January 18

Protesters are causing disruption to the work

England have

Six major environmental organisations today added their support to the growing anti-bypass campaign in Newbury, Berkshire.

Friends of the Earth, the Council for British Archaeology, Greenpeace UK, the Royal Society for the Protection of Birds, the Wildlife Trusts and the World Wide Fund for Nature all voiced disapproval of the new road scheme.

In a joint statement they said that a solution to the serious traffic problem was needed but that "the proposed bypass route is not the answer.

Traffic on the A34 in Newbury will be back to the intolerable levels of today within 5-10 years of the bypass opening."

Yet supporters of the scheme say the new road will provide essential relief to the congested town centre.

Contractors began work in earnest on the project last week but have since suffered numerous delays and setbacks.

Clearance has been hampered by well-organised activists employing effective disruption tactics.

Protesters have built tunnels and tree houses and are using themselves as human shields to prevent security men and diggers from moving in.

The ensuing conflict over the future of the prime countryside has become known as the 'Third Battle of Newbury' after the two 17th century English Civil War battles that took place in the same area.

Yesterday contractors supplied as many as 300 of their own security guards.

350 trees were felled, and there were 39 arrests.

In a separate development, Thames Valley Police have asked the government to help meet the rising costs of the enterprise.

They fear that policing the protest could cost up to 2 million.

Albert DeSalvo says he murdered 13 women in the Boston area

Albert DeSalvo says he murdered 13 single women in the Boston area between June 1962 and January 1964, creating a climate of fear in the city.

The women, aged between 19 and 85, were sexually assaulted and thenstrangledto death in their homes.

Some were found with trademark ribbons around their necks.

But the 35-year-old has not been charged with any of the murders because of a lack of evidence.

During the seven-day trial, DeSalvo's lawyer, F. Lee Bailey, attempted to prove that his client was guilty of the murders, and should be found insane and sent to a psychiatric hospital for life.

Mr Bailey described DeSalvo as "uncontrollable" and sending him to prison would be a cruel punishment.

He said: "There were 13 acts of homicide by a completely homicidal vegetable walking in the form of a human being."

But the jury found DeSalvo legally sane and not guilty of the murders.

The judge said: "This defendant must be incarcerated for as long as he shall live or until psychiatric science can cure him."

The former military police officer has been held on charges of rape in the Bridgewater State Hospital in Massachusetts since 1964.

He will be kept there pending an appeal against his conviction.

Mr Bailey has said that shortly after DeSalvo arrived at the hospital, which has a designated section for patients with criminal records, he told other inmates that he murdered the women.

DeSalvo has said: "I would go home and watch what I had done on TV. Then I would cry like a baby."

Because DeSalvo's police record was filed under "breaking and entering", he never came under suspicion during the murder hunt.

Detectives, pathologists and psychologists were investigating known sex offenders.

Some women in Boston were so terrified by the murders that they carried pepper, ammonia and tear-gas bombs to protect themselves.

strangle: to kill by squeezing the throat of so as to cut off the air（扼死）