Final Blank Gun Warning Issued

Time is fast running out to hand in a 'blank' firing handgun. The Metropolitan Police Film Unit has issued guidance on the recent Home Office decision to reclassify the popular Olympic .380 BBM revolver. Until now it was known as a 'blank firer' and commonly used in film and TV as well as theatres, as a starter pistol, and for dog training purposes. Formerly available without a licence from registered outlets such as hobby and model stores, it has now been decided that this gun can too easily be converted to a lethal weapon and it has consequently been reclassified under the Firearms Act 1982. It will be illegal to possess one of these firearms after this Friday - 4 June - but anyone who has one in their possession can still hand it in during an amnesty period which is already underway - but time is fast running out.

Irish To Be Freed By Israelis

Six Irish activists currently being held by Israel are to be released as international pressure and public outrage mounts over the attack on the flotilla taking aid to Gaza. They have been detained in an Israeli camp for the past two days are to be released and flown home either today or tomorrow. Dublin's Minister for Foreign Affairs Micheál Martin welcomed the Israeli Government's decision to release all the remaining humanitarian activists detained, including six Irish citizens, following the storming of the Turkish aid ship, the Mavi Marmara, and the seizure of other vessels forming part of the Gaza aid flotilla by Israeli forces on Monday. Nine people were killed during the attack, which took place in international waters. Israel claimed the Flotilla posed a "terrorist threat" and that it's boarding parties had come under attack from the aid activists using improvised weapons. See: Ship Nears Israel As Gaza Activist Returns

Villa Fined For Fall

Premier League football club Aston Villa has been fined after a worker was badly injured by a fall through a roof during the redevelopment of its training ground. Two contractors from Mechanical Cleansing Services Ltd were working at the Bodymoor Heath complex near Sutton Coldfield when one of them plunged three metres through a fragile rooflight. Stratford-on-Avon Magistrates heard that the 34-year-old worker was cleaning the tanks and fell through a rooflight as he was heading towards a ladder to get down. He broke bones in his heels in the three-metre fall and was off work for more than six months.

Met Support Elderly

Officers from London Met's Operation Sterling were this week joining forces with Bexley Borough's Safer Neighbourhoods teams to deliver an important message to elderly residents. As part of 'International Mass Marketing Fraud Awareness Day', the MPS were speaking to elderly and vulnerable residents - who sometimes face being bombarded with mail that tricks them into handing over hundreds of thousands of pounds in life savings. They spoke with a number of residents who may be targeted by these callous and fraudsters.

(BMcC/GK)