UK honors cave rescue divers, Twiggy, Monty Python’s Palin

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In this file photo dated Wednesday, Aug. 15, 2007, former English model, actress and singer, Twiggy Lawson, commonly known as Twiggy, in London, England. (AP)
Updated 29 December 2018
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UK honors cave rescue divers, Twiggy, Monty Python’s Palin

  • Divers Joshua Bratchley, Lance Corporal Connor Roe and Vernon Unsworth will be made Members of the Order of the British Empire for their roles in the risky Thai cave rescue last summer

LONDON: British divers who rescued young soccer players trapped in a flooded cave in Thailand are among those being recognized in Britain’s New Year’s Honors List, along with 1960s model Twiggy and Monty Python star Michael Palin.
Twiggy, a model who shot to stardom during the Beatles era, will become a “dame” — the female equivalent of a knight — while Python, whose second career has seen him become an acclaimed travel documentary maker, receives a knighthood.
Jim Carter, who played the acerbic Mr. Carson in “Downton Abbey,” was also recognized, as was filmmaker Christopher Nolan, director of “Inception” and “Dunkirk,” and best-selling author Philip Pullman, creator of the Dark Materials trilogy.
The list released Friday also named 43 people who responded quickly to the extremist attacks in Manchester and London in 2017.
The honors process starts with nominations from the public, which are winnowed down by committees and sent to the prime minister before the various honors are bestowed by Queen Elizabeth II or senior royals next year.
The 92-year-old monarch has increasingly called on her children and grandchildren to hand out the coveted awards.
Divers Joshua Bratchley, Lance Corporal Connor Roe and Vernon Unsworth will be made Members of the Order of the British Empire for their roles in the risky Thai cave rescue last summer.
Four other British cave divers will receive civilian gallantry awards for their roles in the thrilling rescue of 12 boys and their coach, who were trapped in the cave for more than two weeks.
Richard Stanton and John Volanthen, the first to reach the stranded children and their coach, have been awarded the George Medal, while Christopher Jewell and Jason Mallinson received the Queen’s Gallantry Medal.
Twiggy, whose modeling career lasted for decades, burst on the London Mod scene as one of the original “It” girls. She earned worldwide fame by 17 and went on to a career in theater and films.
“It’s wonderful, but it makes me giggle,” said Twiggy, 69, whose real name is Lesley Lawson. “The hardest thing has been keeping it a secret.”
Palin’s knighthood recognizes his contribution to travel, culture and geography. He said the news had not sunk in yet but noted “I have been a knight before, in Python films. I have been several knights, including Sir Galahad.”
“I don’t think it will (sink in) until I see the envelopes addressing me as Sir Michael Palin,” said the 75-year-old.


Hundreds of ex-Daesh fighters face no prosecution in UK

More than 400 former Daesh fighters have returned to Britain without facing prosecution, a group of MPs and peers has warned.
Updated 6 sec ago
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Hundreds of ex-Daesh fighters face no prosecution in UK

  • Parliamentary committee calls for urgent action to ensure they face justice
  • ‘To date, no Daesh fighters have been prosecuted for international crimes in the UK and we find this unacceptable’

LONDON: More than 400 former Daesh fighters have returned to Britain without facing prosecution, a group of MPs and peers has warned, calling for legal changes to ensure those guilty of war crimes and genocide face justice in the UK.

Hundreds of British nationals over the past decade traveled to join Daesh, which once held vast swathes of territory across Syria and Iraq.

The terror group committed campaigns of murder and rape against minority groups such as the Yazidis.

Yet of the more than 400 former members of the group who have since returned to the UK, none have been prosecuted for their crimes, the Daily Telegraph reported on Tuesday.

The parliamentary joint committee on human rights raised the alarm over the lack of justice and called on the government to take urgent measures to address the issue.

Former Daesh fighters must face justice in the UK rather than in Syria and Iraq, the committee said.

Government ministers have previously argued that Daesh members should be investigated and prosecuted under local laws in Middle Eastern countries. But the committee said this is unlikely to happen in the countries where Daesh held territory.

“Where the UK has jurisdiction over international crimes, the UK should seek to investigate and prosecute such crimes,” a report by the committee said.

However, British courts face a “key barrier” when trying to deal with cases of war crimes and genocide because the accused must be UK nationals, residents or “subject to service personnel laws.”

This can be resolved by amending the Crime and Policing Bill now making its way through Parliament, the committee said.

Lord Alton, the committee’s chairman, said: “This is not something the UK can simply wash its hands of because it happened overseas. We know that British nationals committed the most horrendous crimes in Iraq and Syria under the Daesh regime and we have a duty to see them brought to justice.

“To date, no Daesh fighters have been successfully prosecuted for international crimes in the UK and we find this unacceptable.”

As well as prosecuting former Daesh fighters, the committee called for greater government transparency over the deprivation of citizenship.

The UK on a number of occasions has stripped British nationals of their citizenship because of ties to Daesh.

The case of Shamima Begum, who traveled to join Daesh aged 15, is the most prominent example.

More must also be done to repatriate children from camps in northeast Syria, the committee said.

Lord Alton highlighted the “deplorable” conditions in the camps, where the families of former Daesh fighters are detained.

“It is in the UK’s interest to ensure they do not become a new generation of the radicalized and they must be brought home,” he added.


Russia launches smallest nighttime attack on Ukraine in months in run-up to possible peace talks

Updated 27 min 54 sec ago
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Russia launches smallest nighttime attack on Ukraine in months in run-up to possible peace talks

KYIV: Russia launched 10 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine in nighttime attacks, the Ukrainian air force said Tuesday, in its smallest drone bombardment this year as the warring countries prepare for possible peace talks in Turkey.
The Kremlin hasn’t directly responded to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s challenge for Russian leader Vladimir Putin to meet him in person at the negotiations in Istanbul on Thursday.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov refused for the second straight day Tuesday to tell reporters whether Putin will travel to Istanbul and who else will represent Russia at the potential talks. “As soon as the president considers it necessary, we will make an announcement,” Peskov said.
Russia has said it will send a delegation to Istanbul without preconditions.
The U.S. has been applying stiff pressure on both sides to come to the table since President Donald Trump came to power in January with a promise to end the war.
Military analysts say both sides are preparing a spring-summer campaign on the battlefield, where a war of attrition has killed tens of thousands of soldiers on both sides along the roughly 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Monday that Russia is “quickly replenishing front-line units with new recruits to maintain the battlefield initiative.”
Zelenskyy will not be meeting with any Russian officials in Istanbul other than Putin, Mykhailo Podolyak, an adviser to Zelenskyy, said Tuesday on a YouTube show run by prominent Russian journalists in exile.
Lower-level talks would amount to simply “dragging out” any peace process, Podolyak said. European leaders have recently accused Putin of dragging his feet in peace efforts while he attempts to press his bigger army’s battlefield initiative and capture more Ukrainian land.
Russia effectively rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire demanded by Ukraine and Western European leaders from Monday, when it fired more than 100 drones at Ukraine. Putin instead offered direct peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on Thursday.
Russia shunned the ceasefire proposal tabled by the U.S. and European leaders but offered direct talks with Ukraine.
Putin has repeatedly questioned the legitimacy of the Ukrainian government, especially Zelenskyy himself, saying his term expired last year. Under Ukraine’s constitution, it is illegal for the country to hold national elections while it’s under martial law, as it now is.
In a further complication, a Ukrainian decree from 2022 rules out negotiations with Putin.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio spoke Monday with the top diplomats from the United Kingdom, France, Germany and Poland, who were meeting in London, to assess “the way forward for a ceasefire and path to peace in Ukraine,” spokesperson Tammy Bruce said.
Those European countries had pledged further sanctions on Russia if it didn’t comply with a full ceasefire that Ukraine had accepted from Monday, but they made no announcement of additional punitive measures.
 


Putin skipping talks would be 'final signal' Moscow unwilling to end war

Updated 52 min 44 sec ago
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Putin skipping talks would be 'final signal' Moscow unwilling to end war

KYIV: Ukraine on Tuesday said that if Russian President Vladimir Putin skips talks in Turkey on Thursday with Volodymyr Zelensky, it would be a clear sign that Moscow does not have any intentions of halting its invasion.
Zelensky has called on Putin to personally attend direct Russia-Ukraine talks that the Kremlin leader himself suggested, but Moscow on Tuesday declined to respond to that invitation for the second day running.
"If Vladimir Putin refuses to come to Turkey, it will be the final signal that Russia does not want to end this war, that Russia is not willing and not ready for any negotiations," Zelensky's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said in a statement published by the Ukrainian presidency.
Putin's spokesman on Tuesday refused to say who Russia would send to Istanbul.
"The Russian side continues to prepare for the talks scheduled for Thursday. That is all we can say at this point. We do not intend to comment further at this time," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
Asked if he could name Russia's negotiating team, Peskov said: "No... as soon as the president deems it necessary, we will announce it."
The meeting between Russian and Ukrainian negotiators in Turkey would be the first direct talks on the invasion between the two sides since the first months of the war.
Putin proposed negotiations in a late-night statement from the Kremlin over the weekend, a counteroffer after Kyiv and Europe urged Moscow to agree to a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire starting Monday.


India kills three suspected militants in Kashmir as Pakistan ceasefire holds

Updated 13 May 2025
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India kills three suspected militants in Kashmir as Pakistan ceasefire holds

  • Clash happened after army’s received information that militants were in Keller forest in the southern Kashmir valley
  • Site is around 65 kilometers from Pahalgam, where militants last month killed 26 people, mostly Hindu tourists

NEW DELHI: Three suspected rebels were killed in Indian-administered Kashmir on Tuesday in a gunbattle with soldiers, the army said, the first since an attack on tourists last month brought India and Pakistan to the brink of war.

The clash happened after the army’s special counter-insurgency force received information that militants were in Keller forest in the southern Kashmir valley, the army said.

The site is around 65 kilometers (40 miles) from Pahalgam, where militants last month killed 26 people, mostly male Hindu tourists, sparking the worst fighting between India and Pakistan since 1999.

A “search and destroy Operation” was launched leading to a clash, the Indian army said on X.

“During the operation, terrorists opened heavy fire and fierce firefight ensued, which resulted in elimination of three hardcore terrorists,” it said.

India accused Pakistan of backing the “terrorists” it said were responsible for the Pahalgam attack — a charge Islamabad denied — and last week launched missiles at sites in Pakistan it said were hosting the militants.

Four days of tit-for-tat jet fighter, drone, missile and artillery attacks followed, until they agreed to a ceasefire Saturday that US President Donald Trump said was brokered by Washington.

On Tuesday Pakistan’s army announced a new death toll from the fighting, saying that India’s “unprovoked and reprehensible dastardly attacks” killed 40 civilians, including seven women and 15 children, and 11 military service members.

“While defending the motherland with exemplary valour, 11 personnel of the Pakistan Armed Forces embraced martyrdom and 78 were wounded.”

Previously Pakistan’s official toll was 33 civilians with no military losses.

India has said that 15 civilians and five soldiers died.

Despite mutual claims on initial violations, the ceasefire still appeared to be holding on Tuesday.

Trump said Monday that US intervention had prevented a “bad nuclear war.”

“We stopped a nuclear conflict... millions of people could have been killed. So I’m very proud of that,” he told reporters at the White House.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said in a televised address to the nation on Monday that Pakistan has chosen to attack rather than help it fight “terrorism.”

“If another terrorist attack against India is carried out, a strong response will be given,” he said.

A post from his account on X Tuesday said he had met with service members involved in the conflict.

“It was a very special experience to be with those who epitomize courage, determination and fearlessness. India is eternally grateful to our armed forces for everything they do for our nation,” he said.

The flare-up in violence was the worst since the rivals’ last open conflict in 1999 and sparked global shudders that it could spiral into full-blown war.

Pakistan’s military statement Tuesday listed the highest ranked service member to be killed in the latest conflict as an air force squadron leader.

The military has said it downed five Indian jets but has not admitted losing any aircraft of its own.

India has not disclosed losing any aircraft.

Militants have stepped up operations in Kashmir since 2019, when Modi’s Hindu nationalist government revoked the region’s limited autonomy and took it under direct rule from New Delhi.

Divided Muslim-majority Kashmir is claimed in full by both countries, who have fought several wars over the territory since their independence from Britain in 1947.


UK High Court hears legal challenge over British government's role in arming Israel

Updated 46 min 20 sec ago
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UK High Court hears legal challenge over British government's role in arming Israel

LONDON: In a High Court hearing starting Tuesday, the UK government will defend its decision to continue supplying parts for F-35 fighter jets that may be used by Israel in Gaza.


The legal challenge was brought by human rights groups, which argue that the government is breaking domestic and international law and is complicit in atrocities against Palestinians by allowing essential components for the warplanes to be supplied to Israel.


The government said in September that it was suspending about 30 of 350 existing export licenses for equipment deemed to be for use in the conflict in Gaza because of a “clear risk” that the items could be used to “commit or facilitate a serious violation of international humanitarian law.” Those equipment included parts for helicopters and drones.


But an exemption was made for some licenses related to components of F-35 fighter jets, which have been linked to Israel’s bombardment campaign in the Gaza Strip. Rights groups argue that the United Kingdom shouldn't continue the export of the parts through what they call a “deliberate loophole” given the government's own assessment of Israel’s compliance with international humanitarian law.


Palestinian human rights organization Al-Haq and the UK-based Global Legal Action Network, which brought the legal challenge, say the components are indirectly supplied to Israel through the global spare parts supply chain.
UK officials have argued that stopping the export of F-35 fighter jet components would negatively impact international peace and security.
Compared to major arms suppliers such as the U.S. and Germany, British firms sell a relatively small amount of weapons and components to Israel.
The Campaign Against Arms Trade nonprofit group estimates that the UK supplies about 15% of the components in the F-35 stealth combat aircraft, including its laser targeting system.
“British-made F-35s are dropping multi-ton bombs on the people of Gaza, which the UN secretary-general has described as a ‘killing field,’” said Charlotte Andrews-Briscoe, a lawyer for the Global Legal Action Network.
“The UK government has expressly departed from its own domestic law in order to keep arming Israel. This decision is of continuing and catastrophic effect," she added.
The hearing is expected to last four days and a decision is expected at a later date.
Israel resumed its bombardment in Gaza in March, shattering a two-month ceasefire with Hamas. More than 52,800 people, more than half of them women and children, have been killed in Gaza, according to the territory's health ministry. The ministry’s count doesn't differentiate between civilians and combatants. Israel says it has killed thousands of militants, without giving evidence.

In November, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Hamas’ military chief, accusing them of crimes against humanity in connection with the war in Gaza.