33, of Gwendoline Avenue, Aklakur Rahman, 26, of Gwendoline Avenue, Keith Hourigan, 30, of Harold Road, and Linzi West, 34, of Boultwood Road, all pleaded guilty to conspiracy to sup-ply Class A drugs and were sentenced to a total of 17 years and five months in prison at Inner London Crown Court on Friday May 3.

Det Insp Hendy, head of Newham Gangs and Firearms Unit during the investigation, said: “This conviction sends a strong message to those who commit drug related crimes. By working in partnership with the community, Safer Neighbourhood Team and officers from the Specialist Crime & Operations the out-come has led to an increased quality of life and safer streets for the children of residents whose lives were blighted by street level drug suppliers organised by a local gang.”

Azam was jailed for five years and eight months; Solanki was jailed for four years and nine months; Rah-man was jailed for two years and eight months; Hourigan was jailed for one year and eight months; and West was jailed for two years and eight months.

l A young man was taken to hospital this afternoon follow-ing reports of a stabbing in Forest Gate.

Police attended the scene and the London Ambulance Service was called just after 4pm to Upton Lane.

Paramedics treated a man thought to be in his 20s and took him to an east London hospital in an ambulance.

Drugs gang in jail for 17 years

What started as a simple protest by a few hundred people who objected to the building of a shopping centre on top of a public park has turned into a mass demonstration of anger against the government, which many see as taking away their freedoms

Erdogan said on Monday the situation in Turkey was “now calming down” and accused political “dissidents” of inciting the protests. “On my return from this visit, the problems will be solved,” he said in Rabat, Morocco. “The Republican People’s Party [CHP] and other dissidents have a hand in these events.”

Erdogan is set to return to Turkey on Thursday after an official four-day tour of North Africa.

“Today the people on the street across Turkey are not exclu-sively from the CHP, but from all ideologies and from all parties,” Mehmet Akif Hamzacebi, a senior party member, said.

Speaking to Al Jazeera, Fadi Hakura, a Turkey analyst at the Chatham House think-tank in London, said: “I think that the prime minister has really adopted a really defiant and confron-tational approach towards the protests taking place in Istanbul and across Turkey. He has already accused them of being ex-tremists; he has suggested there’s a link between the protesters and foreign plotters.”

The unrest first erupted on Friday when trees were torn down at a park in Taksim Square under government plans to redevelop the area, but widened into a broad show of defiance against the governing, Islamist-rooted AK Party.

Erdogan has overseen a transformation in Turkey during his decade in power, turning its once crisis-prone economy into the fastest-growing in Europe.

He remains by far Turkey’s most popular politician, but critics point to what they see as his authoritarianism and religiously con-servative meddling in private lives in the secular republic. Tighter restrictions on alcohol sales and warnings against public displays of affection in recent weeks have also provoked protests.

Deputy Prime Minister apologises

The deputy prime minister of Turkey, Bulent Arinc, has apologised for the way the government had initially handled the demonstrations, which started as a protest

against a property development which would build a shopping centre on a public park.

“At the beginning of the protests, the excessive violence used against people concerned about the environment was wrong. It was unfair and I apologise to those citizens,” he said. “The govern-ment has learnt its lesson from what happened. We do not have the right and cannot afford to ignore people. Democracies cannot exist without opposition.”

However, he refused to reconcile with those who joined the later anti-government demonstrations, in which two people died. “The ones who caused the destruction to the public property and the ones who are trying to restrict people’s freedoms, we do not need to apologise,” he said.

Arinc was speaking after a meeting with President Abdullah Gul who, contrary to Erdogan, has praised the mostly peaceful protesters as expressing their democratic rights.

Two deadThousands of people have been injured in four days of demonstra-tions, as police attempted to contain protesters with teargas, water cannons and baton charges. A 22-year-old man died during an anti-government protest in a city near the border with Syria, with officials giving conflicting reports on what caused his death.

The Hatay province governor’s office initially said Abdullah Comert was shot on Monday during a demonstration in the city of Antakya. It backtracked after the province’s chief prosecutor’s office said an autopsy showed Comert had received a blow to the head and that there was no trace of a gunshot wound.

Governor Celalettin Lekesiz did not respond to a journalist’s question as to whether the man may have died after being hit in the head by a gas canister. Another man was killed in an accident with a taxi in Istanbul.

Two-day strikeArinc’s comments came as thousands of public sector workers be-gan a two-day strike in solidarity with the anti-government protest-ers. The confederation, which has an estimated 240,000 members in 11 unions, said the strike would last for two days.

Al Jazeera’s Rawya Rageh, reporting from the capital An-kara, said that the strike call was significant: “They are trying to send a message, that this is not just youth on the streets, this is not just about a park or individual demands – this is about something bigger.”

Riot police are back on the streets of Turkey’s largest city, Istanbul, as anti-government protests continue for a fourth night in several cities. Thousands of people gathered

on Monday in the city’s central Taksim Square, where protests prompted by redevelopment plans for the area began last week.

Al Jazeera’s Anita McNaught said a helicopter with a search-light was hovering over the crowds and a tear-gas canister had been thrown into the square, raising tension where protests during the day were peaceful with protesters waving flags, dancing and chanting slogans.

A few kilometres away, police fired tear gas to disperse protest-ers massing near Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s office in the city centre and the nearby stadium of Besiktas football team.

Referring to the protesters in Istanbul, our correspondent said: “They are determined to keep ‘speaking the truth’ to the govern-ment. They say the government is acting in an authoritarian man-ner, ruling by decree and not listening to the people.”

Police also clashed with protesters in the capital, Ankara, from where Al Jazeera’s Idil Gungor reported that police fired tear gas and used pressurised water against demonstrators who chanted slogans. Most of the people in the crowd were secondary-school students, she said.

Medical sources say hundreds of people have been injured in four days of clashes, and rights groups have accused police of using excessive force.

Turkey hit by wave of protest

Turkish police have been criticised for their brutal tactics against protesters and for their misuse of tear gas

First there was the kiss protest, which defied a ban on kissing in public, then the protest against the plan to build a shopping centre on top of a public park, and now nationwide demonstrations involving millions of people