Five Men Killed In Recycling Site Accident

Five men have died after an industrial accident at a recycling site in Birmingham.

West Midlands Police were called to the Hawkeswood Metal plant in Nechells at 8.45am on Thursday following reports that a "large concrete structure containing metal" had collapsed.

Murray MacGregor, a spokesman for the ambulance service, said the five victims had been "crushed" by the wall and nothing could be done to save them.

A sixth man, who managed to get out from under the rubble, has been taken to hospital with leg injuries which are serious but not life-threatening.

The wall that collapsed was estimated to be between 3.5m and 4.5m high.

According to the West Midlands Fire Service, the scene of the accident is "extremely challenging" as an unstable structure involving a "significant tonnage of concrete and metal" needs to be moved.

The Health and Safety Executive is assisting the police with their investigation into the industrial accident

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Gary Taylor said: "This is a devastating incident is for everyone involved. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the victims' families and colleagues."

Mr Taylor added that the operation to recover their bodies is expected to take "several hours".

Several people have gathered close to the site's entrance, where they are waiting for news on their loved ones. 

Police have launched an investigation into the industrial accident with the help of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Detective Superintendent Mark Payne said "several teams" of specialist officers were also supporting the families of those who died.

He added: "This has been a very traumatic incident for those who were at the site this morning and we will continue to work alongside the HSE and the other emergency services at the scene."

West Midlands Police said a wall had collapsed at the recycling site in Nechells

There was a major blaze at the site in February - but Mr Payne said there was no evidence to suggest that fire damage had caused the wall to collapse.

Shabana Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, described accident as "devastating news" - and warned there would be serious questions to answer about what led to the men's deaths.

She said: "Nothing will bring their loved ones back but the families of those who have been killed will want answers, they will want to understand what has happened here.

"I am extremely shocked that five lives have been cut short so abruptly like this."

The Prime Minister has also expressed his condolences to the victims' families, and said he was "shocked to hear about the tragedy in Birmingham".

Hawkeswood Metal began trading more than 40 years ago.

According to the company's website, it processes more than 500,000 tonnes of scrap metal a year.

In July 2012, the company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay more than £10,000 in costs at Birmingham Crown Court after a worker trapped and broke his arm in an unguarded conveyor belt, documents from the HSE show.

Five Men Killed In Recycling Site Accident

Five men have died after an industrial accident at a recycling site in Birmingham.

West Midlands Police were called to the Hawkeswood Metal plant in Nechells at 8.45am on Thursday following reports that a "large concrete structure containing metal" had collapsed.

Murray MacGregor, a spokesman for the ambulance service, said the five victims had been "crushed" by the wall and nothing could be done to save them.

A sixth man, who managed to get out from under the rubble, has been taken to hospital with leg injuries which are serious but not life-threatening.

The wall that collapsed was estimated to be between 3.5m and 4.5m high.

According to the West Midlands Fire Service, the scene of the accident is "extremely challenging" as an unstable structure involving a "significant tonnage of concrete and metal" needs to be moved.

The Health and Safety Executive is assisting the police with their investigation into the industrial accident

Assistant Chief Fire Officer Gary Taylor said: "This is a devastating incident is for everyone involved. Our thoughts and deepest sympathies are with the victims' families and colleagues."

Mr Taylor added that the operation to recover their bodies is expected to take "several hours".

Several people have gathered close to the site's entrance, where they are waiting for news on their loved ones. 

Police have launched an investigation into the industrial accident with the help of the Health and Safety Executive (HSE).

Detective Superintendent Mark Payne said "several teams" of specialist officers were also supporting the families of those who died.

He added: "This has been a very traumatic incident for those who were at the site this morning and we will continue to work alongside the HSE and the other emergency services at the scene."

West Midlands Police said a wall had collapsed at the recycling site in Nechells

There was a major blaze at the site in February - but Mr Payne said there was no evidence to suggest that fire damage had caused the wall to collapse.

Shabana Mahmood, Labour MP for Birmingham Ladywood, described accident as "devastating news" - and warned there would be serious questions to answer about what led to the men's deaths.

She said: "Nothing will bring their loved ones back but the families of those who have been killed will want answers, they will want to understand what has happened here.

"I am extremely shocked that five lives have been cut short so abruptly like this."

The Prime Minister has also expressed his condolences to the victims' families, and said he was "shocked to hear about the tragedy in Birmingham".

Hawkeswood Metal began trading more than 40 years ago.

According to the company's website, it processes more than 500,000 tonnes of scrap metal a year.

In July 2012, the company was fined £50,000 and ordered to pay more than £10,000 in costs at Birmingham Crown Court after a worker trapped and broke his arm in an unguarded conveyor belt, documents from the HSE show.

Blast kills policeman near Eid prayers in Bangladesh

At least one policeman has been killed and five others wounded after a small bomb blew up near a mass Eid prayer congregation in northern Bangladesh.

At least 200,000 people were gathered at a school outside a prayer ground in the northern Kishoreganj district when the bomb exploded on Thursday, according to police and local media.

There were reports of exchanges of gunfire at the scene.

The private Somoy TV station broadcast footage of a gunfight between police and a group of attackers and reported the policeman had been hacked to death.

"One police constable is dead and at least five others were injured," Mahbub, a police officer in the Kishoreganj control room, told the AFP news agency.

Fake Spy Based WMD Reports On Action Movie

s led to believe Saddam Hussein was continuing to produce weapons of mass destruction (WMD) by a false agent who based his reports on a Hollywood action movie, the Chilcot Inquiry has disclosed.

In September 2002, MI6 chief Sir Richard Dearlove said the agency had acquired information from a new source revealing that Iraq was stepping up production of chemical and biological warfare (CBW) agents.

The source, who was said to have "direct access", claimed senior staff were working seven days a week while the regime was concentrating a great deal of effort on the production of anthrax.

Families of the senior scientists involved were said to have been effectively made hostage to discourage them from deserting or leaking details to the US/UK coalition against Saddam.

Sir Richard told the chairman of the Joint Intelligence Committee (JIC), Sir John Scarlett, that they were "on the edge of (a) significant intel breakthrough" which could be the "key to unlock" Iraq's CBW programme.

Although the information was not included in the Government's dossier on Iraqi WMD published a few days later, amid fears for the scientists, it was said to have underpinned "key judgments" made.

A second report later that month based on the same source claimed that VX, sarin and soman nerve agents were being produced at a facility at Al Yarmuk.

The report said they were loaded into containers of various sorts including "linked hollow glass spheres".

However, questions were raised about the agent's claims when it was noticed his description bore a striking resemblance to a scene from the movie The Rock, starring Sean Connery and Nicolas Cage.

"It was pointed out that glass containers were not typically used in chemical munitions, and that a popular movie (The Rock) had inaccurately depicted nerve agents being carried in glass beads or spheres," the Chilcot report stated.

By February 2003 - a month before the invasion of Iraq - MI6 concluded that their source had been lying "over a period of time" but failed to inform No 10 "or others", even though Mr Blair had been briefed on his intelligence.

The inquiry found that right up to the eve of the invasion Sir John was continuing to advise the Prime Minister that Iraq had the CBW with the means to deliver them and the capacity to produce more.

The report strongly criticised the failure to reassess the JIC assessment that Saddam had managed to retain a covert CBW capability after the 1991 Gulf War, even after the UN chief weapons inspector Hans Blix was unable to find them.

"At no stage was the hypothesis that Iraq might no longer have chemical, biological or nuclear weapons or programmes identified and examined by either the JIC or the policy community," it said.

Chilcot Inquiry: How The Iraq War Unfolded

It is more than 14 years since George W Bush described Iraq as part of an "axis of evil", marking the start of a short road to war.

Now diplomat Sir John Chilcot is about to publish the results of his extensive inquiry into the UK's role in the war.

2002

:: 29 January - US President George W Bush says Iraq, Iran and North Korea are the "axis of evil" in his State of the Union address.

:: 14 May - The United Nations Security Council updates long-standing sanctions against Iraq to include ones targeted specifically at its military equipment. 

For years Saddam Hussein had refused to destroy nuclear, chemical and biological stockpiles and research facilities under supervision, despite the UN's insistence.

:: Mid-April - Mr Bush and Prime Minister Tony Blair meet at the President’s Texan ranch. The pair spend long periods discussing Iraq without their advisers.

The former UK ambassador to the US, Sir Christopher Meyer, later said he felt Mr Blair's views on regime change "tightened" after the private meeting.

It has been suggested that Mr Blair signalled he would be willing to back "regime change" at the meeting.

:: 16 September - Iraq says it will allow the "unconditional" return of the UN inspectors.

:: 24 September - The British government publishes a dossier which says that Hussein has weapons of mass destruction that could be used within 45 minutes of him giving the order, hitting targets as far away as Cyprus - where British troops are stationed.

The build-up to war began in 2002

:: 16 October - A referendum in Iraq gives Hussein another seven-year term as president with 100% of the vote.

:: 8 November - Resolution 1441 is passed by the UN Security Council, demanding that Iraq reinstates weapons inspectors after a four-year absence. It is accepted by Iraq a few days later.

:: 18 November - Dr Hans Blix heads to Baghdad with a team of inspectors.

:: 2 December - Britain's Government publishes a second report outlining human rights abuses in Iraq.

:: 18 December - The UK Ministry of Defence says ships are heading to the Gulf carrying troops and heavy armour.

:: 19 December - The UN says Iraq is in "material breach" of the UN resolution because its arms declaration does not contain much new information about its weapons of mass destruction (WMD) capability.

2003

:: 9 January - Dr Blix says his inspectors have not "found any smoking guns" that could lead to war.

:: 16 January - Inspectors find 12 warheads which can carry chemical weapons. These were not accounted for in Iraq's weapons submission.

:: 29 January - Mr Bush says he is ready to attack Iraq even without a UN mandate.

:: 31 January -  Mr Bush meets Mr Blair at the White House. Notes of the meeting show the Bush administration had already decided on the US invasion of Iraq.

Ways to provoke Hussein into a confrontation were discussed. The five-page document was classified as "extremely sensitive" but was later obtained by newspapers.

:: 3 February - A briefing document drawn up for the Labour government is issued to journalists by Alastair Campbell. It reiterated claims from the September dossier.

:: February - Ministry of Defence scientist Dr David Kelly tells a British diplomat there had been "a lot of pressure" to make dossier more robust. He says that if Iraq is invaded he will "probably be found dead in the woods".

:: 15 February - Huge anti-war demonstration held in London.

:: 26 February - Mr Blair sees 121 of his Labour MPs vote against him in Parliament.

:: 7 March - Dr Blix says his inspectors need more time to verify Iraq’s compliance.

:: 10 March - French President Jacques Chirac says France would vote against any resolution that includes an ultimatum leading to war, until UN weapons inspectors in Iraq say they can do no more.

:: 16 March - Mr Bush, Mr Blair and the Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar meet in the Azores.

A deadline of 17 March is set for the Security Council to back a US/UK resolution demanding immediate Iraqi disarmament.

:: 17 March - The UK's ambassador to the UN says the diplomatic process on Iraq has ended and announces the withdrawal of a draft resolution co-sponsored by the US and Spain.

:: 18 March - Arms inspectors are evacuated, the leader of the House of Commons Robin Cook resigns from the Cabinet, the Attorney General says war on Iraq would be legal on the grounds of existing UN resolutions, while Mr Bush gives Hussein and his sons 48 hours to leave Iraq or face war.

:: 20 March - Mr Bush announces the start of the war against Iraq. Allied forces strike 

military targets.

:: 9 April - Hussein's rule collapses, and much of Baghdad comes under US control.

:: 1 May - Mr Bush makes a speech on the deck of aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln, underneath a banner reading: "Mission Accomplished".

:: 22 May - Dr Kelly meets BBC journalist Andrew Gilligan, who notes that he said the dossier was "transformed" to make it "sexier" - with the addition of the 45-minute claim.

:: 29 May - Mr Gilligan's report is broadcast on BBC Radio 4's Today programme - without naming Dr Kelly - and the claims are rebutted by Downing Street.

:: 17 July - Dr Kelly is found dead. His death is later ruled a suicide.

:: 1 August - The Hutton Inquiry into Dr David Kelly's death is opened.

:: 13 December - Hussein is arrested by American soldiers, who find him crouching in a hole near Tikrit.

2004

:: 25 January - The CIA's former chief weapons inspector says Iraq's unconventional weapons programme was in a state of disarray in the final years of Hussein's leadership.

:: 28 January - The Hutton Inquiry's conclusions are published. The main conclusion is that there was no "underhand" Government plot to name Dr Kelly and the dossier had not been "sexed up".

:: 3 February - The Butler Review, into the intelligence gathered before the war, is set up.

:: 30 April - Mr Bush condemns photographs that show American soldiers laughing as Iraqi detainees are forced into humiliating positions at the Abu Ghraib prison.

:: 28 June - American authorities transfer formal sovereignty of Iraq to new leaders.

2005

:: 30 January - Iraqis turn out in huge numbers to vote in the first free elections in half a century.

:: 19 October - Hussein goes on trial for the killing of 148 people in 1992 during the Gulf War. He says he does not recognise the authority of the court.

2006

:: 22 February - The bombing of the al Askari Mosque (Golden Mosque) in Samarra.

:: 8 November - Mr Bush accepts the resignation of Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld.

:: 30 December - Hussein is hanged before dawn in Baghdad, during the morning call to prayer.

2007

:: January - The Bush administration announces "The Surge" assault against the Iraqi insurgency.

:: 10 June - Sunni Arab groups are armed by the US, in return for promising to fight militants linked with al Qaeda.

2008

:: 25 March - The Battle of Basra begins when the Iraqi army launches an operation to drive the Mahdi army militia out of the southern Iraqi city

:: 17 November - Iraq's parliament ratifies an agreement that sets out  a plan to end the American military's role in the war. It sets a date for the withdrawal - the end of 2011.

2009

:: 15 June - The Chilcot Inquiry is announced by Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

:: July - The Chilcot inquiry commences.

2010

:: August - US President Barack Obama says the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq is over.

2011

:: 18 January - Sir Gus O'Donnell refuses to publish notes sent by Mr Blair to Mr Bush in the build-up to the war, despite repeated requests from the Chilcot Inquiry.

:: 22 May - Britain's eight-year military mission in Iraq finally ends, with the last troops involved in Operation Telic lowering the Union flag.

:: 21 October - Mr Obama says the last American soldier would leave Iraq by the end of the year.

:: 15 December - A formal end to US operations in Iraq is declared.

:: Full coverage of the Chilcot Report all day, live on Sky News and on skynews.com.

Pound Hits New Low On Deepening EU Exit Fears

The pound has plumbed new depths against the US dollar as it slid below $1.28 amid intensifying fears over the impact of the vote to leave the EU.

It was a new 31-year low for sterling which has already tumbled steeply in the wake of last month's poll result and slipped further, by as much as two cents, in latest overnight trading.

A weak pound means higher prices for British holiday makers and makes imported goods including many supermarket staples more expensive, though it can help exporters sell their wares abroad as they will be cheaper for foreign buyers.

Overnight trading also saw Asian stock markets turn lower with Japan's Nikkei down 1.8% and Hong Kong’s Hang Seng slipping by 1.2%.

Deepening fears about the fall-out from Brexit pushed investors towards bonds – parcels of Government debt seen as safe havens even though the returns they yield have shrunk sharply as demand for them pushes up their price.

There was a calmer start to London trading in the latest session, with the FTSE 100 Index edging slightly higher after a negative start and the pound recovering some of its earlier losses.

Sterling has been dragged lower in recent days as three British commercial property funds worth about £9bn suspended trading, after the referendum prompted a rapid increase in investors trying cash in their holdings.

Aviva Investors blamed "extraordinary market circumstances" as it halted dealing in its UK property trust, a day after a similar move by Standard Life Investments. M&G Investments also suspended a major property portfolio.

Meanwhile economic survey data pointed to a second quarter slowdown in gross domestic product (GDP) growth to just 0.2% - fuelling expectations that the Bank of England could cut interest rates as soon as next week.

The Bank has stepped up efforts to allay the potential volatility from Brexit by easing capital rules for banks, allowing them to expand lending to households and businesses by up to £150bn.

Governor Mark Carney said pre-referendum warnings about what might happen in the event of a Brexit vote had "begun to crystallise" - including a hit to commercial property - and that the UK "has entered a period of uncertainty and significant market adjustment".

Angus Nicholson, market analyst at IG, said: "Mark Carney, almost the only British leader who seems to not be resigning at the moment, emphasised the challenges the UK economy will suffer in the post-Brexit world.

"Carney's speech seems to have initiated the dawning of realisation of the longer-term impact of Brexit for many in the markets."

United States of Africa? African Union launches all-Africa passport

 European Union threatens to unravel in the wake of Britain's vote to leave, the African Union is pursuing a path of closer integration through the launch of a common passport that will grant visa-free access to all 54 member states.

The electronic passports will be unveiled at the AU summit in Kigali, Rwanda, later this month, where they will be issued to heads of state and senior officials. The Union aims to distribute them to all African citizens by 2018.

"This flagship project has the specific aim of facilitating free movement of persons, goods and services around the continent - in order to foster intra-Africa trade, integration and socio-economic development," the Union announcedin a statement.

The passports represent a key plank of the Agenda 2063 action plan, which emphasizes the need for greater continental integration, drawing on the popular vision of Pan-African unity. Freedom of movement has been a longstanding priority among member states, as enshrined in previous agreements such as the 1991 Abuja Treaty. Common passports have already been adopted for several regions, such as the Economic Community of West African States (ECOWAS). 

Open door policy

Currently, just 13 African states are open to all African citizens without advance visas, with many placing severe restrictions on travel. A recent report from the African Development Bank advised that easing entrance requirements would support economic growth, citing the case of Rwanda, which saw GDP and tourism revenues climb after abolishing visas. 

AU Director for Political Affairs Dr. Khabele Matlosa believes opening borders will have a profound effect for workers at the lower end of the scale.

have a problem now that young people are risking their lives to cross the Sahara Desert or travel on boats to Europe," says Matlosa. "If we open opportunities in Africa we reduce that risk."

The Director has been studying the example of Europe, but believes a closer African Union will not be so threatened by concerns about immigration or loss of sovereignty. 

"Africa is a continent of migrants so we are not as suspicious of refugees," he says. "This is a test of our Pan-Africanism, the doctrine which underpins the African Union's existence. We are committed to this philosophy."

However Matlosa acknowledges the target of providing all citizens with the passports by 2018 is ambitious, conceding that full coverage may not be achieved until several years later.

Risks and rewards

Analysts have highlighted logistical challenges of the initiative.

"Not all countries have the same level of technology needed for the biometric system and to register their citizens," says David Zounmenou, senior research fellow at the Institute for Security Studies. "The timeframe is too short -- 2020 would be a fine effort."

Zounmenou adds that the closer union will face a complaint familiar to European counterparts -- that of more powerful states overriding smaller members.

"Not every country will buy into it," he says. "Visa revenue is an important source of income for some countries and removing it will affect the local economy unless there is compensation."

But Zounmenou believes that common passports will support international trade within the continent, reducing the widespread dependence on Western goods, and offer new opportunities to many citizens.

"Many people ask 'what are the practical benefits of being a member of the AU?'" he says. "This can be one of the most important social and economic responses, which allows business to flow, students to travel, and people to move from one corner of the continent to another."

Critics have suggested open borders risk strengthening terror groups and organized crime, but Zounmenou disagrees.

"One key advantage is that we will have centralized records to show who is going where," he says.