The attorney-general, Alecos Markides, said Cypriot police had every right to detain the soldiers in September 1994 during an alert for three men in a car who had kidnapped tour guide Louise Jensen, 23. They were stopped at a police roadblock shortly after the reported abduction and were detained because they and their vehicle fitted the description of those wanted for the kidnapping.
Pte Alan Ford, 27, from Birmingham; Pte Justin Fowler, 27, of Falmouth, Cornwall; and Pte Jeff Parnell, 25, of Oldbury, West Midlands – who were serving with the Royal Green Jackets Regiments on the island – have all pleaded innocent to charges of manslaughter, kidnapping and conspiracy to rape The case continues tomorrow.. A claim by three British soldiers accused of killing a young Danish woman that their arrest was unlawful was rejected by the Cypriot government yesterday. Any evidence of an alleged breach in security should be given to us Any breach found to have taken place … will be immediately investigated and any necessary action taken.”n A new “spin doctor” has been appointed by Brian Mawhinney, the Conservative Party chairman, to boost the Conservative Party’s fight to win back support. Sheila Gunn, 47, a journalist with the Times for 12 years, will take up the post to replace Tim Collins, who has been adopted for the Conservative seat of Westmorland.Ms Gunn’s name hit the headlines when it was disclosed that she had an affair with Steve Norris, the Transport Minister, when she was a political correspondent.She will leave her current post as the deputy editor of the newspaper’s Diary column to take up her new role shortly.Dr Mawhinney is also hiring a broadcasting journalist and a writer from one of the tabloid newspapers to complete the reorganisation of his press team in an attempt to match the Labour Party’s skilful team of “spin doctors” led by Alastair Campbell.The hiring of fresh blood underlines the extent to which the Conservative Party leadership believes it has lost the automatic support of certain areas of Fleet Street..

The Prime Minister now has police protection and hi-tech security.A Downing Street spokesman was keen to play down the security breach, saying that John Major was not at risk: “We are satisfied that the Prime Minister’s security is satisfactory. He was a familiar face to police guards on duty outside, and should have handed in his ID pass, but he kept it for several days. When he returned, he was accompanied by Martin Dunn, a reporter from the Daily Mirror, who said he had spent 48 minutes walking around the Treasury and Cabinet offices and Number 10, and got to the door of the Prime Minister’s own private quarters.The incident follows a report some months ago that a cleaner was able to gain access to rooms inside Downing Street without security checks.Security at Downing Street was tightened six years ago at the height of an IRA terror campaign. COLIN BROWN

Chief Political Correspondent
Downing Street is investigating a report that a journalist was able to gain admission to Number 10 by using a builder’s security pass.The contractor had been working inside the Prime Minister’s residence during a rewiring operation and redecorating work through the summer.

However, as a consultant his employers are not obliged to declare what he is paid.The same applies to those other regular broadcasters and writers, Austin Mitchell and Roy Hattersley. They, too, are generally reckoned to earn far more than their MPs’ salary.. The Nolan inquiry into standards in public life revealed 168 MPs as having 356 consultancies.Widely thought to be heading the earnings ladder are the Tory, David Evans, with his Leapsquare consultancy company; Sir Edward Heath, with his private company, Dumpton Gap, which handles payments from his lecturing and writing interests; Geoffrey Robinson, the Labour MP, who runs his own engineering firm, TransTec.On paper, David Mellor is streets ahead of most of his colleagues, with numerous consultancies and his broadcasting work. According to one recent report, 100 MPs – 88 Tories, 10 Labour and two Liberal Democrats – earn at least pounds 3m a year from their directorships.

Then there are fees for television appearances and journalism and lecturing.The extent of their earning power is huge: there is no shortage of businesses anxious to employ an MP. Lucrative share options and shareholdings can also accompany a directorship.On top of that, MPs can be paid for furnishing introductions and bringing in new clients if their employers are lobbying and public relations firms, or a bank. These are only averages: a directorship can be worth much more. But there are indicators.Consultancies are worth around pounds 10,000 a year and directorships can bring in pounds 15,000. Some MPs – mostly Labour – hold no other jobs; some – mostly Conservative – have several.One part of the Commons exists on the MPs’ salary of pounds 33,189 a year; another earns far more.Just how much, it is impossible to say for sure, and, if Monday’s vote goes against disclosure, may never be known. CHRIS BLACKHURST

Westminster Correspondent
The quickest of glances at the Register of Members’ Interests encapsulates the deepening divide over the disclosure of MPs’ extra-curricular earnings. They are expected back at the weekend, and it is thought unlikely their nine members will vote with the Tories.Tory members of the select committee which turned Lord Nolan’s report into a recommended ban on advocacy launched an offensive to argue that their proposals were a “better way” of achieving Nolan’s objectives.Sir Terence Higgins (C, Worthing), said: “Frankly we have been left to pick up the pieces – they did not have enough time, and we dealt with problems that they didn’t even think of.”.