London, Sept 14 (ANI): British cops have wasted up to 100,000 pounds on an undercover operation, which was carried out to prove that one of their officers was faking illness, it has emerged.

Around 11 officers from two different forces were ordered by South Wales police to spy on PC Mark Pugh, 49, when he took time off for post-traumatic stress disorder after being caught in a football riot, reports The Daily Express.

A round-the-clock surveillance operation was set up, but six years later the force have admitted that the dog-handler officer was genuinely ill at a Police Medical Appeal Board.

Pugh was caught in a hail of bricks and bottles between rioting Cardiff City and Leeds United fans in 2002.

He escaped serious physical injury, but spent time in a psychiatric hospital after becoming "even suicidal" at times.

Undercover officers secretly filmed PC Pugh at rugby matches and doing chores at his home near Merthyr Tydfil in a bid to prove he was not really ill.

After being awarded a full disability pension, he said: "I feel I have been treated very badly. I was astounded at the level of surveillance."(ANI)

Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (6)

Moscow, Sept 14 (ANI): At least 88 people died when a Boeing-737 airliner they were flying in crashed in the Sibera region. No casualties were reported on the ground as the plane reportedly crashed in open fields.

Around 21 of those dead were foreigners.

The plane was flying from Moscow to the Siberian city of Perm when it crashed in an unpopulated area as it was landing, said the agencies, The Telegraph quoted Aeroflot as saying in a statement.

"The Boeing-737 carried 82 passengers on board, including seven children, and six crew... All passengers were killed," added the statement.

Firefighters were successful in extinguishing the blaze at the crash site. "We have found the aircraft. It came down within the city limits (in Perm) in a patch of waste ground. Initial reports are of no casualties on the ground," Emergencies Ministry spokeswoman Irina Andrianova said.

Russian President Dmitry Medvedev was briefed about the crash by Emergencies Minister Sergei Shoigu.

Aeroflot identified the foreigners as nine people from Azerbaijan, five from Ukraine and one person each from France, Switzerland, Latvia, the United States, Germany, Turkey and Italy. (ANI)

Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (6)

London, Sept 14 (ANI): Pakistan's high commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan has reportedly said that American raids on the Taliban and Al-Qaeda targets in Pakistan could provoke terror attacks in London.

He said the US bombings had killed hundreds of civilians, but had failed to eliminate any Al-Qaeda leader.

"This will infuriate Muslims in this country and make the streets of London less safe. There are one million Pakistanis in the diaspora here and resentment is mounting. I'm being flooded by text messages from community leaders saying we must organise our anger. The Americans' trigger-happy actions will radicalise young Muslims. They're playing into the hands of the very militants we're supposed to be fighting," timesonline.co.uk quoted Hasan as saying.

The Pakistani diplomat added: "We hope they will help convince the Americans to stop it, to give space to our fledgling democracy and revive our economy. Otherwise, the army will take over. Is that what they want?"

The Pakistani envoy's remarks followed outrage in Pakistan over five attacks in the past 10 days, including a ground assault in the village of Angoor Adda in which 20 people were killed.

While US officials say that all those dead were Al-Qaeda supporters, but Pakistan has maintained that they were civilians, including women and children.

Meanwhile, Pakistan's newly elected President Asif Ali Zardari, who will be arriving in London on a private visit, is likely to hold talks with British Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his Foreign Secretary David Miliband.

Zardari is expected to appeal to them to exert their influence to halt the unauthorised bombings, said the paper. (ANI)

Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (5)

New York, Sept 14 (ANI): An American foreign policy expert has reportedly cautioned the US administration against repeating the cross-border attacks inside Pakistan, saying this approach was "not a long-term solution to terrorism".

"We need to get the Pakistanis to see this as their war, and that's going to require some major new initiatives on the American side. Commando raids and Predator strikes are not a long-term solution to this problem," said Bruce Riedel, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution, a Washington-based think-tank.

Riedel, a former high-ranking CIA and Pentagon official, said this in an interview with CFR.org, a website publication for the Council on Foreign Relations (CFR).

He added that the recent US cross-border attacks from Afghanistan into Pakistan were "risky" given the anti-Americanism in Pakistan. "In that kind of charged political atmosphere, these kinds of operations can easily further incite anti-Americanism," the Daily Times quoted him as saying.

Riedel urged the administration to be "extremely cautious" in pushing for cross-border raids "until we can get a new dialogue started".

The next president, he added, should "work with the civilian government, show them we want democracy in Pakistan" and to "increase our assistance to Pakistan, especially in economic areas".

He said the presence of Afghan president Hamid Karzai at President Asif Ali Zardari's swearing-in in Islamabad was a "hopeful sign". (ANI)

Be first to comment this article | Add as favourites (3)