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The chilling reality of life for Afghan interpreters who helped British troops was laid bare to me when one translator’s seven-year-old daughter was handed a letter outside the family home on the edge of Kabul. She was told to give it to her father Waheed, who had worked with frontline British troops in Helmand province. The contents shocked Waheed, as they would any father. Signed by the Taliban, it told Waheed and his family – his wife, two daughters and a son – they would be killed. ‘Don’t think we will ever forgive you,’ the handwritten letter said. ‘You have helped the infidels and as a result we have lost mujahideen fighters.  'We swear we will hunt you down and kill all the interpreters and their families and feed their bodies to the dogs.’ Yesterday came the welcome, long-overdue news that the Home and Defence Secretaries had recognised that the fears of ex-translators are real and the UK has a duty to repay their sacrifices by providing sanctuary Waheed, a dark-haired, squ

The Australian towns worst-hit by the coronavirus pandemic have been laid bare by new data, with Mandurah in Western Australia and Sydney's inner west leading the pack. Mandurah in WA's southwest is the worst affected area, with unemployment rising from to 18 per cent, according to labour force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics. The coastal city - about an hour's drive from Perth - has seen the joblessness rate rise by 11.6 per cent in the last year to July. Mandurah in Western Australia's southwest and Sydney's Inner West have been listed as the worst affected areas, according to labour force data from the Australian Bureau of Statistics It was closely followed by Sydney's inner west which had an unemployment rate of 9.4 per cent.  Its figure was eight percentage points higher than in 2019, The Australian reported.   Other badly affected areas include Coffs Harbour and Grafton in New South Wales, Wide Bay in Queensland and north-west Melbourne.   

Tom Watson previously described Paddy Power, the betting firm whose owner has just signed him up for an advisory role, as 'dirty and money grabbing', it has emerged. Labour's former deputy leader, who has been a vocal campaigner for tougher restrictions on the gambling industry, will join one of its biggest companies, Flutter Entertainment, and advise them on best practice, it was reported this week. However, historic tweets and negative comments about Paddy Power have now resurfaced as the former West Bromwich East MP begins his new job, on a salary described as 'less than six figures', according to the Guardian. Tom Watson, pictured, will join Flutter Entertainment, one of the UK's biggest gambling firms, and advise them on best practice Mr Watson told BBC Radio Five Live in 2014 that the bookie taking bets on the outcome of Oscar Pistorius' trial, including 'money back if he walks', was 'dirty and money grabbing'. Pistorius, the world-famo

The Queen will pay the Treasury in instalments this year after her land and property empire fell in value by £552.5million because of a sudden drop in rental income from shops hit by coronavirus lockdown. Regents Street and St James's in London as well as retail parks across the country are included in the Crown Estates.  It has been revalued at £13.4billion in annual results published today - after a tough year for retail sales, reported the Guardian.  All profits are handed to the Treasury which then passes 25 per cent of the funds back to the royal family in the form of the Sovereign Grant after a two-year period. But the difficult financial year has left the Crown Estate making staggered payments to the Treasury to ensure it has enough revenue reserves to support itself.   The Queen's crown estates have been revalued at £13.4billion in annual results published today - after a tough year for retail sales. Pictured, Queen Elizabeth on July 17 The Crown Estate's annual rep

Horrifying footage has shown the moment at least ten sharks swarmed a bait ball just 500 metres from a popular swimming beach. Max Hinton, from Content Lion, caught the scene on his drone at Burleigh Heads, Gold Coast, Queensland on Friday. The footage showed sharks close to the surface circling one of the fish bait balls. Many more sharks were seen lurking deep below, all eager to get a taste of the dead animals left there as a way to prevent sharks from getting closer to shore. 'This was about 500 meters off-shore and completely took me by surprise how close it was and the scale of how many sharks there were,' Mr Hinton told Nine News. Nick Slater was fatally mauled at about 5pm on September 8 off popular Greenmount Beach, on the Gold Coast tourist strip, where swimmers are protected by shark netting Locals have been cautious about stepping into the water after a 46-year-old died just 15km away following a shark attack. Nick Slater was fatally mauled while surfing near Gre

The Seattle police watchdog decided Friday that an officer who pepper-sprayed a  seven-year-old child during an anti-racism protest did not violate the department's policy.  The Office of Police Accountability received 13,000 complaints after a video of the boy screaming 'I can't see' while being doused in milk by other protesters went viral following a May 30 demonstration.  OPA Director Andrew Myerberg deemed that the officer had not intended to hit the child and did not realize the boy was in his line of fire when he started to pepper-spray a woman standing immediately in front on him.  Myerberg described body-cam and social media footage of the incident as 'heartbreaking' but claimed that it did not mean the the officer was guilty of excessive use of force.   The Seattle police watchdog decided Friday that an officer who pepper-sprayed a seven-year-old child during an anti-racism protest did not violate the department's policy. The video went viral on Ma

When the former Tory MP Charlie Elphicke was sentenced to two years in prison for sexual assault, the last person you would have expected to defend him would be his estranged wife Natalie. Yes the same woman who, 33 minutes after he was convicted, announced she was divorcing the father of their two children after 25 years of marriage, as, she says, the charges against him were intolerable. His first victim, in her early 30s, said he invited her into their Belgravia home for a drink, kissed her, groped her breast then chased her around the kitchen table, chanting: 'I'm a naughty Tory.' Former Tory MP Charlie Elphicke was sentenced to two years in prison for sexual assault The last person you would have expected to defend him would be his estranged wife Natalie, pictured with Elphicke during the trial The second victim, in her early 20s, said he tried to kiss her, put his hands down her top, then tried to block her exit, saying: 'I'm so naughty sometimes, aren't