FRIENDS of a murdered charity worker found under a pile of stones in India today spoke of their anger that his killer is still at large.

Michael Blakey - who was working for the Edinburgh-based charity Tong-Len - was found near a remote church in Dharamsala on November 27 last year.

Police believe he was the victim of a robbery but, one year on, are no closer to catching his killer.

His close friend and fellow worker Rachel Owen is determined to help create a permanent home in Michael’s memory for destitute families. She has now returned to the area following the birth of her twin boys in July.

Detectives originally wrongly suspected Rachel’s Indian husband Pawan Bhardwaj of killing Michael because he could not accept his 35-year-old wife’s friendship with him. The Owen family rejected the claim and were relieved when Mr Bhardwaj was released without charge.

Charity boss Anna Owen, Rachel’s mother, said the family was still grieving for the 23-year-old and were concerned the murderer’s trail had gone cold.

Mrs Owen, who lives in Corstorphine, said: “It has been a terrible year for all of us. It has been especially upsetting for his family, not knowing what happened.”

She recently visited Dharamsala and plans to return next year. She, Michael and Rachel helped establish Tong-Len.

Mrs Owen said they have already raised more than 20,000 - enough to buy the land for the new Michael Blakey Centre. They are now appealing for the remaining 50,000 to cover building costs and are also looking for another property to rent.

Mrs Owen said: “This will enable us to take 20 more destitute kids. The school’s head teacher has already said they are wiling to accept them.”

She said Rachel was still actively involved in the charity after giving birth to Jay and Aman. She returned to Scotland with her husband during her pregnancy.

Michael’s family, who live in Burnley, Lancashire, have described the past 12 months as a “nightmare”, but they say they have been comforted by the appeal in his name.

Michael’s mother, Mary Whitford, said: “It has been a very difficult year. The whole thing has been a nightmare and we have had to fight to get any information. This is not something you would wish upon any parent.”

His father Paul Blakey said: “It will not bring Michael back but we just want to know why he died really.”

IT was 1943 and Margaret Macdonald was playing with her friends in the fields behind their homes in Granton when they spotted an aeroplane flying high above their heads. “The pilot waved at us and we waved back,” says Margaret, now 76.

“Then our mothers ran out of our houses in a panic. We weren’t aware that it was a German plane. That was the most adventurous thing I’ve ever done I think.”

Margaret, along with her mother and brother John, was evacuated to the countryside outside Aberdeen during the war. Their father was in the Territorial Army and so stayed behind for training. “It was a new life for us city kids up north. It was scary but exciting.”

But when Margaret’s mother heard that her husband was being sent abroad she decided to take the children back to Edinburgh.

“We took a train back. I think there was an air raid that night but we got home safely. But we needn’t have come back so soon because my dad never got sent abroad in the end. In fact he never got farther than the south of England. He was the only one in his family who didn’t see any action. Instead he was stationed in a prisoner of war camp for Germans in Taunton.”

Margaret recalls her father telling her that he didn’t speak to the German prisoners often but thought they were all right.

“He would say to me that you could tell which ones were Nazis from the way the other prisoners treated them,” she says.

Margaret did not see her father again until after the war had ended.

During the war, the Macdonalds shared an Anderson shelter, with several other families in the area. It was built by a neighbour who was considered unfit to serve and who instead worked as an air raid warden. “We knew that when the air raid siren went we had to get indoors quickly,”

She remembers VE day on May 7, 1945 well. “Someone shouted that the war was over. Of course, it wasn’t that simple but it was a wonderful feeling at the time.”

September 27, 2007 — SOUTH SLOPE

FOR years, the South Slope has played Zune to Park Slope’s iPod - they were basically the same thing, only, well, they weren’t.

But big changes are afoot in the South Slope - the neighborhood just south of prime Park Slope - roughly defined as the area bound by Ninth Street and Prospect Avenue and Seventh and Fourth avenues. Numerous new condos are being built, a rash of new businesses are opening - including Sidecar, a hip new bar/restaurant on Fifth Avenue between 15th and 16th streets, and The Chocolate Girl, an upscale kosher candy shop on Seventh Avenue and 12th Street - and, of course, there’s an influx of new residents, from post-college hipsters to Bugaboo-pushing breeders.

Nowadays, the South Slope is as Park Slopey as Park Slope itself - with one notable exception: The real-estate prices are cheaper.

“The South Slope is a very prime area to live in; it has all of the amenities, yet the price per square foot is much less than the Center Slope,” says Peggy Aguayo, principal at Aguayo & Huebener Realty Group. “People can get more space for less money in a neighborhood that has all the amenities, that has everything that Park Slope can offer.”

Aguayo estimates that, with a willingness to ride one more stop on the F or R trains, comes new buildings that are typically priced $100 to $150 less per square foot than comparable Center Slope developments.

Thus far, interest has been strong. Aguayo is currently marketing numerous developments in the nabe, including Vue, on 16th Street between Fourth and Fifth avenues, a 43-unit building with views of the Verrazano Bridge, the Statue of Liberty and Manhattan from the Battery to the Upper East Side. One-bedrooms go for $382,470 and up, two-bedrooms for $520,000 and up, and three-bedrooms start at $667,000.

Also on the market is Suite 16, a condo designed by Karl Fischer with interiors by Andres Escobar, on 16th Street between Fifth and Sixth avenues (the 16-unit phase one is sold out; the 16 units in phase two start at $569,000 for a two-bedroom, two-bath, with outdoor space) and 515 Condominiums, at Fifth Avenue and 13th Street, the area’s first “green” building, which has six (of 15) units remaining, starting at $779,000 for a three-bedroom.

As buyers of these and other new condos in the South Slope start moving in, “The demographic is going to change entirely, there’s no question,” says Hal Lehrman, principal broker at Brooklyn Properties. “[They will be] homogenized into the same population that loves Park Slope in general. It’s a higher-income level, that’s for sure.”

Lehrman, who estimates that 200 units are coming on the market within a five-block radius around 15th Street, shrugs off the fearful rumblings of overbuilding in the area. He clearly sees the demand in an area that’s becoming more of an established neighborhood.

“Demand is a function of the perception of whether or not you’re a pioneer,” he says. “As it becomes obvious that more and more things are happening, you’re no longer a pioneer - you’re following everybody.”