Creamola Foam, Kramola Fizz, Krakatoa Foamy Fruity Fizz

In my post of 31 October 2010 I reminisced about Creamola Foam:

Creamola Foam was a little tub of powder that, when mixed with water, turned into a fizzy fruit flavoured drink. Creamola Foam was the drink of choice for generations of children across Scotland who would enjoy making "big glasses" using the flavoured crystals and water. The drink originally came in Raspberry, Orange, and Lemon flavours and Cola was a later addition to the range. Creamola Foam became popular in Scotland from the 1950s onwards. After the grim days of austerity and rationing, having a fizzy drink you could mix yourself was quite a luxury and it remained popular. The production of the brand ceased in 1998, sparking a wave of disappointment and a growing campaign for its return ever since. The exact formula which made the sugary concoction so special was lost when production ceased in 1998, leaving would-be revivalists relying on nothing more than imprecise ingredient lists and recollections of how the drink tasted, looked and felt in the mouth. 

Alas a clone of Creamola Foam has yet to be realised.

In my post of 20 November I mentioned that my daughter got a tub of cola flavour Kramola Fizz from a family friend:

Well we happened to be in The Sweetie Shop in the Forum Centre today and my daughter noticed that they were selling tubs in different flavours though they were a bit pricey at £4 each. They do have little sachets for £1.50 though.

In the same shop the other day we got two tubs of Krakatoa Foamy Fruity Fizz in lemon/lime and raspberry flavours at £2.50 per tub. Not as fizzy as Creamola Foam but an improvement on Kramola Fizz.

UK Leads On Drugs Deaths

I have periodically commented on here about the prevalence of drugs locally and the picture nationally and globally - see for example my posts from a year ago this month.

New figures show that the number of drug deaths in Britain is among highest in the world. Illegal substances killed 2,278 people in a year, according to the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime. It ranks Britain sixth in the world, with only the US, Ukraine, the Russian Federation, Iran and Mexico having more.

Most of these deaths were caused by opioids, such as heroin, followed by sedatives, cocaine, amphetamine-type stimulants and ecstasy. The report also warned that, while drug use across the world remained stable, ‘demand soared for substances not under international control’ – so called legal highs. It added: ‘These markets continue to evolve and every year new products are manufactured to supply an increasingly diversified demand for psychoactive substances.’

The figures are from the year 2008 and the UN says drug deaths are recorded differently in different countries. The British deaths are among a population of 61 million and compare to 1,638 deaths in Spain, which has a population of 46 million, 1,449 in Germany (population 81 million) and 484 in Italy (population 60 million). The US, home to 308 million people, had 38,396 drug related deaths. Britain, the Russian Federation, Ukraine, Spain and Germany account for 80 per cent of all drug related deaths in Europe, the report shows.

Crime prevention minister Baroness Angela Browning said in the year to March officials seized 1,951 kg of cocaine or crack, 473 kg of heroin, and 1,012 kg of other class A drugs. ‘This report demonstrates the need for a renewed focus in dealing with the global drugs market to properly protect our communities,’ she added. Michael Linnell, from the drug and alcohol charity Lifeline, said he had seen a ‘dramatic’ fall in the number of young people taking heroin. He added: ‘Most of the people who are heroin addicts are in middle age and have been taking the drug for many years which takes its toll on their health and kills them. ‘But by far the biggest problem we face is from alcohol, both from the number of deaths and the impact it has on society.’

http://www.unodc.org/documents/data-and-analysis/WDR2011/World_Drug_Report_2011_ebook.pdf

In April The Guardian reported that the Government's expert drug advisers were to publish their first significant review of the harms caused by cocaine use this week to counter the "increasingly common" idea that it is a relatively safe drug. The increasing popularity of cocaine use among young adults in recent years has put Britain at the top of the European "league table" for cocaine abuse – a position it has held for six out of the last seven years.

Cocaine is the second most popular drug in Britain, after cannabis, with its use increasing markedly in the past decade from 0.6% of 16 to 59 year olds reporting use to the British Crime Survey to 2.4% in 2009-10. This is equivalent to nearly 800,000 people reporting that they have used it within the last year. Among those aged 16 to 24, the increase in use has been even sharper from 1.3% to 5.5% in 2009-10 – or about 367,000 teenagers and young adults.

The Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs (ACMD) wanted to launch its review of cocaine last year but was delayed by requests for advice from the home secretary, Theresa May, on banning the new generation of designer drugs or "legal highs" such as spice and mephedrone. The drug council chairman, Professor Les Iversen, recently wrote to the May telling her: "The ACMD has previously indicated that it would initiate a review of cocaine and that this review would be focused on the nature of the trade, its prevalence in the UK and the harms of the drug – not classification issues. "As you are aware, the substantial work the ACMD has undertaken on the legal highs agenda has prevented it from having resource to initiate this review, however, the ACMD is now in a position to start this with immediate effect." Iversen, who took over from Prof David Nutt after he was sacked, said that he was firmly of the view that cocaine is, and should remain, a class A drug. He said that the council has never looked at cocaine as a single substance in its 40 year history and the review was needed to reinforce public health work to reduce its harmful effects. It would tackle "the need to disabuse the misapprehension that cocaine is a relatively safe drug".

The decision to prioritise the cocaine review means that a similar investigation into the use of Qat, requested by the home secretary in February, is likely to be delayed. Qat is a leafy green plant whose leaves are chewed and used as a stimulant principally among Britain's Somali community. The drug advisers are also finalising their official advice on the wider implications of the emergence of the "legal highs" phenomenon and make further recommendations for tackling suppliers and reducing market demand.

A Hebridean Curry

Pouring over holiday brochures for sunny and hot climes is a ritual enjoyed by many in this country, and sometimes more than once a year these days. A combination of lack of money and an inbuilt suspicion of packaged holidays has meant that this is not a ritual I have taken part in very often. Holidays are not something I've had a lot of.

However a recent two nights and one night excursion to the Isle of Skye and Glencoe respectively leads me to think that I must get away more. I have seen them before but I think I must see more of Scotland. I've been to Skye and Glencoe before many many years ago, but the scenery never fails to astonish and evoke awe. For sure you have to consider that rain is very likely but it only adds to the atmosphere. They are simply the most stunning of landscapes, on our very own doorstep.

At times you are looking at a scene that has been gazed at for thousands of years. A mountain that looks as if it harbours infinite secrets - the majestic, perfect shape of Buchaille Etive Mhor on the road to Glencoe. In Glencoe itself one cannot ignore the story of the Government sponsored assassination of the McDonald clan in 1692. The Glen is dark, heavy and foreboding and over 300 years later it feels as if the Glen's very pores still ooze the tragedy in a tone of lamentation.

The Clachaig Inn claims to have been in Glencoe for over 300 years therefore it may well have opened it's doors to the warring clansmen. Catering much to the walkers and climbers but very welcoming to the sight seeing tourists, one cannot imagine an Inn with more dramatic surroundings. This was a place with a warm atmosphere, a great selection of beers at non tourist prices and pub meals, which while slightly pricey were of really good quality. The Inn appears to work really hard at creating an identity. It provides a wealth of information about the local area from its website . It is linked to CAMRA (real-ale) and it has regular live music playing one of the bars.

Glencoe appeals to walkers, climbers and tourists alike. The Isle of Skye does so too but with a greater emphasis on the capital T of tourism. Perhaps its island remoteness makes this all the more necessary but the twists and turns of Skye's roads are adequately dotted with the cottages of the B&B trade. The towns of Skye (mainly Broadford and its "capital", Portree) are adeptly focussed on the tourist experience, with craft shops, art galleries, boat trips, accommodation and of course the all important pubs and restaurants. I say restaurants. Some of them were offering pub grub at restaurants prices, which in real money was basically about twice the price of an equivalent pub meal in Dundee. Of course Skye also has its fair share of highly regarded restaurants, not least the Three Chimneys and Lady Claire MacDonald's Kinloch Lodge.

A real find was "The Prince of India" in Portree. I could not believe that there was a curry house on Skye! Yet there it was offering an array curries well known to any curry fanatic. The Chicken Jalfrezi and a Balti Chicken Madras at our table were of a pretty good quality and they would have beaten many a Dundee curry house hands down. There's a lot to be said for eating Indian in the Inner Hebrides.

The Howff

The Howff Cemetery sits in the City Centre in a square surrounded by four streets. Two of the streets' buildings back onto the cemetery whilst the other two provide a view into the cemetery. The Howff is no Pere Lachaise. It is tiny in comparison and it cannot boast the likes of Jim Morrison or Edith Piaf amongst its residents. However the Howff holds its own as the only remaining inner city cemetery left in Dundee and is locally immortalised in history as the place where the 7 incorporated trades held their meetings in the middle ages.

These have long ceased. The 18th and 19th century gravestones stand in varying degrees of opulence and disrepair. Earlier gravestones have long since shed their identities. They stand in solitude alongside the delightful trees, bushes and flowers that are tended by our local parks department.

The Howff represents an oasis in the heart of the City. Sitting on one of the benches I am able to forget that I am in Dundee. You do not feel that you are in the City Centre. On a sunny day I could be anywhere - Edinburgh, York, Bath, Paris. It is the calm beauty that permeates and takes one away into another world.

2011 - The Planking Year

A bit of fun, but risks of planking craze should not be taken lying down. A surreal internet craze that led to the death of a man in Australia this month is sweeping across Dundee. Planking involves a person lying face down in front of, or on, an unusual object or public place and then uploading a picture of the scene to the internet.

A Facebook group called Planking Dundee had nearly 2700 followers this morning. Although many of the photographs are intended to be humorous — such as a squad of painters and decorators all planking over pasting tables — others pose on dangerous, difficult-to-reach locations.

The Planking Dundee page also contains photos of people planking on a pillar outside Dundee Sheriff Court, on car roofs, post boxes and even on top of wheelie bins. Others have opted to plank on landmarks such as the statue on Riverside Drive. However, some people have risked serious injury or even their lives by posing for photos on third-storey windowsills, on roofs and even on top of chimneys.

Safety campaigners issued warnings about the risks of the fad earlier this week after pictures appeared online of a Sunderland man planking on the Wear Bridge. This month Australian Acton Beale died after falling from a seventh-floor balcony in Brisbane after trying to plank on its railings. The accident even prompted Australian Prime Minister Julia Gillard to call for a ban on planking. A spokesman for the Scottish Ambulance Service said nobody should risk their life for a fad.

"We would always have concerns if people are putting themselves in harm's way, especially for a craze," he said. "We would have to deal with any incident but if people are putting themselves at risk then we would be concerned about the potential increase in ambulance calls."

Extreme Weather Continues

Scotland continues to have its fair share of extreme weather. Following on from the worst winter snow for many a year we were transfixed as a tree in the Howff Cemetery threatened to topple. Elsewhere gale force winds of up to 100 mph left commuters stranded as power cables and trees blocked roads and overhead cables on the rail network were interrupted due to falling debris. The Tay and Forth Road Bridges were closed as were major tourist attractions including Edinburgh Zoo, Stirling Castle and the Falkrik Wheel.

The winds, which reached nearly 80mph, caused damage across the city. Several people watched in horror as trees were uprooted and crashed against their homes or on to vehicles. The Tay Road Bridge was closed while several other main routes around the city, including parts of the Kingsway, had to be closed temporarily due to fallen trees and branches. Police said they received dozens of calls within half an hour as the winds peaked shortly after 2pm.

Part of the roof of the Bay View Bar in Earn Crescent, Menzieshill, blew off after 5pm, striking a woman who was walking in the area. She was taken to Ninewells Hospital with neck and back injuries. Her condition was not known last night but when taken into the ambulance she was breathing and conscious.

The storm blew a piece of metal railing from a building on to a taxi in Meadowside, narrowly missing a pedestrian. The three-foot L-shaped corner section plunged on to the vehicle, causing significant damage.

Part of High Street in Dundee was cordoned off as a precaution as the wind blew sections of roofing from several buildings. Perth Road at Seafield Road was also closed last night after a chimney pot fell from the roof of a tenement building on to a bus shelter. Firefighters raced to the scene and removed other chimney pots that were loose and in danger of falling.

In Albany Terrace an 80-foot tree was uprooted completely, blocking the road and causing extensive damage to two cars parked on the opposite side of the road. Trevor White's Fiat Punto was badly damaged by the fallen tree and he said it was lucky nobody had been killed." I was working at home in the back of the house when I heard the crash. I originally thought something had fallen at the back but couldn't see anything then somebody came to the door to tell me that my car was damaged," he said. Another large tree blocked Constitution Road after being blown over there.

Elsewhere in Dundee, Graeme Paul had a lucky escape as he dodged out of the way of a falling 50ft tree with just seconds to spare. The Broughty Ferry Road resident had gone to warn his neighbours Helen and Mike Lukas that a tree near their house was in danger of toppling. However, as he was ringing the doorbell, the tree fell on to the house. Luckily, Mr Paul was able to scramble out of the way and escape injury. He said, "They've been quite lucky it hasn't damaged the house more. Last year a tree came down and blocked the road but these are the worst winds we've had since we moved here eight years ago." Although the tree fell against the side of the house, it does not appear to have caused any major damage. Mrs Lukas said, "Obviously some of the slates have come off and the rhones are damaged but all the windows are secure. We were both at home. It happened very quickly and it was quite a crash — I've never heard such a loud noise."

Shabana Yaqub (22), of Lammerton Terrace, saw her Peugeot crushed by another falling tree. "I was about to go to work when I saw the tree had fallen. I knew I had parked my car there and I hoped it would have missed but it hadn't. Luckily, it doesn't seem too badly damaged but the car across the road has been."

Sheila Morely, from Dawson Road, returned home to a nasty surprise. "I got home about 2pm and found a tree from the college and blown over and demolished the car port," she said. "It's resting on top of the garage roof but we don't how much damage has been done."

Menzieshill residents Francis Quinn (70) and Irene Gray (65) escaped serious injury after a 40ft tree plunged into their Dickson Avenue home. The couple's patio doors were smashed and a garden wall was knocked down. Mr Quinn, who is retired, said he initially thought the deafening crash was a loud boom of thunder. "I was just in the kitchen and my partner was sitting in the living room watching the television when the tree came crashing down," he said. "It has broken my patio windows, and the wall has been knocked down and all the stuff on the patio has been damaged. I heard the crash and I really thought it was thunder but then I heard my partner shouting and screaming."

The Met Office recorder at Glenogil in Angus saw wind speeds of 79mph and winds are expected to reach 40 to 50mph today. A spokesman for the Met Office said, "There were severe gales across the area, reaching speeds of up to 70mph and even more on the Tay Bridge. Winds will be fresh and strong on Tuesday but nothing like as bad."

Osama Bin Laden Jokes

Such is the speed with which we can communicate using today's technology, it is never long before major events circulate the globe and their accompanying jokes do likewise.

The death of Osama bin Laden was met by a predictably rapid barrage of online jokes. Within hours, and as details of the attack were still emerging, there was frenzied comment on Twitter, Facebook and other social media.

Versions of "Osama dead: Donald Trump demands the death certificate" were quickly tweeted, retweeted and posted. Sikipedia, meanwhile, was swiftly adding to "the world's best collection of sick jokes". Posts included "So, Osama Bin Laden is dead. Shall we have another bank holiday?"

On Twitter, Prodnose – aka the comedian Danny Baker – was getting in on the act. "Taliban say Bin Laden death a 'setback' but won't give up on dream of world domination until 'mathematically impossible'.

Dave Gorman added: "Now would be a good time to release bad news. If only everyone who had bad news to get out of the way hadn't released it on Friday."

And DanaArikane wrote: "They should have captured Bin Laden alive and made him continually go through airport security for the rest of his life."

Paul-Arthur on Quora wrote: "Bin Laden must have had his contact info in his PSN [PlayStation] account" (there were myriad variations on this theme involving iPhone apps and Facebook) and "RIP Osama bin Laden, World Hide and Go Seek Champion (2001-2011)".

On Yahoo one user offered: "What did al-Qaida learn from Osama bin Laden's death? Location, location, location." Alaskanyakdessert was on Youtube within an hour of the end of Obama's address saying: "At least he got to see the royal wedding before he went out." And: "This is good news for the other guys on the top 10 wanted list – finally they get to move up in the rankings."

The shelf-life of such Bin Laden "jokes" may be rather short. Soon after the initial burst of comment, Twitter users were expressing gag fatigue. By 10.13am amyplusbaby tweeted: "Oh I am so over hearing Osama jokes/hearing about him at all. Bore OFF."

Election Apathy in Lochee

Well I played my part in the democratic process last night working as a Presiding Officer at Dundee Housing Office Community Lounge in Dundee. It was a strange experience - three ballot papers - one for the Dundee West MSP, one for the regional list and one for the referendum on alternative voting which few people seemed to understand. A well intentioned effort to make things easier for voters by colour coding the ballot papers with the ballot boxes fell foul of the choice of colours - lilac, peach and grey, but in shades that were so light they were not that distinguishable in the light of the polling place. Give us neon colours next time!

But more importantly, with a voting list of 650 voters and a turnout of under 200, the active interest could be described as apathetic. No doubt those same people will be the first to complain when it suits them.

The White House Backtracks on Bin Laden

By Mark Mardell, BBC Editor for North America

The White House has had to correct its facts about the killing of Bin Laden, and for some that has diminished the glow of success that has surrounded all those involved in the operation. Bin Laden wasn't armed when he was shot. It raises suspicions that this was indeed a deliberate shoot-to-kill operation. Here are the inaccuracies in the first version. The woman killed was not his wife. No woman was used as a human shield. And he was not armed. The president's press secretary Jay Carney suggested this was the result of trying to provide a great deal of information in a great deal of haste.

I can largely accept that. There is no mileage in misleading people and then correcting yourself. But the president's assistant national security advisor John Brennan had used the facts he was giving out to add a moral message - this was the sort of man Bin Laden was, cowering behind his wife, using her as a shield. Nice narrative. Not true. In fact, according to Carney this unarmed woman tried to attack the heavily armed Navy Seal. In another circumstance that might even be described as brave.

Jay Carney said that Bin Laden didn't have to have a gun to be resisting. He said there was a great deal of resistance in general and a highly volatile fire fight. The latest version says Bin Laden's wife charged at the US commando and was shot in the leg, but not killed. The two brothers, the couriers and owners of the compound, and a woman were killed on the ground floor of the main building. This version doesn't mention Bin Laden's son, who also died.

By this count only three men, at the most, were armed. I do wonder how much fight they could put up against two helicopters' worth of Navy Seals. Does any of this matter? Well, getting the fact right is always important. You can't make a judgment without them. We all make mistakes, and journalists hate doing so because it makes people trust us less. For those involved an operation like this, time must go past in a confused and noisy instant, and they aren't taking notes. Confusion is very understandable. But you start to wonder how much the facts are being massaged now, to gloss over the less appealing parts of the operation. And of course there is the suspicion that the US never wanted to take Bin Laden alive. Here at least many see a trial as inconvenient, awkward - a chance for terrorists to grandstand. Look at all the fuss about the trial of Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

In the confusion of a raid it's hard to see how the Seals could be sure that Bin Laden wasn't armed, didn't have his finger on the trigger of a bomb, wasn't about to pull a nasty surprise. If he had his hands in the air shouting "don't shoot" he might have lived, but anything short of that seems to have ensured his death. I suspect there will be more worry about this in Britain and Europe than in the US. That doesn't mean we are right or wrong. It is a cultural difference. We are less comfortable about frontier justice, less forgiving about even police shooting people who turn out to be unarmed, perhaps less inculcated with the Dirty Harry message that arresting villains is for wimps, and real justice grows from the barrel of a gun. Many in America won't be in the slightest bit bothered that a mass murderer got what was coming to him swiftly, whether he was trying to kill anyone in that instant or not.

How The Bin Ladens Lived

The BBC's Orla Guerin looks around the perimeter of Bin Laden's compound.

A fortified compound in a quiet suburb was home to the world's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, and a few close associates. The building was also reportedly home to several of his wives, numerous children and domestic helpers. But what kind of life did they lead? They certainly lived an isolated existence and had barely any contact with their affluent and congenial neighbours, residents in the area told the BBC's M Ilyas Khan in Abbottabad. Their desire for privacy was so marked that people left them well alone. They did not mix with others and were never seen at local wedding celebrations or other community occasions. A reporter from Pakistan's Express TV even tweeted that one neighbour said when local children hit a cricket ball into the compound, they were not allowed to retrieve it. Every now and then what looked like bullet-proof vehicles would go in and out of the compound, but security gates would slide shut immediately afterwards, locals told the BBC.

Goat Delivery

But living in an urban area such as Abbottabad does require some contact with the outside world and a few people have spoken about the Bin Ladens' habits and routines. A newspaper hawker told the BBC that he delivered newspapers to the compound every day and at the end of each month his bill was promptly paid, always by the same man.

He never stepped inside the compound and his impression was that only one person lived there but, he added, that every now and then he saw a red pick-up vehicle, with a goat inside, being driven to the compound. US officials said their long-term observation of the compound revealed that the inhabitants burned their rubbish inside the compound, rather than leaving it outside to be collected. Another neighbour also told the BBC's M Ilyas Khan that there was a domestic helper who lived in the area and who went into the compound to clean and to work in the kitchen. She divulged very few details but said that she never saw Osama Bin Laden in the house. The residents of the compound clearly employed a number of domestic helpers. Abbottabad hospital staff have told the BBC Urdu service that among those being treated in the wake of the raid are two women believed to be maids employed by the family.

The area around the compound was opened up to the media on Tuesday and among those reporters in the vicinity was Associated Press correspondent Nahal Toosi, who was tweeting her observations.

"I am in a bldg across from cpd. Looks like servants quarters. Piles of clothes, pillows on floor. Broken clock on ground. Stopped at 2:20," he reports. He also notes a mouldy lentil stew in a pot, half-eaten bread and an old television set.

"I report, you decide," she tweets, when she observes a bicycle covered with fake flowers now parked outside one of the entry ways.

Who else lived there?

US officials say that satellite spying technology allowed them to determine that a family was living in the house with two men. Two Pakistani men were seen around the compound, according to BBC Urdu's Rahimullah Yusufzai, who has also kept in touch with a network of local journalists. He says all their researches indicate the house was being rented by two brothers. These are not to be confused with the "couriers" that the CIA appears to have been tracking. These two men, according to neighbours, seemed to be in control of the household.

When our correspondent asked the neighbour if there were any children living in the compound, he said that there were none. But then his 14-year-old son interjected saying that there were a few boys who lived in that compound and that they used to go to one of the shops in the area to buy goods. But, he told our reporter, he never spoke to the boys. Other media reports say that children from the compound were despatched to buy food from local shops.

Kitchen Garden

As media access to the area increases, all kinds of observations have been trickling out.

Mr Yusufzai was told by other neighbours that one man from the house would go out on his own for a large shopping trip in which he purchased many items

Local police told al Jazeera's Imtiaz Tyab that there was a kitchen garden and some chickens were kept too, indicating, they say, that it was a self-sufficient compound where they could grow their own food

Nick Robertson of CNN observed on Twitter that neighbours say the "Osama entourage" passed themselves off as gold merchants

Sky News quotes Jibran Khan who said that tall Pakistani men lived in the house and said that a friend of his who ran into the men at a local bakery said they were always very courteous.

One point on which all observers are united is that the women were rarely seen. Most people assumed that this is because they were Pashtun, and they tend to observe strict purdah. The children of the compound were not thought to be attending school, neighbours told local journalists. They assumed that they were simply schooled at home - although this cannot be verified. Staff at the hospital where the injured were taken told local journalists that the wounded from the compound speak Pashto and Arabic.

Waziristan 'Mansion'

The spacious and prosperous homes in these areas are known as "havelis" and, according to local journalists speaking to the BBC, the Bin Laden home was known as "Waziristan Haveli" or "mansion" - named after the semi-autonomous tribal area where many until now assumed Bin Laden was sheltering. Although the compound sits in relative isolation, it is situated in an up-and-coming area and a number of people have recently built their homes nearby. But Pakistan's Express TV says that people in Abbottabad report it is common to go for up to 16 hours a day without electricity.

Satellite images between 2005 and 2011 reflect the change in the area and also show how the compound itself has expanded as more outbuildings, walls and privacy features have been built. And there are notices placed on Pakistani property and land websites, advertising land for sale in the "delightful climate and surroundings" of Abbottabad. Land for sale can also be found in the Hashmi Colony area, very close to the Bin Laden compound. The area is seen as secure and stable. Just a few hundred metres north is Pakistan's prestigious Kakul Military Academy. And property is available here too. According to the seller, "it's a very secuir [sic] place near army farm house army jeeps takes 100 rounds in a day so very safe place to live". Details from US officials reveal that there were no phone or internet lines into the house and that there were very few windows. US officials also refer to a private 7ft high wall surrounding a room on the second floor of the building. US officials released an image of a bedroom on the second floor, showing a double bed strewn with pillows and cushions. The floors are blood-stained: this is said to be the room in which Bin Laden was killed.

The Team That Killed Bin Laden

It was years in the planning but took just 40 minutes to execute.

The BBC's Steve Kingstone reports on the team that is thought to have ended a 10-year manhunt for Osama Bin Laden

More than a dozen members of the US military were dropped near the high-walled, three-storey compound on the outskirts of Abbottabad in north-west Pakistan. After a brief firefight, five people were killed, including Osama Bin Laden, who reportedly received a shot above his left eye. All the US forces escaped unharmed, despite technical problems with one helicopter that they had to leave behind. It says everything about their presence of mind that despite the dangers, they collected hard drives, DVDs and documents from the building before they left. From the US point of view, the mission, codenamed Geronimo, could hardly have gone any better, a reflection on the preparation and skills of the men who carried it out.

The men assigned to capture or kill Osama Bin Laden were part of the US Navy's legendary special forces unit, the Seals. Who are they? Although there has been no official confirmation which team was involved, it is widely thought that it was the Seal Team Six (ST6), officially known as the Naval Special Warfare Development Group, but more commonly known as DevGru. They are the all-star, elite group of Seals, a team of military personnel trained to carry out top secret operations. The Seals are part of the Navy Special Warfare Command, and are also the maritime component of the US Special Operations Command, continually deployed throughout the world in operations to protect US interests.

There are 2,500 Seals in total, and they take their name from the environments in which they are trained to work - sea, air and land. But it is their highly specialised training to operate in water that they are best known for. Their missions can be enormously varied in nature, involving combat, anti-terrorism and hostage rescues. These guys are America's thoroughbreds, says Don Shipley, from Virginia, who spent two decades in the Navy as a Seal. "They're the finest guys America has. Your average guy walking down the street just doesn't have it. "The guys that become Seals have gifted eyesight, above average intelligence, and are genetically built to withstand a lot of punishment, being pounded a lot. Those are the guys that are qualified to get in but the guys that ultimately come out are thoroughbreds, they're racehorses."

It is often described as the toughest training available to any special forces anywhere in the world. The drop-out rate is 80-85%. Stew Smith, a Seal for eight years, now runs fitness training courses in Maryland for people who are thinking of joining up. He says the first six months of Seal training, known as Basic Underwater Demolition (Buds) is the toughest. It includes one period which lasts a continuous 120 hours, and involves swimming, running, obstacle courses, scuba diving and navigation. The current Buds training course has already lost 190 recruits out of 245, and is only three weeks in, he says.

"I never thought about dropping out. People ask me why not, and I say that you have to go there in a mindset of competing, not just surviving. If you're running your first marathon, your goal is just to finish the thing, you're in a survival mode. But when you're stretching out before, you look across and see a Kenyan who is trying to drop a minute off his best time. There is a different mindset. For me, every day in training was a competition." After Buds, you are officially a Seal and assigned to a team but you need to have another 12 months of training with your new colleagues before you are deployed, says Mr Smith. He believes what makes Seals special is their versatility. "Also, having a strong confidence with the boat, and a relationship with the Navy, we have a way of respecting Mother Nature because we realise that when you're out there in the middle of the ocean, you're just a speck." This familiarity with the vagaries of the weather teaches Seals to always have a Plan B, he says. "There's a saying in the Seals that two is one and one is nothing."

The origins of the Seals can be traced to World War II, and its predecessors like the Naval Combat Demolition Unit, which was involved in the invasion of North Africa in 1942. Their formation came out of a $100m (£61m) package by President John F Kennedy to strengthen the US special forces capability. They were later involved in Vietnam, Grenada and in Panama, where four Seals were killed as they tried to prevent leader Manuel Noriega escaping by destroying his jet and boat. The episode was also renowned for an incident a few days later, in which loud rock music was played all day and night to force him out of his refuge in Panama City.

In more recent years, the Seals have been heavily involved in missions in Afghanistan and Iraq. But their role in the death of Osama Bin Laden writes another chapter in their history.

Seal Team Six (ST6)

- Elite force of Seals, based near Virginia Beach

- Selected from all the units, to carry out the most demanding missions

- Usually have five years of experience already

- The unit belongs to the Joint Special Operations Command (JSOC) which is run at a cost of more than $1bn a year

- Involved in Yemen, Somalia and Afghanistan in recent years

- Existence shrouded in mystery

How The Operation Happened

The high-risk mission to hunt down Washington's most wanted man, Osama Bin Laden, was given the green light by President Barack Obama in what his counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan termed "one of the gutsiest calls by any president in recent memory". The operation, which took place at a fortified compound on the outskirts of Abbottabad in north-west Pakistan, involved a team of some 20-25 highly-trained US Navy Seals.

Reports of the operation to find al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden paint a picture of high tension, with White House officials watching the operation unfold on a live video feed. At the climax, at the end of a 40-minute firefight, one of the soldiers uttered the words: "Geronimo EKIA" - meaning a man visually identified by a code word for Bin Laden had been killed in action, officials said.

Both US and Pakistani officials assert Pakistan was kept completely in the dark about the operation and reports suggest the tension lingered as the team led by US Navy Seals made a high-speed dash to Afghanistan at the end of it. A suspicious Pakistani air force started scrambling jets, Mr Brennan said, leading to last-minute worries the US team could still be in danger.

Explosions

The operation took place at a fortified compound on the outskirts of Abbottabad in north-west Pakistan. It happened at some time between 0000 and 0130 local time on Monday morning (1900-2030 GMT on Sunday), dozens of local residents told a BBC reporter. The two US helicopters were seen flying low over the area, causing panic among some residents. Residents describe hearing three explosions several minutes apart, followed by a huge explosion that shook their houses and knocked crockery from shelves. Most residents said they then also heard gunshots, but that the firing was brief, just a couple of minutes or so.

As the explosions started, they say, the lights in the area went off, going on and off again shortly afterwards. One report quotes some residents as saying they were commanded in Pashto - not the common language of the area - to turn their lights off, but this is unconfirmed. It is believed that people inside the house fired at the helicopters, but eventually they were able to land or hover outside the compound, and the US commandos emerged from them. US officials said that at some point in the operation one of the two helicopters developed a technical fault - witnesses said it might have been hit by gunfire from the ground. Rather than let it fall into the wrong hands, the commandos blew it up.

One report of the operation emerged in real-time: Sohaib Athar, an IT consultant living in Abbottabad, posted on Twitter at about 0100 (2100 GMT) that a helicopter was hovering above the city. He continued tweeting as the operation unfolded before eventually realising: "Uh oh, now I'm the guy who liveblogged the Osama raid without knowing it." There are contradictory reports about which base the helicopters took off from, with some saying the US air bases at Jalalabad or Bagram in Afghanistan, but others suggesting it was the nearby Ghazi air base inside Pakistan.

Security Concerns

The target of the operation was the compound, which had at its centre a large three-storey building with 12ft high concrete high walls, barbed wire and CCTV cameras - and few windows. The compound - valued at about $1m (£600,000) - had two security gates but no phone or internet lines running into the building. Its occupants were so concerned about security that they were reported to burn their rubbish rather than leave it out for collection as other residents in the area did.

Mr Brennan told reporters that the commando team had been "able and prepared" to take Bin Laden alive "if he didn't present any threat. The concern was that Bin Laden would oppose any type of capture operation. Indeed, he did. It was a firefight. He, therefore, was killed in that firefight, and that's when the remains were removed," said Mr Brennan. White House spokesman Jay Carney said on Tuesday Bin Laden was unarmed when he was killed, but that he did resist capture. The al-Qaeda leader was in his bedroom when he was shot twice, officials said - once in the head and once in the chest.

Footage purporting to be of the bedroom appears to show a round gaping hole in the wall, suggesting US forces blasted their way into the building. US officials described the operation as a "surgical raid" and said that as well as Bin Laden, three adult males - thought to comprise Bin Laden's trusted courier, his brother and Bin Laden's adult son, Khaled - were killed. A woman was also killed in crossfire on the first floor of the building. There were conflicting reports as to whether the woman who died was being used as a human shield. One of Bin Laden's wives - believed to be his fourth wife, Amal al-Ahmed Sadah from Yemen - was shot in the leg when she "rushed" one of the US commandos when he entered the room the al-Qaeda leader was in, Mr Carney said.

A senior intelligence official told reporters at a US Department of Defense briefing that Bin Laden's body was identified visually on the scene by operatives, by name by a woman at the scene believed to be his wife, by CIA specialists using photos and finally later on Monday by experts who found "virtually a 100% DNA match of the body against DNA of several Bin Laden family members".

The team left the compound carrying documents, hard drives and DVDs which it is hoped could yield further valuable intelligence data, officials said. According to an official from Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, there were 17 or 18 people in the compound at the time of the attack, while US officials say those who survived the attack included one of Bin Laden's wives and a daughter, and eight to nine other children who were not apparently Bin Laden's. The ISI and US officials contradict each other as to whether a detainee was taken away alive.

Bin Laden's body was flown to Afghanistan and later to the US aircraft carrier, the Carl Vinson, in the north Arabian Sea. Mr Carney said the body was prepared for burial "in conformance with Islamic precepts and practice", then placed in a weighted bag and dropped into the water from the vessel's deck. Officials said this was to avoid his grave becoming a shrine.

'Trusted' Courier

The compound is in a residential district of Abbottabad's suburbs called Bilal Town, which is home to a number of retired military officers from the area. The compound is just 1km from the Pakistan Military Academy, an elite military training centre which is being described as Pakistan's equivalent to Britain's Sandhurst or the West Point academy in the US. Pakistan's army chief is a regular visitor to the academy, where he attends graduation parades, and it is likely the area would have had a constant and significant military presence and checkpoints.

As details of the raid emerged it became clear that the operation had been long in the planning. US officials said they had received intelligence that Bin Laden might be in that compound as long ago as last summer. CIA experts found significant circumstantial evidence that the "high value target" living at the compound was Bin Laden, but US satellites were not able to photograph Bin Laden or any members of his family. In the end, they were only 60-80% confident that the al-Qaeda leader was there. US intelligence agents focussed in particular on one of Bin Laden's couriers - a man identified as a protege of captured al-Qaeda commander Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. The Kuwait-born courier's nom de guerre - Abu Ahmed al-Kuwaiti - was reportedly given to US interrogators by detainees at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba, US media reported. It took years of work to identify his true name, Sheikh Abu Ahmed. He appeared to be one of the few couriers completely trusted by Bin Laden, who helped keep the al-Qaeda figurehead in touch with the rest of the world.

In July, Pakistani agents working for the CIA spotted him driving a vehicle near the northern city of Peshawar. After weeks of surveillance, in August he led them to the sprawling compound in Abbottabad. The order to carry out the mission was finally given by President Obama last Friday, after he had held five National Security Council meetings in March and April. The director of the CIA, Leon Panetta, said during one meeting: "We have the best evidence since [the 2001 battle of] Tora Bora, and that then makes it clear that we have an obligation to act." Mr Panetta said Mr Obama ruled out a high-altitude bombing raid by a B-2 bombers, or cruise-missile strike because of the possibility of too much collateral damage. There was also a concern that such options might obliterate evidence of Bin Laden's death , as well as cause big diplomatic fallout if he was found not to be in the compound.

Instead, a helicopter assault emerged as the favoured option and the Navy Seals began rehearsing at training facilities on both US coasts, where replicas of the compound were built. They were not told who their target might be until later. Mr Panetta said the Pakistani government was also not informed of the operation in advance because the CIA feared that word of it might have been leaked. "It was decided that any effort to work with the Pakistanis could jeopardise the mission. They might alert the targets," he told Time magazine.

CIA officials turned a windowless seventh-floor conference room at Langley into a command centre for the operation, from where Mr Panetta passed on details to the president and his advisers in the White House. "We have a visual on Geronimo," Mr Panetta said after troops entered the compound, according to the New York Times. Minutes later, he told them: "Geronimo EKIA [Enemy Killed In Action]." President Obama added: "We got him."

Abbottabad

Abbottabad - known as "city of pines"- is a small town nestled in the beautiful lush, green hills of north-west Pakistan

- It is an agricultural community, but with a population of about 120,000, it provides a centre for many of the neighbouring villages

- It is a military garrison town and has one of Pakistan's most prestigious training academies

- It takes its name from British Major James Abbott who founded it in 1853 after he annexed the Punjab area

Pakistan's Intelligence Not Clever

Pakistan's main intelligence agency, the ISI, has said it is embarrassed by its failures on al-Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden.

An ISI official told the BBC the compound in Abbottabad where Bin Laden was killed by US forces on Sunday had been raided in 2003. But the compound "was not on our radar" since then, the official said. He gave new details of the raid, saying Bin Laden's young daughter had said she saw her father shot. The ISI official told the BBC's Owen Bennett-Jones in Islamabad that the compound in Abbottabad, just 100km (62 miles) from the capital, was raided when under construction in 2003. It was believed an al-Qaeda operative, Abu Faraj al-Libi, was there.

But since then "the compound was not on our radar, it is an embarrassment for the ISI", the official said. "We're good, but we're not God." The compound is just a few hundred metres from the Pakistan Military Academy - the country's equivalent of West Point or Sandhurst.

The ISI official also gave new or differing accounts of some of the events of Sunday's raid. They included:

There were 17-18 people in the compound at the time of the attack

The Americans took away one person still alive, possibly a Bin Laden son

Those who survived the attack included a wife, a daughter and eight to nine other children, not apparently Bin Laden's; all had their hands tied by the Americans

The surviving Yemeni wife said they had moved to the compound a few months ago

Bin Laden's daughter, aged 12 or 13, saw her father shot

The official said it was thought the Americans wanted to take away the surviving women and children but had to abandon the plan when one of the helicopters malfunctioned. The helicopter was destroyed by the special forces unit.

The US has not commented on anyone it captured or had planned to capture, other than saying it had taken Bin Laden's body. The ISI official said the organisation had recovered some documents from the compound. The CIA is already said to be going through a large number of hard drives and storage devices seized in the raid.

White House counter-terrorism adviser John Brennan said there had been concern Pakistani forces would deploy to counter the US Navy Seal team conducting the raid but it had avoided any confrontation. The ISI official said: "We were totally caught by surprise. They were in and out before we could react." Our correspondent says residents near the compound in Abbottabad reported that Pakistani soldiers had asked them to switch off their lights an hour before the attack, but the ISI official said this was not true and that it had no advance knowledge of the raid.

Earlier, in an opinion piece in the Washington Post, President Asif Ali Zardari admitted Bin Laden "was not anywhere we had anticipated he would be". But he denied the killing suggested Pakistan was failing in its efforts to tackle terrorism. Mr Zardari said Pakistan had "never been and never will be the hotbed of fanaticism that is often described by the media. Such baseless speculation may make exciting cable news, but it doesn't reflect fact," he said. "Pakistan had as much reason to despise al-Qaeda as any nation. The war on terrorism is as much Pakistan's war as it is America's." Pakistani Foreign Secretary Salman Bashir tried to draw a line under the matter, saying: "Who did what is beside the point... This issue of Osama Bin Laden is history."

Bin Laden was America's most wanted man but had eluded capture for more than a decade. US officials say that after DNA tests they are "99.9%" sure that the man they shot and killed and later buried at sea was Bin Laden. US President Barack Obama watched the entire operation in real time in the White House with his national security team.

White House counterterrorism adviser John Brennan said: "The minutes passed like days." CIA director Leon Panetta narrated via a video screen from a separate Washington office, with Bin Laden given the code name Geronimo. Mr Panetta's narration lasted several minutes. "They've reached the target... We have a visual on Geronimo... Geronimo EKIA (enemy killed in action)." Mr Obama said: "We got him." Bin Laden, his son Khalid, trusted personal courier Sheikh Abu Ahmed and the courier's brother were all killed, along with an unidentified woman. Bin Laden was shot above his left eye, blowing away a section of his skull, and was also shot in the chest.

The BBC's Andrew North in Washington says the White House is still discussing whether to release a video that was made of Bin Laden's burial from an aircraft carrier in the Arabian Sea, which some Islamic scholars have said did not conform with tradition. Our correspondent says many people will want proof that Bin Laden is dead but the White House will be concerned about the reaction if the video, and still photographs of the body, are released.

Mr Brennan said U.S officials hope to build on the killing of Osama bin Laden to destroy the al-Qaida terrorist organization. Brennan told NBC's "Today" show the Obama administration is determined "to pummel the rest of al-Qaida." He said the organization already has suffered "severe body blows." He also said in Tuesday's interview that "clearly there was some kind of support network" for bin Laden inside Pakistan. Brennan declined to blame the Pakistani government for that, calling Islamabad "a strong counterterrorism partner." But he also said the Pakistani government is conducting its own investigation into how bin Laden dodged authorities for so long. Brennan said it is "unknown at this point" whether individuals inside the Pakistani government were helping bin Laden.

World Hide and Seek Champion Caught

Al-Qaeda founder and leader Osama bin Laden is killed by US ground forces in Pakistan, President Barack Obama says.

The Economic Times reported that the body of Al-Qaeda mastermind Osama bin Laden has been buried at sea after he was killed by US covert forces in Pakistan, US media reported Monday. Cable television networks CNN, MSNBC and Fox said a senior US official had confirmed to them that bin Laden's body had been buried in the sea, without giving further details.

A US administration official said of the corpse: "We are ensuring that it is handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition. This is something that we take very seriously and so therefore this is being handled in an appropriate manner."

Burying bin Laden's body at sea would ensure that his final resting place does not become a shrine and a place of pilgrimage for his followers, ABC television reported earlier.

Some analysts say that bin Laden's memory may now inspire followers, who will now see him as a martyr, to take revenge. The extensive online forums, chat rooms and websites operated by Al-Qaeda sympathisers will ensure his role as the group's motivator-in-chief will endure. But his departure will add to pressure on morale throughout the network, despite Al-Qaeda's glorification of martyrdom and a perception that bin Laden died an honourable death in battle.

Osama bin Laden was a member of the wealthy Saudi bin Laden family and the founder of the jihadist organization al-Qaeda, responsible for the September 11 attacks on the United States and numerous other mass-casualty attacks against civilian and military targets. As a result of his dealings in and advocacy of violent extremist jihad, Osama bin Laden lost his Saudi citizenship and was disowned by his billionaire family.

Bin Laden was on the American Federal Bureau of Investigation's lists of Ten Most Wanted Fugitives and Most Wanted Terrorists due to his involvement in the 1998 US embassy bombings. Since 2001, Osama bin Laden and his organization had been major targets of the U.S. War on Terror. Bin Laden and fellow al-Qaeda leaders were believed to be hiding near the border of Afghanistan and Pakistan's Federally Administered Tribal Areas. After careful monitoring of a compound suspected to be bin Laden's Pakistani residence, U.S. military forces were sent across the border of Afghanistan to launch the attack. Pakistani officials confirmed that bin Laden was killed in Pakistan by the U.S. military.

On May 1, 2011 (Eastern Daylight Time), U.S. President Barack Obama announced on national television that bin Laden had been killed in Abbottabad, Pakistan by American military forces and by the American Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and that his body was in U.S. custody.

The body was recovered by the U.S. military and was in its possession. ABC News has reported that the body has been identified by DNA testing. However, Reuters reports that DNA test results will be available in the next few days and that bin Laden's body was identified using facial recognition techniques. According to a U.S. official on May 2, bin Laden's body was handled in accordance with Islamic practice and tradition, and was buried at sea soon after death, in accordance with Islamic tradition.

Out Of The Mouth Of Babes

Conversation with 12 year old daughter yesterday about GAP clothing store:

"If I walked around Kirkton with a GAP t-shirt I'd get my head kicked in"

"Why's that?"

"Cause GAP stands for Gay And Proud"

"Is that why you don't shop there?"

"No I don't shop there cause it's shite!"

Brit Tornados To Enforce Libya No-Fly Zone

Prime Minister David Cameron has announced that British fighter jets are being deployed immediately to enforce a United Nations no-fly zone in Libya. "At Cabinet this morning, we agreed the UK will play its part," Mr Cameron told the House of Commons.

"Britain will deploy Tornados and Typhoons as well as air-to-air refuelling and surveillance aircraft."

Mr Cameron added: "Our forces will join an international operation to enforce the resolution if Gaddafi fails to comply with its demand that he ends attacks on civilians.

"Preparations to deploy these aircraft have already started and in the coming hours they will move to bases from where they can start to take the necessary action."

Hague Holds Hoedown Hand

The United Nations Security Council late last night approved a resolution on Libya, authorising a no-fly zone and "all necessary measures" to enforce it in order to protect civilians under threat of attack from Colonel Muammar Gaddafi. Foreign Secretary William Hague said the UN resolution was necesary "to avoid greater bloodshed and to try to stop what is happening on civilians."

Let's see what happens over the next few days as Hague gets his finger on the trigger.

To Bankers Everywhere

Tax Payers' Bank Boss Takes Plenty

Hot on the heels of Barclays Bob Diamond receving a handsome multi-million pound windfall, Royal Bank of Scotland boss Stephen Hester has received bonus shares worth £4.5 million on top of a £2 million annual bonus and an annual salary of £1.2 million. The bank is owned by the tax payer to the tune of 83%. Trade union Unite described the bonus as a 'disgrace'.

Barclays Bankers' Bonus Bonanzas

New chief executive of Barclays, the aptly named, Bob Diamond has received a £6.5 million bonus. He recently said the time for 'remorse and apology' from bankers should end. His bonus was dwarfed by other colleagues including Jerry del Missier who got £33 million in shares and Co-Chief Executive Rich Ricci with £24 million in shares.

Mr Diamond's pay deal was labelled 'extraordinary greed' by Labour MP John Mann, who questioned him at a treasury select committee hearing in January. Dave Prentice, General Secretary at at public sector union Unison, said, "The time for remorse is far from over - we want to see bankers accepting they must pay off the debt they caused.'

There will be more cash to come for Mr Diamond who became Chief Executive in January with a salary of £1.35 million and incentive bonus shares of up to £6.7 million next year. Barclays top earner, who is unnamed was paid £10.9 million.