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Duty Of Care To Recruits At Deepcut Barracks ‘Failed’

Deepcut army barracks failed in its duty of care to young recruits, a coroner looking into the death of a soldier found shot has said.

Pte Cheryl James, 18 was found dead with a bullet wound to the head in 1995. She was one of four recruits to die at the base in seven years.

Coroner Brian Barker QC said it was regrettable there had not been a more thorough investigation at the time. «This has been a long and a difficult exercise,» he said. «Many events since the autumn of 1995 have had to be examined.»

Mr Barker said there were far too few officers at the Surrey Barracks to train and look after the young squaddies, who were left bored and indisciplined. «While some intermittent training was provided, there were too few permanent staff to deliver it and put into place a structured regime to occupy and meet a duty of care to those young men and women.»

Pte James, from north Wales, had been carrying out lone guard duty at the barracks when she was found dead, which the coroner said military rules should not have allowed. «It seems to me that lone armed guard duty is a potentially dangerous activity,» he said.

Non-commissioned officers (NCOs) meted out guard duty to trainees as punishment, which was against army rules. There was also overwhelming evidence of a «sexualised» atmosphere at Deepcut, Mr Barker said.

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Egypt To Receive First Of Two Warships In Coming Weeks

Egypt has received the first of two advanced warships from France in a deal worth $1bn (£692m).

The Mistral helicopter carriers were originally made for Russia, but the contract was cancelled in 2014 over the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

The first of the ships, which has been named after the late president Gamal Abdel Nasser, was handed over at a ceremony in western France. The second ship, the Anwar Sadat, will arrive in Egypt in September.

Egypt is fighting a long-running insurgency in its northern Sinai region and fears being affected by the conflict in neighbouring Libya. Egypt’s Defence Minister Sedki Sobhi, attending the ceremony in Saint-Nazaire, said the ships gave Egypt the «advanced capabilities in confronting terrorism within our borders and on our shores. «It increases our combat capabilities and our ability to carry out long-term missions at sea,» he added.

The Mistral is known as the «Swiss army knife» of the French navy for its versatility, Reuters news agency reports. It can store up to 16 helicopters, has enough space to land six helicopters and is equipped with the latest missile defence and radar navigation systems, according to Egyptian state television.

The Gamal Abdel Nasser, which had been named the Vladivostok before it switched from Russian to Egyptian ownership, is expected to arrive in Alexandria in the coming weeks.

UN Urged To Begin Air Drops In Syria

The US, UK and France have urged the UN to begin air drops of humanitarian aid to besieged areas in Syria.

They said the Syrian government had failed to respect a 1 June deadline for widespread aid distribution agreed by world and regional powers.

About 4,000 people in the besieged Darayya suburb of the capital Damascus have been without food aid since 2012. A convoy reached the area on Wednesday but carried only a small amount of medicines and other non-food items. The UN Security Council will meet on Friday to discuss the air drops.

Meanwhile, in the north of Syria, US warplanes have been trying to destroy a key access route to Turkey for militants from the so-called Islamic State (IS). Overnight air strikes destroyed all the bridges linking the IS-controlled towns of Manbij to Jarablus, on the Turkish border, an IS-affiliated news agency confirmed.

The Kurdish-led Syrian Democratic Forces (SDF), which is leading the ground operation to recapture Manbij, says it is within 10km (six miles) of the town. US state department spokesman John Kirby said hundreds of thousands of Syrians needed «sustained and regular» access to aid. He said the UN food agency, the World Food Programme (WFP), had briefed the US on how the air drops could be carried out.

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Armenians Killed In WW1 Declared Genocide By German Parliament

The German parliament has approved a resolution declaring that the mass killing of Armenians by Ottoman Turks during World War One was a «genocide».

Armenians say up to 1.5 million of their people died in the atrocities of 1915. Turkey says the toll was much lower and rejects the term «genocide».

The timing is awkward, as the EU needs Turkey to help stem the migrant influx. Turkish president Recip Tayyip Erdogan said the resolution risked harming ties between the countries.

Turkey has withdrawn its ambassador to Germany «for consultations»; Mr Erdogan said he and the ambassador would «sit down together and discuss these issues, which have the potential to impact relations between Germany and Turkey,» adding: «We will do whatever is necessary to resolve this issue».

Turkey’s Prime Minister Binali Yildirim blamed a «racist Armenian lobby» for the resolution. Armenia’s Foreign Minister Edward Nalbandian said it was a «valuable contribution» to the «international recognition and condemnation of the Armenian genocide».

German Chancellor Angela Merkel said: «There is a lot that binds Germany to Turkey and even if we have a difference of opinion on an individual matter, the breadth of our links, our friendship, our strategic ties, is great».

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