Weather: Sunny for much of the day, but the rain always threatens, and finally delivers around 6. 14 and quite muggy.
Phew! What a busy day. Preparing PCs for our annual meeting. Using ghosting software to clone them saves a lot of time, but I need to remove & replace the hard disc from each one. Five in a day, repacking each in the original crate, is blinkin' hard work!
The trial of two Leeds United footballers accused of beating an Asian student unconscious is halted after a Sunday newspaper published race allegations by the victim's father. After three days of deliberations the jury was suddenly discharged by Justice Poole, who will tomorrow decide whether there should be a retrial.
In a hard-hitting ruling, the judge attacked the Sunday Mirror for publishing a "highly emotive" interview with Mohammed Najeib, father of student Sarfraz Najeib who was beaten unconscious by a gang of white youths in Leeds city centre in January last year. Najeib refused to accept the judge's view that there was no racial element to the attack on his son. Today Justice Poole asked the jury of seven men and four women if any of them had seen or discussed the article, and when the answer was "yes" he discharged them.
"In this article the victim's father - of whom the court has nothing but sympathy in his anguish at his son's ordeal - makes clear his rejection of the court's direction to the jury that the incident was not racially motivated. Can I make it clear once again the direction was not based on any opinion of mine but was a conclusion reached by the prosecution in a painstaking examination of the evidence. It seems it's a conclusion that is unwelcome in certain quarters where evidence is less important than perception. Whatever the intention behind this publication the effect is that all that effort is derailed. Justice cannot be done in the sort of atmosphere created by a publication such as this and where the racial issue that this court has sought to exorcise has now been revived in emotional terms."
Woodgate, 21, Bowyer, 24, and two of Woodgate's friends Neale Caveney and Paul Clifford, both 21, have pleaded not guilty to affray and causing grievous bodily harm with intent to Sarfraz. He was allegedly chased more than 300 yards from the Majestyk nightclub in Leeds city centre to the Mill Hill area, where he was punched and kicked on the ground suffering a broken leg, nose and collarbone.
Last week another Leeds United player, Michael Duberry, 25, was cleared with Woodgate, Clifford and Caveney of perverting the course of justice in a conspiracy by allegedly destroying evidence. Earlier in the trial a further Leeds player, Tony Hackworth, 20, was found not guilty on the judge's direction of affray and grievous bodily harm.
A market trader is convicted of breaking weights and measures legislation by selling his fruit in pounds and ounces in the first prosecution of its kind in Britain. Greengrocer Steven Thoburn, 36, of Sunderland, was convicted of breaching the Weights and Measures Act 1985 in a hearing which district judge Bruce Morgan said centred around the "most famous bunch of bananas in legal history".
In his ruling, Mr Morgan told Sunderland Magistrates Court that he was aware that regardless of the verdict the case would be going to appeal. "It has been made clear to me that despite the decision of this court the matter will be taken elsewhere." Next stop: the appeal court.
Crown prosecutors are considering the launch of a fresh inquiry into the Paddington rail disaster that could lead to manslaughter charges being brought against senior staff at Railtrack. Action would be taken on the grounds that the company was aware of the signal dangers that caused the accident, which killed 31 people in October 1999.
Tiger Woods becomes the first professional golfer to hold all four major championships after he won the Masters at Augusta. The 25-year-old birdied the 18th to finish 16 under par and two shots ahead of second-placed David Duval. It had been the fiercest of dogfights among the dogwood trees and when, at the end, Woods holed from 18 feet for a birdie at the 18th, he broke down and the tears flowed. Both Mickelson and Duval, win-less in the majors so far, made no secret of their desire to succeed in this event and Woods had to to produce some of his incredible best to hold them over the front nine.
Woods went through the first green, hit a poor chip some 10 feet past the hole and missed the par putt. That was to be his only mistake and one quickly remedied with a birdie at the long 2nd. He went on to birdie the 7th from seven feet and the 8th from 10 feet, to move to 14 under par. His playing partner Mickelson remained, as he started, only one behind, while up ahead Duval was compiling an incredible round. He had six birdies, two bogeys and a solitary par on the front nine and then birdied the 10th to catch Woods at 14 under.
There are three players best fitted to challenge Woods in the long term. They are Els, winner of two US Opens, and Duval and Mickelson, who have yet to open their major championship account. All three have been world No 2, Mickelson's current position. Nine years ago, he was the most talented amateur to turn professional since Jack Nicklaus. It was thought to be ony a short matter of time - before he won his first major and certainly no one suspected nearly a decade later he would still be striving for that most important of breakthroughs.
Mickelson is famous for his "flop", a shot for which he uses a wedge with the face wide open, cutting under the ball and sending it almost vertically into the air. It is spectacular and, when it works, exceedingly effective. At the 14th, though, it failed. He was perhaps 60 feet from the pin when he started and still 30 feet away when he finished.Then he three-putted. Most of the players in this world-class field would have saved a par four from Mickelson's position after two shots, and it is hard to think that any of them would have taken more than five, a conjecture Mickelson unconsciously supported later.
He said of that 14th hole: "It's not ideal to make a double-bogey. That's not my plan of action. I need to reduce my mistakes a touch. Turn the double into a bogey. "I'm not perfect and I'm going to miss putts. I will make bogeys. But if I can just turn the sixes into fives . . ."
A disgruntled resident may have been behind a coded bomb warning which resulted in a £20,000 Alfa Romeo being blown up by police. The warning about the car parked in Chiswick also caused commuter chaos as part of the District and Piccadilly lines were closed. Hundreds of people were moved while police examined the suspect car in Wolseley Road and used a controlled explosion to blow open the boot. Nothing was found, but then it emerged that the car - with a personalised number plate - had been there for more than two months.
Tony Blair is losing the battle to reassure voters about British produce, according to a new poll which reveals that three-quarters of the nation no longer trusts the government on the crucial issue of food safety. Last year's exposure of the BSE cover-up, together with vast public opposition to GM foods and anxiety about the foot and mouth crisis, has led 72% of the public - and 57% of Labour voters - to disregard ministers' blandishments. The ICM findings, which appear in