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Alex Salmond has died at the age of 69.

Love or loathe Mr Salmond – who was described as a “Marmite man” during his high-profile court case – few would dispute his skill and achievements as a politician.

Under the leadership of the keen golfer and horse racing fan, the SNP rose to power and became a titan party north of the border.

Some would argue if it were not for the political talent of Mr Salmond, there would have been no Scottish independence referendum at all in 2014.

Alex Salmond. File pic: AP
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Mr Salmond. File pic: AP

As the tributes flood in following his death, we take a look at the man who was once first minister of Scotland.

Mr Salmond was first elected to Westminster in 1987 as the SNP MP for Banff and Buchan – a position he retained until 2010.

In 1990, he successfully defeated Margaret Ewing in the SNP leadership contest and would go on to campaign for Scottish devolution in 1997.

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Mr Salmond’s speech after becoming SNP leader in 1990

Former SNP leader Alex Salmond gives the victory sign after speaking at the party conference in 1997. File pic: Reuters
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Mr Salmond after speaking at the SNP party conference in 1997. Pic: Reuters

In 1999, after the establishment of the Scottish Parliament as a result of devolution, he led his party through the first Scottish parliament election and became MSP for Banff and Buchan as well as leader of the opposition – with Labour in power.

From left: SNP Deputy Convenor John Swinney, Vice Convenor Nicola Sturgeon, Leader Alex Salmond and Chief Executive Mike Russell sit down outside the Holiday Inn hotel in Edinburgh after a press conference held the day after Scottish parliamentary elections.
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John Swinney, Nicola Sturgeon, Alex Salmond and Mike Russell in 1999. Pic: PA

A year later, Mr Salmond quit as SNP leader amid a series of high-profile fallouts with party members and was replaced by current first minister John Swinney.

In 2001, he then stood down from Holyrood in order to lead the SNP group at Westminster.

Following a disastrous 2004 European parliament election for the SNP, Mr Swinney stepped aside as party leader with Mr Salmond re-elected with overwhelming support from the party’s members.

Following a highly effective campaign in the 2007 Scottish election, the SNP gained 20 seats, giving the party a total of 47 seats in Holyrood – one more than Scottish Labour.

Alex Salmond and his wife Moira leave the Scottish Parliament chamber after the vote to elect him as First Minister in 2007. File pic: Reuters
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Mr Salmond and his wife Moira leaving the Scottish parliament chamber after he was elected as first minister in 2007. Pic: Reuters

Although the party didn’t have an overall majority, new Gordon MSP Mr Salmond became first minister of Scotland in 2007.

File photo dated 24/05/07 of Queen Elizabeth II meets Scottish First Minister, Alex Salmond at Holyroodhouse, Edinburgh. The former Scotland first minister and current Alba Party leader has died aged 69. Issue date: Saturday October 12, 2024.
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The late Queen Elizabeth II and Mr Salmond at Holyroodhouse in 2007. Pic: PA

In the 2011 Scottish elections, the SNP secured the first outright majority in the history of the Scottish parliament, and Mr Salmond won a second term as first minister while MSP for the new constituency of Aberdeenshire East.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon hold copies of the White Paper after it was launched at the Science Centre in Glasgow. The Scottish Government has published its white paper on independence, outlining how it believes a Yes vote in next year's referendum could pave the way for a new era for the nation.
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Alex Salmond and Nicola Sturgeon launching the White Paper in 2013. Pic: PA

In 2012, Mr Salmond signed an agreement with then British prime minister David Cameron to hold a referendum on Scottish independence in 2014.

Scotland's First Minister Alex Salmond and Deputy First Minister Nicola Sturgeon they launch a paper today at Alexander Denis coach manufacturers outlining the nations key economic strength as an independent country.
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Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon pictured in May 2013 while launching a paper on the economic case for independence. Pic: PA

First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond chats to school children at Strichen Primary School in Strichen, as polls have opened on a historic day for Scotland as voters determine whether the country should remain part of the United Kingdom.
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Then first minister Mr Salmond on polling day in 2014. Pic: PA

The historic event – which would have seen Scotland break away from the rest of the UK – took place on 18 September 2014 and saw more than two million people (55.3%) vote No and 1.6 million (44.7%) vote Yes.

Following the defeat, Mr Salmond stepped down as first minister and SNP leader and was replaced by Nicola Sturgeon.

In an interview with Sky News to mark the 10th anniversary of the independence referendum, Mr Salmond said he started to write his concession speech when the first result was declared.

First Minister of Scotland Alex Salmond during a press conference at Dynamic Earth in Edinburgh after Scotland rejected independence in the Scottish independence referendum.
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Mr Salmond following the Scottish independence referendum. Pic: PA

Mr Salmond returned to the Commons as MP for Gordon in the 2015 general election but was ousted in the 2017 election by Conservative Colin Clark.

The loss marked the first time since 1987 that Mr Salmond was not in an elected position at either Westminster or Holyrood.

Mr Salmond would go on to launch The Alex Salmond Show on RT, the former Russia Today channel editorially controlled and funded by the Russian government.

Mr Salmond was criticised by Scottish politicians over the decision to host it on RT, with Ms Sturgeon saying she would have advised against it.

a party leader Alex Salmond and Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh (left) during a ALBA Special National Assembly meeting of over 300 independence activists at the Charteris Centre in Edinburgh. He said the case for breaking the impasse on independence by forcing a Holyrood election this year to act as a 'defacto referendum' on independence this year rather than waiting for a Westminster election next year. Picture date: Saturday January 14, 2023.
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Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh with Mr Salmond last year. Pic: PA

The show, which also featured Mr Salmond’s protege Tasmina Ahmed-Sheikh, was suspended following the 2022 Russian invasion of Ukraine.

Not to be stopped, a new show titled Scotland Speaks with Alex Salmond launched a year later via Turkish public broadcaster TRT. The first episode featured an interview with Hollywood actor Brian Cox.

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Sky News’ Scotland correspondent Connor Gillies speaks about Mr Salmond’s career

Before that, however, Mr Salmond resigned from the SNP in August 2018 in the face of allegations of sexual misconduct while first minister.

Mr Salmond said he wanted to avoid internal division within the party amid calls to suspend him.

Denying any wrongdoing, Mr Salmond vowed to re-join the SNP once he had an opportunity to clear his name.

Mr Salmond went on to take the Scottish government to court to challenge the complaints procedure which had been activated against him.

The investigation was deemed by a judicial review to have been “tainted by apparent bias”, with Mr Salmond awarded £512,000 as a result.

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In January 2019, Mr Salmond was arrested by Police Scotland and charged with 14 offences, including two counts of attempted rape, nine sexual assaults, two indecent assaults, and one breach of the peace.

In March 2020, Mr Salmond was cleared of all charges. A jury found him not guilty of 12 charges, one charge was dropped by prosecutors during the trial, while another charge was found not proven.

File photo dated 18/02/20 of Alex Salmond arriving at the High Court in Glasgow for a preliminary hearing in his attempted rape case. The former Scotland first minister and current Alba Party leader has died aged 69. Issue date: Saturday October 12, 2024.
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Mr Salmond arriving at the High Court in Glasgow in 2020. Pic: PA

During a procedural hearing of the case, reporting of which was banned until the end of the trial, Mr Salmond’s defence team claimed the Scottish government and those working there turned to the criminal process to try to “discredit” him after he won the civil case into how the administration handled sexual harassment complaints against him.

Details heard during the trial were devastating to Mr Salmond’s public image, with allegations of bullying and demanding behaviour.

Defence advocate Gordon Jackson KC put it to the court that Mr Salmond was a “touchy-feely kind of person”.

Jurors heard details of inappropriate behaviour, including Mr Salmond admitting that he had a “sleepy cuddle” with one complainer and sexual contact with two complainers, neither of them his wife, Moira.

In his closing speech, Mr Jackson described his client as a “Marmite man” as well as someone who “could have been a better man”.

Two subsequent inquiries into the conduct of ministers and officials saw Mr Salmond asserting his belief that many in his former party had colluded against him in an effort to block any final return to frontline politics.

After being cleared, Mr Salmond vowed that evidence of a plot to discredit him would “see the light of day”.

M.S.P's Nicola Sturgeon and Alex Salmond (Scottish National Party Leadership contenders) enjoy a special campaign curry made up of a cavier based starter called" Sturgeon and Spicy Dip" (for Nicola Sturgeon) and a salmon based main course called" Imli Salmon Blast" (for Alex Salmond) at the Raj Restaurant in Edinburgh.
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Ms Sturgeon and Mr Salmond during happier times in their friendship. Pic: PA

While once great friends, the sexual harassment allegations and subsequent court case led to the breakdown of Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon’s relationship.

Mr Salmond did not return to the SNP and instead launched rival Alba Party in 2021.

File photo dated 13/04/21 of Alex Salmond during a photo call at Stirling Castle to mark the start of the party's Mid Scotland and Fife campaign, ahead of the Scottish Parliamentary election. The former Scotland first minister and current Alba Party leader has died aged 69. Issue date: Saturday October 12, 2024.
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Mr Salmond was leader of the Alba Party. Pic: PA

He has often been critical of his successors, Ms Sturgeon, Humza Yousaf and Mr Swinney.

When Ms Sturgeon quit as first minister in 2023, Mr Salmond told Sky News that the SNP had “no obvious successor”.

File photo dated 20/10/2011 of SNP Leader Alex Salmond and Deputy Leader Nicola Sturgeon on their way to the 77th Scottish National Party annual conference being held at the Eden Court Theatre in Inverness. Sturgeon is expected to resign as Scottish First Minister, according to the BBC. Issue date: Wednesday February 15, 2023.
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Mr Salmond and Ms Sturgeon in 2011. Pic: PA

While speaking during an Edinburgh Fringe event later that year, Mr Salmond refused to rule out a reconciliation with Ms Sturgeon and said it would be “sad” if they remained on poor terms.

Despite not achieving his dream, Mr Salmond never wavered in his belief that Scotland would be better as an independent country.

In one of his final interviews with Sky News, he said: “I don’t say that Scotland would be a land of milk and honey, but we would be a land of oil, gas and renewables and that would stand us in good stead.”

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after ‘prolific’ rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

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Zhenhao Zou: More than 20 new potential victims come forward after 'prolific' rapist jailed for assaulting 10 women

Another 23 female potential victims have reported that they may have been raped by Zhenhao Zou – the Chinese PhD student detectives believe may be one of the country’s most prolific sex offenders.

The Metropolitan Police launched an international appeal after Zou, 28, was convicted of drugging and raping 10 women following a trial at the Inner London Crown Court last month.

Detectives have not confirmed whether the 23 people who have come forward add to their estimates that more than 50 other women worldwide may have been targeted by the University College London student.

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth said: “We have victims reaching out to us from different parts of the globe.

“At the moment, the primary places where we believe offending may have occurred at this time appears to be both in England, here in London, and over in China.”

Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth
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Metropolitan Police commander Kevin Southworth

Zou lived in a student flat in Woburn Place, near Russell Square in central London, and later in a flat in the Uncle building in Churchyard Row in Elephant and Castle, south London.

Read more: How a student described as ‘smart and charming’ was unmasked as a prolific sexual predator

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He had also been a student at Queen’s University Belfast, where he studied mechanical engineering from 2017 until 2019. Police say they have not had any reports from Belfast but added they were “open-minded about that”.

“Given how active and prolific Zou appears to have been with his awful offending, there is every prospect that he could have offended anywhere in the world,” Mr Southworth said.

“We wouldn’t want anyone to write off the fact they may have been a victim of his behaviour simply by virtue of the fact that you are from a certain place.

“The bottom line is, if you think you may have been affected by Zhenhao Zou or someone you know may have been, please don’t hold back. Please make contact with us.”

***ONLY USE IF HE IS CONVICTED OF AT LEAST TWO RAPES***It is feared Zou may have carried out dozens more sex crimes. Pic: Met Police
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Pic: Met Police

Zou used hidden or handheld cameras to record his attacks, and kept the footage and often the women’s belongings as souvenirs.

He targeted young, Chinese women, inviting them to his flat for drinks or to study, before drugging and assaulting them.

Zou was convicted of 11 counts of rape, with two of the offences relating to one victim, as well as three counts of voyeurism, 10 counts of possession of an extreme pornographic image, one count of false imprisonment and three counts of possession of a controlled drug with intent to commit a sexual offence, namely butanediol.

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Moment police arrest rapist student

Mr Southworth said: “Of those 10 victims, several were not identified so as we could be sure exactly where in the world they were, but their cases, nevertheless, were sufficient to see convictions at court.

“There were also, at the time, 50 videos that were identified of further potential female victims of Zhenhao Zou’s awful crimes.

“We are still working to identify all of those women in those videos.

“We have now, thankfully, had 23 victim survivors come forward through the appeal that we’ve conducted, some of whom may be identical with some of the females that we saw in those videos, some of whom may even turn out to be from the original indicted cases.”

Mr Southworth added: “Ultimately, now it’s the investigation team’s job to professionally pick our way through those individual pieces of evidence, those individual victims’ stories, to see if we can identify who may have been a victim, when and where, so then we can bring Zou to justice for the full extent of his crimes.”

Mr Southworth said more resources will be put into the investigation, and that detectives are looking to understand “what may have happened without wishing to revisit the trauma, but in a way that enables [the potential victims] to give evidence in the best possible way.”

The Metropolitan Police is appealing to anyone who thinks they may have been targeted by Zou to contact the force either by emailing survivors@met.police.uk, or via the major incident public portal on the force’s website.

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

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Girl, 11, who went missing after entering River Thames named

An 11-year-old girl who went missing after entering the River Thames has been named as Kaliyah Coa.

An “extensive search” has been carried out after the incident in east London at around 1.30pm on Monday.

Police said the child had been playing during a school inset day and entered the water near Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich.

A recovery mission is now said to be under way to find Kaliyah along the Thames, with the Metropolitan Police carrying out an extensive examination of the area.

Location of Barge House Causeway, North Woolwich, where 11-year-old girl Kaliyah Coa went into the River Thames on 31/03
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Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope in North Woolwich leading into the Thames

Chief Superintendent Dan Card thanked members of the public and emergency teams who responded to “carry out a large-scale search during a highly pressurised and distressing time”.

He also confirmed drone technology and boats were being used to “conduct a thorough search over a wide area”.

He added: “Our specialist officers are supporting Kaliyah’s family through this deeply upsetting time and our thoughts go out to all those impacted by what has happened.”

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“Equally we appreciate this has affected the wider community who have been extremely supportive. You will see extra officers in the area during the coming days.”

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On Monday, Kerry Benadjaoud, a 62-year-old resident from the area, said she heard of the incident from her next-door neighbour, who “was outside doing her garden and there was two little kids running, and they said ‘my friend’s in the water'”.

When she arrived at the scene with a life ring, a man told her he had called the police, “but he said at the time he could see her hands going down”.

Barge House Causeway is a concrete slope that goes directly into the River Thames and is used to transport boats.

Residents pointed out that it appeared to be covered in moss and was slippery.

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Planning reforms to ‘rewire the system’ and get Britain building – all while protecting wildlife

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Planning reforms to 'rewire the system' and get Britain building - all while protecting wildlife

Major developers will only deal with one regulator under planning reforms which ministers say will “rewire the system” to get Britain building – all while protecting the environment. 

A review by former Labour adviser Dan Corry into Britain’s sluggish system of green regulation has concluded that existing environmental regulators should remain in place, while rejecting a “bonfire of regulations”.

But Mr Corry suggested there might be circumstances in which the government look at changing the wildlife and habit rules inherited from the EU, which protect individual species.

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The government has now explicitly ruled out any such change in this parliament.

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Campaigners have questioned whether the changes go far enough and will make a major difference to the rate and scale of building in the UK.

Speaking to Sky News, Environment Secretary Steve Reed insisted that accepting nine of the recommendations from the Corry review would amount to wholesale reform.

The minister said: “We can get a win-win for economic growth and for nature. And that is why we are moving ahead with proposals such as appointing a lead regulator for major developments so that the developers don’t have to navigate the architecture of multiple regulators.

“They just work for a single regulator who manages all the others on their behalf. Simplifying the online planning portal.

“These are huge changes that will save developers billions of pounds and speed up decisions doing damage to the environment.”

Mr Reed insisted that there would be “no more bat tunnels” built, even though the Corry review suggests that more work needs to be done to look again at the relevant guidance.

It says: “Rapidly reviewing the existing catalogue of compliance guidance, including on protecting bats, will identify opportunities to remove duplication, ambiguity or inconsistency.

“Natural England has already agreed to review and update their advice to Local Planning Authorities on bats to ensure there is clear, proportionate and accessible advice available.”

The review will mean:

• Appointing one lead regulator for every major infrastructure project, like Heathrow expansion

• A review on how nature rules are implemented – but not the rules themselves

• Insisting regulators focus more on government priorities, particularly growth

Economist and former charity leader Mr Corry, who led the review, said it shows that “simply scrapping regulations isn’t the answer”.

“Instead we need modern, streamlined regulation that is easier for everyone to use. While short-term trade-offs may be needed, these reforms will ultimately deliver a win-win for both nature and economic growth in the longer run.”

However, Sam Richards from Britain Remade, a thinktank trying to get Britain growing, said that while the steps are welcome, the number of regulators that report to the environment department would remain the same before and after the review. He questioned whether this would have the impact ministers claimed.

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