The BMA said: "We are absolutely horrified ourselves at the possibility that an error on our part could have prevented Harold Shipman from being brought to justice.". The British Medical Association yesterday apologised for a blunder which could have caused the trial of Dr Harold Shipman to collapse, allowing him to walk free. The British Medical Association yesterday apologised for a blunder which could have caused the trial of Dr Harold Shipman to collapse, allowing him to walk free. The Attorney General, Lord Williams of Mostyn, is to investigate whether e-mails sent by the BMA constituted contempt of court and whether the body should be prosecuted.The e-mails contained details of the GP's criminal background which by law had to be kept secret from the jury, so as not as to prejudice a fair trial.The e-mails were sent to two GPs in the Hyde area and the trial judge, Mr Justice Forbes, said they constituted a "significant risk to the cause of justice".He added: "There was a high risk that the information could have found its way to members of the jury, which would have placed the entire case in jeopardy, almost inevitably leading to Shipman walking free."The BMA said it was launching its own inquiry into the e-mails, which included a question-and-answer document preparing members responses to a guilty verdict, when the jury was still considering the evidence. Five paintings by L S Lowry, believed to be worth several million pounds, have been stolen from a private collection, police said today. The paintings are believed to have been taken two weeks ago from premises in Northamptonshire where they were being stored by their owner, who has asked police for no publicity.The stolen paintings are Gateposts in the Snow, The Chapel, A Cornershop, People on a Promenade and Street Scene.A spokesman for Northamptonshire police said today: "We can confirm that we are investigating the theft of five Lowry paintings."Laurence Stephen Lowry, who died in 1976, based most of his work on working-class street scenes featuring his famous "matchstick" figures, in and around his native Salford, near Manchester.His Going to the Match, painted in 1953, fetched a record auction price for a modern British painting when it was bought by the Professional Footballers' Association for 1,926,500 in December last year..

Five paintings by L S Lowry, believed to be worth several million pounds, have been stolen from a private collection, police said today. I shoved it in his face," she said."I'm a bit taken aback by what I did. I feel very sorry for Nick Brown and think he is doing the best that he can under the circumstances.". Then Nick Brown came up and it was clear he wasn't going to offer any more money to help out. He was saying farmers must learn to diversify and upgrade."It just all became an emotional thing. She said: "I gatecrashed the conference.I just wanted to hear what was being said One farmer sounded really desperate He had lost his whole beef business because of the crisis. Farmers at the conference continually expressed anger at the economic crisis which saw their incomes fall by a further 16 per cent last year, after dropping continually since 1996.The identity of Ms Cunningham, who last summer was photographed by Hello! magazine protesting against GM food with other environmental luminaries like Elle Macpherson and Tara Palmer-Tompkinson, was at first a mystery, but last night she owned up to the incident and apologised.

"I am not going to be knocked off course by a silly character with an éclair."But farcical or not, the incident did not augur well for the two-day tour of the West Country being undertaken today by Tony Blair, to see firsthandwhat conditions are like in the countryside. Although I am not a particularly brave person, I am not frightened of a chocolate éclair."He would not be deflected by the incident from his determination to meet and talk to people in the agriculture industry. Ms Cunningham, 34, mounted the stage at London's Hilton Hotel after hearing a former Devon beef farmer, Tony Mason, angrily tell the minister how his business had foundered because government compensation for cattle slaughtered over the BSE crisis was inadequate.She ran up to Mr Brown and pushed the éclair into his face, smearing him with chocolate, before escaping down the rear stairs of the stage.Mr Brown, who in his speech earlier had promised £2m of grants to help market British pork and radical moves to reduce red tape affecting farmers, was shaken but unhurt, and dismissed suggestions that he should have tighter security He said: "It was not a samurai sword It was a chocolate éclair. A socialite turned eco-activist struck what she said was a blow for Britain's hard-pressed farmers yesterday when she jammed a chocolate éclair into the face of the Agriculture Minister, Nick Brown. Birgit Cunningham, a former Los Angeles flatmate of Liz Hurley and now a freelance writer withThe Ecologist magazine, struck while Mr Brown was engaged in acrimonious debate at the National Farmers' Union annual conference in London. A socialite turned eco-activist struck what she said was a blow for Britain's hard-pressed farmers yesterday when she jammed a chocolate éclair into the face of the Agriculture Minister, Nick Brown. The Government is to take power to "put on hold" Ulster's Executive and Assembly after the failure of the paramilitaries to start decommissioning, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson announced tonight. But, in an emergency Commons statement on the crisis, he said there was still time for decommissioning to begin."Even at this late stage, it is right that we and all the parties continue to see if there is a basis on which the institutions can continue to operate and decommissioning start."Mr Mandelson branded as "totally unacceptable" the failure of the terrorists to give up their arms and warned that without clarity on this issue, confidence in the peace process would begin to "ebb quickly".The latest crisis follows the report of General John de Chastelain's decommissioning commission which concluded that there had been no handover of IRA weapons.. The Government is to take power to "put on hold" Ulster's Executive and Assembly after the failure of the paramilitaries to start decommissioning, Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Mandelson announced tonight.

He continued: "If he cannot do that, then the De Chastelain report shows no progress on the issue, and we drift on in a way that is not acceptable."The Assembly's Deputy First Minister, Seamus Mallon, of the SDLP issued an emotional appeal to Mr Trimble and Mr Adams, urging them to "stand back from the brink and the chasm that faces the entire community".. He said: "They made no effort and clearly our problem here remains the determination of those with guns to hold on to those guns and threaten the rest of us."Mr Ahern said the fundamental point was that General De Chastelain should have "an indication that decommissioning is going to be dealt with in some ordered way". He said: "To be part of anything that would see the destruction of the hard-gotten gains of recent times would be seen by the vast majority of our community as very, very poor leadership. The ordinary people out there that support the Good Friday Agreement do think it's absolutely crazy for anyone to contemplate the destruction of the executive."Michael McGimpsey, the Ulster Unionist Minister for the Arts, accused the republican movement of bad faith over decommissioning.

All sides hope that an early resolution of the decommissioning issue would mean devolution could be reintroduced quickly.Sinn Fein's Martin McGuinness, who is Education Minister in the eight-week-old Belfast administration, appealed to Unionists to "keep their nerve". Dublin is also hopeful that suspension would not be fatal to the process.Mr Blair told the Commons:"Let us never forget that there are people now today that, if we don't get this peace process sorted out and moving forward again, will not grow up in normal conditions and some will not be alive at all. That is what is at stake here."Suspension is likely to mean that a Bill reimposing direct rule from Westminster will be dealt with in the Commons on Monday and Tuesday. This means direct rule would come into effect before the crucial meeting of Mr Trimble's party on 12 February. They are confident they can keep the peace process intact, despite the suspension of the executive.