Looking Back - USSR Pledges To Leave Afghanistan

On this day in 1988, the Soviet Union signed an agreement pledging to withdraw its troops from Afghanistan.
The pact, drawn up in negotiations between the United States, the USSR, Pakistan and Afghanistan, was signed in a United Nations ceremony in the Swiss capital, Geneva.
It ended nine years of occupation by the Soviet Union, who intervened in 1979 to prop up the struggling communist government.
The subsequent confrontation has drawn in the United States and Afghanistan's neighbours.
Delicate negotiations
Today's agreement provides for a gradual Russian withdrawal, phased over nine months.
But critics have pointed out that it still allows the Soviet Union and the United States to continue arming the two sides in the Afghan civil war.
Today's signing ceremony was itself fraught with complications and required some delicate negotiations to get all four parties around the table.
The Pakistan and Afghanistan groups have so far never met face to face.
One UN official commented, "Getting them to agree where to sit is almost as difficult as getting the agreement in the first place."
Elaborate schedule
In the end, an elaborate and precise 21-minute schedule was drawn up.
The UN Secretary-General, Javier Perez de Cuellar, came in first, followed by the Afghan and Pakistani foreign ministers who entered the room simultaneously from separate doors.
They sat either side of Mr Perez de Cuellar.
There was then a similar arrangement for the US Secretary of State and his Soviet counterpart, Eduard Shevardnadze.
Threat of anarchy
Resistance leaders are furious that they were excluded from the Geneva talks.
Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, chairman of the seven-party mujahideen alliance, attacked the accord as defective, unpracticable and ineffective.
He dismissed the entire UN-sponsored peace process as a waste of time, saying the agreement would ensure that what he called "an illegitimate puppet regime" would remain in place in Kabul. Critics believe Afghanistan will slip into anarchy after the Russians leave, as war continues between the Soviet-backed Communist government of President Sayid Mohammed Najibullah and the seven mujahideen rebel groups.
But UN mediator Diego Cordovez was confident the pact would hold, and rejected fears that a bloodbath would follow the departure of the Soviet army.
"Things will start changing now," he said. "There will be a fundamental change of attitude among all the people."

The last Soviet troops left Afghanistan in February 1989.
As predicted, a long period of civil war followed.
The mujahideen overthrew President Najibullah in 1992. Rival mujahideen factions then spent the next four years vying for control, until the Pashtun-dominated Taleban seized control of Kabul in 1996.
They instituted a hardline version of Islam, banning women from work and introducing punishments such as amputation and stoning.
Following the September 11 attacks in America in 2001, the Taleban refused to hand over the man believed to be responsible, Osama bin Laden.
Their stand meant Afghanistan became the first battleground in the so-called war against terror.
The US and Britain launched airstrikes against Afghanistan later that year, and the Taleban was driven from power within months.
An interim government under Hamid Karzai was sworn in in December 2001.
In presidential elections in 2004, he was elected president with 55% of the vote.
He leads a country whose economy and infrastructure are in ruins.
Many parts of the country are still controlled by regional warlords and their private militias, while attacks by Taleban remnants and militant groups continue.

Looking Back - British Agree To Singapore Self-Rule

On this day in 1957, the British government allowed the island colony of Singapore to govern itself under a new constitution agreed in London.
The Singapore Constitutional Conference ended after four weeks of talks when Chief Minister of Singapore Lim Yew Hock and Alan Lennox-Boyd, secretary of state for the Colonies, signed an agreement.
The constitution was to come into effect some time after 1 January 1958 when the colony would become known as the State of Singapore.
Britain was to remain in charge of external affairs and defence.
Subversives barred
There was, however, one major pre-condition that the Singapore delegation would not agree to - that "persons known to have been engaged in subversive activity" would be barred from standing for the Legislative Assembly.
This demand, aimed at excluding extremist left-wing activists in the People's Action Party (PAP), some of whom had been detained for inciting anti-British riots the previous year.
At the signing ceremony at Lancaster House, Mr Lim rejected this demand as "a departure from normal democratic practice" but agreed to put it before the Legislative Assembly.
Under self-government, the office of Governor was to be abolished and replaced with a Malayan-born representative of the Queen known as the Yang di-Pertuan Negara.
An internal security council preventing subversion was to be set up under the chairmanship of the UK Commissioner charged with safeguarding British affairs in the territory.
Resignation over failed talks
The previous April, David Marshall, first Chief Minister of Singapore, led a delegation to London to ask for internal self-government with the aim of achieving independence or "merdeka" in Malay.
The talks failed, and as a result Mr Marshall resigned as Chief Minister in the June. He was succeeded by Lim Yew Hock.

A few days later former Chief Minister David Marshall resigned from the governing Labour Front in protest at the agreement which he felt did not go far enough. He called it "a pock-marked beauty shrouded in chloroform".
The Constitutional Agreement was finally signed in London on 28 May 1958 and self-government achieved after Singapore held general elections in 1959.
The first government of the State of Singapore was sworn in on 5 June with Lee Kuan Yew as Prime Minister.
It joined the Federation of Malaysia in 1963 and became totally independent in 1965, nearly 20 years after it was made a British crown colony.
The People's Action Party (PAP) has been the dominant political force since independence.

Looking Back - Fault Cuts Short Space Shuttle Mission

On this day in 1997, the US space agency, Nasa, aborted the latest space shuttle flight and ordered its crew to return to Earth because of a defective fuel cell.
Nasa officials insist that the other two fuel cells are working normally and that the spacecraft and its crew of five men and two women are in no danger.
But after a day of intensive discussion, the decision was taken to bring Columbia back early, with touchdown at 1434 local time (1834 GMT) ,
The shuttle had been in orbit for just four days, out of a mission planned to last over two weeks.
Explosion risk
Tommy Holloway, manager of the US space shuttle programme, told a news conference the fault in the fuel cell meant the supercold liquid hydrogen and oxygen it uses to generate electricity might overheat and mix, causing a disastrous explosion.
"We have come to the conclusion that the conservative thing to do is to land the shuttle," he said. "We have learnt always to be conservative in issues of research."
There are three electricity generating units on board Columbia, providing the power to conduct planned experiments and also to make drinking water for the crew.
Each of them is made up of 96 cells, arranged in three 32-cell "substacks".
Almost immediately after lift-off on Friday, engineers noticed lower than expected power from one of the substacks in unit two.
Safety 'might be jeopardised'
The unit continued to weaken during the next 18 hours of the flight. It was feared that allowing it to continue deteriorating would seriously jeopardise the safety of those aboard.
Nasa is still haunted by the Challenger disaster more than 10 years ago, when the space shuttle exploded just after lift-off. All seven crew members died.
The Columbia crew was to have carried out an ambitious program of research. It included lighting controlled fires in space to see the effect of zero gravity on flame.
The shuttle also carried a greenhouse unit for plants to study the effect of weightlessness on growth.
The Columbia space shuttle is the oldest of the four shuttles in the fleet.
It has had problems with fuel cells before, causing an earlier mission in 1981 - only the second Nasa shuttle mission - to be cut short.
There has been only one other aborted shuttle mission, in 1991, when a navigation device developed a fault.

The aborted flight was relaunched on 1 July 1997 with the same crew of seven on board Columbia. This time the mission was carried out in full, landing on 17 July without mishap.
Columbia continued carrying out shuttle missions without a problem until February 2003, when disaster struck.
Right at the end of a routine mission, just as it re-entered the Earth's atmosphere 16 minutes before its scheduled landing, Columbia disintegrated, killing all seven astronauts on board.
An independent investigation confirmed initial suspicions that a piece of insulating foam from an external fuel tank which hit the shuttle's left wing as it took off was to blame.
The foam had damaged the shuttle's heat shield, causing it to break up on re-entry.
Shuttle flights have since been suspended. Nasa has set a target date to resume shuttle missions in May 2005, with stringent new safety procedures in place.
Discussions continue over how to replace the ageing fleet of space shuttles when they reach the end of their original design life in 2010.

Looking Back - Rosenbergs Guilty Of Espionage

On this day in 1951, an American electrical engineer and his wife were found guilty by New York's Federal Court of passing atomic secrets to the Russians.
Julius Rosenberg, 33, and his 35-year-old wife, Ethel, were accused of stealing technical information from the atom research centre in Los Alamos and turning it over to the KGB.
A radar expert, Morton Sobell, has also been found guilty of the same charges.
The court heard the Rosenbergs, who have two young sons, were involved in a complicated spy ring, which also included Mrs Rosenberg's brother, David Greenglass, former Soviet vice-consul Arkadi Yakovlev, and Philadelphia chemist, Harry Gold.
Greenglass, a machinist at the Los Alamos research centre during World War II, said he had been asked by the Rosenbergs, both committed Communists and members of the Young Communist League, to obtain information about the atomic bomb.
Greenglass told the court he was unaware he was working on the atomic bomb project until his brother-in-law, Julius Rosenberg, told him.
The court heard the information was passed to Harry Gold, who turned it over to the Russians.
Gold, who is now serving a 30-year jail sentence after pleading guilty to espionage, had also worked as a go-between for British scientist Klaus Fuchs, it was revealed.
Fuchs was jailed for 14 years in 1950 after admitting that he had been passing atomic secrets to the Russians for many years.
Arkadi Yakovlev, also allegedly involved in the spy ring, escaped trial after fleeing to Russia before the American authorities could catch up with him.
In pronouncing guilty verdicts, Judge Kaufman, presiding over the trial, said: "That citizens should lend themselves to the destruction of their own country by the most destructive weapon known is so shocking that I cannot find words to describe the loathsome offence."
The couple, who have consistently denied any involvement in the spy ring, will be sentenced on 5 April.

The Rosenbergs were sentenced to death on 5 April 1951 and despite numerous appeals for clemency were executed by the electric chair at Sing-Sing Prison on 19 June 1953.
They were the only people in the United States ever executed for Cold War espionage, and their conviction fuelled US Senator Joseph McCarthy's anti-communist crusade against "anti-American activities" by US citizens.
The couple's two sons, Robert and Michael, who were six and 10 when their parents were executed, were adopted by friends of their parents, the Meeropols, under new names.
They only revealed their true identities in the 1970s when the Freedom of Information Act enabled them to gain documents which they believed could prove their parents' innocence.
David Greenglass escaped the death penalty, and gained immunity for his wife, after agreeing to give evidence against his sister and brother-in-law. He served 10 years in jail.
Years later he admitted he had fabricated his story to save his own skin but had no regrets about what he had done.
However, records and testimony from intelligence sources in the US and Russia, suggests Julius Rosenberg had been involved in giving some sensitive information to Soviet contacts in support of the war effort against Hitler.

Looking Back - Football's World Cup Stolen

On this day in 1966, the football World Cup was stolen while on exhibition at Central Hall in Westminster, London.
The £30,000 solid gold Jules Rimet trophy disappeared while a church service was taking place in another part of the building.
Thieves removed the cup from the "Sport with Stamps" display at the Stampex exhibition, but stamps worth £3m were left behind.
At least two guards were in the hall at the time of the theft. Alsa-Guard, the security firm at the exhibition, was not available for comment.
Delegates from current cup-holders Brazil left the cup in custody of the Federation of International Football Association (Fifa) last week.
The trophy was to be the centre-piece of the World Cup tournament being hosted by Britain later this year.
Vice-chairman of the Football Association Council, Jack Stewart, was reluctant to accept blame for the trophy's disappearance.
But he said: "We are responsible for it in the end because we are the organizing association."
Detectives and forensics experts are investigating the break-in and have appealed for anyone who was in Central Hall to contact Scotland Yard.
Police say a suspicious-looking man was seen in the building at the time of the theft. He is described as being in his early 30s, of average height with thin lips, greased black hair and a possible scar on his face.
The Jules Rimet trophy is named after a French lawyer who was a president of FIFA and initiated the World Cup competition in 1929.
Brazil have been holders of the Cup for the last eight years, after winning both the 1958 and 1962 competitions.

Several days of anxiety and frustration followed the Cup's theft.
Brazil said it was a sacrilege that would never have been committed in Brazil where even its thieves loved football too much.
But the trophy was eventually found by Pickles, a mongrel dog, out for a walk with his owner, on 27 March in south London.
Later that year it was England who won the World Cup, but in 1970 Brazil was allowed to keep the trophy for ever, after winning the competition for the third time.
The replacement trophy remains the prize for the World Cup to this day.
The Jules Rimet cup was stolen again in 1983 - in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. It has never been recovered.

To watch more on this story click on the video link below:

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Looking Back - Avalanche Hits Royal Ski Party

On this day in1988, the Prince of Wales (Pictured) narrowly avoided death on the ski slopes of Switzerland in an avalanche that killed one of his closest friends.
Major Hugh Lindsay, former equerry to the Queen, was sent plunging 400m down the mountainside when the avalanche hit the royal party as they were ski-ing off piste above the resort of Klosters.
Another member of the royal party, Patti Palmer-Tomkinson, suffered serious leg injuries in the accident.
The Prince and several other members of the group, including their guide, were able to ski to safety.
As soon as the danger had passed, Prince Charles, the guide and a Swiss police officer, who was ski-ing with the party, raced back to help the victims, digging with their bare hands in the snow to reach them.
Mrs Palmer-Tomkinson and Major Lindsay were flown to the local hospital at Davos, where the Major was declared dead.
Major Lindsay's wife, Sarah, who works in the Buckingham Palace press office was informed of her husband's death. She is six months pregnant.
One eye-witness, Marie Griffiths, said she saw the Prince being airlifted off the mountain.
She said: "As far as I know he hadn't been injured. He looked very distressed, somebody said he was crying, but he did walk to the helicopter so he looked uninjured."
After the accident, the Prince and the remainder of the royal party returned to the chalet where they had been staying. The Princess of Wales and Duchess of York had spent the afternoon there.
The Royal group is cutting short its holiday and will fly home tomorrow.
Prince Charles and his friends were ski-ing on the Wang run, known as one of the most difficult runs in the area. Today was the first time it had been open this season.
The Prince is a very experienced skier and the group had with them one of the best local guides, Bruno Sprecher.
The Queen was told of the accident during a visit to the Queen's tennis club in London where she was attending the centenary celebrations of the Lawn Tennis Association.
Major Lindsay had accompanied the Queen on many official engagements and was said to be a great favourite of hers. She has sent a private message of sympathy to his widow.

The Royal party flew home to London the following day, bringing the body of Major Hugh Lindsay.
The Prince issued a statement in which he confirmed the party had been ski-ing off piste at their own risk.
He praised the actions of their guide, Bruno Sprecher. He said Mr Sprecher had helped save the life of Mrs Palmer-Tomkinson by giving her mouth-to-mouth resuscitation. Unfortunately Major Lindsay had been killed outright.
The Prince first learned to ski at the age of 14. Since then he has taken regular ski-ing holidays - mostly at Klosters. In recent years, he has returned there with his sons Princes William and Harry.
In 2002, the Prince cut short a trip to Klosters following the death of the Queen Mother.

Looking Back - Passenger Jet Crashes Into Mount Fuji

On this day in 1966, a Boeing 707 crashed into Mount Fuji in Japan killing all 124 people on board.
The BOAC (British Overseas Airways Corporation) plane plunged into the wooded slopes of the dormant volcano, 25 minutes after taking off from Tokyo International Airport.
This was the third American-built aircraft to crash in the area in about a month. Early in February, a Japanese Boeing 727 crashed in Tokyo bay, with the loss of 133 lives. And less than 24 hours ago a DC-8 of Canadian Pacific Airlines crashed on landing at Tokyo killing all 64 people on board.
Witnesses who saw today's crash reported seeing pieces break off the Boeing in the air.
One said: "The aircraft was flying as high as Mount Fuji and I could see smoke at its tail. I heard a bang and afterwards the tail and the main fuselage broke apart and the aircraft began spinning down. Just before impact the nose and the fuselage parted."
Air currents
Two British teams of investigators were sent to Japan to investigate the crash. An official from the United States Civil Aeronautics Board also travelled to Tokyo.
The plane had been grounded the night before the crash at Fukuoka in the south of Japan because of bad weather in the Tokyo area. It had flown on to the Japanese capital in the morning.
The crash occurred en route to its next stop, Hong Kong.
Captain Bernard Dobson, 45, from Poole in Dorset, was in command of the airliner. He has been described as a very experienced 707 pilot and had been flying these aircraft since November 1960.
Violent air currents can be experienced near Mount Fuji, which is the highest mountain in Japan.
Of the victims identified so far, 37 were American, two British, two Chinese, one Canadian, one New Zealander and 13 Japanese.

The investigation into the crash found the aircraft was trailing white vapour as it left Tokyo, then suddenly began losing altitude and parts of the aircraft began to break away.
Finally over Tarobo at an altitude of approximately 2000m, the fuselage came apart.
It is thought the pilot may have been trying to give his passengers a good view of Mount Fuji when he suddenly encountered abnormally severe turbulence, which caused the aircraft to break up.

Looking Back - Black Nationalist Leader Shot Dead

On this day in 1965, controversial black leader Malcolm X, (Pictured right) who once called for a "blacks-only" state in the US, was assassinated.
He was shot several times as he began a speech to 400 of his followers at the Audubon Ballroom just outside the district of Harlem in New York.
Malcolm X, who was 39, was taken to a nearby hospital but was pronounced dead shortly afterwards.
Two men believed to have carried out the shooting were cornered outside the ballroom by a crowd and badly beaten.
It took 10 police officers several minutes to rescue them.
One of the arrested men, Thomas Hagan, 22, had a bullet wound to his leg and was taken to hospital.
It is believed the men are members of the black Muslim group, the Nation of Islam (NoI).
Malcolm X had long been tipped to take over from the NoI's ageing leader, Elijah Muhammad.
He gave up his "slave" family name of Little when he joined the black Muslim group while serving a jail term.
But he broke away from the NoI acrimoniously two years ago to set up his own organisation which he said was for "Negro intellectuals who favoured racial separation but could not accept the Muslim religion".
However, after a recent trip to Mecca he appeared to be taking a more conciliatory approach to white people.
Firebombs
Sanford Garelick, assistant chief of New York police said Malcolm X's death could most probably be put down to rivalry between the two groups.
"This is the result, it would seem, of a long-standing feud," he said.
Only last week Malcolm X and his family survived the firebombing of their home in the Queen's district of New York.
Malcolm X's lawyer, Percy Sutton, said he was aware his life was in danger.
"Malcolm knew he would be killed," Mr Sutton said.
Police said they were investigating reports that some of Malcolm X's followers were planning a revenge attack.

In March 1966 three men, two of whom admitted being members of the Nation of Islam, were found guilty of Malcolm X's murder.
They were sentenced to life imprisonment.
In May 2000 Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan appeared on television with one of Malcolm X's daughters.
He had long been blamed by Malcolm X's family and supporters for inciting his murder.
Mr Farrakhan expressed regret that "any word that I have said caused the loss of life of a human being".
However, he denied he had had any role in the actual killing.

Looking Back - Lulu Ties Knot With Bee Gee

On this day in 1969, hundreds of people clamoured to see the marriage of popstars Lulu and Maurice Gibb of the Bee Gees in a Buckinghamshire church.
Lulu, 20, had hoped to keep her wedding plans secret but around 1,000 people - mostly women and girls - filled the grounds of St James' Church in Gerrards Cross.
Several children were hurt as the crowd - that had waited for an hour - surged forward when Lulu arrived in her green Rolls Royce, 20 minutes late.
Wearing a long, white, mink-trimmed coat with fur hood and a white, silk mini-dress, Lulu - born Marie McDonald McLaughlin - begged onlookers to let her through, saying, "Please let me in, please let me in."
As police formed a cordon to allow the bride to reach the church, Maurice Gibb - also wearing white - waited inside with his best man, twin brother Robin, who was married only three months ago.
The third Gibb brother, Barry, arrived 10 minutes later, after earlier objecting to the wedding saying the couple was too young.
The Bee Gees and the bride were the only celebrities at the small, family wedding.
Plans for family
After a half-hour service - presided over by Reverend Gordon Harrison - the newlyweds were trapped in the church for another 10 minutes until a path had been cleared to their waiting car.
They spent a few minutes at the 19-year-old groom's parents' house in Gerrards Cross before travelling to London for their reception.
After a one-day honeymoon Lulu plans to return to work on her BBC television series.
She says she wants to cut down on her work-load to concentrate on her family and wants lots of children.
The daughter of a Glaswegian butcher, Lulu has already enjoyed a successful singing career for five years - beginning with number one single, Shout.
She will represent the UK at the Eurovision Song Contest in March.

Lulu shared victory at the 1969 Eurovision Song Contest in Madrid - in a four-way tie - with her song Boom-Bang-A-Bang.
Lulu and Maurice Gibb separated in April 1973, when Lulu said the marriage was not working, but emphasised there was no-one else involved.
Over her 36-year career Lulu has enjoyed 16 top 40 hits and became a familiar face on UK television.
In June 2000 she was awarded an OBE.
Over five decades the Bee Gees had record sales of £110 million worldwide and are one of the top five most successful recording artistes of all time.
The Bee Gees were awarded CBEs in the 2002 New Years Honours list.
Maurice Gibb died of a heart attack in Miami in January 2003, aged 53.

Looking Back - Tories Choose First Woman Leader

On this day in 1975, the British Conservative Party chose Margaret Thatcher as its new leader.
She was the first woman to head a British political party after a landslide victory over the other four - male - candidates.
Mrs Thatcher - who served as Secretary of State for Science and Education in Ted Heath's Government - exclaimed "It's like a dream."
The MP for Finchley, north London, since 1959 rejected suggestions of great celebrations.
She said: "Good heavens, no. There's far too much work to be done."
Mrs Thatcher, 50, forced Ted Heath to resign as leader last week when she trounced him in the first round of the leadership race with 130 votes to his 119.
Conservative Party confidence in Mr Heath - prime minister from 1970 to 1974 - was rattled by his failure to win general elections in both February and October last year.
Chairman of the influential 1922 Backbench Committee - whose 276 members are largely responsible for deciding party leaders - Edward du Cann, told BBC Television: "We have a new and rather exciting leader. Mrs Thatcher will make the Tory Party distinctive."
At a press conference at the House of Commons the new leader thanked her campaign team and looked forward to retaining Ted Heath and other members of the current Shadow Cabinet, though probably not in the same jobs.
Mrs Thatcher - a mother of twins married to Denis, an oil executive - put in a brief appearance at a party in Pimlico before having a working dinner with Conservative Chief Whip Humphrey Atkins in Westminster.
Former Northern Ireland Minister Willie Whitelaw was her closest challenger, but still only gained 79 votes in comparison to the 146 she polled in the second ballot of the contest.
The other candidates were Sir Geoffrey Howe, QC, and Mr Prior who each received 19 votes and John Peyton trailed in last with just 11 votes.

Ted Heath refused to serve in Margaret Thatcher's shadow cabinet.
Margaret Thatcher set about re-building grass-roots conservatism, outside the Home Counties.
Willie Whitelaw and Sir Keith Joseph were key members of her advisory team.
She was regarded as a right-wing Conservative, pre-occupied with domestic affairs.
She went on to win the 1979 general election to become the first female prime minister in the UK.
Her Conservative Party was elected with an overall majority of 43 seats.
She was forced to resign after losing the leadership election in November 1990.
Her 11 years in power made her the longest serving British prime minister since 1827.

Looking Back - Life For Serial Killer Shipman

On this day in 2000, Family GP Dr Harold Shipman was jailed for life for murdering 15 of his patients, making him Britain's biggest convicted serial killer.
Shipman, from Hyde in Greater Manchester, was also suspected of killing more than 100 other patients.
From the dock at Preston Crown Court, Shipman showed no emotion as the verdict was read out: guilty to 15 murders and forging the will of one of his patients.
In sentencing Shipman to life imprisonment the judge, Mr Justice Thayne Forbes, said: "Each victim was your patient. You murdered each and every one by a calculated and cold-blooded perversion of your medical skills.
"You brought them death, disguised by the attentiveness of a good doctor."
All Shipman's victims were women and none was suffering from a serious illness when she died. Each one died suddenly after a visit from Shipman.
The court was told how the doctor would visit the victims in their homes and administer a lethal dose of morphine.
The alarm was raised by solicitor Angela Woodruff, the daughter of Kathleen Grundy, Shipman's last victim. Shipman arrived at Mrs Grundy's home on the pretext of giving her a blood test and had, in fact, given her a massive dose of morphine.
He then crudely forged her will so he would benefit from her substantial estate.
Outside the court, Mrs Woodruff gave her reaction. "Sadly, nothing that has happened here nor can happen in the future can bring back my mum, nor the other victims," she said.
"We hope we can now have the space and time to remember my mum as she was - a happy, active, caring, energetic, loving person whom we miss so much."
Shipman's family, his wife, Primrose, and sons, Christopher and David were in court for the verdict.
The defence said the case against the doctor was based solely on unreliable and unsafe toxicological evidence gathered from the exhumed bodies of nine of his victims.
The family solicitor, Ann Ball, said: "Mrs Shipman is devastated by the verdict that has been reached today. The last 18 months have been an ordeal for her and her family."
Further murder charges are possible. The court was told the police had investigated the deaths of 136 of Shipman's patients.

An official inquiry conducted by Dame Janet Smith concluded Shipman may have killed as many as 250 patients over 23 years.
The finding confirmed Shipman as Britain's worst serial killer - ahead of Mary Ann Cotton, believed to have poisoned more than 20 people in the 19th century.
According to the report, published in July 2002, his first victim was Eva Lyons, killed the day before her 71st birthday in 1975.
He had eight previous convictions, including one in 1976 for falsifying prescriptions to feed an addiction to pethidine, a morphine-like drug. The General Medical Council disciplined him, but did not strike him off.
In July 2003 after a second phase of the inquiry, Dame Janet criticised Greater Manchester Police for they way they handled the case and said the last three victims might have been saved "if the police and coroner had moved with reasonable expedition".
On 13 January 2004 Shipman died after he was found hanging in his cell at Wakefield prison.
The true extent of his crimes while a trusted family GP in Greater Manchester and West Yorkshire may never be known.

Looking Back - Shoe Bomber Jailed For Life

On this day in 2003, a US judge sentenced British-born "shoe bomber" Richard Reid to life in prison after he tried to blow up a transatlantic flight from Paris to Miami.
Reid was unrepentant throughout the 90-minute hearing in which he received the maximum sentence on each of the eight counts faced by Judge William Young.
He was sentenced to life imprisonment on three of the charges - attempted use of a weapon of mass destruction and two counts of interfering with a flight crew.
Reid was also given an additional 20 years each for attempted homicide, attempted murder, planting an explosive device on an aircraft, and attempted destruction of an aircraft - plus 30 years for using a destructive device in relation to a crime of violence.
The total of 110 years of imprisonment in addition to the life sentences was more than the prosecution had requested.
Before hearing his fate he made a brief statement, lashing out at the American Government.
"Your government has sponsored the torture of Muslims in Iraq and Turkey, and Jordan and Syria with their money and weapons," he said.
He then told the judge: "It's in your hands."
Reid tried to bring down American Airlines Flight 63 through the use of explosives stuffed in his shoes on 22 December, 2001, just over 3 months after the 9/11 attacks.
But he was eventually overpowered by flight attendants and passengers as he tried to ignite a fuse protruding from his shoe.
Reid was tied up with belts and headphone cords, and the plane landed in Boston under escort from fighter jets.
Authorities later said that the shoes contained powerful plastic explosives which could have blown a hole in the plane's fuselage and killed all 197 people aboard.
In pleading guilty last October, Reid, 29, said he had been driven to blow up the aircraft by a love for Islam.
"Basically I got on the plane with a bomb," Reid told the court at the time.
"Basically I tried to ignite it. Basically, yeah, I intended to damage the plane . I'm a follower of Osama bin Laden. I'm an enemy of your country and I don't care."
Last week Reid's lawyers asked Judge Young to sentence him on one of the counts to which he pleaded guilty, and which carries 30 years in prison.
They asked the judge to delay sentencing on the other seven counts, citing classified government files that could clear their client.
But the motion was rejected by the judge after the prosecution argued that delaying the sentencing would be unfair to the 14 crew members and 183 passengers who could have died on the flight.
Reid is likely to serve his sentence at the Federal Correction Center in Florence, Colorado.

Several other suspects were arrested over the attempted bombing incident but only one other man, Sajid Badat, 24, from Gloucester was convicted with conspiring with Reid.
Badat was given 13 years' jail in March 2005.
He had pleaded guilty to conspiring to place a device on an aircraft in service.
Badat was arrested at his home after surveillance operations by the police and MI5.
More than 100 homes in Gloucester were evacuated during a police search of Badat's house in November 2003,

Looking Back - Sixty-Six Die In Scottish Football Disaster

On this day in 1971, sixty-six football supporters were killed following a match between Old Firm rivals Celtic and Rangers at the Ibrox Park stadium in Glasgow.
The disaster occurred when crush barriers collapsed as thousands of fans made their way out of the stadium.

(Pictured above right: where the tragedy happened as fans left the stadium.)
Initial reports suggested the tragedy, which happened on stairway 13 of the stadium, was caused when hundreds of Rangers fans began leaving the match early believing Celtic had won.
Jimmy Johnstone had scored for Celtic with just a minute to go, but Colin Stein scored an equalising goal for Rangers during injury time causing a huge roar to erupt inside the stadium.
According to eye-witnesses, fans attempting to get back up the stairs after hearing the roar, collided head-on with those coming down the stairs.
Everyone was struggling to get out, suffocating - it was essentially a fight for survival
Rescuers, who were on the scene within minutes, tried to force their way through the crowds, but their efforts were mostly in vain. One man who managed to struggle out of the crush, described the scene.
"I was making my way out of the stadium down the stairs when suddenly everything seemed to stop," he said.
"The lads at the back just kept coming forward down the stairs.
"I went down with the rest of the crowd, being pushed and pulled onto the ground.
"Everyone was struggling to get out, suffocating - it was essentially a fight for survival. After 10 or 15 minutes I was dragged out by a policeman and brought to hospital by ambulance."
Eighteen-year-old Margaret Ferguson was the only female fan to be killed in the tragedy.
Alick Buchanan-Smith, Scottish minister for Home Affairs, has called for an immediate inquiry into the disaster.
A public inquiry later discounted the initial version of events which suggested fans had been attempting to go back up the stairway.
It is now believed the crush was caused simply by the downward force of so many supporters leaving at the same time.
The momentum of the crowd meant that once people started to fall, there was no way of holding the mass of bodies back.
The disaster remains the worst in the history of Scottish football and is surpassed only by the Hillsborough tragedy in British football.

Looking Back - Sea Gem Oil Rig Collapses

On this day in 1965, the Sea Gem oil rig collapsed and Britain's first off-shore drilling platform capsized off the north-east coast of England killing four men.
Nine of the crew of 32 were still missing.
The British ship Baltrover happened to be passing and was first to spot the collapse of the Sea Gem at 1409GMT.
It sent a radio message to shore for further help, and then picked up 19 survivors and two bodies from the sea.
The 5,600-ton steel barge had been converted into an oil rig comprising a drilling platform, living quarters and a helicopter landing pad.
It was supported on 10 steel legs 50 feet (15 metres) above the waves.
Two of these legs gave way as it was being prepared to move to a new location, and then the whole rig tilted sideways and sunk.
Men were seen jumping into the freezing cold sea - stained red with fuel - and clinging onto wreckage.
Survivors were brought ashore to Hull tonight.
One man hanging on to a life raft clutched me with a grip of iron when I reached him
RAF winchman John Reeson
They had been rescued in a joint effort by passing ships and two helicopters - one RAF and the other civilian.
Rescuers on the Leconfield-based RAF helicopter, which rescued three men, said that by the time they had arrived only one leg of the converted barge was left visible.
Flight Sergeant John Reeson described the horrendous conditions as he had tried to save them.
"We went out through a snowstorm," he said.
"It was clear weather around the oil rig but it was rough. There were waves 15ft to 20ft high. I went down the winch line to men I could see in the water. It was freezing cold. They had been in the water an hour or two before we got there.
"One man hanging on to a life raft clutched me with a grip of iron when I reached him. It was almost impossible to pick him up, but I managed it. He was desperate."
One of the rig workers, Robert Hessey, said the structure collapsed without any warning.
"I saw the crane topple over the deck," he said. "There was a loud sound of grinding and rumbling. I hadn't realised what was happening
until I heard someone shouting, 'She's sinking.'"
Last September, after much public anticipation, British Petroleum's rig was the first to discover natural gas in the British sector 42 miles (67km) off the Lincolnshire coast.
Earlier this month Sea Gem also became the first rig to light a flare over the North Sea.
BP said the tragedy will delay its drilling programme. A new purpose-built rig, Sea Quest, is currently under construction in Belfast but it will be some months before it's ready to operate.
Two supporting legs gave way in the rough waters of the North Sea.

Altogether, 13 men lost their lives and five were injured.
Rescuers on the single RAF helicopter were honoured for their bravery in May 1966.
Flight Sergeant John Reeson, the RAF winchman, was awarded the George Medal. The navigator, Flight Lieutenant John Hill received the Air Force Cross and the pilot, Sergeant Leon Smith, got the Queen's Commendation.
A public inquiry into the sinking of the Sea Gem concluded metal fatigue in part of the suspension system linking the hull to the legs was to blame.
The inquiry recommended improving safety precautions such as regular inspections, a clear chain of command and better communication with workers
The Sea Gem's well was written off and new wells were drilled in Block 48/6 area, now known as West Sole Field.
The new Sea Quest floating platform began drilling nearby in July 1966.
The dangers of extracting oil at sea was further underlined in 1988 with the tragic accident of the Piper Alpha platform.

Looking Back - Queen's Christmas Speech Leaked

On this day in 1992, a national newspaper published the Queen's Christmas speech two days ahead of schedule sparking a full investigation from the BBC into the unprecedented leak.
Buckingham Palace denounced as '"very regrettable" the publication of the Queen's traditional annual speech in the Sun newspaper ahead of its broadcast on the BBC.
It signalled a clampdown on the future advance availability of the speech to the world's press and warned other media organisations against reporting information from the newspaper.
The publication, spread across the centre pages of the newspaper, is virtually word-for-word the text of the five-minute broadcast, recorded at Sandringham.
There are some suggestions the broadcast may have been picked up by a satellite TV enthusiast who then passed it to the Sun. Others point to a BBC mole.
A total of 120 audio and video copies of the broadcast was distributed the previous day by satellite to media organisations.
'Concern'
The publication embargo spells out the radio broadcast should not be before 0900 GMT on Christmas Day and the television broadcast not before 1500.
Palace aides regard the broadcast as crown copyright and its advance publication may be interpreted as a breach of that.
But the Sun's assistant news editor Leaf Kalfayan said the paper came by the story by "good, old-fashioned techniques".
It had not broken any embargoes and had obtained the information by legal means.
The BBC said it viewed the leak with 'concern' and hoped it would not mar the sense of occasion engendered by the Queen's broadcast.
A spokesman said the tapes were distributed yesterday and by 1700 GMT up to 40 UK broadcasters had received copies.
This year's message has been eagerly awaited after the Queen witnessed the break-up of the marriages of her sons, Andrew and Charles, Princess Anne's divorce and a fire at Windsor Castle.
The Queen has also had to endure the publication of Andrew Morton's controversial book on the Princess of Wales and yield to demands she should pay income tax.

The source of the leak has never been found.
The Queen described her "sombre year" with the now infamous phrase "annus horribilis".
Many aspects of the broadcast were subsequently changed with the venue switching from Sandringham to Windsor Castle and Buckingham Palace, and many media outlets not receiving the text of the address until late on Christmas Eve.
Buckingham Palace also ended the BBC's monopoly on the rights to produce the speech, to share it with Independent Television News (ITN) on a rotating basis.
It was widely interpreted as a deliberate snub to the BBC in retaliation for its Panorama interview with the Princess of Wales in November 1995.

Looking Back - 'Divorce': Queen To Charles And Diana

On this day in 1995, the Queen urged the Prince and Princess of Wales to seek "an early divorce".
Buckingham Palace said the Queen called for an end to the marriage in a letter to each of them earlier this week.
It is understood the prince has replied in agreement with his mother but the princess has yet to respond, according to a Palace spokesman.
"After considering the situation the Queen wrote to both the prince and princess earlier in the week and gave them her view, supported by the Duke of Edinburgh, that an early divorce is desirable," the spokesman said.
"The Prince of Wales also takes this view and has made this known to the Princess of Wales since the letter.
"The Queen and the Duke of Edinburgh will continue to do all they can to help and support the Prince and Princess of Wales, and most particularly their children, in this difficult period."
The Queen's action came just weeks after the princess's interview on Panorama which sparked a national debate on the future of the monarchy.
In it she said she did not want a divorce and claimed there were "three people" in their marriage because of Charles' friendship with Camilla Parker Bowles.
Diana was also repeatedly critical of her husband's ability to become king, his family, and their advisers and also admitted committing adultery herself.
Constitutional experts have said divorce would mean the Princess of Wales could never become queen.
The prime minister and senior Privy Councillors have backed the Queen's decision after prolonged private talks over the last two weeks.
Buckingham Palace's announcement followed discussions between the Queen and the Prime Minister.
Mr Major, who announced the couple's original separation in the Commons in 1992, will make a further statement to MPs once divorce proceedings are under way.

The "fairytale" marriage of the Prince and Princess of Wales ended with a "decree nisi" on 28 August 1996.
It was a far cry from their lavish wedding at St Paul's Cathedral 15 years earlier, witnessed by a television audience of millions.
As part of the divorce settlement Diana was stripped of her royal title - HRH - and instead became known as Diana, Princess of Wales.
It is understood she was awarded a £17m lump sum and £350,000 a year to run her private office, while Diana and Charles agreed to share custody of their sons.
Almost exactly a year later Diana died in a car crash with her companion Dodi Fayed in Paris.
Prince Charles married Camilla Parker Bowles in April 2005.

Looking Back - Radio Times Hits Christmas Deadline

On this day in 1950, it was reported the Christmas edition of the Radio Times would be out in time for families to plan their festive viewing and listening - despite recent publishing difficulties.
An industrial dispute, which disrupted production of the country's most popular magazine and other publications for several weeks of the autumn, has finally been settled.
One newspaper report said the dispute had cost the BBC £65,000 in lost sales.
The Christmas edition of the Radio Times is traditionally its biggest-selling issue. Sales are expected to exceed the weekly average of eight million copies.
Last year the BBC made £1,039,464 from its publications, most of it from the Radio Times.
Cancelled
The dispute was called by London Master Printers and the London Society of Compositors over pay and working conditions. They were demanding a weekly wage of £8.
The weekly edition of the Radio Times failed to appear first on 8 September. The following week an emergency 20-page version of the magazine was printed.
Over the course of the next couple of months several more editions were cancelled, or printed in a shorter form.
Some research was made into getting printing plates for the Radio Times made up in France. But the printers made it clear they would not handle the foreign plates.
Agreement was eventually reached in November to pay printers a minimum weekly wage of £7 15s, linked to a cost of living index.
New terms were also agreed for taking on apprentice compositors. From then on, their numbers would be linked to the degree of unemployment among compositors.
The 1950 Christmas Radio Times featured an illustration of the nativity scene by Walter Hodges on the front cover and inside a picture of the King George VI reading his Christmas message.
It was despatched ready for sale in the shops the following Friday (22 December).

The Radio Times has been published since 1923. In its 80-year history the magazine has only failed to appear 11 times - four of those were during the printing dispute of 1950.
In the 1950s the magazine was selling around eight million copies a week and claimed to be the world's biggest-selling magazine.
Its highest-ever sales figure was achieved for the Christmas edition of 1988 which sold over 11 million copies.
Following the de-regulation of the market, which allowed other magazines to include listings for all tv and radio programmes, sales dropped. The Christmas 2002 Radio Times sold just under three million copies.
The printing process is now entirely digital. The power the print unions wielded over the newspaper industry was broken by Rupert Murdoch during the Wapping dispute in 1986.

To watch pictures from the time of the strike, click on the video link below:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6590000/newsid_6596600/6596615.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&bbcws=1

Looking Back

On this day in 1957, The General Post Office started its annual campaign urging members of the public to post their Christmas cards early to ensure they arrive on time.
At a news conference today the Postmaster General, Ernest Marples, (pictured right) produced some useful advice on present packing and card sending and advised people to "Post early."
He told journalists of his own difficulties wrapping parcels with string that broke in his hands. He said that wrapping fell apart on 13,000 parcels at Mount Pleasant sorting office in London last year and asked people to pack carefully with strong string.
He also asked people to ensure their handwriting was clear and legible and to print the names of towns in block capitals.
He recollected a day he accompanied a Liverpool postman on his rounds as he puzzled over a letter which had writing "as intensely undecipherable as my own".
Four times more post
Mr Marples also explained this year was a particular problem as Christmas falls on a Wednesday.
This means most people will expect letters posted on the Monday before to arrive on time. But he urged us to "Post early" and send cards "prior to the preceding weekend" before Christmas Day.
This will alleviate the massive workload on the Post Office which is bracing itself for a fourfold increase on the usual amount of articles it handles - about 800 million cards, letters and parcels over the Christmas period.
It will be spending £4m on extra staff and lorries to deal with the festive rush of letters.
Tomorrow is the last day for posting cards to Europe and 12 December is the last date for sending letters to Europe, except to certain parts of Norway.

The General Post Office stopped delivering letters on Christmas Day in 1960 in England, Wales and Northern Ireland, and in 1965 in Scotland.
The GPO ceased to be a government department on 1 October 1969 and was nationalised as a public corporation, a process pushed forward by the then Postmaster General Anthony Wedgwood Benn.
It was also split into two divisions - postal and telecommunications.
British Telecom was created in 1980 and severed its links with the Post Office in 1981.
The Post Office is now divided into Royal Mail, Parcelforce and Post Office Counters plc.
Over Christmas 2002, Royal Mail delivered 2.1 billion cards, letters and parcels to 27 million addresses.
An estimated 20,000 extra staff were recruited to help the regular workforce of 143,000 postmen and postwomen.

Looking Back - Choking Fog Spreads Across Britain

On this day in 1962, a thick layer of fog which has covered London for the last three days was spreading all over the country.
Leeds has recorded its highest ever level of sulphur dioxide in the air and pneumonia cases in Glasgow have trebled.
A spokesman for London's Emergency Bed Service said 235 people had been admitted to hospital in the last 24 hours and issued a "red warning" to prepare for more patients as thick fog continues to affect public health.
So far 90 people have died since the crisis began and the fog is not expected to lift for another 24 hours.
DIY masks recommended
The Ministry of Health warned those at most risk, such as sufferers of chest and heart complaints should "stay indoors and rest as much as possible".
The ministry's medical advisors said doctors should prescribe masks for vulnerable patients or "do-it-yourself masks" such as thick cotton gauze or a scarf around the mouth and nose.
General advice to the public was also issued:
Only use coke or other smokeless fuel, do not bank up coal fires at night, don't burn rubbish or light bonfires, keep windows closed and draughts out.
Icy roads
The fog had now spread to 22 counties of England making driving conditions extremely hazardous with visibility varying from zero to 50 yards (45 metres).
Black ice was another danger affecting London, most of the south, East Anglia, the Midlands and Yorkshire, according to the Automobile Association.
One AA spokesman described the icy stretch of road on the A12 near Chelmsford as "a battlefield" after a series of minor accidents.
A scene of traffic jams, queues, breakdowns and abandoned cars recalls a picture not seen in this country for ten years when Britain was smother by the so-called Great Smog of 1952 that claimed some 4,000 lives.
Since then the Clean Air Act has been enforced but only dealt with the smoke emissions and not the discharge of sulphur dioxide.
The level of smoke in London's atmosphere today was two and a half times higher than for an average winter day - and the level of sulphur dioxide was seven times higher, according to figures produced by the Department of Scientific and Industrial Research.

To watch footage of the fog, click the video link below;

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6590000/newsid_6592100/6592149.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&ms3=6&ms_javascript=true&bbcws=2

Looking Back - Motorists Panic As Petrol Ration Looms

On this day in 1956, the government issued further details of its plans for rationing petrol from the following month.
The rationing period was expected to last for four months, from 17 December to 17 April, and was to be controlled through books of coupons.
Petrol had been in short supply since the President of Egypt, Gamal Abdul Nasser, took over the running of the Suez Canal four months earlier.
Supplies of fuel from the Middle East had been blocked ever since, causing fuel shortages throughout Europe.
Aubrey Jones, Minister of Fuel and Power, told journalists that businesses will be allowed an extra 100 miles a month in petrol, in addition to the 200 miles a month issued to normal car users.
Farmers, religious ministers, and essential local authority workers will be allowed 600 miles a month.
A third group, including doctors, midwives, disabled drivers and veterinary surgeons will be allowed whatever petrol they need.
Mr Jones asked all petrol stations to restrict daily sales between now and the start of rationing on 17 December, so that supplies can be spread throughout the month.
Panic buying
But panic buying is already causing havoc throughout the country, following the government's decision to cut petrol supplies by 10%.
Many garages closed altogether at the weekend, and many have already introduced their own form of rationing, allowing customers only one or two gallons each.
The owner of a garage in Denham, Buckinghamshire, said, "We are almost afraid to serve our regular customers.
"When motorists saw a car being filled they stopped and waited. In five minutes we had a queue of 50 cars waiting, and had to turn them all away."
Car industry hit
The fuel shortages have also hit the motor car industry.
Vauxhall Motors and the Ford Motor Company have announced reductions in the number of passenger cars to be built. Staff at both companies have been told they will have to work a four-day week.
Oil companies have also been warning of price rises due to the loss of revenue from petrol sales.

The pre-rationing rush on petrol continued, and by the time official rationing came in, roads were deserted and garages closed across the country.
Petrol was reported to be practically unobtainable in central London, with traffic in the capital down by two-thirds.
There was an outcry as petrol prices rose sharply to about six shillings a gallon - the equivalent of about £4.50 today. By comparison, a gallon of petrol in 2004 cost about £3.87.
Petrol rationing was just one of the side-effects of the Suez Crisis which involved Britain, France, Egypt, Israel, the USSR and the USA.
The pre-rationing rush on petrol continued, and by the time official rationing came in, roads were deserted and garages closed across the country.
Petrol was reported to be practically unobtainable in central London, with traffic in the capital down by two-thirds.
There was an outcry as petrol prices rose sharply to about six shillings a gallon - the equivalent of about £4.50 today. By comparison, a gallon of petrol in 2004 cost about £3.87.
Petrol rationing was just one of the side-effects of the Suez Crisis which involved Britain, France, Egypt, Israel, the USSR and the USA.

If you wish to see pictures concerning the rationing announcement, click on the following video link:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/player/nol/newsid_6580000/newsid_6589500/6589539.stm?bw=bb&mp=wm&news=1&bbcws=1