what an incredible let-down."She had planned to be among the 250 victims and their relatives who arranged to watch the execution on closed-circuit television in Oklahoma City next Wednesday. Those in favour of the execution had hoped McVeigh's death would bring "closure" following the traumas they have suffered. The bombing killed 168 people and injured more than 500.Oklahoma's governor, Frank Keating, described the reaction in his state as one of "stunned disbelief". He said: "Obviously, until we know why they weren't turned over, there is a big question mark over this whole proceeding. That obviously causes all of us in this state, at least, real concern.''Ari Fleischer, a White House spokesman, said the Justice Department had informed the White House about the misplaced evidence on Wednesday. He said the president was "concerned about the process" and keeping track of developments.. A Jamaican man under a death sentence could be granted a reprieve after a Privy Council ruling that his heavy use of marijuana may be a defence for a triple murder.

A Jamaican man under a death sentence could be granted a reprieve after a Privy Council ruling that his heavy use of marijuana may be a defence for a triple murder. The council's judicial committee, made up of five of Britain's senior judges, has told the Court of Appeal in Jamaica that it should consider evidence that excessive use of the drug may have induced a "psychotic mental state". The ruling may enable Robert Smalling, 32, to escape the gallows. He was sentenced to "capital murder" for killing a former girlfriend and her two children.The expert medical evidence was provided by Patrick Gallwey, the leading British consultant psychiatrist who controversially diagnosed Ernest Saunders, the Guinness fraud defendant, as suffering from Alzheimer's disease, the untreatable brain condition, in 1991. The diagnosis led to the tycoon's early release from prison, after which he set himself up as a freelance marketing consultant.The Privy Council judges, led by Lord Bingham of Cornhill, a former lord chief justice, noted that Dr Gallwey was an "experienced and distinguished psychiatrist" and that they had reached the "clear opinion" that his report "merits consideration" by the Jamaican appeal court Dr GallweyexaminedSmalling in prison in February. A paper-based test revealed a high probability that the killer "suffered from a degree of brain damage".The doctor found there was some evidence to suggest that Smalling committed the murders while in a "psychotic mental state ... caused by an unusually and excessively high consumption of drugs".He found that if the prisoner had been given a psychiatric examination before his trial he might have been able to submit defences of "involuntary intoxification by drugs" or of "diminished responsibility" related to brain damage.Smalling was convicted in 1997 of the murder of his former girlfriend Maud Turner, the couple's four-month-old son, Robert, and Ms Turner's three-year-old boy, Ojay.Saul Lehrfreund, Smalling's solicitor, said: "The fact that this evidence only comes to light so late shows a gross failing in the system." The Court of Appeal is expected to hear the evidence in the autumn.. Unusually sharp political pressure is being applied by the United States on Ariel Sharon, Israel's hardline prime minister, to drop his central objection to the Middle East peace-making formula drawn up by the Mitchell Commission.

Unusually sharp political pressure is being applied by the United States on Ariel Sharon, Israel's hardline prime minister, to drop his central objection to the Middle East peace-making formula drawn up by the Mitchell Commission. Colin Powell, the US Secretary of State, has made clear that he opposes Mr Sharon's adamant refusal to accept the Mitchell report's demand for a total freeze on Jewish settlement building in the occupied territories.In the first official comments from the Bush administration on the Mitchell committee, Mr Powell has embraced its findings ­ describing it as a "very fine" report which could provide the basis for a new peace initiative, after more than seven months of bloodshed.His words are a clear attempt to outmanoeuvre and pressure Mr Sharon, who is trying to perform the political feat of being seen to accept the report ­ this, to avoid being blamed for the failure of a new peace-making effort ­ whilst rejecting a central component.In doing so, the US Secretary of State has pre-empted a plan by the Israeli government to embark on a diplomatic drive abroad to persuade the international community that a total freeze on settlements would be tantamount to rewarding the Palestinians for violence.Mr Powell's manoeuvre is further evidence that the Bush administration ­ whilst inevitably remaining Israel's closest ally and chief paymaster ­ is significantly toughening up its handling of Mr Sharon.In recent weeks, the US State Department has been critical of Israel's punishing blockades in the West Bank and Gaza ­ Mr Powell even went so far as to call it "a siege". There was a furious US reaction when Israeli troops reoccupied a patch of north-eastern Gaza last month, which many suspect forced Mr Sharon to pull out his tanks and bulldozers in less than a day. And the US State Department this week described as "provocative" and inflammatory Mr Sharon's proposal to divert extra funds to the settlements ­ spending that the Israeli premier's aides say is merely to beef up security.The hardening in the American approach has been noted appreciatively by Palestinian officials, who yesterday completed their response to the Mitchell committee's report, to be submitted on Tuesday. The Palestinians have accepted the committee's findings.The indications are that the pressure on Mr Sharon is largely due to Colin Powell himself ­ who is becoming increasingly involved in the Middle East issue ­ and also his deputy, Richard Armitage, an old hand from the George Bush Snr administration and a veteran of Middle East affairs.On the ground, neither side has shown any sign of acting on the Mitchell report's recommendations. At daybreak yesterday, tanks and bulldozers dispatched by the Israeli army rumbled into the Deir el Balah refugee camp in the Gaza Strip, flattening five homes and a Palestinian police station and delving 700 metres deep into Palestinian territory.. The Japanese government was ordered yesterday to pay £11m in compensation to hundreds of former lepers who were taken from their families, sterilised and forced to spend decades in isolation. The Japanese government was ordered yesterday to pay £11m in compensation to hundreds of former lepers who were taken from their families, sterilised and forced to spend decades in isolation. A court in the southern Japanese city of Kumamoto ordered the government to give up to 14 million yen (nearly £90,000) to 127 former lepers after ruling that the law under which they were confined was unconstitutional and violated their human rights.