Corbyn 'Disappointed' At Eagle Leadership Bid

Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn has said he is "disappointed" that Angela Eagle is launching a leadership campaign against him.

Mr Corbyn called on the former shadow business secretary, who quit his frontbench team in protest, to "think for a moment" before mounting her challenge.

The veteran left-winger also revealed he had taken "soundings" from lawyers and he expected to be on the ballot as the sitting leader, although this has been disputed by opponents.

Mr Corbyn insisted: "The rules in my view are absolutely clear."

He said he would be prepared to mount a legal challenge if he was left off the leadership slate.

Arguing he had been given a large mandate by Labour members, Mr Corbyn added: "I think we are a party that's going places and doing very well."

He pointed out under him the party's membership had grown to more than 500,000 people, won elections and delivered more than 20 defeats to the Government at Westminster. 

Despite the party turmoil, Mr Corbyn insisted: "There's no wobbles, there's no stress, there's no depression."

But Ms Eagle said of Mr Corbyn: "He's not a bad man, he's not a leader though."

Speaking to ITV's Peston on Sunday, she said: "He doesn't connect with Labour voters. He doesn't connect enough to win an election and he doesn't reach out in any meaningful way to other parts of the party.

"He's lost the confidence of his parliamentary colleagues.

"He's hiding behind a closed door, denying that this is a fact. That's not leadership."

Asked if Mr Corbyn should be allowed to stand in a new leadership contest, she said it was a decision for Labour's ruling National Executive Committee, but pointed out it was party precedent for candidates to secure more than 50 nominations. 

Ms Eagle said: "This is not about splitting the Labour Party this is about uniting the party."

Lord Falconer, who resigned as shadow justice secretary, told Sky News' Murnaghan programme that Mr Corbyn should not automatically qualify for the leadership race.

"If he can't get 51 MPs to back him what does that tell you?" he said.

He added: "The position is that Labour is voiceless. That, at a time when the country rightly is saying we need some degree of leadership form our political leaders."

But shadow education secretary Angela Rayner said Mr Corbyn had received a "significant" mandate less than 12 months ago to lead the party.

Urging her parliamentary colleagues to come together to hold the Government to account, Ms Rayner told Sky News: "We need an effective opposition at this time."

Meanwhile, former shadow work and pensions secretary Owen Smith, who is also thought to be considering a leadership bid, said: "I am not prepared to stand by and see our party split.

"And I have asked to meet with Jeremy again tomorrow to see how we can stop that."

Marie Colvin's Family Sue Assad For War Crimes

The family of a war correspondent killed in Syria is to sue the Syrian government over her death.

Marie Colvin was an American working for The Sunday Times when she travelled to Syria in February 2012 to cover the siege of Homs with British photographer Paul Conroy and Syrian interpreter Wael al Omar.

At the time, the Syrian city was under rebel control and suffering badly from the tactics of starvation and shelling of civilians used by Syrian president Bashar al Assad.

On 21 February, Ms Colvin told CNN: "It's a complete and utter lie that they're only going after terrorists.

"The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians."

Later that night, an informant's tip led Syrian military intelligence to her location and the following morning, Syrian artillery fired on the building, killing her and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

French photographer Remi Ochlik died in the same attack that killed Ms Colvin

Mr Conroy and Mr Wael were injured.

US-based Center for Justice and Accountability and co-counsel Shearman and Sterling LLP have filed a lawsuit against the Syrian government in a US District Court on behalf of Ms Colvin's sister Cathleen Colvin and other surviving family members.

CJA lawyer Scott Gilmore said: "Marie Colvin was killed for exposing the Assad regime's slaughter of innocent civilians to the world.

"The regime wanted to wage a war without witness against democratic opposition. To do that, they needed to neutralise the media."

CJA executive director Dixon Osburn added: "This is the first war crimes case against the Assad regime - but it won't be the last.

"Building a lasting peace in Syria will require accountability for those on all sides of the conflict who are responsible for atrocities."

The lawsuit is filed under a federal law allowing victims to sue designated state sponsors of terrorism for the murder of US citizens.

Ms Colvin, a 25-year veteran of war coverage, and Mr Ochlik are among more than 200 journalists killed in Syria since March 2011.

Marie Colvin's Family Sue Assad For War Crimes

The family of a war correspondent killed in Syria is to sue the Syrian government over her death.

Marie Colvin was an American working for The Sunday Times when she travelled to Syria in February 2012 to cover the siege of Homs with British photographer Paul Conroy and Syrian interpreter Wael al Omar.

At the time, the Syrian city was under rebel control and suffering badly from the tactics of starvation and shelling of civilians used by Syrian president Bashar al Assad.

On 21 February, Ms Colvin told CNN: "It's a complete and utter lie that they're only going after terrorists.

"The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians."

Later that night, an informant's tip led Syrian military intelligence to her location and the following morning, Syrian artillery fired on the building, killing her and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

French photographer Remi Ochlik died in the same attack that killed Ms Colvin

Mr Conroy and Mr Wael were injured.

US-based Center for Justice and Accountability and co-counsel Shearman and Sterling LLP have filed a lawsuit against the Syrian government in a US District Court on behalf of Ms Colvin's sister Cathleen Colvin and other surviving family members.

CJA lawyer Scott Gilmore said: "Marie Colvin was killed for exposing the Assad regime's slaughter of innocent civilians to the world.

"The regime wanted to wage a war without witness against democratic opposition. To do that, they needed to neutralise the media."

CJA executive director Dixon Osburn added: "This is the first war crimes case against the Assad regime - but it won't be the last.

"Building a lasting peace in Syria will require accountability for those on all sides of the conflict who are responsible for atrocities."

The lawsuit is filed under a federal law allowing victims to sue designated state sponsors of terrorism for the murder of US citizens.

Ms Colvin, a 25-year veteran of war coverage, and Mr Ochlik are among more than 200 journalists killed in Syria since March 2011.

Marie Colvin's Family Sue Assad For War Crimes

The family of a war correspondent killed in Syria is to sue the Syrian government over her death.

Marie Colvin was an American working for The Sunday Times when she travelled to Syria in February 2012 to cover the siege of Homs with British photographer Paul Conroy and Syrian interpreter Wael al Omar.

At the time, the Syrian city was under rebel control and suffering badly from the tactics of starvation and shelling of civilians used by Syrian president Bashar al Assad.

On 21 February, Ms Colvin told CNN: "It's a complete and utter lie that they're only going after terrorists.

"The Syrian Army is simply shelling a city of cold, starving civilians."

Later that night, an informant's tip led Syrian military intelligence to her location and the following morning, Syrian artillery fired on the building, killing her and French photographer Remi Ochlik.

French photographer Remi Ochlik died in the same attack that killed Ms Colvin

Mr Conroy and Mr Wael were injured.

US-based Center for Justice and Accountability and co-counsel Shearman and Sterling LLP have filed a lawsuit against the Syrian government in a US District Court on behalf of Ms Colvin's sister Cathleen Colvin and other surviving family members.

CJA lawyer Scott Gilmore said: "Marie Colvin was killed for exposing the Assad regime's slaughter of innocent civilians to the world.

"The regime wanted to wage a war without witness against democratic opposition. To do that, they needed to neutralise the media."

CJA executive director Dixon Osburn added: "This is the first war crimes case against the Assad regime - but it won't be the last.

"Building a lasting peace in Syria will require accountability for those on all sides of the conflict who are responsible for atrocities."

The lawsuit is filed under a federal law allowing victims to sue designated state sponsors of terrorism for the murder of US citizens.

Ms Colvin, a 25-year veteran of war coverage, and Mr Ochlik are among more than 200 journalists killed in Syria since March 2011.

Hundreds Join 'Black Lives Matter' Protest

Around 300 people have taken to the streets in south London as a mark of solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. 

Some roads in Brixton were brought to a standstill for over six hours as a crowd staged a sit-down protest and chanted "black lives matter" and "hands up, don't shoot" on Saturday.

It followed a protest in central London on Friday, after US police officers killed Alton Sterling, 37, in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, and Philando Castile, 32, in St Paul, Minnesota.

Those deaths were followed by the reprisal shooting of five officers in Dallas, Texas, on Friday.

On several occasions cars attempted to squeeze through the throng of demonstrators but quickly became surrounded by the crowds who demanded they stop.

Police attempted to separate the vehicles and the crowd, causing some confrontations but the protest remained largely peaceful.

One man, Vincent Lee, 37, and his partner Jessica Osibona came to the march as a mark of solidarity of the events in the US over the past week.

Mr Lee said: "It is a mess. Predominantly it is happening in America with their gun laws but we came down to show we are united with them."

Ms Osibona said she felt "compelled" to join the protest having followed the Black Lives Matter movement over the past year.

She said: "I was looking for some kind of inspiration as to what we can do collectively."

Facebook tests 'secret message' service

Private messages that can disappear are being trialled by Facebook as it experiments with a new option for those using its Messenger app.

They become hidden after a certain period of time chosen by the author, the firm said.

It is part of a new "secret message" service having a limited trial, Facebook announced.

Senders must choose one device to use it on, as messages sent this way are stored on the device itself.

Those flagged to "disappear" will be deleted from the device as well.

Starting a secret conversation with someone is optional," it said.

"Secret conversations can only be read on one device and we recognise that experience may not be right for everyone."

Facebook listed health and financial issues as examples of messages that people may wish to keep more private - while others have mentioned love affairs.

The idea is being trialled on a "limited basis", Facebook said, but added that it would be more widely available over the summer.

Video and GIFs cannot be shared secretly at the moment.

The service will also have extra features for reporting abuse - and once this is introduced, there will be a delay in the deletion of messages to enable flagging. 

"Facebook will never have access to plain text messages unless one participant in a secret conversation voluntarily reports the conversation," it explained in a technical document.

Tech spec

The service is built on the Signal protocol by Open Whisper Systems, which is widely used by messaging apps, said cybersecurity expert Professor Alan Woodward from Surrey University. 

"Signal is well tested and those who developed it are well regarded in the cryptography community," he said.

"But the problem with something effectively becoming an open standard in this way is that if ever a problem were found it could have widespread impact."

Prof Woodward added that the technical report released by Facebook was "not as complete as many would like" in terms of assessing the service's security.

"If I were to choose any messaging system I would look for it to be based on Signal at present. 

"However, I'd like to know more about exactly how it is implemented, or at least know that those who can analyse such systems have scrutinised the code."

Prescott Says 'Illegal' Iraq War Will Haunt Him

Lord Prescott has condemned Tony Blair's decision to go to war in Iraq, a decision the former deputy PM at the time had supported.

Lord Prescott's comments come just days after the publication of the Iraq Inquiry report by Sir John Chilcot.

Writing in The Sunday Mirror, he said: "I will live with the decision of going to war and its catastrophic consequences for the rest of my life.

"In 2004, the UN secretary-general Kofi Annan said that as regime change was the prime aim of the Iraq War, it was illegal.

With great sadness and anger, I now believe him to be right."

Lord Prescott said the Chilcot report was a "damning indictment of how the Blair government handled the war - and I take my fair share of blame".

"As the deputy prime minister in that Government I must express my fullest apology, especially to the families of the 179 men and women who gave their lives in the Iraq War."

He also welcomed current Labour leader Jeremy Corbyn's decision to apologise on behalf of the party for the war.

The Chilcot report strongly criticised the way former prime minister Mr Blair took the country to war in 2003 on the basis of "flawed" intelligence with inadequate preparation at a time when Saddam Hussein did not pose an "imminent
threat".

Sir John also said the way the decision about the legal basis for the war was reached was "far from satisfactory", but the report did not rule on the legality of the military action.

Lord Prescott said he had concerns about the way Mr Blair ran his government, with Cabinet ministers given "too little paper documentation" to make decisions.

He also said intelligence reports were based on "discussions at receptions and prejudiced sources", amounting to "tittle-tattle, not hard evidence".

"We now learn from Chilcot that even the intelligence agencies warned of the inadequacies or reliability of such intelligence sources," Lord Prescott said.

"But these concerns were never referred to in any of the intelligence documents given to the Cabinet."

Mr Blair has defended the decision to oust Saddam and insisted that his efforts to form a close relationship with the US had persuaded Mr Bush to pursue a second UN security council resolution, which ultimately was not obtained.

He also said intelligence reports were based on "discussions at receptions and prejudiced sources", amounting to "tittle-tattle, not hard evidence".

"We now learn from Chilcot that even the intelligence agencies warned of the inadequacies or reliability of such intelligence sources," Lord Prescott said.

"But these concerns were never referred to in any of the intelligence documents given to the Cabinet."

Mr Blair has defended the decision to oust Saddam and insisted that his efforts to form a close relationship with the US had persuaded Mr Bush to pursue a second UN security council resolution, which ultimately was not obtained.