Tesco Face Scanners To Target Till Adverts

Tesco is set to install hi-tech screens that scan customers' faces in petrol stations so that advertisements can be better targeted at them.

The retailer will introduce the OptimEyes screen, developed by Lord Sugar's Amscreen, to all 450 of its UK petrol stations, in a five-year deal, according to The Grocer magazine.

The screen, positioned at the till, scans the eyes of customers to determine age and gender, and then runs tailored advertisements.

The technology also adjusts adverts depending on the time and date, as well as monitoring customer purchases, The Grocer said.

The screens are predicted to reach a weekly audience of more than five million adults.

Simon Sugar, chief executive of Amscreen, told the industry magazine: "Yes it's like something out of Minority Report, but this could change the face of British retail and our plans are to expand the screens into as many supermarkets as possible."

The technology has been developed by Lord Sugar's Amscreen

 Privacy campaigners say the system puts forward a "huge consent issue".

Nick Pickles of Big Brother Watch said: "Scanning customers as they walk through the store without customers ever giving permission for them to be scanned in that way ... There's a huge consent issue there."

He said facial recognition technology is getting more advanced all the time, adding that you could be queuing to pay for groceries and a CCTV camera could be "literally scanning who you are".

Mr Pickles added that companies and stores using this system must tell their customers.

"If people were told that every time they walked into a supermarket, or a doctor's surgery or a law firm, that the CCTV camera in the corner is trying to find out who they are, I think that will have a huge impact on what buildings people go into," he said.

Mr Pickles said the only way the systems can be ethically deployed is if consumers opt in to have their image stored and their behaviour tracked, rather than there being no choice in the matter.

Tesco point out the technology is not new, and is used by other retailers.

The system makes a 'guess' at whether someone is male or female, and which of three age categories they fall into.

The retailer stresses the screens do not use eyeball scanners, facial recognition, or identify individual customers in any way.

In addition, no images are collected, and no data is stored.

Peter Cattell, category director for Tesco petrol stations, said: "We're always looking to work with partners who provide innovative ways to enhance the customer shopping experience.

"This new dynamic screen product from Amscreen provides the perfect means for us to do this.

"The ability to tailor content based on time and location means it can be extremely useful and timely for our customers."

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Essex Shooting: Boy, 5, Seriously Injured

A five-year-old boy has been seriously injured after a gun was apparently fired by mistake at his home in Essex.

Police were called to the property in Upper Park Road, Wickford, following reports of an incident at 1.20pm on Sunday.

The child was taken to the Royal London Hospital with a serious but not life-threatening injury.

An Essex Police spokeswoman said: "Police are speaking to members of the family to determine the exact circumstances leading up to the incident .

"But (we) believe that this was an accidental discharge of the weapon and inquiries are ongoing."

An 18-year-old man was arrested for possession of a firearm and drug offences and has been released on bail.

The weapon and other legally held firearms were handed over to officers.

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Terror Hunt: Suspect 'Linked To Al Shabaab'

A suspect who escaped surveillance by changing into a burka on a visit to a mosque has connections to the al Qaeda-linked al Shabaab Islamist group in Somalia, according to Sky sources.

Mohammed Ahmed Mohamed, who is 5ft 8in tall and of medium build and was last seen at a west London mosque on Friday afternoon, is being hunted by counter-terrorism officers.

He entered the An-Noor Masjid and Community Centre in Church Road, Acton, at 10am, wearing Western-style clothes, but CCTV images issued by Scotland Yard later show him leaving with his face and body fully covered by the traditional Islamic garment.

The venue - where he was last seen at 3.15pm the same day - said it did not intend to comment.

He is subject to a Terrorism Prevention and Investigation Measures notice (Tpim).

Mr Mohamed is not considered a "direct threat", police said.

He was put under surveillance measures due to his connection with the Somalian terror group, which was behind the attack on the Westgate Mall in the Kenyan capital Nairobi on September 21 that killed at least 67 people.

The 27-year-old is understood to have received terrorist training in 2008 and fought overseas for al Shabaab.

He is also also suspected of helping to plan attacks in Somalia and overseas, including an attack intended for the Juba Hotel in Mogadishu in August 2010, and is believed to have helped various individuals travel from the UK to Somalia to allow them to engage in terrorism-related activity.

A court-imposed anonymity order banning the publication of Mr Mohamed's name has been lifted to allow police to make a public appeal, following an application from Home Secretary Theresa May, who is expected to make a statement on his disappearance to MPs later.

He is "not considered at this time to represent a direct threat to the public", Scotland Yard said, but anyone who sees him is urged to call 999 immediately.

A spokesman said: "The Counter Terrorism Command immediately launched inquiries to trace Mr Mohamed and these continue.

"Ports and borders were notified with his photograph and details circulated nationally. Public safety remains our priority."

Security Minister James Brokenshire said: "National security is the Government's top priority and the police are doing everything in their power to apprehend this man as quickly as possible."

He is the second person to breach a Tpim since they were introduced to replace control orders in early 2012.

Pressure is mounting on the Government to explain how the al Qaeda-linked terror suspect escaped surveillance.

Shadow home secretary Yvette Cooper described the matter as "extremely serious".

She told Sky News: "The most important thing is the police and security services have every possible assistance to relocate this man and to make sure that controls can be reinstated.

"But given that this is the second terror suspect to abscond in the space of just 10 months, we also need to have some answers about the controls that were in place, why they were weakened, and what the full information is."

Prime Minister David Cameron's official spokesman said finding the suspect remained a "priority".

Another CCTV image shows the burka-clad figure, believed to be Mr Mohamed

"Obviously, in all of these types of things, we look at whether there are lessons that can be learnt. But the reasons why the Government introduced the Tpim regime remain the same and the Prime Minister's view about Tpims haven't changed," he said.

Tpims, which include restrictions on overnight residence, travel and finance, are imposed by the Home Secretary who is given access to secret evidence that can not be placed before juries.

They do not allow for the relocation of suspects, as control orders did and unlike control orders, Tpims have a maximum time limit of two years.

Control orders could be extended year on year without limit, while Tpims can be extended after a year for another 12 months before they expire.

As of August 31, there were nine Tpims in force, including eight against British suspects, the latest written update to MPs showed.

Last December, Ibrahim Magag, who is understood to have attended terrorist training camps in Somalia, absconded from a Tpim notice after ripping off his electronic tag. The police search for him is continuing.

The terrorism watchdog warned earlier this year that Tpims could allow those deemed potentially dangerous to be left "free and unconstrained" in the absence of prosecution or new evidence of terrorism-related activity.

Police are still hunting Ibrahim Magag, who absconded in December 2012

David Anderson QC, the independent reviewer of terrorism legislation, said in his first report on Tpims, that the two-year limit was the "boldest" change from control orders made by the Government, adding that it was "tempting, in the most serious cases, to wish for longer".

However, he concluded that the two years of constraint now permitted were "a very strong power by international or indeed historic British standards".

Mr Brokenshire has defended the measures, describing them as providing a "robust mechanism" to manage suspects and reassure the public.

:: Watch Home Secretary Theresa May's statement to the Commons Live on Sky News at 3.30pm

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Simon Gittany Trial: Neighbour Heard Screams

By Jonathan Samuels, Australia Correspondent

A young woman banged on her neighbour's door screaming "please help me" moments before she plunged to her death from a 15th floor balcony, a court has heard.

Simon Gittany is accused of murdering his girlfriend Lisa Harnum, 30, by pushing or dropping her from the balcony of their luxury flat in Sydney, Australia, on July 30, 2011.

Susan Glanville, who lived next door to the couple, gave evidence in court and recounted the morning when Ms Harnum fell to her death.

"I heard banging on my door and with the banging a woman's voice scream 'please help me, help me, God help me'," Ms Glanville told the court.

"As I heard the banging I went around the corridor, around the corner and I could see the door shaking.

"I heard a man's raised voice yelling.

"As I walked towards the door (there was) silence."

Simon Gittany

Ms Glanville said she didn't open her door to see what was out there.

Moments later, she said she heard a scream that seemed to be coming from outside.

The court had previously heard that Gittany, 40, was a controlling and abusive partner, who discouraged Canadian Ms Harnum from working, secretly monitored her phone calls, texts and emails and alienated her from her friends.

She had plans to leave him days before her death, the trial has heard.

The jury at Sydney's Supreme Court also listened to a secret phone recording of a heated conversation between the couple.

The recording from June 10, 2011, begins with the couple laughing and joking.

Then a fight erupts when Gittany suggests to Ms Harnum that he wants to spend one day a week with his male friends.

"Simon you do that a lot," Ms Harnum says in the recording played in court on Monday.

"You're out with the boys every night."

"What are you talking about, are you serious?" Gittany replies.

Ms Harnum says: "You do it anyway ... it's already like that."

She then says he acts as if she never gives him space even though she always does.

Ms Harnum then becomes emotional, saying everything she does is for him.

"I don't go anywhere ... I don't do anything other than what you tell me to do," she said.

Simon Gittany in a distressed state shortly after the incident

"I don't have anything here except for you."

She says when she isn't with him: "I don't talk, I don't speak."

Ms Harnum also says she misses her mother.

Gittany then tells her: "I said once a week, baby, don't take it to the extremes."

Earlier in the trial jurors saw video of the couple apparently grappling in the corridor of the apartment block in the lead-up to Ms Harnum's death.

CCTV footage shows Gittany in a distressed state in the lift in the moments after his girlfriend plunged to her death.

Gittany, whose new girlfriend and parents have supported him each day in court, says they had a complicated but loving relationship and he had tried to save her when she climbed onto the balcony in the midst of a fight.

He denies murder and is expected to give evidence later in the week.

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EBay: Nazi Holocaust Memorabilia Removed

Auction site eBay has apologised after Nazi Holocaust memorabilia, including clothes worn by concentration camp victims, were traded online.

Journalists claim to have found several items for sale, including a complete Auschwitz uniform worn by a Polish baker who died in the camp.

The Auschwitz uniform had reportedly been priced at £11,300 by the seller, a Ukrainian man in Canada, named as Viktor Kempf.

Survivors liberated from Auschwitz in 1945

He had apparently sold similar clothing for $18,000 (£11,491) last year.

It was claimed Mr Kempf had been criticised in the past for selling such items, but did so to "document" them and to fund history book projects.

Mr Kempf was quoted as saying: "I don't want people to think I'm just doing it for the money. These periods in history are horrific, nobody should ever forget them."

How Mr Kempf described the items on eBay

EBay has offered to donate £25,000 to charity after the items were discovered and admitted they breached the terms of use.

The online retailer said: "We are very sorry these items have been listed on eBay and we are removing them.

"We don't allow listings of this nature, and dedicate thousands of staff to policing our site and use the latest technology to detect items that shouldn't be for sale.

Schindler's list failed to sell on eBay when offered for sale for £3m

"We very much regret that we didn't live up to our own standards. We have made a donation to charity to reflect our concern."

Other items found on eBay, by journalists at the Mail On Sunday, included shoes and a toothbrush said to have belonged to concentration camp victims.

There were also yellow Star of David armbands used by the Nazis to identify Jews for persecution.

An original copy of Schindler's list of Jews saved from the Holocaust by Oskar Schindler went unsold on eBay in July.

The 14-page typewritten list - bearing the names of 801 men - originated from the German industrialist's right-hand man Itzhak Stern, and had a steep opening bid of $3m (£1.96m).

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'Plebgate' Officers Facing New Investigation

Three police officers accused of deceiving MPs over the so-called Plebgate scandal are to face a new investigation by the police watchdog.

Inspector Ken MacKaill, Detective Sergeant Stuart Hinton and Sergeant Chris Jones will also be called back before an influential committee of MPs, over claims they gave misleading accounts of a meeting with Andrew Mitchell.

The trio were initially told they would face no action for misconduct after they used press interviews to falsely accuse the former chief whip of calling them "******* plebs" during a Downing Street row over his bicycle.

But the Independent Police Complaints Commission (IPCC) has now said it will hold an investigation into their behaviour, saying the evidence they gave to the home affairs select committee revealed "a number of procedural irregularities" in earlier police reports.

The confrontation was caught on CCTV and shown on Channel 4

Speaking on Sky News' Murnaghan show, former shadow home secretary David Davis spoke about the "devastating" impact of the officers' actions on Mr Mitchell and his family.

He called for him to be returned to the cabinet, in which he served between 2010 and 2012, in any future reshuffle.

"Mr Mitchell's career came to an end and he was subject to widespread vilification," he said.

"At one point, the entire British public thought he was guilty. They now see him, quite rightly, as a wronged man.

"It's long past time that Mr Mitchell should be exonerated and returned to office."

The row had a "devastating" impact on Mr Mitchell, according to Mr Davis

The policemen, all of whom are police federation representatives, have been recalled to the home affairs select committee to apologise for giving "misleading answers" on October 23.

Mr Davis said members of the public expected "the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth to be at the core of policing".

"When are (these three officers) going to realise that telling a lie or a half truth just isn't good enough?" he said.

"This isn't just about three policemen - it's about whether or not this sort of behaviour is seen as acceptable by the entire system."

Chief Constable Alex Marshall, chief executive of the College of Policing, told the Murnaghan show that the officers' actions had "damaged the public image of the police".

"There will now be a full, independent investigation by the IPCC and it's my view that there should have been from the start," he said.

"The officers should have apologised and they should have apologised very clearly."

Referring to a draft code of ethics published last month by the College of Policing, which outlined how all 220,000 police officers and staff in England and Wales are expected to behave, he added: "Officers must uphold high standards when they join the police.

"The code of ethics spells out those standards and for people joining the police service, (it should be) lesson one on day one."

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Solar Eclipse: Live Coverage Of Rare 'Hybrid'

A rare solar eclipse is expected to sweep across the globe, plunging parts of Africa, Europe and the US into darkness.

The event is known as a "hybrid" eclipse because the extent to which the Sun will be blocked out will vary around the world.

Towns and cities in equatorial Africa will see a total eclipse, lasting for up to a minute.

Skywatchers in southern Europe, the Middle East, North America's east coast and the northern half of South America will see an "annular", or partial, eclipse.

The total eclipse will be visible across large parts of Africa

Jose Afonso, director of the Centre for Astronomy and Astrophysics at the University of Lisbon in Portugal, said: "Throughout your lifetime, if you're living in the same place, you'll perhaps see a total solar eclipse once or maybe twice.

"It's a very uncommon event for any place on Earth."

Astronomers warned people not to look directly at the Sun without taking safety precautions.

The eclipse can be viewed through binoculars or a telescope by projecting the Sun's disc onto a sheet of card or paper, or by using eclipse glasses which filter sunlight.

:: Watch coverage of the solar eclipse above, courtesy of the online observatory Slooh, which is broadcasting the event live.

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Deadly Gun Attack On Nigeria Wedding Convoy

Gunmen have attacked a wedding convoy in Nigeria, killing more than 30 people, witnesses have told the AFP news agency.

The groom is believed to be among those killed in the suspected ambush on the notorious Bama-Banki road in the northeastern Borno district.

Survivors of the attack said the wedding party was returning to the state capital Maiduguri after a ceremony in Michika in nearby Adamawa state when the gunmen struck.

More follows...

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Hit-And-Run Revenge Driver Jailed For 20 Years

A motorist caught on CCTV ploughing into a group of men as they crossed the street in a revenge attack - leaving one of them brain damaged - has been jailed for 20 years.

Aqab Hussain was convicted of four counts of attempted murder by a jury at Manchester Crown Court at an earlier hearing.

CCTV footage captured the 21-year-old mowing down the men after "horseplay" over a baseball cap led to a fight outside a club in Manchester city centre.

One was catapulted over the roof, another knocked to the side and a third carried down the street before Hussain swerved to dislodge him from the bonnet of his car.

One of his targets managed to jump out of the way of his vehicle which Rachael Pavion, prosecuting, said was used as a "lethal weapon" as Hussain "sought revenge by driving at speed deliberately at the four men with a clear intention to kill".

The attack in John Dalton Street in the early hours of August 21 last year left one of his victims with "life changing" injuries.

Michael Ward, who was carried several metres down the street on the bonnet of Hussain's car, spent many weeks in a coma after suffering injuries to his brain.

The court heard the injuries were so severe Mr Ward could not remember he had three children, and that he would never be able to look after himself.

His wife, Maryrose, was in court for the sentencing, and said of the prison term afterwards: "In a way I am disappointed, but in one way I am happy, because it would have been worse if they never caught the person who ran my husband over.

"It ruined my husband's life, and my life, and my kids ... he can't remember my kids ... so happy in a way and then feel upset in one way."

She added: "He can't talk, he can't walk. He has no concentration, he has no memory of years ago, the kids. We've been married seven years, no memory. He can't wash himself, he can't feed himself ... I will care for him for the rest of my life."

Hussain, who declined to give evidence during the trial, showed "complete disregard" for his actions and fled the country three days after the attack.

Police arrested him at Manchester Airport seven weeks later on his return to the UK.

Witness accounts, CCTV footage and forensic evidence helped prove that he was behind the wheel of the car.

Hussain, from Manchester, was also disqualified from driving for 15 years.

More follows...

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Russia Muslims Face DNA Tests Ahead Of Sochi

Russia has reportedly been taking DNA samples from religiously conservative Muslim women in the North Caucasus as part of its security measures for the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi.

The DNA would be used to identify body parts should any of the women carry out suicide bomb attacks on Olympic targets.

Eight Dagestani women contacted by the Reuters news agency said they had been asked to provide swabs of saliva.

Locals said the DNA tests were part of a sweep after a suicide bombing in the capital Makhachkala in May.

The move coincides with a crackdown by President Vladimir Putin on an Islamist insurgency in Dagestan, which lies east of the Sochi Games sites.

Critics say the new hard line being taken by Mr Putin is feeding the resentment that lies behind insurgent attacks in the region.

The scene of May's bomb attack in Makhachkala

In July, Doku Umarov, the leader of the Islamist insurgency, urged his fighters to use "maximum force" to sabotage the Sochi Olympics.

A suicide bombing on October 21 that killed six people in Volgograd, a major city north of Sochi, was blamed on a woman from Dagestan.

Dubbed "black widows", some 49 female suicide bombers have carried out attacks in Russia in the past 13 years, according to the Caucasian Knot website.

In response, security forces have blown up the homes of militants' relatives, sealed off mountain villages and rounded up young men suspected of having ties to militants.

A truck damaged in a security operation

Many madrassas, or religious schools, and charities run by traditional Salafi Muslims, have been closed.

Earlier this month security forces shut down two madrassas in Novosasitli, photographing students and taking their fingerprints.

"I can't describe how terrified the girls were, how many tears were shed," said Abdurakhim Magomedov, a Salafi preacher.

Although the security crackdown has resulted in many Salafis fleeing abroad, others have stayed and taken up arms, their leaders say.

Mr Putin is spending billions on the Sochi Games

Mr Putin, who is spending $50bn (£31bn) on the Games, has tightened security around Sochi, where Cossack militia patrol the streets.

Interior Minister Vladimir Kolokoltsev told the Russian parliament the authorities were receiving "alarming information" and were working to eliminate leaders and members of armed groups.

"There are simply no other ways to combat these inhuman monsters," he said.

Security analysts say militants are unlikely to penetrate the layers of protection around Sochi but attacks cannot be ruled out, especially in nearby cities like Volgograd.

A cemetary in Dagestan for people killed by Russian security forces

"The special services can't prevent everything. There are many people who want to ruin the Sochi Olympics," said Sergey Goncharov, formerly a senior counter-insurgency official.

Dagestan, Russia's most southern province, has Islamic roots dating back to a 7th Century Arab invasion and the majority of its 2.9 million inhabitants people are Muslim.

A growing number have become Salafis in recent years, influenced by scholars who studied in the Middle East.

Some have joined the Islamist insurgency that grew out of separatist wars in neighbouring Chechnya.

Tamerlan Tsarnaev, a suspect in the Boston Marathon bombing, spent the first half of 2012 in Dagestan.

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