Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Britain last night attacked press speculation about the arrest of two British nurses following the killing of an Australian

Saudi Arabia’s ambassador to Britain last night attacked press speculation about the arrest of two British nurses following the killing of an Australian woman in Dhahran. Dr Ghazi Algosaibi condemned stories in British newspapers, saying: “This trial by press is not helping anyone, least of all the two nurses and their families.”
He was speaking as it emerged that the brother of victim Yvonne Gilford said he was considering a plea for clemency, if the nurses were condemned by a court.Frank Gilford said: “If they don’t want to behead them and want to put them in prison, that would be all right with me. If they were locked away in a Saudi jail for the rest of their lives, I think it could be worse than actually being beheaded.”Dr Algosaibi defended the Saudi justice system, saying the case would be examined “thoroughly and fairly”, adding: “No confession is valid unless given freely in front of the court.”Even if they are found guilty, the death sentence is not automatic. The court will determine the appropriate punishment having taken all the circumstances into account.” He said the nurses would have ample opportunity to defend themselves.The ambassador added: “There will be no special arrangements for this case or any other.

Until the court renders its judgment, all the reports must be dismissed as pure speculation.”These nurses were charged, but must be considered innocent until the court finds them guilty.”British diplomats were last night holding discussions with Saudi officials over gaining access to the nurses, Lucy McLauchlan, 31, and Deborah Parry, 41, who are being held in Dhahran. It is thought that a consular official will not be able to meet them until tomorrow. The Foreign Office said it wanted a visit “as soon as possible” to arrange legal representation. It has asked the nurses to choose from a list of English- speaking lawyers.A spokesman said: “We are still keen to see them We will continue to press the Saudis. People in this sort of situation depend on consuls.”The pair were arrested a week ago after the death of Miss Gilford, 55, an Australian nurse at the King Fahd Military Medical complex, where all three worked Her body was found in her room on 11 December She was said to have been beaten and stabbed..

Edinburgh has taken pole position in the race to be the place to party on the last night of the millennium. The festivities in the Scottish capital are now so popular that more than half a million people will be there this new year’s eve. The end-of-year party, now promoted under the title “Edinburgh’s Hogmanay”, will be the biggest new year’s celebration in the world.
The event has grown at a phenomenal rate since its inception three years ago and it now dwarfs the festivities in New York’s Times Square and the rather muted celebrations in Trafalgar Square. Edinburgh’s tourism chiefs are hoping to boost interest to such an extent that it will be first choice for partygoers on 31 December 1999.Demand for hotel rooms in the city is so great this year that tourism officials have had to place visitors in accommodation up to 50 miles away in Glasgow, the Border towns and Kirkcaldy in Fife – a pounds 45 taxi ride home from the party.New year’s crowds in Edinburgh are now double those in New York (200,000) and five times those of Trafalgar Square (75,000).

The new fashionability of Scottish history and the recent return to Scotland of the Stone of Scone is expected to enhance the attraction of a tartan-wrapped new year’s eve.The event is dominated by students and young professionals, with nearly 80 per cent of revellers coming from the upper social groupings. While a quarter of last year’s crowd came from England and a tenth were from overseas, others flocked in from all over Scotland.The street party is the culmination of a five-day festival which begins today. When the event began in 1993, the final street party attracted a relatively modest 70,000. Last year’s event is estimated to have generated pounds 23m in spin-off revenue for the city and pounds 32m for Scotland as a whole. The 1999 figure will be much higher.Organisers are concerned, however, that the city’s capacity for entertaining revellers in comfort is already stretched. This year Princes Street, which runs through the centre of the city and is at the heart of the street party, will be packed.Abigail Carney of Unique Events, the organisers of the festival, said: “We want Edinburgh to become the millennium city but we want the event to remain interesting, high-quality and cutting-edge.”We don’t want to expand to the point where people stop enjoying themselves.” Edinburgh’s success in reclaiming New Year’s Eve as a peculiarly Scottish celebration is based on a tradition dating back to the Protestant reformation of 1560.Protestant elders insisted that “Christ’s Mass”, with its associations with Catholicism, should be just another working day. The pre-Christian ritual of celebrating the new year consequently took on greater significance.Och aye the knee, Real Life.