Greece’s prime minister accused Britain of an “affront to the Greek people” yesterday after he learnt of a clandestine operation by the British Museum to lend one of the Elgin Marbles to Russia. Antonis Samaras demanded the return of sculptures he described as stolen property and said that Greek civilisation could not be “broken up, loaned out or conceded”. The loan of a headless sculpture of the Ancient Greek god Ilissos, which was removed from the Parthenon by Lord Elgin in the early 19th century, has ratcheted up tension between Athens and London over the long-running dispute. A spokeswoman for David Cameron insisted that the sculptures were the property of the British Museum, and that the prime minister believed that it was for the trustees to “decide how they sort it and where they exhibit it”. Mr Samaras made his comments in a strong statement yesterday afternoon. “The British argument held until recently — that the Parthenon Marbles cannot be moved — is no longer valid,” he said. “Just as the existence of the new Acropolis Museum invalidated the other British argument that there was no appropriate space for exhibiting the sculptures. “The Parthenon and its marbles have been looted. The sculptures are priceless. We Greeks are at one with our history and civilisation, which cannot be broken up, loaned out, or conceded.” Neil MacGregor, director of the British Museum, responded that the Greek authorities

A British businessman was given a 20-year jail sentence by a French court last night for battering his girlfriend to death in a luxury hotel. Ian Griffin, 45, from Warrington, was found guilty of the murder of Kinga Legg, 36, from Opatowek in Poland. He was described as a liar, a wife-beater and a “sort of gigolo”. Paris criminal court heard that Ms Legg had been found dead in the bathroom of a €1,000-a-night (£790) suite in the Bristol Hotel in Paris with more than 100 bruises on her body, including 17 on her head and 33 on her chest. “The autopsy revealed the power of the blows. This body had been battered,” said Philippe Courroye, for the prosecution. Griffin had told the court that he had no memory of the dispute that led to Ms Legg’s death in 2009. He said that they had argued in a restaurant when she had shouted “You owe me sex” at him, but that

A letter discovered in Downing Street files at the National Archives has placed Britain in the dock at the European Court of Human Rights, accused of torturing detainees in Northern Ireland in the 1970s. The confidential memo written in March 1977 by Merlyn Rees, then Labour home secretary, states that, six years earlier, Conservative ministers had authorised the use of torture in Ulster. Mr Rees told prime minister James Callaghan that he thought individual soldiers or police officers should not be prosecuted because “a political decision was taken” to use the so-called deep interrogation techniques. He wrote: “It is my view (confirmed by Brian Faulkner [former prime minister of Northern Ireland] before his death) that the decision to use methods of torture was taken by ministers — in particular Lord Carrington, then secretary of state for defence”.