© Guy Corbishley/Demotix/Corbis
BNP supporters with mock gallows gather outside the Old Bailey in London on 26 February during sentencing of the killers of Lee Rigby.

From amnesties for the IRA to calls for the Woolwich murderers to be lynched, crime and punishment is now a politicised mess

There is one law for their terrorists and another for ours. "Theirs" kill a soldier in Woolwich and get slammed up for life. They get a verbal lynching from the red-tops, with Rot in Jail headlines and screams the rope would be too good for them, the filth and scum. "Our" terrorists get royal pardons and "letters of assurance", even if, as may be the case, they slaughter four soldiers and eight horses in cold blood in Hyde Park. That is how it must seem to many people.

Suppose the Woolwich murderers of Lee Rigby had not pranced about the street and waited to be arrested. Suppose they had gone on the run in the souks of Waziristan or Somalia. Suppose, years later, a future Tony Blair was desperate to "feel the hand of history" on his shoulder and get out of whatever Muslim country he had just invaded. Suppose he offered a "side deal" to pardon 200 Islamist terrorists wanted for killing British soldiers. The killings were, he might claim, all in time of war and a deal would serve a lasting peace.

That is the gist of the excuse given yesterday by Blair apologists and the former Ulster secretary Peter Hain for the de facto amnesty to IRA killers under the 1998 Good Friday agreement. It was meant to "lock in the peace" and "achieve closure on the horror and the violence". Would Hain say the same of today's terrorists, who justify their deeds as revenge for Britain's occupation of Iraq and Afghanistan? Would he barter it for al-Qaida calling off its cells that might, even now, be plotting revenge on British drone operators who sit in Lincolnshire bunkers killing Islamist foreigners without any legal or judicial process?

Nothing separates the progressive mind from the conservative as much as the handling of crime and punishment. It is the one realm of public policy that British liberals have not come near to conquering. As a result it has become not so much a moral maze as a moral morass, awash in double standards, racist subplots and an everlasting dread of popular backlash.

The tabloids were this week howling for a return of the gallows. This year sees the 50th anniversary of Britain's last hanging, of two murderers in Manchester's Strangeways prison. Backbench attempts to bring back capital punishment were rejected by House of Commons majorities in 1988, 1990 and 1994. A current bid to raise 100,000 signatures to a parliamentary e-petition may succeed. But there is little chance of it stirring anything more than a parliamentary debate.

Police in two California cities have ordered mandatory evacuations for 1,000 homes due to the threat of mudslides, as a powerful rainstorm prepares to drench the drought-stricken state.

Homeowners in Azusa and Glendora, California - about 25 miles northeast of Los Angeles - were made aware of the orders on Thursday, after one rainstorm had already passed over the cities. No significant damage was done, but with 2,000 acres of mountain slopes near the suburbs denuded by a January wildfire, officials fear a stronger storm could trigger a series of devastating mudslides.

"You've got a recently burned hillside here with limited vegetation and a very steep slope. It's a recipe for what the experts say is potential for a great deal of damage," Sgt. John Madaloni said to local news outlet KCAL 9.

Prior to the first storm, local communities began preparing for possible damage by lining the streets with wooden barriers and sandbags, hoping to keep any traveling debris on the roads and away from homes. With the National Weather Service warning of a storm powerful enough to drop 1 to 2 inches of rain an hour into Saturday, however, allowing everyone to stay in their homes posed too great a risk for city officials.

Although not at the level of the deadly Gezi Park protests that hit Turkey last summer, pockets of discontent are flaring up again. IBTimes UK looks at the reasons for Turks' anger.

Highway in Ankara

Students from the Middle East Technical University (ODTÜ) clashed with police in a protest against the opening of a highway across the campus in Ankara.

Police fired teargas and water cannon to disperse several hundred people gathered in front of the university's main gate.

Some students burnt an image of prime minister Recep Tayyip Erdogan and chanted slogans of "government resign" and "thief Tayyip Erdogan" within the campus. A barricade was set up.

Erdogan and several ministers attended the opening ceremony of the highway.

Ukranian model Valeria Lukyanova, who lives her life as a 'human Barbie' has revealed she doesn't consume food or water anymore.

Some have said she uses plastic surgery and Photoshop to create her doll-like image, but her impossibly thin waist could actually be down to not eating for weeks.

The model, 23, has said she is now converting to 'Breatharianism' - training herself to live off only light and air.

Scuffles broke out Friday between demonstrators and police outside the finance ministry in central Athens, as Greece's international debt inspectors met with ministers to discuss the pace of reforms.

The demonstrators, mainly finance ministry cleaning ladies, school guards and municipal workers, were protesting job cuts required under Greece's bailout agreement. They attempted to block a major avenue outside the ministry and jostled with riot police, who used small amounts of pepper spray. At least one protester was injured.

Later, about a dozen jeering protesters moved toward the motorcade carrying the debt inspectors away from the ministry, and threw a plastic water bottle at one of the cars. Police prevented any more demonstrators from getting close, and the vehicles were able to speed off.

Authorities detained 17 protesters who had attempted to enter another nearby government ministry.

Massachusetts lawmakers are getting involved in the Justina Pelletier case and have begun circulating a resolution asking the Department of Children and Families (DCF) to initiate the process of releasing the teenager to her parents.

State Reps. Marc Lombard and Jim Lyons, both Republicans, announced on Wednesday that 12 representatives have already signed on to support the resolution.

"The self-stated goals of the Department of Children and Families is to strengthen the link between families. Removing a child from her family is reserved for only the most egregious circumstances where evidence of malicious intent, negligence or the blatant inability to care for the child is present. No such findings are present in this case," Lombardo said in a press release.

Lyons argued the Pelletier case is a "dispute between conflicting medical opinions" and treatment decisions should be left to parents, not DCF."

A Morgan County minister and his wife were arrested and charged with multiple felony counts of child molestation.

43-year-old Reverend Jonathan Harness and his 44-year-old wife, Buffy, were arrested in Columbus Tuesday, following a five hour search of their home. Details surrounding the arrest are not yet known.

24-Hour News 8′s newsgathering partner the Columbus Republic reports, the minister was charged with four counts of sexual misconduct with a minor, two counts of criminal deviant conduct, two counts of intimidation, neglect of a dependent and sexual battery.

A sergeant from the Bartholomew County Sheriff's Department spotted the couple sitting in their parked vehicle outside the Clarion Hotel on Jonathan Moore Pike near I-65 Tuesday night. Harness was then taken into custody.

The two children were found unharmed inside a motel room a short time later.

Criminal gangs blamed for fake-share scams that robbed British victims of millions of pounds in savings have been rounded up in an international crackdown involving UK police.

Officers from City of London Police joined Spanish counterparts from the Policia Nacional in a series of raids in Barcelona, Madrid, Marbella and London in one of the biggest anti-fraud operations ever staged. There were further arrests in the US and Serbia. Details are being reported for the first time after a ban on publication was lifted by a Spanish judge.

A total of 110 people were held by police on accusations of participating in boiler room fraud, where investors are duped into buying worthless or non-existent shares. Investigators targeted a number of organised crime gangs.

Former cabinet minister Patricia Hewitt has said that the organisation to which she and her former Labour colleague Harriet Harman belonged was "naive and wrong" to accept the assurances of a paedophile group that it was a campaigning and counselling organisation.

Hewitt said that, as general secretary of the National Council for Civil Liberties in the 1970s, she took responsibility for the mistakes that were made and apologised for having "got it wrong" on the Paedophile Information Exchange (PIE). The two organisations were affiliated for eight years from 1975 to 1983.

In her first public statement since the scandal came to light earlier this week, Hewitt said: "I got it wrong on PIE and I apologise for having done so.

A suspended deputy headteacher accused of videoing teenagers using the toilet for his sexual pleasure has appeared in court to face child pornography charges and allegations of voyeurism.

Teacher Gareth Williams, who has been suspended from Ysgol Gyfun Gymraeg Glantaf, appeared before magistrates in Cardiff accused of 48 offences.

Charges relating to voyeurism took place at the school he worked at, while other alleged offences took place at two addresses - one in south Wales and one in north Wales, Justices of the Peace were told on Thursday.