He is expected to be transferred to Devon and Cornwall police custody today to be questioned about the original confrontation.The spokesman said the boy’s mother was not involved at the start of the incident and did not alert police to the custody argument.June Brownridge, the owner of the Seaview caravan park in Sennen, Cornwall, where the hostage drama began, said the man had been “perfectly calm and friendly” during a two-week stay at the site.”We saw him walking around with his son. He told me he worked in the Bahamas renting out property and was looking for a base in Cornwall as he loved this part of this country.”He said he would be moving down with his wife and son from the north of the country,” she said “He seemed like a very nice and pleasant chap.”. They are the unofficial and unwilling opposition. Britain’s aid agencies have become the most vociferous opponents of the bombing of Afghanistan

They are the unofficial and unwilling opposition. Britain’s aid agencies have become the most vociferous opponents of the bombing of Afghanistan.
And in return, they have been attacked by the Government and accused of exaggerating the scale of the humanitarian disaster to help to raise funds.Despite being barred by the charity laws from taking up an overtly political stance, they stand accused of employing the spin doctors’ dark arts to pursue an anti-war agenda. As millions are threatened with starvation, aid agencies face accusations of being “emotional” for contradicting official pronouncements on aid delivery into Afghanistan.”We’re conscious that we’re forced to be more political,” said Fiona Fox, a spokeswoman for Cafod, one of the charities that is calling for a pause in the bombing.

Because Third World governments are often weaker than large charities, the latter are “inadvertently pushed into being political.”Cafod doesn’t want this,” she said “At the moment, we feel we’re on the side of the angels. But if we’re associated with being political and using it politically, it will not be good in the long run.”When Tony Blair sought to justify the bombings last week, the World Food Programme (WFP) rejected his claims that the Taliban were severely disrupting food supplies. Clare Short, the Secretary of State for International Development, then provoked fury in some circles by dismissing the charities as publicity-seekers.”There are some agencies who quite frankly want to raise money in their own countries and therefore want to be in the news,” she said.Political consensus reigns in Westminster, with the military policy supported overwhelmingly by MPs, forcing charities into the role of being the main opponents to the bombing campaign. Aid workers have assumed higher profiles as they try to spread the humanitarian message.Christian Aid has been at the forefront of the campaign, calling for a pause in the air strikes while the humanitarian crisis worsens.The WFP has raised its estimate of the number of Afghans who desperately need food from 5 million to 7.5 million after the 11 September attacks.

It said it aimed to move in 52,000 tons of food during the next month to counter the effects of the harsh winter.Dominic Nutt, a spokesman for Christian Aid, was in Afghanistan for five weeks before the suicide hijackings, preparing for an appeal to counter the drought in the region “We’ve got people living here on the ground. It’s been up to us to raise even a question mark over the Government’s policy,” he said.Mary Robinson, the UN Commissioner for Human Rights, was the first to call for a pause to allow for a safe passage of aid.Senior Christian Aid staff, who had been meeting every morning under their international director, Roger Riddell, a former chief economist for the Confederation of Zimbabwe Industries, decided to back her call. They were joined by five other big aid agencies, including Cafod and Oxfam.The charities said the bombing made it impossible to deliver the huge amounts of food needed. Afghan truck drivers were refusing to take the aid and only a fraction of the food needed was getting through. The consequences of failing to deliver aid were underlined last week when Christian Aid received its first reports of deaths from famine in the north of the country.But the Government insists that the Taliban are the primary cause of the humanitarian crisis and the main obstacle to getting in aid.John Davison, of Christian Aid, said: “To be attacked in the way we have is disappointing. To be accused by New Labour minister of spinning the story is unbelievable.”The suggestion that we are doing it for the money, that we are ramping up the status of the crisis in order to get more funds ­ a suggestion which has been made ­ shows great ignorance or dishonesty.”I don’t know if Clare Short has got any people in Afghanistan telling her what’s going on, but we have.”Oxfam, which has 120 local staff in Afghanistan and is in constant contact with other aid workers in Pakistan, also criticised the Government’s approach.Barbara Stocking, who joined the charity as a director in May after serving as an NHS director for the southeast region, backed the decision to call for a pause in the attacks.Helen Palmer, an Oxfam spokeswoman, said: “Clare Short’s approach was very unhelpful She was implying that we make it up as we go along.”.

Stephen Byers is facing a revolt by train operating companies over the appointment of a Virgin Trains executive as the new chairman of the Government’s Strategic Rail Authority. Stephen Byers is facing a revolt by train operating companies over the appointment of a Virgin Trains executive as the new chairman of the Government’s Strategic Rail Authority.The Secretary of State for Transport is expected to confirm this week that Richard Bowker, co-chairman of Virgin Trains, will succeed Sir Alastair Morton as the most powerful figure in the rail industry at the end of the year.Mr Bowker, who is only 35, has been asked three times to take on the £500,000-a-year SRA job. He finally agreed after being approached directly by Mr Byers 10 days ago.His appointment is likely to provoke protest among rival train operators that had assumed the job would go to a civil servant and now fear Mr Bowker will show favouritism to Virgin. One of the other candidates was the head of procurement for the Ministry of Defence, Sir Robert Walmsley, who is said to be close to the Transport minister John Spellar.

Another businessman linked with the job, Ian McAllister, Ford of Britain chairman, ruled himself out at the weekend.A rail industry source who knows Mr Bowker well said: “He is the best man for the job and his understanding of the rail industry is second to none. I think the industry will welcome him with open arms.”But another said: “I think this appointment will cause apoplexy among some other train operators. His first task will be to renegotiate the west coast main line upgrade with Virgin and you can just imagine how other users of the line will react. Then there is the east coast main line which Virgin is bidding for in competition with GNER.”. Two young girls were injured last night when a blast bomb was thrown during fresh sectarian clashes in north Belfast. Two young girls were injured last night when a blast bomb was thrown during fresh sectarian clashes in north Belfast.
The girls, aged eight and 11, were taken to hospital after the device was thrown from the loyalist side.