Renfrew bridge closed after possible explosive found
The bridge is part of a £117m project to improve connectivity and regenerate waterfront areas, with the ability to open up for large ships to pass through.As well as a two-lane crossing for drivers, the bridge offers access to cyclists and pedestrians.
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Times
2 hours ago
- Times
Double killer could be deported back to Scotland from US
A double killer is facing deportation back to Scotland after he was detained by agents from America's ICE immigration service. Phillip Harkins, 46, originally from Greenock, shot a man dead with an assault rifle during a botched drug deal in Florida in 1999. After fleeing back to the UK, Harkins then crashed a car into a taxi and killed its 62-year-old passenger, Jean O'Neill, also of Greenock. Harkins was jailed for five years for causing O'Neill's death by dangerous driving, but was extradited to America despite his 14-year court battle against the decision and sent to prison for second-degree murder. He was due to be released from jail next week but was detained just before his release date. US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) officials in Florida have revealed he is back in custody and facing a deportation court hearing. This week a source at Florida's justice department said: 'Phillip Harkins is … detained at Baker County detention facility under a court order. He was detained towards the end of his prison sentence.' The ICE agency is a frequent subject of controversy regarding its enforcement practices, particularly involving arrests and deportations. US activists have claimed immigrants at the detention centre where Harkins is being held are experiencing abuse including lack of adequate hygiene and food. Harkins shot 22-year-old Joshua Hayes in the head at close range during a drug deal in Jacksonville, Florida, in 1999. After his arrest for murder, he jumped bail and returned to Greenock to stay with his grandmother Annie Harkins, who has since died. He told her he had returned for a holiday. Despite being a fugitive, he managed to get a job in the accounts department of a Glasgow company. At the time of his arrest in 2003 over O'Neill's death, Scottish police discovered there was an international arrest warrant in his name and alerted the FBI, who began extradition proceedings. Three months after Harkins's release from prison in March 2006, he was rearrested and the home secretary at the time, John Reid, ordered that he be extradited. Harkins then launched a series of appeals that lasted another 11 years. The killer claimed sending him back to face justice in the US would breach his human rights. The case went all the way to the European Court and became the UK's longest ever extradition court battle. The lengthy pre-Brexit legal process angered the prime minister, David Cameron, who said British laws were too often being overturned by unelected judges in Strasbourg. Harkins was finally extradited in 2017 after US prosecutors assured the British authorities they would not seek the death penalty if he was convicted. In 2018 he admitted guilt over the death of Joshua Hayes. He was sentenced to 25 years for second degree murder, with credit for time served dating back to killing O'Neill in 2003. He could be returned to Scotland if Ice succeed in removing him from the US. At the time of Hayes's murder, his mother, Patricia Gallagher, said: 'Josh was my oldest. So, yeah, it's hard. Josh has got grandchildren now but he'll never know. He's got a son that never got a chance to know him.'
Telegraph
3 hours ago
- Telegraph
The Edinburgh rape crisis centre is abiding by the gender judgment. Why can't the SNP follow suit?
At first glance, the news that a rape crisis centre planned to in future only hire women wouldn't really take anyone by surprise, now would it? However, when it is the Edinburgh Rape Crisis Centre (ERCC) announcing that this is now its recruitment policy, the news certainly does attract comment. And very welcome comment at that, because its activities had created incredible controversy when it was learned that women rape victims were dealt with at this centre by a trans woman who was also its chief executive. And a review found that the ERCC had failed to provide women-only spaces for 16 months. And while one swallow does not make a summer, what is encouraging is that at least one official body in Scotland is changing tack. Unfortunately, there is no sign yet that the Scottish Government is ready to fully accept that the situation regarding access to previously women-only venues has been clarified by the Supreme Court justices. Campaign group For Women Scotland, which took the issue to the Supreme Court and won, has now lodged an action at the Court of Session, claiming Scottish Government rules on transgender pupils in schools and transgender people in custody are 'in clear breach' of the April judgment. But now, in what is being seen as a move that brooks no further argument, it has announced that it will no longer be hiring trans women – and in doing so they're abiding to the letter and spirit of April's Supreme Court judgment about 'what is a woman'. It is accepting the judges ruling that the words 'woman' and 'sex' in the 2010 Equality Act refer to a biological woman and biological sex. For instance, they say that for single-sex school toilets, official guidance states young people 'where possible' should be able to 'use the facilities they feel most comfortable with'. And in prisons, transgender women could be admitted to former women only areas when they were deemed not to pose an 'unacceptable risk of harm' to women inmates. The group wants the schools and prisons guidance suspended until the Court of Session considers the case as by remaining in place they were to the 'detriment of vulnerable women and girls'. The ERCC's decision on its hiring policy and the new action before the Court of Session demonstrates yet again how much the trans issue has changed in recent months. And missed by nobody will be the fact that the Supreme Court judgment actually enshrined in law what most people believed to be common sense anyway – that a woman is a biological female. Furthermore, the latest developments are surfacing just as the politician who created the widespread confusion and controversy over the gender issue leaves the stage. Whatever the future holds for the former first minister, Nicola Sturgeon 's potentially dangerous view about allowing biological males access to women-only safe areas caused, for a time, a bitter furore in Scottish public opinion. But thankfully, the Supreme Court as well as the likes of novelist JK Rowling, politician Joanna Cherry and the resolute For Women Scotland group, have begun to erase that memory. It is up to the SNP Government to continue that process, instead of seeking to find ways round the justices' firm declaration and hang on to some of Sturgeon's bitter legacy.
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Lil Nas X arrested and hospitalized after altercation with police
Lil Nas X has been arrested after an altercation with police, according to reports. Officials confirmed to NBC that the 26-year-old rapper and singer was booked on suspicion of misdemeanour battery after he was confronted while walking down the street in his underwear. The two-time Grammy winner, whose real name is Montero Lamar Hill, had been seen on Ventura Boulevard in the early hours of Thursday morning. TMZ has video footage where he claims he is going to a party. After officers arrived, he allegedly threw punches toward the officers and, according to an LAPD statement provided without naming him, the suspect was then 'taken to a nearby hospital to be treated for a 'possible overdose''. Once he is released he will be charged. No officers were injured. Lil Nas X gained fame after his track Old Town Road became a record-breaking No 1 hit, staying there for 19 weeks. He also had success with songs including Industry Baby and Montero (Call Me by Your Name). He is set to release his album Dreamboy later this year after releasing a number of singles this spring, and in the last week, returned to social media with a series of posts featuring snippets of new music. He also changed his Instagram name to Queen Madeleine and shared images of himself in a variety of costumes with the furniture in his apartment being rearranged. In April, he was hospitalised after experiencing sudden facial paralysis. In a video shared to Instagram, he said he 'lost control' of half his face. The Guardian has reached out to his representatives for comment.
