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Police say building in which six people, including a baby, died is being treated as crime scene

Police and fire officials are investigating the cause of a fire that ripped through a block of flats in south London killing six people, including three children.

The blaze at Lakanal flats in Sceaux Gardens, Camberwell, began on the fourth floor of the 12-storey block yesterday afternoon and was said by firefighters to have "spread rapidly" to the 11th floor. A three-week-old baby, a six-year-old and a seven-year-old were killed, along with three adults.

Five of the victims have been named. They are Helen Udoaka, 34, and her three-week-old daughter Michelle; Dayana Francisquini, 26, and Filipe Francisquini, 3, and Catherine Hickman, 31.

Speaking at the scene, the Southwark police chief superintendent, Wayne Chance, said the cause of the fire was still unknown and the tower block was being treated as a crime scene.

Fifteen people were taken to hospital, he said, adding that 11 had since been released. One man, a firefighter, remained in hospital although his condition is not thought to be serious.

Chance said officers were dealing with a "large and complex scene" and the investigation was likely to take "some time".

The Labour MP Harriet Harman, whose constituency includes the tower block, said there were questions about fire escape routes at the flats. "There will have to be a thorough investigation in to what caused this fire and whether the prevention was adequate," she said.

"There are many blocks with one central stairwell and questions will have to be asked about what happens when a fire breaks out."

Several residents said the complicated layout of the flats made the evacuation difficult while onlookers described seeing those trapped inside screaming for help.

The Southwark council leader, Nick Stanton, said it would be "days if not weeks" before tenants could return.

Of the 150 people left without accommodation, the vast majority were staying with friends or family and 20 were given accommodation by the council.

Today neighbours described the panic as those inside the building tried to flee.

"The people were in the windows, screaming out for help," said Lincent Johnson, 28, who lives across the street. "There was panic, there were a lot of people screaming."

He said he first smelled the fire from his nearby flat. "It wasn't that big at first but it started to spread so quickly."

Abenet Tsejage saw people screaming for help and said she saw one mother dangle a baby from a window as if she was about to drop the child. But she said the woman did not let go and she believed they had been rescued.

"Quite a few people were in shock and very upset," said Tsejage, who has lived in the area for 15 years. "It makes you really frightened. As a community you would like to give all those who live there a home but you just don't know how to help."

Charles Douglas, 56, was in his top-floor flat when the blaze broke out.

He said he did not want to rush down the stairway with everyone else so waited on his balcony until he saw he had a clear escape route.

This morning, with a towel wrapped around his neck, Mr Douglas said he was anxious to retrieve his clothes and possessions and had been told he may be allowed back into the tower block later this afternoon.

He said there were 96 flats in the block and the fire spread rapidly.

"A lot of people were panicking but I tried to stay calm and think clearly," he said.

He criticised the layout of the flats which he said made it difficult for everyone to escape quickly.

Carol Cooper, 38, who lives on the seventh floor, said the firefighters took too long to evacuate people.

"Everyone was here. But it took too long for them to get in there and do something. It just seemed like it took too long. I think that's because it's just like a maze in there."

She said the tenants had called for the block to be demolished three years ago but had been told it was a listed building. She said it was one of the earliest council houses in south-east London and could not be knocked down.

Instead, the council fitted new windows and electrical cabling.

Man who beat ex-girlfriend to death and nearly killed another was retried and convicted after previous not guilty verdict

A rapist who became the first person in UK history convicted of a crime for which he was previously found not guilty has been given two life sentences for killing a former girlfriend and trying to murder another.

Mario Celaire, a former footballer, had denied beating Cassandra McDermott, 19, and leaving her to die alone at her mother's house nearly eight years ago. He was acquitted of her murder after a trial in 2002.

Six years later, Celaire, 31, from Sydenham in south London, attacked another ex-girlfriend, Kara Hoyte, with a hammer.

The assault left Hoyte with terrible injuries including severe brain damage but she was still able to identify her attacker to police.

Detectives noticed the similarities between the two attacks and arrested Celaire after using a change in the double jeopardy law to reopen the Cassandra McDermott case.

Under the old law, anyone acquitted by a jury could not be retried even if new evidence was uncovered. But in 2005 the 800-year-old legal principle was repealed in England and Wales, allowing the court of appeal to order a retrial if the evidence was strong enough.

At the start of his second trial in May this year, the one-time Maidstone Town defender pleaded guilty to the manslaughter of McDermott and the attempted murder of Hoyte.

Celaire admitted he attacked McDermott after their four-year relationship ended. He slammed her head three or four times against a hard edge, such as a door, and then left her unconscious under a duvet in her room where she choked on her vomit and died.

He admitted to attacking Hoyte after the pair split up in 2007. Celaire, who changed his surname to McNish after his original murder acquittal, was sentenced at the Old Bailey to life in jail with a minimum term of 23 years.

Simon Denison QC, for the prosecution, told the court that Celaire had a history of violence towards women.

He was 15 when he took part in the gang rape of a vulnerable 17-year-old girl at Lewisham College. He and the attackers lured the girl into a basement.

Celaire contested the allegation but was found guilty and jailed for five years, reduced on appeal to four years.

Cassandra McDermott was 15 and Celaire 19 when they began a volatile relationship in 1997. Police were called numerous times to deal with violent disturbances but McDermott repeatedly refused to press charges.

One night on October 2001 – three weeks before McDermott's 20th birthday – Celaire launched the fatal attack.

"This was a sudden violent assault in which Cassandra suffered four or five hard blows to the face that left her unconscious on the bedroom floor," said Denison.

"The cause of her death however was tragic. While she was lying on her back unconscious, she vomited. Being unconscious, she was unable to clear her airwaves and inhaled the gastric contents into her lungs and died."

The crown had to accept Celaire's plea of manslaughter as there was no evidence of a sustained assault or the use of a weapon, Denison said.

Six years after killing McDermott, Celaire took a hammer to Hoyte's head after she began a relationship with another man.

Hoyte was found lying in her bedroom covered in blood having suffered severe injuries.

The court heard that Celaire "callously" visited her in hospital days after the attack thinking that she would never be able to tell her story. Her mother, Eunice Lander, was with her and encouraged him to hold her hand but she pushed him away and put her hand over her face.

Later Hoyte identified Celaire as her attacker when her mother wrote a series of names on a board and she pointed and banged at the word "Mario".

It was some time before she was able to speak to police who painstakingly built up an account of what had happened. She told officers that Celaire had confessed to her about killing McDermott.

Hoyte described how on the night of the attack she had thought Celaire was leaving her flat and said "bye bye" to him.

"She was then hit on the left side of her head. 'Bang, bang, bang,' she said, then she was lying on her bed. She described blood dripping on to the floor," Denison told the court.

Jennifer McDermott, the mother of Celaire's previous victim, praised Hoyte for helping bring her daughter justice.

Mrs McDermott, 58, said in a victim impact statement read to the Old Bailey today: "My heart goes out to Kara for her bravery and determination.

"She has shown immense courage to see this process through of telling her story but also of the confession that Mario made to her of killing Cassandra.

"It was Kara's determination for justice that made it possible for Cassandra's case to be reopened."

There was loud applause and a shout of "rot in hell" in court as Celaire was jailed.

The judge, Paul Worsley, told the defendant: "You present a very real and continuing danger to young women with whom you enter into a close relationship."

Celaire was given two life sentences and told he must serve a minimum of eight years after pleading guilty to the manslaughter of McDermott. He was given a concurrent life term with at least 23 years for the attempted murder of Hoyte.

In a letter read out in court, Hoyte told her attacker that she was determined to rebuild her life.

"Mario, why did you do this to me?" she wrote.

"I don't hate you, I pity you. I will get better and better with each day and stronger. You have only damaged my shell, I am still the same determined and strong person I always was … I leave here today free, with the whole world at my feet and a new life to be whatever I choose to be.

"You, on the other hand, have a long time to reflect and to understand you cannot control another person – that their life is just that: theirs."

Critics say emphasis of Gay Pride march on fun ignores liberation movement's fight against injustice

When the gay clientele of a New York bar staged a revolt against police harassment in June 1969 it sparked the awakening of the homosexual liberation movement. But 40 years on from the Stonewall rebellion, Britain's gay community is riven by a dispute over which should come first: politics or partying.

As thousands take to the streets of the British capital today for Gay Pride, which traditionally commemorates the US riots, critics hit out at Pride London for "depoliticising" the event and failing to feature its history in its literature or website.

Peter Tatchell, of the lesbian gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) human rights group, OutRage, and a patron of Pride London, condemned this year's slogan "Come and Play" as "totally anodyne" and accused the LGBT community of "huge apathy and complacency".

He said: "I'm shocked that Pride London has hardly mentioned the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots on its website or in its magazine. Most of the content is about entertainment and partying. To ignore and downplay this important anniversary is an insult to the veterans who began our momentous fight for freedom."

Citing police statistics showing a 63% rise in homophobic hate crimes in Manchester last year and a recent report from the Association of Teachers and Lecturers showing the term gay is still the most frequently used insult in schools, he said: "Lots of people assume that we've won equality and everything is hunky dory. But the battle for LGBT equality is still far from being won. Same-sex marriage is banned and there is a ban on gay and bisexual blood donors. LGBT refugees are often sent back to renewed persecution to violently homophobic countries like Uganda and Nigeria. Police refuse to prosecute fundamentalist clerics and reggae singers who openly advocate the murder of LGBT people. The government's current equality bill gives protection against harassment on all grounds except sexual orientation."

Echoing Tatchell's call for a stronger political message, Anisa de Jong, the director of the UK Lesbian and Gay Immigration Group, said: "Gay Pride should be providing more of a political space in line with its history which is about visibility being a political statement in itself. The whole Pride issue is not just about celebrating our identity but about making a political statement about our identity and addressing injustices."

Joseph Galliano, the outgoing editor of GT magazine (formerly Gay Times), welcomed the celebratory aspects of the march but warned against the loss of its heritage.

He said: "I don't want to be po-faced about it but that celebration is standing on the shoulders of people who made great sacrifices and they should be remembered."

Paul Birrell, of Pride London, defended the decision not to feature the Stonewall riots on the website, but said it would be mentioned in the rally at Trafalgar Square after the march today.

"We decided that the Stonewall anniversary would get a lot of mainstream press interest and, short of being a commemoration event of the Stonewall riots, there's not much Pride can do. We will talk about it on stage on the day."

He stressed that London was one of the few Pride UK marches to retain a campaigning element, but admitted that its focus had changed in recent years to attract more people.

"There's no point in having a march just for already politicised LGBT group members – you would be preaching to the converted," said Birrell. "If you want to campaign, you have to have an audience, so you need to make it fun. When we took over in 2004, only 10,000 people attended, but last year we had 823,000. Our predecessor, mardi gras, was run on a more militant basis, but no one was interested. It collapsed in 2003."

Birrell said the campaign behind the march this year was to protest against the ban on gay men donating blood, but there would be "important but boring" speeches from, among others, Harriet Harmen, the deputy leader of the Labour party, on anti-discrimination issues such as the Single Equality Act.

When asked if sponsorship was a factor in deciding the march's message, Birrell replied: "To a degree. If we were heavily politicised, there's no way we would be in Oxford Street and Regents Street. The traders wouldn't want it and they have a lot of clout with the council, but when they can see it attracts people into the city, they're happy."

Soho Pride cancelled its event this year due to a lack of sponsorship, while the recently elected mayor of Doncaster, Peter Davies, has threatened to cut funding to the town's Gay Pride event as part of his pledge to fight political correctness.

Hit refresh for the latest updates and email SW19's barney.ronay@guardian.co.uk with your predictions or even your best efforts at a caption for the picture below

First set: V Williams 5-5 S Williams*
Another quick one. They're racing through this. Serena pounds out a game to love.

First set: V Williams* 5-4 S Williams Great rally in there, Serena sprinting about 400 yards in the process from side to side, keeping it alive until Venus finally kills it off with a euthanasia forehand. Great dogged chasing. Venus wins it to 15. This is going to a tie-break. And I reckon Venus will win it.

First set: V Williams 4-4 S Williams*
Wow. Top returning from Venus out to the Serena forehand, then a fizzing backhand winner to go to 0-15. And, wa-hey, it's 0-30 suddenly as Serena gets an iffy bounce. Pulls it back with a big serve for 15-30. But nets a slashing forehand and it's the first break points. Saves one with a high kicking second serve. Saves another by rushing the net, Venus just missing with a high topspin pass. Then an ace out wide. And another down the middle. Really impressive hold of serve in the end. Big fist-pump but no yelps or yells.

First set: V Williams* 4-3 S Williams
Venus slips over on the baseline trying to push off to reach a return. She's all right though. Makes it 15-15 with a forehand that is both wrong-footing and viciously clipped. Venus moving brilliantly to get to Serena's heavy ground strokes, getting balls other women players might not return. Some longer rallies though. But you already fancy a tie-break. Another Venus ace takes it to 40-15. Very focused she looks too.

First set: V Williams 3-3 S Williams*
Another ace to go to 40-0. A topspin second serve and Venus hits a forehand wide and that's the game. Just one point dropped on serve by Serena so far. How is Venus going to break this?
On Stiller in the royal box, Jeff King has written pretty much an entire scene here, with plenty of out-take stuff and room to cut: "So, Ben would have been out on the town the previous night being shown the delightful UK nightlife by a sweet-natured English girl. After a montage in which Ben knocks back lots of booze - pints then shots, then eyeball shots etc. - we see the night wind up with a dangerously intoxicated Stiller partaking of some dodgy late night food - a curry or kebab, I'm uncertain which - if it's a curry he will boldly and foolishly attempt to eat the hottest on the menu in a half-witted attempt to impress his ladyfriend.
Cut to the royal box the next morning - obviously the Queen's in attendance wearing the crown jewels and that - Ben however is feeling a little unwell, stomach rumbling. His attempts to stave off this oncoming bout of diarrhoea result in constant fidgeting - much to the annoyance of the plum-voiced tennis posho sat behind him...." and sorry I'm going ot have to cut it off there. We get the idea though. Very nice.

First set: V Williams* 3-2 S Williams
Genius running full-stretch winner into the far corner on the backhand from Venus. She's serving really heavily. And you have to say the court looks beautifully weathered out there. Lovely crazy-paving effect on the baseline. No footing problems yet though. Venus is charging through her service games. Wins it to 15.

First set: V Williams 2-2 S Williams* Lovely point to start. Venus rushes in to the net, but Serena passes her with a whipped inside-to-out forehand that clips the line. An ace makes it 30-0. Another one seals it.
On potential gross-out antics in the royal box Jonas Lieberknecht writes: "Ben Stiller will probably watch on in horror as the Duke of Kent has a painfully humiliating zipper accident. They will then both be beaten up by Conchita Martinez for being wimps." Conchita. Is there not a St Etienne song called Conchita Martinez? Why, I wonder. Why not Helena Sukova or Jana Novotna?

First set: V Williams* 2-1 S Williams
Venus takes the game in about ten seconds. They're both serving really well here. It's all very efficient.
Wouldn't you like to see one of these two playing a man, for real, out there on centre court? I bet they'd play even better.

First set: V Williams 1-1 S Williams*
Serena starts with an ace, the follows it up with a great point, moving Venus from side to side three times. An unreturnable bullet makes it 40-0. Top-spin second serve. Game. And Venus has a really huge and complicated bandage on her right leg that makes it look a little bit as though shes got a prosthetic leg. But she hasn't.

First set: V Williams* 1-0 S Williams
Venus kicks us off with a double fault, both serves long. Then wins her first point with a furious forehand cross-court winner. Serena slogs one wild forehand return ten yards out. And then floats a weird moon ball over the baseline. That's the game. And the sun is out.

2.12pm Venus won the toss and will serve. And I'm going to call them Venus and Serena for now. OK?

2.10pm They're now warming up on the court. This is something that gets me about tennis. Why do they get to knock up on the court? Just go out there and play. It's like Man Utd and Everton practicing set pieces against each other for ten minutes before a match. Or bowlers sending down a few practice balls to the batsmen before play on a Test Match pitch before play starts. Just get on with it. Assess the conditions as you go on. It's a skill. Only tennis does it the other way.

2.05 On the met office and their rain odds Javad Husain has done the math: "Actually they would owe you £90 plus your original stake. Presuming a non-profit making met office. Although with this government, that's very unlikely." In your face met office. And government.

2.00pm They've just done those awful pre-final interviews with a couple of pumped up players who don't want to talk and just wish the silly bloke with the mic would go away. Venus seemed serener. Serena seemed tense.

1.45pm James Dunn writes: "Naturally, Ben Stiller will rip his trousers off after being hit in the crown jewels whilst in the Royal Box" And he seems to think Serena's going to win it. Only, let's hope, if she plays genius tennis. Venus has been awesome. Keep it up. Don't funk out.

1.30pm I suppose we should talk about the Williams sisters. Never that easy, these sister-on-sister finals. Despite what they say, and Serena said in her press conference the other day that she actually enjoyed playing her sister. But they obviously hate it.
But let's hope they really rip into each other today. In theory this should be a dream match-up. Fiery, slugging Serena against imperious, galloping, swatting Venus. Serena's serve v Venus' return. If only they hated each other, rather than being really sweetly supportive and close and generous towards each other.
I think Venus will win because she has been absolutely sublime on the grass while Serena has been up and down and her forehand is in Hawaii.

1.20pm It has now stopped raining here. People are clapping as the covers come off because people have to clap something at Wimbledon. Or giggle at it. The roof is still off on Centre Court and may well stay off now, barring some kind of squall.

1.10pm Also, I saw someone who really looked like, and I'm pretty sure was, Ian Bell wandering around. He was explaining something really intently to PR-ish, hospitality-type of woman. When I passed them all I heard was him saying "...with Sure for men". But he said it Australian interrogative style. "...With sure for Men?"
I wonder why. Maybe he's tying up a massive deal with them. Maybe he really stinks and he's eager to do something about it.

1.01pm And it's properly raining here. The covers are on and the roof will no doubt follow on Centre Court. The met office said there was a 10% chance of rain today. So if I'd taken them up on it and put a tenner down, they would now owe me 100 quid plus my original stake. Or I go round there and threaten them with a length of lead piping.

12.50pm Just been out watching a bit of the old blokes doubles. Alarmingly youthful, liberal-minded, bicycle-riding Dutch pair Jacco Eltingh and Paul Haarhuis against grizzled, old-preppy types Todd Martin and David Wheaton. Martin looks exactly the same ie. really old. People giggled at unfunny stuff they did, expecting some kind of old-guy clowning. It didn't come.

12.25pm Just noticed that Ben Stiller is a guest in the royal box today. I love Ben Stiller. Ben Stiller in the royal box is even better. Why not send me your suggestions as to what would happen if Ben Stiller sitting in the royal box at Wimbledon was a major set-piece scene in a "gross-out"-style Hollywood comedy.
I'm thinking Ben Stiller sneezing a massive globule of snot on to the back of Princess Michael of Kent's neck - and then trying to grab it back with hilarious consequences. Or Ben Stiller thwacked in a really painful place by the ball and getting his trousers ripped off live on TV by court-side medical staff.
Or maybe something entirely non-PC involving Ben Stiller and his comically boorish best mate - played by Will Ferrell - being righteously beaten up by fellow box dwellers Martina Navratoliva, Billie-Jean King and Conchita Martinez.
Why not send me your suggestions to barney.ronay@guardian.co.uk and I'll patch them together to make a hit comedy screenplay and then move to Los Angeles. Otherwise, please do send your score and ace-count predictions (prize if anyone gets it right) plus the usual incisive comment, childish abuse and gossip.

12.01pm Hello and welcome to Wimbledon for Ladies' Singles Final day.
Wimbledon seems a slightly quieter place today. There's a brass band playing sombre music to the day-tripping housewives on Bogdanovich mount (or whatever it's called).
And I've just been watching Serena Williams having a hit. Very relaxed she looked too, casually dressed in skintight white jodphurs. No hworfing when she's practicing.
You've got to love the Williams sisters. They are just so effortlessly good. And they're fun too. Plus they're also going to win the ladies doubles final against Some Other Women on Centre Court later on this afternoon. If they were allowed to win the men's doubles - which is sandwiched in between - I'm sure they'd do that too.

Barney will be your host at Wimbledon from around 1.30pm, but in the meantime why not check out Guardian photographer Tom Jenkins's best images from yesterday's play.

Find out why the Williams sisters put aside all that sisterly love nonsense when they do battle on court.

Are you as gutted as a north sea cod that Andy Murray was beaten by Andy Roddick? Yes, well so's he. But he vows to be back stronger than ever in the US Open.

And while this final is going on you might want to check out how the Lions are getting on in Alan Gardner's minute-by-minute report as Ian McGeechan's wounded warriors look to salvage some pride against South Africa in the third Test.

Fourth death in UK as chief medical officer says Britain has enough Tamiflu and online pills may be counterfeit

The government's chief medical officer has warned the public against panic-buying swine flu drugs online after it was revealed that the number of new cases of the virus could reach 100,000 per day.

Professor Sir Liam Donaldson said Britain had a large stockpile of Tamiflu, the antiviral drug used to combat infection with the H1N1 virus, and there was no need for people to buy what were likely to be counterfeit medicines on the internet.

His comments came as a 19-year-old man was confirmed today as the fourth person with swine flu to die in the UK. The teenager from south London, who had other serious health problems, tested positive for the virus after his death on Wednesday.

The health secretary, Andy Burnham, yesterday told MPs the spread of swine flu in the UK could no longer be contained.

He said predictions showed the figure of up to 100,000 new cases diagnosed every day could be reached by the end of next month.

In a Commons statement yesterday, Burnham said the country had moved into the "treatment phase" of its response to the flu pandemic.

No more schools will be closed unless forced to by a lack of staff or if pupils are especially vulnerable.

Families and others in contact with infected people will not be given preventative antiviral drugs – a move some doctors predict could push people to go to internet pharmacies.

Donaldson told GMTV there was considerable concern that people might buy counterfeit drugs.

"People shouldn't buy Tamiflu from the internet," he said. "We have got a massive stockpile in this country, and everybody can have access to it through the National Health Service."

The Royal Pharmaceutical Society's director of policy, David Pruce, said most Tamiflu for sale online was probably fake because no legitimate online pharmacy would sell it.

"These sites could be based anywhere in the world," he told BBC Radio 4's Today programme. "They could be selling anything from sugar to rat poison.

"Counterfeiters are very good at producing goods that look like the genuine article. When it's counterfeit medicines and you've got really no idea what's in the tablet or the capsule, you're taking your life in your hands."

Pruce added that while people could get a private prescription for Tamiflu from their GP, there was no point in taking the drug unless they had symptoms.

There are now 7,447 diagnosed cases in the UK, but the number is doubling every week.

People who think they may have flu are advised to go online and check their symptoms on the NHS website or call the swine flu information line on 0800 1 513 513.

Anyone still concerned after that should phone their GP, who can provide a diagnosis over the phone.

If swine flu is confirmed, they will be issued with an authorisation voucher, which a "flu friend" can take to an antiviral drug collection point, which may be a pharmacy or a health centre.

The first doses of swine flu vaccine will arrive in the UK in August. Although the government has ordered enough for the entire population, it will arrive in batches.

At-risk groups – especially those vulnerable because of diseases which have compromised their immune systems or affect their breathing, such as asthma – would get it first.

The shift in the government's swine flu strategy came as the World Health Organisation warned that the spread of swine flu was now "unstoppable", with a total of 112 countries reporting nearly 77,201 infected people and 332 deaths since April.

Dr Margaret Chan, the WHO director general, told an international conference on swine flu in Mexico: "With well over 100 countries reporting cases, once a fully fit pandemic virus emerges its further international spread is unstoppable."

Chan said there was "good reason to believe" the swine flu pandemic would be "of moderate severity, at least in its early days".

But she said that while most deaths had so far occurred in people with serious underlying medical conditions, there were a few exceptions that raised alarm.

"For reasons that are poorly understood, some deaths are occurring in perfectly healthy young people," she said.

"Moreover, some patients experience a very rapid clinical deterioration, leading to severe, life-threatening viral pneumonia that requires mechanical ventilation."

So far, the fatality rate appears to be low. In the UK only four people have died. All had significant underlying health problems.

Jacqui Fleming, 38, of Glasgow, was the first person in the UK to die after contracting the virus. Fleming died last month, two weeks after her son, Jack, was born 11 weeks prematurely. The boy died later but had not contracted the virus.

The second victim was a 73-year-old man from the Inverclyde area of Scotland. Then a week ago today six-year-old Sameerah Ahmad, who was born with a rare life-threatening disease, became the youngest UK victim to date.

Health experts believe more people have caught swine flu but have shown no symptoms.

In the US the official figures show 27,725 Americans have contracted H1N1, with 127 deaths.

The Centres for Disease Control and Prevention, in Atlanta, estimate that one million Americans may have caught swine flu but not been to a doctor, suggesting fatality rates are as low as 0.012%, Burns said.

The European Centre for Disease Prevention and Control reported on Thursday that of 69,177 cases which had been detected worldwide only 328 people had died – a fatality rate of 0.47%.

Use of Vikings questioned after British commander and soldier are killed, but analysts say size of Taliban bombs surprises military

Former army officers have today defended the decision to deploy Viking vehicles to southern Afghanistan as the Ministry of Defence began investigating the circumstances surrounding the deaths of a senior commander and a soldier.

Lieutenant Colonel Rupert Thorneloe and Trooper Joshua Hammond were killed yesterday when their armoured Viking track vehicle was blown up by a "huge" bomb as their convoy was heading for Lashkar Gah, the capital of Helmand province.

The Viking cross-country vehicles are due to be replaced in Afghanistan by more than 100 new, larger and more heavily armoured tracked vehicles to be known as Warthogs, while a further 100 Jackal all-terrain vehicles will also be purchased.

As attention focused on the Vikings, former officers defended their use and suggested that military planners have been surprised by the size of the bombs and mines the Taliban now have in their arsenal.

"You have to remember that Vikings were deployed to fill a very specific function," said Amyas Godfrey, a former infantry officer and fellow of the Royal United Services Institute thinktank, referring to the bridges and canals of the "green zone" along the Helmand river.

The Viking is a tracked vehicle, unlike the heavier Mastiff armoured troop carrier. "You are sacrificing mobility for protection but mobility is itself a form of protection", said Godfrey.

He said even the Mastiff had been vulnerable to roadside bombs. Charles Heyman, a military consultant and former infantry officer, said it was impossible to judge decisions and the circumstances surrounding the colonel's death.

The MoD said the Warthogs will not be delivered until next year because they have to undergo trials and be fitted with British "subsystems".

The Viking was introduced into Afghanistan three years ago, but last year the MoD admitted it had reached the limit of how much it could be armoured following a number of deaths involving roadside bombs. It is due to be replaced by the new Warthog vehicle next year.

Announcing the move in the Commons in December, Gordon Brown said £150m would be spent buying the new tracked personnel carriers from Singapore. The Bronco, as it is called, will be converted into armoured, all-terrain vehicles and renamed Warthog. The carrier can travel through water and hold up to 14 troops.

Brown said at the time that the Warthog would provide "improved protection for our forces". In another move to counter the threat of roadside bombs, a new class of mine-clearing vehicles – including the Buffalo mine-protected vehicle – is also being developed. The army's Snatch Land Rovers, which have been particularly vulnerable to attack, are also to be upgraded to a new variant – Snatch Vixen – with more power and better protection.

The first of the new vehicles should be ready to be deployed by the end of next year.

There have been a number of deaths involving Viking armoured vehicles in Afghanistan. Last month, the Grimsby district coroner, Paul Kelly, praised the MoD for identifying a problem with the vehicle and taking steps to solve it after hearing that Trooper Robert Pearson, from the Queen's Royal Lancers regiment, was killed when driving a vehicle hit by an improvised explosive device in Helmand on 21 April last year.

In January, an inquest heard that armour to combat mines was being flown out to Afghanistan to be added to the military vehicles following the death of a Royal Marine.

The move came after Corporal Damian Mulvihill, of 40 Commando Royal Marines, was killed in an explosion while travelling in the front seat of a Viking on 20 February last year in Helmand. Lieutenant Colonel Andrew Teare, of the Royal Electrical and Mechanical Engineers, told a hearing in Plymouth that the MoD expected all 50 vehicles being used in Afghanistan to be fitted with new armour after numerous "mine strikes" prompted urgent requests for the undercarriages to be reinforced. Teare said the Viking was initially designed to defend small arms fire and rocket-propelled grenades and therefore most of the armour was on the top of the vehicle.

The gap in life expectancy between the prosperous middle classes and those in the most deprived homes is widening sharply, latest health figures show.

The emerging pattern suggests that the well-off are adopting healthier lifestyles while the poor are still drinking and smoking and cannot afford to change diets.

Men in Blackpool now live on average up to 73.2 years, 10.5 years fewer than their counterparts in Kensington and Chelsea. Women in Hartlepool have the lowest female life expectancy at 78.1 years, around 9.6 years less than in the central London borough.

While life expectancy rates are increasing overall, they appear to be rising much faster for the affluent than for those who struggle to make ends meet, according to the latest district-by-district NHS health profiles, published this week.

Over a three-year period – from 2004-06 to 2005-07 – the figures reveal that the gap between local authorities at opposite ends of the health spectrum grew by 0.4 years for men and 0.8 years for women.

Average male life expectancy in England has now risen to 77.7 years, compared with 77.3 years three years ago; average female life expectancy has risen to 81.8 years from 81.6 years. The minister for public health, Gillian Merron, welcomed the figures: "The health of the nation is improving ... It is good to see that people can expect to live longer, that early deaths from heart disease, cancer and smoking-related diseases are decreasing.

"But people living in some areas are still healthier than those living in other areas, which is unacceptable. The NHS and local authorities need to work with this published information to identify what the issues are in their area and take action for the sake of the health of their local population."

Alan Walker, professor of social policy and social gerontology at the University of Sheffield, said: "Messages about wellbeing and healthy lifestyles penetrate more rapidly into the middle-class professional households than they do into working-class homes and households on benefits.

"It's easier on a comfortable income to make those lifestyle choices. When you are poor you simply can't choose what you eat. Try to tell a hard-pressed mother to stop smoking – she may say thats it's the only thing that gets her through the day.

"It's much easier for those on higher incomes. The health inequality statistics are a mirror of other inequalities. Those differences are getting wider. It's hard cash, like child benefits, that is going to make a difference."

Life expectancy has been increasing for at least the past 180 years – since records in the UK began. It is increasing, on average, at the rate of one month every six years.

The Chief Rabbi, Sir Jonathan Sacks, issued a rallying cry for Jews today to defend their schools from English law after the court of appeal decided that admission on the basis of a parent's Jewish status was discriminatory. Writing in this week's Jewish Chronicle, he condemned the ruling, saying it branded Judaism "racist".

His comments follow last month's judgment by the court of appeal that a Jewish school that prioritised applications from children with Jewish mothers discriminated on grounds of race. Seen as a landmark decision on the admissions criteria used by faith schools, the case centred on a boy known as M, 12, who was refused admission to JFS, in Brent, London.

M, a Jew who regularly attends a progressive synagogue, was told he could not be admitted because his mother had converted to Judaism in a procedure not recognised by the Chief Rabbi.

Overturning a previous judgment in favour of the school, the court said a policy determining eligibility based on a person's descent, rather than religious practice, amounted to racial discrimination.

Sacks wrote that Jewish education was extended to Jews, "that is, those born of Jewish mothers" or those who had converted according to the standards of the religious authority to which the school belonged. It was a religious, not a racial, test and it applied to all Jewish schools, "Orthodox and non-Orthodox alike".

"An English court has declared this rule racist, and since this is an essential element of Jewish law, it is in effect declaring Judaism racist," Sacks wrote. "To be told now that Judaism is racist is distressing. To confuse religion and race is a mistake."Faith schools are exempted from the law prohibiting discrimination on grounds of religion or belief, to enable them to provide education in line with their beliefs."Once [a faith school] is oversubscribed, it can restrict entry to children whom – or whose parents – it regards as sharing the school's faith," the court said. "No school, however, is permitted to discriminate in its admissions policy on racial grounds."

AP - Even for a nonconformist, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin has defied political logic with her sudden, stunning announcement to leave office more than a year early.

AP - North Korea fired seven ballistic missiles off its eastern coast Saturday, South Korea said, a violation of U.N. resolutions and an apparent message of defiance to the United States on its Independence Day.

AP - The first visitors allowed into the Statue of Liberty's crown in nearly eight years began the arduous climb Saturday on an Independence Day journey laden with symbolism of freedom and national pride.

AP - Questions about Michael Jackson's use of prescription drugs are intensifying after a powerful sedative was found inside his home.

AP - Taliban militants fired rockets and mortars at a U.S. base in eastern Afghanistan on Saturday, killing two American troops and wounding several more in a two-hour battle, officials said.