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Mr Grieve will now consider if there is sufficient fresh evidence for a full examination of what remains one of the most notorious episodes of Tony Blair’s premiership.
His decision is expected shortly.
Dr Kelly, a world-renowned weapons inspector, is said to have killed himself after being named as the prime source of a BBC report accusing Blair’s government of lying to take Britain into the Iraq war.
His body was found in woods close to his home in Oxfordshire on July 18, 2003.
Uniquely, for an unexpected death such as his, no coroner’s inquest has ever been held.
The public inquiry into his death chaired by Lord Hutton found that he killed himself after slashing his wrist with a blunt pruning knife and overdosing on painkillers.
But Mr Grieve has been told by the doctors that they have established a range of fresh evidence questioning the official finding and highlighting several irregularities.
They state that it has been established, using the Freedom of Information Act, that there were no fingerprints on five items found with Dr Kelly’s body: the knife, a watch, his mobile phone, an open water bottle and blister packs of pills he supposedly swallowed.
In their legal papers, the doctors state: ‘It is submitted that to properly investigate the circumstances of Dr Kelly’s death, any coroner would be obliged to make inquiries as to why there were no fingerprints found, including for example seeking evidence on whether any tests were carried out to establish if anything had been used to attempt to erase fingerprint evidence.
Fresh inquiry call: Body of the government scientist was found at Harrowdown Hill, Oxfordshire, on July 18, 2003 ‘This is particularly relevant as it was noted no gloves were found on the body or in its vicinity.’ The doctors have also alleged that Dr Kelly’s GP, Dr Malcolm Warner, may have concealed crucial evidence about seeing the weapon inspector’s corpse when he appeared as a witness at the Hutton Inquiry in 2003.
The doctors claim they were ultimately made aware of this by Dr Kelly’s MP, Robert Jackson, who has since retired from Parliament.
They also say conflicting evidence about where Dr Kelly was found leads them to believe his body might have been moved after death.
According to the two volunteer searchers who found him, Dr Kelly’s body was sitting against a tree, but pathologist Nicholas Hunt described him as lying several feet in front of the tree.
The doctors have also raised questions about the fact that Thames Valley Police failed to collect vital evidence offered to them by Dr Kelly’s close friend Nigel Cox.
This evidence suggests that, immediately before his death, Dr Kelly had made social plans for July 23.
Mr Cox is understood to still have an answerphone message proving his claim.
The doctors have stipulated that because none of the fingerprint evidence was even mentioned at the Hutton Inquiry, this point on its own ought to satisfy the minimum legal requirement for a coroner’s inquest to be held.
The legal document covers 36 points.
It was co-authored by medical doctors Stephen Frost, Christopher Burns-Cox, David Halpin and Andrew Rouse.
Dr Michael Powers QC, who has been instructed to represent the doctors in their legal action, said: ‘The circumstances of this case are highly unusual.
‘They have troubled a wide section of public opinion.
Given the inadequacy of Lord Hutton’s investigation, it’s essential there should now be a full coroner’s inquest.’
The Catholic Archdiocese of Kansas City has decided to cut ties with the Girl Scouts.
Archbishop Joseph F Naumann announced on Monday that he’s asked churches in his archdiocese to transition away from hosting Girl Scout troops, in favor of partnering with the Christian scouting organization, American Heritage Girls.
Parishes in the diocese were given the choice to stop chartering Girl Scout troops immediately, or graduate scouts already in the program to American Heritage Girl troops over the next few years.
Previously, Naumann had told priests to end sales of the Girls Scouts’ famous cookies, according to the Kansas City Star.
“No Girl Scout cookie sales should occur in Catholic Schools or on parish property after the 2016-2017 school year,” he said in a letter sent to priests in his parish in January.
BRENDAN SMIALOWSKI via Getty Images The archbishop of Kansas City, Kansas, Joseph Naumann (left).
The problem with Girl Scouts, according to Naumann, is that their programs and materials can cause children to be “misled and misinformed” by “secular culture.” “To follow Jesus and his Gospel will often require us to be counter-cultural,” Naumann wrote in his statement.
“With the promotion by Girl Scouts USA (GSUSA) of programs and materials reflective of many of the troubling trends in our secular culture, they are no longer a compatible partner in helping us form young women with the virtues and values of the Gospel.” In particular, Naumann pointed to the fact that Girl Scouts USA pays membership dues to the World Association of Girl Guides and Girl Scouts (WAGGGS), which the archbishop claims has ties to International Planned Parenthood.
Naumann also referred to how Girls Scouts materials portray birth control activist Margaret Sanger and feminists Betty Friedan and Gloria Steinem as role models.
“These as well as many other ‘role models’ in the GSUSA’s new manuals and web content not only do not reflect our Catholic worldview but stand in stark opposition to what we believe,” he wrote.
“Our greatest responsibility as a church is to the children and young people in our care,” Naumann wrote in his statement.
“We have a limited time and number of opportunities to impact the formation of our young people.
It is essential that all youth programs at our parishes affirm virtues and values consistent with our Catholic faith.” John Moore via Getty Images Girl Scouts sell cookies as a winter storm moves in on February 8, 2013 in New York City.
In a statement to HuffPost, a GSUSA spokesperson said that the organization has worked to create a positive relationship with the Catholic Church over the past 100 years.
“Girl Scouts is always willing to work with any and every person or organization in order to fulfill our mission of building girls of courage, confidence and character, who make the world a better place.” On its website, the GSUSA said that it “does not not have a relationship or partnership with Planned Parenthood.” The GSUSA does pay dues to WAGGGS, but claims that it does not always take the same positions as the global organization, and that scouts’ membership dues aren’t used to pay WAGGGS.
GSUSA also said that it is a secular organization and doesn’t take an official position on birth control, abortion, and human sexuality.
The American Catholic bishops and the Girl Scouts USA have had a tense relationship in recent years, much of which centers around the church’s concerns around the culture war issues of contraception, sexual orientation, and gender identity.
The United States Conference of Catholic Bishops held a series of talks with the GSUSA in 2013 and 2014 about these issues.
As a result of the dialogue, the committee in charge of the review issued a document saying that it was “morally objectionable” that WAGGGS promoted educating girls about their “sexual and reproductive health/rights.” The committee believed the phrase itself was “problematic.” Still, the committee didn’t endorse or condemn the GSUSA, leaving decisions about church-hosted scouting to each individual diocesan bishop.
In 2016, the archdiocese of St. Louis officially disbanded its committee on Girl Scouts, and encouraged its priests to choose alternative scouting programs, instead.
In a statement about the move, Archbishop Robert Carlson cited concerns about the GSUSA’s “position on and inclusion of transgender and homosexual issues,” among other issues.
Chancellor Angela Merkel arrived in Chengdu in southern China last Saturday (5.7.2014) with two dozen top managers in tow, including five heads of DAX-listed companies.
Since Tuesday, the final day of Merkel's China visit, it's been evident that the large German business contingent made less of an impression on the Chinese than some of the members of the delegation had hoped.
In the end, the Chinese were not quite as open to everything the German business leaders had on their wish list as the Germans would have liked.
Accords amounting to 3 billion euros ($4 billion) were signed, which is not bad at all.
However, it's a relatively small package if you take into account the fact that China's Prime Minister Li Keqiang spread around more than 21 billion euros on his last trip to Britain three weeks ago.
Only Volkswagen and Airbus had reason to be pleased - and Airbus is half-French.
VW and its Chinese partner FAW agreed on two additional plants in China, with investment of a billion euros each.
Airbus secured a contract on the shipment of 100 helicopters worth about 300 million euros.
However, there were plenty of disappointments: Siemens failed to close deals with four major Chinese cities that would have brought the group orders into the three-digit million euro range.
Germany's stock exchange failed to garner the bid to form a joint enterprise with the Shanghai stock exchange.
Complaints about conditions Frank Sieren: China makes the rules Even more important than concrete deals: on the flight to China, Chancellor Merkel had enough time to listen to German business leaders' complaints.
Many feel the framework for business deals in China is unfair.
Why, they wonder, can the Chinese buy practically every medium-sized German company they have an appetite for, while German corporations that want to do business in China are forced into joint ventures that flush a good deal of money into Chinese coffers.
VW chief Martin Winterkorn can tell you a thing or two about that.
For years, he's been fighting for permission to found a wholly-owned subsidiary in China.
China dictates the pace Understandably, the Chinese approach has been angering German managers.
But it's not likely to change any time soon.
Who can force China?
Not even Europe's mightiest politician, Angela Merkel, has that power.
Beijing will open its economy at the pace it deems to be correct, and won't let the West dictate the rules.
And it's worth noting that in the past, it has sometimes been to Western companies' advantage that Beijing has its own views on the topic.
Just take a look at China's financial sector.
Don't bother thinking that the 2008 financial crisis would have ended if Chinese capital flows had been as liberal and linked to the rest of the world as Western bankers had long desired.
The Chinese economy, too, would have been entangled in a deep crisis, and would have dropped away as a motor for the global economy - including for German enterprises.
But since those companies still managed to reliably sell their goods to China even after the Lehman crash, they got off fairly lightly.
German firms make good money inChina It's fine to clearly state one's point of view toward China, but it would be inappropriate to complain too much about the conditions there.
After all, German firms make good money on the Chinese market.
And that is bound to continue.
Beijing no longer wants to be the world's workbench, it wants China to be more innovative - and the Germans are expected to help.
In effect, that means China wants to hold on to the German-Sino symbiosis, closely tested over two decades: exchanging Chinese market shares for Western technology.
There's no way to prevent the Chinese from slowly turning into competitors for German manufacturers.
But as long as the economy continues to grow, German companies will move forward.
Over the next few years, Beijing envisions higher wages for the middle classes and plans to pull an additional 200 million people out of poverty in western China.
So, even if the Chinese continue to make the rules, consumption will continue to rise.
For German companies, that means more competition - but also more opportunities for growth.
DW correspondent Frank Sieren is considered one of the leading German experts on China.
He has lived in Beijing for the past 20 years.
Day two of Government Shutdown 2013 offered America plenty of surreal moments, from the brief and ridiculous re-emergence of the Grand Bargain, to the sight of multiple members of a universally reviled governing body offering to give up their paychecks as if they thought it was a move worthy of a medal.
But nowhere did Salvador Dali's clocks warp and melt under the heat of sustained stupidity as badly as they did down at the World War II Memorial in Washington, D.C.
Yesterday, it became pretty obvious that if you wanted to catch the eye of any Beltway reporter to discuss what you were enduring during the shutdown, you had to go on down to this memorial to make your case.
Unfortunately, that's where many members of Congress decided to while away their day as well.
As Ryan Reilly reported, heroic members of Congress turned out to boldly grandstand at the memorial, pretending just as hard as they could that its temporary closure was the most dire effect of the shutdown ... for which ... they voted.
Yes, that was by far the most surreal thing about it.
Gawker's Tom Scocca turned the best phrase about the whole mess, describing those lawmakers as committing "an act of civil disobedience against themselves."
But Mark Segraves, reporting for NBC News' Washington affiliate, managed to capture the howler highlight of the Great World War II Memorial Bleat-n-Repeat -- Rep. Randy Neugebauer's (R-Tex.)
Wednesday confrontation of a poor park ranger on the scene -- who was doing nothing more than her job -- blaming her for the closure he voted for and telling her that she should be ashamed of herself.
Seriously, this actually happened.
Per Segraves: "How do you look at them and ... deny them access?"
said Neugebauer.
He, with most House Republicans, had voted early Sunday morning to pass a funding measure that would delay the Affordable Care Act, a vote that set up a showdown with the Senate and President Barack Obama.
With the parties unable to agree on how to fund the federal government, non-essential government functions shut down Tuesday.
"It's difficult," responded the Park Service employee.
"Well, it should be difficult," replied the congressman, who was carrying a small American flag in his breast pocket.
"It is difficult," responded the Park Service employee.
"I'm sorry, sir."
"The Park Service should be ashamed of themselves," the congressman said.
"I'm not ashamed," replied the ranger.