Garden of the gods park

It was an ordinary Wednesday morning when I woke up on 13 March, 1996. It was snowing and I shivered as I pulled on my red school uniform sweater. We’d moved to Scotland three years earlier – my mum, my stepdad and my 11-year-old brother Joe. I loved my school. I was a happy-go-lucky kid and very settled. Dunblane was a safe, close-knit community. Neighbours were friendly and Joe and I had the freedom to play in the park and walk to school by ourselves. After we’d waved Mum goodbye at home, we walked the short distance to school and Joe went off to his class, which was in a prefab structure on the site, and I went to mine, Primary Four, which was a classroom in the main building. The school had a large gym in the middle and a big field at the back. It was coming up to 9.30am and our class was walking through a corridor to the music room, called the “GP room”, to practise singing for a big assembly later that week. But something wasn’t right. I was standing next to my … [Read more...] about ‘I tried to take my life after Dunblane horror – but now I have my happy family’

Philip Whiteside, news reporter Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe is a British-Iranian woman who has been in jail in Iran for five years. The Iranian regime claims she was working against the state when she was arrested on a visit to the country to see her parents with her daughter. Here is a timeline of events that have left a family split apart and resulted in diplomacy at the highest level. October 2010 Joins Thomson Reuters Foundation Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe joins the Thomson Reuters Foundation, a charity that says it promotes "socio-economic progress" and the rule of law through a series of training programmes. Advertisement Before the move, she worked for BBC Media Action for around 18 months, the corporation's international development charity which uses "the power of media and communication to help reduce poverty and support people in understanding their rights". June 2014 Birth of her daughter Gabriella, the only daughter of Mrs … [Read more...] about Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe: The five-year fight for freedom

MURDER cops are now leading the investigation into the disappearance of a 33-year-old woman who vanished as she walked home. Sarah Everard has not been seen since she left a friend's house in Clapham, South West London, on Wednesday at around 9pm. Police have been searching ponds in Clapham Common in a bid to find the missing marketing manager, who should have arrived back home in Bristol shortly before 10pm. Detectives from the Met's Specialist Crime Command, which deal with homicides and major crime for the force, have now taken over the investigation. The Met said Sarah's disappearance is still being treated as a missing person's case. They also said she was last seen on CCTV at around 9.30pm on Poynder's Road heading in the direction of Tulse Hill. Detective Chief Inspector Katherine Goodwin said: "I would like to stress that there is no information at this stage to suggest anything untoward may have happened to Sarah. "The focus remains on returning her … [Read more...] about Sarah Everard missing – Murder team take over probe as more details of last sighting in Clapham revealed

WITH a machete at his throat and a gun at his head, Mike Farmer noticed the kid holding the firearm was shaking – they were scared, and that made the situation even more dangerous. "I was just thinking: 'I'm glad my wife stayed at the hotel today – this sucks, I'm actually going to die here'," Mike tells The Sun. It was 2011 in Kenya and he'd been beaten, abducted and driven into the jungle by thieves who knew he had cash – lots of it. That's because Mike, 48, is a meteorite hunter from Tucson, Arizona. He sells his extraterrestrial minerals to amateur astronomers and billionaire businessmen alike, all of whom want to get their hands on a tangible emissary from outer space. A fireball over the skies of Britain last Sunday alone could have scattered thousands of rocks in the fields below. And while the financial and scientific rewards in finding meteorites are great, so are the risks – but Mike lives for the thrill of the chase. "I see myself as like Indiana … [Read more...] about I’m a meteorite dealer who makes millions selling space rocks – I’ve been kidnapped and robbed in the brutal trade

SARAH Everard has not been seen since she left a friend's house in Clapham, South West London, on Wednesday March 3 to walk back to her home in Brixton. Police are asking people in those areas to check doorbell or dashcam footage for any sightings of the missing woman. Who is Sarah Everard? Sarah Everard is a 33-year-old originally from York who lives in London. Sarah is 5ft4, has a slim build and blonde hair, and works as a marketing manager. Sarah was last seen wearing a green rain jacket, navy blue trousers with a white diamond pattern and turquoise and orange trainers. She was also thought to have been wearing green earphones and a white beanie hat. Sarah moved to the capital for work around 12 years ago and has a brother and sister who also live in London. When did she go missing? On Wednesday night, Sarah left a friend's house in Leathwaite Road in Clapham about 9pm. She headed through a back gate onto the A205 South Circular before she is believed … [Read more...] about Who is Sarah Everard and when did she go missing?