Hollywood plans turkey tale movie

At first John Ure thought the offer of a Hollywood contract was a joke

The story of a woman who was stranded by snow for a month after she popped out to buy a Christmas turkey could be made into a Hollywood film.

A company has bought the rights to the story of Kay Ure, who lives with husband John in Cape Wrath, in the extreme north west of Scotland.

Mrs Ure set out on 19 December to go to Inverness to buy festive food, but was unable to return home for 30 days.

Movie company Furst Films offered the couple £40,000 for their story.

Mrs Ure was driven by her husband 11 miles from their home in the Cape Wrath lighthouse keeper's cottage to a jetty where their boat was moored and from there they crossed the Kyle of Durness sea loch.

She then embarked on 100-mile bus journey to Inverness, where she managed to reach the shops and buy a turkey before attempting to return home - only to discover that the final 11-mile leg of the journey was blocked by snow.

She had to spend Christmas in a friend's caravan, while her husband had the company of their six dogs, and two walkers who had been passing-by.

Furst Films - whose movies include The Matador, The Cooler and The Girl In The Park - are to pay the couple for the rights to a screenplay and consultation.

Mr Ure told BBC Scotland the offer from Furst had come as a complete surprise.

He said: "We thought it was a joke until we Googled them and found out they'd won a few Golden Globes."

Mr Ure said he would like "someone with a bit of character" to play him, with his choice being Scottish actor Robert Carlyle.

But he stressed the film would be as much about the couple's lifestyle - they have no mains electricity and are forced to rely on a generator - as it was about poultry.

"It's not just about the turkey, it's about our life story and how we came to be here," he explained.

"People find it intriguing that we're living this kind of lifestyle up here but we're used to it and it's a pleasant way to live."

He said he hoped the film would help bring some business to their small cafe, which is one of Britain's most remote eateries.

"We've only had one customer since Christmas and they only wanted coffee and snacks, but we expect business to pick up in May," he told BBC Scotland.

The couple are already planning for this year's festive period, with Mr Ure joking: "This Christmas I'm going to be better prepared, and keep the wife on a shorter lead."

Hollywood plans turkey tale movie

At first John Ure thought the offer of a Hollywood contract was a joke

The story of a woman who was stranded by snow for a month after she popped out to buy a Christmas turkey could be made into a Hollywood film.

A company has bought the rights to the story of Kay Ure, who lives with husband John in Cape Wrath, in the extreme north west of Scotland.

Mrs Ure set out on 19 December to go to Inverness to buy festive food, but was unable to return home for 30 days.

Movie company Furst Films offered the couple £40,000 for their story.

Mrs Ure was driven by her husband 11 miles from their home in the Cape Wrath lighthouse keeper's cottage to a jetty where their boat was moored and from there they crossed the Kyle of Durness sea loch.

She then embarked on 100-mile bus journey to Inverness, where she managed to reach the shops and buy a turkey before attempting to return home - only to discover that the final 11-mile leg of the journey was blocked by snow.

She had to spend Christmas in a friend's caravan, while her husband had the company of their six dogs, and two walkers who had been passing-by.

Furst Films - whose movies include The Matador, The Cooler and The Girl In The Park - are to pay the couple for the rights to a screenplay and consultation.

Mr Ure told BBC Scotland the offer from Furst had come as a complete surprise.

He said: "We thought it was a joke until we Googled them and found out they'd won a few Golden Globes."

Mr Ure said he would like "someone with a bit of character" to play him, with his choice being Scottish actor Robert Carlyle.

But he stressed the film would be as much about the couple's lifestyle - they have no mains electricity and are forced to rely on a generator - as it was about poultry.

"It's not just about the turkey, it's about our life story and how we came to be here," he explained.

"People find it intriguing that we're living this kind of lifestyle up here but we're used to it and it's a pleasant way to live."

He said he hoped the film would help bring some business to their small cafe, which is one of Britain's most remote eateries.

"We've only had one customer since Christmas and they only wanted coffee and snacks, but we expect business to pick up in May," he told BBC Scotland.

The couple are already planning for this year's festive period, with Mr Ure joking: "This Christmas I'm going to be better prepared, and keep the wife on a shorter lead."

Indefinite Guantanamo detention plans condemned

The US has just missed a deadline to close the prison camp

The American Civil Liberties Union has criticised a recommendation that 47 Guantanamo Bay inmates should be held indefinitely without trial.

Justice department officials said the men were too dangerous to release, but could not be tried as evidence against them would not stand up in a US court.

ACLU executive director Anthony Romero said their detention would reduce the camp's closure to a "symbolic gesture".

The White House said the president did not have to accept the recommendation.

It came as the deadline President Barack Obama had set himself on his second day in office for closing the prison camp at Guantanamo Bay passed.

'Not evidence at all'

Earlier on Friday, officials said a task force led by the justice department had recommended that while 35 detainees could be prosecuted through trials or military tribunals, 110 could be released either now or at a later date.

The other 47 detainees were considered too dangerous to release, but could not be tried because the evidence against them was too flimsy or was extracted from them by coercion, so would not hold up in court, it concluded.

In a statement, the ACLU said it disputed that any significant category of such detainees existed, and renewed its call for the closure of the prison.

"If there is credible evidence that these prisoners are dangerous, there is no reason why that evidence could not be introduced against them in criminal trials," said Jameel Jaffer, director of the ACLU National Security Project.

"The criminal laws, and the material support laws in particular, are broad enough to reach anyone who presents a serious threat, and the federal courts are fully capable of affording defendants fair trials while protecting the government's legitimate interest in protecting information that is properly classified."

Mr Jaffer said evidence that had been "tainted" according to the task force's recommendation, was "not evidence at all". The US justice system, he added, "excludes coerced evidence not only because coercion and torture are illegal, but because coerced evidence is unreliable".

"Just as important as closing the prison quickly is closing it right, and that means putting an end to the illegal policy of indefinite detention without charge or trial," said Mr Romero.

'Dismay'

The BBC's Adam Brookes in Washington says the outcome will dismay many of Mr Obama's supporters, who had hoped the president would end the practice of detention without trial.

However, a White House official stressed that this was only a recommendation, which Mr Obama did not have to accept. The task force's findings will also be subject to review by the National Security Council.

Congress has laid down that only those to be tried can be moved to US soil, so the question of what to do with those who officials want to be detained indefinitely without trial has yet to be resolved.

More than 40 detainees have been transferred out of the prison during Mr Obama's first year in office.

But diplomatic hurdles and domestic opposition to the government's plan to house suspects on US soil have hampered his plans to close it down completely.

Plans to move detainees approved for trial to a prison facility in Illinois remain under consideration.

Yemen suspension

The task force recommended that among those cleared for release, 80 detainees, including about 30 Yemenis, could be freed immediately, the Washington Post said.

The panel said the release of another 30 Yemenis should be contingent on an improved situation in Yemen, the newspaper reported.

However, the US recently suspended the repatriation of Yemeni prisoners indefinitely, following an airliner bomb plot that was allegedly planned in Yemen.

Yemenis account for approximately half of the inmates at Guantanamo.

Mr Obama set himself the 22 January closure deadline a year ago, shortly after being sworn in.

He has subsequently said he wants the camp closed this year, without setting a specific deadline.

US shuts embassy as al-Qaeda 'plans attack in Yemen'

The US has indications that al-Qaeda is planning an attack in the Yemeni capital Sanaa, President Barack Obama's top counter-terrorism adviser has said.

John Brennan was speaking after the US shut its embassy in Yemen. "We're not going to take any chances" with the lives of staff, he said.

Britain also closed its embassy, after threats from an al-Qaeda offshoot which claimed a failed bomb plot in the US.

There are mounting fears that Yemen is becoming a leading al-Qaeda haven.

Mr Brennan, the US Deputy National Security Adviser for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, told ABC's This Week TV programme that the group had "several hundred members" in Yemen and was posing an increasing threat there.

"This is something that we've known about for a while," he said. "We're determined to destroy al-Qaeda, whether it's in Pakistan, Afghanistan, or in Yemen."

He also said the US believed the group was "planning to carry out an attack against a target inside of Sanaa, possibly our embassy".

Last week an organisation called al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula urged Muslims to help in "killing every crusader who works at their embassies or other places".

In an internet statement, the group also said it was behind an attempt to bomb a transatlantic airliner on Christmas Day.

YEMEN FACTS Population: 23.6 million (UN, 2009) Capital: Sanaa Language: Arabic Major religion: Islam Oil exports: $1.5bn/24.5m barrels (Jan-Oct 2009) Income per capita: US $950 (World Bank, 2008)

On Saturday, President Barack Obama said the organisation appeared to have trained 23-year-old Nigerian accused Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is being held in a US prison.

It was not clear when the UK or US embassies would reopen.

In a statement on its website, the US embassy said it would be closed on Sunday "in response to ongoing threats by al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula to attack American interests in Yemen".

The embassy also reminded US citizens in Yemen to be aware of security.

A Foreign Office spokeswoman said the British embassy was closed on Sunday and a decision would be taken later on whether to open it on Monday.

Hours earlier, UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown told the BBC: "This is a new type of threat and it is from a new source which is obviously Yemen, but there are many other potential sources Somalia, as well as Afghanistan and Pakistan."

The US mission in Sanaa was the target of an attack in September 2008, which was blamed on al-Qaeda, and in which 19 people died, including a young American woman.

Also on Saturday, Gen David Petraeus, head of US military operations in the Middle East and Central Asia, visited Yemeni President Ali Abdallah Saleh to pledge US support for its fight with al-Qaeda.

The visit came a day after the general announced that the US would more than double counter-terrorism aid to Yemen this year.

The US provided $67m (£41m) in training and support to Yemen last year; only Pakistan receives more, with about $112m, according to AP news agency.

Yemeni officials said on Saturday they had sent more troops to fight al-Qaeda militants in the provinces of Abyan, Baida and Shabwa.

Yemeni security forces have been fighting militants

"These measures are part of operations to hunt down elements of al-Qaeda... and tighten the noose around extremists," a Yemeni official told AFP news agency.

Analysts say the US has also provided intelligence to Yemeni forces, which carried out raids last month that reportedly left dozens of militants dead.

In his weekly address on Saturday, President Obama said militant training camps in Yemen had already "been struck, leaders eliminated, plots disrupted".

Correspondents say the security situation in Yemeni is complicated by an abundance of firearms, an insurgency in the north and a secessionist movement in the south.

But the prospects of re-asserting central government authority over the lawless areas where al-Qaeda is based look, in the opinion of some analysts, remote - even with beefed-up American support.

Google's Admob plans scrutinised by US regulator

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has asked for more information about Google's plans to buy Admob, a company specialising in ads for small screens.

The search engine giant said last month that it hoped to buy the Silicon Valley start-up for $750m (£449m) in stocks.

Google's group product manager Paul Feng wrote in a blog post that the company "doesn't see any regulatory issues" with the proposed deal.

He admitted that the scrutiny meant the deal would not be closed immediately.

It took months for the FTC to approve Google's earlier purchase of another internet advert company, DoubleClick.

"Closer scrutiny has been one consequence of Google's success," added Mr Feng.

Admob was founded four years ago and sells adverts designed to run on mobile phones.