Police watchdog 'under-equipped'

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:04 ET

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Dame Anne Owers: 'We have to look at the resources we need to be available to provide confidence to the public'

The police watchdog for England and Wales is overwhelmed, woefully under-equipped and failing to get to the truth of allegations, MPs have said.

The Independent Police Complaints Commission needs more resources and powers, the Home Affairs Select Committee report said.

IPCC chairwoman Dame Anne Owers welcomed the report, saying the body was struggling to meet expectations.

One in four officers faced complaints between 2011 and 2012.

About 30,000 officers had faced complaints, which were mostly trivial and dealt with at a local level, committee chairman Keith Vaz, told BBC Radio 4's Today programme.

"What we would like to see is the IPCC concentrate on the really serious issues. When they have dealt with serious corruption cases, 45% of the corruption cases they have investigated have ended up with the Crown Prosecution Service," he said.

The report comes as the IPCC prepares for its biggest investigation, into the aftermath of the Hillsborough disaster in 1989.

'Not yet capable'

In a scathing report, MPs said the IPCC was overloaded with appeals. Serious police corruption cases were being under-investigated while resources went on less serious complaints.

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Keith Vaz MP: "What the public have said to us is that they've not had justice"

"Police officers are warranted with powers that can strip people of their liberty, their money and even their lives and it is vital that the public have confidence that those powers are not abused," said the MPs.

"We conclude that the Independent Police Complaints Commission is not yet capable of delivering the kind of powerful, objective scrutiny that is needed to inspire that confidence."

MPs said the IPCC had too many former officers among its investigators and delegated too many complaints to the forces to investigate themselves, only to overturn the conclusions in a third of appeals.

The body also lacked specialists capable of analysing crime scenes in the critical hours after an incident involving the police, they said.

"Compared with the might of the 43 police forces in England and Wales, the IPCC is woefully under-equipped and hamstrung in achieving its original objectives," said the MPs, adding that it was smaller than Scotland Yard's own internal investigations team.

'Plebgate'

The MPs say the government should provide ring-fenced funding for investigations affecting police integrity.

They also said the IPCC should be investigating the Downing Street "plebgate" affair involving police and then-Cabinet minister Andrew Mitchell.

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IPCC

• Established in 2004 after its predecessor criticised in the Stephen Lawrence inquiry
• Aims to increase public confidence in the police complaints system
• Police forces deal with the vast majority of complaints and IPCC investigates the most serious
• Considers appeals from people who are not satisfied with force response to a complaint
• Also investigates the Serious Organised Crime Agency, Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs and the UK Border Agency

Dame Anne said the fact the Metropolitan Police had assigned 30 of its officers to that investigation - the equivalent of a third of her whole investigative capacity - illustrated "the choices we have to make every day".

The report said the IPCC needed to be able able to interview officers under caution.

And private firms - like G4S, Capita, Mitie and Serco - involved in delivering services that would once have fallen solely to the police should fall under the IPCC's watch.

The IPCC is preparing to investigate allegations that police officers were involved in a cover-up of failings following the 96 deaths at the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy.

Parliament has passed legislation to give the body more powers for the massive inquiry and ministers are guaranteeing funding for extra investigators currently being recruited.

Dame Anne said told BBC Radio 4's Today programme: "I think there's quite a lot of validation in the report, but what the committee says, and what we have been saying ourselves, we can't do enough independent investigations, we can't exercise sufficiently rigorous oversight about the way that police deal with complaints.

"We cannot do the job the public expect us to be able to do and if we are to do that job then we need to be properly resourced to do it and given the proper powers to do it."

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Chief Constable Michael Cunningham: "It's in the interest of the police service that the IPCC is properly resourced"

Chief Constable Michael Cunningham, of the Association of Chief Police Officers, said the police service was keen to work with the IPCC to improve its response to police complaints, in particular to achieve speedier outcomes.

But he said developing the role of the IPCC must also not mean the police service outsourced its own responsibility to manage complaints.

"Serious allegations of misconduct must be rigorously investigated, in many other less serious cases the police service itself is the body best placed to identify and put right mistakes, learn necessary lessons and rebuild public trust," he said.

A Home Office spokesman said: "Improving police professionalism and integrity are at the cornerstone of the sweeping reforms we are making to the police force, and the IPCC has a key role to play.

"We are already working to ensure the organisation has the powers and resources it needs to manage the challenges it is currently facing and we will shortly announce a package of new measures designed to further improve the public's trust in the police."

Recorded allegations against police personnel, 2011-12
Police force	Recorded allegations	Allegations per 1,000 personnel
A complaint case may have one or more allegations attached. For example, a person may allege that a police officer pushed them and was rude to them. This would be recorded as two separate allegations forming one complaint case. Source: IPCC.
Avon and Somerset	1,446	243
Bedfordshire	435	181
British Transport Police	767	171
Cambridgeshire	828	305
Cheshire	719	174
City of London	200	149
Cleveland	854	378
Cumbria	282	128
Derbyshire	1,061	284
Devon and Cornwall	1,648	258
Dorset	644	219
Durham	498	198
Dyfed Powys Police	649	309
Essex	1,563	236
Gloucestershire	570	244
Greater Manchester	2,041	156
Gwent	578	222
Hampshire	1,647	249
Hertfordshire	743	175
Humberside	905	216
Kent	1,103	162
Lancashire	1,471	240
Leicestershire	780	203
Lincolnshire	766	316
Merseyside	1,860	253
Metropolitan	12,255	220
Norfolk	740	234
North Wales	514	184
North Yorkshire	908	318
Northamptonshire	492	176
Northumbria	1,416	209
Nottinghamshire	804	181
South Wales	1,041	194
South Yorkshire	786	138
Staffordshire	618	153
Suffolk	474	179
Surrey	1,150	253
Sussex	1,028	180
Thames Valley	1,850	216
Warwickshire	469	233
West Mercia	964	217
West Midlands	2,808	220
West Yorkshire	1,662	166
Wiltshire	614	250
Total	54,651	213

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Search for Mexico blast survivors

1 February 2013 Last updated at 06:05 ET

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The BBC's Will Grant said the blast happened "at the worst possible moment"

Rescuers have been working overnight to find survivors trapped after a deadly blast at the Mexico City headquarters of the state oil company, Pemex.

Some 500 rescuers helped by dogs are searching the building for a number of people thought to be trapped by a blast that killed 25 people and injured 100.

Relatives of employees have gathered in search of information - some trying to reach loved ones via mobile phone.

The cause of the blast is under investigation, Pemex says.

'Full weight of the law'

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At the scene

Will Grant BBC News, Mexico City

---

The Pemex building in the north of Mexico City is surrounded by large numbers of federal police and paramedics. Sniffer dogs are being used to look for people trapped under the rubble.

Mexico City is used to earthquakes, and the emergency services seem well prepared for this type of disaster.

The skyscraper withstood the blast too, with most of the damage confined to the ground and first floors. But night has set in now in the Mexican capital, further complicating the search.

Some family members of missing workers are gathered outside the Pemex building for news of their loved ones, while others have travelled directly to the hospitals.

The authorities and paramedic teams are releasing information at regular intervals but the exact cause of the blast may still take some time to be confirmed. This is now by far the worst explosion in Mexico City for almost 30 years.

Thursday afternoon's explosion in the lower floors of a building adjoining the 54-storey Pemex skyscraper happened as shifts were changing, making the area particularly crowded.

Debris from the blast spread out on to the street in front of the building.

Red Cross ambulances and helicopters were shuttling the injured to hospital, while firefighters and soldiers dug through chunks of concrete with a crane to reach trapped survivors.

One distraught relative, Ana Vargas Palacio, told Associated Press she had spoken to her husband, who works in the building, two hours before the blast.

"I called his phone many times, but a young man answered and told me he found the phone in the debris," Ms Vargas said.

Police cordoned off the streets around the building, which is located in a busy commercial area of Mexico City.

Rescuer German Vazquez Garcia told AP there was "a lot of risk" involved in the search.

President Enrique Pena Nieto and Mexico City Mayor Miguel Angel Mancera, who visited the scene of the blast, said Pemex rescue and security teams were working alongside city authorities to help the injured.

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Pemex

• Pemex was created in 1938 when the oil industry was nationalised
• Employs some 150,000 people and accounts for around 37% of Mexico's government income
• Pemexgate - when money from Pemex's union was diverted to the presidential campaign of the ruling party, the PRI - resulted in the party being fined around $90m (£60m) in 2003
• Pemex is responsible for the largest peacetime oil spill in history in the Gulf of Mexico after an explosion in the Gulf of Mexico in 1979

Mr Pena Nieto said: "We have no conclusive report on the reason [for the blast]. We will work to get to the bottom of the investigation to find out, first, what happened, and if there are people responsible in this case, that we apply the full weight of the law against them."

The BBC's Will Grant, at the scene, says this is the biggest explosion to hit Mexico City for 30 years.

Pemex says its operations will continue to run normally - and commercial and financial obligations will continue to be met - despite the blast.

The company has experienced a number of fatal accidents in recent years.

Last September, 30 people died in an explosion at a Pemex gas plant in northern Mexico, thought to have been caused by a build-up of gas.

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Explosion at US embassy in Turkey

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:07 ET

A blast outside the US embassy in the Turkish capital, Ankara, has killed at least one person, with reports that it was a suicide bomber.

Dozens of ambulances and fire engines rushed to the scene after the explosion, in an area which is home to diplomatic missions.

According to Turkish broadcaster NTV, the explosion caused no damage inside the embassy itself.

There were no reports of any group saying it had carried out the attack.

The AP news agency quoted police as saying two people had been killed in a suicide attack and NTV said two security guards at the entrance had died.

A number of illegal groups ranging from Kurdish separatists to leftist and Islamist militants have launched attacks in recent years in Turkey, which is a member of Nato.

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Detective jailed for NoW leak offer

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:08 ET

The first person to be prosecuted as part of the investigation into payments by journalists to officials has been sentenced to 15 months in prison.

Det Ch Insp April Casburn, 53, from Essex, was convicted last month of misconduct in public office.

She had called the News of the World, offering to sell information to the paper, after the inquiry into hacking by the tabloid reopened in 2010.

The sentencing judge called it "a corrupt attempt to make money".

The Metropolitan Police said it was "a great disappointment that a detective chief inspector in the counter terrorism command should have abused her position in this way".

Casburn had said she contacted the paper out of public interest, but Mr Justice Fulford said her offence could not be described as whistle-blowing.

She spoke to journalist Tim Wood about the fresh investigation into phone hacking and claimed she did so because she was concerned about counter-terror resources being wasted on the phone-hacking inquiry, which her colleagues saw as "a bit of a jolly".

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April Casburn goes to prison as the first person convicted as part of Operation Elveden.

During mitigation, her barrister argued that the exceptional nature of her offence - one 'mad telephone call' - should not lead to a precedent-setting sentence which would affect any future convictions relating to corrupt relationships between police and journalists.

But Mr Justice Fulford made clear she had no excuse for her actions - it was a straightforward and troubling case of corruption.

This was the key factor. He assessed that her actions had damaged the public's trust in the police and potentially damaged the integrity of a new investigation. There was, in his view, no defence of whistle-blowing - of speaking out in the public interest. And that's why he concluded that the public interest would be in jailing the disgraced detective.

The detective denied asking for money, but Mr Wood had made a note that she "wanted to sell inside information".

The newspaper did not print a story after the call and no money changed hands.

The judge, in his sentencing remarks, said Mr Wood was "a reliable, honest and disinterested witness" who had "absolutely no reason to lie".

"If the News of the World had accepted her offer, it's clear, in my view, that Ms Casburn would have taken the money and, as a result, she posed a significant threat to the integrity of this important police investigation," he said.

He told her it was "a corrupt attempt to make money out of sensitive and potentially very damaging information".

Mr Justice Fulford went on: "Activity of this kind is deeply damaging to the administration of criminal justice in this country. It corrodes the public's faith in the police force, it can lead to the acquittal or the failure by the authorities to prosecute individuals who have committed offences whether they are serious or otherwise."

Casburn is in the process of adopting a child, and the judge said had that not been the case she would have been sentenced to three years.

The judge said he was particularly concerned about the child, and admitted that her absence while she is in prison could be damaging.

However, he said that, had she not been arrested, the detective would have returned to work by now, and therefore the child would be cared for by others anyway.

The Sunday tabloid was closed down in 2011 amid outrage over its hacking into voicemails.

'Unhappy at work'

The offence happened in September 2010 when Casburn, from Hatfield Peverel, was managing the national terrorist financial investigation unit.

Ahead of sentencing, Casburn's defence team told the judge her only offence was "being very unhappy at work and making a mad telephone call" to the News of the World.

In a statement, the Metropolitan Police said: "We hope that the 15-month prison sentence handed down to this officer sends a strong message that the leaking of confidential information for personal gain is absolutely unacceptable and will not be tolerated."

It said she had "betrayed the service and let down her colleagues", adding that there was "no place for corrupt officers or staff" in its police force.

Her arrest was one of 59 that have been made as part of the ongoing Operation Elveden investigation.

Operation Elveden is running alongside the Operation Weeting inquiry into phone hacking, and Operation Tuleta into allegations that computers were hacked to obtain private information.

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No charges against Kate hoax DJs

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:12 ET

Two Australian DJs who made a hoax call to the UK hospital treating the Duchess of Cambridge will not face charges, the Crown Prosecution Service has said.

Mel Greig and Michael Christian phoned the King Edward VII's Hospital pretending to be members of the Royal Family asking about the duchess's treatment for severe morning sickness.

Nurse Jacintha Saldanha was found dead three days after taking the call.

The CPS said there was no evidence to support a charge of manslaughter.

Although it said that there was some evidence to warrant further investigation of offences under the Data Protection Act, the Malicious Communications Act 1988 and the Communications Act 2003, it added that this would not take place as any potential prosecution would not be in the public interest.

Malcolm McHaffie, deputy head of special crime at the CPS, said a number of issues had been taken into account in reaching its conclusion.

"It is not possible to extradite individuals from Australia in respect of the potential offences in question. However misguided, the telephone call was intended as a harmless prank," he said.

"The consequences in this case were very sad. We send our sincere condolences to Jacintha Saldanha's family."

Last December, the pair, posing as the Queen and Prince of Wales, tricked Mrs Saldanha into transferring the call to a colleague who then described Catherine's condition in detail.

Mrs Saldanha was found hanged in nurses accommodation close to the hospital, after apparently taking her own life.

The duchess had been admitted to hospital suffering from hyperemesis gravidarum, acute morning sickness.

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HIV in gay men 'refuses to fall'

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:17 ET By James Gallagher Health and science reporter, BBC News

Huge improvements in treating and testing for HIV have failed to curb infections in gay and bisexual men in England and Wales, a study suggests.

New infections were static at about 2,300 a year between 2001 and 2010, despite rises in early diagnosis and far more people taking medication.

Scientists, writing in the Lancet Infectious Diseases, said there had been a return of risky sexual practice.

Campaigners said there were "real challenges" in HIV prevention.

There is concern about the spread of HIV in men who have sex with other men. The Health Protection Agency's latest report said HIV had reached an "all-time high" in this group, with more and more new cases reported each year.

Infections

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Matthew Nolan, who is 40, was diagnosed with HIV in 2009. He says the findings are "quite disheartening" but reflect a culture of "complacency" that has emerged.

"When you're young you think you're invincible."

Matthew, who runs a support group in Walsall, also said the internet was making it easier to find men and "encouraged unsafe sexual practice".

James Johnson, from London was diagnosed 11 years ago. He told the BBC: "There was certainly in the 80s and 90s a massive amount of fear and that isn't there anymore, so there is maybe a more liberal attitude since then."

He said the only solution was reducing the stigma around HIV so people were more open about their HIV status.

Working out the number of new infections each year is complicated, as many people are undiagnosed and there can be a long delay between someone being infected and finding out.

Researchers at the Medical Research Council Biostatistics Unit, in Cambridge, estimated when people were infected based on the state of their immune system.

Their study showed little difference between the spread of HIV in 2001 and 2010.

"We found the number of new infections remained quite stable over the decade, there was no evidence of a decline," researcher Dr Daniela De Angelis told the BBC.

In that time the number of gay or bisexual men being tested in clinics went from 16,000 to 59,000 a year, the time from infection to diagnosis fell from four years to just over three and the numbers taking antiretroviral therapy went from 69% to 80%.

Unsafe sex

Dr De Angelis said: "Perhaps a resurgence of unsafe sexual practice might be fuelling the spread of HIV or perhaps testing is not very targeted."

The Health Protection Agency said it was "seriously concerned" about the level of transmission and that unsafe sex was "the most plausible explanation" for the findings.

The organisation's head of HIV surveillance, Dr Valerie Delpech, said: "Men who have sex with men should get an HIV and STI [sexually transmitted infections] screen at least annually, and every three months if having unprotected sex with new or casual partners - and we urge clinicians to take every opportunity to offer the test to this group."

Sir Nick Partridge, the chief executive at Terrence Higgins Trust, which campaigns on sexual health, said: "These findings highlight the real challenges faced by HIV prevention work, which need much greater attention."

He said that spending on safer sex campaigns had "fallen dramatically" over the past 10 years and "we must challenge the assumptions some gay men make about HIV and re-energise gay communities to tackle a real and growing threat to their sexual health".

Yusef Azad, the director of policy at the National Aids Trust, said: "Around seven gay or bisexual men a day in the UK are getting HIV.

"Prevention services so far have been under-resourced, without a clear focus on outcomes or effectiveness.

"They often do not address the cultural and structural drivers of HIV transmission amongst gay and bisexual men - including drug use, mental health issues and the gay scene."

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Bungling hitmen murdered student

1 February 2013 Last updated at 07:19 ET

Two bungling hitmen have been found guilty of stabbing to death an innocent student in front of his parents after calling at the wrong address.

Aamir Siddiqi, 17, was attacked at his Cardiff home by Jason Richards, 38, and Ben Hope, 39, in April 2010.

The killers, who will be sentenced next Friday, had been told to kill a different man on a neighbouring street.

The Swansea Crown Court jury returned its verdicts on the second day of deliberations.

Hope and Richards both denied murdering Aamir and two separate counts of the attempted murder of his parents, but were convicted unanimously of all charges.

The killers showed no emotion as the verdict was delivered at the end of a four-and-a-half month trial. Aamir's family sat quietly in court.

'Staggering incompetence'

Aamir had run down the stairs to answer the door expecting to see his imam, who was due to give him a Koran lesson. Instead, he opened the front door in Ninian Road, Roath, to two masked killers high on heroin.

Hope and Richards wielded daggers over their heads and howled as they set upon the helpless A-level student.

Aamir's father likened the attackers' howling to the sort of noise made in martial arts when an attacker wants to terrify the victim.

The teenager desperately tried to run back into the house, but they chased him and repeatedly lashing out.

The execution of the bungled contract killing was described by the prosecution as an act of "staggering incompetence".

Aamir's elderly parents frantically tried to help their only son. His mother, Parveen, leapt on the back of one of the attackers as he pursued Aamir in the dining room of their home.

His father, 68-year-old father Sheikh Iqbal Ahmad, tried to pin the other against a wall using his head. Both were stabbed in the process.

Saturated in blood

Mr Ahmad later recalled the terror which had unfolded that Sunday and said he could not say how many times they had stabbed Aamir.

He told the police it all happened in seconds and Aamir "didn't say a single word". Police arrived at the scene, tried to save Aamir and administered CPR.

Sergeant Kee Wong told the trial the scene he found was the worst he had come across during his career.

Aamir's T-shirt was saturated in blood and he counted several wounds on the teenager's body.

Det Sgt Stuart Wales also told the court it was "the most distressing incident" he had ever had to attend in 17 years of service.

"I saw the face of Aamir's mum, she looked absolutely traumatised," he said. "It is still an image quite clear in my mind."

Fellow officer Teresa Sullivan recalled her as "inconsolable". "She just kept shouting 'My son, my son, she wanted to see him,'" she said.

Appalling end

It was an appalling end to what had begun as a "normal lazy Sunday morning", in the words of one of Aamir's sisters, Miriam, who had gone out to get him a takeaway.

The awful truth was that Aamir's killers carried out a contract killing on the wrong victim, in the wrong house.

Richards and Hope had been paid by a businessman, angry over a collapsed property deal, to kill a father-of-four who lived in a neighbouring street.

But they went instead to a similar looking redbrick, end-of-row house just around the corner in Ninian Road in the leafy suburb of Roath Park. The prosecution called it a colossal, fatal mistake for Aamir.

After the murder, a huge manhunt began.

The killers' stolen Volvo car used in the crime was later found abandoned.

Traces of Aamir's blood were found in the car's footwell, as were Hope's fingerprints and Richards' DNA.

Blamed each other

After the brutal killing the men were paid £1,000 cash, before it was revealed they had murdered the wrong person.

Hope bought a pair of trainers and a laptop computer with the money he was paid.

Detectives pieced together the movements of both men before and after the killing by using the city's CCTV network and mobile phone evidence was also gathered.

Both men were arrested within days and immediately blamed each other for the killing.

Hope told police he would not "take the rap" for something he did not do and drug addict Richards denied the killing.

Aamir's hopes of reading law at Cardiff University and then possibly pursuing a career in either the police or civil service ended in the most brutal fashion.

His parents have three daughters and Aamir was their only son - a boy they called a gift and a blessing who was born after 17 years of marriage.

"This scene I will live with all of my life," Mrs Ahmad later told police.

Mr Ahmad said life had "lost its purpose", after Aamir, his youngest child's murder. His wife said: "Nothing is valuable now."

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UK petrol market 'working well'

30 January 2013 Last updated at 06:35 ET

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Petrol Retailers' Association's Brian Madderson: "This is a grave disappointment to independent retailers"

A study of the UK petrol and diesel market by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) has said little action is needed.

"The evidence gathered by the OFT suggests that at a national level, competition is working well in the UK road fuel sector," its report said.

It found the UK has some of Europe's cheapest fuel prices before tax.

It said there was very little evidence that petrol and diesel prices rise quickly when oil prices go up, but are slow to fall when prices drop.

"We recognise that there has been widespread mistrust in how this market is operating," said OFT chief executive Clive Maxwell.

"However, our analysis suggests that competition is working well, and rises in pump prices over last decade or so have largely been down to increases in tax and the cost of crude oil."

But the OFT found that fuel was significantly more expensive at service stations and was concerned that motorists were not able to see the prices until they had left the motorway.

The report asked the Department for Transport to introduce new signs on motorways to display prices.

It also said that while it did not plan to do any more work on the national fuel market, it might still take action in some local markets if there was "persuasive evidence of anti-competitive behaviour".

Independent retailers had complained that oil companies and supermarkets had been using their scale to give themselves an unfair advantage, but the regulator found no evidence of this.

Brian Madderson from the Petrol Retailers' Association, which represents independent forecourts and made the original complaint to the OFT, said the findings were "a grave disappointment".

"This is the sort of thing that the OFT and the establishment have done many times before," he said.

"They have failed to take on the big players in the market - the oil companies, the supermarkets - and have left the smaller independent businesses to their fate."

He questioned why wholesale petrol prices had gone up seven pence a litre since Christmas when refineries were saying they had a glut of petrol and demand had been hit by wintry weather.

'Drivers' misery'

The investigation into the £32bn sector was launched in September last year.

Since September it has been hearing evidence from trade bodies, government and regulatory organisations, consumer bodies and motoring groups.

"This report will give only limited comfort to the UK's 35 million drivers who continue to pay near record prices at the pumps, but the OFT does identify the true cause of drivers' misery - the chancellor and crude oil prices," said Prof Stephen Glaister, director of the RAC Foundation.

"About 60% of the pump price is accounted for by fuel duty and VAT and we would now call on retailers to provide a breakdown on till receipts to show exactly what the proportion the Exchequer is creaming off."

"Some will find it hard to believe, but the report does make clear that the fuel market is helping keep prices lower and supermarkets have actually helped competition."

Quentin Willson, spokesman for the pressure group FairFuelUK, said he was shocked.

"Every motorist and business in Britain instinctively knows that 'something's not right'," he said.

"The OFT appears to have failed to address the key issues of : why diesel is more expensive than unleaded in the UK when this is not the case in Europe, why falls in the oil price take so long to be reflected at the pump, and why there are such variations in price, often from the same branded forecourts, within the same area."

The report was welcomed by Chris Hunt, director general of the UK's Petroleum Industry Association, which represents refiners.

"The UK has had amongst the lowest pre-tax pump prices in the EU for over a decade so the findings come as no surprise," he said.

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Donors pledge $1.1bn Syria aid

30 January 2013 Last updated at 06:45 ET

More than $1.1bn (£700m) has been pledged to help civilians affected by the conflict in Syria at a conference of international donors, the UN says.

Kuwait's Emir Sheikh Sabah al-Ahmad al-Sabah opened the meeting with a donation of $300m, which was matched by the UAE and, reportedly, Saudi Arabia.

UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon meanwhile appealed to all sides to stop fighting "in the name of humanity".

As he spoke, Syrian state media blamed a rebel group for a massacre in Aleppo.

The bodies of more than 70 men and teenaged boys were found on Tuesday on the banks of the River Quwaiq in the second city's rebel-held western district of Bustan al-Qasr.

Most of the dead had their hands tied behind their backs and gunshots wounds to their heads, suggesting they were executed summarily.

On Wednesday, the state news agency Sana reported that the families of the victims had "identified a number of the killed, stressing that the al-Nusra Front abducted them because of their refusal to co-operate".

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The BBC's Jim Muir: "I counted on just one video about 48 bodies"

Sana's reporter said the water level in the river was too low to carry the bodies any distance suggesting they had been killed in Bustan al-Qasr.

However, locals said several of those killed were from rebel-held districts and had disappeared after crossing into those under government control. Some had been detained by security forces, they added.

The main opposition alliance, the National Coalition, called for an investigation and warned that "ongoing global inaction towards human rights violations encourages the killers to continue their crimes".

'Resources exhausted'

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We are watching a human tragedy unfold before our eyes"

End Quote Valerie Amos UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs

Addressing the International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria in Kuwait City on Wednesday, Ban Ki-moon described the situation in Syria as "catastrophic".

"I appeal to all sides, and particularly the Syrian government, to stop the killing... in the name of humanity, stop the killing, stop the violence," the UN chief said.

He also called for urgent financial aid to ease the suffering of civilians, warning that if funds were not forthcoming "more Syrians will die".

The UN has set a funding target of $1.5bn, which it says it needs to provide food, shelter and other aid to the some four million people inside Syria and 700,000 others who have fled to neighbouring countries.

The money will fund operations during the next six months, but before Wednesday the UN had received pledges for only 18% of the target.

Kuwait's emir opened the conference by calling for humanitarian efforts in Syria to be redoubled and announcing a donation of $300m.

Sheikh Sabah said the "horrifying reports" of violence were a "cause for concern over the security of Syria, its future... and over the security and future of the region".

Shortly afterwards, the pledge was matched by the United Arab Emirates, which was represented by Abu Dhabi's Crown Prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed al-Nuhayyan, according to UAE state news agency, Wam.

A Gulf official told the AFP news agency that Saudi Arabia had promised a further $300m. Al-Jazeera TV reported that the announcement was made by Finance Minister Ibrahim al-Asaf.

UK International Development Secretary Justine Greening pledged £50m in new funding, Bahrain's Crown Prince Salman bin Hamad al-Khalifa pledged $20m, and the German foreign ministry offered 10m euros ($13.5m; £8.5m).

Melissa Fleming, chief spokesperson for the UN refugee agency, later wrote on Twitter: "Pledges so far over $1.1 billion for #SyriaResponse!"

King Abdullah of Jordan, which is hosting more than 185,000 Syrian refugees, warned his country's resources had been "exhausted", adding: "We have reached the end of the line."

UN Under-Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Valerie Amos said the winter weather had made matters worse, particularly for women and children, with many struggling without suitable clothes, blankets or fuel.

"We are watching a human tragedy unfold before our eyes," she added.

On Tuesday evening, the medical charity Medecins Sans Frontieres (MSF) said international aid was not being distributed equally within Syria, with government-controlled areas receiving nearly all of it.

"The current aid system is unable to address the worsening living conditions facing people inside Syria," MSF president Dr Marie-Pierre Allie said in a statement.

MSF said rebels controlled areas where at least a third of the country's population - about seven million people - were currently living.

The UN said 49% of the food aid it was distributing to 1.5 million people in co-operation with the Syrian Arab Red Crescent and other aid agencies was delivered either to rebel-held or contested areas.

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French 'enter Mali rebel town'

30 January 2013 Last updated at 07:10 ET

French forces say they have entered Kidal in the north of Mali, the last major town they have yet to secure in their drive against Islamist militants.

French forces now control Kidal airport after a number of aircraft, including helicopters, landed there overnight.

Islamist militants were reported to have already left the town and it was unclear who was in charge.

French and Malian forces have been sweeping north, earlier taking Gao and Timbuktu with almost no resistance.

France - the former colonial power in Mali - launched a military operation this month after Islamist militants appeared to be threatening the south.

French army spokesman Col Thierry Burkhard confirmed that "French elements were deployed overnight in Kidal".

Haminy Maiga, the interim president of the Kidal regional assembly, told the Associated Press news agency: "The French arrived at 9:30pm [Tuesday] aboard four planes. Afterwards they took the airport and then entered the town and there was no combat.

"The French are patrolling the town and two helicopters are patrolling overhead," he said.

'Eradicate terrorism'

Kidal, 1,500km (930 miles) north-east of the capital Bamako, was until recently under the control of the Ansar Dine Islamist group, which has strong ties to al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM).

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The Islamist militants fled Timbuktu in haste, but they took the time to commit one last act of vengeance"

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The Islamist militants had taken advantage of a military coup in March last year to impose Sharia in a number of cities in the north.

However, the Islamic Movement of Azawad (IMA), which recently split from Ansar Dine, says it is now in charge in Kidal.

The IMA has said it rejects "extremism and terrorism" and wants a peaceful solution.

An IMA spokesman confirmed the French arrival in Kidal and said that its leader was in talks with them.

However, another rebel group, the secular National Movement for the Liberation of Azawad (MNLA), is also influential in the area. It is ethnically driven, fighting mostly for the rights of Mali's minority Tuareg community.

An MNLA spokesman told the BBC its fighters had entered Kidal on Saturday and found no Islamist militants there.

The MNLA has also said it is prepared to work with the French "to eradicate terrorist groups" in the north but that it would not allow the return of the Malian army, which it accused of "crimes against the civilian population".

Some reports say Ansar Dine leader, Iyad Ag Ghaly, and Abou Zeid of AQIM have now moved to the mountainous region north of Kidal.

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French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius says rebel groups could still strike in Mali or elsewhere

The BBC's Thomas Fessy, in Timbuktu, says that taking Kidal will mark the end of the first phase of the French military intervention, but that there will remain the difficult task of chasing the fighters down across the vast desert.

The French arrival at Kidal came only 24 hours after securing Timbuktu with Malian forces.

The troops had to secure the streets after hundreds of people looted shops they said had belonged to militant sympathisers.

The retreating Islamist militants were also accused of destroying ancient manuscripts held in the city.

However on Wednesday, Shamil Jeppie, the Timbuktu Manuscripts Project director at the University of Cape Town, said that more than 90% of the 300,000 manuscripts said to be in the region were safe.

Donor pledges

France has been pushing for the swift deployment of an African Union-backed force, the International Support Mission to Mali (Afisma), to take control of Malian towns.

On Tuesday, international donors meeting in Ethiopia pledged $455.53m (£289m) for Afisma and for other projects.

African leaders say the overall budget could be around $950m.

France's Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told the meeting impressive progress had been made but that this did not mean the danger was over.

Mr Fabius also said credible elections in Mali would be vital to achieving sustainable peace in the country.

Mali's interim President Dioncounda Traore said on Tuesday that he wanted to hold "transparent and credible" elections by 31 July.

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