N Ireland police sorry for wedding blunder

22 July 2011 Last updated at 16:42 GMT Yanan Sun and Neil McElwee's wedding was stopped by police A Castlederg man has rejected an apology from the police after they interrupted his wedding on suspicion it was "a sham marriage".

The police wrongly arrested Neil McElwee and his pregnant fiancee, Yanan Sun, moments before the ceremony at the Guildhall in Londonderry on Tuesday.

Chief Inspector John Burrows said the police had acted in good faith, but sometimes they got things wrong.

Mr McElwee said "sorry" would not make up for the distress caused.

The couple were taken to a police station, forced to dress in forensic clothing and separated.

They were held for five hours and only released when their solicitor got involved. They were married the next day in nearby Castlederg.

The police told the couple they were acting on an anonymous tip-off.

They have accepted that they made a mistake and have apologised.

'Mess-up'

However, Mr McElwee said: "It just doesn't add up - something on that scale based on an anonymous letter and some paperwork faxed through about two hours before the wedding. It just doesn't happen like that.

"So there's a lot of questions that need [to be] answered and there's a lot of people responsible for this mess-up.

"An apology? It's just no good - apologies won't give us our day back. It won't make everything better."

Mr McElwee's solicitor Karina Breslin Carlin said: "I do have concerns that the Borders Agency have taken the view here, that if it's alleged this is a sham marriage, it's a great opportunity to go into this wedding ceremony and see how many Chinese nationals are there who may not have the correct paperwork in order.

"You can't replace a man's wedding day, you can't replace a bride walking in on her wedding day to assembled guests. They will never get that moment back, they'll never get those memories back."

One wedding guest has been referred for deportation.

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Too shy, won't fly - German police vulture is no ace cop

29 June 2011 Last updated at 15:28 GMT By Stephen Evans BBC News, Berlin The vultures' habits had seemed like a perfect fit for the job of detective Police in Lower Saxony, Germany, who decided to teach a vulture to sniff out corpses of missing people have run into difficulty two months into training.

Reasoning that it could fly over miles of wasteland, then descend where it found a missing person, they had wanted to fit it with a transmitter.

But it transpires that Sherlock, as the bird is known, is not very interested.

On top of that, it is shy, confuses human with animal remains and actually prefers to walk, Spiegel magazine says.

Sherlock has been in training in the Walsrode bird park on Lueneburg Heath near Hanover, along with two vulture side-kicks also named after famous fictional detectives, Columbo and Miss Marple.

Shy bird

It had seemed such a great idea. What if the police had sniffer dogs that could fly? Dogs do not have wings, they realised, but birds do.

But according to Spiegel: "Sherlock's success has been limited.

"While he can locate a stinking burial shroud which the police gave the bird park to use for training purposes and which is clearly marked with a yellow plastic cup, Sherlock doesn't approach the shroud by air.

"He prefers to travel by foot."

Furthermore, the bird is yet to perform outside the familiar confines of the zoo.

"The bird is naturally anxious, and he would hide in the woods or bolt," according to his trainer.

The vulture also finds it hard to distinguish between dead people and dead animals, which is a problem in the vast heathland of that part of Germany.

'Time-saver'

When the idea was unveiled two months ago, there was much fuss in the media.

The police explained they had got the idea from a documentary on birds - reportedly, a BBC wildlife documentary.

"It was a colleague of mine who got the idea from watching a nature programme," policeman Rainer Herrmann told the media proudly.

"If it works, time could be saved when looking for dead bodies because the birds can cover a much vaster area than sniffer dogs or humans."

Apparently, birds generally rely mostly on sight to locate food but vultures like Sherlock have a keen sense of smell.

The police decided on turkey vultures which are indigenous to the Americas but which lived also in the zoos of Europe.

They are not pretty with their bright bald heads but they do have an ability to locate carrion. If they want to.

Sherlock does not - or not if it involves too much effort.

At the time the scheme was launched, the idea was that Holmes would be the senior detective teaching Miss Marple and Columbo.

"But the young ones can't do anything besides fight with each other," Spiegel quoted a trainer as saying.

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