PM Warns Juncker Vote Is 'Bad For All Of Europe'

David Cameron has warned it will be "bad for all of Europe" if arch-federalist Jean-Claude Juncker is nominated for the EU's top job in an unprecedented vote.

The Prime Minister insisted he was "completely unapologetic" about his outspoken opposition to the appointment of the former Luxembourg premier. 

He has forced today's vote on the nomination, breaking with tradition that the Commission chief is chosen by consensus of the EU's national heads of government.

Mr Cameron's stance has left him increasingly isolated at a two-day summit of the European Council.

Germany has thrown its weight behind Mr Juncker, while other potential allies for Mr Cameron - Sweden and the Netherlands - have dropped their opposition.

Angela Merkel is supporting Mr Juncker's nomination

Only Hungary remained as a possible partner for Britain in voting against his installation.

However, Britain insists its dissatisfaction with Mr Juncker is "not a unique view" and that privately other capitals have misgivings about his candidacy.

There are also widespread reports that Mr Juncker's liking for "a cognac at breakfast" was causing concerns in Brussels.

One European diplomat said: "His alcohol consumption has been raised by a number of leaders since the (European) parliamentary elections."

Mr Cameron said he continued to believe his fellow leaders were making a "mistake" to nominate Mr Juncker, who Britain regards as an obstacle to reform.

Diplomats have expressed concern about Mr Juncker's alcohol consumption

In an apparent swipe at leaders who have voiced disquiet behind closed doors, Mr Cameron said: "It's very important in Europe that you say what you say in private and it's the same as what you say in public."

Asked whether there could be consequences if the other 27 leaders refuse to accept the need for consensus, the Prime Minister said: "Everything has consequences in life.

"Obviously, I think proceeding in the way that countries are planning to proceed in choosing this individual, I believe that this is the wrong approach. And I think that would be bad for... all of Europe."

Mr Cameron made clear that defeat in Brussels would not affect his determination to press ahead with the renegotiation of Britain's EU membership.

That would be followed by an in/out referendum in 2017, if Conservatives win next year's General Election.

And the PM repeated his opposition to Mr Juncker as he arrived at the summit in Brussels, arguing there were times when "you stick to your principles and you stick to your convictions even if the odds are heavily stacked against you, rather than go along with something you believe is profoundly wrong".

He added: "The European elections showed there is huge disquiet about the way the European Union works, and yet the response I believe is going to be wrong on two grounds.

"Wrong on the grounds of principle. It's not right for the elected heads of government of the European countries to give up their right to nominate the head of the European Commission, the most important role in Europe. That is a bad principle.

"And it's the wrong person. Jean-Claude Juncker has been at the heart of the project to increase the power of Brussels and reduce the power of nation states for his entire working life.

"He's not the right person to take this organisation forward.

"I am very clear about the right thing to do. I know the odds are stacked against me, but that doesn't mean you change your mind, it means you stand up for what you believe and vote accordingly."

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Father Of Mass Murderer Tells Of 'Nightmare'

The father of a young man who killed six people in California before taking his own life last month has given his first interview since the tragedy.

Filmmaker Peter Rodger told ABC News' Barbara Walters that no one in his family had any indication that his son, Elliot, had violent intentions.

Mr Rodger said: "Every night I go to sleep, I wake up and I think of those young men and young women that have died and who are injured and were terrorised and my son did that.

"My son caused so much pain and suffering for so many families."

Elliot Rodger turned the gun on himself after killing six people

Asked how he felt when he woke up in the morning he replied: "It's like a reverse nightmare situation.

"When you go to sleep normally, you have a nightmare and you wake up and everything is ok.

"Now I go to sleep, I might have a nice dream and then I wake up and slowly the truth of what happened dawns on me and, you know, that is that my son was a mass murderer."

Mr Rodger, who was assistant director on the Hollywood blockbuster Hunger Games, said he had no idea his son was violent.

"There's no way I thought that this boy could hurt a flea. I mean, this is the most unbelievable thing, Barbara, what I don't get is we didn't see this coming at all."

Rodger, 22, killed six people on May 23 and injured 13 more before turning the gun on himself in Isla Vista, California, near two universities.

The killing spree began with Rodger stabbing three people at his apartment.

He then drove around the city firing on people outside a sorority house and inside a delicatessen, before taking his own life.

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Fifa Opens Suarez Bite Claim Disciplinary Action

Fifa has opened disciplinary proceedings against Luis Suarez after he was accused of biting Italy defender Giorgio Chiellini.

The striker and the Uruguayan FA have until 9pm UK time to "provide their position and any documentary evidence they deem relevant".

Suarez has already commented on the incident, declaring: "These things happen on the pitch."

The striker clashed with Chiellini in the 79th minute of his country's Group D match, a game they won 1-0 to advance to the last 16.

Television replays showed Suarez moving his head towards Chiellini, who responded by swinging his arm.

It appears that Suarez then sank his teeth into the defender's shoulder.

The Uruguay striker has previous after biting Chelsea's Branislav Ivanovic

Defending the alleged attack he said: "We were both just inside the area, he struck me in the chest with his shoulder and he hit me in the eye as well.

"These are things that happen on the pitch and you shouldn't attach so much importance to them.

"I'm very happy to have qualified. We are taking each game as it comes, we know that we're in a difficult situation, we're at our limits now."

Fifa can hit players with retrospective bans of up to two years if its disciplinary commission decides there is a case to answer.

Speaking to Rai TV after the game, Chiellini said: "It was ridiculous not to send Suarez off.

"It is clear, clear-cut and then there was the obvious dive afterwards because he knew very well that he did something that he shouldn't have done."

Suarez handball at South Africa 2010

Suarez served a 10-match ban last year for biting Chelsea defender Branislav Ivanovic.

Before his move to Liverpool in 2011, Suarez was suspended for seven matches by the Netherlands football federation after biting PSV Eindhoven's Otman Bakkal when he played for Ajax.

In the 2010 World Cup in South Africa, Suarez was sent off for a deliberate handball that helped Uruguay into the semi-final.

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Jihadist Threat 'To Rise With Afghan Pullout'

By Lisa Holland, Foreign Affairs Correspondent

The withdrawal of British troops from Afghanistan risks further increasing the threat of an attack on the UK by home-grown jihadists, the former head of the Armed Forces has warned.

In an exclusive interview with Sky News, Lord Richards of Herstmonceux said the current fighting in the Middle East should serve as a "wake-up call" to the West.

Lord Richards - who stepped down as Chief of the Defence Staff last year - described the Allied invasion of Iraq in 2003 as a "strategic error", the full consequences of which are only being experienced today.

And he warned increasing numbers of British Muslims could be radicalised if conflicts like Syria and Iraq are not brought to a halt.

"We're not communicating very well," he said. "A lot of young people feel alienated. I think you have to take positive action to assist them to stay on the path most want to.

"But the real key is to make sure things going on in other parts of the world don't become flag bearers for just a few people to start causing trouble here.

"If we don't deal with it then there's a threat here which could grow and it is growing."

Lord Richards was head of Britain's armed forces

The Government estimates around 400 British-born fighters are currently in Syria and Iraq.

Three men – two from Cardiff and one from Aberdeen – featured in a recent promotional video made for ISIS insurgents released last week.

The threat posed by jihadists returning from such conflicts to Britain may increase, Lord Richards said.

"It could get bigger. So you need to snuff out a problem like this at the source, not just put up the barriers as they come back into this country."

In the interview, Lord Richards said in hindsight the invasion of Iraq was a mistake.

"No doubt Saddam Hussein was a brutal dictator but it liberated a whole load of other forces and we're seeing that play through today."

British troops are due to withdraw from Afghanistan at the end of this year and Lord Richards said he feared a similar situation could arise.

"It's a wake-up call. I fear what we are seeing in Iraq could happen in Afghanistan next year and the thing we should be focusing on now is containing this."

British jihadists are among those fighting in Syria

He suggested the influence of social media meant a small minority of insurgents could start a major conflict.

"You only need a few hotheads and suddenly the law of unintended consequence can start taking control.

"It's not going to be an old fashioned war this - this is a generational struggle.

"With modern means of communication only half a dozen people can start to corrode a country from within. Then states over-react and that fires up more people. So it's a very clever and difficult form of warfare."

Lord Richards said the Afghan armed forces needed better equipment and better training.

Without international support, Lord Richards said he feared "we will see what is happening in Iraq happen there in nine months time and that will be a tragic waste".

He added that as a result of the rise of jihadists, the Coalition needed to re-examine defence cuts otherwise "we could be caught out".

"I'm worried the armed forces will not be in a position to do everything that might be asked of them if we don't address that question now."

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Jihadist's Mother Pleads For Him To Return Home

Faith Lost In Iraq PM Amid Political Limbo

Updated: 5:46pm UK, Friday 20 June 2014

By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor, in Baghdad

The US President, Shia politicians, Sunni chieftans and none other than the Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani has joined the clamour for Iraq's Prime Minister to move fast and form a government.

The nation has languished since elections on April 30 in a political limbo that arguably undermined faith in the central government, even among the Shia-dominated armed forces.

That might, partly, explain their rapid collapse in the face of far fewer forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) plus their allies.

But now that Iraq's supreme court has ratified the results of the elections what possible reason could Nouri al Maliki have for delay?

One explanation may simply be political.

His stewardship over previous years has entrenched sectarian divisions and seen an explosion in corruption.

His party bloc won 92 of the 328 seats in Iraq's parliament and he'll need 165 to form a coalition administration.

He, therefore, has to get involved in some serious horse trading with other Shia parties to build his coalition.

But they are now losing faith in him. Particularly in his apparent refusal to reach out to Sunni parties and offer them stakes in the central government - such as a security portfolio and a ministry which would give them access to patronage systems such as an education or public works - so that they feel both secure and that they have an investment in the future political structures.

A more conspiratorial thesis, fuelled by the conspiratorial utterances of lame duck ministers left over from the previous administration, is that Iraq's latest travails are the fault of external forces.

Jordan, Saudi Arabia (both Sunni countries), the US and others are being blamed for manipulating the Middle East and somehow creating ISIS.

There is evidence of Saudi individual, and possible state funding, for extremist militant groups in Syria, which may include ISIS.

And Jordan has played a significant role in trying to boost the fortunes of the non-extremist Free Syrian Army.

But Mr al Maliki may have calculated that he can either weather the latest storm - or let ISIS form an impoverished caliphate in the desert north of his country which would leave the Shia with Baghdad and the south.

It's the south, after all, that holds the lion's share of the world's second largest oil reserves.

It can ship its oil out through the Gulf, via Kuwait, or via Iran.

A Shia state or semi-state would not only be self-sufficient - it would be spared the burden of sharing Iraq's spoils with other sectarian groups like the Sunni and the Kurds (who already have their own autonomy and oil industry).

Such a move, or allowing events to drift to this reality, would place the south of Iraq firmly inside Iran's imperial embrace.

That is not something that Saudi Arabia would be able to tolerate in the long term as it vies with Iran for influence in the Middle East.

Nor is it anything that a rump Sunni 'caliphate' would be able to live with - the extremists within it would forever plot how to steal it back by force.

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'Spread Of Terror' Fears As ISIS Tightens Grip

Barack Obama and John Kerry have said ISIS, which is carrying out a lightning offensive in Iraq, could grow in power, destabilise the region and pose a threat to the US.

The American president spoke hours after the Islamist militants made dramatic gains by capturing four towns in western Iraq on Sunday.

Haditha, Anah, Rawa and Rotba - along with a number of villages - were taken as the Islamic State in Iraq and Syria (ISIS) swept east from the Syrian border, where it captured a border crossing on Saturday, in its latest offensive.

The group was also reported to have seized two more border crossings - the Turaibil crossing with Jordan and the al Walid crossing with Syria.

Secretary of State Mr Kerry has arrived in Baghdad on an unannounced visit for talks with Iraq's embattled Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki.

"We're going to have to be vigilant generally," Mr Obama said.

"Right now the problem with ISIS is the fact that they're destabilising the country. That could spill over into some of our allies like Jordan."

Sky's Sam Kiley says Iraqi forces 'folded-up without a fight'

But he said that was just one of an array of threats the US must guard against, citing the group Boko Haram in north Africa and al Qaeda groups in Yemen.

"What we can't do is think that we're just going to play whack-a-mole and send US troops occupying various countries wherever these organisations pop up," Mr Obama said on CBS Face The Nation.

"We're going to have to have a more focused, more targeted strategy and we're going to have to partner and train local law enforcement and military to do their jobs as well."

Secretary of State John Kerry, on a diplomatic tour of the Middle East and Europe, said: "ISIL is a threat to all of the countries in the region and no country is safe from that kind of spread of terror."

John Kerry warned of the 'spread of terror' while speaking in Cairo

Western countries, including Britain, have concerns about the possibility of young men who have joined the insurgency in Iraq or Syria later launching terror attacks at home.

The mother of Reyaad Khan, one of two Britons to appear in an ISIS recruitment film posted online, has made an emotional appeal on Sky News for her son to return home to Cardiff.

Speaking from Baghdad, Sky's Foreign Affairs Editor Sam Kiley said the militants' rapid grab of power "is very significant as it appears the Iraqi army has folded-up without a fight.

"These are major strategic prizes, not necessarily big towns but all of them on the main route to Syria and on the Euphrates river."

Satellite image of Iraqi forces bombing a suspected ISIS target

He added: "The international community is very fearful that if this landscape of ungoverned space becomes established as an Islamist heartland it will attract jihadis from all over the world."

Kiley said the big prize appears to be Haditha, which contains an important power-generating plant for Baghdad.

Dozens of Iraqi tanks, armoured vehicles and special forces troops were being sent to Haditha in an attempt to regain control and protect a dam across the Euphrates, according to Sky sources.

ISIS had already taken control of the cities of Fallujah and Ramadi in predominantly Sunni Anbar province before it seized Iraq's second city Mosul, and Baiji, home to the country's largest oil refinery, in an aggressive offensive in the north.

Cabinet minister Iain Duncan Smith has said the UK could provide logistical support if the US were to begin its own bombing raids.

Young Iraqis have been flocking to recruitment centres at the weekend to join the counter-offensive against ISIS. According to official records, some two million young men have volunteered in the past seven days.

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Hundreds Of Kids Smuggle Drugs Into School

By Afua Hirsch, Social Affairs and Education Editor

Hundreds of children are bringing drugs, including class A substances, into UK schools every year.

Figures obtained by Sky News show more than 1,000 pupils have been caught carrying drugs in schools over the past three years.

Among those pupils, 27 were found with class A drugs.

Some 93 pupils were charged with drugs offences, including six at primary school.

The figures come from 32 of the UK's 44 police forces but do not include some of the country's largest, including the Met and Greater Manchester.

Campaigners are concerned drug use among children is a problem that is being ignored.

Camila Batmanghelidjh, founder of charity Kids Company, which works with children from deprived backgrounds, said: "A lot of (children) are born into households where their parents are prolifically abusing substances.

"What we're seeing now is that eight and nine year olds are beginning to smoke weed and skunk and then they go on to harder stuff.

"Unfortunately, in a lot of neighbourhoods, children see the drug trade as a completely legitimate way of making a living.

"It's become so familiar and in a way it's become so normalised because children are completely surrounded by adults who are using."

One 18-year-old who was addicted to cannabis for three years said drug use had been common among children her age.

Jade Clement, from Poole, Dorset, who now campaigns for the charity Fixers, said: "I always had a friend that I was smoking with. We constantly had to lie, tell our parents we were going to the cinema or swimming - anything like that so we could get a tenner.

"I was meant to be in school ... (but) if I had weed left over from the night before then I wasn't going in.

"I couldn't be bothered. It didn't interest me (and) the only reason I went in was so I could plan (to take drugs) with my friends ... that's all school was really about."

The Government says drugs have 'no place whatsoever in the classroom'

Schools in affluent areas say they are equally concerned about the likelihood their pupils will be exposed to drug use.

At The Hall, a prestigious independent school in north London, former addicts are invited to speak to pupils to warn them about the dangers of drug use.

Thirteen-year-old student Callum said: "It's quite daunting that I'll be offered drugs in the next three to five years. It leads me to think, 'What will I say? Will I be pressured?'"

The Government said banned items like alcohol and drugs have "no place whatsoever in the classroom".

A Department for Education spokesman said: "We've introduced a range of powers for teachers to ensure discipline, behaviour and safety are maintained.

"Teachers can now search a pupil without consent when they suspect they may be in possession of a prohibited item.

"Changes to the system mean a school's decision to exclude a pupil cannot be reversed by an appeals panel.

"Our guidance also makes clear that teachers can use force to remove disruptive pupils from the classroom when necessary."

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MI6 Fears 300 Islamist Fighters Back In UK

Faith Lost In Iraq PM Amid Political Limbo

Updated: 5:46pm UK, Friday 20 June 2014

By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor, in Baghdad

The US President, Shia politicians, Sunni chieftans and none other than the Grand Ayatollah Ali al Sistani has joined the clamour for Iraq's Prime Minister to move fast and form a government.

The nation has languished since elections on April 30 in a political limbo that arguably undermined faith in the central government, even among the Shia-dominated armed forces.

That might, partly, explain their rapid collapse in the face of far fewer forces from the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS) plus their allies.

But now that Iraq's supreme court has ratified the results of the elections what possible reason could Nouri al Maliki have for delay?

One explanation may simply be political.

His stewardship over previous years has entrenched sectarian divisions and seen an explosion in corruption.

His party bloc won 92 of the 328 seats in Iraq's parliament and he'll need 165 to form a coalition administration.

He, therefore, has to get involved in some serious horse trading with other Shia parties to build his coalition.

But they are now losing faith in him. Particularly in his apparent refusal to reach out to Sunni parties and offer them stakes in the central government - such as a security portfolio and a ministry which would give them access to patronage systems such as an education or public works - so that they feel both secure and that they have an investment in the future political structures.

A more conspiratorial thesis, fuelled by the conspiratorial utterances of lame duck ministers left over from the previous administration, is that Iraq's latest travails are the fault of external forces.

Jordan, Saudi Arabia (both Sunni countries), the US and others are being blamed for manipulating the Middle East and somehow creating ISIS.

There is evidence of Saudi individual, and possible state funding, for extremist militant groups in Syria, which may include ISIS.

And Jordan has played a significant role in trying to boost the fortunes of the non-extremist Free Syrian Army.

But Mr al Maliki may have calculated that he can either weather the latest storm - or let ISIS form an impoverished caliphate in the desert north of his country which would leave the Shia with Baghdad and the south.

It's the south, after all, that holds the lion's share of the world's second largest oil reserves.

It can ship its oil out through the Gulf, via Kuwait, or via Iran.

A Shia state or semi-state would not only be self-sufficient - it would be spared the burden of sharing Iraq's spoils with other sectarian groups like the Sunni and the Kurds (who already have their own autonomy and oil industry).

Such a move, or allowing events to drift to this reality, would place the south of Iraq firmly inside Iran's imperial embrace.

That is not something that Saudi Arabia would be able to tolerate in the long term as it vies with Iran for influence in the Middle East.

Nor is it anything that a rump Sunni 'caliphate' would be able to live with - the extremists within it would forever plot how to steal it back by force.

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