Charlie Hebdo: Al Qaeda Threatens More Attacks

Written By Unknown on Sabtu, 10 Januari 2015 | 14.59

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By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent, in Dammartin-en-Goele

Al Qaeda has threatened France with more terror attacks after 17 people were killed at Charlie Hebdo's offices and at a Jewish supermarket.

The warning came as President Francois Hollande admitted the threats "weren't over" and police hunting a female suspect suggested there could be a larger terrorist cell planning further atrocities.

A sharia official from al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Harith al Nadhari, said in a video: "It is better for you to stop your aggression against the Muslims, so perhaps you will live safely.

"If you refuse but to wage war, then wait for the glad tiding."

AQAP has claimed it directed brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi in the attack on Charlie Hebdo "as revenge for the honour" of the Prophet Mohammed.

The United States has also warned Americans to beware "terrorist actions and violence" all over the world following the deaths in Paris.

The gunman killed by police at a kosher supermarket in Paris has told how he "co-ordinated" with the Charlie Hebdo killers and was a member of the Islamic State (IS) group.

Amedy Coulibaly's call to France's BFMTV station emerged after gunfire and explosions marked the violent conclusion to two hostage-takings 30 miles (48km) apart.

Just minutes separated the series of blasts at the Paris store and those that destroyed a warehouse in Dammartin-en-Goele, where the Kouachi brothers were holed up.

Police stormed both buildings almost simultaneously, killing both brothers, while at least four hostages and the jihadist gunman died at the Paris grocery store.

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Gallery: Commandos Storm Supermarket

Commandos stormed the kosher supermarket where a gunman had taken at least six people hostage. Pic: Vantage News

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Explosions rang out at the scene

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Coulibaly told BFMTV in the call from the supermarket that he had worked with the Kouachi brothers, who he described as his "officers".

"They (dealt with) Charlie Hebdo, I (dealt with) the police," he reportedly said.

Police became convinced the two attacks were linked after they discovered that Coulibaly's wife and fellow suspect Hayat Boumeddiene and the partner of one of the Kouachis had called each other more than 500 times last year.

They have subsequently established that Cherif Kouachi met Coulibaly in prison and the two men visited jihadist Djamel Beghal with their wives in 2010.

Coulibaly said he targeted the kosher supermarket because he wanted to defend Palestinians and target Jews.

In the taped conversation, he also acknowledged he had killed four of the hostages.

Fifteen others were freed when police stormed the building.

Witnesses said Said Kouachi, the elder of the brothers, claimed allegiance to al Qaeda during the attack and travelled to Yemen in 2011.

His brother told BFMTV in a separate recording: "I was sent, me, Cherif Kouachi, by Al Qaeda of Yemen. I went over there and it was Anwar al Awlaki who financed me."

However, Coulibaly claimed to be a member of IS.

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Gallery: Faces Of Paris Suspects And Victims

Hayat Boumeddiene, 26, is a suspect in the murder of a Paris policewoman on Thursday. She is on the run after her husband Amedy Coulibaly was killed when armed officers brought his kosher supermarket siege to a violent end

Her husband Amedy Coulibaly, 32

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Boumeddiene, 26, who was identified along with Coulibaly as a suspect in the killing of a police officer on Thursday, remains on the run.

French Prime Minister Manuel Valls said the heavy death toll over three days of violence showed there had been a "clear failing" of intelligence.

"When 17 people die, it means there were cracks," he said.

French government officials will hold an emergency meeting today to decide new measures to prevent terror attacks in the wake of the violence.

Automatic gunfire and explosions could be heard as police moved in to end the siege at the print shop in Dammartin-en-Goele, before smoke was seen billowing from the roof.

A helicopter then landed amid thick fog on the building's roof, signalling the end of the assault.

Officials said the brothers had emerged from the building and opened fire on police before they were killed.

A 26-year-old graphic designer called Lilian is understood to have hidden "under a sink in the canteen" and helped police by texting tactical information while the brothers held the store manager - who was released before the siege was ended - hostage.

Minutes later, police brought the stand-off at the supermarket in eastern Paris to a close.

Police were reportedly aided in the raid because they were able to listen in to the situation in the store after Coulibaly failed to hang up after calling the media.

It was as he knelt to do his evening prayer that they stormed the building.

The four people killed were "likely" killed by the gunman at the start of the hostage-taking, the prosecutor leading the investigation said.

A man called Ilan and his three-year-old son hid for five hours with three other people in one of the supermarket's fridge units, relatives told AFP.

In chaotic scenes visible in TV footage, armed officers fired automatic weapons before one body was dragged out and several hostages fled.

:: Watch Sky News Special Report: Paris Attack at 4.30pm and 8.30pm. See it on skynews.com, our mobile apps and on Sky News - channels Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 132.

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Written By Unknown on Jumat, 09 Januari 2015 | 14.59

By Sam Kiley, Foreign Affairs Editor

Al Qaeda is plotting to massacre huge numbers of civilians in Britain and other western countries, the head of Mi5 has warned.

Andrew Parker, director general of the security service, told a select group mostly from the Royal United Services Institute at his London headquarters that while the so-called Islamic State is the newest threat to the West and that self-started lone wolf plots are hard to foil, al Qaeda still has ambitions for something more spectacular.

He said: "We know that terrorists based in Syria harbour... ambitions towards the UK - trying to direct attacks against our country, and exhorting extremists here to act independently."

But this was in addition to newly identified plans from al Qaeda to revisit their traditional style of operations.

He said: "…we still face more complex and ambitious plots that follow the now sadly well-established approach of al Qaeda and its imitators: attempts to cause large scale loss of life, often by attacking transport systems or iconic targets.

"We know, for example, that a group of core al Qaeda terrorists in Syria is planning mass casualty attacks against the West."

Al Qaeda experts are known to have moved from Pakistan to Syria, where they may be able to draw on British volunteers to conduct attacks in the UK. Their mission is entirely focussed on plots against the West.

They are known to be led by Muhsin al Fadhli, an expert bomb maker wanted by the FBI who has a $7m price on his head. He moved to Syria two years ago and was unsuccessfully targeted in a coalition air strike last year.

It is also known that British citizens are in the ranks of al Qaeda in Syria and could be used in a major atrocity back home.

The domestic spy chief spoke hours after the UK's COBRA committee ordered a boost to national security.

Home Secretary Theresa May said: "Following the attacks we took the precautionary step yesterday of increasing security at the French-UK border.

"The UK threat level, which is set by the independent Joint Terrorism Advisory Centre, remains at severe; that means a terrorist attack is highly likely and the public should remain vigilant.

"This morning I chaired COBRA to consider Britain's response to the attacks and our own preparedness to a similar attack."

Extra police have already been deployed at British ports and stations serving the Eurostar.

Lone wolf plots aimed at the police and military have surged over the last year and these have combined with the Paris killings to cause unease among officers.

"It's a huge worry for us," said Sir Peter Fahy, chief constable of Greater Manchester Police.

"There is a particular increased threat to police officers at the moment and there have been a number of attacks foiled in differed parts of the country, but I can tell you that our officers are very concerned about it… they see what happened in France, and clearly we are an unarmed police force but it is the nature of that threat which is worrying but despite that our officers go out there and do their duty."

Such concerns from front line police reflect similar fears in the intelligence community. Put simply - the world is getting more dangerous.

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Terror Police Search Forest For Paris Attackers

Almost 90,000 anti-terror police are hunting for the two brothers suspected of killing 12 people in the attack on the Paris office of satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.

Elite police and paramilitary forces have focused their search on the northern Aisne region, some 43 miles from Paris.

Two men fitting the descriptions of brothers Said and Cherif Kouachi stole fuel and food from a petrol station near Villers-Cotterets on Thursday.

Heavily-armed officers launched a search in the village of Crepy-en-Valois, around 10 miles from the petrol station.

Hundreds of police dressed in bullet-proof vests and helmets are searching countryside spanning from Soissons, through Abbaye de Longpoint, right up to Villers-Cotteret.

On Thursday night, helicopters buzzed overhead in the region as the hunt continued.

Witness Benoit Verdun told Sky News he believes the suspects are in a large forest near Longpont, which he said is "bigger than Paris" - measuring some 13,000 hectares, or 50 square miles.

It comes as a US official confirmed the brothers were both flagged as terrorists in a US database, and were also on the no-fly list, meaning they were barred from travelling to the United States.

According to French intelligence, Said Kouachi also travelled to Yemen in 2011 to receive training in small arms combat and marksmanship.

Sky's Crime Correspondent Martin Brunt said: "There will be inquiries going on all over France.

"Police will be talking to associates of these two to build up a picture of their recent movements."

US President Barack Obama wrote the words "Vive la France!" in a book of condolence during a visit to the French embassy in Washington on Thursday.

"As allies across the centuries, we stand united with our French brothers to ensure that justice is done and our way of life is defended," he wrote.

"We go forward together knowing that terror is no match for freedom and ideals we stand for - ideals that light the world. Vive la France!"

A minute's silence was also held across France on Thursday in honour of those who died in the terror attack.

After the silence, bells tolled at Paris' Notre Dame cathedral and in churches across the country.

The lights of the Eiffel Tower were turned off for five minutes as a mark of respect for the victims.

Thousands of people also gathered for a second night in the Place de la Republique to hold vigils.

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What We Know About Shooting Suspects

Written By Unknown on Kamis, 08 Januari 2015 | 14.59

The youngest of the three men suspected of carrying out the deadly attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo has handed himself in.

Brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both in their 30s, and Hamyd Mourad, 18, are believed to be behind the attack.

Mourad is reported to have surrendered following anti-terror raids in Reims, but two men remain at large.

Reports in France have claimed one of the brothers had previously been tried on terrorism charges.

Cherif Kouachi was charged with criminal association related to a terrorist enterprise in 2005 after he was arrested before leaving for Iraq to join Islamist militants.

He was sentenced to 18 months in prison in 2008, according to French media.

During his trial, he told the court he "really believed in the idea" of fighting the US-led coalition in Iraq.

He said he was outraged at the torture of Iraqi inmates at the US prison at Abu Ghraib near Baghdad.

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Gallery: Magazine Victims Identified

Bernard Maris was a journalist and shareholder in Charlie Hebdo

Bernard Velhav was a contributer to the magazine. Pic: Georges Seguin

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Paris Terror Attack: Two Brothers On The Run

By Ian Woods, Senior Correspondent, In Paris

A massive manhunt is under way for two suspects in the Paris terror attack on a French satirical magazine.

Images have been released of brothers Said Kouachi and Cherif Kouachi, both in their early 30s, who are suspected of being part of the attack that left 12 people dead.

Officials have said the French nationals are linked to a Yemeni terror network.

The youngest of the suspects in the shooting has handed himself in to police after he was named on social media as Hamyd Mourad, 18.

Sky sources say the man, who has been arrested, is the brother-in-law of the suspects at large.

On Wednesday night heavily armoured French police raided an apartment in the city of Reims, east of Paris, as they continued a massive manhunt to find the killers.

French officials say seven people have been detained overnight. There was a shooting in southern Paris overnight, but a police source told Reuters news agency no link with the magazine attack has been confirmed.

Thousands of officers have reportedly been deployed in the hunt for the men behind the attack on the offices of Charlie Hebdo and

It has previously been targeted over its portrayal of the Prophet Mohammed.

In Wednesday's attack, masked gunmen stormed the offices and called out their victims by name before opening fire during a morning editorial meeting.

They were armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles and a rocket-propelled grenade.

They were let inside the Charlie Hebdo building by a female employee who was threatened at gunpoint along with her daughter and forced to punch in a security code to allow them inside.

The editor and a cartoonist for the newspaper, who went by the pen names Charb and Cabu, were among those killed.

Radio France chief executive Mathieu Gilet announced that contributor Bernard Maris was also killed.

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Gallery: Magazine Victims Identified

Bernard Maris was a journalist and shareholder in Charlie Hebdo

Bernard Velhav was a contributer to the magazine. Pic: Georges Seguin

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A&E 'Crisis' Summit Demanded By Labour

Written By Unknown on Rabu, 07 Januari 2015 | 14.59

An emergency summit is needed to find ways to ease the pressure on struggling A&E departments, Labour has said.

More than a dozen hospitals have declared "major incidents" as they struggle to cope with the rising number of admissions in accident and emergency departments.

Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge was the latest hospital to activate a major incident plan on Tuesday evening, warning patients they faced long waits due to "unprecedented levels for demand for our services".

David Cameron has admitted the NHS is under pressure following the release of figures showing waiting times at A&E in England have hit their worst level in 10 years.

But he dismissed claims the service is on the brink of disaster.

The Shadow Health Secretary Andy Burnham has published a letter accusing his opposite number of failing to anticipate the current problems.

Reports of fire engines and police cars being increasingly used as ambulances raised "major patient and public safety concerns", Mr Burnham wrote.

"Patients are already being exposed to unacceptable levels of risk and the situation cannot be allowed to get any worse.

"Urgent action is needed to provide a coordinated response across Government from all public services."

Mr Burnham said the summit needed to include representatives from the police, fire and ambulance services as well as NHS professionals.

The latest figures on A&E waiting times showed just 92.6% of patients were treated within the four-hour time limit against a target of 95%.

The British Medical Association said the records showed the "unprecedented levels of pressure" on the health service and the Royal College of Nursing said the system was in "crisis".

But Mr Cameron said there was a "short-term pressure issue which we need to meet with resources and management".

The hospitals that have declared major incidents are:

:: The Royal Bolton Hospital

:: Addenbrooke's Hospital in Cambridge

:: Scarborough Hospital In Yorkshire

:: Royal Stoke University Hospital

:: Peterborough City in Cambridgeshire

:: Gloucestershire Royal Hospital

:: Cheltenham General Hospitals

:: Walsall Manor in the West Midlands

:: Croydon Hospital in south London

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Gallery: When Should You Go To A&E?

Unresponsive - Loss of consciousness

Confusion - Acute confused state and fits that are not stopping

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AirAsia Crash: Missing Plane's Tail Discovered

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The tail of the missing AirAsia plane has been found underwater in the Java Sea, according to Indonesian officials.

The find is vital because the cockpit voice and flight data recorders, or black boxes, are located in the aircraft's tail, and will be crucial to investigators trying to establish why the plane crashed.

"We have successfully obtained part of the plane that has been our target," search and rescue agency chief Bambang Soelistyo said.

"The tail portion has been confirmed found."

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Gallery: The Search For The Missing AirAsia Plane

Relatives at Surabaya airport weep as they receive news that bodies have been found in the hunt for the missing AirAsia plane

There were 162 passengers on board, including one British man, Chi Man Choi, and his two-year-old daughter

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Officials carry a family member of one of the passengers after she collapsed at Surabaya airport

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The Indonesian air force shows objects retrieved from the sea

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The search had included 30 ships and 21 aircraft from South Korea, Singapore, Malaysia, Australia and Indonesia

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The section of plane was identified using an underwater remote operated vehicle.

Flight QZ8501 came down on 28 December during a storm en route from Indonesia's second city Surabaya to Singapore.

Before take-off, the pilot had asked to fly at a higher altitude to avoid the storm, but permission was denied because of the number of planes above him on the busy route.

Forty bodies and debris from the plane have been recovered from the surface of the waters off Borneo, but strong winds and high waves have prevented divers from reaching larger pieces of suspected wreckage detected by sonar on the sea floor.

It is thought to include parts of the fuselage, where many of the bodies of victims may still be trapped.

In his last communication, Captain Iriyanto, an experienced former air force pilot, said he wanted to change course to avoid the storm system.

Soon after all contact was lost, about 40 minutes after the Airbus A320-200 had taken off.

Of the 162 passengers and crew on board, 155 were Indonesian and three South Korean. The other four were from Singapore, Malaysia, Britain and France.

Following the disaster, Indonesia has reassigned some airport and air traffic control officials who allowed the flight to take off, and has tightened rules on pre-flight procedures.

The authorities in Jakarta have also suspended all AirAsia flights between Surabaya and Singapore - the route where the plane went missing - after it emerged the aircraft had not been authorised to fly on the day it came down.

The budget airline was not permitted to make the journey on Sundays, although the transport ministry said this had no bearing on the accident.

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Written By Unknown on Selasa, 06 Januari 2015 | 15.00

Accident and emergency departments in England have fallen to a new low for waiting times over the festive period, figures are expected to reveal later.

Already this winter has seen waiting times in A&E departments hit record levels, with many hospitals failing to meet the target of dealing with 95% of patients within four hours.

The latest figures, which cover October to December, are expected to be the worst since this target was introduced a decade ago.

Once all beds are full, ambulance queues build up outside departments with patients waiting on trolleys for extended periods of time before they are seen by doctors.

The new figures are to be released by NHS England as emergency units up and down the country struggle to deal with a surge in demand.

The University Hospitals of North Midlands, which operates in Staffordshire, has declared a major incident because of unprecedented demand for healthcare services.

It follows a similar decision by Scarborough Hospital in North Yorkshire, and hospitals in Cheltenham and Gloucester which have also activated major incident plans.

Last month, Sir Bruce Keogh, the medical director of the NHS in England, admitted accident and emergency departments were under pressure.

"The system is creaking, it is under pressure at the moment," he said.

"A&Es are having to address increasing demand, the ambulance services are struggling in many parts of the country and we have a number of issues to deal with, which we are tackling."

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In The Margins: Crucial Election Battlegrounds

Written By Unknown on Senin, 05 Januari 2015 | 15.00

Sky's Joey Jones is travelling the country looking at the issues that matter to voters in some of the marginal constituencies.

Here he focuses on 11 of the 150 seats that could play a deciding role in May's General Election.

:: Glasgow East

Scotland feels like uncharted territory politically at the moment. The polls are suggesting an unprecedented SNP breakthrough, and a cataclysmic result for Labour.

I went to Glasgow East because people in this constituency have a history of voting SNP (the nationalists won a by-election in 2008), but Labour beat them back with a thumping win in 2010 and defeat would seem, based on previous wisdom, to be unthinkable.

Read Faisal Islam's exclusive interview with Lord O'Donnell here

The constituency is not uniform tower blocks and concrete by any means, but Easterhouse, where I spoke to people, is the sort of area you would traditionally expect people to vote Labour or not vote at all.

The conversations I had reflected an electorate that is definitely thinking of switching to the SNP mainly because of disenchantment with Labour.

Perhaps most worryingly for Ed Miliband and Jim Murphy, there was not much of a sense among local people that a vote either way would make a massive difference to their lives. The key task for the new Labour leader in Scotland is to reverse that perception.

:: Sutton and Cheam

Sutton and Cheam is a traditionally Conservative seat that has been held by Paul Burstow of the Liberal Democrats since 1997.

At every election since then it has been in the Conservatives' sights. It was one of the seats I travelled to with David Cameron during the 2010 campaign, and at that time the Tories felt reasonably confident of success.

Based on the Liberal Democrats' collapse in support in the current parliament, one might imagine that in 2015 the seat would finally fall.

But Lord Ashcroft's most recent polling shows a swing of 7% from the Conservatives to the Lib Dems, a barely believable situation given the Lib Dems' current predicament.

We often talk about how the Lib Dems manage to "dig in" in seats like this, and I wanted to ask local people what that actually means from their point of view. When we talk of the effect of incumbency, what does that mean for voters?

What came through is that a concentration on local issues, a lot of hard work, and the ability to forge what feels to voters a personal connection creates a bond that even a collapse in national support for the Liberal Democrats may not erode significantly.

But to be honest, if it were as simple as that then a lot more hardworking MPs might manage to withstand national trends than do. It's as though there's a sort of alchemy at play that frankly I have yet to put my finger on.

:: Brighton Pavilion

The impact of the Green Party in May 2015 may be felt more in seats other than Brighton, their initial beachhead.

It would definitely be a blow for Labour if they fail to retake the seat Caroline Lucas won in 2010, but the real fear in Labour HQ is that the Greens may have the sort of effect on Labour that we always used to assume UKIP would have on the Tories - sucking away enough of the voters they had imagined would support them and thereby handing their opponents victory.

I went to Brighton itself because I wanted to know how people who have had experience of Green politicians in power (the Greens are also in the majority on the council) would advise voters elsewhere who are now considering voting Green.

There has been a lot of talk that council incompetence and mismanagement has created a backlash against the Greens. I specifically sought out people who had voted Green to see if there is any sense of disenchantment, and found none. Every individual I spoke to said they would vote Green again.

Not so long ago the idea the Greens could be a significant factor in the election could have been readily dismissed, but given the unprecedented support for UKIP and the SNP and the volatility of the current situation, nothing should be ruled out.

Click here for Sky's In The Margins console

:: Southampton Itchen

Southampton Itchen was a close-run thing for Labour in 2010.

The long-serving MP John Denham won by less than 200 votes. Now he is standing down, and Labour's vulnerability in the south of England as demonstrated in local elections gives the Tories grounds for hope. It is a must-hold seat for Labour - the party cannot afford to be losing seats at all.

If Ed Miliband is to become Prime Minister, they need to be winning new seats, not worrying about shoring up ground they already hold.

I went to the broadly working class Thornhill Estate to see what people think of Mr Miliband (not much, it seems), and how resilient support for the party is.

The news for Labour was bad. There is a real flirtation with UKIP going on here, but it could have been worse. There was no great enthusiasm for the Conservatives either. In short, Labour should be worried, but not panicked.

:: Hendon

The Tories hold Hendon by 100 votes. It is the sort of seat Labour have to win, and probably will.

A couple of things interested me here. There has been a lot of talk about the Conservatives' difficulties in attracting black and ethnic minority voters.

Hendon is an ethnically diverse seat and I asked people who were black or from another ethnic minority whether they would ever consider voting Tory.

Every person I spoke to said no, almost in a heartbeat. The only good news for CCHQ is that when I asked why they would not, the answers were generally unspecific - there was a lot of "I just wouldn't".

That suggests that if people could be jolted into having a second look at the party, there is room for progress - Boris Johnson managed this, and won votes in this very area in the mayoral election that his party failed to match in the London assembly elections.

It doesn't look like anything along those lines will happen in 2015 though, which leaves the sitting Conservative MP Matthew Offord with a mountain to climb.

:: Watford

Watford looks like it will be a nail-biter right to the wire.

All three main parties are in with a shout (and UKIP are not way behind either).

This was the only seat where I chose to speak to candidates, as I was interested in how such an unpredictable campaign might play out.

Much of what the three candidates said was very familiar: Labour talking cost of living; the Tories on the economy; and Lib Dems on their local record (their candidate, the mayor, pointed out that the Liberal Democrats had jumped in the most recent Lord Ashcroft polling, subsequent to her candidacy being announced).

My suspicion based on speaking to voters all over the UK is that the excitement of the Westminster class at such a close race will not be matched by similar enthusiasm among voters.

Generally people are very grumpy about mainstream politicians, and there is every chance that the parties will feel obliged to try to play on that disenchantment and channel it to their own purposes - whatever the candidates' best efforts to avoid negative campaigning, the current political environment dictates that knocking chunks off one's Westminster opponents is not just tempting, it is an imperative.

:: Birmingham Edgbaston

Incumbency is the word that gives hope to MPs who are fearful of being swept away in this most turbulent of political environments.

It suggests there is an elusive quality that can allow sitting MPs to hold back apparently irresistible forces.

Gisela Stuart is a case in point, having beaten off the Tory challenge in Birmingham Edgbaston time and again since 1997. Politicians of all parties view her as an example of how one individual's force of personality can overcome the odds - so much so that you would be hard pressed now to find a political commentator optimistic she will be beaten in 2015 even in what demographics would suggest should be a pretty straightforward Conservative seat.

I met her during the usual flurry of Friday (constituency day) engagements and she explained how a successful MP will want to mould hard work into a more enduring project. If they don't, she warns, the voters will be unforgiving.

:: Cardiff North

The rise of UKIP, unprecedented SNP support and the growing confidence of the Green party make many more seats far harder to call in the past, but straight Labour/Tory marginals like Cardiff North will still point the way to Downing Street for either Ed Miliband or David Cameron.

Neither man will have a significant chance of forging a Commons majority if their party is not winning bellwether seats like this.

I was interested to see how national issues are playing out at the local level. On the NHS Mr Cameron is caustic about the Welsh Labour government's handling of the NHS - talking to people heading into Heath hospital, that approach did not seem to be doing him any favours.

A good number of the people I spoke to were public sector workers who might not be inclined to vote Tory anyway, but it was notable that the PM had really got their backs up. Senior Tories in Wales have told me they fear the aggressive language directed at the Welsh NHS might be counterproductive, and that seemed to be borne out by the people I spoke to.

On another issue, public spending cuts, the picture is much more mixed. Everybody I met outside Whitchurch Library wanted to talk about its possible closure, the result of financial pressures. But blame was not apportioned by local people only one way by any means.

Some blamed the government, but there was just as much criticism for the Labour council, and a feeling that belt-tightening was unavoidable. The closure of much-loved local services might normally be expected to offer an opposition party an easy win - not so in this case at least.

:: Taunton Deane

If David Cameron is to become Prime Minister, he needs to profit from the collapse in Lib Dem support and that means winning seats like Taunton Deane. In October 2014 his task got easier when the sitting MP Jeremy Browne said he was standing down.

To get a sense of what a blow his departure is for the Liberal Democrats, you only have to speak to people on the street. The level of recognition for the MP was, in my opinion, fairly remarkable. A significant majority of the people I spoke to knew their MP by name. Given that half the time when we go out on the street with pictures of the party leaders and encounter blank faces all round, this represents sterling work by the Lib Dem incumbent.

All in all, with a very slim majority, you would have to put your money on the Tories here now, but I would say that the people of Taunton seemed remarkably politically engaged. I suspect any candidate that expects them to fall into his or her lap will have another thing coming. They will need wooing!

:: Exeter

Change is a big underlying theme of this election, and it is the reason I went to Exeter. One of the big drivers of UKIP success is people's resistance to change - particularly when it comes to immigration, but also things like insecurity in work, global forces that seem to have little connection to people's lives and in some cases a longing to go back to a time when things felt more straightforward.

Exeter has changed a lot. Every time I go back to see my family I see more building, more people, more cars on the road. Some streets that I remember as thriving shopping centres are deserted; others are bursting with activity.

My assumption was that local people might feel uncomfortable with change but - I hold my hands up - my conversations suggest I was wrong.

In this boom town, most people seem to feel that they have an investment in the city's success. From people on the street to business owners, the overall mood was of unaccustomed optimism compared with what I encountered in other parts of the country.

There was the odd grumble and gripe, but if bad traffic is the worst people have to complain about, there is not all that much traction for UKIP to work with. The only other potential complicating factor is if the Greens come into play.

Broadly, though, the chances are that Exeter will remain a Labour/Tory fight - and given boundary changes have broadly helped the Labour incumbent, the task is a difficult one for the Conservatives.

:: Great Grimsby

Great Grimsby shows the protean nature of the UKIP threat. Not so long ago - honestly, it was not that long - conventional wisdom was that UKIP was a gift for Labour because it sucked votes from the Tories, allowing them to win seats where they might otherwise have struggled.

Now in Grimsby UKIP is damaging the Tories all right, but what was not in the script is that the party has Labour in its sights, and a serious chance of winning.

The picture is fascinating. Lord Ashcroft's constituency polling shows Labour's share of the vote has increased. You have to assume Labour has lost some support to UKIP.

So right now they are relying on the Lib Dems turning to Labour en masse, but that is a finite resource. If the UKIP charge continues, Labour will need some former Tories to support them as well to win.

What was undoubtedly the case when I spoke to local people is that Labour's grip on its core vote has waned. I suspect this is an ongoing process, and the danger for Labour is that casting around for Lib Dem defectors (or anyone else for that matter), may only corrode faith in the party's ability to protect its core values still further.

A word about vox pops from Joey Jones:

"Vox pops" - short for vox populi, or "voice of the people" - tend to be viewed as the lowest of the low in broadcasting, the lazy option, twisting people's views to fit the ends of a journalist who asks only as many individuals as it takes to get the answer he or she wanted from the outset.

I can understand why that perception has set in, and have not been immune to it myself in recent years, but in 2014/15 I am renewing my vows - I have fallen back in love with the vox pop as an essential way of getting to grips with this most compelling of elections.

There is no polling value to vox pops; I make no claim they are scientific - I don't attempt to seek out a "representative sample". However, at the same time, I don't go to any of these constituencies with a definite preconception as to what people will say (with one exception - Exeter - and there my perception based on having been brought up in the city turned out to be wrong!). When it comes to people's views I take as I find and endeavour to present them fairly.

The vox pops in these reports should be viewed as nothing more nor less than conversations with voters. Talking to voters is what we journalists should be doing a lot of - possibly all the time, but certainly in a campaign where people are searching for alternatives to the usual political parties and the rule book is being thrown out.

There is no better way to get a feel for what is so different about this election than getting away from Westminster and asking people what they think.

:: Follow Joey Jones' journey to more of the country's marginal constituencies throughout the day on Sky News, skynews.com and our mobile apps - channels Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 132.

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Election 'Winner' May Not Get Keys To No 10

By Faisal Islam, Political Editor

Britain's next Prime Minister might not be the leader of the party which wins the most seats at the General Election, Britain's former top civil servant has told Sky News.

Lord O'Donnell, who as Cabinet Secretary arranged the negotiations that led to the current Coalition, says that voters should not necessarily expect the 'winner' of the election to lead coalition talks.

And the process this time round could be so complicated - potentially involving a deal with three parties - that it may take "rather longer" than the five days the last agreement took.

:: Click here for the In The Margins console

In an exclusive interview, Lord O'Donnell denied that there would be "political chaos" but said that there could be "an unusual outcome" to the election.

"When the result comes out, some people think that x gets first go," he said.

"There isn't a written constitutional requirement that the party with the most seats go first.

"It's up to the parties to negotiate."

Lord O'Donnell was speaking as Sky News launched its multi-media project In The Margins, in which we will focus on the 150 marginal constituencies that could decide the outcome of the election in May.

When asked if voters should expect the leader of the largest party to be Prime Minister, he said: "There's no constitutional requirement for that to happen, so it could well be that we do have a situation where the Prime Minister is leader of a party which has fewer seats than one of the others."

The former top civil servant says that such outcomes were the "inevitable consequence" of voters not concentrating their vote on the two main parties.

"It's a more complex world... People should be ready for the fact that it might take rather longer to form a government than the five days last time."

Negotiations of the formation of a Government in May could lead to much looser agreements between parties, simultaneous negotiations, and more "agreements to disagree" warned Lord O'Donnell.

In 2015, the fixed term parliament, pre-election media scrutiny of 'red lines', the requirement of party leaders to get the backing of backbenchers and the lack of a market crisis, might all require "patience".

"It may be a rather more complicated situation: an agreement with two parties and a side deal with SNP on a case by case basis ... When I look back on [2010] I think I had it easy."

The Cabinet Manual, published in 2011, did not have any reference to the so-called Clegg rule. In 2010 the Lib Dem leader decided that first negotiations should occur with the strongest party in the House of Commons.

:: Follow Sky News presenters and correspondents through the day as we launch In The Margins - examining 150 key seats across the country that could help decide the election. Watch live on Sky News, skynews.com and our mobile apps - channels Sky 501, Virgin Media 602, Freesat 202, Freeview 132.

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Crew Rescued After Car Carrier Runs Aground

Written By Unknown on Minggu, 04 Januari 2015 | 15.00

Lifeboats and a coastguard helicopter have rescued all 25 crew from the water and on board a car carrier which became grounded off the Isle of Wight.

The Hoegh Osaka got into difficulty at Bramble Bank in the central Solent at around 9.20pm on Saturday and began listing.

National Maritime Operations Centre commander Steve Carson said: "All of the crew have been accounted for and other than a couple of non life-threatening injuries, everyone is safe and well."

HM Maritime and Coastguard Agency said the search and rescue mission was co-ordinated by the National Maritime Operations Centre at Fareham.

It said three crew members who remained on board the cargo ship to assist with salvage operations have also been airlifted off the vessel.

Four RNLI lifeboats from Calshot, Cowes and Yarmouth were involved in the rescue mission alongside the Solent Coastguard Helicopter, Southampton Patrol and four tug boats, two from Esso and two from Southampton Docks.

Maritime operations controller Andy Jenkins told Sky News this morning that the rescue was "not straight-forward by any means".

He added: "Due to the difficulty with the vessel in terms of the list, it was a difficult operation to achieve."

Lucy Morgan, a reporter at Isle of Wight Radio, said the 180-metre vessel is currently beached about three-quarters of the way from the Isle of Wight to the mainland.

She told Sky News: "What we understand happened is that it ran aground at Bramble Bank. At low tide it becomes so low that at some times of the year people actually play cricket on Bramble Bank, and it seems to have become stuck in the middle of the Solent where it is now listing very badly to its starboard side.

"This is the part of the Solent where Cowes Week runs... where a lot of boating takes place, so to see a cargo ship as big as this in this situation is extremely rare and very unusual."

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Gallery: Ship Beached In The Solent

The car carrier ship became grounded on Bramble Bank in the Solent at around 9.20pm on Saturday and is listing at 45 degrees. Pic: Andy Merrill

Twenty-five crew were rescued by a coastguard helicopter and lifeboats. Pic: Jamie Griffin/M & Y News Agency, Portsmouth

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Fears For Eight As Vessel Overturns Off Scotland

The air and sea search for the crew of a cargo ship which overturned has resumed.

A major rescue operation was launched yesterday after the upturned hull of the Cypriot-registered Cemfjord was spotted off the north coast of Scotland.

German firm Brise of Hamburg confirmed there were eight people on board, seven Poles and one Filipino, and none have been found so far. There was no distress call from the ship, according to the company.

Two search and rescue helicopters, four lifeboats and other vessels have been involved in the operation in the Pentland Firth, between Orkney and John O'Groats.

A spokesman for the shipping company said: "No distress call was received from the vessel. Bad weather prevailed in the area at the time and conditions remain difficult at the scene, with storm force winds.

"The upturned hull of Cemfjord was seen by a local ferry and, in response, Shetland Coastguard mounted a major search and rescue operation."

The overnight search was limited to passing vessels, with the tug Herakles remaining on the scene to illuminate the area and warn passing shipping.

Shetland Coastguard was alerted by the NorthLink ferry Hrossey which had spotted the vessel around 10 miles east of the Pentland Skerries, about 15 miles from Wick.

The 83-metre bulk cement carrier had been bound for Runcorn, Cheshire, on the west coast of the UK. She was carrying 2,000 tons of cement.

The RNLI tweeted: "Our thoughts are with the crew of the upturned cargo ship, their family, friends and all those involved in today's search operation."

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