Special reports	Defence	London bombings	Hutton inquiry

Selection
BLACK WATCH COMMANDER: HOW THE MOD LET US DOWN IN IRAQ   BLACK Watch troops were sent into battle in Iraq without the equipment they would have needed to survive had Saddam Hussein decided to use chemical or biological weapons against them.	2,200 casualties: the true cost of UK's war in Iraq   THE true scale of British casualties in Iraq is revealed today after the Ministry of Defence confirmed that more than 2,200 injured British military personnel have been flown home from the Gulf since the start of the campaign. With the security situation in Iraq deteriorating, The Scotsman has learned that British forces are suffering about 50 combat injuries every month, and attacks on troops are taking place daily. (April 2004)	Andrey told us, 'That's where my grandmother tried to sell my organs'   ANDREY should be dead, and he knows it. Ask Andrey what was meant to happen to him and he will gesture at his legs, making a cutting motion. He mimes a knife slicing open his chest and his heart being pulled out, and then he draws his finger across his throat.
REVEALED: HOW MOD BLUNDER KILLED SCOTTISH SOLDIER IN IRAQ   THE first Scottish soldier to die in Iraq was killed after his aging vehicle broke down just days into the campaign, The Scotsman can disclose. Lance Corporal Barry Stephen was killed in an ambush as he and his colleagues attempted to rejoin the Black Watch mortar platoon in a heavily defended compound after going for repairs on their broken-down FV432 armoured personnel carrier.	Killer was able to stay but Darfur doctor faces deportation   A SUDANESE doctor who fled Darfur to escape the genocide has been refused asylum in the UK and told he must return to his home country, despite threats to his life and Britain's acceptance that black Africans in the region are victims of war crimes. The case of Dr Musa Saadeldin - who was detained and tortured by Sudanese security police - exposes the chaos in Britain's asylum system that was exploited by the convicted ricin plotter Kamel Bourgass.	Why hero who lost limbs is not on minister's list of Iraq war injured   A soldier awarded the George Cross after he lost an arm and a leg in a bomb blast in Iraq has not been counted as injured by the Ministry of Defence - because he was treated by American medics.
Tony Blair admits Darfur is a tragedy. So why is he sending this gang-rape victim back to her attackers?   The Home Office is at the centre of a fresh row over its handling of asylum applications after it emerged that hundreds of people who have fled the slaughter in the Darfur region of Sudan have been told by officials that it is safe to return to their homes.	The sisters who took on the IRA and won   THE men's toilet in Magennis's bar in central Belfast is not a large room. There is a small sink to the right of the door on the way in, a single stall to the rear of the room containing a WC, and a stainless steel trough on the same wall as the sink, with room for two people. There are a couple of adverts on the wall above the trough; below it is the obligatory puddle of urine on the floor. In the chipped brown varnish on the back of the door, the initials PIRA - standing for Provisional Irish Republican Army - have been scratched.	'Every step has been with divine help'   IT WAS the greatest slaughter of the First World War; an assault so bloody that Britain suffered 60,000 casualties in the first day, including 20,000 dead; an assault intended to turn the course of the war but which eventually ground to a halt six months later with just five miles of ground taken. The first Battle of the Somme left historians split on the legacy of Earl Haig, who, as General Douglas Haig, oversaw the ill-fated campaign. Now, personal letters written to his wife on the eve of the battle offer a fascinating insight into the mind of the most controversial British officer of the 20th century.
Quango kings and queens who profit as 'bonfire' threat turns into a damp squib British arms dealer defends attempts to supply Sudan Greer's message to the PM: 'Stop acting like a gorilla and leave Cherie alone' UK injury toll in Iraq 'probably 600'	Mystery over MoD claims of 'friendly fire' billions Tax ruling could save UK drinkers billions Revealed: the face of the rich recluse masterminding Britain's New party	The day Lord West's ship went down Hain to move against UVF over role in riots Attack on brigadier damaged marines' morale

National events
The passing of another age   As the Queen Mother's coffin emerged into the fading light of a spring afternoon in Windsor, borne by six pallbearers and draped in her own Royal Standard, it was not just the demise of a remarkable woman which the nation mourned, but the passing of another age.	Four bombs in 56 minutes that brought terror to London   TERRORISTS struck at the heart of London yesterday, detonating a series of bombs in a long-threatened attack which killed dozens of people and injured hundreds more. There was no warning before the four bombs exploded, hitting three packed Underground trains and a double decker bus within the space of an hour that forced Britain to confront the menace of al-Qaeda terror.	As the casualty list mounts, the stage is set for the 'dark actors'   DAVID Kelly's last e-mail spoke of "many dark actors playing games". The Hutton Inquiry has begun to shed light on the identity of those actors and the games they played. After just four days of evidence, the cast already includes the Prime Minister, the Defence Secretary and one of Britain's most senior intelligence figures. Alastair Campbell would not have written this script.
The senseless murder of a smiling schoolboy that shamed a nation   SKIPPING from stone to stone in his silver jacket, Damilola Taylor appeared to be a boy lost in a happy world. With his arms stretched out to aid his balance, he was playing some sort of private game, the rules known only to him. Then, there he was there again, running through a nearby square, and again, this time walking, outside Peckham library. The last time we saw him he was alone, waiting in a lift, apparently smiling.	Doubts grow over truth behind army pictures   THE pictures were genuinely shocking: a British soldier urinating on a hooded Iraqi captive, another picture of a rifle butt smashing into the man's groin, another of a kick aimed at his head. For the Daily Mirror, a paper that had made a virtue of its anti-war stance, they seemed almost too good to be true. Yesterday, it seemed they that they really could be too good to be true.	Gone - but not forgiven   MOORS murderer Myra Hindley died yesterday, just weeks before a legal challenge in the House of Lords was expected to pave the way for her to walk free from jail after 36 years behind bars. For much of that time in captivity, the woman whose name had become synonymous with evil fought for the right to end her days outwith the walls of a prison. Yesterday, her wish was finally granted, but it was too late for the killer with the blood of at least five children on her hands to enjoy that freedom.
Brown under attack for troop deaths and Iraq exit	UN accuses Galloway and the Weir Group

Copyright ©2006 Gethin Chamberlain. All rights reserved.