report on prestwick airport protest

Protests are to be staged at four Scottish airports over allegations that they have been used for CIA "prisoner transfer" flights. Amnesty International has claimed that planes refuelled in Scotland after transferring detainees to countries where they risked torture. Sunday's protests are being staged by campaigners who want Scottish police to investigate the "rendition" flights. Demonstrators plan to release 176 balloons to symbolise the number of CIA flights which they believe have landed at Scottish airports. The US has admitted that terror suspects have been flown abroad for interrogation, but denied they were tortured.

Protesters against early-morning raids on asylum seekers have renewed their blockade of an immigration office. Refugees, church groups, teachers and union members joined the protest outside the Brand Street offices. Strathclyde Police estimated about 200 people attended but organisers said nearly 500 had turned up to protest. Pupils from Drumchapel High School also joined the morning demonstration. Their campaign against the deportation of their former classmates, the Vucaj children, won the Public Campaign of the Year award last month. Robina Qureshi of Positive Action in Housing said the protest, which involved a blockade and dawn candlelit vigil, was to prevent vans leaving the centre to arrest failed asylum seekers. Members of the National Union of Journalists, the Fire Brigades Union and teachers from the Educational Institute of Scotland attended. The blockade is the latest in a series of protests about the use of dawn raids to deport failed asylum seekers.