The Conservatives and Europe: Can the party resolve its dilemma?
Mr Wharton's recent comments illustrate the paradox
of Europe for many Tory MPs
Conservatives risk talking too much
about Europe, and not about things like the cost of living, tax and
immigration.
So said the Conservative backbencher James Wharton.
Less than 24 hours later, he announced he would introduce a bill on an EU referendum. It sums up the Conservative dilemma.
They know Europe matters - hugely to some - but do not want to give the impression they think of nothing else.
Wharton ended up tabling the bill because he came top in a ballot of MPs wanting to introduce their own laws. It will allow Parliament to have its say on the matter so MPs can "really focus", Wharton said, on the things that matter to voters.
Many Conservatives had a similar hope when David Cameron gave his big speech on Europe in January.
They thought the promise of an in/out referendum by 2017, and a draft bill before the election, might be enough to stop the Euro chatter. It did not work out like that.
David Cameron has withdrawn his MEPs from a European Parliamentary group felt to be insufficiently sceptical, blocked an EU-wide treaty change and secured a real-terms cut in the EU budget envelope.
Canny sceptics
None of it has been enough to silence his Eurosceptics.
No surprise, say critics of noisy backbenchers: nothing short of withdrawal will please them. That is not entirely true.
Some say the prime minister has now done enough. But the sceptics are nothing if not canny about Parliamentary procedure. They managed, by attempting to amend the Queen's Speech, to ensure a prime ministerial trip to the US was dominated by Europe.
They will make sure the passage of this private member's bill sees the maximum publicity for their arguments. And they are ever optimistic.
Time and again they have been rejected or derided and fought back.
Even now they will be looking at the number of MPs who supported the Eurosceptic Queen's Speech amendment.
If you add the votes of ministers who were told to abstain on that division but will be whipped to support the private member's bill, a vote on the legislation looks like it could be very close indeed.
Front and backbench Tories alike will urge journalists to turn their attention now to Labour and the Liberal Democrats, hoping to cast the other parties as reluctant to let the public have a say on this issue.
The prime minister and the chancellor have talked of a relentless focus on the economy and growth.
Those who worry that this focus has not been as obvious as it should have been since UKIP's success at the local elections will wonder about the effect of a fresh debate on the European Union.
Ivory Coast: Duekoue massacre suspect Oueremi held
In April 2011, the ICRC's Kelnor Panglung described the
aftermath of the massacre in Duekoue for BBC
News
The authorities in Ivory Coast have
arrested a militia leader suspected of a role in one of the worst massacres
during 2011 post-election violence.
Human rights groups say Amade Oueremi's fighters executed hundreds of supporters of former President Laurent Gbagbo in the western town of Duekoue.
Mr Oueremi was detained in a village close to a national park, where he had been based for more than 20 years.
Some reports suggest the militia leader turned himself in.
It was not immediately clear if he had been been charged with a crime.
Human rights groups had criticised the new government's failure to arrest Mr Oueremi, saying that it showed it was not pursuing justice against both sides in the conflict, BBC Africa editor Richard Hamilton reports.
In its September 2011 report on the post-election violence, Human Rights Watch said Mr Oueremi and his men "were identified by multiple witnesses as among the main perpetrators of the March 29 Duekoue massacre".
Months afterwards UN peacekeepers collected arms from "nearly 90 members" of his group, it added.
Around 3,000 people were killed in Ivory Coast after Laurent Gbagbo refused to acknowledge that his rival, Alassane Ouattara, had won a presidential run-off.
Amade Oueremi's militia backed Mr Ouattara in the conflict.
Mr Gbagbo is currently awaiting trial at the International Criminal Court, accused of crimes against humanity.
'Mystic powers'
A military commander, who insisted on anonymity because he was not authorised to discuss the operation, told Reuters news agency Mr Oueremi had turned himself amid signs the military was preparing for an operation to remove him from the national park.
Denis Badouon, deputy mayor of Duekoue, said the militia leader had been taken into custody on Saturday morning in the village of Bagohouo, near Mount Peko.
According to a UN report from May 2011 Mr Oueremi began supporting anti-Gbagbo rebels as early as 2000 and his men had been hoarding weapons and ammunition since then.
The UN report noted that Mr Oueremi was widely believed to possess "mystical powers".
In photos taken during the crisis, his shirts are pulled tightly over a collection of charms and pendants seen bulging underneath, believed to give him protection from enemy fire, Reuters notes.
cells: The Somali pirates 'jailed in paradise'
There are more than 1,000 convicted
Somali pirates in prisons around the world. Some of them end up in a UN-funded
jail on the tiny island nation of Seychelles.
The Indian shopkeepers along the beach have never heard of the prison at Montagne Posee, but a villager tells me to drive above a deep ravine full of banana trees.
As the sea becomes a distant horizon and the road winds steeply, I stop to ask for directions from two men in yellow dungarees shovelling sand. As soon as the man with the shovel turns I can see that he is a prisoner.
He asks first for cigarettes, then for money, and then he says: "Just give me anything, I have nothing, I am from Somalia."
This is the pirates' prison, hidden high in the hills.
Hundreds of metres below, between two shimmering white beaches, upmarket tourists are paying up to £3,000 ($4,500) a night to stay in their thatched villas.
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They know nothing about this prison wing, opened three
years ago by the UN Office on Drugs and Crime.
Here, 66 Somalis are awaiting trial for piracy or, if already convicted, await deportation to serve their sentences back home.
Early the next morning I am in Victoria, the islands' capital, to witness an astonishing sight that is about to disappear forever.
In the heart of town is the beautiful black and white Creole courthouse.
Outside, lolling on benches are groups of handcuffed prisoners.
It is a sun-kissed Dickensian scene that I cannot imagine anywhere else.
Six Somalis, in flip flops and chained in pairs, are brought into the tiny court where a judge and nine lawyers clad in black and wearing wigs barely give them a glance.
These six were arrested last August hundreds of miles north - nearer Yemen than Seychelles.
They are accused of attempting to board a merchant ship and were captured by the Dutch navy with help from a Spanish helicopter.
Charles Brown is a barrister from Cumbria and one of two UK Criminal Prosecution Service lawyers who have been seconded to the attorney general's office in Seychelles to help prosecute pirates.
He says that they can look pretty shell-shocked when they first arrive in these lush islands, but describes the Somalis as a "cheerful and reasonably intelligent lot".
Brown needs to prove that these six were attacking a ship for private gain or that they were caught operating a pirate vessel.
Somali suspects are rarely found with guns although sometimes helicopters spot them throwing things overboard. They have been found with "pirate paraphernalia" - things like grappling hooks.
Most Somali prisoners though claim to be either economic migrants or simple fishermen, although, as Brown points out, their captured boats rarely have refrigeration or even fishing nets.
At one point so many pirates were being caught that they were being dumped back on to the beaches of Somalia.
But these days, with intensive patrolling of the Indian Ocean, more are being convicted.
Here in Seychelles, another 17 were recently flown home to a UN-funded jail in the relatively secure region of Puntland in Somalia, to serve sentences that mostly range between 10 and 20 years - 59 have already been tried and sent back.
Alan Cole, who works on the UN's Counter Piracy Programme, tells me that most Somalis are happy to be sent home to escape the prison diet of rice and tuna.
But he cites the story of one Somali who opted to stay on - to finish studying for a certificate in English.
He has received more formal education in one year in a Seychellois jail than in 20 years in Somalia.
Charles Brown believes that the war on piracy is succeeding, thanks to the efforts of navies and the close monitoring of boats leaving the Somali coast.
No armed merchant ship has ever been boarded and many now have a secure room or citadel to which crews can retreat while still operating their ships. And British investment in the courts is helping.
Something of a building boom is under way in Secyhelles at present, with Russian and Arab money contributing to some worrying developments.
Pristine forest and beaches are being built upon. The prison at Montagne Posee is not the only fortress overlooking the former slaver colony.
There are now ugly giant palaces built by the rulers of the UAE dominating the skyline over Victoria.
The old Creole courthouse - where justice is literally "seen to be done" - is to become a museum, and the court will move to a vast new Chinese-built property on the edge of town.
Meanwhile, as the astonishingly rich newcomers from the Gulf look down on their outsized boats in the harbour and the very rich tourists relax in their gated hotels, the Somali pirates are honing their gardening and footballing skills behind their very own walls.
Swindon A419 crash: Two female victims named by police
Continue reading the main story
The group's Renault Clio left the A419 near the
junction with the A420 
The female driver, 19, died at the scene and a female
passenger died in hospital
Two people killed in a car crash on
the A419 in Wiltshire have been named by police as 18-year-old Shaya Rae Leigh
and 17-year-old Kerry Staniford.
The pair, from Swindon, were travelling north at 05:00 BST when their car left the road and rolled down a bank.
Three male passengers, all aged 20, were seriously injured and are being treated in hospital.
Police described the incident as "horrific" and appealed for any witnesses to come forward.
A Wiltshire Police spokesman said the force was alerted by a motorist who had seen the car leave the carriageway.
Thrown clear
"Police officers found a grey Renault Clio with substantial damage in undergrowth about 20m from the road," he added.
“Start Quote
End Quote PC Jeff Rice Wiltshire PoliceThis was an horrific incident and we would like to offer our condolences to the families of the two young women”
Four ambulance crews and three rapid response paramedics
were sent to help.
Ms Leigh, who was driving, was pronounced dead at the scene. Ms Staniford died later at Great Western Hospital in Swindon.
Police said the three men were all thrown clear of the vehicle.
Two are critically injured and in intensive care at Frenchay Hospital in Bristol, while the third is being treated for serious injuries in Great Western Hospital.
PC Jeff Rice, of the Roads Policing Unit at Wiltshire Police, said: "This was an horrific incident and we would like to offer our condolences to the families of the two young women who sadly died.
"We are very keen to hear from anyone who was on the A419 near the scene at around 5am today.
"We would also like to hear from anyone with any information about the movements of the people in the car during Friday night and the early hours of Saturday."
Anyone with information is asked to call Wiltshire Police on 101 and ask for the Serious Collision Investigation Team.
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